HOM: Thinking Interdependently

I have been looking closely into the Habit of Mind of Thinking Interdependently.  I think that this Habit is a very important one, as today's curriculum is heavily based on working together and learning as part of a group.  I have heard that universities are also using more group assignments.  This means that students are going to have to know how to think interdependently in order to achieve the best marks/success possible.

I found the following clips on Youtube.  I believe they show the HOM: Thinking Interdependently in practice.  The first clip is a class of young students collaborating and working together to build a snowman.  The second clip is a cartoon of penguins working together to defeat a shark.  The last clip is of two mice (taken from the game "Mouse Trap") working together to overcome a series of problems and capture the "ogre".

Students working together

Penguins

Mouse Trap

Habits of Mind

The Habits of Mind (Art Costa & Bena Kallick) have always been an area that I have been curious about.  I have learned a little over the years about the Habits, but have never really spent time delving into them in any depth.

I have begun an online course about the Habits of Mind, which was offered to us through Suzanne.  I'm looking forward to learning much more about the 16 Habits as well as doing the course online!  I'll have to make sure I persist and think flexibly throughout the course :D

Habits of Mind online course

Connectedness in Maths Symposium July '12

@Sutton Park School, Mangere East

A very interesting day!  So many ideas to bring back to school and try out.  My highlight was the keynote from Anthony Harradine.   He made me/us think about how we go about solving maths problems and how children need to "know" so much to do wit maths.  He explained how he believed their was no silver bullet to "fix" students' maths knowledge.

I was lucky enough to go to the follow-up session to the keynote, where we tried a new website - www.numericalacumen.com - which is a website that Anthony has helped develop to try to help fill the gap in basic facts knowledge.

The second workshop I attended was on making connections with Basic Facts.  Great handouts - with what basic facts are needed for year levels/stages.  Also included was Peter Hughes' basic facts interview - can't wait to try this out with my class, it may be a good whole school assessment/evaluation of basic facts.  

The second keynote was also very interesting.  Bruce Moody was very inspiring and made some very good points.  He made the challenge to show the high expectations we have for our students.  He said that we may say we have high expectations, but the work we give students doesn't show that.  We need to give the students a chance to show higher order thinking.

One other interesting thing about the symposium was that I "wrote" my notes on the Evernote iPad app.  It worked really well, however I need to look into a drawing/art app for the iPad - you can't draw using the Evernote app!

Overall a successful, motivating day - well worth the early get up!