Weekly Play #4

So for this weekly play, I went way out of my comfort zone and, for the first ever, created a snap chat story. In my story I went through the lunch options for each day of the week and analyzed it. I was really nervous to do it, but it ended up being fun. I personally don’t like taking selfies and/or video of myself, but I’m glad I did. I must say the filters made it more enjoyable, which I’m sure is the case for a lot of people. Who wouldn’t want to film themselves while little butterflies fly around their head or have a cat meow at you randomly while you’re filming.

In taking the time to go through the lunch menu, I found it really doesn’t serve very many kids. It’s a disaster for kids who are at risk for childhood obesity, kids who are diabetic, gluten intolerant, dairy free, vegetarian, etc. I am grateful that the kids have access to a salad bar everyday, but honestly who wants to eat raw cauliflower and rock-hard pears? School lunch is a travesty. Kids who entered kindergarten healthy are now in third grade with visible weight gain. I believe school lunch plays a big part in this.

I must admit, as a Snapchat newb, I’m a little stuck as to how to share my story with you? Any help on that would be appreciated.

 

One of the things I’ve been thinking about lately and especially after this week’s core readings is access to digital technology. It’s so wild to me that as teachers we are responsible for preparing children for jobs that haven’t even been created yet and we don’t even have the technology in our classrooms to support such learning.

I was doing some reading on digital tech in early childhood classrooms and their advice, in terms of what tech to purchase, was a digital microscope, an iPad, and a digital camera. None of these items are available when a new teacher walks into the classroom and yet are considered necessities by experts in the field. All you get when you walk into a classroom is stacks and stacks of curriculum. If you want tools like the aforementioned you have to write grants for them or pay out of your own pocket.

I don’t think it’s any surprise that there is a lot of inequity from district to district. Edmonds is 2:1 with Chromebooks for kindergarten and Lake Washington has class sets of iPads. And I know I should be grateful for what I have because there are children who don’t have access to any computers. How can we create more equity and close this digital gap? Anymore, districts are putting serious boundaries around what tech teachers can write grants for and what they can’t. For example, in my district a policy was recently released stating you can only write grants for technology that is supported by Google chrome because that is what the district supports and pays for. I have Chromebooks in my classroom, but find them extremely frustrating to use creatively with kindergarteners. Despite these challenges, even if I wanted to provide my students with tools that were more developmentally user friendly, (cough, iPads, cough cough) the district wouldn’t allow it. This complicates the equity issue even more. From one angle I’m trying to create more equity for my students in comparison to other districts, but from another angle, I could be creating inequity in my own district.

I hate that more demands are being put on me (we now have computer science standards we are obligated to teach) and yet we don’t have the proper technology to teach it. I’ve written grants for robots and incredible programs such as the Dash robot, Cosmo, Osmo software, and more, but it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to get those materials in the classroom. The district has put together “code” boxes that I piloted last year that are supposed to be rotated around the 20+ elementary schools in my district, but we all know that are students should have access to these materials everyday!

There is only one solution…fully fund education!

The children’s book I’ve chosen to accompany this post is called “How to Code A Sandcastle” by Josh Funk. This is a great picture book to use to introduce kids to coding. I also love that the main character in the book is a female, which I LOVE because it addresses the lack of female representation in science. The gist of the story is that all summer long Pearl is trying to build the perfect sandcastle, but various obstacles keep knocking it over. In her last attempt before summer vacation is over, but with the help of her robot pal, Pascal, she decides to use code to build her masterpiece.

One of the focuses of this week’s course work was on Storytelling. As a kindergarten teacher I am constantly thinking about children’s play and how I can support learning through that vehicle. In kindergarten, for a large portion of the year, most of children’s storytelling happens orally and through drawing. One thing I hadn’t really put much emphasis or thought on is using digital technology to support the creation for their stories. In the past I’ve listened to kids play and step in at the perfect moment where I can say, “How could we turn this story into a book?” We’d get out a little stapled booklet, crayons, and markets and begin drawing. I’ve found this is incredibly challenging for my students because they often cannot draw or sequence their stories in a way that allows them to share with their peers.

I recently watched a YouTube video (link down below) that inspired me to think about storytelling through a digital lens. The suggestion was to provide the child with a camera and have them consider what parts of their story they want to capture (e.g., the dragon swooping into the castle). Then the teacher prints each picture individually and has the child tell the story behind each photo. He or she then scribes the child’s ideas, it’s sequenced, printed, and then stapled into a book. I LOVE this idea, but it’s still problematic in the sense that other children won’t be able to access the text. I was thinking I could use SeeSaw to have the child take photos of their story and then use the audio feature to add their own voice over. Then we could share it on their portfolio so other kids could view their story. I’m excited and inspired to try. It’s so easy to be unintentional about using tech in the classroom and fall into the trap of just using it as a station. I’m exciting to jump into this new adventure and see where it leads.

The book I’m featuring in this post is called, “How To Write A Story” by Abby Hanlon. Ralph is forced to write stories everyday in writer’s workshop, but he never feels like anything exciting happens to him that’s worth writing about. With the help of his classmates, soon Ralph realizes he has loads of stories to write. This is a book that I read each year as I’m launching writer’s workshop and is always loved by the kids. Finding an idea for writing is challenging for a lot of kids, but this book will make them think differently about the everyday events that happen that are stories worth writing about.

 

I recently read an article on Komo News regarding Americans and their inability to discern fact from opinion. This made me think about he ideas in the text by Chayko and Rheingold regarding CRAP detection. In a survey of over 5,000 people just 26% were able to correctly identify the facts and 35% were able to identify the opinions. This is incredibly problematic, especially when it comes to politics.

I take my role as a kindergarten teacher seriously and have a deep understanding that children’s online habits, behaviors, and skills start with me. I’m struggling with how I can teach digital citizenship in a way that is developmentally appropriate. For example, we have conversations about digital footprints, how once you put something on the internet it’s there forever, how important passwords are for protection, etc. We also talk about the kind of information that you share on the internet and what you keep private. Later in the year I teach a mini unit on fact vs. opinion and I’m really interested in using news articles (e.g., Scholastic News) that are accessed via the internet to allow kids to apply their understanding of the concept. I guess I’m just sitting with the uncertainty of whether or not I’m doing enough to support my students’ ability to navigate the web responsibly. I’m also looking for more tools to teach digital citizenship and start to build students’ awareness of the internet and how to use it safely.

I was digging around and found a blog post where a teacher has listed some quality picture books to use to teach digital citizenship. Some of the topics include communicating with strangers and inviting them over, learning to balance screen time and be intentional with its use, purchasing things online without parent permission, and much more. I’m excited to look into a few of them!

http://ditchthattextbook.com/2018/03/22/teaching-digital-citizenship-with-picture-story-books/

 

The Pinkard video that we watched for this week really resonated with me. As a kindergarten teacher, I feel I am in a unique position where creativity and self-expression is at the heart of what I do. So much of my students’ day is filled with play and teaching them academic concepts in a playful way. After kindergarten, I notice more and more that we begin to really squash kids’ creativity. We tell them what to do, when to do it, and what the finished product should like. We keep their thinking contained to a box. One of the ways I foster creativity in the tech world with my kindergarteners is by using SeeSaw. SeeSaw, for those who don’t know, is basically like an online portfolio for your students. When my students have work they want to share with their classmates and families, they grab their laptop, take a picture or video of their work and then upload it to their SeeSaw page using a QR code. From here, their families receive a notification and then they can go in and comment on their work. I’m curious how other primary teachers foster creativity through the vehicle of technology?

The book that creativity makes me think of is Crafty Chloe by Kelly DiPucchio. In the story Chloe is invited to a friends birthday party and is trying to figure out the perfect gift. The other girls going to the party share what they bought and they are all expensive things. Chloe decides to make her gift and at first it isn’t well received by the other girls. Little do they know, Chloe’s gift is the thing that saves the day! This is a sweet story that helps us remember just how capable, innovative, and creative kids can be!

 

Weekly Play #3

This is by far the most fun and creative I’ve been with the weekly play assignments. For this week I decided to explore making GIF’s. In the past I have always made them by just animating photographs or using a boomerang style image. This time, however, I explored using a clip from a YouTube video. I knew right away that I wanted my GIF to be a facial reaction to the school lunch served all across the US. There was only one person for the job…Gordon Ramsay. I searched YouTube videos until I found one with a good reaction and a meal that resembled something I’ve seen in the cafeteria. Then I uploaded the video in GIPHY. I was able to edit the start and end time of the clip to include just the segment I wanted. I added some text and voila! I tried to make the GIF using Imgflip, but for some reason it wouldn’t loop. Hoping to get a few laughs this week! Enjoy!

PS. I’m sorry if you don’t find the lunch served in school utterly appalling.

Weekly Play #2

This week I was attempting to make a short form video that related to nutrition. One thing I know would make school lunches healthier is having more appealing fresh fruit and vegetable options. I constantly see raw cauliflower and whole apples making their way to the garbage can.

I used all my apples this week to make some homemade apple sauce, so the next best thing were baby oranges I had in the fridge. Small oranges are the perfect portion size for kids and are easy to peel! I always see “unboxing” videos on YouTube, so I thought it would be funny to make my own unboxing video by means of peeling an orange. I forgot I had study music playing in the background. I happened to capture myself pulling the orange apart at the most climatic part of the piece of music. It became even better when I was reading about how much effort people put into the timing of these videos. The timing in my orange video was too perfect not to share. You can see the video on my instagram or twitter.

@noelshahbazian

In thinking about this week’s reading about socialization and identity development, I can’t help but think of my dad. Chayko talks about how this identity development continues to grow well into adulthood. Specific to adulthood she discusses the frequency of older adults learning digital skills in the course of adopting a new interest or hobby. She also mentions how major life-events can bring about this change or new development in identity. This is textbook my dad right now!

A year ago my dad retired and a year ago my niece (first grand baby) was born. It has been so interesting to see how those two event has led to his interest in technology. It started out by him becoming more curious about his phone and developing a need for a better camera. Then he started to take time to come up with this witty captions for photos of baby Z. This led to random group texts about all the things he was learning to do on his phone. After this he became interested in learning how to make memes. These of course were also of Z. The fun has really begun now due to his recent discovery of iMovie. It started out with making short films littered with pictures of Z. Then it evolved to included video footage which meant learning some basic editing skills. His mind was blown when he learned how to add background music! Now he is intentionally capturing footage and photos with specific movies in mind. All of this to say, as obnoxious as the group texts can be. I’ve never seen my dad happier and more excited. I don’t normally think he views himself as somebody who is creative, but boy have the creative juices been flowing. I can’t help, but wonder if this new-found interest and love for technology would exist in the absence of baby Z? She is clearly his inspiration!

This post makes me think of a sweet book about being a grandparent called, “How to Babysit a Grandpa.” This book plays with traditional adult-child roles and instead of the grandpa knowing how to care for the child, the child cares for the grandpa. To say Z knows how to keep her grandpa busy would be an understatement.

 

In doing the reading talking about the culture of “likeing and unlikeing”, I can’t stop thinking about it. This is something that I have debated and had numerous conversations with others about. How much is too much? Are people seeking likes for the right reasons? Is it breeding insecurity? Can we blame it all on dopamine?

When I think about this aspect of social media, I mostly think about Instagram and Facebook. I’ve noticed this in my friend group over the years, but even my own family members. As soon as somebody posts something, they are completely consumed with checking how many “likes” it’s gotten. Sometimes even going so far as to inquire if I liked their post. I can’t help, but wonder if people are just looking for validation?  I wonder how unhealthy this can become? My feed constantly gets bombarded with people chronicling their weight-loss journeys and transformations of themselves. Isn’t the point to better yourself and do it for yourself? Why then do people feel it’s necessary to post about it for the sake of getting people to “like” it. I suppose it could be motivating, but it’s not a culture that I like to take part in. Some people have become so consumed by crafting the right picture or post that they completely lose sight of enjoying the moment.

Side note! In reading this part of the chapter,  I also couldn’t stop thinking about an episode of Black Mirror called “Nose Dive.” In this episode your social media standing determines basically your entire future. It determines what kind of apartment you qualify for, moving up in your job, the car you can get, and so much more. When you have a negative interaction with somebody your rating goes down. I used to think that it was such a wild episode, but after doing the reading it’s nerve-wracking to realize we aren’t that far off. It’s as simple as somebody’s social media determining whether or not they get a job or get into their dream school.

The book I chose to go along with this post is called “I Like Me!” by Karen Beaumont. This is a book that reminds children to love and be themselves. It teaches them to honor their authentic selves and to not try to change to please other people. In a world where people are so quick to judge, I think everybody could be reminded to love themselves just the way they are!

 

In doing this week’s readings, Chayko addresses participatory cultures. One of the ideas that she talks about is the consequence of using and re-using others people’s ideas as becoming common place. She writes, “It has also become common to express one’s creativity by remixing and reconfiguring existing content.” This got me thinking about my experience with this week’s play.

I knew right away I wanted to use a meme because I haven’t made one before. One of the things I love about memes is how perfectly the picture and words support each other. I had a photo in mind I wanted to use of my niece that was perfect for my original idea. When I created an img.flip account and hit the button that said create your own, I was flooded with tons of meme pictures to choose from. I didn’t know that you could use somebody else’s picture and just change the words. It has been so engrained in my head through school that it’s essentially illegal to use somebody else’s work that I assumed memes that use the same picture have the same creator. I don’t think that’s true anymore. I know what you’re thinking. How did she not know that?! Permission to call me a newb granted! Anyway, regardless of this new development in my meme understanding, I wanted to use the picture of my niece. I started creating when my boyfriend came and over and asked me what I was doing with the picture. I explained and he strongly urged against it. We started talking about how once I put it out there in the world wide web, it may never be mine again. It’s creepy to think that some stranger could copy and paste the picture and do something else with it. For now I think I’ll refrain from using pictures with identifiable people for memes.

Naturally this topic made me think of sharing. Sidenote: this has also been a major theme with my new group of kindergarteners this year. We recently read the book The Mine-O-Saur about a dinosaur that doesn’t want to share. Spoiler alert, eventually he learns to share. The kids loved and it and we shared some laughs together. I’ll share many things with others, but my niece’s photograph is not one! It’s mine!