Category: Critical Thinking

Cross Curricular Canoe Trip – So Cool!

Something Cool I Saw Today

Mrs. Ables 3rd grade class is using literature to enhance their Social Studies learning.

They’re reading the book Paddle to the Sea in which the character “Paddle” is doing just that.  They did some research on the the great lakes and made the amazingly cool map that you see below.  They marked the map off with lots of great information about Michigan and it’s waterways.  Now, as they read about Paddle’s journey, they’re literally following him in their own canoe – passing and thinking critically about Michigan’s landmarks as they go.

Making connections, working together, being creative, having fun, learning…Super Cool!

THE AMAZINGLY COOL MAP

PARTS OF THE AMAZINGLY COOL MAP (note the class in the canoe)

Are you doing something similar?

How could you adapt this activity to fit your content?

What would you do to follow up?

Leave a comment or contact me if you have any ideas or input:)

365 Lessons: #11 Everyday Failures Are Opportunities For Success

365 Lessons

(Critical Thinking About What The World Is Teaching Me Every Day)

#11 Everyday Failures Are Opportunities For Success

 

[Lesson Break Down] 

Failure is often seen as the antithesis of success.  In fact, it’s not.  Failure, processed effectively, is the ultimate catalyst for success – which is a continuum, not an end.  Accepting failure as one step along the path of success delivers daily opportunities.

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What a day!  Yesterday was filled with opportunities.  I must have been knocked down half a dozen times before noon.  How wonderful – right?  It sure didn’t feel that way as it was happening.  I know that Edison and his team couldn’t get their glass globes to light up hundreds of times before they could.  I know that many of them wanted to give up.  And I know that Edison celebrated every failed attempt as another way not to make a light bulb.  The more of those he compiled the closer he came to exhausting them in favor of one way to make a light bulb.  I know that Dr. Seuss submitted many manuscripts before having one accepted and that Jackson Pollock couldn’t sell a painting for years before he could sell any painting he produced.

Two days ago a attended a great presentation about raising boys in America.  I’ve got two sons so the content was particularly meaningful.  One of the areas of focus was that boys in our society are traditionally engrained with the notion that failure is not masculine.  As a result they have difficulty managing it, which is a shame because it’s such an incredible tool (as illustrated by anyone who has every been successful).  Our paths are paved with repeated setbacks.   I worked hard yesterday hold off the prideful frustration of momentary letdowns and keep the critical learning in mind.  Some days it’s more difficult than others.  I’m getting better at it.  It feels good.  I plan to continue succeeding with failure as one of my most effective tools.

Cool School Tool: Wikis For DIgital Backpacks

The following video comes from the incredible instructional design of Barbie Sansone who is building Digital Backpacks on her class wiki so that she, her students, and her student’s parent’s can think critically about their development over time. Please let me know if you have questions about wikis or digital backpacks and join me on twitter @bergseyeview to share more collaborative learning.  Have a great week!

365 Lessons: #10 Being Good At Imagination Is Good!

365 Lessons

(Critical Thinking About What The World Is Teaching Me Every Day)

#10 Imagination Can Be Reality If You’re Good At It

 

[Lesson Break Down]

Imagination is the driver of creativity and innovation.  It’s the force that allows us to believe in things only we can see, hear, feel, and/or conceive of.  It’s the power that convinces us that we can bring those things into the light of other people’s vision.  Imagination is among the things that make life wonderful.  Children are great at it.  Given that we were each children, we can remember how to be great at it as too.

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I was at an extended family dinner last night with my wife and two sons.  One of the boys took a break from the table to run around in the basement for while.  My niece and I went down to supervise.  My niece is 12 years old.  As my son ran in circles (and ovals, and squiggly lines, etc.) my niece watched with a smile on her face.  She turned me a said, “Uncle Seth, we see a little boy running around in circles but he probable sees a jungle filled with trees, and plants, and insects, and animals that he’s chasing and playing with.”

It was a great moment on many levels.  First, I had cause to marvel at how insightful and mature my niece has become.  Also, I got my lesson for the day.  When did I lose the capacity to automatically default to imagination?  Is there a threshold that people pass through as we grow from children to adults that causes our imaginations to move back and out of the way?  Does the world around us come increasingly into focus or do the magical parts quiet and dull.  It was cool to hear a 12-year-old comment on the imagination of a 3-year-old.  I thought, she’s not that far out from where she could see the world like he does.

Most of what my little guys see, think, and feel is brand spanking new.  They’re in the throws of a series of firsts.  My niece and I hopped down off the couch and joined in the jungle hunt that was taking place just a few feet in front of us.  Somewhat to my surprise, and completely to my excitement – I could do it!  I could see the trees, the plants, the insects, and the animals.  I could feel the excitement and enjoy the adventure.  Granted, not everything I experience is totally new.  However, I am capable of using my creativity and my imagination to make it fun, exciting, and even magical.  Today I’m learning that practicing that skill is incredibly worthwhile.  Being able to connect with the amazing world of discovery as I once did without effort seems like a good way to enhance myself as a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a learner, and a teacher.  I’ll keep an eye out for opportunities and try to stay aware of the results.

 

365 Lessons: #9 Taking An Emotions Inventory

365 Lessons

(Critical Thinking About What The World Is Teaching Me Every Day)

#9 Taking An Emotions Inventory 

[Lesson Break Down]

The world is filled with people and people are filled with emotions.  As we move around in our daily lives we are exposed to those emotions in many ways.  The transfer of energy from exposure and communication can be very powerful.  Exercising compassion through empathy is a wonderful way to connect and build relationships.  However, it seems that compassionate people can reach a critical point at which they have trouble distinguishing their emotions from the emotions of those that they are empathizing with.

Lots of stuff happens in any given day.  So much stuff in fact that sometimes days blend together.  Do you ever find yourself thinking about something you did or saw and puzzling over whether it happened this morning or yesterday?  We live busy lives!  This morning I woke up at 5am and went to the gym.  One of the guys I see there regularly told me that his friend had recently passed away.  I listened and tried to stay positive.  I contemplated human fragility and how fortunate I am to be healthy during my workout.  After the gym I went to work for a while at a coffee shop near my house so that I would swing through and say good morning to my wife and my sons before heading off to work.  A man and a woman were sitting next to me talking about how someone they new was just fired from her job…not to mention, “she deserved it.”

When I got home one of my sons was in a time out for shouting.  Needless to say he was still shouting and crocodile tears were running down his face.  The other son was rubbing cheesy scrambled eggs into his hair and feeding pancakes to the dogs.  My wife was managing it all while getting everyone ready for school (I don’t know how she does it).  I spent a few moments with each family member then walked out the door with my little guy calling, “daddy…daddy!” and trying to pull me back in by the hem on my overcoat.  I would have liked to stay and play but I had to go to work.  Talk about pulling on heartstrings.

Once at work there was a bit of this and a bit of that.  I work with a variety of incredible people all day long.  Collaboratively we have successes and failures, we share stories with one another, and we rely on each other for support in making sure that the students in our community are receiving the highest quality education that we can possibly provide.  We are constantly putting reasonable pressure on ourselves to learn, grow, and improve.  I had several meetings, planning sessions, and developmental brainstorms.  I wrote and replied to dozens of e-mails, I made several more appointments for upcoming days and weeks, I shot and edited some video footage, I learned some cool new things about blogs and interactive software, and I drank a really good cup of tea.  There was more, but you get the point.

Taken alone, nothing that I did today put any kind of terrible strain on me.  It’s going on 6pm right now and as a whole I feel really good.  I’m getting ready to go home, eat, play, read books, and sing my kids to sleep before I spend an hour or so talking to my wife.  We’ll both pass out pretty quickly after that.  The days will continue and we will continue to be happy and thankful.  However, every once in a while all the stuff I referenced (and some that I didn’t) piles up in a way that makes it challenging to sort out.

This morning I heard an interview in which a medical anthropologist was talking about something called “compassion fatigue” as it relates to something called “empathy over arousal.”  I don’t really know what either of those things means but hearing the interview got me thinking.  I think that it’s really important for people to check in with themselves every now and again.  Take inventory of which emotions belong to whom.  Teachers are notorious for taking on the emotional strain of the people they work with and serve.  I’ve been working hard to reflect on my days through this blog and so far it seems like a good way to process my learning.  You might work out, draw, cook, sculpt, whistle, or even whittle.  I’m guessing that it doesn’t really matter.  Today I gave a lot of thought to the idea that what does matter is that when I am effective in sorting out and even shedding the stresses of each day I seem to be exponentially more effective at processing, learning, growing, and renewing my ability to exercise compassion than I would otherwise be.  Who knows?  I’m off to play!

365 Lessons: #8 Critical Thinking with Edcanvas

365Lessons

#8 Explore New Ideas, Tools, and Possibilities Whenever You Have a Chance

[Lesson Breakdown]

Sometimes it’s twitter, sometimes it’s live action, sometimes it’s blog or a workshop.  Educators are constantly surrounded by new tools, technologies, and strategies.  We should be exploring as many as we can.  You never know when you’ll come across something that you can use to enhance your instruction, your students’ learning experience, and everyones ability to achieve.  For those of you who are not in education, explore anyway…you never know what you’re going to find!

Watch the following Cool School Tool video (2 minutes short), check out Edcanvas at http://www.edcanvas.com/login, sign up for an account, and explore.  You might find a way to make it work for you, your colleagues, and your students.

365 Lessons – #7 Beginnings Are Good Places To Start

365 Lessons

(Critical Thinking About What The World Is Teaching Me Every Day)

#7 Beginnings Are Good Places To Start

[Lesson Break Down]

Sometimes our ambitions for excellence hold us back from beginning with anything less, which is ironic because excellence tends to come from hard work and patience.

Twice today I experienced situations where amazing educators made decisions to move forward without having made everything “perfect” up front.  First, I saw a fourth grade team work out a way to have their students think critically about what makes a clear and communicative news report while exploring social studies content.  We were brainstorming elements of a regions project and trying to create a rubric that would guide groups through the production process.  Instead they chose to put the students in front of the camera to film impromptu reports.  The students will analyze those reports to think critically about what they’ll have to do in producing a final, polished report as a culminating project for the unit.  They’re having their students engage in a developmental drafting process similar to what they would do in during writing instruction.  It’s exciting.

The other situation was equally exciting.  Another fourth grade teacher decided a couple of months ago that she was going to take advantage of the interactive technology she has in her classroom.  Instead of scrutinizing the flip charts (that she’s now regularly creating and adapting) for aesthetic perfection, she simply moves forward once they fit the academic criteria and instructional potential she sets forth to achieve.  While some people (teachers and others) hold back adopting new tools or using new strategies because they don’t feel “ready,” this incredible teacher is becoming quite an expert at using interactive technology for authentic, effective instruction by accepting that she had to start somewhere.

A wonderful double dose of learning for me today!

Making Authentic Connections: A Culture of Comprehension

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

Planning and implementing great project based instruction in your classroom can be easy and fun.  Projects can be short or long, simple or complex, and they can address any content area or set of skills by using all or some of the elements of effective project based learning design.  Check out the following Teacher Feature video illustrating parts of  a short project that Candi Gorski (Harlan 2nd grade) used to perpetuate her instruction in reading comprehension.

Teacher Feature Link:  http://tinyurl.com/d8ydsak

In the span of a week she…

…read a great book about Native American culture to her students.

  • Played traditional Native American music softly while reading
  • Set the stage by making some connections to Native American culture and generating a thoughtful mood in her classroom
  • Transported the group through space and time with her voice and energy

…followed up with a collaborative workshop in which her second grade students created Dream Catchers with their fifth grade learning buddies.

  • Collaboration
  • Communication
  • Authentic purpose and connections to content

…Incorporated Native American cultural artifacts in classroom communication across the curriculum.

  • More music
  • Other literature
  • Photographs

…facilitated ongoing comprehension conversations, revisiting content, skills, and strategies repeatedly.

Again, the critical content driving this project was reading comprehension; specifically making connections for enhance comprehension.

Thanks for your great work Candi…and thanks for sharing!

Stayed tuned and/or contact your Ignite Facilitator, Media Specialist, or other interested colleagues for more information about planning for project based learning in your classroom.

Have a great week and let me know how I can support your exploration!

Seth

Reader’s Workshop: Accountable Talk #1

The following clip comes from Quarton Elementary School and the wonderful Jen Wind.  Jen teaches second grade.  She is a master of Reader’s Workshop and is working with her students using ‘Accountable Talk.’  Jen models strategy and facilitates discussions that promote critical thinking.  This clip is part one of a series that will give you a peek into some of the structures that Jen uses in her workshop, how she communicates with her students, and how they respond to her incredible instruction.  Some of the key features that excite me about Jen’s implementation of Reader’s Workshop are:

–       The students’ level of engagement.

  • It’s clear that Jen has spent time setting up structures, articulating and modeling her expectations, and giving her students feedback and opportunities for practice.

–       The authenticity with which Jen delivers her instruction.

  • You can see that she is passionate about reading and it translates to enthusiasm on the part of her students.

–       Her attention to detail.

  • Think about the purposeful nature of Jen’s words and actions while you watch the clip.  Notice the pencil behind her ear, the sticky notes in her book, and the way she participates in practice with her students.  This lesson is front-loaded with thoughtfulness and preparation.

Check out the Teacher Feature, comment below if you’re so moved, and stay tuned for more in this Accountable Talk series from Jen Wind.

Teacher Feature Clip: http://tinyurl.com/atm4n4h

 

Have a great week!

Let me know how I can help,

 

Seth

 

 

Project Based Learning: Great Guiding Questions

Hi Everyone…I hope you all had a nice weekend!

This Teacher Feature comes from a fifth grade class at Harlan Elementary School.  The Team is working on a project about the solar system.  The students were split into partnerships and given a central topic.  This pair’s topic is ‘the sun.’  Cathy Osip (fifth grade teacher) is working with Elisabeth Stayer (media specialist) to get her class familiar with key word searches.  By the time I showed up they were getting really good at identifying key words and adapting their inquiries to fit the results they were finding.  This is a great example of critical thinking.  I love how the student in this clip sounds so casual as he talks about the complex process of narrowing down guiding questions to address relevant and authentic problems.

When they came across information about solar flares they were excited to learning that solar flares could last up to a thousand years.  Upon further investigation they found out that a solar flare produce x-rays, radiation, and lots of energy.  Digging even deeper into those key words they learned that those things are embedded in medicine and communication.  These two fifth graders started out with, “Why do solar flares last up to a thousand years?” and by the time they were in line to go to lunch they were wondering if human beings are able to collect the explotion of x-rays, radiation, and energy that comes from solar flares to be used in medicine and communication.

Here’s some of what this experience taught me about Project Based Learning:

  1. Key word searches are essential in the narrowing process of guiding questions.
  2. A partnership with your building media specialist goes a long way in teaching students effective research strategies.
  3. Guiding questions should be relevant, authentic, and connected to the human condition – our students should be thinking about questions and taking on challenges that stand to make a positive impact on themselves, their communities, and the world in which they live.
  4. There can be many products along the path of a quality project, including great guiding questions.
  5. Fifth graders are capable of imagining possibilities that adults might never think of.

Click below to watch the Teacher Feature: 

http://tinyurl.com/9fv46c8

Thanks Cathy and Elizabeth – I can’t wait to join you again as you continue on this awesome path of learning!

As always, let me know if you have any questions.  Post a comment if you’d like.  Touch base with Cathy and Elizabeth to hear about their progress or share ideas.

Have a great week!
Seth