My Shoes Stay Tied!

Are you still tying shoes the way you were taught as a kid? It may be worth finding a better way...



Now on YouTube, this method is a surefire way to make friends with your favourite kindergarten teacher! If you want to encourage folks to try new lacing strategies, you can't beat Ian's Shoelace Site.

Five Reasons to Love a Loonie

* Note to the non-Canadian world: Loonie is the slang term for a one dollar Canadian coin.

1] When you have enough loonies in your automobile ashtray, you can be a big spender, splurging for a an 'iced cap' at Timmies;

2] A loonie will buy you a great song like 12:59 Lullaby by Bedouin Soundclash on iTunes;

3] You can spend a loonie in more places than you can spend Canadian Tire Money;

4] The loonie is cute enough to have a great nickname!

5] The loonie buys as much as an American dollar (at least today it does!);

Are there more great things about the loonie?

Are you a Cruise Director?

Recent posts by David Warlick, Andy Gibson, and Ewan McIntosh are all reminding me of a problem I have with the teaching profession: namely, the job title!

Usually, it is the layout and tools of the traditional classroom that reinforces the model of education I've come to resent: 'one where information is transmitted from teacher to student'. But, even the very word 'teacher', implies that one is responsible for the transmission of knowledge to the other. It almost makes me want to jump ship!



Extending the metaphor: If your classroom were a ship, with the students as passengers, what role would you play? The ship's captain? A steward? Chief purser? The navigator? In the best case, educators are co-learners who can model learning on a daily basis, while providing engaging experiences for their clients. With many pre-determined destinations, I suspect that the best teachers will play many roles, not the least of which, would be that of 'cruise director'.

I have an observation experiment for you:
Try a 'ship's captain walkabout'. Tour the decks of a school as an observer, while limiting your attention to the feet of the 'passengers'. Take my word for it... and just try it. I suspect that in a given tour, your observations will tell you much about how engaged (or disengaged) the learners are! If the feet are active, I suspect that there is a good chance you're looking at the classroom of a cruise director and co-learner.


Too Funny! True oral exam stories are shared on tonight's 8 minute episode of the Teacher 2.0 Podcast: "Tale of the Tell-Tale Toes".

Photo Credits: Savannah Grandfather, Billie/PartsnPieces

Classroom 2.0: Intentional Workspace Arrangement

Have you ever intentionally designed your classroom learning space?

After revisiting Dean Shareski's interview with Clarence Fisher, I've found myself thinking about how the layout of a classroom speaks loudly about the types of learning activities that take place within the space. Just as a restaurant has tables arranged for intimate conversation; a doctor's office has chairs arranged for private contemplation; and an auditorium focuses attention on a public performance; your classroom is arranged for.... what?

While we may be stuck with the rigidity of the desk, the layout of a classroom is largely left up to the inspiration of the teacher. In organizing their classroom furniture, I wonder how many teachers consider arranging their desks to maximize the effectiveness of collaborative experiences. My suspicion is that many teachers, in the name of 'classroom management' arrange their rooms to minimize opportunities for interaction.

With that, I'm venturing to share two distinct desk layouts that I use in my own teaching:

The first is the adaptable, double horse-shoe: The inner circle and outer circle allow students to participate in discussions with the entire class, or to focus on a large group activity/speaker/presentation. When the inner desks are rotated 180 degrees to face the outer horseshoe, you have instant tables formed that can be used for partner work, or small group activities.

The second simple group organizer I've used I call the 'awk-quad': Each quad is comprised of four desks, clustered, with two desks facing one another, and the other two facing in a common direction, but sandwiched onto the side of the opposing desks. Though awkward, this grouping allows for group discussion or partner work and with limited stress on student necks, provides a clear line of sight to centralized classroom activities.

Care to share your desk/classroom arrangement?
Although I feel guilty about asking the audience to participate... I think that learning should be conversational, so I'm inviting educators to share photos and rationale for the arrangement of their classrooms. Simply post a sketch or photo of your learning space on Flickr, or on your blog, and give an explanation of why your learning space is so designed.

In sharing your 'intentional workspace arrangement', you can link back to this post; or you can use the comment space below to link out to your photo and explanation. Who knows? This could be even become a meme of sorts...

Sue Tapp's response to the interview noted above, reminds me that VoiceThread offers an effective way to share a classroom story:



The Teacher 2.0 Podcast that spawned this idea is now available.

Photo credits: Piero Sierra; dc John

Create a Custom Search Engine

I have the feeling that educators will find many uses for Google's 'free' Custom Search Engine tool. Here are but a few ideas:

1] Have Google index the content of PDF, RTF, or DOC files by placing these in a web folder; and create a custom search that is limited to this folder;

2] Provide students access to a search engine set to scour specific resources that you update for specific grades/subjects/projects (e.g., general Craig Nansen's K-12 resources)

3] Add a custom search engine to your blog, wiki, or podcast page.




Do you have any other ideas?