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How to Involve and Engage Each Student in Class

Last week I finally had the chance to use a backchannel chat with my students. (backchannelchat.com is the platform we used since it on the list of apps approved by the district.) I showed them a video on how the Sahara Desert formed and I wanted them to have a place where they could post comments and ask questions during the video. Since this was the first time we had ever done this I took some time to explain the purpose of the chat room and laid out some ground rules. I told them we were using a chat so that everyone could have a turn to "talk" and that comments and questions needed to relate directly to the video. Considering this was the first time my students had ever experienced something like this in class it went really well. There was one point where the conversation in the chat turned to how Antarctica is a desert. One of the students said that Antarctica could not be a desert because it was not hot or sandy there. He then asked me to pause the video so we could talk about this. For the next few minutes we had a discussion about what the characteristics of a desert are and how Antarctica is indeed a desert. This conversation probably would not have happened if we had not been using the chat. It would have been an invisible teaching moment that would have slipped under the radar.

One of the reasons this went so well is that I used focus browsing in Hapara. The only site my students could have open was the chat. I was also able to put anyone who was off task in a time out. The could still see the chat, but they could not participate in it. I was not moderating every single post because I thought it was more important for me to be able to ask questions of my students and post answers to their questions as we went alone. 

There are lots of backchannel chat apps out there, but I selected Backchannelchat because it has so many benefits! View this chart to see how Backchannelchat stacks up to its competitors. I also opted to pay a small fee to upgrade because some of the features offered at that level are important to me. I like the idea being able to set the room up so that students will not be able to post unless I'm in there. I also like idea of students being able to share files. I also appreciate having the ability to download the entire transcript of the chat as a PDF. I can also quickly see how many times each student posted. 

My students enjoyed this activity. It allowed students who normally are quiet to have a voice. Backchannel chats are also good for students who are still getting used to keyboarding. I have found when students type with a purpose they are able to do it more quickly and accurately. 

If you would like help setting up backchannel chat in your classroom just let me know. As of right now it is the only chat app we can use here in our district. 

The Struggle is Real

For the last couple of weeks my 9th grade geography students have been working on a project where they had to select two of nine different landforms in Russia to research. I gave them six questions to help guide them on their journey and I even gave them some resources to help them get started. I also gave them several options for them to show me what they learned--slides, Thinklink, Google Drawing, Adobe Spark video, mixup of Vocaroo with slides---the final product was up to them.

They didn't have much trouble with the basic questions which asked them how old the landform was, how it was formed and how it had changed over time. But they struggled with the questions that asked about what impact the landform had on the people who lived there and the importance of the landform to the people in that particular region. I noticed that one of my students tried to search "Impact of Caspian Sea on the people who live there." (Clearly I need to do some lessons on search, but that is not my point.) I explained to this exasperated young lady that most of the questions I ask are not Googleable. Her response? "But I like Googleable questions because it is easy to find the answer! I don't like your questions because they force me to think and that makes my head hurt."

You know what else my students don't enjoy? Reflecting on their learning. Every couple of weeks I ask my students a series of questions that are designed to get them to think about their thinking. The intent is for them to pause long enough to reflect on what they did, why they did it, and how they can improve what they did on future assignments and projects.

By 9th grade many students have figured out how to "do" school. I want more for my students. I want them to struggle. I want them to demonstrate their mastery of different skills by creating items that actually show me what they can do rather than randomly circling letters on a multiple-guess test. I want them to learn to hold themselves accountable for their own learning. Ask any of my students----I think I am on the right road.

Sparking Curiosity

I like to kick off each unit with sharing the learning targets with my students so they have a general idea of where we are going. When we started our new unit on Monday I shared the three standards that we will focus most of our attention on as well as the Essential Questions for each standard. I wanted them to come up with "I wonder" questions that would help them gain a better understanding for how different ideas are related. My first attempt at this was with the entire class. My plan was to work though some of the essential questions together then turn them loose to finish up on their own. After asking a few questions we made some progress, but it was evident that the majority of students did not truly have a grasp on what I was asking them to do. I was asking a lot. My students have told me they aren't used to being the ones to ask the questions. Trying to ignite their curiosity has been challenging, but I wasn't ready to give up.

Today I took a completely different approach. I wanted my students to keep coming up with questions, but I knew that I was getting in the way by trying to lead them in the right direction. So I got out of the way. I set up three circles of desks so to encourage communication within the group. Each group has one of the three standards and a pad of Post-Its. After giving them some basic directions they were off. I held my breath and hoped that this approach would work. As I circulated around the room I could not believe what I was hearing. All of the conversations were on topic. They were generating some amazing questions. When someone in the group would get off task the other members of the group were quick to get them back on track. I planned on allowing 15 minutes per round so all three groups could work with each standard. When my timer went off the students begged for more time. Each round ended up being nearly 30 minutes. When the groups were finished they placed their notes on construction paper around the room. Students did a gallery walk in the short time that we had left so they could see what the questions the other groups came up with. They LOVED this part! Even students who are normally quiet and reserved got into this activity.

If I could change one thing I would have stuck to a time limit of 25 minutes per rotation so they would have had more time at the end for the gallery walk. Reflection is such an important part of an activity such as this.

Sticking with My Goals

At the beginning of the year, I set what I believed were some attainable goals. One of my goals is to post on this blog twice a month and post twice a month on my resource sharing blog, Bulldog Bytes. I'm failing miserably! Anyone who knows me knows that it is not for lack of having anything to say or that I have run out of things to share. I simply run out of time.

I go home at the end of the day with so many ideas to share. Either something awesome happened in class and I want to share it or I learned about some new way to do something and I want to blog about it. Then when I finally get home my day still isn't over. I only have one child left at home, but she is involved in different activities. By the time we are finally back home after practice it is time to make dinner. After dinner spend time working on lesson plans and feedback for my students. By the time I'm done with that I don't want to look at the computer screen any longer!

I will get a few extra posts in this month on both blogs.

I will say this------
Teachers are overworked. I only teach two classes and keeping up with planning meaningful activities and trying to ignite a passion for learning in my students is KILLING me! I want the 90 minutes that students spend in my class 2-3 days a week to be meaningful and relevant to them. I need more time. I need more time to bounce ideas off of my coworkers. I need more time to gather ideas for great lessons. And I want time to share the incredible work my students are doing.

Confessions of a Soon-To-Be Former Blogger

I started my first blog in 2007. I wasn't sure what I was doing or even why I decided to blog, but I made the decision it was something I wanted to do. Since then I have had streaks where I write on a regular basis then other times where I barely blog at all. When I started in my current position two years ago I shifted my focus to sharing resources instead of sharing what I was passionate about. It was completely demoralizing to have one one person in 2 years tell me that they read my blog. I started writing less and less and nobody noticed. Writing became a chore and I resented it so I eventually stopped altogether.

Well I'm back! One of my professional goals this year is to be more reflective. I have committed to writing about what is going on in my classroom---successes and failures---at least twice a month. I have kept quite a bit bottled up over the last two years, so I will probably write more frequently than that. I am passionate about education and I am in a place where I feel like I am ready to start sharing my ideas.