"We better stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down" --Buffalo Springfield
Last week, thousands of students participated in the Hour of Code.
Twitter was awash in tweets sharing images and happenings at #hourofcode
And the students in Amy Musone's 3rd grade classroom in York, PA proclaimed:
We are kids who code!
How do we code? We communicate through communicating, writing,
problem solving, and collaboration. We know that we have to be exact
when we write code. If we make a mistake, we need to go back to debug, or fix the problem.
Why do we code? Writing code is important in everything we do. From
using the telephone to using the thermostat to keep our houses warm or
cool, it's everywhere!
They traveled quite a journey into coding starting here; watch them as they try out the algorithms they had written into code:
But you don't have to take my word for it as they have been transparent in sharing each step of their journey (including meeting with second graders, and Skype calls with local and global experts who code) here and here in their tweets.
They debugged, they learned how to shorten their code, and they wrote code so the Angry Bird could catch the naughty pig and the puppy could go on an adventure.
I think coding is my favorite subject besides recess and lunch but those
aren’t really something that teaches you. I think coding is really fun
because you have to like figure out the mystery like whats the code. -Ella
It's only March-- It's been unseasonably warm-- The plants in the garden have peeked out from their winter rest exceptionally early.
The daffies' green leaves, the red nubs of the peonies, the green points of the Japanese Iris, the maple's baby leaves, the buds on the weeping cherry hold a special promise for what is to come. These harbingers of spring and summer, in a climate of often difficult winters, lift the spirit and the hopes for better times -- gardens full of color and trees leafed in green!
So too, from the year 2 teams of Powerful Learning Practice, precursors begin to appear that portend the exceptional problem based learning units they are designing. Signs of exciting plans for learning from accomplished and passioned educators pop up on Twitter, blogs, Google Docs and Posterous where they are sharing.
From Cori on the Instructional Focus team whose students are exploring how they can share their stories: Alan, the team leader, illustrates how his 4th grade students explore this question here and here
In classrooms in PA, Texas, and Saskatechwan, students are asking "How can making global connections help me learn and grow in different ways?" Their teachers on The Whole Teacher/Child team recently posted how they are making their own connections. The team is currently collaborating on a Google Doc on a connections menu for their students. Becky, the team leader offered a window onto their process on Twitter: And Kathy's grade 1's composed, narrated and filmed their introductory video for the other students with whom they will be making connections:
The Inquiry Driven team has been blogging transparently sharing how in classrooms their students are asking "How can we make a difference? The posts from Renee, from Gail, and from Kristine illustrate the diverse and unique perspectives from which students are exploring this question. Tweets from Beth encourage us to support her students in their Peace projects.
A group of accomplished administrators from PA, Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.is asking “How can we design problem/passion-based professional learning to engage our teachers for 21st century learners?” Leading the Shifttransparently blogs as they capture just a bit of their rich conversations from Blackboard Collaborate sessions.
Our third Elluminate Session consisted of great dialogue about creating a framework for our project. We began the conversation by asking questions about how we can design units for our own contexts, what the framework would look like, and the planning and refining process. --source
Students in PA are asking "How can we pay it forward?" The educators on the Collective Action team collaborate on a Google Doc where they have already mapped their unit to standards, identified resources, initial and culminating activities and planned Skype sessions for their students.
Across PA students are exploring "How can art illustrate a culture of learning? The Arts and Crafts team has been blogging and has begun sharing on a wiki. Their passion based approach to this unit has generated great excitement among them as each teacher has brainstormed how this will become a part of their curriculum.
So much like the garden, these are harbingers only this time of meaningful, deep learning to come. Perhaps, even more exciting-- I have some notion of the garden I hope to see in May and June. I've only these hints and peeks at what may well become entirely new learning landscapes for these educators and their students. I'm impatient for both the garden and more about these projects-- Yet I know both will be more than worth the waiting--
Something's happening here-- And it's perfectly clear-- 3 have something special over there It's telling me I need to share--
I've been following the transparent journeys of 3 accomplished educators who generously share all they are learning as they and their students travel a path into PBL. It's been a joy to read their posts because clearly something very special is happening there.
And they each are so articulate, and thoughtful and honest-- so much to learn from them--
Shelley Wright, a high school teacher in Canada, blogs at Wrights Room where her reflections on learning and teaching are deep, and rich, and thoughtful -- full of joy and tears.
Marsha Ratzel, a middle school teacher in Kansas, blogs at Reflections of a Techie where her posts are filled with energy and enthusiasm, humility and humanity.
Kathy Cassidy, a primary teacher in Canada, blogs at Primary Preoccupation where her posts are filled with the amazing learning experiences in which her grade 1's are immersed and thriving
Shelley, and Marsha and Kathy are all about learning and learning more and sharing. They provide extraordinary windows onto their evolving pedagogical approaches.
I'm convinced one of the things that "it will take to put us back on the path to real learning" is the authentic modeling and sharing found in the posts of these 3 extraordinary educators. Don't you think?
As if there ever was any question about the power of problem based learning---
Teams of students and teachers collaborated in a problem based learning project sponsored by Powerful Learning Practice. They were asked to save the world from an asteroid on a collision course with earth in Doomsday 1.
I've had the honor and privilege to serve in the role of community leader for the Archdiocese of Philadelpia community for this school year and teams from two schools in the community participated with their students- St. Alphonsus and St. Anastasia. What they and their students created is outstanding! And they saved the world!
Yesterday in an Elluminate session they presented their solutions to save the world. Check out their videos with a lens on all they learned, all the standards and benchmarks they mastered. Don't we owe all our youngsters these kinds of opportunities?
