James Rumford at Home in Hawaii

James Rumford, lives and works in Honolulu, where he creates children’s books that are Rumsford Books Varietynot only impressive in their artistic vision but amazing in the variety of media used to create the artwork contained in their pages; these include watercolor, oil, pen and ink, gouache, digital, sepia wash, gold leaf and more. He is constantly exploring new techniques and so, unlike some illustrators who stick to a consistent look, all of his works look unique and original.

I became interested in his work while reading “From the Good Mountain; How Gutenberg Changed the World” to my third graders as part of the “History of Books” unit.  The students were fascinated with this book and were reluctant to go to recess after class was over. They wanted to stay and ask more questions. Since my daughter and I were going to Hawaii anyways over Spring Break, I decided to contact the author and see if he was willing to meet with me. His response was a warm “Aloha!”

Painter and Paintings

Painter and Paintings

So that’s how we ended up in Honolulu sitting on the steps, waiting for Mr. Rumford to answer the door. I had brought along my daughter and a friend to meet the well-known author-illustrator. Finally, the door opened, and a very surprised but friendly James explained that he had been in the middle of fixing the downstairs toilet. He had not been expecting me since I had neglected to confirm the visit in my last email. I apologized profusely, but he graciously welcomed us in and then zoomed off to fix us a refreshing drink while we oohed and aahed over the beautiful ocean landscape paintings hanging on the walls of the living room and dining room. When he returned, he explained that all of the paintings were ones he had completed in the last year.

The Little Prince

In the window seat, he had a stack of library books, including “Le Petit Prince” in the original French. I soon discovered that he could chat with me in French and that he could speak, read and write in Arabic, Chinese and other languages. A polyglot artistic Renaissance man who is also willing to fix his own toilet! Impressive.

We fell into an easy conversation, the four of us, and he expressed a generous interest in my daughter’s sketch books. He was impressed with the mythological creatures that she had conjured up and captured on paper. He talked about his artistic process going into interesting details about how lately he has been combining traditional artistic methods with time-saving and innovative digital techniques. He has a deep love of the ancient arts of calligraphy and the early methods of printmaking, however, and continues to delight in creating handmade books.   DSC_4282

Downstairs in his cozy studio, he showed us the old printing press that was saved from being melted down for its iron during the Second World War. This particular printing press is apparently the only one of its kind extant in the United States. He had drawers full of typeset letters and materials for printing and binding books. On his ceiling was a lovely white embossed poem written in Arabic. He translated it for us while gesturing and explaining how he achieved the artistic effect.

We thanked him for the generous amount of time that he gave us to talk with him and then, as his wife had just returned with the car, offered to drive us back downtown so that we could meet some friends for supper. Before he left, he blessed us with no less than ten hardcover picture books; a gift for which he would accept no monetary thanks. We were floored by his generosity and I happily carried the gift back to our library to share with the students who happily began devouring all of the new books. Included in the books was a Japanese translation copy of “From the Good Mountain” which is perfect for our Japanese fluent readers at our international school. DSC_4296

It was a true honor and a pleasure to be able to meet and talk with James Rumford. I am hoping that we will be able, with the help of several interested international schools in Tokyo, to set up an author visit so that many students will get the chance to meet this versatile artist.

Can't wait to read!

Can’t wait to read these wonderful books from James Rumford! Thank you!

Genevieve the Giraffe is thrilled!

Genevieve the Giraffe is thrilled!

 

 

More photos of the James Rumford visit below:

DSC_4287 DSC_4278 DSC_4280 DSC_4286 DSC_4290 DSC_4276 DSC_4282 DSC_4283 DSC_4292

Pocket Poems

April is Poetry Month! Ironically enough, it is also Mathematics Awareness month and while I gravitate towards poetry I flee from mathematics. If I landed in Norton Juster’s “The Phantom Tollbooth,” I would undoubtedly side with the denizens of Dictionopolis and not the inhabitants of Digitopolis. I am probably not being fair, since poetry celebrates math in its rhythm and meter, but for me, anyways, April is Poetry Month.

Like many libraries around the world, we are using a “Poem in Your Pocket” theme to generate interest for poetry of all types. In the junior library, the bulletin board posts a challenge to young readers… read the “Pocket Poem” and find the book that contains the poem and indicate the page number. All entries will be put into a drawing at the end of the month for a prizes. (I usually give away books.)

The beautiful pockets were made by our head librarian who is an accomplished seamstress. We selected some of the poems to match the material pattern of the pockets. The pattern that included buses and crossroads and maps ended up holding Robert Frost’s “Road Less Traveled” in the junior library and “Travel” by Edna St. Vincent Millay in the high school library. A pocket whose patterns is populated with owls holds “The Owl and the Pussycat” and Joyce Sidman’s “Dark Emperor.”

We have collected poem suggestions and even original poems from school staff members. All library patrons are encouraged to “pick a pocket” and take one of the many poems home with them.

As patrons pocket our poems, we will add new ones. Here in Tokyo, as the sakura petals pile in drifts on the ground, it does seem very appropriate for April to be Poetry Month.

It’s hard not to stop and stare at the spectacle of falling pink snow. Perhaps that is why April is also officially “Distracted Driving Awareness Month.”

Making the Second Grade Buzz

Credit: leemt2 (FlickR Creative Commons)

Self-published authors of children’s books tend to agonize over how to create a buzz around their work.

M. Knoop; Natl. Trust for Scotland

We try everything: Facebook, email, blogs, discussion boards, reader and writer organizations, library lists, book reviewers… all in the efforts to get some grown-ups to notice our books, buy our books and give our creation some validity in the mature world of children’s publishing.

Well, I may not even be a blip on the radar of the publishing world yet, but by golly I sure made a bunch of our second graders buzz. Here is a link to a class blog that our second grade teacher kindly posted: Making It Educational; Princess Ramona.

The student reactions posted in the classroom blog are priceless:

YeJin – I liked when after Princess Ramona said, “You hurt my friend’s owie,” because it was funny. The dragon was crying like a 4 year old.

Nykolas – I liked the part when the knight came through the forest and the animals were ready to attack him. I liked the part when the king was in his seat and the animals were next to him and the dragon behind him and he didn’t know it. It is about helping each other.

Devika – I liked the part when Ramona set free the animals from the cage. It reminded me of Noah’s ark. It is a good book because it has funny and interesting things in it.

Reading directly to the students and seeing their reactions and hearing what they are noticing and learning from the story make all of those hours of writing and rewriting and polishing and programming completely worth it.

When all is said and done, a writer of literature is not producing for the reviewers or publishers, we are producing our craft for the children. A buzz from the tiniest of bees is always sweeter than the sweetest honey to the soul.

The History of Books, Libraries, and Getting Kids to Write

My final project for the COETAIL course in which I am currently enrolled consists of supporting a group of 4th graders as we attempt to create a digital book on the expansive topic of… The History of Books and Libraries. I work at an international school as the elementary division librarian, and the project began as a frustrated attempt to find readable and understandable material on the subject for my 3rd grade class as part of the library curriculum. I had one decent picture book to start with and had developed the curriculum from that point. After searching online for more kid-friendly information, I finally came to the conclusion that we would somehow have to create our own material. And that is why last year’s 3rd graders are now creating material that will be used by this year’s 3rd graders.

From an authentic need and an authentic audience comes an authentic use of technology.  The SAMR model helps to identify and analyze the uses of technology to determine whether technology is being used for its own sake or for accomplishing something original that technology finally makes possible.

Although academic instruction can be enhanced by the use of technology, the transformative use is the most valuable in pedagogy. The task which the 4th graders at our school are now tackling would not be possible without the use of technology.

Each student was given a subject within the span of the “History of Books and Libraries.” They were given a folder which contained a copy of one relevant page of a book on their subject  along with a few other resources. They began to work on the “who, when, where, what, why and how” or their topic and were shown how to search for additional information on the web relating to their topic.

Some of their sources were over their heads and a teacher or helper had to sit next to the student translating into age-appropriate vocabulary what their source material was trying to communicate. Then the student would write down what they understood from the material. A few students were tempted to copy the source material word-for-word into their own document, but were quickly found out when they could not explain the vocabulary words that they had typed. The content was explained and they rewrote their page in their own words. This was essential since students who were at their grade level or lower would be the audience for this book.

As the students researched more deeply and wrote in greater detail about their topic, they became more confident in their abilities. Merely learning that your first draft is rarely your best draft was worth the process as students self-edited, peer-edited and received many successive corrections back from the teachers. It was amazing to see how well the students persisted in their editing. They knew that it had to be polished and presentable as it would be published in the final book. They also understood that the content was more important than the form. They were not given the option of choosing their own font as this tends to sidetrack many for hours. They were not even given the option of finding graphics or illustrations for their page until their final text had been approved.

Students who finished editing the text of their page more quickly than others, were challenged to take their research and creation to the next level. Some wrote emails to experts on their subjects and some created models or paintings or pictures that would enhance their page in the book. A few are even creating movies to embed into their page.

One of the drawbacks of using iBooks Author was that the software is not designed to accommodate many creators or contributors at the same time. One person needs to compile the data; it is not a multi-user, magazine or newspaper publishing type of tool where copy editors and writers can all submit material in real time to a work in progress. Actually, my husband works for a company called Woodwing that sells just such a tool. It works very well and is used by Time magazine and other large companies. It has recently been adopted by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Mainichi Newspaper in Japan who used it first with their image-rich publication, Tap-i, which incorporates interactivity and embedded video into their weekly digital news magazine.

But for our purposes, the tech tools that we have chosen have served us well. We did run into some problems as the students attempted to drop their pages into my teacher Drop Box folder which has “Write-Only” capabilities and the folder did not show up. The tech department is fixing the link so that the next attempt will be successful. Students in 4th grade do not have their own email accounts so for some purposes, we had to use memory sticks to transfer data. The students could not access their student folders from home and so some could not work on their content at home. Many did not have Apple computers at home, so they had difficulty transferring some of the files. We are working around these issues, however, and the students are getting closer and closer to being ready to publish.

If this project is successful, we may make this publishing unit a regular fixture in the 4th grade curriculum. It gives the students a jump on the research and writing skills that they will need to tackle the more in-depth Independent Study Project, or ISP, that they all must deal with in 5th grade. As it is, they are getting lots of practice in editing, online research, proper image attribution and digital publishing. Many students will be embedding links into their pages that will take readers to museums, universities and other sites where further studies can undertaken. The students can’t wait to see where in the world their book may be downloaded.

 

Convolutions of Connections

 

The connections that technology can weave are simply mind-boggling. On a personal scale, I can find old friends whom I have not contacted in years. On a global scale, I can discover new friends that bring fresh perspectives on the world. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, email, online discussion groups (like SCBWI), online communities (like DeviantArt), all bring a network of individuals with common interests within reach.

This is all a bit daunting and challenging to a true introvert. I must admit that I was a bit put off by all this connectivity at first, but I can see the value in it. As certain political situations worldwide can demonstrate, it is neither wise nor healthy to live in a bubble of isolation. Connections with a variety of contacts keep us honest, humble and human. (Democrats and Republicans… are you listening? China, with your “Great Firewall,” are you listening?)

So, connections are good, but they can also be convoluted and confusing. While it may be prudent to sort your connections carefully into personal, hobby, business and political categories, the lines invariably cross. We find valuable connections where we least expect them to be. I found the illustrator for my children’s book on Deviant Art. I have discovered famous authors who have connected with me on LinkedIn. By way of my Kidsermons website, have been contacted by a pastor in Norway who translated my content and included it in a children’s sermon book, called Annerledeskongen, which has been distributed to many of the churches in Norway.

And although my blog is rarely read by anyone who does not know me, every once in a while, I realize that even this is a connection that can turn up in places where I would least expect it. I recently came across a link to my “View from the Trees” blog by a person in Sweden (who is a friend of my illustrator, Therese Larsson. I have included the blurb below for those of you who can speak Swedish:

Hi Ruth,
Stefan Zackrisson commented on a status that you’re tagged in.
Stefan wrote: “Eftersom mina google-skills är a+ ,http://ruth.ingulsrud.net/blog/2012/10/13/distractions-or-enhancements-the-interactive-question/ , Verkar helt klart intressant Therese Larsson :)”

In relating all of this to teaching… we are undoubtedly instructing our students on the importance of making good connections; not just in academic instruction (text-to-self, etc.) but in personal relationships. We are teaching them to be interested and connected to the world around them, and if we build into our curriculum, the chance to make authentic and valuable connections, we equip them for dealing with the complex interconnected world that they are growing into.

Just as we tend to straighten up and project our best image when we realize that we are being observed, students also straighten up and put their best effort forward when they realize that they have an authentic audience.

When I told the 4th grade students in our school that they would be publishing a digital book that could be downloaded by any student in the world, the intensity of focus was palpable. Most students have not even complained about the many drafts and corrections that they have had to make to their writing as they prepare to truly publish their work to the world. They know that their product, a book on the”History of Books and Libraries” will be used as part of the curriculum to teach the 3rd graders as our school, but they also realize that anyone around the world will be able to read this book as well. Connections are important.

We will be using iBooks Author to construct our book and the students are each writing a page on various topics related to the the history of books and libraries. Students are tackling subjects like, “Hieroglyphics,” “the Great Library of Alexandria,” “Pictograms,” “the Printing Press,” and even “Cave Paintings” as they attempt to show the progress of literacy and books throughout the history of man. It is a big undertaking, but I have been amazed at what the students have come up with. Some are even making connections beyond the classroom, emailing librarians at the Harvard Library system and at the oldest free public library in the United States, the Peterborough Library.

Through their research, the students are even creating connections to the past and beginning to understand history better. They are discussing ideas about what the world would be like if certain writing systems or inventions had never come to light. They are realizing the value of innovation, progress and record-keeping as they attempt to see the progression of a very big concept over time. Thinking and education should be about making connections; activating dendrites and synapses in the brain. It appears that through the challenge of research and creation, these students are certainly learning to think!

Hosting an Author

Last month, in September of 2012, I had the amazing honor of getting to host an internationally famous author, Sharon Draper, during her first-ever visit to Japan.

The catalyst for this opportunity came from the Sakura Medal Awards, which are organized by the librarians of international schools in Japan. It is one of the few literary awards in the world that is selected by young readers themselves. Students take great pride in the fact that they have the final say over who receives the Sakura medal in any given year.

I offered to send the 2011-2012 Sakura Medals to the winning picture book and chapter book authors, so that is how I ended up making contact with Sharon. Her book, Out of My Mind, was voted by the students as the best chapter book of the year. (Many seem to share the international students’ opinion, since this book has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for many weeks and has been translated into Russian and Chinese.) I sent her the congratulatory letter with its accompanying certificate, student artwork and burnished medallion, and she was very appreciative.

She mentioned that she was being sent to China in September as part of State-Department sponsored author tour representing the United States. Since she would be so close to Japan already, she wondered if she could squeeze in a quick trip to Tokyo to visit some of the students who had given her such a lovely medal. We quickly arranged a schedule and several of our international schools in Tokyo had the pleasure of getting to see Sharon present in her warm and personable, lively manner.

We were thrilled to host her and she was demonstrably thrilled with her time here in Japan. My husband and daughter and I got to show Sharon a bit of Tokyo on Sunday, her one full day of sightseeing. As soon as we started off in the morning, we were greeted with a mikoshi-carrying procession which had paused immediately in front of her hotel in Kichi-joji. It was a perfect day full of serendipitous experiences and our author seemed very happy to have had a taste of Tokyo. She even learned to use chopsticks for the first time, a skill that she later made use of in China.

We continue to stay in touch. I was very interested to hear about her experiences in China. One of the most touching meetings that she remembers was with a group of mothers who all had developmentally challenged children. Many of them had read Draper’s book, “Out of My Mind” and were dealing with the difficulties of raising a child with considerable challenges. They knew that they had an empathetic ear with Sharon and they poured out their hearts as they shared common struggles and griefs and hopes for their dear children. Sharon admitted that it was hard to know what to do or say in this situation. While technology and digital connections can often help, they are not the final answer or solution to all of the problems.

Out of My Mind

In Sharon’s book, Out of My Mind, the main character, Melody, who is confined (for the most part) to a wheelchair, is set free to communicate by means of an electronic talking machine, a table attached to the front of her wheelchair that can be manipulated to produce speech and phrases.

teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

She is finally able to show the world the brilliant mind that has been tucked away and ignored by her peers for so long. Technology opens up a whole world of connections to her and keeps her from going “out of her mind” in the isolation of her disability. Our world is now so intricately connected, one would think that no one needs to live in isolation. We blog and twitter and ichat and Facebook and email and FaceTime until we are saturated with connectivity. There is a lot of good in our tech-connectivity.

Still, we can feel like we are trapped in a fish bowl if we don’t possess the ability to connect soul-to-soul with another individual. Teaching students (and ourselves) to communicate on deep and personal levels, is a skill that should never be neglected in our rush to adopt the latest-and-greatest methods of electronic communication. If it does not enhance true communication, it’s just that much more electronic static. We should all strive to author our intentions and our ideas with as much clarity and depth as is possible with our resources. An accomplished author can touch the world with important ideas, and Sharon Draper’s visit reminded me of this important truth.

Student-Created iBook About Books

COETAIL Course 4 Final Project:

After checking with the 3rd grade teacher, I am cleared for revamping the 3rd grade library unit, “The History of Books and Libraries” for the 2012 – 2013 school year. I have designed tech-friendly unit that will create an end product which will be helpful as a teaching resource for not only our own school, but other schools as well.

The unit will incorporate several tools which we have explored in Course 4 of our CoETaIL cohort and will put into practice some of the things which we have learned so far in our pursuit towards a Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy. The end product will be a student-produced iBooks Author textbook that will be offered for free through our website or given away through the iTunes bookstore.

ISTE NETS for Students:

In designing this unit for our 3rd graders, here are the standards that I hope to address:

ISTE NETS
Creativity and Innovation
 1 Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:
a.apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.b.create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
Communication and Collaboration
 2 Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
a.interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.b.communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.

d.

contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

Research and Information Fluency
3 Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:
a.plan strategies to guide inquiry.b.locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.

c.

evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.

d.

process data and report results.

Digital Citizenship
5 Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:
a.advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.b.exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
Technology Operations and Concepts
6 Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students:
a.understand and use technology systems.b.select and use applications effectively and productively.

The unit will begin with the use of the “Flipped Classroom” model…

Flipped Classroom:

Students will work in pairs to study in depth one section of the “History of Books and Libraries” unit. As homework, all students will be required to watch an overview video and will answer questions related to the content while they watch. Students will be able to replay the video or pause it long enough to record their answers. This will be especially helpful to the ELL students who sometimes have trouble understanding all of the content the first time through.

Possible Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg-9kOixAbQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM7OZUWUC40

As I looked for resources before teaching the books unit this year, I found that there really wasn’t a lot out there geared to the elementary age level. What I really needed was an interactive textbook that a 3rd grade student could understand. The resource did not yet exist, so it would have to be created. The need for resources is part of the impetus behind this project.

 Technology Integration:

As technology should be integrated when and where it is most applicable and relevant, creating a digital book about the evolution of books themselves seems an appropriate application. The iBooks Author tool is designed to be easy to use and intuitive. In researching this option, I have experimented with creating some books of my own, but I was very impressed by one example of a student-produced book on the flora and fauna of Florida that I recently came across. I downloaded the book and will use it with my class to show what can be done with this book-authoring tool. Creatures, Plants and More! by Andrea Santilli and her 7th grade students is available for free download at the iTunes store. Their project was recently highlighted in an article for MacLife.

As you can see, this is a chance for reaching the Transformation level of the SAMR model as the task of creating an eBook allows the students to do something previously inconceivable.

I can’t wait to see what the students create and hear about all that they learn through the process of creation.

Is It PC to Police a PC?

Is it PC to police a student’s PC? And even if it’s not politically correct, is it still necessary?No one wants to be a killjoy, obviously, but some of us are tasked with the unpleasant job of making sure that students do not misuse the ubiquitous tech tools that have infiltrated our schools with their amazing socially connective abilities. In other words, we have to make sure that kids are not texting, skyping, iChatting, messaging, Facebooking and Tweeting each other when they are supposed to be doing schoolwork or homework or some other kind of work that has nothing to do with talking to your neighbor. This role as overseer and PC police is the least favorite part of my job. To misquote the beloved Kermit the Frog, “It’s not easy being mean.”

I work in the library and the library is full of computers and full of students who bring various other electronic devices into the library with them. Part of my job is to monitor computer use and make sure that students are using their time wisely.  So, if someone is playing a video game, or chatting on Facebook, or watching the latest YouTube sensation, it is my job to redirect them… or if they have been “redirected” on previous occasions, simply take away their distracting device or revoke the privilege of studying in the library. Bummer of a job, but someone has to do it.

Of course, determining whether or not a student is on or off-task is becoming more difficult. At times, a student is searching for an image on Facebook to use in a multi-media presentation for Social Studies. Some students are improving their typing speed or math skills through the use of a fast-paced video game. Students collaborate with each other on many projects throughout the year and the content of text-messages during the school day is often precisely on-topic and quick succinct communication is helping the student group complete their project on time.

Most students know the rules and follow them. The biggest deterrent from veering away from work mode seems to be library layout. Most of the computer screens can be easily seen from the circulation desk where the library staff is usually working. The one table that is out of our line of sight is off limits to students who are using laptops. And students who are using laptops at the tables are aware that librarians and other teachers are often walking around, checking on student work.

One can usually tell when a student is off-task by observing body language, and by observing the students who are sitting next to them. It is hard to avoid looking at another student’s computer when a new music video begins to play. It is easy to ignore that same computer when a Keynote presentation is slowly taking shape.

But policing the personal computers is not the ultimate solution. Students eventually have to take responsibility for their own use of time and their resultant success or failure in school. They do need to understand that their own habits will help them or hurt them in the end.

There has been some talk about the benefits of “Tech Breaks” in class, where students are allowed a few minutes during class to check Facebook and messages before they all get back to the task of learning. I explained the concept to my 9th grade daughter and asked her what she thought of it. “I don’t think it’s a good idea,” she said. “It pulls your focus away from class and is distracting. Besides, anytime that you are checking Facebook during school, you are doing so with a nervous attitude. I would rather wait till after school when I can really relax and enjoy messaging with my friends. I like letting the tension build throughout the day and then when the school day is over, you can see if you’ve got any notes or comments from friends. It’s more fun that way.”

I think that providing students with tools to manage their time and distractions and letting them design their own system is probably the most effective way to really manage in-school electronic device use. If a student wants to get a message to a peer, they will find a way to do it. Students do need to understand and experience the consequences of their choices, but they should also be offered guidance to improve their use of time. Perhaps a tech-night highlighting tools for workload and study time management would be in order.

Here are just a few examples of available tools:

Study Buddy App  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/study-buddy/id328245389?mt=8

iProcrastinate App  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iprocrastinate/id413662017?mt=12

SelfControl (Free App)  http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31289/selfcontrol

Omniwriter (simplifies desktop; removes distractions) http://www.ommwriter.com/

Pomodori (study timer; project management)  http://reborg.github.com/pomodori/

ManicTime (tracks time spent on which sites and applications)  http://www.manictime.com/

With students effectively managing their own digital device use, I could use my time for better things, like helping with research skills and incorporating eBooks into our library check-out system.

Classroom Outside the Box

“The classroom is obsolete,” proclaims futurist architect Prakash Nair in a recent article about how modern schools should be redesigned. The world today is very different from the Industrial Revolution era when many of our classrooms today were designed.

www.designshare.com

Thinking back over my most memorable and content-rich learning experiences, most of them took place outside of the physical classroom during well-scaffolded field trips and all of them were significant because I was completely invested in the learning activity. Although I spent most of my time in within the four walls of a physical classroom, it seems that most of the learning occurred elsewhere.

Prakash Nair is an architect who designs environmentally-friendly learning spaces. His projects are all over the world, with several of them housing thriving learning communities near the city where I grew up in Minnesota. My family built a house near a forest of a hundred acres or so, land that had been set aside as a nature preserve by its owner, railroad magnate, James J. Hill. Portions of this preserve have since been sold off by his grandchildren, but while I was growing up, the forest was my classroom. I learned about the indigenous plants, animals, insects and biomes as I wandered daily though the woods with my Golden Retriever, Cinnamon, by my side. I always thought that a school that embraced the out-of-doors would be an ideal learning space.

 

egreenstore.com


So I was intrigued to see that Nair had designed the “School of Environmental Studies” next door to the Minnesota Zoo where 11th and 12th grade students interact often with their natural surroundings and through their project-based learning, make positive and constructive contributions to the environment. This all adds up to a compelling motivation to move back to Minnesota so that our daughter might be able to attend this school when she reaches 11th grade.

Another example of a school that does not box its student in is the Australian Science and Mathematics School where students design their own practicals and learn mathematics and science as they explore real concepts and design their own experiments often in conjunction with University scientists.

Photo by RiAus RiAus @ the Science Exchange

These schools have student motivation and interest at the heart of their design and function. They take seriously the fact that real learning is student-motivated and tends to extend out into the post-secondary education world of life-work.

The Horizon Report, which attempts to summarize where technology is taking the world of education also confirms the value of self-motivated learning.

As one of the “mega-trends” in the report states:

  • There is a rise in informal learning as individual needs are redefining schools, universities, and training. Traditional authority is increasingly being challenged, not only politically and socially, but also in academia — and worldwide. As a result, credibility, validity, and control are all notions that are no longer givens when so much learning takes place outside school systems.

So an educational system that provides competent resources and opportunity for collaborative, student-driven learning is becoming more and more valuable in our well-connected, resource and information-rich world.

It seems as if the teacher is taking on a role as more of a guide and mentor to help students find their own areas of interest and expertise. As knowledge increases exponentially, it seems that there is a value in students being able to hone in early on their intended area of expertise. The quicker they master the foundational knowledge of one subject, the faster they can build on that previous knowledge and take it even further.

Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine

Letting our students out of the box of the traditional school structure is frightening for some who feel a need to control most aspects of a student’s learning. But students do not learn best when knowledge is forced upon them. They learn best and most authentically when the learning is something that they chase after and discover for themselves. The resources for student-driven learning are now abundant and growing. Schools can now find their worth in how well they bring the tools and learning opportunities to their students and how well they ready them for the rigors of real-world work and innovative thinking.

Good Question

If a student in the modern classroom asks a brilliant question related to the topic being studied, do they receive credit for positing that question?

From: uniqueteachingresources.com

Probably not. Most teachers are looking for answers, and they are often looking for the specific answer that they have in mind.

My husband recalls that when he was a boy, when he got home from school, his father would not ask, “What did you learn in school today?” Instead he would ask, “Did you ask any good questions?” I guess he was ahead of his time.

The authors of “A New Culture of Learning,” Douglas Thomas and John Seely, feel that the current state of education has it backwards. They believe that questions should carry more weight than answers. “We feel the leaders of the 21st century are going to be the ones who can ask the best questions and drive things forward. The kinds of questions we are talking about lead to outcomes and those also provide a kind of verification as to whether the questions are good ones or not.” (from Forbes.com)

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True learning comes out of an intense motivation to discover something or to unravel a problem. If there is no burning question or problem to begin with, then motivation can be lukewarm at best. Many of the new teaching methods build on the motivation kindled by starting with the problem, the challenge of a game or beginning the class with the homework or lab instead of the lecture.

I know from experience that my students are more engaged with a lesson when I announce that “today is a test day!” because they know that almost all of my tests involve a game of some kind. I do have the luxury of not having to grade my library students, but they also know that if they perform well during the test, there may be a reward at the end. The students have learned that I reward cooperation more than competition. In fact, during the last “test” of whether or not students could find a book from a specific subject area in the Dewey-organized shelves, I saw students on opposing teams helping each other out on several occasions. The whole class got gummy bears for being so “flexible” and sweet to each other.Portrait by Michal Fanta; michalfanta.com

Teachers are increasingly looking at games as a way to engage and motivate their learners. I favor active, interactive games during library class, but I can see the value of also occasionally using video game-type activities to motivate students to learn. The “games” that many teachers are talking about seem to be video-centric with each person meeting challenges presented by the computer software as it detects their level. The computer moves each user into their ZPD, their zone of proximal development. “With the best games, the player is challenged at exactly the right level and in the right way to keep the player playing. Maybe the question we need to ask is what about games causes youth to engage that our traditional approach to education lacks,” says Brian Alspach, Executive Vice President of E-Line Media, an educational games publisher well known for their game Gamestar Mechanic.”

 

Users, however,  do not usually have to collaborate with users not in their ability range, nor do they have to negotiate many of the social and interactive aspects of playing a face-to-face board game. The importance of providing opportunities for collaboration in the classroom cannot be stressed enough. Students can always play educational video games in the isolation of their homes, but the community provided by a classroom should always be used to its fullest potential.

This is why I think the “Flipped Classroom”  holds so much promise, especially for certain subject areas that require a basic knowledge of key concepts before problems and experiments can be tackled. I know that my own 9th grader would greatly benefit from flipped math and science classrooms. The lecture portion of a class often goes too quickly for her to retain all of the important points, and there is no replay function. The classroom setting is full of distractions and so the teacher does not always receive the full attention needed in order to grasp the complex explanations. Many students do much better in class when they are able to watch the lecture at home and then arrive at class full of questions, ready to do their homework in the presence of collaborating fellow students and a teacher who is now freed from having to lecture from the front of the room for the entire hour. Instead the teacher can circulate helping students one-on-one and in small groups with the important questions that are now being asked.orton-gillingham-tutors.com

There is somewhat of a problem applying the flipped model to my library classes, however, as library time is less of a lecture and more of a real-time interaction with story reactions and connections. During the read alouds and content lessons, there are many ad-libbing opportunities with puppets, and a constant adjustment of reading style and material to the audience present. Library time is, in part, performance and play. Some lessons can use the flipped model (for example, research skills) but others must maintain their life and liveliness.

Bringing the essential nature of play back into the classroom is a great idea. In some classrooms, of course, play never left in the first place, but in others, the spark and motivation that should always accompany learning needs to be re-introduced. Although every student needs to mature throughout the school years, too often the valuable components of the child spirit are squeezed out before a student emerges into the adult work world, just when they need the ability to be flexible, to create and to imagine.

The director of the current M.I.T. Media Lab explains, “In this new world, not only must we behave more like children, we also must teach the next generation to retain those attributes that will allow them to be world-changing, innovative adults who will help us reinvent the future.” – Joichi Ito

So here is a question for you… How can we ensure that students do not lose the best part of their childlike approach to the world while making sure that they are mature enough to meet all of its challenges? Although the word, “neoteny” usually refers to the retention of childlike physical characteristics, we seem to need a retention of some childlike mental attributes into adulthood, such as idealism, experimentation and wonder. Perhaps I’ve found a working name for my new school: The Neoteny Academy.