Flipping the Inquiry Ratio

• Originally posted by Darryl Anderson at collaborativelearner.posterous.com
• Posted at 7:43 am on Sat, Sep 22, 2012

In the past five years as an MYP teacher, and the past few as MYP Coordinator visiting other teachers’ classrooms, I’ve noticed that even though the MYP is a curriculum framework designed to support student-led inquiry, for the most part curriculum units seem to follow a 80%/20% rule. For the first 80% of a unit, the teacher uses various strategies to have students inquire into a teacher-generated unit question, with only the final 20% used for a truly student-driven inquiry-based summative assessment. As described by graingered two posts ago, “we define the list of what kids should know, and then we make up questions to teach to the lists” which tends to result in “artificial inquiry” instead of truly getting to the essence of “limitless inquiry.”

In my Grade 10 Humanities class this year, we’re trying something new. We’re flipping the ratio described above so that we start with 20% of laying the foundations of content, just enough to get the students intrigued and enthusiastic. Then we leave the remaining 80% for them to generate their own paths of inquiry, where they set the number of assessments, the types of assessments, the due dates and even the assessment criteria that will apply. The unit is focusing on the concepts of ideologies, government and effect. We went through 5 classes of learning about various political ideologies and brainstorming their effects on individuals and communities around the world. Now they have 20 classes to apply those concepts and the inquiry statement to whatever content they choose.

So far the results have been very intriguing, and the level of engagement has sky-rocketed. This used to be the “Nazism, Fascism and Communism” unit, which only tended to appeal to a certain number of male students. Now those boys can really delve into whatever ideologies they choose, while all the other students come up with what they’re interested in. They’ve truly impressed me a number of advanced inquiry statements that I never could have dreamed of – “How has conservatism affected the rights of LGBT people globally?” “How has Confucianism affected the governments of East Asia throughout history?” “How does Islamic feminism compare with Western feminism?”

The student-driven inquiry (80%) part of this unit is just beginning so I’m curious (and a bit nervous) to see how it all plays out. As Brian (my partner in this inquiry experiment) mentioned in his post a few days ago, it can be somewhat daunting to give up control to the students when it comes to setting the assessment parameters. 

For now I can definitely feel a more palpable buzz to the classroom than I have in previous years.  One of my students said the other day that Humanities has become her favourite class. When I asked why, she said it was because she got to teach herself what she always wanted to learn about.

Interactions

• Originally posted by Darryl Anderson at collaborativelearner.posterous.com
• Posted at 1:55 pm on Mon, Apr 2, 2012

We usually picture a "traditional" classroom as a one-to-one dialogue between teacher at the front and students sitting in rows paying attention, ready to answer questions. In the MYP, we often change the model to have students sitting in groups working collaboratively with each other, with the teacher there to act as a guide. But sometimes small-group collaboration can be messy and noisy. A parent or another teacher might walk in and wonder what kind of learning is going on here? Why are there so many students talking at once? Is the teacher in control? What is everyone doing?

Which is the better example of effective learning?

During this professional growth month, I've gone into many classrooms to see what kinds of interactions are taking place. I've seen the whole spectrum from “traditional” to “messy”. One Friday afternoon with a notably active bunch of students, I had a colleague come in to my class and observe a rowdy debate among 14 students. At first I was concerned about my perceived lack of control, but the feedback I got from both my colleague and students was actually quite positive. Even though they were constantly trying to interrupt each other and words were flying everywhere, the students were eagerly focused on the debate topic for over half an hour.

I think we all know there's definitely a time for more “traditional” teacher-student interaction, and also time for the messy, noisy collaborative student-student interactions as well. We just need to know when to let go and let things get messy. I think if the teacher frames the lesson with an engaging topic or question for the students to grab on to, we have no choice but to let them run away with it.

Assessment: Who's in Control

• Originally posted at collaboraivelearner.posterous.com by Brian Neises
• Posted at 12:13 pm on Wed, Mar 28, 2012

What if students were able to choose when and what they wanted to be assessed on?  That simple question was posed by Dan recently to me in a staffroom chat.  It quickly exploded into an hour long discussion, that resulted in about 2 weeks worth of work on re-imagining my classroom experience for next year.

I think I was alway comfortable with the idea of students choosing their own topics or concepts for inquiry, but I was never able to come up with many good assessments that allowed for good student initiated action.  It was hard to think of open ended assignments.  Dan’s question allowed for an end-around to the problem of the teacher structuring tasks, and then making students fit their learning and inquiry into the teacher’s structure and time-frame.

Luckily, I teach within an MYP context, so there are skill driven objectives set out for my classes already.  Currently, I set an assignment for a specified objective, like I think most teachers do.  Why do I do it that way?  That’s just the way it was always done.  Teacher gives instruction;  teacher gives assignment;  teacher chooses objective; teacher gives a grade; and so on.  Why do we usually not let students decide on what they want to demonstrate when studying plants, or civilizations, or poetry?  Most likely, we teachers want control.  If we let students run free, then how will we ensure they’ve learned!?

So what we’ve come up with in addressing that question is a simple framework in essence, but difficult in management.  I will be teaching a few weeks of base content, then allowing students to inquire into anything they want that addresses the unit’s key/significant concept.  I will be conferencing with students regularly (once a week minimum), and negotiating how they will meet certain minimum requirements over the course of the year.  Most likely students will need to choose two or three ways to be assessed over an 8 week unit on a particular concept, and keep a portfolio journalling their progress.  However, they may choose more if they are really into that topic, or fewer if they could care less.  The skill driven objectives of the MYP admittedly make this much easier.  The role of the teacher will drastically change.  It’s honestly a bit scary!  Students will be allowed to decide what objectives they want to meet; how they will demonstrate they met them; how and when they will be assessed; and who their audience will be.  They will be free to choose more, while I spend more time directing, rather than dictating, learning.

So what if students actually had the choice to choose how and when they were assessed?  Here are a few advantages and challenges I foresee right now before diving in.  Please leave comments and feedback to help us work through this process of enabling students to direct their own assessment!

Pros

Increased practice at research skills

Increased practice at planning and organizing time

Variety of assessment products (movies, blogs, teaching lessons, video conferencing, etc)

Increased formative and self assessment, as well as re-assessing work

Possibility for year-long assessment

Natural differentiation of tasks

Increased student ownership of learning

Students targeting specific areas that need improvement

All projects become individually tailored

Challenges

Me giving up control!

Keeping track of all students tasks

Managing the learning environment

Making sure students make wise choices

Maintaining motivation

Testing knowledge (can you test? individual tests?)

Changing stakeholders’ perceptions of learning

Can you think of any more?

Collaborative planning

Originally posted at collaboraivelearner.posterous.com by 

• Patrick OConnor
• Posted at 4:15 pm on Mon, Mar 26, 2012

Are you one of those professionals who tries to 'turn off' from work? You don't want to talk or think about work after hours? You have militant discipline and do not cross the line? Or are you the dedicated, drives-others-crazy with non-stop shop talk? Before during and after work, you just keep thinking about work?

Of course we're likely to be neither but somewhere on the middle of a spectrum between these two points. However, professional dialogue is vital to improving our practice. Most of us would not have this built into a work-day and so it can be hard to find the time or motivation. On a recent weekend escape, I was with colleagues. Imagine the dilemma? What a great opportunity for professional dialogue. But we didn't want to talk about work! It was a weekend to relax and escape. However, I still managed to come away with a brilliant idea that I'm excited to put into practice. That happened because in talking about work with a colleague, we were also talking about subjects we are passionate about. It didn't seem like shop talk. I also finished the chat and filed it away for thinking about further during work hours.
What was the idea?
My friend is participating in a social networking photo-a-day activity. Done for personal reasons and enjoying it. After talking about this for a while I made the connection to my own subject and we started discussing ways that I could do a similar thing for my students. What would need to be changed? What would be the best platform for feedback and sharing? It was a quick, enjoyable conversation, that did not interfere with our personal escape from work, but was also a mix of personal and professional interests.
It's a fine line, knowing when to talk shop and when not to. I'm glad i did, and I don't think it changed the tone of our weekend. Or maybe I'm being selfish because I have been on the receiving end of conversations that I thought were not in the right time or place.
The bottom line is, there needs to be more opportunity for colleagues to get together, during work hours, to inspire and share together. or at least to get on line and share and learn more because it is valuable, but  difficult to find the right time and place.
When I was younger, professional retreats were popular. Businesses do them. We arrange them for our students, but we don't do them ourselves.  Food for thought.
   
Patrick O'Connor
Visual Arts Teacher KIS International School
Artist
THAILAND
www.itsapatoconnor.blogspot.com

The Classroom Environment - Creating a culture for Learning

• Go to original post by Ange Molony
• Posted at 11:43 am on Fri, Mar 23, 2012

Peer observation can be a genuinely meaningful experience for everyone, if and only if everyone wants it to be. 

I've certainly been involved in my fair share of rushed and incomplete peer observations sessions. I've used excuses about being busy or it being unnecessary or about how it can be a waste of valuable time. But I've also been a part of observation sessions that are focused and worthwhile, and that bring about opportunities for clear and meaningful self-reflection. 

Just recently, a coordinator visited my G12 Maths SL class to observe my lesson. Throughout the process my coordinator played the role of my mirror - the best tool for reflection! 

We had a quick pre-observation chat and I said that I wanted to focus on The Classroom Environment - Creating a culture for learning. This meeting was really important for setting the tone for the whole process. Because I chose the focus it meant that I was in control of my learning and development, it instantly felt more like a professional development opportunity than an evaluation process (in this case it was a PD opportunity, but the same set up could be used for evaluation). We all know our strengths and weaknesses and we all have aspects of our teaching that we'd like to improve. We are either getting better or worse as teachers, nobody stays the same. Own it!
So, I established a goal and we decided that he would be looking at how on-task my students were and he would also script tape the entire lesson (like the person in the courtroom but without the weird typewriter and the woolly jumper, they always wear woolly jumpers).

My observer did two key things during the lesson:

• Wrote down everything that was said
• Took an on-task vs off-task survey of every student (he did this every 5 minutes of the lesson)

Not an easy thing to do!

We followed up on the next school day and I looked at the stats and the transcript of my lesson. As I read through the transcript I was immediately self reflecting and sharing my thoughts about the lesson. "I should have done this.....", "I wanted this to happen here.....", "That worked out really well", "Wow, I say some weird things" "The kids responded better than I expected" etc etc.  Throughout my own self-reflection my observer continued to act as a mirror. He didn't interrupt or tell me which aspects of my lesson to focus on, he just allowed me to talk about the parts of my lesson that worked, that didn't work, that I enjoyed and that I didn't enjoy. With clarifying questions, active listening and by adding or reminding me of things that he observed, he really enabled a very powerful opportunity for self reflection. 

At the end of our discussion (my self-reflection and analysis of my own lesson) he helped me decide on what changes I would make so that I could improve my lessons and ultimately continue to improve the Culture of Learning in my classes.

These words on the image below are a great for self-reflection and for deciding on ways to implement changes in your class.  

I'm going to eliminate some bad habits, modify some of my techniques and experiment with some new approaches.
Perhaps after your next lesson you might glance over these words and make a plan to make a difference in your class?

Ange Molony

Twitter: @MissAngeDP

It’s observation time.

• Go to original post Ange Molony
• Posted at 11:09 am on Mon, Mar 12, 2012

It’s peer observation month at our school. (Queue the music of dread?)
Where do you sit on this? Does peer observation induce fear or excitement? Is it something that you run to or run away from? Does it eat up your valuable time or is it quick and efficient?
Over the last few years at our school we have really tried to develop a peer observation month that is all things positive. It aims to be exciting, time efficient and rewarding for all teachers involved (the observer and the observed). I think that this year @DanMagie has put together a great system that will reach all staff that are willing to give it a go and it will even bring some of the unwilling over to the bright side.
First we were asked to think about one area, from the list below, that we (as individual teachers) wanted to focus on.




Domain 1:  Planning and preparation
Domain 2: The classroom environment
Domain 3: Instruction
Domain 4: Professional responsibilities
You can read in more detail about each of these domains here
(Danielson, Charlotte. Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching. 2nd ed. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1996. Print.)
After we each chose our own personal focus area we were grouped into each of the four domains. So we instantly found ourselves working with a small group of teachers that have similar goals. One step closer to what will be a valuable experience, right? But the next step is what I think is going to make this all work.
Self directed approach that is followed by one expectation.

1. Self directed approach - Your group can discuss options and come to agreement regarding your own ideas.
2. Submit at least one personal reflection to the Professional Growth blog.

It is so simple that it will work and it so open-ended that it will allow for some teachers to really dig deep and explore the domains. I’m kinda hoping that this might not stop at the end of the month (you could continue to be self-reflective and use the domains as a focus).
(Oh, and the bonus is that if nothing else you will learn about posterous.com!)
My group is looking at Domain 2: The classroom environment. I personally want to focus on classroom procedures and the management of classroom transitions.
I’ll let you all know how it goes in due time!
Thanks to @danmagie for taking the time to find new ways to engage us all in our ongoing professional learning.
I would like to hear if your school has a structure for peer observations?



Ange Molony
Twitter: @MissAngeDP

How I've changed as a teacher: talking less

• Original post at Darryl Anderson
• Posted at 10:44 am on Thu, Jan 12, 2012

This past Monday morning was the first day of the semester and as expected my Grade 9 students were unfocused and talkative. It was the beginning of a new unit on Natural Disasters and as usual, I like to begin with a Preview Guide full of trivia questions or "identify-what's happening-in-the-photo" questions. The students enjoyed the trivia pre-quiz but it was hard to keep them quiet. They just had to discuss their answers with each other. My co-teacher was sitting in on the class since he was going to deliver the same lesson the next day and wanted to see how it worked. At one point in the quiz I commented to him: "wow, the kids are more talkative than usual today." He responded: "I know, this is crazy. My kids are always so quiet. They're angels compared to these guys. They just sit there and listen."

At first I felt defensive that I appeared to be a teacher who couldn't keep control of his students. But after the lesson I reflected on it and was glad that my students were so talkative. They couldn't help but share their ideas with each other. The quiz doesn't count for a grade, so who am I to tell them to keep quiet and work on this individually? Isn't the job of the teacher to ask questions rather than answer all the questions? If I sat in on his class with his quiet, passive students, would there be more or less evidence of learning than my talkative, actively engaged students? I remember in one of my masters courses an adage that says "a teacher should be more like a guide on the side, rather than a sage on the stage." In the past few years this has really sunk in and rather than just lecture my students and answer their questions, I try to prompt their enthusiasm by asking them questions, showing them intriguing photos and videos, and giving them trivia quizzes on the first day back from break.

It's easy to fall back into the pattern of lecturing and reading chapters from the textbook, especially in a content-heavy subject like Humanities. I think some teachers gravitate towards History and Geography because they enjoy sharing their endless knowledge of facts and anecdotes about the world. Of course there is a place for that in Humanities class and some students enjoy hearing their teacher tell stories about their travel experiences around the world. But sometimes I think it takes more of an effort to get off the stage and let the students have an unstructured discussion about what the teacher has presented them with.
Darryl Anderson
MYP Humanities

Do you teach the way you were taught?

• Original post at Patrick OConnor
• Posted at 3:52 pm on Wed, Dec 14, 2011

"Most teachers, teach they way they were taught."  That's what research says. Apparently by Shymansky, Hedges, and Woodworth, 1990. I googled the phrase, and it is used a lot.
In fact, when I became an art teacher, I specifically set out to do things differently than from the way I was taught in the early 80s. There are some obvious differences: My teacher then used to smoke incessantly. Sometimes his ash would drop off his cigarette onto our art work as he leaned in to look. He would also duck into his store room for a nip of whiskey from his hip flask mid-lesson. There are many reasons why I do not share his practices; legalities not the least of them.
There are some subtle differences as well. It seemed like he was preparing us for a life as a tradesman; a painter or sign-writer. Our materials were also limited to water-colours. Though one year we got to use a silk-screen. It was fun. My teacher thought it a useful skill. Now it is an outdated method, replaced by an inkjet printer. My teacher did not squash my love of art. But I dont think I learned a lot from him, except for a few techniques in lettering and printing, now a redundant novelty. I certainly did not understand art. He was skills focused. It was like a trade course.
However, as a teacher, I still thought that skills were important. Instead of instructing how to develop the skills, I would set students a problem, ask them to research how they could accomplish the task, then they would experiment, with feedback from me, they could learn the skill themselves. What I did not realize till much later, the skill that was most important was the inquiry process they went through, not the end product. I only need to learn how to use a silkscreen, if I need a silkscreen print. But there is likely to be something that can do the task better, in the future. I need to be able to learn how to teach myself to use it, and I need to want to learn. This is how reflection and inquiry has changed my teaching style. Skills are important, but we each develop these to different degrees and we should be able to decide which skills are appropriate for us.
Another way I teach differently from the way I was taught is that I do not teach content. I spent many hours as a student taking dictation. Then memorizing my notes. Now I teach context and concepts. Huge differences. There is no memorizing, but there is knowing.
When my students have finished with my classes, I want them to understand and appreciate art, whether their skills are refined or not.
I want my students to decide what it is they are ready to understand and access about art. Visual art, Like most liberal arts (or all) is an introspective subject. It meets every person in an individual way.  There is no correct answer. But learning how to articulate your response to art is our challenge. By applying some skills, our own appreciation of other artists' skills grows. The need to know more about art, is what I want students to get from my lessons, and to understand why art is important.
So I'm not "most teachers". I hope that most of us or not. just in case the research is true, I teach my students with an awareness that some of them may become teachers. I want to show them that I am a reflective inquiring teacher, changing and adapting how I teach. Hopefully it will pay forward.

   
Patrick O'Connor
Visual Arts Teacher KIS International School
Artist
THAILAND
www.itsapatoconnor.blogspot.com

Change as an Educator

• Original post at ibdanmagie
• Posted at 12:09 pm on Fri, Dec 9, 2011

• ibdanmagie
• Posted at 12:09 pm on Fri, Dec 9, 2011

"Everything flows, nothing stands still."

~Plato paraphrasing Heraclitus

@angemolony took up my suggestion for posting ideas about how we have changed as educators.  I've been thinking a lot about this...
I've come to realize that my beliefs about education were set long ago...when I was in 4th Grade, I remember getting in trouble during Math class when I asked one of my friends if I was on the right track.  I didn't want him to "give me the answer", I wanted to check my understanding with my peers!
I remember the teacher telling me to do my own work...I can still picture clearly how I felt (anger and frustration) and what I thought..."What job exists where you can't ask each other for help when you need it...".  I have known for a long time that learning is a collaborative experience!
This is just one example, I have also always known that good learning comes from taking risks and failing at the initial attempt but learning something else instead!  My belief list could go on, but let me come back to the topic of "Change as an Educator".
I've come to realize that my core beliefs about education have been mostly the same since I decided to become a teacher.  What has really allowed/prompted/demanded me to change through my career has been the organizational structures of the school/environment in which I am in.  I now teach with collaborative grouping strategies, mastery assessment procedures, and as many audio/video resources that are possible.  I do this not because I've changed my way of thinking about education, but because of the expectations of the school/environment in which I teach.
As an educational leader, this has great implications for me.  If I am helping teachers become better teachers, the priority will not be on changing their minds; it will be changing the expectations and procedures of the learning environment to help them do what they have always known is "best practice" for teaching and learning.
Now, reading a good book, taking a course, having a good discussion, or engaging with peoples' blogs my help me articulate my ideas and re-remember what I believe (as well as energize me!)...but rarely do they "change me".
This is my story, yours might be completely different...How have you changed as an educator?

"The only thing that stays the same is change."

~Melissa Etheridge

Can students inquire in a foreign language?

• Original post at Alison Yang
• Posted at 10:27 pm on Tue, Dec 6, 2011

“Can students inquire in a foreign language?” This question is asked very frequently among my conversations with foreign language teachers. My answer is YES! If we observe how toddlers learn, we often find that toddlers who are curious are constantly asking questions by using their limited range of vocabulary and grammar structures, body language, gestures, realia, etc. My 3-year-old daughter is asking more than 15 questions a day and she asks questions in three languages: Thai, English and Mandarin. Through the process of negotiation of meaning, her questions were answered and her understanding was clarified. Simultaneously, her language skills are also increasingly developed and becoming slightly more complex each day.
When students just begin to learn a foreign language, isn’t the process similar to the toddlers acquiring their first language? One of the major differences is that students are more cognitively developed. Foreign language learning and teaching can be and should be inquiry based. In my previous post, I mentioned that many of us learning a foreign language for a sustained period of time are sometimes struggled to have a conversation with native speakers. Based on my personal experience, I believe it is because that language learning has been taken out of the contexts and provided learners with no purpose for their learning. The learning materials are neither authentic nor meaningful to students. People ask questions and want to seek for answers only when they feel curious and involved. By the same token, teachers should provide an environment where authentic content is provided to pique students’ interest in the target language and help them to acquire receptive, productive and interactive language skills, as well as develop their intercultural understanding.   
But, how can we help students to inquire in the target language when they don’t possess substantial linguistic knowledge?  In order to help students to acquire their second language, extensive exposure of the target language is unquestionably needed. To what extent, do we allow students to communicate in their first language or mother tongue to facilitate their learning? Will we sacrifice too much instruction time on inquiry-based learning instead of on foreign language learning? These are the questions that usually come to teachers’ mind when promoting second language acquisition through inquiry-based learning. 
In my opinion and personal experience, if the learning environment and lessons are well structured, students at different language proficiency levels and ages can be engaged in the inquiry-based learning while acquiring the foreign language. Here are some strategies that I used with my Mandarin students and you probably use them in your classroom already.    

• Activate students’ prior knowledge: K-W-L chart is a good strategy to investigate what students already know and what they want to know before their quest for the unit. At the end of the unit, students can reflect on what they have learned. K-W-L chart can be created in Google doc that allows students to share their prior knowledge and questions. Alternatively, teachers can also use Wallwisher to collect data. An anticipation guide is another strategy that can be used prior to reading to identify students’ understanding and misunderstanding of a certain topic as well as provide a purpose for reading.

•  Provide vocabulary and grammar guide: It is important for teachers to provide students with a vocabulary and grammar guide for each unit. Therefore, students are aware of what target vocabulary and grammar they are expected to master at the end of each unit. It doesn’t mean that students cannot inquire when they don’t have the vocabulary. They think in the first language or mother tongue and if the vocabulary guide and grammar guide is provided, it not only facilitates students to use the target language for authentic communication, but also help students to refine their language.

• Use graphic organizers: Second language learners usually find it hard to convey themselves and share ideas in a logic order. Graphic organizers help students to “visualize their thinking” and provide a structure to organize their ideas and opinions. In addition, being able to use graphic organizers is a transferrable skill that enables students to learn how to learn. Here are some graphic organizers that can help students understand different concepts: frayer model, concept map (concept definition map), venn diagram, QAR (Question, Answer, Relationship) and so on. All of these graphic organizer templates can be downloaded from the Internet. Alternatively, Edistorm is a free web tool that allows students to brainstorm and planning collaboratively on line.

• Create a question wall: In order for foreign language students to ask questions, we must model how to form questions. A bulletin board is allocated in my classroom with question words and different types of questions. For warm-up, I sometimes have students ask each other questions to find out more information about each other or about the topic. During reading, students can form a variety of questions by using different question word to clarify their understanding of the text and compare the complexity of different types of questions. This website Sparklebox provides many useful printable templates for classroom displays, including question word templates. Toondoo is a website that students can make short comics. I have my beginner level Mandarin students use this web tool to create a dialogue and practice how to ask questions in different situations appropriately and correctly.

• Use story-telling: Everyone love stories and many questions naturally arise in this process. However, it does take some time for teachers to adapt and revise the story in order to meet the linguistic needs of the students. Through the story, the teacher can guide the inquiry further, for example, by having students come up with different endings and justify their reasons. Students can use Storybird to create a story. I have never used this web tool as it does not support Mandarin script yet. However, it looks interesting and definitely save students’ lots of time on illustrating for the story!  

• Structured note-taking strategy: I use this a lot when students are reading short passages or watching short video clips. Structured note taking strategy provides a purpose for students in the learning process.  3-2-1 note taking strategy can be used easily. Teachers can modify 3-2-1 for different purposes, for example, 3 main ideas, 2 key words and 1 question or connection. Accessing change is another structured note-taking strategy to help students generate discussion in response to a topic. This link http://tinyurl.com/c2k8p3a provides an example how to use this strategy. Students are more likely to share their findings and thoughts when they have a chance to think about it.

• Design authentic assessment:  Assessment should allow students to demonstrate their understanding and use the language in real context. Instead of asking students to simply make an oral presentation, we can create situational problems to engage students in the learning process and keep them motivated performing the assessment. When I did a unit about Chinese cuisine, I organized a Top Chef competition, which is a simulation of the TV show “Top Chef”. Students worked in groups and each of them was responsible for one dish. After cooking, they had to explain to the judges what ingredients they used, what Chinese cooking technique they used, how Chinese people usually ate this type of dish, etc. Students loved this unit and it was truly a valuable experience for them to speak and interact with Mandarin speakers outside of classroom.  

The list of strategies can go on and on. Inquired-based learning promotes collaboration, communication and interaction. There are certain obstacles that we have to deal with, especially when instructions are delivered in a foreign language classroom rather than in an immersion language classroom. However, it doesn’t mean inquiry-based learning is impossible in a foreign language classroom. We, as teachers, need to provide comprehensible input, encourage students to ask questions in the target language, and use our best professional judgment to decide how we can help students to “learn language, learn about language and learn through language” (Michael Halliday). “Students develop language as a means toward an end and not as end in itself.” (Schwarzer, 1996).   

I've slowed down to speed up to success

• Original post at Ange Molony
• Posted at 3:28 pm on Thu, Dec 1, 2011

@Danmagie had a neat idea for the next round of postings, he suggested that we take a moment to think about how we have changed as teachers. I need to take more than a moment to actually comprehend just how much I have grown, developed my skills and fallen even more in love with this job but I'll start with this little story.....
The basic answer lies in my title. I've slowed down. But I don't mean physically and I don't mean it at all negatively. I mean that I've become confident enough in my own ability and in the ability of my students, that I have been able to slow down my lessons so that each and every student has the opportunity to dig themselves in really deep into the core concepts and ideasof mathematics. The objectives in my units aren't for me, they aren't check boxes that I need to tick each time I deliver a lesson. The objectives are for the students and they are check boxes that I need to tick when I feel confident that the student will recall that skill or idea or concept either later in life or the very next day. Maybe it seems obvious to you? But I am recalling a time when I was 23 years old and I powered through my units. I hurled myself through the finish line beaming from ear to ear at the wonder and awesomeness of the quadratic formula while 20 kids sat with tears pooling in the corners of their eyes that were screaming silently "I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU MEAN?!?"
OK, so maybe they weren't crying but perhaps they should have been!
So 8 years on and I don't really need to slow down any more because I'm not setting myself (or my students) up to fail. I no longer try and convince myself that I need to have students mastering the binomial theorem in 50 minutes. I know how long things take and I know that I need some buffer room to allow for tangents, real life organic tangents that give my students the opportunity to dig themselves in really deep into the core concepts and ideas of mathematics.
How have you changed?

Meaningful Action

• Original post at ibdanmagie
• Posted at 10:51 am on Thu, Nov 24, 2011

My last posting was about using mindful breathing and body mediation and reflecting on the process to help focus my students minds when deciding on meaningful action to take as a result of their learning (which was an interdisciplinary unit with Language A English, Humanities, and Science..but I'll save that for a posting from Darryl or Embed_Ed :-).
After another mindful breathing and body mediation session, as described by Alan Wallace, the question they were focusing on was "How can we help communities ensure access to the resources they need?".
Various students had already taken individual action as part of this unit, but this posting is about some of the action they decided to take as a group.
Some students took time to think about this question by themselves and others discussed in small groups.  After some brainstorming time, we discussed ideas as a whole group.
One of the students had learned about a "water challenge" as a result of reading A Long Walk To Water  by Linda Sue Park.  He had shared the idea in class earlier, but during this session the idea seemed to take hold of the majority of the group.
The water challenge has specific rules, but the students used that as a base to form their own challenge...here it is:

• For 10 days, drink only water for beverages
• Any money that normally would have been spent on those beverages is saved to support a water project
• Donate the money to the project or use the money to create your own project

I really like the fact that this "fund-raising" activity requires sacrifice and mindfulness of the students...not just asking their parents for money.
Then, students decided what we would do with the funds we raised.  From the students ideas, there seemed to be three ideas forming.

• Donate the money to the Water for Sudan project which drills water wells in villages in Sudan
• Donate the money to purchase some Life Straws and donate them to communities that do not always have fresh water, but have water
• Donate the money to local flood victims in our community (these students were mindful about "thinking globally and acting locally")

I took the challenge as well and am proud to say I have only drank water for the past 10 days, as a result I have saved at least 1500 baht (a little over 40 USD) from my own spending.  Students had varied success, but that is okay, the idea is planted and school is about having chances to try things that don't always work out, then reflect on why.  We'll keep coming back to mindful action as the year goes on...
I feel good about the money I've donated, but the real experience for me was the new perspective I have gained about how "un-mindful" I am with what I drink...a good lesson to myself about what I need and what I want!
**************************************************************
For more information about the water challenge, visit this Water for Sudan website and/or view this video below.  Additionally, I have included a video interview with Linda Sue Park about her experience writing the book and working with Salva Dut (the main character of the book).
[vimeo w=400&h=225]
Water for South Sudan from Salva Dut on Vimeo.
[youtube ]

~ibdanmagie

Setting the Tone

• Original post at Darryl Anderson
• Posted at 12:16 pm on Wed, Nov 23, 2011

Setting The Tone

I've been reluctant to post so far since all of you have a particular “thing” or area of expertise (technology, language skills, video teaching) that makes your teaching special. Not that my teaching isn't as special; I just can't think of what exactly it is that makes my teaching effective, or makes the students in my class enjoy learning. So took some time to analyze my classroom and decided to start at the beginning.

Right at the beginning - of the class, of the unit, of the year. No matter their level of understanding or enthusiasm for Humanities, I want them to come in to the class ready to wonder about the world. Rather than start the year with a static one-way dialogue about the syllabus or the major assessments, I've learned to start right off the bat with a two-way discussion. I love enticing them visually: videos of blood-filled religious ceremonies, pictures of people swimming in a pool of crude oil, short trivia quizzes about current events, political cartoons. They've started their first Humanities class dying to know what the rest of the year is going to be about.

Then I try and start every subsequent class with a video, a song, or a picture that you can't help but wonder about. Guardian Eyewitness is great for photos, National Geographic has some incredible 2-minute video clips, Maps of War is good for interactive maps, Sporcle is great for quizzes.

Sometimes they come right up to the board and discuss their individual interpretations with each other. Sometimes we've already had a full discussion about “what could this picture be about?” before the bell to start class even rings. This even works with staff. Why not start the first full staff meeting in August with a Jeopardy game called: “How strong is your MYPness?”

Apart from all the specific curriculum objectives I have to cover by the end of the course, I want every student walking away with an enthusiasm for wondering about the world. Every time they see a picture, video or map of an exotic place, I want them to start asking: “What's it really like there? Do I want to go there? Why?”

Darryl Anderson

MYP Humanities

Comprehensible output through digital speaking projects

• Alison Yang
• Posted at 3:19 pm on Tue, Nov 22, 2011

There are usually some parents who come and see me in the beginning of the school year and request their child to be placed in advanced Mandarin class. Why? Because their child has been learning Mandarin for several years. I did oral assessments with them to begin with and many of them can’t even answer me simple questions regarding personal information.  Students usually told me that they have learned how to read and write, but they can’t really speak! 
It is not uncommon that many students who have learned a second language at school can’t utter a word or have no confidence interacting with native speakers in spontaneous situations. If the objective is for students to develop core competencies in all aspects of language skills, shall we ask ourselves, as teachers, have we done enough to help our students to develop oral language skills?
To this end, effective language teachers create opportunities for students to make the best use of the second language both inside and outside of the classrooms. The language learning process is similar to when babies or toddlers acquire their first languages. First, we provide comprehensible input, and then we interact with them in contexts and finally, they are able to produce the language for authentic communication.  The same language acquisition process should be applied in our foreign language classrooms, including producing comprehensible output.  
With the advent of technology, teachers and students are provided with ample opportunities for oral language practice without spending a cent. I would like to share a couple of web 2.0 tools that my students use to develop their oral language proficiency.

• Voicethread: audio and video discussions, picture talks, responses to open-ended questions, making sentences based on given phrases, listening to other people to complete a survey

•  Voki: introduce self (Students can also embed this in their learning portfolio.), give one minute talk about a topic, storytelling

•  Posterous: reading aloud projects, responses to reading passages, sharing opinions about a topics

•  Screencast-O-Matic: practice presenting Power Point presentations, making video projects collaboratively, practice delivering a speech   

•  Lingua Swap: practice the language they are learning at school with a native speaker of their own age (They don’t have Mandarin language support yet, but if you are teaching Spanish, French or German, it’s worth of checking it out.) 

If your students have iDevices, such as iPad, iPod or iPhone, they can also down free programs, such as Puppet Pals, Talking Tom Cat, Audioboo for interesting digital speaking projects.
If you are interested in finding out more how to use web 2.0 tools to help developing students oral language skills, you can find more information here: http://www.slideshare.net/CatherineRitz/digital-speaking

Alison Yang
IB Mandarin Teacher
KIS International School

Khan Academy is a resource and not a replacement for teaching

• Originally posted by Ange Molony
• Posted at 3:20 pm on Mon, Nov 21, 2011

Like a few thousand other maths teachers around the world my jaw dropped with awe and wonder (and some nerdy excitement) when I first came across Khan Academy and it’s ever expanding list of maths videos. I watched video after video and one by one I embedded them into my online learning portal for my students to enjoy. But, they didn’t. They found the videos too long or too boring or too confusing. I surveyed them and the common complaint was that too often it took 8 minutes before he really started getting to the parts they needed to learn or they needed help with. (Even my attention span would find that hard to work with!) The Khan vids have a general target but my students don’t, they want to know exactly how to multiply a 2x3 matrix with a 3x2 matrix but they don’t need to be reminded about the matrix basics. So, I shelved Khan’s website but I took his idea and I set out to make my own.
Armed with a Bamboo tablet and some screencasting software (I love Screenr) I started to record. My videos are targeted at my students and use language that they are familiar with and terms that we have already covered in class. They don’t run longer than 5 minutes and they are supported with questions from their text books that they can turn to for practice. The kids seem to enjoy them, maybe they are just being nice. But I’ll continue to add to the collection so that my videos can join the resource list on my moodle pages, right next to Khan’s. It's not the only teaching they get from me and watching videos isn't the only homework they do. But it is adding some variety to my classes and the response has been positive.

Perhaps I should look at introducing my students to the idea of making their own videos like Brian sugggests here. If anyone is to know what maths problems need the most explaining it’ll be the students themselves.

Empowering students to leave a legacy

• Brian Neises
• Posted at 2:43 pm on Mon, Nov 21, 2011

Mathtrain.tv is site for students, by students.  Teacher Eric Marcos has his students create and upload math tutorial videos to teach other students.  

The true beauty of Mathtrain.tv though, is not so much the videos to replace your own teaching, as it is the idea of empowering students to teach their peers.  Alan November's TEDxNYED Talk highlights the importance of students leaving a legacy, and he uses Mathtrain.tv as a great example of this. 

If we live in a collaborative world, why do we often wait until the work environment before we learn from others?  Why do teachers fight the system, or more likely just ignore it? Who knows, but I sure think Alan November and Eric Marcos have something worth listening to.  Never underestimate the power of a motivated student.  Personally, I'm committed to tapping into that motivation, even if it means sacrificing my own ideas about how something should be taught.

inquire V's enquire

• Patrick OConnor
• Posted at 12:46 pm on Fri, Nov 18, 2011

A conversation I recently had, brought up the difference in Effect and Affect and other confusing words (homophones). Effect being the noun and Affect being the verb. It was then asked "Is there an easy way to distinguish between inquire and enquire?" The Language Arts teacher in our conversation said it was the same test as with e/affect....but wait... maybe it isn't.
The answer? same word. Same meaning. Different spelling. 'Inquire' being preferred by Brits and 'enquire' being preferred by Yanks.
    http://www.dailywritingtips.com/inquire-vs-enquire/
I like language. I studied linguistics as an undergrad. By linguistic experts, it is generally agreed that language is dynamic, organic and constantly evolving. Grammar 'rules' and 'spelling' are commonly accepted norms to aid in mutual understanding. The function of a language is 'mutual understanding'. If a text has any sorts of errors, should it be corrected if the intended meaning is unambiguous and it still remains perfectly understandable? Your getting my point, right? Or maybe you just missed it.
It's a can of worms. The bottom line comes down to audience. Will the text be mutually understandable? What other messages get sent by errors? How much do we 'police' language correction?
Patrick O'Connor
Visual Arts Teacher KIS International School
Artist
THAILAND
www.itsapatoconnor.blogspot.com

My profession...

• ibdanmagie
• Posted at 12:20 pm on Fri, Nov 18, 2011

I love my profession!  I think most professions in the 21st century provide opportunities for life long learning, but I guess not many offer as many opportunities as the field of Education.  I love learning along with, and from, my students.  Here is an example of some of my most recent learning with students.
At the end of our last unit, we were getting ready to plan and take meaningful action as a result of our learning.  I had also just completed judging one of the summative assessment tasks from the unit, a research-based essay.  One of the re-teaching points I got from judging those essays was related to one paragraph having one main idea.  I had also be reading about Social Emotional Learning, as that is one of my ongoing PD goals for this year...one evening, I got an idea about how I could incorporate all three things into a couple of my upcoming classes.
In class, we read an article by Alan Wallace that focused on breathing and body awareness mediation.  When reading the article, we identified the ONE main idea of each paragraph.  For homework that week, students were asked to attempt the mediation practice explained in the essay we had read.  I began practicing this type of mediation as well. WOW!  It was hard, and rewarding.  The rewarding part was the feeling of calmness and focus that I had after completing a 30 minute mediation session.
Here are some excerpts from students, which came from reflecting on their homework:

I felt like it was a vacation from homework...I mean, I was doing homework but it didn't feel like it. 
It was hard to sit still.
After I mediated for 30 minutes, it was much easier than normal to focus on the rest of my homework.
It was hard at the beginning because my little sister kept coming in to my room, after I asked Mom to keep her out of my room it was easier to concentrate.
I felt so peaceful and calm.
I kept having other thoughts coming into my mind and it was hard not to look at the clock.  I think it would be easier if I tried again next time.

As part of the reflection we talked about challenges people had, then brainstormed solutions.  For example, many people talked about distractions (family, noises, etc).  One of the solutions was to be sure and let other people in your house know what you are doing; by making others aware of our intentions, it helps them be more mindful about causing distractions (a prime example of something I "re-learned" with my students).
To go further with this experience, as well as our unit learning, we then created a calm and quiet environment in our classroom and mediated before planning meaningful action.
My next post will be about the action we are taking...
What do you love about the profession of Education?

~ibdanmagie

MYP Teacher and K-12 CPDC

twitter: danmagie

blog: www.transferable.wordpress.com