*Always attend the keynote speeches---keynoters are carefully selected for good reasons and are often the highlight of conferences
•Work to have informal conversations with colleagues
•Try to bring at least a few NEW ideas away from the experience
I am pleased to say that I followed by own rules at ITEC and that I encountered a few ideas/approaches that were new and valuable to me.
As I mentioned in our discussion section, Alan November's keynote was centered on the idea of using students to do meaningful work in the classroom---work that contributes to the classroom community. November commented on the "farm kids" phenomena and suggested that farm kids tend to develop a strong work ethic because they know that the family needs the work they produce. Many farm kids are a vital part of the family economics. In a similar way, teachers can organize classrooms where children are contributing to knowledge construction in the classroom. Like farm kids, they are doing real and valuable work. And, of course, technology can contribute to making this type of work possible. Podcasts, interactive white board presentations, wikis, using google docs are all ways that learners can create authentic products that share their knowledge.
November's idea of real work is certainly similar to ideas we have discussed this semester, but his comparison to farm kids was a new idea for me. And perhaps it will be useful for some of you.
4 comments:
It is nice to hear that the small town "farm kids" are still a topic of discussion at big time conferences. I think that too many times our students are seen as lazy kids who do nothing but "hang-out" when they aren't in school. Up here in VERY rural Iowa, we have an endless supply of farm kids who are vital to the success or failure of the family farm, and are many times the hardest workers in the classroom.
I agree with coach. Where I live there are many home school families. Most of them also run a family business, so the kids become a vital work source (as stated in the prompt). I think the hardest thing for teachers to accept when addressing the teaching community is that we (educators) need to accept the students as co-teachers and not as just learners. Most of us were instructed in the heirarchical fashion - top-down. This idea that November proposed is a horizontal teaching concept, and needs to be used if we are to best learn how to implement every-changing technologies. Our students may be our best resource in this area (with deference to Richardson, of course. :) ).
I am jealous that you were able to see November speak; I had tried to get time for the NMSA conference in Denver next week (he's a keynote there too, and I would have also been able to see Richardson, Wilhelm, Tomlinson, Marzano, Wormeli, and some really cool tech sandboxes), but with my Mum being sick I gave the spot to another teacher. ITEC occurred during our conferences, and this was Red Ribbon Week at our school, so I guess I just have poor timing this year. :)
It's interesting to hear about your conference experience. They seem a bit different from the ones I have gone to. :-)
I do like the "farm kids" idea. I've seen a few cases where schools/businesses partnered together for some project (school newspaper, a video production class). Those sorts of classes always seem to be quite effective.
How refreshing to hear a speaker use classroom and community together. I feel students want to create a finished project that they can show others in the classroom or outside science.
Post a Comment