Small Successes

Although I am a strong advocate for the use of instructional technology, I have never been a proponent of “technology for technology sake.”  In actual fact, my approach to education has little to do with technology and much more to do with creating 21st century learning environments that will prepare our students for a world that is rapidly changing.  Of course, technology is one component of creating these types of learning environments, but not the most important part.  Instead, we need to help teachers think differently about what “their job” is, and help student think differently about what “school” is.

The past few weeks I have had a few interactions that have made me believe that positive changes are happening in the world of education.  I wanted to share these success stories with you.

My Grade 10 Applied Science class has 22 really nice kids.  Generally speaking, they are not excited about Science, but I do my best to make it interesting and engaging for them, and we usually have a pretty good time.  I have always worked hard to model for my students an appropriate use of technology.  I am probably one of the few teachers in my school who does not have a “NO CELL PHONES” policy – Instead I have an “APPROPRIATE USE” policy.  At the beginning of each year it sometimes feels like I have opened Pandora’s box because I am constantly having to manage students’ use of their cell phones.  It takes many focussed conversations and a lot of modeling, but eventually students start to “get it” and I don’t have to work so hard any more.  This Monday, my Grade 10 class really got it and it was so cool to see.

Students were doing some reading in small groups about the different ecozones on Earth.  One of the short articles made reference to flying squirrels and one of my students asked me what they were.  I tried to explain it but I knew that a picture would communicate the concept much better so I pulled out my phone and Googled it.  They thought that was pretty great (and that flying squirrels are pretty creepy).

Ten minutes later I overheard Jas say, “what does epiphytic mean?”  It wasn’t 30 seconds after when I heard Nicole reply, “It’s a plant that can grow on another plant.”  I was completely caught off guard (mostly because even I don’t know what epiphytic means!).  When I asked Nicole how she knew the definition, she said, “Sir, I just looked it up on my phone,” as if I had just asked her a mundane question like what she ate for lunch.  I got so excited that I called everyone’s attention to praise Nicole publicly and reinforce her decision to use her cell phone in an appropriate way for our classroom.

Of course I expect that my students will still make poor choices about their cell phones from time to time, but I believe the message is getting through and that is a success story worth sharing!

Other success stories came from a few teachers at my school who recently attended the OSSTF Toys and Tools:  Technology in Education conference with me.  I was pleased to hear that they enjoyed the conference and have been trying some new “tech”-niques.  Some teachers from our Social Science department were inspired by Danika Barker’s presentation at the conference to start their own social network using Ning.  When I was talking to these teachers, they were excitedly telling me how the social network has already become an enriching experience for their students because …

“students are learning and sharing outside of the classroom, any time they want”
“students are learning from each other”
“students are making deeper connections”

It was like music to my ears!

Also in the past few weeks, I have had many teachers come by my office to tell me how they have been using web 2.0 tools in their classes:  PollEverywhere to facilitate a unit review, Voicethread to facilitate online discussions, MixedInk to practice writing lab reports, and the list goes on!

As a teacher who endorses the vision for 21st century learning environments, it can sometimes feel like we are very far away from reaching that goal.  However, a significant shift will take time and it is important to step back and recognize the small successes along the way.  These small successes give me a lot of hope for the future of teaching and learning.  If you have a success story to share, please tell us about it in the comments.

Image Credit:

Cell Phone – Mykl Roventine

Flying Squirrel – nikoretro

21. November 2010 by Graham Whisen
Categories: Personal Reflection | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 2 comments

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  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention Small Successes | ideaconnect -- Topsy.com

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