Lessons Learned The Hard Way

Turning Off the Computer In Order to Create

Over time, educators have come to advocate for the use of the computer in the act of creating something as in culminating performance tasks. I would be the last person to suggest that this is a wrong idea. However, there are times when creativity requires bouncing ideas around in one's head while doing other things. For example, being outside and walking or hiking or biking provides opportunities for thinking. I like to think about things when I am swimming in the pool. Any respite from sitting in front of a screen but still having to produce something or create something, will enable those creative juices to flow. Such is the way in which our minds work.

It’s All About Modulating Our Expectations

I confess to being a Type A personality. I drive myself pretty hard and have very high expectations of myself. Of course, it would be natural to assume that I would also demand perfection of my students. However, I learned early on that students become frustrated when expectations are too high. We know that every student has what is called a zone of proximal development, a place on a continuum of knowledge and skill development where students can successfully and comfortably work at tasks in the classroom. However, every student's zone of proximal development is different and so we have to adjust what we expect our students to do in any one period of time. We have to find that sweet spot between frustration, ease and challenge.

Start Simple and Englarge Your Repertoire As You Go

When I first started to teach I had a tendency to overreach in my lesson planning.  I'd try to do too much in too short a period of time.  I had an easy way with my students and tended to be very accommodating so that never got me into trouble when I goofed up with timing. But when I started to use technology in my classes, because I was very much a novice with the computer, I was not prone to over-reaching at all. I learned an important lesson about using technology though.  You have to start small, make it simple, don't try accomplish too much because problems will arise and they will through you off your game in front of the students.  Don't try to make it too difficult for you OR for your students and then add to your repertoire as they and you begin to gain confidence and efficacy.  

Even Experts Run Into Problems

When I was a graduate student, way back when, I decided to use a computer program to help with data analysis. Those were the days when I had to cross campus to go to the computer centre and feed in cards that constituted the program I wanted to run. When something didn't work, I made it my business to ask what happened and why. Little by little I began to learn how to master computer programming at a level that was enough for me. When I became a teacher librarian and had to manage all the desktops in my school, when something didn't work, I watched while the technicians worked to repair whatever was wrong. That is when I really began to understand what computers were and what they could do for me, for us. Asking questions was the way into this mysterious new universe. However, sometimes, the technicians couldn't help me or figure out what went wrong. Even they ran up against brick walls. Nothing has changed even now. When something goes wrong, don't automatically assume you have done something wrong. Some times, it is just the computers or the networks. And don't be afraid to ask for help and what needs to be done. That is how we all learn.

How the Pandemic Could Affect What Classrooms and Schools Look Like Going Forward

As I write this, schools are being faced, yet again, with shutdowns or restrictions on classroom learning. What two years of the Covid Pandemic has taught us in that future classroom learning will not look anywhere near what it did before March of 2020. Many of the practices put in place to meet the needs of classroom management and learning using technology to bring students and teachers will continue to be used and only become more prominent with time. In my mind, this is not a bad thing. But schools and districts are nowhere near ready to forge ahead into the future.

First You Play - Then You Focus On A Goal

Mastering the use of technology is no different than mastering any new set of skills or body of knowledge. First you have to muck about or play. We are programmed to learn about the world around us by experimenting, by manipulating, by touching and so forth. When it comes to using the computer it is no different. But you also must be aiming for some end goal or destination. At some point, we need to know what exactly we want to accomplish and where we want to go. The play or exploration period helps us focus hopefully.

Using the KISS Method - Keep It Simple Stupid

From the time that I first started to use technology in my teaching practices, there was a tendency to want to stay on top of all the new programs and to use them all in one classroom. There were some, like me, who could see how similar many of them were, but that didn't mean that using them with my students made them or me proficient in them or helped them in any way. I soon learned that it was better for my students and what I wanted to accomplish with them to aim for understanding and mastery in small steps. Today, it is no different. If we set about to dabble in everything at once, we become jacks of all trades and masters at none. Successful integration requires building up one's repertoire one step at a time.

Becoming a Guide on the Side

There was a time when becoming a teacher meant learning how to stand and deliver lessons to a whole class sitting in rows facing the front. The teacher was the authority figure and either you listened and learned or you did not succeed. Teachers assumed it was up to the students to provide their own motivation and if they were uninterested, they failed or eventually aged out. Over time, this model of the sage on the stage became the guide on the side. Teachers learned that it was their responsibility to motivate their students and to lead them to new learning in whatever way possible. We became like the Pied Piper of Hamelin in our own classrooms. helping our students to master knowledge, skills and affect. Instead of being a figure of authority, only, we became leadership figures. And principles of effective leadership began to apply to the classroom and teaching practices.

Using Popular Culture To Reach And Teach Our Students

From my earliest days as a classroom teacher, I tried to use elements of popular culture to reach and to teach my students. I admit to not being very good at it at the beginning, but over time I learned how to stay in tune with my students by staying in tune with what they were interested in. I used popular music, sports, movies, books to help me. Today, it is so much easier because we can use Google to help us gather information and then figure out how to capture the moment and teach essential skills using those interests. It doesn't matter what the tool is that we use. The important thing is figuring out how to use that stimulus to induce the learning of basic skills.

The Power of Collaborative Project Work in Learning

When I first began to teach, the idea of a class being divided into groups and working away one some project was not well-regarded. Parents worried about the student who did no work and yet got the same grade as the student who carried the group on his or h eer shoulders. I had a principal who was not happy with me when I had my students working all over the school on an integrated Art and Geography project. But, now, thanks to the work of people like Vygotsky, Gardner, and Piaget, we understand that deep learning only occurs when children are processing their new learning and given chance to apply it in another way. Hence we come to Problem Based Learning or Project Work. In this podcast, I explore in greater detail how projects done collaboratively contribute to deep learning and a sense of self-esteem and accomplishment in our students.