Author: Katy Farber

Farber joined TIIE after 17 years as a classroom teacher in central Vermont. She is passionate about promoting student and teacher voice, engaging early adolescent students, sharing the power of service learning, and creating inclusive communities where joy, courageous conversations and kindness are the norm. She lives in central Vermont with her husband and two daughters and loves being outside with family and friends, listening to music, writing about the world, and jumping into Vermont ponds and lakes.
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Developing integrated units from commercial curriculum

commercial curriculum

Walking through what it looks like to take commercial curriculum and develop a vibrant, personalized integrated unit.

One thing we hear all the time in our work as professional development coordinators is:

“How do you both personalize learning for students AND use the curriculum materials adopted by the district or school? Aren’t these things in opposition?”

The answer is no, they don’t have to be in opposition at all. Like anything worth doing, it takes time, creativity and collaboration.  But you can do it! You can create integrated units that use the Lucy Calkins writing or reading units as a basis, for example. You can turn them — viola! — into project-based learning units that engage and excite students.

Case in point:

Burke Town School in the Kingdom East School District wanted to tackle this problem head on. We helped them to take their leadership team, plus district coaches through an example of what it looks like to create an integrated unit using the Units of Study for Teaching Reading commercial curriculum by Lucy Calkins reading materials. We decided to use the grade four extreme weather unit as our basis for the exercise. Our goals were to:

  • Experience the hands-on process of integrated planning with a focus on personalized learning approaches and using the curriculum as a foundation. 
  • Develop capacity and understanding of the intersections between curricular programs/resources and personalization.

Our guiding question to explore together:

How can we create an integrated unit plan that addresses Teachers College Writing Units, the CCSS standards, NGSS, and other academic standards while personalizing learning?

Here we go. Consider it a creative process. 

Review engaging pedagogies

First, let’s review some engaging pedagogies.

When teachers begin creating a unit, we often choose a teaching pedagogy or approach. And some might say that you can create hybrids of blends of pedagogy in your unit plans. What approach will you use? What are the parts of these pedagogies?

These are all engaging because they feature student choice, voice, authentic audiences, relevance, purpose, and community partnership opportunities. Choose your pedagogical approach that best fits the needs of your students and your topic. 

Create a brainstorm web or map

First step is to think big. What core concept will be at the center of this unit?

In this case, it’s reading about extreme weather. Together create a web of ideas about all of the teaching and learning, possible integration points and parts of project-based learning they might contain. As in, what might be the driving question(s), the exciting launch event, the possible project creations, the community partners, and the culminating event? What concepts connect, extend, and support the learning?

Think big. Think about all of the connections and possible community activities and partnerships.

Here is our web within this theme:

                 EXTREME WEATHER

commercial curriculum

Dig into the unit materials

The unit orientation or overview is honestly something that busy teachers often skip in any curriculum. But really, when creating personalized learning units and approaches, it is critical to read how the unit theme fits together with a progression of lessons and activities. Also, we need to consider how to make sure those activities are as engaging and as personalized as possible.  So, saddle up, and do some reading. Sticky notes might help you label some of these important parts.

  • Look for:
    • Engagement, purpose, entry events, community partners, relevance. 
    • What do you notice? 
    • Possible spots for integration.

Fill in a planning template

commercial curriculum

There are many to pick from and you might have a favorite. We used our own PBL planning template. You can use one you prefer but make sure to address these items:

  • Identify the driving question 
  • Brainstorm the launch event 
  • Decide on the culminating event 
  • List and describe the learning experiences, lessons, and artifacts 
  • Uncover what scaffolds are needed
  • What will students create as an end product?
  • What knowledge, skills, proficiencies will students meet?
    • For literacy, these proficiencies have already been identified. What else?
  • How will students reflect on and show their learning?
  • What assessment will you use?

Plan nuts and bolts

Now consider your next steps. What are the nuts and bolts of this? Grab a colleague, and decide when, what and how will all of this happen:

    • Make sure you have the driving question, the template filled out.
    • Set the date for the culminating event and work backwards from there.
    • Take time to discuss: What are the learning experiences, lessons, and artifacts be?  What scaffolds are needed? How will students reflect on and show their learning?  What assessment will you use? 
    • How will intervention/strategy groups still occur, how will mini-lessons and workshop time be managed?
    • Set up your Project calendar
    • Discuss and decide, how will you monitor the project? (Regular common planning time is essential!)
    • Plan the lessons, create the learning scales, checklists and scaffolds needed

Reflect and Refine

commercial curriculum

All truly great learning emerges from reflection. During your teaching and after the unit is finished, spend some time considering what worked.

  • What did you notice in your students work?
  • What did you see about their connections to the real world?
  • How was student engagement?
  • How did YOU feel throughout the process of teaching the unit?
  • What might you change next time?

All of these reflective prompts will lead you to deepen your awareness of your teaching practices. And teachers need to look back on the learning experiences they create for their students. It’s what makes us all get better at our craft.

The Teacher’s College Units of Study are commercial curriculum ripe for personalization, project-based learning, and building relevance.  This workshop is used throughout many schools. There are endless possibilities for integration, and it just takes a bit of planning, curriculum design, and collaboration. Add this extra planning to the existing curriculum and you can create a rich, rigorous, deep and powerful unit for students.

Share your examples with us.

How have you found ways to bring personalized learning approaches into a commercial curriculum?

We’d love to hear your stories of what worked for you.

 

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Service learning (during a pandemic)

pandemic service learning

This year, I am hearing that many teachers feel they aren’t practicing the kind of teaching they believe in as much as they are used to and want to. They are stretched thin with all of the protocols and decisions and shifting situations the pandemic brings. That personalized learning, and service learning, feel further away than ever. And believe me, I get it. I feel that too on a daily basis.

But like most things, small, doable, meaningful changes and steps can bring more purpose and connection to students at a time when they really need it. 

While I dream of lofty and large service learning projects, I know that this is likely not happening right now, at least not in the ways I have led them before, and written about them. As encompassing, integrated, field and community based projects. These, in large measure, aren’t really happening right now.

But what IS happening right now are ways students can use both their passions and interests to connect to others and create moments of meaning, purpose, and service.

Here are a few ideas for how to create these kinds of moments with our students. 

1. What is the pandemic version of a beloved service or connection experience for students?

For us? It was Reading Buddies. 

pandemic service learning

 

Reading buddies are older students reading with younger students.

This simple idea is quite profound.

One, it models a love of reading, reading skills and comprehension, and deep connection between younger and older students. Older students see themselves as leaders, as readers, and as important role models for younger students. This can reframe their relationship with reading and how they see themselves. 

Obviously, students can’t sit closely together around a picture book right now. So a tweak was first, older students making cards for younger students, then waving and introducing themselves in a whole class online meeting.

The younger students selected a stack of books they were interested in reading, and their teacher sent them down.

Next session, students did one-on-one hangout calls to read aloud to their younger buddies. My students spread out in the hallways and read book after book after book.

They were practicing reading fluency, oral communication skills, but more importantly, they felt purposeful and connected. And kindergarteners are just dang adorable. 

How could you tweak something that was already great in the before times for this moment?

Or, borrow this reading buddy idea! It is fairly simple to set up and organize!

2. Design a Weekly Connection Experience

We know everyone is feeling very isolated right now. We have winter. And we have this pandemic. And for many students, they are doing either some or all virtual learning.

Setting up a simple weekly connection activity for students to complete is one way to offer service and connection.

Ideally, this list of connection activities could be brainstormed at a morning meeting or during teacher advisory time. Weekly connection experiences are designed to connect students to purpose and meaning, but be very simple and doable.

Ideas include but are not limited to:

  • Everyone loves mail. Pick someone in your life to write a real life letter or card to. 
  • Create a playlist for someone. Develop a playlist for someone who you think really needs some theme or type of music in their lives. 
  • Create some art for a community or family member. Think about those living alone or in challenging situations. What can you create to uplift them? 
  • Perform something. Record yourself reading a poem, a story, doing a dance, playing a song, whatever! Send it along to community or family members who might feel good after seeing this. 

Students will need some support getting their creations where they need to go. They can also post these experiences right on Seesaw and their PLPs and tag transferable skills they are using. 

3. Try a Joy Project

Lastly, where have you found joy during this pandemic? Baking, playing the guitar, reading, knitting? Right now, we all need more joy. 

pandemic service learning

We released this idea early in the pandemic and I have started doing this with my students. This is a flexible way to help students discover their interests and use them to create a meaningful project. 

My students are just developing their inquiry questions and about to get feedback on them. This project can be facilitated remotely as well. 

This project can help shape and build the foundation for the PLP. Having students do Joy Projects and weekly connection activities could give them the experiences they need to create powerful PLPs and feel connected, positive, and purposeful in their work. 

What are ways you are helping students find purpose, meaning, and service in their communities during this time? I would love to hear your ideas!

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You made it.

you made it

 

Everyone who is watching this? Deserves a high five, a pat on the back or the happy dance of their choosing.

You.

Congratulations #vted. You made it.

 

You have made it through what could be described as one of the most challenging, confusing and heart-breaking few months of history in your lifetime, and likely ours, too.

So as you finish up the school year, all of you students and teachers out there deserve a hearty thank you, for sacrificing, for caring for each other and for showing up, and pivoting to remote distance learning rapidly, and for offering each other grace.

We know it hasn’t been easy.

We know you all gave up some of the most nearest and dearest experiences in this moment, and that you suffered significant loss, of beloved family or friends, or once in a lifetime experiences. And you did this to help other people, most of whom you have never met. In fact, your actions, your staying home, staying physically distant, your hand washing, directly impacted the lives of others, helping them stay healthy during this crisis. YOU did that. And we have you to thank!

And teachers? Whoo! You have led with love.

You have called, emailed, video conferenced, coordinated, created, shifted, so many things, all in service of caring for your students and colleagues. This was a monumental task. We have been incredibly moved, inspired, and touched by your expressions of care, love and connection with your students. To you, we are forever grateful.

And now, to the ones moving on.

To the ones changing schools, launching into middle school, launching into high school, and the ones launching into life post-high school. It is you we wanted to bring this message to. It is you who gives us hope for the future. Why? Because during all of this, you met the moment with creativity and perseverance. You are both missing the culmination of your learning experiences, and are launching into uncertain times. But you are also the generation with the greatest amount of compassion for each other, poised to push our society into a new era, one centered on a shared humanity, one that we see in each one of you when you tell your story, when you advocate for new laws and policies, and when you check in on your friends, neighbors, and communities.

We need you.

The adults in your world have left much undone. There is so much to dismantle and to recreate. Our society continues to perpetrate oppression, to separate, to label, to devalue and harm. There is so much left to do, and we believe in you and will join you in this work.

We salute you, as you move on to new horizons. Know that you can always redefine who you are, and who you want to be. This is your chance to decide. To change course if you want to. And to work toward the values and vision only you can know.

Raising a toast to you, graduates, students, and teachers. You did this incredibly hard thing, under the most difficult circumstances, and we congratulate you. You made it.

 

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The other pandemic.

We stand against systemic racism

“What is the implication for how we understand ourselves and each other in reference to our racial identities? And if we are dissatisfied with the way things are, what can we do to change it?”

–Beverly Tatum, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

This is not the post we originally planned to publish this morning.

We have been so inspired, lately, by Vermont educators and families and students, all making this strange and challenging pandemic learning work for students as best they can. We have been so inspired by everyone’s creativity and flexibility in making this pandemic situation work on any level.

But this is not the pandemic learning work we’re talking about today.

This is the other pandemic learning work.

The pandemic of white supremacy and racism.

It’s work on a pandemic that’s been raging for centuries, one that has infected all levels of American education and society. This pandemic has long infected our government, and our social infrastructure.

It infects us.

As an organization, we focus on personalized learning that honors student identities, and their lives and learning outside of school. Their communities. And for Black students, and students of color, those identities and communities continue to come under attack. Those lives have been, and continue to be, under attack.

The current political situation has emboldened white supremacists to violence at every level. We’re all seeing the news reports, and the twitter feeds.  So the question becomes: what do we do?

Before anything else? We admit we’re going to get things wrong because of privilege.

First off, an admission: the writers of this post, personally, are going to get things wrong, in a way that hurts Black educators and students. We will bumble through and try to fix things with imprecise helping hands and accidentally make things worse and then have to start over with those same hands. Because the authors of this post are both white, while we are committed to being anti-racist, the way we try and make things better will likely be blind to some realities. We welcome feedback on this post, either in the comments down below or via our contact form. 

But while we get things wrong, we still have to try.

We can begin by acknowledging the decades of hard work done by BIPOC — Black, Indigenous, People of Color — educators, writers, activists and thought-leaders.

We commit to reading and learning from BIPOC work in this area and beyond. White educators, students and community members need to learn and unlearn the true history of this nation, and listen to BIPOC people about issues of race, racism, and history.  

Then we as white educators get to work, holding explicitly anti-racist work as a constant goal.

  1. Honor student identities — and protect Black students and BIPOC students. This might look like making sure you create an intentional educational space for students of color to feel safe, valued, and important. This will take work of building trust, calling out and calling in students and staff, and creating a loving community that can openly discuss hard topics and plan action.
  2. Honor student lives and learning outside of school — especially those of Black students and BIPOC students.  Schools have often valued a limited way of being for learning.
  3. Honor student communities — especially those of Black students and BIPOC students. Student communities encompass the full range of communities any given student exists in: their family, their peer group, their place of worship, their service organization. How can we support and validate the learning done in those communities when the communities of Black students are under attack from white supremacy?

With a focus on the needs of BIPOC students, educators can develop a framework for personalized learning that responds to the pandemic of white supremacy. Paul Gorksi’s Equity Literacy Framework (.pdf) is an excellent tool for this work.

What can this look like in action?

Honor student identities

Scan the curriculum:

Let’s do a diversity audit of our school and classroom libraries. Whose voices are represented? Whose voices are missing? And are we interrogating the conventional literary canon? Are we reading about Black experiences? Are we reading about the experiences of other people of color? How are we centering Black voices? How are we centering Indigenous voices? How are we centering the voices of all marginalized students as we negotiate that curriculum?

Check on students and their experiences

But beyond that, how are we providing direct support to Black students and others as they negotiate our schools? We know that BIPOC students are on the receiving end of hundreds of micro-aggressions in their lives. How are we constructing spaces in our classrooms where we work towards having everyone understand a) what micro-aggressions are, b) why they are actual violence against students of color, and c) how we repair the damage in our constructed communities when they occur?

How are we building restorative justice systems for our classrooms that center Black students and mitigate those violences?

How are schools handling:

  • Hats, hoodies and other unequal dress codes
  • Display of the Confederate flag in any form outside a textbook
  • Policies affecting anyone’s hair at any time
  • Disciplinary rates that affect Black students and students of color disproportionately.
The list goes on; ask your students and they can fill that list out for you.
…But they shouldn’t have to.

Instead: negotiate school policies with students and their families, and your colleagues, in a way that centers and protects BIPOC students. Provide students with the support and means and the structure to negotiate and design more equal schools. Open that door, and be the educators and administrators who listen, who advocate, and who pro-actively create anti-racist spaces and structures in your schools.

Honor student lives and learning outside of school

We need to ask ourselves how school currently provides a way for students to get credit for the work they do outside of school. For their work with Girl Scouts, or their mosques. For the work they put into family businesses, and the work they do looking after siblings. The work they do showing up to protests, organizing action and doing protest support.

And then we need to figure out how to dismantle systems that block students from getting that credit. We need to examine those policies for assigning credit for out-of-school learning and dismantle any piece that upholds ongoing racial inequity.

Honor student communities

Center Black voices and Black community organization. Support Black families. Hold a space for them to share their knowledge of their students, for them to share their experience — uninterrupted. Listen to Black students when they share who those communities are, and how valuable those communities are in informing and supporting their learning. Then go listen to those communities some more..

In conclusion:

As an organization, we are going to get things wrong about race, and about educating about racial equity.

And again, the writers of this post, personally, are going to get things wrong, in a way that hurts Black educators and students. We will try our best not to make things worse, and we will take responsibility for our actions and try again.

But we are committed to this work.

The point is always the starting over and the doing again.

Because if we were silent, we would do even more damage.

Our silence would be a form of violence. We are not satisfied with ourselves, and our organization’s work, when racial inequality and violence continue to plague Vermont’s education system.

We are in no way experts on equity, but we know that we and everyone else need to focus on equity — hard and consistently, in-house and beyond — in order to be anything like effective in whole school change in Vermont.

There is so much we have to do, right now. There is so much work to get stuck into, fighting this particular pandemic.

But we have always known the work is worth it. We are not here for white supremacy. We are here for Vermont’s Black educators and students, and their families and communities. Black lives matter.

 

 

 

Please note: The original version of this post featured an image of a plain black square. It has been brought to our attention that that image has been recently used in ways that are hurtful to the Black Lives Matter and activist communities. We deeply regret this error, and will use the moment to think through better guidelines for image choice in all blogposts moving forward, and will post those as part of the editorial guidelines we’ll make publicly available on this site. Photo credit: Elly Budliger, age 13.

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Connection activities for virtual morning meetings

virtual morning meetings

Ideas have been flying around the interwebs. Teachers want ways to connect with their students during remote learning. Creative ways to check in with students, provide a safe space with belonging and community and care at the core.

So! We crowd-sourced activities from the incredible #vted community and other trusted resources. You’ll see them credited in the doc. Here is a doc of ideas for ways to check in and support your students remotely.

virtual morning meetings

Have more ideas? Please post them as comments and we will add them to the doc!

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How to use Flipgrid for daily check-ins

I just got off a Google Meet meeting with teachers. They were trying to decide how to engage with students every day. Starting Monday, this teacher team will share a morning message in Google Classroom, and ask students to post a note back. Simple, and yet a way to see who is there and showing up, and who might need more support.

And they’ve decided  they want to add Flipgrid to their Google Classroom setup.

There are 4 steps to getting Flipgrid going.

Really. They are:

  1. Start a Grid for your classroom. This is the mothership for all of your discussions (topics). According to this Getting Started Guide “A Grid is the “home” for your class in Flipgrid, and you can create as many Grid’s as you want. Within your Grid you can post unlimited discussion prompts. We call those Topics.”
  2. Next, select the community type. For school emails, use the school email community type. This will be the best choice for most schools.  For the embedded  example, I selected the PLC and public option. If you want students to be able to use personal emails, you can use this option, and share unique student ID.

3.  Add topics

In this case, our topic is daily check-in. But these can be anything! You could post a book club question. A math problem. A PE assignment and reflection. The whole is your oyster. But wait, back up. We are simplifying. And this is for morning check ins.

Back to the regularly scheduled program!

4. Share with students via a link.

This can be posted where you are sending links.. via Google Classroom, email, sites, wherever.

Some tips:

  • Kids can add stickers, use filters, so be prepared. You can limit these things, but why? Kids (and adults) need fun right now.

 

 

  • The default setting is not to allow kids to like each others posts, but you can change this. Students can also add attachments, digital sticky notes, and can download their video to their computers to share with family in another way.
  • Flipgrid features captions by default, so they’re available any time you need or want them.

Making decisions right now feels very hard. There are so many options, and so many people with advice. It is a *lot* to wade through. One thing we have to keep in mind is how to keep things streamlined, simple, and useable for not only the kids, but for the educators.

Because these are not easy days. It is so important that you don’t burn out in the first few days of switching to online instruction. Start small, and build on that.

Play with us! (link to Flipgrid here too)

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Switching to online student led conferences

online student-led conferences

We had been preparing for spring student led conferences for months. Feedback had been reviewed. Plans had been coordinated. Schedules were created. And now? Poof. Everything changed. One option is switching to online student led conferences.

Okay. Deep breath.

Change of plans.

We got this!

At some schools, this means a pivot to distance conferencing for this week. There are several ways to do this and still put students at the center.

The Google Hangout Conference

Tried and true, Google Hangouts are probably the easiest way to do online student-led conferences. Assuming you have a gmail account and domain, which most schools do. Here’s how it would go. You can use the calendar feature, or call someone directly.

  • Calendar appointment:

You can reach out to families with a conference time via email. Once that time is agreed upon, set up a calendar event in Google calendars. Here is how to do that.

Then, invite the family to the conference using their email address. When it says “send invitation” say yes. And the family will be notified of the calendar event. See this link  for more specific information on how to do this.

Directly.

  • Directly through email:

In Gmail, you can open up the chat feature, and type in the family’s email address and send them a message. Something like, “Hello! I am hoping to set up an online conference with you. I would like to use Google Hangouts for this. Please accept an upcoming invitation to Google Hangouts, and thank you so much! Looking forward to talking with you.”  If they haven’t used Google Hangouts before, it will send them an invitation, which they can accept, then you can video call them at an agreed upon time.

Conference via Zoom

Zoom is an online video conferencing tool that’s a lot like Google Hangouts: you can have a speaker present and screen share while seeing all the other participants.

FYI – Zoom has offered free conferencing during this time of social distancing. Zoom is a low-entry tool that requires you download their software and create an account in order to *host* meetings. To join a Zoom meeting, however, all you need is the virtual location of the “room”. Getting up and running hosting Zoom meetings is relatively straightforward.

Structuring your online student-led-conference

The online conference structure can be what you had planned for to begin with! *But before that*

These are difficult times. Check in with the family. See how they are doing, what might they need. Point them to helpful local resources. And resources to help them stay healthy, and if they are sick. Offer up connection, empathy and support.

Have the student and parent/guardian sit closely together. If there is only one computer, the student can reduce the Hangout screen to take up half of the screen, and their reflections or portfolio to take up half of the screen. If there are two computers to use for this at home, one can be connected to the hangout, and the other can be used to have the student share their work and reflections.

Need a new structure? Try this one:

Possible outline:

  • Welcome! How are you? This is so hard! What do you need?
  • Student presents work.
  • Family asks questions.
  • Teacher asks questions or makes comments.
  • Celebrate student progress
  • Ponder next learning steps together.
  • Close with gratitude for everyone.

Useful tips & tricks

  • Mute your microphone when you are not talking.
  • You can share your screen at any time. If you (the teacher) wants to show an assessment, or anything, see the three dots in the right hand corner. Click share screen. (Note: make sure you really want to share your screen! Your entire screen will be shared. You can reduce that recipe or playlist if you want). You can hit “stop sharing screen” at any time to return to the live Hangout camera.

Bandwidth an issue? Keep it analog.

Schedule a group phone call.

If using a cell phone, the family can put it on speaker and sit together. If the student has a device, they can still share verbally about their work, and show the parent in real time. You could use the above format, but via phone on speaker.

If the student doesn’t have a device home, they can still offer up a powerful reflection that is more than a regular parent-student couch chat. They can reflect on questions like:

  • What are you most proud of from this semester/trimester and why?
  • Where do you think you’ve shown the most growth?
  • What is a goal for the next semester, where do you think you should focus on next?
  • Are there any transferable skill going well for you (and please share and example)
  • What transferable skill do you want to focus on improving?
  • How can your family and teachers better support you?

You might only get to some of these! And leave some time for family and teacher questions. You might also have the student jump off the call (or Hangout) to talk privately with the family member. And that is okay! Use your judgment to figure out what is right for the situation.

Okay. We are pivoting. We are doing *hard things*. What are your questions about this? How can we help support you with this shift?

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How to design pre-conference conversations with families

 

Part of shifting to personalized learning is centering students in the traditional parent-teacher conference. They need to lead the conversation with families and caregivers. And this shift can be hard for folks, because, you know, change is hard! So let’s look at how you can prep families for student-led conferences. It’s all in how you design your pre-conference conversations. Let’s try to make change easier on everyone.

Student-led conferences at Leland & Gray

 

Overheard before student-led conferences

We get around to a LOT of Vermont schools, and we hear what educators and caregivers have said about student-led conferences. News flash: it’s not always good. So, let’s break down the following quotes while doing two things:

  • thinking about the purpose of student-led conferences (and personalized education), and
  • trying to imagine how things could go better next time.

Forewarned puts you in a place of power: you control your destiny. Mostly.

(Don’t quote us on that.)

How to design pre-conference conversations with families

Looking for some talking points? Here’s what we recommend.

“My kid already tells me everything at home. We don’t need this!”
    • That’s so great! But this is an academic presentation of learning. It’s a little different from relaxed, at-home sharing. Could your child need practice with public reflection and academic language? How do you see them proving they own and lead their own learning? 
    • Even if you’ve already seen the work, and had a conversation about it, how might this presentation be different with teachers in attendance? Could they add any reflections on the learning?
    • Fantastic! So you’re able to come to the student-led conference with some ready questions to push your child to think deeper about what they’re presenting. That’s awesome!
    • Takeaway: Does every child have access to conversations at home about school? Who might this be helping? Does every child need access to high-level academic learning presentations/conversations?
“I just want to talk to the teacher about my kid!”
    • We hear this one a lot. It can definitely feel more efficient just to meet with the teacher. But a student-led conference doesn’t mean you can’t also meet with the teacher alone. Okay, let’s consider a hybrid approach! 10 minutes student-led, 10 minutes teacher-led, or 15 min/5 minutes. Let’s think about what split feels best considering the student. 
    • Consider all the different ways you communicate with families. Are conferences the only way to be informing caregivers? Should they be the only way?
    • Takeaway: Who is the conference for? Who should be centered? How can we meet all needs for a successful conference? 
“I’ve been to one of these and it was awful.”
    • Oh no! We’re really sorry to hear that. How can we design something that has meaning, centers your student and feels valuable to you and your family? 
    • This is such a great opportunity to spend time together; how can we maximize it? How would *you* design it to be more meaningful?
    • Takeaway: How can we encourage open mindsets and shifting of thinking?
“I’ve already seen this work. This is a waste of time!”
    • How can we together help go deeper into this learning conversation? What questions could we ask your student about the work that will help them with future activities?
    • Who might not have had the opportunity to see this work and have these conversations? 
    • Consider: Could you as the educator hold back some work to share at the conference? How can you help shape this conversation to feel valuable to all? 

What is “the why”?

Now that we’ve considered some of the critiques of student led conferences, we can create something that has meaning for families, centers students, and shifts the conversation. With your teacher team, it’s helpful to consider some prompts when designing conferences.

Some prompts when designing pre-conference conversations with families:
  • What’s the purpose of student centered/led conferences?
  • What’s the purpose of teacher led conferences?
  • And what do we want our shared purpose to be? Who owns the learning? Who is centered in the conference? 
  • What are the ways families are informed? Should conferences be the only/primary way?

Examples from the field to keep you going:

Thankfully, there are a lot of resources about shifting toward SLCs, including examples of what they look and sound like at various levels. Take a look at some of these to inspire your planning and design.

Develop your conference conversation plan for this year:

Ready to make the shift? YES? Next, here are some next steps that might help in creating your conference plan.

  • consider your grade level
  • consider the WHY
  • the proficiencies, power standards you want to share or report on
  • make something that works for your team
  • you could use this ready made, month by month checklist plan to use (not reinventing the wheel!)
  • possible structures: 
    • November (identity) and spring (portfolio more broadly)
    • November (intro SLCs + portfolio) and spring (sharing of PBL learning)
    • Fall (identity/transferable skills) and spring (academic portfolio)

Lamoille educator Katie Bryant helps her students design the conversation with families by laying out a script in advance, for them to use as they choose. That and a little pep talk, and everyone’s ready to go.

Prepping for a student-led conference: The Script & The Pep Talk

 

And now over to you: what’s the word on the street about student-led conferences? What are you hearing?

How do *you* design pre-conference conversations with families?

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5 fresh ways to power up morning meetings

What could it look like to be active together, talking and problem-solving first thing in the morning?

 

Morning meetings are the norm in many K-6 and K-8 schools in Vermont. They’re a great way to empower students to find their voices and build community. Now here are five ways to organize and structure morning meetings to build transferable and socio-emotional skills (and build those strong relationships that matter so much!):

(Not familiar with Morning Meetings? Here is an overview of the parts from Responsive Classroom. Go on. We’ll wait here and save your seat…)

(Back? Yay! And:)

1. Different seats each day

Sounds corny, and tons of middle school students will groan loudly, but it works. Different seats promote students getting to know each other, expanding friendships and connections, and supporting cross-gender friendships. Yes, cross-gender friendships, 7th graders! They are doable!

True, it’s not giving students choice, but at the beginning of the year we’ve all got these butterflies about new schools, new grades, new… people. Yipes!

So let’s help everyone out at the beginning with some structure.

I used to put out popsicle sticks each morning with student names around the circle for this purpose, particularly at the beginning of the year. This also helped reduce any arguments about who gets which cushion, couch seat, or beanbag! I decide! *muahahahaha* Plus: you can support flexible seating by giving students the choice to stand, sit, flop or yoga pose it out.

2. “What’s up in the world?”

There is so much happening in our world, especially lately. It is complicated, stressful, and unnerving — especially for students. And especially for those students who might feel unsafe or targeted. Or those who have heard bits and pieces of what is happening, but are unsure what is true and why it’s all happening. Heck, half the time all this unsettling news makes *me* wonder the exact same thing.

And that is where the weekly practice of a morning meeting agenda of What’s Up in the World? can help.

Once a week in our morning meeting, we would pose that question on the whiteboard. Students would sign up for topics they wished to discuss.

In each meeting, one student would take on the role of “fact-checker”. When we weren’t sure of the details, we would check a few trusted sources to find out the facts. We didn’t assume, or discuss without reviewing the facts when we could find them. Another student would be a “definer” and look up words that folks didn’t know and read the definitions out to the class.

Resources for middle school news:

While discussing world events, I would keep the conversation on track and developmentally appropriate, by steering away from the close details and images of violent events. Sometimes I had to jump in and reframe or refocus, or ask a question. We relied on our norms for the class that we created together to help guide us. But what happened regularly was that students were hungry for a space to discuss world events in a safe and supported way. These conversations changed minds. Expanded perspectives. And provided a place to digest and begin to understand the world.

Need norms? Proctor School’s Courtney Elliott for the win:

Resources for difficult conversations about current events

I wonder how many potential misconceptions, half-truths, and partially baked biases and stereotypes about world events we uncovered in these weekly sessions. This work felt vital and important.

3. The State of the Class

Right around the time of the state of the union address one year, my students and I joked about the state of our class and giving a speech about it. And then we had an idea. What if we check in on the state of the class each week?

You know, when students say something like: another student has taken my charging cord! Or: my jacket is buried under everyone’s snow stuff! Or: I don’t like the way our class behaved with the music substitute teacher. We had to solve these problems together.

So, we added a weekly agenda item called the state of the class.

Anyone could bring an issue up about how the class was treating each other or functioning, and we would all problem solve and come up with a plan together. That way everyone was accountable to everyone else and we had time to develop solutions that everyone was in support of.

The state of the class centered in students and the their perceptions of problems and solutions, giving students a model for democracy, citizenship and action.

I’ve seen Warren Elementary School, in Warren VT, do this very powerfully, in a way that centers listening, and relationship-building, in their “Town Meetings”. When one student brought up a current need, and explained its impact on him, you could have heard a pin drop. Everyone in the room was invested in that student’s need. And THAT, people, THAT is the room we want.

What if you could have Town Meeting every week?

4. Learning the morning message

Another way to promote learning and growth in morning meeting is: The Message. You can either have students find the errors in a morning message, or have a chart or table to review a recent skill lesson or concept that the class has learned. Often, this was formative information for me. I could tell when a class struggled to summarize a text, a math problem, or concept. Morning messages were instant feedback on emotional states, current topics, and the daily life of the class.

This is an activity for a few weeks in, but you can begin with a word puzzle on the board, a phrase in a foreign language, a rebus, or a poem made of song titles. Be creative and goofy, and your students will follow.

For schools focusing on socio-emotional learning competencies, morning messages can be a great way to explore these very concepts. Students can respond to prompt on the white board or digitally, and then read and discuss responses during morning meeting.

At the middle and high school school level, many schools are using the Circle of Power and Respect. These meetings follow a different format but have many similarities to morning meetings, and can be huge for building community.

5. Now shift it to a student-led space

Finally — this is going to take a hot minute, so maybe toss it on the to-do list — we all know where we want this work to lead. Once students learn the parts of morning meeting (greeting, agenda, sharing, game/activity) and know how to do each one in an inclusive way, they then can begin leading morning meetings. This was after lots of modeling and practice. (Think: late fall. Build those morning meeting muscles!)

Each week, we had two students lead the morning meeting. We rotated all students through this role and gave everyone a chance to lead. For some, this was hard. They might have never had a chance to lead a group, and this gave them practice and support grow their communication, citizenship, listening and leading skills. As the teacher I would support students to participate in this role, sometimes giving sentence stems or tips to students who might have needed it. This was a safe space to practice student voice and leadership for all students.

How do you structure morning meetings to empower students?

We’ve seen a ton of lovely photos from morning meeting already this year, shared on instagram or twitter, but still: we want to hear from YOU. What are your favorite go-to activities for getting morning meeting off on the right foot?

 

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Can Minecraft save the world?

These 4th graders say yes.

With a little help from the UN’s Global Goals.

Minecraft and the UN's Global Goals

Students at Ottauquechee Elementary School took Minecraft, the popular video game platform, and turned it to something serious: saving the world. They paired Minecraft with the UN’s 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development, and started creating towns that are innovative, sustainable, and focused on helping communities thrive.

They started by pondering two great big questions:

  • What is a community?
  • What do we value in a community?

As students contemplated these driving questions, they also considered what towns need. They thought about how their ideal community would function. And what it would include. For Ottauquechee students, a Sustainable City or Community includes:

  • a hospital
  • a school
  • green spaces
  • clean water
  • renewable energy sources
  • solar panels
  • an animal hospital
  • a grocery store with fresh fish
  • a farm
  • a beach

Which community asset ties in with which Global Goal?

Students knew they needed more information, so they decided to pull in a community partner with expertise in this area. Who better than someone who does this for their job?

Meet your town planner

A group of students gather in a library with a smartboard

Paige Greenfield is the town planner for Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission in Woodstock, Vermont. She visited fourth and fifth grade students to explain first what town planners do. They talked about accessibility for food sources, and how to manage waste and recycling. And at that point, had concrete, real-world information on what makes a town work.

For the younger students, librarian Becky Whitney shared this YouTube video describing the role town planners play in community development.

If you build it, it will work

The students started designing their towns by looking at maps and seeing where towns and building are laid out and what they wanted their towns to look like. Then they applied what they know about Minecraft, the Global Goals, and their 2D designs. Per Ottauquechee librarian Becky Whitney,

“Students used large grid paper to make a 1:1 model of the building they were responsible for making in their community. Then we laid out their plans as they would appear in the Minecraft world, making sure to make intelligent choices as to where everything is located based on our conversation with Ms. Greenfield.”

Staying focused on the big picture

Students had conversations about their values aligning with their design. In Minecraft, your plants keep growing even when you’re not logged in. And so do the animals. And as we learn about resource access, we have to talk about what to do with the excess animals. We have to talk about having an Animal Control Officer in-world. But students and teachers came to the : if we believe in life on land, and life under water if we are creating things for the sake of killing things that is not in line with our values. Big discussions for these elementary school students!

Culminating event

When I showed up in the Ottauquechee library, the place was pulsing with energy. Up on the big screen were the Minecraft worlds that the groups created.

On one side of the floor was their younger buddies: students in grades 1/2 who were there to learn about these projects. Students in K, 1, and 2 paired up with students in 3, 4, and 5 and each group had a chance to present to their buddy grade.. The students took the stage and described the features and buildings they created, along with what Global Goal they were focused on, to the younger students (and vice versa!). Parents, community members, and district administrators looked on, and had the opportunity to assess students on their communication skills. The students were proud of this work, and they excitedly pointed out what they made and why. It was truly using this technology for good — to promote creativity, purpose, and communication skills, not just more screen time.

One of Ottauquechee's student designers presents to a full room of Vermont educators at Dynamic Landscapes 2019.
One of Ottauquechee’s student designers presents to a full room of Vermont educators at Dynamic Landscapes 2019.

In another opportunity to share about this work, students at Ottauquechee had to write a compelling persuasive essay to join the Dynamic Landscapes conference, a statewide education conference, to present about STEAM. A team of eight students came and presented their Minecraft projects to a full house.

Authentic audiences? Double-check!

Tips for teachers

Since Minecraft was designed to be a video game, it takes a bit of finagling to make it useful for this kind of learning and project. Here are some of librarian Becky Whitney’s tips for using Minecraft for education:

  1. Line up  your experts. Here is a real chance to make a connection to careers and local communities. By connecting to the Town Planner, or other community groups, you create relevance and ground the experience in the community, instead of existing solely in the virtual world.
  2.  Create a high-trust environment for students. Establish student-led rules for the Minecraft world. Once students learn that they are using Minecraft for education, and expectations are created for what students can and can’t do as digital citizens, place a high-trust in students. This builds their ability and confidence about engaging in technology for learning.
  3. Present to each other. This is a great opportunity for students to role model using technology collaboratively and positively for other students. Students can present to younger students to foster digital citizenship, empathy, and transferable skills.
  4. Open up assessment. This is an opportunity to invite school staff and community members to help assess students on their communication skills, and to connect with the community about shared goals, such as a healthy, thriving town.
  5. Minecraft hacks (via librarian Becky Whitney!).
  • Understand how to use “cheats” to have more than 5 people join one world
  • Mark which iPad is the “master”
  • Make roads before the students log on so they have somewhere to orient themselves. It’s possible to make street signs or use different color rock to help them locate where they belong on the “street”
  • Make note of defining characteristics to help students remember where they are working

Find out more at the  OQS blog!

How could you use Minecraft to change the world?

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Ottauquechee’s Diversity Detectives in:

Diversity Detectives library audit banner

The Case of The Library Diversity Audit

Whose stories are being told in your library? Whose stories are being left out?

Look around your library. It is such a beautiful space. It’s filled with vibrant colors and flexible furniture, student art and encouraging signs and posters. Maybe it has a makerspace. And it’s stocked full of books of all shapes, sizes and colors. Every book imaginable is available somewhere, from a YA-version Hamlet, to Winnie the Pooh and The Big Friendly Giant. Plus of course, Catcher in the Rye. You’ve got some new classics as well: Twilight, Hunger Games, City of Bones. Your collection is amazing. Why on earth would you need a library audit?

Except…

What’s a library audit?

Librarians audit their collections for any number of reasons. Books like to live, they like to find readers. Part of library management is curating which books to add and which to discard.

But recently, quite a few librarians have noticed that their collections represent only a minority of voices in the communities they serve. Publishing has favored a limited number of narratives. Those narratives feature a large number of protagonists who are white, who are male, who are able-bodied, who are straight. Those characteristics taken together reference a small set of the population. Therefore, many librarians are finding it useful to use lenses of diversity in conducting their audits. As you buy new books, and as you discard older ones, having lenses of race, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation and economic class — even a subset of those lenses — can make a collection more useful to its community.

And why did Ottauquechee need one?

“I thought about my students. Do they see themselves in the library?”

The Ottauquechee School, in Quechee VT, is home to an amazing library space. Work tables cluster under a wall of windows. Beanbags and soft, plush reading chairs beckon invitingly. Laptops sit ready atop a tech bar, and a whiteboard asks students to write questions for an upcoming discussion. And Ottauquechee School librarian Becky Whitney wanted to make sure the collection was just as welcoming as the space itself.

I was inspired from the Deeper Learning Conference we attended in 2018, and in one session we attended, called Little People have Big Ideas: Implementing a Social Justice Lens in Elementary, with Jeffrey Feitelberg, elementary students did a classroom library audit. And I always felt, because I didn’t have my own classroom, that I couldn’t make systemic change. I only see the students for 45 minutes a week  — and then sometimes there’s holidays or vacations and field trips and then it’s two weeks until I see them. And I thought, “There’s really no way to make these great PBL projects in library.” It’s just not enough time to make it meaningful.

But when I went to that session, and the presenter talked about the kid’s classroom library, I just thought “I could do that with a very small segment of the library,” and then use it as a research project.  The diversity audit, it kind of takes my responsibility and my passion and melds them.

Then I thought, there are a few students of color at our school. Where are they reflected in the library? 

Becky knew that conducting a diversity audit of the library would not just improve the range of the collection, but teach students to be more critical readers. It would teach them to think powerfully about empathy and inclusion. So she got to work.

The Diversity Detectives are on the case

#1000Blackgirlbooks

Becky began by showing this inspiring video of 11 year old Marley Dias, a Black 6th grader who wanted to see herself in more books. Marley noticed the books she was reading in school were mostly about “white boys and dogs”. She wanted more books with characters who look like her.  Her mother asked her, “Well, what are you going to do about it?” What Marley did was begin a movement demanding more racial diversity YA books. She went looking for #1000Blackgirlbooks, crowd-sourcing a collection of books with a Black female protagonist. She distributes the books to school libraries. The movement went viral, and kicked off a lot of powerful conversations for librarians around race in YA publishing.

But for Ottauquechee students, Marley’s activism provided a relatable example. Whose stories would they find in their own library? Whose stories did they want to find? Could everyone see themselves in the collection?

Dream of a Common Language

Becky introduced and unpacked the 4 Agreements of Courageous Conversations (Singleton & Linton)  to her students:

  • Stay engaged
  • Speak your truth
  • Expect discomfort
  • Expect non-closure

They would use these four guidelines as a way to move through tough topics together.

Becky also worked with a community partner in this project, John Hall, the chair of the committee for Racial Inclusion and Equality in Hartford.

And what he said was, “Just the discussion was the important and powerful piece. The research is great, buying new and diverse books for the library is great,” but I would have done that anyway. So, including the kids in the discussion, including the kids and giving them agency, and giving them a voice in what kind of library, whose story are we telling — making them realize, the lack of diversity not okay. 

Becky also defined specific lenses students could use in the audit. They could look for stories that featured diversity around race, religion, disability, and culture. Becky and her students chewed over the vocabulary together. They examined current data on the state of children’s book publishing and representation, then they moved into interest-based groups. They in effect became Diversity Detectives, studying Ottauquechee’s library collection for clues to inclusion.

Tackling the stacks…

library audit rubric

…and making the case

The Diversity Detectives studied different sets of books in Ottauquechee’s library, using their Courageous Conversations agreements and the diversity lenses. They worked on analyzing the data they collected, then they created infographics in Canva. Here is a single point rubric Becky created for assessing the infographics. Lastly, students will share the infographics with their whole school community in the hopes of continuing discussions of inclusion.

Now be the change you want to see in the world.

For librarian Becky Whitney, this wasn’t just a theoretical exercise. The Diversity Detectives’ research will directly inform the direction Ottauquechee’s library collection takes as it grows. Taking the infographics and associated research into account, she will be partnering with the Diversity Detectives on recommended new purchases and culls. She also reached out to a local bookstore, in Norwich VT. The Norwich Bookstore’s proprietor, Liza Bernard, has agreed to share with students how she purchases books and what influences those decisions. All part of making sure this exercise remains more than academic. Becky hopes to come home from Norwich Bookstore with about 20 new titles based on the students’ research. Conversations around inclusion and diversity will have real-world relevance in Ottauquechee. They will shape the library collection, and hopefully extend to other areas of students’ lives.

Teaching the library audit

Becky ponders how she has challenged herself to move beyond her own initial discomfort with addressing these issues in school:

I’ve forced myself to be uncomfortable. I’m forcing myself to be aware of the language I use. And I had never understood that as fully as I have now because of the amount of research that I did, to make sure that I knew what I was talking about. It’s kind of like the whole — white fragility thing, and the whole thing about “I’m uncomfortable talking about race, and so I’m just going to not really talk about it.”

Students are leading these conversations and growing their agency, voice and understanding of critical issues in the process. And teachers are giving them the opportunity to share power and critically analyze their library spaces.

What does your library collection look like? How do you choose whose stories are included?

Further reading:

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Vermont schools have a transportation equity problem.

fleet of vans transportation equity

When I travel to schools around Vermont, I hear many versions of the same concerns:

  • Going anywhere from our school costs hundreds of dollars.
  • We want to take students into the community, but we burn through our budget by October.
  • Transportation funds are running low (or are gone).
  • We know it is so important to give our students community and field experiences.
  • Technology can support this work but nothing takes the place of getting students out into the field for hands-on experiences and opportunities.

How is this supporting the promise of Act 77?

Specifically, the promise “to extend and validate learning experiences in our communities, campuses and beyond”?

It’s a complicated issue in Vermont schools, but it comes down to two things: what we know works best for students, and equity. So let’s take a look at some of the transportation equity issues Vermont schools are facing — and what a few rural educators have to say about them.

What we know works best for students,

First of all, why do middle level students need to have access to community and field experiences?

(Hint: it has to do with engagement, motivation and transferable, lifelong skills). Let educator Morgan Moore sum it up for you:

These allow authentic audiences for our students. Seventh and eighth grade students are much more motivated to research, write, present, etc. when they know they will be presenting outside of the school. In a K-8 school we provide many leadership opportunities for them in the building, but after nine years they need new, challenging, audiences. They also learn more while out in the community, by interacting with other students and places. It is imperative that they are on college campuses, at fish hatcheries, local libraries, ordering food on Church Street, etc. In all of these experiences they learn about the resources in their community and state, and apply school skills to real life experiences. After thirteen hours in Burlington for Vermont History Day last Saturday, students went home and immediately started researching for next year’s project — that is not the norm in a typical social studies classroom.

-Morgan Moore, Humanities Teacher, Burke Town School

And what we know inequity looks like.

Reducing isolation and increasing access — across the board

Vermont is a rural state. Many students live in rural locations, with limited access to transportation and activities beyond schooling. Teachers often marvel how many students have never been to Vermont largest city, Burlington, or even to a park in their own towns.

This impacts our students living in poverty most of all.

Families who can provide transportation to extracurricular activities do so. They bring their kids to lessons, activities, and sports regularly. This is not available to all of our students, creating an opportunity gap for learning key transferable social skills, growing social capital, developing interests and purpose in the community. Providing increased transportation equity to field experiences for students can reduce some of this isolation and the associated opportunity gaps.

The majority of our student population have limited resources to plan experiences beyond the local area. Most families have two parents who work. As a result, children (esp. in rural areas) do not have access to a variety of experiences; they are limited to what is available in their particular community.

Students of all ages need a wide variety of experiences to build background knowledge, language development, an understanding of the wider community, and an understanding of people and places outside their limited communities.

-June Murphy, literacy coach

Reducing dependence on parents — and teachers — hauling students

Many times we hear that students getting out into the community in support of their project-based and service learning experiences hinges on teachers driving students to these locations. This is, of course, incredibly generous of these teachers, but can put them in a difficult spot, driving students in their personal cars. Do we want to place this extra burden on our teachers? Often, teachers doing this is the only way they can make these experiences happen.

At The Cabot School, in Cabot VT, a trio of middle school students have the opportunity to spend school time working on one of Vermont’s oldest organic farms, Molly Brook Farm, over in West Danville, as part of the Cabot Leads program. West Danville is about 10 minutes from Cabot, by car. The students describe the experience as invaluable and engaging. Farmers Myles and Rhonda Goodrich teach students math, biology and economics on the farm — and the only way for students to get to Molly Brook is through the good graces of Cabot’s school librarian and her electric blue hatchback.

We also frequently call on parents to provide transport. This comes with its own set of concerns. Insurance, safety, and yes, equity. Does every parent in your class have the ability to take time off work? Do they all have their own vehicles in good repair?

Also, many districts require parents to undergo a background check, complete with fingerprints. It’s a long process, and a complicated one and extra expenses for the district to pick up.

So, classes with more parents available and willing to do this can go more places.

How is this equitable? Who might it leave out?

Buses are expensive

Buses in rural locations can be prohibitively expensive. In school budgets, teachers can blow through the allotted amount for field trips by October, and often with one trip. Sometimes schools only budget for one field trip a year for each class. Do we really want just one performance, presentation, community visit, field experience and opportunity per year? How does that limit the experiences of our students, especially those who have a one somewhat traditional field experience (such as a museum visit or theatre performance) in the spring?

What about collaborating with other students regionally? Or presenting at state-wide conferences such as Dynamic Landscapes and Vermont Fest?

This spring, three schools took part in the first ever Battle Physics tournament. The tourney was located at Green Mountain Union HS in Chester VT. Now, Leland & Gray students wrote a grant application to support their tournament entry, and it included bus rental. At the same time, The Dorset School, in Dorset VT, provided funding for student bus transport. Two schools, two school budgets, one big disparity.

Incredible learning opportunities cost money for transport.

Buses are very expensive and we are not able to take frequent enough trips to allow students to pursue personal interests and flexible pathways, within their school day. Therefore, it means that only students who have transportation can truly pursue flexible pathways. I wrote a grant to address this challenge, but then found out that buses are only available within school hours – so we are not able to use the buses for trips that end later. Being in a rural area, it often takes us 1-2 hours to get to a destination, which leaves us only two hours at most to be in a location (often this is not long enough and we need to leave conferences or experiences early, or miss them due to timing).

-Morgan Moore, Humanities Teacher

Often, schools have a limited budget for transporting students on longer trips by bus. Many classes rely on parent chaperones/drivers in order to plan field trips. This is an obstacle for some classes. This also poses inequities from class to class. If there is a grade level where there is a “pocket” of parents who are available to chaperone AND have larger vehicles to fit more students, those classes tend to have more field trip experiences than others.

-June Murphy, literacy coach

Arranging transport shouldn’t be a teacher’s responsibility.

We know authentic audiences want to hear from students. We know students benefit from sharing their learning widely. But all the time and effort it takes teachers to plan opportunities for their students to share their work makes my head spin. Fundraising and grant applications take hours of extra work. Work that takes teachers away from teaching and their personal lives. All of this impacts the sustainability of teaching as a career.

Coordinating and leading these experiences is no small task. Adding “find funding” to this list makes these experiences only available to students where the teachers take this on.

The promise of act 77

The two tenets of act 77 are flexible pathways and personalized learning plans. According to Vermont’s Agency of Education, flexible pathways (bolds mine):

Flexible Pathways Flexible Pathways are any combination of high-quality expanded learning opportunities, including academic and experiential components, which build and assess attainment of identified proficiencies and lead to secondary school completion, civic engagement and postsecondary readiness. Flexible pathways allow students to apply their knowledge and skills to tasks of personal interest as part of the personalized learning planning process. This does not refer to a finite menu of pre-selected pathways from which a student must choose, but also includes school-based course offerings, virtual or blended learning opportunities, community or work-based learning opportunities, and post-secondary learning options among others.

If we are designing ways students can have equitable access to expanded learning opportunities, we must address all facets of the system.

And transportation’s one of them.

If we had access to affordable transportation students could regularly meet with community partners, engage in field activities, present at conferences, visit other schools, see performances, art, etc. A teacher could truly create captivating experiences at the start, and during lessons, that would engage middle school students. Students would be interested in learning because they would see the real life applications and be able to present to real audiences, win awards, prizes, recognition, etc.

-Morgan Moore, Humanities Teacher

Leaving students out of learning experiences based on access to transportation is a serious problem. Plans for Act 77 implementation have to include district-wide plans for transportation.

No really: #fleetofvans

The hashtag #fleetofvans first emerged in a #vted Twitter chat about equity and flexible pathways. Lindsey Halman of UP for Learning, tweeted #fleetofvans as she highlighted this problem and ignited a hashtag, but really, a way of thinking about this issue.

Is a fleet of vans the answer to the transportation issues faced by Vermont students?

Imagine if all Vermont schools had a fleet of vans — or affordable buses — at their disposal.

Imagine if those vans and buses could be booked by students as part of taking the reins of their opportunities.

I’ll leave you with a quote from teacher Kim Dumont, from the Ottauquechee School, in Quechee VT.

In order to provide authentic, meaningful learning experiences to all children, regardless of location, transportation is crucial. Children in rural areas would particularly benefit from having readily accessible vehicles at their school. Without vehicles at their disposal, valuable opportunities may be out of reach. In this case, investing in a fleet of vans is truly an investment in our future.

Districts, schools boards, communities, and school leaders: how could *you* address the transportation equity problem in Vermont?

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Real World: Cabot

real world rural project-based learning

Rural life and project-based learning

real world project-based learning

You might find students on the skating rink in front of the school, helping out on a goat farm, dirt bike racing, heading to dance class, or fixing broken snowmobiles. All of these life experiences are important to students — and are valid learning experiences in and of themselves! We know that learning and value development doesn’t happen only in schools, so students dug into what makes them tick through looking at what they DO.

How do you get adolescent students to think about their values and beliefs? To ponder what motivates them? And to boldly share this with their families instead of hiding under a desk?

We know that the middle grades are a time of rapid social and emotional development. Middle grade students often form values and perspectives that can last a lifetime! (No big deal, right?). As part of a project-based learning experience led by fifth and sixth grade teacher Sarah Adelman, students in fifth and sixth grade at The Cabot School pondered how their life experiences informed their values and beliefs, and while doing so, they validated their experiences and lives in rural Vermont.

After reading about heroes and listening to podcasts and NPR’s This I Believe essays, students learned that they can discover and demonstrate their beliefs/values while plowing snow, hunting, racing a dirt bike, or fixing broken snowmobiles. They learned to closely examine their life experiences, and use those experiences to illustrate who they are, and what they believe.

The value of plowing snow

Cabot sixth grader Sean chose to reflect on how plowing snow allows him to live his values of perseverance and confidence:

sean rural life project-based learning

 

Three-thirty in the morning, plowing snow? Sounds like perseverance to me! Just think: if he never reflected on the value of this experience, or knew his teacher cared about it, would he think of himself in this way?

“If I start something, I finish it.”

Sounds like a valuable lesson to me, one that could inform his learning and life for years, and one that could be easily missed if we only value certain experiences over others! As part of this unit, Sean recorded an audio version of his above reflection.

The value of hunting

Sixth grader Mariah found inspiration in hunting for her first deer with her grandfather. She describes her ability to not give up, and her perseverance as factors that helped her shoot her first deer.

rural life project-based learning

This is not an experience every student has. But this is, in fact, an experience dear to many students in rural settings. And it’s an experience that could be easily missed by educators. We have an opportunity with personalized learning plans and project-based learning to validate students’ life experiences and to celebrate their in and out of school learning and selves. And in doing so, they become more fully human, to educators, families and communities.

The value of driving a snowmobile

One Cabot student reflected on the lessons he learned from driving a snowmobile. Just check out the descriptive details that place us right in the middle of the Vermont winter:

One day I was driving my snowmobile. There was white powdery snow on the ground, steam above the river, and birds chirping in my backyard. I was packing down my trails with my snowmobile. My hands were warm inside blue gloves as my my heated handle bars warmed up.

He finally describes how his snowmobile got stuck in an icy bank, and he had to use his problem solving skills, perseverance and strength to get it out. Sounds like a metaphor for life to me!

How we did it:

We wanted the unit to integrate art, social studies and literacy. And to structure this unit, we sat down with a project-based learning planning template and determined how best to execute each step:

  1. Start with an exciting entry event
  2. Create a driving question
  3. The Research and Creation Phase
  4. Finish with an authentic community sharing opportunity.

The entry event? Listening to NPR’s This I Believe audio pieces.

Next, students collaborated on individual and collective driving questions. They moved from What are my values? Through to the collective What are our shared values?

After that, students used multi-media to express their beliefs and values on this art piece and added those elements. And then they incorporated beliefs and values of their hero into the artwork.
What surfaced was a beautiful visual presentation of their essays, values, and beliefs– in the shape of each student.

And finally, the authentic community sharing opportunity: an exhibition for families — as well as themselves.

The many facets of authentic audience

The students shared their projects with families and the school community in an exhibition night. They shared their recordings, essays, art and the whole process of exploration and creation. 

Think about what it means to a student to make a powerful reflection celebrating the value of their life experiences. Students need these self-created reminders of their worth. Pieces that celebrate them. Pieces that remind them they are loved and valued. Don’t overlook the power of a student being their own authentic audience.

In the many times I have been to Cabot this year, these pieces have been hanging near the library. Folks often stop and ponder them. These students feel seen and known, forging connections of life experiences between students, staff and the community that come into the school for events.

How could you see using PBL to help your students explore the value of their life experiences?

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PBL or PB&J?

How can you tell the difference between projects and project-based learning?

Turns out, even though they both might involve snazzy projects, they are quite different. Let’s take a look at how. This post is based on research of PBL resources (listed below) and classroom experience. Okay, PBL? PBJ? Let’s dig in.

Here are some guiding questions to consider when pondering if you have a project, or project-based learning approach.

Project-based learning final product at Cabot School: evidence of learning, research, reflection, growth, creativity during the project.

Is the project at the end of the unit, after all the “real learning” as happened?

Those at the Buck Institute, now known as PBLWorks, have coined this “dessert” learning. As in, after the main course, enjoy a delightful and fun dessert! It doesn’t really mean anything, you’ve done the hard work of memorizing content. But with project-based learning, the project is the main course. Students themselves are co-constructing learning while they are researching, collaborating and creating their projects. It is this experience that matters, and reflecting upon it, that is where the learning is.

This isn’t meaning to say that you might need to do some pre-teaching to get students ready for the inquiry involved in project-based learning. That is often something that needs to be done. But projects can often be a teacher led and created hands-on activity at the end of the unit that is very much content and lecture driven.

Is the project student-led, or teacher led?

This is a continuum of course, with varying levels of student and teacher directed experiences. Hopefully, project-based learning should be moving toward the student centered end of the continuum, with scaffolding, support and guidance from the teacher.

Even if the teacher came up with the guiding or essential question based on standards or proficiencies, the how and what parts can be led by students.

Check out this newly created PBL continuum and ponder, how can I move toward more the student centered end to increase motivation, engagement, and self-direction?

Are all of the end projects the same?

One way to tell a project from PBL is that in projects, the end projects are all the same. There is a checklist, and a predetermined product, and all students are doing just that. These can be incredible fun and meaningful for students, but they aren’t project-based learning.

Project-based learning creates more student choice, and likely more motivation, because of that. Students can often decide the end product, and if not, they are having student choice in the content and design of the project. Students will find more meaning and purpose if they are in charge of large aspects of the project. That doesn’t mean you can’t meet proficiencies, or assessment goals. It means that students need to be in the driver’s seat for a large part of the project and that needs to be designed into it from the beginning. And the more teachers do this, the more choice they usually end up trusting their students with.

Who is the project for?

Student designed (on the 3D printer) coaster from Cabot School as part of the oceans PBL unit. Sold to families and profits sent to an ocean non-profit.

Another way to know the difference between PBL and projects is the audience. Is the project for an audience of one, the teacher? Or is it for a community group, parents and school board members, who can give feedback and support and lend purpose to the work? This is critical. Students need to feel that their work matters. Authentic audiences throughout PBL experiences, and at the end in a culminating event, prepare our students for civic engagement and connect them deeply with communities, while providing motivation and purpose in their work.

Is the experience individual and on a computer screen?

There are some very exciting new technologies out there that help students create and craft projects (can you say book creator?). But PBL is a collaborative effort between students, teachers, and community partners. Learning should happen in dialogue, planning, creating, getting feedback and reflection. These activities simply can’t take place entirely in a 1:1 computing situation. Students can use technology to extend and enrich aspects of PBL, but it can’t be a solitary endeavor.

Is the experience is the same for all students, or can students stretch and grow from where they are?

We know that students come to use at varying levels of readiness, skills and learning preferences. How can we value each students’ strengths and help them learn and grow in PBL?

It is not same-ness, as in, all students reading the same thing at the same time and completing the same tasks in the same way. PBL experiences allow for students to gather materials and resources that work for them, to engage in material in a way that uses their strengths but also stretches their learning and skills. This might mean your introvert plans out a call to a community partner by writing a script, and works up to making the call herself. Or, she is the emailer for the group instead. It might mean that some students need direct instruction in the budget process for the school when crafting a proposal for a new playground. Students will present needs that the teacher can then fill with the many tools teachers have. And this is different for all kids.

Is the teacher close in, or sitting back?

It is a common misconception that when you do PBL, teachers can go grade papers at their desk and relax a little, thinking, the hard work is over! The truth is with PBL teachers get a little closer to students in their groups and depending on their needs. Teachers are often facilitating, modeling, direct teaching, giving feedback, and helping kids coordinate with community partners. This is true PBL, when the teacher is a co-learning and facilitator, and project management assistant. In projects, since it is mostly laid out for students, teachers might be able to feel more removed.

If you are wondering about what this PBL business is, please visit our PBL toolkit. Or, if you are ready to jump into planning, please see our PBL planning template, make a copy, and go for it!

Check out this list of the PBL work we’re super impressed with at Vermont schools.

How do you differentiate between PBL and projects?

 

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Toward a student-directed classroom

student-directed classroom

Releasing responsibility in Ottauquechee

an action research module examining scheduling and student choiceOttauquechee Elementary School teacher Kim Dumont had a vision. She wanted to build her students’s self-direction and self-efficacy. She wanted students to feel like leaders of their classroom and their own learning. Over the summer, with the help of a week at Vermont’s Middle Grades Conference, Dumont put together a plan to help her fourth grade students learn self-direction and self-efficacy.

An action research plan was born.

This fall, she launched that plan, helping to build her students self-direct and efficacy through modeling and through releasing responsibility. Here’s the Google Site where she’s documenting her research:

Kim Dumont's action research plan

The results

She presented the results of this research over the first half of the school year at the 2019 Middle Grades Conference. You can either watch Kim’s presentation in the video below, or read how it went, in Kim’s own words, below.

 

Towards a student-directed classroom

 

“Good morning, thank you all for being here. I called my presentation “Letting Go”, because I’m trying to give control of classroom operations to my fourth graders.

This is really a journey that we are all on together. I wanna introduce our cast of characters.

As you can see, they really are characters. I don’t know about other grades, but fourth graders, they won’t take a serious picture if you don’t promise them the goofy one. So here’s the goofy one. In the classroom everyday, it’s me, a wonderful paraprofessional who works one on one with one of my students, and 16 nine to ten year old learners. At the beginning of the year, they gave themselves the name — team name — the Dumontstars. And we really do use that name. And so there they are.

Our story begins with my belief that fourth graders need to feel ownership over their classroom and their learning to get the most out of school.

It’s really the foundation for this. My goal is that the class will run everything for the entire day and I won’t say a word to them. We’ll call it the silent day. The next point is that I will gradually release responsibility for the running of the classroom to the students and promote self-efficacy.

This really came about through MGI in June. We talked a lot about identity and self-efficacy, and how important it is for students to feel that ownership and feel that they can succeed. Really that’s what self-efficacy is — the belief that you can succeed.

The other inspiration was the book Learn Like A Pirate: Empower Your Students to Collaborate, Lead and Succeed. If you haven’t read it, it’s a fantastic book. I highly recommend it. Paul Solarz talks about his own classroom and his experience releasing responsibility and also just about the “silent day”.

The students that read it were like, “Oh, I can do this.”

With these fourth graders, I hear they’re going to be a really good group. We’re gonna try to do this. So, that’s what our plan was with gradually releasing responsibility. I was hoping to show an increase in their self-efficacy in their classroom ownership.

To put the plan into action, I wrote a list of routines, the rituals that they need to do everyday.

At MGI, you certainly have all the time to think and you’d come up with the best-laid plans and introduce them, “This day, day one, August 28th.”Okay, we’re going to be doing this, this, and this.” And these are the days they are going to be able to do it on their own or self-directed, and this is how we’re gonna know that they’re doing well. Of course with MGI, everything seems all very rosy and wonderful and most of this  happened similar to what it says here.

 

The red indicates things that we just took out. It wasn’t working for us. Blue was something that we had to change because again, it didn’t go quite as expected. Yellow is something, well, we misses our date and missed our target were still working on it, and that’s okay.

 

This isn’t the whole list, this is just a snapshot of it. I was going through, I’ve just seen, what do we have to do? What can we change based on what we need?

The other part of this was to introduce self-efficacy.

This was new language. It’s not something that they’ve ever heard. So we did that through first a self-assessment and all they need to do is fill in statements, the ones that Chris Stevenson has developed and have used at MGI, and you’ll see that on that on the next slide, what those statements are.

 

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So they did that before we even started talking about self-efficacy and what is that, what does that mean. They just filled in statements: “I belong to and get along with…” So they were just really thinking about their own identity at that point.

We also read the book The First Rule of Punk, and we ended up Skyping with the author, Celia C. Perez.

It was just an amazing experience all around. The reason we used this book is because the main character, Malu, is talking about her identity, trying to figure out who she is. So we looked at self-efficacy through her lens.

Zines!!!

We also made zines. If you’ve never seen a zine, they’re just about the cutest little thing.They are mini-magazines and one of them is a model based on Malu and her own, her self-efficacies. So, we talked about hers and then we kinda matched them up to the model. Then I made one for myself as a model, and because I felt if they were letting me know about them, I was going to let them know about me.

 

And so there’s a picture of them all working diligently to cut up words and letters that represent them choosing their little own self-efficacy zines. They love making zines. Once we started, there were zines everywhere all the time for everything. (Just as a warning if anybody decides to do that!)

These are some of the results from the first self-efficacy self-assessment that they did.

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And as you can see, they just have to fill in, finish those phrases. A lot of them are about their families and scores for Math comes up a lot as far as things they need to get better at and how they’re going to do that. This is exactly what they wrote. You might notice the “pinch my nose” as the things they wanna get better at. But you know what, fourth graders, you know them.

This first time, it was really amazing that most of them could write something. So they are feeling that they can be successful, in some ways. We don’t see a lot of school. But this is like the third day of school, so not surprising that they’re not yet feeling that they’re successful at school.

Then in the follow-up though, we see a lot more mention of the classroom environment from the school

Things that are happening in the classroom that they feel that they are having a higher level of self-efficacy in the classroom.

Yes, one student, bless her soul, did write, “I take care of Mrs. Dumont.”

They’re clearly feeling a strong connection with the classroom while with their friends and what we’re doing at school. And so after four months, that’s exactly what I was hoping to see.

The other way that they’re taking ownership is that everyone in the class is entitled to get the group’s attention pretty much any time as long as it’s worthwhile.

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We’re working on that right now. They really love that chime, they love clapping. They love getting the group’s attention for things that sometimes we have to say not that the whole group really need their attention. Well, we do that privately. It’s not like, Hey, you don’t need everybody’s attention. But I think it’s really important for them to know that their voice is powerful, that theirs are just as important as mine. And so if they need the class’ attention, they’re welcome to get it. And like I said, they use it, they use it a lot. Sometimes more successfully than others, but they’re doing it.

The other way that they’re taking ownership, is we came up with classroom jobs.

The first round, they got to get any idea they want to. Nothing was thrown out.

So we have things like “Pillow Patroller”. Basically, we have pillows in the classroom, like somebody should make sure those are picked up. We need a pillow patroller. And so we have some really fine ideas. They did a survey where every idea was put on the survey and they would say yes or no. I want you to rate them. This is an example of one of the results.

Anything that got more than 50% of the vote was an automatic to go on the final list. Anything that got less than 50% of the vote was not in the final. Those that got 50% were put aside to be talked about as a whole group.

So, we voted; some of them stayed, some of them went. Pillow patroller didn’t make the cut but phone answerer did because, they do love answering the phone in the class.

That’s another responsibility that they are welcome to have.

Most classes, I don’t think do that, let the students pick up the phone and say,”Hello, Mrs. Dumont’s room, student speaking.” But I think it’s really important to want that job.

So our final jobs, and I just do wanna draw your attention to one final job because I think that it’s important to show. With the jobs, they also came up with expectations for each of these jobs.

There’s a job description so that they know exactly what they’re supposed to do. That came from them, I just typed it. One of the jobs is volcano monitor. I’m pretty sure that no other classroom ever has had volcano monitor.

We read the book My Mouth Is A Volcano and they recognize it themselves that they have a lot of kids who interrupt and erupt like a volcano.

They decided that one person should be in-charge of letting those people know that they’re being a volcano.

One student actually made a little volcano that says, “I am a volcano”. They take that very seriously and the other kids respond to it really well because they know that they chosen to have that person as the volcano monitor.

I think if I had gone in this with the jobs already created, which I’ve done in the past, that would not make the cut, it wouldn’t represent what they thought they needed.

That’s been really important lesson this year. I don’t always know what they need and they know better than I do. I just really love that job.

Something else that they are helping me out this year is taking the responsibility for is time management.

They have two blocks in the week; goal time and a passion time, that are completely student-led, student-directed. The students decided what their SMART goal is.They decided how they’re going to reach that SMART goal and are tracking their progress toward it. If they come to me and tell me,”Mrs. Dumont, I think I’ve reached my goal.”I’m just, “Okay, what’s your evidence?” They will show me either spelling words that they spelled all correctly that they have done with a partner. Or they show me a math journal where they’ve written beautifully because their goal is writing neatly so others can read it. So that’s really up to them. They have a goal partner who’s working on something similar and they help each other out.

The passion time is a time where they do a project that’s really their passion. I have helped them in projects ranging from World War I to make-up, and if it is used, you know,
they put natural products versus synthetic products.

So it’s really who they are and something that they’re really interested in and they really report to those two times; goal time and passion time.

The TBD blocks are just chunks of times where like, I’m not sure?

What do you want me to do with this time? What do we need to do to be successful? How should we use this time? They’ll say, “Oh, I think we should use it to”finish up that ELA lesson that we didn’t finish the other day.” Or, “We can use it for Math menu time.”

It’s really up to them how we use it. I think the power of their voices really came through in this last item.

One day, we had to finish ELA in the afternoon. We just didn’t finish it and it was one of those days where I like we have to get through this. So we did it and they said, “Mrs. Dumont, can we do this in the afternoon all the time?

“Can we always have ELA in the afternoon?” I said, “Why?” They said, “Well, after recess and lunch, “we’re a lot more settled down, than we are before recess and lunch.”

“We’re a lot more squirrelly and integrated studies is a time where we get to move around more.”Okay, so we put it to a vote and they all voted to do that change. So now we do the ELA in the afternoons.

Yeah, it’s not something that I would have thought of and there was a perfectly valid reason and they were able to explain it. I just thought that was really a highlight for me to know that they realized that their voices are as powerful as they are.

They even changed the schedule. I think that was really important.

Tracking progress

 

This is how we do it for self-assessments. We try to do it monthly, best-laid plans.

Really what we’re looking for is changes over time. So the next few slides, you’ll get to see some results. I’d go through that rather quickly because really what we’re looking for again is the trend.

So you’ll see some things that jump out.

The data set is small, so we’re kinda just looking for those trends.

The right side indicates the ones that they feel like they’ve improved on. The left side, kinda we’re slipping backwards a little bit. You can see morning, they’re feeling pretty good except for that forgetting their materials.

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Next one is these changes again aren’t that big, but again, respectfully listening to each other. That’s where that volcano monitor really comes in handy!

A lot of these are morning academic times and transitions and things are becoming loud and slow, as you’ll see teachers feel the same. These are really, because the scale is so small, this looks big but really these are about zero.

 

Then that one really jumps out right at the largely negative, not cleaning out their cubbies.

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That goes along with the observations that we made as teachers where they’re forgetting their morning materials and they’ll be back like, “Oh, no, I don’t have an my math journal.” “I don’t have a pencil.”

During the transitions, loud and slow and when they feel rushed at the end of the day, they forget to do stuff. There’s that cubby thing they have a bunch of stuff and they’re trying to pack it all up and the cubby is the last thing that really gets attention.

So they’re very honest.

The data show that they showed improvements in the morning and they arrive and know what they’re doing.

They’re writing what they’re doing well and what they need to work on, and they need a way to remember it without adult intervention because otherwise that defeats the purpose.

They’re trying to gain responsibility and that independence. Implementation can be difficult. At the end of the day, when it’s time to clean cubbies, they’re kinda held up with other stuff.

So we had to come up with a plan. They decided… I put this data, I just said, “Here’s what we’re seeing, here’s what you’re seeing, “what should we do?”

So they decided that they wanted a checklist so they could self-monitor, so now they have all of those metrics on their little checklist. Here’s students filling it out. She was doing that, I didn’t tell her to do that. She was totally doing it and I just snapped a picture.

You can see that one student felt particularly fantastic that he has two sharpened pencils. Really great.

So we have made progress toward the silent day.

These are the current student-led activities that I could be out of the room and it would still happen. Math station, there is a teacher station, but other than that, if they’re not with a teacher at the station, they’re choosing their own independent work through the math menu and they’re making their own decisions.

They did have a silent morning in October!

I said nothing and they did everything.  It’s just how seriously they took that. They took their responsibility so seriously and they were well-behaved on that day heading for their classroom to music than I think they ever had in the hallways  because they knew that it was up to them, it’s their responsibility.

That leads to our next steps.

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I did assess the student to ratio talk to make sure that their voices are heard much more often than mine. If they’re gonna take control, they need to have that. Determining what
responsibilities they can have as far as academic work, anything else, I’d asked them for input.

They were very interesting.

There were things like we need to be respectful of each other. We need to, you know…Which is all great. It’s all great.

But then it’s like, okay, what about in the academic part?

They said, “Oh, well maybe we should have students teach some lessons.” “We could have them teach with you.” So then we came up with all sorts of great ideas.

Now, it’s just giving them those opportunities. We have a plan for a silent afternoon, and it’s going to be next Friday that we don’t have skiing, we have a ski program in our school. They chose Friday afternoon because they thought it was logical because there were three chunks of times and mostly it’s student-directed now, so that’s a good time to practice.

That’s our plan going forward.

How are you building your students self-direction and efficacy?

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How can students make global connections?

Ottauquechees global connections

 

From Vermont to Mexico and back, via Smart Board

As the world becomes increasingly more connected, so should our schools. For Vermont, many schools existing in rural isolation can take advantage of these connections to bring their students the world. Connecting classrooms globally is not new, but videoconferencing tools have made the experience easier, more immediate and more compelling than in the past.

How can students make global connections?

Connecting with Nuevo Leon, Mexico

Students at The Ottauquechee School in Quechee VT had been prepping for the big day for weeks. Their teachers used the site Empatico to coordinate this global chat.

And now, in just a few minutes they’d be meeting third graders at the Colegio Americano Anauac School, in the town of San Nicolas de Garza.In Mexico. Halfway around the world, but for one afternoon, right there in their rural Vermont classroom.

With frequent glances at the clock next to the Smart Board, they grabbed their notecards and gathered together on the carpet, hushed and expectant. A few bobbed up and down with excitement. Mrs. Stone, their teacher, reviewed how to be respectful and how to take turns asking and answering questions. One student gushed, “I am so excited right now! It’s really cool I’ve never talked to anyone in Mexico before!”

After one last pre-flight check, Mrs. Stone opened the Board’s laptop and dialed up Ottauquechee’s new friends. Half the world away, a browser began to ring.

Why connect globally?

ISTE explores the specific benefits teachers see from experiencing global conversations with peers such as:

  • increasing connection and shared humanity
  • learning through inquiry
  • positions students as experts and question answerers
  • increasing awareness of careers and geography
  • increasing empathy and social action

And the co-author of Teaching and Learning for the Twenty-First Century: Educational Goals, Policies, and Curricula from Six Nations, Fernando M. Reimers, explains:

“In order to participate, as citizens or producers, all people need to be able to understand globalization, be curious about the world and global affairs, know where to deepen their knowledge when necessary, and be capable of communicating and working productively and respectfully with people from other countries and cultural backgrounds.”

As the chat got underway, Ottauquechee students connected right away with their third grade peers.

 

Ottauquechees global connections

 

The students in Mexico had prepared images of their town and culture, and one by one, they held up their iPads in front of the camera, proudly sharing these images of the things they loved. They shared about the sports they love, with half the class loving one futbol team, and the other half loving a different one. Students quizzed each other about their favorite foods, the difference in temperature and climate between Nuevo Leon and Vermont, and the favorite things about their towns.

One student from Ottauquechee spent some time explaining what tater tots are. He was genuinely shocked to find out they aren’t as common in Mexico as in the United States. A cheer went up from both classrooms for the popular rock ballad Despacito. A connection was created and the ground was set for these students to meet again, to follow up and ask each other more in-depth questions about life, school and learning in their home countries.

For these students, it seemed clear to me as the observer, even from this first interaction, that these benefits were being enjoyed by students in both Vermont and Mexico.

Global connections are available for all ages

In this Mindshift Post, Kathy Cassidy shares how she integrates global conversations into lessons  for her primary students about digital citizenship, peer to peer learning, teaching empathy and relevant, timely learning.

In Sharon’s Davidson’s kindergarten class at Allen Brook school , they regularly use Skype to talk with experts in the field. And then they tweet about it, asking questions, offering thanks, and collaborating with others. From day one in school, these kindergarteners are global citizens and goalkeepers for the United Nation’s Global Goals for Sustainable Development. They frequently don shiny blue capes in the classroom, as befitting their role as global superheroes.

Students practice the transferable skills of clear and effective communication, responsible and involved citizenship, and self direction during these experiences.

In addition, students are gaining all sorts of academic skills by connecting with students for discussions. They are practicing the the Common Core standards of speaking and listening, which grow with each year of schooling. These are anchor standards, and according to Common Core State Standards Initiative,

“To build a foundation for college and career readiness, students must have ample opportunities to take part in a variety of rich, structured conversations—as part of a whole class, in small groups, and with a partner. Being productive members of these conversations requires that students contribute accurate, relevant information; respond to and develop what others have said; make comparisons and contrasts; and analyze and synthesize a multitude of ideas in various domains.”

For example, this is the standard for Kindergarten for speaking and listening standards:

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1
    Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1.A
    Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1.B
    Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.
These speaking and listening standards are for every grade level, K-12, and progress to include more skills, perspectives, and aspects of these standards.

Have you connected to a class, community partners, either in the next building or globally?

 

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Unpacking equity in Passion Projects and Genius Hours

"The students at Brattleboro Area Middle School present..."

Equity in education has — and needs — many lenses. The work is hard, the work is myriad, the work is vital.

 

While listening to VPR’s Vermont edition the other day, a friend and fellow author, Ann Braden came on the air, and was reading from her new middle grade novel called The Benefits of Being an Octopus. It features main character Zoe, who like many Vermont kids, faces the challenges of living in poverty. Ann read (reprinted here with permission) this excerpt on the radio:

“I glance down at my backpack. My debate prep packet is inside, and for the first time ever I’m tempted to do my homework. I’m not a kid who does homework. And I definitely don’t do big projects, which usually require glitter and markers and poster board and all sorts of things. None of which I have.

Plus, last year in 6th grade, when I actually turned in a poster project, Kaylee Vine announced to the whole class, “OH MY GOD, everyone. Zoey Albro turned in a project. Alert the authorities! The world must be coming to an end.” Then she made that “AHGN AHGN AHGN” sound like a fire drill, and did it every time she passed me in the hall for the whole next week.

But this project doesn’t need any glitter.

And everyone else won’t have fancy posterboards with foam letters that make my flimsy piece of newsprint that the teacher gave me look like gray toilet paper. All I need is to know something – and I do. And maybe, just maybe, if I do this – and if I can rock it – all the others kids will have their minds blown, and it’ll be completely satisfying to watch. “Who would have guessed,” they’ll say, “that Zoey knew so much cool stuff? I had no idea! I thought I knew who she was, but clearly I didn’t AT ALL.” Maybe Kaylee Vine would even stop switching seats on the bus while holding her nose to get away from me.

This excerpt expresses so much of what many of our students face.

Poverty in Vermont

According to Seven Days:

 “71,329 Vermonters lived below the federal poverty line in 2016 — roughly 10,000 more than in 2015. Vermont was the only state to see a statistically significant increase in its poverty rate, from 10.2 percent in 2015 to 11.9 percent in 2016.”

And according to the Burlington Free Press, Vermont kids are more acutely affected:

For Vermonters under the age of 18, the poverty rate is 13.8 percent, which means children are more likely to live in poverty than the average Vermonter, and twice as likely as senior citizens. In part, that differential is because the federal government gives a lot of money to people over 65, rich or poor, in the form of Social Security and not as much to children.

Ann brings up in the interview that often teachers are in the middle class, while many of their students can be living close to or at the poverty line. That can lead to blind spots around issues such as homework, projects, and opportunities.

Personalization

Take for example the movement toward Genius Hours and passion projects in personalization. These are blocks of time schools are devoting to let students explore their own interests and to foster a love of learning and engagement, and put students in the driver’s seat of their own learning. That all sounds great, right?

Remember the science fair? Did you participate as a child, or do this with students? Were all students given equal access to materials? Right. I remember the students who had shiny kits their parents bought. Or elaborate games or rewards for observers who came by. Or the shiniest, most beautiful letters, like Zoe describes above.

As a sixth grade teacher, I remember adding to my budget 20 something tri-folds every year so every student had one, and didn’t have to buy one. And I kept my art materials stocked up. But inevitably those students who had snazzy materials like metallic sharpies, or special stencils often brought those to these projects. And those same students often had the time to work on them at home, and the support from an adult to deepen the project. Not all students have these same privileges.

Enter passion (or curiosity) projects

Passion projects are an incredible way to engage students in self-driven, engaging work. Our own Emily Hoyler described them in this post:

I stumbled onto Scot Hoffman, Mike Jackson, & Sammi Smith’s Google Doc of Curiosity Projects last spring. Their Curiosity Projects are a six-week, inquiry-based research exploration on a topic of personal interest to the student, and culminates in a showcase of student presentations. The project’s goals are for students to “initiate their own learning, gather information, share information, and reflect on their learning.” Teachers become collaborators, guiding students to resources, helping connect them with mentors, and prompting frequent reflection to help students make meaning of their learning.

We also have a snazzy toolkit of video, examples, and tips about creating genius hours, passion and curiosity projects defined here:

Genius Hour refers to open-ended, student-driven projects during a pre-determined time. Students pick a topic and decide how they will exhibit their learning. During the research phase students often connect with mentors within the school or in the community. (Genius Hour is also called Passion Projects or 20% time.)

This is an incredible tool for personalization…

BUT….

How do we create personalization that is truly equitable?

 

"It’s important to consider students’ lived realities: these are not homework projects because not all students have access to materials, internet, support & free time at home."

It’s important to consider our students’ lived realities, even when we are operating in schools with limited budgets and access to materials, when we launch these types of projects. Educators can’t assume that students will be able to find the materials they need to do these projects. In the planning, for these projects, educators can consider how they will make sure all students have access to the materials they need, as student project ideas are thought of and projects take shape.

Resources to consider in the planning

Once you have an idea of what students are planning, make sure to have materials on hand. If you don’t have the funds in your materials budget, here are some to consider:

  • Front Porch Forum. You can request any needed materials from the wider community on this listserv.
  • Donor Choose. Rebecca Whitney, library media wizard at Ottauquechee, uses this cite to fund Makerspace and library needs.
  • curriculum budgeting

Not homework

It is essential plan time during the school day for the project. These are not homework projects, because not all students will have access to materials, internet, and support. 

Help students explore interests

Not all students will arrive at passion project or genius hour times knowing what they are interested in. Many students will not have had the opportunity or support to explore their own interests, especially in a school setting. Students might need interest inventories or surveys, conversation and dialogue, and to hear ideas from others to help them discover a topic they are interested in exploring. We as educators can’t assume they will come to us with these ideas and interests fully formed and ready to explore.

How do you make sure passion projects and genius hours are truly equitable?

What strategies have you found effective, and what are some additional challenges you’re seeing?

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Introducing: asset mapping

Starting with strengths

Imagine you’re reading a written reflection from a student. This particular student writes so beautifully of the lines on his grandfather’s face, and of the time they spent out on the porch together, enjoying a warm spring night. You can almost see the sun setting and feel the wooden bench they sat on. You can hear the golden retriever’s tail thudding on the worn wooden boards.

When considering the quality of this student’s writing, would you focus on their grammar errors first?

I don’t think so.

You’d start with what’s wonderful about the writing. You’re build a relationship with this writer so you focus on the positive. You celebrate their hard work and bravery. To do otherwise could damage this student as a writer and a person. And while you’re not ignoring the errors, maybe you circle back to them. Let them guide your instruction, but they’re not the initial focus of your conversation and feedback.

So then why do we start service, project, and problem-based learning with a problem?

Avoiding the “Deficit Perspective”

Many of us have heard about the deficit perspective of our students: seeing only what is “wrong” with them, and not their strengths and assets. Education has historically looked for perceived deficits in students, not at the deficits of the very systems they are in.

This perspective is rooted in a set of myths about groups of people living at or near poverty.  This post on Educational Leadership by Paul Gorski brakes down the myths about a “culture of poverty” with the research to dismantle these ideas which are based primarily on stereotypes, biases and the thinking that folks in poverty share a “culture.”

The post goes on to explore how a deficit perspective can lead to a deficit theory, which is very troubling indeed:

The most destructive tool of the culture of classism is deficit theory. In education, we often talk about the deficit perspective—defining students by their weaknesses rather than their strengths. Deficit theory takes this attitude a step further, suggesting that poor people are poor because of their own moral and intellectual deficiencies (Collins, 1988). Deficit theorists use two strategies for propagating this world view: (1) drawing on well-established stereotypes, and (2) ignoring systemic conditions, such as inequitable access to high-quality schooling, that support the cycle of poverty.

Well, we certainly don’t want to do that, or replicate that line of thinking in our work with students. So why does it make sense always begin our explorations in project with what is wrong with our communities? Doesn’t that just perpetuate a deficit view of where we live and our school communities?

Know places deeply

 

Just as we wouldn’t want someone coming into our schools and telling us what to do without any knowledge of the community or the context, it is important for our students to learn about their communities before embarking on improvements. They need to consider what is special about this community? What are our physical, social, structural, natural and business strengths?

Once we connect kids with this kind of thinking — their understanding of their own community blossoms, and they might see it from a more appreciative lens. We know this lens can be challenging for early adolescents! Learning from experience by talking with community members who make a difference from across a variety of backgrounds, careers, and lifestyles can go a long way in showing kids possible pathways for themselves and building social capital and pathways of opportunity. Not to mention a potential project partner!

So just how to do it? Here is one way.

Start project work with strengths

In our service learning toolkit, we’ve included an asset process doc that’s a good starting point and can be copied and used in your setting. Essentially, give students time to brainstorm the assets of where they live and go to school. They might need some help considering what asset means (a valuable thing, person, person or quality) and expanding that definition to include:

  • natural assets (mountains, rivers, pond, fields, wetlands)
  • structural assets (playgrounds, local monuments, libraries, public buildings)
  • business assets (local businesses)
  • infrastructure assets (public transportation, ice rinks, good roads, sidewalks, gardens)
  • social/community/cultural assets (churches, clubs, community activities, community organizations, ceremonies)
  • more!

With those ideas, have students list as many assets as they can in 5 minutes and share these out with each other. Then, create a chart of all of these assets, possibly grouping them by type. Students will hopefully see the many good things already happening and feel pride in their community.

If possible, have students interview community members, read local news, and explore their own experiences. What are the assets of this place, and what work still needs to be done?

One example of this is the Humans of Burke project, where students interviewed local community heroes and created block print portraits of them to be displayed at a local cafe.

Then, brainstorm challenges. List every single one.

Now add the #GlobalGoals

It is helpful for students to know they are not facing these challenges alone. In fact, millions of people are working on improving living conditions across the globe, and many are using the Global Goals to connect, make progress, raise awareness, and celebrate the work. After brainstorming challenges, teach the students about the United Nation’s Sustainability Goals. There are many great lessons about the goals right here in their many resources. Once they have a good sense of what the goals are and why they were created, students can take their local challenges, and use the Global Goals to prioritize them, from 1-5.

During this process kids are usually thinking of projects right away that help with a local challenge but connect deeply to Global Goals. After this process, you are ready to brainstorm potential project ideas with students, and then, have them pick their top 3 they want to work on with dot-storming or another democratic process.

Students did just this at Burke with a dot-storming process to highlight their interests in potential project work based on their community assets and the Global Goals.

Then students are ready to launch into project-based and service learning, but grounded in the assets of their community and global challenges as well.

What are some other ways you could use asset mapping with your students?

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5 summer mindsets to bring into this year

summer mindsets

#1st5days icon: which word will define your start to the new school year?It’s September. Your feet have probably not stopped moving for a few weeks, with the start of school, the meetings, getting to know your students, setting up all the systems and explaining all the procedures, learning about all the new changes in your schools.

You might feel like your brain has too many tabs open.

Stop for a moment. Summer is not yet a disappearing memory. And while summer can be busy in different ways, with other work, professional development, family travel and childcare, it can also give us shiny jewels of ways of being that can last all year. I’m hoping you had a chance to stop — really stop — and enjoy some time with friends and family. That can be the fuel that helps guide the school year.

Continue reading “5 summer mindsets to bring into this year”

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How to build up STEAM

STEAM at Ottauquechee

Making time for making at Ottauquechee

makerspaces and project-based learningSTEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics — gives students the opportunity to create. To make. Maybe to fail. To try again! And to make something that improves a condition, solves a problem, or makes the world a better place. But if your school currently doesn’t offer a STEAM time, it can be daunting to figure out where to begin. And that’s where we pick up our story of Ottauquechee School, in Quechee VT, where we used Design Thinking, a portable makerspace and one amazing library space to figure out how STEAM Time could work at this school.

Welcome to Ottauquechee STEAM Time.

Continue reading “How to build up STEAM”

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Developing empathy for your community

Humans of Burke

Meet the Humans of Burke

community-based learning the humans of burkeSo many schools operate in isolation from the very communities they are situated in. Do your students know community members? Does your community see your students as young community members?

One small school in Vermont’s remote Northeast Kingdom interpreted the popular “Humans of New York” project to foster connection between their 8th graders and the town’s community. Meet the Humans of Burke.

Continue reading “Developing empathy for your community”

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6 ways teachers are using Padlet

Virtual bulletin boards to go!

Tarrant Institute tool tutoriallsStaying organized as a teacher can be a major challenge. Between student work, teacher plans, sticky notes, school supplies it’s easy to get buried and overwhelmed! This can especially be hard in a personalized learning environment, where students are often working at different paces, with different resources.
But whether you’re leading project-based learning, genius hours, or makerspaces, Padlet is a great online tool for teachers. Think: organized digital sticky notes in a colorful, shareable fashion.

Continue reading “6 ways teachers are using Padlet”

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The 8th grade consultants shaping education at Burke Town School

The power of the student consult

If you’re wondering what engages, excites and motivates students, the answer is easy: ask them.

Creating opportunities for students to give feedback on plans, projects, assessments and activities builds a collaborative learning community, and creates leadership and student voice opportunities.

Here’s how one school gave student consultants a shot.

Continue reading “The 8th grade consultants shaping education at Burke Town School”

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Kick off project-based learning with a community event

community event Burke

Hope launches in the Northeast Kingdom

real world project-based learningAs part of participating in the UN’s Global Goals, students at Burke Town School, in West Burke VT, kicked off their service learning projects by inviting their community’s leaders to come to the school and ask for what they needed. What would make West Burke a better place to live? And how could these students help?

Introducing “Project Hope”.

Continue reading “Kick off project-based learning with a community event”

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Are you a “Learning Maximizer”?

Erika Saunders, Learning Maximizer

How do you maximize student learning? What are the ways we can do this, and how might our roles and labels get in the way of helping all students?

Words matter. Job titles, given labels, justly or not, can affect how we feel about ourselves and our jobs. They can affect our we are perceived by our students, and how our students perceive themselves.

Meet Erika (aka Learning Maximizer)

Erika Saunders, of the Science Leadership Academy Middle School (SLA-MS) in Philadelphia, knows this. She’s a founding teacher at SLAMS, which is in its second year. She renamed her special educator position as a Learning Maximizer, and heads that department.

She even has this title on her classroom door, and well, also has her own Learning Maximizer official uniform. I’m pretty certain that Erika can save the world.

 

Erika Saunders, Learning Maximizer
The official Learning Maximizer uniform!

Meet Science Leadership Academy Middle School

SLA-MS is a project based learning focused middle school in its second year. Currently, it hosts fifth and sixth grade students, and will bring on a new grade each year, up until eighth grade.

Learning Maximizers

The Core values of the school are:

  • Inquiry
  • Research
  • Presentation
  • Reflection
  • Collaboration

This is rooted in relevant project-based work with community partners. Students sign up for mini-courses, often working with parents, community organizations, both on campus, and in the surrounding neighborhood.

SLA-MS learning maximizers.
Group work in progress at SLA-MS.

At SLA-MS, they “unprivilege grades” and “privilege” community-based, relevant projects. All students DO. They collaborate, create on the computer, and work side-by-side with teachers.

All students are “OUR” students

Okay, back to the resident Learning Maximizer at SLA-MS.

According to Erika, every student at SLA-MS should have a Learning Maximizer. Erika shared her mindset for being a Learning Maximizer at SLA-MS, and it seemed especially powerful and inspiring.

Erika doesn’t view a certain set of students with learning disabilities as “her” students. All students at SLAMS are “her” students. She said:

“There are simply kids that have official paperwork, and students who don’t.”

When working with students, she teaches them learning strategies, and describes their reading, for example, at different levels, not “low.” These words matter. Just like her title. She asks students:

“What are you not good at yet?”

“You know how to do so many things. Let’s start with that, and figure out what don’t you know yet.”

Then she works with students to help them maximize their learning, by learning about themselves, their strengths and challenges, and how to work with those challenges.

Erika collaborates with teachers, meets with teams, and works toward being proactive instead of reactive in planning, teaching, and supporting students. Project-based learning provides her with many opportunities to promote relevance, engagement, and self-direction as she guides her students.

Philosophies at work

In her role as learning maximizer, we can see a combination of educational philosophies at work:

  • Growth Mindset: Erika believes that all students have the ability to understand how they learn, and they can work together to make a plan to learn at optimal levels in a way that works for each students. How can we carry this message into our work? How can all teachers think about each student’s needs, backgrounds, and experiences and help them plan for their educations with growth mindset?
  • Knowing students deeply: In order to help students learn at high levels, teachers need to know students well and have a trusting, strong relationship with them.

Street-level view of students

One way to know students deeply is to gather information about them in a way an ethnographic researcher would, according to this post in Edutopia. We can gather data about students at different levels to help us connect to students and to plan the best strengths based education plans as possible.

Just how do we do this? By asking questions such as these:

  • Tell me one way you’re feeling successful in my class.
  • Tell me one area in which you’re struggling.
  • How do you learn best?
  • What feedback do you have for me?
  • How could I support you to feel successful?

Do these questions sound familiar? This is just the approach Erika is taking in how she speaks with students about their learning.

 

Culturally responsive learning environments maximize student learning. This can come about through student interviews and focus groups, and by tracking class participation and academic language.

These learnings can become part of a student’s learning profile, and can be featured and reflected upon in students’ personalized learning plans. That way, students have a place to regularly reflect on their own learning, their growth, and their goals for the future.

What’s your tagline?

In her work to maximize learning, Erika is trying to level the playing field, and create a culturally responsive learning environment rooted in strengths and growth mindset.

Erika shared her tagline that she shares with adults, that guides her work and focus:

“Righting the things that were once wrong.”

Erika inspires me. Special educators and education is often left out, or not deliberately included in, discussions, professional development, plans and reading about personalization. But most of the time, these are the very people that have experience personalizing for students, crafting activities, lessons and assessments to meet individual needs.

Personalization and true student engagement is rooted in knowing our students well, and helping them understand how they best learn. Special educators are key partners in this journey, and can help lead the way.

What would happen if we thought of special educators (or learning maximizers) as personalization specialists, and resources for all students and teachers?

What if every single teacher (and person who works in schools) thought of all students as “their” students, and helped to create a learning environment where all students are known and we are all learning maximizers?

How can you be a learning maximizer?

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Introducing “Cabot Leads”

use service learning Cabot Leads

Use service learning to grow your community

a model for service learning

What do you do when you’re a 5th-through-8th middle school housed in two separate buildings?

If your 7th-and-8th graders are with the high school, and 5th and 6th graders are off on their own, how can you provide an opportunity all middle graders to feel involved in the middle school? How do you promote leadership and engagement, and connect students to their communities?

For the Cabot School, service learning is the answer.

Continue reading “Introducing “Cabot Leads””

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Go global with your PBL

Tech tools, tips & inspiration

take project-based learning to the next levelThe world is BIG. And overwhelming at times. Especially for our students, who hear bits and pieces of what is happening across the globe, and have questions, worries, and thoughts.

It makes sense that we move students beyond their geography, perspectives, and comfort zones. That way we can expand their world, and grow empathy, compassion, knowledge, and perspective.

But… how exactly do we do that?

Continue reading “Go global with your PBL”

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Race Against Racism VT

Race Against Racism VT

It all starts with an idea. Races Against Racism have taken place around the country, and last spring, a community member and organizer Henry Harris suggested that 15-year-old Hope Petraro organize an event in her community. He said she might be interested in having this event in Montpelier. That was just the spark she needed.

Since then, Hope, with the support of her teachers and community mentor, has created an important event to fight back against racism during a time when our country is seeing a resurgence of racial conflict.

Continue reading “Race Against Racism VT”

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3 strategies to create supportive structures during project time

Why structure?

One of the most intimidating things about starting to do service and project based learning in the classroom is how to structure the time. One thing I have learned from direct experience in the classroom and from working with teachers is that this is structuring the time a key part of developing your plans and approach to project work.

A shift in culture

Many teachers come with an idea that you do all the teaching up front, then let students have their fairly unstructured project time, where you take a hands off approach and just “let them work on the project.” This is what we call a “dessert” approach– as in, the project is the dessert at the end of all the “real” learning.

One problem with this is that the approach makes the assumption that students are independent and filled with self-direction and motivation– they have all the skills they need to dive in. The reality is often that students have become very used to teachers telling them what to do, when to do it, and  how to do it. This personalized approach is so very different that if often takes a lot of support to help students transition to it and to build the stamina and culture necessary for the deeper, rigorous, engaging and challenging learning that these environments call for.

Project Block Structures

In an effort to bridge that gap, I wanted to offer some structures for project time that might be helpful in your classrooms as you plan and led a dynamic project based or service learning environment with students.

60 minute block plan:

Review the Essential Question and/or Learning Targets: Start with some grounding in the essential question and/or the learning targets. Read and discuss the question quickly, rooting everyone in the grander purpose of the work. (3 minutes)
Resources and phases of learning: Show what phase most groups are in and any essential tools for this project periods.  This could be the research phase, and could include some teaching about tools to use or a small group schedule for direct instruction during this time. The teacher can refer students to a timeline or other graphic organizer for the project (3 minutes).
How to get help: Review a process for if a group or individual needs help: Where are the resources? Do students write their names on the board if they want to check in with a teacher, or will the teacher have a schedule for visiting each group? (2 minutes)
Norms/expectations: Ask a student to describe what the work time should look like and sound like, or quickly review your class norms and procedures for productive learning time. (2 minutes)
Project work time: Rotate to each group, asking questions, providing resources, keeping notes, teaching direct instruction in small groups as needed or planned. (40 minutes)
Reflection/Evidence Gathering/Goal Setting for Continued Work: Ask students to stop and take the next 10 minutes to record their thinking (possibly from a reflection menu) on a platform of choice or other procedure for PLPs and reflections for the project. This could be using Flipgrid, sketchnotes, and reflection questions to probe what is going well, what are the challenges, and what are your next steps? (10 minutes)

45 minute block

Start with Sharing: Where is your group on the project? What do you need? How can our learning community help you? (10 minutes)
Resources and Focus: Teacher shares new resources, information, and/or a guiding focus or learning target of the day. (2 minutes)
Project Work Time/Teacher Rotation: Rotate to each group, asking questions, providing resources, keeping notes, teaching direct instruction in small groups as needed or planned. (20 minutes)
Formative Assessment and Reflection: As a whole group or individuals, ask students to respond to a prompt about their learning and process today. Dig for deeper understanding and uncovering misunderstandings for tomorrow’s lessons and project time. Add these if possible to a PLP or portfolio of student learning in project time. (13 minutes).

Tools to help build structure and organize project time

Use digital tool to organize the time:

Create a padlet or slideshow for each project time with the essential question; needed resources; schedules for check ins; curated research links; and other tools to support the work and share the link with your students.

Like Courtney Elliot does here on her project padlet. 

Use public timers: Project a countdown clock for each section of time during the project block so students understand how much time they have and feel a sense of urgency.

Reflection/Evidence Gathering/Goal Setting for Continued Work: Ask students to stop and take the next 10 minutes to record their thinking (possibly from a reflection menu) on a platform of choice or other procedure for PLPs and reflections for the project.

This could be using Flipgrid, sketchnotes, and reflection questions to probe what is going well, what are the challenges, and what are your next steps? (10 minutes). In this tool you can create your project based learning experience on tiles that can be linked to resources, such as google docs, websites, or images.

 

 

By projecting a tile, the teacher can discuss what the learning artifact is for that time period, or what phase the project is in, and guide students with this tool. See this example. Students can also use this tool to organize their own learning time.

Practitioners of the personalized learning strategies of project and service learning often find the right structures to support their learners through experience– and it is always changing as are our students. If we create intentional supports for project time, while allowing for student voice, choice and creativity, we can support students in being purposeful and self-directed during this time.

What structures work in your classrooms and contexts?

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4 ways to make math more relevant

Banish the stigma: you are not bad at math. Math is bad at you.

real world project-based learningWe can move math beyond worksheets and imaginary word problems. Let’s quit making math about sharing made-up apples, fishes or shoes.

Let’s tie math to the real world: real problems for students to solve, what’s going on around them, and how students learn. If you’re trying to save the world, you’re not gonna let a little math get in the way, are you?

Here’s 4 ways to make math more relevant for students and for teachers.

Continue reading “4 ways to make math more relevant”

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Courage lives on

 

#everydaycourageThis fall, we’ve been talking  about everyday courage in schools. We’ve written about the courage it takes to start a new team, using technology to open up communication with students and to open up our practice.

We’ve shared examples about how teachers are showing up, engaging in hard conversations about race, their own practice, about getting negative feedback and sharing our work and selves with others. We’ve heard about how students are leading the way when given the support at school to do so: working for acceptance, equality and identity and systems that let every voice be heard. Here are three themes we’ve seen emerge.

Continue reading “Courage lives on”

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Laying the groundwork for effective teaching teams

Or, What to Bring to the First Staff Potluck

#everydaycourageOpening up to fellow educators can be hard. We all know we’re doing the best we can, but many of us also feel like we could be doing better for our students. We want to do the best we can and sometimes we get terrified that it’s not enough. What if none of the other teachers feel this way?

Except: they do.

And that’s why it’s important to be brave enough to connect with the other teachers on your team, to really get to know them as people — and to let them get to know you in return. They can be some of your most important resources during the school year.

Continue reading “Laying the groundwork for effective teaching teams”

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Take project-based learning to the next level

take your PBL to the next level

3 ways to plan for PBL 2.0

take project-based learning to the next levelYou’ve dipped your toe into project based learning. You’ve planned an entry event, shared  a high quality driving question, managed student teamwork, created scaffolds, and helped students finish a meaningful project to present to an authentic, engaged audience!

Whew! Well done.

But we know you. We know you’re a total rockstar and you and your students are already looking ahead to your next PBL cycle. So many problems to solve! So many ideas to toss around, and so much excitement from the feedback your community gave students on their work.

While your next PBL idea’s a-percolatin’, take time to reflect on these three key areas, and take project-based learning to the next level.

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8 year-end reflection tools and activities

Reflect, celebrate and plan

year-end reflection tools and activitiesOh, the spring. Such a busy time for teachers.

There are all those transition meetings, already getting ready for the next year. Then there are placement meetings, figuring out who will be in what class, core or group. And of course, all those ceremonies, exhibitions, and spring events.

It’s easy to forget all of the progress you have made with your students and as a school during these times. And it’s easy to get frustrated and to focus only on what you have to do next.

Your class, your community and the progress your school has made matters. And they should be celebrated.

Continue reading “8 year-end reflection tools and activities”

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8 ideas for outdoor learning

Expand your classroom and keep kids engaged

flexible classroomsThe weather is getting nicer. The sun is finally out. And you are in charge of keeping your class engaged, focused and ...inside? Ha!

Any teacher who has experienced spring in Vermont knows that students get a little wiggly this time of year. What’s a great way to harness that energy and keep students engaged with school to the very end of the year?

Get. OUT.

Continue reading “8 ideas for outdoor learning”

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4 ways to use Virtual Reality in project-based learning

VR’s real world impact on students

Virtual reality is exciting and many of our students are already using this technology in gaming (as some were quick to tell me). So why aren’t we using it more in education? Why aren’t we using it in project-based learning?

Maybe we just need some ideas on how to use VR in education. So let’s start by looking at virtual reality in project-based learning (PBL).

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4 more ways to help middle schoolers get organized

Helping students get organized

help middle schoolers get organizedMiddle schoolers’ lives are multi-faceted, dynamic and dramatic. And while we talk about how to grow self-directed, engaged and motivated students, that growth can’t take place while students are overwhelmed and anxious about managing their daily lives.

Last time, we looked at how to organize the tech itself. Now let’s look at how to use powerful tech tools (shiny!) to help make middle school manageable.

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4 ways to help middle school students organize their tech

“Where did I put that cord? My computer is dead!”

help middle school students get organized with their techHow many times have you heard this in your classroom? So much of middle school is developing systems to stay organized: “How do I get to all these classes? How do I open my locker?” And with the addition of technology: “How do I keep track of my school computer? Which Google Doc is the homework in? ”

Let’s look at 4 ways students can learn independence and grow leadership through the care and organization of technology.

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Can sustained silent reading help reluctant readers?

sustained silent reading

How student choice can support literacy

sustained silent readingEnglish teacher Laela Warnecke set out to answer one question: “How might sustained silent reading impact 8th graders?”

Warnecke examined the effect of sustained silent reading on the engagement and achievement of her students. She surveyed her students and helped them set aside time during the day to read whatever they wanted. And it turned out that her so-called “reluctant readers” weren’t all that reluctant after all.

This is a story about student choice, student engagement, and how action research can impact student outcomes.

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How to fight fake news in the field

A case study from one classroom

how to fight fake newsIn part one, we explored how middle grade students are struggling to recognize fake news or sponsored posts and shared many tools for teachers looking to tackle this thorny issue.

But what does it really look like We sat down for a Q & A with Christie Nold, sixth grade educator and fighter of fake news.

Here’s her mini-unit on telling real from fake news.

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4 resources for fighting fake news

Teaching news literacy in the social media age

digital citizenship and students onlineWe’ve been hearing a lot lately about the problem of fake news stories and how they might impact our impressions of the world. Imagine: if it’s hard for adults to spot fake news stories, then how hard is it for students?

Turns out: VERY HARD.

Let’s look at some resources for helping students determine when a source is truly credible or not.

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iLead: a model for service learning and leadership

Personalization for school-based service learning

a model for service learningLooking for a way to harness students’ energy while giving them meaningful work that appeals to their personal interests? One model for service learning I’ve used is iLead: a “job-based” program that channels student interest into meaningful positions around the school.

School community improves, students learn responsibility in a way that engages with their interests, everybody wins.

Here’s how it works.

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Project-based learning: Extreme weather PBL unit

 This is Real World PBL

Real World PBLNow we’ve been down the PBL highway, looking at PBL planning, entry events, supports for PBL, culminating events, and technology tools. It’s time to examine at what PBL looks like when educators stop being polite and start getting real: this is PBL in real classrooms.

Let’s start with Courtney Elliott’s fourth and fifth grade class at Proctor Elementary School in Proctor, Vermont. Elliott’s first PBL unit was designed to teach students how to do PBL, while also addressing Next Generation Science Standards. She tiered her approach to build responsibility in the project and to provide supports on the way.

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Culminating Events for Project-Based Learning

culminating events Proctor Elementary School PBL

Honor scholars with an authentic audience for their work

culminating events for project-based learningThe culminating event! It’s the lovely finish line of a Project-Based learning unit. The big event. You’ve been planning for months for this event that celebrates the projects and the learning in an authentic, community based forum. All along, it’s been a strong motivator for scholars, grounding the relevant work they’ve been doing.

So. What does it look like to pull off a memorable and meaningful culminating event for project-based learning?

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Assessment in Project-Based Learning

Signs along the way

assessment in project-based learningAssessments can be hard to create and manage, but they are a necessary part of PBL. You can do it!

Assessments are often done with the elements of Understanding by Design : beginning with the end in mind.

Here are some ideas for how to use assessment — both formative and summative — to report to families, inform your practice, and improve student learning.

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8 methods for reflection in project-based learning

PBL notes

It’s where the learning is

reflection in project-based learningIt is easy to not plan time for reflection in project-based learning (PBL) because there is just so much DOING! The students are engaged, and it’s fun and hands-on, and everything moves pretty quickly. But for PBL to connect to learning targets and goals and transferable skills, frequent reflection needs to happen, and as we all know, this has to be deliberately built into the schedule.

So, what can this look like? Here are 8 methods for reflection in project-based learning.

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Scaffolds to support PBL learners

Ways to support project-based learning

scaffolds to support PBL learnersSome people have the mistaken idea that PBL is just when you point students in the direction of a project and say, “Go for it!”

Um, no.

If your students have a culture of doing project-based learning and are very independent, it makes sense to give them a lot of freedom — but that’s just not the case for many of our students.

If you have students who are younger, or need more support and structure here are some ideas and examples. It always makes sense to err on the side of having too many supports rather than too few.

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Brainstorming and Research in PBL

brainstorming and research in PBLYou’ve done an engaging entry event. You have a plan for your PBL unit with a focused driving question. Sweet! Now it’s time for the students to embark on research. But the world of information is a vast wilderness fraught with danger: the danger of misinformation!

Before we can research, we need to brainstorm: What do kids want to do about the driving question and about the entry event? What do they want to see happen?

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Entry events for project-based learning

Start with the dramatic, unexpected & memorable

entry events for project-based learningQ: What do we really want from project-based learning?

A: We want students to care about this subject. To really, truly care about it from their own student perspectives. To engage the active learning parts of their brains and the moral imperative for the work.

Entry events are usually dreamed up during the planning stages of project-based learning. They’re just as much a part of PBL as the research, rubrics, and community connections.

So what can an entry event look like?

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Planning a PBL unit

Resources to tackle project-based learning

project-based learningWelcome to the PBL Highway, my new series aimed at helping you on the road to project-based learning!  Setting up a student-driven, rigorous, community-focused project-based learning (PBL) unit can feel daunting, so the best way to tackle anything this huge (it’s yuge!) is to break it down into manageable steps.

A little forward planning — some templates, checklists and rubrics — and you got this.

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3 types of videos for showcasing content areas

video for content areas

Structures & examples for student filmmakers

videos to showcase content area learningMany students love working with video. Students can create videos for any subject to show specifically what they’re learning, how they spend their time and to demonstrate proficiency. But it’s not always obvious how you, as an educator, can help students see the connection to  specific content areas.

Let’s take a look at some examples and think through how to scaffold students in sharing their work.

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Project-Based Learning in the primary grades

8 great ways to approach PBL in the primary grades

real-world problems and project-based learningPicture this: you have a class of primary-grade students. Say grades K-3. They are learning their letters, and how to tie their shoes, how to go to the bathroom independently and write their names. This list of what to learn is long!

But we also know that students at this age also need to be developing their ability to collaborate, problem-solve, and communicate. And believe it or not, PBL is a great way to do this.

The key is to start small and make it manageable. Let’s break it down.

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Designing learning spaces for students

Create open, flexible, engaging spaces for active student learning.

#ready2launch flexible classroomsThe beginning of the school year! Desks, mailboxes, coat hooks labeled. Books organized, materials in bins. This task is often overlooked and underestimated in terms of time. How can you create a welcoming, flexible and inspired space? Here are some tips and ideas.

Just get some help dragging those desks around, okay?

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Middle Grades Institute Reflections

middle grades instituteI’ve just returned from the Middle Grades Institute, and honestly, I am still reeling. My brain is finally slowing down and trying to process all that happened there.

The short of it: teachers, professors, Tarrant Institute staff, and students from across Vermont gathered to learn how to better personalize learning, engage early adolescent students, create flexible pathways to graduation, foster deep, authentic learning, and learn about all the transformative practices and opportunities around the state.

It’s like someone took the blinders off.

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