Blooms Digital Taxonomy: My Thoughts
0[cross-posted at 09/10 ~ Thinking Forward]
Concept map for Bloom’s digital taxonomy. Developed by Andrew Churches of Kristin School in Albany Auckland, New Zealand. Click image for source.
Hmmm… not too sure I like the title. I’d just call it revised again, or updated, or something along those lines. It is a taxonomy that is updated to reflect current reality. It incorporates all modes of learning, not only the digital. Right?
Actually, on 2nd look I see that it emphasizes the digital in the descriptors as well as the information document this accompanies. Why the division of digital from all other learning? I’ve written about the problem(s) of separating the digital from other literacies before:
em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble or Hesitancy and “digital literacy”
And that writing still rings true to me.
As teachers we do need to teach students how to know, understand, and do. We need to teach them how to organize the increasingly messy amount of information around them, how to think critically, how to collaborate, and how to create based on all of those skills.
I plan on teaching these skills regardless of the tools they use to get there. Mind maps can be made with Dabbleboard, with masking tape and paint, or with a pen on the back of an old envelope. Heck, they can be made with a finger in the dirt. But the concept of organizing thought, either individually or collectively – stands way above the decision process over which tool to do it with. In fact, I have seen groups get so bogged down in the tools (tools that aren’t available but they wish they were, tools that don’t work, tools they don’t know properly, tools from home that aren’t compatible with school tools, etc…) that they lose their purpose altogether.
We can also model these skills. Students know I have a blog where I write about my teaching in order to improve it. They know I use different digital organizing tools. They know I collaborate with educators all over the world. They also see me calling other teachers into the classroom for advice/feedback/opinion/whatever. They see me talking with their parents so we can collectively reach our goals. They see me taking days off for professional development, so I can go meet with other teachers to improve our practice.
While I appreciate the addition of new verbs and conditions for learning in Andrew Churches’ taxonomy, I still think the title and information document puts the em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble. As long as we keep our emphasis on the learning outcomes, the tools we use to get there can be varied.
They do not need to be digital.
How we move forward
I love the image of the fancy dancer, spinning forward, head held back. Photo by Melissa Chasse, click image for source.
I’ve had a few conversations with other teachers over the past 2 weeks or so about how quickly we transition into coming school years, even before the previous one is completely done.
For me, I know the students who I will be teaching next year, for the most part – they went through an interview and careful selection process – and I actually found myself letting go of my grade 11s and focusing more on my incoming groups even as exams were still going on. The exam schedule facilitated it – kids were only at the school during the time allocated for their specific exams – so we went from spending just about all day together to seeing each other for a moment or 2 before and after their exams. I invigilated a few of their exams but it wasn’t the same. The group was quiet, serious, anxious – alter egos of their loud, opinionated, emotional, wonderful selves.
Last year I promised myself that I would honour closure in a more formal way. I’m not sure I really did what I was intending to do when I made that promise last year. The schedule was somewhat confusing at the end of the year and it seemed that all of a sudden the year was done. It was the first year for senior school reform exams and no one quite knew what to do with them – these are exams that last approximately 9 hours and are based in group work, dialogue, some individual writing, video viewings… so the exam period began about 2 weeks earlier than usual. Some of my students made a point to come see me during that period for some one-on-one time, to talk about the future, to say goodbye.
Despite the slipperiness of the end of year, I did manage to create a reflective piece for the final Student in Society exam. They had two choices, to either choose a topic that we covered during the year, describe the major issues, and then talk about how it has personally affected them (topics like substance abuse, suicide, teen pregnancy, date rape, self-esteem, protest, controlling parents). A few chose that one and in reading their papers I was moved in ways that I will never return. One girl wrote her exam in tears, loud sobbing tears. I asked her quietly if she preferred to write in a private room and she shook her head, I want to stay here. I think she needed to be with people.
The other choice was a letter to me about their own development over the school year, with permission to vent about things I did that drove them crazy. Some of those were very touching, some made me laugh out loud over forgotten jokes, some made me realize how much what I do sets the tone for learning – both positively and negatively.
I guess grade 11 is about letting go and allowing them to say goodbye and drift off on their own. It’s what they have been looking forward to for so many years. As one of my students wrote – I feel like my life is on hold. I can’t wait to finish school and get on with it already.
So, while they contemplate their changing futures, I contemplate mine. I know (though I also know these things can change) what I will be teaching next year. We have decided to share our students more and become subject specialists as opposed to core group teachers. With all of the work required when teaching the new reform courses it is suicide to try to do so for 7, 8 different programs. Logically it makes sense, I’m not sure yet how it will play out within the alternative program, not having core groups.
Next year I will be teaching History of Quebec and Canada, which has become a research course more than a fact memorizing course, so I will be focusing on themes in history and historical process. I will also be teaching Ethics and Religious Culture, a controversial course in Quebec. With it’s focus on dialogue and ethical process I am looking forward to it. I will be teaching a brand new course called Contemporary World, which is very much a research course designed to move from teacher presented material to student created material throughout the year. My last course is Visual Arts. I love that I am able to bring art back into my daily practice.
My summer will be filled with research for these courses and I am jived. So much more so than if I had to teach math or science (my apologies to math and science teachers) next year. I’m using my tumblr site to collect the resources I find for next year in one place. It’s called 09/10 ~ Thinking Forward.
Besides that, I will be spending a lot of time working on my new home. There is so much planting to do on 2 acres of land! I also have some art projects brewing and now that I have a room dedicated as my studio I have the space to let them breathe.
What are you doing to transition from this to next year?
Tags: future, teaching, transitions
Alternative Schools
Waiting to see what the new year brings us, like at a starting line, so many factors contribute to success - including being prepared to run the race.
I work in an alternative school. Actually, it’s an alternative program within a large school. We have a closed off area of the building with a separate entrance and run by a slightly different schedule – we don’t hear the bells and are just fine with that!
I am completing my first year here and am excited about continuing next year. What makes this program so exciting for me after 13 years of teaching? I believe it has to do with a few things, the biggest being the heightened sense of entanglement with my students’ learning.
There are an increasing amount of alternative programs across North America. Each one is different. They have to be because one of the purposes of an alternative program is that it is tailored to the needs of the learners within it. Though each school is different, studies show that they have basic elements in common (Boss, 1998; Johnston, Cooch & Pollard 2004; Quinn & Poirier, 2006) :
1. A focus on changing the educational approach, not the student.
2. A belief that all students can learn with high expectations for learning.
3. Teachers and administrators are caring leaders.
4. “Low adult-student ratios in the classroom are considered integral to successful outcomes” (Quinn & Poirier, 2006)
5. Ongoing PD for teachers in the areas of alternative learning environments and factors, as well as communication with students and families
6. Relationships at all levels are key – they are positive, trusting, and caring
7. Students are able to create a solid connection with an adult who believes in their success.
In our program, our class sizes are small. This year our 3 classes ranged from 13 to 18 students. We interview students who are recommended to the program and each and every one talks about the distractions of a large classroom, the need to connect with teachers who explicitly care about their success, the need to learn outside of the box.
Things will change a bit next year. We will have a new head teacher who has never taught in an alternative environment before. We are meeting today to talk about our vision for the program. I’m writing this post to remind me of key factors, what needs to be in order to do the right thing by these kids. They only deserve that – to be done right by.
Boss, S. (1998). Learning from the margins: The lessons of alternative schools.
Johnston, C., Cooch, G., & Pollard, C. (2004). A Rural Alternative School and Its Effectiveness for Preventing Dropouts The Rural Educator 25 (3), 25-29.
Quinn, M. M., & Poirier, J. M. (2006). Study of effective alternative education programs: Final grant report. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research.
Tags: alternative schools, learning, teaching
Challenging Conventional Wisdom, Indeed.
There is a great conversation going on over at the CASTLE book club blog (orange group) about the teaching of facts and skills. I plan on posting this post over there but my login and password are stored on my home computer, I’m correcting procrastinating correcting English papers at work. For now, I will post it here and then cross post it there when I get home waaaaay later tonight.
We are reading Why Don’t Students Like School? by Daniel T. Willingham.
In A Challenge to Conventional Wisdom? posted by Michael Curtin, he questions Willingham’s first two chapters, one focusing on the primary need for teaching facts, and the other on the primacy of essential questions and individualization of the learning process. Michael asks,
…how does he reconcile this insistence on memorization of facts – after all, that’s what it boils down to – with his insistence that students’ curiosity is such an important part of learning. How is a teacher to implement the suggestions from both chapters one and two: they seem contradictory to me.
The conversation that came out of this question is leading me to what, so far, is bothering me in this book. I’ve only read the first two chapters at this point and I don’t know how this will be reconciled later on, if at all.
If I agree with Willingham that “…factual knowledge makes cognitive processes work better…” (p.36) and that we need to increase our students’ background knowledge then I need to make the next step and decide what kind of background knowledge they need to work with when learning a particular concept or idea.
Art Titzel, in a comment to Michael’s post, writes,
As far as teaching new topics I believe there needs to be some pre-loading of factual information before we can expect students to critically think. This pre-loading of information should be meaningful to students and in context with the learning, not just rote memorization.
It is in choosing what information to pre-load where things get sticky. Willingham makes this statement about what facts learners need to know. It makes me cringe.
For reading, students must know whatever information writers assume they know and hence leave out. The necessary knowledge will very depending on what students read, but most observers would agree that a reasonable minimum target would be to read a daily newspaper and to read books written for the intelligent layman on serious topics such as science and politics. Using that criterion, we may still be distressed that much of what writers assume their readers know seems to be touchstones of the culture of dead white males. From the cognitive scientist’s point of view, the only choice in that case is to try to persuade writers and editors at the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and so on to assume different knowledge on the part of their readers. I don’t think anyone would claim that change would be easy to bring about. It really amounts to a change in culture. Unless and until that happens, I advocate teaching that material to our students. The simple fact is that without that knowledge, they cannot read the breadth of material that their more knowedgable schoolmates can, nor with the depth of comprehension. (p.36)
Tell me, HOW are we going to change culture if not by starting with our students?
With that one paragraph, Willingham is supporting:
- the persistence of outdated, patriarchal knowledge as most important
- the persistence of science and politics as the upper echelon of knowledge
- the division of class based on patriarchal ideas such as the primacy of scientific knowledge
I think he is also suggesting that the majority of writers write from this perspective.
He prefaces the paragraph by saying this has nothing to do with value judgments or politics, but merely with what is cognitively best for students. I think I need this explained to me again so I can understand how that is so. Is he really claiming that cognitive science is not influenced by culture?
What do you think about this?
Tags: castlebc, cognitive science, culture, knowedge, politics, willingham
Professional Development Meme 2009
I’ve been tagged by Greg Cruey, who came across this at Clif’s Notes recently.
Directions
Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2009 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.
The Rules
NOTE: You do NOT have to wait to be tagged to participate in this meme.
* Pick 1-3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
* For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/07/09).
* Post the above directions along with your 1-3 goals on your blog.
* Title your post Professional Development Meme 2009 and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/2447.
* Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme09.
* Tag 5-8 others to participate in the meme.
* Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
* Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.
My Goals
- Read the book Why Students Don’t Like School and participate in the book club conversation around it over at Dangerously Irrelevant
- Become more familiar with the new courses I will be teaching come September, including understanding the learning evaluation situations that go along with them
Ethics and Religous Culture, Current World Events, the new History program, and Visual Arts
- Develop a personal website to house my blogs and class pages in one space
My Tags
Tags: pdmeme09, professional development
they were the best of times…
…they were the – you get the idea.
Yesterday I signed all of the paperwork then waited around for 5 hours and got the keys to my new house! I didn’t really wait around as much as drove around – luckily my father decided to take the day off of work to accompany me. We went out for lunch, we drove around the countryside, he bought me a mailbox – the kind with the little red flag to tell me when I have mail (original ‘you’ve got mail’ notification). We checked out the painting that was begun on my house. It’s barn board grey, which will look nice with the red roof.
That evening my car decided to go berserk and this morning I had to tow it to the dealership, making me late for work. A whole bunch of money later and it’s well again.
Today one of my students didn’t show for an important exam. He’s sabotaging himself and I can’t help but feel wounded myself.
Tomorrow we will have our closing ceremonies and our computer that has all of the certificates I need to print and then laminate to hand out during the ceremony decided to stop working. I’m also in charge of the decorating committee so tomorrow will be a long day.
Then I move on Saturday morning.
I’m so thankful for…
- My father, who was by my side throughout my signing extravaganza yesterday
- Helen, who is organizing the amazing gang of people who are going to help me move on Saturday – herself, Ross, Stephane, Tara, Magda, Laura, Liz, Bill, Angus, and Lucinda.
- Both of my parents, who are taking care of my 2 dogs for these few days before the move AND who are going to provide food and drinks for us all once we finish the move.
- The kids – Vanessa, Alyssa, Melissa, and Ashley – who are running with their decorating committee duties
- The towing guy, who hung around at the dealership to give me a lift to work afterwards
- Marie, for keeping an eye on the decorating tasks yesterday while I took the day off to sign
- Walter, who drove me to the dealer at the end of the day today
- Lucinda, who is on her way over to help me finish my packing
- Krissy, who stuck out that history exam to the very end despite being frustrated and unsure of what she knew
Life is good and so much easier because of all of you.
Know your stuff, then…
…do what feels right.
My practice distilled into one sentence, a sweet mélange of head and heart.
Illustration of Hearts and Brains, Pixel & Light Design. Click for source.
This past week it’s been repeating like a mantra behind all of the activity – know your stuff, do what feels right.
Stuff, of course, bears a lot of weight. Stuff can consist of curriculum, management, theory, school culture, student background, and more.
What feels right is where the teacher becomes artist. This year I regained my own trust in the do what feels right category. I spent much of my year looking to others for approval and recognition as it was my first year in this position and I really wanted to a) do a good job (as defined by others, I learned) and b) keep the position. Only in April did I realize this, that I wasn’t doing what felt right enough of the time.
Big lesson I learned this year. From my kids, from my colleagues.
Have I mentioned lately that I wouldn’t change my job for anything?
Know your stuff, do what feels right.
I just happened to find a blog post, written in a much more scholarly manner! on the same topic by Penny Ryder, Unity of the Head and Heart.
Latest Goings On
I’ve got a few things going on lately.
End of year – I’m creating, invigilating, correcting exams on an ongoing basis. And there are still 2 weeks to go! Of course along with that comes student stress. I teach Grade 11. Some of my students won’t graduate this year, some will, some are unsure. The emotional vista in my classroom is panoramic.
Lacrosse – We (not me, the boys at school) made it to the championship game and are silver medal finalists in the GMAA this year! We had a great season – what an accomplishment for a team that did not exist 3 years ago.
Unfortunately our final game was a huge blow out, both in terms of the score and the atmosphere surrounding it. The winning team had a large number of student supporters at the game, which is normally a great thing. It adds spirit and excitement. Not this time. The fans were heckling our players and our coaches. The officials were not experienced enough to really deal with the situation and they basically lost control of the game.
There was an underlying current, steeped in history, of hatred and animosity between the two teams – one French and one predominantly Mohawk.
One of the officials called over some police officers who were patrolling the area to help keep control of the crowd so our players could safely make their way to our bus after the game. Can you believe that even the school’s principal was involved in intimidating and verbally harassing some of our players? It was that out of control.
We have a facebook group to which members of the opposing team posted racist and bigoted comments during the weekend after the game. I was shocked. It’s one thing to call things out in the heat of a game but quite another to post comments a day or two or 3 later. One player even posted one of the most disgusting images I have ever seen. Obviously I have changed the permissions on the group and banned those members. We’ve also made an official letter of protest to the league, to which I am awaiting an answer.
Moving – After 3 unsuccessful offers to purchase homes, I have finally purchased a house! The signing date is next week and I am moving in on the 13th of June. I’m moving out of province so the move will not only give me a new address and phone number but I’ll need to get a new driver’s license and plates for my car. It’s a reconditioned farmhouse, built in 1910, on 2 acres of land. I am very excited and feel slightly overwhelmed with all that needs to be done, not to mention the money that is pouring out of my pockets, over the next little while.
Just to make things a bit more exciting – I took in a new dog 2 weeks ago. An 8-month old pug named Jacob.
Jacob at a Lacrosse game in 28 degree heat.
He is in constant motion, except for when he passes out for 15 minutes or so at a time. He had been abused and you could definitely tell the first 2 days I had him. I brought him to work his first 3 days with me and he spent those days sleeping in the arms of students. I swear they healed him. He and Toby play well together and I barely have a sliver of space to myself on my bed now, not to mention at my computer desk.
Toby got fed up with Jacob sleeping next to me so he muscled his way in between us.
Yup. Life is busy, life is full. Looking forward to summer 
Teacher as Container
I’m groggy because I was woken early and then made the mistake of going back to sleep for the hour or so before my alarm rang at 5:45. My sleeps lately are fitful, at best. Oh the joys of end of year!
We began our first ministry exams this week. This week my role has shifted somewhat, from teacher to invigilator. I’m no longer working with content and structure but with time and stress management. For some of my students, these exams are their last for others they aren’t so sure. The stress is palpable.
A few years ago, when I was working on my Masters project in Human Systems Intervention – a project where I consulted with a small school to help them rediscover their focus – I read an article called Consultant as Container: Assisting Organizational Rebirth in Mandela’s South Africa. This article comes to mind often as I work with high school students, especially given the kind of work that I do. The premise is that when the consultant is able to work with clients in a way that they absorb their feelings of anxiety, despair (*insert emotion here*), they (clients and consultant) are able to address those emotions and work together towards change.
I definitely absorb student emotion. That’s part of my job, especially at exam time. For students who are so stressed that it is presenting in behaviour (from tears to sleeping in to violence) I meet with them individually in a separate room and try to get them to talk it out. I tell them to get it off their chests, leave it in the room. I’m not going to judge, I’m just giving them a chance to share their stress so they don’t need to deal with it all on their own.
I am starting to distinguish between my own anxiety or stress and that of my students – or maybe I am trying to convince myself that I’m not as stressed as I feel in order to keep sane for the next few weeks 
Tags: end of year, stress
Do you add students as facebook friends?
I do.
I know teachers who absolutely refuse to as well. Where do you stand?
At the beginning of the year I tried different online techniques to give out information (homework, resources, etc…) and found more and more that students weren’t using the software or the applications. My facebook status updates usually looked like, “don’t forget to check the class site for homework”. Eventually I just put the homework reminder directly in the status update instead of sending them elsewhere.
I am happy that my students are comfortable enough with me to let me into their facebook worlds. I see their updates, photos, and videos and am able to celebrate or give a hug when needed.
I am the staff rep for our school’s lacrosse team and created a group for them where we talk about our practices and games and share pictures.
In the huddle, right before the winning goal was scored.
I absolutely love when I see status updates like
my house 8:00 to work on project or who is down for math group tomorrow?
I also love when students post links or videos to my wall as suggestions for classroom resources. Even especially when they ask questions about homework they are having trouble with.
At times, it is a convenient way for students to contact me about issues they are having, either with school work or socially.
At the beginning of the year I had my students on a limited profile list of some sort but I soon changed that as I realized that there was nothing that I posted on facebook that I needed to hide from them or anyone else.
So, where do you stand on maintaining a relationship with students outside of the classroom via facebook (or twitter or plurk or anything else)?
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