Blog Post 3- Simulations and Games

Simulations and games are a great part of the e-learning process.  With the obvious lack of face-to-face instruction time, a simulation or game can mean the difference between exciting a learner and presenting information in black and white text with little or no benefit of fishing for the learner's interest.

Because active play teaching uses body mechanics to teach concepts to a variety of ages and stages, simulations and games are a critical aspect of helping teachers understand the importance of movement in learning. After lecture methods were proven inconsistent, and absolutely ineffective methods of teaching, the newer generations have begun to understand the importance of activity accompanying learning.  This new teaching method is gaining momentum, but without opportunities to practice the method, active learning can become stagnant and teachers can ultimately approach the teaching style in an inappropriate way.

However new, active learning teaching with a storyboard would definitely benefit from simulations and games to practice, adhere to, and present learned information relating to the teaching method.  As the teacher's become more and more familiar with active play learning through simulations, they will be better able to take risks in the classroom. Ultimately, these risks will produce much more solid outcomes in learning, regardless of age and ability.

Blog Post 2- Research Based Guidelines

Research Based Guidelines for E-learning includes the ability to get information across to an audience in a complete way, while creating opportunities for activity and critical thinking to occur with learning. Some of the research based guidelines I included in this e-learning storyboard include

• usability
• structure of presentation
• clear, visible headings
• limited clutter on page
• practice opportunities
• concise instructions accompanying activities
• proper use of white space

As the learner becomes increasingly familiar with storyboard activities and lessons, it will be apparent whether the information is presented in an appropriate way. The techniques applied to this storyboard enhances the learner's experience because the presentation is neat, laid out by importance, reviewed, practiced, and re-taught by the learner to acknowledge complete understanding of the material presented. Without these research based guidelines in effect, learners could potentially key into non-essential information and become confused by formatting or structural issues. Using proven e-learning strategies and principles, the learner will navigate and retain the knowledge with success.

Blog Post 1-Elearning Principles

The active learning storyboard contains many e-learning principles to include:

• Multimedia- visually stimulating graphics and audio/video that is used to extend learning, allow for concrete understanding of concepts, and pull the learner in with interesting presentation.
• Contiguity- Text and audio/video complement one another and provide the learner with convenient information in good proximity to each other.
• Modality- Graphics coincide with audio and video to initiate learner understanding rather than simple glitzy, distracting, busy appearance.
• Personalization- The storyboard is created with conversational tone that a learner can relate to, rather than business tone which would turn a learner's interest elsewhere.
• Coherency- The graphics, visuals, training modes, activities, and information all work together to solidify learner comprehension. Each aspect of the storyboard is presented with specific purpose and placed in an area of the lesson that builds on the last. This provides a strong foundation of learning.
• No redundancy- In order to review and encourage learner understanding, activities and presentations vary. Concepts are not repeated, but are built on through a variety of methods.

As the learner decides the most important aspects of active learning, uses the main aspects during practice exercises and worked examples, presents the information as a group to their peers, and brainstorms various points of progress, critical thinking is absolute. The learner is presented with information using these six principles of e-learning, and is further expected to extend and present a level of understanding that requires research, outlining main objectives and presenting in a way that is understandable to a group of their peers.

Storyboard AET/541

Title: Teaching with Active Play

Active play is the act of teaching lessons with movement and large and small muscle development as a priority.  This type of learning is especially important for early childhood education and satisfies the need for constant movement both indoors and outdoors.

Scene: What is Active Play and why is it important in learning?

Audio: Attached as link on blog. Plays during instruction.

Video: None

Notes:  Introduce Active Play using Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development and lead into Pretraining with vocabulary. Segment areas with large bold titles. Personalize blog with personal instructional language. Include methods of instructor involvement and problem solving at end of lesson during review.

Pretraining: 

(show video of Active Play at: http://www.easternct.edu/cece/nurturing_emotional_health.html)

Introduce Vocabulary:     

Mastery Motivation     

Confidence      

Choice    

Challenge   

Large-motor skills

Emotional development

Social development

Cognitive development

Video and Vocabulary will be pretraining to prepare students for the worked example. Add graphic of physical word game.

Worked Example:

Have students get up and visit 3 stations in rotation:

Station 1:    Catch that fly! (Literacy)

                                     

                                  Materials: Paper plate, letters, jump rope, glue stick, fly pictures, fly swatters.

                                 

                                  Purpose: Children will listen to the phonetic sound being called out and try to              whack the fly that is carrying the letter which makes the sound. 

                                  How is it played? One team will pull around paper plates with pictures of flies and letters on them. The plates will be tied to a jump rope. One team will have fly swatters. The teacher will call out a sound and the students will run around chasing the plate with the correct letter on it. When they find the letter, they swat it with their fly swatter and call out the letter.

                                  What does it teach? This activity teaches phonetic identification of letters.

This graphic is an example of the "catch that fly" game. In this picture, two children are racing to identify the correct sight word. This game can be modified by age, subject, physical activity level preferred, etc. Early learners respond better to more activity.  The paper plate number and letter game would be more age appropriate than standing in place and searching for a sight word, but this gives a good visual of how the game is played.

Station 2:    Balloon Bat (Math)

         

                       Materials: Nylon panty hose, balloons, pool noodles cut in half.

                                   Purpose: Encourages critical solving of simple addition and number problems.

                                   How is it played? A balloon is filled with air and stuffed inside the waistband of a pair of panty hose. The instructor holds the feet of the panty hose.  This will create the look of a "pinata" type object.  Students will view a flash card with either a simple number pattern, or addition problem, or integer on it. You will solve the card with the appropriate number of hits to the balloon. You will use the pool noodle to hit the balloon. If the numbers form a pattern. You will hit the numbers in turns to fulfill the pattern unit.

                                   What does it teach? This activity teaches problem solving, math, taking turns, and  pattern units.

This picture shows pre-primary children using a pool noodle as a bat to control balloons. Our balloon bat game is a little more controlled with the use of panty hose so that the balloon is more stationary.  This allows for the active play to occur indoors or outdoors.  The game can be manipulated accordingly depending on area of play, weather, age group, etc.

Station 3:     Sock Toss (Social-emotional)

                       Materials: Socks balled up, laundry baskets, duct tape, large laminated smiley face, sad face, scared face, excited face, angry face, confused face.

                                   Purpose: To encourage discussion about feelings and recognizing feelings in our friends.

                                   How is it played?  You will listen to a scenario. The teacher will ask you how this would make you feel. You will throw a balled sock at the preferred face. The sock will land in the basket.  When we are finished, we will count and discuss how many people felt sad, scared, excited, etc.         

                                   

                                  What does it teach? This activity teaches social-emotional recognition, graphing, counting and comparing. It also allows the student to discuss why they felt the way they did.

This picture displays young children in active play using socks and a laundry basket. This activity can be scaffolded based on knowledge level, concept being addressed with numbers, and number of children involved. 

This image displays a variety of learning activities which includes active play.  It shows modification, variation and manipulation of the lesson plan to fit the individual child's need.  It is important in active play to keep the children moving and learning all at once.  This gives optimal opportunity for kinesthetic learning to occur.

This worked example will give you an opportunity to experience three activities easily manipulated into the common curriculum.  It will demonstrate how to incorporate physical activity into a lesson plan for math, social skills, and literacy.

Practice Exercise:

Step 1: Watch video

Step 2: As a small group, outline 3 main aspects of whole brain teaching.
Step 3: Create a 5 minute presentation to lead the crowd in a whole brain activity like the one seen above.
Step 4: Take out a sheet of paper.
Step 5: While watching the other group's whole brain presentation, write with detail one thing you learned from this activity and write one suggestion for the group.  Suggest methods of improvement or something you noticed that can be better presented in another way. Why do you feel this way? Give the group proof that your suggestion is valid. Use the information you know about active learning. Let's brainstorm!

Speaker Notes:

This exercise gives the learner the opportunity to brainstorm, apply principles of active play in a group setting amidst peers, provide feedback, watch a synopsis of active learning in a classroom setting, define and outline the principles of this learning style, and present the information to their peers. 

As a learner, the control lies in the decision of identifying 3 main aspects of whole brain teaching, viewing an example, and applying their knowledge to a real life situation. The learner is in control of the exercise to the extent that he/she may make valid points as to the main aspects of whole brain and active learning, and that exercise is then practiced, reviewed and manipulated in an actual real-time presentation for their peers.

Review

1. As a team, decide what age group would most benefit from active play learning. Why?

2. As a team, create an active play situation for teaching handwriting.

3. Demonstrate active play using 3 other teachers. Lead them through the activity as you would a student.

(Attach MP3 player with music)

This image shows active play occurring indoors. This is important to remember for rainy days and especially for young children with unending desire for movement.

       

Active play is good for outdoor or indoor learning. Manipulate instruction to fit activity level, learning needs, weather, age and stage.

Clicking on the link below will give you access to a song that is a great example of musical integration for Active Play Learning. Moves Like Jagger provides motivation and stimulation appropriate for age and stage.  This song can be used to play a mimic game to copy teacher body movements for assessment of Gross Motor Skills.  It can also be integrated into a Social-Emotional Development Lesson Plan to teach sharing and communication skills.  Because the tune is well known and familiar, the music will pull the learner in and provide ample stimulation for the activity planned.

Global Service Learning Project Proposal-Learning Team C-EDL/510-July 30, 2012

List of ideas:

•  Reading to the elderly
•  Mission trips with children
• Children reading to other children in the hospital
• Habitat for Humanity

Rationale:

When I think of children and community service I immediately think of reading.  Throughout the elementary school age I see programs that involve reading buddies.  These buddies can be anyone from an older student in the school to a visiting dog.  With those ideas the thought of altering the project to include children reading to elderly comes to mind.  People living in the retirement homes do not always get visitors and can not help but smile at a young child's face.  I know my grandparents love to have all the visitors they can get, especially from young children that can brighten the room when they walk in.  This idea of children reading to elderly would not only be beneficial for the elderly men and women but for the children as well.  It would help open their eyes and learn the importance of doing kind things for individuals.

Outline of key points:

•  Children would choose books appropriate for their reading level.
• Students would travel by bus to a retirement home once a week or bi-weekly.
• Students would share their book with their partner in a common area of the retirement facility.
• Partners would freely discuss their own experiences, likes and dislikes, and opinions about the book.
• Students and partners would be monitored by the teacher who will provide probing and guided questions to encourage participation. 

How the project is implemented in the classroom:

This project would be implemented in the classroom through field trips and in class reflections about their community service project.  It would be a hope that the retirement center would be able to get together with the children once a week or once every other week.  This would give the children and their partner the chance to get to know each other and really form a bond to be able to get everything possible out of this service project.  To bring the project into the classroom there would be individual journal writing to reflect about each day spent with their person that they are reading to.  Each day as well to increase the impact of the project there should be a class discussion where the children share highlights about their time that day with their person.

The effects on Global learning:

A child reading aloud to the elderly not only benefits those who are giving but also those who are receiving.  By volunteering it helps a child develop tolerance towards those who are older by pointing out strength in someone else.  It also gives the child and elder a sense of responsibility.  All parties will feel useful and valued by having an impact on each other’s lives.  By having students read to the elderly they are gaining a new perspective on life.  They are experiencing how it is to be the teacher or giver instead of receiving all of the time.  Through this new perspective students will want to learn new and different things about themselves and others.  When students spend time with someone that is from a different generation than they are it will open their eyes to a new world.  They will get to see how others feel and act towards things and hopefully will become interested in getting to know that generation as well as other people of the world.  The best effect it will have is that students get to have a new experience that will not only benefit them but others as well.  Children who can understand their own impact on something and someone can then realize how much of an impact they can have throughout their life.

Why it works for the elderly:

•  It helps eliminate loneliness, boredom, and helplessness
• Gives them a sense of value to the community
• Something to look forward to
•  Gives them a chance to reminisce and share stories of their own

 Why it works for the child:

• The child will gain respect and compassion for the elderly
•  Builds self-esteem
•  It increases child’s potential for academic success 
•  It exposes the child to new situations, and teaches them appropriate behavior

Possible effects on the world:

Many cultures maintain the belief that a great deal of information and knowledge can be obtained from the wise elders of the culture.  This project can demonstrate to the community as a whole, a sense of appreciation and necessity in consideration of the generations of knowledge that can be passed.  The students can even create a blog or discussion forum to get a global perspective on the different value systems that include the elderly.  We can extend learning by creating a Venn Diagram of differences from culture to culture and posting it as a discussion for international students to converse about.  Values based projects can have a great effect on students all around the world.  This is especially true when the students can verbalize where their values stem from and learn about the values in other cultures.  The students can implement critical thinking into a project like this, and hopefully contribute to a worldwide discussion about our differences and similarities.

References:

Lane, H.L. (2007). Maximizing the effectiveness of reading aloud. Reading Teacher, 60(7), 668.doi:10.1598/RT.60.7.

On Bonding

Capacity Building is that "always hoped for never quite attained" dream at our school. There are honest attempts at relationship building, encouragement, resource gifting and encouragement of creativity. There are honest attempts at creativity even at the expense of academics, but not through the utilization of distributive leadership.

I see capacity building in every other facet of approach in our school, but there is no such thing as distributive leadership there.

Unless, of course, you consider the "buddy-buddy" administration group a form of distributive leadership.

This approach could absolutely benefit our school site. With a ready supply of resources, a teacher assigned specifically for the benefit of raising morale through teacher recognition and fun events, and an open approach to creative lesson planning and teacher-led classrooms, distributive leadership could take our school to the next level. However, we have a very strict and specific chain of command.

If the teachers were given more power to meet and brainstorm, lead decisions through team effort and effectively create change based on group decisions, the school would run more like a school rather than a daycare.

As it is, teachers are not given the benefit of the doubt with regard to major decisions on approach. This may be because of the major lack of education, but if they are not given the opportunity, they will never rise to the occasion. For now, we are simply bonding...

The Phoenix

A phoenix is a symbol of rebirth. This is a creature who burns down to the ground, withstands an exhaustive amount of adversity and trial, only to rise from the flames stronger than before... and with a new perspective.

I identify with this myth. My leadership style is identified best through Behavioral Leadership Theory. This is the theory that adheres to the belief that leaders can be made. There is a definable behavior and process that makes you a leader. Likewise, there is a set of definable behaviors that work specifically against successful leadership. Was I born a leader? Some may argue that is the case. After all, the influence during my formative years was less than preferable. I, however, believe it is a choice.

With a mom who checked out of life before I could finish my fascination with baby dolls and candy, I grew up quick. The oldest of 4 girls, I had a job to do. After all, who else was going to do it? My childhood was not good by any stretch of the imagination. I saw and experienced things that no child should ever have to.

I had two choices. I could let it break me and remain self-pitying, or I could learn all there was to learn about how to get out, set some goals, and not let anything stop me from achieving them. I chose the latter.

I specifically remember the choice and when it became ultimately important that I choose quickly. It was when we had nothing to eat. My sisters were hungry, and I was capable of figuring it out. Starvation can make anyone innovative. It's fight or flight right?

Instead of throwing my hands in the air, I took a cupcake mix out of the cabinet (the only thing left.) I made some cupcakes, found some loose change in the couch cushions and car. I went to buy a .75 cent frosting, and brought it home. God, how good those cupcakes smelled. I took my sisters with me and and we sold cupcakes for 1.00 each (door to door.) We made 22 dollars that day. I was able to buy rice, bread, milk, cereal, and hamburger meat. I divided it up into 8 portions, since that was when my mom's check was due to arrive. We ate. I was 11.

That was the first time I knew my responsibility was far greater than my wishes and desires. I started watching people. I made mental notes of what they did to lead to failure, and what they did that led to success. These behaviors were very obvious and easy to understand.

Then I started viewing each action and reaction as a choice. And I started making the right ones. I started teaching my sisters the value of ethical choices. Those were the ones that made sense.

I could not afford to slip up, to be lazy, to not care. It was too risky. So we survived. I watched others around me. And I decided to choose one thing about them that made them successful, then I practiced, changed and tweaked when necessary.

There was nothing to fall back on. Until God and my discovery of Romans 8:28. I knew at that point that there was in fact a purpose for me. That there was a plan. That I was special, and that I was not alone. My struggles were not to go unnoticed. Someday there would be a reward. 

And this pushed me more and more and more. 

If I remained the child I was born to be, in the hand I was dealt, I would NEVER be here now. I would not be getting a Master's Degree in Leadership, and maintaining excellence in everything I do. 

In everything I do, there is an opportunity to learn and change. To be better. To make it all worthwhile. To create an amazing journey out of our short existence here, and to rise up stronger than ever through each challenge.

In a school setting, this means that I can empathize with personal trials and life in general. I am good with helping people see their possibilities. I am good with affecting change through inspiration and relationships. I know I can bring people together easily.