Please view this video, and be prepared for the assessment to follow. (BTW- If you use video in class, or if you'd like to use video in class, you should check this out!)
Please comment on this post and include your thinking in regards to each of the following questions. After you have commented, make sure to reply to a couple of your classmates.
1. Please tell (the condensed version) about a time when a student was legitimately bored to death in your class.
2. In what ways is your school or classroom designed to create good factory workers? In what ways have you broken out of this?
3. What is the most important thing about your students? Clearly, it is not their "date of manufacture." :)
4. How can you (or how do you already) show students that their divergent thinking and creativity are truly valued by you and their community?
5. How do you (or how could you) model and teach true collaboration? Move beyond the much-loved "turn and talk."
1. Please tell (the condensed version) about a time when a student was legitimately bored to death in your class.
2. In what ways is your school or classroom designed to create good factory workers? In what ways have you broken out of this?
3. What is the most important thing about your students? Clearly, it is not their "date of manufacture." :)
4. How can you (or how do you already) show students that their divergent thinking and creativity are truly valued by you and their community?
5. How do you (or how could you) model and teach true collaboration? Move beyond the much-loved "turn and talk."
The video cut off at the end--I am so curious how he is going to wrap it up!!
ReplyDeleteMy reading intervention groups are bored--b/c I have to choose the text for them--they always ask me for something else..
2. TESTING - STATE TESTING - is one way I feel they are factory workers--just slaving away on a test that they could CARE LESS about. We also don't group by ability--we group by age--and I, too, think it is so odd, now that I think about it. I haven't broken out of it--but I do know of my friend who used to send her kids to public school - and how sends her to a school that mixes grades and ability levels and ALL the students (Grades K-12) learn from eachother and do thematic units together. It's amazing! I guess one way our school has broken out of it - is that 1st graders, once a week, meet with 5th graders to read to eachother.
3. The most important thing about my students is if they feel valued in my classroom.
4. My current state given curriculum does not LEND itself to divergent thinking...... - I am grateful for this class to get ideas on how to prepare my students for the 21st century- in the next 10 years, they will be entering the work force. I think technology is the way of the future.
As my students were writing today - I thought--how often do I REALLY write( with a pen/pencil?) It is to make a grocery list and to write a thank you note, and to write my thinking down--if I need to. But that is about it. So why are we making our students write summaries and respond to poetry???
5. I agree--turn and talk is on its way out. Hmm..how could I model and teach true colloboration? I have been having my students learn new board games together. I do not show them how to play. They have to sit down, read the directions, figure out to play---all while learning how to not fight..it's SO interesting to watch---I see a TOTALLY different side to their personalities. I love it. Any more ideas besides board games?
Jenny- I totally agree with you on state testing being factory like I hadn't thought of that. I know we use maps testing, pals, tcap and all these forms of testing and if we differentiate learning why do we think that students should fit with one style of test.
DeleteIt would be interesting to see the academic outcome of the school that mixes age levels. I can see that approach being a positive one.
DeleteThinking back to when I taught first grade I remember a boy who would sit through every lesson and fall out of his chair, tear paper into little pieces, draw cartoon people. It later came to be that he having him sit on a work out ball would make him focus and became a participator in the classroom. To take it a step further he tested so high on several tests that we had to adapt the work he was given, which all seemed to change his thoughts about school.
ReplyDeleteWe have really created a good factory in our classroom. We follow the state standards and use Tools as a guide to reach our standards in preschool. This does not leave much time to guide our students into a broken factory. I have made a point to get our children to be thinkers, doers in our classroom. They have to think through and problem solve by themselves and together. I hope this will make their journey through elementary school a successful one!
The most important thing about my students is that they are believers in themselves. If they have this they can tackle the adventurous road ahead of them.
One way to show students that their thinking and creativity are valued is by sharing our "WOW" moments with them. This can be done by the teacher or by other students. Sometimes when it comes from their peers it feels even better to them. Kids love to share aloud their work and how they came to that answer or just share a story they wrote.
My classroom is a constant model of collaboration. We problem solve all the time together (that is a lot since they are ages 3-5). The kids love to share and even learn from other children. Think aloud for any subject is great. In math you could do story problems and have the kids talk through how they reached an answer. Kids learn from other kids by connecting with their thinking. Teacher as well as kids are great models
I found my students used to get bored with math worksheets but I have created a format that they can work independently to start and then I have them check each other in their small table groups. I feel that turning not so interesting work into collaboration helps with work that used to be boring. I teach at a STEM school so it is not like a factory at all. The only thing factory like is the bell at beginning of day and bell at end of the day. I think the switch to us doing PBLs which are presentations of learning that we create to incorporate all subjects into one project is very useful and a much better use of time. I think watching them problem solve is very exciting and it is nice that the project incorporates a large amount of areas in math, reading, writing, presenting, science and socio-economic stand points. The most important thing to me is my students learning and I do this by less teacher talk and more student talk. I use Kagan Strategies in the classroom to make students feel truly valued and like they have a voice in the classroom. I want to make sure they feel we have a safe environment to share and voice opinions. I also want to make them realize it is ok to be wrong.
ReplyDeleteAs for collaboration, I feel Kagan strategies are the new way of the old fashion turn and talk. This can be used using A and B partners in groups of two and role playing in groups of 4. I love Kagan it takes a lot of work in the beginning to teach the strategies but then it is so helpful and you can use them for everything. I teach everything first nonacademic and in a safe way and then we transition them to academic questions. I love timed pair share, rally robin, round robin, rally table, round table and pass the paper. These are all fun and useful and I plan to implement new ones when I return to work in the end of March. I totally recommend a Kagan training to anyone who has never done it. I get better at using these strategies every year but realize you need to be patient using them it takes work from the teacher and time to get good at it.
I am going to look for the Kagan training. It sounds like it is really working in your classroom. It would be great to have strategies you can use throughout your classroom
DeleteI love the "WOW" moments in your classroom. I think this is a great way that students can have there voices heard and share with other students.
ReplyDelete1. Not sure if I can recall a specific bored student, but I have had quite a few students over 12 years fall asleep during my classes, which I would equate to being "bored to death." My stance has always been that if that particular student chooses to fall asleep, then he or she chooses to miss what goes on during that time, which would ultimately affect their grade. I also have convinced myself that I am not an entertainer and that not everything we learn about in health is a thrill-a-moment, but you just have to get the information. Now reflecting on my stance, I guess I should engage every student enough that he or she wouldn't want to fall asleep. That is when the art of teaching comes in, and I am still creating my masterpiece! :)
ReplyDelete2. My school is still very much designed and operated to produce those said factory workers. My health classroom is factory-worker set up as well...oops! :( On the other hand, my PE "classroom" naturally lends itself to immense collaboration and cooperation in order for the teams to score during whichever sport we are playing. Breaking free from the factory-worker model is quite scary for me, because that is really what I know best and that is how I was taught. Embarking on the unknown should be tried when it is in the best interest of teaching students, which is something I must consistently remind myself to do.
I am trying to break out of this mode by trying different groupings with students. More small-group collaboration activities seem to be favored, which is what I need to incorporate into my lessons.
3. I feel the most important thing about my students is that they become independent thinkers.
4. One thing we do at Hinkley is that we have a yearly cultural-fest where all of our cultures get the chance to be represented during an assembly. Most of the time they represent their culture with the way they dress and by holding their representative country's flag. I'm not sure if that shows divergent thinking is valued, but I think it represents creativity and is definitely in front of our school's community. Good question.
5. PE classes naturally lend themselves to true collaboration. By putting the class into small teams, the teams have to demonstrate collaboration in order to have success during a competitive sport. Generally the more collaboration, the more success a team experiences.
1. I can't remember an exact time a student was bored to death in my class but I do know it's happened. The tell tale symptoms are their head on their desk, fidgeting or talking to others….I've done it myself!
ReplyDelete2. Ways we are a factory in our school: bells, scheduled times for specials/lunch/subjects, start and stop learning times, etc. In my classroom we have a schedule as well that keeps us organized and helps us stay on track so we get the multitude of "things" we are supposed to cover, covered. But, in my classroom, I let the "schedule" go if the learning that is taking place is awesome. We've all had those great discussions, questions, experiments or learning that we don't want to stop. You need to be flexible in the classroom to facilitate that.
3/4. The most important thing about my students is their thinking and their experiences. The relationship I can create and foster is essentially important. I need to take the time to get to know each child by their interest, dislikes, strengths, community and family. As a classroom teacher, I try to do this by giving time each week for students to communicate with them in a way they like…writing, thinking maps, video clip, one on one talk, journal write, small group, etc. I also ask a lot of questions and move kids through a lesson by asking questions and guiding their thinking, rather than just telling them how to do something. I want them to own their learning and believe one does that by doing.
5. I will have GT, SPED and ELA teachers co-teaching with me this year in our classroom so I know my kids will see collaboration in action. When their are struggles with collaboration, as there can be, I try to get students to verbalize what they don't like and then have them ask for what they want/need. This gets the issue moving along.
1. I can share my most recent experience with a student being bored in my music class. She didn't want to be there and was resisting everything that I taught and in turn, was being very rude to her mom. I spent extra time with her in class and she started to turn around with her attitude. She went on to graduate from our 2 1/2 year curriculum. Personal attention helped her.
ReplyDelete2. Even at our music school, we can turn out factory workers. I have broken out of that by trying to joke and tell funny stories during our class. It lightens the mood and the children most of the time want to get back to the music being learned.
3. The most important thing about my student/students is that they begin to think for themselves about how to solve problems and handle emotions. They also need to feel good about themselves.
4.Because I homeschool my son, it is important for me to take his opinion and ideas so that it is not always "my idea." In CMA music school, I make sure that everyone gets a chance to express their opinions about a solo or program choices. (Sometimes if I don't, the parents remind me:)...I have a unique teaching situation with the parents in the room)
5. True collaboration is a joy. I will (as this video encourages) strive to attain that goal with both of my teaching situations. If you give the children guidelines, they will come up with wonderful ideas! I did teach for 4 years as a 4th grade teacher in the early 1990's. I had the 4th graders in groups. Sometimes the decisions were harmonious and other times they had trouble deciding. Overall, it was a great experience.
* A time a student was bored in my class was when we were reviewing Math at the beginning of the year. This child had completed a practice book over the summer.
ReplyDelete* Our school creates good factory workers by having them walk in classes wherever they go, hallways for grade levels, students are put in classes according to their age. The way we break away from this is to group students in Reading according to their skill gap, provide students with interventions as needed and allow them to type or write certain assignments.
*The most important thing about my students is that they have confidence in themselves, they know I care for them, they know what they are good at and they try their hardest while at school.
*To promote divergent thinking we allow kids to write a journal entry daily which at some point they may share, we have ARTS classes where students can take 4 different classes a year from music to visual arts to dance.
* During Shared Reading kids are put into triads to read, one time a week they may read with a partner, "experts" on the computer are asked to help teach others, in Math they work in small groups are partners, Reader's Theater in the classroom and during ARTS block.
I really liked this video. The idea that our schools are set up as factories really resonated with me. I hate bells and always say that when I retire, I will never have a bell in my house or anywhere near me. I guess my school is very traditional and does follow the factory model pretty closely. I'm not sure that I have been able to break the model, although for one who started teaching during the Middle Ages, I do try to keep up with what's trending and show video and music clips relating to content to keep students engaged.
ReplyDeleteI know my students get bored when I try to give them information about authors or texts or whatever. They would much rather brainstorm ideas, research the information themselves, or share information. And that's O.K. with me, except that sometimes I feel like as the teacher I need to instruct more than direct/suggest. Of course, that's old school thinking and I often need to remind myself that true learning comes from "divergent thinking." I really like this idea and have always valued this type of thinking. In fact, this year, I had a student in my 10th grade class who was the epitome of this type of person. Often he was the first student in class and immediately set down his ipad and began playing chess. Sometimes I would catch him playing during class, but I loved it because he could still answer any question I would ask him. I was careful not to threaten or chastise him as I was taught to do in my first years of teaching. I think he liked that I valued his intelligence and his ability to multitask. He was also the student who would ask such questions as my son used to in high school--why do I have to do the homework if I already understand the task. There's real common sense in that idea, but the old factory way does not allow it.
To answer the collaboration question, I often give students tasks--related to content-- that they must complete in small groups. For example, when we read Fahrenheit 451, students had to create a robot that would be both a detriment and a helper to society. It was very interesting to see even the quietest students get really excited about their creations.
Humans are social creatures, and when they work together, they do thrive if the situation is positive. So, I agree with the idea that we need to realize that the old paradigm must change. The sooner....the better.