If you’ve read some of my last posts, you’ll know that my school board is working with the Ministry of Education to implement Growing Success, a document that is helping educators throughout Ontario (and probably beyond our provincial borders as well). #GSIP (the Growing Success Implementation Project) is built on a solid foundation of research, and I tend to favour the focus on transparency and fairness in assessment.
By paying closer attention to learning goals, success criteria, feedback and assessment, my colleagues and I are gaining a much broader perspective of the educational experiences in our classrooms. While it is important to focus on how we teach, it is critical to consider the student perspective in the learning cycle.
This week, we have the opportunity to meet with many other educators in our board to share our learning and to help each other move forward. I’m really looking forward to hearing what other teachers are working on, struggling with, and what they would like to share with the group.
In an attempt to share my own learning, I’ll be relying on a few new ‘techy tools’ that I wanted to experiment with. Technology appeals to introverted people who are searching for tools to help them share their thoughts.
I might not be the best at speaking in front of a crowd, but I do appreciate the gains that have been made by so many people in our board. I wanted to have the chance to voice my thanks.
When we are on a steady course of learning, there can be moments that stand out a little bit more. These moments may spike our curiosity or add clarity to what we’ve been trying to understand. As I’ve mentioned before, our school is part of a Growing Success Project. Learning goals, success criteria, assessment and feedback are huge components of our explorations toward creating a better learning environment for our students. Lately, though, we’ve been looking at some of our rich performance tasks, re-evaluating their effectiveness depending on criteria from a variety of sources.
It’s odd to think that sharing a project with other educators could be an intimidating process, but it is. For some reason, standing up in front of a class is much different than sharing thoughts with colleagues. Fear of judgment or failure is huge. You also don’t want to disappoint anyone who may have hopes that you will be able to move forward and share some good material. Although I really valued today’s session, I found that the time spent in our smaller groups (to prepare for today) was a bit less intimidating.
There was one moment that stood out a bit more than others. Yesterday became an extension of our school’s small group focus on rich performance tasks. In a meeting with our school’s lead learner, we evaluated one of my projects that I am using with my grade 9 students. After making recommendations and sharing some great thoughts, she told me that many of us are at a point where we see the value of the theory behind the Growing Success project. What we need to do now is to apply it in practice. To allow our classroom work to catch up with our thoughts.
Artists are happiest when they are creating. There is no better therapy than the experience, the feeling of creation. Having ideas is fine, but there unless you produce, you will feel somewhat unfulfilled.
I recently shared the following video with my students:
The thing is, unless I practice what I teach, my hopes for my students are somewhat empty. They need me to be able to connect with the very thoughts that I’m sharing with them. How can I teach them about all of the reasons why they should continue to learn about art if I’m not enjoying it myself?
The last two days have been filled with creative endeavours. I reminded myself of what it felt like to throw a few pots on the wheel, to share that love with my daughter, and I experimented with a new paper mache recipe.
Originality and creativity mean so much to an artist, but so do skill and craftsmanship. Occasionally, re-using a project in the art class makes me want to cringe because it’s been done before. I have to remember that it’s new for my students, and it’s improving their skills, but it’s nice to liven things up a bit.
For years, I’ve taught my grade 9 students about masks around the world, and they have learned about sculpture, as well as the elements of form and texture. They usually use balloons as the base of the form, and then make about 4 layers of paper mache before adding features and details. It is a long and sometimes frustrating process, but it is a project that has almost become a tradition for my grade 9 students, so on it goes.
A few days ago, I happened to find a website thanks to Pinterest (one of my guilty pleasures) that shared a paper mache project:
What a difference from my old projects! The combination of flour & water wasn’t new, but I have never cooked the mixture before. The result was fantastic. Very creamy, and I was delighted to find that I could use long strips of newspaper rather than short pieces, since the new mixture made the strips conform to the shape of the plastic so well. Amazing! Using the plastic milk container is another bonus. Not only am I recycling in a creative way, but the plastic adds so much strength and form. This will save my students a ton of time.
I’m really looking forward to introducing their sculpture task. Now to collect a bunch of plastic milk containers…
Last night’s reading, ‘Mind-Sets and Equitable Education” by Carol S. Dweck, struck a personal chord with me. In the article, Dweck discusses the difference between having a fixed vs. a growth mind-set. Although most of her descriptions are meant to help us understand students and to help them change some perceptions that they may have developed about themselves, there are other applications as well.
They [students] may have a fixed mind-set, in which they believe that intelligence is a static trait: some students are smart and some are not, and that’s that. Or they may have a growth mind-set, in which they believe that intelligence can be developed by various means — for example, through effort and instruction. (Dweck)
Today’s Growing Success workshop gave attendees some time to process the relevance of Dweck’s article. Although theoretically the concepts are solid and make sense, it can be a bit more complicated than it seems. When we really begin to think about applying these principles in the classroom, we must be sensitive to the fragile perceptions held by our students. We all want the best for our students, and we may be able to see their potential for growth and success, but there are numerous reasons why students develop insecurities that seem to disable them. I’m sure that I don’t need to begin to outline all of the social, emotional, intellectual (and other) factors that could influence someone’s belief that they have certain strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes students in our classrooms are holding themselves back because they are convinced that they can only succeed to a certain extent.
So, how do you change mind-set?
Although Dweck does investigate this a bit further, I’d like to share a video that we were presented with today:
Motivation is key. If students could believe that they have much more potential than they first thought, imagine the new possibilities their lives could hold.
After listening to Eduardo Briceno’s talk, I had to see if Josh Waitzkin had shared some of his thoughts (there were quotes that Briceno had referenced in his presentation). I quickly found the next book that is going on my reading list: The Art of Learning. Waitzkin’s appeal is found in his motivation to push past pride to explore methods of learning: “The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety.” (Waitzkin, The Art of Learning)
I had previously mentioned that ‘there are other applications as well’. Students are not the only ones who find themselves spending hours in a learning environment almost every day. Although I’m sure that there are a variety of potential connections between Dweck’s article and educators, I can only speak from my own experiences. For years, I had been convinced that there were limits to my voice. Although I was good at art and learned how to teach, I was too shy to share my thoughts with my peers. It took a very patient and encouraging mentor (with some helpful tools) to begin to break me out of my shell. I had a fixed mind-set and limited my own capabilities. I’m so glad to have a voice, to express my thoughts in my own way and to be able to share thoughts with other educators. The thing is, I needed a little bit of help to get to this point. Keeping this in mind, it is my hope that I can help unlock the potential of some of my students who may struggle with fixed mind-sets.
I want to thank Nicole Morden-Cormier and Donna Fry (and the rest of the Growing Success team) for their thought-provoking workshop today. I know that these thoughts are only a few of the many that were shared, so I look forward to more opportunities to share what we learned today.
Usually any sort of collaboration is pretty cool, but Dean Shareski’s latest project was an incredible experience to be part of. Here is a bit of info about the song inspired the idea:
The Barenaked Ladies, a children’s choir, and the commander of the International Space Station. Put them together and what do you get? The first space-to-earth musical collaboration.
The song, “I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing) was commissioned by CBCMusic.ca and The Coalition for Music Education with the Canadian Space Agency to celebrate music education in schools across Canada. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvAnfi8WpVE&feature=player_embedded)
The students in our school who participated in the lip dub are going to be so excited tomorrow when I tell them that Commander Hadfield saw the video. Late last night, my Principal (Donna Fry) wrote a blog post that explained how our school was involved. This afternoon, she mentioned Commander Hadfield in a tweet and included a link to her blog. Moments after, I *had* to take a screen shot. Check it out:
HOLY COW!!
So… not only did we get the chance to take part in a cool project… but it was shared on Twitter, watched in SPACE, and Commander Hadfield tweeted about it!! If that isn’t exciting, I don’t know what is. Seriously.
This past week I was fortunate enough to attend #OTRK12 (On The Rise K-12 Digital Learning) in Mississauga. I thought I’d be able to post about what I learned right away, but to be truthful, I’m still processing many things that I learned throughout the 2-day conference. In a way, I’m assessing the success of the conference based on my level of learning as well as my level of discomfort. You might think that discomfort shouldn’t be associated with success, but I think it should be. If things are too comfortable, you’re not moving forward.
Pride can be a major stumbling block, and I have the feeling that although I’ve made some changes in my classroom in the last while, it’s not as if I’ve arrived at my destination. The journey is just beginning.
Right now, students in my class have a teacher who is interested in technology and is trying to wrap her head around how to use it productively. We have a class website, and each of my students has their own digital portfolio. We use our class hashtag (#niprockart) to share files, resources and reminders. We’ve even used Skype to add a bit of zest to our learning. Global citizenship is working its way into our studies as we become a bit more aware and responsible to others on the internet.
How, then, do I take it to the next step? Will blended learning benefit my students? If so, how? If we use blended learning, will the safe environment of the LMS not allow some of the rich interactions that have occurred through use of student blogs in a public platform? I love the concept of sharing thoughts (and artwork) with others in order to benefit from a variety of feedback (instead of relying solely on comments from the teacher). Would that be lost by using the LMS?
~ Slowly, my questions will find answers. I know that there are some great people who are so wonderful at sharing their knowledge and reassuring people like me who still need to figure things out. Looking forward to the journey.
Wow, #etmooc sure has provided a ton of opportunities to explore a vast new territory for so many educators! What a whirlwind of amazing learning experiences… how can it possibly be coming to an end? I feel like the little green guy from Just For Laughs:
I know it’s not really the end. How on earth could such a cool experience ever really end? Well, for starters, since I missed a number of sessions, I know I’ll be catching up on some great archived recordings. Another goal is to play a bit with some of the suggested projects… I have a feeling I’ll be tempted by all the fun with digital storytelling!
What I’ve really enjoyed about all this is coming to the realization that I’m not alone. Whether I’ve lurked or participated in any of the #etmooc events, there have always been other people that have had questions. Lots of questions. Questions that I might have been afraid to ask. Questions that I’m so glad someone else had the courage to ask because it gave me the confidence to ask questions too. What an amazing learning environment — where it’s ok to be clueless, and the support is almost overwhelming.
I’m so glad that other people in my school had the chance to take part too: @fryed, @jmarciski, @kimberniprock… wasn’t it fun to be part of something like this together?
