Schools That Learn: Reflections

As a teacher, I feel most in control within the walls of my classroom. When I closed that door every morning, I am able to shut out all the criticisms, negativity and the failures of yesterday and execute my plans for a new day. Peter Senge's Schools That Learn covers the intricacies and complexities of the existing system of education but the portion that speaks to me the most is the about the classroom. There are powers to be that are simply beyond my control but my daily interactions with my students is where I can make a difference so that's where I will start my work.

Chapter III starts off with the design and creation of a learning classroom - what a concept! Imagine a classroom that is constantly evolving and causing students to be learning, thinking and productive interactions with or without a teacher standing in the front of the room (102). I was once told that the majority of a good teacher's work is outside the classroom during preparation and once class starts, the students are the ones hard at work! As I read on in the chapter, I find myself longing after the classroom described as "dynamic", "interactive", and most importantly "passionate".

Many of Carol Ann Kenerson's words (110-1116) echoed in my head as I considered my own classroom and the discrepancy between my ideals and the reality. I want to know "how". HOW do I transfer my passion of learning to my students? HOW do I foster intrinsic motivation and gear my students away from their obsession with grades? HOW do I train my students to look away from me and look to each other as contant resources? HOW do I overcome the challenges and resist the tendency to "revert to old ways and habits" (114)? HOW do I inspire?

Is there a cookbook for teaching? Although all my questions seem to have started with "how" - does any one have the secret one-size-fits-all recipe? If there really was a "HOW-TO" book out there, I doubt I will buy into any of it. Why not, you ask? Because my classroom is dynamic - the recipe is everchanging. So I've been asking the wrong questions...

Too many times, I've been driven by my curriculum and find myself teaching Social Studies rather than 12 year olds. Kenerson wrote, "A classroom is saturated with interests, desires and talents..." (111) I was so convicted by this sentence - in the name of "teaching", I am guilty of quenching these passions... the very passions that I vowed to foster! What an eye-opening realization... now I just need to fix it.

Lastly, I thought Kenerson's method of encouraging student interests was too idealistic at first, but brillant. She spoke about tapping into the students personal interests and talents and bring the old show-and-tell to a new level. Imagine a classroom full of teachers and learners alike and everyone's role changes every day... including mine.

Land Bridge Theory: Flash Project

Salon #5: Are Free Tools Worth the Price?

"Every technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either-or, but this and that" - Neil Postman

Salon #4: Technology and Social Studies

"Technologies as tools that amplify and extend fundamental human capacities to observe, understand and communicate about the world- tools that give us rich data, help us manipulate and think about it, and connect us with others around it in new and powerful ways." - Bill Tally

The article titled “Digital Technology and the End of Social Studies Education” was the trigger of our discussion in Salon #4 with Brenda. Author Bill Tally raised thoughtful criticisms of the realities of education, revealed undeniable descriptions of technology integration into classrooms, put forth challenging questions for readers to consider, but most importantly he deposited hope and faith that “technologies do have a role in making social studies teaching and learning more lively, more rigorous, and more grounded in problems that matter to students and their communities”.

At first, I was convicted by Tally’s description of teachers today who uses technology to do exactly what they’ve done for years – for example, showing a video clip from the Internet rather than putting on a VHS or using the SmartBoard to give notes just as if it was a blackboard with the same set of notes in chalk. Throughout the article and discussed during the salon, I was inspired to go beyond the superficial use of technology in the classroom but be reminded of the “why” and “to what end” rather than being obsessed with the “how”. I questioned myself about the reason why I’m teaching students American History and I came up with a few good answers. First of all, I want to cultivate patriotic and responsible citizens for the sake of the future – so gaining an appreciation of the nation’s foundation is a good way to start. Secondly, I want to promote understanding of themes in society – the cause and effect, the triumphs and failures, the rights and responsibilities, the chronology of struggles, long term and short. Lastly, I want to inspire future historians and makers of the next chapters of history.

Doesn’t that sound great? I think so! Yet, I’m sad to report that the reality of my classroom is far from these ideals.

Unlike the ideas celebrated in Tally’s article, I cannot “slow down” or “dig deeper” in my teaching – on the contrary, I need to constantly rush through the curriculum as fast as I can before June to prepare my students with basic facts and ready for 8th grade Social Studies teachers to pick up exactly where we left off on the timeline and inject more knowledge to fill in as many blanks as possible to get them all ready for the New York State assessment exam at the end of the year, which includes both 7th and 8th grade material. So how do I reconcile what I want to achieve as an educator and what I am able to do in the classroom? Is “deeper learning” better at such a young age? Tally criticized many poor assignments given in which recipe rubrics and points given for following specific requirements. I am guilty of giving such rubrics and I also agree that micromanaging student “creative” projects will get me closer to my goals as a teacher. Yet, in order to be “fair” in order to make grading 120 projects manageable and save myself from biased judgment of “creativity”, I am forced to issue such rubrics.

In the article, Tally also addresses common WebQuests that serves as a web-based scavenger hunt for students to gather information and fill in a worksheet. Unfortunately, I too am guilty of this poor design. So I looked at the Museum Box project and was immediately floored – meaning, I was fascinated by the brilliancy of this activity. The project does not want students to spit back information on a worksheet or answer questions about a document – rather asks them to gather, digest and present information for others to access. What is your message and how can you explain all of it on a six-sided cube. According to Tally’s list of “human capacities to observe, understand and communicate about the world”, the museum box encourage students to take ownership of their design and give them means to be creative by allowing them to select their mediums (e.g. document, video, images, etc.) of presenting information. Students will likely come across more information that can be included on each cube so the project also foster students’ ability to dissect and digest the information – to understand it fully and eliminate unnecessary aspects when creating the final presentation. I think the Museum Box definitely require students to utilize analysis and synthesis skills according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. I guess my only question would be, if this was an assignment given to students, how do I grade it? Is it back to the detailed rubric? If so, how many points do I give for “creativity”? The ultimate question in my mind is how to measure true creativity in Social Studies education?

Lost Generation: AARP Poetry Contest Winner

This is probably the most amazing and thoughtful poem I've read in a long time - enjoy.

Final Version: BubbleShare Tutorial

This is the final version of the BubbleShare Tutorial - Enjoy!

Draft: BubbleShare Tutorial

This is my first tutorial using ScreenToaster - it took a while to get use to and the sound mysteriously disappeared on my second try, but here's the raw copy of my sample tutorial on how to use BubbleShare. Stay tune for a completely edited version...

Record your screencast online

Flash Assignment Proposal: The Beringia Project

There are so many lessons I wish I can make a flash animation for and I have to start somewhere - so here's the proposal for my first attempt at creating a flash animation to help me explain the infamous Land Bridge Theory to my 7th grade students! Hopefully I'll be able to share the final product with you soon - stay tuned...

F*L*A*S*H* and Beyond

Flash is amazing! I’ve always been fascinated by the simple animations that jumps across the screen or the dog that wags his tail at the bottom of the page or the dancing ladies in a credit report advertisement on the side of a website! After looking at the various sites for this assignment, it is obvious that flash is so much more and can meet so many purposes. First of all, flash can be used to draw out interaction with the viewer, allowing him/her to participate and contribute to the progression of the animation.

In the case of Carnegie Hall’s music adventure, the user is asked to drag scrambled icons into correct positions and learn the creation of symphonies. Along the way, users can access information about instruments and other musical terminology. Similarly, the dress up game allows users to be creative and take ownership of design. In a classroom, teachers can motivate students with games that allow students to personalize projects and thus feel more vested in their own learning. Speaking of motivation, the mystery hunt for George Washington’s painting activity is another perfect example of taking something as mundane as a portrait and turning it into a scavenger hunt and students are required to read the information in order to finish the mystery case. Consider the various alternatives, which is to ask students to look at a static painting and read a paragraph of information next to it. Last but not least, I was impressed with the interactive storytelling timeline of PBS: Not For Ourselves Alone site. Although the information was available in static text, the voice of primary documents and narrated history of the Women’s Suffrage Movement was a powerful learning tool. The activity allowed students to the control the speed of the story and users were free to jump ahead of review previous portions of the story.

All of these forms of flash animation let the teachers in this new era of computers to interact with students and facilitate learning in a new way. Now the question remains, how will individual classroom teachers acquire the skill and afford the time to create such brilliant flash activities that will result in authentic and valuable learning experiences?

... and we're back!

It's been a while. This blog has been quiet for the past few months but we're back... refreshed and ready for more technology! Lots of awesome things were happening last semester in T.E.A.M. but too many new things were taking up too much time so the blogging was on the back burner. This semester, there is a sense that the focus is back on technology so hopefully there will be more reflections of my learning here. Stay tuned...

Schools That Learn: Classroom Discussion

HMS Hat Day 2008

Once in a while, we allow the kiddies to have a little bit of fun at school - here are some pictures of this year's Hat Day! Sometimes I am so focused on the curriculum and forget that they are only kids... it was good to see them have such a great time just breaking the hat rule for one day!


BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare

Scary New Hacker Trends

Five Boro Bike Tour - Music Slide Show

I joined a few of my colleagues in the annual New York City Five Borough Bike Tour - it was a blast! Check out the cool music slide show. It's fascinating how technology can turn a simple collection of digital pictures into an awesome production that can be showed off to others - in the wise words of PhotoShop master Jarrod G... "its all smoke & mirrors!"

Module Response: Learner Differences

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Module Response: Multiple Intelligences (Part I)

At a recent conference, Howard Gardner indicated that his theory of multiple intelligences cannot be accomplished in the face of No Child Left Behind and standards-based education. In some of his writing he has also said, "to the surprise of many, including me, the theory of multiple intelligences has become influential in educational circles. It is often assimilated, inappropriately, in my view, into work on cognitive or learning styles. Educators have sought to determine the intellectual strengths (the intelligence profiles) of their students through a variety of informal, jerry-built methods. They have also drawn a multitude of often inconsistent inferences about practice from the theory. These range from teaching seven or eight different subjects, each centering on a particular intelligence; to organizing groups of students based on their favored intelligences; to building curricula that focus on specific intelligences; to teaching subjects in seven or eight different ways." Discuss your reaction to each of the statements.

It is interesting to learn that an educational theorist, like Howard Gardner, was able to recognize the inappropriate application of his theory and although he strongly believes in the presence of multiple intelligences, it cannot be the magic solution to be poured upon the current education system. According to Gardner, everyone possess all nine of the intelligences outlined in his theory and each of the intelligences can be “nurtured and strengthened, or ignored and weakened”. This is the reason why grouping all the musical learners together and have this group write and perform a song about every lesson is not the correct approach to applying the theory of multiple intelligences. Most of our students are still in the process of developing their different intelligences, which makes it difficult to label them right away. Moreover, what is the purpose of labeling each student with one intelligence when Gardner clearly stated that we all possess all the intelligences? So why not grant students the chance to develop all of their intelligences? Students will have the rest of their adult life to pick their learning style preferences – high school electives, college majors and minors, career paths, etc. As a middle school teacher, I believe in affording my students a variety of experiences as part of the development of their personality, preferences and intelligences. Lastly, it would be impossible for educators to create lessons that accommodate the specific needs of all the intelligences listed by Gardner. I think the most important application of this theory is awareness of the various intelligences. It would be a nightmare for educators to design lessons that embrace all the educational theories out there!

My First Music Video

This semester in T.E.A.M. we are working in collaboration groups. Our group is working on a project that hopes to engage students in exploration of worldwide challenges such as hunger, human rights, crime, education and discrimination.

I've chosen to work on the topic of crime because it's something we hear about every day and I'm appalled by the fact that our children are desensitized by the widespread of crime all around them. We cannot raise a generation of young people that feel powerless against crime!

This is my first music video made from www.animoto.com, hoping to create awareness and inspire future leaders of change in this world.

VoiceThread and Beyond

VoiceThread is a great but extremely multi-faceted tool - the T.E.A.M. program collaborated with the Heckscher Museum of Art, located in the town of Huntington. In order to practice creating VoiceThreads, we cataloged the special exhibit of "Long Island's Best" exhibit, featuring the winning entries of an art competition involving high school students from both Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, NY. This was a meaningful workshop and inspired to think about how I can use this tool with my students in the classroom.

Please leave a comment on this VoiceThread if you wish - these are some wonderful art work created by the young people of Long Island.

Logo Mania

after an entire week of sleepless nights, i finally have something to show for my time spent in PhotoShop - here's the draft of my logo... depending on what i learn in the next few days, i might add to it or start from scratch... again! but for my first logo production, i'm pretty happy with the result.

and now.... some sleep!

Module Response: Developmental Psychology

When students approach abstract concepts at different stages of their academic career, they often use rote memory because it has proven to be a successful method in the past and perhaps it’s the auto-pilot response. There are different schools of thoughts regarding developmental psychology in relation to students’ approach to new and abstract concepts.

According to Piaget’s theory of schema organization, all human beings develop by passing through “natural” stages – the mastery of one stage bring the individual to begin the next stage, etc. Students formulate various schemas throughout their early developmental stages and as they mature, they encounter situations that don’t fit their existing schema. Therefore, one strategy that a teacher might use to trigger learning is to present students with scenarios or examples that challenge their existing knowledge and/or system of approach to solve a problem. For instance, if students know that all birds can fly, then the teacher will give examples of birds that cannot fly; or if students know that a Supreme Court decision is final, then teachers will give examples of Supreme Court decision being overturned by later decisions, etc. In both situations, the teacher threw the kid out of balance – in Piaget’s terms, teachers’ job is to create disequilibrium in order to bring about active advancement in learning. Piaget also believe in using peers of similar developmental level to find a way to fix the disequilibrium created by the teacher – either by assimilation or by accommodation. Students will hopefully bring the new concept/example into existing schemas or work on changing the existing schemas to include the new concept/example. Overall, the role of the teacher is to point out the “conflicts and inconsistencies” in the students’ thinking and give enough guidance to encourage advancement of cognitive development.

According to Vygotsky’s socio-cultural perspective of learning, student’s cognitive development does not follow a universal “natural” progression of stages. Instead, Vygotsky believes that the interaction with the cultural environment surrounding an individual determines cognitive development. A teacher has a more important role in Vygotsky’s theory because teachers will need to be models for students to imitate and advance. An useful strategy would involve the teacher giving students a problem that is a little beyond what the student is capable of solving but does not seem to be impossible (in another words, a problem in which the solution is difficult but feasible). The student is then surrounded by individuals with higher abilities and through the mere interactions and scaffolding provided by these advanced individuals, students will learn the new and abstract concepts. This theory is very much dependant on the student’s interaction with the environment and people, such as teachers, parents, siblings, etc. However, many circumstances often keep parents and/or teachers from giving each child the individual attention and help needed for proper development. Therefore, technology can help to provide some of the missing interaction time of a student’s life. For example, if the parents/guardians of a student is not available after school to help him/her with homework, the student can use communication tools such as Skype or Instant Message to communicate with mentors, tutors, teachers or relatives.