I (thankfully) decided to bring good old Bessie (my laptop) to the session and took some notes. I attended 4 sessions today. The topics were each given about an hour (though we did go over each and every timeslot, and I'm sure we all would have stayed chatting into the wee hours if York would let us - there was enough food to support us for at least a few days). But I digress. The topics I decided to attend were (and I paraphrase): How do we teach the 21st century learner if we don’t know what the jobs of the future will be?, CREATIVITY: IT CAN BE TAUGHT, ENVIRONMENTS FOR LEARNING - CREATING LEARNING HUBS, How do teachers want to be supported in their professional inquiry? All sessions were super motivating and I came away with a ton of resources and thankfully more questions than answers (which is the point, isn't it?)
I was going to highlight a few things and share a few resources that I came across, but then I thought: WAIT! What if I edit down my list and take something out that might have been of value to someone else even though I didn't personally connect with it? So since I'm basically like a courtroom stenographer in terms of the content I write down (my summarizing abilities are not great as you can tell from my verbose posts) I will copy and paste the notes I took below. I've added subheadings for the session so that there is at least some semblance of order. The notes contain thought starters, new ideas, great quotes and some resources all based around the topics discussed. I hope (if you couldn't attend) that there is some value here for you. Please leave a comment if you don't understand something or would like me to explain. I'd love to continue on the stimulating conversations held today!
How do we teach the 21st century learner if we don’t know what the jobs of the future will be?
Global citizen
Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking
Should we stream students based on learning styles?
Should we stream students based on strengths?
Jane McGonigle Gameification
Living on the Future Edge Ian Jukes
Fluency21
Khan Academy Play to Learn
Ted Talks - Science and Motivation
Arvind Gupta: Turning trash into toys for learning
Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation
Explore Learning - Gizmos and Reflex
Microsoft Partners in Learning
CREATIVITY: IT CAN BE TAUGHT!
Not just about being “artsy” - creative problem solving, divergent thinking
Imagination - Thinking It > Creativity - Doing It > Innovation - Sharing It
Richard Florida - Rise of the Creative Class
How do we evaluate creativity?
Creativity in the Classroom: Schools of Curious Delight Alane Jordan Starko
Mindshare Learning
Teach them how to think not what to think
ENVIRONMENTS FOR LEARNING - CREATING LEARNING HUBS
Lobby of school as learning hub - considering principles of design
ASK YOUR AUDIENCE - the students, teachers, parents - what do they want?
Collective Visioning - Linda Stout
Physical spaces matter to learning. Not just a box with a roof (bells and cells)!
art gallery
chalk board
updates
who is it for?
teacher, students
touch screens
continuous programming
bench
TV streaming - what?
culture shift - graffiti wall - where students are ENCOURAGED to have a voice
living wall
buildings built for teaching, not for learning (staff room - closed off, off limits)
schools safe space - while parents are working, and a socializing place.
how do we know that the kids “feel” safe at school
Collective Visioning - Linda Stout - inner city schools building new schools - Lawfield.
How do teachers want to be supported in their professional inquiry?
Steven Hepple
Professionally Speaking magazine
How do teachers want to be supported in their professional inquiry?
Communities of Practice
Dufour
PLCs - Professional Learning Communities (should be a choice not placed together - should collaborate organically)
PLN - Professional Learning Network
Etienne Wenger
Self-directed inquiry
Promising Practice as opposed to best practice
Integrated curriculum
teacher inquiry - teacher as learner, reflective practitioner, how do we formalize this into a question that we are accountable for to move student learning forward?
How do we measure it?
Way beyond test scores.
How do I share it - great for your classroom, if that just stays with you and you don’t share your successes - for others to learn from and adopt/adapt - have you really succeeded?
Its not main stream - sharing, collaborative, team teaching, it takes time to build connections and networks, it assists your practice tenfold, you can share your action research successes, but are you preaching to the converted already?
parent engagement
Getting to Maybe - Francis Wesley
Social Innovation Group - in Waterloo. - complexity
digging deep -
teacher inquiry - not meant to be prescriptive, not a gospel
creating a conditions for inborn teacher inquiry - questioning, reflecting and curiosity is not always inborn in teachers - can we teach this?
If you were to learn one thing and continue to learn one thing all year long what would that be? 80% hadn’t been asked what they wanted to learn. Their jaws dropped and they paid attention the whole time. They were engaged.
Releasing teachers to spread “the gossip of reflection”.
Needs to be Guided reflection for most.
TUNE IN NEXT YEAR FOR EDCAMPTO 2012! I know I will!
