KJones_Story



Kenneth Jones Spring Forest Middle School

[|Early Adopters to US!]

[[image:final promos.jpg]] Starting Stories
[|Early Adopters and Me!]

[[image:script.jpg]] Script Planning

 * Intro - Introduce my self and set my expectations for EA.
 * Gem 1 - Not what was advertised!
 * Gem 2 - What I learned?
 * Gem 3 - What I took away from EA?
 * Gem 4 - Small Steps - No longer a Catch Phrase, a pedagogical turning point!
 * Conclusion - Next Steps

[[image:thank_you_credits.jpg width="67" height="43"]]Image Credits

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 * Image 2 – Add link here
 * Image 3 – Add link here
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Author 1 (name)

 * **Motivation to Volunteer** - I have been involved with trying a new approach since I began my teaching career 14 years ago. At that time the buzz word was Technology Integration. This consisted of merely using technology tools - Microsoft programs for the most part. The next buzz phrase was Web 2.0 - involved a 2 way approach to content. Everyone could contribute to content. This was a major stumbling block to those educators trained their whole life to "Stand and Deliver" - very much a completely different 2 way approach - One way - teacher dispenses - 2nd Way - students spit back what was dispensed in higher level multiple choice format. This is the age of Fear of the Internet. The as the 90's ended, the most long lasting buzz work was/is "21st Century Skills". The basic pillars of this approach is that the teaching of the 3 R's: readin', writin' & rithmatic must give way to the 4 C's: Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Collaboration. A very steep paradigm shift involving extremely rough and obstacle laden learning curves. I bought into to all these buzz words and shifts and made my may with mostly bold attempts and monumental failures to show for it. The Lone Wolf was alive and through it born my proudly displayed moniker "eduheretic". I was informed of the EA program would involve planning lessons/units/projects/approaches, implementing them, and then having the opportunity to be mentored and assessed by an accomplished 21C practitioner. I wasn't looking for a new approach, I wanted my practice to be evaluated.
 * ** Initial thoughts/impressions - ** Serendipity ! Admin support, green light, delightful mentoring and support!
 * **First steps -** Digiteens - Purpose: have students consume, critique, and produce expository informative and procedureal text in the context of learnng the principles and best practices of digital citizenship in a distance/global context.
 * **Realizations** - technical considerations DO matter. Time for scaffolding will make or break any such project, but mostly if the students are not engaged, all the rest will be for naught. If something technically could go wrong, it did. If the schedule could have a negative effect on the work flow and project process, it did. If ever time constraints compromised delivery of adequate and effective scaffolding, it did. If ever students were less engaged in the purpose, process, and outcome of the project, I do not want to ever go there.
 * **Small Shifts in my thinking and/or practice**: I want to keep the pieces I understand: The BIG Picture. My shift is to be more of a Big Picture analyst and break down the image into doable and manageable pixels. In fact my Digiteen experiment was for this very purpose. The idea being that I could provide meaningful instruction and experience in collaborative platform operation, (Ning, Wiki, My Big Campus), and collaborative research and writing under this project to then participate in a higher level project. It was trying to reach a Big picture using and Big picture to get there.
 * **Small shifts in my students learning, thinking and/or ownership**: In the final analysis, I think I only scratched the surface in the whole notion of student owned learning. I do believe that I have made important strides in providing opportunities for students to "see" a shift in the economic realities of their future participation in as yest invented and realize economic reality. If not as grandiose, I have provided meaningful opportunities to direct their own learning, express themselves outside of the traditional get it, spit it back routine.
 * **What I've learned from my peers** - patience, perseverance, and the comfort in knowing that many share the frustrations I have faced.
 * **What I've learned from my students:** That student owned learning MUST be student directed.
 * **Reflections: see my role as a small** Once I learn to break down BIG plans into manageable and measurable.
 * **Next Steps:** Find a partner from another curricular box, analyze a very small training project that we can teach one skill set (ex.team work skills)and have students demonstrate content acquisition and mastery via a means of their own design. Build from there.....
 * **Connections to Student-Owned Learning**

Click above to share your thoughts on our EA next steps.... Kenneth Jones Spring Forest Middle School

[[image:final promos.jpg]] Starting Stories


[[image:script.jpg]] Script Planning

 * Intro - //Add here//
 * Gem 1 - //Add here//
 * Gem 2 - //Add here//
 * Gem 3 - //Add here//
 * Gem 4 - //Add here//
 * Conclusion - //Add here//

[[image:thank_you_credits.jpg width="67" height="43"]]Image Credits

 * Image 1 – Add link here
 * Image 2 – Add link here
 * Image 3 – Add link here
 * Image 4 – Add link here
 * Image 5 – Add link here
 * Image 6 – Add link here

Click above to share your thoughts on our EA next steps....