I am NOT saying everything I did was successful - or magical - or ground breaking. But I DID IT! WE did it. This has been the most pleasurable ride of many years - even though a few tears were shed. Now that I stand at the other side of the road, it feels MARVELOUS! I have learned so much from this experience. What a year! I think it has been said by many of my cohort, but I too, look forward to digging a little deeper in the things we have started - I just need some time to breathe...
Thank you COHORT 19 and for our professors who were so patient with me as I sometimes struggled to make all the pieces fit. I will never forget this journey.
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TOURO UNIVERSITY is committed to the following: (I would like to comment on each for this blog.)
My TPACK Journey The framework that we are investing ourselves in - TPACK, is something that I have been engaged in for many years, but without the realization of its title. TPACK is a model that by design engages the learner in a deep way. We as instructors should combine technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge in order to teach effectively. My content knowledge has always been strong. My pedagogical is intertwined with everything I do, each day that I teach. My technological prowess is...improving! Thank you - and I mean this - to Touro University and NapaLearns. Teaching during Covid has changed my life and the entire foundation on which I stand. I can not imagine plodding through the thick, muddy landscape that is distance learning without all the professional development, the offerings of camaraderie and kinship from my colleagues, and the education I am harnessing from Touro University. My personal TPACK journey is continuing and strengthening, which should help my students - of all abilities - become true 21st century learners. “CREATE YOUR OWN VISUAL STYLE… LET IT BE UNIQUE FOR YOURSELF AND YET IDENTIFIABLE TO OTHERS.”- Orson Welles “IF IT’S A GOOD MOVIE, THE SOUND COULD GO OFF AND THE AUDIENCE WOULD STILL HAVE A PRETTY CLEAR IDEA OF WHAT WAS GOING ON.”- Alfred Hitchcock “WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME IF I WENT TO FILM SCHOOL I TELL THEM, ‘NO, I WENT TO FILMS’.” - Quentin Tarantino “ALL GOOD IDEAS START OUT AS BAD IDEAS, THAT’S WHY IT TAKES SO LONG.”- Steven Spielberg I have never - honestly NEVER created a short film. Not my comfort level or even my interest. This has been difficult for me and has created anxiety. Ah, but for the greater good! I shall dive deep, learn much, make mistakes, and persevere! I wonder about the rest of my cohort but I have some kick-butt ideas in my head - all set to music and everything, but making it happen is a challenge. This journey has let me to the dreaded You-Tube video mosh pit. I have watched several of them. Sometimes I need that level of help with something techy that I have never encountered before. This guy, Justin Brown, has been GREAT! Briefly, I had started with a storyboard and had intended to follow it, but when I was in Tahoe this weekend, I ended up filming myself as I was climbing down a steep snowy hill. Totally impromptu! It just came to me. I like it and it is off the cuff and kind of...me. It needs more and I do not pretend that this is all I will be offering up, but it is a start. I liked the process. Filming myself as I was walking - making things up to say. I told my husband to get lost please while I did this. Next, I will be filming my sweet little children, ages 17 and 20. Just another layer. Onward!! I am very fond of our new NVUSD logo by the way. It is a large improvement on the old grapes/vineyard thing. Everything in Napa is grape related. This new logo at least represents learning! But when studying the Mission Statement of NVUSD, I would LIKE to say that it seems genuine, well-founded, and based on data. Further, it is FORWARD thinking. Really and truly, I barely have time to study the efficacy of their Statement but they certainly have a well thought-out website. When we see this:
Transforming lives by instilling and inspiring lifelong learning in every student...I feel it is a rather lofty statement but who can blame this team of thinkers and planners? Our district is really TRYING - especially with our new Superintendent. She is very forward thinking. The Statement above seems to fit her and her passion. What I do not really understand is how this is happening - across all domains within our district? It is my hope to transform lives but I am not sure sometimes, if I am even getting them to fix their video on Zoom or how to explain why they can not seem to share a Google Doc, or worse yet, understand why they "were in my waiting room for 12 minutes but I did not let them in." Time will tell if NVUSD has transformed lives. Right now, we are just trying to keep our sanity while teaching to worried, masked participants in the back of the room, and digital children in the front of the room. My Capstone Journey has been difficult so far. I will be honest, I had a heck of a time just linking my pages together for my new website. I troubled my professor twice and even had my daughter sit with me to help. I understand that some of this is shiny and new and not what I am used to, but I will PERSEVERE ya'll! I really will and very soon, it will be behind me and not looming in front of me. I think that we all (Famous Cohort 19) deserve accolades, pats on the virtual back, and some expensive bubbly when this is all said and done. This journey is difficult but exciting! I love making the logo but it is not easy. It is not JUST what I want. I am thinking about how I want my video to look and I feel that the intended audience is for our "up and coming" educators who happen to have kids with special needs in their classes. I want these educators to understand that these students are in most ways, exactly like every other student! I do not, however, want to bank on the fact that there won't be many types of professionals reading and searching and learning. This is nerve-wracking I must admit. There are some GREAT websites out there - wonderful Capstone projects, and insightful and inspirational bodies of work. It is humbling to say the least.
This Blog is short but from the HEART. I adore my students and I feel deeply for persons with special needs. My journey to special education is perhaps a simple one - I see what I love, I feel a calling, and I pursue.
I chose my topic for the same reasons, except it made sense to take it to a different level. It is not always easy to explain one's passion. When we were tasked with coming up with a Driving Question (remember everyone - what is your "passion" - what "calls to you") it seemed so relevant and timely to look at how learning and well-being are related during times of isolation. We can NOT IGNORE the COVID FACTOR. It drives everything! It will continue to drive everything! We are educators and our world imploded about one year ago. I actually HAD to write about it. How are my students with special needs affected? What can I do better? (answer: everything) My research is short - my cycles need another round, and I did not have as much time as I needed. But, I have a beautiful and well-meaning beginning. I wish to take this further but it is my hope that someone else will also see the relevance in what I wanted to seek. And share it with all educators and parents. Logo-ing has been an interesting journey. I started several weeks ago with drawings - cocktail napkins, backs of PG&E bills, and copy paper from my printer. I had three major artistic purges. The first was all rough drawings as I stated, and kind of JUST what I wanted to see. This idea is a combination of well-being, with technology but more focused on the well-being part. I drew a finger with a butterfly on it, a book with a butterfly on it, and variations of this, with embedded fonts in the wings that spell, "wellness". I put these drawings into our homework page. Then I spent a few HOURS on logomaker.com and created what I feel is a very cool logo, but in the end, I am unable to download it without paying a FEE. Disappointing. So now it is just living in that website. If you actually read all the fine print, it does say that you, "can make as many logos as you wish and save them!" But you may not actually download them until you pay. Then, I went to Canva and having used it several times before, was pleasantly surprised. My intention is to show how wellness and leaning are interconnected and the glue that keeps them together is technology. I like this new logo but it is not finished. I like the butterfly idea and what I have not figured out yet is how to get exactly what I want when all I see is clipart. My journey continues!
I decided to explore websites that are very different than the ones I would normally identify with! Take a chance I say. I am learning more from my fellow innovators than almost anything else I am immersed with, so it is fair game. This particular site made me proud. I do not know this teacher - I went in cold and just kind of went for the ride. What Samantha Hull is...is honest. She shares that she created her site for teachers like her, who are sometimes overwhelmed with the every day work but want to refine their teaching practices. She does not quite understand how to integrate technology into her art classes, but she is willing to try. Her theme is that educators should never feel like they have nothing to give just because others might be more tech savvy! She explored. She dug deep into innovative sites and technological practices that left her feeling like a brand new teacher. Art and technology DO mix! TPACK started to make sense. Her audience is clearly the educator - one whom might feel like they are good but wondering how to be BETTER. I think she was quite effective and want to give a shout out to Samantha Hull, Art teacher (and Innovative inspiration) at American Canyon High School. Thank you Sam.
First Blog - Woop! Because transliteracy is the ability to read, write, and basically communicate and even interact through multiple mediums, this whole sketch noting thang is a very interesting option! I have honestly only begun to understand transliteracy and how to incorporate it into my daily teaching methods. In the many years I have taught, it has been thoughtful and full of love, but perhaps not the finest delivery. OK, surely, not the best 21st century 4 C's kind of stuff. I LUV what I do but I have been stuck in just trying to get all the content out, keep kids engaged, and not drown in masses of paperwork (Hello, special ed).
Student engagement is of course essential and transliteracy can be a large key in unlocking the drudgery of everyday common core content. When lessons are delivered in various mediums, such as through the internet, showing videos - having students CREATE videos to show their knowledge, blogs, art, television, chapter books, the list goes on. The lesson I want to learn is how to better incorporate something like having my students collaborate through a particular medium such as Google Slides, or Padlet. Sketchnoting is a whole new idea and uh, it's been around for EVER, like since caveman times, but it now seems to have a whole new, bright sensibility. I really enjoyed expressing my journey with action research via sketchnoting. It is a new way to show what you know!! |
Kathy FlynnAlways hoping, learning, and wondering...how am I making a difference in my student's lives? Archives
April 2021
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