Punctuation Saves Lives But Does Handwriting?

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Dan4th

This video came across my stream last night and I found it funny but it also got me thinking.



So whilst the whole message behind the video is intended to be funny, it still got me thinking. I agree 1000% that punctuation is extremely important (and in this context saves lives) but what about handwriting? The concept of handwriting, its purpose and its place has been intriguing me lately and now I think I have gathered my thoughts enough to reflect upon it.

The elegant Jodie Reik wrote a blog post recently titled Say Goodbye To Teaching Cursive Writing If you are a twitter person and you don't follow Jodie, do yourself a favor and add her to your tweetstream.  She constantly puts stuff out there and has a great blog as well.  This article really got me thinking and the action of some of my colleagues here at my school did as well.  In the article Jodie explores the role of handwriting in the modern curriclum.  She states:

Let us consider how often we are required to use cursive in the world today. Yes we need to be able to sign our own name, however that is realistically just a unique and identifiable mark for legal documents. How many things require you to hand write anymore? Shopping lists, no they can be done digitally; brainstorming – again these can be done digitally?, banking – already most of us use online services; legal documents – often requires print but not cursive. So considering how often we use cursive handwriting, is it a requirement for life? For literacy? My personal opinion as an educator is that as long as I can read it and understand it, I really do not mind what format it is in.

This got me thinking.  Whilst I teach upper primary (Year seven this year and for the last three years) I have taught in the lower school in the past.  I absolutely hated teaching Queensland Modern Cursive.  Ruling up the red and blue lines on the board was the most annoying thing that I had to do, and it didn't help that I had the worst handwriting under the sun.  I have what I call pigeon scribble.  My writing is legible (just) but I am able to do something very important with it - I can communicate message and meaning.  Isn't that what is the most important point of handwriting?

So I must admit to being horrified last Friday over morning tea.  My school is lucky enough to have just opened up a fantastic three story early years building which is outfitted with all of the 'mod cons' of modern education.  Every room has an interactive whiteboard.  Teachers are attending training and are generally pretty excited about having this tool at their disposal.  But then I heard the discussion turning to how they are going to get their 'lines' up on the board for handwriting practice and my heart almost stopped.   I actually sent the link to Jodie's article to one of them and lets just say that it didn't go down to well.

As a parent of a child who is entering Prep next year, I have a number of things that I want my child to be able to succeed in.  I want him to be literate, numerate, creative (luckily his mother is), a deep thinker, a creative analyzer of content but I couldn't give two hoots if he is the worse hand writer in the world.   As long as his writing is legible (which it generally already is), isn't that the most important thing?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

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Are some curriculum areas more important than others?

cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by macattck

Like most principals, they are busy people.  I sat down yesterday for over an hour (which I have never done before in one hit) and had a detailed discussion with my principal.  The major purpose of my discussion was to discuss / explore how I was going to spend my $5000 prize money that I won from the Smart Classrooms award this year.  He had some solid ideas that I took on board.  We then got onto a number of whacky tangents and one was discussing a possible model of delivering some key learning areas in our school differently in the future.  It was something that I was totally in favor of and it certainly stimulated my thoughts.

Then last night, this video came across my stream.




If you haven't already noticed, I am really into video. I think that it does a great job telling stories and helping explaining concepts. This video really got me thinking about how I value certain key learning areas.  Let's be real - as a primary school teacher, it is very difficult to give all of the curriculum areas the justice that they deserve.  We are so focused on the so called 'cornerstones' of the curriculum that some things get pushed to the side and don't get given the justice that they deserve.  In my environment, one of those areas is The Arts.  I am no painter, but I appreciate the fact that I have a responsibility to give my students a well rounded education that caters for their needs.  The surprising thing is that all through high school, I studied Speech and Drama and loved it.  But within my classroom, I barely use it.  Why is that?   


So this video explores the notion that The Arts has as much value as the 'big ticket curriculum areas' such as maths and language.  Do we agree with that? I am not sure if I do.  My son is entering Prep next year (and he is pumped up about it) and I guess I am starting to look at things with rose colored glasses.  Having both a mother and a father for a teacher is not a great combination for our poor boy.  We went to his interview and I said to the deputy principal that I wanted a teacher that would encourage my child to solve problems and let his inquisitive nature shine.  But I really want him to get a rounded education but still be literate and numerate.

The best parent teacher interview that I ever had with a parent occurred last year.  At our school, we do interviews twice a year.  The first one is done about two weeks into the school year and the second one is done half way thought.  Obviously the first one is always a bit tricky.  You are basically just telling the parents you initial impression of their child and they raise any concerns that they may have.  One of my parents from last year had a really good boy, who was a fantastic student.  This father walks into the interview and after the opening pleasantries makes the greatest statement that I have ever heard a parent say ever.  He said:

Ashley I don't care if my son bums out on NAPLAN, gets straight E's on his report card and fails everything miserably.  All I want out of his education is for him to be able to be creative and be able to work in a team.  

After I picked my jaw up from the floor, I asked him why.  His son was a great boy and does exceptionally well academically.  His response was just as good

Whatever job that ...... does when he grows up will require him to solve problems in creative ways and work with people and be able to get along with people from different walks of life.  It doesn't matter if he is a brain surgeon or a street sweeper; they will teach him the skills that he needs to undertake the job.  Being able to be social and solve problems creatively are the most important things.

It was awesome and it was great to see a parent just get it but how does this relate to this blog post.  I believe that the message that he was selling me was reflected in the ideas explored in the video.  It is very difficult to find that balance but looking back at the ability to work creatively and solve problems that don't have the obvious answer should be the goal of every educator.  I think that the power of creative subjects is that they can influence the thinking of students if used in the correct way.

This was a bit of a ramble.  I would really like to hear from you about the original question - Are some curriculum areas more important than others?

Looking forward to your thoughts.

I love it when I am challenged to think

As per normal, I was lying in bed checking out my Twitter stream last night at around 10:00pm. It is pretty sad that this is one of my bedtime routines. I troll my stream, bookmark anything of value on my Samsung Galaxy SII phone and generally settle in for the evening. Most of the stuff that I bookmark, I never use again. I just like having it in a spot that I know I can refer back to in the future. An blog post by Steve Wheeler came across my stream and I was intrigued but didn't pay much attention. I had some time this morning and I revisited it and I was glad that I did.

The article was titled Outrageous Alternatives.  The article started with a bang when his first line was:

What is the most outrageous alternative education scenario you could imagine?

In my head, I thought "Kids being experts in areas and teachers becoming non existent."   But luckily for me I was entirely wrong.  The blog post went on to explore the different alternatives to our current education system and analysed the methods that have already been explored in the past.  It was a fascinating looking down memory lane and it was thought provoking.  He then went on to describe a model of schooling called Deschooling.  His synopsis of what Deschooling entails is that students should have freedom to be matched with other students who are exploring similar concepts from any place at any time.  Steve also went on to state

Under the current funding regimes of mass public education, and in the present ethos of rigid curricula and control freakery of Western governments, trying to formalise something like this is difficult. But when we consider that 80 per cent of what we learn is achieved primarily outside the school gates, I am sure we might agree there are some potential loopholes to exploit.

It is true.  As educators we are bound by curriculum and external pressures such as standardized testing and things as such.  I am currently undertaking a MOOC titled Change11.  This massively open online course encourages us to spread our wings, creating our networks and interact with our fellow participants in ways that suit our learning styles.  If we can do this as adults, surely we can provide opportunities for our students to learn in these ways.  So what is stopping us?  Apart from the obvious stuff, I think it is a mindset.  We like to think that we are in control and are the 'Grand Phooba' of knowledge.  This is why the flipped model of instruction appeals to me.  How awesome would it be if my kids could access expertise from a fellow educator from anywhere around the world on any topic?  I am not saying that I will entirely 'flip' my classroom but I am going to try and use it effectively in some curriculum areas.   This utopia vision may not happen perfectly for us but if we don't start thinking about it, we never will.

As per normal, I would love to hear your thoughts

How does sound affect our kids learning?

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Yutaka Tsutano

I am a bit of a rebel.  I let kids in my class listen to music when they are working sometimes (actually it is more often than sometimes) and they really enjoy it.  In my opinion, it gives the kids an opportunity to focus and stay on task easier.  It also eliminates distractions provided by the noise of a general classroom.  Whilst I wouldn't let them listen to music of their choice (Justin Beiber is finally being phased out) all of the time, in my professional opinion it has increased productivity within my classroom environment.

Last night, the fantastic Steve Lang put out his latest edition of his email newsletter Idea A Day.   He goes through phases where he looks at different areas and this week he is looking at TED Talks.  Like everybody, I always enjoy a good TED Talk and have been inspired and motivated by them.  There are some amazing  people out there trying to change the world and it is great to hear from them in a short sharp 5 - 10 minute segment.

Julian Treasure is the chair of the Sound Agency, a firm that advises worldwide businesses on how to use sound.  He asks us to pay attention to the sounds that surround us.  How do they make us feel?  I have been thinking about this concept for a while and was so glad when this video came across my stream.  I think that some of the messages that he talks about can apply to education.  Watch the video below and then see my thoughts below on how it applies to education.




In this TED Talk (that I really enjoyed) he outlines the four ways that sound affects us.  The 4 ways were: physiological, psychological, cognitive and behavioral.  I found that whilst I was watching this and he was talking about business, I was thinking 'Um....Education!'  If we can use sound to create an environment that kids are comfortable and familiar with, surely their productivity / learning / engagement must increase.  I am no researcher and have nothing to back up my thoughts but I would think that this would be the case.

I loved the graphic where he talks about that work productivity in open plan offices decreases by 66%.  Whilst I realize that there will be studies out there to dispute this, I thought it was interesting in regards to modern education.  A lot of the models out there show classrooms / work spaces that are big open planned spaces with lots of activity and of course on task noise.  I personally believe that kids still need opportunities to 'focus in' within these environments and if we are smart, educators will grasp onto the power of sound to increase the learning of their students.

As per normal, I would love to hear your thoughts.  

Google+....will it help me?

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Abdulsalam Haykal
For those who have been living under a rock lately, you would have not heard of Google+ and the fantastic opportunities it provides for you to network with other people, I hope that this link helps you.  I am not going to make this a blog post about Google+, but I am going to talk about one of the tools that educators could you to collaborate professionally in an interactive way. 


When I heard about Google+, I wasn’t (and I still aren’t) sure where it was going to fit into my scheme I things.  I use Facebook to keep up with the latest gossip with my friends, I use Twitter to interact with educators on a professional basis (and a bit of Darth Vader and Lord Voldermont for light humour) and I use the Learning Place to keep up with my Education Queensland stream.  Like a sheep, I joined and created an account.  I started to ‘circle’ people and it was going ok.  I think that whilst this tool will never replace Twitter, it is a place that you can network with like minded professional people.
 
So everything was going fine and then I heard about this thing could a Google Hangout.  My definition of this experience was is that it is like Skype on steroids.  During the September holidays, I was lucky enough to participate in one.  I didn’t even think about recording the conversation but upon further reflection I should have.  How awesome would it be to interact with a group of people and record it for future reference or share your conversation / thoughts with others around the world on a particular topic?  The possibilities are almost endless. 

Below is a video explaining / demonstrating how the tool works and here is a link from Mashable on some tools that you could use to record your Hangouts (or any other screen capturing)  I truly feel that this could revolutionise the way people interact with their PD and each other.  How awesome would it to have a group of educators debating / sharing ideas with each other, have that video recorded and share with the wider world?

In regards to #change11, I would love to use this with a group of educators to keep me 'on track'.  I am really struggling keeping up with the workflow and would love to hear if people are already using this to interact and reflect.  It would be great if they already were and I could just 'join in' but I would be willing to start one if others were keen.  If you are keen, please let me know by leaving me a comment.  I would also be interested to hear your thoughts about this tool.  


Blog 7 of 33 DONE!








 

10 Things To Do To Improve As An Educator...should we bother?

cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by John Morton

My good friend and colleague Jodie Reik is an avid user of digital technology and is constantly looking for ways to shake up people’s thoughts about education and the general systems that we live in.  Yesterday her latest blog post came across my stream and it was titled 10 Things You Can Do To Improve Yourself As An Educator.  Since she is such an inspiration to me, I thought I would give her the justice of responding to her blog with a blog. 

Jodie outlined ten simple things that you could do as an educator to improve.  Those ten things were: reflect, review, re-boot, read, respond, recall, respect, receive, reconnect and reach.  On a first glance, I thought “Yep I do a lot of those” but upon further thought, I could do much better. I am not going to analyise each and every one of her ten tips but I am going to touch upon a few of them. 

I am constantly looking for ways to reflect on my practice.  I internalise a lot of my reflections and attempt to share them with the wider community through various mediums such as this blog and Twitter.  We ask our kids to ‘reflect’ a lot upon what they do but my question is Do we actually do this enough as educators?  I agree with Jodie’s statement when she said that reflection is the key to personal and professional growth.  How can we change and improve when we don’t even think about what we are doing?  It is easy to always do what you have always done.  But it is difficult to try and change and improve. 

One of the most difficult aspects of living in a Web 2.0 world is responding and building upon the work of others.  As Jodie said “Educators need to have their say and they need to be heard. We also need to hear from other educators”  I wrote a blog post about the difficulties of blog commenting in the modern world.  If every blog had a ‘like’ button, I could provide the author with feedback automatically.  Sometimes that would just be enough to let the blogger know that I agree with their opinion. I truly think that responding to peoples ideas and work helps you reflect as an educator on your practice.  Many a time I have read a blog post and went ‘That person is 100% right and I am 100% wrong’ and there have been other times where my thought process has gone ‘That person has no clue about what they are talking about because of……’  This justification process assists me and challenges me to be a better ‘chalkie’ for my kids. 

My core business is relationships.  When I was a kid, you walked into your classroom and automatically gave your teacher respect.  This was just the ‘done’ thing.  Your teacher said ‘Jump!’ and your response was ‘How High?’  Those days have now past.  I am not going to debate if it is a good thing or a bad thing that those days have gone but I will say that by earning the students respect, it actually means a lot more.  On day one of each year, my learners are saying to themselves ‘Does this fool know what he is talking about?  Does he understand me?  Does he want to know me?’  I feel that if I have a productive and fruitful relationship with my students, they are more likely to take risks, ask questions, think creatively and solve complex problems.  They are willing to ‘fall on their faces’ and know that I will be there to pick them up.  This then allows my core business to shift from relationships to learning.  If you have a good relationship with your students based on a culture of respect and trust, your students can achieve some extraordinary things. 

So there is my quick response to Jodie’s thoughts.  I would love to hear if you agree with me.  This has been a bit of incoherent rubble of a post but I thought it was important to get my thoughts down on paper.  I must say that it was a pretty good effort over a lunchtime! 

Blog 5 of 33 DONE! 

PD shouldn't be an event.....or should it?

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by AdamSelwood


Last night an interesting article came across my tweet stream titled PD shouldn't be an event.  I must admit that this intrigued me and I took a look.  I had a brief read last night at about 10:30pm but I wasn't exactly thinking clearly.  I added it to my bookmarks and thought that I would take a better look in the morning.  I am glad that I took a look because it certainly stimulated my thoughts.  I really liked some of the things that the author of the article (and I can't seem to find their name) has to say but not sure about some of the others.

One statement that I certainly agree with is:

Professional development is a frame of mind.  As a professional, I don't decide when I' going to "DO" PD because it happens in many different ways and different times.


The part about professional development being a state of mind really resonated with me.  I am constantly looking to grow as a professional and interact with others.  These interactions helps shape me and grow me professionally.  I find it hilarious that at the end of every PD I receive a certificate.  Whilst I appreciate the acknowledgement of my attendance and I need it for my QCOT registration purposes, I am not in it for the piece of paper.  I am in it for the learning and for the benefits that my kids.  Some of my most stimulating PD has come from a professional discussion with a colleague or a debate on Twitter.

The methodology on how PD is delivered has certainly changed throughout my 11 years of teaching.  When I first started teaching, the only PD model that was 'doable' was face to face.  Off we trudged to a venue, sat in a large group, got lectured to, broke off for 'little lunch', come back into smaller groups and repeated the cycle again after 'big lunch'.  It worked and in my opinion is still the best method of delivery.  As much as I enjoy interacting with experts and people from around the world, being able to look the person imparting their wisdom onto you in the eye will always outweigh sitting in front of a screen.

The thing that I love the most about our connected world is that I don't have to wait for these events to occur.  At anytime I can be attending a conference via a backchannel, watching a recording in my own time and I can engage with professional discussions about what I have learnt in a non threatening way.

So where am I going with this? If you are just attending PD for the new shinny toy or the awesome lunch that you may get, you will never grow as a professional and demonstrate the characteristics that we want for our kids - a passion for lifelong development. We owe it to ourselves and our kids to seek out opportunities to interact with each other and grow together.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

BLOG 3 of 33 DONE

I have found something to make my attribution of Creative Commons work a lot easier!

cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by Velo Steve

I used to feel like smashing my head with one of these whenever I tried to get my head around the whole attribution thing in regards to media with Creative Commons. I really wanted to be ethical and do everything that I could to be a part of the community that does the right thing and gives credence to the original author / publisher of the piece of media.  But figuring out all of the correct attribution codes and how to use them made my mind spin.

But this morning all of my prayers were answered.  I am a Google Chrome Fanboy and love the browser.  Only four months ago was I stuck with Internet Explorer and it was awful.  Then I moved onto using Firefox and that was fantastic but I still was intrigued by the unknown world of Google Chrome.  I installed it and it worked fantastically.  Then I visited the Google Webstrore and found about extensions that were similar to Firefox extensions.  My life was going complete!

For a long time I have been looking for something that would help me add the proper attributions to images / media that I am using.  Today the Flickr CC Attribution Script came across my radar and it was exactly what I was looking for!  It is far enough to say that I was so excited when I found this and it worked!  I almost cried!  Below is a video that @leewin from Twitter passed along to me.  I hope somebody out there finds this as useful as I did.



Blog 3 of 33 done!

It's not about the vehicle....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/defenceimages/6165943872/

Like all kids who come into a technology rich environment, they are overwhelmed about the 'bling bling' and not focussed enough on the 'learning sting'.  I actually say to my kids constantly "It is not about the bling bling, it is about the learning sting!"  Kids love to make all of the 'bells and whistles' shine and it can be annoying for teachers who get caught up in it constantly.

This is my second year of operating in a 1-1 laptop environment and both years a similar thing happened.  For the first three or four weeks of the school  year, the kids were excited and tried to make everything pretty and neat.  If they were doing an audio reflection, the mixed in music, edited it and made it perfect.  Whilst I appreciated the effort that they went to, they were too focused on the vehicle and not about the learning.  At the end of term 1 a light bulb moment seems to occur.  By that time the students are very entrenched in using technology as a tool to aid their learning and they realize that it is about using the best tool for the job.  They move on from seeing PowerPoint as the be all and end all of everything and realize that it is truly evil.  

So how do we move kids quicker away from the shinny new object syndrome to just realizing that they should expect it as a part of their learning, not just as an add on.  My solution is simple: we need to get our educators on board with understanding this notion.  To be honest (and I may ruffle a few feathers here) we (as in teachers) are still caught up in the tool itself rather than the pedagogy behind it.  I am over hearing excuses!  21st century kids expect and more importantly deserve 21st century pedagogy.  I am not saying that we need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Just today my kids were handed their maths investigation for the week and the easiest method of undertaking the task is the old trusty pen and paper.  When I said to the kids "How are you going to undertake this task?" they all looked at me stupid.  Then one of my quiet girls put her hand up and said "Just paper and pen Mr Proud.  It is the easiest way to show what I know."  It bought a smile to my face and I thought to myself that I have done a good job preparing my kids to be creative problems solvers for the unknown future that they face.

As per normal I would love to hear your thoughts!  Blog 2 of 33 done!