Re-Siever

Now, if you could be a fly on the wall of any one teacher blogger, in whose class would you land and why?

I often find myself wishing there was a way to watch people in action with their students. You get a sense of what they are about through their posts: über-organized, creative, resourceful, kind, funny, engaging, reflective, generous, approachable–or not. But wouldn’t it be neat to observe for a day? What would you learn? Some of your assumptions would be confirmed, but there’d be surprises, too.

Given the chance, I’d perch on the wall of Clarence Fisher’s class in Snow Lake, Manitoba. I’d rub my little forelegs together with glee. I’d be somewhat familiar with what goes on in his room, because Clarence is quite transparent about his practice. His podcasts from the K-12 online conference and his ustream presentations say a lot about what he believes about his students and what they can do. His recent pictures of his classroom (taken in that surreal time before the students arrive) had me (and Brian Crosby) wanting to channel him. I will, and am going to post pics of my work, too.

Clarence teaches roughly the same age group as I do, and he’s a generalist teacher, as I am, so I think I’d recognize many of his strategies, but I’d learn a bundle. I want to see how the learning is orchestrated. He talks about being a network administrator for his kids–helping them grow their personal learning networks. Does that promote student efficacy and engagement? Bet it does.

What I’d likely see:

• hive-like activity: not all doing the same thing at the same time, but a sense of purpose none the less
• students showing respect for each other’s opinions, but still willing to challenge them
• peer mentoring and coaching, students teaching the teacher
• students comfortable with thinking, willing to take risks
• students engaged with content as amplifiers not mirrors, as David Warlick describes

Clarence’s first unit on Global Lives sounds like a great hook, and he’s injected rich and relevant content and activities for his students to chew on. I’d love to be a kid in that class–forget being a teacher.

It is tempting to whine, I’ll admit. I have one computer in my room, so I can’t reproduce the circumstances (1 to 1.5) Clarence has. I’m 1 to 30. But, I now have a data projector + iwb and internet access in my classroom which is a universe more than I had four months ago, so I’ll go with that, and work for more.

So thanks for inspiration, Clarence. Thanks for modeling and sharing. Have a great year.

And fellow voyeurs: where would you like to be a fly on the wall?

Image: Green Bottle Fly by jpctalbot Creative Commons license

Tags: Brian Crosby, Clarence Fisher, David Warlick, teaching

I have been pondering the ingredients of School 2.0. The School 2.0 Manifesto wiki has me considering what makes a nutritious, hearty, and inviting mix for learners.

One of the elements of the learning stew I have been serving up in class is drama. I am really excited by the enthusiasm and deep learning that comes from enactment (drama) strategies. Jeff Wilhelm’s book Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension got me going. All of his books do. The strategies he describes, like role plays, tableaux, and mantle of the expert, hook kids and connect them to content in an active and personal way; they play with the language, the ideas, the images. They explore the possibilities of what if? and get closer to the answers of how come?

In examining the question “Is Web 2.0 going to lead to School 2.0?”, David Warlick says in one of my favourite posts,

Students stop being mirrors, and instead become amplifiers. Their job is not merely to reflect what they encounter, but to add value to it. Content and skills are no longer the end product, but they become raw materials, with which students learn to work and play and share. Information is captured by the learner, processed, added to, remixed, and then shared back, to be captured by another learner/teacher and reprocessed. Each exchange and improvement not only runs on the energy of students (learner/teacher) curiosity and intrinsic need to play, work, and communicate information, but it also generates energy, which the teacher (teacher/learner) channels.

Warlick is not talking about drama strategies at all, but he could be. I find it powerful how neatly his ideas transfer from technology to other active, engaging methods that don’t necessarily involve or require a tech element. Project-based learning, inquiry, and math explorations come to mind.

So here is where my [limited] stew metaphor takes me, for now at least:

Technology is not the carrot that students chew own (technology as enticing add-in), nor is it the bowl that contains the learning (technology as sole vehicle for learning). Technology is one of the spoons that stirs the mix and lets learners serve understanding and experience to themselves and others.

Hmmm. Metaphors have a habit of getting away on me. Better get out while the gettin’s good.

pot-au-feu italian by shok Creative Commons license

Tags: David Warlick, Jeff Wilhelm, metaphor, School 2.0

Reading Ann Oro’s post today about using tools to follow comments got me thinking (in a non-linear kind of way) how I decide whose blog to read.

Is it just content?

It’s certainly important to me–after all, I am reading to learn and reflect on what others are saying. I appreciate practical advice on how to use 2.0 tools from people like Ann, Sue Waters, and Paul Hamilton. Other bloggers expand my understanding about the “big ideas” in learning and technology. David Warlick, David Truss, and Dina Strasser make me think.

What about design?

I must admit, some blogs make me a little crazy. I’m just not good with visual distractions like Vokis (the flapping hair in particular), animated advertisements, or really crowded sidebars. There are some pretty elegant sites out there, ones that are easy on the eyes. Dan Meyer’s blog fits this category.

The Tone

I am not sure if there is another word to describe this–is it attitude? Some blogs have a respectful presence, an ethic that builds community–Dean Shareski and Clarence Fisher come to mind. I think in part it is the way they handle new ideas and how they respond to people who comment on their blogs. I get the sense I would like to work with these folks. I bet they would make great colleagues. Some blogs are feisty, poking at the establishment, or offering up contrarian opinions. Good.

Then there are a few blogs that leave me feeling squirmy. The tone is superior, dismissive, too cool–and rude. Yes, I do read them. I have a morbid curiosity about them, I guess. What would it be like to share a staffroom with them? Would I feel safe?

Blogs I don’t (yet) read

I would love to see more blogs by classroom teachers who are not tech specialists, who are using 2.0 tools effectively in the content areas. I’d love to find blogs by drama teachers or art teachers who just blog, but don’t necessarily use technology directly. And I want to read more student blogs by kids who are not just responding to teacher prompts. I better get searching.

So, what are your criteria?

How do you choose your blogroll?

Image: I Love Books by Weeping-Willow under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic license

Tags: Ann Oro, blogging, Dan Meyer, David Truss, David Warlick, Dean Shareski, Dina Strasser, Paul Hamilton, Sue Waters