Week 8

The Final Product:


First of all, this week I'd like to congratulate all my fellow 4001eps peers, on the home run of assessment 1. The light at the end of the tunnel is now quite visible, but blurry due to a lack of sleep. 


This is the final draft of our video:


Me: Content Knowledge: Year 5 SOSE unit on the First Fleet. Traditional paper-based resources can deliver the content knowledge. Examples include: worksheets, linear maps, wordbanks, stories. These resources limit the way in which we can teach on order to engage. What if the resources you used to teach this unit were unlimited? How would you teach it to cater of diverse learners? How would you teach in order to prepare for the 21st century? How would you teach so that your students LEARN?


Renee: Pedagogical Knowledge: Marsh's (2008) 8 steps to inquiry teaching. Using Marsh's model incorporates an abundance of content learning in a way that both challenges, questions and engages students, while catering to diverse learners. But what resources can enhance this model? With a wealth of content knowledge and an effective inquiry model, the possibilities are vast. 


Scott: Technological Knowledge: In what way can we provide learning to students that prepares them for the 21st century, engages them, challenges them, and arms them with necessary skills? Through integrating ICT's and other technologies, for example: Google Earth. 


If you want more information, watch our video =)


Over the 8 weeks, I've done more online than I ever thought I could. I enrolled in the course knowing that I was lacking in the necessary skills to teach ICT, and when would I ever be offered a better opportunity to professionally develop these skills? Upon conclusion of the course, I genuinely believe that I've gained yet another reason to make a difference in the classroom. My prac experience this year has not necessarily been an easy adventure (so far). But by fighting for the need for ICT's into such a challenging classroom, I believe I've become a better pre-service teacher, just for attempting it. 

Week 7

Assessment Number One:

Preparing students for the 21st century... what are you preparing your students for?

"Oh my, Stacey, how dramatic!" you say? I hope so. That one-liner is what pops into my head when I think 'video presentation'. 

So this is what we have so far:

We have a KLA: SOSE, 

A year level: 5, 

A content area: The First Fleet, 

A teaching approach: Marsh's (2008) 8 steps approach, and

A technology: Google earth

Put it all together and you've got yourself a highly professional, possibly money-making PD video! I wish it was that easy. After two WEEKEND group meetings and four frustrated and sleepless nights trying to piece this together, I've at least come to one conclusion: Movie maker - makes my life difficult. iMovie - makes it worse. One isn't compatible with the other and it's impossible to get access to both in the same place. Luckily my fellow group members - The Googlies, are better at problem solving than I am. This is how we've split the work:

Me: I'm taking care of the introduction, and the content knowledge involved in our project. I've decided to take somewhat of an inspirational approach. If I'm going to make people watch this video than I'll make sure it does something for them, keeping in mind that our group now has 2 teachers who want to see the finishing product. The first impression has to contain the message we want to get across, and it needs to be powerful in a sense. And then we have the First Fleet as a year 5 SOSE unit... pretty self explanatory. QSA essential learnings, knowledge and understanding and ways of working, data, first-hand and secondary evidence, and the all important vocabulary. 

Renee: Renaynay is taking care of the pedagogy. She's loving Marsh's 8 steps, and the fact that she gets a second run at the SOSE textbook. She's also lucky enough to score the conclusion to our video, which will summarize our message and all the main points. I must say, her mind works in ways that I just can't decode. 

Scott: Mr. Hovey is looking into the technological knowledge in our TPACK model. I won't lie, he is the driving force behind putting our video together. Although Renee and I have some expertise (and by some, I mean none at all) in making movies, Scott's approach is more professional... which is what we're going for. 

Yes, I did spend four hours putting my part together... and no I didn't save it properly. Someone should have taught me how to save properly in primary school. Yay. Back to the drawing board...

Queensland Studies Authority. (2008). SOSE Essential Learnings - by the end of year 5. Department of Education and training. QLD. 

Week 6

The Digital Age

Teachers replicate teachers. We all know this is true from our prac experiences, when it's our turn to stand up and take the class for a lesson, and your voice is suddenly a lot more high pitched and sing-song-y, Just like Mrs. X. But I don't think that's what Jason means when he says: "A DNA is built into our system that tells us what teaching is about."  Most us have been watching the teaching profession and the different characters within the system for the last couple of decades. What we see is the perfected pedagogical theories and practises of a 20th Century system.

One thing is for sure; we need to drastically redesign our preconceived notions of teaching if we want to stay alive in the digital age, ad use it effectively. The foundation of our knowledge must shift to be able to effectively cater to hyper-communicators, multi-taskers, and goal orientated students. That isn't to mention the 2000 other learning styles.

Let's take a quick peak at challenge-based, problem-based, and inquiry-based learning in comparison to instructional pedagogy. Yes, there is a couple here, but remember we are thinking of those 2000 little darlings who all just have to be so darn different. Any constructivist approach when implemented effectively (to my understanding) provides students with a goal for learning, allows them to communicate their theories, and requires them to participate in an engaging task. Did someone say Vygotsky Zone of Proximal Development? No need, we're covered here.

Now, moving on to TPACK. The above idea can be easily translated. As an example, we'll look at mining (because we used it in tutorials anyway). If I posed the question: "Why is Homer Simpson a danger to the power plant?" I'm catering to all academic levels of the students in my class. Content Knowledge = Nuclear power, perhaps. Pedagogy= Inquiry-based approach. Technology? = Sims.
I know, I know, I still love Sims. Sims 3 is for people of all ages though, and students can use it to create a virtual Springfield, power plant included.

It could be too soon to tell, but I might be getting the hang of this...

References:

Harris, J., & Hofer, M. (2009). Instructional planning activity types as vehicles for curriculum-based TP ACK   development. In C. D. Maddux, (Ed.). Research highlights in technology and teacher education 2009 (pp. 99-108). Chesapeake, VA: Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education (SITE).

Metiri Group. (2003). enGauge 21st Century Skills for 21st Century Learners. Retrieved March 30th, from: http://www.zagami.info/4001EPS/Readings/Entries/2011/3/28_Entry_1.html