3 Steps - A Closer Look at Step 2

As we strive to teach our student skills to prepare them for the 21st Century, many of us are still confronted with the lack of access to 21st Century technology tools. Very often, I hear from teachers that their students have minimal access to computers connected to the web and that sites like YouTube, TeacherTube and Flickr are blocked from their computers.

Even though our students may not have access to 21st Century tech tools, this doesn't have to stop us from preparing our students with the social skills needed for success. As you wait for the decision-makers in your school district to wake up and realize that the world has changed, follow Step 2 from my video, 3 Steps which states, "Teach students the skills of competition, cooperation, and collaboration."

Competition
It is a sad fact that more students are concerned with athletic rather than with academic competitions. Far too many of my students believe that they are going to grow up to become professional athletes. And even more spend countless hours consumed with watching sports on t.v. or playing video games where they pretend they are athletes. We must do something about this. These activities are not going to help most young people succeed. Kids should be designing video games not just playing them.

So what do we do? Why not incorporate creative, problem-solving competitions in your classroom. Odyssey of the Mind has a bunch of classroom activities described online that teach independent, critical thinking and problem solving skills. These are an engaging way to use competition in a fun and hands-on way as opposed to putting students "on-the-spot" with competitions like spelling bees. My sister is still scarred from her fifth grade spelling bee after spelling cowboy, "C-O-B-O-Y." Do you remember the word you spelled wrong? That wasn't fun, nor did it make you want to compete academically again.

Cooperation
During the first few days of school, many teachers do a few icebreakers and team building activities where students get to know each other and learn to cooperate with their classmates. Then, it all stops and teaching begins. I believe this is wrong, for I agree with Spencer Kagan in that team-building activities must continue throughout the school year. Cooperative Learning is wonderful, and the resources from Kagan Publishing on team building and Cooperative Learning structures are top-notch! Students need to be taught HOW to cooperate and the Kagan cooperative learning structures are a simple way to embed this into your teaching. Here are some team-building activities and free articles about cooperative learning.

Collaboration
Collaborative learning is similar to cooperative learning but it is not always as structured. With cooperative learning there are "structures" or protocols that students follow when completing a task, but with collaborative learning students are free to work together more openly and be innovative and creative as they reach some sort of a consensus. One way to encourage collaboration is to use design challenges to spark students innovative and creative spirits. There are SO many web tools that support and enhance collaborative learning. Although many teachers and students are blocked from using some of these sites, in my next post I'll explore the many tools and resources for online collaborative learning. Here is a sneak peak.

3 Steps - A Closer Look at Step 1

Thank you for your overwhelming response to my video, 3 Steps for 21st Century Learning! I truly appreciate your emails and feedback.

As a teacher, I love being inspired by grand ideas to improve education, but at heart I am still a realist. When reading about how we should be using Web 2.0 technologies like wikis, blogs, and podcasts I still wonder: How do we really make these changes? What if our school administration is not supportive of this evolution of technology in the classroom? This is why I made the 3 Steps video; I wanted to show how in just a few simple moves we can begin the change and really improve how we prepare our students for the flat world.

So here I go... let's take a closer look at Step 1 - Transform your classroom into a CREATIVE learning space.

Step 1 was inspired by Mitchell Resnick's NECC session: Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society. (Listen to his entire presentation here.) His ideas include changing our model of education to that of a "lifelong kindergarten" where we encourage children to develop as creative thinkers. In kindergarten, children have things like blocks and finger paint to use as learning tools through the creative learning cycle of Imagine-Create-Play-Share-Reflect. What tools, manipulative materials, and technologies do we need to bring into our classrooms for students to make connections between our content area and art, music, and technology?

Setting Up Your Creative Learning Space
Think about your classroom... Is it structured in a way that encourages creative learning? Are students' desks arranged in a way for them to cooperate and collaborate or are the desks all facing you? What resources and materials are available to aid learning? Do you have art supplies, comfortable learning centers, manipulatives, technology resources, and other stuff for kids to "tinker" with to help them learn? Does your room feel playful? Is your classroom personal? Do kids WANT to be there?

If not ... Give your classroom a creativity tune-up!

1. Get rid of classroom clutter. (This includes all of those old dittos in your file cabinets! Remember Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites! Maybe try some Feng Shui for the Classroom.)
2. Rearrange desks into clusters of four to allow for cooperative learning.
3. Create areas for students to engage in playful independent learning with manipulatives, art supplies, and other fun stuff.
4. Make your classroom personal. Hang up student work and pictures of your students.
5. Include comfortable seating options, large pillows, bean bag chairs, seat cushions for their chairs, large exercise balls for kids to sit on (Of course, first get the okay from administration and custodial staff.)
   

Hint: Check out your local freecycle group, Craigslist, garage sales, thrift stores, and old storage rooms of your school for all kids of goodies to make your learning space more comfortable and creative.

Why do we need Creative Learning Spaces?
To summarize Andrew Zolli (Listen to his NECC presentation here. It will blow your mind!) at some point in the near future, everything that can be done by a machine (and many more things than you ever thought possible) will be. So, what will left for us to do? Our priority must be to amplify our creativity. Creativity is in all of us and it is our job as teachers to show
students how to unleash their creativity.

Setting up the physical space of your classroom is just the beginning! In my next post, I will discuss some strategies and resources to help transform your teaching style into that of facilitating creative learning.

I'll leave you with a quotes from Judy Willis in "The Neuroscience of Joyful Education" published in Educational Leadership Engaging the Whole Child:
"When students are engaged and motivated and feel minimal stress, information flows freely through the affective filter in the amygdala and they achieve higher levels of cognition, make connections, and experience “aha” moments. Such learning comes not from quiet classrooms and directed lectures, but from classrooms with an atmosphere of exuberant discovery."

Go ahead! Make your classroom have an "atmosphere of exuberant discovery!"

My Virtual Trip to NECC 2007 - Part 3

Does anyone want to start an online book group?

A few books were mentioned during some NECC sessions, and I am looking forward to reading a few of these books in the near future. Perhaps you would like to join me in a collaborative online book club. Let me know by leaving a comment below or by emailing me.

Here are a few of the books mentioned during various sessions:

My Virtual Trip to NECC 2007 - Part 2

3 STEPS TO 21ST CENTURY LEARNING

As I tried to make sense of the overwhelming amount of information from NECC, I decided to make a video, entitled 3 Steps, that explores my thoughts on teaching and learning in the 21st Century. I was inspired by the ideas of great presenters like David Warlick, Will Richardson, Andrew Zolli, and Mitchel Resnick and wanted to synthesize their insights with what I see as the current state of education in many schools.

Unfortunately, most teachers do not think they are ready for Web 2.0 and many schools are lacking professional development on how to improve 21st Century teaching and learning. The truth is most educators, administrators, and decision-makers are still stuck in the paradigm of 20th Century education. Here is my take on the three steps for making the leap into 21st Century learning:



In the coming days, I will post resources that correlate to each of the three steps described in the video. Please let me know what you think of my video, 3 Steps.

My Virtual Trip to NECC 2007 - Part 1

Even though I was unable to attend the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) this year, I have spent the last week absorbed in my virtual trip to NECC. Thanks to many generous bloggers, practically the entire conference has been shared through live blogs, podcasts, wikis, and more. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and the resources you gathered. My mind is about to explode from the shear wealth of information and innovative ideas I have read. Now, here are my thoughts and what I think is the best of the best....

The Big Ideas
The big idea is collaboration. How can we get our students to collaborate with one another and with other students around the world? How can we, as educators, collaborate and make sense of the vast amount of digital resources available to us? The answer to these questions is Web 2.0.

What is Web 2.0?
The Internet has changed. It is not just a collection of information posted by mysterious people who know some strange code (ie HTML). It is now termed Web 2.0; it is interactive. In mere seconds you can post a web page, respond to a blog, edit a wiki, share photos. This is Web 2.0, an Internet that is controlled by us.

Here are a few of the most popular Web 2.0 sites:
Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit
Wikispaces - create web pages that students/teachers/anyone you choose can edit together
YouTube - view and post videos on anything
TeacherTube - YouTube for teachers
SlideShare - view and post presentations
Flickr - search, upload, and share photos
Ning - a place for social networking (share photos, post photos, view videos, join a forum, etc)
Facebook - a place for social networking (share photos, post photos, etc)
Delicious - social bookmarking, search, bookmark and tag your favorite pages
Google Docs and Spreadsheets - create, share, collaborate on documents and spreadsheets
Swivel - upload, explore, graph, and play with data

What Place Does Web 2.0 Have in Education?
Whether we like it our not, our students are living in a much different world than the world we grew up in. They don't talk on the phone like we used to do; they instant message and text one another, communicating in another language. Do you know what "imho" and "pos" mean? Ask a teenager. While I certainly do not advocate using technology just for the sake of using technology, we must change the way we teach to incorporate Web 2.0 tools. We must do this this to prepare our students to compete in the global world force, a world that requires 21st century skills like networking and information literacy. We cannot simply ignore websites like MySpace, deeming them unsafe for kids. These sites aren't going away! We must educate youth how to network safely and how to be critical of the information they find on web. Here is one example of how powerful Web 2.0 tools can be in the hands of innovative educators. Check out the Flat Classroom Project.

Stay tuned for more resources from my virtual trip to NECC.

Lyrical Legacy - More Ideas for the Last Few Days

The final days are here! As you wind down your teaching, here is another way students can reflect on their learning and create a "Lyrical Legacy." Have your students create original song lyrics to the tune of a familiar song! These songs can be a review of the content learned, a parody of funny classroom moments, or a combination of the two.

First show (or sing, if you aren't shy) your students some examples. Try these...


Mrs. Burke is a GREAT rapping math teacher! I would love to be in her class!




This is funny but a bit mature for my middle schoolers.



A great song about pi to the tune of Jenny, Jenny 867-5309 for you 80s fans.

Some science song lyrics to a few Christmas tunes.

Language Arts songs.

If you are looking for a way to fill up several class period, then give very little structure to the project. Let students pick whatever song they would like (this alone will take them a LONG time to reach a consensus). In groups or pairs, have the students select a song and then rewrite the lyrics to include what they learned this year. Alternatively, you could give each group a specific topic or unit to make their song about.

However, if you are looking for a short and sweet way to do a lyrical review then follow these steps:

1. Have students form groups of three.
2. Assign groups a topic and have them brainstorm a list of terms and phrases about the assigned topic.
3. Give students a list of 3-5 songs and remember that the simpler the song is then the easier it will be for students to rewrite the lyrics (ex. twinkle twinkle little star, row row row your boat, baa baa black sheep, the Barney Song, etc)
4. Using their list of terms and phrases, have students change the lyrics.
5. Groups practice their songs and then present them to the class.
   

Tape the songs so you have them for years to come and this will create a "Lyrical Legacy." Then when you teach each topic, you can show the students the videos or play the recordings. They will be so excited to create songs because they will know that you may use them with your future students.

Have fun and let me know how they turn out!

How NOT to use PowerPoint!

After reading the coolcatteacher blog, I had to share this with you. Great post Vicki. I love your blog!

Don McMillan is a comedian, and he has a hilarious video on his myspace page titled Life After Death by PowerPoint. Whenever my students create a PowerPoint presentation they always make the same mistakes (too many words on a slide, too many bullet points, too many animations, and so on). I can't wait to incorporate this video the next time I discuss PowerPoint in my class.

Life After Death by PowerPoint

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Be careful not to direct your students directly to his site though because there are some inappropriate comments and stuff. Anyway I hope you find this as funny as I did.

Also, here are some resources for using PowerPoint effectively:

Unleashing the Power of PowerPoint
Teaching and Learning with Technology - how-to guides, templates, student rubrics, and more
Active Lecturing: The Potential of PowerPoint
Student Presentation Tips from About.com

Do you have any other suggestions for using and teaching PowerPoint? Let me know.