Modern Learning

April 2, 2018 Michelle Fenn Classroom Management, Combined Grade Classes, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Integration, Math, Modern Learning, Questioning, Resilience, Resources, Technology in school, The Global Competencies

Deep Learning in Inquiry (Part 2)

In reading part one of my inquiry blog, one might think, “That’s all lots of fun, but building a bee house isn’t exactly something that I can write on the report card.” You would be absolutely right. The learning is imbedded in the exciting things. It is intentional and it is authentic. Connecting with a local expert, using technology for research and having hands on activities with students engaged scratches the surface of inquiry. Our deep learning with this unit began with the types of questions that we were asking. I noticed that when the students began asking questions on Padlet that Siri could have easily answered many of their questions with one or two word answers. This lead to a series of lessons on “THICK” vs. “Thin” questions. We added better questioning to our goals.

The students also noticed that I had included a lot of infographics on the Padlet. Infographics are seen everywhere in social media to communicate information efficiently and visually. However, students need to know how to use this information, how to synthesize it, how to put it into their own words and how to source it. We spent a significant amount of our language periods on reading and interpreting infographics.

Source:Visual.ly

Our learning goals and success criteria went way beyond making houses for bees and honey tasting. Students wanted to DO something to help bees. We created our learning goals and criteria together:

Early on in the inquiry we watched an informative YouTube video called, We Can Save the Bees Together. Sarah Red-Laird, bee enthusiast and scientist, gave us a number of ideas of actions that we could take. The students decided that one of the things that they wanted to do was to call for stronger legislation about mono cropping and pesticide use in farming. They wanted to write letters to politicians and change makers. In addition, when Susan Chan, local bee researcher visited, she “planted the seed” about creating a non-stinging bee friendly garden in our school yard. This prompted students to write letters to local school officials to solicit assistance and guidance. One of our students from Curve Lake First Nation decided to write the Chief and Band Council to ask them to consider building a bee friendly garden in their community. The desire for letter writing lead to a series of lessons on how to write a professional letter, how to proofread and how to edit in a meaningful and authentic learning context for students. The students also felt that educating others about conservation of bees was important so they are now working on developing presentations that they can take to other classes as well as media advertising to share their learning and call others to action.

In math, we had been focusing on data management. It fit in perfectly to what we were doing with our inquiry! There is an incredible amount of data about bees on the Statistics Canada website. We read real graphs with information that the students cared about, we labelled the important parts of the graphs and we will be creating our own surveys and graphing the information from different areas of our inquiry.

Statistics Canada

Honestly, the best part of inquiry is when the students start to direct their own learning. I guide them. I provide thought provoking questions and “what if” scenarios. They make choices and feel good about doing something that is affecting real change. Inquiry is empowerment for students. This students aren’t done with this inquiry yet-they have many more plans ahead! Stay tuned.

March 31, 2018March 31, 2018 Will Gourley Assessment, Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Inquiry, Modern Learning, Technology in school, Use of Technology

Define and defying (smart) device use

There’s more to Modern Learning than delivering lessons on to smartphones.
There’s more to Modern Learning than having a paperless class.
There’s more to Modern Learning because there just is…
And I’m fine with that because there is more to Modern Learning.
So much so, that we are seeing more and more educators trying to define it even if others seem to be defying it.

Walk into a K- 8 classroom and you’ll most likely see students and teachers using smartphones, tablets, MS desktops, Apples, and Chromebooks. Perhaps they’re inquiring about a recent lesson, or digging deeper into a passion project during Genius Hour? Maybe the whole class is playing Kahoot with their French teacher?

From a distance it looks amazing. I have been the teacher who has witnessed all of the above and I’ll throw in a Google Classroom, TED Ed Lessons, Padlet, and raise you a Twitter. Can you hear the government types and administrators applauding and patting themselves on the back for allowing it to happen. However the applause should be for the educators who have led the charge to implement Modern Learning into their spaces. They are willing to take risks, try new things, and make mistakes to reach their Modern Learners. Teachers are in the trenches of learning everyday and understand the what, why, and how of their classrooms.

Outside looking in

To outsiders, visions of devices and technology in every hand sum up their understandings of modern learning. A cynic may equate Modern Learning as simply a shift from text books and worksheets to students completing digital versions of the same old thing.

Keep in mind, “Modern learning” is not limited to tech use alone, but will be for this post. Technology in the hands of educators and learners has now become the conduit through which learning takes place. When modern tools and passionate instruction are paired, learning becomes more relevant and engaging to students. Imagine being able to ask a question and have time to search for the answer immediately with only a few keystrokes and clicks?

“Technology’s primary effect is to amplify human forces, so in education, technologies amplify whatever pedagogical capacity is already there.” Jørgen MORTENSEN

Board wide access to WiFi means more and more students are taking notes during lessons using the technology at their fingertips. At the same time, teachers are gathering evidence of learning too. And, still others are watching a cool cat video or streaming music? It’s all possible in the modern learning classroom. However, as many educators have already discovered, the use of smartphones can be a friend and foe in the classroom and comes with a few caveats.

A smart device is a tool in the learning toolbox not a cure all. It is not the only one and as such should never be relied upon for a quick fix or for ushering in the ‘educational renaissance’. Consider what Jason Lodge writes,

Enhancing education is a complex, wicked problem because learning and teaching are multifaceted phenomena, involving biological, technological, psychological, social, economic and pedagogical factors.

Reading this provides little comfort to my understanding of Modern Learning. In fact it leads me deeper down the rabbit hole in pursuit of understanding it better. Despite the wonder promised by all of this technology, students are still engaging with it far more often to connect and communicate rather than curate, create, and collaborate on content.

True story time

The other day I observed a grade 6 student using a device at an inappropriate time. As I approached, she quickly hid it(an iPhone 6+). Like a phablet that size can be hidden. I asked what she was so consumed by on her device that she was defying school policy? She shared it was a fan site for Ariana Grande.

Not the worst use of WiFi by a student, but off topic to be sure. After a few more questions I asked her to explain to me what she liked about Ariana Grande. We chatted about the March For Our Lives rally and about her performance. The convo continued and I got to know more about the student rather than defaulting to a YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER moment, followed by the standard lecture on appropriate use of technology.

Maybe this approach can be considered as Modern Learning too. If not, we can call it Modern Pedagogy that builds relationships and connections before asking students to fall into curricular compliance without context. Maybe Modern Learning has to be willing to defy convention?

By taking the time to discover her interests, some barriers were taken down. It was only afterwards that I suggested that classtime was intended for curriculum, and that I would suggest a Genius Hour activity in the near future where she could combine learning with her personal interest in Ms Grande – all the while helping other students discover, scratch, and share their own intellectual itches.

Another approach

At other schools, students are now required to lock their smartphones away for the learning day as an effort to reduce misuse and device distractions. What the link did not mention was that the school probably has students on computers or tablets as part of the instructional space. Anyone who has booked a computer cart or lab knows that students can become as easily distracted by these tools too.

So what ends up happening are these absolutes and dictums from class to class and school to school. It is obvious that some teachers are more open to embrace this more easily than others. Perhaps it is an admin or system issue, but there does not appear to be a consistent policy about device useage in schools. The dissonance in all of this for me is that we ask our students to innovate, we give them the most amazing and powerful learning/communication devices on the planet and then expect them to be able to put them aside to listen to a lesson that is being pulled from a text book or source older than they are. In other cases, students are creating multi-modal masterpieces of identity and ingenuity.

How about engaging and empowering them to use their devices for everything that is possible, trusting them to make good decisions, and having them create the criteria for use in classrooms? At the same time, educators can model appropriate use by sharing documents, links, updates, and evidence of learning via Twitter or class web sites.

The technology is not going away. The when, where, why, and how it will be used needs some defining so that students are not seen as defying school when they use their devices. Then maybe Modern Learning can be more than just more with technology.

Extra Fuel for your Modern Learning fire;

Teaching in a 1:1 Classroom from John Woodring

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/06/why-technology-alone-wont-fix-schools/394727/

March 29, 2018 Arianna Lambert Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Math, Modern Learning, Play-Based Learning, Students as Teachers, Use of Technology

Digital Breakouts

Escape Rooms have been all the rage as of late. Over the past couple of years, I’ve learned about and used breakouts in my classroom to engage students and as a tool in assessment for and assessment as learning. Essentially, it’s a Google Slides presentation or a Google Site where there are links to different elements of learning and a form where students or colleagues can enter their responses.

Last week, I was fortunate to work with an amazing group of teachers during #TinkeringThursdays and we spent the time breaking out and considering applications for the classroom. I have to say that students tend to be a little more resilient in trying to solve problems but in this process, it was interesting to see teachers as learners and to consider what students might experience when presented with tasks that challenge them and push them to problem solve.

Breakouts with students

As mentioned before, I enjoy using Breakouts as assessment for and assessment as learning. For me, it allows me to see whether or not my students can apply some of their learning to solve puzzles collaboratively. A couple of weeks ago, I worked on a decimal breakout with my students as a means for assessment for learning. I wanted to understand what they already knew about decimals. Now I used this breakout before with students who were a little further along in their learning and it was great to see that my current group of students took the time to view the videos in order to learn or understand a concept in a deeper way, whereas my previous students were more able to apply their learning to solve the problems. Either way, there was the support needed to help guide them as they problem solved. When we work on breakouts, I usually have students work in groups of 2 or 3 so that they have the opportunity to collaborate and possibly look at a problem from a different perspective.

Breakouts with colleagues

Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to present sessions on Digital Breakouts to colleagues and it’s been so much fun. In each session, we start with a breakout and I’ve seen this as a great way to engage in learning in a fun way. This got me thinking about how we might be able to use breakouts to engage colleagues in new learning in staff meetings or PD sessions. Rather than having information delivered, could this be a tool where we – like our students – discover and learn on our own? I’m starting to think about more applications for breakouts with colleagues so stay tuned!

Next Steps

While writing this blog, I started to think about gamification in the classroom. How might it engage some learners and what might the implications be for students who truly enjoy learning in this way? It also had me thinking that it was great that students had an experience in learning though a breakout, but what’s next? How might we use student-created games to not only facilitate their own learning but collaborative learning in our classrooms? My next step is to get my students to start creating their own and getting them to consider how they develop their questions and how they determine what information might be helpful to others solving the problems in their games. Again, I’ll keep you posted. In the meanwhile, if you’re interested in trying the breakout that we used for #TinkeringThursdays, click on the image below. The last couple of slides have important information on creating your own.

Also, please feel free to share how you are using games – like breakouts – in your classroom for student learning or learning with colleagues. I would love to hear from you!

February 18, 2018 Will Gourley Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Genius Hour, Inquiry, Modern Learning, Students as Teachers, Use of Technology

Designated time a.k.a Genius Hour

#PinDropQuiet

It’s quiet in my classroom right now.
A little too quiet.

Did my students just have the most boring lesson ever?
I don’t hear snoring.

Did they all eat turkey for lunch?
Not today.

Are the students all out of the room during prep?
Nope. They are all here and engaged in something called Genius Hour.

Can You Hear the Pin Drop by Daniel CC BY NCSA 2.0

Here’s what led up to this moment.

Me: Have you ever wanted to study something on your terms and wasn’t in your text book?
Them: Yes. I do. Wait what? Followed by another 6 simultaneous comments in favour.
Me: Would anyone like to do that now?
Them: Yup. YES! Me! Followed by another 6 simultaneous comments and another 6 side conversations on top. All if favour of this strange, but intriguing opportunity.
Me: Okay, but here are the rules.
Them: Oh great, now here come the rules…(I only imagined this last line).

The Rules

1. Your topic must be declared and shared with the teacher before proceeding. That way some suggestions and direction may be offered if needed. Switching topics in not encouraged. See one idea/interest through, and chase after a new one next time. Ask them if this something they really want to share? Why is this interesting to you? Explain.
2.You must work quietly on your own. Don’t annoy your peers. They’re working too – so be cool.
3. You must be on task. Independent learning sounds easy, but carries a great deal of responsibility to those who are privileged with the gift of time. Use the present(see what I did there?) wisely.
4. You may use technology or texts or whatever you can gather information from to do your research. Interviews are cool too, but may require more than the time allotted. See teacher to negotiate.
5. You may use headphones to screen videos or audio content as long as it relates to your topic.
6. You may share your new learning in the format of your choice. This can include, but is not limited to; visual presentations, works of art, a performance, video, a poem/song/rant, research paper, or TED style talks.
7. You will become the in-class expert on your topic. So enjoy discovering the knowledge that is waiting for you to find it.

The certainty of uncertainty

When students are empowered and engaged, the resulting learning is immersed in intense inquiry and thought. The room is filled with nothing other than productive silence; barely broken by keystrokes and infrequent fidgeting as grade 5s are wont to do. Students’ questions are usually met with responses of redirection that affirm their instincts rather than direct answers. I want them to develop and trust their instincts as learners by stretching beyond their comfort zones. If that means answering a question with another question, then so be it. One thing’s for sure, it will be a stretch for everyone including you.

Me: Here’s your chance to discover something that you’ve always wanted to know more about. What do you think it should be? What did you discover when you were doing your research? Have you considered…?

Then there’s the momentarily unsure. Occasionally, there are students who are really stuck when given so much latitude in the classroom. It might be a good idea to have the class share some general ideas that can be used in the case of Genius Hour Learner’s Block. Keep in mind this is new for some students as they have been conditioned to learn what is being taught without ever having time to scratch their own intellectual itches. If a learner is still stuck, keep directing them back to what they are passionate about in their lives. Feel free to share what you might study if given a chance. My students always love when I share my own passion projects in learning. Here is my latest one about the Psychology of Accents.

Handing over the learning to students is a struggle for some educators. We are so used to having everything organized, on time, and in its place. If this is you? Don’t panic. Please keep in mind that it will be messy at times. Some educators will feel compelled to assess this somehow. I get it. Perhaps for the first time, you consider only assessing the presentation skills rather than the content. If this is truly to resemble self-driven inquiry in learning, students should not be afraid to take chances because a mark is hanging over their heads.

Take it as opportunity to construct the success criteria with your students. They will not let you down. Consider having students assess one another’s work for the purposes of learning. Maybe you can make it like a gallery walk where half of the class shares and the other goes from one presentation to the next. You can also model and post some guiding questions as prompts.

One more rule

8. Have fun and celebrate all of the new learning that your students have discovered.

February 18, 2018February 18, 2018 Michelle Fenn Celebrating Success, Classroom Management, Combined Grade Classes, Communication Tools, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Integration, Literacy, Modern Learning, Professional Learning and Growth, Resources, Technology in school, Use of Technology

Free Creation Apps to Show Student Thinking

I was asked to present a workshop about using technology in the Primary grades over a year ago and got into a debate with the Principal at the host school about apps. The Principal was quite excited about the apps that he intended to purchase for his teachers to use with their students and he showed me his list. I was surprised. None of the apps were creation apps. They were all “practice basic skills and keep kids quiet apps”. I showed him my list of preferred apps. It was his turn to be surprised.

“These apps that you have chosen for the teachers are a lot like fancy worksheets for kids to practice basic skills. Those skills are important, but doing a worksheet on an iPad might be a little more engaging, but it is still a worksheet, and an expensive one at that! The apps that I am going to share with the staff today are all apps that students can choose from to show their thinking in a fun, engaging way that also provides opportunity for feedback and editing.” Unfortunately, he didn’t stay for the workshop.

The main difficulty that I have found with apps is finding something that you can use in schools that doesn’t cost a lot of money and isn’t just a free trial or have “in-app purchases”. I don’t mind paying a few dollars for an app but when you get into the double digits for a school, it isn’t sustainable. I thought I would share a few free creation apps that I have used with both the primary and junior grades. I have also included some samples. None of the samples are done by students, but I can assure you that each of these are quite intuitive and easy even for primary grades to use. Each of the apps has a link to it in the App Store for further information.

Shadow Puppet EDU The name is deceiving and the little white bunny on the app icon is too. It basically provides a video of a slide show in which you can add voice and text. Students can link to the already sourced for copyright pictures provided within the app or take pictures from their iPad or with the camera. The students find this one easy to use but tricky to edit some of the text. It uploads to Seesaw and other platforms easily.

Here is a sample of Puppet EDU:

Padlet I have used this a lot in order to begin a new unit of inquiry on something. It provides a place to put safe links and videos that I have sourced for the students as a starting point and reference. In addition, the students can collaborate their thinking with sticky notes. You can share it publicly with other Padlet users, but we keep ours private at this point. We may share our Padlets with other classes at our school through the use of the QR code and password. The sign is uses a QR code which you can print out. We are using Padlet for our unit on the Olympics. The students will then create their own Padlet to share with classmates on an Olympic event that they will research. Students will be invited to provide feedback to one another. This is a screen capture of our Olympic Padlet:

iBrainstorm This app allows students to add sticky notes, text or hand written notes to templates like Venn Diagrams. In addition, up to 3 other people can be invited to collaborate on the same template in real time. You can take a screen shot and save it to photos. It also uploads to multiple platforms easily.

February 18, 2018February 18, 2018 Michelle Fenn Combined Grade Classes, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, General, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Integration, Literacy, Modern Learning, Questioning, Resilience, Technology in school, The Global Competencies, Use of Technology

The Virtues of Non Fiction Reading and Writing – Part 2

Our Journey

We began by identifying the books in our book bags as fiction or nonfiction. The students justified how they knew if a book was fiction or nonfiction. In small groups the students compiled lists of nonfiction text features that they noticed in their stack of chosen books. As a class we went through the Scholastic Book order and they decided which books were fiction or nonfiction and explained their choice. The students discussed whether there was a realistic photo, the title and if there was a synopsis about the book. We explored the “Explain Everything” app and played with it for a short period before getting into the project. I find that a “romance period” with a new tool helps to keep them on task when they begin their work. The app was fairly new to me but the students found it to be mostly intuitive. They were really stoked to use the feature that points to the words using a “light sabre”. There were a few glitches with accessing text edits but eventually they got the hang of it. We have the free trial version. The actual app is quite expensive.

Establishing a Purpose

I explained to the students that our younger “buddies” were going to be learning about nonfiction and their teacher was looking for an engaging presentation about nonfiction text features for her students. By setting up an authentic purpose and audience for writing, the students were engaged immediately.

These are the learning goals, success criteria, project checklist and anchor charts that we developed over a period or two. We added and changed some things as time went on as well.

The students really had to think about the information that a nonfiction text feature gave them as a reader. The learning was much deeper by creating a teaching video than if they had just identified the features in texts. Students referred to the success criteria and checklists throughout the project. Before they came to me they had to have some peer feedback. They put their first draft on Seesaw and I provided some feedback online. The students edited and adjusted from peer and teacher feedback and then posted for parents to see on Seesaw. Below the blog, I have included three different examples of projects from both grade four and five.

Assessment and Evaluation

The integration of technology with a presentation provides an opportunity to assess many different curriculum expectations in language:

-ability to critically analyze the purposes for nonfiction text features

-ability to create a piece of media for a specific purpose and audience

-ability to oral communicate coherently and expressively

-ability to write clearly using appropriate conventions and their ability to edit their work

-ability to use success criteria, anchor charts and feedback in the creative process

In the area of learning skills:

Independent Work

-adhere to timelines and guidelines

-use class time appropriately to complete a task

-monitor, assess and revise plans to meet goals

Responsibility

-provide appropriate feedback to peers; being considerate of the feelings of others

-have their materials ready

Initiative

-find answers to questions and materials they need on their own

-find ways to make their work better

Organization

-set up their work so that the ideas are communicated and the audience understands their thinking

-prioritize what needs to be done

Collaboration

-uses politeness and kindness when providing feedback

-shares resources, information and expertise

Self Regulation

-asks for clarification about feedback

-uses mistakes as a learning opportunity

-provides evidence that they think about their thinking

December 30, 2017January 1, 2018 Will Gourley Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Making a Difference Through Education, Modern Learning, self reflection

The destination

This is the companion post to The drive shared on December 30, 2017. I wrote it because trips are always more fun with a partner.

When I was in grade school, there always seemed to be one adult whose job it was to ask students, “What do want to be when you grow up?” For some reason, this was more of a cruel conundrum rather than a sparkling conversational point. I hated hearing this question in my day. I still cringe whenever it gets asked today. Secretly, I hope students respond with something creative like Unicorn rancher or underwater coffee shop owner – anything will do, as long as it changes the subject.

I see the question more like asking students to pick the trip of their lifetime without ever having a chance to take a Geography lesson, browse a web-site or read any reviews on TripAdvisor.¹ Even though our jobs are to provide and guide our students, we still must let our learners decide their own destination(s).

This is cause for concern because I fear we’re running out of road(s) for some of our learners. For many, the destinations are leading to dead-ends instead of their dreams coming true. If we consider the ruthless nature of the real world our graduates will face, there will be many detours, breakdowns, and accidents outside of the classroom courtesy of life. And yes there will be traffic, road closures, and potholes. This makes it even more crucial for us to be paving new roads with our learners.

It’s hard to drive.
It’s even more difficult to discover what drives us.
Then there’s always the destination where departure times depend.
Decidedly, education helps define destiny and dignity.

Over the past 9 years of my teaching journey, I have sped past a few common sites along the way. Like the repeating background of an old cartoon or the cookie-cutter rest stops that line the highway – each with the same caffeine, food, and fuel options. They are;

A. Our students are taught to worry so much about the destination that they risk getting lost or forgetting the reason for their journey all together. If all they are taught to see is a mark, then it is time to redraw the maps and reprogram the GPS.

B. There is no amount of training to completely equip educators for every iteration of classroom they will work within. Some or most of the learning will come on the job, and that’s okay. Redrawing the map required, again.

C. Worksheets are neither the solution for active engagement, nor parents who demand homework for their child. They are most likely mind-numbing disengagement exercises destined for the recycling bin if not managed. How can students be free to think when the answers are fed to them to regurgitate on a page? Maybe this paper could be used for the maps instead?

D. No matter how much teachers care for their student’s well-being, academic achievement, or future they will still be allowed to fall through the cracks due to decisions made outside of our school walls. This is hard to understand, but we have to accept it and support these students where possible inside of the system.

E. Students have voices that need to be equipped and amplified. If we are not listening to our learners when they whisper, it will be too late to help when they are screaming at us. Asking students for feedback, ideas, and improvements has been one of my favourite and frightening activities. It can hurt the ego from time to time, but can also break down barriers in the classroom that can lead to more effective and honest feedback as learning.

Destination TBA is A-OK

Over the course of their learning, students will change their minds 1000s of times. They will find something interesting one week and then something different the next. What worked to inspire them last year may be the thing that gets in their way the next. As educators, we have to consider the importance of our work in preparing students to reach their destinations not ours. We must always be creating new roads for them to travel not just maintaining existing ones. We must also be teaching our students to read and draw the maps to their own future.

There will also be slamming brakes, reversing at full speed, doing donuts in snowy parking lots, and tearing out engines for rebuilding. We will fill their tanks, provide directions, and clean windshields. Yet, as elementary teachers, we rarely get to see our impact on students once they’ve traveled further down life’s roads.

Hopefully, they’ll send an occasional postcard and maybe a map to let us know they’ve arrived at their destination.

1. I used to tell people corporate lawyer so they would leave me alone. It seemed to cover all of the bases even though I would have rather pursued diplomatic or NGO work overseas. And now, here I am – a teacher, writer, and question askerer.

December 30, 2017January 8, 2018 Will Gourley Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Making a Difference Through Education, Modern Learning, self reflection

The drive

Hands up if you’ve ever wondered what goes on in the minds of the drivers on the road around you?

Recent commutes to school and to shopping feel more like scenes out of a Mad Max movie, except with snow storms instead of sand storms. Vehicles speeding, tailgating, weaving, cutting one another off, and then there were some drivers who provided visual proof that not all birds have flown south this winter. However, none of this reflects anything close to the spirit of kindness and giving this season is supposed to celebrate.

Lately, a combination of work-life/Geo-political stress, an over-abundance of festivities/holiday cheeriness, and wintry weather have made people significantly more interesting. And by interesting, I mean disagreeable, distracted and sometimes dangerous. Being easily distracted myself, I started thinking about self-driving cars and how an autonomous vehicle would handle this time of year?¹

Then came a realization that our current cohort of elementary students could be among the first to have self-driving cars by the time they get their driver’s licences. Will this be a good thing or will a Neo-Luddite backlash prevent this particular advancement in technology from coming? What about education? Could classrooms become more autonomous too?

Why hasn’t all of this happened sooner when it could be better and safer for everyone? Are there Edu-Luddites at work trying to preserve exhausted and traditional systems? As education ploughs into this century, will it keep pace with a modern world that is changing at the speed of learning? Will broke down dogmas of teach, test, report, and repeat finally be traded-in, repaired, or left on the side of the road? Is this why NASCAR is so popular?

Getting somewhere

Speaking of NASCAR, I wondered whether everyone travelling at the same rate was a good idea. Did you know there is something called a restrictor-plate? Isn’t that what’s happening in our classrooms already? Students race through their learning based on birth years, circling the track over and over until all of their age appropriate laps are completed, and then they’re towed or driven off at the end of Grade 12.

But what if they need to stop along the way? Are there pit-stops/provisions in place to support students who do not fit the factory learning model or who prefer a different pace? I get that special and alternative education options are already available, but what if more students need them and they are not available? Think of a racer who needs tires and gas at a pit-stop, but only being able to choose one. It’s only a matter of time before frustration and failure become the outcomes.

In my next post I want to continue driving home this theme, but will shift gears to consider where we and our students are heading. Please read my companion piece The destination to continue the journey.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Please share and take time to comment.

1. Did you know that Tesla’s autonomous vehicles are logging over a million miles of data per day?

November 30, 2017December 1, 2017 Will Gourley Celebrating Success, Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Modern Learning

Learning to swim

https://www.flickr.com/photos/eviltomthai/5129962638 CC By 2.0

I remember laughing when our teacher taught us that fish swim in schools. You know how kindergarten students think, right? Naturally, I wondered which classroom at my school held the aquarium? Would dolphins be there too? Then came the cruelest lesson of all; dolphins are not fish. Why was I even there?

All these years later, I understand that we were the fish in that educational ocean. We were taught to swim in a school at school zigging back and forth as if in a constantly choreographed current. Sit here, read this, write this, stand here, go there, eat, play, run, think, solve this, and repeat.

We were learning to swim in our little school to survive life. Zagging in and out of the doors and halls from class to class like small fish between coral reefs and vegetation.

We swam for all of our might and soon discovered 2 things; the current kept getting stronger, and that danger was always lurking in the water. Without learning to swim, we were at risk of being singled out, devoured, or even worse, drowning. Yup, fish can drown…kinda.

The reality that fish can drown(suffocate) makes me think that even when students seem like they are swimming along fine, they could still be at risk. How we teach our learners to swim and navigate the waters comes with equal parts skill, frustration, and grace too (thanks to the Tragically Hip). So are we teaching our students to swim for their lives, or are we over fishing them to death with rote lessons, busy work, and too many assessments?

When Giovanni Caboto, aka John Cabot, and his crew discovered the rich stocks of cod fish off of the Grand Banks he told the King of England that there would be enough fish to feed the kingdom until the end of time.

Little did he know that within a 500 hundred years, the Grand Banks would become over fished and the cod population was nearly decimated. The lessons learned over the past two hundred years in education are caught in a similar net.

Our students are over tested. The system has cast the same catch-all nets for too long. They feel too much stress, and they see the world of their future as a total mess. The oceans they’re inheriting are clogged with the debris left behind by their predecessors. Remember, these are the same people who gave us standardized testing, drill and kill Math, regurgitated learning, and grammar police state nightmares in both official languages.

Ironically now, there is also a figurative and literal garbage patch to clean up thanks to current education systems and its ancestors. What was once a thriving home full of opportunities and diversity is now a murky, polluted, and estranged place. Insert image of bleached coral here.

What I fear the most is that our students’ reasons for learning are disappearing like the cod on the Grand Banks. Without an intervention, the desire to learn that is coded into our youth faces extinction too. Can we revive this generation of learners by teaching them to swim, by cleaning their waters, and providing the safe habitat for them to thrive?

November 24, 2017 Will Gourley General, Modern Learning, Professional Judgement, self reflection

Call the cops

Call the cops

I’m guilty, and intend to re-offend. I will not be pleading innocent or apologizing either. So call the cops because I confess to caring about the well being of my students. And I think there are other recidivists like me out there. Yet, how would we know since so many educators spend their time siloed in self-sentenced solitary confinement?

Maybe, the problem is attributable to my particular approach to pedagogy? I write my tongue in cheek admission because I believe that student well being needs to be the foundation upon which all student success is built. Ensuring that my students know that they matter comes first and foremost. If not, it would be like building an upside down pyramid. It will not stand the test of time. (insert imaginary picture of an upside down pyramid here) In other words, it’s about relationships.

Is that a siren in the distance?

My instruction is student centred, connected, and committed to their success far beyond the marks on a report card. I want them to learn how to be awesome at life. That means taking time to invest in learning what makes my students tick as learners first. Not to mention, by the creation of safe, failure tolerant spaces for them to share what they hate about school. Before you let the police in, think about this.

My students are also asked to share what they love about school, and what they would like to have happen more often. I am trying to democratize the classroom here by listening to and valuing their voices. Let’s call this time Septovember. When it comes to their futures I’m guilty of involving students in the conversations that affect this part of their lives too.

Many of our Septovember discussions circle around activism, advocacy, and learning to think about one another. In the past year, I decided to throw all of the cards on the table. I announced that we were going to have a challenge task in our language block. I started the lesson off by saying, “The adults in your life have failed you. I have failed you. My parents have failed you. And a whole lot of people before us have failed you too.” Once they picked their jaws up off of their desks, I asked, “What are you going to do about it?”

We established a few parameters, discussed possible learning goals, and students set out to identify and solve one of the many problems they are inheriting from us (e.g., environment, political strife, human rights issues, equity). Almost immediately my students were engaged and motivated and there it was: inquiry, empowerment, and authentic learning.

I hear handcuffs rattling.

Naturally, whenever life learning like this happens, it puts me behind any traditional instructional schedules, but thankfully it also allows instruction to happen much more effectively over the remaining months of our year. That’s right officer, it’s spelled G-O-U-R-L-E-Y

My students are going to learn that I care about them long before ever being expected to care about what I know or have to teach. If that means shaping the curriculum around them first rather than bending them around the curriculum, so be it. I know I’m not the only one. Have I mentioned that it’s about relationships first?

I have an accomplice.

In his 2017 TEDxKitchenerEd Talk, Andrew Campbell shares a very informed opinion about why he meets his students at the door every morning. And it’s not to check whether they’ve completed their homework. Campbell eloquently meshes his TEDx Talk with complete emphasis on connecting with his students. In it, he shares how his students changed his outlook after a tragic event involving a student in their class. He shares;

“the most important thing I can do as a teacher are the relationships I form with my students and the relationships I help them form with others. When the students come to me in the morning, I don’t know what they’re coming from or what they’re carrying. And when they leave at the end of the day, I don’t know what they’re walking into.”

There is no doubt that all students who pass through Andrew’s classroom door are welcome and valued regardless of the fact he is not a fan of well planned lessons. Imagine the power and potential in the simple act of meeting students at the door with a smile and a kind word? That is a “noble purpose.”

I knew there was another recidivist out there. Are you one too?

They better call for back-up.