Seth Godin gives me required daily reading. Today's post focuses on classroom bans on using Wikipedia for research. But, for as many classrooms that ban Wikipedia, I've seen teachers go against this grain and use it to make up for more than fear of the unknown.
I love Seth's discussion of synthesizing ideas as the valuable skill in today's post, but I feel compelled to point out that the ranks of "rogue teachers" have been using web quests in the classroom. The idea is exactly as he maps out in the last paragraph of the post, where students are given a web browser and a question to answer. Sometimes the output is a paper, other times it's a panel discussion or presentation.
Wikipedia is one valid source for these projects. Some teachers challenge students to check facts, whether from Wikipedia or not. Other classrooms are fact-checking Wikipedia entries as class projects.
I am not a teacher, but I was privileged to meet lots of great teachers while working on GM's K-12 education web site, who are using these web-based resources in the classroom. And as we talked with these teachers, they told us stories of their colleagues... and this is confirmed as I look at my sons' (two of 'em) schools. The schools that are strapped for physical materials find a way to get their hands on computer lab time and help students do these tasks in their heads, on chalk boards, and on computers. Ironically, it's the "at risk" schools in places like Boston and Los Angeles that are making headway in academic process by using web quests, Wikipedia and HowStuffWorks.
The result? Students learn that very synthesis of facts. They don't spend nearly as much time hunting down those facts. We've built the tools, let's find more ways to get them into the classroom!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
I still love GM's Education web site!
Okay, two years later, I'm still loving this site: GM's Education web site.
What's new? It looks like they've improved the navigation and made it easier for teachers to find lesson plans, and gives kids a chance to choose their grade (look under Lori's picture). New games focus on ethanol and the Chevy Volt.
At one time, GM was reaching out to teachers to see if they would use these articles and activities in their classrooms... the response was overwhelmingly, "yes!" I'd love to know if, in fact, they are.
Weekly Reader strikes a new tone with a youthful, yet ageless, blog about writing and current literature -- Word. Most of this week's entries are book reviews, especially Harry Potter (no link needed!), but they've also had some great posts on writing as well. Hip and informative. Great job!
What's new? It looks like they've improved the navigation and made it easier for teachers to find lesson plans, and gives kids a chance to choose their grade (look under Lori's picture). New games focus on ethanol and the Chevy Volt.
At one time, GM was reaching out to teachers to see if they would use these articles and activities in their classrooms... the response was overwhelmingly, "yes!" I'd love to know if, in fact, they are.
Weekly Reader strikes a new tone with a youthful, yet ageless, blog about writing and current literature -- Word. Most of this week's entries are book reviews, especially Harry Potter (no link needed!), but they've also had some great posts on writing as well. Hip and informative. Great job!
Friday, May 05, 2006
Kindergarteners trapping fairies
Here's a little bit of info on how Mrs. Wright, who teaches Kindergarten at Lakewood Elementary, tied in an Ann Arbor phenomeon... fairy doors. The activity is very creative and expressive. I'm very impressed how these students figured a way around "speaking softly" to encourage the fairies to come out!
Read more about the classroom experience at www.urban-fairies.com.
This page has pictures of the "fairy traps" that the children devised. Don't forget to check out the rest of the site, which explains the whole fairy door concept.
Read more about the classroom experience at www.urban-fairies.com.
This page has pictures of the "fairy traps" that the children devised. Don't forget to check out the rest of the site, which explains the whole fairy door concept.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
An environmental math activity
Caring for the environment is a hot classroom topic. While I'm sure teachers can find all kinds of curricula on the subject, here's a current events activity I'm making up as I go along. First, learn about GM's Hybrid Bus. Then, using some math projections, calculate the hybrid bus's impact on the environment.
Here's a great place to start: http://fyi.gmblogs.com/2006/04/has_your_city_gone_hybrid.html
This blog post talks about how much fuel hybrid buses can save each year. The fact is stated this way, "In fact, if America's nine largest cities replaced their transit fleets — totaling 13,000 buses — with GM's hybrid buses, the cities would save 40 million gallons of fuel each year — a greater savings than 500,000 small hybrid vehicles would produce."
Just how many math problems can a teacher extract from just that sentence?? It gets better! Someone posted a response suggesting that school districts could replace their current diesel buses with these hybrid buses. Can you calculate the fuel savings for your district's bus fleet if they went fully hybrid?
Wow. Social commentary, involvement in social media, all wrapped up in environmental science and pinned together with math.
It's amazing what you learn at every turn. Happy computing!
Here's a great place to start: http://fyi.gmblogs.com/2006/04/has_your_city_gone_hybrid.html
This blog post talks about how much fuel hybrid buses can save each year. The fact is stated this way, "In fact, if America's nine largest cities replaced their transit fleets — totaling 13,000 buses — with GM's hybrid buses, the cities would save 40 million gallons of fuel each year — a greater savings than 500,000 small hybrid vehicles would produce."
Just how many math problems can a teacher extract from just that sentence?? It gets better! Someone posted a response suggesting that school districts could replace their current diesel buses with these hybrid buses. Can you calculate the fuel savings for your district's bus fleet if they went fully hybrid?
Wow. Social commentary, involvement in social media, all wrapped up in environmental science and pinned together with math.
It's amazing what you learn at every turn. Happy computing!
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Sometimes you just need to prove something by action
UC Berkeley integrative biologist Marian Diamond has been researching how good food, bright surroundings and fun toys coincide with better-developed brains in rats. She calls it "enrichment." Her program, "Enrichment In Action," begins to to create her dream of moving research from the stodgy labs to real-life application.
While the theory seems obvious to me, I have to really honor this woman for pouring 40 years into this idea, and taking action. She's out there, in Cambodia, "enriching environments" for children. They're healthier and happier because of her work. This is an awesome thing, because so many of us dream about it, but few actually *do* it.
Here's an article from Science Matters: http://sciencematters.berkeley.edu/archives/volume3/issue20/story1.php
While the theory seems obvious to me, I have to really honor this woman for pouring 40 years into this idea, and taking action. She's out there, in Cambodia, "enriching environments" for children. They're healthier and happier because of her work. This is an awesome thing, because so many of us dream about it, but few actually *do* it.
Here's an article from Science Matters: http://sciencematters.berkeley.edu/archives/volume3/issue20/story1.php
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Destination ImagiNation results
What an experience! It was my first year coaching a D.I. (Destination ImagiNation) team. I had four third-grade boys. (Yes, I thought many times, "kill me now!") We took on the improvisational challenge, with absolutely no presentation, acting or improv skills.
My son was one of the four boys. It was very frustrating for the boys, being the youngest in their level of competition, and with this being the first year they were actually going to get a score. They were very excited about the prospect of advancing to the state tournament. Honestly, I knew they wouldn't make it, but I really didn't want to rain on their parade. I kept a very open, "we'll see what happens," attitude.
Half-way through the process of preparing for competition, we fell apart. The boys were being boys, and I asked their teachers for help. Once the parents had been looped in to a very crazy game of "operator," everyone was hurt, angry, and we all wanted to throw in the towel. Except for four determined boys. Up to this point, D.I. was "fun," and, frankly, a chance to socialize outside of school. I struggled greatly with balancing letting them learn their own lessons, and preparing them for the *huge* challenge ahead. The last thing I wanted to do was to let them continue on their path of ... well, socializing... get to competition and be surprised that they were actually supposed to do research and practice some skills. As a coach, I couldn't sit back and let them do that.
Apparently, not sitting back -- pushing these boys -- was the right decision. I'd like to say that we took this DIsaster to a top-ranking team, but let's still be realistic. They were competing against fifth- and sixth-graders with many more years of experience than these boys. However, this team of four third-grade boys pushed themselves to pay attention during evening meetings. (Can anything be worse on a child?) They didn't fully "get it," just what they were supposed to accomplish, during these meetings, but they did try. Every week. The did not understand what they were supposed to be practicing and researching between meetings. But, they showed up the morning of competition, ready for whatever they were to face.
Okay, now for the results. The boys drew a very difficult combination of elements, one they knew from practice that was just going to be hard. They pulled together a skit and performed it. That right there satisfied my definition of accomplishment. For them, they scored 139 out of 300. It doesn't sound stellar, but their scores reflected points in every category. In other words, they did *everything* they were supposed to do. Maybe they didn't do it with the level of sophistication that was called for by the challenge's definition, but they did it.
These boys didn't let anything scare them. Even now, they have a much bigger sense of what they could have done, but they have a sense of pride because they participated and didn't give up.
I went into this competition day, fully committed to never looking back at D.I. once that performance was complete. I hated the entire process. I dreaded every meeting. But, now that we're done, I found myself staying behind to wait for the scores. Everyone from our team left, except my family. And when we got the scores and one element came back with a zero score, I challenged. I knew these boys knew that they had met this element, and I knew what I had to do. I challenged, and the judges agreed.
They gave us the points for including the element, and 0.83 points out of 25 for the way they included it. Yes, it's a pathetic score. But, now I can go back to them with that score sheet. And they'll listen. They'll have to, if they want to improve for their performance next year.
My son was one of the four boys. It was very frustrating for the boys, being the youngest in their level of competition, and with this being the first year they were actually going to get a score. They were very excited about the prospect of advancing to the state tournament. Honestly, I knew they wouldn't make it, but I really didn't want to rain on their parade. I kept a very open, "we'll see what happens," attitude.
Half-way through the process of preparing for competition, we fell apart. The boys were being boys, and I asked their teachers for help. Once the parents had been looped in to a very crazy game of "operator," everyone was hurt, angry, and we all wanted to throw in the towel. Except for four determined boys. Up to this point, D.I. was "fun," and, frankly, a chance to socialize outside of school. I struggled greatly with balancing letting them learn their own lessons, and preparing them for the *huge* challenge ahead. The last thing I wanted to do was to let them continue on their path of ... well, socializing... get to competition and be surprised that they were actually supposed to do research and practice some skills. As a coach, I couldn't sit back and let them do that.
Apparently, not sitting back -- pushing these boys -- was the right decision. I'd like to say that we took this DIsaster to a top-ranking team, but let's still be realistic. They were competing against fifth- and sixth-graders with many more years of experience than these boys. However, this team of four third-grade boys pushed themselves to pay attention during evening meetings. (Can anything be worse on a child?) They didn't fully "get it," just what they were supposed to accomplish, during these meetings, but they did try. Every week. The did not understand what they were supposed to be practicing and researching between meetings. But, they showed up the morning of competition, ready for whatever they were to face.
Okay, now for the results. The boys drew a very difficult combination of elements, one they knew from practice that was just going to be hard. They pulled together a skit and performed it. That right there satisfied my definition of accomplishment. For them, they scored 139 out of 300. It doesn't sound stellar, but their scores reflected points in every category. In other words, they did *everything* they were supposed to do. Maybe they didn't do it with the level of sophistication that was called for by the challenge's definition, but they did it.
These boys didn't let anything scare them. Even now, they have a much bigger sense of what they could have done, but they have a sense of pride because they participated and didn't give up.
I went into this competition day, fully committed to never looking back at D.I. once that performance was complete. I hated the entire process. I dreaded every meeting. But, now that we're done, I found myself staying behind to wait for the scores. Everyone from our team left, except my family. And when we got the scores and one element came back with a zero score, I challenged. I knew these boys knew that they had met this element, and I knew what I had to do. I challenged, and the judges agreed.
They gave us the points for including the element, and 0.83 points out of 25 for the way they included it.
Friday, December 09, 2005
GM's Education site still shines
Although I'm no longer a part of it, I still love this web site for students in grades K-12: www.gmability.com/education.
When you go there, you get a very standard GM page, which is a bit cumbersome. But, I encourage you to follow the links to one of the grade ranges (K-4, 5-8 or 9-12). You'll find some great games and stories written for each grade level. The stories focus on science, energy and the environment, and scratch the surface of some fun technologies, like 3D modelling and satellites. The games are all directly related to the content, and reinforce ideas introduced in the articles.
The high points of this site are the interactive tours. When you read an article on fuel cells, you can click the "interactive tour" button and get an in-depth illustration of how the hydrogen molecules react with O2 to create electricity. You can do the same for an inside look at the internal combustion engine.
I must admit, I was shocked when I first learned about this site. Of course, the way I learned of it was interviewing for the job of creating and managing its content! We've struggled for almost three years to publicize this site without an all-out advertising blitz. The strange thing is that every time we put it in front of teachers, they rave about it and say they would use it in their classrooms. What's the barrier to making this happen?
When you go there, you get a very standard GM page, which is a bit cumbersome. But, I encourage you to follow the links to one of the grade ranges (K-4, 5-8 or 9-12). You'll find some great games and stories written for each grade level. The stories focus on science, energy and the environment, and scratch the surface of some fun technologies, like 3D modelling and satellites. The games are all directly related to the content, and reinforce ideas introduced in the articles.
The high points of this site are the interactive tours. When you read an article on fuel cells, you can click the "interactive tour" button and get an in-depth illustration of how the hydrogen molecules react with O2 to create electricity. You can do the same for an inside look at the internal combustion engine.
I must admit, I was shocked when I first learned about this site. Of course, the way I learned of it was interviewing for the job of creating and managing its content! We've struggled for almost three years to publicize this site without an all-out advertising blitz. The strange thing is that every time we put it in front of teachers, they rave about it and say they would use it in their classrooms. What's the barrier to making this happen?
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Finding good blogs on education
Wow. It’s been a challenge finding blogs that do education justice. When I first started looking for edu blogs, I had a hard time. Most teachers still post on forums. And, boy, do those forums get ugly. One very popular teacher forum talked about everything except education.
In general, I have found blogs by educators to be one of two things: 1) not updated often enough to make me want to come back, or 2) not on the topic of education. Many education professionals have blogs; they just don’t use them to talk about teaching. Then there’s the whole gamut of blogs that talk about RSS, OS’s, and blogging in education.
The tide is changing. I’m starting to find a few blogs that relate to teaching students. Here are a couple of blogs moving in the right direction.
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/brogers/
Education Week has broken into the blogosphere! This is a leading magazine for education professionals (teachers and administrators), and they launched their blog effort with Betsy Rogers, 2004 Teacher of the Year. She does a good job of chronicling the challenges of teaching in a financially strapped district. Posts are thorough, and the resulting comments are engaging. Betsy may need to learn how to present only the intro to her posts on the main page. Also, I haven’t seen a reply from Betsy to any of the comments. Is she reading the comments?
http://elementary-school.blogspot.com/
Although this isn’t updated often enough, it has good content. Norma Jean Smith is a librarian in Texas who finds good stuff for students on the web, and writes about them. Now, if anyone will just read and let her know she’s done good!
http://world-history-blog.blogspot.com/
Midland Brown, a North American academic, is credited with this collection of history-related articles. Some discuss resources available, and some get to the details of teaching history to students. I like his thoughts, and it is updated sufficiently. Two things I don’t like is that comments are not allowed, and he incorporates advertising.
There’s still some annoying blogs out there. For example,
http://educational.blogs.com/edbloggerpraxis/primary_school_blog_news/
I find portal clusters annoying. It’s a list of other blogs. These authors offer nothing to the blog, just simply use RSS to suck in other blogs. When do I get to the meat? Oh, and the last entry is from December 2004. Makes me wonder if anyone is monitoring this, and do I bother submitting mine?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)