Another great topic for a forum discussion….Classroom management. As teachers, or facilitators it can certainly be a challenge at times to manage our classrooms. This particularily comes in to play when students are not behaving quite as we imagined. So what do we do?
We discussed everything from what do we do with students who arrive late to class, to those who text during class, to those who take over during group discussions.
Below are a couple of links to classroom management. The first is a video from the 50’s that shows two very different methods of managing a class. The next is a link to an article on how to better create critical thinking skills in young learners to pave that path to critical adult thinkers. In the end…isn’t that really what we want?
The forum on “Visible learning” was another great forum with many vehicles to determine if learning is truly happening for our students.
We began with a discussion on the stressors of learning and how sometimes stress is a good thing. The video below describes how stress could work in our favour.
We then went on to discuss self-reporting or self- grading. An interesting concept that can work for or against you….at least in theory.
Below are a few links that discuss both self-grading and a very powerful video called “The Art of Possibility” by Zander and Zander (2000). The video expresses what cna happen when we get so caught up in grading ourselves. Their book is equally powerful and I have posted the link below and on my resources page.
Ok so have you ever felt so full after eating a big meal that you just need to lay on the couch and veg out? Well, that is how I kind of feel right now. I dont’ want to lay on the couch but my brain feels so full of information that I don’t knwo if anything else can get in there.
How do I keep everything I need and want to know without blowing up? or without forgetting half of it?
My biggest challenge is retaining all this fantastic info I am getting. Anyone have some best practices or tips and tricks?
A couple of great videos on two important concepts.
The first video is on motivation. Dan Pink discusses that old world thinking of what motivates employees doesn’t work anymore – It is intrinsic motivation that is what people need. This video is both humourous and thought provoking.
The second video called “Changing Education Paradigms” discusses our current education system. Is it outdated? And is it producing the creativity and critical thinkers for our future?
Our next forum discussion is about various questioning techniques that instructors can use to get their students critically thinking.
This first link is to a short video on something called “Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce”. A great simple process to ask your class questions and get the enitre group involved. The second video is a questioning technique in action. Both great instructional tools.
Anyone hear of the Wild Hog questioning method? i sure hadn’t until my classmate posted this information below on the forum. Fantastic tool!
Using the WILD HOG Question method requires that the questions be created before the lesson is taught while in the planning stages. To create WILD HOG Questions, while planning the anticipated learning, it takes just a few more minutes to create a list of questions that progress from easy to difficult, moving up Bloom’s Taxonomy. Having the questions already created so you know where you want to go with the lesson and how you want to get there is the real power of effective learning design. Writing the questions in advance for Learning Depth and Higher Order Genius also allows you to create questions targeted for particular students or groups of students (this is nearly impossible to do on the fly while you are trying to inspire learning). Finally, when you take the time to think about exactly what questions you want to ask students, you can anticipate their responses and better control the flow of the learning activities.
The Benefits
Designing WILD HOG Questions before you teach allows you to maximize the number of students engaged by planning purposeful opportunities for students to interact at higher levels. Done right, WILD HOG questions will help students answer questions completely, effectively, problem-solve and discuss deeply learned concepts.
What are some excellent questioning techniques that you use to inspire learning and engage your students?
So how do we learn? is it different for each of us? I certainly think so and yet there are still times when we do mass learning and wonder why half of us haven’t fully understood.
Some of my class mates are discussing this concept and below I have added a few links with some great insights into how we need to understand how we learn.
This link is full of great instructional strategies:
So the forum I was part of as a leader has come to an end. I must admit it was a huge learning curve and a lot of fun exploring links and discussions on the concept of flipping a classroom.
I have now posted a few links to some great info on flipping. You can see them on my original post of flipping from May 14th. just check out old posts and you will find it.
So whether you flip or not or back flip or front flip…i wish you all the success. Truly this was a very good learning experience for me.
The second forum discussion we had was on Learning Styles. We discussed everything from what is a learning style, to specific kinds of learning styles such as visual, auditory, kinestetic and we also debated whether learning styles could be a myth and that perhaps it depends on who and what you are teaching. some really good food for thought and I have posted a few links that I felt were interesting.
The forum discussion on self-directed learning was the first forum discussion I have ever participated in. It was an eye-opener for sure. First learning how to get around all the posts and then taking in all the information. It was a great start to the forum discussions and a very high precedent was set. I am reblogging a summary that one of the forum facilitator’s posted on the subject of self-directed learning. Thanks Rhonda!
•Heutagogy is the study of self-determined learning. It involves the process of learning content, as well as learning how to learn.
•Self-directed learning can be intimidating for incoming students. An instructor may encounter resistance when first introducing self-directed activities.
•Assessing students needs through the use of conversation and questions may help in engaging each student.
•To foster a self-directed learning environment, the instructor should create a safe, positive environment that includes encouragement and quality, timely feedback.
•Informal assessments, such as muddiest point may help gauge student comprehension, interest and engagement of a subject.
•There are four recognized facets to becoming a self-directed learner:
•self-motivation
•self-management
•self-modification
•self-monitoring
•Helping students learn to be organized, prioritize tasks and manage their time may increase confidence, leading to an increase in self-direction.
•Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivators may be directly linked to the self-directedness of students.
•There are varying degrees of self-directedness that are determined by our current circumstances, past experiences, available time and existing knowledge of the topic.
•Keep a few extra learning activities in your back pocket in case a lesson is not going as well as you had hoped. This allows you to be flexible.
julie's pidp journal 