{"content":{"sharePage":{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"54939690","dateCreated":"1339423061","smartDate":"Jun 11, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"sheryllsharp","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/sheryllsharp","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1338959641\/sheryllsharp-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/bswp12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/54939690"},"dateDigested":1532390760,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Social Imagination","description":"This chapter really struck a chord with me. Seeing kids (my own, students, children of friends) struggle in social situations, even to the point of bullying or being bullied, makes one think about what is really going on. Kids learn at an early age how to affect others, either negatively or positvely, and lack of social imagination and how is adversely effects relationships makes understanding of the 'bullying' process clearer. Now, to get to work and teach those behaviors that will help these students succeed!","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"54935340","dateCreated":"1339392677","smartDate":"Jun 10, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"SavannahFritz27","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/SavannahFritz27","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1339289719\/SavannahFritz27-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/bswp12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/54935340"},"dateDigested":1532390760,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"All the days add up to something...","description":"In closing, on page 115, Johnston says that, "Not only does each day count, but they add up to something."
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\nAfter reading all the helpful information in this text, soaking it in, and realizing what it meant for me and the changes I need to make in the way I SPEAK in my classroom, I was feeling overwhelmed! This last line that I underlined in the text allowed me to feel some relief.
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\nAs if he was reading my mind, he goes on a few lines later to discuss how a class motto should be "It's OK for things to be hard. That's when we learn." Aha! It's ok that this is going to be hard. I'm learning. That's a good thing.
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\nMy question is this: As I learn and practice these speech-oriented ideas, attempting to create dynamic learners, how can I keep myself accountable? How can I (teachers) assess my (our) success in changing my (our) classroom vocabulary, feedback, and discussions?","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"54915496","dateCreated":"1339259366","smartDate":"Jun 9, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"CherylOord","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/CherylOord","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/bswp12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/54915496"},"dateDigested":1532390760,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Reflecting on my Language","description":"Each day after reading Opening Minds the night before, I found myself reflecting on the language I was using. This was usually mid-sentence, and I would try to make a shift. It was interesting to evaluate the language habits I have developed over the years. After reading, I am beginning to think that words that I thought were uplifting and encouraging may actually at times had an opposite affect.
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\nThe students that kept catching my eye were those seem to always struggle. I found myself wondering how adult language has impacted their view of themselves and their learning. What words have I used that has just reaffirmed in students that they are not the smart kids? What words have I used that have reaffirmed in students that they are not the good kids. It hurts to think that I may have had part in a child's lack of confidence. None of us would do this intentionally, but what have I done unintentionally?
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\nSo, now that I have the desire to help develop this type of thinking, I keep coming back to the same question. How do I develop a dynamic-learning frame when I see my classes for an hour or less a day? How does this happen with older students?","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"54914386","dateCreated":"1339252664","smartDate":"Jun 9, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"vanweber","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/vanweber","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/bswp12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/54914386"},"dateDigested":1532390760,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Courage to Reflect","description":"Reflecting on your own practice.
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\nEducators are in an influential position every day. As I read (devoured) Johnston's findings, I caught myself reflecting on my own practice. At times, this was very uncomfortable but I posed a challenge: If I'm not able to reflect, recognize, and change my behaviors how can I expect the same from stakeholders in education?
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\nA civic minded society starts with us, me and you! My job is to "keep working hard" and ask for help when needed, and advocate for social justice. When working with students, setting the stage for a dynamic learning community will be the priority. Remember we are in a learning community and expectations for all should be known, not hidden.
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\nHow would your practice change if you began Choosing Words differently?","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"54861582","dateCreated":"1339028656","smartDate":"Jun 6, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jackiemiller4","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jackiemiller4","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1377368714\/jackiemiller4-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/bswp12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/54861582"},"dateDigested":1532390761,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Learning is Fundamentally Social","description":"Why is it that so many teachers are always asking students to work and think independently? This is detrimental to the very environment and type of learners we are trying to create!
\nAccording to Johnston, \u201cOur main advantage as human beings lies in our ability to think together. Individually we wouldn\u2019t be at the top of the food chain\u201d (93). This is an intriguing point that I hadn\u2019t thought much about prior to reading this book; however, it makes sense. We are at the top of the food chain not because we are the biggest, the fastest, or the bravest. Perhaps we are not even the smartest independently. However, our cognitive abilities, especially our collaborative cognitive abilities, are unmatched. We must use this collaborative strength together rather than tearing one another apart.
\nJohnston continues by saying, \u201c...human beings are fundamentally social animals\u2026Learning is fundamentally social\u201d (67). This should be no surprise based on how much we like to talk, e-mail, and communicate in a variety of different ways. We like to engage and interact. Ultimately, we need one another! Not only are we social beings, but we require social interactions to learn. This is why we should be careful not to always ask our students to sit and work quietly. We do not expect this of ourselves, and this is not how people work in their careers and the real world. Instead, people work by collaborating, bouncing ideas off one another, and thinking together. We need to give our students the same valuable opportunities in the classroom.
\nI am a major advocate of collaborative learning. However, I am always trying to figure out how to encourage my colleagues to try more cooperative learning activities in their classrooms. In addition, I always love hearing the strategies people use for cooperative learning in their classrooms. I would love to hear names of strategies you use or ideas that have been successful in your classrooms.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"54872236","body":"From my very first moments in Education classes, I have had (personally logical) arguments AGAINST students doing group work (cooperative learning). Over the years, being Teacher, I have had too many of these occasions: Ted always gets chosen the speaker\u2014he sure can put it into words!, Amy is always the recorder\u2014love her penmanship!, Bon Qui Qui is always the timer\u2014she has a cell phone! Sadly, the others are not being monitored very carefully although Bahdi is, by far, the best leader I\u2019ve got. Because of the assignment they are working on, a paper will be handed in reflecting some \u201clearning\u201d and my fingers are crossed that more than just two in a group of five come away with something even remotely related to this class but their talk is so totally off topic that some of the stuff I hear scares me about what might be going down after school\u2026
\nI am still not ready to believe most classrooms benefit from this. I have as much a compulsion for control as any good educator, I do like to make sure that incidents in the classroom are, at the very least, supposed to happen the correct way, but I cannot be everywhere at once\u2014in fact, I\u2019m glad I\u2019m not everywhere at once but I\u2019m absolutely certain my students learn far more from me than they do from the kid who\u2019s been up all night doing energy drinks so he won\u2019t fall asleep during his marathon CoD play. Perhaps a training in how to make it more successful would help me.","dateCreated":"1339077489","smartDate":"Jun 7, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"Cliffo12","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/Cliffo12","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1339078938\/Cliffo12-lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"54861478","dateCreated":"1339028150","smartDate":"Jun 6, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jackiemiller4","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jackiemiller4","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1377368714\/jackiemiller4-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/bswp12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/54861478"},"dateDigested":1532390761,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Negotiating For Meaning","description":"Peter Johnston stresses the importance of a dialogic classroom. He provides several examples of students (and teachers) engaged in dialogue. He also stresses the importance of valuing various perspectives and finding meaning through collaborative communication.
\nHere is one example Johnston comments on in his book Opening Minds:
\n\u201cThese two children are engaged in dialogue. They have different perspectives and they negotiate meaning from these perspectives. Their perspectives change in the process. They are focused on meaning making and they are taking responsibility for the (temporary) meaning they have made. Notice that the power relationship between the students is symmetrical rather than the typical asymmetrical expert-novice relationship. Both have something to contribute and to learn (53).
\nThis quote reminds me of something a former professor, Roberto Baruth, said in Pshycholinguistics. He was talking about how communication is a negotiation of meaning, and although I had never really thought about it this way before, it is so true. We must continually negotiate for meaning and strive to understand what others are thinking and meaning. It is the responsibility of both parties to engage in this relationship and to strive to fully understand one another and communicate clearly. In addition, it is necessary for both parties to feel fully a part of the conversation. This is why it is so important to balance the power relationship in the conversation, so both parties feels their opinions, beliefs, and ideas truly matter.
\nThere are many positive results of thinking and working together! Johnston states, \u201c\u2026children taught how to think together show an increase in the following: reasoning ability, comprehension, expressive language, creative thinking, examining assumptions, willingness to speak in public, willingness to listen to and consider others\u2019 ideas, frequency of providing reasons or evidence for their view, quality of interpersonal relationships, confidence, self-esteem, and persistence, and supportive group interactions\u201d (97). This quote begs the question: Who wouldn\u2019t want to increase or grow in each of these areas? We need to give our students more opportunities to think and work together, and we need to structure these interactions so the cooperative learning is productive, healthy, and all-inclusive. Furthermore, we need to encourage our colleagues to invest in cooperative learning and help them to see some of the aforementioned benefits.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"54861470","dateCreated":"1339028118","smartDate":"Jun 6, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jackiemiller4","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jackiemiller4","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1377368714\/jackiemiller4-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/bswp12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/54861470"},"dateDigested":1532390761,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Democratic Education","description":"Many people often claim American is a democracy and that we provide a democratic education to our students. In Opening Minds, Peter Johnston says, \u201cWe say \u2018America is a democracy.\u2019 When we deliver information to students with is we invoke a fixed frame\u2026Premature cognitive commitments occur more often when the information is presented as fact (is) rather than as possibility (could be)\u201d (60). This reminded me of the power of language in creating (or not creating) a democratic learning environment. If our schools are truly democratic, we need to stop focusing on explicit instruction and give students the opportunity to contribute. This goes along with equalizing the power relationship between teacher and students. Otherwise, we make premature judgments about what children know and don\u2019t know and what they need to learn. We need to value our students as important contributors and constructors of knowledge and of the learning culture. It is my job, as the teacher, to facilitate learning, not to cram it down their throats.
\nFurthermore, a dialogic classroom not only values conversation, but it values disagreement and uncertainty. We need to teach our students to form an opinion supported by evidence, to listen to the opinions and responses of others, and to work towards greater understanding. Johnston describes people being well prepared for a strong democracy \u201cwhen [they] expect to disagree and to explain their position, have a reasonable tolerance for and expectation of uncertainty, understand the value of listening to others, particularly those who think differently, and work to produce symmetrical power relationships, they are well prepared for a strong democracy\u201d (66). As teachers, we should keep these democratic attributes in mind as we build our classroom and community of learners. We need to help students appreciate diversity, uncertainty, and the negotiation of meaning, and we need to help each student feel powerful, valued, and heard!
\nFinally, I believe it is important to reflect on democratic education in one\u2019s own classroom. I am sure there are things I can be doing better as a teacher not only instructionally and to support my students but also to create a more democratic education for them. This chapter also reminded me of Amy Gutmann\u2019s book Democratic Education which I felt conveyed some very important principles about education. Although it\u2019s a challenging book, It really did make me think about what is best for my students and how to make this a reality.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"54907722","body":"Jackie ... I've been thinking a lot about uncertainty and ambiguity in classrooms and the role that they have in creating a learning environment. More specifically, I've thought about it with preservice teachers in my classes who often want a list of strategies and lesson plans that "just work." They often have trouble seeing all the context that more experienced teachers use to make decisions with their students ... things like previous assignments or classes, time (or lack of it), a longer progression that an individual lesson might be a part of, and so on. When I work with writers it's often a similar thing: some writers want to know the "right answer" or they want to know what they think before they even write. They hold a view of writing as a process of DEMONSTRATING knowledge rather than as a process of DISCOVERING. I think embracing uncertainty is vital for us and for our students. I think uncertainty should be embraced when students are working in small groups ... how do we help them deal with those moments of uncertainty and the conflict that arises in those situations, because oftentimes it's the purpose of a group to have differing perspectives and experiences represented in the group ... why would we have students work in groups or have whole-class discussions if everyone agreed? Increasingly, uncertainty as a concept and navigating uncertainty as a process are becoming more and more central to what I see as my work in the classroom and more and more important to what I want non-teachers to understand about the work we do in classrooms.","dateCreated":"1339197025","smartDate":"Jun 8, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jimfredricksen","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jimfredricksen","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}},{"id":"54914542","body":"What you described takes courage on the part of an educator. Reflection can be transformative and sometimes we need to use to it search our souls. But other times we just need to slow down, pause and think quietly about what has happened. Experience is there to be learned from and some of its lessons are easy if we just take a few moments.","dateCreated":"1339253727","smartDate":"Jun 9, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"vanweber","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/vanweber","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"54822852","dateCreated":"1338924078","smartDate":"Jun 5, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"k8baker","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/k8baker","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1268075035\/k8baker-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/bswp12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/54822852"},"dateDigested":1532390761,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Confession and Revelation","description":"Confession time: As I was reading Opening Minds<\/em>, I kept finding myself frustrated.
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\nEarlier this year, our district superintendent had called an all-staff meeting and had spoken to us about this exact thing, talking about how we needed to begin making this shift for our students so that they would be able to perform well on the Smarter Balance assessments in conjunction with the new CCSS. (Ironic, I suppose, that the justification for moving away from fixed-frame thinking was a test!) I spent the entire meeting getting more and more stressed out and frustrated. It's all very well and good, I thought, to work to change student thinking when they are small children - which is what we were told had to happen in order to mold them into dynamic learners. But I teach 17- and 18-year-olds! What am I supposed to do about them? Do I just write them off and wait a decade for the students who have been "trained correctly" to show up in my classroom?
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\nAs I read OM<\/em>, I felt the same irritation. All of the examples dealt with elementary students. I just didn't understand how I was supposed to address this issue, or rather, how I was expected to find any success at doing so. I could see what I was supposed to say and do to encourage dynamic thinking\/learning, but I could also see that it seemed far too late to begin trying to rewire brains in eleventh or twelfth grade.
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\nAnd so, in a move that rings (again, ironically) familiar, I stopped reading.
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\nWeeks later, realizing that I needed to be a grown-up about this, I went back to it and decided to take another tack. I turned to the last chapter instead of beginning where I'd left off - and sure enough, things began to click into place. The connections that Johnston made between this sort of teaching mindset and the true purposes behind education - YES! He was speaking directly to me, and the refrain I'd been chanting since a high school student myself: education should NOT be about the test, it should NOT be about (or only about) getting a job, it should not be merely quantifiable. Education should be about helping children become human citizens of the world, about guiding them toward a system of restorative justice, about giving them the tools to be productive and HAPPY members of society.
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\nThe longer I teach, the more of a hippie I think I become about the role of education... It was nice - refreshing - startling - to read something that connected CCSS (which I've been painting as just the latest iteration in a long line of test-oriented educational bogeymen) with a philosophy of education that I believe in.
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\nThat being said... I'm still not 100% sure what I'm supposed to do with my pre-programmed fixed frame thinkers. I'm just quite a bit more willing to try, now that I understand the rationale behind it.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"54914966","body":"Kate-- I thought about the same thing about my older students who are seventh graders. But I also teach K - 6, so I have been pondering the question of how to begin building this in my younger kiddos, so that they develop that kind of thinking as they get older. If you come across any great strategies for the older crowd, I'm sure we aren't the only one with these questions! :-)","dateCreated":"1339256833","smartDate":"Jun 9, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"CherylOord","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/CherylOord","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"54818648","dateCreated":"1338915556","smartDate":"Jun 5, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"michelleanderson2","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/michelleanderson2","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1377128446\/michelleanderson2-lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/bswp12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/54818648"},"dateDigested":1532390762,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Social imagination","description":"How do you teach 8th graders empathy?
\nMy teaching team has struggled with this we have begun to verbalizing the thinking and spend a lot of time setting up expectations in advance what does a "good" group look, sound and feel like. I continue to wonder if this is a brain development issue or does the fixed performance frame create this?","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"54823160","body":"That is an excellent question. We have traditionally read Night<\/em> in our tenth grade English classes, usually first semester, and have found that the students are startlingly low on empathy. So many of them look at the actions born of desperation during the Holocaust and can only come up with, "I would never do that," or "That's so stupid".... We have often wondered\/despaired how to help them bridge the gap between their relatively cushy 21st-century American lives and what must be unimaginable horrors to them.
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\nOne of the effective techniques I had was to unapologetically throw them into narratives. It's the Age of YA Post-apocalyptic\/Dystopian Lit, so I could draw on their knowledge of some fantasy situations (Hunger Games<\/em>, late HP<\/em>, The Road<\/em>, etc.) and throw them into that. They found it easier to make the leap into the future than into the past - probably because these future situations are painted in a "this could happen to you" light, whereas the past is always safely esconced behind a thick wall of "oh, that could never happen in this day and age."
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\nNarrative, I think, is key... narrative and roleplay... but of course, the latter can push you onto thin ice (thinking about the brown eyes\/blue eyes experiment)....","dateCreated":"1338925156","smartDate":"Jun 5, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"k8baker","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/k8baker","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1268075035\/k8baker-lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"54692862","dateCreated":"1338431106","smartDate":"May 30, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"gmlowe.70","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/gmlowe.70","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/bswp12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/54692862"},"dateDigested":1532390762,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Desires for my Teachers","description":"A dialogue classroom is described as a place with a lot of open questions and extended exchanges among the students. That's exactly what I want for my district teachers during teacher collaboration times. I also desire that my teachers develop a social reasoning dimension where they are working so closely together that they have the ability to reason about their peer's actions, intentions, feelings, and beliefs.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"54716264","body":"I think the ability to see another teachers view is critical to making a good working environment. I know we sometimes forget at the secondary level that teachers need to work together for the students success and that every subject counts. The middle school students are quick to blame their teachers for problems, what an opportunity to develop better social imagination.","dateCreated":"1338496045","smartDate":"May 31, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"michelleanderson2","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/michelleanderson2","imageUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/pic\/1377128446\/michelleanderson2-lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]}],"more":true},"comments":[]},"http":{"code":200,"status":"OK"},"redirectUrl":null,"javascript":null,"notices":{"warning":[],"error":[],"info":[],"success":[]}}