Final Course Blog

          In my quest for a masters degree, I have been very pleased with the program I chose.  Because I teach middle school, I  have been doing research on what a student in middle school feels is essential to learn.  With this program, I  have been learning about many aspects of educational programs that will help in the understanding of what is essential learning.  The concept of essential learning sounds vague, and it can be.  Since many of us are are tied to the curriculum at hand,  it is not in stone that we cannot deviate from this and enhance our teaching style by looking into the 21st Century learning as a way of propelling students into their future.  For middle school students, learning about the brain and how it is so different from other age group brains has given me a greater understanding of how to approach my students.  Being more creative can lead to more motivation.  I do know that certain motivation techniques with the students do not work, but the lesson on the types of motivation has allowed me to focus within the classroom using the motivation that does seem to work.  Being presented the flipped classroom model has also given me a better understanding of what it is and I was pleasantly surprised when I gained a greater understanding from one of the leading experts in the field.  I am excited to learn more, practice more and allow my classroom to reap the benefits of my energy.

Flipping the Classroom / CBLs

      Motivation that is driven by extrinsic rewards are not working, examples are numerous at my school.  They are short-lived and I rarely see the long lasting effects.  Although our school does feel that  "if you feed them, they will come" is our approach to getting parents to our Back to School Nights, Open House, etc.  And parents do come!  So much for my theory.  I feel that intrinsic motivation is what will guide our society to greatness.  My 8th graders perform ten hours of community outreach each year as part of their requirements for graduation.  Putting these students into a help your community mind set hopefully will be carried on through high school.  I was much more impressed with the CBL concept than that of flipping the classroom.  I can see the potential for great works.  Students are compassionate when there is a cause they can be part of.  I see this in my town especially when it comes to reaching out to fellow peers and problems.  Real world situations are hard to gain involvement in, but area involvement similar to the Resilience video (which brought a tear to my eye) is a great way to start this process, and then it can be expanded to a more global approach.  What I could envision is using a global problem that is also within our area, such as hunger, homelessness or drug abuse.  I was impressed with the technology used and how it made me feel was that we could do this.  Students can benefit from this type of education as well.  I do wish that the demographics of the pilot schools were more equally distributed when it came to cultures.
     Looking at the "flipping" model, I could not get over my own roadblock of students not completing their outside homework or projects when they are asked to complete them at home.  I read the cons regarding this way of teaching and it brought home to me that studying and homework at home is something I need to solve within the classroom culture.  No, more like the school culture.  But since I am always looking for ways to challenge the students, I have a lesson in mind.  We are studying the Constitution and for their upcoming assessment, a brief video in DVD format or online could give some of the students who participate the edge that some may need.  This will also be a start towards changing my classroom community in regards to the importance of "homework".

Creativity and Learning Videos

While watching the presentations of the five speakers, I was appreciative of the vision's they all have.  To have the potential to change the fabric of our educational system with new and exciting ideas is mind boggling.  John Seeley Brown gives us insight to the new culture of learning.  By creating new and not saving the old processes and pedagogy's.  Honoring the way students develop curiosity for a subject.  Let the students explore to their hearts content, without hindering their approach.  We participate, therefore we are.  Collaboration, group work, project based learning techniques work.
Howard Gardner's 7 Intelligences theory is still being studied and now his Five Minds for the Future concepts are just as important.  1)Disciplined mind-education for understanding, becoming an expert in some area, become a history, math, artistic, science thinker.  2)Synthesizing Mind- the what and why of facts that your mind holds onto.  3)Creative Mind- always comes up with something new.  4) Respectful Mind- concepts not upheld in the community but still is very important.  5)Ethical Mind- the obligations and responsibilities within your trade.
Ken Robinson talks about how Schools Kill Creativity and how creativity is just as important to our curriculum as literacy.   Rethinking the principals of why we are educating our children.  To what end does this education lead?  We are in a world of degrees, he calls it academic inflation.  One degree is not enough and each career is setting the standards higher requirements.
Daniel Pink discusses the science of motivation.  He feels that the if/then reward system of old is destroying creativity.  We should not allowing the extrinsic reward system to be guiding our students education but rather the intrinsic system.  Having the students do something because they want to and they feel it is important.  He furthers discusses his 21st Century plan for success-Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.
And finally, Sebastian Seung ties all of the concepts together with a discussion of how the brain handles these various new ideas.  He talks about the working side of the ideas, the brain, a place where it is so true that if you do not use it, you lose it.
As I watched these videos and listened to the lectures, I came away with the possibility that we do have hope for the future if we radically change the way and what we teach.  We do have programs for middle school teachers that promotes creativity and many of the concepts that Gardner talks about.  I feel that we do not do a good enough job with these programs. We do not know how to incorporate these important lessons into our daily curriculum, or is it we do not have the time?  We need to make the time. I found that the common threads had to do with being able to form a whole child that is not only aware of his strengths and weaknesses, but is also compassionate and forward thinking using creativity as the guide.  In my case, allowing for this type of learning is much more difficult.  Difficult not do to the lesson plans, but from the behavior plans.  I just keep telling myself to breath!
All of these concepts along with the others that I have been introduced to are truly Innovative Learning Techniques.

Learning and Creative Minds

In the search for the creative mind among middle school students, I was drawn to the article, Can Creativity be Taught? by Louis R. Mobley.  He does a very good job of detailing what it takes to develop a creative mind.  It was telling for me to read that his first requirement was that "traditional teaching methodologies are useless".  What?  He is right of course, not all students are wired to learn in a traditional setting.  "To be creative, you have to unlearn."  Think of a box and now think outside of it.  "We don't learn to be creative, we must become creative people" Take a step out of your own body.  "The fastest way to be creative is to hang around creative people."  Yes, immerse yourself among like-minded people.  "Creativity is correlated with self-knowledge" Being able to open up those files inside your brain as needed.
As I look out at my 7th/8th grade class during the day, I only hope that what I do in class with them for those 6 hours a day creates a learning community that is working its way to being creative.  I know that it is not enough to learn the 3R's, but to embrace the questions that education poses.  To try to answer the questions that will never go away, the Whys and How's.  Being able to be their guide through their own creativity search is why I teach.