I recently read a blog post about a 'one sentence lesson plan' (more on this in a moment) that made me think of my first teacher planner. When I first started teaching I had this really cool planner. I had plans to write in it every day. I was a reeeeal teacher now. I made good efforts to write down all of my lessons and activities. I thought I was doing awesome because I was planned and uber organized. I loved it. It felt nice. I relied on that planner, depending on it to guide me in my direction for the day/week. However, something weird happened... I started feeling trapped by the planner and found myself saying, "we don't have time for this or that..." I had self imposed due dates and couldn't easily deviate from my plan because I really liked it nice and neat. The pages and the class... However, after ten years in, I know that teaching is messy and unpredictable. Not everything fits in a little box. Students included. There's a lot of unexpected occurrences that happen daily. For example, the unexpected discussions. Sure, it's not in my planner- but it's super awesome when it really happens. Sometimes you can't plan for great things - they just happen. After some reflection I started to change it up. I went to a digital planner and thought I could move things around more easily if my plans changed. Cool. Did that help? Nope. Same story. Different planner. So after I moved to the high school and was tasked with creating curriculum from the ground up... my planning changed. Writing curriculum with very broad standards seems like an awesome freedom, doesn't it? There's no step by step guide and no definitive categories. Not only do you have to create all of your resources, lessons and activities, you also have to engage students. No pressure there. :) When I first started writing curriculum I always envisioned where I wanted my students to be, what skills I wanted them to have and what their project outcomes may look like. I would section it up and make sure skills and concepts overlapped. I had to know what the end looked like to work toward the beginning. The beautiful backward design. An oldie but a goodie. It forces you to really know what you want from students. Define it in a way that is goal oriented. It's so simple that sometimes I think we forget about it. I actually forget I even do it because I'm so practiced in it. Now, instead of seeing things through just a projects lens, I am constantly thinking about how I can make sure to weave in skills that will help students when they leave ROHS. I also try to connect what we are talking about or working on to a larger concept or idea. Sometimes I think students only think as far as we give them space to, and I want to make sure I give them infinite space. After creating a curriculum built on what I really want from my students in the very end, I found I became more flexible in my day to day expectations of myself and my students. I plan a day at a time and it's always based around where we left off the previous day. I am very aware of where I want my students to be and that there is some looming expiration time over my head... but somehow I always seem to hit that date and it all comes together. The one sentence lesson plan made me think about being flexible and reminded me that knowing the why is the most important piece. Norman Eng's makes the one sentence lesson plan super simple. It addresses the WHAT, HOW and WHY.
An Example:
I love this because it keeps it simple and really focuses in on the true pieces of a lesson. I'm all about the WHY. When I considered taking my current job, I had to do a lot of thinking about why I would want to accept a position that took me outside of the classroom that I loved so much. I had to come up with goals and a vision of how I saw this position 10 years down the road. I not only had to see it, I had to get other people to see it as well. I used Simon Sinek's Ted Talk concept (I love Simon Sinek!) again in a different way when talking with MACUL attendees about flexible active learning spaces. Ultimately, they needed to know why they were going to make this switch. Was it to keep their jobs? Get new furniture? Attract more students to certain spaces? Etc. It didn't matter what it was, but they needed to know why they were going to do it and then develop goals to hit, to meet their own why. I find when you know the WHY, you then are more passionate about your work because you truly believe in it. I would say that the same rings true for our students. When they know why they are doing something, they are more passionate (maybe a strong word) about what they are doing in the classroom. The hope is that they will get to a point where they truly believe in what they are doing and are passionate about their work (inside and outside of the classroom). So, let me challenge you to think about the WHY next time you are planning a lesson, taking another job, making a move, changing the status quo, etc. Know the why and plan with the end in mind, but know it's not always going to be nice and neat. Such is life. :)
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As I teach my class, The Raven Innovation Lab (ROHS iTeam), I find many similarities that overlap with my own day-to-day activities on the job. I am tasking these students to be collaborative and team together in productive ways. What does that look like? How do we do that in order to get a result that meets their goals? How do we know we were successful? What are the success indicators? Then, of course, students have to practice effective communication skills- giving everyone a space to voice their perspective and making sure each member is heard. Practicing Empathy. Mindfulness. Understanding that 'failing forward' is ok, there may not be a "right" answer (there rarely is) and there aren't many careers in which you aren't managing multiple projects at once. We are working on many of the Approaches to Learning Skills. Honestly, by the act of just teaching, we are utilizing the Approaches to Learning Skills (at least some of them). However, I have to constantly remind myself to explicitly teach them to students and essentially tell myself to 'slow down.' It may be silly, but since I'm visual, I need visual reminders. I not only have to explicitly teach these skills... I feel like I need to lead by example. The things I ask of my students are the things I am constantly working on as well. Some of them will come naturally, but others I know I need to work on. I not only have to explicitly teach these skills... I feel like I need to lead by example. The Raven Innovation Lab is built on the foundation of Design Thinking. It's actually a big connector to design, engineering, science, and quite honestly I can make a case for its connection into every course that targets project based learning (PBL) in some way. It's a process, and in part, it's really a thinking process. I'm not educating students on memorizing the steps. I am educating them on intuitively navigating through problems and finding solutions. Would you say that all teachers do this? I totally would! As an instructional coach that moves around the PLC circuit, I am finding that we all have a different language. Why is that? This may be my own naivete, but why is 'thinking like a scientist' different than 'thinking like a writer,' or engineer, designer, artist, mathematician? The piece of the ATLs that I love is that it gets us to develop a common language. I started with the basis of Design Thinking because it's a cycle that I personally go through with all of the projects and problems I encounter, either at work or in my personal life. So for example, when sitting down with a teacher I use empathy. I am trying to see what their needs are. Look at things from their perspective. Then we have to define the problem and set goals. Ideate and come up with a plan. The two of us may have to prototype items (this can look so many different ways if you are not linear about your definition of prototyping.) Then you test it out and fully implement to affect change and reach the goals. What happens if it doesn't work? Do we pack up and go home? Or continue doing something that doesn't work? Nope. :) It's back to the drawing boards! To me, this is the exciting part about teaching. It's not about perfection or the 'right way.' There are so many ways... It's not about perfection or the 'right way'. There are so many ways... I said previously in this post that I need to slow down and explicitly teach some of the ATL skills. I would like for the big area of focus for the iTeam to be reflection. I think reflection is a huge part of learning and it's something I do every single day. I would like to think that I do a decent job about leading by example with regards to reflection. As I'm writing this blog post, I am hoping that my students are also reflecting on their week and their learning. I can't ask students to be reflective learners without being one myself. Now with that said, as I continue reading my students' blog posts, I am realizing they are giving me a recap of what happened in class. A rather surface level response to 'get points' or fulfill the requirement. That to me says, I didn't do a great job modeling and teaching what reflection is. I should preface, there isn't a right or wrong way to reflect. However, I do want them to go deeper and think deeper on their process. So maybe I should rephrase: I didn't do a great job at modeling and teaching the depth of reflection I was looking for. As I look at the list of ATL skill indicators under reflection skills I can't help but think- 'Man, why didn't I start off using some visible thinking routines?!?' This would have helped us develop a routine and also an understanding of the level of reflection I would be looking for on the blog. I think I may just slow down... be flexible... and change it up... possibly tomorrow. :) The design process I am asking students to go through is challenging for them. Mostly it's because they have to team and direct their own learning in some way. When asked to select a problem and address it with the given resources I was met with, "This is hard! If you give me the problem I could solve it." Yes, they totally could. We have students who are excellent writers, readers, designers, etc. In public education we give them many things and sometimes I think we forget that frustration and failure is not bad. They have to work through it. My philosophy professor would always tell me, "Alyssa, frustration means you're learning. You're stretching your mind." I can tell you that every time I left his class, my brain was entirely stretched and I didn't always feel awesome about it. Thanks Chris Bocklage!
As we move into the marking period, the students are working on multiple projects at one time. Again, they are having a tough time because they aren't sure how to navigate and balance these projects even though we have gone through multiple smaller scale projects which modeled the various steps and approaches. The format for the course is structured, but not in the way that I give them a task in which I already know the end result. The hard part for them is honestly the scary part for me... I have no clue how it will turn out. But what I do know is there is going to be a lot of learning forward and failing forward. Beyond the Design Thinking approach, I want the students to start working on skills they will be able to use in the real world. Being balanced (LP characteristic) and managing workload (ATLs) is a real life skill. I am not asking students to do something that I am not doing myself. Students see that I am constantly juggling several projects at once. From being someone who addresses inquiries to working on building goals with teachers. It's a lot of work. Good work. I'm passionate about building relationships and helping to provide rich experiences for students. As I am leading by example in my efforts to try to be balanced and project manage... I am hoping that they see something more important than being efficient at balancing and managing tasks. I hope that they are developing an understanding that the work becomes more meaningful when you are passionate about it. Because when you love what you do and are doing real meaningful work it gives you a different perspective. The job becomes less of a 9-5 and more of a piece of who you are. I know I only highlighted some of the skills in which I am either indirectly or directly modeling for students that come naturally to me. There are many that don't come naturally for me. I am deeply aware that there are many things I need to work on. I know I will have to dedicate extra space and time to work through those. Maybe I'll talk about those in another post. :) I will leave you with a few questions to reflect on:
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