The biggest takeaway I had from EduCon and the weeks that have followed is that it is never too late to make changes. I've been very set in the ways of what I do, even though it never has the results I'm looking for. Making changes has either been "too much work" or "too much of a risk" for me. Once I started really thinking about what I needed to do, I started to realize that "too much work" is a sorry excuse for just saying "I don't feel like it right now." As for "too much of a risk," since I haven't been getting the results I was hoping to get, I figured what do I have to lose.
For your enjoyment (mostly mine, but you are welcome to enjoy them too) here are four major changes that are taking place with me right now.
- Change 1: Classwork System
- Change 2: Gamification
- Change 3: CrossFit/Whole30/Paleo
- Change 4: Making and Tracking Goals
Classwork System
The first thing I did once I got back to the classroom was to go back to a system that worked last year. This system involves pre-printed Do Now's, specific blank sheets for Classwork and a process for the students to turn in their work at the end of the week to be graded. This entire system is based mostly on compliance. [Side note....I've previously written about how I feel about compliance for compliance's sake but feels a little different (at least in my head it is).] What happened was more than I could have imagined. I had students starting to make more of an effort because they wanted their Do Now sheet and wanted to turn in their packet to get a good classwork grade. The snow and weather recently has wreaked havoc on any continuity but this has been working and is a great start to the second half of the year. Another change that I have made is to make more of an effort to contact parents for good and not-so-good reasons. I've had little success in the past but spending time contacting parents the last few weeks has resulted in positive changes in my classes. I'm sold!
Gamification
The last conversation that I attended at EduCon was Philip Vinogradov's (@pvinogradov) Gamification: A Framework for Instructional Design. This concept was completely new to me and I left thinking, "Where has gamification been my entire teaching career??" I was amazed at how simple this concept seems and how effective it could become. I'm pretty sure that it might be difficult to completely implement a gaming system for the rest of this year but I want to bring some of the ideas (probably Avatars, Badges, some Quests) to my classes and hope to expand to an entire school year next year. I know there are many other posts out there, but Jennifer Ward (@jenniferward) posted about another gamification session Philip gave recently and I feel the same way about the concept as she does. I'm definitely looking forward to checking out #levelupEd in the near future and putting up some posts about the process of building this into my classes.
CrossFit/Whole30/Paleo
Since my life does not revolve around my classroom and what I do at school, I decided there needs to be some changes made in other parts of my world. The biggest of those changes has to do with my body: what goes into it and what I do with it to keep it usuable. Last year I started doing CrossFit partly because of a Groupon and partly because I wanted to try it out. After starting in January 2013, I was hooked and kept up with it until August 2013 when school started to take hold of my mind and time and CF had to take a backseat. Well, I'm back on the CF bus and I'm doing my best to get back to where I was last summer. Shortly after joining CrossFit last year, I was introduced to the Paleo lifestyle and started to read more about it. As I slowly incorporated bits and pieces of it into my daily eating, I started to feel better than I had in years and decided it was something that should be important to me. Along with stopping CF in August, my Paleo efforts started to slip as well. Right after the holidays, my wife and I decided to start and finish a Whole30. As of this post, we are on Day 20 and we both feel great and have discovered so many different recipes that make eating and cooking more enjoyable than going out for crappy fast food or making a boring, uninspired dinner at home.
Making and Tracking Goals
Each year I set out to have a list of "New Year's Resolutions" and the list ends up never getting completed. The resolutions are usually too broad or unreasonable and for some reason or another, I fail to get them accomplished. One reason for that is that I don't track them and hold myself accountable for what I want to accomplish. This year, I made a list of 5 categories (Exercise, Health, House, School and Personal) and under each list I set 3 or 4 goals. The plan is to finish all of these goals and add more to the categories that are finished as the year goes on. I like this idea because the lists are manageable and the goals are realistic and attainable. Right now, I am 10 days away from finishing one of the health goals (my Whole 30) and 1/12 of the way to a personal goal (finish one book every month). By the way, the book I finished was Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies: On Myths, Morons, Free Speech, Football, and Assorted Absurdities (Amazon link) by Chris Kluwe (@chriswarcraft) and I highly recommend it.
Change is Good
This school year has had some ups and downs but these changes are already making a difference to me and what I do. I can't wait to keep this up and finish this year strong! In my first post, I quoted lyrics from Rise Against. Here they are again because they just feel right:
"Do you care to be the layer of the bricks that seal your fate?
Or would you rather be the architect of what we might create?"
Or would you rather be the architect of what we might create?"
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