Two Steps Forward

I've been thinking a lot about how I want to continue to transform my classroom this year based upon the learning I'm doing this summer. After hearing Bob Dillon speak at our closing session of the school year, I was motivated to change my classroom space, something that I had been pondering for a few months. The book, Blended, has helped me set a goal, which I'm still refining, and determine that a combination of the station rotation model and the flex model would be the best blended learning styles to help me and my students reach our goal.

Now I'm on the to the book The Eduprotocol Field Guide by Marlena Hebern and Jon Corippo. This book describes various lesson frames that you can use to teach kids content and skills throughout the year. While I'm not anywhere near finishing the book, I especially appreciate their chapters on Smart Starts: using the first few weeks of school to establish culture and routines as opposed to jumping right into the curriculum. While some of my colleagues disagree with me, this idea of starting smart is something that I have been doing for a while now, and it was a nice affirmation to see it discussed in an in depth manner in this book.

In addition to the affirmation, I've already learned something that I can use to help me transform my classroom, and I feel should have been a no brainer. In addition to the Smart Starts they also recommend using that time at the beginning of the year to do a Tech Boot camp. Front load the year with an introduction to all of the technology you'll be using in your classroom so that they kids have the background they need to explore, be creative, and be successful throughout the year. Seriously. Why did I not think of this?

Finally, like any good book, it's also making me question things. The first quote that caught my eye was, "Parallel learning is no longer the appropriate model for classrooms." And then a little while later I read, "... this natural creativity has been steadily decreasing since 1990, with the most significant losses by third grade despite increases in IQ." Those two quotes made me think back to a school visit our group did to the Lampeter Strasburg School District. This visit was the key to help me change the instruction in my classroom this year, and something one of our hosts said really stuck with me. As we were touring the middle school our one host said something along the lines of, "We don't want the kids to take a step backwards with their learning experiences; we want them to keep moving forward." Now, our guide was speaking in terms of 1:1 opportunities and explaining when they went up from middle school and then back down to the elementary school. They didn't want the kids to have the opportunities for a blended learning experiences but then go back to a traditional learning experience. But really, this statement could apply to anything from changing your classroom space, offering students more choice, giving them opportunities to fix mistakes, and giving students flexibility in how they move through the content.

As I read the quotes in the book, I thought about the kids who were in my class last year, the upcoming school year, and my new students. Last year's kids had the opportunity for a second take on their assessments because we were learning the value of mistakes. What if they don't have that same opportunity this year? This year's students will have the opportunity to learn in a blended classroom when they are with me, but they will be in a mostly traditional setting in their other class. They will likely also be in a traditional setting in 5th grade. How will that impact their learning? I am spending a lot of time focusing on the 4Cs and having a growth mindset rather than test taking skills and passing the PSSAs. Will this carry over as successful experiences for my students, or will the skills not transfer and put them behind the learning curve?

While I am excited to transform my classroom, and while I have much respect for all of my coworkers as caring professionals, I can't help but wonder if the haphazard way we are implementing things at our school will cause our students to move two steps forward and then one step back with every transition they make.

Thinking about Mental Health

Each summer my district provides online professional development opportunities. Taking these courses results in a trade day, or a day off during the school year. I always enjoy the opportunities that we are provided, and this year I selected a course on blended learning and a course on mental health issues. Along with growth mindset concepts, understanding the mental health issues my students are facing is very important to me, so I was very interested to see what I would learn through this course.

The course focused on depression, anxiety, eating disorders, psychosis, and conduct disorders. There were some great videos incorporated into the course, and while I enjoyed all of them (some of them were videos that I had already watched previously on my own), I really enjoyed one that I ended up with by accident. It was one of those "since you watched this video, here's another one for you to check out," videos that starts playing automatically when the first one ends. It's called Everything you Thought you Knew about Addiction is Wrong by Johann Hari, and if you have a few minutes to spare, I would definitely check it out. It gave me a lot to think about in terms of the environment we are creating for all of our students who make mistakes.

I think the simple fact is that we are teachers, we're not medical professionals. The best that we can hope to do is provide a connected, caring, safe environment for our students so they are okay with making mistakes and okay with being themselves. We need to speak up when we believe something is wrong, and we need to advocate for our kids who are struggling in any capacity. And we need to keep advocating until we are blue in the face.

The psychosis section of this course really impacted me because it reminded me of a student I had many years ago. I had the opportunity to have this young man for two years as part of a 3rd / 4th grade looping class and then for a 3rd year as part of a 4th / 5th grade multi-age program. This boy was what I liked to call a squirrel. Always darting from here to there, always finding something different to think about or do, and he kept me on my toes. I had the opportunity to see him grow the first two years, and while he needed constant reminders the potential for success was always there. During those first two years, he father suffered from, and eventually passed away from, a difficult and debilitating liver disease. After losing his father I worried about it, but as is the norm, I sent him off for summer vacation and hoped for the best.

When this young man came back, he was a different boy. He repeatedly shared stories about the bigger, bad kids in the neighborhood and the really bad stuff that they did. Unfortunately, I never was able to get the details about what that "really bad stuff" was, but I passed his comments on to our guidance counselor in the hopes that she might be able to find out something that I couldn't. It was around this same time that he started acting out and stealing things. When I became more vocal with my concerns, I was told that he had always been that way, I was just too nice and hadn't been strict enough. And clearly he had always been stealing stuff, but I had just never caught him doing it when he was in my room all the time. I knew this young man had changed, and I knew he needed help. But the louder I squawked the less people listened. And so began a long line of disciplinary problems and consequences issued.

This young man went on to have significantly more serious behavior problems in middle school. I don't believe he ever ended up graduating. And a few years ago I got the sad news that he had committed suicide while incarcerated in our local prison.

When we talk about mental health issues and getting students the support that they need, he is my failure. I don't know what else I could have done, but what happened to this young man will haunt me forever. As we try to educate ourselves about the mental health issues that are affecting our kids today, I can only hope that we will figure out the answer to helping our kids before it's too late.

Nothing Better to Do

After three short days I'm already finding that being in a walking boot really stinks. A mysterious stress fracture has me confined to this torture device for at least the next three weeks, and nothing is easy. Everything that I have to do takes longer, and everything that I was excited to start doing once school was out is out of the question.

Since I have "nothing better to do" with my time, why not look at school stuff?

Isn't that how we look at a lot of things? Since I have nothing better to do why not do this task instead of, YES! I finally have the time to sit and think about this! The fact is that I had such a great year, I'm actually energized and excited to keep learning. (Go ahead, insert the nerd emoji here. I wear it proudly!) While I wanted absolutely nothing to do with school last summer and just needed a break from everything remotely related to school, this year is different. So, since my hiking, walking the dog, going to the gym, and kayaking time have all been reduced to zero, it makes sense that I would follow my other passion: learning!

During the year our school's 1:1 implementation team started reading the book Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools by Horn and Staker. We read the first two chapters together as a group and used them as a jumping point for our visitations and 1:1 implementation work. But now that I have so much time on my hands, I figured I'd keep going and see what else I can learn.

I've already settled on the fact that we are not going to be disruptive innovators. We had a great opportunity to do just that at our school in the upcoming year and passed up that opportunity. So that got me thinking, "Why exactly is my school going 1:1 in the next few years?" Besides the fact that it's the latest thing to do. Besides the fact that we all now how Schoology accounts. Besides the fact that it's what everybody is doing. Why are we making this move? I got thinking about this because Chapter 3 in the book talks all about a rallying cry, establishing goals, and looking at the different types of innovation to meet those goals.

As I thought about my own classroom and what my own goal for next year might be, I came up with this first draft:

My goal is to use the hybrid rotational model so that all of my students will show growth during each math unit, on the 4th grade PSSAs, and on their benchmark assessments. The students and I will be responsible for this growth by the end of the year.

I know that's pretty general, but like I said, it's a first draft. And it's what really got me thinking about this whole 1:1 thing because I was able to accomplish this goal this year without 1:1 technology. So obviously there's my first problem: I've already met this goal. Why should it be my goal again this year? Well, the key piece that I added is "the students and I will be responsible." I really want to help my students start becoming the owners of their own learning. I know my kiddos are only 9 or 10, so they aren't going to be able to do everything on their own, and they have a lot to learn. But I want to continue what I achieved this year with growth mindset, making mistakes, and taking charge of their own learning and help my next group of kids become even more successful at following their passions and loving learning.

So now that I have my first draft, I need to start thinking about how I want to up the ante. Is this really the goal I want for my classroom? Will 1:1 technology really help my students become more responsible for their learning? What do I have to do differently to help my kids continue to show growth but also become more responsible for their learning? And what really is our goal for 1:1 technology? 

Hopefully I will be able to figure out the answers to at least some of these questions this summer. And if not, I will at least have fun learning!

Year 20 in the Books

This year was exactly what I needed. Year 19 was hard, really hard, and it made me wonder if I was really supposed to be a teacher any more. Year 20 was the big, giant hug that said, "Yup, this is what you are supposed to be doing."

While I certainly didn't have the challenges I experienced last year, there were definitely still challenges of all shapes and sizes. I was also very nervous because I was teaching a very different group of students than I have ever (and when I say ever, I mean all 20 years ever) taught before. I didn't want to let down those people who asked me to take on that challenge. I was also out many days this year for professional learning, and everybody knows that being out can throw the kiddos and the teachers for a loop.

So what was it about this year that made it so much better? While I'm still reflecting, I have some thoughts on this.

1. We embraced the ideas of having a growth mindset. We really learned about our brains (to the point that one of my kids said, "Well, my amygdala has me feeling really frustrated so I need to take a little break!"), we learned about how we learn, and we worked really hard to find and fix mistakes. It's okay to say it's okay to make mistakes, but if you don't persevere to fix those mistakes then you are missing the point.
2. I gave the kids more control of the classroom. Yes, some of the desk arrangements they came up with made me twitchy, but the arrangements were theirs. I stepped back and let them be in charge in designing our room, picking their seats, and sometimes even choosing how they would show me their learning. It felt really good, and they rose to the challenge, so I want to continue to grow in this area next year.
3. Things bothered me less. I have been on a personal journey to learn more about mindfulness, health, and gratitude. My own personal learning and growth helped me focus on what was really important at school and let the other stuff go. It's also amazing how happiness at home helps you be more productive at school.
4. We were more creative. We designed parks, we built tiny houses, and we made roller coasters. And it wasn't because there was "extra time at the end of the year" or because they were fast finishers. It was because these tasks fit our units and gave the kids meaningful opportunities to collaborate, think critically, and be creative. I did notice that during these opportunities many of my friends struggled when things got hard. They LOVED the projects until they got hard. So that is an area we can continue to work on next year.
5. My professional learning grew and grew. As part of our school's 1:1 planning team, I had the opportunity to take part in a training session and then work with a larger group to see how we could implement what we are learning at our school. Having the opportunity to think differently about learning really opened my eyes and help me grow this year, and I'm excited for the opportunities I will have next year.
6. The kids.

I could go on and on. There's a lot to be thankful for, happy about, and excited about in regards to this year. I am thankful that, even after 20 years, I cried a little after I said goodbye to my kids. I was a little sad when I left my classroom yesterday. And I'm already excited for next year's possibilities.

Yup. This is what I'm supposed to be doing.

Hybrid Rotational Model

During our training for the 1:1 program that's coming to our school in a few years, I had the opportunity to attend a variety of professional development sessions and school visits. During both the sessions and the visits I learned and experienced the hybrid rotational model, so I thought this would be a good place for me to dabble the rest of this year.

I've been trying to do a math workshop model, but after trying assigned daily stations, a math menu, and my own version of a Daily 5 type math, I hadn't found anything that felt right. It seemed that this model was very similar to stations, so I thought I would give it a go. You guys. I'm loving it. So much so that I signed up for a three day training this summer to really develop an understanding of what I'm doing since I know I'm not quite there yet.

The premise of the hybrid rotational model is that the students rotate through three stations: direct, independent, and collaboration. During the independent station, the students get their instruction in the form of a video or some method besides the teacher lecturing (think flipped classroom, but instead of the work happening at home, it just happens before they meet with you). The collaborative station allows the kids to work together on some sort of meaningful, challenging project, and the direct station is where the kids work with you, ideally to practice the skill they learned in the lesson.

It was a comfortable place to start because it seems just like stations or a workshop setting, and it was really easy to get the kids into the flow. When I started, I started in a more traditional way; I did what I would have done in a whole group lesson during the direct session, and then gave the kids work to do during the independent. I know that's not optimal, but it gave me a place to start. Now that I'm getting more comfortable with it, I feel like I may be able to start transition to what it's really supposed to look like.

But here's the thing. Because of a huge time discrepancy and a pretty significant difference in the levels of my classes, I was doing this with my morning group and not with my afternoon group. (I teach math and science to one group of kids in the morning, and then I do the same with a completely different group of kids in the afternoon.) And it felt yucky. I felt yucky because my mornings were amazing. The kids were engaged, I felt like I was REALLY getting to talk with every one of my kids every day, I felt like I knew where my kids were and what my kids needed, and we all were pretty happy. IT FEELS GOOD! So the fact that I hadn't figured out a way to do it with my afternoon kids..... well, it made me feel yucky.

We had PSSAs this week, and I just couldn't bear the thought of doing the same old thing today. So I sat down during my planning and I figured out a way to take my math and science and make it a hybrid rotational model. You'll see I noticed that I added a 4th station to cover our science lesson, so the stations looked like this:

• Independent - complete our ticket out the door for measuring angles, work on the Geometry strand in Front Row (now called Freckle)
• Collaborative - work together to create a Tiny House
• Direct - lesson on polygons, perimeter, and area
• Science - watch a video and take notes on bar graphs, begin working on analyzing data on bar graphs

Before we started this afternoon I was honest with my kids. I told them that the other teachers and I were talking about how we didn't think kids could do anything this afternoon. I told them how we felt like they had "lost it" since we did PSSAs, and they weren't going to be able to do what they needed to do. And then I told my kids how awful I felt thinking that, and I decided to change my mindset and see if they could prove me wrong.

I introduced each station and answered any questions. I reminded the kids that if I was working at the direct station, I couldn't babysit; they had to take responsibility for their own learning. And I assigned each group a leader to be my eyes. Their job was not to boss anybody around. Instead, their job was to ask their teammates what they needed, and they were also asked to report back to me and tell me what I needed to do to help the kids be more successful. 

The students stayed in each station for 20 minutes, and I felt like that was a good amount of time. The kids were able to work on their tasks for the full time, but it gave them the opportunity to transition and move onto something new before they got burned out. My learning support teacher was in for about 1/2 an hour, and she provided support to the different groups while I was doing my direct instruction. I didn't like this part; I need to figure out how to get her involved with the direct instruction even though her schedule only allows her to be in my room for 1 full rotation and 1/2 of the second. I also had an instructional paraprofessional, and when she arrived (after the 1st rotation) she assisted the other three groups with the video and note taking at the science station.

It. Felt. Amazing.

When the last timer went off the kids were like, "Wait? What? It's time to go home already????" They were engaged. They were trying tasks that were REALLY challenging. One of the leaders came to me at the end and said, "The first three stations went great, but the Tiny House - we were just fighting and arguing. I think it's because we really didn't understand it." That was music to my ears because I know what that group, and likely others, needs to be successful.

But you know what really feels good? It doesn't matter that I don't have the same time, and it doesn't matter that my afternoon class may not be at the same level of my morning class. They took charge of their own learning, and they were proud to do so. I have a lot to work through, but the way I see it, if my kids can do this on a Friday afternoon after three days of PSSA testing, they are going to knock it out of the park the rest of the year. I'm so excited, and I can't wait to see what we can accomplish!

Of Empowering Kids and Science Assessments

This year I have really been trying to make my classroom one where kids have choices, options, and a voice in their own learning. Reading the book Empower: What Happens When Students Own Their Learning has helped me see I'm on the right track with many of the things I've been incorporating in my classroom, and it's also given me some ideas of where to go next. Helping my students understand what it means to have a growth mindset has also been a goal of mine this year, and while it's difficult to fit into a pass / fail, take one test, here's your grade system, I'm pretty happy with how I've been incorporating that as well.

So my dabbling here and there lead me to think differently about how I wanted to assess my unit on the scientific process. This year, instead of giving the big, summative assessment, I decided I wanted to take the ideas of student choice and growth mindset and apply them to determine my kids' knowledge of the scientific process. I also wanted to try and get away from the one shot, here's your grade assessment strategy that I so often have to follow. The answer was having my students design and carry out their own experiment following the scientific process.

I have been embedding the idea of the scientific process throughout the year as we have carried out different experiments, so all of my students have had a preview to the steps and the vocabulary we would be using. To examine the parts of the process more closely, we conducted four different experiments, and we worked on writing mini lab reports so the kids could see that writing is a very important part of science.

Along the way both of my classes had the opportunity to participate in the Skype a Scientist program. If you have not heard of this, please, please check it out! Both Alex and Ehren answered my students' questions about what is it like to be a scientist beautifully and with passion! They helped my kids see that experiments are more than just "fun" things you do, and both men are working hard to make a difference in the world.

After building my kids' background knowledge, it was time for them to take charge. I created a mini lab report form, and the first step was for the kids to pick their favorite experiment that we had done in class since the beginning of the year. Just to make it a little easier, I did limit it to four choices:

• evaporation experiment
• the gummy bear experiment
• the food coloring experiment
• the paperclip experiment

Once the kids chose their favorite, they got into groups based on that choice. Depending upon the number of people in the group, the kids could choose small groups to complete their experiment. In the end, between the two classes, I had 12 groups collaborating to design and complete their experiments. 

After going over the rubric (an area where I could get the kids' input -- maybe a goal for next year) the kids were eager to get started, and their first task was to create an short abstract and a shopping list for me. They had to present their idea and get approval before beginning their process. Once they had approval, then it was time to work on each step. The kids collaborated to:

• Share their observations from the original experiment and their background knowledge about their new idea.
• Explain the variable of the original experiment.
• Explain the variable of the new experiment.
• State their research question.
• Determine their hypothesis.
• Come up with a detailed plan.
• Carry out the experiment.
• Analyze the data they collected.
• Draw conclusions about the results.

The kids had as many opportunities as they needed to conference with me about each part of the report and make changes to improve their grade. Some kids were perfectly happy to just score proficient, and others eagerly accepted feedback and worked towards the advanced mark on the rubric. The only step that they kids could not redo was the experiment; because of the sake of time we had to limit it to one shot, but the could explain what they would do differently in their conclusions section.

While it certainly would have been much easier to send home a study guide and give my kids a test one day, assessing my kids' knowledge of the scientific process was so much more beneficial in so many ways.

• Students had the opportunity to practice the basic tenet of having a growth mindset: you have to persevere when things are challenging, and you have to go back and fix a mistake when you make it. That's how our brains grow.
• Students had the opportunity to work on their communication skills, whether it was in their experiment group or sharing their ideas verbally or in writing with me. There were many, many revisions as we went through the process, and nobody ever gave up.
• I got to see exactly where the holes were for my kids and reflect upon how I need to change my instruction next year: I need to give them examples of detailed plans when we do them. I need to do a better job of helping them understand how to analyze data before they have to do it on their own. 
• I got to see exactly where my kids' learning was right on track. They really understand that there can only be one variable in an experiment, and they did a great job using the tools to measure and collect data. 

While I originally intended for this process to end with the students turning in their reports, an unexpected little twist popped up. As I was sharing pictures of their work on twitter, a friend who teaches in California tweeted back. After a few messages, we decided that my students would type of their plans and share them with her class so that her students could try and duplicate the experiments and the results. This is such a vital part of scientific discovery, so I am really excited to make this connection and see how it works out.

While it certainly took more time than a test, I saw my students continuing to learn and grow throughout the assessment period, and according to my students, they feel like they understand the scientific process "way better" than they would have and think they will remember it much better, too. I'm hopeful that I can continue to find ways that I can offer the kids some choice and adapt our assessments so kids have the opportunity to showcase their learning and continue to work toward mastery.

One Little Word 2018

I took some time this morning to read back through my posts, and I love sitting here reading the reflections I've done about both teaching and life. At one point, I hoped to be one of those bloggers that everybody read or talked about on Twitter, and I got a bit disenchanted when that didn't happen. So I stopped. But as I look back over what I've written here, I realize that this blog isn't for anybody but me. If others happen to get something from what I share, that's awesome - but that's not the point any more.  

I do a lot of my writing in a journal now, but every now and then I come back here. Maybe I'll start writing more here - who knows. But I wanted to come back and share my one little word, which I have not done in a while. I've been picking a word instead of making resolutions for a bunch of years now, and I really do like it. My last two words have been especially helpful for me.

In 2016 my word was believe. One of the things I learned going through my divorce was that I didn't believe in myself. I didn't believe I was worthy of, well, anything really, and I did believe that I deserved everything that had happened to me. 2016 was a year of growth for me, and I can finally say that I did start to believe in myself. 

In 2017, I chose the word courage because I just wanted to be brave enough to try new things, fail, and continue to believe that I deserved the best. While my amazing counselor was there to help me with many things, the biggest turning point for me was when I stumbled upon a 30 Days of Brave Challenge. Now it's a paid service (of which I am a member - I'm currently working on my 30 Days of Mindfulness), but back when I tried it out it was brand new. Each day I received an activity to try and a journal prompt to reflect and write about. Day 7. It was a life changer. The prompt for Day 7 asked me to think about the movie of my life, and it asked me to rewrite the movie and talk about how the actress would play me. That was the day when I realized that I put myself in the role of victim, and I never let myself out of that role. As the words of my new movie poured onto paper, I realized that I wasn't a victim any more, and the only person who was keeping me there was me. As I closed my journal that day, I felt like a ton of bricks (even more to be quite honest) was lifted off of me, and I think that's when I was finally free of everything. It probably sounds a little selfish or self-centered, but that's the day I started putting myself first instead of constantly trying to make everybody else happy. I wouldn't say that it's been smooth sailing ever since, but it has given me a new found strength to clear the clutter out of my life, see things a little more clearly, and focus on the people and things that truly are important to me.

Now here we are in 2018. I have batted around a few different words: mindful, present, centered, and I thought I had settled on present: seriously - put down the damn phone and be present! But in a surprising little twist just this morning, I decided that my word for 2018 is going to be OPEN. I realized that I'm saying I want things, but then I resist doing those things or letting people into my life. So, this year my goal is to be open to all of the experiences life has in store for me. Yes, I may be afraid. Yes, some of them might be pretty crappy. But I can't live life sitting on the sofa playing games on my phone, reading blog posts, checking Facebook, or looking at emails. I need to be open to the good and the bad because every single experience will give me the chance to learn and grow.

So here's to 2018. May we all be open to every experience life has in store for us, and may we all love, grow, and sprinkle a little good around every, single day.