Teacher 20% Time!

This semester I've been having a hard time getting some of my students to "buy in" to the 20 percent time idea.  When reading through student proposals, many students just used the ideas I gave as examples.  In response to the question, "Why are you excited about this project?" one student replied "I'm not excited.".  Clearly, there is a lack of enthusiasm.  When I first started Passion Projects it was with a high-beginning group of ESL students and they were thrilled to have the opportunity to pursue something they wanted to learn.  However, the class I am teaching now is a very advanced class with most of the students planning to attend college or workforce training in the very near future.  For them, they would rather study from a TOEFL textbook than create something of their own.  They don't see the relevance...yet.

I recently read AJ Juliani's post "What to do when Genius Hour fails...".  I now feel that all hope is not lost!  One thing he suggests in his post is to ask the student for help with your own project.  In the past I had always considered doing a project of my own alongside my students.  But I thought to myself, the students will need my help while working on their projects, I don't have enough time to do my own project, I have other things to work on, etc.  However, after reading AJ Juiliani's post, I have begun to reconsider.

My students are lacking enthusiasm for the project but by participating alongside the students I will be establishing credibility for the projects.  The students will see me working through the same process as they are and will hopefully become motivated.  I can ask students for advice, ideas, or support for my own project which will make the learning a two way street and build collaboration and community in the classroom.  And most importantly, by completing my own project I will be modeling.  Modeling is paramount in the ESL classroom.  By demonstrating how to ask questions, find answers, and overcome obstacles while completing my own project, students will have a better idea how to approach these ideas themselves.  With many of my students having limited formal education, the process of inquiry based learning is completely foreign.  Modeling is a key piece of this process that I realize I have been neglecting!

Blending Passion and Vocabulary Skills!

We have just started the Spring semester at my school and I was eager to get the Passion conversation going!  This semester I am teaching a high level Vocabulary class to about 15 adult students.  I found myself thinking how can I merge vocabulary instruction and Passion.  I came up with this great activity inspired by the PASSION acronym from The Passion Driven Classroom by Angela Maiers and Amy Sandvold.  The acronym goes like this:

                 Perseverance 

                 Action driven 

                 Strength building 

                 Sustainable 

                 Inquisitive 

                 Ownership 

                 Never-ending

According to the book, this language gives us the action and language to build a passion driven classroom.  In other words, to have passion and to work with passion, you need these things.  I wanted to convey this to my students however, I knew that the language would be unfamiliar to them so I turned it into a vocabulary activity.

I paired students and gave them each a different letter.  They had to define the word and then explain why or how this word relates to Passion.  Each group took turns explaining their letter while the other groups filled in the empty spaces.  It was a great collaborative class activity.  From there we went on to define Passion in our own words by explaining the who, what, when, where, and why as a class.

The combination of these two activities was a great way to kickoff our Passion Driven Classroom!  Below you can find links to the activities, if you try it out in your classroom let me know how it goes!

Passion Acronym 
Passion Grid

Igniting the Passion!

This year our school was so incredibly fortunate to have Angela Maiers kick off our professional development for the year!  Angela spoke about the importance of recognizing the genius that is surrounding you and leveraging that genius to overcome obstacles and do amazing things.  In particular, her practice of choosing 5 people in her life everyday and celebrating something they do, really resonated with a lot of our teachers.  Taking the time to acknowledge and value that each student matters is especially relevant when dealing with my school's population of adult immigrant students.  Our students often feel that they arrive to this country with a lot of deficits and may often feel forgotten or unimportant.  Choosing to recognize 5 students everyday for something they have done (in or out of the classroom) is a simple task that has the power to transform how our students view themselves and their capabilities.  We need to remind our students, in Angela's words,

"You come with assets, you don't have deficits".

Anglea Maiers and Me!!!

I am excited to place more of an emphasis on recognizing and celebrating genius in my classroom this year as a compliment to the Passion Projects I will be completing with my students.  My students last semester displayed a great deal of confidence in their language use as the semester progressed.  By making a concerted effort to recognize EVERY student's genius and achievements, I believe that students will accomplish tasks with even less inhibition.  A more confident student, one who approaches language learning without fear of failure, achieves more.

With that in mind, we as educators need to lead our students without fear of failure.  Transforming your classroom from a "traditional classroom" to a "passion based classroom" is scary.  Last year when I decided to transform my class using ideas from Angela Maiers and Amy Sandvold's book "The Passion Driven Classroom", I was very nervous.  I couldn't find anyone else in adult education using this model.  I was alone and definitely scared of failure.  But I knew this approach to learning made the most sense for my students.  So with support from the genius hour community and my school leadership, I swallowed my fears and went for it.  And it was worth EVERY ounce of effort.

This is not to say that I am not nervous about entering this venture again with my new students.  However, to calm my nerves, I find it useful to remind myself of this: In life, we learn and grow so much more from our "failures" than anything else.  When things go exactly as planned, we don't sit down and take the time to think "How can I improve?  What did I learn about myself? What will I do next time?"  Everyone fails. (Check out 50 famous/successful people who failed at first) But when we do, we must have the ability to reflect on these failures and find a way to turn them into successes.  Angela Maiers said to our staff

  "who you emulate is who you'll be". 

Our students seek to emulate us so we need to be great. Being great doesn't involve using the same lessons you've been using for the past 15 years.  Being great means finding something you are passionate about, taking risks, trying something new and pursuing your passion.  Don't be afraid of failure because from failure grows great success.

Check out more awesome failure = success quotes here!

Post Project Reflection Part 1: Student achievement and accomplishment

We did it!  We made it through another school year!  And this past semester was one like no other.  My students worked throughout the semester to dream up, design, and deliver presentations about their passions.  Last week our Passion Projects culminated in student presentations. This semester student projects included a wide range of topics using various mediums.  Projects included: a website about malaria prevention, the creation of a children's foundation (imaginary), Cafe McH (a healthy cafe for latina women), Victoria's Laundromat, a poster about antique cars, a look book (a student preparing for cosmetology school), a song and video, and a guide to purchasing a new computer.

Seen and Heard: Student Achievement and Accomplishments

1.  Independent Motivation:  One evening in class I explained the idea behind the Passion Project and showed an example of my own.  Completely unprompted, I had three different students arrive the next evening with Passion Project proposals.  I was shocked.  By mid-semester students were working on their projects independently and often during their own time.  I had students in my evening class that came in to the computer lab to work on projects at 8:45 in the morning.  Students put in time on the weekends at home and at the library.  Considering my students have families and many have multiple jobs, it speaks volumes that they made time to work on the projects.

2.  Collaborative Behaviors:  Tech savvy students were quick to lend a hand to students who were struggling with the technology needed to complete their projects.  One student was falling behind with his project and another student who was almost finished with her project jumped in to help him complete his project.  Even outside the realm of the Passion Projects, students got together outside of class to study for the final test (another first for my class).

3.  Improved Technology and English Language Skills: Students all used technology in some way to complete their projects.  Students learned to create simple web pages, edit video, and create presentations.  Additionally, students demonstrated  improved pronunciation and speaking skills when delivering presentations.  Additionally, I noticed a decreased reliance on native language and saw students speaking to each other in English even when they had the same native language.  Finally, students showed a marked increase in vocabulary using many new words related to their passions.

4.  Increased Confidence:  After we presented our projects, we had a short debrief session.  Many students made similar remarks "I never had a teacher let me do something like this before".  "Thank you for letting us learn what we want to learn".  "Even when I studied in college in my own country, I never had a teacher let me give a presentation like this".  Students who were so shy in using English in class, went off the cuff during their presentations to talk about what inspired them.  They answered questions from classmates without reverting back to their native language.  One aspect of the Passion Project that I find extremely valuable is that students are forced to step outside of their comfort zones.  As adult immigrants, many of my students tend not to stray from their own communities outside of the classroom.  They find a comfort zone and have difficulty leaving.  But for people to grow, they need to leave their comfortable surroundings.  My students did this.  I saw my students exhibit traits and accomplish tasks that I have never seen in my classes in the past.  While all students had struggles and difficulties along the way, I know that each student walked out of class on presentation night with a huge sense of accomplishment.

Part two of this post will include a discussion about the challenges we encountered and what changes I plan to make for the projects next year as well as links to the resources and forms I created.

I would like to take this time to give a big thank you first and foremost to my wonderful supervisor for allowing me the freedom to do this and the support necessary to carry it out...thanks Karen!  Also I want to thank all the members of the 20% time in Education Google+ community for the ideas and support.  Anyone interesting in using 20% time in their classroom should definitely get involved in this community.  And finally thanks to Joy Kirr for providing me with ELL appropriate resources and information!  I can't wait to get started again next semester!

Learning Clubs: Collaboration and Camaraderie

After assisting with our class Passion Projects, I received an email from my supervisor saying "This is one of the most exciting learning activities I've ever seen."  I couldn't agree more. I see my students totally engaged and excited in the work we have been doing this semester.

My students are all members of learning clubs, an idea that I gleaned from Angela Maiers and Amy Sandvold's book The Passion Driven Classroom.  Through dialogue with students, I identified four major themes in regard to their interests: technology/engineering, healthcare, education and small business ownership.  Because my students are adult ESL students, the focus of our classroom time is heavily work related.  After placing my students in their respective clubs, I noticed an immediate sense of ownership and camaraderie, even after the first meeting.  I heard students remarking after class, "I'm in the technology club!" with a sense of pride and joking around with classmates about whose club was the best.  Much of our work has been done in Google Drive and I noticed students working on tasks outside of class time. I have never, in 6 years of teaching adult ESL, seen students so excited about their learning.

For the next few weeks, students completed a variety of tasks in their learning clubs which I aligned with our ESL class curriculum.  After each activity, they completed a learning log that is kept in their club folders.  One particularly popular activity was "Current Events in the World of _____".  I found recent news articles that pertained to each clubs' focus and re-wrote them in simple English.  Then, in their learning clubs, students read the article together and identified new vocabulary and main ideas.  Clubs then reconvened as a whole class and shared what they learned.  Usually when sharing out as a whole class, I notice most students texting, doodling, or staring off into space instead of giving attention to the presenting group.  This was absolutely not the case when sharing our current events.  All students were active listeners with many questions for each presenting group.  After the activity, one student remarked "Can we do this every day!?"

So now, with 6 weeks left in the semester, we find ourselves transitioning to the next and final phase of the Passion Projects...The actual Project.  As a precursor to choosing our projects, I invited artist and musician (and my brother) Glenn Shiring to speak to the class about pursuing your passion.  As he talked about his life story going from starving artist to successful entrepreneur through a Q&A style format, students began to consider what it would take to follow their dreams.  Glenn then led the class through an exercise in creating abstract art from old records and recycled materials.  As struggling immigrants with families and jobs, the majority of my students have never taken the time or been given the opportunity to be creative in this way.  I believe it was an extremely positive and inspiring activity for everyone.

Last night, after discussing Glenn's visit and his passions, I then told my students they were going to pursue their passions.  I put students in their learning clubs with a giant sheet of white paper and said go.  With some individual dialogue and questioning from me, each student/group (students were given a choice to work together or independently) identified ideas for their Passion Project.

Our next steps include planning and outlining our projects and getting started with the actual project work. One thing that is currently weighing on my mind is the question of assessing and evaluating the projects.  From reading about what other teachers do, I gather that a rubric is the way to go.  I am still trying to think through the best way for my students to self-evaluate their work.  Because my students have a limited level of English (high beginning) this presents a challenge.  Any suggestions from others would be welcome!

Better Late than Never.... Top Takeaways from FETC 2013

After attending the FETC 2013 conference in Orlando, Florida, I returned to DC filled to the brim with new ideas and technologies to share with my colleagues and try out with students.  When reflecting on my time at FETC I came up with my top 5 takeaways that I'd like to share.

Top Takeaways:

1.  Simplify:  One thing FETC made clear...there is NO shortage of new and truly awesome technologies.  It's hard not to want to use them all.  However, in several of sessions and workshops, the K.I.S.S. (Google it if you don't know) method was emphasized.  The need to simplify is even more important when working with adult ESL students who more often than not, have little experience using technology.  The best approach is to focus on a few technologies that have the most relevance to the student's life and to choose technologies that work across platforms and devices.  For this reason, my focus for our new semester will be on using gmail and Google+.  I also will be using mobile devices to carry out instructional activities that are not app focused.

2.  It's not about expensive tech tools: In Jackie Gerstein's awesome workshop Experiential Mobile Learning: Students Authentic Learning she emphasized using technology to enhance the activities you are already using.  There is no need to "reinvent the wheel".  Good luck finding a teacher who is not already putting in loads of extra hours planning lessons and managing their own personal learning.  We don't have time to learn how to use a bunch of new tech tools like interactive white boards or computerized pens.  Then consider the "app gap".  Not all students have access to super smart phones or iPads.  Integrating technology to enhance student learning is as simple as sending a text or taking a photo with your mobile device.  For a list of really great ideas, check out Jackie Gerstein's weebly here .

3.  Consider your environment: In order to broaden my horizons, I attended a session titled Linking Architecture and Education: Sustainable Design of Learning Environments.  In all of the PD I've attended and personal learning I've done, the topic of classroom design was never broached.  However classroom design and school architecture is extremely important to student learning (see scientific study here ).  Colors, light, noise, and furniture arrangement are just a few factors that need to be deliberately considered.  The design of a learning environment needs to reflect Maslow's hierarchy of needs according to presenter Anne Taylor.  The habitability of a classroom is directly related to how nurturing the environment is to the learner's body, mind, and creative spirit. Also, I may have raised my hand when asked how many architects were in the room...I wanted to see what it felt like just for a day :)

4.  Involve your educators: Schools must involve teachers in new technology testing, selection, and adoption because after all, aren't we the ones' using it?  Far too often there is a disconnect between the IT folks and the teachers.  We both should be in the business of education.  IT does not exist in a bubble and in fact permeates all activities in a school, especially those in the classroom.  When new technology is selected for a school, there must be an effort to include a diverse group of people in the selection process (including those that may not be so "tech savy").  The best decisions are informed and not one sided.

5.  Final lesson learned: January in Orlando is MUCH more pleasant than January in Washington, DC

So Long Grammar Drills!

After a few months of planning, reading, and more planning, last night was my first venture into 20% time with my students (which I'm calling "The Passion Project"), and I was nervous! I am an expert at meticulously planning perfect lessons.  I've been teaching the same class for over 8 semesters now and know exactly what to expect.  The idea of jumping into a project with my students where anything could happen and failure is a quite possible outcome was frightening.

I'm not quite sure how I first learned of 20% time.  I think it may have been thanks to some perusing I was doing in Google communities.  I then came across the TED talk with Daniel Pink and was completely inspired.   As an adult educator, I have always sought to make learning relevant to my students' lives.  So the concept of 20% time really spoke to me.

20% time encourages students to take charge of their own learning, think creatively, use a variety of resources, and collaborate.  These are all skills necessary for success in the modern workplace, and therefore vital to my adult students.

When I began researching 20% time, all of the information I found was for a K-12 context (mostly high school).  The final projects I saw were amazing, but quite advanced.  I teach a high beginning ESL class with students ranging in age from 17-65, all with varying levels of technological literacy and educational background.  I was struggling with how I was going to break this down in a way that was comprehensible.  How was I going to get these students to tap into their passions when most of their lives revolve around work, family, school, and more work.

I bought the book The Passion Driven Classroom by Angela Maiers and Amy Sandvold.  This book has been extremely helpful in providing me with some clarity in how I will attempt to structure my 20% time, which, inspired by this book, I have renamed to "The Passion Project".  I began last night by having the students define passion for me.  I was worried it might not translate, but right away the students excitedly answered "it's some thing you can't live without!", "something you care so much about!".  Students then discussed and answered some questions guiding them in discovering their passions. I allowed students to use native language for this part of the project so that they could fully convey everything on their minds.  The conversation between students was excited and rich.

The next steps will include compiling the students answers along with responses from a goal setting activity done earlier in the semester and identifying students with similar interests.  These students will then be placed in "clubs" that will meet once weekly to complete tasks and then share information with the class.

I have so many ideas about our Passion Projects but am very unsure how things will turn out as each step of the process unfolds.  I am nervous yet very excited to break free from text book and grammar drill ESL learning and see my students realize their full potential.  I openly welcome any comments or advice anyone might have!