Let's Make a Maker Space

https://hildakweisburg.com/2016/01/04/on-libraries-makerspace-magic/

Right up front I want to say that any school that has a Maker Space because that's what great schools have, is missing the whole idea. I think playing with things and trying out things is really cool. I do. But if we haven't thought through what we will have in our space then will it truly be a space for all students?

There's that WE again. When WE are thinking about a maker space, then the first thing to think about is who is this WE we are talking about. WE should include anyone who controls the purse strings for purchasing items. WE should include the students who will be using the space. WE should include parents who might want to be involved in the space. WE should include teachers who might want to encourage students to use the space but also might want to use the space themselves.

Purse String Holders - How much will it cost for the initial purchase of items, for the maintenance of items, and for the replacement of items? If WE haven't thought about those items then the space won't be a success.

Student Users - What do the students want to do in the space? And, at the same time, what should be included in the space that the students haven't even thought of wanting?

Parent Participants - Some parents always want to be involved with the school. Some parents feel that they just don't have time but they are willing to purchase/collect/make items for the school. What do the parents want for the space? Do they want time when they can use it? Do they have expectations for what happens when their child is in the space? Do they want to volunteer to be in the space so that other adults (from the school) won't have to be in there?

Teacher Participants - Do the teachers have a certain expectation for what items should be in the space? Do the teachers want to be able to send students to the space at any time, knowing that there will be an adult presence to monitor the kids? Are there other ways the space can be used?

Last year was my first year at my current school. Several times I was told that there were parents who wanted the school to have a maker space. Well, where would this space be? What are the hours of the space? Will there be a requirement that there has to be an adult in the space at all times - or could we have a certification program for our older students who could be in the space during their study hall or after school.

Here are my top dozen questions compiled into one list:

      1. What do the parents want?

      2. Where would the space be located?

      3. Who would monitor students while it is open? 

      4. What would be the hours that the space is open?

      5. Will parents be able to provide items for the space? 

      6. What is the initial budget for materials for the space?

      7. What is the annual budget for materials for the space?

      8. Would there be a certification process for any tools and for general safety?

      9. Will teachers monitor the space? And, if so, when is this going to happen?

    10. Will parents sign up to monitor the space? How does that look from an insurance stand point?

    11. What do the students want (at each level. We're K-12 2nd graders and 10th graders have different desires) ?

    12. Will students be allowed to leave their classrooms to go to the space to work? If yes, how do we make sure that there aren't too many students in the space?

http://www.fractuslearning.com/2016/01/26/how-built-school-makerspace/

And now, for my readers, help me compile a list of materials that should be in a maker space (leave your thoughts in the comments section). Who knows, maybe there'll be a grant with our school's name on it and we can get this thing off the ground.  Here's a general list to whet your whistle -

     A. Legos and a Lego Table, KNEX, Blocks
     B. Basic hand tools (screw drivers, hammers, allen wrenches, adjustable wrenches, pliers)
     C. Yarn and Thread
     D. Tools for knitting, crocheting, sewing
     E. Painting Supplies (But what, exactly???)
     F. Computers/laptops for online access
     G. Rulers, T-Squares, Straight Edges
     H. Paper of various types
     I. Nails, Screws, Bolts
     J. Circuitry and wire
     K. Various types of tapes and glues
     L. Storage Containers and Shelves
     M.Craft supplies (Popsicle sticks, tooth picks, material, card stock, cotton balls etc.)

Putting Together a Design Class in a IB World School (Part 2)

Screen Capture from - https://goo.gl/VoUfRT

[NOTE: Originally written a week ago]
"So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. Thank you." Willy Wonka.

 Right now I'm feeling like a cross between the Scarecrow ( giving directions in OZ) and Willy Wonka these days. One minute I'm heading one direction and the next I'm heading in a completely opposite direction. But, the bottom line is that, wherever I end up heading needs to be a direction that helps our students and our school. I can live with that.

A long time ago (yesterday) I wrote the first part of this group of posts. At that time (yesterday) I felt like I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel - the tunnel of planning what my class would look like this year. Evidently the light I was seeing was a warning sign that said "Detour Ahead."

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonmary/

It now looks like my focus needs to be around the word Community. What does it mean to be a part of a community:   The classroom community, Our school community, Our "local community," and the world community?

The first project, that I will be doing with my science teacher neighbor, will now focus on my helping my teaching community. We will do the Rube Goldberg Machine because of the teacher's needs to teach certain concepts like momentum and speed.  We will build because of the need to have visual representations of the science concepts they will be learning. We will be doing all of the other components of the project so that everyone in my classroom community understands the parts of the design process.

For the school community I will be making sure that my students are learning the IB concepts at the MYP level. This will build on their years of learning these concepts at the PYP level. And throughout this unit, and the rest of the year, I will be referencing how our learning impacts (and is impacted by) the local and international communities.

It will be a time for me to join the Meridian World School community as well.  Let the school year begin!

[END NOTE: Stopping here. This was to have gone out last week. It's time to start writing the next post. School started today. And we are rolling! Come join my community. ]

Which Came First PBL or Small Group Instruction?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/smu_cul_digitalcollections/

Ye Olde Chicken-Egg story. Why am I wrestling with this? Because many consider me pretty smart about Project Based Learning(PBL). And, our school which calls itself a PBL school, is pushing small group instruction.

So, is PBL just a version of small group instruction? Not sure. And when you infuse a very structured form of small group instruction will teachers feel that they can't do PBL any more? Yes, unfortunately.

True confession. The title doesn't really align with what you are about to read but, hey, it got you to click on the link and start reading this, didn't it?

Right now our school is in its third year of using PBL as its primary mode of instruction. Now, primary is a funny word. Two years ago we started with our 6th grade teachers and many of them struggled to understand how to do a project. Many, however, excelled and became known for their expertise.

Last year we pushed PBL out in all three grades and also insisted upon having small group instruction. The same 6th grade teachers, who had success in the first year, continued to do well and incorporated a rotation to a teacher table into their daily process. A few additional 6th grade teachers took on "a project" during each semester. And, many teachers created projects during each semester. Almost all of the ELA teachers and most of the Social Studies teachers created classrooms with good to great small group rotations.

So, at the end of year two we had a large group of teachers doing good small group instruction. And, we had a large group of teachers who had run at least two projects during the year with varying levels of success. The best news was that we had teachers in both sets: a win-win situation! We decided to minimize change for year three and the word we used was "enhance." As in we will enhance our instruction.

Then we discovered Glenna Tabor and her Tabor Rotations process for small group instruction. If you get nothing else out of this post, go look at Glenna Tabor's stuff and, better yet, figure out how to get ALL of your math teachers to one of her trainings (or get her to come to your district). A day with her was one of the best PD's I have ever attended (if not the best ever).

Tabor Rotations is a VERY structured plan for small group instruction. And, that is its biggest strength. I held a half day training with math and math-inclusion teachers yesterday for our school district. We will be sending nearly 40 people to a Tabor Rotation training day in Dallas next month and I wanted to pre-teach some of the concepts and give them an overall view of the process. Our inclusion teachers summed it up best - "With Tabor Rotations you get all of the best practices for SPED and ELL students rolled into one package."

So, here's the dilemma - Tabor Rotations is very structured and many of our best PBL teachers are in the math department. Why is that a problem? Several felt that the structure doesn't work with what they do. With Tabor Rotations we have 4 heterogeneous groups for part of the week and 4 homogeneous groups the remainder of the week and these teachers are used to project groups of 3 to 4 students in each group. When you have a class of 30 students that means 7 to 10 groups for projects. Do we have 8 groups of students who are working on a project; a different set of 8 students working in their Tabor Rotation groups for a couple of days; and, a third set of 8 students working in their Tabor Rotation groups for the other days of the week?

And how do we do Tabor Rotations with research days and presentation days?

All of these questions are now fully engulfing my brain. Our teachers will be going to the training in two weeks and then I'll have other brains to help me figure this out. Because we will figure this out. PBL will work in every environment. PBL will help your students go deeper with their learning. Tabor Rotations will help your students go deeper with their learning too. The marriage of the two will be a truly magnificent thing. Just give us time to perfect it - because our teachers can, and will, figure this out.

Year 4 at SXSWEdu - My Schedule (Mon/Tue) Part 1 of 2

Official Logo

This week will be the 4th edition of South By Southwest Education (SXSWedu) and I have been to every one of them. This year feels, somehow, different from those first three years and I'm hoping that is a good thing.

The first thing I noticed (about myself) is that I am planning times each day that I want to make sure I am there for and I want to attend lots of sessions. I am not able to take entire days at the conference without taking vacation days but I'll try to maximize my time.

I will still be going to school every day before heading into SXSWEdu. But I'll be getting there as early as possible. I told everyone that I will not be at school in the afternoons and I won't be back for after school meetings or helping students - not like previous years. Nope, I'm going to be in Austin every day and I'm going to stay there until I'm ready to go home. Goal number one will be to minimize feelings of guilt for not being at work. That's an impossible task - but I hope to be as guilt free as possible.

As I looked over the schedule I decided to look for specific people first. Then I went through and looked at the Session Themes. Themes that struck a cord included "Achievement Gaps and Educational Equality," Cognitive Process and Design Thinking," "DIY, Maker and Hacker," and "Gaming & Virtual Learning."  Using this process I ended up selecting 52 sessions. During some time slots, I had as many as 5 sessions at the same time! A nice problem to have.

I can remember the first year of SXSW, there were only about 5 sessions that weren't during the time I was presenting that interested me. That's another nice thing about this year - I'm not presenting so I can see whatever I want.  I also consulted EdSurge and their SXSWEdu Cheat Sheet. The main thing I found out on their site was that I was too late for signing up for their get-together on Monday night! Definitely blew it with getting signed up for social events at night. Next year, sigh....

Monday afternoon I'm focusing on Design Thinking. I've chosen to see either "Liminal Learning: Challenged-Based Design-Driven" or "In the Trenches With K-12 Design Thinking," which are next door to each other and at the same time, unfortunately.  Then I'll end the afternoon with "Getting Students Out of The Box to Redesign It."

Tuesday morning I'll be hitting sessions on gaming, cognitive processes, and closing the achievement gap. First up: "Small Town HOMAGO:Build, Make, Do, Play" which is opposite my friend Carl Hooker and his Zombies, unfortunately. It's a short session so I may have time to get over and play with the zombies. It is also in Salon C which is featuring short sessions throughout so I may just stay and see "Does Engagement Really Matter." Either way I'll just hang out, mess around, and geek out.

Tuesday afternoon I'll start with 2 hours of "Probing Needs and Prototyping Solutions: DT4EdTech ." It is opposite another design thinking session that has a summary that is incoherent - not sure how it made it through the panel picker! The folks on the "probing needs" panel can tell me what they are going to talk about and I know one of them.  

At 1:30 I am really torn. There's "Saving America's Black Boys"and "Failing to Learn: Building Resilient Mindsets." Both resonate with me and so it will probably come down to which one has a seat for me.  But I'll end the day with "Playful Calculation = Design Creativity."

Tuesday night I'll be attending the Advisory Board Mixer - one of the perks to being on the advisory board. I know I'll be exhausted heading home that night but there's still Wednesday and Thursday to go. More about that in part two.

It's Always the Right Time to Write

http://www.flickr.com/commons

School starts up on Monday and I've started thinking about all of the January hurdles that are approaching. There's "Benchmark Week" when all of our core classes will be taking benchmarks that are designed to see where we are in our progression towards the state mandated testing. It also gives our students a feel for what it will be like during testing as we go to a full testing feel to the school. We have modified schedules and lunches and students test in their testing rooms for the 4 hour duration of the test.

We also will look at the middle of the year (MOY) tests for math and reading from online testing sites. We will look at our student progress and we'll reset our response to intervention (RTI) groups for the lead up to testing.

The last January hurdle will be our writing benchmark tests in all of our ELA classes. I, for one, am not looking forward to how we score with those because our focus this year has been on reading and most of our ELA teachers have pushed that while pushing their writing to the back burner. For the early part of December we started refocusing on the writing process and the relationship with writing and reading. If we do it right, our writing processes can help our struggling readers. That will be our theme for the remainder of the year.

Writing is NOT just an ELA thing though. We need to be doing a better job of writing in all subject areas.  That will be my personal focus as we start back next week. I think the best way to get that going is to have our teachers create one written assignment for their students each week in January. And after that, I'd like to see them assign a writing requirement into each of their project plans.

Having a writing component in a project is an easy step. We can have written proposals. We can have written journal entries. We can have written explanations for steps taken by a team. It gets a bit more difficult assigning "authentic" writing into the project. A post by Sara Hallermann, a fellow BIE National Faculty member, from last year is something I recommend to people who want to make the literacy piece more authentic.

From the New Tech Network I always fall back on the expertise of Alix Horton and her Literacy For Living blog.  There are great nuggets to found in all of the posts but this one, from last July, about literacy in the math classroom is really great. Never tell me, a former math teacher, that you can't do writing in the math classroom! Don't they need to explain to you how the steps in solving a problem? How many ways could you have them do the explaining? Hmmm????

Ever hear of the Literacy Design Collaborative?  Go to their site and click on the Tasks tab and you will see some great ideas for writing assignments. And if you just need sentence starters, go to Google and type in "sentence starters for...(math, science, social studies, english, etc.) and there's tons:

If you are not writing in your classroom every week, it's time for a resolution to do so. Yes, reading is a major issue throughout the United States. Work on the reading skills but incorporate writing into your routine and you will help those low readers become better readers. And, even though we use Google (or Bing, or..) to search for spelling, our students need to use dictionaries so that they can think through the spelling process.

So, starting next week, we will have our teachers work writing into their weekly plans. I haven't talked this through with our principal or our literacy coach but I'm not worried about getting them on board. Our students need it and it's what's best for them. That's the only argument I need to use.

Tabs I Have Open (1-2-14)

New Year resolutions can take many forms and, as I said in my recent post, I just want to get myself healthier so I can take care of myself, my family, my friends, and my teachers.

But a goal I have decided to set for 2014 is to be less worried about what I put into a blog post. I have worried that my posts have to say awesome and inspiring things. Few people actually open up my posts so I shouldn't be worrying about such silly things.  This will be the first post of 2014 with stuff that you might find interesting - or you might not.

The first type of post I want to use this year is one I just made up - "Tabs I Have Open". There are days that I wake up and open my laptop and I see 15 or 20 tabs open from the night before. Today would be one of those days. After closing a bunch of tabs I now have 15 tabs open. Twitter will always be open and so I shouldn't count that one. And, of course, the tab for this post shouldn't count. Then there's the in-boxes for 2 of my GMail accounts, a Google spreadsheet I was working on, and my shared Google doc for the book I'm working on. So when the smoke clears, there are seven tabs open with things I haven't read or want to re-read to pull out stuff.

Looking left to right, I have a post from Chris Lehmann's Practical Theory on "We Still Need Arts Education."  I clicked on this link because I really like Chris and I usually agree with whatever he writes about. But I also clicked on it because I'm still getting my head around incorporating the A into STEM education - giving us STEAM education.

Next up is KQED's Mindshift blog post entitled "What's Our Vision For the Future of Learning?" I always try to keep up with the Mindshift blog.

My third is Andrew Miller's Personalized Learning Starts With Personal Relationships .  He's a great guy, a fellow BIE National Faculty member and just writes really well. If you don't already follow him on Twitter do that now with @betamiller  or look for him on #pblchat.

Fourth tab from the left? The Engaged Education blog's post (by David Price) about "Why Are We So Divided on The Purpose of Education?" Can't remember if I opened it before the KQED post or after but they are related and the KQED post mentions David Price's book, Open.

The next tab leads us to the Apps in Education post from December 19th entitled Rolling the Dice With Teacher Professional Development.  I'm always a sucker for reading about ways to engage teachers in professional development.

The next to last tab made me laugh when I clicked on it to see what it was. It is a post from last July about using Snapchat on the iPhone and Android.  My wife, Sheila, has been experimenting with ways Snapchat might be used in the tourism world and we were making sure we had all of the ins and outs of this app. She loves sending Snapchat photos and videos to our daughter testing various features. Of course I like to stay on top of it because so many of our middle schoolers (my own son included) use this app all of the time.

Last tab is a post about using the Personal Hotspot on iOS7. I'll be getting my first iPhone today and I wanted to know about whether it is worthwhile using that feature with my current data rates and if I would need to change anything with T-Mobile.

This is a very link-heavy post but you could see each of tabs I mentioned if you went to my Diigo account.  I don't save everything I read there but for this post I made sure I had saved each of them so you could go to Diigo and check it out. I love Diigo for saving things I find interesting so I can quickly reference them later.

I'll try to not write a Tabs I Have Open post more than once a month or so. But if I wake up and I see a bunch of great stuff in the tabs I've opened you can count on me whipping up a post. Of course in between posts check out my Diigo and you'll see the good stuff I've book marked.

21st Century Skills Must Be Taught and Assessed

http://www.flickr.com/photos/newtonfreelibrary/

It's been a while since I wrote a PBL post and the timing is right because I am creating a PD for our teachers on teaching and assessing school-wide learning outcomes (SWLO's). SWLO's are those things we want our students to know how to do outside of the content specific knowledge.

To many these are just the 21st Century Skills identified by business as important for all of their employees to possess.  These skills can be district specific, school specific, or even classroom specific. In Manor ISD, where I work and play, our school board has identified 5 that are part of our Graduate Profile. They are Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Digital Citizenship, Communication, and Work Ethic.

At Decker Middle School we have adopted the graduate profile as our SWLO's. And that means that within every project we want our teachers assessing one, or more, of the learning outcomes. But, as they always say, we shouldn't assess what we haven't taught. Therefore, if we are to assess collaboration we need to be teaching our students how to collaborate. And before we can have our teachers teach collaboration we need to make sure the teachers understand what collaboration looks like for a middle school student. And before that....

As you can see we can really dive down into the minutiae to ensure this is done properly. Where do we start then? Our first step is to make sure our teachers understand what we expect of them. What we expect of them is that they will schedule days that are specifically devoted to teaching one or more of the learning outcomes.

Our next two school PD's will encompass exploring these learning outcomes. We will look at what Manor New Tech High School uses for learning outcomes and what that school expects of their 9th graders for each of these. That level of expectation needs to be what we expect from our 8th graders as they leave us to head to 9th grade. Then we will break each one down to specifics that we will expect from our 6th graders and our 7th graders.

When students come to us (from their elementary schools) we will teach them what we expect our students to be able to do with the 21st Century skills. Then we will increase our expectations each year so that the average student entering high school will be at a level that our high schools can then hone as the students mature and become working members of society.

Once our students have been taught what they should be demonstrating it will be time for our teachers to assess how well our students are doing with these skills. Rubrics will need to be created. And teachers will want to create anchor charts or other visual aids for students to see every day.

We are focused on creating a culture of collaboration and reflection at DMS. Each of our learning outcomes is a part of this foundational culture. The difficulty is helping the teachers understand this so that they are able to build the culture within their students. We will be exploring how other New Tech Network schools teach and assess their learning outcomes.

This process will take time. We will put something in place this Spring and tweak it over the Summer. Reflection will lead to refinement and we will revisit these often over the years. Within a few years all of our current students will be populating our high schools. And when the class of 2020 graduates and heads to college, students from Manor will be well positioned to be leaders in the classroom and in the workforce.

The Secret To Doing PBL in a Real School

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amberhenley/

OK, so I got your attention and you came to read this because of the title of the post. Well, to be honest, if you understand PBL and the inquiry process there isn't any secret to making it happen in a "large comprehensive middle school" like mine.

And I can tell you what needs to be in place to have successful inquiry and the pbl process happening throughout your school. Why am I so confident? Because we are heading in the right direction at my school.

No, we aren't there yet. As a matter of fact there are only between 10% and 25% of our teachers who are comfortable with pbl and the pbl process. After this week all of our core content teachers will have been pbl trained. But only a handful will be running projects next week.

Before I discuss why that is I want to give you three reasons why I believe you can do it.

1) Collaboration is King -  We, as a district, are pushing collaboration as a key component to successful teams and schools.  During the week we have all of our core content teachers meeting with me a minimum of once per week for planning. Teachers are using Google Docs and are discussing content in their meetings. They aren't discussing the latest football game or an upcoming concert.  That's for times outside of the school day and/or at happy hour.

2) Backwards Design is the Norm - We use a curriculum guide called CSCOPE that gives our teachers a framework, including a pacing guide, for curriculum planning. We look at each of the unit tests and the standards being covered in those tests. We take time to see the verbs in the standards and how each question is worded. We look at how our school and our district performed on the previous year's standardized tests. We look at screening data for math and reading.  We put that all together and we plan out a unit. Then we get together and discuss the week that is coming up. We look at what standards will be covered and what small group activities will be held each day.

3) You Can't do Small Groups if Big Groups Don't Know How to Act - We spent the first four weeks of school, in every content class, creating an atmosphere of learning. We taught our students what is expected when a teacher is working with a small group of students. Most (not quite all, yet) students know that when the teacher is working with students, the teacher is not to be bothered. They don't ask questions. They don't ask to go to the bathroom. They don't ask where a handout or a web page is located. They don't interrupt the instruction. Period.

When teachers are working together and are planning lessons using a backwards design process, then good things will be coming from the teacher in the classroom.  When students can be self sufficient so that teachers can work with their classmates, good learning will be happening in the classroom. When the teacher is sharing good stuff and students are learning good stuff and the students are getting their needs met through small group instruction, then all of the members of the class are ready to operate as a PBL classroom.

Start with the end in mind? You bet.  Allow for inquiry and student led learning? Yes. Most of our teachers have never planned and executed a project in their classroom. But when I hand them a Project Planning Form and they realize that all of the systems we have in place are there to help make running a project an easy process, then they will feel better about this thing we call PBL.

We are in our second year of bringing the PBL process into our school of nearly 1000 students and 50 teachers.  We have added 1:1 iPads this year. We are implementing new processes for planning and backward design. We are even putting in a positive behavior plan. There are so many new things that many of our teachers are ready to snap from the stress.  But we're going to be OK. Our teachers are going to do this because we are all in this together.

Most of our teachers are not "doing PBL."  But students are grouped in the classrooms and teachers are working with the groups. Teachers are writing driving questions for each of the teaching units. Teachers are keeping the end in mind. Teachers are even thinking about products that can be created in the teaching units.

Don't tell them, but they are almost "doing PBL." I'll work on getting them to realize this later. I'm enjoying their success right now.

Are You Set Up For Success? We Are.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marierleslie/

This week we will start a new school year at Decker Middle School. We have been working most of the summer so that our teachers and, in turn, our students become more successful. There are some things we have put into place for the first 4 weeks of school that should make a significant difference with the learning levels of our students.

First, through a grant, we were able to hire a literacy coach so that I don't have the load of instruction, literacy, and technology in my job description. We were able to identify some teachers last year who are much better than me with technology and are using it, daily, in the classroom. We will be asking them to help those who are less capable and have questions or concerns. We also added an Assistant Principal who is, technically, an intern and has a job description of "Instructional Coach/Principal Intern." She has IC experience and I'm calling her our academic dean.

Next, our Academic Dean, Principal, and I started (back in June) with planning some basic non-negotiables. They range from what our lesson plans will look like, to what our team plannings will look like, to a daily plan for the first "17 Days."

The First 17 Days (as we are calling it) is modeled from a system Austin (TX) ISD uses called The First 20 Days. Within this period most of the core classes will have completed their first instructional unit. Overlay number one is a plan to teach ALL students at DMS how to work independently. So, we have incorporated a gradual release and stamina method of getting students to go from 5 minutes to 20 (30?) minutes of work without input from the teacher.

Second, we are overlaying a few minutes of literacy that starts with Guided Reading (ELA/SS) or Problem Solving (SCI/Math). Again this is a gradual release plan where teachers model Think-Alouds of reading or problem solving. Then the teacher has students model the process. Finally students pursue reading and problem solving and incorporate interactive notebooks and/or journals.

Third, we are striving to become an AVID demonstration site. All of our students will be keeping Cornell Notes. Some will be kept electronically and some will be kept via conventional notebooks. But every student will be doing this. And, teachers will be using AVID classroom management techniques so that students see consistency from classroom to classroom.

Lastly, we are incorporating the use of Google Apps via the New Tech Network's LMS called ECHO.  Teachers are going from not using it, to creating classes, to using a daily agenda, to using an electronic filing cabinet during this initial phase of the school year.

Our goal is that when the 2nd 6 week grading period starts we have students who are able to work independently and have a system (both electronically and via traditional notebooks) to keep their knowledge in set places. They will encounter very similar experiences in all of their classes, and teachers will be starting to incorporate PBL as their primary mode of instruction.

As with any school, we will have teachers who will be at varying levels of expertise in this process. Some teachers may not get there this year. We have acknowledged this, as administrators, and we have conveyed this to the faculty. We will be setting the bar high. We will put systems in place to help those teachers who are struggling with facilitating these processes. But, as the students walk in on Tuesday morning, we are set up for success. Stay tuned to this site for updates on how it all goes.

A Chance of a Lifetime

Student Photo MNTHS

The fact I got to see President Obama was not a given. I'm not teaching at Manor New Tech (MNTHS) any more. Yes, I do a lot with PBL in our district but the fact is I am not a teacher at the school being visited by the President.  But Steve Zipkes, the MNTHS Principal, told me his goal was to have all of the former teachers at the campus when Mr. Obama was there.

Finally, Tuesday night, I received an email from the White House advance team representative that I would be part of a group of "Volunteers" and I would have a meeting on Wednesday to get more information.

Wednesday afternoon there were about a dozen of us from around the district who were given assignments for the big day. At the beginning of that meeting we were told the layout and we knew that some of us might end up in the cafeteria where there would be a live stream of the speech. Again, I knew that I might just be there and not get to see the man in person. But I was asked to be at the entrance making sure students, staff, and guests entered in an orderly fashion. And I was told "when they close up you can go into the gymnasium for the speech." 

As it turned out things went incredibly smooth and about an hour before the arrival we had closed up and I was inside tweeting and talking with many of our guests. Being "in the loop" I knew when the motorcade had arrived and that he had entered the main part of the building to see the student presentations. He was free to spend as much time as he needed so when he hadn't arrived in about 20 minutes I knew the students were getting maximum time with their President.

During the waiting time I started getting tweets and texts from friends around the country who were watching the live White House feed, online.  They could see me and all of my actions so we started having some fun with strategic hand gestures and comments about the brightness of my bald spot.  Then a really cool thing happened.

They had anticipated almost 200 press for the event and there was plenty of room in the gym for that number of people. The advance team wanted it to look full and so they invited the entire student body to come in and see the speech live.  It was a little cozy but as the advance team had said, "we need it to be crowded with lots of happy cheering people."

Before the President came into the gym, he was introduced by a senior at MNTHS, Tevyn Washington.  Tevyn was one of my favorite students and his introduction was well thought out and moving. Listening to his speech caused tears to well up in my eyes for the 2nd time that day.

The president's speech started out, as was expected, very presidential but he quickly got to talking about what he had seen during his tour of the school and he included the sound bytes that had been provided for him. It was a pretty emotional time for those of us who had been at the school for a while. His entire speech can be found here. I thought I could keep it together, but he still managed to get me teared up a couple of times.

Thanks to the military I've been in the presence of Presidents,Vice Presidents, Secretaries of State and Secretaries of Defense. But once I had left service I really didn't picture being able to see the President. Especially in a small town in central Texas.

Mr. Obama spoke the truth yesterday. He didn't embellish his remarks and his speech writer didn't make up statistics.  We are doing good things in this district. We feel that we have such a long road to go to get where we want to be. We see the blemishes. We know where we are lacking. But for one day a school district and a town could stand together and beam with pride as the whole nation recognized the efforts of some of their own. It was a day none of us will ever forget.

Fighting the Education Reform Battle

A Guest Post by Steven Zipkes, founding Principal/Director at Manor New Technology High School in Manor Texas

(Originally posted on Facebook - February 20, 2013 )

    My head hurts from constantly fighting the educational reform battle. It is not about extending the school day, or mandatory Saturday school, nor selecting the "right"students or same sex school or AP courses, or wearing uniforms, or the other gazillion programs out there! It's about delivering authentic and engaging, yes engaging, curriculum that gets students excited about their learning.

   I often wonder if it's really about change that meets the students' needs or perpetuating profitable and even so-called "non profit" programs. How naive I consider myself sometimes. Do we ever really listen to what successful companies are looking for in potential employees?!! Really, all I hear is blah, blah, blah from talking head, non-practitioners, and practicing pretenders who say "we know best." I say, try talking to the students and the businesses, not someone trying to make a name for themselves for ulterior motives.

   By the way, there is no such thing as PBL's - especially with "unit." Can you say substitution for textbooks? Teaching through Project Based Instruction is not about the end-product but about the learning that takes place throughout the project and the scaffolding within the project. Finally, PBL is NOT STEM and STEM is NOT PBL. Project Based Learning is a process and modality of instruction. It requires a pedagogical shift in the delivery of instruction by the practitioner. STEM can, and should, use PBL as the modality of instruction as well as integrating content and the use of assessment of 21st Century Skills in every project. By doing this, a practitioner is better prepared to create deeper learning opportunities for transferring knowledge to application.

    Get down to 21st Century Skills (such as collaboration, communication, problem solving, research, and work ethic) and deeper learning of transferring knowledge to application through Project Based Instruction. That is the path! It is really not rocket science. Oh, but it's not your idea or how you would do it or how can we profit. Real educators, parents, and students need to unite and say enough is enough. Experimenting with our children - just to line your pockets or make your name. Let's create real and meaningful systemic change once and for all and do away with all of the talking heads and rhetoric.

    Our children are too valuable for the success of our country and their future. Does anyone agree with me? Or am I on my own Manor New Technology Island?

    Stepping down from my soapbox now. Have a great day.

Reflecting on my Life With PBL

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In July of 2011 I wrote about attending training and how I realized that my perspective had changed when it came to experiencing new requirements with my teaching.  

Having just re-read that post and reflecting on the year that is about to finish, I realize just how fortunate I am for embracing PBL.  And, I realize how important it is for all teachers to discover what I have discovered about this teaching/learning process.

If you haven't considered  PBL yet, or you are struggling with the idea of doing this,  you might want to read through this post from last Spring on 6 things you can expect when you are a PBL teacher.  There are hundreds of other posts on the subject with many just in my postings over the years.

Five years ago I considered myself a pretty darn good math teacher.  I believed in (and used) cooperative learning groups.  And I embraced the use of technology in the classroom.  My fellow teachers and administrators would (probably) agree with the instruction piece of being a good teacher but they would definitely say that I had trouble with classroom management.  My Achilles heal.

In PBL I was able to continue working on improving my teaching abilities but I still struggled mightily with classroom management.  However I learned that, in PBL, I could do a better job at managing my classroom when I was organized with my daily plan.  Who'd a thunk!  Organization makes the classroom management easier.  Wow!

And so, this school year, I've been able to see many teachers in their classrooms in my roll as an instructional coach.  I no longer have to worry about how my students are acting (and neither do my neighboring teachers).  I get to see effective and less effective teaching practices.  I see good and not-so-good classroom management.  I see students thriving and students not being given the same opportunity to learn.  It's time to make a difference at my school.

With the new year I really need to share the good PBL practices I have used and the practices I have read about.  I need to model teach and I need to help plan classes and projects.  In short, I need to be a good instructional coach.  I need to push data to hours outside of the school day.  Our teachers need me during the normal school hours and I owe it to them to be available.  And, my principal needs to know that I'm out there helping make our school the best it can be.

Thank you New Tech Network, Buck Institute for Education, and Edutopia for providing my PBL knowledge.  And thank you to Steve Zipkes for hiring me at Manor New Technology High School back in 2008.  This PBL rocket is heading for the stars and I'm loving every moment!

How Do You Create a School? (Part 1 of 2)

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     (Part 1 of 2)
     The first question that hit me when I said I wanted this job was how do we transform an existing school, Decker Middle School in Manor Tx, from what it is to what it will become?

     I mean the school building is there.  There are students attending the school.  Heck, a lot of the students I was teaching came from that school.  But, the school it is about to become doesn't exist and the teachers, administrators, and I have the chance to mold the school in whatever fashion we desire.

     Luckily I am a teacher who has been trained by the New Tech Network (NTN) to use project based learning (PBL).  This is the ultimate PBL assignment.  I was given the entry event when I went to the job interview.  I know that a thriving middle school where teachers are using PBL as the means to teach their content is my final product.  It's time to create my Knows and Need to Knows.

KNOWS:

•      In August sixth graders will be coming through the doors expecting an education (THAT is the ultimate know).
•      Some of the sixth graders will be coming from an elementary school where the teachers are using PBL in their classrooms very successfully.
•      The 6th grade teachers I will be working with have been to a 4 day training on how to use PBL and have been working with the 5th grade teachers to see how it is being used at the elementary school.
•      The 6th grade teachers will be attending the New Tech Network's Annual Conference (NTAC) in July with me.
•      I will be attending the New Tech Network's Boot Camp (for trainers) in June.
•      I will be attending the Buck Institute for Education's PBL 101 as a guest of White Oak (Tx) ISD's in early June.
•      I have 20 years of teaching experience, a Masters in Education with emphasis on Middle School Math and Science, and 4 years of PBL teaching experience in a NTN school.
•      There are NTN teachers and coaches available, all over the country, who I am connected with through Twitter.  They can and will help me with this process.  There are also Buck Institute National Faculty I am connected with on Twitter and they will help me too.
•      No matter where we are on the opening day of school, we need to be ready to teach and we need to have a structure in place for our students to be successful learners.
•      The principal may be new to PBL but he has a great reputation for putting structures in place to create a safe environment where students know they can take risks while being successful learners.

     This list of KNOWS is long but I could add many more.  But, by writing them down, I now know that there are safety nets in place for my successful journey through this learning process.  Just like our kids, it helps to reflect on what you DO know about something before you immediately take the negative stance of "I don't know anything about this!"

     No, I have never been an Instructional Coach.  No, I have never started a school.   But there are a lot of things about instruction that I know.  I have been a part of schools, all over the country, who are at some phase of reinventing themselves.  And, most importantly, there are dozens of people with various levels of knowledge ready to help me - and ultimately my school - be successful.  Next time we visit the Need to Knows.  It's a looooonnnnggg list!

What I Look For In A Coach

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As I was applying for an instructional coach position a few months ago, I decided I would think about what I look for in a good coach.  When I didn't get the position I started questioning my ability to meet my own list of what it takes to be a good coach.

First on my list is teaching experience in a number of different environments.  This might be different schools, different grade levels, different ability levels, different subject areas, and a few more.

I would add to that list that there needs to be a significant number of years in the teaching profession but, time alone, is not an automatic qualifier (or dis- qualifier).  Some people are just darn good at connecting with other adults and the ability to connect trumps years of service.

Next on my list is the ability to be receptive to change.  I am reminded of those teachers I was working with in the early 90's who couldn't see how computers would be used in the classroom.  I not only had my own computer (since 1985) but I was mad that I couldn't afford the latest Apple IIe when I started teaching in 1992.   Good coaches must be able to recognize the latest "thing" that is coming to the world of education and must be ready to use their imagination as to how this can be used in the classroom.

In today's world that would mean the use of technology and the use of social media.  Good coaches should be listening to what educators are saying about how they are using technologies in their classrooms.  They should be knowledgeable in how 1:1 programs are being implemented.  They should be actively trying the latest apps and software so they are able to ask questions and make recommendations.  And, they should understand that social media means more than just Facebook and Twitter.

I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the use of Twitter though, since I find it so valuable in my own teaching world.  Coaches these days should be active on chats such as #educoach and #edchat or #ntchat (new teacher chat).  If they are an elementary coach they should be involved in one of the many chats geared at those grade levels or just #elemchat. If they are high school then they are probably course specific and they should be following chats such as #mathchat or #finedchat.  And if they are something like a PBL coach then there's #pblchat.

These chats will give answers to questions at all levels of teacher ability and will allow coaches a chance to ask others how they might handle a question that has been posed to them.   Then there are the hundreds of educators who are on at every hour of the day who might be able to answer questions on any range of topics.  Finally, with twitter, there are many teachers using twitter in the classroom and coaches need to understand how this is being done in these other schools.

Education coaches need to be pros.  As THE professional/expert in a certain area coaches must be willing to find answers and that means reading blog posts by knowledgeable educators and it means paying attention to sites like Edutopia, Discovery Education, The Buck Institute and even the Huffington Post (with an open mind).  They need to be aware of trends and fads and should be listening to what students are doing and saying about their education.

The bottom line is that coaches need to be multi-dimensional.  They need to be willing to work long hours when needed and they need to know when to say "I'm off the clock."  They must be receptive to change while recognizing those things that are tried and true (and are still VERY relevant.)   They need to know when to give a hug and when to (metaphorically) slap someone in the face.

I'll never know why I didn't get the coaching position I applied for but now I know that I need to become even better at all of these things I just listed.  And when I do I will become an even more valuable member of my school and my students will be the benefactors of my hard work.

The Post was originally published in December 2009

Assessment in a PBI Environment? How? 

     Whenever I talk with someone who is considering using Project Based Instruction (PBI) in their classroom I can be assured that the topic of assessment will be one of the first questions asked. Assessment, both formative and summative, is a topic that is guaranteed to bring out opinions from educators and this is magnified by teachers trying to visualize assessment in a PBI classroom.

So, what does assessment look like in my classroom? Well, we have tests and quizzes and daily "warm-ups" and written explanations and.......
Wait, that sounds just like a regular classroom? YES! That is exactly the point I am trying to make. Even though we are considered "100 % PBI" does not mean that we give up assessing the learning of our students.

There are a couple of items that we do assess differently and that, really, is all that we need to discuss. If you have options, in your bag of tricks, of assessing the learning that is going on in your class, then you are already at a point where you are ready to be a PBI teacher.

Some things that WILL look different or that you don't normally see in a conventional classroom include: Project Grades, Collaboration Grades, Oral Presentation Grades, Critical Thinking Grades, or even Group Assessment Grades.

PROJECT GRADES - A project is more than just putting together a pretty poster or a power point explaining some research that has been conducted. There needs to be definite demarcations for the beginning or introduction to a new concept or idea; a middle where research, hands-on learning, or direct instruction is going on; and an ending where the new concept or idea is presented by the students to show their level of knowledge of the material.

At each stage of this process there are chances to assess knowledge. There might be a pre-assessment to confirm the knowledge levels of each student during the introduction phase. During the middle stages there can be written quizzes, (or even tests for larger, longer lasting projects), there can be oral quizzes, there can be quick "knowledge checks" taken through clicker systems or surveys. We collect "Warm-ups" at the beginning of class or "Tickets Out" at the end of class as another way to check for understanding. Your imagination is the only limiting tool.


COLLABORATION GRADES - While we are walking around monitoring group work, we have an intuitive "grade" of individual efforts in each group. To put a numerical value to what we already know we can assign collaboration grades at the midpoint and at the end of the project. This might be done with a survey or Google Forms where each student gives the other students and themselves a grade (1 - 10, 1 - 5, etc.). Then you add them all up and determine the grade for each student. Don't worry about equity, students are both ruthless (about the other group members) and honest (about themselves). A fun way to do this is to give the groups a total score that the individual scores must add up to. Just make sure the total isn't evenly divisible by the number of students in the group.

ORAL PRESENTATION GRADES - Whenever we can, we make sure that the students are presenting their projects to an audience. They have worked hard and deserve to show off their new-found knowledge. The audience might be a panel of experts from a business, education majors from the local college or university, parents of students, other students, or whatever combination of people you want to come up with. We often hear "I haven't touched algebra in 20 years," or " I was never good at math." But these panelists don't have to grade on content, they can grade for how the students presented: did they have good rapport with the audience? did they have interesting videos/podcasts/powerpoint slides/etc.? did one member of a group dominate the presentation or were they equal partners? Just list the objectives you would like graded and let them do the rest.

Assessment, as should be no surprise, is done in a PBI classroom just like a conventional classroom. I hope this short post has dispelled any rumors that PBI means we don't have to do assessment. That rumor needs to go into the same category of unfounded myths as the one about PBI can't have direct teaching. Don't get me started on that one. Or, maybe that's a topic for another post.

What A PBL Teacher Does on Vacation

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     Today is the first day of my Spring Break and I am relaxing by watching NCAA Basketball, keeping tabs on SXSWi, thinking about how I will be mentoring a school doing a school-wide pbl, and planning my classes for when the break ends.

     There are teachers who will not do anything teaching related.  There are teachers who will travel and will not allow school to enter their minds.  And, there are teachers, like me, who other teachers will accuse of having no life.

     To me you can never really leave the classroom too far behind.  As a pbl teacher I am accustomed to reflecting on how projects are going and what, if anything, will need to change to make the learning successful.  And that's where I sit today.  The project I am leading in my freshmen class is not going exactly the way I wanted and we, for the first time, have a true client to report to.  But my students don't really have an understanding of what is required for this to be a success.

     In my junior class my students have checked out and are not focusing on what they need to do to be successful in their project.  The problem with this group of students is that they created the project.  They asked to do the project.  But they have not embraced actually doing the project and that needs to change.

     I teach two different classes with two unique problems.  My freshmen are in a class they are required to take and they will respond to whatever I ask of them with a minimum of resignation that the work has to happen.  My juniors are in an elective that all but one or two are in reluctantly.  They do not want to learn about  digital electronics and the maximum I can expect is the minimum needed to pass.

     I look at the coming week away from the classroom as a chance to regroup with both classes.  I will take the time to create new projects that can be launched as soon as needed after the break.  With my juniors I may decide that it means a total regroup immediately upon returning to class.  With my Freshmen I know that it will be a minimum of 2 weeks before I launch the next project but I can find ways to make the wrap up of this project go smoother.

    An additional element in my planning is that we are moving into the standardized test season.  I can expect tests during every week between the week we get back and the middle of May.  Some weeks will only effect the freshmen and some weeks will only effect the juniors.  Other weeks will effect both groups of students.  These testing breaks can really effect the flow of a project and must be planned for up-front.

     So I'm on Spring Break.  So what.  I've got a lot of work to do.  And the work I do this week will keep  the months of April and May that much more enjoyable.  I'll get my break in June.  Then I just have to start planning for the 2012-2013 school year.  Or should I start planning that now?

Writing in a STEM Classroom

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Yesterday my students took final exams in two Project Lead the Way classes:  Introduction to Engineering Design (IED) and Digital Electronics (DE).  Their exams consisted of a writing prompt with the requirement that they write at least one page, they use introductory and concluding paragraphs, and that they use proper spelling and grammar.

For the IED exam they were told to underline the steps in the 12-step design process, underline key terms in the process of Reverse Engineering, and underline the words Planned Obsolescence and Perceived Obsolescence when they were used.

I could have easily had them do a multiple choice test on processes in CAD programming, steps in the design process, and the difference between Planned and Perceived Obsolescence.  But what would that have told be about their real understanding of these terms?

Too often, as STEM teachers, we get to hide behind solving problems and we let the writing and reading part of education be allocated to the English teachers.  We forget that we have college degrees and we had to write papers and we had to read A LOT in college.  Our students need writing and reading preparation so they can go to the best science and engineering schools and do well.

(Insert Sea Story here: )  I remember being a Main Propulsion Assistant, in the Navy, and having the Chief Engineer always (not once or twice but always) ask me what the tech manual said about the problem we were having with the pumps, turbines, or other mechanical equipment in our engine room. I would have to bring the tech manual and I was expected to have read the manual, understood what was being said, and be able to explain it in layman's terms to the Captain. This was true even though I wasn't the person doing the repairs.  It was my people doing the repairs and I was expected to understand the problems.  If I weren't a good reader I would have never made it in that job.

And so, whenever possible, I intend to be a better teacher by having my students read and write.  Not having them write in every class is a disservice to their future.  The English teachers can work on making sure they understand the nuances of style or various grammar rules.   We can be the ones who make sure they are practicing their skills.

(Insert first year teacher story from 1994 here: )  At a faculty meeting during my first year of teaching we were discussing having students write more across all of their courses.  The curriculum person stood in front of us and told us "of course, if you aren't an English teacher you can't grade them on grammar and spelling."  My hand went up faster than a SM-2ER missile.  "If some kid gives me a paper that is written poorly it is going to be marked up like a bloody mess!"  (That was before we became a gentler profession and we got rid of red pens for grading.)

We are professionals.  We have accumulated, in most cases, multiple hours of classes that required us to write and to be graded on our writing.  Yes, some teachers are NOT great writers but that doesn't mean they can't demand good writing from their students.  Make your students write.  You owe it to them.