Cultivating+Meaning

Cultivating Meaning Laura

4 foundational perspectives > **//The results from the survey below show that for both questions over 50% of the participants disagreed with working with others. If learning is a social activity in which learners share the burdens and results, then more meaning of using the SB needs to be cultivated within the staff (the learners). Maybe some of the interviews will lend insight into this question.//** > ||< **I frequently share my files with other teachers.** ||> **16.7% (4)** ||> **25.0% (6)** ||> **37.5% (9)** ||> **20.8% (5)** ||> **24** || > //**This seems to be another place where the survey shows that according to Staratt, is lacking. There is great potential to use the SB to connect to others and break down the classroom walls. I don't think that this is a problem only for CK, but is something in general to teachers. The SB can provide the opportunity to connect to the walls outside of our classroom, but at CK this is not happening. How can meaning be better cultivated for this point specifically?**//
 * 1) Learning is social
 * 2) makes sense in the culture
 * 3) open to many interpretations
 * 4) subject to revision
 * 5) limited and fallible
 * 6) enriched by others perspectives
 * 7) *"Cultivating meaning then is a social activity in which learners share the burdens of inquiry and results of their efforts" (page 37). This is an interesting point to pursue. In what ways is the use of SB at CK a social activity for both the staff and the students. The staff survey should show how much meaning or learning by the staff and their use of the SB.
 * > **I use my SMARTboard to connect with communities outside of Christ King.** ||> **16.7% (4)** ||> **29.2% (7)** ||> **29.2% (7)** ||> **25.0% (6)** ||> **24** ||
 * 1) Meaning should be related to personal experiences
 * 2) Meaning and learning takes place with concrete applications
 * 3) grounded in life experiences provide richness
 * 4) can be enriched through application within home and neighborhood experiences
 * 5) Shared cultivation between home and school (parents involved in getting SB for school
 * 6) Meaning should relate to culture/history
 * 7) relation of meaning to current and past history
 * 8) politically and economically (*""school and community politics and history may be interesting to explore)
 * 9) technology and the community
 * 10) giving students meaning connected to their own culture
 * 11) Meaning connected human concerns
 * 12) Student questions are attempt to see themselves in a safe and predictable world (page 39).
 * 13) Relationships
 * 14) Connection between learning and human concern (This point may be connected to how teachers use the SB to break down their walls of the classroom and looking at global perspectives. Is the SB helping students see the world outside of CK and their community?)
 * //This quote from a staff member does show how they are using the SB to make connections for students to the world.//**
 * //"//**I think the SMARTboards have added much to our teaching and taking the children place in the world that we are studying."

4. Meaning should be intentionally rooted in human concern (page 41).

In reflecting on this chapter, page 41, question #6 states "Are the classroom and instructional spaces set up around the notion that learning is a social production? How would change them to make them more conducive to this notion?" Maybe some of our discussion of the use of SB could also focus in this area.

//**I think the student part of the survey shows that the teachers believe that the SB has helped the**// **learning to be more interactive and, I think, that this relates to the social production of learning. The teachers also said that they have adjusted their classroom disipline to fit in with the use of the SB. CK has taken this part of culivating meaning for students using the SB to a new level.**
 * < Students in my class interact with the SMARTboard in my class daily. ||> 43.5% (10) ||> 21.7% (5) ||> 21.7% (5) ||> 13.0% (3) ||> 23 ||
 * < Students love when the SMARTboard is used during a lesson. ||> 50.0% (12) ||> 29.2% (7) ||> 8.3% (2) ||> 12.5% (3) ||> 24 ||