Melissa Terry Blog Post 5

One of the reasons I was so grateful for this class this semester is that it allowed me to get back in the classroom in a teaching role.  I am so glad I got to have this opportunity.  So often, teachers make things look easy when I am in observing and I forget how much planning and thought goes into creating lessons that are engaging but also organized.  I was reminded of this multiple times during my PBL unit. 

One area that I did not plan enough for was the area of social skills and interaction among the students.  In the future I will make sure to have discussions about those expectations and create an anchor chart of those behaviors that I want to see.  Students struggled with working together and being able to collaborate.  I had several that ended up working alone because it was so difficult and stressful to them to be in a group.  I should have been a better facilitator of that process and I will plan to do so in the future.

Another area that I will focus on in upcoming units is designing ways for students to do safe research.  When students were looking for information about flooding, it was really difficult to find articles that they were able to read and videos that they were able to watch that were on a nine year old’s level.  I had created a symbaloo that had some sites on it, but I really need many more.  I also needed to have safe search engines listed there as well.  I was able to scramble and help students find information, but it was difficult for some of their topics.

I really enjoyed this unit and being in the teaching role again and look forward to implementing another one next semester.

Blog Post #5

I was sick on the day of the last class.  Frankly, I have been sick a lot this semester.  I think that I am facing that thing that none of us want to face - getting older.  I don't bounce back as easily as I used to.  When I put in long hours--sometimes really long hours--I find myself suffering for it.  The point is that I have a hard time just letting go.  I want my PBL work to be the best that it can be.  I want my students to get out of it what I/we want them to get out of it.  I worry too much about it and work too hard on it and it wears me out!

Funny thing is... I get worn out, work through recovering and go back and do the same thing all over again.  Here I am in the last day of my PBL unit and I see myself doing too  much again.

I used to think that I knew a lot about Project Based Learning (and I guess I did know a lot about the kind of projects that I used to do) but I often feel that I am only barely grasping the concepts in this format.  It's great.  I can see the benefits.  I am seeing more every day.  But every time I think that I have something down I keep finding myself confronting unanticipated problems or questions.  This really has me out of my comfort zone but I take comfort in that discomfort because it keeps me sympathetic to my students whom I am asking to work out of theirs.

Blog Post 5 - Brittany Daly

What I used to think, but now I know….

During the summer, I was really ambitious… as I often am during the summer when I have all the time in the world to plan and dream about the upcoming year. I was very excited for this project, and I did not anticipate all of the challenges that would arise. The biggest of those challenges was definitely time, and I know that everybody else probably felt constrained by time as well. 

My project started off fairly well. I enjoyed incorporating the various protocols we learned and practiced during our summer course. Students were interested in their research, and they were working fairly well together. Then, our daily schedule started to get interrupted by field days, guest speakers, garden events, etc. I felt like my project got put on the back burner. Before I knew it, it was time to go to Barrier Island. We got back, and it was almost time for testing. That was something I definitely didn’t plan for during the summer. I was starting to feel the pressure because I knew that I needed to move on to the next science unit so we could finish it before Christmas break. At that point in time, students had finished their research on ocean shorelines and movements. They had designed and constructed their shorelines, and they had created an erosion simulation. However, they had not yet gotten to devise a plan to prevent erosion. This was the major engineering design plan that I had weaved into my unit, but I just did not have enough time to implement it!

I used to think that STEM had to involve an engineering design activity, but now I know that’s not always the case. Ever since our school became STEM focused, I have felt like I need to include an engineering design project in every unit I teach. However, I know now that I can meet STEM standards in other ways. I love engineering projects. I think they can encourage creativity and collaboration; however, I have decided not to incorporate an engineering project unless it is manageable and meaningful (thinking back, I don’t think mine would have been incredibly meaningful).

Overall, I know that my students have grown as a result of this unit. In analyzing their shoreline designs, I saw much more detailed plans than I had during our previous project. They also did well on the final assessment of the science content knowledge (scores were mainly As and Bs). We are in the middle of our 1920s PBL unit right now, and my students are doing a great job with their research so far. I am looking forward to continuing my implementation of PBL this year. 

Blogpost #5 - Shanna Pittman

Blogpost #5 - Shanna Pittman

What I Used to Think but Now I Know

     Prior to taking this class I thought I had a pretty good command of using the PBL approach because I was already teaching in integrated units and had begun to change those units, transforming them into the Inquiry-Based approach to learning. This class would be a piece of cake and was the logical next step. That turned out to be WRONG! Project Based Learning is so much more than teaching integrated and Inquiry Based units and there are key elements such as, sustained inquiry, protocols, student voice and choice, and so on that I thought, "Oh no, how can kindergartners do this?". 

     I planned my unit this summer (remembering the class that had just been promoted to first-grade) and approached it with a great deal of trepidation. After meeting my new class this year and realizing that my voting unit would take place at the beginning of the year, I was really worried that what I planned during the summer would flop. I worried that the content was too abstract and that students would not be interested. I couldn't have been more wrong! My students surprised me in their excitement about voting and how they learned and remembered the content of the unit. They worked hard and talk about our neighborhoods even now.

     There were several changes and modifications that had to be made as I progressed through the unit. This was no surprise as I continually modify and adjust to suit the needs of kindergartners. The biggest change I had to make was my culminating activity. This was a change I had to make because we could not delay electing a student council member. In the end, however, the culminating activity was even more exciting and involved more members of our school community than the original plan. We worked hand in hand with the cafeteria manager and staff, as well as our student council coordinator. 

      I plan to continue teaching this particular PBL unit in the years to come. There are a few modifications I would make. I think the time-line for implementation should be shorter. I would shorten it to 2 weeks instead of 3 weeks. When implemented, students did not need as much time for the neighborhood meetings as I had anticipated. I would also give students more choice in their arrangement of neighborhoods. Instead of having to stay at the table in which they always sit, I would allow them to choose their neighbors. After all, we choose our communities as adults. I would also give them the freedom to "move" to different communities if they so chose.

     After implementing my first PBL, I am excited about what I have planned for the Spring! My new unit is science and I am collaborating with my grade level colleagues to plan and implement an Arctic Animals unit. I am not as nervous about implementing this unit as I was the first and look forward to spreading my wings a little more!

What I used to think but now I know

Basically, I thought I had a pretty firm grasp on PBL. I was wrong; it’s super-complicated. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just that every time I think I have a curriculum and individual projects worked out, I wind up finding that they need more work as I implement them. I reflect on that and try to refine the assignments and then implement them again, and go through the same process. It’s like I can never get an assignment perfect. I guess that’s telling about me personally, as I always tell my kids that there’s always room for improvement, but for once I’d like to sit back and say, “yep, I’m finally done tweaking that one.”

PBL is messy. I think that’s one of the things that a lot of teachers (especially those who haven’t studied PBL or have never been around it) don’t get. What is organic learning and problem solving looks unstructured to uninitiated eye. Allowing student choice and facilitating learning, not just disseminating it, feels very open-ended, and at times even a little chaotic. Trying to teach good time-management and self-regulation skills while trying to teach complicated technical and artistic concepts simultaneously is difficult to say the least. It’s not difficult in a bad way, it’s just exhausting at times, especially the whole aspect of never being quite finished with an assignment or curriculum.

The biggest thing I’ve learned with the website assignment is that I have to find the right balance of being open-ended yet still having enough guidelines that they don’t overwhelmed. I also still haven’t found a way to solidly integrate the website into the curriculum in that some of the kids still don’t quite get it. I think the key to that is maybe through the critiques and/or delivery of their assignments.

Creating a website to show off your work is such a personal thing in that the best ones are always by the students who are the most intrinsically motivated. In terms of collaboration, other than critique, it’s a pretty personal assignment. I guess if they were creating a website for a client, that would be different, but then we venture more into the realm of web design and less into the scope of what my program covers (in 12 years, I’ve been asked by clients to build a website + photos once, maybe twice).

I also learned that to use their websites as a way to mark growth, I need to somehow record the changes in their websites over the course of the semester since the product by natures is, in theory, ever-evolving.

In terms of growth after looking at the first versions and looking at later version, they for the most part to implement the concept of “less is more” in their decisions on which photos to include on their websites, which is a good thing.

Examples of good student websites:

Emily

Abby

Hannah

I definitely am going to further refine the project in terms of trying to better layout what I want them to do, and I’m going to try to better monitor the sites so that I can more easily measure growth. I am also going to try to figure out a way to be incorporate it into the overall curriculum, because even though it’s not as bad as it used to be, it still feels like something that’s just been tacked on. 

-Austin Baker

Blog Post 5: What I Used to Think, but Now I Know

What I Used to Think / But Now I Know - Blog Post 5

As part of my pre-assessment,students got four sticky notes and wrote down their answer to each of the four statements: What do I know about tornados? What do I know about hurricanes? What do I know about tornados? How can you stay safe during events of severe weather? The students answers ranged from being spot on to predictions made based on what prior knowledge they possessed. I found this helpful, as I kept the poster up throughout the PBL unit. I thought that I would use this as a tool to help the students see what they’ve learned throughout, but I did not reference it. I believe the students just saw it as part of the bulletin board and didn’t look at it again. For my next PBL, I want to do something similar, but I want it to be interactive. I want the students to be able to update their sticky note, or their thoughts, based on what they have learned throughout the course of the project. What they think at the beginning is great, but I want the students to see how their thinking and ideas have changed over the course of the PBL. At the conclusion of my PBL, my students took a weather test and completed their PBL broadcast videos or video product. The average on the weather test was an 85. The students did well on their projects. Their broadcast videos turned out great and they were so excited to share their videos with their classmates. The information the students included in their broadcast scripts was all accurate as it was based on their research notes and was read over by both their peers and myself. The students completed their group and self evaluations, which also involved a summative component. On the self evaluation, I asked the students the same four questions that I asked them at the beginning. Most students were able to provide more detailed answers, while others put a simple response. For example, one student wrote, “Tornados form by warm and cold winds.” This student clearly learned how tornados form. Another student wrote, “Hurricanes get weaker when they get on land.”’ This student learned that hurricanes gain strength over water, but lose their power over land. Some simpler responses include, “Thunderstorms have thunder, lightning, and rain.” While this is correct, I am confident that this student knew this prior to the project. In regards to safety, many students wrote that you should move to a basement or stay indoors. When I referenced the yellow sticky notes about safety the students completed before the project, that was the most common response.

One thing that I realized while reflecting was that I never once stood up in front of the class and provided instruction to them on each of the three types of severe weather storms. I was rather proud of this at first, but after reading some of the students’ responses, it made me doubt myself. On the self evaluation, I included a section which asked students to list what questions they still had about severe weather. One student wrote, ‘How do tornadoes form?’ Even though this student completed a video broadcast which had to include this component, because it was a group project, his group divided up the storms; so he did not focus on tornados, but on thunderstorms. I thought that all of the students would focus on learning about all of the storms, but know now that some students simply focused on one storm, which was whatever storm they were going to report on in their video broadcast. For next time, I will make sure that I do teach a short lesson on the content, just to ensure that all of the students do understand the basics which I am asking them to learn.

When planning this PBL in the summer, I thought that my students would be able to complete the unit in two weeks, and boy was I wrong. I know now that it is going to take a while longer, if I want it to be done well and if I want my students to really learn it. For my next PBL, I will plan on at least three weeks, if not more. I hope that by making it cross-disciplinary I will be able to devote the time I need to it. As I focused on primarily science on my first PBL, when I didn’t get to science one day, that meant we didn’t get to PBL. With the cross-disciplinary approach, I hope that my students will be able to focus on this project everyday for an allotted time period, or better yet, have it carry across the entire day.

Genius Hour - S Cook

Genius Hour Teacher Observation:

Students watched the Genius Hour overview video and instantly got excited. The opportunity to use their inquiry skills for a project of their choosing was new to them. I found though, that when students heard their friends’ driving questions, they were easily persuaded to change theirs. This caused repetitiveness and insincerity in responses, taking away from the overall experience. To make this a more authentic experience for them, I will conference with students one on one from the beginning, not sharing driving questions with the class. This will allow students the chance to come up with a project that is free from peer influence and more unique to them.

We do GH on Tuesdays when my Horizons students are gone. So far, only 1 of my 2 classes has worked on GH projects. This is mainly due to the maturity level of the majority of the class. As I conference with students during this time, my students need to be able to problem solve or troubleshoot the small issues without my assistance. This is possible with Block 2 as they are a more independent group. They are able to work for an hour without distracting one another, even with my focus checks every 20 minutes.

I love GH because my students who never want to participate in anything get to shine. They may not be interested in the colonization of America, but they love sports, or traveling, or Pokemon. My most quiet student may not create a video, but her PowerPoint speaks loudly her interest in helping the environment.

As far as presentations go, I didn’t inquire how they would present until they had researched for a couple of weeks. As each project and student are different, I tried to allow them time to see how they were most comfortable presenting what they had found. Again, students who don’t know how to utilize their technology followed behind those who do and a long list of video presentations were created. This will be another thing that will be chosen in a student-teacher conference.

As we have had testing and our PBL unit to focus on recently, students have not had the chance to present yet. Their presentations are currently scheduled for December 13^th. 

Darstein - Blog Post #5

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Jonathan Terry - Blog Post 5 "What I Used To Think/But Now I Know"

I decided to create my PBL on density because it has always been a tough concept for my students to grasp.  Each year I look for new assignments, activities, and labs to aid in teaching density and every year I finish the unit still feeling like most of my students don't truth grasp its meaning.  When it came time to start implementing my PBL, I was extremely nervous about what would happen.  Would my students "buy-in" to the project?  Would the ships they create even work?  Would my classroom sink into utter chaos with different groups working on different types of projects?

After my PBL was over I administered a large unit test.  This test had questions from my entire Chemistry unit, not just density and buoyancy.  To put more focus on the PBL, an essay question was put on this unit test that asked students to explain in their own words how density and buoyancy help a ship float.  Data showed that 58 out of 88 students (66%) received full credit on the density question.  This was a little concerning to me.  I assumed this number would be much higher because of the project.  What I found was that most students could relate density to the ship project, and many even understood that the ship had a lower density than the water, but they could not relate density to mass and volume.  This shows me that students did make connections between the content and the real-world applications, but some still struggled with the exact science of the vocabulary.

Based on my reflections and the data from my density PBL, there are a lot of changes I will make to my next PBL.  First, I want to make sure that the concept the PBL is based around is the main focus of the project.  To make sure that students are truly grasping ALL of the material, I will put more individual benchmarks along the way.  These benchmarks could come in the form of reflections, quick-check grades, or even quizzes or tests.  I'm even flirting with the idea of creating a checklist of information students will need to show mastery of before moving on to the more "attractive" aspects of the PBL.  Second, I want to give students opportunities to work with different groups of peers throughout the entire PBL.  After teaching middle school for several years, I've noticed that students tend to get a little antsy within their groups after about 5 days working on a project.  For my next PBL I've already planned various activities where students can work with a partner or in a lab group before finally being assigned to their project group.  This will keep everything fresh and exciting so students don't lose steam heading into the second week of a longer unit.  Third, I want to do a better job having students collect the needed data throughout the entire PBL.  With my density project, students had a blast building and testing their ships, but when it came time to write their proposal, most groups lost interest and did not put forth good work.  If I have groups gather and write the necessary parts along the entire journey, then the final task of simply putting everything together won't seem like an uninteresting chore.

I've always said that I learn more by "doing" and that has been the case with these PBLs.  Actually implementing a PBL in my classroom has taught me a great deal about what I'm good at, but has also given me several areas where I know I can improve.  I'm excited to create and introduce my next PBL to my students in the spring.

Blog #5-What I used to think, but now I know...

                I chose my Force and Motion content as the PBL for this class because it was one of the units that my grade level has struggled with.  We have found the content not to be the easiest for students to grasp.  Some of the concepts and vocabulary is a review for students, but the other is an extension to their knowledge.  At the beginning of this unit, I gave a 20 question pre-assessment.  I told the students to try their best and to answer to the best of their ability.  Some students left some questions blank because they were unsure of the answers.  After going over the pre-assessment, only 17% (4) of my students scored 70 or above. After going through the PBL and taking the post-assessment, 75% (18) of my students scored 70 or above.  I think that my students did very well with the science content overall considering that several students miss some of the content due to RTI reading intervention and Speech services.

                I think this PBL experience was a memorable one for my students.  At RES, our students are familiar with the PBL process because began to implement this into our curriculum.  This PBL was had more of an excitement for the students because the loved the amusement park idea.  Even my students who have never experienced a roller coaster were just as excited.  One thing, I think my students learned was collaboration.  My students were able to work together throughout the unit during science labs.  They also participated in meaningful conversations during the planning stages of the amusement park rides. Some of my students showed growth in their area of research.  This unit allowed them to research something they were interested in and they wanted to become experts for their groups.   The mini-lessons then became meaningful for them because they wanted to apply it to their project.  The final area of growth that they grew in was Force and Motion content.  The students were able to learn 5^th grade content and apply it to a final product.

 This class helped to improve my previous knowledge of PBL.  I was able to implement strategies that I had never heard of into my unit and other subject areas that I teach.  Next year when implementing this PBL, I will be sure to change a few things and most importantly add to the unit.  I would definitely change the pacing of the unit.  Due to the many unforeseen things in the year, my PBL unit lasted much longer than I anticipated.  I am going to look for ways to condense some parts without losing the core values of the PBL process.  I would like to make my PBL more cross-curricular.  After talking with teammates, we have discussed ways in which we can make this unit more integrated.  Another way this PBL unit could be enhanced is by public stakeholders.  I made the joke this summer for the students to visit places like Disney World or even Carowinds, which is more local.  After sitting with my team and doing a little more research we discovered that both placed offered an educational programs geared to force and motion content.  We also discovered that Carowinds offered Engineering Days as well as Education Days.  So, maybe this unit could be moved to the spring next year in order to accommodate those experiences.  I would like to also reach out to a mechanical engineer to speak to the students to provide a different learning experience.  After planning this PBL, I think I will think of projects much differently for my classroom. 

Blog #5-What I used to Think But Now I know

After reviewing my formative assessment (pre and posttest on force and motion), students showed a tremendous amount of growth.  Students went from showing little to no understanding of material to 19 out of 21 students scoring 80% or higher on the post test.  Students were able to use scientific terms to explain answers, label pictures to show push or pull, and show where friction would be.  My students also showed success on our summative assessment.  18 out of 21 students scored an 80% or higher.  The summative assessment had students apply their knowledge of magnets and force and motion.  I saw the most growth with my students STEM journal and science notebook.  I used students STEM journals from an introductory STEM lesson and compared to their journal for this PBL unit.  Students showed a greater understanding of the design process and terminology.  I also noticed students’ reflection on their project were more thought out and involved deeper thinking.  I believe this is a direct correlation to the inquiry based lessons, in-depth research, and multiple opportunities for collaboration, that allowed students to make connections and think through what worked, what didn’t, and what they could improve.

While I already had a good idea as to what a PBL should look like and how it should be executed (thanks to the STEAM focus our school implemented several years ago) I still learned a lot through the execution of this unit.  This unit allowed me the opportunity to stretch myself in the area of planning.  I have always LOVED to plan and try to “out do” my plans each year.  Each daily plan was well thought out; which I believe helped make the execution so successful.  I feel my plans provided students with numerous activities/lessons where I was the facilitator and they took control of their own learning.  Students collaborated daily; and sustained inquiry was something I really focused on.  This class gave me some valuable ideas, tools, and tricks to implement within my own classroom and allowed me to get out of my comfort zone.  Critical friends and building consensus protocol are two prime examples.  Both of these strategies allowed me to try something new and provide my students with meaning learning experiences.  These strategies allowed me to raise my already high expectations…and my students soared!

Some areas I would like to improve are presentation, co-created rubric, and community involvement. After discussion and reflection on last year’s PBL units, my team and I thought it would be best if the students first presentation be to another second grade class.  This would allow students to have experience speaking in front a group of peers and know teachers’ expectations for future projects.  During our Native American unit students presented to a kindergarten class and discussed the contributions of Native Americans and how it influences America today. Since students have now had two experiences presenting to different audiences, I am hoping to expand this to school personal and/or community members.  Another area I would like to improve on is co-created rubrics. This will be a completely different way of thinking for me, but I think it will make it more meaningful for the students.  

Blog Post #5---Jeneane Allgood

     When I chose my Cell Communication Unit to be my Project-Based Lesson unit, I knew that it was a unit that needed improvement, and that it definitely needed more student involvement.  To start out the unit, I gave students a 30-question multiple choice pre-test, and I compared it to the 30 multiple choice questions on the culminating unit test for that unit.  Students scored an average of 20% on the pre-test compared to 85.7% on the post-test.  So, they showed that they had learned the key content, at least over the course of the unit. What I am hoping for is that the retain most of this information for a longer period of time because of the connections they made when they did their Cell Communication Disease Project presentations. Students worked so hard on those projects to apply what they learned in class to the disease that they were researching.  They didn't just have to understand it for themselves, they had to be able to explain it to others, which the majority of them did very well with.

       As I reflect on what worked and what didn't work about my PBL unit plan for cell communication, a couple things stand out to me.  First, I need to change some of the disorders that I let them pick from---some were too complicated or there just wasn't enough research out there to really have them dig into the topic thoroughly and independently. Second, I would change the culminating project.  I didn't want them to be able to "copy" an existing cell communication image from the internet, and put that on their canvas, but that is what happened in a lot of cases.  I underestimated the number of good images out there that would be easy to copy. Third, I need to reach out more to community members to get them involved in the research process and to view the culminating project. Simply put, I was too nervous that these projects might not go as planned, that I was really uncomfortable with inviting people from the community until we were almost finished with them, and I knew they would be good enough to show. Fourth, I will need to work on individual responsibilities in the group work. I'm not sure if I will go the route of a contract on my next PBL, or split up each person's responsibilities a little more clearly from the beginning.

         In my next PBL unit, I want the learning to be a little more "truly" authentic---not as much regurgitation of information, but true learning in a hands-on format.  My next PBL will also have more individual responsibilities and check-points (as referenced above). Finally, I would like to have 2-3 different people (with different specialties) come in to talk to and help students (using their specific area of expertise) to help them plan the best way to help their seed to germinate. I would also like to have a more public presentation of their culminating project, open to a much wider audience. I will detail more specifics about this in my unit plan PBL for spring semester.
   

Jeneane Allgood---Blog Post #4 SAMR/Genius Hour

For my genius hour project, I chose to do 2 SAMR model revisions of my usual lesson plans for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Normally, when I teach about GMOs, I do a survey (pre-quiz) to see what they already know about genetically modified organisms (uses for them and the kinds of food that contain them). So, I thought I could modify (the "M" level of SAMR) the survey/pre-quiz to make it more interactive. So, I made one on Kahoot and my students LOVED it!  It really helped them to see the kinds of things they would be learning about in the lesson, and what they should be looking out for or paying attention to. The kids liked it so much that I made them another Kahoot today for our Stem Cell lesson. My goal was to give it to them as a pre/post quiz to see what they had learned, but we ran out of time at the end of class, so I didn't get a chance to have them do it after the lesson.  I loved it, my students loved it (and learned from it), and I will definitely be using it in the future.

The other thing I did to modify (M level of SAMR) my GMO lesson was to have students use padlet to answer a question at the end of class on how they felt about GMOs.  My 3rd block's prompt was about whether they thought that GMOs should have to be labeled on nutritional products, and then they had to back up their stance with facts and evidence. My 4th block class had a different prompt--they were asked "For what kinds of situations or cases should we do genetic modification? When should it be allowed and why?". Again, they had to back up their opinion with facts.

From these 2 modified lessons, I learned many things. First, I learned that technology isn't as scary as I thought it was, and if you use if for the first time in a class of kids that will be supportive, they will actually help you troubleshoot any problems that you might run into.  Second, I learned that I have to figure out how to use Padlet a little bit better. I found Kahoot to be very user friendly, but I had a little trouble figuring out some of the settings on Padlet (for example, I had to "approve" everyone's posts,and that was very tedious---I wouldn't do that in the future).  Third, I learned that there are little things that you can do to "jazz" up your lessons that aren't that time consuming but that really make a difference in student learning. By starting these 2 lessons out with a Kahoot, I automatically grabbed their attention, and gave them a way to anticipate what they would be learning about.  They were more engaged than they would typically be in a lesson and definitely got more involved in our lecture than they usually would, so I really think it helped them to pay attention more closely, which is something we've been struggling with for a while.

I know some teachers have already been using Kahoot for a while, but this was a really big step for me, and because I had planned on using it as a "pre/post" quiz to see what they had learned, I felt like this was definitely at the "modification" level of the SAMR model.

Post #5

My students learned a great deal about macromolecules to include their structure, function, and how to identify them in due to their chemical properties.   These are just simple facts that both, in most cases, easily memorized and recalled for times on the final assessment. Students also showed growth and learned other items to include: how to act properly for presentation, how to dress professionally, and how to ask questions for a guest speaker.  Yes, understanding the facts about macromolecules is necessary for testing purposes, but public speaking skills is of greater necessity for future endeavors like job interviews.  For most students, they showed enough growth to where what they didn’t know (or did not demonstrate) was not detrimental to their grade they earned for the culminating project.   Out of the 24 students all showed growth but 3 students did not grow enough and it impacted their grade in the final assessment.

There were several items that did not run as smoothly as anticipated.  First, was some major assumptions.  I assumptions that the students should already know about presentations to include: seriousness, body posture, and using proper lingo.  However, after a very short practice session I found out otherwise.   Second, was the students would self-check as they were practicing.  Yes, they are kids and yes, I should have never assumed but I had it set in my mind that they knew this was their grade and they would stay on task better.  Also, was the time-line. I am a stickler for time and I set schedules for a reason.  In pained me to add a couple more days to the unit due to factors of laptops not working properly, students spending too much time on certain topics, and in other cases, students just working slowly.  

What I will do differently for the next one is more practice and critique.  This would provide a better gauge for me to evaluate where the students are and where they need to go to be more successful. Also, I will involve several English teachers (it’s in their standards) to help evaluate them during their practice.  Finally, the students can record their practices on the computers and go back and evaluate themselves to see how well they did.  

Blog 5 - What I Know Now

I added a column to my original Baseline Data document in my Google Drive to discuss what I have learned after the implementation of my PBL unit. Some of what I learned was not only based on this one unit, but my attempt at conducting my entire semester class in a PBL fashion. The link to my Google doc is below and is also in my folder in our class folder.



https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rCS88YuKqbW0uSSnUBvSh9wvvGmvsFFEuwnYcwq0qIM/edit

What I Used to Think, But Now I Know - Jessica Barwick

Because I made the decision to change my PBL unit to westward expansion after I had already started it, I do not have as much baseline data as I would like to be able to compare and see growth.  I did have STAR reading scores from the beginning of the school year, and because this unit incorporated reading literary and informational text, I expect to see growth in my students when we re-take STAR later this week.  However, I know that this unit alone is not responsible for all growth in reading skills.  I did give a narrative cold writing prompt at the beginning of the year, and most students were weak in several areas.  Ones that especially needed work were story development, character and setting, and figurative language.  During the unit, I focused mini-lessons on these areas, and even though my students haven't all finished publishing their final writing projects, from my observations and conferences, I have seen tremendous growth in these areas.  I also did not give a pre-test on westward expansion before this unit because the social studies standards are all new in fifth grade, so students rarely have prior knowledge on any of the topics.  However, I realize that to truly see growth in westward expansion understanding, I should give one in the future.  The majority of my students passed the unit test, though, with many making As and Bs, so I feel confident they learned the material well.  Along with growth in their reading, writing, and social studies skills, my students learned a great deal about seeing stories from multiples perspectives, collaborating with others, solving problems by asking new questions and researching, performing in front of others, and time management.  These real world skills are invaluable and will transfer to future projects inside and outside of school.

Not only have my students learned from our first PBL unit, but I have as well.  I saw the benefits of infusing project-based learning elements in all curriculum, even if there is not always time for a full culminating project presentation with an audience.  Inquiry, agency, collaboration, student choice, and real-world connections can be incorporated into many units and will generate more interest in the topics and better prepare students for problem solving in life.  In my westward expansion unit, collaboration was high and helped students learn how to compromise and create within a group while still keeping their individual voices in their own writing.  I also felt that the focus on point of view worked well because being able to see things from multiple perspectives can instill a sense of empathy, so the social studies content can be applied to everyday life.  We connected our pioneers' journeys to bullying by reading stories about bullying from different points of view (the victim, the bystander, and the bully).  There were some struggles along the way, of course, the biggest one being time.  I underestimated how much time that collaborating, creating, writing, and practicing would take, and some of my well-intentioned plans had to be limited.  This has also led to me being behind with regard to my long range plans.  I also feel like I did not allow enough time for peer critique and feedback, which would have helped the projects turn out better, and our audience was limited to just another fifth grade class.  For my next unit, I will continue with the elements that worked well, but limit the scope or time frame of my project (quality over quantity), plan for more opportunities for peer feedback and revision, and expand our audience to include community members.

Overall, I am pleased with the way my first PBL unit turned out.  Honestly, I was skeptical about implementing some of these elements, even though I was excited about them in the summer.  I wasn't sure how my fifth graders would be able to handle working in groups, researching independently, and presenting to a real audience, especially without knowing who they were at that point.  Now, after getting to know my kids, I can keep my high expectations and plan for what they need and are interested in.  Yes, there will be those students who do not rise to the occasion, but most will surprise you with what they are capable of as long as you show that you believe in them.  I was not sure how interested my students would be in project-based learning, but after seeing the excitement on their faces when they presented, the in-depth knowledge they gained, and the questions of "Mrs. Barwick, can we do this again?," I know that, while difficult, PBL is worth it.

Melissa Terry Genius Hour

Ten years ago, I was the Instructional Coach at Clemson Elementary, and I worked with several teachers to begin two new classrooms – Primary Multiage and Intermediate Multiage.  The concept of a multiage class is not new, but we were looking for an alternative to the regular classroom for students who had difficulty (for several reasons) with that environment.  Basically, the Primary Multiage had 20 first grade and 20 second grade students with 2 teachers and the Intermediate had 20 third and 20 fourth with two teachers.  Both classes are heterogeneously grouped.  Most of the teaching done in these rooms has been small group geared toward student level rather than grade level, and many work stations throughout the day that are collaborative as well as a time to work independently on skills.  The teachers in these classrooms used projects and self-directed learning as a way to get students interested in their learning. 

I close the IMA (intermediate group) to do Genius Hour for two reason.  I knew that they were used to doing some independent self-study and this would be a good next step.  I also knew that science and social studies standards are always challenging for IMA.  It is very hard for those teachers to teach all of the third and fourth grade standards and keep the integrity of this class.  Basically, the more you divide them up into grade levels, the less you have the opportunity for them to learn in a multiage setting.  I thought that Genius Hour might be a way to help students dive deeper into those standards, or provide time for teachers to pull small groups while students are working on Genius Hour projects.  Either way, I wanted the IMA teachers to have to opportunity to learn about it and incorporate it the way it would work best for them.  These teachers are always willing to try new things and they were very excited about this.

I met with both teachers after school prior to my teaching to go over the basics of Genius Hour.  I shared parts from the webinar and also showed examples.  I went over twice and taught – one lesson on thick and thin questions and another on notetaking.  I met both times after the teaching with the teachers to discuss Genius Hour and next steps.  I also talked with them about the many directions they could go in with this.  We talked about ways this could be used in their classroom. 

For this first project, the teachers wanted students to work under the theme of “Earth”.  The teachers were okay with leaving it open-ended after that, but they wanted students to research something under that theme so it could tie into both sets of Science standards.  I was in agreement with this; although during my teaching, several students wanted to know why they couldn’t do what they wanted to do.  I told them they would get an opportunity another time, and they were okay with that. 

The teachers are still in the process of working through this project and I foresee completed projects before Christmas.  They promised to invite me back over to see them.  I also have had an opportunity to share Genius Hour (just the basics) with some district personnel and we are talking about times this could be presented to others.  I would like to practice some with it and plan to meet with some interested teachers at my school to share this and get them started in this area. 

I think what I love most about it is that students are learning and they don’t even know it.  They are so excited about new information!  It was so fun to see them wanting to learn more. 

Genius Hour = Genius Hour

So I felt like a genius when I started this, but I quickly realized I am an amateur. I decided to literally do Genius Hour for my genius hour assignment. I started researching, attended an hour long webinar (in which I was offered the opportunity to take an online Genius Hour course for the low low price of $120 - offer good for one hour only!), had my kids brainstorm, and promised them 20% of the time we have left (only 3 weeks) to work on their genius ideas. Needless to say, I feel like I'm drowning and am now only hoping that maybe I have sparked one kid's interest and maybe this will stick with him/her. I truly hope to give them 20% of our time to work on these projects (one wants to make stuffed penguins??? several want to make online games, one wants to make his own jeans, and one is learning calligraphy along with me, etc.) as many really seem interested. This will be a one and done project with this semester's group, but upon reflection over the Christmas holidays, I may try it again next semester or maybe more. It is definitely a lot of work and seriously needs to be it's own course at our campus! So, wish me luck, pray for me, but maybe don't ask me how it went because I afraid it may be an epic fail. To be continued...

Genius Hour

Due to several restraints in the PLTW curriculum I had few options to choose from.  So, I decided for genius hour.   We just finished the Automoblox car where the students had to recreate each piece of a toy car in the Autodesk inventor.  In teams of seven, they either chose the windshield, tire, axle, bed, passenger section, passenger base, or the connector piece.   A team leader was chosen and then pieces were chosen/assigned.   After each student recreated their piece on the 3D software they had to assemble the pieces in the Autodesk inventor.  The genius hour part was the students had to add something, of their choice, to improve the car.  The students have added the following: muffler /flame throwers, people, windshield wipers, license plate, doors, sirens, and a steering wheel.  There were numerous instructional videos on how to build the pieces of the Automoblox car and most of the kids did a studious job of following the directions.  They were able to recreate the pieces to almost exact dimensions and the cars assembly pretty well.  However, their true creativity and understanding of the Autodesk Inventor software shined through as they added items to their cars that they wanted to complete. My favorite was the sire.  He was able to figure out how to make the outer piece of the siren glass (see through) but the inner piece solid.  I saw grown adults cry in Columbia during the training on completing simple assignments.  Yet, a 9th grader took huge strides in the software when he was allowed to complete items that he chose. 

Genius Hour Post

Austin Baker

Link to the images

So, Genius Hour in my photo classes was really successful. I thought it would be pretty good, but it was REALLY good. As I’ve been trying everything on hard-mode this semester and working with the more difficult of my two classes first, I was actually kind of blown away by what they turned out.

 

I came up with the idea for how to implement the assignment almost immediately as we were talking about it in our last class meeting. The kids would have a short time to brainstorm and prep, then a short time to shoot, and finally a short time to edit before delivering, personally, their finished images.

In actuality, I had to pare down the deliverable a little. I originally wanted 3 shots, but after much complaining and gnashing of teeth, I narrowed it down to one. That was a good thing, for two reasons.

First, I think the kids focused more on getting everything right than if they had to shoot multiple images. Secondly was time. Having them create, deliver, and critique one image per student took about 2 hours for a class of 30 kids, even with me working to move things along as quickly as possible.

I was surprised by the quality of work that came out of my tough class; pretty much across the board they all did some of their best work fof the semester. It engaged them, and they actually tried. I’m not sure if that’s because they have to get up and stand beside their work, or because they were just generally engaged with the assignment The shy kids obviously hated it, but they got up and did it anyways. And, the one kid who really missed the ball on the assignment didn’t want to come up and talk about his picture in front of the class. I asked why and he proceeded to rattle off a list of all the things he’d done wrong in the image. I think that he was embarrassed because he didn’t take it seriously. Also, the list he rattled off including all of the things I was going to say about it, so, I didn’t make him get up.

I think overall, Genius Hour was super-successful because there were so many good thigs that came out of it, plus, it tied in so many concepts of PBL> It’s authentic, it’s problem-based (how do I get a shot done in this short amount of time?), it’s creative/artistic, it’s active, it has an element of collaboration, it has responsibility (in that I put the kids up beside their work), and it has critique (from both the teacher and from their peers).

The conclusion my kids came to is that Genius Hour is basically like every reality TV game show competition out there; you have judges come in, assign a competition, you have limited time to complete it, then they have to present and get judged, then a winner is called right away. It’s especially like Top Photographer, which is a show that just came out and is a spiritual successor to America’s Next Top Model, which we have been watching in class. In fact, I think I’m going to take inspiration from that show next time and give them a slightly more directed theme than this first one, which was “shoot whatever you want.” 

Blog Post 4- Genius Hour

I’ve always seen posts on Pinterest about Genius Hour and being a Pinterest junkie who loves to try new things, I knew I would have to give it a whirl.  But when… I always have these great ideas of the summer that I sometimes never get to due to time.  So, when this was an assignment for our class, I need this would be something I would want to try.  It all started when I put a Wonder Wall in my classroom.  I didn’t introduce to the student what it was.  I just simply hung it up.  Being the observant 10 & 11-year-old my students are, they asked immediately, “what did it mean?”  I, then, explained to the students that whenever they had a question about something, they could post it on the Wonder Wall and we would research the ideas when we had time.   I allow my students to post ANYTHING they wondered about at first, but then thought about moving Genius Hour to a narrower concept (i.e. Amusement Park Rides). This was an instant hit because my students are intrigued with making random PowerPoints.  After finishing their work, they will make PowerPoints about their favorite bands, themselves, and animals. 

                I absolutely loved giving my students this opportunity because I could openly see the excitement in their eyes as I gave the instructions.  I gave the students 3 rules: 1. You have to research something. 2. You have to create something. And 3. You have to present your research.  I think these three rules were sufficient for the students because we have been working on biographies in the classroom.  We have had mini-lessons on researching information, citing a source, taking notes and determining importance of information.  Another important mini-lesson we had was finding reliable sources.  I think because of these mini-lessons; my students were able to handle Genius Hour well.  Most of my students chose to make a PowerPoints and few told me they wanted to create something different, like a fact book. 

                I think this strategy has a major impact on my students learning for many reasons.  One reason is because it kept my students engaged in something they were interested in.  I told students that they could work on their projects whenever they finished their work.  They were able to use their time wisely instead of wasting valuable school time.  Another reason is the students were able to practice some 21^st Century skills for creating college and career ready students.  Students are able to be creative, communicate, and research while doing something that interests them.  Finally, Genius Hour impacted my students learning because it was fun.  Students were able to learn about something that they enjoy and take a break from standards driven instruction in their eyes.  While secretly, they are really using skills that are necessary for them to be successful students. 

Blogpost Homework: Collaboration

Blogpost Homework: Collaboration

In his article, Collaboration and High-Quality Student Work, Brengard describes how collaboration is essential to student success and an integral part of his school's mission. He states that Constructive Collaboration is the goal and requires students to take responsibilty for themselves and teammates. They listen to each other with understanding, kindness, and empathy. They commit to shared success. This type of collaboration is essential to learn early in life as it prepares children for life after graduation, when collaboration becomes part of their daily life at work and in all relationships. 

In his article, Easing the Pain of Student Collaboration, Paul Curtis describes the importance of student collaboration and how as students get older, particularly middle and high school, teachers spend less time teaching this crucial skill. He suggests team contracts as one approach to meet this challenge. He lays out specific components for creating these contracts. He also cautions teachers to actually teach collaboration, value diversity, balance group work with individual work and benchmark and tracking to hold groups accountable.

The rubrics for kindergarten will be very useful for me this year as I continue on my PBL journey. BIE's rubric contains the essential elements for collaboration in early childhood and is written in a way that is child friendly. I can discuss the rubric with students and they can see how they are performing based on the number of smiley faces they receive. I love that there are not any frowns or other negative faces. 

The group I have this year is overall a respectful and kind group of children. They listen to one another and always compliment one another. I would like to boost their confidence and teach them to encourage each other to share ideas. They tend to look to certain children for ideas and direction while working collaboratively, rather than each child contributing an equal amount in ideas and information. 

The most important components in working collaboratively in any grade level are communication, collective responsibility, and community. When a classroom has a sense of community, I believe empathy and respect naturally follow. Collaborative work is only successful when students feel comfortable and understand that they each share an equal amount of responsibility in their groups. Students must also be able to communicate their ideas effectively, as well as give and receive feedback.

Blog Post 3 - Collaboration

Collaboration is key. I really believe collaboration is the key to most successes. Even outside of school, sports teams, music/art/theater groups, all must work together to produce the desired result. My top three keys to collaboration from the rubrics include, Works as a Whole Team, Interpersonal Communication, and Makes and Follows Agreements. Compared to classes in the past, my class this year has had experience working in groups before. Something that this class needs to work on is using everyone in the group and Working as a Whole Team. For my PBL, they are in groups of three or four. Some groups are working great together, others are struggling to include everyone. It took a while for one group to really include another student in their project. Another group, which contains three leaders, have struggled to get anything done because they all have ideas and want it done in the way they imagine. When students realize that they are all equal in their group, they can begin to use each other’s strengths. For example, one girl finished writing her paragraph on hurricanes and asked me to review for edits and revisions. As I began to look at it she said, ‘Oh, I should just ask K. in my group to look over this since she’s looked over my other writings before.’ I told her that was a great idea and that she should do that. She was aware of the strengths of her group members and took advantage of them.

Interpersonal Communication also made the list because it is essential. I had to sit down with my group of three leaders and have them remake their group contract. The group was not working well together and they were constantly arguing. They were hardly able to share any of the great ideas they each had because they would not listen long enough to let their group members speak. When I sat down with them, we wrote down that they would communicate respectfully with each other. I asked them what this should look and sound like and wrote these down for them too. We also talked about how it is okay to have differing opinions, but that they needed to listen to what the other person has to say and then discuss the different options. This group is brilliant as individuals, but they do not yet have the skills to listen and communicate with one another to make their group brilliant. Once they can respectfully communicate with one another, their ideas will sky rocket.

Finally, Makes and Follows Agreements made the list because I think it is important to highlight on each team member’s strengths and to create group rules and will be followed. For the PBL, I had groups create a group contract. Without prompting, one group made rules and a tally system that would cause a member to get kicked-out if they did not follow the rules, similar to what was mentioned in the blog post. Everyone in the team agreed, so I let them keep it. The next day, one team member was playing around and not getting his work done, so his team members gave him tallies and he got kicked-out. The student was upset, yet admitted to not completing his work. Since he had agreed to the contract, he knew he had to follow it. What I found amazing was that his team wanted to give him a second chance, so they reviewed the rules with him and talked with him about how he needs to make sure he is doing his part so they can get the project completed. The student agreed and was invited back into the group. There have been no problems since. Only this group came up with rules which would get a member kicked-out, but I was most impressed with how they were able to talk openly about the contract they made. They all knew the final goal and needed to work towards it. When students are able to communicate with one another and work towards a common goal as a team, then they will be successful.

I offer my students many opportunities for collaboration, the easiest being in their table group arrangements. When my students sit in groups of fours, they are able to work with a partner, or their whole table on certain tasks. They practice communicating respectfully with one another, sharing the talk time, and working towards a similar goal. Other chances my students have are during projects, group tableaus, and book clubs. I have not started book clubs yet, but already have the feeling that my book clubs will be more successful this year because my students have had more opportunities to engage in collaboration.  

Blog Post 3: Collaboration

Collaboration is an education buzz word that we use often, but I think that sometimes we use it to sound good.  As teachers, we are expected to collaborate and we are expected to get our students to effectively collaboration.  And as an elementary school teacher, I like to keep my students in collaborative working groups.  Just like Aaron Brengard, I consider collaboration as an essential part of my classroom culture.  But, I know that sometimes the collaboration is not beneficial to my students.  Often times, one student ends up doing most of the work while other students goof off.  I like the Collaboration Contract presented in Paul Curtis’ article.  I think collaboration is very good for students if completed correctly. 

                After looking at the New Tech Collaboration Rubric and the 3-5 Collaboration Rubric, I felt like many of the elements were important for my current class.  I think the 3-5 Collaboration Rubric is written in child friendly terms.  This is extremely important because students are able to read the rubric and understand what is expected of them.  One important element of this rubric includes the “work together as a team” and “helps the team” sections.  This section was especially important for my class this year because I have a few students who are underachievers.  These students are extremely smart, but will sit back and allow others to complete all of their work.  Another important element of the 3-5 Collaboration Rubric is “makes and follows agreements.”  I especially like this part because it gives the students a sense of ownership for their groups, which can help with participation.  Students will help develop the rubric so they will be more apt to work hard to complete their collaborative group take.  The final important element is the “Respects Others” section on the 3-5 Collaboration Rubric.  In order to make collaborative groups work, students must be respectful towards each other at all times.  I am constantly saying to a few of my students, “be nice to your classmate.”  So I think that it would be helpful to have this element as part of the rubric.

                Students can participate in collaboration in many ways in the classroom.  One way to use collaboration in the classroom is to let students sit in collaborative groups.  The groups can be chosen by you so that you can monitor which students are sitting and working together.  Thankfully, at Roebuck, we are using the Engineering Design Process as many ways as possible.  This helps to provide another opportunity to use collaboration.  Students work collaboratively in science using the EDPs.  Most of our science includes a hands-on approach which students will work together.    Students can also work collaboratively in other subjects on PBL, research projects, and classwork.  When students have the opportunity to talk about their learning to their peers, they sometimes gain more knowledge and/or clear up any misunderstandings Collaborative work is an awesome strategy for students to use and PBL gives plenty of opportunity for students to collaborate. 

Video Self-Analysis-T.Harris

The lesson I chose to record was a follow up lesson to several Force and Motion labs and lessons.  The beginning of the lesson began with a short review of the forces we had studied during the week.   Students had the vocabulary words on cards and were asked to hold up the vocabulary word that fits the description I gave to them.  After the activating game, we then oved to the Plan stage of the Engineering Design Process.  Students were moved to their groups to decide which amusement park ride they would create.  Then, students used the consensus protocol to draw out their design.

                When first watching the videos, I was stuck on the unimportant things.   I immediately thought to myself, “why do you wear your hair like that” or “why is your sweater jacked up and no on offered to tell you?” I became fixated on my hands and how I used them to help me to explain things and held them weird while talking.    And then there were the frequently used words like “alright,” “aight,” and “and then.” I purposely watched the video several times to catch something different.  I began to think about things that affect my classroom and instruction.  One thing I noticed in this particular lesson is my proximity to the students.  I stood at the front of the classroom and did not pace much throughout the room.  My desks were arranged in rows, which may be a reason why I chose to stay confined in one area of the room.  There were typical classroom management issues that probably could be resolved with more pacing in the room.  I also realized that I didn’t give students enough practice when we were reviewing.  I only presented students with 6 descriptions (almost one per vocabulary word).  This was due to time constraints.  I knew what I had planned for the lesson, but I only had a certain amount of time to complete the entire lesson.  Another important thing I noticed that is relevant to my classroom and instruction is I called on the boys more than the girls.  I would address the male students that were off task even when there were girls off task as well.  The males in my class tend to be more unfocused and somewhat rambunctious so I think I focused more on them when doing the lesson even though the females were off task.  Finally, an important thing I noticed was the confusion some students experienced when asked to move to their science groups.  Some students were unclear of their set group for this PBL because we had to do some flexible grouping during “special” occasions. 

                This exercise was very beneficial because I was able to see things that I wouldn’t normally pay attention to.  I was able to think about my instruction all the time and make myself aware of things that I normally wouldn’t pay attention to.  One way I want to improve my classroom and instruction is to make sure I am pacing the room, but also include the instructions that I am giving on the board to reach both my auditory and visual learners.  While pacing the room, I will try to pay close attention to all students not just students who are typically are off task.  I could use a system to randomly choose the names of the students.  The student that is chosen could then answer and explain their thinking.  Another improvement I could make is making sure to give clear and concise information.  Students names can be posted to eliminate their confusion throughout the unit.  This reference would be good for the students who accidentally forget.  I think I could also give students more examples to practice with for the review game.  Due to time, I shorted the student’s review which is relevant to their learning.  So, maybe starting my review the few minutes we have to wait before our recess time, then finishing after recess could possible give me enough time to thoroughly review.  The video self-analysis was an excellent activity for teachers who have been in the classroom a number of years.  It gives the teacher a perspective that they would have never realized without this exercise.  I would be interested to video tape myself during other lessons just to give myself critique. 

Blog Post 4-Genius Hour

At the end of each school year I try to find one new idea that I would like to research over the summer and implement the next year.  Last year I had heard about Genius Hour and knew I HAD to try it!  So, when I heard about this assignment I was so excited!!  Since we were in the middle of an integrated PBL unit, I knew time was going to be a factor.  Our current unit was on the contributions of Native Americans and their impact on America.  We had already started the unit with discussion, reading, and research of the first Thanksgiving and three different Native American tribes located in different parts of the United States.  My students were so excited about this unit and would constantly ask me questions about Pilgrims, their trip on the Mayflower, Squanto, etc. that I decided to have those questions be the driving force for Genius Hour.

            To begin, I reviewed thick questions with students and allowed them to use their anchor chart in their reading notebook to help devise questions about Pilgrims or Native Americans.  This was a great opportunity to revisit such an important skill.  After students wrote their thick question on a sticky note, they posted on our wonder wall to share with the rest of the class.  My students were so excited to see not only their question, but also their peers’ questions hanging up.  My wonder wall is located beside our classroom door and as we line to leave I often hear, “Wow, Eden asked a really good question.  I can’t wait to hear her research.”  or “Elliott did some great thinking on his question.” These words make my teacher heart sing! J Once students had their thick question it was time to research.  My students have a lot of experience researching so this wasn’t something I need to stop and “teach”.  While researching, students started forming other “I wonder” questions which we used a different colored sticky note to add to our wonder wall.  Due to time, my students are only able to work on this for the last fifteen minutes of class.  We are currently in the process of finishing up our research and preparing our presentations. In the future, I plan on replacing my current morning work research station with a Genius Hour project.  This will give my students more time each week to work and they will get to drive their own learning.   I have loved seeing and hearing the excitement my students have and I do believe they have found a passion project! 

Blog Post 3: Collaboration - Brittany

Collaboration in the classroom has always been important to me. As Aaron Brengard mentions, collaboration is equally important for adults. The more opportunities we give our students to work collaboratively in the classroom, the more equipped they will be to work collaboratively as they grow. Obviously, I think all elements of both rubrics are important. However, if I have to pick the three most important elements for my current group of students, I would have to choose: organizes work, respects others, and takes responsibility.

Organizes Work

I have some mighty unorganized students this year… and I can’t really blame them as I am not the most organized person myself. However, I have really tried to encourage them to see the importance of keeping their work organized. Just as they need to have a plan for their project design, they need to have a plan for how they will carry out their individual tasks.

Respects Others

Respect is incredibly important when working collaboratively. It is important for students to know that they need to be polite and kind to their teammates, even when they may disagree.

Takes Responsibility

We have been working on this skill lately, especially during reading. My students have been participating in book clubs, and they have recently seen how one member of the group can disrupt the group’s plan when he/she is not responsible for his/her work. Paul Curtis suggests that students should create group contracts when working on a project. I like the idea of having students create a set of criteria that is important to them.  Then, all members of the group would be held responsible for following the standards they agreed upon at the outset of the project. 

I think project based learning is a great instructional strategy for fostering collaboration. So far, my students have had to make choices together, research together, design together, and execute a plan together. They have had to respect the ideas of others, and they have learned that every member of the group must play a part for the team as a whole to succeed.

Genius Hour - Jessica Barwick

After researching all the possibilities for genius hour, I chose to create an immersion table with a noticings chart, combined with a wonder wall.  Since we are finishing up our westward expansion unit, I decided to create an immersion table leading into our next unit on inventions and immigration to America.  I thought that a great way to introduce our next PBL on the contributions of immigrants would be to include items that are inventions created only by immigrants!  The first thing I noticed was that I learned a great deal from creating the table!  I had to do my own research, and I learned that so many inventions or ideas for inventions came from immigrants.  My table includes blue jeans, Christmas lights (to represent the idea of electricity), light bulb, radio, gyroscope, video game equipment, microphone, flash drive, picture of telephone, and picture of youtube logo.  I also included large pictures that represent different cultures as well as items from our travels, such as a fan from China and Matryoshka dolls from Russia.

When the students came in, they were immediately interested in the table and wanted to check out the items.  I allowed a few students at a time to go to the table and look at the items more closely.  They wrote their observations on a sticky note and added it to the noticings chart behind the table.  When I read the notes on the chart, I saw that some students made observations like "the wiimote was heavier than the light bulb" or just made a list of the items.  But many students made astute observations (even things I hadn't thought of!) like the fact that many used electricity, are used for entertainment, and were items from other cultures.  I assumed they wouldn't know they were all ideas or inventions from immigrants to America, but I was glad to see they figured out that many items were from or represented other countries.  I'm anxious to tell them the connection between all the items, and I believe they will be more excited about this unit because of the immersion table!

I put the noticings chart on a class Wonder Wall because I believe they are connected.  The immersion table piqued the curiosity of many students, and they started asking questions.  Great questions come from great inspiration, so I was hoping the table would encourage new "wonderings" for our wonder wall.  Unfortunately, the class "wonderings" were not really related to the table, but that's okay!  Students were told to write any question or wonder statement and pin it to the wall, based on anything they wanted to learn more about or were interested in.  Some students didn't have anything they wanted to add to the Wonder Wall until they saw or read some others' ideas.  I assumed I would have a lot of "thin" questions, but surprisingly, most of the questions on the Wonder Wall would require significant research.  Many are about specific people, because one person started asking about Beyonce and others followed suit with other famous people.  Some are too broad, like "I wonder about constellations" or "I wonder about Christmas lights," but some were very insightful, like "I wonder what it's like to be born a Native American." Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of wonderings.  I'm going to leave the Wonder Wall questions up for a while and give students time to add to it.  Eventually, I want students to choose one of their own wonderings or be inspired by someone else's, then form it into a driving question for genius hour.  I want to pilot genius hour with my students that are not in band or strings after Thanksgiving (we will have 45 minutes twice per week), then with both classes in the Spring.  My vision is for students to continue to add to the Wonder Wall as questions organically arise from their natural curiosity, and I hope it will inspire lots of independent research beyond the classroom!

Overall, it was a fun, learning experience for me and the students to implement the immersion table, noticings chart, and Wonder Wall in the classroom.  I even extended a noticings chart into my after school writing club, where we did a poetry text set immersion and wrote our observations.  Kids love hands on learning, and they are constantly asking questions, so the combination of these can certainly lead to more engagement in the classroom!