Teaching Paradox

What type of learner are you?

May 17th, 2012
by DwyerTeacher.
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I first came across this video (in an educational context) from a workshop I attended at OISE on gifted education.  We were to watch the clip while pondering; which one is gifted?  We wrote our rational and then had a discussion with our groups.  The only rule, was we HAD to chose one, and then back it up (even though choosing only one is next to impossible!).

I plan on showing this to my students later today.  I will give them the following graphic organizer, and ask them to jot notes about each character and how they are similar to, and different from, themselves.

 

Peanuts Learning Styles (Download PDF here)

Possible Variations or Extensions

  • Write a self-reflection from one characters perspective about the how the book report turned out
  • Compare each of the characters to other people you know
  • Imagine you are the teacher, and give feedback to each student on their book report
  • Which one do you think you would get along with best?  Why?
  • In groups of 4, create a situational drama presentation with each of you as one of the characters
  • What do you think these kids will be like when they are adults?  Why?
  • Rank them from 1-4 in the effectiveness of their strategies and debate your choices
  • Draw your own peanuts comic strip with all four characters in it

If you have more ideas please leave them in the comments!

My own personal reflection; I am (or I used to be) a mixture of each of them.  When I was young I was just like Charlie Brown, I used to wait to the last minute and procrastinate!  I grew out of that in part, because having a young child means I have to get things done when I have free time.  I am also very similar to Linus.  I like reading a myriad of different perspectives, and I like to complexify issues, not simplify them.  I used to be a simplifier, but my readings into self-organization and complexity science have expanded my view of the world.  As for Schroeder, I might not be musical, but I am a dreamer and I like to let my mind wander where it will, regardless of the task I am doing.  I reinterpret problems and questions in my own way, and take my learning where I want to go, which is not necessarily the same direction as the instructor or teacher intended.  I have always been this way, and I hope I always am.

I am nothing like Lucy.

 

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Posted in: Education, Meta-Learning.
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Brainstorming in gDocs

May 16th, 2012
by DwyerTeacher.
1 comment

1) Set up a googledoc with your questions or provocations

2) Set the sharing options to open to all, can edit

3) Assign each child a color

4) Let them loose

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tbGg2Wdo7yW_tPG5rflKw4aKuhhCLGgR76lFz_p15sQ/edit

There will be a flurry of fighting and jostling for position at the beginning, but once the comments start rolling in, it self-organizes.  The first time you try, it will not be smooth.  Stick with it.  Once you get the hang of it, it is a great activity.  This is a powerful way to collaborate, and a fun tool that kids love!

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Posted in: Technology.
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What they told me

May 15th, 2012
by DwyerTeacher.
3 comments

I had this great lesson today.  We went outside and measured out ten meters on the asphalt and then found the points where the crust would be, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core.  First, we had to work out the percentage for each and then convert that percentage over to our 10m model.  The math was challenging, they were engaged and it was great to work with sidewalk chalk!

Afterwards, we climbed to the roof and took a birds eye view of our handy work.  It was beautiful.

One of those days....

Unfortunately, none of it is true.  It was what I had imagined in my head would happen.  Here is what really happened.

About 20 minutes prior to Japanese class finishing, a big black cloud arrived over the school.  I knew that the outside sidewalk chalk would not be a good idea.  I thought about doing it in the hallway, but the grade 3.4 class had done something similar earlier in the year, and I decided to do something different.  We recently just got our hands on a set of iPads, so I thought, lets try that.  Instead of comparing to the measuring tape, we would compare the layers of the earth to our own bodies, and find out where the crust would be, the mantle end, and so on.  Then, we could take a picture with the iPad, and draw the layers right on top of the picture!

Scrambling, I got the iPads signed out, tried to download the necessary app (but the layers of security on them slowed me down), and then got my Keynote page ready to reflect the new changes.  Just as they came in, I got it done.  We started on time.

Well, the math part of the problem didn’t really cause any problems.  They got the idea, needed some help from each other walking through the conversations from Earth to Me, I had to step in a couple of time and correct some errors that had gotten out of control and spread through the group (when measuring the layers on your body, make sure to start each layer from where the last one left off), but for the most part, they did well.  It would have been easier with the ten meter tape, since dividing into ten is a lot easier than dividing into 154cm.  But, they have calculators for that!

Then, the iPads struck.  We took the pictures, loaded them into app, drew our pictures on top of them, and then nothing worked.  It was hard to write on the pictures, the calibration was off.  I couldn’t email them.  I couldn’t save them.  I couldn’t export them.  Several of them got deleted, and redone, and then deleted again.  A couple more got flipped around so that the picture we drew was at a different orientation to the picture we took!  It took us over 45 minutes to do the part of the lesson that should have been the quickest.  The kids did their best to stick with it and try and solve all the problems that came up, but they just got the iPads yesterday, so they don’t know much.  It was frustrating for all of us.  In the end, we got it to work, but it was bittersweet.  We were tired and we wanted to go home.  We knew it was not our best.

The problems rest completely at my feet.  I took a risk.  I tried something that I thought would be fun, interesting and different.  It would have been, had I been more prepared.  I rushed it together and the results showed.  I sat the kids down before the day ended and apologized that today was not a smooth day, and that everything seemed to go wrong.  I told them it was my fault because I was not prepared.

They told me not to worry

They told me that sometimes things don’t go the way you plan

They told me that sometimes you have to go with the flow

They told me that you learn more from mistakes than success

They said that it was fun trying to figure it out together

They said we will do better next time

 

I agree.

 

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Posted in: Math, Meta-Learning.
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What if… (pt. 3)

May 15th, 2012
by DwyerTeacher.
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**This is part 3 of a series of weekly questions that are meant to act as conversation starters, or thought experiments.  Discussion and debate are encouraged.  I am not taking a position, merely opening the space of possibilities through discussion**

Part 1

Part 2

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Inquiry Beetles

May 15th, 2012
by DwyerTeacher.
2 comments

The other day a co-worker of mine and I were digging some horse manure into a wheelbarrow (teaching is a great job).  He found a massive beetle larva.

Not exactly like this, but very similar

He took it back to class and showed his kids.  They fell in love, and before he knew it he had an aquarium full of them, books about beetles, charcoal to kill the smell, spray bottles to keep the soil moist, and a host of other paraphernalia related to the care and raising of beetles.

The Beetle Station

Kids are constantly giving advice, taking ownership of the care, and showing great curiosity at what will become of the beetles.  Oh, I forgot to mention the best part!  He (and I as well) have no idea what these larva will turn into to!  I am secretly hoping for Dragons, but it will more than likely be some kind of beetle. Their current unit is all about plants, so the link between this and the unit is there, but that is not important.  What is important is he, as a co-inquirer in the learning environment, saw something that made him curious and acted on it.  He knew this would light a fire under the class. That action has created a positive feedback loop that is amplifying through-out the system and growing.  When ideas like this grow, we may never know where they end up, but that is the beauty of life and learning.

Beetles are a wonderful metaphor for inquiry learning.

 

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Posted in: Biosphere Awareness, Inquiry Learning.
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Just because…

May 8th, 2012
by DwyerTeacher.
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I gave my students an outline to an optional project about three months ago.  The task was to build a model of a famous place out of 100% recycled materials (paint and glue were the exception).  The other catch, you had to include as many members of your family as possible in the construction.  Here are the final results.

I have had many happy emails from parents telling me how great it was to work with their child on a creative project.

This was not connected to anything we are studying in class, and it was 100% optional.

Sometimes we don’t need reasons to do something.  Sometimes we do things just because they are fun or engaging.

 

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Posted in: Art.
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Balance and Harmony

May 8th, 2012
by DwyerTeacher.
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I read a lot of blogs.  Not just education related, but blogs about art, energy issues, politics, etc.  People tend to read blogs written by people who have the same viewpoint as themselves (but I strongly encourage everybody to read one from the opposite side) so you tend to agree with everything that you read.  It gives us inspiration and new ideas (the currency of education).  Yet, even when I respect the author, I find some things still grate on me.  Little things make a big difference, especially the use of words and the implications and hidden meanings that they bring with them.  One word which is used a lot in educational contexts is the word balance.  I do not like this word and I think it sends the wrong message than intended.  I admit with full disclose that I can a bit of pedant with terms and words, but that is only because those terms and words act as metaphors which do shape our lives and the way we interact and view the world.

Balance is literary things that are equal, or a state of equilibrium or parity characterized by cancellation of all forces by equal opposing forces.  2 on one side, 2 on the other.  In terms of education, this means that time must be balanced, and learning engagements should be equally distributed.  Taken literally, it would mean we have to have equal time dedicated to all subjects (what happened to dance, art, and music?).  If we try to find balance, we try to make ideas equal out in the long run.  Using tech and using your hands to make artifacts; both are valuable tasks, and in finding balance we are suggesting that we need to find equal time for both.

In my mind this is impossible, and highly ineffective.  The world does not operate at equilibrium.  It operates at disequilibrium.  If an ecosystem is put into equilibrium, it will die.  It needs disequilibrium to continue the process of change, adaptation, and evolution.  Complex systems operate far from equilibrium.  A classroom is no different.  It needs to flow and move.  It needs to evolve.  Learning is not a static entity that is characterized by the opposition of two opposing forces.  It is an ongoing exploration and integration of new images, metaphors, and applications.  If we impose the structure of balance onto it, we are doing it a disservice.

A more apt image is the Yin Yang.  When viewing the Yin Yang, it is not meant to be viewed is a static 2D form.  That view is simply a holistic view of balance.  Black on one side, white on the other, black dot in the white, white dot in the black.  It is the same thing as the scale!  The true nature of the Yin Yang is flowing.  It is moving.  Sometimes the white side is bigger than the black side, and sometimes the white dot is bigger than the white dot.  The point being that there is always white in black, and black in white.  It is harmonious.

I find this to be a more powerful metaphor for the classroom, and for knowing, learning, and teaching.  It is ongoing, always flowing and changing and adapting.  True, scales can move, but only up and down.  Classrooms move in every direction.  A harmonious synthesis of people, ideas and discoveries.

Or maybe I am being pedantic?  I am really not sure.

 

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Posted in: Complexity, Uncategorized.
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What if… (pt. 2)

May 7th, 2012
by DwyerTeacher.
1 comment

**This is part 2 of a series of weekly questions that are meant to act as conversation starters, or thought experiments.  Discussion and debate are encouraged.  I am not taking a position, merely opening the space of possibilities through discussion**

Previous Entries

Part 1

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Unit Plans as Emergence

Apr 29th, 2012
by DwyerTeacher.
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This is an article I wrote a while back, in part for my course work, in part to get an idea organized in my head.  Planning is tough for teachers.  How much do we plan up front?  How much do we let the students drive the inquiry?  How student centered is our class?  What Ed Said has recently done a wonderful post with these questions and more.  Who controls the learning?  Great questions that require thoughtful responses.

Here are my thoughtful responses to those questions.

Thanks to those who took the time to proofread and give feedback.  It is nice to have a group to share ideas with.

Unit Planning as Emergence

 

 

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Posted in: Complexity.
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Instruction versus Discovery

Apr 26th, 2012
by DwyerTeacher.
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Yesterday evening we had a staff discussion about how to teach writing.  Since we have a high ESL population, we spoke about various aspects of writing; organization, mechanics, etc.  We also talked about whole-class instruction versus personalized instruction.  As for me, I have all the students in class writing about similar topics, but each of us are working on different skills that are necessary for our own personal growth.  One could say that writing instruction in my class is completely personalized, and continuously happening on a daily basis through every subject.  I make sure that every kid knows exactly what our focus will be when we talk about writing; whether it be voice, mechanics, organization.  This got me thinking about a girl in my class, lets call her Oprah.

Oprah is passionate about writing.  From the beginning of the year, I could tell she loved to write.  English is her second language, so she needed a lot of work on the structure and mechanics of her writing.  Her stories also tended to wander around and lacked a clear, organized plot.  At the beginning of the year, I decided I would focus on that.  Making her writing more appealing and organized.  We have spend a lot of time communicating on Googledocs and in class, with me giving feedback and her editing.  She is a crazy editor, she loves it.  Over and over, she reads and edits, reads and edits.  She absorbs feedback like a sponge and tries very hard to put it into her writing.  She also argues and defends the choices she makes.

Over the course of the year her writing has blossomed.  Her ideas are more unique and original, her structure is well organized, her characters deeper, and her plots are more complex.  The big picture writing stuff has improved so much.  I try and tell her this once a week.

My original plan was this; this year we work on big picture stuff (Oprah will be in my class for two years) and next year we can focus on the grammar and mechanics.  After our staff meeting, I went back and looked at her writing from the beginning of the year and compared to the writing she is currently doing.  And you know what I found; her grammar has improved even more than her elements of story!  I hadn’t even noticed it because I wasn’t paying attention to it, but her odd structures and weird verbs have disappeared.  I didn’t do anything to fix those mistakes.  Not a single grammar activity.  No verb conjugation charts.  Nothing.  Her and I spend our time working 100% on the elements of a good story.  This left me shocked and I thought about why.  Finally, it hit me.

Practice.

She has been writing her heart out all year, and that extra practice has allowed her to correct things that we weren’t looking for.  She taught herself.

So, now I wonder, what does this mean for my future writing instruction?

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Posted in: Literacy.
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