Renee's+Journal

= = =‍Week 1 Questions (Chapters 1-2)= Describe your background and history with video and computer games. What are some of the real and/or virtual ‘identities’ you take on? What impact might James Paul Gee’s definition of ‘literacy’ have on your teaching? What experiences have you had learning in new ‘semiotic domains’? This week's gmaing
 * Renee's Journal** 2013
 * I don't have a lot of experience with video games. I am old enough to have really enjoyed "Pong" at one time in my life. Then as a teenager, Pacman and Mrs. Pacman moved to the new 7-11 that was built in my neighborhood. I will admit I spent many quarters in that game. That is really the extent of my gaming until we got a WII a few years ago. My husband played Nintendo games and I spent my time telling him he was "wasting his time". We waited a long time until we purchased a Wii and then I played a few games such as bowling, water sports, bicycling, and Monopoly for a couple of weeks off and on. I have never played a computer game although I spend a lot of time on the computer. I have my daughter's computer on one side of me, and my husband’s computer on the other side of me. The two of them have logged countless hours playing games and hoping I would join in. I have no desire at all to play the games. While reading the chapters in James Paul Gee's book this week I had to smile when I read about the games being a waste of time. That has been my thought when it comes to gaming. I look forward to understanding more about how these games help people learn in other domains or are used in life. I let my students play math games when they are finished with math but I secretly feel as though it is just a time filler while the others finish their work. I hope to leave this class with a different outlook.
 * I don't think I take on any virtual identities. My real identities are a first grade teacher, a Mom, wife, daughter and others such as friend, and sister.
 * I think about all of the techniques I use to teach my students comprehension. We use the images, predictions, question answering and other things to comprehend what we are learning. All of these help them to read and understand what they are reading. I think the social aspect stood out for me. On page 8 he spoke about the baby boomer who became frustrated when playing the game. Then his 21 year old step son came in and asked him why he would try to do it alone. The social part of becoming literate in anything is important. I allow social time for some things but not all. When my students (first grade) are allowed to play the math games online, I am quick to quiet the noise and have everyone doing something while each computer is played by one student. The others line up at my smart board to play together and often times the students at the computer will move to play with the others and abandon their computer where they are playing alone. I think this social helps them in every area to learn to learn from each other in that domain.
 * I am not sure why this concept is a little hard for me to wrap my head around. However, here is a try. Over the past 7 years I have been learning a new spiritual path. I was raised Christian but have since followed a Native American Spiritual path. I could attend ceremonies as an outsider because although I could pick up a few words and draw on my previous religion to talk with them, I was unable to be in that domain. After learning the difference between prayer and sacrifice in each religion I began to understand a little more and was feeling "part" of the domain. Now I know many of the ceremonies, "rules' (if that is what you want to call them) and acceptable things to say and do at these ceremonies. At first I would try to be part of the group only to quickly learn that I had a lot to learn. I still have a lot to learn but I see others who have just began this journey and quickly see where I was and why they viewed me as an outsider for a while.
 * This week I played Betwixt Folly and Fate and Ludwig. I enjoyed Betwixt Folly and Fate after I got past the frustration of being stuck in the fenced yard for five minutes of the game. I am someone who never reads instructions on anything. I look to have someone show me or tell my how without reading all the boring text that goes with it. So I found myself walking backwrds trying to find a way out of the yard when I read (in small print) to use the "M" key and click on the map to jump. Well then the game really began for me. I was actually getting the hang of it and kind of having fun. Until, the demo time was up. I could see where this educational game could pull a child in while teaching them. I thought to myself that maybe I had not really given this gaming a good try before. Then I tried Ludwig and quickly changed my mind. I was instantly overwhelmed by the key board things I had to remember to be able to play the game successfully. After playing it for a while I learned something about myself. The reason I enjoyed the arcade game of Pacman and Mrs. Pacman is becuse I could make mistakes, learn, and then get better when I tried again. There were no keyboard shortcuts to remember in those games. I simply had to move and follow the game. I get frustrated easily when I can not remember which key makes me jump, run, see what I have in my backpack or other things. I need to write all of htese commands down to have in front of me when playing. As soon as I become frustrated, I quit the game and decide this is pointless. Reading about others who continue to play and learn from their mistakes is interesting. I know I am an all or nothing person. I either give it my all (and expect to learn it quickly) or I give it nothing. Right or wrong it takes something that really interests me before I will invest the time it takes to master it.

Weeks 2-3 Questions (Chapters 3-4)
How might virtual and projective identities be important in your teaching? Describe an experience you’ve had in teaching a student with a “damaged” identity. Give an example of a situated meaning in your content area, and describe how you might help students gain a more embodied understanding of it. Describe a recent learning experience that involved using the probe, hypothesize, re-probe, and rethink cycle.
 * I think as a teacher, the virtual identity (if I understand it right), keep my beliefs out of my teaching. Using that would mean I just follow a set of chosen guidelines which would help me stay consistent without any choices to be made. For children, that consistency is important. I would deal with both the children and the parents in the same way year after year without ever projecting myself, my beliefs, or who I am into my role as a teacher. Using a projected identity would mean that I come with my beliefs or how children need to be heard, dealt with using compassion, understanding, and also my spiritual beliefs. By projecting that, the kids get a much different teacher that deals with them as individuals. A teacher who wants to know what they are going through at home and understands that each child needs something different but at the same time, consistency and routines are important. I think the students benefit more when they get my beliefs and not just a teacher who follows every guideline given. However, I don’t know how it could really be any other way.
 * I think as teachers we see many students with “damaged identities”. One student that comes to mind is a little first grader I had a couple years ago. He came to me with a belief that he was stupid and could not read or do math. He also had no trust in me at all. I worked hard to teach him to read and he learned but, he never gained the confidence to read in a group aloud. And he also never trusted me completely until the end of the year when he told me the hell he had been going through. Students come with lack of confidence in reading, math, and other subjects. It is hard to tell whether it is an age or someone has told them “they can’t” do something.
 * My students (first grade) need to learn how to add double digit numbers in math and carry. As a child, I learned to carry without ever knowing why it worked but instead memorizing how to do it. My students learn to use cubes, and even themselves to understand how to regroup into a set of ten and then add the numbers together. I am teaching them how to “make a ten” by using pictures and many other strategies with hands on lessons so that they understand why it works and why they are doing it.
 * I recently purchased a new piece of technology called “makey makey”. My class hooked it up to the computer and tried to connect things to it. The hypothesis was that we could hook anything up to it to make it work. I thought that we could draw a laptop computer using pencil and then hook this up and the pencil drawing of the computer would work. After trying it, we tried again making our pencil lines even larger and then it worked. We continue to make hypothesis of what would work and what would not work. In case you have no idea of what I am talking about, here is a link… []

This week’s gaming


 * This week I played a couple different games. First I tried fold it. I played for a few moments with no idea of what I was playing. The game gave no explanation of what was happening. Since I have no experience with gaming or chemistry, I was simply clicking buttons. But, someone began to chat online with me and asked what “we” were supposed to do. I said, “I am not even sure what this is and he/she replied “what?????”. At that point I realized that whoever this was they were surprised by my comment and it was as if they could see me and my lack of knowledge so I quickly clicked out of the game.
 * Next I played MissionUS- mission 2 Flight to Freedom. I was instantly sucked into this game and played for a while. I liked the task reminders, the story boards, and the fact that it gave me directions as I needed them instead of front loading them and giving so much information that I could not remember like in Ludwig. I still got to make choices along the way which made me feel as though was in control. In the end I was was beaten and sold but I got to make choices and that was something I liked. It made me feel as if I was in control and that my choices gave me my own path in the game. The graphics and everything was not impressive but for me, the speed of the game was good. I guess because I am a beginner and someone that is not a gamer. This makes me think of my kids and at that age how they need the simplicity of the games and not all the extras.

‍‍‍Weeks 4-5 Questions (Chapters 5-6)
Give an example of 'Just in Time' information presentation in a classroom activity. > In a content area of your choice, how might you incorporate teaching in a 'subdomain' of the 'real' domain? Describe a technique that you might use to help students 'transfer' early learning to more complex problems. Describe a learning experience you've had where one of your 'cultural models' was challenged. This week's gaming
 * When I think about school “just in time” information as related to the example James Paul Gee gives when he talks about his gaming experience, I have a hard time relating it to the first grade. It seems that the information I give kids at this level is always just in time. When I teach phonics such as /oo/ I spend time teaching the words look, book, took, and cook. Then the kids get a worksheet to practice the sound that /oo/ makes in words. The following week I refresh /oo/ sound but before they work on the worksheet I give them words to sort such as school, tool, pool, and drool along with the prior words. The kids learn that the sound/oo/ can make to different sounds such as in school or look. This information is given right before they must read there phonics books for the week which both sounds are used and so they must try to read the words each way to figure out which way makes sense and makes a word they recognize.
 * I teach money (coins and how many make a dollar) and addition to my first graders, along with many other concepts in math. I try to relate this to things like shopping, paying bills and other thing they will do when they are older. They are really never sure of all the reasons they have to learn these concepts now. So, at the end of the year they earn fake money for good behavior and they must save it in a bank. Then I have a garage sale in my classroom where each child brings things, prices them, and has to add up all the money they are earning and make change for the other students. In the end they get to spend the money they have earned to buy popcorn, candy, and drinks for our classroom movie. I //__think__// this is learning in a subdomain of the real domain.
 * I talk to the kids about how they play soccer and other sports. I tell them that even though they were not perfect at it the first time they played, and did not know how to do it, they still continued to try. This practice and perseverance is what has helped them to get good at all the things they do well now. Each time they tried and never gave up they got better. Now in school when they are faced with a challenging problem in math, they can use that same practice and determination to not give up on this problem. Each time they try to solve it they learn a little more and get better at it until finally they solve the problem and feel good. This is something they need to learn as they go through all levels of school.
 * In James Paul Gee’s book on page 149 he wrote about some people readily believing that their group interests and values are or ought to be the general good. I immediately thought about religion (specifically Christian) groups and how I was raised. I grew up thinking or being programmed to believe that our way was the only way and others were the minority and should just learn the right way. My cultural model was challenged as I grew up and found others (quite a large group) did not believe the same way. It took many years and many times of being challenged to deprogram my cultural model or belief system. At this age I am no longer a Christian but follow another path and accept everyone else’s beliefs. Does that work?
 * This week I played: Villainy Inc and CSI the experience. Villany was an algebra game that had me measuring for a golf course. The goal was to spend the most money. It incorporated math like area and other things in a way that made it fun. I did not like how the math was scattered in amongst a lot of talking and story line. It is an ok game for practicing math skills but I would look for a game that had more math practice in it and less talking with the story line. The CSI game was good. Although it required a lot of reading, it gave practice and information in small bites. I felt as though I was learning more than the other game. The information was new and yet it seemed to fell more hands on for some reason than the other game. Maybe it is just because it was a TV show I used to watch at one time and so it held my interest more. Either way, both of these games would be good games for kids to play and learn through this mode as opposed to reading the information in a book.

==‍‍‍Weeks 6-7 Questions (Chapters 7-8) *Extra Credit*==
 * 1) In a content area of your choice, give an example of a way in which the 'affinity group' "enforces certain patterns as ideal norms".
 * 2) Describe a classroom activity where students are able to 'leverage' the 'distributed' knowledge of their peers.
 * 3) How might you give students more direct control (as an 'insider' or 'producer') over their own learning?
 * 4) Which Principle of Learning do you feel is most-applicable to your teaching, and why?