The blended classroom in which students have some control over pace and may not all be at the same place should not mean the death of bellwork. An engaging classroom environment should have something for students to do as soon as they enter the room. This is part of a series of posts that offers suggestions for how bellwork can be used in a blended classroom by engaging students in something interesting that develops their skills in a key area while taking the burden off of the teacher to produce something novel on a daily basis. Tool:Do Now
Description: According to the Do Now website, it "is a weekly activity weekly activity for students to engage and respond to current issues using social media tools like Twitter."
Students can respond to the weekly prompts using Twitter or the comment section directly on the website. For bellwork I have used it by having students read, watch, and listen to the resources that accompany the prompt on one day, have them compose tweets or comments the next day, and then respond to others tweets and comments the following day.
The current event tie ins are perfect for social studies classrooms and there are also dedicated prompts for science and the arts provided.
Key Skill Development: By engaging with social media, students are developing competencies in the positive use of technology to develop and support arguments with an authentic audience. They practice building a positive digital footprint and making concise arguments supported with evidence from a variety of multimedia sources.
In an age where Twitter has become an often quoted source in the political spectrum with the ability to impact elections, having competence in using it for effect has emerged as an important 21st century skill.
*Note: Many districts have blocked access to Twitter and other social media tools. Do Now can still be used for short writing prompts that are shared in the classroom in those districts. Students could contribute their comments to closed discussion boards or shared Google Docs to engage in discussion.
The blended classroom in which students have some control over pace and may not all be at the same place should not mean the death of bellwork. An engaging classroom environment should have something for students to do as soon as they enter the room. This is part of a series of posts that offers suggestions for how bellwork can be used in a blended classroom by engaging students in something interesting that develops their skills in a key area while taking the burden off of the teacher to produce something novel on a daily basis.
Description: Google a Day presents 3 new internet search challenges on a daily basis. Users are awarded points based on getting the right answer and how quickly they are able to find the correct answer by using good search practices.
Key Skill Development: Students engage in a daily reinforcement of good internet search practices. In most classrooms, search skill are taught once at the beginning of the year or along with a project that may require them. While students are expected to retain the skills taught in a lesson or two, those skills typically are not revisited for the rest of the year. Using Google a Day for bellwork would allow students to practice and develop these skills on a daily basis.
Several years ago I left the district that I was at for 7 years and it happened to coincide with the Edutopia post “How to Divorce Your District.” I loved the post and it perfectly summed up how I was feeling about leaving my position at the time. One of the things that I did not anticipate was the difficulty of adapting in a new district and the real sense of loss that I would feel for the comfort that I had taken for granted. I got through it and have no doubt it was the right move but it took a while for the new position to feel comfortable.
This year as we have expanded with 28 new teachers in my current school I can sense the same feelings in them. Many of them are experienced teachers with decades of experience and are outside of their comfort zones for the first time in a long time. It felt like a good time to pass along some suggestions based on my own experience as well as from working with a rapidly increasing staff over the past 3 years.
Don’t Mourn the Loss of Reputation
Teachers who have been in the same position for years develop a reputation and it makes your life a lot easier. One of the hardest lessons that I had to learn when moving to a new district after 7 years in the same position is that your reputation, no matter how good it is, will not mean anything to the students and parents in your new district. I felt a sense of loss my first year in the new district as students were coming in the first day and it became clear they had no idea who I was and all of my past accomplishments did not matter to them. They were evaluating me based on what I was doing at that moment and taking any time mourning the loss was not going to help. You have to move forward in your new position and trust that your old reputation was based on a reason. Your reputation will develop again quickly in your new role.
You Left Your Old District for a Reason
We tend to get caught up in nostalgia when remember the past and forget all of the things that drove us to look for a new job in the first place. You may have grown bored with what you were teaching, ran out of opportunities for growth, or had enough of negative co-workers. When you made the decision to move it was for a reason. Trust yourself and have confidence in that decision instead of engaging in revisionist history about your past.
Embrace the Loss of Your Comfort Zone
Along with the loss of your reputation you are going to be well out of your comfort zone. Learning a new culture, co-workers, community, and instructional methods is going to put you in a place where you may no longer be the go-to person in your new role. The most destructive thing you can do is to cling to all of your old ways of doing things and constantly tell everybody how you did things in your last position. Approach the new position with an open mind and be willing to let go of some of your past ways of doing things. Also understand that you were hired for a reason and that your new co-workers and administrators want to hear your ideas but constantly telling them what your old school did is probably not going to be met with support. You have experience and expertise in what you are doing so let your actions and abilities catch the attention of those around you. Adapting to your new environment will make you a better educator and people will be more open to your ideas once they see you have embraced and understand the culture of your new school.
Your Situation is Temporary
Any time you switch roles or move to a new district it is going to be like your first year all over again. It is especially true if you are moving from a position with low expectations and a traditional approach into a blended environment. You are going to be learning a new culture and many of your tried and true lessons are not going to work in a new setting. Just like with your first year teaching things will get easier and your situation is only temporary.
Moving to a new school is hard work but with patience and adaptability you will persevere and be better for it. Your new students and school are going to benefit from the continual addition of new staff with fresh perspectives as well. Keep focus on doing the best that you possibly can in your new role and pretty soon you will be the one welcoming a fresh batch of newcomers into your culture.
This summer I attended my first FlipCon as a presenter at Michigan State University. My wife who is a Michigander and MSU alumni who was thrilled to be able to attend with me and show me around the campus. We also got to hang out with my sister-in-law who is a local anesthesiology student. The first night we met up with her in a college bar and she asked me what the conference was all about. As I began to explain flipped learning she cut me off with:
"Yeah yeah, you look at the material the night before and then you do something interactive with it in the next class. We do that in my nursing program. Why do you guys need three days to talk about that?"
I really did not have a good answer for her and as I spent the next three days sitting through sessions, I often asked myself the same question. In fact, I have an admission to make. Its one that I know I am not supposed to make as a 21st century teacher, connected educator, edtech guy...whatever we call ourselves. But here goes:
I still do not get why flipped learning is a thing.
My theory is that flipped learning is more of the reflection of the natural growth that individual teachers make as they progress through their careers. I recall spending much of my first year teaching giving notes and worthless homework assignments. I did not know any better. I was very proud of myself when I came back the next year and did not spend a single minute of class on notes. We did a lot of group work, projects, and simulations. I often gave homework assignments that required students to read some background information or develop a character for what we were going to do in class. The class was lively, students were learning, and I quickly became a respected teacher.
When I look back on that second year I suppose it could have been called flipped learning. The homework was preparing them for the class activities but I certainly was not making videos and asking students to use the internet at home was still a losing proposition in many cases. Thinking back on many of my favorite classes I realize that many of them shared that structure long before the flipped movement. Having students come to class prepared to use that class time most effectively is always a sound instructional strategy no matter what we call it.
I do not think the flipped movement is a bad. If teachers are getting hooked on the philosophy of it and becoming better teachers because of it then it is great. I enjoyed spending a few days talking about teaching with a group of my colleagues but three days discussing what should be a simple premise was more than enough. If calling yourself a flipper makes you a better teacher than do it. I probably won't be with you at FlipCon16 though.
Educators often ask their students to take risks but we often miss the mark when it comes to establishing an environment in which to do so. We recently made a switch within my department to a mastery based grading system in which we allow revisions of work and do not take points off assignments for being turned in late. This approach is well grounded in research but has not been without its critics who often say things such as, "How will they learn responsibility?" "If they know they can go back and fix things why would they put any effort into their work?" and "They need to learn to deal with failure."
The switch certainly requires some reflection on the nature of grades and what they should mean. Students are also not used to such a system and have become used to chasing grades instead of focusing on the process.
The following is a 2 second conversation that I had this week that illustrates the process at work though:
Student: You said here that I need to add evidence to make the discussion post better right?
Me: Right.
Student: So if I go back and add the evidence I can earn a higher score?
Me: Yes.
She went back and added evidence and her score was updated. She didn't have to wait until the next time we did a discussion post to act on the feedback and the score she wound up with reflected her true ability to use evidence to support an argument.
Something in her reaction let me know that a shift had occurred for her and that's all that needs to be said about learning responsibility, effort, and dealing with failure.
A lot of talk about 21st century schools is focused on devices and apps. You could be buried in all the iPads and Chromebooks you could ever imagine but the culture at your school will not change until the philosophy of 21st century teaching, learning, AND leading is embraced.
Here are 3 steps that you can take right now:
1. Model the Change You Want to See
If you want to reduce the use of paper or go paperless this year, then don’t have handouts and copies of the PowerPoint that you are going to use at your meetings. Send it out in email or better yet, flip it by asking teachers to review it and be ready to discuss prior to coming to the meeting.
If you want your teachers to be reflective practitioners then start your own blog and share it with them. The best schools have sharing and collaborating built into everything they do and opening yourself up will go a long way towards establishing the trust that must be in place first.
And by all means, if you want to see innovative teaching practices and risk taking in your school then don’t welcome your teachers back with data chats and performance goals. Yes, we all know that it is important but we want to be excited about the possibilities of a new year not rehashing past shortcomings. If we were into disaggregating data we would be making a lot more money doing that somewhere. Give teachers some time to connect with each other and the reasons they got into this line of work in the first place.
This year at my site we opened up our welcome back week with a Top Chef style pizza cook off in the school kitchen and wrapped it up with a team challenge to create the best cheesy, shamelessly self-promoting ad for our departments (see below). We talked some data and SMOs (specific measurable objectives) in between, but it was the team building activities that stuck with me.
What did you do in back-to-school PD this year?
2. Remove the Safety Nets
I was part of an infuriating conversation last year in which a group of colleagues was saying that they could not make the transition to Common Core because they did not have the appropriately aligned textbooks to teach from. My perspective was that the transition offered the perfect opportunity to ditch textbooks altogether and focus on more engaging and effective strategies. In the end administration wound up siding with the textbook proponents and the perfect opening to remove a safety net was missed. A textbook centered curriculum was ensured through at least the next adoption cycle.
People don’t like change. Many will complain. Ultimately, removing safety nets but empowering them to explore alternative solutions will push them forward. That’s leadership.
3. Focus On the Needs of Your Best
The best teachers have a deeply ingrained drive to become experts at what they do. Unfortunately for them, many school initiatives got bogged down in numbing conversations about holding the few bad teachers accountable. This gives the bad apples way too much power and drives the good ones mad.
The mindset has to change from one of accountability to one of growth. Create a professional development framework that will allow teachers to identify areas that they want to focus on. Then instead of requiring everybody to sit through the same sit-and-get traditional style PD, give them that time in PLCs to research and develop strategies in their focus areas. Finally, give them a venue to share their learning with their colleagues. You will grow a staff of professionally fulfilled experts.
In an era where tenure is probably on the way out, schools and districts are losing one of the main things that motivates frustrated teachers to stick it out through the hard times. Good teachers are also increasingly using social media to develop large networks of other likeminded individuals. Without the barbed wire of tenure restricting the flock to your pasture and the promise of greener grass on the horizon, the intrepid ones you want to keep are probably going to wander off. If the needs of the best are ignored chances are pretty good that schools are going to wind up losing them to those leaders who are embracing the philosophy of 21st century teaching and learning.
Two years ago as we approached the ten year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks I decided to take a different angle in teaching the complex topic and created The September 11 Oral History Projectwith students. Students went out and conducted interviews to record the memories of those who lived through that day. We even got many people to call in and record their stories and captured some emotional accounts from witnesses. The goal was to practice good historian skills and to create a resource that could be used by others in the future.
The 7th and 8th grade students that worked on this project were the last to come through my class who were actually alive on 9/11/2001. Last week I realized how prescient it was to have them create it at that time when I was giving examples of different forms of government and nobody knew who Saddam Hussein was when I brought him up as a dictator. I thought teaching about 9/11 was tough two years ago but it is even harder now that none of my students have actual memories of that time period.
Students will be completing a blog post that links the ideas of historical memory and the novel The Giver which they have been reading in their Language Arts classes to reflect about 9/11.
