directed/self directed/learning

I am listening to Teri talk to her grade 9's and 10's about photography. Something she spoke about yesterday sticks in my mind. She told the students that there is a large amount of evidence proving that students still learn the best with the teacher in the room.  She is an art teacher, film teacher, photo teacher and also teaches Yearbook.  Much of her course assignments are project based, being 'art' courses....hands-on etc. However she feels that there is a time and a place for the teacher to be in front of the class....teaching.   In this case, to learn about cameras, safety and expectations.  But also, throughout the term,  students will have this face to face, with new topics.  I know that I like to learn with others. Teaching myself online is probably my least favourite thing, and while I've been forcing myself to do this better, I still favour an 'in the flesh' approach!

So gettting back to my WIKIspace with my Communication 12's,  I have received assignments from 4 of 17 students.  I also have added their regular teacher to our WIKI.  She is giving them some class time to complete assignments which I post online.  I would mainly like to see the WIKI as a discussion place, where students can share and post and modify the page if they want. I also have told them I see it being a support to their learning.  A place where they can go to find information to supplement what they are doing in class.  Unfortunately many I think, are feeling like its extra work.  (and not its off to eat i go....Teri has homemade Turkey soup)

portmoody12com.freeforums.org • View topic - wiki vs. phpbb

A lot of my finding so far, have been observing students (and teachers) while I was a TOC in various classrooms.  I found that the courses where students could direct their learning more, (drama, music...art) seemed, for obvious reason, more engaged in their learing.  With English, the curriculum seems more 'set' and more difficult to adapt in some ways.  Students get used to doing things in a particular way.  (read, write, questions, test, read...) I thought by adding to this, making some of the assighments online-or a palce to discuss in -class assighments, I could creat another classroom of sorts-a social network.  But, the students, most of whom already were using tools like Facebook, Texting, seemed to look at this 'wiki' as yet another 'job' or assignment (which is was).  I also know that given I was not the full-time teacher, many did not take my lesson seriously.  I may have more response ( I know I would have actually) with the grade 9's.  I was planning to set up a blog with them but could not get access to the lab to do this with them for one of the periods.  From all of this and what I have seen in other classrooms where it works,  I would definately use Blogs and Wikis in my classroom. It was be part of the overall curriculum in any subject I taught.  For English, I would use Blogs for discussions and reflections, and have students use their own blog for journal entries which could be posted to feedback or kept private for just teacher feedback.

portmoody12com.freeforums.org • View topic - wiki vs. phpbb

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fielding questions...

Well....interesting day-booked libary out...and as I thought....the students meandered in and 14 of the 17 showed up. I managed to get them set up but now need to figure out some WIKI stuff...like whether when I first made this wiki if I made it a teacher/educator type one. I remember Sharon from TLITE helping me initially with this when we did the COQTLITE wiki. Here's the link for my new classroom wiki: planetzutar ... I am still having some difficulties with understanding the inner workings of html and privacy and admin. vs. members etc. I do what I usually do-play-learn with the students and thankfully have many helpful/knowledgable ones! I was going to have them set up blogs as well, for creative writing and journalling but it took the whole class (as expected) to set up the wikis (and the computers/internet were super slow) Well now its back to Coquitlam for daughters hockey game.

PMSS Field study

Had my first day with my Communications 12 students and they seem keen to try this Wiki stuff. The only problem I'm facing now, is that although I have their emails and I've invited them all, I have to wait to see if they do their homework! I have booked a computer lab to ensure I have them all on board and then to get them to create blog portfolios which I am planning to link to our Wiki. I also like the idea of one Blog that is student run. As this is not 'my' class, I have to somehow get it across to students that this is part of their classwork and will contribute to their learning and their final grades. I feel pretty optomistic about the whole project. There are still some glitches to iron out though: how to keep the connection with the students when I am not here-participation is still key to any lesson working. It was nice to see many of my former students today.

Torres on the brain

I had such a great day listening to Marco Torres yesterday. He showed us this nifty pen too-LifeScribe-fitting..... I first heard about Marco Torres back in 2005 when I was looking on a favourite website of mine (Edutopia) http://www.edutopia.org/ and then again, his name appeared in our first summer session of TLITE....I was hooked. My fascination for Project Learning (http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning) was in 2003, while at UBC and a guest instructor of Technology Education told us about it and Edutopia. Since then I have been getting a subscription to the magazine and have made it my mission to always include some aspect of project-based learning in my teaching.

I am convinced that students at many of the secondary (and elementary) students in the lower mainland would benefit from the approach that Torres takes. He speaks about it here: http://www.edutopia.org/marco-torres-empowering-students-through-multimedia I hope to have the opportunity to see him and his students in action one day. I loved his feelings about how students are often recipients rather than producers of information and learning. I also loved his analogy to a cooking website and how creative it was in comparison to what schools offer kids in terms of school web pages etc.( I think of Sharepoint too.)

While Torres is dealing with a high school drop out rate of 85%, and many children with little or no access to technology at home, there are similiar issues here in some of the schools. In my neighbourhood...one of the postal codes: Grandview Woodlands, is one of the poorest in Canada! There is a higher percentage of Native/First Nation students as well as ESL and special needs. Torres's student population is made of of predominentally Latinos. The main difference is that his school has 5000 students, and most of ours have less than 2000. I am definately going to keep his ideas in mind while doing my field work in an Communications (English) 12 class.

bloggerbrain

I am reading Will Richardson's book 'Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms' again. I'm amazed at how much I have learned! The first time I picked up this book, when first starting in TLITE, I was overloaded and still quite new to social networking and online portfolios. This is not to say that I am an expert or that I am never overwhelmed with information anymore....its just that now that I have been blogging and using WIKIS, I see what he is talking about. I am in the organizing stage of a hopefully ongoing project with two different English classes (which might expand to 3) Its so important for mentors to remain open to learning too....much of my own learning has come from being in the classroom and watching students and asking them questions....(how do you do.... ? How do you spell....?) I never assume the role of expert. I feel I am more of a sharer of ideas and keep my childlike curiousity alive...

field studies

Found an informative site-just googled 'integrating technology into high school english class'
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/int_tech_lit_la.phtml

then had link to this site...
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/687/03/


I am still trying to find ways to integrate technology into a secondary English class. I am planning to set up in two different classes-one grade 9 and a gr. 8 or 10. The teachers are using different approaches and novel studies.