Magic diaries and why you NEED to blog (more)

The iconic image from Charles Darwin's diary
image source

I'm not sure where it came from, but I have a certain fascination with diaries. I don't want to read them necessarily. But rather, the idea that a person can collect their thoughts in one place, seems like it gives the diary almost magical powers. It contains thoughts, ideas, emotions, it documents the ups and the downs. It is a reflection of a person or a journey. Somehow a diary and all its magic has so much character. Sometimes a diary contains iconic thoughts, from before they were famous. Take Charles Darwin for example. This little tree diagram is famous now, and look, it was in his diary. It literally says "I Think" at the top. Here, one can witness the birth of a great thought.

So I have always wanted a diary too. One that has character and magic too. One that you want to read just because it looks like it would contain profound insights. Or one that would contain a mystery. I never knew what to put in the diary though. Talk about life? No. Profound thoughts? Still working on those. I had a few false starts too. But maybe this time is different. This time, I am documenting every thought, question, idea and everything else related to a possible topic for my masters. By July of this year I will be ready to start my masters, IF I can choose a topic. So I decided that this seems an appropriate thing to put in a diary. A book that one day might have character and magic too. Even if the magic is only visible to me. However, I suspect it also doesn't help that my diary of choice is a spiral notebook from Typo that says "life is too short to wear boring clothes".

The thing that really drove home why this particular diary was so important, is a realisation that I made whilst spending my summer holiday nerding it out at university. I realised, that my constant reflections on this blog over the past year or so had made me a better writer. Structuring arguments? Using figures and images to make your point? Connect to other readings? Making your writing concise? Proof reading? All blogging skills. The benefits of blogging doesn't end there. Evidence for registered teacher criteria? Check. Need inspiration for a university assignment? Oh wait, my inspirational thoughts are documented. Ready to inspire again at a moments notice. And these are just the benefits without the extra input you get from occasional comments and Twitter.

Perhaps my blog doesn't contain the profound thoughts of Charles Darwin. But perhaps somewhere in this blog or my "life is too short to wear boring clothes" diary, a masters topic will emerge. Either way, along the way, I know I will become a better learner because of my reflections. And as far as I'm concerned, the better learners are better teachers.

The Reflection Pool in Washington D.C. as viewed from the
Lincoln Memorial. 

Baby Steps in Teaching Thinking

"I don't know" also know as "dunno" and "IDK." There is also "I can't remember," "I don't get it" and "I'm bored." Don't forget the texting, the staring blankly into space, or the talking to friends and passing notes. All of these instead of trying. There are also those students who won't try to answer the question in their books, instead they wait for you to give them the right answer. Don't forget those who do start but put little to no thought into the work. We have all encountered these problems. And sometimes I, and maybe you too, just want to yell THINK!!! But here is the thing, telling a student to think harder doesn't necessarily help, and neither does telling them to think. Sometimes, if not all the time, we need to explicitly teach our students how to think.

Over the school holidays I had the opportunity to attend Spectrum Education's Habits of Mind Bootcamp in Hamilton. One of the things about a great conference is that you come back with a bucket load of ideas, inspiration and a network to support you in doing so. This conference did just that. Inspiration to teach thinking skills by the bucket load!

Now if you aren't familiar with the Habits of Mind, they have been around for a long time now. But they are incredibly timeless and useful in teaching my students to think. They are a set of sixteen dispositions that allow you to scaffold thinking skills into your teaching, or rather thinking dispositions.

Here are some of my teaching strategies that I have been testing in my classroom this term:

Persistence:
I teach year eight maths for lower ability groups. As you can imagine, persistence can often be a problem for students who struggle with maths. For revision sessions I no longer give them lots of questions to practice and then mark the answers afterwards. I give the students a handful of questions with the answer. They have to then keep trying until they get the right answer too, labelling their working with first attempt, second attempt, third attempt. I get really excited for the students when they say "It's hard!" I tell them that means they are really learning and that I am so proud that they keep trying. There are many students who are now happy to share with the class when it took them seven times to get an answer right but they got there in the end.

Taking responsible risks
Even though it is exhausting marking test papers, especially in subjects like science where there is lots of writing, I still insist that my students attempt every question. For some students, writing something down that might be wrong is often a big deal. I now ask students to write RR for responsible risk next to any question where they made a best guess, in tests and in their books. Since more often than not students actually guess partially or completely right, students are definitely learning the value of having a go. By guessing, they are also forcing themselves to consider and even process the information, rather than simply being allowed to give up at the first sign of struggle.

Applying past knowledge to new situations
Write the date and heading, underline it, close the windows, chairs on the desks, pick up the litter, etc. Class room routines can provide opportunities for thinking too. I ask my students to use their prior knowledge of past lessons to get set up for today's. I give them a 5min head start while I do the roll. After 5min I get everyone to stand while I ask questions like, if you have not yet written the date, sit down. I go through my list of expectations like this. Those who are still standing at the end then get a reward (usually a monster point for good learning behaviours on class dojo). Students are thus given the opportunity to manage and think for themselves, rather than classroom routines simply becoming a listening task.

Social Media in the Classroom

I bet Facebook is banned at your school. However, did you know that Facebook was originally designed for university students and was then opened to schools? Ironic, if you think that a tool used by so many people, a tool that is so integrated in so many people's lives in and outside the workplace, at tool that is used extensively by businesses, a tool developed for students to connect, is the tool that we ban our students from using. 

Without question, social media has impacted our world in ways that we could never have anticipated. It has changed the way news spread, the way companies do their marketing, the way friends communicate and they way we learn. Web 2.0 and the new generation of internet users are active contributors, sharing and collaborating over thousands of miles on projects and learning. Within education too, social media has begun to make an impact. Teachers from all over the world collaborate on a daily basis for professional development purposes. They help their students become part of a global classroom, they give their students opportunities to communicate with real audiences and they show students the value of sharing, contributing and collaborating. As a result, without question, the educational literature available on the subject of social media in education is overwhelmingly positive. In addition, OFSTED, the Office for Standards in Education (equivalent to ERO in New Zealand) have even commented on the positive effects of social media in schools.

Perhaps the biggest limitation towards the successful incorporation of social media in schools, is professional development. There is often a major generation gap between policy makers, senior managers, teachers and students. Students understand the content driven environment that requires active contribution rather than passive observation, where many ‘adults’ have been left behind to the point of not even understanding the purpose of these tools. The risk however, of schools that fail to incorporate this technology, is that teachers and schools may appear to become out of date as they will not be preparing students to write for the new types of media that is being used for publishing and communication.

Social media is a fantastic tool, its value clearly demonstrated by teachers, rather than governments who have instigated the inclusion in their classroom and schools. The tool will however only be as effective as the teacher, as in effect, social media is about communication. Teachers who are not able to communicate clearly using this medium, or who are not able to teach their students to communicate clearly using this medium, are ultimately obsolete in the 21^st century classroom. Whether educators choose to embrace social media or not, our students are living and will increasingly live in a 21^st century world. It is after all, our job to prepare our students. 

Are you using social media in your classroom? How effectively?