♫ techy ways…. I need The Cloud to play ♫
*This post has been written as part of my journey as a Ph.D student through University of Regina
This week’s blog post prompt includes the following:
Postman wrote: “…We now know that “Sesame Street” encourages children to love school only if school is like “Sesame Street.” Which is to say, we now know that “Sesame Street” undermines what the traditional idea of schooling represents.” In a blog post, unpack the implications of this quote, particularly the idea that Sesame Street undermines traditional schooling.
I would like to start off by saying: OUR PRACTICES SHOULD UNDERMINE TRADITIONAL SCHOOLING (yes, I do mean to yell via caps lock). This is a gargantuan question to tackle as someone who:
- believes education should be holistic and involve all stakeholders, not just students
- does not believe schools, nor our society in general, is funded in a way to increase success for those who need it most
- purposefully replaced myself with a machine as much as possible as a classroom teacher
- educates and advocates for technology use every day but also believes that there are plenty of instances where you should not use technology in student programming
And this is just some of the topics I want to highlight as someone who is not currently in the classroom; don’t get me started on grade groupings, classroom set-up, assessment, outdated curriculums…. the list truly could go on and on.
So lets extend the example of Sesame Street to a more broader lens (and if you weren’t a Sesame Stree fan replace that with Mr. DressUp, Reading Rainbow, Bill Nye, etc). Maybe you are now in a BYOD environment or a 1:to:1 device situation. Perhaps you are teaching asychronous, remote, or blended-style classes. What are some elements that we need to keep in mind?
As I work with teachers within out division, and throughout my global PLN, I hear specific teaching concerns echoed, regardless of grade or subject-area:
- how can I connect with my students and ensure they feel valued?
- how can I keep my students engaged in our content?
- what kind of things should I be including in the design of my class?
- how do I find balance between on-screen and off-screen activities?
Sense of Community
One strategy that shows like Sesame Street had was the fact that they spoke directly to the audience; the children. It never occurred to me that thousands of other children were watching these shows, it seemed as though the show was just for me. Mr. Roger’s was especially skilled at acknowledging the normal and developmental responses and emotions of his audience. He didn’t shy away from sensitive concepts and guided his audience through the importance of validating their own emotions. These shows also built in plenty of opportunities for all children to “see themselves” through the inclusion of guests and content representing various races, genders, abilities, and backgrounds.
Regardless of our teaching environment, I think it is important that we establish a sense of community with our learners. The strategies modelled for us by these teachers can be transferred and modernized to our new environments. We can be purposeful about addressing learners by name as they enter a synchronous call or engage in a chat, continue to have open conversations about topics that may be affecting them, and providing opportunities for multiple learner interactions (with you, with each other, with others). A strong connectivity system can build in more online opportunities so lets find those guest speakers, examples, and content that represent the diversity of our world and ensure that all students can “see themselves” in our content.
Lesson Design: Engagement & Empowerment
While education-driven shows like Sesame Street were still designed from an entertainment standpoint; edu-tainment if you would. Their design kept us tuning in week-after-week without us appreciating the educational elements that was being shared with us. So what aspects can we pull from here and use in our virtual lessons?
- Routine
- We all thrive on routine: kids and adults. Each show had a predictable routine that you quickly learned:
- change our shoes, change our sweater, feed the fish, welcome a guest…
- funny science sketch, introduce a concept, student experiment, expert guest
- etc
- We knew what to expect, were prepared to transition between segments, and eagerly anticipated what we determined to be our favourite segment
- We have to remember that school can often be the only source of routine for our learners.
- We all thrive on routine: kids and adults. Each show had a predictable routine that you quickly learned:
- Music
- I’m not just talking about the epic and immediately recognizable theme songs (although if you can assign your own theme song to your classes than do it!)
- Every show included music as a teaching tool. In some cases it was original songs and in some cases it was parodies of “trendy” songs but the synching of content into song lyrics can be an effective strategy to review and understand content
- Learning With the Audience
- It was very rare to see an episode that only featured the main host. Each of these shows included a variety of children participants, friendly characters, and expert guests
- These guests allowed the host to step aside and learn something new alongside the audience; the perfect model of a growth mindset
- Adding in digital tools provides additional opportunities to connect with guests without the logistical concerns of face-to-face visits
- Having learners showcase their knowledge to the class builds right into project-based learning activities that are so perfect in a remote environment and strengthens a learner’s sense of community
- Opportunities for Active Participation – Call to Action
- Each of these shows included at least one, if not more, segments that actively encouraged the audience to be participating alongside the host; it wasn’t just a full 30-mins of ingesting content.
- It was maybe the completion of a craft, the reading of a book, a science experiment, or a connection to your local environment
- These activities were often left open-ended as well leaving the learner with the option of trying different ingredients or modifying the activity to their context
Balancing Mediums
Our current remote teaching models tends to heavily emphasize screen-time with online content being used in all aspects of programming (synchronous video calls, activities within an LMS, online simulations, etc). The same can be said for 1:to:1 device classrooms; especially where devices are tied to grant funding and monitored differently. While these activities can offer plenty of unique and beneficial opportunities for learners, we have to plan for what is developmentally appropriate for our audience.
While shows like Sesame Street obviously used a screen to share their content, all of the activities they modelled for children were to be done within their own environment. These included physical activity, science experiments, imaginative play and exploration, art, etc. While screens can be used to share content we should try to build in a robust slate of off-screen activities as well that allow for our learners to manipulate objects, make connections to nature, be active, and converse with those in their classroom/community/household.
Hi Kirsten,
First off, your picture collage of edu-tv heroes brings me so much joy! Which is, as you point out further in your post, the success of these programs; they made learning fun. I didn’t really explore this concept in my post, but your thorough list of points about edu-tv’s routines, community, catchy (musical) mnemonic skills, viewer participation, etc. unconsciously set the tone for my own teaching and learning style. I always thought of Billy Nye as mindless fun as a student, and yet it’s Bill Nye’s love of science that influenced my interest in experiments and hands-on learning. The list goes on….
And you are very right about the misconception and sometimes misuse of screens for online learning. As a former online learning consultant, I would help teachers build lessons that could be shown on the screen but required hands on activities away from screen-time. It’s the same wonderful way AV should be used in the classroom. Great post – thanks for provoking further thoughts!
Great post! I liked what you said about the sense of community. I don’t know why, but I made a connection to social medias and how they attempt to do the same thing. If you go on TikTok, users are speaking directly into a camera at their audience, but the way it’s engaged makes it feel like it’s just you. Of course, this also brings up the nasty side of the “community”, and what I see as a larger problem – unlike Sesame Street, we have the opportunity to comment, and give feedback to the content. Perhaps it’s the veil of anonymity, or maybe it’s that one on one connection we feel to content creators that makes people feel entitled to say what they want, regardless of who it hurts.
I also appreciated you talking about balance. Like everything in life, balance is key. Technology, apps, and whatever edu-tainment du jour is happening, needs to be just a part of what the kids experience at school. Kids need hand on, face to face experiences to go along with their digital world.
Thank you for your post. During emergency remote learning I struggled with the community building piece quite a bit. I had pre-recorded lessons that the students would watch before hand and then during normal class time I would have live practice (so the students could ask questions). During this time I would have a document cam on facing my notebook. If no one was asking questions I would then draw (I have a bit of background in graphic design) and tell math stories. Later on one of the parents told me that her daughter, who was a bit of a math savant, would log in despite being done her practice, just to hear a familiar voice and watch me draw. We don’t realize how much students need that structure and familiarity until they don’t have it.
What a thought provoking post Kirsten! Awesome job. A couple items stood out for me:
1) I never really considered how these programs followed a routine format – this truly was a great transition for our early learners to get used to that in their schooling life. I always anticipated Mr. Dressup drawing something from the theme of that particular episode or him going to the Tickle Trunk to find a costume.
2) Your point about the viewer (child) seeing themselves within the context of every lesson was true. I recall the disappoint not hearing my name at the end of a Romper Room episode when they looked in the mirror and said, “I see Steve, I see Sarah, I see Robert, etc…”. They never said my unique French first name and that always bothered me – I felt like my name was not as good as the others that were recognized.
3)The balance is truly more important today than ever – you mentioned – “for our learners to manipulate objects, make connections to nature, be active, and converse with those in their classroom/community/household.” It is critical in our pre-K and Kindergarten classes to put a heavy emphasis on these non-tech related skills.