Sunday, March 10, 2013

C4T #2 What Ed Said

WHAT ED SAID

big ideas
Every few weeks, Dr. Strange assigns each EDM student a teacher's blog to explore, comment, and report.  This week, I was assigned to Edna Sackson's blog titled, "What Ed Said."  Edna is a academic  coordinator in Melbourne, Australia at an IB PYP school.  Sackson also is an E-mediator for the The Granny Cloud project.  The project is named Self Organized Learning Environments & Self Organized Mediation Environment (SOLEs and SOMEs) in which she interacts with children in India in disadvantaged settings.  She is also an administrator for Inquire Within.  I digress; please take the time to check out this link and subscribe.  This page posts many different perspectives from fourteen countries.  I thought a lot about the post, Thinking: Shaken Not Stirred  and posted on February 23, 2013 by ChristinaM and To...Thinking and Beyond (Facts).
Too many young folk have an addiction to superficial things and not enough conviction for substantial things like justice, truth and love.  - Cornel West
Sometimes I catch myself going off on tangents when I start clicking on links.  Coming down off of Inquiry Within, Edna is also an initiator of #pypchat, a global Twitter discussion on PYP teachers.  On top of that, Edna is a consultant and workshop facilitator for Inquiry Learning, Global Connectedness, Promoting Creativity, Integrating Technology, Concept Driven Learning, and Learning Principles.

Edna Sackson's last post on February 21, 2013 is titled Concept based learning... This post entails development and application of big ideas in learning and understanding of concepts.  Edna writes, "this will assist them to organize information in future, explore significant ideas, promote higher order thinking and deepen inquiry."  To help visualize this, Sackson uses the Avocado Model.   This model classifies information and concepts from the outside of the avocado in: worth knowing, important to know, and enduring understanding as the seed.  This seed (understanding) can then be stripped of the meat and grow into a new idea and applied to any situation.

big ideas
Edna then explains that big ideas are, "transferrable, timeless, and universal."  The example that Edna uses is sibling rivalry.  Edna shares Lyn Erickson's Structure of Knowledge.  I especially enjoy how Sackson exposes her students to the same ideas as adults.  For example, her student came up with these conceptual understandings:

--> Citizenship carries with it a sense of belonging or identity which includes the right and responsibilities, duties and privileges.

--> Different decision-making strategies can be effective in different situations.

--> In a democracy, citizens have a say in decision-making.

--> The impact of decisions can be personal, local, global.

As with the last teacher assignment, I am grateful I was assigned to What Ed Said.  Edna has much to offer as I have much to learn.  Her blog archive is full of cool posts about digital citizenship to exploring issues.  I commented on Edna's post Concept-based learning.  In my comment, I introduced myself as a prospective educator, expressed my reactions to the post and her work, and subscribed to her blog.  I also subscribed to Inquire Within.  Finally, I asked Edna if she had any advice for me as an EDM310 student and future educator.  I look forward to hearing back from Edna Sackson soon.  

Comment 2

Edna post on March 1, 2013 was titled Choose your own learning...  In Edna's post she includes a professional learning survey.  Basically, three campuses are participating in a professional learning day. Each staff or group is consider personal learning goals, decide of focus for the day, and not to catch up on paperwork! A reflection is given at the end of the day.  The day is based on learning principles and objectives for her school.  

The reflection includes what you achieved and learned that day.  Also staff is to include surprises, challenges, and plan of action for the next day.  Also, the reflection should include what you realized about yourself as a learner.  

comic
Some of the projects include exploring iPads as tools for learning, educational applications, maths manipulatives, and iMovie.  Edna notes that it surprises her that some staff members do not know what to do with their time when given an opportunity like this.  

I left Edna a comment that thanked her for sharing her post.  The day is tomorrow so I am interested in following up with some feedback.  

what your seeking is seeking you


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