Adolescent Brain Research....interesting.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore: The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain #TED : http://on.ted.com/hK97

More Great Ideas from Edutopia

I found this article on the best ways to integrate technology into PBL teaching.  The first sentence also has a link to "How to Take Your PBL's Up a Notch."  It's a little exhausting to think about constantly improving our teaching skills, but we can tuck the information in the backs of our minds and let it simmer till we have time to deal with it, I think.  Enjoying my colleagues who are trying (in a variety of ways) to make school more engaging for kids.

If students can't travel the world, we'll bring the world to the students.

I am always amazed at what people will do for education. These guest speakers donated their time to speak to our students about their religions with no hesitations.
It is our hope that our students learn tolerance and have experiences with diversity to be able to recognize that discrimination has no place in this world.

Do I Think Like a 21st Century Teacher?

Important reading for teachers about Twenty First Century Pedagogy--a good article.  Enjoy!

Free the Teachers! (LOL)

One tip I got when I did my National Board Certification was to make the nbpts.org site my homepage.  The idea was that I would be keeping my goal foremost in my mind.  I think it really worked. 

Now I apply that same idea to other goals:  when I wanted to be better at tracking my money, I made my credit union site my homepage; now my homepage is Edutopia because the Edutopia "vision" is really close to my own vision for school change.  My passion is for freeing teachers to do those things we learn about in our undergrad and grad schools.  Allowing us to TRY the latest and greatest, research based methods.  Allowing us to innovate.

And that's why I keep linking to Edutopia blog posts on school reform.  Like this post on using social media in education. 

Article: Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement

Check out the blog post from Edutopia!

Finally Blogging about my Student Voice Surveys!

AP Chemistry--I asked them to type an anonymous reflection on the learning that takes place, my teaching style, and the classroom environment.  Only 11 of 17 students did the assignment.  Of that I would say 8 were positive and 3 were somewhat negative.

One theme among ALL the students who answered was that when I give notes I am hard to follow .  So I am trying to be a more organized note-giver. 

One student described the classroom environment in this way:  "Her classroom is comfortable and most of the time, clean, until her students start or are in the middle of a lab.  That alone helps students feel more at home." 

Many students felt as though the classroom environment was a selling point for taking AP Chem:

"The environment is very comfortable... everyone acts as adults and are very willing to learn.  Becaue of the way we act, Mrs. Schneider treats us as adults and there is an equal respect throughout the class.  Your opinion matters to your classmates and your teacher."

Another theme is that when I do not practice a problem before putting it on the board and drag them through working it out, they often feel worn out and lost. I agree with them to a point and see this as one area in which I would like to grow--being more prepared for the tough material.

I notice a difference in the way some of us approached our student voice surveys:  some of us asked FOR student voice ABOUT student voice; others of us just asked FOR student voice.  Just an observation!

The Few. The Proud. The Marines

The Few. The Proud. The Marines is definitely a phrase that the Marines can own! We were impressed the whole time we were at Parris Island!! What an eye opening experience! It totally changed the way I view the military. They lead by example and never ask the recruits to do something that their superior wouldn't do. Isn't this an interesting concept? What if everytime we gave the kids an assignment to write a 5 page essay, we sat down and did it with them? They instil values and morals in their recruits. The drill instructor has the job of doing this. For me, when I heard the role of a drill instructor, I imagined the D.I. on the movie Full metal jacket. An actual D.I. is so far from this. They are really just amped up teachers! If you can get past the harshness and loudness of their voice, their words are quite moving. They let the new recruits know that they will never give up on them and even when they are ready to give the D.I. won't. We have lots of great stuff to share with everyone, along with videos and pictures but here's a link to a news broadcast that was done on our group. If you look close you can see us in our formation =)

http://your4state.com/fulltext?nxd_id=247322 

Successes and Failures in PBL

Last week I finished what is probably my most successful attempt to PBL this year.  I asked my Earth Science students to plan a senior trip.  The things that made this PBL successful were things I've learned from being around the Freshmen teachers:  A real-life event that can hook the students' imaginations, supportive scaffolding like a rubric, periodic checkpoints, and clarity about the scope of the project.  I used this PBL as a way to have students learn to use Google Earth and the many features available in that software.  (Did you know that with Google Earth you can swim with sharks, find sunken ships, or use a flight simulator?)  It was also my first attempt to use parents as graders.  All in all, I was happy with the PBL.  I think I can tweak it if I ever teach Earth Science again.  I learned a lot, and so did the students.  Some students learned they were more capable than they thought.  Others learned that they need to work harder. 

Since then I've embarked on another "PBL" and it's really flopping.  The "hook" isn't very good.  It wasn't well thought out.  It's just a poor copy of the other PBL, and both I and the students realize it. 

  I feel better about it when I watch this video where Diane Laufenberg explains that we learn by making mistakes.

"The Inquisition"

While our students have been researching various aspects of the Middle Ages to create a "KnightLine" news magazine show, Christina and I have been trying to find creative ways to "tease" them into discovering information. We've had them pretend they were British citizens after the death of King Edward the confessor who had no heirs, and they were to decide on the better choice for king. We also had them pretend they were King John and presented them with a variety of scenarios in which they had to decide what the King should do, leading to the signing of the Magna Carta.

Today, we decided to put them right in the middle of our version of "The Inquisition." Not long after each of our sessions began, while Mrs. Gouzd was in front of the room giving instructions for the day, Mrs. Barner entered quietly and began to interrogate Christina about her loyalty to North Marion. As the questioning escalated, I could see various responses by the students. Most of them were unable to look at the two in the front of the room, the accuser and the accused. Many of them looked at me with a "Why don't you do something?" plea in their eyes. When Mrs. Barner finally told Mrs. Gouzd that they needed to finish this in Mrs. DeVito's office and they left the classroom, I was left with an overwhelming outrage by the students. They were incensed first that Mrs. Gouzd would even be accused of being anything other than a loyal Husky. They were also agitated by Mrs. Barner's making very public accusations.

Only a few minutes after her departure for further questioning, Mrs. Gouzd returned to lead a very spirited discussion of the Spanish Inquisition with the students. Through this modern portrayal of false allegations and intense interrogation, the students experienced first-hand, and on a much smaller scale, what heretics endured during the Inquisition. I doubt that they will soon forget this dark period in history.

Student Voice

I surveyed my students by first discussing the concept of voice with them as a group and them giving them a survey to take home.  In the discussion, I made sure they understood that I wanted honest, thoughtful answers. I was fearful of getting either "this is what she wants to hear" responses or knee jerk complaints.  The students could respond to my questions in any way they chose: through an email to me, a written journal, or on our class blog.  Most students chose the journal and a couple emailed me. 

In my class specifically, students feel that they have a voice and that their opinions are valued.  

• We definitely have a voice in your classroom...you actually listen to our opinions.
• Some teachers are more willing to listen, but not give advice.  Some teachers will listen, and proceed to force feed their opinion down my throat.  You on the other hand actually listen and give advice that is helpful and that I can use.  
• I love your class because I can be my absolute self at all times and I feel no pressure to pretend to be something I'm not.  The classroom is such a relaxed environment. 
• When I walk into your class, it feels so much more comfortable because I know that I can be myself.  I think this shows how it can affect learning.  If you're comfortable, you aren't stressed, and if you're not stressed, you can focus and learn better.

The parts about my classroom made me happy, of course, but I was more interested in some of the other things they wrote about.  With just a couple exceptions, the students conveyed that they felt they had very little voice at the school level and with the administrators at North Marion:

• We're treated as little kids, and thus they feel we don't know anything.
• I do not feel that I can speak freely to administrators and be taken seriously.
• I feel like I can speak freely to administrators about issues in our building but I don't think they take students opinions into consideration when making decisions.
• This high school, I feel, looks at my peers and I as children, although I'm technically, and legally, an adult.  So, anything that we have a say in, I think they just brush off, or put in little effort into what I'm asking/inquiring about.
• In my respectful opinion, I feel that in school for me it is almost like being a ghost.  The most difficult thing for me to do is just to get the attention of an administrator.

Two students, though, discussed specific incidents in which they had to approach an administrator for help and had very favorable outcomes:

• Because we went to an administrator (in this situation), this won't happen next year.  That shows how much the administrators do car, and that made me want to try harder and be a better student for them.
• When having a problem with a teacher, my classmates and I felt comfortable approaching one of the administrators for advice, and he sat and listened to us and then followed up with us after he checked it out.
• I believe the students have a lot of control.  For example, during the sports seasons, if the student body wants to have a thuse to celebrate a team's achievements, we get to do that.

Students also addressed the institution of education rather than voice at the school or classroom level:

• It would be nice if our school and other institutions viewed us as adults more because some of us legally are....We are the next generation.
• I don't feel I have much voice in my own education or learning process.
• I feel like our education is very controlled and we cannot learn the things that we want and need to learn.  If we had a voice, we could change that....Yes there should be educational standards, but there is very little room to fit the credits that we actually want into our schedule.

Finally, I thought the students' perceptions of how having a voice affects their learning was interesting:

• When teachers care (by listening and allowing student voice), we care.  It shows respect....So, if you listen to us, we will listen to you.  And we'll learn more.
• I feel the learning process would improve if students had more voice.  People need to be heard, understood, and valued.  The school should treat us like we are people, not just pupils.
• I feel that student voice affects my learning capabilities a lot....last year, I felt that one of my teachers looked at us as children.  She threw work at us and didn't care what we had to say.  Although I made an A in the class, it was completely unenjoyable and I didn't learn much.

Surveys

I decided to survey my Transition Math classes since there is such a variation between the two all-senior classes. I used a variety of types of survey questions as well as a broad area of topics since I did not have a topic that I was really individually interested in. Through this survey I found out that my students are aware of what kind of grade they have in my class and they all believe that I care about how well they do. I was happy that the students could see how much I cared about their success. One question I asked the students was where the school could be improved. A lot of the students wanted to see more color in the hallway. They wanted to organize volunteers to help make the school "prettier". It turns out that the thing that makes it hardest for students to learn is other students. So with these results, I am going to try to come up with ways students can work to help each other more than hinder each other's learning. I also want to help the students make this school feel like their own and not just some place they have to come every day. :)

Student Voice - Survey

I chose to do the help/hinder survey with my Applied Geometry students. It took a little time to organize the information and figure out what they were trying to tell me. The positive about this survey is that it was quick and easy to present to the students. However, I can now see I need to go further with the survey. This type of survey produced one word answers from the students, but not a lot of depth. I am planning on taking some of their likes and dislikes and generating a more detailed and probing survey. Stay tuned!!

Final Product After Student Voice Survey

As April explain in the previous post, we have but a great deal of emphasis on student voice in our classroom. Then, based upon the wants of our students we restructured our delivery of instruction. The results were amazing final products! How creative our students can be with simple cardboard! They were so proud of their work that they called the newspaper themselves and asked them to come and do a story on their projects!

Student Voice Surveys

This was an extremely eye-opening experience for me. Joetta and I had spoken to Matt Anderson about the toll all of the grant work and the school transition had been on our own classrooms, and he sympathized but agreed the results would be worth it; however, I didn't realize the real impact it has had. What I perceived as my learning environment and what I "heard" from the students in their surveys was quite different. I chose a survey about the class and teacher that had 2o questions with 3 choices, yes, sometimes, and no. It also had 3 open-ended questions. I then used one of the books suggestions, and on the back of the survey I asked them to list 4 things that helped them learn, and 4 things that hindered learning. I have looked at these surveys over and over and have learned much that will help me incorportate student voice to make my classroom more enjoyable. In the future I hope to display the responses graphically and elicit more specific responses from the students about each question.

Student Voice Survey - English 9 / World - 1900

After a survey about how we could make our class better, students decided we should get up and move around more.....and that we did! It seems like such a simple request, but it really has made a difference. Since our classes are 80 minute sessions and we were giving them that time to work with their groups to complete their projects, they felt confined to their tables even though they have the freedom to move around and go to the restroom when needed.
We wanted to make sure they knew we heard their voices and we sat down to think about how we could incorporate movement into our innovative lessons. We did this by creating "When Death Do They Part" descriptive writing and classical historical figures PBL.

Here are the movement activities we incorporated:

1. We began with an activity where they had to follow directions and it forced them to move around the room and perform tasks.

2. We had them read obituaries using stations. They switched tables after 10 minutes of reading either obituaries from a newspaper, a print out of several celebrity obituaries, or the New York Times online obituary page.
3. Their final product was a tombstone that memorialized a person from classical history. They built these from cardboard boxes and they were able to take them outside for painting. (We love technology, but sometimes the kids really like to be creative - yes, sometimes it is a mess and a headache, but it is worth it to have students be proud of their work.)

4. They will participate in a gallery walk for their peers on Monday which will also give them the ability to move.

Here are some examples of another survey from the first week....

We have learned that student voice is such a vital part of what we do here at NM. Our students are happy and are learning at the same time. The most important thing to know about student voice is that just giving a survey will not make an impact; it's what teachers do with the data from the surveys that make the difference.

Student Voice in Action by Christina Gouzd and Mary Anne Mullenax

During our world religions PBL, students were asked to address the essential questions:

• Why do religious conflicts exist?



• Are they avoidable?



• What is my role?

Unlike previous projects, students were very self-directed in choosing their teams as well as what type of project they would complete to answer the questions. During our debriefing session which centered around nine open-ended questions, students shared experiences outside of the classroom in tackling these challenges. Reactions ranged from needing more time to complete the project to being pleased with the option to choose their own groups. As usual, our students provided great insight into their views on what aspects of the project worked well and what aspects could be improved.

The students in the video clip are responding to the question: "What role did you take while working on this project?" Their responses led to a discussion about the reactions of others they interacted with during their projects. Many students interacted with adults outside of school by discussing aspects of religion with them.

As typically happens, our eyes were opened by their responses. We were especially surprised by one comment from a young lady in our first session. She felt that while we treat them as "adults" in our classroom, some adults still see them as kids and are hesitant to discuss mature topics with them.

Because we have given students voice throughout the year, many have come to expect that others want to hear their perspectives and want to be active in the learning process.

Student Voice Survey

My students responded to five open-ended survey questions today while enjoying the sunshine on the senior court. For the most part, students do feel free to express their opinions about what takes place in their classrooms, in their school, and in their extracurricular activities. The majority of the students claim that they learn more and enjoy class more if student voice is a welcome component.

As seniors they are pleased that student voice was instrumental in the plan to have graduation on the football field rather than in the gym. Some even noted that their senior projects are tangible evidence of valued voice. Athletes, band members, and club members believe their opinions matter more now that they have achieved senior status.

Although students want to have input, most of them expressed concerns related to this topic. For example, some perceive that their opinions are "condemned" if they do not match the teachers' philosophies. Some students feel as if teachers and administrators value the opinions of only a select few. For those whose siblings have already graduated, North Marion was a better place "back in the day" because student voice was more welcomed.

As they reflected on this survey, they decided that they want to leave evidence of the class of 2012 behind them in May. Are we headed toward a PBL?

Husky Staff PBL

Returning from our Dropout Prevention Technical Assistance meeting in Charleston, we sort of broke down. The engine made a grinding sound when the key was turned. We needed technical assistance; we needed collaboration. We had our very own PBL. Rusty started to call AAA, but first Joetta called Bill, who walked us through some trouble-shooting steps. First, we had to remove the build-up from the terminals. Joetta fished out her keys, Rusty found a windshield cleaner, and I discovered a shoehorn. Nothing worked. Some kind man checked to see if the connections were tight. They were. Dana went into the Go-Mart to see if she could find jumper cables. None. Andrea studied the engine very carefully but was unable to will it to work. By this time a small group of spectators had formed in the parking lot. Then, lo and behold, a little old lady (not too little and not too old) came to our aid. She offered her jumper cables and the help of the timid young man who was with her. In a matter of minutes we were back on I-79, debriefing about another memorable road trip.

Carpe Diem!

After basking in the glories of the Roman empire, our students seized the opportunity to create a newspaper chronicling one year during the decline and fall of the once great empire. They researched the year to find information to write a lead news story, a human interest story, an article based on an "interview" of a key Roman figure of the time as well as writing two editorials that addressed two different causes for the empire's demise. Students wrote, revised, edited, and rewrote their stories before putting them into a Word template created to look like a newspaper. Most of them created publications well beyond what we expected to see! When we displayed the newspapers, the students were pleasantly suprised to see how well they turned out, and they were eager to share their work with the "judges" who chose the "Paw"litzer Prize winners for each house. We received many favorable comments from those who read the students' work. On debriefing day, the students felt that they had indeed learned a great deal about the Roman empire and were pleased with their final products.

Focused Freshmen-an oxymoron?

If someone had told me two years ago that it was possible for my freshmen to work in self-directed teams and be productive and only a handful would be off-task, I'd have laughed in disbelief. That was the case this Friday in our English/World History classroom. I didn't think much of it as our students worked with each other, dividing tasks among their teams, researching with the internet, textbooks, and other print resources. It was only that evening when I compared this group-work experience to any other project I'd tried in my traditional classroom that I realized how far we have come.
Looking back to our PBLs in September, I remember that our students needed us much more (to help brainstorm, divide the responsibilities, keep them focused, research, and coach them along with their final products). Although we still have to re-direct a handful of them to focus on the task at hand, our roles are evolving to less of the "micro-managing" and more to challenging them to go further with their ideas through questioning.
How did we get here? Through their previous team-work experiences, I think our students have learned that they will be held accountable for their work and that they will not be given extra time when they didn't use class time efficiently. It took those prior experiences, many of which weren't pretty and make me cringe to think about, to get them to this more focused and independent level.
Now the question is what do we focus on improving next?

Newspaper coverage of our Dropout Prevention Grant

http://timeswv.wv.ussrv07v.newsmemory.com/default.php?pSetup=timeswv

http://energizestudents.org/Article-View.aspx?story_id=168266601

Disruptive Innovation

Here is a 21 minute video about Disruptive Innovation, which is really important for those of us on the school reform frontier.  Scott McLeod blogs at dangerouslyirrelevant.org.

Avoiding the blame game when meeting with parents

Check out the article!

Scientific Research Shows Lecturing Doesn't Work

In this article, the author describes the scientific research that physics professors from the University of Maryland, Harvard, and Arizona State conducting, indicating that lecturing only helps about 10% of the students learn physics--and those 10% might get the material even without the professor.  Interestingly, the physicists say that if all we are going to do is lecture, students could get that information just as easily from a computer and we can fire all the teachers!   One teaching method they've begun to use is called "peer instruction" in which students in groups discuss the answer to a question and then eventually discuss with the entire class. It's described better in the article, and is just one way to take teachers from being a "sage on the stage" to being a "guide on the side".  

Debriefing and looking forward

Yesterday Mary Anne and I met with Matt to debrief about our Ancient Greek PBL. We'd already had a great reflection/debriefing session with our students the day before Christmas break. They were so proud of themselves, but were also able to offer ideas about what they would do differently if they had it to do all over again.
The concept that consistently comes up in our debriefing is the idea that we need to do better at what Matt calls "chunking." We need to further divide up the project into smaller "chunks" with deadlines every few days or so. This way, students complete one piece of the project at a time, receive feedback, make appropriate changes, and continue working toward the finished product. As we begin our Rome PBL planning, we need to have these smaller deadlines, or chunks, in mind.