As a result of this shift, and mind you, it’s only been a couple of weeks since school began, I’ve found that not only do my students enjoy learning more, but I enjoy teaching more. The strange thing is, however, that it is mostly due to the fact that with PBW, I’m not limiting myself to only teaching what I know. I’m learning with them, and in so doing, am modeling how to learn. In other words, I am the writing authority, but not the content authority.

Let me give you the best example I can. Right now, as we speak, I am in the midst of a fantastic unit called The Darpa Project. It all began this summer when my husband told me of a cool symposium going on in late September in Florida for which DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) was seeking presenters. They were asking scientists, futurists, ethicists, and science-fiction writers to apply to be a part of a forum to brainstorm ways to colonize a planet within 100 years. The project itself is called the 100 Years Starship Study. Incidentally, I can hear Star Trek music in my brain scoring that title every time I write or type it.

The conference would be segregated into 7 tracks, all focused on different aspects of what it would take to colonize: the time-distance issues, economic challenges, medical considerations, communicating and publicizing the rationale, etc…

As I read over the website, it occurred to me that applying to speak at a conference was a sort of a persuasive writing exercise. It also occurred to me that studying these different “tracks” and synthesizing one’s research into a proposal was a sort of an executive summary. And lo, a Project Based Writing Unit was born.

So I whipped together an iMovie introducing the concept with some dramatic suspense music thrown in. I threw together a pacing guide for myself and a packet with checklist for them. The packet gave details of how each small “professional community” of experts would be broken down into groups of 7 students. Each student would be responsible for becoming an authority on one of the “tracks.” The packet also contained various assignments and due dates leading up to a mock panel that would take place during lunch, where students from all over the school could come to our symposium to learn about colonizing the stars. And then I had a thought: hey, what if I called my friend in the CalTech patent office and asked if she knew of anyone who could come over during these lunchtimes to be an authentic audience for my students? Perhaps that person(s) could ask questions like a Q & A, or evaluate the presentations in some way? Wow, wouldn’t my students be excited, I thought.

So I sent out the email to my buddy, who responded and said she’d ask around and get back to me, and two weeks later I got a call…from NASA.

It seems that there is now an additional group added to the agenda for the DARPA 100 Years Starship Study: my students. It’s true. A small panel of my students will be presenting via Skype (or WebX, TBD) to an audience of those very same scientists, futurists, ethicists, and science-fiction writers my students will be researching. My students will be presenting not as scientists, but as experts with a unique invested interest in this project. After all, the adults in the room are planning for the generations that will come after the generation after us. My students, on the other hand, will have a hand in building the future for their own children. They will be leaving a legacy behind when they leave 8th grade.

But the import of what this unit has become is not what makes it so fun to teach. What makes it so fun to teach is how little I know about the content I’m asking my students to learn.

Sure I know a lot about writing and reading comprehension and research skills and internet literacy; and that’s ultimately what I’m responsible to teach. However, that’s not what the content of this unit is focused on. What that means is that we get to learn together. This is different than reciprocal learning, which is when I learn from them and they learn from me. This is going on a journey with my students, emailing and exploring and discovering and having head scratching moments and eureka moments along with them. We enter the classroom with ideas together, we sit and brainstorm together, and ultimately we will come away from this experience richer and more knowledgeable together.

I’ve got a few units already in the works for other genres later this year: Literary Analysis and Narrative to name two. But my goal now for this year is not to teach what I know, but to fold in what I know with what I don’t so that modeling learning becomes part of my job.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: authentic assessments, darpa, education, k12, project based learning, test prep

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So when we began using Skype, it seemed the easiest (and free) video conferencing tool to start experimenting with while waiting for our district to bring in more sophisticated tools. This is apparently happening in the near future, but if you’re a teacher looking to engage your students NOW, you find ways to get ahead of the timeline.

We’ve both worked with our students in the past on teaching students to be teachers. (I’ll write more on a unit I’ve developed on the subject at a later time.) So they come to the table with certain skills already in place:

1. Leading a whole class lesson (definition or demonstration)

2. Allowing for Small Group Discussion

3. Developing a Visual (non-linguistic representation) of the subject

4. Creating an Assessment

Two tween teachers

McRae and I decided that in order to do some test prep with our classes, we would split some terms up between the two
classes, and that each class would be in charge of teaching the other. So, let’s say, my class was in charge of reviewing the following terms:

Analysis

Theme

Context Clues

Predicting

My students focused on taking a student-created assessment

Each of my small cooperative groups would be assigned a term and would get to work, assigning each other roles and creating a script for their lesson. They had to teach a review of their term in front of the camera (remember this is for test prep review), dividing up the job amongst the members of the group. It might include a 2-minute lecture, a visual created by the group, and a little worksheet which one of them ran down to the participating room in time for the activity to begin.

On the first day, we began with McRae’s class teaching us our test prep terms, which you can see from the pictures peppering this post. (I know, I know. My room’s a mess. But I like to think of it like creative chaos.) On the second day, my class took over.

One of the most important elements that McRae and I pre-taught were norms in how to use Skype and how to behave while video conferencing. It’s important to set up norms with any activity, especially one that is new. Below is a link to the norms that I developed. Just cut and paste the URL into your browser to download. Please feel free to use them in your own video conferencing experiments.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4234943/The%20Netiquette%20of%20Skype.doc

Check back in and let me know how it goes!

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: education, k12, middle school, skype, test prep, video conferencing in the classroom

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It’s Step 1 of my Top Secret New Teacher Handbook.  Hope it creates some shortcuts, a machete even, through the education jungle.

-Tweenteacher

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: achievement gap, blog, classroom library, classroom management, collaboration, common language, critical thinking, Curriculum, curriculum design, curriculum development, differentiation, Ed Tech, education, ELA, employment, free, fundraising, internet literacy, jobs, k-12, k12, Language Arts, learning, life long learners, merit pay, metacognition, middle school, NCLB, new teachers, peer teaching, performance pay, professional development, technology, test prep, Think Aloud, Title I, TLN, top 10, tween, UCI, Writers Project

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-Tweenteacher

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: assessments, data, education policy, ELA, test prep, Title I, tween, UCI, Writers Project

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So, CATE (the California Association of Teachers of English) just came to an end.  The hotel was lovely.  All ran smoothly.  We were greeted with smiles aplenty, and everything ran on time.  Sheridan Blau, Kelly Gallagher, Carol Booth Olson, Taylor Mali, Jim Burke.  They all presented there.

But despite it all, CATE is clearly a conference (along with others) that is struggling for breath amidst budget cuts.(...)
Read the rest of The Death of Teacher Conferences or I Can’t Believe I Miss My Canvas Bag (479 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: achievement gap, blog, cate, collaboration, Curriculum, curriculum design, curriculum development, fundraising, podcasting, professional development, technology, test, test prep, TLN, Writers Project

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So I looked at my 8th grade students’ scores after they took the MMA and sighed.  Their scores sucked.  (...)
Read the rest of Test Prep-Bubbling Power (506 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 100% accountability, 2008, achievement gap, assessments, education, k-12, k12, middle school, teaching, test prep, Think Aloud, Title I, TLN, tween, UCI, Writers Project, writing

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© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, achievement gap, assessments, blog, collaboration, computers, credential, critical thinking, CUE, Curriculum, curriculum design, curriculum development, differentiation, digital immigrants, digital natives, Ed Tech, education, education policy, ELA, equity, integration, internet literacy, jobs, k-12, k12, Language Arts, learning, matthew needleman, middle school, professional development, research, technology, test, test prep, Think Aloud, Title I, UCI, writing

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However, it does come from good intentions.  The fact is that failing students who do chip away at their work cannot earn an increase in their grade if we don’t massage the current system.  Without positive ends, why would they struggle through the means?

I commented as follows:(...)
Read the rest of D is the New F for North Carolina (464 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 100% accountability, 2008, achievement gap, assessments, attendance, credential, education policy, ELA, homework, k-12, k12, learning, life long learners, middle school, PI, teaching, test, test prep, Title I

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