Filed under: Uncategorized — Donna DesRoches @ 3:22 am
Dean Shareski’s post, Robbing Teachers and Students of Joy, resonated with me as I thought about a grade 8 classroom that I had been in today. It was an incredible mix of students including Cree, Metís, non-First Nations, a girl from the Ukraine who had been in the classroom for one day and another who had been in Canada just since the start of the school year as well as students from the division’s behavior program.
Was there joy? Maybe not… at first. However the students became engaged when the Arts Ed consultant and I started talking about culture – they had already done a fair amount of work on the topic – and asking them to consider what they had learned about culture in terms of their youth culture. It was an interesting moment for them to realize that culture applied to them and not to the past or that which existed in a country far, far away.
The teacher asked us to assist in the class because the students are going to create a media project about culture. He is very open about the students using any sort of technology that they have available to complete and share the project including using cell phones to capture images and Facebook to share.
We showed the short video, No Mankind is not as Island, which wasshot entirely with cellphones and the students were totally absorbed. Afterwards we asked them to reflect and then share on what they thought the messages were, the mood of the film and the symbols used.
Their responses were thoughtful and mature – “talk to people because everyone has a story”; “we need to help, share, care….for others”; “ we should work together, be united” They saw the red, heart-shaped balloon as a symbol of hope when flying high and that of despair when crushed flat.
We talked about audience and authenticity. About copyright and getting people’s permission to use their photos. About using one’s talents to communicate ideas.
Although they were typical grade eight students who niggled at each other, constantly interrupted, squirmed, moved incessantly, and were somewhat boisterous they were engaged and thoughtful. There was joy in this classroom today.
Gary passed on this challenge a while back “What was the last thing you really learned on purpose? I don’t mean something that you learned in passing. I mean something you went out of your way to find out about. Not because you had to but because you wanted to.” …and I have been thinking about it ever since.
I must admit that I find it difficult to remember the last time that I deliberately learned something that I did not have to learn. I have learned many things in passing because I have several interests – primarily in education, school libraries and technology – for which I have structured my learning environment and my personal learning network. I am constantly reading, viewing, listening and following links that support these interests.
I do remember several learning challenges the most recent of which was creating school websites using Drupal. I had absolutely no reference for the application and no individuals nearby to ask for advice. I did however find the advice, support and direction I needed from the web. My learning process was very similar to that described by Joan Vinall Cox in her post, An Autodidact is Social.
At the moment I am not deeply involved in activities outside of the world of education that spur learning. When I was the president of the Board for Save the Children Canada I was constantly learning about Board management and international development. When I was an ardent traveler I immersed myself in learning about the places in which I planned to travel and as a young runner I immersed myself in fitness lore and technique. Now, however, I am content with armchair traveling and enjoying turning the pages of travel books such as Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by Paul Theroux.
I am confident in my capacity as a learner, both from experience and from growing up in a family of learners. I know that when ready to move into another unfamiliar area I will anticipate and be prepared to deal with the messiness, the uncertainty and the thrill of the learning process.
Filed under: Uncategorized — Donna DesRoches @ 6:05 pm
While I should be doing all sorts of things including cleaning my house, and finalizing details for two workshops I am instead reading bloglines and catching up on interesting posts and new resources. And… I came across create across the Hero Factory and generated the incredible Caped Whip Lash…
Filed under: Uncategorized — Donna DesRoches @ 3:41 pm
Via Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk blog comes this video by an articulate young man on the difference between reading for school and the free reading opportunities offered by the library.
Filed under: Uncategorized — Donna DesRoches @ 9:51 pm
Next year our school division plans to implement a laptop program – nowhere near a 1:1 but we are putting a 15 – 20 set of laptops in each school in the division that wishes to participate in the program. I must admit that I approach this project with some trepidation. Are our teachers ready? Will the laptops be used for authentic, meaningful learning or will they simply be used to do old things in new ways? Have we provided opportunities for professional development that will ensure the technology is used to meet our students’ 21st Century learning needs?
I’ve had too many teachers assign us to “make an iMovie” for this and that. I had to make an iMovie for my World Geography class and Asian Studies class. I was surprised when even my Spanish teacher told me to make an iMovie. It is obvious [our school] is trying too hard…to look cool.
The student goes on to describe a class where he feels the laptop has been used for real learning:
We use our MacBooks to interact with people from all over the world, and learn how to write for [a] true audience. Not just that, we learn how to accomplish stuff through networking and meeting new cool people.
While the MacBooks in the Writing Seminar classroom are shining, the other MacBooks in other classrooms are crying. They say, “what the hell am I doing here?”
Clay’s final comments on his student’s post are well worth keeping in mind as we begin our foray into student laptop computing:
Younsuk’s mention that Macbooks help learning by allowing students to connect and network with the world is something no teacher or administrator is going to understand without doing it. It’s 20th century education with a shiny bell and whistle otherwise. Just a new way to turn in homework. The immigrants in power will think it’s cutting edge, but the students will think otherwise.
It is so important that teachers understand that student use of laptops is about connecting, communicating, collaborating and creating. And yes, I do believe that in our school division we are moving in such a direction.
We are definitely more ready than we would have been a year ago for this student laptop initiative. I work with an excellent team of teachers who go way beyond providing ‘sit and get’ professional development for their teachers – hands-on, one-to-one, just-in-time, mentoring, and meaningful staff collaboration and other forms of ‘differentiated instruction’ will help our teachers ensure that we just don’t look cool but are providing meaningful learning opportunities for their students.
Filed under: Uncategorized — Donna DesRoches @ 2:27 am
Somehow I came across the great clipart site, WP Clipart, which I have found incredibly useful. As it states on the front page,
WPClipart is a collection of high-quality public domain images specifically tailored for use in word processors and optimized for printing on home/small office inkjet printers. There are thousands of color graphic clips as well as illustrations, photographs and black and white line art.
Except for a few “fair use” items — namely company logos (like the company name on a credit card) or recognizable products (like a particular model cell phone) — all the rest of the images are Public Domain.
There are many, many images in nicely categorized directories which are easily searched from a search box on each page.
I am back at work now after a three month educational leave to complete my Master’s project. The first day back was a full day workshop with the Learning and Technology committee members. Our day focused on teaching for information literacy and ended with a presentation from Dr. Alec Couros of the University of Regina on digital citizenship and online safety. The presentation was greatly appreciated by the teachers as one of the expectations of this committee is to do a workshop with their staff on digital citizenship. Alec also spoke to students from NBCHS and Maymont and to the Admin Council. The presentations were well received with several requests to have Alec return to the Battlefords again.
This morning I caught a tweet (via Twitter) from Dean Shareski that pointed to a very interesting photograph and suggested a critical thinking activity.
I thought this photo of Dean could also be used to start kids thinking about how information can be changed and modified.
The article describes how Craik High School is using cell phones in the classrooms. Students are using the cell phone to send audio and video responses about a novel study and they are also learning how to use the calendar and alarm features as organizational tools. The article provides a rather positive look at using this technology in the classroom although it does give some of the critics concerns, “another disruption in class, further breakdown of proper English or a tech-dependency nightmare”.
Dean is quoted in the article as saying, “the cell phone could very well have a future in the classroom. Literacy has expanded beyond reading and writing. Now kids need to know about audio and video”.
