Pulaski students assist Seniors with Smartphones!

Last Thursday, I had the honor to watch Pulaski students put their tech skills to a great use!  Students helped some senior center residents with their smartphones.  They did awesome!  It was a great experience for all!  I was impressed with their maturity, kindness, knowledge and willingness to help!

News Article:

Residents of the Pulaski Senior Center called on Pulaski Community School District students and staff to help them with their iPhones.  On Thursday, October 17, students in Mr. Hendricks’ 5th and Mr. Pratt’s 6th grade model classrooms were able to put their technology skills to use to not only help these residents with technology, but also provide some community service as well.  Students taught the residents skills from setting up email on their smartphones to taking pictures and using other downloaded apps.  

In the model classrooms, students utilize a variety of technologies to learn and create.  This coupled with the use of technology in their personal lives helped them to help others learn these essential skills. Library Media Specialist Joe Diefenthaler, who usually assists staff and students at PCMS with technology, was able to share his skills and connect with the community as well.  “My son talked about this experience all weekend and how much he enjoyed it.  Now he keeps asking what careers he could do in the future like this experience, ” said Mr. Diefenthaler.

Book Makes Me Think!

Our Library Media Team is doing a book study of Why School? by Will Richardson.  It's very thought provoking!  Really makes me think about ways to bring the learning students do outside of school into school.  Outside of school, students use videos and people to learn from- they define their own problems, seek the best sources, and apply what they learned through a variety of means.  Take the craze of Minecraft for example- my son couldn't find diamonds in the game.  That was his problem. So, he used youtube to learn how to do it from another kid.  While he attempted it on his own, he failed; watched the video again; learned from his mistake; tried again.  Success!  Diamonds!  Excitement!  Proud of himself!  Then, he used Skype to video chat his friend and help him to do the same thing!

Weeks later after watching a few more videos- he created his own how to with the help of his sister.  Many could say since I'm in the tech field he had learned the skills to do all this.  I helped him with very little.  He used his own resources to solve his problem. Critical thinking, creativity and collaboration abound.... mixed in with a bit a constructive failure!  And probably many of you reading this have seen similar skills developing in your kids or other youngsters.

Thanks to our LMS team for a very enlighting discussion about student learning and skills needed for their success in the future.  Next session:  specific ways/ integration ideas to bring this learning to all classrooms! Kudos to our teaching staff who have embraced this concept and implementing strategies for devloping creative, collaborative, critical thinkers!