Action Plan

Great Things Never Came From Comfort Zones

Written by Nicole Blair

 

Somewhere between self-doubt and the need for perfectionism, lies my comfort with writing a blog.  However, it’s a new year and a new term, and a fresh opportunity to push the limits of my own comfort zones, so here goes nothing!

 

Since joining Cohort 21, I have been in awe of the contagious energy that is Cohort 21.  Never in my life, have I experienced a PD with so many like-minded educators, who are genuinely interested in exploring new and innovative ways to refine and redesign their practice.  It is truly inspiring!

Both F2F Sessions left with me a great deal to reflect on, however our session at The York School exploring Design Thinking was definitely the launching point for my Action Plan.

Now, I would be lying if I said that my Action Plan came together effortlessly, in fact, I found it rather challenging.

When prompted with the question: What problems/ challenges/ opportunities are YOU currently experiencing in your school/ classroom?   

My immediate thought was, where to start, there are so many opportunities for positive growth at RDS that I want to tackle. I was inundated with “How Might We…” questions.

How Might We…

  • integrate Design Thinking into our curricular programming? (a current PD focus for RDS)
  • teach students and teachers about the various ways technology can leverage the way they think and learn?
  • ensure that students, teachers and the larger RDS Community are honing their collaboration skills on a more regular basis? (and using our new active learning spaces to their full potential!)
  • expose students and teachers to cross-curriculum learning in an organic way?
  • create a focussed time for teachers to practice learning alongside their students?
  • teach students and teachers the value and growth that occurs through taking risks, and sometimes failing?

I was all over the place, to say the least.

However, after a lot of terrific insight from @lindawatson19 and @shelleykthomas (and a lot of active listening on their parts too – thanks ladies), my Action Plan began to take shape.  

Ultimately though, it was a single pink Post-it note that read “passion projects”, which led me to my Action Plan.  For whatever reason, something about the idea of students developing “passion projects” stuck with me as viable solution to my long list of “How Might We…” questions.  Thus, a special shout out and a big thank you to the mystery Post-It writer from our Action Plan Gallery Walk.

Research on passion projects, led me to Genius Hour, which led me to Kevin Brookhouser and The 20time Project.  I had remembered hearing about the 20time Project from a fellow colleague, who had heard Kevin Brookhouser speak at the Ed Tech Team’s Toronto Summit for GAFE.  So after speaking to my fellow colleague, and reading Brookhouser’s book The 20time Project, I knew that I had found the basis of my Action Plan.

 

Adopting The 20time Project as a framework, I went to work on figuring out how my Action Plan could address and encompass all six of my “How Might We…” questions as a package deal.  And not to worry, I do understand that the purpose is to hone in on one all encompassing question….but mine is still a work in progress.

Three days after our second F2F (yup, I’m a keener), I met with my Assistant Head of School, and proposed my Cohort 21 inspired inspired initiative, an Action Plan to launch The 20time Project at RDS, and to use it as a means to address: Design Thinking, leverage technology, increase collaboration and cross-curriculum learning, encourage teachers to take on more opportunities as learners, and to teach students and teachers the value and growth in taking risks.  

If you’re interested, you can check out the prep notes I prepared for my proposal meeting here.  

My Assistant Head of School was immediately on board with this initiative, and with a few slight changes to my proposed plan, we quickly figured out how this idea could become a reality for Term 2.

Fast forward to today, I am happy to report that starting this Friday, RDS will be launching its first 20time Project class for all students in our Grade 7/8 Program. While I still have a lot of work to accomplish between now and then, I am thrilled to put my Action Plan into action!  

13 thoughts on “Great Things Never Came From Comfort Zones”

  1. This is fantastic news!

    When we re-designed the 2nd face to face this is exactly the kind of creativity and action we envisioned. Your RDS passion project sounds like a great new opportunity for the students. What grade will get to experience?

    The 2nd face to face will be a great opportunity to “mine the cohort” for ideas and strategy on how to execute. Kevin’s example is a great one. The York Schools follow’s this model – http://www.ibo.org/programmes/middle-years-programme/curriculum/myp-projects/ There might be something to learn from the IB and I am happy to share how we have used Google Site to track the entire process. See template here – https://sites.google.com/a/yorkschool.com/template-personalproject2016/

    Lot’s of CIS Ontario schools are playing in this space and will be able to really help you with refining your action plan and give you some ideas on how to manage the process and celebrate the student work at the end.

    This is awesome!

    @gnichols @rutheichholtz @ddoucet @lmcbeth @shelleythomas

  3. HI Nicole,

    What an energetic and energizing post to read. I think it is just great that your varied “How might we…” questions have coalesced around this book. I am going to add this title to my ever-expanding reading list. I will be interested to know how the first session with the students goes this week.

  4. @jmedved Thanks so much for the positive feedback. This will be for students in Grade 7 and Grade 8. As well many thanks for sharing The York School’s MYP personal project information and the Google Sites template, both look extremely helpful! I might need to pick your brain regarding a few things at our next F2F. Thanks again! Nicole

  7. Hi Nicole!
    Great to see you today – I was so impressed by the incredible unit plan ideas that you and your colleagues created for incorporating design thinking in the classroom (which ought to check off some of those ideas above!)

    As @jmedved noted, there are a ton of resources and experience with the 20 Time Project in the C21 community. One good place to start is with @jenbibby‘s action plan project from several years ago. She was using the term Genius Hour, but it’s essentially the same idea. Here’s her blog: http://cohort21.com/jenbibby/

    I did a 20 Time project with my grade 11 students and the results were fantastic. I used the design thinking process (similar to the 3 hour workshop we did at RDS in August) to get them started. One tweak that I made that I found helpful was to have them interview each other about their interests, passions, hobbies, favourite subjects etc, and then come up with ideas (crazy 8’s) for *each other’s* project first. Some students think “Oh, I don’t have anything that I’m passionate about” and then get stuck. But if someone else comes up with an idea for a project for them, they not only get practice empathizing, but it takes some of the pressure off. Then, students decide if they like their partner’s suggestion, or if they’d rather go off on their own direction. My students were about 50-50 for those who used the idea from their partner vs. those who pursued a different idea. Here’s a blog post I wrote last year that touches on my experiences with the initial kickoff that includes a link to the project planner I gave my students: http://cohort21.com/lesliemcbeth/2015/11/22/empathize/

    Looking forward to see where this goes!

  8. @nblair –

    I’m so glad to see that despite the quietness on the blog since the start of the Cohort 21 season, you have been very busy behind the scenes! It is so exciting to see an action plan taking off so quickly, and with such great buy-in from the rest of the school. I can’t wait to hear how the process is coming along when we meet again next week!
    The link to the notes you made in preparation for your meeting are not shared, however. I’d love to check them out – are you able to modify the sharing settings?

    Great work!
    Jen

  9. This is exciting. I’m really pumped to see you incorporating research into your action plan, both from within Cohort and outside of it. Check out some of the interesting blogs @jasonwood is posting as well.
    Keep blogging on your progress, Nicole. It’s inspiring.

  10. Congratulations on the first blog post Nicole! I have been reading about passion/20time/genius hour projects for a while now and love the idea, but just haven’t been brave enough to take the leap! Good for you! I’d love to hear more about your Action Plan and how you are going to facilitate it with your classes. (Rough timeline, topics, support given etc) I love that you spoke with your head to co-develop a plan that works for your school. With your thoughtful plan, and clear expectations, you and your students are set up for success!
    A teacher at my school, and former Cohort 21 alum Jillian Green, is trying it out this year with Grade 2s. I know your class is in Grade 7/8, but we’re curious to see how the younger students do with an independent study, and the best ways to support them with it.
    Keep up the great work! Looking forward to more blog posts!

  11. Hi Nicole,
    First, I would like to say that I agree with your comment of being part of a PD Programme with such like-minded and enthusiastic educators. It is a real privilege to be part of this group.
    I am so impressed with your initiative to get your action plan started. I do have a couple of questions. You mentioned passion projects in your post. I am curious to know exactly what these are. I am imagining that they are some sort of project-based task in which your students choose the topic. And I guess, this leads me to the next question: Will you allow your students free choice of their project or will it be within a specific area or strand?
    I look forward to hearing more about this on Friday!
    Suzanne

  12. Love the enthusiasm and passion behind this action plan, Nicole. It’s clear that this will be a labour of love for both you and your students. Not only are you allowing your students time and space to actively explore and problem-solve topics that are of interest to them, but you’re encouraging them to document and share their findings with an authentic community. A natural opportunity to review digital footprints the importance of online safety with your students. Looking forward to the update at our next F2F.

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