Ideas from the Tables on Teaching and Learning

(Please add ideas of your own here. Use a different color and add your name.)

•  what would happen if...   the IL standards were more well known by teachers? ed note: We cannot hope to collaborate with every teacher on every unit of instruction taught in the shcool. If all students are to become better users of informaiton and ideas, the teachers must be information literate themselves and then incorcoporate those ideas into their own teaching. That is one gift of true collaboration; the teacher learns what we teach and we learn about what they teach. Together, we are better teachers and learners ourselves.
•  consistent planning time with teachers. ed note:  One of the reasons I like the concept of professional learning communities is that smart principals can easily include the librarian and other specialists in consistent planning times. What that happens, the door swings wide open for you to make a difference.
• Relevant school survival information created using various technologies (movies of school rules, brochures and newsletters for parents). ed note: I am going to assume that the idea here is that  there a wide new variety of products that can be created by students in the Web 2.0 world. With new technologies comes a great deal of motivation and engagement. However, avoid the crayola curriculum. This means that product creation itself can take so much time that it smothers learning time. My recommendation  is that the final so what activity, the big think, the whole class synthesis activity be scheduled first. Then back up and select a product, if there is to be one, that will fit in the time available. Look for technologies that help kids and teens express their learning in a quick and effective way.
• How do you ask the question so that the teacher knows how a Big Think question improves their lesson? ed note: Daniel Pink talks about both left and right brain learning. When we try to end a lesson and unit with a so what?, big idea, or major conclusion, we are moving from left brain work to right brain thinking. This may be difficult at first for bother children and adults. However, when you start practising it, suddenly, an new world appears and you start to see the big picture more often rather than just collect the facts. It is a life changing experience.
• Students have difficulty (or even resent) reflection because they have not had a higher level learning experience. They are not reflecting on what they learned. All they can do is reflect on the learning they already knew. ed note: They don't reflect or generalize because they have not been asked to do so. Try it with them. They won't succeed the first time, but with a bit of practice and knowing that big thinking is a part of the lesson or unit assignment, they will perform. The trouble is, when they revert to old bird unit cut and paste mentality, they will resist, complan, be bored, and will misbehave.
• What is the impact of censorship of the Internet in schools? ed note: When you expose stuents only to "approved" informaiton, they cease to think and question. Can we please develop thinkins who will keep this democracy strong and moving forward? Remember, one of the first things dictators do is to burn the books or sqash the Internet.
• Big think questions force kids to think: What are the alternatives to oil from the Middle East?  Alaska? What are the alternatives to being an American? ed. note: Carol Koechlin and Sandi Zwaan have some great books out on questining. Look them up. They are treasures.
• Comic Life ($ 500 per district).  Example:  Research Vietnam  - Then a fiction story into a comic book on "A Day in the Life of a Soldier" ed. note: It is not always the technology or its cost that counts, it is how you use it and use it wisely. We are learning that Web 2.0 tools do things that help kids learn in ways no other technologies can. Every technilogy seems to have such unique characteristics we can discover and use effectively. For example, stidky notes are examples of moveable text that can be moved around quickly without the aid of a machine.
• Advisement Toolbox- Teachers share best practices of how to conduct an advisement
• Email to communicate with staff and principal...but not all teachers are checking their email on a daily basis. ed. note: Attention is the currency of this century. If one method does not work, try another.
• Using google reader to keep track of the latest headlines so that you have ideas to share with the students. ed note: teach the students similar techniques to stay informed. they probably already know ten ways in the social networking world that you have not even heard about. They will teach those ideas to you if you appear to be remotely interested. And, they might even ask you why you are becoming a geek like them.
• Scan a page from a book (remove the words), use Visual Teaching Strategies (VTS) to have students make predictions about the stories.