Ready, Set….Leap

For a ‘final reflection,’ this feels like anything but the end.  In fact, I find myself in much the same position as I was in September – about to take a leap and try something new.  In September, my ‘something new’ was Cohort 21.  At the time I admit I knew little about what it was or what to expect.  I sent an email at the last minute in response to a request from @shelleythomas for teachers at Ridley interested in Cohort 21, as a spot had become available.  In less than a week I was signed up and off to the first face-to-face with my shiny new Twitter and WordPress accounts.  At the end of a year of Cohort 21, I find I am even more inspired to take a leap and try something new.  You see, I’ve tried a lot of new things (borrowed from, brainstormed with or outright stolen from other amazing Cohort 21 teachers) and it’s been awesome.  I’m kind of addicted and energizes me and my teaching.

My action plan:
To use deep thinking and collaboration to allow students to discover context and create connections
has been a series of experiments carried out over a sequence of units, each focusing on building a new learning skill toward achieving the goals set out in my action plan.

• Essential questions: used in the Atomic Structure unit to bring context to a very abstract study of ‘stuff we can’t even see.’
  I found essential questions a great way to build connections throughout the unit, since every new idea tied back to our central line of inquiry: “How can we understand something we cannot see?”  I will definitely use essential questions again and intend to make this the centre of every unit.  When correctly phrased and constructed, I found essential questions also promoted deeper thinking as students considered context and personal connections to their learning.
• Visible thinking: used in the Periodicity Unit, students wrote ‘sticky notes’ in Padlet to make a ‘connection’, ‘extension’ or relate a ‘challenge’ they experienced in class that day.  This really made the process of connecting ideas obvious.  As students reflected after each lesson, they could also track how their thoughts changed.  Next I want to use a similar strategy for every unit of study (perhaps with changing prompts and/or “Headlines”) to build the ‘story of our unit.’  I think this will be an excellent way to review at the end of  a year and help students see the ‘big picture.’
• Collaboration: used in building Lab Skills, the students worked in groups to evaluate their own and others work before constructing a peer-edited list of tips and advice for practical techniques and written reports.  To do this, I used the brainstorm function in PollEverywhere.  By having the students record their thoughts and then rank them, they were accountable for their conversations.  I also made use of Twitter for in-class live tweets, but found this led to distractions, rather than focused learning.  I may try this again next year after rethinking.
• Deep Thinking: a focus in the Energetics Unit, I prepared several EdPuzzle videos for ‘flipped lessons.’  This was the facet of my action plan I was most nervous about, but using EdPuzzle with its in-built tracking of student participation and performance alleviated a lot of my fears around student compliance in watching and really thinking about concepts presented outside the classroom.  I then prepared group project-based/problem-based tasks that were completed in class time that required much deeper thinking around the concepts presented.  This worked really well and is something I will do more of next year.  However, I still hesitate to teach an entire unit ‘flipped,’ as I feel some concepts are too complex to be learned in a short video.  I’ll consider how to break down these concepts into manageable pieces or tackle them with partially flipped lessons.

There have been several really positive outcomes to my year of experimentation.  Firstly, I am so much braver in trying new things.  Together with my students, I have become a bigger risk taker.  I have been very transparent with my classes from the beginning that we are all learning and that we should feedback to each other about what works and what doesn’t.  This has truly fostered an environment of collaboration, not just between students, but between myself and the students.  While this is something I’ve always believed in, taking risks in trying new things has made the classroom a complete learning community where we are all pushing our boundaries and stepping out of our comfort zones.  Another change I’ve noticed is in my students.  They are now, naturally, more collaborative.  As soon as they are given a task, they are up and moving.  They readily discuss their answers with each other, ask questions and come to a deeper understanding by ‘going forward’ and doing, rather than passively waiting for the ‘right answer’.  This happens without my suggestion or interference.  They believe and trust in each other and would rather ask a peer than ask me for help – a big change from the beginning of the year!  This is my proudest accomplishment.

I still feel that many of the changes I made this year were small.  I have found time to be my biggest challenge, not so much in terms of my own planning time, but in terms of finding time during each lesson to devote to reflective learning.  With a syllabus so full that I have everyday planned with next to no wiggle room, I find I am still discouraging what can be considered ‘tangential’ to the curriculum.  I need to find a way to explore student lines of inquiry and natural curiosity without ‘losing class time.’

I plan to expand on my action plan next year.  It has been a wonderful experience and I feel that my teaching practice and the way I think about teaching has changed.  Though the changes I made this year may have been small, I know I will build on them.  I also know that even these little things have made a difference and am encouraged to do something new whenever I can, just to see what can happen when a familiar topic, tool or problem is approached in a new way.

And so I finish as I started – ready to take a leap.