I am thrilled that my district has been able to send me to a conference this week. I have spent the first day in some pre-conference sessions getting the chance to dive deep into some of the new functions in products that we use for our student information system. While in education, you may not get to do it a lot, I have always enjoyed traveling to conference. I love the chance to learn more about how to connect with kids, share my ideas with other educators, see what great things other people are doing to engage students in learning, and, of course, the new restaurant possibilities of a new city!
When I have taken trips in the past, I knew that I would miss my wife and my kids, but I also knew that I was coming back soon. None of that has changed...except leaving this time was harder. I spent some time thinking about this on the plane as I reflected on the teary goodbye in person and over face-time before I got on the plane. What made this trip different?
One of the benefits of this trip is that I got to see my sister and her family and be a part of my nephew's birthday celebration. That certainly did not make things harder. I am away from work for 4 days (one is a school holiday), so there is work that might pile up, but that is really no different that other times I have traveled. My current location is in the same time zone, so it is easy to communicate with home, so no problem there...what is the big deal?
I realized, that for me, the big deal is just that...big...my kids are bigger now. I traveled before when the kids were infants and young toddlers. I never missed a "first" of anything and my kids were doing projects in preschool as their learning. With our first child, the new experiences in daycare and preschool were exciting, but with our 3rd child, it because old hat. It was exploring ground that had been walked on already. We were thrilled for each new child to experience it, but we knew what to expected.
But now, my kids are in school...real school. This is also new territory for me as a parent. I always look forward to discussing their day, asking what
they liked best, seeing what they have learned and how hard they worked.
Now, as I am away, I feel like I am really missing out on these first
experiences for them. My kids are experiencing new things in school
every day; exploring new territories and gaining experiences. I can talk to them over the phone and video chat, but it is not the same. I will miss the hugs, the high fives, the feeling of excitement. These are big.
Learning new things to ensure a quality of schooling for my students is important. If what I learn improves the education experience of one student and their family, it is worth it. Being with my kids as they learn and enjoy their school experience is incredibly important as well...
Where is that line between work and home?
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Monday, October 10, 2016
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Are we asking the right questions?
This week, #ILEdChat had a discussion on rethinking our grading practices. (You can see the archive of the chat here). Grading has always been, and I think will always be, a touchy subject. It has to do with the concept of a grade and what a grade means. Ideally, I think a grade should be a reflection of the level of mastery for the content or skill. One of my #ILEdChat partners, Linsy, pushed my thinking further with the reminder that it should be a reflection of mastery based on a predefined learning standard, outcome, skill, or target. This is an essential piece of the learning process for the students. We, as educators, need to make sure that the students know and understand expectations of their growth and development and we should NOT make them try to hit a moving target.
Grades seem terminal. They are final. Once that letter or number is inscribe in red ink on the top of the page, there is nothing that can be done to change it. This is why feedback should be the term that we are using with students. Feedback provides the students ideas on their attainment of mastery, areas where they can improve, and most importantly, a chance to activate those ideas and help their own thinking grow, develop, and change. This concept of feedback can be analogized to the use of a doctor. We go to the doctor to provide us with feedback on our current state of health. Recommendations are provided for improvement. Sometimes, something stronger, like medicine, is provided to help us move back towards the goal is we are off course. A grade seems more like the coroner performing an autopsy and saying "this poor guy should have changed X, Y, and Z a long time ago". There is a much longer blog post about formative and summative assessment in here, but we will get to that later.
Unfortunately, too many times grades end up representing either an attempt on completing an assignment, an arbitrary conversion of a look at that completion to a number out of ten, or the ability to hand in a piece of paper at a given time and date. I will admit, my thoughts have changed an evolved on this topic as my experiences have helped me learn throughout my years. I am not proud to admit it, but I have committed the above acts before. One of the most important things I have learned is that grades should not be a punishment.
In a different chat, educators were continuing the conversation about grading and one of the questions that came up was what policies about what type of grading practices motivate students to work harder and want to improve and learn more? It was the idea of altering a grading policy to improve student motivation instantly provoked to ideas:
After I chuckled and winced at my ability to amuse myself, I had the thought: Are we asking the right question? Why are we trying to find more stringent ways of reviewing work to improve student motivation to want to do better? Let's alter our own thinking and try something different...
Let's change our question to what kind of assessments/learning opportunities will provide students a method they choose to demonstrate their level of mastery? What if we provided more authentic learning opportunities than the summative/final multiple choice exam, with little or no opportunity for improvement?
I would think that if students have a voice in their learning and in how they demonstrate that learning, the motivation takes care of itself. The examples abound in standards based learning, genius hour, passion projects, choose-your-own-adventure learning. The variety of potential products from students might seem overwhelming, but this is where we go back to the initial idea of the purpose of a grade: "a measurement of student attainment at a predetermined point of predetermined skills" (quoted from Linsy Stumpenhorst on Twitter, 8/29/16).
The variety can be as wide as the day is long, but the expectations for the work can be clearly define in rubrics that provide support to the students in how to demonstrate their learning. There should be check-ups (doctor analogy again) with the students to monitor their progress, provide support, and, in more severe cases, some medication (intervention, resources, additional structure).
Let's see if we can change our question to achieve the desired outcomes.
Grades seem terminal. They are final. Once that letter or number is inscribe in red ink on the top of the page, there is nothing that can be done to change it. This is why feedback should be the term that we are using with students. Feedback provides the students ideas on their attainment of mastery, areas where they can improve, and most importantly, a chance to activate those ideas and help their own thinking grow, develop, and change. This concept of feedback can be analogized to the use of a doctor. We go to the doctor to provide us with feedback on our current state of health. Recommendations are provided for improvement. Sometimes, something stronger, like medicine, is provided to help us move back towards the goal is we are off course. A grade seems more like the coroner performing an autopsy and saying "this poor guy should have changed X, Y, and Z a long time ago". There is a much longer blog post about formative and summative assessment in here, but we will get to that later.
Unfortunately, too many times grades end up representing either an attempt on completing an assignment, an arbitrary conversion of a look at that completion to a number out of ten, or the ability to hand in a piece of paper at a given time and date. I will admit, my thoughts have changed an evolved on this topic as my experiences have helped me learn throughout my years. I am not proud to admit it, but I have committed the above acts before. One of the most important things I have learned is that grades should not be a punishment.
In a different chat, educators were continuing the conversation about grading and one of the questions that came up was what policies about what type of grading practices motivate students to work harder and want to improve and learn more? It was the idea of altering a grading policy to improve student motivation instantly provoked to ideas:
- Tougher punishments will prevent crime -- While I think this may hold true for those afraid of the punishment, it clearly does not work for all. Education needs to be for all...not just those who "play school well".
- This was the other idea...
 |
| Img Src: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3272/2648500033_81ffd22fcb_b.jpg |
After I chuckled and winced at my ability to amuse myself, I had the thought: Are we asking the right question? Why are we trying to find more stringent ways of reviewing work to improve student motivation to want to do better? Let's alter our own thinking and try something different...
Let's change our question to what kind of assessments/learning opportunities will provide students a method they choose to demonstrate their level of mastery? What if we provided more authentic learning opportunities than the summative/final multiple choice exam, with little or no opportunity for improvement?
I would think that if students have a voice in their learning and in how they demonstrate that learning, the motivation takes care of itself. The examples abound in standards based learning, genius hour, passion projects, choose-your-own-adventure learning. The variety of potential products from students might seem overwhelming, but this is where we go back to the initial idea of the purpose of a grade: "a measurement of student attainment at a predetermined point of predetermined skills" (quoted from Linsy Stumpenhorst on Twitter, 8/29/16).
The variety can be as wide as the day is long, but the expectations for the work can be clearly define in rubrics that provide support to the students in how to demonstrate their learning. There should be check-ups (doctor analogy again) with the students to monitor their progress, provide support, and, in more severe cases, some medication (intervention, resources, additional structure).
Let's see if we can change our question to achieve the desired outcomes.
Friday, August 26, 2016
I had a good couple of days
I have been in my new position with my new school for about 6 weeks now. Each day has reinforced that I made the right decision and reminded me of how fortunate I am that the district felt that I would be a good fit with their organization. There were some things that happened this week that reminded me why I love what I do.
Monday: This was the first #ILEdChat for the 2016-2017 school year. We have new team members to the chat team and they are a great addition. We have really started to gel as a group and working collaboratively to make the chat the best possible for this school year. We had a great opening to the chat with the timely topic of forming meaningful relationships with students. It was great to see new faces participation in the chat and seeing our regular participants back for another year. It is great exchange of ideas and really invigorates me for the week. You can look at the archive of the chat here.
Thursday: I jumped into a few random chats that caught my eye on Twitter. I was able to learn and share in #3rdChat and #GlobalEdChat . With all of my experience in high schools, the #3rdchat really opened my eyes to the wonderful and mysterious world that is elementary school. I found it important to take a look at this because I have 2 boys who are in the primary grades and the more I can learn about the pedagogy and instruction for the younger grades, the better.
With the #GlobalEdChat, I am amazed at the connectivity that I have through Twitter and yet how limited, globally, I am in my connections. The idea that technology can connect people across oceans, cultures, and languages is an idea that needs to be pushed into the mainstream. As a step towards action, I decided to create a quick form that would collect the contact information of educators who would like to connect. While the number of responses was not YET at a large level, in the first few minutes we had people from across the US, and even had educators from Canada and Australia sign up. If you are interested, please sign up here and I will share the spreadsheet with you after sign up.
Friday: Most of my new position, at lease at this time of year, involves working with students schedules and making sure that things work within the school system. Today was different, I had the wonderful opportunity to interact with actual students who had some concerns about the classes they were in. I had a great time helping the students realize that they had the ability to solve the problems in front of them. The students, both of them, came into my office at a level (1(low) - 10 (high)) of wanting to stay in the class and try at 0. When each left, they made positive movement and realized that success in the class was within their influence and they had to power to make it into a reality. I even got to teach a little chemistry, so that made it even better. :)
I also had to opportunity to introduce High 5 Friday to the students here. The concept is simple: See someone in the hallway, offer them a high 5 and watch them smile. It has a 98%+ success rate and hopefully, I will start to get some "regulars" who look forward to getting the high 5 and offering it to other students.
As an added bonus, this is the first football game of the season for my new school and it is a home game! I am excited to see the team participate in the new division and hopefully, bring home the "W".
Overall, another great week. How was yours? Share your great moments from this week and inspire someone to try something new!
Monday: This was the first #ILEdChat for the 2016-2017 school year. We have new team members to the chat team and they are a great addition. We have really started to gel as a group and working collaboratively to make the chat the best possible for this school year. We had a great opening to the chat with the timely topic of forming meaningful relationships with students. It was great to see new faces participation in the chat and seeing our regular participants back for another year. It is great exchange of ideas and really invigorates me for the week. You can look at the archive of the chat here.
Thursday: I jumped into a few random chats that caught my eye on Twitter. I was able to learn and share in #3rdChat and #GlobalEdChat . With all of my experience in high schools, the #3rdchat really opened my eyes to the wonderful and mysterious world that is elementary school. I found it important to take a look at this because I have 2 boys who are in the primary grades and the more I can learn about the pedagogy and instruction for the younger grades, the better.
With the #GlobalEdChat, I am amazed at the connectivity that I have through Twitter and yet how limited, globally, I am in my connections. The idea that technology can connect people across oceans, cultures, and languages is an idea that needs to be pushed into the mainstream. As a step towards action, I decided to create a quick form that would collect the contact information of educators who would like to connect. While the number of responses was not YET at a large level, in the first few minutes we had people from across the US, and even had educators from Canada and Australia sign up. If you are interested, please sign up here and I will share the spreadsheet with you after sign up.
Friday: Most of my new position, at lease at this time of year, involves working with students schedules and making sure that things work within the school system. Today was different, I had the wonderful opportunity to interact with actual students who had some concerns about the classes they were in. I had a great time helping the students realize that they had the ability to solve the problems in front of them. The students, both of them, came into my office at a level (1(low) - 10 (high)) of wanting to stay in the class and try at 0. When each left, they made positive movement and realized that success in the class was within their influence and they had to power to make it into a reality. I even got to teach a little chemistry, so that made it even better. :)
I also had to opportunity to introduce High 5 Friday to the students here. The concept is simple: See someone in the hallway, offer them a high 5 and watch them smile. It has a 98%+ success rate and hopefully, I will start to get some "regulars" who look forward to getting the high 5 and offering it to other students.
As an added bonus, this is the first football game of the season for my new school and it is a home game! I am excited to see the team participate in the new division and hopefully, bring home the "W".
Overall, another great week. How was yours? Share your great moments from this week and inspire someone to try something new!
Friday, August 05, 2016
If the leader sneezes...
I have been at my new job for exactly a month, as of today. What was a long and arduous journey of looking for a new school district as landed me in the right place at the right time. I am thrilled beyond words as to how things have turned out in my new position with my new district.
My journey began a little before I officially started when I was invited to attend the 2 day administrative retreat. While the term retreat might get some people excited, those of us who have attended administrative retreats in education before know the truth. Putting the day long meetings aside, the message, culture, and vision of the district and the leadership was evident from the first moments walking in the door. As I was the only really new person to the district (other people we familiar faces in new places), I kinda stood out as a fresh face in the crowd. Because of this, nearly everyone in the room came over to introduce him/herself, welcome me, and tell me that I will love it here. It was genuine. You could see it on peoples' faces how much they enjoyed the people, the schools, their colleagues, the district and the community. Many people expressed how they are alumni of the district, returning to give back to a place they hold so dear.
Then the meetings began and the superintendent started the day. She started with a simple, but powerful message: If the leader sneezes, the organization gets a cold. She went on to expand the idea we, as the learning leaders, must make sure that we are putting the correct message out to our stakeholders and colleagues, and must always try to remember where the other person is on their journey when they come into your path. She described how if a leaders is dealing with a real crisis or emergency, and we quickly dismiss a student, staff member, or parent who might be asking something "trivial" (at least in immediate comparison to the crisis), real damage has been done. Regardless of the amount of time afterward is spent trying to repair the damage, the scar has been created. This is evidence of the cold that the organization might receive.
When someone comes to you, as a leader, with a question, they are looking for validation, input, an opinion, or knowledge that they are being listened to and respected. Leaders maximize every opportunity to help their colleagues realize these events for if we ignore a teacher complaint, that complaint will become their truth.
Does this mean that every emergency must stop when asked a question? No, reality must prevail, but the question becomes who's reality? Perception of the other person is their reality. In these situations, even in the "need-to-know" situations, a leader can take the time to say "I do want to listen and hear what is going on. Unfortunately, I have an emergency I must attend to right now, but I will seek you out to provide whatever support and assistance I can." The key step is living up to seeking that person out in the end.
I want to thank my principal and superintendent for providing me this opportunity to be a part of this great organization. I will do my best to live up to the examples set before me in my first month. I look forward to continuing to grow and learn in this great organization that has a real vision and direction for the future.
My journey began a little before I officially started when I was invited to attend the 2 day administrative retreat. While the term retreat might get some people excited, those of us who have attended administrative retreats in education before know the truth. Putting the day long meetings aside, the message, culture, and vision of the district and the leadership was evident from the first moments walking in the door. As I was the only really new person to the district (other people we familiar faces in new places), I kinda stood out as a fresh face in the crowd. Because of this, nearly everyone in the room came over to introduce him/herself, welcome me, and tell me that I will love it here. It was genuine. You could see it on peoples' faces how much they enjoyed the people, the schools, their colleagues, the district and the community. Many people expressed how they are alumni of the district, returning to give back to a place they hold so dear.
Then the meetings began and the superintendent started the day. She started with a simple, but powerful message: If the leader sneezes, the organization gets a cold. She went on to expand the idea we, as the learning leaders, must make sure that we are putting the correct message out to our stakeholders and colleagues, and must always try to remember where the other person is on their journey when they come into your path. She described how if a leaders is dealing with a real crisis or emergency, and we quickly dismiss a student, staff member, or parent who might be asking something "trivial" (at least in immediate comparison to the crisis), real damage has been done. Regardless of the amount of time afterward is spent trying to repair the damage, the scar has been created. This is evidence of the cold that the organization might receive.
When someone comes to you, as a leader, with a question, they are looking for validation, input, an opinion, or knowledge that they are being listened to and respected. Leaders maximize every opportunity to help their colleagues realize these events for if we ignore a teacher complaint, that complaint will become their truth.
Does this mean that every emergency must stop when asked a question? No, reality must prevail, but the question becomes who's reality? Perception of the other person is their reality. In these situations, even in the "need-to-know" situations, a leader can take the time to say "I do want to listen and hear what is going on. Unfortunately, I have an emergency I must attend to right now, but I will seek you out to provide whatever support and assistance I can." The key step is living up to seeking that person out in the end.
I want to thank my principal and superintendent for providing me this opportunity to be a part of this great organization. I will do my best to live up to the examples set before me in my first month. I look forward to continuing to grow and learn in this great organization that has a real vision and direction for the future.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Encouraging the struggle
After I saw a BreakoutEdu at an edcamp, I knew that I wanted to share this with my teachers and get them using it with their students as a new way to engage, collaborate, and problem solve. I knew that some Amazon gift cards would be coming my way so I have all of the items in my shopping cart, ready for purchase. When I began to describe with one of my teachers, she thought that it seems interesting, but wanted to see it in person before she made a monetary commitment.
Then, when she attended the ICE conference, she wandered by the room that was doing a breakout and the facilitator asked if she wanted to come in. She was hooked! She immediately went out and purchased the materials and started to peruse the posted breakouts for her classroom. She immediately took it to the next level by designing her own. She created the theme, the puzzles to solve, and the method to which she was going to have her students participate. She reviewed the puzzles and before she ran with it, she took a very important step. She wanted to test her prototype.
She asked me to come in, as someone familiar with a breakout, and look at the puzzles to see if the clues where clear enough, the instructions were precise, and to discuss the flow of the instruction. We had a great discussion what the puzzles were aiming at, what schema was needed to approach the problems, and what additional resources should be made available. After our discussion, she went back to her lab to make some changes to her puzzles and clues.
After this last iteration, she brought in some other colleagues to run through the breakout as novices. By sharing this with others, excitement was generated and one of the colleagues asked if they could borrow her materials. She was ready to have the students breakout, but the learning was not done.
This teacher ran the breakout with her senior level class first and watched them enjoy and work collaboratively to achieve the solutions. She was surprised at some of the teams that formed because they were not students who typically interacted with one another and some students who usually took a more passive role in the class because active in sharing their knowledge and experiences to reach the solution. She was excited to see the new learning groups that formed organically and collaborative processes that came into play.
In her own reflection of the breakout, she realized that she was very quick to jump in and help the students when they reached a road block. She said that based on this experience, she might need to look at how much struggle she allows for her students before providing a hint and a next step in a solution. She said the look of excitement on students faces was invigorating because they were excited to look up information about the clues and to arrive at conclusions based on their observations.
How often, as teachers, do we need to take a step back and let the students struggle and persevere in their problem solving before stepping in to help? As an administrator, I know that it is valuable in the post conference to let the teacher work their way through a reflection of their lesson before I provide a commentary.
I am proud that this teacher took a risk in developing her own breakout for her first go at it with kids. I am proud of her reflection and growth in the process of its development. Way to go Jackie! (@mathedjax)
Then, when she attended the ICE conference, she wandered by the room that was doing a breakout and the facilitator asked if she wanted to come in. She was hooked! She immediately went out and purchased the materials and started to peruse the posted breakouts for her classroom. She immediately took it to the next level by designing her own. She created the theme, the puzzles to solve, and the method to which she was going to have her students participate. She reviewed the puzzles and before she ran with it, she took a very important step. She wanted to test her prototype.
She asked me to come in, as someone familiar with a breakout, and look at the puzzles to see if the clues where clear enough, the instructions were precise, and to discuss the flow of the instruction. We had a great discussion what the puzzles were aiming at, what schema was needed to approach the problems, and what additional resources should be made available. After our discussion, she went back to her lab to make some changes to her puzzles and clues.
After this last iteration, she brought in some other colleagues to run through the breakout as novices. By sharing this with others, excitement was generated and one of the colleagues asked if they could borrow her materials. She was ready to have the students breakout, but the learning was not done.
This teacher ran the breakout with her senior level class first and watched them enjoy and work collaboratively to achieve the solutions. She was surprised at some of the teams that formed because they were not students who typically interacted with one another and some students who usually took a more passive role in the class because active in sharing their knowledge and experiences to reach the solution. She was excited to see the new learning groups that formed organically and collaborative processes that came into play.
In her own reflection of the breakout, she realized that she was very quick to jump in and help the students when they reached a road block. She said that based on this experience, she might need to look at how much struggle she allows for her students before providing a hint and a next step in a solution. She said the look of excitement on students faces was invigorating because they were excited to look up information about the clues and to arrive at conclusions based on their observations.
How often, as teachers, do we need to take a step back and let the students struggle and persevere in their problem solving before stepping in to help? As an administrator, I know that it is valuable in the post conference to let the teacher work their way through a reflection of their lesson before I provide a commentary.
I am proud that this teacher took a risk in developing her own breakout for her first go at it with kids. I am proud of her reflection and growth in the process of its development. Way to go Jackie! (@mathedjax)
Monday, January 18, 2016
For my high school seniors
I was perusing around Facebook and stumbled across this post. I am glad that I was able to connect with the author and she agreed to let me share the good thinking here. If you would like to connect with the original author, take a look at her info here:
Leah Jackman-Wheitner, Ph.D. is a career coach helping people enjoy their lives and work. You can find out more about her at www.leahjackman.com.
Leah Jackman-Wheitner, Ph.D.
www.leahjackman.com
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Without further adieu....
How to succeed in college: If you only do one thing, do Hint #5. -- By Dr. Leah Jackman-Wheitner
I got a D on my first exam in college. It was 4 weeks or so into a Philosophy Honors class. We'd spent weeks on Mill, Locke and Hume. Then we spent one day on Buddhism. I prepped for this test. I knew we had 2 exams and a final that would be our entire grade (no assignments, no participation grade.)
We'd had 4 weeks of class. I knew we were having an essay test with two questions. So, I studied Mill, Locke, and Hume inside and out. I was ready. I skimmed over Buddhism, because we'd only spent about an hour on it. It couldn't be much of the test, right? Wrong.
There were two questions. One on Mill, Locke, and Hume. The other on Buddhism. I wrote 5 pages on the first answer and 3 sentences on the second.
And I learned a huge lesson in how different college is from high school.
I knew when I walked out that I'd screwed it up bad. I could have spent the next weeks complaining about how it was an unfair test, or I could do what I did - suck it up, learn something from the experience, and bust my *** to make As on the other exams to balance out the first one.
It would have been easy to just spend my time complaining about the exam. And, of course, I did complain some. But it's a metaphor for life. When things happen, will you blame external forces or take responsibility for yourself and step up to improve what you can?
Here's my best list of what to do to succeed in college:
1. Go to class. Regardless of whether the prof says you have to be there every day, just go. You will learn so much more by being in the actual classroom. It's a good habit. It's a good mindset to have for all classes.
2. First day of every class, get two people's phone numbers. You will have questions over something at some point in the class. Get contact info for two people so you can compare your memory of what was said.
3. Take notes in class by hand. Yes, I know the excuses - I'll just type them then I'll be able to read them better. I learn better when I just listen.
I'm telling you - write notes, by hand, during class, with your phone in your pocket on silent. That's how our brains encode information most effectively. There's research about it.
4. Now - if you really want to get good grades, I'm going to tell you the best thing to do. It's time consuming. It does require commitment, but it helps like nothing else I know.
Rewrite your notes.
Yes. I know you're busy. But you have to decide if you want to be successful or not. After class or the next day, rewrite your notes. You can outline the info, highlight, note what page number the topic is covered on, make a list of questions.
I write notes by taking notes on the left column of a piece of paper. At the top of the right column, I write down things I need to follow up on, upcoming test dates, questions I need to ask the prof later, reminders to myself that I need to go back and look something up in the text, etc. When the left column is full, I take additional notes starting about halfway down in the right column. (I'll post a pic later.)
5. Next thing - this is huge. Actually, even if you ignore all my other advice and only do this, you'd probably be ok.
College is your job. Your job is to be a student. It is a full-time job.
So, you do it 40 hr/wk.
If you're in class for 15 hr of class time, then you study for 25 hrs a week.
If you have 16 hrs of class time, you study for 24 hrs each week.
If you want to have every weekend and evening free, then you spend 8 am - 5 pm every day studying.
If you have 3 hours in between classes, find a quiet place, sit, review your notes, rewrite your notes, study, read the reading for the next class session while the topic is fresh in your mind.
If you start your college career doing this, you'll get a good habit going and you'll be better able to gauge the amount of time you need to study in the future.
6. Go see each professor during office hours. Once a week, go see a professor. Get to know them as individuals. I did my undergraduate degree at a school with 26,000 students. It works in big schools as well as small schools. Professors want to know you care about their class.
You will have a much better experience in the class if you go talk to the prof. Just say, "Hi, I'm in your Chem 100, and I wanted to introduce myself." Go up to them after class. Go to their office during office hours.
If they know you are making an effort to connect with them, then they'll start looking at you during lecture and trying to see if you get it or not. If you get that scrunched-up, confused look on your face, they'll notice. They'll either explain again right then or they'll know that you're going to come talk to them after class.
This is your education. Make the most of it. Get to know your profs, then it's so much easier to go talk to them when you get stuck.
7. Do the reading before the class. I know you can usually get away without doing this. I know you have never read before the class. But seriously, if you want to be successful in life, you have to do things you haven't done before. That includes reading the material before class. Profs don't want to just teach the material in the reading. They want to have interesting discussions about the material. Remember, they have made an entire career out of imparting knowledge, helping people learn to think, and creating knowledge in their field through research They love what they do. They love when students participate and want to learn. You may not care about that particular class, but if you show some interest, it becomes much more interesting. If you do the reading in advance and ask meaningful, relevant questions, your professors will appreciate you and will go out of their way to make sure you're understanding the course.
In sum:
- You are a student. That is your job. Spend 40 hours a week on your classes, and you'll have time for fun.
- Do the reading. Go to class. Talk to your professors. Ask them questions.
- Take responsibility for your life and your education.
I'm starting to get friend requests and emails about this post. If you'd like more tips for a better life or life or career coaching programs, PM me.
It's Jan. 15, 2016, and this post is nearing 20,000 shares. I am blown away and thrilled that so many people are finding value in these ideas. If you're looking for help and direction in your career choices, email me at leah@leahjackman.com
Some great ideas in here. Wish I had thought of this when I was in college. Do you have any tips to add to the list? Share your ideas in the comments! Thanks for sharing!
Leah Jackman-Wheitner, Ph.D. is a career coach helping people enjoy their lives and work. You can find out more about her at www.leahjackman.com.
Executive Coach
812.350.0306
leah@leahjackman.com812.350.0306
Without further adieu....
How to succeed in college: If you only do one thing, do Hint #5. -- By Dr. Leah Jackman-Wheitner
I got a D on my first exam in college. It was 4 weeks or so into a Philosophy Honors class. We'd spent weeks on Mill, Locke and Hume. Then we spent one day on Buddhism. I prepped for this test. I knew we had 2 exams and a final that would be our entire grade (no assignments, no participation grade.)
We'd had 4 weeks of class. I knew we were having an essay test with two questions. So, I studied Mill, Locke, and Hume inside and out. I was ready. I skimmed over Buddhism, because we'd only spent about an hour on it. It couldn't be much of the test, right? Wrong.
There were two questions. One on Mill, Locke, and Hume. The other on Buddhism. I wrote 5 pages on the first answer and 3 sentences on the second.
And I learned a huge lesson in how different college is from high school.
I knew when I walked out that I'd screwed it up bad. I could have spent the next weeks complaining about how it was an unfair test, or I could do what I did - suck it up, learn something from the experience, and bust my *** to make As on the other exams to balance out the first one.
It would have been easy to just spend my time complaining about the exam. And, of course, I did complain some. But it's a metaphor for life. When things happen, will you blame external forces or take responsibility for yourself and step up to improve what you can?
Here's my best list of what to do to succeed in college:
1. Go to class. Regardless of whether the prof says you have to be there every day, just go. You will learn so much more by being in the actual classroom. It's a good habit. It's a good mindset to have for all classes.
2. First day of every class, get two people's phone numbers. You will have questions over something at some point in the class. Get contact info for two people so you can compare your memory of what was said.
3. Take notes in class by hand. Yes, I know the excuses - I'll just type them then I'll be able to read them better. I learn better when I just listen.
I'm telling you - write notes, by hand, during class, with your phone in your pocket on silent. That's how our brains encode information most effectively. There's research about it.
4. Now - if you really want to get good grades, I'm going to tell you the best thing to do. It's time consuming. It does require commitment, but it helps like nothing else I know.
Rewrite your notes.
Yes. I know you're busy. But you have to decide if you want to be successful or not. After class or the next day, rewrite your notes. You can outline the info, highlight, note what page number the topic is covered on, make a list of questions.
I write notes by taking notes on the left column of a piece of paper. At the top of the right column, I write down things I need to follow up on, upcoming test dates, questions I need to ask the prof later, reminders to myself that I need to go back and look something up in the text, etc. When the left column is full, I take additional notes starting about halfway down in the right column. (I'll post a pic later.)
5. Next thing - this is huge. Actually, even if you ignore all my other advice and only do this, you'd probably be ok.
College is your job. Your job is to be a student. It is a full-time job.
So, you do it 40 hr/wk.
If you're in class for 15 hr of class time, then you study for 25 hrs a week.
If you have 16 hrs of class time, you study for 24 hrs each week.
If you want to have every weekend and evening free, then you spend 8 am - 5 pm every day studying.
If you have 3 hours in between classes, find a quiet place, sit, review your notes, rewrite your notes, study, read the reading for the next class session while the topic is fresh in your mind.
If you start your college career doing this, you'll get a good habit going and you'll be better able to gauge the amount of time you need to study in the future.
6. Go see each professor during office hours. Once a week, go see a professor. Get to know them as individuals. I did my undergraduate degree at a school with 26,000 students. It works in big schools as well as small schools. Professors want to know you care about their class.
You will have a much better experience in the class if you go talk to the prof. Just say, "Hi, I'm in your Chem 100, and I wanted to introduce myself." Go up to them after class. Go to their office during office hours.
If they know you are making an effort to connect with them, then they'll start looking at you during lecture and trying to see if you get it or not. If you get that scrunched-up, confused look on your face, they'll notice. They'll either explain again right then or they'll know that you're going to come talk to them after class.
This is your education. Make the most of it. Get to know your profs, then it's so much easier to go talk to them when you get stuck.
7. Do the reading before the class. I know you can usually get away without doing this. I know you have never read before the class. But seriously, if you want to be successful in life, you have to do things you haven't done before. That includes reading the material before class. Profs don't want to just teach the material in the reading. They want to have interesting discussions about the material. Remember, they have made an entire career out of imparting knowledge, helping people learn to think, and creating knowledge in their field through research They love what they do. They love when students participate and want to learn. You may not care about that particular class, but if you show some interest, it becomes much more interesting. If you do the reading in advance and ask meaningful, relevant questions, your professors will appreciate you and will go out of their way to make sure you're understanding the course.
In sum:
- You are a student. That is your job. Spend 40 hours a week on your classes, and you'll have time for fun.
- Do the reading. Go to class. Talk to your professors. Ask them questions.
- Take responsibility for your life and your education.
I'm starting to get friend requests and emails about this post. If you'd like more tips for a better life or life or career coaching programs, PM me.
It's Jan. 15, 2016, and this post is nearing 20,000 shares. I am blown away and thrilled that so many people are finding value in these ideas. If you're looking for help and direction in your career choices, email me at leah@leahjackman.com
Some great ideas in here. Wish I had thought of this when I was in college. Do you have any tips to add to the list? Share your ideas in the comments! Thanks for sharing!
Friday, May 15, 2015
It was one of THOSE days
So here we are.
It is the end of the school year and seniors have checked out from their high school experience. The sounds of "we out" and "I'm grown" echo through the hallways when they are asked to still comply with school rules. For most of the students, it is all in good fun. They are good natured and even reflective of their time in high school. They realize that it is the ending of one time in their lives and the exciting beginning of another.
For a select few, who might not have lived up to their potential for most of their 4 years in high school, during this last week they kick it into overdrive and realize that time is almost up and they need to make some changes quick. For some it is realizing that asking for a new ID to be printed each week actually does have a cost associated with it and for others it is a realization that there are some deadlines that cannot be moved.
Graduation practice was a bit like herding cats at times. Again, the seniors are in a good mood and just want to have a fun time when we are trying to prep them for the formal ceremony of graduation. We attempt to explain the difference between the graduation ceremony for the high school and the graduation party they would have at their houses. They get some guidelines on appropriate dress for the ceremony, a warming about high heeled shoes, one final lesson in decorum, an introduction to take with the left and shake with the right, and the reminder that while this is their graduation ceremony, it is also the graduation ceremony for all of the other graduates and we need to be respectful of everyone and let each student's name be heard. There was a lot of repetition and a lot of tedious reminders for the students. I'll admit, I was tired at the end.
We had some raffle drawings for the seniors and two students won trunks filled with items that would help them get their dorm rooms set up for the upcoming college adventure. I have had some dealings with one of the students who won a trunk. This student was signed up for an advanced class in their senior year. After realizing that it would be some rigorous work to successfully complete the course, this student wanted to drop the course. Based on their stated career path and college plan, which never wavered, I worked with the student and their counselor to advise them that leaving the course was not the best plan of action. There were phone calls and meetings with parents, some comments made to me that I was not caring of students, and even a phone call to the district office which resulted in another meeting. Long story short, the student remained in the class and supports and interventions were cleared laid out.
So I am helping this student out to the car with this trunk and the student said the following:
It is the end of the school year and seniors have checked out from their high school experience. The sounds of "we out" and "I'm grown" echo through the hallways when they are asked to still comply with school rules. For most of the students, it is all in good fun. They are good natured and even reflective of their time in high school. They realize that it is the ending of one time in their lives and the exciting beginning of another.
For a select few, who might not have lived up to their potential for most of their 4 years in high school, during this last week they kick it into overdrive and realize that time is almost up and they need to make some changes quick. For some it is realizing that asking for a new ID to be printed each week actually does have a cost associated with it and for others it is a realization that there are some deadlines that cannot be moved.
Graduation practice was a bit like herding cats at times. Again, the seniors are in a good mood and just want to have a fun time when we are trying to prep them for the formal ceremony of graduation. We attempt to explain the difference between the graduation ceremony for the high school and the graduation party they would have at their houses. They get some guidelines on appropriate dress for the ceremony, a warming about high heeled shoes, one final lesson in decorum, an introduction to take with the left and shake with the right, and the reminder that while this is their graduation ceremony, it is also the graduation ceremony for all of the other graduates and we need to be respectful of everyone and let each student's name be heard. There was a lot of repetition and a lot of tedious reminders for the students. I'll admit, I was tired at the end.
We had some raffle drawings for the seniors and two students won trunks filled with items that would help them get their dorm rooms set up for the upcoming college adventure. I have had some dealings with one of the students who won a trunk. This student was signed up for an advanced class in their senior year. After realizing that it would be some rigorous work to successfully complete the course, this student wanted to drop the course. Based on their stated career path and college plan, which never wavered, I worked with the student and their counselor to advise them that leaving the course was not the best plan of action. There were phone calls and meetings with parents, some comments made to me that I was not caring of students, and even a phone call to the district office which resulted in another meeting. Long story short, the student remained in the class and supports and interventions were cleared laid out.
So I am helping this student out to the car with this trunk and the student said the following:
"You know, I think I was a bit of a snot to you earlier in the year. I ended up staying in the class and I even took the AP exam last week. While I didn't get the grade I wanted in the class, I did pass the course and when I take the course in college, I will have some familiarity with the material and I should be more successful in college. I ended up coming out on top because of what you pushed me to do."
That is what made it one of THOSE days; A reminder of the reason we do the work that we do.
Wednesday, September 03, 2014
Don't talk down about baby steps
Having children has taught me so much more about education than most of the formal schooling on the subject.
While there have been many slams and jabs about how Common Core is ruining education, I think that the requirements of having students discuss their problem solving attempts and thought process will cause greater improvements than the mere algorithmic thinking that was previously emphasized. It is almost amusing how parents and teachers will be very quick to judge what looks different that when they were in school, but not take the time to look at the steps needed for implementation and the long term goals. Is seems that when a student, or more often the parent, stumbles and has the first bit of frustration with something new, they want to give up and revert to the former system.
But this is where we need to remember the baby steps. In helping your child walk, talk, potty train, use silverware, say please and thank you, and all of the other things we teach children, we know what the goal is, we understand that there will be stumbles, and we know that it takes time. Somewhere, adults learn that, in certain situations, it is ok to give up and stop working at the first sign of difficulty, because they expect to be able to be successful on the first attempt. I already see some of this learning present in my soon to be six year old and I am fighting, with all of my parenting strength, to not solve the problem for him, but to help him persevere and keep trying.
My son is going through first grade at his school and we are working on math and reading. He has shown an interest and a certain aptitude in both reading and math, but they both came with relative ease. Now that we are progressing into deeper levels of difficulty and comprehension, it has thrown him for a bit of a loop and he has lost some interest and wants to give up at the first sign of trouble. This is where his interest in problem solving games and his younger siblings have come in for help.
My son has show an interest in a Disney puzzle game and will experiment and try new methods to beat the level and earn the coveted three stars. When he gets frustrated with a reading or math issue, I like to help him remember how he kept trying with the game and eventually solved the level. Sometimes, it was on his own, and other times he would ask for help. But that was the key, he asked for help, not the solution.
The other support for this has come from my younger children. As my oldest sees my younger children work through letters, numbers, or even learning to walk/run, he doesn't fully understand why they can't just do whatever they are trying to do already. My wife and I talk to him about how it takes time to learning how to successfully do things and there will be times when we try and fail, but that allows us to learn more.
How does all of this translate into formal education? We need to help students and parents recognize what the end goal is for a lesson, chapter, unit, semester, and course. Teachers, also, need to be explicit about these. There need to be meaningful benchmarks that they pass and if they are having difficulty reaching them, we need to have the safety nets to catch them as they fall. Again, not to solve the problem for them, but to help them generate their own solution. But it is a long process and we must take the baby steps to get to the end goal.
Whether Confucius (The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step) or Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers (10,000 hours to become an expert), we must take time and understand we will not get there in one day. With common core, we are in about hour 20 of the 10,000. We need to give it some more time and keep trying. We will stumble and fall, but we need to get back up and keep taking those baby steps.
I know, for me personally, I could do the chemistry when I was in courses in college, but I did not understand the chemistry until I had to teach it to someone else. This is the importance of students describing their steps in problem solving and thought processes. When a student can successfully describe their thinking to someone else, actually verbalize it to make it more concrete, then they have made some true progress.
While there have been many slams and jabs about how Common Core is ruining education, I think that the requirements of having students discuss their problem solving attempts and thought process will cause greater improvements than the mere algorithmic thinking that was previously emphasized. It is almost amusing how parents and teachers will be very quick to judge what looks different that when they were in school, but not take the time to look at the steps needed for implementation and the long term goals. Is seems that when a student, or more often the parent, stumbles and has the first bit of frustration with something new, they want to give up and revert to the former system.
But this is where we need to remember the baby steps. In helping your child walk, talk, potty train, use silverware, say please and thank you, and all of the other things we teach children, we know what the goal is, we understand that there will be stumbles, and we know that it takes time. Somewhere, adults learn that, in certain situations, it is ok to give up and stop working at the first sign of difficulty, because they expect to be able to be successful on the first attempt. I already see some of this learning present in my soon to be six year old and I am fighting, with all of my parenting strength, to not solve the problem for him, but to help him persevere and keep trying.
My son is going through first grade at his school and we are working on math and reading. He has shown an interest and a certain aptitude in both reading and math, but they both came with relative ease. Now that we are progressing into deeper levels of difficulty and comprehension, it has thrown him for a bit of a loop and he has lost some interest and wants to give up at the first sign of trouble. This is where his interest in problem solving games and his younger siblings have come in for help.
My son has show an interest in a Disney puzzle game and will experiment and try new methods to beat the level and earn the coveted three stars. When he gets frustrated with a reading or math issue, I like to help him remember how he kept trying with the game and eventually solved the level. Sometimes, it was on his own, and other times he would ask for help. But that was the key, he asked for help, not the solution.
The other support for this has come from my younger children. As my oldest sees my younger children work through letters, numbers, or even learning to walk/run, he doesn't fully understand why they can't just do whatever they are trying to do already. My wife and I talk to him about how it takes time to learning how to successfully do things and there will be times when we try and fail, but that allows us to learn more.
How does all of this translate into formal education? We need to help students and parents recognize what the end goal is for a lesson, chapter, unit, semester, and course. Teachers, also, need to be explicit about these. There need to be meaningful benchmarks that they pass and if they are having difficulty reaching them, we need to have the safety nets to catch them as they fall. Again, not to solve the problem for them, but to help them generate their own solution. But it is a long process and we must take the baby steps to get to the end goal.
Whether Confucius (The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step) or Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers (10,000 hours to become an expert), we must take time and understand we will not get there in one day. With common core, we are in about hour 20 of the 10,000. We need to give it some more time and keep trying. We will stumble and fall, but we need to get back up and keep taking those baby steps.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Days 2 and 3 with UbD
Days 2 and 3 are more hands-on for the teachers in the creation of a functioning unit, lessons, and learning activities. During day 2, one of the big takeaways was the a memorized process without internalization does not lead to deep understanding. When students memorize a procedure and that procedure breaks down, it leads to misconceptions and only shallow learning of poor thinking. This was demonstrated to the group with a classic video of Abbott and Costello:
As the teachers discussed this, they came to the realization that there is some time within the process for some more classical instruction of concepts and to fix misconceptions, but it should be used only with students in small groups who require the instruction.
As the teachers were trying to identify a topic, they went through a development process to create transfer goals for the students. To reach that enduring understanding and overarching goal, the template below was utilized:
The teachers began experiencing what the learning environment could look like with a learning activity of a mini-lesson board for JITT (Just In Time Teaching). The learners sign up for short, targeted lessons for either expected gaps or for topics that the students request and the students sign up for what they need. These mini-lessons are meant to last 5-7 minutes that are targeted instruction for the students that need it.
Additionally, there is the option for students to present their proclivities to the class by having an "I want to teach" board. This can be fore students who might be ahead of the game and students who have experience with a particular skill that can be shared with the class. This is an additional way to develop the presentation skills of students.
We ended with a gallery walk of the teachers' project ideas. Overall, it was a great learning experience for everyone involved.
As the teachers discussed this, they came to the realization that there is some time within the process for some more classical instruction of concepts and to fix misconceptions, but it should be used only with students in small groups who require the instruction.
As the teachers were trying to identify a topic, they went through a development process to create transfer goals for the students. To reach that enduring understanding and overarching goal, the template below was utilized:
I want you to learn:_________________________________, so
that, in the long run, you will be able, on your own, to
______________________________________.
The key understandings that the teachers learned were that the "Want you to learn" needs to be broad and fit the understanding that this is something that students should know and use 40 years after the class is over. Some reflective questions to include were:
- Why is this topic included in the standards?
- Why do students need to know this?
- What real life context exists for this concept? If there is none (e.g. imaginary numbers), should that be an enduring idea?
The teachers began experiencing what the learning environment could look like with a learning activity of a mini-lesson board for JITT (Just In Time Teaching). The learners sign up for short, targeted lessons for either expected gaps or for topics that the students request and the students sign up for what they need. These mini-lessons are meant to last 5-7 minutes that are targeted instruction for the students that need it.
Additionally, there is the option for students to present their proclivities to the class by having an "I want to teach" board. This can be fore students who might be ahead of the game and students who have experience with a particular skill that can be shared with the class. This is an additional way to develop the presentation skills of students.
We ended with a gallery walk of the teachers' project ideas. Overall, it was a great learning experience for everyone involved.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
My first day with UbD
Some of our teachers are going through a 3 day workshop on Understanding by Design (aka UbD or sometimes backwards design). Some basic information can be found here, here, and here. What is kind of unique is that this workshop is only for our math teachers, so as a group they can make connections between this theoretical framework and their day-to-day functioning in the classroom as lead learners of mathematics. Every discipline has their unique set of lenses on how they view instruction, teaching, and learning, so the fact that we have a group of people viewing instruction through the same lens will help them support one another as we journey through this process.
Over the three days, we will come back to the 4 big ideas as a framework for this curriculum design process. Those ideas are:
meaning via active inference in order to effectively transfer to a new context. When students just "know a lot" (without deep understanding), they can only understand what is being demonstrated, but not necessarily demonstrate/teach to others.
We need to help students learn how to apply an abstraction to a practical example. Unfortunately, too many times we leave out the practical examples with authentic applications of mathematics. Additionally, too often focus on students remembering and understanding (Bloom's levels), and leave about 1 day for creating and evaluating. It was suggested to us that we flip Bloom's to treat it like an area map and start students in the upper levels to provide authentic context to help bring the content into focus and it will provide students more opportunities to work in the upper levels of Bloom's even before the "content" is discussed. It was suggested that we let the learning of mathematics begin with a question and analysis and then let the number prove the conjecture. In other words, don't let the numbers and symbols of the language of mathematics get in the way of students learning the mathematics. Students don't need to know all of the details of statistics to have a meaningful discussion of what is fair. Here is an example activity for a student activity on determining what is fair.
One of the other large takeaway was how authentic learning can take place in the classroom.
Essentially, authentic learning occurs at the intersection of acquisition of knowledge, making meaning of the knowledge, and the transference of the knowledge and meaning to a novel situation. This image is meant to imply a cycle of learning without a hierarchy or starting point. Students do not necessarily need to know all of the facts and concepts to begin making meaning.
Overall, this was a very good introduction and beginning of a three-day workshop. I am looking forward to diving in more to developing essential questions and developing transfer goals. Those transfer goals are what we would want our learners to understand many years after formal schooling has ended.
Do you have experience with UbD? Have you just implemented the process? What suggestions do you have to share?
Over the three days, we will come back to the 4 big ideas as a framework for this curriculum design process. Those ideas are:
- Point of school is effective understanding, not prompted by recall of content and compliance
- Understanding=using content effectively for transfer and meaning
- UbD from engaging work and competent understanding, NOT coverage
- Intellectual engagement is more likely when incorporated intentionally
meaning via active inference in order to effectively transfer to a new context. When students just "know a lot" (without deep understanding), they can only understand what is being demonstrated, but not necessarily demonstrate/teach to others.
We need to help students learn how to apply an abstraction to a practical example. Unfortunately, too many times we leave out the practical examples with authentic applications of mathematics. Additionally, too often focus on students remembering and understanding (Bloom's levels), and leave about 1 day for creating and evaluating. It was suggested to us that we flip Bloom's to treat it like an area map and start students in the upper levels to provide authentic context to help bring the content into focus and it will provide students more opportunities to work in the upper levels of Bloom's even before the "content" is discussed. It was suggested that we let the learning of mathematics begin with a question and analysis and then let the number prove the conjecture. In other words, don't let the numbers and symbols of the language of mathematics get in the way of students learning the mathematics. Students don't need to know all of the details of statistics to have a meaningful discussion of what is fair. Here is an example activity for a student activity on determining what is fair.
One of the other large takeaway was how authentic learning can take place in the classroom.
Essentially, authentic learning occurs at the intersection of acquisition of knowledge, making meaning of the knowledge, and the transference of the knowledge and meaning to a novel situation. This image is meant to imply a cycle of learning without a hierarchy or starting point. Students do not necessarily need to know all of the facts and concepts to begin making meaning.
Overall, this was a very good introduction and beginning of a three-day workshop. I am looking forward to diving in more to developing essential questions and developing transfer goals. Those transfer goals are what we would want our learners to understand many years after formal schooling has ended.
Do you have experience with UbD? Have you just implemented the process? What suggestions do you have to share?
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