Tag: AprilBlogaDay

Whenever I hear the word “champion” I start to hear music. How could you not?

What exactly is a champion? According to Merriam-Webster, here are the top two definitions.

In the realm of education, we (or at least I do) often get caught up in race of test scores and teacher rankings. We want to win, to be the best, to be the champion (of the world!).

But really, that’s not the way to propel or profession forward. Instead of following the first definition of a champion which infers education is a contest to be won, we need to push further beyond ourselves and help one another to fight in support of a person, belief, or cause.

As educators, we are often fighting for a person – persons in our case – as we champion our students toward success. We create environments and experiences to help them uncover their strengths and passions in order to reach their full potential. We are our students champions. And it doesn’t have to just be the students in sitting your classroom everyday. Because of the way the project based learning program I teach in works, I interact with students daily that are not on my roster. I get to know them and work with them. It creates an awesome dynamic. You may not have this same environment at your school, but you can still look for ways forge relationships with the students in your school beyond the walls of your classroom.

Educators also fight for our beliefs. We believe every child can learn and succeed. We believe our profession is important and should be valued. We believe our education system is a beautiful thing even with its flaws. We believe we can make education better, make our classrooms better, make each lesson better than the one before. We believe that to teach is to constantly grow and learn.

And we fight for our causes. Personally, I love STEM. It’s a cause I fight for; one I hold dear. Do I expect that every student will end up in a STEM field? Of course not, but I think the focus on STEM will help some of our students find their passions. There are other causes we fight against, too, like the beast of standardized testing.

As you see, as educators, we are champions. As we champion in support of students, beliefs, and causes, the best way to be successful is to share. Share what works. Share what doesn’t. Share what needs to change. Share lessons. Share ideas. Share programs. That’s why I share on Twitter. That’s why I blog. It’s why I love leading professional development and writing online courses for my colleagues. Together, as we share, we become better. We become one another’s champions. And as we champion, we reach students in our classrooms all over the world. And our students will reach the future, and maybe (hopefully), they will change the world.

Maybe Queen was right after all. We ARE the champions of the world!

Don’t you just love this planning board? It’s filled with ideas, to-do lists, plans, and other information that will help make our first annual STEM Maker Fest a success. This board is in the room where my team eats lunch, so I get to see the information on the board evolve on a daily basis. Do you know what’s even more impressive about this board of plans? It wasn’t written by teachers or other adults. We placed the responsibility of planning the STEM Maker Fest into the hands of our students, and this is just one of the results. Primarily our juniors are taking care of all of the planning, logistics, sponsorships and other information that is necessary to make a major even like this happen. This board of plans is just part of their handiwork. Seeing this board every day is awe inspiring.

Our other students, especially our freshmen and sophomores are creating the booths and learning experiences for everyone who will attend the Maker Fest. On March 24, we had a Mini Maker Fest during the school day for students to show off their progress and so we could decide what booths would be moving forward. It was amazing! Watching students share and teach each other, excited about STEM concepts was amazing! Seeing all of the hard work students put into their projects begin to pay off as they shared with teachers, visitors, and other students was inspiring. We quickly noticed what ideas drew a crowd, and we expect to see similar results during the actual STEM Maker Fest.

Want to come out and see all of the amazing things happening? If you are in the Atlanta area, please plan to join us on Saturday, May 16 from 10 am – 2 pm at Lanier High School in Sugar Hill, GA. Believe me, you’ll be filled with awe and inspired as well!

One of my favorite exhibits was this booth showing the effects of sound waves on Non-Newtonian fluids. As soon as they started playing music, a huge crowd of students had gathered around to watch what was happening. Another group is showing kids how to make the Non-Newtonian fluid, so we’ll place the booths side by side so kids can see how it works and then make their own!

Mini Maker Fest Booth from Janelle Wilson on Vimeo.

One of the other inspiring things is how our students work together to plan their exhibit. Look at these two amazing examples of planning sites. We ask our students to create a web site for every project in order for them to organize what needs to get done. It’s also a great testament to the hard work they are doing. It’s times like this I am reminded of the amazing potential in all of our students!

• Novus: Creators at Work
• Scribble Bots

Our students are capable of amazing things when we give them the opportunity. This is one of the reasons I love working in a project based learning (PBL) STEM environment. Experiences like this should be available to all students. Slowly, change is coming to education. Our learning experiences are becoming more authentic and inspiring. And one of the craziest things about this entire project? It’s not tied to any specific content standard. Sure, it fits well with our science, language arts, and technology classes, but at the heart of this project is a desire for students to share knowledge with others. This is an experience they will never forget. This is true learning. It’s awe inspiring watching students take control of their learning!

Just imagine: You pour your heart and soul into creating the perfect assignment or project that infuses inquiry and discovery while leading students to a deep understanding of the content. You excitedly share this new learning experience with your students explaining all of the important details, and as soon as you ask for questions, you get the one you dread.

“Will this be for a grade?”

Or maybe you’ll get its evil cousin. “What kind of grade will this be?” (Assuming your gradebook has categories of different weights like mine does.)

When did chasing down a specific grade become more important than learning? Why is our focus on making the grade instead of learning and improving? What does an “A” even mean?

Does making straight “A”s mean a student is learning? Could it really just mean they already knew the material? Or perhaps they are just really good at regurgitating material. What does a “B” mean? or a “C”? Ask anyone who has been to school (which will probably be almost anyone you ask), and they are sure to have some opinion on grades and the importance of As, Bs, or Cs. They know what it means to get a D or to fail. But do they really know? Is a student who is failing not learning? Could they be learning but struggling with the material? Is an A student automatically learning? Could they already know the material?

We use the traditional A, B, C, D, F (or U) grading system because we are used to it. It makes assessing assignments easy for teachers. When we have classes of 32 or more a relatively easy grading system is required. But if we don’t know what are students know, and our students don’t really know what they know, what good is the system? Does it take time to assess students using other methods? Absolutely. Is there one perfect way to assess students? Maybe, but I haven’t found it yet. Does our grading system need an overhaul? In my opinion, absolutely yes. But perhaps this is just one tiny electron in a universe of education molecules that need changing. For instance, a system that allows for continuous student growth requires a lot of time on behalf of the teacher and the student. With large class sizes, there wouldn’t be enough time in the day to fairly evaluate each student. So is the problem the grading system or the class size? There are many things in education that need fixing, changing, reinventing.

So what do we do? We take baby steps. We make the changes in the classroom that work for us. (For instance, last year I used standards based grading very effectively. With a new school this year, it just wasn’t to be.) Eventually, the world of education will become the wondrous thing of learning we envision for all of our students. And one day, our students will be telling stories to their own children about when they were graded in school with As, Bs, and Cs. Can you even imagine?

Sometimes, the pressures of teaching and the responsibilities placed on us shift our focus to standards and test scores and curriculum. Students become numbers associated with a test score. Are they making gains? Are they learning? Are the numbers improving?

But you know what? I don’t teach standards or curriculum or tests.

I teach kids.

Do you stop to get to really know your students? I try. I am definitely not perfect at it. I know some of my students really well. I know some of students a little bit, and there are others I really don’t know well at all. With some of my students, there are really special connections. As a former sixth grade teacher turned high school teacher working in the same cluster, I have developed some long term relationships with students.

I have a student I taught in sixth grade who won a scholarship to attend Space Camp through a contest I hosted thanks to Honeywell. This year, she is in my chemistry class. During open house in the fall, her mom told me it is my fault that her daughter loves science and wants to study space, and it all stemmed from her experiences at Space Camp.

I teach in the largest school district in Georgia, and yet our community retains a small town feel. I see my kids at the mall, at church, and other places around town. My kids stop and chat with me. We have conversations. For many of my students, I know their parents.

It is so important to remember that our students are people filled with hopes, dreams, loves, stresses, and struggles. Our job may technically be to teach content and standards, but ultimately we are teaching kids to  become productive members of society set on the path to reach their goals and dreams. In my opinion, the best way to do this is to show our students we care about them as people.

I’ll leave your with this text conversation I had with a student yesterday. I think it highlights the type of relationships I have with my students. Because just like us, our students are humans worthy of respect, so we can help them reach their true potential.

The last few days leading up to a break can be challenging for all involved. Teachers are tired, students are tired, the days feel long and the break too far away, and yet there is still learning to do and class time to use wisely. So how do you make the days before a break count yet still be cognizant of the fact that students are just as tired and drained as we feel as teachers?

This is my first year teaching high school, and the climate before a break is much different than it was in middle school. Yes, kids are excited and ready for a break, but you can see on their faces that they are just as exhausted as we all feel as teachers. In fact, my sophomores had two standardized essay tests to take earlier this week, so they are particularly drained. We also finished up phase one of a large project (our STEM Maker Fest) last week and began phase two on our project work day this week. We ask a lot of our students. However, I still feel that every class moment is important. I want to make every day I am with my students count.

So, how do I do this? For my chemistry students, I have been incorporating a high interest lab. We are about to begin our thermochemistry unit, so a calorimeter lab that involves setting food on fire definitely keeps kids interested! In fact, as we started the lab today, my students were very focused and engaged. We burned mini-marshmallows and Cheetos and will be using the data we collected to measure the heat released from the food products. Tomorrow we’ll compare with Doritos and large marshmallows. My engineering students have been studying structural principles. We built paper platforms and craft stick bridges first. Now we are building toothpick towers. I watched groups of students working very intently while building today.

Just because it is the last day or two before a break doesn’t mean the days are wasted. We can definitely make these days count. However, taking into account the mental and physical state of our students is important. We should provide them with educational opportunities that are valuable but also fun and highly engaging during these times.

So how do you make the days before a break count?

As I was perusing Twitter this morning, I saw a link to an April Blog a Day Challenge. This intrigued me, and I decided to investigate a bit more. I learned it was education focused and not an April Fools’ Day joke.(You just can’t be too skeptical on April 1st!) It sounded like a great idea because I have been wanting to blog more. In fact almost every day I come home with an amazing story, but then I let other things get in the way of sharing. I am hoping this challenge will help me to get back on track!

If you are interested in joining, it’s not too late! You can sign up here and join in! Look for much more exciting posts from me in the next few days – especially since spring break is just around the corner. Happy blogging!