What I've Learned...so far

This project has definitely been a learning experience for me.  There were times that it was very difficult and frustrating, and times that were rewarding.  I don't know if I can call the project a complete success, but it was definitely a starting point.  The students did not all buy in, but I can't really blame that on them.  We didn't have our stuff together and that definitely had an effect on the outcomes for students.  For the students that did buy into the project, there was some definite learning that happened.  For the staff that stuck it out, we had some learning as well.  It wasn't all bad, but there was a fair bit that was.  I titled this post what I've learned so I will get to it.  I learned that students are just like us, they want to know what is expected and how to meet the requirements once they know what they are.  We really dropped the ball by not making the expectations clear to ourselves or the students.  When I do a project like this again, I will work very hard to have the assessment piece ready to go before the kids even start working on the project.  Five classes was a little too ambitious, ok a lot ambitious, for a first project and the next project I do will be on a much smaller scale.

Presentations

Our groups presented their projects to their teacher advisor on June 7.  I had the opportunity to watch 4 groups since one of the teachers was sick.  I was pleasantly surprised with what the kids came up with.  The groups I observed had created a product, and a slide show to go with it.  What I was not expecting was the presentation skills that I witnessed.  Most of the students, if not all, were simply reading the slides or notes off of papers.  They had spent so much time doing the project part that they were not really prepared for the presentation itself.  Another thing we did on this day was a self and peer evaluation of all of the group members.  Many students were very kind to group members that the teachers knew had contributed very little to the entire project.  One student even left the class and didn't return on the presentation day and the other student still gave her level 3 and 4 marks on her peer evaluation even though it meant that she did the presentation by herself!!  According to the other teachers involved in the project, the presentations themselves were not impressive.  There were also some groups that actually had nothing to present, so again the question of what do we do with that?  Teachers did evaluate the projects that they saw, and will give those marks to the "home" teacher for those students.  It will be up to each individual teacher to decide how they will use those marks.  Each teacher has already communicated the value of this project to their students.  Next step is to create an exit survey and find out what the kids thought of the whole process.

High Tech High

What an incredible opportunity and experience for this week.  I am in San Diego for a tour and workshops at High Tech High.  Now hearing the name probably puts a particular image in your head, but get that out of there right away.  High Tech High is not all about technology!  It's not about hardware, software, apps etc.  it's about a different way of thinking about kids and learning.  Credits are earned at High Tech High through Project Based Learning.  When you look at certain Ontario Ministry documents (i.e. co-op), what they are doing is old news, but it's one of those things that "everyone talks about but no one is doing".  This school is doing it from kindergarten to Grade 12.  Now there were some "ya, but" moments, but nothing that makes this a BHAG for us to implement at least some of the components at our school, in our new space (or even in the regular classroom).  A lot of what the kids were doing here, we envisioned our kids doing in our own Project.  The way we designed our project, is the same way they design many of their projects, with some notable differences.  At this point at High Tech High students work together with students in the same Grade only, and they are working toward the same final product with specific parameters in place.  Before the project starts, the teacher and students discuss the project and will make changes if the class agrees that they would like to change things.  Our project had students from Grades 10-12 and their final product was really up to them.
   One thing that struck me when walking around the schools, was that every wall space had a display of student projects and when we went into classrooms and asked kids questions, all of them (no matter the grade level) could tell me what they were doing and why they were doing it.  Our HTH contact for the week was Law and he took us through some workshops around project design as well as how the teachers there assess the projects.  There are too many takeaways to try and portray in a blog, but here are links to my Google Photos albums of my two days in the schools.

Day 1

Day 2

We Mean Business

On Tuesday, all of our classes met in the Innovation Lab but things were different this time.  Once again, we were ready for them.  Last week we had a number from the principal about how much the kids were allowed to spend, this time we had a timeline to the end of the project and a teacher advisor to meet with each group.  We also gave each student the handout we made with the instructions to get them to the end as well as a reminder of the learning goals and success criteria that some of them had never received a hard copy of.  Each group went with their advisor to work on their project for the period and were fairly productive as the pictures show.  They will have another work period on May 31 and will present to their teacher advisor on June 7.  We are hoping that 2 of the groups will have a good enough project to present at the grand opening and blessing of the new space on June 14.

Using Charcoal to create a water filter

         

A Twitter Page about Decent Work
and Economic Growth in our area

Links to the handouts the kids received:

Next Steps Handout

COPS Sheet with Learning Goals and Success Criteria on the 2nd Page:

Teacher Meeting

Last Friday, we were finally able to sit down as teachers and look at the project and plan to the end.  We have decided on 2 more work periods for the kids and a presentation date of June 7 with the best projects being presented at the Grand Opening of the new space on June 14 (fingers crossed).  We went through the proposals and every group was assigned a teacher advisor to work with for the remaining 3 weeks.  As we were dividing up the groups and reading the proposals, we realized that some groups didn't even send us a proposal.  These groups were also given an advisor and the work period for them would be spent on their proposal.  On the evaluation day of June 7, students will also complete a peer and self evaluation.  I would also like to create an exit survey to see what the kids thought of the overall experience.  The meeting was good because we were able to express our frustrations and also talk about the assessment and next steps for the kids.  We also discussed what we would do differently next time which will be a separate post since I agreed with all of it.  We created a new handout for the students with the expectations for the rest of the project time including a review of the Learning Goals and Success Criteria for the project so they can ensure they are meeting the criteria.  Hopefully we are now all on the same page and ready for the push to the end!

Back on the Road

  Today we had a work period for the project and could finally give the kids some logistical information.  Each group can be reimbursed for $100 worth of materials, provided they submit receipts.  For some groups, this meant that they needed to rework their project a bit to get costs down, for other groups, they are now able to do more.  It was difficult to keep everyone in the room because there was a soccer tournament happening at the same time.  Denise came from the Board Office to document some student voice about the project, and there were some pretty positive comments about the project and I think that the kids were very honest with her.
   Tomorrow, we will be meeting with teachers only to discuss the wind down of the project.  Assessment still needs to be decided:  Do we choose groups to assess or only assess the students that are in their class?  How does that fit as a mark into each class, especially if the group's product doesn't directly relate to the class?  Can we come up with a rubric that will work for everyone?  We will obviously need a new due date, what will that be?  We will also need to pick dates for the students to work and finish.

Updated Photo of the Space

   Another good news item:  the 3D Printer arrived this week.  Next step on the materials front will be to buy some consumables and get the room stocked without dictating the possibilities of what can be done in the space.

Update

     It has been a while since I have posted, so here's what has been happening in the new space.  I will try to get a new photo tomorrow.  On April 21, we had visitors from our Board Office as well as parts of the Student Success team for the Ministry and Barrie Region.  The students were working on their proposals and the guests were able to sit down and talk to groups as well as the teachers that are involved in the project.  I was able to give them the basic details of the project and what we are trying to achieve.  They had some very good questions for the school team that still have me thinking about what I will try to make different next time.  The visit was successful and I think our visitors were impressed with the engagement level of the students.
     The next week, we met and gave groups the deadline of that day to submit their proposals.  The proposals had to include:  the Global Goal they are working on, group members, the product they will create, a list of materials required to complete the project, approximate cost of the materials, and a timeline of checkpoints/due dates for the group to finish the project by May 20.  On that day I received 14 proposals from 15 groups.  There are some very ambitious projects that sound pretty cool, and of course some projects that are not as exciting and kids are choosing what they believe to be the easy way out.  At this point, the divide has occurred between the groups that are engaged and eager to get to work and the groups that only there because they have to be.
     Last week, the feeling for me was that the wheels are starting to loosen.  I'm not going to say falling off at this point, but they are definitely loosening.  Perhaps it is the point of the school year, maybe it is something that I haven't quite figured out yet, but I'm getting an ominous feeling.  When groups came to the room last week, for the most part they got right to work planning how to complete their project.  Two groups went with a teacher to the river, one for research and one for their action.  We also learned another cool thing about Google Drive with this group.  I had brought iPads to the room so that students could start documentation for their projects if they needed photos or videos.  When you are in Google Drive on the iPad, you can tap the plus sign to add a document and it has the option to use the camera.  If you choose this, any photos you take are automatically put into your Drive instead of the Camera Roll of the iPad which is perfect when you are using a device that is not yours.  I showed the student how to use this feature and sent him off to the river, not even thinking that there would not be wifi there.  When he returned, the photos automatically uploaded to his Drive as soon as he reconnected to the wifi.  Awesome.  Back to the other groups, we started to have situations where students couldn't find their groups, want to make new groups with their friends, or take off for long periods of time on their group members.  There are also issues with the project itself:  the students want materials to build their products, but we really don't know how we are supposed to financially do that for them.  The student that has been promised funding from the Board Office has made an equipment list, but I don't know what the next step is.  We are wanting the students to finish their projects next week, how do they do that without materials?
     On the Good News front, our stools, tables, PCs, Chromebook Cart and large format printer have arrived!