The Google Craze #31

 I absolutely loved browsing through encyclopedias and dictionaries when I was a kid. Sometimes I just wanted to know something cool that started with S or Y or D. It was an adventure. The crack of the binding when you first opened it, the smell of the ink, the crispness of the pages with maps and pictures versus the softer paper of the descriptions and explanations. I had a set of both Britannica and World Book. I would go to the Britannica for more detailed descriptions and to World Book for more concise explanations and more full page, color illustrations. I absolutely loved them.

Browsing is a difficult task nowadays - it is as simple as " just google it." Type in a word and voila' there it is options, so many options. But if you type give me a list of things beginning with S. Its a bit more challenging. What things? Animal, Vegetable or Mineral? Books, Records or Movies? You have to be specific enough to get what you want exactly and thus the browsing component has been hijacked. I miss browsing encyclopedias. We can browse for clothes and anything we can imagine on EBay or Amazon but again you can't browse for everything that starts with S.

Its a different world now. You need to know what you're looking for before you can browse. That adventure of not knowing something and opening a heavy, hard back behemoth of a text is long gone and I can say...

I miss it.

I am definitely old school. Digits over digital, ink versus code. I am a hard copy, book person. Pen to paper person. I ran across a set of encyclopedias the other day and it dawned on me- we had 26 volumes of pure joy as children- we had to ability to page by page peruse and acquire new thoughts and ideas. We had to spend time absorbing and assimilating. We had to spend time thinking about what we might what to know next. We had to look it up, know how to spell it and then read. The beauty was it would suggest - go to this page for more information- and you could get caught up in a loop of learning for days.

Now... its a simple "Siri, Who was the father of Genetics?" or A quick type into Google, What is Heredity? But if it were the encyclopedia era, we could have discovered both of these through investigation and the frenzy of curiosity. My children will never know the Dewey Decimal System. They will never know cassette tapes and answering machines. Antiquated as those are, they remind me of my youth and a time when nothing was handed to us in split second gigabytes- instead we gathered by flipping pages and compiling many resources.

We didn't have spell check- we had to learn how to spell. We didn't have grammar check- we had to learn how to form a complete sentence, in various ways. Google has made life easier, maybe. But, in my mind, it has dismantled the beauty of investigation. It eliminates getting lost as we find our way to the library. It has taken away the burden of many things but to me it has also taken away our much needed skill of patience, pause, reason, proceed. Google will do this for us. But next time you hear anyone say "Let me Google that," get them to be patient, pause, reason and find an encyclopedia this just may get them to think about things in a different way.

Red Woods and Yellow Daisies #30

 Tall Sequoia's grow tall and strong, because they bend with the wind. Their priority, survival. Their design, sustainability. Rigidity, can cause them to crack and cleft. Yet, flexibility allows them to crook and arc, wobble and teeter, when necessary.

It's impulse is to photosynthesize, germinate and cultivate, a niche for itself. Stimuli are constant: water, light, temperature, touch. A continual response system allows these successful plants, to anticipate, propagate and reciprocate with ease.

They have endured climate change, deforestation and attack from local flora and fauna- but, they remain, steadfast, deep rooted and towering over the younger, more vulnerable greenery. It is all about stamina and perseverance.

Red Woods or Daisies- fauna is meant to endure, even the harshest of climates. We as human's have the same design.

Impulse and stimulus, for us Homo sapiens, will only take us so far. It will spark curiosity, increase enthusiasm, cause engrossment and attentiveness, but it will be temporary, if the allegiance and adherence is waning. It is one thing to have skill, it is another, to have a steady stream of devotion, dedication and duty.

Time is our biggest obstacle. An unavoidable barrier to fulfilling, every one, of our interests. We can't be in two places at once, therefore we have to set priorities. Now a days we are quarantined- yet we still are trying to do everything we can. We have to have a schedule.

Our fatigue and unrelenting pressure is mounting. Students have this same pressure placed by parents, as well as themselves, and even with 'distancing' things are beginning to become more  taxing on them. We have to let kids be kids. We have to lighten the load.

They need to know that they have an escape route. That they can choose to wean themselves off, of so many investments.Time is precious and children need quiet time, reflection time, and family time. We need to find a way to challenge our children, but still let them have fun and just play.

We have to have limits. Their brains have to have a shut down mode- a sleep mode. As parents that needs to be our priority. As educators we need to make sure the focus is on growth not grades. Learning not requirements. This time is stressful for all of us. Let the Red Woods stand tall and the daisies have their space. We all have our 'best effort.' We all have our better judgment- let's use it and make sure every child is thriving.

Classroom Culture #28

 Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities and habits of the individuals in these groups. Does this not sound like a classroom society, an educational atmosphere?

Classroom culture involves creating an environment where students feel safe and free to be involved. It's a space where everyone should feel accepted and included in everything. Students should be comfortable with sharing how they feel, and teachers should be willing to take in every ounce of feedback, in order to, help improve learning. Educators need to be more listeners than speakers.

Here are a few ways I make sure my classroom community is student-led:

Set rules together – We have designed a positive, mindful classroom where students are free to be themselves, this does not mean there aren’t any ground rules and routines. Students should feel safe and respected, and a framework around that helps them do so. Mindful, positive speak is our norm. I encourage them to think for themselves, and I ask them what kind of rules there should be. These rules are based around our mindfulness strategies.

Transform problems into teachable moments – Too many times we see problems as a setback of some sort. Instead, we need to see them as teachable moments. As something to build upon. I take a positive spin and get students interested in taking the steps to solve it. We work as a class to talk things through, so we can make sure the classroom is a safe place for everyone. This not only strengthens problem-solving skills, but also communicative and collaborative skills that are so vital in the classroom.

Change the setup – The way the classroom is arranged will have a massive impact on the way students work. The more individual spaces the better. In my room that means standing desks. We also have lots of tables where students can get into groups. Flexible seating is just half the set up. I provide space for students to add their work to the wall and help decorate accordingly. I have a graffiti wall (chalk board) where students draw comics, add mindfulness quotes and have a space to express themselves.

Chat with each student individually – Find the time to have a casual chat with your students individually to see how they’re doing. I have 1- minute check-ins every week with every student. More if they are struggling with something in particular. I also use 1- minute check-ins as an opportunity to get some feedback from students about lessons and the classroom culture.

Give out “jobs” – Giving students responsibilities in the classroom not only makes them part of the day-to-day running of the classroom, but it generally helps boost self-esteem knowing they have been trusted with a specific task. This can be handing out papers, being the greeter at the door, or makerspace organizer. My students volunteer for these tasks, partly due to the candy after a few weeks, but I think it makes them feel good to have the responsibility for helping our classroom run smoothly.

Create a Clear Communication Line with Parents -A classroom culture can’t sustain itself without the involvement of parents. They should be included as much as possible via phone calls, emails, positive post cards and invitations to participate in field trips and family nights. Parents are true allies- but it is a relationship like any other and needs to be cultivated, nurtured and strengthened by communication and respect.

Integrate Social and Emotional Learning Programs- Mindfulness is my classroom SEL strategy. We have lessons every week, warm-ups and tickets-out-the-door daily. Students write on our positivity wall among many other things to keep our classroom positive, optimistic and happy. (see this post for more information Practical Rebellion: https://practicalrebellion.blogspot.com/2020/02/ten-easy-ways-to-create-mindful.html?spref=tw )

Ask different questions- It is interesting when we pause, respond not react and listen intently, the questions we can ask, get more meaningful and purposeful. When we are present and focused, we can see problem-areas and address them quickly. When we listen with purpose, we see things we might otherwise miss. Then we can ask the right questions to solve them. For instance:

• How can I help?
• What do you need from me?
• Is there a different sentence we could use to express our self?
• What exactly made you feel the way you do now? Can I make a difference for you in how you handle it?

If we ask them how we can help rather than how they feel, it puts them at ease and this in turn creates a community, of listeners and action takers. A classroom culture, like that of a society level culture is diverse, multi-cultural, and a vast community -with personalities and needs and opinions. It is fluid and expansive and it needs attention and the trust of its inhabitants to make it work. 

A culture is only as strong as its citizens. Our classroom citizens have everything to do with the culture. We can’t make them be anything that they are not. We can only create a space where they can be themselves. We are just the cultivator- they are the energy that keeps it sustainable.

Student Centered-Classroom Strategies #26

 The most visual aspect of inquiry science- is students doing science. OR, students researching and applying their knowledge in creative ways. Inquiry requires teachers to be able to excite the students' interest in a topic and then provide them with opportunities to undertake the investigation either by themselves or preferably in collaboration with others. This curiosity and motivation can be integrated into all subject areas, not just science. 

In my class, CER, PBL, and ADI have worked well with all my students. All three are inquiry based, collaborative strategies to get students familiar with evidence based argumentation. Each take a different duration of time but all three get students used to looking at data and forming opinions based on interpretation of data either collected or given to them.

All three strategies are ideal for my heterogeneous classes, they are great strategies, to organize students with mixed abilities, so collaboratively they can solve problems successfully. 

CER, ADI and PBL lend themselves to an interdisciplinary orientation, since answering a problem frequently requires information from several academic areas. By allowing my students to direct their own activities and by giving my students greater responsibilities, I show them how to challenge themselves and learn on their own. That is the basis for my student-driven, student-centered classroom.

CER- Claim, Evidence, Reasoning

CER are quick warm-ups or ticket-out-the door activities. They generally take a 2-5 minutes to complete. I use these a lot for this purpose.

For example- I put up a picture of a food chain with a statement as follows: students then have to follow the steps above to complete the CER.

ADI-Argument-Driven Inquiry

ADI are generally completed within a class period. However, I have had the debate portion, often the following day, to provide enough time to peruse the graphs and charts and discuss as a team. Where CER are quick 2-5 minute activities. ADI take a more time and the information is more complex and detailed. A CER will generally have one photo or diagram whereas the ADI will have 6-8 depending on the complexity of the question.

Student Task :

In this activity, you will utilize actual data sets collected from maps of the United States to determine ecosystem impact by tornadoes in the US. Data sets were collected by amateur storm chasers and USTornadoes.com. More information can be found at http://www.ustornadoes.com/about/

Guiding Question: Tornadoes will have the greatest impact on which ecosystem?

Getting Started: To answer the guiding question, you will need to examine the data set of tornado occurrences to explore the relationship between tornado incidents and ecosystem location.

To determine how you will analyze your data, think about the following questions:

 What data is relevant?

 What type of calculations will you need to make?

 How will you organize and represent your data?

 What type of graph could you create to help make sense of your data?

To share your information you will create a white board as follows:

To share your argument with others, we will be using a round-robin format. This means that one member of your group will stay at your lab station to share your group’s argument while the other members of your group go to the other lab stations one at a time to listen to and critique the arguments developed by your classmates.

Once the argumentation session is complete, you will have a chance to meet with your group and revise your original argument. Your group might need to gather more data or design a way to test one or more alternative claims as part of this process. Remember, your goal at this stage of the investigation is to develop the most valid or acceptable answer to the research question!

Finally each group will argue- using data collected- their answer. You must use data to defend your answer.

Problem-Based Learning

CER are quick, ADI class periods, while PBL generally progress over a week-six weeks depending on the problem. Problem-based learning or Project-Based learning must follow the four basic principles of PBL

1.         Students work with their peers to solve problems.

2.         Students research and gather information on their topic.

3.         Students use technology with purpose, to design and create a culminating project.

4.         Students need to see themselves as the ultimate resource. (independence)

This year, my students worked together for several PBL assessments, but this was my favorite. They were given five class periods to research, write their speech and create their presentation. Each group presented their findings to the class in a 7-10 minute presentation. Using primary sources, current events and science resources, they collaboratively solved the problem- they designed a persuasive presentation to convince a political leader (me) that environmental change is necessary.

Title:  Human Impact on the Environment 

                                                                      

Challenge (Driving Question):

How can political leaders be persuaded to implement changes in policy regarding environmental damage?

Summary: Students will research how humans are negatively impacting various ecosystems.  They will write a persuasive speech and video presentation including the effects of human actions and ways to repair or end the damage. 

Students will: Receive a randomly assigned ecosystem, create questions, research, revise questions (add or revise), synthesize findings, write persuasive essay utilizing documentation and quotes, create plausible solution to ecosystem rehabilitation, and present findings in a speech/video to classmates and ultimately, politicians (calling for reform)

Student-centered teachers carefully guide students as they begin to explore or investigate their topic, being careful not to dominate the conversation. They allow the conversation to be led by students and for the discussion, to take twists and turns, based on the evidence and interest of the students. They give students plenty of time to develop responses or think about the issue more carefully, giving students the time to reflect and think more carefully about the issue. These three inquiry strategies, CER, ADI, and PBL are three great ways to make sure that students are in charge of their own learning.  

Looking Beyond the Quantitative #22

It seems like a numbers game. Averages and point values. Assessments and progress reports- numbers representing learning. When we can quantify things, narrow them down so we can analyze and strategize- this makes sense. This allows us to label learning- put it into an expectations box. Its how it is because in order to organize the data others are looking for- we need a number.

Funding comes from the number, the data. Success is measured in grade point average and ranking. Its all about that range- falling into the top percentage. Getting a certain score on standardized tests. Quantitative seems to rule our lives. Academic, financial. Credit scores and cost of living. Cause and effect, causation and correlation- this data leads to this data- we are very much an end game society. When maybe we need to figure out more ways to be a process society. 

We focus on outcome not the steps taken. We focus on box office numbers not the actual movie. Not how well the movie connected with the audience. It is about rotten tomatoes and critic reviews. Its all quantitative and living in such a world - we often forget to look beyond the quantitative- to allow for more organic fluidity and yes, failure. We say it is alright to fail, but then we expect an immediate turn around. Get back up again and succeed, like right now.

But, qualitative means growth, change, alteration, decomposition- a step away from the measurable and this is a difficult task because we are designed to see patterns and quantify them. We are mentally designed to see how everything fits together. How much do we succeed? How often do we fail? How can we assemble things to grow and progress. Rather than just be. Just breathe. Just see the world and find our place in it.

It's a quandary and something on my mind lately. How much of our 'idea of success' is measured by someone else's quantifiable data and measurement.

Why Pets are So Important to Me #21

Why are pets so important to me? My cats purr and kneed and make them selves comfortable around me- in sickness and in health. They lie on me and push their heads into my chin for attention. I love my cats. They take turns coming upstairs to check on me. They meow and jump on the bed and just habitat near me.

This makes me feel connected. 

I'm not sick very often, but when I get super sick, it tends to eb and flow- I get bed ridden then have a week maybe of wellness and then illness rears its ugly head again and takes me down worse the second time. It happens a few times a year- beginning of fall then again in the winter. This last month has been not a good month. Stomach flu for a week, migraines terrible for a week then upper respiratory and dry coughs, Covid like symptoms for the last week.

Its exhausting and you get stressed and this weakens your immune system even more. Its a vicious cycle. The only thing you can do to pull out of it, sleep and rest and let everything else go. Just focus on yourself. I went to work in between- it wore me down. I never take enough time to fully recoup and thus I generally get nailed twice. You'd think I'd learn by now- but my body betrays me. "Hey, see you feel better, get out of bed, go to work- you just need a distraction." So I do, then, "Oops, I apologize, I guess I wasn't quite ready and now you have exasperated the illness- so I guess you need to get antibiotics now- drink lots of fluids."

This is where I am- the resurgence. A word we are hearing a lot lately. We are in the middle of a surge- where 1 in 5 people are sick and most of those have Covid. Scary statistics these days.

I am going to sleep a lot these next ten days. My school is virtual due the surge the whole next week. I will rest. I will drink lots of fluids. I will stay quiet as much as I can until my hoarse, almost vanishes voice regains its composure. I will know I am lucky because I had the opportunity to be vaccinated and boostered so my symptoms are bad but not deadly. I will be patient, knowing that I will feel better soon. I will do what I can, what i feel up to and not feel an ounce of guilt letting everything else fall to the wayside temporarily.

But, I can type. So I will write.

and as I do- one of my cats is pushing on my keyboard, and I am constantly needing to correct the typos- but its all good. It reminds me to smile.

Decomposition- A Way to Teach, A Way to Learn #20

Decomposition in Biology- to break down into smaller components, to have the bonds severed and the materials return to their most basic state. If we let things rot on the counter, they decompose. Chemicals are released, discoloration and smell changes occur. We know it when we see it and the waft of decomposition fills the air. It seems to be a negative occurrence- something is lost. But, in reality it a return to something- a new beginning of sorts.

In learning it is a new way of seeing things. A new course of action. A new strategy. A new path to reach success. In a Language Arts class decomposition would be literary analysis- finding the theme or meaning of a text. Understanding the motive and process of an author to see how that influenced the piece. In science class it could be a dissection to understand the inner workings of an animal and how that compares to human anatomy.

It is deconstructing a larger concept into its smaller parts so students can piece it together in a way that makes sense to them. PBL's are inquiry based projects that can allow students to look at larger concepts in their own way. Thermodynamics by looking the character and science behind DC's the Flash or Hot Air Balloons. By allowing students to study a related topic to explain a larger concept, you allow them to create a field of vision that makes sense to them.

When we provide students with the end goal, the curriculum standards, the specifics they need to understand- and then allow them to create the flow of information, the way they want to share with us their knowledge- this is decomposition, deconstruction. The more we let them topple the tower- the more they can see all the bricks. This gives them a choice of how to reconstruct it. Some may want it sky-scaper style while others tower and moat, and others Eiffel. Its all about perspective.

This is why we so desperately need to take a step back and let them decompose their preconceived notions- with a nudge from us- but with exploration and discovery because action is what convinces us ultimately. When we can see things change, witness discussions and debates, hear words and wisdom but see it bring about behavior alterations- this is what convinces us to listen and maybe change ourselves.