Owning the Learning

This past year I really made a push for students to come up with their own projects in contents areas in a way that would connect the necessary outcomes in learning with their own passions.  I tried to encourage the ability to submit their work in multiple ways though I found most preferred to simply work in google slides.  This year I will be working with the class so that, as a team, we can generate a plethora of submission possibilities.  That being said, the other issue I found was students simply finding information on line and posting it to their slide shows.  They did this without fully understanding the information, the connections to curriculum, and the connections to the world.  In short they did not own the learning.
The dead give aways were:

• words that were unknown to the students and pronounced improperly.  
• Students with their backs to the audience while they struggled to read the text to us.
• students unable to expand on, or even truly explain the information in their projects.

To combat this, I did not allow more than 7 words per slide, and I highly encouraged cue cards (written with cues, rather than full prose).  This was a good start, but I feel I need to develop the concept of owning one's learning.

To own your learning you have to: 

• understand all the words you are using.  
• be able to offer proof to support your thinking.
• integrate information, pictures, videos, etc. from multiple sources
• credit your sources
• be able to expand on your thinking making further connections to the world.
• share your information with a given audience (preferably the world)
• answer all reasonable questions given by the those in the audience.
• work without reading from prompts
• have rehearsed your presentation

The ideas students present do not necessarily need to be new and unique.  Students must, however, be fully able to discuss them and bring them to an audience for them to be owned.

Notes In Science

I have been trying to figure out the best way for my grade sevens to receive Science notes.  I have had classes where they write them from the white board.  Others where we create them as a class.  I began to upload them to D2L and expected that they would download them for class.  Most recently I have put fill in the blanks style on D2L and only have them up for the week that that lesson was done.  My intention was to force students to be responsible for the work by going into D2L each week and downloading what they need.  I feel as though those students who were already independent learners with initiative were completing this task but others were not.  Now many are left without the proper notes to review in advance of a unit test.  I am feeling a little frustrated, as though I am doing all of the work.
I am still searching for something that works better.

On another front, I have found that for presentation and projects the bulk of my students are using Google slides, and reading most of the text right from the slide.  Often it is as though they are seeing the words for the first time.  With the current project, I put a limit of 5 words per slide or cue card.  My hope is that it will force them to truly understand what it is that they are talking about during their presentation.
Let's hope for the best.

Working Ahead of the Class

I have been trying to find a balance with teaching math to students who are at a variety of levels.  To further complicate matters, they have different learning styles.  As I reflected back on my own experience as a student in the intermediate grades I remembered my grade eight teacher who let a friend and me work ahead at our own pace.  I was incredibly motivate to stay ahead of the class, and probably worked twice as hard as I would have if I had been forced to work at the classroom pace.
I decided to allow my students who had achieved at a level four range for the latest unit get an outline of the upcoming unit and work at their own pace.  I felt that it would allow me more time to work with those who were struggling.  Right away, those not invited to participate were upset (even in tears).  I felt terrible about it.  I had tried this new format hoping that it would help everyone.  Curiously, many of those who were not invited to move ahead got a copy of the work from a friend and were determined to show me that they could work at their own pace too.
Beginning the next unit, I decided to give everyone a copy of the outline.  I told them that the conditions were that if they worked ahead, they could only ask me questions when I was done a given lesson and when those on the current lesson were comfortably working.  I found lessons went far more quickly, students came prepared with a question or two that was troubling them.  I had far more time to work with individuals and pairs at the white board.  Many students even completed sections that were not assigned, in order to improve.  The unit was Algebra, which I have found in the past to be tricky for many kids.  I believe that the test that the class just finished is perhaps the best one the class has written overall.  About half achieved a solid level four.  The bulk of the rest were in the high level three range.  I am still fine tuning how to allow freedom and teach a lesson.  I am worried that the excitement may wear off, but I remember how driven I was to work at my own pace.  I have begun this next unit having given them the outline.  I look forward to seeing the results.

Student Blogging

When was your last awesome day?  Mine was today!  My students have been blogging this year in our classroom blog.  After they have had time to edit a piece I have them each read, and comment, on another student's posts.  I have asked them to refer to the success criteria when commenting.  They are looking for things such as a variety of sentences, literary devices, and bumped up words.  It was truly inspiring today when I read through the comments that they had given each other and the overwhelming majority had done an incredible job.  After showing my teaching partner some of the comments she said to me that it sounded like what she would write as descriptive feedback.  The students were so positive with each other, but also gave great constructive feedback.  What a wonderful way to learn from each other!  When a student realizes that another person has not used a wide variety of sentence types it causes them to reflect upon their own work and improve it.  On the other side, when they read things that other students do well, it allows them to learn from what others are doing.
Overall, this positive feedback really made my day today.  My heart was smiling.  It is so inspiring to see young people use social media so well to affect positive results. Way to go class!!!

10 Day Digital Challenge

As I have progressed through the digital 10 day challenge I have had the opportunity to reflect on the ways in which I am, and am not using technology in my class, and my own professional development.  I find myself a part of a significant change in education.  Our students are using technology every day, and they are carrying small computers in their pockets that we force them to lock away at school.  We are afraid of the technology, and most parents do not know enough about what their kids are doing with technology.  We all need to move beyond our fears, and we need to embrace the power that technology offers.  We can not hit kids over the head with rules, and then go back to paper and pencil worksheets (as Tanya Avrith suggests).  If we get kids using technology wisely and powerfully to transform the world they will see the power of positive use.  It is unfortunate that most of us are limited by our upbringing in a different era.  I myself often struggle to even imagine what I can do.  I don’t know, what I don’t know.  Connecting with people who want to move forward, and learn is the first step.  We then just have to continually take risks and learn.  That type of risk taking will help us to become good leaders who set the example for our staff and students.  As a leader in a school I need to ensure that the staff that is willing to try new things feels empowered, encouraged and enabled to do so.  I need to let them lead from the middle and not fear failure.  Even when things go wrong, pushing the boundaries is important to moving education forward.  I have to ensure that they have the tools they need and the ability to attend the workshops and conferences that will move them forward in their learning.  I know I will encouraged them to share their learning with the staff (perhaps in small steps - with the most ready to change being inviting to learn and grow).  I need to constantly remind myself that for both staff and students ‘Targets and parameters are the opposite of what works.  The freedom to think and experiment is what sparks creativity and knowledge.’ (paraphrase of Simon Breakspear).  I need to encourage my staff to be open to one another in sharing what they know.  As educators we need to open our doors to our colleagues.  We can not be insular any longer.  Not only should we be sharing our best practices within the building but we should be sharing them with the world.

Taking to Twitter

Taking to Twitter

The first three times I signed into Twitter were spread over the course of almost two years. To put it simply, I thought it was stupid. After all, this was a forum for anyone to state their opinion in 140 characters or less. I noticed that tweets that followed news items presented a plethora of unoriginal opinions about the topic.
It wasn't until about my fourth try that I made a discovery. If I followed the right groups and people, Twitter was a powerful tool. I found out that though Twitter was capped at 140 characters, the blogs and articles that connected to it were not capped. I found that in 140 characters people could give a hint as to the content of a given article. If that topic interested me, all I had to do was click the tweet and I was magically taken to information of interest. As I started to be selective in who and what I followed I found myself drawn into a world where connected learners were talking to each other and sharing cutting edge information regarding the world of education.
Yes on the fourth try I became an addict. If you have tried twitter and thought it was stupid, try, try again. I recommend following edugains and George Curous to get started. Best of luck.

Getting Connected

Getting Connected
Why am I trying to get connected?
The last 15 years of education have seen vast changes. We have not only had to adjust to new curriculum, but the foundations themselves are shaking. If we ignore the power of social media and connected learning then we do so at our peril. As Daniel Pink suggests, we cannot just make tweaks to adjust to the new learners and learning, but we must in fact shift operating systems. Just like when computers systems make patches to accommodate upgrades at some point whole new systems need to be created. Our education system has stood virtually unchanged in well over a hundred years. As educators we no longer need to be the possessors of knowledge. As any of our students know access to a world of information is at their finger tips. They can find the answers in seconds to things that perplexed us for years (I am thinking of how my son watched youtube videos to learn how to solve a rubik's cube). No, the issue now is how to sort through an exhaustive amount of info (good and bad). We must be the co-learners, the askers of questions that push learning to the next level.
How do we teach our students to be effective investigators when they are accessing tools we did not grow up with? The answer is simply - we need to learn how! Ask yourself, are you an effective Googler? At a digital literacy conference I was at this Summer, Alan November made me realize I was not a great researcher. A goal for myself is to become much better in this regard. We have to open our minds to things like youtube and other learning tools research. Importantly, we can also use these to connect our students the world Audience. Let them make DIY videos, and write blogs; have them connect to others around the world. Let's get away from lessons with no outcome other than memorization and move toward a school space that challenges our kids to take on, and change the world.