The Yeti, a.k.a. the abominable snowman. You hear about him, but like the unicorn and his buddy Bigfoot, there isn't much evidence that there's any truth to their existence. I feel like I'm the educational equivalent of the Yeti scientist. I’ve had so many moments in the last few years where I'm right in the middle of doing what I do in the class and find that my mind is on autopilot. In those moments, the other part of my brain seems to be thinking, “I don’t want to be teaching like this.” It’s not that I don’t want to be teaching, I just don’t want to be educating like I am. I guess I’m sounding kind of cryptic. What I mean is that there are a lot of things “under the hood” that I have managed to find solutions for like assessment and grading. I have become almost entirely digital in my interactions with student assessment and feedback. I have developed a system with a decent fidelity between what the student knows, the score I give them, and the expectation the parents have of what those scores should mean. I have a pretty good ability to connect with the students on a personal level. I have figured out how to navigate standards and develop learning goals and rubrics for them. There are lots of the details that I have figured out, but I can’t seem to wrap my head around personalized learning in the classroom. It bothers me that my class fully meets the needs of only a small section of students. The kids that learn quickly are constantly waiting for the rest, and the kids that learn at a slower pace are constantly being dragged on their faces through this thing we call science education. I have made modifications that allow for students to learn at slower paces by assessing as a form of ongoing digital conversation (in a future post I'll explain how I do assessment). This works for an additional group of students who will take the time to continue the conversation online. For the kids that work at a faster pace, I really have nothing. This whole thing frustrates me most because ultimately this results in people being “bored” waiting, or lost dragging behind. I have spent hundreds of hours online and in books looking for a solution that works for me. Flipped learning only seems to work if you can get students to do some work at home and if they have computers at home to do the work and watch the videos. Seeing as neither of those things seems to be a reality for me, I don’t see that happening. I like the idea of blended learning, which I have some components of, but I can’t quite figure out how to effectively personalize the learning in my class. How do I provide personal choice to students in a way that is manageable for me. How do I have students in all different places in a blended learning environment, doing inquiry science and discussion, with students having some choice over pacing and direction, project based learning, and hitting all the science standards in the process. Oh yeah, I also would have to do this within the traditional school context. I have looked for someone out there in the internet world that is doing even part of this. I have not found it yet. Where is the yeti? Where are the unicorns of science education? I was talking to my teaching intern today, I need a software that does exactly what Google Classroom does in the way it easily interfaces with Google folders and Google Apps for Education. I need it to interface seamlessly with Google forms for giving assessments. I need it to interface with the students Google accounts to send notifications when I respond to them in our feedback conversations. I need it to interface with a forum where I can have multiple conversations set up so they can jump in and out of discussions and respond to prompts in a digital community space. I need a way to hand out assignments to all students or just a specific few. I need to be able to group students and move them around digitally. I need to be able to provide the resources for students to progress through the curriculum at their own pace. I need all this because it will allow me to spend the time doing what I do best, sitting down with students in small groups and pushing them when they need it. I need all this so I can get out of the way of students when they are learning faster than I can go. I need all this because the students need to be met with a properly paced science class that works for each of them. A class that gives them the freedom to explore the curriculum. A class that gives me the freedom to work in a way that maximizes the use of my strengths in teaching my students instead of spending the majority of my time educating students in ways that I am less effective and only getting a small group of students to reach their fullest potential. I want to find the educational Yeti.I want that crazy personalized, blended, project based, inquiry, standards based science classroom to exist. I just want to find a couple of footprints to get my hunt back on track. The world of science education would be a better place if that Yeti is discovered.
Yes, and well there you have it. It sounds like you're on-point with a technological solution and now that you've put it out there in the ethers, anything can happen. So far as your classroom gig goes, my daughterstudentunit of yours completely enjoys your approach, and, your teaching methodology is envied by other educators - I know that as a fact.
ReplyDeleteThe Yeti? If you don't talk about it, ponder the possibilities, and engage like-minded beings, it'll never be created.
Rock on, Maestro!
Thanks for all your support of our school and for being our cheerleader. It makes our job easier having people like you behind us.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post. (I just sent you an email with more details.) As you continue to increase personalized learning in your class, consider ways to offer CHOICE and "problem-based" projects.
ReplyDeleteAlso, while Google Classroom is great for most classroom teachers, you will need a more robust LMS to do what you're hoping.