How to balance...

I struggle with blogging. I want to. I do. Blogging using the blogger app helps, but doesn't eliminate my one impediment. Time.

I don't have the time I used to. Trying to balance teaching, parenting, and running is a challenge. Three full time jobs really. So some things have been cut out, at least temporarily. Blogging is one of those things.

But I resolve to be consistent. Every Monday - with a promise that if I can do more I will. We just started a wiki project where we are building biographical pages for explorers that came to North America. I love the project based work because it hits a number of items and has built in value- kids want to work through it, and they want to work on the tech stuff. Win win.

I promise to do better. It is good for me to talk it out.

When Projects Go Well

Projects are an investment. They are rewarding yet also frustrating. They require time to put together and don't always yield what you are hoping for.

Over the past 3 years I've done a project where students create an advertisement for a region of the US that native Americans settled in. I'll admit that when I started it in year 1 I didn't have a solid handle of how to get kids to the end I wanted. I said "here's the problem- find the best region" and let them solve it. It was the equivalent of dropping kids in the pool and saying "swim." Ultimately I ended up helping a majority, some far more than others.

Over time I've implemented more scaffolding, laying the project out in a more linear fashion. Now we start with the over arching question from the jump- checking in on it as we mine for information, and do some comparisons. We also work more systematically- gathering information, working in reading and thinking skills along the way in a planned fashion.

As they're finishing their photostory projects, I can see the fruits of that effort. We have developed thought out projects that are really good, particularly for their first time working on this size of project. I am genuinely excited to go through each am provide feedback- even if it will take some time.

Project vs. Content

Tomorrow we'll have a finish day: finish up the outstanding work, and make it truly outstanding (instead of it standing out for not being finished!). As I have mentioned a few times before, I struggle balancing moving kids along versus letting them work through content and programs to finish really good projects. A great example is our Best Explorer Project. For a few it was a zip, and they moved through it rather quickly. But for the majority it was a slow crawl through the content, project planning and implementation process. At some point 2 days becomes 3, becomes 5, becomes two weeks! The length of time is not for lack of understanding. The vast majority understand the task, comprehend the content, and are working through putting it together. But when it was planned (by me!) the amount of time anticipated for completing the project was vastly different than the amount actually required. Great learning moment(s), but not so great currently. What do you do? I have gone through the list of 3 different items that have projects/work that needs to be turned in, and created a list of those needing to submit work. Tomorrow we'll work on a brief piece of work for our novel study books, then turn our attention to completing those projects and moving on. Some of this is rooted in the netbooks we have, and the blessing/curse that they provide. We have them so we use them. They have been a great tool, and allow kids to do a variety of publishing and research projects. But they also end up being the ultimate distraction- can I add another animation? can I add some music? do I need to change the start/end location on the picture with PhotoStory? Great for allowing kids to create visual media, but also great at extending projects from 2 days to 10 (particularly when you don't want to!). Not a problem with my kids, since they are trying to make really good projects... not to mention the fact that they are trying to understand how to use different programs. But a learning experience for me.

Talk About It

There are times that having vibrant student discussion can be like climbing a mountain. The overt questions are fairly forgiving, if not scalable for most learners. Conceptually there is little rigor, and kids often feel fairly safe responding. Why? Because being wrong is on a lack of knowledge, a gap in their learning.

But there comes a point where the climb becomes difficult- make that the proverbial snow line, or perhaps a little further up when you start to feel the work load increase. Often this is when students need to analyze information, evaluate it, and maybe even offer an explanation for their evaluation. The fear is no longer that you don't know information, but that you won't see the information the way your peers do.

This week we had a discussion session about explorers. I crafted four slides for my Activboard flipchart that one might feasibly see in a "Best Explorer Presentation." This was spun to the kids as "These are slides that were created last year, but have been touched up to make their look more presentable." In actuality they were the result a mental compilation of slides I have seen in PowerPoint presentations in my two years of teaching. I handed out the slides, reminding kids that we were going to only be looking at the Ideas/Content column on our rubric. We then examined slides one by one, scored them based on the rubric with NO half scores. Kids needed to look at the criteria and make an evaluation that they would explain to a peer (and potentially the whole group).

The result: Fantastic student discussion focused on characteristics of a good presentation. I pulled popsicle sticks for who would respond, telling what they chose and why. The next people to respond needed to state if they agreed or disagreed and why. Kids did a fantastic job being respectful of each other, but also pointing to specific things in the rubric and slides that helped them make their evaluation. Beyond that, they then were working on their presentations and had great success integrating elements of the Level 3 (at standard) and Level 4 (exceeding standard) presentation into their work. Hopefully this yields a great set of projects, and some great learning around comparing, contrasting, and evaluating!