This isn't rocket science

When it comes to the topic of teens and reading - there is much to be said.

Let's face it - kids like to choose.   WE like to choose.   Forcing a book down their throats isn't exactly the best decision.

After reading this article (seriously... read it... click click) I decided to do a little teeny tiny shift.  It literally took a whopping five minutes for students to complete. 

I asked students to write to me about things they LIKE doing when reading a school novel.   I also asked them to write to me about things they DISLIKE about a class novel.   I'm telling you... the feedback... is AWESOME.   As I'm preparing to start our novel, it's incredibly helpful!   

Many students are asking to be trusted with their comprehension.   Many said they'd rather do questions as a whole group and have an actual conversation like we did a few times last term instead of question packets.    Other students are asking to do projects and use their computers for feedback.  Students are also asking for small group book studies!    This is amazing to me! 

So .... seriously... I can't wait to jump in next week!    They really shocked me by telling me the things they'd like to change and try.   I'm down with it!

Psst... a pointer...

You see three stacks of sticky notes.

I see student ownership.

I see student reflection.

I see student choice.

I heard active conversations.

I saw searches.

I witnessed reviews being read.

I saw cross outs.

I even saw a game of "eenie meanie mine-ee moe" (or however you spell it)

So what is this picture?

This is a photo of the sticky notes I collected after students made an informed decision/vote for what our class novel would be.   Seriously... surrendering control has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.   

Teacher Hack!

Ya'll.

I have a serious love for Post-It Brand Super Sticky Sticky Notes.   

They're my favorite.   I use them for formative assessment all the time.    Students also use them to brainstorm/draft their writing pieces.    Not to mention, they're awesome as a bookmark and for using to jot down a "think aloud" in your book.

I love me my sticky notes.   My super stickies.   

This year I decided to put my washi tape to good use and have a designated area for the stickies instead of them being slapped up all over the room or on my desk.    My amazing Para and her artsy self created this for me considering I'm vertically challenged.   =^_^=

The kids noticed it immediately when they came in and were hype!    

Such a simple and silly Shift... but it works!  

Feedback (part 1)

The school year is coming to a close and I'm super paranoid about forgetting to upload these photos - here are some amazing copies of student feedback about our year.   I'm going to try to do another post later.

The Power of Student Choice

This year, I made many Shifts to my teaching that greatly impacted my classroom environment.   For the most part, it was all positive.  Scary for me, yes.   But positive.   I made the decision that a risk I wanted to take was to give my students more control and more choice.   For the most part, students did extremely well.   Of course, I had a few goobers trying to push the limits, and they were appropriately disciplined.  

During Teacher Appreciation Week, the students are able to go to the main office and fill out a "Teacher Kudos" form.   Basically, they fill it out, it goes in a bucket for a drawing, and then when all is said and done every teacher gets their Kudo.  

This year, I received eleven awesome Kudos from my kiddos.    The one had said that they like me because my class is fun and I let them do whatever they want.    Agh.  That could totally be interpreted the wrong way.    I met with the student and first thanked them for thinking of me and told them I appreciated the Kudo.   I then asked them to clarify their statement.    They told me that they really liked being able to have choices in my room.    They liked being able to choose an article of their interest to apply their current reading strategy.   They liked being able to choose their seat.    They liked being able to work independently and call on me when they were stuck rather than me be all up in their bubble.

As I reflected on this I thought... time to ask all students what they thought about student choice.   The conversations that were had yesterday afternoon were simply amazing.    One student said, "You know we have some problems with our learning but you don't treat us like we can't do something."

Here are some images of their writings - these are the only ones I had permission to share.  

I would seriously love your thoughts on this!   Please send me a message/tweet or comment below!

Student Opinions

The Bloom Balls are officially hanging on display in my classroom which is a #ShiftThis Shift in and of itself as I've never ever hung anything from my ceilings before.   Mad love to my super awesome para for her help and for April (our custodian) for lending a ladder!

It's no secret to anyone that knows me that I value the opinions of others, especially the opinions of my students.    When students walked in today, they were shocked.   They spent time walking around the room looking at each ball, finding their creations, and just spent time completely immersed in the change.  Wow.  WOW.

This is the first time I've ever assigned a Bloom Ball.   It was also a first time for my students.  So... back to opinions...

Here are some (not all... I have videos of other feedback on my Twitter page) of the things my students have shared with me regarding the assignment:

• It was a lot of fun and better than worksheets.
• They liked that they had a choice between working solo or with a partner.
• It helped to see a blank bloom ball assembled.  
• Students loved being able to "bounce around" in regards to sides.
• After learning the hard way, several students noted that a rough draft is necessary.
• Progress chart hanging was super helpful.
• Having a chance to draw/sketch their understanding/comprehension was helpful.
• Even when working solo, students enjoyed checking out the progress of their peers.  
• Students valued conversations with peers.
• Students loved being able to "build" something.
• One student said, "It got my mind going like never before."

Ideas for next time:

• Student choice of the novel (my idea)
• Possibly create with a topic of non-fiction (student idea)
• More "free sides" (student idea)
• A list of 24-36 activities and students choose what they do (student idea)
• Non-Crayola Markers (student idea)
• Circles Pre-Cut (student idea)
• Printed on color paper (my idea)
• Done digitally (student idea... not so sure how I feel about this)

Bloom Ball!

I am so proud of this student!

He has completed his Bloom Ball and I really enjoyed his feedback on the task.  

The project is not due until Friday.    I have a feeling we'll be doing this again next year.

I can't wait to see their completed works as well as hear their feedback considering this is a total first for me!

Update to last entry

In my last entry I had said the following...

I printed a variety of comics regarding cell phone usage and students were given the

task to analyze each image, describe it, reflect, and share.   Once we are done, we are going to transition into  finding a solution for our phone love without robbing them of their pleasure or education.

Below are the images students had to look at, analyze, describe and reflect on after I modeled the task with a separate image:

Students dove right in!   (Have I ever told you how much I love these kids?)

After completing the writing task students shared books and compared their thoughts.   We then had whole group discussion talking about each image.  

We ended the class talking about what students feel the rule should be regarding phones in our class.   It was pretty much a 100% agreement that phones should be a privilege and not a right.  Most students had said that they feel that they should only receive a consequence if they can not maintain their focus.    All students agreed that taking their phones to the bathroom was gross and kind of dangerous (one slip and a flush...)

We had a really meaningful discussion in all classes and I truly believe the students hadn't noticed how bad their "obsession" was getting.    One student made a VERY valid point in that cell phone rules are confusing because every teacher they have has a different policy.   

Students want to go back to my original rule of not abusing and asking for permission.   They also want to have me to continue to allow charging in class on the counters while students are receiving instruction.   

I'm really proud of the kids.   They took the assignment seriously and it was great hearing different perspectives.   I love listening to their conversations.   I'm nosy like that.    It's important to me that my students have a voice.   It's important to me that they know that I am listening and I do hear them.    

Our Job...

I saw this image floating around the Interwebz and it really made me pause for reflection.   If I had a color printer, I would have printed it out.

I'm 36 years old.   I don't feel "old."  I do not feel "out of touch" with teens today.    For the most part, I feel I understand my students and I feel quite blessed to be their safe adult to speak to (whether literally or in writing).  And... from what they tell me, I do and I am.

Right now, one of my biggest struggles with my students is technology.   I don't know what the criteria would be for a technology addiction but we definitely have an issue with phones.   At the start of the school year, I announced that I am not going to make them check on their phones.    I didn't feel comfortable doing that.   To me, it sent a message of, "Welcome to class, I don't trust you to stay focused, give me your phone."    That is just how I felt at that time.  Again, how I felt.  Me.  My perception.  

Plus, I was hearing from colleagues that phone collection was a waste because there were kids out there turning in dummy phones while still keeping their actual activated phone.    I wanted my students to learn the appropriate time to use their phones and to use their phones not just for entertainment but for education.    Right now the game Fortnight (spelling?) is taking over teens by storm as well as a game called Pub-G.    I've had to really buckle down on phone use and I hate it.    So upon further reflection and pondering of how to handle this love of the phones.... I decided I'm not going to solve this problem.    The kids are.    

Yep, you heard me.

I'm not going to solve this problem.    The kids are.  I printed a variety of comics regarding cell phone usage and students are going to be given the task to analyze each image, describe it, reflect, and share.   Once we are done, we are going to transition into finding a solution for our phone love without robbing them of their pleasure or education.

I'm curious as to how this will go.   I'll post updates later.

My point of this entry is that sometimes the way you used to do things isn't what the students need.  You need to meet your students where they are.   You need to include them.   If there is a problem, seriously, help/allow them be a part of the solution.   Me barking at them about how things were when I was a kid will do nothing.    Let them have a voice.   

"What are you shifting now, Geib!?!"

When students walked into the room today, they knew some shifting was about to go down.   I love that they are 100% aware of my shifts and this is a part of our communication.  Who needs to make a word scramble worksheet when you can make the worksheet come to life?   Students had asked to do some "Christmassy/Holiday stuff" and I decided worksheets just weren't going to happen when it came to their encoding/decoding.   Twenty scrambled clues were all around the room...

The intensity was building.

Where were the clues?

"Dude!  Where is number 19 hiding!?!?"

"Yo.  What did you get for 11!?!?"

And then...20 minutes in...

They struck gold and found the word bank... or so they thought.  LOL!!!

It was so much fun watching the kids hunt down the words and try to figure these out.   And to think, they could have just sat with a worksheet and their music.   This is such a simple shift.   It looked like chaos and I loved every minute.   If an administrator would have walked in, I don't know what they would have thought at first glance and first listen.   But ya know what... hearing my period six kids say, "Dude.  That was bomb!" as they left my room = priceless success!

Stories in EDU Geib Leigh Anne

So....  THIS happened!!!



Story time!



So... when I was finishing my Masters Degree, I decided to focus my final research on authentic professional development.   As I dove into my research, I stumbled across the work of Jason Bretzmann and Kenny Bosch.   They wrote a wonderful book (seriously, buy it!!!) called "Personalized PD."   Dave Burgess (Teach Like a Pirate dude) also has a part in this.



I began participating in an AWESOME Twitter chat called #PersonalizedPD (Tuesday nights, 9pm EST) and my Professional Learning Network (PLN) began to EXPLODE!!!



Jason and Kenny are fantastic.   They are so encouraging and I appreciate what they have and continue to contribute to the world of education.



Through these chats and then learning about Voxer, I was able to begin following Josh Gauthier and Mandy Taylor.



In November of 2017, Jason sent me a message after I had Tweeted out about a cup activity I did in my classroom.   He asked me to be a part of the #StoriesinEDU Podcast with Josh and Mandy.   The rest is history!   I am so grateful to all of these educators, and especially Joy Kirr who is the reason as to why this blog is happening and why I'm thriving even more in the classroom.



I am blessed with an amazing PLN and I thank all of you.   If you are reading this, please comment - give feedback - I'd love to hear it!    Comment.   Text.  Tweet.   E-mail.



Podcast Link:

Nature Walks for the Win!

Our school has started a new initiative called Prime Time.   Students are permitted to choose an activity that they would like to participate in or an activity they need to participate in.   In our department, we are rotating "duties."   Each of us takes turns running a Progress Monitoring Study Hall and then we also have activities for "off weeks."  My students were talking about how much they enjoy certain seasons and before I knew it I was hosting a fall foliage walk around campus.  I opened up the activity to anyone who wanted to join.    We had a blast!!!