#f5f

Cutaway of Vought XF5F Flying Flapjack.

From 2015 through to 2019 I taught a spring course at Arcadia University called Seeking Equity in Connected Learning and Teaching. It was a graduate level class offered by the School of Education and part of the Connected Learning Certificate available at the time. 

In this video I share some of the theory behind this course and its related course design. I created this mostly for participants in another course I am about to launch, Teaching Writing Online, at Johns Hopkins; but I also thought it might be more generally of interest. Much of the design is ultimately influenced by the National Writing Project’s CLMOOC work (2013-15) and Domain of One’s Own and available to me via #connectedcourses work and Reclaim Hosting.

In these next two videos I share two activities within ED677 - a shared curation process called Find 5 Friday (#f5f) and an online consultancy process using Flipgrid and a Consultancy Protocol.

Week of 4/1/19

A Toolkit for Promoting Empathy in Schools

https://startempathy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/StartEmpathy_Toolkit.pdf

This resource is a tool kit in the form of a pdf file.  This empathy toolkit provides real stories and examples of how empathy can be incorporated into every classroom.  Included in the toolkit is a “roadmap” that allows the educator to journey down a step by step process of implementing empathy in schools.  The toolkit is very artistic and can easily grab any educators’ attention to read through.  There are also plenty of lesson examples to modify for any classroom.

   40 Kindness Activities and Empathy Worksheets for Students and Adults

https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/kindness-activities-empathy-worksheets/

This is a webpage dedicated to providing numerous activities focusing on empathy in school.  Each lesson gives in-depth details about how to carry out the activity.  There are various types of activities covering empathy and many of them come included with worksheets.  These are perfect for any classroom looking to squeeze in some time to focus on empathy.

  13 Games that Teach Empathy

https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/13-top-games-that-teach-empathy

This is an awesome website that provides cool interactive games to help demonstrate what empathy looks like for students to learn.  There are many different genres of games made for kids of all ages.  All games are focused on teaching kids how to understand how others feel or sharing the same feelings as others do.

 THE (UN)KNOWABLE SELF AND OTHERS: CRITICAL EMPATHY AND EXPRESSIVISM

https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/expressivism/leake.pdf

This is more geared toward a scholarly article more than a resource for empathy.  This article dives into empathy and expressivism.  This is an interesting article that breaks down how shifting perspective from self to another is an important piece to empathy.  The article talks about expressivism which I was unfamiliar with but seems to mean in this regard to empathy all about how to communicate empathy.  It talks about morality and how there are different views of what is right and wrong. It discusses the relationship between the empathizer and empathized.   Ultimately the connection of feelings between two people and the communication that follows is extremely important.  Listening with understanding and point of view are huge focal points in this article. I still am trying to grasp expressivism fully (I am little confused by this term still)  but the empathy focus is a great read.

  Popular Science Videos for Current Events

https://www.popsci.com/tags/video

Week of 3/25/19

Connected Learning Alliance

https://clalliance.org/connected-learning-in-teaching-practice/

This is the website for the Connected Learning Alliance.  This is a great website to visit for information on how to teach connected learning in your classroom.  Our instructor, Christina Cantrell, is an active instructor for this website.  There are multiple resources, publications, and blogs that all cater to how to implement connected learning in any kind of classroom.

 On-Ramps, Lane Changes, Detours and Destinations: Building Connected Learning Pathways in Hive NYC through Brokering Future Learning Opportunities

http://www.kyliepeppler.com/Docs/2015_Peppler_Hive-WhitePaper_OnRampsLaneChanges.pdf

This is a study done by Hive Research Lab.  It’s a great read about how a collection of New York museums, libraries, and community organizations attempted to create a “network of learning” for the kids of the city.  They wanted to build a system where “youth may encounter a wide range of production-centered learning experiences and be supported by adults and peers in ways that could lead to future opportunities in personal, academic, professional, and civic realms”.  This paper sheds light on a familiar practice and concern among the Hive Lab community and discusses how to maximize it so that the youth in the programs gain valuable social, human, and cultural knowledge that will allow them to build interest and their futures.

 The Effects of Problem-Based Active Learning in Science Education on Students’ Academic Achievement, Attitude and Concept Learning

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED495669.pdf

This is a straight up scientific study on the effects that problem based learning has on attitude and learning.  This study goes in-depth with the data they collected.  I feel this ties into connected learning because the problems are based on real life scenarios.  This kind of learning can help kids understand how things work in the real world and perhaps spark an interest in it.  Problem based learning can go hand in hand with the overall concept of connected learning in the classroom.

 Technology Resources for the Science Classroom

https://www.resa.net/curriculum/curriculum/science/technology/classroom/

This is a link to access various technological resources for any science classroom.  The webpage includes links to many different kinds of science activities that incorporate technology in some way.  Some science technology links include interactive games, online textbooks, technology tutorials, and science articles and activities that can go with it.  This is a great resource for any science teacher who wants to ad more technologies to the lesson plan.

  7 April Fools Pranks for Teachers

https://www.weareteachers.com/7-april-fools-pranks-for-teachers-that-will-melt-the-minds-of-students/?utm_source=WAT_MDR&utm_medium=Enews&utm_campaign=WAT_Enews032819

TEDx-Shared Common Purpose Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC3inLuWoyQ

This is a link to a TED Talk event on shared purpose.  It features Larry Kesslin and his views on shared purpose in the classroom.  It’s about 20 minutes long and covers the basics of shared purposes and the strategies that go with it.

 Developing a Shared Purpose (Part of a larger website)

https://www.teacherpowered.org/guide/storming/governance/purpose

This link takes you to a page within a website covering steps to create a teacher-powered school.  There are multiple concepts that you can click on.  One of the featured concepts they focus on is developing a shared purpose.  This site is great to find resources and teacher samples of how the shared purpose ideas works in actual classrooms.  This is a great resource when looking to initially introduce shared learning into the classroom.

  Discussion Starters: Lesson from Pioneers

https://www.teacherpowered.org/files/attachments/Shared-Purpose.pdf

This is a pdf article covering shared purpose.  This article features many “pioneers” to shared purpose and ideas on how to incorporate shared purpose into all levels of education. There are even steps you can follow on how to become a shared purpose “expert”.

 Finding Meaning and Creating a Shared Purpose is Key to Productivity

https://focus.kornferry.com/employee-engagement/finding-meaning-and-creating-a-shared-purpose-is-key-to-productivity/

This article is more focused on the production side of shared purpose.  This article has a much more broad idea for shared purpose using it more widely then just in an education setting.  This article also discusses the results that follow when shared purpose is applied to any situation.

 The Leadership Paradox of Shared Purpose

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rawnshah/2015/02/16/the-leadership-paradox-of-shared-purpose/#3a4b2de04034

Week of 3/4/19

Be an Opportunity Maker

https://www.ted.com/talks/kare_anderson_be_an_opportunity_maker

Great Ted Talk video on how to create opportunity in your classroom.  Equal opportunity is a huge part of connected learning and this video covers how a teacher can achieve that in the classroom.

 Build Positive Peer Culture

http://reclaimingjournal.com/sites/default/files/journal-article-pdfs/14_3_Laursen.pdf

This is an article that discusses empowering youth, relationships between teacher and student, and developing positive peer cultures in school.  The article is not too long and contains a lot of great information for teachers to check out.

 Information and communication technology (ICT) in education

https://learningportal.iiep.unesco.org/en/issue-briefs/improve-learning/curriculum-and-materials/information-and-communication-technology-ict

This is a resource from the International Institute for Educational Planning.  This is essentially a guide on the proper ways to use technology in the classroom.  This guide has been proven to be successful and it covers what works for students from across the world and how technology fits in to the educational setting.

 Solving the Achievement Gap Through Equity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQbu_3M0_Q

This Ted Talks video through youtube is perfect for what we are learning about equity so far.  This video is of an independently organized event with Dr. Lindsay Ott as the host. She discusses many strategies on how equity can work in a classroom setting and how to close that very wide achievement gap.

 Interest and Self-Sustained Learning as Catalysts of Development: A Learning Ecology Perspective

http://life-slc.org/docs/barron-self-sustainedlearning.pdf

Week of 2/25/19

This week’s Find 5 will be based on my inquiry questions that I have been focusing on in ED677.  I also included a technology article as well which could help with the connected learning concept in the classroom.

 25 Sure Fire Strategies for Handling Difficult Students

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/25-sure-fire-strategies-handling-difficult-students/

Pertaining to my inquiry questions from my main wobble this year, I decided to search the internet for tips on handling misbehaved and immature students.  I stumbled upon this article from scholastic which produced a large variety of tips to help any teacher with management in the classroom.

 Teaching Strategies for Students Who Need Extra Attention

https://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-students-who-need-extra-attention

This is a great article on how to handle behavioral challenged students or students with some kind of special needs.  I have a lot of these type of students in my class and I get an overwhelmed feeling sometimes when trying to teach these classes.  I have so many students that need my help in some way during the class period.  I feel like those class periods are a whirlwind when I never get to take a second to collect my thoughts.  Its an awful feeling and I do my absolute best to help all the kids I can with their needs.  This is a good article if you are in a similar situation.

  How can I get immature students to listen and behave themselves?

https://withoutstress.com/immature-students-behavior/

This is an article that focuses solely on immature student behavior.  This articles provides strategies for how to deal with immature kids.  This article is about a 1st grade classroom but I feel that the ideas in this article can translate to older grades. Especially the way my students have been acting this year.

 Facing Race Issues In the Classroom: How To Connect With Students

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/34806/how-can-teachers-address-race-issues-in-class-ask-students

This is a great article about dealing with race issues in the class and some strategies that can help you connect with them and each other.  This can directly relate to what we are learning with connected learning and establishing an equity in the class environment.

 25 Teacher Tools for Technology

https://www.teacherswithapps.com/blog-25-teacher-tools-for-leveraging-technology/