So, here I sit, trying to find my people, hoping that I can find a commonality with others to build a community in this social media infused world of ours. Do I think finding my tribe is important? Absolutely. Why? Because it is important for us to be able to learn from one another, spark each other's minds, work through challenges, and be able to grow. So how do I do it? How do I find my tribe? Jeff Goins blogs about Three Important Steps to Building a Killer Tribe. He states the following as these necessary steps,
Step 1: Be as personal as you can be Step 2: Stay relevant to your audience Step 3: Create mouth-watering anticipation I feel like I do all of these things. I am a real, down-to-earth person; I am accessible; and I am not afraid to tell people about my challenges or talk about mistakes I have made. I am talking directly to my audience about something specific, "Teaching What Matters" in the realm of high school education. I am blogging regularly to stay in the game, and I have created my network learning space to attract those who are interested in learning and building on a teaching and learning strategy that is new to many of us, interdisciplinary projects. Now what? I still don't have my people. I feel like my challenge is that I don't know how to get my name out there. I also feel like the only way to really do this is to network in person. Is that the key or is there something else I can do to get my tribe to notice me and build with me? We have great strides to make in the world of education. We need to make learning more relevant and help our students develop work-readiness skills like communication, collaboration, critical thinking, agility, etc. We can do this through project-based learning, problem-based learning, and interdisciplinary projects. Join me in my Google Community: Interdisciplinary Projects in High School.
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As I finish out the term, with only four days left, I am finding myself very overwhelmed with grading since my students love to procrastinate and hand tons in at the last minute. I don't know if this is just an alternative high school thing or if it is elsewhere too. Regardless, I started thinking about all of the great discussions my students and I have had, as well just my students with each other. I used to have them write paragraph after paragraph, and analyze poems by themselves, but so many things have changed in my classroom to make it more interactive and engaging. This has also allowed me to use different forms of assessments that don't require as many of the traditional assignments to be graded, such as the ones mentioned in the Tweet above. Phew...
What creative assessment strategies are you using these days that allow you to get a quick check on where your students are? The Tweeted question above spiked my interest because this is actually what I am thinking about right now. I just ordered some new tables and chairs, but they are high-tops with bar stools. I went from rows when I was in school 15 years ago; to computers at tables around the room in my first classroom; to computer tables, a whole class discussion circular table space, and a set of connected rectangular tables for art project space; and now I am adding the high-top space. We will see what happens and how I change my room once the high-tops come. How have you altered your classroom space to make it more efficient for communication, collaboration, innovation, etc.?
ASCD's Steven Weber provides a list of 5 Ways to Transform Learning Space in his Learning Space Matters post. Anne Taylor provides examples for How Schools Are Redesigning Their Space in her article in Educational Leadership. As I wrapped up term 3 this week with our students, who are all very new to this PBL approach to learning, a concern of mine that has been bubbling up over the past few years has officially erupted. One of the main reasons we, at our alternative school, decided to take on a PBL approach to teaching and learning was because we believe it teaches necessary work-readiness skills, but also because we know the traditional approach encountered at their previous school wasn't working for our kiddos: some have attendance issues, some don't turn in homework even though they do it at night, some simply don't do homework at all, and several mental health factors and challenging situations outside of school are encountered. However, one essential component to being successful in classes and not feeling all of the stress and anxiety that comes at the end of every term is time management and categorizing school projects as one of the top priorities. Instead, and even more so now that we are doing PBL, procrastination is the ultimate downfall of a student's success in classes. The passing rate this term is lower than ever because students are doing even bigger and better projects but waiting until the last minute to finish them up. It doesn't matter how much we warn them, prompt them, or redirect them, they still just always feel like they have more time than they really do; and the stress and anxiety levels rise throughout the building as soon as the last week of the term hits because projects may not be finished on time. The students and teachers alike turn in to different beings: limited smiling, increased outbursts, chaos, etc. If there was a magic wand to get our kiddos to stop procrastinating, I would use it in a heart beat.
Do any of you have any advice when it comes to student procrastination? As education continues to evolve and best practices, methods, and environments develop, there is a need for a space to obtain guidance, ideas, problems solving, exemplars, etc. Interdisciplinary, as known as cross-curricular, projects aren’t necessarily new to education; but often times these types of projects have been elementary school focused because the teachers are experts in multiple subject areas. In high school, interdisciplinary projects are more challenging, as subject areas and teachers are more divided. One teacher can connect the humanities in projects, and another teacher may include STEM in projects; but very rarely have we seen teachers as experts in individual subject areas joining together to have students create projects that connect three or four subject areas; for example, marketing, English, environmental science, and math. Many schools are transitioning from blended learning to more of a project/problem-based learning focus. Within the next 5 years, I see high schools transitioning even further into interdisciplinary PBL as I just described.
Let's learn from one another, work with each other, and build off the experiences and expertise to develop new designs and projects for this strategy of teaching. I ask you to join me on this adventure to help each other learn, grow, and succeed with our students. |
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Angelina Valvona-Herndon: a high school teacher, blessed to work with at-risk students striving to succeed in academia and the real world. Archives
October 2019
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