In an attempt to reflect back upon the numerous blogs and articles that I peruse online each week, I have decided to autopost the items that I bookmark on Diigo each week. Below are all of the links that I compiled last week in my Diigo account, with a few of my favorites highlighted in more detail at the top.
In an attempt to reflect back upon the numerous blogs and articles that I peruse online each week, I have decided to autopost the items that I bookmark on Diigo each week. Below are all of the links that I compiled last week in my Diigo account, with a few of my favorites highlighted in more detail at the top.
In an attempt to reflect back upon the numerous blogs and articles that I peruse online each week, I have decided to autopost the items that I bookmark on Diigo each week. Below are all of the links that I compiled last week in my Diigo account, with a few of my favorites highlighted in more detail at the top.
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| When I arrived in Ms. Hayes’ classroom, she and her students were on a train ride through New Hampshire. |
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The second graders are involved in a research project on famous people from Massachusetts. It was great to talk to them and hear how much they know about their historical figures. A couple of the girls told me that they are excited to make a visit to Oxford, MA to see Clara Barton’s House. I am impressed with how excited and committed these students are about their research. I am excited to see visit their wax museum at the end of February when each student will take on the persona of their historical figure.
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| It was neat to see the different methods students utilized to go about their work. Some with iPads, some with Chromebooks, and some with pencil and paper. |
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| More research from Mrs. Lynch’s class. |
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| They were also working hard in Mrs. Cunha’s room. |
My second post for the open course that I am participating in called Rhizomatic Learning that is being offered through Peer-to-Peer University (P2PU). The course is being facilitated by Dave Cormier, Manager of Web Communications and Innovation at the University of Prince Edward Island.
I absolutely love this week’s theme of Enforcing Independence! The oxymoronic nature of the theme is clear like so many of the other contradictions we see daily in the world of education. However, it is equally clear that one of our primary goals in schools is (or should be) to help students develop the skills to be independent learners. In order to help support students in the development of these skills, we need to ensure that the educators in our schools have learning experiences where choice and learning with others are the norm and not the exception.
As someone who has a significant voice in the Professional Development offerings in my district, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to provide educators in our district with a greater degree of flexibility in leading their own learning. While we have had fleeting success with some learner-led days, we have not developed a formal structure where educators are able to create individualized plans that are flexible based on their needs.
Thinking about what our students need to be prepared for a world where things are changing at a speed that is sometimes incomprehensible makes it clear that our educational model needs an overhaul. We are educating our children and attempting to equip them with the skills that will allow them to be able to compete for a jobs that have yet to be created. The problem for me (and I’m guessing other who were educated in a traditional setting) is that I sometimes lack the vision for what is possible. My own experiences as a learner are a severe impediment to my thinking when it comes to preparing meaningful learning opportunities for staff members.
I agree with Dave’s description of what the end result will be if we are successful in designing learning opportunities for our staff members:
“People need to self-assess and self-remediate. They need to be able to say that they don’t understand something and then be able to figure it out. There is no freedom until people can do this(unfortunately) we have crushed it out of our education system.”
With this in mind, I have been reading a lot about the professional learning of adults and I have seen some models which I think could help give us a start on the right path. Shelly Blake-Plock was spot on in his post last month regarding PD fore teachers:
“The point of professional development shouldn’t be in having teachers check off a box that they attended a session or watched a video or took on a project. And it surely shouldn’t be in having an administrator check off a box for them. The point of professional development should be in helping human beings–who in this case happen to be educators–become more fully engaged and connected with their peers and fellow professionals. The goal should be helping them to develop the profession themselves.”
One of the more concrete examples of this comes from Albermarle, VA where the district is making teachers the architects of their own learning. Their Seven Pathways to Ensuring Life Long Learning Capacities for Every Child is a great model for other school communities to employ to ensure a greater degree of independence for learners. As we plan our PD opportunities for next year, I look forward to the challenge of providing our staff with these types of learning experiences.
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| Image via CrunchBase |
In an attempt to reflect back upon the numerous blogs and articles that I peruse online each week, I have decided to autopost the items that I bookmark on Diigo each week. Below are all of the links that I compiled last week in my Diigo account, with a few of my favorites highlighted in more detail at the top.
In an attempt to reflect back upon the numerous blogs and articles that I peruse online each week, I have decided to autopost the items that I bookmark on Diigo each week. Below are all of the links that I compiled last week in my Diigo account, with a few highlighted in more detail at the top.
So my friend Tony Baldasaro tagged me in a chain-blogging task which obligates me to share 11 random facts about myself and then to answer 11 questions that Tony has asked. As much as I dislike chain letters and things of that nature, I am excited to do some writing in this space. My blogging has been limited during the first half of the school year, so I want to thank Tony for what I hope will be a kickstart for my resolution to blog more frequently in 2015!
My 11 Random Facts
My Un-Learning Journey 