Course 2 Blog #2 Clark H. Maxwell/Selfie Reflection

Identifying what's important:
          
    I did a consensus protocol, or my version of it.  I had groups of no more than five, spread out in spots on the gym floor.  I had them all put their names on it so I could remember who is in what group.  I had them write down what FITT stands for (frequency, intensity, time and type).  I gave them the first word; they had to come up with the rest.  We talked about this the Friday before.  Then, I asked them to write down three different exercises that we did in the weeks prior to starting our PBL.  It could be any three, because I change a few of them as we went along.  Next, I had them tell me three different pieces of equipment we used during our workouts.  Lastly, I had them tell me three benefits of exercise.  We spend a couple of minutes most days talking about the health benefits of being active.  We came together at the end and I asked a few of the groups to tell what they came up with.  
     This was important because it let me know that they had been paying attention in class before, during, and after our workouts and talks.

Making Connections:

     I had hoped that the little Q&A sessions we had most days would help them to understand how being active could benefit them in a positive way.  We would also discussed the use of household equipment as substitutes if someone was on a very limited budget.  To my surprise they took to this well, because in subsequent sessions I could tell ideas were popping in their heads.  Some of the things they came up with were book bags, milk jugs, cans of soup, etc.  The video selfie also reassured me that they were learning how to do certain movements, what parts of the body they were using, and how exercise can benefit them.  They'd been paying attention although I was skeptical at times.

Incorporating Contextual Knowledge:

     I used what I knew about my students varying levels of fitness to craft the workouts that we were doing in the weeks previous.  One of the things we talk about are different ways of exercising that work the same muscles, but may be easier to do.  This usually builds their confidence and helps them to better their scores.  I always encourage my students to come ask me what their last score was on our fitness tests.  Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, but I always let them know beforehand.  I tried to group the students with a pretty fair mix of girls and boys.  There were a couple that needed to be traded based on the ability to get along with each other.

Drafting Next Steps:

    Overall, I thought it went well.  Next time I would definitely have the groups closer together to cut down on my movement.  I generally try not to ever turn my back to students, especially 6th graders.  However, considering we are coming off a full moon, and the minuscule amount of PE time my 6th graders have had the last 3 days, it went pretty good.  It was apparent from the answers that were given that they have been paying attention.  The weeks prior to this, we have been working out and having general talks about healthy living and fitness, so that was encouraging.  
         I did this on October 10th.  At the time we had worked a little each day on our PBL.  Part of coaching is being able to read your players, PE is no different.  Sometimes you just have to change thing up and get away from the normalcy for a bit.  I could tell that my kids needed a break by their participation, attitudes, and body language.  So, the week after we had regular PE.  It seems to have worked, because when it came time to make their purchases it went quickly.  This went so well that I did it again for a few days and got them back to working out to get reacquainted with the exercises, muscles they were using, and how a workout should flow.  Just doing this has made the time they work on this more efficient

Blog 3 Growth Mindset/Collaboration/Student Agency Kimberly Trott

Blog 3 Growth Mindset/Collaboration/Student Agency    Kimberly Trott

The growth mindset versus the fixed mindset presented in the TED video by Carol Dweck was a nice reminder that some students are very self-directed and seek to gain knowledge in the classroom while other students are in a fixed mindset.  Even smart kids can be in a fixed mindset if they do not choose to seek growth in what they are doing in the classroom. Growth mindset students enjoy learning for the pleasure of personal understanding.  There are also a small group of students that actually see school as a place to learn and treat it and the teacher as a facilitator of this knowledge.  I find many of the ESOL students in my classroom show this ability.  Over the years, the students that actively seek my help, ask for clarification, and then seek to correct inaccuracies in their understanding are the minority of students.

After reviewing the student agency chart several topics stuck out:

The most difficult ones to implement as a teacher for me are the use of effort and practice to grow, growing from setbacks, seeking feedback, actively participating,  using effort and practice to grow, finding personal relevance in the assignments, and how the material and what they do in the classroom will impact them and their community.

   

Seek Feedback: as a teacher, I need to incorporate more feedback and revision activities in the week.  When I offer students the opportunity to revise their work most choose to keep the grade they have rather than revise the material.  I need to not make it an option.  The revision needs to be part of the grade and assignment for all students; even good work can be revised some.

Active Participation: In many of my low performing classes, active participation is lagging. The challenge is finding a way to hold their attention and inspire dialogue that is meaningful and respectful of other students.  This is a challenge.  PBL should be able to address this if you have enough high quality rubrics that assess active participation and self-behavior management.

Impact Self and Community: This is something that would be pretty easy to implement.  This topic can be addressed by setting aside a small amount of time to discuss with each student his or her affect upon the classroom atmosphere.  I actually like this idea a lot. They could fill out a self-assessment each week and compare it to my assessment of them in a short one on one meeting.

Using Effort and Practice to Grow: This goes alongside the idea of the student seeking feedback to grow.  Most students who fail a test or make a low grade realize that it is the result of poor classroom work skills or a lack of actively learning the material that is to be assessed.  The goal would be to implement a way to make students participate in this if they are not.  Example: Maybe a student who writes so poor that it is hard to grade their paper; you grade it, and say next time I am not grading it if the penmanship is not better.  If it is not, you should make them redo it or they suffer the consequences. 

Growing From Setbacks: One idea here might be to include a dialogue box at the bottom of every test or quiz and after handing back the test have them write a refection about why they made the grade they did.  It could be part of the assignment grade.

Find Personal Relevance: This can be implemented by the teacher and is done in PBL.  As a teacher, you must find a way to incorporate the relevance of the classroom into the wider world.  Teachers can help students see how what and why they are learning will affect their life beyond school and have relevance in the future.   

Kimberly Trott, World History, Ancient Greece, Self- Assessment Reflection

Kimberly Trott, World History, Ancient Greece, Self- Assessment Reflection

After reading the notes that Mrs. Mitchell took upon observing and interviewing my classroom, I decided the best thing to do would be to read the observation again and take notes, paying close attention to what the students were saying.  Therefore, after looking through my notes, and reading the self-analysis rubric this is what I noticed.

Identifying what’s Important: After reading through the observation, I focused on what students commented on.  The following topics are what I felt were helpful in either confirming my decisions or altering the unit for the next implementation.  Three themes emerged: creating better rubrics to hold students accountable for their group participation and behavior; adding more websites with vital information to help the students find answers to their research questions or making them somehow use the ones provided more efficiently (I found when working with them many only relied on the first website they went to, also maybe a requirement for books if I can check out some from the main library), and creating a way to divide up the project tasks among the students within each group to allow for student decision making (that is fair to all group members, but fosters independence) and group collaboration and cooperation.

Making Connection: I do see how discussing collaboration and communication, along with monitoring students as they work in their groups and providing verbal feedback even before the observation reinforced the students understanding of the need to work as a group and share the responsibility of completing the work.  I realized that the group who had the student who got out of his desk or was not participating had not voiced that concern to me and that was a part of the behavior contract we discussed.  If a student was not participating, a member should notify the teacher to help resolve the issue. 

Incorporating Contextual Knowledge:  I also noticed that student groups which were based on a combination of test scores and behavior based still needed to also be placed away from other groups of students that they were friends with or have behavioral issues with.  Contextual knowledge is learning occurs when teachers present information that students are able to construct meaning from based on their own personal experiences. As an entry into research on the Olympics, I tried to relate their knowledge of Michael Phelps to the Olympics to show them that this event came from the Greeks. 

What stood out more than any other thing is that student groups all employed various ways in which they thought they fairly assigned tasks in the group.  One of the main goals of contextual learning is to develop an authentic task to assess performance. It was impressive that students were able to regulate and assign different tasks within the group without me having to tell them who was going to do what.  They performed this real world experience well.  As the week progressed, I was also very impressed by several of my ESOL students and their desire to ask questions and gain further insight about the topics.  So, students were able to self-regulate who did what tasks if multiple elements were involved.  Along with that, after previewing a portion of their research and looking over material researched so far I noticed patterns in certain groups.  There were several students who failed to speak up in their groups and make sure their research sections were complete when it required them to get the information from fellow group members, so this is an area I need to deal with in helping shy students speak up and not work independently within a group setting.   

Drafting Next Steps:  Several issues will need to be addressed before the next implementation of the unit. Students need more web sites or somehow the ability to go beyond the first one.  One thing I noticed is that as I helped students; they tried to get all of their information from the first website I listed, versus scanning through multiple websites and finding multiple source that would help expand their answer.  Secondly, I am not sure the students should be dividing the workload themselves or if I should.  I know students found ways to divvy up the work but is that the fairest way. It seemed every group came up with a way.  I guess that is how it is done in the real world.  I definitely will need to do more self-assessments along the way.  I did one right after the observation but I think a more frequent group, combined with self-assessment would useful in reminding the students that they will be assessed on this portion of the project.  After making and giving the self-assessment, I realized I want to add a self-more detailed questioning. For example, asking the students to reflect on their dialogue with all the teammates, their behavior (did they get out of their desks, converse with other groups, etc…).  Also for time managements sake I will have to alter all of the research questions.  It took the students too long to research the material.  I will streamline it next time and get rid of any unnecessary or redundant questions.
 

Sarah Garner; Self reflection

Identify what's important
At the beginning of class the students did a starter on solving for slope. They had to show me through this formative assessment that they have learned the content that I have taught throughout the project. Also, at the beginning of the class, I strived to explain what the student’s end product would be. I felt that my students were unsure about why they were doing this project.

Making Connections
The students learned about slope the day before, and the next day we connected it to their project. The students learned that their slope is the combined income of their income and their partner's income. I have strived to make sure that what we learn is connected to the project. The students also had to make connections that their design plan for their house had to fit on their lot of land they chose. That allowed them to explore how to convert from acres to square feet.

Incorporating Contextual Knowledge
I used my knowledge that I have on my students and their ability levels to put them in groups. I also created a very structured outline for the students to follow because I knew my students have not completed a project like this before. I incorporated content knowledge with the students showing me at the beginning of class that they can solve for slope and made the connection between slope and their project. I used my PBL knowledge when allowing my students to be involved in collaboration when the students were working together to find a lot of land and a house plan. The students were also involved in sustained inquiry throughout the entire class period when thinking what will make my house successful using what information I have.

Next Steps
From today, I will strive to not answer my students questions exactly. I know that sounds silly, but I am striving to get my students to think on their own and be confident in their thinking. Rather, answer their question with a question. I know what you are thinking, “I can’t stand those people.” However, I feel that the students can answer their own questions with questions. For example, a student asked me if a TV can go in their 10 items they find essential for their house. I asked back, “If you are building a house, do you find that you will have to have this.” They came back with the answer no. They answered their own question!

Course 2 Blog Post 3: Student Agency Taylor Thomas

Blog Post 3: Student Agency

• Opportunities and experiences to foster a growth mindset and build student agency:
• Create a safe and supportive learning environment
• Work together with students and their families, have mutual respect, build positive relationships
•  Set learning goals, model learning strategies, meet students where they are and help them learn at their pace
• Project and interest based learning
• Community service or work experience that students select or create

       These are all strategies I have found that work well for me. During our honeybee PBL experience, one strategy that was important was meeting students where they are/were and supporting them at their pace. Some of the informational articles were harder to read than other articles. With this in mind, I monitored student’s progress and gave assistance when needed. Allowing choice in student’s culminating activity (PSA) was also significant as it made their presentation important to them. 

Emily Waddill Course 2 Post 2

Video Self-Assessment Reflection
My videos were taken on October 17th which was the first work day that students had the whole class time to work on their budgets. The previous day most students were able to choose their job and find their salary for the year as well as their monthly income.

This video was focused on small group instruction of correcting the exit tickets that students did on Monday. While I was working with the small group, the rest of the students were supposed to be working on their individual budget. I had to address the class once because of how loud it was when I was trying to work with my group, but after that things were better. In a smaller group, the students do much better with raising their hands and not shouting out. I think I could have made things more engaging during the lesson by calling more students up to the board to do a step of the problem. That way, I could have walked around the rest of the classroom for a minute to make sure everyone was on task or redirect if needed. When students were working on #5 Carrie directed a student to come up to the board to solve it and see if everyone else agreed. She offered support and corrections with the small group. I need to work on being able to manage small groups while still keeping the rest of the class focused.

Self Assessment Rubric:
Identifying What's Important - Advanced because I highlighted important points during whole group instruction and focused on questions that were missed on the exit tickets during small groups.

Making Connections - Proficient because I could've made connections between what we were doing in the exit ticket and what the students would do for their budget

Incorporating Contextual Knowledge - Advanced because I focused on important parts of the content

Drafting Next Steps - Advanced because I know what I will change for next time and what I need to work on in future lessons

Blog Post # 1

Chapter 2: Thinking. Through Project Based Learning “In project based learning, curiosity is the engine for learning. Of course, more than curiosity is required for students to reach the finish line. But if a project doesn’t get students caring and wondering from the outset, it’s almost certain to fall flat” ( Krauss and Boss). No truer can a statement be made when reflecting on my experience with implementation of PBL. The goal is to have students actively engaged in their learning process. The lack of stimulation and high interest with a project will definitely deter the ultimate outcome. As an educator and a lifelong learner, if I am not invested in the process and what I am working on, it is very hard for me to maintain focus. This is the same for my students. Trying to find something that is relevant, connects to best practices, standards yet is high interest is a tall order. However, I know that students at this day and age learn differently from years past. Passive learning isn’t helping them make those authentic connections and strengthening their neural pathways expanding their preexisting schema. Thinking about brain research, I wanted to design a PBL unit that would provide that choice to students connecting to the uniqueness of their brains, exposing them to varied experiences that help expand schemas and making connections from new to old information. One of the essential steps to doing this is getting to know my students. Finding out what is of high interest to them or relevant to their lives, I found insight into how to captivate them during implementation. Knowing your cliental or students is an invaluable piece of information that helps your curtail information or the product to what is going to be most beneficial. In hindsight, developing a PBL unit is always best once you know your students. I found myself having to redesign a lot of the content because I wanted it to have the most impact on the students I was currently teaching. With the unit I had developed fully ready to implement, I have spent a lot of time getting to know my students through conversations, conferences, and their journaling and interest inventories. This has helped me tremendously with determining my next steps with the PBL. Flexibility has to be a key component when embarking on this paradigm shift. Just because you have spent time developing and feel you have a finished product, it may have to change based on the needs of your students. Using research and best practices is also something that I took to heart when thinking about implementing PBL. “The right kinds of learning experiences during these years help children activate the neural circuits need to become proficient problem solvers and creative thinkers” (Willis, 2011). The shift to PBL and utilizing it within my classroom and school is the way to promote what Willis stated in the above-mentioned quote. What better what to prepare our children to become thinkers, analyzers, and productive citizens than to immerse them in a process that calls for them to have to think through problems and solve them in a way to makes sense to them? Chapter 3: After reading Chapter 3: Making the World Safe for Thinking, I came away with many thoughts about how I would love for the physical environment in not only my co-teach classroom but my school as well to be. The first thing that stood out to me is the discussion at the beginning of the chapter about how schools like Birkdale Intermediate really dive head on into their PBL units. They really ignite the spark for getting excited about the upcoming PBLs by building an air of curiosity placing posters on the walls and even a flag up letting their students know that a new journey is about to begin. I think promoting new PBL projects and student interest is a great way for us to develop a community of learners. It helps students be excited about school and what they are learning. The other part of this is that is really connects the various grade levels. They are able to see what is going on around the school offering ways to maybe reach out and add something to the information the other grade level is focusing on. It promotes a community atmosphere instead of isolation. One of the biggest challenges facing us is how to develop the physical space into a space worthy of PBL. In a perfect world, we could have classrooms designed like Google or High Tech High that would allow flexibility and maximum creativity. I think one thing that would be great is developing a classroom that allows for flexible grouping and seating. The first step is removing the traditional model where we have desks lined in rows facing the front of the room where the board is situated. I would like to build a classroom with tables, desks, and other working spaces that provide plenty of choices and give students the ability to collaborate. After visiting several schools, it would be neat to have large foldable dry erase boards where you chart create divided areas, where posting everything connecting to PBL unit currently being worked on. Since I currently am co-teaching with another teacher, I have to have room to negotiate with her. In order to have an area conducive to my unit plan, having several tables, grouping desks and using floor space with provide so flexible grouping and seating choices. We can even utilize the space in the hallway in front of her door as an area. One of the things that I am making sure that I incorporate into my PBL is what is mentioned on page 30 about using “thinking strategies” embedded into the unit. I want students during my PBL to know only dive deep into the content but to be able use higher depth of knowledge thinking that promotes extended thinking like the lasting impact, influence, connections or explaining your thoughts with reasonable justifications. This is why I want each student to think about each subject matter presented, so that they can think about the cause/effect of the controversy and how he or she can promote change or awareness based on their opinions. Based on the data, that I have collected I now know how to scaffold the material to best serve the students in the focus class. There are some materials that I may have to reduce the lexile level to so that they can gain the same information but in a way that they understand. The other part to this is the maturity level. There are some topics that I will not address because they will not be able to handle it or it will be too much for them to logically discuss. The types of documents that they are presented with will be modified to meet ability levels. My duration of the unit with be decreased due to the timing the unit will be presented. There are so many things occurring at the end of the year, so to allow students maximum amount of time to express what they have learned, I have decided to reduce the number of weeks that are working on this project from 9 weeks to about 4 weeks. This way students can really delve deep into the topics and find something that they are passionate about and be a sustained time on this.

Course 2 Blog Post 2

Video Self Observation Reflection 

At the beginning of this portion of my PBL, not all groups were engaged until I was able to go around to each group to explain again and clarify objectives. Some students needed more guidance than others. I was able to sit and work closely with two boys that were struggling to understand they needed to continue reading past “Pesticides” and find two more theories of CCD. Mrs. Mitchell sat with two boys near the front of the classroom to ensure they were on task and working. They were not struggling with understanding what to do, rather staying focused and on task. The same two boys separated themselves the class before due to this. The day of this observation, they told me they could work efficiently together so I let them rejoin. Though their performance could have been better, they did show improvement. They have successfully worked together with my close attention.

By the end of the lesson, the majority of students had reviewed the research independently or collaboratively to identify at least three causes of CCD. Students struggled to write an effective claim. Most could provide the theory they believe for CCD, but were not providing evidence. The next day I gave students an example and a sentence starter to rewrite/revise their claim ensuring they provided evidence to support their claim.

Video 1 – Two boys were struggling with understanding of overall goal. I let them work for a few minutes and went back to check on them they were still hung up on one theory, pesticides. I sat with them to provide guidance

Video 2 – I provided clarification for two girls working and guided them through what their process should be.

Video 3 – A glimpse of engaging activities, products, and bee information prior to this observation. Essential question “Why are honeybees so important to us?”

Video 4 – Two boys in front of classroom telling Mrs. Mitchell what they have learned. Mrs. Mitchell guides them to put what they have learned in their own words on their workspace. Two girls are using notes from classed in addition to their research for this lesson to complete task.

Video Self-Analysis “Noticing” Rubric

Identifying What’s Important – Advanced: I identified what was most important in my classroom and instruction.

Making Connections – Proficient: I made connections between multiple parts of classroom instruction

Incorporating Contextual Knowledge – Proficient: I incorporated some contextual knowledge into my analysis.

Drafting Next Steps – Advanced: I generated multiple next steps in my analysis and implemented them.

Clark H. Maxwell Chapter 4 post

Chapter 4 was all about letting students inquiry guide them in their learning.  I think that's great if the student is motivated to learn and better themselves.  That is what makes all of this work.  The student has to decide for him or her self.  In PE, inquiry can happen during a game we might be playing, or while watching another team play.  We call it scouting, or adjusting your game plan to get better results.  I's sure when we teach comprehensive health that there is some real inquiry, but there are some things we cannot discus at school.  The majority of my assessment is informal, and all visual.  I am always looking for better athletes for our teams, and many times these are the guys/girls in PE who excel and can lead teams.  The only hard scoring that I do is on the FitnessGram test.  We can't give a grade for these tests.  The way I've set up my PBL is to have my students go through various workouts for a few weeks.  This gave them an idea as to how they will need to organize their project/workout.  I thought that this would help them learn/see how they would need to organize things in the gym according to the space we have.  I do not think they would have come up with the same thing on their own, but I could be wrong.

Chapter 4 Post "The Thinking-Out-Loud-and-in-View Classroom"

Chapter 4 was an eye opener for me and made me question my teaching technique of my PBL lesson. I wish I would have started PBL by teaching a starter lesson so students would have known exactly what to expect. When teaching my lesson I was sure to ask open ended questions. I also tried to be more of a navigator instead of giving specific answers to their questions. I was able to listen to students working together and watch them figure out how to add up their vacation prices. I got excited at one point when I heard one student tell another that "you don't have to add all the numbers up, you can just multiply if it is the same number." They were teaching each other. I need to work with my students on brainstorming and have them learn how to distinguish what they know from what they don't know. I would also like to teach a lesson with a little more discovery just to see how far I can get students to think outside the box while searching for an answer.

Julianna Lux--Chapter 4 reflection

I really wish that I had encountered this chapter over the summer before creating my PBL. The idea of a starter project and starting small would alleviate the stress I currently feel as I am coming up on implementing my project. Starting with a PBL at the very beginning of the semester instead of waiting until the end would also work better because my students would be learning the process from the beginning instead of halfway through the semester.  The students need to have an opportunity to learn the process before taking on a bigger process, and I feel I don't have time to teach the process in a way that's going to leave them with a good taste in their mouth about PBL and becoming independent learners.  I'd considered switching my PBL to a different class period (which meant a different level and curriculum), but I do not have a 3-4 week chunk of time to do a PBL with them, so I'm back to my original class and wishing I could go back in time to begin the semester with this PBL instead of the middle-to-end of the semester with this PBL.  Teaching it from the very beginning of the semester would allow them to build on what they learn and create a more meaningful experience than a one-and-done project.  I'm not giving them an opportunity to learn from their mistakes to make it better the next time around.

I also wish we had PBL instruction posters we could put up in the classroom--"Do Three--Ask Me," "Buzz" instructions, "SCAMPER" and so forth.  I believe this would help the students understand what to do.

Sarah Garner; Chapter 4 blog post

As I read through chapter 4 I came to the realization that I do not allow my students to do much inquiry. I am teaching them through a project, but I am not letting them discover the content on their own. I teach the topic and then relate it to their project, but I am unsure how to let the students discover this information on their own. For example, I teach slope and how to interpret slope, and then I tell them the connection. I am wondering how I can have them make that connection on their own. I feel that I am still struggling with letting go of control and allowing the students to be creative and think on their own. I feel that helping students with creating thinking tool kits will help with this process.

Emily Waddill Course 2 Chapter 4 Post

What I have realized from reading this chapter is that doing PBL for the first time with 6^th graders will take a lot of modeling and scaffolding. However, I know that this will be a great experience for all involved. I feel that I need to provide a daily to do list to help students stay on task and help with time-management. I also really like the idea of students distinguishing what they know from what they don’t know. On the first day of the project, I plan on doing this activity with my students before creating our Need To Know list as a class. I really think that this will help my students form questions about budgets and being responsible with money. I also like the idea of Do Three – Ask Me so that students get familiar with problem solving on their own before asking for help.

I also realized that my project did not really allow students to provide feedback to one another and I want my students to know how to give thoughtful feedback. So instead of one group giving a final presentation to the whole class, I’ve decided to do the Gallery Walk protocol. I know that I want to provide students with a template/rubric to provide feedback. However, I’m not sure how to calculate each group’s final grade. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!