Category: 21st century learning

#IMMOOC: Are We Preparing Students to Fly Closer to the Sun?

#IMMOOC: Are We Preparing Students to Fly Closer to the Sun?

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Do you ever think we will go back in time? Let me explain.

I was listening to a Seth Godin’s podcast (I See You) about the danger of creating “average” humans, and he takes out some big punches at educational systems. Retelling the myth of Icarus, we come to understand why our culture derides people who dare to fly closer to the sun, and how our schools have become factory-like.

As a highly dedicated educator, naturally, I take this to heart. It makes me question so much of what we do and what we believe about education, especially since our current paradigm is rooted in the industrial model, churning out “average” students who grow up to do ‘average” jobs. There’s a lot of people out there who think the job market will go back to the 1600s: 0% unemployment rate. But that’s because jobs have been parceled out to robots and artificial intelligence, like Watson. Your knowledge and skill, harvested through Big Data, will become obsolete just like these jobs of the past.When I hear futurists speak, their versions of the next 30 years seems so outrageous; detailing how we will need to learn how to co-evolve with artificial intelligence.  But then again, when I look in the rearview mirror of the last 30 years, actually I think it’s not science fiction, it’s going to be science fact, especially when we look at technology’s exponential growth with Moore’s Law and the work  of Alvin Toffler,  who looks more like a prophet rather than a writer, with his book Future Shock that predicted the challenges which we are facing today.

When I consider the value of an International Baccalaureate (IB) education, I want to feel confident that we are ahead of the curve when it comes to preparing for the upcoming challenges.  Because we put a high value on concepts over content, students develop perspective, thinking skills, and problem-solving, rather than the memorization of facts and following procedures. We strive for students to develop “agency”, demonstrating that they can work more independently as learners. Furthermore, when we think about the “enhanced PYP”, schools must be looking critically into how we do this better in our Programmes of Inquiry and the culture of student learning.

enhanced pyp

We all have AGENCY, the capacity to act intentionally. Recognising and supporting agency in the enhanced PYP will create a culture of mutual respect, acknowledging the rights and responsibilities of students, schools and the wider learning community, enabling students to take ownership of their learning and teachers of their teaching. –from Preparing for the Enhanced PYP

It is my hope that this agency goes beyond the 4 walls of the classroom. Those students see a problem in the community and have the courage and audacity to say this is MY PROBLEM TO SOLVE- Not wait until they are given permission and pushed by adults, but strive to take immediate action.

What we can do, what we can encourage and value in our school is to take these teaspoons of change: small but significant ideas, attitudes, and actions that have a positive impact on people and the planet. I think a large part of this is to lead by example. As the models that students emulate, especially in the PYP, we must be reflecting on how our choices can make a difference. Are we moving toward a sustainable future–do we contribute to the “pollution or the solution”, as D’arcy Lunn might query?  Are we Luddites or innovators with our use of technology? Are we consumers or creators–what sort of art are we making? The future belongs to all of us, and as educators, we have a say in where it is going.

If we want our students to be leaders of the change, not victims of circumstances, as new technology invades our everyday lives and a new economy emerges, then giving them the courage and resilience to “fly closer to the sun” starts with challenging ourselves as educators to do the same. Not to sound cliche with the quoting Gandhi, but we need to “be the change that we want to see in the world”.  As educators, we are on the front lines of this change and are deeply connected to the trajectory of the future. The moment we recognize this, we can become co-creators in the future we want to live in. Business and governments don’t have to dictate what and how we need to teach. We create the future every day with developing the hearts and minds of our students.

Let that settle in a bit.

I think it’s time to stop being “average” and put on some wings.

Whatcha’ think?

#IMMOOC: Where We Are in Place and Time- Student Agency and Models of Inquiry in a #PYP Unit of Inquiry

#IMMOOC: Where We Are in Place and Time- Student Agency and Models of Inquiry in a #PYP Unit of Inquiry

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I am stuck on the question from the #EmpowerBook: What Decisions Am I Making For Students That They Could Make For Themselves? And I am staring at this image inspired by the book Dive Into Inquiry, wondering what part of the pool are we swimming in at this part of the unit of inquiry:diveintoinquiry

When I am thinking about the type a structured inquiry approach, the learning landscape could look like the 5E Model which is helpful for designing a teacher directed lesson. While controlled inquiry might look more like the Big 6 Research Model or guided inquiry might be experienced through a provocation or series of provocations using a model like Kath Murdoch’s.While free inquiry can happen more readily through a learning landscape like Genius Hour. Of course, the nuances of these types of inquiry has more to do with how much time and space you give to students while they are engaged in the learning. Even if you don’t connect with a model, per se, I think if you are pushing the inquiry along, you probably recognize instinctively that you are in the shallower end, while if you are providing more freedom for exploration, then you heading towards the deep end. And of course, student choice and voice play a big role in this. Not enough choice creates a passive stance, while too much choice can create overwhelm and inertia in learning, depending upon how confident a student is in their ability to discover and learn on their own.

From my experience with an inquiry, I feel that there are different parts of the pool that we are swimming in at different times of an inquiry. It’s never a linear path or clear model in play because, in the PYP, each line of inquiry is a microcosm of inquiry of itself–and sometimes we need to really do handholding and scaffolding because we are developing some new and challenging concepts; other times, the kids can be absolutely independent and divergent in their explorations because they feel confident in their knowledge and skills to do so.

For example, look at our current unit from Where We Are In Place and Time:

Homes reflect cultural influences and local conditions.

  • what makes a home
  • how homes reflect local culture and family values
  • factors which determine where people live

Developing the key concept of perspective through the line of inquiry of “what makes a home”, was tightly related to the key concept of connection in the line of inquiry of “how homes reflect local culture and family values”.  So we used guided inquiry with the hopes of revealing and developing these abstract ideas using a transdisciplinary approach with theatre, art, and language –because these disciplines open us up to a variety of points of views and creative self-expression.

Teacher-Question: What are 3 items that are in your home that are important to your family?: A student’s response: “an iPad to play games, a water bottle because we like to share and drink water, and my teddy bear for when I get scared.”
“Show and Tell”: Students came up with the idea to bring in items from home that reflected family values. They have brought in everything from legos, to necklaces, to family photos. And, both students and teachers, ask questions to reveal what is the significance of these things to the child and their family. 

 

What you see here are the early stages in which we are “tuning in” and “finding out” how our values and culture can be represented in different ways. We also have brought in the idea of “home” as our bodies as we consider what is going on in our brains and hearts, through mindfulness lessons.

We invited parents to come in a share a traditional folktale and read it in their home language. We had about 11 stories shared, from nearly all the continents, Students then had to deconstruct the messages or lessons in the story to determine a value from that culture.

 

Now as we come into the final weeks of inquiry, the sieve begins to tighten, as we move into our summative task: designing a home that reflects their family’s needs, culture, and values (from the line of inquiry: “factors which determine where people live”).  We want the students to create the same product, a model home.  Even though we intend to use design thinking, our inquiry is heading toward the more shallow part of the pool because this means, that we must provide a significant amount of resources and guidance to ensure their success. Although they are free to create their home in any style they choose, they must all be doing the same project, following the same timeline, and adhering to the same criteria.

So does this mean that we are stealing their agency by structuring the inquiry in such a way that drives them toward the home design? Honestly, I’m not really sure yet. My belief is that it isn’t because they are so incredibly inspired and excited to do this project, but at the same time, I hear John Spencer’s voice in my head:

What Decisions Am I Making For Students That They Could Make For Themselves?

Did we steal their agency when we gave them a pre-determined task? I mean they could have painted a picture or written a song as examples of other ways to demonstrate their understanding, right?  But in my teacher’s brain, I think they could add those elements to their home design that doesn’t detract from their self-expression.

So as I reflect on this question, I realize that I have to do my best to not micro-manage their creative process and I allow them to “own the learning”. This might mean that they might fail in some way. And it could be likely that this means collapsing elements of our timetable to allow them to complete the project to their satisfaction.

Inquiry-based learning isn’t always a clean and efficient process-no matter what model you use- but I believe that when we provide students with authentic and meaningful experiences, their agency will naturally ensue.

So it’s safe to say that my reflection on the unit and its ability to spark agency is “To Be Continued” (:

 

#IMMOOC: Why the Status Quo Makes Us Slow and Stupid

#IMMOOC: Why the Status Quo Makes Us Slow and Stupid

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My student stood agog: “Wow, you type so fast! How do you do that?” I looked down at my keyboard and then back at my student. Do I even bother to explain the QWERTY keyboard set up and how I learned to type to my 1st grader? I mean, will the keyboard even exist in the future? Will touch-typing even be a relevant skill?

It’s odd to think that the QWERTY keyboard is an excellent example of why we need to look at common things with uncommon sight. Why innovation is so vital in our educational systems. Have you ever heard of the Fable of the Keys? Do you know why we have that layout of letters of the home keys? Perhaps you think it was created to improve our speed and efficiency when typing? NO–quite the opposite. It was to slow us down so that those old fashion typewriter keys didn’t get jammed up. Its crazy to think that in an era of such technological impact, that such a simple feature of our computers cannot be revamped to improve our productivity. It’s a bit foolish really that we haven’t adopted another style of the keyboard when you think of it. And it makes me wonder what else we are doing in our world that is relies on 200-year-old technology.

Again, I wonder if the layout of the keyboard of our laptops and devices should be reconfigured to produce faster typing speeds? That’s the most sensible approach, right? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I think about this provocative quote about innovation:Anytime teachers think differently about (3)

And it makes sense, right? Why would we spend all that time and effort when we could be reimagining how we might capture thoughts and ideas? Most of us submit that talk to text will be the way of the future. But I wonder how often in education we just repackage these same sorts of “old” ideas which have gotten standardized into our systems. When you look at the quote by Seymour Papert, a man who brought technology to education, can you think of anything that you are using or doing in your classroom that just recapitulates antiquated practices?

The phrase “technology and education” usually means inventing new gadgets to teach the same old stuff in a thinly disguised version of the same old way. Moreover, if the gadgets are computers, the same old teaching becomes incredibly more expensive and biased towards its dullest parts, namely the kind of rote learning in which measurable results can be obtained by treating the children like pigeons in a Skinner box.   –Seymour Papert, father of Constructionism

During Season 4, Episode 3 of IMMOOC, John Spencer described his journey with technology and how his thinking has evolved around its use. As I listened to him speaking about using Scotch tape to mend microfiche, my head just kept unconsciously nodding. Oh, how I could relate! And I wholeheartedly agree with his lesson from this experience.

What is transferable, what is powerful and what stayed forever has been getting to think critically, getting to be creative, getting to problem solve-all of that. To me, when people get focused on the technology, they are going to end up inevitably doing is getting obsessed with the novelty.

I think this is an important lesson for all of us educators to consider. How can we focus on transferable skills vs. technology skills? Is knowing how to touch-type going to be a game changer for my 1st grader’s future OR is understanding how we organize and create systems to improve our capacity to do more and communicate more of our best selves and solve problems the answer?

Obviously, my question is rhetorical. And maybe you are wondering what “QUERTYs” you have in your school culture and classrooms–what old fashion practices and tools are you perpetuating, with or without the use of technology? Let’s start to make genuine progress by challenging and “breaking” them. Because by accepting the “status quo” in education, like un-imagining “the keyboard”, just makes us look slow and stupid.

What If Students Ran the School? (#SOL meets #EmpowerBook)

What If Students Ran the School? (#SOL meets #EmpowerBook)

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I was scrambling down the stairs when a bounding 5-year old announces  “It’s class time! It’s class time!” He leapfrogged from one group of scattered students to the next with his broadcast. As I made my way to the canteen, hurrying to grab a cup of coffee, I noticed that the duty teacher was patrolling the sprawling play space with the same message: c’mon kids, break time is over.

You see at our school, we don’t use bells to signal the end of class periods or break times or even dismissal. In many ways, this seems more natural and authentic, but it also challenging to accept this switch from Pavlovian antics to try to round up and herd children back to their classrooms, especially when we give students free reign over a large swath of our campus. We have a single whistle and a wonderfully orange vest to suggest our authority which entitles us the right to call them off the playground.

But as I was walking back from class, a “what if” began to bubble up in my mind: What if we gave students an orange vest? How might that impact managing break or lunchtime recess? And more importantly, what message would that suggest to our students? Furthermore, what would be the impact on our school culture?

Anytime teachers think differently about (2).png

So as I think about the everyday structures and routines of our school’s life, I wonder what sort of power are we hoarding that could release to our students to give them more agency and develop more self-management skills? I wonder about an experiment in which we gave some students an orange vest to provide them the opportunity to assist the duty managers. Also, I wonder if there are other areas that we could root out in our school’s community which would give students an opportunity to engage and influence the very place that is designed for them. To me, an orange vest is really the tip of the iceberg.

I bet if we posed the question What if students ran the school, how might it be different-what would you change? Now I’m sure we would get answers like more playtime and ice cream served at lunch, but we also might get some genuine gems that would provoke and inspire us to create a more student-centered culture.

#PYP Where We Are in Place and Time: Being Critical of a “Slam-Dunk” PYP Unit of Inquiry. (#IMMOOC)

#PYP Where We Are in Place and Time: Being Critical of a “Slam-Dunk” PYP Unit of Inquiry. (#IMMOOC)

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We have begun a unit of inquiry that could be considered a “slam-dunk”- an easy to teach unit with a clear summative task: designing a home. Here’s the central idea and lines of inquiry for this Where We Are in Place in Time:

Homes reflect cultural influences and local conditions.

  • what makes a home
  • how homes reflect local culture and family values
  • factors which determine where people live

I bet if you are experienced PYP teacher, you have taught a unit similar to this. It’s a “good” unit, right? I’ve taught it before. It can be quite transdisciplinary when you think about all the wonderful social science and physical science that you can pull into this, along with art and math, if students design a model home.

I often ask myself two questions: So What? Now What? But I keep re-reading this sentence from the book Empower  by A. J. Juliani and John Spencer and it makes me want to extend my thinking to be more critical of these types of “slam-dunk” units. Here’s the brief excerpt from the book:

We began to empathize with our students, which led us to ask questions like the following:

What would our students care about (literary devices)?

What would be the best way to learn (the devices)?

How can we engage the students in understanding their purpose and use in the real world?

 

Now, in the book’s context, they are trying to determine the best approach to tackling literary devices for their eighth graders, but I could apply these same questions to any given unit of inquiry. In particular, that last question lingers in my mind.

SO WHAT?: Examining Units of Inquiry for Student Interest and Action

So what part of this is important and meaningful for students? So what aspect of this unit will have a lasting impact and build upon future learning?– is this going to be important for the next unit or next year? How immediate will they be applying these conceptual understandings or skills?

And now if I was to apply this So What principle and add those ideas from the Empower book, then I would begin reflecting on units of inquiry in the Programme of Inquiry (POI) through the lens of students who are driving the unit (and not us teachers).

So what part of this unit will students genuinely care about? (Do they actually care about homes?)

So what would be the best way for them to learn about homes?

So what aspect of the conceptual understandings will have a purpose and use in the real world?

 

NOW WHAT?: Examining Units of Inquiry for Meaning and Coherence

NOW WHAT -this has to do will the impact that learning will have on students.

Now what will students care about as a result of their learning?

Now what would be the best way to extend their thinking and develop new perspectives?

Now what can they transfer to future units? What use in the real world will these conceptual understandings have? Can they apply their knowledge in different ways to other subjects?

We are embarking on Week 3 of this unit. I’m not suggesting that this unit is a “bad” unit–I think that the students will get a lot of learning out of this unit, especially since we are developing their awareness of family values, culture and how homes are designed for natural disasters.  I also think this is really meaningful, that the concept of “home” is a challenging one for our 3rd Culture Kids–is my home the one on my passport? Or the physical space I live in? Or the emotional space I inhabit? There’s a lot of relevance for our students’ learning in this unit. quotes-on-innovation-and-creativity-2

But I think we should always remain critical and challenge “easy” units because this can become very teacher-directed inquiry instead of releasing control of the learning over to students. As I reflect on the summative task, designing a home, I wonder how we can amplify their learning by providing more choice and voice in the matter. Considering how we give students more agency can shift this “slam-dunk” unit into new learning territory. It’s an idea that I will bring forward to our team, and it’s an idea that I hope you will hold in your memory and consider when you also come across these staple sorts of units.

#PYP The Null Curriculum? Why PYP Schools Need to Examine Science in the Program of Inquiry

#PYP The Null Curriculum? Why PYP Schools Need to Examine Science in the Program of Inquiry

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Let me be clear, I am biased. I wholeheartedly agree with the Nobel-Prize winning quantum scientist, Richard Feynman, ” The world looks so different after learning science.”  In my mind, this is the greatest argument for scrutinizing our Programme of Inquiry to ensure that are developing scientific literacy. Scientific inquiry naturally challenges and changes you.

I have been trying to track down the memory of where I first heard a PYP educational leader say that out of our 6 Transdisciplinary Themes, there are some units that should be Social Studies focused (Where We Are in Place and Time and How We Organize Ourselves), another that should be Arts focused (How We Express Ourselves), 2 that are Science focused (How the World Works and Sharing the Planet) and the Who We Are theme can bridge multiple disciplines. Of course, it’s very easy to read the transdisciplinary theme descriptors and arrive at these conclusions, but this whole notion of a theme as the “arts” and the “social studies” unit is incongruent with the whole notion of what IS supposed to transdisciplinary learning. But whenever I look at a school’s Programme of Inquiry (POI), this sort of thinking seems to leave its fingerprints everywhere in their curriculum design. Look at your own POI, right now. I double dog dare you! You’ll see exactly what I am talking about.

I’d like to challenge this discrete packaging of developing knowledge by themes. Furthermore, I’d like to use this term, the Null Curriculum, ironically, to explore what it means to our POI.

The Null Curriculum: the options students are not afforded, the perspectives they may never know about, much less be able to use, the concepts and skills that are not part of their intellectual repertoire. -Elliot Eisner-

For those who don’t know, Elliot Eisner, a curriculum thought leader and art education advocate, coined this term null curriculum, in which he often stated that art appreciation is an important and often neglected aspect of our school’s implicit curriculum. However, this term is transferable to other subject matter. When we relegate science and its thinking skills to only a couple of TD themes, we are minimalizing its importance, making it null; especially since it is not a “special” (visual art, music/performing arts, additional languages and PE) that IB schools offer a couple times a week. Therefore, Science, as a subject, only gets to be spotlighted and explored for 6-12 weeks a year, for maybe 3 hours a week during the time in which we are not teaching math, literacy or the special subjects.

Did you just do the math? 36 hours or 3 days of Science learning a year. Ouch. That’s not a lot dedicated time to an area of learning that we know is emerging as a necessary element of our students’ lives. We know that technology is changing the dynamics of our society and STEM (Science, Technology, and Math) is becoming a focal point for innovation in many schools (which many schools have expanded STEM to STEAM to include art as an essential component) So shouldn’t we be examining our POIs to make sure we are in synch with emerging trends and provide a balanced curriculum?

Here’s what troubles me the most, science, in my mind is the binding agent of all the other disciplines. It is an inherently transdisciplinary inquiry. That’s because science explores the “magic” that remains invisible until we apply scientific habits of thinking. It starts off with What Does It All Mean, Man?-sort of thinking; our curiosity and our imagination are naturally provoked and we are driven to make discoveries which only lead to further questions and a revealing of new possibilities. Science, in my mind, is a big game of What If? which can be applied to all manner of subjects and cultivate deeper thinking. 

Anytime teachers think differently about (1).png

When the Arts and Science Get Married: Changing How the World Works to How We Express Ourselves 

I’d like to pull out some central ideas and challenge how you can put more science into other themes.  How We Express Ourselves is probably not the first one you would have picked so I’d like to start there.  Here’s the overview of the theme.

How We Express Ourselves: an inquiry into…the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs, and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.

Now, I’m going to hit close to home and share the How the World Works unit that we did with our 1st graders:

Understanding sound and light can transform experience.

Put this central idea in that theme descriptor above. Think about how students could have applied their knowledge of light and sound if we had inquired through this theme.  We could have developed perspective-taking and thinking about an audience. We could have explored acoustics and how light enhances a performance. We could have used design thinking. It would have been messy learning. We, students and teachers, included, would have gone into the learning pit, and we would have had fun, we would have been challenged. It would have an impact and lasting memory on all of us. It would have been exhilarating and excruciating at the same time. Really the only constraints of this collaboration would be the depth of our lines of inquiry.

What about this central idea from another school’s  How the World Works Unit?

Materials can be categorized, manipulated and changed.

The same sort of collaboration would have been possible.  If we extended the central to include more concepts, I think there would be a richer learning experience. For example:

Materials can be categorized, manipulated and changed for a purpose.

Materials can be categorized, manipulated and changed for communicating a message. 

The second central idea makes me wonder how we might explore art curation or how manufacturers and designers consider the impact of plastic on our world. What about  Addis shoes made out of plastic?-Can you think of how you can teach students material science and apply it to innovation, making treasure out of trash? We just did this concept of transformation with musical instruments to make a sound garden at our school. (This unplanned collaboration came out of a Sharing the Planet unit) This is only one idea of a hundred possibilities. I’m not even scratching the surface. What ideas float up in your mind?

Here’s another central idea:

People are inspired to create by observing the natural world. 

If you pull out a piece of paper and start mind mapping the possibilities of this central idea, it would be hard to write only 3 lines of inquiry for it. My mind goes to weather, jumps to landforms, then airplane design or bridge building then wonders how we could capture movement and change in our drawings or dancing. I think about culture, whether it is folktale creation stories or costumes.  There all sorts of connections that can be made. I am only limited by my imagination.

I’d like to share one more thought about the marriage of art and science in our curriculum. Have a think about what Eisner is postulating:

eeisner
From Reimagining Schools: The Selected Works of Elliot W. Eisner

Did you read that last line? Connoisseurs of…the world. When you marry science to all the other areas of learning, you get all sorts of delightful experiences. You apply skills. You apply knowledge. So stop thinking that How We Express Ourselves is the Arts unit! It goes beyond those boundaries of that discipline, from passive to active learning, when you combine it with science.

I’m going to revisit this idea of putting science into other themes.  I just really want to challenge this notion of what disciplines are emphasized during a unit of inquiry. I want us PYP educators to really be true to the transdisciplinary nature of our framework’s design–not because we are blindly following Making the PYP Happen, but because the future world in which our students will live demand that they can transfer knowledge and skills between disciplines. Technology is blurring the lines between subject areas and we need to prepare students for the shifting nature of what we will call “progress”.

Perhaps you have any other thoughts that you would like to add to this discussion of curriculum. Please share! It helps all of us grow!

#IMMOOC: Innovation in Education Starts with Climbing a Pyramid

#IMMOOC: Innovation in Education Starts with Climbing a Pyramid

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It’s hard not to think about the recent school shooting in America and think about how innovation could benefit schools. These acts of violence are the most extreme case of why we need to change “school as usual” and start creating a paradigm shift in how we think about our school culture and climate.

abraham
Innovation can happen when schools look beyond scores and see the child in front of them. 

It’s hard for me to imagine that a student who felt connected and supported at school would have ever fathomed to pick up a weapon and kill. There is no way that he would want to destroy what brought meaning and value to his life. Think about it.

 

I believe that if a child knew that it was a leaf or a branch on a tree, it wouldn’t hack away at its bark, it would turn toward the light and would be eager to nourish its supporting system.

We know the future will present great challenges ahead that we will need to develop more creativity, empathy, and resilience in order to tackle them. We need students prepared for that. But maybe instead of test scores, we need to think about student achievement through a different lens. Personally, I have been thinking a lot about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and how our schools play a role in an individual’s life.maslow-hierarchy-of-needsRemember this pyramid of needs?-the core message was if you want to have a happy and fulfilling life, you need to reach the highest level of this. School provides a major basis for this, 7 hours a day, 180 days a year.

Perhaps our whole definition of student success should be reframed to include emotional intelligence and other indicators of SEL (social-emotional learning) because cultivating the mind without the heart is a great malfeasance of our educational system. Even as an IB school, which has character development as a central part of our framework, we never consider to assess SEL as meaningful data points. The IB’s stance (at least its workshop leaders) say that it’s too subjective to assess our Learner Profile, but I’d like to challenge this. We can’t say that we are creating internationally-minded citizens which work to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect (IB Mission Statement) without some data that proves that we are in fact developing these values in our school communities.

So it is becoming quite evident to me that we cannot speak about innovation without considering how it broadens our definition of learning. And we’ve got to think about how we all–students, school leaders, and teachers included– can climb this pyramid together.

#SOL: Not Your Average Homework

#SOL: Not Your Average Homework

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“We’re up to 7 now. Sophia brought in a Koala” I nudged my chin into the crook of my husband’s shoulder, destined for sleep. “7! You need a pet manager.”, he suggests. My eyes pop open. I sit up in bed.

“Yes, yes we do! That’s a brilliant idea.You’re a genius”

Let me tell you how it all began. During the summer, inspired by a former colleague of mine, I purchased a stuffed woodpecker and a fun storybook. woodpecker book I introduced the book and the bird, Benny,  as a home learning activity for the students, discussing the responsibility of having a classroom pet. Here’s how it has worked: one student every day was “picked” by Benny (he does this little bird call when you press him) and they would take him home, read him the story and write a bit about what they did at their home inside a writing journal. benny The kids loved it. They took him to restaurants. They took him to school plays. They took him to soccer matches. Benny was really enjoying himself and the kids were too. They didn’t mind writing a few sentences with their families, and the “homework” wasn’t overwhelming.

Pet #2: Then my 7-year old daughter said that she has a cat, cutie pieCutie Pie, that probably needed to go to Grade 1 and learn more math. Cutie Pie needed some support with math story problems. Huh, I liked that idea. So I had Hannah come into Grade 1 and introduce Cutie Pie to the class. How could they not love that adorable face? Now we had a Math Cat!

You know where this is going right? Because it was only a matter of time before a student was going to ask about bringing in another “pet”. Every time a student said they wanted to bring in another class pet, I’d ask them, “Well, what do they think they could learn from Grade 1 students?”.  There is no end to their imagination. The diversity and interest of these “pets” really amaze me.

We also have a world-traveling monkey, Fruity, who loves to learn about culture and geography. And our latest addition is Joy, the Koala,  loves numbers. We’re hoping that Joy can practice some expanded notation and decomposition of numbers.

Yesterday we opened up the discussion on the “pet manager” job to the kids. They loved it!–of course! So now we will have 4 students who are solely responsible for keeping track of all of these pets.  I personally love that we have such a large Grade 1 family of pets and I love how the students are really showing their initiative and independence with managing them. This is definitely not your average kind of home learning and I hope in years to come, the memory of these little projects finds a home in their heart, cherishing their experience of Grade 1.

 

#IMMOOC, Season 4: Does it Matter?- Giving Students Choice (My Personal Inquiry into Empowering Students Begins)

#IMMOOC, Season 4: Does it Matter?- Giving Students Choice (My Personal Inquiry into Empowering Students Begins)

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400 minutes a day is roughly what most students spend in school. After 180 school days, my 1st graders will have spent 72,000 minutes in our learning community (given that they are not absent) and move onto 2nd grade.What will they have learned? Who will they be at the end of that time? Will our team really have developed inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect? (From the IB Mission Statement)

That is an incredibly hard question to answer. I know that we work hard to forge new territory and challenge our learners to become self-reliant, reflective and kind. Sometimes it is easy- a simple provocation might provide the nudge, but most of the time, cultivating the awareness and motivation to do what is hard takes a lot of different approaches. In IB-Speak, we call it being principled however others may call it grit–it’s doing what’s right or the best thing to do even if it is hard, boring or uncomfortable, especially when NO ONE is watching you.

To develop “leaders of tomorrow”, we need to develop them as leaders of today.

-George Curous-  #EmpowerBook

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately-am I empowering students to make good choices or am I handicapping them by making the choices for them?  As a first grade teacher, this is sure easy to do–to “boss” those little ones around and “help” them make those choices for them.  Painful as it is to admit, that certainly happens.

As I begin this season of IMMOOC,  I really want to shine a light into those dark places of my practice. I want to examine whether or not I am consistently and compassionately developing our learners to be challenged and independent in their learning.

So I am excited to be reading the book Empower to take a more critical look at how I approach student learning and develop greater student agency in the classroom. Perhaps you might be keen to join? If so, you can sign up and join a whole load of us educators who really want to make an impact and create these leaders of today.

 

#SOL: Looking Through a Window of An Open House

#SOL: Looking Through a Window of An Open House

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As I locked the door and closed all the curtains, I wondered what emotions were stirring in the children – were they excited, were they nervous, or were they blase to share their learning?

heiyun
Where is MY planning sheet?

Today was their opportunity to present their knowledge and efforts in our unit, how did that make them feel?

 

At three o’clock, another door swings open and a head of a beaming student pops in, “Can I come in, Ms. Judy? Can I show my mom?”. I look up at the clock. “It’s 3pm.  Time to get started! Come on in!-What are you going to present to your mom first? Can you find your planning sheet?”

 

pierre
Showing how to use Book Creator app. 

 

Before you know it,  students start piling in with their loved ones: moms, dads, brothers, aunts, and grandmas–they all show up to see what their child has been up to in 1st Grade.The noise of the activity is fun to observe. We start grabbing iPads to document the interactions.  We want the parents to remember this moment, this moment of wonder and curiosity; hopefully a proud moment, a moment when they realize that their baby is growing up, a moment when pride wells up inside.

As we look on, some of the interactions are gorgeous. “C’mon”, squeaks one girl. “I want to show you how to play this game. It’s called BANG!”

sophia
Playing a Word Game.

Enthusiasm has flooded the room. It is four o’clock and a desire to show off their favorite things in class has yet to cease after an hour.

 

We asked students to choose five things to present to their families–touching a bit on math, language, technology, and unit. One girl has checked off the entire list. We tried to avoid this from happening since we know that the adult’s time is busy. One mother struggles to get her daughter to stop playing a game.

thomas and charlotte
Playing the “Sound Detective” Game.

“This is the last round, okay?”, she beseeches.

 

Over in the corner, a sort of game of tug-of-war seems to be in process, in which there is a tension between their interaction, as a loved one is challenging and pulling out the learning from their child, questioning and critical. The child pulls back with counter arguments and claims, then relents. These interactions are difficult to watch from the eyes of a child, but the teacher in me also feels a bit grateful for the pressure that is being applied, hoping that it will make the student more focused in their work. (Today I will find out who has really won this game–has this really changed any habits or behaviors?)

kathyIt’s 4:30. Students start to come back to me to report that they have finished.  As they hand me their planning sheets, I direct a question towards them, “How do you feel about presenting your learning?” Most smile and reply, “Good!”.  I give a high five. I want them to have some small acknowledgeable that what they did today mattered. That the learning they have done up until now and the effort they put into presenting it was important. As I look up to say my goodbyes and thank yous to loved ones, in my head I am wondering and hoping that this experience opened a window into the lives of the learners; that the parents and family members gained some valuable insight and perspective into their unique and wonder-filled child. In my heart, I am hoping that the learners left feeling a sense of pride and recognition; that this has further developed their confidence and self-esteem.

It’s nearly six o’clock before I leave school, exhausted yet content.

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