Pecha Kucha - Personalized Learning for Personal Finance Students

Maria Tavarozzi and Nick Manson

Final Project Narrative

Curr 501: Digital Media Literacy

July 10, 2020

Pecha Kucha

My name is Nick Manson, a teacher of emergent bilinguals at Rogers High School in Newport.  Fifteen years ago just under 2% of the population at Rogers were ESL students, and now in 2020 it has increased to over 15%.  Meeting the needs of our El students without additional support has been a challenge for Newport as a district. As a student, I was rather disengaged and restless in school. I had entered the education program with dreams of becoming what I had rarely encountered, a teacher that understood and connected with the lives of teenagers. My 3rd year, I had Dr. Cook who taught me what it meant to be a teacher. Have fun, work hard, laugh, cry, learn, support each other and take risks.  I’d completed my BA in English but not my teaching certification. Adventure was calling me. With Dr. Cook’s support, I moved to Costa Rica and travelled Central America for a few years - volunteering at schools and orphanages, surfing, learning Spanish and gaining a new perspective on life. I had no idea these experiences would shape my future as an EL teacher.

My name is Maria Tavarozzi and I have been teaching math at Rogers High School for 10 years. A few years ago I was given the opportunity to teach a Consumer Math class which resulted in the creation of a brand new course at Rogers called Personal Finance.  This is when I discovered my passion for Financial Literacy.  My goal is to allow all students at Rogers access to this course regardless of ability or language.

This was a bit of a struggle to me. I needed to find a way to teach the concepts while reaching all students and build relationships at the same time. As part of a FUSE cohort, I was introduced to the idea of blended and personalized learning.  Being part of this team changed my view of personalized learning and made me realize it is possible to make it happen and something I feel every student deserves.

Nick and I share many of the same students and I know we can learn a lot from each other.  When given the opportunity to work together on this project, I knew that because we share many of the same goals and beliefs, Nick and I could create something amazing that would benefit the students at Rogers.  

We believe education is the bridge to opportunity.  Many of our students and their families have different cultural values that prioritize work and family. We hope that through personalized learning and collaboration our students will gain the necessary skills to navigate their life outside of school.  We also believe students learn best when they are able to collaborate.  We decided to create a unit called “Life After High School.” This unit would allow personal finance students to collaborate with EL students using a blended and personalized approach, while creating a plan for their post secondary life.   The students would work on a project called “Life After High School.” This would allow them to explore their individual interests, educational and job opportunities, goal planning, budgeting and explore resources and all that goes into planning for their life after graduation. Along the way, Nick and I would act as guides and introduce students to valuable resources and opportunities throughout our school and community.   

Most of our EL students are students with limited or interrupted education (SLIFE) and in an academic setting that is unfamiliar.  Despite the extent of prior education, we believe every student is valuable. These students are rich with culture and have lived experiences that contribute greatly to the classroom and community.  Collaboration will allow all of our students to learn from one another.

“If you have two children of your own, chances are they are completely different from each other.”   Robinson talked about this in his Ted Talk, Death Valley, and that really resonated with us. This unit would allow students the opportunity to work at their own pace.  How can we do this? A classroom set up in groups where students are working on a playlist, allowing them choice in how they learn.  Using a blended learning approach combines classroom learning with online learning, in which students can, in part, control the time, pace, and place of their learning.  While students have the opportunity to work at their own pace, the teacher can spend time meeting with individual students or small groups to allow for more time to build relationships and make connections.

We also believe grading is the enemy of learning. Our ELs experience enough trauma and stress and we don’t want to add to the pressures they face. Dr. Michael Wesch talks about the mentality of students "just trying to get by."  We want to avoid this and build a unit that they will be excited about, where they’re free to explore and learn together. Wesch also talks about the idea of giving students a final product to work towards, something that is “worth it” to them.  While they navigate through this process, Nick and I feel that we need to encourage, support and give them productive feedback.  This brings up our belief in the process. We believe that learning happens best when students are allowed to make mistakes and problem solve.  We believe the end result will be worth it to them and therefore they will persist through.

When am I going to need to know this? This is a question we hear quite often.  We can predict with great confidence that through this self tailored experience the students will find great value in school work that finally relates to them. We believe that if we clearly state our ‘why’ behind this unit then the students will see the benefit for putting forth their best effort.  This idea is directly connected to Simon Sinek’s discussion of The Golden Circle. 

The integration of technology is crucial throughout blended learning, and this project more specifically.  Our students have a wide range of experiences and abilities with technology.  A large focus of this project will be equipping students with the digital literacy that they will need to be successful in school and beyond.  Students will navigate digital playlists, google classroom, google slides and google docs.   This will also include developing a critical lens of the internet and media.  As current techno-traditionalists, our approach to blended and personalized learning will cause us to work towards our goal of becoming techno-constructivists (Scott Noon). Students will have the opportunity to make choices over how they learn.  Playlists and our blended learning approach will give students the ability to explore, discover and collaborate. Our goal is to spark the students curiosity leaving them eager to learn more.  

Knowledge is power. Technology skills, language, literacy, ability to work together - these all translate to a future they may not have seen possible. Every student has the capacity to learn, despite their race or socioeconomic status. We will meet each student where they are and build on this knowledge through intentional groupings and supports.  As a result of implementing this unit, our students will gain the necessary skills to navigate the “real world.”  They will know where to turn for resources if they are stuck.  They will be able to hold a face to face conversation, weigh out pros and cons, and acquire independence.  

It is incredible to watch our EL students support each other both in and outside of the classroom.  Another goal of this project will be having students present their end result, their “plan,” to their peers.  Through this presentation students will explain important skills they learned, present their plan,  practice public speaking skills and use technology to enhance their presentation.  We believe that if a student can teach others about a topic or idea, then they have demonstrated a strong understanding of the concept.

In conclusion, we believe that if students are engaged in what they are learning, then the bridge to opportunity is evident.  We believe that the majority of a student’s education should be personalized.  We believe this will be a project that will lift up the immigrant community in Newport for generations to come. They will see the opportunities and realize it is possible for them to achieve success.  We believe in ALL of our students and we are hopeful that once they complete educational experience at Rogers, they will be armed with the necessary skills to become successful adults that can navigate the ever changing world around them.

Disney Through the Critical Lens

I am not an avid movie watcher. I feel like I rarely have two hours of free time to sit and watch a movie. It’s been years (at least 20) since I have watched a Disney movie. I remember enjoying Beauty and the Beast and Peter Pan, but I was a very active child and movie watching is not really imprinted in my childhood memories. I certainly never watched a Disney movie with a critical lens. I really enjoyed analyzing the characters, in particular gender roles, of Beauty and the Beast. Through the RIC education program and my own passion, I have really learned to view everything from a critical perspective. So, it was really interesting to read “Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us” by Linda Christensen. This piece is a brilliant critique of fairy tales and cartoons that analyzes stereotypes; roles of men and women, race, poor people, and the “image” of beauty.” Christensen discusses brilliant lessons and writing assignments she has done with her students in learning to analyze and critique. 

“I want to develop their critical consciousness, but I also hope to move them to action.” One of the most useful parts of reading her work is that she always extends to some sort of plan of action. Like Linda, when I teach about social injustices and controversial topics, I feel some classes can end in students feeling a sense of despair, that some have become more aware of the ways they are mistreated and marginalized. One of my goals as I continue to grow as teacher is to expand on topics of social justice, but always make sure I have a plan of what we can do as a team and individuals to make a difference. Linda describes a great assignment that goes beyond the walls of the classroom in which students create articles for newspapers and magazines that describe the effects cartoons can have on young  people. The idea of having their work published brought new meaning to their critiques. Throughout my reading of Linda Christensen has taught me that one of the great ways to make assignments meaningful to students is to make the public. I will continue to read her work and build on my own teaching of critical consciousness and writing.

“You are ruining the movie for me mom” said one of our classmates during our class discussion on the movie Moana. Dr. Lesley Bogad does a beautiful job explaining her own relationship with Disney, as well as the how to analyze and critique something that brings so much enjoyment to people. She describes this as the struggle of “Pleasure and Critique.” Although mine is not one, it cannot be argued that Disney brings great pleasure to families around the world. However, many people are critical over Disney over issues relating to anti-feminism, labor, and “a leftist organization.” It is a struggle to be critical over something that people enjoy, even if it is the person critiquing it, but I believe just because people enjoy something doesn’t mean it has immunity against criticism. Being outspoken and analyzing these issues are important to improving a more diverse and empathetic world. In fact, if it weren’t for these critiques and the work done by Colin Kaepernick, the partnership to bring awareness of race and social injustice to Disney would not have been possible. 

Moana, a sort of coming of age “Princess” story, shows the progression Disney has made over the past 5 years in addressing inequalities. It was really nice to analyze the movie from the same critical lens as Beauty and the Beast and some other Disney movies I have analyzed. Moana is a strong representation of a young princess. She has brown skin, she is independent and adventurous, she fights for her people, she has strong family and community values, and she makes her own decisions. I am hoping that the partnership with Kaepernick brings more great stories that champion different races and genders!

Flight From Conversation vs. The Crisis of Significance

Sherry Turkle’s The Flight From Conversation examines the dangers of sacrificing conversation for online connection. I believe Turkle, a Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, highlights some strong points. I like how she explains the notion that we have become “alone together.” The idea that SOME people spend too much time on their devices while in the same space as others. Even as a 32 year old, I am bothered when I am with friends and family and their phones distract conversation. I think it is important to unplug as much as possible when around others. She says, “Human relationships are rich; they’re messy and demanding. We have learned the habit of cleaning them up with technology.” I believe human relationships are the driving force of life and happiness, and technology helps us stay connected with these people. She goes on that we sacrifice in-person conversations for superficial, on-line communication without the authenticity of tone and point of view. Turkle makes it seem as if relationships have been destroyed or no longer exist, and that phone messages and conversations are meaningless.

I do understand her perspective, that technology can interfere with in-person communication skills. However, I feel she sort of rambles with blanket statements about young people's poor conversation skills and lack of eye contact. She seems annoyed and judgemental about people wearing pilot-sized earphones. I have meaningful conversations with teenagers everyday, whether they have an earpod in or not. I found this to be a bit of a negative approach, as she ignores strengths that technology and connecting with the world provides. I think online conversations serve an invaluable purpose of staying connected with the world. I believe it is unfair to say that younger people are incapable of in-person conversation, these online connections are meaningless, and people are always ignoring one another. I communicate weekly with friends in Costa Rica, but when we are together we rarely are on our phones, just enjoying the company of one another. Why would I want to lose touch with these people, as I am only able to now see them a week or so a year. This article was written in 2012, and I hope she has recognized that technology is only advancing, and hopefully she will find value in the connectivity of the internet and not lose hope in face to face conversations.

Luckily, we have Michael Wesch...

 

In Anti-Teaching: Confronting The Crisis of Significance, Michael Wesch approaches the problem with education in the digital age we live in - students feel disengaged and unimportant during school. Written in 2010, Wesch recognized that textbooks and lectures had/have become an obsolete approach to teaching and learning that makes students feel insignificant. Being the educator he is, Wesch provides solutions. 

“Good questions are the driving force of critical and creative thinking and therefore one of the best indicators of significant learning. Good questions are those that force students to challenge their taken-for-granted assumptions and see their own underlying biases. Oftentimes the answer to a good question is irrelevant – the question is an insight in itself. The only answer to the best questions is another good question. And so the best questions send students on rich and meaningful lifelong quests, question after question after question. Unfortunately, such great questions are rarely asked by students in an education system facing a crisis of significance. Much more common are administrative questions.”

He explains that these questions are rarely asked because of the structure of the outdated educational system in which students sit in rows and listen as the teacher (authoritative figure) teaches. There is a lack of interaction and collaboration that drives meaningful questions. Students are disengaged, feel unimportant, and as a result do not formulate meaningful questions because they feel disconnected from the world. His teaching solution is “World Simulation.” To engage, he has created a project in which students work together to discover how the world works by examining the last 500 years. He finds success in putting himself in the position of discovery and joining students on the journey of learning, rather than being the “all-knowing” professor. I found a strong connection here to Sugata Mitra’s Build a School in the Cloud. He explains that the best learning is done when the teacher provides big questions and steps back and allows students to do their own research and learning. 

I very much enjoyed Michael Wesch’s article. He is critical of an outdated educational approach and provides interesting insight to his solution. Although Sherry Turkle made some strong points, I believe that she needs to embrace technology and not be so condemning of technology and despairing of people and their relationships. 

Sugata Mitra - Build a School in the Cloud

In the digital age, education is rapidly changing. In many places, textbooks and chalkboards are outdated and replaced by laptops and smartboards. Learners are able to access information on the internet in seconds. As educators, we know this, but how skilled are we at educating students with these tools. Are teachers resisting technology (no cell phones in class at all, laptops away, handwritten assignments and exams)? Are we teaching students to examine the internet with a critical lens? Are educators assuming too much power and not allowing students to, as Sugata Mitra would say, “self organize”. Is or will knowing be obsolete with the access to internet at our fingertips? I think these are big questions teachers need to reflect on.

How does Build a School in the Cloud make me think of my role with young people in an online environment? My first thought is that as a teacher I talk and model “learning and assignment expectations” too much. I am constantly assuming that students need tasks and learning to be thoroughly explained. What if I can minimize this teaching practice and allow the students to work together to figure it out on their own. What if all they need are a few meaningful questions to explore topics and learn together. What if I am spending the time to model how I want them to do it, not always how THEY want to present, write, share, and express their learning. I don’t have the answers, not yet, to these thoughts. I am convinced that learning is outdated and whatever works best for students almost always works best for me. So this coming September, whether brick and mortar or distance learning, I plan to experiment with the approach of Mitra - provide big questions, and step back and watch the kids go to work.

One point that Mitra raises that I can back by experience is the “method of the grandmother.” Students respond to encouragement and love. Saluting a learner’s progress promotes more learning, engagement, and pleasure. No matter how I continue to make adjustments to my teaching and continue to experiment with teaching practices, one thing I will never abandon is the meaningful praise and appreciation I express to my students.

Duolingo: Language Tutorial

Duolingo is a rather effective and engaging way to individualize learning of a new language. I use the program often with my students, and encourage them to use the program outside of class time. I like to give the last 15-20 minutes of my block class to a short exit slip and computer-based learning (I give student option of Duolingo, Quizlet, Lexia PowerUp, and Imagine Learning). This allows me to spend this "quiet" time meeting with individual students to support in any way I can, checking for understanding of lessons, or working with small reading circles. 

Strengths:

User Friendly - students with minimal experience with technology are able to navigate rather easily

Placement Test - Places you somewhat appropriately in the program (people with some of the language do not need to start with basics)

Castle Checkpoints - Allow you to "test out" of skills that you already know (saves time)

Create A Class - Allows you to track student progress

Weaknesses:

DOES NOT explicitly teach grammar, pronunciation, specific language learning strategies

Mispelled Words - marked as incorrect and .... 

After a few errors you are unable to continue without paying for a subscription

Below are videos to help you get started and learn a bit more : )

Duolingo Quick Start Guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZTLXdjX0Ic

Create A Class on Duolingo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeO15d8b8QU

How To Join A Class on Duolingo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VguaifNm4Q

Mything Mandela by Deborah Menkart

This section focuses on a picture book about Nelson Mandela. However, Deborah Menkart examines the inaccuracies of the images and stories represented in the book. Mandela is portrayed as “lovable, platitudinous cardboard character” that saved the country on his own. In fact, Nelson joined a movement to protect the poor and powerless, and even says that no one person can free a country. The book has no representation of the history of African resistance to European colonizers, which dates back as far as 1500. The book portrays the African ancestors as violent aggressors that created the war, when in reality they were only resisting colonization. The chapter makes a comparison to the way Native Americans are wrongly portrayed throughout history as seeking violence against the settlers. Maybe the violence of the apartheid regime should not be present in the book, but their is certainly danger in watering down the history. Menkart mentions that the book should show the unfairness of segregation between whites and blacks. She notes that children can recognize unfairness from an early age, and the topics of fairness and equality should be displayed in the story. The book does not reference South African Freedom Fighters, such as “Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Lillian Ngoyi, Ruth First, Joe Slovo, the thousands of children who fought for liberation, and many more are replaced by unspecific “ancestors.”  Rather, the book uses the term “ancestors” rather than specifying names of the Freedom Fighters. Towards the end, Menkart explains the danger in the way the book was finished. In the end, Mandela has a fist in the air and the text says “South Africa was free at last.” This “happy ending” does not portray reality - while the aparthaid and legal segregation was ended, it did not mark the end of inequality. Similar to the way the Civil Rights Movement is portrayed in US History books. Deborah Menkart also notes that the way Mandela is pictured, like other Freedom Fighters such as Gandhi, MLK Jr., Rosa Parks, and Cesar Chavez, teaches kids to search for the next “savior”, kind of a one person saving grace of inequality. The danger is that it does not represent the power of a movement and the countless number of people that contribute to these movements. It makes it seem like one person creates change alone, and that there is no space for each individual to contribute. Finally, she acknowledges the danger of kids learning the truth, or history, later in life. “If we don’t address the mythmaking in children’s books, especially biographies, we avoid the many lessons that can be learned from Nelson Mandela’s life, including intellect, commitment, bravery, and humanity as part of a collective struggle.” She also notes that so much of what we learn from history, and remember throughout our lives, are from these picture books. Therefore, we need to stop watering down the truth and begin showing the collective struggle of those who contributed to change.

Simon Sinek - How great leaders inspire action

Sinek’s theory of The Golden Circle is that people are attracted to the “why” over the “what”. People are attracted to beliefs that align with their own, and they care more about this than “what” a product is. 

I think there are many connections that can be made between this theory and teaching and learning. In order for students to “buy in” they need to believe in their teacher, they need to trust their teacher. Students need to believe in why they are learning and what they are learning. I think this really means they need to find content meaningful delivered by a teacher they love and trust in order to buy into the “why”. 

Something that Sinek said that really resonated with me was that “...there are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority, but those who lead inspire us… We follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to.” I think one of my strengths as a teacher is that I am a trustworthy leader that does not at all act authoritative. Students learn quickly that my every intention is to support students in not just their education but anything I can help them with in their personal life. They know I love and respect them. I talk about things in life that are important - respecting women and social justice for example - and I talk about them passionately. They know I want what is best for them and their families, and this they can show up for and believe in. They come to me with their very personal problems and lived experiences, and trust that I will support them and give them advice.

WHY am I a teacher? Because I have a passion for helping and educating, working together with and learning from the vulnerable and disadvantaged. I am inspired by the success of my students! I communicate this to them very clearly, and I think this is why they trust me and lean on me for support.