TPCK Chapter 8 Art Education

The first paragraph expressed the need for present day workers to be skilled in the digital-age literacy, in order to be successful in the twenty-first century. With this skill comes the need for training and then the “wicked problem,” appears with new changes in technology.
During my undergraduate studies, I only attended one art method class and two music classes. The rest of the classes that I attended were core classes. Chapter Eight discussed the lack of preparation for preservice teachers in art education that is due to content requirement. This “wicked problem” does not allow for technology to be integrated into music and art, because of the limited exposure to methods curriculums.
Art and Music provide students with real world experiences, and allows for self-discovery but is mentioned as possible budget cuts each year. Brain research states the benefits that art education has on both brain hemispheres. However, it stills remains open to budget cuts.
I love Michelangelo’s quote, “I am still learning.” My students will ask me questions and when I don’t know the answers, I tell them that I need to search for the answers on the Internet. They think because I’m their teacher, I know all the answers. I explain to them, that don’t have all the answers that I never want to stop learning. It would make the world be a boring place.
Chapter Eight provided several websites for teachers to explore. I decided to explore the Crayola website. I found a poetry link for concrete, acrostic poems and a rhyming dictionary. This site also provided audio with a fluent and expressive reader. I will integrate this website with my poetry unit. This chapter also stated that art lessons should be integrated into content areas to enhance learning for kinesthetic, visual, and auditory learners. The “wicked problem” is the time constraint due to the many standards that we are required to teach. First graders love to paint with watercolors and mold clay into characters for clay animation movie. I remember when school was fun!!!!!!
Art Education relates to the cognitive learning theory by Vygotsky, Feuerstein, Hoffman, and Miller (171) on how people learn by attaching prior knowledge to new knowledge, providing opportunities for self expression, and moving to independent use and application. How can we consider cutting art education in our schools?

Working with Colleague on Stage 2

Wanda and I have not met in person to discuss Stage 2,due to my illness and kidney surgery. We have communicated through e-mail and paper and pencil. We will need to meet to discuss the Product and Presentation Criteria. I'm not sure if she wants her class to be involved in this project or not. Two of the rubrics we will be using are the district's rubric. We will also use a third rubric based on students' journal entries of their observations. I will need to meet with Wanda to discuss the rubric and explain how we will use it in the fall.

Chapter 7 TPCK in Mathematics

The quote by Albert Einstein, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand,” (145) makes reference to the real world. This correlates with the reason for the use of technology in our school systems, for it to provide students with real life experiences that cannot be found in textbooks.
I do agree with the statement found on page 146. I spend too much time worrying over “what” type of technology to use, instead of focusing on “how” to use the technology. This is my wicked problem! When I was in High School we were taught how to solve mathematical problems, then we were allowed to use a calculator to check the answers. Now High School students use the calculators to solve the math problems, but do not know how to work through the computation process. Is this a wicked problem that our society will have to address when these students enter the work force?
Hurrah for the idea of limiting the mathematical concepts that will be taught in grades K-8. This will provide me with the opportunity to cover standards more effectively. At the first grade level, the students need many opportunities for practicing these concepts. Our math program, Investigations, requires many math concepts to be taught throughout the school year. With so many math concepts to teach there is not enough practice time or time spend on any one of these concepts in order for students to achieve mastery level.
Chapter 7 provides positive reasons to integrate technology into mathematical instructions. Technology can be used to help educators create lesson plans that are engaging, imaginative, and will meet the needs of diverse learning styles.
What I have learned from this chapter is that the mathematical framework needs to include students’ prior knowledge and understanding, builds and organizes factual knowledge, and uses a meta-cognitive approach to help students learn new math concepts. In order to provide successful mathematical instructions, this framework needs to be integrated with technology that can engage students in real world experiences.

Chapter 4 Development of English

The ED-U-Tech program from the University of Minnesota was an interesting approach to creating E-TPCK in preservice teachers. I thought the idea of a content area integrated with technology skills was an approach that makes sense. Forming a content area cohort provides students with a network of peers to share ideas on technology and content areas. The integration of Technology with the English content area would easily impact the development of E-TPCK. Determining how and why educators learn to use technology determines their development of E-TPCK. (90) Providing the preservice teachers with access to upgraded software and hardware, digital equipment, and staffing the computer lab with knowledge support personnel, is dream come true. Sign me up for this program. It is a shame that this approach is not fostered in our educational system.
Bowman describes a problem with the ED-U-Tech approach due to the lack of knowledge in students’ learning and lesson preparation that preservice teachers have. Would this approach be more suitable for mastery level? I do agree with Bowman that modeling is needed to provide guidance and support, but not just for preservice teachers. In order to create TPCK in any content area, guidance and support through modeling will assist in service teachers as well as preservice teachers.
This chapter expressed the need for teachers to be aware of new and critical technological literacy (Internet) that is found within our technological society. According to Selfe, “ a reflective awareness of social and cultural phenomenon; literate citizens should be able to carefully analyze, to pay attention to, the technology-literacy link at the fundamental levels of both conception and practice.” (102) As technology literacy changes to meet the changes in society, I’m finding it very difficult to “keep up.” I know that I need to “keep up” with these changes in order to prepare my students for the new skills and strategies required to be literate in the twenty-first century.
At the conclusion of this chapter, I feel TPCK would be developed easily by embedding technology within a content area. This would become more difficult when you have more than one content area to teach.

Working with Colleague

Blog Entry – Completing Stage 1 with Colleague:
My colleague, Wanda Heath, and I discussed the Stage 1 template that I had completed for the desired results. I will be teaching the Science content area while Wanda will be teaching the Language Arts curriculum. In order to design the template for Stage1 for the Language Arts content area, we cross-referenced our District’s Language Arts Curriculum with the Maine Learning Results. The students’ understanding statements were matched to our school curriculum. My leadership role came into play when we worked on the knowledge and skills that students will acquire through this unit on butterflies. The skills were to include the performance verbs based on the six facets of understanding. My colleague was not aware of these performance verbs. Once I introduced them, we were able to create three skills and four knowledge statements. The backward design was difficult to work through, but with discussion, we were successful in being able to complete a Stage 1 template for the Language Arts area.

TPACK-Chapter6

Next to teaching reading, I love to teach in the social science content area even though, Chapter Six states that social science lacks clear academic or disciplinary structure. (129) The National Council for Social Studies defines social studies as a content area that “integrates social science with humanities to promote human civil competence.” (138) How can this be taught? Students’ knowledge and understanding of the “real world ” can be enhanced through the use of technology. This new knowledge and understanding will prepare students to become democratic, and critical citizens. Can this be achieved without technology? I would have concluded “Yes,” ten years ago, but now during the “informational age,” I will have to answer, “No.” In order for students to experience the “real world,” I depend on technology. For example, “Google Earth” can provide a visual aid for students to understand the spatial relationship between towns, states, and countries. Another “real world” experience can be enhanced by digital history. This type of technology provides access to presentations, historical narratives, and artifacts, which helps students make the connection with the “real world.” The information found in text books can create a disconnect to the “real world.” Technology, in this content area, can provide students with media literacy skills. These skills provide students with an availability of information that will assist them in being critical decisions makers, and more informed citizens.
Once again, the digital divide creates an inequality between those who have access to the Internet and the World Wide Web and those who do not. However, with our new President’s commitment to bridging this digital gap, there is hope for equality.

Websites for Elementary Students

Elementary
Journey North is a great website to learn about Monarch Butterflies. This website provides teachers with resources and provides kids with their own site. There are slides hows on the Life Cycle of Monarch Butterflies. There is a map and a globe to show the migration route of the monarchs. Questions that students have can be sent to an expert to have them answer.