In The Classroom

Irene Smith: My Students’ Journey into Project-Based Learning

maureen — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:24:47 -0600

Noise, noise, and more noise. Still, what I hear is productive noise, energized engagement, the sound of children really excited about learning and sharing what they know.

At the Discovery Lab School, project-based learning is common place and desirable. When our school began, one goal was to use practices frequently used in Advanced or “Gifted and Talented” programs, but to benefit students in more traditional range-of-abilities classrooms. At that time, it was called “hands-on” learning.

Although project-based learning is desirable, it is sometimes a challenge to adapt to the multiple tasks required of adopted curriculums, which have their own pacing and testing deadlines. The road to reading and math literacy is sometimes paved for us, but this highly productive byway isn’t as efficient as a speedy throughway.

But what if travelers are sleeping because we haven’t captured their interest along the road? What if they get off before reaching their destination?
Project-based learning isn’t just a one-time strategy or gimmick. Having students produce meaningful products while engaged in learning is empowering and teaches creativity skills that can’t be acquired merely through paper and pencil, or listening and discussing work. Research shows it to be a valuable tool for learning.

Recently, my students created projects related to the Middle Ages. We divvied up topics based on their interests and each small group prepared a visual product, a handout of key ideas and gave a presentation.

Oh the noise! People were researching at computers, using library books at their tables, cutting cardboard to build castles, designing costumes, discussing what information was most valuable, asking for permission to go beyond the school web browser to find more, exclaiming over some fascinating fact.

Additionally, project work meant that struggling students got to work with stronger students. They picked their first group partner and I strategically added another partnership for groups of four. Thus, one of my strongest partnerships researched innovations while their team-mates were given responsibilities commensurate with their abilities and all four benefited. The group that built a trebuchet and launched volleyballs helped both my classes see the mechanics of siege weaponry in a way that they will be likely to remember for a long time.

In the end, I picked up the less-interesting-to-them topics that I needed to cover and created an interesting PowerPoint, drawing on the threads they were spinning, and weaving it all together. Thus, all of us prepared useful, engaging projects, then listened and, in some cases, interacted directly (Jeopardy game about peasant life) with the presentations. We covered all of the necessary information in the time allotted and made memories and learning for a life time. Plus, their test scores afterwards proved that they could teach themselves and others, and really learn the content.

Irene Smith is a guest blogger and teacher in the Yakima School District.

Previous Blogs:

Early Morning Worries

My Summer ON

Another Year is Winding Down

Pamelia Valentine: Advisory—Every One! Every Day!

maureen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:02:23 -0500

With that mantra in mind we kicked off our new school year with our advisory classes and we have been meeting on a daily basis – first thing in the morning! I was on board with this idea last year, but we didn’t launch it until this fall.

When we started out, we had some structure as to what needed to happen to help guide our advisory students toward a common goal of guiding their academic success. However, much of the planning and implementation in the classroom has been done by individual teachers so that the “flavor” of their advisory is autonomous and staff can feel a sense of ownership of their advisory group. We have a general plan and we can adapt it to fit our individual needs. Monday is organization day; Tuesday is Associated Student Body report day; Wednesday is grade check day; Thursday is reading day and Friday is sharing concerns and successes day.

I have been using the general plan with the addition of inspirational (On character building: opponents carry the home-run hitter around bases) YouTube videos, group sharing and follow-up grade checks. I easily identified the students who would need extra support and created contact lists in our e-mail program of their teachers so I can send out information about these students to help facilitate their academic progress. I have to say that I am really enjoying my group and they are making progress toward their goals.

Having an advisory class every day is going to make this year into a life-changing event for our students. It’s one of the best choices we have made because it puts students first and gives us the chance to help them with their small challenges, before those little problems turn into major obstacles. With this model in place, there should be very few students who “slip between the cracks.” Oakland Bay Junior High School is truly committed to academic, behavioral, and personal character changes– Every One! Every Day!

Pamelia Valentine is a guest blogger and teacher in the Shelton School District.

Previous Blogs:

Back to School

No Summer Break for School Improvement

School Improvement —Mission Statement Complete

Irene Smith: Early Morning Worries

maureen — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:41:28 -0500

Every new school year begins with some trepidation and loads of excitement. My summer has been spent learning, renewing and preparing. I have terrific ideas and goals, but will I be able to implement them? There are numerous curricular materials I am provided with, but I need to pick and choose what to use and what to skip. So much of that will depend on the students and the day. I want to go beyond my classroom textbooks. I have some wonderful projects and activities, but will there be enough time? Will I be able to be flexible and follow the most appropriate lesson for the moment or will I be too concerned about staying with the syllabus I have carefully crafted and which is tacked to every student's refrigerator?

Of course, everything begins with the Washington state Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALR's) because I need to make sure my students are meeting those requirements. The Grade Level Equivalencies (GLE's) are the standards broken down by grade level. I need to be familiar with three levels because I teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. I also need to know the standards for at least two subjects because I teach Language Arts and Social Studies. The Communications standards are essential for all subjects, and if you hope to integrate curriculum, you need to have a working knowledge of the other standards as well.

Balancing the list of requirements in my head, with the best way to help students learn them from the newly adopted text books for Literature and the lessons, projects and activities which I have discovered or developed, will be the constant work of my year. However, no matter how well I plan ahead, the needs of the moment will dictate the day. If students are struggling to understand, I will need to change my tactics. If a fire drill or phone call or news event changes the pattern of the day, we will have to adapt.

The wonderful interview I did this summer with Dee Eberhart as a part of my Teaching American History grant stands out in my mind. Will the lessons I have designed for my students to develop interviewing skills for writing work well with my text book? My interview delved into Dee's experiences liberating the Dachua concentration camp during World War II and his candid thoughts about war and soldiering. I hope to use my interview as a model. There are other wonderful interview models I have found online, as well. Unfortunately, the other schools in my district won't be including interviews as part of their writing plans unless they go outside the text writing tasks. The interviewing skills I teach will help my students understand history better, but my planed goals are more related to Communications and Writing EALR's. Will there be enough time to do all these activities well? Will students become distracted as they conduct their own interviews with family? Will technology use (digital stories) enhance our plan or take too much time?

It’s a balancing act, to be sure.

So, there I was, 3:00 a.m. the day before the official start of the 2009-2010 school year. I couldn’t sleep although I really needed it that night. What would the next day bring? Will I be able to accomplish everything I hope for my students? I've done all I can to prepare. Ready, set, go! And now, we’re off!

Irene Smith is a guest blogger and teacher in the Yakima School District.

Previous Blogs:

My Summer ON

Another Year is Winding Down

Real Professional Development

Pamelia Valentine: Back to School!

maureen — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:17:34 -0500

As students came into Oakland Bay Junior High School on September 2, 2009 they found their teachers lined up in front of the school greeting them as they walked down a red carpet into the building! It is such a beautiful way to say “hello" and welcome back to another year that the dedicated staff at OBJH do it every year.

This is just one of the ways that the junior high school teachers reach out to students and begin to create relationships that will help guide their young charges toward a strong foundation of learning. Throughout the last year, the school has been working toward developing a shared vision and mission that will encourage academic achievement for all students. The goal of reaching “Every One, Every Day” will be the ultimate pinnacle of success for OBJH staff and it started on the very first day with a red carpet welcome!

The day continued with students going to their T-Wolf Academy classroom (advisory) where they will start each day of school. We introduced the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) discipline program in tandem with the “Honor Level” system that our school uses to help students with discipline issues before they become major problems. We call this combined approach “P.R.I.D.E.” and we identify the ways that students can be P-productive; R-responsible; I-industrious; D-diligent; and E-exceptional in our school, in the hallways, in the classrooms, at assemblies, and in the commons.

With that task completed we went to the gym for our first Renaissance assembly! Students were treated to a video showing students having a good time at OBJH last school year. We also presented qualifying students (.5 Grade improvement; 3.0 GPA; 3.5 GPA and 4.0 GPA) with Renaissance academic achievement cards that can be redeemed for various classroom prizes according to individual teacher discretion. That was just our first day of school! The students were excited to be here this week – and just wait until we’ve had a whole month!

Pamelia Valentine is a guest blogger and teacher in the Shelton School District.

Previous Blogs:

No Summer Break for School Improvement

School Improvement —Mission Statement Complete

School Improvement —Mission [Statement] Impossible?

Pamelia Valentine: School Improvement—Mission Statement Complete

maureen — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:14:02 -0500

Ladies and Gentlemen, our mission statement:
At Oakland Bay Junior High School, YOU matter! At our school, we reach out and connect with each other by fostering trusting and respectful relationships that acknowledge and address the unique needs and abilities of each individual. We teach and reinforce the skills needed for academic success and provide curriculum that is both engaging and rigorous. We partner with parents and our community to inspire and coach students to reach their potential. We recognize and celebrate citizenship and academic excellence. This is our promise. Take P.R.I.D.E. Every One! Every Day!

After much sweat, no visible tears and minimal bloodshed we have produced a mission statement by committee, which is no easy task. The next step will be completed as the team leaders in our school send it out to their curriculum and departmental teams to scrutinize, and then it will go back the team leaders for final approval. (There have already been both positive and negative remarks and it remains to be seen if this is indeed the final rendition.)

But beyond all that, there is the miracle of this process. This is the most transparent, open, amazing school transformation. Consider this: The vision and the mission statements have both come from a seven person group comprised of the principal and six teacher-leaders. The work has been submitted for approval to the team leaders, and then sent out to each member of the staff for commentary. Every stakeholder in the school has examined each piece of the school improvement plan. If there were disagreements they were solved in a reasonable and logical manner—remember very little bloodshed.

But wait! There really is more to this—for our school to make sustainable, successful system-wide progress, we must add action to our “vision” and “mission.” So this year, our school has put into place a new discipline philosophy (this is where we came up with the P.R.I.D.E in our mission statement) it’s called Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports and although we are still working through some bugs, it is already changing our school climate.

Another change that was instituted this year has created a school-wide attitude switch. We started a Jostens Renaissance program with the help of our Jostens representative. Three times this year, we have awarded academic cards to students who have earned a GPA of 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, or have made a .5 improvement in their grade point average. (The cards are worth various prizes in each teacher’s classroom.) We have honored students who have shown character, honesty and courage by giving them a George Washington Character award, which we call the “GW Awards.” The biggest honor of the year was celebrated this week as teachers each selected one student as their Timberwolf Choice Award recipient. Fifty-four students were recognized and honored. The event was well attended by our staff, the student’s parents, the school board members and our Superintendent.

Real changes happen when action is added to the words that make up our various “visions” and “missions” because making a positive and lasting difference in the lives of our students is our true mission.

Pamelia Valentine is a guest blogger and teacher in the Shelton School District.

Previous Blogs:

School Improvement —Mission [Statement] Impossible?

School Improvement —The Vision is just the Beginning

School Improvement—The Mission for a Vision Continues

Irene Smith: Another year is winding down

maureen — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:13:39 -0500

My eighth year students and I are preparing a yearbook to commemorate the 2008-09 school year. Now comes my annual bout of melancholy as my colleagues and I prepare to say goodbye to our oldest students who will be leaving us for high school. They're ready to move on to new challenges, a bigger school, new friends and opportunities, higher learning....

The yearbook project gives me an opportunity to reflect on the times we've shared and reflect on my teaching and their learning. I'd like to say that every moment was a teaching moment, that we never wasted a minute, but that wouldn't be true. I'd like to say that I always provided the best possible instruction as I crafted amazing lessons that brought my students to deep levels of understanding.

However, despite the minutes that may have been "wasted" on too much chatter, too much laughter, too much lecture, too much digression... there are many stand-out moments that I gather in my mental yearbook.

We actually started the year with an Academic Olympics shortly after the Beijing Olympics. Students competed in events that showed me their prior knowledge and introduced them to topics we would be studying all year. They liked the chocolate medals they proudly wore while we played their country's theme song.

I love the times we jumped out of the lock-step textbook curriculum and found our own connections to the big ideas we were learning. Watching students explore, map, and clean up Myron Lake while we went on our own "Corp of Discovery", exploring the "Smithsonian Museum of Antiquities" they created, laughing at their rap lyrics that taught important points from colonial history, or crying while they presented their speeches about times important to them.

I felt so much pride at the level of quality and rigor they demonstrated while doing research papers with annotated bibliographies. These took me over a week to read, but I count that Spring Break under our skylight as a relaxing and joyful memory.

I'll never forget studying George Washington's precedents at the same time we inaugurated our first African American president.

I also think about the day Dee Eberhart from Ellensburg (a speaker provided by the Seattle Holocaust Resource Center) visited my classroom. He helped liberate Dachau Concentration Camp in the winding down days of WWII. His clear first-hand descriptions of the horrors of war and man's inhumanity kept a group of rowdy 7-8th grade students captivated for 2 hours. He reminded us of the high price soldiers pay to protect our freedom and the freedom of others. The students videotaped his presentation and will create a documentary film to give our local museum archives.

These moments of opportunity and action are the best part of learning.

So little time is left to make sure students KNOW what they need to know, to make sure they FEEL our loving support for them as they move forward. They many not remember everything about their days in middle school, but I hope that the most important lessons and memories remain. And I hope they'll come back from time to time (as so many of them do) just to say "hello" and "I'm doing great!"

Irene Smith is a guest blogger and teacher in the Yakima School District.

Previous Blogs:

Real Professional Development

Our Lost Treasure

Shakespeare for Kids

Irene Smith: Shakespeare for Kids

maureen — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:23:46 -0600

Funny, the things we do to ourselves. With six different classes and 82 students, I don’t regularly have enough time to plan great individualized lessons or grade all my students’ assignments and essays with adequate feedback. I’m constantly second guessing my use of time. So, how is it I’m providing Drama instruction and preparation for 40+ kids at least four hours a week after school?

I don’t have to. I could just decide I’m too busy. Since I’m not paid for the hours I put in, why do I do it?

Why do teachers do anything extra they’re not paid to do?

If it’s the right choice for kids, many teachers choose to sacrifice.

Now there are those who will say that teachers should never work (volunteer time) over their negotiated agreements; our associations work hard to protect teachers’ rights to work reasonable hours so they don’t become overtaxed and burn out. I appreciate their efforts in my behalf and would truly prefer to be paid. There have been years where money to challenge the gifted and talented (extended learning dollars) or special Arts grants have been utilized. Those sources always seem to dry up, and time spent writing grants is also time spent away from working directly with students.

What I don’t understand is why there always seems to be enough funds for sports coach pay. If only I loved teaching kids how to throw footballs (and actually had a talent for it….)

Our Shakespeare plays are often the most impressive work my students do all year. They afford me the opportunity to truly challenge kids who want to be challenged, who actually try-out for the challenge (although everyone will get a part in the end.) The plays provide my students an opportunity to show their great capacity for excellence. At the same time, it’s a blast for me.

Believe it or not, it’s refreshing to work with students who want to be taught, who are excited to be there and motivated to learn. After a day of cajoling, pleading, reminding, and threatening (with grades), trying to get students to focus and make an effort in class, our after school Shakespeare time is downright rewarding in every sense of the word. Students who can’t be bothered to turn in assignments, who talk back and want to disrupt every lesson, turn into patient listeners on stage. In spite of, or perhaps because of the difficulty of Shakespearean language, they truly become teachable.

There is something about the Bard that captures kids. This other world, so witty and wonderful, full of insults, love language and practical jokes fits very well with middle school students. Shakespeare’s characters are struggling to find their way in the world, and that is the story of adolescence.

It’s a story I enjoy being a part of every year.

Some useful links for teachers interested in using Shakespeare in the classroom or beyond:

Folger Shakespeare Library
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
ReadWriteThink (Search “Shakespeare”)

Irene Smith is a guest blogger and teacher in the Yakima School District.

Previous Blogs:

In Praise of Terry Bergeson

Making the Small Difference

Irenic Idealism

Pamelia Valentine: School Improvement—The Mission for a Vision Continues

maureen — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:05:59 -0600

Vision Statement! Mission Statement! Step by Step Goals and Objectives! What’s so important about this process that we started developing more than two months ago? If we paint over the old vision “providing a quality education in an academically supportive and safe environment” will our students suddenly break out in song and score straight 4’s on all the WASL’s? Probably not--but working through this process is certainly forcing us to take a realistic look at the barriers to learning that our kids face. Poverty, drug abuse, and lack of motivation plague our kids and stalk our community. This is about more than some words painted on the wall. This is about our dreams and our students! This is about success for tomorrow and hope for the future.

Our staff takes this seriously. We’ve worked together and individuals have come forward with ideas. Our school improvement committee has developed a partial vision statement that came from our staff in-service day: “Building Responsibility, Respect and Resilience with inspiration; Every One! Every Day!” This is a vision that rings true for us and resonates with our community, but it says nothing about student achievement and according to the research that I looked at, it may just be too broad.

One of the best sites I found had been posted in 1995. I read through the article and discovered that at Hollibrook Elementary School in Eastbrook, Texas, the school members worked together to make the school a high-achieving learning environment where the culture of the students is valued and supported. I looked further and found the Audubon Elementary in Baton Rouge, Louisiana which has set a mission statement that includes in part that: “The school has a shared mission to serve all students with high-quality, interactive, in-depth, and engaging instructional approaches.” This work was researched and written by Kent Peterson, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

All of us worry--if we spend too long on the vision statement will we ever get to the mission? Both of the schools I read about included student learning in their statement. Perhaps the addition of those words will push our statement into life:

Building Responsibility, Respect and Resilience to inspire student learning; Every One! Every Day!

We’ll get out the ladders and we’ll stir up the paint–we won’t just be painting words. We’ll be painting a vision that can and should change our lives and the lives of our students.

Pamelia Valentine is a guest blogger and teacher in the Shelton School District.

Previous Blogs:

Gettin' Visionary with School Improvement

Improving My Notion of School Improvement

The AYP Blues

Lake Stevens High School: On Track with 21st Century Skills Classroom

laura — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:54:05 -0600

Students in Dawn Hanson’s Internet Publishing class at Lake Stevens High School are anything but bored. They are creators of their very own school website. The project-based learning class is engaging to students and successful because as Hanson says, “it gives them ownership and they take pride in it.”

According to a recent story in the Everett Herald, Hanson believes her class, which is fully dedicated to the site, is the only one in Washington. Hanson, who has been teaching for sixteen years, said the classroom is, “kind of like a small business.”

Each year, no more than 15 students collaborate on template design, communicate with each other about ideas for content, and make decisions about what areas they would like to work independently on. Students have to follow specific guidelines from the Lake Stevens School District on what is allowed, but are solely responsible for its creation and maintenance.

“They do it all,” said Hanson who calls herself the “overall monitor” of the classroom. Hanson explained it’s the student’s responsibility to communicate with coaches, clubs, and other school organizations and personnel, to generate and organize their content, and solve any problems that arise.

Hanson’s innovative class is an excellent example of how to incorporate project-based learning that teaches collaboration, problem solving, and communication. These are known as 21st Century skills, and are necessary for greater success in college and the workforce. According to 21stcenturyskills.org -a 21st century advocacy organization-“Learning and innovation skills are what separate students who are prepared for increasingly complex life and work environments in the 21st century and those who are not.”

Hanson, who also teaches digital design at the high school, said roughly 50 students have come through the class since she took it over two years ago. Prior to that, it was a low-access, independent study class, until the district approved the funding necessary for expansion. Next year, Hanson is looking forward to upgraded computers for the class, but admitted she is unsure if the class will grow because of statewide budget cuts with K-12 education.

Students need basic curriculum, but deserve more opportunities to work on projects in the classroom, to gain the skills necessary to compete in a competitive global economy. Although Hanson’s classroom may be the only one like it in the state, the incorporation of project based learning should be weaved into all curriculum across the state.

Digital age literacy, inventive thinking, and effective communication are what students need to learn now. The 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, was just elected utilizing the latest digital communication technologies. Millions and millions watched him deliver his message on his youtube.com channel alone.

All students across Washington, not just the small group in Hanson’s classroom, should be given the chance to be involved with projects that will teach them 21st Century skills they will so desperately need. Hanson’s students are on track for continued success in the digital information age, and their website creations can be viewed here, and here.

Pamelia Valentine: Gettin’ Visionary with School Improvement

maureen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:23:54 -0600

School improvement step one: Come up with a truly inspiring vision statement. Sounds innocuous enough, but how do we actually go about it? Research? Staff input? Hire a wordsmith?

This task presents many challenges. First off, what is inspiring to me may not be inspiring to someone else. For instance I think that “Blast Off- The Future is Now!” is pretty inspiring or “Life is A Stage- Act on it” is a real call to action, but many of my colleagues don’t connect with these sorts of “touchy feely” statements. We ultimately decided to use an in-service day to work on this as an entire staff.

We started the day off with a holiday and Hawaiian theme as staff members had been split into five different groups of mixed curriculum specialists. The team members were identified by what color of holiday garland lei they were wearing.

The first activity was a team building game. Members from each of the five groups were to join hands and keep as many of their 12 balloons as possible in the air without letting go of the joined hands. Any dropped balloons had to stay on the floor. The winning team was the one with the most balloons in the air at the end of 10 minutes.

When we moved up to the library to begin the working portion of our day, I explained that the game was a metaphor for staff working together. The members had their hands joined to symbolize that we are unified in our effort to serve students. The balloons that we had to keep in the air illustrated how we have many responsibilities that are all equally important and the groups who did well were the ones that worked together. The conclusion, (educating students is a team sport) was left unstated. This event segued into the next activity.

Our principal gave his ideas about what we do as a community of teachers and how our approach affects our student’s outcomes as reflected in a myriad of ways: Their ability to feel safe at school, their desire to take risks in the classroom, their formative ideas about the value of education, and even their eventual choices of future careers (not to mention the 800 pound gorilla in the room. . . our districts failed AYP according to the WASL scores from last year). He had used phrases like “Teach Like a Champion” and “EVERY ONE! EVERY DAY!” and my personal favorite— “Whatever It Takes” (which could easily be changed to “Whatever. . . “ on those less than inspiring days of reality in a classroom full of junior high hormones). A power-point presentation set to Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” sent the staff off to their next task.

Our new groups were directed to develop three really inspiring phrases to replace our old uninspiring vision statement. When we returned we shared the three phrases with the entire group. As a result of this work we had 15 inspiring statements to work with. We ploughed through this activity and pared it down to the top three—at this point many folks had begun the arm crossing and body shifting that goes with the defensive postures signifying that this activity should draw to a close. We went off to a catered lunch and the school improvement committee will deal with word-smithing the final choices. The staff will have the final say in determining what our vision statement will communicate. A messy approach? Yes, but truly rewarding. Once again, I’m impressed by the quality and intelligence of the folks I am privileged to work with every day. So what was our final vision statement? Stay tuned…

Pamelia Valentine is a guest blogger and teacher in the Shelton School District.

Previous Blogs:

Improving My Notion of School Improvement

The AYP Blues

Join and Be Counted!