C21 Teaching
  • Home
  • FTPL Videos
  • Blog
  • List of Blog Series
  • Education Resources
  • Starting with Flipped Learning
  • Friday Freebie
  • About Me
  • Contact

FutureSchools Review – Day 1 Session 1 – Master class with Jennie Magiera

21/11/2016

0 Comments

 
The next few articles will be based on reflections of my time attending the 2016 iteration of the FutureSchools conference and expo, which, for the 2016 iteration, consists of master classes on Wednesday 2nd March, and the conferences and expo proper on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th March respectively. When I attended last year (2015 review articles here), I commuted down and back each day, a return journey of approximately three hours total, which made for a long and tiring three days. When I decided to attend this year I made the decision that to engage with the networking aspect of the three days, and in order to not arrive each morning already tired, that I would stay in Sydney for the two nights. Accordingly, I wrote this particular article whilst sitting on the end of the single bed in the small (but very clean and well-kept) room, using an ironing board I borrowed from the staff to iron my shirts for tomorrow as a table of sorts, with my notebook propped up on the obligatory teacup provided in the room. It is certainly one of the more bizarre writing setups that I have used.
Picture
The writing 'table' in my hotel room.
Wednesday was the day for master classes, with three different full-day master classes on offer (you can read the blurb for each by clicking here, here and here). After reading through the synopsis of each on offer I made the decision that the Jennie Magiera’s (@MsMagiera) facilitated master class, entitled Transforming School Culture: Curiosity Based Learning for Students AND Teachers was the best fit for where I am at, currently, as a teacher in regards to my pedagogical approach and interests and the master class from which I would gain the most benefit vis-à-vis being able to put what I learn into practice when I return to school.

When we started, Jennie stated that she wanted us to think about “…building a culture of curiosity…” in our schools and that cognitive dissonance would be the goal of today, to challenge us and to draw us out of our comfort zones in order to open us up to thinking about questioning from a different reference point. She was open that the day would be interactive, practical and not a five-hour long keynote with some breaks throughout, and that the first activity we needed to do was to smile.

She attributed this activity to Roni Habib (@Roni_Habib) and referred to it as clapping for happiness and that it worked with both children and adults. It was a very simple activity wherein we all stood up in a rough circle around the outside of the room, and Jennie timed how long it would take for what was effectively a Mexican-Wave clap to make it all the way around the room, with the goal to achieve a sub-ten second time.  It sounds very simple, and it was, but you could sense the competitiveness in the air the moment a time-goal was mentioned. At the end of the activity, however, everyone was laughing, smiling and had reawakened from their early-morning lethargy that many suffer from in the short period after arriving at work, and you could feel the energy in the room shift.

Jennie took us through an interesting series of analogies and explanations, beginning with Project Based Learning (PBL v1), extending to Project Based Learning (PBL v2) and then to Curiosity Based Learning (CBL). Jennie indicated that she wanted us to think about PBL v1 as a quadrilateral. There are specific qualities needed for a shape to be a quadrilateral though these criteria are quite broad and accordingly many things can be a quadrilateral, though it is often clear when something is not a quadrilateral. To refine a quadrilateral, we need to take the definition a step further. Jennie asked us to think about PBL v2 as being a square. Though still a quadrilateral, it has further criteria that define it as a specific type of shape, and the delineation between a quadrilateral, in general, and a square, specifically, is fairly clear.
​
The message here is that all squares are quadrilaterals, but that not all quadrilaterals are squares.  Jennie stated that
“…all problem-based learning units are project based learning, as in order to solve the problem, typically, there is some form of creation, an output at the end, achieved by completing a project. But not all Project based learning units are problem-based.”
To situate this in a context we can grapple with more easily, we often ask students to create something, a presentation, a diorama, a poster or some other output. However, the question that Jennie was asking, or my interpretation of the question that Jennie was asking here, is how often is the project based on solving a problem, in contrast to creating an output that meets a specific, already known and quantifiable purpose/rubric/metric?
Picture
Retrieved from tinyurl.com/hjr77om on 21 November 2016
Jennie’s advice was that in PBL v2, a student being successful is not required. In actuality, the greatest learning in PBL v2 may arise from a failure. She provided us with the seemingly trite, but potentially powerful and liberating acronym of FAIL; standing for First Attempt In Learning, and that too often she sees and hears of teachers providing problems that are too small, with teacher’s labouring under the notion that the problem they are working on MUST be situated locally in order to be of significance to them and their learning. Jennie exhorted us to think bigger, to think on a grander scale, and that she and other teachers she has worked with find that the questions, the problems which generate more interest, engagement and learning are those that are deemed impossible.

Jennie gave us a current example from her own career as a Year Four classroom teacher in Chicago, Illinois. Currently, a large contingent of her students are genuinely fearful that if Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee in the 2016 United States Presidential election that he will come to the south side of Chicago, put them all in trucks and deport them. The question how can we stop Donald Trump becoming the Republican candidate generated a lot of high-quality teaching and learning moments and is of great significance to those students. This exact same unit of work, if it was to be bundled up so neatly, would likely not interest any Year Four class outside of the United States, and even within the United States, would only appeal to particular class groups, depending on their ethnic make-up, based upon Trump’s speeches. The problem is a large-scale one, not situated locally vis-à-vis their specific school, but it is a large scale problem, that has generated curiosity in the student, which takes us to the next level.

PBL v2 starts with a problem, CBL, the next step in Jennie’s analogy, starts with a question. The problem for the students was that they might be deported if Trump succeeds in his Presidential campaign. The problem generated curiosity which led to the question, how can we stop Trump from succeeding?

This chain of thought brought Jennie to reminding us that children do have an innate curiosity and need to ask questions, particularly as young children (pre-school age), but that the process of schooling often stamps out that curiosity and consequently we need to re-instil in our students a sense of wonder and curiosity, and also how to audit their curiosity in a productive manner.

To achieve this Jennie offered up an activity which we all completed which she referred to as a Wonder Catalyst. In essence, this activity involves providing students with a pad of post-it notes on which they are to write any question that comes to mind, without censorship or auditing for sensibility or practicality or answerability as long as it starts with one of the question stems (who, what, when, where, why and how) based upon a series of images, each of which is shown for a short period of time (I believe each was shown for around thirty seconds today, which was okay as adults, however, I certainly think that younger groups would need longer).
​
After this has been done, then the auditing process begins. Questions are to be sorted into three question types; those that can be answered simply by asking Siri, or Google and to which a definitive answer is immediately returned, which Jennie referred to as Googleable questions; those that can definitively answered with some research, whether it is through a series of web searches, phone calls, tracking people down to get dates or places etc, which are referred to as researchable questions; and finally, those questions to which, though  there are best guesses (educated or not), there is no definitive answer, which Jennie referred to as Wonderable questions. You can see an example of what this might look like below.
Picture
The next level in this process is moving away from sentence stems, and towards a shift in mindset towards the curious, asking students to suspend disbelief and ask what if questions. Instead of asking when/where/why/how something occurred, ask what if……something else occurred.
Picture
What if….the microbes in the garbage have a fully functional society? Image retrieved from tinyurl.com/krvg8f5 on 3 March 2016
Two tools which Jennie provided us to help with this process were rightquestion.org/education and 101Qs.com, both of which generate a series of images and allows you to note down any question which springs to mind about or based on that image, and to also see what questions have been asked in the past for that image.

Jennie related this process back to Understanding by Design (a topic I have touched upon very briefly in the past, following the Teaching for Thinking conference I attended in 2015), and how the process of planning a unit of work in that model is based upon achieving a particular learning goal, getting to which is based around a single essential question, which may then have three or four guiding questions. It was also noted that utilising prompts to generate questions in this fashion, as opposed to simply telling students to write down any questions they have on any topic, may also help to reduce the incidence of choice-paralysis which may also bring about fear of failure to ask the right questions.

Another method which Jennie said she has used to help generate questions in the past is the Earthview extension for Google Chrome. It sets the new tab background to a satellite photo of Earth, which students then generate questions about in order to attempt to determine what or where the photo is of. Each photo also has a link to Google Earth so that more information can be looked at if something appears that you want to pursue further.

This little segue was the close for the morning session and lead into our morning break, which makes it a good place to stop for today. I hope that you have been able to draw something out of this article, as I have found it useful to reflect upon what I learned this morning, and what practices I want to add to my pedagogical quiver when I return to the classroom. As always, thank you for reading, and feel free to leave any questions or comments below, or to contact me via Twitter if you want to engage in a discussion around this topic, or get more information about anything.

You can find the other articles in this series here.
0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @C21_Teaching

    Categories

    All
    21st Century Learning
    3D Printing
    Aaron Sams
    Abdul Chohan
    Aboriginal Culture
    Aboriginal Education
    Academia
    ACARA
    Accreditation
    ACER
    Action Research
    ADE
    Aimmee Shattock
    AirSquirrels
    AITSL
    Alex Smith
    Alfie Kohn
    Alfina Jackson
    Alice Keeler
    Alice Leung
    AM Hon DLitt
    And Clark
    And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
    Anne Van Der Graaf
    Announcement
    ANZAC Day
    Apple Distinguished Educator
    App Speed Dating
    Artificial Intelligence
    Ashanti Branch
    Assessment
    Augmented Reality
    AussieEd
    Australian Curriculum
    Awards
    Awesome
    Baby
    Behaviour
    BetterU
    Blake Seufert
    Blogging
    Bloom's Taxonomy
    Books
    Book Study
    Bradley Loiselle
    Brad Loiselle
    Branching
    Break
    Brett Salakas
    Brett Wood
    Brighton Secondary School
    Bron Stuckey
    BYO
    BYOD
    BYODD
    BYOT
    Cameron Malcher
    Camtasia
    Cara Johnson
    Career Change
    Carol Dweck
    Carolina Buitrago & Martha Ramirez
    Casual Teaching
    Catherine Ford
    Cathie Howe
    Change
    Charles Fadel
    Charles Leadbeater
    Chelsea Wright
    Chris McNamara
    Christopher Pyne
    Chromakey
    Chromebooks
    Clarification
    Class Notebook
    Classroom Economy
    Classroom Management
    ClassTech
    Class Tools
    ClickView
    CLT
    Coding
    Coercion
    Cognitive Load Theory
    Collaboration
    Collegiality
    Community Engagement
    Computer Skills
    Conference Expo
    Conference Review
    Confidence
    Connected Classroom
    Consequences
    Constantin Lomaca
    Constructivism
    Contemporary Pedagogy
    Cooinda AECG
    Copyright
    Corinne Campbell
    Cornell Notetaking
    Creative Writing
    Creativity
    Critical Thinking
    Crystal Caton
    Cultures Of Thinking
    Curiosity
    Cyberbullying
    Cyber Security
    Daily Summary
    Dan Haesler
    Dan Jones
    Data
    David Jakes
    Deborah Nicholson
    Democracy
    Digital Citizenship
    Digital Curriculum
    Digital Learner
    Digital Literacies
    Digital Literacy
    Digital Natives
    Digital Pedagogy
    Digital Pedgogy
    #DigLit
    Discipline
    DocHub
    Domains Of Knowledge
    Dominic Hearne
    Drama
    Dr. Britta Jensen
    Dr Caroline West
    Dr. David Zyngier
    Dr. Jane Kise
    Dr. Janelle Wills
    Dr Janine Beekhuyzen
    Dr Jill Margerison
    Dr. Kevin Donnelly
    Dr. Milton Chen
    Dr. Nerida McCredie
    Drones
    Dr. Rachel Wilson
    Dr. Robert Talbert
    Dr. Ruben Puentedura
    Duolingo
    Dyslexia
    Dyslexie
    Early Years Learning
    Earth Engine Time-Lapse
    Easter
    Ed Cuthbertson
    EdTech
    Education
    Educational Technology
    Education Funding
    Education Nation
    Education Policy
    Education Portfolio
    Education Vendor
    Education Week
    EduChange
    EduMedia
    #EduNationAu
    EduTech
    @EduTweetOz
    Edward DeBono
    Elder Gavi
    ELearning
    Elizabeth Amvrazis
    Employment
    English
    Eric Bogle
    Eric Mazur
    Errol St Clair Smith
    Esafety
    ESafety Commissioner
    Eureka
    Evidence Based Practice
    Experienced Teachers
    Family
    Feedback
    Film
    Flexibility
    #FlipConAdl
    FlipConAus
    FlipConNZ
    FlipLearnCon
    Flipped Learning
    Football
    Foundation For Young Australians
    Friday Freebie
    Frozen
    FTPL
    Fun
    Fundamental Movement Skills
    Furniture
    FutureSchools Expo
    GAFE
    Game Based Learning
    Game-Based Learning
    Gamification
    Gaming
    Gary Stager
    Gavin Hays
    GDocs
    GDrive
    Genius Hour
    Geography
    Gert Biesta
    GForms
    Glenn Carmichael
    Glenunga International HS
    Gonski
    Google
    Google Apps For Education
    Google Classroom
    Google Docs
    Google Drive
    Google Forms
    Google Lines
    Google Maps
    Google Slides
    Google Suite
    Graduation
    Gratefulness
    Green Screen
    Greg Ashman
    Greg Whitby
    Group Work
    Growth Mindset
    GSheets
    Heather Davis
    Heath Wild
    Higher Education
    History
    Hogan Assessments
    Holidays
    Homework
    Honours
    Hopscotch
    Horizon Report
    HSC
    Ian Jukes
    Ian Thomson
    ICT
    Ideology
    Indigenous Culture
    Initial Teacher Education
    Inquiry Based Learning
    Interland
    International Baccalaureate
    Internet Skills
    Invent To Learn
    IPad
    IPads
    ITE
    Iteration
    IWBNet
    #IWishMyTeacherKnew
    Iyah Rahwan
    Jack Hyland
    Jack Hylands
    Jacqui Murray
    James Meijboom
    Jamie Dorrington
    Jane Caro
    Jan Owen
    Jared Cooney Horvath
    Jean Piaget
    Jennie Magiera
    Jenny Magiera
    Jeremy Cumming
    Jeremy LeCornu
    Jim Sill
    Joel Speranza
    John Bergmann
    John Burfoot
    John Catterson
    John Dewey
    John Goh
    John Hattie
    Jon Bergmann
    Josh Aghion
    Kahoot
    Kanga Cup
    Kate Lanier
    Katharine Birbalsingh
    Katie Jackson
    Kaye North
    Keith Crawford
    Ken Bauer
    Kid President
    Kim Maksimovic
    Kindergarten
    Kirschner
    Kirsty Tonks
    Kirsty Watts
    Language
    Leadership
    Leanne Steed
    Learning
    Learning Spaces
    Library
    Lifelong Learners
    Life Maths
    Lila Mularczyk
    Lily Young
    Linda Ray
    Lindy West
    Lip Sync Battle
    Lisa Rodgers
    Literacy
    Louann Brizendine
    MacICT
    Makerspace
    Marc Prensky
    Margaret Merga
    Marissa Peters
    Mark Gungor
    Mark Liddel
    Mary Lousie Ryan
    Masterclass
    Mastery
    Mathematics
    Mathletics
    Matt Burns
    Matt Noffs
    Matt Richards
    Matt Scadding
    Media
    Melbourne Declaration
    Melbourne Girls Grammar
    Melinda Cashen
    Mental Health
    Merrylands East PS
    Metacognition
    Michaela Community School
    Michael Aulden
    Michael Beilharz
    Michael Ha
    Michael O'Leary
    Microsoft
    Milton Chen PhD
    Minecraft
    Mistakes
    Monique Dali
    Moral Machine
    Morals And Ethics
    Motivational
    Movie Making
    Murat Dizdar
    Music
    MyEd
    NAO Robotos
    NAPLAN
    Netiquette
    New Beginnings
    Newspapers
    New Teachers
    NMC Horizon Report
    No Excuses
    Note Taking
    Numeracy
    Oakhill College
    Office365
    Offline Access
    Old School Teachers
    Olivia-oneill
    Onedrive
    Onenote
    Organisation
    Padlet
    Panel Discussion
    Parent Communication
    Paul Hamilton
    PBL
    PCPS
    PD
    PDHPE
    PDP
    Pedagogy
    Pedro Negouera
    Peer Instruction
    Peggy Sheehy
    Penny Bentley
    Personal Characteristics
    Peter Adams
    Peter Ellis
    Peter Hutton
    Peter Mader
    Peter Paccone
    Peter Whiting
    Phillip Cooke
    Phillip Heath
    Philosophy
    Phonics
    Physical Education
    PISA
    Place Based Learning
    Planning And Programming
    PLN
    Politics
    Prakash Nair
    Pranav Mistry
    Pre-Learning
    Presenting
    Primary Classroom
    Privacy
    Private Education
    Problem Solving
    Productivity
    Professional Associations
    Professional Development
    Professional Learning
    Professor Barry McGraw
    Professor Geoff Masters
    Professor Jane Burns
    Professor Ken Wiltshire
    Professor Richard Buckland
    Professor Richard Telford
    Project Based Learning
    Prue Gill
    Public Education
    Public Vs Private
    Punishment
    QR Codes
    Questioning
    Rainy Mood
    Ralph Pirozzo
    Reading
    Recycling
    Referee
    Reflection
    Reflector
    Reggio Emilia Approach
    Relationships
    Reports
    Research
    Research Skills
    Resilience
    Resources
    Respect
    Rewards
    RFF
    Richard Byrne
    Robert Livingstone
    Robotics
    Roundtables
    Rupert Denton
    Ryan Gill
    Ryan Hull
    Sally Wood
    SAMR
    Santa
    Sarah Asome
    School Culture
    School Policy
    School Tour
    Science
    ScopeIT
    Self-Branding
    Seymour Papert
    Shane Hancock
    Shireen Winrow
    Silence
    Simon Birmingham
    Simon Breakspear
    Simon Brooks
    Simon Crook
    Simone Segat
    Simon McKenzie
    Simon Sinek
    Sir Ken Robinson
    Sixth Sense Technology
    Social Media
    Socratic Seminars
    Solar System
    Special Needs
    SponeBob Squarepants
    Sport
    Spreadsheet
    Staff Development Day
    Stage One
    Stage Three
    Standardised Testing
    Star Wars
    STEM
    Stephanie Kriewaldt
    Stephen Lethbridge
    STM Bags
    Stories
    Storify
    Stress
    Student Mobility
    Student Wellbeing
    Sue Waters
    Sugata Mitra
    Sunk Cost
    Super Awesome Sylvia
    Susan Bowler
    Sweller
    Sylvia Libow Martinez
    Teacher Education
    Teacher Fever
    Teacher Life
    Teachers Talking Teaching Podcast
    Teacher Value
    Teacher Wellbeing
    #TeachforThink
    Teaching
    Teaching Boys
    Teaching Philosophy
    TeachMeet
    Team Teaching
    TED Talk
    Temporary Contract
    Teresa Deshon
    TER Podcast
    The Arts
    The Eddies
    The Four Cs
    The Hewes Family
    Thinking Skills
    Think Pair Share
    Thomas William Nielsen
    THRASS
    Times Tables
    TMCoast
    #TMSpaces
    Topic Tags
    Tour Builder
    TPCK
    TPL
    Transmedia Storytelling
    Trial And Error
    Troy Faulkner
    Trust
    Tweetdeck
    Twenty-First Century Skills
    Twitter
    University
    URL Shorteners
    Vale
    Value
    Video
    Virtual Reality
    Visual Art
    VR
    Warren McMahon
    Winning
    Word Online
    Work Life Balance
    Worklife-balance
    Writing
    Youngling
    Youtube

Support

Contact
About
Flipped Teacher Professional Learning Videos
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Photo used under Creative Commons from brianc
  • Home
  • FTPL Videos
  • Blog
  • List of Blog Series
  • Education Resources
  • Starting with Flipped Learning
  • Friday Freebie
  • About Me
  • Contact