This weekend, the lovely and talented John Stevens and I led a training at Maricopa County for a room full of jovial educators.
ClickB hereB to read all about it,B and my page with links to the downloads is also here.
If you’re interested in hosting this training at your district or school, email me.
~Matt “It’s pronounced koo-CHEE-nah” Vaudrey
After 11 weeks, 15 class periods, 3 software updates, and 5 topic changes, the 20% Projects were finally presented to an audience on November 15th. In attendance were Ms. Fay, the Principal; Ms. Garcia, the Assistant Principal; Ms. Smith, the science teacher; Ms. Zipper, the instructional aide; and Mr. Cumbow, the network administrator for the district. Add to that a couple dozen parents, and you have all the makings of a large–yet respectful–audience.
This project started here, with the help of several other teachers across the country that are doing this same project.
My favorite moments:
~Matt “It was actually more like 27.3%” Vaudrey
P.S. This is the first post in which I use students’ actual names. In the past, I have used (and will use, in the future) pseudonyms, and confirmed with Ms. Fay that it’s legal for me to use their names here. Parents, please call if you’d like your student’s name removed.
I can’t wait until tomorrow, when I tell them that D is actually a distribution center and doesn’t count.
…and as I plan the lesson, my mood sunk a bit when I realized that I have to get from here (interesting, fun) to here:
Find the length of a line segment that passes between the points (8, -2) and (-4, 1) on the coordinate plane.
~Matt “Cool lesson… if we have time” Vaudrey
Today, I took a risk. I’ll present it to you in the same way I told my 6th period (who all have iPads).
“That was the bell. Sit. Fergie; you didn’t ask if you could get water. Sit. Maria, eyes over here.
[Dramatic Pause] Today… you will begin… for the first time… ever… your Twenty. Percent. Project.”
A couple “huh?”s, a chuckle, then a few started clapping. The whole class gave a round of applause for something they knew nothing about.
This is clearly a safe class to take risks.
Accustomed as I am to a class full of adoring, applauding adolescents, I waited until their awe subsided and I said, “Go ahead. Ask me.”
In unison, they chimed, “What’s a 20% project?”
Akin to Kate Petty, I said, “You’ve got iPads. Figure it out. Do some Googling.”
So they did. After about 12 minutes, I killed the mood music and asked, “Okay; what did you find out?”
Belinda: It’s a Google thing.
Louie: It involves 20% of the time.
Kathy: No kidding!
Harrison: [reading off the screen] Employees will dedicate twenty percent of the work day toward–
Vaudrey: BORED! Somebody else, who isn’t going to read it.
Robert: Research?
Destiny: Like… um… you look up stuff that isn’t part of school.
Vicki: [reading] Students will create a proposal and a presentation–
Vaudrey: BORED! Somebody else, summarize what you’re reading.
Vicki: Hey, you didn’t say ‘summarize’.
Louie: We research anything we want?
Vaudrey: Let’s watch a video.
I had previously searched YouTube and–what luck!–found Kevin Brookhouser‘s video showing 5-10 second chunks of his students’ 20% presentations.
Vaudrey: Okay, what did you see?
Fergie: Novels.
Vicki: Cookbooks.
Nadia: Music.
Vasily: Raising money for cancer.
Buzz: Tutoring.
As veteran teachers will tell you, there’s a fine line between baiting the hook and stringing them along. One of them gets them interested, the other gets them frustrated. This group was approaching the threshold. Time to bring it home.
Vaudrey: For 20% of our week–every Friday–you get to learn about whatever you want. You get to pick something that interests you and learn about it.
Kathy: Anything we want?
Vaudrey: Anything that is interesting to you… and school-appropriate.
Two idiots: Awww!
Vicki: Like… what do you mean?
It’s notable that Kate and Kevin executed this project with 16-18 year-old students. My students are 11-13 and in a Math Support class (with iPads as part of the strategy). Developmentally, it was unlikely that they would understand the concept without some prodding and leading.
Vaudrey: Okay, Vicki. What’s something that interests you?
Vicki: Soccer.
Vaudrey: What about soccer?
Vicki: Um… the cleats.
Vaudrey: Keep going.
Vicki: Like… how are they made? Some are made from carbon fiber.
Vaudrey: That sounds like something that you could research and then teach us about.
Louie: We have to present this?
Vaudrey: Yup. At the end of the Trimester to parents and teachers.
[Cries of distress and gnashing of teeth]
Vaudrey: …but the final product isn’t graded. You’re graded on your work along the way.
[Blank, confused stares. I’ve hit the overload. Time for some exploration.]
Vaudrey: Take the next 15 minutes. Do some research on something that is interesting to you. What do you want to learn about?
And they were off. After checking with a couple groups, I was stoked. Photography, engine design, taking risks as a professional athlete, anime, sound engineering, art therapy; they were diving in, and it was pretty sweet.
Also, there were a couple of these:
Vaudrey: What do you have so far?
Anna: Nothing.
Vaudrey: Okay. What’s something that interests you?
Anna: Nothing.
Vaudrey: Okay. What’s something that you like?
Anna: Nothing.
[I wait and stare at her until she cracks]
Anna: I donno… like… music?
Vaudrey: Okay. What about music is interesting?
Anna: I don’t know.
Vaudrey: What’s on your iPod right now?
Anna: Songs.
I’ll have mercy and spare you the rest, but there’s probably a reason that this project is done with high school students instead of middle-schoolers.
Same reason that we let the dough rise for a while before we make pizza out of it.
Beatrice: Are we allowed to change it up?
Vaudrey: Uhh… sure.B Because you’re probably having a hard time committing to one thing and you’re more likely to lighten up if it’s temporary in your head.
Vicki: Some of those students were in pairs or teams. Can we work in teams?
Vaudrey: Once you’ve decided what you’re researching, you might pair up, yes.
James: Mark! Me and you!
Vaudrey: Nope. That’s not how it works. Stop. Stop pointing at each other. If two people are interested in the same thing, then I might group you together.
Anna: We can’t pick our own groups?
Vaudrey: No.
Anna: Why not?
Vaudrey: I forget. Whose class is this?
Students: Mister Vaudrey’s class.
Vaudrey: So who is the boss, the divine ruler, the king?
Proletariat students: You are, sir.
Louie: Can I do SpongeBob?
Vaudrey: What about that is interesting?
Louie: Uh…why’s he so happy?
Vaudrey: Well… that’s a silly question. I could answer that with 4 minutes of searching on the Nickelodeon website.
Louie: Awwwww, What?
Vaudrey: Also, if you pick an easy thing, I’m going to make sure that you still have to work hard.
Louie: Oh. I’ll pick something else.
Vaudrey: Good idea.
Recent days at work have been great. The first month of school was tough; within the top 3 frustrating Augusts of my teaching career, but recent developments (and freedom to do whatever I want with 6th period) have freed me from the chains of canned curriculum, and given my tethered wings…
…eh, that’s enough.
~Matt “SpongeBob” Vaudrey
This year (as every year), my students completed a Teacher Report Card and graded me.
As I promised, here are the data from my students. 70 middle school students gave me honest, anonymous feedback, and here it is.
Looking at numbers only, here are my four highest:
| Seems to enjoy teachng | 4.89 |
| Tells us our learning goals | 4.7 |
| Tries new teaching methods | 4.62 |
| Grades fairly | 4.53 |
And my four lowest:
| Makes me feel important | 3.55 |
| Shows interest in students’ lives | 3.6 |
| Gives fair punishments | 3.88 |
| Has a good pace | 3.88 |
I’m not gonna lie: those bottom four sting quite a bit. My degree isn’t in Math Ed, it’s in Youth Ministry and Adolescent Studies (math came afterward). It smarts that my lowest grades came from “pastoral” student interactions.
But my high grades are good “teacher” marks, so that’s good, right?
Given that I teach adolescents, I have to keep in mind how their heads work (see here and here).
Every year when I give this survey, I take the “fair punishments” question with a grain of salt. Part of teaching adolescents means that emotional memories will burn into their developing minds (i.e. When Mr. Vaudrey listened to me talk about my parents), while memories without an emotional connection will be forgotten (i.e. Simplifying Rational Expressions).
I haven’t yet tried attaching the powerful emotion to boring lessons, but I’m not optimistic that it would work.
But back to the survey.
Every year, one or two students will try and stick it to me for that one time that they got detention for chewing gum in class twice.
Here are some responses that made me think:
If [student name] got kicked out
By not letting the class run all over him
Talk to each student to make sure they understand the lesson because sometimes there shy or emberassed
Get to the stuff you say you will get to
He sometimes ignores me.(Even if i raise my hand). He always call on the same smart people and i feel as if i’m not needed.
As you can see, there are pockets of brilliant insight in the survey (which is mostly text-speak).
Much like Steph Reilly‘s class, the tension between “managing the class” and “interesting lessons” is a valid one. Few students have classes where we can argue about things, and many students are uncomfortable with noisy learning.
For that matter, so are many teachers.
In closing, here are some student comments that reflect why I love to teach this age group:
I can talk to girls in class when I’m done with my work
how everybody treats eachother
I like that the class is fun. Everyday some how you make it fun! Haha (:
What I like best is that , the class is a good vibe everyday . It doesn’t feel like I’m in school when I’m in class. But above all , I like the lessons.
Your young and swagerific
What I like best about this class is that there’s not alot of pressure to have the correct answer, it’s okay to be wrong once in a while,
That’s bad because your apost to be in high school not 8th grade
It will be fun just don’t talk bad about lord of the rings because he likes the book.
You’ll have a lot of fun and he’s a bit of a Wack job
BYE HAVE A NICE SUMMER I WON’T REMEMBER ANYTHING ABOUT YOU JKJK HAH HAVE A GREAT SUMMER
Like I said, a grain of salt.
Happy summer, everybody.
~Matt “totes fun” Vaudrey
P.S. If you’d like a paper version,B click here.
I have enough content in my head to talk about this project for hours.
Read the whole thing, and you’ll be rewarded with a ton of shared docs at the end (feel free to skip the reading and go straight there).
As I posted a month ago, my students have been working on a half-hour lesson to be “Teacher 4 a Day”. The big state test is next week, and instead of blowing through 60+ sample test questions, I opted for depth of learning this year instead of breadth.
In past years, the “review everything” approach only served to remind the kids how much they’ve forgotten and overwhelm them.
Many students came in before school, after school, and during lunch to get advice, build presentations, and prepare worksheets. The filled in lesson plans, timing maps, and goal sheets, they prepared quizzes, and they got really nervous (some of them).
You know what’s great? Hype.
A great way to build hype? Costumes.
IfB students are the teachers in Mr. Vaudrey’s class, so then Mr. Vaudrey would be the…
I dressed like a middle school student and sat in the back of the class while the “teachers” led the lesson.
The assistant principal (with whom I checked for Dress Code Violations each day) advised that I model perfect student behavior, even though I dressed like many of the kids that spend time in her office.
With my iPad and a seat in the back row, I opened up the grading Form I built earlier and behaved like a polite student.
Each group started by reading this:
Predictably, some groups attempted to do the minimum. Two boys on the first day half-heartedly wrote a sample problem in the corner of the whiteboard, talked about it, then assigned practice problems for the students. The “lesson” itself was no more interactive than a Khan Academy video, and they completely omitted the quiz. The group before them was no better.
I made a point to regroup and discuss, and after that period, I “put them on blast“.
Vaudrey: What are some good things you saw today and some things you would change?
Hillary: Having a PowerPoint helped a lot.
Fiona: Yeah, it kept the class focused.
Ariel: When the class is doing something, they aren’t as noisy.
Vaudrey: Yep. What are some things you would change?
[Silence]
Vaudrey: You don’t wanna put anybody on blast?
Class: Nope.
Vaudrey: Okay, then I will. I’m not impressed so far. [gasps] Natalie and Amayrany, you guys clearly prepared and worked hard ahead of time. Nice work, well done. You other guys, however, could have done much better. You had three days in class and two weeks of Spring Break, and the best you could do was example problems on the whiteboard? You all have iPads, and I saw none of them today. Step it up.
Parents and teachers reading this will note that verbalizing one’s disappointment is one way to galvanize students to action. When I said iPads, two students in the back fist-bumped. My emphasis on hard work may have been a bit overzealous; one student wouldn’t get her Powerpoint to open and wept in frustration. She got an extra day.
Other highlights from the presentations:
“Mr. Vaudrey, I don’t see how you like this [teaching].”
“I noticed how Abby was strict and the class got quiet. The other two were giggling and the class was loud.”
“Since the discriminant is negative there is no solution… well, no real solution.”
“Oh, so they can talk during the quiz, but when I talk, I get in trouble?”
“Raise your hand and wait until I call on you! Don’t shout at me! I can give you a marker if you raise your hand!”
“You kids wanna try me today, huh?”
“You sassin’ the teacher?”
“You are not the brightest apple in the bunch.”
“If you’re talking during my quiz, that’s a zero. Yeah. I’m lookin’ straight at you.”
“No talking during the quiz.” “I wasn’t talking, I was singing.”
“If I see you talking, that’s a F!”
Obviously, some students hammed it up with a captive audience, and several became drunk with power quickly. One “teacher” even called the principal to deal with an unruly student, which later spawned a great class discussion about a teacher managing his/her own discipline in-house.
I was giddy the entire week, sitting in the back row in Converse hi-tops watching the slow dawning of enlightenment on each student. Most of them said, at some point, “Mr. Vaudrey,B this is hard.”
“That’s right.” I replied. “And how long did you plan for your 30-minute lesson? I teach 90 minutes every day, several times.”
“Oh, man!”B Their eyes widened, “I don’t think I could do that.”
I’m sending these kiddos to high school in 34 school days, and they will have a new respect for their teachers.
Click here for the folder on my Google Drive with everything in it. They’re named below, instead of linked.
If you use it, please let me know. I’m curious if my effort to share this will be worth it.
Here’s the order:
First, distribute a list of the learning goals for the year. (This list was already changing a week after its inception. Modify it to fit your class.) Most students picked easy stuff from the single digits, or stuff from Quadratics (the most recent unit we covered).
Next year: do this project before EVERY test. For the year-end lessons, force a spread of learning goals.
Next, I passed out the project description with the rubric. Students filled in how they would deliver the “Direct Instruction”, what the “Guided Practice” would be, and which “Exit Quiz” questions they would use. The following day, I passed out the lesson plan form. The Timing Breakdown came the following week.
Next year: model the timing in columns during one of my lessons. “What am I doing right now? What are you doing right now?
Once all students had settled into planning their lessons, I built the Presentation Schedule so each student knew which day they were presenting (though one still managed to arrive to class with nothing done, lamenting “I’m goin’ today?!“). The Tutoring Sign-up was posted on my door.
Next year: During in-class work, visit groups as they work and go through their lesson with them.
The day after they presented, each group completed a Peer Grading formB to assess somebody else’s lesson. The Grading Schedule details which day they grade. The iPad students completed the form online, linked from my skeleton Google Site (which I am still too ashamed to link). Also on that dreadful site is the Teacher Grading form that I used to grade each group.
Next week, all students will head to a computer class and complete the Partner Analysis form to discretely and secretly grade their partner. I predict some scathing reviews from fourth period.
Finally, I’m still developing an algorithm to grade each project as accurately as possible. I’m certain that it’s not worth the effort I’m spending, but it’s fun and I like doing it, so get off my back.
@MrVaudrey vV+pP+sS+aA divided by 4, where v, p, s, a are different weights?
b Krister (@botulf2000) April 17, 2013
Even today, I’ve been editing rubrics and spreadsheets and forms. We never arrive.
Let me know what you think of all this. I worked very hard on this project, and it improved with every minute of student presentation. I’ll post an update once I’ve arrived on a grading setup.
If you use something, let me know, eh?
My wife has been watching the Bachelor, and occasionally, they will do a flashback to a part of the contestant’s past that is embarrassing.
This post is about my ugly ex-boyfriend, Standards.
In college, I majored in Youth Ministry and Adolescent Studies. I came into my first classroomb seventh grade at Edgewood Middle Schoolb as a youth pastor; ready to make friends with my students and receive their respect in return.
You can probably guess how that panned out.
That year was the hardest year of my life. I wept during planning period, sometimes at lunch, and even after school. In an attempt to fight back, I yelled, spewing venomous things at my teenagers, who sneered at my inconsistent discipline and became even more defiant and rude. Several times I called my wife or family and was talked off the ledge from quitting.
When I look back, there is one thing in particular thing that makes me wince.
As a young teacher, I was terrified of calling parents for negative reasons. On the surface, I was uncomfortable calling someone older than me and speaking to them as an authority figure. Deep down dwelled a fear that they would turn the blame back on me, and I’d have no good response. Occasionally, that happened.
First-Year Vaudrey: Hello… uh… this is Mr. Vaudrey, I’m calling to discuss… um… David’s inappropriate jokes in class.
Parent: Well, David is standing right here, and he says that you laughed when he made that inappropriate joke, so why are you calling me?
To avoid parent phone calls, I relied heavily on Standards.
In the opening scene of the Simpsons, Bart is “writing standards”. It’s an old practice, but a great way to keep kids busy.
Here are four reasons why it’s a terrible idea:
It uses writingb something that should be enjoyableb and turns it into punishment. Some teachers (many years ago… hopefully) had students copy the dictionary when they were in trouble.
One wonders how those students feel about reading, writing, and big words after that experience.
Standardsb by designb feature lots of “I will not…” The copious use of negatives is just ineffective. If I want a student to stop getting out of their seat, the prompt isn’t “Don’t get out of your seat!”, it’s “Stay in your seat.” Many of the standards I assigned began with “I will not…” which populated my class rules with a list ofB “nots”.
My psychologist sister recommended that my wife and I use “the positive opposite” when talking to our then-2-year-old daughter. The prompt “use gentle touches” is much more effective than “don’t hit.”
Writing standards doesn’t matter. It’s a hamster wheel. It’s a thing to keep student is diligently doing something besides bothering the teacher. Invariably, the students that acted out the most were the ones that needed my attention the most. Standards was a cop-out, a way to say “I don’t give a shitB what you do, as long as it doesn’t bother me.”
It’s a treadmill, in a class where they should be lifting weights.
This student was Special Ed, but not yet diagnosed. “Mike” spent about 90 minutes over three lunch periods writing this. Those 90 minutes could have been better spent in tutoring, perhaps learning his multiplication tables.B I took time that could have been used on academics and made his hand cramp.
Oh, how proud I was with my Standards! With increasing regularity, I sent students out of class to do them, pulled them in at lunch, even sent them home as a homework assignment. I bragged to colleagues that “corporal punishment is not dead!” I had a file folder bulging with them by Christmas, when I used them as gift-wrap for my family’s presents. I was so proud of that stack of student discomfortB because it appeared that I was managing my class.
I was not.
Instead, I was telling dozens of students, “This is a better use of your time than math.”
Now, several years later, IB never assign standards. When a student needs some time out, I give them a tangle tableB or an assignment that they haven’t finished yet.
Now, I’m telling them, “You need a break from the class. Use the time productively.”
Which is what IB want to communicate to them.
~Mr. Vaudrey
Substitute days are tricky for a teacher.B A successful lesson for the sub is one where these things happen:
To that end, this was a successful lesson, just like last year. I left a sample list of some words they could use and they got to work.
Here are some of my favorites:
And, as usual, a Valentine for my wife using stolen lines from the student work:
After our Start-of-the-Period Routine, my first period sat quietly as we made a foldable together. They asked pertinent questions about the Discriminant as we colored, cut, and took notes on colored paper.
I then gave them options for two different activities, one of which involves walking around the class and submitting answers on digital responders. The instant I put on Pandora[1], the entire class…
…went to work. Every one of them started one of the activities, grabbed whiteboards to show their work, and murmured quiet calculations in pairs or trios.
I looked around the class for something to do and I noticed…
…they don’t need me.
And that is how I define a successful class.
The class average for the responders was 90%. All that’s missing to make my class complete heaven is Han Solo giving me a high-five.
[1]The Pandora stations that I use for quiet studying are Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Ludovico Einaudi, and City and Colour (make sure explicit content is turned off).