My Final Reflection: CEP 811

The first week of CEP 811 I was faced with reimagining my view of myself. I entered this class with a very narrow idea of who a maker was and I certainly did not think of myself as a maker! That changed quickly.  After reflecting on my time spent studying music, teaching robotics in my classroom, and eventually spending my free time learning to code an Arduino I have begun to view myself as a maker.

These seven weeks have caused me to take the role of my students and work on my personal learning more than any other course or professional development I have participated in since graduation. I have thought about my role as an instructor from the perspective of a learner and I have had a chance to assess how effective my teaching is. This new role as a learner has given me a chance to think about setting up problem based learning and creative problem solving differently.  I am, for the first time, excited to try assessing my students creative work.

Perhaps the most significant portion of my learning has been how I view my role in the classroom.  Too frequently I stand in front of the room and explain what I hope for my students to learn.  I try to build engaging lessons where they use the learning to create something new, but I have not given them the chance to learn on their own.  I am currently working to build a semester long unit where my students work in groups of their choosing, in their preferred environment, and at their own pace.  With the technology I have available in my room, I plan to use a system of record keeping similar to the Google Sheet and Doc that this course uses.  This will allow me to track my students work, ask questions when they are not in the room, and help students find new resources. This is my second week back at work and there is always an excitement with a new group of students and a fresh year. My learning in CEP 811 has increased that excitement noticeably for me.

In the spirit of making I’m trying something completely new, a haiku:

I learn on my own

But I’m not yet a maker

Turns out I was wrong

Reflection: Assessing Creative Work

In the gifted and talented program I teach for my students create products to show their learning frequently. I design a rubric based on each project, but try to leave it broad enough to allow for student creativity. I have noticed, however, that students often are not willing to attempt creative and engaging products because the rubrics I have been using do not encourage creativity.  Wiggins (2012) states teachers “sometimes say that they shy from assessing creative thought for fear of inhibiting students” and I found myself agreeing with that statement after some reflection. I thought by not addressing creativity or engagement directly in the rubric I was encouraging my students to try something new. Now I think they interpreted the rubric in a constrictive way.

Creative problem solving has been a particular problem for me when it comes to assessment. I have observed my students learning and growth, but I have not found a way to assess so that they understand what I expected and how to meet those expectations. Rubrics may not be the solution to this problem. Simply asking yes or no questions, like a checklist, could guide student work and provide the tool I need to assess and give students feedback.

After reading Wiggins thoughts on assessment of creative products I have begun asking new questions that might encourage my students to create new, more engaging, products. Some of the questions I am considering adding to my rubrics are:

• Was your audience engaged? Yes or No
• Did you think about who your audience would be? Yes or No
• Is the presentation effective in explaining your solution? Yes or No
• Did your audience understand how you solved your problem? Yes or No
• If your problem is not solved yet, did you explain your next step? Yes or No
• Did you ask other questions to help you solve your problem? Yes or No
• Does your solution solve your problem by using what you learned in a new way? Yes or No

By asking questions similar to these I think my students will understand that along with factual and accurate information, their products should be engaging. I am encouraged by the teacher Wiggins mentioned who simply assigned students an “A” or and “F” for their products.  I will pair these questions with a rubric because I feel there is still value in the rubric to guide student work, but I will add questions that address engagement and creativity to that rubric.

My final question is supported by Gee’s (2008) statement about “people who know a lot of facts, but can’t solve problems with them”. At the synthesis level of Bloom’s Taxonomy students are expected to combine their previous experiences and new information to create something new.  If students gather new information and are able to recite it, but can not apply that information to solving problems then it is not ultimately beneficial. While students must gather new information they need to show an ability to combine it with their experiences and previous learning to solve a problem or answer a bigger question.  

I do not expect for this to be an easy or quick transition. Students will be uncomfortable creating engaging and original products and working to apply new learning at the synthesis level is challenging. However, this is where real learning takes place; this is how learning becomes more permanent. Students will need more time to work on their products as well as encouragement that their efforts are meeting my expectations. My feedback will have to be clear and inform students about what they did well, what they could have improved on, and how they could make those improvements.

Moving to more creative and engaging products will not be an easy process, but the ultimate goal of students creating engaging and informative products is worth the effort. Changes like this require a large amount of time and thought as well as the flexibility to adjust as I learn as well. I hope by this time next year I am more comfortable assessing creative work from my students and encouraging them to take more risks with their products.

References:

Gee, J. (2010, July 20). Retrieved August 15, 2017, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU3pwCD-ey0

Wiggins, G. (2012, February 3). On assessing for creativity: yes you can, and yes you should. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2012/02/03on-assessing-for-creativity-you-you-can-and-yes-you-should/

Teaching Modern Makers

Working on the first assignment of CEP 811 I was surprised to find that I was already a maker. The image I had in my head of what a maker was did not match the image of what I was. That’s because I had the wrong image of a maker in my head or at least too narrow an image of what a maker is.

Making is more of a process than a product.  Making does not require expensive technology or tools that are not available to most people.  Making is about the way we solve problems by prototyping and revising our solutions.  Learning is the same process and making changes the way I have thought about learning. Halverson and Sheridian (2014) state that “learning through making reaches across the divide between formal and informal learning, pushing us to think more expansively about where and how learning happens.” (p. 498). Learning is not a closed system where I stand in front of my class and dish out information; learning is letting my students work through problems and refine their learning while I assist by asking guiding questions and correcting misconceptions.

The more comfortable I am thinking of myself as a maker the easier it is to think of my students as makers. I already build my lessons around the Creative Problem Solving Process (identify the problem, explore information, create ideas, select the best idea, try out the idea, evaluate the results, make changes to the idea) and I’ve realized this matches the process of making (find a problem, create a prototype, assess how it works, revise, iterate) (Sheridian et al., 2014). Viewing my students as currently being makers has encouraged me to incorporate making into my teaching because I am not teaching my students to do something new. Incorporating making into my lessons gives my students the chance to be who they already are: makers.

I created this infographic to show how Creative Problem Solving and Making are matched learning processes.

References:

Halverson, E.R. & Sheridan, K. (2014). The maker movement in education. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), 495-465.

Sheridan, K. Halverson, E.R., Litts, B.K., Brahms, L, Jacobs-Priebe, L., & Owens, T. (2014) Learning in the making: A comparative case-study of three maker spaces. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), 505-565.

Images:

Samarajiva, Indi. (2012, March 6). Dehiwela Winkel [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/bBes7Z

Villanova Law Library. (2017, June 8). Study Group 1990 [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/Vm2j9w

Learning Space (Re)Design

As I begin organizing my room for the start of a new school year I have looked at the way my room is organized and asked if the space is set up to encourage and maximize student learning. Recently I removed most of the chairs and legs from the tables in my classroom so that students can more around the room more freely. Clipboards are available for students to use when they chose to work away from their desk, but as I have reimagined what my classroom could be I am beginning to think that there is more that could be done. The tables I have right now do not move easily and they take up more space that I need.  Materials are not stored in a way that students can access them easily and there is not much space in my room for students to store large ongoing projects.

Trung Le (2010) asked “what does a truly collaborative learning environment look like?” I asked this question all week as I began organizing my room for the beginning of a new school year, but also as I created a model of what my room could look like if I had the resources and ability to completely change the layout.

 

 

The first change I made when reimagining my classroom was the seating. In the model below I have selected tables with wheels on the legs and light stools so that students can quickly and easily move their work space around the room.  This would allow students to decide when they wanted to join another group to collaborate or move a table away to work independently.

 

 

To continue encouraging students to move flexibly between groups there are three stools at each table leaving room for another student to join a group by moving their stool to the open side of the table. In a typical class I have between 15 and 20 students. I have included 27 stools and 9 tables so that students will have more options for their group size. When designing my classroom to be a collaborative environment I wanted to open the possibility for groups to adjust as students work. This space is designed to allow students to move both the tables and the stools so they can work in larger groups as well as separating out to work in smaller groups or even individually.  

Each of my students have a district issued iPad so to allow them to share their work there are two televisions, each with an Apple TV, in the room.  Students can connect to the Apple TV to share their work with the whole class or in small groups.  By mounting the screens on opposite walls groups can work at the same time without interfering with each other. While much of my student’s work can be share digitally, but the book The Third Teacher (2010) it states, “it is important to display scientific, artistic, and historic works that have been fashioned by the students” (p. 59). The bulletin boards are designed to be easily accessible by students so they can view and share the work they create.

 

 

To fund this project I would first write an in-district grant for the flexible learning space that the tables and chairs would provide.  Based on the prices I was able to find on Amazon a grant of $2,500 would pay for the tables and the stools. To mount another television in my room I would work with our district technologist first to see if there was a television that was not in use so that I would not have to purchase a new one.  If that was not an option sites such as go fund me and donors choose could be used to raise the money to purchase the second screen and Apple TV.

Resources

OWP/P Architects, VS Furniture, & Bruce Mau Design. (2010). The third teacher: 79 ways you can use design to transform teaching & learning. Retrieved from http://thethridteacherplus.com/s/Ch2-TTT-for-Web-0y6k.pdf

Le, Trung (2010, August 24). Wanna Improve Education? Demolish the Classrooms. Retrieved from https://www.fastcodesign.com/1662178/wanna-improve-education-demolish-the-classrooms