Tuning in... to another PD opportunity

I feel fortunate to be able to attend some more PD beginning tomorrow. This time it will be an IB workshop here in Hong Kong on the PYP Exhibition:

"The Primary Years Programme (PYP) exhibition represents a significant event in the life of a PYP school and student, synthesiszing the essential elements of the PYP and sharing them with the whole school community. As a culminating experience it is an opportunity for students to exhibit the attributes of the International Baccalaureate (IB) learner profile they have been developing throughout their engagement with the PYP.” (Exhibition guidelines).

The workshop leader has set up a website which includes some readings for the workshop. Exploring the website and spending time with the reading materials was a great opportunity to "tune in" to the topic – and get excited about the workshop. I especially enjoyed reading the following three articles:

 Misconceptions about Curriculum-as-Inquiry Framework (Jann Pataray-Ching and Mary Roberson)

Negotiating the Curriculum with Students: a conversation worth having (Kath Murdoch and Le Mescam)

Developing Inquiries (Ann Hickey)

In order not to create another super long post, here just some quotes and thoughts that resulted from reading Pataray-Ching & Roberson’s article.

“The inquiry cycle […] provides a curricular framework that puts the learner at the center of the curriculum and establishes seamless and ongoing connections between learning and inquiry.”

“[…] inquiry-based curriculum is built from learners’ interests and must be personally and socially significant to spur lifelong curiosities, lifelong wandering and wondering.”

“Misconception 1: Inquiry is too complex for young learners. - […] Research shows that children as young as infants and toddlers actively inquire throughout their daily lives and are indeed able to understand complex thought, even prior to school.”

“Misconception 2: Inquiry is just a fancy name for doing research. - […] inquiries involve a series of experiences that extend beyond the simple search for answers in a textbook or encyclopedia, making the traditional view of student research  subset of, rather than another name for, inquiry. A goal of inquiry classrooms, then, is to help learner move beyond perceiving inquiry as looking up information in textbooks and encyclopedias and to adopt a philosophical stance of viewing learning.”

(I think this is the most thought-provoking part of the article for me because what I usually do in the library is focus on just this small part of the inquiry. I put too much focus on information retrieved from books and websites, no including enough other sources of information and experiences. I wonder how I can make that better…)

“Misconception 3: The duration of inquiry studies should be no more than two weeks. - […] Providing children time for inquiry exploration is vital. […] prolonged thought of, and extended interactions with, an inquiry experience encourages interconnection and a deeper sense of knowing.”

“Misconception 4: In an inquiry classroom where learners are responsible for gathering resources and information, the teacher does not need to teach. – […] the inquiry teacher works to establish and organize a climate for inquiry so that students develop the tools to explore their curiosities and become more thoughtful, reflective, and inquisitive individuals.”

(I would have added here that we also provide them with the necessary skills, in my case for example in teaching them how to search for information sources efficiently.)

“Misconception 5: Inquiring through disciplinary perspectives and sign system perspectives is no different than planning integrated units of study. – […] when children inquire through disciplinary and sign system perspectives, their questions drive the curriculum. However, in integrated untis of study, the predetermined infusion of content areas dictates the curriculum, preventing children’s authentic questions from emerging.”

“Misconception 6: An inquiry curriculum is impossible to implement because teachers have so many other subjects to teach. – […] An inquiry curriulum is not intended to be another “teaching idea” added onto the existing curriculum. It is a philosophical framework that guides instruction.”

“Misconception 7: It is worthless to implement an inquiry curriculum because it cannot be graded. – […] inquiry classrooms redefine grading. Evaluation is essential but its primary purpose is to support student reflection and growth so that learners are equally responsible and accountable for their learning. […] When children are responsible for evaluation, they have a greater personal investment in their own learning process and personal growth.”

“Misconception 8: Implementation of an inquiry curriculum does not guarantee that students will score better on standardized tests; therefore, the curriculum is useless. – […] Research indicates that students in whole language classrooms did as well or better on standardized tests compared to students in skills-oriented and phonics-based classrooms […] and that students’ test scores increase in inquiry classrooms.”

“Misconception 9: Students should not inquire about the same topic throughout the school year because students will fail to learn the “common stock of knowledge” that society expects all educated persons share. – […] Inquiry, when used to support children’s ongoing questions, has tremendous potential for lifelong learning. Students learn the values of longevity, persistence, depth of exploration, and continual questioning, qualities that can be applied to learning any concept or topic, qualities that prepare students for the 21^st century.”

I also liked how the authors describe the six roles the inquiry teacher takes on in the classroom:

1. Inquirer
2. Supporter of learning culture
3. Listener and observer
4. Question poser
5. Organizer
6. Co-learner 

I guess I picked this article to share a bit more because it somehow addressed one of the questions I have regarding Exhibition: what do you do when students realize when looking for information sources on their topic that there aren’t any or none age-appropriate? Do you steer students towards another topic? So far, I would have said, steer them towards another topic. But after reading this article I am thinking maybe this is just because I think of inquiry too much as traditional research, finding answers in books and webites…

I hope that participating in the workshop will help me to find an answer to this questions and show me in general how I can support students better with Exhibition – and I am sure this is not just during the actual Exhibition period but throughout the PYP.

21st Century Learning Conference – Reflections from an Amazing Learning Experience

After years of following this amazing event via tweets from my Twitter PLN, I was finally able to attend in person – what an amazing experience! Since I took part in the pre-conference for librarians with Debbie Abilock as well, I got three days of exciting and motivating learning experience through keynotes, panel discussions, workshops and unconference sessions. I listened to and was engaged in presentations on how technology has the potential - when used in the right way - to extend and redefine learning for our students. Here are some of my thoughts and some of the resources I took away from this.

Preconference with Debbie Abilock on developing friction in the research process

One of the most powerful aspects of attending conferences and workshops is the opportunity to reflect on my own practice and what I am learning. And just as I encourage my students to do, I am sorting it here into three categories:

(1) Things I knew already and/or found confirmation to continue doing:

•         Kids love the easy-way out when looking for information, making Google and Wikipedia their preferred one-stop.
•         Giving students choice during inquiry is a powerful motivator as it gives them ownership in their learning – this can be in regard to the question(s) they pursue or the way they present their learning
•         A powerful provocation at the beginning of an inquiry is key to get students’ interest and attention but also helps them in building context. (Debbie Abilock referred to it as “setting the table” – I love that expression!)
•         It is important to teach students how to evaluate resources.
•         Students need to learn to cite sources manually, thereby the focus not being on the commas and the periods but rather the understanding of the pieces of information that go into a citation and where to find them.

(2) Things I learned:

•        ThingLink is a great web tool for annotating pictures, which can then become a powerful resource for a provocation at the beginning of an inquiry or for introducing/teaching students about the concept of “tagging”. Here an amazing list of links to Image Sources.
•        Noodle Tool offers some free resources for evaluating and citing sources: Show Me Information Literacy Modules. Individual pages can easily be embedded in websites. I found especially the pages that show students where to find what piece of bibliographic information very useful.
•         WolframAlpha – a totally intriguing computational knowledge engine – I could imagne that this is another great resource to get an inquiry started.
•         (You can find all of my notes in this public Google Document). 

(3) Things I am now wondering about:

There was lots of talk about Google searches and Wikipedia. Listening to the comments and remarks of the presenter as well as the other participants made me wonder whether my practice was the right one. I encourage/ expect our Primary School students to follow a sequence of search strategies, beginning with World Book Online, then moving on to the library’s online catalog (we use Follett’s Destiny - Library search for books and WebPath Express for websites), then go to online subject directories such as KidsClick – and only if students still haven’t found enough information at this point will they go to a kid-friendly search engine such as KidRex.

I have thought about this quite a bit since the conference and while there is much value in the points made, I am not convinced that introducing these skills in Primary School would help my students. I agree that it is important to teach students how to use Google and Wikipedia efficiently and appropriately, but at a later stage, let’s say in Middle School. I think it otherwise overwhelms kids who have no or little experience with any kind of search engines or databases. Let them practice skills such as identifying keywords and making searches in an online catalog first. Not only will they will find it much easier to learn how to apply and build on these skills when learning to conduct efficient searches on Google but it also enables them to be successful in locating and using information with little or no assistance early on. When talking about this with my students, I compare searching the Internet with learning how to drive a car: no one starts on the super highway, we all start on smaller roads and as our confidence and skills increase, we try out bigger roads.

Day 1: Keynotes and Extended Workshop

Two fabulous keynotes and an amazing extended workshop on the use of iPads in the classroom showed what potential technology has to transform and enhance the learning of our students. Here some thoughts and ideas I took away:

Nichole Pinkard “Digital Youth Network: a framework for developing youth's new media literacies”

•         Kids need an audience relevant to them for what they create. Creating a global audience is a motivator for their work.
•         The question is how we can begin to give credit for what kids do outside of school.
•         We need to enable kids to have learning opportunities in all spaces (school, after school, community, home) they spend their time in.
•         Does digital media take away from traditional literacy? Dr. Pinkard says no, it enforces traditional literacies!
•         What does it mean to be literate? It's not just about reading and writing anymore. Kids have to be able to communicate in multiple ways.
•         Participation gap: those who can create with media vs those who only consume. Kids have access to the technology but unequal access to opportunities to the learning on how to use them efficiently.
•         An environment can be created that makes up for the participation gap, e.g. libraries as spaces where students create!
•         Libraries are turning into exciting learning hubs with mobile learning devices (I love this!).
•         Students need to consciously critique the media they consume before they create their own.
•         Check out Dr. Nichole Pinkard’s project website.

Jenny Lane: “The Power of Social Networking to Promote 21st Century Learning”

•         Don't turn your iPad into an expensive notepad when using it in your classroom.
•         An iPad is not a computer but a mobile device. It has lots of other (additional) functions and should not be considered as a replacement.
•         Mobile learning is changing the space in which we are learning: pedagogical space, virtual space & physical space.
•         Mobile devices allow your students to take the teacher home.
•         Mobile devices allow you to take your classroom into the world.
•         Check out Dr. Jenny Lane’s blog.

The most important thing I learned, even before going into the extended special session on alternatives to the iPad is that there is no alternative, at least not in my opinion and not for my situation. None of the other tablets the panel speakers introduced offer such a wide range of applications that allow technology to redefine the learning and not just substitute the tools of traditional teaching and learning strategies. An iPad is not meant to replace a desktop computer or Macbook but rather provide additional and new opportunities for teaching and learning.

John Burns: Transforming Learning with the iPad

I loved how John Burns in his presentation introduced and provided demonstrations of apps, categorized according to the level of transformation they provide (i.e. from substitution, augmentation, modification to redefinition). The aim is here to get away from merely substituting traditional tools with technology but rather reach redefinition of the learning through the use of technology: Check out all the fantastic apps he introduced here.

It made total sense and I thought then and there that I should rearrange the apps on my iPad in this way. I think it is important that we are at all times aware of what we are trying to do with the technology. John Burns’ enthusiasm was contagious and convinced me that at this point there is no other device that could offer so much to student learning, all in one device. (It also made me wish I had an iPad with more storage space ;)

The session also addressed important issues about the implementation and management of the devices within a school: iPads need to get into the hands of teachers first – the key element to a successful implementation; and iPads are best managed in smaller numbers, not more than 5 devices attached to one account.

Day 3 More keynotes and presentations

Jeff Dungan: iPad in Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop

•         It’s all about assessment when using the iPad in literacy instruction: assessment by teacher, peers and self.
•         Big plus of using iPads in readers & writers workshop: it motivates students – and helps teachers with the process of recording and assessing student learning.
•         Confer app is an amazing resource for the teacher to use during reader’s and writer’s workshop. It takes some time setting up but once it's all in place, what a great tool to keep track of students' progress!
•         Recommended reading and a good starting point on how to make use of technology in literacy instruction even though published in 2009: Troy Hick’s The Digital Writing Workshop.

This post is becoming longer and longer and I feel I need to come to an end even though I still haven’t covered all, like the interesting sessions on teachers as lifelong learners, the opening keynote on how technology affects the brain, the session on funky ways of teaching kids about copyright, the unconference session on making thinking visible, the inspiring and highly entertaining closing keynote by D.D. Meyer and the many great resources shared (have a look at my Diigo for more). I guess it will still take me a long time to really process everything that I heard and learned.

But there is one more thing I want to mention here. Something that has had a huge impact on my learning during this conference – as it has on my professional development over the past two years: Twitter. What an amazing difference Twitter has made to my learning, and what an amazing tool it can be to record and sort out my thoughts as well as share what I am learning with others. I did a lot of learning and sharing – also as a thank you to the many people who have tweeted from past confernces, allowing me to participate even when I couldn’t attend in person. Here you can see all of my tweets (and the tweets of other participants) in one place:

Eventifier 21st Century Learning Conference

It was of course also fabulous meeting so many of my Twitter friends for the first time in person!

Last but not least, check out Dianne MacKenzie’s reflections from the conference. She has done an amazing job in writing down her thoughts and in compiling the best resources shared.

Stretching my reading (and blogging?) life in 2013

 “No one who reads should apologize for their preferences and reading experiences, but we can aspire to stretch ourselves or fill any perceived deficits in our reading lives.” (Donalyn Miller)


 I recently came across this sentence in a blog post by Donalyn Miller aka the Book Whisperer. While I follow the ideas and experiences she shares throughout the year, I especially look forward to her posts towards the end of a year. I know that she will give me some great ideas when thinking about setting goals for my reading life. The end of 2012 was no exception to this and so I decided to aim at stretching my reading experience during 2013, by aiming to include more titles from genres I usually (with much success) ignore; science fiction for example. I am really exited about this idea because I know that I will thereby discover some great new stories.

Once I had decided to work on stretching my reading life, I thought why not apply the stretching idea also to some other areas such as the sharing of my reading and learning through various social media and my blog. It's not that I haven't tried it before - and failed even though constantly encouraged by friends (thanks for not giving up on me, Edna) - but somehow I never got very far with my blogging. Let's see how it goes this year :)
If you are just like me, trying to get into blogging, here a wonderful post with excellent tips:


10 Tips for (Reticent) Bloggers...

Ms. Tanja's Mad Minute

I promised myself that I would blog more this year and yet I am once again falling behind even though I am constantly jotting down notes for posts... So here at least one quick idea that I shared with some of my new students during the past week. Everyone totally loved it. I am calling it the MAD MINUTE or Ms. Tanja's Mad Minute. This is how it works:

I select a couple of favorite books for various reading levels (I started this week with about eight books), set an online egg timer to 60 seconds, and then try within this time to recommend as many books as possible by just saying one or two catchy phrases about each book. Students interested in a book simply raise their hand and I pass the book on to them. It is fast and furious and so much fun! I have now invited students to take up the Mad Minute challenge by sharing some of their favorite books and hope that some time soon I will have my first volunteer.

In case you are wondering what titles I chose for my first Mad Minutes, here the list of titles (so far I did the Mad Minute with my two fourth grade and two fifth grade classes):

Grades 5:

The London Eye Mystery; Stormbreaker; The Strange Case of Origami Yoda; The Butterfly Lion; The Magician’s Elephant; The City of Ember; The Wanderer;

The Homework Machine, Kensuke’s Kingdom, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Willoughbys, The End of the Beginning, Chasing Vermeer, The Magician’s Elephant, Hoot;

Grades 4:

The Lemonade War; Ida B.; The Spiderwick Chronicles; Riding Freedom; The Tale of Desperaux; Kensuke’s Kingdom; The Magic Paintbrush; 

First Apple, The Sleeping Sword; Ida B.; The Magic Paintbrush; Spiderwick Chronicles; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane; The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester; Akimbo and the Crocodile Man.

New Beginnings

After almost 19 years of Ghana, 5 years of them as Primary School Librarian at Lincoln Community School, I moved to Hong Kong to take on the same role at Hong Kong Academy. It's been almost three weeks - an amazing three weeks - since we arrived in Hong Kong but today was my first actual day with students. I didn't get much sleep last night, wondering (and worrying) how my first classes would be. Would the students like me? Would they participate voluntarily? Would classroom management be an issue? I couldn't believe how nervous I was. And yet, everything went well. The children were just wonderful, curious to get to know me and excited about being in the library. I wish I could have spend more time with them.

New beginnings are truly exciting and there is so much to be excited about, for example:
- getting to know and working with new students and fellow educators
- sharing with new colleagues ideas and suggestions for learning engagements that have worked well in the past
- seeing and working with a different Programme of Inquiry (POI)
- exploring a new library collection
- being involved in the design of a brand-new library as the school is currently building a new campus
- sharing the library with an experienced, knowledgeable and passionate fellow librarian
- and, of course, living in Hong Kong aka Library Wonderland!

But of course, new beginnings can also be overwhelming and worrying. My major concerns are related to the introduction of a partly flexible schedule (we will maintain a 30min fixed library time with a focus on literature appreciation; information literacy skills will be integrated into the UOIs and scheduled on a flexible basis) even though I am totally convinced that this is the right approach:
- will classroom teachers be supportive of the new model?
- will we be able to cover all relevant skills within the school year?
- will the 30min weekly fixed time be sufficient to introduce students to a wide variety of literature while giving them enough time to chose their own books?

The first couple of days, and in particular the fact that one grade-level has already scheduled additional time in the library, have made me very hopeful. Exciting times, new beginnings, new adventures - and lots of new sharing and learning to look forward to!

Inquire Within: Teachers as Inquirers

Inquire Within is a fabulous blog dedicated to inquiry-based learning. Brought to life by Edna Sackson, educators from around the globe share experiences from their classroom or library. It's one of the few blogs I follow closely, never missing a post. Today I wrote a post myself about the professional development at the elementary division of my school, Lincoln Community School. I will cross-post it here but hope you are going to check out Inquire Within as well.

Teachers as Inquirers – Reflections from a Learner

It was back in October 2011 that I shared a post titled More About Teachers as Inquirers, introducing a fabulous PD opportunity (Teachers Are Inquirers) organized by the Learning Council at my school, Lincoln Community School, Accra. We, the elementary teachers, were embarking on a unit of inquiry with the Central Idea “Inquiry is the pedagogical approach used across the curriculum”. In the meantime, we have completed our “official” inquiry (but then there is never really an end to inquiry, right?) and I want to share a bit more with you about the process and outcome.

As part of the Technology Inquiry Group, I looked into how iPads can be used to support struggling and reluctant readers. Enthusiastic about the topic, I jumped right into the Finding Out phase, reading how iPads were used by other schools and libraries and what apps they recommended. But then I had my first important lesson: while I was discovering excellent resources around iPads in education in general, I suddenly realized that I had lost sight of my main inquiry and found myself completely confused. Fortunately, my facilitator Sarah Pickles and the guiding questions for each phase of the inquiry model helped me to get back on track. It made me realize what an important role the teacher/facilitator plays during inquiry, helping the learner to stay on track by constantly reconnecting to the Central Idea.

I felt very much back on track as I was sorting out what I had discovered and made sense of what I was learning at the same time. I realized that most probably the most powerful element in the use of iPads with struggling readers is that they turn reading from a task into a fun activity. Of course, there are several features within the apps that support the reader in various ways, e.g. reading the text or individual words out loud. I began to wonder how I could best put my learning into practice.

These new tensions and wonderings provided the basis for the Going Further phase during which I tried to find additional answers and put some of my new knowledge into practice. However, I had to make a change to my original plan since the first opportunity I got to use the iPad with readers was with a group of confident KG students for whom this would provide an extension of their reading experience. The idea came from their teacher Miranda Rose (she is one of the facilitators of this PD inquiry and her reflections are available on this blog under “Teachers as Inquirers – Reflections from a Facilitator”). Until this point, I had never considered that iPads could be as beneficial to high-performing readers as well as to those struggling.

While Drawing Conclusions, I not only summarized my findings regarding the use of iPads with readers but also my experiences in going through an inquiry cycle as a learner. I think these were the really powerful outcomes of this learning experience for me, gaining a better understanding of my role as a facilitator while experiencing the challenges the learner is faced with. I therefore want to share all of them with you as I recorded them on my wiki page (by the way, the wiki page also represents my summative assessment):

• There never seems to be enough time to get everything done, that we would like to do.
• Answers always create new questions and it's okay that the inquiry somehow never ends.
• It's important to keep the fluidity of the inquiry cycle in mind, there are no strict boundaries between the individual stages (I have experienced that sometimes I am finding it challenging to say exactly on what phase I am, e.g. is it already Sorting out or still Finding out etc.).
• The role of the facilitator is extremely important in keeping the learner on track/on task and re-connecting to the Central Idea constantly.
• No matter how big or small the initial question or wondering, the inquiry process can always be applied. Often we go through the process without being aware of it.
• Inquiry requires personal initiative and engagement - you can’t expect that everything gets done in the allocated time. Thinking about students, wouldn't the ideal be that they follow up in their own time too?

You can read more about my journey through this inquiry cycle on Tanja’s Page of our Technology wiki.

iPads in the Classroom

On Monday, January 9, LCS is having a professional development day under the motto "Teachers Teaching Teachers". With my colleague Rhona, I will be hosting a one-hour session on iPads in the classroom. The main idea is to get teachers excited about exploring the use of our school iPads in their classroom, by giving a few examples of what you can do with an iPad. Below is the list of apps we will introduce before teachers will get an opportunity to explore some of them independently. Which apps would you have added to this list?

You can read…

Kindle

… or let someone read to you!

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

You can write

Pages

You can present

Keynote

You can explain

ScreenChomp

You can search/look up

WordBook XL

National Geographic World Atlas

You can explore

Science 360

WB This Day in History

You can practice

Everyday Math (Beat the Computer)

You can create…

Artwork: 123 sculpt, ZenBrush

Photography: Skitch, WordFoto

Music: GarageBand

Movies: iMovie, Film Director

Cartoons/Comics: Toontastic, ComicBook

Poems: Poetry Creator

Books: BookCreator

(… and in case the power goes off, you have an emergency light source through Free Candle ;) )