PERPLEXITY – Key learning from day 3 – MYSA Conference 2013

CAPTURE PERPLEXITY – do we?

SHARE PERPLEXITY – do we?

RESOLVE PERPLEXITY – do we?

If you are looking for some inspiration and ideas to capture the imaginations and attention of your students, look no further than to Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer, blog.mrmeyer.com).  Oh, you say, but he is a maths specialist.  I beg to differ!  He is a student specialist who happens to teach maths (or math as they say in the US).  I am actually NOT a maths teacher, but the highlight of Saturday’s sessions for me was the fact that I got to spend most of it with Dan.  (Ha, first name basis now).  Listening, engaging and learning – and I would have to say – from one of the best practioners I have ever had the pleasure of learning from. 

What Dan focused on was the fact that what we need to do as educators – teaching middle school or other – is to capture curiosity in our students.  To do that, we need to be capturing perplexity, constantly.  See something that needs solving – take a photo of it, record it.  Need to teach something, anything; then find some visual (or similar) that will capture the perplexity of the students, that will peak their curiosity, that will make them want to SOLVE that problem, or EXPLORE it further.  We talk about wanting inquiring minds, then we need to offer the opportunity for our students to inquire.  Let them “work out” what it is they need to solve that rather perplexing question, let them RESOLVE PERPLEXITY.

The two hour workshop with Dan led us through a typical maths lesson – Dan Style – one that I totally engaged with.  No textbook in sight; constant collaboration, discussion and challenge, and hands on and relevant.  Who would have known at the beginning of the lesson, that in actual fact we were learning about the volume of cylinders?  No objective on the board to begin, but once completed, a question to us – What do you think the focus of this lesson has been?  That strategy, (one which I will certainly use) really provokes some thinking, and provides the feedback needed to reinforce the effectiveness of the lesson.  Of course, being intelligent thinking adults, we could definitely answer that question, and I would fathom that most students would have been able to as well.

We did not have to navigate some wordy, irrelevant problem in a maths text book that students have no connection with – you know, “A farmer in Arizona is growing grain, and every year he stores his grain in silos.  This particular year, he had a bumper crop, so had to invest in another silo.  So he installed a slightly narrower one, that was shorter, and positioned it right next to the other one. At the end of the season, they are both half filled , etc, etc” Oh, and then there is a black and white diagram with dimensions on each figure and really just looks like two cylinders, etc, etc……

Hey, I don’t live in the country, so what the? What is this about grain?  Who cares if he had a bumper crop, and where he lived, and so on.

We were simply shown two different shaped glasses of coke, and the statement – that I have to share with my sister.  Which one would I give her?  End of story!  Well, appealing to our sense of greed, we clearly need to take the fullest one – but wait, which one would that be?  And so the lesson continued.  Firslty we had to guess, you know, gut reaction, but then the lesson progressed.

We weren’t on our own, there was a clear process, and Dan took us through it step by step, modelling, then deconstructing the process.  What can I say?  This was excellent.  There were no “losers” in the class, only success stories.  I guess that with maths lessons like this, we could certainly change many a student perception of what maths is.  Unfortunately for many, the experience of maths is a text book, and sadly, many of those books are quite flawed.

So through a Maths lesson, I was inspired to think about my own approaches and to consider what perplexity I could capture. I will certainly be ensuring that my Perplexity Fairy stays firmly on my shoulder, so that I continue to seek those moments, both in school and more importantly, out of school that could well become a lesson starter for my next class – you never really know when something you see or hear will present itself.

Dan’s link for MYSA Conference to resources and ideas.

Abridged version of Dan Meyer's lesson plans.

 

  

 

REFLECTIONS FROM THE MYSA CONFERENCE 2013 – educating for this generation!

 

 

THE TWITTER FEED FROM MYSA CONFERENCE 2013 – says it all

What do you see here? Which generation are you?

What do you see here? Which generation are you?

What is it about the Middle Years of Schooling Association International Conference that makes it somewhat of a highlight in my Professional Development Calendar?  Is it the fact that I am part of the Management Committee and the Conference Committee? Well, that is what makes it something dear to my heart, but no that is not the real reason.  It is simply due to the fact that  it brings together over 600 delegates from Australia, New Zealand and a number of other countries who have their hearts and souls focused on creating engaging, inspiring and challenging learning environments for middle years students. Educators who are passionate about the students and are dedicated to a cause.

Mark McCrindle kicked it off with a data driven account of where we are now in Australia (and the world) – what are the current realities for us as teachers in this century? What are the current realities that must drive our decisions and directions?

  • Trend 1 – Tween Town – Bigger baby boom now, than at the birth of the baby boomers!
  • Trend 2 – Digital integrators – born into it!
  • Trend 3 – XYZ schools – Baby boomers almost out, X and Y gen teachers, educating Z gen.
  • Trend 4 -School at the crossroads – funding for the futre and community
  • Trend 5 – New Local – From micro to macro – mobility of everything and everyone today.
  • Trend 6 – Fragmentation – recognition of diversity.
  • Trend 7 – Big Education – student increase by 64906, schools decreased by 325 in 15 years.  Education is now ranking as an export.

So, the need to understand and work in a new paradigm is essential; education must move.

Mark McCrindle’s Slides/presentation

Heidi Hayes Jacobs as always provided us with an inspiring Opening Keynote. She challenged us as educators to lead with the new literacies – digital, global and media.  To maintain the classic ways of teaching of course, but to ensure that we are preparing our students for this century.  If not, we should change our mission statement to include the fact that we are preparing our students for the 80s or 90s?  But of course, we cannot do that, if we truly consider education as a key to the future.  The sharing of tools and ideas was valuable and motivating; which only continued into her workshop, where we were able to play and learn and collaborate.  A more than excellent beginning to what was shaping up to be valuable experience that not only I, but the six staff who had accompanied me, and ultimately our students – who are the ones we are doing all of this for – will gain such a great deal from. The seven of us passionate educators truly began to fire up – the tweets were flying.

Some useful tools – Famous in boxes, 3D timeline, filmeducation trailers and of course Curriculum21 clearing house  .  All tools that can be incorporated to ensure 21st century skills are the focus.

For me (and my staff), we are not unfamiliar with Heidi. She has worked with us at our school on a number of occasions( and just following the conference, visited again) – our goal is on Curriculum Mapping and she continues to work with us on a global scale as well.  The need to replace, reconsider and redesign curriculum for today’s learners is our clear goal, which was also reflected in my own presentation at the MYSA Conference.  The journey is never without some pitfalls and blocks, but the journey continues nevertheless.  At times there may be casualities, but with a clear purpose and goal in mind, that purpose and goal does drive us to continue.  Thank you Heidi for rebooting our journey.

MY PRESENTATION – CURRICULUM MAPPING –  The focus of my presentation was that curriculum mapping should be a school wide approach and that the theory behind is the most imprortant component of the process.  There are many aspects in the learning proces and obstacles that can occur of which I was very mindful- I definitely presented all sides of the journey.    A presentation that outlined all of the benefits, pitfalls and processes that can assist in the development of a culture in a school. I trust that it was useful for others considering or on the path of curriculum mapping.  I believe that it helped some.

 

Some twitter feedback

Some twitter feedback

 

So, the first two days really provided some motivation for continuing to engage with and embrace change, to ensure that we continue to think creatively, to be student centric and to ensure that we are educating with today’s learner at the forefront of our thinking.  The educators present, all dedicated to empowering and engaging with middle years learners throughout our country, New Zealand and abroad, were set on ignite.  Collaboration was palpable and the stage was well and truly set for a conference truly focused on learning – for all.

To be continued… In the meantime – Heidi’s TED TALK is a great place to start.

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