Wikified English - Pt 2, HOW?

In my last post I wrote about the hypertext, "unconventional narrative" unit where students will publish short stories within a wiki with hyperlinks to show the intertextuality of their work with other texts. That post looked at WHY I am passionate (and more than a little excited) about this unit, in case you missed it you can read about it at - Wikified English - Pt 1, WHY?

Working past the WHY on this bright idea (please make sure you read that with a degree of self-deprecation...I have a feeling this project is going to become consuming) I'm moving into the HOW phase and I've been researching and collating resources for the unit the last few days and mulling over how to approach the task - with students and staff. Part of this is identifying what skills they're going to need I'm expecting a degree of resistance from students and staff and I'm trying to remember baby steps while I collate and plan.

Whenever I start work on a unit like this (totally new and included emergent - are wikis really emergent these days? - technology) I spend a fair bit of times brainstorming what skills and knowledge will we need to know in order to succeed? Usually I do this on paper, and it ends up fairly messy. Because I'm on holidays and I've had some time I had a play with Webspiration, the online version of Inspiration, a great mind mapping tool I've used with students in the past. This is how the first draft has turned out:

As I say, it's only a draft and there's probably a gazillion small things I haven't thought of, things I consider "basic" and need to consider.

So...HOW do I get my staff and students to the point where they have the necessary information? We get into the nitty gritty of the sequencing...if the above is kind of like my ingredients list, what's the method to use?

In the past I've started thing small - just my classroom, just one other teacher...this time it's eight classes of about 25 and the eight staff. I suppose I'm lucky in that I am one of the teachers and there's probably about 20-30 really competent students with our MLS from my classes last year that I'll be able to draw on for some help. There is also a couple of very keen staff who, while they don't yet have the skills want to learn. Given the situation my usual method isn't going to work.

Since the teachers need to understand what they're managing (notice a change in my usage here - for the majority they're going to be spending a lot of this unit learning, not "teaching"...oi, this is going to be a massive unit...is it too late to back out?) I'm starting with them on the student free days - doing some quick activities, providing a collection of resources, and workshops and support throughout the unit.

Then we work together on helping the students...this really will be a situation where we all need to collaborate to make sure this works...Staff and students are going to find it hard to approach this task in a 'traditional' way...or am I unduly complicating things?

That's a thought to ponder in tomorrow's post I think.

Learning Assassains

Last month I blogged briefly about the idea of a 'good' teacher and I shared a slideshow from Slideshare. That blog post had been sparked by my recent attempts to convey to a colleague what I believe it is that makes an effective teacher - what skills and personal attributes would I see when looking at them. With these thoughts still turning over in my brain I came across John Costilla's most recent blog entry over at CR2.0 and it struck a chord.

His blog, entitled, "Favourite and NOT so Favourite Classrooms" draws on a list of student responses to what their favourite and not so favourite classrooms. You can find the complete list HERE - it's a very interesting read and in all honesty, I understand where the kids were coming from. Personally, I don't like classrooms described as:

"It is dull and slow, with lots of work. The teacher is good but the room is sterile. There are no friends, just a bunch of loud mouths in the room."
"After you get done with the work, you just sit there and stare at the walls."
"Having hard seats and no foot room is a real problem."

Those are learning killers for me, how about you? Would you enjoy it? Would you walk away having learned something in that sort of environment?

I sat through two hours of Professional "Learning" last night in a classroom where the environment was not comfortable, with uncomfortable chairs, excessively long (and content which was questionably relevant) powerpoint slideshows, presenters (teachers) who didn't know their content and who committed a myriad of presenting sins (completely reliant on their slides, spoke too softly, failed to establish a rapport with their audience). In the end I walked away feeling like I'd learned very little of worth.

Image from penelopejonze

(http://flickr.com/photos/penelopejonze/270916814/)

How many of our students leave our rooms feeling that way and what can we do to turn that around? How can we avoid the Learning Assassains leaving our classrooms devoid of life and learning?

Nailing It

Whilst this week hasn't been as drama filled as last week I'm still totally snowed under and simply don't have the brain power to write much just yet. I promise I'll get on top of things over the weekend.

Three years ago I reached my first grade belt at Rhee Taekwondo (brown belt black tip), about a month later I was transfered to a small rural school and sadly couldn't continue to train. One of the firs tthings I did when we transfered this year was start back. It's been a humbling experience - wearing the belt which says you're so close to being a black belt and yet having to basically start from scratch with basic techniques and accumulation of skills. I've still got a very long way to go, but I am getting there. Tonight I was asked to break a board for the first time in three years. I wasn't convinced I'd manage it and I prepared myself to accept that my technique would need a lot more work. But - I nailed it. Smashed right through, hitting the sweet spot (centre of the board) and all.

And because of that one moment, my confidence and determination to stay the course has returned. Last week I'd begun to think maybe I wasn't ever going to get to where I need to be, now I know I can.

And this relates to learning and teaching how?

As a teacher I think it's incredibly important for us to give our students the chance to experience those "nailing it" moments. They're the things which help students to master more confidently and determination. My board reminded me of that and now (after a well earned sleep) I'll walk into my classes tomorrow hoping to give my students that same buzz somewhere along the way.