Absence of anything

http://savedbythe-bellhooks.tumblr.com/

Not really sure what this has to do with education, environmental, technological or otherwise, but it's something I've been thinking a lot about.  I've used saved by the bell hooks before, I love how provoking some of the images and quotations can be.  

I guess what I'm really wondering is why it takes the presence of extreme anything to finally do something, or become aware. 

In the environment it's climate change, how big does it have to be before people act.  With technology it's falling behind as teachers, how much do we have to not understand before we realize that communication has changed and we're a million years behind (like really who even blogs anymore). With people, I guess it's everything.  Why do we need extremism, to realize the areas we're being exploited?

Anyway, just wondering how can we be aware of situations without being or causing extremism.  

Peer feedback and teaching

 Some rights reserved by Ken Whytock

Just came back from a google pd thing.  It was just okay, well just okay for me, I think some other people really enjoyed it.   Too often in PD we just lecture, and it's pretty boring for everyone (especially someone who spent all weekend sitting and listening).  How can we leverage real time feedback with our peers.

As I present more and more I think this question is going to be at the forefront of my mind.  How are people truly engaged in what I am saying? How do I gather evidence of this? How can adults learn in a more productive way through PD?

Connecting students with nature

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Starting next week I am going to be working on my "magic spot" project with students.  I have been doing this without technology for a couple of years but I want to incorporate technology more meaningfully into the students work. 

So, starting next week I will be taking a couple of grade three students and some iPads outside.  They will take a photograph of their spot.  With hope we will get outside every school day and take a photo.  We will then put these photos together into a stop motion video. 

I hope to create deeper connections between people and places. Often at international schools I feel that students and teachers do not feel connected to their place.  When people feel more connected they will be more likely to take action for their space (check out my thesis if you're really more interested in this). 

Would love some ideas if anyone has them. 

Consuming or Creating or Both

 Some rights reserved by barbourians

I was reading George Couros' blog today about "work phone mentality", while I always enjoy his blog posts, this one really got me thinking.

At my previous school, before we introduced iPads to the classroom we gave them to our teachers for six months.   The first two months were playing, and like Couros mentioned, not everyone played. Some people used it for personal communication, some looked into how they could use it with students, but I guess everyone who used it thought about how they could use it to enhance their teaching (which is great).  But I don't think anyone used it to try to create something (myself included).

Consuming
I don't think we were solely consuming (or we were aware of solely consuming), rather I think so much of what we know as educators is to consume and adapt. Rarely are we asked to create change, or stimulate change (well in our students yes, but in the system? I don't think so).

For the past two years as an EdTech coach, I've been asking teachers to create rather than consume with their learners.  And I fully support that idea today, but I think I've missed out on some of the benefits of consuming, or I've been using the word improperly or just leaving off the creating aspect from consuming.

Consuming, creating and the commons

 Some rights reserved by The Daring Librarian

While I often think of the potential of creative commons, I don't always think of it as a tool for both creating and consuming (although now that I think of it, I can't actually imagine it any other way).  Coming from a constructivist view point, I believe we build on from our previous knowledge, besides direct experience and then consumption (reading, watching, listening, interacting) to other people's experience, I don't know what other ways we can acquire knowledge.

As I head into my classes on digital citizenship, and crediting sources this week, I really want to highlight this opportunity to consume and create for our whole learning community. 

Unselfishness - How Michael Richards inspired me.

www.comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com

Over the break, I got a little into Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.  I think I saw someone post it on twitter or something, but started with Louis C.K. and just worked my way backwards.

Lots and lots of funny moments with funny people, some good observations on life, with Jerry Seinfeld who knew right? Most of it was just something to enjoy, right up till the Michael Richards episode.

Anyway, he was talking about that one night he verbally abused some guy and walked out.  He was reflecting, openly and honestly about a mistake he made. The word he used was selfish, he was being selfish about his act.

This made me think about teaching.  How often am I selfish of my lesson, or what I want the take away to be?  I don't think it is that often, but it made me set my resolution this year to be totally focused on student learning, and from their perspective.  What is it that they want to take from the lesson.  How can I empower them to start directing their own learning, and allowing them to think whatever they want about my teaching.  I see this as an opportunity to be a better learning, and technology coach.

When working with the students this week, I've been working on developing their voice in their blogs. I adapted some of George Courus' work on blogging to present to the teachers about why we should be blogging with students. With our migration unit, the grade four and five students are thinking deeply about why and how people migrate. I've also been really happy with the sharing of the writing. Blogs have made sharing so much easier for my students, and the immediacy of feedback has really inspired some to write more. 

When working with teachers this week I've been much more patient.  For the last month or so, I've been focused on achieving the school goals, while this is really important, I wanted to focus on each teacher's perspective and ability this week.  It's been great so far, I have the goals we set at the beginning of the year, and while we have been progressing, I took this week to review our goals and make some changes.  It's great to see where they are in applying the SAMR lingo to their lexicon, and even more inspiring to see how redefinition of integration is constantly being modified.

Anyway, a fantastic episode and an inspiring start to the New Year.

Coaching Perspectives

This week I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be a learning coach.  I try to treat students the same way as I work with teachers, showing them ideas, explaining a concept quickly and having people explore.  Working with each individual at their exploration process to take them to the next step in their discoveries and then sharing our learning.

I want to encourage this model for teaching with the iPads.  Students are all at different levels and have the opportunity to create many different things. This individual focus allows student to achieve their personal best.

When students are working together to meet a common goal that that they had a part in creating I've personally seen a much deeper sense of engagement.  They want to know more, they willingly share their work with many others and they are receptive to feedback to create something incredible. 

I think  George Courus mentioned in a conference in Bangkok that this generation of learners publishes first and then edits.  This seems to clash with the teachers who want to edit first before presenting.  I think we need to have teachers open up and not be afraid to make mistakes. We all need to publish, get feedback and improve.  

As a coach, I'm trying to again push this idea of being a beginner and that everything can be edited and changed (even once published).  We need to make sure our whole school community has chances to fail and learn from their mistakes.