My DEN Crib by Lee Kolbert

You may have already seen this, or something very similar, but I ran across it again recently and thought it worthy of a good shaking out. If you haven’t seen it, I think you’ll find it quite enlightening. Anyway, it got me thinking.The “21st Century Learner” conversations have been taking on lives of their own over the last few years. In many ways, the term is overused and has lost it’s meaning. Lots of people throw around the term without really acknowledging what it takes to meet the students of today on their terms. And once we figure it out, it’s a Catch-22: you can’t stop trying to figure it all out once your current students and you finally figure out the “secret handshake,” oh no… see because then guess who’s at the door? You got it! Tomorrow’s students!

So, who are we trying to teach here? Today’s students or tomorrow’s students? Let me take a wild guess here…. er, both? But see, they are one in the same person. Today’s kids are already in tomorrow’s world. Problem being that we aren’t there with them, so we can’t see things the way they can. Have you heard about the cellphone ringtone that only teens can hear? I see it like that. They have their own language that we really can’t penetrate, although we can certainly try.

The difficult part is where teachers have to come out of their comfort zones. I’ve taught a few classes for some local college “education technology” classes and the instructors usually ask me to teach their students about the “stuff” we have and how to use it. I’m often invited to schools to speak to faculties and mostly they want me to demonstrate some of the “stuff” we offer in our district and how to use it. So, through no fault of their own, even the instructors and the adminstrators don’t always “get” that if we can teach people to think differently and to teach their students SKILLS (duh!) and use some cool tools at the same time, then there will be some terrific success. BUT WE DON’T START WITH THE TOOLS! (Do you pick up a hammer and ask yourself what you can build today?)

Well, being the “rule-follower” that I am, I do a little bit of what they ask, but I always work it into the bigger picture-type presentation/conversation about teachers needing to step out of their comfort zones. Depending on how much time they give me (usually I’m offered 30 minutes to give a 2 hour presentation) I like to expose the teachers to some of the realities of how kids do their homework today or how they communicate or socialize with each other or how they problem-solve. And, if you paid attention to the video, the most important piece for teachers to realize is that students today expect to be able to create something. That’s how they learn. According to the video on any given week, 14% of teachers use technology and 63% never do. Now, I’m not sure what statistics the video is using, but when they say, “technology” I’ll guess, they mean any kind of technology, even static technology like powerpoint, or an overhead projector. Lots of teachers feel that if they use powerpoint instead of a blackboard (geez, am I dating myself here?) or the whiteboard, or an overhead or LCD projector they are, indeed, reaching those 21st Century Learners. Then there’s teachers who have made lots of progress and are creating digital stories. How great is that? But many stop before they move on to the next level. What happens to the videos once they are created? How are they being used in the social world our students truly live in? Are they being shared? Or is every teacher who creates a digital story, venturing out to create and recreate the same story?

Teaching is not an art project. There is no finished product. It is constantly under construction, requiring constant observation, new tools, new angles, and input from others.

Ask questions. Ask lots of questions.

(cross blogged from my GeekyMomma blog)

Just a week ago, I was at a school in my district (shout out to: Poinciana Elementary School) giving a teacher workshop. We were in one of their computer labs. On the walls of this lab, were these sculptures made from old CDs. A conversation with the Computer Lab teacher, who by the way, is absolutely AMAZING, quickly gave way to how much collaboration goes on in that lab and how much project based learning went into just creating those sculptures (not to mention the robotics lab and all other very cool hands-on experiential learning that takes place).

So when Kevin Jarrett, K-4 Computer Teacher & Technology Facilitator at Northfield Community School tagged me (via Twitter) to contribute to this Passion Quilt meme, I didn’t have to look very far to pick a photo that exemplifies what I am most passionate about.

So my photo, although seemingly simple and not very artistic or colorful, is the picture above (the CD airplane) that I took with my cellphone. The CDs were collected from the old AOL, NetZero and CompuServe mailers which teaches the students to not only recycle but that old technology is still good for something. Designs were drawn, storyboards were sketched and decisions were made, so collaborative learning had to be at an all time high here. How did they come up with the idea for an airplane? Why that particular airplane? Why on that wall and how did they know if it was straight (or not) and centered?

In addition, I love that their ideas resulted in a more beautiful environment, not just for them and their classmates, but for future classmates in years to come.

Mostly though, this phots shows my passion for teaching because it reminds me that the classroom can be a happy, less stressful place where learning can be rigorous, relevant and FUN!

So, now it’s your turn. I challenge you to add to this meme Passion Quilt. Here are the rules:

3 Simple Meme Rules:

• Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
• Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
• Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

At GeekyMomma blog, I passed the baton, specifically to these bloggers:

1. Kim Cavanaugh at www.brainfrieze.net
2. Tanner Johnson (I think a young person’s perspective is important here) at www.tannerrjohnson.blogspot.com/
3. Karen Seddon at web.mac.com/seddonk/e-cubed/Welcome.html
4. Karl Fisch at thefischbowl.blogspot.com/
5. Steve Dembo at blog.discoveryeducation.com/digital_passports/

HOWEVER, here at My DEN Crib, I’d like pass the baton to every one of our STAR DEN members. Won’t you post what you are most passionate about on your page and keep this meme going? Hey, if you’re like me… at the very least you’ll be searching Google for what “meme” means, right?

Ok folks, don’t let me down.