Rejuvenating Education One Day At A Time
As we round the circle at the end of our Constitution unit the room is buzzing with energy. Students are out of their seats, holding their laptops like busy waiters during dinner service while chatting away to their peers on zoom, and pulling through the junk drawer of creative supplies. The time to put all... Continue Reading →
In our U.S. Constitution unit the students are tasked with sketch noting each article as a way of diving deep into the meaning of each section and clause. The ideas have to bounce around their heads as they figure out how to make words written in 1787 into visuals. The sketch noting forces students to... Continue Reading →
Sitting in a meeting about authenticating assessment, my mind wanders to the overall state of education. Here we are almost 1 year into a pandemic. Our systems have been thrown against a wall and decimated. Pivoting in a weekend our normal flow of life came to a dead stop. Everything started spinning and it isn’t... Continue Reading →
The 8th grade students have decided that this year we are re-writing our Constitution to intertwine it with game design. The students expressed that they wanted to learn design thinking and create games that show their mastery of the U.S. Constitution. Excitedly, I jumped into planning. Content goals first, skill goals second. Every year students... Continue Reading →
Reading the U.S. Constitution is not a priority of my 8th grade students. At this point in the year their genuine interest has built about the Constitution, but the actual want to read a document written in 1787 is not on this "Must Do" list. This year we have the extra challenge of students transitioning... Continue Reading →
When Middle School students are told they are going to engage with a primary source the feeling of the room shifts. The smiling faces disappear. The air becomes stagnant. All joy in the world has been stifled. Not even the worlds most famous break up letter brightens their faces. The Declaration of Independence is not... Continue Reading →
The 8th graders are humming like bees in the spring. Passionate. Excited. Communicating and Collaborating. Connected between computer, communicating through plexiglass and masks. They are mastering content, learning transferable skills, and exploring the world. All through the eyes of a historian. How? Through the EduScrum framework students have tackled the driving question: How Should Power... Continue Reading →
No level headed teacher would dream of letting students create their own groups for a project, but here I am. Having students lead by team captains self-select their team is one of the tenets of eduScrum. It is essential that students understand their power of choice. This is not the class they've taken every year... Continue Reading →
Jumping in the the only way to tackle a new challenge. This year we are facing an incredible amount of challenges from distance learning to plexiglass, but the lessons from the spring have been learned. We must keep kids connecting, collaborating and socializing. They must be challenged and engaged. Worksheets will not cut it. To... Continue Reading →
In a normal not 2020 year my classroom is filed with unique learning spaces. There is flexible seating, all surfaces including walls are writable and students get to pick seats based on the activities that we are completing that day. This may sound like the makings of pandemonium, student choice is liberating especially on the... Continue Reading →
