I am extremely passionate about this PBL. It not only gets kids reading, but it gets them involved in their community and MEANS SOMETHING to them. Allow me to explain....
We've been talking a lot about the theme of human rights in class. We learned about Cyrus the Great who developed the first set of human rights and that's how he was able to conquer a lot of the land known as the Persian Empire. We discussed what human rights actually are and why they are not met. In the students' reflections on how they felt about the Holocaust, the institution of slavery, chaos in the middle east, etc. the majority of them expressed that they were so angry that they wanted to do something about it.
In light of their motivation, Kristin and I developed the Power of Words Project. The students were able to choose a novel from the library and they will pick out a theme. Depending upon the theme of the novel, they will submit a proposal stating what they would like to do based on a human right that is not being met. Once the proposal is approved and the project is thought out, the students will actually carry out the project and fulfill a basic human right for another human being.
The students already have ideas in mind before they've even finished the first chapter! They are so motivated and excited about this because they understand how lucky they are and how unfortunate others can be - they will be making a difference and they will be demonstrating their knowledge. Who knew this all could come from Persia?
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Kudos
Just a general shout-out to the freshman core teachers who have combined forces to engage and challenge our students. I frequently chat with MaryAnne, Christina, April, and Kristin, and their commitment to the IZ is truly energizing. I am SO happy and proud that NM is becoming an academic role model.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the tide
As I was driving in my car one of my favorite songs, The River by Garth Brooks came on. It reminded me a lot of the challenges that we have to face every day in education. The part of the song that really hit home with me was, "So don't you sit upon the shoreline and say you're satisfied". Translated in to relevance to me this summed up the fact that for the most part, society is satisfied with what is in place and few "choose to chance the rapids or dare to dance the tide". In other words they don't want to go through the difficulties of change. I've been struggling this past week trying to understand why setting high expectations has so many frazzled. Don't we want our children to perform at their highest potential? And wouldn't the students have the intrinsic motivation required to absorb the importance of stepping their game up in the classroom? I tossed many ideas around in my head until I finally came to rest on two very powerful buzz words...
1. Learned Helplessness
2. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
In my classroom, which is a world history class integrated with English, the standard at which I expect my students to perform is high. I'll make no sugar coating of the fact. For some reason, the students have done everything in their power to attempt to convince myself and April that this bar should be lowered. "It was too hard", "It made their head hurt", "It was the hardest assignment ever". All lines from the student's mouths that we heard frequently. We heard their cries and we weren't ignoring them. At first, we couldn't figure out why we were getting this reaction from the students. Once we sat down and started to assess the students and how they learn, we realized that they suffered from learned helplessness. Learned helplessness refers to the expectation, based on previous experience, that one's actions cannot possibly lead to success (Dweck, 1975, 1978). Performance goals are much more likely than learning goals to lead to ability rather than effort attributions and to result in feelings of learned helplessness. Heyman & Dweck (1992) recommend encouraging students to focus primarily on learning goals, while keeping performance goals in perspective by enjoying recognition without letting it become an overriding concern. Teachers can accomplish this by focusing on learning rather than normative comparisons when reinforcing students, by modeling the use of learning goals, and by using the scaffolding strategies. So, to bring this back to our class, we realized that based upon the student's previous experiences in public education, they were certain that these "challenging assignments", would not permit for them to reach success. They had never seen this type of rigor before. Using scaffolding strategies, such as drilling down guiding questions for inquiry based discussion was a great start for us in reversing this learned helplessness. It's quite the process when attempting to break old habits, however, the students have been amazingly responsive to the drilled down scaffolding. Their analyzing skills and connection to the modern day world have sky rocketed! So, as far as the student's go, it's not the fact that the bar is too high or that they don't want to perform at their highest levels, it's simply placing new learning goals and performance expectations into their idea of education.
The second problem that was holding our student's back in excelling in the classroom was self fulfilling prophecy. Self-fulfilling prophecy is a phenomenon by which people’s expectations about the future events lead them to behave in particular ways that, on occasion, can cause the expected event to occur. People tend to find what they are looking for. More than that, they may even tend, unwittingly, to create what they seek. How does this relate to the classroom and education? Simply put, our student's were only performing at the levels in which they had always been expected to perfrom at in the past. Basically, this means that to be an "A" student, it was expected that student be able to master the firs tlevel of Blooms taxonomy, and recall. Memorizing vocabulary words, recognizing key terms, etc. If a student could carry this tasks out in the classroom then they successfully met the expectation and were considered an "A" student. When we set our expectations of an "A" student at the level of Bloom's taxonomy, which is evaluation and anyalzation, student's didn't believe that this was something attainable to them. The reason was because it had never been expected of them before! We were asking them to provide us with demonstration of their knowledge rather than memorization. Much like the learned helplessness, self-fulfilling prophecy is a tough guy to tackle! It's hard to erase pre-concieved notions and replace them with new ones. I think a great example of this change starting to take place in our classroom was the OUTSTANDING essays that have been turned in the last few days! At first, the student's were in a "shock and awe" momement! They could not believe that we were actually asking them to write 6 whole paragraphs and then the next night 8! They couldn't do it and they were sure of it! When we showed them how their scaffolding questions and inquiry during discussion would serve as fantastic guides for this writing, they were a little less uneasy about the task. They still didn't think that they could do it. We reassured them over, and over, and over, and over, that we were positive that they could do it. That we believed in them. Guess what? The essays came, almost all 115 students turned them in and they were jaw droppers! The students had not only written the paragraphs, but they had achieved demonstration of their knowledge! They were writing about Persia, Human Rights, the United States, Iraq, Germany, Lybia, the institution of slavery in the U.S., the holocaust, Hitler, Goddaffi, Saddam Huessien, Cyrus, Assyria, Schennarib, Elenor Rosevelt, Martin Luther King JR, and so on. Wow! What a list! Our main content was Cyrus and Persia but these children amazingly associated Cyrus and Persia in a comparing and constrasting manner to all of the above listed! And much to amazement, some students were even using prior knowledge from the ancient river valley civilizations pbl and inserting it into their essay! Simply amazing for freshman! An example of prior knowledge, they compared the importance of Cryus putting the first human rights on something tangible like the cylinder to Hammurabi doing the same with Hammurabi's code!
The next night the wrote more! Only this time they brought the information that they had demonstrated above to an issue closer to home for them. They wrote about all of the above in connection to the bullying/cyber bullying issues that exist today in our world. They drew from the accomplishments of Cryus and his human rights as well as the failures and tortuous methods of the Assyrians, Hitler, Saddam, and Goddaffi! Again, simply amazing!
Since we are using human rights as topic in my classroom right now, I'll stick with that in closing! In just a little less than three months these students have grown intellectually and socially! They began to take their learning to the demonstration stage and make connections with relevance of what we learn in class to their world! They have started to gain and develop the vital 21st century skills that are needed to survive in the world we live in today! So, is it hard for them, you bet! But to deny them this opportunity to grow and showcase their true potential and abilities would be a violoation of their human right to education! To lower the bar for these students would be doing them such an injustice! Each time April and I observe a step that they take on the their ladder, we are truely moved and profoundly affected by just how much a teacher can shape the minds the world!
1. Learned Helplessness
2. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
In my classroom, which is a world history class integrated with English, the standard at which I expect my students to perform is high. I'll make no sugar coating of the fact. For some reason, the students have done everything in their power to attempt to convince myself and April that this bar should be lowered. "It was too hard", "It made their head hurt", "It was the hardest assignment ever". All lines from the student's mouths that we heard frequently. We heard their cries and we weren't ignoring them. At first, we couldn't figure out why we were getting this reaction from the students. Once we sat down and started to assess the students and how they learn, we realized that they suffered from learned helplessness. Learned helplessness refers to the expectation, based on previous experience, that one's actions cannot possibly lead to success (Dweck, 1975, 1978). Performance goals are much more likely than learning goals to lead to ability rather than effort attributions and to result in feelings of learned helplessness. Heyman & Dweck (1992) recommend encouraging students to focus primarily on learning goals, while keeping performance goals in perspective by enjoying recognition without letting it become an overriding concern. Teachers can accomplish this by focusing on learning rather than normative comparisons when reinforcing students, by modeling the use of learning goals, and by using the scaffolding strategies. So, to bring this back to our class, we realized that based upon the student's previous experiences in public education, they were certain that these "challenging assignments", would not permit for them to reach success. They had never seen this type of rigor before. Using scaffolding strategies, such as drilling down guiding questions for inquiry based discussion was a great start for us in reversing this learned helplessness. It's quite the process when attempting to break old habits, however, the students have been amazingly responsive to the drilled down scaffolding. Their analyzing skills and connection to the modern day world have sky rocketed! So, as far as the student's go, it's not the fact that the bar is too high or that they don't want to perform at their highest levels, it's simply placing new learning goals and performance expectations into their idea of education.
The second problem that was holding our student's back in excelling in the classroom was self fulfilling prophecy. Self-fulfilling prophecy is a phenomenon by which people’s expectations about the future events lead them to behave in particular ways that, on occasion, can cause the expected event to occur. People tend to find what they are looking for. More than that, they may even tend, unwittingly, to create what they seek. How does this relate to the classroom and education? Simply put, our student's were only performing at the levels in which they had always been expected to perfrom at in the past. Basically, this means that to be an "A" student, it was expected that student be able to master the firs tlevel of Blooms taxonomy, and recall. Memorizing vocabulary words, recognizing key terms, etc. If a student could carry this tasks out in the classroom then they successfully met the expectation and were considered an "A" student. When we set our expectations of an "A" student at the level of Bloom's taxonomy, which is evaluation and anyalzation, student's didn't believe that this was something attainable to them. The reason was because it had never been expected of them before! We were asking them to provide us with demonstration of their knowledge rather than memorization. Much like the learned helplessness, self-fulfilling prophecy is a tough guy to tackle! It's hard to erase pre-concieved notions and replace them with new ones. I think a great example of this change starting to take place in our classroom was the OUTSTANDING essays that have been turned in the last few days! At first, the student's were in a "shock and awe" momement! They could not believe that we were actually asking them to write 6 whole paragraphs and then the next night 8! They couldn't do it and they were sure of it! When we showed them how their scaffolding questions and inquiry during discussion would serve as fantastic guides for this writing, they were a little less uneasy about the task. They still didn't think that they could do it. We reassured them over, and over, and over, and over, that we were positive that they could do it. That we believed in them. Guess what? The essays came, almost all 115 students turned them in and they were jaw droppers! The students had not only written the paragraphs, but they had achieved demonstration of their knowledge! They were writing about Persia, Human Rights, the United States, Iraq, Germany, Lybia, the institution of slavery in the U.S., the holocaust, Hitler, Goddaffi, Saddam Huessien, Cyrus, Assyria, Schennarib, Elenor Rosevelt, Martin Luther King JR, and so on. Wow! What a list! Our main content was Cyrus and Persia but these children amazingly associated Cyrus and Persia in a comparing and constrasting manner to all of the above listed! And much to amazement, some students were even using prior knowledge from the ancient river valley civilizations pbl and inserting it into their essay! Simply amazing for freshman! An example of prior knowledge, they compared the importance of Cryus putting the first human rights on something tangible like the cylinder to Hammurabi doing the same with Hammurabi's code!
The next night the wrote more! Only this time they brought the information that they had demonstrated above to an issue closer to home for them. They wrote about all of the above in connection to the bullying/cyber bullying issues that exist today in our world. They drew from the accomplishments of Cryus and his human rights as well as the failures and tortuous methods of the Assyrians, Hitler, Saddam, and Goddaffi! Again, simply amazing!
Since we are using human rights as topic in my classroom right now, I'll stick with that in closing! In just a little less than three months these students have grown intellectually and socially! They began to take their learning to the demonstration stage and make connections with relevance of what we learn in class to their world! They have started to gain and develop the vital 21st century skills that are needed to survive in the world we live in today! So, is it hard for them, you bet! But to deny them this opportunity to grow and showcase their true potential and abilities would be a violoation of their human right to education! To lower the bar for these students would be doing them such an injustice! Each time April and I observe a step that they take on the their ladder, we are truely moved and profoundly affected by just how much a teacher can shape the minds the world!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
What's wrong with the rubric?
Last week at our meeting after school with Freshman IZ teachers and administrators, we talked about our (somewhat failed) use of rubrics in the classroom. I haven't understood why the students don't make better use of the rubric as a guide to complete their final product. Kristin said something that shed better light on the topic for me: "They understand that we use it as a grading form, but they don't understand that it's their instructions."
So, how do we bridge this gap for them? Tomorrow we're going to try a "Fakebook" activity in which students will be creating a "Fakebook" page (info, posts, comments) as characters from the Giver and leaders of the Persian and Chinese Empires. We've structured the rubric more like a checklist in hopes of their going step by step through them.
We'll see if this slight change makes a difference! I can't wait to meet with Matt this week and get help!
So, how do we bridge this gap for them? Tomorrow we're going to try a "Fakebook" activity in which students will be creating a "Fakebook" page (info, posts, comments) as characters from the Giver and leaders of the Persian and Chinese Empires. We've structured the rubric more like a checklist in hopes of their going step by step through them.
We'll see if this slight change makes a difference! I can't wait to meet with Matt this week and get help!
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
It's What's on the Inside that Counts....
If you've been down the hall by room 222, I'm sure you've noticed the fantastic Twitter pages that English 9/World 1900 students created this past week. At first glance they're amazing! The students did an amazing job with their graphic designs and modern depictions of the characters from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Their task was to read an excerpt from the Epic of Gilgamesh, a story that is based on the first epic hero or the first superhero. This story took place in ancient Mesopotamia, which is one of the civilizations that the 9th grade students just finished studying. With the creative mind of Matt Anderson assisting, the idea was derived to have the students read the Prologue and Forest Journey and create a Twitter page as if they were Gilgamesh. So to restate their task, the students had to assume that Twitter existed when Gilgamesh went on his epic journey in the forest and create tweets that depicted their reading comprehension. As we checked the Twitter pages we realized that the students were making outstanding projects, however, they weren't enriched with the content knowledge that we were striving for. So, even though they looked nice on the outside, what was on the inside, the part that mattered, was lacking. When we debriefed about this issue with Matt Anderson and Dr. Whitehouse today, I told them that I just didn't understand why the students were lacking the reading comprehension knowledge in their projects. I continued to tell them that I heard April tell the students that they had show reading comprehension in their Twitter pages.....Matt replied, "Stop right there"! He asked me again what I said and I told him that I heard April say that we wanted to see the reading comprehension evidence in the Twitter pages. He then clarified that just because I heard that information and retained it didn't mean that all of the students heard the information. So what does this mean exactly? It means that we needed to do a better job laying out the structure or foundation for the students when they were working on projects. This is certainly something that we are working on and as a matter of fact, April has spent hours tonight creating questions that will better secure the structure of the current project that the students are working on. What we've began to realize is that while we want the students to have "self discovery" we have to provide a foundation for them to stand on during this process. We must teach them how to self discover. Matt provided us with a great example to help us wrap our heads around this. When a five year old wants to pick out their own clothes for school, the parent lays out three outfits. The child still has choice and through that choice establishes ownership of their decisions however, the choices are guided by the expert so that they will not fail. As the child grows and becomes more aware of what it takes to match an outfit the parent provides less structure, eventually setting the child free to make the choice on their own. If we apply this method to our students in the Innovation Zone classes, it will ensure that the students are getting the solid foundation that they need to stand on in order to excel in these very rigorous classes!
PBL .... You're Not an Easy Mountain to Climb
Planning a PBL should be easy with two teachers working on it right? Wrong! Planning a PBL is painstakingly difficult! It takes hours upon hours! When it's finally complete and you're ready to roll it out in the classroom, the level of excitement is heightened to a place undefinable by words! April and I went through the many hours of planning to get our PBL that we launched today ready for the students! We were, as described above, incredibly excited to present the lesson to our students today! We had it right this time, we were sure! About midway into the actual presentation of our entry event, which is what begins each PBL, I think it's safe to say that we were treading water to stay afloat! Our presentation wasn't as smooth as we had hoped. While we had captivated the interest of the students, neither one of us were pleased with how things went! We didn't even need to verbalize the fact, it was obvious. We could tell by simply looking at each other that we had not met the level of our expectations. We tweaked some things for the second go at it and things went better. They continued to go better throughout the day and by our last class I think it's safe to say that we both were feeling pretty good about the presentation! The kids were interested and excited! Whew! We could take a deep breathe! We finally had gotten it right ...... or at least we thought! Enter Matt Anderson and his ten minutes of teaching in our class that reassured us that we were still missing something when we were doing our PBL's. Who's Matt Anderson and why was in he our classroom today? Matt was our 9-1-1 responder after our first attempt at using PBL with an integrated content.
After the first PBL that we presented in our class we went back to the drawing board. We knew that we were way off track on our first PBL. We actually felt pretty much defeated, like there was this mountain placed in front of us and we had no idea how to climb it anymore! We were at a stalemate! So with our heads hung and emotions running high, we stepped away from everything for a couple hours. Once we had stepped back from the situation we realized that what we needed was some help! When we reached out for help, we found an amazing resource in a Professor at WVU. Matt Anderson, who is a seasoned teacher of PBL's, having taught with the method in the inner city of New York. Matt was a godsend for us in our strive to make learning more relevant for our students via PBL's. We contacted him and his response was immediate. The first thing he did was offer to travel to North Marion and simply observe us. We couldn't fix what we were doing wrong because we didn't know enough to pin point our mistakes. We just knew that we were making them. Matt watched us and gave us some amazing feedback! Instantly things began to make more sense to us. Hearing things from someone who had been there done that was priceless! Even though Matt was making things clear to us, we still didn't know how to get to where he was. So, Matt offered to help us plan. He graciously took time out of his schedule to meet us one day after school and plan our PBL that we launched today. So, this brings us back to our PBL that we initiated today.
We were pumped! He had help planning it and when we were going through all of this with Matt, everything was smooth and made sense. When we attempted it today ..... things weren't so hot. Matt came back today and he watched us various times. He was excited at what we were doing, which boosted our self confidence. Then, when we got done with our last session, and the students were researching, Matt asked us if we minded if he talked to the students for the last 10 mins. of class. Of course, we obliged, we were excited to see what Matt had to say. Needless to say, within about 2 mins of watching Matt work with our students, we knew were still weren't getting it! Matt had our student's undivided attention and his dictation was smooth. When he said things we couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it.
When the students left, Matt stayed to talk with us. He also brought another resource for us, Dr. Whitehouse, alumnus of Harvard and Professor at WVU. With clumps of our hair in our hands we pleaded to Matt and Dr.Whitehouse, asking them for help. We just didn't understand why things didn't go the same way for us that they did for Matt. First of all, they both reassured us that we are doing the right thing. The changes we are making are the right ones. Then they began to talk us through the process of teaching through PBL's. They helped us see our mistakes that we had made with this lesson and offered an amazing gesture to us .... they both want to continue working with us. They want to be our support system and help us make sure we are doing things right! We spent over and hour with them today, just talking and mostly listening to them. Their information was such an asset to us! Do we have everything down now that we spent time with Matt and Dr.Whitehouse? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But what we do have is the reassurance that as we try to climb this mountain, when we fall, we have people there to catch us! We have people to coach us! Lesson learned today ..... be opened to constructive criticism and let those who have the knowledge and experience offer guidance and help! Also most importantly, this change in education that we are making at North Marion High School, is the right thing and with the continued hard work of all those involved we will better our students beyond our wildest imaginations!
After the first PBL that we presented in our class we went back to the drawing board. We knew that we were way off track on our first PBL. We actually felt pretty much defeated, like there was this mountain placed in front of us and we had no idea how to climb it anymore! We were at a stalemate! So with our heads hung and emotions running high, we stepped away from everything for a couple hours. Once we had stepped back from the situation we realized that what we needed was some help! When we reached out for help, we found an amazing resource in a Professor at WVU. Matt Anderson, who is a seasoned teacher of PBL's, having taught with the method in the inner city of New York. Matt was a godsend for us in our strive to make learning more relevant for our students via PBL's. We contacted him and his response was immediate. The first thing he did was offer to travel to North Marion and simply observe us. We couldn't fix what we were doing wrong because we didn't know enough to pin point our mistakes. We just knew that we were making them. Matt watched us and gave us some amazing feedback! Instantly things began to make more sense to us. Hearing things from someone who had been there done that was priceless! Even though Matt was making things clear to us, we still didn't know how to get to where he was. So, Matt offered to help us plan. He graciously took time out of his schedule to meet us one day after school and plan our PBL that we launched today. So, this brings us back to our PBL that we initiated today.
We were pumped! He had help planning it and when we were going through all of this with Matt, everything was smooth and made sense. When we attempted it today ..... things weren't so hot. Matt came back today and he watched us various times. He was excited at what we were doing, which boosted our self confidence. Then, when we got done with our last session, and the students were researching, Matt asked us if we minded if he talked to the students for the last 10 mins. of class. Of course, we obliged, we were excited to see what Matt had to say. Needless to say, within about 2 mins of watching Matt work with our students, we knew were still weren't getting it! Matt had our student's undivided attention and his dictation was smooth. When he said things we couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it.
When the students left, Matt stayed to talk with us. He also brought another resource for us, Dr. Whitehouse, alumnus of Harvard and Professor at WVU. With clumps of our hair in our hands we pleaded to Matt and Dr.Whitehouse, asking them for help. We just didn't understand why things didn't go the same way for us that they did for Matt. First of all, they both reassured us that we are doing the right thing. The changes we are making are the right ones. Then they began to talk us through the process of teaching through PBL's. They helped us see our mistakes that we had made with this lesson and offered an amazing gesture to us .... they both want to continue working with us. They want to be our support system and help us make sure we are doing things right! We spent over and hour with them today, just talking and mostly listening to them. Their information was such an asset to us! Do we have everything down now that we spent time with Matt and Dr.Whitehouse? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But what we do have is the reassurance that as we try to climb this mountain, when we fall, we have people there to catch us! We have people to coach us! Lesson learned today ..... be opened to constructive criticism and let those who have the knowledge and experience offer guidance and help! Also most importantly, this change in education that we are making at North Marion High School, is the right thing and with the continued hard work of all those involved we will better our students beyond our wildest imaginations!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
NMHS Teachers are on the Cutting Edge in So Many Ways
Kristin and April, you have instinctively exhibited many of the 20 Tips for Developing Positive Relationships with Parents found in this blog post by Elena Aguila from Edutopia. :-) Thanks, Kristin and April, for all you do!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
There are Ups and Downs to PBLs--and we can calculate the force, momentum, acceleration, and kinetic energy for all of them!
Students are studying Newton's Laws of Motion using roller coasters. They had to construct a roller coaster out of paper and test it. There are many formulas that go along with the scientific laws... so they learned to solve one and two step equations while they were at it: force = mass times acceleration, distance = rate divided by time, kinetic energy = 1/2 mass times velocity squared...
And more to come..!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Parent-Teacher Conference
Our parent-teacher conference experience didn't go quite as smoothly as it has in previous years. As always, it was wonderful to meet the parents of our students, and reassuring to know that so many of them have wonderful support systems at home. The difference this year was the panic from the parents of the Straight-A students. We'd heard going into this year that the students who struggle the most with PBL are students who have excelled in the traditional classroom. Why would they want to change things up when they're great at tests, quizzes, and bookwork? These students are extremely grade conscious because they are already thinking college, scholarships, and future which is fantastic! At the same time, these students feel that they are taking on most of the burden in their groups' project.
The parents of these students conveyed this concerns to us and expressed concern that the group work would ruin their childrens' GPAs. We tried to reassure all parents, that the majority of grades our students receive are INDIVIDUAL grades, so group projects shouldn't tank their averages. Also, we informed the parents about the process of calling a group meeting and potentially firing a group member if he isn't pulling his weight. We hope that in the next PBL we do a better job of preventing one or two group members carrying most of the load for the whole group. I don't think it happened in most groups this time
The parents of these students conveyed this concerns to us and expressed concern that the group work would ruin their childrens' GPAs. We tried to reassure all parents, that the majority of grades our students receive are INDIVIDUAL grades, so group projects shouldn't tank their averages. Also, we informed the parents about the process of calling a group meeting and potentially firing a group member if he isn't pulling his weight. We hope that in the next PBL we do a better job of preventing one or two group members carrying most of the load for the whole group. I don't think it happened in most groups this time
Monday, October 3, 2011
PTC - From Apprehensive to Astounded!
All of last week I was secretly dreading this parent teacher conference. I had heard through the rumor mill that numerous parents were not pleased with the IZ classes and especially the notion of group work. We are making great changes in the world of education at North Marion and anytime there is change, there is conflict! I kept preparing myself, going over possible questions that the parents would pose and attempting to have a ready-set of answers to give them. When 5:30 hit and I glanced outside of our door, what I saw made the knot in my throat get bigger! There was a line of parents waiting and that line never got smaller until 6:40. To amazement my apprehension was built up for no reason! As the parents began to trickle in, I quickly realized that they were not opposed to what was happening in the Innovation Zone. They were however, anxious to learn about this new way of teaching. As April said in her post, we broke it all down for the parents. We explained everything to a t! We had examples of group projects, which the parents were absolutely amazed at! They couldn't believe that their children were producing such professional products! Personally, what I think made a huge difference, was the fact that April and I were not shy to let the parents know that this is new to us to. We stressed to them that this was a learning experience for us as well as the students. Every parent was responsive to the fact that we would make mistakes along the way and they were incredibly supportive of us and our innovation zone! Many told us that even though we had mistakes here and there that they felt this was a wonderful experience for their children! We apologized to almost every parent for the misconception we gave the students when we introduced the classes at the beginning of the year. We realized quickly that we gave the students and parents the impression that our grades in our class were going to be based solely on group work. When we showed the parents that the students were in fact receiving more individual grades than group grades they were very relieved! With this being said, they were instantly more open to the concept of their students working in groups! It was amazing to see how quickly the parents made the connection between how our classes were functioning and how the real world functions! They thought it was wonderful that we were preparing their children for the real world! Also, we took the time to make sure that each parent we saw knew how to use edline and if they didn't we logged into our page and showed the parents how to use it. They were very happy to have this process explained to them! Also, every parent that we saw wanted to be involved in their student's education they just needed assistance in knowing how to be involved. Speaking of involvement, we actually had one parent tell us that herself and a group of other parents wanted to work with us in the innovation and provide any help that they could! This was such a positive thing to hear! It let us know that not only are we engaging the students but the parents are eager to be engaged as well!! We had many thank yous from the parents for various reasons! We had thank yous for exposing their children to technology because that was something that they wouldn't be able to get home. We had thank yous for caring for their children and the outcome of their grades! We had thank yous for hearing their concerns and taking the time to explain things to them! As April said when 5:30 came and the announcement was made that parent teacher conference was over, we walked out in the hall and told the line of parents that we would stay and see them all. They were so appreciative that we made this gesture and each parent that came in our room after 5:30 thanked us for staying to see them! We ended up staying until 6:40 to make sure to see every parent and we generally spent at least twenty minutes with each parent. The thank yous were worth more than the parents would know! This change is stressful for everyone, teachers, parents, and students, but we're doing great things and it's not gone unnoticed! Who knew parent teacher conference would be such a motivating experience!! Oh and an important fact to note, we saw very few parents who had children that A's. No parent put the blame for the lack of an A on anyone other than their student! They didn't blame April or I and they had no other excuses for that matter! Simply that they would work with us to ensure that their students were working harder!
P.S. - Every parent LOVED the calendar that keep on edline! It allows them to be more in touch with their student's education on a day to day basis, as well as, making them a more active part of daily instruction!
P.S. - Every parent LOVED the calendar that keep on edline! It allows them to be more in touch with their student's education on a day to day basis, as well as, making them a more active part of daily instruction!
Our 1st IZ PTC
I will be honest in saying that I have never really enjoyed parent - teacher conferences; I do believe they are necessary, however. I was extremely nervous about tonight's conference specifically because we have implemented this new way of teaching. Surprisingly, we had not one parent who was angry or challenged us in any way, shape, or form. I WAS SHOCKED!
Here's why I think it went as well as it did:
1. We were able to explain PBL and how our classroom works so that parents were able to get a clear understanding of what goes on.
2. We had an example of student work readily available (they were shocked at the amount of rigor their child was able to endure and amazed at their final products).
3. We listened to their concerns and addressed them in an understanding manner.
4. We explained that we were new at this way of teaching and that we are doing our best to work out the bugs as we go along.
5. We apologized for any misconceptions or issues.
6. We expressed that we want all of our students to succeed and that we would be willing to work with students to help them understand the content/directions for assessments/skills to complete assignments.
7. We made sure that parents knew that we wanted to include them in this new process as much as possible. (They're input was extremely eye opening because they have a different perspective)
8. We also made sure parents and students knew that we wanted to empower students to take charge of their learning and have an active role in education. (We reiterated the firing process)
9. We showed them how to navigate through Edline - which we still need to have a parent seminar for this. Many of them expressed that it would be beneficial and that they would help their children with their work, but they can't because they don't know how to use it.
10. We told them we appreciated them.
It was great to hear from the parents and know what they're thinking. We heard that many parents were not happy about the group work and the IZ, but we had such a great response that we were worried about nothing. I believe they are just concerned and they walked away from us feeling a little better because they had more of an understanding about what we do. Most of the parents seemed to agree with our professional business culture approach as well. They really like the fact that we are teaching them to work together and use technology to reach a common goal. They also like the firing process because "that's what happens in the real world". Again, I cannot believe that we had 23 conferences and not one of them was bad!
By the way, we were there until 6:40. Every parent after 5:30 thanked us for staying and told us that it meant a lot for us to speak with them. Teachers make a lot of sacrifices and that was one that was well worth it! :D
Here's why I think it went as well as it did:
1. We were able to explain PBL and how our classroom works so that parents were able to get a clear understanding of what goes on.
2. We had an example of student work readily available (they were shocked at the amount of rigor their child was able to endure and amazed at their final products).
3. We listened to their concerns and addressed them in an understanding manner.
4. We explained that we were new at this way of teaching and that we are doing our best to work out the bugs as we go along.
5. We apologized for any misconceptions or issues.
6. We expressed that we want all of our students to succeed and that we would be willing to work with students to help them understand the content/directions for assessments/skills to complete assignments.
7. We made sure that parents knew that we wanted to include them in this new process as much as possible. (They're input was extremely eye opening because they have a different perspective)
8. We also made sure parents and students knew that we wanted to empower students to take charge of their learning and have an active role in education. (We reiterated the firing process)
9. We showed them how to navigate through Edline - which we still need to have a parent seminar for this. Many of them expressed that it would be beneficial and that they would help their children with their work, but they can't because they don't know how to use it.
10. We told them we appreciated them.
It was great to hear from the parents and know what they're thinking. We heard that many parents were not happy about the group work and the IZ, but we had such a great response that we were worried about nothing. I believe they are just concerned and they walked away from us feeling a little better because they had more of an understanding about what we do. Most of the parents seemed to agree with our professional business culture approach as well. They really like the fact that we are teaching them to work together and use technology to reach a common goal. They also like the firing process because "that's what happens in the real world". Again, I cannot believe that we had 23 conferences and not one of them was bad!
By the way, we were there until 6:40. Every parent after 5:30 thanked us for staying and told us that it meant a lot for us to speak with them. Teachers make a lot of sacrifices and that was one that was well worth it! :D
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