GUERILLA EDUCATORS IS DEDICATED TO REALTIME EDUCATIONAL BEST PRACTICES IN ACTION. WE ARE A GLOBAL LEADER IN THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF EFFECTIVE PROJECT BASED LEARNING ON THE FRONTLINES IN AND OUT OF CLASSROOMS. WE ALSO CONNECT EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES PLANNERS WITH THE TEACHERS/LEARNERS WHO USE THOSE SPACES.
The "Imagine" design Project continues at the Barack Obama Green Charter High School, in Plainfoeld, New Jersey. In this video, the students are thinking critically, hypothesizing, and problem solving around getting the scale determined so all of their interior renovation design will properly fit within the site boundaries. Take a look...
See this Project activity within the context of "Imagine" that has been going on since January, 2014, here...
With one pronounced, impactful exception, 21st century teaching and learning best practices are largely timeless and, as you will see, transcend grade level and other demographics. Sound educational best practices in the 21st century share certain strategic characteristics that have been effective through the ages. To that end, we have identified ten experience based Hallmarks of 21st Century Teaching and Learning that can be used as touchstones in the educator's pedagogical approach to teaching and learning.
The overarching caveat, of course, is that technology in the 21st century has permeated most aspects of education and culture and has changed everything. How we, as educators, use technology with our students is now the key to unlocking those 21st century global skillsets so that our students can lead and compete in a world where geography has become, in many ways, superfluous.
The Hallmarks:
Project Based Learning/STEM
Student Ownership/Engagement
Collaborative Teaching/Cooperative Learning
Citizenship/Leadership/Personal Responsibility
Community Partnerships
Mastery of Curriculum/Development of Higher Order Thinking Skills
Technology/21st Century Skills
The Teachable Moment/Agility
Reporting Out/Celebration
Fun
The Hallmarks:
Hallmark 1: Project Based Learning/STEM - Project Based Learning is the primary gateway through which the Hallmarks are realized. There are consistent characteristics that make a Project viable. Some of these characteristics include that Projects are:
Hands-On
Collaborative
Multi-Disciplinary
Student Centered
Technology infused
Real-Time
Real-World
Flexible
Just as any discussion about the design of 21st century teaching/learning spaces includes, by nature, flexibility of those spaces, so too the design of 21st century teaching and learning must also be flexible. With technology an integral aspect of our lives, more than ever our students have individual learning styles that must be taken into account. PBL provides a plethora of opportunities for students and teachers to be engaged in ways that are best suited to their optimum learning styles.
This short video demonstrates a real world boat building Project featuring middle grade students at a Philadelphia charter school that authentically models these characteristics:
Hallmark 2: OWNERSHIP/ENGAGEMENT - When students are interested and invested in the completion of a school-based project, they begin to own their educational processes. With ownership, all aspects of their school career, including mastery of curriculum become important to them. With ownership also comes:
Personal responsibility.
Employment of strategies like critical thinking, generating hypotheses, and extension of learning becomes commonplace.
Motivation to succeed.
Ownership starts with you, the teacher! Get invested in the processes of PBL. Initiate projects with your students that interest you, so you can authentically model ownership.
ENGAGEMENT - Ownership and engagement are essentially 2 sides of the same coin. When students take ownership and personal responsibility for the successful outcome of their Project, it follows that they are engaged and interested. Any good Service Learning project will present students with many opportunities to think critically, make hypotheses, and extend what they have learned. Engagement is the door to performing these important skills, which in turn, engenders academic and civic success.
This high school Project activity using the built environment is a great example of student engagement: https://youtu.be/Mu5vODUKTeg
Hallmark 3: COLLABORATIVE TEACHING/COOPERATIVE LEARNING - Teacher collaborations present powerful opportunities for educators to learn from each other, which can increase the strategies available to them in their pedagogical toolboxes. With technology, it is now just as possible to collaborate virtually with the teacher across the globe as it is across the hall.
Students working cooperatively in small groups to achieve project-based goals is a powerful strategy to achieve curricular and standards based objectives. Moreover, when students are focused on the goals of a project, they are more inclined to negotiate with their peers which clarifies their understandings and solidifies their learning. The cooperative nature of small groups working together for successful completion of the project also has an extremely positive effect on the classroom climate and behavior issues are significantly mitigated.
This Project with post graduate design students demonstrates collaboration and cooperation experientially: https://youtu.be/mr04qE46fXg
Hallmark 4: CITIZENSHIP/LEADERSHIP/PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY - Development of good citizenship skills as part of the fabric of teaching and learning is critical to the long term, real-life success of our students.
Civic skills give greater depth, context and meaning to student mastery of curriculum and standards. Integral to a Project is the inclusion of Community Partnerships. Professionals who freely give their time and expertise to benefit students are models of good citizenship.
LEADERSHIP - Project Based Learning requires administrative and teacher leadership while developing those qualities in our students. One of the key components of effective leadership is having the humility to know what you don't know and having the ability to listen and learn from those who do. So, for teachers and administrators:
Leadership involves having the inner strength to make decisions and to take personal responsibility for the consequences of those decisions.
Leadership is enabling those whom you lead to be innovative problem solvers without feeling threatened by their success.
Leadership is being able to buffer and protect those you lead from distractions and impediments so they may carry out their responsibilities unimpeded by those distractions.
Leadership is the ability to turn mistakes into "teachable moments" rather than "blamable moments".
Leadership is knowing when to step back to give opportunities for those in your charge to take the lead, while understanding that ultimate responsibility rests with you.
Leaders understand that leadership is a way of life and therefore unbound by the time constraints of the school or business day/week.
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY - It is incumbent upon us as educators to instill in our students that, as much as the teachers have a responsibility to present information in interesting, informative, and innovative ways, students also have the personal responsibility to make sure that they have mastered the requisite information to satisfy the goals and objectives of the Project. Student engagement, ownership, and interest in the successful completion of the Project engenders personal responsibility. Ultimately, one of our most critical functions as educators is to inculcate this sense of personal responsibility in our students.
Hallmark 5: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS - Community Partners are the heart of Project Based and 21st century teaching and learning. Having real-world professionals and others in the community work with our students to help address real-world problems present powerful opportunities for students to get involved and engaged as citizens and leaders while achieving and retaining, curricular and standards-based proficiencies. Community Partners also model good citizenship/leadership and provide opportunities for taking class trips that are fun and demonstrate real-world learning skills.
This video demonstrates how Community Partnerships both in, and out of, classrooms can have a transformational effect on students: https://youtu.be/PPrfbiVZmxo
Hallmark 6: MASTERY OF CURRICULUM/HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS - The primary rationale to employ Project Based Learning is, in fact, as a tool for student achievement, both academically and socially. A project's success is ultimately determined by whether the project-based activities are connected to grade appropriate curriculum and state standards and more importantly, whether these connections enable students to achieve mastery across a range of academic disciplines. We have seen that when students work within the Project Based methodology they own their educational processes, are engaged in a project's activities, work cooperatively to achieve success, and see citizenship modeled by the Community Partners, then mastery of curriculum becomes more likely.
This video shows second graders making and testing hypotheses: https://youtu.be/b133AGFclCY
HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS - Universal access to the internet by our students has changed the equation of how they learn, whether we, as educators, are ready for this change or not. Unlike the traditional teaching and learning experience, with the Project Based methodology students are gaining knowledge experientially. Rather than feeding the students disconnected facts to be regurgitated on a test, Project Teachers coach the students to apply that knowledge to real world situations which engenders Higher Order Thinking Skills like evaluation, synthesis, and analysis. Many of the videos on the Guerilla Educators blog authentically demonstrate HOTS in Action.
Hallmark 7: TECHNOLOGY/21ST CENTURY SKILLS - Technology is the #2 pencil of the 21st century. As such, any good Service Learning project will be embedded with a wide array of real-world technology-based applications. We still, by and large, teach interminably about how to use tech applications with our students. Well, that ship has sailed given the fact that the younger we are, the greater our ability to use technology in an agile way. So now, more than ever we need an educational paradigm shift away from learning how to use technology and towards using it.
This high school Project activity using the built environment is a great example of students using technology: https://youtu.be/Mu5vODUKTeg
Hallmark 8: THE TEACHABLE MOMENT/Agility - Agility is one of the foundational tenets of 21st century education. Agile educators nimbly take advantage of those "off the curriculum grid" spontaneous learning opportunities when they occur. These teachable moments are powerful opportunities for effective, authentic teaching and learning to take place. Being able to identify and use real-time teachable moments is one of those transcendent qualities that good educators possess. Click here to see two examples of teachable moments in real-time.
Hallmark 9: REPORTING OUT/CELEBRATION - Students will report out to peers, school staff, and the larger community:
What they learned.
How they addressed the problems or issues.
Their final products. ...and
They will be celebrated for their important, authentic, real-time work.
Hallmark 1O: FUN - As a 4th grader concisely put it some years ago, "Teacher John, if it ain't fun, why would we do it?" School and Fun? While the terms are usually perceived to be in diametric opposition to each other, students having FUN within the framework of their school-based activities is an integral aspect of Effective Teaching and Learning and is one of the overarching links that facilitate academic and civic success.
This short video is a compilation from 2 elementary schools conducting on-site water monitoring and having FUN!:
To see powerful, authentic demonstrations of the Hallmarks in action, take a look at this "Seeds to Trees" horticulture project... <
and click on our Service Learning Video Compilation, as well:
Let us show you how to incorporate the Hallmarks into your teaching/learning program. Our Professional Development Workshops demonstrate in a practical, hands-on way how educators, using the Hallmarks as touchstones, can be more effective. Contact John Sole at: [email protected] for more info.
Mrs. Sirchie's 6th grade students researched, developed, wrote, and presented their bullying skits for her Health Class at East Norriton Middle School. "Rothfeld's Reporters" from 7th grade shot the footage. A tip of the hat to Guerilla Educators for editing. This Service Learning Project is collaborative, cross curricular, uses technology as a 21st century tool, and is fun. Take a look...
Steve King, Founder and incoming CEO of the Barack Obama Green Charter High School gave a powerful address to the first graduating class at Obama Green, below...
For much of the 2012-'13 school year, 7th grade students from the Chinese International School in Hong Kong and their US counterparts at East Norriton Middle School (ENMS), in suburban Philadelphia have been in regular communication with each other. What began as a simple penpal arrangement between the students ("My name is..., I go to..., I like to eat,,,, etc) has become so much more. Educators at the schools from both Hong Kong and East Norriton have collaborated electronically throughout the Project to include curricular objectives, local customs and holidays, and the increasing use of technology applications. In April, students from ENMS filmed and edited their first video for their Hong Kong "TechPals", "A Day in the Life" at their school, here:
Their Hong Kong friends just sent a return video, their first, back to the ENMS students, here:
This Project has been a wonderful experience for both the students, teachers, and the entire school families at both schools. The hope is that it will continue into the 2013-'14 school year.
Student feedback about the project, here...
While visiting the Marin School of Environmental Leadership at Terra Linda Hogh School, I noticed that many of the classroom doors had been turned into student developed works of art. Here is a small sample of the doors, ...and one BIG HONKIN' WALL!
Throughout much of the 2012-'13 school year, students 7th grade students at East Norriton Middle School in East Norriton, PA, have been communicating with their peers at International Schools in Hong Kong and the French Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe. What began as simple introductory emails between the students has increased in scope across a variety of platforms. This video, below, is the latest effort by the ENMS sudents. They wanted to introduce their "TechPals" in Hong Kong to their school so they filmed and edited (with a little help from their teachers, Margie Rothfeld and Donna Sole) "a day in the life" at ENMS. The 7th graders at the Chinese International School in Hong Kong are spending 2 weeks on mainland China (now that's some class trip!) and plan on their return to respond with their own video to the ENMS students. As relevant as the Project is for the students, it is, in my view, even more significant that these teachers are beginning to collaborate with each other from across the globe. Now THAT is interesting!
Sr Peye, the "shop" teacher at Isidro Sanchez High School in Luquillo, Puerto Rico works with his students to conduct amazing Projects. In the last 5 years, Peye's students have won NASA's Moon Buggy competition held every year in Huntsville, Alabama where students from around he world compete in various categories. His students are busy re-designing their Moon Buggy in preparation for the competition set for April. Buena Suerte!
Developing the Project Concept: • What type of Project do you want to conduct with your students and why? • Will you be collaborating with other teachers in, or out of your school? • What content areas do you want to craft this project around? • Take a real-world topic related to the selected content areas. • Create a Driving Question that will drive investigation into the topic.
Develop a Driving Question that: • Is aimed at solving a problem • Will lead to deep inquiry • Will invite future learning • Is meaningful to the student, the school, the community, and/or the world • Is an issue that students believe in or have a passion for • By answering, they are having a positive impact on something or someone
Understandings/Outcomes: • What specifically do you want students to understand? • What facts and basic concepts should students know and be able to recall? • What will students know and what will they be able to do? • What curriculum, standards, and performance-based objectives will be addressed? • Will the learning be meaningful and applicable in their lives? • Project activities should be connected to curricular objectives. • Build planning time in to address curriculum connections.
Skills: Students will be able to independently use their learning to: • Demonstrate citizenship and leadership • Work through real-world problems by trial and error • Collaborate and problem solve with others • Utilize technology to actualize and express ideas • Guide future independent directed learning across disciplines using the PBL process
Project Design/Features: • What teachers/colleagues should be involved in the collaborative brainstorming process? • Is the project part of a curricular unit? • Do students have choice of topic within a curriculum? • Will the teacher be guiding students in the framing of a driving question? Will students create their own driving question? • Is the project interdisciplinary and thematic? • Will you be collaborating with other teachers in, or out of your school? • Will students work independently or in groups or a combination? • Will the project involve class trips and or individual student experiences outside of the school day? • Does the project have community partners? • Will the project have a service-learning component?
Technology: How will technology be implemented to enhance the Project by: • Communication Collaborating with other students/educators via technology • Information sources, information sharing • Creating, producing, presenting (Website, documents, etc)
Community Partnerships/Resources: • Which Community Partners can help you with your project? • In what ways will Community Partnerships model good citizenship/leadership? • What resources do you need to see the project through to completion? • Will project related class trips be taken?
Project Timeline: • Overall length of time • Time per week • Weekly Schedule
Project Activities: • Planned to achieve overall project objectives. • Connected to grade appropriate curricular objectives in at least 2 subject areas. • Engage students to take ownership of their educational processes • Are the activities FUN?
Benchmarks: • Set clear time referenced deadlines for each task and/or product. • Should be scaffolded to build on previously achieved objectives towards success of the project. • Help build the guidelines in which the project can take place
Reflection/Journals: • Student journals will offer students the opportunity to continuously reflect and assess their progress toward completion of the project. • Teachers can use student journals as valuable assessment tools. • Offer students the opportunity to learn from the strategies that did and, perhaps more importantly, did not work to achieve project objectives.
Assessment: • Will student be assessed throughout the project cycle or on a final project? Formative/Summative • An effective assessment program uses multiple strategies to demonstrate growth and performance, and should be closely correlated to your stated goals. • How are rubrics used as an effective assessment and evaluation tool?
Reporting Out: • Students will report out to peers, school staff, and the larger community: • How they addressed their driving question. • What they learned. • Their final project products.
Celebration: How students will be celebrated and recognized for their important work at a Reporting Out Celebration!
As part of Fielding Nair International's 21st Century Schools initiative in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, FNI educators Chris Hazleton and John Sole were privileged to visit the Isidro Sanchez High School in the beautiful city of Luquillo. The high school has undergone major renovations designed to enhance teaching and learning. With Mr. Angel Gonzalez, Deputy Director of the Public Private Partnership Bank, we were hosted by Sanchez Principal, Ms MaryAnne Maldonado. At the time of this post, the school is about 2 weeks from completed construction of all re-design work. Take a look...
Click on the link to see a video of Rafael Cordero Elemental, another FNI designed 21st century school, in Catano, just outside of San Juan.
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