Narrative Blog Community and Digital Technology

I started my educational journey when I was 4 years old. It began in the small town in a one-room church that was in the center of the town. This was my first introduction to the educational system. We did not have a state-run program in my town. I did not go to a federally funded school program until I hit kindergarten when I was 5 years old. 5 years old was when I started kindergarten and ended up staying at this one school until I was in 5th grade. This journey of elementary school has lots of ups and downs. I would have the same teacher for kindergarten to 2nd grade and then end up repeating 2nd grade. I had missed so much school and I was diagnosed with a learning disability in 2nd grade, and this was an emotional year for me. 

Over looking the town of Fryeburg, Maine

My teacher Ms. Johnson had a huge impact on me, and I remember many things of her trying to make learning fun. Mrs. Johnson was very dedicated to her students in the classroom. When I moved up to the third grade Ms. Johnson did as well. This is a teacher that had a very strong impact on me until this day. I am friends with her on social media and I followed her through her different ways of teaching. This is one person that helped me get inspired to start working with youth from the work I saw her doing. As Rita Pierson says every student needs a champon, that was Ms. Johnson. 

Ms. Johnson was my third-grade teacher. I also have some other milestones that I completed in third grade that I would start and continue all the way to my college years.   By playing the sports I learned many different avenues of community and really understand what it matten to hear student’s. I also learned other emotional angles and aspects of how to handle hard situations. Even when things got hard, I learned that your community was there for you. My community later in life ends up being a strong part of helping me get through hard times when I was in high school. 

 Two major obstacles I had in life for the loss of both of my parents. I lost my father when I was in 8th grade and then my mother my sophomore year of high school. This is where being in a community really brought me joy and support in life and when I look back on it now I want to make sure the students I am educating have this.   My biggest angle is trying to use digital technology to help students use their voice and become a closer community in their educational system. Students should have a part in their educational Journey where they feel they have a voice and how and what they want to get out of their education. students learn better from each other and not just when they're being pushed by an adult. by giving students the time and space to learn something  new they have a willingness inside to take in more of the information. When information is just pushed on them and they're  not given the time and space to ask questions, it's them going through the motions of an educational system we have in place. One project called the hole in the wall was a great study that showed that students learn better when they're exploring on their own and with the support of each other. students learned how to use a computer in a different language all on their own without any adult pressuring them or pushing them to learn the idea. 

The educational system has to be open for learning new ways for students to take in information. Our digital Natives and we should be able and willing to give them the time and space to learn how to give their opinions within the classroom. by giving students a different way of learning and in taking information  they will get more out of it. in 2023 most people walk around with a calculator in their pocket which is on their cell phone. also on their cell phone you're able to ask a question to Google or find the answer to a straight Direct question. Are educators giving students time and space to process information and how to analyze what is going on? Are we teaching students how to use technology and how to understand  what information is accurate? There are many different websites and forms of communication online but how are we getting students ready for taking in all this information? students need to be able to take in and analyze the information that is correct. we're in a time and education we're memorizing the times table or how to do a formula isn't as effective as students learning how to read and analyze information. We are living in a digital world and the world is not going backwards. we need to prepare students for the world that they will be moving forward in. I'm not saying That I know how to use technology inside and out but I do know that I cannot make technology go away, it is only becoming a stronger part of my life. and I'm willing to learn new ways in making technology be part of what I'm teaching. I want to be able to make sure that I'm still staying true to my why and beliefs as an educator.

I want to help students build a community in the school by having them create Google forms. I am going to give them the time and space to create the whole project for change in their school community. This to be a student lead project using technology. I'm going to commit an hour a week for students to get together to create and a Google forms. These Google forms will be created by students which they can have other students in their school community fill out. I want them to have the ability to create change within their  educational community by asking the questions they want to ask. Once students have created the Google form they can put it in the Google classroom for their fellow students to fill out. When all the student surveys come back  from the school Community the group of students can look over and analyze the information. I want them to learn how to analyze the data and move forward on a project. I want them to find a need that they want to change and read  the information students get back to them to help move this change. lots of times we'll have students fill out Google surveys and then that's it they don't move forward any further. I want students to be able to go to the next step with the information. Giving students the tool to help change their school Community using their voice will give them skills they can use later on in life.  This will also give students digital technology skills that they will need for their own life. Technology is not going away, if anything, it's becoming stronger. by helping students use a digital tool they'll be able to help improve their community and make sure their voice is heard in their educational journey. My hope is they take these skills they learn  within their community and use their

voice to push for change.

First Podcast

 Podcast on Student's Voice in their School

This was the first time I had created a podcast and learned SO much doing it.

Toys Blue and Pink

 In the textbook Rethinking Popular Culture and Media  I was really drew to reading about the toys and how they are gender sorted in stories. Now, this is nothing new to me but I wanted to take a closer look at it after reading more details in the book about toys and their labeling. 

It is no secret that when you walk-in to any big box store and go to the toy selection the toys are sorted by boy, girl. Stores used to have more signs saying boys selection and girls selection. Now, that is not always the case, at least not at the Target I went to on Saturday. After reading the section in the book Beyond Pink and Blue starting on page 223, I looked more into how the section was designed and

labeled. I went into my local Target. Now this is nothing again Target this is what I saw when I went into the toy section. The first part of the children sections was the art section. When you went down this part there was different colors from blue, pink,
yellow, and so on. They also had different things kids could paint or design first was a butterfly and next to that was a dinosaur. The style of packaging for these items were the same. My child looked at all the different items in the craft section. Nothing that I could see really said "BOY" or "GIRL". 

Then, I let my child pick the next section of toys just to see what his eye would go to and it was Legos. The sections were label Legos but you could see the sections were more sectioned into boy and girl Legos.

         When looking around in this one section you could see how the book was talking about colors, gender roles, and even how they had sparkles with brighter colors. This was something that I could see in the Lego section. I son even went over more to the blue boxes of Legos then to the Friend collects Lego has. When my son was in the craft sections, where all the boxes were mostly the same, he looked at each item to paint. I could see the difference on how he looked at toys in the Lego sections to how he looked in the crafted section. 

Digital Tool - Jamboard

The digital tool I use as an educator is Jamboard. There is a link down below that shows you how to use Jamboard. 

Jamboard as a digital tool video. 

Build a School in the Cloud

Educational systems were first started to help make all people the same. They made students have perfect handwriting, learn a type of math all the same way. But Why? People are not cookie cutters. They education was force and pushed on them. There were not able to learn from each other or explore new ideas. They brains all had to learn the same way. 

Not good. People are not cookie cutters.

Sugata Mitra put computers in holes in the wall to see what would happen when children just played with the computers with other children, no teachers showing how to use them. Well, he was shocked to see that the students were learning even with in 2 months of starting.

Student had to learn the English language before they could understand the topic that was on the computer. The student were not made, pushed or stressed to learn the information. They just did it. The students were just given the computer and they showed themselves the information that was on it. Students were empower by other students to learn the information that was there.

In the Ted Talk it made me think about the role with young people in an online environment and how they learn from each other when you given them the time and space. When students are given the time to be with each other and learn their own way with no one forcing them, it makes them want to learn. Threating them to do something could make it so that their brain could shout down and they brain is not able to learn anything. They bodies go into fight or flight mood.

Many of the student I work with will have a hard time with something and instead of them trying to keep with the new idea they are learning, the student is trying to get out of the whole idea altogether. By "letting" them learn it givens their mind or space to take in the information.

Chapter 4 1619 Podcast

 

As I was listening to the podcast I was picturing her telling the story. I felt different emotions from when she found out her uncle had cancer to his death, this could have been a different story if he had health insurance. 

She pulled me in as a listener. 

She started her podcast with a story that had a personal connection before she went into the history of a failing  health care system for black America and poor white people. The BASIC carry people needed to stay a live or to bring life into the world, they were not able to get. Their skin color or how much money they had put them into categories. NOT FEAR. She gives details on how the US health system is broken and how a President tried to change it but big business gets in the way. 

I have not really used podcast as an educator but I can see how it could be helpful for students. One reason I see this being helpful is a lot of the students I work with struggle to read and love to listen to different stories. The students still get the information just through a podcast. 

                    A change for me

For myself, I don't listen to a lot of podcast because I have not opened that door to make time for them. I know I can listen to podcast when driving to work or before going to bed. I just need to put it into my routine of life. This is a goal I am going to set for myself to get more information through technology. 

Relationship to Disney Culture

 

Disney is something I did grow up around. My family would buy me dolls from different movies. As a child, I was not really into playing with dolls and dressing up as a princess but more into the fairy tale dream and adventure. My family "needed" to collect all the movies on VHS (think we still have some in the basement) but it was the thing to do. 

When I was a child I did not see the hind messages that the movies showed children. It was not until I was in an undergrad class that I REALLY started seeing the images that Disney had in their movies. I do agree with Christiansen that these are hidden images that are put into the movie and shape the characters of "good", "bad", power, servants, etc.  

Before I had children I told myself my children would not watch the movies because I want them to be open-minded about images of people. Well, Disney is everywhere and it is not just Disney that is putting images out for children to see. I found it was better to have conversations about it because  there was no way I could keep them from it. It was in stories, school, commercials, everywhere!! As an adult I measured how long it would take before I ran to something Disney, it was 24 hours. I brought my children to the park and children were playing in the sandbox with Disney toys. 

I am not saying Disney is bad or good but the importance to know what is being put in front of you. It is ok to ask questions. Disney has a lot of power and maybe they could use that power to help show images of all humans in life. 

Images are everywhere we have to make sure we see the WHOLE image being shown to us. 

Let's see what this one brings!