Science Class

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I have recently been creating a unit about the digestive system. In this unit, I have come up with a creative way for students to learn about the parts of the digestive tract. The first day’s assignment introduces the parts of the digestive tract. The second day enlists students to play different roles in the digestive system, resulting in a live drama. Finally, the third lesson extends over 3-5 days where the students will create a paper-bag book report about the digestive system in small groups. Lesson (1) Science, Lesson (2) Science, Lesson (3) Science. There are 7 days total in this unit.

Blood vs. Water Episode 4

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Here we are again. Another good day , fresh breeze of the ocean and wait what on earth just happened? The winning team just go their winning streak taken because one big shot, loud mouth thinks he is the leader and thinks there is a “snake” within the group so he wants to blame it on the girls.  Excuse me for a foul language but he is an idiot.

So the episode shows with one of the Hunapu winning yet another game. Coyopa is on the ropes. Drew was picked to go to exile island and now he thinks he can just win everyone’s heart if he acted like a boss when “he” as everyone states is the lazy loud mouth of the group.

In the chapter we describe this sudden conflict as “Competitive” conflict. Drew brings this unintentionally to the group. He in some parts in due respect thinks he could persuade people to be at his side and take out any bad influences. In the other hand he also thinks he is the leader and his method is absolute. Therefore when one of the girls acted “disobedient” to his rule he wanted her out. With Keith and Jeremy at each other, Drew and the girls at each other and others just not wanting in on this side picking made drew even more competitive. And in the end he just gets kicked out….and to be fair he thinks he did well to others and some viewers he was some show off that just thought he was doing the right thing and made all a mess on the tribe. Did not do much for the tribe and thought he was the boss.

 

The Philosophy Behind EDU 490

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I am taking part in a MOOC called Networked Scholars; it is a four-week course about how individuals can incorporate the social learning pedagogies of the day in an effort not only to grow their learning but also their identity as a learner and academic professional.  The course shares much in common with EDU 490, except its scope is for academics pursuing scholarship in the realm of doctoral degree rather than practitioners pursuing a teaching certificate or a Masters.

I would encourage you to follow the course through one of many ways:  the #scholar14 Twitter hashtag, the Networked Scholars web page, or the Networked Scholars LMS through Canvas.  Like many things in a PLN, this course does not exist in the manner we consider formal education, but rather as a space and time where people are going to discuss issues of social learning, networked learning and digital identity, and look at practical manners in which to engage this theory.  Do not feel required or obligated to do anything more than take a peek, but if you are compelled to participate please do so — your voice is important and underrepresented.

And this gets to the purpose of EDU 490 and what we are trying to do and why it is not necessarily the course you anticipated when you were told there would be a tech class.  I wrote a blog about it over at my professional site, and I would ask you to read that.  In short, my premise is the same as you have seen over the past eight weeks:  learning is a situated, contextual and environmental happening, where collaboration, communication and creation are the most important elements of the space (notice content does not exist in that sentence).  That said, K-12 education is a large bureaucracy with both an ethereal goal (creating well-learned citizens) and direct manners in which to make sure this happens (through various benchmarks that today manifest in ways such as standardized tests and CCSS).  Because of these direct endeavors, the school day is taken up with curricular materials and lesson plans to make sure benchmarks are met, leaving little space and even less support to explore learning where content is a byproduct rather than the pathway.

I understand your needs as upcoming teachers:  you need to be able to succeed within a school and within a district, and there is a short-term technology approach that can make that happen, where we build virtual field trips and use Moodle and you learn a few of the hot-topic technologies of the day.  If we are lucky, you get interested and start following trends.  If we are not lucky, you use these because you are comfortable and you struggle to keep up with future trends.  I do not believe teaching is about luck.  That is why this class started with theory:  PLN, identity, the Domain of One’s Own, and now Open Educational Resources.  We are moving into where theory meets practice.

All of you have noted your CTs and some administrators want to see the use of various tech in your classroom.  That’s great.  I hope the first part of this class has started a conversation (at least for you, though perhaps it has stretched to others)  about the best way to utilize technology within learning.  It is from that space you will engage the final project, which is a web resource for a state-of-the-art technology being used today.  This can be an iPad, IWB, Moodle, Google Docs, or some of the other fandango things schools are paying $$$ for today. You will dedicate some of your web space to creating lessons where this technology is beneficial, you will create instructions on how teachers can use this technology, you will have a FAQ, you will address concerns about the technology, etc.  In short, you are going to become an expert on a specific technology.  Within this network of EDU 490, we will see 10-14 various technologies where there are experts, which will allow all of us to better engage some of these tools for our classroom use.  Technology without theory is a hammer without a nail.  This approach gives us a whole slew of nails for different needs.

This will start in Week 10.  Until then, consider this as you spend the next two weeks getting more comfortable with your web page!

Survivor Episode 4, Ego Check.

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colorwowedlandscape

 

Episode 4 of Survivor Blood Vs. Water was highly amusing and a prime example of conflict in groups.  During this episode, a member of the constantly winning tribe of Hunahpu named Drew, makes it known to the viewers that he is not the biggest fan of Kelly.  When the original flint is found near their tribes fire, Drew gets the idea to trade back their unused flint for the fishing gear they had to forfeit.  Kelly thinks this is a ridiculous idea, and at the reward challenge makes it known that she does not agree with Drew’s actions of bartering what so ever.  Further angering Drew, when the tribe wins reward, he is chosen to go to Exile Island.  While on Exile Island he wants to continue to stroke his own ego and boast to Jacquelin that he is the leader of his tribe and to help out her tribe he is going to throw the immunity challenge to help cleanse his tribe.  In the book Working In Groups, conflict is defined as, “the disagreement and disharmony that occurs in groups when members express differences in regards to group goals; member ideas, behavior, and roles; or group procedures and norms.”  With Drew’s obnoxious attitude and want to barter at the reward challenge for the fishing gear he wont shut up about, he is initiating conflict between his tribe that will prove to be detrimental to his existence in the game.

Substantive Conflict, as described in Working in Groups, “occurs when members disagree about issues, ideas, decisions, actions, or goals.”  After throwing the immunity challenge and forcing his tribe into tribal council, Drew initiates substantive conflict when discussing the goals and decision of his alliance.  Drew’s alliance doesn’t agree with voting off Kelly, and feels Drew is a little bit weird for being so passionate and paranoid about voting her off.  To Drew’s surprise, he is blindsided at tribal council and his plan of cleansing his tribe of untrustworthy members resulted in himself going home early.

Survivor Conflict

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In episode 3 we see conflict begins at the very beggining in the Hunaphu tribe everyone is frustrated because they have now found the flint that Jon had lost the episode before and they had given up there fishing gear for a new one. They are now hungry and have frustration within themselves for the fact that they wouldn’t have to deal with that if they wouldn’t have lost the flint in the first place.

Later  in the show Keith tells the girls on his team that Jeremy has the Idol, when he is not even sure if he does or not. Jeremy finds out that Keith says this about him and he gets mad and says he wants him out the show he could no longer trust him.

Drew purposely makes his team loose the immunity challenge in order to have the opportunity to vote someone out of his team, he thinks that the girls will want to vote the guys out eventually so he wants to vote their strongest girl out which is Kelly.  Drew is causing conflict in the team by trying to take control and demand what needs to be done not taking into consideration that he is being a little rude with his approach. It all backfires when Drew is the one voted off the tribe making his exit out of the show.

Accusations vs. Cohesion

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In the survivor episode it seems as though the tittle of the episode is almost the same as that of Chapter 8. , Actions vs. Accusations and conflict and cohesion. With Accusations come conflict and with action comes cohesion in a sense. The fact that Jeremy’s wife was voted off cause’s conflict between him and John. I think this is interesting because the fact that John aligned himself with Jeremy also caused conflict between him and Josh, Josh being upset that John would align with Jeremy. This in turn causes tension between Julie and Jeremy because Jeremy is trying to make John a target to be voted off. All this conflict makes it difficult for the team top function as a group initially but it forms new alliances among members and in doing so begins to create cohesion within members that have similar ideas. I see a negotiation begin to happen in the cayopa tribe to try and sway the boys to disconnect from john and begin to align themselves with the woman as opposed to the boys against girls stance that seems to have formed, by emphasizing teamwork they try to establish cohesion but not at the expense of the destructive conflict of alienating John. The Guys still feel that their Men group of cohesion still outweighs that of not voting out the girls but it seems up in the air mid episode. Ultimately the conflict among the members was enough to sway members to form different alliances and John was voted off. The conflict between both teams toward John caused new alliances and ideas to come forward swaying team member position. I think that this is a great example of how conflict can create new ideas in teams and possibly change dynamics.

Conflict…it’s bound to happen!

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This week on Survivor we were bombarded with some very interesting and unexpected conflict that mainly involved Drew and Kelly, who clearly had the wrong idea of going about his tribe dynamic. Many of these instances coincide with Chapter 8, Conflict and Cohesion in Groups. Drew decided to use very counterproductive conflict styles, even when confronted directly with the concern that he is the problem. He is a perfect example of Avoidance; unwilling to put forth the same amount of effort to help his tribe succeed, therefore damaging them as a whole. Drew felt safe, and thought he had it all figured out while unknowingly he was blindsided by the woman on his team and voted off. He was also competitive, but not as a great attribute to the team, instead he was contributing hostility to other tribe members which is bound to result in diving the group just as our book explains. Although he divided the group, he added life, in the sense that there were strong beliefs that he was the initiator of. All of this encompasses destructive conflict, which is what he displayed with the personal attacks against Kelly and disregarded the goal of the tribe. It interests me that Drew had not been a contestant that caught our eye for being involved or vocal, but as soon as he tried…it was apparent he was going about having power the wrong way. This embodies Affective conflict because his personal conflict with Kelly effects everyone in the group although it is an interpersonal disagreement. I look forward to watching who will be the next to stir up conflict or cohesion in Survivor, and I find it enjoyable when it is someone who seemingly does not do so because they are afraid of asserting their power in a group.

Living in SoCal

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Despite the cost of living, there are so many advantages to raising children in Southern California.  It takes little planning to be able to expose children to many aspects of culture, science, history and performing arts.  This summer, we spent one day immersed in the artwork at The Getty Villa.  The next, we ventured out do experience American’s pastime – baseball.  A few weeks before that, we studied Renaissance traditions at a local fair.  Just this weekend, we visited the restored farmhouse of our town’s founder.

Additionally, the classrooms are a melting pot that expose the students to their peers of different social, ethnic, religious and moral backgrounds.  Students naturally build a well-rounded network to draw upon in years to come.

I’m often asked if I ever consider moving to another area that would be more affordable.  Maybe somewhere where there are less fires, more rain and no earthquakes.  Nope, Never.  The benefits of So Cal outweigh the risks.

AM

Show 3

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This episode is a great example of Chapter 8 conflicts

Throughout the episode there are multiple examples of Affective Conflicts, where there are personal attacks that may contribute to even more conflicts within the tribes.

Since Jeremy’s wife was sent home ìn episode 2, he feels a resentment towards the baseball player John for not protecting her against being eliminated. I do not undertand why it would piss Jeremy off that John didn’t protect him when the game is based on the survival of an indivisual. There is no garunteed way that John could have ensured her safety. Since Jeremy got really butthurt he soon began to turn his own tribe against John by releasing his true identity and the rumors about him given in an article in the past.

Now that the personal conflict between Jeremy and John has been established it soon extends to a huge conflict throuhgout each of the tribes. Natalie goes off on John and reveals to the orange team what he once stood for. Given the news the orange team falls into a progressive conflict when they can not decide who to vote out that night. Since the personal complications have developed a slippery slope into something bigger which concludes with john being voted out,

Time for Change

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CCSS-Wordle

Common Core.. This is a topic we have been discussing in our methods courses this semester. There is SO much controversy about these standards being implemented, but no matter if they are liked or not, they are coming. I would like to put my perspective about this topic.

First of all, I am always about looking at both sides of a situation, but if you were to ask me, I am totally FOR Common Core. Just the FOUR “C’s” of Common Core (Creativity, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Collaboration) alone show my reasons of why I enjoy Common Core. Although some strategies may be too advanced for some students, the overall concept of having students think outside of the box, come up with ideas, and think about their way of thinking are what these standards bring. This is the time for teachers to show their creative side on how they teach. It’s time to use less textbooks and do more activities that tie in all Gardner’s intelligences, including technology usage!

Not only is it time to be creative, but also to be collaborative with peers. Interacting with their peers will expand students’ way of thinking and have them develop their critical thinking. I have recently seen this in action in my placement class. Students enjoy talking with each other about Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science.

Joining all these 4 concepts of Common Core together will make learning more enjoyable and higher changes of it being imbedded in students’ head. Common Core is what will help structure and guide our next generation for the future.