Discovering Successes

Change often leads to a certain level of frustration.  As I have communicated in previous posts, the change in culture that I am trying to create has been accompanied by many frustrating realizations and hardships.  What I don’t want to happen throughout this journey is to have all of the successes remain in the classroom while the frustrations are projected to the world.   So, I want to make sure I share successes as they come, just as I do those tough moments. 

Each day in this process I have had a handful of students have an “ah ha” moment.  Whether it was during a one on one meeting, or while collaborating with peers, students are finally starting to grasp the concept of using their creative side to convey a message in a thoughtful and interesting way. 

I have frustrated many students when they’ve told me they want to do a power point or a poster, and I’ve replied with “those are visual aids, not projects” or “isn’t a poster just a re-creation of a website that I could google in less time than it takes me to look at your poster?”  But, I’ve been so proud to see the look of excitement on their faces when they’ve returned to their spaces, thought it over, and have come hurrying to report that they have succeeded in coming up with an idea that is both interesting and informative. 

This week has been wonderful to see students creating these projects with such focus.  I’d share some of the projects, but there are too many great creations happening that I wouldn’t want to single any out.  I had a student today during 9^th period that came in, and before the bell could ring asked “can we go ahead and get started?”   I didn’t hear that once during the first semester, what a cool moment!

I am eager to share these projects with you.  They are due next week and we will be loading them up to our class website.  There are a lot of finishing touches to both the projects and the website construction, and I cannot wait to turn the frustrations that will appear into successes in the coming week. 

Take care,

Coach Mo

"Learned Helplessness"

This week was eye opening and alarming.  My project-based philosophy has hit the first snag of what I am certain to be many difficulties along the way.  My wife defined it best as “learned helplessness” when I explained my dilemma to her. 

What I have discovered is a problem that is out of my control.  I can help the situation (at least I’m giving it my best attempt), but a cure is found only in a shift of culture within the system.  As Dwight Carter (follow him: @Dwight_Carter) stated in his most recent blog post, Culture Matters! (click here to see the post)

What I found this week is that students have developed a learned helplessness.  My hands-off, student-controlled learning process has become almost an overwhelming experience.  Students continue to want directions, step-by-step orders, and a predetermined path.  They want me to “just tell me what to do” because “this is too hard.” 

The “this” that I am speaking of is simply to create a project, of your choice, that conveys a message, of your choice, to an audience, of your choice, using each and every class period to grow as a learner and an advocate. 

Monday’s assignment was to research your family history to seek out a disease, disorder, or condition that has traditionally shown up in your family tree.  The remainder of the week has been seeking out information about that condition, defining an audience that may want to know more about that condition, and developing a product that can present information to that audience in an interesting way.  The one rule was that the project had to be able to be posted to the internet on our class webpage.  I spent most of my week explaining to students that visual aids such as power point and posters aren’t recommended unless they do something with them such as film their presentation, because those alone are just a recreation of a website, and it would be better for us to just send the person to the website.  There are many more fires I tried to put out, but that is one for the sake of the point. 

Back to the theme of learned helplessness.  I approached countless students with blank looks on their faces that were sitting at their desks in a frozen state.  When I asked them how I could help, or what they are doing to further their project, the replies were on par with “I have no idea what to do, I am lost, I like it better when you just tell me and I can do it and turn it in.”  They were expecting me to seek them out, put them back on track, and almost hold their hand every step of the way.

This is a learning process for me as well.  I feel well equipped to assist a student, to help them learn more about a topic, to improve upon their ideas, but by the end of the week, I felt like I was doing 30 projects per class, not helping to guide 30 projects per class. 

In the past I would get frustrated at this point and revert to old strategies of lecturing, worksheets, bookwork, and sprinkled in group activities.  But, that would lump me right in with the “learned helplessness” crowd that gives up and goes right back to the same old things that are out of date and less effective, but are easier.

My challenge to my students is to rise above these habits and take pride in the learning process.  Get rid of this learned helplessness by taking on your difficulties and attempting to solve them without the help of a step-by-step set of directions.  Learn to fail during this process, and then get right back up and fix it.  Learn to take initiative, to dream big, and ultimately learn how to learn because in the real world there won’t be that safety net that comes over to your desk to encourage you to get back to work. 

My challenge to myself is to learn how to assist my students so that I am not doing the project for them, but I am providing better assistance so that they do not lose hope.  To learn how to provide a better vision of my expectations, so that students don’t feel overwhelmed or unprepared.  And finally to identify the times when I need to take a deep breath, recognize that the helplessness has opened up the opportunity for a teachable moment, and I need to capitalize, not out of frustration, but out of joy for an opportunity to make a difference. 

My final challenge is to the entire educational system.  This scenario is not entirely the student’s fault, nor is it the teacher’s fault.  Our school systems train our students to think in one way- the way that satisfies the teacher’s guidelines or standards, not in a way that allows them to learn more and to improve.  We need to keep in mind that we are preparing our students to become our future, not to be able to repeat the strategies of the past. 

Our world is changing so rapidly that we do not know the world these students will enter when they leave us.  Our students need to be equipped with the ability to learn, adapt, and push forward, not to merely meet the requirements of today. 

Take care,

Coach Mo

What is something that you've always wondered?

One thing that I learned from my two years of elementary teaching experience is that kids are unbelievably curious (yes, understatement).  I would get a bit frustrated when I’d be giving directions to my PE class and this would happen:

Me:  So, at station number two we are going to (student hand goes up with urgency, so I pause)… Yes, you have a question?

2^nd grader X:  Why is that tennis ball stuck to the ceiling?

In my head I’m furious.  I went against rule #1 of teaching elementary kids and that is to always finish your thoughts before letting a student interrupt because most of the time the question will not be on topic.  As a result, the whole class is laughing, pointing, forgetting what I had already said, and in most cases laying down, spinning around on their backs having the time of their lives.  It is a minimum of 3 minutes to get them back focused and even then 5 or 6 kids are now looking at other areas of the ceiling trying to be the next one to find a hidden treasure to make the class laugh. 

When do students lose this level of curiosity and wonder?  Sure it made me frustrated, but I had to embrace it and laugh it off or else I’d go nuts.  Sir Ken Robinson, in his TED talk titled “Schools Kill Creativity,” provides fabulous insight on the decline of wonder and creativity as children progress through school. 

I showed this video to my class on day number 1 of the semester and asked them to react.  I didn’t want a summary.  I asked students to state what they agreed with or disagreed with, what they found interesting, or simply what they thought of during the video.  There are slow points of the video, but for the most part, I think the video assisted in getting my students’ attention enough to set up the culture of my room as one that welcomes the creativity that they possess, but may have let go of in recent years.

Their homework was to spend the next 23 hours thinking of “something you’ve always wondered.”  It could be anything, not just something that directly relates to health class, then write it down and bring it with them to class to begin day 2. 

I never expected this to be one of the more difficult assignments I handed out.  I was amazed at the number of students who came back with nothing, an “I don’t know,” or flat out had to say to me “can you just tell me what to do?”  (you don’t think there isn’t an entire post coming on that last statement do you? Yes, yes there is!)

The students were asked to take their question and find the answer, as well as additional information that would support their answer and better educate their classmates. 

The students had now answered their own question, but unlike many experiences they’ve had in learning before, it wasn’t just about them and this one question.  We had to make sure that the information obtained through research was interesting to the audience to which it will be presented.  So, on day 3, the students got feedback from their peers in the class (the eventual audience) by sharing what they had found, and asking their peers what they found interesting, and what different angles they’d be interested in discovering about the topic.  Some students learned the hard way that asking just their friends brought little to no useful feedback.  The students that benefitted were those who sought out people they didn’t know and/ or people that they knew would give constructive criticism. 

Day 4 was devoted to taking feedback and redesigning what they would tell the class during their 60-90 second presentation.  They may have needed to seek out additional information, or they may have needed to just be certain they worded things in a way that was interesting to their peers.  Devoting an entire day to refining and practicing set the expectations high for the presentations tomorrow.

Friday brought presentations and I was pleased with the results.  While self-evaluating many students noted that they could’ve worked harder, or that they now know that what they chose wasn’t very interesting (learning!).  A few presentations were great, but what I was most pleased about was the fact that the students obviously learned, and the process of the week opened their eyes to the new way of thinking that I am expecting.  As I told them afterwards, “regardless of whether or not your speaking skills were great, everyone could tell if your information was great and whether or not you learned something.” 

Going forward, it is that final thought that I’ll be using as an example.  For the first assignment I required them to do a speech (time constraints of the week).  For the remaining units, I am asking the students to do what they are best at, and to create a project that showcases those skills.  If they are great at getting information but not at public speaking they may not have given the best presentation.  Since the students can now create a project that showcases their skills, they can continue to be great at getting information and select what they are best at as a means of communicating what they have learned. 

“Do what you do best.  Better.” 

Take care,

Coach Mo