A PBL-Student is Born

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    This week we have our Freshmen participating in their first "project."  Throughout the school freshmen students are learning the ins and outs of projects and they are seeing each teacher's take on what a project should look like. We all have the same terminology.  We all have the same pbl logistical items.  But the structure looks different from classroom to classroom.

    Even in my subject, Introduction to Engineering Design, the project looks different in my room than it does in my co-teacher's room down the hall.  And he and I get together at night and collaborate via Google IM, Facebook and Twitter.  Plus, we get together before school for 5 to 10 minutes to rehash our plans.

     To set the hook for every project, we start with a driving question and a entry event.  For this project we are examining the evolution of technology in the 20th century.  So, we start with a 4 minute video about the SX-70 camera.  The driving question is "How and why do products change over time?"

     What is the goal of this project?  There are many goals here.  Students need to learn how to work in groups and they need to learn how to use our computer system.  They need to understand how we organize resources in our "Project Briefcase."  They need to understand the typical flow during a class period and the classroom expectations.  And, they need to learn how to do a presentation.

     There are other things that the students learn throughout this week. But what I described is what we hope every student experiences during their first week of school.  They will have learned as much as possible about the logistics of being a PBL student.  That way they will be better prepared to handle a more in-depth project, with an increased level of expectation from the teachers, during the second round of projects.

   

Reflections on My First Week of School

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      If you are a new teacher or are wanting to be a teacher, the post you are about to read may send you away from the profession.  I have worked in 4 high schools, 2 middle schools and 3 community colleges and the first weeks of school only felt successful at the community colleges.  Why?  It was because I had nearly complete control over everything I did at the community colleges.  Teachers will never have that much control at a public school.

      Now that I've been all negative, I need to say that my present school is MORE organized than any of the other 5 middle/high schools.   Any of our teachers reading this are not going to believe that because, at times, our school seems incredibly dis-organized.  Are there better ways of doing things?  Absolutely.  Will we improve the first week of school next year?  I hope so.   Who knows, we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

   
        This year, as in last year, I am teaching two 9th grade classes and two 11th grade classes.  They are beautifully distributed.  Freshmen in the morning and Juniors in the afternoon.  Teaching Freshmen means you have to teach everything about school: how to work in a group, how to log into computers, how to log into, and navigate, our learning community (ECHO/Google Apps), how to understand our school schedule, the district/school/classroom rules or norms, where are the bathrooms, when is lunch?

     How can this be done better?   First, for some reason we NEVER have school log-ins for the students on the first day.  I understand any kid who just moved to the district during the week before school.  But why can't the system make this happen between the end of June and the beginning of August?  They would then have a very simple task of updating and adding/dropping students who arrive or leave after the 1st of August.   There have been dozens of people in the last 20 years who have tried to explain it to me but it never makes sense.  If this was the military we wouldn't be having this discussion today.
   

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     The computer log-in problem is especially true at our school.  We deliver materials for our projects through our Project Briefcases in ECHO.  We collaborate on work via Google Apps such as Docs and Sites.  Students communicate with their group partners via email and IM.  We are a connected classroom.  So, what does a teacher at our school do during the first week?  They prepare as though they are going to have no technology.
   
    That is where my rookie mistake made for one of my most miserable weeks ever.  I know I haven't had a worse 1st week in the 5 years I've taught in Texas.  I made the mistake of assuming we would have our computers to work with for the upperclassmen.  I planned everything for the first two days to be completed online.  I blew it - big time.  Students at our school expect a level of detail from the teachers.  If the level of detail is anything less, they will revolt.  Now, revolution at our school doesn't take the form of anarchy that I've read about from other schools.  No, what our students do is they become "normal" teenagers.  They do nothing.  They talk, have fun, but refuse to find a way to do actual work.
 
     What would this look like to an outside observer?  Well, there would be the teacher.  Frantically trying to get computer systems or programs to operate as needed.  There would be the students sitting around in groups getting more and more animated and loud.  Then we would see the teacher trying to suggest things for the students to do while he (or she) "fixes the problem."  The student response?

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Look at the teacher like a cow looking at a new gate.  Then the students would revert back to their conversations - only louder.  Then the teacher gets louder and more agitated.   The divergence would grow until either the teacher snapped or the class period ended.  Fade to black....

     One thing that always leads to this craziness is the fact that school districts demand to train teachers during the week before school.  How could this be improved?  Demand that teachers get professional development (PD) or take college classes during their summer.   To make this demand more palatable, districts should give credit for attending non-traditional trainings and un-conferences like Edcamps, Barcamps, and Mobicamps.  

     I've now gotten away from my main idea so let's look at this first week and do some self grading.  Teaching my freshmen about working in groups?  A- .  Teaching how to log-in to computers? A- (we finally had access on Friday).  How to log and navigate within ECHO?  A - .  How to understand the school schedule? A (but we haven't had our first Monday and Monday's are a different schedule).  Rules and Norms? C (lots more work to do here).  Where are the bathrooms and when's lunch? A (again, Monday lunches are weird due to schedule).

     So why was my week miserable?  All of the things in the previous paragraph were things with my freshmen.  I did great with them and I feel good about the coming year.  But, my Juniors?  Final grade for last week?  D- (would have failed if anything else went wrong).  Monday can't come fast enough.  I need to get back into the ring and get control of those two classes.  Wish me luck and stay tuned for updates in later posts.
   

   

You Need to Teach How to be in a Group

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     Next week is our first week of school and that means, yet again, we need to teach our Freshmen how to work in a PBL environment.  When every class is being taught this way it means that in every class they will be working in groups of 2 to 5 people.  In some classes they may have to be a group leader.    In other classes they may have specific roles to do.  In yet another class they may just be working in a collaborative role.

     When students get to us they don't, usually, understand how to work in a group.   There are assigned roles with individual responsibilities and expectations.  There are also expected behaviors of each member of the group and behaviors by the entire group.

     Last year we came across a Ted Talk by Tom Wujec where he described a challenge (presented by Peter Skillman).  This is now, famously, known as the Spaghetti Challenge.  Here is a great video to show what a typical classroom is like in the last few minutes of this challenge.

     The rules are simple and we like to present the challenge as an engineering design brief (got to get the vocabulary started too).  During the first day of class they are given the challenge.  The next day we introduce roles and the students break up into expert groups based upon their roles.  The roles are Designer, Tester, and Builder.  Therefore the expert groups are the Design Team, the Test Team, and the Build Team.  Before the expert groups get started we reflect on what we observed the previous day.  What went well?  What hurdles needed to be overcome?  What frustrations did they feel?  And other thoughts as they come up.  We then ask how we could make the experience better.

    On the third day the expert groups have a quick meeting and then the students are sent back to their original groups to make the tower.  The groups are reminded that each person in the group has a role and they are not to do anything that isn't specifically related to their role.  Once the challenge is completed we take measurements but instead of a "winner", based upon height,  we recognize groups that worked well together.  We take time to talk, again, about what worked and what frustrations were felt.

     By the end of these three days, the students have learned most of the other students' names and (more importantly) I know many of the students' names.  They have also worked in groups where no one is assigned as the "group leader."  Each of them has had an important role that was needed for all of the group to be successful.  Finally, they have seen what group relationships worked and what relationships were not as effective.

Are You Ready For a Flat School Organization?

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 For the last week our school has joined the thousands of school districts across the country with back to school preparations.  This process usually provides professional development (PD) in topics particular to the school, the district, and the state.  They also provide PD in topics related to areas of concentration and might include classroom management techniques or trainings on new technologies adopted by the school district.

     At our school you might say it is just as I described with one major exception.  Our staff is small (29 teachers) and we pride ourselves in all being leaders of the school.  Because of this, and the fact that every one of our teachers is incredibly passionate about his or her subject and PBL,  these meetings can, um, not sure of the right word here....be ...interesting(?).  

    

     Allow me to give you a taste.  Our school grades students on Learning Outcomes (LC's).  They are based upon 21st Century Skills and are: Written and Oral Communication, Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Work Ethic, Numeracy, Global and Community Engagement (GCE), Tech Literacy, and Content.  The school district has chosen 5 of these to use in every school.  Our very first task, then, was to look at the district's wording for the 5 LC's they are using and compare them with the wording of the corresponding LC's for our school.  In short, all we have to do is decide if we like their wording better, our wording better, or should we change our wording to a combination of the two.  How long could that take? 

     After 15 minutes we were still wrestling with the first LC and our principal turned to me and said, "I should have known, with this group, it wouldn't be easy."  We finished that first task within about an hour.  Then came an examination of the other 4 LC's.  We had to decide: (1) Do we want to keep the LC?  (2) If we keep the LC, do we need to change the wording?  (3)  How does each LC relate to the other LC's and the Content?  (4) Do we need to have a content grade if the other LC's can cover the content through the way the rubric is written? (5) How often do we assess each of the LC's - during each project, during a grading period, or during a trimester (our semester)?  And a few other questions.

     When the smoke cleared, about 3 hours later, we had decided that every LC, with the exception of Numeracy and GCE, would be assessed during every project.  Numeracy and GCE will be assessed at least 2 times during each trimester.  That, is now the official statement.  But each teacher, group of teachers, content teachers, grade level teachers and any other combination of teachers (I didn't just mention), can assess Numeracy and GCE more often.

     To recap: Our Principal came to us and asked us to look at the district's Learning Outcomes and determine how our Learning Outcomes compare.  We then decided whether to keep our original list or make some changes based upon the district list.   Our discussion, cut short because we were at the end of the school day, had taken over four hours to complete.  But, every single teacher gave input.  As a matter of fact several of us took turns facilitating the conversation and made sure that everyone had an opportunity for comment.

     We are a group of individuals who like to give input.  We like to dissect problems.  We like to have a voice in decisions.  We ask questions of anyone and everyone.  We are a flat organization.   There are many teachers who say they feel that they don't have enough say in what goes on at their school.  I wonder if they realize what could happen if suddenly they were given more of a leadership role.  One thing I know is that time would become their enemy.  

     Be careful what you wish for - you might find yourself in charge of a facet of running your school organization.