Darren Kuropatwa's last post was Sunday October 10,2009. This blog is a slidecast from one of several talks he gave at a conference for the Fort La Bosse School Division. He says this work is maintained on a "Senior Years Information and Communication technology wiki", in order to share his work with teachers across the Province of Manitoba "...and you."
This slidecast titled "I've Got 5 Minutes" (actually 11 minutes long) describes several different teaching methods that he uses in his classrooms. They call him the "Blog Father of Mathematics" and it's important to remember he teaches high level calculus and such in high school.
This slidecast shows one of his workshop classes that he calls "watch and learn" where students learn a procedure and then solidify their learning by teaching it to one of their fellow students. He also uses Slideshare.net that represents different classes in which the work of one of his student "scribes" is posted. This is where the students take turns from day to day writing the textbook from the days learning in such a way that a student who may be absent can learn from it. The idea is to set up a structure in which the students can work in and construct their own learning and reinforce it by teaching and mentoring fellow students.
He also allows them to do a Blog on Blog (BOB) before a test to discuss problem areas. In this arena students from other parts of the country can blogshare with and mentor one another.
In terms of integrating technology Darren is certainly lightyears ahead of most.
What I learn from this primarily is the idea that a student has truly learned a procedure when he is able to show it or teach it to another student. Also when students "write" the textbook rather than read it they learn more from it--I think this can be incorporated to suit all different grade levels. Also as he noted, shy students can be more bold in their sharing and learning in this arena and receive a lot of positive feedback when students realize who was sharing the very valued information. I guess this blog gave me a lot of food for thought, and holds a myriad of ideas that can be adapted for use with younger children to reinforce their learning and give them confidence as well.
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I listened to Darren's post as well! How cool was that stuff he was using?!? It struck me that one could almost teach kids long distance using the technology he was using. I could teach from home if I wanted to! It would take on a whole new meaning of 'home schooled'. Students could sit at home with their computers and parents and watch videos or tutorials that I had posted. Then they could do the assignments I assigned and I would grade them. The blog on a blog could serve as the feedback tool both for me as the teacher and for them as the student!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you looked at it. I should watch it a couple more times, he gives so much information in a short time. That is true, you could teach from home, of course the one on one with students is important too--but you could certainly expand classrooms in this way.
ReplyDeleteThe teach from home idea seems like more of a good idea these dayswith the possibility of a swine flu epidemic.
ReplyDeleteDarren shows a mastery of touching different learning styles with his lessons. This is particularly impressive in mathematics.