Inspiration from Kids

In preparation for my presentation tonight at the Ontario Educator’s Meetup, I decided to confirm that what I’ve been thinking actually works.  So, I set off to see what was happening at Gore Hill.  There were a lot of other things that all fell into place to require me to head to Leamington anyway.  One was to work with a kindergarten class, but that’s another story.

If you are not familiar with the area, Leamington, Ontario is definitely a place that you want to visit if you head to South Western Ontario.  One of the huge local employers is Heinz of ketchup, mustard, and pickles fame.  There is agriculture everywhere and lots of greenhouses.  This is also Point Pelee National Park which is spectacular.

Folks that live in the Leamington area are some of the nicest, honest, and most hard working that you’ll find.  The same thing can be said of the students there.  The teacher, Mrs. Snow, talks with great pride of the data wall documenting growth in this particular class all year.  It’s because of great teaching and learning and I’d like to think that the use of technology works as a motivator as well.  The class also has the added advantage of four students who are doing their practice teaching from the Faculty of Education at Gore Hill.

Leamington loves the fact that their students are online.  Like most towns, there are a number of fast food outlets and they let you know how proud as you head to Gore Hill from Windsor.

In a previous CIESC meeting, Mrs. Snow had been bragging about the projects this class was involved with and I happened to eavesdrop and it was the inspiration for a page in my February newsletter.  This wasn’t lost on the community either.  As you continue the drive…

I was introduced to the group and we chatted briefly about various things.  I noted that technical writing is among the hardest of writing there is.  It has to be precise, accurate, and complete.  We talked about the need for good writers.  Inspired by Erin’s success, quite a number of hands went up when Mrs. Snow asked if others had created instructions to do a particular task.  I’m going to try and get my hands on some of them for my March newsletter.  What a great group of budding authors.  I certainly hope that they keep at it.

While I was there, the lesson was about editing audio with Audacity.  Unlike so many podcasts where random thoughts are read, this was the ultimate publishing event for the writing process.  Each student had read at least one of the novels for the Forest of Reading and were creating trailers to publish to the class wiki.  As with writing, we need to strive for perfection in this arena as well.  While I was watching, they were working as a group around a projected image trying to seamlessly edit a cough from the middle of a production.  These potential disk jockeys wanted nothing but the best for their efforts.  After all, there is a massive audience just waiting.

I’m still wondering how they got those call letters.  Perhaps CGOR-FM was already taken?  We talked about how easy it was to create an edit these audio reviews.  Wouldn’t it be terrific if they spent five minutes after every book read to record their thoughts and even share with the author?

Then it was hands-on time.  Students worked in pairs with their laptops doing some research and recording.  In the library, they quickly dispersed to carve out their own creative learning space.  From what I observed, there were two rules important rules.  The computer screen always had to be visible and the laptop wasn’t allowed to be on a lap.  So, they were working on tables, on the floor, and sitting on the floor with the laptop on a chair.  But, the important thing was the level of engagement and the focus on the task.  Wow.

You can also note the level of sophistication of students by the amount of assistance that they require getting started.  In this case, none needed.  They went right to work and most were going to work through recess on various projects.

Only saddening comment came in an email from the teacher later that night.

Asked one of them (Ryan) if you were what he expected.
His comment was, “NO! I thought he’d have to be young because he knows so much about computers.”

Hey, bud, even us over-30′s can push our walker up to a keyboard and use a mouse…

Yes, I was right.  What I saw confirmed that there are web applications that put things over the top.  I’ll look forward to sharing some of them tonight.

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