Claire Amos

Welcome to the last official post for Hack Your Classroom! First up, a great big thank you to everyone who participated either by blogging and sharing or by simply joining the conversation via Twitter. It has been heartening to see so many teachers willing to reflect so openly and publicly whilst sharing and inspiring lots of folk along the way. It's impossible to say exactly how many people have participated, but the number of people I have encountered on and offline up and down the country (and across the world) suggests the reach may have been greater than one might suspect.

Source: http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/books-on-educational-technology/ Interestingly, when it comes to teachers not really adopting and embracing technology it often isn't technical skill or lack thereof that is the problem, it is the teachers need to maintain power and control in the classroom. You hear the panic, the running joke that BYOD stands for Bring Your Own Distraction. Well I hate to break it to you, but if the students are distracted by the technology (particularly after the novelty of access to the Internet has worn off) the problem ain't the technology - quite possibly your/their teaching and the students lack of ownership of their learning is. *lobs grenade and ducks for cover*

This week we look at how we can get to know our learners better so as to ensure we are 'hacking with purpose! Remember to share your thoughts here on Twitter using the hashtags #hackyrclass #knowyrlearner #hackchat

With all this talk about having growth mindset about change and hacking the classroom and curriculum it is important that we are actually 'hacking with purpose' . We need to ensure that we are innovating to improve the learning experience and not simply innovating for innovation sake. In order to do know we are doing that,  there is something we do very well - know thy learner! And I mean really KNOW THEM. Sit back right now and consider a class you teach. Reel through your class list. Do you know their PAT/AsTTle levels (irregardless if you teach them English and/or Math), their ancestry, their culture, their interests, their pass times, their learning style, favourite book, musician, 1D member? If not, why not? Can we truly personalise learning without truly knowing the learner? So what should we know about each and every learner? Well here are few suggestions to get you started: What do we know about each student's: prior learning ethnicity/culture (Ko wai?...