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My friend posted the following to Facebook a few months back:  I didn't comment, as I have a semi-serious case of notification-itis. (I get itchy and inflamed from seeing my notification count exceed single digits.) But that didn't stop me from being totally amused waiting on the comment thread. As you can imagine, comments ran the gamut from disgust with "these kids today," to the "give him a break" pleas that could only originate from a mom. Had I commented, I would have asked,  In my work, I get a fair amount of complaints from Boomers and Gen Xers about Millennials and Generation Z--who are unfairly characterized as screen-obsessed zombies with zero discernible life skills. But I love GenZ, and how bravely they navigate the digital universe. And frankly, how much longer is snail mail going to be a thing, anyway?  image courtesy of Picture Quotes
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I've been using QR codes in the classroom for years. They make learning visible and three-dimensional. More importantly, when used properly, they provide a voice for students--something we really need more of in digital learning. Did you know that with Flipgrid, you can add QR codes to student videos? #AwesomeSauce   With digital learning (i.e., the 1:1 classroom) becoming more of the norm, teaching in traditional ways should start to fade into the sunset. Individualized learning, differentiation, and self-paced learning gets easier everyday. Follow these outstanding educators to learn how it's done:
My advice: Pick one strategy and get really good at it before tackling another.  I don't have a clue how I acquired this image.
But it's powerful, isn't it? It's reminiscent of Bloom's Taxonomy--but unlike Bloom's--this visual allows us to focus on learning from a student perspective as opposed to focusing on instruction from a teacher's perspective. And what also astounds me is how clearly this image delineates how traditional forms of instruction don't do a whole lot in terms of being effective for our students. I wonder, are they even effective for us any longer? In any case, John Hattie's research on feedback is more convincing than anything I could write here. But if you're looking to up your feedback game, I fully recommend you start here. What are your thoughts on this graphic? I'm a visual learner. I need to see information to learn it. It makes sense, then, given that we live in a digital age, that our students are primarily visual learners as well. With that in mind, you and your students should check out this site--What's Going On In This Graph? --from the Learning Network of the New York Times. It would be fun as a class to postulate on the story of the displayed data. There's always a good story behind the data. (Critical thinking--yay!) To help students begin their exploration, the NYT provides guided questions to get students interacting with the numbers. They even take it a step further with a "live moderated conversation" complete with experts in the field and making the convo global. (Communication--yay!) For example, today's data set explores student loan balances over time. It's not a static data set, either. Students are encouraged to interact with the data and to explore what their potential student loans might look like.  Oh, and by the way, interpreting data and defining visual information is also a skill-set expected of students courtesy of the Common Core:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.7
Stories aren't just found in books. Give data a try. (Thanks to Rod Stewart for the inspiring title to this post. )  About two years ago, I stopped making resolutions in the new year. Instead, I now make intentions.
The word "resolution" is problematic to me; it literally means "the action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter." I've decided that if I think in these terms--that my current behaviors are a problem that need to be solved--then I've already established a negative vision/version of myself. I prefer the word "intention." It's a kinder word, a word that indicates a plan, a goal, an aim to do better. This year, I have many intentions: personal, spiritual, physical. I hope to turn my weaknesses into strengths. Professionally, I intend to focus more on the needs of my audiences and less on how I appear in front of them. I have a tendency to make it about me. That's a weakness. My intention is to build relationships grounded in compassion, empathy, and a genuine desire to help people embrace the desire to learn new things. Wish me luck. I wish you that and more as you transform your weaknesses over the next twelve months. And happy new year! Happy New (School) Year! Did you make your New Year's resolutions when it comes to how you're going to do things differently in your classroom this year? Have you given any thought as to how you'll #TeachYoSelf over the course of the next nine months? So that you can keep up with the coming-at-me-like-a-fire-hose barrage of new and changing educational technology? Maybe you haven't. And it's okay, because taking on one more task in your already overstuffed turkey of a day is daunting. But we don't have to go it alone. Get yourself a buddy this year! I explain it more below: Fear & Loathing in the Classroom: Why Educators Sometimes Stonewall Technology Integration5/17/2018  Teacher, author, and innovator Holly Clark recently examined in her blog why some educators tend towards innovation more than others do. Same here. I've been at this for four years now, and one of the things that I've found myself consistently pondering is why it's been such a struggle to find enthusiasm for the adoption of educational technology in the classroom. Of course, it all comes down to fear (or neophobia, as Seth Godin terms it.) And in four years, here's what I've come to understand about neophobia: We fear the unknown. Technology is the realm of the “digital since diapers” crowd, and since we feel like we are strangers in a strange land, we tend to feel excluded. And thus, there are educators out there who reject or avoid technology all together, expelling it from their classrooms, and continuing to teach as if the technology doesn’t exist. But here's the thing, though: everything evolves. What makes education so special that it’s immune to evolution? And more importantly, why would a profession that prides itself on shaping the future be so reticent to change? We have to turn it around. We have to embrace change instead of fighting it. We owe the medical, transportation, communications, and technology industries major props for being willing to evolve. And education is the one profession that gives birth to all of those industries. It's time to change. If we fight it any longer, we'll become irrelevant. The inclusion (or intrusion, depending on how you look at it) of technology makes some of us feel as if we are losing control of our classrooms and students. This makes sense when we consider how learning occurred in the pre-Internet days when the teacher held the keys to learning. However, we need to embrace a new model--that of facilitator, guide, coach--and we need to work collaboratively with our students. We can learn from them, they can learn from each other, they can learn on their own. There's no longer any need for us to be the gatekeepers to knowledge acquisition. Technology makes some of us feel as if what we have to contribute is no longer relevant. Nothing could be further from the truth, in fact. The human element has been, is, and always will be a necessary part of learning. We feel attacked for not knowing. We are expected to embrace the technology, and yet, very little in terms of support and structure is provided us. And so, change is painstakingly slow. “Sit and get” professional development is not conducive to long-lasting, organizational change. We need to change the model of digital learning to take into account our “digital immigrants.” Fear sucks. It prevents us from moving forward. Fear can paralyze us, and if we don't confront it--if we aren't willing to enter into a relationship and get to know it--then it will crush us. Ironically, the only way to banish the neophobe from our psyche is to be unafraid to confront it. We should always remember that our goal as educators is to create lifelong learners. Let’s model what that looks like by being willing to confront our fears, to sometimes fail, but to ultimately succeed. And isn’t that a totally awesome-sauce life lesson for our students? Photo credit: Quotes Mixer
I've had this post in my head for weeks and couldn't find the time to write it, so I took advantage of my commute and made my first vlog post. (Don't judge my camera angle and amateur-ish recording--it's a total FAIL and I'm proud of it!)  Anyhow, one of my personal goals this year is to learn more about gamification and how we can start implementing it into our curriculum. Here are some baby step ideas to get started in your own classroom: I'd love to hear how you're leveling up--feel free to leave comments and ideas below. Learning can be all fun and games! RESOURCES
 If a picture's worth a thousand words, then take a look at this:  It's a side-by-side comparison of two activities, but I'm not going to share with you yet which activities. The image is from a study conducted by an MIT professor in which students were equipped with wristbands that measured skin conductance as an index of the “arousal associated with emotion, cognition and attention.” The students wore the wristband for one week. These are images of "highly-spiked" activities, or activities that stimulated strong physiological enthusiasm from one student:
The obvious conclusions we can draw from these images aren't too much of a stretch: the more intellectually stimulating the task, the more the brain is engaged, right? So, studying, homework, and testing all create tangible spikes. Okay, ready for the big reveal?  Yep...sitting in a classroom is about as intellectually stimulating as snoozing. Digging deeper, we can reasonably assume that this particular classroom activity is most likely lecture-based. Did you know that since the establishment of the university system in 1050, class-long lecturing has been the predominant method of instructional delivery? Let that settle in for a moment: we've talked at students for almost 1,000 years. Despite recent studies that confirm fifteen minutes is about the maximum amount of time students can focus on lecture material, we're still encouraging students to passively accept our content knowledge. Or, to quote my math coach buddy Mike Lipnos, "We have no idea how much we take from children when we give them our thinking." What Can Be Done?Fortunately, this is an easy fix, and I'm certainly not endorsing a complete ban on direct instruction; sometimes it's necessary. However, it's not our only option. Vicki Halsey, author of the book Brilliance by Design, suggests a six-step ENGAGE model for instructional delivery, and you can read more about that in more detail here. Distinguished teacher Angela Watson provides eight quick-start ideas we can immediately implement to get our kiddos actively talking more, such as:
In other words, keep it brief, keep it active, and keep it about the students. What strategies do you use to cut down on the amount of time you lecture? |
Stephanie deMicheleDigital Learning Coach in Cleveland, Ohio, sharing innovative technology ideas. Categories
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