Category: beginner

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Teacher/Researcher

 

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 Some rights reserved by Ken Whytock

This week I’m starting my professional doctorate. Exciting times for sure. During our introduction to the process we discussed what it meant to be a teacher/researcher.

Many of us follow curriculum or try to implement pedagogy. But not many of is (myself included) actually look at what it is like to be a teacher/researcher. To be both at one time, to teach and practice working with the students, but also to try to do new things, document that practice and then share our findings.

This goes on a little bit from my last post about the importance of sharing. I’ve been thinking a lot about the process of learning, the how and reasons behind what we learn. When I think of the importance of sharing, or publishing, I wonder why (other than the perception of time) so few of us engage in this practice.

We have blogs, twitter and other forms of social media designed to make the practice of sharing our findings easier.  I wonder why we don’t all actively share what we are doing in our class. Why do we not think of ourselves as researchers?

My methods class and focus on curriculum is starting this week. I’ve done most of the readings, and it is sparking a renewed passion for learning. I consistently think of myself as a learner, but sadly as someone who mostly consumes. I’m excited to act more through this process and research intentionally and purposefully.

One of our guest lecturers talked about the decline in the perceived importance of academe in North America.  There is a distinction and at times a fear (?) of people who dedicate their lives to knowing and researching. I wonder where these thoughts come from, how were they (socially?) constructed and how we can move more people to actively research in their classrooms.

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The importance of rest and reflection

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I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the importance of resting for reflection (maybe because the holidays are coming up?). Also a couple of weeks ago when we did our presentation, one of the teachers talked about the importance of giving students time (for learning on their own, but now I’m also thinking for reflection).

I know personally that for me holidays need to be restful. I need to take time and sit on the couch so I can think and reflect about what’s been happening and how to improve. I need the time to actually create headspace and wonder about how to improve.  This can’t be something I do in school, or something forced, it needs to be time intensive.

I guess for me, I’ve been wondering if I know this to be true to me, and I suspect it to be true of most people, then when do our students get this.  When do they have a chance to authentically reflect (not just reflect for me, or for learning, or for something else). My new year’s goal is to make sure they have some time to think.

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Learning groups

 

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 Some rights reserved by William M Ferriter

 

At school we’ve been talking about the importance of creating our own learning experiences.  We’ve been wondering about how we can make ourselves better as professionals and some of us have put together a learning group.

I ask my students this pretty frequently, “Can learning ever happen in isolation?”. Is there anything we can learn that doesn’t build on anything. Can we come up with ideas on our own?

I think most quality learning experiences happen when people are having fun in groups. We learn more when we’re happy, we learn more when we can bounce our ideas off other people and correct our thinking in real time.

Our learning group is going to be focused on the individual. What do people want to get better at, how will they show that knowledge, how do we get to the next steps together.  I’m looking forward to this journey.

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Is independence killing community?

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 Some rights reserved by JameEz Photogr

I led a PD yesterday on inquiry. When I’m working with a new group of people I usually start off by asking, do you know who this man is?

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Usually the answer is no.  They figure he has something to do with track.  The answer is Glen Mills, Usain Bolt’s coach.  I start off this way because I want people to see you don’t have to be the best to teach the best. You have to be a good coach, you have to teach well, you have to want the best for someone else.

I ended off this particular PD with the idea “Do you want to be the best teacher or do you want to have the best learners?”

With teachers promoting themselves or their style (myself included) I wonder how that effects students? Like how does my being a Google Certified Educator benefit my students (other than having some useful skills, does that actual designation mean anything)? How does me collecting badges help my students? When I focus on myself, how does that effect the community?

If we believe that knowing is situationally constructed and socially constructed where is there value outside of a community?

I fully understand that people join these communities (Google Certified Educator, etc.) For reasons that might be different, they may want to join a passionate community to push the boundaries of what we can do. I’m just not convinced everyone joins for communal reasons.

When I relate this to my environmental thinking, it seems like very often we are selfish (surprise right) and that leads to environmental instability and change. Because we take what we want without thinking too much about how that effects the larger community (human or otherwise).

This week has been just focused on these thoughts. What do I implicitly and explicitly teach about independence and community and how can I focus on making my learners more community oriented. I think I’d rather work with someone for them to be the best rather than being the best myself.

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What is making?

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 Some rights reserved by Chanah’s Studio

Talking to people like @rangerridely  and @deir75 from the previous post (and over the years) we’ve wondered a lot about what making actually is, and how do we use these ideas in class.

As a digital literacy coach I’ve thought a lot about the idea of creation (and of course you need content to create) but the whole idea where students choose what they make.  Recently, especially during some of our more science based units, it seems like some teachers thing their students have to make something with “maker space parts”.  I’ve been trying to work this out for myself, but I think making something, regardless of the unit could be making anything.

A couple of years ago (or it seems like that anyway) I went to a workshop put on by The Nerdy Teacher. It was really interesting as he was an English teacher using the maker space idea.  He came from a place where he didn’t want twenty odd dioramas showing the same scene from a book. So he opened it up, and got submissions from street lamps to  boats.  He didn’t assess the product (or at least that’s what I remember him saying) he assessed the thinking behind the product and what that thing was important.

So I’ve been wondering if we take that point of view, how can we apply this to our new energy unit.  Do students really need to make something out of “maker space bits”? Could we make an art project about what we think this new energy world might look like? Could we make a movie about the perils of using non-renewable resources? Could we turn vegan and make ourselves new?

Any other ideas?

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Tracking Learning

 

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 All rights reserved by TheGraffitiHunters

This kind of comes from the last post about personalising learning. Some of the teachers and I have been using google forms for tracking student learning (specifically related to outcomes or standards), tracking anecdotal notes between classes, or just taking notes or images about how students are learning so we can adapt and work with them as best as possible.

The next step (for me I think anyway) is how can we put this in the hands of the learner.  How can we set goals with the students so they can track their learning and see their growth.  If we can make that growth visible and something to work towards, can we also start linking in other things?

I think I’m going to start with forms, have students set up a goal and then they can track it on something like Marzano’s four point rubric.original-858397-3

If they can use this to track their learning over time, they can look at specific learning goals and see how they’ve progressed and changed.

Any other thoughts?

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Learning Communities

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Some rights reserved by shareski

I’ve been thinking a lot about learning lately. Most of the time I hope teachers do, but the lsat week it’s been right at the forefront of my thinking.

My school has been talking more about personalised learning lately, and what that might mean at our school. At first I was really worried about this, not because I don’t believe in it, but as a digital literacy coach I could sense some anxiety from my colleagues.  How do we really create personalised learning? What does that mean, and how do we get to it?

This year, so far, the iTime experiment has been going really well.  Students are creating apps, making a siren, creating websites, making a stand for my ukulele, making some cars and many other things.  It’s interesting to see what the students have chosen to learn more about.  The hardest thing for us (as a learning community so far) is how do we authentically assess this.  We have a form which allows us to identify how we want to be assessed and how we think we are doing in regards to that and our project.  But it seems forced at the end, because it just doesn’t seem like it fits at that time. Next week I think I will have some conversations with them as they head towards self/peer assessment using these forms.

I think a lot of it goes back to the idea of time though, and how the idea of limited time, or a rushed curriculum can hinder someone’s ability to be really creative, or take risks.  I wonder how we as teachers, especially in a “competitive, international” environment can really make a move on this without a fear of repercussions.

Anyway, if you’re doing personlised learning, how do you do it? What area your tips?

 

 

 

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Change my view

 

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taken from: https://youarenotsosmart.com/2016/10/09/yanss-086-change-my-view/

I recently took to twitter about this.  I’ve been listening to this “You are not so smart” podcast and most of them are really great this one really got me thinking.

There is a community of people on reddit who willingly want their points of view changed. Last year I went to a conference where we talked about bad ideas and how to turn them into good ideas. My idea was bad decision or opposite decision app.  This podcast goes along the same idea.

My biggest wondering after this podcast was, how do we get people to the point where they want to change their view.  How can was as teachers get students to understand that their beliefs are theirs because of the things they know and the experiences they have had but they aren’t always “right”.

Another thing my wife and I really enjoyed was the ideas about how to changes someone’s mind who wants it changed. Previously they did a number of backfire effect episodes where they talked about how to change people’s minds who don’t want to change their minds.

I think the idea of brining people together who are open minded and wanting to change how and what they think can be really powerful. I want to get started created something like this.

 

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Getting into habits

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 Some rights reserved by -Curly-

Coming off of PD last weekend, it was put on by our school, and honestly probably the best our school has put on. The main take away for me is that we always need to be practicing to get better for our kids.

But, I guess, practice can get boring. I’ve been doing iTime for a year or so now, before when I was a classroom teacher I did it every week. For me, I guess it’s more routine than practice now, so I don’t really see teaching life without it.  I was talking to a colleague about iTime being a good practice session for the Exhibition.  Students have a chance to practice being independent, setting their own assessment criteria, guiding their own learning, and following a passion. However my colleague was worried about time, more specifically how long and boring the “practice time” could be.

It’s great to see different perspectives, we had a good conversation and I think we both learned a lot. The plus side for me is that with that conversation and the PD, over half my grade six team is now keen to do iTime.