What will it take to transform my teaching??

Earlier this summer I attended a workshop at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.  It was a workshop centered around using technology in our classrooms and moving towards 1:1 integration.  While I picked up a few new things, the keynote speaker Aaron Doering was where I took the most away.  First of all, he gets to travel the world and share his passion for adventure learning (how cool is that?). During his keynote he showed us examples of how he uses his travel to connect learners all over the world on different subjects.  You can see his various projects on his websites www.chasingseals.com and www.We-explore.com.



Picture from www.chasingseals.com

 



The thing that really struck me during his keynote was how we can begin to transform education.  I know many teachers out there are doing amazing things everyday (I can't even begin to keep up with all the things I am presented with everyday on twitter!). But, as someone fairly early on the learning curve of technology integration these are all things I know that I need to consider even more in my classroom.  Aaron spoke about how we need to do a better job of developing a story with our teaching because students want to become a part of a story they can follow.  Stories are imaginative and can be interactive.  They provide opportunity to dream, and who wouldn't want to be a part of that?

Aaron then outlined the 10 things that must take place for transformation to occur. His main points are bolded and then I added some reflection and where I would like to go with each.

1. Trust: There has to be mutual trust between teachers and students.  So much of what we try to do in schools is based on relationships, and one large piece of any successful relationship is the ability to trust one another.  I think students need to trust that their teachers truly have their best interests in mind, and teachers need to trust that their students are doing what they can to be successful.

2. Develop Experiences, Not Products: I know this is an area I really want to work on this year in my classroom.  Too many times I think I have focused on what the students are giving me at the end of a lesson/unit instead of looking at times we could have built experiences on the way.  Students aren't going to remember every project they produce, but if they experience something exciting during the process, that is going to stick with them much better over time.

3.  TPACK: This was a new term for me, so for those of you who have not heard this before it refers to Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge.  What do we know, as educators, about technology to successfully integrate it?  The difficult thing about this is technology changes so quickly.  I feel that sometimes I work so hard to really understand something, only to have it change.  Definitely a challenge area.

4. Learners as Experts: Why can't we let students act as the experts sometimes?  Let them help guide one another through lessons/units/problems.  Think of the success these students will feel knowing that their classmates can look to them as experts, and how its ok for people to be experts in different areas.  In fact, its better because we become a more well-rounded group that way!

5. Collaboration: I know this is an area that I worked on quite a bit this last year, and plan to keep building.  I tried to get my students to collaborate with one another more in certain areas.  Lets face it, in most work environments we have to be able to work with other people, and the earlier we can develop and refine those skills, the better.  One thing I really want to improve this year is collaboration outside my classroom.  I have read numerous blogs and tweets about teachers who have had their students Skype with various professionals or other classes.  Why not build a community where student groups can collaborate on the same project online, but from different locations?

6. Aesthetics: Another area I want to work on this year.  I really want to work on the aesthetics of my classroom itself and make it much more about the students and their needs.  My plan was to actually have my bulletin boards blank this year when students come in and let them decide what is relevant to them, and what types of things they would like to see on them.  Sometimes I feel I put all of this work into them, and after a few days they could care less.  I figure if I use chalkboard paper it might make it easier for students to add to and change them more frequently.  In addition to this I want to look into arrangements in my classroom that move away from strictly desk use.  When I flipped my math classes last year most of my students preferred working on the floor anyways, so I was thinking of giving them more optional work space.

http://glakes.net/preschool-classroom-design-ideas-with-colorful-themes-layout.html

 

7.  Self-Narrative: I will admit it unfortunately has been a little while since I listened to this Keynote, so I while I have all of Aaron's main points I cannot remember everything from when he expanded upon them.  So, when I look back and see self-narrative I believe that this means that we need to include some of our story into what we are teaching, but also give students a chance to make to make their education part of their narrative.

8.  Innovative Pedagogy: Innovative educators are going to push the boundaries when they can.  Just like when we ask our students to be creative with their thinking, we need to be creative and innovative with how we are presenting our material.  If we are doing everything the exact same way we did it last year, are we really being innovative, even if it is a successful lesson?  I think we can take pieces of what we do and use it from year to year, but I know, at least for me, there is always something I think I can improve to make it even better.

9.  Learners as Designers:  This relates to a direction I really want to push myself this year, and that is students taking a little more ownership of their education and helping design the ways they are going to learn.  I want to find ways to incorporate more project based learning, which hopefully means students will be dictating the direction they want to go with the material.  At the beginning of the year I know this will be a challenge because it will be totally new for my students and so many of them have fallen into what I would call the "spoon-fed" slump.  They disengage from school and just expect to be "spoon-fed" the information that they will need for a test.  I want them to find enthusiasm for learning once again.

10.  Design as a Learner: The last point Aaron touched on was making sure you design your lessons as a learner.  This makes so much sense because after all they are the consumers of our product.  We can't get stuck as educators focusing on what will work best for us, but instead think about how it will best come across to our students.

So many things to think about as I really work on transforming the way I teach.  This is going to be incredibly challenging, but at least I know that going into it.  Teaching six different classes, with six different curriculums, sometimes makes it difficult for me to want to put in the effort to make really innovative and exciting lessons.  It's a lot of information to get through and think about everyday, but I also know that if I just sit back, and "mail it in", I may have more time, but I won't be happy with myself. 

I want to close with the question Aaron asked us at the end of his keynote because it is something I really want to keep in mind this year as I do my planning:

"Would you want to learn from you???"