Blog
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Fostering A Growth Mindset Within the Classroom
The other day I came across a great article from the Harvard Business Review, "Performing a Project Premortem" by Gary Klein, and although it was written from a business perspective it could really be beneficial to a project based learning environment as well. Fear of failure is something that can really limit success. Students are less likely to take risks, think creatively, and embrace innovation when they are afraid to make a mistake. Adults share this same characteristic as well. When people or students are working together in teams to develop new products or ideas someone may have the ability to recognize a weakness within the project, but be too afraid to speak up during the planning phase. One strategy for helping students of all ages to calm their fears is to run through a premortem protocol in the earlier stages of planning. Have a leader from each team make a pretend announcement that the project has failed miserably. Then allow time for each student to discreetly jot down on sticky notes any reason that could have been the cause for the hypothetical failure. You might also consider using a tech tool such as Answer Garden for collecting the feedback. After gathering the sticky notes the group would go over each scenario together as a team thus providing a safe, anonymous way for members to express their ideas. The increase in the project's chances for success will be well worth the time sacrificed for the protocol.
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Trust the Process
Have you ever heard of a Hackathon? Up until recently I hadn't but after experiencing one first hand I believe every student could greatly benefit from attending one. At a Hackathon people work together in teams using technology to build an innovative product or find a creative solution to a problem in a finite amount of time typically within a 24 hour period. At the end teams present their final products to be critiqued by experts and the best ones are given some form of award or prize. Depending on the quality of the product some ideas may even turn into new business ventures. They are quite popular at the collegiate level but could be tailored to meet the needs of younger students as well. My thirteen year old son recently attended his first Hackathon and met his team mate for the first time at the start of the event. They decided to program and build an artificial intelligence device using the Python software for coding and a laser 3D printer for designing the prototype. Neither one had prior experience with the technology so they relied on google search as well as each other to construct their own understanding and ability needed to create their device. I watched with awe as they quickly assessed each others strengths and weaknesses and decided one would be the design engineer while the other would be the software engineer. At times it was a painful process to witness like when a part broke with not enough time to reprint or when the program wouldn't run because the coding wasn't done with perfect exactness but every obstacle they faced provided an opportunity for growing resilience, collaboration, critical thinking skills, and so many other soft skills that our students are in desperate need of. It was difficult to trust the process, to not share with them my solutions to the problems they faced but in the end it was worth it because their solutions far out shined anything I would have come up with. They walked away with a third place finish among mostly college level computer science majors. As a parent words can't adequately express how thankful I am that my son had this amazing life experience. As an educator it reaffirmed my belief of how beneficial and important it is for our students to be given project based learning opportunities.
Friday, April 27, 2018
The Magic of Moonlite
A couple of weeks ago my husband and I set a goal to read every day to each one of our four children. I came across a new product that has really made our new routine magical and realized it had the potential of bringing magic into the classroom as well. Moonlite is a storybook projector for your mobile device. It uses the light from your camera to project an image onto any surface, although I've found it works best on white or light colored surfaces. As the image is projected, sounds that go along with the story are played through the speaker of your phone. I liken it to a modern day version of the Viewmaster. The storytime projector pack comes with the projector and five stories. It's currently $40.00 and additional stories may be purchased for $8.00. Most of the stories are designed for students PreK-3rd grade. What I like most about it is that it's very simple to set up and use. Make sure the ringer on your phone is not turned off so that the sounds from the app will be heard. Also sometimes when you turn the slide to the next screen it can move the projector off the center of your light but after some experience with it you will find ways to move to the next slide without affecting the positioning of the projector.
