Sophie- Mod 5

Chapter 9 Increasing Student Engagement and Enhancing Learning

“Digital Leadership is a mindset and a call to transform a school’s culture into one that unleashes the creativity of students so they can create artifacts of learning that demonstrates conceptual mastery”. Do you agree that schools should reflect real life?

Just in my and my husband’s life/work, if we don’t know something, we try to figure it out on our own, and then we either look it up or ask someone with more experience than we do for help. Either way, we will eventually talk to a peer about it to get a better understanding because our peers usually have more experience than we do and they may have a few tricks or shortcuts that would help us out.

Students don’t get to do that in the average classroom. I say average, because I have seen some classrooms (mine included) where they do. It is important for students to be able to ask one another about their thinking and answer questions. Most of the time, the student “next door” can explain it better than the teacher can (if they understand it). I have found that sometimes I don’t have the right words to explain it to some students; that is why I try to pull their peers into the conversation as much as possible, they might have the words that I don’t. It is also important to nurture that curiosity and questioning. If it is stifled, then we will never have that next great gadget or cure.

The real world requires you to figure things out on your own. School should be teaching the kids how to do this, giving then the skills to be successful at whatever they do. Memorizing facts isn’t the most important thing anymore; knowing where to go to get the answer and how to find it is. Our schools now-a –days are stuck in the old traditions of producing a kid off of a conveyer belt. At each stop (grade level) information is shoved into their heads and then they are moved on. This kind of instruction doesn’t allow students to think critically or problem solve.

Schools should be more like the real world because we are supposed to be preparing them for the real world, no, for the world that hasn’t happened yet. We should be preparing them for the jobs that haven’t been invented yet and for the technology they will invent. I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked “And when am I going to use this when I grow up?” This question frustrates me, but I do my best to give multiple examples each and every single time. They tend to ask this question less when they are learning it with technology or with real world situations.

Students are more interested when they know this is something useful to learn. They pay more attention and are more involved in the learning process if they realize that learning this concept will make their life easier down the road. When they don’t get to explore those aspects of school (math is the worst) then they won’t really understand how it works, they won’t try because they won’t see the importance, and they will just memorize what they need to know for the test (if we are lucky).

Right now, what I see in my school, we are not preparing them for the future. We are teaching them that they shouldn’t try to figure things out for themselves, that they should just shut-up and do it the way the teacher tells you to do it, and the reason why it works is because the teacher said so. I am embarrassed to say that I work at a school that teaches this way.

Chapter 10 Rethinking Learning Environments and Spaces

Summarize the story of Clark Hall and reflect on your workplace or learning environment.  What are you thinking now after reading about Clark Hall? 

Summary: First they established a better/common vision: to build/launch the Clark Hall project. Then they needed to address the wireless Internet network problem. They “went from a two0lane highway to a two-thousand-lane highway” when they finally got the upgrade they needed. Then they started training the would-be staff. They went to a three day conference call Kip Camp at Ohio State University. It was like a social media/Web 2.0 boot camp for those in attendance. They also read Ian Juke’s book to learn about time management, collaboration, technology integration, and content delivery. They even had Ian Juke come to the district and give a presentation. Finally, they sent some teachers to a PBL conference and had them teach the rest what they learned.

Next, they had to build the building, but it wasn’t a normal school, it was a piece of art that allowed students to work together, learn, be taught, and collaborate with teachers and peers in multiple locations in comfortable furniture placed in warm and welcoming rooms. The students have reported to feel comfortable in the building. They feel like they are in college with the freedom and the responsibility that they have every day. The building’s environment spread to the other high school’s library.

They built in space in the first floor to lease out. The revenue from these spaces helped pay the mortgage off faster. They even had the YMCA give money to build a workout room that could be used by YMCA members in the evening and students during the day. Architecture students had the opportunity to help plan, design, and see the building process.

The school that I work at now does not do cross-curricular projects nor do they let the students collaborate much. The walls are bare unless the teacher decorates them, and the furniture provided by the district is uncomfortable, even for the teachers.

Grant Proposal

Toshiba Grants for Grades 6-12

http://www.grantsalert.com/grants/Foundations/1540/Toshiba-Grants-For-Grades-6---12

This grant is provided for a science or math teacher (or a group of teachers) that wants to do project based learning where they tape into the students' natural curiosity. It can be cross curricular or not (I think). I think I'm going to try and go with the STEM movement direction with this grant. I have connections at FSU and the NASA ERC that will make this go smoother for me, I think anyway. 

I was going to try and have the TI Initiative and the Grant Proposal go toward the same thing, but I don't think I can with this grant. They don't want an application to just be for tech, they want to help out with the other stuff to help make the PBL successful. They want innovative teachers.

The school that I am going to work at next year is trying to do more cross-curricular activities within the math and science departments. They are trying to do more STEM projects and I think that this grant would be a great asset for this cause.