Posts filed under 'Teaching methods'
Our Mondays are Self-Directed Learning Days
For the past month, we have been piloting a new concept in our homeschooling program. We always take a laid-back approach to learning, but we just let go a little more. We officially instituted Mondays as self-directed learning days. Sure, we were a little worried that nothing would get accomplished. Could our homeschooler really keep at it for a whole day of intensive learning? As it turns out, the answer is yes (as long as he has general guidance). Here is how it works:
Our Ground Rules
1. Feel free to choose absolutely any topic to study
2. Chosen project has to be completed by end of day
3. Parent is there for technical assistance and guidance, with light instruction, if necessary.
4. Child has access to any tools needed, including books, art supplies, paper, office supplies, toys, computer, printer, scanner, camera, all sorts of software, calculator, etc.
5. There is always a deliverable (product) due at the end of the day. Sometimes it’s a photo gallery, a blog posting outlining the project, a built object, a movie, a movie script, or anything that reflects time well spent.
Success?
So far, Self-Directed Learning days have been a great success. Mondays are great days to get excited about learning, too. Our homeschooler sure has chosen some really fun things to learn. He made a movie about dinosaurs (with some instruction), built a commercial lego kit from spare parts and documented the process in a blog, wrote a screenplay (single scene) with character sketches and a story board, and composed a piece of music.
Outcomes
Because he has complete autonomy in choosing and executing his project, he makes learning fun — it has real meaning and relevance to him. As a result, he is passionate about his projects and works really hard all day. We don’t worry about not getting all of the ’subjects’ included in a lesson. First of all, it’s just one day per week. Secondly, each week’s lesson will probably require skills in different subjects. Most importantly, though, the creative thinking, problem-solving, skill-acquiring, curiosity-provoking lessons hidden in these projects more than make up for dusty old spelling quizzes!
2 comments Monday, October 19, 2009
Homeschool Learning Strategy: Engage Learners with Personal Dry-Erase Boards
I am delighted to share with you an inexpensive yet highly effective learning tool. Dry-erase boards have been around for years, and business people use them all the time in meetings, to manage to-do lists, or as bulletin boards. Although dry erase boards are not exactly ‘emerging technology’, they are very useful tools for homeschool learners. We actually prefer what I call the ‘personal’ size, an 8.5 x 11-sized board for lap top usage and sharing. Actually, we find personal-sized dry erase boards even more effective than paper for sharing ideas, concepts, and diagrams because they’re easy to use in an informal learning environment.
Homeschoolers might not even realize that learning is happening because the board makes the knowledge sharing process so natural (easy to write on while sitting on the living room couch, easy to erase off, easy to hold, easy to hand off, and lightweight but rigid). It’s a more tactile experience than pencil and paper, making it more appealing for those who hate to write. The boards usually always have a little holder for the dry erase marker, too, making small dry erase boards even more convenient for non-traditional learning environments. The best thing about personal-sized dry erase boards is that they are so inexpensive. Target sells a small board for just a few dollars. And if you consider how much money you can save on paper by using the board instead, the net cost might be close to zero!
Here are some fun ideas for using personal-sized dry erase boards in your homeschool
- VISUAL AID. Use as reference by recording step-by-step instructions (visual aid)
- CONVENIENT PAPER SUBSTITUTE. Use as visual aid in educational video production – student writes short concept that you can then photograph for use in videos
- QUIZZES. Use for quick, informal quizzing interface to gauge understanding — ask homeschooler to illustrate a concept recently learned
- INTRODUCE A NEW TOPIC. Use for illustrating science, math or technology concepts when introducing new topics– then hand off to student to illustrate the concept himself
- JUST FOR FUN. Use it as a reward — free play on the board — homeschooler can write, draw, doodle, or play games (whatever he/she wants)
- INFORMAL LEARNING. Use it when you need an excuse to get away from the desk/table. Sometimes, learning new concepts calls for a change of scenery to inspire the mind. Relax outside in the grass when there is a nice breeze (you won’t have to worry about losing your pencil or your paper blowing away) and just talk about a topic. Use the board to support the discussion with simple, graphical examples.
3 comments Saturday, September 12, 2009
Five TED Videos Homeschoolers Will Enjoy
TED is an inspirational movement of great thinkers from around the globe who gather to share unique insights and ideas about humanity. There are TED videos on all sorts of topics, and there are many creative ways to weave them into your lessons. Use these videos to ‘kick-off’ unit studies, to inspire creativity with a writing assignment, or as a start to a deep philosophical conversation! There are thousands of TED videos to choose from, but I have selected a few of our favorites to get you started, so go ahead and share some of these TED videos with your homeschoolers!
Willard Wigan – Micro Sculpture
Willard’s personal journey that led to his ingenious sculptures inspires adult and child alike. View his TED video
Amazing detail in tiny art
Brian Greene’s Super String Theory
Physicist Brian Greene uses amazing visualizations to explain a complex concept View his TED video
Super String Theory
Sirena Hwang’s Inspired Violin Performance
Sirena’s passion for playing the violin contributes to her mastery of the instrument. View her TED video
Sirena Hwang, Young Violin Virtuoso Inspires
The Sixth Sense
Patty Maes demos Pranav Mistry’s amazing ’sixth sense’ device that rethinks how we interact with technology View the TED video
Patty Maes presents new ways of intereacting with information
Siegfried Woldhek: Looking at the Face of Leonardo da Vinci
Interesting insight into discovering Leonardo da Vinci’s face. View the TED video
An artist uses detective work to uncover Leonardo's face in his own artwork
2 comments Thursday, September 3, 2009
CNN Article Supports Homeschool as a Change Agent for Public Education
Clark Howard, HLN money expert, wrote an interesting article for CNN about how alternative learning environments can contribute to changing the current public school education system in America. Citing a few high-profile court cases involving ridiculous actions by the school systems, Clark highlights the potential for bureaucracy to overshadow the learning process. In addition to holding up homeschooling as a change agent, Clark also points to Finland as a replicable model for public education where children routinely learn statistics, algebra and geometry in first grade. The key to success in Finland is that the teacher is the entrepreneur in the classroom, having great latitude to teach without heavy-handed oversight.
Although I agree with most of Clark’s article, I don’t know about rating Finland number one in the world based simply on test scores. If we boil down education to how well we memorize data and regurgitate it on tests, we are seriously on the wrong path!
Read Clark Howard’s article
Add comment Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Beautiful Statistics – Hans Rosling’s Gapminder.org
Sometimes children assume that the way things are in the world today are the way things have always been and the way things will always be. Gapminder empowers the user to visually manipulate graphs to focus on elements of interest, but definitely shows that things don’t always stay the same in the world, even within relatively short periods of time! When it comes to studying about world health, population, education and wealth, Gapminder.org offers a wonderfully interactive, dynamic graphing experience that is visually beautiful and insightful.
Hans Rosling offers inspiring videos full of fresh perspectives and provides free downloads of some of the graphs for use in presentations. Use these graphs to get students interested in learning more about a topic or use them to introduce an idea. If you have compelling data to share, consider exploring Google’s Motion Chart gadget!
Add comment Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Microsoft Research Makes Feynman Lectures Available for Free
Microsoft Research, in collaboration with Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, makes the Messenger lecture series by physicist Richard Feynman freely available to the general public for the first time. The Messenger Series explains the relation of Mathematics and Physics.
If you have ever read any of his books, you will really enjoy seeing and hearing the man in action.
To view the lecture series, you must first download and install the Silverlight plugin, similar to installing a Flash plugin. However, installation is simple and works seamlessly on a Mac. View the Lecture Series
Add comment Friday, July 17, 2009
Arizona Public School Takes Cues From Homeschool Philosophy
Arizona State University reports on an innovative partnership with University Public Schools. Polytechnic Elementary, a public school/university partnership, looks much like a homeschool in a public environment. Even though it took ‘cutting edge’ university research, it looks like Polytechnic Elementary in Arizona is finally breaking the mold on the lecture-based, ‘drill-and-kill’ curriculum in favor of project-based, student-centered learning! Students use Apple laptops to research areas of interest, produce reports in video format and take on subjects normally saved for older children. Another interesting change is that these elementary students are taught by university professors. Kids are rarely sitting at their desks listening to the teacher. Instead, kids are participating in their own learning — from creating podcasts to working on group projects. Sound familiar? I think it is fantastic that what seemed obvious to us is now touted as ‘innovative’ and ‘astounding’. What we call eclectic homeschooling is now innovative public school education! Yay.
Add comment Thursday, June 25, 2009
10 Reasons Why Homeschoolers Should Ditch Grade Level Assignment By Age
Grade level assignments by age make it easy for public schools to teach children while keeping them safe. After all, classrooms have large numbers of children in them. Homeschoolers, however, have the luxury of choosing who they teach, how they teach and what they teach! Other than the fact that a grade level by age curriculum is easier on mom or dad, is there really a compelling reason to stick with this regime? I have to admit, we did a bit of this kind of teaching when we first started homeschooling, but we quickly changed our packaged curriculum (grade x) – approach. The curriculum by age/grade just wasn’t a good fit. Much of the material was boring, and we found ourselves supplementing with outside materials quickly.
Here are our 10 reasons for ditching the grade level by age approach
10. Acceleration. Homeschoolers have more one-on-one time and can zoom ahead of public school peers on material.
9. Challenge. Your homeschoolers may WANT more challenging work.
8. It doesn’t really matter. Ask yourself why grade level by age matters to homeschooling in the first place.
7. Customize. One of the benefits of homeschooling is the opportunity to custom-fit a curriculum to match actual abilities and interests.
6. Think Outside the box. Learning does not fit in a box (or a grade).
5. Give yourself credit — Don’t keep your children at “grade level” just because you are not familiar with more advanced subject matter. Dig in right along with your child and explore the topic(s) together!
4. Eliminate taboos. Grade – level thinking assumes that some things are too easy and some are too hard. Everything is open for discovery when there are no taboos.
3. Low-stress. Some children have trouble with some subjects and excel in others. Its not fair to assume every child is at “grade level” in every subject. Relax and enjoy learning at the level that fits your child in each area.
2. Its easy (and fun). Its more fun to facilitate learning at a child’s actual ability. It’s easier, too.
1. Change your mindset. The only labels children walk around with are the ones we place on them. Refuse to limit a child. period. Instead of focusing on grade level by age, use challenging lessons for developing children with can-do attitudes, curiosity and limitless potential.
7 comments Wednesday, June 10, 2009
YouTube Adds an EDU Channel
Whether your homeschooler is looking for challenging coursework or deciding on a college to attend this fall, she will have a new online research tool from a familiar website. YouTube has created a new EDU ‘channel’ to help organize university content, making it even easier to find the information your homeschooler needs. There are well over a hundred universities currently listed in the EDU channel, and YouTube has created a simple A-Z directory for even easier discovery. The EDU channel’s search works really well for finding videos about specific topics. Our search on Archaeology made it very simple for us to start learning about our subject!
1 comment Thursday, May 28, 2009
Key Homeschool Strategy: Make Learning Fun!
First, I want to start by noting that the overall strategy of our homeschool ‘curriculum’ is to make learning fun. We can teach some pretty advanced concepts to our young learner if we engage his natural curiosity through play. Our philosophy is that if a student has trouble learning a concept, it is because the teacher hasn’t figured out a way to present it clearly to that student. Over time, we have discovered a few ‘tools’ that always work for us.
(more…)
Add comment Monday, May 18, 2009
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