Written by So here it is. After many days of thought, reflection, some tears and smiles, here is what I have come up with:
HOW MIGHT WE… inspire creativity and develop a classroom culture centered on a love of learning rather than one which is mark-driven?
I really came about my action plan when I had to put myself in the shoes of “my user” aka my students. What was particularly helpful was thinking about “what they might say?” and “how they feel?” My statements looked like this :
How can I make my classroom a place they truly love to be in and ease some of the pressure they feel each day, whether from home, from teachers, from peers, etc?
There are a number of different ways I am choosing to attack this goal:
1.Practicing Mindfulness (Grade 9 and 11)
I have heard many a time how important it is to practice mindfulness in my own life. Why don’t I apply this in the classroom? Making time for students to be in the moment, reflect, and breathe. This is taking some research and is truly a process of trial and error. What I am learning so far is the more I do it, the better students are at it. Thus, I am making it part of their daily routine. I am also trying a variety of ways and encouraging them to try different things at home.
2. Listen more. (Grade 7,9, and 11)
I have always believed I have done a good job at this. But, of course, there is always room for improvement.
So far, I have tried two new things to allow students to have more of a voice in situation where they may hide. In my classroom, we created a “Worry Wall”. We are working on our big essay right now and prior to starting it, I decided to give them unlimited sticky notes to voice what they are worried about when it comes to writing an essay. I was shocked to see how honest they were and how m
uch they enjoyed the activity. These were placed on the wall and we kept them there as a reminder that “you are not alone in your worries” and “we are going to work through all of this together”. They actually decided they wanted to keep it up for the year as a place to voice their worries and a visual to help them through it, a decision that was completely driven by grade 9 students. How cool, right?
I have also started using Padlet more regularly in my practice to allow for anonymous question asking during a lesson. The goal is to allow students to ask questions that they may believe are “dumb” questions and too afraid to ask.
3. Discovery Day (Grade 9)
These are days I am planning to use for students to work in general skill development, allowing them to improve on an area of learning which they might like to improve or something they would like to learn more about. My goal is for these to be very open ended.
4. Passion Project (Grade 7)
With the support from faculty and admin, we will be starting a passion project with all grade 7 students in February. The goal is for students to explore a passion of theirs in more depth and/or have an opportunity to learn about something they are interested in but don’t typically have the chance to learn in your standard classroom setting. This is still in the development phase, but I promise I will have lots to share once we get started.
To help with all of this, I hope to shadow a student for a day next month to continue to develop my ideas and practice further, really get a feel and take it all in.
Wow… that was a mouthful. I’m full of ideas and quite excited about what I have started. All of this to say, I am curious and optimistic about what is to come the rest of the year as I commit to these goals and practices in my classroom. Feedback will play a key role in this. I have been open and honest with my students, sharing my blog, thoughts and ideas with them, in hopes they will share theirs right back!
I guess we will see!
I love your worry wall. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in everything that we forget that our students have things going on as well. This is not only a great way for students to vent and feel heard, but it is an amazing way for you to stay on top of your students mind frame. I just might steal this! 🙂
Amazing post @aleacock and what a great action plan that is clearly well underway. You have many thoughtful and inspiring components to this and I will surely be stealing your “worry” wall. Yes, there is certainly a debilitating silence that can accompany worry or stress or anxiety and an amazing idea to create a sense of community around that. I too have made “mindfulness” a priority over the past number of years and high-jacking those first 5-10 minutes of each class with meaningful activity that thoughtfully accounts for their day, headspace, learning outcomes has a profound affect. Hey, as for your Passion Projects… what an amazing opportunity to guide a Design Thinking Lab.
I look forward to following this Andrea, and I will be particularly interested to hear how you confront those inevitable questions about grades. My experience is that the students will look to motivate themselves in a grade focused manner (it’s how they’ve likely been bred after-all) and it’s a constant effort to maintain a focus on the true love of learning. Happy to conspire on those techniques. Peace!
What a great question: “HOW MIGHT WE… inspire creativity and develop a classroom culture centered on a love of learning rather than one which is mark-driven?”
I think that the most powerful thing that you can do is follow a student for a day. I have done this – way too long ago now! – but it is still vivid in my mind. You’ll discover much about their lived experience if it is structured well. I strongly encourage you to read more on how to conduct these shadow-days effectively. Here is a great article that was making the rounds about its impact:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/24/teacher-spends-two-days-as-a-student-and-is-shocked-at-what-she-learned/?utm_term=.6907726a6384
Also, I think that a passion project is the next way to really harness what it means for students to engage in ‘non-transactional’ learning. You should chat with @lmcbeth about what this looks like – where the teacher is actually actively exploring how students are meeting curriculum expectations through their work, and not the other way around 🙂
I am so excited to see this play out!
I love all of your ideas! The Worry Wall seems to be one we could implement with any age group. Even my 7 year olds! I think it is important to know how our students are feeling. We could address these worries as a class as many of the other students may have the same concerns. It sounds like your action plan is well underway. Good luck with it!
Andrea I am so excited for you! I identify with your struggle and I know that on the last F2F we have a lot of the same challenges and worries.I also love the worry wall!
I am intrigued to see how your passion project plays out. I am doing Genius Hour this year with the school’s Grade 7’s (thought I am the Grade 4 homeroom). I feel like I am fumbling in the dark a little bit right now…but I think things are now moving along nicely. We have had several parent comments about grades – since we are not grading this class. We are giving descriptive feedback that may or may not show up on their reports. Some parents and even some kids don’t see the point. I would love to follow you on your journey! We can bounce ideas off eachother too!
Thanks for the comment, Isabella!
What I have learned, through experience and research, is Passion Project/Genius Hour is a lot about trial and error. This will actually be my second year trying it but with a new found determination and passion for making it really work. Last year, I was a little disappointed by the results. My “keeners” did exactly what I expected but those I really wanted to engaged, was a struggle. This year, I really want to engage a wider audience and am working on a structure that will make this happen. I am introducing it in February so I will definitely keep you posted on how it goes.
What a great plan Andrea! It looks like you are well on your way. Your Discovery Days sound really interesting. Are you planing to keep them totally open ended, or provide some structure?
The Washington Post article @Think_teach (Garth) posted illustrates the power of shadowing a student. Wouldn’t it be great if this was encouraged in more schools! Though challenging, it would be so helpful to students. I was struck by the comment about sitting. Though we often try to get students up and moving, I don’t think we understand how difficult this is. The author’s connection to our experiences at conferences or all day PD really helps to show the challenge here. When you do your shadow day I hope you blog and share what you find. I wonder if doing this in the middle and high school would show any differences.
Best of luck with your plans!
I absolutely will blog about it. I was going to shadow before the break but I thought the timing may not be right for getting a realistic approach to what their day is like so I am just coming up with the day to do so. I will be sure to blog about it after my day!
Thanks for commenting!
@aleacock I love how the empathy “put yourself in your students shoes” was the most revealing and impactful for you. It really underscores the important of that stage. You action plan looks ready to rock. Just add the step of telling your kids about it at the beginning, the intent behind all of the structure (mindful moments, listen more etc) and then have them feedback at the end of the year. Did it work for them? You assumption is that i will. This will allow you to refine it and strengthen it for next year.
I actually shared my blog with them, as I want them to be part of the experience. I started with the post about being in their shoes and then read them my action plan- which is also posted in my classroom. Not shockingly, they ask me how my “project” is going daily and share their thoughts with me. It’s awesome to see how much they care and how positively opinionated they are in the whole process. Excited to see how it grows and changes with them!
@aleacock That is awesome