Life-Long-Learners

Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, has stated:

“Back, you know, a few generations ago, people didn’t have a way to share information and express their opinions efficiently to a lot of people. But now they do. Right now, with social networks and other tools on the Internet, all of these 500 million people have a way to say what they’re thinking and have their voice be heard.”

What can we, as teachers, do to encourage such independent thinking in our students? First and foremost, we must provide a classroom environment that encourages students to risk-take and feel comfortable when they make mistakes.

Teacher Feature #48 – Author Unknown – February, 2015

In my mind, two important skills that all students should acquire in any K-12 grade or curricular area are: the ability to problem solve and the the ability to collaborate. In today’s ever-changing job market, these two skills will provide our youth with an opportunity to enter the work-force with assets that will always be in demand.

As a former Mathematics and Computer Science teacher, I was always encouraging my students to problem solve and my classrooms were decorated with puzzles to stimulate the minds of my students. I must admit that when I first began teaching Grade 7 & 8 Mathematics, I tended to think that the way students in my class should solve a particular problem should closely follow the algorithm that I used or was demonstrated in the textbook. Thankfully, when I started teaching Computer Science to Grade 11 & 12 students, I quickly learned that there were many different ways of programming a computer to solve a problem, True, some computer programs might be more efficient because they used fewer lines of code, but I embraced the diversity of my students’ solutions and was quick to demonstrate the variety of solutions. In addition, I found that students in Computer Science seemed to collaborate and help each other de-bug their print-outs looking for the errors in syntax or logic.  For me, teaching Computer Science was a powerful environment for problem solving and a culture to foster collaboration.

With this fresh idea of problem solving fixed in my mind, I want to share with you some unique activities or lessons that I have used with students. I’m sure, as educators, each of us can recall a handful of lessons that were truly inspiring or ones that had a profound impact on both your students and yourself. Like the above powerful quote, I want to share with you some classroom ideas and activities that will cause your students to think and wonder.

So stay tuned, as I share some of my “most unforgettable classroom problem-solving experiences” in my upcoming posts.

Take care & keep smiling

Larger Image: Brian Metcalfe’s Teacher Feature “photostream”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/life-long-learners/sets/72157625102810878/

In last night’s post, I indicated that I have set a personal goal to create and share one “Teacher Feature” each month. Furthermore, I stated that it seemed like this  challenge was more frequently occurring in the latter half of the month as opposed to the first half. In that today is the last day in January, I guess you might say that I best get started. However, my delay (some might call it procrastination) this month has benefits in that I can be inspired by a theme that traditionally takes place starting tomorrow as “I Love to Read” month begins.

Teacher Feature #47 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis – January, 2015

One might ask … “What connection exists between ‘I Love to Read’ and my monthly ‘Teacher Feature’?” If you have followed my blog posts for some rime, you will know that I have difficulty writing in a succinct and direct manner. Back in the 1970’s, I wrote two different theses which shared my ideas regarding computer use and my practical resources to support classroom teachers. During each of these challenges, my advisers kept requesting that I “expand” certain ideas, thoughts, or classroom activities. Little did I know that these repeated suggestions would ultimately shape the way in which I write and share information today. I often laugh and tell people who comment on my wordiness, that “If I can stick a subjunctive clause anywhere in a sentence, I go for it!”

Knowing that I have this penchant for verbosity, I stand in awe of those individuals who can describe an event or share a teaching strategy with an economy of words. Furthermore, like the stories read by adults to young children during “I Love to Read” month, they are often succinct yet they engage young minds during the animated story-telling. Thankfully technology and the related apps are helping me become a much more concise writer. I find that our sons do not want lengthy replies when texting us. In addition, Twitter has forced me into sharing information in 140 characters or less. Furthermore, these limited character tweets are often significantly reduced because my friends and colleagues often embed important hashtags like #edtech, #ipadchat or #mbedchat into the message which further reduces the coveted text “real estate”.

With this background you can understand how I really appreciate a person who can express themselves in a clever, yet concise, manner. I often explore motivating, educational quotes to find relevant, short passages that I can embed into the “Quote of the Day” generator found in the top right corner of my blog’s home page.

When I began searching for motivational quotes, I was impressed with the power and succinct choice of words that I found to be the common element in the sayings that I enjoyed most. About the same time, I first began exploring how to find images on Flickr which were shared with a “Creative Commons” license.

These two ideas of searching for impressive quotes and enhancing the message with a powerful Creative Commons licensed image were the two ingredients that I used to create my popular “Image with a Message” classroom activity. Through this endeavour, students learned to critically search the Internet for quotations of interest, to use the advanced search on Flickr to acquire Creative Commons licensed images which they could modify, and lastly to give appropriate credit to both the author and photographer. Teachers have used this activity with students to create posters for their classroom.

After I created and shared this engaging activity, I thought that I should create some examples and this action expanded into my commitment to create a “Teacher Feature” and share it within a blog post each month.

Should you chose to explore this activity with your students, I can assure you that they will indeed become engaged in the process. Furthermore, other students and teachers will take notice of these “Image with a Message” creations because each individual probably embraces the “I love to read” initiative … particularly if it is concise.

Take care & keep smiling

Larger Image: Brian Metcalfe’s Teacher Feature “photostream”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/life-long-learners/sets/72157625102810878/

As the current year draws to a close, I have been pondering what message I might include in this month’s “Teacher Feature” remix. I must thank Kevin Hodgson, a talented Grade 6 teacher, for inspiring me. Yesterday, Kevin entered the following comment in my previous blog post:

This is the kind of reflective practice that I cherish in DS106 and all of its assorted connected cousins. Thanks.

Teacher Feature #46 – Edith Wharton – December, 2014

Wanting to learn more about this individual, who graciously took the time to read and comment on my blog post, I did some research. I was delighted when I clicked on his hyper-linked name at the top of his comment.  Not only did it take me to his “Kevin’s Meandering Mind” blog, I also found his Dec. 23rd blog entry entitled “Annotating a Connected Song”.

His animated music video “Writing on the Wall” resonated with me because Kevin created this song as a tribute to all those who have influenced him over the past year. Furthermore, I was delighted that he took the time to share the important “behind the scenes” steps that he takes when creating a song. So often in education, we are overwhelmed by a student’s finished product, be it a well-researched blog post or essay, a musical composition, a thought-provoking poem, a complex computer program, a sculpture, or a collaborative video. What we often fail to recognize are the steps and revisions taken to create the final product. Kevin, through this reflective process, demonstrates the “messiness” that is part of the creation of his animated music video tribute.

Kevin caused me to reflect on my sharing, as well. I must admit when I was an Educational Computer Consultant, working with students and staff in K-12 schools, I generated a number of educational resources which I willingly shared with others. It was the day-to-day interaction with educators that provided me with the motivation to produce and share ideas and resources. Now that I am in my seventh year of retirement, I find that I no longer have the daily requests for help and, as such, do not create as many relevant resources to share.

To reflect on the “Teacher Feature” message above, I find that my educational role is becoming less of a candle and more of a mirror. True, I may no longer produce up-to-date, step-by-step resources like I once did, but I still can share the light. I would hope that through my connections with a very dedicated PLN of educators, my serendipitous discovery of new ideas and resources, together with my innovative colleagues in DS106, I can reflect and share their creative ideas with my readers.

With such connections … the educational future looks bright indeed!

Take care & keep smiling

Larger Image: Brian Metcalfe’s Teacher Feature “photostream”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/life-long-learners/sets/72157625102810878/

I first “met” Laura Stockman on the Internet four years ago, when I serendipitously chanced upon her powerful 2007 blog post entitled “25 Days to Make a Difference”. With the help of her mother, who was a teacher, 10 year old  Laura posted a challenge. To honour her grandfather who had recently passed away from cancer, Laura decided she would save her December allowance, of one dollar a day, and donate it to a charity on Christmas.

Teacher Feature #45 – November, 2014 – Vance Havner

Laura used the power of social networking to challenge readers “to TRY to do something every single day during the holiday season to make a SMALL difference in his or her world.” Whoever made the most difference in December, could select the charity to which Laura would donate her $25.00 on Christmas night. Laura was surprised with the response and the number of readers who matched her donations during the Christmas season.

Laura’s initial challenge really resonated with me and so I wrote a blog post entitled “How to Make a Difference in December”. My colleague, Chris Harbeck,immediately adapted Laura’s idea and engaged his middle school students to donate 25 cents per day and issued a challenge to other teachers and students in his blog post entitled “Would your students donate $0.25 cents per day?” A few days later, Karl Fisch, a high school teacher in Colorado, read Chris’ post and challenged his students and staff with the post “A Quarter is More Than Just a Fraction”. In addition, Karl introduced us to Kiva.org, which in a non-profit organization that helps facilitate the lending of $25 micro-loans to alleviate poverty throughout the world.

I strongly believe in the metaphor that our actions are like a pebble tossed into a quiet pool of water. We have no idea how the ripples that we create will benefit others. Laura’s initial challenge, together with the power of connectivity through the Internet, demonstrate how one person can influence many.

In fact, it was through social networking that I learned of Laura’s new vision. After my most recent post, Laura sent me a thank you “tweet” in which she introduced me to her most recent endeavour shared through her blog entitled “25 x 25 Days to Make a Difference”. Laura wants to recreate her ripple effect by helping “twenty five local kids as they venture out to do good deeds this holiday season”. However, all students who participate in doing a good deed each day in December can qualify to recommend the charity to which Laura should donate her $100.00 on Christmas day.

Those students wishing to participate in Laura’s new “good deed a day in December” challenge are requested to share their good deed via either a picture on Instagram or Twitter or a blog post. Obviously the more good deeds that are documented and shared with Laura, the more chance you have of being able to recommend the Christmas charity recipient.

In closing, it is obvious that Laura Stockman has followed up her vision with a worthy venture. I encourage teachers and students to join in her Christmas activity and we’ll all step up the stairs together.

Take care & keep smiling

Larger Image: Brian Metcalfe’s Teacher Feature “photostream”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/life-long-learners/

It’s the last day of the month and I am scrambling to write this month’s “Teacher Feature” blog post. I was motivated to write this message by the antics of some of our neighbourhood children who, dressed as superheroes, visited our home tonight shouting “Hallowee’en Apples!” or “Trick or Treat!”. Many of these children were elementary school age and it got me thinking about my teaching colleagues, who are indeed real superheroes.

Teacher Feature #44 – Author Unknown – October, 2014

When I began teaching in 1967, I was able to spend almost all of my school day focusing on the curriculum and helping the students in my classrooms. Today, however, there seems to be an ever-expanding plethora of demands on teachers’ time. Often more than half of the weekly hours that the average teacher devotes to school-related activities are non-classroom duties. Often it is spent preparing for classes, marking, working with individual students, supervising extra-curricular activities, attending meetings, committee work, completing paperwork, and contacting parents. In addition, today’s teacher is expected to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, partake in professional development, and learn to use technology and social media to improve the educational experience for all members of their class.

Furthermore, when I began teaching I believe that I had the support of all my parents. Should a student misbehave in the classroom, I knew that his/her parents would back me up and that the individual student would be reprimanded by his parents as well. Toady, I’m not sure that all parents respect and support teachers to the same degree as they have in past.

Donald D. Quinn expresses the challenges of teaching today with the following comparison:

“If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn’t want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher’s job.”

I am proud to state that I have met so many dedicated teachers over my 40 year teaching career who were indeed superheroes because they strongly believed in the words of Barbara Colorose:

“If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our job more important.” 

In closing, I leave my colleagues and educational readers with these wonderful, wise words: “To the world you may be just a teacher, but to your students you are a hero.”

Take care & keep smiling

Larger Image: Brian Metcalfe’s Teacher Feature “photostream”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/life-long-learners/

In education, like most professions, there are good days and bad days. Having worked closely with educators for more than forty years, I have observed the following … Although we may have a series of good days or inspiring situations, with all the associated positive feedback, we tend to focus on the single, bad, or negative incident.

On the occasion when we had experienced a unsettling day or action, a former colleague would often ask me … “In five years time, will this issue really matter or make a difference?” This simple question helped me put such concerns into perspective. To help us avoid perseverating on the few negative incidents that we may encounter in our educational careers, we need to focus on, and celebrate, the positive opportunities. More importantly, we need to share such positive energy with our colleagues to motivate them as well.

Perhaps Ritu Ghatourey expressed it best, when she said, “A negative thinker sees a difficulty in every opportunity. A positive thinker sees an opportunity in every difficulty.”

A Teachable Moment
Often, I am intrigued by the ingenuity of other bloggers and wonder how certain elements on their web displays were created. Some readers may wonder how the above animated GIF was created. In that I plan to use this same animated process in my next blog post, I thought that it might be wise to share how such an effect was created. Those who are interested in the above animation style, can create a similar one by following these steps.

1. Locate a suitable image which one imports into PowerPoint. In the above case, I chose an old PowerPoint template, which I remembered displayed a filmstrip or series of negatives.
2. I entered the “Life is like photography … ” quotation into the “Title” text box and positioned this frame appropriately.
3. Next, I copied this original slide and repeatedly pasted it into the PowerPoint slide tray to create a total of eight slides.
4. I right-clicked on the first slide and chose the “Format Background” option. I did not change the “Picture or Text Fill” option but explored the changes made to the slide by moving the “Transparency” slider. When I moved it from 0% to 100%, the filmstrip graphics disappeared leaving only the important quotation. Since I wanted my animated GIF message and image to “slowly develop”, I thought that if I altered the “Transparency” level on this, as well as each subsequent slide, the message would slowly appear or “develop”. I closed this first slide, with the “Transparency” level set to 100%.
5. Using the above process, I next selected each of the subsequent 2nd through 7th slides and set each “Transparency level” to the respective values of 90%, 80%, 60%, 40%, 20% and 0%. The seventh slide, with it’s 0% “Transparency” level, appears with all the “developed” colours and quotation as intended.
6. I right-clicked on the eighth slide and chose the “Format Background” option. Next, I selected a “Solid Fill” with a black background which I applied to only this last slide. I thought that by removing all film elements and the quotation, the plain black background slide would be an important “fade to black” process to end the animated cycle.
7. To complete this task, I saved this PowerPoint slide set.
8. To create an animated GIF, one must collect a series of similar slides, with slight changes, which can be cycled through rather quickly. To save these individual PowerPoint slides, I chose the “File>Save As” option and selected “JPG File Interchange Format (*JPG)”. When prompted “Do you want to export every slide in the presentation or only the current slide?”, I selected the “Every Slide” button.
9. On my computer, each of these eight PowerPoint slides had dimensions of 960 x 720 pixels. Unfortunately, my blog can only accommodate images that are less than 450 pixels wide. To reduce each of the eight slides to their corresponding 400 x 300 pixel format, I chose to use the “Batch Conversion” process of “Irfanview“, a very powerful, but free, Windows application.
10. Using an old Windows freeware application called Ulead’s GIF Animator Lite, I was able to import these eight 400 x 300 pixel images into this application and vary the display speeds of each image.
11. Once I felt that the individual images and timing were appropriately set, I was able to save the results as an animated GIF.
12. The last step was to import this GIF image into my WordPress blog, so that when viewed in a browser, the eight images would rapidly display providing, the above, animated look.

Take care & keep smiling

With students and teachers starting back to school in two days, I searched for a powerful quotation that I felt might motivate teachers. I was very pleased when I found the following William Arthur Ward’s description of the different qualities of teachers. Next I used Flickr’s Advanced Search to find Creative Commons licensed pictures of students and a teacher that I could  “modify, adapt, or build upon”.

Imagine my delight when I found a picture of Kathy Cassidy, a dedicated Grade 1 teacher from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Not only does Kathy inspire her primary students, she “invites the world into her classroom” through the use of a classroom blog and other social media.

Teacher Feature #42 – William Arthur Ward – August 2014

As I began creating the above “Teacher Feature” poster, I started to revise my initial thoughts. I must admit that when I first positioned the above quotation beside the picture of Kathy and her student, I was thinking about how we, as teachers, can tell, explain, demonstrate, and inspire … students. However, when I started searching for links to Kathy’s personal and classroom blogs, her Flickr photostream, her personal and classroom Twitter streams and her “Technology in the Classroom” and K12 Online Conference contributions, I realized that not only does Kathy inspire students, she also inspires other teachers.

As the new school year gets underway, perhaps each one of us should think about how we might, not only inspire our students, but how we might also inspire other educators. I believe that by sharing, and connecting with others, the potential to inspire exists.

Have an exciting and fulfilling school year!

Take care & keep smiling

Larger Image: Brian Metcalfe’s Teacher Feature “photostream”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/life-long-learners/

I first began teaching Mathematics to Grade 7 & 8 students more than 45 years ago. I must admit that I was convinced that all the learning on which my students focused, would be found in the Mathematics textbook that each student was issued  at the start of the school year. Somewhat naively, I thought that the vast majority of the students’ learning would come to a grinding halt over the summer months as the books were forgotten and holidays started.

Today, upon reflection, I realize just how much students learn outside the conventional classroom and just how many opportunities there are to learn over the summer months.

 
Teacher Feature #41 – Unknown – July, 2014

I am convinced that as adults, we should take more time to explore those magical “teachable moments” with the children in our charge. Whether it be … how to catch and fillet a fish, how to throw a football, or how to ride a two-wheeler, these are rare opportunities to teach interesting skills that may be retained long after the student has forgotten, for example, how to solve a quadratic equation.

Learning to downhill ski was important within our family. Although our two boys enjoyed competitive downhill racing in Manitoba, they eagerly looked forward to their school Spring Break holiday in March. This was when our family drove out West to ski in the mountains in Fernie, British Columbia. Our boys often wondered why other Manitoba ski families seemed to always arrive in Fernie before us, although we often left Manitoba on the same day. In that my wife was also a teacher, we often spent time “learning along the way”. Other families might travel in the most direct route between point A and B but we always took side trips to explore other interests. Whether it was exploring the life of the North-West Mounted Police at Fort McLeod, discovering the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, or investigating Canada’s deadliest rock slide at the Frank Slide, our family took advantage of these holiday opportunities to learn more about the history and related stories that may not necessarily have been found in the textbooks that our sons were studying in their respective classrooms.

I think back on these amazing opportunities that our family shared and I know our sons are richer for these additional learning experiences.

Perhaps Jiddu Krishnamurti captured the essence of this “Teacher Feature” when he said:

There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.

Take care & keep smiling

Larger Image: Brian Metcalfe’s Teacher Feature “photostream”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/life-long-learners/

For many schools in Canada, the school year ends this week. Both students and teachers are eagerly looking forward to holidays. However, before closing the books for good, I suggest an important exercise to engage both staff and students is to reflect on the past school year. What classroom activities worked best? Which projects really engaged students? Were there other ways that concepts might be introduced which would improve learning?

Teacher Feature #40 – Peter Drucker – June, 2014

Many educators, at the end of the term or the year, ask their students to provide feedback through either a paper and pencil exercise or through an on-line survey. Some teachers find it beneficial to ask students, at the year end, to write a note to the next year’s students suggesting how best to succeed in this particular grade or class. Such peer-to-peer proposals can be very effective when these tips and strategies are shared with your new class of students in September.

Several year-end feedback activities are provided below:

• 20 End of the Year Reflection Questions for Students
• 20 End of the Year Reflection Questions for Teachers
• So, how did I do? Getting feedback from students in end-of-year evaluations
• Student surveys on Pinterest
• QUICK End of Year Student to Teacher Feedback using SurveyMonkey
• Karl Fisch’s feedback from his senior high Alegebra class
• End of the School Year Checklist for Principals

Before concluding, I think that I should take a moment and reflect on my own past year. As a life-long-learner, I am so pleased that I have had the following opportunities:

• To reflect on my own 60 years in the classroom as student, teacher and K-12 Educational Technology Consultant. My thoughts were shared in the December 18, 2013 post entitled “Educating With Technology: Changes for the Better”.
• To attend the Manitoba Association for Computing Educators (ManACE) “Technology Information Nights” where I learn so much and get to meet such dynamic, and dedicated educators who are so willing to share.
• To continue to be a member of the Manitoba Association of Educational Leaders (MAETL). With representation from nearly every school division in the province, the members of this organization continue to share technology implementation strategies as well as best practices to implement ICT throughout the K-12 continuum.
• To attend the “Riding the Wave of Change” Conference in Gimli and my face-to-face meeting with Alan Levine (aka “CogDog”) who was my Digital Storytelling DS106 mentor.
• To experience the innovative professional development that took place at EdCampWinnipeg
• To learn and share through the powerful Wednesday night educational Twitter chats known as #mbedchat
• To network and share ideas and resources with so many educational professionals. You know who you are … and for your friendship, I am ever thankful.

I think Henry Ford said it best …

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

Take care & keep smiling

Larger Image: Brian Metcalfe’s Teacher Feature “photostream”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/life-long-learners/

I admit it … I procrastinate. Even this month’s “Teacher Feature” is being posted, as evidenced by the above date, on the last day of the current month.  As a teacher and Educational Technology Consultant I found that the classroom structure and my commitments kept me focused on making deadlines. However, now that I am retired, I find it more challenging to regularly write and share ideas in a timely manner.

When I serendipitously came across Karen Lamb’s powerful quote below, I knew I had to share it with readers as it has particular relevance for both students and teachers.

Teacher Feature #39 – Karen Lamb – May, 2014

As the school year draws to a close, many students will be faced with completing major projects or even writing final exams. As a procrastinator, I often played “visualization games” with myself, whenever I prepared for exams or when I had to finish a major project or assignment. I would try to visualize what needed to be done to achieve my goal. For example, if it was June 1st and I had an exam or major assignment due on June 10th, I would pretend that today was actually the day before I wrote the exam or my project/assignment was due. In other words, I now had only 24 hours to prepare. I then would ask myself what were the critical tasks that needed to be done. In addition, I considered that, if I had more time, where should I have focused my energies? This strategy always helped me determine what was critical and what additional tasks would improve my final evaluation. It was then that I could imagine how lucky I was, to not have only 24 hours to prepare but several days to implement my necessary tasks. Regardless the key to such success was starting immediately.

When I was teaching a class of students, I was lucky that I could focus on the curriculum. However, today’s teacher has so many other responsibilities beyond the curriculum. Not only are they using technology to effectively engage their students, they are often so busy with many additional tasks which I will simply categorize as “administrivia”. It’s no wonder many teachers today lack the heart to try new initiatives or to attempt to learn with their students to use technology in new engaging ways.

However, I want educators to examine Karen Lamb’s statement and ask yourself …  Is there one additional change that I might implement which will improve my teaching or engage my students better next year? For example, I recently asked Zoe Bettess (@zbettess) at the “Riding the Wave of Change” Conference, what one technological innovation did she think had the most impact on her elementary students. Zoe felt that creating a classroom blog, using the free Kidblog, application, provided her students with a very powerful new learning tool.

So, as the current school year draws to a close, I ask my educational readers to reflect. I believe that reflection is a very important process that educators need to go through each year. Although there is only one month of classes left for most students in Manitoba, I encourage you to reflect on ways this year might have been made better. It’s unlikely that with only one month left, you will be able to make significant changes or improvements. However, I want you to play your own “visualization game”. Pretend it is June, 2015 and you have had an exceptional year where you and your students have learned together in a wonderful, supportive “family atmosphere”. What changes did you make during the 2014-15 school year that fostered such improvements? Were there any other changes or strategies that you could have employed to improve the learning even further?

The good news is that rather than having only one month to make these changes to improve learning in your classroom, you indeed have an entire school year.

The key is to start thinking about it today so that “a year from now”, it will be reality.

Take care & keep smiling

Larger Image: Brian Metcalfe’s Teacher Feature “photostream”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/life-long-learners/