Post #7: Students as Designers and the 6th Design Principle: "To cross the ocean, you have to be willing to lose sight of the shore."
The design principle of letting students be designers means breaking from the "usual method" of traditional lesson design and planning,\. That involved reading content guides, addressing standards, and learning the objectives so that you could develop your lesson plans in a formulaic manner. In the "designer's method", the content, principles and "ends" lead to the "design". From that an authentic problem is developed as a student goal. The teacher scaffolds the students, supplying them with what they need to know and do to be successful at addressing the authentic problem. Links to tools, activities and culture must be made to the authentic problem before the "planning" can begin.
At every teacher evaluation for the past 12 years administrators want to see how you organize your lessons, how the objectives are stated, and if they are aligned with state and county standards. In recent times there is a concerted shift in that paradigm towards authentic lessons and I see where these design principles address that and more. We are doing PBL and OttW in baby steps but this is where they want us to go. So much so that I feel that the old lessons are not going to be accepted in the future, even if they worked. I have two "beefs" with this trend besides the obvious one of that the old ones work, why get rid of them? First, that this continues a never ending stream of new initiatives that are just window dressing for telling teachers how they should teach. Second, that this is just making schools as the main technology marketplace for technology companies. After we have adopted all the technology and 3 years has gone by, what is the update maintenance going to be for the hardware and software?
Part of me, getting cynical as I get older, also thinks that there are no longer administrators who can tell what an "effective" teacher looks like, so they need these tokens that they can check off a list and feel like they can tell. I began with a navigational reference relating how we must let go of the "usual method" to adopt the "designers method." I will end with another one, "Captain, I don't think the matter-antimatter engines can take the strain much longer."
"Beam me up, Scotty!" I understand where you are coming from in your blog. It is hard sometimes to go all in on something new when the track record of longevity only last 2-4 years. It is disheartening to think that OttW might only last another year before it is replaced by something else. It makes you question whether you should invest fully or hold back and do what is comfortable.
ReplyDeleteI think about the many teachers I have worked with other the years. Some of them have inspired me to be better at my job. Others have shocked me with their lack of effective teaching. It amazes me that these people still have jobs.
I do like the concept of students being the designer. We need students to learn how to solve problems by creatively designing solutions. That is what will make them productive members of society. Perhaps they will be the ones to create Flux Capacitors or Warp Drives.
I too see the ones that clearly should not be in schools teaching but I have no control over that so I let it go. I keep rising up to each new challenge, unfounded and unsubstantiated as they are, and trying to do the best I can, while I can. Is it a myth to believe that one day we are not peppered with technology and we can teach how we believe it would support the PICKLE?
DeleteRegarding the previous comment... I too become shocked when teachers are completely lazy and just going through the movements, especially when I first started teaching. Throughout the years though, I have come to realize that the system that we have in place is what creates and reinforces this type of behavior with some of our fellow coworkers.
ReplyDeleteI not only see lazy teaching, I see administrators looking to save their jobs and therefore they attack teachers. I see downtown attacking administrators so they can justify changing things on a yearly basis. In my school we don't even have enough laptops in total to have more than four classes using them at one time. Furthermore, one has to sign up weeks in advance to have the privilege of using them.
ReplyDeleteSour grapes I guess. I see all that we are learning and I wonder how I can get my students to take advantage of it. I had a kid tell me she couldn't email me her work because her electricity at home was cut off. I have kids who don't have access to wi-fi at home, or who do their work on a smart phone. Really. I have gotten essays written on a smart phone.
I really love what we are doing in class, but sometimes I feel that it is out of touch with the reality I see at school. So I have to find a way to integrate all of this stuff into my classroom, provide them with the technology they need, and yet have something for them to do at home that is far lower tech. It's a challenge.
I wish we had a crystal ball that could show us how soon the latest craze will go out of fashion. It took 20 years for parents to pressure schools to stop teaching to the SOL test and reteaching and pre-testing, etc. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water. What can we do, but rise above.
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