Plain sailing hits the buffers

[caption id="attachment_70" align="alignright" width="300"] Image: dreamstime.com[/caption]

Everything was going smoothly. I was enjoying taking part in CoETaIL; my ideas about education were being gratifyingly confirmed (like a lot of memorable PD, it's about the affirmation as much as it is about any new learning). Ideas for my project were coming together: a chance remark picked up at ISTE; the CoETaIL concepts; my new invigorating Theory of Knowledge teaching assignment. One week to go. Plain sailing. And then I hit the buffers.

The kids didn't get the memo. That's my main idea for this project. We adults (teachers, administrators, many parents) can see that education needs a reboot. We talk about it a lot (some of us) and have developed a few overlapping frameworks, succinctly captured in George Couros' 'Today's Classroom'. But, like old-fashioned Parent-Teacher Conferences, the subject of the discussion is not in the room. The adults sagely ordain how well the child is learning and what should be done to improve matters.

"Why do we have to be creative?" asked one of my students last week when I returned a piece of work in which I had asked them to "make an imaginative digital document". "Because that's what we've agreed young people need", I did not say. This exchange of views reinforced my determination to introduce my students to the ideas which we as educators address daily, but which, although they see the effects of our thinking, the students do not explicitly hear much about. (A disclaimer, here: maybe this is not your school, but it applies to several I have worked in).

"Thoughtful and knowledgeable people may disagree" about essential questions. Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design, 2nd edition (2005) p342. Here's ours:

 

What education do today's teenagers need?

I was wrong to assume it would be plain sailing from there. I hit a mental roadblock. Every time I sat down to think about the activities which would serve this question and the goals I had set, I found myself planning things which I would have found boring if I were in the class. Moreover, when I checked with the rubric:

"Use of technology enhances the Unit Plan by using the computer as a research, collaboration and publishing tool, as well as a communication device", (CoETaIL project rubric)

I was in the embarrassing position for an Ed Tech Coach of trying to fit the technology into the unit and make it look like it was integrated (the mistake we counsel our teachers daily not to make). This went on for days as the deadline loomed.

Then on Friday evening, while enjoying a great jazz concert, a new idea shot into my mind. I had been devising activities which the students and I would do together in the classroom. That's not an authentic audience! But if I could get the students to express knowledgeable and reflective views on contemporary ideas about today's classroom, these could be shared with educators around the world. Someone I read this week (I've lost the source, I'll add an attribution if I find it again) explains how listening to music can help some people to concentrate by providing a low level of distraction which prevents petty thoughts from intruding on the mental activity. I can say that it definitely works for me. If you're looking for inspiration, here is the Mário Laginha Trio.

Since then, I have thought a lot more and written a lot. My UbD plan is on another page on this blog. The thinking behind the lesson is in the slideshow below.


You can read the details in the slides, but the part which I know very little about is the final "Likes League" in which I challenge the students to share their work on social networks and see who can make the greatest impression (I shall play too). I am not prescribing any medium in particular: Twitter, for example, which we educators love, is lagging behind even Google Plus as measured by our school's routers, while Snapchat is the queen of the networks (but for how long?). I would rather see the ingenuity and skill which the students give to the task than attempt to constrain them.

Will it work? I have no idea! This activity is slated for 10th to 16th November and I have been wondering if I can get other classrooms elsewhere in the world involved. I still have to think about things like hashtags and whether all Likes (Favourites, Upvotes) are, well, alike, but I'd love to have company as I set out into the unknown. I am looking for colleagues who would like to join in, or who know how to improve it or who are sure it won't work. If you know someone, please ask them to contact @steveweatherell.

[caption id="attachment_71" align="alignright" width="300"] Egret image wikimedia[/caption]

I have a few options in mind which will develop in different directions depending on the outcome of earlier activities. We must discuss the responsible use of social media. One of the upcoming topics is 'Memory as a way of knowing' and in an age where nothing online can be forgotten, the subject of digital footprint is very relevant.

In fact, even though I would be able to teach the unit tomorrow, there is a month to go, and there are areas, like the rubric which has already been through a cycle of teaching and improvement, which could still be tweaked to align with this particular assignment. That's the way it goes: you're plain sailing, you hit the buffers, you avoid the roadblock, you take flight.