SUMMIT: Science, Entertainment, and Education - Sir Ken Robinson

Summit on Science, Entertainment, and Education - Sir Ken Robinson from The Science and Entertainment Ex on Vimeo.

On February 4, 2011, a carefully selected group of individuals met in Los Angeles to help us discover how film, television programming, video games, and other entertainment media can be systematically adopted to enhance student learning at the middle school and high school level. For more information visit Summit

Understanding Creative Commons - Case Study

Learning to teach online PDF
Copyright and creative commons is particularly important in the educational context where content is often copied, shared, reused and remixed by both teachers and students in the learning and teaching process. This episode explains the basics of creative commons. We examine some of the different license terms and combinations, and offer some insights into which might be better suited for educational purposes. We also discuss how to generate your own creative commons license and what to do when your work is not attributed by others.

Reference: Australian Learning and Teaching Council

4 ways 2 motivate: keeping it real with students

Earlier today I asked three questions on twitter:

1. What steps can you take to help a student who is negative because of the effects of his/her procrastination? #edchat
2. Do students feel comfortable bringing their problems to you? #edchat
3. How do you introduce a positive element into the assignments you give students? #edchat

If we want positive upbeat students, we need to be the same. We may believe that such a climate is impossible to achieve. But it begins with recognizing, valuing, and rewarding upbeat student behaviours and attitudes. The choice is ours.

Use upbeat positive language
Creating and maintaining a positive class environment depends on the language we use. The power of words has a huge impact on student work as it does on student performance. Telling a student they “should” have studied for the test rather than “could” have studied for the test has an effect on student performance. The word “should” is quite judgemental while the word “could” allows for gentle suggestion, correction, or criticism.

Capitalize on students' needs
Students learn best when motivations for learning in a classroom satisfy their own goals. Some of the needs your students may bring to the classroom are the need to learn something in order to complete a particular task or activity, the need to seek new experiences, the need to perfect skills, the need to overcome challenges, the need to become competent, the need to succeed and do well, the need to feel involved and to interact with other people. Satisfying such needs is rewarding in itself, and such rewards sustain learning more effectively than do grades. Design assignments, in-class activities, and discussion questions to address these kinds of needs. (Source: McMillan and Forsyth, 1991)

Engage students in the learning.
Students learn by doing, making, writing, designing, creating, solving. Watching a movie, listening to a lecture, completing worksheets, reduces students' motivation and curiosity. Pose questions. Avoid telling students something when you can ask them.Encourage students to ask questions, suggest approaches to a problem or to guess the results which are meaningful to them. Use small group work.

What makes my class "motivating?"
Ask students to recall two recent class periods, one in which they were highly motivated and one in which their motivation was low. Each student makes a list of specific aspects of the two classes that influenced his or her level of motivation, and students then meet in small groups to reach consensus on characteristics that contribute to high and low motivation. What characteristics emerge as major contributors to student motivation?

• Instructor's enthusiasm
• Relevance of the material
• Organization of the course
• Appropriate difficulty level of the material
• Active involvement of students
• Variety
• Rapport between teacher and students
• Use of appropriate, concrete, and understandable examples

Motivation is not about using the latest gimmicks or incentives. All you have to do is love your subject, be upbeat, watch negative language, engage students in learning, and ask them what kind of classes they like. In the end, keep it real.

Creating student portfolios

What should be included in a student portfolio? Ask the student and let her help decide.

Portfolio assessment provides a variety of means to document and assess student work. A student portfolio is similar to one of an artist. An artist carries a portfolio to show prospective clients examples of her best work.

In student portfolios students might choose to add
a) peer observation and evaluation;
b) evidence of self reflection, self knowledge, self evaluation;
c) items that tell a story of the journey of the year;
d) teacher observations;
e) things that show growth and change (eg extra-curricular, interests, attitudes);
f) items that demonstrate "my best work done to date";
g) information from parents;
h) items that indicate transfer of learning;
i) evidence of progress toward year's goal;
j) ...

Portfolios are performance based assessments that match assessments in the "real world". Students receive immediate feedback, gain confidence by acknowledgements of their strengths, and gain insight into how to improvement.

Why not ask students to be present for parent-teacher conferences and have them conference with their parents about their portfolios?

What's your story?

Photo credit Rick Harrison

Homework: Complain, complain, complain...

If we give out homework, we hear complaints. If we never give out homework, we still hear complaints. Famous phrases we hear are – it’s too long, it’s too difficult, I don’t understand it, it’s too easy, it’s too short, I feel like I’m wasting my time.

There has been much debate about homework. Some Boards and schools have homework policies in relation to learning and achievement. This then raises more questions about homework practices and implementation.



So what is homework? According to Google dictionary:
home•work noun /ˈhōmˌwərk/ 
1. Schoolwork that a student is required to do at home

2. Work or study done in preparation for a certain event or situation
he had evidently done his homework and read his predecessor's reports

3. Paid work carried out in one's own home, esp. low-paid piecework

Let me add that homework is practice, reinforcement or application of new skills and knowledge, and to learn new skills of independent study (NREL). Let’s explore the purpose of homework…

Homework
1. Provide students with additional practice of newly taught skills and
knowledge. Beware that if students learn new skills or knowledge
independently and inaccurately, unlearning new information can be difficult.
2. Increase the amount of time students are actively engaged in learning.
Homework can help students increase their skills and acquire deeper
knowledge.
3. Helps teachers monitor student progress and diagnose learning problems. It
may give you valuable information that you need to have to make appropriate
adjustments to nurture student learning.
4. Allows students to move through the curriculum more rapidly. Without
homework, students may lose interest.
5. Increases communication between the parents and the school. Without
homework, parents may not have any idea what their child is learning in
school.
6. Increases student responsibility and individual accountability for their
own work. Our task is to help students acquire the habits that will
facilitate their success the rest of their lives.

If handled appropriately, homework can have a positive impact on achievement. To do so we must assign the right amount for the grade level, be clear and have a purpose, and never be “busy work” or a “punishment”. Finally, not all our students have the same resources at home including involved parents, computer, routines and so forth. Ideally homework should be substantial and positive toward student achievement. Maybe then the complaints will begin to dwindle.

What’s your story?

photo istock

My way or the highway

With the students that I have worked with over my career, I have come across students who misbehave. In my experience, misbehaviour comes from a student’s feelings of inadequacies. Feeling inadequate can lead to anger which can lead to bullying, and feelings of arrogance can lead to attention seeking behaviour.

Where we often find an impasse and escalate a situation is when we take a stand as teachers and say “it’s my way or the highway”. Listening and open communication are the best policies, as they allow us to identify feelings to begin to help students. Blocking the two-way street of communication and paving a highway your way leads to devastation.

Simply respond to students as good citizens and know that they are usually harder on themselves then we could ever be. Let’s begin to look at the rules in our classrooms as structure that gives safety and freedom to every student, including you!

What's your story?

I don't have the time !

In presentations that I have done across Canada, I have always sent out an evaluation sheet that measures my “effectiveness”. One comment that always comes to the forefront is – Great ideas Stephan, inspiring, motivating … BUT I DON’T HAVE THE TIME!

I would be hard pressed to find someone who has all the time in the world. Everything we do is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, grading periods, semesters, or academic years to name a few. As the Clever Sheep asks, how do we tip the iceberg?

With the current focus on student achievement, time is the tip of that iceberg. As an educator, you can appreciate the notion of “allocated school time” where students are required to be in school. What does that mean? I would suggest it includes time when instruction is not taking place, such as school assemblies, lunch, recess and so forth.

“Engaged time” invites students to participate in learning activities. I would suggest when students are invited to participate in learning activities do not point to student learning. If I push this concept a little further, just because students are engaged in learning activities does not necessarily mean they are learning. Perhaps students are reviewing material or receiving material they are not prepared to learn.

So when does learning occur? Learning occurs in the precise period when an instructional activity is aligned with a student’s readiness to learn. Research suggests clearly, the quality of our teaching is the key to making time matter. Specifically, wasting five minutes each hour can add up to two hours lost each week in the school year.

Authors like Harry Wong or Fred Jones suggest that improving our classroom management procedures and techniques can decrease the amount of time lost to such factors as student misunderstandings, classroom routines, and breaks between learning activities. Additionally, Wong and Jones suggest that it can also decrease the amount of time spent distributing materials or handling student misbehaviour.

I think we would all agree that when students are highly interested in the activity they are more apt to learn. Here are some time saving techniques: small group instruction, skill-based grouping, and assigning seating strategically. Included are writing out and thoroughly explaining assignments, having materials students need readily available, providing quick feedback, on student work, and planning each day’s lesson to ensure time for closure.

More time savers include engaging “early finishers” in interesting and meaningful activities, and allowing large blocks of time for closure. Why not use notes, letters or e-mail to communicate with families to assist their children to use planners to manage their own time.

If we want students to look forward to returning to our classes each day we have to plan to build on what they have learned… planning takes time but it allows students to be absorbed in their learning and experience success.

Sadly I have run out of time on this. What is your story?

clocks, a photo by Leo Reynolds on Flickr.

Kick start motivation

I often speak about motivating students. But, teachers are the greatest “givers” of time, knowledge, and experience. But you can’t give what you don’s got. Foremost, to motivate students we must be motivated to improving ourselves. Without this desire, it is like the Toronto Maple Leafs wanting to win the Stanley Cup at the beginning of the season; then can’t find the will, the time, or the energy to work at that goal. The bottom line: we must push ourselves to get better. No one else can work at our motivation.

So how do I feed this desire? What if I don’t have the inclination? I would argue that you have to put yourself in situations to view excellence greater than your own. There is nothing like watching the Wayne Gretzky’s of the world to instil in you the desire to be a better hockey player. The same is true for teaching. Look down in the classrooms of your school, read or view articles from some of the well-known authors like Sir Ken Robinson, Michael Fullan, Robert Marzano, Richard Dufour or Damian Cooper to name a few.

Second, find an area that you want focus on what you want to explore and bring into focus. Blog, journal, pen and reflect your accomplishments in the classroom. This includes the highs and the lows. The feelings that you attach to your own experiences represent new learning and the fuel to kick start your motivation.
Take a closer look at what your skilled colleagues are doing. What makes your colleagues so successful? What are her techniques? What are her skills? Invite a trusted colleague to visit your classroom and give you feedback. With permission, videotape your “performance” in front of a class. This allows us to see very clearly our behaviours, our procedures, and our strategies close up and personal. Review your evaluation reports. Seek out one or two concrete suggestions for improvement.

Third prioritize your areas of improvement and measure your progress. Brainstorm your top 10 areas of improvement. Establish a timeline and measure your success. For example, you might want to explore strategies to increase student engagement. Research it, read about it, talk about it, watch it and finally set a deadline for incorporating these strategies.

Most importantly celebrate your success. I believe we often overlook the opportunity to celebrate our growth and achievement. Savouring that success fuels us to keep motivated. Focus on progressing steadily rather than leaping to the next goal. Maintain a belief that nothing in education is beyond your reach!

What is your story?

The Business of Education

For a student, it could be a key to the future.

Key Role of Education-Business Partnerships by Kyra Kester
Role of Business in Education by Alan Baas

Below Apple and the classroom:

International Day

Math, writing, reading and other subjects are interwoven in International Day. Grade 9 students, Renée and Megan, share their experiences of this creative course in their school.
What kind of real-world applications are going on in your school?
How are your students engaged?

***Watch for more on International Day***

Examining People and Change

Change is all around us. How we react to change is what is thrusts us or traps us.

How do you deal with change in a school setting as a parent, teacher, or administrator?

You might include examples of handling change with curriculum, assessment, change in school personnel, technology and so forth...

Report Card Tips 4 Parents

Parenting Rule: When you child brings home their report card, Adlerian counselor and educator Linda Maier recommends that you say ONLY the following:
1. Thanks for showing me your report card.
2. How do you feel about it?
3. Do you need anything from me?
For more information : Tips 4 Parents

Some teachers are quite concerned about assessment for learning and of learning. There is nothing like a good old multiple choice achievement test to get the facts... right?!? Chapter 3 of my old Psychology Textbook from teacher's college suggested that "Multiple Choice" quizzes and tests are the lowest form of assessment as it requires strict memorization. So how do we get students engaged in deep and meaningful learning?

Poised for presentation

Why are we so worried about using technology in the classroom? We buy our kids laptops, digital cameras, cell phones... do we see evidence of it in the classroom? Our kids are poised for presentation, but are we denying them opportunity in our schools?

Meet the parents

What information do you want to share with parents / teachers? What problems need solving?

Cause for celebration...

This is my first post to a blog. I am redefining the boundaries of my vocation as teacher, administrator, author, musician, and computer hack. I want to promote the discussion around learning. I am hoping to connect with other "bloggers" who are prepared to challenge, ask questions of each other, review other blogs, and refer to each other as sources of information around education. I am seeking to discover innovation in classrooms around the world. All are welcome to participate ... students, parents, teachers, teacher aides, administrators, community volunteers, and people in business, to explore complex issues, to incorporate their projects and practices, to encourage and inspire, and to investigate rich topics for personal and professional growth.