new “tech” additions to the room: analog and digital
So, call me a luddite for celebrating blackboards... I do, sometimes wish that I had those back instead of streaky, cloudy whiteboards. Nevertheless, I added a new whiteboard to my classroom as part of this semester's personal goal to revisit the driving questions that frame our projects. At Lowe's, I picked up a 4' by 8' sheet of "shower board" for $12 to hang above my students' heads. In order of importance, my students should now enter the room only to see a driving question (which is always floating around above their heads, physically and meta-cognitively now) as well as our word wall.
Second, and more exciting for the technophiles, is the Promethean Board addition. We ran some "norming" exercises today in class. I set up a direct relationship between students who completed their grammar homework and who actually got to play with the Promethean today. I'll keep a checklist now on a clipboard that I will reference any time someone volunteers to interact with the board. Surprisingly, students recognized the new (expensive) piece of equipment and figured out for themselves what some of our staff's reasonable expectations are before really starting to integrate it into teaching. For now at least, students know not to go writing on it with other implements; throwing their hands up with the bracket above; and, the best yet, putting their faces on it to give it a welcome hug (skin oils are not good for any surface!).
I'm excited to see where our new tool leads us, especially with regards to writing/grammar improvement. I'm just a little wary about using a (now smaller) display on just one "side" of our room that has a classroom capacity of 50+. This may take some creative agenda multi-tasking.
structured group time + authentic audience = spawn of impromptu student debates
I've got over 30 recorded minutes of an un-prompted, un-facilitated (probably more like 45+ minute) student debate that spawned out of my classroom today. I only interacted to wave at a voice recorder that I set down at the table. I noticed that something had started as one group turned around to talk to another about their competing solutions to a problem we posed in our latest project. (This past month, students are driven by the question: In light of the pressing financial burden of running our government as-is, how can we as political advisers effectively eliminate one branch of the United States government but still run efficiently as a country?) As two students (who are known for their opinions and leadership in our class) picked apart each other's arguments for their solutions, one table turned around... then another walked over... then the class clown(s) noticed and wanted to get a piece of it... and soon we had most of the class circling around this debate that no one prompted... except the students themselves.
What's impressive is that much of the debate was self-sustained by the students themselves. They policed to keep the clowns from interrupting the dialogue. They even stopped to set protocols and try to salvage the debate when tones got testy; interruptions showed rudeness; or listening was not its finest. I was proud. They should be proud, too.
This comes after the heat was turned up under their feet. As a PBL facilitator, what good would our project be if we didn't bring in some real-world experts, right? Well, upon the announcement that our state representative and a city alderman would be on the panel of presentation judges/evaluators, I saw a renewed interest in the project as a whole.
What should we wear in front of them?
Will we have to answer questions from them?
What kinds of questions will they ask?
Is he gonna be mad if we get rid of [the equivalent of] his job?
Talk about authenticity. Well, rigor, too. I don't think I could have motivated/dragged them along to ask the last few, even if I put on a song and dance routine. Not with graphic organizers. Not with deadlines. Not with grades. What I saw today was personal investment because my students asked themselves, "Who am I going to impress tomorrow with my education?" There was quite an energy today in finding out a new, expert audience will be a part of the evaluation process.
Students scrambled to make impressive PowerPoints, get my feedback or practice their timing and transitions between speakers. It was a good day and one which I could never have predicted to show itself on a Monday. With finals coming up -- when all school seems to be winding down and holiday excitement winding the kids up -- I'm glad to see that our group of sophomores is finally "getting" what New Tech is supposed to be all about. Now, let's see what they've got tomorrow.
night of juxtapositions during the first #PBLChat
A couple months ago, I was really looking forward to the Midwest Meeting of the Minds where I would get to meet other teachers in my region to see what they were up to and how they were dealing with some of their classroom struggles. I got a lot of valuable advice (even some that deviated away from the model) that helped me regain some traction on learning. I finally let myself shove some direct instruction back in and felt that I could cover some of the content requirements not yet met by the projects we had done.
Tonight, I wasn't planning on it, but I attended my first #PBLChat, hosted by the New Tech Network. Trying hard to continue to grade essays, I was also trying to keep up with the stream of suggestions popping up about how to brainstorm or where to find the seeds that turn into good projects. There's a blessing and a curse in this juxtaposition. On the right-hand side of my couch, I have a dismal percentage of essays actually turned in this week (after we've been writing them for a month). On the other, I see the excitement I should be feeling for moving on and having a blank canvas come semester two. I know that I'm finding ideas in the right places (TED, Wired... even textbooks), thanks to the ditto-ing of my contributions to the discussion. But I also am heavily marking up work that should have been improved now three times before getting to the final grading pen. Everyone who followed the scaffolding seems to have much improved, however. I've got some samples from students who are finally buying into the model and finding their own self-guided, peer-supported successes, however -- just one at a time per project.
After tonight, I know that I want to put students more in charge of their projects. I wrote before about hearing November is always a battle. Well, that went by pretty quickly. Hopefully break doesn't, because I need that to get some of these great, peer-tested or -brainstormed ideas into more concrete frameworks to see where they'll fit for my own uses.
combating the November blues: a well-timed “un-meeting”
With the holiday approaching and me now writing about keeping our heads in the game, I walked into a very well-timed "un-meeting" this morning. The idea behind an "un-meeting" was first introduced to me in Daniel Pinks's Drive. I have never started a day with so much laughter. Well, laughter that wasn't coming from podcasts I listen to on my mind-numbing commute to work. In the un-meeting we played a few silly teambuilding games to embarrass ourselves and just generally bring our minds out of the grind. I was very pleased. It's not often we get to celebrate silliness with each other. We see a lot of it in our classrooms, but, just once, the teachers got their recess.
recent endeavors
don’t be a hater
This blog and accompanying online resources by Adam Babcock are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
- RT @edutwitt: Any task where someone is learning is by definition non-routine, therefore carrots and sticks won't work. #newtechnetwork ...
- We may even have a surprise visit by the mayor at our @TheInterrupters planning meeting with DHS principal! @dnths @newtechnetwork
- One student today is even working his connection to Danville's mayor to make it a city-wide event @dnths @newtechnetwork @TheInterrupters
- Tomorrow morning @dnths students will present plans for school viewing event of @TheInterrupters to DHS principal @newtechnetwork
do you Diigo my bookmarks?
- Evaluating Web Sites
- Evaluating Internet Resources -- Site Examples
- Wolfram Education Portal: Free Resources and Materials for Teachers
- 3 Shots To Caffeinate Your Presentations -- THE Journal
- Copyright Perspectives: The Job Interview - YouTube
- Evaluating Information using the CRAAP Test - YouTube
- Problem Based Learning, start-to-finish, in Ten Minutes | emergent math
- Teaching Ahead: A Roundtable - Education Week Teacher