Thinking time

Arhhh the school holidays. Time to break routine, put your feet up and spend time thinking and contemplating in the hammock. That is exactly what I plan to do next week! Have been busy doing other things but next week I need time to think. 

Had a really interesting conversation this week with a parent of one of my children about Building Learning Power. (http://www.buildinglearningpower.co.uk/) I am a huge fan of this learning theory and try to implement the great features of it in my classes. I realised that often because of time constraints I give my students lots to work on in class but don't really allow enough time for reflection. I guess my thinking was that they are adult learners and therefore would make time to process things they had learnt when in reality they are probably just as busy as I am and have little time to process. I guess I need to make more time in class to reflect and consider what it is that we are learning and consider what needs improving and what is the plan to improve learning. 

 In recent days I guess I have been thinking about how I put a lot of emphasis into certain types of activities that my students participate in and I really need to not only include more of Gardiner's Multiple Intelligence's in my lessons but consider the many learning muscles that are used and in turn use a greater range of them. I found Sarah Kaufmann's chat about authentic assessment really helpful http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeTPaugDtP4&feature=colike Last term I spent much time talking about quality work that I want the students to hand in and spoke about raising their own personal bar and for them to hand in the best work possible. I have seen the quality of the students work improve but I really want this to equate to them improving a wide range of skills in their thinking and learning. 

Favorite sites for the week:

16 Virtual Field Trips
http://askatechteacher.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/5-great-virtual-field-trips/

The 20 most watched TED Talks
http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=2958

So touch presentations
http://www.so-touch.com/?id=software&content=presentation#/software/presentation
(Really want this technology!!) Out my my price range at the moment :(

Too all my NSW teacher pals I hope you have a really enjoyable and relaxing school holidays. 

Until next week,
K