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Spring semester grades are due tomorrow. Along with a grade (A,B,C,D,F) we must provide a "comment" for each student. Comments provide students and parents with some qualitative information regarding student behavior, performance, etc. Although a fabulous idea, given the 100+ students I must provide a grade and comment for, I always find myself doing one of two things: Either 1) writing WAY too much for each student, and thus frustrating our admin with the need to produce an extra long report card for that student or 2) fizzling out at student ~ 24 and providing a stock comment for the strong student and a stock comment for students that need improvement. Below is one such example: Frustrated with the cognitive dissonance that exists in spending the entire year committed to motivating students to ask questions, negotiate complexity and develop a love for the inquiry process, while simultaneously being required to judge my students with one letter and a one paragraph comment, I decided to "hack" the system a bit. In lieu of providing one comment for each student, I wrote one letter to all of my students, and then provided a link to the letter in the comment box. See screenshot below: Although each student will receive the same letter, I was able to take the time necessary to clearly write a reflection that used chemistry as a window to impart a few words of advice as their journey continues. In an ideal world, and hopefully in years to come, I will be able to write a tailored letter for each student, in the context of our current system, I feel this letter is a good start. The letter is embedded below for you to read. In addition to the below letter, I had direct conversations with students and parents that needed a more personal touch, both positive and negative. I am hopeful that this combination of a grade, thoughtful letter, and individual conversations, will add more meaning to a process that often inhibits meaningful learning in my classroom practice.
As May approaches, I always find myself in a deeply reflective mood regarding what worked and what didn't work in the classroom. From a pedagogical perspective there are many things I plan on changing next school-year. Per the usual, I struggled with assessment. I began the year determined to implement a very structured and intentional Standards Based Grading system. As the year progressed, my natural tendency to slack on grading and to let my strong relationships with my students replace my objective intentions, led once again to a qualitative "from the gut" approach to evaluating my students. Perhaps a more human "technique", but definitely not in-line with my initial intentions. Blah, blah, blah, so much to improve.
From a technology perspective, things went very well. As with the assessment procedures describe above, my approach to tech integration began with a very structured and very simple mission: use a minimal number of tools to a) spark and b) organize student curiosity (click here for more information about the logic used in developing this mission statement). Though a lens of technology integration, past school-years were full of exciting changes in tool availability, strength and efficacy. I found myself energized by all the new techniques and opportunities new tools afforded. My classroom was a playground where new tech tools were used nearly everyday. Despite this excitement, I sensed a level of disorganization in my class, and an aura of frustration among the students. This year I decided to ground myself in the simple mission stated above, and let the technology I leveraged fall in-line with that mission only. If a tool could be used to spark student curiosity then I tried it out. If it didn't, then I didn't (click here for a more in-depth discussion on sparking student curiosity). Additionally, if a tool could be used to organize student curiosity once sparked, I tried it out. If it didn't, then I didn't. Simple. At first it was difficult to let go of the beautifully edited screencasts, slick websites, and nifty apps, but as the year progressed, the power of this mission statement took form and two tools/techniques rose to the top: YouTube in conjunction with SaveFromNet and Blogger in conjunction with email. The YouTube/SaveFromNet 1-2 punch helped my capture the myriad of curious events related to chemistry published online (movie clips, experiments from colleagues, commercials, etc.) and given the spotty internet in my classroom, download the clips to mp4 and quickly trim keeping in mind the strategies for sparking involuntary student curiosity indicated by Loewenstein in his 1994 literature review (see p. 91). See screencast below for an example of this workflow:
After student curiosity was sparked, the messy process of student testing hypothesis and the, as J.J. Abrahams would say, intentional withholding of information, progressed. During this time, students used their individual blogs as a location for reflection and a space to catalog archives of their learning process. Given the variety of devices, students were weary of blogging, however because blogger allows any user to "Post Via Email" creating a detailed blog, full of text, image and videos became as simple as sending an email. The subject line becomes the blog title, text, the body of the blog, and attached images and video embed directly in the blog. See screencast below for an example of this workflow:
Sparking student curiosity and cultivating a "need to know" that transcends a quest for grades and the "required by law" to go to school notion, is something I care deeply about. As a human in the world, leveraging my tendency towards curiosity and negotiating the cognitive tension presented by surprising, incomplete, or confusing events has been a very positive thing in my life. I am excited to see how a classroom technology mission statement grounded in this strong tendency grows and evolves as I strive to instill a sense of curiosity about the world in my students. As the Quaker educator Parker Palmer says: "We teacher from who we are". Although simple, these two tech strategies helped me embrace Palmer's message.
I love teaching. Chances are, if you have made it to this blog post, you also love teaching. Among the myriad of reasons, I love the creative process teaching requires. We, as educators, must constantly go back and fourth between creation and implementation. Our work is never waiting for us. We must create it. I LOVE this aspect of the vocation. Keeping the above in mind, I also, like you, find myself getting overwhelmed by not only the many innovative tools at our disposable, but more importantly, the innovative pedagogies I come across on twitter, reading blogs, and in conversation with other educators. It does feel counterintuitive that the abundance of innovation is also a road block to innovation. Even more cognitively dissonant, is the overwhelmed feeling I get when trying to search for, and learn a new tool to keep track of, my thoughts and ideas. I've tried EVERYTHING and nothing seems to work. By "work", I mean, be a space where an idea is stored, removed from Working Memory, accessed, evaluated and used. One place. This frustration has brought me back, in the past year to the joy and aesthetics of a simple paper notebook; a place where I jot things down, don't have to have any specific device, and can keep track of easily. Until, I lose it, like I did lost month at the movies (Catching Fire was #legit though...). Not only did I lose it, I swear, I lost 10+ ideas that could have benefited my students. So, after that #ridonkylously long-winded introduction, below is what I am doing now. I needed a system that was grounded in technology, but a technology that is so old, that it transcends "technology" and is just a solid, branded part of our Long-Term Memory : TEXT MESSAGES. I text all the friggin time! My mom, my dad (awkward, yes...but effective), my wife, my students, everybody. It's not only how I communicate, it is how we all communicate. Sad, yes, that I don't pick up the phone to call somebody, but prolific, and a space that can be leveraged to curate my ideas in a more efficient and more collaborative manner. Below is the work flow: Step 1: Sign up for If This, Than That account. Step 2: Sing up for Google Drive, and make a sheet called "Idea Dump" Step 3: Create the below recipe. This recipe will allow you to text If This, Than That, and they will subsequently, drop whatever you texted them in a row in that same spreadsheet. Step 4: Save the number in your cell phone (and any other cell phone you might use from time-to-time...wife, husband, partner, etc.) as "Idea Dump". This allows you to pull up the number quickly, and "dump" your idea down without even thinking. See screenshot below: Step 5: Share your spreadsheet as a "view only" document publicly with the world via your blog, website, etc. See screenshots below: Step #5 is perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT part, and the part that all other mechanisms missed. I am often asked questions like: "How did you come up with that?", or "I wish I could be in your head.". The deal is, we ALL have amazing ideas, we ALL LOVE our students and WE ALL owe to one another to capture those ideas, even if they are as simple as the ones you see above, share them BACK TO OURSELVES and OUT TO ONE ANOTHER.
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