#youredustory, Week 11: Student Voice

Joint Attention by Terry Anderson from US Army

So how are we defining student voice? Is about listening to student feedback? Is about integrating student desires into what you do on a day to day basis in the classroom? I don't feel like I have a good definition for what this is. Which might make me a bad person. Or at least a bad teacher.

I feel like my lack of a concrete definition as to what student voice is means it isn't something I do well. Which I knew when I started this blog post.

Okay. So what do I do. I elicit and listen to student feedback. I integrate their feedback and ideas into future units. I give kids the time and the space to learn about the things that they are interested in - history related content on open-ended projects and more wide open exploration and creation with 20% time.

However, I know I can do more. I know I SHOULD do more . I'm looking forward to reading other responses this week and stealing a few ideas!

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More information on #youredustory can be found here. Consider joining in the fun!

#youredustory, Week 10: Passion for Learning

Prompt: How do you infect students with a passion for learning?

I try to get my students curious about what they are learning by getting out of their way and giving them the time and the space to be curious about areas of history - and their life - that interest them (a little more about that here).

For me, in order to create the space for this exploration, I have to teach less content. I’m totally okay with that. I know some aren’t comfortable with that decision, but in the age of near ubiquitous information, we need to dramatically rethink what we are doing in history classes. (That’s a topic for another day though.)

Unit structure

So. The first step is to try to get students intrigued and excited about the ideas in the unit we’re working on. This might be provocative questions that relate to the content, or a simulation of some sort. After this, we head into some shared schema building. This often involves some sort of a model that applies to a given unit (a model for how a revolution happens, for example), then an application of that model to a real situation in the content of the unit (applying that revolutions model to the French Revolution). After that, I turn kids loose. I let them go out and find a part of history that relates - either thematically or chronologically - with the shared schema we just covered. *

My goal is that by giving them enough schematic hooks to be interested then enough choice that they can find something that intrigues them, they’ll connect with something they are passionate about - or at least interested in - learning about.

Additionally, I try to get my students passionate about learning by not doing history in my class on Friday: kids are working each Friday on their 20time projects, which don’t have to have a connections to the content of my class. As I watch kids struggle to learn to code, or research the meaning of dreams, I watch them hit stumbling blocks. I watch them struggle and not give up. I watch them develop perseverance around learning, but around learning on their terms.

Then, I get to watch that passion and perseverance transfer to doing history-related work during the rest of the week. Which is fun :)

*Note: After kids scatter into areas of a unit that interest them, we come back together and look at what kids have created. As students look at their peers’ projects, they answer synthesis questions about what similarities can be drawn across the disparate content that they chose to cover.

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More information on #youredustory can be found here. Consider joining in the fun!

#youredustory, Week 9

Prompt: A big picture exercise - put together a design brief for a new learning space.

This question goes beyond my (limited) areas of expertise. What's a design brief? Yes. I could Google it. Where's the fun in that though? A few loose thoughts, in no particular order:

White board paint on every wall.
Windows and skylights: natural light is important.
Robust wifi.

We can do better than this
final exam by dcJohn from flickr

Moveable furniture that allows for flexible groupings and IS SOMETHING THAT IS ACTUALLY COMFORTABLE TO SIT IN.
Projection systems mounted to illuminate at least two of the four walls.

A glass walled entry room where kids could go to collaborate while others worked quietly.
Good speakers - music can be helpful as kids are working.

I'm sure there is a lot that I'm forgetting. It's an initial offering though.

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More information on #youredustory can be found here. Consider joining in the fun!