Category: Flexible Classroom Spaces

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Student clubs for engagement and wellbeing

Need more student engagement and wellbeing? Join the club!

Educators are always looking for ways to get students more engaged with school. In this third school year impacted by the pandemic, engagement and wellbeing are more important than ever.

Ample research links extracurricular opportunities to student engagement and to social emotional learning. We also know that access to these opportunities is often inequitable. Cost, transportation, and availability can all be barriers to access. 

How can we give every student access to these sites of engagement, relationship strengthening, social skill building, and interest-driven learning? Build it into the school schedule, of course.

Several schools across Vermont are setting aside time for clubs during the school day, with positive results. Here are the steps for getting clubs going in your school.

Be clear about purpose

At Orleans Elementary School (OES) in Barton, Vermont, the middle school team designed the schedule to include an hour per week of club time. Their goals for clubs:

  • Provide students with voice and choice about the activities they want to pursue.
  • Build community amongst students in grades 5-8 and also between students and staff.
  • Practice targeted skills within the cross-curricular proficiencies (communication, problem-solving, perseverance, citizenship) in a low-stakes, informal environment.

Lyndon Town School (LTS) in Lyndonville, Vermont, was looking to adapt structures they’ve used in the past. The middle school leadership team looked at clubs as an alternative to the Genius Hour projects that have been part of their Enrichment Block for the last couple of years. They saw clubs as a mellower version of Genius Hour, with no required product at the end. And more mellow was exactly what this year needed.

At White River Valley Middle School (WRVMS) in Bethel, Vermont, they were looking for a way to replicate successes from the past.

In the pandemic we were in pods with 13 kids and an adult spending the majority of their day together. Our behavior from last year showed fewer write ups than ever before. Students love to connect with teachers and peers in small groups.

Sarah Fisher Snow, teacher at White River Valley Middle School

This year, WRVMS continues to have three hours per week for “pod projects.” These are group projects that go in whatever direction the pod decides to take things. Clubs complement pod projects by providing a space where “teachers are purely auxiliary members,” according to Fisher Snow. The hope is that clubs help scaffold toward the student leadership needed for negotiated curriculum in pod projects and classrooms.

Now that you’ve justified carving out time and highlighted connections to other goals, things get fun.

  • Students standing in a field
  • A bulletin board on equity at a school
  • Two students wearing cloth masks
White River Middle School: sports club; information and inspiration from Gender Sexuality Alliance; and improv exercises in Theater club,

Get student input on club offerings

While the heart of clubs is socialization, it is driven by shared interests. Offering good choices is a key to success. How to figure out what students are interested in? Ask them.

The club concept at OES came from exit interviews with outgoing 8th graders at the end of the previous school year. Those students also seeded a few ideas for which clubs should be offered. Teachers used that list to pick a few to start the year, and after a few weeks the current students were in a good position to brainstorm choices for round 2.

At WRVMS, students filled out a Google Form at the beginning of the year. There were a couple of teacher generated ideas on there with an open response where students could make suggestions. The range of student ideas represented the spectrum of interests among young adolescents – from the socially conscious to the downright goofy. Though they couldn’t quite pull off welding, teachers put together a solid list of initial offerings.

Sign up students

The process of student input ideally generates excitement and curiosity. WRVMS students Matthew and Conor, grades 7 and 8 respectively, recommend introducing the choices a week or two before students need to make their selections.

It’s clear why some think time would be important based on the extraordinary list of initial offerings at WRVMS:

  • Spanish cooking
  • Cozy club 
  • Dungeons and Dragons
  • Board games
  • Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA)
  • Japanology – anime and Japanese cooking
  • Mystery and detectives
  • Outdoor club
  • Team sports
  • Theater
  • Leadership 
 

Students ranked their choices and everybody was assigned to one of their top two. Teachers grouped students in new ways that didn’t match their classroom cohorts or typical social groups. 

Ideally, the social mixing happens not just across clubs but within them. Kyle Chadburn, Humanities teacher at OES, observed during a session of game club “seeing where students are sitting right now, the groupings are different than they usually are. That’s exactly what we wanted to happen.”

Have fun!

“I love clubs!” “Clubs are the best!” Tristan and Lucien from WRVMS talked over each other in their excitement, but they got their point across. 

This sentiment was echoed by almost every single student we heard from across these three schools (20 interviews and 20 survey responses). 

Students. Love. Clubs. 

Here are a few representative responses from OES students when asked why they like clubs: 

  • “It’s like having fun instead of constantly working” (Dominic, grade 6).
  • “It’s like a recess but 10 minutes longer and we decide what we want to do together” (Shian, grade 6).
  • “More clubs should be done all around the world” (Maddie, grade 7).
  • “Clubs take pressure off students and are something fun to do… it really makes a nice end to the day and makes the day go by fast” (Thayer, grade 6).
  • “I think it’s a pretty good thing for when it’s almost to the end of the week and we have that one time to have fun at the end of the day, socialize, and become better friends with kids in other grades” (Preston, grade 7).

Teachers who are supervising clubs need to provide materials and keep an eye out for safety, but otherwise approach the clubs as a participant. Keep it light, connect with kids, and have fun!  

Two masked students collaborate over a box of crayons
A student holds up a Lego figure in class
Two masked students draw on a SmartBoard
A table at school contains a multitude of beads and thread
A masked red-headed student in a camouflage sweatshirt sits on a rug featuring a dragon, surrounded by books
Two masked students play chess in a classroom
Three masked students play Scrabble in a classroom
Two masked students work on Spanish

[Gallery caption: Orleans Elementary School clubs.]

Rotate and mix it up

Clubs at these schools typically run on a 4-8 session cycle. Although some clubs may repeat across cycles, new clubs come and go as students come up with new ideas. Another major factor is the weather – some clubs work better outside or during particular seasons.

Rotating clubs exposes students to more activities and to different peers. Ava, a 6th grader from LTS, noted that social connections during clubs can be unique. 

We get to know each other in a different way. We get into our club activity, calm down, and talk about all sorts of things.

Ava, 6th grade student at Lyndon Town School

Clubs are about expanding connections. Creating a rhythm of novelty will help more humans connect around more interests.

Don’t overthink it

Resist the temptation to “schoolify” clubs. When students were asked what they learned in clubs, besides becoming familiar with the central activity, most had a hard time pinning down what they were gaining. One student summed it up by explaining that “it’s not your average learning … I guess you are learning in some sorts of ways. Not the ways you’d think about it in school, but yeah it’s learning.” 

Though many of the positive outcomes may be undefinable, there is plenty of evidence to provide a rationale for clubs in middle school. Such as:

Perhaps the strongest reason came from an anonymous 7th grade LTS student. They said that the best thing about clubs is that “I’ve learned it is good to take time for something you like to do.” 

Indeed, carving out time purely for enjoyment and social connection is something we could all use a lot more of in schools. Let’s prioritize simply being our human selves, together. Because the human being club is one that we are all automatic members of.

How are you going to get clubs going at your school?

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Virtual video walkie-talkies? Meet the Marco Polo app

Marco Polo app

Why the Marco Polo app? With social distancing and remote learning on educators’ minds, there’s never been a more urgent need for communication that’s clear, effective, bandwidth-respecting and multi-platform.

The more ways we can connect our learners with each other, and extend out-of-school access to community partners, the better. Our usual ways of communicating at a distance (email, phone, snail mail, twitter DMs) do continue to work. Yet there are limitations that are heightened as we move to fully remote communications. In text or email, tone and inflection can easily get lost or misinterpreted. And video meetings have a few added steps, require members to both be present (scheduling nightmare), and eat up bandwidth.

What if we could combine the best of both worlds?  The ease of video… with the convenience of texting.

Additionally, the asynchronous nature of asynchronous video messaging can be leveraged to provide students with out-of-school access to professionals and to their communities in a way that’s powerful.

Virtual video walkie talkies

As we look into the possibilities of asynchronous video messaging, we’ve been experimenting with the Marco Polo app, and we are hooked.

1. Connecting with a loved one who is far away

Let’s say you have a loved one who lives far, far away… Like, Mongolia! Jeanie hosted an exchange student from Mongolia who became a good friend and bonus daughter. Now that said bonus daughter has returned to Mongolia, she still has a ton to share with Jeanie. Her neighborhood, her family, a new hairdo! Jeanie, in turn, shares videos from Charlie the dog, along with local spots of interest. And this way of connecting feels so much more personal than email, text messages, or instagram.

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During this time of social isolation and uncertainty, tools that creatively connect loved ones and community members are more important than ever. These video threads could serve as a bridge to others in a way that reduces loneliness and isolation while sustaining relationships and connection.

2. Connecting with an expert

Or perhaps your boiler just flat-out stopped working. Knowing your own limitations and lack of skill, you make a call.

Weighing your options, you quickly come to the conclusion that cold water would only make quarantine unbearable. A plumber appears to save the day by installing a new boiler. Cold weather hits (blah). You turn on the heat. Nothing!

You, a wise, Marco Polo the plumber. And by dint of pointing:

  • a) they know exactly what needs to happen.
  • b) they’re able to work you into their schedule with less fuss.

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Now, even if you’re lucky enough to have functioning hot water, think outside the boil for a moment: this is a powerful way for students to connect with experts.

With middle school students, transportation adds an extra layer of difficulty in providing those out of school experiences. This tool removes the physical distance and connects learners with mentors and experts in the field.

Or, if they’re working on a Joy Project a quick connection could bring the project to a whole new level. The asynchronous nature of Marco Polo also allows for the conversation to evolve around busy schedules and connectivity issues. Oh yeah: and if you need evidence for your PLP, consider it done!

3. Connecting with coworkers

Your team of colleagues is hard to pull together into one big phone call and you are tired of zoom.  You put them all on a single Marco Polo chat and start the conversation.  And they respond, when they are free, sharing their expertise and their faces and voices, making for a powerful and deep conversation.

Here are a few other ways you might use it in your teaching practice:

  • Connecting with individual students who need extra support.  Students can ask questions, request formative feedback, or check-in with you.  While they do they can capture video of works in progress, show where they are stuck, or illustrate their question.  You, in turn, can share video of next steps, an example, or supporting details.
  • Connecting with families. Not all forms of communication work for all families.  If you have a family you struggle to communicate with, why not see if Marco Polo might interest them.  It is an easy way to hold meaningful conversations about a student, both sharing your insights and soliciting those of their parents/guardians.
  • Connecting with your advisory.  Keep connected with your advisory students and keep them connected with each other. A prompt can be as simple as sharing a joke.
  • Connecting with an expert. What a great way to pose questions and get answers from an expert in the field!  Students and teachers can share their queries and folks from around the world can answer them in a way that is verbal and visual.

Bandwidth an issue?

We’ve all been there when the Zoom stops: synchronous online video-conferencing eats your bandwidth, and for a lot of us here in rural Vermont, that’s a conversation-stopper. Asynchronous video-conferencing — or video-messaging — lets you make the most of what you’ve got.

Crunch your video down, px-wise, or cut it shorter, and wait until your moms are done chatting with Nana to jump online and upload.

We’ll keep talking about bandwidth availability as an equity issue — but we’ll do it with video-messaging, rather than video-conferencing.

So how does it work?

Enter your phone number, take or add a profile picture and you are ready to go. You can send an invite to someone if they are not already connected with the app. Or, just like texting, you can select an individual or create a group.

Hit start and record your message. Done!

You will get a notification when someone is viewing your polo. Whoever you connect to, you’ll likely have fun with the effects. Change your voice so you sound like a robot.  Add a filter so you look like a movie star. Or doodle on your video and add some text to make your post more interesting.

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Things to consider

With any app you will want know a few things:

  • Is it safe?
  • Does it track data?
  • Who can access what you share?
  • What’s in the cloud?

There is no substitution for supervision when students are connected and online. However! One hundred percent eyes-on is not a possibility, or even reality.

How can we make sure of two things? Students are safe when online and the apps we give them access to are safe. So here are a few of our considerations and recommendations:

  1. Digital citizenship must remain a part of the learning and conversations.
  2. For younger students, I suggest putting the app on an adult’s phone. That way parents/guardians are in control and can monitor the conversation. They might learn something too!
  3. Only share the contacts you want to (not your entire contact list)
  4. Know who your student is Marcoing. Also who they Polo.
  5. Have a conversation about what is appropriate.

But don’t take our word for it

Connecting people with people (and information)

In this time of remote learning, staying connected and building community remains a top priority for schools and families. While there are well-established ways of accomplishing this, the easy and personal connection take this up a notch. Whether connecting across the world or down the road the distance has become equal.

Have you tried video messaging? Marco Polo? Or are there other video walkie-talkie apps out there? Let us know in the comments

 

 

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This middle school is not a building

Students consult with an elder in the woods

Welcome to White River Valley’s outdoor classroom

Students and faculty at Bethel Elementary and White River Valley Middle Schools firmly believe middle school is not a building. Behind the brick-and-mortar school lies an expansive wilderness classroom that provides opportunities for pre-kindergarten through eight grade to connect with the earth, environment, and each other to become lifelong stewards. And I got to see it all in action.

 

First visit: “Into the woods! (and home before–)”

I met a group of excited students gathered in the lobby, eagerly awaiting their woods break. Bonna Wieler, outdoor education educator, arrived to hand out compasses. A quick orienteering review in the lobby and off we went.

Bethel had significant rains the day before I arrived so the trail was, let’s say a little muddy. But students had already built a few bridges and worked on some erosion control in the previous days. The slick trail did not slow down anyone. With mud boots on, students sprinted effortlessly up the trail.

Our first stop? One of the campus campsites.

A shelter made of sticks and tarps stood prominently in an opening in the thick pine forest. “We built that!” yelled a student, pointing proudly.

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Do you know where you are?

WRVMS students are mapping the boundaries and trails using emerging orienteering skills. And that was part of the task for today. “260 degrees, 31 paces,” shouted one student. Bonna nodded an acknowledgement, jotting the data in a notebook.

Two students became my guides. They named every type of tree by their bark alone, as the leaves are a bit scarce this time of year. They showed me all the benches students had made with hand tools out of downed logs. It seemed they knew every square inch of that space like the backs of their hands. But most noteworthy was the students’ ability to share their knowledge with confidence. I consider myself something of an outdoor enthusiast [Ed Note: Scott is, no lie, a competitive whitewater kayaker] but I could not compete with this group.

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Second visit: Let there be… FIRE.

My second trip up the trail? This new group of students had a very different focus. We were there to kindle fires. Students carefully carried axes and fire-starting materials through the coolness of the morning and into the dense forest. A small shelter held dry firewood organized by size. The students had been gathering materials for days. The group all had their assignments. “We’re building the fire,” said one student, pointing. “I’ll cut wood, you crack acorns.” Over by the fire, two students were organizing their materials with surgical precision. “When it lights,” said one, pulling her hair into a ponytail,  “we need to be ready.”

Fire n’ Fluff

When I heard “fluff” I thought “marshmallow sandwiches”, but I admit I was hungry. Fluff, is when you take tiny strands of twine and pull them apart. Then strips of birch bark. Followed by mouse tails. Not real ones, just tiny sticks that look like tails.

A pair of girls made a bird nest of materials. Then they grabbed the flint and striker. A few strikes later and boom: fire time. “WE DID IT!” shouted the students. Fist bumps all round. And I was impressed!

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Maine Woodsman Curriculum

Much of the curriculum for these activities have been adopted from similar programs in Maine.

What contributes to the success?

Not many great things happen in isolation or by accident.

First, as mentioned earlier, the elementary school has a strong outdoor program starting in kindergarten. Kindergarten in the woods. Bethel has been using the natural environment as an extension of the school for several years. Educating Children Outdoors or E.C.O has been part of the school as well. Here’s their letter to parents. The school also partners with the North Branch Nature Center to provide training and support.

Additionally, as we all know local partnerships are essential to the health and sustainability of any programs, Bethel partners with Project Learning Tree  and the Four Winds Nature Institute.

A second factor in the success of this program is highly qualified and passionate educators. Bonna Wieler and Melissa Purdy are two such shining examples. Their experience, training, guidance and leadership are essential. Many other educators in the school have participated and have been trained as well. Trained staff is a key to sustainability.

Lastly, what happens in the woods in not in isolation to the classrooms or curriculum.

“It’s where we bring the indoor subjects into the outdoors,” says Melissa. The programs work symbiotically with benefits happening in both places. For example, Lindley (Design and Technology Educator) and Bonna also have a vision of using the resources/wood from the forests to make products in the WRVMS Shop. Keep it local!

What’s the purpose?

For a full version of the desired outcomes please see here

We will:

  • Increase confidence and self esteem
  • Build empathy and resilience
  • Connect with student’s need for movement
  • Reduce stress
  • Be an extension of the classroom
  • Promote creativity and imagination 
  • Play
  • Teach about the natural world and understanding the science involved – the way to grow good stewards of the earth, to develop attitudes and skills to preserve and care for the environment.
  • Help students gain the knowledge, skills, understanding and experience necessary to make informed decisions about our environment.
  • Facilitate connections with elders in our communities to enhance student learning and enrich elders’ lives as they share their knowledge and caring of the Upper Valley, passing on their experiences and expertise.
  • Model and teach the protection, restoration, sustainability and stewardship of the natural systems within our communities. 

Other benefits:

Here’s what students have to say as just one more testament:

“When I’m outside I feel alive”

“The outdoor setting gives me a space to breathe and just be me”

“This is where I feel I’m at my best”

“My family history goes back generations, so it is important for me to protect this for future generations”

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What flexible seating looks like in action

Flexible classrooms Proctor Elementary School

Physical aspects of a student-centered classroom

flexible classroomsSometimes what seems like a little change can make a big difference. That’s what two Proctor Elementary School teachers recently confirmed when they decided to incorporate flexible seating into their classrooms.

It’s been such a success that now every classroom in their school features some sort of flexible seating options for students.

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Moving in the middle

Getting up and shaking it off works for middle grades students

flexible classroomsRemember the last time you had to sit through meetings all day? You probably woke up in the morning dreading the amount of time you would have to sit and listen to others talk, while being expected to contribute to the conversation, only getting up for the occasional bathroom or lunch break.

While we dread these isolated incidents, we put our students through it day in and day out. So instead, let’s get up and move!

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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.

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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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Creating cooperative learning spaces

A visualization exercise for changing classrooms

flexible classroomsIt’s not your imagination. It really is the time of year when everyone gets a little wiggly. (Or a little more wiggly than usual.)

But how does your classroom layout respond to that energy? Does it honor it or stifle it? Can your students fling their arms wide to express their excitement over an idea, or are they squished into one-size-fits-someone seats with no rollers? The upcoming summer is a great time to plan a bold new layout for your new cooperative learning space.

Unsure where to begin? Let’s through an activity together to evaluate the state of your classroom (and other learning spaces), and make concrete steps for transformation.

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Creating flexible classrooms for personalized learning

Flexible classroom spaces encourage flexible learning

flexible classroomsMy principal in Baltimore came into my classroom one day and saw one of my students, Bree, standing next to a bookshelf in the back of my room with her laptop open and her things strewn about the surface. He approached her and asked, “Why aren’t you in your seat?” With her usual display of attitude, Bree shrugged him off and kept working. Bree worked almost every day at that bookshelf because she worked better standing and was able to focus better with a little distance from her peers. I didn’t ask Bree to work there — she selected for herself the environment that served her needs.

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