For the last 3 days, I’ve been in Den Haag, Holland with 16 students and 2 other teachers for THIMUN. The students have worked since September on their resolutions, parliamentary procedure, and researching the nation of Chad. It’s a great experience for these students who learn a lot about other nations, world affairs, politics, and most importanly, they meet other people in the world with similar passions.
The whole process is a great example of 21st Century learning, but every student doesn’t have this ability. Teachers could, and should, simulate this though in their classrooms, similar to a We The People excersice, but I think this could be done with any class:
A US History class could use the WTP model and research 6 or so major themes of US History and then orally write and argue to a panel of teachers about current events or trends based on historical precedent.
World History classes could use the THIMUN model, but argue from the 1500s perspectcive, similar to the Congress of Vienna.
The key from listening to students is that they like the competition. This may seem obvious, but when I was listening to a group of kids who lost their We The People competition, that was the thing they still appreciated about the hard work.
At THIMUN, the kids see this as a competition even though no awards are given out. Granted, these are inherently motivated kids, but they are away from school, home, and most of their teachers, yet are fighting for each small point of order and get mad when other students don’t seem to be taking it as seriously.
There are many sites on the web to help people “do it themselves,” like eHow, Lifehacker, and Instructables are very popular. Search through these sites a little bit and you can probably figure out how to land on the moon after a weekend project and some duct tape. Better yet, sites like eHow can earn you money if you’re good at writing “how-to’s.”
So I got to thinking, how about using a DIY model for history. Students can create a “How to Win a War Like George Washington” and go step by step to how he was able to defeat the vastly superior British army. Students could do, “How to Win Equal Rights,” and go step by step on Martin Luther King’s method of civil disobedience.
The list could be endless, but you may want to be careful on the subjects. For example, you probably don’t want students writing about, “How to Commit Genocide” while describing the Holocaust.
Most DIY sites include pictures, clear directions, and a goal. Students can even do the same topic and you can see if they choose or focus on different steps. You can collect them all on one Wiki and have other students use them as a study guide. It would even be fun to see if a student could upload his or her eHow on Edison for example in eHow.com and see how many people read and leave comments. I’m not sure if they’d allow that, but it’s worth the try.
A teacher sent me this site from the New York Times: 6 Q’s about the news. It’s a great way to not only teach students about current events, but they can leave comments online, see the archive, discuss globally and in the classroom.
Today’s lesson is about Haiti:
One of the things that has impressed my about this tragedy is the new way I’ve seen at least to donate to relief efforts. Send the word “Haiti” in a text to 90999 and $10 will be added to your cell phone bill as a donation. Furthermore, I learned about this in Facebook and saw 100s of posts in Twitter. Hopefully, with cell phones and social networking sites, Haiti will receive more money for relief than they might have otherwise.
The other day, we were interviewing teachers for a department chair position, and many of the candidates mentioned the importance of understanding the learning style of students.
It reminded me of an interesting post at Punya Mishra’s website about matching teaching styles to learning styles. This is something often talked about in regards to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and today’s millennial learner. Dr. Mishra’s article is nice and succinct and ends with the idea that instead of matching your teaching style to a learning style, match your teaching style to the content. Meaning, teaching propaganda techniques of World War Two demands a visual lesson plan to allow students to analyze propaganda posters.
Similarly, I’ve seen History Alive lessons done on World War 1 where students sat on the floor with their desks moved to simulate trench warfare-which is kinesthetic.
So here’s a list of the Multiple Intelligences and some content that matches the “learning style:”
Bodily-kinesthetic: (learning by moving around) As mentioned, simulating trench warfare of World War One. By having students simulate life in a trench is a good way for them to understand a major aspect of the war.
Interpersonal: (understanding others) Lessons that deal with certain historical people or groups like Jane Addams, Progressives, or the Greek philosophers might be good here, or events such as the abolition movement or the Civil Rights Movement where students need to understand some cause and effect between people and action.
Verbal-Lingiustic: (reading, writing, story telling)
Great for times when the written word is important in history, such as performing the “I Have a Dream Speech,” recalling the Preamble of the Constitution, or even debating dropping the bomb on Hiroshima where students have to articulate an idea. Also great for students who want to create a digital story.
Logical-Mathematical: (numbers, abstract patterns) This might be harder for a social studies classroom, but having students do research where understanding statistics is important, for example, crime statistics related to the economy (does poverty really cause crime?) or even getting students to see patterns in history. For example, having students create a project on exploration throughout human history.
Intra-personal: (self reflection) Great for students who look at diaries in a lesson, certain primary resources, or where students blog and reflect on their own learning. Ann Frank is an obvious connection, but so would the diaries and journals of explorers, the Founding Fathers, or any anonymous figure in a famous photo. For example, years ago, I made this video of the famous picture of Rosa Parks on the bus. Students could either journal about what Rosa Parks was thinking at the time, or the man behind her:
Visual-Spatial: (visual learners, a popular one for students/teachers) History should be taught with as many pictures and movies as possible, especially when it’s a primary resource. Any time a teacher can use a famous painting, portrait, maps, cartoon, movie clip, or better yet, have students create artwork, cartoons or video clips, you’d be teaching visually. This can be done with Power Point, Voice Thread, Movie Maker, Google Earth, etc. A great lesson would be using Google Lit Trips to see how geography and literature blend. This picture is a great segway into conversations about democracy, protest, dictatorships…
Tiananmen Square
Musical: (music, rhythm, and hearing) Teachers love bringing music in the classroom. Whether it’s the Jazz Age in the US, the Classical Age in Europe, protest songs/war songs, or even playing classical music while students take tests, music is easy to integrate into the classroom.
Other “intelligences” have been created, but I’ll stick with the original group. I think the important point is that while trying to understand how each student learns best, trying to meet 120+ needs is too demanding. By changing up how you teach, however, using these skills and matching them to content, you’ll probably find greater success. Doing this will help you write creative lessons, improve past lesson plans, keep your students engaged since they’ll be doing different things each day, and it can help students who don’t feel “muscial” become better at that style of learning.
I read this recent article from the New York Times about honor societies and the fact that there might be too many kids in them, cheapening the meaning of “honor.” For example, the National Honor Society has 700,000 members in 15,869 schools. That’s 44 kids in each school. Is that too many? Not only that, many schools have 6 or more honor societies in them.
The causes of this are many: college admissions, the “self-esteem” movement, parents. But that’s not what this is about.
My question is, with 700,000+ honors students, can these kids find Wyoming or Nigeria on a map? Can they properly use Wikipedia? Have they ever collaborated with someone that WAS NOT sitting next to them? Have they ever directed their own learning?
Do we really have 700,000+ students ready for the 21st century, or ready for 1953? When we look at who become an “honor student,” what standard are we using to measure them, and s hould that change? I’d think it needs to. We may be giving students a false sense of success if we don’t change how we define “honors” and; for that matter, regular learning.
I saw Dave Warlick’s post on what 2000 was like, and I’ve seen others about the future, so I thought I’d keep a record of 2009 in case I’m still around in 2019. Feel free to add anything I forgot:
Google Reader is a great way to keep up with new ideas.
Twitter and Facebook are the two most popular social networks.
TweetDeck is the most popular way to read Tweets.
Most principals or teachers for that matter, don’t blog, even in 1:1
My blog isn’t popular
Skype is preferred
Google talk is good, but not cross platform
Google Docs is one of the best collaborative tools, but not used in schools as much as it could be
Firefox is preferred over IE… Google Chrome is relatively new
Delicious is used by most people, Diigo is getting more traction, but many school districts block Diigo because of the social aspect.
Wikipedia is gaining more supporters in the academic sphere, but many schools still want to ban it as they don’t see the academic uses of it
Windowns 2007 is just now being used in 2009
Flash and Java are used
Google Earth is at version 5, street view is new, mars is new, oceans is new. 2/3rds of the cities I’m visiting in Europe are in Street View
YouTube is the preferred site for videos, Flickr for pictures
Google Apps for educators is brand new
iGoogle, Netvibes, and Pageflakes are popular start page tools
Google Forms is one of my favorite tools
iPods are popular. the iPhone 3gs is $199 and $299 (16 vs. 32 gig)
Web based web site making tools are becoming more popular, like wikispaces and PBwiki, over Dreamweaver
Online movie making tools are becoming more popular, like Animoto, but debate rages over the creative uses students have with these tools
Voicethread is one of the better tools that allows for presentations, multimedia, and collaboration.
We’re still trying to see how social networking can work in schools. We have some good ideas, but too few schools are on a 1:1 or have enough available computers, laptops, or netbooks for students to use them in class
Cell phones are still banned in most schools
Most teachers have yet to embrace social networking or most Web 2.0 tools. Power Point is still a number 1 tool for teachers. Power Point ranked 13 in 2009 top 100 tools
2 Million Minutes concerns Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton
Arne Duncan and Obama were going to change education, but maybe not now
End of Year multiple choices test seem to be driving instruction rather than 21st century skills
Kids haven’t really been taught about the dangers of social networks and cell phones, such as sexting…
I saw this story a few months back in TED Talk, but this YouTube video is probably better for a classroom of student since it shows the African landscape and shorter.
This isn’t something I would show students to say, “see, wind power is the future.” No, I’d point out that being creative is an important skill and for teachers to realize that we should be challenging our students to solve real problems.
A recent poll of 500 members of the National Association of Secondary School Principals showed that most principals do not use social media tools like Facebook or Twitter. Only 40% used Facebook and 12% use Twitter. Linkedin was also part of the survey, but as it doesn’t really have an instructional component to it, we won’t count it.
I could think of many uses of Facebook and Twitter for a principal (announcements, publicize events, cancelations, post photos, etc…) I also would suggest that their Facebook page and Tweets be strictly job related, and any personal information be contained in a separate account.
That being said, one other reason I think principals should embrace this is for the trickle down effect it can have. By using this tool, it models for teachers instructional ways to use social media in the classroom. Furthermore, if the principals are using it, maybe the guardians of the filter will unblock sites.
I know of many principals in my county with Facebook sites, I don’t know any that use Twitter, but I don’t think they’ve used it instructionally. So I say, why not? The school is a major part of any community, and as the school’s instructional leader, it can only help communicate and build relationships.
Today, is it necessary for students to really “take” notes?” I’m sure it’s good college practice, but let’s consider:
Do students understand what they write?
Do they study what they write?
What if they wrote the wrong thing?
Is giving notes like this more for the teacher or students?
Why not give the students the notes and then focus on discussion in the class? Whether teacher or student led, wouldn’t discussing the notes be better than taking the notes?
At this point, some might say, “why not both?” Do you have time?
