A letter to parents about Agency and Ownership

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Dear Parents,

You just returned from “Back to School Night”. Your child’s new teacher seemed kind, passionate and knowledgeable but there was one thing they mentioned that has left you feeling uneasy, “Agency”. The teacher talked about giving your child “voice and choice” in their routines, their schedule, the classroom set up, even learning activities.  

I’m a parent too. I get it.  You love your child more than anything and are proud of him/her but they are only a child and the last time you gave them choice on what they would like for dinner they asked for a dish of donuts and candy canes with a side of ice cream. You need the adult in the room to teach your child what to do. They don’t have the knowledge or self-control to make good choices on their own.  Your child doesn’t need choice they need structure. You worry that all of this push towards agency will mean your child always gets whatever they want whenever they want it and will leave your child feeling entitled.

Let me ease your doubts a bit.  The first thing you need to understand is that “Agency” isn’t just about “Voice and Choice.”  It is about building up your child’s self-efficacy. It is about “Ownership”. “Voice and choice” are just a pathway toward ownership.

The IB PYP explains “Agency” this way, “ Learner agency is connected to a student’s belief in their ability to succeed (self-efficacy).PYP students with agency use their own initiative and will, and take responsibility and ownership of their learning.”

Source: IB Learner Agency

What your teacher is going to help your child develop this year is self-efficacy.  Psychologist Albert Bandura explained self-efficacy as.

The higher the self-efficacy a person has the more agency they will display. The more they own their choices. For your child, it means they will not be a passive participant in school. They will set meaningful goals and work hard to achieve them.  Eventually, they will develop lifelong skills that help them through future life challenges and opportunities.

“Sailing Boat” by freefotouk is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 

Picture it this way.  Your child’s life is like being on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Sometimes the wind will come and push him/her along quickly in the direction he/she wants to go. At other times the waves may come crashing hard in the wrong direction. As a parent that may sound scary. But this safe school environment is the perfect place to learn to navigate the waves.  Your child’s classroom is more like practicing in a pool. The teacher will be right there to direct your child, push them forward and help them up when they need it. What your child will begin to learn this year is that they not only hold the oars to the boat. They have the ability to build their own sail. Without efficacy, your child will grow into an adult who is tossed and turned by whatever waves life brings but with efficacy your child has the ability to adjust to those waves and push forward. 

But how exactly will the teacher help your child develop self-efficacy and agency?

 Every classroom will be different but in a classroom truly focused on developing agency there are some common components. Keeping with our boat metaphore I visualized the PYP’s approach to developing agency below.

Your child’s teacher will get to know your child and their strengths and areas for growth really well and they will work to structure and adjust the learning environment in a way that pushes your individual child to meet their goals at their own pace. Your child’s learning will be personalized to their own needs. This is because if your teacher wants your child to own their learning then they need to be able to guide them towards what they still need to learn and to truly build efficacy they also need to build on their strengths. Building on strengths and overcoming challenges is one of the quickest paths to developing agency (Bandura 1994).

Or it might be other simple things such as asking the class to design a solution to a problem within the class such as “We keep losing all of our pencils behind the bookshelf. Does anyone have any ideas on how we could solve that?”

The important thing is that over and over again your child will receive messages that they own their choices, that they are capable students, mistakes are important learning opportunities, all students in the class have strengths and they can all help each other achieve their goals.

― Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Your child is going to love learning this year.  The reason is not just because it will be fun but because it will be purposeful to them. Your child’s teacher will make sure that he/she is not just setting goals and doing work because he or she is told to but because they care about it and want to improve at it.  Some ways they might do this are by finding and building on your child’s interests and questions, giving them choice in their learning, maker-centered learning opportunities and project-based learning.

The idea of goal setting is not new but this type of authentic goal setting might be new to you. Your child won’t just sit down twice a year and fill in a goal-setting sheet of paper and then forget about it. They will combine feedback from their teacher with their own knowledge and interests to develop personally meaningful goals on a regular basis. For example, they might set a new Math goal each week and then at the end of the week reflect on how they did at their goal or they might set a goal that they want to improve at a particular skill and then work with their teacher to create a plan of action for achieving that goal.

Choice is definitely a big aspect of developing true agency. This will look different in every classroom but the Voice and Choice should be meaningful to the students and it should impact their learning. It might be choice in how to set up the classroom or where to sit or how to solve a class problem.  For example, I build choice into my weekly routine by having my students help create their schedules each week. Every Monday my students have a schedule filled in with the times that I will be teaching set lessons and empty slots for when various workshops are offered. Students can then sign up to attend workshops that they would like to attend based on the goals that they set and other interests. They can also sign up to lead workshops to each other.

Remember when you first heard the word agency and pictured your kid choosing ice cream for dinner and you knew your child needs guidance. You were right, your child does need structure and guidance. In order to develop agency, your child will be given consistent and purposeful feedback on their choices, their goals, their achievements. This feedback will take many forms, from conferencing to peer editing to self-reflection. The important thing is that it will be timely and specific so that it builds your child’s self-efficacy and therefore their agency.

After reading all of this, agency still might sound a little scary to you. That is alright, it is a little scary. It means letting go of control.  Every time I have to let go of my child’s hand and watch them go it squeezes my heart a bit. We are parents, we can’t help it. We just want to protect our kids and take care of everything for them and we want the other adults in their life to do the same.  But trust me on this one and trust your child’s teacher. When we hold our kid’s hand too tight in the end we are really just making them work one-handed. Let go and see what amazing things they can create with both hands. It might just be a sailboat.

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Letting Students Teach

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I laced up my shoes, grabbed my water bottle and took off running. I needed to get in some fast kilometers so I set my mind on that.  I took off on my usual route but needed more kilometers so I turned a corner, then another and another, my heart was racing, my legs were beginning to get tired. It was a good hard run. But at one point in the middle of my run I stopped. I turned around and realized I was lost. I was so busy concentrating on running hard that I had lost track of where I was going.

Screen Shot 2018-04-30 at 8.12.26 PMThis year for me was like that run. I started out the year wanting to better meet the needs of each of my students. So I set off on the hard run of carefully tracking each students progress in reading, writing and math.  I wanted them to own that data so I created goal setting books for each student with rubrics, checklists and weekly goal setting sheets. I would regularly assess students  conference with them and give them feedback  They would then use this information to set weekly Math, Reading and Writing goals.   Then I would have workshops and activities available to them to teach them whatever it was they were focusing on.  I created detailed updates for parents so they could further support their child at home. It seemed great at first.  Everything was very personalized. It was hard work. I was running hard.  But I was lost.

When I stopped to take a drink of water and reflect. I realized what this whole system was like for my students. No matter how hard they worked, there was always some new problem I could find for them. There was always something else they didn’t understand that I needed them to learn.  I owned the learning.

I was teaching in the old school hospital model.  I was treating my students like patients. “Here is your diagnosis. I have identified all of your problems. Here is your prescription.

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I realized I needed to make some major changes to how I was teaching.  I will get in to more of the changes in other posts but one of my most important changes was pretty simple in practice but profound in mindsets. It involved shifting the focus from all of the things students couldn’t do to what they could.   I needed to build on their strengths. So I started asking students to teach.

At that time my students were beginning a unit inquiring into Heritage. They had each chosen a site that they thought should be preserved and were making scale models of those sites. Students could choose to make models in any form they liked. Some students were interested in using Tinkercad and Sketchup to create a scale model on the computer and then 3D print it.  A few of my students had been working with these programs at home and during I-time (Genius Hour) so they volunteered to lead a workshop to teach interested students.  It went brilliantly. The very next week 4th graders from other classes requested the same workshop, so my students taught it to them.  A week after that my 4th graders were leading the workshops to interested teachers. The surprising thing about it, was it wasn’t just my typically outgoing students leading the workshop.  One of my most shy, quiet students was leading the workshop as well. You could literally witness his self confidence grow before your eyes.  After his workshop he reflected on his experience,

-4th grade student

I wanted all of my students to have that sort of opportunity so I opened up workshops to all subjects. First I started with Math topics and this was  an easy starting point. It was simple to have students sign up to lead workshops in concepts that were a review but students wanted more support in. They were also very interested in workshops in areas they needed help with in order to complete a project they were working on.

Some examples of workshops my students have led are:

  • How to calculate ratio
  • How to find the least common multiple
  • How to model multiplication with arrays
  • How to use estimation to solve division problems
  • How to sew
  • How to create a website using Wix
  • How to write music
  • How to draw action figures
  • How to write a great introduction to your story
  • How to write good transitions for your narrative.
  • What happens to your muscles when you exercise?
  • Why do we sometimes double a consonant in the base word when we add a suffix?

There are many things I have loved about having students lead workshops but one of my favorites is the role reversal.  The students get to experience being both the teacher and student with their classmates and that builds a beautiful classroom culture of shared ownership of our learning.  One example of that happened last week when one of my students patiently taught another student a Math concept she was stuck on.  The very next day that same student became the teacher and she patiently explained a Science concept to her teacher from the day before.  These types of experiences completely shatter any notion students had that only some students were “smart.” Everyone in the class is seen as capable. Students are often seen high fiving each other as they learn a new concept or sitting side by side helping each other work through something they are stuck on. One student explained,

I have seen many benefits to having students lead workshops. Attributes and Attitudes students have developed from this process:

  • Empathy for other students and the teacher.
  • Risk Taking
  • Growth Mindset
  • Shared Responsibility of learning
  • Motivation
  • Metacognition

This is still very much a work in progress. I have been learning from my mistakes as I go.  Some of the questions I have fumbled through have been:

How do I schedule this?

  • At first I just wrote workshop topics on the white board and had students sign up.
  • Then I moved to nicer looking erasable sheets that students would sign up for on a Monday but this presented a logistical nightmare as I would try to quickly schedule the workshops on Monday morning for workshops occurring that same day.

  • I have moved to a digital system where I list some possible workshop options for Math  and Literacy  on a Google Doc and share that doc with students on a Friday. Students can sign up for workshops they are interested in attending or leading and or they can add a new topic they would like to attend or lead. Over the weekend I assign times for each of those workshops and share it with the students on Monday so that they can set  goals and create their weekly schedule.

How do I manage student behavior?

  • There is some sad part of me that giggles when my students are leading a workshop and turn to me in exasperation “Ms. Mindy, they signed up for the workshop but they aren’t listening. Teaching is hard.”  Generally the more opportunities students have had to lead workshops the better they behave when they attend workshops.

One of my students explained the experience well when they said,

How do I know if they have learned the concept if it wasn’t me leading the workshop?

  • I check in with participants after the workshop to quickly see if they understand. I also require them to show evidence that they have achieved their learning goal by documenting it on their blog.  The blogging part is a work in progress. Some students forget to take a picture of their work or don’t have much to show.

    Student’s blog reflection on his Math goal for last week.

How do I ensure quality teaching?

  • I touch base with the leaders ahead of time. Sometimes they are leading a lesson I taught them the week before in a teacher led workshops. Other times it is a brand new workshop. In that case we discuss  how they will teach it and what materials they will need.

One participant reflected on what it is like to attend a student led workshop.

How do I get all students involved?

  • Some students won’t volunteer to lead workshops unless you ask them. I look for any opportunity to ask them. For example I might lead a workshop one week then tell my participants “I notice you really understand the concept.   Would you be willing to lead a workshop next week on it?”  Or I might notice a kid writes excellent introductions so during a writing conference I ask if they would lead a workshop on that.  In some cases I just say, “Hey you have so much to offer the class, I would love for you to lead a workshop.  Do you have any that you would be interested in leading?”

How do I manage the time this takes?

  • To be honest it doesn’t take much time to set the workshops up. But I needed to find a system that would work within the framework of my classroom. Start small. I started with the one workshop. Then open it up as you are ready.

It is still a hard run and I don’t always know my way but at least now I know I am on the right path because my students are running hard with me.

Truly Innovative – 20% Time with Teachers

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It is easy to talk about being an innovative school but it is harder to  take the  necessary  risks which allow you to truly be innovative.  I am lucky to be in a school that not only allows teachers to take those risks but encourages them to do so.  Last year, under the guidance of our principal Megan Brazil, the school implemented a new model for teacher development.  Using the idea of Google’s 20% time, teachers were encouraged to choose something we would like to inquire into for the year.  Similar to an action research project. We were expected to come up with a question that we could implement and study in our classroom and then spend the year collecting data in order to improve our classroom practice.

Once we chose our question, we were then grouped with teachers who had similar questions. These groups were called our personal inquiry communities or our PIC. We met with our PIC regularly throughout the year to  give feedback  and move each other forward.


My question was if I could increase differentiation by incorporating more constructionist learning opportunities into my classroom. In other words I wanted my classroom to be more personalized to my students needs by having my instruction be more “Maker” (learn through making). I implemented this through having a weekly Genius Hour/I-time in my class as well as incorporating “Maker” style learning activities into as many lessons as possible. The results I observed in my class were amazing. I will blog about those another time.

The reason this was not only successful in my class but sustainable for the school was that I got to work with a team of passionate teachers throughout the school. In this way we were able to build off of each others ideas. For example, I remember being stuck one week on how I could incorporate this into a UOI.  MY PIC group (Jenny, Michelle, Tianna and Claire)  sat with me and helped me problem solve until I had some useful ideas. Another example is when I had the opportunity to observe Claire Grady, my  PIC team member introduce Stanford’s Design Framework in her class. I then went back to my classroom and introduced it in a similar fashion.

Because our PIC group had teachers from grades 2,3,4 and 5. We also took the opportunity to map out how constructionism could be developed from grades 2-5.  We looked at how we would introduce different elements of design thinking at different ages and how we could develop that through using the PYP framework. In that way we were able to map out how Genius Hour, introduced in Grade 2 would lead up to the PYP Exhibition in Grade 5.

We grew even more excited and passionate as we shared our results with each other and saw the positive affects it had on our students.  We wanted to share this with the rest of the elementary staff so our group planned an Elementary Teacher Maker Play Date. We gave some background information about Making then we set up a variety of Making activities for teachers. It was awesome to watch the teachers reacting with the same type of excitement that kids have as they discover how to make a project. It was even more awesome to later hear stories about how they took ideas from this day back to their classroom.

At the end of the year I had the opportunity to learn from other PIC groups when we had our first Professional Learning Summit. During this, we got to hear presentations from our colleagues as they explained what they had been working on and what they discovered from their personal inquiries.  It was truly inspirational to hear presentations about subjects ranging from how to better track student data to how to create a more suitable learning environment through purposeful use of space. I walked away from the afternoon with new ideas and questions that changed my teaching practice.

 

Schools are full of passionate, talented teachers but too often we get stuck in our little classroom bubbles and we don’t have a chance to build on each other.  What a shame it is when we don’t have the opportunity to learn from each other.  Too often I have seen examples of schools that claim to be innovative but really the teachers are working on an island. For example, often schools brag about coding but when you scratch the surface you realize it is actually just one classroom teacher coding and no one else. The school has failed to give teachers the support they need to learn from each other. Coding in those situations never has a chance to catch on with the rest of the school and become embedded into the school’s culture because it only happens in pockets.

On the other hand.  When you do give teachers the time and support to pursue their passions and to learn from each other, amazing things happen.  That is true innovation.

A new blog home

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A few years ago I started a blog on Coding in Elementary using Weebly.  I decided for various reasons it was time to make the switch to WordPress.  I wanted my new website to be more easily navigated and allow simple access to teaching resources. While I still wanted to keep my coding blog I needed a new platform with more flexibility then Weebly. The move was made easy by using a Weebly RSS feed Generator web app. It is free and easy to use. I highly recommend it.  I look forward to blogging more on this new platform. I hope you find it useful.

Create a Maker Culture by Breaking Down the Block Towers

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The Maker Movement is educations newest and biggest buzzword. Schools around the world are looking to create state of the art maker spaces, but is the Maker Movement just a passing educational fad or is it a revolution in the way we approach learning?

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Think of the last time you learned something. A new language? How to use a new computer program? How to play a new card game?  Plot that learning in your mind. You may want to plot it in a line.  You had a little knowledge to start with then you gained more knowledge. That knowledge connected like a Lego brick to your previous knowledge. Your knowledge built upon itself like a Lego tower, each piece making your knowledge grow higher and higher.

Early psychologists supported this view of learning. The brain was described as a blank slate. Memories are etched into the blank slate as they are gained and then new information connects to that and so on.  For a long time this is how schools were set up. They were institutions which would pass information on from the owner of knowledge to the recipient block by block. However, this is not a very accurate view of learning. Current studies in neuroscience demonstrate that babies brains are not in fact blanks slates and that memory is not shelved in one section of the brain ready to be pulled out later.1 Rather it is encoded through various parts of the brain.2 The act of remembering is an act of pulling various pieces of information and putting them together.

Physiologist Jean Piaget describes how our brains process information through assimilation and accommodation. During assimilation we take pieces of information and put them into our brain without changing the structure of the internal world. This would be like a child building Lego towers.  All of the information they are given fits nicely into their blocks of information. Accommodation is when we take pieces of information that don’t fit neatly with the categories in our brain and we make adjustments by developing new categories to accommodate the new information.

Instead of picturing Lego bricks building up and up like a singular tower it is helpful to think of how a child plays with Lego bricks. They gain a block and connect it but they don’t just build a tower. They pull those bricks apart and move them around and build a space ship, then they get more bricks and they combine those bricks with some of their space ship bricks to build a castle. So yes, we do get new pieces of information as we learn but our minds do much more with that information than just build towers. We make connections between our learning. We create with our learning.

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In a traditional school setting all kids are allowed to do is build Lego towers. A progressive education lets kids use those Legos to make something meaningful and then encourages kids to tear that apart and make something altogether new.

The Lego tower view of learning is neat and tidy. We can plan for it, build standards around it, report on it and analyze it. That is what we do in education. If we find a problem in education we try to focus on different Lego towers such as focusing more on science and math. Sometimes we try to break the Lego towers down into smaller Lego towers by creating more specific rubrics or by rewriting our curriculum. We try holding teachers more accountable to how tall students Lego towers are getting and how much growth they are having in their Lego towers. We try all sorts of ways to solve our educational problems but in the end none of them work because they are all based on a model of learning that is not realistic.

However, it is possible to build schools around block creations instead of block towers. The Maker movement at its core is this type of education. Seymour Papert who is considered one of the fathers of the Maker movement explained this through the term constructionism. “The word constructionism is a mnemonic for two aspects of the theory of science education underlying this project. From constructivist theories of psychology we take a view of learning as a reconstruction rather than as a transmission of knowledge. Then we extend the idea of manipulative materials to the idea that learning is most effective when part of an activity the learner experiences as constructing a meaningful product.” -Papert Constructionism: A New Opportunity for Elementary Science Education  Giving students an opportunity to make is more than a chance for students to play it is an opportunity for students to learn effectively across the curriculum. Papert goes on to explain that part of the problem with subjects like Math in school is that students don’t get to use it the way adults do. They don’t use math to make bridges and form theories or make money in the stock market like adults do.  “They sit in class and write numbers on a piece of paper.” Papert explains. 

While teaching students foundational math skills is certainly necessary it is also necessary to give them opportunities to use those math skills. Their is evidence that children of very young ages are capable of solving problems in complex ways like adults do. Child development psychologist Allison Gopnik argues that, like mathematicians and scientists, children are capable of putting forth theories, experimenting, observing, and discerning statistical patterns. “Give a one-year old a set of blocks and you can see her trying different combinations, placements, and angles, and gauging  which of these will produce stable towers and which will end in equally satisfying crashes. We have shown that by the time children are four they will intervene in the world in a way that lets them uncover casual structure.”1  If we adopt a Maker mentality to education we do more than just teach students important content and skills we give them an opportunity to use those skills and content. Gary Stager, author of Invent to Learn and founder of Constructing Modern Knowledge explains in an interview with American School Board Journal  “Making across the curriculum means students as novelists, mathematicians, historians, composers, artists,engineers—rather than being the recipient of instruction.”

One of the arguments against this type of education is that it wouldn’t properly prepare students for college entrance exams which are basically block towers. A way around that would be for universities to look at students block creations instead of just their block towers. This is already happening. Just as more and more companies are hiring based on a prospective employees project history. There are a growing number of universities that are looking for what the students can do beyond a test score. My husband, a high school teacher, tells the story of a student of his who got accepted to Yonsei, a top university in Korea based on the video’s on his Youtube channel. Top colleges such as MIT have recently announced that they accept Maker portfolio’s as part of their application process. Makered.org which has a national open portfolio project explained the benefits of portfolios. “Rather than showing the learner knows what has been taught, the portfolio demonstrates that the student can do what has been taught.”  In essence a portfolio shows what students can do with their Lego bricks not just what Lego’s they have acquired.

Isn’t that what real learning is? True understanding is not just gaining knowledge, it is being able to use that knowledge. Harvard Project Zero explained “If a student “understands” a topic, she can not only reproduce knowledge, but also use it in unscripted ways.”

While the Maker movement is an example of block creation learning, many schools miss the meaning behind the movement altogether. They are quick to buy expensive equipment and build impressive maker spaces but they try to fit that learning into block towers. It is vital that schools invest in the learning theory behind the maker movement before they investing in maker equipment. Gary Stager explains “The best maker space is between your ears.” He goes on to explain, “I want the bulk of making to permeate every corner of a school building and every minute of the school day.”

We need to stop forcing kids to build Lego towers. We need to set them free to understand and create. We don’t accomplish that by buying expensive maker space equipment but by changing our mindset.

1. Gopnik, A.G. (2004) Finding Our Inner Scientist, Daedulus. vol133. pp 21-28
2. Gardner, H.G.(2004), What We Do and Don’t Know About Learning, Daedulus. vol133, pp 5-12

Reflecting on Contructing Modern Knowledge

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This summer I had an opportunity. The opportunity to attend Constructing Modern Knowledge. The opportunity to interact with many of my educational heros. To experience the joy and hardship of making a challenging project. The opportunity to have thought provoking conversations and to work with an amazing group of educators who inspired me to try things I never realized were possible. All of these experiences were amazing and transformative but the most transformative moment of the workshop for me was not any of these moments. It was when a group of educators with the same opportunity as me walked away from thiers and left the workshop early.

It left me dumbfounded. The story I heard was that they had been unhappy with the workshop so they called their administrator who told them to go ahead and fly home.  I felt frustrated that they had given up so easily, that they hadn’t chosen to take advantage of such an amazing opportunty.  I couldn’t understand how they could make such a choice.

David Loader, associate professor at Melborne University had a different reaction. “I know why they left.” Loader said. “They were teachers so they were used to school.”  That statement got me thinking. David Loader was right. There was clearly a disconnect between these teachers expectations and what Constructing Modern Knowledge was. Most likely that disconnect stemmed from their experience as teachers.  So what was that disconnect?

Constructing Modern Knowledge was nothing like any school I have ever been to or any conference I have ever been to. There were no classes, no workshops, no presentations, I didn’t sign up to learn about Scratch or Arduino’s or how to create a maker space. Knowledge was not disseminated in the traditional way from the so called expert to the student. Instead we were given a chance to choose a project we wanted to work on for four days.  During those four days the experts did not talk at us, instead they walked around and stepped in as we needed.  We learned as we worked. We learned about the learning process, we learned about ourselves as learners. We learned about content that was related to our project.  For example my group created a shoe that converted energy from walking to useable electricity.  So I learned a great deal about circuits and energy.

Video courtesy of https://catcomputerteacher.wordpress.com/ 

All of this was extremely valuable learning but it certainly is not the way that schools usually work. Which is sad because how amazing would schools be if they did have more of that style of learning. Students would be engaged, learning would be relevant, understanding would be meaningful.

But all of this is very hard to do as teachers because of the big T word. Time. We don’t have time to let our kids create because we have to make sure to cover the standards. We need to cover the content that will be tested and reported on. The content that parents and colleges will ask about.

This led me to the realization that what is wrong with schools is not the teachers or parents, administrators or even funding. What is wrong with schools is the way we think about learning. We frame our educational system around an outdated view of learning. I call it the block tower view of learning. I’ll explain it in my next blog post.

Mashing up Math, Music and Coding

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I believe that any conversation about teaching coding is incomplete without a look at how it can be used to enhance the curriculum.  Coding applications such as Scratch and Gamemaker are open ended and give a teacher more flexibility to differentiate then a worksheet or pre-made app. It also gives students the ability to create. This ability makes student’s learning meaningful and gives them more ownership of their learning. In such a situation learning to code is secondary to the lesson objective.  Don’t get me wrong, teaching coding explicitly is important but as a 5th grade teacher what really gets me excited is seeing how coding has enhanced my curriculum.

One example of this type of lesson is when I taught fractions using music.

Lesson Objective:
“Describe, continue and create patterns with fractions, decimals and whole numbers resulting from addition and subtraction” – Australian National Curriculum Year 5

My Thoughts:
I was having a coffee and discussion with a Alexis Ramsey, a music teacher at my school when I was struck by something she said. She explained that music is great for teaching fractions. At the time I was teaching fractions and loved the idea of pulling in music to teach the above curriculum standard. My immediate thought was that if I could get my students to hear fractions, it might make better sense to them.  In looking for resources to teach this lesson I came across the iPad app (pictured left) which had promise but was limiting.

It wasn’t open ended. I wanted opportunities for differentiation and creativity. As cool as the app was, it was still someone else’s creation and therefore limited to the imagination of that person. I wanted the end result of the lesson to be limited by nothing more than my students. Therefore I came up with the idea of using Scratch to teach the lesson instead. With Scratch students would be able to create their own app. They would be able to write and listen to their own music.

In the end my students were all able to meet the lesson objective of continuing a pattern using addition and subtraction of decimals and fractions. They were all able to identify the pattern they created and describe how they applied their understanding to coding. I could have taught my students this same concept in many different ways but I can’t imagine them being any more engaged or excited about their learning as they were with this lesson. Anyone who thinks coding sounds boring has never seen a group of 5th graders coding their own music.

Lesson Outline:

  • Review the names of music notes with students. whole note, half note, quarter note, etc
  • Students copy a chart of music notes to use later in writing their music.
  • Look at a piece of music written in 4/4 time and write down the fractions for each line. Explain that each bar adds up to 4/4 or one whole. (extension: teach fractions in 3/4 and 2/4 time)
  • Students are given a line of music. They write down the equation for each bar.                               Example 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/2 = 4/4
  • Students are given a blank music sheet to compose their own compose song. Below each bar they write the mathematical equation. Example music sheet
  • Show students how to put their music into computer code using Scratch.                                                 a. They can use the “play drum” command or “play notes” command and then input the desired note.  b.They convert their fractions to decimals and then follow their music sheet to input each note into Scratch.                                                                                                                                                    c. As they input their music they can listen to it to make sure their calculations are correct.
  • Students share their music with each other. Example of my student’s work
  • Students reflect on what pattern they created and identify the concepts they learned. Example of my student’s reflection

Taking an Idea Global

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Part 2-The Global Codeathon

We had chosen the date of May 17.  We only had 2 months to get this off the ground.

The first thing Michelle and I did was to form our team.  My husband and COETAIL graduate, Dan Slaughter volunteered to be a part of the team. We then recruited Heidi Kay who helped start our schools Coding Club.

First task: Define the idea.  

We decided that the main purpose of the event is for elementary students to connect, create and compete with other elementary kids around the world. With this in mind we decided to call the event the Global Codeathon.

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Second task: Find interested schools

We started with a simple flyer which explained our idea. We then made a website, sent word out via Twitter, Google+, and at our presentations at EARCOS and ASB unplugged.

We began to get some initial interest from schools but not commitments. Timing was tight and coordinators needed to get their schools approval and see if their students were interested.

Third Task: Get students interested and schools committed.

To gain some momentum we asked our coding club students to help us create a promo video.

We also started putting together useful documents for schools such as flyers and posters that they could print and letters they could send to parents.

Then we began my favorite but most time consuming aspect of the Global Codeathon. We began contacting the interested schools and discussing questions and ideas with them. This communication started out mostly through e-mail and then eventually moved to Skype Callls and Google Hangouts. It was exhilrating to speak with teachers and tech coordinators around the world who had similar interest in integrating coding into schools.

This was the point where our team felt the pressure.This was when our idea would either stay as nothing more than an idea or it would materialize to a global event. As schools started to commit this idea started to become a reality. One by one schools took a leap of faith and committed. I felt such a kinship to the participating schools around the world. We all believed in a common idea and were willing to take a risk on it. None of us knew for sure what the event would look like.  All of us had to put ourselves out there to Heads of Schools, to parents and to students by participating in the first event of this kind. All of these schools around the world took a huge risk and in doing so they made an idea come to life.

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Fourth Task: Plan the logistics.

Connect: One of our biggest questions was how would we actually connect. After gathering feedback from participating schools the plan for the day began to take shape. Many of the participating schools had beginner coders and were interested in having us lead sessions. Schools were also keen to be connected to other schools worldwide rather than just UNIS. We decided that in order to do that we would use Google Hangouts. This way schools could hear us leading a virtual session but also see other participating schools around the world. In order to aid in the global collaboration and to help answer questions we set up a backchannel and we recruited several experts to man our backchannels. That way students could ask questions virtually and have their question answered.  We also had lesson materials and helpful tips available on our website in case connectivity was a problem.  We decided to start with one big Google Hangout where students around the world could say hello to each other.

Create: Next we would split into intermediate and beginner sessions which schools could tune into or run themselves. Finally we would finish by letting students play each others games on Scratch via Scratch Galleries and by having a select student from each school share their program in a closing Google Hangout.

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Compete: Competing was a bit tricky. We knew competing would be a great motivation for some students and could inspire students to code year long much the same way that an athlete spends time preparing for a tournament.

However, we also were weary that competition could ruin the event for some students. So we decided to make the competition aspect optional. In order to give students time to make something more interesting we felt they needed longer than the 2 and a half hours they would get on the day of the Codeathon.  We released the theme of “Superheros” to all students 2 weeks prior to the submission deadline.

One of our highlights of this entire event was that Dong Nguyen (the creator of Flappy Bird) agreed to judge the Advanced Competition. He even donated Flappy Bird T-shirts which we used as prizes. It was amazing to see Dong Nguyen comment on students games and give them useful feedback.

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5th Task: Plan and pray that it will actually work

The first time you try something is always more scary because no matter how well you plan for it you can’t anticipate what may actually happen on the day.  One thing we hadn’t expected was that we would crash our own website by directing everyone to access lesson materials on it. Thankfully the problem was fixed in a relatively timely manner and we all did what teachers do best. We adjusted and made it work.

The day of the Codeathon was amazing to me. Watching the students wave at each other from all around the world was one small moment which encapsulated what we had been working toward. It had actually happened. Students from all over the world really were connecting.

Their connections were meaningful. Weeks later students continue to comment on each others programs and give each other feedback. Students were proud of what they accomplished and inspired to try new ideas.

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Final Task: Reflect
Reflection gives you the chance not only to learn from your experiences but also a chance to grow from them. So of course we held meetings, spoke with students and sent out a survey to participating schools. With the information gained we have started to look at how to go forward with this event in the future.  The Global Codeathon will be held again next year on May 16 and hopefully for years after. Because if there is one thing we learned from all of this it is that it we have only just begun.

The Global Codeathon- It’s Inspiration

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The kids had all gone home, Google Hangouts had been turned off and laptops set in charging carts. My fellow coordinators stood beaming and then we did something we hadn’t done in weeks. 

We stopped and took a breath. 

It had worked. Through the collaboration of 15 schools we had pulled off what only weeks ago had felt like the most ridiculous idea we had ever had. 200 kids from 15 schools around the world had come together for the first ever Global Codeathon.

We took a breath and thought back for a moment at how we had gotten to this point.

For myself the story of the codeathon goes back to when I was first introduced to teaching coding in schools. As chronicled in my earlier post I was inspired to learn coding with a small group of students after watching the video “What most schools don’t teach.” The result of my first experiment with teaching coding was enough to convince me of it’s benefits. I found that by teaching coding, my students were improving many skills such as art, design process and math.  In my previous post I reflected;

 “I remember one day when I was teaching coordinates, one of my coders raised his hand and explained to the class what the X and Y axis were. I asked how he knew that and he told me he had learned it while working in Scratch.”

What probably excited me the most about teaching coding wasn’t the increase in student math scores it was the endless possibilities it opened for students. I found that student’s creativity and problem solving increased.

 “The reason I have come to love teaching coding is not because I enjoy coding, it is because I love the possibilities it gives my students. It takes the box of a pre-made app or program away and lets students be the creators.”

The more time I spent teaching students coding the more excited I got about it. This was not just something to teach kids because we hope they’ll grow up to become rich programmers, it is something to teach kids because we want to open up possibilities to them. 

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But still the question lingered; How do we get this into schools?  One approach is to integrate coding into the curriculum.  Another approach is to teach coding outside of the classroom. I have found that both approaches are valuable and necessary in their own way. 

Integrated: As I integrated coding into lessons, students learned to code through content such as math and science. This not only increased their coding skills but was also a powerful way to teach specific math and science concepts. Students then went on to demonstrate their understanding of other concepts through coding as was demonstrated in the PYP Exhibition.

Outside the Classroom: Three teachers and myself founded the Coding Club as an after school activity where students met once a week to learn and improve their coding skills. It had become a popular after school activity. Like many schools around the world we participated in the Hour of Code. Our Coding Club students ran the Hour of Code for elementary students and teachers who wanted to be introduced to coding. The event was very successful. Students and teachers went away from the hour excited about what they had learned and eager to learn more. It was a great start but I knew we could do more.  All around the world schools had participated in the Hour of Code. How could we learn from each other? How could we build on this momentum?

Going beyond the Hour of Code: 
It started as a conversation. Justin Hardman from 21st Century Learning and I met at the Vietnam Tech Conference and started discussing our mutual interest of integrating coding into schools. He talked about how great it is that athletes get to meet each other at tournaments and he wondered if we could give coders a similar experience. His idea was for kids to meet up with kids from other schools and code together in a hackathon style event. 

I loved the idea but because I work with Elementary kids I knew traveling internationally to something like this wasn’t an option. So I began to dream about the idea of having a codeathon virtually. There were thousands of schools around the world who had participated in the Hour of Code or were teaching their kids to code. Some schools had after school coding clubs like ours, others had done a one time event and would be looking for a next step. It made sense to get those kids together to learn from each other and inspire each other. A codeathon would be the type of exciting event that could inspire kids to code on their own. If this went well then students would have something to look forward to every year. This could also help get coding into classrooms. With a group of students capable of coding at various schools my hope was that teachers would then feel more confident to give coding a try.They would see the benefit of coding first hand and would have a group of coding helpers ready to assist other learners. I was excited by the possibilities so I brought my thoughts to Michelle Matias (UNIS’s Elementary Tech Coordinator) and the idea of a virtual Global Codeathon was born.

The Codeathon Part 2-“Taking an Idea Global” to be posted soon

Sharing your understanding through Coding

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One thing that has always been important to me is student choice. My experience has been that choice empowers students and that empowerment gives them the intrinsic motivation that us teachers love. I found early on in my teaching that when I gave students  choice they actually worked harder, learned more and owned their learning to a higher degree. 

Today in education student empowerment has continued to play an important role.  Project based learning, product oriented learning, design thinking and the maker movement all emphasize student choice within the learning and creation process. 

The PYP places heavy emphasis on students having ownership of their learning. The IBO website states, “Students who learn in this way begin to reflect on their roles and responsibilities as learners and become actively involved with their education.”  The key in that statement is “actively.”  The PYP wants students to be active in their education, part of being active in your education is actively choosing how you demonstrate your understanding.

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The PYP Exhibition is the “culminating experience” of the PYP.  It is no surprise then that with the PYP Exhibition, schools give students considerable choice both in what students inquire into and how they display their understanding.  After our students have inquired extensively into a topic we let each group choose how they will present their understanding. This year we had some students write music, create art installations, create websites,  make movies, design interactive simulations and many more. It is always inspiring to see the wide variety of ways that students choose to demonstrate their understanding. The depth of understanding that these 5th graders have often amazes me.  

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I was both surprised and excited when I realized that several groups chose to use coding to design a program which would demonstrate their understanding.  One group was inquiring into benefits and negatives of cell phone use. In order to demonstrate the positive use of cell phones two members of the group created their own apps using MIT App Inventor. What I loved about that is that I hadn’t taught these students MIT App Inventor. I had taught them Scratch and introduced them to app inventor but they taught themselves how to use App Inventor with no help from me.   

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Another group of students was looking into healthy lunch choices and two of the students in the group decided to make a game where the player needed to try and eat the banana’s and avoid the unhealthy foods. For every banana that they ate their energy level in the game went up. For every junk food their calories went up. It was an engaging way for the students to demonstrate their understanding.

A third group of students used Scratch to create a program which would first teach participants about the effects of climate change, then quiz them on their understanding and then give them an opportunity to play an interactive game.

All of these students realized something many adults don’t, programming has limitless potential. It is much more then syntax to be memorized. It takes away the box and lets students create in new ways.

What is really cool is that many of these students weren’t even in our weekly coding club. The student who created the banana game and the student who created the app weren’t even in my homeroom class. I had come in and taught one math lesson and one science lesson in their classroom using Scratch. That was all the introduction they needed. The rest they learned on their own. What that means to me is that maybe this won’t be as hard as we think. Even if all we do is introduce kids to coding we at least start to give kids the opportunity to learn it on their own. We open up that learning possibility for them. We start to empower them. It is exciting to see where they go from their.