On the tail of letting my learners write the class policies, I gave them an even larger stake in their learning today. Today, my classes started unpacking the standards in preparation to write their own rubrics. That's not a typo. I am going to let them write the rubrics that I will be using to assess their work in class. To put this all in perspective, I am tired of arguing over interpretations of rubrics and the quality of their work. No matter how many times I stress that my feedback is to help them get better, I still have a number of students who don't see eye to eye with me. I say they still have a way to go and they will dig their heels in saying that they have met the standard and should be allowed to move on. I don't just take what they turn in and that is all there is to it. Learners must meet at least the minimum standards before moving on. I care more about learning than calendars and GPA. For the last several years, I have had a shift in the types of learners coming into my class. For years, if I assigned something for homework, almost every one of them did it and did it correctly. Working with 1 or 2 stragglers was easy and infrequent. That isn't the case now. The numbers in our program have grown to necessitate having two other teachers. The popularity and growth have come with an increase in the number of learners who are not sure why they signed up for the course (sometimes for the fourth year in a row). It has been my mission to reach these particular learners and get them engaged. If they are going to come in my room, they are darned well going to enjoy it, have fun, and learn. All means all. This year, instead of coming up with all of the project directions and rubrics, I am turning the tables. They learners are going to unpack the standards. They are going to determine what it means to "demonstrate responsibility for shared group and individual work tasks," or "complete tasks with the highest standards to ensure quality products and services." Let's not forget "demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property." Every learner will agree to all of the learning targets before moving on. There is no reason for all of us to see eye to eye. Today, I started with my 8th period class. I went over the Unpacking Document. Part of the discussion was looking up the Depth of Knowledge Chart and Blooms Taxonomy. That's right. My engineering students are learning about pedagogy. After explaining the chart, I gave each team a standard to use in relation to the project. Everyone had a different standard. The chart was shared in a Google Doc that they are all working on. Each team creates a new line. As the teams finish, I give them feedback on getting their standard better "unpacked". It is exciting to see them really working on it. Tomorrow, we will finish the standards with the other classes. Everyone will have to come to complete agreement on all of the learning targets before moving on. When we get done unpacking, we'll start diving into the rubrics. I'll keep you posted. Here is a copy of the Unpacking document we are using.
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I took a leap of faith today and turned the rules and procedures part of my syllabus over to my learners. I want them to be vested in the class. My goal is that they not only have total buy-in for how the class operates, but more importantly, they "own it." And if I am being totally honest, I wanted to eliminate the arguing over participation and such. It's a big risk The learners were surprised when I told them what we were doing today. I usually wait until late into the first week of school before going over rules and policies. Doing this today is not out of character, but getting their input and complete agreement was. I asked, and none of my students could remember a teacher ever asking for input, much less letting them write it. Here's what we did and how it came out. I started the conversation by giving a few guiding parameters. First, keep to the philosophy of respect each other and respect the lab. Second, keep to our manifesto. I put it on the screen and we talked about it for a few minutes. Finally, we must have 100% agreement between all students and myself. All students means just that. All students in all classes must agree to them. That was it, no other guidelines or rules. I simply facilitated the conversation since no one had ever done anything like this. We were all in new territory. I opened the floor for suggestions and overwhelmingly, the class wanted to cover participation. They eventually settled on the statement, "Actively participate, physically and intellectually, to help the team." We talked about what that meant. I diverted for a minute to explain teenage brain development. The learners are not aware of it or how it impacts them. We talked about the underdevelopment of the frontal lobe and higher order thinking. Then we talked about how the amygdala takes over this role for now and the trouble with letting your "Fight or Flight" center make all the decisions. I finished with how teenagers tend act in a Ready, Fire, Aim sequence. They are going to get distracted and mess up. They are going to make mistakes. The goal here is not to find ways to get people in trouble, but instead to find ways to help pick each other up when they trip. I fully expect that they will get distracted and want to check their phone or have a conversation. Those small things are easily taken care of with a simple reminder. No problem. Problems come up when a student opens a game on their iPad or decide to take a nap. Additionally, this includes not getting their task or assignment for the team done on time. We now worked on the consequences. They settled on having a warning from me for the first time. They all agreed 100%. Now we talked about how long this first offense should be considered before moving to a second level consequence. The class wanted the "clock" to reset on this every two weeks. I am fine with this. It gives students a chance to mess up and a chance to clean the slate. Both are pedagogically sound to teach discipline. The class then moved on to the second level. If a student fails to do what they need to again within the two-week window, the student will be removed from the Fabrication Lab next door for 3 weeks and a parent conference will be held. We came to agreement on each part individually with everyone agreeing before moving on. The class felt that if a student didn't do their work twice in a couple of weeks, they were not messing up, they were repeating the same behaviors. by restricting their movement between labs kept them under closer supervision and would hopefully change their behavior through proximity. Also, the students reasoned that they were already having to pick up the slack, so it would be easier to get back on track by narrowing their focus. Finally, they set on this being on their record for 4 weeks before resetting. Again, I was fine with all of it. For a third offense in a short period of time, the class was open about being concerned that a student who reached this point was hurting the team badly and was making no attempt to get on board. They wanted the person removed from the team. I added a piece here to what they wanted. I will make the student still complete the project. They are still responsible for the learning. No one objected. There was a debate on if the student should get a detention or an office referral. Most wanted a detention. I taught them about the concept of "Disagree but commit". Everyone agreed to that. They might disagree with the detention instead of a harsher penalty, but agreed to commit to accepting what we went with. They finished this with a provision that for the next project, the second level of consequences would be bypassed for the subsequent project. Warnings every 2 weeks are still acceptable, but the student needs more dire consequences sooner. We finished with an office referral for a 4th time in that project. The next 20 minutes were spent talking about strategies for avoiding as many of the consequences in the first place. No one wanted a punitive and "gotcha" system. Everyone was on board with the concept of this being to help each other be better teammates. How cool is that? The rest of the policies went the same way. We talked about part and got full approval before moving on. Here is what they came up with: Actively participate, physically and intellectually, to help the team:
Respect yours and others projects:
Respect the lab:
Academic Integrity is covered under school policy so we didn't cover it. We also talked about late work and reassessment. The consensus was that work done on time and attempted to be done correctly could be redone until it was right. Learning is the key, not the calendar. Work that is late must be done still. If it is within 4 days, there is no grade penalty, but there might be discipline penalties if it impacts the team. After 4 days, there is a grade of 0, but they must still do the work. All of the rest of my classes fully agreed to all of it. It's pretty cool to see them take charge of their class and work to help each other be trustworthy team members. I'm excited to see how it works this year. Throughout a teachers career, there are days that pop up and threaten to derail everything. I have it happen all the time. I am reflecting on the work that is going on and trying to find a new way to present a concept for struggling learners. There are other times that I know I can do an activity or unit better, but can't see the forest for the trees. New teachers face this at the start of their first year. I've even felt it at the start of the year with a new course. It can be paralyzing. When I feel this coming on, I turn back to a few trusted locations for inspiration and support. This is one time, I don't turn to Twitter. I go to these websites. They have been amazing for me. The resources here range from kindergarten through high school. Regardless of the level or class you teach, there is something here for you. Teach EngineeringThe site, teachengineering.org provides curriculum units, lessons, activities, and many other types of resources. There are so many resources that it could be overwhelming if it wasn't for their search functions. You can search by standards (state, national, even ISTE), subject area (all sorts of science, math, and engineering subjects), or activity type. There are activities that area very short. I use them for reinforcement, first day of school, or extension/enrichment. There are also entire curricular units. The materials are put together by educators, include pacing and timing as well as handouts, standards, and explanations. https://www.teachengineering.org Engineering Go For ItThe American Association for Engineering Education put together the EGFI website for educators and students to explore engineering. For students, there are resources to explore engineering careers and schools. Engineering doesn't need to be scary or intimidating. EGFI works to make it easier to learn about it. Teachers will find lesson plans, activities, outreach programs, and web resources. The materials are put together nicely and range in length from short, one day activities to full units that might take a couple of weeks. The activities include web links to other resources that tie to the activity. Many units also include differentiation strategies to help make sure you are reaching all learners, not just most of them. http://egfi-k12.org/index_noflash.php Try EngineeringGames, lessons, engineering research, and more can be found at tryengineering.org. The games are a lot of fun for learners and can provide unique extension activities for teachers. There is also places here for students to learn about careers and universities. Teachers will like the activities and lesson plans. They range all grade levels and courses. I find a lot of great differentiation ideas and reliable new ways to teach concepts. As with all of these, the activities are project based. You won't find book work here. http://tryengineering.org PhET Interactive SimulationsI've lost count of the number of times that I needed a way to simulate something for students because there was no good way to do it live in class. PhET from the University of Colorado solves that. They have a ton of math, science, and engineering simulations to use. There is even a new iOS app. I use PhET all the time in class. It is great for students to experiment with things they normally couldn't in class. Additionally, it provides awesome differentiation for all learners. As a teacher, I appreciate the lessons and activities from teachers. No matter what I am teaching in class, I can usually find a PhET activity if a student needs it. https://phet.colorado.edu I have been needing to start this blog for some time now. This is going to be about various PL, coaching, classroom, and teaching that I come across. I'm quite sure if not positive that it will be more beneficial for me than anyone else. Putting everything out there will make think more deeply about my teaching and coaching. The reflection will be invaluable.
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About me & this blogThis blog is for things related to my class, PL, coaching, or just teaching in general. You can follow me on Twitter @myakSTEM Archives
June 2021
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