Summer+Institute+2009



My main 2008-2009 learning community 

__Learning Statement 1__ - //I am learning about the value of participating in face-to-face and online learning communities.// Some examples from our Summer Institute are: tech-time groups (working in a small group to learn more about a piece of technology and coaching the rest of the class in it), jig-saw text reading, small group discussions of readings, and participating in moodle forums and wikis. There is another example in my personal life that I had never thought of as a learning community but which fits the definition perfectly. There is an online forum for owners of the model of motor-scooter I ride, the Yamaha Majesty. I read many of the posts made by owners from all over the world, many of which are asking for advice about which accessory to buy, comparing our bike to others on the market, and most importantly for me – “How do I fix this part?…, How do I turn it into a tricycle?…, How much beer can I store under the seat? …”

I want to extend that learning to my Grade 4 classroom, i.e. get my students involved in intentional learning communities - not just the one they are assigned to (Mr. Perry-Bater’s class) but communities of their own choosing.

For most of my 20-year teaching career, I have attended various professional development workshops and the occasional 2 or 3-day course to try to enhance and broaden my teaching practice. The topics have included: classroom management, using dance in P.E, Orff music workshops, Power of Ten math workshops, etc, etc. They have all been helpful to a point, encouraging me to add something to my already over-packed teaching day, or change some aspect of my teaching methodology. These additions or changes have usually lasted a few weeks at the most, and then I have slipped back to my old way of doing things (mind you, being a teacher with adult ADD, nothing stays the same in my classroom for more than a few days). I am confident that by participating in the face-to-face and online learning community of LTT, that I will be encouraged (perhaps dragged kicking and screaming) to persevere on my path of transformation and critical reflection.

Eleanor Duckworth, in her article ““The Having of Wonderful Ideas” and other essays on Teaching and Learning”, describes several aspects and advantages of learning communities. Some of the most salient for me are the following:

(p. 150) I love to try to find ways into a subject that will catch everybody's interest; to find out what people think about things and to find ways to get them talking about what they think ... (p. 158) …in trying to make their thoughts clear for other people, students achieve greater clarity for themselves. (p. 159) … students recognize the powerful experience of having their ideas taken seriously, rather than simply screened for correspondence to what the teacher wanted.

Learning communities are most effective when members are bouncing their ideas off each other, back and forth like a basketball (with or without gorillas trying to sneak through the room), asking each other questions and helping each other understand a phenomenon, asking deeper and deeper questions about it. This is one of the aspects of my teaching practice I want to work hard to change, to transform the typical 2-way conversation (teacher-student- teacher) to a 30-way conversation, with all members of the class putting in their thoughts and responding to each other instead of just responding to the teacher. The teacher’s role should be to facilitate the topic, spark students’ interest, then step back and only intervene to keep the discussion focused and ensure each member’s opportunity to participate. This learning of mine relates most directly to the first of the five capacities of our LTT program – “participate in and help develop learning communities to support your teaching practice”. I think it touches on a few of the others as well.

Have a look at this 4 minute video as an example of highly structured professional learning communities in the U.S. []

__Learning Statement 2__ - //I am learning to plan a lesson unit with the learning goals clearly identified before I consider the possible application of digital technology.// In my own practice in the past 4 or 5 years, as computers became more and more accessible and reliable in our school and the professional development opportunities to train myself to be proficient in their use increased, I wondered and investigated how I might use technology to help make my teaching more stimulating and more communicative for my students. One of my main foci has been digital stories. Students used photos from home, music, their own text and audio recordings to portray a significant element of their life – family holidays, team sports, drawing and illustrating comics, …. A large amount of our time was spent learning to use the technology (in most cases PowerPoint) and trouble-shooting problems we had with it. I had not considered thoroughly how this use of technology furthered their learning, especially in Languages Arts. In almost all cases, students worked independently on their stories, with little or no interaction between them, no communication other than the messages they were integrating into their stories for their final audience. When I found a student who was making particularly good use of a feature of the program, or had effectively combined photos, interesting on-screen text and voice-over recording onto several slides, I would show his/her work to the class on the projector. So some students received positive recognition, others received no feedback except what I was able to give them as they worked. Many times, several students would be gathered around one student’s computer, sharing something that student had done on his/her project, and I would ask them to sit down and get to work on their own project. That was partly due to the time constraints we had, i.e. one or two 40-minute periods in the lab per week, but I realize now that I probably stopped some valuable sharing opportunities among the students. They wanted to share something they had done, or a “cool” effect they had found to apply to photos, etc. They were trying to communicate and I was preventing that. So I am learning (and I plan to put my learning into practice) to think about (in my case, put into words on paper or on the screen) what my students need to experience and learn from an activity, not just the final product; especially their need to communicate and share their learning throughout the activity with each other, not just with me as the teacher.

Vanessa Domine concludes her book __Rethinking Technology in Schools__ with the statement: Rethinking technology in schools requires teacher leaders who: (I) seek to understand their students; (2) seek to understand the communication characteristics associated with technological devices; (3) seek to locate authentic and communal educational purpose; and (4) shift the focus away from mere access to machines or adherence to a particular set of skills.  Educational purpose and communication are paramount, not which key or button makes the computer serve you breakfast in the morning (even if that would be a welcome feature).