{"id":76,"date":"2017-01-20T00:35:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T00:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/?p=76"},"modified":"2017-01-20T00:45:18","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T00:45:18","slug":"76","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/2017\/01\/20\/76\/","title":{"rendered":"Authenticity in the Classroom &#8211; Action Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have had various drafts of posts sitting in a Google Folder since our last F2F. Of course, it is 7:36 pm the night before our third F2F and I am finally finishing one up!<\/p>\n<p>Without further ado:<\/p>\n<p>I am teaching a section of Canadian Geography this year, and I have been really excited about it since I was told I would be. The teacher who I share the course with has been nothing but awesome in sharing his resources with me. But, as I am sure you know, trying to create lessons around resources created by someone else with little knowledge of their intention with the material can be tough. I didn\u2019t feel like I was engaging with my students or the material the way I\u2019d like to be, and I think my lack of engagement was noticed by the students, and as a result, I felt like they were not engaging with the material the way I&#8217;d hoped they would. \u00a0I think Geography is awesome, relevant and interesting. I wanted to share this with them, and hopefully, get them to see it too. In addition, I was also frustrated with the layout of my classroom and how it didn\u2019t foster collaboration make it easy for me to move around the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>When I started to craft my\u00a0<em>How Might We<\/em> statement, those thoughts were what guided me.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here is what I brainstormed:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How might we\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Get students to engage in their learning<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Provide meaningful feedback<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Get students excited about geography and want to be there <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Get me away from content giving at the front of the classroom <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Overcome the physical limitations of the classroom<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Increase \u00a0collaboration between students <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Identify where students are, so I can meet them where they are at<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>So, two months later and where did I end up?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Great question.<\/p>\n<p>I walked away from the second F2F feeling good, like I had learned a lot, and made excellent connections with other educators, but I did feel a little overwhelmed. I hadn&#8217;t completely hammered out my Action Plan, and so much of the past two months have been about reiterating and exploring. I thought about it quite consistently, and have a few drafts of blog posts written up mulling over ideas. \u00a0I<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0began to explore teaching in a way that addressed some of my frustrations. For example, after returning from C21, I book a room in the library in order to introduce our new unit and to brainstorm ideas with students. The simple change in space changed the class dynamic, had students out of their seats and collaborating. \u00a0It was an exciting first step in creating a more engaging learning experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_77\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-77\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/IMG_1389.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-77 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/IMG_1389-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/IMG_1389-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/IMG_1389-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/IMG_1389-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/IMG_1389-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 960px) 75vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-77\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students brainstorming what our school does to try to be more sustainable (look familiar?).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn\u2019t until I sat down with fellow Cohorter (?), Brent Hurley, last week to discuss our action plans, that mine became more clear. I wanted students to be engaged, to drive their own learning and I wanted to be able to provide meaningful feedback to help leverage their learning. What it really boiled down to for me, was that I wanted to create a classroom rich with authentic tasks in hopes of reaching those goals. So, while I still feel like it needs some refining, my <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How Might We <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">statement became:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><b><i>How might we create an authentic classroom that enriches the learning experience? <\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now for setting some goals to get this plan into action.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">My first goal was to seek feedback from students. I had just completed a unit where students were tasked with doing a series of labs, reading articles and connecting their learning to an inquiry question they had created at the beginning of the unit based on sustainability, the economy, and natural resources in Canada. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>To get a sense of what my students liked, and if this, in fact, was something they found enriched their learning experience, I surveyed students after we had completed the unit <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1Jd4u_SP-S1tBDr3hQqQYz1oxp5BgpgBCkqOye1rQF4s\/edit?usp=sharing\">(here is the link to my survey results)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here is what the students enjoyed:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.59.40-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-79\" src=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.59.40-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"916\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.59.40-PM.png 916w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.59.40-PM-300x196.png 300w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.59.40-PM-768x502.png 768w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.59.40-PM-400x262.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 960px) 75vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.13-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-78\" src=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.13-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"930\" height=\"595\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.13-PM.png 930w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.13-PM-300x192.png 300w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.13-PM-768x491.png 768w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.13-PM-400x256.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 960px) 75vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a>And here is where they struggled: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.47-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-80\" src=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.47-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"919\" height=\"594\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.47-PM.png 919w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.47-PM-300x194.png 300w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.47-PM-768x496.png 768w, https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/files\/2017\/01\/Screen-Shot-2017-01-19-at-6.56.47-PM-400x259.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 960px) 75vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I already feel like I have a lot to work with moving forward from their feedback (and for next year!), but I feel a little stumped as to how to move forward with my Action Plan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would love to know some of the steps you have taken in order to create authenticity in your classroom. What success have you had? What challenges did you have to overcome? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Looking forward to connecting with everyone tomorrow!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have had various drafts of posts sitting in a Google Folder since our last F2F. Of course, it is 7:36 pm the night before our third F2F and I am finally finishing one up! Without further ado: I am teaching a section of Canadian Geography this year, and I have been really excited about &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/2017\/01\/20\/76\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Authenticity in the Classroom &#8211; Action Plan&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-plan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/nicholabendle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}