Teaching vs. Learning

I just read a blog post at Modite by Rebecca Thorman entitled Become an expert quickly.

Rebecca Thorman supports my philosophy about Learning…

Teaching something gels the concepts in your brain so much better than just hearing about it or doing it.

Teaching makes you think about the whole idea and synthesize it, make it understandable to others. Teaching what you have learned is the best way to know what you learned. 

Rebecca says

So tell me, how well can you explain what you do? How well do you understand your passion? Could you teach someone else to do it?

Doing is just not enough. Rebecca says

When you do something like send a pitch, for example, you’re learning. You’re testing your ideas and theories through the reaction you receive, the resulting outcome. In this paradigm, it’s okay to fail, you discover through trial and error, and through persistence and hard work, you win.

Teaching makes you think through what you think you know. In explaining and teaching the concept to someone else, you have to understand all aspects of the subject matter, from many different angles.

Rebecca agrees that there is a difference between learning and teaching. In learning…

But there’s an entire level of awesomeness missing. And you can only ascend to the next level by then teaching someone what you have learned. Because then you’re testing your values, ideas and theories with another person’s values, ideas and theories. You understand the underlying challenge more by defining it for another. Teaching – good teaching – requires you to exchange knowledge, not simply impart it. Learning is individual. Teaching is collaborative.

So, when you teach something, you get something back that makes you even understand the concepts better. It confirms what you thought you learned - what you thought you knew about the subject OR maybe it confirms that you were wrong and you have to change your knowledge.

Teaching is sharing knowledge, sharing empathy, sharing ideas. It’s pushing you to understand with entirely different lenses. Just like your body needs both cardio and strength training, your mind needs both learning and teaching.

Teaching is the definitive learning experience. And it’s the quickest way to expertise.

How do you provide experiences for your students to not only Learn, but teach what they learn?
Share your ideas.

[As always, in my author quotes, the underlines, color changes, and bold type is mine, not the author’s!]

Technorati Tags: learning,education,teaching,knowledge,Modite,Rebecca Thorman

21st Century Schools and the Workplace

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November from Brian Mull on Vimeo.

This video takes about 13 minutes to view.

When you watch it, you should have a piece of paper ready to take down the important parts.  I didn’t the first time I watched it. 

It started out like a travel video of some wonderful 17th century town on the East coast. 

I was wondering why I was watching it, but I had seen it on PHS Principal Blog. That blog is described as a “High school principal blogs about education, technology, student engagement and things that are happening at Paris High School in Illinois”. I am originally and most of my life from IL, so I have an interest in reading what is happening there.

Now, as the writer of the blog states, “only my mom reads it!”  But recently there has been some consolidation of several schools and districts, etc. so I expect there might be more posts to read in the future. Although this blog does not have a great deal of posts (in the past), I usually enjoy each and every post made, so I wanted to look at this video he had posted for us to view. He said these are “videos over the next few days to inspire and challenge those of you here to think about school and what it should be!”

Also the video says… by Alan November. His is a name to be remembered in the education field, so it must be a good video! On the website November Learning, it says about Alan:

"An iconoclast whose common sense we cannot afford to ignore. He is at the heart of the matter regarding student learning and the imperatives of the future."

In this video, Alan November is so subtle in his teaching (to me!) that I had to listen to it more than once to be sure I got what he really was saying.  He lulls you into the words and sometimes, you are not really sure if you just heard a GREAT THOUGHT, or if you just imagined it!

If you just want one sentence paragraph about what the video says (IMHO):

We must shift the paradigm of the way we are teaching from the TEACHER IS THE BOSS Model to the WE ARE ALL LEARNERS Model where there is collaborative, self-directed LIFE LONG learning preparing students for the WORKPLACE of the 21st Century.  (WHOA! I did get it in one LONG sentence.  I hadn’t thought it was possible!)

Alan November gives many examples of “friends of mine” who are teaching and using this approach or that approach.  He certainly is lucky to be able to travel the country and see all these examples and hear about them from special teachers, like Bob Sprankle.

I was going to go back through the video and write down all the IMPORTANT PARTS and review them here, making my own comments on each item, but I think the readers can do that on their own. 

THEN, after viewing and thinking about the video, tell me what you thought were the most important thoughts.  What did you learn from watching the video? 

I am interested in your opinion.

Technorati Tags: Alan November,Bob Sprankle,paradigm,teaching,learning,education,shift,Teacher is BOSS,collaborative learning,self-directed learning,life long learners

SketchUp Projects

Have you heard about the fun software called SketchUp? 

Bonnie who writes books about what to do with SketchUp is starting to  make mini lessons for each month for teachers to show how the tools work.  They sound like a lot of fun. 

Her first set of projects are listed here on her blog.

What age level students do you think can use these tools?  How would you integrate these tools into your curriculum?

Let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: SketchUp,lessons,curriculum,integration,education

Why don’t we do it in our sleeves?

Be sure to talk to your students this year and every year about how to sneeze and cough.  I know it sounds crazy, but it is very important to learn the proper method to avoid contamination.  Little ones can learn the right way too…

Watch this interesting/funny video about it.

Technorati Tags: sneeze,cough,swine_flu,sleeves

THE SQUIRREL for real OR… constructivism as a “best case scenario” for learning

Check out this VIDEO.It takes 5 minutes but it is well worth it.  While you are watching, think about teaching your students, all of your students, even those who don’t get it the first time.

OKAY, what did you think? 

NASH WORLD says, "To me, even more than goal setting and teamwork… this video speaks to the idea of honoring a constructivist approach to learning… and the gentle scaffolding required to get students to the ultimate goal within such a framework."

I think this opens up a great discussion.  Show it to your faculty or just one fellow teacher.

Some students need just a little extra push, a little extra idea, or help in an unusual way. 

Think about your students. What scaffolding can you give the ones who don’t get it on first jump?  Do you employ different strategies for those students who need extra help to get over the wall?

Technorati Tags: constructivism,education,differentiation,teaching,learning

Student view - Technology at school

This is an amzing example of a student blogging about his day at school with his laptop...

Wouldn't this be great if every school/student/teacher/learning opportunity worked this way!

amazing student blog of his day