Life isn't a production line

"If you are not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything at all."
Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation. He is also one of the world’s leading speakers with a profound impact on audiences everywhere. The videos of his famous 2006 and 2010 talks to the prestigious TED Conference have been seen by an estimated 200 million people in over 150 countries.

Search and Google

I want to increase the probability of learning in my students, so I assist them to develop skills they need in order to be self-directed / independent learners. I use a search strategy to assist them in the preparation and planning stage before googling. My research projects usually focus on a question to be answered rather than a general topic.

With the use of a problematic situation I heighten students’ curiosity and engage them to want to do more. As the students begin the task that is set before them, I assist the students to make connections and monitor their understanding. Finally, when it comes near the end of the task for the summative report, I engage the students in a reflection.

Specifically students:

1) Select a specific topic of interest to study
2) Establish what students know, think they know, and want to know about the topic. I usually have them think-pair-share to stimulate ideas. Then they record their ideas into categories. Students soon discover they know more than they realize and boost their confidence.
3) Ask questions to raise curiosity and challenge students by asking for more specific information when they share about their topic.
4) Read resource material, including google searches, to verify what they know and think they know, to answer questions, and raise new questions.
5) Come together like scholars; to review their findings.
6) Have large group discussion to share their findings, and to identify unanswered questions as well as new questions for further research.

When students feel overwhelmed I use this search and google technique.

What’s your story?

photo credit CBC

Gone fishing...

Teaching information in a variety of contexts gives students greater equality in access to knowledge and more opportunities to be challenged to their highest potential. The old adage holds true: “Give a student a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." We already know education gives children the most critical building blocks to adulthood and self-sufficiency. In this scenario the student gets to be in the moment, HEAR the water slap against the boat; SMELL the water and the natural odours of the out-of doors; FEEL the tug of the fish on the line, the splash of the fish in the boat; SEE the size of the fish as it tries to flop back in the water; and finally TASTE the delicious fish as it is cooked over a camp fire.

Lessons incorporating cross-curricular studies , discovery science, role play, games, physical activity, art, music, or drama have the advantage of stimulating the brain (Thesen, Jonas, Calvert, and Ostenbauer 2004). Naturally a teacher is not expected to simulate every sense simultaneously. Rather teachers should engage all learning styles, thus drawing all students into the topic; whatever the subject.

If teaching a student to fish is multisensory, by all accounts would suggest an increased number of synapses and dendrites stimulated during the activity and would support the theory of multisensory input and the effect on the brain. Therefore, if greater brain stimulation promotes the growth of synapses and dendrites, and more areas are stimulated when information is passed through multiple senses, then multisensory presentation of lesson material could stimulate the growth of more brain connections and lead to better information storage.

So what? Since multisensory inputs more than one specific sensory receptor of the brain, then multisensory strategies may increase subsequent access of the cross-referenced memories for use on tests and build future relational memories.

Now if I could just teach the fish to bite…

What’s your story?

photo by spottedsparrow (Julia)

References: Thesen,T, Jonas, V., Calvert, G., & Osterbauer, R. (2004). Neoroimaging of multisensory processing in vision, audition, touch, and olfaction. Cognitive Processing