Apr 8
I have given up t.v. for TED.
Sure, we have all seen Sir Ken Robinson, Elizabeth Gilbert or maybe even Benjamin Zander, but have you seen Raul Midon’s musical performance “All the Answers?” Oh, it’s good.
After listening to this song I am wondering if Raul has read what some have said about Google or if he’s heard Louis CK’s interview on Conan?
Apr 2
Seth Godin has organized an open source book titled What Matters Now that I have inserted into a Prezi for an easier online reading experience. You can download a pdf version here.
To navigate the Prezi click on the arrow at the bottom of the viewing screen. Then choose “more” which will allow you to view in “full screen.” Move your mouse cursor to the bottom of the page and an arrow will appear allowing you to advance the slides. Enjoy.
Dec 30
Diana G. Oblinger writes:
Space—whether physical or virtual—can have an impact on learning. It can bring people together; it can encourage exploration, collaboration, and discussion. Or, space can carry an unspoken message of silence and disconnectedness.
The idea of designing a learning space is in my circle of influence and something that I have been working on during the course of this school year. In the video clip below I am going through and highlighting some of the work we have done at our school in an effort to create a place to bring people together. It has been a huge collaborative effort in order to get this far with our Learning Lab and there is still much work to be done.
My principal, Kent Maslin, has been an unyielding support to the teachers at our school and I had a chance to catch up with him and capture some of his thoughts on THE Learning Lab.
The inspiration for this idea came to me after reading David Jakes’ blog post titled Me? Obsessed? where he considered the question “What are the dimensions of a learning space?” However, it was the last part of his post that actually got me out of my chair, into my car, and into school to start a conversation with Kent to get this Learning Space going.
David writes:
Yeah, we will always have classrooms. I get it. But I would encourage you to think bigger, think beyond that typical space to take advantage of every opportunity for learning, and that includes a consideration of how space can impact learning, and what kinds of learning can take place in those spaces. I think that consideration is something that we dismiss too easily, it’s too much of an assumption that we don’t seriously reflect upon.
THE Learning Lab is a long range experiment and we at Tioga Hills are thinking bigger. I am excited to bring you updates on this process so stay tuned!
Jun 10
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May 9
My amazing fifth grade students have spent about 3 weeks studying the American Revolution, and one of the lessons brought us to the computer lab where we were conducting an American Revolutionary War Treasure Hunt. I admit that this was a low level Bloom’s Taxonomy lesson but I was still trying to build in context and background knowledge for most students.
However, the real excitement is what happened next. The students were finishing this Internet based treasure hunt much earlier than I had planned, and I found myself in need of a challenging task for these early finishers.
So, I stopped the class momentarily and said something like this: “Class, as you finish the treasure hunt you can then go out to Google where you will use the Advanced Search features. I would like you to filter your search results so you only get PowerPoint Presentations about the Causes of the American Revolution. I would like you to find as many errors as you can on the Power Point Presentations that are online and then raise your hand so you can share what you have found. Are there any questions?”
You would have thought there was money involved because the students, while working with their partners, were intensely focused on finding mistakes. It was like a switch had been flipped and every student was engaged in analyzing and evaluating websites, clearly a much higher level Bloom’s Taxonomy task. Their conversations were rich and these fifth grade students were reading the content with gusto. Perhaps this is one example that fits Angela Maiers’ following quote:
“Rich reading instruction and experience does not come from buying a program, or following a script. The lessons that matter most come from a teachers heart. Teachers can eradicate reading poverty by bringing meaning back into the process and creating experiences that will stay with students for the rest of their lives. The riches of their future lie in our hands. What kind of reader will leave your classroom?”
My only question is, “How can I engage every student of mine like this on a daily basis?”
Apr 11
Where is thy salute?
For presenting yourselves on this battlefield I give you thanks
This is our army to join it you give homage
I give homage to Scotland
and if this is your army why does it go?
We didn’t come here to fight for them
The English are too many
Sons of Scotland, I am William Wallace
William Wallace is 7 feet tall
yes I have heard, kills men by the hundreds
and if he were here he’d consume the English
with fire bolts from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse.
I am William Wallace and I see a whole army of my countrymen
here in defiance of tyranny.
You’ve come to fight as free men
and free men you are.
What will you do without freedom?
Will you fight?
Fight, against that? No, we will run and we will live
Ay! Fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live,
at least awhile and dying in your beds many years from now
would you be willing to trade all the days from this day till then for once chance, just one chance to come back here and to tell our enemies that may take our lives
but they’ll never take our freedom.
Anybody know what this place is?
This is Gettysburg, this is where they fought the battle of Gettysburg
50,000 men died right here on this field
fighting the same fight that we’re still fighting amongst ourselves today
this green field right here was painted red
bubbling with the blood of young boys
smoke, hot lead pouring right through their bodies
listen to their souls men,
I killed my brother with malice in my heart
hatred destroyed my family
you listen and take a lesson from the dead
if we don’t come together right now on this hallow ground
we too will be destroyed
just like they were
I don’t care if you like each other or not
but you will respect each other
and maybe, I don’t know, maybe we’ll learn to play this game like men.
I was warned not come here, I was warned, they warned me.
Don’t stand behind that coffin.
But why should I heed such a warning? When a heartbeat is silent and a child lies dead. Don’t stand behind this coffin. That boy was as pure and as innocent as the driven snow. But I must stand here because I have not given you what you should have. Until we can walk abroad and recreate ourselves, until we can stroll along the streets like boulevards, congregate in parks free from fear, our families mingling, our children laughing, our hearts joined, until that day we have no city. You can label me a failure until that day.
The first and perhaps only great mayor was Greek. He was Pericles of Athens and he lived some 2500 years ago and he said all things good of this Earth flow into the city because of the city’s greatness. Well, we were great once. Can we not be great again? Now I put that question to James Bone and there’s only silence. Yet, could not something pass from this sweet youth to me? Could he not empower me to find in myself the strength to have the knowledge to summon up the courage to accomplish this seemingly insurmountable task of making a city live able, just live able?
There was a palace that was a city, it was a palace, it was a palace and it can be a palace again. A palace in which there is no king or queen or dukes or earls or princess but subjects all, subjects beholden to each other to make a better place to live. Is that too much to ask? Are we asking too much from you? Is it beyond our reach? Because of it is then we are nothing more than sheep being herded to the final slaughter house. I will not go down that way. I choose to fight back. I choose to rise not fall. I choose to live not die and I know, I know that what’s within me is also within you.
That’s why I ask you now to join me, join me, rise up with me, rise up on the wings of this slain angel. We’ll rebuild on the soul of this little warrior. We will pick up his stand there and raise it up, carry it forward until this city, your city, our city, his city, is a palace again, is a palace again. I am with you little James, I am you.
Everyone in the world has gone to bed one night or another with fear or pain or loss or disappointment and yet each of us has awakened or risen. Somehow made our pollution seen other human beings and said, “morning how are ya?”
“Fine thanks and you?” It’s amazing. Where ever that abides in the human being there is the nobleness of the human spirit despite it all. Black and white, Asian, Spanish, Native American, pretty, plain, thin, fat, vowed, or celibate, We Rise.
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
Just ‘Cause I walk as if I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like suns and like moons,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Don’t take it so hard
‘Cause I laugh as if I have got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.
You can shoot me with your words,
You can cut me with your eyes,
You can kill me with your hatefulness,
But just like life I rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance as if I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
A black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak miraculously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the hope and the dream of the slave.
and so naturally
there I go
rising
Hey, what are you doing here? Don’t you have practice?
Not anymore I quit.
Since when are you the quitting kind?
I don’t know I just don’t see the point anymore.
So you didn’t make the dress list? There are greater tragedies in the world.
I wanted to run out of that tunnel, for my dad, to prove to everyone that I…
Prove what?
That I was somebody.
Ah, You are so full of crap. You’re five feet nothing. 100 and nothing and you got hardly a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in with the best college football team in the land for two years and you’re also gonna walk out here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. In this lifetime you don’t have to prove nothing to nobody except yourself. And after what you’ve gone through if you ain’t done that by now it ain’t gonna never happen. Now go on back.
Sorry I never got you to see your first game.
I’ve seen too many games in this stadium
I thought you said you never seen a game?
I never seen a game from the stands.
You were a player?
I rode the bench for two years. Thought I wasn’t being played because of my color. I got filled up with a lot of attitude. So I quit. Still not a week goes by I don’t regret it and I gurantee a week won’t go by in your life you won’t regret walking out letting them get the best of you. You hear me clear enough?
Yeh.
What did I miss? What are some of your favorite movie scenes?
Apr 11
Bob Dylan declared in the 1960’s that The Times They are a Changin’ and we’ve probably reached a point in our contemporary history where these changes will remain constant. Change can be a challenge for many of us where we are forced out of our comfort zones and placed in very risky situations that may expose our weaknesses, biases, and fears. Change can also be exciting for many of us where we embrace the idea of being pushed to our limits and are comfortable exposing our weaknesses and willing to learn from such shortcomings.
I imagine that we would all place ourselves somewhere in the spectrum when considering the change that takes place in our own lives, both professionally and personally. However, I would like to take but a moment to point out some very exciting changes that are occurring at our school.
The first monumental change is that we have begun to craft and design a Shared Vision for our school. “What does our school stand for? What do we believe in? What do we value?” These are questions that we are beginning to answer but it certainly takes time to develop. Interestingly enough, when we all first met the Principal framed these questions within a 21st Century context and the challenges we face.
In the wake of that first conversation we did not carve out any answers, rather we were left with questions, questions that were bigger than ourselves. Despite this however, we came together and began talking about the future, talking about how we can become the best school in America, literally.
A couple weeks have gone by since that first meeting and there are still no answers, but very constructive conversations are everywhere in our building and the morale is sky high. From my observations I believe that the staff has overwhelmingly embraced this idea of change and we are willing to expose our strengths and weaknesses in an effort to construct not only a Shared Vision but the true sense of what it means to be a Learning Community.
Mar 10
So I get to my classroom only to find a gift; a copy of the article Characteristics of a 21st Century Classroom on my desk that was given to me by my new principal. It felt like an unspoken homework assignment had just been handed out, so I have taken the time to sift through this article very closely this evening.
The article is a quick read but I will pull out this snip:
The focus of student learning in this classroom is different. The focus is no longer on learning by memorization or recalling information but on learning how to learn. Now, students use the information they have learned and demonstrate their mastery of the content in the projects they work on. Students learn how to ask the right questions, how to conduct the appropriate investigation, how to find answers, and how to use information. The emphasis in this classroom is on creating life long learners. With this goal in mind, students move beyond the student role to learn through real world experiences.
I am fired up! My principal gets it ~ clearly he understands the bigger picture of the challenges that we are faced with and this gift that he has placed on my desk means more than he may yet know. For over two years I have been steeped in the theoretical versions of what a 21st Century Classroom looks like and for the first time I feel as though I am ready to walk the walk.
I believe the role of the teacher changes dramatically in this kind of classroom environment. I must say that it is an easy class to manage when you are giving lectures, teaching memorization or simply having student recall information. However, the management of a 21st Century Classroom can be an absolutely exhausting experience if there is not a great deal of back work done to setup procedures and routines. The snip below really spoke to me towards that end:
The teacher must know how to:
- establish a safe, supportive, and positive learning environment for all students. This requires planning on the part of the teacher to avoid safety risks, to create room arrangements that support learning, and to provide accessibility to students with special needs. The teacher is skilled in managing multiple learning experiences to create a positive and productive learning environment for all the students in the classroom. Classroom procedures and policies are an important part of creating a positive learning environment. The teacher evaluates and implements effective classroom management techniques in a consistent manner. She uses routines and procedures that maximize instructional time. Students know what is expected of them, and the teacher knows how to effectively handle disruptions so there is no adverse impact on students’ instructional time.
Doesn’t that sound like an amazingly diverse and exciting classroom to be a part of? I have been pushing myself to create a classroom like this on a daily basis. My expectations have shifted and the way I view myself as a teacher has shifted as well and it’s helped me embrace the expectations mentioned above. It’s not easy! I will say that again…it’s not easy to conduct business like this in a classroom but it’s exhilarating when it works well. I am still a work in progress and I have miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.
At the end of the article my principal wrote down this question: “John, another valuable comparison…Have you taken the time to celebrate the 21st Century skills, experiences, & opportunities you have given your students?”
Not yet, but I can’t wait to get back in the trenches tomorrow to start celebrating.
Feb 19
Thank you Paul, for sharing the website UNL ~ Cognitive Strategy Instruction.
According to this website, “Strategy instruction is one of the most effective ways of improving academic performance for children with learning difficulties. This site will show you how to do it, will provide examples or strategies, and provide a forum to discuss your experiences and questions.”
Take a look at the strategies they suggest for Word Identification
Dissect
SCUBA D
Here’s a couple for Reading Comprehension
Active Reading
CAPS
FIST
RAP
RIDER
Even more for Textbook Reading
Multipass
PARS
POSSE
SCROL
There are really quite a few more strategies than those I have linked to here. For a complete list of what this website has to offer click HERE. Once you get to the main page click on where it says “Reading” in the left hand margin and that will take you the list of reading strategies in its entirety.
Feb 19
Do you have a New York Public Library card? If you don’t I am encouraging to stop what you are doing and go to this website to register for your free card. I am telling you that the NYPL website is literally jammed packed with an amazing collection that you are given online that is absolutely free once your card is mailed to your home.
For non residents of New York there is $100 fee…sorry.
Here are a couple of examples of some spectacular resources you can use:
The Reading Teacher, a magazine that has proven to be a wonderful literacy resource for elementary teachers, is absolutely free with your New York Public Library card. You will be given full access to all articles back to 1989. This for me was reason enough to take a couple minutes and fill out the registration for my library card.
How about Tumble Books? Have you seen this website yet? Oh, it’s a good one. Tumble Books is an online collection of animated ebooks for kids, and with your NYPL card you will granted full and complete access.
The list of fantabulous resources goes on and on and on. Check out the databases that you can access from the comforts of your own home, or the audio collection, or videos you will be to tap into and it’s all for free.
Go to www.nypl.org and see for yourself.
Work Hard Play Hard!
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