Eclectic Technology

Check out this new version of the KWL chart by Silvia Rosenthal Tomlison. What we once called KWL is now the KWHLAQ.

* K stands for  'What do you KNOW?'

* W stands for 'What do you WANT to know?'

* H stands for 'HOW will you find out?'

* L stands for 'What have your LEARNED?'

* A stands for 'What ACTION will you take?'

* Q stands for 'What further QUESTIONS do you have?'

This new visual also includes suggestions under each category to help students make their "thinking and learning visible." For more information click through to the post.

Although this was posted in 2013, the ideas of what we should look for in our classroom are still relevant. George Couros provides an image (as seen above) as well as more detailed explanations for each suggestion. Ask yourself if your learners have these options in your classroom.

1. Voice - the ability to learn from others and share their learning.

2. Choice - about how they learn and what they learn.

3. Time for reflection  (often overlooked in our very busy classrooms).

4. Opportunities for innovation

5. Critical thinkers - asking the questions and challenging what they see, respectfully.

6. Problem solvers/finders - what is a problem the learners see? How would they solve the problem?

7. Self-assessment - do your learners assess themselves or do you do the assessment? What would happen if they were given this opportunity?

8. Connected learning - bringing in experts from your community or further afield (perhaps by using Skype).

The post is worth reading as he provides additional insights to each area. In addition he provides one more piece that is also critical in your classroom. Click through to the post to learn more.

In this post Jackie Gerstein raises the question "if the research on the process of learning is compared to the practices being implemented in school, does this research influence school practices?"

After reflecting on her experience at school she shares five questions (shown in the image above) that will help guide learning:

* Is failure viewed as normal and as a productive part of the learning process?

* Is learning spaced out over time rather than crammed into a short time period?

* Are distractions during learning normalized?

* Is the learning practiced often and in a variety of contexts?

* Is the learning playful and fun? (especially important when one gets stuck at an impasse)

Each is discussed and there is also a link to a short video that provides a brief overview of learning from the book How We Learn by Benedict Carey.

Do you share current research on learning strategies with your learners? This post also references a post from Mind/Shift that discusses current learning strategies. Click through to the post to learn more and consider sharing this information with your learners as well as parents and staff in your school.

Why would we want to use next gen tools in our classroom? One reason is they provide a richer experience for our students, richer content, potentially richer discussions, and more as well as the fact that these tools are often multi-disciplinary and multi-sensory.

The 25 tools listed here address large parts of the curriculum as well as grade levels. Five are listed below. Click through to the post to learn more about them and twenty more.

* PBS for Educators has many resources available. This post highlights three specifically: Point of View (which is geared to older students); SCI Girls (think STEM); and Daily News Story (as you probably guessed we are talking current events).

* Big History Project goal is to develop a full curriculum for high school. At this point they have four key areas: the universe, or solar system and Earth, Life and Humans, with a total of seven "threshholds."

* Do you want your students to publish work online? Consider checking out EduBlog, KidBlog and Blogger?

Have fun exploring and teach your students (and yourself) some next gen tools!

Check out this revised assessment tool from Ross Parker. In the post he shares his experience with using this for a year and the awareness that the tool was not as functional as he had hoped. In brief, he has made four shifts.

1. Taking a tool designed for self assessment and realizing that the same time used throughout the year gets old quickly. Therefore, it is redesigned to "more general, useful for teachers and peers to use."

2. A shift from strands (high level learning outcomes), to attributes (which allows the tool to be used by students over many years as their knowledge and skills grow).

3. A move away from levels or grades to a focus on ways of learning.

4. Allowing students to determine levels rather than assigning them based on personal view.

Last year this tool was well received and this new version brings it up to a new level. Consider using this with students and perhaps have them keep a copy of it asking them to review it later on in the school year. You can download a pdf version of the tool from the website.

I have posted a number of resources from Ross Parker and this one requires a bit of time to understand…and yes, I think it is worth the time. The directions he provides in the upper right hand corner describe how a student should use this visual, as a tool to “steer & assess your own learning.”

Our students need to learn how to self-reflect and this tool has the potential to engage students and assist them in reflecting on their work regarding topics studied in technology.

You may download this visual as a png, pdf or pages document on the website. Take some time to check it out and see what you think.

Wiggins and McTighe have a new book out, "Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding." ASCD has Chapter 1 available on their website at no cost. This chapter explores "What Makes an Essential Question." Learn more about:
* Distinguishing characteristics of essential and non essential questions

* Look through essential questions based on subject area including history social studies, mathematics, language arts, science, arts, and world language

* Learn the seven defining characteristics of essential questions

This first chapter is rich in content and will help you in understanding the value of essential questions and how to create them for your class. As we move into Common Core this is a critical area that will help guide our classes and it is a great resource to have at our fingertips.

This post looks at the seven dimentsions of effective "learning power" as well as the "new" four Rs (as opposed to the traditional three Rs). The seven dimensions are in the image above. The new four Rs are:

* Resilience

* Resourcefulness

* Reflection

* Relationships

The final portion of the post looks at how the dimensions and 4 Rs are impacting classrooms, noting that the shift to the new dimensions of learning are found in classrooms that more self-directed, where students learning how to learn. Additional information on these concepts are in the post. 

What is similar about all the situations mentioned above? In each, the individual was criticized, but they each moved on and became public figures who were incredibly successful. They learned from criticism.

This post explores criticism, sharing a section on how criticism originally focused on literary criticism, which was also at a time when many could not read or write, and tracing the history forward to today, where we often use the word feedback.

The post provides insight into why people often react negatively to criticism and then moves to ways to embrace criticism. Below are three examples from the post. More information on each is in the post as are additional ideas...and think about this as a type of mindset that may help our learners move forward.

* Be intellectually humble.

* Remember your own human tendency to criticize.

* Lower your defenses and take responsibility.

As teachers many of us spend time reflecting on our lessons. Do we provide our learners with time to reflect? This post shares the author's personal observations on the value of reflection as well as ten questions that you may want to use with your learners. Three of the questions are below.

* Where did you encounter struggle today, and what did you do to deal with it?

* What made you curious today?

* What about your thinking, learning, or work today brought you the most satisfaction? Why?

There is also a link to two other resources that are focused on reflective questions for the writing process. One of the resources is focused the writing process with primary and intermediate writers and the second is on the writing process but towards more advanced writers. These two resources are located here.

If you are interested in Maker Education this post from Jackie Gerstein is worth checking out. She provides three visuals, all of which are also put in ThingLink, so each has great resources linked to the image.

The three images are:

* Educator as a Maker Educator

* Perfect Storm for Maker Education

* A Making Reflection (designed for students this could be used in a variety of ways)

There is also a slideshare The Mindset of a Maker Educator that provides links to a range of materials.

How can we become better teachers? One way is to reflect on our practice. There are times when we team teach or collaborate, but for most teachers our days are spent in our classroom with our students. This post provides 10 great suggestions on ways to reflect on your teaching. Below are a few of the ideas.

* Record video of your lessons (and then share the video with colleagues and have them provide feedback also).

* Ask the students for feedback (this may be a bit scary, but chances are they will have some insights that would assist you)

* Surround yourself with enthusiasm & possibility (all too often we see the negative...try going in the opposite direction and see what happens.

Seven additional ideas are found in this post. Check it out and make some notes for what you might try next year.

Andrew Church has created a tool for Self-Assessment and Reflection that asks students to answer 4 questions:

* What can I do? ((How am I going?)

* What can't I do? (How am I going?)

* How does my work compare with others? (How am I going?) 

* What can I do better? (Where do I go next?)

And then students are asked to look ahead with this question:

* What are my next steps? (What actions are you going to take as  a result of your reflections? Who can help me? Where to next?)

You can download two versions of this as a pdf file. One is in portrait mode and one in landscape mode. Church also asks that you provide him with feedback.

We often hear the words "life-long learners" in education and are told that we want our students to be "life-long learners." This post suggests that we want our students to be "agile, fluid learners." In this post 44 reflective prompts are shared. These prompts include:

* 6 Macro prompts merging reflective thinking with Bloom's taxonomy

* Prompts for students, teachers and principals

The image above provides and example. To read through all the prompts click through to the post.

What might you learn about your students/learners if you were to ask your students to answer these questions? TeachThought suggests that you might use these questions in a number of ways:

* Jigsaw

* Choice (as in let the students choose the questions they answer)

* Personalize (this may work well if you know your students and can ask them to answer questions that would relate to them)

* Use them as a writing prompt

* Team building games

* Big Picture

* Wing it

More information on these is available in the post.