Thinking outside the box

Good morning colleagues!

My class is currently one week deep into a cross-curricular American Civil War project with Language Arts. The students have done some overarching research on important historical figures during the war, found the characteristic that this person best exemplifies, and have started designing their "improvement hour" project.

Yesterday I had the students fill out a Google Form about how they are doing on their project, and any stumbles that they had. I used the data results to guide the students needing to be spoken with immediately, which students I could meet with that day, and which students I could meet with the next day. It allowed me to prioritize my conference order.

One student had this answer, and it made me pause.

Important #middleschool words: "It was just hard to think about things like most of the time your teachers make ideas then you have to 1/2

— Rachel Jeffrey (@historicalipad) April 14, 2017

whatever they say but this time you are making ideas with your brain,well I don't know it is just hard to think like this I guess." 2/2

— Rachel Jeffrey (@historicalipad) April 14, 2017

Though what she said is both encouraging and discouraging, I am happy for a few things. I am glad that I saved a project like this for the fourth quarter. Though my classroom style is not typical, my school is quite traditional. It took a lot of breaking down walls and barriers this year to get my kids ready. A project like this would have bombed in the first quarter. I am happy that I am doing this project at all. Those that read my blog often know that I am not having the best year. I refused to let myself get in the way of me having my students do something that benefits their present and future. I am glad that I am giving my students something with many choices. They are getting to decide what they do and how they do it. I had a quick spark of inspiration last week and also added that the students combine their project with something they are passionate about. I have seen more "buy-in" as the project as gone on.

Love how this turned out! #edchat #classroom #middleschool pic.twitter.com/ZGFUbbnJdZ

— Rachel Jeffrey (@historicalipad) August 1, 2016

I am happy that I have this on my wall. I never pointed it out to students, but I've been pointing it out a lot this past week (especially the "this is too hard"). I said to one student, "I know you never look at it." He said, "Actually, I've looked at it a lot." Boom! I consider that a win :)

I think where I'm going with all of this is that this project has been reassuring. I am glad that I decided to elevate the Civil War unit. It is a challenge, but it is pushing my students outside the box and is forcing them to think in ways that they might not have thought before. This is authentic 21st-century learning that demonstrates the relevance of history while preparing them for the future. This has been the most creative, innovative unit that I've created, and I am proud of my students, my teammate, and myself.

Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

End of unit reflections

Hello, teachers! Sorry for the missing blog last week! I came down with a cold last Friday but felt the need to go photograph some beautiful frost in town that same day. I'm pretty sure I made myself sicker, so my mind was not ready for blogging last week :(

This morning I am reflecting on a unit that my classes completed on Friday. It was a four week unit over what I call the pre-Civil War era (1820s - 1859). For the first two weeks, students were put into large groups in which they "presented" a whole class lesson on a decade (purely giving content). For the last two weeks of the unit, the students worked individually in which they picked three events in one decade to dive "deeper" into. They used a tic-tac-toe board to pick the products that they wanted to create while also choosing the proficiency level that they wanted to demonstrate.

What worked: Most students enjoyed "teaching" for a whole class period (in a large group). They were nervous overall, but they shined in front of the class. This set them up for success in presenting in front of the whole class. I could tell that some students accessed their group presentation rubric as most students improved upon their eye contact and projection for their second presentation. I also liked that when students presented individually that they weren't required to show memorized content, but instead talked about what they created and how their events caused change (the essential question for the unit). This helped with their confidence and talking to their colleagues instead of just reading from the screen. I heard many students say that they enjoyed having a choice in their topic and product creation, and I felt having the tic-tac-toe board at this point in the year ensured the success as they were comfortable with choice (as opposed to the beginning of the year).

What didn't work: I liked the students taking on the class lesson piece, but I do not feel like I set up the students for success in their content presentations. This unit, more than any prior, made me realize how weak my students' research skills are. This could be a whole other blog topic - teaching students how to investigate on the internet. I don't feel like I train them well in this aspect, and to some extent, expect the students to come to eighth grade prepared with research skills. I know that this is wrong, and I know that my students don't know how to analyze and dive deeper online. Do I know how to teach the students to research on the internet? I'm not sure, but I feel like I need to scaffold their research better. Unfortunately, this means created focused research handouts for each topic. That is something I need to create over the summer if I want to do this unit again (and I know for sure that I do).

I need to, somehow, clean up my directions. I'm not clear if this was all on me, but my students were missing what they were supposed to DO for the second half of the unit. The students just wanted to regurgitate information, when I kept telling them to be persuasive; that they are trying to persuade someone to move to the historical location to ensure that the historical event happens (because, you know, they are time travelers). I know that when I go through their products that most of them will miss that mark.

One struggle (that I've dealt with in the past) is that the students want to make sure that they are doing the assignment "right," so they keep asking me how their product looks, they are checking in with me, and they are asking me questions. This prevented me from checking in with all of my students. I was also trying to get through their research handouts as they were working, but I could never find time. The missing feedback from me did not help the previous issue of my students repeating content instead of being persuasive.

And the BIGGEST problem with this unit is a student problem: time management. Even though I had checkpoints and due dates in place, they were not enough. The students put off their project until the last minute and then scrambled the night before presentations started. I told all of the students to be prepared to present on the first day, but in one class I had to go ask 19 students to present before I could find five students ready to go. I believe that next time I will have more stringent due dates and clearer time management strategies to ensure that their time management is on point. I heard many complaints that I gave too much homework, but it was evident that putting it off until the last minute meant that they had a lot of homework in one night! I wrote on the board how much time they had which effectively ended this complaint.

I had a frustrating week when it came to presentations, but in the end, I know that this was a solid first start to a new design for a unit. I am happy with what I created and am excited to "fix it" for next year!

Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

Hello, colleagues! Sorry that time has gotten away from me, and it has been a few weeks - I meant to blog last week, but was not feeling well. I'm back to normal, and I'm back on my game! This week was a good week in the middle school world. I did a four-day lesson over the Constitution with some activities that I am excited to share with you.

As someone to teaches middle school American history, it is only fair that I present lessons with a neutral political discourse. My students do not need to know my political leanings, so I present both sides of the story. We are currently studying the Constitution, and in today's political climate, it is incredibly important for students to know what their rights are. They know that they have freedom of speech and the right to bear arms... and that's about it. I know that going through the Constitution bit by bit is incredibly annoying. What I did, instead, was utilize three different programs: Actively Learn, Socrative space race, and Adobe Spark Page.

I wanted the students to study the first three Articles of the Constitution, so I uploaded the Articles to Actively Learn with highlighted portions and questions built in (if you have an Actively Learn account, e-mail me at rbails@d49.org if you want a copy). It was my first time using Actively Learn, and I am now a fan. I've been asking myself why I haven't been using this earlier, especially considering other teachers have been touting how amazing it is. Using Actively Learn isn't any different than having the students read and answer questions, but it's just different. My students were incredibly engaged with the text and were focused during class. The students could not move on to the next question until they answered the previous question, and the students knew that the answer to the question was right above the question. I felt like Actively Learn is a great tool when it comes to primary documents or readings that may be difficult to understand or digest.

I'm not a teacher that needs silence in my classroom, but during Actively Learn, you could hear a pin drop.

The next part of the lesson was to have the students do a "space race" on Socrative. I have done these in the past, and have found that they are better than Kahoot. I would not say the students are more or less excited or engaged, but Socrative forces the students to get the answers correct instead of racing to respond to the question the quickest. I gave the students describing statements about the twenty-seven Amendments of the Constitution, and they had to figure out which Amendment was being described. Again, not a new or super interesting lesson, but the students were figuring out what the Constitution says. The students were engaged with the text and filled out a handout in Notability as they quizzed through Socrative.

The last part of the lesson was to have the students design a Spark Page (my example) about what IS in the Constitution. They took their learning from the previous two lessons and developed a "website" that is visual and compelling. I feel like the students are walking away from this week knowing more about the Constitution than they ever knew previously.

To culminate the Constitution lesson, next week, the students will be accessing the DBQ Project's document-based question "How did the Constitution guard against tyranny?" I have done this DBQ the past three years, and it is one of the toughest DBQs for the students to comprehend. It will be interesting to see if the students better grasp the essential question because of greater prior knowledge.

I have struggled with the Constitution unit every year that I have taught at Skyview. It just never turns out quite like I want. I feel like what I created this year was strong, and I will keep most of the lessons for next year. I think the students comprehended the ideas that I wanted, and I know that they were engaged with the ideas. I'm not sure I could ask more of teenagers learning about an 18th-century primary document.

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :) 

- Rachel
@historicalipad
My Teacherspayteachers website

Reflections on Unit 1

Greetings colleagues!

I am starting off this morning a little rough as I received bad news last night. A few years ago, I joined a class called Teaching American History (sponsored by a federal grant for history teachers). It met once a month on Tuesday nights. The classes were long and sometimes stressful as I always had school work to do. But, in the end, I met some amazing teachers from throughout the city who have become lifelong colleagues and friends. TAH classes were led by Bill Virden, a former history professor from up north. Bill believed in me as a teacher, which very few people had prior. Bill saw my potential and helped nurture that potential through his classes. The best professional development that I have ever received was through TAH sessions. We have not had class in three (!) years now, and I miss these people all of the time. I last saw Bill this summer, and we had a fantastic chat. But last night, I got a text message telling me he passed away. I am forever grateful, and I will miss Bill.

But on to the rest of my blog post, reflections about my first unit: pre-colonization. I just finished unit 1 on Thursday and felt like I needed to reflect on how the unit worked. To start, I look at what my original plan was. Over the summer, I went to ISTE and GAFE (here in the Springs). I was inspired to give students a choice, use flexible seating in my classroom, and utilize the QFT Process. My first unit was pre-colonization, so I picked two QFocuses: 1) American Indians changed the history of the United States and 2) The Age of Exploration changed the history of the United States. Students would follow the QFT Process and create questions about those two QFocuses. The students would then find their investigation engaging and interesting, and would be inspired to research (though during separate weeks of each other). By examining their questions, they would find interest in the topic and would be engrossed in my classroom. That would lead them to create a "demonstration of learning" using an application on their iPad. 

What went wrong? Because I tried something new, I failed to see how horribly this would all go wrong. My usual teacher foresight was missing :( I have different students than last year, and I knew my students would be unlike last year's students, but I did not realize what a difference that would be. My students did not engage with the content, and I think it was due to non-interesting QFocuses and my flexible seating. My students also lack strong work ethic which we were told, now, by many former teachers, counselors, and administrators. My teaching style is also different than most previous classes which led to confusion and frustration. 

Even though I feel like that unit went horribly, horribly wrong, there was a silver lining. I got to my students at their almost worst. I saw what happened when they got frustrated, and I got to see, though it wasn't fun at all, how terribly they could treat me when they felt discouraged and defeated. It was pretty dreadful for all of us. 

What changes did I make? As the unit went on, I realized I needed more support for my students. I needed clearer transparency in my directions. I also needed to simplify my procedures and structures. I had the students answer two QFocuses separately, so I was able to make some changes from first to second QFocus. I made more handouts with clearer direction. I also forced them to use the same application on the second demonstration of learning instead of letting them pick their iPad app. After going to Day 1 Kagan training, I also realized that I could let my students pick their type of seat, but they did not yet have the maturity to choose the location. I put them into Kagan learning groups which separated many a friend. Grouping helped with my classroom management issue. 

What will I do differently with this unit next year? I will not let students sit where they want, and will put the students into groups. I liked how I did the second QFocus better than the first so that I would use the same structure and procedures with both QFocuses. I will find research online for my students to start, to give them an idea of what type of research they would be doing. I will create guided notes for my SPED students, as they struggled with open-ended research. I would also find activities to add into my daily lessons instead of giving them so much free research time. My issue was that my last year's students could handle open-ended research whereas this group of students cannot.

What will I do differently on this next unit? Again, I will not utilize as much flexible research and will try to provide more research links ahead of time. I will add controlled daily activities to break up free research time. In this unit, students are going to create group projects, so that may help some of my lower students as well. I am happy with my Kagan groupings, so I will keep them for this unit also.

What I am struggling with is that how I am transitioning into teaching my students this year is against everything that I learned this summer and wanted to incorporate into my classroom. There is no easy answer, and I have to do what is best for my students. But I know how they need to learn, and they are currently rebelling against it. I just have to scaffold in these "new" ideas slowly instead of creating such a different and rapid transition from their prior learning.  Here's hoping that it works.

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel
@historicalipad
My Teacherspayteachers website
Donate a Google Cardboard to my classroom!

Thinking Qs.

Good morning colleagues!

As many have figured out (or just assumed), I am having a rough start to my school year. I am still trying to pinpoint what is causing me stress, but something that stands out, that is nagging me at the back of my brain, is "Why is this so hard?" I am still trying to figure it out, but I'm wondering if it comes back to how we get kids to think. I am stepping outside of my box with the QFT Process. In theory, it would make the kids think and process through their thoughts. In action, the kids are frustrated and are somewhat refusing to think. This leads me to have more questions than answers.

• How can students think for themselves? 
• Why don't students care about their education? 
• How can we help? 
• What can we change?

One very frustrated afternoon, I did what every person does in America, and I Googled it. "How do we get kids to think?" And Google gave me a lot of results; results from Edutopia, ASCD, Teaching Channel, Teach Thought... Then I thought to myself, how do teachers even have time to figure this out?! But my stubborn little self started reading some articles, and I stumbled across a great quote.

When grown-ups tell them how something works, kids don't question it. They act as if the adults have told them everything they need to know, and afterwards the children show less evidence of critical thinking (Bonawitz et al 2011; Buchsbaum et al 2011). 

The crazy thing is that I know this. And I've been trying to make my kids question, and think, and write, but it's sort of been to no avail. They have been taught their entire lives NOT to question, so when they aren't spoon-fed, they rebel. These mini-rebellions this year have been driving me crazy!

Project feedback from a Ss: "And maybe you can teach me something since you are a teacher and I am the student."

— Rachel Jeffrey (@historicalipad) August 22, 2016

Any normal teacher with thick skin would have brushed this off, but I internalized this statement and tried to figure out why she was saying this and how I could make changes so students wouldn't say this. Why were they rebelling against me not lecturing and telling them the answer? Have they never had a teacher do this?

So I reflected on what I've done so far this year, what has worked, and what hasn't. Then I stumbled across another post that said something interesting, and sort of groundbreaking for me.

Of course, there are limited ways in which it is possible to learn things from others. Others can often help us get started. They can frequently point to or model the way. They can create environments, which help shorten the "figuring out" process. The anchor point is this. There is no way to teach what requires understanding so as to eliminate the "figuring out" process for the learner. When a teaching mode attempts to by-pass the processes by which each person individually figures things out, a mere illusion of learning takes place. When students do not engage in intellectual labor, they do not meaningfully learn; their learning is falsified. (The Critical Thinking Community)

I think the struggles have been due to me creating an environment that is not supportive enough (almost too open-ended) to let them figure out how to think. Students will get frustrated and will struggle, but there has to be a healthy balance, and my classroom is not balanced. I did try to add in more supports while questioning and researching this week, as it seemed to help. It's tough because the students this year are very different than last year, and I am trying new things that I haven't done before, so I don't have any answers and am figuring it out as I go. 

I'm guessing that more experienced teachers would tell me to survey my students for feedback. The problem is these kids are frustrated, and I worry what they will say. I do not have thick skin and internalize the negative comments, and I struggle with seeing the real feedback. I almost feel like I need a feedback manager who can wade through the comments for me!

I'm still thinking this year through. I like where the QFT Process is going, but I need to figure out how to make it less monotonous and engage the students while secretly making them think. I know that I am doing what's best for students in the long run, but it is a challenge to get them to see the big picture. Let's hope that this coming week is another step forward.

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel
@historicalipad
My Teacherspayteachers website
Donate a Google Cardboard to my classroom!

Flexible Seating

Good morning! I woke up this morning quite groggy and exhausted. This has been one long week. I worked on Monday for a mentoring meeting, had Tuesday off, then the entire district came back on Wednesday. It is always tough, as all of you educators know, to go back and sit through "sit and get" sessions. I see what our district tried to do with pumping us up and getting us excited for the year, but sometimes it falls of deaf ears... and that is what happened for me this year. It is partially my own fault, that I only had an hour and a half of work time in my classroom over the three days. I could have gone in earlier... I could have stayed later... but made the choice not to. 

One thing that did happen is teachers came into my room and asked me why I hadn't set up my classroom yet. I replied by telling them that my classroom is set up and that I am using flexible seating this year. I was a little bummed with the faces and replies I got back. There was not much support going my way on this, and I am not surprised. It took me eleven years to get here, and I know it might take one week to send me back to seating charts. My mantra for last year was "Whatever", so at least my mantra for this year is "Cautiously optimistic". I am trying new things - I am working towards believing more in student choice, so it only seems fair that student choice with seating falls in with that. 

Over and over, I tell people that I'm the "non-traditional" teacher, yet my classroom had only desks, set up in pods or in rows. People... that's not "non-traditional"! I knew that my classroom had to look a little different if I was going to walk the walk. I really liked the furniture from MiEN that I saw in Louisville, Colorado for GAFE, but knew I could never convince anyone to purchase $500 chair/desk combos. So I started to think about what I could use in my classroom cheaply. I was sort of thwarted at every turn, but found some cheap camping chairs from Kmart and a couple of floor pillows from Amazon. (The floor pillows are actually pretty awesome. I wish I could afford more for my classroom.) I also moved all of my desks and chairs to the outside of the room. I am bringing in a long folding table (will purchase a tablecloth since it's rather gross) and will allow the students to use yoga balls or the regular chairs for seating, and will also allow them to stand at any place in the room. I may also purchase yoga mats or bath rugs to add more floor options, and I am intrigued with a low table and floor pillows. I know I have more time throughout the year to add more seating options.

So... from the very first day of school, I will have a Slides presentation in the front of the room telling students that they can pick where they sit. I really don't care. As I said "I really don't care out loud", it cements that it does not matter to me where the students sit. Yes, I will still have to move students for misbehaving (it IS middle school) and some students may lose their privileges and have to sit in a classroom desk and chair. But it's the IDEA that students have choice. I think some of them won't know what to do with this... it's too different and weird.

Again, I am cautiously optimistic. It's these little things that make me want to continue teaching.

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel
@historicalipad
My Teacherspayteachers website
Donate a Google Cardboard to my classroom!

#gafesummit recap

Hey guys: I want to be honest with you. I'm scared to death about this upcoming school year. To be even more honest, I have not been looking forward to going back. There are going to be some changes around me that I am not ready for, and because I am the eternal pessimist, I wasn't happy about it either.

But this past Tuesday, I was at a GAFE summit hosted by our own district! Holly Clark was there, and I have been in awe of this lady for awhile. Not only is she an amazing and engaging speaker, she always says it like it is (but really nicely), and her teaching ideas are phenomenal. Her presentation was called The Right Question (with ideas from the Right Question Institute), what I consider an innovative way to add student choice to your classroom.

Holly mentioned that it would be beneficial to read Make Just One Change in order to fully understand how to incorporate the QFT (Question Formulation Technique) into the classroom. I am glad that I did. I finished the book last night, and in order to help myself incorporate this into my class, I created a sketchnote.

 

(link to full size image)

When Holly presented on this topic, she modeled the six components of QFT for us. While it was incredibly valuable to see in action, at the time, I struggled to see how to incorporate the ideas in into my class. Reading the book helped me think through the entire process. I am excited to use these ideas in my class, and I hope that they work with my students. 

Step 1: come up with a QFocus. Instead of asking your students questions/prompts to get them excited about learning, you give them a focus that will have the students generate questions. For my American Indian unit, I ask the students How did American Indians change the history of the United States? Now, for my QFocus, I will tell the students American Indians changed the history of the United States. 

Step 2: produce questions. I will then have the students work in groups of three to generate questions. They generate questions based on the QFocus. They may come up with questions such as the actual essential question (How did American Indians change the history of the United States? or Who were the American Indians?) The students have 5-8 minutes to write down as many questions as they can. They cannot discuss the questions, judge them, nor answer them. They must write all questions exactly as they say them. If they make statements, they must change them into questions. 

Step 3: assign questions as closed or open-ended. The students look at the questions and determine if the questions are close-ended (have a one word answer) or open-ended (needs further explanation). They should also change three questions from open to closed, and from closed to open. 

Step 4: prioritize questions. There are options, for this step, to have students work individually or in their small group (or both). They have to decide on the top 3 questions, depending on the focus of their QFocus. In my case, for the American Indian unit, I am thinking I will have the students prioritize the order of the questions based on which questions need to be answered first. I am using these questions to help the students research and gain interest in American Indians. Once the students have prioritized, they have to justify their order to the entire class. 

Step 5: next steps. In the case of my American Indian unit, the students will continue to research and create new questions based on their research. They will be working in their groups of three on a unit project, so their research will support them in answering the essential question and making the video project. The nice thing about this is that students get to focus on their own interest with American Indians (i.e. student choice). It is almost like independent research, but with much more support from me. 

Step 6: reflection. I still have to think through exactly what this looks like, but I know that the focus will be how the QFT led to deeper learning, developing confidence, and applying new skills. I will likely have the students vlog using the app Recap and posting their reflection and unit project on their digital portfolio. 

I know that this is a lot, but I am envisioning (however scary it is), that I will film myself facilitating the QFT in class in order to a) personally reflect and b) give you guys a visual of what this looks like in action. QFT is making me excited for next year (which I was not at the beginning of this week), so at least year 11 won't start off as a bust.

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel
@historicalipad
My Teacherspayteachers website
Donate a Google Cardboard to my classroom!

Now that I'm a mentor...

...I'm looking for ways to help my mentee. I have not been assigned a mentee officially for this year, but I am excited to move forward in my career into a leadership role. I was doing some research into mentor support when I stumbled across a page from Inc.com. They posted twelve questions that people should be asking their mentor and I thought it would make for an interesting blog post!

1. What do you wish you knew at my stage?

Pick and choose what you are going to do in the classroom - you cannot do everything. It will take time to add stuff to your bag of tricks, and that's okay! Start with what you are good at, then build from there. For example, I am quite good with integrating technology in my classroom. I integrated tech from the very first day of school. My tech integration has changed over the years, but it's something that I incorporate because I think it is important. Even though I am tech savvy, it took some time for me to use Twitter. I was really resistant to blogging until this summer! For my curriculum, it took me a long time to come to terms with giving students choice. This school year, I will have more choice for my students than ever. But like I said before, start with what you are good at and are comfortable with, BUT, keep growing and keep building your arsenal.

2. Who else would you recommend I connect with?

It sounds silly, but you first need to connect with your classroom janitor and with the secretaries in the front office. They will be your go-to people when you need something, and a smile and a please/thank you can go a long way. I have rarely argued with these people because of the foundation I created when I first started teaching at SMS. I would also encourage you to find a mentor whether it's the mentor that you were assigned or just someone that you can go to for advice. I would lastly recommend that you find someone to talk to whether it's a psychiatrist, a friend, a family member - someone who can listen to you and help you work through the problems that you will go through as a teacher. You might think that your spouse or partner is the perfect person for this, but they will get sick of you talking about school all of the time. Find someone that you can blow off steam with that understands what you are going through.

3. How can I work smarter?

This will take some time - after 10 years of teaching, I'm still trying to figure this out! Find ways to build in quick, formative assessments. Find ways for the students to provide feedback (*cough* Google Apps!) for each other; even grade each other! And remember that you do not have to grade everything and not everything has to go in the grade book. 

4. If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?

I wish that I would have studied backwards design from the get-to. I never realized how essential it would be for my lesson planning, and how helpful it would be to better integrate the Marzano tools that our district is implementing. When I started teaching with the iPads, I wish I would have spoken up about how necessary training was. I needed support, and I did not get it. I also wish I would have known about Capturing Kids Hearts training when I first started teaching. These three things could have transformed my teaching from the start instead of me figuring it out as I went.

5. What are you trying to accomplish this year?

I want to make sure my classroom Marzano scales are strong from the start of the year. This way, I can have my students "grade" themselves on the scale and reflect much more this year. I was inspired at the ISTE 2016 conference to have students create their own projects and rubrics which I will start second semester. I also want to continue to stay positive throughout the year - I always start strong at the beginning of the year, but it tends to wane second semester. I need to find a way to keep myself going!

6. Am I being crazy?

Yes! You're a teacher! But for all of the crazy moments, you will find those special moments that make you smile and laugh. 

7. What should keep me up at night?

Your job is to not be kept up at night. I've been there, and it's not fun. It's not fun replaying conversations with your colleagues or rereading angry parent e-mails in your head. You are a teacher - it is what you do, but it is not who you are. You cannot do it all. Find something to do and be outside of school so that you can sleep at night - it could be going to happy hour with friends, reading a really good book, learning a new language, or doing yoga. Find something that makes you happy and helps give you perspective.

8. What were your biggest failures?

My biggest failure as a teacher was four years ago - the first year I taught with iPads. I had a rough group of students and was completely unprepared to teach with iPads. There were numerous complaints outside and inside my classroom. I honestly thought I was getting fired. While it was the worst year I've had, it was the most growth I've had as a teacher. I learned a lot about HOW to teach. I learned to be less sarcastic, more engaging, and how to smile. I realized that no one was going to train me, and I had to really figure out how to teach with iPads. Now I have a good handle on what I am doing and no longer worry about getting fired - I really reflected and made changes.

9. What has been your most rewarding accomplishment?

My most rewarding accomplishment has been becoming the teacher that people can go to. I love having that reputation! I also love it when students come back to tell me that I supported them beyond my class - that means what I am doing is WORKING! It supports my curriculum and tells me that I am not shooting blind.

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :)
 - Rachel

• @historicalipad
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What is rigor?

As I drink my coffee this Saturday morning, I'm reminded of a conversation I had with another teacher this week. This teacher and I were talking about another teacher that is a common acquaintance, and we were talking about how this teacher is a "brand new, baby" teacher. She has no teaching experience, but when the three of us were talking, this acquaintance was using all sorts of buzz words when talking about her future classroom.

When it was just the original teacher and myself together, we were talking about what this acquaintance had to say. The other teacher was frustrated that she was using buzz words, thinking that she was saying what we wanted to hear. She believes that this new teacher needs to teach content. She kept reiterating that she needs to teach RIGOROUS content.

I felt like she was insinuating that I do not teach rigorous content, nor does my team teach rigorous content. Is it because we teach with iPads? That's how it felt. I think she was alluding to the fact that she does not consider teaching 21st century skills or teaching in a project-based classroom teaching "rigor". I honestly think that she believes rigor is MORE.

That blew my mind, and inspired this post to talk about rigor. A quick Google search [What is rigor?] provides many results about rigor and education. This is a hot topic of which most of you are aware. I feel like Dr. Barbara Blackburn says it best,

"Rigor is creating an environment in which each student is expected to learn at high levels, and each is supported so he or she can learn at high level, and each student demonstrates learning at high level." (Blackburn, 2008).

Our job, as teachers, is to create a rigorous environment, create units and lesson that force students to learn at high levels, support students through those rigorous units and lessons, and provide choice for students to demonstrate their new learning. This can be done through traditional or new methods of teaching.

I know that when I started teaching with "new" methods, I was taking a risk. I was scared of failure and was embarrassed when I messed up. But in the end, risk taking transformed my teaching. My students were creating projects I considered insane (i.e. above and beyond 8th grade). I was proud of my students and was proud of the change in my classroom. I know that my students are going to have the same feelings (scared, frustrated, embarrassed) when they enter my classroom, but I hope that they are proud when they leave.

How is my curriculum rigorous?

• My students answer open-ended questions. Students are asked What is an individual's responsibility to a community? and What drives people to seek independence? Students have to answer these questions based on evidence from the historical era that they are studying. They have to make connections between past and present in order to see trends throughout time. 
• My students have to demonstrate their learning through various forms of media. They have created digital stories, infographics, silent films, travel videos, DBQ essays, and sketchnotes (for some examples). Every project is different so they have to demonstrate learning of the content and learning of different forms of media. These should be forms of media that they will encounter in the real world. 
• Students have to plan out their learning before they create a final project. They have to construct meaning of the content for themselves. They have to figure out what questions to ask while thinking critically about the content. It's not about memorizing the content - it's about how the content is used. 

This can all sound fine and dandy, but students really struggle in my class. Often, my classroom is the first that they've encountered that "looks" like this (not traditional memorization and regurgitation). My classroom doesn't fit the game of education that they've been playing since kindergarten, so they do get frustrated and upset with me. Often I hear students say they want it to be easy. I know that I have to build in more support to help them, and am learning this more and more each year while I teach.

In the end, rigor is not more. I can challenge students to think critically through a paragraph instead of a five page essay. I can challenge students to think critically through an iMovie trailer instead of a whole movie. I know that when I plan units and lessons, I have to remember:

• Learning at high levels 
• Support of learning at high levels 
• Demonstration of learning at high levels 

If I can remember these things, I can make my class rigorous no matter my teaching style.

Thanks for reading! I'll see you next Saturday :)
- Rachel

@historicalipad
Teacherspayteachers Account
Google Cardboard GoFundMe Account


Note: I was really inspired by this article from Huffington Post. It makes great connections between yoga and rigor in the classroom.