The first thing I think of when looking at our engineering program is our goal. High school pre-college engineering programs are not there to create engineers. The goal of any high school program should be to develop engineering students. It is the responsibility of colleges and Universities develop engineers. With that goal in mind, it is much easier to create a quality, sustainable program. When I focus on developing engineering students, I am able to navigate through the sea of options, equipment, and vendors all competing for my attention. The foundation of a good engineering student boils down to three skills: 1) team-work, 2) communication, and 3) problem-solving. Everything else is just window dressing. If you want support for this position, read my earlier post on soft skills.
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Two things in my class over the last week bothered me. One was in the student reflections of their work. My students were blaming everyone but themselves for things that went wrong. The second was that I was so upset that they had not prepared for a discussion this week. I went into a full blow lecture over what they were supposed to discuss themselves. Wednesday night, I sat at home thinking about all of this and it hit me hard. I needed to do a better job of setting them up for success.
Don't get me wrong. The students who are blaming others for their mistakes are making the decision on their own. These are seniors who are months away from graduation. They are about to be out of high school. But, that doesn't mean I shouldn't be working with them to be more aware of the things they can/cannot control and how to handle it. I have a responsibility to teach a growth mindset. Wednesday night, I made a 180. I set up a Flipgrid board to do this discussion all over. I am letting the students have a week to work through it. I also created an intro video that expressed how I felt about my reaction to them that day. I set up thing wrong and handled it wrong. Now, I am working to fix it. I am using a new rubric with it. This time, the entire course (both classes) are getting the same grade. It will go in the grade book with a weight of 0. I want them to see it. We will do many more of these discussions in the closing months of high school. I want them to see their growth as a group. Today in class (we are on a block schedule), I showed a TedX video about growth mindset. The presenter gave several examples of growth mindset, talked about the research around it, and gave concrete ways to develop a growth mindset. Then I did a different discussion. I asked the question, "why?". That's it. One word. Why? And then I sat silent. It took a full minute before anyone spoke. But they did talk about it. They did discuss areas where a growth mindset can help. They talked about the things they may face next year and how a growth mindset can help them navigate it. This afternoon, I feel much better. We are still going to discuss the work we should have. The student's are not getting out of it. I am not pushing class work off because they didn't prepare. But at the same time, it was a learning experience for all of us to grow and become better people. |
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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