TED Talk Videos

I spent time watching several TED Talk videos of different topics.  One was about redefining the dictionary.  To be honest I wasn't really sure what message the speaker was trying to get across.  She was very funny.  She poked fun at the way dictionaries are set up, both in print and online.  Dictionaries have looked the same for centuries, and she feels it's time for some revamping.  She feels people are missing in the learning of some valuable words simply based on the way dictionaries are organized.

Another video was about a project done in Portland at Casco Bay High School.  It looked very cool!  It was a research project about the homeless in Portland.  Kids designed questions and talked to people who are and were homeless, spent time working in shelters, and designed a multi-media presentation that explores the homeless problem in Portland and ideas on how to help fix it.  The kids were engaged, excited and learning using a variety of resources. 

The third video was about how education opportunities are so vastly different in third world countries that are beyond very poor.  Most kids were dropping out and getting involved in illegal businesses to make money and help take care of their families.  The saw education as boring and useless to them.  When some computers and mobile phones were brought in this began to change the way these poor students viewed education.  Technology brought fun and purpose to what they were learning.  The speaker went on to say there are three things we all need to do to improve education.  We need to reinvent the way schools are structured.  Learning should start from questions and not curriculum.  Second, we need to supplement what we already have in place.  We need new radical thinking about education and how to get kids engaged.  Last, we need to transform education.  Students need to learn in new innovative ways.  All of these things need to happen in all schools, but especially in those that are in poor countries and inner cities.  The education system is not fair in  those environments.

Two Strategies from Anne Davies Blog

I spent some time reading Anne Davies blog.  I chose hers because she's been to Yarmouth before and we've used many of her strategies in the past.  She wrote about "Stop and Say Something".  Partners begin reading reading some sort of text, be it informational or not.  They stop at an agreed upon place, maybe at each new heading or every other paragraph, and say something to each other about what was read.  It could be a text to self connection, a new learning, an observation, etc.  It makes both readers interact with the text.  I know we've used this in faculty meetings before, but I've never used it in the classroom.  I will now.  It's a strategy that can work in any content area.

Anne also writes about being asked over and over by teachers at what point do you accept a piece of work as finished, after how many revisions should we consider it done.  Her short answer is, there's no magic number.  But she does offer some advice; the student must be able to articulate how the work was changed based on our feedback.  The student should be able to prove how their work is better or better aligned with the feedback/rubrics we've given them.  Now that my students will have their own laptop, I can see this being done electronically.  Using stickies on Google Docs they can highlight the text they improved and write a sentence or two about why it's better. 

Two simple strategies that can be very powerful to student learning.

Apple Camp

While this post isn't directly related to this course, it is technology related and wanted to share.  My 11 y.o. son went to Apple Camp this week.  Right in the mall at the Apple store.  It's two mornings and a Saturday film festival.  The first day they are taught Garage Band and create a sound track for the movie they're going to create.  They create a storyboard for their movie.  They are also taught the basics of how to shoot a good movie.  They're given the 5 rules to film-making.  After camp that day they have the afternoon and evening to shoot their movie.  They can take as much footage as they want, but their movie will only be 2.5 minutes.  The next day the Apple employees have assigned each camper a computer in the store and have downloaded their sound track onto them.  The campers are taught iMovie and all the things you can do with it.  They have an hour to create their movie.  Their movies are downloaded onto a bracelet that is also a USB drive.  The kids can to keep the bracelet drive, they get a t-shirt and stickers.  All of this is FREE!!  It culminates on Saturday morning when we go to Apple and have a film festival of all the movies.  It was very fun.  Zach really enjoyed it.  Also, while the kids were working, Apple employees worked with parents to set up parental controls on our own computers, ipods, iphones, itunes etc. to keep kids safe.  Very cool!  If you have kids between 8-12, I would recommend it.

PS.  The Apple store also offers FREE field trips.  You can bring your class right in the store to learn.

Reflection of Curation Tools

I'm feeling overwhelmed!  There's SO much out there in cyber world.  Some of these tools I had heard of, but never used, and others were brand new.  Feedly I'm still not sure about.  It doesn't seem quite as useful to me.  It's news based, and I'm looking for practical ideas and strategies to use with kids.  But I'll keep playing with it!  I've never been to Pintrest before.  Mainly because my Facebook friends post too much information from it and it turned me off.  But, wow, it is COOL!  I could get lost in it for hours.  I love the visual part of it.  The education vids are very helpful.  Obviously, there's a plethora, both professionally and personally, that can be accessed.  Now I know what to do on a sleepless night! 

Project Ideas

       Well, in true fifth grade fashion, we have a billion ideas.  We made a list in May of ideas, revisited today. and had a good laugh at ourselves.  We had a great talk with Mike who helped us focus.  We came into the course wanting to organized our sited and google drive and look for resources.  I think that is our focus.  There was a lengthy discussion about whether diigo, twitter or feedly meet our needs.  Are we better off with what we're doing on google.  I think we decided to move all our kid links and professional links to diigo.  Which is what we spent our afternoon doing.  I'm still unclear on our next moves.  Work in progress.  I'll keep you posted!

Ed Cafe Takeaway

Video 1

Student questions are the seeds of real learning.  Not scripted lessons

curiosity
embraced trial and error
intense reflection

Rule 1
Curiosity comes first

Rule 2
Embrace the mess   This can be a challenge for teachers.  We like to be in control and know what the outcomes are going to be.

Rule 3
Practice Reflection/Revision

We are the cultivators of our students' curiosity.



Video 2

Angela Duckworth

Ability to learn is not static

Need a better understanding of motivation

Who is successful and why?  Asked this question in many different situation.  The successful people were not successful because of IQ; it was grit!

Grit is passion and perseverance, stamina day in, day out, year after year

Many talented people don't follow thru on their talents and therefore don't reach their potential.

Growth mindset.  Ability to learn is not fixed ... can change with your effort

Don't believe that failure is a permanent condition

We need to be grittier and teaching our kids grit--How in the world do we teach this?  Can we or is it intrinsic?

Videos: Key Points and Questions

"Building Relationships"
       Very motivational speaker.  I liked how she used some humor to get her more serious points across.  Some key points I thought she made were:

• The value of human connections--Students learn better from people they like.
• Two quotes that spoke to me--"No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship" and "All learning is understanding relationships."
• The importance of apologizing!  
• We won't like every student, but we act as if we do.
• -18 vs +2  Making students think, "I ain't all bad."  Like that!

Questions:

• How do I do a better job making those difficult students feel liked?
• What are some activities/strategies I can do with students to build better relationships? 

"Teens Talk"
      I have seen my teenage son have these same thoughts.  It's not about the learning; it's about the grade and GPA.  Which is sad.

Key Points:

• Make the learning relevant.
• Schools are killing creativity.
• Make the topic real.
• Many students learn better with hands-on activities.
• Most important skills to know are how to speak and think for yourself.

Questions:

• How do we honor students' creativity better?  It's tough with CCSS.
• Should we have more programs/schools for the students who learn by doing?  Such as PATHS and Casco Bay HS.