Rambling Reflections

“Education is not the filling of a vessel, but the kindling of a flame.” – Socrates

From Chrissy at Teaching Sagittarian comes this:

The video itself is by Bill Farren. He’s an educator in the Dominican Republic blogging at Education for Well-being. His message is quite simple:

The purpose of education should be to create well-being.

• We should educate in way that places personal well-being at the center of all educational decision-making.
• We cannot achieve personal well-being without also simultaneously promoting economic well-being, social well-being, and
  environmental well-being.
• We must strive to understand the relationships between personal, economic, social and environmental well-being.

Just over a week ago I attended a 2 day workshop run by Jay McTighe at Waikato University. There were over 100 educators in attendance and the venue, the Performing Arts Centre was superb. Most of the people were there with at least one other person from their school, I was one of the few on my own – something I always dislike as it’s much better to have someone with the same ‘school understandings’ to share ideas with.

Most of us had purchased Jay’s workbook which is an accompaniment to his book —-I have been dabbling with some of the ideas of Backward Design or Understanding by Design for a couple of years, having been introduced to the concept through a GATE course. For me, this was the chance to put the ideas I had about this way of planning into practice, and that was certainly what we did.

I had obviously missed an important email stating that we needed to have some ideas for a unit that we would plan on the day, so I was frantically thinking of ideas while Jay was introducing the overall concept of this planning design. Thank goodness for the workbook – this had plenty of ideas even if most were very American! Thankfully I came up with something useful, Fact or Opinion, which I will develop further to use with my class next year to get them to be more discerning when researching.

For me this was a very worthwhile 2 days and I am really thankful that at least one person from our school was able to attend this ‘international’ workshop – we don’t get a lot of overseas speakers in the Waikato although I have been to workshops with Ewan McIntosh and Sharon Freisen this term, and one of those in my own school!

Today I have just completed my first after school workshop with interested teachers at my school going through Stage One of UbD. I have set them ‘homework’ of designing their own unit of work for next year. We will meet again next Tuesday and critique each others plans and look at designing the assessment performance task (Stage 2). I am definitely not an expert in this but felt it was important to get other staff on board so that we are all learning together.

For me, and the other teachers who attended today’s workshop, the important thing is that this way of planning focuses us much more on what we want students to understand (not just teaching knowledge content) and focuses us clearly on how we will assess this understanding its transference to other areas etc. As I am in charge of assessment in the school I have become increasingly concerned at our assessment of skills rather than understanding or application.

I am looking forward to seeing what teachers, myself included, come up with in their first trial UbD plan.

I know that Dana Huff has also been using UbD for planning and has a wiki based on this. If anyone else has links that would help us in our learning journey, I would be really grateful to receive them.

BTW If you get the chance to attend a workshop on UbD and run by Jay McTighe, jump at the chance. I loved the way he introduced each new session (after each break) with humorous slides, quotes, sayings etc.

After this workshop I have another date booked in my 2008 calendar and that is attend a workshop with Carol Ann Tomlinson – Differentiated Learning and UbD. The book has already been ordered!

Caution: This is going to be a rather long rambling!

As a classroom teacher I have been concerned for a while about the ‘power’ of blogging with my students. While they all initially embraced the idea of blogs and were quick to set up their own, the initial enthusiasm seems to have ‘worn off’. I have found myself almost ‘forcing’ them to make a blog post in order to keep the initial momentum going. With my other hat on, lead teacher for developing E-Learning in my school, I have to wonder how I can convince other teachers about blogging if my own class are somewhat apathetic about them!

After reading Anthony’s first post, Putting My Feet In, on his blog Teacher Paradigm, I again questioned the use of blogs by my students. Anthony says:

“I began to learn more and more about these tools called wikis and blogs. As I learned more about them and their potential to motivate and further engage students in their learning, I knew that I had to make them a part of my teaching repertoire. These after all are the tools my students are using outside of my classroom today, and these are the same tools that will remain a large part of their personal lives and professional future. I figure that if I want to remain relevant as a teacher to my students, I had better learn these technologies, be prepared to revolutionize my teaching methods, and evolve my current teaching philosophies and beliefs about student learning.”

This really called into question what was happening with my students – they are not not really using these tools outside the classroom.

Then I read a reply by Joanna, who seemed to echo my sentiments:

“I’m a teacher librarian at a year 7 – 10 school in Melbourne (not Florida). I actually wonder whether kids DO use blogs in their own time, as you say in your post. My son, 14 yo, doesn’t although he knows I do. I’m starting my first student blog at school, getting my feet wet too, learning as I go, but is it me imposing another thing on students?”

That is exactly what I feel I am doing, imposing something else on my students! Anthony’s reply to this was interesting,

“I wouldn’t say that we as teachers are “imposing” another thing on our students as much as I would say that we are better “customizing” our teaching style to fit our learners. Our kids spend so much of their time outside of school being involved in social networks such as MySpace and Facebook that I think few of them are going to have as difficult a time adjusting to the use of blogs like we teachers might. Remember how we use to laugh at our parents for not being able to set the timer on the VCR? It seemed like such an easy and simple thing to figure out as a kid, but to my mother, you might as well have asked her to design a rocket that could go to the moon.”

Is coercing students to use blogs really the way to go? I have tried ‘customising’ my teaching style to fit my students but the ‘blogging’ aspect just hasn’t been a success. Yes, the students are really keen to have ‘hands on, meaningful, interactive experiences’ with a range of Web 2.0 tools and love integrating a variety of multimedia tools in classwork but getting them to use their blogs as a natural form of expression seems to be a long way off.

Feeling a bit of a failure with this whole blog thing, last week I asked my students why it was such a chore to add posts themselves. Most were quite vocal saying that they would rather use Bebo as that is where they chat with their friends about things. They did qualify their thoughts, saying that what they put on Bebo they would be happy putting on their school blogs but they found Bebo suited them better.

They also commented that nobody but other class members reads their blogs anyway. (Is our ‘isolation’ from the main blogging world part of this?) I think that this may be the crux of the problem. We have tried leaving comments on other student blogs (overseas) which for two students has resulted in a basic comment dialogue between them, and Chris Harbeck has left comments on most blogs. In fact Chris has become a sort of mentor for a couple of students in the class! Thanks Chris.

But, if students are going to continue blogging they have a need to know that their ‘work’ is being read by people other than their classmates.

To conclude my ramblings I have two questions:

1.How do I get students using blogs as a natural expression of their thoughts, concerns etc? As an aside I need to mention that these students are all very capable written communicators but it is not always their favourite form of expression!

2. If this happens, how can we widen our ‘reading community’?

BTW, One interesting outcome of all this is that three students have spent this weekend leaving quite thoughtful comments on others blogs and have also blogged about news items which concern them – all this of their own doing.

Maybe I just need to continue persevering and bribing them to create posts and hopefully this will be rewarded with greater personal interest from the students.

From Drape’s Takes comes two great links; both are well worth a visit.

I think it’s fantastic when teachers continue to learn. When teachers continue as learners, additional life is added to the classroom. A perfect example of life-long learning can be found in my colleague, Bonnie Muir.As many of you know, we (as Technology Curriculum Specialists in the Jordan School District) create podcasts for teachers. In the beginning, Kelly Dumont and I took the reigns and cranked out several podcasts in a row. Since we had a little prior experience in creating such materials, it wasn’t extremely difficult for us to accomplish the task. What is old hat for some, however, is completely new material for others.

Needless to say, however, Bonnie has really taken this by the technological horns. In only a few weeks, she has turned into a podcasting pro. Her latest episodes show that she has truly come into her own (thankfully, she has created episodes 17-20, giving Kelly, Margo, and I time to work on other projects – Margo Shirley, the fourth member of our team has been busy enough with the JSD Comprehensive Balanced Literacy web site).

So, if you haven’t given them a try yet, I highly recommend them (http://t4.jordandistrict.org/podcasts). Most of the episodes are geared toward teachers with little or no technology skill, but there are one or two in there geared toward even the high-end user.

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If you’re worried that your students are not ready for Inquiry Learning, or that they are just not getting it, you need to read the Edutopia article mentioned in this post from Jeffrey Lackney.

At Auburn Early Education Center students, nearly 500 five-year olds, are doing thematically-based projects and getting into it! If five year olds can excel with PBL why doubt this instructional method with older students?Read the Edutopia article, “Beginning the Journey: Five-Year-Olds Drive Their Own PBL Projects” by Ken Ellis and view a video of kids moving through various projects at the Center to see how engaged they can become!

As Ellis reports: “At this award-winning kindergarten learning center, shared with a special-education preschool, the students decide what projects they want to tackle, and teachers guide them to resources, on the Internet and in books, that help them create something from what they learn. Whether they’re building an airplane or a cruise ship, or conducting a funeral for the class praying mantis, AEEC students are learning more than basic facts and skills. They are acquiring a taste for the process of lifelong learning.
“These kids have a very authentic, real purpose for learning,” says AEEC principal Lilli Land. “When you want to find something out, what do you do? You go to the computer, you get on the Internet, you get a book. You don’t go to an adult and just have them feed you all the information. You have to learn to be a problem solver; you have to learn to be resourceful. So we teach them to be lifelong learners, and you have to keep them excited about the process of learning.”

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I began the school year thinking that all students would have a page on our class wiki for their English work – in fact I set up a page for each of them. But things changed … during the first term and as the students began to get more written work completed we had a class discussion re wiki or blog. It emerged that some students wanted to set up their own ’school blog’ and post their English work on it. I began setting up learner blogs for those that wanted one – about half the class at that stage. Since then I have continued setting up these blogs so that all but 6 students now have their own ’school blog’.

It has been great to see the enthusiasm that the students have shown in these blogs and the eagerness to get work posted on them. My original idea was that the wiki or the blog (as it now turns out) was to be a trial e-portfolio. I think this can work but I do have some questions.

I can leave comments on their work but I feel I have to be really careful so that comments are not misunderstood by others. I don’t feel that I can replace the written feedback I give to students via the criteria rubric sheet. I guess until I can sort this out I am really duplicating things and almost really making more work for myself!

I have alos noticed quite a few mistakes in the students’ published work, even after 2 or 3 edits. Do I worry about this or will the students themselves learn to take greater care when they fully realise how far reaching the audience for their work could be?

There are a lot of advantages in using the blog as the storage for the students’ work – we can now embed any audio, multimedia etc that they have done instead of printing off PowerPoint slides (as we have done in the past). Their work can be easily shared with parents and others interested in the student’s work.

I’m sure that once I sort out the assessment these blogs will the primary focus for our work in English. I would love comments from others who have used student blogs for this type of thing.

I had already read the article when I came across this post from Allanahk, Life is not a race to be first finished, and have decided that it really does need to be shared around.

I came across an interesting article by Pro Bronson in the New York Mag about how we often go about praising children- how when we praise them for their achievements we are actually doing them a great dis-service.
It is well worth a read and makes (to me) some worthwhile points to remember as I head towards the next school term.

The article talks about how children who are so often praised for their perceived ability in a particular skill often give up easily when faced with new challenges, while those who are praised for their effort and processing ability are so much more able to meet challenges full on and do significantly better.

“I am smart, the kids’ reasoning goes; I don’t need to put out effort. Expending effort becomes stigmatized—it’s public proof that you can’t cut it on your natural gifts.”

Telling kids they’re clever all the time does no-one any good!

The article is well worth reading and even printing off to share with others in your school.

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I have just read a post from Wesley Fryer,Collaboration in schools: More reasons we need it, in which he discusses the need for schools and teachers to get involved in collaborative work. This is what I am trying to get teachers to think about as I am introducing the ‘inquiry process’ to them as part of our ministry contract. 

Wes’s discussion is centered on an interview in the May 2007 issue of Wired Magazine with Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt.

Note his language: “..the best model remains small teams running as fast as they can and tolerating a certain lack of cohesion.”
This connects directly to what we need to see MORE in the classroom, but many classroom teachers (as well as building administrators) don’t feel comfortable with: The noise/hum of collaborative learning and discussion. Teachers are often not comfortable “letting go” of the sense of control they have when lecturing to a largely silent classroom of listeners. The lesson here is that the business world does not merely want to hire listeners and fact regurgitators, but rather thinkers who can collaborate, “run fast” and create innovative ideas which reflect both higher level thinking as well as creativity.

I had always considered that I was reasonably good at having students work cooperatively and collaboratively in my classroom but it was not until last year when I had them working long term (8 weeks) with the same group of students on a collaborative project that I realised the power of this and that all students need to experience and learn the skills needed to work together on a common goal. Many of my students initially struggled with working with someone other than their ‘mate’ but soon realised that you don’t have to be best friends but that you do need to work together to achieve the task set.

I now have my students working in teacher selected groups as much as possible and it’s been amazing to see the positive change in their attitudes towards this way of learning.

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I didn’t blog about the original or the revised version of Karl Fisch’s, Did You Know. Now there is a newer version out.

From Chris Harbeck: There is a recent “Did You Know” mashup. Original Video created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Howie DiBlasi. -Modified for Florida Educational Technology Conference. 21st Century Learning ,Global Economics and The Information Age. Technology Information & Global information- Developed for Educational Presentations…

I like the last few minutes of this movie and for what it says about todays students…. and educators. My recent experience with students and letting them have control over their product makes me firmly believe as I paraphrase David Warlick

Students need to be amplifiers of knowledge not mirrors reflecting back what we teach.

I have been following the blog posts from Chris Harbeck for a while now. He’s a Canadian Maths teacher who integrates ICT into all he does with his students. You can check out his blog and his class web site here.

His students have just finished a project on Fractions – called the Great Fraction Unproject. Check out his teacher thoughts on the project here. Have a look at the students’ finished work at spfractions. There is some amazing stuff here, well worth a look. Congratulations to you Chris and your students for such innovative ideas with Maths and technology tools.

After looking at the work of several of these students I’m thinking of using some of the ideas with my ‘top’ students during our work on fractions and percentages this term. I often have difficulty sustaining the interest of these top kids , especially when they appear to have all the skills and knowledge with these concepts. So maybe I can set them something like Chris’s Unproject.

As an added extra, during their time spent on this work some students discovered a new web 2.0 tool, spresent, which is also worth checking out. An advance on PowerPoint maybe?

Here are two examples of what this app can do.

http://816math.blogspot.com/2007/04/charmaine-and-julies-wiki-project.html

http://841math.blogspot.com/2007/04/un-project.html

A recent RSS feed reminded me about this site which I have visited and used in the past. It has some good resources (pdf format) that are useful for using in your writing programme.

The site is Teaching That Makes Sense