Through following the blogs of four very
interesting educators, Mrs. Wideen, Ms. Cassidy,
Aviva, and
Jaimie Knudson, and conducting my own search for artifacts via
Pinterest I was able to create a vast collection of ways in
which the 21st century literacies and skills could be incorporated
into my own teaching practice. In this, my final EDUC 4P27 blog post,
I would like to discuss with you a select number of these artifacts,
some new and some reiterated from previous posts, and how their use
will incorporate the 21st century literacies and skills into my
future classroom.
The first way of incorporating these literacies
and skills into my classroom that I would like to discuss is actually
one that I have previously outlined in my blogs, but I feel should be
touched on again due to my passion for it. This is the practice of
teaching my students about the changes that they and other students
can make in the world. As I have discussed in a previous post, one of
the extremely interesting educators who's blog I have been following,
Mrs. Wideen, and her teaching
partner have been doing amazing work in this area with their class,
resulting in the creation of their global project
#kidscancreatechange.
Which will soon be a book that will consist of a compilation of
stories that can be used to demonstrate the ways that students all
around the world can create change.
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| Retrieved from Mrs.Wideen |
I would love to have
this book as a teaching tool in my future classroom, to demonstrate
to my students that no matter their age, or the size of their action,
a difference can be made. As well as to incorporate global and
multicultural literacy into the classroom through the demonstration
of similarities and differences in issues and ways of creating change
around the world, and across cultures. While it can also be used to
teach character education and moral literacy, through allowing
students to read about different issues faced in the world and the
ways that they can be positive members of society in order to create
these necessary changes.
Maybe, with all of
the permission required, we could even create our own class book of
different ways we, both as a class and as individuals, have made a
difference in our school and/or community. In doing so, more
character education and moral literacy can be displayed through the
students sharing their own stories and hearing the stories of their
classmates. As well as technological, critical, and media literacy,
and the 21st century skills of collaboration, teamwork, and
creativity in the development, design, and ultimately the creation of
the book. Depending on the stories told within this class book,
actions involving environmental, financial, multicultural, global,
and mental health literacy could also all be included.
For instance,
Ms. Cassidy and her class participated in a fundraiser in support of
a telethon to benefit the Kinsmen Foundation, in which they placed
their donations into the container of the person they would like to
see get a pie in the face.
Not only is this teaching moral literacy and character education
through giving back to members of their community, but it can also be
used to teach students about financial literacy through the donation
of money. Fundraiser such as this, for a number of different causes,
could be participated in by individual students or my entire class,
included in this class compilation of ways we can make a difference,
and used to teach any number of the 21st century literacies in a fun
way.
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| Retrieved from Google |
Another fun way of teaching different 21st
century literacies and skills that I found while following Ms.
Cassidy, and would like to incorporate into my own teaching practice,
is that of the use of puppets to
tell stories written by the students in my class. As in Ms. Cassidy's
class, the students could create their own stories, design and make
their own puppets to go along with the story, and perform the story
for their peers. An activity such as this would involve critical
literacy in developing the stories and determining the best ways to
represent them using puppets. But it could also involve many other
literacies within the stories the students tell. Stories could
address character education and moral literacy through character
development and critical events. While they could also address
multicultural and/or global literacy through involving people of
different cultures and/or being set in a different country, and
environmental literacy through involving environmental issues. I also
believe that these puppets could be a great way to address mental
health literacy, and build upon the understanding of the students
through the stories of their peers. As in
talking about mental health and addressing it in our classrooms we
will hopefully encourage our students to spread the word, and lessen
the stigma associated with mental health issues for this generation
and the many to come. While I would also like to propose to my
class taking this project a step farther to include media and even
technological literacy through giving them the additional task of
creating an advertisement to promote their story/show, using any
medium they would like.
For those who do not like puppets, or wish to
display their story through different means, the students could have
the option of incorporating technological literacy into the project
through creating their own movie of their story. They may even wish
to turn their story into a play or musical
as students in
Aviva's class have created. All of which can demonstrate the same
literacies, and would allow the students to have more creative
freedom with the assignment, which is an important 21st century skill
I would like to foster within them.
This is an assignment that I would love to
incorporate into my classroom, as not only do I love the creativity
that it brings to the room and fosters in the students, but also
because I enjoy the use of stories and books as learning tools. I
have always been one of those people who can become totally immersed
in a story, imagining the setting around me and feeling the emotions
of the characters as they come and go, page by page. I have found
that through this immersion in books I have been able to learn about
many of the aspects involved in the 21st century literacies and would
love to pass this on to my students.
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| Retrieved from Pinterest |
In fact, while on Pinterest one day this
semester, I found the picture to the right,
which I believe, depicts a fun activity that I would love to
incorporate into my classroom. As the class and I read a book, we can
place a pin on a map to mark the setting, and learn about this new
place before moving on to a different story set in a different
country. Through this activity students could use books to not only
learn about character education and moral literacy, but any number of
the 21st century literacies! We could even incorporate media and
critical literacy through examining the advertising and design of the
different books. Or create a fun project, and incorporate some
project-based learning to go along with the books, in which the
students could split into groups, become experts on different
settings, and later teach the rest of the class what they have
learned. The possibilities that could accompany such a project are
endless, and that is what I find most interesting about it, that a
seemingly simple project can open up an entire world of creative
possibilities.
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| Retrieved from Pinterest |
When thinking
of these creative possibilities, project-based learning, or
PBL,
always seems to be a concept that comes to mind. This may partially
be because it is something new for me, and I would like to try it and
see how it would work within my classroom, but for the most part, I
believe that this is because it is a way that I would have liked to
learn in school, rather than being told the information or being
taught but not fully obtaining the information given. This is
something that the quote on the left by Benjamin Franklin touches on, and a reason why I believe it truly
represents PBL. I believe that using PBL, getting students to become
involved in their own learning and to use their new found knowledge
in a fun and interesting way, is how they will learn and be able to
use and remember this knowledge in the future. It is through being
interested and involved in one's own learning that I, and I am sure
many others, learn best, which is why I believe PBL would be an asset
to my classroom and something I would truly love to incorporate into
my teaching practice.
In fact, Jaimie
Knudson has many wonderful ideas as to how to incorporate PBL into
the classroom, with one I would really like to use being that of the
Career Day Centers
her class had within their careers and community helpers unit. The
class had different centers for a large variety of different careers set up in
multiple rooms, at which groups of students would get the opportunity
to experience these careers through play. With this experience
students got to experience the careers that they would like to have
when they grow up, and later dress up as that professional and
present on their future career choice.
This is
something that I would love to incorporate into my teaching practice,
because it is not only fun and exciting for the students, but can
educate them on all of the 21st century literacies. Students can
learn through play about careers they never thought they would like
or be interested in, and potentially be inspired to strive for a new
career goal. Or a unit such as this could reaffirm in a student that
a certain career is definitely the one they would like to partake in,
as it encompasses all or most of their passions. But most of all,
through a unit such as this, the students will come away with a new
respect for the different members of their community, and see that
even the seemingly simplest of jobs is of great importance to the
community.
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| Hair Dresser Center Retrieved from Jaimie Knudson |
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| Pediatrician Center Retrieved from Jaimie Knudson |
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| Banker Center Retrieved from Jaimie Knudson |
In particular I enjoy the fact that there is a
banking center, allowing the students to work with currency and learn
financial literacy. This is something that I would like to include
more of in my teaching practice, as financial literacy and the skills
that accompany it are extremely valuable for students to have, and
something that many of them may struggle with. It was through
thinking about this need for the teaching of financial literacy, that
I found that Mrs. Wideen demonstrates some fun ways of teaching her
students about money.
The following image is another example of a math
station activity that students in Mrs.Wideen's class complete, and I
would love to use in some way in my own practice. It not only
incorporates critical and financial literacy, but also involves an
aspect of technological literacy, meeting the interests and needs of
a variety of students that may require or prefer the use of
technology in explaining their understanding.
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| Retrieved from Mrs.Wideen |
Another
activity that she discusses, Frozen People Coin Tag, involves the
students being labelled as different amounts of money and running
around a play area or gym until the teacher, or a designated
individual, shouts out an amount of money. At this point the students
will stop running around and work together in order to form groups
that total the amount of money that was shouted. This is a great way
of incorporating the 21st century learning skills of collaboration
and communication, as well as critical and financial literacy into
the classroom. But what I like most about it is that it allows the
students to be alert and physically active while learning. This
incorporation of physical activity is something that I would also
like to incorporate into my practice for those students who are more
bodily-kinesthetic learners.
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| Retrieved from Edutopia |
For
these learners, something else that I would like to incorporate into
my teaching practice is mediation education and yoga.
Mental health literacy is something that I believe should be
incorporated into our teaching practices as much as possible, and
this belief was only intensified through a classmate, Ana's thoughts on the subject.
What I find interesting about the incorporation of meditation education into our teaching practices is not only the benefits it will have, but also the fact that it can be incorporated into a number of different subjects. As I have expressed to Ana on her post, I do not recall having much experience with the use of meditation or yoga in elementary school, however, in my high school they were incorporated into my gym and drama classes. These are not experiences that I have previously thought a lot about, however, through reading Ana's post I have been inspired to reflect more on them, and have found that the use of mediation and yoga is something that as a future primary/junior teacher, I would love to incorporate into my classroom. I can only imagine how much more helpful learning these techniques at a young age would have been for me, and I would love to provide that for my students. But how would I do this? The answer is, a number of ways, one of which being through the use of animal poses. This way the students are having fun in multiple subjects, learning yoga, meditating, and can have a better understanding of the movements they are doing through being able to picture the animal that they are recreating.
What I find interesting about the incorporation of meditation education into our teaching practices is not only the benefits it will have, but also the fact that it can be incorporated into a number of different subjects. As I have expressed to Ana on her post, I do not recall having much experience with the use of meditation or yoga in elementary school, however, in my high school they were incorporated into my gym and drama classes. These are not experiences that I have previously thought a lot about, however, through reading Ana's post I have been inspired to reflect more on them, and have found that the use of mediation and yoga is something that as a future primary/junior teacher, I would love to incorporate into my classroom. I can only imagine how much more helpful learning these techniques at a young age would have been for me, and I would love to provide that for my students. But how would I do this? The answer is, a number of ways, one of which being through the use of animal poses. This way the students are having fun in multiple subjects, learning yoga, meditating, and can have a better understanding of the movements they are doing through being able to picture the animal that they are recreating.
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| Retrieved from Pinterest |
Speaking
of the incorporation of yoga and mediation into different subjects,
the last idea that I would like to discuss incorporating into my own
practice is an idea such as those being implemented in Finland in which students are learning about topics rather than isolated
subjects. This is something that Aviva also touches on, in terms of being able to link math to other
subjects, which got me thinking about ways to link math and financial
literacy to other subjects, and incorporate other literacies. What
would be a fun way to incorporate multiple 21st century literacies
and skills into a topic rather than a subject? Then, one day I
found it, virtual field trips!
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| Retrieved from Kid World Citizen |
There are a number of ways that we can use the internet to take our students on different trips without leaving our
classrooms. For instance, many museums and historical sites have
virtual tours or webcams set up on their websites for people to view
the facilities and different collections. While those that might not
have this access, may be available to be viewed on the Google Art Project.
Having tools such as these available in the classroom can open up
learning opportunities to include a variety of subjects and a
multitude of 21st century literacies in different ways. Be they
learning global, multicultural, and even financial literacy through
learning about the traditions and customs of different countries and
cultures, and the different forms of currency they may use. Or
technological literacy through the use of the internet on the tours,
with the potential to couple this with critical literacy in
presenting a multimedia project on a destination of their choice, to
name a few.
In conclusion, to answer the question as to how I
would incorporate the 21st century literacies into my own practice,
the answer is not in one simple way, but in a plethora of ways. Ways
in which I intend to continue to explore through following the ideas
of other educators, and developing my own, in order to add them to my
collection for the many years to come in my teaching career. All of
which will be done in hopes of creating learning experiences for my
students that will not only be educational, but interesting, and
something that they will never forget.
