Is Change the True Barrier – A Response

An educator and individual that I trust and work with asked a simple question in one of his last blog post relating to

ronunruhgps.blogspot.com

change and whether “people really don’t like change or is it truly that people do not like the process that change incurs?”

Both in my career as well as in my life outside of the classroom I have found that many people are resistant to the concept and ideas of change. My understanding of individuals resistance to change is this:

Some individuals dislike change because they must adapt and reform their understanding.

Some dislike change because it is work, it takes effort and time to change.

Some are hesitant to change because they believe that it inhibits their individual freedom.

Some are discouraged about change because it means learning new concepts.

Some are scared about having to venture away from what they know towards something unknown.

I could go on and on about my understandings and observations about individuals and why they are unwilling or apprehensive about change. However, to answer the question asked by G. Couros, in my opinion most people are reluctant to change because of the process of change and the fear that comes with unfamiliar ideas/concepts.

I can say this with some certainty because over two years ago I was faced with change. I will openly admit that I was fearful, apprehensive, hesitant, cautious, confused, and had to readjust my understandings, ideas and delivery of the curriculum. How you ask, I switched from teaching high-school for nine years, to teaching elementary.

Looking back, it was a great decision, I have learned a significant amount about teaching, about students and about the sequence of curriculum and learning. I look at it this way, everyday we as educators suggest, require and attempt to change our students in someway or another, thus if we expect change of the minds in our charge we must be willing to change ourselves.

Here is a great quote from a great man about why change is important.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Little Leaders – Cooperative Learning

I have been teaching Severe Special needs for a decade. I know that this is not long in comparison to many other educators but today, while sitting in class after having gone through SpellingCity.com and Kidspell.com with my students I gave them some individual practice. As the students set off to work one of my students asked if he could work with another peer. Since we have been doing a significant amount of work in relation to Cooperative Learning, I said “sure why not”, then anther pair of peers asked the same question, thinking noting of it I gave the same response.

As I was busily working with another student, I noticed that the class was unusually quiet, which in my setting is generally not a good thing. I quickly turned to check out my working pairs. This is what I saw.

I am sure that many who are looking at this are wondering – { OK, so what is so interesting or exciting about this? }

As I said my class is made up entirely of students with behavioral issues, as well as psychological and educational. For many of them the ability to get along with peers in any setting without becoming verbally or physically aggressive, to sit with each other with out arguing or teasing or to sit beside each other without becoming competitive and negative is a struggle. However as you can see I have one peer helping another. While on the other side of the picture I have one peer patiently waiting for another to complete something. I am not saying that my students have met their behavioral goals, but they are progressing very nicely.

Reflecting on what was happening and how the kids are growing, I came to some realizations. First, this is probably the earliest I have ever had the students work together on an activity, but more importantly the students wanted to work together. Second,  through our class activities relating to “The Leader in Me” and “Cooperative Learning” the students have transitioned to learning from and asking for help from me to working with and learning from each other. As well, that this transition in interdependence directly creates change in their behaviors and relationships with each other. Lastly, and what is most important to me, my students are learning to trust each other, to rely on each other to work together – my students are growing and not because of me, because of our entire class.

I guess breaking it down, I am really proud of my kids in terms of their growth in Leadership and Cooperation.

Thanks George – for the ideas.

Little Leaders – GoogleDocs Student Reflections.

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On Tuesday, the students were given their first formal opportunity to work on a Google Document to answer questions / complete an investigative assignment about the Inuit in Canada.

INUIT STUDY

Their were two essential elements that I wanted from this activity, one for the students to make inquiries and learn about a specific group of people in Canada,  the second was that I wanted students to use technology to learn collaboratively, working with each other to enhance each others learning (Cooperative Learning).  With the activity complete my follow up activity was to have the students reflect, not on what they learned but more on the process used to learn.

To determine how the students liked the activity and what they thought of the activity, I asked a few questions that each student was required to answer:

Here are the students responses or reflections:

Airplane wrote : The Googledocs that you put up. Yes. Becuase it gave me lots of information. It gave me lots of information that I can all understand. It helps me lear about every thing about the Inuit.Yes I would this can also help me in a test.No every thing was great!

Rocket wrote : WE USE googledocs
I DID LIKE IT!
BECAUSE I SAW ARYONE
IF WE LENING ABOUT IUNWT
SPELL THE FOOD THAT THEY EAT
I WELL US IT AGAIN
YES ,THAT PEOPLE COPYED ME

Rabbit wrote: we did docs. yes i like it . we can help each other. work with each other. yes i like it. yes i would use it again. No i dount

and finally,

Lizard wrote: because it was fun. yes. bay me ascing for help. it helps me get alon.
yes.
yes.
no.

As you can tell, I did not edit or change the students responses, I simply cut and pasted their comments.

To myself the activity was both a success and a learning experience. Although at times I needed to guide students as to where they could locate information, it was easy for the students to proceed from there. The students loved getting the instant and direct feed back (however at present I haven’t shown them how to use the CHAT section). Overall in my opinion the students enjoyed working on this activity and also enjoyed using Google Docs. I will definitely be using this as a learning and teaching tool again. A special thanks to @carolgau and @aleaness for helping me understand the ins and outs of GoogleDoc’s

Our next step is to use the information we gathered to guide our learning and finish off the unit/topic with a return visit to the document, however without access to the internet for information. Stay tuned.

Little Leaders – New Technology (Google Docs)

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted about my little leaders, but we have been very busy learning to use some

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great tools to assist our learning, understanding and communication. In addition I have just finished term one report cards, which used an new format.

However we are back and doing some great work. To continue in my students development as leaders as well as to give them more control in their learning. I have now started, in some classes, to allow students to determine what questions they are going to answer. I have started doing this for three reasons. The first is that it focuses on what the students want to learn, but secondly it reveals what the students already may know. However most importantly it allows students to share information and learn cooperatively. Keep in mind though, that I do insert some of my own questions, because I still must cover the curricular objectives.

To make things interesting and to increase students communication and use of technology, for our most recent assignment we used GoogleDocs. The students have seen it before, however this was their first attempt at using the application.

We started by creating a list of inquiry questions (using googledocs) we wanted to answer about the INUIT

Once this was completed students were given the link to the document, however before being let loose to answer questions they were reminded that this was a group activity, and that everyone was to participate and complete some of the questions. They were also informed that I would be checking their working and reminding them of corrections or where to find information, which meant that they should be reading as they are working.

Here is what the project / assignment looks like thus far. Please feel free to add information or comments as the kids would love to see them and get feed back.

INUIT STUDY

Stay tuned, before the end of the week I hope to have some reflections in relation to using GoogleDocs.

What are you? – Education Detour

The Social studies curriculum for my students, involves the discovery, investigation, understanding and comparison of many different cultures and communities both within Canada and the world. As one could guess we often look at the language(s) spoken, the traditions practiced, the roles and responsibilities of individuals, music, art and many more that I am not going to list. In addition to the above the students also look into the “boring stuff” as I have been told such as economics, primary industries and trades.

However, today before beginning our study of the Inuit of Canada, of of my students raised her hand and politely asked, “Shawn, what are you”. I replied, “What do you mean”. Searching for answer to my question she quickly came up with. “Where are you from”. Although I knew what she was asking and what she wanted to know. I wanted to gauge her ability to be more specific and to think critically about how to get the answer she was looking for.

One peer helped her asking, “Where were you born”, “Edmonton” was my reply. A few students chimed in to say, yes but where are you from. To which I did remind them that I had answered this question. Finally, the girl whom had initially asked the question said, “what is your culture”. I tried to explain, but the complexity of my back ground showed in the blank looks that were looking back at me. I quickly remembered a video that I had seen a few years back.

As visuals are a great teaching tool, I pulled up the video and played it for the kids.

After the video the number of question increased, but needless to say it was a great activity that had students inquiring and seeking information, not because I said it was important or part of a test.

They wanted to know the information.

What I take from this is . . . sometimes the questions that are easily answered, should be used as learning moments.

The Two R’s for November 11th.

Working with my students in the areas of Critical thinking and building Criteria, I thought that Remembrance Day would make for some great exercises. For me Remembrance Day is a day of reflection, of remembering and a day to honor and give thanks for the Men and Women who gave their lives and who continue to put their lives on the line so that I may enjoy many of the freedoms I have. For years I have taught students about the many battles, wars and sacrifices that the Men and Women of our armed forces were in and made. In addition I have highlighted the current duties and participation of the same individuals in current conflicts.

This year, however I chose to take another approach to focusing on Remembrance Day/Veterans Day. Instead of simply looking at the sacrifices, tragedies and suffering that was and is endured. I asked the question

“Why should or do we take two minutes out of the year to remember silently?”

However, before taking answers from the kids, I asked them to quietly watch the following video, that was created a few years ago.

After showing the video, I once again asked the question. I got the usual answers of “because there were wars”, “to remember those that died”, “to pray for those who are still fighting” and even the response “because that is what you are supposed to do”. Before I was able to ask some more questions I heard one of my shyer students softly say :

“To show RESPECT“

I asked to repeat herself a little louder so that everyone could hear her and she did. I was so proud. This is  when, not I but one of my kids said “Shawn, there are two R’s for Remembrance Day – Remember and Respect” to which I joyously agreed “Yes, you are absolutely correct”.

The learning lesson for myself came to me while I was reflecting on the day on the drive home. I often participate in activities on November 11th. Showing that I remember and respect those that serve our great country, but I have never actually said it out loud. So before getting home, I stopped at a neighbors house, walked up to the door and rang the door bell. Cedric answered the door (don’t worry I have known Cedric for a few years now) I stretched out my hand to shake his and he reciprocated and as we shook hands I said THANK YOU. You see Cedric is a member of The Canadian Armed Forces and in the six years I have known him he has severed on three out of country missions. Cedric simply smiled back and said, Thank You.

The Red Fire Truck

 

My students never cease to amaze me. Their manner of thinking and reasoning is so precious. I have – sorry used to have a saying in my class in response to peculiar questions or requests that my students would have. Sometimes first thing in the morning some of my students would ask if they could color instead of read, use the computer instead of eat their snack or one student even asked if he could keep a Lady Bug in his pencil case. Rather than always saying no or correcting my students, if they would sometimes ask for something way out in left field I would say “I would like a Red Fire Truck“.

Last week one of my little ones came into class and sat quietly reading his reading book, he completed his assignments and then as snack time approached he asked if he could have some of the pop corn that I keep in my desk. Naturally I said only if I could have a “Red Fire Truck“. The precious little guy turned and walked back to his desk. Thinking that the conversation was over, I prepared to distribute the students snacks.

The little guy walked to my desk and opened his hand saying, “OK, here is you Red Fire Truck” and there in his hand was a little toy Hot Wheels Fire Truck. What was I to do. I said “point taken”. I asked him to hand everyone else their snack and went and popped an individual popcorn bag for my inventive little guy.

I returned and gave him his popcorn, smiling the little guy jumped out of my seat and before returning to his desk said “I can also give you a Police car, Army truck, Fire boat and also a Sports car, but I don’t have any more Red Fire Trucks“. I could resist smiling and almost burst out laughing. This I have learned, don’t under estimate the reasoning and behavior of your students. Also if you ask for something, prepare yourself for getting what you asked for.

How often do your students surprise you?

Hmmmmm, next time I am gonna ask for a new puppy.