Girls, Worms, and Body Image: Chapter Response

 I chose this chapter because it explains a time when the author dissected gender stereotypes with the seven and eight year olds in her classroom. These children are very similar to the age I teach and I have had struggles with talking to them about gender stereotypes. However, I do feel that the content presented in this chapter is relevant to any teacher, as long as it is modified effectively. 

I remember hearing students say things like "boys are just better at sports" and "boys are smarter". I was at a loss for how to show them that these statements weren't true, other than just telling them. Telling is all well and good, but I wanted to show them why those statements were harmful and why they were patently incorrect. 

This chapter was incredibly helpful for me. Not only did it emotionally impact me as I really related to this teacher's experience, but it gave me actual strategies to combat gender stereotypes in my early childhood classroom. 

In her classroom, this teacher had a discussion about Barbie and what she teaches us is true about women. Below is a picture of the Barbie doll that matches what she described in this chapter:

The students noticed that the doll was thin, blonde, blue-eyed, wearing a dress, heels, and fancy jewelry. The students also noticed that the doll was white. Most of all, they noticed that she didn't look like them or any woman they knew. One male student even said, after exploring Barbie and some makeup advertisement, "It is telling women that they have to be skinny, wear lipstick, and wear high heels." (144).

I was deeply impressed by the comments made by several of the students, but I wasn't surprised. Elementary schoolers can and should have deep conversations about nuanced topics, especially those that impact them and their peers. This chapter showed me one way to talk about sexism and racism with young children and hopefully empower them to be advocates for themselves and others when they hear stereotypes, whether it be in school or outside of school. 

Digital Tool Tutorial: Blooket for student engagement and automaticity

 My favorite digital tool to use with my students is Blooket! We use this for class competitions and to practice our fast math facts. I think this would also be incredible for sight words. 

1. Go to blooket.com and sign in as an educator. Don't pay for pro, just sign in with your google account!

You should hit the turquoise sign up button!

2. Select teacher 

3. Verify your age 

4. The authenticate through google for the easiest connection to your school account!

5. Your home screen should look something like this, with the exception of the set that I made for my students. 

6. Next, have your students log in the same way that you did, but they click student instead of teacher. 

7. Then hit discover on the side tab. This is my favorite way to find low-lift activities that engage students and get them to practice their fast facts and sight words!

8. Scroll down until you see the Blooket Curriculum bar. From here you can select your subject. 

9. Once you select your subject, you will be able to use the drop down menu to select your grade level and narrow down what you are looking for in your subject (I have selected ELA, so the ELA options are listed below. 

10. Once you select your Blooket, you will get an overview of the questions. In this one, students will select the correct digraph for the picture from multiple choies. 

11. Then, you hit host game!! It's the turquoise button again. 

12. You will have an option of what type of game to pick. My favorite is gold quest. Closest to a Kahoot, so it's familiar and simple, but with some fun random elements to get extra points!

13. Hit the purple host button!

14. Students will then enter the code and be able to play together :)

In my opinion, Blooket is a great back pocket activity and students often view it as a reward. I think it is incredibly helpful for students to grow their automaticity with both math facts and letter sounds. It also has grade level options for almost any teacher!

Final Project To Do List

1. I know what I want to change but I have to narrow it down!!! Write down everything and choose by gut feeling of what strikes a chord with me. 
2. If I don't have a gut feeling, make a pro and con list (I love these)
3. Write my belief as shown by and connected to what I want to change
4.  Choose my tool based on my belief and what I want to change
5. Explore my chosen tool
6. Make an outline for my narrative (organized by change, belief, and how)
7. Fill in my narrative 
8. Pick my pictures 
9. Record!!

This how I feel about choosing between ideas... Hopefully my pro and con list will help me!! I do them a lot in my personal life and I love them. 

Final Project Ideas!!

 My students are the best kids in the world. They are also kids who struggle a lot and they have extremely varied needs. For my entire first year of teaching (this past year), I taught second grade math and I modified every single exam by hand based on the particular student. Some students got the same exact modified exam, but I had to reproduce it by hand for each student. I want to figure out a way to create leveled and differentiated exams using an internet tool so I don't have to reproduce them by hand. I'm thinking about finding a good PDF editor that I can use to modify my exams online so that I can print multiple and I don't have to take hours doing the same thing over and over. 

Another idea I had was creating virtual field trips for my students. Our budget only allows for us to take one field trip per year and kindergarten ALWAYS only goes to the zoo. I think there is so much more that students could experience by using a virtual tour on the smartboard and on their tablets provided in class so that they could experience something new without a cost barrier to them, the school, or their families. 

Here is a screenshot of virtual tour of the Museum of Natural History:

You can truly go anywhere in the museum with this tour and they update it frequently with new exhibits!! My students would never be able to access this museum without this technology. 

I could also use a website like MetaSteps to do a class project where I guide them through creating a museum of our class. 

I am not quite sure which idea I want to choose! I will think about both and their impacts on the students I teach. I want to choose the one that will be most applicable to my kindergarten students for the upcoming year. 

I feel inspired by my belief that all students deserve an equitable educational experience and watching the videos made me streamline my brainstorming process. I was influenced by Anaiz's project from 2025 because her project was directly related to kindergarteners and the unique struggles that they face being totally new to school and that became a jumping off point for me when I was brainstorming. 

AI Response

 My personal relationship with AI is that I don't have one. I'm a never AI person. 

Here's a screenshot from my google history from today:

I avoid AI at all costs and find myself judging others for using it. I hate that AI has become unavoidable. 

I have three main reasons I am against AI: The climate, theft, and our human spirit. 

AI data centers are terrible for our environment and are taking the place of parks and homes. They use millions of gallons of water per day. The article I linked also describes how everyday people are paying higher energy bills, while the wealthy making these AI centers are profiting in a huge way. 

Secondly, AI steals from work made by humans, often creators and artists. I believe that this theft is simply unethical. Artists and creatives should be paid for their work. Full stop. This peer-reviewed article explains how AI is theft. 

Finally, I believe that using AI takes the soul out of us, especially when we use it for creative pursuits. To be human is to engage in thinking and be present in the world. A machine cannot make something a human can. A machine cannot make something that reflects your personal experience. It cannot make something with heart. 

Teaching is a profession that requires your heart and soul. I feel it would be unfair to my students to deny them my heart. 

While reading the Ferlazzo article, I found myself literally making a face, especially when I read the phrase "creativity isn't limited to master artists". I found this phrasing to be very problematic when it comes to AI. Creativity has never BEEN limited to master artists. We are creative every day in our own unique ways. We don't need a machine to make stolen art for us. Maybe our art isn't perfect, but isn't that what makes it ours?

I resonated much more with the Gallant and Rettinger reading. I particularly enjoyed the quote, "Every time educators help a student learn authentically, that student will contribute to the beliefs of peers and potentially influence their behavior toward integrity." (23) I saw a connection here with what we talked about re: Pierson and the importance of building relationships with students. My goal as teacher is to build within students an appreciation for the process of learning, not just the end result. In my opinion, using AI takes the joy and humanity out of that process. 

Prensky and Spiegel Response

I find myself aligning much more with Spiegel's beliefs than with Prensky's. Yes, children now grow up surrounded by technology, but (exactly as Spiegel says) we cannot assume, as Prensky does, that they know how to use this technology safely, respectfully, and in a manner that advances their critical thinking and learning. Not all students have the same modeling at home about how to engage with technology. I believe that as educators we have the responsibility to teach about technology before we teach with technology. 

This is how I view these steps:

We have to value what students know and  introduce them to something new when we teach them about technology. Books themselves are a new version of tech that students may engage with. We start there and then we broaden, with safety and rules that not all children have at home. Spiegel believes that we cannot categorize people by when they were born, like Prensky does, but rather how they use technology. I agree that this terminology is much more accurate as everyone born in the same generation has deeply unique experiences. I hear Prensky saying that all youth have the same experience with technology, while Spiegel makes room for varied levels of experience and knowledge. I especially resonated with how Spiegel used the word navigate. Rather than dictating what students must do, we guide them and help them to navigate using technology in an educational manner. While Prensky emphasizes using mostly technology in classrooms, Spiegel acknowledges the value of using both traditional and new technology, such as books and computers. I believe that digital native is an out-dated term because it assumes a similar experience of an entire generation. While I agree that generations have some experiences in common, we cannot assume that a generation is a monolith, especially as we all have differences between our uses of technology that might correlate with where we grew up, our socio-economic class, the religion that we were raised in, and many other factors. I tend to disagree with terms that I feel to be generalizations of a very broad experience, and I feel that digital native tends to serve to generalize an entire generation, which makes it much more difficult for teachers to go in with a mindset of meeting a set of extremely varied needs. 

I also feel compelled to include a link to the presentation that I use to teach my students basic internet safety during school when we are just starting to introduce it to them!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1y3cEwem2SSSgsydsrRGr3eWQ5ycZ736zQBKEnk8YeWY/edit?usp=sharing

Introduction

 Hi! My name is Daniel (she/her). I work at the Segue Institute for Learning as a kindergarten literacy teacher. I love to read and listen to ALL types of music, especially classic rock. I went to Hamilton College where I majored in French and Government, focusing on anti-colonial theory and literature. I am also a member of Teach for America and I have a cat named Disco :)

Below are some pictures of my cat and people that are important to me <3