As a “rookie” Instructor a few years ago, not knowing any better, a large portion of my instructional delivery was teacher-centered. With experience, growth, and my CAE education I have now not only realized the importance of student-centered learning, I am making a conscious effort to utilize differentiated, active-learning, student-centered and inductive instructional methods into my classroom and beyond. Technology is everywhere, entwined in almost every part of our daily lives and in the MRI program, utilizing technology is the basis for the career choice of my students. What better way to prepare my students for their future, then to bring technological aspects into my classroom.
There are many great reasons to utilize technology in the classroom… Some of these include:
As a means of connecting with students of varying learning styles.
Technology enables students to access the most up-to-date information quickly.
Acting as a voice for students who may otherwise stay “quiet”.
Game-based learning is a predominately student-centered, active learning activity that I have utilized with great results. The questions and content are all determined and generated by me so it is not considered entirely student-centered. Games such as Kahoot, Jeopardy and Family Feud offer a hands-on experience, in which students are engaged and have fun while offering a fantastic opportunity for me to formatively assess their learning in an informal fashion.
Most students already bring their mobile devices and / or laptops to class anyways, so why not put those to good use for meaningful purposes instead of just being a distraction! Lets embrace technology!
Here are some additional articles outlining the benefits of technology in the classroom:
I often scroll through Pinterest and admire the DIY creations thinking how great it would be to create my own (fill in the blank), if only I had the time… Well, low and behold my wonderful Instructor, Eva Brown of Advanced Instructional Methods “gifted” me with 5-6 hours so I no longer had an excuse. I was now tasked with learning to do something and then presenting to my class the details of my learning journey.
I have seen many cool things created from pallet lumber such as signs, furniture and home decor items and had an idea that this was the direction I wanted to go with this project.
I knew that I could easily obtain a grungy old pallet at my disposal in the hay shed at my parent’s place and given that the season was fall and I have a beautiful new porch (my husband and I just moved in July) I decided upon a pallet pumpkin as my project... Like this one.
My beautiful front porch could use some decor… Perhaps something made from a pallet.
Now that I had decided on my project, I researched how to dismantle a pallet. I watched several YouTube videos to learn about removing boards from the pallet…
I first tried the hammer and pry bar method but soon realized that as my pallet was quite rotten, while prying them off, the boards were splitting quite bad significantly reducing the usable length. So… I had to resort to: Plan b) Use a jig Saw to cut each end of the board which only left the center board that needed to be pried off.
I had never used a Jig Saw before so I got my husband to give me a crash course on how it operate it and away I went. Watch my first attempthere.
Once I had all the boards removed from the pallet I gave them a light sanding with a sanding sponge that I had picked up from Dollarama.
Next I had to determine the total usable length of my pallet wood and create a template on a piece of cardboard approximately of the same height and length . Click here to watch the process.
Here I am measuring and then making a template on a piece of cardboard.
Once the template was drawn and cut out of the cardboard I then traced it onto the pallet wood using chalk and then carefully cut each board on the chalk line using the Jig Saw (I was very nervous about this step!). You can watch me cut the first board here.
Upon successfully cutting all the boards it was now time to secure the boards together. I used a drill and bit to pre-drill holes to try and prevent the boards from splitting when inserting the screws (I have seen my dad do this many times before so I had an idea of what to do). Watch me do that here.
Here I am demonstrating my mad drilling skills!
In choosing the screw size I had to ensure that my screws were an appropriate length so that they did not go right through the front of the pumpkin. My total thickness of both boards was aprox. 2” so I decided on using 1.5” wood screws which worked well. Watch me screw the boards here (it’s actually pretty funny – I didn’t have the bit tightened enough on first attempt).
Once assembled and secured my pumpkin was now ready to decorate!
I picked up some cheap orange acrylic paint from Dollarama which I thinned out with some water to give my pumpkin a “washed / stained” effect as opposed to a thick painted look. I had once read about the “white washed effect” and thought I’d try it on my pumpkin therefore creating the “orange wahsed effect”. You can watch the video of me painting the pumpkin here.
Painting my pumpkin
Once I had the pumpkin orange I then needed to add some finishing touches… One of the pumpkins I seen on Pinterest had some burlap tied around it and this really cute lettering on it that read, “Pumpkins 25 cents”. I loved the look and decided to re-create it for my pumpkin.
I first drew the letters by freehand with a pencil and then used black acrylic paint over top. I put several coats on to make the letters bold. You can watch me painting the letters here.
To finish the pumpkin I added some burlap and a couple leaves which I also picked up from Dollarama. Now that the decorating was done all that was left was to put it out on my front porch…
Here it is!
So what did I learn from learning how to make a pallet pumpkin…? I learned that when the topic is meaningful and something that is of interest to the learner, learning can be fun and enjoyable. In addition the hands on skills and the processes that I learned while researching and creating my pumpkin are skills that I will retain and can utilize for future creations all because I was invested in this topic as it was something that interested me! Now, hopefully I can apply all this new knowledge of learning to my classroom and try to make learning meaningful for my students.
Hmmm…. What is a WebQuest??? I had never heard of such a thing.
Upon doing some research, it would seem that in fact I have been using similar teaching tools in my classroom, I just didn’t know there was a formal name for it.
According to Wikipedia, a WebQuest is “an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web”.
The major goal of a WebQuest is to emphasize higher-order thinking through it’s 6 essential components: the introduction, a meaningful task, a process (steps the student should take to accomplish the task), resources (the student should use to complete the task), a method for performance evaluation and a conclusion.
WebQuests can be developed using programs such as zunal.com or webquest.org or they can simply be a document on Microsoft Word which I have used in the past or Power Point format. The possibilities are endless.
In the field of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and specifically MRI safety there are endless articles and resources for students to utilize, such as mrisafety.com, The US Food and Drug Administration, or the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. By giving my students a structured assignment I can help guide them to the information they need while still allowing them to gather and analyze what the important bits are.
After doing much searching I have come to the conclusion that there are very few (if any) published WebQuests on MRI Safety. I have yet to find one. I did however create my own using zunal.com.
In my WebQuest I tasked students with creating a document and answering several specific questions using links that I provided. In addition they were to create a “Fact Sheet” about (specified) common implants / devices seen on patients undergoing MRI using mrisafety.com to reference their information. The document could be in whatever format they chose such as Excel or Word and essentially will act as a useful tool for students when presented with future case scenarios in the clinical setting.
I look forward to presenting my WebQuest to my students in the next semester and truly feel that it will be a engaging and useful teaching tool!
My chosen reading for this post was the 2-part article by Pamela Kachka, entitled “Understanding the Flipped Classroom”. Part 1 of this article introduced the topic and discussed the history the flipped classroom while Part 2 continued by explaining the methodology of Flipping the Classroom and some tips on how to make the most of its benefits.
Apparently, the concept of Flipping the Classroom is not new but in recent times it is garnering much attention with the buzz associated with a blended learning environment.
Essentially a flipped classroom involves the instructor providing students with some sort of video lecture or digital multimedia to watch at home (as homework) to learn a certain topic/concept. The classroom time is then used for Instructor interaction with the students, asking questions and having discussions to gauge their knowledge on the topic. The instructor may choose to give them projects or group work during class time but as Kachka notes, “truly any use of the class time that includes application and practice of concepts with more access to the instructor takes advantage of the opportunities that flipping a classroom provides.”
So now for some personal reflection…. Could flipping the classroom be of benefit to my students? Absolutely it could. Currently I try to keep my lectures in the classroom to a minimum. Having small cohort sizes (4-10 students typically), I do inherently have the advantage of getting to know my students individually and can gauge fairly well as a whole how they are progressing through the material. I often find it hard though balancing making sure that I cover ALL the material and spending enough time on concepts that I know are more challenging to fully grasp. By flipping the classroom I could send some of the more challenging subject material home in the form of a video, allowing the student to review it as many times as they felt necessary and then use valuable classroom time to apply their knowledge with assignments, projects, and discussions. Certainly, there will be more work in the forefront making and posting videos, etc. but in the long run I can definitely see the benefits to both myself and my students being worth it!
The article I read relating to Student Centered-Approaches is “How ‘something so simple’ can transform education” by Dennis Pierce. The article highlights the journey of a small Catholic school in Honolulu, Hawaii, as it undergoes a complete transformation from “old school” teaching methods to a student driven/centered approach and the dramatic results they have seen in their students as a result.
The drive to change initially came from a steady decline in enrollment, forcing leaders within the school to take a hard look at what could be done to reverse the trend. The school then collaborated with a company called the “school Improvement Network” to devise a platform to educate and reform teachers and administers and allowed the principle, Michael Pa‘ekukui and his staff to develop a “vision for how to provide deeper, richer learning experiences for students by adopting a more personalized, student-centered approach to instruction”.
The principle, knowing not all staff would support the change then worked with the diocese to rewrite teachers’ Job descriptions, renaming them as “21st century facilitator-educators.” Teachers were made to reapply for their positions, essentially demonstrating that they were committed to the school’s new vision. Those that weren’t were told to look elsewhere for jobs.
Some of the changes within the classrooms involved the use of formative assessments to check for understanding, blending online learning and allowing students to proceed at their own pace. Students were given a choice in how they could demonstrate their knowledge through creative projects.
The results were incredible… In the first year, the percentage of students with a straight “A” average increased from 10 % to nearly 33%. They found students are now enthusiastic about their learning and demonstrating more creativity!
Kudos to them for their bold approach on reforming the school! Surely if an entire school can make positive changes for the betterment of their students than I can do my part and learn as much about this “student-centered approach” stuff as I can so that I too can make a difference in the education of my students.
Cynthia
Edited to pose a question… Do you think the drastic measures taken by this school were reasonable? Should teachers be forced to conform to a student-centered approach???
for.the.love.of.learning 