"One Word" for 2017: Purpose

My #OneWord For Teaching and My Classroom This Year 

"Purpose"

Every activity we do should help kids focus on at least one of the 4 C's: Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity.  We need to help prepare kids to be members of a global society.  Answering true/false, multiple choice, or matching questions doesn't do that.  Taking standardized tests doesn't do that.  Doing the same old worksheets doesn't do that.  We need to rethink how education works.  And it can start in each of our classrooms.

How do we move from compliance to purpose in the classroom?  

Two beginner steps:

1.  Choice

Telling kids what to do and how to do it, all day, every day, kills their spirit.  Embed choice throughout the day.  It can be as simple as allowing students to choose to write with a pen or a pencil.  choosing to work with a partner or by themselves, or choosing where in the classroom to work on an assignment (think: flexible seating).  

It can be more complex, like choice boards for projects, units, or for early finishers.  It can be allowing students to decide in what order they will complete their work (think: flexible scheduling).  The more students choose for themselves, the more they feel in control.  This leads to increased ownership in the classroom for them, and a smoother running classroom for you.  

2.  Voice   

Students get a LOT of feedback about their work: peer feedback, teacher comments, rubrics, grades. Let them give you some feedback.  Ask them: What do you like best about school?  What do you like least about school?  If you could change one thing about our classroom, what would it be?  If you could change one thing about our school, what would it be?  What worked well about this lesson?  What could we do differently next time?  

Kids need to know you care about what they think.  They have amazing insight and ideas to share ~ we just need to tap into it.

My #OneWord is Purpose

* I want to be purposeful about integrating the 4 C's: 

Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration.

* I want to be purposeful about helping my students 

develop as members of a global community.

* I want to be purposeful about integration 

of design thinking and STEAM activities.

* I want to be purposeful about my own 

professional development and that of colleagues.

* I want to be purposeful about helping students 

develop their individual interest areas.

* I want to be purposeful about 

effective technology integration.

What's your #oneword for teaching this year?

Innovation Inspiration Finds

I'm starting to collect pictures of innovative ideas to share with my students for inspiration during Innovation Hour (also known as Genius Hour, 20% Time, or Independent Study).  My husband and I had walked to the beach in Evanston, Illinois, while waiting for our car to be repaired.  We saw this at an intersection without a pedestrian light.  A slight problem for us ~ the side of the road we were on did not have any red flags available to carry across the street.  They were all on the other side.

I think I would share this photograph with my students, and discuss several things: How does this method of crossing the street compare to pedestrian lights, crosswalk signs, pedestrian bridges, and intersections with no signs.  What types of intersections would be best for each method?  I would ask for potential problems with the method used in this photograph to see if they could image the problem I experienced.  I would then ask how the design could be changed to prevent my experience from happening to others.  Finally, I would ask for their original ideas to allow pedestrians to cross the street safely.  Students could consider these factors and implement them if they were designing a city as mentioned in yesterday's post.

Have you found some interesting signs in your travels?

Genius Hour Launch

Genius Hour / Innovation Hour / Independent Study / Independent Inquiry / Passion Projects

Many names - similar purpose - a time when students are allowed to independently (or collaboratively) investigate topics of their choice.  In my classroom, it is the highlight of every grade level of students I work with - first through eighth.  They love the chance to delve deeper into their passion areas. 

The best video I have found for launching this part of our day is The Time You Have (in JellyBeans).  It helps students realize the importance of focusing on something they are passionate about.

After viewing the video, and thinking carefully about the limited amount of time we have to focus on things we are truly passionate about, we brainstorm a list of things we want to learn more about.

During the next session, we try to narrow down our focus of study (knowing that this is always flexible).  Most of my students have two or three different projects they are working on, and will move fluidly between them.  At first I worried about this, but after reading Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation,  I realized that an innovator needs to let an idea simmer in the back of the mind for a while (maybe even for a decade), waiting for it to connect with the missing pieces of the puzzle before it can be acted upon.

An example of a student project:

Writing, casting, acting, directing, and editing a movie. On the side, developing a plan for a natural grocery store, creating advertising, and analyzing potential revenue and expenditures.

Check-in Process:

As part of our check-in process, each student briefly shares what he or she worked on that day, struggled with, or had questions about.  It is through this process that we discover how we can be the "missing pieces" for others.  In the student example above, one classmate stepped in to sew the costumes for the actors in the movie, one stepped in to create the special effects, and one stepped in to help design the props.  While each student was working on their "individual projects", they discovered that they could use their area of passion to help each other be successful.

Providing Inspiration Along the Way:

As the year progresses, I share inspirational stories and video clips about innovators from around the world.  I watch for features about students and adults who have worked to solve problems through innovation - in a variety of fields.  Kids need to know that regardless of their passion area, they can make a contribution to the world.  TED has a playlist of 8 Talks to Inspire Projects With Kids that is a great resource to encourage students to tinker, make, and innovate.

Final Products:

In our room, we share our "final" products when they are individually done.  We don't have a set deadline for the class.  Each student works at his or her own pace, and I help guide, nudge, and encourage them along the way.  Some students work on one idea in-depth for the entire school year.  Some work for a semester, a quarter, a month, or just a week, then move on to another area.  Each student is allowed great control over the length of time they spend on a topic, and can abandon it or set it aside for a while as needed.  I honor student voice in this way, because I am noticing, documenting, and visiting with them about their interest areas, attempts, success, and growth as a learner.  Through this process, we have had had a wealth of products created and shared.  These include: models of businesses, creation of original stuffed animals, toys designed for pets, plays written, polymers investigated, original games coded, languages studied, vocal ranges increased, blogs created, public service announcements produced, movies made, chess studied, programming languages learned, websites developed, commercials made, and music composed. 

Innovation / Genius Hour Symbaloo Webmix:

(A living document that will be edited and updated)

The top purple area links to ideas for launching a genius hour

The pink portion comprises innovator resources

Teal represents foreign language links

Green links to kid-friendly search engines

Gray focuses on compassion connections

The other shade of purple is for video conferencing

Blue is presentation tools

The Next Step:

We have started to add a global compassion connection to our independent study time.  It consists of connecting each student and their passion area to a person in a different country, who has a similar passion area.  This project is in its infancy, but I will be blogging about it in the future!

How do you help students pursue their passions?

Graphic Novels

My students adore graphic novels.  They require depth of thinking ~ students must comprehend the story and "fill in the blanks" between the pictures and limited text.  They are especially attractive to those creative minds that appreciate the opportunity to add their own thoughts to story lines.

When some of my students were inspired by graphic novels from some of these favorite authors, they decided to write their own graphic novels as part of their Passion Projects.

With a solid background reading a variety of graphic novels from modern-day authors, we decided to add a research component.  Enter in Scott McCloud's works Understanding Comics and Making Comics.  Both proved to be an invaluable resource to our budding author/illustrators.

Next, we added some fun graphic novel/comic book templates, and allowed the students to be creative.  They welcomed the opportunity to branch out from the traditional forms of writing and and work to create original pieces of literature.

An example from a fifth grade student

Introduction of the characters:

A scene at school:

Passing out school pictures:

School is over for the day:

We can't wait to see how this story develops!

Link to graphic novel / comic templates

             

Do your students love graphic novels too?  

What do you do to encourage their passion areas?