Getting it Done

In an earlier post I shared out summer "to do" list. Time to reflect on what I did and didn't get done.

Here is the list:

• Learned the Basics of MakeyMakey
• Build a 2L water bottle rocket launcher
• Read Make it Stick
• Started learning how to use RPG Maker MV
• Updated Classcraft Sentences, Random Events, and Behaviors

In short, I did all of them, and MORE!

Played with MakeyMakey and my Chromebook using Sketch. Easy stuff and I'll try incorporating it somewhere this year.

Built that 2L water bottle rocket launcher. Now to develop a plan for its use at school.

My 10 yr old daughter testing out the launcher.

I read Make it Stick and I also reworked my question bank and thinking in regards to spacing, interleaving, and recall. I've also become more vociferous in my position that learning styles are bunk. I'm not going to get into more detail on my teaching philosophy regarding learning styles here, but will save that for a later post. Suffice to say, varying instruction has value, just not the value generally attributed to it.

RPG Maker MV is a very robust, easy, and fun game maker. I spent a few hours everyday learning its in and outs. Got through the beginning tutorials. The problem was that I didn't end up with an end product I can use yet and feel that valuable summer time could have been spent doing other things to improve my class game experience.

I went through most of my Classcraft stuff. Now I need to finish up some quests. I really want quests to work better this year and have more student completion of them. Part of it is the art of the "initial success". Most good games don't have you fail immediately. You have a series of easy successes to train you in how the game system works.

Wow. I did quite a bit. I also got first place at a martial arts competition and earned my blackbelt. Also spent four days at NYS Master Teacher conferences learning about science and science education.

A successful summer I'd say!

Cobra Kai: A Lesson on Teaching and Learning

Sometime around 1986 my mother decided to enroll me in Karate classes. My dad was often away for work (activity duty military) and she wanted some male role models in my life. Not sure what influence the movie Karate Kid had on the decision to put me in Karate classes (I did like the movie), but it was the start of my martial arts journey. I recently made a video that summarizes this journey as part of earning my blackbelt at the Chinese Martial Arts Academy (CMAA).

Me in 1986

You bet I was excited about the release of the YouTube series Cobra Kai. Here is the description of the show from YouTube:

"Thirty years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, Johnny Lawrence’s life has taken a rocky turn as he tries to forget a past that constantly haunts him. He seeks redemption by reopening the infamous Cobra Kai karate dojo. But the LaRusso-Lawrence rivalry of yesteryear is reignited when their lives become intertwined with the next generation of “karate kids.”

As a father, teacher, and martial artist I found much to love about this series. It's like the makers of it asked,"What could we produce that Scott will really get into?"

Though the series wasn't meant to be an examination of teaching and learning I couldn't help but contemplate the decisions made by the adults and youth in the series. There was give and take both ways as there is in any classroom. Here are a few things I thought about.

What was my take-away as a teacher. 

The Power of Reflection
There should be no need to point out (if you've seen the show) that Johnny Lawrence is not the teacher you want for your kid(s). He drinks. He puts his students in dangerous situations. He advocates for winning at all costs. It's Cobra Kai dammit!

He does have lots going for him as a teacher though. As with any aspiring business owner he quickly realizes that he needs customers to keep his business open (more importantly to him, to also outdo LaRusso in someway). So he listens, reflects, and accommodates by accepting girls and admitting he needs more than one specific "type" of student. He reflects on how his actions affect his students and dojo. He definitely makes lots of mistakes and you continually hope he makes better decisions. That's one reason I found the story compelling. You could almost see him reflecting during and after the final matches in the show.

You Teach How You Were Taught
If you are a parent you are familiar with this. When put into a tough situation you fish around in your mind for a response. Your son/daughter fails a test, for example. You search around in your myriad of memories for how your parents may have dealt with this. You go to your role models. How would my mom or dad deal with this? Johnny did the same. He had one instructor at the original Cobra Kai. That's all he knows. Your not going to squeeze water from a rock. Adjusting your teaching style is challenging and requires time and reflection. He comes from one school of thought and that is what he relies on and goes back to. Often as teachers we don't realize how often we do this. I believe this is why observing good teaching is valuable. You can gain new perspectives and branch out your thinking and teaching styles.

Differentiated Instruction
Especially at the beginning, he may not be the teacher you want for kids, but he may be the style of teacher they need. Some students respond well to in-your-face challenges, tough discipline,  and no-nonsense teaching. Different students need different approaches. Imagine if one of Sensei Lawrence's pupils was coming from a tough home life. Maybe one already involving abuse or neglect. His literal "punch you in the face" teaching style may not work as well as calm and caring. Being a good teacher means being able to adjust your approach when dealing with different students. It also requires knowing your students in a real way. Johnny Lawrence does not relate well to his students. He is very distant. LaRusso, however, talks to his student and tries to develop a rapport with him.

High Expectations
Johnny Lawrence has them. He expected each of his students to try their hardest...or leave. He didn't go soft on them. His top students also bought into the program he was selling and excelled. Results speak for themselves and success breeds success. High expectations for everyone brings up what is possible for everyone. I know in the classes I attend at CMAA that students often excel where they think they won't. They are often better than they think they are. I try for the same high expectations in my science classes.

Final Thoughts

In the next season of Cobra Kai we are sure to see more of Daniel LaRusso's dojo. I'm stoked to see how his school differs from Cobra Kai. There is so much more to talk about concerning martial arts teaching and how it compares to classroom teaching. I have a few more blog posts planned including: experiential learning, belt systems/gamification, assessment, and student attitude.

I 'm very interested in hearing other's thoughts on Cobra Kai and how it relates to teaching.





Cobra Kai YouTube Link
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe9DTWmhhxeKyYHL4mldGcA

Been Working on a few Things

Trying to get a few things done this summer in relation to teaching:

• Learned the Basics of MakeyMakey
• Build a 2L water bottle rocket launcher
• Read Make it Stick
• Started learning how to use RPG Maker MV
• Updated Classcraft Sentences, Random Events, and Behaviors

I'm currently reading EduProtocol and just starting to work on some quests for Classcraft. I still need to figure out how I'm teaching AIS Science this year. Will probably involve review quizzes and games.

Non-teachy stuff: training to do a traditional mantis style kung fu form in the North East Open in August. Building a few cutting boards made from salvaged wood with a friend. That's about it for big things.

Other things need to get done too.
Time to vacuum the family room!

5 Years of Learning

I learned so much from one student during the last five years. She became known as my "other daughter" and though I helped her grow as a person; she helped me grow as a teacher and as a person as well. She has now graduated from high school. Before exploring the lessons I learned from this experience I need to provide a bit of background to give context to the lessons I learned.

In eighth grade she was having a rough couple days. Rough even for an eighth grade girl. She was so down on herself that I had all the teachers on our team write a quick positive affirmation on a card that I gave to her at the end of the day. As hoped the card made a difference and her mood changed. I thought I had done some good and that would be the end of it. Wrong.

We are a preK-12 building and she quickly began stopping by everyday. This turned into every morning and almost every afternoon through four years of high school. Often stopping by during school day as well. I swear she knew my schedule better than I did. We'd celebrate accomplishments and birthdays of her and her friends before school (my breakfast club). I continued to help her work through some difficult issues (see the * below) and became a mentor, confidant, and father figure.

What did I learn from all this?

I learned how to listen and communicate better. I did not have (I realize this now) really good listening skills. The ability to know when and when not to talk. The ability to know what questions to ask and when to ask them. I had never had to help someone through a crisis before. 

Real relationships take time. Being seen at their softball game by students is great. Asking what a students will be doing on the weekend is also a great way to build rapport. But, As Aaron Hogan points out in Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth, "It better be real." I'm not sure I would have truly understood what this meant unless I had this experience first. You need to be able to open up. Freely give of yourself. No, you can't do this with every student; however, some students need that deeper connection to a caring adult more than others.

I learned perspective taking. When helping her I began asking questions such as,"What would make someone do this?" or "How would I react to this situation?". I began transferring these perspective taking skills to working with other students (not intentionally) and trying to understand what drives students to make certain decisions. 

*I learned how to work as a school team to help students. Sure, I knew a bit of how to do this before, but no in depth practical experience with an individual student for an extended period of time. Parents, admin, and guidance and other adults were all involved at some point. For some students it takes a team of adults working together to get them to a better place. As a teacher I need to be willing to go to bat for students to get them the help they need.

The most important lesson was the first one I learned the day I gave her that card: even the smallest act of altruism can have far reaching positive effects.

-This post is a small reflection on a life-changing experience and I felt compelled to share out something. Guess its kind of a "thank you" to her. There is probably more I learned and that may be written upon more reflection.-

USM Summer Spark!

I'm back home now and can relax a bit and I spent a week writing this post. I unpacked my bags in minutes, but it will take me a long time (weeks? months?) to unpack the experience. That same invigorating feeling of having been to a smashing good concert or winning a championship is buoying my spirits. I'm PUMPED. I am also tired as heck.

First of all, I'm glad I went. I paid for most of the trip myself and was hoping it would live up to the hype. The hype was well placed. The location was beautiful! I'm happy that the trip gave me the chance to experience the wonderful city of Milwaukee. The University School of Milwaukee is a site to behold. You can tell right away that the entire community takes great pride in the school and its students.

The conference was incredibly well run. Pamela Nosbusch (@pamelanosbusch) and Chuck Taft (@Chucktaft) made Summer Spark run so smoothly. This was their forth year doing Summer Spark and their organizational experience shows. Few things I noticed were: sessions on-time, tech issues few, key-notes superb, session rooms accommodating, and food wonderful. Honestly, it was one of the best run conferences I've been to.

Below is a list of the sessions I attended and main takeaways from each.

Top 10 Games for Any Classroom

-Melissa Pilakowski (@mpilakow)

A great assortment of ideas from Jenga, Scattagories, to a Google Vocab Challenge. I will definitely look at playing a few from this session.

AR and VR in the Classroom

-Rachel Dene Poth (@Rdene915)

I love seeing what new things are on the horizon. Google Expeditions continues to be the leader. Why are so many others on iDevices only? I find much of AR and VR a bit gimmicky still but the engagement level is amazing.

Teaching Inspiration

-Michael Matera (@mrmatera)

Finally got to see a presentation by the #xplap man himself. I'm going to use "time" as a game element in more activities.

Digital Breakouts

-DianaLyn Perkins (@PerkyScience)

Practical session from one of my #scitlap friends. I needed to know where to start and what Digital Breakouts were all about. This session has got me stoked to do one in the fall.

Insert Coin

-Chris Hesselbein (@ChrisHesselbein)

I had visited Chris' blog before and wanted to attend one more gamification session. His passion permeated the session and was a great review/introduction of game mechanics and gamification.

Student Voice in the Classroom: Don't Forget the Introverts

-Julie Smith (@Julnilsmith)

I posted a picture from the first slide of this presentation and my Facebook went nuts. My introvert friends are not introverts on the internet I guess. Good practical strategies for reaching out to introverts: wait time, give students paper to write down questions, provide speaking prompts, and more!

Bite-Size Mastery: Nibbling on Mastery Learning

-Tiffany Ott (@TechieTeachOtt)

I had been seeing Grid Method come across my Twitter feed for while and had a passing knowledge of mastery learning. I was hoping to get some specific pedagogical strategies out of this session. I learned out to plan out an entire lesson for mastery. Love it. She provided a sheet breaking down a standard into DOK levels that go with lessons. A formative assessment at the beginning breaks out students into DOK levels to tackle those tasks.

Shattering The Perfect Teacher Myth

-Aaron Hogan (@aaron_hogan)

Aaron wrote the book with the same name as the title of this session. I managed to snag a copy from him after the session. He went over each of the myths in his book. One thing that stuck with me is the change in thinking from "Students should know how to do this." to "I need to teach students how to do this." This is particularly true for behavior problems in class. The idea that students are trying their best. Not just thinking that they are being lazy.

Blogging Summer Spark!

My goal is the blog about my experiences at USM Summer Spark which is a two day conference on innovative teaching practices. Many educators that I have met online via Twitter and other conferences will be attending. Never before have I spent my own money to travel to and attend a conference. From all I've heard it is worth every penny.

About a month into this school year I knew I would need something to reinvigorate my love for teaching and get me excited again. Without getting into any details I just want the ready to understand that of my 15 years teaching this one was the most trying and exhausting. I don't want you to also think this is because I'm now a veteran teacher and am old and jaded. Not at all. I leave the complaining to those around me and try to remain positive. Try to remain positive.

Planning ahead I got to Milwaukee a few days early and saw some sites as I anxiously awaited my colleagues. Tonight I get to meet many as we wine and dine. Wait. Not wine in Wisconsin. Beer. We'll gather around and talk teacher. With teachers I find there is never a lull in conversation and teachers generally like to talk. Often about teaching.

Last Few Weeks

The last few weeks are upon me. Time to plan out my summer edu "to do" list.

Water rocket launcher build
Build wrestling room weight class board
Treasure chest with items
Plan or help plan physics class
Develop Classcraft quests
Get more stuff for game club
Read books

All I can think of for now. I will probably tack on more after attending USM Summer Spark and after reading more books.

Podcasting About Sound

Last week my physical science students had to complete a podcast on one of several topics relating to sound. The stuff they came up with was pretty good. Some exceptional. Of definite benefit was that they already knew how to use Soundtrap thanks to the music teacher. The bumper music was great. Next year I will try doing this again but give students much more time to schedule recording time in Studio M308A and the music room. The enthusiasm for the assignment was refreshing but they struggled to plan their time and get things recorded. I also need to provide more time for script development.

Studio M308A

Starting the project at the beginning of the unit with a sign-out sheet for the entire two weeks should give students plenty of time. Completion rate of long term projects is always a struggle,but this one in particular students seemed really stoked about and came in outside of class time to record. I would like to use a more social platform to share their creations as well and will need to look into how to best do that.

Podcasting Thoughts

First time doing podcasts in class. Ever. The music teacher approached me about a collaboration involving Soundtrap. Students already have experience with it from music class and I figured I needed a year end challenge to liven things up.

Nervous about this though. I have never done this before. I worry students will run out of time, have huge technical glitches, and not get students learning the content I need them to.

Ordered a mic to work with their chromebooks and set up a recording studio in my prep room. Will need to make up a sign out sheet for the studio. Getting a class of 29 recording and keeping them on task may be my undoing. Great stuff may happen or complete chaos.

Wouldn't be the first time.

Blogging More

I've decided to blog more frequently for several reasons. The main one being that doing something is better than doing practically nothing. Most of my past posts have been very thought out and developed reflections. I still plan on doing those. Just blogging more will be of more benefit to me and possible benefit to others. I'm not thinking daily is an option, but some kind of routine needs to happen. Once a week perhaps? Maybe when I have a down moment in my creative lesson planning endeavors I can spit out a few reflections here.

In general I feel the posts will be shorter. Getting on a soapbox can make for just as large of a post too. The writing and rewriting part, though, is often where I my reflection happens and I worry I might lose some of that. Even now this seems more stream-of-consciousness writing with little reflection.

Gamification Update

Halfway through the school year and it is time to reflect on how my gamification experiment is proceeding. I am not entirely happy with my progress so far, but realize that this is a process. I have had some success with Quests within Classcraft and in a few other places.

Successes

• AP - Students regularly spend AP (ability points) to heal each other and use the Sainthood power (they get a Starburst candy).
• Random Events - By far the most popular aspect of Classcraft and gamification so far. If I get going and forget to do it students remind me. I have yet to have a student that is not excited when they are awarded random XP or get to roll a dice.
• HP - Students lose HP for doing things we want to discourage in class. Far fewer students ask to leave class since they lose HP if they do (unless required to leave by the front office or something of that sort).
• XP - Students like to see that they are rewarded for doing well. Giving students XP somehow works to show a recognition by the teacher that they are doing well.
• Quests - A limited success yet something worth mentioning in this space. I don't generally have quests integrated with grades. They are separate though there is some overlap (extra credit for some quests).

In Progress

• Leaderboards - Yes, one of the most integral parts of a gamified class is not really there. I have no trophy or endgoal in place. Students see XP on Classcraft and that is all. Group/team XP and competition is non-existent. I thought I would have more ability to manipulate individual and team XP data within Classcraft for some reason. Would it be that hard to have team rankings within the game?
• Badges - I have the labels that I want to print them onto. I have plenty of ideas for badges. I just haven't had the time to think it through and I don't want to introduce an aspect of the game before it is ready for roll-out.
• Easter Eggs - I have started to consider this more deeply. I am thinking of starting really simple like including a hidden link in a document to a simple side quest.

Final Thoughts

I feel it is really quite impossible to have your entire game laid out before the school year begins. Like most teachers, I don't get curriculum time over the summer to plan out a regular curriculum let alone a gamified experience for learners. I've been slowly incorporating additional features as the school year moves on. I feel this makes sense in many ways. First, you don't want to overwhelm students at the beginning of the year, and you also don't want weeks of onboarding. Releasing or "unlocking" new features throughout the year can bring new life into a game that may need a bit of invigoration.

There are a few features that you can easily integrate into Classcraft or any gamified space: dice and cards. I've started to use both since the time after the holiday break.

The past few months I've started to release cards to students as a part of our game. I make cards using a MTG online card maker, print them, and laminate them. (Adam Powley @MrPowley has a great blog post on making cards.) I plan on this feature of the game growing as students find using them useful and fun. I have cards that let you hold our class bearded dragon and cards to change your assigned seat. Other features I hope to introduce in the next few months are posted leaderboards based on Classcraft XP, quests that take students around the school, and more inter-team competition.

The change in dynamics of gamifying my class have been amazing. The element of fun and engagement it provides is undeniably positive. We need these positive vibes in a year that has been a struggle as every day brings new challenges. Sometimes learning and games seem trite relative to the overwhelming social-emotional issues facing children. However, I suppose, that may be even more reason to gamify and introduce engaging methodologies into instruction.