This past year design thinking has gotten a lot of attention in education and business circles. The process that was once thought to be reserved for industrial designers and engineers has spread it's wings to a variety of disciplines and especially interdisciplinary projects as people see the value of it in other fields especially anything that involves developing innovative solutions to problems. There has been a big movement to bring design thinking to education with places like Stanford Design school and Ideo, one of the most successful design firms in the U.S getting involved. Design Thinking is really about a cyclical process that is focused on creative resolutions to problems. The powerful thing about design thinking spreading to education is that it democratizes design and challenges everyone to be a part of designing solutions to problems and challenges everyone to be a designer. It is an important shift that students as well as teachers see themselves as designers. If the design thinking mindset is nurtured in schools, it will be a huge impetus for innovation in our country. I am currently experimenting with the design thinking process in my own classroom as part of the final project my students must do. I have challenged my students to design a social entrepreneurship to solve a problem facing the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo...more on that to come. There are a lot of great resources to bring design thinking to the classroom. Here are a few:
Latest Entries »
image source: prx.org
I have been craving to learn something new, but I find that most of the professional development offered in my district is lacking and taking classes here in Las Vegas has proved a frustrating and costly endeavor, plus I don’t like to be committed to a specific time frame during the week for a 3 hour chunk…it’s just not an effective way of learning for me. So this year I’ve been more interested in focusing on DIY learning and seeking out books and training tutorials online. In terms of reading, I have a weakness for purchasing books on Amazon.com and taking quite a long time to ever get to them, so I signed up for O’Reilly Books which gives you access to thousands of training manuals and business books. In addition, to being able to read numerous books online. You also get a monthly token allotment that allows you to download chapters of books and entire books. This has proven to be a much more practical means of reading for me than ordering books at Amazon. Even more productive for me is Lynda.com. I can’t say enough about this online training tutorial site. There are lots of great videos on Youtube…but the amount of time you can spend searching for one that is exactly what you need can be exhausting. With Lynda.com you have an incredible range of tutorials and courses that include exercise files. The instructors in the videos are professionals in the field who not only know the ins and outs of their content , but they also know how to effectively teach it all. The courses are broken down into various sections and each section has several videos that are broken up into 5-25 minute chunks that make it easy to find what you want. They have just added a queue so that similar to Netflix, you can put the courses you want to go through in the order you would like. The only problem is that every time I go there, I find a new course I want to view…and my queue is getting pretty long. In addition, Lynda.com has features on professionals in the field. A while back I watched Mexopolis, a feature about a husband and wife animation team from Mexico. It was inspiring and insightful. One other nice feature is that when you complete a course in Lynda.com, a certificate of completion is created for you for that course. You can print them or save them as a .pdf. I am so pleased with Lynda.com. DIY professional development has never been easier!
Photo taken by me in Lalibela, Ethiopia
I just got back from an amazing two weeks in Ethiopia and Djibouti where I managed to stay disconnected from electronic devices for two weeks! No emails, text messages, Facebook or Twitter. It was an amazing trip on so many levels– too much of an adventure to cover in a single blog post, but one of the things I appreciated most about the trip was that not only did it allow me an escape from being connected, it also allowed me an escape from the heavy consumer culture of Western Society. One of the things I found surprising about Ethiopia was the absolute absence of American corporations…not even a McDonalds or a Starbucks anywhere. It was refreshing to go to cafes in Addis Ababa and see people engrossed in real conversation over a macchiato instead of a table of people all texting that is so common at restaurants here in the U.S. No big mega malls or Walmart. Even when you went to stores or to markets, there wasn’t the pressure to buy that is so common even in many other third world countries. Although everyone has a cell phone, they use them for just that…as a phone. Far less texting and all the other varied tasks we use our smart phones for in the western world. Yet the access to connectivity was incredible. We went to some of the most remote places in Ethiopia and were amazed to see that our guide had reception everywhere! I had heard that cell phone usage and coverage in Africa far exceeded that in the United States…now I believe it! It was neat as well to see solar power being used in innovative ways in the most remote places such as to power a water well. Yet the most pervasive symbol throughout the two countries were the bright yellow square containers used to get water from distant places. And still throughout the country there was a sense of hope and optimism. The economy is growing and people’s lives are improving and yet the Ethiopian people seem to hold on tightly to some of their most important birth rights–a strong sense of community, culture, and belief. I was fortunate to get away, unplug and experience this other world and have come back to my world refreshed! Click here to view photos and video of my trip: https://sites.google.com/site/ethiopiavacation/
Yvonne Caples, world champion boxer
I heard an interview on NPR with Doug Lemov about 8 months ago as I was driving to work, and as a former professional world champion in boxing, I was intrigued by the title of his book, Teach Like a Champion, as it immediately made me wonder what the parallels were between being a champion in boxing and in teaching. The term champion is usually used to refer to winning a sport or competition, so using it in the context of teaching might strike some as odd, but for me it seemed like a very important accolade to give top teachers–champion teachers. They are able to win over the hearts and minds of students to help them be successful in academics. Finally, this summer I had the opportunity to read the book and watch the clips from the accompanying DVD. The subtitle of the book, 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College is central to what Lemov means by “teaching like a champion.” Lemov argues that we need to teach students how to be scholarly and demand that they be scholars, and that there are specific, concrete, and actionable techniques that one can follow to do just that. Lemov differentiates between a technique and a strategy as follows: “…a strategy is a generalized approach to problems, a way to inform decisions. A technique is a thing you say or do in a particular way. If you are a sprinter, your strategy might be to get out of the blocks fast and run from the front; your technique would be to incline your body forward at about five degrees as you drive your legs up and out ahead of you” (Lemov, p. 4-5). For Lemov, these techniques are actions you practice and rehearse over and over again so that you become a master of holding students accountable for learning what it is you have to teach them. The book does an excellent job of laying out 49 techniques that champion teachers use giving specific examples from a variety of disciplines and grade levels. He divides the book into two parts. In the first part he talks about the techniques in regards to larger themes that are important to teaching:
- Setting High Academic Expectations
- Planning that Ensures Academic Achievement
- Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons
- Engaging Students in Your Lessons
- Creating a Strong Classroom Culture
- Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations
- Building Character and Trust
- Improving the Pace
- Challenging Students to Think Critically
Each section covers 5-7 techniques related to each of the themes. The second part of the book focuses on reading. As Lemov states: “Reading is the skill. Teaching students to unlock the full meaning of the texts they read is the single most important outcome a teacher can foster. If your students can read well, they can essentially do anything”(Lemov, p. 249). I’ve always felt this way and why I spent my first 10 years of teaching as an English teacher. Yet even now, as a Computer Applications teacher, I still feel this is an important part of my job. This book is exactly what I was looking for in terms of focusing on how I want to improve as a teacher next year. I worked really hard this past year to develop an innovative and challenging curriculum, now this year I am really going to focus on the details and routines to help students get the most out of the curriculum I have developed. What’s especially great about this book is the accompanying DVD that shows clips of champion teachers performing these techniques in highly engaged classrooms. I highly recommend this book to experienced and newbies alike. Although, I feel like I do already perform many of the techniques in the book, I can’t wait to hone my skills and incorporate new ones that I haven’t yet tried before. It is just like in boxing where you practice and practice again and rehearse in your mind what you will do.
References:
Lemov, D. (2010). Teach like a champion: 49 techniques that put students on the path to college. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
image source: http://amazon.com
I recently read Dan Schawbel’s book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. It is a book geared toward those in the twenty-something age range who are just out of college and are looking to make a presence in the competitive world of work. Schawbel argues that just like corporations, individuals now need to develop a brand that sets them apart. He identifies 3 key elements of effective personal branding:
- A strong personal value statement (what you stand for)
- A plan to differentiate your brand from that of the competition
- A powerful marketing strategy
He then sets out to show individuals how to create a personal brand by following this 4 step process: discover your brand, create your brand, communicate your brand and maintain your brand. The book does a good job of providing useful tips to utilize a web presence to build your personal brand and also lays out explicitly how to successfully follow the 4 step process. I think having a discussion with students about personal branding and having them create a personal brand is a good way to get them start taking control of the digital footprints they are creating and relay the importance of creating a positive web presence for oneself. I am going to incorporate this notion as part of their digital portfolio building process.