Chambers 20 Time Passion Project - Day 5

If you are curious about what a 20 Time Passion Project is, read my introduction here. It has a bunch of links to tell you all about this whole "20 Time" idea and how it is taking off in the educational world.



If you don't want to read the whole thing, here are the basics:


  • Kids can do ANYTHING they want as long as it satisfies 3 essential questions that tie what their doing into our class goals. Kids are encouraged to build and create rather than complete.
  • Kids have to find an adult to mentor other than the teacher who will help them during their project.
  • The projects will last almost 3 months and culminate in a public presentation day.
  • I pledge to give approximately 20% of class time to this project for the rest of the year. 
  • I'm doing a project with the kids - this blog. I am going to blog about the kids work on this blog each day. That's an extra 12-13 blog posts for me!
 ***
The projects are coming along great so far. What's happening once a week in my classroom is essentially guided chaos. If you are still looking for a quiet room with perfectly behaved students, you probably should stray away from this particular strand of project. I have, in any given class, around 25 students. That means that I have, in any given class, around 25 different projects going on! It's chaotic, but it's beautiful. 
 
Remember when you try something like this to not get discouraged or expect perfection! We had a Skype session with the author of Teach Like a Pirate, Dave Burgess a few weeks ago and he made a very similar point. Lots of teachers have the tendency to take what was a great lesson or activity or project and focus solely on what didn't work. Not that self-reflection and having a critical eye are bad things, but if 24 of 25 students are on task and engaged and one is not, then you probably have something good going! Keep trying to figure out that 25th students, but don't stop whatever it was that got the other 24 on fire. 
 
This project has lit some fires. There are some that are lagging behind a bit, but I'm trying to follow my own advise and let the passion of the project take over a little bit. It is, after all, called a Passion Project! 
 
In the next blog, I'm going to talk about what kind of structures I'm using to create the guided portion of the guided chaos. This is a big change from when I first started to teach when I didn't realize that I still needed to establish quite a bit of structure before letting the students run free with their imaginations. I think this is probably more true of older students; the reasons for this are really interesting and could probably be a book in and of itself. 
 
For today, however, I want to share the trailers that we made in class. The purpose of these are to build some excitement and anticipation for the project ideas that students have created. I hope that they'll share the trailers with their friends and family, which will involve some more outsiders into the project. Lastly, I'm hoping that these provide a bit of accountability. Students have staked a claim to what they are going to create. Now they have to actually go and create it! This will be exciting to see unfold! 
 
*I'll also note that at the beginning of the year, I get permission slips from students and parents in regards to publicly using their image and likeness in videos like these. Students don't appear in the video unless they gave me a signed permission form. 
 
 3rd Hour Trailer

4th Hour Trailer

5th Hour Trailer
 
7th Hour Trailer
 

Thanks for reading this blog! I hope you'll consider taking a moment to comment below and turn this into a conversation. Whether you are an educator or not, we have all had common experiences with education both good and bad. I want to hear what you think!
 
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Experiences Matter

The kids from Center High School just returned from the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial a few minutes ago. I am constantly amazed by our group of kids. Last year was our first year taking this trip*, and it went great. The second year and consequent years make me nervous. It's not new anymore, which naturally takes off some of the glimmer from the trip. The longer you do a particular activity, the harder it is to drum up anticipation and excitement.

*Thanks to the generosity of the World War One Educational Foundation that provided free admission and free lunch to our group! Also a big thanks to our director of Secondary Curriculum, Sally Newell, who somehow found some money in her ever-tightening budget to help us pay for the buses to get there. 
Center High School and Center Alternative School
March 15th, 2015
Students took five pictures to use on an assignment in class the
next day.

A student takes a look at one of the artillery guns on display.
Center Board President Joe Nastasi and High School Counselor
Krista McGee look on as their group talks with the guide.
Students learn about trench warfare.
A student looks from the glass bridge in the atrium down on the
9,000 red poppies - 1 for every 1,000 military deaths in WWI.
Students listen to their guide explain the older parts of the WWI Museum.
Kids use an interactive display to learn about some of the items
they've been looking at during their tour.

This could be my favorite picture. Students listen to stories of
trench warfare.
Students begin their tour on the glass bridge above the poppy field.
Beautiful weather. Beautiful view of downtown KC. Beautiful students.

As I reflect on this year's trip and think forward to next year's trip, I wonder what we can do better and differently to make this an exciting and worthwhile experience for the kids. Part of the key is - and this should probably be more obvious than it is - to ask the students what their opinions are. What did they like? What didn't they like? I'm giving out a survey tomorrow in class, so we'll see what issues that brings up. Besides asking though, it's important for me to be mentally present with my group during the trip. As much as possible, I need to not worry about the buses, or lunch logistics, or why in the world is she walking in that direction right now??! These are all valid concerns. But as much as I can, I need to be with my kids and experiencing what they experience.

From doing this, I found out that we probably need to ask the tour guides to speak a little less next year. I found myself wanting more time to just look and explore. I also found that I needed some time to sit down and rest. Perhaps we could work in some kind of activity mid-way through the tour that could exercise some of the students' creative juices. Maybe we can utilize some of the great space the museum has outdoors.

I'll stop there - you're probably not reading this blog to get an insight into my logistical thought-process. If you are, well, you are a very dedicated individual!

The bigger picture here I think revolves around two questions:
  1. What does success look like? 
  2. Do kids want to be in my class?
What does success look like?
Steve Parker is the other Modern World History teacher here at Center. This trip has been a collaboration of sorts between the two of us. As we were walking back to our classes after we finished the trip, he started to vent some frustration with the small group (like 2 or 3) that seemed totally disinterested. At first, I was nodding my head in agreement. But when we parted ways, I started to think about Dave Burgess and Teach Like a Pirate.

Dave Skyped in with a group of Center teachers on Monday. One of the great insights I got from listening to Dave was this idea that teaching is not a "perfection" activity. We are not in a position to reach and touch every child. We will not change every life we meet, no matter how hard we try. If we judge the job we do by the standard of perfection - Was every single student engaged in this field trip? - then we are doomed to a life of misery and suffering!

We will rarely achieve 100% engagement. When we do, it is something to be celebrated like crazy! But when we get close, and we get all of but one or two or three kids really engaged, is that success? Dave seems to think so, and I agree. While it is tempting to focus on the few students who did not latch on to our lesson or who looked disinterested during the field trip, that is to in part ignore the other 25 students who were, as Dave puts it, on fire. We have to take the time and have the poise to take a few steps back and evaluate on the overall effect. If I don't catch a particular student, do I have trust in my colleagues that one of them will catch her?

Do kids want to be in my class?
I went to #edcampLiberty last weekend. It was, like every #edcamp I've ever been to, pretty awesome. One of the concepts of an #edcamp is that teachers can get up and leave sessions - in fact they are encouraged to do so! This is called voting with your feet or some other variation, but you get the idea. Sessions that are no good will naturally be poorly attended while those that are great will have teachers literally spilling out of the doorway. When I see a session with teachers craning their necks to get a part of the action, I wonder what I'm missing and try to join in!


Sometime during the morning, I sent out the tweet below:



The answer to that question could be jarring.

If your class were voluntary - let's say kids were required to attend 7 classes each day, but they could pick which one's they attended - would anyone choose to spend an hour in your class?

Field trips and experiences are important because they help us find answers to these two questions. We are able to see kids on fire by putting them in new, challenging and unique situations. Kids will remember these moments more vividly than the best lecture you will ever give. And while we cannot go on a field trip each day, we can fine-tune the art of experiential learning every moment of every day if we so choose.

Thanks for reading this blog! I hope you'll consider taking a moment to comment below and turn this into a conversation. Whether you are an educator or not, we have all had common experiences with education both good and bad. I want to hear what you think! 









 
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Chambers 20 Time Passion Project - Day 3/4

If you are curious about what a 20 Time Passion Project is, read my introduction here. It has a bunch of links to tell you all about this whole "20 Time" idea and how it is taking off in the educational world.

If you don't want to read the whole thing, here are the basics:

  • Kids can do ANYTHING they want as long as it satisfies 3 essential questions that tie what their doing into our class goals. Kids are encouraged to build and create rather than complete.
  • Kids have to find an adult to mentor other than the teacher who will help them during their project.
  • The projects will last almost 3 months and culminate in a public presentation day.
  • I pledge to give approximately 20% of class time to this project for the rest of the year. 
  • I'm doing a project with the kids - this blog. I am going to blog about the kids work on this blog each day. That's an extra 12-13 blog posts for me!
 ***
Day 3 - Wednesday, March 4th, 2015---Day 4 - Thursday, March 5th, 2015
 
What. A. Blur. 
 
First myth of project based learning that needs to be dispelled and hard - projects are less work for the teacher. A variation of this myth is that projects are front-loaded with work for the teacher, but they're pretty easy once they get going. 
 
These are not true! 
 
I have spent the last two days jumping from person to person, group to group, trying to brainstorm and problem solve. The kids are really thinking and coming up with creative ideas - you can read about some of the highlights in Day 1 and Day 2.This truly is great and I'm really excited to see things working the way they should. On my end, though, that means that answers aren't really answers in the traditional sense. Kids are really asking me questions. It's like they're on a river with a bunch of small tributaries branching off from the main river. Sometimes a kid goes down one of the smaller paths and finds something cool. Sometimes they go down one of these small rivers and wind up in mud. 

My role is to get kids un-stuck. I find out why they've run ashore, figure out the cause of it all the best I can, get them back into deeper water and push them off. Some kids are going in wonderful and incredible directions with this project. Others and spending more time in the mud then they are in the water.* How do I balance my time between those who are stuck and those who needs some high-level brainstorming? 
 
*My wife tells me that I use the most ridiculous analogies. She's currently denying it to my face as I type this. She sits on a throne of lies.

A cool side-effect I'm already seeing is that some students (not all, but some) that are doing really well are reaching out to other students and trying to help out with ideas. This is very cool to see. I'm excited to see how this kind of action develops as the project goes forward.

Another cool thing that is happening is the role of the adult mentor and how some kids are really going after this requirement. I have made each student ask an adult (not me - I don't want to play any favorites with my time) to help mentor them during the project. Dave Leone, Center School District Superintendant, has been asked and has accepted. A friend of my grandma who loves are is going to meet up with one of my students at the Nelson-Atkins to talk about art and museums. Another friend of mine who serves in the military is going to mentor a student who is doing a project on drone strikes. That will be fascinating to see. 

That's all I've got for now. Tomorrow is the day of the "I Will..." statements. Students will write their statements to stake a claim on what they are going to actually do or create for their project. They've brainstormed, asked questions and researched for a week. Tomorrow is the day to make a choice. Most students are already here. Be looking out for a quick video next week to see what kinds of projects are coming up! 

Until next time...

Chambers 20 Time Passion Project - Day 2

We've talked a lot about urbanization and industrialization. This student has found an online, 3D city builder. She's planning on building an ideal city then using Screencast-o-matic to create a video explaining  her decisions!
 If you are curious about what a 20 Time Passion Project is, read my introduction here. It has a bunch of links to tell you all about this whole "20 Time" idea and how it is taking off in the educational world.

If you don't want to read the whole thing, here are the basics:
  • Kids can do ANYTHING they want as long as it satisfies 3 essential questions that tie what their doing into our class goals. Kids are encouraged to build and create rather than complete.
  • Kids have to find an adult to mentor other than the teacher who will help them during their project.
  • The projects will last almost 3 months and culminate in a public presentation day.
  • I pledge to give approximately 20% of class time to this project for the rest of the year. 
  • I'm doing a project with the kids - this blog. I am going to blog about the kids work on this blog each day. That's an extra 12-13 blog posts for me!
 ***
Day 2 - Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015

Kids are continuing to come up with really great ideas. I am giving the kids 5 straight days to work on their projects at the start here. The idea is to give enough consecutive days for each student to fully develop a project topic, idea and plan of action. I also want to give plenty of time for the kids to reach out to their mentors. To give some examples, I have kids who are reaching out to:
  • Sly James - Mayor of Kansas City
  • Robert Kenner - Director of Food, Inc.
  • A civil engineer at a local firm, SEGA
  • A visual artist who is apparently pretty big in the online scene...I can't remember the name right now and I misspelled it in my notebook!
  • I have a student looking to connect with a neurologist to do a project on the brain and learning. Anyone out there want to help with that one?
Two students collaborating on their project. They are going
to be conducting a series of interviews with people of have
taken the Islamic Hajj to Mecca.

The part about all of this that I'm enjoying most is seeing kids react when I do something unexpected. Here's an example. I have a student who wants to study art and culture. We were brainstorming and without much surprise came up with the Nelson Atkins. In the middle of class, I took out my cell phone and called my grandma. She lives in Santa Fe now, but she used to be a member at the Nelson Atkins and I thought she might know someone. She did, gave me a number, and we'll see where that goes!

The world is about making connections! That's what this project emphasizes, especially with its requirement to get an adult adviser to help. I love history as much as the next history teacher nerd out there, but learning how to make a phone call to a stranger and ask for advice is a more important skill than anything I'll teach kids about history! If I can instill this skill in kids while still having the kids learn about history, then it's a win-win situation.

Brainstorming looks for a campaign to stop wars.





Chambers 20 Time Passion Project - Day 1

A brief introduction to what I'll be doing here for the next two and a half months:

There is an idea growing in the world of education that curiosity and creativity need to be given their proper due. I tend to agree with this. I think of my class with Mrs. Lerner in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade and remember the field trips, 8-square drawings, sand-box and other creative tasks that we did. I think this says something important seeing as I'm not a particularly creative person. Yet this are the moments that stick in my memory.

Will anything from my class become a memory for a student?

A 20-time project, or Genius Hour, or MakerSpace, or Teach Like a Pirate (#TLAP), or whatever variation you prefer - all of these projects aim to give students the time in class (and the infrastructure) to think and create and be curious. I decided to name my project the 20-time Passion Project.

In this project, I am committing to giving around 20% of the remainder of the year to the students to create a project of their own making. There are three questions that kids have to answer no matter what they do. If they cannot answer all of these three questions, then they'll be encouraged to revise their idea or simply move on to the next idea on their list. Those questions are:
  • How does your project relate to our Modern World History class?
  • Why is your topic of study and guiding question important to us today?
  • What real information or statistics prove the point that you are trying to make?  
 You can look at my full rubric here, although it is still in the construction phase. The cool yet oh so terrifying part of this is that I've never done this before. I've given the kids an introduction and hopefully some inspiration on where to start. I've also told the kids that I'll be learning how this all works right along with them. When I have a revelation, they'll know. It's going to be painful at times. It will probably be pretty chaotic. But I think it's going to be pretty damn special as well. When it's all done, we'll regroup, rethink and be a little more organized as we try it again next year. The first year of any project is always the scariest - and the most important.

My Project
Part of this project is the promise that I would do a project of my own with the kids. I got the idea from a student of mine who wrote a guest post on this blog (go read it if you haven't yet - it's amazing). My 20-Time Passion Project is going to be to advertise the projects of my students by creating a blog for each day of class I give the students. That will result in 12-15 posts over the next three months. When it's all done, we'll be able to compile those posts and create a story of what everyone did and learned. Like the students, I'm still fleshing out my idea, but it will come to me.

On the first day of brainstorming, there are several very cool ideas that I want to highlight here:

Sketching out what a cross-section of a road might
end up looking like.
Road Infrastructure - A student is interested in what is underneath all of our roads. He wants to talk to an engineer (I've put him in touch with a friend of mine who works in that field) about how roads are constructed. We sketched up an idea for what a cross-section might look like in his final project.

Menu of the World - One student is interested in researching more in-depth some of the cultures that we've studied by looking at their food. She wants to make a world menu. I'm trying to get her to cook something that we can eat!

Researching 3D online programs

3D City Construction - A student wants to construct a city online. He is researching programs and plans on sending out emails requesting a trial, a discounted price, or some kind of mentorship on using the 3D technology. We'll see where this one goes - I'm very interested.

The Hajj - A student of mine who is Muslim became more interested in the Hajj, the holy trip to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Her grandmother has taken the Hajj. She is going to interview her grandmother and maybe some of her grandmothers friends to tell the story of the Hajj from a different perspective from the one we learned in class.

Presidential Debate - We've talked a lot about the development of urban areas and industrialized cities. A group of three wants to plan a mock-Presidential debate focused on issues surrounding the urban core. Their plan is to write, film and edit the whole thing into a short movie.

There are many more project ideas to come in future blog posts. I hope you'll follow along the journey. Maybe you'll see a project that you think you could help with! If so, feel free to shoot me an email.