Fall 2014 Reflections Part Two: Getting Started with Self-directed Learning

This is my 23rd year of teaching and, by far the most groundbreaking for me. This summer, through Twitter, I found out about Genius Hour.  I learned more through the many links on Twitter and the comprehensive Live Binder created by Joy Kirr. I regularly blog about our work this year with self-directed learning. In this two part reflection, I want to share excerpts from my posts with the focus of how we got started (Reflection Post 2) and then ongoing progress (Reflection Post 3). 

Self-directed Learning: Getting Started

9/18/14

I am very excited about incorporating self-directed learning into my curriculum. I work with two awesome fifth grade teachers who embraced the idea when I shared it with them. Great to not be doing this alone! 

We had two sessions where we got all the fifth graders together to brainstorm ideas and do an activity to see what a project might look like.

Now we are working with the students in our homeroom only. The students filled out a survey about their strengths, interests, life experiences, etc. They also listed whether they had an idea for a topic and project.

I have met with 8 students the past two days. Each initial student conference lasts about 10 minutes. It is time consuming in the beginning, but once they get going, the conferences will simply be me checking in on progress and facilitating learning/process. 

Self-directed Learning

9/28/14

Students are learning how to research their topic and are taking two column notes: main idea/details. Also, in their spirals, students are writing reflections about the process. This week, I have a surprise for my students. They will each have their own blog on Kidblog. This will raise the stakes for the kids since now their work will be seen by the world! I am hoping to share my students' work with my Twitter PLN  and Facebook friends and get some immediate feedback for students. Please read their blogs and leave positive comments!!

New Developments with SDL

10/2/14

Students are almost ready to start blogging about the process of self-directed learning. My teammates and I drafted a permission letter to parents explaining Kidblog and online safety guidelines. Students will get their passwords when they pass in the signed permission slip. 

It was exciting, earlier this week, when @joykirr contacted me through Twitter about putting my blog on the Genius Hour live binder. She also put me in contact with @robynthiessen who facilitates the Global Genius Hour Project.  Our self-directed learning blogs will be part of this project. Students around the world will see Room 16's blogs! We will be able to see others' blogs and share praise and feedback. I will explain this to my class tomorrow. They will be excited, I  am sure!

We have been lucky to have access to the computer lab the last two weeks. Not anymore. Time to get creative with laptop/ iPad accessibility.

Learning to draw

Building a Lego City

Ice Age Interests

Researching Goalie Jerry Cheevers

Sewing Project Runway Wannabe

Blogging Begins

10/9/14

On Friday, I gave my fifth grade students the blogging permission form and told them that they will get their passwords when they return the signed form. As of today, there is only one student who has not returned the form. Many are blogging and commenting. They love it!

Of the 20 forms I have received, only six parents did not sign permission for their students faces to be seen. That was surprising to me. I thought more parents would be wary of this. I was pleasantly surprised.

I am creating mini lessons to improve the quality of my students' blogs, as well as a kid friendly blogging rubric.

With Kidblog, I approve all blogposts and comments before the public sees them. I like having that safety net!

Please read my students' blogs and leave encouraging, helpful comments. If you have trouble getting on to the blog, please let me know. I may need to double check my settings. I think it is ready to go though!

http://kidblog.org/MrsMilnersClass-2/

We Have an Audience

10/16/14

Our progress with blogging is exciting! Students are thrilled to be getting comments from all over North America,  as well as the Bahamas and New Zealand! Our blog has over 4,000 views after one week of blogging!

Now that students see they have an audience, they are stepping up their game for sure! I am almost done with the blogging rubric. I shared it with my team and am revising based on their feedback. I will share it when done. I shared examples of great kid blogs and will be showing them how to cite sources next week after our overnight field trip. The rubric will also clarify what is expected and includes relevant standards.

Here are a few pictures that show examples of posts and comments, but please visit our site  http://kidblog.org/MrsMilnersClass-2/   read the blogs, and leave a comment! You will make their day! 

Blogging Rubric

10/22/14

Here is the blogging rubric that I created for my students' self directed learning blogs. It is a work in progress. I was inspired by an article I saw on Twitter, "Your Rubric is a Hot Mess: Here's How to Fix It," posted by Jennifer Gonzalez. The single point rubric is just brilliant! We tend to look at the "Meets" column while grading a rubric, so why not just have that on the rubric with space for not meeting and a space for exceeding. Our report cards are standards based anyway, so this is more organic/informative about each child's progress. As much as possible, I used the language on our report cards...common core standards. I recommend the article and feel free to use and tweak this rubric for your needs.

Blogging Rubric

Student: ____________________________                          Month: __________________

Room to Grow Progress Towards Standard	On Target Standards for this Performance	Above and Beyond Evidence of Exceeding Standards
	Criteria 1:  Clear and Coherent Writing The student clearly expresses original ideas and stays on topic. Writing is appropriate for the audience. Each post has at least 5 sentences.
	Criteria 2:  Effort The student wrote at least one post a week.
	Criteria 3:  Follows the Writing Process  The student’s posts show improvement from planning to final draft due to drafting, revising, and editing.
	Criteria 4:  Prod./Distribution of Writing The student commented on other blogs at least once a week. If applicable, the student cited others in their research and writing.
	Criteria 5:  Use of Media The student enhanced their blog by regularly using video, audio,   images or other media

 

The First Day of School 2014-2015

DAY ONE

After greeting the students outside the classroom door and working to memorize their names, we went inside to start the day. I told the students to find their name on the tables/desks and put their materials there. They have no idea yet that these will not be their spots for long! Their next direction was to silently line up in order by their birthdays (Responsive Classroom). This is a great time to observe the students. Which students take the lead and which are willing to follow. Who creates a new, innovative way to silently communicate their birth date? Do they help each other, support each other, etc. 

Playing throughout this activity was Safe and Sound by Capital Cities and Pompeii by Bastille. The music helped the students to have fun and loosen up while doing the challenging, silent activity.  Dave Burgess, Teach Like a Pirate author, stresses music as a powerful hook. It worked perfectly for this activity. On my IPhone, I have a playlist for quiet work times and a playlist for dance breaks and transitions. I bought a small, but powerful Bluetooth speaker for under $30 at Best Buy, so that I can control the music from my IPhone no matter where I am in the room.

The other purpose for this lineup is to form groups for cubbies. There are four sections of cubbies in the hallway and each group had to come up with a name for their group and design a poster to be put up in their cubby area. They had a lot of unique ideas and worked well together. Their posters are getting laminated and will be up on Tuesday.

Before we started the cubby poster work, we had a ceremony of sorts. They sat at the spot where their desk tag was and I had them pull off the tag and rip it up while playing a heavy metal version of Over the Rainbow by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Later, a parent shared that tearing up the name tag was the first thing their child talked about when they walked out of the classroom at the end of the day. Funny! It was a symbol of no assigned seats.

The next activity, after making the cubby posters, was making play doh creations that reflect an interest or show something about them. We then circled up and shared. 

FYI: comedy/tragedy symbol :-)

After sharing their creations in a circle, we put the room back together and started the process of getting materials and supplies organized. This year, the goal is a place for everything and everything in its place. Students do not have their own desks, so I bought some bins and cleared some shelves!

Social Studies binders

Writing Binders and pencil pouches underneath. Only need pouches when traveling to Science and Social Studies. When in homeroom, there are caddies at each table/group of desks with communal supplies in them.

A bin for each student. These hold folders, spirals, math workbook, mini composition book (gratitude journal) and still room for a book to read!

I framed this as our classroom, and they need to contribute ideas of how to make the organization piece work for them. They came up with putting the board games elsewhere so that the pouches could be near the binders. Smart!!

We did grab some carpet time to read You're Finally Here. Tomorrow we will read Ish. Ish is probably the most important read aloud all year!

Dismissal was at 12:45, so with lunch in the schedule, that was pretty much all we fit in. Had to pass out a ridiculous amount of notices as well. :-) 

Going to be a great year and working hard to keep my commitment to at least one post a week! 

Teach Like a Pirate Part Two

So my first post about Dave Burgess' book, Teach Like a Pirate, was a reflection on the first part of the book only. Now that I have finished reading it, once again, I am inspired to share about how it is going to improve my teaching! 

In order to start incorporating the hook questions into my lesson planning, I took notes while I read all the great ideas. I will refer to them consistently while planning. There are some that I already do naturally, but plenty that I had never even thought of doing. So invigorating to my teaching!

So these notes are in a small spiral with my other notes and to do lists. In addition, I bought three spirals, one for each subject I teach: Reading Workshop, Math Workshop and Writing Workshop. Found cute ones at Ocean State Job Lot! I will brainstorm in these notebooks for each lesson I do. 

Part Three of the book was very motivational and it is so true that you can get started right away. All your ducks do not have to be in a row to try some of these ideas! It is also helpful to read the section on criticism. 

As the school year goes on, I will share my successes and failures here and on Twitter. Best PD ever!!

Teach Like a Pirate

Dave Burgess' book Teach Like a Pirate, is a game changer for sure. Confession, I am reading another book at the same time, so I am only halfway through Pirate, but I couldn't wait to reflect about it. 

One of the powerful messages in this book is that anyone can be creative with some hard work. I have always been a very creative teacher, but I definitely have to ask the right questions about my objectives for lessons in order to start the creativity process. Zooming in on real life connections to your lessons is really addicting! 

My theatre background means I am able to entertain, but I don't think that is the most important part of being creative. Even the most reserved teacher can plan engaging lessons that get students jazzed about learning. Burgess explains in detail how to ask questions that lead to  dynamic ideas. 

I read this Marlon Brando quote on Facebook last night and I felt it was very fitting to what Burgess believes:

Your figurative language unit has begun. You are driving in the car and you hear a new, popular Katy Perry song filled with metaphors. Pull over and write it down or tell it to Siri! Burgess emphasizes the importance of having a simple way of capturing ideas when they come to you. He uses a Mac Air. I use my IPhone and small spirals. The small spirals are my old way of capturing my ideas for writing and teaching, and old habits die hard. I have one on the coffee table in the living room, one on my desk at home, one in my car and one in my purse. Now, I also use the notes app on my IPhone. I have the other apps that are out there, Evernote, Everythink, etc. However, for me, this process is a stream of consciousness and simply starting a new note within my notes app works best for me. I do use My Writing Spot for my screenplay/story ideas. Great app!

I also loved the metaphor that Burgess used about not being a lifeguard, be a swimmer. I will admit that when it is a busy time of year, I sometimes sit at my desk and correct an essay or two while kids are working on their writing, for example. I always felt guilty doing it too. Kids knew they could come to me at any time to ask questions, etc., but I was not fully engaged. My pledge from now on is to always be a swimmer, in the pool with my students, not a lifeguard watching from a far. Getting rid of my desk is a great start!

Thanks Dave Burgess for your book. I can't wait to read the rest of it.