For Day 6 of my summer #personalizedPD effort, I selected Drawing in Class by Rachel Smith from TEDxUFM.
I am a sketcher. When I attend teacher PD, I am always drawing in the margin of the page. So, I felt like this would be an excellent talk for me to watch today!
Her talk mentioned how drawing or "graphic recording" what you hear helps build connections. Combining words and images can help you take what you are learning and hook it to existing learning.
She explained how visual notetaking improves focus as you simply listen and try to capture the important points. One caveat is to avoid too much detail and to be quick to draw.
Some tips she shared were:
Choose the proper tool. It's up to you what that is-- iPad, pen and paper, markers, whatever. But, if using a digital tool, be sure you "know" the tool so you aren't caught up trying to figure out how to work the tool, which would distract from the notes.
Have a mental library of icons. You have to use "your language" that you can draw quickly.
She said, "Students who took notes longhand did better when tested on conceptual understanding and recall of what they had learned, even when everyone was allowed to study from their notes before being tested." She also referenced studies where students who typed notes might write more down but remember less. As a computer teacher who still encourages handwritten notes, I loved reading that! And, I believe teaching students how to take meaningful notes is critical. Handing out the PowerPoint slides or copying down bullet points word for word doesn't facilitate connection and learning.
For Day 5 of my summer #personalizedPD effort, I selected What Makes a Good Teacher Great? by Azul Terronez from TEDxSantoDomingo.
In this talk, a common theme emerged throughout--the power of LISTENING. He surveyed many students and reviewed their feedback regarding what makes a teacher great. Among them, these themes emerged:
A great teacher eats apples. He explained that this moreso meant the teacher was open to receiving a gift from students (but I'd prefer Peanut Butter M&Ms...lol).
A great teacher is chill. They are calm.
A great teacher loves to TEACH and LEARN. Are we making sure students see us as learners, too?
A good teacher isn't a teacher--they teach without the "rules" of the classroom. He discussed humorously how much different riding a bike would be if we learned it in school. :)
A good teacher understands that students have a life outside of school.
A good teacher sings... takes risks, humbles themselves.
Overwhelmingly, though, a great teacher listens.
As I teach high school, I don't think I've ever been offered an apple but regarding the rest of these tips, I do try to show my love of both teaching and learning. I attend conferences and come back and share with the students or often times, during a big computer project, I will also complete a project when I am not helping them and they can see my thought process on the big screen in the room. And, I do try to work with students with their busy schedules. Sadly, for most students, I do love to sing! ha! But, I am going to make a better effort to really listen this year.
For Day 4 of my summer #personalizedPD effort, I selected An Olympic Education by Kevin McMahon from TEDxBellarmine College Preparatory.
Years ago, my school implemented an ICU program and a philosophy changed occurred that encouraged teachers to not take "learning grades" but to encourage students to do work that helped them learn without penalty, evaluate what was important to grade, and choose what essential skills to truly assess. So this was a nice speech that went along with that philosophy. I think Alfie Kohn would agree with much of this (it goes along with many of his published philosophies on the matter).
And, as a computer teacher, I found it cool to read in his biography that he is a design instructor and was an Adobe Education Leader for 10 years. :)
Kevin McMahon was an Olympic hammer thrower. He compared education and the system of growth to that of his growth as a hammer thrower; how you start off terrible and eventually end up doing well. And, if you averaged the skills along the way the average would be terrible. He also mentioned how grades used to be A through E, but E was often confused for Excellent, so that's why we end in F. :)
He made four points:
Grades are unreasonably permanent. Instead of failure just being part of the evolution, it figured into the grade. In the "grade race" who would even want to get back up early on with an early "F" if they knew the best they could do in the end was average?
Grades induce stress. If you "start with an A" to begin, you can only go down. Well, being that you might know nothing at the beginning, you are likely not going to continue perfection. So, you do the tightrope walk. He asked who would be play an unlocked video game where you have everything you need at the beginning and can't work your way up? You'd be bored and you know you would fail with everything at your fingertips.
Grades are counter-motivational. You look for the easiest way to get the best score, not to learn or to grow. Drive (motivation) comes from autonomy, mastery, and purpose. That's why students can excel teaching themselves from YouTube!
Grades distract from the goal. He cited a study where students were in three groups--graded, comments only, or grades and comments. The "comments only" group had the most success.
Takeaway:
He gave four tips for "amping" up education. He encouraged teachers to gamify the classroom (let them level up), encourage mastery (be sure you know something before you move on), flip learning for those who need to focus more on content outside of class, allow do-overs for learning, and link learning to something meaningful.
I wish I could find this guy, but he's not on Twitter to tag! Excellent talk and great points! I would love tips for gamifying my classroom. You hear that term all the time, but I really don't know how to put it into practice.
For Day 3 if my summer #personalizedPD effort, I selected How Laughing at Yourself Can Change the World by Brad Jenkins from TEDxCapeMay in 2015.
This speaker was apparently hired by Obama for four years to work in the office of public engagement to connect (and inspire to action) the millions of Americans who could benefit from his policies. He gave an example of a summer basketball camp experience and the "lessons" his dad taught him as a result.
Poppa J's three words of wisdom shared in this talk:
Don't take yourself so seriously. Laugh at yourself.
Be good at what you do. Never give up; be an active participant and "play" as hard as you can.
Be good to people. Be nice. Be friendly. If you are honest and genuine, that will come back to you.
He was a really interesting speaker, even showing how when they rolled out the health care website and it was a big mess how they had to combat that setback. He discussed President Obama's appearance on "Between Two Ferns" and how it made tens of millions of people laugh (and got people to sign up for health care despite the bad rollout).
As for how I can use this as an educator, I think that the old adage of "don't smile until Christmas" is just that--old. Teachers need to follow these words. With technology so readily available, anything you say can easily be checked online. A teacher might accidentally share a piece of false information, spell a word wrong on a handout or bubble the answer key wrong on a test. But, the reaction is important. Don't take those moments too seriously. Laugh at yourself, be friendly to others, and be good to people. Fix the mistakes.
Another great example of how relationships are key to success.
For my second #personalizedPD effort, I watched How to Magically Connect with Anyone by Brian Miller from TEDxManchesterHighSchool.
I thought this was a good "back to school" type video because it's important early in the semester to make connections with students (though I'm certainly no magician!).
My takeaways:
The magician is the only person who does not see the magic; they have to take the perspective of the audience. Magic is about connecting.
When people feel understood, they make a connection (and are prepared to enjoy the magic).
It's not enough to care about someone or understand them. They have to FEEL UNDERSTOOD or CARED ABOUT. (Boy, I struggle with this one sometimes!)
Too often we are afraid to ask people questions because we think it would be rude; but you can adjust tone and demeanor based on this feedback. But, you must LISTEN to understand.
This made me think about first day activities. Some people are eager over-sharers (telling about their international trip or cool summer experience) and other students are unenthusiastic and want to share nothing (oh, all summer, I slept). So, making more meaningful connections might involve asking questions rather than just asking students to share. But, more importantly, listen to those students and use it later to foster that relationship and solidify the connection.
Quite frankly, I'm already a day behind since it's July 2, but I'll do two today to make up for it! I've decided to do 31 days of YouTube PD in July! Simply put, I will watch a video that interests me (if I don't feel it's good enough in the first 2 minutes, I'll try something else) and provide a reflection AND a sketchnote. Sound good?
Today, I watched Why people believe they can’t draw - and how to prove they can by Graham Shaw from TEDxHull (he is the author of The Art of Business Communication). Here's my sketches, which was pretty fitting since his video teaches you to draw:
And, my takeaways:
Many of us don't believe we can draw; how many other beliefs and limiting thoughts do we carry around with us every day?
If we did challenge those beliefs, apart from drawing, what else might be possible?
I plan to lead off with this in one of my classes this fall on day 1, leading them with a drawing activity (knowing full well some will already be very artistic) but hoping to get them to at least think about how they might be holding back. I'm excited!
Can you recall a time in the classroom where creativity was a byproduct of limited resources, time and information? Was it planned or spontaneous?
Which creative approach listed in the chapter do you identify with the best?
We are all makers and possess important skills and talents. Thinking of your students, can you identify the skills each student has? Can you think of how their skills may work well together?
Chapter 3
The process of design thinking can be messy. But without a framework, the mess just remains a mess. What are your thoughts in the LAUNCH cycle after reading this chapter?
The Look, Listen, and Learn phase is a crucial step in the LAUNCH cycle in igniting genuine curiosity amongst students. What does this look like in your classroom? Or how might you incorporate this into your classroom?
"All is takes is one win" is a phrase that is shared often. One LAUNCH could be that win for your students to gain confidence that will last beyond your classroom. Can you think of any students that could benefit from this gained confidence? How else might students be affected by a successful launch?
My thoughts/reflection:
Chapter 2 began with the quote-- "We rarely create something different until we experience something different." (George Couros)
I enjoyed this chapter, making many highlights. I appreciated the affirmation that it's a myth that creativity is the outcome of complete freedom and the reality that creativity comes from pain and conflict (problems and solutions). Then, it broke down the creative approaches to these-- artist, geek, architect, engineer, hacker, and point guard.
I think there have been many times in my education career where I have had limited resources and had to improvise, so that's probably my earmarked creativity. Actually, one of the reasons I am a relatively well-known business teacher is that I have been known to "make tech work" with free or low cost and have focused a big chunk of my teaching career (before all disciplines were tech driven) finding open source and freeware options when commercial software was not in budget!
As for those creativity approaches, I most related to point guard. This person is able to think differently in the moment and creates opportunities as a result. The book stated: "The end result isn't a final product but an experience her students hadn't anticipated." Of course, this is typically by accident and not by design for me. :)
As for honing in on my students and their skills, I do struggle with this every semester. I need to find more engaging ways to learn more about my students, rather than Google forms or surveys. Four corners get old quickly. Classroom BINGO is one way I have tried to find commonalities and it's short and they seem to enjoy it.
Chapter 3 focused more on defining design thinking as problem solving with encouragement of risk taking. It broke the acronym down-- L (Look, Listen, an Learn), A (Ask Lots of Questions), U (Understand the Problem/Process), N (Navigate Ideas), C (Create), and H (Highlight What's Working and Failing).
They explained that the first step might involve having students do interviews, needs assessments or observations to discover more about the problem they intend to solve. When I create fictional client scenarios, my students are giving a case problem to use as a starting point and this goes along with that piece.
As for confidence, I VERY MUCH agree that a little confidence can go a long way. I have tried some rather "silly" methods to try to get students motivated--even using stickers in my web design class! They respond well to that. They are rewarded for making small strides. I think that is an important element. I need to spend more time finding the positives and encouraging those who really need it so they will take more chances in the classroom. I know when my Photoshop class does the copycat magazine project, some students pick a challenging cover to make and others look for easy. I try to build up those who are trying to take the safe road and encourage them to aim higher. But, this is an area I should work on in the coming year.
Final Thoughts--
My follow up research for this section was to look up Nirvan Mullick (a filmmaker) and Caine Monroy (a student who made arcade games out of cardbook). I had never heard of them and decided to watch this YouTube video interviewing the two of them. It gives the background of the whole thing (worth the watch).
Here's a short TED video from Caine himself . I love this! As a business teacher, I just enjoyed the whole entrepreneurial angle of this project. So creative and fun!
