Empowerment Academy Coaching visit to Calhoun Middle/High School..
Amy and I had an opportunity to spend time in Calhoun County last Friday (10-18-19). I think we were able to witness every stage of various PBL projects from project launch to a reflection activity throughout the day. Once the Molasses Festival Project ended, teachers have continued the momentum of delivering PBL projects for students. For now, the projects have been less cross-curricular and more individual subject driven but teachers have plans for another large scale cross-curricular project after the Christmas holidays. It is clear to me that students are enjoying this new technique of “doing” school. They support working within teams, assuming various roles and studying content through the lens of projects.
Many of the middle school students were involved in a Literacy Fair being held last Friday. I have had little experience with Literacy Fairs, being a math teacher, but the concept is analogous to a Science Fair. Students were entering and leaving classes throughout the day to deliver their book review so there were many interruptions. We were able to participate in a PBL launch and the forming of a Needs-To-Know list for project completion in Mr. Cosgroves class. (Thank you for inviting our participation Mr. Cosgroves!!) Amy and I were about to move to another area of school when the next class came in and planned to reflect on a recently concluded project. A very important conversation was held after talking about the rules of a Pumpkin Drop competition. The students felt like other schools broke the rules of competition, using materials that were banned from the competition. A discussion about morals and values was held where students agreed that winning the competition wasn’t worth feeling dishonest. Well-being is one of the Learning Outcomes developed by the staff at the onset of their involvement in the Empowerment Academy initiative. This reflection discussion is just one of the many examples of developing students beyond the focus of curriculum in the Empowerment Academy effort.
Students in Josh Johnson’s science class are working on a project to create a museum piece that shares an understanding of moon phases and orbits of planets. They were also creating a Needs-To-Know list and building upon past scaffolding assignments. One of the recent scaffold assignments asked students to create a scale drawing representation of the distances between planets. Mr. Johnson provided each group of students a long sheet of receipt paper with varying lengths and students were tasked with drawing the appropriate locations of the planets on the paper according to their scale. I took a couple pictures and used Thinglink to create an interactive picture, mainly for my own development, but also for others to learn in case you are not aware. Here is the link… https://www.thinglink.com/card/1242805599503122436 Although completed in a science class, this is an excellent example of a mathematics application that develops high-level student understanding for many middle school math standards. What better way to strengthen math understanding for topics like proportional reasoning than in the context of a rich science task. I especially appreciate Mr. Johnson using various lengths of paper to ensure each group of students have a different scale factor.
Finally, in an effort to explore various careers, teachers and students developed a set of elective courses that will be delivered in their new and upcoming daily schedule. Students will have an opportunity to complete work in courses like Healthcare, Criminal Justice, Agriculture, Photo Journalism and STEM projects. I look forward to watching the development of this new approach and sharing their successes in the future. More to come later…
Steve