Year 12’s First Impressions of Twitter.
Mobile post sent by jessmcculloch using Utterli. Replies. mp3
Me – Everyday! The Twitter 365 Project
Thanks to an invite from Lauren O’Grady, I have just joined the Twitter 365 Project. The challenge is to take a photo of yourself each day of this year and post it to the group. It will be interesting to see they changes in ourselves and changes in locations if there are any. I will try also to write maybe one or two lines of what I was thinking about when I took the photo or something like that. Nothing too involved or I’ll never get around to it!
Click here to find the project and consider sharing a pic of yourself everyday for the next 365!
This would be a great project for a class. They could make their own group on Flickr and take a photo of themselves and a thought about one thing they learned about a particular subject that day. It could be a great digital portfolio of sorts. Students could be encouraged to take a photo with an expression on their face that communicated how they were feeling that day or holding up a word written on a piece of paper that was important to their learning that day. Many possibilities. Got any other ideas?
Best Practice – Really?
What is Best Practice? Is there really such a thing? Is best practice for me the same as best practice for you? Is Best Practice just a phrase used to help publishers sell books?
One of the unconference sessions I went to at the Learning 2.008 conference in Shanghai was a discussion on Best Practice and if there really is such a thing. I don’t have all the answers of course, just plenty more questions!
For me, best practice (if one needs to use that term) would be something that takes my teaching and my students learning further. Something that pushes boundaries because for me, that is one of the best things you can do in a classroom. Much of the description that came out of this session about what ‘best practice’ actually is to me sounded like common sense teaching. Saying that of course, then just begs the question as to what common sense teaching actually is. So, I’m not sure if I should use that phrase. What do you think? It’s not a simple conversation to have!
‘Best practice’ is not going to look the same for everyone, as we all have different classrooms and kids, different ideas and different curriculum. Best practice then has to be the thing that is then best for those particular students in that particular context. How then can you write book saying what it is?
There is value, however, in learning for others who have done the trials and found methods that work successfully all or most of the time. Is this not best practice?
One thing we have to be careful of is getting all caught up in labeling things and saying that one thing or way is better than another. It is so easy for everyone to make judgments of others and say that things aren’t up to standard, or best practice. In order to be able to implement a form of best practice effectively, you have to have a good relationship with your students and be able to engage them or the rest is a waste of time.
Have I missed the point? What is best practice for you?
My tweets from the session – please read from the bottom up!
best practice as something that engenders the values and competenciesthat are valued by society (great comment from participant to end on!)01:30 PM September 20, 2008
students beyond what we are doing – something innovative – thoughts?01:29 PM September 20, 2008
it has to be very fluid or it very quickly becomes outdated01:22 PM September 20, 2008from twhirl
@nzchrissy yes it has to be. if you don’t know your kids, how can you engage them properly in order to use ‘best practice?’
@israelgreg yes, I think so. does it really matter as long as it is making positive differences for our kids?
best practice definitions up to the teacher – thoughts?01:11 PM September 20, 2008
@mdeborde way too many variables, which is why I don’t think there really could a be one ‘best practice’
best practice is whatever engages the student – thoughts?
best practice being about what is best for the child in the particular context
if you are going to call something ‘best practice’ then I would want it to go beyond common sense teaching
if there has to be best practice, then for me it is what is going to
take my classroom and my students forward with new skills, experiences
is there really such a thing as best practice?
what is best practice?12:49 PM September 20, 2008
Flickr image: contactjuggling
Just Chat To Us
At the Learning 2.00 Conference a couple of weeks ago, one of the best sessions I went to was one that Jabiz (@intrepidteacher) set up with some of the kids who were helping out as part of the ‘Geek Squad.’ Of course the conference was about education and what is best for our kids, so Jabiz thought we should ask some of the kids themselves.
Here are some notes on what we asked them and what they answered:
When asked if they would or do put more effort into blog posts because they have a global audience they said they would and that blogging is a way of communicating to everyone.
There was a great conversation about exams and their relevance. The kids were saying that they wanted an overall grade about how they progressed – not final exams. They didn’t feel that this showed what they could really do.
“There has to be a point in me learning it
When am I going to need this in life?”
We asked how do you know that the information you find on the internet is correct? – well, that’s where teachers will come in. Teachers having blogs will help a lot. The kids were saying that they need to know how to search and need to know the real life applications. These students were saying how they make sure they comparing resources – as it is much easier to get more information from several resources
Some advice from the kids on how to encourage kids to engage with technology outside of class -
Film making and blogging are good places to start.
How would you like to be assessed? –
This was my favourite part of the conversation. Being as into technology as we are, all us teachers were expecting something like ‘get us to make movies’ or ‘get us to blog’ or anything like that. But no, the kids came up with the most simple answer that really does make a lot of sense:
“Just have a chat to us.”
We said “Oh you mean like IM?”
“No, just face to face. Just have a chat to us to see what we know.”
Who’ve thought?! They just want us to talk to them!
Having real conversations as assessment tasks – how on earth do you assess this?! Jabiz had a great idea – record a converation with the students, then get them to edit the conversation and hand in an ‘audio essay’ for their final record of learning and assessment for a unit. Great idea!
I really appreciated having a chat to these kids. They had a lot to tell us – not that there weren’t things we didn’t already know about what many kids thought, but it was great to be reminded of those perspectives in the middle of a conference about education. After all, the kids are what we are all about.
The tweets I was sending out during this session (in reverse chronological order!):
kids: in class if there is something you want to hear – you will listen
kids: class need to be relaxed – silence invites talking!
kids: class need to be relaxed – silence invites talking!
kids: exams not real – you write your answers then it’s given to someone who doesn’t know you
kids emphasising the point that there has to be a point to what they are learning! imagine that!
assesing kids via f2f conversation or with IM
kids saying that real conversation would be great assessment task
@israelgreg if something is not effective then is it really innovative?
damn – typing too quickly! interactiVe 
kids: the biggest thing you can do is make it interactice
kids: do something that is interactive – anyone got any questions for 3 international kids about techn in classrooms?
kids: most boring lessons are when you are told to read pages and do questions – make it interactice
kids: sending private messages through games – something that accessible at home
kids: making class more interactive with games please!
this session is asking kids about what really does engage them…
question to 3 kids about how overwhelmed they feel – talk about homework timetables
PLN to the Rescue on Behaviour Management
I put out this call to my Twitter network after a frustrating class this afternoon:
jessmcculloch would really appreciate some tactics for dealing with high level attention seeker, very disruptive, very low skills, hates everthing grade 5
and got these really helpful responses that I really really appreciate:
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Steve_Collis @jessmcculloch I love that you’ve had to put complex situation into 140 characters & now we’re gamely replying with such necessarily brevity |
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Steve_Collis @jessmcculloch I *overwhelm* attention-seekers with crazy amounts of attention, from me & from the class (put them in charge of much stuff). |
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helenotway @jessmcculloch Have you seen the welfare publication – Calmer Classrooms? http://www.ocsc.vic.gov.au/… You can order free. |
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efreeman  @jessmcculloch Is the attention seeking a strategy to avoid work because of low ability? Have you used ICTs to engage? (probably but…) |
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efreeman @jessmcculloch Def get to know interests and use those to engage them. How do they handle positive praise? |
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helenotway @jessmcculloch 1:1 works well with me. Usually yard duty or before school allows me to build relationships with these kids… |
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mrpbps @jessmcculloch If you can engage on his interests then you can move to others you can also withdraw that engagement when things go awray |
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mrpbps @jessmcculloch agree with Tom especially with praise Also try to identify his likes and engage with him around them eg sport TV |
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tombarrett @jessmcculloch Re: tactics – keeping praising those positive behaviours around that child and draw attention to those when you talk 1 to 1 |
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tombarrett @jessmcculloch Re: tactics – take a really tough approach, make your expectations crystal clear, engage with responsibility where possible |
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shazzandrob @jessmcculloch wait for the perfect opportunity to look him/her in the eye and come up with extremely clever put down, make sure its audible |
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billgx @jessmcculloch A page about how to turn your words into gold: http://www.loveandlogic.com… is a good place to start. |
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billgx @jessmcculloch Check the teacher resources at this site: http://www.loveandlogic.com/ I’m a firm believer in L&L techniques. |
Online personal learning networks are incredibly powerful. All this advice, expertise and willingness to share at my fingertips!
My personal learning network is made up of Twitter, Skype, various ning networks, my blog, commenting on other blogs and participating in conversations in all of these places. There are so many people out there to learn from. Thank you all of you.
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