Portal Flash Learning Lesson

Now that the first few setup lessons have been completed, we are moving into some of the experiential learning that will shape the class.  Since the main thrust of the class is to break students out of their typical assumptions about what “school” can be, I wanted to provide an initial experience that was seemingly as far from these assumptions as possible.

The students were asked to log into their computers and run a Google search on “Portal Flash”.  This should bring up multiple accessible links to the game, Portal: The Flash Version.  The Flash version of the popular game Portal was not made by the developer, Valve, and is free on various Flash sites on the internet.  Unlike the console and PC version, the Flash version offers physics based puzzles in a 2-dimensional environment.  The puzzle require “portals” to be placed to allow the player to find a pathway to an exit.  As the game progresses, the puzzles get more difficult, and start introducing variables that affect the player’s ability to easily pass through the game.

When we began playing, I set up a few rules.  Students were told that their goal was to get to the highest level that they could, but that they could not ask me questions about the game, or I would simply reply with a question.  I told them that they could use the tools available to them such as Youtube or Wiki’s, to help them through.

Then I sat back and observed the chaos.

Invariably, even the most accomplished gamers in the class hit a wall, a point where they could no longer breeze through the levels without pausing to think, or ask questions of their classmates.  Here was where the game began to provide gold.

Kids became frustrated, agitated, excited.  They clicked the mouse too hard, or squirmed in their seat as the character fell into a pit or was incinerated on a laser floor.  They were animated, began asking questions of one another, furiously searched Youtube for the best walkthrough videos.

They were engaged in the truest sense of the word, despite the difficulty.

The students continued to play through to the lunch break, and when they returned, we started talking.  I asked the following 4 questions, giving them time to write their responses prior to sharing.

1.     What were the difficulties you faced during the game?

2.     How did you deal with these difficulties?

3.     How was this experience different from your idea of what “school” is supposed to be?

4.     What have you learned about learning, or how you learn best?

The discussion went well, with most of the students explaining the benefit of doing it themselves, and of not being given answers.  They said that there was a sense of accomplishment when they finished a level on their own.  Simply saying these things to my students would have paled in comparison to having them complete the activity first.  They need the experience of learning outside of what they have been conditioned to believe it is.

I was struck by some of the student responses in other avenues.  When a lecture is occurring, or they are being asked to participate in activities that “feel” like “school”, my students are constantly asking to get a drink or go to the bathroom.  During the 80 minute block, over 2 different classes, not a single student asked to leave for any reason.  I’m not surprised by this at all.

We need to think about how we can demonstrate LEARNING in our classrooms, not simply explain to our student’s why it is important.    The more we can begin to understand that learning is something that is happening within these children AT ALL TIMES, the more we need to be cognizant of the worthiness of the tasks we ask them to do.  Is it simply busy work?  Are we just padding a grade book? Justifying our own existence?

Take some time to try the game yourself.  What emotions does it elicit in you?  How do you deal with frustration and failure?  How do you manage a lack of ability or control in something as simple as a two-dimensional computer game?

What can you learn about your student’s educational lives from it?  

Log on, and get uncomfortable.

Fast Food Education Nation

“Education is being strangled persistently by the culture of standardized testing.  The irony is that these tests are not raising standards except in some very particular areas and at the expense of most of what really matters in education.

    To get a perspective on this, compare the processes of quality assurance in education with those in an entirely different field- catering.  In the restaurant business, there are two distinct models of quality assurance.  The first is the fast-food model.  In this model, the quality of the food is guaranteed, because it is all standardized.  The fast-food chains specify exactly what should be on the menu in all their outlets.  They specify what should be on the burgers or nuggets, the oil in which they should be fried, the exact bun in which they should be served, how the fries should be made, what should be in the drinks, and exactly how they should be served.  They specify how the room should be decorated and what the staff should wear.  Everything is standardized.  It's often dreadful and bad for you.  Some forms of fast food are contributing to the massive explosion of obesity and diabetes across the world.  But at least the quality is guaranteed.

   The other model of quality assurance in catering is the Michelin guide.  In this model, the guides establish specific criteria for excellence, but they do not say how the particular restaurants should meet these criteria. They don't say what should be on the menu, what the staff should wear, or how the rooms should be decorated.  All of that is at the discretion of the individual restaurant.  The guides simply establish criteria, and it is up to every restaurant to meet them in whatever way they see best.  They are then judged not to some impersonal standard, but by assessments of experts who know what they are looking for and what a great restaurant is actually like.  The result is that every Michelin restaurant is terrific.  And they are all unique and different from each other.

  One of the essential problems for education is that most countries subject their schools to the fast-food model of quality assurance when they should be adopting the Michelin model instead.  The future in education is not in standardizing but in customizing; not in promoting groupthink and "deindividuation" but in cultivating the real depth and dynamism of human abilities of every sort.”

-From “The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything”, by Sir Ken Robinson

I’m thinking about the balancing act that teachers are being forced to play these days, especially the good ones.  It seems we’ve moved into an era where we need to go underground.  The attacks on the profession have created a false accountability that is more political than effective.  Good teachers are forced to whisper about the progressive individualization they employ in their classes, or face possible public scrutiny.  Bad teachers embrace the calls for standardization because it is easier to implement, and is in their eyes, more easily defended.

As the stakes become higher, and pressure is mounted, we see a desire to return to more draconian practices in the classrooms.  The need to pass standardized tests as a district, by its very definition, robs the individual of his or her rights as a learner.  We need more analogies like Robinson’s.  We need to get the information out there that our students DESERVE a personalized education. 

It is not frivolity, it is not a pipe dream, it is not a lofty goal to be attained.  It is their RIGHT. 

Everything we do to posture and squirm around this fundamental truth will only delay the inevitable.  We can change the system to make it work for our students, or we can allow outside forces to declare our regressive system a failure, and shape it to their interests, whatever those may be.  As teachers, I believe that we are the protectors of our students; we got into this to make a difference in their lives.  What better difference could we make than to hand them a system that they deserve?

There is a change coming, and it’s up to us to get in front of it before the cynics among us unintentionally damage it beyond repair.  That greasy burger is not good for you, even though it’s cheap and fast.  Try not to choke on it.

Sol Lewitt Mid-Week

Day 2 of Sol Lewitt Project: Calm to Chaos, Collaboration to Cooperation, Communication to Coordination, and of course, creativity. 
My apologies for all of the alliteration but I am an English teacher at heart.  The past two days have been the best I have known as an educator.  It is unbelievable to me what children are capable of when we let them think outside of the box.  I almost feel guilty taking credit for any of their success because they are so self-directed in the tasks of the past two days that it must be their inherent will to collaborate or their amazing middle school teachers.  If you insist, I will take credit for the structures of this assignment, and the risk-taking it entailed.

            Before we began this journey of constructing an 8x40 foot mural which will be displayed at Morristown High School, in the Morris Museum of Art, and then around Morristown, I was apprehensive, nervous, unsure, and anxiety-ridden.  I didn’t know where this journey would take the freshman.  Think about it…here I am asking them to read directions critically (directions that require reading, math, and logic skills), prototype a design, agree on the best design, and execute that design on an 8x8 panel.  After that, I am asking them to blog about their role for the day, which rotates through the experience.  Each day students will either be prototyping/drawing, filming, or analyzing some aspect of the process.  This request is a tall order for students who are used to sitting in their desks and taking notes.

            I don’t want to become overly optimistic, but I can’t help it.  The past two days have shown me students who want to work together, who can overcome adversity, and who can challenge themselves and their classmates with respect and poise.  The first two days of this project saw students  measuring, talking, focused, engaged, and IN THE MOMENT.  What a concept: in the moment, working hard, observing others, and seeing the results of their productivity on something that won’t be thrown out or never referenced again after its due date.  It didn’t end there, students were blogging about the dynamics of their group, the divisions of the class, the leaders, the connections to academia, and their progress as a class.

            I cannot wait to see if the remaining weeks of this project are as epic as I’ve imagined them, I have no reason to believe otherwise. 

Introduction to the Moby Dick Lectio

You may have noticed a new page on the blog in the top right portion of the page.  You may have wondered what the "Moby Dick Lectio" was, but were too scared to stray away from The Educational Arsonist proper.

Fear not!  The "Moby Dick Lectio" is simply an experiment/exercise I will be doing over the course of this school year.  The term Lectio come from Divino Lectio, a process of reading sacred texts, usually the Bible, where the goal is not necessarily aimed at discerning "Truth" from a passage, but simply taking some time to meditate and contemplate around a small sampling of writing.

For my purposes, I dropped the "Divino" part (although some would treat Moby Dick as a sacred text) and will be reading a chapter each day.  The link hosts a document that I will update each day as well, with the goal being to keep a record of my observations and connections to the text in real time.

The basic idea come from a book by Nicholson Baker, "A Box of Matches."  It chronicles the day to day life of a man who spends a small amount of time each morning making a cup of coffee without the use of any modern electrical technology.  He simply lights the burner on his stove with a match, performs this ritual, and thinks about his day before it starts.

I hope that this ritual becomes a calming, meditative part of my day as well, and that my students can also observe that as I ask them to reflect on their reading according to Probst's Reader Response, that I am actively engaged in the same process.

I've invited my good friend and colleague John Madden to jump in when he can, as he represents the biggest Melville fan that I know, and have left a column open for him on the document as well.  If you are interested in reading along, or attempting your own "Lectio", please let me know about it, and I'd be happy to promote or link to it.

Thanks!

Setting The Stage For a Year of Freedom

Please join me in welcoming our newest author to The Educational Arsonist, Danielle Firavanti.  Ms. Firavanti is a Progressive High School Language Arts Teacher in New Jersey.  She will be blogging about her experiences in her classes this year.  Enjoy!

The status quo is out the window for my freshman who are (hopefully) on their way to become the school's best collaborators and thinkers.  Before we learned names, decided on class rules, explored norms, or even assigned seats, we created blogs.  Creating blogs sounds like a pretty simple task, but for students who are are quite unfamiliar with the interface of Google, this was a task that was well worth our time.  Currently, of five freshman English classes (approximately 120 students), we are at about 92% functionality with log-ins, e-mailing, and blogs.  My future self is thanking me for taking this time to set-up technology needs early.  

An influx of questions have been coming my way, most commonly, "What do we need for class?  Where is our supply list?"  In an attempt to create independence, I tell the class they need something with which to write, somewhere to write, and somewhere to keep papers.  Their expressions of confusion blow me away as they are conditioned to hearing what to buy, how to keep their notebook, and how their dividers should be labeled. Instead of rejoicing in the freedoms, they seemed unsure of themselves. I informed them that my students can keep their work however they see fit and that I will not disrupt this flow unless a problem emerges.  My past experience tells me that 90% will not have a problem, so why should they be coddled?  I would rather differentiate the structure for the 10% that may need it.  

I began the year with an exploration of Bruce Mau's "Incomplete Manifesto for Growth"http://www.brucemaudesign.com/4817/112450/work/incomplete-manifesto-for-growth.  Mau provides a list of tips for how to construct new ideas, forge connections, and spark creativity. Some examples include, “Work the Metaphor,” “Don’t clean your desk”, and “Go Deep.”  I was a tad apprehensive about giving this to my students on the first day, but they RAN with it.  I was impressed with their methodology in first selecting 5 important tips, then coming to consensus on 4 tips for the class, and finally blogging about the 1 tip they plan on implementing for themselves.  Most responses have been thorough, reflective, and forward-thinking.  All of this is being done in preparation for The Sol Lewitt Project, an 8x40 foot wall mural that will be completed using interdisciplinary skills.

The first days of school can be seem tedious and daunting, but putting in the logistical forces out of the gate ensures time for creative and innovative endeavors in the future.  I would be lying if I said the students didn’t seem nervous and uncomfortable about not being told what to do, but the gold is what follows this uneasiness.  Students attacked this  “outside-the-box” assignment with intensity and great interest.  They were engaged fully with the text in front of them, and reflected on it afterwards.  As an English teacher, what more can I ask for?  
Although I am sacrificing my progress in what some may call a "traditional curriculum," the students are gaining priceless metacognitive skills which will stay with them throughout the year.  After reflecting on a few more of their posts tonight, it is safe to say I am stunned by their responses.  That's the thing about kids, if you let them, they will pleasantly surprise you.

Design Loops and American Idol

Teaching students to be creative is often seen as a difficult thing.  We feel the need as teachers to direct this process as a way of better controlling outcomes so that they are more easily measurable.  We create specific rubrics that tell students how many points will be lost for certain infractions, we create arbitrary rules to guide the types of products that we will be comfortable putting a number grade on.  Not surprisingly, this approach rarely leads to inspired work; rather, it only creates compliance.

I fell into creativity as a result of my perceived isolation as a child.  I was looking for a way to express myself in ways that could communicate my feelings in ways that I seemed unable.  Poetry was something that I learned outside of “school”, and that I did almost exclusively in my “free time”.  It would be anathema to bring what I was doing into a classroom, because it wouldn’t be mine any longer.

After college, I enrolled (read; Lucked Into) an MFA program in Poetry.  The writing workshop was the first time that my art was being judged in authentic ways, by like-minded individuals.  The worth of what I was doing became paramount, and the criticism I received (believe me there was plenty of it) was easy for me to accept, I knew I had work to do.

Courtesy 19 Entertainment, FreeMantleMedia

When I watch television now, and I see the rash of reality shows that deal with talent competitions, I’m often struck by how they represent the opposite of the true creative process.  Shows like American Idol and Project Runway create challenges for the competitors, whether it’s designing Women’s Outerwear using only Twizzlers, or picking the right song to perform on Barry Manilow Week.  The constraints that are placed on the competitors are often arbitrary and strange, and the critiques that are given are usually equally disturbing.  There is a certain amount of anger in the judges, they seem to feel a strong need to put everything into two distinct categories.  The performance or piece is either the best thing they have ever seen/heard, or a complete disaster that requires the shaming of the player.  Putting forth an effort that the judges deem to be poor, almost always results in them becoming seemingly offended at the contestant.

Notice here that I don’t say Artist.  They are players or competitors only.  The irony is that they are competing for a title that is supposed to verify that they are in fact, true artists.  Let us for a few seconds look at the track records of some of these so-called winners.  American Idol, considered the premiere singing competition in the world, has been miserable in its supposed aim, finding talented individuals that will become stars.  In 11 seasons, the show has produced only 3 contestants that have arguable staying power.  Likewise, Project Runway has yet to find mainstream sustainable success for any of its winners.  I would argue that this is because the assessment techniques, and the work products created are not as much a function of an aspiring artist, but simply a compliant show character.

My biggest concern as an educator, and as an artist, is the effect that these shows are having on the perceptions of creativity in our students.  More than anything else, these shows espouse the idea that you can bypass the very important phase of the creative process that requires hard work, refinement, and adequate time for self-reflection needed to become a functioning artist.

Our district is in the process of rolling out a series of “loops” to replace and improve the standard ways of planning that most students have been exposed to over their education.  The loops allow students to enter the process at any point, and to begin to see that the creative process (as all loops lead to creating something, whether tangible or not) is rarely a linear event.

            The loops that we use are currently in development, and are hosted on the high school’s Media Center website.  You can explore the work that Deb Gottsleben and Anne Piascik have done HERE.  In addition to the research loop, John Madden, Instructional Leader at MHS, has developed a series of other loops for other processes, such as an Identity Loop and a Critical Thinking Loop among others.

            The goal here is to begin looking at the reality of being creative, that it is a way of thinking and problem solving, not just arbitrarily jumping through teacher-provided hoops. It requires authenticity, a desire to improve for the sake of improvement, and feedback that is not simply punitive and mean.

            Only when we begin looking at authentic modes of inquiry can we begin to create the problem-solving, creative artists we will need, to begin changing the perception and efficacy of publicly-educated students in this country.

As always, a few questions:

1.     How can we create better environments for “authentic” experiences for students?

2.     What can be done to counteract the onslaught of inputs that tell our kids that taking the risk to be creative is a punishable offense?

3.     How can we more effectively spread the idea of looping in our educational system?

Compliance and Ownership

Image by Humphrey Bolton

Last September, I decided that my class was going to embark on a full-fledged, studio approach to the year.  Students would self-select topics and papers that they would develop over the course of the year, and my role would be to mediate and conference with the students over the course of the year, effectively providing an individualized experience for every child.

            I knew that for many of the students, this would be a sea-change.  There were exiting a class that was far more rigid in it’s methodologies, one that prided whole-class direct instruction and specified intense rubric-based papers for all kids.  I spent the first few weeks laying the groundwork for the class, explaining the importance of being self-motivated, an interested person in our world.  We did a few preliminary papers to illustrate the process, and then began to open everything up.

            My struggling writers took to it immediately.  They found themselves writing more, finding ways to get deeper into their topics, and were proud to share the work that they were creating.  I was proud of myself. I was seeing a change in my struggling students.

            About a month into the second semester, I was walking with one of my students down the hall.  John (we’ll call him) was an average to high-functioning student, who had been rewarded highly for his compliance throughout his school life. 

He turned to me and asked, “Mr. D, this is fun and all, but when are we gonna learn something?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, now very interested in the response.

“Well, last year, we used to have vocab tests and reading quizzes, and we would learn little tricks?”

“Tricks?”

“Yeah, she would show us how to use a thesaurus to…”

“Okay, hold on,” I interrupted. “What have we done this year?”

The conversation went on, and I tried to explain to him how much individual attention he had received to that point in the year.  He conceded that he knew that his writing had improved, and that he had read more on his own that year than he had in the entire year previous.  Despite all of this however, he still couldn’t shake the idea that something was off.

The conversation floored me for a few reasons.  First, I realized that I may have not adequately explained myself to the kids in terms of why we were doing what we were doing.  Secondly, I was shocked that John had been so CONDITIONED to what he considered “school”.

Regardless of what they are exposed to, CHILDREN ARE LEARNING.  We would do well to understand that, and it’s implications.  If we provide students with experiences that are simply a measure of their ability to recall, or to get things done for the sake of doing them, we will create a class of student’s that excel at simply doing what they are told.

John was being given a chance to truly take control of his own learning, and without more help to understand why that was a good thing, he was reverting to the only thing he felt comfortable with: Compliance.

We must teach our students that they need to become comfortable being uncomfortable.  They need to live within the mindset that there are few absolutes, and that being there is ok.  When we narrowly define progress through a curriculum, we narrow our students’ ability to roll with the punches, we destroy their natural ability to be adaptive.

This year, I am spending much more time extolling the rationale for why we are taking a turn away from traditional methods.  My students need to know not only why they deserve to have ownership of their education, but why they should demand it.

A few questions to close as always:

1.                     How can we increase individualized experiences for students in the face of public scrutiny over narrow measures?

2.                     What positive effect will tying student achievement on standardized tests have on best practices in classrooms?

3.                     How can we approach the institutional changes necessary to allow more progressive methodologies across our classrooms?

Day 2: Cultivating Interests

The second day of class will continue the work of the first, getting to know my new students and find out what things matter to them.  I have 80 minutes to work with.  We will start out by heading to the Library, and setting up camp in a corner with comfortable chairs and access to all of the books in the school.

I’ll ask the kids to take the time to really explore the place, to find a comfortable spot, and to start pulling some titles.  They’ll be able to begin reading the text to see if it may interest them.  If they are already in a book, they will be generating a “Reading Futures” list in their journals.  While this is going on, I’ll be pulling students aside to talk to them about their lives.  We’ll discuss their life in school, their life at home, their life with friends, their goals and dreams for the future. 

I’m excited to give them this time.  I’m excited to watch them go through the stacks, and have longer than 5 minutes to figure out which book they will read.  I’m looking forward to finding books for them if they need help, to facilitate a spark or interest that they never may have known existed.

When their ePortfolios are up and running, they will digitize the document that they create today, a reference point that they can constantly change as their interests change.  The Interest Inventory is the first step in class towards empowering my students to take an active part in their path through the year, and their lives.

Are we providing enough opportunity to listen and observe our students?

Are we occasioning space for these interactions to occur, between students and book, between teachers and students?

Are we gifting ALL of our students, not just the “high flyers”, with the chance to own their educations, to become active participants in their own development?

Day One: Ideas for the Opening of School

Tomorrow the kids arrive and a new year begins.  I’ve been given an amazing opportunity, and it has me excited, engaged, and to be honest, nervous. 

I’m piloting a model classroom this year.  Many of the posts on this blog will feature the ideas and lessons that I plan on implementing, but also whether or not they are successful.  The goal is to create a living document that I can use for reflection and development.

The class will be an 8^th Grade Language Arts “A-Level” class, which is code in our district for “Standard” or “College Pre” level.  The students that have been selected all are on the bubble, students that have consistently scored between 10 points above or below proficient on the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJASK).  Many of these kids have had difficulty forging connections between their school lives, and their lives outside of education.

The goal for the year is to strengthen those connections, to allow them to see that their lives include both their academic pursuits as well as the pursuit of their interests, or to get Foundational, their happiness.

The class will provide experiential lessons and activities that will provide metaphorical and literal translations into their academic lives.  The class will have an open door policy, allowing teachers and administrators, parents and community members, to drop in and participate in the work we are doing.  Fostering this sense of community is one of the hallmarks of the class.

Before any of this can take place however, there has to be a groundwork of trust that is created, which leads me to my activity for the first day.  I’ll be taking the students outside (weather permitting) as a physical removal from the school environment, and starting with learning their names and getting everyone familiar with one another.  I will then introduce the class rules, and hold a discussion about each, inviting students to share their previous experiences at our school.

Here are the 4 Class “Rules”:

Your Words Matter

Too often, students arrive in the 8^th Grade believing that their academic future is “fixed”.  That there is no possible way to transcend the difficulties that they have had in the past, whether they are academic, behavioral, or social.  It’s important on the first day that I let them know that they will be judged only by what they say and do from this point forward, and that when we communicate, their words must be clear and precise.  Their words will define their character, they are not something cheap top be thrown about, devoid of meaning.

You have a Voice, USE IT

As a by-product of this, the importance of their words is tied to the use of their words.  Not speaking up opens up the ability for others to speak for you, to assimilate their ideas as yours.  Not questioning, or probing deeper into the things you are struggling with, robs you of the instruction you are entitled to in our system.  Learning to speak for yourself will be an important part of the class.

We Can’t Do This Alone

No one works in a vacuum.  Many of the things I will ask you to do require collaboration, the ability to work well in a group.  Use the resources around you to develop yourself, to enrich yourself, to strengthen yourself.  When we do this well, we all become stronger.

 Life isn’t about FINDING Yourself, it’s about CREATING yourself.

I first saw this on a mug at Barnes & Noble, and I have no shame in saying it changed my life.  This ties into the first rule.  Students tend to think that there is some perfect self out there, and that after they wander through their education and life enough, they will discover this perfect self.  We know that this is not true, and we owe our students the knowledge that every experience, every challenge, every triumph, and every failure is a piece of the person that they are creating.  We are all in a process of becoming, of working towards becoming the person that we would like to be.  To that end, we need to be mindful of the things we do, the choices we make, and the road we travel.

Suffice to say, I’m pumped to start this year.  There will be roadbumps along the way, but the new tactics and personalization that I plan on providing my students has me completely energized. 

How are you starting the year in a unique way?

What are you going to do that will change lives in your classroom? 

Please let me know, and I’ll get back to you this weekend with how it all went down!