Kathryn's+Journal


 * 1) Describe your background and history with video and computer games.
 * 2) What are some of the real and/or virtual ‘identities’ you take on?
 * 3) What impact might James Paul Gee’s definition of ‘literacy’ have on your teaching?
 * 4) What experiences have you had learning in new ‘semiotic domains’?
 * 5) Reflections on any games you played or examined during the week. Educational games for the week include: //Resilient Planet//, //Evolver//, //Dragon Box Algebra, Fair Play//, and //Ludwig//.

1.My background is full of video games, but mostly played by other people. The first system I got as a child was an NES, shortly after it came out. I enjoyed Duck Hunt and Mario Bros. Later, we got an SNES, which was way better! I quickly tired of Super Mario Bros. and mostly watched my brothers play. That was followed by years of watching male friends and boyfriends play hours of various computer and Nintendo video games. I didn't know girls who played video games after about middle school. My boyfriend during high school played a lot and loved for me to watch him. I don't know how I did it! It was so boring!

2.The only virtual identity that I can think of is when I play Super Mario Bros. I guess I'm Mario. I don't think I identify myself with the character though. It's not a game with much of a story to it, after all. A real identity that I have taken on recently is that of a teacher. I noticed that when I first started subbing I felt like I was pretending to be a teacher. I felt that I must not let the kids know that I wasn't a "real" teacher, I just had to fake it! Now that I have subbed a fair amount, I feel that this identity has become real for me.

3.James Paul Gee's definition of literacy was fascinating to me. I agree with the idea that literacy involves reading and writing connected with social practices. When we expect kids to read and write in an academic way, but don't value their knowledge of reading and writing in their semiotic domain of video games, I think we turn them off to the idea of school. It is difficult for me to find value in the world that my kids are absorbed in, but reading this book is helping. My kids sometimes have conversations that I can't follow because they are using vocabulary specific to video gaming. Instead of dismissing this, I think that I have to respect their knowledge. Especially if I want them to respect mine. I think that for many young people, especially boys, validating their knowledge and skills of video gaming at school could be a way to increase their engagement. I see many students in the upper grades (4-5) who are passionate about gaming and bored to tears with school. I have had success in increasing engagement with these students when I have brought up video games, such as Minecraft when talking about cubes or biomes. I plan on trying to stay current with what my students are into outside of school, including video games, and trying to make their knowledge relevant in the classroom.

4. The semiotic domain that comes to mind first is that of education. I have had to learn a huge amount of vocabulary and concepts in order to become a teacher. I notice this when I am talking with someone who is not a teacher and something pops out of my mouth like "gen ed" or "prep time" and they look quizzically at me.

5.Playing Dragon Box was interesting. I didn't know it was math! I love the idea of learning math with pictures. I think this would be a great way to look at patterns and processes without getting bogged down in the arithmetic. I wish that I had had this last week when trying to explain multiplication to 4th graders. They were stuck on how the process goes, not actually multiplying the numbers. I would love to have had a way to show them that was fun and engaging and where they may not have even realized what they were learning! I am definitely going to look into the version for younger students so that I can possibly use it in my future classroom. I also played Mario Cart 8 this week with my kids. It was fun! I really like the new version, even though I have to use the classic controller. I just can't get used to the new motion controllers. I'm sure if I devoted enough hours to it I would get the hang of it, but I haven't got that much spare time! My kids sure love it when I enter their world and play video games with them.

= = =**Week 2**= 1. I like the idea of creating identities for many subjects. For instance, a writer in writing, a mathematician in math class, and a scientist in science class. I have been thinking about how I could encourage my students to create an identity that works well with the subject at hand and may take them a step outside of themselves. They seem so much more willing to try (and to fail) if their true identities are not at stake. I wonder about actually changing the room, the lighting, background music, and tools for each subject. I also wondering about creating some block classes so that students have a longer time to get into the identity. All too often, science is half an hour, or math is 45 minutes. I don't think that these amounts of time allow students to immerse themselves. Of course, if this is time listening to lecture or simply filling out worksheets, then more time is not the answer. If this is time spent in inquiry, making discoveries and relating them to what students already know, then this would be time well spent.
 * 1) How might virtual and projective identities be important in your teaching?
 * 2) Describe an experience you’ve had in teaching a student with a “damaged” identity.
 * 3) 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.
 * 4) Describe a recent learning experience that involved using the probe, hypothesize, re-probe, and rethink cycle.
 * 5) Reflections on any games you played or examined during the week. Educational games for the week include: //ReDistricting Game//, //Mission US//, //iCivics//, and //Crazy Plant Shop//.

2. Last year I had a 5th grade student who definitely saw herself as "not a mathematician", or in other words, really bad at math. I was not sure why she felt this way, or what had happened to tell her this, because she understood a lot of what we were doing. I felt like as soon as she knew it was time for math her face fell, her body slouched, and she looked around at others a lot. It was as if she deflated and anticipated not understanding to a point that she could not even hear me. I worked with her after school for a while and she was fully capable of understanding the concepts. That was eye-opening to me. She had identified herself so strongly as being "bad at math" that she couldn't see any other way to be. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy!

3. The idea that first comes to mind is the idea of volume. I had a difficult time explaining this so that my 5th graders understood it and knew the difference between volume, area, and perimeter. I really felt like these concepts needed to be explored in a hands-on way, so that the students had to solve a problem using one of these formulas, and understood why they chose that formula, and how it did what it did! I would have loved to have given groups different problems to solve (such as fencing an area outside, painting a wall, or filling a container with a liquid) and have them figure out what they needed to measure and why.

4. My example for a probe, hypothesize, re-probe, and rethink experience lately is playing Mario Cart 8. I am familiar with Super Mario Cart, which is very different. I originally just took the standard options for my cart and had a horrible time controlling my driving. I was all over the place! I decided that I needed a cart with better handling, so I tried changing the tires to ones with better traction. Better, but still coming in last. Then I realized that I slow down a lot for corners, so a cart that sped up quickly would help me recover from that. I had originally thought I needed a cart with a high top speed, but that wasn't helping me. I changed the cart to one that accelerated quickly, and ta-da! First place!

5. I played the ReDistricting Game, which was not fun. I understood a little more about redistricting, but I thought the game was slow and boring. I moved to iCivics, where I learned about amendments. That game was a lot more fun, in part because I now had a character to control. I liked being able to by lawyers with different skills, in order to meet my clients needs. I did take a while to realize that the numbers that I was looking at were amendment numbers. I think you could play the game pretty well with just skimming and matching key words. It would take a while for me to recall the actual amendments!

=**Week 3**= I am having a hard time thinking of an example in a classroom, but it happened to me in my house last night. We just bought a new one-player board game that I hadn't tried yet. My son made a level on it and wanted me to solve it. I tried for a while, with him watching, and then, just as I was wanting to give up, he told me that I could move differently than I was. This was helpful! I then could solve the level with the new information.
 * 1) Give an example of 'Just in Time' information presentation in a classroom activity.

2. In a content area of your choice, how might you incorporate teaching in a 'subdomain' of the 'real' domain? I feel like we often do this. For example, teaching a student how to use any tools, such as a protractor or a calculator. Science would be an area of teaching a lot of subdomains, such as how to use a ruler, thermometer, scale, etc. I like to have activities just to learn how to use the tools before we try and do a lesson with them. Even something simple like unifix cubes can have a sub-lesson just getting the students familiar with them.

3. Describe a technique that you might use to help students 'transfer' early learning to more complex problems. I used this the other day when introducing how to multiply two-digit numbers. My students knew how to multiply a two digit by a one digit number, and we talked about the pattern. They came up to the board and drew the pattern. Then I introduced two digit by two digit multiplication and we first talked about the pattern. I encouraged them to apply their understanding of the more simple problems to figure out the pattern to the new problems. It worked well!

4. Describe a learning experience you've had where one of your 'cultural models' was challenged.

The most recent example I can think of is working with a transgendered 1st grade student. Although I have done much reading and discussing regarding gender identities, I really didn't feel like this was a problem for such young children. I also thought that many of the mannerisms adopted by some transgendered people were a conscious attempt to emulate the gender that they identified with. The student that I was working with was only 6 years old and yet had mannerisms and preferences most commonly attributed to the other gender. I was surprised at this because he was so young. I spent a while wondering if these were consciously adopted changes, or were they natural. It made me stop and think about nature vs nurture and the possibility that gender mannerisms might have more of a natural component than a learned one.

5. Reflections on any games you played or examined during the week. Educational games for the week include: //Villainy, Inc.//, //CSI: The Experience//, //Oncology//, and the //Sports Network 2//. I played CSI: The Experience. I was not a fan of this game. It felt like it took a long time of reading to play. It also was not really a game. I mean, it was pretty much do something small in order to turn the page. I was not really controlling anything, nor could I make any choice but one. I know that there is more to this game, as Johnathon was playing a higher level next to me and seeming to enjoy it. I guess if I got through the introduction, I may enjoy applying that knowledge to solving mysteries. The part that I played was not engaging enough for me to want to continue. I also didn't like that the characters had a picture and a text box to communicate. I would have preferred an animated character that spoke!