One Student Question to Rule the World


Aiim.org. (2017). http://www.aiim.org/~/media/AIIM_Real_Images/600x400/Collaboration_lightbulb-illustration.jpg [Accessed 24 Oct. 2017].

The Collaboration Process: Part 1
Here is a story to help lay out how collaboration begins, develops and changes here in Garnet Valley.  It is student driven and facilitated, with the teachers providing the framework.  

The Beginning

One student question to rule the world!
So we may not be Lord of the Rings, but a student did ask one question, which led to bigger things that are now ruling our teacher world.  Let’s take a peek into Miss Abes’ 6th Grade ATP classroom.
Students are grouped at tables with Chromebooks open working on a Nearpod about Digital Citizenship.  The class discussion is about the internet and how we use it safely.  Talking points are as follows:
  • Important to have a Positive Digital Footprint
  • Be careful what you say, do and find online
  • What you do online cannot be erased
As the discussion and lesson continues, one student raises her hand and states, “Maybe the internet is a bad thing. Maybe we are on it too much and we shouldn’t be. How does it really help us anyway?”
Wow! LIGHTBULB went off immediately! How does the internet help us as a class, school, culture, community?  We are so fortunate to live in a place where internet is so affordable and readily available.  What would our community look like without it?
It made me think of children globally.  Those who have never even heard of the internet.  Of schools being created in 3rd World Countries to offer education to help free the people from poverty, starvation and even tyranny.  Could our students learn about these communities and make an impact on another culture using the internet? I told Miss Abes my thoughts and her eyes lit up right away! She started forming ideas and questions upon which to build our lessons. We were excited!

Thus began the collaborative journey to empower our students to make a difference.

The Planning
“It’s our job in education to free up time for innovation. It’s our job to open their minds to new ideas. It’s our job to prepare them for the present and future possibilities.”

The Story:

Miss Abes and I began setting up dates in our calendar to plan out the framework of the project we wanted to present to the students. She was already working on an empathy project in November so we decided that it would be a good transition into a Genius Hour project in December. To begin, the students would look at the UN’s Sustainable Goals and have them choose one to design a project around. We decided to take them through the L.A.U.N.C.H. cycle developed by A.J. Juliani and John Spencer to help them find a problem, define the problem and create a solution. We made a plan to meet a second time to share our discoveries after doing our own Look, Listen and Learn part of the L.A.U.N.C.H. cycle.   
https://www.freepik.com

The Process:

Modeling is so important for our students as we ask them to participate in these kinds of projects. Miss Abes and I decided that it would be important for us to share our story of collaboration and inquiry cycle to the students to show them that this is what you do in the “real world”.  This is part of our job as teachers. A.J. Juliani says, “It’s our job in education to free up time for innovation. It’s our job to open their minds to new ideas.”  I believe we are not “freeing up time”, but integrating these projects into the time we have already. Each year, teachers look at their lessons from the previous year and ask:
  • What went well?
    https://www.pexels.com
  • What could we improve?
  • What could we do different?
Here is our opportunity to take what we are already doing and changing one thing. Why not take a final project and make it into a Genius Hour? Same work, same content, different process, same time.


The Collaboration Inspiration:
 Working together as professionals helps us to bring out the best in each other.  Just by collaborating on this project, Miss Abes came to our planning session with the following:
“I have done this as a final project previously, but I am not happy with it. I want to do something different.”

So now we take the content of what she has already created and integrate it into the project we are planning.  No extra steps, just a different thought process.  Still planning and prepping, just using different tools, people and ideas.

 *This is a two part blog, with the second part coming after the completion of the project in December. Stay tuned!
made with canva.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hands-on Approach to Celebrating Earth Day

Image
Hands-on Approach to Celebrating Earth Day   What better way to teach 1st graders about the Earth than to have them experience what it means to reduce, reuse and recycle. In one of the elementary schools in which I teach I created stations for hands-on learning to teach important concepts to the students in hopes that by providing concrete examples they would walk away with a stronger knowledge of why we celebrate the Earth and how each of them can care for it. There were four stations set up in the Makerspace. Each student completed each station by the end of the class period. Students used recycled water bottles to build planters. Each student added soil and planted seeds to start the growth of a new plant. This activity not only showed students how they can repurpose materials but gave them something to care for. When students create things themselves it gives a deeper meaning to their learning. Students also created cheerio bird feeders. Using pipe cleaners, they strung
Read more

A Journey to Jamestown through Minecraft

Image
Mr. Van Wyk put a new spin on teaching " A Journey to Jamestown " with his 7th grade students this year.  For this lesson, his students had to take on the role as John Smith and create their own Jamestown colony using Minecraft. To help get started, the students watch the short video, " A Life in Jamestown " to better understand what it took to be a settler in the early-American colony of Jamestown.  They discussed some of the main problems the first settlers of Jamestown encountered, and would could have been done differently.   After learning the backstories of leadership in Jamestown and the impact the Native Americans had, the students were assigned to take on the role as the newly appointed leader, John Smith.  Their goal?  To rebuild Jamestown.   As John Smith, they not only had to build Jamestown, but also had to defend it from the Native Americans, develop a central meeting place to plan attacks, and also provide shelter and a food source for the colony
Read more

Blog #2 Poem in the Pocket

Image
There are so many fun poems out there to read, but honestly, I never really like poetry growing up.  I was never into the famous poets like Elizabeth Browning or Walt Whitman, although they are amazing writers.  It was hard for me to understand the meanings behind their words and understand their imagery.  I "wrote" off poetry and had no interest in it what so ever. And then I became a teacher in April...National Poetry Month!  Oh no!  What was I to do?  I couldn't hide, I wouldn't lie Oh no, what was I to do?!  Corny, I know, but the feeling was true!  It wasn't until I began teaching Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky, and Shel Silverstein that I realized how funny it could be.  Then I began to enjoy poetry.  One of my favorites as a kid and even now is Shel Silverstein's "Sick" and my favorite line is the following: "What's that? What's that you say? You say today is...Saturday? G'bye, I'm going out to play!"
Read more