THE INSPIRED
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By John Clements, Principal of Nipmuc Regional High School Across the nation this month, students and teachers have made their way back to classrooms with a mix of excitement about the new year, anxiety about the work and expectations in the year ahead, and - let’s be honest - a sense of sadness about saying goodbye to vacation. There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of vacation-mourning. Who doesn’t love the relaxed pace of the summer, the adventures of day trips or travel, and the chance to set our own agenda? Think of your own vacation. Did you read a book that’s been on your bedside table for months? Did you have summer days when you woke up excited about visiting a new location? Did you tackle a project at home that you’ve been putting off? The joy of summer isn’t about not working… it’s about doing the work you want to do. The challenge for educators is to take these aspects of vacation and build them into the experiences we create for students. It’s about finding a way to make learning more than the curriculum, standards, and assessment prep. More and more, we are connecting with educators who share the excitement to move beyond traditional practice. They’re willing to recognize that the job of a teacher isn’t to cover material but to create lasting moments of learning… to inspire their students. The Inspired Learning Project provides a resource and community that support educators in the challenge of reimagining school. We are believers that everyone is a learner. We are believers that cultures of learning are more powerful than cultures of teaching. We are believers in the talent, heart, and importance of teachers. We are believers that a community of like-minded professionals can support small changes that make a dramatic impact. Welcome back to the Inspired Learning Project! Resource Sharing The idea that small steps lead to big change is one of the key ideas shared by Ted Dintersmith in his recent book What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers across America. In the book, Dintersmith - a former venture capitalist turned education disrupter - shares the work of inspiring educators that he collected during a year of visiting schools across the nation. The book is an exciting call to action for parents, students, and educators to pursue an aspirational vision of school. We’ll be sharing more from Ted Dintersmith (including some thoughts about his film Most Likely to Succeed) throughout the year. In this post, we encourage you to listen to his conversation with Will Richardson and Bruce Dixon from the Modern Learners podcast. (Always a reliable source of thought-provoking ideas!) Check out the podcast to learn about the following:
Additional Resources Worth Checking Out Click here to access the Modern Learners blog, podcasts, resources, and more. Learn about Modern Learners' Change.School here. A powerful community dedicated to reimagining school. Each of the ILP team members is a graduate of Change.School. Cohort #6 is starting soon. Let us know if you're interested! Check out What School Could Be by clicking here.
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“When Mrs. Hough gave us the project I thought it was just another engineering project, I never thought we would actually design and create products that would be in Laos. Plus the project has grown so much, it is like a school wide project with cooking the food, making the movie, so many people are involved.” Empowering Students to Globally Connect is a two-year project that started with three teachers who saw an opportunity for students at Mashpee Middle High School to connect with an Australian Professor and help the people of Laos. Our goal was to make a technology and engineering class project that connected to the real world. The students would be able to apply their engineering skills and see a global impact from their work. The outcome has been a global project that has impacted students not only in the Technology and Engineering class but many students throughout the school with the creation of a student produced movie. The original student movie has allowed for additional cross curricular opportunities within music, art, and culinary. Empowering Students to Globally Connect started as a way to make technology and engineering have a real world connection. Students were initially tasked with researching the country of Laos with the end result creating a product that would improve the lives of its people. Initial research led to misconceptions that were clarified by Australian Professor Rachel Sheffield, who participates in mission trips to the country. Some of the information that Profession Sheffield shared included:
Mashpee High School students use their engineering skills to create products to better these students’ lives. Initially the ideas the students had and the products they created weren’t used for the original creation. For example, a student designed a strainer/colander assuming the Laos students would use it for noodles but he didn’t realize most of the foods the kids in Laos eat are soup. Instead the strainer is used to carry soap to and from the Mekong River for bathing. Other items were also created but we ran into a roadblock as we were not able to ship the products to Laos. Importing and exporting is not allowed by the Laos government which prevented the students from producing some of the items they thought would be helpful. We had to come up with an alternative way to help the Laos children. This roadblock was not obstacles for the students, as they decided to use PTC CREO Parametric software to design the strainer, shower caddy, and tic tac toe boards that could be 3D printed by Dr. Rachel Sheffield while she visited the country. The Laos children and the Monks that support them, enjoy playing with the boards and using the strainers. None of us could have imagined how our meeting and connecting at a conference could lead us to this two year project and its far reaching impact on all of us. Our students showed their world to the Laos children who intern thought of our world as magical because of the advanced technology. The Mashpee students realized how lucky they are in the US and how easily they take for granted the basic things they have in life that the children of Laos do not have access too. The Mashpee students have come to realize the simple products they designed will have a far reaching impact which has changed them more than they realize.
Students involved in this project come from all grade levels and all abilities. It allowed students who might not engage in a project typically because they feel it didn’t have meaning the opportunity to apply their skills in the real world. Many times your most reluctant learners are those that don’t see a purpose for doing the assignment, this project gave purpose specifically through the skyping sessions. The Mashpee students were able to see the effects their efforts in the classroom were having on the people of Laos through speaking with them and Rachel while she was there. Also, the core group that started the project were high school aged students in a Technology and Engineering class but the group has grown exponentially. We have included students from across grade levels and subject areas. Students involved in the project range from grade 8 through 12 and come from Culinary, Techsperts, Music, Art, Drafting, Engineering, and Technology. We have included students to film aspects of the project, Culinary assisted in creating a traditional Laotian meal for our culminating project, a music student is creating original score for the film the Techsperts are creating about the project, Art students are creating a special logo for our presentation at the International Society of Technology Educators (ISTE) Conference being held in June. These students don’t typically connect with each other but reaching across disciplines and interests has brought these students together in a way that may not have occurred otherwise. The greatest challenge we had was the time difference. Dr. Sheffield lives in Australia and the time difference is 12 hours, this was true for when she was in Laos too. Trying to coordinate times to connect and skype was difficult. Also, in Laos they experience rolling blackouts so skype sessions were often interrupted or could not occur. Another issue was the temperature in Laos. Due to the heat and humidity the 3D printer often malfunctioned. The technology and engineering students also designed products that would fit the dimensions of our 3D printer only to find out the 3D printer brought to Laos was about half the size. They had to redesign their prototypes and adjust to product assemblies when designing in PTC CREO Parametric in order for the products to be printed. Although we had some challenges and some were completely out of our control we just kept at it. We rescheduled time to skype, changed printing days, and worked with the issues we were faced with. It would have been great to see more students but with our time difference it wasn’t possible. Culminating experience, eating Laotian food and skyping with Dr. Sheffield while she was in Laos. If you are thinking about a project to connect your students globally, here are some first steps to get you started:
Resourceshttp://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20180409/mashpee-students-use-3-d-printing-to-help-laotian-schoolchildren http://laosscienceteachers.weebly.com/blog https://sway.com/2r0KGT2uINIKQ00h https://animoto.com/play/Fene7uWwXFI31YiIDkNR0w?autostart=1 https://www.capenews.net/mashpee/news/tech-kids-connect-with-schools-in-laos-australia/article_28fa53f0-87bc-5937-ad19-5dcb47070497.html Teaching Global Competence: https://asiasociety.org/education/teaching-global-competence-rapidly-changing-world?utm_campaign=crowdfire&utm_content=crowdfire&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter#61863287-tw#1516933155223 Amanda Hough is currently the Technology and Engineering Teacher at Mashpee Middle High School in her thirteenth year. Along with teaching Technology and Engineering she teaches High school Robotics and Engineering the Future to 8th graders. She holds teaching licenses in General Science 5-8, Technology and Engineering H.S., and has her Masters Degree in Administration K-12 Education. She is a Raspberry Pi Certified Educator, Competitive Robotics Coach, and avid Maker. She is a member of MassCue and ISTE. She is presenting at ISTE and has partnered with International Professors to create collaborative learning experiences for her students. She was nominated as one of the top five STEM teachers of the year in Massachusetts by the Hall at Patriot Place in 2018. Amanda truly believes in cross age student teaching and collaborates frequently with teachers within her school district to create authentic learning experiences for all students.
Colleen Terrill is currently the Director of Instructional Technology for Mashpee Public Schools after being a 6th grade teacher for 15 years. She provides ongoing professional development for teachers in her district where she focuses on the importance of balance between technology and curriculum. Colleen is a regular presenter at regional and national conferences such as MassCUE, ACTEM, Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference, CoSN, Tech and Learning Live and ISTE. She was a Keynote Panel Presenter for the New England 1:1 Summit. She is also an Associate Professor through the Extended Campus Program at Fitchburg State University where she teaches Explicit Instruction as well as Technology Integration in the Classroom. She is currently pursuing her Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Educational Leadership from Curry College. By John Clements, Principal of Nipmuc Regional High SchoolAs our world has become much smaller, the scope of our possible connections has become much larger. Today’s teacher is a globally connected citizen.”
Takeaway #1: What do we mean by global education? Establishing shared definitions of terms is critical. Bold Moves for Schools helped me to see “global education” as more than a buzzword by discussing it in terms of competencies. The book shared four competencies of global education (as defined by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Asia Society) including investigate the world, recognize perspective, communicate ideas, and take action. This simple framework provided a lens to view the ways that my own school is exploring global education. This definition prompted me to consider the tech tools that are being used to build connections. It encouraged me to think about whether these opportunities were taking place across all disciplines. It made me wonder about the resources teachers need to make these connections in the curriculum. Takeaway #2: Resources for getting global. There’s a reason that so many schools and districts include global citizenship in their mission and vision statements. As educators, we recognize that this is a critical competency for the modern world. Although we believe getting global is important, making it a part of our professional practice isn’t easy. The right tools can take the mystery out of putting this belief into practice. Included below are two of the wealth of resources from Bold Moves for Schools that could spark some ideas to build global connections in the curriculum.
The “Dollar Street” project on the site couples pictures and data collected from a range of countries, giving a moving insight into the details of daily life. Viewers can investigate intimate data about the spectrum of human life. Pictures of a range of topics from armchairs to backyards to cars to diapers to earrings to front doors (and on and on!) are coupled with monetary value, giving perspectives on wealth, values, and quality of life. You have to see it to believe it. Imagine how you could use this data across all disciplines to allow students to develop deep inquiry about the distinguishing details of the human experience across all of the world’s population. Check out the site’s educator resources that will help you to find a way to use this dynamic tool. Takeaway #3: Teacher as a globally connected citizen One of the most powerful parts of their book is the way the authors define “The Job Posting for a Contemporary Teacher.” They identify “teacher as a globally connected citizen” as a core competency. They discuss how this skill will inform curriculum and shape learning experiences. Perhaps more importantly, this competency reminds us how critical it is to embrace a culture of learning in our professional work. In a world where technology is flattening the globe at a tremendous rate, only educators who value their role as learners (above that of being a teacher) will be able to design learning experiences that connect our students to the world. On Thursday, April 12, at 8pm EST you can “walk the walk” as a globally-minded educator by joining our digital conversation about global education. Click here on 4/12 at 8pm EST to participate in a free digital discussion about global education.
Check out Bold Moves for Schools: How We Create Remarkable Learning Environments to explore the resources above and so many other ways to rethink past practice as we reimagine school into inspiring places of learning. By Deborah O'Neil, Environmental Science Teacher, Sutton High School, Sutton, MA “Working with the Blanding's Turtles is a very exciting experience. Not only are they adorable, but it helps me understand human impact on other species and what we can do to help. “ --High School Student Summary of Inspired Learning Project: Students were given the opportunity to use their academic knowledge to affect positive change in the quality of our environment. They are doing this through a variety of pathways. Some students were involved in a program with U.S Fish and Wildlife to foster a species of threatened turtles called Blanding's Turtles. Other students managed a school-wide initiative to improve our recycling program. Additionally, some students reached out to political and corporate leaders to provide positive feedback and to encourage environmental change. Creating a Curious Learning EnvironmentI want to create an environment for my students where they can take on the role of apprentice and feel that we are on the journey together. I was lucky enough to be treated as an apprentice during my education as a scientist and I believe this style is what made me excited and curious. In high school, my advanced biology teacher would sit down next to us and get involved in our labs. He didn’t stand in front of the class and lecture, but rather jumped right into the hands-on science with us. Similarly, my ecology professor in college made the class active and engaging by working beside us as we studied things such as the biodiversity of snails at the ocean and the high underground temperature caused by decomposition at landfills. Finally, during my first career as a research assistant at Massachusetts General Hospital, I was surrounded by open and nurturing scientists who focused not only on their own research, but also on encouraging another generation of scientists. I try to continue this method of teaching science so that my own students will be excited and curious. My hope for the students is that they will be better stewards of our planet, either in their day-to- day lives or as a future career. My inspired learning experience began as a result of encouragement from both my administration and my students. On a regular basis my principal passes along information about opportunities in the area of environmental activism and then fully supports the implementation of our plans. Likewise, I have wonderful current and former students who are motivated to be activists. They send me information and encourage me to work with them. Blanding's Turtle Project
Environmental AdvocacyMy students are a wonderful source of information about ways that we can become advocates for the environment. Last year a student became motivated to help the environment through the Sierra Club of Worcester. He met with the organization and learned about the work of the Worcester Tree Initiative, which was looking for volunteers to plant trees at the World War I Memorial Grove in Green Hill Park. Like this particular student, I have found that others want to take an active part in helping the environment and having a voice in decision making, not just learning about it. To that end, each student wrote a letter to express their opinion about environmental policy. The letters ranged from positive, complimentary letters to companies that use sustainable practices, to letters to government officials expressing their disapproval of changes in environmental protections. The students were passionate about their opinions and learned that they can share their ideas in a productive way. This year, the students wanted to make a positive impact at our own school. Two seniors led the charge to restart an Environmental Club. The group got off to a fantastic start and immediately worked on an initiative to improve recycling at our high school. They made a slideshow, gave presentations in Advisory classes, created posters for the school with recycling directions and included messages in the morning announcements. Along with that, they are creating artwork with bottle caps in order to bring attention to the overuse of single-use plastic beverage containers. In the spring, they will be making seed balls to give to members of the community. The seed balls will help replant native flowering plants that are beneficial to the soil and to pollinators such as bees, birds and insects. This group of students is highly motivated to put their beliefs into action. Inspiration from Graduates in the FieldMy current students also received inspiration from our graduates. By maintaining connections with former students, I am able to provide links to the real world of environmental science. For example, a graduate became a researcher at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire. He shared his experiences from working at the world’s longest running experimental forest, and studying the quality of water as it is affected by weather and contamination. My students also loved to hear about a graduate who went on to work at the New England Aquarium and helped to educate the public about marine animals. Sharing these anecdotes confirmed how students can have a positive impact on the world. I recently had a conversation with a few students that helped to validate the importance of our work in environmental science and let me know that they were inspired about learning. The students admitted that when they made their course schedule, they were not really sure that they wanted to take an environmental science class. Now that they are taking the course, they think that it is so important that it should be a required class in high school. They feel this way because everything that they learn applies to real life in an important way, whether or not they choose a career in science. I can also tell that the students are inspired when they show me their reusable ziploc bags, send me articles about how to restore the tropical rainforests, or share environmental photographs that they take on their trips to visit colleges. They demonstrate their interest every day when they stop by the classroom during their free time to check on the progress of our Blanding's turtles. All of this shows me that they are feeling a drive and motivation that extends beyond the class. When they look back on these experiences, I think that they will remember it as a time when they made a tangible contribution to helping the planet. A Few Words of AdviceSome advice for someone looking to implement the Blanding's turtle fostering program with U.S. Fish and Wildlife would be to get involved because they will be amazed at the many ways it can be woven into the curriculum. It leads to discussions about food webs, comparative anatomy, legislation, funding and resource allocation, habitat fragmentation, and climate change, to name a few. In regards to other areas of environmental activism, my advice would be to let the students take the lead and to provide support, resources and encouragement. ResourcesBlanding's Turtle Project https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Assabet_River/wildlife_and_habitat/blandingsturtle.html http://www.millburysutton.com/articles/in-caring-hands/ Living Memorial Tree Planting in Worcester http://www.sierraclub.org/massachusetts/blog/2017/05/worcester-wwi-memorial-grove-tree-replanting Source of Supplies for Seed Balls https://www.vermontwildflowerfarm.com/ By Dave Quinn, Director of Technology Integration, Mendon-Upton Regional SchoolsSeveral weeks ago my colleague, Maureen Cohen, wrote a warm, thoughtful blog that explored the importance of building wonder into our classroom practice. The student questions and strategies she provided reminded me of one of my favorite books, Thomas & Brown (2011)’s New Culture of Learning which discussed approaches to rethink education. In the book the authors write: What if, for example, questions were more important than answers? What if the key to learning were not the application of techniques but their invention? What if students were asking questions about things that really mattered to them? It’s a vision for education that makes me inspired. While thinking about Maureen’s piece, my mind began to shift from “the what” to "the how". How might our students go about exploring their wonderings and answering their questions? In particular, how are they making sense of or critically evaluating the information they obtain? Research by the Stanford History Education Group suggests that students of all ages struggle to evaluate the credibility of claims made on social and digital media platforms. Questioning is essential to personal growth as is the development of what Ernest Hemingway would call built-in, shockproof crap detector. So how might we help students develop a better information filter? Mike Caulfield, director of blended and networked learning at Washington State University Vancouver provides a simple, straightforward approach for quickly determining the accuracy of a claim in the article. The process, The Four Moves and a Habit, is a process for fact checking that gives students a process for assessing claims they encounter on the net. This resource is outlined in the infographic below. Caulfield has also written an e-book, Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers, where he outlines the moves in-depth and also provides examples for using the moves on web texts. The Four Moves Blog has several fact-checking tasks based on current news articles. You can also check out his personal blog https://hapgood.us for deeper reading on information literacy and web navigation.
By Maureen Cohen, Assistant Superintendent, Mendon-Upton Regional School District Student agency was at the center of our December 2017 conversation for the Inspired Learning Project. Each month we tackle a core characteristic and pillar of inspired learning to help build our capacities as educators to continue to grow and move our practice. In this capacity building, we developed a shared understanding of what we felt were key characteristics of student agency through the lens of how we view an entrepreneur. The group came up with the following characteristics of an entrepreneur: self-manager, self-starter, visionary, productive problem seeker and solver, independent, innovative, reflective, creative, confident, innovative, curious, collaborative, turns challenges into opportunities, brave, desires feedback, forward thinker, has focus, self-evaluator As we expanded our thoughts on the characteristics of an entrepreneur, we moved into a discussion about student agency and how student agency is more than just giving students choice. The group felt that agency is about deeper learning opportunities and personalization. The conversation really took off when we discussed Spencer’s metaphor in his book of a teacher being a tour guide who brings you through a tour. We pondered, who should be the tour guide, the teacher or the students? One participant stated, “The problem in schools is that we tell them they are going to Paris, or Rome, but they have no choice over where they are going in their learning. When students have the agency to choose their own tour, that is really important for fostering student agency.” Getting ActionableWe ended the highly engaging conversation with some actionable approaches to add more agency into what we are doing. Here are a couple of examples provided:
We hope you join us in our next conversation this Thursday, January 11th at 8PM as we tackle the concept of building authentic learning opportunities for our students. By MaryAnn DeMaria, Grade 7 Science Teacher |
Interested in learning more about the book? (I thought so!) The cover of the book boasts that it’s a “no-holds-barred assault on outdated teaching methods”. I won’t argue that it’s incendiary but I think “assault” goes too far. This book is a call to action, asking us to challenge past practices not to tear down our schools.
You can find out more here. |
By Maureen Cohen, Assistant Superintendent, Mendon-Upton Regional School District
Our first Zoom session on November 9th at 8pm, did not disappoint. We began the session with the question. "It's 8pm on a Thursday Night, you could be anywhere doing anything, what brings you here." The responses alone were enough to keep me coming back for future conversations. As we build our network of inspired learners and leaders of learning, consider whether some of the following responses resonate for you:
1. I'm looking for a sweet mix of inspiration and practical solutions. I can wax philosophical all day long, but at the end of the day I want to hear about what you are doing practically speaking to move your buildings.
2. I'm doing this for my soul.
3. I look at it like this, there are people who sit on the beach in the sand …some put feet in the water, then there are people who swim out before the waves and ride the waves in. I try to be ahead. and then ride it in. This is the next wave I’m glad I’m catching.
4. It's about being connected to people who already inspire me and who I look up to in many ways and hoping to find nuggets of aha moments and share the challenges and success we all look for everyday in our schools.
5. I need my community to continuously inspire me. Sometimes it can’t always come from your own building, so I'm looking for this group to be a place I can turn to and have that 'Oh my gosh, yes!' moment.
6. ...creating lessons that are powerfully memorable. That is what has driven me as a teacher as I’m designing lessons.. I’m hoping this group can help me to affect change.
7. I'm so intrigued by where this can take us and learning and hearing from others. I believe that connecting teachers will help to affect change.
8. It's the difference between Schoolers vs. Yearners. Yearners know it can be different and can create transformational moments for students in schools.
As we discussed some memorable and inspirational learning moments in our schools we learned about a high school innovation lab and an elementary replication of Caine's arcade. We discussed how we are seeking moments for deeper learning opportunities, increased student agency and pursuit of passions, real work that matters for real audiences.
If I were to synthesize why we decided to meet online on a Thursday at 8 pm:
We want to be yearners, who are riding the next wave of inspiration. A wave filled with nuggets of "aha" moments, "Oh my gosh, yes" moments, and practical ways to affect change and move our buildings. Indeed we are looking for a sweet mix for our souls.
1. I'm looking for a sweet mix of inspiration and practical solutions. I can wax philosophical all day long, but at the end of the day I want to hear about what you are doing practically speaking to move your buildings.
2. I'm doing this for my soul.
3. I look at it like this, there are people who sit on the beach in the sand …some put feet in the water, then there are people who swim out before the waves and ride the waves in. I try to be ahead. and then ride it in. This is the next wave I’m glad I’m catching.
4. It's about being connected to people who already inspire me and who I look up to in many ways and hoping to find nuggets of aha moments and share the challenges and success we all look for everyday in our schools.
5. I need my community to continuously inspire me. Sometimes it can’t always come from your own building, so I'm looking for this group to be a place I can turn to and have that 'Oh my gosh, yes!' moment.
6. ...creating lessons that are powerfully memorable. That is what has driven me as a teacher as I’m designing lessons.. I’m hoping this group can help me to affect change.
7. I'm so intrigued by where this can take us and learning and hearing from others. I believe that connecting teachers will help to affect change.
8. It's the difference between Schoolers vs. Yearners. Yearners know it can be different and can create transformational moments for students in schools.
As we discussed some memorable and inspirational learning moments in our schools we learned about a high school innovation lab and an elementary replication of Caine's arcade. We discussed how we are seeking moments for deeper learning opportunities, increased student agency and pursuit of passions, real work that matters for real audiences.
If I were to synthesize why we decided to meet online on a Thursday at 8 pm:
We want to be yearners, who are riding the next wave of inspiration. A wave filled with nuggets of "aha" moments, "Oh my gosh, yes" moments, and practical ways to affect change and move our buildings. Indeed we are looking for a sweet mix for our souls.
By Kimberly Lopes, 3rd Grade Teacher, Memorial School in Upton, Massachusetts
"We’re like REAL superheroes… super recyclers!"
My third grade students wrote and produced a commercial to promote the Crayola ColorCycle program at Memorial School and in our school community. Through this program, Crayola partners with JBI, Inc. in Niagara Falls, NY to recycle and repurpose used-up plastic markers that would otherwise be thrown away. Crayola allows schools to ship boxes of recycled markers (of all kinds, not just Crayola brand) to NY free-of-charge, where the markers are melted down and turned into a clean-burning fuel that can be used to heat homes, power vehicles, and more. In just 2 months of school, we have already saved just shy of 1,000 markers from being thrown away. My students believe this commercial will help motivate families and businesses in the community to save their markers too-- and send them to Memorial School where our student will collect, count, sort, and prepare them to be given a new life!
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I want to create an environment for my students where they feel safe to be curious and ask questions, are empowered to to take risks, see mistakes as an opportunity for growth, and collaborate to solve problems. My hope for my students is that they will grow up to be empathetic and compassionate adults and have the skills they need to solve problems.
My inspired learning experience began as a result of the desire to solve a problem-- how to reduce waste in schools. I first became aware of this opportunity over the summer when a friend shared a link on Facebook describing Crayola’s green initiatives. I did a little more research into the ColorCycle program and decided to reach out to my principal, Deb Swain, to see if she’d be on board for letting my third graders take charge of this initiative in the coming school year. She replied back in a snap and was excited to bring this program to Memorial!
In just the first few days of school, while we were still just getting to know each other and the routines and expectations in third grade, I introduced this problem to my students. I asked them to take a few days to observe how often they, their families, and the people around them use and discard plastic. In those days, my students shared their observations with each other. With each new observation, they wanted to learn more and more about where plastics go when they’re thrown away and what happens. We read articles and watched short videos to learn as much as we could about this issue, and the more we learned more about plastics, how they pile up in landfills (even when “recycled”), and continue to pile up because they never break down… the more the kids wanted to do something about it.
My inspired learning experience began as a result of the desire to solve a problem-- how to reduce waste in schools. I first became aware of this opportunity over the summer when a friend shared a link on Facebook describing Crayola’s green initiatives. I did a little more research into the ColorCycle program and decided to reach out to my principal, Deb Swain, to see if she’d be on board for letting my third graders take charge of this initiative in the coming school year. She replied back in a snap and was excited to bring this program to Memorial!
In just the first few days of school, while we were still just getting to know each other and the routines and expectations in third grade, I introduced this problem to my students. I asked them to take a few days to observe how often they, their families, and the people around them use and discard plastic. In those days, my students shared their observations with each other. With each new observation, they wanted to learn more and more about where plastics go when they’re thrown away and what happens. We read articles and watched short videos to learn as much as we could about this issue, and the more we learned more about plastics, how they pile up in landfills (even when “recycled”), and continue to pile up because they never break down… the more the kids wanted to do something about it.
That’s when I introduced Crayola’s “ColorCycle” program. We agreed it’s just a small step in reducing plastic waste, but agreed that little things can eventually add up-- and you have to start somewhere. Now they were excited. Together, we came up with a plan for how we would organize the collection of markers at Memorial School. I’ll never forget this revelation from one of my third graders: “We need to make it easier to recycle markers than to throw them away. People do what’s easiest for them.” At 8 years old, that’s pretty insightful if you ask me! So, we decided to collect and repurpose small boxes to turn into classroom collection boxes. When a classroom filled their box, they could send a student to drop off their markers in our classroom. Alternatively, teachers could call us and we could send a student to pick up their collected markers, too. Once the markers got to us, we would count, sort, and collect the markers in a larger bin, which we would eventually ship to the factory once the bin was full. Just through word-of-mouth and my students’ own drive to collect markers at home, we saved 491 markers from being thrown away… in just 4 days of school. Even kids in the After School program convinced their teachers to let them test the markers and recycle those that didn’t work (to prevent other kids from throwing them away).
Once we had a plan, we decided we needed to start promoting the program to the rest of the school and community. I suggested we make posters, but the students decided that wasn’t quite right. “If this is about reducing waste… why would we make posters that will just get thrown away?” I can’t fully express the pride I felt as they respectfully discussed different ways to “get the word out” without creating too much additional waste. I don’t know if people-- myself included-- really give young kids the credit they deserve when it comes to their ability to creatively problem solve and work together. In the end, we settled on creating a commercial. Our goals for the commercial were to educate the public about our “big problem,” convince the audience to get on board with our solution, and provide information for how to participate.
Once we had a plan, we decided we needed to start promoting the program to the rest of the school and community. I suggested we make posters, but the students decided that wasn’t quite right. “If this is about reducing waste… why would we make posters that will just get thrown away?” I can’t fully express the pride I felt as they respectfully discussed different ways to “get the word out” without creating too much additional waste. I don’t know if people-- myself included-- really give young kids the credit they deserve when it comes to their ability to creatively problem solve and work together. In the end, we settled on creating a commercial. Our goals for the commercial were to educate the public about our “big problem,” convince the audience to get on board with our solution, and provide information for how to participate.
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Creating the commercial provided cross-curricular opportunities for my students to collaborate and act as leaders of their own learning in a variety of ways. Kids used graphic organizers to break-down the important aspects they wanted in the commercials, then worked as a class to create a storyboard using a combination of “all of our best ideas.” Once the script was written, we made several revisions (for the sake of time and clarity). In fact, revisions continued throughout the filming process. Mr. Quinn taught us how to mirror the iPad screen onto our SMARTBoard, so after filming a scene we would watch it back as a class and discuss what we liked and ways we could improve. While our actors worked together to practice their lines and make revisions to the script, our costume and set designers collaborated to make a plan for what each character would wear and what props we’d need. They also found background images and videos for the scenes that used the green-screen, as well as additional “supporting visuals.” This plan and the images required several revisions to accommodate our budget (“free or dollar tree”), image quality, and the needs of our student actors. Later, these students also made costume elements, such as capes using red satin pillowcases from the Dollar Tree. Meanwhile, our camera crew was trained on how to set up the tripod, film, record, and save the video clips we approved to Google Drive. They also collaborated to draft a rough timeline for filming, made checklists of each part that needed to be filmed, and worked on creating collection boxes for classrooms using recycled materials. All together, this commercial required math, research and collaboration skills, writing, art, and a lot of patience and creativity!
I knew my students were inspired about learning when they moaned when it was time to leave the classroom for recess-- they wanted to keep working on their project! This experience showcased each of my students’ unique traits and talents. It brought the best out of each of them because it was relevant and meaningful in the world beyond the classroom, and everyone had an important role to play. Years from now, when my students look back on this project, I hope they will remember what they were able to accomplish through hard work, research, creativity, and teamwork.
I knew my students were inspired about learning when they moaned when it was time to leave the classroom for recess-- they wanted to keep working on their project! This experience showcased each of my students’ unique traits and talents. It brought the best out of each of them because it was relevant and meaningful in the world beyond the classroom, and everyone had an important role to play. Years from now, when my students look back on this project, I hope they will remember what they were able to accomplish through hard work, research, creativity, and teamwork.
Some of the challenges I encountered included balancing ambition and great ideas with what was possible within the confines of our classroom and my own knowledge of technology. Luckily, I had the support of other great educators, like Mr. Dave Quinn and Mrs. Allison White to help with some of the tech roadblocks we encountered. My students also learned an important lesson of being flexible thinkers when things didn't always go as planned (or when our expectations didn't match reality). For example, our costume and set designers needed to revise their plan several times to accommodate our budget ("free or dollar tree") and the needs of the other students. The trial and error process to figure out how to best make our "ColorCyclers" fly was also my favorite part of the process. The kids watched back the footage and were unhappy with how it looked. To be more realistic, they wanted to put our fliers on different levels and make their capes/ clothes flutter. The set designers and camera crew worked on finding different ways to stack the actors (we ended up with a tall desk, a chair, and a pile of cushions under a green screen for 3 actors to lay across). The costume designers brainstormed ways to make the capes flutter. First, they tried a fan but it blew the green screen away. Later, they attached yarn to the capes and fluttered them from off-stage, but in the playback of the footage they realized you could see the yarn and weren't satisfied with how that looked. Finally, they realized using green rope would make it virtually "invisible" because of the green screen app we were using. (Thanks to Mrs. Henderson for just happening to have green rope!) Their collaboration and collective growth mindset was truly inspiring!
1,007 markers are all packed up & ready to ship to @Crayola! Just 8 markers can produce enough fuel to cook an □ , make toast, & heat up 2 cups of ☕️... imagine what we could do if EVERY marker was ColorCycled! #MURSD #MemUpton https://t.co/1EV1xqWtjq pic.twitter.com/4nLCaHQqNk
— Kim Lopes (@LearningLopes) November 17, 2017
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