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Signs of success

A snippet from a conversation I had with a student this morning:

Student: "This project is long."

Me: "That's why I gave you so many days in class to work on it. I wanted you to have time to make it excellent."

Student: "Yeah, but this project is taking longer than when we just used PowerPoint. Then we'd just put the information on the slide. Now we have to put it in to something. It's a lot harder."

If you haven't been following along, students are creating artifacts of their knowledge as their final exam (see previous posts). the student chose to create a textbook that covers all the information we've covered throughout the trimester.  I banned students from using PowerPoint since they were mainly just filling the slides up with text and totally missing the point of presentation software (they're not presenting, they're weren't creating graphic-based slides, etc.). That decision seems to have been a good one. I've seen many projects-in-progress that I'm sincerely excited to get a chance to look over, which hasn't always been the case in the past.

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Thoughts from Buckminster Fuller

R. Buckminster Fuller“If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top . . . that comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver, but this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top. I think that we are clinging to a great many piano tops in accepting yesterday’s fortuitous contrivings.”  - R. Buckminster Fuller

Reluctance to change has been in my (limited) experience one of the biggest hurdles to improving teaching and learning. It's not that people can't change. It's that they hold on to past practices while throwing in little bits of the new stuff. The result is that the new bits aren't utilized to their full transformative potential. Instead, the new bits are forced into the old mold, whether or not it makes sense for them to be there.

Several examples sprung to my mind as I read Bucky's quote.

  • Using laptops solely for word processing
  • Using presentation software (read: PowerPoint & Keynote) for overly text-y purposes
  • Using a blog or wiki just as another way to complete homework

While my thoughts tended to be focused on the implementation of technology into classrooms, the same ideas certainly could apply to non-tech related school issues. How often do we (as educators) turn to sound research when making curricular or structural decisions? Is it unrealistic for teachers to keep an eye on the literature?

Quote via The New Yorker via Treehugger
Image by sbisson via Flickr
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Final Exam Projects- Day 4

I'll try to keep posting on the progress of the projects as I go. If you haven't already, check out the summary of what was happening on Day 2. Students are now set on what they're doing and how they're going to do it. Now it's just a matter of getting their projects done.

I gave this brief motivational speech at the beginning of each hour:

Here's how much time you have left to complete this final exam project (this is for my 1st hour class- their scheduled exam time is on Monday, so we won't meet on Tuesday or Wednesday)

You know what my expectations are for these projects. My expectations aren't Ridonculous, but they are high. It's okay to have a ridonculous project, but just an average one? I think not.

This is how much your final exam projects contribute to your overall trimester grade. It's not a joke, it's a big part of your trimester. That being said, it's up to you to create a successful project that meets the expectations I've communicated. You know what to do, it's up to you to do it.

If you don't, you'll be:

(Digging your own grave)

However, this project also provides an opportunity for you to:

(Climb the stairway to heaven)

I give this presentation because at this point in the project, they don't really need much of me. I've communicated my expectations for this project, they're familiar with the format (from earlier projects), and it's now just a matter of getting it done. I feel it's important for the students to realize that utilizing their time wisely is an important part of creating a successful project, but at this point I'm not going to go around whacking them upside the head if they choose to not use their time wisely.

Image Credits
Calendar, Expectations, & 20% images: Me. Feel free to use them
Laborer by CarbonNYC
John Foreman - 1696 by Neil101
Stairway to Heaven by Steffe
The Heavens Open by Young Einstein (angels added by author)
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"Fun Facts"

I've taken to adding in "fun facts" to my class. I'm not sure if I got this idea from Dan Meyer in the first place, or if I stumbled upon it independently and then had my habit reinforced by his enthusiasm for a little fun unbound from the "standard" curriculum. They

Pro-crast-i-na-tion: I've seen all of my students do one of these at some point. I've done most, especially the "imaginary computer games with your furniture."

Kung Fu Bear : I used it as a pep talk for my students while they were working on a presentation project. When you go to the zoo to see a bear, it's pretty impressive. Bears usually are just lying around at the zoo, so it doesn't take long to get over the impressiveness and move on. However, this bear decided he was going to take his game to the next level (here's when I started the video). He wanted people to sit up and pay attention to him. People come from all over to see Kung-Fu Bear. People will watch him for hours. He's mastered his game. I then told students I didn't want their presentations to just meet the bare (hardee-har-har) minimums. Don't just be a lazy bear. Be a Kung-Fu Bear!

21 Accents: Some classes loved it, others hated it. I was badgered by one class to play it multiple times spanning through the end of that week. In another class, I was asked to turn it off about 15 seconds in and never play it again. It's amazing how different the personalities of my classes are this year.

I Love the World (The Earth is Just Awesome): I posted on this earlier. The class that hated the 21 Accents video loved this one. Wonder if there's some psychological reasoning behind that...hmm... My other classes enjoyed it, but didn't constantly demand to see it over and over and over and over...

666: I got the information for this from a RadioLab show (RadioLab totally blows my mind). Want to grab every student's undivided attention in a class (yep, even the ones who haven't earned a single credit since 3rd grade)? Throw up a 5 ft. x 5 ft. 666 on your projection screen- the room will almost assuredly fall eerily quiet. Here's the story I told 'em about their favorite numbers: It turns out the oldest known manuscript of the book of Revelations says the "number of the beast" is actually 616. Interestingly enough, this is the area code for much of west Michigan (where I spent my undergrad years). I've embedded the section of the show below where it tells the full story. Or you can visit the RadioLab episode site.

I'll try to update you with more good finds as I come across them.

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Final Exam Projects- Day 2

I've made the switch. This year I've been using a cumulative project in lieu of a traditional written test, and at this point I believe that the projects are a better indicator of student knowledge than the old examinations.

Students have just started working on their final projects for the 3rd Trimester. So far, I'm impressed. Day 1 is usually always a bit of a waste. Students aren't sure what they want to do or how to start so they end up doing lots of email checking, Google Image labeling, Impossible Quiz taking, and other things that are probably violating their AUP's. Day 2 is when the action happens (for most). They figure out what format they're going to use for their exam, and start to frame how they're going to include the required information into that format. About 25% of the projects I've seen from students so far look like they're going to be great. I don't mean simply deserving of an "A." I mean they look like they'll be shiny monuments to mountains of knowledge!

A couple things I've learned to do as I've done more of these cumulative projects:

  • Push for more than just bulleted points of information. It's dull to read, it's dull to write, it's just dull.
  • Demand diagrams, graphs, graphic organizers, and media-rich projects. These are more interesting than text, and they generally demonstrate a student's understanding of a topic more clearly.
  • Require projects to show the student's understanding of how the material covered in the class is interconnected. We covered volcanoes & plate tectonics this trimester. I want them to show me how they relate.

If you'd like to see the project description and rubric for the 3rd Trimester final exam, visit my school homepage. There are links to the rubric and a brief explanation of what is expected. Let me know what you think. What would you add? How might it be structured differently?

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The best commercial evar

This commercial gives me goosebumps. I think it sums up my thoughts on the world quite succinctly: "The World is Just Awesome."

My favorite parts: "I love hot magma!" (0:44) and of course you can't go wrong with Stephen Hawking actually singing along (0:53)! Now only if it had Neil deGrasse Tyson (my favorite astrophysicist)...

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The Update (where I've been & what I've been doing)

smash by Jef Poskanzer
A slight break...

It's been awhile since I've posted. I'd like to say it was a planned hiatus- like I've been in collecting lava samples in Hawai'i or taking a meditative break inside a sensory deprivation tank. The truth is much less exotic. As some of you may already know, I'll be moving to Connecticut to join my wife at the end of this school year. She's been living in Eastern Connecticut since early January and I can't wait to get back to living a "normal" married life. While in the long run I know this situation will be worth the trouble, right now it's a pain. At any rate, let me fill you in on what's been happening lately:

The Update

What I've been busy with recently: (1) House hunting, (2) House buying (it's not yet 100% official, but we're close), (3) Interviewing (hoping for a wonderful new placement), (4) Making first preparations to move, (5) Finishing grad classes, (6) starting new grad classes, (7) teaching high school.

Despite the craziness, I'm trying to maintain sanity, and hoping to post a little more often than I have been recently.

picket fence by sniffette

Student Presentations

In my last post I mentioned that students were about to give presentations on volcanoes in which I had banned them from using over two words per slide and encouraged lots of images. The presentations were much better than any other time I've done them. Even the poor presentations were more enjoyable. Some students even gave impressive Lessig-esque presentations. I found that pretty amazing considering I've never actually shown them any Lessig presentations (they have seen me present in a mild Lessig style, but some were better than my own).

I was amazed appalled while they were designing their presentation at how much difficulty they had parting with their bullet-pointy ways. The most common questions asked: "How're we supposed to give a presentation when there isn't any information on our PowerPoint?" I reminded them that they would be able to speak during the presentations, and recommended they utilized verbal communication to convey their information. 🙂

Overall, I was very happy with the results. The volcano presentations have even had some lasting effect: Recently they had group presentations for my earthquake resistant building project. The majority of groups designed text-light presentations- even without me requiring it. I was excited to see them embracing a style that was totally foreign to them until very recently.

group airtime by *vlad*

Image credits:
smash by jef poskanzer :: via Flickr
picket fence by sniffette :: via Flickr
group airtime by *vlad* :: via Flickr
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Hopeful for great student presentations!

One day, I'd really like to see an erupting volcano. Yes, I'm planning at some point to visit Hawai'i and see Kilauea erupting in classic basaltic shield volcano style, but I'd really like to see a massive, ash cloud, explosive, Plinian eruption. Of course, I'd like the guarantee of being perfectly safe in doing so. 🙂

Kilauea Eruption

We're covering volcanoes in class right now, and as a cumulative project for the volcanic activity topic, I have each student select a different volcano (I provide a list of volcanoes that have either been active fairly recently or have had some spectacular eruptions in the past), and then create a presentation as if they were a travel agent trying to "sell" a trip to their volcano to adventure travelers. They're required to have specific information about the type of volcano it is, how it erupts, etc., but they're highly encouraged to take it to the next level by including trip itineraries, cool things to do near the volcano, and so forth.In the past I've been deluged with presentations from bullet-point hell in which students simply read directly off their slides. It stinks sitting through one 5-minute presentation like that. Imagine sitting through 85-90...yeah, I was going crazy by the end of the presentations- trying as hard as I could to not punish students going later for my self-created forced torture of watching poorly designed presentations for four class periods.

This year, I made a small (but extremely significant) change. I told them they could only have 2 words MAX on each slide- and it'd be fine with me if their presentation contained no text at all (except for citations, of course). I mean it too. Most students created a title slide that looked something like this:

Nope. Can't do that. Volcano name, plus "by: your name" counts as four words (I did concede that the name of their volcano only counts as one word, otherwise whoever covers Mount St. Helens wouldn't even be able to put the name of their volcano on a slide). The classes are in the middle of designing their presentations right now, and it's been a struggle for them:

"How can I give a presentation with no words?"

"You mean I have to memorize everything?"

"What do you mean 'of' is a word? That shouldn't count, it's barely two letters!"

Students can have note cards with information for the presentations with them while they present, so they don't have to memorize, though it's amazing to me that they've been so "well"-trained at designing poor presentations. Students are still in the middle of designing presentations as I type this, and I must say they're looking pretty promising. I'll let you know how they turn out!

Resources:

Image Credit: Kilauea in 1993 from the USGS

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