Meet Passion's kissin' cousin: Bossy! - Week #3 in an SDL classroom

It's Sunday night, and I'm tired. I spent seven hours at the school this weekend with my SDL students, working on the yearbook and painting ceiling tiles. All told, ten students contributed between two and four hours to their projects in the past two days. My students' investment in the class is high.

But we also had some snipping this week.  On Friday, our "Eye of the Needle" video team squabbled over whether or not to write a grant to purchase a better computer for their video editing. (This is almost laughable! They're fighting over whether or not to write a grant?!) The tech guru is frustrated that his computer at home has better editing capability than the ones in our lab and wanted to find a way to get a new computer. The producer of the show pulled on the reins.

"We've only made two videos. Hold your horses," she said.
"We've made three."
"But we've only uploaded two."

Their voices were tense, but they weren't yelling.

If this had not been a SDL classroom, I may have intervened right then. I saw some territory of compromise I could nudge them towards, and I was pretty sure I saw motivation for their respective positions more clearly than they did themselves.  I saw a power struggle between two very bright and strong-willed students who are vying for control of the most exciting project they've tackled in years.

But I want my kids to learn by doing and to experience problem solving as organically as possible. So I asked some questions to steer them back to more stable ground (What is it you want our computers to be able to do? Would you be willing to see if tech support can help us with solutions?), but I didn't pull rank, and I didn't tell them what to do.  They mumbled agreement to let the topic rest for the weekend.

On Saturday the producer left this note on her week's report:"I hope we get along a little better as a team this week. There was a little tension throughout the week that could have been avoided by all of us." I was pleased to see her ownership in the phrasing "by all of us."

If students are invested in their projects, if students own their work, they'll generate passion. And passion is a close cousin to bossy. Wish us luck. I'll report back next week.

Who gets the credit? - Week #2

“There is no limit to what a man can do so long as he does not care a straw who gets the credit for it.”
--Charles Edward Montague

A cluster of students (started as two and has grown to six) is making a weekly video for our news site. I am bursting with pride for the work they are doing and the exponential growth in quality of their product from Week #1 to Week #2 (to be released Monday).

But I can't take the credit--which is my biggest slice of ah-ha from Week #2. I get huge gulps of identity from my students' learning (which, as their teacher, I'm in the habit of taking credit for). For example, when a parent says "My son learned so much in your class!" I have mentally twisted that to be "I get the credit for your son's learning!" 

SDL turns that on its head. I am still a teacher, and I'm working behind the scenes to soften a bump or rev an engine, but my sally into SDL requires me to relinquish center stage. #BlockThatMetaphor

Consider my Eye of the Needle news team. (Our news site is The Needle, a diminutive of our school's yearbook The Javelin, based on our mascot as Trojans...so yes, there is meaning in the name.) The team's first video was filmed, in part, from a laptop. This meant that all of the weather information appeared backwards in their film. And because they used a corner of the journalism lab for filming, there was an artificial tree and a hamster cage in the background. The student interview was a mixture of flat, bland, and fake.

What do these facial expressions say about learning attitude? Click HERE to watch their show.

Oh, my teacher-heart beat pitter-pat with all I was prepared to teach the team about improving their news show this week! But I never got the chance. Without so much as consulting me, they reserved the ICN room and lined up the technology integrationist to teach them to use the SmartBoard.  On two separate occasions Hannah gently told me we'd have to continue our conversation at another time because she was working on deadline. I happened to see a script for their MUCH IMPROVED student interview questions lying by the printer. My biggest contribution this week? I found them a better tripod.

On Friday the kids fill out a report to keep me in the loop, and in response to my question asking if he'd like to meet to discuss grade/productivity, Travis wrote: "Im to busy and im doing fine!" (Evidently he's also too busy for punctuation and capitalization, but that's another matter--)

The Eye of the Needle team is doing not only the learning, but the teaching too. Frankly, they get all the credit--which is how it should be.

Learning from Week #1

I'd like to think room 408 has always been a welcoming, invigorating learning environment. But what transpired during our first four days of SDL opened my eyes to a whole new level of student ownership/engagement.

On day two (Wednesday), I planned to continue my introduction of how an SDL classroom would operate. (We hadn't yet discussed how they'd be graded!) But evidently the six words they latched onto from my day-one spiel were: "You will direct your own learning." They burst into the room announcing their projects and ideas. One wanted to prepare a journalism lesson for 5th-graders; two wanted to interview the new teacher; another wanted to work on making the classroom more "our own" by painting ceiling tiles. I hadn't realized how hungry students are to take control. Here I was at a fork in our road, barely 24-hours in. Would I praise their ideas but tell them to hold their horses until we had more guidelines in place? Or would I step aside? My response to their enthusiasm would say one of two things: 1) Wait. Let's do things my way, or 2) Let's roll! I went with #2, submerged my "teacher," and felt myself swept along (not in front of) their momentum.

By the end of the week (day 4) my students had begun calling themselves "the production team." They've designed t-shirts, held a press conference, conceptualized a mural for our wall, and written stories about jazz band, Pink-Out, the new teacher, and a big game between two schools with connection to ours. One student set up a blog, another is working out the logistics of writing an advice column (which involved teaching herself to make Google Forms). Two of my busy bees are producing "The Eye of the Needle" (a video re-cap of our news site--AHSneedle) and had already taped a mock-up by Friday.

I admit we are in the honeymoon phase. The pace of week one was breakneck. We're either going to crash and burn or rocket into the stratosphere. Here are my random notes:

1) Loved how L stepped up to help B with interviewing.
2) Loved how the Eye of the Needle team is including their classmates.
3) Concerned about how a couple ideas generated in one class period were dissed by others. I'm playing mediator.
4) I worry that my standards of quality work might be more picky than my students' standards. Whose do we use?
5) Of my 25 students, five or six will need help starting their engines. Must remember to bring jumper cables.
6) My primary content in this coming week will be interpersonal skills. Think I'll teach a few kids about "third point."
7) Each day I am posting suggestions of ideas/projects/tasks that they may want/need to tackle. No one has jumped at my suggestion to develop a system to keep others up to speed on our projects. I'll do this myself today.
8) Only one student (who carries a 4.0) has asked about grades.
9) My editors will have to step it up to keep pace with the SDL production team.

I'm eager to hear from others out there who are teaching in SDL or PBL classrooms. Give me your suggestions/reflections!

Opening Questions for SDL

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR A STUDENT-DIRECTED CLASSROOM

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. –Oscar Wilde

1)   What kinds of learning situations occur naturally?

2)   What do you want to understand, produce, or know how to do?

3)   How can WE (classmates/teacher) help you do that?

4)   If what is being taught is not inherent to the goals of the students, it will be forgotten.  What are your journalism goals?

5)   How do you learn best?

6)   What is your best learning environment, and how can we make this room/school fit everyone’s needs?

7)   Is it possible for us to have a few general rules for all—and individual rules too?  If so, what “rules” do you need to help your productivity?

8)   Are you worried about grades? What is your criteria for your best work? Is it reasonable to expect a person’s “best” at all times? Hmmm….

9)   How will we deal with the reality that some kids will put more time and energy into this class than will others?

10)  What will be our interpersonal expectations?

11)  Your questions:

Why Student-Directed Learning?

WHY SDL?

·      We learn best by doing, not by listening.

·      We learn when we want to learn.

·      Finding “the flow” is more important than ANY content.

·      Reproducing “the flow” is key to learning/living (and loving learning and living).

·      The learning is cognitive-based, not content-based.

·      SDL is transformative learning.

WHAT YOU MUST KNOW UP FRONT ABOUT SDL:

·      We will make mistakes. We must do so fearlessly.

·      You have permission to take control of what and how you want to learn.

·      You will determine how you want to be evaluated.

·      This is an experimental class.

·      SDL is supported by ACSD administration.

YOUR TEACHER’S FEARS:

·      What if this doesn’t work?

·      What if we don’t get the paper/yearbook produced?

·      What if no one wants to do the things I think they should?

·      What will I do if people play games and tweet all hour?

·      What if this feels like complete chaos?

·      What if this class sucks all my energy and I have none left for teaching Comp?

YOUR TEACHER’S HOPES:

Þ   This is exactly the way I’ve always wanted to teach.

Þ   I have fantastic students signed up for JP.

Þ   SDL “fits” JP perfectly.

Þ   I have some really good ideas for “sunlight and fertilizer.”

Þ   SDL gives us permission to UNLEASH our learning—see how far it goes!

GUIDELINES FOR 408 SDL

1)   You must be excited to come into this room to work each day. If you are not, we need to figure out why. This room MUST be yours.

2)   Berryhill’s job is to help you find your interests, think about how to make decisions, and understand how to approach a problem.

3)   This is a garden of learning. Berryhill provides sunlight and fertilizer. You are responsible for stretching your roots.

4)   JP is an apprenticeship: Learn by doing with help from mentors.

5)   Let Berryhill know where you are and what you’re doing at all times.

6)   If you’re going to be late/absent, text Berryhill.

7)   Be kind; be polite.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Þ   We have the responsibility of publishing and promoting AHSneedle.com.

Þ   We have the responsibility of producing and promoting the Javelin.
We have the legal responsibilities associated with producing student press.