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What’s The Difference Between Teaching And Learning? #TeacherMom

Have you ever asked your kids the difference? Can they distinguish one from the other?

I tried asking one of my kids, who responded, “Teaching is when a person who knows everything teaching other people what they know. Learning is people listening to the person teaching.”

That answer made me wonder: how might we help our children and students see teachers as learners every bit as themselves? How might we let go of the idea of the teacher of the main know-er of things in our classrooms? What are the benefits of children making these kinds of shifts in perspective?

Perhaps we might…

…share our (authentic) personal learning journeys with our students.

…ask students to help plan the learning that happens.

…ask students to help lead workshops on the concepts they are learning about.

…minimize “secret teacher business” by demystifying planning and letting students in on curricula (think “I can” statements that students revisit throughout the year).

What do you think? What kinds of values do you see in helping students compare and contrast teaching and learning?

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Inquiry into the 4 C’s: Collaboration

This is a series of provocations designed to provide resources for students to inquire into the Four C’s of 21st Century Learning. For more, click here.

The last in this mini series of posts on the 4 C’s of 21st Century learning. Collaboration can be a tricky one, especially when students equate it with group projects where only one kid does the work. But authentic collaboration is nothing like those group projects. Done right, it can be inspiring, fulfilling, and world-changing. Share these resources with students to help them inquire into the true nature of collaboration.

Resource #1: The Globemakers: Craft with a Modern Spin by Great Big Story

Resource #2: Filmbilder Animanimals videos: Ant & Crocodile

Resource #3: Mozart Symphony No. 40 by Berliner Philharmoniker

Resource #4: ÖVERALLT – IKEA collaborating with African designers by Ikea Today

Resource #5: Carl & the Meaning of Life by Deborah Freedman

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Provocation Questions:

  • What is collaboration like when it works? What is it like when it doesn’t?
  • How can collaboration help the individual? How can it help the group?
  • What are is the responsibility of the individual when collaborating? What is the responsibility of the group?

featured image: DeathToTheStockPhoto

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Inquiry into the 4 C’s: Communication

This is a series of provocations designed to provide resources for students to inquire into the Four C’s of 21st Century Learning. For more, click here.

Does anyone else find the concept of communication fascinating? Its history? The way it’s evolving? The way people seem to bend it in new ways to meet their needs?

That’s why I hope you enjoy this provocation with your students. There is so much to think about beyond just the stereotypical, “Can you clearly convey your ideas?”

Resource #1: The Evolution of the Desk by Harvard Innovation Lab via designboom

Resource #2: The Science of Science Communication by the Duke & the Duck

Resource #3: Vonage – Communication is Everything by Steve Savalle

Resource #4: Satirizing ‘code-switching’ on screen by Newsy

Resource #5: Picture books ~ Say Something by Peter Reynolds & The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet by Carmen Agra Deedy

Provocation Questions:

  • How is communication changing today? How is it compare to the past? What is the same and what is different about communication now vs. communication throughout human history?
  • What are examples of modern communication?
  • What is the connection to social justice and communication?
  • How does code-switching work in communication? Why is it significant?

featured image: DeathToTheStockPhoto

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Inquiry into the 4 C’s: Critical Thinking

This is a series of provocations designed to provide resources for students to inquire into the Four C’s of 21st Century Learning. For more, click here.

Critical thinking can be exceptionally difficult to describe, even for adults. Why is this? How might giving students resources to investigate it as a concept help them develop their own views on what it really means to be a critical thinker?

Resource #1: What’s Going On In This Photo photoseries by NY Times


Photoseries by the New York Times

Resource #2: How to Spot a Pyramid Scheme by TED Ed & Stacie Bosley, via The Kid Should See This

Resource #3: Anti-Racism Experiment on Oprah (note: 2:32, the “N” word is used to describe racist thinking)

Resource #4: Except If by Jim Averbeck

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Resource #4: The Girl Who Thought in Pictures by Julia Finley Mosca & Daniel Rieley

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Provocation Questions:

  • Why can critical thinking be hard for us to define?
  • What might be some differences between critical thinking and ordinary thinking?
  • Why is critical thinking important today? How does the massive volume of information available online make it even more important?
  • What is the connection between critical thinking and addressing racism and social injustice?
  • What is our personal responsibility to develop our own critical thinking? How can it impact our lives? Our communities?

featured image: DeathToTheStockPhoto

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Inquiry into the 4 C’s: Creativity

This is a series of provocations designed to provide resources for students to inquire into the Four C’s of 21st Century Learning. For more, click here.

By far the most helpful way I’ve found to help students foster their own creativity is to openly and continually discuss my own messy and imperfect journey toward creativity with them. Until our students see its authentic application in those they trust, they will likely continue to see it as something just for those artist-type folks.

Meanwhile, these resources may serve as part of those discussions, and to help students consider what it really means for them!

Resource #1: Creative Types Personality Quiz by Adobe Create

Resource #2: Large Domino Chain: Small Actions, Large Results

Resource #3: Student Design Award Winner – Curiosity: Exploration & Discovery by RSA

Resource #4: The Book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken & Hum & Swish by Matt Myers

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Provocation Questions:

  • Why does creativity matter in our world today?
  • Why does creativity matter for you personally? How can it impact your life? Your family? Your community?
  • How might creativity look for different people?
  • What is the connection between risk-taking and creativity?
  • What are the different perspectives on creativity in various jobs?
  • How does honoring our own creativity impact the world?

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How Teaching Is Like Hiking With a 2 Year-Old #TeacherMom

Make sure he knows my hand is close through this rough part. Good call–he grabbed it. Let go when he indicates he’s ready to try independently again. Stand ready with the invitation next time.

Take note of his self-talk. He’s clearly anxious about approaching the water fall. Encourage those conversations about what to expect and how it might look and feel.

Occasionally grab him when he strays precariously close to the edge of the trail, and discuss what exactly is dangerous about it.

Let him run ahead when he feels confident & I can see the path is manageable (while eagerly announcing to passing hikers, “I very fast!”)

Navigate tricky terrain together, answering his questions about what happened to the trees, helping him try out new words like “avalanche.”

We stand ready for wherever the learning may lead; extending the invitation for support, setting an environment for exploration and thinking, responding to the needs and questions that arise, intervening when serious situations arise.

It seems teacher mode and connection-making simply never turns off, not even especially on a hike with a 2 year-year old. Clearly, watching learning unfold will never stop being a thrill for me!

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5 Things That Might Be Worse Than Summer Slide

Here’s a funny thing about this post: I actually had spent the weekend questioning the idea of “summer slide” (the alleged phenomenon in which students lose 2+ months of learning from the previous school year), only to open my computer on Monday to find this post on Edutopia: “New Research Casts Doubt on the ‘Summer Slide.'”

Here are 5 things that might be worse than that supposed summer slide:

1. Missing out on hose water, muddy hands, and grass stains.

2. Poisoned reading attitudes because of all those mandatory summer reading assignments.

3. Neglecting mixed-age & unstructured play opportunities: building blocks of childhood development that can be difficult to attend to during school months.

4. Underdeveloped balance and motor skills that interfere even with the child’s ability to sit upright once school resumes.

5. Missed opportunities to learn a new skill & develop self-regulation: riding a bike, learning to swim, even entrepreneurship.

Of course reading and math are important, and we all want to see our children grow. But growing, thriving, healthy children involves so much more than this narrow scope. Let’s not let our fear of “falling behind” get in the way of magical summers in which our kids are free to explore world around them, catching fireflies, selling lemonade, working on family projects, and starting clubs with friends. Let’s honor the many ways a child can grow throughout the summer.

featured image: DeathToTheStockPhoto