Well, what took so long?
Sunday was lethargic day after Kristie and I had stayed out late with some friends. I did a good chunk of grading. Then Monday came around and I panicked that graders were due the following day at 3:00, so I spent from roughly 6-12 correcting braided essays, novel tests, and hyper-text blogs.
On Tuesday two former students, Wendy and Jackie, wanted to teach my classes for a day (and give my College Comp I and II classes their version of "Scared straight" by telling them what college is really like and generally answering all of my students' questions about what it's really like out "there"). I did spend my prep hour madly entering grades and leaving comments.
Then at the start of third block a student asked if she could turn her essay in the next day.
"Not if you want it to count this quarter," I said. "Grades are due by three."
Then she wondered, "Oh, then Mr. Froiland's Pre-Calc test isn't going to be on this quarter's grade?" There was a great sense of relief in her voice, which frightened me. Mr. Froiland would never give a test that late in the quarter.
Sure enough, grades weren't due that Tuesday, but rather next Tuesday!
Well, at least I got a great chunk of grading done. I'm ahead of schedule! At least for one week.
So that's why this post has been so long in coming. But here it finally is.
I hope.
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Twitter has been a gold mine for PD this morning.
Here are some of the things I've found useful or interesting or important.
The 5 Secret Strategies Of Great People: How to Become Open Minded in 2013
I think this relates well to our movement toward 1:1. I know staff might struggle with every student having a MacBook and feeling pressure to utilize that technology at all times in their class.
I know there have been times when teachers have openly wondered what it will be like when they are teaching and look out and see 25 kids with laptops open and each one with 5 different tabs open on Google.
That is a dilemma. Part of me says it might be a great idea to open the class with a 15 minute 'unplugged' session where I put my phone away and make sure all students have their laptops shut and phones put away while we lay down the foundation of the day's lesson.
Then there is part of me says, "It's simple to deal with the kids and their laptops. I just have to be more interesting than what is on Google." But that's not so easy. But when I teach with that mindset, I find myself trying to connect whatever I was teaching (say the dangers of tradition and the brutality of "The Lottery" or Toulmin Method of persuasive for the persuasive paper) to the students' world. And this makes for more engaging lessons.
The trick here will be dreaming up and devising ways to have students be able to do this with their MacBooks right in front of me while I try to teach the lesson.
I know this can work. It's happened to me. Several years ago we were at a MNHS history lesson at the Swenson House. Our instructor was using a Power Point to illustrate the history behind the Foshay Tower in Minneapolis.
All her Power Point consisted of were pictures and text. That would have been very engaging in 1994, but in 2008? Not at all.
Thus, I opened my MacBook and linked in to the Swenson House's open wifi and began searching on my own.
Within ten minutes I found -
It was designed to resemble the Washington Monument, which we had been reading about previously.
I also found information on the blue prints and the chief architect. I found that it was completed just months prior to the Great Depression.
I found an MPR radio clip on the tower.
I found on Youtube a story of base jumpers being arrested after leaping off the tower.
Then someone had gone to the tower and taken out his BlackBerry and shot some video of a 360 degree view of the Minneapolis skyline.
Since that little exercise, I have access to all of this --
Now imagine what we kind of assignments we could dream up to engage our students?
And that is just with a few minutes of surfing.
And I was far more engaged in my own learning and exploration of the Foshay Tower on my MacBook than anyone else was listening to that Power Point. And I had done all of that while our presenter was on slide ten of twenty.
Guess what I did? Checked out ESPN and Blogger.
Was that so bad? I don't think so. She wasn't more interesting than what I could find on Google.
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This helps describe, I think, why some colleagues are hesitant (or just plain terrified) of the coming 1:1 scenario: these kids just think differently.
They don't think like us. How are we supposed to deal with that?
I don't know about them, but I didn't go into teaching to teach the same year 35 or 40 times in a row.
I especially like this part --
20th Century Models In a 21st Century Environment
If the 20th century model was to measure the accuracy and ownership of information, the 21st century’s model is form and interdependence. The close thinking needed to grasp this is not beyond the reach of a typical middle school student, but it may be beyond their thinking habits.
Facing the barrage of information, task, and procedure they tend to on a daily basis in the classroom, and on their Playstation 3s and iPads, habits form as a matter of protection and survival, especially as they seek out currencies and value in learning. Instinct kicks in, and they quickly establish what’s most important in a given context.
Adherence, compliance, and impersonal, external evaluation. This worked when there were no other options, but learning options today don’t just abound, they dwarf formal learning institutions in every way but clout with the power-holders—parents, teachers, deans, and curriculum designers.
How the Habits of Mind develop is not as simple as merely naming them. It is one thing to remind little Johnny to persist in the face of adversity. It is another to create consistent reasons and opportunities for him to do so, and nurturing it all with modeling, resources, and visible relevance.
If Johnny is to be rewarded, rather than label him right or wrong, good or bad, novice or distinguished, we can instead nurture the development of thinking habits.
Habits, by nature, are reflexive, accessible, and adaptable–not unlike knowledge. This is a can’t-miss point. Internalized and reflexive cognitive patterns that are called upon intrinsically, and transfer seamlessly.
Above all else, the 21st century learner needs for self-knowledge and authentic local placement, two very broad ideas that come from patient thinking. Persistence. Managing Impulsivity. Responding with awe.
Again, it's simple. Be more interesting (than Google or Twitter or Facebook . . . or find a way to use those tools in our classes) or be something else to be.
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Hilarious. I found this on Twitter yesterday. It's a computer infomercial (basically) from 1993.
Even way back then the experts knew it: Macs are easier to use than PCs.
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I found this info graph interesting as we move toward a 1:1 district.
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And as an apple aficionado, I love this -
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For those educators who are still baffled by the world of Twitter, here's a great cheat sheet that I came across on Twitter!
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What Most Schools Don't Teach
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Another great video, this one from Vimeo, where adults are asked to take the same (mostly ridiculous) high stakes tests we ask our kids to take.
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Who better than Pixar to give tips about how to tell a great story? No one.
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A site like this, just sets my mind ablaze. It's a wonderful blend of math and literature (just what you never thought possible, right?).
But what a great way to combine the two. The site is devoted to the works of Tolkein (the literature side of the equation), yet it uses math to note such things as the number of characters mentioned, keyword frequency, and create info graphs. I hope that I can do something just a little like this in a 1:1 classroom environment.
Imagine if we analyzed To Kill a Mockingbird, The Jungle, The Great Gatsby, Julius Caesar, The Canterbury Tales, or Heart of Darkness this way? Each of those (and I just took those off the top of my head) would reach through literature, social studies (history, psychology, sociology, civics, and geography), math (if we did similar analysis as the authors did in the site above), and mass media and graphic design (for the infograph design and distribution).
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Fortuitously, the very next link was to the site mapstory. This would be a great tool to use for the assignments proposed in the previous post.
Here is a short video on what exactly is mapstory (forgive the automated narrator). And here is more information on it and how it might be used.
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Looking to kill some time? Looking for some videos for your sub to show (other than boring crap that doesn't really have anything to do with your curriculum)? Looking for a shot in the arm?
Watch these 11 inspiring videos. If you've read this blog at all, you'll see a couple familiar names (Seth Godin and Steve Jobs and JK Rowling are just a few).
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Finally, now I'm not saying this is totally school appropriate, but this type of research based writing blended with such a creative format, I think, has a place in our 1:1 school.
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