Mrs. McAlister's Blog

Global Goals . . . SmashboardEdu and Carnival

12/29/2019

My sixth graders and I have spent the last month delving into self-selected inquiries relating to the Global Goals. Students created their own inquiry teams, selected a goal, researched using the SolveInTime process, then designed and held a Global Goals Carnival.

Self-Selected Inquiry Teams
At this stage in the year, students are beginning to become more independent. With that in mind, students grouped themselves into inquiry teams. We ended up having nine. In their teams, they determined their top 3 Global Goals. We went through a process, starting with goal one, to see which teams would represent the goal. It was easy when there was only one team with the goal. If there were multiple teams interested, students played “Rock, Paper, Scissors”. There was a touching moment of empathy when a team won, but gave over the goal to another team.

SmashboardEdu
One of my favorite problem solving strategies when we start an inquiry is SolveInTime. (We are using an older iteration called SmashboardEdu.) The gamified process allows students to consider a real world problem, brainstorm solutions, and create an original piece to share their learning. For this experience, we added a research component before SolveInTime and we added a one minute presentation slam as a closing. For more, visit the official SolveInTime website or follow the creator, Dee Lanier and SolveInTime, on Twitter.

SmashboardEdu Inquiry Cycle

Initial Independent Research here
SolveInTime in Teams here
- Problem
- Research
- Solve
- Share
- Reflect
One-Minute Presentation Slams here

The inquiry cycle went very smoothly. We follow the inquiry pool structure designed by Trevor MacKenzie and Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt. We are solidly at the Guided Inquiry stage. As a class, we’re all working on the Global Goals, while students and teams are making more and more decisions. Student confidence is high and collaboration and critical thinking skills are strong.

Digi Journal SmashboardEdu Reflections
ZB: “Overall, my Smashboard Edu about Goal 9 experience was a very exciting and new one. Although there are still some things I would like to change. For example, When we did the slam I felt my partner and I should have added more content to our slide. Another thing I would like to improve was to have more research about Goal 9 when we did the cards. Some things I feel like I did good was taking notes about our goal, and working with my partner. During the Smashboard Cards there was some questions that I did not really understand, and had a hard time finding an answer to. For example, on the purple card there was a question where it said, “When does it begin or when does it occur?”. When I had first read this question out-loud my partner and I had no idea. Then, our teacher Mrs.McAlister, brainstormed with us to find a clear answer. Finally, even though I had already researched about Goal 9 before there was still so much I could learn about it.”

EB: “So recently, I did an activity called “Smashboard Edu.” I worked with my Global Goal 15 partner again and this activity is where we write the answers to questions. We had been given an SOS card that is basically a ticket for help. The second card was the problem and the third card where the problem occurs and where it began. The third card was about our solution to the problem and the fourth was share. We had an activity that went to the card share. We were given 15 minutes to complete a google drawing all about solutions. My partner was on an app on an Ipad where she drew pictures of trees representing tree farms and steps showing artificial wood. I typed a solution on lowering the ads of cigarettes and some simple ways to help out. I had done one bonus fact about the amount of money that will be needed to help out the forests. Next, the fifth card and final card was Reflect. We had to reflect on new things we learned in the process. We also had to reflect on challenges that occurred. One challenge that occurred was when we tried to link the picture to our chromebook. It did not work. The final question on the card was what things we would differently in the future. Overall, Smashboard Edu is a very fun and interesting activity because you learn things that you may have not known or more about a topic in the goal that you did want to know more of.”

Global Goals Carnival Design Cycle

Individual Game Design
Team Game Design
Build Games
Demo Games
Global Goals Carnival

In the past, I’ve implemented a Caine’s Arcade style carnival. With the Global Goals as our year long inquiry, we leveled up and now have a theme for our games. The purpose of their games was to bring awareness to our school community to the Global Goals. To be honest, this allowed for more creativity and purposeful game design.

The game design cycle took about three weeks. First, students sketched their own individual design. The next day, teams compared designs and developed one game. Most games were a combination of ideas. Then, teams created their games, informative signs, and even prizes. After their games were made, we demoed them with a small group of student players. Finally, we held our Global Goals Carnival.

District administration, board members, and families were invited to the carnival. Our students players were our third and fourth grade classes as well as our three Special Friends classes. Each group played for 30 minutes. Students were provided three tickets as they entered and could earn more tickets by performing physical fitness type tasks.

The sixth graders ran their games with enthusiasm. I was especially proud of all the Global Goals content they were able to share through their game designs. They were very intentional about teaching the student players about the goals.

Global Goals Games

Shoot for the Goals (Soccer Game)
Ski-Ball and Trash Sort (Toss Ball then Sort Item Inside)
We Speak for the Trees (Ball Toss)
Peace Pong (Ping Pong Toss and Memory Game)
Gender Equality Maze (Inequitable Rules and Discussion)
Take Action Below Water (Aquarium Plastic Cleaning)
The Brain Game (Educational Trivia)
Catch That Duck (Fish for Rubber Duckies in Polluted Water)
Goals City (Lego City Infrastructure)

Digi Journal Carnival Reflections
AC: “The carnival was really entertaining and educating to the 3rd graders, 4th graders, and special kids. ZB and I we worked very hard for this game and it was nice to see the kids smiling and laughing while they were building the Legos. Our game as called Goal City and the rules were to build a building and when they would be done they have to put it into our city. In our Goal City all the kids were communicating while they were building the Legos. The carnival was very superior and all the games were very scholarly and educating. And all the kids who played the games learned a lot. The kids learned a lot because now they know what problems are going on in our world and how to solve it. When kids were coming to our game ZB and I would explain to them on what to do in our game and what Goal 9 is.

When the carnival was over, ZB and I were happy on what we did because many kids enjoyed our game. ZB and I worked very hard such as we worked hard on the cardboard, the painting, outlining, sketching, and ideas. And the whole class also worked very hard on their games and they all also turned out to be very good because they were all very scholarly, entertaining, and educating.”

AD: “We did our global goals carnival today and the goal I did my goal was #13 climate action. At first my group had no idea on what to do. Then after the first day we all had to come up with our own idea for each person. When I did mine, I originally wanted to make a ball throwing game but then I thought it was pretty lame so I had to come up with a new one. The day after, I came up with a game called “Catch That Duck”. You had to catch a duck using a fishing rod. But then I realized, “How am I supposed to get a fishing rod?” So I said, “Maybe it can work with magnets?” So when the big day came to present our ideas with our group I felt confident that I was going to win and I did. My group also had some pretty good ideas one of them was called “Killer Wave.” But we stuck with mine and started to work right away. On the first day of building our game, we just planned on who was bringing what. Our game consisted of rubber ducks, stick paint, and magnets. When we were done my team was saying it was rigged and that nobody was going to win. On Friday, it was the demo slam and we were going to have people play our game. One of the kids called the game the best and, another kid said it was impossible. When the big day came of presenting our game we did great everyone was at our game. It was a very successful day.”

Our continued journey into the Global Goals is creating a classroom of student-leaders, researchers, and advocates. As an educator, if you’re interested in Problem Based Learning, I highly recommend the Global Goals as an overarching theme. Students are able to tie in almost any passion or area of concern into at least one of the goals. Look to your immediate community for inspiration. Surely one of the 17 goals can be addressed. If you’d like to learn more or brainstorm implementation, feel free to contact me or any member of the #GlobalGoals community.

#JustBeYou . . . Marilyn ❤

Animoto video here

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Global Goals . . . GATE PD

11/9/2019

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I had the honor recently to provide PD for our district Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) teachers, coaches, and administrators. The purpose of the day long PD was to introduce educators to the Global Goals (official site here), share my year long inquiry timeline, engage teachers in innovative and student-led practices, and guide teachers in creating their own year long Global Goals inquiry. I have a passion for developing agency in both teachers and students. This was absolutely my hidden agenda. ❤

Attendees
Our district, El Centro Elementary School District, has 9 elementary schools. We have three schools with GATE cluster classrooms, in grades 3 to 6, where students from other schools feed into. At our PD, we had 3 principals, 3 coaches, 12 teachers, and 2 district office administrators in attendance.

As a GATE team, we have a program called “Passionate Kids Project”, known as PKP. The purpose of PKP is for students to delve into topics of interest. In the past, we’ve done Passion Projects, Social Awareness Projects, and are now delving into the Global Goals. For our year long inquiry projects, students tap into their interests, research, create, and celebrate.

PD Structure
I structured the day by balancing hands-on activities with collaborative work time. I packaged the PD in a hyperdoc for easy access to materials along with my own year long inquiry. Last year, our PD focused on the inquiry process inspired by Trevor MacKenzie and Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt using their book “Inquiry Mindset”.

PD link here
Marilyn’s inquiry here

Global Goals Experiences
We had four main Global Goals experiences during the day.

Introduction Videos
Question Formulation Technique
SolveInTime
Design Challenge

As a GATE teacher myself, I pulled out my favorite learning experiences for the PD. Here’s a quick recap of each activity.

Introduction Videos
We watched three videos to familiarize educators with the Global Goals. Each video built upon the next to provide an overview of the 17 goals.

World’s Largest Lesson - Just a Kid video here
“We the People” for the Global Goals video here
World’s Largest Lesson - Emma Watson video here

Question Formulation Technique
Because questioning is a major component of inquiry, educators experienced a QFT session using the Global Goals as their Q-Focus. This is a technique that many participants knew about but had not implemented. They were completely engaged during the entire process. Needless to say, I was extremely proud of their engagement and questions. (Slide deck here)

SolveInTime
One of my favorite, and easy to implement, problem based learning strategies is SolveInTime, formerly known as SmashboardEdu, created by Google Innovator Dee Lanier. SolveInTime is a “problem-based learning & the design-thinking process smashed into a gamified experience!”

We used this slide deck to guide our session as well as playing cards for each group. Each group self-selected a goal of their choice. Again, participants were completely engaged in the process. By the end, when teams generated solutions, several teachers were ready to implement community campaigns. I was so proud of them!!! Their favorite new creation tool was Canva.

Design Challenge
Our final learning experience of the day was a design challenge. In groups of two or three, participants were provided a pizza box with resources, a close read, sketchnote, and comic found here, relating to one of the Global Goals. The challenge was to design a flying disk that taught others about their goal. Teams had 15 minutes to synthesize the readings and design their disk. It was so fun watching the educators . . . have fun!!! As I facilitated, one participant and I had a conversation about George Couros’ book “Innovate Inside the Box”. That is literally what we did. We definitely have prescribed standards to teach, but as educators, we have a liberty to make learning relevant and even enjoyable for our students.

Collaboration
During the course of the day, four specific times for collaboration were built in. Because I wanted the conversations to be focused, I provided possible discussion topics. Each of the three school sites sat together as a team. At the beginning of the day, there were many unknowns. By the end of the day, teachers and sites left with a rough timeline and ideas to implement their year long inquiries. I asked teachers to specifically consider a unit launch, writing, authentic pieces, and a celebration of learning.

Reflections
At the end of the day, I provided a reflection form for the participants. Here are a few of their comments:

"I really appreciate the day given to plan and collaborate with other sites along with my school site. Thank you for the opportunity to expose our students to relevant issues outside the valley."
"I am really thankful to have you as our presenter. You are easy to understand, easy to approach with any questions, and give great examples from your classroom, because you have actually implemented the goals. Thank you."
"I love this training! I feel the templates and hyper links provide a clear guide to take us through the process. You are my inspiration!"
"I attended an awesome PD session with my dearest friend Marilyn McAlister about Sustainable Development Goals. You have showed me a totally different way of teaching which I am planning to start asap. Thank you so much for all your ideas and support."

Two participants wrote more thorough reflections.

"I had the pleasure of attending a Global Goals professional development organized by none other than our very own ECESD 6th grade GATE teacher, Marilyn McAlsiter. More often than not, I’ve attended professional development that felt like too much fluff and not enough tangible ideas. This was not the case on Monday. It was evident that Marilyn put in a lot of effort to organize and curate materials that I could use in my classroom immediately and throughout the year. Marilyn’s passion and enthusiasm really fired up the teachers at my school. Not only did Marilyn light a fire under us with her presentation style and materials, she provided examples of how she used the materials in her class. Because of Marilyn’s work, I will be able to allow plenty of student voice and choice. My students are sure to be excited and inspired while exploring problems facing today’s world. I can’t wait to see my students grow as global citizens!"

-Mrs. Calatayud, 5th grade teacher

"Global goals are bigger than any one of us. When I was approached by Mrs. McAlister to consider the topic, well that was easy. The topic is all encompassing and it is worthy of attention. But as she explained the scope and sequence of the project, I was just overwhelmed by the absolute size and scope of it. There are so many people, so many schools, teachers, students and to be frank…the immediacy and importance of the topic was thrust into my face so I could not ignore it. I deeply believe in the purpose and need of each of these goals. It is the next human evolutionary step. We need to evolve or perish. But to see it implemented with fervor, intensity and love is a blessing for me. I have had the opportunity to glimpse our future in the hands of our children, and it made me sigh in relief and hope. People are better than we thought. We will become a better version of ourselves because of educators like Mrs. McAlister. Marilyn, does not shrink from the bigger picture, but quietly and enthusiastically leads us forward."

-Mrs. Quiroz, principal Sunflower Elementary School

Follow-Up
After the PD, it was such a joy to chat with teachers about their next steps. One teacher is interested in Station Rotation and several teachers would like support implementing technology in their classrooms. One principal would like me to visit and provide feedback and offer coaching experiences. Best of all, was the opportunity to guide two teaches in creating a Global Goals launch with their classes. By the end of the collaboration time, they were beaming with enthusiasm and confidence. Another teacher had me come in and facilitate a SmashboardEdu session. The students were phenomenal!

I’m excited to see where our GATE teachers and schools take their students on their journey through the Global Goals. It was an honor to empower educators where in turn, they’ll be about support, guide, and nurture powerful and relevant learning experiences to their students. To be honest, as a GATE teacher, I don’t want anyone to walk in my classroom and be able to single out the GATE students. Effective and meaningful teaching strategies are good for all learners.

Dear readers, enjoy the journey you’re on.

#JustBeYou . . . Marilyn

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Global Goals . . . QFT and GoalKeepers

11/2/2019

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My sixth graders and I are moving along with our Global Goals year long inquiry. We generated questions using the Question Formulation Technique, committed to be Goal Keepers, started a mini-inquiry slide deck, and added to our digi journals.

Question Formulation Technique
Using the process from the Right Question Institute (here), we generated questions about the global goals. This is our third QFT for the year and the students are very efficient with the process. Click here for our Global Goals slide deck.

The components of QFT are:

A Question Focus (Q-Focus)
The Rules for Producing Questions
Producing Questions
Categorizing Questions
Prioritizing Questions
Next Steps
Reflection

The student’s questions showed their growing curiosity with the Global Goals. As I facilitated the experience, students were actively asking both open and close ended questions.

Some of their questions are:

How did the Global Goals begin?
Were they put in a certain order?
Did the creator expect it to become big?
What inspired the 17 goals?
How would accomplishing the goals affect our world?
Can I help make a difference?

Even now, reflecting on the questions, I can see the power and influence of the global goals on our youth. They’re asking relevant questions and are eager to take action. I love the last question, “Can I help make a difference?”

Goal Keepers
When we started our Global Goals inquiry in September, we watched an introductory video hosted by Emma Watson (here). She shared how we can “invent, innovate, and campaign”. At that time, we decided that we have the ability to campaign. As their teacher, I’m working on creating confidence and independence in my student leaders. The Goal Keeper mindset is perfect for that.

To introduce Goal Keepers, we watched three videos (here, here, and here). The videos spoke to my students. There were moments of silence after each video, tears throughout, and powerful discussions of the content and how it relates to our lives. Many students connected with personal experiences. I shared that many people become advocates of a cause because of a personal connection.

After watching the videos, we created our own Goal Keepers posters. (Link here) Students enjoyed choosing words and colors that express themselves. We also wrote about what makes us Goal Keepers. (Template here) We used the analogy of being the goalkeeper in soccer: One that protects the goal, works with a team, and constantly has an eye out to see what needs to be done next.

Mini-Inquiry Slide Decks
As part of the QFT, we introduced Next Steps. Our next step was to research each of the 17 goals. Students were randomly placed with a partner, then they used a digital spinner to be assigned the goal they would be conducting a mini-inquiry on. In our inquiry journey, we are still in the guided inquiry stage. (Click here for the inquiry pool developed by @Trev_Mackenzie.)

Students were given a choice of the template they would like to use. Each pair is asked to conduct a close reading on their goal (resources here), share the goal’s problem and solutions from the close read, and answer one self-selected question from the QFT. Student’s personalize the slide decks with colors and images that relate to their goal. This is a work in progress and will be a future blog post.

Sample slide decks here, here, and here.

DigiJournal
An ongoing component of our Global Goals inquiry is adding to our digi journals. Reflection is a major part of the inquiry process. This is where we synthesize and make meaning of our learning experiences. Take a look at some of the QFT reflections.

SM: “The Global Goals QFT helped me and my group go more in depth about the Global Goals and also the questions we’re going to use for research. One of my partners, KV, helped me think of multiple perspectives while asking questions especially about Gender Equality. During QFT, we also had a really open minded discussion about the questions we want to research more about. Thankfully, the discussion helped me learn about other Global Goals and other ways to question things. Because of this QFT, this really expanded my mind more about 17 Global Goals and why each are important. Another question that we discussed was, “How would completing all of the goals affect the Earth?”. This question inspired me to research about every goal and not just focus on one goal/question. Also, the groups helped me because they sorted randomly and helped all of us learn about new perspectives we haven’t heard of before. Most of us in the classroom started off close minded for all of the people we didn’t talk too, but now, no matter who the person is, we always stay interested and open minded about every question. This benefited ALL of us by learning new perspectives and let alone just learning new people.”

TG: “What I learned is that there are so many unanswered questions about the global goals and working together in a QFT could make a bigger difference than working independent. One of the questions that my partners and I had in mind is what if there were no global goals? That’s a good question because if there was no global goals everyone on earth would probably be homeless or be starving for food. I wanted to write and possibly get the right answer, but it was about writing the question and not answering it. After QFT we shared our important questions to the class and I had other ideas from other classmates or peers as they shared their questions aloud. Some of the questions I had were similar to the questions that my other classmates had in their poster. The connections I made was the zero hunger and no poverty. Sometimes when I walk around El Centro I see people that are homeless or people that look hungry. Other times I see people asking for food and money sometimes people ignore them, but other times people give them money and food to help them. I see that there are people asking for money or have a sign that says I need money. It really makes me feel bad for them because they have no home or food and they don’t have anything to survive with no food or water and sometimes people ignore them and they judge them. This proves that I learned many things with the QFT research.”

Our Global Goals inquiry is continuing to evolve. With each new experience, students are learning more about the world around them and themselves. Their quest for knowledge is clear. Their expressions of empathy are evident. I’ve told my student’s parents time and time again what fine young men and women they are creating. Being a sixth grader can be hard. But as we find our bigger purpose, we’ll be able to navigate the many changes around us and surely find our places in our community and world.

#JustBeYou . . . Marilyn

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The Goals Project

10/5/2019

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My sixth graders and I are so excited to start our year long Global Goals inquiry. As our unit launch, we participated in The Goals Project lead by Dr. Jennifer Williams and youth ambassador Ayush Chopra. Without their leadership and passion for world and environmental change, the project would not have been possible.

Background
The purpose of the project was to bring awareness to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The project ran through the month of September, 2019. The project brought awareness to the 17 global goals, included 70 countries, and reached over 1,500 classrooms. Classes were grouped into cohorts of 17 classes and each had a team leader. Our team, #GameChangerGroup24, was lead by Elizabeth Ogunsola. Each class in the group was assigned a goal to research and create a unique project to share with the other classes. (Official website here.)

Research
We began our inquiry watching videos about the global goals, followed by a close read of our goal, goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. We finished our research analyzing a sketchnote and a comic. (Official Global Goals website here.)

During our research phase, we jotted down notes while watching the videos, annotated our close reading text using the GATE icons, and created posters of our learning as well as various discussion sessions.

Video resources here, here, and here.
Written resources here, here, and here.

Create
For our unique project, we had a design challenge. Students were presented with a pizza box that held their goal, the prompt, a flying disk, and markers. The challenge was to design a flying disk that teaches our partner classes about goal 8. Students worked in teams of two. Their engagement, excitement, creativity, and critical thinking was phenomenal. They were beyond proud of their original creations.

Share
Once we had our flying disks created, we wrote personal notes, shared a few special momentos, and mailed them out. Along with the disks, we included our group sticker designed by @nineviaene, a Goals Project coaster, and our class hashtag sticker, #JustBeYou. Our class was so excited to send out the mail. Just as exciting was receiving messages from Jen and other classes that received their special packages.

Reflection
As part of our year long inquiry, students are asked to reflect on their experiences. We created a digi journal where we will add posts to throughout the year. Here is a sample template. Take a peek at some of their reflections.

MF: "At first, I didn’t quite understand what Goal 8 meant, but as time went on and Mrs. McAlister gave me and my peers more resources and articles, I finally understood why Goal 8 was important and what it meant. I learned that Goal 8’s goal was for everyone to have a safe and beneficial job, well paid wages, and end forced labor. I learned these facts thanks to a worksheet Mrs. McAlister gave my class called ‘Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth’ by Margreet De Heer. I also learned that by 2030 we need everyone in the world including men, women, and people with disabilities to get beneficial employment. Another fact that I learned is that 731 million people are below the U.S poverty line, which is partly because some jobs don’t pay their employees fairly. My experience with the Global Goals project was really fun! I learned many things thanks to the experience. My partner and I worked really hard on our frisbee, but it ended up looking like a smirking face with a giant nose. Even though I faced some minor difficulties, I still very much enjoyed the activity."

CJA: "While we were discovering Global Goal 8 I learned a lot. One thing that I learned is that in other countries they force child labor. Forced child labor is when you make children work at a very young age. This is a problem because children are working instead of getting their education. We also did a design challenge where we had to design a frisbee based off of Global Goal 8. My partner and I both got a sketch paper to practice on and then we combined the ideas to make the final product. Another problem that I discovered was that there is a lot of poverty around the world. In America it has dropped to a 5% Poverty rate but in other countries it is still very high. The problem here is that people are not getting paid the right amount of money to be able to provide for themselves. Through our journey learning about Global Goal 8 I learned a huge amount about things that are beneficial to the society now and in the future."

This is only the beginning of our journey. I can’t wait to see what the year has in store for us. We’re living in a time where our youth are ready to take action. It’s time for us, as educators, to lead the way and give students opportunities to be global citizens, empower them with agency, and open the doors for leadership opportunities. Join us as we take the challenge to make our world a better place.

#JustBeYou . . . Marilyn McAlister

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AVID . . . Sweet 16

8/9/2019

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This summer I was fortunate to attend one of the AVID national conferences in San Diego, California. This was my third time attending and I wasn’t disappointed. Highlights of the conference were the student speakers, keynote by the humble and amazing Rick Ramirez, and attending the Digital Learner strand.

When I attend a conference, I’m always on the lookout for something to implement right away. This time, it was the Sweet 16 gamified challenge to learn about 16 different digital tools (Think March Madness). The tools included:

The Challenge
In groups of two, participants were randomly assigned a digital tool to research and create 3 different tasks.
   1.   Create a 60 second presentation focusing on the features of the tool.
   2.   Complete a sentence frame making connections between the tool and AVID college and career readiness and WICOR strategies.
   3.   Create a meme that included a tagline about the tool.

All presentation links were collected in a Google Sheet.

Teams were given about 45 minutes to create and submit their links. When the first round of presentations began, two teams were paired off then timed for 60 seconds. The match ups were tools of similar purpose like Code.org vs Scratch, Canva vs Adobe Spark, Flipgrid vs Seesaw, etc. After both teams presented, the audience voted using Kahoot. There was so much engagement from the presenters and the audience. After the first elimination round, teams in the Elite Eight presented their sentence frames. Then the Final Four shared their memes. The championship round was a vote off of the final two.

This was such a fun way for us to learn about new tools, engage in the 4 Cs, build culture with the group, and have some good ole’ fun.

Classroom Application
As soon as we got started with Sweet 16, I knew I had to bring this back to class. But what topic would I use? After a few days of pondering, I decided to use the topic of “brands”. Some of the match ups include Coke vs Pepsi, Google vs Microsoft, and Skittles vs M and Ms. My purpose for Sweet 16 is to introduce my students to Google tools they’ll be using in the classroom, start developing a mindset of the 4 Cs, and have the added bonus of creating classroom culture at the same time.

Here is a copy of my Sweet 16 Brands Edition. Feel free to use it as it or modify to meet your needs. If you use it, I’d love to hear how it goes.

Shout outs
I’d like to give two huge shout outs. One, to my AVID mentor, Martay Monroe, that has been my AVID trainer for two years. Her passion, love for AVID, and gift of empowering teachers to be the best they can be for students makes her a fabulous role-model. Second, to the amazingly inspirational and humble educator and national speaker, Rick Ramirez. His energy is off the charts! But even more impressive, is his love for students and making a difference in their lives. Thank you both for making my AVID experience memorable.

#MuchLove to all . . . Marilyn ❤

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Just Be You

7/17/2019

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This post is a departure from my normal lesson design posts, but it is something that is dear to my heart.

For several years now, I’ve been noticing many more social/emotional concerns with my students, particularly with anxiety. Additionally, last year my students took on heavy topics for our social awareness inquiry: depression, self-harm, making wrong choices, anxiety, and more. To be honest, I was initially uncomfortable with the topics, but I trusted them as young scholars. They taught me, and our school community, so much about the topics and, more importantly, solutions.

As simple as the phrase sounds, I teach my students to #JustBeYou. As a Christian woman, I know that each of us is wonderfully made. Although I don’t speak of Christ, I do express to my students that each one of us is special and unique. Maybe you’re shy and quiet, maybe quirky and creative, maybe athletic and active, or even nerdy and nice. Whoever you are, just be you. Be true to who you are at your core.

The phrase didn’t come to me overnight. You see, many years ago, when I was a young teacher, a comment was made to me that was paralyzing. In the copy room one day a fellow teacher told me: “Not everyone can be happy like you all the time.” Whoa! I don’t remember my response but I do know that I changed. For the next six months I was “professional Marilyn”. I controlled my laughter, my smiling, and my encouraging nature. Then one day, a different teacher asked me what was wrong with me. I shared the story. She scolded me on the spot. She basically told me to “Just Be You”. I am so glad she had that conversation with me. From that day on, I knew that to be happy, I had to be my authentic self.

I’m so excited to share that I found a graphic designer, through Fiverr, that designed a sticker for me. He literally made my concept come to life. Thank you, Milanga!!!

As we start the 2019-2020 school, I would love for this message to get out to our students. If you would like a sticker or magnet, please DM me your address. The simple message of “Just Be You” is a powerful talking point that students really do latch on to.

With a tender heart,
Marilyn ❤️

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Social Awareness Inquiry Cycle

4/23/2019

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My sixth graders and I had a rewarding year delving into social awareness topics of their choosing. As a GATE class, we participate in Passionate Kids Project. This year, along with discovering our passions, we tackled social concerns. To be honest, the topics were out of my comfort zone but I trusted my student’s maturity. The inquiry was broken up into experiences throughout the year. The focus was on solutions.

Inquiry Cycle

Our inquiry cycle started out with many guided experiences then culminated in a completely student-led seminar. Let’s take a look at our cycle.

#SmashboardEdu: We started out with the essential question, “What are some issues young people face today?” and used this #SmashboardEdu guide. After coming up with concerns, students teamed up to do some initial research. (Collaborative slide deck here and blog post here)

Question Formulation Technique: After brainstorming social concerns with #SmashboardEdu, students were placed into teams based on the topic they were most interested in. We used this QFT guide to generate open and closed questions. (Blog post here)

Collaborative Research and Presentations: As a team, each inquiry group answered questions from their QFT then presented their findings in oral presentations. (Student samples here, here, and here)

Student Created Logos: As a side quest, some groups created logos using Google Drawings. (Slide deck here)

Thesis Statements: Individually, students created thesis statements that would guide their independent research. (Student samples here)

Articles Reviews: Students used two self-selected sources (with my approval) to answer their essential questions. Through a process of writing, peer editing, and teacher feedback, students wrote their article reviews that provided background information of the social concern and a variety of solutions to help solve the problem. (Samples here, here, here, and here)

Demo Slams: Each group created a digital and oral presentation. The digital piece was to have very few words and the oral presentation was to focus on solutions and include an interactive experience for the audience. Groups created, practiced, and refined their presentations. The goal time was 10 minutes. Peer evaluations were completed during the demo slams. (Sample here)

Social Awareness Seminar: For our celebration of learning, we held a Social Awareness Seminar for our fifth grade classes and parents. The fifth graders were able to choose topics they were interested in and attend those sessions. Our sixth graders dressed up, were knowledgeable, confident, and had fun. It was a perfect culmination to our social awareness inquiry. (Sample slide decks here, here, here and here)

We had a busy and productive year. We started the year in the shallow end of the inquiry pool and ended in the deep end. With lots of support and encouragement along the way, I’m proud to say that my sixth graders are leaving me as confident, independent scholars that were allowed to share their voice.

Educators, after 25 years of teaching, I’m still stretching, learning, and more importantly, trusting my students. We are in a new era in education. It’s time for us to make learning relevant, bring in student interests, and loosen up the reigns. It’s a journey. It’s taken me three years to get here. But the rewards of seeing my students share their voice, learn through experiencing successes and even failures, is worth any discomfort we may have. I encourage you to take on an endeavor next year that may make you uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure if we could handle these deep topics, but we did. I cried more this year than any other year (out of pride). I stepped out of my comfort zone, and I’m so glad we did.

On another note, if you’re interested in starting or refining your inquiry journey, I highly recommend Dive into Inquiry and Inquiry Mindset by Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt and Trevor MacKenzie. If you’re interested in problem based learning and want to try #Smashboardedu, give Dee Lanier a follow or check out SmashboardEdu.com.

#MuchLove . . . Marilyn ❤️

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Social Awareness Seminar - Faux Twitter Chat

4/16/2019

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I read an inspiring blog post recently (this morning) from my Twitter friend and professional colleague, @Carlameyrink. She was sharing, in this blog post, how her instructional coach created a buzz of engagement with their staff. After reflecting, I decided that I needed to create a buzz with my students and bring back our faux Twitter chat.

Earlier in the year, we created faux Twitter handles. Many of the students are gamers, have youtube channels, or have other social media. Their Twitter handles are variations of names they already use.

In class, we’ve been deeply immersed in a social awareness inquiry. We’ve developed questions, researched, wrote, created logos, and will be presenting group presentations tomorrow. This was the perfect time for a Twitter chat. Twitter chats generally get the participants to reflect on their practices, set future goals, and will often have an opportunity for shout outs. I use this same model for our faux chats.

Here’s the slide deck of questions we used.

Just like a real chat, we use the Q1 and A1 format, talk to each other using handles, and even incorporate hashtags. I post each question one at a time onto our Google classroom. Students first answer the question then they respond to classmates. I generally use three questions and post them about 5 minutes apart.

Take a look at some of the responses for our Social Awareness Chat.

Question 1: Our Social Awareness Seminar is tomorrow. How are you feeling about it?

I feel confident, like we'll do good, but I also feel anxious. What if a major problem begins? Even minor problems can be hard to solve. I just hope we don't have any major problems on the day of presentations. #FeelingConfident @RobloxDragon

I feel nervous, yet excited, about the presentation. I hope I don't forget what I'm going to say out of nervousness. @lookatallthosechickens

I am feeling a little nervous, but at the same time I feel really confident about tomorrow. The part that I am most scared about is the parents. I know that they aren't going to say anything, but I am still a little scared. The kids I feel fine about because I’ll just have fun and do my part. #OhNoParents @Dominguez0323

Question 2: You’ve worked really hard. What are you the most proud of?

I'm happy that although this is my first year with Passionate Kids Project, I've been doing great. I thought I wasn't going to do good on my demo slams, but got good scores. I'm very proud of myself. #Noob @Alfredokm57

I am proud of my whole group and everything we have been through. We have accomplished and overcame a lot. I am also proud of how our presentation is turning out. We have everything planned out and we are prepared. #Overcomers @cassidy3041

I'm proud of a few things. I'll just number them here.
1. Memorization of lines:
My group has a lot to say, and we really memorized it quickly. I can't believe I was able to do a classmates slide on demo-slams the day he was gone. Success!
2. Design of presentation:
I haven't really seen myself use my designing skills on something actually educational, but I guess I did now.
3. No overuse of words:
Words! Words! Words! Digitally are not good on our presentations in this case!
I'm proud of a few more minor things, but I don't want this to turn into an essay so there we go. @RobloxDragon

Question 3: We’re a community of learners. Give a shout out to a classmate.

I know were supposed to shout out to a classmate but I'm going to be shouting out my whole group. Shout out to DV about how he was kind of in control but not bossy to the point where he stepped up and became a leader. Shout out to GCC on how she was a cooperative and engaging person when helping mostly the whole group get the information, pictures, and ideas. And finally shout out to MV. He did an excellent job even though he came to our group really late but he still pulled it together. He was able to gather information from his resources and remember his lines, finish his article review, and have a good time doing the project even when it was late! So pretty much just shout out to my whole group for working their hardest and successfully accomplishing a good team and a bond between how we can feel empathy for this dreadful topic. @BonelessFriesOrder4 (Their social awareness topic is “depression”.)

I'm going to give a shout out to CS because she is literally the one who always brought the group back together and always made us have a good time WHILE being on task. #Havefunandlearn @diaz7127

I'm giving a shout out to two groups. The Children with Disabilities group for working so hard on the video and hands on and giving a lot of thought i to their work And another shout out to the Drugs and Alcohol group. They are a great example of teamwork and being hard workers. #Teamwork @SparklestheUnicorn

After we’ve cycled through the questions, we do a dramatic reading of the chat. I read the initial question, then students read what they wrote in chronological order. It’s actually a lot of fun! Everyone gets to participate and share with the group in a fast paced manner.

I love watching the students during a chat. They are very serious yet enjoy themselves at the same time. As their teacher, I know that this is really a reflection piece. Part of my lesson design is always reflection. The faux Twitter chat is a fun and engaging way to get students reflecting while having fun with their friends. As @Markbarnes19 would say, that’s one way to #HackLearning.

Give the faux Twitter chat a try. Your students will love it!

#MuchLove . . . Marilyn 🖤

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Goals Inquiry

2/9/2019

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One of my goals this year has been to focus on inquiry and bring meaning to our essential questions. Coming back from Christmas break, our new language arts theme was a perfect fit . . . goals. Our overarching essential question was:

What does it take to accomplish a goal?

With the question in mind, I put my lesson design hat on and implemented a three part inquiry.

Let’s see what we did.

QFT
We started the inquiry off using the Question Formulation Technique modeled after The Right Question Institute (here). My sixth graders used this slide deck to guide the process.

This is our fourth time implementing QFT this year. The level of familiarity and confidence with the process was evident. Students dove right into the provocation.

Their questions were deep and personally relevant. Some of their questions included:

What are goals?
How do goals lead to action?
How do goals prepare us for the future?
Are goals and accomplishments the same?
Is a goal always accomplished?

As you can see, their questions are a combination of opened and closed. We’ve come to realize that both types of questions are important.

At the end of each session, students write a reflection on index cards. The following questions are used to spark their reflections:

What did you learn?
How will you use the questions?
How did you improve as a learner?

This particular session was special because, as an AVID elementary school, we’re working on collaboration and supporting teacher leaders. Part of our plan this year is for teachers to share best practices and learn from each other. My dear colleague and I shared our passions with each other, along with our principal and instructional coach.

Socratic Seminar
The next part to our inquiry was using the student generated questions from the QFT in a socratic seminar. During the peer lesson study, I observed my colleague implement a socratic seminar with her fourth graders. They did great! Since many of my students were her former students, I wanted to be consistent with the process.

For our goals socratic seminar, I split the class into four groups. We had two seminars running at the same time. Each seminar had an inside circle and an outside circle. The inside circle held the discussion and the outside circle were the observers. The students discussing were given questions generated from the QFT on index cards. The discussions were 5 minutes long. Each observer was assigned one student. Observations were recorded on index cards. After the discussions, the observers orally shared their observations. Once one round was complete, the inside circle and the outside circle swapped positions and the process was repeated.

The students did great with the socratic seminar. Because we run a student-led classroom and they were previously exposed to socratic seminar, the discussions were on point and observers took their role seriously. In this case, pictures speak louder than words. Take a peek.

Vision Bottles
The culmination to our inquiry was creating vision bottles. One of the essential questions for the unit was “What can people accomplish when working together?”. I decided to use this as an opportunity to have our instructional coach come in and co-teach a lesson.

The vision bottle lesson included several parts: strips with self-reflective questions, friendship, SMART goals, and tactile items to inspire. Click here for the lesson.

A real quick to be honest. I thought the activity would take one class period. It actually took two. But I recommend three in order to honor each part.

The component that tied into our inquiry was the SMART goals. For this part, we shared and discussed this image. Using the structure, I modeled several personal goals for myself. We discussed and shared math, language arts, and personal goals orally. Then, students wrote their own goals. For this lesson, I didn’t insist that all the components of SMART goals was in their sentence. Another to be honest. It is REALLY hard for students to write SMART goals. Take a look at some of their goals.

Shout out to our instructional coach, Lagina Young, for the inspirational handout and fun items to put in the bottle. The students loved them all! Thank you sharing your creativity with us.

Our goals inquiry was relevant, scholarly, and fun. I’m proud of my sixth graders for digging deep into QFT, having a scholarly discussion on goals, and would love to hear how they react years from now when they rediscover their vision bottle.

Are you using inquiry or QFT in your classroom or school? I’d love to see what you’re doing.

I hope all of your goals and dreams come true in 2019!

#MuchLove . . . Marilyn ❤️

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Social Awareness QFT

12/2/2018

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We’re moving right along with our social awareness inquiry. So far, we’ve generated a lengthy list of social concerns, engaged in a #SmashboardEdu session, and regrouped based on student interest.

Our next step is to generate our essential questions. In order to facilitate students asking their own questions, we utilized the Question Formulation Technique. The work of The Right Question Institute website along with the book, Make Just One Change by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana, has greatly influenced my practice.

Join me as I share our QFT session.

We started off watching this video of a fourth grade class navigating through the stages of QFT. The teacher’s thinking process and her student’s collaboration was motivating to both my students and me.

Our QFT session had 10 different groups varying from 2 to 5 students. The purpose of the inquiry is to learn about solutions to problems young people are facing today. In order to do that, students need to narrow down their focus. The QFT questioning process with help students determine essential questions to research and answer. The social concerns of my sixth graders are: immigration, face to face bullying, cyberbullying, making wrong choices, depression, self-harm, anxiety, drugs and alcohol, disabilities, and homelessness.

During the session, we used this slide deck to guide us. We engaged in all components of the QFT process which include:

   1.   A Question Focus (Q-Focus)
   2.   The Rules for Producing Questions
   3.   Producing Questions
   4.    Categorizing Questions
   5.   Prioritizing Questions
   6.   Next Steps
   7.   Reflection

This is the second time my class worked through the process. Our school has a very tight team. In fifth grade, students used the QFT process so it isn’t a new procedure. Honoring each step of the process is very important. It seems deceptively simple but the thinking and student empowerment is huge. Because students are doing the heavy lifting, they take ownership of their questions and learning. The timers embedded in the slide deck keep students on task and focused.

Take a look at some of the questions below. And this video of students collaborating.

The final component of the QFT process is a reflection. Students reflected in their digital journal. Their digi journal is an integral part of the inquiry. They’ll be returning to it throughout the next couple of months.

Take a look at some student reflections.

Student 1: "I learned that when doing a QFT, you can’t really worry about grammar at that point. You have to hurry up and write down your questions in the time you are given. I will use the questions we chose for further research in my anxiety inquiry, and to have more understanding with it. I can improve as a learner by expanding and tweaking my questions to make them better, and by taking my thinking into a deeper level. I also learned that making up questions in a limited time is not really easy, and you have to be a fast thinker. In a QFT, you aren’t really learning about your topic, but about your group and how good it collaborates. In my group, we needed a little bit more collaboration with the new member. We, of course had to help him a little with his understanding. Hopefully he improves with his collaboration and thinking. It was a little awkward considering he was uncomfortable with us since he barely knew us. The QFT really did help us with our thinking, and helped us get a better understanding on the questions we want to research on. All in all, the QFT helped us get a little more comfortable, and also gave us a good start because we thought of many good questions we would like to do further research on."
Student 2: "During our QFT time there was so much learning and engaging going on. I learned a lot about my group and the questions they had. AH (a group member) seemed to be really interested on the effect of making wrong choices. On the other hand ADH (another group member) was mainly interested on the origins and the consequences. We all asked many questions. Many were open. I feel that’s good because we could engage more in the topic. I also learned that we can all work as a well mannered team. We all took turns and gave the questions we felt were important. As a group we all felt we needed a voice. ADH was making sure that everyone got to share their perspective on the questions and what was more important. I feel that I can use the questions in many ways. I feel that it is best for me to use more or less the open questions to help me engage more in the subject. I will use the questions as a way to research and go deeper into the awareness in a scholarly way. The questions will improve my knowledge on the subject and can help throughout the process. There are many ways I can improve as a learner. I feel that maybe asking different questions such as deeper questions can improve the way I research. I like to reach for a scholarly act so the deeper question can engage me more. It will help my thoughts on the awareness. I should start thinking outside of the box. It’ll help my me and my groups ideas. After all this QFT session was really good and will help me learn new things, think of ways to use my questions, and help me try to improve my learning."
Student 3: "My QFT topic was Drug and Alcohol Abuse. My reflection of this topic helped me learn that there are more to drugs and alcohol than them just being bad. Something else that I learned during this session is that drugs and alcohol have many more questions to them then you think. We usually thought that drugs and alcohol were just things that we shouldn’t do, after what seemed about six minutes we realized there was still more questions about drugs and alcohol that us four were still wondering. Another thing that I can reflect on is that our group were not exactly comfortable with our topic, but mostly because we didn’t know how to explain this topic to others and how to put all the things together as a group. Something that I will do with my groups and my own questions are by trying to explain to others and more importantly why drugs and alcohol are things that people shouldn’t even try not even one time in life because after who knows if you’ll end up getting addicted to either of them. Another way that I can use these questions is by researching each different facts about them and how to help me understand these questions on my own and again after explain it to others to help them understand as well. A way I can improve as a learner is by giving more questions in my group and by helping other people find another question to give either me or themselves another thought about theirs or another about mine. I can also improve myself as a learner by thinking a little deeper in my questions. Something else that I think that I really can improve on as a learner is that I think I can be more open to others and yo my own ideas and to be able to share my ideas."

We culminated the session by going on a gallery walk. Students were able to read each groups questions and discuss with their peers along the way.

Our next steps are to focus on the three priority questions from each group. Students will be learning about their self-selected topic with a particular focus on solutions to their social concern.

The QFT process is a powerful questioning technique that can be used at all grade levels. Here is a GFT slide deck guide that you can modify to meet your particular needs. Feel free to insert your Q-focus into the slide deck.

If you’re already using QFT or are just starting your journey, I’d love to see what you’re doing. If you have questions, feel free to DM me.

#MuchLove . . . Marilyn ❤

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Social Awareness Inquiry Cycle

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