Shared Technology Resources
April 20th, 2010
Please use this post to share favorite online resources, shortcuts, and any additional strategies and structures that you find helpful.
Posted in training | 5 Comments » |
(0 ratings)
The Art of Instruction
April 16th, 2010
I believe firmly that all people do the best they can with what they have. It is true that I am an optimist! Educators, especially classroom teachers, are no different. Most teachers teach using the strategies that worked best for them in school. One of the challenges is that most teachers were “committed learners” or good students. This post is dedicated to instruction in the classroom. Please know that I do believe in diversity and think that it is critically important that ALL teachers keep their own spin on the magic of instruction.
Instruction is a craft. Some call it an art. Whatever you call it, no doubt it requires skills. As discussed in an earlier post, learning has 2 important steps; Information (usually in the form of the teacher or text book) and Experience (students DOING). Instructing is facilitating both of these important steps for ALL learners. The biggest challenge for most educators is the “art of teaching” can never be the same. I find that most educators are extremely knowledgeable professionals gifted in specific areas. The challenge is finding the skills needed to facilitate learning for all.
There are too many programs and models that work to provide teachers with instructional tools. Actually I can’t say “too many” since that is my career but you get the point. My point is that teachers must work to find tools that engage students in the learning while maintaining the skills of provide information (teaching). Often I am asked, “Which strategy do I use?” The truth is that there is no perfect strategy that works “as is”. Instruction is an “art”. What I can say is that there are a few major strategies that offer more opportunities for more students to be involved in the experience.
Collaborative Work is work where individual members take on specific responsibilities to produce one product. The key is that EACH MEMBER has an assigned responsibility. Collaboration provides an opportunity for learners to compare and contrast ideas and knowledge, synthesize a more thoughtful response, and learn from others. These skills are higher order thinking skills from the Knowledge Taxonomy.
Inquiry-based Learning is a process of presenting a problem or challenge to the students that needs to be solved. This can be a simple math problem or a real-world issue. This problem gives students a chance to see the value of instruction on a new skill or topic. This experience also opens the door for the dance between information and doing.
Similarities and Differences requires students to “make sense” of new information by analyzing something that they already know. The human brain needs to make sense of the world. All humans learn new information by comparing. Some of you already see the connection here☺! Venn diagrams have been overused as a “structure” without truly having students compare and contrast information. It’s bigger than a Venn. There are unlimited tools that help students find similarities and differences; Venn, T-Charts, Teacher questioning, field studies, collaboration, Cornell Notes, etc.. The list never stops.
In closing, teachers must do more than just “implement the tool”. Educators must use numerous tools to get students involved. Many teachers want to simply get cleared by an administrator or consultant for implementing the new strategy and go back to doing what they’ve always done. Shame! Why waste your time? Teachers owe it to themselves to continually challenge, argue, read, practice, create, and implement new structures that give them the opportunity to dance with their students!
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment » |
(0 ratings)
Factors That Impact Student Achievement
February 1st, 2010
Educational reform is one that has long been a topic of discussion for all educators. Often I am asked, “what needs to be done” or “what are specific things that can be done to increase test scores?” Well, what I know to be true is that there are two specific items that are most commonly seen that make a school successful in student achievement; Leadership and Instruction. This post is dedicated to Leadership.
Leadership is often confused with management but they are two different items. I want to define each according to TJ☺:
Management is needed to take care of the structures that make schools run smoothly. Management includes things like, discipline, attendance, roles and responsibilities, and even paper work (doing things the right way). Often management is what keeps the system running smoothly. There is no doubt that schools/classrooms require management.
Leadership comes in many different forms but no doubt, leadership is clearly connected to success. Leadership is best defined (by TJ Mears) as the ability to grow others to a point greater than where they are currently. The challenge is that ALL people need growth and each person has a different need to help them grow. If you have even worked with a great leader, you know exactly what I am talking about. Good leaders provide firm “bottom lines” while stretching followers to go above and beyond that “bottom line”. I believe that a great leader is one that grows followers past themselves professionally. There is a risk in this statement because a good leader often helps followers learn even more than they themselves know.
Many of you reading this blog might think that I am referring only to school administration. Read it again! Teachers are managers and leaders. Parents are managers and leaders. With that said, this conversation is about ALL people who are responsible for an individual or a group of individuals.
I often reflect on my leadership successes and failures and would challenge each of you to do the same. Look for a follow-up post concerning instruction.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0) » |
(0 ratings)
Collaborative vs Group Work
February 1st, 2010
One of the largest concerns that I have for today’s classroom teacher is the confusion between “group work” and “collaborative work”. I know that many argue that there is little to no difference in these two words but just for the sake of this conversation lets define them according to TJ.
Group Work is work that is assigned to a team of individuals with no assigned responsibility. Most adult trainings make use of group work, “work with the member of your team to…”
Collaborative Work is work where individual members take on specific responsibilities to produce one product. The key is that EACH MEMBER has an assigned responsibility. Collaboration provides an opportunity for learners to compare and contrast ideas and knowledge, synthesize a more thoughtful response, and learn from others. These skills are higher order thinking skills from the Knowledge Taxonomy.
Group work as defined above can be and usually is punishment for students who want to achieve high grades or do well on the assignment. Usually, group work punishes the “gifted students” because they end up doing all of the work in which all members of the team are assigned a team grade. This type of work also punishes the students that “do nothing”. Learning requires active participation. In fact, the only way that learning happens is through experience.
Teachers must plan instruction with assigned responsibilities for each student working in a team in order to make class work collaborative. We cannot expect collaboration to come naturally to all students. As a matter of fact, collaboration usually doesn’t come naturally to adults working in a team. These skills must be taught and teachers must incorporate structures that enables all students to become active members of a collaborate team.
As a final thought, collaboration is the most needed/requested skill in today’s work force. Look at most of the careers in today’s global market and you will see each ask for individuals that “work well with others”.
In summary, we have a responsibility to make sure that ALL students are actively involved in the learning process while collaborating to gain knowledge from others.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0) » |
(0 ratings)
Why Do We Make Learning So Hard?
December 3rd, 2009
Learning is easily defined but very often difficult to facilitate. Most teachers are trained to “teach” but teaching alone doesn’t provide opportunities for learning. All of real-life learning requires two equally important parts; acquisition of information and experiences with that information. I recently purchased a new “all in one DVD/home entertainment” unit. I consider myself fairly technologically advanced so I figured I would simply connect the correct colors to the right holes and I would have an amazing new system. Well, after a few hours of sweat and hard work, I had to go back to the instructions. The point here is that I needed the instruction to provide me with the “INFORMATION” along side of the experience of hooking it up. If you think about all of life’s learning events, both of these steps are present. Some argue that one has to happen before the other but I believe that that both steps have to be available throughout the learning process. As teachers plan daily instruction, it is important to plan equally for instruction and experience. The challenging part is a teacher must also include strategies for Facilitating both of these steps for ALL students. Good Luck!!!!!
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0) » |
(0 ratings)
| ||
calendar
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Oct | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | ||||
