Think Big, Start Small :Be Ready for the Slump

Height Gives Perspective

You are at the precipice, the top of the incline. Peering out over the landscape, just before, the wheels unlock and you plummet. The metal wheels clattering against wood, making an exhilarating sound, like no other. There are screams of joy, with a little fear mixed in. Cheers of utter helplessness and happiness. Everyone on board, succumbs to gravity and acceleration and the ride of their lives.

Anticipate it, plan for it, don't counter act it. Don't get locked in phase. Keep the wheels well-oiled and the friction at a minimum. Lean in to the surge. Ride the peaks and valleys, arms held high, air whipping against your face. Tears rolling down your cheeks, as the tempest, gusts against your skin. It is awakening something inside. That inner child that you keep hidden, as you traverse adulthood. But, it is these moments, these fractional releases, that keep us motivated to continue.

As we near the end of the school year, classrooms tend to slow in their intensity. Becoming merry-go-rounds rather than roller-coasters. As educators, we can't settle in for the commute.  We need to buckle up for the turns, whirls and bumps. We as teachers, will get jostled and rattled and bounced. We need to lean in, and turn with the motion. Students need to feel the pace increase, the potential energy climb, this time of year. They need to know that our expectations are still high and that the kinetic, energetic, stimulating lessons are still approaching.

Students are beginning to mentally, seek other ways of entertainment. They are hyped and ready to go into their extended holiday. Their feet are in motion, scuffing the ground rapidly, like an animated character, trying to get traction before speeding off. How can we slow their escape? More importantly, how can we create a fun environment, an amusement park, if you will, so they do not want to?

Minor changes, Major Results

Anticipate. Exhaustion from standardized tests, final exams, and end of the year projects, is a heavy fog. It is unavoidable. But, it is easily lifted if we create provocative activities for our students. Toss aside the worksheets and videos, many tend to put forward, as a result of fatigue and debility. Let's give the copier a respite and engage with mobility and challenge. Let's start the climb, can you hear it...click click...rattle...rattle as the the car clatters up the incline?

Here are a few quick enterprises, I use to joggle my students out of their stupor.

1. I erase the board and turn it into a graffiti wall. Let students draw cartoons of vocabulary and concepts. I let them interact on a giant, colorful mural.

2. I use the furniture. Under each chair or desk, I place a question. Then hide the answers around the room. But rather than having the answers written out, I have a rebus or picto-gram they have to decipher.

3. As a brain break- I play a zombie song or the theme from Walking Dead and play zombie musical chairs. The last zombie, scuffling, has to review the days concept to the class.

4. A little candy, goes a long way. I rarely hand out candy. It's just not my thing. But, at the end of the year, during our PBL on Texas Eco-regions, I use the anticipation of king-sized candy bars as an incentive to keep the competitiveness alive. I like to end the year with a PBL, it is a great way to keep them collaborative and engaged.

Trough to Peak

Project based learning can be dull and boring. When the topic is mundane, students do not feel a connection. Texas Eco-regions is a topic that for my students, tends not to be an exciting one. We just finished a unit on ecosystems and catastrophic events and they are a little burned out on Ecology. So every year, I jazz things up by taking it in a different direction.

Thursday, I showed a 4 minute video that summed up all of the eco-regions of Texas brief descriptions- quick being key. Then I asked two questions: Which one sounds the most exciting to you- where would you like to live, other than Houston if you could? and How are these eco-regions unique? We talked for about twenty minutes. The conversation was awesome and they had a lot to say, as most of them have traveled around Texas and lived here for awhile. They may not have been familiar with the eco-regions themselves but they knew where the major cities were and the climates etc. Then I had them draw a region from a hat. Each pair or group of three, got a different region. Then I said: "I am an investor with a lot of money. I want to build my manufacturing company in Texas. I want to invest and build not only a company, but a home for my family. "Sell" me your region. Tell me the outdoor activities, the environmental characteristics, tourism attractions etc. How much rainfall, safety and weather concerns etc. Make me want to invest there."

The team who convinces me through a great presentation and "pitch" gets the prize, a king sized candy bar. One winning team per class. This got them motivated really fast. I provided laptops and I-pads and off they went, researching and drawing, they even made name placards for their desks. No poster or visual required, but recommended to create a better "pitch." They will have 4 full class periods to complete. Then on May 3rd, I will put all my tables in a giant circle facing each other and each region will take a spot, put placards up, attach posters, to the fronts of the tables, and make their 'pitch.'

Each eco-region will have 3 minutes to "pitch" me their region.  After they 'pitch' each team will have 2 more minutes to explain why they are better than the other eco-regions. Why I should move to their eco-region and not the others. They have to do this using data collected from the presentations. Hard evidence to counter one another. Then I will choose the one I feel has the best to offer, based on their enthusiasm and research. This PBL gets them arguing, collaborating, and very focused on doing a great job. They get mobile and interactive and because they have to debate one another, they really have to listen to each others 'pitch.'

Trough to peak.

Rolling in to the Station

This time of year, teachers and students both need motivation waves. Peripheral tasks that peak interest. Wins needn't be large, but they need to be frequent. Teachers need to provide opportunities for high probability growth and incremental successes. We have to make daunting tasks more attainable. We need to make learning the focus and keep our activities purposeful, but more importantly, approachable. If we hand them a worksheet, or play a video, they will not feel the urgency or the energy needed, for the final approach.

At the end of the day, it is important, as a class, to record daily 'dones'. Have students reflect and monitor their level of commitment and motivation. If together, teachers and students chart their progress and achievements, they can eliminate unnecessary frustration and doubt. Standardized tests, final exams, and end of the year projects are overwhelming for students. Our students, are being bogged down with a lot of work and pressure. We can help them feel more secure, if we keep an open dialogue and keep things light.

There needs to be a sense of urgency, this is helpful. Students and teachers need to feel the tick...tick...tick, before the boom, of the last bell of the year. But, we do not need to add undue stress. We should be tempering the glass. Getting more flexible, so when we hike the incline, we are more calm and prepared for the sudden drop. That is what makes learning exciting. Knowing where we are going, but being surprised each time, we get aboard the roller-coaster. The ride may be familiar, the speed consistent, but each time we slowly rise, to the precipice our anticipation and engagement varies. It is this variance that makes each excursion, each expedition, each carousal saunter, personal and meaningful.

Strategies for Inquiry in a Student-Centered Classroom (Part 2)

The most visual aspect of inquiry science- is students doing science. OR, students researching and applying their knowledge in creative ways. Inquiry requires teachers to be able to excite the students' interest in a topic and then provide them with opportunities to undertake the investigation either by themselves or preferably in collaboration with others. This curiosity and motivation can be integrated into all subject areas, not just science. 

In my class, CER, PBL, and ADI have worked well with all my students. All three are inquiry based, collaborative strategies to get students familiar with evidence based argumentation. Each take a different duration of time but all three get students used to looking at data and forming opinions based on interpretation of data either collected or given to them.

All three strategies are ideal for my heterogeneous classes, they are great strategies, to organize students with mixed abilities, so collaboratively they can solve problems successfully. 

CER, ADI and PBL lend themselves to an interdisciplinary orientation, since answering a problem frequently requires information from several academic areas. By allowing my students to direct their own activities and by giving my students greater responsibilities, I show them how to challenge themselves and learn on their own. That is the basis for my student-driven, student-centered classroom.

CER- Claim, Evidence, Reasoning

CER are quick warm-ups or ticket-out-the door activities. They generally take a 2-5 minutes to complete. I use these a lot for this purpose.

For example- I put up a picture of a food chain with a statement as follows: students then have to follow the steps above to complete the CER.

ADI-Argument-Driven Inquiry

ADI are generally completed within a class period. However, I have had the debate portion, often the following day, to provide enough time to peruse the graphs and charts and discuss as a team. Where CER are quick 2-5 minute activities. ADI take a more time and the information is more complex and detailed. A CER will generally have one photo or diagram whereas the ADI will have 6-8 depending on the complexity of the question.

Student Task :

In this activity, you will utilize actual data sets collected from maps of the United States to determine ecosystem impact by tornadoes in the US. Data sets were collected by amateur storm chasers and USTornadoes.com. More information can be found at http://www.ustornadoes.com/about/

Guiding Question: Tornadoes will have the greatest impact on which ecosystem?

Getting Started: To answer the guiding question, you will need to examine the data set of tornado occurrences to explore the relationship between tornado incidents and ecosystem location.

To determine how you will analyze your data, think about the following questions:

 What data is relevant?

 What type of calculations will you need to make?

 How will you organize and represent your data?

 What type of graph could you create to help make sense of your data?

To share your information you will create a white board as follows:

To share your argument with others, we will be using a round-robin format. This means that one member of your group will stay at your lab station to share your group’s argument while the other members of your group go to the other lab stations one at a time to listen to and critique the arguments developed by your classmates.

Once the argumentation session is complete, you will have a chance to meet with your group and revise your original argument. Your group might need to gather more data or design a way to test one or more alternative claims as part of this process. Remember, your goal at this stage of the investigation is to develop the most valid or acceptable answer to the research question!

Finally each group will argue- using data collected- their answer. You must use data to defend your answer.

Problem-Based Learning

CER are quick, ADI class periods, while PBL generally progress over a week-six weeks depending on the problem. Problem-based learning or Project-Based learning must follow the four basic principles of PBL

1.         Students work with their peers to solve problems.

2.         Students research and gather information on their topic.

3.         Students use technology with purpose, to design and create a culminating project.

4.         Students need to see themselves as the ultimate resource. (independence)

This year, my students worked together for several PBL assessments, but this was my favorite. They were given five class periods to research, write their speech and create their presentation. Each group presented their findings to the class in a 7-10 minute presentation. Using primary sources, current events and science resources, they collaboratively solved the problem- they designed a persuasive presentation to convince a political leader (me) that environmental change is necessary.

Title:  Human Impact on the Environment 

                                                                      

Challenge (Driving Question):

How can political leaders be persuaded to implement changes in policy regarding environmental damage?

Summary: Students will research how humans are negatively impacting various ecosystems.  They will write a persuasive speech and video presentation including the effects of human actions and ways to repair or end the damage. 

Students will: Receive a randomly assigned ecosystem, create questions, research, revise questions (add or revise), synthesize findings, write persuasive essay utilizing documentation and quotes, create plausible solution to ecosystem rehabilitation, and present findings in a speech/video to classmates and ultimately, politicians (calling for reform)

Student-centered teachers carefully guide students as they begin to explore or investigate their topic, being careful not to dominate the conversation. They allow the conversation to be led by students and for the discussion, to take twists and turns, based on the evidence and interest of the students. They give students plenty of time to develop responses or think about the issue more carefully, giving students the time to reflect and think more carefully about the issue. These three inquiry strategies, CER, ADI, and PBL are three great ways to make sure that students are in charge of their own learning. 

Strategies for Inquiry in a Student-Centered Classroom (Part 1)

The National Science Education Standards (NSES p. 23) defines scientific inquiry as "the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work. ... Scientific inquiry is a powerful way of understanding science content.

They Gathered Evidence- Now What Do Students Do?

CER (Claim Evidence Reasoning), PBL (Problem-Based Learning), and ADI (Argument-Driven Inquiry) - these acronyms might sound very isolated, but in fact, they all are based around one concept- Inquiry: a seeking or request for truth, information, or knowledge 

ADI- is explained in detail at the official site https://www.argumentdriveninquiry.com/ -the website offers a plethora of information and lesson ideas, a must visit. 

Also NSTA has amazing books on ADI one for each content area. Although PBL and CER are more well-known, ADI is my favorite for many reasons.

Three Strategies, CER, PBL and ADI

There are many strategies available to help our students become more thoughtful and focused thinkers. The foundation of education is not to just provide information to students- but to get them to analyze and interpret data, in order to, form their own conclusions. 

Our students need to be taught strategies that will help them sift through the barrage of information out there. To weed out the erroneous data and get to the truth. Whether you use ADI, CER or PBL, inquiry will be embedded into the learning, if you make sure these five features are the basis of the activity.

The 5 features of science inquiry (NSES)

• Learner Engages in Scientifically Oriented Questions.
• Learner Gives Priority to Evidence in Responding to Questions.
• Learner Formulates Explanations from Evidence.
• Learner Connects Explanations to Scientific Knowledge.
• Learner Communicates and Justifies Explanation

What do CER, PBL, and ADI Look Like in a Classroom?

The most visual aspect of inquiry science- is students doing science. OR, students researching and applying their knowledge in creative ways. Inquiry requires teachers to be able to excite the students' interest in a topic and then provide them with opportunities to undertake the investigation either by themselves or preferably in collaboration with others. This curiosity and motivation can be integrated into all subject areas, not just science. 

Student-centered teachers carefully guide students as they begin to explore or investigate their topic, being careful not to dominate the conversation. They allow the conversation to be led by students and for the discussion, to take twists and turns, based on the evidence and interest of the students. They give students plenty of time to develop responses or think about the issue more carefully, giving students the time to reflect and think more carefully about the issue.

In my next blog post- I will share a lesson I used this year for each PBL, CER and ADI. Each slightly different but all achieving the same goal: engaging students in higher-order thinking, providing opportunities for problem-solving, evidence gathering and analysis, and cooperation and collaboration. 

Hubris to Humility: Practical Rebellion is Born

When we are good at something, we have a certain level of hubris. I know mine, rears its ugly head at times. When we put in our 10,000 hours, we often carry the audacity and chutzpah, like a badge of honor. We whisper to ourselves, "I am now an expert." What does expertise mean? Competency, proficiency, readiness. But, for many, it becomes a certain level of finesse and mastery, that often leads to self-importance. A sense of completion that can leave one stale and stagnate. If one feels they have conquered the beast, they raise shield and sword, as if to say I am undefeated.

A reinvention need not occur. Simply, a recognition of this presumption, is all that is required, to break through the ostentation. A mirror, is only bad luck if it is broken. If held up to reflect our flaws and see our strengths, it is personal wizardry, causing a shift in perspective. There is no magic moment, where this transformation takes place. The false confidence and determination, slowly gets displaced by wisdom. This wisdom, the gravitas to reflect, on experience and welcome the tension of testing yourself, challenging yourself and saying, 'it’s my fault,' when things do not go according to plan.

For me personally, it means taking the imagery and confluence of allegory and prose and condensing them to a practical framework. Writing both, as myself, keeping the artistry of words alive but contained to a more allegorical blog. While creating a new, more matter-of-fact, nuts and bolts blog, to share the day to day trials and tribulations of teaching from the arena floor. Not every spectator is on their feet to praise, many are there to shout, “take them down.” But, with each successful swing of the blade, a doubtful voice is silenced.

Having the diagnostic skill to understand what’s wrong, can only come with a shrewd introspection. You must get in the scene, when you are observing with a long lens, you are eavesdropping, you feel distant and disconnected. It gets completely real, when you are surrounded by innovation and greatness. Then, you are in that moment, walking out into the arena, fearful of the ensuing havoc. You are now participating. Growth does not occur from observation, but rather from doing and critiquing. Reflecting and being honest, brutally honest with yourself.

Not standing, in the bustling crowd, cheering and observing, but firmly planting yourself, on the sturdy, well-traversed dirt, of the arena floor.  There have been many battles here, sword to sword, shield to shield. Some won, some lost, but always a campaign for betterment. Each, a crusade fought for the sole purpose of progress. Listening in a profile, close quarters position, rather than from a wide shot, means a shift in ownership.

What is private property in the morning on the way to work, becomes public property the moment the bell rings. You as a teacher, are always the host, never the guest. It is your responsibility as such, to create a certain ambiance, tone, for the 'space' where your guests feel comfortable and engaged. For a party is only as successful as its components: music, food, conversation. In a classroom: intention and obstacle. Engagement requires good writing, appropriate staging, performance and presence. In other words, a flexible and thoughtful plan.

This new blog- will be my venue for purposeful, practical rebellion. Less symbolism and more substance. Straightforward, specific strategies. I will leave my emblematic exposition to iteacher imother.

I have been reading many amazing blogs lately, each focused not only on purpose and relevance, but also practicality. The pragmatic, functional, workable frame of reference that, we as educators are searching for. This blog will be all about that, a minimalist journal of sensible, down-to-earth strategies, that work. The activities and lessons, I have used, repeatedly, tweaked and adapted year after year. But also, the crazy new ideas, I incorporate on the fly.

These are what I seek when I read the fantastic blogs of my PLN. You have all inspired me to ‘up my game.’

Thank you for inspiring me to displace some of my hubris and welcome a little more humility. Wisdom is acquired not merely by personal growth, but by interacting with and absorbing some creativity and mindfulness from others. My cup runneth over my friends.