3 Styles of Teaching

(*Click on gray words for the links.)

Roller Coaster Physics

Academic Expectations: Donna Migdol has her students be engineers and create mini roller coasters in order for her students to learn about energy and motion. In this project, her students used a lot of math and science.

Ms. Migdol has a technique called “Chiming.” In Chiming, students sit around a table and listen to a “chimer” to see what trials and tribulations occurred the week before. Other students take notes and “chime” in. I liked it because it had a very “business meeting” vibe to it. Therefore, I liked it because it has very real-world applications to it. This, along with other parts of the lesson, really focused on collaboration between the students. Chiming is also very student-led. It makes students more responsible and confident in themselves because they see that they themselves are the “true problem solvers,” as Ms. Migdol says.

In the video, one could see that Ms. Migdol has high expectations for her students by constantly reminding her students to use the key vocabulary of the lesson. To be honest, half of those words went over my head! And of course, the students went on to use that vocabulary throughout the lesson.

As the lesson goes on, she also expands on it by having students “buy” materials for their project. I also like this because it adds even more real-world experience to them. Since this project has them be engineers, by making them “buy” materials, it is reinforcing a real life issue for engineers: your math and science better be right, because buying materials for projects cost lots of money!

Behavior Expectations: Based on this video alone, I would assume that Ms. Migdol has high behavior expectations. Not because anything was said or done in particular, but based more on what was NOT said or done. Students did not misbehaved at all. There was no random student just walking around. There were no multiple students talking at the same time, etc.

Norms and Procedures: By having students take different roles in the groups, Ms. Migdol is once again applying real world situations to her students project. In the real world, students have to collaborate (as mentioned above) and they have to know their roles as part of a larger group. Therefore, each student has to know the norms and procedures for his/her group. This, along with the behavior observations above, one can assume that her students are very well aware of the norms and procedures of the class in general. Because of all the things above, it is apparent to me that Ms. Migdol’s norms and procedures support high student performance. In the end, in my opinion, the video speaks for itself.

Lesson Plan: I love the fact that it has a lot of videos showing off the students projects! I love that it broke down the lesson into bite-sized portions for easier reading. However, the biggest issue I had with it (which has nothing to do with the lesson itself) is the fact that, while similar, this lesson plan is NOT related to the video. I would have preferred to see Ms. Migdol’s actual lesson plan!

Bonus: This video truly seems to be focused on being a 21st Century class! It is student centered, it used PBL, it involved technology, and it had real world applications to it!

3rd Grade Chinese Math

Academic Expectations: it is hard to say what the academic expectations for this video were since it was very short, coming in at a little over two minutes. Based on the available footage, it seemed that this lesson was geared more towards just repetition of numbers. It seemed to just be a routine that was being followed. It was followed along as a chant, thus maybe it was a little more fun for the students, perhaps? Anyway, the teacher seems to have high expectations of her students based on the fact that she is expecting them all to chant along together.

Behavior Expectations: It seemed to me like there are high behavior expectations here in this short video. The teacher seemed to have a plant to always have the students busy chanting along with her, thus minimizing their opportunities to act up. Plus it is hard to tell since the video is in Chinese, but the teacher seemed a bit strict. For example, the way she quickly stops the students from all talking at once. I personally would have done it in a friendlier way, while she goes straight to making them be quiet. That vibe made me feel like she might have high behavior expectations.

On a side note, I notice one small irregularity. I might be wrong in this, it might just be a coincidence, however: at the 14 second mark, there is clearly one student in the back of the class who is not participating. At the exact moment that the camera seems to catch this, the video is edited to then just happen to be right above that student’s head, and thus keeping him out of the picture. I found this maybe related to this question about behavior expectation?

Norms and Procedures: Students are clearly very well aware of the norms and procedures of the class. The class was very much in sync with all the chants that the teacher used. Whether it was the chant for the multiplication tables, or the chant to transition, or how she expected them to sit with their hands behind their backs, these students are clearly very well versed in the norms and procedures of the classroom.

Article: The article, while not related to the video, seemed to shed some light on it. It seemed to confirm my belief that the class was doing lots of repetitions in order to memorize the information. However, the article goes more into detail into the (Chinese) nationwide way of teaching, and not just focus on this one class. Therefore, the article let readers know more about the way China as a whole teaches math, while the video can be seen as one example of this style.

Bonus: I found it fascinating that this Chinese math class seemed to have zero Chinese students. All the students seemed to be either black or white students (American? British? South African?). Regardless, if these students are not native Chinese speakers, then more “kudos” to them! They seemed to really be thriving in this class that is taught in a language that is (seemingly) not their native tongue!

Whole Brain Teaching

Academic Expectations: First of all, let me start off by saying that I am a big fan of how the teacher uses hand movements to teach her lessons and to instill in her students not only the lesson, but also class rules, norms, and procedures. Not only does she do this, but she has her students copy along with her. This makes it so that students are not just passively listening, but are actively listening and being involved. (On a side note, this style reminds me of the Total Physical Response style, only it is not “total,” because of how active students are while learning.) In my opinion, this style of teaching is meant for teachers with high academic expectations. The reason for this is because of the part where students “teach” the lesson to their neighbor. Obviously one can’t teach a lesson if one does not know or understand the material. Therefore, the expectations are high in this style of teaching. Plus, the style is very suited for high academic expectations. Even something as simple as turning to a certain page, the teacher knows that students are paying attention. In this style of teaching, students have to repeat the line, (for example) “page 7 Geography book,” over and over until they get to said page. This makes it so that students have very little time to daydream or slack off. Since doing so, makes a student look out of “sync” with the rest of the class. As a bonus, (it seems to me) if a student does happen to not be paying attention, hearing all his/her classmates chant the page number out loud multiple times, at the very least this gets that student to know what page to turn to.

Behavior Expectations: The video had a specific section dedicated to behavior expectations. Just like in the academic section above, students chanted the class rules, thus showing they are well aware of the expectations that are expected of them in this class.

Norms and Procedures: This style seems to be very well suited in not only making students know the norms and procedures, but to have them very well memorized. Students seem to be more attentive with this style and thus seem to be more able to recall the do’s and don’ts of the classroom.

Website: I really like the WBT style of teaching. I think the reason I like it so much is because: one, it is perfectly suited for teaching Kindergarten (which I teach)! And two, because my style is very similar to it as well.

For example, One: WBT says to say the word “class” to get students attention; students then reply with, “yes.” I say “class” to get their attention, but instead of having them say, “yes,” I have them say, “Yes, Junior teacher?” However, something I did not think about, that this website said, was to add variety to the “class” saying. Say something like, “Yee-haw Class,” and they can then reply, “Yee-haw, yes, Junior teacher?” I think my kids will love this!

Example Two: “Mirror Words” is when students copy to teacher. I do this already, but I do not have a set phrase to start it off. I just tell my students to copy me. Now, not anymore! I will start to use “Mirror Words” in my class to let my students know when to copy me.

Something new that the website mentioned is something called “One Minute Lessons” (I will refer to the lesson about active verbs now). The main takeaway I got from this, is how students can be “mini-teachers” (my phrase) to each other. This method involves the teacher (me) breaking a lesson down into about one minute intervals (thus the name); then the students turn to their neighbor and “teach” it to them; then repeat. I love the part where the students “teach” it to their neighbor! Definitely adding this to my teaching style as well!

Bonus: As one can see right above this sentence, I will definitely be implementing more WBT into my style. And/or adjusting my (similar) style by tweaking it a little thanks to what I learned from this video and website.

Summary

There are so many styles of teaching. The above three videos show just three of them. The first one, in my opinion, really checks off a lot of the boxes for it to be considered a 21st Century style of teaching. It is student-centered and is project-based. The second style is more traditional, with students mostly repeating and memorizing, while the teacher is making sure they actually memorized the material. The article connected to it even states that one part of it can be traced back 2,200 years! The last video, on the other hand, while similar to the traditional one, still has enough variety in it to make it more active and fun for the students. Students actually become teachers for a short while!

I personally like the first and third videos a lot. The second one has its benefits, however, I think the other two are just more suited not only for my personal taste, but also for my Kindergarten class. As a Kindergarten English teacher in Korea, I do not really want my kids to just repeat and memorize English phrases. I want them to use what they are learning in real world situations, use it while working on projects, be involved with the lessons, be able to teach it to their classmates, and be active and energetic. But most importantly of all, I want them to have fun! The first and third videos, in my opinion, are more geared towards that.

References
Chen, C. (2011, June 13). 3rd grade chinese--math class.avi. Retrieved April 26, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7LseF6Db5g

Roller Coaster Lab. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://edu.glogster.com/glog/roller-coaster-lab/1gku0vrn4cn

[Roxyshayne]. (2011, May 31). Whole brain teaching richwood high - the basics. Retrieved April 26, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iXTtR7lfWU&feature=youtu.be

Teaching Channel Inc. (2017). Roller coaster physics: STEM in action. Retrieved April 26, 2017, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-stem-strategies

Whole Brain Teaching. (n.d). Retrieved from http://wholebrainteaching.com/

Wie, K. (2014, March 25). Explainer: what makes chinese maths lessons so good? Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-makes-chinese-maths-lessons-so-good-24380

Positive Climate in the Classroom

As with any teacher, especially a Kindergarten teacher, one of my goals is to create a positive climate in the classroom. I want a place where my students can not only learn in, but also feel happy to walk into (and thus making learning even easier). In my Kindergarten classroom, I employ many techniques to try and pull this off.

Classroom Decorations
The first thing for me is the classroom itself. When anyone walks into my classroom, there is no doubt that it is Bear Class! With a bear greeting people at the (outside of the) door, a sign saying, "Welcome to the Bear Cave," in the class, a bear teacher saying good bye at the (inside of the) door, a bear alphabet over the white board, etc. And of course, every bear in the classroom has a giant smile on its face.
Then we have the other, non-bear, decorations. We have a wall with smiling shapes, we have smiling planets going around the class, a wall with all the colors of the rainbow on it (plus a few more colors as well), and we have a, "Welcome to the Animal Kingdom," wall too! On the white board, we have their names in order to show who is the "Leader of the Day." Plus, we also have the (colorful) calendar and the (colorful) date. Next to the white board is our behavior chart with their bears lined up on a daily basis trying to move up to.... OUTSTANDING!!! (More on this later.)
The last great thing we have is the seasonal tree. I add and change things to this tree throughout the year. In the spring I add leaves to it throughout the season to show its progress of blooming; I add more and more flowers and animals as well (smiling animals of course). By the time it is summer, it is so full of... well everything! Then in fall, I start to show the leaves fall and I change the color of some of the green leaves to red, orange, yellow and brown. I start to remove some flowers and animals, and the tree just looks more bare overall. For winter, I change the tree into a pine tree and start to decorate it like a Christmas tree! I also add snow (cotton) around it. The best part of it all.... the students help me with all this! Either they tell me where to put the decorations. Or, they color the decorations themselves and then we put them on the wall. One last thing to mention, is how I write key vocabulary words on the pictures in order to enhance my students vocabulary. The tree will have the word "tree" written on it; a bird will have the word "bird" written on it; etc. I love it when on spelling tests, my students "get one over on me" by telling me that they already know how to spell that word because they saw it on the tree!

Class Ownership and Responsibility
My students have their own cubbies throughout the classroom. One for their jackets, one for their indoor shoes, one for their lunchboxes, and one for their emergency clothes (in case of small accidents, they are kindergartners after all). Although, that last one ends up being a "I will put all my drawings and some toys in here" cubby after a few days and for the remainder of the year! For their cubbies, I print out corresponding bear (to go with the classroom theme) pictures with their names on them (as name plates) for them to color and decorate. Then we add them to their cubbies. This let's them personalize and own their cubbies. Throughout the year, they also add stickers to their name plates. With this the students have a greater sense of, "this is MY classroom." It helps them not only feel more confident and safe in the class, but it also makes them more responsible. If I see their cubby is overflowing with papers (of drawings they make) I tell them to make it neat again. If I see their jacket on the floor, I ask them if they know where to put it. These are little things that over a year, add up to a huge difference for them. To add to their class responsibility, we have the aforementioned behavior chart. The class starts off in the middle of the chart, at "Ready to Learn." As the day goes by, they get to move up the chart for being good students. But! They know they can move down the chart for not following the rules. Their goal is to reach the top of the chart, the also aforementioned, OUTSTANDING label. Students love seeing their bear go up and up and up. One of the best parts of the day is when school ends and my students go running to their parents with a big smile on their faces yelling, "I'm OUTSTANDING today!" But to get there, they know they have to be a good and responsible student all day.

My Roles
We have seen how my classroom and how my students add to a positive climate to the class. Now let's see what I do to help add positiveness to the class. There are many things I try to do to make my Bear Cubs (as I like to call them) have a great time at school. In order to not make this into a multi-volume encyclopedia (ha ha), I will try to just give small descriptions to some of these things.

• Lead by example: I will start with this one, because no matter what I teach my students, no matter what I expect from them, if I myself don't do those things I want them to do, then it does not matter. I need to be the FIRST one to do those things I expect from them.
• It's OK to be human: Our motto in Bear Class is, "It's OK to make a mistake, as long as we learn from it." I show my students that it is okay to not be perfect. All I want from them is to see that they are trying. Especially with how stressful Korean society is with education. I want my students to be happy when learning, not stressed out because of it. The best way to show them this is by showing them that I too make mistakes. In fact, I reward my class if they catch my mistakes. If it was something small, like calling a student the wrong name, I give them a high five. If it was something big, like I wrote the wrong answer on the board, I let them move up on the behavior chart. Either way, I always mention it to them that I just made a mistake and then I thank them for helping me to correct it. It is my hope that if they can see that a teacher can make a mistake and be okay with it, then so can they. I'm not perfect and I don't expect them to be either. I am still growing and learning, so of course so are they.
• Share personal stuff: I share details of my life with my students, I open up to them. In turn they feel closer to me and they open up about their lives too. The best part of this has been with some of my previous Kindergarten students who are now in fifth grade. We love to talk about superhero movies. Did we like it or not? Have we seen the newest trailer? Etc.
• Get to know them beyond being students: By sharing personal stuff, it is my goal for my students to see that I care about them beyond just being students. I want them to see that I care about them as people.
• Add them to the lessons: By learning personal stuff about them, I can then add that information to my lessons. If a student likes dinosaurs, I can add dinosaurs into the lesson. If a student likes the color purple, I can add purple into the lesson. Students especially find it interesting when I include Korean culture into the lessons. 
• Set clear goals: By this I mean, not just talk about them. I mean actually make them into a lesson with student involvement so that there can be no confusion about them. For example, when I teach my students about "excuse me" and "I'm sorry," I role play along with a volunteer the situation. Then I have them role play themselves. Like this they can actually see what happens when people bump into each other. After one day of role playing this, it is so great hearing, "Excuse me," all over the school from my students.
• Discipline: Be consistent with the rules, otherwise students will not think much of them. Don't show favoritism, when one of the good students breaks a rule, make sure you treat that student the same as the student who tends to break that rule more often. Use compassion after the "scolding." Use this time to make them grow. I do not just scold them and that is all. I make it into a mini-lesson. I ask them, what rule did they break? Do they understand why they shouldn't do that thing they did?  What can they do next time to not break it? I end it with reminding them they are good students, but they just happened to make a mistake at the moment. That they should try and not do that again, to learn from it. This strategy I employ here has been, in my opinion, very helpful for those "aggressive" times (bullying). To be honest, I am hesitant to say "bullying" because at this age (5 and 6 years old) I do not really see it as bullying, but more along the "me, me, me" mentality many children have at this age. It tends to not really be on purpose, but more selfish oriented. Regardless, it does happen at times, but by being consistent, showing compassion, and making it into an unofficial mini-lesson, these "aggressive" times do seem to go way down.
• Set high (realistic) standards: Throughout the academic year, I expect the best from my students. I push them to always try their best. I try to implement many, if not all, of the above strategies in these standards. My students know that I am not looking for a perfect student, but for a young learner who is giving it their all! We (they and I) should just try our best. I know that by combining all of the above, my students DO reach these high goals I set out for them.

My Biggest Strengths

• Humor and fun: No matter the lesson, no matter the class, I always try to use humor to make my class fun. If my students are not smiling and laughing, then I need to change my strategy. Whether it be by making funny faces, funny noises, funny body language, jokes, messing up my hair, drawing funny pictures, showing funny images, videos, songs etc. I try anything to get my students to be happy. I believe that a happy student is more likely to be involved in the lesson and thus, more likely to learn.
• Passion for teaching: I love teaching! I enjoy seeing my students everyday. I love seeing them succeed. It makes me happy to see them overcome an obstacle. It is my pleasure to see how much they grow in a year. It is my hope that my students can see my passion and that it motivates them too.

What I've Learned

• Less "no": One thing I have learned through my many years teaching, is to try and say less "no." What I mean is to change a "negative" sentence into a neutral or "positive" sentence. For example, instead of saying, "No running," I try to say, "Please walk." However, I will be honest and say, this is one of the things I am working on the most to try and do more of. I don't think I do it enough yet. But as stated above, (along with my students) I am still growing.
• Classroom agreements/contracts: Something I recently learned about. Since this is still very new to me, I have not implemented it yet. However, from what I have seen, it is very promising. I am very excited to try this out in the near future.
• Classroom meetings: Another recent discovery. Just like the above strategy, this is something I am excited to implement in my classroom. I just need more time to get to know the strategy more. At the moment though, it also looks very promising.

At the end of the day, at the end of the year, my students happiness is the most important thing for me. I hope that by having a positive climate in the classroom, my students are not just happy, but are also growing in their academic abilities. Go Bear Class!

Education, Technology, and the Future!

The way education is done now in the year 2017 is so vastly different from the way it was done when I was in school 20-ish years ago! And for the most part, that has to do with (and thanks to) technology. In this recording, I will discuss how technology is affecting education in the world right now, and how it MIGHT affect education in the future as well.

(Recording Coming Soon)

(Script)

20 years ago, when I was in school, I would never have imagined just how much education would change. While a vast percentage of the world still continues to have nice little rows of students facing a teacher and a board, there are many others who want to (and are) bringing the future to students now!

Some small examples:

• Classes with smart-boards, smart-tables
• Each student having their own smartphone-tablet-laptop
• Classes being done entirely online through virtual classrooms (something I personally am doing at the moment!) Helping students to be able to study and learn outside of the traditional 8 to 3 time frame and outside of four traditional walls.
• Real time assessments of students that lead to real time adjustments to individualized lesson plans. Helping students who do not fit in this mythical “one size fits all” learning mentality that is so prevalent in education.

However, the future holds even more amazing things to come! There are too many to talk about in this short recording, but I would like to dedicate a few sentences to some that grabbed my attention. Let’s start with:

1. Augmented and/or Virtual Reality (AR/VR): Imagine students who open a book and the stories inside literally pop out! Not hard to imagine for those of you who play the Nintendo 3DS right now. Or imagine students putting on virtual helmets/goggles and literally quote-unquote being IN the story. Safe to say, studying will be way more fun for these students than for us now.

2. Holodeck Classrooms: a huge step above AR or VR, a whole classroom that is the setting of the story! Students can literally quote-unquote walk around in the story of the book.

3. Smart Glasses or Smart Contact Lenses: I can see a future where people walk around with glasses that are actually their smartphone, laptop, AR and VR devices, Skype; all in a little square right in front of their eyes. Or better yet, in a little circle right ON their eyes!
4. The Internet of Everything: long story short, the future will have our refrigerators, homes, cars, smartphones, computers, etc. all linked together. 24/7 people will be connected to something online. So when students are simply walking around, something can be “activated” in their smart glasses/contact lenses that sends that information to their laptop so that they can work on it later. When the student gets home, their home can remind them of their homework assignment and about the things that were added to it while they walked around.
• Please see this video for more on the Internet of Everything.
5. Mechanical Friends: the easy answer, robots! But before we get to that stage, how about things like Siri, but times a thousand! A little friend that is everywhere, thanks to the internet being everywhere. (See the previous point.)
6. Brain Implants: this one is a bit scary in my opinion. People in the future just being implanted with a chip with all the information they would need in it. Is it possible? Should we do it? I will leave that up to you, the listener/reader.

Technology without a doubt will affect the way education is presented to students. It already has, and it will continue in the future. I would like to end this recording with two, in my opinion, very important questions about technology and its affect on education in the future:

• The biggest question in my opinion is, as Jeff Selingo asked in his article about automation in the future, “What kind of education is needed to stay ahead of automation, or more likely, to complement technology?” Technology is not just improving FOR us humans. It is also improving vastly in the field of automation. More and more jobs are being done by “robots.” Therefore, our way of thinking about what jobs will be available in the future must change. Which means our thinking of what we need to learn much change. Which in turn leads to our education must change as well. So, I ask again, what kind of education will be needed in the workplace of the future?
• Peter Diamindis’ article states that as technology advances, it becomes cheaper and cheaper. Which means, “ the child of a billionaire or the child of a pauper will have the same access to the same (best) [sic] education delivered by such an AI, effectively for free.” My question is thus, can technology really bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots in the field of education? I personally hope so, but we will see.

(End Script)

And with that, we end this blog. The future is coming, are we ready for it? Are we preparing for it in the right way? I guess we'll find out together!

References

Diamandis, P. (2016, July 18). Why The Cost Of Living Is Poised To Plummet In The Next 20 Years. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from https://singularityhub.com/2016/07/18/why-the-cost-of-living-is-poised-to-plummet-in-the-next-20-years/

Dunwill, E. (2016, March 16). 4 Changes That Will Shape The Classroom Of The Future: Making Education Fully Technological. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from https://elearningindustry.com/4-changes-will-shape-classroom-of-the-future-making-education-fully-technological

Kliegman, J. (2016, May 2). How Smart Contact Lenses Will Create The Sci-Fi Eyes Of The Future. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from http://theweek.com/articles/617205/how-smart-contact-lenses-create-scifi-eyes-future

Marcus, G. and Koch, K. "The Future Of Brain Implants." The Wall Street Journal 14 Mar. 2014, https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304914904579435592981780528.

Accessed 11 April 2017.

Minerva Schools At KGI. (n.d.) Higher Education For The 21st Century. Retrieved  April 11, 2017, from https://www.minerva.kgi.edu/

Selingo, J. (2016, August 17). What Happens When Millions Of Jobs Are Lost Because Of Automation? Retrieved April 11, 2017, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-happens-when-millions-jobs-lost-because-jeff-selingo