'Surviving' School Wide Collaboration

As teachers, we collaborate pretty much daily. Often, this is simply a conversation, a sharing of ideas, an informal (small) think tank.

During one of these collaborative conversations, a friend and colleague of mine (who also happens to be a phenomenal Chemistry and Physics teacher) and I were discussing lessons for the upcoming year. We discovered we were both doing apocalyptic lessons--I was set to  teach Alas, Bablyon, and she was exploring the difficulties of sharing resources on both sides of the New Madred fault line after its hypothetical break down. From this discovery, an idea was born--a collaborative unit of epic proportions.

My high school embarked on a 9-week school-wide apocalyptic unit in which almost everyone participated (there's always a couple of naysayers). To get everyone involved and pumped for the unit, we made it competitive with a survival game to see who was most likely to fare well in a disaster of local or apocalyptic porportions. Each week, the 1st period classes were given a new situation from listing survival gear in order of most to least important, to finding patient zero, and more. During the fifteen minute Encore period, first period classes worked together to solve that week's puzzle. Each Monday, the top 5 teams from the previous week were listed. The competition was intense! At the end of the 9 weeks, the winning class was served a special lunch, and in a drawing, 3 individual students were given survival backpacks complete with MREs (donated by the Arkansas National Guard).

Even better than the competition, the kids were engaged and learning! It was Common Core at its best. We (the teachers) observed the students thinking critically, problem solving, working collaboratively, and even building leadership skills.

Students work together to chart out 'patient zero.'

Students work together to rate the usefulness of survival gear.

Air Force Emergency Management expert, Jeff Sharpmack,
shows students how to determine their coordinates.

We also had many guest speakers including a park ranger, an emergency management expert, and the author of Ashfall (a young adult apocalyptic novel).

                                 

The week of Thanksgiving, we 'scavenged for supplies' in a competitive food drive resulting in a donation of over 2,300 food items. It was inspiring!

Finally, to end the 9 weeks, we had a 'Survivor Fun Day' complete with shelter building, CPR and gurney building, fire starting, trust activities, and a food challenge. It was fun and educational!

In addition to this game, students were involved in apocalyptic and survival lesson plans in many of their classes. From tracing the origins of a disease to surviving a nuclear event and everything in between, the kids were experiencing true horizontal alignment in their classes. The success of this unit can be summed up in the following statement: "We're doing Socratic Circles in Chemistry and learning about nuclear power in English. This is so weird!" Weird, but good. I love this unit and can't wait to try it again next year. (We decided to create school wide units on a 3 year rotation so none of the students 10-12 will repeat a unit.)

SCHOOL WIDE COLLABORATION CAN WORK--you just have to be creative! :)

**I must add that this collaboration was realized for our school district, in large part, thanks to our media specialist (librarian) and counselor, without whom, most of these events wouldn't have happened.**

Tips & Tricks for Project Based Learning

I just finished my first PBL unit for next year, and as I struggled to find an audience and make relevant real world connections, I knew I had to share what little sage wisdom I have very recently accrued on the PBL front.

Project Based Learning--if you're anything like me, you embraced this with open arms all the while patting yourself on the back (a feat of acrobatic proportions considering the open arms) for being ahead of the curve. Yup. My classroom is centered around projects--I've already been doing the new best teaching practice for awhile. And again, if you're like me, you realize just how completely wrong you are--PBL is NOT (and I can't emphasize this enough) about doing projects in your classroom. PBL is about projects steering the learning (with REAL WORLD connections) in your classroom  and students at the wheel. This is a bigger difference than it seems.

To illustrate, I give you a personal anecdote straight from my own arrogant naivete:

I was so impressed with my PBL skills, I volunteered to teach a Teacher Academy session on it. Even though I knew what it was, I researched looking for handouts and catchy ways of explaining what I already did. Instead, much to my chagrin, I found I didn't know much about PBL. Luckily, I came across this chart detailing the differences between projects and PBL. I still taught that Teacher Academy session but as a novice in the PBL world rather than the practiced expert I thought I was.

              

Since then, I created and implemented my very first PBL--a study of the propaganda of politics as they related to Julius Caesar, Ancient Rome, and present day America. Overall, it was a smashing success--students never cease to amaze!

I did however discover a few things along the way.

1. PBL requires rigorous  planning on the front end. Each step and 'Need to Know' must be mapped out and allotted for.
2. Sound 'Essential Questions' are well, essential to a successful PBL experience. They provide the focus  and direction for student learning. Weak questions lead to weak learning.
3. The end result can be a product, you just need to allow for choice, creativity, spontaneity.
4. When the real world connection is there, students get more into it.
5. Finding an audience is probably the hardest part of a PBL, but also the one garnering the most results. Not to be trite, but when students know others will be judging their work, they just care more. Period. **On a side note, the audience can be other classes, professionals, parents, younger students, etc... The list is endless, so think outside the box.**
6. And most importantly, when students are truly in the driver's seat of their learning, they want  to learn. Trick them into that, and the rest is gravy. 

I hope this helps as you begin your path to Project Based Learning...the reward really is worth the effort!

The 3 Month Summer "Break"

Among the frequent misnomers of a teacher's existence, one of my all time favorites, is the oh so elusive 3-month summer break. People erroneously assume because students are off, we too are foot-loose and fancy free. Let me just stop that fallacy here:

Currently, I am 29 hours into this summer "break."

My work related  tasks thus far:

• received a fedex envelope with Key Club International Convention money; texted the sender of said envelope
• received a text from another Key Clubber regarding his money; arranged for the money to be dropped off
• received two emails asking me to submit information for yet another background check which must be completed by Friday so I can escort my Key Clubbers on their convention (later this summer)
• added a youtube video into my AR Digital Sandbox account for use with a dystopian short story--the details aren't fleshed out yet
• bookmarked articles in my diigo library which I will later review for use with a beginning of the year unit--again, the details aren't fleshed out yet (You see, contrary to another popular belief about teachers, I do not reuse the same lesson plans from year to year. But that is a topic for another time...)
• collaborated with a friend/coworker (a Chemistry teacher) bouncing different project based learning ideas off one another
• continued learning my new chromebook, not for leisure social networking and watching quirky youtube videos, but for classroom use as we are going 1:1 next year 
• AND started this blog--(Believe it or not, blogging is a good way for building and interacting with a professional community.)

This is just a small, but accurate, window of how my time is spent during summer "break." 

So, as you can see, the idea that teachers only work 9 months out of the year is just that: an idea...albeit delicious in thought, the reality is far less tantalizing, an overcooked slightly listless piece of broccoli--still good for you, full of eduction rich information, but not a nonstop 3 month excursion into decadence and school free indulgence.