Collaborative Headache?

I love collaborating with individuals that I believe are competent and knowledgeable.  There is almost never a time when I don't learn something valuable about how I go about things when I have these interfaces.  Now, the second part is this: I hate collaborating with individuals who honestly bring nothing to the table that is useful, or are completely benign in the process or they only like to hear their own voice.  Those experiences leave me frustrated and sometimes even upset.

That being said, I am sure students feel the EXACT same way often times when thrust into these types of situations by us teachers.  I know every time I say we are doing a group project, there is about 20% of my class that are holding their breath in virtual pain to see who "they got stuck with".  Why?  Because we as "good" teachers like to try to pair up our "good" students with our "not-as-good" students.  The looks on their faces is both priceless and sad at the same time.

Case in point: Last week I did this exact thing again for my Life Science class. Typically in the past, when I would "randomly" pull names out to put them in groups, I would always be sure that the top students were split up and that I didn't have close friends together in the same group.  Why did I ever do that?  That was completed ridiculous on my part.  In theory it makes sense, but the reality, it is a humongous headache for the teacher, a drain on the achievers, and a relatively un-engaged free ride for the loafers.  I put the groups together the way I wanted them this time (under the guise of, ahem, randomness) and I put achievers together and friends together.  The reaction was stunning.  Instead of frowns and eyeballs looking at the ground, I had huge smiles and quick discussions on what type of activity they were going to do.

I ask myself, "self, what does this do for the underachievers?"  It forces them to be responsible for their own work and I, as the educator, will be able to devote more of my time with them to have them feel engaged and responsible for their work and not get the free ride so many have had before.  The higher achievers will have an opportunity to work with A) someone they like and B) someone who shares their desire to put forth something excellent.  This is a win, win in my book.  I can't believe it took me 13 years to realize this.

I also believe that blogging will help with the monitoring of said projects as well.  This gives an opportunity for me to engage with the group as a whole and on an individual level as well.  I  can gauge how students are doing within the parameters of the project.  I believe a timeline of events needs to be present as well with clear guidelines by the group who is responsible for what that will be available for all to see (blog, google, etc).  Again, I believe this is another means for helping all students involved in the process.

 I believe this can be an unbelievable breakthrough for me in my classroom.  Group assignments in the past were dreaded by students and also yours truly.  Yes, I did them because I believe in the concept of them, but the execution usually fell flat.  As I move away from this course and into the beginnings of summer, I can see clearly now how my classroom will be vastly different next year.  I am already planning on doing things differently than I have ever done before, but I believe for the better.  There will be intentional opportunities for a more collaborative classroom and a more harmonized working environment for the students.  I look forward to this.

Totally Sweet Storytelling

I absolutely loved this project.  It was so easy and fun to do and I can't wait to create another one.  Going into this, I was nervous that it would be challenging, but wow, so many different options are available right at your fingertips. Beyond school, I can see many applications for this.  I certainly see it as a marketing tool for our school.  It can also be used in a church setting.  Thanks for the assignment Prof. Wallace.  I loved it.  I hope you all enjoy it.

Digital Storytelling

This is another example of finding something that I truly love and would love to do more of in my classroom.  One of the largest obstacles I see is the time element.  To produce something of quality and informatively accurate (to prevent even minor mistakes like the one on the Pythagorean Video at 5:21), time is going to be needed. This is where working together with other teachers and their curriculum is critical for having the ability to implement all these ideas within a curriculum.  By collaborating with other teachers within a school (and I believe Adventist schools have the ability to do this more than public schools), one may be able to incorporate more of this inter the overall curriculum.

In terms of math and science, I could see many different uses and applications for digital storytelling.  Newton, Pythagoras, Archimedes, and Mendel could all be tackled over the course of a school year.  Like so many other topics covered in this class this year, this excites me greatly, but also makes me feel a bit overwhelmed.  I can't help but think, "OK, how am I going to make this work?"

This video on Geometry in Art and Architecture is one that I plan on using in my Math Lab class.  As I was watching it, I was coming up with ways I could utilize this for my class.  So many of my students have difficulty with concrete relationships with the concepts that are presented.  This type of project may appeal to those artistic types within my group.  We could even do it with an incentive of sorts by going to the mall and checking out the geometry there.  They could have lunch at the food court as a "reward" of sorts.

The video on the History of Mathematics is a perfect example where a collaborative effort between myself and the History teacher could come into play.  One aspect could focus on the historical relevance and the other aspect could focus on mathematical concepts from those historical figures.  It could be a fun endeavor in which to try.

The other aspect of this that I can't help but think about from my other "role" as Principal is this would be fantastic for my lower grade teachers to utilize as well.  I can easily see some of my 5th/6th graders just "rocking" this type of project.  My 3rd/4th graders would have a blast.  Even my 1st/2nd graders would be more than willing to take something like this one for their classroom.  Hmmm, I see this being a topic of discussion at a staff meeting soon.  :o)

Utilizing RSS to the Max

Sometimes in life, you do things you had no idea that you were doing them.  This has certainly been the case with me and RSS.  For many moons, I ignored the orange RSS button on pages for two reasons, I didn't really know what it was and I really didn't care.  Or, so I thought was the case.  Fact is, with my personal MyYahoo account, I had in fact been using this technology without really knowing it.  Frankly though, the MyYahoo account has been getting less and less "airtime" from me in the past few months.  I spend almost all my time getting fully indoctrinated into the Google ranks (when I am not using GoodSearch to raise money for my school).  With that, I figure now is as good a time as ever to dive headfirst in with Google Reader (pictured above) Initially, I can say to you that I love it.  I do see pitfalls though.  First off, I don't have a lot of time in the course of a day and when I go to sites or blogs that I love, I tend to want to stay there.  Whereas before, I had to take an extra step or two to get to these sites for my personal reading pleasure, now, it is all right there.  Ugh, not sure I absolutely love or loathe this fact.

As I am thinking about this further though, it excites me when it comes to my students and there classroom (of course there are issues, but I will have to figure those out, such as # of computers, over-digitalization of students, etc)  Up-to-date interactions with science on a daily or quasi-daily basis would be fantastic for my students.  I am able to pull from the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences  as well as just about any other kind of science I can think of very easily and thus allowing the students to parcel out what areas within those sciences interests them most.   Integrating this technology to the curriculum does sound a bit daunting, but I feel it can be done in a meaningful and powerful way.

I'm going to admit, initially, I didn't see much use in podcasts.  Most of my students along with myself are visual as well as auditory learners and podcasts seem like they could be a bit boring.  Then I listened to some 60-second science from the iTunes podcast center and they are interesting.  Short, sweet, interesting and to the point.  I could easily have my students listen to one of these a day and give them a short "quiz" over the material to be sure they are paying attention and then go about my day.  I love this.  As I was searching through the podcasts center though, again I said to myself; "uh oh, this could be real dangerous".  This is the type of thing that I can easily get caught up in, especially if on a topic that I am hyper interested in at the moment (i.e. NFL Free Agency).  My productivity could be crushed in a matter of a few podcasts.  But, if I am able to harness my self-control, these are amazing vehicles for my own personal professional development.  There is so much out there that I have just a scintilla of knowledge about that I could learn on my own time.  Extrapolating further though, I do have substantial expertise in areas in which I could create a podcast that could prove to be useful to someone else out there in the big bad world.

My first thought to Flickr was, "This should be easy to find stuff for my science classes" (example above)  As I continued to play around in Flickr, I was trying to think of ways to use this for my math classes.  I want to push my students beyond their comfort zones and relaying visual interpretations of material covered may be interesting, stressful (on me and my students), and ultimately rewarding.  I must play with this some more in my mind's eye before I take this leap.  While it could have huge payoffs, it could also cause me a trip to the mental ward at my local healthcare providing institution.  Any insight from you would be most helpful.

I'm not sure how I feel about Delicious just yet.  Having just tinkered with it for an hour or so, I'm not sure how I feel about the "features" of the site.  Do you really want people "all in your business" like this?  Hmm.  Need to explore more to see if this will be used by me.  My students?  Oh my, I am sure a large group of them would love this type of "sharing" among themselves.  It is remarkable how "unconcerned" they are about their privacy on any issue.  Is this a good thing?  Wait, that is a question for another day.

SAMR Model

Wow, this was awesome.  There are times when I come across something that inspires me that I have just got to stop and say "Wow".  Peuntedura's SAMR model has done just that.  Why is that?  I am glad I asked.

I view myself as a fairly "willing" teacher in many cases.  If I can see the benefit in something for my students, I am willing to give it a try.  Technology is a "can of worms" though.  Every piece of technology out there is supposed to be "the tool" to improve every child's education.  Fact is, that is not the case.  Coming to grips with that has been hard for me because I want to push my students academically, while pushing both myself and my students technologically.  This has been stunted by my realization that now all technologies are created equal and I need to come up with methods to use the technology available to enhance my student's education further. This has been brutal to find traction with.  Every time I start to feel "comfortable" with something, I am already passed by.  What have I learned from this presentation?  I was trying too hard.

I love how the model is broken up into 4 labels divided into two sub groups.  These sub groups are Enhancement, which includes Substitution and Augmentation and Transformation, which includes Modification and Redefinition.  I believe I have delved into all four labeled areas in my teaching without really realizing it (of course not, because this term is new to me).

Substitution is an easy one to identify.  While assigning "projects" (because the word term paper is too daunting) to my students, I would encourage them to find information about whatever their topic was on x number of sites and also find information in x number of non-digital sources.  Of course the adage "when I was a kid" would come up from me, then I would push and push them to not lose sight of the analog world and its importance.  Why?  All I was doing is having them substitute information that they could have more easily and readily gleaned from the internet and incorporated into their final project.  With the news this week of Encyclopedia Brittanica stopping the presses for the first time since the 18th Century, it has become even clearer to me that I was/am behind the times.  Has the written word in good old fashioned books passed us by?  I fear so.  If that is true, I need to be ready for the next challenge.

An example of Augmentation would be when I have a science class and I am going over certain material and we head to the computer lab.  While there, the students will have an assignment/task that takes on the material that is in the chapter from other sources that bumps up the understanding of the material.  The task is more of a dig approach where students are presented with Q&A's they are to glean from their books and website.

Modification and Redefinition are certainly areas in which I need to direct my focus.  I believe I have done some Modification though.  For example, I have done in the past a project where I would give the students a  picture of the human body from a 4th or 5th Grade science book/copy sheet.  We would then build off that sheet.  We would develop the body into a more complex organism with details added along the way.  When students would have a new steam of information they were exposed to, they would develop their bodies more.  Eventually, entire systems were created, entirely by the students.

I believe I have an example of Redefinition as well (which as I am thinking about this, I want to use this again, but now in the technological age, it could be so much better).  I wrote a one-page story about a man in his kitchen.  The story took into account light steaming into the window, cooking on the stove, oven on, water boiling, refrigerator running, salt on food, etc.  The students were to take that story and apply all the different Physical Science applications they could come up with.  They were able to use any resources they wanted (book, people, internet, etc) to have them complete this task.  While a bear to grade (took forever), it was one of the best assignments I ever came up with.

Point is through all this though is that I believe that my chapters/units can take on a whole new engagement level by incorporating these 4 teaching practices, while focusing on Modification and Redefinition (because this is where I believe there is more "bang for the buck").

Collaboration Project

As I read through this material, the word that strikes me over and over again is collaboration.  I pride myself as being someone who is open to new ideas, new principles, and new discoveries, but I feel I am “old school” when it comes to this concept.  This is something that I must combat or I am doomed as an educator.  The fact that there is twice as much knowledge now than there was 10 years ago and that in about 2 years, there will be twice as much knowledge as there is now is sobering to me.  I, not matter how hard I try, will not always have all the answers.  Knowing that, I have to make changes that allow my students to “teach” the teacher in many cases. 

So, with this is mind, I am going to delve into the world of wikis before the school year ends.  An example of how I will use this follows:

Life Science: Human Body Studies

Concept Map:  The class will develop a class-wide concept map of the human body.  This will be rather large and detailed as we progress further along.  That is a good thing.  After we have fleshed this out, I will assign four different groups that will be responsible for their developing 2 systems of the human body on our wiki.  Each student will also be responsible for contributing one point on every other body system that is being developed on our wiki.  Each of these pieces of information will have to be properly cited and verified by another source.

Within each systems material will include:

Composition of system

Health Issue

Proper Care

Spiritual Reference

Interactions with other systems

After the wiki is completed, a health professional (Dr, PA, Nurse, etc) will evaluate the wiki and give insight as to the thoroughness of the wiki and whether or not the wiki was “accurate”, “easy to read”, “thorough”, “insightful”, “informative”, “creative”, and ultimately “useful”.

Students will be assessed on their ability to work with others, how they are able to gather and make value decisions about what is appropriate and what is not, writing, accuracy, and other general themes that the students and I deem important.  I will guide each student through the maze of information that is accessible to the students and also provide any other support they may need to complete this task.  This project will be all of us working together to complete this goal and not just me assigning something and sending my troops into “no man’s land”.  I look forward to doing this.

21st Century Learning a Fad?

Wow, some powerful stuff going on in the educational world and I, for one, am excited, nervous and curious as to where this all leads.  Teaching methods have come and gone over the course of human history and it seems to the experienced teacher, there is a new fad each and every year.  This gets both tiresome and frustrating.  Tiresome, because we know that our Superintendents, however well meaning, will be jumping all over this new trend and “force” change among  their ranks.  It is frustrating, that maybe, just maybe, one of these new trends will actually be the “holy grail”, but will be missed, because teachers are ignoring this latest trend as just a fad.  That worries me and honestly, makes me pause when I hear something, that one its surface, sounds exciting and spot on, but hasn’t really had a vetting process.  21^st Century Skills sounds like a nice phrase, but is it really “different” from what good teachers have been doing in the past?  I am not convinced that it is.  It does have a nice catchy title though.  Something struck me as I was reading the proposal from Mr. Kay’s organization and it is something that I have been discussing and frustrated with for many years:

 

“Increasing the average number of years of schooling attained by the labor force

boosts the economy only when increased levels of school attainment also boost

cognitive skills. In other words, it is not enough simply to spend more time in

school; something has to be learned there.”

Agreed.  Here is my dilemma, does doing a full scale, frontal attack on current educational practices and replacing them with this new paradigm unto which all would be tied to going to address this statement?  I am not sure it does.  Foundational content is absolutely vital to a person’s understanding of the world around them.  Yes, working in small groups is important.  Problem solving is critical.  Interpreting information is paramount.  None of these are relevant though if a student does NOT have learned content unto which they can pull from.  Mr. Rotherham states:  “While students should leave school with more than just facts in their head, facts do matter, too. Content undergirds critical thinking, analysis, and broader information literacy skills. To critically analyze various documents requires engagement with content and a framework within which to place the information.”

How many times has a teacher in a classroom had a collaborative project in class and all the children are “working” together in an honest effort to accomplish the task only to have at the end, 1 or 2 individuals that really got anything at all from the task?  I venture to say, if we speak honestly, this happens a lot.  Now, was that assignment a waste of time?  NO!!!!  But, it could have been so much more if the unmotivated in the group would have spent more time learning the content of the project more and contributed in a more sustentative manner, instead of “riding the coattails” of others in the group.

Mr. Matthews shares a personal story that is very similar to the previous point in his past:

“My final exam would be applauded today by promoters of 21st-century skills. We had to plot a course on a Boston Harbor cruise ship, strategizing, analyzing, collaborating. I don't recall understanding any of what was going on, but I turned something in. As I expected, I got a good grade and a bachelor's degree, despite learning no science.”.

This is not out of the norm unfortunately, and as an educator, what I want more than anything else is a commitment from the students to give me their all, and I will promise them the same in return.  This, to me is the crux.  We have coddled young people for so long that they no longer take responsibility for their learning.  Instead, it has to be presented to them in some manner or fashion that is all but impossible to keep up with.  I am a huge proponent of technology within the classroom, but I also understand that a digital world is not the “be all, end all” in life.  I do believe there is a place for the analog in the world and that our young people need to be able to utilized that as well.  We need to round our children more and not specialize them more. 

Is the “21^st Century Skills” movement something that is here to stay?  Yes, the general principles behind the movement most certainly will be around for years to come.  I believe all these skills are necessary for the future, but how it is incorporated into the overall development of the young person is paramount.  Will the label “21^st Century Skills” be around for a long time?  Doubtful.

Pythagorean Theorem

On the Florida Educational site on iTunes U, I checked out there video for the "Pythagorean Theorem" and asked myself, why couldn't my students do something like this?  Then, I asked myself, how much time would it take for my students to do this.  I loved the simplicity of it and also realized that it fits right in with the mantra, the best learning comes from teaching.

Another thought comes to my mind on this as well, how long until the novelty wears off?  The new car smell goes away fairly quickly with teenagers and what worries me is that I will constantly have to be fighting the "I'm bored" syndrome over and over again.  Wait, I already do that don't I?  Hmm....

Mr. Winkle Awakes (Updated)

The process of embedding and of utilizing iTunes should not have been difficult.  I will say though that both too longer than they should have.  Even after watching the short video on embedding, I still was unable to do it the way the video showed.  I went a different direction and solved the problem.

The iTunes U download was a whole different story.  On my computer at school, there is no issue.  Everything worked fine.  At home though, the link we used to take us directly to the iTunes U download didn't work.  Everytime I clicked on it, it took me to the Apple Store website page.  I rebooted multiple times, I contacted the instructor, and I tried on my own to figure out the problem and was unable to do so. Eventually, Mr. Wallace sent me the 4 minute clip I needed to see.

PowerPoint use is interesting to me on many levels.  While, it doesn't change the material we cover, it does allow us to present the material we cover more interestingly.  The use of visuals, audio files, and video does take the student on a more enriched journey through a lesson.  This is a positive.  I have found also that allow my students to create their own PP presentations, allows them freedoms to express themselves within a medium.  PP's ubiquitous nature and relative ease of use gives today's student a medium that they can create with that doesn't push away the teacher, but rather allows a interaction that maybe wasn't there before.  By using shared mediums, students and teachers don't have to feel they are two positively charged protons bashing into and off each other all the time.

I am also trying to allow more and more "freedom" to the student in which they can show mastery of content in which they learned.  This has proven difficult and challenging for me, because I don't see these wonderful kids from all the videos we see, where students take that opportunity and create something wonderful, imaginative, and focused.  Instead, I see students complain that allowing this freedom is "too hard" and would rather go on Facebook, Youtube, Hulu, etc.

Embedding video is terrific.  I visit many sites that when they embed a video, I usually watch it.  This allows me, the teacher to dictate exactly what it is that is being viewed within my boundaries (whether blog, forum, etc).  Youtube is too big for its own good and frankly, it creates an unheealthy dose of ADD for me when I got there.  "Oh, that looks interesting".   "That has to be funny".  "Ooooh, that looks cool".  are all thoughts that run my mind while on the site.  It is easy to "lose" hours on that site.  So, having an embedded video can help "focus" the student on the material needing to be covered.

Mr. Winkles and Those Wacky Kids

Very interesting.  I have some issues though when this type of information is presented.  To me, I find it easy to present the "facts" of the situation.  Presenting honest, workable, and ultimately useful solutions is a whole other ball of wax.

Yes, we all know that young people have access to technology as never before in the history of the world.  It is the most powerful tool ever given to one so woefully inadequate to utilize it (personal opinion).  The wealth of information at one's fingertips today is so beyond comprehension, that an educator looks at such device and says "Whoa, how can I get my student to 'learn' while having this device as a support and NOT a crutch.  I'm sorry, but it is easy to say that learning a foreign language is easy, because of Skype or that Google Earth makes Geography come to life more.  What about the memorization of how energy is created in the cell?  What about the trigonometric ratios and their functions.  Yes, a student can "look it up" on their devices, but so many of our young people today don't want to take the time to memorize these very important concepts.  Why should they?  There lives have been 'googlized".  They don't have to understand, they can just punch it up on their phones and show the answer.  I fear the future in many ways because of this.  I look at my students and cringe when problem solving is all be non-existent (yes, I do try like crazy to  teach and use problem solving skills).  If a problem's answer isn't instantly known or recognized, they willingly give up.  These are legitimate concerns I have.

I also know that putting my head in the ground and hoping it goes away isn't the answer as well.  I am willing to put the energy into my students to meet them where they are, as long as it is learning that is going on.  There is a difference between knowing how to do something and knowing how to "find" something.  I am very open and desperately seeking a happy medium for this dilemma.  I am hoping for us to help create solutions within this course and not just go through this course feeling the same way I do now, overwhelmed and unsure how to proceed.  

  I am looking forward to the interaction this class will bring.  I know the intelligence represented in this class will allow for good interaction and conversation moving forward.