As we set off down the path at Greenwich this afternoon, Alex and Simon explained to me that when they go here with Daddy, they like to think of the walk in "chapters":  First comes the prologue (parking lot to fence).  Next comes the hot, dusty path, followed by the forest of strange trees.  Then it's the boardwalk over the swamp and past the "hot dog fields", and finally, the chapter that leads one over the dune to the ocean.

Along the way, they decided to "collect" (mentally), the various creatures we encountered.  Our collection today included several frogs, the hovering dragon-flies with blue shimmering wings, a grasshopper, two butterflies, a bee, a large, black crow, and an unidentified sea-gull-like bird.

The best photo ops came after the camera battery died; the boys went galloping over the dune bridge and onto the beach... we all lay in the ocean for a long, long time, letting the waves push us to and fro, and marveling at the ocean's majestic strength!

Glyphs

An activity I learned about way back in teachers’ college myself, the glyph presented in this session was considerably more open ended in that it allowed one to easily cluster people by colour.  A 4-square was distributed, along with a collection of pre-cut coloured squares with which to fill in the 4-square, according to a pre-determined legend or key.  (In this case, a certain colour went into the upper left hand corner depending on which of the four provinces participants were from, and another colour in a different corner determined which division we most often taught in, and so on.)

Another idea I had not considered, though I’d often used “bioglyphs” as a start-of year activity with my students, is that the glyphs can be left up for a longer period of time and then referred to when teaching a host of math concepts beyond data, such as fractions and percents and having students write their own mathematical problems to solve, based on data represented in the sample posted in the room!

4 Corners

An organizer I have often used in my own room is 4 corners, and I was pleased to see it demonstrated here.  Four images or signs are posted up in the corners of the room (I have used 6 corners before, too, for more distribution, if I have a larger class), and students are invited to go to the corner which they feel best represents their response to particular question, and then have a conversation with others in that corner. 

For example, students might flock to a particular photo that best represents to them the key concepts in a recently completed unit of study.  Or signs in the corners might read “strongly agree”, “agree”, “disagree” and “strongly disagree”; students would be asked to consider where they stand on an issue and why, then go to that corner and have a conversation with others at that corner to develop an argument for or against a particular position.

Quiz-Quiz-Trade

This one’s a great review tactic for auditory learners and extroverts, but allows people to just speak with one partner at a time, so it's not too high stress even for the introverts in the room. Everyone gets a different question, makes eye contact with a partner, then meets that partner and reads their question aloud for the partner to respond to.  After “quizzing” one another, the partners trade cards, and go off to find another partner. 

Even if they connect with the same partner later on, they will have different cards by then, so this activity really is quite versatile.  One thought I had, too, was that students could write the quiz questions themselves towards the end of a unit, in order to consolidate individual and collective understanding.  (And clarify any misunderstandings; students will be only to happy to correct one another if they disagree on a particular response!)

This activity also provides a great opportunity for “get to know you” questions at the beginning of the school year, or after a long break. 

My own thought was to use opinion-based questions, as a warm up for a “point of view” unit, but ensure that students paraphrase what their partners say before trading cards and moving on to a new partner, so that they really practise active listening!

I had the delightful experience recently of attending a conference with my colleagues from Atlantic Canada.

I say “delightful” here, because working for a big board in Ontario, as I do, I find it easy to become quite insular sometimes.  Even when I read books or attend workshops, it is usually with my Board colleagues, or at most, with provincial educators through the Ministry of Ed or our Teacher Federation.  Rarely do I venture professionally outside Ontario.  And so, it was rather a refreshing experience to spend three days in Charlottetown, PEI, with teachers K-12 from across four provinces out in this part of the country.

While I was there, the idea of “simply good teaching” came up.  More specifically, during a session on Differentiated Instruction (DI), the two facilitators commented that when they had gone to the States a few years ago to hear Carol-Ann Tomlinson preach, er, speak on DI, they had turned to one another and said, “isn’t this just good teaching”?

Lost in Translation

I chuckled to myself, because even back home, I have often felt that we are quick to jump on the band-wagon and tout the latest “thing” in education, brandishing edu-babble about like a sword ready to decapitate anyone left standing, regardless of whether it’s a student, teacher or parent.  Yet we frequently do so without a practical application of the “latest thing”, i.e. how does this align with (or challenge) what I already know, and what does/ might/ will/ could it look like in MY teaching context?!

In our thirst to be “up to date”, and on board with the latest “edu-speak”, I -- along with my colleagues -- am often guilty of leaving behind qood teaching techniques in favour of bigger picture philosophy without any substance to deliver it effectively.

Develop (and Maintain) a Bag of Tricks

Putting research into action requires a specific skill set and an artist’s palette.  Not unlike Bennett and Rolheiser’s Beyond Monet, we must teach Science and Reading and Math and all the other subjects using a range of skills, strategies, techniques and organizers. Yet many teachers come out of the faculty of education with lovely philosophies and few practical tricks up their sleeves. 

Those who have begun to develop a repertoire of effective teaching strategies such as concept attainment, placemat or rich questions followed by wait time often give them up in favour of a limited array of quick and easy low-level instructional techniques once they realise how full the job is of “extra duties as assigned”, i.e. counting pizza money, chasing down permission forms, attending endless meetings, organizing extra-curriculars, writing report cards, finding a pair of mittens, lunch or a backpack for a student who doesn’t have one, etc., etc., etc. 

And once these lower-level teaching strategies become habit, it is ever so hard to adopt something new.

A Good Strategy, Tool or Organizer is Versatile

One of the sessions at the conference was entitled “Simply Good Teaching”.  It in, NLTA’s Debbie Turner and Nicole Kelly led us through a series of strategies that are easily adaptable to a wide range of subject areas and grade levels.

In my next blog post, I plan to write about a few favourites I was reminded of as well as a new one I am looking forward to using the next time I am in a classroom.

Confed Ctr Art camp, Ch'town, PEI!

As promised, here are the resources to accompany this morning's closing keynote:  "Asking Big Questions: Using Rich Mentor Texts to Communicate About Social Justice".  Yes, it's a mouthful, but we managed to get through it in the allotted hour and 15 mins, didn't we?!  

Thanks for being such an amazing group of colleagues; I sure enjoyed spending the past three days together.  Coast to coast, Canada's sure got some great teachers, eh?

The more things change....

The ride into Charlottetown each morning is a long one. We’ve been listening mainly to a Spanish Language CD (preparing for Argentina) and also some Christian Rock.  
  
After a song from Matt Redman’s 10 000 Reasons the other day, Simon piped up, “Mommy, who’s ‘Marcel’?”
 
It took me a minute to register what he was talking about -- so often, the boys seem into their own fantasy world, and they sometimes forget that as I am focusing on my driving, I am not right there with them, so they have to explain what they are thinking about!! 

Then I realised he was hearing the words "Bless the Lord, my soul" on the iPod as "Bless the Lord, Marcel"!

Thanks to Tom Hilton, who shared his thesis work on LGBTQ youth on PEI at the CONTACT conference at this morning's session, for tuning me in to this video.  It was developed by www.YouthforHumanRights.org, and gives an excellent overview of the concept of Human Rights, as well as a little history lesson on the same.  Worth the 9 minutes of your time....

One of the sessions at this morning's CONTACT conference in Ch'town, PEI, put forth the idea that Differentiated Instruction might better be named Responsive Teaching since, really, the idea was for the teacher to respond to the needs of the individual and groups of students in her class.

I applaud the idea, and hereby pronounce this afternoon's tech session at Beanz Roastery an example of "responsive blogging", tee hee!  I need to do some online work, and the boys wanted to grab a home-made green tea lemonade and a chocolate chip peanut butter cookie.  So, rather than 'blog' (type) at home, where we have no internet, I picked Simon and Alex up after Art Camp at the Confed Ctr, and headed over to make use of the free wifi and get a (not free, sadly) cookie and lemonade to share while we satiated our collective appetites for connectivity!

Came across a fridge, YES a FRIDGE, full of books the other day en route to the massage therapist's... on top of the fridge was a sign inviting folks to leave commentary as they left or took a book.

The boys had a look through... nothing poked them in the eye, but they were very impressed with the concept, as was I!

(Seriously, a FRIDGE!!!)