PowerTeacher Comment Fill

First we want to let everyone know that Justin is a Genius and so we are official calling this action within PowerTeacher "the Gnome" in his honor.  Below is a video  of how to enable the fill function for comments.  Yes you reading correctly.  Comments.  The information then uses "smart text" to distinguish names and sex of the person you are writing about.  It will take the student information and tailor your comment to fit the specific information of the student.  Once the comments are copied, you can add more information to individuals who you think might need it.  Good discovery Justin!

Flipping Parent Teacher Conferences

The idea of flipping the classroom is becoming a common strategy, especially here at ICS.  With conferences coming, and time with parents being so valuable, why not Flip the PTC?

Check out the slideshow below and contact Taylor if you have any questions!

Evaluation and Application of 21st Century Learning

What would you choose if you had the time?

     One policy that we have seen happen within the middle school pro-d time is really a respect for teacher's time.  Fore example if a training
is being presented by a tech coach, they are only 15 minutes.  This informs the entire faculty and then sets them free if they don't feel it is useful.  Others who want to know and learn more about it are given the opportunity to "play' and discuss and have the time to test.  For the past 4 weeks we have had the ability to do this!

     What an experience it is to have teachers collaborate and work on strategies to enhance their teaching!  We have been working our way through a process of understanding 5 different teaching strategies:  Flipped Classroom, Gamification, Virtual Reality, Digital Storytelling, and Project Based Learning.

     Each group worked together to gather information and come up with presentations about their strategy.  The beautiful piece about this professional development is that teachers are choosing strategies they are interested in, learning as they go.  After the presentations have been done, teachers will then take what they have learned and put it into practice, creating a practical example of their strategy in use within their classroom.

See some of the presentations below!

Virtual Reality
 
Digital Storytelling 


Gamification


Flipped Classroom

Reflection on Session: "Designing Self Directed Learning Projects"

One session that I really appreciated and was learning a lot from was by Dr. Bernard Bull from Concordia University in Wisconsin.  His session was titled 

“Designing Self-Directed Learning Projects”.  

     The first part of his session he talked about his research into the concept of self directed learning.  He spent time visiting and researching schools who provide their students the opportunities to self direct their learning.  

The first activity that we did was a poll question:

True or False

“Good teachers become less important”

     He had us stand on a certain side of the room depending on our level of belief of this statement.  It was very interesting the responses that came back from this exercise.  Some stated that the teacher is invaluable and this statement was completely false.  Others, with a leaning to growth mindset and the concept of self directed learning were more on the truth side.  The argument being the use of the word “become”.  That teachers lay the foundation of the information and let the students find the knowledge.  I felt this is where I landed on the spectrum, especially because we were talking about this specific topic.

The second question he asked us to investigate was this:

“If education was a theater production, where is the learner in the theater?”

     There were many responses.  Some said the students were the directors (self directed learning).  Our group thought that the students were the Actors.  As a production begins, the actors take direction from the directors- where to walk, how to speak, what to wear, etc.  Now, once this foundation is set, it is the actor’s responsibility to but when the show goes live, everything falls onto the actors.  

Self Directed Learning--Inspiring a Love to Learn

     Bull talked about different schools that he observed and connected with through his research and it was really interesting what he found.  Some schools would start their students on self directed learning (SDL) projects that the students were passionate about.  There was no limit to what they were learning about except what they wanted to learn.  As the teachers facilitated, they were able to guide the students through the process of learning about their passion.  This would happen over a few projects and then as they got older, they would be challenged to do a project on something that wasn’t a passion… Bull’s example was calculus.  What the schools and Bull observed is that the students who had gone through the SDL process on their passions had seen the challenge of learning.  No longer was the motivation the passion, but rather the challenge to learn.

Becoming an Expert

     Another observation that Bull made was the lack of continual projects.  He made the comment that it takes years to become an expert in a subject, skill, passion or idea.  So why don’t we encourage this in our students?  Why are projects lasting at most a semester?  Why not have a continual project that spans years, giving the students the opportunity to be experts.  

     He shared about a school that assigned each student when they entered the school in kindergarten (through an internal process) a single simple word such as “cat”.  From kindergarten through 8th grade, the running project was that the student would become an expert in their word in all aspects/subjects of school. Cats in literature, in science, the math of cats, etc.  By the end of their project, students were able to be named the local expert on their word. 

Part 2 is going to look at Dr. Bull's 7 Laws for Self-Directed Learners as well as some resources to encourage self directed learning.  

Closing:

     Overall, I found this session really interesting for a few reasons.  First, it was really eye opening to hear what other schools were doing in relation to self directed learning and PBL.  Second, I kind of kicked myself because the concepts were relatively obvious, but it was like putting a name to a face.  Bringing an understanding to the idea.  I am continually drawn back to the learning possibilities of project based learning and self-directed learning.  It was a great first half of the session to attend.  Part 2 offers some more practical understandings of the process. 

Self-Directed Learning Part 2: The Laws of the Learner

The second part of Dr. Bull’s presentation was centered around his “7 laws of the Self Directed Learner”

Some laws were breezed through, so I didn't get as much information, but use your imagination and you will get the idea!

1. Law of the Teacher

    When we think about being a SDL (self directed learner) we have to understand that there is no one expert about the subject that we are wanting to learn.  Quite the contrast that (with the use of the internet, social networks, etc.) the world is our teacher, it’s simply a matter of how far are you willing to reach in order to learn?  Connections can be made with resident experts across the world through twitter, skype etc.  The SDL embraces everything and everyone as a teacher, rather than depending on the teacher for ALL the answers.

2. The Law of the Lesson

I found this law very interesting and inspiring.  Are we teaching our students to ask the right questions by being the end resource of information?  No!  In order for us as teachers to facilitate our learning, we need to guide our students to the answer through questioning, offering opportunity for the students to come to the answer themselves.  Bull shared an article from The Telegraph about the 101 Greatest Questions.  The more we want to push our students to be SDL’s the better we need to be able to ask and inspire questions in our students.

Some example questions from the article:

“What is OK short for?”

“What is a hiccup?”

“Do hot drinks cool you down?”

What questions are you inspiring in your classroom?

3.  The Law of Language

4.  The Law of Bridges

“The self-directed learner builds brain bridges between what she already knows and can do & what she aspires to know and do”

5.  The Law of Self- Knowledge

“The self-directed learner aspires to learn how to motivate herself & what motivates her.”

Here’s a question:

There is a 1500 page book sitting on your desk.  What would need to happen to motivate you to read that book?

The groups responded in many different ways, Dr. Bull came back and said that contex plays a piece in your motivation.  For example if you were stuck in a room that had no windows or doors and there was a 1500 page book titled “How to Escape a windowless/doorless room” there would be motivation.  

Think about the intrinsic motivation in game designs (from Bull):

1. challenge
2. Curiosity
3. Control
4. Fantasy
5. Cooperation and Competition
6. Recognition

As we consider our lessons, units, projects, and process of learning in our classrooms, we should consider this as an important task to attempt.

6.  The Law of RE

Refining is key.  Self-assessment allows for enhancement on a SDL’s project.

“Is this better work than your last project?”

7. The Law of Feedback

By doing this the SDL strives to embody the new knowledge or skill as a part of them.  Mastery happens through feedback and alteration.

8.  The Law of Application

How can we inspire SDL?  Resources.

Dr. Bull provided a Blog post that he wrote with resources related to self directed learning.  You can read the blog post here.  Or look at the list of resources below all provided by Dr. Bull from his Blog.    

Personal Learning Plan Template

Learning Contract

4-Part Self Directed Learning Proposal-Contract

Professional Development Plan

A look at an Innovative School-Garden International School Malaysia

Garden International School in Mayalsia is a very innovative school.  On of their tech coaches presented on what they are doing and it is awesome!  Check out their video and then click on the image below to go to the TACKK.

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Should we teach reading and writing? Mark Treadwell argues we shouldn't. His argument is that it takes so much time to time and energy to teach reading and writing and by the end too many students feel they are stupid. Furthermore, with modern technology that allows us to record videos and audio very easily, it simply isn't necessary to read or write. We can gather information in other ways. Instead, we should spend our time teaching ideas and concepts, in ways that don't rely on rote memory, but instead rely on our ability to sequence and pattern. Abilities, he says, our brains do much better then memorize. Mark forced me to question why we do what we do, and that in itself is a good take away from his session.

Stop teaching reading and writing!

Here is Mr. Treadwell's presentation with all of his links, videos and data.  Enjoy!

The Sai-Do-Si Team is headed to ...

We are really looking forward to attending the annual 21st Century Learning Conference starting tomorrow.  We are really excited to be sharing what we learn with you as fast as we learn it! On top of our sharing with you, Shannon and Taylor have the opportunity to share on using iMovie to create a classroom hook. 

Check out our trailer here.

 We are also very excited to have Barbara, Lauren and Mike VK as co-authors for the weekend.  We will be sharing and updating the blog as we attend a diverse collection of workshops.  You can also collect information and follow events of the conference by following the hashtag #21CLHK on twitter.

  It is going to be a great weekend and we look forward to you joining us for the ride.   Comment and send questions to us as we go, we will do our best to check back in!