Learning Never Stops

What is grit? When I posed this question during the school assembly one day not a child could answer the question. And so I was delighted when I was approached the other day by a bunch of grade ones and twos who came up to tell me how much they enjoyed the story Stuck by Oliver Jeffers. While they laughed and giggled as the little boy kept throwing odious things up at the tree to get his kite down, the underlying message was not lost on them. What was special about this occasion was that the feedback came from the students. One girl approached me and said she understood the meaning of the word grit and that she was a very gritty person indeed! :) "I will never give up from now on," another child beamed proudly at me. How wonderful it would be if children were taught to value grit from a very tender age. How easily many adult give up when confronted with adversity. Watch this interesting video on Grit by  Amanda Lee Duckworth : According to Ms. Duckwor...

Last week, I started a new course on moodle. The topic:  "Deeper Learning". Our first task was to reflect upon an instance in our lives when deeper learning had taken place. I was surprised when my thoughts immediately veered to a time in my past, which, I fervently hoped I would forget.  Due to an unstable political climate, many expatriates where leaving Zambia. At that time, I used to go to an established school in Lusaka. We usually carpooled as the distance was killing. Eventually, the car pooling stopped. And with it, my life came to an abrupt halt. My parents decided I was to go to the local village school, Chongwe Primary. Many a times I had driven past the run down building. The fresh coat of white paint over the uneven mud walls failed to hide the dilapidated condition of the school. The rusty metal roof seemed to be hurriedly draped over the walls. They banged and rattled in hollow merriment as the strong winds blew. The broken windows added to this aband...

There is a definite buzz in the air.  The new unit has started. Students are excited and eager to know what we will be inquiring into . Warming up and creating a safe haven. TUNING-IN    as it rains outside. All we needed was hot chocolate milk :) Our new unit on Natural Hazards has just completed its first week. I had to pull things down from my boards and so they look fairly bare, but we do a lot reading and reflecting everyday, so it is slowly filling up with students' work.   Students have started bringing clippings on current natural disasters and are in turn, learn geography skills. I clearly need a title for this board! Hazard Hounders maybe? I used technology to provoke their thinking. This was a lot of fun specially since we had access to Ipads. The students had to use a QR code reader to find out what the mystery picture was. They then did a Visual thinking activity (10 X 2) to observe the picture carefully. We began with our ...

I enjoy looking at data which I gather after a diagnostic task. It reveals so much about the different ways students think. This data which I am about to show you, reveals the misconceptions that my students still have. Some are baffling, while others indicate various levels of understanding. I am still trying to figure out how the students got certain answers! I am also putting to use what I learnt from a course at Stanford University, where Professor Jo Boaler emphasizes the power of mistakes. The most powerful thing a teacher can do is to teach students how to embrace mistakes and use them as stepping stones for learning rather than cringe when they make one! My next lesson is going to be an exciting one. The students will be analyzing each others mistakes and trying to pinpoint misconception. This will be followed by a metacognitive activity where they will reflect on the whole process of analyzing mistakes. I will post their reflections later on. The Diagnostic Task ...

[ View the story "4AKAH and Simple Machines!" on Storify ] Lever Hunt [ View the story "Students using twitter to share their findings" on Storify ]

So why did I decide to make my class participate in the Global Read Aloud Project, 2013?  I know it requires effort to set up blogs, edmodo and twitter accounts. It takes patience to locate schools and establish and maintain connections. It also takes a sizable proportion of students' classroom time, learning how to tweet and blog and introduce themselves. Essential agreements for blogging and making comments also need to be addressed.   So why go through all this trouble  specially when it takes up a huge chunk of our time? Julie Lindsay and Vicky Davies, authors of  Flattening classrooms, Engaging Minds, state that   "Visionary educators realize global collaboration is not an extra but a pedagogy ."  It is our job as educators to provide engaging, real-life, authentic situations for our students. The fact that this experience extends beyond  geographical borders and ventures across seas, makes it so much more appealing. ...