Reflection

This year I have tried to keep up with all the great learning that is happening in the building, but it has been hard. I have an idea for next year where other teachers would write their own posts describing the great things they are doing in their classrooms.

I fear the additional burden the would place on teachers and I wonder if teachers would even be interested in this.

The most precious of resources we have is time. And there is never enough of it.

Today I listened to the Every Classroom Matters podcast. The topic was reflection with George Couros. He quoted John Dewey:

“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.

When I brought this idea up to Victor, he suggested even devoting workshop time to use for teachers to reflect on their blogs.

How great would it be to have a period of 30 minutes to:

• put thoughts down in writing? 
• consider alternate ways of improving a lesson?
• write a blog post for parents to read about what's going on in the class?

We have students reflect on their learning all the time, what might it look like if teachers took more time to do the same?

Edit: George Couros just published a relevant blog post called Do I Have Time For That?

Google Image Search within Google Docs

One of my favorite tools within Google Docs/Slides is the ability to search for content and images. What a time save that can be!

However, you have to be careful and pay attention to the licenses.

I was watching a YouTube video where a professional designer was making a flyer for a school. He started off by using the image search feature within Google Slides to find an image. In the video, he points out that using Google Image search within Google Docs only gives you images that are safe to reuse.

Well, yes and no.

Even when Google has indexed an image as Fair Use, the license can change. And often the CC license requires an attribution. (And really, you are using someone else's work, so you should attribute anyway, right?)

The video below shows one example.

It is always a good idea to check the license terms yourself when using images you find.

Digital Tattoo

The Digital Tatoo.

I've used it as a metaphor before. 

I've lectured about it. 

My intent was to have students THINK before they posted to the internet. I told them we don't know how their information will be used in the future. I still believe that. I don't want them to do things now that they regret in the future. 

A few things about this:

1. I want students to take risks. 

Aside

I am torn between the belief school is a place to fail and make mistakes you can learn from, allowing students to redo assignments and quizzes, and motivating them to try harder the first time around. 

If I am scaring them with the image of a permanent tattoo, why would they take risks with their learning?

2. Rewriting information

In my talk, I briefly spoke about how it is possible to change what the information people can search about you by creating more content and continually striving to improve the content so the best rises to the top of the search results. I am glad that I work at a school that believes in giving students a chance to create digital portfolios of their work throughout their school careers.

3. Changing attitudes

Currently we believe that teenagers inappropriate posts will be held against them, but I am starting to think this won't be the case. I forgot who said it (Dana Boyd perhaps?) just as we have witnessed a shift in attitudes about drug use by presidential candidates, I believe people in the future will only look at the recent posts (one year?) to judge a person's behavior.

Great by Choice: Chapter 1

It's always possible to go from good to great. (p. 8)

Not a lot happened in this chapter, but there were several previews of myths the researchers dispelled.

• Successful leaders are bold, risk-seeking visionaries.
• Innovation distinguishes successful companies.
• You're either quick or you're dead.
• Radical change on the outside means radical change on the inside.
• Success means you had a lot of good luck.

So what does this mean for educators?

Combining "creativity with discipline" (p. 10) would allow for someone to succeed - and more. Creativity seems to be the key.

Enough rambling. 

Let Them Fail

If kids don’t learn early on how to handle them on their own, if they are regularly rescued by well-meaning teachers and parents, then they won’t develop the skills needed to tackle difficult things or bounce back from setbacks.  

                                                       By, Lory Hough from the article Mistakes Were Made

The above quote was taken from the article, Mistakes Were Made which appeared on Medium.com. I opened the article thinking I'd be reading something I agreed with - something reaffirming. A piece that would provide me with a support to my own philosophy.

(That thinking in itself is dangerous and moves to trap us in our own filter bubbles. A resolution of mine was to try, and, for the most part, I have begun to burst my own filter bubble. Unfortunately, that has given me more exposure to Donald Trump than I would prefer.)

No reason, other than I drew it myself with testing out Paper53

Anyway, halfway through the article I was thinking about my own class and how I deal with mistakes my students make.

Namely the mistake of plagiarism.

I teach early high school students MYP Design Technology and I have run into a few times this year where students copy work they find online. Sometimes it has been obvious, other times less so, and other times still, when there is only a suspicion of plagiarism.

Each time I encounter this situation I ask myself: How could the student not know this is wrong and I wouldn't find out.

After reading the above article, though, I am now wondering if I should ask myself: How many chances should students get? Should they be allowed to redo the assignment? Should they be docked any points at all, or should they have a chance at a redo?

How does my philosophy of the school as a laboratory where failure leads to learning fit in?