It’s always a delight to me to see Jamie in operation. Even if some of the material is things I’ve heard before, there is always a new slant. This time, it is of course, the new NZ Curriculum, and how JM ideas relate to this. Here are some of the points I got from today’s session.
ENGAGING STUDENTS in the MAKING of GOOD NEW IDEAS
1. When running a computer classroom:
- Set up the classroom so that you as the teacher can see most, all the screens easily.
- Make sure people at the back aren’t suffering from neck twist when you want them to look at you.
- Get FULL attention when you want to show the class something – eg Shut computers.
- 100% eye contact.
2. Focus on GOOD in the title – not all ideas are good. Make sure students are aware that we are looking for GOOD ideas – discussion/judgement on GOOD.
3. Beyond Cut and Paste
JM uses real life examples which create a visual mind picture when explaining concepts.
Proficient Readers Use:
- Inferring
- Questionning
- Picturing
- Recalling
- Synthesizing
- Flexing
4. NZ Curriculum
- It’s important that the Assessment Model matches the curriculum/teaching methods.
- Discussion and comment about actually making it happen. Sense that while the new curriculum is terrific – will it ever be allowed to happen? Do governments actually want a population that is able to think critically and ask difficult questions?
- When reading texts about politics (or anything else) children need to learn to question whose interest it is written in.
5. The Crucial Role of Questions
- Information is photo-shopped – no-one wants you to know the truth.
- Is the text Primary (data, fact based) or Secondary (Smushed by somebody.)
6. Strategies
- SCAMPER – Have seen this before, but it was good to do more in-depth work about it. I haven’t actually ever used it in the classroom despite have been given sheets about it, but now having tried it out in this session I expect I will use it more often!
- S – Substitute
- C -Combine
- A – Adapt
- M – Magnify/Minify
- P – Put to other purposes
- E – Eliminate
- R – Reverse
We had to use this with hamburgers and make up 10 different ones using the SCAMPER strategies. We then used it in another way.
7. Comment re De Bono’s Black Hats – Jamie says he uses a Purple hat not a Black Hat – Calling people Black in America is seen as a derogatory, negative term. Ergo a Black Hat being related to negatives is seen as a reinforcement of a negative view of black people.
8. Quotes – we looked up quotes about Originality on the internet and put them as notes in an Inspiration. This could be a useful activity for students re topics they are studying.
