Like Krazy

Can I know a student's effort? Hmmm.  HOW can I know a student's effort? Carol  Dweck's "Mindset" is rubbing off on me already. I wrote it out the first way, added the "How" in front because it felt so negative otherwise.  Because it was. If I left it the original way, I may have even convinced myself that it would be impossible and it probably would have ended there. Instead, I'll be looking for more ways to gauge my students' efforts which is so key in helping them figure out their way.  The growth mindset leads us to try to figure out a way as opposed to a way NOT.  It's the difference between "I can't figure this out" and "I can't figure this out - yet." That little word changes that sentence in a big way.  It's the difference between giving up and and trying another way.  I'd much rather have a room full of students who add the "how" before or the "yet"...

Victor Oladipo was the 2nd pick in the NBA draft last week. Until the week before, he probably was never told he could be taken that high in the draft and most likely, that's why it happened. Oladipo went to DeMatha Catholic High School where I teach but I never had him in class. Everything I have heard and experienced about Victor though, shows he has a growth mindset. A year ago there was no mention of Oladipo being one of the top picks in the draft. This was not a new scenario for him. He was not highly recruited out of DeMatha and choose to go to Indiana, a school with an incredible basketball reputation but coming off records of 6-25 and 10-21 the two prior seasons. He also did not make DeMatha's varsity team as a freshman but would sweep the floor after freshman practices to prepare the gym for the varsity team he did not make. As a junior on a varsity team full of future NCAA talent, he volunteered to come off the bench to give the seniors their opportunity to start...

Photo by Tom Krawczewicz. In summers past, I have helped organize weekly tech sessions at school for teachers who are interested in learning during the summer months. I thought weekly sessions would help keep the learning going throughout the summer but vacations and other interruptions caused sporadic attendance at best.  This summer, with inspiration from the edcamp and "normal"conference models, I am trying a one-day hybrid model and using the working term of a CAMPference. Thus was born the DeMatha Technology in Education Conference (#DMTE13). I had grand plans for at least three simultaneous tracks (one exclusively for newbies) but the realities of time and first-time efforts set in and there will be just one track. Each session of approximately 45 minutes (this can be flexible thanks to just one track) will fall under a topic and tools and methods (both practiced and possible) will be discussed. There will not be a presenter for any one topic (which has me quite n...

You can't plow a field by turning it over in your mind . - Irish Proverb In reading Seth Godin's "I get it!" entry, I realized how guilty I was of stopping at that point instead of taking the next step. The ideas and inspirations about education and teaching that I get from my continual contact with colleagues, through social media, and reading articles and blogs are written down on scraps of paper,  in various notebooks, and into my phone or tablet. Maybe later, at some point, I re-read them and may even recopy them to Evernote for organization purposes (under what I thought was a catchy and creative file name, "TrIdeas") but then the fruit often dies on the vine. As Yoda said those many years ago in a galaxy far, far away, "Do, or do not. There is no try" and Seth points out in his blog, getting it is only the first step in the process. Doing it must follow. The only way the ideas can be transforming is if they are acted upon....

This week I'll try... ...to actually write a blog post. ...to give each student, everyday, a chance to show his mad Shakespeare interpretation skills.  Two weeks ago, I signed up for a group text messaging service (Cel.ly) and set up two of my courses. Students joined a "cell" for the class and it allows me to send group text messages (without my knowing the students' phone numbers), receive responses from students that are only seen by me, and share selected student responses with everyone. I sent an MFTB (Men from the Boys) question the first weekend, where students had to interpret a few lines from Julius Casear , to try it out and I heard from many students (mostly "boy" responses, for now).  This week I'll try something similar everyday, from the night's reading, giving them several short (1-3 lines) passages to choose from. (This is an idea that was sparked by Joy Kirr's recent blog post - http://kirrscholars.blogspot.com/2...

For those teachers who use games for learning and review, it's apparent the rise in engagement that they bring to the classroom. But, does this engagement and enthusiasm always lead to learning? According to research by neuroscientist Paul Howard-Jones, adding an element of chance can help further increase the chances of learning. It's just a matter of adding it at the right time. For instance, the addition of a simple 50/50 chance of losing all points associated with a correct answer leads to more effective learning. But where in the process does the learning peak? I asked Howard-Jones via email and it turns out that the following sequence works well: student/team answers question student/team is given a 50/50 chance to "double or nothing" their points correct answer is revealed It turns out that even if they lose points or answer incorrectly, the learning is still at a peak because of the state of mind of ALL the students involved. Good or bad, even those who a...

During a recent Engchat discussion about student writing I contributed a comment about an activity I do with students which I call Think with Ink. There were several questions so I thought I would expound on the process.      The idea of Think with Ink originated in a professional development session held at my school close to 20 years ago. Please note that I am almost completely avoiding a snarky comment about actually learning something constructive from a professional development session conducted by an "outsider." While I believe that most of the time the best PD does come from within because the PD leader knows the audience, MUCH can be learned from "outsiders" on a continuous basis through Twitter, hashtag chats, and webinars. That outside voice has become essential for my growth and constant learning.      At its core, Think with Ink (my name for it) is a simple exercise. Students are given an open-ended topic (i.e. Good - "We are about to r...