A New School Year Begins…

This year, Xavier School celebrates it’s 55th year. I’ve also just passed my own 5-year mark at Xavier, and I’m quite excited for all the changes that lie ahead.

It looks to be another challenging year. I’ll be working with a team of people to get our six-week study abroad program to Yunnan off the ground, on top of heading the preparation work for our Beijing and Guangzhou program. I’ll still be working with Operation NExT, which will be busy with a number of things, the most significant is our expansion of our one2one (laptop) program to an entire year level. Then there are the two sections of TOK class, which I’m always excited about.

Here’s to another year of personal and professional growth and success:)

Xavier School 55th from Xavier School on Vimeo.

Ten One2One Tips and Tricks

Here are some tips and tricks that you can use for the coming school year. I hope they’re helpful!

Test #2

That was successful. Let’s try a picture:)

Picture courtesy of Ms. Perps Cuevas

Post by E-mail Test

WordPress is thankfully not blocked for the time being. However, I just wanted to test the "post by e-mail" feature. Here goes!

For Teachers New to Using Technology in the Classroom

I’ve been asked to give a presentation to you, new teachers, regarding some ideas and practical suggestions for integrating technology into your teaching. As the coordinator of Operation NExT (New Experiences with Technology), I have had some experience and knowledge with this. However, I am far from being an expert; there are others who have far more experience and far more insight into teaching with computers.

So our lesson for today will be a little bit different than the usual lecture / presentation. I would like to ask YOU to find quality information on the web about using technology in education, and share what you find with the class. All of you sharing with each other will produce more information than just me sharing with you. Please follow the instructions below:

Phase 1: Discuss the Context (5 minutes)

• In your group, discuss among yourselves what are some reasons for using technology in the classroom.
• If your group had to identify the three most important reasons for using technology in the classroom, what would they be?

Phase 2: Find and filter information (10 – 12 minutes)

• You may wish to look at blogs, news articles, and social networking sites to find information about the use of technology.  Try to validate the quality of the website you are looking at.  You will be asked to answer one question:

1. What are the most important tips a teacher should follow when using technology in the classroom?

Phase 3:  Analyze and Evaluate Information (10 – 12 minutes)

• Log onto your My.XS (or other Google account)
• Use Google Docs to collaborate with a few of your classmates.  The questions are asking you to find a lot of information, then filter it down to just a few items.  Moreover, take note that they are asking for your opinion on the issue (“most important”).  Do not simply copy and paste what someone else thinks is important.  Evaluate the information for yourselves.  You may wish to discuss (and if necessary debate) with your classmates.

Phase 4: Share Information (10 minutes)

• Once your group has settled on your answers, create a multimedia presentation (using Google presentation) to share your information.
• The presentation should share the answers to both questions (three most important reasons for using technology and the three most important tips).
• Be prepared to share this presentation with the rest of the class.

How NOT to integrate technology into the classroom…

This is craziness.

Mentoring

Roughly once a week, Xavier teachers meet with students in small groups of 12 or so for a “mentoring” period. It’s similar to what some schools call advisory or guidance period. The purpose is quite clear and quite simple. Teachers are to use this time (50-60 minutes per session) to get to know students on a personal, individual level. Given that our average class size is close to 40 (except for IB classes), this initiative serves a crucial role in fulfilling the school’s mission at providing cura personalis–the personal, holistic care of the individual.

Teachers are given the latitude to do as they please. There is neither structure nor curriculum. There are no mandated topics to be covered. There are no prescribed materials. There is only one outcome expected–by the end of the year, each student at Xavier School should feel that there is at least one adult at the school who knows and understands him.

This is harder than it may sound. While it may seem simple to ask students to talk about themselves for a couple of minutes each week, this kind of openness is neither comfortable nor familiar for our Chinese-Filipino teenage boys. Frankly, it’s not all that comfortable for most people, but let’s just say that demographic considerations are not working in our favor.

When students are more willing to sit and chat about life’s problems for a little while, they do so only because of their maturity (usually 4th year high school students) and because of the high degree of trust between mentor and student. This can be difficult, given teacher-student dynamics. It’s hard to ask your student to share his problems to you when he recently failed the test you gave him.

Because of this, teachers have gotten creative. Some mentors use team-building activities or even just recreational sports to loosen up students and get them comfortable with each other. Other teachers bring students to computer labs to take personality quizzes (the results of which are discussed after), while still others take the time to expose their students to life outside the curriculum (some have cooked for the group, others have shown interesting / thought-provoking films).

I tend to play it by ear. I try to get a feel of where the students are coming from in a given week. If they’re stressed and over-worked, we’ll do something light–like a shared meal in the cafeteria or a friendly game of Ultimate Frisbee. But if their workload is light, for example at the beginning of each quarter, I usually introduce some initial activity that gets students reflecting on their lives. I’ll then post a set of questions, and we then spend the rest of the time sharing and listening to answers.

I’d be interested to see what others think of this. Do other schools have something similar? Any ideas for mentoring activities?