Reynah is a grade 12 student at Woodroffe High School, who has launched a passion project in hopes of connecting students with Indigenious youth. She began her journey with R.I.S.E Academy as a student in the summer and continued in the fall. As part of R.I.S.E. Academy, she had to complete a passion project, which is when she chose to assist Indigenous youth living in the North, which is very meaningful to her and is a population of people she wants to continue working with in the future. Her project is titled “Compel North”, and it is for non-Indigenous and Indigenous youth to develop a bond through emails and photos, and it is an incredible way to get to know more youth in Canada, relate, and learn about their differences and resemblances. Through Reynah’s research, she became connected with a teacher in the North, Miss Connell. Reynah learned that many students in the North do not have access to proper hygiene products and clothes, which is unfortunate and saddening. She mentions that clothes and hygiene products should be a necessity not a luxury. For example, young women often struggle to afford feminine hygiene products (ie. pads and tampons). She was drawn to this idea and she decided to start a gofundme page to raise money for this school to help young women access these necessary items.
Furthermore, Reynah is helping people understand the difference between necessities and luxuries. Relating back to our feminine hygiene products example, tampons are a necessity; thus, feminine hygiene is a crucial issue that must be prioritized. If neglected, feminine hygiene can lead to the discovery of a host of diseases. Both health and social considerations necessitate good personal cleanliness. It comprises keeping hands, head, and body clean to prevent germs and illness from spreading. What constitutes a decent personal hygiene routine? Rinsing, dental hygiene, showering, sanitary clothing, and so on… which is why they need access to these proper hygiene products such as; soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, and toilet paper.
The funds Reynah is collecting also go towards clothes that can help provide insulation from the cold or heat, as well as act as a hygienic shield, keeping contagious and hazardous items away from the body. Due to the extreme cold weather that Northern Canada experiences, it is crucial that these youth have access to adequate warm, winter clothing. Clothing also protects them from the sun’s harmful rays. Therefore, the students in the north need to have access to the proper clothing that ultimately protects them from extreme weather conditions.
Well it has been quite some time since I last posted, I have been a little busy. Between May 19, 2020 (my last post) and now a lot has changed. In a nutshell, I took a leave without pay from my job and opened up a Not-for-Profit, virtual, alternative high school called R.I.S.E. (Reach Inspire Soar Empower) Academy and it has been quite the ride. Between September 2020 and today we moved from a very small team of me a student teacher a few part time staff and some volunteers to a team of Board of Directors, a Principal / Facilitator (me), two full time facilitators, one math / science specialist, two Social Work students, Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Manager, three student teachers, 5 + volunteers and soon to be 10 + student interns. Last year were were able to have youth accumulate 95 credits between September and July and this year we are projected to have youth accumulate 200 credits by the end of July.
The goal of R.I.S.E. is to provide students a learning experience that compliments their public school or homeschooling experience. We want to find ways to take the “system” out of learning and recognize, celebrate and utilize their individual passions, strengths and motivators. Below is a breakdown on how the program works.
Partnerships
Last year we partnered with Multifaith Housing Initiative (MHI) and received our very first grant from the Ottawa Community Foundation. MHI exists to build affordable housing that helps fix Ottawa’s housing crisis and gets at-risk people into secure, safe homes. This first grant allowed us us to provide free programming to 18 youth in their neighbourhoods. Next we partnered with Rideau Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre where we received a grant from Ontario Teacher Insurance Plan, here we created a summer pilot Entrepreneurship program where we had 7 youth start businesses and work on a credit. Our partnership with MHI and RRCRC continued into this year where we once again received funding from Ottawa Community Foundation and more recently a grant from the Rideau Hall Foundation. In total we will be able to provide free programming to 100 youth between September 2021 and June 2023.
We are always working on new partnerships, stay tuned for our latest connections!!
Youth Services Bureau Interns
In the fall we connected with Youth Service Bureau where we were able to support at-risk youth by hiring young people to give them meaningful employment and learning experiences. We hired our first group of 4 interns in January and it has been amazing. These youth not only have meaningful employment at R.I.S.E., but those who are high school aged are also working on credits that go towards their O.S.S.D. So far we have a Video Editors, Social Media and Community Outreach workers and Blog writer.
Our blog writer intern has been working hard over the last few months to learn the ins and outs of blog writing and what R.I.S.E. is all about. Please stay tuned for some updates from her, she will be chronicling what has been going on.
On my way home from work today I listened to my students recent Twisted System podcast episode # 8. In it, they talked about mental health and social media. They had a great conversation about how social media impacts their lives. If you would like a look into the teenage world and social media you should have a listen, I heard about apps and things that I had never heard of. In the episode they talk about how people only post the good on social media, how we often compare ourselves to others and what social media is doing to our mental health. This got me thinking about my own Twitter feed. If you follow me, you will know that I love showcasing what we are doing in our classroom. If I go back and look at my feed, things look like they are going great. There is no doubt that my students are doing amazing things. But our classroom is far from perfect. I started this blog two years ago to chronicle mine and my students unlearning journey, all of it, not just the good, I wanted to share the good, the bad and the ugly. So, I will let you in on a secret, my twitter feed does not represent the whole story.
Recently I have been feeling anxious, overwhelmed and exhausted. Sometimes I doubt myself and what I am doing with my students. Sometimes I feel like quitting and finding a different job completely. I struggle daily trying to manage this new way of “teaching”. I am innovating inside the box and sometimes that is really hard. Amongst the good, and there is so much of it, here is what we are dealing with. Here is the reality of innovating inside a box.
Students
I work with amazing students who are super on board with trying out a new way of learning. They have embraced it and are working hard on their passion projects. But they are teenagers. They all come with their different abilities. I want to learn about each and every one of them so that I can help them be successful. I want to give them my undivided attention to help them with their individual projects, but it is not always possible. These things are hard to do when you have 30 students in a class. (Can you imagine if we end up with 40, don’t get me started on that). Sometimes I feel like a complete failure. I feel like I am letting them down, that I am not doing enough and then I realize that I just don’t have anymore to give. I’m exhausted.
Accountability
My students are all working on different passion projects. They have between two or three 75 minute periods a week to work on their projects. For some they are in two of my classes so that means they have between 4 – 6 periods a week to work on their projects. My students are learning time management skills, they set their schedule for the week and are supposed to stick by it. Every Monday they set these goals for themselves. My students are teenagers and regular human beings. They don’t always follow through when they say they are going to, some times they are having a bad day and need a break and other days they work like mad men and women. On the days that they are not working it is hard to watch. On any given day I have students who are working diligently and then on another day they are off task and not working on their projects. This makes me really uncomfortable, however, what I have to remember is that this is how life works. I don’t know about you, but I rarely work diligently every single minute of the day. I often have to motivate myself to get work done. I have options to take a break or work and sometimes I take the option of procrastinating. If I tell my students what to do, how to do it and when to do then I am not allowing them the freedom to learn from their mistakes. But this is hard to watch. I am often there to help keep them motivated, but again I am only one person and so I have to leave it in their hands. Again, this is a constant struggle for me.
So many projects
Between three classes of approximately 25 – 30 students there are a ton of projects going on. In an ideal world I would have the opportunity to sit with each student / group of students and help them plan out their projects every week. I try to touch base with all students at some point throughout the week to see if they need help. I watch their weekly updates and provide suggestions to them every weekend but often I feel like a failure in doing this. The reality is that this model of teaching can happen in this environment, but a lot of onus has to be left on the students. Managing over 30 projects in really hard…period.
The Naysayers
As with any new or out of the box model of thinking there are going to be supporters, those who are curious and the naysayers. I know I have people rooting for me, I know that what I am doing is right for the students, but I often focus on the naysayers. I am super lucky to have admin and a whole experiential learning department and Director who supports what I am doing. I also have some amazing colleagues who have joined the crusade to change the way we educate our youth. It is awesome being able to chat with them about the things that they are trying out in their classrooms and to talk about the future of experiential learning. I have cheerleaders that I have met on Twitter and amazing community members and parents who support me. But I am human and unfortunately I often focus on those who just don’t get it. This is counterproductive and destructive, but sometimes I just can’t stop myself.
Mental Health
I struggle with anxiety and all of the above makes it worse. As mentioned already I often second guess what I am doing, I often feel out of control and I struggle with so many things that go on behind the scenes of my classroom.
It’s definitely not perfect but we will power through because we are rocking our projects, we are making so many community connections, we are learning our curriculum by doing, we are working on time management, we are making a difference, the students are empowered and we are learning from our failures.
We will be resilient and continue to:
Do good deeds and podcast about them. (Stay tuned for their first episode)
Create a prototype of an app to help fight antibiotic resistance.
Pack birthday boxes for a young indigenous girl in the north.
Create a podcast called Human 2.0 about AI awareness.
Connect with mental health partners, fundraise and put together packages for teens who suffer from mental health.
Work with and support students with intellectual disabilities.
Run a kindness program in a middle school.
Give lessons to classes about shark finning.
Collect and donate clothing to the Salvation Army.
Detail teachers cars to raise money for Miracle League.
Rake lawns and collect sports equipment to raise money for Waupoos Family farm.
Collect e-waste as a social enterprise.
Create doggy care packages for the homeless who have pets.
Create a cooking show and health and nutrition podcast.
Run a DIFD hockey game to raise money and awareness for Mental Health.
Support the local Santa Claus parade.
Fundraise to support a family in need at Christmas.
Create a social enterprise called STAIN. (start talking about it now period) to end stigma around women and their periods.
Learn to sew with retired ladies from the community and work with Days for Girls to sew reusable feminine hygiene products for girls who stay home from school because of their periods.
Podcast live on Voiced radio on the Twisted System Podcast.
Take part in an anti anxiety yoga therapy program.
Put on a fun day to raise money and awareness for Leukemia.
Volunteer in elementary classrooms.
Learn to grow an inside garden.
Start a vegetarian blog with yummy recipes for everyone.
Ride 200 kms to raise money and awareness for pancreatic cancer.
Run a sports program for preschoolers weekly for free for parents who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it.
Organize a blood donor clinic and get swabbed campaign.
Volunteer at a retirement home and organize a prom for them.
Interview Veterans and local politicians to help share the veterans concerns.
Interview people and write songs about their stories.
Organize a fundraiser for local housing community.
Become climate change warriors by joining POW.
If you are in the midst of making a change, it is definitely not easy, but don’t give up – as you can see from the list above, it is so worth all the struggles.
With a new school year comes another year of professional learning. I am super lucky to be a part of a group of teachers at my school who are embarking on a second year of unlearning together. Last year my Principal, myself and four other teachers met almost every three weeks to talk about school and the need for change. We had some really great discussion, some disagreements and some aha moments. It was amazing to have a safe place to share ideas and not feel judged. Amazing things happened in classrooms as a result of our time together. If you are interested in seeing / reading about some of the other teachers experiences / unlearning journeys you can check out The Stoppels Show blog or Jess Packer-Quinnel on Twitter and Liz Coolen on Instagram.
This year I am privileged to continue working with the group above, but am also lucky to get to work with a new group of teachers who are interested in learning more about community based learning. There has been a huge push in our board to make learning more experiential so this year our professional learning teams are called the XLPLT (experiential professional learning team).
We had our first meeting a week ago to talk about what the XLPLT was all about. My Principal went over what we did last year and what we hope to do this year. He asked me and the others from last year’s team to talk a little bit about what we are doing in my classes. We also spoke about the journey that the teachers in our PLT took to get to where they are today. It really made me reflect on my past PD experiences and what is necessary to let go of in order to completely change up your practice.
I have done a lot of PD over the past 17 years. I worked on a PLT that focused on critical thinking, I worked on a PLT that looked at engagement of at risk students, I participated in lesson studies and I attended numerous workshops on how to make my lessons better. All of these have been very important in my growth as a teacher. I learned a lot by working with my colleagues and found great ways to change up lessons and to embed critical thinking and engagement into my practice. However, what they didn’t really look at was the structure of the traditional education system and how it is outdated, systemically racist, focused on preparing students for a work world that doesn’t exist anymore and not preparing our students for their future.
In this years XLPLT we are obviously interested in finding ways to have our students become critical thinkers and engaged, but more importantly we are more excited about how to change up our classrooms so that they reflect the modern world. So, what are the things that a teacher needs to do in order to make this happen? Below is what I have come up with.
Understand why this change needs to happen – more specifically understanding your WHY for doing it.
Let go of control.
See students as partners. Give them a say in what and how they learn.
Realize that learning can happen differently than what we know school to be – and value that learning just as much.
Let go of hierarchy and grades – see the brilliance in everyone.
Embrace failures, reflect and learn from them.
Connect learning to community.
Focus on teaching / using 21st century technology.
Have students become creators rather than consumers.
This is not an easy task, but by looking at the work that they are doing at Beaver County Day School in Massachusetts, it is possible. Check it out here Why ‘Unlearning’ Old Habits Is An Essential Step For Innovation However, closer to home it is evident that it is possible too. After about 8 months of working together on our Unlearning PLT I interviewed the team on what unlearning meant to them. Here are their answers.
So, what will it take for you to make the change, what is your WHY?
We are now a month into school and I am feeling like I need to write. It has been a busy three months since I last posted. Two months of summer and a month of start up. This summer I took a stab at trying to be an entrepreneur. I offered an online course to teachers who were interested in learning to unlearn. We had a very small cohort, but overall I think it went well. I really enjoyed working with the teachers and I really hope they got something out of it. I hope to continue with these courses – there will be a few tweaks to this summer’s course but I am hoping to relaunch later in the fall. Stay tuned if you are interested.
Now that we are back at school we are full on into a passion project based classroom. I am currently teaching grade 11 Intro to Anthro, Psych and Soc, grade 12 Human Growth and Development and grade 12 World Issues. We spent the first two – three weeks learning about the course material, getting ourselves organized with all the tools / housekeeping items we will need (twitter, research skills, google classroom, excursion forms etc) and we listened to guests talk about their passions, about different not for profit organizations and about what it means to be a social entrepreneur. Now the students are in the process of creating their passion projects for the semester, it is chaos and I love it.
Throughout every semester I keep a running document of things to change for the next year. Before this years start up I went back to those documents, looked at what went well last year and what needed to change and made some tweaks to this years structure. After teaching the dual credit course I realized that having specific days for specific tasks brought back some of the structure into the classroom that I seemed to be missing. Therefore this year this is what our day to day looks like.
Mondays – Get Organized
Twitter Time – prompt to help them stay on top of tweeting
Fill out weekly planners
Create a weekly update via a vlog, blog or podcast
Class announcements and sharing
Tuesdays – Content Day
These days are reserved for lessons and guest related to the curriculum
Research Days – work on research for their issue that relates to the curriculum
Tweet about what you learned
Wednesdays – Community Outreach
Twitter Time – prompt to help them stay on top of tweeting
For my grade 11s we are working with a group of students in the General Learning Program who are going to visit us every other Wednesday for the semester.
For my grade 12s students can go out into the community and do a placement that is related to our course.
Grade 12s class podcast – run by students.
Thursdays & Fridays – Passion Project Days
Twitter Time – prompt to help them stay on top of tweeting
These two days are to be scheduled by the students. Many of them are out working in the community, having meetings and phone calls.
Since I have about 95% of the same students in my grade 12 classes that I had last year, it has been an adjustment for them. They were used to a little more freedom, but are learning to follow the day to day. My grade 11s don’t know any different and seem to have settled just fine into it. Overall I am super excited for the semester – there are some really cool projects that the students are working on already. Follow us @MrsRChambers and #jmsshpa11 & #jmsshpa12 if you want to see what they are all up to.
Over the past 5 years, as an educator, I have been on an unlearning journey. I have gradually transitioned from a traditional classroom to a more modernized classroom that reflects our ever changing world. In the last year I have had the opportunity to share this experience at a few conferences via workshops, through my blog and twitter. I have been fortunate to be contacted by people who are interested in what I am doing. The most consistent comment / question that I get is, I love what you are doing, but where do I even start?
Everyday I challenge my students to seek out problems and find solutions. Therefore, I am going to walk the walk and will be taking the leap into the edupreneur world.
I am excited and nervous to announce that I will to be offering an online course / workshop for teachers who are interested in modernizing their classroom but just don’t know where to start. The course will run for 8 weeks and will include the following:
Why we need to unlearn.
The importance of a Professional Learning Network in our unlearning journey.
The gradual steps taken to let go of a traditional model to a more modernized approach to the classroom. (5 Steps to leaving the traditional model)
Each of the Step modules will include:
A video overview of what change was made to my traditional classroom.
Student Voice / examples
Links to the people / educators / resources that influenced the change.
Changes in assessment from traditional to reflective / gradeless.
Discussions: networking / brainstorming with other participants and myself.
30 min one on one consultation with me / module.
You can check out a promo video here if you would like a little more information.
The course will be $299 CND / $249 USD.
The first session will run from June 23, 2019 – Aug 17, 2019.
Last year I bought a new car. I was driving a large SUV and wanted to find a car that was better for the environment and cheaper on gas – I live out in the country and do a lot of driving. I really wanted a Tesla, but I didn’t buy one, here is why:
Expensive
Concerned about charging stations – if I wanted to travel from Ottawa to Hamilton (where all my family lives) I would have to stop at least once to recharge which would take at least 45 minutes and I usually don’t stop along the way.
Limited infrastructure – charging stations, concerns about charging it at home and at work etc.
The fear of the unknown – I’ve only owned gas fueled cars before
I know that driving an electric car is where I need to go next, but when I bought my last car I wasn’t ready to make the change. Ultimately, if I am going to drive an electric car I will have to change what I know about driving I will have to change my habits, I will have to unlearn what I know about owning a vehicle. When it is time for the next vehicle, I will be ready.
In education we have a similar situation. Many people see the need for change, but have not wrapped their heads around or come to terms with how to make the change from gas to electric or teacher lead / grade driven to student lead / reflective practice.
Five years ago I decided enough was enough and I made that transition from gas to electric in my classroom. I went from the teacher telling the students what and how to learn to a facilitator that provides a framework, suggestions, guidance and support to students.
As a gas fueled teacher I was the one always in control. I had my students learning what I thought was the most important. I had all my students complete all the same assignments and learn all the same things. I assessed my students all the same way and I focused mostly on the content of the course rather than on skills.
As an electric fueled facilitator I now expose my students to different issues / organizations, professions in the field that we are studying, I let my students passions / interests drive their learning, I help connect them with community, I challenge them to get out of their comfort zones, I support them in creating networks that will help them now and in the future. I help my students find their passions and help provide them with skills that will allow them to pursue those passions all while obtaining credits. My role is to coach them in their learning and to help them reflect and learn from what they do in the classroom. I have given up a lot of the control.
It has taken me five years to get to where I am, I get that it takes time to make the shift. Throughout my journey I have had many conversations with curious educators who want to make the shift. I have had the opportunity to share what I am doing at a few conferences and PD Days and the most frequently asked comment / question is usually, I love what you are doing, but how do I make this happen? What I have found is this can’t be answered in a 50 minute session or over coffee. Therefore, I am excited to announce that I am in the process of creating an online course / workshop to help guide educators looking to make the shift, but just don’t know where to start. It is still in the infancy stage but for those who enrol, it will be a place to learn and understand your own why, a place to network with other educators and finally a place to brainstorm and reimagine your classroom.
Who’s ready to make the shift from gas to electric?
As mentioned in many of my previous posts my desire for change in education was sparked by my own educational experience and my introduction to trailblazers such as Sir Ken Robinson, and closer to home Dr. Peter Gamwell. They have been fighting the good fight for years (in a time when it was even more controversial than today) and paved the way for today’s educators to start making some changes.
I am motivated to make change for my students, but even more so for my daughters in grade 1 and 6. I am on a mission to change the way we do school and have been experimenting within our current system to make some of these changes happen. As a part of my experiment, over the past 10 years I have been busy researching about different learning environments and different ways of doing things that reflect our ever changing modern world.
In 2014 some colleagues and I went to visit Westmount High School in Hamilton Ontario who are one of eight schools that belong to the Canadian Coalition of Self-Directed Learning.
I have read articles and watched videos about places like the Independent School, The MET, Iowa BIG and High Tech High.
I have learned to use Twitter to connect with others out there and have become a part of a Professional Learning Network that I never knew existed. I learn so much from this network, whether it is seeing what they are talking about on their blogs, podcasts or vlogs, joining in Twitter chats / discussions or meeting up for virtual hangouts with educators from around the world. I get so much energy and strength from these people.
Every year the research has inspired me to try something new in my classroom. Each year I slowly let go of the traditional and move to a more modern style of teaching. However, there have been huge obstacles. Working in our archaic system can be challenging, but this semester some of my visions are starting to come true.
My vision starts to come true: Experiential, community connected and passion project based learning in action.
At the beginning of February my students and I embarked on a new journey of experiential learning with our new two credit course that the ministry calls Child Development and Gerontology TOJ4C paired with IDC4O. We have altered the name to The Experiential Passion Based Study of Child Development and Gerontology. All my research and the experimenting with my other classes has lead to this course. I have learned what works and what doesn’t work, what some of the obstacles are and how to overcome them. Over the 10 years of trial and error this is what I hope to have as our focus in the classroom.
Student Driven
Exit Outcomes (Essential Life Skills)
UN Sustainable Development Goals
Technology
Entrepreneurial Mindset
Social Media
Authentic Audience and Community Connections
Course Content as a vessel to work on all of the above
Now that we are a month and half into the course we are starting to get into the swing of things. Generally this is what a week looks like:
Monday
The first ½ of class is dedicated to “Monday Meetings” here we get into randomly selected small groups, play a silly ice breaker game and then we have a very informal discussion about “course” related stuff. We talk about what has been going on with their projects, we talk about issues that they might be having, the students support each other in solving those problems or brainstorming for new projects. They discuss the outings that they had in the previous weeks, they share where they went and what they did, what they liked and what they didn’t like. And finally each student fills out a weekly form that helps them plan for the week. They jot down what they are going to work on, where they are going each day (because we are out in the community a lot) anything I need to know about their week and how they are feeling. I am supported by our Student Success Teacher and our former VP (she’s retired) to help run these meetings. I am SO fortunate to have the support of these amazing ladies to make this happen!! We will refer to them as mentors from here on in.
*Nerdy Teacher Alert* I’ve learned how to use a chrome extension called DocAppender and it has been a game changer for keeping me and my students organized in a PBL classroom. Message me if you want to know more and I will tell you about it!!
During the second part of Monday’s class we have a guest come in from the field of Child Development and Gerontology. These guests give students a look into different careers but also to hear about different issues that they may want to get involved with. So far we have had amazing people come into our classroom to talk about topics such as: Elder Abuse, Children on the Autism Spectrum, Adult programs for people with cognitive disabilities and an amazing Social Entrepreneur Lindsay Barr who has set up an organization called World Changing Kids (WCK).
So far we have had two students get hired to work in a one to one Autism program and another one is working with WCK’s on a podcast. My goal is to provide the students with some inspiration for projects and connections to the community by having these guests in.
Tuesday
Our whole class goes to Woodroffe HS to work with their Junior GLP class. This group of students are between the ages of 14 – 16 and have a variety of intellectual disabilities. They are in a specialized program called the General Learning Program. Every Tuesday we meet up with the students to support them in their learning. For our first two meetups we have worked on building trust and relationships between the two groups of students. Below is what one of my students had to say after their first meetup.
Our last visit started our first “structured” learning experience together. We started a 3 day workshop (given over three weeks of Tuesday’s) by Parkdale Food Centre on how to become solutionaries. We will continue these workshops when we return after the break.
Again, I am hoping to provide my students exposure to different career paths, meeting new people and potentially ideas for their passion projects. So far we have a group of two students who are interested in spending more time within the Woodroffe HS General Learning Program and they have paired up with the Senior GLP class and will be joining them on outings every Friday.
Wednesday
I have arranged for my students to rotate (every three weeks they change placements) around six different places. In their rotation there are three different retirement homes right in our community and three different elementary classrooms (grade 1 EFI, grade ⅔ English and a grade 5 English) at the elementary school across the street. We have been through one full rotation and started their second rotation the week before the break. These placements are hopefully giving them more exposure to different careers, but also an opportunity to learn about who they like to work with and who they do not. Just like our connection with the WHS GLP group I had hoped to find more ways to inspire my students to organically find real world problems that they might want to try and solve. Like Don Wettrick I want my students to become “seekers and peekers rather than moaner and groaners”.
So, I got goosebumps when one of the groups came to me and said….
When the guest from NROC came in and talked to us about Elder Abuse she mentioned that one of the biggest issues for seniors is isolation, and when we visited the retirement home we really noticed that this was a problem. So, we want to do something that will bring people together.
After brainstorming with one of the mentors about what they could do they came up with the “Mapping our Roots” Project. The girls set up with the activities coordinator for them to have a slot on the weekly calendar. They went in for an hour after school one day, explained their project to any resident interested in listening / participating and then they chatted with the residents, asked them their names and where they were born. They compiled all the information, bought a map and other items and brought it back to the retirement home at the end of the week. See what they had to say about it below.
Another group is in the process of setting up a learn to curl activity for the grade 5 class that they visited. These two girls took something that they are very passionate about and are working on sharing their passion with others.
Thursday and Friday
These two days are Passion Project days. This is where the students choose projects related to the course that they will work on. The project criteria follows Don Wettricks rule of three. Are you passionate about it, will you acquire new skills as you work on it and how will this project benefit others. There is a lot of brainstorming and planning that happens for these projects. Once they have figured out what they want to do they must create a project proposal. In their proposal they have to create a detailed step by step process with short term goals (including dates) along with a final due date. They have to connect course curriculum to their project and then they have to have it looked over and signed off by myself or any of the community mentors. Examples of some of the projects have been mentioned above. The projects are definitely not limited to working with people that we have worked with as a class. Some students have come up with some really amazing things after a lot of brainstorming and soul searching. Some of these include:
Podcasting with Grandma and Grandpa.
Q & A style youtube channel about what it means to be a Muslim teenage girl in Canada.
Sean who wrote The Fault in our Education blog is going to accompany me to talk to a large group of teachers about his thoughts on education.
Organize a toy drive for two different organizations.
Working with Grandma to wash and style wigs for cancer patients.
Making students in our school aware that we have a gender neutral bathroom.
Creating a diversity calendar.
Creating a presentation on body positivity for middle school aged girls and going out into our community middle school and giving the presentation.
Selling clothes on Instagram to raise money for a charity.
The students are asked to chronicle their learning on social media everyday and then rap the week up with a weekly blog, vlog or podcast. (You can check us out at our class hashtag #TOJ4C). As well throughout the course they will complete quarterly reflections. They completed their first reflection right before we headed out on the break. I haven’t had the opportunity to go through all of them but if you are interested in hearing what two of the students have to say click below.
I am so pleased with how this course has unfolded. There are so many things that I have dreamed about for my students that are now becoming a reality. Don’t get me wrong there are still obstacles and keeping everyone motivated is not always easy. But, if I had given up on this 10 year long experiment when I hit roadblocks, this course would not exist. So if you are trying new things out and feel like it’s not working, keep going, don’t give up because you are making a difference even if you feel like there are always obstacles, perseverance will get you where you want to be!!
The countdown is on and we are T-7 school days left until the much needed Christmas Holidays. We are working really hard to stay motivated – students and teachers alike. We have had a lot of time to be working on our projects in all of my classes which gives me the opportunity to chat with all the different groups and see where they are at and what they need from me. This can be exhausting but very uplifting at the same time. Today in my grade 11 class I did what I normally do and made my way around the classroom checking in on all the projects to see where they are at and if they needed any help. After a bit I decided to just sit back and observe the class. To most onlookers they would have seen a bunch of teens lounging and laughing either on their phones or engaging in light hearted conversation. But what I heard and saw was this: two girls researching on their phones looking for schools around Canada to connect with to start a pen pal program, two other students yelling across the room trying to get people to sign up for a potluck that they are organizing for the class and the GLPs (students with disabilities) that we work with once a week, another two talking about how they can get their gender stereotype podcast out and redefining roles within their group, students discussing their former projects, some students just having a discussion about what…I am not quite sure, another one watching YouTube clips, one studying for a bio test, another one working on putting together tweets to make people aware of OI and finally another group brainstorming / chatting / procrastinating about their next project. What I also didn’t see but trusted was happening was three other groups that were out of the classroom, one group was vlogging about their progress, another one was in another portable recording a song and the last group was working in the school painting a poster for their big event that is happening this Friday.
Below is what our classroom looks like, it is not just within the four walls of portable 10, it is everywhere and anywhere!
Our PBL classroom is not traditional so it should not look traditional.
Part of my internal struggle in our PBL classroom is that I have been conditioned along with everyone else in society to believe that school looks like: students following instructions, everyone working on the same projects with the same deadlines and of course being productive for the entire 60 – 75 minutes a day that they are in each of their classes. I have to continually remind myself that if I micro manage them and am continuously telling them what to do they will never learn the skills of self regulation and time management. I continue to listen to podcasts, watch videos, read articles and have conversations with people out in the real world about how this generation lacks in every “soft” skill that exists. I am happy to be the wiser person in the room to remind them every now and then to get going, but ultimately they need to learn to be motivated, to stay on task and to get stuff done. They need to have the opportunity to fail and learn from those failures so that they can learn coping mechanisms for when things don’t go their way. They need to be able to set goals, create steps to achieve those goals and have control over how they implement them on their own. They need time to chat and brainstorm for their next projects so that they can learn patience and truly figure out what they want to work on.
I would have to say that I struggle everyday with the idea that I am allowing my students too much freedom and that they aren’t doing school “properly”. However, when you as the “teacher” can unlearn what we have all been conditioned to believe school is, it is liberating for both you and your students.
So we are two months in and we have been hard at work trying to change the world…project by project. We have had some amazing things happen, some ok things happen and some failures. I have had days where I am so excited to share what is happening in our classroom with anyone who will listen and then there are days that I drive home ready to burst into tears because I feel so out of control. At the end of every project my students are asked to reflect on what went well, what didn’t go so well and what they learned from the process. When I feel like crying I do what I ask my students to do and reflect. I take what I have learned from what we have been doing and try to find ways to make it better. I love what my students are doing, I believe in what we are doing, but I often struggle to find a way to feel in control. Managing a project based classroom is probably my biggest challenge right now. I am by no means an expert at all, in this post I will outline how I am trying to keep it all together.
Taking my cue from Don Wettrick’s blueprint in Pure Genius we embarked on our project based learning by looking for issues around the school that the students could find solutions for. The kids were super excited and had some really great ideas. As mentioned above we had some amazing things happen, some ok things happen and some failures.
Project Development Cycle
When working on our projects my students go through five steps from start to finish.
Brainstorm projects and write up a proposal.
Work on project until completion date.
Reflect on the project.
Negotiate mark with teacher.
Start Over
Proposal
They are required to complete a proposal that includes:
The issue that they will be exploring / coming up with a solution.
Step by Step instructions that includes a completion date and mini goals to get there.
At least 3 curriculum expectations that they will be covering as they complete the project.
How many points their project is worth.
The proposal has been a lifesaver and pain in the ass all at the same time. Once the proposals are complete they are what keep the students on track and give them guidance. It makes them accountable and really helps them to stay motivated (for the most part). However, getting the proposals completed is tough. Since the students have never mapped out their own learning before they require a lot of guidance and help. It is really hard for me to give each person / group the attention that they need. There is one of me and 30 of them!! So I have recruited some former students, friends of mine who work from home, our former VP who is now retired and a set of Grandparents to come in and help me with this process. This has been a huge help, especially in the brainstorming stage.
Another challenge I have found with the proposals is that since the students all started their projects at the same time most students were finishing up their first projects all at once. This meant that I was having to negotiate / conference with students when they finished but then they required help to get started on their next project proposal. This was very overwhelming for me and I wasn’t sure I was going to make it!! But we all powered through and got them all going on a second project. I am finding now that we are at the mid way mark, most students have such different deadlines it makes it so much easier. I have the ability to negotiate with only a few groups a week as well as helping those who need it on their next proposal or those who need help on the projects that they are working on.
Once the proposals were completed and approved, the students got going on their projects. It was a lot of running from group to group to group but other than being tired at the end the day it was manageable. I was able to move around and support students with their projects. However, where it became unmanageable was trying to figure out who was finishing up, who needed to work on their reflection, who needed to negotiate and who was starting the process all over again. I had my students sharing their proposals with me in google classroom and was attempting to keep track of all of them there. I found this very difficult so I decided to use the board below to keep myself and the students updated on who was at each stage. For a couple of weeks I fixed this board up every morning and then would go over it at the beginning of each class. I found it very helpful for me for a bit and just recently found it hard to stay on top of. I have now abandoned this method and am trying out a new tracking method.
I have moved from electronically looking at the proposals to having the students fill out a project list (they add their projects to it as they go), I ask that they hand write or print out a copy of their proposal and I have created a file folder for each student to keep track of all of their projects. Now when they get a proposal approved a copy of it goes into that folder and I put what the project is, how much the project is worth, and when it will be completed into a spreadsheet. I have new whiteboards with every student on it with their project and dates and I will update my whiteboards probably once every two weeks or so.
My next step is to create a google form that I think I will fill out once the proposal is approved. I am hoping that this will provide me with a spreadsheet where I can sort the students and keep track of each of their projects etc, we will see how that goes.
We are very much in a trial by error / learn by failure situation in my classroom. If you have a PBL classroom and have any suggestions I am SO open to any help you might give.
Thanks for unlearning with us.
Cheers, R 🙂
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“School District of Ashland.” Project Based Learning Schools (3rd – 12th Grade) / Project Based Learning, Ashland Elementary Charter School, http://www.ashland.k12.wi.us/Page/1290.
Unlearn With Us 