Looking Back at 10 years of EdCamps Oh how the time flies, EdCamp Madison is turning 10 this year! It will be held Saturday, February 3rd at Sun Prairie West High School. Which can be found at 2850 Ironwood Drive in Sun Prairie Wisconsin from 8:30 am - 3:00 pm. Get more information and register here: https://sites.google.com/sunprairieschools.org/edcampmadwi/home I will always remember sitting in my first EdCamp opening session at the very first EdCamp Madison and having no clue what I was in for. So, I’d like to take this space to go over some of the basic rules of EdCamp. No One Will Pitch It for You EdCamps are unconferences. By this I mean that they have a blank slate of sessions for the day. There may be a few predetermined sessions, but ultimately the session topics are determined by attendees during the pitch & plan session that opens the day. If an idea gets pitched there will be a session on it. If a topic doesn’t get pitched, there won’t be a session on it. So, it i
Don't get me wrong, Yoda is my favorite character in the Star Wars universe. But I think he's got it wrong on one account when it comes to personalized instruction.
I think as teachers we need to understand that there is a lot to be learned from having our students try something. By trying, we learn if we need to do it or not. For instance, I currently assign mandatory practice problems for my students. I would like to get to a comfort level where I can let the mandatory part go. By that I mean, I would love to build a routine in which students see the inherent value of practice problems and will choose to try them on their own. This may sound like a pie in the sky idea, but I don't think it is unreasonable for the majority of students who want to succeed. In an anonymous survey, my 70% of my students said they would complete the practice problems even if they were not assigned.
So, the real question I have for any practice work is "Due or due not?"
If I make this practice work not due, I would hope that most of my students would try them. I think this desire for extra practice is present in my classroom. I don't necessarily assign long sets of practice problems. I usually assign a short set of them and check for completion. But I have not reached the point where I am comfortable making them not due. Students in my class, though, do participate in formative problems that are not part of their grade on quizzes and Kahoots! and give lots of positive feedback on the effectiveness of these in the learning process. If basic practice problems are preventing students who have mastered the concept from progressing to more challenging enrichment opportunities, aren't we doing those students a disservice?
Currently I count formative assessments as an extremely small part of a student's grade and the score is based on completion. So clearly I'm not where I really want to be. I hope I can get there soon.
I think as teachers we need to understand that there is a lot to be learned from having our students try something. By trying, we learn if we need to do it or not. For instance, I currently assign mandatory practice problems for my students. I would like to get to a comfort level where I can let the mandatory part go. By that I mean, I would love to build a routine in which students see the inherent value of practice problems and will choose to try them on their own. This may sound like a pie in the sky idea, but I don't think it is unreasonable for the majority of students who want to succeed. In an anonymous survey, my 70% of my students said they would complete the practice problems even if they were not assigned.
So, the real question I have for any practice work is "Due or due not?"
If I make this practice work not due, I would hope that most of my students would try them. I think this desire for extra practice is present in my classroom. I don't necessarily assign long sets of practice problems. I usually assign a short set of them and check for completion. But I have not reached the point where I am comfortable making them not due. Students in my class, though, do participate in formative problems that are not part of their grade on quizzes and Kahoots! and give lots of positive feedback on the effectiveness of these in the learning process. If basic practice problems are preventing students who have mastered the concept from progressing to more challenging enrichment opportunities, aren't we doing those students a disservice?
Currently I count formative assessments as an extremely small part of a student's grade and the score is based on completion. So clearly I'm not where I really want to be. I hope I can get there soon.
Mike, Your posts are awesome. They are a honest reflection of what so many of us on this journey are questioning, struggling with, and trying. Thank you for somehow finding the time (and the energy) to post such insightful, meaningful yet lighthearted reflection.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up!
Sarah Blankenburg