I hope all schools have a copy of this book. I love this message from Archie Roach & Neil Murray about human rights.
outside classroom
I was on a few bike rides last week in the middle of the day and I rode past a number of schools. It was obviously not lunch time because there were no kids in sight and no noise! Teachers, why so quiet? Why not take the kids outside on a beautiful day? Surely you can teach and deal with behaviour mgmt issues while outside…..maybe some behaviour issues will disappear if you go outside and do something different.
Maybe it was just timing, maybe I rode past while they were all surfing the Internet and participating in Online forums & discussing social issues (I wish!). So I asked my 9 year old if his teachers take them outside and it turns out that in the past 3 terms they went outside for one Math class (better than none I guess).
I remember I liked to get students walking around the college to do certain tasks, like finding real-life Objects and then defining them into Java programming Classes, and that was at the tertiary level. Imagine what types of classes you could do in primary or secondary.
Go outside and enjoy the day! 🙂 (just an idea)
Go Lingo! My Country – Indigenous languages map
I like the Australian Indigenous languages map that is presented on the Go Lingo! page – check it out here: Go Lingo! My Country
It is important that all Australians have a better understanding and respect for the history and current issues for Australian Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island people. This is especially important for educators. Admittedly, it has alarmed me at the lack of enthusiasm by some pre-service teachers regarding learning about Australian Indigenous history. It has been difficult for me to read how some people think this learning is a “waste of time” and to be honest it has really upset me. I don’t understand how an educator might think that they know enough, have learned enough…I would argue it is never enough! The wider the view and broader understanding that teachers have the better they will be able to teach but more importantly I think they are better able to communicate and be open to discussion about topics/issues that are important for now and in our future.
If we aren’t ready to challenge our own thinking how can we expect this of our students?
learning vs teaching requirements
I have been reading a number of posts recently about what is learning and the requirements of teaching that sometimes get in the way of real learning. This is one of those things that is constantly nagging at me while I progress through the BofEducation(Secondary) degree that I am currently undertaking. I had already formed strong views about learning and effective teaching during my years as a tertiary college instructor in Canada. During my current study I have focused on Australian secondary education, specifically in the teaching areas of Information Processing Technology (IPT) and Business, and have learned and followed the required curriculum.
In every practical experience that I have done so far I have noted that there never seems to be enough time to actually get to know the students. Of course, I am only there for 3 weeks and am learning the school’s culture, each teacher’s teaching preferences & styles etc and so it’s always very full-on. But I still worry that I’ll be one of those stressed-out teachers with not enough time, struggling to tick all the boxes and yet not actually get to really foster a good relationship with my students…..a relationship that bypasses the usual typical hierarchical, rewards-driven type of teacher/student relationships that I commonly see.
Here’s a recent blog post from the Cooperative Catalyst called “Teachers Need Less Support” I think the title is a bit misleading but the point is well made. I have heard many teachers complain about the increased amount of documentation required within their teaching and yet it has to be questioned whether this amount equals the gains (or loss) for the student/teacher relationship.
Then of course there is the age-old question of What is learning? Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D. on her User Generated Education blog recently discussed this in her post called “Learning on the edge”. I participated in answering this question on an online forum in one of my first year subjects and I found the variety of answers to be very interesting. I believe that learning is much more than the academic part of structured schooling. In my opinion I have learned more from my experiences interacting with people and traveling & living in different countries. The problem I see is how do I capture this or foster this type of thinking/learning with only 3 lessons per week within a culture that doesn’t trust students & teachers to have open-access to the Internet and is built on the short-term foundations of a rewards-driven environment.
Experience, doubts & bikeriding
I haven’t posted in a while, so I thought I’d show you what I’ve been up to today. I rode to Brisbane and enjoyed a coffee here on the Goodwill Bridge. Fantastic day!
To be honest I am not enjoying this semester of study and am feeling a bit over it all. The more I research into the current Education system in Australia the more I get a bit wary…..I’m sure it will pass as I slowly remember all the great things about teaching and that I love to teach. Everything is an experience and I guess this is something I have to experience right now and find my way through it.
Praise & Encouragement
My 3rd grader came home with his semester report card yesterday and it was wonderful, as always. I am always a little torn about how to discuss his “effort” (A’s) for each of the main topics (English, Math, Science etc.). I like that he enjoys school and loves to learn and I want it always to be like this. I don’t want him being “good” just for the grade. So I try not to make a big deal about his report card. Although I do comment that he must be enjoying school and that it appears that he’s been a good student and is learning lots. I guess what I do is open the conversation so that he can do most of the talking and reflecting. It makes him feel good to read the comments too, so it’s not just all about the grade.
This reminded me of a good program I watched online a while back (2009) with some great guest speakers, including Barbara Coloroso. At one point, about half way through, Coloroso talks about not being proud of her kids and that “proud” is the wrong word to use. I am still struggling with whether I like this idea or not, although I do understand what Coloroso is trying to say here. What do you think?
…and here’s one for my son, for fun! 🙂
“The only way out of poverty is through a great education.” This is what my parents told me throughout my life. My mother only went to school as far as 6th grade. My father went as far as 8th grade. Both had to stop going to school in order to help their families. Like most immigrants, my parents came to the U.S. in search of a better life for themselves and their children. And like most immigrant families, we lived in poverty. Until this day, our lives are constantly affected by poverty. However, my parents believed in the value of a great education. They encouraged us to stay in school and go to college. They believed that the more educated we were, the greater our opportunities to live a better life.
“The only way out of poverty is through a great education.” I lived my life by this motto, so…
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my biggest fear of becoming a Secondary School educator is that I will be “beaten down” by the over-complicated, red-taped, top-down approach to education. Thanks for another interesting post Diane.
The toxic brew called “reform” is ruining public education. But this should not be surprising. This is the intent of the reformers.
They never will say so in their public statements. They will say they want “great teachers.” But they demonize and demoralize the teachers we have now.
What plans do they offer to replenish the teaching profession after they have driven away so many who are dedicated to teaching?
Magic. Out of nowhere, these “great” teachers will appear, teach for a few years and disappear.
Let’s face it. We are confronting a major crisis in education. It’s not because our schools are failing. They are not.
The crisis is caused by the constant attacks on public education and those who teach in public schools, by the effort to micromanage everything that teachers do and turn their work into data that can be used to evaluate them.
This terrible…
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Make change
We learn. We educate. We change, eventually! Here’s a good example; love this….
Computers & Literacy by Michael Callanan
Lucky for me, if Radio National has an episode with Education and/or ICT content I can alway count on my Mum & Dad to have heard it and then pass the link on to me! 🙂
Here it is: Radio National: Ockham’s Razor – Computers & Literacy
This particular speech is by Michael Callanan (a Brisbane Secondary teacher) talking about the possible impact on literacy by computers in Education. Unfortunately, I found this to be over-the-top negative regarding computers and takes a while before Michael acknowledges that there are other issues regarding the decline in literacy. He sees computers as “fetish objects” and seems to have a very limited view of using a computer for “socialising and entertainment”. The thing that bugs me is the negative tone that is used. Michael does eventually point out that it’s the pedagogy that has failed and I think this SHOULD be discussed more. “Embedding” and “enriching” learning by including ICTs in a teacher’s pedagogy is what I’m learning at University and what current teachers are learning NOW. The problem that I see is NOT the computers but the lack of professional support for teachers (lack of money & time).
In my opinion, it’s a no-brainer that simply giving every student a laptop is probably not going to increase their literacy or enhance their education; yeah I agree, that’s pretty “starry-eyed”. I actually blogged about a similar idea in a previous post – Throwing technology @ Education is not always a good thing. I don’t understand why some people/teachers have to take a “side”, it doesn’t have to be such a black/white issue. It’s not about whether we should have computers in the classroom or not. The discussion should be about HOW TO use computers to enhance learning, sometimes there are great ways to embed ICTs and sometimes it’s simply best not to use a computer. But there should be a CHOICE and the well-trained teacher will be better able to identify when and how to embed ICTs in the classroom.
HOW to teach ethical/moral Internet use at schools
Here are just a few ideas on how I would approach the teaching of Internet ethics at schools. Please add your own ideas in a reply.
Pedagogical approach
A range of pedagogical approaches could be used depending on the specific activity. My main idea is to have students muddle their own way through all of the issues related to Internet use. The use of Collaborative learning and Inquiry-based learning would be a strong focus in both face-to-face group discussion as well as online group activities like blogging and collaborating in Wikis. Authentic learning is a key pedagogical approach too, so it is imperative to know what types of Internet skills students already have and what they are interested in learning.
Through inquiry, in-class group activities and online collaborative activities students should be encouraged to discuss the pros and cons of interacting, sharing and researching online. Ethical and moral considerations should always be centre to these discussions. Collaborative group work activities can be enhanced by grouping students together to ensure that at least one member has a mobile phone and the use of the phone in learning activities should be encouraged.
Some resources
Bubnic, A. (2011). Digital citizenship/lesson plans [Diigo list]. Retrieved from http://www.diigo.com/list/abubnic/lesson-plan
- A list of over 180 resources and tools that help teachers with digital citizenship knowledge, understanding and lesson plan ideas.
Department of Education, Training and Employment. (2012). SMART Classrooms Year 11 to 12: Student ICT Expectations. Retrieved from Department of Education, Training and Employment: http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/documents/enabling-learners/pdf/student-expectations-11-12.pdf
- A list of the ICT expectations for senior students in Years 11 and 12. Consider how limited the student exploration and learning of these expectations would be given the current situation with blocked sites at many schools. Each main section in this document would be enhanced by allowing greater Internet freedom and the use of student mobile phones in the classroom.
Digital Citizenship. (2012). Nine themes of digital citizenship. Retrieved from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html
- A website that outlines nine important considerations for digital citizenship which could be used as the basis of inquiry into this topic.
NSW Government: Education & Communities. (2011). Digital Citizenship [interactive website]. Retrieved from http://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/
- An excellent online interactive website created for educational use with Primary and Secondary focus. Includes fun, interactive games and links to other great sites such as Budd:e, CyberNetrix and Digizen. Information about digital citizenship, cyber-bullying and ethical responsibility.
Schneider, E. (2012, May). Un-block the internet at schools [blog post] Retrieved from https://elketeaches.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/unblock-internet/
- A blog post I wrote outlining the advantages to unblocking the Internet at school. This blog post would be a good starting point for further research and collaborative inquiry for teachers.
An excellent quote by Ira Shor via Diane Ravitch’s blog page. I agree! Individual students, their personal and community experiences must be considered when teaching. I also like that he included “trips to historic sites” etc…..this is important for children to gain a wider perspective.
In response to today’s ongoing discussion about teaching and specifically what kind of teaching is right for urban students, this comment came from Ira Shor. Shor teaches at the City University of New York. He has written extensively about critical pedagogy. Our discussion began with the proposition that poor kids need a tightly disciplined environment, some would say a “boot camp” or “no-excuses” pedagogy. Others disagreed. Shor gives his view here:
| Many thanks to Diane for for so decently inviting discussion on conundrums of teaching. Conditions for teaching/learning are outcomes of educ and social policy, though not reducible to these enormous factors. In terms of high expectations for kids of all colors and classes regardless of home address, I’d propose that all lessons in all classrooms should be designed for and with the students who are there. The local conditions, language use, cultural themes should be the starting point for… |
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Unblocking Internet & allowing smart phones at school
The next couple of posts will be a continuation of my original post regarding unblocking Internet at Schools.
Queensland public schools have limited use of the Internet due to web filtering that is in place “…to protect staff and students…” (Department of Education, Training and Employment, 2012). There are good reasons to be cautious when dealing with the variety of content that is available on the Internet, especially when this content is being accessed by children. This cautious attitude though is based in fear and often due to schools and educators trying to catch up to how young people are using the Internet (Pascoe, 2012). Blocking the Internet is neglecting the need to educate children and young-adults about the importance of digital citizenship. Blocking the Internet at schools also diminishes the authenticity and ICT enhancement of learning possibilities.
It is particularly important to invest time to educate senior secondary young-adults in how to use the Internet effectively and responsibly for learning and for social networking. A majority of senior secondary students own their own smart-phones (capable of surfing the web) and yet most Queensland schools ban the use of mobile phones at school. Ownership of mobile phones is so prevalent, due to decreasing cost and popularity, that it is predicted that mobile phone use will be a major educational trend (The New Media Consortium, 2012). Many senior secondary students have vibrant and complex online lives using social media and social gaming. Many of these students feel a major disconnect between their real lives, which includes online activity, and the restricted environment at school (Selwyn, 2006). Educators are continuously striving to make learning an engaging and authentic activity for young-adults, yet this cannot be achieved if Internet use is disregarded or limited to certain sites.
Explicit teaching and learning activities that promote digital citizenship and an awareness of Internet issues are an important focus that must be jointly fostered with a new open Internet access & mobile phone use policy. This is an opportunity to learn from students about their Internet use and also to promote responsible and effective Internet use for learning purposes.
The importance of Digital Citizenship for senior secondary students
Just like living in a society, we should have high expectations of how people conduct themselves online. Digital citizenship is how a person uses and interacts with technology; it is imperative that we show by role-modelling and also through ICT rich activities how to promote good digital citizenry. Each student should learn that the way they use the Internet can impact themselves and others, both positively and negatively. The way that students approach all Internet activities can be underlined by an ethical and moral responsibility. Schools and educators need to be open-minded about learning from students and to trust that students can learn to be responsible (Adora Svitak, 2010).
References
Adora Svitak. (2010, February). Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids . Retrieved from TED: http://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak.html
Barseghian, T. (2012, March 6). Students Demand the Right to Use Technology in Schools. Retrieved from Mind Shift: http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/03/students-demand-the-right-to-use-technology-in-schools/
Department of Education, Training and Employment. (2012). SMART Classrooms: Web Filtering. Retrieved from Department of Education, Training and Employment: http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/enterprise-platform/web-filtering/index.html
Pascoe, C. J. (2012). Studying Young People’s New Media Use: Methodological Shifts and Educational Innovations. Theory into Practice, 51(2), 76-82.
Selwyn, N. (2006). Exploring the ‘digital disconnect’ between net‐savvy students and their schools. Learning, Media and Technology, 31(1), 5-17.
The New Media Consortium. (2012). NMC Horizon Project Preview: 2012 K-12 Edition [pdf].
My teaching website – lessons learned
During my last 3-week practical experience I had the opportunity to teach a Year 12 Information Processing & Technology (IPT) class. I was lucky to have a great mentor that allowed me almost full-control of teaching the Relational Databases topic.
I decided to create a website that would ideally do the following:
- hold all related topic information as well as provide access to in-class work and homework – accessible by students at anytime & anywhere as long as they had an Internet connection (this was identified to be the case through the online survey that students took in the first lesson)
- promote an inquiry-based learning strategy by allowing students to comment replies and access readings/videos for further/extra learning (encouraging learning outside of specific curriculum requirements)
- allow for the potential of a flipped-classroom style of learning – where the theory is learned at home, on the bus etc which then gives more time for practical work during class time
Lessons learned:
The website was well-received by the students and my mentor teacher. Unfortunately there was only 7 lessons scheduled for the Relational Databases topic which really limited the possibility of an inquiry-based learning strategy. The Relational Databases topic involved understanding how to design a database using ORM diagrams and following specific design rules; a complex topic! Here are some important things I learned during these 7 lessons (over a 3 week period):
- An assignment that walked through all the NIAM steps, including ORM diagrams and then the creation of a database would be an ideal assessment piece. Potentially a good assessment piece for group work. I would also include individual student blogging as part of the assessment to encourage critical thinking of their own learning.
- A 3-week period is simply not long enough for such a complex topic and ideally I would aim for 5 weeks with an assignment assessment piece (see point #1).
- Personally I would teach Entity Relationship (ER) diagrams or the Unified Modeling Language (UML) instead of ORM – there are more ER diagram resources online and I simply prefer UML
- Students had some MS Access database teaching/learning BEFORE I started teaching them and I think this was a learning disadvantage. It could be argued that seeing/creating the end product first is a good way to understand the eventual goal BUT in this case I think it hampered my efforts. Students did not understand why they couldn’t just skip all of the steps and jump right into creating the database, oh my! 🙂 I had plenty of opportunities to discuss my past work experience as an Information Analyst at EDS and how my personal attempts at “skipping” things sometimes resulted in a lot of re-work, time & money.
- I learned a LOT about how to deal with Internet BLOCKS! Originally I had created my website using WordPress but guess what? It was blocked! I had great ideas for using Wikispaces, SlideShare, Twitter, Glogster and other awesome ICT tools but they were all BLOCKED! Oh well.
- I really wanted to include a Wiki section for group collaboration and since I couldn’t access Wikispaces we used the Edublogs Wiki functionality – yuck! It was slow and buggy; not nice.
- I had to teach ORM notation (a database diagram technique). The best way to learn how to draw these diagrams (assuming no access to diagram/modeling software) is to use paper & pencil……..oh the horror!!!! We did this and it was painful for some students who really just wanted to use their computers. So with guidance from my mentor I created MS Word documents which already had the diagrams (painful exercise for me personally, lol) and then all the students had to concentrate on was how to label them correctly. This helped a lot and gave students the option to either use their computers or draw on paper.
- The online survey and quiz was very helpful
- The students enjoyed the online crossword puzzle so much that I decided to create a revision crossword homework activity (listen to students; they’ll tell you how they like to learn!)
- Flipped Classroom – I knew that this was unlikely due to the limited time. I think for a flipped classroom to work you need to be teaching the same group of students for a while so you know their habits and they know the expectations. Also, I’m skeptical whether ALL high school students would be willing to “study” the lesson theory before a class…..and a good question is whether we really WANT this from our students? I’d rather know that my students spent the previous night at soccer practice, hanging out with family, learning how to use new web2.0 tools or maybe advancing their online gaming status/levels
Video presentations – Samsung Superhero
“Steve Jobs” by SangHee (Grade 11) – the Samsung Superhero Winter 2012 Winner
Great video. I am sharing this here because I think this is just another great way to learn. Creating videos on a topic for a group project or an individual assignment is an ideal way to learn. I like it because it promotes authentic learning, obviously includes ICTs and allows for creativity.
“bad” school
I lived in Michigan for 2 years and in that time my son started Kindergarten at the local state school. He loved riding to school and back on an American yellow school bus. He also loved his Kindy teacher; she was lively and fun. 🙂 The school he went to was in a low-socioeoconomic area and did look old from the outside but inside it had been freshened up with colour.
It was in Michigan that I first encountered the “where are you sending your child to school?” question. My children were obviously too young for this type of question to be asked when we were living in Canada, and I keep wondering if this is as common in Canada now too? There were many kids in this area of Michigan that were driven (by parent) to private schools; we were living in a well-off/lake-side community. I remember feeling like I had made a school/parenting-mistake when my neighbours grilled me about my school choice. It was then that I started reading, learning and talking to other parents about schools and the pressures that some parents feel to put their children in private schools. It was also then that I realised and saw how a community could be fragmented by school-choice.
Neighbours snubbed other neighbours and belittled them just because they decided to not put their children in private schools. “Can you not afford it?” or “You do know that all the poor kids go to that school?” or “Your setting your child up to fail in the future!” – all statements that I heard from some of the neighbours! Luckily there were a few open-minded parents on my street who had kids that went to that school and they were very happy with the school and their kid’s education.
Fast-forward a couple of years and we’re now living in Australia, my original home, the place that I completed most of my schooling. Australia, the community-driven, social-minded and mostly public-run country that I had idealised for years and years during very, very cold Ontario and Michigan winters! We move into our first Aussie home and start to get to know the neighbours and one of the first questions I hear is “where are you sending your child to school?”…..the local school….”oh, where are you sending them for high school? You better start thinking about that now because the local High School is BAD!” What? Really? The sad point is that I hear this a lot and have heard it more and more in the past few years. I did my first teaching professional-experience at this local school and I didn’t think it was that “bad”, I did think that the hours should be changed (and supposedly they’re looking at changing that now).
What’s the problem here? I can’t help but wonder if this is not solely the schools fault. Imagine, you are told over and over that you’re bad….well, it would be pretty hard to change EVERYONE’s perception of that right? Well, I think that’s what’s going on here with this particular school. My argument is that if we STOP putting OUR local school down and start sending our GOOD kids to it then maybe we can CHANGE perspective!!!! Of course, who knows, the pressure might be so great that in 3 years I’ll be sending my kid to some expensive private school; you never know! 🙂
This is a great read…a blog post about our ever-lasting digital footprint and the wonderful story about 9 year-old Martha Payne.
I realise that, between this blog and my other blog, I have a lot of ‘Nick” out there and there is always a chance that this may come back to haunt me. Well, given that I’m blogging under my own name and I have a vague idea of how this whole Internet thing works, I was ready for this possibility. What always amazes me, however, is when people don’t realise that the Internet is neither memoryless nor able to be reformatted through fiat, no matter how much you want it to be so. Anything that goes out into the Internet is, for most reasonable definitions, going to be there forever. Trying to act against the Internet… ooh… look up the Streisand Effect (Wikipedia link), if you don’t know what that is.
You may have read about the 9-year old Scottish school girl, Martha Payne, who was a bit disappointed about…
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Out Of The Box – a review
Out Of The Box Festival for Children
This event is for children and is located in South Bank, Brisbane, Australia. Some of the events are located outside and some of the shows are within the QPAC, the Qld Library, Museum & Art Gallery. It’s a creative, fun and artistic way to spend the day with your kids.
I took my kids to this festival on Thursday. It was a way for me to celebrate with my kids that I had completed my current University semester – yes, your Mummy is back! 🙂
First, we sat in the Playhouse Theatre (QPAC) and watched the show called “Me & My Shadow” – wow, it was great! After that fantastic show we moved onto the “Dream Weavers” event and my kids were a little surprised to have people dancing around them and right in front of them. We all got to participate in some dancing. We went outside and walked around the free outdoor events in front of the QPAC buildings: there was story telling, pirate hat making and telling jokes.
The kids and I LOVED the “Sticky Maze” and also the “We Built This City” event. Both of these events were run by Polyglot performers and they were fantastic. At the beginning of the Sticky Maze we were given a couple of little pieces of paper and during our run/walk through the maze we added our paper to the maze walls. The Polyglot performers were spraying water at us, making jokes and so much fun! We Built This City was an outdoor event too and we were told to build whatever we wanted with all the boxes. My kids and I made a “Mummy cage”….yes a cage for me, lol, but I escaped!
What a great day in Brisbane! If you’re from this area make sure you don’t miss out on this event next year. It’s fun and creative and totally worth taking the day off school!
Wow! So true. A MUST read. “To be better educators, we first need to be better learners”.
Whenever I think of a teacher, I also think of a scholar. It has always been apparent to me that if one is to be an effective teacher, one must continually learn. Of course that is not always a path that individuals are able follow as a straight line. Often things, or situations get in the way over the course of a lifetime and many stray from that path for the sake of time, money, or most often family. I attended a retirement party recently for some retiring colleagues, and I engaged in several conversations with a number of teachers who were attending the party about various education topics. I was most surprised on the lack of depth of knowledge on the part of most of these teachers about topics they should at least have had at the very least an opinion.
I brought up topics like authentic learning; project…
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Zero grades “motivate kids to quit”
Major debate regarding giving zeroes to students in Canada right now. Joe Bower gives great reasons NOT to do this here….
elketeaches 