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.