Sarah Janiszewski

As I sit here and take inventory of my past two years as a learner, columnist, Thomas Friedman conceptualizes my experience in the Master of Arts in Educational Technology program (MAET) at Michigan State University, when he sums up my feelings so well in his New York Times article, "It’s P.Q. and C.Q. as Much as I.Q".  Friedman profoundly states, “The winners won’t just be those with more I.Q. It will also be those with more P.Q. (passion quotient) and C.Q. (curiosity quotient) to leverage all the new digital tools to not just find a job, but to invent one or reinvent one, and to not just learn but to relearn for a lifetime. Government can and must help, but the president needs to explain that this won’t just be an era of ‘Yes We Can.’ It will also be an era of ‘Yes You Can’ and ‘Yes You Must'!"  As I move forward after graduation in this perpetually advancing century, my P.Q.’s (passion quotients) and C.Q.’s (curiosity quotients) have propelled me through this educational journey. Deep down, passion and curiosity has steered this spartacus ship into uncharted waters and has taught me many valuable lessons that have slowly brought me back to shore. The P.Q.’s and the C.Q.’s lessons that will forever stick with me are the authentic ones. The ones that challenged me to grow as an educator, step outside of my comfort zone, and are the ones that I was eager to share with my students. These passion and curiosity quotients included learning about the maker movement,  TPACK theory (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Theory) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006), philosophizing with a learning theory, in particular project based learning (PBL), and lastly, adding to my educational technology repertoire both on a professional and personal networking level.   

 

 

Adding to My Technology Repertoire: From Meaning, to Purpose 

 

Two years ago, when I began my MAET journey, I was curious to see what this educational technology journey would bring me and how I would readjust after being out of college for six years. After completing my undergraduate degree from Michigan State University, I envisioned myself to be a second grade teacher, boy did I envision that wrong! After graduating, I found myself in a technology position teaching all sorts of ages ranging from first to eighth. When I started that job, it was a brand new position, with a lab full of new computers, no curriculum and due to their religious beliefs, no internet. Yes, a world being digital disconnected! As first, I didn't think I was going to make it, however, looking back, I am most thankful for this opportunity because it not only challenged me to think "outside" the box, it help mold me to be a the teacher that I am today.

As I continued to climb the ladder and gained experience,  I found another job, which also allowed me to teach technology for grades as young as junior kindergarten through eighth grade. Here, I realized I could manage all sorts of curriculum, collaborate with teachers, though in the four years I was without internet, I realized how digitally advanced my students had become and I felt that passion and curiosity deep inside of me to figure how to bring that alive in my classroom. After graduating from undergrad at MSU, I felt adequately prepared to take a technology position thanks to my job as a technical intern at the College of Education, so I figured to reconnect with my roots and apply to the lifelong learning program at the College of Education that is geared towards educational technology. Here, I felt that spark, that spark of passion, and that excitement of learning, and that reassurance that I had truly found my niche in education. 

After I completed my educational technology certificate classes, my yearnings for a masters degree was for me to be the best teacher that I could be and for my students to be my ultimate benefactors. My goal was to take what I learned in my program and continue to implement into my classroom instruction and make changes geared towards PBL and continue to strive towards a 21st century classroom .

As I navigated through my studies, not only did I realize that my students were benefiting from my new gained knowledge, my colleagues were, and lastly, and most importantly, as the captain of the ship, I was. Throughout my MAET journey, I spent time learning about interesting topics and exploring unique, cutting-edge programs. We also took the time to create one-of-a-kind projects and then shared our work with our personal learning networks and other educators. I am unquestionably more knowledgeable about project-based learning due to this program, and I have new web 2.0 tools to use like Mozilla Popcorn, SketchUp, and our maker kits to add to my technology repertoire. Furthermore, I gained a better understanding of UDL, TPACK theory, web 2.0 tools and the ISTE standards. I intentionally pushed myself out of my comfort zone of instant feeds from Edutopia and became more familiar with ERIC and Academia, two great educational resources to further my SoTL knowledge. The educational technology sources that my professors, and classmates have shared with me are priceless, along with the ones that I have discovered along the way. Most importantly, I was challenged to be curious and creative and had fun doing it!  Perhaps the sage Albert Einstein said it best, “Creativity is contagious, pass it on!” Indeed, I am looking forward to passing my creative vibes onto my students and see all the good things that can come from sharing such an enjoyable way of learning.

 

Maker Movement: Making Learning Come Alive

 

Another creative and curiosity aspect of my MAET journey was exploring the maker movement in CEP 811. The maker movement can be defined as a movement gears toward innovation and creation. A DIY (do it yourself) culture. According the the Huffington post article, Founder and CEO of Brit +Co, wrote a simple, but comprehensive piece called, "What is the Maker Movement and Why Should We Care?" In the article she states, "Craft nights are replacing book clubs. Libraries and museums are being turned into 'Makerspaces,' physical locations where people can come together to make. The sale of sewing kits in Walmart stores has recently gone up 30 percent. And just last year, someone created Christmas cookies using a 3D printer. Can we all agree on the fact that a trend is happening here? Welcome to the Maker Movement, an evolution of millions of people who are taking big risks to start their own small businesses dedicated to creating and selling self-made products." 

The maker movement has had a particularly strong influence on my enjoyment of thinking and my new motto, try! As a science teacher and technology enthusiast, I find this movement to be fascinating and something that I wish to be a part of. CEP 811 has solidified my longstanding beliefs that learning can be fun and that where I am today, is precisely where I am suppose to be – innovating, creating and teaching with technology. Indeed, everything is in its right place when I am engaging with my students and harnessing technology in my classroom. The energy and excitement that the maker movement brings proved to be contagious.  As we explored our own maker movement in CEP 811, I found myself constantly thinking about ways I could use and implement these programs (e.g., Mozilla Popcorn, Sketch Up and my maker kit) in my classroom. Hence, I have been compelled to broaden my teaching horizons and put my thinking into action. As a past technology teacher, I took my first baby steps into the maker movement by allowing my students to be musical makers in honor of Music In Our School Month. As part of this activity, my students participated in a “Battle of the Bands” maker movement using my Makey Makey kit as a backbone to their bands. Students were grouped into various roles, such as composers, producers, and historians. Students collaborated in groups to not only create instruments with the Makey Makey kit, but also created a song that taught their peers about a musician, composer, or band that each group picked to research.  Each group put on a musical performance that was taped and shared with the other seventh grade classes to decide who won the covenanted “Battle of the Bands.” Legends were made, engagement was up, and fun was had by all and passion was born! 

 

Project Based Learning: Teaching with Passion

 

In connection to Thomas Friedman’s article published in the New York Times, science evangelist, Ainissa Ramirez boldly states in her article, "Passion-Based Learning", “Passion is hot. It is a force that sells movies and margarine and everything in between. It is a force the can move mountains, inspire art and make the weak strong. We need to bring passion back into learning, in teaching and all around. Passion motivates. It makes a way out of no way. It allows students to overcome hardships to achieve a goal that is meaningful to them” (Ramirez, 2013). As an educational technology science teacher, passion lies deep within in me. I have a unique job that allows me to teach and share my passion with about 150 students on a weekly basis. I have the joys of teaching students both in 6th and 7th grade. Each class brings such a diverse and unique learning environment that allows me to creatively adopt and use various forms of STEM methods and technology in my classroom. A true passion of mine is project based learning. I discovered this passion while taking CEP800. According to Suzie Boss, a PBL advocate, “As project based learning approach takes hold in the classroom, students gain opportunities to engage in real-world problem solving. Projects give students more choices when it comes to demonstrating what they know. Projects are typically framed with open-ended questions that drive students to investigate, do research, or construct their own solutions (Boss, 2011).” In my position, I have created a science lab that probes curiosity and brings out my students’ creativity. Ainissa Ramirez conveys how to be a passionate educator by just one easy trick (2013), “Show students why you love the topic. Be vulnerable and show them the human side of knowing this new thing. To teach well, teachers must go back to the stage of vulnerability and put themselves in the shoes of a student who is learning the material for the first time. Students respond to vulnerability. It shows that you are ‘with them."  This is something I truly strive for day in and day out in my classroom. Creating the type of relationship envisioned by Ms. Ramirez while being personable and real with your students, allows them to see you as an accessible human being, as opposed to a robot. Plus, it builds a true, meaningful bond that fosters their educational experience. Sharing my love for science and technology and seeing the excitement in their voices and eyes when we engage in a cool scientific project or I show them a new digital tool, not only moves me, but motivates me to be a better educator and thinks to my MAET journey it has helped regignite my passion quotient tank and bring it alive in a more meaningful, innovated way to connect with my students, both digitally and personally. 

 

TPACK Theory: Repurposing and Making Strides 

 

As the weeks unfolded in the MAET program taking an active approach to learning was crucial.  Active learning is key to understanding vs. knowing. This approach helps to transfer learning to new events and settings (Bransford, Brown and Cocking, 2000, p.24).   In CEP 810, I explored various mindsets and dispositions for teaching in an era characterized by constant technological change. I “sampled” some ideas from four innovative thinkers to help organize and develop our own mindset about teaching with technology. Henry Jenkins’s mindset that, “Many educators assume that (1) students can only begin learning the skill they need to use technology if they actually have the technology in their classroom, and (2) that putting technology in the classroom is a quick fix that will solve any classroom’s problems. Neither of these assumptions, we argue, are good.” This mindset helped connect the TPACK theory from CEP810 and CEP815, that Mishra and Koehler developed at Michigan State University. The TPACK theory (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) helps continue to define what it means to teach with technology. Its theory can be simply defined as repurpose.  Taking something we already have and using it as a tool to deliver content knowledge, while combining it with pedagogy, and technology.

When I discovered this theory during my MAET journey it was most relatable to me and how I teach in my classroom and will continue to teach and use technology. It also, connected those dots of thinking "outside" of the box, that I had to learn so quickly to do at my first job. Who knew the program Paint could be used for creating diagrams, editing purposes, concept mapping, etc.  

However, the MAET has introduced me to my new journey, piloting a 1:1 program next year and trying out a new instructional approach of flipping a classroom. When thinking about TPACK and the flipped classroom approach, it not only probes my curiosity, but it excites me to reach the ultimate goal of combining content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technology knowledge all together. In finding the sweet spot of flipping my future classroom, I plan to implement and combined all three knowledges together. In doing so, I plan to come up with lessons that are engaging and that allow my students the freedom of choice to explore content and knowledge, both in and out of the classroom. Also, to allow my students to choose different technological platforms to learn and create with. This will lead to student driven assessment and allow them to take responsibility for their learning. Lastly, I aim to create authentic real world learning activities that align with the content knowledge I am teaching. For example, by providing my students with a task chart that reflect several choices, like digital storytelling that allows them to interview or digitally story tell, provides them with tools that will propel their thinking from learning to ultimately creating and sharing their newly gained knowledge. Along with content choices, I plan to allow students the choice of technological choices, too. In creating a digital story,  students can choose to use iMovie, Movie Maker or online web 2.0 tools to complete the task. Inevitably flipping the classroom, provides a pedagogical approach that piques curiosity and presents itself as authentic. Finally, it will allow me to stay connected and intuned with my creative side and will challenge me to push the limits. In turn, my students will be ultimate benefitors of this type of teaching and I will continue to grow as an educator and most importantly, it will be fun, engaging, and innovating.

 

As I conclude my MAET journery, three simplistic words that has rejuvenated me as a teacher are the words, try, passion and curiosity! As Dr. Seuss wisely stated, “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” As teachers, we spend a great amount of time on just plain old thinking. We think about our students, curriculum, lesson plans, grading, report cards, parent emails, colleague emails, staff meetings, standards, tests, and the infinite laundry list of things to ponder goes on and on. Thinking can bog us down, though passion can keep us alive if we try.

In all, I know as a passionate educator, I wish for my students to be the inventors, the “winners” and the go- getters of the 21st Century. I want them to ponder their C.Q.’s and combine it with their P.Q.’s in order to share their beautiful minds with the world. In order for them to do this, I need to continue to try and say. “Yes, You Can and Yes, You Must!" So, in the wise words of Steve Jobs, "People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you’re doing and it’s totally true. And the reason is because it’s so hard that if you don’t, any rational person would give up. It’s really hard. And you have to do it over a sustained period of time. So if you don’t love it, if you’re not having fun doing it, you don’t really love it, you’re going to give up. And that’s what happens to most people, actually. If you really look at the ones that ended up being “successful” in the eyes of the society and the ones that didn’t, oftentimes it’s the ones [who] were successful loved what they did, so they could persevere when it got really tough. And the ones that didn’t love it quit because they’re sane, right? Who would want to put up with this stuff if you don’t love it? So it’s a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of worrying constantly and if you don’t love it, you’re going to fail."