Becoming an Unteacher: Do the Unexpected

I had the pleasure of seeing Jeremy K. Macdonald’s  Soiree of Slides at the Instructional Technology Strategies Conference this past weekend . . . a beautiful five minutes.

His message was that as teachers, we learn to do the expected.  Students are supposed to behave within the norms and rules of school.  Teachers enforce those norms and rules.  When students break those norms and rules, teachers discipline the students.  But, maybe, just maybe, the student had a “good” reason for doing so and maybe, just maybe, teachers should do the unexpected rather than enforce.  Maybe, they should “do” caring instead.

My Own Doing the Unexpected: A Peak Experience

I had a similar experience with 8 year old Sherry a while back.  To this day, I view it as a peak experience in my life.

Sherry was a tough little third grader in my counseling group at a local elementary school.  Sherry had to be a tough cookie – as she was a witness to her sister being shot and killed by a drug dealer.  Other kids in my counseling group had similar stories – one’s mom was found dead in a ditch . . . tough situations, tough kids, tough behaviors.  Sherry would be suspended three times during her third grade year due to defiant behavior.  I had to use a behavior modification system (which I personally abhor) to check in with them every 10 minutes because of acting out behaviors. But who could blame them?  . . . such horrible situations in their short lives.  As the principal stated, “These third graders have experienced more trauma in their young lives then I will experience in my whole lifetime.” 

Sherry loved coming to the group, but was especially defiant this day – I wasn’t feeling so patient, tolerant, or compassionate on this day.  So with a brush-off wave of my hand I said, “Sherry – just go back to class.”  With head down, she returned to her class.  The group met the last period of each Tuesday.  I would send the kids to their respective buses after that.  Sherry did not take the bus, walked home from the school. After school on this day, Sherry returned to my meeting area– staying shyly on the periphery as I straightened up.  I made eye contact with her and she moved ever so slowly towards me like the boy and the fox in The Little Prince. 

I was ready to make the adult-in-charge-type-statement.  As I knew Sherry loved the group time, I was about to say, “If you learn to behave yourself, you would be allowed to stay in the group.”  I opened my mouth and these words come out instead, “I missed you today.  You are very special to me.”  With her big black eyes (even bigger at that moment) staring intensely at me, she stated, “I don’t feel very special.”  And this kid, who never cried, had a few big teardrops flow from her eyes.  I said, with eyes that were probably as big, black, and intense as hers at that moment, “Well, you are very special to me.”  And big teardrops rolled from my eyes. This was a peak experience for me, an experience that can only be explained as one heart purely touching another heart.  No more was said – Sherry’s behavior was fine for the rest of the year.

I did the unexpected . . . I didn’t expect it, Sherry didn’t expect it.  It changed me.  I became an unteacher on this day.

QR Coded Student Videos: Classifying Activity

This is part of my continuing series of blogs about how I am integrating mobile learning into my undergraduate course on interpersonal relations.  There are a dozen students in the class.  Ten of them are in the 17 to 21 year old age range.  The other two are over 35 years old.  All of them own mobile devices – four of them being Smart Devices (iPhone, Android).  Three of them bring their personal laptops to class.

The following activity was part of a three-hour class on nonverbal behaviors.  Even though the example describes how this activity was used with the different types of nonverbal behaviors, it can be used with any topic that has categories or classifications.  For example, it could be used for writing genres, biomes, art types, historical eras, etc.

Goals of the Activity:

• To use videos and QR codes to explore and learn about a class topic.
• To build community by working on a common project.

Needed Materials/Functions:

• One mobile device per group to create videos that can be uploaded directly to YouTube
• One mobile device per group with a QR reader.  I recommend i-nigma.  The same device can be used for recording video, scanning QR codes, and viewing videos on the mobile device.
• One computer per group that has internet access.
• A printer that computers are connected to.
• A YouTube Account

Procedures:

• Form students/members into smaller groups – 3 to 5 members per group.
• Ask students to create short videos using their mobile devices that demonstrate smaller concepts within a larger topic.   Have students videotape 4 to 6 separate short videos (a minute or less) from the list of categories or classifications provided to them about the topic selected.   In this example, for my interpersonal relations class, students were asked to create videos to demonstrate different nonverbal behaviors from the following list: glance, eye contact (gaze), volume, vocal nuance, proximity, gestures, facial expression, pause (silence), intonation, dress, posture, word choice and syntax, sounds (paralanguage)  http://www.andrews.edu/~tidwell/lead689/NonVerbal.html
• Encourage them to provide enough information to showcase the topic but not too much that the answer/category is too obvious.

• Ask students to upload each of their videos to YouTube.  If they don’t have their own accounts, you can provide them with an email address to send their videos directly to your YouTube account.  This information can be found under account settings.

Thanks, Hall Davidson for this tip.

• Have them generate QR Codes for each video they created using a service such http://goqr.me/ or  YouTube Video QR Code Generator.  These are generated by inserting the YouTube video URL to general the QR code.

• Print the QR codes and distribute them to each of the groups.  So if there are 5 groups, print four sets for the four other groups.  Develop a coding system or have groups develop a coding system that identifies their group, a unique symbol for each of the sets, and the number of the video.  This permits an easy identification code of which group and which video for the next part.  A coding system can include giving each group a set of numbers to identify which groups have their QR codes.  Going back to the example of five groups, group one can be given 1-4, group two 5-9, group three 10-13 and so on.  Groups can then be instructed to label their videos A through E (given they made five videos).
  

• Groups receive the QR codes for videos completed by the other groups. Ask group members view the videos via the QR codes and identify which of the concepts the video is depicting.

 

• For this example, the different types of nonverbal behaviors were printed and taped on the classroom wall. When a group identified which behavior, they taped their QR code under that category.  Once completed, groups “graded” one another’s correct categories referring to the codes they developed and by writing a “yes” or “no” on the QR code.
  

 

• Alternative One:  to posting the QR codes on the wall is to have students identify which concept by writing it directly on the printed QR codes they received.  The need for groups coding their QR codes would be eliminated.  Correctness of their responses would be determined during the next step when the videos are shown to the entire class.
• Alternative Two:  If there is access to a computer lab/1:1 mobile lab, the QR Codes could be displayed on the monitors.  There would need to be enough computers to show on the videos/QR Codes created.  Videos could be accessed via these monitor displays through their mobile devices using their QR readers.  Then students could write their guess down for each of the videos.  The need for groups coding their QR codes would be eliminated.  Correctness of their responses would be determined during the next step when the videos are shown to the entire class.
• Show the videos using a projector, interactive whiteboard.  Facilitate a discussion about the concepts and how well they were depicted in the student videos.

Give it a try.  Use your QR reader to access and view the following videos created by students about nonverbal behaviors.  See if you can guess which behavior they depicted using the nonverbal behavior list provide above.

Communication Activities Using Mobile Devices

Mobile devices are major sources of communication for almost everybody these days.  As such, these devices lend themselves for exploring effective and ineffective communication.  The goals of this unit of study are to:

• gain a greater understanding of the keys to effective communication.
• build team and cooperative learning skills.

Ice Breaker:  Texting Messages

• Prior to the activity, choose a phrase (with fewer than 300 characters) that has meaning to your group and translate it for text messaging (for help, visit http://transl8it.com/). Make sure that all participants have one another’s cell phone numbers stored in their own phone’s memory.
• After arranging the group in a circle, text your message to the first person (it helps to have the message already loaded into your phone). The person who receives the text then whispers the message to the next person in the circle. That person must then text the message to the next person, who whispers it to the next person, who then, in turn, whispers it. Continue in this fashion (i.e., alternating texts and whispers) until the last person receives the message. The last person then verbally shares the message with the entire group.
• Messages can also be sent from the computer via http://www.txtdrop.com/
• Discuss problems with messages that texted.

Source: http://www.humankinetics.com/products/all-products/Team-Building-Activities-for-the-Digital-Age-eBook

As you can see by this example, the original post was wen ppl talk, listN completely. Most ppl nevr lisN. (When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.) The final person received the message, When people talk, most people listen unless there is nobody to hear you.

Ice Breaker: Text a Story

One person starts a story – either a word, phrase, or sentence (can be negotiated with the group or predetermined by the leader), and texts this to the next group member who adds a word, phrase, or sentence.  When it gets to the last person, s/he reads the story aloud.

Same But Different

• Distribute via email or securely face-to-face the Same but Different pictures to  students/members.
• Three pairs of similar pictures will be distribute to each group of six students/members.
• Via telephone or texting communications, members must find the one and only partner who has the exact same picture.

Source:  Abrams, Michael; Scannell, Mary; Mulvihill, Mike (2011-11-22). Big Book of Virtual Teambuilding Games: Quick, Effective Activities to Build Communication, Trust and Collaboration from Anywhere! (Kindle Locations 1840-1841). McGraw-Hill. Kindle Edition.

Building Communications

• Split group into two to four subgroups and give each group the same exact building supplies.  Tinker Toys work well for this.  Take the groups to separate locations so they have no visual or direct verbal access to one another.
• Ask the group to assign a communicator, someone who communicates with the other groups using his or her mobile device.
• Give them the instruction that they are to create three structures that look exactly alike and to do so, they need to communicate to the other groups via their mobile devices.  This can be done either through voice or texting but no images can be sent.  The communicator can only convey instructions received from the other teams, but cannot be involved in the actual hands-on building of the structure
• Once the groups believe that they have completed the task, tell them that they can send pictures of their structure to the other groups for a final confirmation.
• Bring the groups back together to have them compare their structures.

 

Student Reflection

We broke up into groups, with each group having one telephone communicator and three builders. Each group had a bag with the same tinker toy parts. We then had to build a symmetrical structure identical to the other two groups. We had to ask questions and give directions to each other until we were able to come up with identical structures. It took awhile, but we were able to communicate effectively enough to create identical structures. Yeah for us!

I thought this activity was really difficult and confusing because everybody was talking at once and kind of difficult to hear. That is why communication is very important. Communication has a big role in our everyday life non-verbally or verbally.

We received the bag of tinker toys we then had to go to different rooms. Somebody from each group then had to decide who was going to be the communicators. The communicators had to then had to call the other communicators and the rest were the listeners, and the listeners were the only ones who could touch the tinker toys. The Communicators had then had to tell us what to construct. I thought this activity was really difficult and confusing because everybody was talking at once and kind of difficult to hear. That is why communication is very important, Communication is also a big role in our everyday life nonverbally or verbally.

Reflections Via Voicethread

• Create an Account on Voicethread.
• Start a Voicethread with photos from the communications activities.
• Show students/members how to register.
• Ask students to verbally record their reactions to the activities via a webcam or by calling in via their cell phones.
• Have students/members listen to all of the responses and then discuss ways these messages were effective and ineffective.

Post Class Student Reflections

After class, as part of their out-of-class assignments, students post their reflections about the class activities via a Facebook Page set up for this purpoose.

What a great way to learn communication techniques! Thank you Jackie for all your creative ways to make this class fun and exciting as well as informational.

These as well as other mobile-driven team building activities can be found at http://community-building.weebly.com/index.html.

Mobile-Driven Identity Activities

Leveraging the students’ mobile devices has become an ongoing and integrated practice of my face-to-face undergraduate course on Interpersonal Relations.  What follows are the mobile and technology driven activities completed during the class on personal-identity.

I Am Poems

Students are given the following template and asked to fill in the blanks to create their own I Am Poems.

Once the poems are written, students are provided with a link to a shared Google Doc Presentation and instructions to use one of the presentation slides to compose their poem and include a photo from their Facebook accounts or one taken with their mobile that symbolizes the essence of their identify.  After all students complete this task, the presentation is projected via an interactive board.  Students, one at a time, read their poems to their classmates.

We made an “I AM” poem, which I thought was very fun. It was interesting to see the imaginations on some classmates. These activities are what makes the class fun.

We wrote ” I am” poems which was really cool too. I liked seeing what everyone had to say about themselves. I got to see a side of them that I probably never would have.

Values Identification

Students are asked to choose their three top values from a list of values. They are then given the task to locate objects in their environment that symbolize these values and take photos using their mobile devices. Directions are given to email their photos to a Flickr account set up for this purpose.  Students do not need to have an account on Flickr to do so.  The steps to set this up are as follows:

• Set up an account on Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/
• Photos can then be emailed directly to this Flickr account.  “You can upload photos to Flickr from your camera using your unique email upload address. When you upload photos via email, the subject line is used as the title of your photo, and the body of the email is used as the description” (http://www.flickr.com/help/mobile/)

Students are given the email address to send their photos to Flickr along with the instructions to put the name of their value in the subject line and why they selected that value in the description. Since all the group’s images will are sent to this single Flickr account, students are able to view each other’s photographs through the Flickr website projected on a screen if in a face-to-face setting.

Going over our values was an important part of the activity (I personally can say) because our values play a critical role in our self-esteem, they dictate what is important to us.

Peer Feedback

The Johari Window is introduced to the students.  The focus of this activity is on the window known to others but not known to self.  Since the students have been working together for several weeks, they have some knowledge of their classroom peers.  As such, they are instructed to provide feedback to those three or four students with whom they have had most contact during the initial weeks of the course.  Feedback is provided in the form of three descriptive adjectives texted to the person receiving the feedback.

We sent messages to other people describing how we saw them when we first met in class. This was surprising to me because I received different feedback then I would expect..

Assisting the Learner to Think Like a Professional

I recently attended a workshop entitled “Beyond Assessing for Knowledge” presented by Kimberly Tanner whose research agenda is:

To understand how people learn science and how teachers and scientists can collaborate to make science teaching and learning in classrooms – Kindergarten through college – more like how scientists work (http://biology.sfsu.edu/people/kimberly-tanner).

The key points that I extracted from the talk are:

• To what extent do current assessments yield insight into the development of “Thinking Like a (Professional in the Field Being Studied)?”
• The problem with many assessments is they measure what students know not what they can do with that knowledge.
• How can instructional strategies help learners develop expertise in the content area?

Dr. Tanner presented her research about the development of expertise among graduating undergraduate biology students. Simply stated, she used card sorting to analyze expertise.  She got some baseline data using biology faculty and non-biology freshman.   Obviously, the biology faculty far outscored the non-biology freshman.  Then this same task was given to graduating biology students.  The predication was that the graduating biology students would more closely match the faculty, but the results indicated that that they were only a few percentage points above the non-biology freshman.

The results don’t surprise me as I believe this is indicative of the problem we not only have in higher education, but also in K-12 environments.  Students learn the basic surface knowledge related to the content presented in their classes.  Their test scores often indicate as such.  But what does testing students on the lowest levels of Blooms taxonomy – knowing, possibly understanding  – really tell us?  What will the students know, understand, and use outside of the classroom related to the content taught?  How will their ways of being and interacting in the world be different because of these learning experiences?

This information is not new nor earth shattering.  I have a hunch that similar results would occur if this research was used to assess students’ knowledge about most any content area.  There are several key elements or questions that are pertinent to this discussion:

1. What is the ultimate goal of teaching and learning?  For students to know something on the surface or for students to be able to think and do something differently?
2. What is the clarion call from the research like Dr. Kimmer’s?
3. How should and can instructional strategies be reformed to help learners think like the professionals in their respective fields?
4. What types of assessment measure deep learning?

One strategy proposed by Angela Maiers in Who Are Their Learning Heroes — and Why? is to have learners build a dream team of thinkers and doers, a team of their heroes and explore not only their knowledge base but also their -

• work ethic
• study habits
• thought process
• energy focus
• other behavioral practices

I believe that a focus in Passion-Based Learning can also lead to deep learning.  I discuss this more in PBL is Passion-Based Learning: Show Me Your Passion.

Are We Preparing Students for Generation Flux?

This Is Generation Flux: Meet The Pioneers Of The New (And Chaotic) Frontier Of Business was recently published by Fast Company. It’s intent is to introduce and describe some of the key movers and shakers in the business world and includes danah boyd and Peter Cashmore.  What is of particular to me, as an educator, is those factors that influenced their successes.

Some the key points from this article include:

The fast rate of change creates difficulties in predicting the future . . .

The pace of change in our economy and our culture is accelerating–fueled by global adoption of social, mobile, and other new technologies–and our visibility about the future is declining.

New technologies and social media are producing vast, significant change . . .

In an age where Twitter and other social-media tools play key roles in recasting the political map in the Mideast; where impoverished residents of refugee camps would rather go without food than without their cell phones; where all types of media, from music to TV to movies, are being remade, redefined, defended, and attacked every day in novel ways–there is no question that we are in a new world.

Being able to conceptualize today’s world in a single, static paradigm is impossible . . .

There is one certainty, however. The next decade or two will be defined more by fluidity than by any new, settled paradigm; if there is a pattern to all this, it is that there is no pattern. The most valuable insight is that we are, in a critical sense, in a time of chaos. Chaotic disruption is rampant.

Old and institutionalized models of problem-solving do not work for today’s problems in today’s institutions . . .

There’s a difference between the kind of problems that companies, institutions, and governments are able to solve and the ones that they need to solve. Most big organizations are good at solving clear but complicated problems. They’re absolutely horrible at solving ambiguous problems–when you don’t know what you don’t know. Faced with ambiguity, their gears grind to a halt (sounds like the current educational system).

The nostalgic “we’ve always done it that way” will lead to failure.  A future-focus needs to drive change . . .

If ambiguity is high and adaptability is required, then you simply can’t afford to be sentimental about the past. Future-focus is a signature trait of Generation Flux. Nostalgia is a natural human emotion, a survival mechanism that pushes people to avoid risk by applying what we’ve learned and relying on what’s worked before. It’s also about as useful as an appendix right now. When times seem uncertain, we instinctively become more conservative; we look to the past, to times that seem simpler, and we have the urge to re-create them.  But when the past has been blown away by new technology, by the ubiquitous and always-on global hypernetwork, beloved past practices may well be useless.

It is imperative to learn the technology tools of the day and these change daily . . .

It’s irresponsible not to use the tools of the day. If you master those things and stop, you’re just going to get killed by the next thing. Flexibility of skills leads to flexibility of options. To see what you can’t see coming, you’ve got to embrace larger principles.

Only those who are open and adaptable will survive . . .

To flourish requires a new kind of openness. More than 150 years ago, Charles Darwin foreshadowed this era in his description of natural selection: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” As we traverse this treacherous, exciting bridge to tomorrow, there is no clearer message than that.

21st Century and Workforce Skills

Organizations such as The Partnership for 21st Learning and Institute for the Future have proposed skills necessary to survive and thrive in the current and future workforce.  But given as the article proposes, our visibility about the future is declining, even these might not address this Generation Flux.

Extracted from the article are the current 21st century skills needed in today‘s workforce:  (Note that the words current and today are highlighted meaning that they might change in the near future.)

• Embraces instability.
• Learns to recalibrate thoughts, actions, attitudes based on what is what is being presented.
• Learns continuously from multiple sources of information.
• Understands global, mobile, and technology trends.
• Ability to work collaboratively and within teams.
• Ability to work with and solve complex, ambiguous problems.
• Takes risks while managing fears.
• Has a passion for learning new skills.
• Open-mindedness.
• Future-focused.

How does the school curriculum reflect and “teach” these skills?  What is being done to prepare learners for generation flux?

Where are the spaces for kids to ponder and express thoughts and ideas?

I was at a summer day camp in sixth grade.  They took us on a field trip to a local amusement park.  I had wandered away from the group and settled on a park bench to watch a group of kids with developmental disabilities on the merry-go-round.  The looks of pure delight and squeals of joy resonated deeply within me.  I had never seen such pure and innocent joy.  The richness of the experiences I was witnessing brought tears to my eyes.  Growing up I had been given a message that folks like the ones I was seeing had disabilities but wondered who really had the disability.  Most of my friends and the adults I knew did not seem to have the capability to be that fully present in a moment.  So where was and who had the real disability?  This was a peak experience in my life.  I so desperately wanted to discuss my thoughts with someone but knew that my friends wouldn’t understand nor were there any adults in my life with whom I could share my thoughts.

I later become a counselor focusing on at-risk youth.  My preference was to use group counseling.  The things shared by youth in that setting were profound, insightful, and sometimes earth-shattering.  Not only did they share their often very difficult life experiences, they talked about religion, sexuality, and prejudice.  Since many were the “outcasts”, they had ideas often not shared by a mainstream public.  I often left those sessions and went to have a deep cry about the life experiences and thoughts shared by the kids.

Now as an educator and teacher educator, I wonder, given the extremely structured settings of education, where kids can share their personal ideas and thoughts.  Kids spend much of their time in school and this may be the only social setting in their lives.  So I believe school and after-school programs need to provide kids with a place and space to express themselves.  I believe this place needs to have the following characteristics.

• There is no agenda, topic for discussion, nor curriculum.
• It should be non-judgmental  – all ideas and thoughts are accepted, even those that would make adults shutter.
• There should be opportunities for all kids to have a voice.
• There should be materials for kids to share their voice in different ways through the spoken word, written word, photography, videography, and other art and music venues.
• It should be multi-age so the perspectives from different age groups can be shared.
• The role of the adults and educators in such a setting would be that of active listener and a witness not a teacher nor advice giver.
• I believe it can be done virtually with a moderator who censures comments and artifacts that do not meet the above criteria.

First Class Ice Breakers Using Mobile Devices

I previously wrote about the importance of beginning a class focusing on the learners in the room as opposed to the content to be covered in Beginning the School Year: It’s About Connections Not Content.

Most classes, starting with about middle school, begin the school year with reviewing the content to be covered, expectations regarding grades, and other academic information provided by the teacher or instructor.  The human or social element is often disregarded.

What is interesting is that most learners enter the classroom wondering who is in the course.  They want to know about the teacher and the people in the class not what material is to be covered. What this says to me as an educator is that it all begins with a social connection – between the educator and the learners, and between the learners themselves.

All of my classes, regardless of student age or demographics – elementary gifted students or graduate students, begin with ice-breakers and team-building activities.  I recently developed a passion for using students’ mobile devices to do so as this devices have become natural and personalized extensions of students’ “selves.”

What follows are several of the mobile-driven ice-breakers I recently used in an undergraduate course on Interpersonal Relations.  I also include some student reactions to these activities.

Cell Sharing

• Ask participants to locate a photo, song, or video from their mobile device that best represents them.
• Each person then shares his or her media and the reason it was selected.
• For photo or video sharing:  Pass the device around so all students can view the image or use a webcam to project the image onto a larger computer screen or whiteboard.
• For sharing of music: Attach portable speakers to assist with the sharing of songs so others can hear them.

Student Reflections about Cell Sharing

Several students stated that this was their favorite activity of the class.

I thought it was awesome that you wanted everyone to show the class a picture or type of music that had meaning to us. By doing this we got to see and learn a little bit more of our peers.

We did a photo/audio thing which was my favorite activity because we got to learn a little bit of everyone’s lives

Question Selector

• Participants use a random number picker to select a number from one to 145.
  • Online
    • http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/random/
    • http://www.mathgoodies.com/calculators/random_no_custom.html
  • Blackberry
    • http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/18863?lang=en
• They then answer the question that corresponds with their number on http://www.teampedia.net/wiki/index.php?title=Question_Cup
• Answers are posted on a Sticky Note Board such as Wallwisher or Wifitti.
• The answers can be projected on a whiteboard (if done face-to-face) or students can view the answers via their own computers (face-to-face or virtually).

Texting Interviews

• Randomly pair students (can be either face-to-face or virtually).
• Ask them to develop questions that they would ask to help them get to know someone better.
• The pairs text their questions and answers back and forth.
• Interviewers summarize what they found out about their partners and posts their partners’ names and this information on a Sticky Note Board such as Wallwisher.

Student Reflection About the Texting Interviews

I enjoyed the texting exercise. It’s pretty cool when your teacher lets you use your phone for the activities especially since I got to learn more about my partner.

Student Reflections About the Ice Breaker Activities

I think that those games helped us get to know each other and were a very good ice breaker to help us know who our class mates are.

We played many activities and I believe that they all helped in breaking the ice between us all. We were able to get to know each other easier and faster than in a typical classroom environment.

I learned to communicate better instead of hanging back in a corner.

Although we all come from different backgrounds and cultures we all related quite well and by learning about each other we can start to establish friendships

Student Reflections As Part of Class Design

I previously blogged about the important of including reflections in education in Where is reflection in the learning process? This posts describes two ongoing strategies I use for student reflections for an undergraduate course I teach.  These strategies are extremely easy to implement and provide such rich information both for the learners and me as the educator.

End of Class Reflections

At the end of each class session, students report in a verbal go-around, what the class session meant to them.  They are asked to extract key and significant learnings.  The video that follow was from our first class together that focused on building a learning community.

I view this as a verbal exit ticket.  I see the power of the exit ticket especially in shorter class periods, but the verbal reflections permits the entire classroom community to hear one another’s responses.  This method also allows me, as the teacher, to get immediate feedback about how the class went and which activities were the most powerful/significant for the students.

Class Reflections on Facebook

Each week (the class meets once a week), students post their reflections about the class onto a Facebook page set up for the course.  They are also asked to respond to at least two other members.  All students have Facebook pages so this increases ease of access.

The use of the end of class verbal go-arounds and the Facebook reflections allows for a community-based form of reflection.  Not only do students get to personally reflect on and learn from the class activities, the community of learners get to learn about what others got from these experiences.  This builds a sense of community and increases the potential learning of all students in the class as they get to discover what others have learned.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 37,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 14 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.