A few weeks ago, after many attempts trying to find a time we could all make, Mark and Shawn at The Tightwad Tech managed to coral Lisa Parisi and myself across timezones long enough to interview us about how we utilize a changed pedagogy utilizing tech (usually for free – hence the “tightwad” connection). Here is a link to the podcast. We had a great time. Give it a listen … and Thanks to Mark and Shawn for inviting us!
Learning is messy!
I realized today that we are in one of those phases when we have several projects going on at once and some of them started so long ago that we are dealing with 3 layers of groups right now. What the heck do I mean?
Well, my students work in cooperative groups a lot. They sit at tables in groups of four that we change every quarter. I used to change the groups very often, but I found that the population of students we have will not always buy into cooperating if they know they will change groups in a week or two. So now I keep them in a group for 10 weeks at a time and It has worked well. We started a blog video project back in December that we have worked on here and there, but it has been superseded several times by testing and various other things. We have changed groups twice now since then, so when we work on that they have to move back into those groups … which is kind of like going home in a way … it’s like, “Oh yeah I remember working with you guys.”
In addition we are in the middle of our Harris Burdick Google Docs collaborartive writing project and we just moved seats again, so today when we worked on that we had to move back into those groupings. Tomorrow it just might happen that we will end up in all three groupings in the same day.
Learning is messy!
Here in the Reno, Nevada, area have a fantastic resource for studying animals, namely Animal Ark Wildlife Sanctuary. I learned about Animal Ark in 1993 when I first taught in a classroom here. I had the good fortune of having a student in my class whose parents train big cats for the movies. They had donated some lions to Animal Ark, and at their suggestion I made my first of many visits and field trips to this fantastic facility.
Last year we took a field trip there as part of our study of animals and specifically animal adaptations. We took photos which you can see on our class Flickr page.
Years ago when I was teaching a 4-5-6 Image class we were returning from a trip to Animal Ark when a student suggested we visit their web page. I replied that they didn’t have a web page … and the students decided we should make one for them … which we did. It won several awards, but it died 2 years ago of neglect … and the fact that Animal Ark has long since developed their own web site. Then wikis came along and so we made an interactive wiki web site for them.
Each group of 3 or 4 students in my 4th grade class last year made three wiki pages (over 20 total pages) about the kinds of animals at Animal Ark. They searched the web for the best sites they could find about the animals they were assigned, looking specifically for information about adaptations, how they obtained food and so on … all per our science standards. They also had to pick sites that were easy to read for students their age and they had to rank them from what they felt was the very best site they found to the next best … you get the idea.
Once that was done we used our site ourselves in the way it was actually intended. We used the sites to learn about animal adaptations and survival and then had to design an animal to live in the Great Basin Desert of Nevada where we live. Students had to design each part of their animal from eyes to feet or wings or nose to survive the climate and conditions here. We shot video of the process – and now it is finally posted and linked from the wiki page.
Check out the wiki page project and the video.
Learning is messy!
Blogged with Flock
Dave and Will and others have recently posted about sensing a new attitude towards education. They experience that change while mainly talking to large groups attending conferences – conferences that are going to draw folks that probably already share their outlook. I’m seeing that resurgence too, but from a different population. I mentioned my feelings about that just last night.
What is important here is that I am experiencing that change at the local and even building level. Teachers in my school – the ones least likely to embrace new ways of thinking about learning are the ones giving me the most encouragement. Admittedly, some, if not a lot of that change has come about because we have acquired digital whiteboards, laptops, cameras and more just this school year. And some of these reluctant integrators have had a new digital whiteboard screwed into the wall literally covering-up their old whiteboard forcing them to at least try using technology. Our principal also built into our budget about $175 per teacher for field trips this year – it helped pay for our fourth grade trip up the mountain at Squaw Valley this fall.
So, yes, an influx of actual tech at your site can help – although we’ve had 30 wireless laptops available here for 7 years – and cameras and scanners and more, and they have rarely been used – most have never used them even though we have had trainings and encouragement from administration that it was OK to use it even when the heat from NCLB was the hottest.
So what has changed? Maybe the few of us pounding away has helped. Certainly more teachers have their own home computers and high-speed access. More teachers at my school have young children now (we’ve experienced a baby-boom of our own the last few years), are they seeing the light based on seeing their own kids’ futures? My principal has been pushing integrating tech (even though she is a novice – she is trying hard to learn) and experiential teaching and making connections hard. Maybe … probably it is all these things.
But I am also seeing it from teachers that have attended classes and workshops I’ve taught recently from other schools – even from schools where they tell me that their day is TOTALLY pre-scheduled by their principal. That when their principal walks through their room if it is not VERY obvious that they are employing one of several “programs of learning†they have in place, they are questioned and even reprimanded. Some of these teachers have started to work tech-as-a-tool for learning into these lessons to avoid suspicion. Others work it into their mandated half hour or 45 minute once a week computer lab time.
I also am hearing from some that they miss the creativeness of planning and implementing lessons totally designed by them. I feel this might actually be one of the biggest motivators for some. Learning and teaching as creative processes (what a concept!).
The point is that I’m seeing a change – and it has infused me with vigor and encouragement. Maybe we are seeing a new horizon – a new visual to pilot towards!
The top 5 most read posts in my first 10 months blogging at Learning Is Messy: . . .
1) Paper, Pencils and Books May Not Boost Student AchievementÂ
2) Too Much Time For Change To Happen?Â
3) Hoping To Make a “Web 2.0†Difference In A Child’s Life – Part 2Â
4) Working, Breathing, Reproducible, Intriguing ModelsÂ
5) Society May Be Willing To Invest In Children If They Are Seen As An Immediate Value To SocietyÂ
Learing Is Messy
An interesting discussion at Borderland inspired this – feel free to add your comments:
Constructive learning is learning about something you had no intention of learning about because of what you did or are doing to produce something. You learn that you can have persistence, you can stick with something to completion – you just spent more time on task than you ever did in your life. You learn from failure what doesn’t work and why it doesn’t work until you work out what can work.
Constructive learning is contemplation.
Constructive learning is working things out with someone you could not possibly work things out with because you can’t possibly get along with that person because they are an enemy, your enemy … but, because you had a common goal, an intriguing goal that happened to use your strengths in an unexpected way – you now share a successful experience.
Constructive learning is working on something intriguing enough and important enough (to you) that you stick with it and work through what is hard with materials and people and ideas for long enough to find success.
Constructive learning is making connections.
Constructive learning is learning about just what you had in mind to learn about. You developed the thinking about how to learn what you wanted to learn about. You put together the materials required – Tried it, proved it to yourself. Done. Next.
Constructive learning is just doing something, anything almost, that seems to have even a whiff of possibility … sometimes it just works.
Constructive learning is seeking out those you would really like to work with because you have a good sense that you are kin in your thinking and interest – if the right problem is taken on kismet can happen – but so can disappointment.
Constructive learning is re-doing it because now we see how it could be really great.
Constructive learning is starting to make one thing, but then realizing it would make a better other thing. So you make the other thing instead.
Constructive learning is everything fell apart. The group, what we were trying to do, the idea, and it’s best to just walk away.
Constructive learning is everything fell apart. The group, what we were trying to do, the idea, but now we’ve had time and we are enthusiastic about it again.
Constructive learning is finding out that someone you thought was cool, was someone to be around … isn’t.
Constructive learning is learning that that jerk, that idiot, that ugly person … isn’t.
Constructive learning is planning a constructive learning experience and watching what you hoped would happen, happen – but also all the great stuff you didn’t really plan to happen, that happens.
Constructive learning is the kids that never got it until they had a chance to do it this way.
Constructive learning is more than the above – it is a passion.
As I prepped my “into” for the “Titanic” story in our reader, I had an idea of how to demonstrate to my fourth graders the properties of icebergs. Specifically that nine-tenths of an iceberg is underwater. I had noted that my students knew very little about measurement – and I was dying to use the cool “ruler tool” on my new Activboard whiteboard.
Monday I handed out a plastic cup of water and an ice cube to each group. Next I had them measure the length and width of their ice cube (per my whiteboard demonstration). Then I had them drop their ice cube in the cup and measure how much of the cube was above water (am I good or what?).
Now, here is where you have to understand my thinking. You see, the ice cubes had only been out of the freezer for about 5 minutes, and they only needed to be in the water for about 30 seconds, and ice cubes in a drink last for minutes … so no problem. I did warn the students that they would have to measure quickly, so I wandered around watching students line their rulers up with the surface of the water – “to get a good accurate measurement.”
Not 20 seconds went by before the first defeatist comment was uttered. “Mr. Crosby, it’s hard to see to measure,” a quitter exclaimed. “I know, I know, but you can do it,” I encouraged (Plus, come on, I demo-ed this with the “ruler tool” on the Activboard – you can’t do better than that! … Can you?)
My first clue that there was a problem was when a student fished out a sliver of ice the size of a fingernail clipping and tried to measure it while he held it between his fingers – and it disappeared! The next clue was the group that exclaimed, “We can’t find our ice anymore!” as they scanned the iceberg free water in their cup. (Did I mention I used the “ruler tool” to demonstrate this?)
At this point I busted up. I busted up laughing because not only did I miscalculate how long the ice would last, but the kids were trying so hard to do a good job, and some seemed afraid they had done something wrong – the forlorn looks on their faces told the story.
Fortunately, I had several extra pieces of ice (Hey, I’m not a total screw up!) and we successfully measured one and used it as “The class measurement.” We did the math and came out with the fraction 2/20 which reduces to 1/10 of the cube that stuck above the surface – which is just what part of an iceberg floats above the surface of the water.
So, when the picture of the iceberg came up during the story, the kids were able to imagine how much was underwater.
Learning is messy!
Before about 8 years ago some of us recognized that a student raised in poverty (both of money and/or spirit) or in an environment of fear and upheaval was probably just not going to be focused on school, and would very often be a negative, distracted, distractive member of the classroom. I was lucky enough to teach at a school that had an underlying theme of dealing with these kids in a way that would hopefully lead them to realize it was their situation – not themselves that was bad, and realizing the rest of us were not like the people that had “messed them up“ we were not the ones to take it out on. (“We” being students and staff.)
Teachers and administrtors saw that they got counseling of one form or another, made sure they knew the rules and norms of behavior AND we took the time in our classrooms to have class meetings and teach lessons on how to treat one another and discuss issues and point out why some kids acted the way they did and role played how to deal with different situations etc. We had some major successes – note these successes were not about test scores directly (but indirectly to the max), they were about changing peoples lives for the better. The time we took to do this was even partially “made-up” because overall student behavior was better, so there was less class time taken up by disruptions – it was more than worth it – and you felt like you were really helping to make a difference.
Many of our most troubled students were now able to focus enough to begin to learn the academics they had missed while they were beating themselves up inside (and some of us on the outside). Realize the really, really troubled students had missed (and still do) not just most of the curriculum (since preschool) that they were supposed to be learning, but also how to do school at all. They were much more ready to learn these things now, but it takes a long time to retrieve 5 or 6 or more years of school you missed – missed because you were there in class in body, but not in mind or spirit. That’s a ton to catch-up on. Not just the reading, writing and math, but the when to sharpen your pencil, and how to borrow something, or be a member of a group, etc. etc. etc. (One of the rubs with NCLB is that these kids that are just now able “to do school” – their test scores are taken as a failure because they are not at grade level – they don’t look at improvement, if they grow at least a year in a year that should be adequate growth – I feel schools that turn these kids around should be given an award not basically reprimanded for helping kids and families)
One of the pieces of fallout from the testing craze has been the time to do this kind of work with children. And because its not a focus, many teachers now have little experience working with kids in this way – “the non-conformist students just screw up the test scores” that’s how they are seen too often because we don’t have the time or resources to deal with them positively. It just takes too much time.
Remember this?:
All I Really Need To Know I learned In Kindergarten – Robert Fulghum 1986
Share everything.
Play Fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt someone.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon …
Do they still have time to teach this in kindergarten?
Doug Noon over at Borderland writes:
When we looked at the test scores of our students, I noticed that all of my below-proficient-scoring students had histories of domestic abuse. I raised my hand and asked, “Will the administration allow us to include Domestic Abuse as a demographic category?” because it seemed like a significant variable. The whole staff was silent. My principal waited a moment for the question to sink in and diplomatically replied, “No.” The meeting continued.
How many of us are “using data to drive instruction” these days? I see some hands up out there. I propose we add some categories to the data so that we get a truer picture of ALL the remediation we might need to apply: Poverty level, parents’ educational level, home situation(s), number of times a student has moved during their school career, nutrition, health – you get the idea.
Stephanie at Change Agency chimed in on Doug’s post with this:
If we are to achieve the stated goal of leaving no child behind, then the effort has to become a community-wide goal that involves everyone – and simply analyzing test scores to death is not the solution.
I am optimistic overall that we might be starting to see the light and realize that relying so much on testing, and therefore reading and math only instruction might not be the way to make a difference for our students. My current principal seems to really, really get this – this is one of the reasons I am so looking forward to this, my 26th year teaching.
Doug supports my optimism by pointing us to an article in the New York Times – It Takes More Than Schools to Close Achievement Gap – By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO, Published: August 9, 2006
Check it out – it brings hope!
Learning is messy!
I just got done being an active participant in Wes Fryer’s presentation at the Mid-America Technology Institute – 2006 in Kansas … and I never left my family room in Reno, Nevada. I responded to Wes’s questions, role-played with an attendee of his presentation (she was a principal questioning the noise level in my classroom while my students participated in a “messy†project and I had to respond to her concerns). I was part of his presentation for maybe 10 minutes – then I ate breakfast and read the paper.
There is so much that is powerful about this experience, but I’m going to focus on one aspect of it here. IT WAS EASY! Wes contacted me via email last evening asking me to talk about “messy†learning and assessment during his presentation using iChat. We would be able to hear and see each other. Great! One problem – I’ve never used iChat before. I know the software comes on my Mac computer, I’ve just never had an opportunity to use it. So I wondered if Wes would really want to chance his presentation during my learning curve with iChat. So I opened an iChat account (free – took 3 – 5 minutes), hooked up a digital video camera to my computer with a Firewire cable, typed in Wes’s address in iChat and found out he just happened to be on – so we had a 20 minute conversation about what my part of his presentation might look like. At the specified time this morning I logged in and we were on.
Knowing Wes he will probably post about this and may even offer a podcast of his session. Way cool! Thanks Wes!
I can’t wait until Skype adds video conferencing – imagine being able to do what we did this morning with up to 99 different locations at once!
Learning is messy!
OK so nothing is like really being there … but this was pretty good. Wes Fryer set up an international Skypecast to share what was learned at NECC 2006 – thanks for laying the groundwork Wes!
Here’s a link to his podcast of our Skypecast.
So what is a Skypecast? A free (as the old saying goes, “Free is a good price!â€) conference call basically … only better. When I saw Wes’s request for participants I went to Skype’s web site and downloaded the free software … which was a breeze by the way, then answered a few questions like login name and password and maybe 1 or 2 others – 5 minutes tops and probably less than that. Wes had a link on his blog to the exact Skypecast, when you get there it tells you the name of the Skypecast and what time it is scheduled for. At the correct time I opened Skype, went to Wes’s Skype page, clicked on the link that said something like “Join This Skypecast†and I could hear voices. A window opens that shows the screen names of everyone attending and that was that.
We had a great conversation that lasted for over 2 hours. And get this … not one of us had attended NECC 2006 – but we had all participated virtually through all the various blog entries, podcasts, vidcasts, and so on offered by the convention and individuals. So we disussed an event none of us physically attended but still participated in at a certain level and shared our thinking about it. One of the coolest things was that several people joined in the Skypecast that were not teachers or edtech people and they added seamlessly to the conversation and had great insights because they weren’t educators or edtech people. Some of us stayed until the end and others came and went. A few popped up and listened in, decided this was not for them and went away. Imagine using this to connect teachers, students, experts …. you get the picture.
One way this is different than a phone call is that because you are already using your computer to make the connection, your computer is right there to make notes on, look up web pages that others are discussing, Wes even downloaded software to record the conversation during the Skypecast, left for about 2 minutes to install it, came back on and recorded the rest for his podcast – but I should not steal Wes’s thunder – you can hear it all for yourself, Wes has notes and links for you, but most important I encourage you to join in on future Skypecasts and keep the conversation going!
Learning is messy!
Update: David Warlick just posted about reveling in the conversations at NECC 2006, but also lamenting those that he missed. Dave this post is about a way to help keep those conversations going and maybe even having those that you missed!
