Pause... focus and... SQUIRREL!

Those of you who are tuning in to my ramblings every day will notice that I didn’t post yesterday. Believe it or not, it was a literal interpretation of the proposed topic in the little book of prompts. The topic for the 8^th was ‘Unplug’ and it talked about how we know when to unplug from all the electronics and take a break. I decided to take this to heart, and I unplugged for the evening. I spent the time meditating before going to bed, which proved to be a most wonderful exercise.

Today, the topic is to talk about addiction and the things that distract us from achieving what we want to achieve. I’m particularly guilty of this, because more often than not, my aspirations for doing well are stymied by one of my own flaws. Consequently, this post is about what to do to help yourself avoid distractions and get back on track.

1.            Is it a distraction in the first place?

To answer this question you need to be honest with yourself. Are you browsing the internet looking for something that is pertinent to what you’re doing or are you just wasting time? Do you really need to take an hour’s break or is that excessive? Only you will know the answer to these questions, and you need to be truthful with yourself. Sometimes you really do need to take an evening off and that’s ok as long as you really are going to get stuck in with renewed energy the next day.

2.            Why is your mind wandering?

Have you ever completed a project where the time just seemed to disappear completely? Have you ever been so absorbed in what you were doing that you didn’t notice people around you? I feel confident in thinking that nearly every one of us has and this is a beautiful place to be. I’m also fairly sure we did it without needing to be on some kind of medication. The point I’m making here is that if you are really and truly engaged in what you are doing, your mind won’t wander. This means that if you want to avoid being distracted, you need to work on making what you’re doing meaningful and engaging for yourself. If that’s not possible, perhaps you need to re-evaluate the task’s importance.

3.            What’s bothering you?

Things that upset, worry or concern us are like termites gnawing away at our ability to focus and think clearly. Anxieties and problems tax our already-taxed brains and prevent us from performing optimally. This is where time out can be helpful if it is used as a way to work through whatever is weighing on your mind. However, if you do nothing but dwell on your issues without working on ways to resolve them, then the time out is going to do more harm than good.

Problems, whatever they are, need to be addressed in some way. Ignoring thoughts and emotions is a dangerous strategy, because they always surface again, and often at the most unhelpful times. Addressing a problem does not necessarily mean resolving it, though. It means you take the time to suit your action to the scenario. Worrying about anything is counter-productive, because your worrying about something will have no effect on it whatsoever. Worrying about not being able to pay the rent at the end of the month is not going to make money materialise or your landlord give you a break; worrying if people will like you is not going to do anything to their states of mind. The only person worrying will affect is you, and it will do so negatively. Worrying has got to go and this is a form of resolution.

If anything else is bothering you or upsetting you, you need to go through the steps outlined in the serenity prayer: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the determination to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

To simplify:

• If you cannot change something, let it go. They are draining and wasting your precious energy.
• If you can change something, then do it. What are you waiting for? Make a plan, and get stuck in. Sometimes just getting started is all you need.
• Don’t dwell on matters for too long. You need to take the time to think about whether the issue is worth all the effort in the first place. This is where meditation is extremely helpful.

4.            Keep your eye on the end

Remember that whatever you’re doing is for a purpose. If you believe strongly in that purpose, then you need to keep your mind focused on that. Yes, doing sit ups now might be a pain and they might not be all that fun, but in the end, you’re getting to get fitter and stronger and that’s the whole point isn’t it. Writing reports, doing research and going to talks might seem tedious at times, but if you remember what it is you want to achieve and you focus on how what you’re doing leads to that goal, it becomes a whole lot easier.

5.            Lighten up

Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I look at a map of the world, or I watch a video about the size of the universe. Sometimes our problems seem enormous and insurmountable, but we need always to bear context in mind. You are a single person in one place on an enormous planet that is but a tiny speck in the colossal universe. Somehow, every time I do this, my problems seem a little less massive.

This is advice I give to my students too, and it is advice I try to live by, but I mess up often. Lightening up means not beating yourself up when you get distracted. You’re only human after all. 

Exhale. Relax. Regroup.

Sometimes we all just need to stop. We need to take a moment to look at what we’re doing and pat ourselves on the back for being where we are. Regardless of how things have gone in the last few weeks or terms, we are doing good work. We contribute to developing the potential of those individuals who happen to wander into our teaching spaces and in ways both great and small, we touch lives.

It’s easy to forget all that when you’re drowning in marking, when it feels like the end of the term is a thousand years away and you swear that if you find yourself working after midnight again you are going to have yourself committed somewhere with padded walls. We all mess up. We all have lessons that end with us thinking ‘that was BAD’ and we have all graded tests which have left us thinking ‘I’ve failed, I’ve failed. They know NOTHING!’

Regardless of how much you feel as though you’ve failed, you haven’t. The very fact that you care, that you are upset by what you feel is inadequacy shows that you are very, very far away from being a failure.

Still, I know my words are competing with loud inner critics who know all your weaknesses and know just how to get under your skin and so at times when you feel it’s all too much and you can’t go on with it any longer, I have these four steps for you:

1. Cut the criticism

We all love to criticise ourselves. We set ourselves standards we wish to achieve and when we don’t get it 100%, we’re devastated, frustrated or just plain angry. Remember, your inner critic is often an unfair one. I don’t advocate comparing oneself to others, because I think this brings on personal destruction. What I believe in strongly is that if you can look yourself in the mirror (a worthwhile practice in itself) and say honestly, ‘I did my best,’ then you have won. Your best is all you need to give to be wonderful.

2. Learn from the mistakes

If you’ve not yet watched ‘Meet the Robinsons’ from Disney, do yourself a favour. There is an amazing scene in which the protagonist’s failure is applauded and he gets upset. One of the other characters responds by saying, ‘Failure is good. From failure, we learn. From success, not so much.’ I agree wholeheartedly.

3. Write a pick-me-up to yourself

On a day when you’re feeling fantastic and on top of the world, write yourself a letter. Tell yourself why you love what you’re doing, why you want to keep on doing it and offer yourself words of encouragement. Yes, you will probably cringe when you eventually read it, but you know what, it will lift your mood anyway.

4. Tomorrow is another day

Scarlett O’Hara was right. There will be days when it will all go to pieces. Your students won’t respond, or an idea you thought was amazing will fall flat. The internet will crash, photocopiers will jam and your car won’t start. It’s days like this that make us grateful for the wonderful days. Again, that inner critic of yours will hone in on bad days like a fly to manure and you’ve got to learn when and how to listen to it. Sometimes, it’s best just to whistle as you wave the day goodbye and dust yourself off for another go.

You are doing amazing, wonderful, incredible things—even if it doesn’t always feel like it. And when those times strike, remember you’re not alone. 

Mixtape Monday: October

What makes it into your mixtapes? If this is a concept that’s foreign to you, what I mean is, what’s on your playlist?

In the past, committing something to a mixtape was a process that was done with great consideration and thoughtfulness, because skipping through tracks was problematic and you had to listen to the whole thing as you created the tape. When the CD came along, the process was far easier, but you still had be careful about which tracks you were going to fit into your precious 80 minutes of recording space. Now in the age of the playlist, things are much simpler and you can chop and change as you like, which is great, but it also means we’re not spending as much time deciding on the content, because if we make a bad choice, one simple click and it’s gone.

I’d like to try to amalgamate these concepts into the playlist I’m going to introduce today: each choice is carefully thought through and has been watched from beginning to end before making it onto the list; I’m only going to choose five items for the playlist and I plan to update this list fairly regularly with fresh and interesting stuff.

So, without any further ado:

1. Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms. A slightly simplified version of his amazing and ground-breaking TED Talk, this video talks about what’s wrong with education and why we’ve got to work on changing it. You’ve almost certainly heard this before, but it’s worth a refresher. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

2. Alan Watts: What if Money Didn’t Matter. Again, something that I think has done the rounds fairly extensively, but nevertheless, this is a powerful message to wake up to nonsensical cyclical existence. Speaks for itself really: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd1IkirWmDo

3. David Foster Wallace: This is Water. This talks about shifting perspective towards seeing things that are there, but which we didn’t realise before. I show this to my classes and it stirs up a lot of debate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKYJVV7HuZw

4. 30 Things You No Longer Need Because of Smartphones. Short and to the point, this video shows just how far things have progressed. Where will the next five years take us? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCowytZ0qV4

5. Linchfield Primary School: We Are the Young. If you want a feel good song for the day that’s guaranteed to get buried in your head, this is it. This is what you get when you take the time to let kids shine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xFi0k5BBIM

Please feel free to comment or tweet me with your playlists or recommendations. I love discovering more.

Till tomorrow…

#WorldTeachersDay

Today I’m talking about appreciation.

It’s World Teachers’ Day, which came as a surprise to be honest. I never know when any of these commemorative days are happening and almost always find out after the fact, so I’m quite pleased to have discovered today before it’s over.

The point of any of these days is, I believe, to show appreciation for whatever is being honoured. Instead of launching into a long verbal meander about the merits of teachers and their importance, I’m going to take a different tack.

Herewith are the greatest teachers I’ve had the pleasure of being taught by:

1.         My father. He is a genius with his hands and his ability to see something before it exists astonishes me. The greatest lessons he taught me were that firstly, if I was going to do something, I had better do it properly. The second lesson was that I could do anything I wanted in the whole world, as long as I was the best at it. I’m not claiming to be the best at what I do, but his lesson inspired me to be the best I could be at everything.

2.         My mother. Thanks to my mother, I was not stuffed full of pills and told to sit down and be quiet. She was always my champion when I wasn’t understood at school and she went to great lengths to develop my potential. She has taught me never to give up, never to settle when life says no to my dreams.

3.         My grandmother. She taught me, above everything else, that knowledge is a beautiful thing and that knowing more about our world is a wonderfully rewarding practice in itself.

4.         My Grade 9 English teacher, Mrs Chittenden, who got me interested in Shakespeare, who put up with reading my awful poetry and who would sit and listen to me talk when it felt like no one else in the world would. She taught me to value myself.

5.         My cousin, @clairegunnphoto, who gave up everything to pursue her dreams and who is now living that life. She taught me to follow my heart and she helped open my eyes to the world by sharing perspectives.

6.         My great friend and mentor, Nigel Bakker, who showed me how to be excellent at what I do and who helped shift the way I approach teaching. He continues to be a source of inspiration, guidance and a pillar of strength.

7.         My girlfriend, Jordan, who teaches me directly through the heart. She has an uncanny ability to see through all my nonsense, and to get to the real crux of what’s happening in my head. Her wisdom, patience and unbelievable compassion are an example to me every day.

8.         Finally, life itself continues to be my greatest teacher. With the many different experiences and moments it makes available to me, I am taught more and more and more and I hope the learning never stops. Well, until it has to, if you know what I mean.

I hope today is one of meaningful reflection for all of you. If you’re a teacher, I hope you are congratulated and thought about by those around you and that you take some time to consider the impact you have on others’ lives. Regardless of what you think, you are making an impact, and I hope you are aware of this in order for that impact to be the best one you can make.

If you’re not a teacher, then take some time to reflect on those who have taught you, whoever they may be. You would not be who or where you are today without them.

PS: Does anyone else see the irony in the fact that we can't add an apostrophe to a hashtag, thus making #WorldTeachersDay technically grammatically incorrect? Sorry, but you can't turn English teacher mode off! ;)

A sense of style

Wow, these just seem to get tougher every day. My brief is to talk about style and fashion, but I don’t really think that’s all that pertinent to what I want to write about here. Don’t get me wrong, I love clothes and dressing smartly and all the rest of it, but I don’t think this is the forum for that really.

What I have decided to do in a bid to twist this topic to suit my purposes is talk about the art of presentation. It’s kind of related to style, so the link is not quite as obscure as it might seem to be.

One of the difficulties I face on a fairly regular basis is getting students to take pride in their work. I have had so many semi-crumpled bits of scrawl handed to me that I could wallpaper a room with them. I’ve seen students deliver presentations accompanied by slide shows that could not have taken more than 10 minutes to design and I’ve had term projects that are woefully short and not thought through correctly submitted to me.

When I was a student, and in fact even today, I cannot bring myself to hand in something that does not look good. I wrote about worksheet and assignment design a few days ago, and that same mentality applies: it’s not just a case of putting a picture on the page and choosing a funky font to ‘zhoosh’ (wonderful South African word) it up a bit, it means making sure that the picture helps to draw students in and provide a bit of context. The font needs to be appealing, readable and suited to the purpose. If I use colours, they have to work together, there needs to be a sense of blending. If you look at my pages on the web, you’ll see there is at least some sense of aesthetic going on there. Now I’m not claiming to be an expert designer, but what I mean is that I’ve taken time to decide how things work together to create a final product. It was like this in school too.

However, it seems that the majority of students either couldn’t be bothered to do all this work, or they lack the necessary skills to do so. My suspicion is that it’s more the latter than the former. I was never taken through designing an effective PowerPoint presentation or taught how to make a poster appealing. There was a mark for it on the rubric, but no actual teaching ever happened. And that’s a big problem.

My rant here is not just because I’m dissatisfied with lacklustre work, it’s because of the ramifications this has beyond school. Sure, handing in a mucky essay or poster in Grade 9 is not going to mean the end of the world, but beyond the school walls it is. Writing emails in a professional context and being unable to structure sentences coherently or express oneself properly is going to be an enormous handicap, but students don’t know anything about that world and it’s pointless going on about it. The second any person over the age of 20 says, ‘When you’re out of school…’ they’ve switched off, so don’t waste your breath.

I think the solution to getting this to work is a layered one. Firstly, the idea of taking pride in what one is doing needs to be instilled. This can only happen if students buy in to what they’re doing, which brings me to my next point: perceived value. If students feel that what they’re doing is meaningful and has value, then they are more likely to want to put an effort into it. The next layer is incentive, and this one leaves a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth.

I am highly critical of the culture of ‘marks and grades’ that has developed. Any teacher will, at some point in his or her career hear, ‘Is this for marks?’ If you say it’s not, many students immediately lose interest and if they do anything at all, it will be with minimal effort. There’s no incentive to work, you see. Very few students will want to do something without there being some kind of reward, and the line ‘This is going to help you to understand the work,’ doesn’t quite cut the mustard it seems. This culture has been bred from years and years of being graded on just about everything to the point where the grade becomes a currency. Do well, and the teacher will reward you with stickers, or a free lesson, or special privileges and your parents will respond similarly. Don’t get the marks, and it’s extra work, tutors, extra lessons, being punished etc.

This is why when I say students need incentive, I say so with a sense of wariness and reservation. We need to work on moving away from this mentality. Students need to want to work because they can see the value in doing so. One of the suggestions I have here is upgrading aspects of the curriculum which we cling to because of some sense of inherent value these things have. When was the last time you had to write a formal letter to a newspaper complaining about an article? Even if you did write to a publication, I’m pretty sure you sent an email anyway. What I’m getting at here is you need to take the content and move it forward. Yes, it is important for students to know how to write formally and how to deal with an issue in a way that is respectful, but which communicates one’s opinion clearly, but there are so many ways this can be achieved. Getting them to sit quietly and write a letter complaining about the broken gate to the park is hardly going to inspire creative genius. What about sending each student an email from an upset customer and having them draft the response? You can include all the steps that would be involved in the process too. Suddenly the work seems a bit more relevant.

I don’t know if this is the solution, but it’s a solution. Getting students to see the value in what they are doing is sure to increase the likelihood that they’ll put effort into producing work of an excellent standard. And if we teach them how to go about doing this, I’m sure we’ll all see more engaged and thought-through work.

Once we’ve got the basics done, then we can move on to developing each student’s personal style, and that is something really exciting, because it will be helping them to reach their full potential, and isn’t that what this is all about after all?

The Hon. Mr Kirk takes the floor...

Today my task is a huge one: I have to imagine I’ve been made the ‘Prime Minister of the Net’ and decide how I will run things, and what platform I’d use.

Now that, dear readers, is tricky.

How do I begin to imagine managing something that is so vast, and which continues to become more vast by the second? In one of the presentations I gave on the necessity of integrating technology and teaching, I listed some of the facts about how technology is growing. I’ll spare you all the stats now, except for one: more footage is uploaded to YouTube every month than the three major television networks in the United States have produced in the last sixty years. Sure, most of the footage is of cats or people falling over things, but that’s beside the point. What is important to note here is the quantity of what is available. I don’t know if you’ve ever set yourself the task of trying to ask Google a question it didn’t have an answer for, but if you haven’t, give it a go. I’ve still not managed to think of anything.

However, this is digressing from the main point of this post. To return, I’m going to add another little anecdote about a philosophical question I often ask people who are complaining about something like the national health system or, more relevant to me, the education system. When they complain, I ask, ‘Ok, if you were made minister of X tomorrow, what’s the first thing you do?’ That’s really hard to answer in my opinion. In South Africa, where there are so many things which need addressing, where do you start? What gets to go first?

This is the same sort of maelstrom that starts in my head when I think about managing the internet. I mean, where would I begin?

I suppose the first thing to look at here is the presumption that the internet is something that needs managing in the first place. As it functions currently, it’s very organic. Sure, there are thousands of companies that provide some kind of hosting or publishing service, but there’s no real central approval point on the internet. Anyone can do pretty much anything they want to, and there’s bound to be someone out there in the ether who’s interested in what they’re doing. I think that’s a fantastic thing.

Of course, that means there’s plenty of junk too.

Yesterday I wrote about selecting reading material and how if something doesn’t grab me on the web, I’m unlikely to spend time reading and looking at it. Anyone who has spent time looking for things online knows that one seldom gets what one is looking for on the first go. My standard practice now is to open the first six Google results in separate tabs, read all of them and then create an amalgamated solution in my head. This has become almost unconscious, but I can see how this would be problematic for those who are new to the net, or who do not yet know how to discern good information from bad—a skill that should feature prominently in every curriculum in my opinion. Maybe if there was a central management point, content could be moderated for accuracy or for usability. Then again, try to imagine setting up a team to manage that task. You’d have to have thousands upon thousands of people who are able to research everything from aardvark farming to Zzyzx Road real estate sitting at computers and taking hundreds of thousands of requests every day.

So I think what I’m getting at is that in the event of my being elected to manage the internet, my first act would be to abdicate immediately. There’s no way I could begin to control the uncontrollable beast that is the World Wide Web, and I think that’s the way it’s meant to be really.

What I would change is the way students are taught about this incredible and most powerful resource. The Internet has already changed the way humans live more than I think we realise and this is a trend that is not going to change anytime soon. Despite this fact, very little is being done to help students learn how best to make use of this tool, and I use the word ‘tool’ very deliberately. Using the internet correctly and in a way that makes a meaningful difference to life is one of the most important skills any student should be learning today.

And I don’t just mean knowing how to research or being able to organise their documents on Google Drive properly; I mean we should be teaching students how to make social media work to promote them. It’s one of the most powerful resume tools that exist and yet to most of us it’s just a fun distraction, a way to interact with others. I also think students should learn how to create content that engages and draws others in. Why are they still making posters about an historical event when they could be designing websites or curating online exhibitions and developing interactive eBooks? All this stuff is so accessible and so ready to be made into something amazing, but very few educators actually ever get there.

The reason I teach is to make a positive difference in the lives of others so that they will want to make a positive difference in others’ lives too. I believe that equipping them for the developing world is one of the best things I can do, and that’s what I spend my days working towards. Perhaps I’m misguided, but somehow I don’t think so.

If you agree with me on any of these points, then I hope that if ever a day comes where I might be up to be elected into a position where I can make these kind of changes, that you’ll vote for me. At the rate things are happening today, who knows, that might not be such a crazy thought after all.

Till tomorrow…

Reading Material

And so begins the first day of using the writing prompt book, and the topic for today is ‘Reading material: how do you pick what to read?’ This is one of those instances where I found myself marvelling at the fact that I’d never really considered this before. I didn’t know I have some set of criteria I apply when I’m looking for new things to read, but of course this has to be the case. We need some set of filtration device otherwise we just read everything. In the past this might have been possible, but with the wealth of information out there now, there’s no way any person could read all of it.

So what do I do when I decide what to read?

I must be honest and say that when it comes to fiction, I’m a sucker for a catchy cover. If it looks appealing and draws me to select it from the shelf before something else, then it’s already going the right direction towards getting read. This has changed somewhat with the introduction of eBooks which cannot lure me in with beautifully embossed covers or specially-cut pages, but the graphics and the general aesthetic still play a huge part. That being said, some of the most amazing books I’ve ever read have had completely nondescript covers. ‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley springs to mind immediately. Even ‘The Night Circus’ by Erin Morgenstern has a fairly bland cover, but its contents are anything but bland. I suppose I’m proving the point of the old cliché, but regardless of this fact, a beautiful cover still draws me in. ‘The Collected Works of T.S. Spivet’ by Reif Larson and ‘Cloud Atlas’ by David Mitchell both have gorgeous covers with content to match and I was enthralled immediately.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule and there are a number of novels with amazing designs that just don’t do anything for me at all, because the writing is, as far as I’m concerned, dull and lifeless. And I suppose that’s the real truth of it all: while appearance might lure one in, it’s the actual content that matters most. The design definitely works to get me interested, but to sustain that interest, there needs to be more than glossy and pretty pictures.

It’s much the same when it comes to digital content, I suppose.

When I come across a site or a blog that has been poorly laid out, where I have to dig to find what I’m really looking for or that doesn’t do what it claims to do, then I’m out of there. However, if the designer has taken time to think about how the elements on the page work together, has put more interesting things for me to follow if I’m interested, has avoided the urge of having endless things pop up at me, then I’m more likely to stay for a while and keep looking. Sites like www.edudemic.com and www.fashionbeans.com will have me going back again and again, because they have what I want and they give it to me in a way that makes accessing it a pleasure. Time is precious on the internet and if I have to spend time learning how to navigate a site, it had better not be too long. If I can’t find what I want in a minute or so, cheers. I know I’ll find something better without too much digging around.

I think this same principle applies to assignments and tasks I create for my students. If they are not visually appealing, it makes engaging with them different. Likewise if it takes my students too long to get to the bottom of what needs to happen, they’ve also failed.

It’s important to remember that our students are consumers who are growing up in a culture of mass consumerism. If teachers don’t buy into that mentality by making an effort to make their work stand out and be noticed, then it’s unlikely students are going to be all that interested in engaging with it. However, it’s also important to remember why we’re setting the work in the first place, and if your assignment is just a bunch of pretty pictures, you’re unlikely to keep them engaged and interested for very long.

A final point to note is that if there’s too much, people also tend not to want to read, and I suppose on that note, I had best end today’s thought.

More tomorrow, if you’ve been drawn into reading this, that is!

Prompt response

So, the prompt thing didn’t quite work out.

I clicked all the buttons, entered my email address wherever I was asked to and I waited. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. I’m quite annoyed that the little project on which I had hoped to embark faded into nothingness before it even got off the ground. I’ve since downloaded Wordpress’s very helpful eBook, 365 Writing Prompts which I now plan to use on a more regular basis, so let’s see if this finally gets the ball rolling properly.

However, this gave me an opportunity to reflect on something my students do: they wait for me to tell them what to do. I often get irritated and frustrated by this, because I want them to take initiative. I don’t want to be the dictatorial figure standing at the front of the room barking orders day after day. I want to give them some kind of idea and then let them run with it. I’ve tried this, but it doesn’t seem to work. What usually happens is I end up with a room full of kids looking straight back at me. Some will give it a go, but the majority tend to feel lost and frustrated by the lack of anything concrete to go on.

After much trial and error, I concluded that I needed to strike some kind of balance with how my lessons were structured. Firstly, there needed to be a sense of freedom with whatever I set. Students had to know that they could take control of their learning; they could let their minds wander. Secondly, there needed to be a sense of guidance, reassurance so that students at least know what is expected of them. They need a prompt.

This last detail has always bothered me, but now, having gone through this experience with the blog prompt, I understand how they feel.

I don’t know where to start each time I write one of these. I sit staring at a blank screen and, inevitably, I delete the first twenty attempts at writing something. Nine times out of ten, I abandon the whole idea and the blog goes unwritten.

The other contributing fact to the unposted post is fear of judgement, of failure. I want these posts to mean something to someone somewhere. Yes, I know that’s vague, but I don’t really mind who reads what I write as long as what I have to say adds some value. Perhaps it’s a different way of looking at something, or a brilliant example of precisely how not to do something. Regardless, I write this for a public forum, and that comes with the anvil of potential judgement looming over my head.

What if what I write is stupid? What if people find them boring?

Eventually I get over this fact and I remember that really, I’m doing this for me. It’s helpful to get one’s thoughts down and often while reading through what I’ve written in the past, I’m reminded of details I noticed back then and so it doesn’t really matter who reads this, if indeed anyone does at all.

This experience is very similar to what students go through on a day-to-day basis: first, they don’t know where to start. With such an enormous wealth of information available to them, it’s difficult to point oneself in any direction. If you’ve ever tried to teach yourself something without having some sort of programme mapped out for you, you’ll know this is very tricky to do. Teachers today need to be curators of knowledge. We need to collect, compile and guide students through what we have managed to find and in doing so, we need to teach them to do it for themselves.

The other block which stands in the way of unbridled student engagement is fear of failure. Education has made getting the answer wrong one of the worst things that can possibly happen. I’m guilty of perpetuating this, because I have to set tests where there are correct answers, and where incorrect ones do nothing but show the student what he or she doesn’t know. I have to do this, because of an educational system that needs to standardise, needs to test and filter and assess and report at every given opportunity. I’m sick of it, and my students are too.

What’s the solution? I don’t quite know yet. I’m still waiting for the right prompt, I guess. 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

This month I’m trying something new: prompts. I have a nasty habit of getting involved in products with all sorts of verve and enthusiasm and then allowing them to fizzle out fairly soon afterwards. That’s why I’ve signed up with WordPress.com’s ‘Writing 101’ course which is free and which will give me daily prompts to inspire my writing. Now, being me, I’m going to avoid simply writing about the topic that’s prompted. Instead, I’m going to go with whatever associations my crazy mind makes and then go from there.

The first thing that leapt into my mind when I looked at the prompt was GoPro. You see, today the Learning Commons received two brand new GoPro Hero 3+ video cameras. They truly are things of beauty. I say this not just because they look cool (which they do), or even because of the potential they have for our students to generate some truly amazing material. What really amazes me is the attention to detail and usability of the products. Let me explain.

After having opened the box, it took me very little time to figure out what went where and how to get the device up and running for the first time. Then, following the information in the instruction manual (yes, I read them), it was no trouble at all getting the camera to communicate with my iPhone via the app. Using this, I could see what the camera was seeing, start recording, change the mode of the camera and turn the device off. I need to stress that I managed to get all this right in about 15 minutes or so. 

This is something that is truly beautiful to me. I can still remember how arduous it was having to install anything remotely technical. Getting Office to run for the first time took a day’s worth of loading and unloading stiffy discs into a drive and waiting for the files to copy bit by bit. And then, inevitably, when you got to disc 32 of 36, somewhere a gremlin would strike, the process would be interrupted and you would have to start all over again. That is, if your computer hadn’t found itself being hurtled through the nearest window.

As time progressed, things got slightly better, but they were still a hassle. Setting the timing on the video recorder so that you didn’t miss your favourite show while you were out for the evening was a process that required several Ph.Ds from at least two major universities. Well, that or a dad who knew which knobs to twist. I should also point out that getting the video recorder to ‘talk’ to the TV in the first place was a tricky matter too.

Now, everything is infinitely easier. To get any device to connect to another, one simply takes a single HDMI cable and plugs it into an HDMI port. Done. My computer updates and installs programmes often without my even knowing it’s happened. I can present from my iPad while I walk around the room, and the picture appears on the wall in real time. And I can take a tiny piece of previously unexplored tech out of the box, and have it remotely tethered to my phone within minutes. Take a moment to think about that. Then, take a moment to think about where it will still go.

I have no doubt that in 20 years, my children will laugh as I regale them with stories of being excited about the release of the first smartwatches. They will try to contemplate what life was like when we had to have actual hard discs of plastic to listen to music and, horror of horrors, wait for new albums to arrive in the stores. I believe this kind of progress is beautiful and I am so excited by what it holds for us.

There are many others who will not feel this way. They may view technology as invasive, or obstructing and they may see many of the newly-emerged gadgets as fads. And, you know what, they may be right. However, I prefer to see these developments as opportunities to learn, to develop and to grow. Making things more easily accessible opens the world for so many people, including our students and it broadens their capacities to change the way we live our lives; to make them better.

So, ultimately, what the GoPro represents to me is the beauty that is human ingenuity. It represents our capacity for improving, for innovating and for creativity. I have no doubt that the students will be astonishing me with their creations very shortly. Judging by the hours of footage users have uploaded to YouTube of their amazing experiences that have been captured using these little cameras, there are many great things to come. I am so excited to share those with you when they eventually arrive.

You do what?

When people ask me what it is I do, I often find it difficult to respond. The standard answer, though, has been that I run a collaborative learning centre. The focus of the centre is to promote the acquisition of 21^st Century Skills which will enable students to lead more meaningful lives in the ever-changing world. This generally cues the next standard response, which can be summarised as ‘Huh?’

          So, what exactly does all this mean?

          Firstly, it’s important to remember why the centre has been called ‘The Learning Commons’. In a previous post, I outlined the reasons for its name, but, just in case you’re only joining the conversation now, the short and simple explanation is: Learning – more than simply acquiring knowledge. Real learning means engaging with content, making sense of it and using it to generate new ideas that have value and personal relevance. Commons – after the village commons: a place where all could come together to use the space as they needed. A place for meeting, for interacting or simply a place to settle down to some quiet reading.

         The next term that requires delving into is ‘collaboration’. For most people working in education, this term has typically been translated into group work, and this is not entirely incorrect. Obviously, for collaboration to take place, several people will need to work together and they will need to reach some kind of common goal. This is a good practice for students to become accustomed to, because it is one of the most needed skills for the workplace. People need to know how to work with others, to discuss, to throw ideas around, to argue and to come to an agreed solution. Without this skill, students do not know how to draw the best from a group and how to contribute meaningfully.

        However, what has tended to happen with group work is that the whole group does not get as involved as would be helpful. Typically, group work involves a conversation with one person ‘scribing’ and writing down the group’s decision. This means that those who do not want to speak up are not heard, and they can get away with it, because ‘the group’ only has to submit one assignment. There has been an attempt to remedy this by including group assessment grids with the other assessment stuff, but this generally results in two things: the group members, not wanting to be unkind to their peers, rates everyone highly regardless of their input, and the assessment is not actually used in anything substantial, rendering it completely pointless.

         For the practice of working in teams to be meaningful to all those involved, there needs to be some kind of shift in the way that it is conducted. The skills inherent in working with others are invaluable, so it important that students are exposed to it, but there needs to be a way to make it more engaging. This is where collaboration comes in.

       Collaboration – real collaboration that is – means working together in such a way that each individual’s personal abilities are utilised to the best of the group.

           Let’s use an analogy to make this a bit easier to understand.

         Some of you may be familiar with the programme called ‘Extreme Makeover – Home Edition’. For those who aren’t, the basic premise is that a needy family has their home completely rebuilt by a team of constructors and designers. The reason I’m making this comparison is because it is a team who take on the project. While everyone participates in getting the house completed, each member of the team speaks to someone in the family and assigns him or herself this room as a personal project. The rooms are then customised according to the recipients’ tastes and likings as well as having the designers’ personal flair added to them. When this all comes together, the house is completed and each room has its own personality, depending on the occupant.

            The reason I’m making this analogy is because this is what happens when people collaborate: a central goal is completed by combining the skill sets of the members within the group. Real collaboration involves having each member of the team take on a ‘personal project’, an aspect of the task that speaks to his or her individual skills and interests. This means that each member is given the chance to use their talents to the benefit of the group as a whole. Furthermore, the fact that each person is tasked with a different aspect to complete means they are accountable to their peers, because if they do not complete their part, the group as a whole will lose out.

           This is what it is like in the workplace: individuals are assigned different aspects of a task and they are expected to complete those aspects. There are more careers than I have time to mention here which make use of this approach and if we want to equip children to be ready for the world of work, then we need to ensure that they are well acquainted with the idea of working collaboratively to reach a common goal.

          The next aspect to the answer regarding what it is I do involves talking about 21^st Century Skills. This is a term that gets bandied about fairly cavalierly in educational circles, but it is seldom explained in any real depth. I shall try to give an overview now, but many of the terms are going to need further examination at a later stage.

                In a nutshell, 21^st Century Skills are:

·         Ways of thinking (including problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking)

·         Ways of working (including collaboration and communication)

·         Tools for working (including ICT and Information Literacy)

·         Skills for living in the world (including citizenship, career guidance and personal responsibility)

Together, these skills are meant to equip individuals for meaningful life in the 21^st Century, a time of great change in nearly every sphere of the way society operates, and in so doing, change the face and shape of the world in which we live.

Hello and welcome to the Learning Commons

Welcome to what I hope will be an ever-growing collection of thoughts, discussion starters, musings and vents from my desk in the Bridge House Learning Commons. 

I plan to use this blog as a way of communicating the ideas which underpin the way we run the centre and as a means for opening up discussions about developments in the world of education. I'm not going to make any promises about the frequency of posts, but I hope there will be a steady flow of ideas from now on.

To start with, allow me to introduce the Learning Commons:

This is a general view of the space, but there are a number of areas within it that all need special mention.

The first area is the junior reading area. The emphasis on this space is on encouraging students to engage with the space and with the books. While I am all for promoting technology in education, books still have a firm place in our schools, at least for the time being.

Instead of being sorted by author, books are shelved by letter, which helps learning them easier. The boxes at the top are for picture books and there is a sense of organised chaos here in that they are randomly arranged to make a good rummaging necessary.

During lessons, students find books, then grab a cushion and they are read to or they are given time to read on their own. Usually when this happens they go off into another nook somewhere in the Learning Commons, but I'll get to those in a little bit.

Soon we will have some rugs and a greater variety of cushions available and this will enable students to tailor make their learning environment to a certain extent.



The highlight of this area, though, is the 'reading fort':

This unit has been included to add a touch of interest to the area and to create variety of spaces. In designing the layout and furnishing of the Learning Commons, the emphasis has been on making the space as multi-functional as possible and to make it appealing to as many students as possible.

The next area is the senior library.

The shelves are looking a tad bare at the moment because of the expansion of storage capacity from the previous library, but there's plenty waiting to be accessioned, covered and put onto them, so they should look at lot healthier soon.

All the shelves are mounted on casters to make it possible to move them around when we need to or when we feel like a change in the space. The odd splashes of colour are just to add variety and, at this stage, have no more significance than looking attractive.

The senior section also moves away from the traditional library model in that each section is sorted by genre and then by author. This was done for a number of reasons, but essentially it makes it easier for students to find books to read. It also makes recommending books easier for teachers. Now all you need to know is the student's interest, and you can find him or her something suitable in a relatively short space of time.

Among the books, there are a few reading nooks that have been designed for students who want somewhere cosy to cuddle up and read. Again, this ties in with the idea of having a variety of spaces available for the students to go.

Even though the space is full of more senior works, when the juniors are given the space to go where they please, the nooks are also a popular choice for them. 

The name Learning Commons was chosen because it implies a shared experience - one where all are always welcome to do as they please as long as they are considerate of others. This is in a bid to encourage behaviours that will be advantageous in the world beyond school. 

As I mentioned before, while we are working on staying on the cutting edge of technological advancements in education, the book's role has not been forgotten. Hence, the non-fiction section:

You might have worked out by now that I'm not a huge fan of straight lines, so there are as many curved units in the centre as we could get to work.

This space is right next to the desktop computer stations, so students can access the non-fiction work close to where they are working on projects. The shelves are low to allow students to put heavy books on top and work on them without having to carry them all over the place.

As we move down towards the 'bottom' end of the Learning Commons, the emphasis is more on quiet, active study than on the more raucous social behaviour encouraged in the other sections. This is why the colours are more muted. The forest vinyl mural which extends over the windows is meant to create a sense of calm and tranquility. There are also plans to lift the carpet in this area and replace it with fake grass which should make the space a really interesting one.

This last area consists of a collaborative work area and individual working stations with 'visors' to help mitigate distractions:

These bean-shaped tables can be configured in a number of ways depending on how the students wish to make use of them.

At the moment, we are still waiting for the proper seating to come through, but soon this will be a far more functional space.

Incidentally, students have found that the little nooks under the tables are wonderful hiding spaces and many have taken to spending break times hidden away beneath them.

Hopefully these cubicles will be conducive to productive individual work. There is enough space for two students to work alongside each other if they so desire, but single users will be able to spread their books and notes out nicely.

There is a plan to include/add pinboards or whiteboards above each station to aid the studying process. The area also has its own dedicated wi-fi access point to ensure that all students can connect their devices if they bring them. Each desk unit also has its own power point to ensure that charging won't be a problem.

There is also an outdoor area, but that's going to stay under wraps until the plans and development have finished (probably another year or so). Needless to say, it's going to extend the Learning Commons into an even more versatile teaching and learning space for all to enjoy.

When people ask what the vision behind the centre is, I direct them to this quote which has been adhered to one of the pillars:

I hope this has piqued some interest, and I hope to keep you intrigued in the coming weeks and with the coming posts. It's an exciting journey ahead, that's for sure!