Pre-Assignment 7: Information Literacy - A Neglected Core Competency

We can ensure that there is a progressive development of information literacy competency in the formal education settings from kindergarten though post secondary education through exposure, interaction and teacher training.

First, we need to expose students to the various forms of information literacy.  This can happen as early as kindergarten in two ways: teachers can model the use of this information to students in individual or group settings and students can explore information while using a classroom computer in a restricted setting (access to certain sites only).  As students get older, they can take more ownership in the searching and selecting of different forms of information literacy.  Teachers will continue to guide this process until post-secondary.

Secondly, students need to be able to interact with the information in order to learn how to use it and apply it in their daily lives and to see the value of the process as a form of education and not just for getting a grade.  Teachers need to develop meaningful uses of the literacy in order for it to be most effective.

None of this can occur without teacher education.  Until teachers are fully literate in this field, they cannot be effective educators in this subject.  School boards need to develop their staff professionally or else this is a lost cause.  In addition, we should not forget the value of knowledge that students bring to the classroom - we can also learn from them.

Pre-Assignment 6: Google Reader Bundle

Pre-Assignment 4: Making Time to Build Your PLN

1.     At present, I have a social media PLN.  Multiple times a day, I check in with twitter, facebook, emails and various blogs.  I have recently begun to appreciate and actively seek out more blogs.  I am drawn to sites that have lots of pictures and enjoy reading blogs and articles that include relevant images to support understanding and comprehension.

2.     Reading blogs are natural to me as is checking in with facebook.  I have a smartphone and with the click of a button I can be linked in.  As a result, reading statuses and information during my daily bus ride is very easy.  It is less natural for me to use one site to find new information, i.e. following other people’s links, although I am beginning to do this more frequently as I find interesting people to follow.

3.     I am very comfortable with twitter and facebook but I do not ever actively seek out e-zines.  A goal of mine is to find an e-zine that relates to kindergarten and begin to frequent the site.

4.     After my students leave school for the day, I have a 30-minute lunch break.  When I am not collaborating with colleagues, I enjoy spending the time on the internet.  This would be an excellent time for me to devote to finding new resources and to follow more links.

5.     My top tip is to read one resource a day.  Do not allow yourself to get overwhelmed by trying to do everything at once.  Bookmark what you like and disregard what is uninteresting or irrelevant to your interests. 

Pre-Assigment 3: Twitter/Google Chrome Apps

Here are the apps that I have added to my Google Chrome Browser.

Not all of them are displayed directly above, some are only visible in the top right corner of this image, adjacent to the address bar (Shareaholic, Awesome Screenshot, Diigo Web Highlighter and Google Reader Notifier).

Pre-Assignment 2: Personal Learning Network

As a result of my Personal Learning Network infancy, I have yet to truly discover how to make this process easier and I am in no position to be offering advice or tips on how to create a PLN.  What I have learned for certain is that there is much left to learn. Where do I want my learning to occur? Through blogs?  Twitter?  Personal collaboration?  Facebook page?  These questions will answer themselves as I proceed with this new professional process.  Who do I want to learn from?  Veterans in the field or newbies?  Teachers from my geographic location? My grade level?  My interests?  Will I make this a daily habit?  A weekly event?  Although my learning process was only just initiated, I can begin to anticipate some of the lessons I will learn.

Generally, I hope to learn how to find valuable and relevant information to share with my own PLN.  This will require me to do some serious Internet exploration.  Specifically, I hope to learn effective teaching strategies for teaching reading within primary years to give me some fresh and effective ideas.

Connecting with and creating a PLN will help me to be a more aware and relevant teacher through the use of a 21^st-century skill: technology.  Global connections can be made with colleagues from near and far and illustrates teaching by example; if we want our students to be global learners, we need to be as well.  Connecting the two challenges together is simple – once you know what you want to know, you can search for a PLN that satisfies your professional needs.

Pre-Assignment 1: A Reflection on Sir Kenneth Robinson’s Changing Education Paradigms

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

As a kindergarten teacher, I work each day with geniuses.  At least, according to Sir Ken Robinson, I do.  He states that when given a test on divergent thinking, 98% of kindergarten students in a particular study scored at the genius level.  As they became older and more educated, the rates of genius went down.  This begs the question, “How do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21^st century?”  Clearly the traditional system is failing.  One challenge is that we do not know what the economies of the 21^st century will even look like.  Preparing my kindergarten students today for the economy of today will not help them twenty years from now when they enter an entirely different workforce.

Sir Ken Robinson argues that traditional education systems are based on the factory model of the industrial age: bells, hours, subjects and age.  This belief was also reiterated by Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs in her keynote address, at the Tri-Association Conference in Panama City this past year.  She argued that we are using a 19^th century factory schedule and a 20^th century curriculum on a 21^st century learner.  We are preparing our students for 1982!  Our challenge here is how to we even begin to address this backwards model?

Education needs a huge reform in order to bring teaching and learning to the 21^st century through an aesthetic lens.  When approached as a whole, this is a daunting and seemingly impossible task.  What one thing can you do, today, to help your students for the economies of tomorrow?  Teach them how to think and create so that they can adapt easily to economic changes.