I have just returned (and am still recovering!) from the 2007 Constructivist Design Conference in Grand Island, New York.  It was my 15th conference, and every year - from my first summer attending as a student, to this year representing FableVision and working with a team of student teachers, I leave the week feeling refueled and energized.

 What struck me most this year was the vocabulary I heard (and not just from Get A Clue!).  Constructivists refer to student-centered classrooms, hands-on learning, and teacher-as-guide… certainly sounds like the North Star to me!

 But the most amazing moment for me was watching an 8-year-old teach five teachers how to create a rubric.  After a week of writing (and rating her own) newspaper articles for the “Daily Constructivist” with other students aged 8-13, she felt confident enough to explain the concept to the (rather amused, and very awed) teachers.  I introduced her to Stationery Studio soon after, and maybe next year she’ll be writing her rubrics on that!

Reading about the inaugural public event of the Constructivist Consortium brought back memories of the middle school where I completed half of my internship back when I was getting my certification for school counseling.  The school was King Middle School in Portland, Maine, and King’s school wide model is Expeditionary Learning… which is very much a constructivist model.  From the King MS website:

Our school wide model is Expeditionary Learning. Our students engage in eight to twelve week experiential learning expeditions. These expeditions are in-depth and interdisciplinary in nature and require students to engage in sophisticated research, use the community in authentic ways, and represent their knowledge with high quality products which are presented to legitimate audiences.

It was exciting to learn about the Expeditionary Learning model while I was interning at this school… observing how students learned about and applied language arts, math, science and other subjects while cooperatively completing an “expedition”, or large project, over a long span of time.  How wonderful to be able to learn subjects while applying them in the moment to real-world experiences and projects.

Recently, a new public elmentary school was built in Portland which also integrates Expeditionary Learning into their framework for learning.  Looks like it’s catching on!

Does anyone else have any experiences with Expeditionary Learning schools, or other schools that model a constructivist approach?

 A few weeks ago, while still at NECC in Atlanta, Georgia, I had a fantastic discussion with an Australian teacher named Martin Levins.  Martin told me tales of the teachers he has encountered and the automatic first question they ask him:

“I have to use the computer, but I also need to teach [math, science, reading, geography, art].  How do I fit them both in?”

His response is brilliantly simple: “you’re asking the wrong question.  Use the computer to teach the subject!”  He gave me examples of using Google Maps to trace volcanos and earthquakes, and I have since discovered other examples, from the New York Times online lesson plans to FableVision’s own Stationery Studio program.

Today I was reminded of my conversation with Martin when I read a blog entry by Doug Johnson from Mankato Public Schools.  The piece, Survival Skills for the Information Jungle, enlightened me as to WHY teachers (and students!) can feel so overwhelmed by technology.  Once we had to search for information, afraid it wasn’t there at all.  Now we know it’s there… but everything is there!  I refer you to “Information jungle survival skill 4:”

Don’t just gather sticks. Make something with them.
And we have come full circle to Martin’s simple response.  Technology is not a separate piece to somehow fit into an already crammed curriculum.  It is a new tool, to aid discovery and lead to creativity.

The latest Harry Potter film came out last night, and (according to MSN), hundreds turned out for the midnight showing.  I was not one of them, but reading the reviews this morning I felt a new connection to Harry and his friends.

Harry is following his North Star, and Hogwarts is a North Star school - hear me out on this!  Think of the muggle world as a traditional school model.  The Dursleys are afraid of what they don’t know, as so many people are.  (Granted, for the sake of literary drama they appear a little overzealous in their fear, but I’m sure we’ve all met with such opposition.)  But Harry has the memory of his parents as his guides, and the day Hagrid walks into his life and offers him a CHOICE, he begins his journey.

What makes Hogwarts different from the Muggle world?  Two things: first, Harry is asked to choose many of his own classes, with clear options of where these courses will lead him.  Nothing is theoretical in Hogwarts (particularly for Harry, who regularly finds himself in situations where he is forced to call upon history and practical magic just to stay alive).  Second, Hogwarts’ administrators make full use of every new magic they discover.

Replace the word magic with technology.  Suddenly, Harry is learning 21st century skills and utilizing those skills to develop his character and find his North Star.  YAY!

The No Child Left Behind act is up for reauthorization this year, and - surprise, surprise - there are some proposed ammendments.  Most of the ammendments are still very test-centric, but I read about one in the New York Times today that seems to be moving in the right direction.

 Several schools in New York state (and probably many other states as well) have shifted from comparing test scores to those of previous grades to comparing the scores to previous scores by the individual student.

What does this mean?  It means that even though this year’s 8th grade test score is not an accurate representation of Johnny’s ability to discuss politics or facilitate literary discussions, it may be an accurate representation of what special help he needs to excel within his current school.  Individual students are being moved into special education or advanced placement classrooms based on their individual progress, as opposed to their comparative progress.

It’s a start!

Reason One: Expansion of Time and SpaceIn a typical high school a student has access to a teacher for one hour each day. That means she has access to the teacher approximately for 6% of a 16-hour waking day, and even that time is shared with 25 classmates. But she has access to the Internet 100% of the time. That’s a lot better — some twenty times better. Yes, technology is no substitute for an inspiring teacher. However, on-line materials are FAR more available. -John Page

Although a majority of these reasons are geared towards visual learners, Page’s reasoning is sound, particularly when he gets into the automatic emphasis on project-based learning and individual pacing the Internet provides. My only question is: how do we make the transition?

The rest of the article is available here.