Changing Education Project - Results

   Last week, the little merpeople set off to tell me about how they wanted to change education. I created a very simple, yet complex, project for them, "How do you want to see your education change". They had only a few guidelines which were the following (in their exact form):

In groups no larger than 3 people, you are going to create a 5-10 minute presentation about how you want to see education changed, and how the perfect system of education looks to you. 

In your final presentation you must include:

*A brief history of education in the USA (no more than :45 seconds)

*What does education look like today? (no more than :45 seconds)

*How do you want to change education - what should it look like?

You can address ideas such as:

Homework

Time spent in school

Laws

Standardized Testing

This is an open assignment. You can make your presentation in any style you would like. It can be a video, slide show, song and dance… It’s OPEN to you!  

     As you can see, it was very open ended project. The idea was that this project would take 4 days for them to complete in class and then we would have two days of presentations for each class period. Without fail, we had an Internet DDoS attack last week, so we had two days where the kids could not access anything on their chrome books, so we got pushed back just a bit. We were finally able to get everything together and do presentations on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Overall, most of the projects were pretty well done. We are still learning how to not read off the board and face the class when speaking, but other than that, 80% of the groups put in a good effort. While I knew this would not be a 100% success, as there are always the few who just don't get into the project, I think overall, this went quite well. 

   Based on what the kids presented I did learn a lot of key points about what they wanted to see in their education, and those are the points that I wanted to share with you:

• No more homework 
• Start school at a later time
• More elective choices, especially hands-on classes
• Option to have a "night school" where kids can go to school in the afternoons
• Job placement support
• More mental health services, for kids who need therapy and/or counseling
• More teachers who care
• Have both computer and paper based options, since some kids prefer one or the other
• Be harder on kids who don't do their work in class since it brings other kid's grades down

   On that last note, each class and I had the discussion about effort based grading and their thoughts on it. 100% of my kids agreed that people who put in a lot of effort, but don't always get the right answer, should still get a large amount of points on the given project. Amazingly, they also all agreed that homework is allowed to be assigned if students do not finish the in-class work. And then, to top it off, they also all said it was fair for me to give 0's to students who do not give any effort during class and if they do not take their work home on it. One student in my 4th period even said, "It is not fair for you to have to justify giving a kid a grade if they waste your time too." That made me smile. 

    While on the top of grading, I also explained standard-based grading and how that will work with our effort-based grading scale. So far, they all seemed to understand... so I guess, so far so good!

   Once everyone had finished their presentations, the students had to complete a self-grading form about their effort in this project. Some of the self grades were interesting, but most of the kids graded them as I would have graded them. In addition to the self grade, they also had to answer the question "Honestly, what did you think about this project". Here are some of their responses:

• "This project was very easy and a good way to let the teacher know how we feel about school and he way we ant education to be. I hope this project makes a difference in the way we have school to a way we want to have school be."

• "i thought it was a fantastic idea for the entire class to do i really enjoyed it"

• "It was actually pretty fun because we got to state our opinion on what we think plus we got to talk with our friends to work together."

• "I think the project was kind of hard because, there are a lot of choices and answers for what education looks like today and what we wanted to look like. A lot of research of What education looked like today but, a relief when me and my partners have finished our power point together."

   Now, it was not all happy mermaids and fishes, there were a few kids who did not like the project. I realized that I will never please all my kids, but I was surprised that there were a handful of kids who did not like this project. Here were some of their responses:

• "To be completely honest it was boring to me but I do have to say, I did learn some new things that I didn't once know."
• "It was pretty bad to be honest."
• "i dont really like working on computers . so honestly didnt like it one bit. we didnt really learn much and since i have been so busy at home that i didnt have time to get on the computer at home."
• "I personally did not like this project we did not learn anything about math in this project and this is a math class. I like it better when we do accelerated math that's what this class is all about"

     I can't please them all. I told them, you get out of your education what you put into it. Maybe these kids just did not put the effort into it. Or maybe they did, and they really just did not like it. Hopefully as time goes on I can get all my little merpeople on board about how doing hands-on learning will really benefit them in the future. Only time will tell! 

    Overall, I enjoyed watching the kids collaboratively create and share their ideas. Personally, I got the chance to see what they thought was important in their education. I will get to apply those ideas into this new curriculum and hopefully create a system that all the merpeople will enjoy! 

   So after all of that, I will leave you all with the one question that stumped every single one of my kids, "How do I get those who just do not care to learn to learn?"

An Open Letter to my Students

    Today was another one of those days where I was feeling a little lost. Project number one is almost done and only a few of the kids bought into this new way of learning. I started to look for some signs to ensure me that am on the right track with what I am doing here. I googled "changing education" and the first link that came up was this video:

After I watched it, I felt so much better and I was inspired. I was inspired to let my students know that we were here to change education for the better. To really kick off our new curriculum that my co-teacher and I are creating, I wrote an open letter to my students, which I wanted to share with you.

Following this letter, my students will begin group work to create a presentation about what they want to get out of their education. More details and final projects later! 

Dear Students,

We have reached a time in the world where everything is changing. You are living in an era where technology changes faster than the tides. This constant change has also sparked a change in education, and it is a change that you are going to be able to have a huge say in. You are going to shape your education and shape the way you learn.

From early on as students we were given a math formula or a scientific theory and asked plug in the answers to continue to make those things work. We read the same history books, looked at the same primary sources, and we all wrote the same essays. English teachers across the country had us all read the same books, and analyze them in the same way, we never been given the freedom to express ourselves in our own unique way. We have been living inside the box for so long, it’s time for us to get outside of the box. We are going to make the change today. And by we, I mean YOU.

Before we begin, I think it’s important that you understand how your teacher learns, and how that makes me teach the way that I do, especially in math. Since I was a child I have had more energy than I knew what to do with it… And more energy than my parents knew how to deal with. I was always moving. I found it hard to shut off my brain at night. Being quiet at home was hard, I never won the “quiet game”. Because of this, I found it hard to sit still and listen to teachers talk for long periods of time. This model of teaching just wasn't for me. I did well in school, when it came to following directions, but academically, I always kind of struggled. Math and science were the worst, I could never grasp the concepts. English wasn't too bad, and history was my favorite, but I always had a hard time with analyzing sources and finding the “author’s voice”. I loved art, ASB, yearbook, and photo. Those were the classes I looked forward to because it was easy for me to learn the way I did in those classes. School wasn't the worst, but it was not something that I looked forward to everyday.

Early on in life I knew how I learned. I was, I am, a tactile-visual learner. Meaning, I learn by doing and seeing. Things made sense when teachers spent the time with me to show me the concepts and let me work them out in front of them. I had a math tutor growing up who would always let me explain the way I thought a problem made sense. Once she understood how I saw the concept, she would do everything she could to continue to help me with problems in the way that made sense to me. Come test time, I could do the problems, but I would never do them in the teacher had taught them. I got marked down for doing problems in ways that were not the same we were taught in class. I was so frustrated in math because of this, I HATED MATH. I mean, I liked math when I was with my tutor because I understood, but as soon as I got to class, I would go back to hating it and I would shut down. Math made me cry, it caused me so much anxiety, if I had the balls to break the rules as a teenager I would have ditched math everyday. As I moved into university I realized that because I was a tactile-visual learner I needed more hands on projects to learn the concepts better. In my math for education classes we learned how to approach concepts from different angles (no pun intended) and how to teach concepts to kids like myself, who might not understand things in the most concrete of ways. Suddenly when given a hands on ap, math made sense. Don’t get me wrong, I still struggled in those university classes, but the fact that I could look at math in a different way and not be marked down for it made math so much less of a scary concept.

So my darling students, this is where this new way of learning is coming from. It’s coming from a lot of self-reflection about my learning habits, and your learning habits. Its coming from me wanting to see you do the best you can do each day and get the most out of each and every 54 minute math period. It’s coming from knowing that you might not understand the concept the first time it is explained to you. This comes from the need for me to take you away from the people who get angry at you when you don’t understand the history lecture and show them that you can learn more by than just listening to their dry lecture and doing the same worksheet they have been assigning since I was in high school. And it’s knowing that it’s okay that you don’t get it the first time. It’s that you might not want to do this particular assignment because in the way everyone else does because it makes more sense to do it another way. Or because it’s boring and you have an idea that will make it better. It’s coming from the fact that each and everyone of you is an individual and therefore, education should not made with cookie cutters, it should be sculpted by you.

Now that we have come back around to the point, this is where I tell you that your education is going to be in your hands now. I want you to be active learners and I want you to grow from your learning. You are going to create your own assignments, assessments, and tools. You will have the opportunity to create material for your peers and present that material to them. You aren't going to be graded on your test scores anymore, you are going to be graded on your drive and effort. You will be pushed into discussion about what certain concepts mean and why they are even important for you to learn at such a young age. You are going to design what your math education will look like. It’s going to be different, it’s going to be hard. But together, we are going to make math a class that you are always going to remember. You have the power now, you just have to figure out how to use it.

Are you ready? ...Let’s do this!

With Love,

Ms. Harriman

Postscript:

I’d like to thank a few of the teachers I had growing up who let me explore my own thoughts and had patience with me. The ones who supported me when I didn't understand and the ones who inspired me to be the person that I am today. Thanks for staying with me after school and believing in me. More importantly, thank you for giving me the strength to believe in myself enough to teach today.

Mr. Leonard (2nd grade), Tina Sardina (1st and 3rd grade), Scott Reiter (4th Grade), Kathy Kinsella (5th Grade), Anita Henderson (8th Grade math), Scott Scarbrough (7th grade history), Brian Gilwee (Photo and Yearbook), Suzie Wakefield (ASB), Keith McKee (chemistry), Stephanie Sellers (English), Tom Waldron (English), and Mr. Lieb (Algebra II), Dr. Stacy Kasendorf (USD SOLES), Dr. Jerry Ammer (USD SOLES), and Dr. Viviana Alexandrowicz (USD SOLES).

And extra special thanks to Karen Welch, my math tutor, Lynn McGrath and Perla Myers (USD Math/Liberal Studies), who let me see math in a different light and always told me it was all going to work out, even if I had to cry my way through every math problem on the page. And to the person who was my best teacher without technically ever being my teacher, Phelim O’Connell, thanks for believing me and letting me experiment with technology. It paved the way to today!