Personal Learning Networks (PLNs)

This week we learned about personal learning networks (PLNs) and how they can help teachers discover and share resources and ideas. After reviewing the list of suggested networks compiled by Dr. Langran, I chose to set up a new PLN on Twitter. I am already connected to a few educational groups and teachers through my Instagram account, and I will continue to use and grow that. However, I can see from Dr. Langran's information that Twitter is a very active place for educators to share ideas, and so I would like to try it out. 

I set up an account on Twitter for personal use a few years ago but did not end up using it much, so it was easy for me to tweak it for my future endeavors as an educator. I was already following my children's elementary school and my son's third grade teacher, and I decided to follow their school system (and hopefully future employer!), Fairfax County Public Schools, as well. I also took Dr. Langran's advice to follow her, Edutopia, ISTE, AMTE, and NCSS. Finally, I found two new accounts on my own - Kinderchat and Fountas & Pinnell. I am currently a pre-kindergarten teacher and hope to be a kindergarten teacher, so I think Kinderchat will have some good resources for me. Additionally, Fountas and Pinnell have great resources for early literacy, so I chose to follow them as well. 

I am already learning from my new PLN! I watched a short video posted by Edutopia today called "How to Respond to Student Outbursts." I have two students in my pre-K class who have frequent, intense emotional outbursts. This video reminded me of concrete ways to help these students and also reassured me because I have been implementing many of these steps already. In my screenshot below, you can see that I "quote tweeted" the Edutopia post and remarked that the strategies in the video remind me of those we use at my preschool from the Conscious Discipline program. I included the Conscious Discipline Twitter handle to link these two resources and show my appreciation to both.

"Kerry Granfield's Twitter Home Page" by Kerry Granfield

Reference

Edutopia [@edutopia]. (2022, February 26). When a student has a verbal or physical outburst in the classroom, it can be stressful and scary. This research-backed [Tweet; thumbnail link to video]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/edutopia/status/1497565613165735938 

Pear Deck

Pear Deck is a fantastic tool for making presentations more interactive. In this week's module, we made a Pear Deck slideshow to support the standard of learning (SOL) that we selected in Module 1. To teach my SOL for first graders about influential people in the history of Virginia (history and social science SOL 1.3), I made a slideshow about Maggie Lena Walker. 

My slideshow could be used in the classroom (if every child has a device) or in the remote setting. The objective of the lesson is for students to be able to describe the story of Maggie L. Walker and her contributions to Virginia. I included a visual thinking strategy exercise to kick off the lesson and engage the students. To make the content more interesting and accessible to first graders, I included interactive questions to help them relate their lives to Maggie's, such as how would you feel if you had to wash clothes every day, and how do you help your community? At the end of the presentation, I included a slide to formatively assess what students learned about Maggie Walker. 

In addition to teaching SOL 1.3, I also included a few slides to support SOL 1.1 - history and social science skills. I included several primary sources (photographs) to help students develop an understanding of Maggie's history. I included a timeline to help the students see that Maggie Walker lived at a different time from them, and from the other influential people in Virginia history. Finally, I included an interactive slide to help them practice the key content vocabulary word - contribution. 

Google Jamboard

In this week's module, we learned how to use Google Jamboard to take notes on our assigned reading. Check out my notes on Chapter 2 of our textbook. I enjoyed using Google Jamboard - it was easy to use yet had enough features to allow me to take detailed notes. I mostly used the "sticky note" feature, but I also inserted a few pictures from the textbook and a text box. I am enjoying this new way of taking notes by creating more of a "mind map" instead of a long list of text. Organizing the ideas on the Jamboard helped me organize the ideas in my head and connect them together.  I can envision students using Jamboard in the classroom not only for notetaking, but also for collaborative brainstorming, problem solving, pre-writing activities, and more!

Using Digitally-Manipulated Images in the Classroom

In this week's module, we learned various ways to support visual learners in the classroom, including integrating digitally-manipulated images into lessons. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements to create the following image, "Pocahontas with Betty" (Granfield, 2022):

This work, "Pocahontas with Betty," is a derivative of "Pocahontas-14" by Elmer Boyd Smith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. "Pocahontas with Betty" by Kerry Granfield can be reused under the CC BY 4.0 license.  

Digitally-manipulated images engage learners by grabbing their interest and drawing them into a lesson. As Dr. Langren mentioned in our module, an effective strategy is to create an "improbable scene" to serve as a writing or discussion prompt. Another benefit of digitally-manipulated images is that they can address one of "the 7 P's" for improving student learning: personalization (Graham et al., 2019). Educators can insert pictures of their students into images (as I have done with my daughter Betty above) to capture their interest. Furthermore, images can stick in learners' brains and help them remember and connect content.

"Pocahontas with Betty" could be used to introduce a first-grade unit on Pocahontas and the Powhatan American Indian tribe. The history and social science standard of learning 1.3 b expects students to describe the contributions of Pocahontas to the Commonwealth of Virginia (Virginia Department of Education, 2015). While showing the image, I would engage students in a conversation using the three prompts recommended in the Visual Thinking Strategies video: "what do you notice, what do you see that makes you say/think that, and what else can we find" (Huron Valley Schools, 2011).

Graham et al. (2019) recommend using the "PICRAT matrix" to evaluate the effectiveness of blended learning practices in the classroom. The "RAT framework" is used to evaluate whether technology is replacing (R), amplifying (A), or transforming (T) traditional teaching practices (Graham et al., 2019). The "PIC framework" evaluates the extent of student engagement in blended learning, i.e., whether students are passively (P), interactively (I), or creatively (C) participating in the activity (Graham et al., 2019).   

With regard to the RAT framework, I believe that using a digitally-modified image such as "Pocahontas with Betty" in the classroom is an amplification (A) of traditional teaching practices, because it would be difficult to draw this image using traditional art tools. With regard to the PIC framework, using the image as a discussion prompt would classify as a passive (P) activity. However, students in the upper elementary grades could potentially learn to use Photoshop to create their own digitally-manipulated images, an activity that would creatively (C) engage them in blended learning. 

References

Graham, C. R., Borup, J., Short, C. R., & Archambault, L. (2019). K-12 blended teaching: A guide to personalized learning and online integration [eBook]. EdTechBooks.org. http://edtechbooks.org/k12blended

Granfield, K. (2022). Betty sitting crisscross applesauce [Image]. 

Granfield, K. (2022). Pocahontas with Betty [Digitally-modified image]. https://kerrygranfield554.blogspot.com/2022/02/using-digitally-manipulated-images-in.html

Huron Valley Schools. (2011, September 20). Visual Thinking Strategies [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNI1IouvpPM

Smith, E. B. (1906). Pocahontas-14 [Image]. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pocahontas-14.jpg 

Virginia Department of Education. (2015). History and social science standards of learning for Virginia public schools: Grade one. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/history_socialscience/index.shtml