Should Teachers Pay Teachers?

Michele Peabody

IL
 

Schoenbart, A. (2017) Should teachers pay teachers? What’s the cost of collaboration?. Tech and Learning, Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/blogentry/12024

Supports the need to step away from worksheets, the teacher pays teachers trend, and collaboration with other teachers, and students with students

Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out: Kids living and learning with new media.

Norma Olsen

ET- blended learning
IL- 21st-century learning

Ito, M., Baumer, S., Bittanti, M., Cody, R., Stephenson, B. H., Horst, H. A., ... & Perkel, D. (2009). Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out: Kids living and learning with new media. MIT press. Retrieved from https://dmlcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/files/Hanging_Out.pdf

In this book, the cowriters report on a three-year ethnographic study that explores how the social and recreational use of digital technology and social media provides a way to develop many of the 21st century skills of collaboration, creation culture, and self-directed learning. Reading this can provide ways which teachers and teacher librarians can harness the natural draw of technology and socializing towards instructional purposes. We must understand what motivates 21-century youths if we are to create learning environments that can direct their energy towards the fields and problems that face our world. 

It's Genius

Matteson, A. (2016). It’s genius: Understanding genius hour and making it rock at your school. School Library Journal 62(10), 36-38.

This is a very comprehensive article about genius hour. Matteson discusses how genius hour is time set aside for student-driven research, where it’s not about tests but exploration. Since students get to choose their learning path, they are much more motivated. The teacher has the students check in and is available to help students through the learning process. Through exploration, failure may occurs, but it is welcome and support is available.

I highly recommend this article because it is very comprehensive and you will walk away with an understanding of what genius hour is and ideas of how to incorporate it into your classroom. 

Cover, Sara

IL

Edutopia. (2012, March 14). Singapore’s 21^st century teaching strategies [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_pIK7ghGw4

Summary:

This Edutopia YouTube video shows what 21^st century teaching and learning looks like at one school in Singapore. The video highlights students as seekers and creators of knowledge, and teachers as facilitators of this information. In this school they use technology as a way to learn; they do not keep students away from modern technology, rather teachers guide them to use technology in an appropriate, effective way.

Evaluation:

This short video is a great resource when working with schools and/or teachers who are hesitant about incorporating technology into their curriculum. In addition to showing a wide range of ways technology can be incorporated into a classroom, the video also illustrates how teachers should take a step back and position themselves as facilitators rather than keepers of knowledge. With today’s technology, students are more than equipped with the tools they need to seek out information; it is our job as educators to guide them and help them use these tools and their newfound knowledge effectively.

IL-The Challenge of Piloting the Inquiry Process in Today’s Learning Environment

Emily Ratica

IL

Lambusta, P., Graham, S., & Letteri-Walker, B. (2014). Rocks in the river: The challenge of piloting the inquiry process in today's learning environment. Knowledge Quest, 43(2-), 42-45.

This article reviews the steps the librarians and teachers in elementary, middle, and high schools in Newport News, Virginia took to further incorporate a more detailed and thorough Inquiry Process Model into instruction. Most significantly, these educators, after putting in place an initial model, took the time to reevaluate that model, then remove and adapt that model in order to improve their students' experiences and final results.

The most significant idea they discovered in implementing their inquiry process, and the main reason I share this article here, is the "Explore" stage they added after the fact. At all levels of education, elementary through high school, they realized that students were not engaged in the process because they had not had time to get "hooked" by exploring their own ideas. Starting with a research question, like so many inquiry processes do, was problematic because "students often did not have enough background knowledge to generate questions...many of us individually modified the model in our practices to give students opportunities to search for information on a topic before they began to generate questions" (42).  For an inquiry process to be successful, students need time to be inquisitive.  

This seems like such a simple idea, but it was revolutionary to me.  I work in high school, and I figured that most of the students I encountered as they were doing research already had a subject/area in mind when beginning.  But by allowing them time, even if it is just a little, to explore topics within a subject, I agree with the authors, it will increase student engagement and buy-in, and further develop inquiry skills.

How we can assess in a 21st century learning environment

Ramos, Tara

CA

Barnes, M. (2016). SE2R can revolutionize how we assess learning.  Retrieved from

http://www.advanc-ed.org/source/se2r-can-revolutionize-how-we-assess-learning

Summary: This article gives an idea of how assessment can work in a 21st century learning atmosphere.  Mark Barnes, author of the book Assessment 3.0 proposes that narrative feedback is most useful to student learning and he suggests teachers use his SE2R model for providing that feedback.  The SE2R model can be summarized as follows:

• Summarize- the evaluator gives a short statement about what was accomplished with the work
• Explain- the evaluator explains what learning was demonstrated and/or what was missing  
• Redirect- when learning outcomes are not demonstrated, the evaluator redirects students to prior learning, to resources or to seek help from teachers or peers.   
• Resubmit- Students are asked to resubmit their work after making changes.  

Evaluation: I found the SE2R model to be very helpful and I feel that it aligns very well with the type of learning experiences and environments that we are building in the INFO 250 course.  We must not let assessment fall by the wayside as we create 21st century learning experiences.  Narrative feedback and the chance to resubmit goes hand-in-hand with the growth mindset that we are trying to foment.  It views learning as continuous and makes the point of learning learning, not a letter grade.  It also allows for each student to start at their unique starting point and grow as much as possible.  Lastly the SE2R model need not be only limited to teacher use, but students could also learn to use it as a tool to evaluate their own and their peers' work.  I highly recommend this article and this author to others in the INFO 250 course.