Thinking about thinking

A new school year has started, the excitement for teachers and students is at peak level.  Books, folders, pencils and laptops are all in order for another year of school.  But ask yourself: Is this another year just like the last year and just like the years before.  What is new in school?  What is new in the realm of learning?

Too often, we school our students instead of inspire and improve our students.  School is a series of checklists and points which determine success levels.  It is my hope that my classroom is more than a checklist of points, but rather a place of higher learning.

One item that I am interested in improving is the practice of reflection.  Reflection by our students and by myself as a teacher.  One part of reflection is "thinking about your thinking."  This should occur in planning stages and after completion of a task.  When one thinks about his or her thinking the products will be better.

Traditional classrooms avoid this concept by nature.  The teacher is the provider making sure instructions, rubrics, and information are all easily understood.  The teacher then asks for the information to be shared in precise manners of the teacher's discretion.  I worry that students form the habit of completing assignments in compliance of stated objectives.  Getting an "A" in following the guidelines.  This type of assessment, even if it involves critical thinking, does not allow for complete and full growth.

The other obstacle is time.  It takes a lot of time to plan, revise, and adapt ahead of a due date.  It also takes time for a class and teacher to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of an assessment. Education must adopt a less is more philosophy in order to help students.  Standards are great but can be time dependent.

So in the Tonsoni classroom, we will be reflecting this year.  Each day the students will reflect on the class period about what they learned, accomplished or need to know.  Each student will have a personal blog to reflect on issues.  Individual meetings will be held to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of assessments.  I must conquer the time issue, but here we go!  

Creating in the classroom

I often ponder how to get the most our of my students.  It is a question that is not really easy to answer.  The answer that I keep on coming back to over and over, is "create."  When students can create something their effort and attitudes are much better.  Why is this?

I believe that our younger generation really enjoys making things and sharing with others.  They are growing up in a time of great technology use.  Video creation is a huge part of snapchat.  Picture creation is Instagram.  The technology of the day can be debated as to its usefulness but it has captured the focus of our students.

I often struggle with how to make Social Studies classes more creative.  I have used blogging to help get students' ideas in print.  We have used video creation and video conferencing to build skills and share ideas. I am also interested in learning more about Project based learning .

The conclusion for me lies with the fact, that I must provide more hands on, creation based learning activities.  Looking forward to getting better at this because what my students create has been awesome.  I know it could even get better.

Successful Students

Education in the last fifteen years has used measurement from standardized tests to determine the success of our students.  This does not sit well with me and is not beneficial for the students in my classroom.  Two years ago my wife Amy, an English teacher, and I put together a list of skills that we believe make successful students.  This list is a collection of notes that we, as parents of a college bound freshman son, heard during several orientation sessions we attended.  We heard from professors, deans and placement officers.  As educators, we thought we owed it to our students to develop a similar list for our high school students and then live it by emphasizing and teaching these skills on a regular basis.

Just last week, I was reminded about the importance of teaching in such a fashion by a tweet from Kevin Honeycutt, an author and educational speaker from Kansas.

Kevin Honeycutt  @kevinhoneycutt

As a teacher I never taught a subject...I taught about life, using the skills and wisdom of my subject.

Teaching about life - now that is real learning. That is meaningful and engaging learning. That is learning that will last. Content can be found in one's phone. Content used to improve the lives of our students can only be found in the mind of an innovative teacher.

Here is our list of skills that Amy and I believe help make Delphi graduates successful.

SUCCESSFUL DELPHI GRADUATES

POSSESS THE ABILITY

TO

CRITICALLY THINK

PLAN/ORGANIZE/PRIORITIZE/ADAPT

COLLABORATE

BE GLOBALLY AWARE

EMPATHIZE

COMMUNICATE

ACT WITH INTEGRITY

CREATE

BECOME AN EXPERT IN YOUR FIELD

OBTAIN/POSSESS KNOWLEDGE

 

Be a teacher that will help the lives of students. Be innovative. It's a lot of fun. It's what is best for all students.