Inquiry - Classrooms like an Airport - Part one 9:44 PM

One of the issues for many teachers, when considering an inquiry approach to learning, is the concern that many students are simply ill-equipped or incapable of taking control of their own learning. There seemed to us to be many learners who just don't, or can't, be motivated enough to inquire without us pushing and prodding them along. It seems great for about half our class, we reflect, but what about the rest? An inquiry approach just doesn't seem to work for them.

Every teacher wants to engage every student in their class. I think it's very easy for us to look at our class and only see failure if every student isn't totally absorbed and self motivated. What I'd like to propose is another way to view success for our students - that is to view our inquiry based classrooms like an airport.

Every airport has a bustle of activity with planes of different sizes, capacity, speed capabilities and destinations all taking off, landing, refueling and grounded for 'maintenance'. Every one of our students have developed varying skills, competencies and apptitudes for curiosity and I think it's helpful to describe three different types of students as flying in different roles and different types of planes. (I'm sure you'll be impressed with the lengths that I'm willing to go to develop this analogy...)

The Fighter Plane Pilot

This student seems to refill with rocket fuel every time they land in our classes. They are extremely easy to motivate, they are extremely adaptable and reflective and can adjust their flight plan during their inquiry with very little difficulty. It's often likely that a teacher will only need to check in with them occassionally (they are so self sufficient) to guide, facilitate and direct their flight when needed. The fighter plane also creates enormous thrust and energy to the rest of the airport and it's easy for other planes get swept up in their enthusiasm.

The Boeing 747 Pilot

These students take a little more time to refuel and build up speed. They can take some support and guidance, even when in flight, and regularly land for loading and unloading. The great thing about these students is their ability to take a number of passengers with them (described below). They are very capable of leading a group in getting to a destination while sharing the experience along the way. These pilots tend to take one direction and rely on a teacher's control tower as they pick up skills and competencies along the way.

The Passenger

The Passenger students are the ones taking the journey with one of the Boeing Pilots. They haven't really developed the apptitude to pilot an inquiry but do benefit from being a part of the journey and getting to the destinations. Occasionally these students will listen to the Pilot announce over the intercom, they may visit the cockpit from time to time but will mostly sit back, absorb the experience and enjoy the ride.

The Terminal Sitter

These students are those that prefer to watch planes fly in and out of the airport and generally people watch. They rarely travel anyway, are satisfied to be a part of the hustle and bustle, will follow airport rules and customs and unfortunately do the bare minimum required to be able to stay (move around the airport to avoid security and even carry fake luggage to blend in with the crowd).

What I'm becoming comfortable with is allowing students to engage in Inquiry at their level. It's my role as a teacher to equip, guide and inspire them to travel further (I want to write about the teachers role in part two) but we shouldn't allow terminal sitters to hold back the fighter planes and the Boeing Pilots - we need THEM to fly higher so they can provide momentum and lift for the rest of the airport.

I think that airports are fantastic places - they're full of energy and excitement. People arrive and land with freedom and generally, a high level of self responsibility. To many an airport could seem almost like chaos but we all know the incredibly high level of supervision and guidance that makes it safe for all of us.

I also think it's extremely important for our classrooms to have both of components of responsiblity and guidance. Students should be able to take off in their own directions and land when they need support. Equally, I think that our classrooms should allow for students to have those safety guidelines that keep all learners safe.

We should, then, develop a classroom that allows every learner to fly in their own manner; both where they want to go, how they could get there and with the help and support they need.

An energetic, orderly and diverse airport of learners.

(Photos used under Creative Commons License - sourced from Flickr.com)

Inquiry Presentation 6:43 AM

This is the slideshare I'll be sharing as the conclusion (if there is such a thing) to my engagement inquiry. It's been a process of pulling together the parts and isn't exactly staggering or ground breaking. I guess that's not the aim of a teacher inquiry but more to help us improve our own teaching and learning.

Student Engagement

View more documents from riverdaleschool.

Where would I like to go next?

I met with our Principal and some people from the Ministry last week. They're involved in creating a government project that helps schools with their LMS and efolio platforms. One topic that came up was the lack of academic research (evidential) into the benefits of e-learning and digital tools for student learning - anywhere.

That's a pretty hefty elephant sized bite to take but it's captured my attention.

No hands classroom 6:28 AM

We all know the difficulty in keeping some students engaged in a lesson or activity. There's often one or two who sit on the edge and regularly 'switch off'. My mission this year has been to try engaging ALL of the students, ALL of the time. A very lofty goal, I know.

One little technique which has certainly made a difference is having, as much as possible, a 'No hands classroom' philosophy. Intrigued?

As teachers, we are always answering hands, whether its in a whole class or small group situation. It's like we're addicted to the illusion of engagement that it creates. There are always students in the class who answer everything and, to be honest, we all notice when they are away. These students are always thinking, always contributing to the class and gaining a large amount of esteem in the process. This is not bad, for them, but has a debilitating effect on those around them.

The students either side of the 'hyper engaged' realise that 'Martha' will answer the question so why should they even think for themselves. They have a waving hand hosted to the roof, the teacher wants to maintain the energy in the room by asking enthusiastic students and the cycle of disengagement is continued. What's worse is that, for those switched off students, the disengagement becomes like a learned helplessness which creates a situation where research has shown that in any class there are 30% or more students who are simply 'doing time'.

A 'no hands' classroom would strive to have every student thinking, discussing and sharing their ideas at all times. Here are some techniques to help those of us who are 'hands' addicted.

1. Simply enforcing the 'no hands rule'.
When a teacher first tells a class that we won't be having hands up today (or, even worse, ever) it can be very confusing for everyone. Students and teachers have had years of this behaviour ingrained. Teachers can remind students but the enforcement largely lies with us.

2. Have students sitting next to a 'thinking buddy'.
When we want students to think for themselves about something it's very motivating to have someone to share that thinking with. Ask a question, have them share with their buddy and then ask them to report back to the class.

3. Get good at sometimes asking kids who do and sometimes those who might not look engaged.
This sounds mean and can backfire. What happens when they're not listening? It sometimes has an embarrassing effect and can draw kids in by the fear of being asked. It all depends on how we react. I try to be light hearted and 'invite' the student to join in. It usually works but the opposite happens when I'm negative and 'scold' the student.
nb - It can turn into a game as the already engaged students get good at 'faking' not listening and then trick you into asking them!

Like every teaching technique, you have to have a balance in your approach. I think there are times when asking hands up IS appropriate. The challenge for me this term is to engage more of the students, more of the time by having - no hands...

(1st image - http://www.usaref.org)

Formative Assessment for the digital learner. 9:22 PM

For quite a while I've been wishing for a way to 'marry' the formative practice we have in our class with the digital environment we work in. At the moment the students often use a matrix that guides through a process of steps in an inquiry or presentation they are preparing.

These matrices , either written by me or co-constructed, are usually word processed and posted on the wall. The students put their name, face or group names on the level they are working at, whether it is at the novice, apprentice, practitioner or expert. This has been a great way for them to monitor their progress, justify why they are where they are and work out what they need to do to get better.

I've wanted, though, to be able to 'digitalise' this process so they can access the matrix from home, record their progress in their 'e-folio's and be able to regularly access it from where ever they are working (They are often working in different classrooms and learning spaces around the school).

Google to the Rescue!

Our school has rapidly turned into a flagship 'Google' enterprise. We've adopted Gmail and Google sites and we're slowly building up the wide spread practice of staff using and sharing docs, sites and Blogger blogs.


This evening my eye was drawn to a link (on twitter... say no more) to a google presentation called,
'Twenty uses for Google Docs in the classroom'.
Thanks to @Jedd (Jedd Bartlet) I was able to see the possibilities of the sharing tool for drawing students into collaborative projects.
The ideas are great! Everything from working on presentations together to adding data on spreadsheets and graphing the results to, what REALLY caught my imagination, creating collaborative 'revision lists' (idea #15).

The example shows the students names listed across the top of the spreadsheet and the tasks or criteria down the left. The key at the bottom indicates the students progress in each criteria and the cells were coloured as appropriate throughout the process by the students!

This is fantastic, I thought. Finally a way for the students to work in a collaborative way on a formative, digital, assessment matrix. But...how would we share this matrix with our learning community? We would want to post our progress on our e-folios? This is my goal for the term - to share our learning progress as well as our product.

Enter Google search! A simple question search ('Can I embed a google doc / spreadsheet into a blogger blog?) led quickly to this blog post.
- 'Google docs and spreadsheets in your blog.'
Here the author posts some easy steps to doing just that - publishing any Google doc as html code and embedding it into a Blogger blog post. What's even more exciting is that the embedded version is not a static jpg image but a movable document with your arrow keys or mouse; great for large docs on a small post space. This is a quick version of the type of thing I want to try and an example of it embedded into a blog.



It shouldn't surprise me that what I've imagined would be useful has already been created and shared. It's also continued to confirm to me that our decision to run with Google has been the right one for our school.

Have I created the matrix for the class to run with? Not yet. Am I keen to try?... You betcha!

Engagement Ideas for Fractions 9:58 PM

I'm a huge fan of using digital tools in the learning process but I'm equally passionate about children being outside, active and getting their hands on things.

I hated being told, 'Don't touch!' when I was younger. I still do. It bugs me, then, when I hear myself saying it to students in the classroom. This week I've made an extra effort to get outside and let the children 'loose' with some P.E equipment to solve a fraction based problem.

This activity required the pairs of students to
arrange their 'sheep' (the cones) into three equal paddocks. They could move the 'electric fences' (skipping ropes) inside the farm and put the sheep where they thought they could go. It became a great way for the group to encounter fractions for the first time this without even knowing it.

The group then followed this with another 'farm' that needed 15 Lhamas (frisbees, and you can use your imagination) divided up amongst three paddocks. The thinking led us to discover 1 third, 2 thirds and then 3 thirds of 15. They were then able to draw their thinking in chalk on the pavement.



Another small group technique I've started is something I've used for writing groups. It's amazing how motivated students are when they have a whiteboard pen in their hand!

Each student has a laminated white sheet to draw and show their thinking. I do, however, have to confess to using, "3.2.1 hands off!" to regain their attention but the increase in student focus has been amazing to see.




The last development to our maths programme has been the use of an online quiz from Proprofs Quiz School. This is an application that you can embed into a website or blog that records a students results, is incredibly easy to construct and enables embeded video and images.

The quiz tells you when you have answered correct or otherwise and you are given a certificate of achievement at the end. This week I had a relatively low achiever in maths email me his result because he scored 100%. I was able to show him how to email a jpeg version to his Grandad and his face literally shone.

It's amazing me how much progress the entire class has made in a short time we have been learning about fractions. What I'm noticing, so far, is that nearly ALL of the students are achieving success but it does come at a cost.

The reading I've made into student engagement has suggested that there is a difference between engagement and compliance. Some research shows that compliance results in co-operation while engagement results in learning.

It's great to see these activities drawing otherwise detached students into their maths.

Student Motivation Survey 9:10 PM

This week I surveyed my class about how engaged and motivated they thought they were (my teacher inquiry this year is on student engagement within a maths context. The format I used was an online survey called Survey Monkey. It's amazingly easy to set up, free and very interactive (exactly what we expect in our rather spoilt, Web 2.0 existence). The results were far from shocking, in fact, they were quite reassuring.


I asked the students a range of questions on topics such as how much they thought they were learning and what helped them stay focused and motivated. Here were some snapshot statements on the results.

- Nearly 80% think they are mostly or always motivated to learn in class.

- 67% think that computers mostly or always motivate them to learn and 73% think that the
computer has helped them learn.

- 84% find hands on activities help them stay motivated during maths small groups.

- The highest rated options to alter small group maths times were
- hands on activities,
- increased time,
- more web based tools / interactives.

The idea that hands on learning and digital environments increase student engagement are not new by any stretch. This survey has, then, validated and encouraged me to continue along the path our class is on.

There were some results, however, that are contrary to what research tells us. The class rated 'Knowing the reason why we are learning something' as the least likely to motivate and engage them. Maybe I haven't promoted this aspect enough in class for them to experience the benefits? Perhaps, also, they don't feel like they have had the permission in the past to ask or even think why.

So, how will this impact my teaching?

- More Hands ON activities?
- More Digital Tools?
- More TIME?

Tikatok Journal 7:05 AM

We're back to school this week. It's always a good time to start a new project and I'm hoping to inspire the student's creativity and writing voice with an online journal. It's going to be hand written and drawn but downloaded digitally using Tikatok. Here's the first of my own example - it's just the title page. More to come.

Skype in Classrooms 8:55 AM

I became a fan of Skyping when my parents moved to Russia for work. It's amazing how, at the end of a skype call with them you really do feel as if they have just popped around for a visit. It's almost as if you don't miss them quite as much because, 'We see them all the time.' We often have the kids show them a toy they just bought, do a dance or piano recital and one time Dad took us for a tour of their apartment with an extra long laptop cord.

This term our class had some ebuddies set up with a teacher in Alabama, USA. We set up a combined wiki to pose some questions and used the skype call as a motivation to teach the students questioning and conversational skills - we even had co-constructed a success matrix to help us write some open questions (a skill that we have much road to travel on!)

The Skype calls were a huge success, in terms of a rich learning experience. We learnt a lot about questioning, how to have a conversation and were even opened up to the obvious cultural diversity that exists, even between two western countries; the students in Alabama were quite taken with the fact that a lot of our children wear bare-feet all day, quite unheard of for them.

Next term we are looking to use Skype for some research into our 'biotechnology' inquirys - as well as renewing our connection with Alabama! I'm setting up a media room in the corner of the class that has our school logo behind the camera and a sliding door to block out some noise. It's all very exciting and helps us to achieve a goal for this year - to branch out of our four walls and connect with the outside world, even if that means digitally as well as physically.

Here's a fantastic set of links to skype in the classroom related resources from Teachingdegree.org

This video is an excellent introduction to the world of Skype. Thanks to sayitvisually for the upload and Richard Byrne for the link (Freetech4teachers).



(Photo above used under Creative Commons, by Shareski, from Flickr.com)

Tech exciting teachers AND students? 7:30 AM

I'm absolutely passionate and excited about the elearning revolution slowly sweeping through schools and classrooms. I guess this is because I'm part of the infinite 'edu blogging' revolution and I regularly try to integrate technology into my classroom practice.

Last year I was fortunate to go to the New Zealand 'ULearn' Conference and have the top blown off my professional development programme. Anyone who has been to these types of conferences knows the buzz they create in connecting with like minded people. This post, by Angela Maiers (one of my favourite bloggers), gives some benefits of these conferences for teachers
- meeting and developing your PLN
- a chance to reflect on your own and others classroom practice and beliefs
- being 'warmed' and surrounded by so many other similarly enthused people
- sharing and gathering tools and strategies for your classroom
- catching or reviving a passion for learning

Sometimes I wonder, however, whether this passion and enthusiasm for tech integration is shared amongst our students as much as it is with some teachers (and I write 'some' because there are many who are decidedly tepid about it, which I'm becoming okay about... slowly).

This wondering is heightened when our class seems just as enthused by a new packet of coloured felts for our modeling books as they are with a new application on our class blogsite. Recently they were given the choice to communicate their science learning digitally or by traditional 'Tri-board' and the class was split. 50/50. I guess that not every student will walk away from traditional methods in our classrooms. To them they are just another option.

What I have also noticed is that the students who DO get excited by a digital environment are the ones who, traditionally, have been the most likely to be those disengaged with the learning. They are the boys, the lower achievers and those whose interests are quite different from their teachers and peers. This has GOT to be a huge benefit to the classroom as a whole - for the atmosphere, the building of a classroom learning community and, at the very least, the reduction of time spent on behaviour management.

I don't think that elearning will always excite every student. Neither will it , I'm willing to accept, empassion every teacher. What I think it is achieving at the moment is to draw those disengaged students into a new world of achievement and success. A world that's pretty foreign to many.

What I'd like to see more of in the future is the type of conference that would inspire students through peer sharing as much as those that do this for teachers. It's an interesting potential.

(Above photo used under Creative Commons, by 'superkimbo in BKK', sourced from Flickr)

Replacing the 'dis'. 9:15 PM

I often listen to podcasts while I run. Dr Gaston Weizs podcast, 'School Psychology', has some great insights in basic behavioural psychology that relates to the classroom.

One podcast described the reasons for challenging behaviours. Dr Weizs describes the behaviour as being a learned action that someone uses because it gets them a desired result. He says that we do what we do because of the three 'E's' - it's easy, efficient and effective. This is to say that the student 'acts out', for example, because it's their first reaction, it gets the desired attention and then the desired result.

The majority of behaviour management in schools is precisely that; management. How often do we simply deal with a negative behaviour after it happens, 'mop' up the damage and dish out the punishment. And then we foolishly believe that the student will learn something from the episode.

Dr Weizs suggests that we should be teaching the student to 'replace' the negative behaviour with something that is equally the three 'Es' but much more positive and socially acceptable.

I can already think of how this approach might be successful with one student who continually challenges authority if he believes he is being dealt an injustice - no matter how small or insignificant and in a disproportionate manner. We already have an arrangement where he reflects on an incident afterwards and I think our next step is to construct a strategy that will replace his outbursts with something equally easy, efficient and effective.

The more challenging behaviour to replace is a student's disengagement from the learning process, the topic of my teacher inquiry this year. If I was to apply the three 'Es' to this behaviour (as a way of understanding the action more deeply than, 'They are just lazy!') could I, perhaps, be on a journey to helping the student replace this disengagment with engagement?

Maybe a way forward will involve some conversation time with the students involved. My instinct tells me that the disengagement is a learned behaviour that has developed from a lack of confidence, a fear of failure and low self efficacy.

I'm sure there will be some interesting conversations around the corner.

Photo left used under Creative Commons License from 'Foreversouls', sourced from flickr.com. Image above from http://drweisz.blogspot.com/