Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
This standard encourages students to use higher-order thinking skills through carrying out investigations, problem solving, and designing and implementing projects. Students should also be able to locate and utilize applicable digital tools to aide their decision making and problem solving. An important part of this objective is defining real problems that are meaningful to the students. Data analysis and recognizing differing viewpoints would also be a part of this standard.
I selected this standard for the keynote address . I was fascinated with group thinking and how it would work in the classroom. It is exciting to know that as a group our students can solve problems at a higher level than the best problem solver in the classroom.
On a side note, this theory also brings a great dynamic to our Star Grant PLC Leadership team.
I survived the first day even though our landing on the plane was really bumpy! I really enjoyed the keynote speaker this evening. Surowieke’s views on tapping into collective intelligence really goes with what we are trying to do with PLCs. What’s the old saying, “Two heads are better than one. ” It is true. It is important to have different perspectives and it does expand our range of knowledge. Just think of the impact this could have with our students in the classroom!
As I reflect on the keynote from last night, I gravitate to one part of the discussion. A group with a variety of opinions accomplishes more. As adults this is a difficult skill. To listen to everyone’s opinion and look at all sides of an argument is key to progress but sometimes hard to do. As we move forward with our staff and students, we have to make sure we create an environment where this is not only tolerated but encouraged!
Just left the morning poster sessions, where Stefanie Sims had a full table as I walked away! She did a great job, and it was interesting to see how projects at Crockett compare to some other schools.
One idea that I saw from another elementary school is something that could be adapted easily to middle school. (Angie Nicholes acutally did something similar at Houston this year. ) The 5th grade students at this particular elementary were paired up with a high school basketball player. They were responsible for attending games and recording statistics, or for getting them some other way. They used spreadsheets to analyze the data and see how the players looked from a statistical point of view. We could do that in middle schools in lots of ways – and it would not have to involve high school students at all! What middle school kid does not want to know his stats, and what subject is more engaging to an 11-13 year old than themselves?? It would not have to be sports – just anything that would lend itself to statistical analysis over a period of time. TEKS related? You bet!
On the way to Stef Sims’ poster session, I passed by the National Science Teachers Association booth and saw a book on the table called Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms. My attempts at getting my students to keep up with their papers and lab reports and conclusions, etc. have not been very productive. I decided that I would read about the book on the NSTA website. Then, after seeing Stef’s poster session, I saw an activity from another school that I very much want to try. The science class kept a year-long notebook on phenology and included digital pictures (for which they had a grant), but they also pasted articles and lab results onto the pages and made the science notebooks more individualized for the students.
Technology integration is vital for our students to be prepared for the 21 century. The presenters from Carroll ISD gave a multitude of ideas for teachers as well as students the ability to infuse technology in every day use in the classroom. An idea that could be an effective tool to enhance parental
awareness was the idea of having teachers prepare brochures with their expectations, curriculum outlines, discipline procedures and so on so that the they would model the use of brochures as a means if communication. The bubble gum assignment using publisher to create business card size (ecofriendly) to apply the knowledge regarding radius,volume, circumference, and diameter were inovative and would be highly engaging to the students. Another idea shared was the use of excel to plot coordinates and integrate science, the stars, as well as require the students to express their understanding of their learning in text boxes righted into what we are tryinto do effortlessly in our classrooms. All I can say is Wow! There have been so many great things that I have learned about and I look forward to working among the wisdom if many in this new school year to come.
I attended Cheryl Lemke’s session about research from the Metiri Group. Good data from several research projects has shown that high tech combined with constructivist learning opportunities yields 32% greater gains in student acheivement vs. traditional methods. When students are engaged in moderate to complex thinking, collaborative learning environments out perform every time.
As Alice noted above, I also enjoyed Lemke’s presentation. She also shared about the importance of quality assignment using real life examples. Here are some sources for your consideration:
An open innovation community of smart, creative people who provide solutions to tough problems in business, science, product development, …
http://www.innocentive.com
David Bolinsky: Fantastic voyage inside a cell
His team illustrate scientific and medical concepts with high-drama animation. You’ve never seen the life of a cell quite like this. What a privilege for our teachers to be able to share this fantastic resources with our students.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_bolinsky_animates_a_cell.html
If you are not familiar with TED, you are in for a treat to be inspired:
http://www.ted.com
The key to raising the level of instruction is to inspire students with authentic, relevant assignments. Make it project based, a group activity, raise the critical thinking and have high expectations. Once inspired, students will rise to the level of expectation.
This morning’s keynote was inspiring and extended on the theme of Think BIG. It is a great idea to think outside the classroom walls and act globally. It would be wonderful to have teachers and students connect with some of our students’ home countries. I am excited to check out http://www. iearn.com
and look for some upcoming projects and connect with educators across the globe.
ISTE – NETS Conference
July 1, 2008
Building Math Skills through Digital Games
NECC 2008
The session introduces teachers to a free on-line game, which helps makes Math more interactive and appealing to the students through the design of on-line game. The game exposes students to pre-algebra and critical thinking skills (at least the presenters say).
The concept of games is not necessarily a bad one. However, “educational games” used as simple review or new knowledge should be limited. The focus of a lesson (including educational games) in class should always be conducive to giving ample time to students learning. When limited class time is jeopardized by the student preparation of the game (i.e. picking characters, roaming through the game with no bearing to the Math) and other “fluff” within the game, class time is in fact compromised. So many times educators express that they are “limited” with their class time and educational games such as these simply take more of that precious time away from instruction. This is believed as a characteristic in a difference between a high performing class and a below proficient academic classroom setting. Games are a great tool to hook the students; however, they should be academically focused and conducive to a rigorous academic lesson. Learning should not be jeopardized for simple entertainment.
Today, one of the sessions that I attended was on Powerpoint Poisoning. The speaker, Annette Lamb, discussed how powerpoints have become a standard tool for learning, but boring. We typically think of a powerpoint as having bullets. Students and teachers spend more time dealing with font, pictures, transitions. Users are also almost cutting and pasting the information. She showed us multiple ways of combating this problem. One way is by eliminating the use of bullets. By having the students use callouts to pictures, they have to take the information that they have found, and apply it to a situation.
http://www.eduscapes.com/sessions/sidekicks/index.htm
Today in the session “Get FIT: Fired Up Through Technology” with Annette Lamb they challenged us to move beyond what we typically think of as technology. A simple way to start is to allow your students to choose their own appropriate application and to use a variety of tools in one project. What I took from the content that I feel will have the greatest impact on my teaching is to extend the student’s application beyond their own project. By comparing and contrasting content and choices made by other students in their class, the learning experience is enriched.
I was also at teh “Get FIT” session. After this session, I really started thinking of ways to use technology to build background knowledge that my student do not already possess.
Alan November’s session on Developing Rigorous Lessons: Students as Contributors was very good. Some of the content was a repeat of what I have heard from previous presentations by him, but the context in which it was presented was new. He showed several examples from teachers ( one of which was in the audience) where students took the lead to develop a solution to a problem. One group of students used Camtasia to develop some tutorial type movies. He recommended Jing as an alternative (also produced by TechSmith, who makes Camtasia). Mikie posted the link in another strand. He talked about Kiva.org as well, and the importance of student decision making in their own learning. It was a very good session, but I didn’t come away with any specific ideas, just a renewed sense of urgency as to what we need to do for our students in order to prepare them for what they will be facing when they leave school.
Bernie Dodge did a presentation Wednesday morning that he subtitled “Kids as Deciders.” The formal title was “Using Authentic Problems to Scaffold Decision-Making Skills.” His premise was that decision making is one of the most important things the human mind does. He went on to say that even though deciding (the link between thought and action) may not be a tested standard, it is one of the most important things that students need to learn to do well. He gave a few suggestions for finding authentic problems, and then he spent some time talking about how webquests can present authentic problems for students to solve. Most of the time was spent on some decision making techniques that can be directly taught to students (especially those who have a hard time making decisions). Plus/Minus/Interesting, Decision Trees, and a Weighted Sum technique were a few of the strategies he presented.
I attended one of the Intel Education Texas Teachers Dare to Share sessions at the Marriott. The session was titled “When Pigs Fly”. The session was about designing and launching a rocket made from a 2-liter bottle. It was not so much about building the rocket but instead it was a unit about problem solving.
I attended a session on Wednesday which was entitled: Using Authentic Problems to Scafold Decision Making Skills . This session creates opportunities for students to practice decision making skills in core subject areas. I feel that the students would really benefit from these problems since real world problems are used. Exciting and innovative these critical thinking skills are what we are encouraging our students to deveolp and will give the Teacher an avenue to help the students achieve that goal. (NETS: 5:3)
Also, Thanks for the opportunity to attend this conference.
Sincerely,
Autum Scott