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According to Spencer and Juliani in the book, Empower, students spend an average of 400 minutes a day in school. How are they spending all 400 minutes? I see my role in the classroom as a guider, NOT a controller. Students learn best when they have choice and voice and create their own pathways to learning and understanding.

The approach to my philosophies are through my experiences. I have sat in the desks of Room 303. I have sat through all day PD sessions, and it can be agonizing. This is why I feel choice begins with seating. If students want to sit at my desk, floor, my center table, etc…. this can help with creating a comfortable and trusting learning environment. (YES, we will have conversations about choosing seats wisely. YES, if their seat choices are not conducive to a productive learning environment, then I take over.)
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One of the simplest words I can say to a students as their teacher is, “Yes.” Students have wonderful ideas and and are waiting to unleash creativity. Often times, this creativity is held back by the teacher. Saying, “Yes,” builds an environment of trust, learning, and allows students to show what they know in multiple ways. Plus, I don’t want to grade 120 of the same product over and over again!

Does all of this seem messy and chaotic? Sure! But, that’s the beauty of it all. Factory models and standardization do not create success in school. Choice creates learning and trust, and this should come first!

A huge phrase in education, currently, is growth mindset. As educators, we should always instill the belief in students that they should embrace challenges, accept criticism, and see how effort contributes to learning. Also, as educators, we should take on and model this belief system. As I am sitting here reflecting over the past year, I embraced a growth mindset and found ways to improve Room 303. Thinking about the path I took, an acronym kept coming to mind – GROW.

G – Goal Setting – Part of my growth is attributed to goal setting. The format I like is SMART goal setting. When I started, I thought about my vision and mission as an educator. I wanted to create a more engaging history experience for my students.

1. Is this goal Specific?
2. How will you measure success towards your goal(s)?
3. Is this goal attainable? Is it realistic?
4. Is your goal relevant? Does this goal align with the vision and mission of your school?
5. What is the time frame for your goal? Tomorrow? 1st quarter?

R – Risk Taking – I learned growth did not occur until I broke out of my shell. I was stuck in a fixed mindset. Growth does not occur within a fixed mindset. Only when I started dressing up to have “guest-speakers,” adding an element of mystery and curiosity did I start to grow. It takes one “out-of-the-box” lesson to get the creative thinking flowing to change the rest of your school year. Below you will see some of my “guest-speakers”and room transformations that sparked curiosity.

O – On-line – To me, online includes ed-tech tools and social media. From a classroom point-of-view, are students using ed-tech tools to practice the 4 C’s (creating, critically thinking, communicating, and collaborating?)? From teacher point-of-view, are you taking time to understand how these ed-tech tools can be an asset in your classroom?

Two great social media platforms for teachers include Twitter and Instagram. I love sharing my classroom with others from around the globe. I have create a Personal Learning Network (PLN) of people through these mediums who have shared awesome ideas with me!

W – Write About It – In March of 2018, I started my Moler’s Musings Blog as part of a book study with, Innovator’s Mindset. This blog has allowed me to reflect and share ideas with others from around the world. Throughout the school year, I was teaching my students how to reflect, but I wasn’t doing it myself. Creating my blog has allowed me to join my students and reflect on struggles, successes, and big plans for the future.

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Blended learning, blended learning, blended learning. It runs of the tongue like Ben Stein saying, “Bueller, Bueller, Bueller.”  The past 2 school years I have heard blended learning used often. Wanting to know more, I asked what blended learning is. However, it seems no one can come up with a good definition.

Blended learning is so many different things that one can define it in multiple ways. According to blendedlearning.org, they defined this enigma as:

“Blended learning is any formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace.”

Earlier in a Twitter ed-chat, I stated:

“I try to use a flex model blending online and traditional instruction letting students go at their own pace.”

My statement got me thinking, why can’t we just call blended learning what it is………Learning. In today’s world, teachers should be using traditional methods with technology. This should be a norm. Instead, blended learning is used as a buzz word to make learning seem like a new concept. It makes teachers already doing great, engaging lessons feel like they aren’t doing much at all. On a personal level, I got caught up in trying to use models and using too much technology. Ultimately, this led to me completely forgetting the most important part – building relationships and engaging students.

Part way through the school year, I began to focus on engagement. I looked at traditional methods and thought of ways to “hook” students into the lesson. Some of my favorites include:

1. Dressing up and having “guest speakers” – Students love it!
2. Transform your room to engage students in a lesson.
3. Start off a lesson with music.
4. Build a lesson around a mystery bag.
5. Take your class outside.
6. Get students creating with legos, Oreos, and non-traditional items.

Along with engaging traditional methods, teachers should be blending technology in intentional ways. Before I use tech, I ask myself, “Will this help my students understand the content better? Will this allow my students to collaborate, communicate, critically and creatively think?” At the end of the day, answering those questions with a “Yes,” and finding ways to blend with engaging traditional methods creates what should be a norm……………..Learning.

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I take inspiration from the most random of places. I’m currently sitting in a PD session on behaviors and trauma. This PD session is part of a larger conference put on by Cincinnati Public Schools. During the conference the keynote speaker was George Couros. During his keynote address he stated, “Innovation begins and ends with empathy.” This behavioral PD session is a great reminder that students come from all walks of life and different experiences.

One topic that stood out to me the the phrase, “flip your lid.” We had a great discussion about 2 parts of the brain – the upstairs brain and downstairs brain. The upstairs brain is the part that calms and organizes a child during stressful situations. In contrast, the downstairs brain is the fearful part that responds to stressful situations. When students have repeated, traumatic and stressful situations, the downstairs brain over-develops and the upstairs brain doesn’t know how to calm it down. This entire concept is illustrated in this picture (linked here).

This simple visual made this topic come together for me. As teachers we need to expect bumps in the road and expect that not every situation will be perfect. The question becomes, how can we make the most of every situation?

1. Build Relationships – A simple, “Hello and how are you?” goes a looong way in the classroom. As educators, we to understand the needs of every student. A great reminder for everyone: if a student comes in and lays his or her head down, don’t treat the situation as disrespectful. Instead, treat this situation as way to figure what that student needs. Sometimes, everyday life is more important than a your subject.
2. Give Choices – Avoid saying, “No,” with an explanation. Instead, tell students what they can have with options. For example, if a student is slumped in their seat or not “sitting up,” give them choices of sitting up or moving to a new location in the room where they would be more comfortable. However, choices shouldn’t be restricted to behavior. Choices should be included with lessons. Allowing students to have choice and voice is a great way to empower them and alleviate many classroom management problems.
3. Change the Classroom Environment – To change my classroom environment, I started with a mission statement and built my class expectations from there. In my class expectations, you will never see the words “no” and “don’t.” These words carry too much negativity with them. Let’s face it, with the world we live in today, we need to stay positive and keep school positive. Other ways I intend to change my classroom environment include: have students decorate my walls and have a passion wall where students can post the things they enjoy outside of school.

My day is never complete without a trip to Kroger or Trader Joes. On this particular day I was walking through the aisles at the Amelia Kroger to kill some time before picking up my daughter. As I perused through the vegetables and bread, one thing stood out to me:

1. Overreaction……..A LOT of of parental overreaction.

One parental overreaction stands out in my mind. I was standing at the end of an aisles out of the way trying to figure out what I needed next. Out of nowhere, I hear this voice of rage, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!! COME HERE RIGHT NOW!!! MY GOD YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION.” I was expecting to see some out of control 12 year old kid, Mt. Dew in hand, and causing a ruckus. Instead, I saw this quiet 9 year old kid, pushing a small cart, who got caught up in looking at wheat bread.

I just couldn’t help but think how much he is talked to in that way. Then I begin thinking about how many kids leave school and enter that lifestyle on a daily basis. It made me stop and think about how important relationships can be in building trust and solving classroom management issues throughout the year.

Sometimes kids come to school for a respectful, caring environment. It’s not all about the academics. We are better off sitting down with students having a bad day or being apathetic and discussing their interests and asking  2 simple questions, “How has your day been? What can I do to help?” This is a simple way of making “small deposits” to get bigger returns in the long run.

As we near the final days of school, it’s important to remember that it’s easy to stress out and overreact. It’s easy to send kids out into the hall or down to the office for doing nothing. But, it’s just as easy to sit down, talk it out, and make those small deposits.

While driving home after school, I was thinking to myself about how I never put together a post celebrating the great, innovative practices taking place at New Richmond Middle School along with the great people who make it all work on a daily basis. 

When I arrived at school today (Friday, May 11) we were having a staff meeting to announce teacher of the year. My colleague’s chose me as Teacher of the Year and the email below is what I sent out, and I though it would make for a great blog post. A way to stop, reflect, and celebrate all of the good things from this school year. At the end of the day, how can one person be chosen when we all work so hard?

To the Middle School Staff,

Thank you for honoring me as Teacher of the Year, but I don’t know how one person can be chosen. We all work so hard, take things home, and deal with so many unknown things on a daily basis. It’s inspiring to see so many awesome, innovative practices happening this year. Some things that come to mind:

1. The “Cruisin to the AIR Test” challenge from Nathan and Ali.

2. The BookSnaps used for Anne Frank and the Holocaust.

3. Allie’s cool survival project. 

4. Seeing Andrew’s students walking around the building snapping pictures of angles with Ipads and transferring them to a Google Slide Presentation. 

5. Seeing Tina’s blended learning stations and creating multiple ways for students to show what they know. 

6. Greg and Erin with volleyball stations using flipgrid and youtube to have students improve volleyball skills. 

7. Becky’s awesome game board project with the Industrial Revolution, slavery, and differences between North and South. 

8. Toby’s project with students recording a Renaissance newscast – they were so engaged and had fun. 

9. Tiffany setting up the Innovator’s Mindset Book Study.

10. The earthquake building project from Tina and Doug. 

11. Tracy’s biome project that students created – they loved doing that project and were proud of what they created. 

12. Beth’s project for The Giver where students created a “perfect society” – it was neat seeing what the students came up with to create a Utopia. 

13. Malissa’s awesome (and heavy looking) glass table for flexible seating. 

14. The dedication of the Special Ed Teachers to their students – Deb, Karla, Trevor, and Tony – you guys are awesome!

15. Amy’s awesome art projects – the horse in the lobby is so cool! Plus, being chosen to present on blended learning at the Art Museum is a testament to what you do on a daily basis. 

16. Court setting up a Professional development library for everyone – EduProtocols is a book you will want to get your hands on! Great, usable student centered lessons in there. 

17. Rhonda and the kitchen staff for keeping us fed – please try the sausage, egg, and cheese! The custodians for making this building clean and organized. Mindy for great mints and Tylenol. 

18. Ms. Gulley’s leadership conference and AAA incentive are great for students and help build school culture.

If I left anyone out, I’m sorry. But this is what stands out in mind from this year. Changing culture takes time, and everything listed above is what makes the middle school a wonderful place. There are many great innovative practices happening around this building, and I just wanted to highlight those things that stand out to me.

Thank You,

Adam Moler

Taking risks has been my theme for the 2017-2018 school year. I have jumped completely out of my comfort zone with dressing up, acting out the Bill of Rights, empowerment lessons, using out of the ordinary items such as Oreos, adding a mission statement, and changing my expectations. But one risk I added and will continue to use is the digital portfolio for reflections.

I originally started a digital portfolio idea in Room 303 for three reasons. Reasons one and two: students could showcase their work and growth throughout the year. My third reason was influenced by my own observations with students. During my past years of teaching, too often students (and myself) would end a unit, move on, and completely forget what just happened. History doesn’t work like this, but a portfolio would help the students wrap up a unit with purpose.

My platform for digital portfolio was Google Sites – easy to use, but many flaws that I will not get into now. At the end of every unit, I wanted students to upload an artifact they created along with a reflection on what they learned.  When I first introduced this and provided a template………….oh my. To say it was a struggle is an understatement. I had students Googling answers to reflection questions for their own creations – how does that work? This portfolio has been a work in progress all year long.

Throughout the year, I tweaked questions, changed the amount of artifacts to upload, opened it up to the students to freely write. The digital portfolio is still a work in progress. Currently I’m reading, Learn Like a PIRATE, by Paul Solarz who discusses how he has students constantly reflecting. He uses a similar portfolio concept, but I have learned some great ideas for next year’s portfolio concept.

Here are 5 ideas I will incorporate into my portfolios for next year:

1. Go over reflections more in-depth with students – sometimes it’s hard for me to place myself in the shoes of other people. To me, a reflection is natural and simple. As a result, I see it as simple for others as well. It’s vital to not assume this, and show others how to reflect and the power of reflection. 
2. Drop Google Sites and use Blogspot or WordPress – Google Sites is easy, but sometimes things get deleted and it’s unable to be recovered. It doesn’t allow students to change fonts, or change picture sizes easily. 
3. Have students reflect at the end of every lesson within a unit – the best way to learn and grow is reflecting daily and at the end of every major lesson. 
4. Use a “Tell Me More” strategy – Every reflection question should be answered with at least 2 sentences. The second sentence has a focus of telling me more, or expanding on the learning/artifact.
5. Use reflection and synthesizing questions – examples include: 1) What was your favorite station/activity? Why? 2) Find another group that you feel explained the topic better than you did. Why did you choose this group? What did they explain well? 3) Describe how the lesson went for you. 4) What have you learned due to this experience? Interpret how the lesson went using one of sets of terms: strengths/weaknesses or successes/setbacks.

Allowing students to reflect in a timely manner can allow them to take their learning to another level. As I have found this year, it’s important to have them reflect as learning is occurring, not after a grade has been issued or at the end of a unit.

I believe in the power of reflection for improvement. For me, reflecting is a way to improve my practice, share ideas with others, and a way to think out loud about the ups and downs of Room 303. One of my biggest fears is feeling complacent with my work. The world we live in is constantly changing, and it’s my responsibility to provide the best engaged and empowered education I can possibly provide to my students. With that being said, he is my list of improvements for next year (mainly a bunch of random thoughts I’m putting down)…..

Here is a list of changes I can implement for the 2018-2019 school year:

Beginning of the year stuff:

1. Have students design my walls and bulletin boards.
2. Have students create a passion wall to share their ideas.
3. Rethink my expectations in my room (Keep my values and mission statement).
4. Incorporate Smart Starts from Eduprotocols from the beginning of the school year.
5. Use more community oriented lessons at the beginning of the year.
6. Set clearer expectations from the beginning – chromebooks, music, due dates, etc….
7. Use more words like: family, community, help each other, respect, collaborate, etc….
8. Explain Active and passive leaders (pages 47-49 in LearnLAP).
9. Explain and show what it means to effectively collaborate.
10. Use “give me five” to increase student voice.
11. Align standards to specific projects for standards based grading.
12. Design rubrics for projects.

6 weeks of school left + Statewide testing = lots of headaches and negative thoughts. Name one person who like statewide testing. Name one person who has something positive to say about statewide testing. It’s hard to stay positive when this test creates a negative feel in the air.

A testing day on Tuesday created a 2 hour delay schedule and a 30 minute class period for me. It was a perfect day to practice empathy. My 8th grade class went outside and we walked around campus as I did a walking lecture on the Trail of Tears. It was great as the experience (cold weather) added authenticity to the conversation. Before this lesson we just wrapped up a lesson on Andrew Jackson.

Wednesday rolls around after our Trail of Tears lesson, and we analyzed 3 perspectives on why people supported the Indian Removal Policy. Before we read each perspective, I had the students make a prediction. Our first perspective was Andrew Jackson, and I asked, “What do you predict Jackson will say about indian removal?”…………………..crickets and blank stares followed. I was livid.

I’ll admit, I blew up. Looking back I should have changed my tone. After all, it is testing week and their brains are done after that test. As always I stepped back and reminded myself of 3 positives from this week:

1. I wrapped up a loooooooong Middle Ages blogging project. I had the students reflect and give me feedback. Some of the feedback was constructive and great. Overall, the students had fun with the project and enjoyed the different lessons I put together. They especially enjoyed the simulations with the Crusades, the Black Death, and the my dress up days.
2. I have a student that isn’t getting much out of my class. I did what most teachers would not – I threw out the standards and typical lessons and I asked him, “What do you want to learn? I know you like cars and engines, what sounds good to you?” We talked for a bit, and I asked him to tell me how an engine worked………..I still don’t know how it works. He even called me out on that (that’s when I realized that this is probably how he feels when I discuss history topics). Finally,  I suggested he learn about the impact of the steam engine. He ran with it, and I have never been more impressed. On his own, he created a steam engine out of lego’s, he’s using Flipgrid to discuss how it works, and he’s creating a poster on the impact of the steam engine. Trust students, find out their passions, and give them a voice!
3. I started a new project with 7th graders on the Renaissance. I asked them a question, “Who is the most important person of the Renaissance?” They got into groups of 2 or 3 and I told them this project is completely driven by them. They started looking at the Renaissance, people in the Renaissance, and came up with a person. I had several groups go out of their way to find people not on my “suggested” list of Renaissance people. For example, one group found a Renaissance woman who was considered the first feminist. I love this creative, empowered thinking!

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BAM!!! Dead silence turned into gasps, head turns, and laughter after a chromebook hit the floor. Students woke up and became inspired. It’s state testing day. Before the the chromebook incident, looks of boredom, sleepiness, and ‘why’ could be seen throughout Room 303.

I just can’t help but wonder myself – why? Even a student asked me, “Why do we have to take this test?” I’m of the belief that if a student asks me why we do something in history class, I should be able to justify the “why” passionately and truthfully from the heart. However, my response to the student about testing was the typical, beat-around-the-bush response. He saw right through me. I can’t sell it.

What meaning does this state test have for the students? There is no voice or choice. No authenticity or authentic audience. No creativity. I remember a five years ago with a team I was coaching, my players told me tales of how they got creative on the state test. The prompt was, “Explain a life changing moment….” I can’t remember the rest. But, these students found their own creativity in mocking the test. Some told me of how they wrote about when their wife gave birth to their first child and made up a whole life story. Some even wrote about how taking a state test changed their lives for the better; sarcastically of course.

For those who say testing reflects what students know and are able to do, refer back to the above paragraph. Furthermore, I can use my own experience with testing to say this is a garbage response. I remember in 2000, I got my ACT scores back. I got a big 15. Yes, a 15. According to these results, I would do terrible in college; no way I would be successful. I took the ACT again. The scores came back…….and I got an 18!!! Wooooooooo!!! Again, with these results, success in college was not likely. If the ACT was a reflection of me, then I shouldn’t have graduated as a collegiate-athlete with a 4.0 GPA.

Students know, and understand, this testing has no authenticity. So, how can we create meaning with testing? I feel testing is never going away, but something has to change. Perhaps the people who make this stuff up could visit schools and see the creativity and critical thinking taking place and become inspired. Leaders could get on Twitter for 5 minutes a day and see all the good stuff happening in classrooms across the country.

What if state leaders became inspired by more school visits, and browsing Twitter for 5 minutes a day, to change state testing? Maybe they would see creativity happening. Maybe they would see that 5 paragraph essay isn’t the only way to show what you know. Maybe they would see empowerment and students owning their learning. Maybe they would see students who aren’t bored, sleepy, and asking, “Why do we have to do this?”

At the end of the day, it shouldn’t take a Chromebook hitting the floor to wake up and inspire 18 students during a state test.