Risks beget risks: Take one with your students

I like to try new things in my classroom.  I like to learn.  Mistakes are a crucial part of that, and a humbling one.  It is risky business to do something you've never done before and to try to become proficient at it.  Yet, is that what we ask of our students on a regular basis?  If it isn't, shouldn't it be?

I do not like to settle into familiar paths, especially if I see my students failing to thrive in those paths.  My course changes as they need me to change it.  Sometimes these changes lead me in directions that are uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and have a high potential of being (in my student's words) an epic...fail.  Despite the skill I may feel I have in determining learning gaps and prescribing individualized anecdotes, sometimes things do not go as I planned.  It is a scary place and can leave me feeling silly for trying in the first place.  Little voices around me can tout, "Stick with what you've always done"..."It's easier just to recycle your plans"..."Why go to all that work for the same pay?"..."Who are you trying to impress?"  

But then again, there are those risks you take that pay off in extraordinary measures.  Some of the finest moments I have had in the classroom have come from a risk I took, a gut-feeling that paid off.  

Consider my most recent risk - a CyberSurgeons simulation with my Anatomy & Physiology students.  A tip from a colleague spurred my research into this potential experience for my students, and I went for it.  There were funding set backs, which ended up resolving themselves when CyberSurgeons provided our initial mission using their own education grant funding.  There were moments when I wondered if the weeks of preparation beforehand would be worth the experience,...an experience I had not had for myself.  The encouragement of a parent (who is also our Tech Coordinator) compelled me to move forward.

The literature that I read about CyberSurgeons was limited, but from what I saw, it looked like a great opportunity.  Should it be a hit, I thought ahead to inviting possible benefactors to watch the simulation for potential funding in the future.  So, I went through the teacher training and then I trained my students.  Overall, I was just excited for the mission.  And then reality set in.

I had invited community members, local representatives from the school board, a few foundations, the local hospital, and my own administrators in to watch something I didn't know would fail or be successful.  In addition, I did not even have my own experience with it to bank on, as it would be my first time, too.  I had invited an audience in to watch a first time experience for my students and myself.  The night before the mission, this is the thought that kept me awake throughout the night.

The morning of the mission came, and I knew my students were a bit nervous, too.  However, both the morning and afternoon missions went off without a hitch!  My students were incredible in their missions and had nothing but positive feedback to share two days later in our reflective conversation.  I confessed to them how it was one of the most rewarding experiences I had had as a teacher in my twelve years, and I thanked them for taking a leap with me into something that was unknown to us all.  I am so thankful to each of them for going with it and for their hard work.

I do not know if they realize what a risk I felt I was taking on both them and myself, but they were taking a risk too.  They were doing something new and most reported, "It was a rush."  CyberSurgeons, for those science teachers out there, is an experience worth checking out!  I had several students tell me they were looking into jobs like clinical interventionist and medical surgical specialist after learning through the simulation what valuable positions these are in the medical field.  Bonus!

And lastly, I'll leave this thought.  Taking risks is a gamble you take on yourself.  Can you imagine if we as teachers model this for students, how many of them may become that much more comfortable with taking risks (or chances) on themselves?  How far could we see ourselves go? or grow?  How far would they go?  Can our courage beget their courage?  Our risks beget theirs?  Should we provide encouragement to try, and help them to find the lesson even amongst possible utter failure, I believe more of our students would take risks with us.  Otherwise, the fear of failure can leave many of them paralyzed yet comfortable in the stagnation of daily education.

Tomorrow, most of us will be in an in-service.  Let us dare to learn something new and pay attention to an opportunity for taking risks, and remember the fun in learning along with our students.  Go on, you risk-taker you...

Jeanna Scheve's Blog: Have a Little Help from Our Friends

Jeanna Scheve's Blog: Have a Little Help from Our Friends: The "uncommon" start to Common Core enhances the need for a K-20 conversation and teamwork!

Have a Little Help from Our Friends

            I just finished reading that assessments for the Common Core initiative are currently being developed on a tentative basis, and will be quite different from the types of assessment that have reigned over the past decade.  Can I get a "Heck, yeah!" and a high five for that! :)  The assessments will be more performance-based but will still include computerized assessment items, such as formative assessments.  English assessments will include a research simulation where students will read a variety of texts and then write an essay and answer questions based on those readings.  Math assessments will include justifications for their mathematical reasoning and real-world application.  
            The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium is soliciting for testing items and performance tasks in math and English.  The items will be pilot-tested in the 2012-2013 school year and those participating in the field will help to determine which items should be scored by hand or by computer.   

            Now, I must note that this Common Core transition has had an “uncommon” start, in that all districts in all states are not beginning in the same ways or getting the same material as we transition.  A silver lining though, everyone, we must put our nose to the grindstone and have the K-20 conversations.  We must work together and actively seek out information on the changes and developments that occur along the way.   

            If a teacher gets to attend a Common Core session, enlist that teacher to help spread that information to everyone else.  Team efforts and district-wide curriculum conversations will be more important than ever!  Districts are scrambling to find trainers for the Common Core, but without a large force of trained presenters, especially those with specific content knowledge in reading and math, it is almost a certainty that we will all be getting various versions of what we need to make the transition happen. 
            For example, I just finished an initial training for the Common Core transition, and learned that our trainer (who did a very nice job getting us through the material) had created all the PowerPoint slides, activities, and handouts herself.  That led me to question - why?  She explained that there have been limited opportunities for educational service centers to get trained on their end, they are literally learning just a half of a step in front of us.  That is a scary position to be in when people want answers, are looking to you to lead them through the changes, and you only know as much as they do.
            In this nationwide initiative (outside of the few states that have chosen not to jump on board), there should be a fleet of people trained at the national and state levels to make start and transition for the Common Core truly “common”.  A set training guide with the same activities, presentations, forms, plans, etc. should have been made, critiqued, and then rolled out to all states involved to get everyone on the same page.  That being said, I have already seen a few books claiming their alignment to the Common Core, and honestly, I am wary of them.  As we help to lead teachers through the transition, I supposed we will get better at weeding out the texts simply using the language of Common Core to sell books and those that truly offer substantial help to align curriculum with the Common Core.
            Lastly, veteran teachers, as always are a wonderful resource to all faculties.  Remember, that they have seen these ‘performance assessments’ before in the days of QPA, so utilizing their experiences will help everyone to develop an understanding of them, while those with about ten years or less experience may only be familiar with the multiple-choice based assessments of past decade.  "And the beat goes on"…or "and the pendulum swings". :)  Have a little help from your friends, and hang in there, gang! 

Using Student Feedback to Improve Your Instruction

I know it has been quite some time since my last post, but I am currently in graduate school to attain a degree in Teacher Leadership, in hopes of getting my dream job:  I want to teach part-time high school science and then be a part-time instructional coach or work as an instructor in the Dept. of Education at Emporia State University to prepare young teachers for this incredible career.  I feel like if I just keep saying it out loud, it is bound to happen!

I recently read an article, “The View from the Seats” by Tracy Crow in Journal of Staff Development, December 2011 (Vol. 32, #6, p. 24-30), http://www.learningforward.org, and I'll briefly summarize it here.  In the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching Project, Ronald Ferguson and Rob Ramsdell reviewed student perceptions of their teachers based on the “Seven C’s”:  care, control, clarify, challenge, captivate, confer, and consolidate.  They found that when a teacher was doing these seven things well, students were generally doing better academically and were a happier, more engaged classroom.  The article went on to debate if the student ratings should be shared with their teachers or be apart of teachers’ evaluations.  Ferguson found that it was actually one of the most valuable kinds of reflection and professional development a teacher can have.  He did clarify though that what students say about their teachers should be a driving force of input for professional development instead of being apart of a teacher’s evaluation.  The project also focused on teacher teams looking together at student work, analyzing it with questions related to the feasibility of the task and the focus of the students.  

An instructional coach might use the “Seven C’s” information when working with an individual teacher or a group of teachers who are open to using student input as a point of reflection upon their own practice.  Teachers must be open to the foundational belief that they too are life-long learners.  None of us are teaching at our full potential – it is a work in progress and an instructional coach is a partner in helping them to reach that potential.  If they are afraid to ask what their students think, they are afraid of learning and improving their practice, and are missing out on another very valuable partnership in developing their craft.             

Several years ago, I began to use this in my own classroom with a reflection and customer evaluation at the end of each of my units.  Students are able to reflect upon their own work, as well as their peers, and then finally are able to let me know how things are going in my classroom: what worked for them during the last unit?, what didn’t work?, how I can help them further?, etc.  I am able to adjust and use their input to improve our time together every 2-3 weeks.  I tell them to be honest and that “I am a big girl, I can take it,” and they are honest....sometimes brutally. ;)  I asked for it though.  Sometimes the hardest things to hear are the truths about yourself, but I am certain that it is in facing those realities that I have had my greatest moments of growth as an educator.

 

 

The word "test" & getting students over the "freak out" ;)

It is mid-July and now the bug is really itching to get back in my classroom!

Just some food for thought...In my research on formative and summative assessments, I began reflecting on how I use both during the school year.  The word “test” has such a negative connotation that I rarely use it.  At the beginning of last year, my students would tend to "freak out" and then I would get into a conversation discussing with them the ways that I "test" them everyday.  It occurred to me that they just didn't see things like exit slips, bell work, projects, learning games, etc. as ways of testing.  I invariably need to clarify this with my students from the get-go.  By the end of the first quarter, they usually understand this, but I was kicking myself for 9 weeks because I didn't have the conversation first.   
In my opinion, students should see assessment as a part of what they do in the everyday routine of the classroom.  They should not walk into a classroom being surprised by having to take a test or feeling like it did not measure what they were learning. 
I was so sick of the effect of the word "test" (because it does mean different things in different classrooms), that I started calling my formative assessments “learning checks”, and surprisingly, I did not meet the "freak out" reaction when using it.  By the time we got to an unit exam, assessing was such a part of our every day that those with “test” anxiety are much more at ease with the whole process. 
I feel that when assessment is done effectively and in a variety of forms, students will most likely not truly notice that an assessment of their learning is taking place unless a multiple choice test is placed in front of them.  Formative assessment can be done in such simple, quick, and effective ways, and when done often, students can be corrected quickly and can be more confident in moving to the summative assessment to culminate the unit.


Resource for your enjoyment - check out this article about "25 Quick Formative Assessments for a Differentiated Classroom" at http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3751398.

Seek out your positive peers

I have empathy for those who have shared with me their negative teacher's lounge experiences as I have been there too.  In my experience though, the teacher's lounge is not the only place that negativity rears its ugly head.  It is like a disease and it mobilizes through many different areas of a school.  Like my dad once said, "If you look for the negative, you are going to find it.  If look for the positive though, you'll find that too."  It is a matter of perspective, focus, and attitude.

I spend too many lunches alone and working.  However, I do at the same time specifically seek out my positive colleagues - also eating with them and working in their classrooms over lunch, and I find those conversations to be full of vitality and passion for educating.  

I also will go so far to say that there are categories of griping.  Those that lead to a conversation about problem-solving and those that do not.  Not all gripes are worthless conversation for those with too much time on their hands.  Sometimes you need to bounce a frustration off of someone who can help you find a solution.  That is healthy discussion and you can leave those conversations with a plan of action!  When we are discussing our frustrations, it is usually because we are really trying to get to a kid and we haven't been able to do it yet.  Most often, I get my best tools to try from those problem-solving colleagues because it ends up like a brainstorming session so we can try to "unlock" a kid.  

Focus on the positive; you cannot afford to focus your time and energy on the negative people - you need that energy for your family, your students, and yourself.

Awakening Genius in the Classroom

I just finished a class using this text.  Very interesting and a short read.  I agree with most of what was said because I am an advocate for utilizing multiple intelligences in the classroom.  Thomas Armstrong discusses twelve such geniuses in people, and uses the word genius as: "giving birth to the joy of learning."  He says that it is this genius that gives the student "intrinsic motivation to learn."  I love it!

In most extraordinary people, I would add a genius and that would be the genius of persistence (or ‘stick-to-itive-ness’).  Einstein, Helen Keller, and Picasso had great focus and persistence in their passions.  That is something that our “instant gratification” generation is missing out on sadly.  I’d like to think that my own personal will, determination, and persistence maintained the presence of creativity at least (though not as much imagination for me) into adulthood, despite my formal education. :)  Just food for thought.

On a side note, I think that the organization of educational system allows for genius shutdown.  My mother went to high school in Salina.  At that time it was the 70's, (I'm not sure of current practices there), and she successfully completed all graduation requirements by Dec. of her senior year, and was able to graduate at that time.  In my own high school, I have literally had seniors tell me that they were only showing up for American Government and English 4 because that was all they needed to graduate.  They are waiting on hold in our classrooms to go out and work, join the military, or start college.  I'm all for offering those courses as semester-long ones, and letting them go!  That would provide for more time with the students who need the extra time in school. 

It would be great if students could accelerate through school based on skill and mastery and not on age...I know, I'm dreaming. :)