Back to School Night
Parents must be nuts to send their children to school. Tonight was our back-to-school night. Maybe because we hosted the event before the first day of school, or maybe because I’m thinking through so many education processes as I return to the classroom, tonight I was awestruck by how trusting parents are to send their children to a place filled with strangers.
The last three years saw me engaging every student in the school as they made their way through my 5th and 6th grade computer courses. Tonight as students came in with their parents in tow, I new most students quite well and was able to converse and catch up with them about their summers. After the first couple of dozen or so students I realized that I have a relationship with these children and I have never met their parents.
I’m not a parent so I can only imagine how much trust it must take to send your child to a school where he or she will sit all day with adults you don’t know who can stand in front of them and tell them anything they want. I can only imagine what it must be like to send your child to sit all day and be influenced by peers who you don’t know.
Teacher’s have an incredible responsibility, and I wonder how often we really understand, appreciate, and regard it. It’s one of the sad fact of schools that so much of what we do, from grades to new meetings, drowns out the real reason we are there, the children. At least it had for me, I know I’d forgotten the weight of that responsibility. I’m glad I found it again.
Thoughts on Instruction
Towards the end of the evening I had a great conversation with my new neighbor and great teacher, Leigh D. We have been having some great conversations on the value of many traditional instruction techniques and curriculum. Tonight Leigh shared her opinion of the value of D.O.L, Daily Oral Language. Leigh has a great perspective on this, that we should be showing kids examples of great writing, not bad. We should be asking them to understand why they are good and begin to use that understanding in their own writing.
The conversation was meaningful to me because it hits at the core of my struggles as I return to the classroom. How can I make my history classroom one of understanding and not memorization? What is the ‘process’ of history, historians? What or where is the ‘club’ that students would belong to?
I’m tyring to reconcile these thoughts with another experience I had last week. I was fortunate to visit the Reggio Emilia “The Wonder of Learning: The One Hundred Languages of Children” exhibit at Columbia College, Chicago. The exhibit showcases the research and learning activities of children attending Reggio Emilia schools in Italy. If you are not familiar with the school or approach to learning I suggest you check out the Wikipedia article here.
I was astounded to see the learning showcased move quickly from exploration and investigation into creation and evaluation. If only every activity I ask students could do the same. What are the raw materials of history? Is it primary sources? Story? How can I bring all of this into a classroom with only two computers?
I’ve several ideas, but would appreciate yours as well. For example, I’m wondering what would happen if I asked my kids to record their families history. Or to find out how their family has been affected by an event from a previous century. I’m also considering letting students ask their own questions and research them through out the year. I’m not sure what that would look like.
Thanks in advance for responding.
Classroom Design.
How much does a classroom’s design effect student learning? I spend quite a bit of time thinking about how my classroom is arranged. I think it is an important reflection of how I perceive the student-teacher relationship. I believe the physical arrangement of a room effects learning on many levels. I am often chided because I will rearrange my room several times throughout the year.
The arrangement of desks or tables into a conference square has always been my preferred way of arranging my room for several reasons. Most importantly it makes each seat in the room equal. There is no back row to hid in or front row to place students who need ‘special’ attention. Each seat becomes an equal member of the classroom and my role as teacher is decentralized and diminished. Students are facing each other, not me. This asks students to be responsive to each other, not me. I often find myself sitting with the students, equal to them, another member of the class discussion.
Another reason I prefer this arrangement is that when working I have much easier access to students. A quick circle around the room lets me assess how students are progressing on an assignment. Students are free to move and reorganize themselves easily during projects or just to work together. Chairs can easily be pulled around to form small groups.
I’ve attached two photos of my classroom.
New Adventure, New School Year
Today I am starting a new adventure in education; today I begin creating a learning adventure for eighth grade students in American History. I’ve never taught eighth graders, and I’m quite excited about it. The mind whirls with ideas, plans and anticipation for the coming school year. I woke up thinking about school, a sure sign that the coming school year has finally encroached upon my summer, so I decided to blog about this school year, if only to write my ideas down and get them out of my head, but also to share and hopefully learn from my PLN (professional learning network).
What I need help with is a big, over arching theme for my classroom this year. This can mean a lot of things. I’m thinking about this in the context of how instruction in that, is there an overarching question or angle that I can use to navigate my way through American History this year. For example, looking at the environment impact each movement had on earth, Exploration, Colonization, and Industrialization. I spent time thinking about this with friends in Denver during ISTE, Anne Smith and Jeff Krause. They helped me come up with thinking about it as “The Price of Progress”, how has progress changed Man/society during each movement. Such as Looking at Man’s relationship with fellow man, family, environment… Lately, I have been thinking about a theme of “Purpose, Service, Leadership.” This is part of the motto for Pepperdine University, my graduate school alma mater. I like this because it’s very general, so it be generalized and interpreted differently by students and apply to many events in history. For example, for what purpose or intent of explorers, who were they serving and why, did they show leadership? I’ll have to think about this more in other contexts, but if you have thoughts or opinions I’d be grateful for them.
With the coming year, I’m mostly worried about how to make the class more than just a memorization of dates and events.
A list of ideas I’m thinking about (possible later blog posts):
- using Moodle as a social network for our team.
- using twitter to communicate with students and parents
- how to integrate online cloud tools with peer teachers
- using primary sources with my students
- finding quality guest speakers
- how can I inspire my students to take action, do history (what does this even mean)
- how to arrange my classroom (this is a huge deal for me)
