Fifteen years ago, I had an idea. Fortunately, I had a chemistry class that year that was game for me trying things out with them. Together, we formulated what became the "Free Choice Project," so named because students could make a number of choices. They can decide if they want to work alone or in a group. If they wish to work in a group, they can choose their partners. They can choose their topic, and they can choose just how deeply to delve into that topic (i.e. go deeply into a small aspect or cover a lot of the surface). With the exception of the end date, they set their own timeline based on their own schedule and work preferences. During the three months, they update me once per week on the progress of their work and whether or not they are keeping to their own timeline. They are required to have a demonstration, but that it is mostly up to them how they do it (within the bounds of reason, legality, and safety).
As a result of this project, I was asked questions that year that I had never been asked before. One group, whose topic was fireworks, came to me and said, "Would it be alright if we brought a small amount of gasoline and a blowtorch?" Questions like these took some mental navigation, but they showed that the kids were going to try some big things. I'm on board with finding ways to make that happen whenever possible.
This project went well, so the following year, I implemented it in my physics class (mostly the same students, so I knew they could handle it). This project is now done by three different teachers in my school across all of the levels of chemistry and physics. The ones for my class have been presented for the last two weeks, and they are two of my favorite weeks of the year. There are at least three reasons these are my favorite weeks.
1. The variety of projects is staggering: In the past two weeks, as 42 students have presented their projects, I have seen presentations ranging from the buoyancy boats and flight of airplanes (both real and paper) to knife throwing and the physics behind musical instruments. One day included dog agility (with demonstrations from their actual dog) and flying fish, complete with a scale model of one to illustrate their fine construction. I even watched a presentation on the physics of feces. (You did, in fact, read that correctly; I had a project that explained why there are different sizes, colors, and consistencies to our daily bowel movements and how they are influenced by environmental conditions.)
2. They go big: I already mentioned that in the first year, my students asked me things I had never been asked before. That's never stopped. When I introduce this project to my students, I always include the line, "Don't assume something can't happen until you ask." There have been a few things over the years that were simply too dangerous to do (and I had to put some rules around the demonstration on the feces project), but most of what students want to do can be done with the proper planning. The first presentation this year was from a pair of students who built a boat from PVC, plywood, and a tarp. It was 24 feet long, requiring a boat trailer to put it in the lake and drone footage of their maiden voyage. On Tuesday (or the next day it isn't raining in Raleigh), one of my students will actually fly a plane over our parking lot.
3. I get to learn: If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I believe strongly in modeling curiosity for students. One of the main reasons I went into education is that I want to instill a love of learning in students for more than just the chapter or semester. I want them to love knowledge and the act of acquiring it. I want them to look at the world and say, "How does that work?" and then set about finding out. This project allows them to see me as a learner while they teach the class. I ask questions while they present, not for the purpose of evaluation, but for curiosity. One of my favorite things about the presentation on flying fish is that it is a topic no one has ever chosen before, so I got to learn many things I didn't know before.
I'm sure this would look different in non-science classes and at different age levels, but if you have an opportunity to work topic choices, reading choices, writing choice, etc. into your classes, I highly recommend it. While I am not a believer in purely personalized education, I am thoroughly on board with working appropriate levels of choice into your structure. You'll be pleasantly surprised at what most students do when given the opportunity.
Showing posts with label CBL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CBL. Show all posts
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Monday, May 21, 2018
It Should Keep Getting Better
Projects - Love them or hate them, but you will have them. This is especially true in science. There are some concepts that simply must be learned by doing, not to mention all the non-academic learning that comes from projects (which I should write a post on in the future because it is so important). Because projects matter so much, it is important that we use reflective professional judgment to decide how students can best use their time rather than throwing every good idea we have at them, overwhelming them with work.
When deciding on whether to do a new project, tweak an old one, or keep it exactly as it was this year, there are some questions you need to ask yourself.
1. What is the academic objective?
2. What is the "other" objective? (This could be social, behavioral, or even spiritual)
3. What are they learning from this project that they cannot learn by doing it some other way?
4. If retooling a previous project, what can I do to reduce confusion or increase efficiency? What did someone do last year that I can incorporate this year?
After asking those questions, you may reach one of three conclusions about your project.
1. It should be dropped altogether as it has become a Grecian Urn. If you don't have time or inclination to read the excellent Cult of Pedagogy post about Grecian Urn projects, here's the summary. A Grecian Urn is any activity whose time and effort are disproportionate to the learning outcomes. Something might be fun, but if it is taking days of class time, it should also be rather meaningful. If it is not, drop it or give it to kids as an optional at home (extra credit if you believe in that sort of thing) activity. If it is that fun, they'll want to. If they don't, it probably wasn't as fun as you thought.
2. The project should stay exactly as it is. I'm going to suggest that this particular conclusion is rare. It is difficult for me to believe your project is perfect exactly as is and that making changes could only do damage to the result. Some projects are classic traditions that everyone should do (e.g physics egg drop project) because it unites us as learners across generations, but that doesn't mean those projects shouldn't change with technology or renewed priorities. Before you settle into this conclusion, give it some serious thought.
3. Tweak the project. I submit to you that this is going to be the answer about 75% of the time. If you are a creative and interesting teacher who cares enough about your skills to be reading education blogs, you probably had a good idea. The process of reflection should allow you to identify what was really good about that idea and what needs to be changed. This may happen only a couple of times, or it may happen every year of your time teaching a course.
An example will likely help, so let me tell you about a project in my physics class that used to be called "The Electricity Project." Warning: It plays out over multipl years, so it is long.
I have a healthy respect (that sometimes rises to the level of fear) for electricity. It's one of the few things in my home I won't tackle on my own. I don't know what caused this in me, but I don't want to pass it on to my students; so fifteen years ago, I started assigning a project in which they simply had to do some electrical circuit building (series, parallel, and combination circuits were my only requirements). Many of them built a model of a house and lit each room. Some built models of car lots or airports and lit each car or plane in series but the runway or lot lights in parallel. These were all fine and accomplished the instructional objective "recognize the three types of circuits" and my personal behavioral objective "don't be afraid of 9V batteries." This was fine for a time, and the kids enjoyed it. They were also nice to have at student showcase nights.
Seven years ago, two students asked if they could do something that was electrical but didn't fit the project instructions. If you teach high school, you know why I heard this with a skeptical ear at first. Then, they proposed their idea. They wanted to build an electric guitar from scratch. "Umm, that's the coolest thing I've heard. Yes, of course, you can do that." I changed the rubric, not just for that year but for the future. Instead of "build a model with circuits," the requirement became "build a functioning electrical device." It still fulfilled the objectives the previous version had, but you wouldn't believe the difference in creative projects I got. I had students who built games that would allow a bell to ring or light to come on when you got a correct answer. I had some fun electrical versions of tic-tac-toe. A student attempted to build a theremin. I even got a Jacob's Ladder and a tiny rail gun that fired paper clips one year and a Tesla coil that had to be operated outside the next. Because they were so interactive, we had a day of electrical fun, setting them out all over the room and inviting people to come and play with them.
Four years ago, our school started really pressing in on the idea of Challenge Based Learning. What would kids do if we took the constraints off and gave them a real-world kind of problem? Knowing that the addition of another project would be burdensome to all involved, I brainstormed with our technology coach about how I might adjust an already existing project to become challenge based. I decided on the electricity project. Given how many people around the world have limited access to electricity, that seemed an ideal problem to solve with their knowledge of physics. Also, at that time, our IT director was a former missionary to Haiti, where he had his own challenges with keeping electricity consistent in his home. "Out with electrical device building . . . In with electrical problem solving," I thought. I don't have time to tell you about the epic failure we had in the first year of this project, and I've already written about it, so read that here.
The next year, as I reflected on the project, I decided that clearer instruction was needed. Perhaps I had taken the challenge based learning tenant that the teacher shouldn't have an end in mind a little too seriously. I assigned groups and adjusted directions but had essentially the same project (check here for those adjustments). Things were better but still not what I was hoping for (I've blogged about this a lot, apparently - see here for that year's result). I wanted some real ideas, not just windmills. The next year, we began our year with brainstorming groups in teacher meetings. If you had an idea but needed input, you presented it to other teachers (mostly outside your own area). Two teachers said, "It sounds like your idea is a little too hypothetical. What if you gave them a real place?" When we began brainstorming sessions last year, I was astounded by the difference that made. Suddenly, I heard them taking weather into account because "you can't have solar panels in a place with sandstorms all year." They were discussions about how difficult it would be to find diesel fuel in their particular part of the world or whether it was even windy there. The fact that they were researching the resources of the area brought this project so much closer to what I envisioned.
Then, the biggest change happened quietly and almost accidentally. The group that was assigned to Yemen came to me and said that the biggest problem with their lack of electricity was that they had so little clean water. "Can we build a solar-powered water pump?" As with the electric guitar, I didn't want to say no to a good idea just because it didn't fit what I had in mind. Of course they could build a solar-powered water pump. Aside from the atrocious spelling in their video, this was the best project of all the groups and the one people talked about the most. They were compelling and knowledgeable and, most of all, invested in their solution. This challenged me to change this project once again.
I consulted with our current tech coach about broadening the project. Instead of focusing on electricity, I would assign the area. Then, they had to decide what was the most critical challenge before them that could be addressed by physics/engineering. Not knowing what they would decide, I wasn't sure building something was practical, so he suggested grant-style presentations with PSA videos. Yes, this was coming together. Of the 8 groups, six said lack of access to potable water was the biggest need in their area, one said flooding led to disease and water problems, and one said sanitation was an issue (because they had garbage and raw sewage in their streets). In the six groups that addressed water access, there were six different solutions. This showed me that they did, in fact, research what made the most sense for that country. I was so proud of their results, and we got great feedback from those who attended the forum. This was finally the challenge based learning project I wanted it to be.
You may have noticed that the objectives had changed. No one built anything that had to do with circuits. I accomplished that objective in one day of handing out 9V batteries, wire, and Christmas tree light bulbs with the instructions to "play and tell me what you learned" after a day of teaching about the different circuits. That was a memorable day as one group pretty much tased themselves for twenty minutes by linking 32 batteries together and touching wires, showing that they weren't afraid of it. This project is so much more meaningful that I can't imagine going back to building a simple model to show you can make circuits. They can learn that another way. This project now gives them things they couldn't have learned in another way.
If you teach for several years, your project should be getting better. You may not have one that changes as much as this one did, but don't be afraid if you do. Share the progression with the students. They need to see that we continue learning. They need to know that you have deep thought about the reasons for what you assign them. They need to know that we haven't arrived at perfect ideas yet but that we are always reaching for them. If you want them to keep getting better, you should be too.
When deciding on whether to do a new project, tweak an old one, or keep it exactly as it was this year, there are some questions you need to ask yourself.
1. What is the academic objective?
2. What is the "other" objective? (This could be social, behavioral, or even spiritual)
3. What are they learning from this project that they cannot learn by doing it some other way?
4. If retooling a previous project, what can I do to reduce confusion or increase efficiency? What did someone do last year that I can incorporate this year?
After asking those questions, you may reach one of three conclusions about your project.
1. It should be dropped altogether as it has become a Grecian Urn. If you don't have time or inclination to read the excellent Cult of Pedagogy post about Grecian Urn projects, here's the summary. A Grecian Urn is any activity whose time and effort are disproportionate to the learning outcomes. Something might be fun, but if it is taking days of class time, it should also be rather meaningful. If it is not, drop it or give it to kids as an optional at home (extra credit if you believe in that sort of thing) activity. If it is that fun, they'll want to. If they don't, it probably wasn't as fun as you thought.
2. The project should stay exactly as it is. I'm going to suggest that this particular conclusion is rare. It is difficult for me to believe your project is perfect exactly as is and that making changes could only do damage to the result. Some projects are classic traditions that everyone should do (e.g physics egg drop project) because it unites us as learners across generations, but that doesn't mean those projects shouldn't change with technology or renewed priorities. Before you settle into this conclusion, give it some serious thought.
3. Tweak the project. I submit to you that this is going to be the answer about 75% of the time. If you are a creative and interesting teacher who cares enough about your skills to be reading education blogs, you probably had a good idea. The process of reflection should allow you to identify what was really good about that idea and what needs to be changed. This may happen only a couple of times, or it may happen every year of your time teaching a course.
An example will likely help, so let me tell you about a project in my physics class that used to be called "The Electricity Project." Warning: It plays out over multipl years, so it is long.
I have a healthy respect (that sometimes rises to the level of fear) for electricity. It's one of the few things in my home I won't tackle on my own. I don't know what caused this in me, but I don't want to pass it on to my students; so fifteen years ago, I started assigning a project in which they simply had to do some electrical circuit building (series, parallel, and combination circuits were my only requirements). Many of them built a model of a house and lit each room. Some built models of car lots or airports and lit each car or plane in series but the runway or lot lights in parallel. These were all fine and accomplished the instructional objective "recognize the three types of circuits" and my personal behavioral objective "don't be afraid of 9V batteries." This was fine for a time, and the kids enjoyed it. They were also nice to have at student showcase nights.
Seven years ago, two students asked if they could do something that was electrical but didn't fit the project instructions. If you teach high school, you know why I heard this with a skeptical ear at first. Then, they proposed their idea. They wanted to build an electric guitar from scratch. "Umm, that's the coolest thing I've heard. Yes, of course, you can do that." I changed the rubric, not just for that year but for the future. Instead of "build a model with circuits," the requirement became "build a functioning electrical device." It still fulfilled the objectives the previous version had, but you wouldn't believe the difference in creative projects I got. I had students who built games that would allow a bell to ring or light to come on when you got a correct answer. I had some fun electrical versions of tic-tac-toe. A student attempted to build a theremin. I even got a Jacob's Ladder and a tiny rail gun that fired paper clips one year and a Tesla coil that had to be operated outside the next. Because they were so interactive, we had a day of electrical fun, setting them out all over the room and inviting people to come and play with them.
Four years ago, our school started really pressing in on the idea of Challenge Based Learning. What would kids do if we took the constraints off and gave them a real-world kind of problem? Knowing that the addition of another project would be burdensome to all involved, I brainstormed with our technology coach about how I might adjust an already existing project to become challenge based. I decided on the electricity project. Given how many people around the world have limited access to electricity, that seemed an ideal problem to solve with their knowledge of physics. Also, at that time, our IT director was a former missionary to Haiti, where he had his own challenges with keeping electricity consistent in his home. "Out with electrical device building . . . In with electrical problem solving," I thought. I don't have time to tell you about the epic failure we had in the first year of this project, and I've already written about it, so read that here.
The next year, as I reflected on the project, I decided that clearer instruction was needed. Perhaps I had taken the challenge based learning tenant that the teacher shouldn't have an end in mind a little too seriously. I assigned groups and adjusted directions but had essentially the same project (check here for those adjustments). Things were better but still not what I was hoping for (I've blogged about this a lot, apparently - see here for that year's result). I wanted some real ideas, not just windmills. The next year, we began our year with brainstorming groups in teacher meetings. If you had an idea but needed input, you presented it to other teachers (mostly outside your own area). Two teachers said, "It sounds like your idea is a little too hypothetical. What if you gave them a real place?" When we began brainstorming sessions last year, I was astounded by the difference that made. Suddenly, I heard them taking weather into account because "you can't have solar panels in a place with sandstorms all year." They were discussions about how difficult it would be to find diesel fuel in their particular part of the world or whether it was even windy there. The fact that they were researching the resources of the area brought this project so much closer to what I envisioned.
Then, the biggest change happened quietly and almost accidentally. The group that was assigned to Yemen came to me and said that the biggest problem with their lack of electricity was that they had so little clean water. "Can we build a solar-powered water pump?" As with the electric guitar, I didn't want to say no to a good idea just because it didn't fit what I had in mind. Of course they could build a solar-powered water pump. Aside from the atrocious spelling in their video, this was the best project of all the groups and the one people talked about the most. They were compelling and knowledgeable and, most of all, invested in their solution. This challenged me to change this project once again.
I consulted with our current tech coach about broadening the project. Instead of focusing on electricity, I would assign the area. Then, they had to decide what was the most critical challenge before them that could be addressed by physics/engineering. Not knowing what they would decide, I wasn't sure building something was practical, so he suggested grant-style presentations with PSA videos. Yes, this was coming together. Of the 8 groups, six said lack of access to potable water was the biggest need in their area, one said flooding led to disease and water problems, and one said sanitation was an issue (because they had garbage and raw sewage in their streets). In the six groups that addressed water access, there were six different solutions. This showed me that they did, in fact, research what made the most sense for that country. I was so proud of their results, and we got great feedback from those who attended the forum. This was finally the challenge based learning project I wanted it to be.
You may have noticed that the objectives had changed. No one built anything that had to do with circuits. I accomplished that objective in one day of handing out 9V batteries, wire, and Christmas tree light bulbs with the instructions to "play and tell me what you learned" after a day of teaching about the different circuits. That was a memorable day as one group pretty much tased themselves for twenty minutes by linking 32 batteries together and touching wires, showing that they weren't afraid of it. This project is so much more meaningful that I can't imagine going back to building a simple model to show you can make circuits. They can learn that another way. This project now gives them things they couldn't have learned in another way.
If you teach for several years, your project should be getting better. You may not have one that changes as much as this one did, but don't be afraid if you do. Share the progression with the students. They need to see that we continue learning. They need to know that you have deep thought about the reasons for what you assign them. They need to know that we haven't arrived at perfect ideas yet but that we are always reaching for them. If you want them to keep getting better, you should be too.
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
A Tribute to our Technology Coach
I have mentioned Laura Warmke, our technology coach many times in previous posts. Since this is the last month that she will be employed by our school, I'd like to take this chance to make a post solely in tribute to her.
Laura Warmke came to GRACE as the media specialist. If you are over forty, this is the person you would have called the librarian; but the job has grown significantly enough to change the title. She was fantastic at the "library" part of the job. I don't think I've ever mentioned a book she hadn't already read. She could converse as easily about young adult literature as she could about historical fiction or books or medical history. She encouraged reading for pleasure in our students.
Laura also noticed a need in our school. The year she joined us was the second year in our one-to-one program, and we had hit a bit of a plateau. It was clear to Laura that we needed cultivation if we were going to continue to grow. While at a conference, she heard about a professional development program that another school had used with their teachers. Along with other members of our IT department (Shout Out to Diane Scro), Laura developed a program for us called Level Up.
Level Up was about learning and adopting new tools for people at different levels. When adopting a new tech program, it's important to realize that some of your people are savvy and others are less so. We are also a K-12 school, so how each teacher implemented technology in their classroom was going to be pedagogically different. Recognizing this, Diane and Laura developed missions for different grade levels and different tools. Each teacher could choose which mission they wanted to accomplish. Some were as simple as watching a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson; others were as ambitious as flipping your classroom. There was a wide range in between of just trying a new tool (Animoto, Canva, Storybird, etc.) with your students. When you completed the mission, you went into a discussion board on our school's LMS and posted. I really enjoyed looking at the posts of other teachers as well because I work with creative people. For every tool, someone had used it in a way I had not thought of, and I was able to enhance my use of it as a result. After completing the discussion board post, the teacher was given a badge on a poster board in the teacher's lounge. I know that sounds a little elementary school, but I found it motivating.
When Laura moved to the midwest because she wanted to be with her husband or something, we didn't have to lose her awesome influence. She continued to be our technology coach, meeting with each teacher once per quarter to discuss the integration of technology, talk through project ideas, help us look for a management tool or website platform, or help us process what we learned at a technology conference. Level Up was difficult to maintain at a distance (and because she was raising two kids or whatever), so Laura changed things up. She set up a schedule for teachers to present short presentations on tech tools during faculty meetings. Each week, we got a 2-3 minute presentation from a peer on some tool that either had used or planned to use in their classroom. Through these presentations, I've learned some new mind mapping tools, a digital museum tool, and Quizzes (a great replacement for Kahoot if you are no longer find that a valuable review tool).
After two years of distance coaching, Laura has decided it is time to invest in her local community and have some local here at GRACE. While we understand that logic, we will miss her influence greatly. I have said it before, and I'll say it again. She made us better teachers, and I have no higher compliment to give.
Laura Warmke came to GRACE as the media specialist. If you are over forty, this is the person you would have called the librarian; but the job has grown significantly enough to change the title. She was fantastic at the "library" part of the job. I don't think I've ever mentioned a book she hadn't already read. She could converse as easily about young adult literature as she could about historical fiction or books or medical history. She encouraged reading for pleasure in our students.
Laura also noticed a need in our school. The year she joined us was the second year in our one-to-one program, and we had hit a bit of a plateau. It was clear to Laura that we needed cultivation if we were going to continue to grow. While at a conference, she heard about a professional development program that another school had used with their teachers. Along with other members of our IT department (Shout Out to Diane Scro), Laura developed a program for us called Level Up.
Level Up was about learning and adopting new tools for people at different levels. When adopting a new tech program, it's important to realize that some of your people are savvy and others are less so. We are also a K-12 school, so how each teacher implemented technology in their classroom was going to be pedagogically different. Recognizing this, Diane and Laura developed missions for different grade levels and different tools. Each teacher could choose which mission they wanted to accomplish. Some were as simple as watching a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson; others were as ambitious as flipping your classroom. There was a wide range in between of just trying a new tool (Animoto, Canva, Storybird, etc.) with your students. When you completed the mission, you went into a discussion board on our school's LMS and posted. I really enjoyed looking at the posts of other teachers as well because I work with creative people. For every tool, someone had used it in a way I had not thought of, and I was able to enhance my use of it as a result. After completing the discussion board post, the teacher was given a badge on a poster board in the teacher's lounge. I know that sounds a little elementary school, but I found it motivating.
When Laura moved to the midwest because she wanted to be with her husband or something, we didn't have to lose her awesome influence. She continued to be our technology coach, meeting with each teacher once per quarter to discuss the integration of technology, talk through project ideas, help us look for a management tool or website platform, or help us process what we learned at a technology conference. Level Up was difficult to maintain at a distance (and because she was raising two kids or whatever), so Laura changed things up. She set up a schedule for teachers to present short presentations on tech tools during faculty meetings. Each week, we got a 2-3 minute presentation from a peer on some tool that either had used or planned to use in their classroom. Through these presentations, I've learned some new mind mapping tools, a digital museum tool, and Quizzes (a great replacement for Kahoot if you are no longer find that a valuable review tool).
After two years of distance coaching, Laura has decided it is time to invest in her local community and have some local here at GRACE. While we understand that logic, we will miss her influence greatly. I have said it before, and I'll say it again. She made us better teachers, and I have no higher compliment to give.
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
GRACE EdCamp 2016!
This is GRACE's third year of EdCamp. It is one day of professional development done by teachers for each other. We sign up for topics ahead of time, make a schedule, and choose either what we want to learn about or who we want to learn from.
My presentation this year was a joint presentation with awesome English teacher, Marcia Wingerd, on cross-curricular blogging. If you follow my blog, you know that we have been in a public experiment on 8th graders publicly reflecting on their learning experiences (See this post and this post for background). We feel that it has been successful (See this page for links to the student's blogs) enough to keep doing it and suggest that other teachers be part of it on across many grade levels.
One of my goals for next year is to develop depth in the four C's, which are critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. The best ways to develop those are project based learning (PBL) and challenge based learning (CBL). While I have been doing a CBL for two years (see this post if you are interested), I haven't gotten where I want to be with it yet. I want students to really develop in these four areas through all my projects, especially that one. Therefore, I chose my other topics accordingly.
One workshop I attended was on a project one of our incredible history teachers, Nate Dewey, presented. He has his freshman create a Manor Faire, based on the serf system they learn in history. They create maps, food, costumes, explanations of the role of all types of people, explanations of daily life, and they incorporate technology, interact with all attendees (probably 150 of them). It is a great project, but I only knew it as an interested visitor. I wanted to learn about his end of it. What is he communicating to his students to get the great outcome he is getting? How does he turn everyone's observations into a grade? The majority of his focus was on creating projects that require kids to be interdependent in group work. While it was great that they learn the history, he talked about the life skills students learn - teamwork, conflict resolution, debriefing, managing time, and problem-solving. These skills are as imporant (perhaps evenmore important) than the content. The hardest part is figuring out how to create the time in your classroom to make sure you are still addressing the content you would have covered in that work time. He used flipped class videos with occassional checkpoints, using games. His other main point was that you need to be comfortable with the chaos that large group project create.
Our amazing calculus teacher, Cheryl Herrington, was my choice for the second session I attended. She presented on teaching creativity. Yes, that's right - our math teacher talked about teaching creativity. I have been interested in this topic for - well, forever. Learning HOW to do it is something that is harder to grasp. I have read and listened to everything Sir Ken Robinson has ever done (See his TED talks here and here and here). Because I know Cheryl well and have taught next door to her for the last eight years, I know that she is a very creative teacher. I was excited about what she would have to say about teaching kids to be creative. She talked about the difference between imagination, creativity, and innovation. She talked about how everyone can be creative because we are made in the image of a creative God; it isn't just for a special subset of people. It also doesn't just mean making a project pretty. She used the book Imagine to talk about three different types of creativity - the Aha! Moment (Sudden Insight), Incremental Creativity (more of a step by step process), and Getting in the Flow. Sometimes, you need to practice all three. Your sudden moment of insight might be good, but if you spend time in incremental creativity, you can trade in good for better. Getting into a creative flow might require imagining how a child would do it. Creativity can only thrive in a safe space, where you don't believe you will be penalized for a dumb idea. She mostly encouraged us to practice creative process in our own lives so that we could then model it for our students.
My choice of the next session was on Inquiry Drien Projects presented by the wonderful Kristen Foxworth-O'Brien. This was our second year doing 20% Time projects at GRACE, and it was this teacher's first year. I only got to attend three of her presentations this year, and all of those three said they had failed to achieve their goal. This was not representative of all her groups because she tweeted some absolutely amazing presentations (e.g. a sophomore who built his own computer), but it made me wonder how many had reported that they didn't get what they wanted to out of this time. She gives them 20% of her class time, so she obviously wants them to grow in something they are passionate about. I was interested in finding out how she checks in with them during the project so that she isn't surprised by their outcome (and again, how she grades it). She talked about buy-in from students when they are choosing their own topics and getting to higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy because of the depth of research. She spent a lot of time talking about how to help students refine their topics to things worthy of giving up 20% of your class time. Setting goals throughout the year is important for keeping students on track and accountable. First quarter, they had mentor meetings. Second quarter, they held pitch sessions to people who would ask them guiding questions. Third quarter, they had to submit an annotated research document. Fourth quarter was their final presentation. Throughout the process, they blogged about their topic. Blogs can be
1. Resource recommendations
2. Reflections on your own journey
3. A topic talk post, which could be used as a resource for someone else.
Homework grades are given for blog posts, and each quarter's major goals are test grades.
This has become one of my favorite days of the year, and I have thought a lot about why that is a case. I believe it is because I am learning from people that I know and trust as educators. I have attended many good and many bad workshops over the years. Even in the best ones, it takes time to decide how credible this stranger is. I don't have to spend that time deciding when the presenter is the teacher down the hall, whose class and teaching I know well. I can just jump in and start learning.
My presentation this year was a joint presentation with awesome English teacher, Marcia Wingerd, on cross-curricular blogging. If you follow my blog, you know that we have been in a public experiment on 8th graders publicly reflecting on their learning experiences (See this post and this post for background). We feel that it has been successful (See this page for links to the student's blogs) enough to keep doing it and suggest that other teachers be part of it on across many grade levels.
One of my goals for next year is to develop depth in the four C's, which are critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. The best ways to develop those are project based learning (PBL) and challenge based learning (CBL). While I have been doing a CBL for two years (see this post if you are interested), I haven't gotten where I want to be with it yet. I want students to really develop in these four areas through all my projects, especially that one. Therefore, I chose my other topics accordingly.
One workshop I attended was on a project one of our incredible history teachers, Nate Dewey, presented. He has his freshman create a Manor Faire, based on the serf system they learn in history. They create maps, food, costumes, explanations of the role of all types of people, explanations of daily life, and they incorporate technology, interact with all attendees (probably 150 of them). It is a great project, but I only knew it as an interested visitor. I wanted to learn about his end of it. What is he communicating to his students to get the great outcome he is getting? How does he turn everyone's observations into a grade? The majority of his focus was on creating projects that require kids to be interdependent in group work. While it was great that they learn the history, he talked about the life skills students learn - teamwork, conflict resolution, debriefing, managing time, and problem-solving. These skills are as imporant (perhaps evenmore important) than the content. The hardest part is figuring out how to create the time in your classroom to make sure you are still addressing the content you would have covered in that work time. He used flipped class videos with occassional checkpoints, using games. His other main point was that you need to be comfortable with the chaos that large group project create.
Our amazing calculus teacher, Cheryl Herrington, was my choice for the second session I attended. She presented on teaching creativity. Yes, that's right - our math teacher talked about teaching creativity. I have been interested in this topic for - well, forever. Learning HOW to do it is something that is harder to grasp. I have read and listened to everything Sir Ken Robinson has ever done (See his TED talks here and here and here). Because I know Cheryl well and have taught next door to her for the last eight years, I know that she is a very creative teacher. I was excited about what she would have to say about teaching kids to be creative. She talked about the difference between imagination, creativity, and innovation. She talked about how everyone can be creative because we are made in the image of a creative God; it isn't just for a special subset of people. It also doesn't just mean making a project pretty. She used the book Imagine to talk about three different types of creativity - the Aha! Moment (Sudden Insight), Incremental Creativity (more of a step by step process), and Getting in the Flow. Sometimes, you need to practice all three. Your sudden moment of insight might be good, but if you spend time in incremental creativity, you can trade in good for better. Getting into a creative flow might require imagining how a child would do it. Creativity can only thrive in a safe space, where you don't believe you will be penalized for a dumb idea. She mostly encouraged us to practice creative process in our own lives so that we could then model it for our students.My choice of the next session was on Inquiry Drien Projects presented by the wonderful Kristen Foxworth-O'Brien. This was our second year doing 20% Time projects at GRACE, and it was this teacher's first year. I only got to attend three of her presentations this year, and all of those three said they had failed to achieve their goal. This was not representative of all her groups because she tweeted some absolutely amazing presentations (e.g. a sophomore who built his own computer), but it made me wonder how many had reported that they didn't get what they wanted to out of this time. She gives them 20% of her class time, so she obviously wants them to grow in something they are passionate about. I was interested in finding out how she checks in with them during the project so that she isn't surprised by their outcome (and again, how she grades it). She talked about buy-in from students when they are choosing their own topics and getting to higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy because of the depth of research. She spent a lot of time talking about how to help students refine their topics to things worthy of giving up 20% of your class time. Setting goals throughout the year is important for keeping students on track and accountable. First quarter, they had mentor meetings. Second quarter, they held pitch sessions to people who would ask them guiding questions. Third quarter, they had to submit an annotated research document. Fourth quarter was their final presentation. Throughout the process, they blogged about their topic. Blogs can be
1. Resource recommendations
2. Reflections on your own journey
3. A topic talk post, which could be used as a resource for someone else.
Homework grades are given for blog posts, and each quarter's major goals are test grades.
This has become one of my favorite days of the year, and I have thought a lot about why that is a case. I believe it is because I am learning from people that I know and trust as educators. I have attended many good and many bad workshops over the years. Even in the best ones, it takes time to decide how credible this stranger is. I don't have to spend that time deciding when the presenter is the teacher down the hall, whose class and teaching I know well. I can just jump in and start learning.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
This Answer Made it Worth It
My last post referenced trying new things and analyzing their results. Since then, I have spent the week grading a physics project. It is my second attempt in physics at a Challenge Based Learning project (CBL). The challenge is this. You live in an area that gets electricity inconsistently. I gave them some examples of places in the world with power shedding, namely Haiti, Zambia, and South Africa. You want to keep a few things at your home powered - your refrigerator, perhaps some fans for blowing off malaria-carrying insects. What can you do, at your house, to keep these things running?
The idea behind Challenge Based Learning is that students must address the challenge, developing their skills in creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. They are not given a pre-determined solution and told to build it according to a teacher thought out rubric. They must come up with an answer by thinking through the associated issues. This provides the opportunity for students to step up to the plate and do something real, but it also provides them with the opportunity to fail. If the challenge is worthwhile, it is certainly not something that can be accomplished with one day's work, even a good all nighter. This type of project forces them to rise to the occasion or fail; there is no in between. It also requires a serious lack of intervention from the teacher. If I step in and bail them out, they do not meet the challenge. This is incredibly difficult for teachers as we are trained to help.
Watching the kids progress through this project had its highs and lows. Their initial brainstorming sessions produced more viable ideas than we had the entire year before, so I felt like we were off to a good start. I gave them some work days in class. While they worked, I listened to them. Listening to student conversations when they don't know you are listening is better entertainment than most movies. I listened as students talked about solar power and wind. I pointed out the limitations of those options, suggesting that perhaps a fuel powered solution might be easier, and they insisted on alternative energy. They've been a bit brainwashed about fossil fuels, but it was their challenge to meet, not mine. I heard one group talk about a hand crank generator that they already had. Later, I asked them if they thought that was realistic at someone's home. After all, you aren't going to have someone stay up all night cranking the generator. I heard another group talking about soccer and basketball and fantasy football. These are juniors and seniors, so it is the time for them to learn the consequences of wasting class time. I let them keep talking, knowing they would likely not meet the challenge. This is a difficult thing as a teacher, but I believe it is important as a life skill. See my post from last year on not helping. Constantly rescuing kids from their irresponsibility will never teach them to be responsible.
One group used its time well; so even though their solution to the problem wasn't what I would do, they gained more knowledge than any other group. They built a small wind turbine and did a little math about how that would scale up in the real world. I wish they had done something more universal and that they could have answered more feasibility questions, but they had done a lot of thinking and got a good understanding of the difficulties of electricity production. They did understand that when the wind wasn't blowing, they would need a back up for the back up and spent a little bit of time talking about battery usage. They didn't really develop that idea, but at least they had it. The hand-crank generator group had the problems I knew they would have. Some of them learned less than others, and I wish they had explored other solutions. Both of these groups had models that did produce a little electricity, not truly addressing the challenge but at least getting something out of it.
The group that spent all their time in class talking about sports brought in a presentation about hydroelectric dams. I stopped them and said, "How could you use this at your house?" I invited adults in the school to come ask questions as well. One of them said, "You do know these cost billions of dollars to build, right? That's why there aren't many of them out there." Another adult pointed out that you would have to live near a river that you were allowed to block. Then, they showed me their model. It is made of a cork on a barbecue skewer, sitting in a plastic bottle. When water runs over it, it spins. Notice that I didn't say it produces electricity; it doesn't.
One of the methods I use to grade this type of project is through reflective questions. I ask them about how they communicated, collaborated, problem solved, and dealt with timeline interruptions. I have them explain what their role is the group and what they learned, not only about electricity production but also about doing projects. I ask them what grade they would give themselves. This is actually a very long reflection form. I thought the water group would understand that they had not risen to the occasion from the feedback they were getting on the day of the presentation, but they didn't. All of them said they were proud of their product and would give themselves either a high B or a low A. Only one owned up to wasting the work days I gave them. Their answers were so inconsistent with reality that this project became difficult to grade.
Then, near the end of the alphabet, I read the following answer.
This answer made the rest of the grading difficulty (and the inevitable pushback I will get from grading them correctly) worth it. This student didn't just learn about electricity. She learned gratitude for living in a first world country, where she doesn't have to think about this outside of a school project. When she plugs things in, she will take a moment to thank God for allowing us to use the laws of physics. A few years from now, when she hears political candidates debate about alternative energy sources, she will have information by which to judge their spin. Every teacher needs an answer like this one every now and then. It is the reason I will do this project again. This answer made it worth it.
The idea behind Challenge Based Learning is that students must address the challenge, developing their skills in creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. They are not given a pre-determined solution and told to build it according to a teacher thought out rubric. They must come up with an answer by thinking through the associated issues. This provides the opportunity for students to step up to the plate and do something real, but it also provides them with the opportunity to fail. If the challenge is worthwhile, it is certainly not something that can be accomplished with one day's work, even a good all nighter. This type of project forces them to rise to the occasion or fail; there is no in between. It also requires a serious lack of intervention from the teacher. If I step in and bail them out, they do not meet the challenge. This is incredibly difficult for teachers as we are trained to help.
Watching the kids progress through this project had its highs and lows. Their initial brainstorming sessions produced more viable ideas than we had the entire year before, so I felt like we were off to a good start. I gave them some work days in class. While they worked, I listened to them. Listening to student conversations when they don't know you are listening is better entertainment than most movies. I listened as students talked about solar power and wind. I pointed out the limitations of those options, suggesting that perhaps a fuel powered solution might be easier, and they insisted on alternative energy. They've been a bit brainwashed about fossil fuels, but it was their challenge to meet, not mine. I heard one group talk about a hand crank generator that they already had. Later, I asked them if they thought that was realistic at someone's home. After all, you aren't going to have someone stay up all night cranking the generator. I heard another group talking about soccer and basketball and fantasy football. These are juniors and seniors, so it is the time for them to learn the consequences of wasting class time. I let them keep talking, knowing they would likely not meet the challenge. This is a difficult thing as a teacher, but I believe it is important as a life skill. See my post from last year on not helping. Constantly rescuing kids from their irresponsibility will never teach them to be responsible.
One group used its time well; so even though their solution to the problem wasn't what I would do, they gained more knowledge than any other group. They built a small wind turbine and did a little math about how that would scale up in the real world. I wish they had done something more universal and that they could have answered more feasibility questions, but they had done a lot of thinking and got a good understanding of the difficulties of electricity production. They did understand that when the wind wasn't blowing, they would need a back up for the back up and spent a little bit of time talking about battery usage. They didn't really develop that idea, but at least they had it. The hand-crank generator group had the problems I knew they would have. Some of them learned less than others, and I wish they had explored other solutions. Both of these groups had models that did produce a little electricity, not truly addressing the challenge but at least getting something out of it.
The group that spent all their time in class talking about sports brought in a presentation about hydroelectric dams. I stopped them and said, "How could you use this at your house?" I invited adults in the school to come ask questions as well. One of them said, "You do know these cost billions of dollars to build, right? That's why there aren't many of them out there." Another adult pointed out that you would have to live near a river that you were allowed to block. Then, they showed me their model. It is made of a cork on a barbecue skewer, sitting in a plastic bottle. When water runs over it, it spins. Notice that I didn't say it produces electricity; it doesn't.
One of the methods I use to grade this type of project is through reflective questions. I ask them about how they communicated, collaborated, problem solved, and dealt with timeline interruptions. I have them explain what their role is the group and what they learned, not only about electricity production but also about doing projects. I ask them what grade they would give themselves. This is actually a very long reflection form. I thought the water group would understand that they had not risen to the occasion from the feedback they were getting on the day of the presentation, but they didn't. All of them said they were proud of their product and would give themselves either a high B or a low A. Only one owned up to wasting the work days I gave them. Their answers were so inconsistent with reality that this project became difficult to grade.
Then, near the end of the alphabet, I read the following answer.
This answer made the rest of the grading difficulty (and the inevitable pushback I will get from grading them correctly) worth it. This student didn't just learn about electricity. She learned gratitude for living in a first world country, where she doesn't have to think about this outside of a school project. When she plugs things in, she will take a moment to thank God for allowing us to use the laws of physics. A few years from now, when she hears political candidates debate about alternative energy sources, she will have information by which to judge their spin. Every teacher needs an answer like this one every now and then. It is the reason I will do this project again. This answer made it worth it.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
CBL - Quick Hit On Progress
I know I already blogged this week, but I was going through my students initial work on CBL and just had to post. This is a screen shot of research questions from one group. This is already more thought that I got out of weeks and weeks last year. Also, I wasn't here the day they did this; so they got no help.
Monday, January 25, 2016
CBL - Trying Again ( Post 2 of 2)
In my last post, I outlined in some detail my failure at Challenge Based Learning (CBL). I promised the second post would be more hopeful, and it is. I will tell you what I learned from last year and how I plan to get better results from this year's class.
1. Assign groups - While I thought it was a good way to get brainstorming going with only 9 people, I think I inadvertently sent the message that this was pretty casual. I didn't actually feel that way, but the formality of assigning groups implies a thoughtful process. It also allows you to mix your personality types in a way that encourages good discussion.
2. Be VERY clear up front - It would destroy the purpose of challenge based learning to give them the outcome you want and put it on a rubric. However, we wasted quite a bit of time when they didn't understand the point of the project. This year, I made a video using Screencastify, outlining the purpose of the project. It included a picture of a refrigerator and one of a fan. Also, I will be telling them a bit about last year's difficulty so that they won't think this is about a global energy crisis.
3. Don't tell - do guide (at the beginning) - When I heard discussions about war with Cuba and volcanoes, I should have realized that they didn't understand the project's purpose. I thought they were trying to be funny and waited it out. If I could do that one over, I would have stopped early on and said, "Tell me what you think the point of this project is." Your guidance should be MOSTLY in the form of asking leading questions.
4. Set benchmarks - I did this last year, but I don't think I did it enough. I should have been asking them to blog their progress each week or giving exit tickets on Wednesdays. While letting them sink or swim can be valuable, this might have been a helpful floaty in the pool.
5. Expect more - I never communicated this out loud, but I may have in my demeanor. Even as I talked through this project with our technology coach, I kept saying, "Who knows? I don't know what to expect from this group." This year, I have much higher expectations of these groups. I still don't know what they will come up with at the end, but I feel like they will have more interesting ideas.
6. Try to say "Yes" - When you first hear an idea, don't jump to the immediate conclusion that it can't work. There are limits to this; we weren't going to use electric eel tanks or steal electricity from the Dominican Republic. That said, when an idea that sounds "a little" out there comes up, don't just say it won't work. Ask the right questions. It could be that they are on a service road to a really good highway and just need to find the on-ramp. If they aren't, asking the right questions will allow them to come to that conclusion on their own.
I will be introducing this project on Friday, so I'll let you all know how it goes in coming weeks.
1. Assign groups - While I thought it was a good way to get brainstorming going with only 9 people, I think I inadvertently sent the message that this was pretty casual. I didn't actually feel that way, but the formality of assigning groups implies a thoughtful process. It also allows you to mix your personality types in a way that encourages good discussion.
2. Be VERY clear up front - It would destroy the purpose of challenge based learning to give them the outcome you want and put it on a rubric. However, we wasted quite a bit of time when they didn't understand the point of the project. This year, I made a video using Screencastify, outlining the purpose of the project. It included a picture of a refrigerator and one of a fan. Also, I will be telling them a bit about last year's difficulty so that they won't think this is about a global energy crisis.
3. Don't tell - do guide (at the beginning) - When I heard discussions about war with Cuba and volcanoes, I should have realized that they didn't understand the project's purpose. I thought they were trying to be funny and waited it out. If I could do that one over, I would have stopped early on and said, "Tell me what you think the point of this project is." Your guidance should be MOSTLY in the form of asking leading questions.
4. Set benchmarks - I did this last year, but I don't think I did it enough. I should have been asking them to blog their progress each week or giving exit tickets on Wednesdays. While letting them sink or swim can be valuable, this might have been a helpful floaty in the pool.
5. Expect more - I never communicated this out loud, but I may have in my demeanor. Even as I talked through this project with our technology coach, I kept saying, "Who knows? I don't know what to expect from this group." This year, I have much higher expectations of these groups. I still don't know what they will come up with at the end, but I feel like they will have more interesting ideas.
6. Try to say "Yes" - When you first hear an idea, don't jump to the immediate conclusion that it can't work. There are limits to this; we weren't going to use electric eel tanks or steal electricity from the Dominican Republic. That said, when an idea that sounds "a little" out there comes up, don't just say it won't work. Ask the right questions. It could be that they are on a service road to a really good highway and just need to find the on-ramp. If they aren't, asking the right questions will allow them to come to that conclusion on their own.
I will be introducing this project on Friday, so I'll let you all know how it goes in coming weeks.
CBL - My First Attempt - Epic Fail (Post 1 of 2)
Last year, I had the interesting experience of experimenting for the first time with a Challenge Based Learning project, also known as a CBL. My experience was, to put it mildly, an epic failure. We accomplished little, and my students learned little. I hope that I learned a lot because I am about to try it again.
For those who don't know, a CBL is a project in which students solve a real-world problem. They are required to communicate, collaborate, think critically, and think creatively. My experience last year was a failure on every level. Let me start at the beginning.
Step 1: Present the Challenge - I already had a physics project related to our chapter on electricity, so I thought I would replace it with a CBL about electricity. I brought in a guest speaker, our IT director. He had lived in Haiti for several years, and he shared his experiences with them about inconsistent power delivery. He shared how it was really important for a family to keep their refrigerator running to avoid food spoilage and to keep fans running to blow off disease-carrying insects. I only had nine students, so I kept them as one group. I told them we would split into two groups if there were two viable ideas that came out during the brainstorming time.
Step 2: Begin Brainstorming - Houston, we have a problem. As my students began to make suggestions, I heard things like:
- "Steal electricity from the Dominican Republic"
- "Go to war with Cuba, and take electricity from them."
- "Let America solve it."
- "Electric eel tank" (I thought he was joking when he brought it up, but he was quite serious.)
- "Tap into a volcano for geothermal energy."
I had hoped that we were just getting the silliness out of the way, so I set a deadline for some serious guiding questions (part of CBL) and suggestions for real plans during the following week. Then I began hearing from other teachers. One of them said that a physics student had come to her, distressed that Miss Hawks was trying to get them to "solve the energy crisis." Huh?
Step 3: Reboot - Apparently, what I had thought was clear was not clear. I sent the following e-mail.
Hoping we were at least now clear on the problem, I reset some dates. We started over.
Step 4: Communication and Collaboration
Our school schedule is different on Wednesdays because we have chapel services. For that reason, I have physics the last period of the day. Since it is harder for them to pay attention to me, I try to make project presentations, work days, and videos on Wednesdays. For seven weeks, every Wednesday was a project work day. They could use it for research, collaboration, figuring out timelines, or actually building something. For the first three weeks, it was silent in my room. I don't mean it was kind of quiet. I mean it was exam-time-graveyard-is anyone here today quiet. These were nine people who were supposed to be collaborating. At the end of the third week, I asked them about it. "You want us to talk in class?" was their response. I told them that most people, when given a project work day, did talk about what they were doing and what they were going to do. It got a little better. I started hearing some murmurings about something with a lawn mower motor, so I considered that progress - until the following Wednesday. One of my students showed up with a bag full of lemons and a pile of wires. He sat at the table, stripping the insulation off of the wires. When asked what he was doing, he said, "stripping wires." Some of the others were baffled because they had a plan with a lawn mower motor that had nothing to do with lemons. Some were baffled because they hadn't even known there was that plan.
As a teacher, it was naturally my first instinct to jump in and solve this for them. I knew that wouldn't be best for them and that they needed to have this bizarre conversation, so I wrote a blog post about not helping just to keep myself from getting involved.
Step 5: Execute Your Plan
As we got further along in the project, I asked the students what their plan was for building this generator device. "Wait, what? We have to build it?" I reminded them that while we were having the electric eel tank / war with Cuba discussion, I had said several times that I didn't think we could do that as a class. I had told them we would be building their idea, not just having an idea. They collected some money as a group. On the last day of the project, one of them had attached a two-inch solar panel to the world's smallest fan. Another brought in a handheld steam generator, which lit a 10W light bulb. Needless, to say, I felt like my experiment with CBL was a bit of a failure.
Step 6: How to I Grade This?
Despite the obvious failure of this attempt, I didn't feel like I could just chuck the entire experience. I needed to give them some kind of credit for what they did do and, more importantly, require them to reflect on the experience. I created a list of questions based on those four C's I mentioned earlier - Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. (Apparently, I can't attach a document to this post, so comment if you would like my list of questions.) They had to take a hard look at themselves. If they gave it some honest, deep thought, I gave them credit. If they gave the answer they thought I wanted, they lost points. I don't know how this will impact them in the future, but I know that John Dewey said, "We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience."
My next post will be more hopeful. It will tell you what I learned from this experience so that it can go better this year. We start on Friday, so I will keep you updated.
For those who don't know, a CBL is a project in which students solve a real-world problem. They are required to communicate, collaborate, think critically, and think creatively. My experience last year was a failure on every level. Let me start at the beginning.
Step 1: Present the Challenge - I already had a physics project related to our chapter on electricity, so I thought I would replace it with a CBL about electricity. I brought in a guest speaker, our IT director. He had lived in Haiti for several years, and he shared his experiences with them about inconsistent power delivery. He shared how it was really important for a family to keep their refrigerator running to avoid food spoilage and to keep fans running to blow off disease-carrying insects. I only had nine students, so I kept them as one group. I told them we would split into two groups if there were two viable ideas that came out during the brainstorming time.
Step 2: Begin Brainstorming - Houston, we have a problem. As my students began to make suggestions, I heard things like:
- "Steal electricity from the Dominican Republic"
- "Go to war with Cuba, and take electricity from them."
- "Let America solve it."
- "Electric eel tank" (I thought he was joking when he brought it up, but he was quite serious.)
- "Tap into a volcano for geothermal energy."
I had hoped that we were just getting the silliness out of the way, so I set a deadline for some serious guiding questions (part of CBL) and suggestions for real plans during the following week. Then I began hearing from other teachers. One of them said that a physics student had come to her, distressed that Miss Hawks was trying to get them to "solve the energy crisis." Huh?
Step 3: Reboot - Apparently, what I had thought was clear was not clear. I sent the following e-mail.
Hoping we were at least now clear on the problem, I reset some dates. We started over.
Step 4: Communication and Collaboration
Our school schedule is different on Wednesdays because we have chapel services. For that reason, I have physics the last period of the day. Since it is harder for them to pay attention to me, I try to make project presentations, work days, and videos on Wednesdays. For seven weeks, every Wednesday was a project work day. They could use it for research, collaboration, figuring out timelines, or actually building something. For the first three weeks, it was silent in my room. I don't mean it was kind of quiet. I mean it was exam-time-graveyard-is anyone here today quiet. These were nine people who were supposed to be collaborating. At the end of the third week, I asked them about it. "You want us to talk in class?" was their response. I told them that most people, when given a project work day, did talk about what they were doing and what they were going to do. It got a little better. I started hearing some murmurings about something with a lawn mower motor, so I considered that progress - until the following Wednesday. One of my students showed up with a bag full of lemons and a pile of wires. He sat at the table, stripping the insulation off of the wires. When asked what he was doing, he said, "stripping wires." Some of the others were baffled because they had a plan with a lawn mower motor that had nothing to do with lemons. Some were baffled because they hadn't even known there was that plan.
As a teacher, it was naturally my first instinct to jump in and solve this for them. I knew that wouldn't be best for them and that they needed to have this bizarre conversation, so I wrote a blog post about not helping just to keep myself from getting involved.
Step 5: Execute Your Plan
As we got further along in the project, I asked the students what their plan was for building this generator device. "Wait, what? We have to build it?" I reminded them that while we were having the electric eel tank / war with Cuba discussion, I had said several times that I didn't think we could do that as a class. I had told them we would be building their idea, not just having an idea. They collected some money as a group. On the last day of the project, one of them had attached a two-inch solar panel to the world's smallest fan. Another brought in a handheld steam generator, which lit a 10W light bulb. Needless, to say, I felt like my experiment with CBL was a bit of a failure.
Step 6: How to I Grade This?
Despite the obvious failure of this attempt, I didn't feel like I could just chuck the entire experience. I needed to give them some kind of credit for what they did do and, more importantly, require them to reflect on the experience. I created a list of questions based on those four C's I mentioned earlier - Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. (Apparently, I can't attach a document to this post, so comment if you would like my list of questions.) They had to take a hard look at themselves. If they gave it some honest, deep thought, I gave them credit. If they gave the answer they thought I wanted, they lost points. I don't know how this will impact them in the future, but I know that John Dewey said, "We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience."
My next post will be more hopeful. It will tell you what I learned from this experience so that it can go better this year. We start on Friday, so I will keep you updated.
Friday, May 22, 2015
EdCamp
Before last year, I had never heard of an EdCamp. Now, I can't seem to stop hearing about them.
Last year, I did a presentation on Animoto, but I attended three awesome presentations on: Virtual Field Trips with Google Maps, Blogging, and a Forum on 20% time passion projects. This year, I will be presenting on Blogging myself, and I will team present with my friend on our two epic failures with Challenge Based Learning. One of the things I love most about this is that we were encouraged to share our failures. The two I believe I will attend this year are about Flipping the Classroom Effectively and Using Quizlet as a Teaching Tool. I am very excited about both of these. I got to choose them from a list that had about six choices in each slot. My only regret about this year is that since I am presenting at two, I only get to attend two.
This is worth doing at your school. Even if you start small with only a few of your braver teachers, you should do it. Give people at least a few to choose from in each session because they will buy in more to a topic they have chosen. Some teachers think they have nothing to share, but this is never true. We have to share the good things that are happening in our classrooms. It is the way we grow and the way we encourage each other. One of my favorite ones from last year was a forum. The presenter didn't have to prepare that much. She just had to say, "Let's talk about this thing I am passionately interested in trying." We all benefited from it.
Seriously, do this at your school.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Reflections on Four Years of Teaching With Technology - Lessons
This is the last post of a four part series on the one to one MacBook program my school has. This post can stand alone, but if you are interested in more detail, read my other posts.
After four years of doing this, I do feel that there are some pieces of advice I could offer and lessons I've learned. This is purely from a classroom teacher's point of view. I'm sure administrators and tech people could offer different perspective, and I hope they will comment.
Don't Try to Learn Everything at Once - If you try to make every lesson filled with nothing but technology, you will lose your mind. Sit down with your objectives and pick the ones that are either the easiest or the most important to incorporate your technology. We committed to have one "golden nugget" per quarter. That could be a project the kids could do or a lesson that we would have them collaborate with or a lesson we could flip. If you do that each year (and it gets easier to think of them, so you increase your pace), you build your tech repertoire.
Don't Try to Reinvent the Wheel - Google is your friend. If you search for lesson plans using technology on any topic, you will find many tools or kernels of ideas to use. YouTube is your best friend. Pick a topic - any topic - and you will find animations, dramatizations, examples. There is a ton in science, but there are plenty for every other topic as well - even Latin. I have been amazed by the clarity a video provides. It takes me 15 minutes to explain the Doppler Effect, but when I show a 20 second video of stick figures and waves, I hear half the class go "Ohhhh."
Get an LMS - If there was one thing we were missing in our first year, it was a learning management system. Not having a consistent way for students to turn in digital assignments leads to chaos. Some students want to e-mail it to you (That'll fill your inbox) while others want to put it on a jump drive. Some want to share it with you in a google doc. This is a sure way to lose your mind. We found drop box, hoping that would be a good method, but it is a mess when students forget to include their name (It's not like you can tell from their handwriting), or you have 45 assignments titled "science homework." The first couple of months with an LMS are difficult because it adds to the learning curve, but it is worth it. After the first year, every student knows exactly what to do when we say "Go to the Talon discussion board."
Cheer Each Other On - This was the best part of our endeavor. Every teacher was in the same boat, all trying to row in the same direction. We shared ideas, successes, failures, suggestions, encouragements, and prayers. If you have some cynical people, share your successes with them. Show them one super easy tool that you found. Most people will come around with just a little encouragement. If you are trying to do this on your own and it isn't a school wide thing, find another teacher that you can try it with. If you can't even find that, go online. There are twitter groups and teacher websites completely devoted to cheering you on in this adventure. This is worth it.
Be Flexible and Have Backup Plans - The first time you use a new tool, something will happen. You will have at least one kid who can't log on no matter what they do. The video might not play on someone's computer even though it does on everyone else's. There may be a student who tried to submit their assignment and it didn't go through for whatever reason. You CANNOT anticipate all these problems, so be flexible. For those issues you can anticipate, have a backup plan. I have ended my instructions many times with "If that doesn't work, do this." You will teach a little less content your first year because you will spend a fair amount of time troubleshooting. That's okay; it gets better. Trust me that you will never stop needing backup plans.
Keep the Reasons in Mind - You have decided to do this for a reason. When things get a little nutty, remind yourself that this is important. You are investing in your students' future. You are teaching them life skills and modeling life long learning. You are going to have some tough days, and the kids will see how you respond to them.
After four years of doing this, I do feel that there are some pieces of advice I could offer and lessons I've learned. This is purely from a classroom teacher's point of view. I'm sure administrators and tech people could offer different perspective, and I hope they will comment.
Don't Try to Learn Everything at Once - If you try to make every lesson filled with nothing but technology, you will lose your mind. Sit down with your objectives and pick the ones that are either the easiest or the most important to incorporate your technology. We committed to have one "golden nugget" per quarter. That could be a project the kids could do or a lesson that we would have them collaborate with or a lesson we could flip. If you do that each year (and it gets easier to think of them, so you increase your pace), you build your tech repertoire.
Don't Try to Reinvent the Wheel - Google is your friend. If you search for lesson plans using technology on any topic, you will find many tools or kernels of ideas to use. YouTube is your best friend. Pick a topic - any topic - and you will find animations, dramatizations, examples. There is a ton in science, but there are plenty for every other topic as well - even Latin. I have been amazed by the clarity a video provides. It takes me 15 minutes to explain the Doppler Effect, but when I show a 20 second video of stick figures and waves, I hear half the class go "Ohhhh."
Get an LMS - If there was one thing we were missing in our first year, it was a learning management system. Not having a consistent way for students to turn in digital assignments leads to chaos. Some students want to e-mail it to you (That'll fill your inbox) while others want to put it on a jump drive. Some want to share it with you in a google doc. This is a sure way to lose your mind. We found drop box, hoping that would be a good method, but it is a mess when students forget to include their name (It's not like you can tell from their handwriting), or you have 45 assignments titled "science homework." The first couple of months with an LMS are difficult because it adds to the learning curve, but it is worth it. After the first year, every student knows exactly what to do when we say "Go to the Talon discussion board."
Cheer Each Other On - This was the best part of our endeavor. Every teacher was in the same boat, all trying to row in the same direction. We shared ideas, successes, failures, suggestions, encouragements, and prayers. If you have some cynical people, share your successes with them. Show them one super easy tool that you found. Most people will come around with just a little encouragement. If you are trying to do this on your own and it isn't a school wide thing, find another teacher that you can try it with. If you can't even find that, go online. There are twitter groups and teacher websites completely devoted to cheering you on in this adventure. This is worth it.
Be Flexible and Have Backup Plans - The first time you use a new tool, something will happen. You will have at least one kid who can't log on no matter what they do. The video might not play on someone's computer even though it does on everyone else's. There may be a student who tried to submit their assignment and it didn't go through for whatever reason. You CANNOT anticipate all these problems, so be flexible. For those issues you can anticipate, have a backup plan. I have ended my instructions many times with "If that doesn't work, do this." You will teach a little less content your first year because you will spend a fair amount of time troubleshooting. That's okay; it gets better. Trust me that you will never stop needing backup plans.
Keep the Reasons in Mind - You have decided to do this for a reason. When things get a little nutty, remind yourself that this is important. You are investing in your students' future. You are teaching them life skills and modeling life long learning. You are going to have some tough days, and the kids will see how you respond to them.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Not Helping is Often Helpful
I am writing this blog post specifically to avoid helping students. I know that sounds horrible, but it serves a critical purpose. When adults jump in to help students all the time, they never learn to problem solve for themselves. This produces adults who don't know how to trouble shoot, think critically, or problem solve bigger issues.
I am experimenting with a CBL (Challenge Based Learning) assignment. Here's the gist. The students are supposed to imagine that we live in a place with inconsistent access to electricity and figure out what they would do at their home to keep refrigerators and small electrical appliances going. I brought in a guest speaker who lived in Haiti for several years to discuss the problem and some of what they did to solve it. I thought the problem was clearly presented until they started giving their solutions. They included going to war with Cuba to steal their electricity, using an electric eel tank, and using a local volcano. Then another teacher told me that a student had said I was trying to get them to solve the energy crises.
We re-booted. I presented the problem all over again. I made it clear that we were only talking about something that we (the ten of us in this room) could do. We have had several work days since then, and they are still having some difficulty being on the same page. There are nine students, and there has still been so little communication that one students had potatoes, lemons, and pennies while other students were talking about lawn mower motors and solar panels. I have had to sit here biting my tongue because it is important for them to have this conversation themselves and make a plan.
It is a tough thing as a teacher to NOT help. We so often want to teach them what to do. We so often want to rescue them from themselves. I actually had to focus on this blog post to keep myself from doing that.
I am experimenting with a CBL (Challenge Based Learning) assignment. Here's the gist. The students are supposed to imagine that we live in a place with inconsistent access to electricity and figure out what they would do at their home to keep refrigerators and small electrical appliances going. I brought in a guest speaker who lived in Haiti for several years to discuss the problem and some of what they did to solve it. I thought the problem was clearly presented until they started giving their solutions. They included going to war with Cuba to steal their electricity, using an electric eel tank, and using a local volcano. Then another teacher told me that a student had said I was trying to get them to solve the energy crises.
We re-booted. I presented the problem all over again. I made it clear that we were only talking about something that we (the ten of us in this room) could do. We have had several work days since then, and they are still having some difficulty being on the same page. There are nine students, and there has still been so little communication that one students had potatoes, lemons, and pennies while other students were talking about lawn mower motors and solar panels. I have had to sit here biting my tongue because it is important for them to have this conversation themselves and make a plan.
It is a tough thing as a teacher to NOT help. We so often want to teach them what to do. We so often want to rescue them from themselves. I actually had to focus on this blog post to keep myself from doing that.
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