5 Comments

1. Ashley Jones on August 8, 2018 at 5:22 pm

   1. The pot analogy brought a strange mix of emotions. While my classroom tends to be the place for crazy trial and error design strategies I also value the inspiration research can provide. However, some times seeing what has been done can close your mind to what could be. Maybe it limits your ideas. My students learn by doing for sure, but I think that I need to give them more opportunities to “fail fast”. I would say that I give them to much time on the final project so I will focus on that.

   2. The difference between repitition and iteration is learning from your mistakes and success. With repitition you are creating the same thing over and over again, but with iteration you are re-evaluating the things that worked and didn’t. Iteration also allows less time and materials to be wasted in an effort to get it right. That would be the area that I most need to work on in my classroom. I need to give my students more opportunities to do the same project while building on their previous experiences.

   3. The area I would apply would be feedback. During daily tasks provide feedback from peers, self assessments, and tools such as Socratic. Feedback from multiple sources can help to inspire new ideas, confirm success, and pinpoint areas of growth to focus on.

   A lesson that could be altered is my build a bridge activity. Students are learning to create a structure that will meet certain criteria. In the past it has been 4 teams given a set amount of time to attempt to build the structure. At the end of the time we discuss what worked and what didn’t. I think I’m order to add more feedback into this activity we could give less time for the build. Let students give feedback to the other group. Then start the clock again and see if they can adjust their design to be more effective after troubleshooting.

   I think that the students will freak out about the shorter time constraints, but ultimately they will start focusing on learning how to create a sturdy structure rather than winning. Chances are no one will build a sturdy structure after one very fast attempt. After multiple attempts and recieving feedback they will learn more about how to solve the problem than just producing.

   4. I truly believe that when students are relieved of the pressure of one attempt formal assessments desire to learn comes into focus. While we have to give them grades we can offer them multiple opportunities to fail and succeed before making it count. Give them opportunities to tell you how many different ways and times they need to practice a skill before being tested. Give them a voice. Let them guide the experience. Giving them that kind of ownership only encourages them further when they are successful.

   5. One way that I will adjust my practice after reading this book is by giving them more opportunities to fail and then reevaluate. I am so focused on them meeting there goals that I help them too much. I want to give them guidance, but maybe I need to take a stamp back and just provide more opportunities to work it out on their own.

2. Lindy Buchanan on August 8, 2018 at 5:19 pm

   Q1 What did you learn from the pot analogy? How can you apply this to your practice and your classroom? It’s a brilliant analogy. I do believe that individuals learn quicker by doing and learning from their mistakes. The analogy actually reminded me of all my college courses I took before getting my teacher certification. You learn about different tools and techniques to use in the classroom. However, you don’t truly learn the ins and outs of being a teacher until you have your first class. You learn what works and doesn’t work by trying out new ideas. I think that’s true for any skill or trade that you want to learn. Researching, planning, and designing are great but it doesn’t allow you to have the hands-on piece which I think many learners need. Simply, I think students need more creative and stimulating activities that force them to think outside the box and to use problem solving strategies.
   Q2 What is the difference between repetition and iteration? Which occurs more in our classrooms? How can you adjust your practice to include more iteration? Repetition is doing the same thing over and over. Iteration is a process where students solicit feedback, reflect on it, and respond by creating something new using a different strategy. Iteration allows students to design their instruction and adjust their learning based on what they are doing. Traditionally, teachers are more comfortable with repetition and maintaining control but in the past 5 or so years I think we’ve made great strides in moving in the opposite direction and have focused on the student and how they learn best. We can adjust our practice by not giving students worksheet after worksheet. Worksheets just don’t build enthusiasm in a classroom. Engagement and hands-on activities are what students need most!
   Q3 Using Ries’s four-step approach to apply one or more of the new pillars of modern teaching to a hypothetical classroom.
   • Identify one small change you would like to empower students to own their learning by designing their instruction, curating their content, or soliciting independent feedback. I will be teaching ESL students this year so my role has changed slightly. However, one of my small goals is to provide students more options for learning activities. Students do not learn in the same way or at the same pace so allowing students to take ownership of how they learn will be one of my goals this year in small groups.
   • Alter a lesson or activity to implement this change in a basic way. Please describe the change. I teach little kids but one example might be to share with their peers something they know about ocean animals (just throwing something out there). Typically, I’d have students use related library resources to gain for students to gain information. Providing students with options on how they obtain and present their ocean animal to their peers could be their choice. Perhaps, one student wants to share information obtained from a non-fiction text on Tumblebook or another students want to share what they learned by creating a visual display with a picture and facts written below. Another student may opt to make a video and share it with the class…the opportunities are endless.
   • Plan to try this next year and predict how students might react to this adjustment. I think students would be surprised and excited to take ownership of their own learning.
   Q4 What can we do to create autonomy, mastery, and purpose for student to heighten engagement in the classroom? We can provide students with options on how they want to learn.
   Q5 How will you adjust your practice as a result of studying this book? One thing that stuck out to me in the last chapter was this sentence – “So many times, we’re setting up our classroom environments in which there is very little space for failing and even less for failing fast, but the inescapable reality for our students is that when they graduate, they’re entering a world that expects them to fail fast and to learn quickly from those mistakes.” This is so true! Failure should be a learning opportunity for our students. If we want students learn and fill in the gaps where they’re struggling we have to offer support and the opportunity to correct what they didn’t do right the first or second go round. Putting an F on a paper and sending it home teaches a student nothing other than they’re a failure and they shouldn’t try. We must change our mindset about failure.

3. Joshua Biggerstaff on August 8, 2018 at 8:53 am

   What did you learn from the pot analogy? How can you apply this to your practice and your classroom?

   This pot analogy is a very strong story. There are so many times that we plan out the perfect lesson plan or have the perfect idea for something, but when we put it into action the result isn’t what we thought. This is so important to teach to our students as well. Learning comes from failure. Giving students the opportunity to try and try and try again is important to their success as a student, but also as a member of society. I believe this also goes directly with the power of the growth mindset. Developing things that students can fail and learn from in tour classroom, and providing a safe place to do so is so beneficial for those students.

   What is the difference between repetition and iteration? Which occurs more in our classrooms? How can you adjust your practice to include more iteration?

   Repetition is the act of doing something over and over again without making any changes. Iteration is the act of doing over and over again, but learning from the failures as you go and making adjustments to be better the next time. I believe in our class, iteration is actually more visible than repetition. Our motto this year was “Better is a never-ending quest”. I believe that there is always room for improvement and growth. This was something that I instilled into my students this year and they took it and ran with it. There were so many times that a student did a really good job on something but would come to me and say, “I think I know how I could make this even better next time.” I believe the most effective way to implement it is to live it. Show your students that you are constantly trying to better yourself as a teacher, and they are going to follow suit.

   Using Ries’s four-step approach to apply one or more of the new pillars of modern teaching to a hypothetical classroom.
   Identify one small change you would like to empower students to own their learning by designing their instruction, curating their content, or soliciting independent feedback.
   Alter a lesson or activity to implement this change in a basic way. Please describe the change.
   Plan to try this next year and predict how students might react to this adjustment.

   I think the one area I want students to grow the most in is the area of feedback. I want to be more effective in the feedback that I give, but I want to also give students the opportunity to give feedback to other students as well. I think that there are many lesson plans that I could apply this to. For example, one major lesson we do is creating a Google Slide for a famous Texan that we research. I can have students share their slides with another student and have that students give feedback on the pictures, text, and design of the slides. This would truly engage my students and also give them a chance to curate and collaborate at the same time.

   What can we do to create autonomy, mastery, and purpose for student to heighten engagement in the classroom?

   I believe the most effective way is to get to know your students. There is so much to be said about be able to relate directly to a student based on their likes and dislikes. I also believe that building strong relationships with students give students the desire to be their best for you. When students know you care, they are much more involved and engaged in what is going on in the classroom. They know that you aren’t just another teacher throwing information their way.

   How will you adjust your practice as a result of studying this book.

   I will continue to grow as a teacher from reading this book. I will be more aware when I am planning, and lean more towards these new pillars of modern teaching. I believe that there are many things from this book that are already going on in our classroom, but I have learned many new things that can be immediately applied. I will be more intentional of giving students opportunities to curate, give feedback, and design their learning.

4. Jillian Lowry on July 14, 2018 at 10:34 pm

   1. What did you learn from the pot analogy? How can you apply this to your practice and your classroom?
   I both loved and hated the pot analogy—loved it because it represents the kind of messy creativity that is often the most joyful and meaningful at the end of the year. When students work multiple times to create a product or test a design or revamp a story—it is amazing to see their agency as they work through the process, without *fear*. Fear is one of the biggest obstacles to breakthrough experiences. The real challenge then, is to find practical and daily ways to allow students to experiment—and dedicating the time/creating the fear-free conditions in which the experimentation can happen.

   2. What is the difference between repetition and iteration? Which occurs more in our classrooms? How can you adjust your practice to include more iteration?

   Repetition refers to a rote activity (ie repeatedly answering problems on a topic) VS iteration, which is more of a collaborative/evolutionary process, during which students may repeatedly focus on the same topic BUT it is married with continuous feedback, input and adjustment so that it isn’t rote, but rather develops and changes (as needed) in order to improve.

   3. Using Ries’s four-step approach to apply one or more of the new pillars of modern teaching to a hypothetical classroom.
   • Identify one small change you would like to empower students to own their learning by designing their instruction, curating their content, or soliciting independent feedback.
   • Alter a lesson or activity to implement this change in a basic way. Please describe the change.
   • Plan to try this next year and predict how students might react to this adjustment.

   Gauging what I know about previous fourth grade students, I am reasonably certain I could create my own hypotheses about what feedback mechanisms might work best in my classroom. Rather than designing a complex, cumbersome system to solicit that feedback, it seems better to try several different modes, gathering feedback about these different means for submission of feedback, and revise/tweak as necessary over the year.
   It is so tempting, just in general in life, to try to find something that “works” and stick with it—we like to belabor concepts like consistency and routine, but this can often come at the expense of innovation, flexibility and logical alteration to better meet the needs at that moment. I see SO much willingness to fail, to change, to flex in Ries four-step approach, and I’m convinced we need more of this attitude—for our own sakes as well as for the sake of our students, who are going to need these skills moving into their work/lives in the future.

   4. What can we do to create autonomy, mastery, and purpose for student to heighten engagement in the classroom?
   Create autonomy by— modeling/teaching students to design/curate/and give & receive feedback—by moving towards transforming our instruction, we give more autonomy, cede more control to students.
   Creating purpose—by working to incorporate and allowing students to really embrace designing/curating/and feedback, we give them the opportunity to develop purpose for their learning and a purpose for each component thereof.
   Create mastery by allowing students to fail fast and continually providing feedback and means/opportunities to continually practice and put forth a product (iteration, not repetition).

   5. How will you adjust your practice as a result of studying this book.
   I had already been working over this summer on setting up the platforms/mechanisms for giving and receiving feedback in my classroom—this gave me so many ideas and so much more perspective on how feedback can work to empower students AND educators, aiding in the learning/doing/failing/revising and re-trying process that I so want to see in my classroom. I feel that Allen gave a lot of practical information (including links) for developing feedback as a pillar in the classroom and I’m excited to work to put it into practice this next year!

5. Christine Wiley on July 5, 2018 at 5:12 pm

   Q1 I really enjoyed the pot analogy because I have always tried to be the teacher that allowed students to make mistakes along the way. In reality we all learn best that way, think back to us as children on how we learned how to do anything. For example the way we learn to walk, ride a bike, drive a car, etc. We have to learn by trial, error, and then constructive feedback. It is okay to make mistakes, which for some people that is hard. However if we want our students to take risks and try new things without fear we have to let them perform tasks and then provide them with feedback.
   As far as for my classroom, this is true for when I teach math. I provide them with a short lesson on the skill. They go off with a friend and work with them. So they gain a little more support but also gradually release them. Then after that they go off on their own to explore it their way. I have seen by doing this they gain more confidence and become stronger in the content area. Sometimes they even teach me new ways of doing things.

   Q2 Repetition is doing a process over and over again, a repeated occurrence. Iteration is still a process being repeated, however it includes three major differences; feedback, reflection, and responding to it a new way.
   I would like to say that iteration is used in my classroom more. I am all about discovering new ways of doing things, so that is what I encourage from my students. It is easy to fall into the repetition of things, but in order for students to take ownership I feel it better to do more iteration. As I have stated above my students work together a lot, and by doing this they learn new ways of doing a task. I tell them my way is just a way; there are plenty of ways to do something. I do step in and provide feedback on the task at hand, I allow them to reflect on it, and then I ask them to find a new to present the information. You will be amazed on the creative ways students find to solve equations, tasks, and other projects. Just like not all students are the same, there should not just be one way of doing something. My team and I tried this with spelling homework, providing different spelling activities for them to do in order to practice their spelling words.
   This coming year, I want to encourage more iteration by having students become more engaged in their own learning. By presenting them with more topics that they can apply it in their own way. It is harder to do I think in younger grades since they are just starting out. However starting them now will encourage them to be more confident in themselves. I can provide iteration opportunities through stations, math, reading, writing, and pretty much all areas.

   Q3
   A. To help student own their own learning I want to solicit more independent feedback. I think that by doing this it will individualize my instruction. It will guide the differentiation in my classroom, so that students do not feel lost in the crowd. So many times you hear teachers say that they only have time for certain students and those that are getting it get left out. I want to be able to connect with all my students and confidently be able to say that I reached my whole class. By making an effort to give independent feedback will give students more ownership and individualized support.
   B. This would look like, after teaching a skill to the whole class, then have them work with a peer for additional support, lastly have them work independently on the task. During this time I would step in and walk around to each student and discuss what they are doing and how they are doing. By doing this I would be able to see where they need additional support or provide them with reassurance on what they are doing. Students love to be listened to and supported, and by doing this you are not only supporting them you are allowing them to shine. They need this time to gain the confidence to go on to the next level.
   C. I predict my students will become more independent learners and excel on things that they never thought possible. This is similar to scaffolding but in a way you are not only assisting them you are giving them feedback that will guide them towards a higher goal. When we receive feedback it allows us to adjust the way we are doing something or it affirms that we are doing it right. I feel that my students will benefit from this so they are able to fix mistake(s) right away vs trying to do it weeks down the road. It will ensure that the skills they need to master are being mastered.

   Q4 I think we can create autonomy by giving our students more ownership over their learning. Students who are more active in classrooms are usually those creating something that they have created. Kind of like the book said, students are more engaged in classes like, art, music, and other classes that allow them to explore. I have heard it from so many, the one doing the talking is the one learning. Proving students with fewer teacher directed learning and more student led lessons. Mastery comes to those that try things over and over and get constant feedback on how they are doing. Kind of like that pottery example from the book. Try and try again until you get it just right. We usually master a task when we are able to “take chances, make mistakes, and get messy”, as Mrs. Frizzle used to say. Lastly giving students a purpose behind why they learning will go a long way. How many times do we not want to do something when we do not have a purpose behind it? I know for me I am very goal oriented. I feel with immediate responses, like from technology students are the same way. They want to know why, how, where, and all the above to gain the purpose as to why this is important.
   I believe by doing all this it will support my students and allow them to become lifelong learners.

   Q5 I will adjust my practices after reading this book by ensuring that my students find school a tool not just a place they have to go. I also want to make sure they are constantly exploring new ideas and topics. My goal this year is to be more a facilitator vs an instructor. We continually have to adapt to a new set of students every year. I want my students to be able to be independent thinkers as well as learners. Handing over more control to them so this can happen is another goal of mine after reading this book. We as teachers take on a new role and we need to be able to adapt to it.