Category Archives: Education

Settling for Two Stars

Education, gaming

I am not much of a gamer, but I do like to play single player time management building games. The one I’m playing right now is Kingdom Chronicles 2. It is a typical game set in something of a Medieval type setting:  you collect resources, build farms, sawmills, quarries and diamond mines that produce additional resources that you use to clear roads and destroy enemies. It is a somewhat mindless diversion, but each level brings different challenges that require some strategy to solve. And, as it involves time, there is a reward for finishing quickly: you get three stars. (There are also points involved but I haven’t gotten that involved in how they work.) I go for the stars.

In Kingdom Chronicles 1, I was able to fairly easily earn three stars on my first try on each level. There were a couple later levels where a surprise part of the way through the level made me rethink my strategy and required a second try.  Finally, there were just a couple that sent me looking for cheats and video tutorials.

Kingdom Chronicles 2, on the other hand, has been much more challenging. At first, I stuck with my usual approach to playing: don’t move on until I’ve gotten three stars. But, even with the support of videos, I got stuck on a level.  I like the game, but playing the same level over and over with similar results was boring and I didn’t seem any closer to getting that third star.

So, I moved on. And I got two stars on the next level, and the next one, and pretty much every level since. I haven’t given up on that coveted third star, and  I’ve tried each one at least twice. For those where I seemed close, I may have watched a video or two.

Mostly, I just decided I wanted to play the game, and I was willing to settle for two stars. I wonder how this might apply to kids and school: we’ve all known kids who likes school, engage with classes, but don’t necessarily care about the grade. It is an external motivation that can take away the intrinsic joy of an activity.

Maybe some day, I’ll return and work on those three stars but for now, I’m settling for two and enjoying the game.

 

Short Bits: Nuance

blogging, community, creativity, Education,

For now, in order to get in the habit of blogging, I’m going with pieces I am calling “short bits.” Basically, what I am thinking about it. Sheri Edwards, the blogging mentor to us all, calls them blog shorts and has a wonderful introduction here.  So, my short bits are blog shorts.

This one is simply about the seeming lack of nuance in all sorts of places, due I think, in large part to our continued distraction with media. We want quick answers and memes to share, diving into the ever flowing stream of stuff, generating quick comments but never really digging deeper than the surface. We label things good and bad, and certainly there are examples of both of those in the world, but there are also nuances of good and bad. Events are often more complicated than they seem. Zero tolerance policies almost never work. And, teachers and students and content and pedagogy overlap in complex ways that do not always lend themselves to easy charts or frameworks or continuums or, for that matter, 280 characters on Twitter.  Whenever someone says you should ALWAYS or NEVER, I want to shout, “It depends!”

But, in the interest of seeing nuances myself,  there ARE good conversations going on within communities, including Twitter. The #clmooc has made long term use of the web to connect around creativity and collaboration. I am sorry I missed the #clmooc book discussion about affinity communities online. Participation in these kinds of groups allows users to access  the power behind the tools when wielded with a mission of authentic connection.

 

Just Because You Can Look It Up, Should You?

Education, learning, teaching

I saw a comment on Twitter recently suggesting that teachers should never tell students things that they could look up. It struck me as one of those zero sum statements that are not helpful as we try to navigate the changing relationship between teachers and students. Teachers have expert knowledge to share that can help students move forward with their own learning more efficiently. Finding the balance of when to share and when to encourage students to explore on their own is, in my humble opinion, part of the art of teaching.

I think the spirit of the statement was probably related to teachers telling students lots of stuff the don’t need to know to move forward efficiently, and the balance must include some consideration of how much knowledge students might need to get started and the best way for them to gather that knowledge. For instance, I observed in a project-based learning high school for several years where ALL direct instruction was banned. A math teacher shared that, as she worked with her 9th graders on a three-dimensional construction project, she realized that many of them did not know how to use a ruler. She felt that she could get everyone up and running pretty quickly with a short full group lesson but was worried about violating the pedagogical rules. Of course, they could look up how to use a ruler and helping them learn how to learn might be a valuable lesson for them, but in the context of the project, she could move things along in ten minutes of instruction.

Rather than imposing rules, we need to trust teachers to make good decisions about the needs of their students. Strict pedagogical rules–whether conservative or liberal–do not help anyone, serving only to create frustration and even fear in professional educators. As connected educators, we recognize the value of community and shared expertise as part of the learning process and often ask questions of our colleagues that, theoretically, we could have looked up ourselves whether we are doing so on Twitter or around the lunch table.

Perhaps we should start thinking of our students as those colleagues. That changes the dynamic, and those quick questions between colleagues can help keep them on track with their larger project.

 

Snow Day

creativity, Education, learning

Today was supposed to be an out-of-the-house day with a trip on the ferry to Williamsburg. But, snow cancelled all that including meeting online as my colleagues on the other side of the river did not have power. We were fortunate in that way but I’m not sure how long it will be before we can get down our long muddy driveway.

I did a bit of work, but then decided that the rest of it could wait.  I took a snow day. I’m working on a miniature green house that will be a gift for my sister, an avid gardener. I have not done doll house work before, but I like putting things together. The miniature work is challenging, and I’ve learned not to fuss too much. No one will be examining it too closely.

The joy of a snow day is the spontaneity. The day to day routine gets disrupted, and life slows in a satisfying way. I am supportive of schools who are implementing digital learning so snow days are seen as learning days and not something that needs to be “made up,” but I hope the snow day learning is as personal as possible. Encourage kids to do something they enjoy doing and then reflect a bit about what they experienced and learned as they engaged in that activity. Stop feeling as though we have to fill their time, give them the gift of just doing something for the joy of it.

 

Green Screen Practice

blogging, Education, teaching, technology

For Tuesday’s class, my students are thinking about leadership, vision and the standards. As part of the class, they will work in groups to create a slide about one of the Education Leader standards and how it relates to the other sets of standards. Once they create their slide, they will use Do Ink to narrate the slide in front of a green screen either using video of themselves or paper avatars. I have two green screen stations: one with a table cloth and one with a pizza box. Both items came from @gemilltime  who gave them to me after her presentation about using green screens in the classroom.

My sample was for the ISTE certification course and featured a paper doll of Emily Dickinson talking about flipgrid and how I use it as a check in tool for the genius project. Pretty dull stuff…it was proof of concept to make sure I had a basic understanding of how it works. I’m relying on at least some of my students being familiar with it. I think, as an exit ticket each week, I need to see how familiar students are with the coming tech activities. It will help gauge how far we might go and who might need extra support. I have some pretty techy folks this semester.

We are going to do a “stations” approach next week. There will be five groups–one for each standard–and all of them will spend the first 20 minutes planning their slide and their video. Then, two groups will work on their videos in the classroom while the rest of the students head out to the library to work independently on developing the twitter PLN, part of their passion project. They will find and follow experts in the area they want to pursue, identify potential twitter chats and then spend some time just interacting with Twitter. I feel like I used to as a reading teacher: if I wanted you to read, I needed to give you time. If I want you to use Twitter, I need to give it class time and priority.

As groups finish their videos, the other groups will rotate through with the goal of being done in time to watch them in class. If not, I’ll post them to the course site later.

My own attempt is not for prime time but I may play a bit tomorrow. I have these great paper dolls of famous American writers along with props that would make fun tableau. Maybe Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Mark Twain spend some time chatting.