Definition of Self Direction

What drives a student to remain engaged in a self-directed activity?
I do find that students want to learn and they are intrinsically motivated. I got into a heated discussion with my team about this motivation. We were meeting with students who needed some guidance in their academic behaviors. My team mates wanted to reward students for exhibiting the good academic behaviors. My thinking was that the reward was exhibiting the good academic behavior--it had it's own rewards--more success in classes. In the end I lost, now kids are getting blueberry muffins and computer time and totally missing the idea that having good academic behaviors is a reward that will last a lifetime. Bummer!

What are some elements that you think need to be in place?
In order to have self-direction in a classroom I think that you have to foster a climate of wanting to learn for learning's sake. If you as a teacher model how excited you are when you learn something new, the enthusiasm becomes contagious. Students feeling successful and being able to take a risk are also huge components. For my students, risk taking is a serious deficit. This is a constant struggle for me. Also, with my students there is this constant craving for the right answer and the need for constant reassurance..."Is this right?"

What does it look like in your classroom? Examples?
I am just about to begin a problem solving program/activity where students work together in a group using another 21st century skill, collaboration. Students work in small groups and each has a clue to solving a problem. Students each share their clues and together they work to solve the problem. When I participated in this problem solving activity I did not want to stop. We were so vested in solving the problem that we didn't want to stop. The motivation was completely intrinsic for us. Not sure a Snickers bar would have made us work harder. Seems strange that self-direction could work in a group, but the way the problems are set up and the guiding questions teachers can ask allow students many ways to solve the problem. Do you think that self-direction can be a group task or must it be individual?

Promethean Board

LOVE IT!!! This was really the first time I'd used it without a flip chart. I was so impressed with myself combining two programs (Grapher and Activinspire). I used the Promethean board today for graphing linear equations. This was our conclusion day after the kids had worked for three days on a graphing discovery lab using Grapher. It was awesome. I could sketch graphs then graph them with the computer, make notes on the graphs. Kids go so much out of it and were focused on the learning. So sweet!

Information Literacy

Yes, there is SO much information out there and we have got to teach kids how to navigate through it. In the "you tube" video, the statistic about the amount of information on the web being able to fill books that stack from the Earth to Pluto 23 times blew my mind!!! How is one to successfully navigate that? Students crave instant gratification and want the right answer immediately, they don't want to take the time to dig into the research and decide if it is reliable or not. Many are of the mind set that if I found it on Google it that's a reliable source. We need to teach students to evaluate Internet resources and provide them with examples of reliable sources. A big step in this for students is to persevere and to be critical thinkers.

I really appreciate all the resources Barb shared with us today. As always, it is information overload. I have to use some of those skills above to evaluate the new sources and persevere as a critical thinker to find what will work for me. I am starting with the crew at West Haven Public Schools and seeing how they have unwrapped their curriculum. I also hope to find some useful resources with Britannica. Oh where will I find the time with at 43 minute planning period to get it all done, beyond e2t2!!

Critical Thinking and Reasoning

Today my big "aha" was that blogging is not necessarily for the world to read. The real idea and importance behind blogging is the thought process involved. In order for others to read and understand what you have to say, you have to make sure that you are being comprehensible. Blogging is really a personal endeavour and if a few people happen to read it and get something out of it, what a great day!

Collaboration

What did I learn today?
Well heck, I thought that Web 2.0 tools were just the next version of Microsoft office on line. Turns out Web 2.0 tools are anywhere on the internet where you can interface with others like facebook, twitter, wiki pages, blogs and our fabulous clickers. Today's collaboration isn't just face to face or snail mail You don't need to be in a meeting with real people to collaborate. We live in a world of instant gratification. You can post on any Web 2.0 site and people are reading and ready and willing to respond instantly.
We looked at wikis and creating wiki pages with wikispaces.com. A wiki is a website that can be used and edited by others. It is similar to creating new blog entries. Something new to me was creating tables, adding files and links, embeddding movies, and widgets.
We also looked at the new Colorado State Standards and how CDE addressed the 21st century skills of collaboration, critical thinking and reasoning, information literacy, self-direction, and invention. Checking out hte standards seems to me a bit of a "duh" for me in my math class.