Mr. Smith's Class and 21st Century Teaching

Flipping the Paradigm of Homework

Writer Daniel Pink's article for the Telegraph has been making the rounds in various educational circles. In the article Pink first presents what has been the traditional model of education in the U.S. for the better part of the 20th century- 

During class time, the teacher will stand at the front of the room and hold forth on the day’s topic. Then, as the period ends, he or she will give students a clutch of work to do at home. Lectures in the day, homework at night. It was ever thus and ever shall be.

The article goes on to detail what Karl Fisch, a teacher in Denver, Colorado is doing to change this paradigm. 

However, instead of lecturing about polynomials and exponents during class time – and then giving his young charges 30 problems to work on at home – Fisch has flipped the sequence. He’s recorded his lectures on video and uploaded them to YouTube for his 28 students to watch at home. Then, in class, he works with students as they solve problems and experiment with the concepts. 

After reading Pink's article and the thoughts of marketing researchers like Seth Godin it's an idea that has merit. But first I'm going to put the question to my students and to all readers. 

Daniel Pink's full article on "Flip Thinking"

Complete the survey on "Flip Thinking" if you'd like to share your opinion. 

Sharing Reconciliation with the People Formerly Known as the Audience

Lately there have been a few words that have become ubiquitous in media discussions of education. That's right: standards and data are everywhere when education comes up as a topic. Everything in education is either "standards-based" or "data-driven" no matter what the topic is. Whether it's the adoption of a new set of standards or a supposedly well-intended instance of agitation, in education the words 'standards' and 'data' manage to resurface often. But in being given this opportunity to guest blog, the word that haunted the build-up toward approaching the topic of reconciling standards and 21st century learning was not standards but data. In a fit of 21st century research it can be found that data is defined as 

–noun

1.

a pl. of datum.

2.

(used with a plural verb) individual facts, statistics, or items of information: These data represent 

the results of our analyses. Data are entered by terminal for immediate  processing by the computer.

3.

(used with a singular verb) a body of facts; information: Additional data is 

available from the president of the firm.

In all of the angst that surrounds the lemming rush of educational systems surging to become standard-based data-driven entities the definition of data gains new importance.  If data is simply a set of items of information, educators need to keep this fact in mind when the word 'standard' is wielded as a weapon. It is this writer's fervent belief that educators everywhere really are doing good work with students every day. What has been lacking has been a succinct way to communicate this fact. Cynicism aside, testing and the use of data has arisen as a part of the problem that education wants for ways to articulate what it does. In the midst of heated editorial pages and town-hall levy meetings achievement testing has become a baleful blade possessed of precious few handles. But how much do those strident voices demanding accountability even know about what is on those tests? 

The debate surrounding accountability and standards is often presented within a frame of binary solutions when what is truly needed is reconciliation. Wanting more for students is no more wrong than wanting a real assessment of learning. If education is to move forward and repair relationships with all stakeholders it must be with a sense of reconciliation. As Daniel Pink shows us, some surprising things can be learned from data particularly in relation to motivation. 

But if the tests used to derive the data only reward lower-order thinking how can education survive when its very funding is tied to what some consider to be the antithesis of higher-order thinking? The answer lies within the word 'data'. If data is a body of facts, education must use standards as a basis of learning not as a myopic and duplicitous lens. Data is present in everything education does. Data does not stop with a test score. But then how is the picture to be properly painted to all involved? How can accountability, standards, and the need for 21st Century skills be reconciled for all involved? 

The roots of this repair are present within the very 21st Century skills that are required by a shifting modern world. In the book "Cognitive Surplus" author Clay Shirky calls digital media users "the people formerly known as the audience" because 

When you buy a machine that lets you consume digital content, you also buy a machine to produce it. 

The binary distinction of student and teacher loses focus in the context of 21st Century technology and skills. If education is to repair the schism between 21st Century skills and standards-based education it must come through the sharing of data. The items of information for such sharing can come from the activities already going on in classrooms today. Data doesn't have to come from a one-shot testing window; data can come from qualitative learning experiences that still use educational standards. But such sharing will require a change on the part of educators. 

If educators are to reconcile educational standards in the context of a 21st century world, the "four walls syndrome" must cease. The times of saying that "<insert educational initiative name here> is just a fad" and will pass must become the past. No more closing the doors to the world and teaching within one set of four walls. To begin this reconciliation educators don't have to be Scott McLeod, or Shelly Terrell, or Will Richardson. Your school doesn't need to be on a laptop initiative or have a seamless online class management system. Use your cellphone to record a great student discussion, create a Facebook page for a class, have students concoct a Twitter hashtag to conduct larger discussion, or join a PLN yourself. But educators must share what is going on in their classroom with all stakeholders within the community and world around them. Isolation cannot be the default for those that feel educational data selection is subjective. Karl Fisch and others are taking steps to change educational paradigms; all you need to do is start to share the good that you do. Share this reconciliation of education with the people formerly known as the audience. 

Starting an "Odyssey" in the Answer Garden

Today students begin reading "The Odyssey" by Homer. The pre-reading will include reviewing a summary of the text and then researching the names they find to determine if they are indeed deities in the text. After that the deity names need to be entered into the Answer Garden below.

 

 

Which Greek Gods and Goddesses are present in "The Odyssey"?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Choose to Begin - Student Blogging Pt. 1

In the aim to simultaneously listen to what my students are asking for in writing instruction while allowing student choice, I have decided to move toward the use of student blogging. In earlier classwork students have expressed both an interest in multiple forms of writing and a value of choice, but also a pointed lack of experience in blogging beyond merely reading them. The hope then is to have instruction become paired with choice. In my own process of starting to blog the following Common Craft video provided a 'refresher' on what the basics of blogging are. 

The goal is to have students choose the way that they begin sharing their voice; something that is most likely tragically unique in the educational experience. To paraphrase a favorite poem of mine, I'd like for my students to choose to dare to disturb the universe, to choose to begin finding and sharing their voice. While any of the tutorial links below will provide a serviceable platform, I want them to find one that's more than merely serviceable - I want it to be theirs. And while we will both review the process outlined in Konrad Glogowski's great post on growing your blog, it's my hope that in coming up with their own metaphor they own their process and find voice. 

Some Possible Platforms

Blogger 

WordPress

Tumblr

Posterous

Socratic Circles - First Draft

Here are some of the highlights from my Honors English 9 sections during their first Socratic Circles discussions. The first time out of the gate is always difficult; will anyone speak, will the format seem too strange, etc. That was not the case with these discussions. While there was some ebb and flow it was as promising a beginning as I can think of. There will need to be some remediation on filming and volume levels, but my advice is use some headphones and take in the good work that these students are doing. 

Download now or watch on posterous

SocraticCircle091010.mov (52724 KB)

The Upside-down Syllabus Pt. 2

Yesterday's work was aimed at creating some "free write" beginnings for the class syllabus, but instead resulted in an interesting social experiment on anonymity, human behavior, and Google Docs. Yes, it will be the subject of a future post once the video is edited...

For now the YouTube video below will be the starter text used in conjunction with classwork thus far in the first Socratic Circle Discussion being held Friday. Enjoy.

Student Surveys & the Upside-down Syllabus

Right away it should be known that credit for this post should be attributed to an idea that stems from a post & tweet read from Shelly Blake-Plock over at the excellent Teach Paperless blog. Here is the spark-point:

I'm making it a goal next year to not plan out my courses until I've first met my students. 

How many schools started this year with teachers walking through a syllabus while students feigned interest? More than this writer is comfortable with. So what was to be done? 

Today students reviewed a basic noun/verb/modifier summarization strategy and first applied it in a walkthrough with short, but fine TED talk by Richard St. John. Then came the real juice. For the last day of school all of my Honors English 9 students made short videos giving advice to their 2010-11 counterparts. While watching the video of their predecessors students then applied the aforementioned summarization strategy. After viewing students then entered their work into a combined interest inventory and summary sheet created in Google Docs. 

Tomorrow's work will take the results of this survey into the online tool Wallwisher. But first a bit of visualisation is needed. In a process outlined wonderfully over at Teacher Reboot Camp the results from the survey will become the basis of an interactive cloud via Tagul.

Here's one for the question "What nouns/things stood out to you from the video?"

 

This cloud is for the "Stand-out Verbs" question. 

 

The modifiers - 

 

With an interesting look at social media use to close: