Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Ted Malefyt Teaching Portfolio: Reflection on Student Engagement
Ted Malefyt Teaching Portfolio: Reflection on Student Engagement: Real Story Meet Bryan, upcoming senior on our IchallengeU team. Bryan loves football and can't stop talking about it on his first da...
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Time on Task.....Engaged or Not Engaged, That is the Question...
The topic of measuring student engagement came up in a meeting the other day. It right away spawned a ton of thoughts about how we perceive students to be engaged vs. what is actually going on in their heads. I have gotten very good at appearing to be engaged on the surface, while deep in my brain I am somewhere else. In contrast, the way and where we work has changed so much that to many people I may often appear to be off task when in fact these are the moments I am most productive in my own learning.
What does this mean for our students and how they learn? I challenged my classes today to talk to me about their desire to mentally wander off. What would it look like if kids could articulate their feelings about engagement rather than having it perceived as a judgement from an adult. Furthermore, I think measuring engagement has more to do with conversations and feedback we give to our students than what they appear to be doing.
Simply giving something more time does not always prove to be fruitful. When I first began teaching I prided myself on being an educator who's room appeared to be the award winner for "time on task". What was really happening? What was the level of achievement? How many kids did I turn off to learning because the environment did not meet their individual needs?
Check out This Article......I'm sure most of you have already read it....Alfie Kohn writes on Time on Task....
My teaching partner Ted Malefyt did a great job of expanding out this theme....Take a look at his article....Student Engagement
What are your thoughts? Comments are appreciated!
What does this mean for our students and how they learn? I challenged my classes today to talk to me about their desire to mentally wander off. What would it look like if kids could articulate their feelings about engagement rather than having it perceived as a judgement from an adult. Furthermore, I think measuring engagement has more to do with conversations and feedback we give to our students than what they appear to be doing.
Simply giving something more time does not always prove to be fruitful. When I first began teaching I prided myself on being an educator who's room appeared to be the award winner for "time on task". What was really happening? What was the level of achievement? How many kids did I turn off to learning because the environment did not meet their individual needs?
Check out This Article......I'm sure most of you have already read it....Alfie Kohn writes on Time on Task....
My teaching partner Ted Malefyt did a great job of expanding out this theme....Take a look at his article....Student Engagement
What are your thoughts? Comments are appreciated!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Project Managers in Science Class
With the need to provide quality feedback to every student multiple times per week, I have looked for ways to make my classroom more efficient. In my chemistry unit this year, I am having students elect project managers for each road map. Similar to Trump's show Apprentice, the project managers are not exempt from the learning but have an added stake in the game.
The election process was interesting. Some students declined their nomination on the grounds of not feeling comfortable leading a larger group. Other students quickly identified the fact that they were needing to be focused on keeping their own act together. Finally we were able to elect our project managers.
In this instance the PM is responsible for assigning elements to students for our Periodic Table Challenge. The PM is also responsible for constructing and managing the bulletin board that is going to be one of the outcomes of the project. Each day the PM has one management task to complete and a set of updates to share with the small groups in the room.
I quickly observed some notables. Students were much more concerned with not losing their assigned material when it was given by a peer vs. when I assign it. Additionally, they tend to listen to their peers more attentively than me when the PM is giving instructions to the 3-4 person groups. Go figure....I relate to people my own age much better than those 20-30 years older than me.
I also observed the project managers learning leadership skills. Having to mange their leadership position as well as their individual roles. PM's were also learning ways to hold their peers accountable as well as provide them with the information they needed. When placed in the role of PM they quickly abandoned their tell me and I will memorize it attitude and swapped it with a desire to challenge their classmates to find the answer using their road map and search and find skills.
After this road map, we will elect new PM's in class giving others an opportunity to stretch themselves. It is interesting that we complain about student's inability to lead on HS Sports Teams yet their only exposure to leadership is through one student council rep per grade. Once again we need to get out of the way and allow kids to lead and innovate their experience.
All of this has allowed me to work with students on content understanding, learning targets, formative assessment, intervention, and quality feedback. Meanwhile my PM is doing a wonderful job of managing the logistics of the relevant task kids are working on.
The election process was interesting. Some students declined their nomination on the grounds of not feeling comfortable leading a larger group. Other students quickly identified the fact that they were needing to be focused on keeping their own act together. Finally we were able to elect our project managers.
In this instance the PM is responsible for assigning elements to students for our Periodic Table Challenge. The PM is also responsible for constructing and managing the bulletin board that is going to be one of the outcomes of the project. Each day the PM has one management task to complete and a set of updates to share with the small groups in the room.
I quickly observed some notables. Students were much more concerned with not losing their assigned material when it was given by a peer vs. when I assign it. Additionally, they tend to listen to their peers more attentively than me when the PM is giving instructions to the 3-4 person groups. Go figure....I relate to people my own age much better than those 20-30 years older than me.
I also observed the project managers learning leadership skills. Having to mange their leadership position as well as their individual roles. PM's were also learning ways to hold their peers accountable as well as provide them with the information they needed. When placed in the role of PM they quickly abandoned their tell me and I will memorize it attitude and swapped it with a desire to challenge their classmates to find the answer using their road map and search and find skills.
After this road map, we will elect new PM's in class giving others an opportunity to stretch themselves. It is interesting that we complain about student's inability to lead on HS Sports Teams yet their only exposure to leadership is through one student council rep per grade. Once again we need to get out of the way and allow kids to lead and innovate their experience.
All of this has allowed me to work with students on content understanding, learning targets, formative assessment, intervention, and quality feedback. Meanwhile my PM is doing a wonderful job of managing the logistics of the relevant task kids are working on.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
We all teach....all the time....
Much conversation has been brought up lately in education about connecting the classroom to industry. This is a valid point and warrants some thought on how to further connect with our community. The question this raises in my mind is how are schools relating their classrooms to the micro-industries that occur within the district?
Every school district has a plethora of micro-industries occurring within the school system itself. Food service, transportation, administration offices, office staff, custodial, school board and the list goes on. How are we aligning ourselves with these sectors of industry? I am curious to see if anyone has engaged these groups within school districts to become integral parts of the teaching and learning process within the classroom. In my mind these groups offer a myriad of opportunities for educators to tap into. How can we break the walls down and bring these aspects deeper into the education process?
But wait......The coin has two sides. We are all teaching all the time when we are surrounded by children and even adults for that matter. When a bus driver or a bus garage consistently shows up late and does not know where they are headed, they are teaching. When it takes months for students to get a pencil sharpener installed in their classroom the custodial staff is teaching. When a school board and union fail to work together both groups are teaching.
Maybe awareness needs to be increased about this point. Lets remind each other that we all teach all the time. Regardless of what your job is or how you do it, you are teaching someone something all the time. I have an irrational belief that all people given the right tools would rather do good than bad. It is our responsibility to continue to have the patience to remind, empower, push, pull, drive, and demand the best of ourselves and each other.
It takes patience, perseverance, and teamwork to stay the course. Sometimes we feel like we are pulling teeth to get people to realize when they are trying to be helped or encouraged. Many times we want to send people to the deep end of the pool to sink or swim on their own. Maybe we have to empty the pool, teach them how deep it really is, refill it, and let them learn to swim.
Remember today no matter what you do you are teaching all the time. What are you teaching?
Some positive examples I have seen in play that go beyond the passive lessons we are teaching...
Custodial staff getting involved with a student recycling project or grounds project.
Transportation staff working with students solving math problems and logistics.
School Boards inviting kids to meetings to learn about civic responsibilities.
Admin. staff and CT staff presenting in classrooms about topics from finance to health insurance to data management.
Every school district has a plethora of micro-industries occurring within the school system itself. Food service, transportation, administration offices, office staff, custodial, school board and the list goes on. How are we aligning ourselves with these sectors of industry? I am curious to see if anyone has engaged these groups within school districts to become integral parts of the teaching and learning process within the classroom. In my mind these groups offer a myriad of opportunities for educators to tap into. How can we break the walls down and bring these aspects deeper into the education process?
But wait......The coin has two sides. We are all teaching all the time when we are surrounded by children and even adults for that matter. When a bus driver or a bus garage consistently shows up late and does not know where they are headed, they are teaching. When it takes months for students to get a pencil sharpener installed in their classroom the custodial staff is teaching. When a school board and union fail to work together both groups are teaching.
Maybe awareness needs to be increased about this point. Lets remind each other that we all teach all the time. Regardless of what your job is or how you do it, you are teaching someone something all the time. I have an irrational belief that all people given the right tools would rather do good than bad. It is our responsibility to continue to have the patience to remind, empower, push, pull, drive, and demand the best of ourselves and each other.
It takes patience, perseverance, and teamwork to stay the course. Sometimes we feel like we are pulling teeth to get people to realize when they are trying to be helped or encouraged. Many times we want to send people to the deep end of the pool to sink or swim on their own. Maybe we have to empty the pool, teach them how deep it really is, refill it, and let them learn to swim.
Remember today no matter what you do you are teaching all the time. What are you teaching?
Some positive examples I have seen in play that go beyond the passive lessons we are teaching...
Custodial staff getting involved with a student recycling project or grounds project.
Transportation staff working with students solving math problems and logistics.
School Boards inviting kids to meetings to learn about civic responsibilities.
Admin. staff and CT staff presenting in classrooms about topics from finance to health insurance to data management.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Sharing Our Story
Today we visited the OAISD to present our story to curriculum directors from the area. This is always a great opportunity for me. Not only does it sharpen the saw but it fuels the fire! By being around educators who are excited about the future and not running from it I was inspired to stay the course. Additionally, by sharing my story and listening to others I am always enlightened with a new idea or hunch to grow on. Remember.....All kids means ALL kids. How are we ensuring meaningful communication with each student multiple times per week if we are so stuck on lecturing to them 5 hours a week. PBL......more to come....
Friday, February 10, 2012
Collaboration With Language Arts
Today we joined with the language arts department to help kids write rock stories and post them on their blogs.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
A Fresh Look At Learning Targets
My teaching partner Ted Malefyt wrote this article about our recent look at learning targets....
We innovated a couple of our old hunches and really feel we have struck gold....
1. Innovate "Student Passports"
2. Innovate Learning Targets
Yield: Lower Student Failure Rate and Decreased Reteaching.....
Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good to learning targets. They provide structure and focus to the learning that takes place in the classroom. Additionally, learning targets help in the process of grading, especially for teachers implementing a true system of standards based grading. However, I would argue that there might be a better way!
The Process This year, 7th grade science has started to implement more challenged based learning into the classroom. With this implementation we discovered that students had a difficult time asking good questions to drive their research. Upon reflection, Bob and I made a decision that we needed to increase our focus on student inquiry. In addition, we took a look at learning targets and came to the conclusion that each learning target was teacher driven.
Not a single learning target was derived from student inquiry! Therefore, we decided to pursue a method that would preserve the content the state was requiring of us all the while encouraging student inquiry. We came up with a plan to have student questions drive the formation of our newly found (thanks to Brad Fuzak and Nate Alkire) road map.
When you take a look at the road map, student questions were divided up and organized into appropriate categories. These categories were designed to match the state curriculum. We hypothesized that student questions would match the general curriculum. In fact they did with a little teacher influence on the organization. The next phase of this newly found "road map" is the formative structure that it provides. As students complete the "box categories" we enter into a discussion with each student. Using their questions as a guide we determine if they have a good understanding of the content in that category. If a students has completed all the tasks and can demonstrate content knowledge they receive a stamp on that box to verify. No student is allowed to take a summative assessment until they have all their stamps!
The Data
The data supports the validity of the student inquiry driving the tasks and the formative assessment. After the first trial of summative assessment on rocks we came up with the following: 175 students (88%) scored above a B-, which we consider to be proficient. 22 Students (12%) scored between a B- and D-. 1 student scored below a D- Conclusion Without actual numbers from previous years, I am very confident that we have never achieved this kind of student performance on the first summative assessment for a concept of this magnitude. A concept as complicated as a dynamic rock cycle has proven to be difficult in years past for many students.
Many times we have found ourselves finding ways to re-teach material and providing justification for using retakes. Witnessing 88% of our students demonstrating proficiency this early in the process is good, but having only 1 student receive an E the first time through is bigger. In my opinion, reflecting on our use of learning targets is a discussion worth having.
1. Innovate "Student Passports"
2. Innovate Learning Targets
Yield: Lower Student Failure Rate and Decreased Reteaching.....
Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good to learning targets. They provide structure and focus to the learning that takes place in the classroom. Additionally, learning targets help in the process of grading, especially for teachers implementing a true system of standards based grading. However, I would argue that there might be a better way!
The Process This year, 7th grade science has started to implement more challenged based learning into the classroom. With this implementation we discovered that students had a difficult time asking good questions to drive their research. Upon reflection, Bob and I made a decision that we needed to increase our focus on student inquiry. In addition, we took a look at learning targets and came to the conclusion that each learning target was teacher driven.
Not a single learning target was derived from student inquiry! Therefore, we decided to pursue a method that would preserve the content the state was requiring of us all the while encouraging student inquiry. We came up with a plan to have student questions drive the formation of our newly found (thanks to Brad Fuzak and Nate Alkire) road map.
When you take a look at the road map, student questions were divided up and organized into appropriate categories. These categories were designed to match the state curriculum. We hypothesized that student questions would match the general curriculum. In fact they did with a little teacher influence on the organization. The next phase of this newly found "road map" is the formative structure that it provides. As students complete the "box categories" we enter into a discussion with each student. Using their questions as a guide we determine if they have a good understanding of the content in that category. If a students has completed all the tasks and can demonstrate content knowledge they receive a stamp on that box to verify. No student is allowed to take a summative assessment until they have all their stamps!
The Data
The data supports the validity of the student inquiry driving the tasks and the formative assessment. After the first trial of summative assessment on rocks we came up with the following: 175 students (88%) scored above a B-, which we consider to be proficient. 22 Students (12%) scored between a B- and D-. 1 student scored below a D- Conclusion Without actual numbers from previous years, I am very confident that we have never achieved this kind of student performance on the first summative assessment for a concept of this magnitude. A concept as complicated as a dynamic rock cycle has proven to be difficult in years past for many students.
Many times we have found ourselves finding ways to re-teach material and providing justification for using retakes. Witnessing 88% of our students demonstrating proficiency this early in the process is good, but having only 1 student receive an E the first time through is bigger. In my opinion, reflecting on our use of learning targets is a discussion worth having.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
Creating Student Blogs
Here is a student sample of work they produced for our Piping Plover Mini Challenge. The challenge can be found by clicking here. Overall it was a good project and we are extremely thrilled with the students being able to create accounts on vimeo for them to publish to the world! Students then are in the process of embedding their videos on their newly created blog! I will post an example of a student blog soon.
Getting To True Inquiry!
We are changing things up in our rocks and minerals unit this year. In years past the labs and activities were based upon our interpretation of the standards. This year, we are going to format the unit based upon student questions. Our hypothesis is that the student questions will match the content expectations of the state. From these questions, we will create a "road map" of activities and tutorials for students to use to answer their questions!
We are changing things up in our rocks and minerals unit this year. In years past the labs and activities were based upon our interpretation of the standards. This year, we are going to format the unit based upon student questions. Our hypothesis is that the student questions will match the content expectations of the state. From these questions, we will create a "road map" of activities and tutorials for students to use to answer their questions!
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