It’s never ceased to amaze me how many people honestly believe that making something off-limits will protect others. It rarely works that way, mainly because forbidding something just triggers the innate curiosity we’re all born with.

Rather than block access to something you perceive as dangerous, teach the people you’re trying to block out. Teach them what the blocked item is, and then explain why you feel they shouldn’t go near it. It’s far easier to get a toddler to not touch a hot stove if you help them understand why than to just tell them not to do it.

Adults are much the same way. If you tell someone to not do something, and the best reason you can come up with is some variation on either, “Just don’t do it,” or, “Trust me,” you can rest assured the other person will do it. You haven’t given them an actual reason to listen to your advice. School districts are learning this the hard way as they’re slowly coming to realize their students will be far safer with lessons on how to live online safely than if they block MySpace and Facebook from school networks.
People, regardless of their age, respond best to reason. Even those crazy, rebellious teenagers are more likely to actually listen if you can give them actual reasons. If you forbid, regardless of the age, you’ll lost your audience.

Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 7:44 AM EST

No Comments »

Two of my hobbies include watching cartoons and reading graphic novels, so I guess it’s no surprise that as a teacher I’m now also interested in cartoons with the E/I (educational and informative) rating and world manga that has been repurposed to teach SAT-level vocabulary words.

I haven’t had any success finding how cartoons and other programming targeting children earn the E/I rating, but I have fun trying to see if I can determine what makes the show educational and informative. For shows like CTW’s Sesame Street and Nick Jr’s Dora the Explorer, it’s fairly obvious. They embed their learning activities pretty transparently. But for shows like the WB’s Magi-Nation cartoon, the teaching moment is embedded into the storyline itself, much the way action cartoons have embedded useful trivia for decades. The magi come across a situation that can only be solved by tapping into their knowledge of math, science, or history. The teacher in me finds it pretty obvious, but my inner ten-year-old realizes she’d learn that if Teacher Rebecca didn’t exist. (It’s often amazed me how much I learned from the non-E/I cartoons I watched as a kid.) Of course, then there are the standouts, like an Italian cartoon that was translated by 4Kids as Winx Club. It had the E/I rating all three seasons it ran, and the best I could figure was that it centered around a bit of the Character Counts curriculum.

Then there are the world manga (graphic novels produced in a manga style outside Japan) that are being infused with SAT-level vocabulary to help kids better prepare for the test that is a major key to their getting into their chosen colleges. I haven’t seen one yet, but apparently the words are worked into the book. They’re bolded and defined on the page where they first appear, and then they’re also in a glossary in the back of the book. It’s a great way to reach kids who love anime and manga, but all but refuse to do any school work. (It’s often amazed me how many of these kids I tutor…).

Naturally, I look at both of these and think, “Hmm…how can I use this to my advantage?” Working on Dead Bunny material, it’s important to me to create the bits of math knowledge kids are going to need, and then to show them how and why they might use their new skills. I want to be able to develop teaching moments that come from an engaging character in an engaging story, and I want those teaching moments to stay with the student long after they’ve put down the book, the game, the video, etc.

It’s a lot to shoot for, some of it beyond my current skills level. I think I need a partner in crime…or maybe a mentor?

Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:42 AM EST

No Comments »

Over the holidays, I read this interesting article (that I somehow managed to not save somewhere) that suggested not presenting the behavioral objective to the student.

What? The madness? How will the student be engaged if they don’t know what we’re doing?

Actually, the article presented a far more authentic method for making the student aware of what was going to be taught. The student is given a task that requires the skill to complete. Not realizing this, the student attempts the task, and fails. The instructor then steps on and shows how to complete the task.

At first, I was definitely still thinking, “That’s crazy. Brilliant. But crazy.” Then, I realized it’s not. It’s natural, and it’s what I do with my math students.

I work in a tutoring center that has its own full curriculum, which means I often have students with gaps in their math or students who have learned skills in class since their program was generated. When I go to teach a new skill to a student, I ask them a question linking back to another skill. If they answer that without problem or with just a little prompting, I give them a problem using the skill I’m about to teach. If the student solves the problem without any issues, we move on to the next skill. If they get stuck, more often than not they ask me to show them how to solve it, giving me an even more authentic lead-in to my teaching, and I know the student will be engaged because they want to know how to do it.

This is something I should keep in mind as I start working on Dead Bunny media offerings. It’s a good, natural way to approach presenting new skills.

Posted by Rebecca as Teaching methods at 8:47 AM EST

No Comments »

Scene: My workplace, any day of the week.

Me: What do we do next?

Student: (looks at the desk, the floor, the clock on the wall, anywhere but the problem we’re working on)

Me: What do you think?

Student: (tentatively) I don’t know. (says exactly the right answer) I don’t know. Why are you asking me this? I don’t want to work on this any more. I don’t know any of this.

Me: But you just got it.

Student: Really?

It often amazes me how many of my students are afraid to speak up when I ask them how to do something, especially since I work with them in what is essentially a one-to-one environment. They really are afraid that they have no earthly idea what’s going on, that they’re stupid. It’s like pulling teeth to get them to make their best guess, despite the fact that when they stop to think about it, they either know what to do or they land on the right track.

They’re so afraid of making a mistake (either out of fear of sounding stupid or because of a hyper-critical teacher at school) that they really don’t want to think about things they aren’t sure about to begin with. That fear, I fear, holds way too many of my bright students from reaching their academic potential.

Fear is a funny thing. It can motivate you to put forth effort where you might not care otherwise. It can also cause you to hide from challenges you are more than capable of facing and defeating. It’s that second kind of fear that keeps my students from taking a chance because they’re afraid of making a mistake.

I’m trying to help them see that making mistakes is a good thing. (You’d think they’d get the message by now with all the mistakes I make.) Making mistakes allows a teacher to see where a student isn’t understanding the material, which leads to the teacher helping the student understand and move past that. Making mistakes is part of accommodation, which permits us to learn more. Making mistakes often leads to innovation and invention.

To paraphrase Thomas Edison, “I didn’t fail. I just learned several ways how not to do something.” That’s really all a mistake is, a way to not do something.

Inspired by The Many Errors in Thinking About Mistakes

Posted by Rebecca as Components of Learning, Experiential Learning at 7:40 AM EST

No Comments »

Posted by Rebecca as Reflective teaching at 7:34 AM EST

1 Comment »

Before you get your hopes us, I haven’t suddenly become a Wikipedia convert. I just want to draw everyone’s attention to valid ways to use Wikipedia when doing research for a paper or project.

Wikipedia should never be used as a primary source, but it can be used to find a jumping-off point when you can’t find any other way to get started researching your topic.

Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 7:50 AM EST

1 Comment »

Among other things, I teach study skills at work. They fight it tooth and claw, but eventually my students understand that organizing their learning material and reviewing that material is more helpful than just shoving everything into the bottom of their backpack.

When you take care of your notes and ideas, you’re far more likely to learn from them. You write the notes. You read over the notes. You review the notes. With any hope, you reflect on the notes you’ve taken. This is what creates the more permanent memory of what you learned, and helps you retain information past tests and projects so you’ll have it at your fingertips the next time you need it.

Tim Milburn recently shared his Learning Journal Worksheet over at Joyful Jubilant Learning. It’s pretty nice. There are spots for notes, sketches, learning-related actions, reflections, and my favorite part, how the learner can teach the skill or concept to someone else. I’ve long supported peer teaching because it’s really in being able to clearly explain something to someone else that we acquire full mastery over it.

Maybe you can find a way to work it into your own studies.

Posted by Rebecca as Learning methods at 8:06 AM EST

No Comments »

I don’t recall who shared this link with me originally, but this letter to teachers is just dead on.

Let’s start with the obvious: children are not short adults. A child’s job is to have fun, to learn everything they can, and to make mistakes in a safe environment. They have some valuable life experiences, but they are still gaining them. Many of them haven’t had many opportunities to find out what they can and can’t do yet, because they’re children.
The person they are in kindergarten is not the person they are in fifth grade is not the person they are in middle school or high school. Like adults, children change as they go through their life. Like adults, they may try on different hobbies and attitudes until they find the one that actually fits them.

When a child says, “Hey, I want to try something,” and it’s outside what they’ve done in the past, a parent (or teacher) trying to protect the child from failure often talks the child out of it. But why? Maybe that new direction is the one that will lead the student on to the path that will make them a successful adult. Why not let the child experiment while the parent (or teacher) is there to help them learn to handle either the resulting success or failure?

Children are not short adults. They should be given the chance to experiment within safe boundaries. Give a child a chance. Let them make their mistakes. Let them surprise you with their successes. Be a guide, not a bunker.

The future deserves that much.

Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 8:05 AM EDT

No Comments »

(Isn’t it funny that the blog that focuses on my primary profession and my passion is the one I’m suddenly having so much trouble writing for?)

I’m probably overly fascinated by the “E/I” (educational and informative) logo on children’s television shows. I’ve actually tried to find the criteria for a show to earn this logo since it mysteriously showed up on an Italian import that had no discernible educational content whatsoever. (If anyone knows what the criteria is, please drop me a line.)

Anyone who works with kids knows, though, that it isn’t just the shows designed to teach kids that actually teach them. I’ll go to show one of my students something, and they’ll just do it or be able to answer my question. I smile inwardly as they proudly tell me about some section of a video game where they had to do something related to get past the section, or about how some cartoon character used the same thing to solve a problem. It may not have been the intention of the game or cartoon to teach the skill, but it happened anyway.

I’ve been thinking about that while playing at creating my first attempts at educational programming. Granted, right now I’m still working on the more obviously educational projects, but I’m also quietly putting thought and time toward other, less obviously educational projects. What’s the line? What’s the right balance between a blatant educational experience and a shrouded teaching moment?

The grad school I keep trying to make myself apply for has suddenly sent me a newsletter. I’m thinking I should take advantage of it to hunt down a real person in the department so I can talk to them and see if that program really is a good fit for me so I can just make my decision once and for all. I’m really just too fascinated by educational media to let it go.

Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Experiential Learning, Games at 8:23 AM EDT

No Comments »

Girls have had to fight for so long to gain confidence and interest in math. There are programs and “girl-colored” tools to help them become more interested in math.

Someone has finally realized it’s now the boys’ turn, except this time the content area is reading. In trying to appeal to more girl readers, publishers have been making the books students would choose to read in their free time appear more girly. What teenage boy wants to read a book with a pink cover?

The article does note that some effort is being made to make some covers more gender-neutral, but it never really does a good job of explaining why the off-putting covers developed to begin with. If anything, they write it off to better sales and deliberately leave the boys out.

That sounds a bit too much like what happened to girls in math. “Oh, it’s okay if they don’t understand it. They’re just girls.”

“Oh, it’s okay if this book doesn’t appeal to boys. Boys don’t read anyway.” Maybe instead of dismissing this as a given, some effort should be put forth to help boys stay encouraged about reading by creating published materials that won’t make them afraid to pick up a book.
Encouraging stereotypes is never okay, especially if it hurts the group in question.

Posted by Rebecca as Current Affairs at 7:47 AM EDT

No Comments »