Part Deux: Rebooting Digital Natives

The other week I lamented about the lack of technological "know how" demonstrated by my students when starting to integrate Google Drive into class along with Google Forms on top of Moodle. The frustrations experienced were based upon the assumption that students would have a better background then they did.

Reflecting upon where to go after this initial experience, I went back to the drawing board as the first problem based learning project was introduced this week. By ensuring that I better model and demonstrate the technological tools that are being pushed in class, it is hoped that students will become more comfortable using technology for academic purposes.
Thus this project will have students use Google Ed Apps for writing their annotated bibliographies and writing their argumentative paper, and building a site that will host their pieces of propaganda. In terms of research students will utilize the databases that are subscribed to through our library.
Despite the recalibration of how this was delivered there were still frustrations from my perspective in getting students to effectively use Google Ed Apps and perform formal research instead of simply "googling" it. My oft-repeated mantra is that this is a new experience for most of these students and that we are on a journey towards where they need to be at the end of the year. Having students solve "low hurdle" problems is part of this frustration, where if there isn't an answer/solution immediately then they give up.
After this initial first week, I am looking forward to seeing what they have come our first conferences this week and how this project continues to unfold.

I'm just sayin'...

"I can get a hell of a good look at a T-Bone steak by sticking my head up a bull's ass, but I'd rather take the butcher's word for it." - Big Tom Callahan (Tommy Boy, 1995)

Instead of telling me what new directive we are taking this week, it would be nice to be asked given my position each day in the classroom if there are suggestions for how we can revamp the education of our students. Hence the quote, if new directives are going to be given, give classroom teachers a voice.

The discussions that I have with like-minded colleagues are exciting, but hamstrung by a system that doesn't necessarily allow our voice to be heard. Increasingly, I wonder if putting the ideas that we have conjured up together is worth searching for potential support somewhere to create a school using ideas of schools like High Tech High and Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia.

Previously being in an official capacity as a school leader hasn't intrigued me, however working in a redesigned school created and driven by teachers would be a unique and fun adventure. The next question to ask about embarking on a search to make this a reality then comes from Jerry Maguire "Who's coming with me?"

The Game of School

The old adage about how everyone can be knowledgable of schools because they attended one is quipped quite often in the comments from parents at Parent-Teacher Conferences about "how school was when they were students". Such comments are funny because if we always did things the way it was once done, there would be no innovation with students sitting in rows, hands neatly folded.

Breaking down walls of the traditional classroom environment at the high school level doesn't come with resistance from other adults both in and out of the education field, but includes the students that consume the learning.  As @schneidermf and I have found with the redirection of our classroom, many students are pretty good at playing "the game of school" in that they have always come in, absorbed the information, drilled the information on worksheets, then took a quiz and a test to demonstrate that they could regurgitate said info/skills.  

Talking to parents about the game that school is/has been for many of their students is eye opening.  Many are bewildered by the idea that the students are actively pursuing their learning, that we don't have spelling tests for vocabulary and offer many opportunities to collaborate even on exams! When the connection is made to making school more applicable to real world conditions is when the light bulb switches on and the chaos that we have described to them begins to make sense.  

Emphasizing the process of learning has been one of the paramount topics in class this year and continues to be an uphill battle.  Trying to stop the obsession with grades is like any habit that has been formed it is hard to break and taking our students outside of those comfortable settings has made them uneasy, but as they begin to find their bearings the demonstration of skills and knowledge has been rewarding to see.

The next step in the process is building upon the conversations with colleagues about how they too can/need to rethink how they are delivering their instruction to students. 

Part 2: Semester At "C"

In the first installment of "Semester At "C", I lamented about some of my frustrations with the past semester be it with providing feedback for what felt like an avalanche of formative assignments, pushing students to strive for more then the minimum, or teaching an overload schedule.  This time I want to focus on what I saw as positives last semester:

1. Engagement - In revamping the the curriculum for Humanities (English/Social Studies, co-taught), we found that overall many students were on task more often with the learning that was put into the hands.  The classroom is now active, no longer are students passively taking in some of the information, rather they are in control and able to work with one another is small group settings that hopefully will give them ownership for the learning and skill development.  One challenge of this though is getting students to break out of their small comfortable peer groups to work with others who may push them as students.
2. Communication - Making the classroom learning increasingly student-driven has allowed us to have more meaningful conversations with small groups of students each day in class, versus having a dialogue during a direct lecture time period with the other fifty students staring off into space.  This environment has allowed us to connect with those students who would be staring off into space and put responsibility on them for their learning.  Talking with each student at least once a day, though it might not seem like much in a fifty student plus environment it can be easy for students to "hide or blend in".  Small group learning has been an added benefit, instead of whole class lectures, we are working (and improving) on small group "lectures".  The only drawback is repeating it upwards of six times in one day!
3. Collaborators - Having a handful of colleagues that are attempting similar styles within their classrooms and having a chance to discuss the ups and downs has been important.  Being able to expand our class content by incorporating information from other content areas such as science is appreciated.  Connecting content areas together and having students begin to see the relationships between them and how one class can serve another is only in its infancy, but having others willing to work has been rewarding.

Though this post is "Semester at "C"", I can look back and say that it wasn't necessarily an "average" semester.  The work that has been done initially has been tough, time consuming, and definitely not average (from my perspective).  As Winter Break draws to a close, I am feeling refreshed about getting back into the classroom and continuing to refine what has been started this year.

Semester at "C" Part 1:

Having had the past couple of days away from the classroom, I have finally started to catch my breath and reflect upon the whirlwind that has been the first semester of this school year.  Granted there are a myriad of issues going on in the district that I teach coupled with the issues that educators that across the country face, so I won't really delve into that.  Rather focusing on what I can control has been main area that I have a waded into.  Changing the mindset of our students to understand that meeting the expectation that has been set in my class doesn't equal an "A" is challenging.  Rather pushing students to strive for more beyond what is expected has been the push.  Though the final grades may not reflect it the title of this post, it felt like many students spent the "Semester at "C""!

Negatives:

1. In changing the way that we teach in our class, @schneidermf (aka The Grateful Educator...coming soon to a blog near you...I hope) and I have been frustrated at times by the general lack of motivation or willingness to work beyond what would be considered grade level expectation.  In forming the various sections of each unit that we have taught with an end date for students to complete the outlined activities and assignments, there continues to be too much wasted time and last minute "slapping together" of work.  As we have worked to in the words of @elcoopacabra "embrace the ambiguity" and relent the chalk dust covered, iron fisted control that teachers demand, a portion of students continue to do nothing.  That being said, we have been forced to remind ourselves that there is a certain percent of the population in a class that would do nothing regardless.  
2. Formative assessment of skills and knowledge has been part of this reformation of curriculum in the past eight months.  Prior to starting school this year, I read this post from Andrew Miller that discussed the challenge of providing formative feedback.  After a full semester of this, I can relate, the challenge of being able to provide timely and constructive feedback for all my classes has been a tough mountain to climb.  Hopefully some of the ideas that @schneidermf and I are floating to implement will help to alleviate this ongoing battle.
3. Teaching an overload of classes, with an increased enrollment our school needed to offer an additional class of government which I was asked to cover.  Teaching four out of a possible four class periods a day was taxing and something that I do not recommend or would do again.  The amount of time it takes to plan, prep, implement, and assess for an extra class of 35 students was a challenge.  Part of the problem might have been that many of students were only in that class since it is needed to graduate.  Again many students simply went through the motions and didn't really care about the course material with the exception of getting the credit needed for graduation.

Removing the Feeding Tube

Finally, I am taking the time to sit down and write a blog about some ideas that have been stewing in my mind for awhile now and it is time to finally get something done.  Thus for my first post I am going to begin reflecting on the revamp of class @schneidermf and I team teach (Humanities II, American Lit. and History).  Thanks to our tweeps (@ryannack @ryanmcclintock @elcoopacabra @bjork737) that have helped provide constructive advice in the redesign of our class model and curriculum as it remains a work in progress.

"We do not learn; and what we call learning is only a process of recollection." - Plato

The transformation of our class in the past ten months has been a process of many peaks and valleys as we attempted to find a method and model that engages our students to think critically and crave the acquisition of new knowledge and skills.  Getting to this point required a shift in our thinking about how we taught our students, but thanks to the great PLN developed via Twitter a variety of ideas developed and brought us to the current model that we have developing and implementing. 

Instead of having students simply recall information for the purpose of taking a test, the challenge that has been put forth to our students makes them accountable for their learning.  This has meant creating a student driven learning environment with them actively working each day in class on the activities, assignments, and projects that not only are related to American History and Literature, but can be connected to other classes in their academy (most students are STEM).  NO LONGER will we force feed our students the content and skills of the day as they attempt to text without being caught, rather students are challenged to be responsible for their learning and skill development.

This shift in philosophy and practice caught many students by surprise, as they adjust the individual and small group discussions are increasingly interesting and engaging.  Using a student driven environment has allowed us to make direct connections with EVERY student in the classroom multiple times each day to have conversations about their learning successes and struggles.  Getting to this point though has not been easy as letting go of control over the classroom has been an adjustment, but am enjoying the ability to connect  with students about their learning.

Though frustrations arise in this system as they would in any other, I am excited about pushing students to challenge themselves with Project Based Learning that extends the curriculum beyond Social Studies and English and relates to other content areas.  Students will be challenged to think beyond simple rote memorization and regurgitation of information, rather to feed their mind they will need to start feeding themselves.