FLN Book Club

In the spirit of the educational disruption, after gaining class time with flipped learning, I decided to give the Google 20% project a try in my physics and Scientific Research and Design classes. I was intrigued by the idea that students would embrace the idea of learning for the sake of learning, not grades, not compliance, but their choice of learning. Over the course of five years, 95% of the students embraced the idea and ran with it. Only a few accomplished nothing. Those that took advantage did some amazing things. (Classroom Benefits of the 20% Project)

Now I am an instructional coach and help teachers design lessons, analyze data, reflect, create interventions, and integrate technology. I occurred to me that a similar, but scaled down idea could be amazing for teachers. How wonderful would it be to have teachers re-discover value in the learning process again. Experiencing for themselves modeling research, questioning, recording results and ideas, and communicating with others.  Having a reminder of what it is like to purposefully learn something could give insight on some of the struggles and opportunities students face today. It can also show that learning goes beyond the defined objectives.

It would be unreasonable to ask already overwhelmed teachers to set everything aside every Friday, or for one hour each day and learn what they wish to learn. But, it could be energizing to have the opportunity to do so once or twice each month. While many would choose something that would apply to the classroom, would it be a problem if a physics teacher decided to learn to play the trombone?

Educators can not escape the idea that relationships are key to our success. Student learning is improved when teachers take the time to build relationships. Change and innovation are facilitated when administrators and teachers have taken the time to build trust. Creating a relationship with parents and the community allow teachers to share and communicate what is happening within the classroom. It is really all about relationships

So we arrive one of the hard parts of a caring relationship, stepping back and letting someone grow. Growth requires taking risks, and taking risks requires facing failure. It takes time and intention to prove to colleagues and students they will have support when they take risks. I have been fortunate to have administrators who allowed me to take some big risks in the classroom to improve student learning. It started with flipped classroom and progressed to a project-based class where students spent the year planning and building solar charging stations for the school. I had no if we could actually build the stations. But we made it, and it was an amazing year.

To chronicle the year and share with the public, students maintained blogs. So, I am sharing to help answer how to support risk, and how important it is to do so.

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This week I decided to see if the pillars of Flipped Learning could be linked to the characteristics of the Innovator’s Mindset as described in Chapter 3 of The Innovator’s Mindset. I started by choosing something that struck me for each characteristic and then matched that idea with as many of the pillars I could. I had grand plans to show my learning with sketch notes, but in the spirit of Flipping 1.0, I ran into the problem of needing it sooner than later and went with a table.

There was at least one pillar for each characteristic. Some characteristics like being empathetic could be found in all of the pillars. I am sure the matches are based on my experiences and others might find different or even more ways to match the two sets of ideas. If you give it a try, please share your thoughts.

In Chapter 2 of The Innovator’s Mindset, George Couros writes about what it takes to have an innovative mindset as an extension of the popular growth mindset idea. Innovators must do more than believe everyone can learn and change, they must do something with that belief and create something new and better. I am going to share a story that I believe follows that path, then ask you to reflect on your experiences and share one of your own.

For a few years I taught a section of sheltered physics for English Language Learners (ELL). Curriculum objectives did not change for these students, so I had to figure out a way to teach what is essentially word problem class to a group of sixteen students who spoke ten different languages, only one being Spanish and four of them spoke no English. You might think that math would save us, but over half of the students struggled with elementary math and relied on a calculator to divide by ten. Together we had to learn to communicate and figure out how to best conquer the material.

I had been flipping the classroom for over three years. So I was ready to try some new things during class. Having attended a Flipped Learning Conference over the summer I was full of great ideas. One of those ideas was Peer Instruction, used in college physics by Dr. Eric Mazur (here is an example). I knew ELL students needed to practice communication, and Peer Instruction would give us a framework for that communication while deepening understanding. So one class day, students arrived, I checked notes, went over issues that the lesson check revealed and then I posed a question. I do not remember my well planned and brilliant question, but I do remember the faces of the students as they thought about the question then raised their hands to answer. They marked their initial responses and before they could share out loud, I encouraged them to discuss the question with their group at the table and arrive at a consensus. I was convinced this was going to be amazing. Then it happened, total silence. They stared at each other then at me. I explained the Peer Instruction process again and was met with more silence. You see, with ten different languages, there was not much to talk about. They were having enough trouble figuring things out for themselves. So sadly, I fell back to leading a discussion with nodding heads and some interaction. I really wanted the students to talk about physics. I wanted to hear what they knew and where they needed clarification. I thought this would be the answer. That is not even close to what happened so it was back to the drawing board.

After some reflection, I decided to try again, but this time, instead of turning and talking with the table group, they had to illustrate their answer. Using neon markers, they drew their ideas on the table tops. (Students love to write on school furniture.) Then we traveled from table to table to discuss each of the drawings. I had no idea whether or not this would work, but it did. We could talk about the physics, and I could see exactly where the concepts were confusing them. I was a departure from the original idea of Peer Instruction, but it met the needs of my students at the time and made the class far more interesting for all of us. Simple pictures created by the students created a better classroom  where students were trying to talk and learn and made me a better teacher.

Even with a sound idea, somethings need a twist to be successful. In the spirit of creating a community of learners please share your successes that required some inspiration, grit or resilience to achieve.

Harvard Magazine, February 2, 2012, Eric Mazur Shows Interactive Teaching, retrieved March 6, 2017 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wont2v_LZ1E