I did NOT Google it.

This summer I am working to create a storage space in our attic. Much to my surprise when I opened the descending ladder hatch door we had paid a handyman to install there was an electrical cable right across the opening, making the opening useless.

Well, I always have wanted to get better at doing work around the house and I've always wanted to tackle some electrical work, so I figured I could learn to do the work myself.

So I started learning.

But I didn't Google it, or Youtube it.

Now if you know me that might seem strange. I am a big proponent of the idea that between Google and Youtube you can learn just about anything.

So why did I head to my local hardware store and ask questions there? Why did I go to my Dad and ask his advice from the many projects he's done over the years? Why did I go to my friend who is an electrician for advice?

The problem was, I didn't know enough. I knew so little about doing electrical work that I didn't even know what questions to ask. I had no background upon which to draw from. Without that background I couldn't formulate questions that Google or Youtube could answer.

The same holds true of how we educate our children. They must still be taught a solid background knowledge that will give them enough information to begin asking the right questions. There is still a place for us to be teaching content in our schools. Our children need a broad knowledge base upon which to build.

The bigger challenge is exactly what content is critical?


Oh, and my electrical work. Well, I had to rip out everything I did and do it over because I made so many mistakes the first time. But that is content for another blog post.

Responsive Classroom Part 3

In my last two posts I've been writing about my experience in a 4 day workshop by Responsive Classroom. Part 1 and Part 2.

I loved it but struggled with two key topics. I covered the first topic in Part 2.

I think that Responsive Classroom's ideas can create some of the very best classrooms.

But there is an underlying assumption about what a classroom is in their work. Or at least I heard an underlying assumption.

I heard that a classroom is a unit of students that is together for most, if not all, of the day. Led by one or two teachers for the most part.

I also found that their ideas about learning did not apply to my learning as an adult. I don't spend my time in a classroom and so I don't spend 70% of my learning time engaged in conversation with others. Mind you, interaction with others is still critical to my learning process, which is one of the reasons I blog. It just doesn't get anywhere near 70% and I wouldn't want it to.

So I come out of the workshop with some questions:

What if our schools weren't built around classrooms? What would that look like? I happen to think that Responsive Classroom's ideas about Morning Meeting would actually be even more important in an educational setting like that!

What if all this practice at learning well in classrooms doesn't prepare our kids for life outside of school?

Responsive Classroom Part 2

In an early post I wrote about my very positive reaction to Responsive Classroom and the ideas and training they provide.

For the most part I loved it, but there was one part I really struggled with.

Underlying their work is a key idea I'm not sure I can agree with. The idea that I heard (Of course what I heard and what they meant may be different!) was that 70% of a student's learning experiences should be interactive, and 30% solitary. That's 70% of their learning experiences talking with partners, groups, etc...

Our workshop leader did an excellent job of leading her workshop in the style she was talking about as any good workshop leader should do.

At the end of the first day I staggered home, collapsed into my comfy lazyboy and disappeared into a videogame, much to my wife's dismay.

The second day I didn't even make it to the end of the day. After lunch I was worn out.

The third and the fourth days were a brutal slog for me. I almost didn't show up on the fourth day at all. But I pushed on to the end. Let's not talk about what my wife had to deal with at home.

All that talking and engaging and discussing was too much for me.

I know that in my own classroom I am too far on the other end of the pendulum. This last year was particularly weak. I'd probably say that I had 10-20% interactive and the rest solitary. I recognize that I need to move that in the other direction.

The workshop leader also stated that they had research data to back up the 70/30 number. I don't doubt that they do. I would love to have the time to dig in to that research to see their research methods and structures, because this number does not ring true for me. I could neither learn well, or teach well in such a classroom. I know that my own bias is colouring my reaction, but I can't go along with this. I wonder if this is yet another pendulum swing in education. I'd like to see us take a middle ground.

I wonder if our society's need to celebrate the extrovert is at play here. Too often our society ignores the power of introverts. (Good TED talk here about that!)

I also wonder if these numbers are based on classroom learning. Is that what is best for classrooms? But what about the learning that we want our students to do when they are no longer in a classroom? What does lifelong learning look like?

More about that in Part 3.

Responsive Classroom Part 1

I just finished taking a 4 day workshop for Elementary teachers put on by Responsive Classroom.

I would say that this is some of the best and most practical professional development I have ever had in my career as a teacher. I would also like to express that we had an excellent workshop leader in Amy Wade. I would challenge every teacher to take it and get her if possible. (A plug for her Husband's blog.)

One of the struggles we've seen growing in our schools is a lack of social skills amongst our students. It's reached the point that we have been asking for some sort of curriculum, lesson plans, or structure to teach social skills. Responsive Classroom will help provide that. 

We often talk about how important relationship is in teaching, but we don't often talk about how to build it. Responsive Classroom will help with that.

As a Christian I found Responsive Classroom to fit incredibly well with my worldview. They aren't a Christian organization, but I think this is an example of General Revelation. I felt very comfortable with the underlying ideas about who kids are and how people operate that drove the workshop.

I, and many other Christian teachers, will be thinking differently about many structures in our classroom in this next year and the years that follow.

I think that Responsive Classroom will help create excellent classrooms. Perhaps even the very best classrooms.

If you like classrooms that is.

If you're a regular reader of this blog you can guess that I do have an alternate opinion as well. More on this in part 2 and part 3.

Not Real

We were discussing students and the challenges we've been facing implementing our school's 1-1 program when one of my colleagues said it.

It went something like this, "Joe and George sit on the carpet and play videogames beside each other and it's Not Real relationship."

I struggled with this. I didn't say anything at the time, but it felt wrong. I couldn't articulate it then, but I think this sentiment is wrong.

To those two boys, sitting down beside each other with their devices and playing games is relationship. It is Real. Those two boys struggle to make connections with other students. They function on a different wavelength. Here they found someone else to connect with in a way they understood. But because it is not what we are used to it's "Not Real".

(Mind you, I do agree with my colleagues that the time and place they had chosen to do this was not what we would like and fully support the changes that we agreed to make. Real or not it has an appropriate time and place. )

I strongly support the idea that relationships are fundamental to the human condition. After all God is Love and we are made in his image. Therefore we function best in relationship.

What bothers me is the instant rejection of digital relationships as being "Not Real".

I also believe that we must be whole people. We need relationships that are physical, auditory, visual, emotional and so much more. Having relationships that are only one dimensional is unhealthy. Digital or otherwise.

But I believe that relationships that occur through a digital medium can be part of a healthy life. I believe that they Are Real.

Different, but Real.

The Magic (Factory Slaying) Bullet

So, I'm looking for a magic bullet that will take down our reliance on age cohorts in education. The killer app the will make age groupings obsolete. The pedagogy, theory, tool, or remedy that will, in one fell swoop, render the idea of sticking kids in one room all day just because of the date they were born obsolete.

There's only one problem.

It doesn't exist.

I don't actually think that there is one thing that will allow us to take education to that place where we can honour the unique individuality of the children we've been given to teach.

I believe it's going to take a combination of ideas, tools, and solutions.

But there's a problem with that too. I don't know exactly which ideas, tools, and solutions. Nor does anyone else. Yet.

I think that Project Based Learning is part of the solution. Authentic projects, created for real audiences, in which students have voice and choice are powerful. But I don't think that PBL by itself will challenge the factory model of school it's too easy to do projects in single grade classrooms.

We also need to think about architecture, furniture, and decoration. What kind of physical space do we have our students working in? But just buying new desks won't interrupt the assembly line. (Although I really want new desks! Actually, standing tables, mixed with other tables.)

I could list even more ideas (Makerspaces, Genius Hour, Fed Ex days,....) but none of them are going to work on their own either.

I think that a combination of tools and ideas is needed. I think it's going to take teamwork and collaboration. I want to be part of that team.

My area of expertise, such as it is, lies in the role of digital tools. I believe that digital tools will have a profound impact on education, in conjunction with many of the other exciting ideas that are being developed in education. Digital tools, by themselves, won't make our schools what they ought to be either.

It is only by working in community, in relationship together, combining many of the ideas we have that we can slay the elephant that is the factory model of education and build schools where each of God's children will all be given to grow to their full potential.

Why I am not a PBL evangelist

I am a teacher who is very interested in trying to think differently about how we do education. I love the idea of real work that meets a real need for a real audience.

Project Based Learning has become an idea that is growing in popularity in the branch of Christian schools that I work with. When Hamilton District Christian High first developed it's Teacher Academy to train teachers to do this well I was quite interested in getting involved.

But it's a few years later and I still haven't attended the Teacher Academy at all.

I've been struggling to understand why.

Now don't get me wrong. I happen to think that PBL has a lot going for it. When my principal says that this is what our school is going to do, I get behind it and engage in the work. I've done a few projects now and I'm learning more and more about how to do it well. But I have not become an evangelist for the topic. As powerful as PBL can be I'm not out there pushing to see it adopted as much as possible.

A recent conversation with a fellow educator has finally given me clarity as to why.

PBL does not directly disrupt the factory model of education.

I've mentioned before in this blog how much I detest the fact that we educate students in batches based purely on their birthdate. I think we dishonour each child's unique God given individuality in that system. I am most invigorated by the tools and ideas that directly challenge the foundation of the factory model.

I think that PBL can and probably should have a role in what a new education system looks like. But I also am watching PBL be used to reinforce the silos in our schools instead of tearing them down. PBL is not being used as a disruptive innovation, but a sustaining innovation.

I will happily continue to develop my skills as a teacher using PBL and will continue to learn more about how to do it well. But I'm not going to champion it or evangelize for it.

It isn't the killer app that will take down the factory model. And that's what I'm looking for, assuming such a thing even exists.

The Perils of Facebook

In my role as teacher and Technology Coordinator at a Christian school I hear lots of conversations about social media. Many of those conversations are focused on how much time is wasted, how shallow the connections are etc...

In fact, I almost never hear people speak about the positive benefits of social media. So let me tell you a story.

My daughter is sick. We've been struggling with her health for months. After a bout of flu that didn't seem to be going away I took her to the emergency room in our local hospital. After a long night they diagnosed appendicitis but there were complications and she would need to be transferred to another hospital more equipped for this situation.

It was in this busyness of organizing which parent would be where, where the van would be, who would pick up the kids from bus and so on that I posted a brief update to facebook. It was only a couple of sentences dashed together while in a hurry. I don't even use facebook much and I have a very limited pool of facebook friends. (That's a topic for another day.)

What happened next was joyful, helpful, and relieving.

Within hours our family and church community had mobilized. Supper appeared at our door. Lunches are being delivered to school tomorrow. People volunteered to take our kids. Prayer warriors from across the entire country were on their knees.

It has made a rough couple of days easier.

Thanks Facebook.

Bringing Experts to class

One of the key components of PBL projects is that you want to bring experts into your classroom.

This isn't always easy, but with today's technology there are ways to make it easier. This past week we had an expert visit our classroom via Google Hangouts even though he was half a continent away. I had my students blog in response to his presentation. You can read a sample of their responses here.

Students creating Video Games from a Christian Worldview

My school has been exploring the world of Project Based Learning.

This year I decided to take on the challenge of having my students create video games and attempt to apply a Christian Worldview to the process.

This won't be easy. It isn't easy for us as adults to navigate how Christ asks us to interact with culture. But it's worth trying to do.

As part of the project I've asked students to prepare blog posts. You can go and see the first results of this here.