The Creative Classroom with John Spencer: Recent Episodes
John Spencer
John Spencer is passionate about seeing schools embrace creativity and design thinking. In this podcast, he explores the intersection of creative thinking and student learning.
For years, the conversation around educational technology centered on one question: How can we get more technology into classrooms? Today, we’re facing a different challenge. It’s time to move beyond debates about screen time and start thinking more intentionally about when technology leads to deeper...
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When people hear the term game-based learning, they often picture students staring at computer screens while navigating elaborate virtual worlds. Or perhaps a lone student staring into a VR headset in isolation. Those experiences certainly have their place (at times). However, some of the most...
The post The Power of Low-Tech Games and Simulations in the Classroom appeared first on Spencer Education.
We want students to be makers and designers. But there’s a surprising source of inspiration for design: the natural world. As we think about moving toward a low-tech approach, we need something better than desks in rows with students doing worksheets. Listen to the Podcast...
The post The Best Makerspace Might Be Outside appeared first on Spencer Education.
The Los Angeles Unified School District has adopted one of the nation’s most restrictive classroom screen time policies. It will dramatically limit technology use across grade levels. Much of the reporting has focused on “banning devices,” but as I examined the actual policy, I noticed...
The post Beyond Screen Time: What LAUSD’s New Policy Gets Right and Wrong appeared first on Spencer Education.
Personalized learning has become one of the biggest promises in educational technology, with adaptive learning platforms and AI tutors claiming to tailor instruction to every student. But genuine personalization has to begin with the person. We lose something wen we center it on the algorithm...
The post When Personalized Learning Works Better Than Adaptive Learning appeared first on Spencer Education.
For years, educational technology has promised to make learning faster, more personalized, and more efficient. On some respect, it has delivered on those promises. But as concerns about screen time and student engagement continue to grow, more educators are rediscovering the value of low-tech learning....
The post What the Revival of Barnes and Noble Can Teach Us about Gen Z and Technology appeared first on Spencer Education.
This is the first in my summer series I’m calling Low Tech Learning. In today’s podcast and article, I explore the negative aspects of a tech-centric environment and the movement toward going low tech. I also want to provide some nuance and balance to set...
The post Embracing the Low Tech Revolution appeared first on Spencer Education.
This week, I’m doing something different with my blog and my podcast. I’ve compiled a list of the most common questions I get about AI when I’m teaching courses and leading professional development on the topic. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog...
The post Q&A: The Big Questions We’re Asking About AI in Education appeared first on Spencer Education.
If you have followed my blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that I am a huge proponent of project based learning (or PBL for short). I have a PBL hub with articles and resources you can access. I conduct PBL workshops, keynotes, and...
The post When Should We Avoid Implementing PBL? appeared first on Spencer Education.
Authentic learning has always required a connection to a real context. However, in a generative age, where AI cannot “read the room,” contextual thinking has become more important than ever. In this article and podcast episode, I explore the implications of this and share six...
The post Contextual Thinking is Becoming Vital in the Age of AI appeared first on Spencer Education.
We keep talking about AI in schools like it is either a miracle or a menace, and that either-or mindset steers us into two dead ends. One path hands the wheel to the tool and mistakes novelty for real learning. The other path locks everything...
The post Rethinking How We Use AI for Writing appeared first on Spencer Education.
Collaboration is one of the most powerful forces in learning. Yet it can also be one of the hardest things to cultivate. Too often, students struggle to share ideas, listen to one another, or take creative risks. At the center of this struggle is something...
The post The Surprising Element for Empowering Your Students in Collaboration appeared first on Spencer Education.
As the year begins, we are all thinking about the idea of building a classroom community. Although I am no longer at the K-12 level, I am reminded of the power of community as I think about the cohort I lead that’s now in their...
The post 10 Creative Risks to Take With Your Students This Year appeared first on Spencer Education.
Every year, we hear news reports about the “summer slide,” or the summer learning loss. Students arrive to school behind where they left off in May or June. This is a real challenge. But there’s more to the story. So, in this week’s article, I...
The post How Deeper Learning Can Address Summer Learning Loss appeared first on Spencer Education.
Note that this isn’t simply the question, “How will AI change teaching in the future?” This starts with the question, “How is AI already changing the teaching profession?” Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on...
The post AI Won’t Replace Teachers But It Will Transform Nearly Every Aspect of the Job appeared first on John Spencer.
Machine learning is changing our world in profound ways. It will impact the way we learn and the way we teach. In today’s article and podcast, I want share a few big ideas on what that might look like. I’ll share some questions we might...
The post How Will AI Transform the Teaching Profession? Four Trends to Consider appeared first on John Spencer.
Artificial Intelligence can feel overwhelming. With so many tools and strategies, you might be wondering where to start or what to do. But I actually think that before we integrate AI into our lessons with students, we should ask some critical questions that will guide...
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Perfectionism often creeps in because we buy into the wrong story about what it means to be a teacher. In this week’s article, I share two different stories that ultimately lead to either burnout or sustainability. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog...
The post Campfires or Fireworks? Which Story Will You Choose? appeared first on John Spencer.
As an educator, you are a community builder. From day one, you getting to know your students on a relational level. It’s often in the little things, like sending an email the first time they miss a class period or sending a positive note home...
The post 5 Ways to Get to Know Your Students at the Start of the School Year appeared first on John Spencer.
In my latest podcast episode, we get into the intersection of neuroscience and student learning with renowned expert Kieran O’Mahony. He is Founding Principal of the Institute for Connecting Neuroscience with Teaching and Learning, Chief Learning Officer of HUE Learn, and Emeritus Research Scientist at...
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We often use the word AI to describe the newest generation of chatbots. However, computers can’t think. They process information. Humans think. Human cognition is affective and emotional. It’s unpredictable and messy. It’s inherently social and relational. We use the term “intelligence” to describe A.I....
The post 7 Ways to Integrate Curiosity into the Classroom appeared first on John Spencer.
In my latest podcast episode, I talk to Carl Azuz, who shares insights into media literacy and current events within the K-12 classroom. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the go, just click on...
The post Carl Azuz on Media Literacy and Journalism in Age of Machine Learning appeared first on John Spencer.
Something about the current educational climate has me feeling unsettled. Although I often write about PBL, educational technology, and student empowerment, I want to share something different this week. It’s about paradox, nuance, empathy, and the danger in making things a “war” in education. Listen...
The post From Battlefields to Common Ground: Embracing Nuance, Paradox, and Empathy in Education appeared first on John Spencer.
In my latest podcast, I interview Crystal Frommert, who shares insights and strategies for building and maintaining a positive relationship with parents / parental figures. She has a wealth of experience and I’m excited to share this with you. Listen to the Podcast If you...
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For all the hype about AI replacing teachers, the reality is that teachers are irreplaceable. It is a deeply human endeavor. The teachers who can leverage this human element through authentic learning will ultimately prepare students for an unpredictable world forged by AI. Listen to...
The post Why AI Can’t Replace Teachers appeared first on John Spencer.
We often talk about the need for students to have voice and choice in their learning. We want them to engage in meaningful, productive struggle as they do projects and engage in problem-solving. But where does AI fit into this? In past articles, we’ve explored...
The post Promoting Academic Integrity in the Age of Generative AI appeared first on John Spencer.
It’s easy to get dismissive about educational theory. I’ve heard teachers say “Don’t bother with the theory. Just focus on practical strategies.” But when done well, theory can provide a roadmap and framework we can use. It can be a nuanced dialogue that cuts to...
The post Using AI to Bridge the Gap from Theory to Practice appeared first on John Spencer.
Cognitive atrophy happens any time we lose the ability to engage in a mental process due to inactivity. In a world of Artificial Intelligence, we need to be cognizant of the dangers of cognitive atrophy so that we can continue to engage in curiosity, creativity,...
The post How to Prevent AI from Doing All the Thinking appeared first on John Spencer.
In my latest episode, Grace Hawthorne, author of Make Possibilities Happen, shares practical insights into how to spark creativity in students. She has a wealth of knowledge and shares key insights throughout this episode. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d...
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Terms like “game-changing” and “disruptive” have become cliche in technology circles. As educators, we’ve seen the hype of 1:1 devices, paperless classrooms, interactive whiteboards, and a host of different education fads. However, AI feels different. We are living in a cultural moment where generative AI...
The post Rethinking Information Literacy in an Age of AI appeared first on John Spencer.
When I was in my second year of teacher, I wanted so badly to implement PBL. This, despite the fact that I didn’t know the term “project-based learning.” I simply knew that I wanted students to engage in meaningful projects where they learn the content...
The post Making Time for Project-Based Learning (PBL) appeared first on John Spencer.
A few years ago, I met a chef and asked him, “So, bay leaves? Do they even have a point? You can’t taste them. You have to take them out. They seem to get in the way.” He shook his head and said, “Nah, it’s...
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Deliberate practice and deliberate skill are two different approaches to developing skills. One is more structured and the other is more connective. One is more targeted and efficient while other other is more connective and holistic. While it’s easy to view these as opposing approaches,...
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The explosion of generative AI has created significant challenges and sparked new opportunities for our students. So, how do we decide when students should and should not use AI? In this article and podcast, I explore seven key areas you might consider as you craft...
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In this article and podcast, we explore what it means to shift from a focus on learning disabilities to focusing on learning differences. What does it mean to embrace neurodiversity and help students find their hidden potential connected to their neurological diversity? How can we...
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In my latest podcast episode, I interview Samantha Marsden, who shares how drama and improve strategies can help students gain creative confidence, improve their communication skills, and engage in iterative thinking. Her new book Acting Games for Improv is out and I highly recommend it....
The post Sam Marsden on the Value of Improv Games to Spark Creative Thinking appeared first on John Spencer.
In this week’s podcast episode, I talk to Ian Clawson about creative collaboration. In this interview, I ask him about tools for co-creation and what it looks like to create a culture where people give one another vital creative feedback. He has a book he...
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In this latest podcast episode, I talk to an expert in technology, information literacy, and education. Kristina Holzweiss shares her insights into how machine learning can improve outcomes and increase equity if we leverage it the right way. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy...
The post Kristina A. Holzweiss on How Librarians Can Leverage AI to Reach All Students appeared first on John Spencer.
A.I. is changing learning in profound ways. In this week’s podcast episode, I interview Sal Khan from Khan Academy. He shares his thoughts on how A.I. will impact personalized learning and what they are doing at Khan Academy with Khanmigo. Listen to the Podcast If...
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In 2014, Microsoft launched a hugely successful A.I. bot named Xiaoice in China. With over forty million conversations, users often described feeling as though they were interacting with a real human. Microsoft founder Bill Gates described it this way, “’Xiaoice has attracted 45 million followers...
The post Students Need to Explore the Nature of A.I. appeared first on John Spencer.
Generative A.I. has created some very real challenges with academic integrity. Schools have been scrambling to create systems and policies that address the potential for cheating. In the past, I’ve written about how we might redefine the essay in an age of A.I. or how...
The post 5 Ways to Leverage A.I. for Student Supports and Scaffolds appeared first on John Spencer.
In this podcast episode, I interview Angela Daniel who works at the MIT Step Lab. In this in-depth interview, Angela discusses AI, deeper learning, and the need for students to think about the nature of the technology itself. About Angela Daniel Angela has been teaching...
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The following is a short story I wrote about AI, teaching, learning, heroes, and superpowers. This is a pretty sharp departure from my typical blog posts but I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. You can listen to...
The post Mending the Tears in a Super Suit (A Short Story) appeared first on John Spencer.
When I do workshops on student-centered assessment practices or teach the Assessment Design course as a professor, I’ve noticed that people feel strong emotions about assessment. As educators, all of our assessment practices come from a set of values and beliefs that we hold. Do...
The post 5 Ways Artificial Intelligence Might Transform Assessment Practices appeared first on John Spencer.
For the longest time, I was the project manager for 30 different projects. I would chart their progress and nag them about getting tasks done. Or I would set specific deadlines for the entire class. Over time, though, I realized that my students could learn...
The post How to Leverage AI for Project Management appeared first on John Spencer.
I’m struggling with work right now. It’s not a toxic culture. I work with an amazing team of educators. It’s not the work itself, either. I’m not falling into the “busy” trap of doing tedious work that doesn’t fit my identity or my purpose. I...
The post The Surprising Science of Project Fatigue (And How Teachers Can Help Prevent It) appeared first on John Spencer.
In this episode, I interview Ben Farrell, who shares the counterintuitive approach his school took with ChatGPT. Farrell is the assistant head of school at New England Innovation Academy, the nation’s first human-centered design middle and high school? At NEIA, educators and students have already...
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Last week, a friend of mine asked me, “Do you have any concerns about AI destroying the world and being the worst thing ever and then having people know that you were an early proponent of it?” This led to an ongoing conversation which eventually...
The post Will AI Cause More Harm Than Good? appeared first on John Spencer.
I recently had the honor of interviewing Shark Tank star and entrepreneur Daymond John. He just released a children’s book that I’m really excited about. In this podcast episode, he talks about rethinking financial literacy and entrepreneurship for children. Check out the interview below. Listen...
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In this podcast episode, I interview information literacy expert Jennifer Lagarde. We explore what it means to navigate the everchanging media landscape in a world of AI. I’m a huge fan of the books that she co-wrote with Darren Hudgins. I hope you enjoy this...
The post Jennifer Lagarde on the Future of Information Literacy in a World of Smart Machines appeared first on John Spencer.
With the emergence of generative AI, we now have newer concerns around deep fakes and misinformation. Older, more traditional approaches simply won’t work given the new media landscape. In this podcast episode, I interview an educational technology expert and professor Alec Couros. He offers some...
The post Dr. Alec Couros on Redefining Information Literacy In An Era of AI appeared first on John Spencer.
Eight students stood in line whispering to one another and fidgeting in excitement. A few of them had peeked into the windows to see what was new. One girl had a tiny notebook with a list. Most of the students had pulled out their phones...
The post What Does Personalized Learning Look Like in an Age of AI? appeared first on John Spencer.
“What do you think all of this means for the future?” a friend asks. We’d been talking about ChatGPT for nearly an hour but suddenly it starts to hit closer to home. “I don’t know,” I answer. “I mean, our kids are about to go...
The post We Can’t Predict How A.I. Will Change Learning #ChatGPT appeared first on John Spencer.
In my latest podcast episode, I interview Donalyn Miller on what it means to take a student-centered approach in English Language Arts. Donalyn is one of my education heroes, so I totally nerded out in getting to interview her on my podcast. Listen to the...
The post Donalyn Miller Shares How to Empower Readers with Voice and Choice appeared first on John Spencer.
Four years ago, we adopted Jasmine, a retired racing greyhound. We knew we wanted a dog that was lower energy, more introverted, and less likely to bark. We had done our research ahead of time and we knew she would be a good choice for...
The post What Our Adopted Greyhound Taught Me About Life, Learning, and Creativity appeared first on John Spencer.
Each year, I choose a single word to focus on as my “one word.” I realize this might sound cheesy but I find it helpful. Having a single word helps me stay focused on a general theme for the year. I typically create visual reminders....
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Three years ago, I stood in a high-tech lab at a technical university and stared at the giant flat screen monitor. The professor asked me, “Can you tell me which of these samples was generated via Artificial Intelligence?” At the top, a student had asked...
The post Human Skills in a World of Artificial Intelligence appeared first on John Spencer.
In my first year of teaching, my mentor said something I’ll never forget. I taught a lesson that tanked. It was awful. I literally did everything wrong. It was the cringiest of cringe and I shared every detail with him over a coffee. I expected...
The post Always Teach in Beta appeared first on John Spencer.
It’s 4:25 p.m. and I’ve been working nonstop since 7:00 a.m. this morning. Actually, that’s not entirely true. On three separate occasions, I close my laptop, lace up my running shoes, and head for a walk in the brisk fall air. I absorb the sun’s...
The post Designing PBL to Decrease Cognitive Load appeared first on John Spencer.
In my latest podcast episode, I interviewed Scott Witthoft, who shared an expanded view of what it means to prototype. I’ve written extensively about design thinking but his latest book This is a Prototype? challenged my thinking while also providing several new strategies I plan...
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If we want to empower students to own the assessment process, we need to incorporate meaningful self-assessment and peer assessment into our lessons. However, students still need guidance from their teachers. This is why I love five-minute conferences. Unlike a deep dive tutoring session or...
The post The Power of Student Conferencing appeared first on John Spencer.
Socratic seminars are a democratic, student-centered, approach to class discussions. They can be used at any grade level with any subject area. In a Socratic Seminar, members meet in a circle (or more likely an oval, because, let’s be real, circles are really hard to...
The post Designing Socratic Seminars to Ensure That All Students Can Participate appeared first on John Spencer.
Over the last month, I have been sharing practical ways that we can empower our students to own the learning from day one. This is the core idea that AJ Juliani and I wrote about in our book Empower. It’s a journey I began in...
The post Taking a Gradual Release (GRR) Approach to Student Choice appeared first on John Spencer.
I stare at the blinking cursor — an apt term for the blank page rhythmically lulling me into a curse of nothingness, slowly gaining inertia with every passing second. It’s a silent metronome counting down the time I haven’t written. It’s a quiet loop on...
The post Creative Habits Versus Creative Momentum appeared first on John Spencer.
In my latest episode, I interviewed Elena Aguilar about coaching, equity, and transforming teacher practice. She asked me a question that had me thinking about my own answer for days — and question what that means for my teaching practice. Elena is a true expert...
The post Elena Aguilar on Coaching for Equity appeared first on John Spencer.
This would be the year. I would be a fully project-based social studies teacher. After reading every PBL book I could read and attending PBL sessions at a few summer conferences, I had a vision for a new way of teaching my subject. My third...
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Mike Kaechele and Dr. Matinga Ragatz are the co-authors of a newly released book, Pulse of PBL: Cultivating Equity Through Social Emotional Learning. In this podcast interview, we explore the overlap of PBL and SEL. They talk about their own PBL journeys as educators and...
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In this week’s podcast, I interviewed Jerry Kolber, a Showrunner and podcast creator. We talked about creativity, curiosity, and what it would mean to re-imagine learning in schools. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on...
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Years ago, as I shifted toward empowering students, I ask myself the question, “What am I doing for students that they could be doing for themselves?” One of the most glaring answers was assessment. So, I began to incorporate peer assessment and self-assessment. However, my...
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For years, I held a very teacher-centered view of assessment. I would grade student work and use that to modify lessons and pull small groups. Students would receive a grade, which would then motivate them to work harder. Later, I started realizing that my feedback...
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When I was a new teacher, I railed against boxed curriculum. I felt like a chef being forced to use Hamburger Helper or an artist forced to paint by number. It felt like they had taken the creativity out of the profession and I was...
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A few weeks ago, I had the chance to interview Dr. Susie Wise on the big idea of designing for belonging. Dr. Wise is a true design thinking expert who asks hard questions about the intersection of design and equity. I have followed her work...
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I still remember the moment. I was in my second year of doing project-based learning when a student sighed and asked, “Why do we need to stop?” “What do mean?” I asked. “The learning. The project. Everything. Why do we need stop and take a...
The post How to Guide Students in Self-Reflection During a Project appeared first on John Spencer.
Project-based learning and design thinking have both become buzzwords in the educational landscape. But beyond the buzz, both PBL and design thinking have rich histories that span decades. Both approaches also offer practical frameworks for teachers who are crafting authentic projects for their students. So,...
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In this week’s podcast, I interview social studies expert Dan Lewer on the power of student choice and authenticity in history classes. Check out the interview below. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the...
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I love to come up with project ideas. The brainstorming process feels a bit like going to a candy store, where I get to peruse past experiences, seek out new interests, find materials, and feel inspired by whatever pops up. Or better yet, it’s more...
The post How do you come up with great project ideas? (3 Starting Places) appeared first on John Spencer.
In this podcast, Dominique Foster shares practical strategies for designing a creative classroom for early childhood students. She talks about instructional design and physical space design. She also shares ways we can partner with stakeholders to help them see the vision for a creative classroom...
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When I was a first-year teacher, my mentor teacher observed me teaching a lesson. Afterward, we met up during my prep period and she said, “John, your lesson was outstanding but I want to talk to you about how you’re treating someone in your class.”...
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When I was a new teacher, I had a goal of differentiating instruction for every student. I would provide additional directions, project sheets, tutorials, and small group instruction for any student who needed help. My main focus was on providing the necessary accommodations on IEPs and 504 plans. I kept a list of specific strategies I would use in every phase of a lesson to help ensure that all students had access to their necessary accommodations. I also included language supports for ELL students, including sentence stems, vocabulary, and visuals.
This process was sometimes overwhelming in classes with 8-10 students who needed specific accommodations. I often had a nagging sense that I was failing to help some of my students who were not exceptional learners or English Language Learners but who still needed supports. At one point, I made a goal of providing specific scaffolds for every single student based on their mastery of certain standards. But this became even more overwhelming.
Eventually, I shifted toward empowering students to own the learning:
It started with the question, “What am I doing for students that they could be doing for themselves?” Initially, I focused on student choice in what they read or what they created. Over time, I empowered students to own more of the assessment process as well. It took me longer, though, to trust students to find their own scaffolds for learning. This shift occurred because of a collaboration with an amazing special education teacher named Crystal.
For two years, I hadn’t even considered what it might mean to let students select the scaffolds. Crystal introduced me to Universal Design for Learning. I soon realized that I hadn’t given students the opportunity to advocate for themselves and find the scaffolds that they needed. When I made this shift, I found that students were more aware of their mastery. They seemed to persevere and continue more easily and they grew more confident as learners.
Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the go, just click on the audio below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts (ideal for iOS users) or Google Play and Stitcher (ideal for Android users).
https://spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Self-Select-Scaffolds.mp3 Providing Just Enough Help You’ve probably noticed that there are things you can do on your own and things that are impossible to do. But there are also certain things in a middle zone that you can’t do on your own quite yet but you can accomplish them with the a little help. That help might help from a teacher, from a parent or guardian, or from a peer. But it might also be a resource like a book, a video, or a podcast. This is true not only of gaining new skills but also learning new information or understanding new concepts.
In 1962, the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky called this space the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). He developed this idea as a criticism of psychometric testing in education, which viewed intelligence as permanent and fixed.
Here’s how ZPD works. At the center, you have the things you can do on your own. On the outside, you have the things you cannot do. But in this middle zone you have the Zone of Proximal Development, which are the things you can do with guidance and support.
In 1976, Jerome Bruner applied Vygotsky’s theory to the educational setting with the concept of scaffolding. Here, educators provide supports, called scaffolds, to help students master the learning. Then, like the scaffolds in a building, teachers pull back the scaffolds as students master the knowledge and the supports become unnecessary. At this point, the ZPD grows outward as students master new knowledge with new scaffolds.
With scaffolds, you tap into prior knowledge and build on it with key supports. These might be tutorials, videos, and visual aids. They might involve sentence stems and front-loaded vocabulary for language. You might provide leveled reading, graphic organizers, and additional think time. Or it could mean breaking directions into smaller tasks. However, scaffolding can be challenging. It takes time and energy, which is a struggle with large class sizes. But when it works, it can lead to better learning and deeper thinking.
We know scaffolds are important. However, it can feel impossible to provide the right scaffolds for each students. With thirty students in a class, it can feel overwhelming to provide the exact supports that each student needs for each lesson. We don’t know always know each students’ mastery level and it would take hours to design the exact scaffolds for every single student. And yet, if we want to differentiate instruction, we need to help students move through the Zone of Proximal Development. I’d like to explore three different ways we can think about our approach to differentiating instruction.
Three Models for Differentiation In my book Empower (that I co-wrote with AJ Juliani), I shared the metaphor of ice cream as a way to think about differentiated instruction. A few years later, it’s still my favorite way of thinking about the process.
Baskin Robbins offers 31 flavors. The rotation changes each month, so I’m guessing there are probably hundreds if not thousands of flavors that they create. If you’re looking for choice, this is place is it. And there’s a good chance you’ll find something that you like at the store. If you can’t, you might want to reconsider your life . . . or at least your love of ice cream.
However, if you are looking for something very specific that nobody in their right mind would offer, you might need to go to Cold Stone Creamery. Here, you can order a hot fudge peanut butter and pretzel ice cream. Nobody else is choosing that flavor. It’s yours. There’s a good chance you’ll get the exact ice cream that you want.
And yet . . .
If you want to own the entire process, you need to go to a frozen yogurt place. I know, I know, it’s not really ice cream. It’s “yogurt,” which is a code word for “ice cream that pretends not to be ice cream.” At the fro yo place, you get to decide which flavor you want. There are fewer options than what Baskin Robbins offers. However, you get to decide on the exact amount you want. You also get to choose the toppings, selecting not only which ones you want but how much you want of each topping. You own the entire process.
When we talk about choice and differentiation, the conversations often revolve around the Baskin Robbins model. For scaffolding, this approach tends to involve leveled reading or small groups that you pull. It is largely teacher-directed.
Sometimes, we shift from differentiated to personalized. This is when the Cold Stone Creamery model kicks in. Here, students move from choice to freedom in the content. Here, they are not selecting from a list of choices but rather stating exactly what they want. There is more agency and ownership. Engagement increases. However, the teacher still owns the process and it becomes exhausting. This is what happens when you’re trying to find the perfect scaffold for every single student at every moment of the lesson.
However, when students have agency in both the content and the process, they shift into the fro yo model. Here, they decide what they want to learn by doing it themselves. They might actually have fewer choices, but they have more freedom and a higher level of autonomy. The teacher is still present as an advisor and an architect of the master system. However, students are working in a self-directed way. If Baskin Robbins is differentiation and Cold Stone Creamery is personalization, frozen yogurt is empowerment. Here, students have a great sense of control over the learning. This is what happens when they can self-select their scaffolds.
You can think about it as a continuum of student agency from teacher-centered to student centered.
As we think about the notion of scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development, the fro-yo model encourages students to self-select their scaffolds based on perceived needs.
Taking a Universal Design Approach Years ago, when I taught middle school social studies, I worked with a special education teacher named Crystal, who transformed the way I thought about scaffolds. One of her chief goals was that there would be no visible distinction between learners with exceptionalities (special education students) and the rest of the classroom. Similarly, she wanted co-teaching to mean that we both did direct instruction and small group.
As she put it, “Inclusion needs to mean full inclusion.”
My initial response was skepticism. “What if a student uses as scaffold that they don’t need? What if general education students use an accommodation that’s meant for a special education student.”
Her response was simple, “SPED is a service not a student. We teach students. We provide services.” She then asked me if I ever used a curb cut or a ramp on the sidewalk.
“Yeah, they come in handy when I push a stroller.” (My kids were little at the time).
“Have you ever watched tv with closed captioning on?”
I nodded.
“That’s universal design,” she said.
If you’re familiar with universal design, here’s a sketch video:
In the early 1960s, visionary architect Selwyn Goldsmith designed the initial curb cut or dropped curb to encourage people with limited mobility to have access to city sidewalks. It was part of a larger movement (led by disability advocates) toward universal access in the built environment by changing policies, systems, and structures to promote full inclusion. In the last few decades, architects, product developers, and UX designers have embraced this philosophy of universal design. Coined by architect Ronald Mace, universal design is built on the core belief that we should design environments to be useable by all people, “without the need for adaptation or specialized design.”
This inclusive approach allows everyone to benefit from such designs. Hence, caregivers pushing strollers benefit from curb cuts. Similarly, viewers use closed captioning on videos regardless of hearing. In other words, when you design for everyone, everyone benefits from the design.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) applies this same philosophy of universal design to every aspect of learning, from learning spaces to materials to instruction and assessment to classroom culture and behavior management. Built around cognitive neuroscience, UDL is an inclusive educational framework that seeks to remove barriers while also keeping the learning challenging for all students. A UDL approach includes a paradigm shift from a deficit mindset to neurodiversity; from singular accommodations to universally accessible scaffolds and supports; and from a teacher-centric view to a student-centered approach centered on student agency.
Note that this skill of self-selection process isn’t always automatic for students. You might need to work with certain students on accessing scaffolds and self-advocating. Often, this works well as a partnership between a general education teacher and special education teacher. Earlier I mentioned Crystal, who would meet with students to help them set goals, identify strategies, and design systems for finding the necessary scaffolds. As the year progressed, her students would take more and more ownership in the process until the point that she merely observed and answered questions only when necessary. Her goal was for her students to become self-directed learners.
What Does This Look Like? The best approach involves a partnership with all teachers, including all general education teachers along with ELL and Special Education teachers. As a team, teachers can identify practical scaffolds and develop a plan for teaching students to self-select the scaffolds they need. This process might involve taking a deeper dive into an IEP, 504 Plan, or ELL/ESOL documentation. But the idea is to seek out the expertise and advice from ELL and Special Education experts who can help general education teachers determine what scaffolds they might need. In turn, general education teachers can often speak into certain content area expertise and share some of their strategies they have found helpful. Here are a few ideas for how you might provide scaffolds that students can self-select. This is by no means an exhaustive list.
- Provide tutorials for all students. This could involve a curation of tutorial videos in content areas or step-by-step directions with embedded .gifs that explain the approach. While many of the tutorials will be academic, you might have tutorials for technology, for classroom processes, or for best practices in other areas (like best practices for video editing or podcast creation). The key idea is for all students to have access to these tutorials at all times.
- Incorporate anchor charts, visuals, and graphic organizers that all students can access at any time. We can provide calendars and checklists as well as project blueprints that break tasks down for students. Similarly, you might want to provide slideshows ahead of time and allow all students access to the slide deck in advance. Each of these strategies can help students more easily break down information from working memory to long-term memory. For a deeper dive into this topic of retrieval practice and memory, check out Uncommon Sense Teaching.
- Make small groups optional. PBL and SEL expert Mike Kaechele introduced me to this idea years ago. Instead of pulling small groups based on a label (such as ELL or Special Education), he reteaches key concepts by running optional workshops. Every student has access to these workshops and can attend them each day during their project time. This helps prevent the stigma attached with small groups while also sending the message to all students that it’s okay to need a little extra help. In the process, students develop a growth mindset, as they move through the challenges and shift toward mastery.
- Provide learners multiple methods for accessing the learning content. This might include using multiple font sizes, closed captioning, text-to speech technology, or the ability to change speed in audio and video. For example, you might pre-record direct instruction and play it for the whole class. However, students also have the option to slow down videos or audio (to x .5 or x .25 speed levels) to review the content again. While this flipped learning model can take more prep time, when you partner with other teachers, the process becomes more manageable.
- Provide flexibility with timing. I recently wrote about the problem of focusing too much on “learning loss.” Too often, students internalize the notion that learning is all about speed and accuracy. When we are flexible with timing, students can work at different paces, making differentiation more of a reality. This might include flexibility on timing and due dates for assignments but it might also mean additional think time or more opportunities for practice and retrieval during a lesson.
- Front-loaded vocabulary ahead of time so that all students have access to the shared language of the content area. You might do a total physical response (TPR), use a Frayer Model, or use the Marzano approach. Whatever you choose, this front-loaded vocabulary allows all students the same access to the language. You can then use anchor charts, visuals, or an online shared document that students can access at all times when they are confused about a word or a concept.
- Provide sentence frames that any students can access. Sentence frames can very from hyper-structured to loosely structured. Typically, you have a portion that you provide and then a fill in the blank area that students complete. For example, “One difference I notice about _______ is __________.” You can provide sentence frames for entire paragraphs or for a single sentence. I’ve used them for peer discourse, for forming questions (especially in research), and as starters for writing assignments. While sentence frames (or sentence stems) are an ELL scaffold, I’ve found that any student struggling with complex or academic language can benefit from this scaffold. Similarly, you might provide sample sentences that they can modify on their own.
As educators, we want students to learn how to become self-directed life-long learners. We won’t always be available for students in every facet of life. So, when they learn how to self-select scaffolds, they learn how to find help on their own. They internalize the idea that getting help is a good thing and that they don’t need to be helpless and wait for an adult to provide supports. In the process, they learn how to determine what they know, what they don’t know, and where to find the strategies to access new learning. This allows them to plan their next strategies and monitor their learning through the ongoing process of metacognition:
In the long run, they grow into the empowered, self-directed learners we know they can be. If you want to learn more about student empowerment, check out the free Empower Blueprint below.
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I had the honor of interviewing PBL expert Trevor Muir on what it means to get started with PBL. Check out the podcast below.
Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the go, just click on the audio below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts (ideal for iOS users) or Google Play and Stitcher (ideal for Android users).
https://spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Trevor-Muir-Podcast.mp3 About Trevor Muir Trevor is a teacher, author, and speaker. He is the author of the books The Epic Classroom and The Collaborative Classroom. Trevor is an adjunct professor at Grand Valley State University, was a national faculty member for the Buck Institute for Education, and is one of the Andrew Gomez Dream Foundation speakers. His work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Edutopia, EdWeek, and WeAreTeachers. He gave a TED Talk titled, “School Should Take Place in the Real World,” at TEDxSanAntonio. Trevor’s Facebook page, The Epic Classroom, has inspiring videos that have been viewed over 30 million times. At the heart of Trevor’s work is the conviction that every student has the potential for greatness, and every teacher can be equipped to unlock that potential.
The post Trevor Muir Answers Key Questions About PBL appeared first on John Spencer.
All three of my kids have missed a significant number days because of the need to quarantine. The Omicron variant is sweeping through our neighborhoods and our local school district recently created a no-contact day this last Friday.
Many caregivers and community members are concerned about learning loss with the missed days on top of the virtual learning schedule from last year. A friend of mine said, “I feel like my daughter is falling behind and I don’t even know how to help her.”
I’ve heard similar sentiments at the university level as professors share concerns about incoming freshman who seem to lack some of the prerequisite knowledge that they’ll need in order to access the content.
And yet . . . I’m not terribly concerned about learning loss. Don’t get me wrong. I think learning loss is real and we should try to address it. However, when I visit classrooms or work with the teachers in my cohort, I see bigger concerns than learning loss. Often, the biggest issue seems to be the lack of soft skills or the absence of student self-direction in their learning. In this article, we explore the idea that speed might actually be overrated and examine how factors like soft skills, stickiness, play, and self-direction might help students prepare for an unpredictable world.
Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the go, just click on the audio below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts (ideal for iOS users) on Stitcher (ideal for Android users), on Amazon Podcasts, or on Spotify.
https://spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Learning-Loss.mp3 Speed Isn’t Everything As a student, I hated math because I was slow at it. To this day, I’m still low computational fluency. It takes me longer than most folks to do math in my head. I second-guess myself when I am engaging in basic multiplication and division. I am not a typical “numbers person.” I struggle with memorizing dates and I often transpose numbers when I have to remember a string of them. Two-factor authorization has been an absolute nightmare for me.
I have every reason to hate math. But I don’t. I actually love math precisely because I am slow at it. I can meander. I can ask tons of questions with data. I can play around with math. As a child, I felt a sense of dread whenever I would do those timed tests. I’d start sweating the moment the teacher passed out the handouts. Years later, I have all the time in the world and I can treat math like a long hike or a breezy drive in the summer.
Battling against my own math anxiety was tough but coming through it, I think it has made me more curious and more humble with the subject. I can second guess myself. Being less sure that I have the right answer has helped me find trends in a data set that I might have easily missed. I struggled with advanced statistics but that struggle kept me focused and curious. I developed a mindset of slower thinking that allowed me to catch some critical unexpected insights in my doctoral research on project-based learning and teacher motivation.
By contrast, I was a fast reader with a really high comprehension level as a student. Even now, when I listen to an audiobook, my natural inclination is to push that sucker up to a 1.5x speed. However, if I’m not careful, I will sprint through all reading. Speed has served me well. I can consume and retain a significant amount of written information. However, speed has sometimes backfired. If I’m not careful, I will miss some critical details. I move into auto-pilot and stop thinking critically about a particular passage or line of thought.
In school, I internalized a message that being good at a subject was about speed and accuracy (fluency) but I missed the reality that mastering a subject is also about slower, deeper work with experimental attempts.
In other words, being slow has its advantages.
The Need for Slower Thinking While it’s hard to predict the future, many of our students will need to engage in slower, deeper work. They will work on projects that take weeks or even months to accomplish. They’ll need to find unique solutions that require divergent thinking. Computers do an amazing job of quickly analyzing data and running through tasks accurately. Meanwhile, the human mind, while slower than the computer, is able to think creatively. We can dream up new possibilities and engage in the functional novelty that AI still struggles to attain. We can move beyond pre-programmed tasks and think creatively:
However, if our students are going to engage in in complex creative thinking, they will need to have longer, sustained periods of deep focus. Deep work is an especially relevant skill in a distracted world, where we can get sucked smaller task that divert our attention. We live in a world of instant media, where the constant pinging from our devices beckons us from one urgent task to the next. If we want them to become makers and philosophers and researchers, they need to have the mental endurance to stick with a task long-term.
This is a concept that Cal Newport refers to as “deep work” in his landmark book by the same name (it’s a great read that I highly recommend). It’s what happens when you delve into meaningful, sustained work that requires full cognitive attention. Newport argues that the constant interruptions of email and social media reduce our attention while also increasing cognitive load. This ultimately reduces our ability to get into deep work.
When students engage in deep, meaningful, sustained work, they are more likely to hit a state of flow:
In other words, while the school system continues to value speed and accuracy, our students will often need to work more slowly and think outside the box. If A.I. is the proverbial hare, our students will need to succeed as tortoises.
Content Knowledge Still Matters While learning is about more than just speed and accuracy, our content still matters. We need students to learn how to read and write. We need them to learn how to think like scientists and historians and mathematicians and artists and musicians. We all have curriculum maps to follow and standards to teach. The truth is that learning loss is real and we can’t pretend that it doesn’t matter at all.
However, it can help to ask, “What do students need in the long run?” instead of focusing entirely on single learning standards or benchmark test results. In other words, yes, learning loss is real, but the bigger question is “What is the ultimate goal of learning and are students learning that?” If the goal is curiosity or creativity and they lose a sense of wonder, I’d argue that’s a bigger learning loss than the failure to factor polynomials. If it’s to prepare students for the future we need to recognize that our future is wildly unpredictable and our curriculum maps alone won’t get students where they need to be.
Many districts have developed graduate profiles that center on bigger life-long essential skills. I’ve had the honor of working with many districts who are asking, “What does it mean to teach the standards while also developing these key skills?” Instead of focusing solely on the learning loss, the focus is on helping students develop key soft skills while mastering the standards where they might be falling behind. But what does this actually look like?
Four Questions to Ask About the Curriculum The following are some of the questions you might ask as you consider both the curriculum and the graduate profile you’ve developed.
- Is the curriculum sticky? When we think about learning loss, it’s easy to imagine a place where students are supposed to be and contrast that with their current content knowledge at the moment. But learning loss also occurs when students learn a topic in a shallow way and then forget it later. Ever crammed for a test and then discovered that you forgot all of the information two weeks later? This type of learning loss is more about learning evaporation. It’s the notion that the learning wasn’t truly “sticky” to begin with.
This stickiness factor is critical because so many of the standards build on one another from year to year. If you take the time to explore the math or reading standards, for example, you’ll see significant overlap between third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade. Similarly, the bigger concepts in science tend to cycle from year to year with students learning a topic like forces and motion at a deeper and deeper level. Unfortunately, when learning isn’t sticky, teachers spend more time reviewing content. One of the challenges with this year’s learning loss is not so much that students have fell behind with instructional time so much as they’ve forgotten content they learned in the last two years.
One solution to this problem is to launch a project-based learning unit. With PBL, students learn the content in an authentic, integrated way that allows students to retain the information for a longer period of time. In other words, PBL is sticky. If you’re not familiar, here is a basic overview of PBL:
The PBL approach can feel risky. With students lagging behind, it can feel like there’s not enough time to engage in authentic PBL. However, there is some fascinating emerging research on how project-based learning can increase student achievement and also improve the stickiness factor. Unfortunately, many students who fall behind in basic skills end up with remediation through repetitive worksheets or drill-and-kill adaptive learning programs. However, we can design PBL experiences with scaffolds and supports for all students to access the learning. When this happens, they can learn the content at a deeper level and retain it for a longer period of time.
- Is there a chance to play? In The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber and David Wingrow argue that the biggest innovations in farming actually occurred through an experimental approach to “play farming,” where women adapted new techniques through a bold process of trial and error. They go on to describe some of the biggest innovations in history over the last few millennia and describe how often these were the results of play rather than focused problem-solving. In other words, people chased their curiosity and played with materials, ideas, and approaches and only later found a problem to solve. Similarly, in Thinking Better, Marcus du Sautoy describes how some of the key innovations in mathematics occur when people play around with numbers and geometry in creative ways.
In education, Jed Dearybury and Julie P. Jones describe how a playful approach to learning can benefit students in a classroom setting by increasing curiosity, fostering collaboration, and boosting creativity. In their book The Playful Classroom, they describe specific strategies teachers can use to integrate play into the daily classroom experience. For a deeper dive, check out the interview I did with Jed Dearybury last year.
This might seem like a fanciful idea. After all, teachers have to teach the standards and stick to the curriculum map. However, playful learning isn’t about abandoning the curriculum in order to pursue free time. Instead, it’s about taking a playful approach that incorporates novelty, curiosity, and creativity. It includes being a curator and nerding out on your favorite books. It includes thinking divergently and creating something new. In other words, it’s less about what and more about how.
I’ll admit that I used to view playfulness as being childish. While I incorporated playful learning into my middle school classroom, I couldn’t imagine it working at a high school. Then I visited Lam Nguyen‘s advanced calculus class in Winnipeg. His class looked nothing like I had imagined an AP classroom would look. The walls were white boards and students were working collaboratively at solving problems. They had class celebrations and rituals. He had gamified a few components while still focusing on the intrinsic element.
“I want students to see that math is fun. I want them to fall in love with the subject. I want them to treat math like a playground,” he told me.
Lam Nguyen’s students still had to master the same standards and they regularly outperformed more traditional classrooms. These playful elements were not an escape from learning but an escape to learning. When students realized that they could play with math, they became less anxious. They took more intellectual risks. They pushed through the challenges and developed a growth mindset. Along the way, they developed critical soft skills. Which leads to my next point . . .
- Does the curriculum help develop soft skills? When I visit classrooms or interact with students in my cohort, they describe a similar scenario of students who seem to lack essential soft skills.
A first grade teacher said, “They’re struggling with reading but the bigger struggle is how to deal with some of the violent outbursts we’re seeing.”
A ninth grade teacher said, “My students aren’t turning in their work, which I can handle. But they also give up so easily. They’re not very resilient.”
Some of these issues are related to trauma. No doubt, many of these issues connect to larger cultural trends as well. But the overall theme seems to be the idea that students are genuinely struggling on a social-emotional level. They’re in need of critical soft skills.
This is one of the reasons I love project-based learning. It’s a chance for students to develop critical soft skills like collaboration, creativity, and perseverance. In the following sketch video, I share what happens when students engage in PBL:
In their upcoming book The Pulse of PBL, Mike Kaechele and Matinga Ragatz demonstrate how an overlap of PBL and SEL can help students develop these essential skills. For a deeper dive, check out Mike’s blog post on 10 Ways to Introduce SEL and PBL. Years ago, Mike helped me revamp my approach to PBL by incorporating key SEL skills into our protocols. This is why, as the co-owner of Blend Education Publishing, I jumped at the opportunity to publish their upcoming book.
Note that PBL and SEL are not new things that you need to add to an already crowded plate. Instead, it’s about re-arranging your plate in a way that allow students to engage in meaningful projects while they develop vital soft skills. Ultimately, PBL provides a great context for students to learn and practice critical SEL skills. There’s a natural overlap between the two:
We can integrate social-emotional learning lessons into our PBL units in a way that helps facilitate metacogntion. Meanwhile, they can practice these SEL skills as they engage in project-based learning. Ultimately, when both PBL and SEL work together in tandem, students develop critical soft skills and grow into the critical thinking, life-long learners we know they can be.
But this also needs to focus on the bigger idea of student voice and choice. When this happens, students grow more self-directed.
- Does the curriculum empower students with voice and choice? When students are self-directed, they are self-starters, meaning they can initiate the learning on their own. They can problem-solve challenges that occur. They can begin the day focused on learning even when a teacher isn’t present. Students who are self-directed are also self-managers. They know how to keep track of learning tasks and manage their time. They develop systems to track their progress on projects and assignments without needing frequent reminders of the deadlines.
There is no magic formula to build student self-direction in the learning. However, as educators, we can design learning experiences that build on student autonomy and agency. For example, if they are using the LAUNCH Cycle for a design thinking project, students have the chance to own every phase of the project.
Here’s what I mean:
- Look, Listen, and Learn: You start from a place of student ownership by tapping into their geeky interests, their questions, or their prior knowledge. If they observe a natural phenomenon, you encourage them to jot down their findings. As they develop empathy, it will need to be student-directed.
- Ask Tons of Questions: Students ask their own questions. Although you might provide sentence stems or sample questions, you can ask students to self-select their scaffolding and ultimately generate their own questions.
- Understanding the Process or Problem: Students engage in their own research. They ask the questions, find the sources, and paraphrase the information. Students can also decide which research strategy they want to use, including note-taking, spreadsheets, or sketch-noting.
- Navigate Ideas: Students generate their own ideas and then create their own project plan.
- Create a Prototype: Students engage in their own project management, choose their own approaches, and ultimately own the prototyping process.
- Highlight and Fix: Students own the assessment process as they engage in self-assessment and peer assessment, including a critical friends structure (that I’ll be getting into in the last section).
When we empower students to own the project process, we increase buy-in. Students who might initially seem needy become confident as they internalize the reality that they are no longer working for their teacher. Note that we still need to have structures and protocols in this process. Even in project-based learning, teachers still need to incorporate direct instruction and provide supports for students.
Where do we go from here? There are many ways to empower our students with voice and choice. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll be exploring what student ownership looks like in every facet of learning. This includes helping students self-select scaffolds and take ownership or their learning supports. It also means empowering teams to own the collaborative process. We’ll look at how students can own the assessment process at both the individual and peer levels. I’ll also share strategies for how to get started with student-centered projects through project-based learning, inquiry-based learning, mini-projects, and design thinking.
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I’m sitting in my office right now with a web sprawling out all over my whiteboard. I’m planning out my five courses that start in the next few weeks. But even if I weren’t designing new courses, I would be dreaming up new ideas. For me, the new year is a chance for new beginnings. It’s an opportunity to reflect on my past experiences and consider new ways I can experiment and take creative risks. As a middle school teacher, I used to think of this mid-way point as a chance to reflect while also dreaming up new ideas. Some years, it felt more like a mid-year reset with big changes. Other times, it was a chance to make small revisions. But each time, I would ask myself the question, “What is a creative risk I can make as an educator?” and “What is a creative risk my students can make?”
Creative Ways to Start the Semester I want to explore some ways that we, as educators, can take creative risks with students. Many of these are ideas that I attempted with my students. However, I have also interviewed some of the best teachers I know and asked them to contribute some ideas.The following are ten different creative risks you can take with your students this year.
1: Genius Hour
Time Required: 1-5 Days
Materials Required: This works best when you have devices.
Description: Genius Hour (also called 20% Time) is a chance for students to engage in an inquiry-driven, independent project. They own the entire learning process, from the concept to the questions, to the research, to the project management to the ultimate final product. Here’s a quick video description of what Genius Hour looks like:
Here’s a video you can use with your students. Note that you can get a free copy of both videos (in case YouTube is blocked at your school) in the Ten Creative Ways to End the Semester Resource Pack at the bottom of this post.
2: Scratch Video Game Projects
Time Required: Full Week
Materials Required: This project works best when you have one-to-one devices
Description: If you haven’t checked it out before, go take a look at Scratch. It’s a way to teach logic and programming through the use of blocks that students use to manipulate objects. Students can start out small by following the directions to create a Pong game. Afterward, you can encourage them to move on to a place where they hack the game and make it their own. Then, you can have them set up their own games that they truly design.
If you’re interested in launching a Scratch video game, check out the site and start with the Pong game. I also have instructions on how I taught Scratch (the three phases) with middle school as well as a list of 8 lessons I learned along the way. You can find those in the Ten Creative Ways to End the Semester Resource Pack at the bottom of this post.
3: Design Thinking Project
Time Required: Full Week
Materials Required: Design thinking can work well with technology or with low-tech options
Description: Design thinking is a flexible process for getting the most out of the creative process. It is used in the arts, in engineering, in the corporate world, at universities, and in social and civic spaces. You can use it in every subject with every age group. It works when creating digital content or when building things with duct tape and cardboard. It can even be used in planning events or in designing services. So, the idea here is that you are providing a meaningful structure to help students design a product that they will launch to an authentic audience. The following video helps explain the process:
This is the perfect time of year to test out design thinking. While other classes are watching Frosty the Snowman, your students can engage in inquiry, research, ideating, and prototyping. They will do something creative — and they’ll remember it forever. If you’re interested in trying design thinking, I have included the Create a Sport Challenge and the Tiny House Project (math-related) in the Ten Creative Ways to End the Semester Resource Pack at the bottom of this post. Both projects include lesson plans, student notebooks, slideshows, and the videos.
A variation on this works well in virtual classes:
4: Thematic Blogs (High-Tech)
Time Required: 1-5 days
Materials Required: Blogging works best with desktops or laptops but can still be accomplished with smartphones or tablets
Description: In keeping with the theme of student ownership, thematic blogs are blogs based on a student’s interests, passions, and ideas. It could be a foodie blog, a sports blog, a fashion blog, a science blog, or a history blog. They choose the topic and the audience. It’s a great way for students to practice writing in different genres (persuasive, functional, informational/expository, narrative) with specific blog topics they choose. They can also add multimedia components, like slideshows, pictures, videos, and audio.
Think of all the blogs out there that people actually make outside of school. That’s what you want students to create. It’s their chance to participate in the global blogging community by tapping into their own expertise and interests. If you’re interested in getting started, I have included things like sentence stems and other student handouts that might be helpful as you begin the process. You can find it all in the Ten Creative Ways to End the Semester Resource Pack at the bottom of this post.
5: Video Writing Prompts (Low-Tech Alternative)
Time Required: 1 class period
Materials Required: You can go low-tech with this and do visual writing prompts on a screen (projector or interactive whiteboard) and have students use composition books
Description: If you don’t have the best technology in your classroom, but you do have a projector or interactive whiteboard, consider doing visual writing prompts with a picture or a video. The idea here is to choose high-interest ideas that get students excited about writing. I have included a free set of video prompts in the Ten Creative Ways to End the Semester Resource Pack at the bottom of this post.
Here’s an example of a writing prompt you could do to get students excited about writing.
6: Sketchnote Videos
Time Required: 25 minutes (easiest version) to a full week (most challenging version)
Materials Required: This can be mostly low-tech, with paper, pencils, markers, whiteboards, etc. But the video portion will require a video camera or smartphone.
Description: I love the idea of making ideas visual and sketchnoting is one of the strategies you can use to help students take complex ideas and convey them in a way that is visual and concrete. But I also love taking it to the next level by having students craft short sketchnote videos that convey an idea, concept, or process. So, it might be something like life cycles or how a bill becomes a law. There are four layers of sketchnote videos that work well, ranging from easiest to hardest.
Level One: Flipbook Style (Very Easy)
Here, students create multiple pages with a sketch and a core idea. Afterward, one student flips the pages as another student videotapes the pages and a third student reads the script. This is essentially a picture book on video. But if you want to get more complicated and show any kind of movement, check out level two.
Level Two: Stop Motion (Fairly Easy)
This is the stop animation approach. Students sketch out their ideas and then cut them out. They can then maneuver these ideas with their hands in a video. When they go to film it, one student uses a smartphone while a second student moves the items around. A third student reads a script. Afterward, they can post it online or share it with their teacher. If you’re familiar with Common Craft videos, this style is pretty similar.
Level Three: Whiteboard Videos (Moderately Difficult)
Students start out by storyboarding a concept they’ve learned throughout the quarter. They then record one member of their group sketching out the ideas in an RSA Animate style with the whiteboard. Next, they speed up the whiteboard drawing, edit out any mistakes, and add an audio layer that they record in iMovie or Movie Maker. It doesn’t require a ton of technology, but it does require some creative risk-taking. What I love about this is that you can have multiple students making the videos in small groups and then rotate who edits it on the computer. So, if you have limited student computers, it can still work.
Level Four: Animated Videos (Very Difficult)
These are the types of videos I enjoy making. They can take hours to make and they require Photoshop. If you’re interested in the process, here’s a detailed description in a blog post I created after my son spent a full day making his video. This is the video he created. I think it’s pretty awesome. Then again, I’m his dad, so that’s par for the course, right?
If you’re interested in doing sketchnote videos, you can find more detailed instructions in the Ten Creative Ways to End the Semester Resource Pack at the bottom of this post.
7: Maker Projects
Time Required: One class period
Materials Required: Maker projects can work well with technology or with low-tech options. Note that the two examples I am giving are both low-tech.
Description: There are a few ways to approach maker projects. The first uses design thinking to go through the entire design process (see the design thinking option listed in #3. The second involves less research and planning and gets students into rapid prototyping as soon as possible. The idea here is that students make something with physical products that they are upcycling — often duct tape, cardboard, and plastic. Here’s one that’s a little more math and science-related:
If you’re interested in doing a maker project, you can find a free maker project in the Ten Creative Ways to End the Semester Resource Pack at the bottom of this post.
8: Divergent Thinking Challenge
Time Required: 40-90 minutes
Materials Required: You can determine your own materials but it helps to keep it low-tech and to limit it to 2-5 items that are seemingly unrelated. The more unrelated they are, the better!
Description: Divergent thinking challenges are a simple way to move into rapid prototyping while inspiring divergent thinking. Here’s the basic premise of it.
This can be done virtually / digitally as a scavenger hunt activity.
Step 1: In a video conference, provide students with a divergent thinking prompt. One option is to create a scavenger hunt in which students find something fuzzy, something large, and something small. Or, they might find something sticky, something round, and something flat. You might include a time deadline, ranging from 3-5 minutes.
Step 2: After finding those items, they can then brainstorm all the things they can make with these items. This brainstorming phase is often hands-on. Students might work individually or in a breakout room in the video chat. Their brainstorms might be in the form of a list or in a web.
Step 3: Students analyze their ideas, combine any that seem similar, and scratch out any that you want to abandon. They might also mashup any unrelated ideas that might work well together.
Step 4: Students choose one main idea from the list and make a product with it. You might provide a specific time constraint to push their divergent thinking even more. In the case of the scavenger hunt above, students can create either a children’s toy or a game.
Step 5: Students go through multiple iterations until their product is done.
Step 6: Students create a video demonstrating how their product works and an explanation of their ideal audience. I highly recommend using Flipgrid for this particular approach.
7: Wonder Day / Wonder Week
Time Required: Single Day or Full Week
Materials Required: This project works best when they can do online research.
Description: This is a fun, easy way to get students engaged in non-fiction reading. It’s a process that follows the inquiry cycle:
I use it as a high-interest way to help students learn the research process. Students begin with the sentence stem, “I’m wondering why/what would/how/if __________” and from there they ask tons of questions. This ultimately leads to research and finally a place where they share what they learned.
For more ideas on how to bring wonder back into the classroom, check out this post.
If you’re interested in doing a Wonder Day project, you can find more detailed instructions in the Ten Creative Ways to End the Semester Resource Pack at the bottom of this post. I also include a video showing a simple approach to teaching students how to engage in media literacy.
8: Scavenger Hunt
Time Required: Single Class Period (or Asynchronous)
Materials Required: Smartphones or Devices
Description:
A scavenger hunt is pretty much what it sounds like. Teachers give students specific clues or items that they find from their homes or around the larger community. This works well as a video-conference activity, but it can also work as a series of photos that students take and upload to a shared file. Students can work in teams using the breakout room function, or they can work independently. The following are a few scavenger hunt ideas:
- Math scavenger hunt: Students find specific items in their homes that connect to core math concepts. They might even measure certain items and report back to the group. I’ve seen this as a simple second grade geometry but also as a more advanced lesson for proportional reasoning or to prove the Pythagorean Theorem.
- Maker scavenger hunt: Teachers give students a list of item specifications. It might be something soft, something elastic, something round, etc. After they have found those items, they get a set amount of time to create something new with those items.
- Science hunt: When students are learning about natural environments, they might use their phones to take snapshots of different environments in their neighborhood. I’ve seen teachers go as advanced as birding, with key coordinates and pictures or using this process with astronomy or meteorology. But it can also be something simpler, like finding predators and prey.
- History hunt: Students can do a walk of their city and find elements of culture or find identifiers of history (such as street names or plaques). This is often a chance for students to explore some of the hard questions around who is and isn’t represented in history.
- Language Arts scavenger hunt: At a younger age, students might explore environmental texts. They can search for sight words on something like a cereal box. They might take a picture of that word and upload it to the class LMS or a teacher might give them the challenge to “find a word that ends with a silent-e.” With older grades, students might find themes or genres on the larger community.
- P.E. scavenger hunt: Students might have a set of challenges where they have to hop to certain items and then do a series of jumping jacks when they find another item. Students can record their movements on a phone as evidence of their exercise.
- Music scavenger hunt: Students can do a scavenger hunt where they have to record certain types of music that they hear in the environment. Or a simpler version might involve finding something that can create a percussion, a string sound, etc.
9: Podcasts
Time Required: Single Day (or Multiple Days)
Materials Required: Smartphones or microphones, and computers (optional)
Description: I love having students create videos. However, videos can take time and it’s more of a challenge to deal with props, lighting, staging, etc. This is why I love podcasts. They can work individually, with partners, or in small groups. It can be more scripted or more open. If you want, you can have students edit the podcasts and add music by using Garage Band or Audacity. But you can also do a simple recording with smartphones.
If this seems interesting to you, I created a quick sheet called 20 Ideas for Student Podcasting that you can find in the Ten Creative Ways to Start the Semester Resource Pack at the bottom of this post.
10: History Mystery
Time Required: 1-2 Days
Materials Required: This can be low-tech or high-tech
Description: This is a way to get students to create a theory about why something exists within history. For example, why are there ships buried under the city of San Francisco? You start with the key question (often a visual to go with it) and then you ask students to formulate a hypothesis and defend it. They then form groups and agree on a key idea. Afterward, the whole class debates the core reason. Then, you introduce them to an informational text about it. I have a specific lesson on this connected to a great episode of the 99% Invisible podcast. You can find the slideshow for the lesson in the Ten Creative Ways to Start the Semester Resource Pack at the bottom of this post.
Call to Action These last few weeks before the quarter are a chance to be different. They are an opportunity to innovate and try something new. It might not work. Mistakes are bound to happen — and that can feel daunting when you’re already exhausted. But I’ve found that piloting something new is often the very thing I get re-energized and to increase student engagement. Ultimately, this is a chance to make something meaningful — something that your students will remember forever.
So, if you are thinking about doing something creative or innovative, please leave a comment below sharing what creative thing you plan to pilot in the upcoming weeks. Also, you might want to check out the free resource below.
Creative Ways to Start the Semester Resource Pack Please leave your first name and email address below and click the yellow submit button to receive the free resource. I will also send you a weekly email with free, members-only access to my latest blog posts, videos, podcasts and resources to help you boost creativity and spark innovation in your classroom.
The post Starting the Semester on a Creative Note appeared first on John Spencer.
Back in college, I started making New Year’s Resolutions. I would turn these resolutions into goals. Typically, I would start something entirely new and often I would finish my goal halfway through the year. Unfortunately, I didn’t always develop the habits needed for long-term change. This is why I started focusing on adding process-oriented goals. It’s an idea I explore later in this article.
However, I tended to focus solely on starting something new. In some cases, I would form new habits but, over time, I ran into a new challenge. Habits can drop away over time during disruptive moments in life. While I had developed a habit of exercising five days a week, things changed when I was a new teacher and felt swamped by the workplace demands.
Other times, I would attempt a new habit, or I would start a new project but it failed. In these moments, I felt like I had failed at my New Year’s Resolutions. For example, I tried mindfulness and meditation but it actually made me more anxious and it wasn’t all that helpful. Another year, I forced my way through writing a first draft of a book called Keeper of the Creatures that never actually worked as a concept. I knew it was a flawed story in January but I pushed through until June.
What I now realize is that the new year is a chance to consider a broad range of goals. Yes, it might mean starting something new but it might also mean treating something new as an experiment and defining success as the willingness to take a creative risk. It might also mean choosing to maintain a current practice or habit. But it might also involve letting go of perfectionism and taking something off my plate.
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https://spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/SLIME-Method.mp3 The SLIME Method I created the acronym SLIME as a way to think through my goals for the year. I could have easily gone with MILES and had something like, “How many MILES will I log?” but, let’s be real, slime is fun and sticky and I want my goals to be fun and sticky as well. Here’s what how it work:
- Start: What practice, habit, or project do I want to begin this year?
- Let Go: What current practice, habit, or project do I need to abandon this year?
- Improve: What current practice, habit, or project do I want to take to the next level?
- Maintain: What current practice, habit, or project do I want to continue to do this year?
- Experiment: What current practice, habit, or project do I want to try out?
With the SLIME Method, I focus on one goal for each of those areas.
Start This is a goal geared toward a project, a habit, or a practice that you want to start during this upcoming year. You might want to get started on running or get into a writing habit. You might have a house project you want to do or you might plan to learn a new language. Whatever it is, this starting resolution should be something you either have never done or something you’ve years ago and you plan to get started again. As a teacher, this might be a new strategy you want to start using with students. Or it might be something like an action research project you want to do with colleagues. But you might make it personal by carving out a personal Genius Hour project for yourself. You might set a goal of reading a certain number of books in a year. Whatever it is, the point is to start something new.
One of the best strategies I learned was to start small and build up. This actually connects to gamification (an idea I explore later in this post) where you have a low barrier of entry and easy mini-goals at first that lead up progressively toward more challenging goals. Three years ago, when I wanted to start working out, a physical trainer friend told me, “Start with five minutes a day.” I laughed and said, “Come on, be realistic.” He then said, “Okay, three minutes.” The point is that early on, success should simply mean showing up. I would later move it to ten minutes, fifteen, then twenty-five, then forty-five. So, every two weeks, I made my goal more challenging. When I did a NaNoWriMo project with students, I had them plan their books in October and during that time, we started with 200 words per day of writing (on smaller mini-projects) which then moved to 300, 500, 750, 1,000, and eventually 1,300. We then started November at a habit of 1,300 words per day and progressively moved up to 2,300 in order to meet our word count goals.
Let Go If the Start Goal is all about starting something new, the Let Go goal is about pulling back and abandoning things that weigh you down or stress you out. It’s often about taking something off of your plate. You might choose to “break up with busy” and tell yourself that you will grade less or you will set a curfew for when you finish work each day. I’ve always had a rule of no email after 5:00 pm and I try my best not to do any grading on weekends. It doesn’t always work but these have been previous Let Go Goals that I pursued. Sometimes it’s letting go involves hard habits that you want to break. I am an emotional eater and I have worked toward choosing healthier outlets when I am feeling stressed so that I don’t plow through an entire box of Cheez-Its.
However, a Let Go Goal isn’t always related to a bad habit. Sometimes letting go has involved making a change within my career (like the move from self-contained to teaching photojournalism and STEM). For some teachers, it might mean moving to a new school and away from a toxic school culture or changing teams due to unhealthy dynamics.
Still, other times it might involve a hidden goal or desire that gets in the way of the real work you want to do. Often, these hidden goals come from social expectations or from a sense of perfectionism. One year, I made my Letting Go Goal, “I will let go of the goal of having the highest test scores in my grade level.” I didn’t care about test scores. I didn’t believe in the validity of the tests themselves. However, I had bought into the lie that test scores were the bottom line. It wasn’t my dominant goal but it was still there creating a desire to focus on student achievement data. When I reflected on it, I found that a major component was also my desire to prove that PBL could boost student achievement; that they didn’t have to be opposing forces. I was afraid that if my scores dipped, I would have to abandon project-based learning. So, letting go of this goal meant a conscious decision to remind myself daily that scores were a byproduct and not a goal or even a sign of success.
Improve One of the reasons I love Improve Goals is that they build on previous successes. Unlike a Start Goal (where you fight against inertia) or a Let Go Goal (where you often have to unlearn habits) these goals begin from a place of momentum. As a teacher, you might ask yourself, “What am I already doing well and how can I take it to the next level?” This is a core idea of a Vintage Innovation mindset, where you find that overlap between best practices and next practices:
In the past, I have looked at course evaluations and said, “This is going well but I want to make two or three tweaks to improve course organization using UX Design Theory.” Another time, I said, “Our design thinking projects are going well but I want to improve on the idea of an authentic audience. We need to create a better launch.” On a personal level, I had a goal once to move from black and white to color sketchnote videos. This next year, I want to improve in my illustrations and I want to take my merchandise (stickers and t-shirts) to the next level. I’m still thinking through what this goal will look like specifically, but it’s a general idea.
Maintain Last year, I wrote about a different type of New Year’s Resolution:
Maintenance is proactive. It helps us prevent problems before they surface. By focusing on maintaining, we also stay more grateful. It reminds us that the epic life is often found in the mundane and the ordinary. We begin to internalize the idea that we are already okay in our present state without doing more or being more.
However, we tend to view maintenance as boring. We have ribbon cutting ceremonies for new bridges but traffic cones to maintain existing ones. We watch home improvement shows with bold renovations but no one is watching a show about cleaning out gutters. Universities name new buildings after patrons but nobody asks for the naming rights to the custodial crew.
This is why it helps to create a maintenance goal.
Choose a current habit, system, or relationship that you might neglect in the next year. Then, create a goal to maintain it. Set aside time in your calendar to make it happen. It could be having coffee with a friend you no longer work with or it could be the habit of reading each day or spending time with loved ones. Track your progress along the way. It could be a streak that you keep or a running tally. Create benchmarks and celebrate when you reach key milestones.
Maintenance isn’t as fun as starting something new. But it is absolutely vital to living a better life.
Experiment The Experiment Goal is similar to the Start Goal but with a caveat: you have no idea if it will work. Think of it as a Start Goal that you can abandon if it doesn’t work. So, you might decide to take up meditation as an experiment. If it doesn’t work for you, you can stop doing it and you can treat it as a failed hypothesis but a successful experiment. In other words, success is not about whether or not the experiment worked. Instead, success is about whether or not you took a risk and tried something new. This last year, I tried an Experiment Goal. I would illustrate the Great Gatsby with dogs. I sketched out some dogs, read the book and then said, “Ooh, I forgot how it ends. There’s no way I’m doing this with a dog.” The project was a bust but I still succeeded at the goal of attempting that project.
When a project fails, I can reflect on it with the following continuum:
In this case, it was a failed experiment. However, I also experimented with a novel I wrote that I will likely turn into an Improve Goal at some point.
Using Process Goals and Product Goals with the SLIME Method As mentioned earlier, it can help to design goals that are both process-oriented and product-oriented. The following video explores the distinction between the two:
Here’s a brief overview of the two types of goals:
- Product goals focus on the destination while process goals focus on the journey.
- Product goals tend to be short-term but process goals tend to be long-term.
- Product goals are project-oriented while process goals are designed to build habits.
- Product goals stick to firm deadlines while process goals stick to consistent routines.
- Product goals define success by the completion of great work. By contrast, process goals define success as growth in one’s skills and abilities.
So, what does this look like? If your goal involves running, a product goal might be finishing a marathon while a process goal might be committing to run for 45 minutes every day. If you’re a writer, a product goal might be publishing a novel while a process goal might be a daily habit of 500 words per day. Neither approach is wrong. Both product goals and process goals are important for success. We need to get finish projects and build lasting habits.
The sweet spot is the overlap between process goals and product goals. For example, you might have a goal of writing an entire novel (product goal) but you set a goal for yourself of writing 500 words per day or spending 40 minutes per day on writing. Going back to the SLIME concept, it can help to create a goal that incorporates both product and process together. For example, I have a maintain goal of, “Continue to create one blog post per week by continuing to devote an hour of writing per day (which I’ll also use for writing fiction, working on a book, etc.) Notice that the first half is a product goal but the second is a process goal.
What Does This Mean for the Classroom? Okay, so what does this have to do with teaching? Here are a few thoughts I have based on my own experiences and what I’ve observed when I look at teachers who have embraced both types of goal-setting:
- Encourage students to set both process and product goals. Often, schools focus on setting academic goals (increasing reading fluency scores) but there’s value in helping students set goals around habits. For example, you might have students set some goals for how many minutes they want to read each day.
- Take on a few major projects that require some product goals you want to focus on. But keep these limited to just a few projects. This will give you more room to focus on process-oriented goals.
- Choose a few process-oriented goals that you can monitor on a regular basis.
- Start out smaller with process goals and then gradually increase it. In working out, it’s common to start out with a small goal of running five minutes a day and then, two months later, moving to fifteen minutes and then increasing it again later.
- As you start new initiatives, consider the role of things like Maintenance Goals and Letting Go Goals. Also think of small ways to build on successes with Improve goals. This helps students embrace iterative thinking.
It also helps to gamify the goal-setting process.
Gamify the Process Video games are addicting. Whether you’re playing a simple game on your phone or a complex game with rich world-building on a gaming console, there is something inherent in video games that draw us in. This is by design. Game designers have crafted the user experience to make gameplay habitual. And it’s not just game designers. Social media apps use notifications, badges, and metrics to get us to spend more time on their platforms. Health apps use these game elements to get people to get active and eat right. What if we used principles of game design to gamify creative habits in real-life?
Here are a few ideas. Make it easy to start. Games work because the barrier of entry is low. Similarly, in developing creative habits, you might want to start with an easier goal. So you might be ten minutes a day learning to play a new instrument or you might start out writing just 100 words per day. You can also start off with smaller projects that allow you to hit the finish line faster. There’s actually a strong rationale for this approach. By making our goals easier to attain and experiencing some “big wins” early, we gain confidence and are then able to stick with a habit over time. As you improve, you can increase the challenge incrementally. Here you create “levels” for yourself where you can hit benchmarks and increase the challenge level. This allows you to keep the challenge level just above your skill level.
According to the Flow Channel model, if the skill level is too low, you’ll often experience worry and anxiety. But when the challenge is just above the skill level, you are more likely to hit a state of flow.
As you go, you can track progress. You might have a progress bar or a series of tally marks. You might create badges for yourself. Another option is to use three jars with marbles and move the marbles from a “haven’t started” to “started” to “finished.” You can also create a streak that builds with each day you have participated in the habit. If you’ve ever played Pokemon Go, you’ve seen how they keep track of consecutive days. Runners will often do a “run streak.” The same can be true of writing, painting, or reading.
When you keep track of a streak, you build momentum. As you succeed, you might even create small rewards or celebrations for yourself as you hit key benchmarks. You might also need to create visual cues. On phones, we have alerts and notifications for games. But you can also create notifications by creating visual cues in your physical environment. For example, if you want to read 50 books in a year, leave books throughout your home; on the coffee table by your nightstand, by your computer and maybe a few other places, just make sure things are sanitary. You might also put a book in your car or in your backpack. The point is to put these cues everywhere. You might also use sticky notes with reminders of your commitment to a creative habit.
Finally, you might want to join a community. Gaming often includes social interaction. As a maker, you might create a mastermind group with fellow makers who nerd out on their craft. This can give you a sense of belonging and help you take creative risks. In the end, there is no single formula for developing creative habits. By using elements of gamification, you help make these habits stick.
So, what are your process and product goals for this year? What goals would you like to pursue with your students? Feel free to share yours in the comment section below.
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The post Using the SLIME Method for Setting New Year’s Resolutions appeared first on John Spencer.
On Monday, I wrote a silly tweet:
I then started to think about how that tradition would have started and immediately began typing out a story. Initially, I thought I would share it privately with the early elementary teachers in my cohort and then I thought, “Nah, I might just send this out to the world.” So, here is. The story of how Miss B saved Christmas. You can read it below or listen to the audio version.
Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the go, just click on the audio below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts (ideal for iOS users) on Stitcher (ideal for Android users), on Amazon Podcasts, or on Spotify.
https://spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Saves-Christmas.mp3 Miss B Saves Christmas Belinda Bojorquez-Brukowski was famous in the neighborhood. At every aisle of the grocery store, she’d hear “What’s buzzing, Miss B?” from former students aged eight to forty-one. No matter how many errands she needed to run, she would turn to her student and give her legendary buzzing bee fist bump that she’d perfected over decades of teaching.
But after five such first bumps, Miss B was now running late for an appointment on a blustery November morning. However, she was about to be even later than ever because of a bright red flier flittering around on the sidewalk. She knew she could leave it alone and someone might throw it away but she didn’t want to leave that to chance, so she strolled over to the stray paper to snag it. It simply flew forward. She lunged at it again but it flew away. She hopped forward but the scrap of paper tumbled away. Miss B chased it down the block, around the corner, and into the parking lot where she eventually snatched it up.
“Gotcha!” she exclaimed as the customers at Danny’s Deli stared out at her.“I’m telling you, Miss B really cares about tidying up,” Danny said as he handed a customer a grilled peanut butter and cheese sandwich.
To Miss B’s surprise, the flier wasn’t a mere advertisement, but an envelope covered in glitter.
“Glitter!” she exclaimed in delight. It should be known that all first-grade teachers fit into two glitter camps. The first group is the anti-glitterites whose main goal is to rid the world of those shiny little flecks that get all over your clothes. The second group is the glitterati. They love all things glitter and wish to spread the flecks of fabulous all over the world. Miss B was the Queen of the Glitterati. She loved glitter almost as much as she loved bees.
Miss B flipped over the envelope. It read, “To the Marvelous Miss B.” She carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the old weathered parchment. Parchment is a really old word for paper and this paper looked really, really old. Like older than flip phones level old.
Miss B,
We invite you to become a seasonal specialist at Santa’s Workshop. Meet us at the library on Spruce Street at 7:32 a.m. tomorrow morning.
Sincerely,
K.B. Elfington III
Miss B smiled widely. It must be one of Miss Nancy’s famous fall scavenger hunts.
The next morning, Miss B put on her favorite Christmas sweater and her necklace that looked like tiny Christmas lights. It was full two weeks before Thanksgiving but to Miss B, it was always Christmastime. She loved Christmas even more than bees and glitter and even more than bee-related crafts made with glitter.
As she approached the library doors, a man with a pointy hat ushered her inside.
“I love your costume,” she said with a smile.
He furrowed his eyebrows and said, “Ahem, it’s a uniform, not a costume.”
She followed him past the rows of bookshelves, stopping twice take note of new mysteries she wanted to read and then a third time when she saw a picture book she planned to bring to the children’s hospital.
The pointed hat man shook his head and muttered, “This must be a mistake.”
Finally, they reached a study room with a hand-painted sign that read “Santa’s Workshop.”
“You’ll need these,” the man said, handing her top-of-the-line zero degree earmuffs and a scarf with a tag that claimed they were handcrafted by gnomes.
As she stepped inside, a flurry of snow swirled around her. She wiped her glasses with her scarf. Then she saw it. An entire village made from gingerbread, complete with twinkling lights and a giant fir tree with ornaments.
“This is the real Santa’s Workshop?” she asked.The elf nodded.
“But we were just in the library,” she pointed out.
“Yes, well magical things tend to happen when one visits the library,” the elf said. She followed him down the gumdrop path and into the workshop headquarters.
“Your favorite items have already been delivered to your cubicle,” he said, walking her down the rows of desks and over to an empty icy space.
“Excuse me, what’s my job?” she asked.
“Good luck. You’ll need it,” he growled.
An elf next to her peered over the ice cubicle and said, “You’re not given a job at Santa’s Workshop. It’s something you have to discover on your own.”
“Oh,” Miss B said.
“I’m Cautiously Optimistic,” the elf said, stretching out her hand for a handshake.
“I’m pretty optimistic, too,” Miss B answered.
“No, that’s my name. All elves have adjectives for names. In my case, I get both an adjective and an adverb which I think is pretty swell.”
“It’s a beautiful name,” Miss B replied.
“I must warn you that for all the talk of Christmas cheer, the elves around here can be pretty hard at first. My hope is that they’ll become more kind over time but I wouldn’t guarantee it. My advice is to focus on your job and you’ll be good . . . or not. No guarantees, right?” she laughed nervously.
Miss B set about to discover her new job. She visited the repair shop but soon realized that she didn’t have the necessary skills. Oh, she was really good at fixing the copy machine but they weren’t facing any urgent paper jams in the North Pole. They were still using parchment and quills.
Next, she moved to the woodworking department. Though she was a master woodworker, she wasn’t familiar with their magical tools. Besides, the space felt far too crowded. When she knocked over a tub of pixie dust, they sent her to the clothing department.
When Miss B arrived at the clothing design and fabrication center, she met an elf named Sassy who wore a perfectly tailored green suit.
“Hi there, what’s buzzing?” Miss B asked.
“You’re early,” Sassy answered.
“For what?” Miss B asked.
“The ugly Christmas sweater party isn’t until December 12th.”
“No, this is my favorite Christmas sweater. A former student knitted it for me six years ago and I remember her every time I put it on.”
“Well, it’s ugly,” Sassy said. “Maybe you should leave. We have lots of work to do.”
Miss B walked to the stables to see if maybe she could work as a reindeer trainer but they informed her that she would need a flying license which would take at least seven years to earn.
That night, she walked down the gum drop trail and through the library feeling defeated. None of the jobs seemed to fit her at all.
The next day, the pointy hat elf greeted her again in astonishment.
“You’re back?” he asked.
“Of course,” she answered.
“Oh,” is all he could manage as he walked her back to the Santa’s Workshop sign, through the door, and across the gumdrop trail to her ice cubicle.
Miss B spent the rest of the morning trying new jobs. She spent a few hours at the wrapping center but she was far too slow at tying bows. Then she tried the rapping center and her rhymes were far too slow. She headed to the mechanic’s station to work on the sled but she accidentally dropped a wrench on an elf’s foot and she was sent packing yet again.
I would love to say that the elves treated her with kindness but that wasn’t exactly the case. Three of them stole her coffee mugs and played keep away when she attempted to retrieve them. They couldn’t understand why she would care so much about those dollars store mugs that she cherished so much because they had been given to her by former students.
Other elves mocked her for failing to know the difference between the seventeen different types of snow. Still others called her “giant” and “ogre” behind her back.
Miss B returned to her cubicle exhausted.
She turned to Cautiously Optimistic and said, “I’ve visited every place and I can’t figure out where I’m supposed to be.”
“Yet,” Cautiously Optimistic said.
“What’s that?” Miss B asked.
“Yet. That was your special word, right? Learning is hard, you bet, you bet. So always remember the power of yet. If something seems impossible now, keep on trying. You’ll discover how,” Cautiously Optimistic said.
“How’d you know my class song?” Miss B asked.
“It was in your Naughty or Nice file. Or in your case, almost entirely Nice file. You used to sing that in your class all the time,” the elf said. “I think you should follow your own advice. Or maybe not. I think it will work but I can’t make any promises,” Cautiously Optimistic said.
Miss B went back to each location but this time as a student. She observed each station carefully and took detailed notes.
At lunchtime, when the elves gathered around to eat heaps of smashed candy bars and tubs of marshmallow cream, she sat alone with a sad little salad and a protein bar.
Cautiously Optimistic pulled up a chair next to her and slurped on her hot caramel.
“Are you okay?”
“I think it was an accident,” Miss B said. “What if that invitation was meant for a different Miss B?”
“Nonsense,” Cautiously Optimistic answered.
“But I can’t figure anything out,” Miss B said.
“Find something that inspires you,” the elf answered.
After lunch, Miss B stopped by her cubicle and opened up her backpack of items. Inside, she saw her favorite poster from her classroom. It was a cartoon bee with the words, “You can be anything. Bee kind.”
When she tried tape the poster onto the cubicle, it simply slipped off the smooth icy surface. She grabbed a stapler but the staples fell off. So, she went to the hardware section of the workshop and borrowed a hammer and nails.
She lined up the poster perfectly center and placed a nail at the top left-hand corner and swung the hammer as hard as she could until it pierced the ice. She repeated it again with all four corners.
She stepped back and let out a sigh.
“Perfect,” she mumbled to herself.
Cautiously Optimistic was right. The poster was a little boost of inspiration. The elves might be grumpy and maybe even a little rude but she could be kind. That much was clear.
Right then, she heard a crackle. Then a crack. Then another crackle. All at once, the icy cubicle began to shatter. Then, like dominoes, each cubicle began cracking and crumbling and falling on the next one until the whole office space looked like an ice tray.
Miss B grabbed her backpack and headed off on the gumdrop trail in search for the library door. But try as she might, she couldn’t find it. She wandered the path again and again but nothing worked. Eventually, she opened up her backpack with her most cherished items and saw what she called her “memory binder” with notes and drawings from her former students.
It’s a little-known secret that even the best teachers sometimes doubt themselves. They make mistakes and get frustrated. Sometimes they raise their voice at a class, which is a nice way of saying they get angry like the rest of us. Sometimes, they get their feelings hurt. They second-guess themselves. Sometimes they wonder if their students even like them.
On hard days, teachers sometimes take out of a file folder or a box or a binder and read thank you notes from former students.
Though she was shivering in the cold, Miss B felt warmer as she read each letter and remembered her students. There was Darnelle the doctor who was the first in his family to go college. And there was Leticia the electrician who could work wonders. Oh, and Miguel, who was now a kindergarten teacher. There was Kyle, who started a new business and Olivia, who was just now applying for college.
“What are you doing?” a voice asked.
Miss B jumped up, startled. She wiped her eyes and looked up to see Cautiously Optimistic standing there smiling.
“Don’t worry. I’m leaving this place. I just needed a breather.”
“You are not leaving this place,” the elf replied.
“But I broke the cubicles.”
“So? That’s what they get for making furniture out of ice. Dasher escaped last week and destroyed an entire apartment complex made of gingerbread. Elves are madly talented but sometimes we make boneheaded design choices.”
“I just . . . I needed to read these letters to remind me that . . .”
“Wait, you’re telling me that you can actually read those?” Cautiously Optimistic asked.
“Well, of course I can. I taught first grade for thirty-three years.”
The elf grabbed Miss B by the hand and pulled her up.
“Do you know what this means?” Cautiously Optimistic asked.
But Miss B had no idea what it meant. How could she?
“Where are we going?” Miss B asked. However, the young elf didn’t answer. Instead, she raced through the workshop, across the town square, around the reindeer stables and over to the brand-new communications building.
Miss B awkwardly waved at the gawking eyes of the elves who knew the damage she had just done that day. Meanwhile Cautiously Optimistic whispered to a guard who then waved them forward up the candy cane staircase to the main offices.
“Would you happen to know how to decipher this letter? What is this hde?” Clever asked.
Miss B snapped her finger. “Easy. The d is backwards. So it spells hbe. It’s a child trying to sound out the word happy. You see?”
The elf nodded.
“I knew teachers were amazing,” Clever muttered, “but this type of deciphering skill simply cannot be taught.”
“Oh but it can,” Miss B protested.
“On the contrary, you have found your unique gift,” Clever the elf answered.
Miss B spent the next two days deciphering various letters that had been sent to Santa’s Workshop. They even made an official name tag for her that read, “Phonetic Code Breaking Genius.” She immediately covered it in glitter for an extra dose of fabulous because, well, that’s what Miss B does.
Each evening, Miss B would walk down the gumdrop trail and leave the library with a sense of pride. She’d arrive the next day with a new Christmas sweater and a spark of joy. She would spend her entire day reading various letters to Santa while a crowd of elves came by to marvel at her magic.
At the end of the week, Miss B posted an invitation on the staff room bulletin board with a class called “How to read first and second grade writing.”
Only one student showed up but together she and Cautiously Optimistic spent ninety minutes that night working on deciphering children’s handwriting and spelling.
The next evening, two elves showed up. One of them was Sassy, the slightly snobby elf from the fashion department who shook her head in disapproval of both the Christmas sweater and the glittery name tag but who remained in the class for the entire evening.
A full week went by before a third and a fourth elf showed up.
When Miss B took attendance on day and said, “Cautiously Optimistic,” the elf answered, “You know what? I think I might just go by my new nickname now, if that’s okay. Call me Optimistic instead of Cautiously Optimistic.”
While the class was small, something big began to happen. A few elves actually sat next to her at lunch and even gave salad a chance. Don’t get me wrong. They didn’t eat their veggies. Miracles do have their limits. But they tried it, nonetheless.
It all happened so subtly that Miss B didn’t even realize it but the elves had begun treating each other with a little more kindness and respect.
A week later, her class grew to 15 students. In that time, she had her first invitation to an elfish scavenger hunt. She received another invitation to the official elves-only Christmas play, where they gave her an Honorary Elf pass and her very own hand-crafted pointy hat.
When she organized a white elephant gift exchange, the elves didn’t know what to do. “Why would we give each other gifts if we can make for ourselves anything we could ever need?”
But to her surprise, the room was packed with elves trading presents as they sipped their hot cocoa and hot caramel.
Miss B continued to decipher letters and teach the classes. Each day, she would return to her apartment and feed her goldfish Gilgamesh and then return the next morning to the library with a set of lesson plans for that evening.
On December 23rd, just one day shy of Christmas Eve, she held her final class. Sassy handed her a beautifully wrapped golden box. Miss B opened it up to see the biggest, puffiest, ugliest ugly sweater she had ever seen.
“It’s beautiful,” she said, with tears in her eyes.
“Oh no, it’s hideous. But it’s so you,” Sassy said.
That night, as she headed out on the gumdrop trail, a tall man in a red suit waved her over.
“Santa?” she asked.
He nodded with a twinkle in his eye. “Tomorrow will be your last day here.”
“Did I do something wrong?” she asked.
“On the contrary, you did something quite right. This is seasonal work and your season here is nearly over.”
“I don’t understand,” she answered.
“You can’t teach them forever. They will eventually need to move on. But you taught them everything they needed to learn from you.”
“How to read sloppy handwriting?” Miss B asked.
“Nope.” He shook his head.
“How to decipher phonetic spelling?” she asked.
“Not exactly,” he answered.
“Then what?” she asked.
“While it’s true that you taught them to read sloppy handwriting and decode phonetic spelling, you taught them so much more. You taught them how to listen and how to give gifts and, more than anything else, you taught them how to love. That’s something we’ve been missing at the workshop. And it took someone very special to teach it to us. It took a teacher.”
The post Miss B. Saves Christmas (A Story) appeared first on John Spencer.
I wrote this post fifteen years ago as a 400 word reminder to myself to choose renewal and rest rather than work during winter break. I realize that it goes beyond the personal level. Often, the systems and structures fail to support teachers’ ability to take time off. Right now, we are seeing huge issues related to sub shortages, challenging behaviors, and political battles at the school board level. It’s part of why I want to shift the focus from “self-care” to “teacher-care” because it cannot be on the individual to solve this problem.
I also want to point out that principals and other leaders have faced similar challenges. On a personal note, my mother-in-law had a heart attack last month and nearly died. I feel so fortunate for the medical professionals who saved her life. But I also feel angry at the system that caused so much stress in her life. As a principal, she faced immense challenges relating to angry parents, irate community members (mostly shouting about masks or accusing them of promoting Critical Race Theory), sub shortages, staffing issues, and so many systemic issues that were outside of her control. Add to this the loneliness of the profession and it was so stressful. It’s why I care so deeply about protecting time off.
Last year, I created this video thanking teachers. I assumed that it feel dated a year later but it’s still relevant because we never did return to normal:
So, this week, I want to share this post again. I’ve rewritten parts and added parts. It continues to evolve as an article. However, the theme remains the same. Let’s choose renewal over this break.
Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the go, just click on the audio below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts (ideal for iOS users) on Stitcher (ideal for Android users), on Amazon Podcasts, or on Spotify.
https://spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Renewal-on-Break.mp3 My Epic Mistake I still remember my first winter break in my first year of teaching. I scratched out Christmas Eve and Christmas as true “days off,” but then I worked the rest of the time. I read two books on teaching. I took home a giant box full of papers to grade. I planned out my first three weeks of lesson plans.
Don’t get me wrong, I did this leisurely, between cups of coffee and . . . more cups of coffee. To be honest, I enjoyed it.
When I started back, I felt ready to roll. I had used my time productively. But then something happened in late January. I felt restless and tired. I yearned for a break — not just from my classroom but from the daydreaming of projects and the incessant lesson planning in my own head. I wanted to watch a movie and read a novel and hang out with friends.
I needed to be unproductive.
So, months later, when I sputtered into Spring Break, I treated it like a break. A real break. A totally unproductive break. I gave myself the permission to avoid grading. I avoided professional books and blogs (unlike the summer when I would immerse myself in professional reading). I didn’t feel an ounce of guilt from the people who complained that “teachers have it easy” (not true) because of how much vacation time they get.
Teaching is Exhausting. Teaching is exhausting. There’s the sense of presence you need, the constant energy you bring, the give and take between students, the conflicts you have to navigate, the sense of pressure about the tests and the tension between what you believe about learning and what the system requires of you.
This is especially true during this quarantine over the last two years. Teachers have faced the challenges of a constantly changing context. Some have shifted from virtual to hybrid and back to virtual again. Others have taught virtual lessons and spent eight hours a day in front of a video screen talking to what often feels like a void of blank black screens. Educators have been experimenting and reinventing their teaching practice. They’re moving through so many new iterations and trying to discover what works. It can feel like being a new teacher all over again. Many teachers I talk to describe the challenges of teaching from home while having kids at home or the difficulties in trying to keep work and life separate when the spaces are the same.
At the beginning of this year, there was a thought that maybe we would be moving back to normal. But so many teachers I know have faced significant new challenges. They’ve seen a spike in misbehavior. And it’s been everything from fights and violence to the smaller issues of indifference and apathy. One of the pre-service teachers I work with put it this way, “I feel like I’m teaching to a wall sometimes. I’m putting everything into it and it’s so tiring right now.”
Meanwhile, we’ve all experienced some level of trauma. Many teachers have lost loved ones to Covid-19 or faced huge financial hardships. Others have delayed weddings, missed out on graduations, or delayed visiting friends and family.
Even if you love teaching, it can feel draining right now.
Sometimes it’s more than simply exhaustion. There’s often a perfectionism in teaching that can lead to an unhealthy striving and lack of contentment. Sometimes you need to break up with busy:
When Teachers Rest, We All Win People say that teaching is a marathon and I think they’re right. Even when you finish a marathon and you cross the finish line and you receive that metal and you crazy proud of what you’ve accomplished, you still find yourself collapsing on the ground in exhaustion.
That’s winter break right there.
I mention this because I sometimes see a narrative that the “good teachers” are the ones who spend their winter breaks in professional development or in committees planning out lessons. It’s easy, as teachers, to get sucked into the martyr syndrome, believing that you should selflessly give everything you have because you’re doing it for the children. I call this the “superhero myth.” It’s an idea I explored in this video I co-created with my friend Trevor Muir:
Martyrs aren’t any good to kids. Students need teachers who are energetic and patient. However, this requires rest and restoration. Moreover, students need teachers who are passionate about the content they are teaching, which is why it’s a positive thing when teachers spend part of the winter geeking out on history or art or math or science. If we want kids to fall in love with reading, it helps to have teachers who spent a part of their winter lost in a fictional world or playing around with ideas in a non-fiction book.
Teaching is an exhausting gig. It’s okay to take a break for a week or two (depending on your school calendar). Read a book. Watch movies. Go hiking. Swim. Binge watch Stranger Things. Kick the soccer ball around with your daughter. Go hiking. You’ve poured your heart and soul into this gig. You shouldn’t feel guilty for resting. It’s what your students need.
In fact, there’s a ton of interesting research in the book Rest, that suggests we are more productive and more creative when we spend time resting.
This idea is echoed in an article, where author Thomas Oppong wrote:
According to research, the brain gradually stops registering a sight, sound or feeling if that stimulus remains constant over time. You lose your focus and your performance on the task declines.
When faced with a long creative problem, it is best to impose brief breaks on yourself. Brief mental breaks will actually help you stay focused on your task and improve your idea generation approach. A structured downtime can help you do your best work.
We tend to generate redundant ideas when we don’t take regular breaks. If you’re hesitant to break away because you feel that you’re on a roll, be mindful that it might be a false impression. Your brain needs downtime to remain industrious and generate better ideas.
I love that idea. We need to rest. We need restoration and renewal.
I love this quote from Ann Lamott:
Seven Strategies for Finding Renewal on Winter Break There’s nothing wrong with doing professional reading or lesson planning or any of that during the break. If that’s your thing, please ignore this entire post. But if you want to treat the winter break as a true break, here are some strategies you might want to try out. For the last week, I’ve been talking to current classroom teachers and adding their strategies to those that I’ve used:
- Take some time for reflection. This can be tricky, but I’ve found that it can help to take a day (or even a half-day) and review student surveys and take an honest look at what’s working and what needs tweaking. If you’re someone who spirals into guilt or feels shame easily, take a different approach. Do end-of-the-semester surveys a little earlier and then spend this reflection time thinking about what went well. One activity would be to list 30 things that you are doing well. In other words, ask yourself, “where am I crushing it as a teacher?”
- Take nothing home. Ditch the grading. Avoid the lesson planning. One of my teacher friends said that he works extra hard two weeks before the break and makes sure everything is ready for him the moment he walks into his room after the break. His philosophy is to “sprint through the finish” by spending a few extra hours on Monday and Tuesday before the break so that his materials are ready and his lessons are planned for the first two weeks after winter break.
- Find inspiration from other domains. Read a book. Watch a movie. Go hiking. Spend time doing what you love. Some of my favorite ideas have been inspired by things I read in unrelated books. I got into Genius Hour after reading a book on Google. I changed my feedback process after reading a book about Pixar. I regularly reshape my design by reading works from UX designers. I’m constantly being inspired by podcasts I listen to as well.
- Keep a brainstorming space. Sometimes the slack you feel on your time off can lead to creative breakthroughs. You have those brilliant ideas when you go to bed or when you’re in the shower or while you’re on a walk. It can actually help to record those and then walk away from it. I’ve always kept a notepad where I can jot down ideas for projects, lessons, or activities I want to try out.
- Do something creative. Paint, draw, make friendship bracelets. Okay, maybe not friendship bracelets. But there’s power in doing something truly creative outside the domain of teaching. It helps build empathy with your students as they do creative work while also allowing you to hit a state of flow.
- Spend time with people you love. This is obvious, but it’s something that came up over and over again as I talked to people. They described times when they failed to be fully present with people because of the lesson planning or grading that was looming over their heads. I talked to one teacher who said she felt like she totally missed out on her children’s early childhood years because she couldn’t “turn off the teacher planning brain.”
- Practice mindfulness and meditation. I have a friend who taught for over thirty years and is now teaching again after being retired for a year. She takes part of the winter break to do meditation, practice mindfulness, and keep a journal.
Note that these aren’t recipes or requirements. They’re simply ideas you might want to experiment with on your time off. In the end, the more renewal and restoration we experience, the more creative we will be in our teaching. And that, in turn, is better for students.
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The post Finding Renewal on Your Winter Break appeared first on John Spencer.
I had the honor of interviewing celebrated author Antonio Sacre on the power of storytelling in education. Check out the podcast below.
Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the go, just click on the audio below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts (ideal for iOS users) or Google Play and Stitcher (ideal for Android users).
https://spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Antonio-Sacre-Podcast.mp3 About Anotonio Sacre Born in Boston to a Cuban father and Irish-American mother, Sacre is an internationally touring storyteller, author, and solo performance artist, based in Los Angeles. He has performed at the National Book Festival at the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, the National Storytelling Festival, as well as museums, schools, libraries, and festivals. Deemed “a charismatic, empathetic presence” by the Chicago Tribune, his stories have appeared in numerous magazines, journals, and on National Public Radio.
His first picture book, The Barking Mouse, published by Albert Whitman and Company in 2003, was a winner of the 2004 International Reading Association Notable Books for a Global Society. His next two picture books, La Noche Buena, a Christmas Story, and A Mango in the Hand, a Story of Proverbs were both chosen for inclusion in the prestigious California Readers Book Collections for School Libraries in 2011 and 2012.
Kirkus Reviews described the stories in his fourth book, My Name Is Cool: Stories from a Cuban-Irish-American Storyteller, as “over-the-top, as funny as they are touching. These stories convey the importance of bilingualism and biculturalism and should appeal to young readers.” Drawn from Sacre’s personal history growing up bilingual and bicultural as a Cuban-Irish-American, the book weaves the Spanish language, Cuban family, and Irish humor into 18 unforgettable tales full of humor, inspiration, tradition, and family.
is storytelling recordings have won numerous awards, including the American Library Association’s Notable Recipient Award, the Parent’s Choice Gold and Silver Awards, and the National Association of Parenting Publications Gold Award. His most recent, World’s Second-Best Dad, was released in March of 2020 and received both a National Parenting Product Award and a Family Choice Award. Recorded in front of a live audience at BYUtv for BYUradio’s The Apple Seed, the album garnered a delightful review from the NPPA Awards Committee: “Stocked with stories that will amuse both children and parents, World’s Second-Best Dad is a fabulous album that families can enjoy listening to together. And after listening to it, you will want to invite Sacre over and have him tell your family more stories.”
As a solo performer, Sacre has performed in festivals and theaters in New York City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Chicago, where he performed under the tutelage and mentorship of Jenny Magnus. At The New York City International Fringe Theater Festival, Sacre was awarded a Best in Fringe Festival award for Excellence in acting, and a Best in Fringe Festival Award for Excellence in Solo Performance. At the United Solo Theater Festival off-Broadway, he twice won the United Solo Award for Best Storyteller, in 2011 and 2012.
Since 1994, he has led many teacher in-services and district-wide trainings, sharing his knowledge of drama, storytelling, and writing in student workshops nationwide. Committed to nurturing, teaching, and performing for students of all ages, he is currently touring Los Angeles public schools and communities,where Antonio does Storytelling Assemblies, Professional Development Programs, Family Literacy Nights, and Writing Workshops, to help children and educators discover their own stories and embrace their own multicultural backgrounds.
His Professional Developments and Keynote Addresses have helped educators teach writing to students from prekindergarten through graduate school. When he is not touring, he works as storyteller-in-residence at the UCLA Lab School (formerly UES) on the UCLA campus in Westwood, CA. Antonio earned a BA in English from Boston College and an MA in Theater Arts from Northwestern University. He is a former recipient of an Ethnic and Folk Arts Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council.
When he is not touring, he works as storyteller-in-residence at the UCLA Lab School (formerly UES) on the UCLA campus in Westwood, CA. Antonio earned a BA in English from Boston College and an MA in Theater Arts from Northwestern University. He is a former recipient of an Ethnic and Folk Arts Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council.
www.antoniosacre.com
The post Antonio Sacre on the Power of Storytelling in Education appeared first on John Spencer.
December is exhausting for teachers. The days are shorter. The weather grows colder and (at least here in Oregon) wetter. Students are anxious — whether it’s a buzzing excitement for vacation or a sense of dread that some kids feel in homes that are unsafe during the holidays. This year, in particular, feels harder. Students are experiencing pandemic fatigue and many of them are feeling the loss of not being able to visit loved ones for the holidays.
And teachers are tired. They’re tired of redirecting behaviors and tired of the mid-year pressure of the test and simply tired of the sheer energy it takes to be a teacher. This year has been especially hard, with everything from school board battles over Critical Race Theory to the “deviant licks” trend leading to theft and vandalism. Add to this the sub shortage and quarantines and it’s been exhausting.
Student engagement is challenging this year and it feel disheartening when students don’t turn work in. While there’s no perfect solution for this, as teachers, we can choose to end the semester on a creative note. One of the best ways is through a project that taps into student interests.
Starting with student interests can help build student confidence. Certain students might struggle with a particular skill or concept. They might arrive to your class feeling like they are behind. However, when they pursue their interests, they build on their own expertise and gain greater confidence in your classroom. Starting with student interests sends the message that we are all experts in something. This creates a culture where students are able to learn from one another from day one. It’s also a chance to be humble and model the learning process for your students.
Starting with student interests affirms their agency. As the instructor, you are saying, “I want you to share your expertise. I don’t care if people think it’s shallow or insignificant. Who you are matters to me. So, if you geek out about Hello Kitty or limericks or super spicy pepper jams, I want you to share it.” In other words, when students are able to pursue their own interests, they have more agency in their learning. They are shifting from compliance and engagement into a place of true empowerment, where they have voice and choice in their learning.
One of the best ways to tap into student interests is by launching a student blogging project.
Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the go, just click on the audio below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts (ideal for iOS users) or Google Play and Stitcher (ideal for Android users).
https://spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Start-with-Student-Blogging.mp3 What is Student Blogging? Blogging is a popular way for people to share their thoughts and ideas with the world. While they originally started in the 1990’s as weblogs, they grew in prominence over the next two decades, as it became easier to edit, add multimedia, and leave comments. So, how does a blog work? A blog can be broken down into a series of blog posts. Most bloggers create new posts on a regular schedule – either daily, weekly, or monthly. Blog posts go in a reverse chronological order with the newest posts at the top and the older posts at the bottom.
Most blog post have a compelling title that is capitalized. They often have shorter paragraphs and even bulleted points or lists. Many bloggers break information down using headings and they also include a few visuals or videos. They tend to use tags or categories that connect to other posts.
Unlike a journal, which you write for yourself, or an essay you typically send to your teacher, a blog is a platform for sharing your voice with a larger audience. The following is a prompt you can use to introduce blogging to students:
If you’re interested in starting a student blogging project, you might want to consider SeeSaw for early elementary students. For mid-level students, a great option might be Write About, KidBlog, or Edublogs. At the high school level, the previous options work well but so does Blogger and WordPress.com. One of my favorite approaches to blogging is the Geek Out Project.
Getting Started with Geek Out Blogs Geek Out Blogs are based on the concept of a Genius Hour, where students get to chase their curiosity while they create something entirely new. Genius Hour (or 20% Time) projects begin with a simple idea: give students a dedicated period of time to pursue their passions, interests, and questions in a creative way. It’s an idea popularized by Google but one that has existed for years in the technology industry.
With Genius Hour, students own the entire journey: They choose the topics based upon their own geeky interests. It doesn’t have to be a traditionally academic area. They might like fashion or food or sports or Legos or Minecraft or deep sea creatures. They can then match these topics with topic-neutral standards. Students ask the questions and engage in their own research to find the answers. Along the way, they design their own plan of instruction. They decide on the resources and activities. Each student sets goals and engages in self-assessment. They work at their own pace and set their own deadlines. Students decide on the grouping. Some work alone. Others work in pairs or small groups. In the end, students figure out what they will make and how they will share their learning with the world. A word of caution: It’s not a free-for-all. The best Genius Hour projects have systems and structures that empower students to reach their full potential.
This is why I created Geek Out Blogs when I was a middle school teacher. With Geek Out Blogs, students pursue their own topics but they do so in a more structured way that supports reading, writing, and multimedia composition. Along the way, students learn information literacy, media literacy, and digital citizenship. They’re also developing vital soft skills, like communication, curation, collaboration, and critical thinking.
Geek Out Blogs work well as a get-to-know-you activity at the start of the year. However, they also work well as project you can do at the end of the a semester, where students get the chance to apply reading and writing skills they’ve learned in a way that ties into their personal interests. I’ve seen some teachers run Geek Out Blog Projects as a once-a-week activity that students do for an entire year. Here, they gradually add key ideas to their blog throughout the year. Others prefer to to take 2-3 weeks once or twice a year to run the project and then let students add to their blogs as an enrichment activity throughout the year. While Geek Out Blogs are generally an individual project, some students might choose to create partner or small group blogs with multiple posts from multiple authors. So, a small group might do a fashion blog or a gamer blog and that’s totally fine. I find that it helps to give students flexibility in grouping.
Phase One: Choosing Your Geek Out Topic In many cases, students struggle with blogging because they haven’t actually read many blogs. They might have read some articles online and they might have access to magazines but they haven’t really seen how the blogging process works. For this reason, it can help to expose students to all types of blogs. As a teacher, you might curate a set of blogs relating to all kinds of interests. This list could include gamer blogs, sports blogs, fashion blogs, music blogs, foodie blogs, etc. I began my curation by reaching out to people in my own network who nerded out on different topics and I specifically asked for references that were inclusive and diverse.
Once you have your curation of blogs, you can place students in pairs and have them explore examples. During this phase, students can come up with a general definition of a blog and list the key features that they notice (a date, visuals, a catchy title, ideas that are broken up by headers, a first-person voice). From there, they can pair up again and compare their lists. Next, students can pair up one more time to analyze and evaluate the blog examples. You might have students grade the examples using a blogging rubric or do a t-chart with best practices and worst practices. They might select a group of blogs and rank them from worst to first using their own criteria. However, for a more open-ended and analytical approach, students could fill out a see-think-wonder chart where they select blogs that caught their attention and jot down what they see, what they think about the blog, and what they wonder.
I realize that analyzing examples of blogs might be time-consuming but the goal is to build their prior knowledge before launching into the project. From there, students can start to explore their own geeky interests. The following questions can help guide students along the way:
- What do you really care about? Why?
- What is something that you’re passionate about?
- What is something you know inside and out?
- What are some things you believe deeply in? What are some convictions you have about life?
- What do you love to do?
- What do you know a lot about?
- If you could invent your own course, what would it be?
I also created this Genius Hour prompt that provides students with a general sense of how the Geek Out Blog / Genius Hour approach works:
As a middle school teacher, I loved watching how diverse their interests were. In one class, students were all over the place. A girl chose Korean pop music while the girl next to her delved into issues of immigration. A boy across the room chose Minecraft while the kid next to him chose zombies (and immediately began writing about the seven amazing reasons why zombies would make great pets). A few kids wrote about their lives, their families or their cultures. Some students have even focused on the intersection between multiple interests.
Phase Two: Clarify the Audience During this phase, it can help to have students identify their potential audience. This is a great chance to have a conversation about privacy:
It’s also a chance to have students to build empathy as they explore who their audience is, what their audience needs, what questions their audience has, and how they will reach their potential audience.
Once they have a sense of their blog topic and their audience, students can create their blog. As a teacher, you will likely choose the platform students will use. However, they can create the blog name, the color scheme, their profile picture, and other blogging features. I love the way KidBlog works in terms of the layers of privacy and the management of the blogs from the teacher profile. However, I also like the way Edublogs for the rich features that mirror the WordPress platform. If you want students to publish their work to specific interest-oriented communities, you might check out Write About (which I helped co-design) which focuses on students publishing to an authentic audience within the platform.
Phase Three: Generate Ideas Once students have created their blog, they can begin brainstorming ideas for blog posts they would like to write. The following activities can help students generate ideas:
- Create a list of questions people might have about your topic. You might even pair students up and have them ask as many questions as they can come up with about the topic. This process will help students create an initial list of blog post ideas.
- Have students engage in a quick research of existing blogs in that domain (i.e. sports blogs, fashion blogs, maker blogs, gamer blogs) and see what information hasn’t been written about before. What ideas haven’t been explored? What perspectives haven’t been considered? What groups have been left out of the conversation? This can help students clarify their audience and find their creative voice.
- Ask students to find connections between their topic and larger trends. They might look at social, cultural, economic, environmental, or technological trends. For example, a student might explore fast fashion and its environmental impact or another student might look at the social and economic effects of the growing esports industry.
- Encourage students to go back to the curation of blogs and explore what types of blog posts exist in different domains. Some of the most creative ideas happen when we borrow ideas from one domain and apply it to another. For example, you might take a “makeover” idea from a home improvement blog and use that approach with a gaming blog to reconsider how gameplay could be improved.
After students have generated a list of initial blog post ideas, you can provide them with a set of ideas that they can customize. I find that it helps to create sentence frames that they can use as their initial blog post title. This can help with students who need additional language support:
- Research your topic and find seven random things that you find fascinating. Create a post called “Seven Things You Might Not Know About _________” or “Seven Fascinating Facts About ________.”
- Think about a strong opinion you have about your “geek out” topic. Write a persuasive post on the topic.
- Write the story behind how you got into your particular “geek out” topic. What is it that you find so fascinating? Create a post called “The Surprising Story of ______”
- Write a “how-to” post showing how to do something connected to your topic (i.e. how to do a kick flip in skateboarding, how to make a TikTok video, etc.). Write “How to _______ in _______ Easy Steps”
- Create a Q+A post on your “geek out” topic. Include questions that people would typically have. Write “Common Questions and Practical Answers About ______”
- Do an interview with an expert on your topic. Write “(Expert Name) on ________, ________, and _______”
- Write an introductory blog post for people who are new to the topic. Share the key entry-level information people would need to know. Write “How to Get Started with _______”
- Write a history of your topic and include a timeline. Write “The History of _______ from _______ Until Now”
- Compare and contrast two aspects of your topic. It could be two bands and their respective styles, two approaches to a skill, two opinions, two brands (Marvel versus DC). Write, “________ Versus _________” or “How _______ Compares to ________”
- Do a Best of / Worst of blog post with the sentence frame “The Seven Best _______ in _________” or “The Seven Worst ________ in ________”
In this phase, some students will choose to work in isolation as they plan out all of their blog posts. Others will want to brainstorm with a partner or in a small group. They’ll bounce ideas back and forth and add to their brainstorm. Some students will map out an entire blogging calendar while others will keep a massive brainstorm and choose what they’ll write in a more spontaneous way.
Phase Four: Start Blogging In this phase, you can blend together shorter pieces and longer pieces. For example, a student might do a 2-paragraph shorter blog post and then spend a longer time engaging in research, outlining, writing, and revision. Here, you can integrate direct instruction into the Geek Out Blog process. For example, you might provide students with sentence frames for questions and have them practice asking research questions. You can then do direct instruction and guided practice on the research process while allowing students to determine how they want to organize their research (a table, a spreadsheet, notecards, sketchnote). I developed the following structured research process for students:
This is also a chance to integrate mini-lessons and discussions about digital citizenship and digital ethics. Students can learn about copyright and Creative Commons as they select visuals. They can create digital ethics that they use as their norms for engaging online. You can also teach some smaller mini-lessons on visual design and cover the basics on how to create and edit audio, how to make slides / visuals that grab the reader’s attention, and how to edit videos. If you missed my recent interview with Clement Townsend, you should check out his ideas for how we can incorporate video and audio composition into our content areas. I really think there is value in having students design and embed multimedia elements in student blogs. In the past, I’ve even had students create anchor charts with design dos and don’ts.
In this phase, it can help to use a simple checklist that students use for each blog post:
- My post has a title that is interesting and compelling
- The title at the top and the heading titles are capitalized
- My posts at least one visual (picture) that is Creative Commons compliant
- I have broken my blog post down using headings
- I used labels and/or tags that relate to my topic
- My post is proof-read for errors in spelling, grammar, and any other mistakes that will potentially drive my teacher bonkers
- I have shared my post with my teacher and my classmates. (Optional: I have shared my posts on social media)
It also helps to build in time for students to leave feedback on one another’s blog posts. Generally, I broke the feedback up into two areas. The first was the writer’s workshop, where students might use something like a 3-2-1 structure (3 strengths, two weaknesses, one suggestion) or a more in-depth 20-minute feedback process:
The second type of feedback is the feedback on student ideas. This is the public feedback students give to one another when reading their blog posts. The goal here is to engage in a deeper conversation in the comment section of the blog. I developed the following sentence stems for students who need additional support in leaving blog comments:
COMMENTS AS QUESTIONS
- Why did you _______________?
- What made you think of writing _____________________?
- Have you considered ______________________?
- Is it possible that ________________?
- Have you considered the possibility that ____________?
- I was wondering why _________________?
COMMENTS AS STATEMENTS
Agree / Disagree
- I agree that _______________ because _______________.
- I disagree with your thought that _______________ because _______________.
- While I agree that ________ I’m wondering __________.
Clarifying
- I was a little confused about _______________. Could you explain _______________?
- I noticed that __________. I was wondering if you could explain how _________?
Adding Your Thoughts
- I really enjoyed _______________ about your post. (Add thoughts afterward)
- You mentioned that _______________. This had me thinking _______________,
- You bring up the problem _______________. I think a solution might be _______________.
COMMENTS AS PARAGRAPHS
Paragraph #1 – Agree / Disagree
I agree with _____________ but I’m wondering if __________________ is also true. I feel this way about ________________, because __________________. What do you think about that?
Paragraph #2 – Questioning / Adding Additional Thoughts
I feel ___________ about your thoughts on_______________. What you said about __________ had me wondering about ______________. Have you considered ________?
Paragraph #3 – Quoting the Post
You mentioned, “quote the post.” I agree/disagree with this, because _______________.
Paragraph #4 – Adding Your Own Thoughts
I agree with _______________. I also think (give your own thoughts).
Phase Five: Reflect on the Process The Geek Out Blog project allows students to iterate on their work because they continually add newer blog posts. Many students will choose to edit and update previous blog posts. However, when it’s all done, they can also reflect on their process using the following questions:
- How did the blogging process go? Were you able to engage with a real audience?
- What did you learn about yourself based upon this experience?
- What part was the hardest for you? Why?
- What part was the easiest for you? Why?
- Will you continue to post to your blog? Why or why not?
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