Revisiting Madeline Hunter

I recently saw reference to the Madeline Hunter method on Twitter and it turns out there was a lot more behind the 7 step method - check it out!

Neuroscience Reaffirms Madeline Hunter's Model
http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol6/608-wolfe.aspx

It college, I only thought of it as 7 steps. As a teacher, I found it somewhat effective, but I wish I knew more about it then. Just makes the case for deep learning even stronger. I'm still not convinced that every lesson should be taught in 7 steps, but I definitely would like to know more about the reasoning behind each step. Could it still be a valuable tool for designing instruction?

Ice Road Truckers on a most dangerous road in India

What better way to spend a Saturday sick with a sick daughter than to lounge on the couch all day and watch 3 Ice Road Truckers on a perilous journey! They had to drive a truck and make deliveries along the roads of Delhi, India and the Himalayas. Now that part of alone was completely captivating, but that's not what caught my attention.

"Himalayan road" by simon-and-india @ flickr

I have been watching tv to understand what is happening in home throughout America. I've commented in the past on shows like Clean How and What Not to Wear, but I noticed something different in this series of Ice Road Truckers, Dangerous Road edition.

Yes, I know there are shows that have taken place in other countries, but in this episode, the trucker had a spotter. A spotter is a man from India who drives in the truck and offers his assistance and knowledge about the roads. A camera was placed in the truck that captured everything, body language, conversations, conflicts, facial expressions, and commentary from the truckers point of view.

"Busy street in New Delhi" photo courtesy of Christian Haugen @ flickr

What a clash of cultures! At first, I thought it was going to show how the two cultures would come to an understanding, work together and learn from each other when meeting the challenges of the journey. And there were times where that occurred, but more openly was the obvious misunderstanding of how each culture functioned.

I wonder if more shows are going to start diving into this opportunity and model for us Americans that it is  important to have an understanding and respect of other cultures because we have some challenging global challenges to meet along the way with the economy, environment and health.

Working globally in schools has been a challenge. I'm not sure if it's the safety provided within the walls of the classroom or the understanding that children can learn from more than one expert, but when I have seen teachers work with others around the world, the impact on the student learning has been positive for everyone. This has to be a good experience for helping our children understand how to solve global problems in their future, right?

The Dandelion and the idea

I woke up this morning with ideas spinning in my head. I had just answered a question about what I thought was the biggest issue in education for my class last night and for some reason, when I'm asked a question, my mind messes around with it throughout the night and I wake up thinking differently.

Now when I say new, I really mean" new to me" as I know most of these ideas have been around and have just now come to my attention. Plus who knows if someone around the world has had the same thought?

Hence - the dandelion metaphor. An idea is like the a dandelion ready to shed it's seeds to the wind and find a place to take root and grow. The Internet is like the wind that could spread that idea to all parts of the world. The question is like the first gust or the person who picks up the dandelion to blow the seeds into the wind.

So what's the idea, you ask?
It stems from one of the issues I think is holding education back from transforming - the report card. It's a classic symbol of the traditional framework.

The question? Now don't get me wrong, communicating achievement to parents is essential and a very integral piece of education, but can there be another way to do this?

So I got to thinking about information and how people get it these days. In today's world, information can be delivered right to you via RSS. So that's the first part of the equation.

Second, I got to thinking about how one produces information these days - wikis, blogs. And who produces this information? Anyone - including kids!

So my question - why can't there be a reporting system where students and teachers document their learning and then communicate this to parents - right when that learning happens!

Just think - you've just finished a meeting at work and are thinking about your child - you spent an hour studying for the science test the night before - you get a video text - it's your child letting you know that they passed their test and tells you a little bit more about how a green roofs are eco friendly. I'd love to hear more from my daughter than she had a good day at school today.

The gust? 1, 2, 3 - whoosh 
So if you know somebody who knows somebody who might want to take this idea a little further, please repost or send it to them  -  I'd like to meet that person one day and talk.

Facebook - to teach, to learn

I witnessed an eager group of students today meeting with their teacher and another adult who was there to explain how she set up a Facebook account from a business perspective. Yes, we are entering the social media community of using Facebook...
in school...
with kids...
and teachers...
by students...
for learning.

And later tonight, I logged onto FB and wondered this...

I follow a few pages that post some very interesting articles like this one by MindShift: How We Will Learn. The article is called, "Why Every Student Should Learn the Skills of a Journalist." and it got me to thinking about the information that our students could post.

In other words, I am consuming information and thinking when I read these articles BUT the other side is producing information that grabs my attention and gets me to think.

So how can I explain this?
When students post online, it seems that it is only information for sharing. I think it could be deeper.

My question: What if students posted content that got other students or adults to think about the information they post by asking questions or drawing conclusions?

What's the question?

I was thinking the other night about assessment because I am starting to collect the hard data on whether our technology integration is having a positive impact on student learning and achievement. I recall reading an article that said something to this effect - sometimes, to change the way we see things, we need to change the question.

In education, we ask all the time - what did you learn? How do we know you've learned it? Why is it important to learn it? States have standards, schools have learning targets, essential questions, etc and all of the above. There are probably millions of tests on the Internet to answer these questions - paper and pencil ones you can print out, online ones that give immediate feedback, ones that will engage you in a virtual experience and so on with lists of what kids needs to know.

So I know I'm not the first person to ask these, but what if we asked these questions:

How much did you learn? Was it a lot? a little? Significant? Was it enough?

What didn't you learn? Why? What if you don't learn it, how will that impact your future? What are you going to do about it? What stopped you from learning it?

I do believe I just generated some form of my end-of-the-year reflection questions for technology integration. I'm curious. Update to follow in June....