Culture. Learning. Technology.

Monthly archives for March, 2011

Ready or Not…

Mar30
2011 1 Comment Avatar of Jessica A Hale Written by Jessica A Hale

Ready or not…here I go…

Inspired by the incredible presentations at EARCOS and the COETAIL program with Jeff Utech and Kim Cofini I will be ‘flipping’ my senior economics classroom for the next unit.

Over the course of the last year I have dreaded the standard lectures that I have always give to the class for several reasons:

  • Questions that go unanswered because of time or the student that is too embarrassed to ask
  • Time that is lost that I could be explaining, demonstrating, or going deeper into topics of interest

So, the time has come.  The time is now. (to quote Dr. Suess) Beginning the middle of April, I will be ‘flipping’ my Macoreconomics unit in my Intro to Economics class for juniors and seniors

Things that will stay the same:

  • Objectives and core concepts

Things that will alter/change:

  • All lectures posted online, by topic
  • Many of my typical activities (current events, outlines, quizzes, etc) will be utilized just altered in the way they are administered
  • Weekly discussions or fishbowl activities (as a class)
  • Online quizzes and tests taken at the students pace

Programs I will be using:

  • Google Sites: My Class website will be the hub (the students already access this for the course)
  • Class marker: for quizzes and tests
  • Blogger or Posterous: for blogging activities

Now this is commitment, putting it out there for the world to see.  I will surely keep you posted on the progress.  In the meantime, check out the video posted below to get an idea of how incredible this can be for each student!

Posted in Course 1 - Tagged , , ,

A Global Teach-In

Mar27
2011 1 Comment Avatar of Jessica A Hale Written by Jessica A Hale

On Friday of EARCOS I had the privilege to attend a “Teach-in” led by Fred Mednick of Teachers Without Borders.  His goal being that we collaborate, share ideas, and basically learn form one another.  The best part of his presentation however, was the collaboration tool that he is using to help teacher around the world catalogue lesson plan resources so we would stop ‘reinventing the wheel.’

With much of the organization help going to third world countries I was quite struck that this may be an easy way to help professionally by sharing much of the information that simply gets stored on my home computer. Dr. Mednick’s vision for the Teachers Without Borders Network is a noble one, I surely hope he will gain the momentum needed to keep it rolling.

Interested in joining  the group? Sign up here

Posted in Course 1 - Tagged

Cheers to Changing

Mar25
2011 1 Comment Avatar of Jessica A Hale Written by Jessica A Hale

A few weeks ago when I was out of the class I showed my three Economics class “The Science of Motivation” by Dan Pink.  The next class period, the discussion that ensued blew me away.  “It is so true Mrs. Hale!”  “If that’s how it is working in the real world why can’t we do that in school?”  All questions that I have been wrestling with over the last few months.  I consider myself pretty well integrated with technology in the classroom but have known that there is still a gap between the students learning and my teaching.

  • How do I meet them where they are and where society expects them to be when they leave my classroom?
  • Furthermore, how do I do this and prepare them for an AP Exam?

Some questions Jeff Utecht asked today in “Finding More Time in the Classroom”

  • Why are we asking students to drop their social lives at the school door when we do not do the same?
  • Why do we get face to face in the classroom?
  • Shouldn’t the learning that takes place in the classroom put the context to the content the students are learning?

Are we doing our students a disservice when we waste time lecturing to them about information they can easily access in less than 2,3,5 minutes?  My resounding answer is yes! My goal as a teacher is to guide students in the learning process.  All educators would agree that we cannot force a student to learn the material.  The process by which we instruct needs to change and adapt according to our audience.  Students are changing.  Society is changing.  We need to change.

Additional Material:

“Connectivism” George Siemens

“Everything is about to Change”

Still skeptical things are changing?  Check out “A Day Made of Glass”

YouTube Preview Image
Posted in Course 1 - Tagged , ,

Blooms in Reverse

Mar24
2011 1 Comment Avatar of Jessica A Hale Written by Jessica A Hale

Struggling over which workshop to attend for session two, I begrudgingly landed in “A Death Avenged” by Mark Johnson a Social Studies teacher at Concordia International School.  Leading us through a creative lesson beginning with a mysterious tombstone, Johnson modeled the process of investigating resources through primary documents: how to determine validity, questions to ask to further understanding, and integrating necessary course content (particularly in the AP classroom).

However, he hit the nail on the head half-way through the exercise: flipping Blooms taxonomy by referencing an article in “Inverting  Blooms Taxonomy” in Education Week.  This came up with Jeff and Kim at #ETC11 and it sparked my interest then…

As teachers we teach as we were taught: lecture, discussion, completely instructor driven.  However, if we are able to accomplish the same ‘objectives and benchmarks’ required of us, why not let the students reach those themselves?  Pushing them to create something that will build the knowledge that society expects them to have. Are we not back at the Socratic method in a modern sense?  Ask the question.  Push them to create.  Require acquisition of knowledge.  No matter how it may be gained.

Got me more interested in ‘The flipped classroom’ concept a colleague of mine is doing an incredible job at in his General Chemistry classroom…could it work in social studies?  Time may tell….

Picture: “The Death of Socrates” by Jacques-Louis David (1787) http://law2.umkc.edu/

Posted in Course 1 - Tagged , ,

EdKids

Mar24
2011 1 Comment Avatar of Jessica A Hale Written by Jessica A Hale

Dr. Ettie Zilber spoke on Third Culture Kids: Children of Educators on Thursday. Great synopsis on what sets EdTCKs apart, children of those colleagues that we teach next to day to day.  As a parent and a teacher of staff kids, some questions I have been wrestling with:

  • What responsibility do I have to staff kids?
  • How do I make sure there is no ‘alternate standard’ for these students?
  • How can I better teach, serve, enrich the staff kids experience at the school?

Zibler insightfully points out both the benefits at the challenges of EdKids and the school community:  Overlapping of roles as parents, teachers, students, etc.  Addressing these potential challenges can certainly help us to understand potential issues before they arise.

Her book Third Culture Kids: The Children of Educators in International Schools looks like a great resource for parents and teachers of staff kids.

Posted in Course 1 - Tagged , ,

Blog Literacy

Mar23
2011 1 Comment Avatar of Jessica A Hale Written by Jessica A Hale

As a first post for the COETAIL program and, to be honest, my first blog post ever…we are determining whether or not I am blog literate.  Well, if you are reading this I can officially claim my blog literacy.  Look out world…my thoughts on the web.  A dangerous thought indeed!

Posted in Course 1 - Tagged ,
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.