Would you want to take your class?

I had the pleasure of attending the TIES 2013 conference this week in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  It's an ed tech conference that drew over 3800 attendees to gather, share and exchange ideas about educational technology in the schools.

I have only experienced a handful of these types of conferences, but it's some of the most exciting days of my year.   The energy and enthusiasm for teaching and students is palpable as you make your way from session to session fueled by massive amounts of caffeine and the desire to take in as much as physically possible.

Something was different this year though.  I went in with a HEIGHTENED level of excitement and anticipation as I was going to be sharing instead of just taking in.  I was prepared and ready to go -- knowing that I was finally playing a more significant role in the conversation as presenter (though only a couple of poster sessions).  I felt as if I was playing with the "big kids" now, and actually had something to say that was worth listening to.  Even though I had great conversations, met awesome people, shared my students' stories, had successful sessions and learned a ton, I left disheartened.

While sitting in a break out session, we were charged with the question "would you want to spend the whole day learning in your own classroom?"  Immediately I thought to myself, "pfffttttftfttft, duh.  Of course.  I'm awesome."  But, after giving it some significant thought, I decided that there definitely were days where I'd love the things we were doing.  The thing that put me off is that I also answered the question with "no."

How is this possible, that after 13 years of teaching, I am doing things in my classroom that I wouldn't want to have to sit and do?  What kind of message is that sending to my students?  Obviously I don't sit at a desk in the corner and think "Ha, suckers! You have to do this thing I wouldn't want to!"  I think I have developed more engaging lessons through those 13 years, but there are some things we still do that are just getting the job done.  This year, the students did the same "Civil War Timeline" activity that all those who came before them did.  I guess a timeline is a timeline is a timeline, but do they really need to know this information?  If they can google the number of states in the Union prior to and after Lincoln's election, why do I have them write out this event in its own box on this activity?  Is this really getting the job done?  

Don't get me wrong, I've worked hard to change a LOT of the things I've done in my classroom over the years, but I can't seem to find the magic bullet.  I psuedo-flipped for a while, I've used the LMS systems to put it all together in a nice package, I've allowed the students to choose projects to work on that have nothing to do with my class but more what they are interested in, I've built relationships with students to the point that I am the mother of hundreds of students despite never having given birth.

Despite my continuing efforts on all fronts, I'm currently facing the fact that 51% of my students are getting D's or F's.


So now, I am contemplating (and losing sleep over) two questions: Why am I teaching the way I teach?  & What exactly am I charged with teaching students?


We had our weekly collaborative team meeting this afternoon, and I posed the same question to my colleagues, which was met with silence.  We were in the middle of identifying the "real world significance" of each of our units.  At a pre-observation meeting that day, my colleague was asked the question "what is the real world significance of your lesson and learning targets?"  Which made me think, wait - why is the real world importance the LAST thing we identify?  Why aren't we starting there and building from that as the base of the unit?  Wouldn't that make sense if I could couch all the 'other stuff' (meaning standards and benchmarks and yadda yadda) in the pieces that we deemed important to connect to the real world?

In education, we have seen a push to connect the things we do in classes to the real world, but is that really possible under the current system we have?  Quite honestly, being able to fill in a timeline on the events of the Civil War doesn't make you any more ready for the world in my opinion.  Now, is there a skill to understanding chronology and cause and effect of events?  Sure, but that's not necessarily what I taught them with this activity.

I know there is always ways to improve the lessons we are teaching.  My conundrum at this point is that I don't necessarily want to teach them the lessons the state wants me to teach.  I want to teach them to be creative thinkers, problem solvers and curious beings.  And I hand them a Civil War timeline?  I know that we have to get through all the material in the social studies curriculum, but as it stands (in my room) it's coming at the cost of them engaging in inquiry rich activities.  BUT, I wasn't hired to be a curiosity teacher, I teach social studies (albeit poorly evidently).

We are nearing the tail end of a "20% or Genius Hour" project in my class.  The students have been given about 20% of the time in my class to learn about something that is of interest and value to them.  It's been an interesting journey with varied results.  It's been met by judgement and criticism from colleagues, "How are you assessing them?  What is your benchmark for measuring success? What does your administration think about this?  How are you fitting in all the material when you just give away this time?"

I don't have good answers for any of these things.  It DOESN'T fit into the curriculum - it's totally dependent on what the student wants to learn about.  I have no rubrics at this point really.  If they're participating and moving forward in whatever it is that they are doing, they get points.  I have basically taken it upon myself to decide on curriculum I can get rid of to make room for this-- thinking that if they can google it, why would I "teach" it?  Am I still following the standards and the units and such?  Yes.  I have only given a couple of quizzes though, and on small amounts of information.  I haven't given a multiple choice unit test all year, we've done different forms of assessment.  Will they leave knowing as much history as my students did 10 years ago?  Better yet, does it matter?  Won't they be better served showing that they have skill at presenting, research, inquiry and collaboration?  Then why isn't my time spent teaching things like this all day?  Is this my job?  Am I currently NOT doing my job since I'm not doing as many of the typical assessments with each unit?  Is this why 51% of my students have F's?

I guess it's back to the drawing board over the break, because I still have yet to find the answer to any of these questions.  Will I rethink the activities I have my students do with a more discerning eye from here on out?  Yes.  Will it reduce the amount of D's and F's I have in my classes?  Who knows.

I guess I've got to just keep trying...

Any ideas out there?

"You've Come a Long Way Baby"

I had the opportunity this week to attend the TIES 2013 conference in downtown Minneapolis.  It's a large gathering of teachers, media specialists and administrators who are leaders in innovative teaching and using technology in the classroom.  This year was a bit different for me though, as I had a chance to deliver two poster sessions and moderate a third session at the conference.

I've come a long way, as three years ago at my first TIES conference, I started my Twitter account. The long way is not to suggest that now I'm a Twitter all star, but I've come a long way in my interactions with people at conferences like this (and on Twitter).  The reason I started my Twitter handle (@staffination) was because everyone else at TIES was on their devices, and it seemed (to me) that no one was really engaging with each other in person.  It was my first tech conference and I didn't know the protocol-- that it was okay to walk and tweet at the same time.  That it was commonplace to have two or three devices going while you're listening, engaging and learning.  That the prime spots in breakout sessions are near outlets so you can charge, tweet and take notes and not skip a beat.  That it was okay to walk around with a QR code around your neck that identified your name, role and school system-- that it wasn't in fact (as I had interpreted) yet another way for men to reject me.  Sidenote: I panicked about some strange man coming up to me, and instead of talking to me face to face, he'd scan my QR coded nametag and decide "nah... that's not the type of gal I'm looking for." 

Since then, I've attended the ISTE conference twice and TIES twice more.  I've found that at these gatherings, I'm surround by like minded geeks who are willing to take risks and try new things in their classrooms like I am.  That they are people who value the pedagogy more than the device, and experiences over standardized lessons or tests.  I've found a wealth of information and ideas that I've stolen and applied in my classroom, and friendships that I continue over Twitter and in person whenever possible.  It's refreshing professional development, and a highlight of my year to meet up at these tech-geek gatherings and stretch my brain when I can. 

I'm not sure what was different about this year, but I decided to submit to be a presenter at TIES.  I filled out applications for two different poster sessions, each to share what I'd been doing in my classroom this year.  Funny that when I submitted my proposals, I'd done neither activity in class- they were just ideas.  I had seen other examples of what teachers had shared, and I felt that my ideas were interesting enough to not only execute in class, but to share with others.  Both proposals were accepted, now I just had to walk through the process with my students.  

Both of the topics I presented on (using TED-Ed and the Genius Hour/Google 20% Project) brought the students to different ways of learning.  They engaged the students in asking and answering questions they had never experienced before.  They had to put up with obstacles right and left, with a teacher who wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, with flexible deadlines as sometimes things just flat out failed, and with an end result that has yet to be modeled by the teacher or understood by the students.

Prior to this year, I'd merely been a sponge to soak in new things.  I'd found out though, that many of the presentations I'd seen involved pieces of things I'd tried or read about and considered trying in my class.  Why not give it a whirl and see if other people value what I have to say?  Well, it turns out that they do-- at least some do :)

I had a great time sharing what my students are doing, the successes and challenges of every step of the way.  There were great questions from the people I engaged with, both that caused me to question my own approach and mentally make changes for the next year.  I (hope) I gave other teachers tools to start taking similar risks in their own rooms, to give it a whirl and see where it takes their students.  I worked to explain things that other teachers may have heard about, and that I had slightly more experience with, thus making it accessible for them to experiment with or at least think about.  It was loads of fun.  

This post is not so much to laud my own practices as these ideas and approaches were all stolen and adapted from other people's stuff.  It IS meant to encourage you to share what you're doing with your peers and others who could take your lead and try something new.  It is meant for all teachers, even the quiet girl in the corner hiding behind her newly downloaded Twitter app that she doesn't even know how to use, to find value in what you're doing in your classroom.  If you have something you think is cool and has worked with your students, share it with other people.  If you have taken an innovative approach to pedagogy and worked hard to engage students in what you are doing, let others know how it worked (or didn't) in your classroom and school.  We need to know that it doesn't take a tech conference to learn from each other, and to support one another in trying new things.  

And for the record, I just got the word that I'll be sharing a poster at ISTE 2014.  I have indeed come a long way, baby.  Where are you going?

Photo credit: Rachel Gorton :)

FYI:

The resources I shared about using TED-Ed to flip your class:

http://bit.ly/1dnEvOo

The resources I shared for our version of the Google 20% Project / Genius Hour:

http://bit.ly/1cBrSgZ