Educating the Dragon

It should hardly be a surprise to me… but it was, and it gave me such a warm feeling all over.

Here’s the tale of Alligator Alley:

Alligator Alley is a book that my class were reading together at the beginning of the lesson today. We had’read a bit and what happens next? and see if you can guess the ending etc etc. They were asked to talk to talking partners about “What questions would you ask Mrs O’Malley?” During the feedback time one my kids asked “So what’s the difference between alligators and crocodiles?…. (to be honest, I have no idea)

“That’s a good question I say, How could we find out? One thing led to another and this group then typed in “What’s the difference between Alligators and crocodiles?” into Google kids (A few other search engine ideas from Louise, thanks btw). They then scroled through and found Gator Hole.

They then spent ages and ages and ages…and ages finding out EVERYTHING they possibly could about Alligators and crocodiles. They then pulled off relevent extract (and cool pictures) to create a single screen backdrop to their oral feedback of their findings…. The learning intention for the lesson is ‘read…read..read’ who care if they are not reading School Journal Part1 Number 6 2004. This fired their desire to find out. And I bet they read more in that session than they would do normally. Personalized learning in action.

I conclude with a nod to Interwrite for the board, Sitech for the inspiration, my principal for wireless internet access, all of these things came together for my kids to direct their own learning.

I think this is a clear case of my Learning Intention being “Reading for information” but then my kids changed the context ‘on the fly’, and I had the technology available to allow them ‘to go for it’.

Hey have you seen there are two kiwi finalists in the Interwrite competition.

Ilminster Intermediate School

Pt England School

Check them out at the links provided and vote as you see fit…. I think they’re pretty special!

…Considering metacognition

I have  been reviewing Rubert Wegerif’s Litureature Review in Thinking Skills, Technology and Learning (yes, all the capitals are correct).

A few thoughts occurred to me as I read, they are kinda random so excuse me.

The ability to have ‘higher order thinking skills’ should be seperated out from having the ability to express your thinking. But then how is that possible. Thinking is considered to have a collective, social aspect to it and therefore knowing the language of thinking is just as important to thinking itself- some perhaps go as far as to say that without the ability to communicate ideas where is the value in thinking at all. My point is that, yes we should be teaching thinking skills but let’s teach communication skills too. Syncronous and asyncronous alike….

Perhaps this is where WEB2.0 comes in. There is great potential through the internet to develop communication skills. I really not that good synchronously, I need time to contemplate, and consider before replying… that’s what I like about my blog, its asynchrous. Perhaps there are others, students, who for similar reasons would prefer to develop dialalogue in this way.

Another point discussed in the paper is the development of classroom environments, making them more condusive to the development of thinking skills, turning the classroom into into a community that supports discussion and thinking. So how is this done? And what is the advantage of engaging the read/write web in this task? There are possiblilties through Skype, Elluminate and others to have experts ‘visit’ your classroom, or you ‘visit’ other classes around the country, around the world. Let’s broaden the horizons.

“One educational implication is that teaching thinking skills involves changing the social context to create conditions that at least approximate to what an ‘ideal speech situation’”(Wegerif, 2002, p.14) Does this not have Classroom 2.0 written all over it?

So, back here in the real world, with twenty-six Year3’s in my room tomorrow. What does Classroom 2.0 look like at ground level?

That’s what I’m enjoying exploring through the K12 online conference this year!

Ewan asks the following question of NZbloggers about our national curriculum:

It got me thinking about where our ‘flexible curriculum’ is up to. If my school is anything to go by it means that we have permission to return to ‘thematic study’ where “we are all best suited…aren’t we?”

NO!!!! The flexible nature of our curriculum, I think, is a development towards the foci shifting from ‘knowledge facts about’ to ‘developing skills for..’

It is the intension that New Zealanders become ‘life-long’ learners, capable if not willing to be adaptible to the opportunities presented by the challenge of the changing workplace.

This means that teachers need to demonstrate this in their approach to teaching, modelling it for their students, it is a long, long journey we are on but the flexible curriculum opens us up to new possibilities in the design and creation of our school curriculums. 

Most schools, I’d assume, are nervous of this new freedom…. It appears to be a little less ordered, a little more chaotic, a little less stuctured for the ’teaching masses’….  ”after all we have behavioural issues here, I kids wouldn’t cope!”  

Not sure this helpful to Ewan…. but it’s something to think about all the same.

but know I Googled it and came up with stuff on languages…. so maybe I’m talking rubbish!

Whatever ‘Flexible Curriculum’ is it appears we could just make it up

Rules

1. You are to copy the rules at the start of your post.

2. You are write, in 150 words or less the story of ‘Your Inspirational Teacher’ from your school days.

3. Name and link 4 other bloggers and leave them a comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

4. Tag your post ‘myinspiration’

Mrs Jones, my inspiration 

My inspiration was a teacher named Mrs Jones. I was in here ‘special needs class’ for about six of my seven years in high school. She taught me to spell, to write, to read. She helped me deal with the challenges of my Dyslexia. She was one of my inspirations for going to College to become a teacher and a driving force for getting me there too. When I left for college she gave me a pair of china mugs. The surviving mug remains in my kitchen cupboard and I remember her every time I make a cup of coffee.

I tag the following people:

Chrissy, from TeachingSagittarian

Amanda, from ThinkingPasttheSquare

Jane, from ***ICTUCAN

Lisa, from Durff’sBlog, even though she hates these things.