EduBlog Insights

Brainstorming possible questions for students for reflection about their learning:

Have you ever thought about how you learn? Think of times, either inside or outside of school, where you learned something really well. What helped you learn? Try to be as specific as you can. Was it the setting? Was it the teacher? Was it your motivation? Was it your attitude? Think hard about those things that are helpful to your learning. If it was not one of those listed, what was the thing that turned you on to learning?

Think about a time in school when you were excited about learning and you felt that you learned something that was important to you. What was that? Be specific about what made the learning exciting.

What would motivate you to learn if the topic was not something you were particularly interested in? Again, be as clear and detailed as you can.

How could teachers do a better job of making students a part of the solution to making class a place where learning is something to enjoy and look forward to?

What ways could technology be used to help teach some of the things that are already being taught in your class?

Think of something you’d like to change at this school. Focus on something that affects your learning. Explain the steps that need to be taken to put this change in place.

What skills do you think are needed to prepare you for the real world? What should you be learning? Give reasons. If you think something is irrelevant that you currently are being taught, give reasons.

When you learn something new at school do you make a connection to something that you already knew that was related to it? Give an example.

Visualize the ideal classroom. Write about it in great detail. Make the class come alive through your writing.

Be creative. Think of ways to teach and learn some of the same skills that teachers seem to have to teach over and over.

A lot of adults are saying that education needs to change. They believe we are teaching like we have for years and years and years. They do not think we are preparing students for the 21st century. Jobs change, information changes and the feeling is that we need students who are critical thinkers and problem solvers. Do you agree? What do we need to change about education to achieve that? Do you disagree? Why?

Now I know these are tough, especially knowing that we don’t have the answers ourselves but I have found that if you present these questions to students and give them practice they begin to think “deeper”. When I taught in the elementary, I always headed for high school resources when preparing my lessons. The elementary material was dumbed down. They are worthy of far more “stretching”. They don’t know how at first, but you guide and get them thinking. Bump it up! (as I say to the kids!)

Of course, you wouldn’t give them all of these at once. I usually let them pick one to blog. They love having choices.

I welcome input or additional questions……

Today I was thinking about reflections, Bloom’s Taxonomy, blogs, teaching and learning. I know, what a combination! But thinking about and discussing how we learn is time well spent in our classes. I was looking for a piece I wrote to parents on the school web site where I worked in the past. It had suggestions for parents on fusing Bloom’s Taxonomy throughout daily activities at home. I wanted to revisit that. I haven’t found that yet but I will.

My brain keeps locking in on the importance of reflection, but reflection from students mainly. I wish more teachers would use blogs for reflections about learning in our schools. I have tried to include as much time as possible for students to reflect about their learning when blogging. They really need to be thinking about what they are learning. Writing about this thinking can give them practice in discovering the meaning and the relevance of what they are studying. They can do this from their viewpoint. We teachers could learn so much. We need to give our students time to do this. I think this would be time well spent, actually it is a form of evaluation that can be of more use to us than any other test available. Also, we get the opportunity to guide them in thinking about their own thinking and foster independence in their own learning. These skills have to be learned, practiced and developed. If we have lots of students doing this, just think about the conversations that could develop and the connections that could be made. We have our students so conditioned to deliver what we want. How many times has a student asked you, “Is this what you want?” or “How many pages do we have to write?”, We need to work at creating a mindset with our students where they learn to defend what they want and write as many or as few pages needed to get their point across.

I find that when you first begin this process with students, they are clueless. They have not been asked questions about their learning. Now isn’t that strange? Why do we just focus on the what and not the how? Our journey of learning is so rarely discussed. That’s one of the marvels of blogging for me. People are doing that and I get to be a part of the discussions. Wow! I still get excited. We’ve got to move those converations among ourselves to our students. We need to talk about how we construct meaning as we read and write (blog). We must guide them. We need to talk with them about how reading and writing are the tools for making sense of everyday life. I remember back to the days when I was a remedial reading teacher and found that most of the students had no clue what the main idea was, cause and effect, etc. They just did the worksheets. That’s another story though. These conversations need to be held with middle and high students. I find them just as awkward with it as the younger students. We need to push their thinking, have higher expectations and they will respond. I think I need to work on the questions to ask to get them to higher levels. That will be my next post. I invite input.

Today I was looking for something else and came across this list. Isn’t that often the case? I wrote these in December of 2001, shortly before coming to Georgia State. I was talking to my former faculty at an elementary school. Hmmm, it could be a depressing thought to think how many still apply. On the other hand, many of these issues are being addressed through blogs and at least the conversations are being held. Some of my thinking has changed as this list was made before I even knew blogs existed. Some I still firmly believe.
Here’s my 2001 list:
• A huge amount of money can be wasted and minimal effects upon student learning can be achieved by simply following the trend setters and publishing companies who market their product as the answer to all our problems.

• No one technology program can meet the needs of all our students.

• There are very few experts in the field…just a whole bunch who claim to be.

• The opportunities for failure and waste are there if we do not give much thought to student learning or purpose.

• Districts try to demonstrate that they are modern, wired, and technologically advanced and not enough thought is given to how the technology is used to improve learning.

• Murphy is always going to be loose in the technology aspects of instruction as we grow, learn, and strive to keep up.

• There are very few models of good practice and almost no data or evidence to guide decision making. What little data we have is tainted by vendors and publisher’s self interests and profit motives and our desire as a system to justify what we have purchased.

• We have to ask the right questions, make right plans, reserve funds for professional development and think before we leap.

• There is a huge amount of information on the web but many times it can be an exercise in frustration as you spend an incredible amount of time searching for information.

• What is the best use of technology?

• Skill & drill vs. information power and literacy

• We want to take what we have learned in all of our staff developments and make sure that we are using technology to improve the way students think and learn.

• Technology is not an end in itself. It is just the tool to take us where we want to go. It is up to us to make the connection between our curriculum and the tool.

• We have to prepare our students for the future they will inherit. We must engage students in solving problems, making decisions and exploring though provoking questions. They have to learn to work in groups and participate in interactive learning.

• We are doing an excellent job of teaching basic skills but we need to apply these skills to issues and questions drawn from the world around them. WebQuests provide a tool to do just that.

• Process is what is important, not a perfect product.

It’s kind of neat to put this piece of the past down on my blog. I know I am going to think some more on the various points. I still love WebQuests for student activities but blogs have taken over in my world. They can have a transformative effect but we need to keep the focus on the learning. We need to keep getting more voices in the mix, especially those of the students. Get them talking and developing a “new story”.