iWonder. iLearn. iKnow. Home - iWonder iLearn iKnow @ Brebeuf
I'm currently working on a proposal for an action-research project when I return to the classroom in September. I am proposing a Student-Directed Learning opportunity whereby students will select courses from the Interdisciplinary Curriculum, select units of study, design assessment and summative tasks with rubrics and engage in experiential learning. This is the class wiki! It is a self-contained, "go-to" site that contains all the information and material needed to be successful in the course. I'm presenting my proposal on February 5 and I have all conceivable body parts crossed for this one...
27 January 2010
23 January 2010
Tools used for good but we tell kids to make them invisible!
You know, I really do understand why it is that administrators and teachers perceive cell phones and iPhones to be a nuisance at school. Kids are texting their friends and taking personal calls at inappropriate times. Tell me, have we ever taught them about how they SHOULD be using those devices? Seriously! I think before we photocopy more "NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES ALLOWED" posters and plaster them all over the front doors of our schools or ask kids to produce posters that report of the potential brain damage cell phone use can cause, we need to take a step back and examine what we're so afraid of. These days, the potential that these devices possess for education is astounding and we are not willing to go there.
I felt compelled to write about this topic after reading about Dan Woolley, an American filmmaker who was trapped in an elevator shaft for 65 hours after the earthquake in Haiti. He was badly hurt and his iPhone saved his life. He downloaded a first aid app that showed him how to make a tourniquet for his leg using his shirt and a bandage for his head using his sock. In doing research on the internet on how to prevent himself from going into shock, he discovered that he should avoid falling asleep for too long periods of time after sustaining head trauma, so he set an alarm on his smart phone to wake him up every 20 minutes. The DSLR helped him make extra light while waiting for help to arrive.
Could you imagine the potential that tools like this can have at school? These days most phones come with internet browsers and wireless capabilities. More and more kids have them. How many of us complain that we don't have computers in our classrooms? Wouldn't it be great to be able to look anything up on Google, for example, if a question came up in our lessons that we couldn't answer? What if when we asked our students to an in-class assignments, students could use these tools to improve their grammar and vocabulary, or augment their work with research? Cell phones are not just for cheating on tests and yet we accuse kids before it even happens. We have a moral obligation to teach our kids how to use this technology responsibly and ethically.
I felt compelled to write about this topic after reading about Dan Woolley, an American filmmaker who was trapped in an elevator shaft for 65 hours after the earthquake in Haiti. He was badly hurt and his iPhone saved his life. He downloaded a first aid app that showed him how to make a tourniquet for his leg using his shirt and a bandage for his head using his sock. In doing research on the internet on how to prevent himself from going into shock, he discovered that he should avoid falling asleep for too long periods of time after sustaining head trauma, so he set an alarm on his smart phone to wake him up every 20 minutes. The DSLR helped him make extra light while waiting for help to arrive.
Could you imagine the potential that tools like this can have at school? These days most phones come with internet browsers and wireless capabilities. More and more kids have them. How many of us complain that we don't have computers in our classrooms? Wouldn't it be great to be able to look anything up on Google, for example, if a question came up in our lessons that we couldn't answer? What if when we asked our students to an in-class assignments, students could use these tools to improve their grammar and vocabulary, or augment their work with research? Cell phones are not just for cheating on tests and yet we accuse kids before it even happens. We have a moral obligation to teach our kids how to use this technology responsibly and ethically.
18 January 2010
Haiti Quake Another Reason Why Critical Literacy is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Important...
Father Mario showed this video during his homily at mass on Sunday:
I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. An alleged man of God, a Christian, BLAMING the people of Haiti for the earthquake that devastated the tiny nation. This is yet another reason why critical literacy needs to become the "new basic" in education. There is too much for our kids to process on their own. Ridiculous propaganda such as this could and probably will reek some havoc in a world that is constantly seeking out scapegoats and looking for yet another reason to justify racist, biggotted viewpoints. It's shocking, but it isn't...
I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. An alleged man of God, a Christian, BLAMING the people of Haiti for the earthquake that devastated the tiny nation. This is yet another reason why critical literacy needs to become the "new basic" in education. There is too much for our kids to process on their own. Ridiculous propaganda such as this could and probably will reek some havoc in a world that is constantly seeking out scapegoats and looking for yet another reason to justify racist, biggotted viewpoints. It's shocking, but it isn't...
08 January 2010
Professional Reading for Teachers
This is a list of some professional reading that I think would really benefit teachers who are interested in critical literacy and teaching and learning in the 21st century. It's good stuff...
Professional Reading for Teachers
View more documents from ChrissyYCDSB.
Student Directed Learning Notes
This posting excites me for two reasons:
1. I finally learned how to upload a document that wasn't a power point using Slideshare, and
2. It's some of the work I've been doing around student-directed learning. I really can't wait to get back into the classroom...
I know first-hand what an amazing learning opportunity this can be for students. In my final year at York University, because of my GPA, I was permitted to design my own History course. I had to seek out a professor who would meet with me on a weekly basis to discuss what I had been reading and writing. The readings that were selected by me had to support my central inquiry question. In my case my question was, "Did the death of Pierre Elliotte Trudeau create an identity crisis for Canadians?" I also had to come up with a working hypothesis, which I fleshed out with my weekly writing. I surveyed people. I researched in the National and Provincial Archives - online and in person. It was a really rich learning experience. My culminating task was a huge, 50-page paper. I had to present it to my professor before he graded it. I was truly proud of myself when I was done. There wasn't a course like it being offered and it was exciting to me because identity politics is a topic that I was, and continue to be passionate about. By the time one reached the final year of a 5 year Honours program along with a three years in the Concurrent Program at the Faculty of Education, one is generally tired and looking forward to the end. This one course really revitalized me as a student and had a significant impact on me as an educator.
I recently made the decision to return to the classroom this September. I am really hoping that I'll get to pilot this back at me school. If not, this is certainly going to be worked in, somehow, to a course I'll teach because I want to students to be excited about coming to school and I want them to know that they can contribute to a body of knowledge that they are passionate about.
1. I finally learned how to upload a document that wasn't a power point using Slideshare, and
2. It's some of the work I've been doing around student-directed learning. I really can't wait to get back into the classroom...
Student Directed Learning Notes
View more documents from ChrissyYCDSB.
I know first-hand what an amazing learning opportunity this can be for students. In my final year at York University, because of my GPA, I was permitted to design my own History course. I had to seek out a professor who would meet with me on a weekly basis to discuss what I had been reading and writing. The readings that were selected by me had to support my central inquiry question. In my case my question was, "Did the death of Pierre Elliotte Trudeau create an identity crisis for Canadians?" I also had to come up with a working hypothesis, which I fleshed out with my weekly writing. I surveyed people. I researched in the National and Provincial Archives - online and in person. It was a really rich learning experience. My culminating task was a huge, 50-page paper. I had to present it to my professor before he graded it. I was truly proud of myself when I was done. There wasn't a course like it being offered and it was exciting to me because identity politics is a topic that I was, and continue to be passionate about. By the time one reached the final year of a 5 year Honours program along with a three years in the Concurrent Program at the Faculty of Education, one is generally tired and looking forward to the end. This one course really revitalized me as a student and had a significant impact on me as an educator.
I recently made the decision to return to the classroom this September. I am really hoping that I'll get to pilot this back at me school. If not, this is certainly going to be worked in, somehow, to a course I'll teach because I want to students to be excited about coming to school and I want them to know that they can contribute to a body of knowledge that they are passionate about.
Theories of Teaching and Learning: The Staged Self-Directed Learning Model, G.Grow.
Lately, I've been completely engrossed in some research I've been doing about student-directed learning. Interestingly enough, the interest for this project was generated by one of our Board's student trustees. I'll be blogging more on this topic soon. In the meantime, I thought this was a great overview of what STL is all about.
06 January 2010
2000-2009: The FAKE Decade?
I always find it interesting how the media, in particular, reflects on the previous year or decade in this case after another new year comes and goes. At church for the last couple of weeks, this very topic has been the focus of Father Mario's homily. He spoke about how people are struggling to label the decade that has past. We easily identify with 60s or the 80s, but somehow the 2000s or the 00s doesn't seem to pack the same kind of punch. Apparently, the hot buzzword on Twitter is the 2KOs. Catchy. Father Mario encouraged us to go home and Google (yes, my PRIEST told the whole congregation to do this)"the fake decade" to see how the 2KOs have been summed up. It made for some pretty interesting and compelling reading. It also confirmed for me more and more the need for critical literacy and media literacy to be at the forefront of everything we do in the classroom.
So Father Mario was right. Some of what I found through Google made for some very interesting reading. Here are some of the highlights of the "fake decade":
Fake Celebrities
Two words on this subject: Paris Hilton.
Fake Religion
Ah... Scientology. The religion of the Hollywood stars! Its dogma reads like the script of a really bad Sci-Fi movie. It is fuelled by celebrity membership, such as the likes of Tom Cruise, the Travoltas and Will Smith. To profess that psychology and psychiatry are "evil" is ludacris. This whole cult, and it can be reduced to nothing more than that, is simply ludacris.
Fake Prosperity
I have to say that I am so relieved that the Ontario Ministry of Education is doing a lot work to include Financial Literacy as part of the work that we do in our classroom. I can't ever remember in all my studies in History, ever coming across a decade where the stock market crashed three times. It's unheard of! The reality of the free market is that we are trusting that those who run companies and corporations are being truthful and upfront about the financial health of the enterprise. We have to trust that they are not keeping two sets of books - one for the profits and one for the lossess, but only reporting on the profits so as to generate excitement for the purposes of selling shares and stock. Can everybody say ENRON? I can't even wrap my head around how many people fell victim to Ponzi schemes. We need to teach our kids how the market works and how banking systems work. It can't be reserved for senior-level business and economic courses anymore. Kids need to know this stuff to simply BE in the world and save themselves from being victimized by people who know perhaps a little too much and would exploit those less astute than themselves.
Fake Jobs
Many of my friends loved this book, but The Secret gave people licence to think and believe that they have complete control of their lives and that we can do it on our own. This kind of attitude gave rise to the Life Coach. I still can't believe that this is an actual job that people make a living at! What education would you need? What makes someone qualified? Why do people take the word of Tony Robbins over the word of their own priest? There is something seriously wrong here.
Fake Faces
Plastic surgery has been around for a long time, but it seems that the last decade allowed more people to access it. You can get Botox injections right at your family physician's office these days! It's all about looking as young as possible. Have you SEEN Wayne Newton? Joan Rivers? Can you pull a face much tighter than that? I fear for the irreparable damage done to the self-esteem of our kids, especially our girls. So much pressure to be beautiful in an age when most beauty is created with an airbrush.
Fake Athletes
I think it is safe to say that our kids would be hard-pressed to find any heroes in the world of sports who AREN'T abusing performance-enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids. The baseball world was especially hit hard when it came to light that the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez weren't what they appeared to be. At the very end of the decade, even a Toronto-born doctor who is said to have treated Donovon Bailey and Tiger Woods was arrested for distributing performance enhancing substances.
Fake Politics
Where to start... The Florida election? The entire Bush administration? Weapons of mass destruction? Need I say more?
Fake Nobel Prize
I almost gagged when I heard that this prize, which I once held in such high regard, was given to the leader of a nation with troops engaged in active warfare. I make no apologies when I say that appointing the Nobel PEACE Prize to Barrack Obama, after having bestowed it upon the likes of Mother Teresa, Kofi Ananan, Martin Luther King Jr., Yitzhak Rabin, Nelson Mandela, Elie Weisel, the Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Canada's own Lester B. Pearson, that this prestige of this prize has been officially tarnished. Obama has no business be heralded in the presence of such company and quite frankly, the integrity of this honour has been officially ruined.
What this all comes down to is a single question: what is truth? As Catholics, we know that there is but one Truth and that's Christ, who said himself that "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life". It's so important that in all that we teach we keep this message at the forefront. I'm disaapointed to say that it doesn't happen too regularly which is why Catholic education is in a bit of trouble. We don't seem to be brave enough to teach our kids to speak the Truth. We're too busy teaching them about political correctness, which isn't synonomous with Truth. This is where critical literacy comes in. This view of the world, this way of thinking and being is complementary with Catholicism and yet so few teachers are fluent in it. Very few can tell you what it actually means. Most think it's the same thing as critical thinking, which is going to get them into a bit of trouble. Our kids need to be able to render their view and reading of the world in an intelligent and Truthful manner. We simply have to facilitate this educational experience by being careful of the primary and supplementary material that we choose to teach with. Catholic educators need to be more than fluent in the social teachings of the Church so that they can make connections as often as possible, and no, this isn't the job solely of the Religion teachers just like OSSLT preparations isn't solely the job of English teachers.
We have an opportunity to shape the next 10 years in Catholic education around this notion of Truth. Our kids need to be proud of their faith and come to a full understanding of what we are called to believe about the world, our neighbours and ourselves.
So Father Mario was right. Some of what I found through Google made for some very interesting reading. Here are some of the highlights of the "fake decade":
Fake Celebrities
Two words on this subject: Paris Hilton.
Fake Religion
Ah... Scientology. The religion of the Hollywood stars! Its dogma reads like the script of a really bad Sci-Fi movie. It is fuelled by celebrity membership, such as the likes of Tom Cruise, the Travoltas and Will Smith. To profess that psychology and psychiatry are "evil" is ludacris. This whole cult, and it can be reduced to nothing more than that, is simply ludacris.
Fake Prosperity
I have to say that I am so relieved that the Ontario Ministry of Education is doing a lot work to include Financial Literacy as part of the work that we do in our classroom. I can't ever remember in all my studies in History, ever coming across a decade where the stock market crashed three times. It's unheard of! The reality of the free market is that we are trusting that those who run companies and corporations are being truthful and upfront about the financial health of the enterprise. We have to trust that they are not keeping two sets of books - one for the profits and one for the lossess, but only reporting on the profits so as to generate excitement for the purposes of selling shares and stock. Can everybody say ENRON? I can't even wrap my head around how many people fell victim to Ponzi schemes. We need to teach our kids how the market works and how banking systems work. It can't be reserved for senior-level business and economic courses anymore. Kids need to know this stuff to simply BE in the world and save themselves from being victimized by people who know perhaps a little too much and would exploit those less astute than themselves.
Fake Jobs
Many of my friends loved this book, but The Secret gave people licence to think and believe that they have complete control of their lives and that we can do it on our own. This kind of attitude gave rise to the Life Coach. I still can't believe that this is an actual job that people make a living at! What education would you need? What makes someone qualified? Why do people take the word of Tony Robbins over the word of their own priest? There is something seriously wrong here.
Fake Faces
Plastic surgery has been around for a long time, but it seems that the last decade allowed more people to access it. You can get Botox injections right at your family physician's office these days! It's all about looking as young as possible. Have you SEEN Wayne Newton? Joan Rivers? Can you pull a face much tighter than that? I fear for the irreparable damage done to the self-esteem of our kids, especially our girls. So much pressure to be beautiful in an age when most beauty is created with an airbrush.
Fake Athletes
I think it is safe to say that our kids would be hard-pressed to find any heroes in the world of sports who AREN'T abusing performance-enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids. The baseball world was especially hit hard when it came to light that the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez weren't what they appeared to be. At the very end of the decade, even a Toronto-born doctor who is said to have treated Donovon Bailey and Tiger Woods was arrested for distributing performance enhancing substances.
Fake Politics
Where to start... The Florida election? The entire Bush administration? Weapons of mass destruction? Need I say more?
Fake Nobel Prize
I almost gagged when I heard that this prize, which I once held in such high regard, was given to the leader of a nation with troops engaged in active warfare. I make no apologies when I say that appointing the Nobel PEACE Prize to Barrack Obama, after having bestowed it upon the likes of Mother Teresa, Kofi Ananan, Martin Luther King Jr., Yitzhak Rabin, Nelson Mandela, Elie Weisel, the Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Canada's own Lester B. Pearson, that this prestige of this prize has been officially tarnished. Obama has no business be heralded in the presence of such company and quite frankly, the integrity of this honour has been officially ruined.
What this all comes down to is a single question: what is truth? As Catholics, we know that there is but one Truth and that's Christ, who said himself that "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life". It's so important that in all that we teach we keep this message at the forefront. I'm disaapointed to say that it doesn't happen too regularly which is why Catholic education is in a bit of trouble. We don't seem to be brave enough to teach our kids to speak the Truth. We're too busy teaching them about political correctness, which isn't synonomous with Truth. This is where critical literacy comes in. This view of the world, this way of thinking and being is complementary with Catholicism and yet so few teachers are fluent in it. Very few can tell you what it actually means. Most think it's the same thing as critical thinking, which is going to get them into a bit of trouble. Our kids need to be able to render their view and reading of the world in an intelligent and Truthful manner. We simply have to facilitate this educational experience by being careful of the primary and supplementary material that we choose to teach with. Catholic educators need to be more than fluent in the social teachings of the Church so that they can make connections as often as possible, and no, this isn't the job solely of the Religion teachers just like OSSLT preparations isn't solely the job of English teachers.
We have an opportunity to shape the next 10 years in Catholic education around this notion of Truth. Our kids need to be proud of their faith and come to a full understanding of what we are called to believe about the world, our neighbours and ourselves.
04 January 2010
Get your hands on Wetpaint!
C21 Learning Home - C21 Learning
In doing some research for a project at work, I've been mucking around with Wetpaint - a website/wiki builder that is really easy to use. Basically, site editing is done through point, click and type. It allows users to build sites collaboratively. Any given site can have multiple contributors. Any number of multimedia files can be uploaded. Documents in Word, Excel and Power Point format can be attached. The site can have multiple pages within itself, allowing users to more efficiently and effectively organize information. Best of all, it's free!
So far, I'm enjoying learning how to use this and I wish I had known about it sooner. Oh well...
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