Old School

Our school's interdisciplinary pilot CBL project has produced a number of unusual issues. Like any first time enterprise we would certainly redesign aspects of the program a second time around.  But I think some of these issues point to broader education challenges. One in particular grinds me: A recurrent gripe that students in an art class (or French or Biology) should not be working on a cafeteria challenge, nor should they be graded on matters like group work, video production, or slide presentations.  This complaint has come in some small, but continual measure from parents and students.  In my professional development sessions, it is reversed.  A minority of teachers wondering how the problem solving, technology, publishing, etc. can "fit" into their course plan.


I think this kind of thinking is becoming more outdated by the day.  These ideas are grounded in the faith that knowledge can still be packaged through courses and delivered to students by subject specialists as they move along the K-20 conveyor belt, yielding the "educated person" at the end of the line.  To me it seems patently obvious that anyone who is merely teaching a "subject" is very replaceable.  The educational system desperately needs teachers who are generalists, hungry to learn about the world as it flattens and we become less dependent on vertical institutions to parcel out expertise as we climb the ladder toward PhD.


I keep wondering how students are going to learn to collaborate, problem solve, take initiative, and learn new technologies if they do not experience this throughout their school experiences.  Some of my colleagues have wondered hopefully whether or not students might not be prepared with these skills in a special ninth grade course.  Even if some kind of magical "course" could impart some of these skills in a meaningful way, isn't it pretty obvious that training in some of technology that is ubiquitous now, will be outdated before the students even leave high school.


In making some of these complaints, I feel like a hypocrite because all of my own innovation has taken place within the department course system.  Even though our school administration is trying push for change in the school culture, the very structure of the curriculum signals to all stakeholders that the way to get an education here is to ride down the conveyor belt just as we did when we were kids and our parents and grandparents before them.  

I can't complain about how far we've come this year in our quest for culture shift. But I can't help fantasizing about shaking off the department/course shackles and teaming with a group of students and teachers who wanted to reshape the curriculum across subjects and take a walk across a school year's wire without a net.


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Flickr CC photo by alandd

Teacher's Role in Challenge Based Learning (Part 2)

The professional development groups at Mercy have continued to focus on the teacher's role in Challenge Based Learning, but teacher absence, and school day cancellations have created some continuity issues for this theme.  Nevertheless, I tried to emphasize a few major points in the part 2 sessions:

1) It is paramount that a shared document should be established by the team at the outset so that they can continue to make progress through the CBL process without needing face-to-face meetings for every step.

2) Group goal setting is a helpful way to initiate the assessment piece of CBL.

3) Teams should not be allowed to "short circuit" the guiding questions phase.  In all my CBL experiences with both students and adults, teams have been tempted to focus too early on solutions or technology.

4) The guiding activities/resources phase is my favorite aspect of CBL.  Teachers can collaborate with teams by encouraging, suggesting, and getting excited by outside of the box research possibilities.

Here are the slides which supported our most recent discussions:

PCG #9 Teacher's Role, Part 2

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Slide photo by permission of nikki.jane

Five Tenth Graders Jump out of the Box

So why are these tenth graders smiling? Perhaps it is because they know they will astonish their American Government teacher in a few days.

They were doing research for the Big Idea, Equality, as part of a modified Challenge Based Learning project. They chose to focus on immigrants, and their goal was to communicated information about this topic through multimedia on a wiki.

Initially, I discouraged them from interviewing because I was concerned that these interviews might net more emotional or historical information than an understanding of the law itself.

Undeterred (and without my knowledge), these same five girls googled a local law firm which specialized in immigration law. They made a cold call to the firm and landed a personal interview with the principal member of the firm. Treated with great respect, they were given full scope for their questions and were even allowed to post the interview as a podcast on their wiki. Along with the podcast, they posted a Flickr Slide Show of their visit (WikiSpaces has a cool widget for doing so). Now, you can see why they were beaming!

This was just one feature of a terrific multimedia wiki on "Immigrants and Equality". Their teacher was mighty proud of them for their resourcefulness .... and their moxie!

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Photo by Whitney J.