Category Archives: Messy Learning

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Time To Change Things Up A Bit!

I have mentioned several times that one of my goals this year is to get my students to blog about their learning. So far we have written mainly essays and personal narrative pieces for several reasons – one being the writing test is in that genre and I wanted them to have as much experience as possible with it. Additionally, while we have been learning how to blog and honing our editing skills and becoming at least somewhat “comfortable” as writers I didn’t want to muck around with things too much.

So now my students blog with ease (mostly) and I can change things up on them some. I really want to get them to the point where they can discuss their learning through their blogs. Last week we began studying space, stars and the solar system. I had them take some notes about a lesson and turn them into a written piece. Well … some did pretty well, but many had drawn false conclusions, confused their facts and several other “first time” errors. We have been using these “messy mistakes” to explore how to use data and facts in our writing both accurately and creatively so they are not too dry. The earlier work we’ve done on more “creative” type essays and the like helped out here because they had experience describing and “showing not telling” in their writing (“Telling” is “The boy was scared.” Versus – “Showing” “His eyes were focused on the bear’s sharp teeth and he felt his heart pounding.”) they did generally well on that part.

We displayed anonymous examples from their work up on the ActivBoard and discussed them and then let them find their own similar errors. They did much better right away, but we will have to do at least several more lessons just like this so they have time to practice and internalize their learning.

Typically, they backslid on their editing and that gave us a chance to talk about what happens when you lose focus and aren’t careful. Some of them have posted these early attempts (here, here and here) and the rest should post by the end of the week. These 3 examples are all from bilingual 5th grade students.

Learning is messy.

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Our Blog Video – How We Blog and Why, Is In Production

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Besides video-Skyping today with new friends in Florida we started doing the real work of making a video about how we blog. Last Friday we started brainstorming all the steps we go through and then breaking it down into scenes. Next we assigned each group a different part of our blogging procedure to video. Students are designing how they will “tell their part of the story” and then storyboarding and writing the narration. Everyone has to take part in the group … even out 2 non-english speakers will do some of the narration in english with help and support from their groups.

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As usual the biggest part of their grade is based on how they work in their group. From my experience when that is the main focus of their grade the most learning takes place. Why? Because when students cooperate and include everyone, everyone is involved in what they do and the thinking that goes into it. I always tell them that I might ask anyone in their group what they are doing and why … and they better be able to tell me … that forces them to stop and explain what they are doing and thinking and why they are doing it to each group member and include them. Students get to hear ALL the thinking of what is going into their project … and that is key. We even role play doing that. Kids feel good about being an involved part of the group AND being one of the people that sees to it that everyone understands. When it is humming along with that attitude going in the room – it reminds you why you teach.

My students were simply awesome today. They have to design their scene, storyboard it, write the dialog, practice the speaking parts, practice how they will show that on tape, and then when they are ready show what they are planning to the whole class for critique. We haven’t gotten to the “showing” part yet, but Wednesday some groups, maybe most, will be ready.

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Last year when we made the “Inclusion” video we followed many of the same steps but I probably shot half the video and did all the editing with input from the class (that was their first experience with video and they were 4th graders). We started learning more about editing with iMovie today using the famous “Dog Wash” tutorial that used to come with iMovie. The student laptops are so old they will only run iMovie2, but it works and all their almost 8 year old iBooks have Firewire so this should be fun. We plan on having each group shoot all their own video, edit it, do the voiceover narration and then run it back to video and probably my laptop for a final assemblage of all the scenes into a final product. Truly “MESSY” learning at its best.

Learning is messy!

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More Skype Connections

Today we video-Skyped with Paul Schwan’s fifth graders in Florida. Wes Fryer suggested we touch base with each other to work on some future projects … and today was the day. Dealing with the 3 hour time difference (or any time difference) is always part of the fun.

On a side note, last year when my class started Skyping here and there, we had to learn about time differences … “What do you mean its a different time there? . It became a teachable moment. We pulled up a sunlit earth map (follow the link then click on View Equirectangular Chart) that shows where the earth is light and dark at any given moment. We also shined our projector (the Sun) on our earth globe so they could see how it works that way (my ActivBoard comes in handy sometimes in ways I don’t think they envisioned). The upshot is … now they get it.

Paul and I connected just before his kids were going to recess, and just before my students came in to start the day. When a few of his kids heard me say that, they commented that we started our day kind of late (since they had already eaten lunch) Don’t worry … they’ll get it Paul! (see above for ideas)
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We introduced our classes to each other … discussed where we were and the make-up of our classes … and then just shared the kinds of things we were both working on and answered a few questions. At one point I had my kids raise their hands if they speak a language other than English and all but 3 hands went up. Paul’s kids raised their hands if they had been to a rocket launch at Cape Canaveral and hands went up all over his room. Later this year we are planning to share some of our learning this way with each others’ classes.

This was a new experience for Paul’s class, and you could tell by their reaction. What I think is really neat about the whole thing is that my class has done this enough now that its just something we do. Sometimes we go to the library or go online or go on a field trip or work on our reading or math … and sometimes we talk to other students 2500 miles away for free. Its just what we do.

UPDATE: Paul’s class brainstormed this great Venn diagram of our Skype conversation.
Learning is messy!

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Would This Make Any EduBloggerCon Even Better!?

EduBloggerCon at NECC 2007 was definitely one of the highlights for those involved. So much so that EduBloggerCons have started to spring up at more conferences. Well I think perhaps another professional development gem has been born in Canada. Darren Kuropatwa, Dean Shareski, Clarence Fisher and others have blogged about MB EduBloggerCon and how powerful the informal session in a restaurant  bar discussing and showing examples of work and connections they all make. Someone would pop up and share for 10 to 30 minutes (kind of ala TEDTalk) then that was allowed to rattle around the room for a while and then someone else would get up and do their piece and so on.

Perhaps this “InformalCon” or unconference format should be added to EdBloggerCons in the future … perhaps the evening of the EdBloggerCon at NECC 2008 (if not at an earlier conference) would make a great experience even better. Just a thought. I think this appeals to me because it is messy learning. MessyCon? … umm … nevermind.

Learning is messy.

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“Messy” Thanksgiving

5th grade is the “American History” grade in my school district (and probably most US school districts). As part of our study of the colonies we spent time delving into the first Thanksgiving. For the last week we focused on using multiple sources in research, so we used books, documentary video, and the internet to find out what they REALLY ate at the first Thanksgiving. Based on our research we put on as authentic a Thanksgiving/Harvest Festival as we could. I brought in a barbecue and cooked an 18 pound turkey, and the students were tasked with bringing in the rest. My student from Viet Nam brought in duck, others brought cod, corn, green beans, pumpkin (in the form of pie which the Pilgrims didn’t make – no sugar), bread, cranberries, wild berries, ginger ale (a stand-in for beer) our ESL teacher brought salmon and our school secretary donated venison.

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The students wrote about their Thanksgiving experiences and then about what they were looking forward to eating today – and then after our feast about what they had eaten. We noted colors, textures and smells. We took photos and watched video reenactments of the 1st Thanksgiving. Tomorrow we will work on blog posts … not sure how many will get posted, but our writing has been improving … so we’ll see.

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The experience was incredible. Most had never had REAL turkey before (processed or “rolled” turkey) or most of the other meats – and my students were totally intrigued by the whole thing. Green beans were new to many, and half had never had pumpkin pie before. 6 have never celebrated Thanksgiving (come from counrties that don’t celebrate as a national holiday). Students from other classes and grades saw our 18 pound turkey cooking and thought it was a chicken … when we explained it was a turkey they got perplexed looks on their faces … like why would you be cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving? We have chicken or tamales or…? Had to explain the whole cooking concept and serving concept … solid messy learning.

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When lunch was served … buffet style … students were tentative, but took some of everything. After everyone had been through the line I announced that there was plenty … don’t be shy … come back and have what you want without wasting food. Students came back and back and the food was eaten. The talk was all about how great it all was … never eaten food prepared like this was a common comment. We put the pumpkin pie on hold until late in the day. They loved it. Great conversations … and smiles … and good manners … students displayed joy.
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It was a lot of work … but when you do this kind of thing with your students … you usually catch yourself saying, “I should do this kind of lesson more often.”

Learning is messy!

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Messy Learning About Thanksgiving

We are studying Thanksgiving this week as part of our study of American History. As part of building the schema for why the Pilgrims were thankful I had the students write about what they are thankful for. Then I talked about the things they might not realize they should be thankful for because they are so much a normal part of everyday life here – like running hot and cold water, heat, shelter, schools, and so on.

Then we watched “The Water Buffalo Movie“ also known as “4 Generations.” We discussed how the people in the movie live and their reaction to receiving a water buffalo as a gift. Next we explored “What The World Eats, Part 1“ a great online photo essay from Time Magazine. In it families from different parts of the world are shown sitting in their homes surrounded by a weeks worth of food they typically have to eat and how much their food costs. It ranges from a high of over $500 to a low of $1.23 for a family to eat for a week. This sparked a great discussion about poverty and how people in the world really live.

Finally, I had students re-think and re-write their thoughts about what they are thankful for this year – and they will be turning those notes into a blog post this week.

We are also learning about the “First Thanksgiving” and next week I will bring a barbecue to school and barbecue a turkey outside my classroom door. We are researching which foods they really had at that first Thanksgiving and students will bring samples of those foods in for our feast. Maybe I should stream part of it on ustream.tv for others to watch? Or Skype? : )

Learning is messy!

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Animal Ark “Design An Animal” Video Available

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!

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Test From Flock – Or I Better Not Get Caught Using Word to Write My Blog Again!!!

OK – I was made fun of (just a little) by several inhabitants of the Bloggers Cafe right after David Warlick sat next to me, saw that I was authoring a blog post, noticed I was using Word and said, “You use Word to write your blog!???” which brought much jovial kidding (I think it was jovial). Jeff Utecht and Mark Wagner showed me a few options (the whole time chuckling). So, here I am trying this new version of Flock even though I’ve heard both good and bad about it.

By the way not long after it was noticed that I use Word, someone saw that I wasn’t using RSS (I am now) – I must say that I did my part providing comic relief (even though none was needed) to my fellow bloggers. OK, time to see how this works. Did I mention I heard about this through my Twitter feed?

Learning is messy and sometimes embarrassing.

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Cafe Envy

Jeff Utecht wonders why those of us populating the Blogger Cafe find it more engaging than many of the sessions. Well for one, you have a group of the most knowledgeable edtech people from all over the world in the same place, at the same time sharing and mashing all that knowledge and enthusiasm – “ and that’s powerful and addictive. You aren’t tied to “the topic” of a session – you can pick and choose and blend topics.

More intriguing to me is how do we replicate “Bloggers Cafe” on the web? Of course the answer is you can’t – Blogger’s Cafe has no time zone issues (if you’ve ever wanted to do a Skype session with other places in the world you know how difficult time zones are to deal with), it has no connectivity, platform or software issues. Sharing is immediate and not bound by what you can see or hear or feel on your computer.

This is the first “Cafe” and no one could anticipate its allure and how it has leveraged the entire conference. But it does then beg the question – how could we capture any of its power over the net? Skype or Elluminate are good tools for connecting – but the time zone issue clouds them. Wikis, blogs, feeds, and so forth all have their place – could they be mashed in some way to capture any of the magic of this place? It would be more than worth it to try – so you do it – you have the time, don’t you? Hmmm – yep that’s the rub. What new web 2.0 (3.0 actually) app could we come up with that would do this – you’d be a gazillionaire if you come up with it and develop it because this is way too powerful and meaningful.

Jeff Utecht, Chris Lehman, Darren Draper, John Pederson, Janice Stearns and I Skype-chatted a great session by Will Richardson just now –  Dean Shareski, Clarence Fisher, Bill Fitzgerald and others joined from as far away as Canada – here we were live Skype-Chatting Will’s preso and sharing it with people thousands of miles away.

Afterwards Chris Lehman may have captured the essence of “Blogger’s Cafe” when he said, “Blogger’s Cafe  is the reflection time not present in the sessions.” We all literally said, “AHHHH!”

Here’s to another example of “messy learning”

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A Tale of a 4th Grade Wiki Project OR Kids and Animals … How Can You Lose!?

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Nine years ago 2 of my sixth graders and I testified in front of the Nevada State Assembly Education Committee about how well using technology to enhance their learning had worked. At the time we had 7 Power Macs in our classroom running Netscape 3.0. We had made a web site for Animal Ark which is a local wildlife sanctuary. Per their web page:

ANIMAL ARK is a 38-acre wildlife sanctuary and nature center Northwest of Reno, Nevada. This facility’s rural setting provides an ideal place to house non-releasable wildlife and allows the public a unique opportunity to view these animals in natural habitat exhibits through glass viewing areas.

We had used Filamentality – “ a free web site even back then, to make “treasure hunt pages” about every animal at Animal Ark. We found web pages about every animal that users accessed to answer questions and do activities to learn about the animals. The state legislature did not have internet access at the time so I had captured pages that we projected on the lightest colored wall we could find in the chamber. The students blew the legislators away with what they had done and how well they explained it.

Since then Animal Ark has developed their own site and last year we took down our very well used, but worn out site. Well now thanks to web 2.0 and specifically wikis, we have made a new educational page for Animal Ark. Actually over 20 wiki pages. Each group of fourth graders in my class was responsible for making 3 wiki pages – one for each animal at the wildlife park. The pages can be used to do general research or as part of a “Design An Animal” project (see the wiki for directions and downloadable data gathering sheets). After researching info on animal adaptations students have to design a new animal that will survive in the area where the student lives – thus showing their understanding of animal adaptations and habitats through their design.

We did a trial run today and guess what!? We found out some (a few of over 80 total links) of the web sites students had selected as the best ones did not contain the information that was required to successfully design an animal. So, now that they could see that they went out with a clarified idea of what was needed and quickly found very suitable replacements. I know, I know, –  where in real life do we try things out and adjust what isn’t working right? (can you see my tongue in my cheek?). But this is the first time these students have done this kind of work and they didn’t get it right the first time on a small number of their pages.

FYI – students set up every wiki page except the main page which I set up to get us started. Students found the gold colored buttons with the paw print, made them, downloaded them, uploaded them to the wiki and put them on the home page and made them hot links to their pages. They also put the photos and links on their pages. Someone noted today that we didn’t have links back to the home page so we are doing that tomorrow ( I had missed that … duh). Students were responsible for finding web sites that were as age appropriate as possible that contained the necessary information. They answered questions as they searched to help them do that. My new student that only speaks Spanish has been finding links to pages in Spanish (Google lets you search that way … I didn’t know … way cool!), so our site will even be somewhat bilingual.

So now that they have replaced the links they found weak (weak links – get it? – sorry) we will gather the info they need and begin to design animals to survive in the Great Basin. We plan to make a video of the finished animals. More soon … I hope … last day is next Wednesday!!!!
Learning is messy!