First Week Down

This has been an incredibly busy first week back at school.  Last year at this time, Amanda and I were in a daze.  It was our first year with our own classrooms and we arrived the night before the first day of school.  That first week is a blur, and I have disjointed memories of it.

How I want my students to feel this year.

This year, though, is leaving an impression.  I feel a lot more confident this year (as all second year teachers to, I'm sure) with my procedures and routines.  I have been hammering home this sort of thing, so that my students completely understand my expectations.  We've had the odd blip in the program, but, for the most part, things have been running smoothly.  I'm ecstatic that my hand signal procedure is working so well.  I was a little hesitant, because it seems too juvenile, but my students are really using them.  The Eights have fully taken hold of it, and they use them outside of the classroom too.  The Nines are similarly getting used to using them.  The Tens are using them, but they are a bit infrequent.

The second week is where I think the test will come for the procedures.  Last week everything was new and interesting, but this coming week will be when the students realize they are staying here for another 9 months.    I just need to remember to remind them every time they fail to follow one of my procedures.

Outside of in-school hours, Amanda and I are already spending copious amounts of time preparing material after school and at home.  In fact, we just got back from the school an hour or so ago.  This was our modus operandi last year too, but I feel like I have even more to do this year.  Starting a gamified classroom (3, really) is an incredible amount of work.  Not to mention that I am trying to juggle 3 themes (fantasy, science fiction, and superhero) as well as creating uniquely themed assignments, bell work, etc.  For instance, I have written introduction stories to each grade's theme.  They are several pages long (I enjoy writing), and they are written specifically for each grade.  I wanted to create these as a way to immerse the students in the themed year idea, and to provide context for the gamified elements of the classroom.

One of the first battles/quests my students will go on is to create a back story for their character, and, in order to model what I want, I have created a character and a back story as well.  Of course this is best practice, but the increased amount of DIY stuff I'm doing this year has meant that my workload has increased a lot.  Oh well, I do enjoy it.

Back to figuring out my students' current levels (they love this).

Levels, Not Grades

Towards the end of last year I began planning/thinking of this school year.  I had a pile of things that went well throughout the course of the year, a pile that went poorly and needed an overhaul, and a bunch of new things I wanted to try.  Levels instead of grades is one of those brand new items on my list.  I love the idea of students moving toward something rather than falling backward.  Traditional grading starts the students at the top (A+) and we watch as they tumble down.  Instituting a levelling system takes that free fall (in some students' cases) away.  My students will all start at Level 1 this year, and they will continue to move up in levels as long as they complete their assignments.  If a student rarely does any work than they don't move down; they simply don't move anywhere.

The levelling system gives the kids more ownership in the assignments they complete, the studying they do, and the classwork they attempt.  Students love to get achievements, badges, or any other kind of recognition, so using a levelling system falls in line with that philosophy.

This semester my students are able to reach a maximum of Level 100, which corresponds to 100%.  They can get there by doing assignments, acing tests, and generally getting as many eXperience Points as possible. I've talked previously about my method for giving out XP and how it corresponds to the levels here.

In order to track their levels, I have created a profile sheet that the students will fill out.  On the bottom are the numbers 1-100.  I will keep the sheets with me, and as the students gain XP I will move them up in levels.  I will conference with the students twice a month, and we can chat about their current level using the profile sheet instead of a spreadsheet.  If you want the level tracking profile sheet you can grab it here, and I have also thrown up the levelling information sheet I've posted in my class here.

An example of the profile sheet that the students will fill out.  As they gain levels I will colour in the level chart below.  I plan on taking student photos and having them printed, so I can include them on these sheets.  It will make everything a little more 'official'.

A look at the new classroom

The first day of school is tomorrow, and I already feel much farther ahead than I did at this time last year.  Amanda and I still hadn't arrived in Kuwait yet, and we wouldn't for another 6 hours or so.  The day before school started.  Eek.

My classroom is coming along nicely though, and I am really excited to get all of my plans started.  I've included a few pictures of the current set-up.  Let me know what you think! *The banquet chairs are not staying...our plastic chairs haven't arrived yet*

This is my "Crafting" centre.  The numbered and coloured folders tell the students which part they are on.  The folders contain the activities themselves. If they are just beginning the skill than they start with orange/one and move on from there.  The tree diagram on the shows the process.  Click here to see it up close.

Here is my missed work wall.  The days of the week are listed at the top, and the grades below.  If a student misses a day or more (up to a week) they will find all activities in the corresponding folder for the day(s) they missed.  It might seem like a lot of folders where 3 (for each grade) would do the trick, but I think this will be easy in the long run.  I won't have jumbled pages and the kids will know exactly where to go based on the day they missed.  After a week I will pull out all material, and the students will have to come directly to me for the information.  On the right you can see the words Powers, Galaxy, and Midgard. These are the names of the narratives we will be weaving in those grades.  Powers has a superhero theme, Galaxy has a space theme, and Midgard has a fantasy theme.

I have decided to implement a hand signal program in my classes.  It may seem a bit juvenile, but I taught these students last year and it was a constant struggle to keep them from blurting out whatever came to their mind.  I've seen the signals made with more gestures, but I feel that these four sum up the majority of the reasons a student needs to yell out.  I got the simple hand designs from IIT Bombay.

My desk and whiteboard.  I'm going to hang up some pictures in that corner in a week, so that it creates more of a "get to know Mr. Phillips" vibe.

These are located right beside the door in case students ever need a quick refresher.  I will talk about both of these programs in more detail later.

The view of the room as you enter.  It will be interesting to see how this has changed when June rolls around.

Great TED Video

I just stumbled on this great TED talk by Paul Anderson, and how he added gaming elements to his classroom.  I've already planned for some of his ideas (also some of Lee Sheldon's), so I'm excited to start the year and see how it all turns out.

Crafting - Part Two

We've been back in Kuwait for a couple pf days now, and Amanda and I are already busy getting our classrooms and plans together.  I'm lucky enough to be teaching in a brand new room (albeit a portable), so it is a blank canvas.  They are still working on the room, though, so I'll have to wait a bit longer to get some of my things set up.

I am, however, preparing and laminating a lot of material for the first few days (and for the rest of the year, really).  I'm creating a "Crafting Corner" where students will be able to practice certain skills.  I will post a skill tree every few weeks, so the students can see all of the skills/steps they will be working on.  When they finish one step (worksheet, activity, etc) they can move on to the next.  The final step is a short written test that covers all areas of that skill (verb tenses for instance).  The students that complete all steps and get 80% or higher on the final test will be awarded a badge on Edmodo.  However, if the students get below 80% they will not be awarded a badge.  Instead, they are able to retake the test as many times as they want until they do.  I want this to be a positive experience, and I want to get them interested in accruing and practicing these skills.  The crafting will take place outside of regular lessons, and I will let them take the sheets home (not the test, though).  I know that a lot of my students love getting badges, stickers, or any other kind of recognition (yes even those moody 9s and 10s), so I foresee a lot of them getting behind this.  The ones that aren't interested will not be forced to do it, but I imagine they will consider it when they see the rewards and higher marks their friends get from practicing their skills.  I've thrown two examples of these skill crafting trees up on Google Documents, so click here if you are interested in using something like them.

Time to play a little Xbox before hitting the sack.

The Build-up

I've spent the last week, and I'll spend the next two, planning out more for the upcoming year.  I've been reading heavily into classroom procedures and management, as I struggled last year.  To be fair to myself, a lot of the new teachers (and some of the old) struggled with their students last year.  Kuwaiti kids are raised in a very different environment than we are used to in Canada.

That being said, they are still kids and I know that there are ways to manage their behaviour in my classroom. Amanda and I arrived in Kuwait the night before the first day of school last year, because of visa issues and a torn rotator cuff.  Amanda had her visa stamped and she was ready to go, but after a heated session of golf I tore the rotator cuff in my left shoulder.  I'm sure some of you are shaking your head right now and wondering how that is even possible.  Trust me when I tell you that if you swing hard and wild enough it is a very real possibility.  At any rate, we arrived quite late in the evening and had to get up and teach the next day.  It was a whirlwind.  As such, we have both spent considerable time looking back to last year and searching for ways to improve our classroom management out of the gate.

I've recently read a few books and articles that touch on the subject, and already feel like I have a better grasp on my non-existent classroom.  Hammering home and practicing procedures is going to be a huge focus during the first two weeks.  Similarly, we will work a lot on expected behaviour in the class, lunch room, and during transition .  We had a lot of transition issues with our middle and high school kids last year, so I want this to be a focus.  Add to that the gamification of certain elements of the classroom, and I will have a very hectic first month.  This is the life of a teacher, though.

This week will be spent packing, visiting with family and friends, and doing what planning I can get done.  Next week, Amanda and I get into our classrooms to set up and I am oddly excited.

Jeff

Guilds!

The Guild web series

A lot of the traditional teaching methods in Kuwait and South Korea revolve around the students sitting alone at their desk and facing the chalk or Smart board as a teacher lectures. I was guilty of this when working in Incheon, South Korea, because I had no teacher training. I knew it wasn't the best approach, but I didn't know how to adapt my teaching.

Since moving to Kuwait, I've noticed that my students have a lot of trouble working in groups. They have little prior experience with group work and they have rarely been held accountable for their own learning. I struggled with group work this year. It drained me trying to keep them on task. I had many failures, but many successes too. My grade 9s initially struggled when practicing their Shakespeare scenes, but with diligence from the ESL support teacher and myself the final products were very good.

This upcoming year I want to put more of a focus on group work. I think kids teaching each other is a fantastic way to solidify content, especially for students who are ESL and don't always understand the conversations in the class. To that effect I plan on weaving the groups into the class narrative through the guild moniker.

The guilds in my classroom will be organized first according the stream (I have academic students and applied students - an Ontario distinction) and second according to personality. Obviously some of the students will be moved around throughout the year as issues crop up, but I will try and keep the guilds intact as long as I can.  The notion of having them working for a specific guild gives each member a sense of community and cooperation from the outset, and it will fuel their desire to compete against other guilds.

In the guild format, group participation and accountability will be promoted throughout the year. I want the students to enjoy learning in that environment and I want them to see the benefits. One of the ways I plan on doing this is by having students create things like flags/symbols for their guild and having a point system that encourages them to help each other. I have a lot more planned, and a lot more I'm still planning, but I think that focusing on group work conventions from the get-go will help set the stage for the year.  

Behaviour Points Using Class Dojo

In a previous post, I wrote about how the students will be graded in my classroom next year.  I touched on the idea of XP, and how those experience points will essentially be their marks on assignments while the levels they achieve will be their grades.  In this post I am going to write about another point system I will be introducing next year: Behaviour Points.

In short, I'll call these points BPs.  Teachers all over the world use a behaviour management system that revolves around points and rewards.  I'm not reinventing the wheel by any means, but I will be integrating this management system into my class narrative and theme.

The Class Dojo homepage.

This past year I stumbled onto the classroom management system Class Dojo, and it was a stress-saver.  I implemented it into my grade 8 class in November, and they immediately loved it.  Their system is an avatar based reward and consequence system.  I can assign points based on defined actions (1 positive point for raising a hand or 1 negative point for coming in late).  During every class I would put the website up on the interactive whiteboard, so that students always knew where they were in terms of points.  I set up a system where if they got 10 points in a week they would get to choose a reward like sitting in the teacher's chair or eating in class.  If the entire class earned 75% positive in the course of a week we had a whole class reward like playing soccer for 20 minutes or having free personal activity time.  Only the kids with -1 or higher were allowed to participate in the whole class rewards.  This system worked wonders in my class, as I had kids invested in the game nature of the program.  They wanted to earn points, win the week.  Add to that the fact that kids can create their own avatars and I can e-mail parents beautiful behaviour reports. It is a fantastic free classroom management tool that I suggest every teacher try out.

I will be using Class Dojo next year, but I will be changing how I use it.  This year I reset the points each week, so that the students had a fresh start.  Next year I will use it more as a currency system.  Students will earn positive BPs for things like raising hands, completing homework, staying on task, helping others, etc.  They will earn negative BPs (and therefore lose points) for things like being late to class, not doing homework, speaking out, and using Arabic in class (a problem in a bilingual school, as the students have been caught saying some nasty things - also we are trying to promote their development of English skills).

An example of the point distribution for my grade eights.
Alaa has earned her reward!

At any time students will be able to spend their BPs on 'loot.'  For instance, 5BP would buy a student a pencil or pen, 10BP no homework for one night, 15BP a treat, 35BP 15 minutes of quiet free time, etc.  100BP would buy a student soccer for 25 minutes.  Obviously soccer costs a lot of points and an individual student would have to save for an entire semester to earn something like that.  However, I want to promote cooperation and group work.  Since the students will already be in guilds (groups) I will allow them to combine or donate points to each other in order to claim loot.  If Ahmed doesn't have a pencil and he has no BP left, he can ask Tom if he can spare 5BP from his cache of 30BP.  In order to get the soccer reward, my students will have to work together to combine their points.

As of right now, Class Dojo doesn't seem to allow for erasing a particular student's points (as in spending them on a reward), so I hope that they allow this in the future.  If not I'm sure I can figure out a work around to it.  I will be using Class Dojo simply because it is a clean and easy way to manage and track my students' behaviour.

Crafting...as motivation to practice

I've read a lot over the last year about trying to get kids to continue their learning after they've left school for the day, week, or year.  It is an especially difficult problem here in Kuwait, as a lot of the families that I have interacted with seem to think that learning stops when the kid leaves school and time at the house is meant for being with family.  I'm not knocking family here, but if a child doesn't continue to work on the learned skills at home than they will quickly become stagnant and useless to them.  The trick, I suppose, is getting that student to want to keep learning.  Sometimes that type of thinking seems like a lot of alchemy, but as educators we have to at least try.

So, my solution for next year comes in a package I'm calling crafting.  I am not the first person to think of this term or idea as it relates to education (and gamfiication of education), but I honestly can't remember all of the places I've seen it mentioned.  I'm not taking sole credit for the concept, let's put it that way.

Since my grade eight class is themed around medieval fantasy, I thought that calling the motivated extra-learning system crafting was a good place to start.  Simply speaking, I'm going to keep a few folders of extra work based on concepts and skills we've developed in class.  Students can choose to try these extra bits of work without the fear of failure, but with the hope of achievement.

As an example, let's say that we've worked on using present and present progressive verbs in class.  I will select around 10 pieces of bonus work based on present verb tense that the students can do at their leisure.  If they finish class work early or if they want to have some extra practice over the weekend, the students can choose to take on these extra challenges.  Every one they complete moves them closer to becoming a MASTER CRAFTER in that particular area.  Once they have finished, with correct answers, the ten practice sheets, they can try to take the Master Crafter challenge quiz.  If they get 90-100% on it than they will earn the Master Present Tense Verb (or just Master PTV) achievement badge.  They can keep retrying the test until they do reach the pass threshold.

From my perspective they are solidifying core concepts, and from their perspective they are achieving recognition for being very good at something.  I would, of course, have a variety of these crafting categories based on the learning we do in class.  If they get a hold of 5 badges, I might set up another reward.  It is a bit of intrinsic and a bit of extrinsic.  The students will want the badges, but a lot of that desire comes from achieving in the eyes of their peers.  An award certificate would be another great way to show their achievement.  My soon-to-be wife has made some awesome end of the year ones for her grade 2s (and for K-6).  She's got them on sale now on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Any other ideas for this sort of system?  Any thoughts about the Themed Year in general?  Leave a comment!

Level Up!

Scene from Scott Pilgrim

I've spoken a bit about my plans for next year, and how I plan on using a narrative to thread all units, lessons, and assignments together, so now I would like to write a bit about my plans for assessment.

Over the past few months I have been reading more and more about the concept of levelling when it comes to assessment. I posted a thought about this on Facebook, and a friend replied by saying that we already do that...it just so happens that the levels are letters (A, B...). I agree that is essentially what our letter-grades are, but what I'm interested in is something a bit different.

I like idea of assessment that is motivating rather than demotivating. Sounds obvious, eh? The standard letter grade approach, though, is demotivating. As often as I can show my students their grades throughout the year, they are always left somewhat in the dark. Further, their grades are in flux at every point. One bad test and their B+ goes down to a B or B-. That is a lot of stress and confusion to put on a kid.

Instead of the typical approach I want to change things up next year and go with a levelling system. The concept is ripped-off of countless video and board games, but it is a tried and true system of motivation and reward. Next year I am going to institute a level system where everyone starts at level 1. In a typical classroom we imagine, the kids do too, starting off at an A+ and we have the rest of the year to try and maintain that goal. It is too difficult for many students, and it is demotivating for most. A system where everyone starts at the bottom gives each kid a fresh, clean slate, and they can only ever move up. Going up is always better than moving down. Talk about motivation!

In my version of this system I will have 100 levels, which corresponds to 100% in the course. The course assignments are broken up into chunks of eXperience Points (XP) totalling 1000. An example: a test worth 50 XP is worth 5% of their total mark or 5 levels. Every single assessment I do (homework, class work, assignments, tests) will have a corresponding point (XP) associated with it. The better a student does the more XP they earn and the more levels they move up. The assessments at my school carry a particular weight, which I would work in as well. Diagnostic assessments and daily work assignments are worth 10% of their mark, formative assessments are worth 45%, and summatives are also worth 45%. Stating that in terms of XP - daily work assignments = 100XP, formative = 450XP, and summative = 450XP. Every one of my assessments will need to add up to the total in their category.

With this sort of system in place, my students will always be aware of what level they are at and what each assignment actually means in relation to their overall mark. During the summer I am going to try and figure out a good way to display this information. I would like a progress bar of some kind, ideally a digital one that can be easily updated. If it could be worked in beside a profile picture of their character and their character's name that would be great. I wouldn't even have too much of a problem displaying all levels in the class, because it would be an added motivater for students. In that scenario there wouldn't be shame associated with having a "D" because the board would simply show a level.

I will likely add in achievements for reaching certain benchmark levels as well. Level 10 and you get an edmodo badge, level 25 and you get a special treat, or something like that. I will touch on some of the achievements I have planned in a later post along with my behaviour points system (still playing with some concepts). Also - when I figure out how I want to display the levels to the students, I'll explain or show an example. Sometimes this stuff can be hard to understand without a visual.

I'm planning a lot of changes for next year, and it will be tough to keep up on it so I am planning on doing a lot of work this summer (when not getting married, going on my honeymoon, and visiting with family and friends). Amanda and I leave Kuwait in a few days and fly back to Canada! Oh, Canada!

Crafting a Narrative

As I mentioned in my last post about A Themed Year, I am creating a class narrative that will be revealed/developed throughout the school year. This summer I will write out a detailed outline of the world, major characters, major and minor events, and some of the history of the fictional world. This will be a lot of work, and I am already feeling like it may be too much.

The reason for the narrative is simple: I want a thread that links all of our learning. I want some aspect of the course that weaves in and out of everything we read, write, communicate, or create. By wrapping the assignments, homework, quizzes, tests, and projects we work on in a layer of narrative I am hoping that I can help the students make more connections and build more understanding. This is already done when teachers speak about cross-curricular education, but when I only see my students for English it can be difficult for them to see or make those connections.

I want the narrative to be fun, engaging, and something that the kids remember. Some of the narrative wrapping will be light, because I have to get to that material. The books the students will be reading, for instance, aren't in line with my theme. However, I have come up with ways to integrate and merge the two narratives. I'll post about those as I make them.

Onto the narrative itself. As of right now I am only working on a themed narrative for my grade 8 English students. I want to do one for the 9s and 10s, but I'll take it one step at a time. I chose a fantasy theme for the grade 8 class. For no reason other than role playing games are commonly based on fantasy source material. Some of my grade 8s this year play games like World of Warcraft too.

So how will I use this theme? I am going to break my year into 5 units (chapters) of study. The first unit will essentially be a detailed introduction to the year and the themed narrative. Students will do things like create a character profile on Edmodo, learn about the XP and BP system (more on that later), and read/listen to stories about world. I will give the students information through stories about the world, tasks that involve learning more about a character or a place, and through the projects they complete. One of the first projects will be to create a family history for their character. I will cover the writing process here, and the students will spend a good chunk of time getting involved as their character.

After they have worked as their own character, I will introduce the concept of guilds (class groupings decided by me). At this point I would like to incorporate a Tribes system. I want to focus a lot on positive social interaction next year, and I think this will be one of the best ways to do it. If I can start the year off right by building these positive relationships than perhaps the pervasive narrative will have more meaning. Students will be able to earn badges for guild work as well.

Each task will have a layer of story attached in some way. The more story elements I add, the more my students will be engaged. The more tasks they complete, the more XP (marks, essentially) and badges they can accrue. It might very well be a tall order to try and narrativise the entire years curriculum, assignments, and assessments, but if I can get the kids to buy into it I think it could be beneficial for them in the long run.

A Pervasive Theme

One of the reasons that I have started developing this program of pedagogy, is that I know good teaching doesn't happen in a vacuum. In order to help our students succeed we have to make their learning cross-curricular, so that they better understand the connections between the subjects. Authentic assessment is a huge part of this too, in that we have to allow students the chance to use what they learn in a meaningful way for them.

I have tried to do that this year. However, the cross-curricular aspect of good teaching is difficult in a rotary based middle school (which is the system I work in). Also, this past year has been my first real year of teaching and I have just been trying to survive. I can use cross-curricular activities in my English classroom, but with so little time I wouldn't do the tasks justice.

I wanted a way to link most, if not all, of the activities (assignments, homework, class work, tests) we do in a year. I linked some aspects of my lessons this year, but they were cursory at best. So I came up with the idea of a themed year. If I can create a narrative that drives the learning in the course and can be maintained for an entire year, I will be able to link the students learning almost seamlessly. Think of it as a roleplaying game where the students spend a few hours a week, every week, for 10 months growing and levelling a character that is participating in a quest.

The reason for the over-arching narrative is to help keep the kids engaged and invested in their education. It helps to link each topic of study (verb tense, sentence structure, making connections, novel studies, etc.) and it makes the tasks they complete more relevant to them. My plan is to create activities and assignments that are based in the world of the theme so that they students are always immersed. It is a tall order, but I hope that I can provide them with this type of program.

One of the ways I want to link the work they do is to frame everything in the narrative of the world. I have always enjoyed writing, and this will give me an opportunity to try my hand at writing short pieces of narrative that will flesh out the world for the students. For instance, students can read a page about the history of the city their character is in and respond to it. Or they can read about a long forgotten epic battle and we can make connections to mordern day equivalents. All grammar work can be based on the lore of the theme. I'll touch on this topic again in a future post, and I'll give more specific examples.

I'm excited to see how this develops. Once again, please feel free to leave comments.

Side note: Amanda and I have two weeks left in Kuwait until we fly back home for the summer to get married. Excitement is palpable.

The Themed Year

I've hinted at it already, but here it is. This summer I will be writing weekly posts in a series about my plans for next year. I'm am trying to develop a program of teaching that would use a continuous game-like theme through out the year for all units of study. The series will be called, A Themed Year. In this series you will find posts about the research I've done, links to great sites, tools I've discovered or developed, and updates on the development of my themed classroom. I'll be using it next year in my grade 8, 9, and 10 English classrooms.

The reason I've started on this journey is simple: I want to figure out a better way to engage my students. With the invention of the iPad and similar tablets, casual gaming has become a dominant aspect of everyday life. I want use the tropes of games to create an interest in learning for my studens. A Themed Year will draw on role-playing and casual games for inspiration. I want to create a classroom where the students are invested in their learning and where they are always progressing and never regressing (as is possible in the current methodology of grading - maintaining a B+ for instance).

Over the course of the summer I will be sharing all aspects of the development of this program. If you have any ideas or insighs please feel free to share via email, Twitter, or in the comments below. Thanks.