Embracing the Struggle – Students Wrestling with Real-World Issues

Posted on October 12, 2011 by boadams1

Late last spring, a team of Writing Workshop faculty took a very deliberate plunge into the commitment to “Do Different” (see last few blog posts for reference…if you need to). As a team, they redesigned the 8th grade course called Writing Workshop. In brief, they created a suite of courses from which students could choose – Environmental Studies, Screenwriting, Journalism, etc. All sub-categorized writing workshops would build on the common ground of strong writing. However, students would now possess a more powerful voice in choosing the theme or topic about which they would problem find, problem solve, and…write.

About 30-40 students chose to focus on Environmental Studies. More specifically, they decided to explore global climate change. The teacher-facilitators combined sections so that they could team teach and collaborate more efficiently. The entire cohort utilizes multiple lenses through which to study the issue, and they remain committed to the particulars of writing about global climate change – how we use writing and complex communication to build understanding and/or persuasion around the issue.

In Linda Darling-Hammond’s book Powerful Learning: What We Know About Teaching for Understanding, she explains five core characteristics of project-based learning. Among other traits, PBL is “authentic, by posing problems that occur in the real world and that people care about” (35). Global climate change is such a problem. Public misunderstanding and controversy surrounding global climate change is such an problem.

So…the student learners take on these problems and struggle with understanding them. Kudos to them for DOING so. As a team, the teacher learners and student learners are contributing to and maintaining a class blog. Through this tool, the teacher-facilitators have expanded the teacher roster – those people who can participate in the learning progressions of the student learners and the team. Last week, from an authentic blog trail of responses and reactions, the class established a Skype session with James Hrynyshyn. On Tuesday, Hyrnyshyn wrote about the Skype session on his own blog.

I think this is SO COOL! For these students, the learning they are doing about the environment is integrated – science, math, history, writing, etc. are blended disciplines, mixed together in the genuine stew of real life. Technology is not the topic of discussion, rather it is merely a tool through which access to conversations and information is made possible and pursue-able. The learners are not limited by the people in the physical room. Walls are torn down in the name of leveraging tech tools to learn from those who know and participate in the problems in the world outside of school.

The pedagogy and content used in “Writing Workshop: Environmental Studies” is NOT a substitute for the pedagogy and content that used to be “covered” in the course. To think of it as such would make us worry about “what is not being covered” that used to be. This is new and it is important. Critical content, essential skills, and requisite knowledge is being constructed for these learners – in the wonderful messiness of real life. The teacher-facilitators are leading from an emerging future, not from past experience. After twenty years of being a professional educator, I imagine this course is something that the student learners will more deeply remember and call on when they are older. Our future depends on such transformation in schools.

The students could be writing process papers detailing the directions necessary to build a PB&J. Or they could be wrestling with real-world issues and embracing the struggle of finding the “truth” and building upon that solid foundation of learning. I appreciate the choice they have made…a choice to Do Different.

Dolphin Tale and an Ole Sappy Educator

Posted on October 1, 2011 by boadams1

Just left theatre after seeing Dolphin Tale with my mom and my two sons. I felt so compelled to write, I had to download WordPress for iPhone. If you want to see what actually exists in my mind for the future of education, see the movie. In the film, a boy’s love for a dolphin and the boy’s desire to make a difference create “school” for Sawyer. Through project-based, integrated studies, and authentic assessment and collaboration, Sawyer learns and does make a difference.

Call me a sap, but I cried for much of the movie. Not because of the quality of the film, but because of what I believe possible for school. Such is my project. Such is my goal.

Synergy 8 Update – Week 3, Part II…Game Plans

Posted on August 31, 2011 by boadams1

Synergy 8 is an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized, non-graded, community-issues, problem-solving course for 8th graders at The Westminster Schools. Jill Gough and I co-created the course, and we co-facilitate it, as well. This morning, I posted a summary of our engagement in the “KP Challenge.” Today, we initiated the process of Game Planning – creating game plans to frame and scaffold just about any project work. Ms. Gough and I captured the beginnings of the game plans in a short, one-minute video:

Interestingly, we are using the same “Game Plan” framework with our adult teacher-leaders in our Junior High School PLCs (professional learning communities).[See an example here.]

The Synergy team is utilizing tools that are employed by the pedagogical leaders in our middle school. I find that parallelism so exciting!

Let’s Know Our Campus & Getting the Wind Back in @clarkbeast

Posted on August 15, 2011 by boadams1

First, I hope you will read these two posts from @clarkbeast (they are brief in length and powerful in message):

“like a punch in the solar plexus”

“a simple vision”

I truly don’t have time to draft and publish a post this morning. By prioritizing this writing, something else important to the start-of-school is not getting done right now. However, a faculty member has inspired me to respond and support. As a true believer in formative assessment and community collaboration, I would be acting irresponsibly if I were slow to respond this morning. Additionally, what middle-school learning could be more important than a place-based education for our children? They should know their world, and that can begin with the very world around them…a world that we are fortunate and blessed to occupy with nearly 200 acres in the heart of Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia.

This morning, I was following my routine of reading a few blog posts. I was concentrating on my folder of “Blogs-Colleagues.” In the past few days, it appears that @clarkbeast has been reflecting even more than usual on the delicate balance between our charge with technology and our critical need to attend to our natural world. Moreover, @clarkbeast has posted a response (same as second link above) to a call for #PBL ideas (link to Keynote on PBL…sent before 8-11-11 JH fac mtg). The intentions for our 8-11-11 JH faculty meeting took a different turn, and we discussed some questions that were not on the agenda. Therefore, we were not able to act with the #PBL ideas that people were asked to bring to the meeting. I am so thankful that @clarkbeast used his blog to ensure that the conversation did not end with a change-of-course-faculty-meeting.

On a related note, as I was playing around campus – in Nancy Creek – with my two boys, I snapped a few pictures and posted to my Posterous blog (such is now a habit with us). To the three Adams boys’ great pleasure, @clarkbeast responded to a post and got us excited about a potential stream exploration (click link to read that quick exchange)!

How can we better know our campus – our 200 acres of Atlanta, GA? What can we do to understand the natural world which is our very own school backyard? In what ways can we use our campus to study the essential learnings present across the departmentalized curricula?

I hope the JH will undertake this challenge this year. We have some superb feet in the door already – past bright spots to build on and improve. What’s best for the children? We need to get outside!

A World of #PBL Possibilities

Posted on July 30, 2011 by boadams1

I am training myself to see more #PBL possibilities. Through the years, and from reading such works as Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind and Carol Dweck’s Mindset, I am convinced that being an artist largely involves practicing the acts of looking and seeing. Why would becoming a “PBL-ist” be much different?

Here are a few examples of how I am practicing being a PBL seeker, with resulting ideas for PBL. Oh…that’s project-based learning, problem-based learning, etc.

1. Using TED talks to spur thinking.

Each morning, thanks to an RSS feed, I watch at least one TED talk – it’s delivered to my computer, like a newspaper to a house. Before I even touch that beautiful red “play” arrow, I ask myself, “What is this going to show me that could be related to PBL?” This morning, I watched Geoffrey West’s “The surprising math of cities and corporations,” which I have embedded below. Throughout the talk, I imagined middle schoolers studying our city of Atlanta – understanding its historical growth, its environmental and business challenges, its political scene, etc. In my mind’s new PBL-eye, I could see students collecting the type of data that Geoffrey West describes, and I could see the students Skyping with other students in other cities as they exchanged city data and ideas. I could see them applying science thinking and sociology thinking and economic thinking to some of the issues our city faces.

2. I use my iPhone and iPad to capture pictures that spark inquiry and curiosity in me.

This week, I happened upon this growth in a nearby building. I wondered why this was growing here…what is it…how could we prevent it from growing here again? What a strong possibility for students to integrate science, math, history, and persuasive writing to enact a plan that addresses this unanticipated indoor fungi!

3. I combine #1 and #2 – I think in my mental Rolodex about what I have photographed and what I have seen on TED.

For example, with colleague Mary Cobb, I recently completed the 6th annual hanging of the Junior High School Permanent Art Collection (this is one of my greatest joys each summer!) This year, as we hung student art, we discussed Amit Sood’s TED talk, “Building a museum of museums on the web,” which I have embedded below. Can you imagine the “coolness” of students building such an online gallery of our JHPAC? Then, can you imagine this resource potentially being linked with Amit Sood’s project? The JHPAC could be another virtual gallery alongside the MoMA and the Louvre.

4. I listen to and talk with faculty.

Colleague Danelle Dietrich has become increasingly interested in various capabilities of the TI-Nspire (a graphing calculator and software). On Thursday of last week, she was sharing her excitement as she was thinking about the mathematics of leaf veins. She had some great ideas for importing leaf images and studying the vein-ation of the leaves. We started to brainstorm about the relationships of blood vein-ation to leaf vein-ation. Then, we hypothesized about the relationship of computer networks and communications veins to leaf veins and blood veins. Can you imagine students writing letters and websites to city politicians explaining their study of the communications systems of Atlanta and the need to rethink the vein-ation of our networks around town?

What ideas are you imagining? It all starts with imagination…just like a young child imagining a pretend world. We are only limited by our capacity to realize our imaginations through creative expression. And our capacities can expand – with teamwork, practice, and persistence.

Get your #PBL-lenses on!