Finding Your Passion - PCG #6

Our latest Professional Cluster Group was the first to go off the rails.  I planned a longer session, but instead decided to "go with flow" and shorten the presentation, allowing for greater discussion.  The other slides can wait.  At this session I conducted two exercises:  1) I asked everyone to identify something (a subject) he/she was passionate about teaching or learning and then share it with another.  2) I showed the movie below and asked individuals to consider, was their an essential question here that he/she felt passionate about to pursue as a cross-school Challenge Based Learning project?  If so, would you be willing to "pitch" it to others at the upcoming in-service day?  We then discussed the topics.

The PCG groups made some interesting discoveries:


* Finding a CBL big idea that one "cared enough about to fail at" was a possible new way of engaging with the process for some of us.

* "Inter-disciplinary" is a phrase that carries too much baggage for us.  It suggests being tagged as a contributor by your discipline (e.g., science teacher).  Talking about "cross school teams" was liberating.  And the idea of joining a broad challenge group as an individual with a greater skill set than mere expertise in his/her discipline was an enticing concept for some.

* We liked the idea of being "free agents" who could join each other in project teams.

* Some of us still wanted to work within our individual departments, but realized we could do that and also collaborate with others another passion.  We could have our cake and eat it too.

* Some of us were holding back from wiki or group discussion for fear of being judged.  (I was glad this was expressed because it guided me in how I will react in the future to doubts, contradictions, and questions.

* We didn't like the idea of having to jump "all in" immediately and wondered of there was a way to try a small scale project in order to get the feel for the process.

There were too many other challenging questions and interesting responses to list here, but I suspect we have come to an important milestone in our process.

Introductory "Find Your Passion Slides"

Mixing Metaphors about the Future of Education

I expressed three metaphors yesterday about the future of education:

1) The student as "free agent".  I shared this metaphor with the afternoon professional cluster group (I heard it at my "Group Think" the previous week).  Will the student of the near future be a "free agent" who is not chained totraditional institutions for education?  Will he or she be able to pick and choose from the enormous buffet of online resources as well as face-to-face experiences?  If so, what will be the role of a school like mine.

2) Creating a CBL "dream team".  Today, on the staff wiki I pondered the demise of  traditional academic departments.  I suggested that I would experience superior professional enrichment through regular meetings with a challenge based learning "dream team."  Two colleagues quickly remarked that this metaphor smacked of elitism.  They were right, but my "dream" of a team was an interdisciplinary group of teachers hooked on the same "big idea."  I wasn't imagining a Kobe, Lebron group of egomaniacal  "stars." 

3) Who gets to connect the dots?  A fellow English teacher wrote a terrific piece on the merits of using the "value of literature" as a big idea for a CBL project.  She also reflected on a teacher's role in cultivating this value and mentioned teachers helping students to connect the dots.  I replied that with CBL, students get to plot the dots and help their peers connect them.  Generally, her remarks were more worthwhile than mine, but in this case, I will stand by my metaphor!

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"mixed metaphor" Flickr CC photo by roger jones

Surveying Big and Bigger Ideas for CBL

During the last meeting cycle of our professional development groups, pairs of staff members brainstormed interdisciplinary "big ideas" for potential Challenge Based Learning projects for our students.

Considering that the limited aim, progress and reach of some of the projects being developed within departments, I'm searching for a way to entice the true adventurers on the staff to stretch for challenges that will truly excite them and their students.

I'm beginning with a survey.  I've selected a set of ideas that I think have potential, but I want to narrow these fine suggestions from our brainstormers to an elite set of 3-5 topics.  I've asked our staff to rate them according to a) topics which are compelling to the staff member  B) topics which would provide a great interdisciplinary challenge for students.  Readers of this blog are welcome to participate as well (click the link below).

Where do I take the results?  Well, I have a meeting with our administrative team to make a proposal.  How would you facilitate interdisciplinary challenges on these topics.  Please comment here or privately!  I am quite impressionable at this point.

Big Ideas Survey

Thinking Big

The theme of our fourth professional cluster group was Still Looking for a Big Idea?  Look to the Mission.  The main purpose of the PCGs is to foster the Challenge Based Learning model in order to develop Tony Wagner's Seven Survival Skills.

*The tip of the day was Rubistar, a handy site for whipping up customized rubrics.  I've become a fairly heavy user of rubrics with my Challenge Based Learning projects.  I find that they are very effective for group self-evaluations, particularly if they can be customized to fit the team's unique goals.  I also like to use them to evaluate slide presentations, since I lay out very clear guidelines for students to follow.

* I also presented a brief but important technology piece on sharing Google Docs.  I was pleased to show a recent example of a brainstorming session that I initiated.  The subject was "Reimagining Detroit."  This allowed for a natural segue to the main theme-- The Big Idea.

* Every Challenge Based Learning project begins with a "big idea."  After reviewing the  department notes on our staff wiki, it seemed to me that many of the discussions lacked a gripping challenge for students.  Rather, the discussions seemed to revolve around project possibilities that would result in pre-determined results that the departments were already trying to accomplish through traditional means.  I wanted to use the PCGs to brainstorm truly big ideas that would cut across disciplines and inspire a stronger sense of engagement.  I think that a good challenge should not carry a hidden agenda (i.e., students will gain "x" information or come to "y" conclusion).

So I decided attempt a break out from this stagnant brainstorming process.  In the PCG, I reviewed some big ideas that were generated om the interdisciplinary discussion threads on the wiki and suggested others that AI based based on our school mission.  We broke into pairs to brainstorm at least one original idea that could cut across at least four disciplines.  The results were terrific, and I will publish them in my next post (Oct. 6).  I have a scheme for leveraging them and would love to have reader feedback.  In the mean time, here are the slides from the presentation:

PCG #4 slides:  Still Looking for a Big Idea?  Look to the Mission