Mike and I finished the middle age webquest a few weeks back.  Today we Skyped and talked about the success, weakness and how we will change this for next year.  We talked about the webquest a few months back before we started it, click here for that post and podcast.

So today's discussion was really about how much the kids enjoyed and engaged in curriculum through this webquest.  In total, students put in about 12 weeks worth of work on their journals, blogs, questions/answers, Voki's, Xtranormals, etc.  I have to admit by the end I was growing a bit bored with the Webquest, but students were still engaged.  Both Garth and I agree that the amount of writing and reflecting students did far exceeded anything up to this point this year.  Students enjoyed the independence and creative freedom of the WebQuest. 

Some of the things we are looking at editing for next year are the quizzes, some of the Quests themselves and the format of the entire WebQuest.  This year the entire WebQuest was hosted on a single web page.  We think that this got a bit confusing and clustered.  Next year each Quest will have its own page.  This will also allow us to put the essential questions, Computer-side chats and any videos we may have at the top of the Quest.  Students will be required to listen to the Computer-side chats and answer a few reflection questions before moving on to complete the Quest.

We are also planning on consolidating some of the Quests; combining similar elements and revising our quizzes.  As Garth and I were grading quizzes we noticed that the students whom were struggling (remember they had to re-take the quizzes for mastery before they could move on) had some great short answer responses and their journal/blogs showed great insight.  The reason, as we see it, is that we have them doing this great WebQuest where they are using higher-level thinking skills to master information and then show how that information would effect the life of their fictional feudal person; while the quizzes were multiple choice.  The assessment did not fit the project.  The quizzes were really just their to "prove" through data that students were learning.  Next year few, if any, multiple choice and a few short-answer questions.

As we have moved onto the Renaissance and the Reformation, some of Garth's students commented that they would have loved to follow their feudal person into these new time periods.  We are thinking about giving each student a "past-self" to follow throughout the entire course.  Garth and I want students to really gain an empathetic understanding of the story of history.  We want the students to create their past-self's history and thus explain the journey of us.  Big goals, but totally attainable and this new focus have Garth and myself determined to implement some ground-breaking projects for next year.

As always, any comments or ideas please do not hesitate to leave us a comment.

-Mike

It’s Thursday, it’s the week before Spring Break and my head is swimming with all of the changes I want to make next year in my teaching.  As I go through the school year, I keep a journal of the days activities and what I liked/hated.  It’s hard to wait five months to make changes.  Sure I change things on a daily basis as I move from one class to another, but some changes must be implemented in the beginning of the year.  At an in-service concerning co-teaching yesterday, the speaker used the term “collaborative culture”.  I think that I have not done the best I can at creating a collaborative culture with my students.   So below are three goals I have set for myself to begin next year.  The biggest challenge I think these will pose is my reputation.  Students, most students, enjoy my class because I am pretty organic; often several conversations going on simultaneously, students working independently and collaborating, listen to music, to lectures, to stories, reading, sharing life lessons and experiences.  I have the reputation of being fun, easy going and sporadic.  My personality as a teacher is spurred on by my students’ willingness to learn in new ways.  It also takes a great deal of trust and independence on the part of my students to get the most out of my class.  I do not work in traditional ways, so it is often hard for students to enter my world and then return to 7th grade as usual.  Sometimes my methods get away from me; sometimes I loose my academic focus because I am constantly questioning (with Garth and Jenna) why it is that we continue to do things to old way.  Anyways, here are my top three changes for next year:

1. Start the year off doing a lot more work with what it means to be a digital citizen
    I teach social studies; at the heart of my subject is the idea of citizenship.  I plan to do much more with explaining the idea of     a citizen and of digital citizenship in my students at the beginning of the year.  I think that a greater understanding of our rights     and responsibilities as citizens and digital learners will help my students feel more freedom to find their own knowledge.  I         also think that it will help students get more out of my class, In order for me to give students an open learning environment is     if they understand their role in what we are doing.

2. Location, Location, Location
    The more I teach social studies and talk about the modern day world with students, the more I see the need for the                     fundamental understanding of geography.  Not longitude/latitude and the compass rose; I ‘m talking why do we live by rivers,     how does building a city change the flora and fauna, how does cold weather effect the spread of disease and the fact Africa is     not a country.  GoogleEarth is an amazing tool and students absolutely love using it.  I plan on talking geography at least one     day a week.  Distances people must travel to trade or fight, finding natural resources, etc.  I want to become the geography         teacher of the future.  Utilizing technology (GoogleEarth, USGS, NOAA, etc)

3. Its not the Destination, it’s the Journey
    My favorite quote as a motorcyclist, it’s the first patch I sewed on my leather jacket.  This is applicable to the 7th grade too!          All my students and myself will end up at the same point come early June.  I will leave all my students at the shores of North     America during the Age of Exploration.  I want my students to focus more on their individual learning process, I want them to     become conscious of how they take tests, how they learn and how they discover answers.  I want to create thinkers, not just     8th graders.

-Mike

Sir Ken Robinson's talk from London, March 2011.  This is a long talk 29 minutes.  You can see the full talk and panel discussion after the talk on Learning without frontiers website: http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/sir-ken-robinson/ 
Enjoy.

I have been using a youtube channel for at least four months and realized I never posted it on the blog.  In fact I tagged it in delicious Dec of 2010.   It is now it's own youtube channel: historyteachers.  They have 52 videos on topics ranging from early world history (The Trojan War ("Tainted Love" by Soft Cell), but seem to focus on the late middle ages and Renaissance period of Europe.  They have a few key outside topics, like Mansa Musa ("I'll Tumble 4 Ya" by Culture Club) or Chinese Dynasties ("Vogue" by Madonna)   .  Below is my students favorite one so far: Black Death ("Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani).  Let me know what ones you use and how your students like them.  Have fun....they will have you singing.  Garth