Last time I wrote, I mentioned I wanted to follow one of my adventures from start to finish. I'm just setting out now, so I'm going to be diligent about tracing my steps right away to be more accurate.
Tonight, I'm choosing a Twitter hash tag from Cybraryman's Awesome Educational HashTags Page, which is a site given to me by my Social Media teacher. I'm headed to #edadmin to check out what the administrators are talking about these days since I have my EdAdmin degree even though I'm not using it. Maybe this will help me stay in the loop since I finished it over two years ago. Also, I might be able to get some ideas to share with the leadership at my school.
Edutopia was the first site I visited and read an article entitled, "Kids Master Mathematics When They're Challenged But Supported." Author Bernice Young wrote about the importance of providing a supportive environment and a little more challenge to give students the chance to struggle with problems more. After reading the article, I realized I was on Edutopia's website. I believe I just signed up for their NING during class two weeks ago to become part of their online learning community.
From there, I hit the pull down button, "Browse by grade level" and headed to my area 6-8. This page looks like a newspaper with three columns. Under the Editor's Picks, I skipped past a headline, "Middle School Students Grow Their Own Lunch" to check out, "The 21st-Century Digital Learner -How tech-obsessed iKids would improve our schools."
Wow! What a great article. Of course, it is nothing new or truly brain busting. It's just the truth. If we want to know what kids think, we should ask them. Kids are bored at school. I need to change the way I teach or they aren't going to listen. So, how can I do this in my classroom? Easy. I could let them read this article and invite them to participate in a student panel in my room during Academic Support Time. Tons of kids (sadly, including those in my Homeroom) are dying to get out of their homeroom and go somewhere when they are supposed to be doing their homework. If I promise snacks and drinks, I'm pretty sure I'll have to make a waiting list. Then, I'll have to listen and brace myself, so I can let them be honest and ensure I'm not defensive. That will be the hard part.
As for letting the kids drive their education a little bit, I could easily let them choose what topics they want to learn for the rest of the year after the state writing test is over, especially if I start by giving them a few choices. So, I can say, would this class like to study Shakespeare or the Holocaust? Then, I could give them a goal as the article suggests. The goal for Shakespeare could be to pick a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream and present it using volume, rate, tone, pronunciation, enunciation, costumes, props, and great acting in order to ensure the message gets across to a real audience. For the Holocaust, the goal could be to generate five questions they would like to answer and help them get to those answers through literature and research.
I think the benefit for me would be having a small excuse to not be so prepared, but what I really mean is I don't have to teach the same thing six times, so I could be a little less scripted and the curiosity of my students would flow a little better. I need to explain this better I think, but maybe I can come back to it.
Yippeee. Skipppeee. I just thought of a great idea. I won a grant for some field trips and was wondering how I was going to create student interest, but now I know. I am going to mention this as a panel topic. If I take the ideas kids give me, they will definitely want to go. . . even if it's on a Saturday.
Also, I must remember a student's idea at our recent student led conferences. She said she would play the piano for our class if I could get a piano in my room. Then she mentioned having a day where any of the students could share their talents. This will be perfect.
And. . . I still want to try 20% time which I heard about on a TEDTalk. I've been mulling this idea over in my mind and have decided I'll have to start slow and maybe just do 10% time or something, but I could bring this up at the panels as well. (20% is where some companies - I forget which ones- give their employees a certain percentage of time to just work on creating ideas and working on their own chosen project.)
Well, there's a lot here. I challenge you to make a panel of at least three students to hear what they have to say (even if you pick ones that are going to be mostly nice), and I also challenge you to check back here in a week to see how mine went. Wish me luck!
sk
Tonight, I'm choosing a Twitter hash tag from Cybraryman's Awesome Educational HashTags Page, which is a site given to me by my Social Media teacher. I'm headed to #edadmin to check out what the administrators are talking about these days since I have my EdAdmin degree even though I'm not using it. Maybe this will help me stay in the loop since I finished it over two years ago. Also, I might be able to get some ideas to share with the leadership at my school.
Edutopia was the first site I visited and read an article entitled, "Kids Master Mathematics When They're Challenged But Supported." Author Bernice Young wrote about the importance of providing a supportive environment and a little more challenge to give students the chance to struggle with problems more. After reading the article, I realized I was on Edutopia's website. I believe I just signed up for their NING during class two weeks ago to become part of their online learning community.
From there, I hit the pull down button, "Browse by grade level" and headed to my area 6-8. This page looks like a newspaper with three columns. Under the Editor's Picks, I skipped past a headline, "Middle School Students Grow Their Own Lunch" to check out, "The 21st-Century Digital Learner -How tech-obsessed iKids would improve our schools."
Wow! What a great article. Of course, it is nothing new or truly brain busting. It's just the truth. If we want to know what kids think, we should ask them. Kids are bored at school. I need to change the way I teach or they aren't going to listen. So, how can I do this in my classroom? Easy. I could let them read this article and invite them to participate in a student panel in my room during Academic Support Time. Tons of kids (sadly, including those in my Homeroom) are dying to get out of their homeroom and go somewhere when they are supposed to be doing their homework. If I promise snacks and drinks, I'm pretty sure I'll have to make a waiting list. Then, I'll have to listen and brace myself, so I can let them be honest and ensure I'm not defensive. That will be the hard part.
As for letting the kids drive their education a little bit, I could easily let them choose what topics they want to learn for the rest of the year after the state writing test is over, especially if I start by giving them a few choices. So, I can say, would this class like to study Shakespeare or the Holocaust? Then, I could give them a goal as the article suggests. The goal for Shakespeare could be to pick a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream and present it using volume, rate, tone, pronunciation, enunciation, costumes, props, and great acting in order to ensure the message gets across to a real audience. For the Holocaust, the goal could be to generate five questions they would like to answer and help them get to those answers through literature and research.
I think the benefit for me would be having a small excuse to not be so prepared, but what I really mean is I don't have to teach the same thing six times, so I could be a little less scripted and the curiosity of my students would flow a little better. I need to explain this better I think, but maybe I can come back to it.
Yippeee. Skipppeee. I just thought of a great idea. I won a grant for some field trips and was wondering how I was going to create student interest, but now I know. I am going to mention this as a panel topic. If I take the ideas kids give me, they will definitely want to go. . . even if it's on a Saturday.
Also, I must remember a student's idea at our recent student led conferences. She said she would play the piano for our class if I could get a piano in my room. Then she mentioned having a day where any of the students could share their talents. This will be perfect.
And. . . I still want to try 20% time which I heard about on a TEDTalk. I've been mulling this idea over in my mind and have decided I'll have to start slow and maybe just do 10% time or something, but I could bring this up at the panels as well. (20% is where some companies - I forget which ones- give their employees a certain percentage of time to just work on creating ideas and working on their own chosen project.)
Well, there's a lot here. I challenge you to make a panel of at least three students to hear what they have to say (even if you pick ones that are going to be mostly nice), and I also challenge you to check back here in a week to see how mine went. Wish me luck!
sk
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