As I walk through the halls of a school building, I am always looking for evidence of the culture and beliefs of the learning that takes place there. When I open a classroom door and peek my head inside, there is a lot of data: the furniture arrangement, where the teacher’s desk is (or isn’t), the classroom “decorations” and signs that thinking is taking place, and whether posters/charts on the wall are fixed or ever-changing, as well as who is creating the “decorations” in the classroom. The whiteboard is actually one of the most telling places in a classroom. It often includes the schedule and topics for that day, as well as the teaching points in a lesson. Sometimes I see student names on the whiteboard, and it makes me wonder why they are on there.
As a coordinator that was new to my school, these walks made me question where we were as a school in terms of our implementation of the program. You see, I remember in my early days of being a PYP practitioner, my PYP coordinator insisted that I had the Learner Profile on display as well as the Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry. One of my new-to-the-PYP colleagues HATED this and thought it cluttered up her classroom wall space, encroaching upon her word wall and anchor charts. I personally never resented this ask and always enjoyed finding fresh ways to display unit of inquiry work, but this debate about prioritizing our framework in our classroom environment has left an indelible mark. Should we, as pedagogical leaders, insist on having the framework on display?
I’ve sat on this question all year long. Carefully observing classrooms and reflecting on whether or not elements of our program are being showcased in our learning areas, and whether or not that translated into better practice. To be honest, my view is still mixed.
Is it a POSTER or a PRACTICE?
Display posters from Teacher Pay Teacher or Twinkle can just be a static fixture to appease the “PYP Gods”, as one teacher liked to refer them. But when I twisted his arm to post the Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry during the unit, his practices with concept-based inquiry improved. He referred more to our elements and started to use these teacher-centric materials as manipulatives. It could have been an odd coincidence, but I would like to believe that because it was in his eyesight, it was a reminder to ratchet up his inquiry approaches and refer more to our learner profile and approaches to learning as well. However, I had another teacher who had beautiful displays of the PYP jargon but never shifted from a very teacher-centered learning environment. Student agency?-that was only for students who were “good listeners” and “respectful”. So displays are hardly a telling sign of the quality of the practices.
Why am I reflecting on this, you might ask? Why do I give a hoot about classroom displays? Well, anyone who has recently gone through or will be embracing an onsite IB evaluation visit understands why I am contemplating this. The environment of our schools provides an essential clue into our classroom practices and the overall “strength” of our PYP program.
What are the telling signs of a constructivist classroom? As a PYP coordinator, making edicts on how our classrooms “should” look like I think would miss the goal of developing our skills as PYP practitioners. Instead, I think if teachers carefully examined the Life Long Learning Strand of the 2020 Standards and Practices, they can begin to think about what this could look like in the classroom environment. Here is a little brainstorming I have done as I think about what might be on “display” in our learning environments.
Lifelong learners 1: Students actively develop thinking, research, communication, social, and self-management skills. (0402-01)
This standard is about our Approaches to Learning–how are students learning how to be lifelong learners. Some examples of “artifacts” in a learning environment might include:
This “next level” KWL chart develops, not only attributes of the Learner Profile but supports the AtLs.
Evidence of the process of inquiry that documents some of the learnings within the inquiry cycle.
Approaches to teaching 2: Teachers focus on conceptual understanding to support students in developing their ideas. (0403-02)
Teaching dictionary skills with the Key Concepts.
Students’ thinking that emerged when “unpacking” the Central Idea or Lines of Inquiry.
Daily/weekly guiding questions are posted on the whiteboard.
Unit of Inquiry “Word Walls” that display the big ideas and key vocabulary.
Using the Key Concepts as opportunities to solicit student thinking and questions.
Student examples of work math prompt
Concept maps, which can be as simple as a mind-map, Frayer model, or more complex like a Visible Thinking Routine like Color, Symbol, Image.
These ideas are hardly an exhaustive list. Moreover, any simple search on Pinterest will provide LOTS of visual examples of these ideas, and I love heading over to Sharing the PYP blog to see great models of practice. But I think what we really need to keep in mind is that these elements of our PYP program are not just classroom decorations, but living documentation of the robust learning that is taking place within its walls. Steeping our walls in the artifacts of learning shouldn’t be viewed as a chore, but a joy to curate all the wonderful moments we create in our learning communities by putting our PYP principles into practice.
Developing learners as leaders is my joy! I am committed and passionate International Baccaluearate (IB) educator who loves cracking jokes, jumping on trampolines and reading books. When I’m not playing Minecraft with my daughter, I work on empowering others in order to create a future that works for everyone.
Being held accountable for improving the standard of learning is a weighty task, one that I take very seriously. It consumes a lot of energy in my role as a PYP Coordinator. Every Wednesday morning has been carved out for me to facilitate training and engage in a PLC (Professional Learning Communities). As you can see by this graphic, ensuring that our professional development time is well-spent is an important matter to be considered.
I’ve been in the field of education for 2 decades and I have definitely seen how it has evolved. In the book, Professional Learning in Actionby Victoria J. Risko, MaryEllen Vogt, it was interesting that they noted research done by Kragler, Martin, and Sylvester that described the stages of professional learning over the years:
the in-service era (1950-1960s)
the staff-development era (1970-1980s)
the professional development era (1990-2000s)
the professional learning era (the mid-2000s to present)
Our current era, suggests that teachers must become leaders in their own learning, no longer passive receptacles but self-motivated and responsible. As educators, we are to engage in problem-solving, which is guided by our social constructivists’ principles. When we are intentionally directing our own learning, we are more purposeful in our decision-making in order to advance our knowledge and expertise.
In Zen, there is an expression: Go as a River.
Zen philosophy always likes to represent a complex idea in simple terms, but this saying suggests that we have the capacity to receive, embrace and transform concepts, emotions, and difficult situations, in order to create peace, freedom, and community. The Nobel Laureate, Thích Nhất Hạnh, reminds us that we cannot reach the ocean like a drop of water, we must surrender our isolation and learn how to come together through compassion and a willingness to accept each other unique qualities in order for us to have the energy to do the work we dedicate ourselves to, which in his world, is mindfulness.
There is strength in community.
As a Primary Years Programme Curriculum Coordinator, the heart of my work is collaboration. I not only model it through my efforts with members of the leadership team but with other stakeholders. And, moreover, I strive to cultivate greater collaboration amongst my staff.
The types of collaboration I see teachers engage in happens on multiple levels
In the classroom: with the teachers who support learners, and the learners themselves.
In grade levels: with the team of teachers for that grade level.
In the division: with the various teachers and students at the different grade levels
In the school: with other divisions’ students and/or teachers, the school leadership or the parent organization.
In the community: with groups that are affiliated with the school or other organizations that they volunteer or work with. But in a sense, they are an ambassador of the school.
In networks: with individuals or groups that share common values or interests.
So I have taken this notion, to Go As a River, as the rational and objective of our Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) this year. In my mind, coming together to learn with one another is an intimate and vulnerable act, since it requires honesty, openness, and transparency. There are so many models of PLCs, mostly data-driven, however, I wanted a different approach. I wanted to bake a process into our PLCs that did the following:
developed the skills of collaboration within our division and our teams.
allowed for teacher agency.
taught teachers how to be researchers and guided them through a process of putting educational theory into professional practice.
cultivated supportive teams that helped individual teachers through the struggle in order to build teachers’ self-efficacy, something that has a high impact on student learning, according to John Hattie.
built the capacity to debate and discuss issues without personalizing it, so that people can have the experience of having productive and meaningful conflict.
In this way, teachers are pushed out of their comfort zone in a healthy and safe way, and everyone in our program benefits from our risk-taking efforts, especially our learners, who need us to be responsive. I also felt that it would be important to incorporate the “5 energies of high-performing teams” that you can see in this graphic:
Clearly, I have high hopes for our teams. Simon Sinek, a man whose work inspires me to stretch boundaries, reminds me in this TED talk, that developing the trust and will to cooperate is not something you can simply instruct team to do, (“Get along, people!) but it is a feeling that is cultivated through the climate you create to provide a sense of safety.
As someone who gets to “set the tone” of not only how we collaborate but who we become as professional learners, it would be easy to turn to the many books written about how to construct Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), and just copy and paste those systems. But the heart of these systems was designed for standardized test scores and relied on student data in order to inform practices of school improvement. I struggled with this for several reasons, chief among them is that I don’t want our students to fit into a “standard”, I want them to be looked at as unique and special. I didn’t want them to reduce to numbers. If we only use data as the foundation of what we do, then we would miss out on opportunities for genuine teacher inquiries. Speaking of which, I examined the structure of teacher action research and thought perhaps that applying this practice into professional inquiries would be the route to go. However, I found that this was a goal-orientated structure that didn’t actually “teach” teachers how to collaborate, and may not appeal to all teachers since it typically culminates into a research paper. I felt that this put pressure on teams, and why would I want to stress out teams for the glory of publication? The last professional learning structure I examined was the Lesson Study I felt that this was a great tool to incorporate into our PLCs but wasn’t the PLC itself. Thus, I wanted to take what was great about all of these systems and create something that is unique, something that represents, perhaps even mirror, what we might expect in our Primary Years Programme (PYP) classroom.
Speak the Same Language (Intellectual Energy)
In a previous post, What Can Pedagogical Leaders Do to Grease the Wheels of Innovation in Their Schools? I’ve talked about the importance of ensuring that teams have a shared instructional language. Our principal, Matt Ihle, says it best: “Building understanding is the purpose of communication”–and thus by coming into an agreement of what PLC means to us, is the foundation for the work we will do this year.
This is our working definition of a PLC
So, the first order of business was not to come up with “norms” but to come up with a shared working definition of what it means to be “professional learners in our community”. We have to make sure that when I say we are having a PLC meeting, staff know exactly what that means because we have co-constructed a description that is full of vision and purpose.
Be over Do (Social Energy)
Often times we create these agendas and rush into the “doing” of the work before us, squandering really important time to develop teams. I can’t begin to tell you how many schools I’ve either worked at or visited that have leaders who feel that all they need to do is to throw adults into the room, give them a 1/2 hour to establish “norms” and collaboration happens. No! And No!
Conflict happens and what we do with conflict determines the capacity to do good work in our schools and creates the climate in our schools. How we move through conflict has everything to do with trust. In the book, Speed of Trust, Stephen Convey explains that “Speed happens when people truly trust each other.”--one of the reasons why teams are more productive and efficient is due to working through conflict faster. Think about this quote:
“In a high-trust relationship, you can say the wrong thing, and people will still get your meaning. In a low-trust relationship, you can be very measured, even precise, and they’ll still misinterpret you.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything
You know that is true–communication and trust go hand in hand. You can probably think back to a time when someone said something to you that triggered in you some negative emotion and it made it hard to be around that person. However, you may have a friend or colleague who can say something critical and you can reflect on it without being offended by it. Why is that? The reason is that this friend or colleague shares your values. As a result of that, you choose to see how you are connected rather than distinct. Finding common ground is easy when you share common ideals.
So, again, we didn’t talk about “norms”, instead we talked about values. In our first meeting, we ranked and shared personal values with our co-teachers, and in the next meeting, we unpacked and discussed our professional values. It was incredible to see the shift and hear the conversations. People really got to know one another and have discussions that were meaningful, even if they weren’t directly about the PYP Enhancements and student learning. They had permission to be who they are, and what became the “norm” was acceptance and appreciation.
Tribes Vs Teams (Spiritual Energy)
Tribes represent a culture with shared interests and values. Leadership roles are distributed and dynamic. Individuals work toward a common goal, for the sake of their community. This is exactly what I wished for as the engine behind our PLC. These meetings should the development of a coalition that is dedicated to a purpose, so I wanted to turn teams into tribes.
So teachers took a Google survey to put their interests and questions around student learning. I looked for keywords and patterns in order to form the basis of the tribes, then sorted them into their inquiry groups.
Encouraging Curiosity and Inquiry
Translanguaging
Student Agency
Play-based Learning
Student Motivation
Differentiation and Universal Design for Learning
Language and Literacy
When the tribes were inaugurated, I gave them a guide for this “vision quest” and referenced the work from the Center for Courage and Renewal as the premise for our rules of engagement and the Circle of Trust Touchstones became the “norms” of our tribes.
Tribes came together to discuss why this topic matters to them and unpack their philosophies and beliefs that will guide their practice. During another meeting, they crafted a mission statement for the work they will do throughout the school year. In their meetings, they would choose their roles, which were flexible, and purely determined by the group. In this way, they could see the significance of their collaboration and develop a strong support system among them. Mid-year, we would examine and reflect on these mission statements, in order to determine the next steps. And, although some tribes were larger than others, every group has found their way to work through their challenges.
As a part of their PLCs, we had some meetings dedicated to going back to their grade level teams to share what they have been learning about and what their experience has been like doing the Lesson study and peer observations. We used the framework of the constructivist listening tool to provide for deep listening as people had time to share without interruption or judgment.
Acknowledging the Learning Pit (Psychological Energy)
I feel very strongly that if we are to take the profession of education seriously, then we will always be in a state of cognitive dissonance, as we grasp and reach for the “best practice” for the students that we teach. In my post, Why There is No Escape From the Learning Pit, , I explain this conundrum:
“It’s sort of ironic–me, the teacher, who is supposedly the expert, is often shoulder-deep with the students, trying to figure out the course and direction of the inquiry, instead of being assured and confident about the path we are going. It seems that bewilderment, frustration, and struggle have become the perks of being in a state of wonder and anticipation.”
I think there is a real danger in not acknowledging the struggles we face when we start walking the talk, putting principles into practice. I wanted our teams to be prepared for it and accept it. Remember that Go As a River means that we the capacity to receive, embrace and transform concepts, emotions, and difficult situations, in order to create peace, freedom, and community.
The Learning Pit is inevitable, in which we debate and grapple with who we are to who we wish to become as teachers. Furthermore, I explained that it was my job to get them out of their teacher’s comfort zone and that the structure of our PLCs was intended to push them into the pit, but it would also be designed to pull them out. Setting up this expectation was important because I wanted to normalize discomfort but also emphasize that it is safe to do it.
The Cycle of Professional Learning (Physical Energy)
Years ago, I read the book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and the one big idea that I took away from it was that mastery comes from commitment. So I wanted to ensure that staff had the opportunity to test out and practice ideas, all the while, developing “staying power” when they face challenges with implementation. Thus are PLCs would be cyclical so people could problem solve and celebrate accomplishments. So our PLC meetings would include discussions around the following:
Research:Ask questions and seeking professional literature and learning resources that shed light on the most effective practices.
Implementation: Discuss the challenges and successes of implementing new ideas and practices.
Lesson Study: Develop lessons and integrate ideas into your learning community.
Peer Observation: Watch a lesson related to the research topic. Engage in discussion and self-reflection afterward.
Data evaluation: Discuss the results of either formative, summative or anecdotal evidence of learning.
Self-reflection:Consider your practice and develop your next steps on your learning journey.
Review and Debate: Examine ideas that have arisen as a result of your reading, feedback from your peer observation and implementation of new practices.
These ingredients would the agenda items for our meetings and represent the types of things we would do within our Action Learning Cycle.
Explore and Plan
First, each teacher inquiry needs to start by sharing the personal research around our areas of interest. We set up a SeeSaw PLC group so that people could post the things that were inspiring them. There’s a proverb: “to know and not do, is to not know”; so I wanted to ensure that teachers developed the capacity to read articles or watch videos with the impetus of testing ideas out in their classroom. To take curiosity and put into action, that would be the heart of the work we would do as life-long learners. Here is an anecdote from our PLC that facilitated this practice:
Pre-planning of a lesson: Translating Research Into Action
The research article I’d like to share:
A summary of the article:
The teaching actions are reflected in this article that I don’t do, but I want to try is….
Nothing fancy here, but it’s the lubricant of change and was the prerequisite for the lesson study. Again, I didn’t design anything complicated for that either. I wanted a simple format that would have the basic ideas for the peer observations:
The Plan: Framing the Peer Observation
What questions will drive the lesson? What planned actions will take place in the lesson? (Use the chart to simplify the “looks fors” for your peer)
What the teacher(s) do(es)?
What do the students do?
As a result of applying my new professional learning into the lesson, I expect (my hypothesis about the unplanned actions) the students to…..
Act
This is the implementation phase when a teacher conducts a lesson that integrates their learning from their research and has a peer observe their attempt. The peer observation not only shares practice but it also holds teachers accountable to initiate their growth. Peers come together to share their notes and provide feedback.
And although implementation seems like an obvious action, going back into the research is also an action too. Research includes looking at student data, which can be formal or informal, and also examining more articles and videos–whatever resource they want to use to further their practice.
Bends in the River
As much planning as I put into cultivating the collaborative and trusting climate of our tribes, I have to also be willing to throw things out, as I reflect on what is happening in classrooms and in discussions. I must allow for things to happen organically. Sometimes it means allowing tribes to hold tension, giving them the opportunity to grapple with issues around what is the “best” approach. However, I think this is the kind of spirit that is imbued in the concept of “Go As A River”, as we transform conflict (whether it is trivial or substantial) and trudge out of the Learning Pit, becoming better for it, together.
Developing learners as leaders is my joy! I am committed and passionate International Baccaluearate (IB) educator who loves cracking jokes, jumping on trampolines and reading books. When I’m not playing Minecraft with my daughter, I work on empowering others in order to create a future that works for everyone.
We are hard-wired to be curious. Have you ever been around a little baby before? When a newborn begins to realize that they have a body and becomes fascinated with their hands, they study them intensely. They put them in their mouths, they linger on different textures, wanting to squeeze them to feel them oozing through their fingers.
We are born curious, our brains pattern-making machines, trying to make sense of our environment, both outer and inner. Our schools shouldn’t be a place where student questions go to die. Schools should be a place where curiosity is nurtured and sustained.
In The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead, Warren Berger pronounces “I am a questionologist.” I love that! When you look at the graphic that summarizes Berger’s book, you get a sense of possibility that deepening our inquiries can create through broad questioning techniques. The questions are not complicated, but the path they lead you on can branch into new avenues and creative opportunities. As educators, we should not only be modeling these broad-reaching questions but encouraging tangents of thought through open-ended questions.
A poem comes to mind which reminds me of the wonder and inspiration within the power of a question. Its words penetrate my soul and awaken the child within me, the one with a million “whys”.
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
When I consider the excitement of beginning a new unit of inquiry, despite its familiarity, a fresh set of questions always come to mind. Just like the students, I am there with them, embarking upon the inquiry, seeking new understandings. I want to “live the questions” that Rilke speaks of, knowing that curiosity is a way of being in the world, experiencing awe and elegance in the search for answers. It is more than a pedagogical approach, it is a way of being.
So to develop our “questionology” is not only important for our classroom culture but it when you think of it, it generates well-being. To question is to shake hands with possibility, and possibility opens our focus, inviting new information into our awareness. So this drive to wonder is what makes us “inforvores”, and is a psychological need. In fact, science is beginning to show that if we are not organizing our classrooms in such a way that spark interest, we are literally deadening the brains of our students. I’d also like to add that our own teaching practice becomes joyless when life is all answers and no questions.
So let’s take a page from Berger’s playbook and start generating opportunities for curiosity by asking more “beautiful questions”. It’s a habit worth cultivating.
Developing learners as leaders is my joy! I am committed and passionate International Baccaluearate (IB) educator who loves cracking jokes, jumping on trampolines and reading books. When I’m not playing Minecraft with my daughter, I work on empowering others in order to create a future that works for everyone.
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:
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” (:
Developing learners as leaders is my joy! I am committed and passionate International Baccaluearate (IB) educator who loves cracking jokes, jumping on trampolines and reading books. When I’m not playing Minecraft with my daughter, I work on empowering others in order to create a future that works for everyone.
Have you eve thought that at one time in human history cave art was a huge technological leap. As as we evolved and paper was invented, scrolls were considered controversial forms of educational technology; according to this research, ancient philosophers felt that if things were written down, then it depleted your memory. Quite surprising, huh? Thus our current digital technologies are no different: there will always be people who embrace technology wholeheartedly and those who resist it.
Nevertheless, iPads and other tablets have infiltrated so many households that to not use them in the classroom would be a sin. At our school, we have a BYO-ipad policy for students in grade levels 3-5. And as educators this type of technology transcends so much of what we can do with pen and paper. But where to begin?
I’ve been really inspired by the presentation by Tom Daccord & Justin Reich as they strive to guide teachers through the murky waters of using iPads in the classroom. I appreciate how succinctly they spell out the taxonomy of their use with 4 levels: Consume, Curate, Create and Connect.
Although I get enthusiastic about using apps for education, there are some thorny issues that we have been discussing, especially with regards to research skills. Not only has there been much debate over having students use books vs. internet websites as primary sources of information, but whether using apps like Notability or One Note to curate content really helped students digest the information and convert it into personal knowledge. As I reflect on the graphic above, it makes me wonder if these are not really levels, but the process by which we should take students through a project or problem that they must solve as they research ideas using the iPads. As more of our classrooms begin to shift to embrace these technologies, I think we need to consider how we can go deeper in our learning so that, not only does the technology evolve, but also the thinking in our classrooms.
During one of our collaborative planning meetings, we were discussing how students are keen to grab their iPads rather than a book when they are doing research. Some of us remarked how we have to make students aware of the books in our classrooms as a primary source of information, rather than going down the rabbit hole of internet research. It became clear that integrating technology with research skills really brings up our “digital divide” with our students. And perhaps one of the greatest challenges is to teach what we, ourselves, have limited experience or expertise in. How can teachers move from being digital voyeurs (people who recognize the shift to digital, but reluctant to embrace it) to digital immigrants (people who have crossed the chasm to the digital world, and learned how to engage with it)?
So the teacher becomes the student! How can we help students conduct online research whilst developing our own understanding of the blindspots involved in internet research?
Because I teach in the Early Years, I could not really rely on my own experience and had to do my own digging around on how to research online in order to support fellow teachers. I started on Edutopia and was relieved to read about the approaches to teaching research skills by Mary Beth Hertz that provided a good starting place when arming students with tools and strategies. Also, I found these lessons that support online research for students and felt like it could be a good place to begin for direct instruction during our technology time. And then the ideas in this website could be used for a more inquiry-based approach to teaching these skills.
I learned a lot actually in this query into how to teach research skills and I am excited to hear the reflections of our teachers as they negotiate digital learning in their classrooms.
But the heart of these systems was designed for standardized test scores and relied on student data in order to inform practices of school improvement. I struggled with this for several reasons, chief among them is that I don’t want our students to fit into a “standard”, I want them to be looked at as unique and special. I didn’t want them to reduce to numbers. If we only use data as the foundation of what we do, then we would miss out on opportunities for genuine teacher inquiries. Speaking of which, I examined the structure of 
as the premise for our rules of 
When a newborn begins to realize that they have a body and becomes fascinated with their hands, they study them intensely. They put them in their mouths, they linger on different textures, wanting to squeeze them to feel them oozing through their fingers.
In 
