Educator Action Steps: I will personally demonstrate how to be curious about topics. I will talk about my 20% project with my students. I will give examples of how to ask questions to find out what I want to know. I will give students a selection of readings and a variety of experiences that will encourage them to ask questions. These questions may include one similar to one I heard today during a chemical reaction lab activity. One student asked “Why is my liquid yellow but other people’s are orange?”
2. Know how to access and analyze information. There is a lot of information in this world, but not all of it is helpful, beneficial, or needed at all times. Choose and use it carefully.
Educator Action Steps: I will provide scaffolded activities to help them discover their learning. I will need to research how I can best help students conduct research to learn about a given topic. Also, I will need to make sure they can comprehend the readings they find on their searches.
3. When the answer is not easy to find, be prepared and willing to spend time solving the problem.
Not all answers are found doing a Google search. You have been created with a mind that has the capacity to think critically and problem solve. Use it! Often the situations you face are more complicated than just looking at one or two facts. While discovering the facts may be part of your learning, they do not simply solve real world problems. You need to figure out how to answer those questions that have more than a one word answer.
Educator Action Steps: Give my students opportunities to learn about and solve real world problems. Continue to move away from multiple choice exams or any assessment that can be completed entirely by conducting a Google search. On campus, I will encourage students to be involved in building, planting and maintaining a garden. I will also be taking a group of students to the local national park to allow them to observe, reflect, and care for the environment in which they live.
4. Communicate personal thoughts effectively. Proper written and oral communication is important. You are sharing your voice, and that should be done with care! Also, be aware of your audience. You may need to adjust how you speak or write depending on who you are communicating with.
Educator Action Steps: Communicating is a daily task for my students. I recognize that I need to be more mindful of designing tasks that will give them a chance to work on their formal communication skills in a variety of ways. Whether they are telling a story to a younger sister or writing a blog post for their website, I need to do my best to help them consider their audience and remember to read through their work.
5. In terms of your learning, be adaptable to your environment. You won’t always know what you will be interacting with until it comes your way. You may need to shift or change your perspective in order to see the trail ahead of you.
Educator Action Steps: Give students some structure and routine for consistency, but also provide opportunities where they need to adapt to changes. I will use technology to do this. Apps do not always run correctly and the server sometimes crashes. Not only will I troubleshoot, I will encourage them to troubleshoot. They may have better solutions than my own!
6. Be ready and willing to share what you have learned and also be ready and willing to learn from others.
This is not easy to do at all times. Dealing with other people can be messy. We are human beings, and all have our own issues. At the same time, we are all unique and have so much to offer to one another.
Educator Action Steps: Students will interact with a number of their peers during class time. They will even be asked to share with people who may be difficult for them to speak with at times. Just because the person is not your best friend, does not mean you cannot learn from her. Students will also have the chance to share their learning with the broader school community, and hopefully even blog or Tweet about their learning with others. Feedback on the blog or on Twitter facilitates opportunities for learning.
7. It takes self initiative to learn about the world and about yourself. You have to want to understand information and figure out what you want to be like in life. Nobody can be your brain for you.
Educator Action Step: I hope that through the learning opportunities I provide, at least one will spark a student’s interest. I also hope that the real world applications of learning as well as collaborative aspects of science class will allow a student to build on their own understanding of the world and himself. Middle school is a tough time to learn this skill
How will I know if I, as the educator, have successfully implemented all action steps?
Success in teaching these survival skills feels like a huge challenge. However, I hope to notice success in several ways. There should be an increase in student questions between now and the end of the course. There should be improvements on student projects in terms of their speaking and writing. Students should spend more time independently or collaboratively figuring out a problem instead of instantly asking the instructor when they get stuck. I hope their end of course reflections include learning that involves at least four of the items in the survival skills.
All images are taken and edited by Sara Chai, October 2014.