My Notes on Classroom 2.0 - Technology and the Developmental Needs of Adolescents

As a 14 year veteran of teaching 9th grade, there have been times when I get caught up in the curriculum and keeping pace with standardized testing, but Stephen Davis, the Featured Teacher for the November 17, 2012 Classroom 2.0 LIVE show,  has numerous links to resources for meeting the Technology and the Developmental Needs of Adolescents in and out of the classroom.


What are the developmental needs of adolescents?

    Developmental Needs = PIES

• Physical
• Intellectual
• Emotional 
• Social

All lesson plans take into account the PIES because as Davis explains, "Focusing too much on state standards created lessons that are like a museum: perfect and static." Consider the layout of the classroom and the activities within the lessons: teachers do not have to present themselves as perfect because that is not reality. Using the PIES, "creates lessons that are like a house that is lived in: comfortable and realistic."


To meet physical needs in the classroom:

• Use SCVNGER to go on a scavenger hunt
• Use You Tube to watch and mirror movements in plays, sports, dancing, and musicians
• Use Nike BOOM and iFitness to workout or lift weights

To meet intellectual needs in the classroom and execute abstract thought processes:

• Veritasium - showing science concepts to people on the street 
• The Onion - experience and learn satire (not all age appropriate)
• Philosophy- play games that are philosophical in nature

To meet emotional needs of adolescents and deal with the paradox of trying to be an adult but stay relevant to peers:

• Deviant Art - artistry, but not all school appropriate
• Jammit - learn an instrument, download music from favorite band and have music notation on computer and can play along (can also slow down pace without affecting pitch & even isolate one instrument)
• Instagram - photography, use filters to represent tone & mood in one or a series of pictures-- can see patterns of emotions in photographs (reflect to see the pattern)

To meet the social needs of adolescents who want to be alone, yet also want to be part of a group:

• Social Voice - student writing on controversial and debatable issues
• Instagram - moments become memories
• Wallwisher - for exit slips 

Why do teachers need to meet the needs of adolescents? According to Davis, he is ....

                "Trying to effect change not demand change"

                                  "Helping the students equip themselves"

                                                  "Bring[ing] back humanity to education"


When students feel that they are seen as humans and not some repository for information, a cup to filled, and they have a personal connection to their education, they will do more than just earn an A+.

Guest Post: MJ Fletcher-- Opening the Door to Writing

GUEST POST:  Continuing the conversation on writing, author MJ Fletcher explains how he first began his adventures with the written word.

"What's that?" I asked my mother as I stared at the explosion of color and action on the cover.

"It's a comic book, do you want it?"

Two men locked in mortal combat, one wearing a massive red cape while the other, some type of alien, attacked him. How could I not want it? It screamed at me about other worlds and possibilities unimaginable by my young mind.

"Yes." I was enthralled and in that moment my love affair with reading began.

My mother never cared what I read; comic books, magazines, newspapers, books, as long as I was reading she was satisfied. I was a voracious reader of comic books and when I discovered the Lord Of The Rings I became an equally avid reader of prose.

I would go out and ride bikes with my friends, do little league or play war in the woods. But when I came home I was equally as happy with Spider-Man as I was with C. Auguste Dupin,  going on amazing adventures or solving mysteries, whichever, I loved every moment. I was hooked, a reader for life and I knew it. Going to the library was one of my favorite excursions or even better the book store where I could take books home and never have to return them. They were mine to read over and over again.

I find people always want children to read the right books, and I find that odd since there are no wrong books. If my mother had turned her nose up at that comic book I may never have become the voracious reader I am today. But there in lies one of my secrets, my mother was also a writer. She knew better than to try and force my tastes in books, instead she allowed me to sample and discover.

At school when we would have book reports, most of my class would allow the librarian or teacher to "suggest" a book for them. I, on the other hand, would create piles trying to determine which one I most wanted to read.

Then in fourth grade the next defining moment happened in Miss Smith's class. She gave us a simple assignment with one paragraph at the top of the page describing someone walking into dense fog. The instructions were to write the rest of the story. My classmates were all done rather quickly. I however filled the front and back of the page. I went home that night and started writing on my own and I haven't stopped since. I would give my short stories to my mother and she would correct them. I got used to seeing red ink all over my creations.

I was lucky enough to have a parent who encouraged not only my love of reading but also my penchant for writing. Writing is a solitary and lonely pursuit but one of great personal reward. It demands constant attention and reinvention from its pursuers and takes it measure in full. But to sit down and create a new world or character who can reach out across a page and not only connect but impact a young reader much in the same way I was affected the first time I saw that comic book... is my ultimate goal each and every time I pound away at my keyboard.

Not everyone is as lucky as I've been. Many students think of reading and writing as a chore rather than something to enjoy. Let them read magazines or graphic novels, give them a simple writing  assignment to stir their imaginations and most of all if you see a spark of creativity...  foster it and help it to grow.

Our experiences define us and help form who we become. My name is MJ Fletcher and I'm a writer thanks to those defining moments in my life.

I've written comic books, short stories, and novels. My love of the written word has never ebbed and I hope it never will. New stories and ideas are always popping into my head, begging to be told. My latest creation, The Doorknob Society Saga, will take you to the wildest places, with a crazy group of friends, with just the touch of a doorknob.  The first three books in the series, The Doorknob Society, The Impossible Engineers, and The Mapmakers Union are now available with book one, The Doorknob Society currently free for download on Kindle.

Pursuing Happiness

Evil Academic Weaver of Webs

Like an academic version of 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, all literature and concepts studied my class connect and then refer back to one another: where we start, we end.  I tell my students that what we learn in my class is like getting caught in a spiderweb: Everything connects together, and like when one walks into a web unknowingly, the web will get stuck to one's face and is annoying to remove. As they can attest (and sometimes protest), Pygmalion, Steinbeck,  The Odyssey, "Priscilla & the Wimps," & Romeo & Juliet, "Cask of Amontillado" et al will forever be stuck in their heads.

My students also picked up on my habit of mimicking Dr. Evil's riiiiiiight, Mr. Burns' "excellent Smithers," in class discussions, but they really fear my evil laugh because they never know what I will come up with next.

But I digress, the point of today's post is to show connections and the pursuits of happiness... Muhahahaha....

Common Threads, Common Core

Literature is a time machine and time so tying History and English classes is appropriate given that many English teachers provide historical context for novels taught in class -- and, of course, there is the Common Core (that is for another post). As part of  the Steinbeck Unit, my fellow 9th grade teachers and I at SRHS tackled the theme of the American Dream analyzing the inability to achieve the dream, the reality of the dream, and how one pursues it while reading Of Mice and Men and The Pearl.  Obvious connections to history include the explanation of the Great Depression and the cultural climate of the 1920's & 30's. Every teacher who has taught Steinbeck has lessons on this. I won't bore you with mine here, but if you are interested in sharing resources, let me know! 

One part of the unit I want to highlight is in defining the American Dream. Identifying the Declaration of Independence as one of the first (if not the first) manifestations  of the American Dream defined as having the "unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness," students connected Steinbeck, history, and their own pursuits of happiness. Through textual analysis and some later help from Chris Gardner's film, The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith, my students finally realized something that they take for granted: people are not entitled to be happy (ie. the American Dream); people are only entitled to PURSUE it-- everyone is allowed to chase the dream and be happy, but few are able to achieve it. Life and liberty are not a guarantee that one will be happy.   For 9th grade students who are embarking on the transition from childhood to young adulthood, this lesson is extremely relevant and necessary to learn.  

What is at the core of all of this is the notion that in order to achieve anything--- and happiness is an appropriate word to generalize our goals & lump all goals together, because our goals are a manifestation of wanting to be happy in the most simplest terms--- we must be active and move towards it.  As Will Smith's character muses in the clip, Jefferson's word choice is specific:  Why did T.J. use the word pursuit in the declaration?  

I could make this post really long with a lesson on close textual analysis on the Declaration, but I won't today-- if you are interested, I'll send you some materials...keep in mind this is an English teacher's version of interpreting the Declaration. I may be missing some of the finer historical points, but academics aside, I will say that my bicentennial birthday on the 4th of July provides me with a strong personal connection to this text. And I'm a sap for the Star Bangled Banner, too.  A quick point about word choice though: the word "declaration" is a strong word--  that in naming, identifying, knowing what one wants and shouting it aloud, there is finality and commencement inherent in the word: "I know what I want" and/or  "I know that I have achieved it." Is the declaration a beginning or an ending? In teaching critical thinking and analysis skills, students need to learn how to declare and speak with conviction, using strong words. Take a look at this clip from Taylor Mali:

Pursuit & Achievement of Happiness

Many of my friends are noting that I've been spending time poking around on the internet & tweeting & sharing educational stuff. Given that it is summer and technically my time off from teaching, they are perplexed. But, I'll be honest; I really like researching, reading, and writing about education. Poking, tweeting, and sharing relaxes me and makes me happy.  (I can hear your thoughts: "Awwww, how sweet and totally dorky that is! Gag me with a spoon and get me to the beach! Whateverrrrrrr." ) Hey! just because it is summer, doesn't mean my brain shuts down.  

What I have to declare 

I am not declaring my independence; on the contrary, I'm declaring the connections I've made and showing my convictions. My active  pursuit of happiness this summer has lead me to get tangled in an awesome web of learning about technology and flipping instruction, following threads of ideas from...

Cheryl @guster4lovers, 


Andrew @thomasson_engl, 


Crystal @crystalkirch, 


Karl @kls4711, 


and others on Twitter.  Follow them & check out their blogs too. Links are to the right! 
Who knows what wicked things we'll weave for students!


So, go, be active, pursue what makes you happy and you may just make some new connections and achieve your goals.


BTW, I did it again: made some wacky connections a  la 6 Degrees: Dr. Evil, Steinbeck, Jefferson, Will Smith, Taylor Mali, Twitter...


And can you guess my favorite & overly used literary devices?  Provide 3 examples from this post and you'll earn a gold start!