Rig- or... NOT!

After reading Jeff Delp's recent Molehills Out of Mountains blog entry, Five Skills for 21st Century Learners, I found myself sharing it on Facebook with the following comment about the word "rigor".

"I was so pleased to not see the word "rigor" in this post. After hearing Alfie Kohn tell a story about a parent's desire for rigor, I too looked up the word. Semantics can be temporarily forgiven but not perpetuated with a clear conscience!"

In the classroom, I use a great tool, Visual Thesaurus, that webs words in a fascinating way. Each day I receive emails from them that highlight a word and we take a look at some of the words in our class morning meeting. One day the word was "rigor" and I felt that I had to look out for the misguided adults who might use it around the students. To protect those adults, I explained to students that what I think that teachers, parents, and school leaders usually mean when they say "rigor" is learning that is inspirational, challenging, and stimulating. And yet, I suspect that students continue to have a sense that when we say "rigor" we really mean "RIGOR". Considering many components of school, I am sympathetic to their perception.

Also consider this connection that popped up as I input "rigor" in www.visualthesaurus.com...

Yikes!

Images are screen shots captured 3/20/11 of www.visualthesaurus.com, which I like so much I have subscribed to it for the year.

Heroes

I am at the stage in my online networking of reading blogs more regularly and commenting on them here and there, as I did with Steve Hargadon's recent blog post "Ugh. Classic Politics Now Extends to Social Networking in Education." This post addressed the Dept of Ed's sponsorship of program called Connected Online Communities of Practice. And so, I began to consider the accessibility of thinkers like Steve Hargadon.

I used to have only a handful of education heroes who usually took their place through books; for instance, David Perkins, author of Smart Schools,and co-author of many amazing texts including The Thinking Classroom, and one of my other favorites is Ron Ritchhart, author of Intellectual Character, and then there is Heidi Hayes Jacobs, author of Curriculum 21. These folks are at the top of my Hero "shelf" and I have been blessed to hear from them all in person.

In addition to these are my new educational heroes who do not hang out on the shelf, they walk in my mind's door regularly and authentically through blogs, podcasts, mini-blog posts, connections to other inspirational educators. These are educational thinkers such as Bob Sprankle, Richard Byrne, Rodd Lucier, Maria Knee, Alice Barr, Cheryl Oakes, Dave Cormier, Jeff Lebow, Jennifer Maddrell, John Schinker, David Warlick, Lorna Costantini, Ben Hazzard, Peggy George, Kim Cofino, Lucy Gray, Wesley Fryer, and many others. I am so grateful that these folks share their thinking actively, candidly, and in real time!

In the classroom, we have started an idea I grabbed from... somewhere... A Technology Slapdown (sharing, geek of the week, etc.) Not only is this an opportunity to redefine a phrase in a positive light, it is a great way for students to share their tech discoveries. Here are few of my own from today's online browsing:

•A resource for discussing events in Japan
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/teaching-ideas-the-earthquake-and-tsunami-in-japan/?ref=education

•Supporting Students after school: http://www.onceuponaschool.org/

•Origin of Building Learning Communities: http://nlconnect.novemberlearning.com/

So Many Opportunities, So Little Time...

Recently, while complaining that I need more time with my students, a colleague and friend suggested that perhaps I am getting too excited with all my ed tech exposure and need to be less innovative in the classroom. She, of course, meant this as an advocate for my sanity and, I suspect, with a thought for the sanity of my students as well!

And yet, should I not have given students the opportunity to be part of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) through which many students discovered they were writers, where they were invited to write, write, write, and keep writing?

Should we have not been part of Rock Our World, where we learned how to make songs with others, talk to students around the world; where we built relationships and skills that continue to enable us to make specific and relevant connections at least once a week?

Should we not do The Stock Market Game which takes a real system that allows them to apply math skills and concepts, that is exciting, and also gives them a way to talk to their parents about issues of economy?

Do I not take the time to stumble around with new (new to me and/or to students) ways to learn and reflect, like Google Apps for Education for digital portfolios, collaborative documents, surveys, blogs, and more; or web-based screen captures like Screen-Cast-O-Matic that are a way for students to voice over geographical journeys on Google Earth?

I want to do it all and more! It is greedy I know, but I will never have these very students in Fifth Grade again and I can't stand the thought of not giving them these opportunities!

Yet, there is great deal of set curriculum that is very important to schooling goals and for which I am responsible. I do not want students to feel stressed by unrealistic goals. What to do? What to do?

Thoughts:
-Set priorities for depth
-Be more thoughtful about integration
-I need to remember that I may be their only Fifth Grade teacher,
but I am not their last teacher by many, many years! :-)

Meanwhile, I will keep being inspired and insane!

Second Life - Life Support Needed!

This summer I made an attempt to get into Second Life to enjoy some networking in Ed Tech. I am not savvy in this area of technology and became frustrated just trying to figure how to find a place to go and move my avatar. I gave up...

So last week I decided to give it another go and I spent my allotted time tracking down my account information. Today, I actually got in, fixed my face a bit and managed to transport to ISTE and another Ed Tech location that I did not recognized. But I can't figure out how to sit or really be active...

I looked up "how do I sit?" in the help area but couldn't find it.

I am afraid I may not be up to this technology adventure!

Assessment is Ruining Education

 

"Assessment is Ruining Education."

There I said it!  As this thought sprints mischievously through my mind… often, I challenge it.  How could assessment be anything bad?  Isn’t it critical to know what students know? To have feedback about whom we are reaching and what is actually having an impact?  Each time I am surprised by a student’s assessment results, I scold myself for my lack of passion about assessment, thinking, “Ah, you could have missed that without this assessment.”  And yet, how much do assessments lead me astray, if I were to be totally loyal to them?

Here, I must admit that it is too simple to make a judgment about “assessment” as valuable, pointless, or down right destructive. I can talk to students about “test taking skills,” (following formal staff meeting concerns around “test taking skills,”) while I work to control my eye rolling and suggest that they see it as a game that could have an impact on their future choices.  On the other hand, I work with students on opening up and being clear about sharing their understanding of skills and concepts on assessments, setting anxiety and ego aside for the goal of clarity and informing their support systems. They understand this perspective, but do not trust the idea that as assessment is simply feedback.  It is a judgment, a decision about their raw intelligence.  Even when the evidence is against this summation, it is the natural assumption. All of our creation and reflection is assessment and yet I feel like I am cheating and lazy when I make that claim formally!

Really, I am thinking more about the assessment that exists instead of thoughtful learning opportunities and is primarily an attempt to validate students' use of time and show a third party what has been accomplished.  I often think of all we could accomplish if we were not trying to show that we were doing so!  This brings me to a recent podcast episode of Edtech Weekly in which John, Jen, and Dave discussed money and education, which led to thoughts related to Dave's open course on Knowledge and Learning Analytics,  http://www.learninganalytics.net.   They were well joined by Rick Schwier and Zac Chase.  In the conversation a question was posed about how possible is it to know what students have truly learned... to really prove it.  When research is funded they ask for outcomes, the funding can drive the the direction of research and development and also structure the format of outcomes.  Those outcomes are then often poorly interpreted into generalized, inappropriate, and simplistic actions and decisions around teaching and learning.

It seems to me that the type of assessment that truly informs educational practice, within the goal of simultaneously educating, is an art form more than a science and while is can be a science it then becomes so time consuming that it actually begins to take away from learning opportunities. 

I remember having a boss once who required everyone to do a reflection exercise of writing down what we were actually doing every 15 minutes, to get a sense of our use of time.  Keep in mind I was in a classroom with pre-school aged children.  I think back on this and wonder how one ever could have thought that this was a useful study, unless, of course, we could mess with the space-time continuum in order to insert five minutes for writing in between every 15 minutes of regular activity. This is somehow reminiscent of the sleep torture my mother (quite fairly) inflicted on me when, at age 8, I insisted on making a double batch of chocolate chip cookies and she woke me every twelve minutes to switch the baking trays.  At times assessment for accountability often feels like this... but without any chocolate chip cookies at the end!

Population Influences

Mahalo to Richard Byrne in Free Technology for Teachers for sharing the video "7 Billion" in his latest blog entry.  This touches a continuum of my recent viewing of "Climate Refugees."

There are so many pathways to innovating for the prevention of suffering, which I believe is the underlying issue for all in our biosystem.  I ask myself how will I welcome the many who need a homeland to set the stage for a loving and supportive community.

Growing up in Hawaii as a European-American, caucasian, white, feeling a sense of belonging has seemed like a luxury and yet I feel it must be able to be created by community... how can we create that community regardless of skin color and cultural differences?

A Day of Nash

Today, I was honored to see, hear, and interact coincidentally with two inspiring Nash-es.  First, I attended a presentation by Dr. Rod Nash, author and retired UCSB history Professor who spoke about the dilemmas of our relationship with our world.  Then I saw the movie, "Climate Refugees" produced and directed by Michael Nash (www.climaterefugees.com) and appreciated the opportunity to hear from Mr. Michael Nash afterwards.

Both opportunities were made possible by the Waimea Oceans Film Festival and made possible for me by my school, Hawai'i Preparatory Academy.

I have been struggling with my unit on the First Peoples of North America (pre-contact), thinking about what are reliable resources for me to have the information I need as a curriculum designer, what are the most important aspects us this subject are to teach in Fifth Grade and what are the most thoughtful strategies for engaging students in learning.  I spoke with Dr. Nash about teaching history and he agreed that so much of history is really much more grey than black and white.  He said that he does not agree with historians tendency to "period-ize" historical times as influences unfold more intricately than this allows for.  In terms of resources he suggested that I read, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, by, Charles C. Mann.
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FINALLY, tonight I had the "shower moment"  that I have been waiting for!
I am going to design opportunities for a social-scientific method around "culture."  First facilitate an exploration of what is a culture in general. Have students create their own cultures using the aspects they identified. Then work on what influences cultures. over the course of days give influences for them to work into there created culture. Next, use Google Earth to look at the natural environment in North America and consider what cultures would be like in different parts of North American. And finally research a tribe's pre-European influence culture to test their cultural hypothesis.  I am quite excited about this, we shall see how it unfolds!

PUJ- Pre/Post Unit Jitters

I was chatting with a colleague today and mentioned that I find myself being anxious at the start of a curricular unit and at the end.  This is a very unhelpful tendency as it can delay the start and end of a unit in an already stressed time frame.  Why does this happen?

Perhaps...
-Every subject is interconnected with endless opportunity and I am struggling to identify and commit to the most salient path.
-I can't seem to stick with the same unit plan each year.  The potentially productive reasons for this are: the individuals I teach are different each year; content and tools evolve over time and may open up new learning opportunities; and it keeps a subject fresh and alive. The rather unproductive reasons for this are that I often have a hard time setting aside time to record my curriculum with enough organization and detail to coherently reuse it; when I do track my unit well I struggle to review and stick with previous plans.
-I want to be sure the content is assimilated and that I have done appropriate assessments and attending to understanding before we end the unit, yet the content engagement, processing, and learning vary between individuals.  Assessing can be so overwhelming.  I don't want to limit students' work and creativity to what I can handle reviewing thoughtfully and yet it is my responsibility to review assignments and provide feedback.

What to do, what to do!
-Make a more cohesive unit plan and identify areas to tweak in the future.
-Go for it!
-Don't be afraid to end it!
-I have conflicting thoughts on the assessment and assignment issue...

Rosetta Stone Learning

My son and I were trying out the Rosetta Stone software for learning Spanish.  It really is  a wonderful glimpse into learning.  I began my career in education as a Montessori teacher.  Maria Montessori was an incredible thinker.  The fact that she actually established a method is a great credit to her dedication and care for children and education.  She worked to translate her pedagogical ideology and research into practical methodology.  As a Montessori teacher, I recognized great thoughtfulness in methods and philosophy that I was taught but also felt that she would have continued to evolve her ideas.  One of the basic concepts of Montessori's philosophy on learning vocabulary is the three-part lesson, which is one of those ideas that is incredibly simple and yet eloquently complex. I recognized this concept in the Rosetta Stone teaching technique. 

The Three Part Lesson

Part One: "This is [term]..." This statement introduces a term without translation and explanations, simple and clear.

Part Two: "Show me [term]..." This statement requests identification while providing the term, a realistic expectation and appropriate for vocabulary knowledge development.

Part Three: "What is this?"  This question requires the student to both identify the correct item and provide the correct term.

This lesson seems simple but can be woven into lessons with depth and complexity that allow the mind to stay receptive through a balance of success and challenge.

The other valuable learning concepts I noticed in the Rosetta Stone software were:
-not just the allowance for making mistakes (with the exception of the scoring they use), but the sincere opportunity and at times necessity of mistake making;
-peripheral content learning, i.e. figuring out a sentence using clues from previously learned vocabulary;
-multi-pathways for learning such as visual identification with imagery, audio identification, verbal articulation, writing, and problem solving;
-and challenge, my mind stayed alert as there was no translation from Spanish to English so I was always looking for clues and hints to keep up with the lessons.  With the engagement of the challenge I was willing to sacrifice perfection to mistakes that would keep me moving and learning, which was far more satisfying than simply a 100 percent score, which I did sigh over missing since they mentioned it!

I certainly recognize these concepts and their value in learning but I find that my desire for students to feel success and protect their self-esteem within the given time of content exposure (a critical variable by the way) leads to some bad teaching habits that rob them of their opportunity for energized and engaged challenge, enthusiastic mistake making, and self-celebrated discovery.  Unfortunately, I also find that building curriculum for exploration and discover, which we know to be the most effective and sustainable learning, is greatly at odds with adult expectations of both time, process, and product. Those (us) adults are the stepping boulders to education and continue to be so.

Why is that?  Why do adults, who have themselves experienced "schooling" not have a more insightful inclination regarding the needs of the learner?  Education in "The Enlightenment" era modeled itself on the education of the affluent, focusing on the classics, the classic subjects and the classics texts.  While this may seem fair as education was being opened to all.  The model provided rather finite material to grasp compared to current content expectations.  This model has been slow to change with the exposure to learners of all walks of life, a rich data-sea that is leading us to the raw stuff of learning. 

Many that I highly respect as thinkers and researchers (Costa, Dewey, Gardner, Jacobs, Kohn, Montessori, Perkins, Robinson, etc.) have been saying for years that a complete educational revolution is needed, not just changes within the same paradigm.  Where are the successes? The real successes? How do we do it?

Web Stroll 1/2/11

This morning's Diigo email provided yet another fantastic we stroll thanks to the links shared by Phil Taylor.  I first went to http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/ where I found free math and science texts to pick from, even chapter by chapter, and download to my Kindle or iPad.  I was thinking of what President Lincoln might have become, instead of president, if he had access to the web for his self teaching!  Did you happen to see the digital nativity viral video?  Well, Mr.Taylor then led me to the story behind the Digital Nativity Story that my sister and law sent me and I in turn passed on to contribute to its viral success, here it is: http://mashable.com/2010/12/30/the-story-behind-that-digital-nativity-story-viral-video/

From Nativity to New Year... Next in my Diigo/Taylor stroll was this link for year-long projects to inspire New Year's Resolutions: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-yearlong-projects-start-2011/, mine of course is to blog... and exercise :-).

Speaking of the New Year, my husband is reading the Time article about Facebook and connected it to our young son's comment the other day, "Dad, do you know the Jonas Brothers music?" My husband said that he didn't but they could but it in Pandora and take a listen.  He then stated that his friends didn't like it so he probably wouldn't either.  My husband noted that that friend influence was one of the downsides noted in the Time article about Facebook when friends are seen as professional critics because of the nature of the media format, perhaps limiting young people from seeking more experienced sources for information.

It just brings around, yet again, the critical nature of educating student about and with media rather than avoiding media. Students are best served learning how to find information through thoughtful searching and how to judge content. Yolink is one of the tools that can help with the search part of this.  (The image is linked)

A Hui Hou, Kristin