contemplating a brave new classroom
Written by Celeste Kirsh
There is an obvious emerging trend in all of the project work I’ve seen with the High Tech High Deeper Learning Course: most projects have an audience outside of the classroom. While I have had some success with this in my own project planning, I am realizing that it is a an area of “deeper” … Continue reading “Is authenticity the key to engagement?”
Written by Celeste Kirsh
I want your feedback on my students’ work. Here are two samples of how two of my students attempted to connect their chosen artifacts to The Book Thief. This, I should explain, is a learning task that helps students begin to see how two (seemingly) different topics can be connected together. The next step is … Continue reading “Sample student work from Matrix of Connections”
Written by Celeste Kirsh
It might take only a 4 second conversation with me to discover that I am preposterously passionate about personalized learning. Reading through Littky’s and Allen’s article about the MET school, an institution constructed on the bedrock of personalization, made me equally excited and jealous of the structures that are in place in this school that … Continue reading “Responding to one student at a time”
Written by Celeste Kirsh
This week in the DLMooc, we are focusing on students in the adult world. Like Tim Flanagan, I wasn’t completely convinced that this week had a huge connection to my world as a Middle School English teacher, and so I wasn’t entirely on top of my viewing and reading and posting this week. But I’ve … Continue reading “Deeper Learning Mooc: Internships and students in the adult world”
Written by Celeste Kirsh
I think it is far too easy to jump on some form of bandwagon and not bother to look around and assess how this bandwagon is actually running, and whether this particular wagon is fitting your needs or not. In other words, I want to share some of my current day woes about this foray … Continue reading “One cost of personalization”
Written by Celeste Kirsh
Presently, the Grade 7 students are around page 260 of the meaty text The Book Thief and last week, the Mind-blowing Matrix of Connections was launched. But first, some background information and context. One huge take-away I had from the Klingenstein Summer Institute was the notion of structuring curriculum around the “big ideas” of my … Continue reading “The Mind-blowing Matrix of Connections”
Written by Celeste Kirsh
My immediate next steps: – Reading through all of the resources supplied by Garth on personalized learning. – Research different examples of ‘redefined’ projects in English. – Post plan for personalized novel study (as it is unveiled to the class) for feedback (from Cohortees and students) – Speak to my mentors about presenting options / … Continue reading “And Action: My next amazing steps”
Written by Celeste Kirsh
A bit of a disclaimer: I had an idea of posting her some initial musings about what directions this novel study was going to go in; however, I have yet to unveil this complete plan to my students (it is certainly in draft form) and I have recently discovered (much to my delight) that a … Continue reading “Connected: (self-Aware + digitally literate)”
Written by Celeste Kirsh
Reading Note: I posted this image in an earlier post, as a framework for how I understand 21st Century Learning: three distinct categories with many different concepts, beliefs, and practices housed in each one. My explanation of the “Pre-Reading” part of “The Book Thief” study relates to the “student centred” section and the “appropriately challenging … Continue reading “Student Centred: (appropriately challenging + vigorous)”
Written by Celeste Kirsh
Before teaching Grade 7 English, I was a Grade 6 Literacy teacher. There are (I have come to realize) a great many differences between these two disciplines (but perhaps that is for another post). Because English is new territory for me, I have just started to have my whole class read the same novel at … Continue reading “A 21st Century Novel Study”