FabLearn Fellows 2014

This year I was selected as one of the 2014 FabLearn Fellows through the Stanford University Transformative Learning Technologies Lab.

"Part of a larger project sponsored by the National Science Foundation and entitled “Infusing Learning Sciences Research into Digital Fabrication in Education and the Makers’ Movement”, FabLearn Fellows brings together experienced educators from all over the world to create an open-source library of curriculum and contribute to research about the “makers” culture and digital fabrication in education."

I will be using this blog to post some of my writings and reflections that come out of the work and discussions and hope to share this amazing experience I am honored to be a part of with educators and makers.

http://fablearn.stanford.edu/fellows

I will continue to write about my own classroom, students, and Makerspace experiences, and plan on making this blog a more active space.

To Tinker or To Not Tinker?

At this summer's Scratch Conference a recurring theme came up in many conversations and presentations, what does it mean to tinker? There was some debate as to whether tinkering always leads to anything tangible or if tinkering itself is what is important.

Here are some notes and thoughts from some of the conversations.

Mitch Resnick defines tinkering as "bottom-up, iterative, experimental, concrete, and object-oriented."

Adults defining tinkering, how do students define it?

Do we pay too much attention to outcomes with our students?
Does it have to always be about the finished product?

If a project is never completed is it a bad project?

Creating a space with freedom and away from the constrictions of the curriculum and the classroom.

These are also the thoughts that I have had when I decided that I needed to create a MakerSpace for my students this fall.

My Journey To Non-Grading Nirvana: An Introduction

Exactly one year ago I came to the conclusion that grading sucks. Actually, when I think about it I came to that conclusion at a much earlier time in my life, 2nd grade. But that is a story for another time.
When I first started teaching in a public school it was in a school where we didn't grade. we wrote narrative reports and we assessed students as to whether they were meeting standards, exceeding standards or needing more work. I just thought that was how it worked everywhere. Then I began teaching at a school that used percentages. All of a sudden it was all about the number and no longer about the work. How to raise that number ever so closer to 100%.
I started teaching at a school where the average grade was in the 90's. How could that be I asked myself? But after getting chewed out by parents who couldn't understand why little Johnny got an 85, I started getting the message.
So I stopped formally grading. I stopped reporting the hour by hour average in the school's online grade book that parents checked like it was their stock portfolio. I set up individual learning targets within the classroom and continued with the work we had always done.
Then a magical thing happened. All of a sudden it has felt like a great weight was lifted off our classroom. Conversations between myself and students were richer and more meaningful, students who had refused to try new things or take chances because of fear of poor grades began to make amazing things, students who refused to work at all began to make amazing things, I had so much more time and energy to focus on the students and on the work going on in the classroom when I took the parents out of the equation. Life was good again.
I have been meaning to reflect and think back upon this process and now I am going to make good on that promise to myself. Stay tuned.

EdcampNYC 2011

I attended EdCampNYC this past weekend. I also attended last years version which was the first year that the Edcamp idea began to multiply in various cities. For those unfamiliar with the ideas behind Edcamp, this is what has been termed an "unconference". An initiative to put professional development into the hands of the teachers. Conference participants are welcome to sign up in specified time slots to "present" a topic for discussion to other participants who are interested in that topic.
The first session I attended was on Google Scripts. I have been interested in incorporating more Google stuff (for lack of a better word) into my teaching activities. It is a great thing to be sitting in a room full of educators who are both interested in being engaged in this level of technology and are also using it. As I remind my students, computers were created to make our lives easier, and can enable us to do more interesting things.
Another session I attended was led by teachers from the School @ Columbia and focused on stuff they do at the school, (stuff being their term this time). Learning is infused with technology and I got to see how the school uses social networking platforms as a way to connect the learning community and how this also provides a continuing 'teachable moment' when discussing digital citizenship and digital footprints.
The sessions I tend to enjoy and get the most from are the ones that are led by educators and teachers who have no shtick or product they are promoting but are truly interesting in either sharing what they do in their classrooms or sharing in a discussion about practices or ideas that interest them. Although I am not certain it was evident at this Edcamp, I wondered if the success of Edcamps might draw more presenters who arrive with pre-packaged presentations where if they are not necessarily selling a product, they are selling "themselves". Of course it would go against the spirit of Edcamp to deny someone a spot, but I hope the teachers and the actual "in the trenches" educators will always outnumber those who are in the education field as promotors of products or ideas that aren't always attached to genuine situations in the classrooms.
Thanks to all those who were instrumental in putting this day together. These are teachers themselves who give their precious and limited free time to organize and produce a rewarding day. I am already looking forward to next year.

Day 2 Where Jonathan Kozol Comes To Visit Us

Jonathan Kozol at CMK11

One of the very first books I ever read about teaching and education was "Death At An Early Age" by Jonathan Kozol. I don't remember how and why and when I picked it up but what I do remember is the impact it had on me. When I heard that Jonathan Kozol was one of the speakers at this summer's session I started to seriously make plans to return for a second time. I was not to be disappointed. Jonathan Kozol exudes all the compassion and empathy and insight in person as he does in the pages of his books, and them some. It was an honor to be sitting just a few feet away from him as he spoke of the book he has just wrapped up and of his journeys to congress in an attempt to bring an experienced voice to the current education debate/reform/debacle.

What I truly don't understand about education is why there seem to be so very many people involved in the positions of power who don't seem to have any sympathy or compassion for the learner. Why is education framed in such a punitive way? Why does it seem to be based so much on rewards and punishments and not on imagination and ideas and wonderment?

Mr. Kozol reminds us that education and learning is (or should be) about personal relationships and the bonds that develop between children and their teachers. It is unfortunate that the current political climate doesn't seem to lend itself to this notion, the wrong sort of people seem to be vying for control of education policy and the money that goes with it.

It is indeed a sad time to be a teacher. I don't know why teaching as a profession, has so little control over the policy and decision-making of the profession. What would happen if we attempted to take charge? Or is there really so little power in the hands of each teacher that we cannot ever hope to make any changes? I am not easily defeated but I don't know if I could continue to teach if I were forced to go against the what I truly believe the experience of learning should be for children.

When I get back to my project I start thinking about how to narrow down my area of exploration and what tools would really be best to work out the ideas I have for making an animation based on input from sensors. Besides the Pico tools, there are a couple of other options I had yet to play around with. Go-Go boards and Arduino controllers were also available to use and experiment with. I am reminded of the fine line that often occurs in my own classroom when students are working on projects and figuring out different things they can do or create with the tools at their disposal. I want my students to explore the range of possibilities and to discover success in mistakes or failure. I also want them to be making a certain amount of progress, which I define as the generation of ideas and inspiration and motivation that comes from the work they are doing. As a teacher I see a big part of my job as making sure students are not just dabbling in many things without any focus or ideas.

With this in mind I decide that based on the ideas I have, and the amount of time to work, that the Pico Board and the Scratch program would be best suited for my needs. So I get to work on making my ideas something more concrete.

Constructing Modern Knowledge 2011

Thoughts on the first day of CMK2011.
This is my second year back at Constructing Modern Knowledge, a conference happening in Manchester New Hampshire this week. It is an opportunity to work with a range of materials and work through several ideas that may of been put on the back burner throughout the busy school year. Equally important is the fantastic range of participants and speakers and facilitators who work side by side and who are a constant source of inspiration and ideas.

This week I wanted to focus on using the Pico Crickets or the Pico Board. I was interested in combining sound and animation. In my own classroom I am very careful that my students focus not only on the tool(s) but to allow the ideas and the concepts drive their learning and their creating. The computer is a powerful means to extend ideas and thinking that might otherwise not be possible. I wanted to think of ideas or questions that would drive my week long project and the tools I would use would fall into place.

Another interesting result of experimentation and "tinkering" are other interesting (or maybe not so interesting) ideas. So armed with the Pico materials I spent my first day exploring the possibilities of using the Scratch program and the Pico Blocks program and the many sensors and input and output devices that can be attached and used.