Video reflection: 

I am used to video recording but it has been a while since I tried to get myself video recorded.  The problem with having myself recorded--besides the things that others have already mentioned such as not liking what I sound like--is that EVRY TIME someone video records me they make some decision about how it OUGHT to be done that negatively affects the outcome.

I recall doing my National Board videos and having to ditch one lesson after another because the person doing the recording decided--despite my explicit instructions otherwise--not to stop recording!  The same thing happened with this project.  I asked the person recording the lesson to please don't stop recording... and they did so anyway!  What do you do?  I'm not paying them.  They are volunteering their time.  And it is always a different person doing the recording.  This time, rather than trying to find still another lesson to record, I just decided to edit together pieces.

OK, so enough complaining.

What was most important in my classroom and instruction:

Because this is NOT the PBL that I have been developing since the summer, I was creating a PBL “on the fly.”  I was brainstorming some part of a PBL that I could do to show in this class.  The more I brainstormed, the more I started to see the pieces of an entire PBL coming together.  In the end, I found that I had most of the parts, but there were a few missing and I will fill those in when I do this in the future.    

What I saw as being most important was that most students in this class were working diligently to tackle the task assigned them.  In doing so, they were not only teaching themselves how to name chemicals from formulas or to write formulas from names, but they were also building so-called soft skills such as:

1. learning to work in a team,
2. learning how to work around or through problems,
3. developing a belief in their own abilities to work through a problem, and
4. developing small group diplomacy skills.  

I am holding off reaching a final conclusion on this, but I believe that students are developing a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of nomenclature.  They are not just learning the rules, they are learning how the rules apply outside of this immediate context.  

I also found something important for me in developing PBL lesson plans: I can build these in steps.  I don’t have to have a complete PBL when I first implement a lesson.  Just to get things off the ground I can use SOME these elements of PBL in this semester, and fully flesh it out in a later semester.

Make connections between important parts of classroom instruction and principles of effective teaching:

The learning objectives of this PBL is for students be able to:

1. successfully work together to develop an attainable work product,
2. be able to understand the nomenclature systems used in the sciences
1. with a long-term goal of being able to transfer that knowledge and understanding to other sciences or disciplines outside of science,
3. be able to correctly name chemicals given a formula and write formulas given a name, and
4. be able to teach others how to name chemicals given a formula and write formulas given a name using the skills and knowledge acquired in their project development.

I am learning more and more about my students that my initial survey did not tell me.  Many --perhaps most--have done projects before but they have gotten used to being able to put forth minimal effort to earn a grade that is acceptable for them.  If the grade isn’t acceptable, they claim that the project was too hard or they didn’t understand.  

Incorporate contextual knowledge into my analysis:

I analyzing the preliminary results of the projects I have found that young men struggle the most with this methodology particularly those in one particular racial minority groups.  The cohort is too small to reach any broad conclusions.  It is also true that some of my young male students, including those in the racial minority group of concern, have been the most successful.  The results of my unit assessment did not demonstrate a greater grasp of concepts.

The less successful young men exhibit a greater amount of off-task behavior and greater resistance (both direct and passive aggressive) to efforts to keep them on task.

There is a smaller group of young women that exhibit what we commonly refer to as quiet and shy behavior that also are less successful.  Again, there are also quiet and shy young women that are among the most successful.  

I see no reason to conclude that these students are unable to be as successful as the rest of the cohort.  What is am seeing is a lack of what we might call grit.  Teasing out the influences that contribute to behaviors that result in lower success seems an almost impossible task.  No clear pattern or trend seems evident.

PBL Self Video Take Out

The Power of Yet/Growth Mindset Tedtalk

Once I got over the fact that Dr. Dweck delivered an entire presentation without once moving any part of her body other than her lips and eyeballs, I really took a lot away from her talk. It was steeped in scientific research, which is super important to me and provided a solid base for her points.

I recently read that many high schools throughout the country are doing away with awarding valedictorian and salutatorian to students in their graduating classes. I, personally, was outraged. Why would these districts take away the opportunity for students to earn such prestigious honors? The only reasoning I could find for this decision in some schools is that these awards foster unhealthy competition between students. I can understand that as I teach the STEM students here in district 6. Some (not all) of these students are "cut throat." I have had students and their parents crying over a 98 instead of a 100. I have had 2 hour parent conferences discussing what classes a student should take to ensure the highest possible GPA. I've even been hung up on during a phone conference because a student made her first B in my class. These are examples of fixed mindsets. I get frustrated every year with the students who bring me their labs or research papers a day before they are due and ask me to read it all and see if they need to change anything. I refuse to do this anymore because if the student ends up with less than a 100, it is my fault. They have this need for perfection - the next 100 or A+, instead of enjoying the ride. I find myself saying almost every day to at least one STEM student, "Well, you live and learn," or "This is how you learn and grow." My class and teaching is not perfect, but I do allow effort to be part of the journey. Homework is graded on effort, but I comment on misconceptions. It is then left up to them to correct their misunderstandings. As for the "let me get Mrs. Crossley to read everything I ever do so I can know I have an ace in the hole before I turn it in" problem, I have an idea. I may require them to let a classmate from a separate lab or research group read their report or paper and help them reflect on it. This could be a requirement for the first few reports and the first research paper, but then let them take it from there. I could also have them do self-reflections about each type of assignment for a grade at the beginning of the semester to foster the growth mindset. I truly believe if students enjoyed growing and learning more than the next 100, no school would have unhealthy competition for valedictorian and salutatorian.

I think sometimes I have a fixed mindset, thus the frustrations with some of these behaviors. However, I'm "living and learning," and enjoying the process - most of the time.  ;)

Growth Mindset - Jessica Barwick

While watching Professor Dweck's TedTalk, I connected it with the discussions about motivation in Dan Pink's Drive and a recent "Freakonomics" podcast I listened to on increasing productivity.  Basically, Pink shows us though his research that incentivizing employees (or students) through tangible rewards only works for rudimentary tasks that require little to no critical thinking.  In fact, external rewards can actually decrease motivation in jobs or tasks that require thought, problem solving, and creativity.  According to Pink, the best motivators are autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  When given the opportunity to self-direct a project that has personal meaning and purpose, people are more likely to produce quality work, rather than simply responding to outside stimuli.

On the "Freakonomics" podcast on productivity, what stood out to me the most was the conversation about intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation.  They were discussing the idea that intrinsic motivation is more effective than extrinsic (which aligns with Pink's ideas), and that the praise we give to others can emphasize one or the other, depending on what we say.  For example, if you tell a person, "Wow, you did great.  You are so smart," it can give the impression to that person and others that they don't have any control over whether or not they do well at something.  If they are already smart, they will do well.  If they don't think they are smart, why should they try?  On the other hand, if you say to someone, "Wow, you did great.  You must have worked really hard," it can actually start to increase their internal motivation to work hard because they believe it's something they can control.

This is exactly one of the points that Dweck made in her talk.  The type of praise we give to our students can affect their mindset on a project.  If we praise hard work or progress rather than intelligence, we are letting the students know that they have control over their work and that they are capable of even more growth.  I loved the study she described in which students who were told that neurons form new, stronger connections in the brain when they tried something new, dramatically increased performance compared to the control group.  If all people, not just students, actually believe that challenges and effort can make you smarter, there would be more productivity and risk-taking instead of frustration.  This is one issue I see often in my students - when confronted with a difficult task, frustration and anger overtake the motivation to persevere.  Students need to practice solving difficult problems, and that practice, combined with receiving praise for effort, can lead to an increase in intrinsic motivation.

Rather than just rewarding the end product with an A, maybe educators should look more closely at the NTN agency rubric and the possibilities for rewarding effort and autonomy throughout the process.  I don't think this has to be an entire grade in and of itself, but it could be incorporated throughout PBL as a way to motivate students who are trying their best.  Going back to Drive, a project that is personally meaningful, relevant, and allows for student choice and self-direction will also increase intrinsic motivation, so the final grade doesn't matter as much as the process of creating the product.  Project-based learning has the capability to do much more for students' learning than just mastery of content - it can increase effort, drive, and self-confidence as well.

And the Ocsar Doesn't Go To....Video Reflection

My garden project at Dawkins continues to grow.  Currently I am waiting on approval from the principal and the "PBL" committee on the informational packet I put together for all the teachers.  All teachers will be given the option to work with groups of students on the garden design.   In December, as the community comes to the school for Christmas concerts and events, they will be given the opportunity to 'vote' for their favorite design and that design will become the Dawkins garden.

Since we are not meeting yet to work on the garden project, I choose a geometry lesson for my video recording.  I have found myself using many of the protocols introduced during this class, To kick of the Geometry unit I chose a four-square consensus.   The video captures the students recording their definition of Geometry and their opinion on why is it important to study geometry.  They also work as a group to form a consensus definition and opinion.  After the video ends, they use index cards to share their "I like" and "I wonder" statements with each group.

I don't really mind being video-taped but I do mind what it does to the students.   To get more of the students in frame, I had to re-arrange the regular seat assignments.  I really like my regular set up and this 'new' set up reminded me why.  Group dynamic (especially in middle school) can be a critical element towards the success or failure of the group.

Over all I was very happy with the video and activity.  There were a few items that I felt like I could do better.
- slow down my explanations - speak slower so the students have time to process the information
- have a "if you get finished" option for those groups that get finished quicker than others.
- assign different tasks during the consensus time (ex: dictation, script, timer).   Some students seems to just want to watch.
-leave the groups spread out in their regular places to avoid talking between the groups
- a student in the front felt like sticking out his tongue was appropriate behavior.

The elements that I thought were successful were:
- visual aids (on the board -out of shot) to help students divide their paper and keep track of time.
- fair amount of time spent with all groups.
- students had good ideas about the definition of geometry but showed that they needed instruction on why it's important.
- students were redirected as needed and encouraged.

I am looking forward to a follow activity after the Geometry unit to demonstrate how their opinions have changed.

Video Selfie Reflection - Jessica Barwick

I was initially nervous about not only being filmed, but about having to reflect on it afterward.  As someone who generally does not like to be on camera, I knew I would be overly critical of myself.  Of course, there are the initial thoughts of "Wow, I didn't realize I sounded so country" and "What was up with my hair that day?"  But within the first minute I quickly learned to tune that out and focus on what mattered.  The "Video Selfie Module" recommended setting a goal before watching your video, and my goal was to focus on student engagement.  So, I decided to pay close attention to what the children were doing/saying in my video rather than what I was doing.  I chose four pieces of evidence from the video that I felt were the most important in determining engagement and informing future instruction and reflected on those.

The project I am currently in the middle of is not the one I wrote this summer, but one on westward expansion.  I was so excited about PBL after our course that I wanted to try it out in an earlier unit before attacking it with my immigration unit.  Of course, it has taken longer than I anticipated, and we are still working on it.  But it has been a great learning experience for me and the students, and I feel more prepared to do my immigration project next month.  The general gist is that the students are divided into "families" that are traveling west by covered wagon.  They are writing personal journals about their travels from their point of view (mama, papa, son, daughter) that describe their journey and the obstacles they must encounter.  Their group culminating project is a skit about one of their travel days, and they must include handmade props and costumes.  The day that we filmed, I decided to let it be "Family Choice" on what they wanted to work on.

First, I gave students time to talk with their families about what they felt they needed to work on that day.  I said that I was going to give them two minutes, but my first observation in my video was that students were on task for the two minutes, but then conversation died down some after that time.  I wanted to check in with all groups before beginning work time to make sure every group had a goal, but I spent the entire first two minutes (and possibly more) with one group who is struggling to work together and make goals.  The rest of the class was ready to move on, but I wasn't, so the planning time dragged on for another three minutes.  While it doesn't seem like that much, it was a time waster to those groups that were ready and could have led to behavior issues.  Those students that were finished were no longer engaged in the project.  In the future, I need to check in with more productive groups first and then let them move on, and I also need to set a timer for myself to keep us on track.

Next, I noticed that when I announced work time, most of the groups wanted the materials that I had brought and they all went to this one area of the classroom where I kept them.  This was kind of wild with so many students in one place, and fortunately, nobody was bumped or pushed that could have caused an issue.  I did see in the video that I didn't realize at the time, that the "pushier" kids took all the materials before the quieter ones had a chance to get any.  I need to let one group at a time come look at materials and get something - that will cut down on traffic and allow each group to get at least one item to use for their skits.

One of my groups decided to work on their journals instead of their skits, which was a wise choice in my opinion, but once the other groups began creating props, it became loud and distracting to the group writing.  This was something I saw during filming, but it was confirmed on the video.  I talked to the group to let them know they could change their activity if they wanted to because I would rather them be engaged with props than with nothing at all.  Since then, I have designated specific journal writing tine each day that is quiet and focused on writing so that everyone can concentrate, then give helpful feedback to each other.

Finally, where I saw the least student engagement was in one particular group.  I allowed students to choose their own groups in the beginning of the project so that they would be excited about working with their teammates, but the students in one of the groups were more or less leftover once others had chosen their groups.  They are not well-suited to work together, not because they don't get along, but because all three of them are easily distracted and tough to stay focused in class.  I knew during the class that they were not engaged, and I tried to help them, but to the detriment of the other kids.  After watching the video, I realized I spent even more time than I thought trying to redirect or focus them.  Also, the video shows that, at least during the entire 12 minutes of filming, this particular group accomplished nothing.  The video showed them playing with pencils, pencil sharpeners, staplers, each other, flipping notebooks, etc.  In the future, I need to monitor groups more closely, possibly reserving the right to change up groups as I see fit or letting students make requests of teammates that I then form into groups that I know will work well together.  Unfortunately, because this one group is off task, everyone loses out on some valuable instruction time with me!

Like I mentioned earlier, there were some things I saw in the video that confirmed what I already knew, but it certainly highlighted some new areas of improvement for me to further student engagement with this project and others in the future.  I can see how this video selfie strategy could be helpful not only to teachers, but to students as well!

The Power of Yet - Melissa Terry

The Power of Yet –

Last year, when I was principal of AR Lewis Elementary, our school used the book, Mindsets in the Classroom by Mary Cay Ricci, for our book study.  This book was eye-opening for me.  It was amazing to see how many “fixed mindsets” we, as educators, had when thinking about teaching and assessing students.  Carol Dweck alludes to many of these same points in her Ted Talk.  The language and approach that a teacher uses when working with students is critical.  Helping students see the power of yet as it relates to problem solving and continuing learning is crucial.  I found it interesting that studies showed that when students were only given one chance to master material, they often turn to cheating or quitting.  How often do we see that in school?!  The pressure that comes from having one opportunity to do well sends a negative message that learning is finite and you only have one chance to show what you know.  Teaching with a growth mindset means rewarding students for effort, strategy, and progress toward goals and helping them continue to expand their knowledge about a topic.  I think the New Tech rubric is on the right track with helping students work toward continuing learning rather than the next A+.