One way to assess students who are thinking like learners could be to give them projects to expand their knowledge of a particular concept. My textbook resources come with enrichment activities, and I have been able to squeeze in about one a month. Another way could be to have students do a presentation on an applied topic. The key is that there has to be communication between the learner and the teacher. There has to be that “proof” that the learning has taken place.

I get into a quandary when I am assessing student learning. I still do the traditional methods of grading homework, giving quizzes and tests, grading notebooks, and try to fit in the projects, but I still don’t feel like I am getting to the heart of the matter. Am I proving by giving a good grade that my students are learning? I think so, and then I will move onto a new topic, go back and ask a question I think they should remember, and most of them don’t. Did they really learn?

One student made a comment to me last week that when I teach something new, she just pushes out the stuff she had learned before.  But if I keep going back and reteaching, then I don’t cover the content.  It makes me feel like I am not an effective teacher for this student, and I don’t know how to turn this student into a learner.  I think teachers who have a higher number of students during the day have the greatest challenge.  If every kid has a different way of learning, how can you best address everyone?  Does it mean teaching a topic eight different ways?

In summary, I have ideas about how to know if my students are learning, but none of them have proved true all of the time.  Maybe I need to overhaul my ways of assessing.  I have more questions than answers, and still feel like I am in the experimental stage of assessment.

For the past three years, I have been a member of the group at our school that scores portfolios. A new kind of writing has emerged–the transactive piece. The English teachers at my school were having a difficult time with cultivating this piece because it really requires the assistance of other content areas. To improve the quality of this writing, teachers in my school have begun a new collaboration project–English teachers become guest lecturers in other classrooms (like CAD) to help the content teachers develop the piece.

What I like about the new direction of portfolios is that it is more real world relevant. Because we are in an information age, the relevance of technical writing has come to the forefront. What I saw before in the way of transactive pieces were brochures about the same topics (drug abuse, proper nutrition). This past year, I saw more descriptive pieces about these same topics in magazine article format, the detail was richer, and the writings more comprehensive.

I enjoyed reading what Remona wrote in her blog about a presentation by Kathy Mincy of MSU (a wonderful lady, by the way, I got to work with her briefly in 1994).  She says:

The faculty survey revealed that, contrary to some popular opinion, teachers have seen freshman writers fairly evenly holding their own or improving in basic skills, with many more seeing improvement in the last 5 years. Also, when it comes to being writers, first-year college students are demonstrating significant improvement in understanding the writing process and showing more comfort with writing.

This was in reference to a survey given on the effective of the high school portfolio.

When I went to Google and did a search on “teacher blogs”, there were over 13,600,000 entries. This didn’t surprise me because teachers are good communicators. One of my recent favorites has been the Cool Cat Teacher (http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com). This site addresses global issues that are affecting educators and provides tools to use to better enhance student learning. The most current topic is the flat classroom, which is based on the book by Thomas Friedman. Has anyone out there read this book? If so, what did you think?

There are also teacher wikis out there where information about curriculum is being shared. Some teachers subscribe to education interest groups to get postings on current topics. I just joined http://www.edweek.org and am receiving emails of current articles. This site also has access to blogs, interest groups, etc. The basic membership is free. Here is a sample of the types of articles there. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/10/17/08nclb.h27.html?tmp=54725754

My “old” way of communicating with other teachers was through emails of individuals I met at professional development conferences or joining local math organizations.  Using the new communication tools from this class has opened up a whole new world of access to information.

Source:  http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/remote_access/2006/05/blogs_invitatio.html

Title:  Blogs = Invitations into Lives

In this post, Clarence Fisher talks about the value of using blogs.  He says “blogs are doors to the rest of the world.”    His purpose for using blogs is to allow his students to describe their world to others and for them to read about the lives of others around the world.  He is teaching his students to be good communicators as they post comments to the blogs they read.  In other articles that I read about Clarence Fisher, he has created a network of schools that are part of an international blogging project called the International Teen Life Project.  Source:  http://teachersteachingteachers.org/?cat=67.  In this project, students communicated through the blogs, podcasts, and photo essays, to give insight of their lives to others in the connected schools.  I clicked on the following link which was a podcast made by the students on their experience.  It is really worth listening to:  http://web.mac.com/lbaber/iWeb/Teenlife/Podcast/5CACB32F-6201-4EF7-A747-445DFFD71294.html.  The students talk about issues that affect them, like terrorism and teen suicide.  The two students in the podcast tell why this project is helpful to them.

Source: http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

I really enjoyed reading about connectivism because the theory fits well with our information society. Learning begins with the individual and increases by interaction with others through a social network.  I have been affected by this type of learning.  For example, before the Internet was available, when I would want or need to find information, I would either go to the local library or the local bookstore to read magazines or books or newspapers.  Sometimes, I would be able to find someone who knew the answer.  Now if I want to know something, I just go to Google and review sites.  Google has become my cookbook, my telephone directory, my encyclopedia, my newspaper, and so on.  Learners of today learn in much this same way, if they want to know it, they use this network of information resources to find what they need.

Constructivism seems to be the latest theory that college educators and administrators are following to promote student learning.  It is known as the student-centered classroom.  Teachers are there to provide students with the opportunity to learn.  I believe that constructivism is a valid theory in that it does put the process of learning on the individual.  In order for students to learn a topic, they have to become active about their learning.  It is what I posted in my earlier blog entry that I wanted to do with my students in my classroom, provide them ways of learning that help them learn to be independent thinkers.  I do not think that it is a religion.  I think that it is a sound theory which seems to be making its way to the forefront of the education community. 

What I know about teaching and learning theories were taught to me in Advanced Human Growth and Development and Secondary Curriculum.  What I remember from taking these classes are the ideas of constructivism and Piaget and Vygotsky because they made sense to me.  I want students to be responsible for their learning, and I want to give them activities which challenge them to help bring about learning.  Sad to say, the other theories are not memorable to me.  I guess you could say that I did not make a connection to them.

Source: http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/remote_access/2007/10/learning-rememb.html

Reading this article at Remote Access was very thought provoking. My definition of learning had been relatively short term: Teach students a foundation of knowledge, help them build on the foundation, and hope that the knowledge stays with them for state testing and college entrance exams. What I really need to be teaching them is the process of learning so that as they go out into the world, they can be self-sufficient learners. I need to teach them to be resourceful–how to find the information that they don’t know. This year, I am trying to teach my students through more modern means, Internet research projects, building models of geometry concepts, and relating geometry concepts to construction. I am in my own experiment, testing a hypothesis of giving students ownership of their learning, trying to reach a goal of making them better learners and thinkers.

It will be several years before I begin to see the results of my curriculum changes. So until then, I will keep this learning experiment running, until the data from the future becomes the present, and I know if I am on the right track.

George Siemens’ article gives some insight into a new concept of learning (for me) called connectivism. Source: http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm. Whenever I am commenting on articles of interest, I like to pick one statement from the reading that is meaningful to me. This time, it is “Informal learning is a significant aspect of our learning experience. Formal education no longer comprises the majority of our learning. Learning now occurs in a variety of ways – through communities of practice, personal networks, and through completion of work-related tasks.” So the challenge to teachers is to provide more learning opportunities for students of both varieties.

Lastly, the “Future of Learning” manifesto (the long version) really brought about a state of confusion for me.  Source:  http://thinklab.typepad.com/think_lab/2007/01/the_future_of_l.html

If this is how my students think, then do I, as a digital immigrant, have any hope of really reaching them?  Do students find any value in what we are trying to teach them?  Can we, as teachers, be taught to make a connection with a students?  I would be curious to hear what others think.  Are the ways I mention above a step in the right direction?

In the dynamic system that is a course, active learners do have more than one role. When the teacher is presenting the materials to be learned, the student becomes a listener. When students work in groups, they can be a learner, a teacher, a facilitator, and/or a presenter.

What’s the function of a “know-it-all” in the class? Does that person have a purpose in the over all scheme of things? This type of person is someone who enjoys expressing the knowledge they have about a particular subject, whether it is the classroom topic or something completely unrelated. They want to be heard by others, and they do not take criticism well. Their purpose in the scheme of things is giving knowledge to others. The challenge with having this kind of student in class is that they can hinder the learning of others. By being allowed to answer almost all the questions, they are not giving other students in the class time to process knowledge (thinking). Intimidation can occur if teachers allow this student to be the only one to answer. It is up to the teacher to find a role for this student (such as a tutor for other students) so that the “know it all” feels useful.

Where does the “teacher’s pet” come into play? A teacher’s pet is a student who is willing to go above and beyond to please their teacher. When a teacher dotes on this type of student too much, other students feel “cheated” of the teacher’s attention. The key here is to not allow any student to be seen as the favorite in the class. Teachers need to treat all students as equally as they can.

How do we deal with “front row/back row” dynamics online?  First, the online instructor has to determine who is a front row learner and who is a back row learner.  This can be done with discussions threads.  Front row learners generate lots of postings, back row learners tend to do the minimum necessary to get by.  Then, the instructor needs to engage the back row learners in conversations via email, discussion board, and/or putting him/her with a front row learner in a group activity.  In the classroom, it is much easier to do because you are a physical presence and can walk right up to a student and ask them a question, making them compelled to respond.  Much more difficult in the online environment.

Source: http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/93-8dig.htm

Article title: “Turning Teaching Into Learning: The Role of Student Responsibility in the Collegiate Experience”

This article brings out a very valid point about student learning. In order for students to become learners, there needs to be a sense of responsibility in the student for their own learning. Colleges need to be able to foster this responsibility by letting students know the expectations and by putting into place policies that foster student achievement and recognize it.  When students are active learners, and professors provide activities to engage students, the “quality of effort”, a measure of student learning, is greater and students are more successful academically and socially.

I believe the principles in this article are applicable to the secondary level, too.  If we, as teachers, can provide learning activities that get our students actively involved, then we can produce a better quality of learners.  Sometimes, secondary teachers fail at engaging students because of time constraints, lack of resources, and low student motivation.  We, at the high school level, have lots of obstacles to overcome.

Source:  http://www.edutopia.org/teachers-and-students-meet-middle-learners

The article titled “Teachers and Students Meet in the Middle” brings out a good point in that sometimes the teacher becomes the learner in their own classroom.  It does bring about a sense of goodwill when a student can show a teacher how to do something new.  In my math classroom, I have had students show me a faster way to solve a problem, and I then became the learner.

Yet, because of the way our schools are structured with content that needs to be covered, there is little opportunity for students to become teachers.  Most classes don’t frequently go to the computer lab, nor do most teachers even use technology to teach in their classroom.  When schools become more technology oriented, there will be a shift towards students becoming the teachers.

I think the best opportunity for teachers to become learners is through online courses like this one.  Because of the way we have access to each other’s blogs, we can learn from our professor and from each other.

A simple definition of the role of a teacher is “one who teaches.”  In an educational setting, it is a person who has achieved a particular degree from an accredited university which gives them the knowledge to teach others.  In the traditional classroom setting, it is the person who is hired to insure that students are taught by the guidelines of a given subject area (for Kentucky, it is the Program of Studies and Core Content 4.1).  But how does any of this define the role of a teacher?

I believe that a teacher defines their own role in the classroom, based on their own experiences.  There are many outside influences that make a teacher who they are.  What courses have they taken; did they go the traditional route of teaching (student teaching experience) or take the alternative certification?; what kinds of things did their mentor teacher show them?; how many years of experience do they have in the classroom?; have they engaged in professional development?; what kind of support did they receive from administration, from other teachers, from parents?; and do they have a strong work ethic?

This last question is a quality that good teachers have.  Teachers with a good work ethic will take the time to find activities that make the classroom interesting to students.  They will see out advice from colleagues when something doesn’t go well with a lesson.  They will spend endless hours searching the Internet for any information to help them do a better job.  To answer the question of “Is teaching imposed on you?” or “Does it rise from within?”, I say that good teachers possess a certain quality that rises from within; it is like they are naturals at their jobs.  I have seen a first year teacher exhibit the good qualities of a veteran teacher–how did she do it?  I wonder the same thing myself.  She did come from a family of teachers, her mom, her sister.

Then there are teachers who have teaching imposed on them.  They have outside influences that lead them down the path of teaching, and they do what they need to do in order to do a good job.

The role of the learner is a hard one to define.  In many ways, we are all learners.  We are still acquiring knowledge from events and social interactions around us.  In the educational setting, it is a structured relationship between the teacher and the student.  We hope that with whatever method we choose as a teacher, that students will gain that knowledge, thereby making them learners.  Learners are those who are being educated, and it isn’t always by teachers.  Kids are good at teaching each other things, family members are good teachers,  strangers can be good teachers, television can teach.  I think learning is when someone knows something in the moment that they did not know before a given experience, a social interaction, a given circumstance.

The role of a teacher in the classroom is to be a facilitator to guide students towards learning.  It should be more than just lecture, it needs to have student involvement, whether it be discussions or projects or group work.  It needs to build on prior knowledge.  Sometimes, the role of a teacher is to review, to bring back the student’s remembrance of that prior knowledge, in order to lead them forward into learning new material.  A teacher is supportive, giving extra assistance where needed, showing students where they are going astray and bringing them back on the right track.  Teachers are motivators, encouraging students to want to learn, and giving them sound reasons behind what they are learning.

The online classroom has taken away the face to face element of teaching, but it offers innovative ways of learning that can be incorporated into the regular classroom.  Expectations are clearly posted at the beginning of the course, readings are posted that enhance learning in the course, online learners are required to communicate with each other via emails, discussion boards, blogs, chats, etc. , assignments are communicated with specific deadlines, and because they are accessible to everyone, there is no need for coming up with makeup work.  Online students are responsible for researching topics as needed.  The intimidation factor is removed because communication takes place via written word, which is very precise, versus spoken word, which is subject to interpretation.