Accountability

Over break I have been talking to my significant other, who is also a teacher, about school philosophy. We had an interesting discussion about the line between student accountability and curriculum modification. The question was asked, "at what point do we focus on teaching students to be accountable for the work at the risk of failing if they fall behind?" and "At what point do we modify our curriculum to fit where a portion of the class is?" These are both challenging questions as a teacher.

 We were discussing our frustrations in the length of the teaching time in December, and how we will fit everything in with such a short amount of time. The topic came up that some of the material was still missing in the classes. These classes are typically not as strong academically, and very low motivation. We are both combating the feeling that if we do not complete the scheduled material, in a way we are buckling under the copious complaining that we both get from these students. The complaining was especially amplified this week, while the students were on the brink of a 5-day vacation. As a teacher, I think that it is important to teach the importance of completing work, even if you do not want to do it. Some students push back in any way they can in order to avoid the completion of the workload. However, I have explained to these students that this is a life skill, and something that they will encounter after high school or college, and especially in the working world. This is where I have a serious problem ratcheting back the work in class.

But then there is the other side. At what point is the course going to start snowballing, leaving those weaker students behind? That would be equally catastrophic and also demoralizing to them. My significant other suggested the "tough love" approach, which is really just a balance of accountability but also a flexible workload. If a good chunk of the students are showing that the grasp of the material is simply not there, than it may be worth it to do some sort of encouraging activity related to the topic at hand. However, there also needs to be a system of accountability where the students take complete ownership of the work they produce, especially as juniors and seniors. This coming week we are having department meetings and I look forward to sharing this with them.

Before the Flood and Learning how to fail (and succeed)

This week was interesting in a few ways. First, it was the week after the election. At first, there was a lot of tension between the teachers, who were most unanimously against Trump and the student body, who were almost all rooting for him. While students tried to poke out of me who it was I votes for, I decided rather than soap boxing that I would take a class period for each class and allow the students to talk about their thoughts. I encouraged them to stay on the topic of the country's environmental future, which they did. Through these conversations, it became clear that the students did care about the environment enough to realize that Trump's current plan for conservation and fossil fuel usage did not sit well with them. I was impressed with these findings because I only listened to them talk, with an occasional redirection of the conversation. With this in mind, I bought and showed the students a new documentary, Before the Flood. This documentary is narrated and hosted by Leonardo DeCaprio, as he was elected a UN peacekeeper and who then took it upon himself to raise awareness to the current environmental crises for our planet. The film was also made during the making of DeCaprio's film, The Revenant, which my students thoroughly enjoy.  The overwhelming opinion after watching the film was that it was "depressing" and "eye-opening", which was what I was hoping for.

This week was also the time in which grades and comments were released to students and parents, which is followed  a few days later by parent-teacher conferences. I was lucky enough to have very successful students in my homeroom, which made for very happy parents. Needless to say, the conferences went great! However, in my classes, there were a number of students who felt their grades were lower than they should be. It is never an easy conversation to have with students as they realize where the gaps in their work for a quarter were. It is almost like the stages of grief, where there is denial, bargaining, anger and then finally acceptance. In the majority of these meetings both the students and I came out of the meetings feeling as if there was a plan to succeed and that we could both move forward with a much brighter outlook for their success this year. Often times it came down to organization or bringing by an assignment finished early so that we could make sure it was on task. For some students, it can be hard to accept that once the low marks had happened, there was nothing they could do retroactively to bring it back. However, I have pointed out to these students that they need to focus on the work ahead, rather than the mistakes in the past in order for them to succeed.

Classcraft: Week 2

The classcraft saga continues. My students now are trying to do everything in their power to earn gold. They have cleaned my classroom, found articles, and completed assignments early. Students are so focused on "helping me" that it actually has become a bit annoying. Too much of a good thing I guess? However, this was the first week that I introduced the website to my seniors. They are starting their major research papers, which the IB calls the internal assessment. This IA is basically their term paper. They must either research a topic and accumulate data from primary sources, or they need to conduct an experiment and report on their findings. Last year I struggled to keep the seniors on task and motivated. This year, with the help of classcraft, I have turned their IAs into a game. At each checkpoint, assuming they have adequately completed their assignments, they will gain a level. At each level, students are able to equip their character with new get and collect new pets. The motivation in the first week alone is significantly higher than it has been for the last two years. 

The other new classcraft endeavor this week were the "boss battles". In my junior classes, the students were given a pop quiz. They were to work in teams to answer questions. However,  there was no competition between the teams. They were all working together to defeat the "boss". Every time the students answered a question correctly, the boss took damage. However, if the students answered incorrectly, the boss did damage to their whole team. It became very high stakes when there were no longer enough questions to defeat the boss. However, there was a random chance that when damage was done to the boss, it would inflict a "critical hit", doing double damage. On the second to last question, there was a crit! The whole class when wild. There were students jumping out of their seats and running around the classroom. On the next question, the students defeated the boss and each student was awarded gold and experience. It was an outrageous success.

My only wish for the Classcraft program is to have that same quizzing platform, but allow individual students to take the quizzes on their own screens. As of right now, the only way to have "boss battles" is to put them up on the projector screen. They are continuing to roll out new updates, and I am hoping this is one of them! 

Classcraft!!

At the beginning of the week, I was browsing through the list of suggested tech tools for the classroom. As someone who plays a bit of video games, I was immediately intrigued by Classcraft. Classcraft is a learning platform based off of role playing and fantasy video games. It is branded as a classroom management tool, but in my first week, I have figured out that it is much more than that. The program has a gradebook, an online quiz function, and a rudimentary discussion board. The entire program is based off of rewarding students for most things in the classroom.
Students are placed into teams and then choose to be a warrior, mage or a healer. Each character type has different "powers" that either help each other in the game or benefit class related goals. Class related goals are things like extra credit on tests and quizzes or turning in an assignment a day late with no penalty. Students can use "Ability Points" to use these skills. If a student does something that is frowned upon, like talking too much in class or turning in an assignment late, the students are docked Health Points, or HP. Finally, extra assignments or achievements in class like answering a question end up earning either experience points to level up so they could use more skills, or gold which they can use for gear for their character.
I was hesitant to see how students would like the program. However, after I had set up the first class, it was apparent that students were very enthusiastic about the game. By the end of the day, I had students from all over school coming to my classroom to ask me about Classcraft. Now I have all four of my classes set up, and students are all competing to answer any questions I pose to the class. I have actually had to settle arguments between students because they are so motivated to answer questions. I am curious to see if the glamour of the game wanes thin after a couple of weeks but for now, it is a huge success!