Tag: Critical-Thinking Skills

TED Talks: A Great Resource for Teachers

I have watched videos on TED Talks myself and it is a GREAT place to learn new things. However, only recently did I discover its nearly-unrivaled value in the classroom. With the culmination of marking copious amounts of movie reviews and having report cards ready for record deadlines this week, I have been in a bind for lesson planning time. Enter TED Talks. With a plethora of subject areas to choose from, this resource is a must-have!

There are two places you can find TED talks material. One is the main TED Talks website and the other is the TED Ed teacher resource platform.  While the former offers video footage on just about anything you are curious about, the latter has subject-specific videos with mini-lesson plans around each.

This week I ran to TED twice, and we are only on Wednesday! On Monday, I showed my students 2 video clips from the TED Ed platform, one titled “What makes things cool?” and the other, “Why do people join cults?”. I introduced each one by discussing the concepts of “cool” and “cults” to activate students’ knowledge. After watching each video clip, I discussed with my classes the major ideas presented in the video and then probed their understanding by pushing them to make connections with other things in their lives. Students were intrigued and receptive and I was satisfied with my lesson-delivery.

The second time I showed my students a video clip on the TED Talks website titled, “How megacities are changing the map of the world.” Since my students are transitioning into high school and Geography is a compulsory course, this was a great segue into the different kinds of Geography and how each affects our lives. I discussed major concepts with my students after showing them the video in a “debrief” session and then parceled them into groups armed with chart paper and markers to answer the question, How does Connectography affect our lives?. I required that they be specific in their answers and offer examples wherever possible. Despite the initial bombarding of new terms and complex syntax used by the presenter, my student found this video interesting and the idea-sharing phase of our class session proved this. Students came up with deep analytical reasoning that really surprised me!

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The thing I like most about TED Talks/Ed resources is the amount of opportunity it allows for students to inform themselves and activate their critical-thinking skills. I am a huge pusher of “Think critically, kids!”, so this is quickly becoming my go-to resource even for days when I am preparing lesson plans in advance.

For those of you who have used this resource, let me know about your experience. I would love to hear about new ways to use it.

 

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The Constructivist Approach to Teaching

Recently, I have subtly introduced a perforated silence here on Books ‘n’ Nooks and not so much as intentionally as I would like. The reason is more the commonplace cross of our current world where we are afflicted with a “lack of time”.

Either way, I would like to briefly touch upon an important concept I have become very interested in, and one that I believe seeks to inform and consequently, improve, teaching.

Constructivism can be defined in many ways. One may use the Latin origin to break it down into meaning-inducing fragments of the whole, or one might simply elucidate on the notions that spring into consciousness on mention of the word.

Think for a moment what meaning you might derive from “Constructivism” (Yes, this is the teacher in me calling into action inquiry-based learning).

Constructivism is a way to teach whereby students are allowed agency over their own learning; they are given the opportunity to direct their learning by building new experiences, while simultaneously drawing on their past ones. A teacher’s role in all of this still remains crucial, because unlike the cut-and-dry approach of student-centered learning, the value of an expert, namely the teacher, is honoured. Teachers are tasked with “guiding” the student’s knowledge by providing opportunities for students to discover their worlds and make and build on their own experiences. They are to help students develop and hone their problem-solving, inferencing, critical-thinking and meaning-making skills to achieve a cohesive framework for how to learn.

Students become active and motivated participants in their learning and the teachers act as their guides through this process, functioning as the Yodas of a student’s life.

Now, I could elaborate and confuse you with more complex interpretations of Constructivism, and punctuate this blog heavily with academic jargon, but everyone knows that as teachers, we always appreciate the most accessible methods of learning. So, think of Constructivism as the work of a Scientist or an Artist or a Pioneer. There is a lot of theory, a lot of testing and finally a conclusion, an understanding for how it works. And in the end, isn’t that the crux of life?

 

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