Password Management

That was a longer hiatus than I intended! What a crazy term four this has been! Reports, 2012 planning, being appointed as Digital Learning & Ultranet Coordinator... Busy busy busy!!
I'm planning over the next couple of months to transfer summaries of my professional reading (aka Uni Homework!) to this blog, plus start creating tips & tutorials that I can share with my colleagues in my new role. Today's tip is the first in that series:

Password Management Tip!

Do you have too many different passwords to remember? Try using a variation of the same password for every site.

1. Choose a word that means something to you, which wouldn't be easily guessed by other people (e.g. bananas) It should have at least 6 letters.
2. Make the first letter a capital (eg. Bananas)
3. Put some punctuation on the end (e.g. Bananas!)
4. On the end of that, put the first two letters of the website that you are signing up for (e.g. if it was google.com I would use Bananas!go)
5. Now you have an easy to remember, unique, strong password
6. When updating your password (which should be done regularly!), try adding sequential numbers to the end (e.g. Bananas!go1)
7. For edumail, which doesn't like repeat passwords - what about trying alphabetical words from a certain category? (e.g. Apple!ed, Banana*ed, Celery#ed, Durian#ed, Eggplant!ed, etc...)
8. I have found that usually I can get away with having only three different basic passwords - 1 for school related sites (e.g. edumail/ultranet/web 2.0 tools), one for personal related (e.g. facebook/gmail), and one for the bank (which seems to have different requirements to everything else!)

Pondering Creativity

How IS creativity defined? Why do we value creativity? Do we measure creativity in students to be able to facilitate creative growth?

How then do we measure creativity? Should we? Why? Do we assess to measure creativity, or to identify it? What do we do with this knowledge? What relationships exist between descriptions of creativity, and the tools used to measure it? How reliable are popular creativity tests (e.g. Torrance Tests, Consensual Assessment Tests)  in terms of indicating creativity? Are there any tests that successfully measure the multiple aspects of creativity? How have tests of creativity changed since they were pioneered? What is the point of assessing creativity? What is the point of assessment in general – do the reasons extend to assessment of creativity?

To what extent do creativity tests predict giftedness? Is creativity a successful predictor of giftedness? How is giftedness defined? What parallels exist between the definitions of “gifted people” and definitions of “creative people”?

___

These are the questions floating around in my head as I wade through a very large pile of literature on the topic. I hope to be able to find some answers. 

Do you think I'm asking the right questions?

Hindsight is 20:20

@Mrkempnz asked the following question on Twitter...

"what would you do differently if you were a first year teacher again? ......"

... and it got me thinking.

I make little secret of the fact that I hardly enjoyed a minute of my first year of teaching. I was ill-prepared, lacking resilience, lacking experience, lacking knowledge... I really consider myself lucky that I am still in teaching at all.

My immediate thought: EVERYTHING!

I should never have accepted the first job I was offered. I was desperate to start teaching. I had done quite well at uni, and received excellent feedback from my supervising teachers. I was told by two of my placement schools that I had I been qualified, they would have offered me a job. (Because of this, I was probably a little bit cocky!) When I was called within a couple of hours of my first interview, and offered the job, I didn't hesitate, of course I said yes!

I should have done my research. The school and I were not a good fit. I had zero ESL training, and being a young, naive, female, inexperienced teacher, with no kids of my own, who wasn't local, I was immediately seen as an outsider, by both the children and their families.

My first day:
"Miss, you got kids?"
"No"
"You live in *******?"
"No"
"You Muslim?"
"No"
"Well MY dad says I don't gotta listen to you!"
"..."

I should have worked on relationships. Now, the relationships are the very first thing I establish in my classroom. There is little need for 'rules' if a community is established in which there is an understanding of mutual respect. An older teacher said to me "Don't worry about the curriculum yet". I felt it was all I had to cling to. I was wrong. I had no idea how to build rapport with my students.

I felt that I couldn't be myself.

All I did in my first week of teaching was yell, sleep and cry. I was totally unprepared for just how exhausting it was. I had a management plan, given to me by the school, and was told I had to use it. It involved a clipboard, with 'behaviour tracking sheets'. The students would have their name recorded, marked as a warning, then their number would be circled the more they misbehaved. There would be consequences - "Time outs" (I had a "time out table", whatever that means), exiting the room, etc, depending on what the student did. I suppose, it is sound in theory (though it has NEVER worked for me - it just doesn't fit with who I am as a teacher). But I had that chart FULL every day, usually before recess. It was impossible to manage, to follow up on. I had little concept of 'tactically ignore', and every indiscretion was met with the same level of response. What reason did the kids have to show me their best side? If you asked me what my management plan was now, I couldn't explain it, or tell you the steps. There is no time out table, or list of names with crosses. There is no 'one size fits all approach'. But I know that I could walk into any class in the school (and I now work in a secondary college that many consider 'challenging'), and know that I would be in control.

I knew something was wrong - with my teaching - but I didn't know how to fix it. I became so incredibly frustrated - other teachers would walk into my room, and it would be silent, the kids perfect angels. They would leave, and it would be back to mayhem.

I didn't show my students how to be successful. I probably had high expectations, but I know I didn't model them effectively. I was inconsistent. I didn't require them to be respectful - to myself, or each other - consistently enough. They were so awful to each other, it makes me shudder just to think of it. The community relationship was severely damaged. 'Transition times' were a nightmare. I didn't have a clear enough idea of what routines I wanted in place - so how could my students? My classroom must have been a stressful, erratic place that year.

The former principal of my current school once shared the following quote:

"I have come to a frightening conclusion.
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis
will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized."
~Haim Ginott

I wish someone had shared that with me in my first year. I knew it, I felt it, but I couldn't articulate it. I look back on my first year of teaching, and the only thing I feel proud of is that I made it through. I don't know if I did much good for my students that year, and that I truly regret.

Now, I can look back on that year, and realise how far I have come. I can articulate, identify and explain all the things that went wrong. More importantly, I do everything in my power to avoid those same mistakes. My principal suggested at one point in that year, that teaching wasn't for me. I was deeply hurt by that - I knew I wanted to teach. I knew I could be good at it - but I didn't know how.

Thankfully, the school community I am now part of, has allowed me to become the teacher I always wanted to be. My classroom is a safe, challenging place, where I am myself, and my students flourish.

I Am Teacher 2.0

I've now completed Steve Hargadon's Teacher 2.0: Using the Web for Your Personal and Professional Growth, and overall found it to be a very beneficial process. The workshop day back in August was a great introduction, covering many of the same concepts, and I benefited from being able to go back over the ideas in my own time, to really take in the big ideas.

How often do we give our students the opportunity to slow down and process something they have been exposed to? Particularly if they already appear to have achieved competence. There is a difference between being able to do something, and seeing the big picture and significance of the ideas behind it.

For me, that's an important take-away message.

You might like to check out my 'Personal Web Presence', created during completion of the above series of tasks: http://www.natashaglaister.com

I would love to receive feedback or suggestions on it!

The Internet and Learning

This is part four of Steve Hargadon's Teacher 2.0: Using the Web for Your Personal and Professional Growth.

"How has the internet impacted your own personal learning?"

Walsall Library Presentation Key by Black Country Museums available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

This sounds trite, but the internet has changed my teaching life. When I first started teaching (2002, my first teaching rounds, 2006 my first class), sure I used the internet. I would look up teaching resources, images, animations, lesson ideas... the usual. I was pretty "techy", and I knew how to find what I needed. In the last couple of years, I started using a lot of web 2.0 and social media, but not for my teaching. For some reason, the blatantly obvious connection between my personal and professional usage had escaped me.

2011 was the year it all changed.

It began simply enough, as many things do. I signed up for a new twitter account. As you would know from my previous post, in addition to being a teacher, I am also a photographer. I had signed up for Twitter not long after starting my business, but I only followed a couple of people, and never saw the benefits. This time though, I started following people. I spent a couple of days building up my network, starting by following people who were using the #ultranet hashtag, following the people they followed, and so on (I now follow 196). The information that I had pulled toward me was relevant, interesting, and on so many occasions, exactly what I needed at that very moment.

I am, however, not the first or only person to think that getting information from Twitter is like trying to drink from a fire hydrant. I needed some way of filtering out the junk, and more importantly, saving the gems. I downloaded Tweetdeck, which helped immensely. I created a few columns - #edchat, #vicpln, #Ultranet, which were filled with people sharing great resources. However I needed a way to file it all. I created a Diigo account, a readitlater account and set up my Google Reader account (which, like many tools, I had used for years but never for teaching) properly with folders. I have blogged in more detail about how I use these here.

Now that I manage the information effectively, I can honestly say that Twitter is the source of the best professional learning I have ever done (and at present I am including my M.Ed in that - the quality of info shared via Twitter is THAT high!).

Without the internet, this year alone, I would have missed out on:

• The Age Digital Literacy Seminar
• Stever Hargardon's Teacher 2.0 Professional Learning Day
• A video conference with a NASA astronaut
• A massive number of great blogs
• Enrolling in the Master of Education
• Countless teaching ideas & resources
• Many more things!

Something I love doing

This is part three of Steve Hargadon's Teacher 2.0: Using the Web for Your Personal and Professional Growth.

"...Write down something(s) you love doing or something(s) you love learning about."

Perfect timing for me today, as I have just returned from doing something I love doing, that I haven't had the opportunity to do for a long time: Photography.

Among the many hats I put on, I am a photographer. I run a small wedding & portrait photography business called Natasha Glaister Photography. This year my photography has been a little neglected, as between full time teaching, part time M.Ed, running a house, and seeing my husband occasionally, there hasn't been a great deal of spare time. It is my one passion that is 'for me', and something I truly enjoy, particularly when the creative energy is flowing!

I love all aspects of photography, being able to see the light, visualise how I can capture it, then succeed in doing so is a wonderfully rewarding process. If I can then capture something that other people enjoy, that is a bonus! 

My students loved discovering my passion for photography, and I have just started running an "E-Lective" for those that are interested in exploring their own interest in photography. I have never taught a "creative" subject prior to this year (and now I'm teaching music as well!), and I am really enjoying the different approaches.

I love getting to know each of my student's passions every year, and next term I have invited them to explore an area that they are passionate about in extensive detail, with the completion of "Passion Projects". The idea is that they will explore something that they are passionate about, and will be paired up with an industry expert, a 'mentor', in their field of interest. It's very open ended, and I am excited to see what they come up with!


*** All photos in today's post are my own, captured this afternoon at the Tesselaar Tulip Festival in Silvan.

I Matter!

Creative Independence by nattu, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

I'm doing Steve Hargadon's "Teacher 2.0: Using the Web for Your Personal and Professional Growth", after attending a professional development day of the same name a few weeks ago. I completed step one on the day, which asked me to register at http://www.teacher20.com.

Step two asks me to ponder what I am good at. I believe that I am really good at adapting my teaching to include new ideas - I am very open-minded. I will try pretty much anything at least once, and will always look for ways to incorporate the best aspect of new things into my teaching. This certainly extends to using technology in my classroom, there is a multitude of technology out there, and I am continually striving to seek out the best tools and incorporate them into my teaching.

My students certainly recognise this, teaching from the edge of my comfort zone frequently takes me outside it, and I share this openly with them. My commonly heard phrase is "I don't know if this will work, but let's try it anyway". I think it's so important to model this mindset for students.

All In a Day's Work

It took me a little while to get around to blogging about it, but I really wanted to share what we got up to on Thursday of this week.


Thursday morning, we had an extended Pastoral Care session, in which my students commenced writing their proposals for their Personal Learning Projects that they will be completing next term. Once they have decided on their area of interest, I will use my professional network to link them up with a mentor, who will help them in the completion of their projects. They were blogging, posting on our class website message board, and beginning to establish their own Personal Learning Network by setting up their Google Reader accounts.

Hopefully they can become truly networked!

After recess, they were finalising their Ancient History research projects, the product of 6 weeks' work. Tasks like comparing and contrasting ancient and modern religions, redesigning a legacy of a civilisation, and creating the laws that they would have invented had they been in power are rich, promoting deep learning. Not having had an opportunity as yet to have an in-depth look at the work they have produced, I am very excited to see what they have developed.

In the next session I had arranged for the students to take advantage of an opportunity set up by the Department of Educatoion and Early Childhood Development's Next Practice Division - a video conference with NASA astronaut Rex Walheim! The topic for year seven next term is 'Space Rocks', so it was a great opportunity to hook them in, and although he didn't get to answer the questions the students had prepared, they were still enthralled, finding out the truth about going to the toilet in space (vacuums are involved!) and discovering that after a few days in zero gravity, your back starts to ache because you grow a little bit. Thankfully, the technology even played nicely, the only glitch (a faulty cable to the theatre's sound system) being overcome with a microphone held up to my laptop speakers.

The day finished with the students presenting their terms' learning to an audience of year nine students and some other teachers. We heard the story of Cleopatra's life, the story of a young Aztec girl sold into slavery, and saw a functional recreation of Roman aqueducts, among many other amazing presentations. They assessed each others' work, providing praise and constructive criticism.

While I was there the whole time, guiding, leading, monitoring, providing feedback, suggesting new directions, the day was not about me, it was about my students, and what they were learning. It was amazing to finish the term on such a high, and makes me dread leaving them in just 10 short weeks.

Is it weird that I feel like Zuckerberg?

Something amazing is happening in my class at the moment.

The idea has been cooking away, like all big ideas do, for some time now. Little tidbits of information would be added to the pot, I would hear or see or read something new, that would lead me in a new direction.

Like the ingredients for a great recipe, these thoughts gradually accumulated.

Yesterday, my online community was born. Research tells us that prospects are poor for online communities that are unsupported by offline contact in some form. So my existing community of learners, my year seven class, were offered something new to try - a simple, closed social networking page (a Ning to be precise).

I was at a PD last week, run by Steve Hargadon, who spoke of his teenage daughter who had recently been allowed to sign up for Facebook. He said he could see her transforming in front of him, as her world-view expanded. In the last 36 hours, I have started to see the same thing happening for my students.

There was a buzz in the room as they played with it, tinkering, tweaking, personalising. Taking ownership. Later in the day, they were completing some online tasks, and the website was open in the background. It wasn't a distraction, they still worked, but they remained connected behind their computer screens. We started a conversation about the guidelines for their community, how we could make it a positive environment. Nobody needed to have an acceptable use policy shoved at them, yet the phrases they chose could have been taken from one.

After school, they kept playing. Exploring, seeing what it could do. They shared photos, comments. Connections.

They were talking about it at school today.

I knew from the buzzing of emails pushing through on my phone during a lecture tonight (I heard John Hattie speak, which is a whole other blog post) that there had been some activity, but I was amazed at what I found when I opened up the site. Aside from the chatter, which is valuable enough in itself, aside from the shared and appreciated photos and videos, here were 13 year old kids, online at 9:30, having message board conversations about how they as a class had slacked off in the last few weeks, and organizing to meet up before and after school to catch up on homework. Ideas sparking other ideas, with another wanting to create (quote!) "a list of educational websites".

These kids don't often say a lot in class.

But I think I'm helping them to find their voice.

Why? Why not?

Why not try unblocking access to social media sites?

If we block them, really, we might as well block the entire internet, because the whole web is transforming. NON social media is going the way of Geocities - the 1990's dodo.

Why is it ok to create a false bubble that functions nothing like the real world for our students?
Why does the notion of "real world" even exist as a concept that exists outside of school? What is school if not the real world?
Why do budgets and policy and FEAR have to control the way I teach?
If we want our students to be creative - why is MY creativity as a teacher being stifled?
Why is "not enough people will use it" a reason to prevent usage by the people who will?
Why isn't monitoring enough? Since when is it enough to rely on electronic systems in place of actual human beings' judgment?
Why won't schools believe that filtering doesn't work? Since filtering was implemented, has cyber-bullying and inappropriate content access disappeared? Didn't think so.
Just because we can "prevent" misuse by blocking access, why does that mean we should?
Why shouldn't my students be allowed to contribute to their digital footprint in school? So they might use their gmail accounts to access chat - so what? Since when do we ban speech in schools?

Instead...

Why not teach using social media - or at the very least help kids understand the values behind it while emersed in an authentic environment, and help them shape the social media - rather than just passively letting it shape them?
Why not do what we always talk about our students doing, and take a RISK! Sure, it might not work, but so what? Risk averse, safe behaviour, doesn't lead to progress. It just means we keep doing the same things over and over and over again. Not only are we not learning from history, but we're failing to even acknowledge that it exists! We've managed to work out that abstinence in sexuality & drug education doesn't work - instead we teach pros and cons, we teach about personal responsibility, and heaven forbid - EDUCATED CHOICE!

So why, when it comes to social media, are we so afraid to do the same thing?!?

Creativity Is...

 Found Here: moonstarsandpaper (Original Artist Unknown)

"An inherent curiosity, and ability and willingness to challenge convention; to engage with ideas, make connections and draw conclusions, then intentionally think and act beyond these."

Please share your definition.

Creativity: A Gift for the Gifted.

Gifted students rarely let on that there is something missing from their learning. The creative world of their earliest years has lost its validity. They have been forced to let it go. Their sense of wonder has begun to fade.

Learning has become less about them as individuals and more about their ability to comply with a set of arbitrary expectations. These gifted learners who had an abundance of curiosity and inspiration become particularly disheartened.

While traditional extension programs focus heavily on vertical extension, they ignore the creativity that arises from lateral exploration. Creativity revives unused talents and interests, and extends the gifted learner in significant ways. Academics and creativity do not belong on separate poles. Gifted learners, when freed from artificial constraints, will pursue learning at their own level AND explore its creative edge.

It is a great tragedy that surprisingly few gifted children become creative adults. simply being intelligent does not guarantee a creative future. Over time, gifted students tend to approach their education as a means to an end.

Gifted learners need time to step back from destructive conditions and make their own contributions to what they are learning. If we can integrate creativity into the curriculum, we can awaken inside our learners their own freely creative spirit.

We need to give gifted students power over their learning. Many struggle with motivation. The creative process motivates, through its positive contribution to emotional well-being and intellectual growth, through promotion of higher order thinking.

Academics and creativity can naturally be woven together:

1. Allow the gifted learner to delve into material head first. They will draw on a wide range of sources, pose questions and gather the data they require
2. The gifted learner will then cast off into the depths, seeking a path of their own
3. Often, they will discover areas where their understanding or skills fall short
4. They will return with new questions and new problems
5. The process will continue

 

Above is my response to the first chapter of "Igniting Creativity in Gifted Learners, K - 6"; entitled Creatvity: a Gift for the Gifted.

Managing Information Overload

I think most of us have trouble with information overload at some point - and I was having the problem regularly! My biggest issue was organsing the information I found.

I am fairly new to the world of Twitter, but have found it a sensational way to stay at the cutting edge of education. I think I've learnt more from Twitter in the last few months than in all the PD I have done since starting teaching! I love that it allows me to jump in and jump out whenever I have a few free minutes.

One problem I have found however, is that the information comes thick and fast, and sometimes it can be very hard to keep up over the course of a busy day. Tools, articles, blog posts, new ideas and strategies - I may spot something that looks fantastic, but if I only have a couple of minutes, whatever amazing tidbit someone had shared would likely disappear. I have made use of a few tools that make my Twitter life much easier.

1. I connect all my devices to my Twitter account. Simple! iPhone, iPad, Laptop, Desktop. No matter where I am, if I have a couple of minutes, I can jump on and see what's happening. Twitter is PD on demand.

2. Read It Later This is an amazing little tool! I have the free read it later app on my iDevices, and have installed the plugin for Firefox. Basically this allows you, with one or two clicks, to save those websites that you come across, that you don't have time to process immediately, to a 'reading list' for a later time. I have a button in my links bar that goes straight to my reading list (http://readitlaterlist.com/unread). Twitter for iOS is fully integrated with Read It Later and has a two-tap saving process. The firefox plugin is even better, and has a small arrow embedded into the URL bar that will save any link for later with a single click. The free iOS app seems to be limited to around 4 pages of links, but that is a good cue that it's time to set aside 30 minutes to process it all. (I just open each link in a new tab and go from there).

3. Diigo I could just bookmark my links, but then I would end up with a massive list of bookmarks, with no organisation at all. Enter Diigo. I've only been using this for a couple of weeks, and there are people who are more expert than I, but it is easy to use, and means your organised list is available anywhere. My main advice for those starting out is to tag everything! A toolbar is also available, which has incredible functionality. I now have a small, but growing list of educational resources that I have reviewed (this is important) and can go back to at any time. There is a whole other side to Diigo, which is the social bookmarking aspect, but I will go into that more at a later date. For now, any static websites or web 2.0 tools that I come across get saved in my Diigo list. Blogs that I discover go to Google Reader.

4. Google Reader and oldie but a goody. Although I've been using Google Reader for years, I hadn't subscribed to any educational blogs until very recently. I had subscribed to numerous personal and humour blogs, and didn't really want to be faced with 'work' every time I wanted to do some recreational reading (or... ahem... laugh at photos of cats). Then I discovered folders! If you scroll right to the bottom of your subscription list you will see a tiny blue link to 'manage subscriptions'

 

This takes you to a new screen, on which you can sort out all of your subscriptions.  Now I have folders for Teaching, Interest, Photography and Humour. Depending on what I feel like reading, I can click on the relevant folder and have only the posts from those blogs show up. Of course I also have a reader app on my iDevices. Another nifty Reader tool that not many know about is the bookmarklet (IE & Firefox - and probably Chrome). This is a little button that sits in my links bar that I can click on any time I find a blog I want to follow. It will redirect you to Reader, where you can click once more to subscribe. Get it here.

These four simple tools make it much easier to stay in control of the constant flow of information!

An Amazing Mind Map

Click to embiggen :)

Created by Adam Sicinski http://iqmatrix.com/

I want to plaster my classroom walls with these posters!

Four ways to explicitly teach critical thinking

Teach about brain function

Students should learn how the brain works.

• How do we think?
• How does memory work?
• What causes emotions?
• Why do we dream?
• How do we learn?
• How/Why do mental disorders occur?
• What happens when part of the brain is damaged?

Teach Metacognition

Encourage students to be conscious of their own thinking during problem solving.

• Have discussions about what is going on in their heads
• Compare different approaches
• Identify what is known, what needs to be known, how to produce that knowledge
• Think aloud
• Teach students how to learn, how to study for a test, how to ask effective questions
• Help students discover their learning style, and teach them how to tackle learning that is outside of their preferred style

Share Great Thinkers

 Expose students to role models who solve problems well, particularly those who have left a mark on society.

• Noteworthy scientists, artists and historians: Einstein, Van Gogh, Mozart, Da Vinci, Gandhi, Newton, Currie, Pasteur, Franklin, Edison.
• Those upon whom they depend: mechanics for their efficient and precise ways of repairing cars, parents for their ability to deal with irrationality by withholding impulsivity, entrepeneurs for their creative ability to offer innovative products and services and teachers, for their ability to plan, monitor and evaluate
• Apply critical thinking to everyday life: How would a critical thinker go to the supermarket? What about an ineffective thinker? How would a critical thinker read a newspaper? Choose a dentist? Buy a car? Do homework? Vote?

Study the thinking of varying disciplines

Study and compare the thinking methods of artists, scientists, scholars. Examine the differential processes of investigation, inquiry and creativity.

•  How does what scientists do differ from what artists do?
• What are the processes by which scientific truths are discovered and proven?
• What are the processes of inquiry used by anthropologists as they live with and study a culture?
• What goes on in a maestro's mind when they conduct an orchestra?
• How was Mozart able to 'hear' a total musical composition before writing it down?
• What is the process by which poets create?
• Why can't scientific inquiry be used to solve social problems?

Further Reading: Arthur L Costa, California State University, Sacramento

Creating School and Classroom Conditions for Critical Thinking

Having discussed what critical thinking actually is, below are some strategies for fostering creative thought in students.

To create an environment that fosters Critical Thinking, teachers should:

1. Pose problems, raise questions, intervene with not-easily-solved paradoxes, dichotomies, controversies, dilemmas, discrepancies. Challenge students' intellect, tease their imagination
2. Organise the classroom for cooperative interaction and collaborative problem solving
3. Structure the school environment for thinking - value it, make time for it, secure materials to support it. Ensure curriculum, reports, rules, discipline, values and mottoes promote and are consistent with thoughtful action.
4. Encourage the whole community to model the behaviours of critical thinking, throughout the students' environment.
5. Respond to students and each others' ideas, so as to maintain a climate of trust and risk-taking. Make learning experimental, creative and positive. Listen, probe. Remain non-judgmental. Use rich data sources.
6. Ensure content and instructional strategies are developmentally appropriate. Begin new learning with real material and objects, regardless of age group.

Reference: Costa (2003) Communities for Developing Inquiring Minds.

Filter the Filth? How about teaching the ethics?

The Age's Letter to the editor (Filter the Filth, 27th June 2011) called for schools and the education department to "do all within their power to prevent further students from being corrupted" via the school provided netbooks. Background: In 2009 it was decided that every student in years 9-12 would have a laptop provided for free (government funded). The success of this implementation (or lack thereof) is beyond the scope of this post, however it would appear that some students have been accessing inappropriate content outside of school hours using the netbooks. Surprise surprise. The individual in the article above was outraged that filtering software was not installed on the laptop.

Do parents honestly still expect content filtering to absolve them of any responsibility regarding their childrens' online actions? I work in a school that uses the state-provided internet access, which is heavily filtered. I am sure noone would be surprised to learn that 'inappropriate' content has been accessed within the school from time to time. If I felt so inclined, I could probably access similar content very easily within a matter of seconds. These so-called "filters" are very easy to circumvent.

Surely we would have wider ranging success if, as schools and as families, we help our children to understand the ethics of their online actions, and the short and long term effects of the digital footprint they are creating every day. I believe some schools are already doing an excellent job of this. Of course nobody expects parents to be able to "watch a child 24 hours a day", but having filtering software installed is not going to be the 'big brother' that some expect it to be.

What Exactly IS Critical Thinking?

We're always talking about critical thinking. We all want our students to be able to think critically. But how many of us have actually stopped to think about what 'Critical Thinking' actually means?

It has been stated that 'without a definition of critical thinking or thinking, educators would be unable to to determine when critical thinking has been measured or taught successfully'*.  It's pretty hard to measure and assess something if we don't have a thorough understanding of what it means. The problem is, that it is a difficult concept to define. Psychologists, philosophers and educators have been arguing about it for nearly a century, and each of those groups thinks they own the idea.

If we were to consider each of their approaches, we would see that there is a great deal of overlap. Philosophers call it 'critical thinking', psychologists call it 'thinking skills' and educators tend to call it 'higher order thinking' - but I believe that everyone is talking about the same ideals.

Critical thinking:

• Is an active process
• Involves decision making
• Is personal
• Involves skeptical reflection and evaluation
• Leads us to form a belief about what to do or what to believe
• Involves decision making and justification
• Integrates new information with the extension of existing knowledge
• Leads us to make connections between concepts and see the uniqueness of certain ideas
• Allows us to solve problems for which there is no ready-made procedure or solution

Above all, critical thinking is about learning to reason.

So when we say our students are thinking critically, are they really? How can we promote this critical (and I would argue creative) thinking in our classrooms?

Reference: Fasko, D. Critical Thinking And Reasoning: Current Research, Theory and Practice (2003)

* Follman, 1987