I Teach for Moments Like These

It's risky business giving learners time to let their brains work and make connections. It is not the kind of work to which practice sheets, workbook pages, or clicker quizzes lend themselves. It can be a lot like walking on a suspension bridge -- you've got to keep the big picture in front of you while you keep your balance, keep moving, trust the tools (bridge), and trust yourself and those who may be crossing with you. In the end, as happy/relieved as you may be just to get to the other side, it's the process of getting there, the journey, that can be most rewarding.

During a reading lesson this past week, I asked my students to use their inference skills along with the lesson's focus strategy of questioning, as they reviewed the story entitled "Grandma's Records". I love this Eric Valasquez story most especially because the Latino culture -- the culture of many of my students -- is front and center. I also love the story because Salsa music is something of a main character in the story and I LOVE listening to and dancing Salsa. To intro the lesson I played a Salsa tune and had the class move around the room in time to the music as I gave a synopsis of the story. Following this kinesthetic engagement, I had the class before they sit down to listen to the story for the first time following along in the reading anthology.

After the audio review, students were to write 2-3 questions they had about the story based on what they heard from the listening-station CD, their own reading, and/or their repeat of a picture walk.

As I circulated around the room asking students to share their questions, I stopped at "A's" desk. "A", one of my ESOL students who really struggles with reading and writing, but he is always eager and so appreciative of any positive feedback he receives. "A" explained his first question: "In page 207 is Grandma still live?" I congratulated him on using a detail like the page number to pinpoint the source of his questions. (I recognized, of course, that he was using the graphics and his stronger listening comprehension skills quite heavily in preparing his questions.) I asked him to turn to page 207 and immediately caught his train of thought. The page featured a picture of the main character, Eric, as a grown man. Also, unlike the other pages in the story, there was only a photo of Grandma on a desk- she was not present physically. What was it, I asked him, that made him ask if Grandma was still alive? His reply: "I looked at the picture and Eric is grown up now. I can infer (yes, he used that word) that he's not little like before. So now, if he's older, grandma maybe got older. Is she still alive now?"

Whenever students do a good job of thinking I tell them to "Give that brain a kiss!" I asked "A" to kiss his brain twice!

It's not always easy and decidedly risky 'let go and let learn'. I must still fight the urge to be in control of my students' learning. My mission is to focus on getting the learners in my class to become good thinkers instead of just "right answerers". Slowly, but surely, they are catching on and the delight I see in their eyes as they build their understanding and their confidence as learners, tells me it is worth the risk.

Pedagogical Ponderings

No one is more surprised than I that I’m so into technology. As I reflect on my professional practice and meander through the web and libraries in search of lesson ideas, I’m constantly thinking about what role technology can or should play in the ideas I come upon. One recent inspiration has been the Smart Board Podcast, hosted by Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger out of Canada (www.pdtogo.com). While the interactive white boards (IWBs) in our school are not Smart Boards, the podcast has become something of a muse for me. Far from brand pandering Ben and Joan’s program is informative, humorous, inspirational, thought-provoking and, for me at least, fairly addictive. I download the shows onto my iPod and listen and re-listen frequently. I've also reviewed and adapted some of the lessons featured on each program and made available in PDF form.

This summer as I traveled in West Africa (the ‘West African Summer’ audio-photo journal link is coming soon) I attempted to quell my pdtogo jones and download and listen to the series as they looked back over the year and re-played a set of “best of” shows. One such replay was of episode #100 where the hosts queried, “Is there a Smart Board pedagogy?”

My immediate thought was a resounding “No! Of course not.” That notion, I thought, was akin to asking if there’s a pen and paper pedagogy, or is there a blackboard pedagogy? These are the tools of pedagogy – pdagogy being defined as the principles and practice of teaching - but they are not pedagogy. My reasoning echoes the observations of one of the episode panelists who stated, “Good teaching is good teaching.” I know teachers who mistake the tool for the teaching. Further, I think, it’s possible to discern a teacher’s pedagogy by the way they use (or don’t use) such tools as IWBs. Again, the tools are the servants of the pedagogy.

My pedagogical practice is one that places a premium on research-based strategies that provide high student engagement and interaction. Inquiry, projects, small group, and the coaching and facilitation of independent learning options are approaches foundational to my instruction. My IWB, along with other high and low tech tools enable me to develop and deliver my kind of effective lesson. Given my particular pedagogical bent one of my professional development quests is to identify how to effectively and efficiently use technology to create such learning experiences. With an instructional tool like an IWB the further challenge is to find ways to get the board’s pen into my students’ hands and my students up to the board. Ditto for the CPS “Clickers”, my bank of Macs, the document camera, and my LCD projector. How close can I get my kids to meaningful, direct interaction with these tools? How often should they be used? What’s the right balance of high and low tech? These are among the many questions on which I’m currently reflecting.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog, Treasure Seeker. The name of the blog is inspired by the following quotation from the Baha'i writings:

"Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, reveal its treasures and enable mankind to benefit therefrom."

As a classroom teacher I believe my primary job is to seek out and reveal the treasure that lies within each and every one of my students. This blog is dedicated to capturing the highs and lows of the process of Treasure Seeking through my instructional practice.

I look forward to sharing this experience with you and to hearing your thoughts and comments.