Parabolas for Profit Project-Week 1

This will be the second time I did the profit project. It is the first time I adapted a project rather than created it from scratch. It is a project on PBLWorks. It still takes planning to use a project someone else created. You have to wrap your brain around what will happen, collect the audience and think about what your students need. My first time doing this project was a fail. I did not scaffold enough for my students and they folded like lawn chairs. I had an authentic audience that I had to apologize to for the project not being able to conclude. I share this to explain it happens even if you have been doing projects for years. It doesn't mean you never do the project again or even drop the method all together. It means you refine and try again. Here is my round two with the project.

Some Background

After deep reflection (highly recommend after every project) of last year's implementation of the project, I realized there were several things that attributed to the failure. One of them was having an advanced level of public audience too soon. I am the only person in my building that does projects with this depth so my students lack a lot of skills since it is not reinforced in other classes. One of the changes I realized I should do is increase the public audience over time. The syllabus project is their first project and they are the audience. Not the gold standard way but what is needed for my students for their first time. The second should be one person removed. This is their second project and I decided to make the client be a person they know but some of the work along the way would be with a mix of people they know and don't know. The project requires it to be a business that sells a product which will limit my options of an audience they would know. I decided to make me the client even though it would mean my students will get to know parts of my private life. Although it is a line I would normally not cross, I realized it would help my students know the teaching profession better and appreciate so much of what I do to help them have a stellar education. 

Day 1: Project Introduction

As with all projects, the first day or several days is the entry event. It helps hook the students into the project. I have to admit I am so uncreative when it comes to this part of a project. To help make it a hook for the students I established my classroom to be a simulation of the business world where they will have occasional clients. It is not the greatest hook and the students always want to know how much they are going to be paid but it works to engage them because they eventually move to thinking it is cool to build their resume. Even though they are being introduced to a client, I do still try to have some of type of interesting dialogue before they are told about the client. For this project, I asked them to guess the client given three clues.

     

I really thought it would be an easy guess given the clues. However, one hour really had a hard time figuring out it was me. When I revealed it was me and they were going to help my company they shocked me even more. The entire class broke out in a round of applause. Some shared various feelings like "You go Mrs. Norfar" or "Yeah, Mrs. Norfar". The best was from LT (pictured with his group below). As the applause died down, he said "You are blessed and highly favored." That just so warmed my heart.

LT with a group of students who are applauding with the class

Although one hour had this unique twist, all the classes were similar in the remaining portion of the class. During every entry event, I have students fill out a problem solving process called zoom while viewing the project information sheet. We went over the parts a lot at the beginning of the year but I didn't bring them back to the form as much as I should so I know they would not remember what goes in each spot. Therefore, I reminded and extended their understanding of each section as well as provided at least one answer. One of my areas of extension that I knew was going to be hard was the zoom out section. I had never had them picture the solution. I knew this was going to be hard because the solution is so simple (the best price) but yet foreign (documents they have never seen). I also didn't want to give them the look of the form yet so it was completely stretching their mind. I was shocked at some of the answers. I expected many more blank responses. I did not expect the answers to give me insight into altering some of my plans. It looks like one class period will be debating about prices. Anyone got a good protocol for this? 😊 

The day wrapped up nicely with them writing their questions they need to get answered within a week. The questions will be used to drive their learning and the day to day structure. 

Day 2 and 3: Project Intro and Inquiry 1

I think it is hardly a time where I actually get everything accomplished in a class period. I always try to end the entry event by collecting their questions. This did not get to happen the previous day so it becomes the beginning of the work for the next day. After their routine of roses and thorns, I reminded students to review the questions they had on their zoom sheet. Rather than collect a big clas chart, I collect it digitally. I don't have a lot of wall space and it can start to be confusing with five class periods.  

I am making a change to only collecting the questions where they wanted the method to answer to be me. As you can see in the example zoom sheet before, students write how they will find the answer to their question and a deadline. My goal is to get them to be self-directed learners where they work to get their answers outside of me. Each week, they can only have one question where I answer it. I am going to collect these questions in nearpod. I then meet with each of these students to answer their question and also put them in a document with the answers for others to reference.

After collecting their questions, I informed them of a change to the classroom process due to their violation of our contract about disruptive and disrespectful behavior. Cell phones is a common problem for all teachers. I don't like no cell phone policies. It doesn't help students know how to use them. I have given students two months to not be on their phone during direct instruction. Most don't but there are a few that are not following the norm so I instituted a consequence. With the exception of once a week, I will not have direct instruction. They will have to watch or read what they are supposed to do and only ask me after they have sought out the information. Some of my constant violators tried to hurry up and put up their phones. I told them it was too late, we will reevaluate the process after a couple of weeks. I know some students will not do what is necessary in this time frame but that is part of the learning process. I am going to be having regular conversations with them to help them modify their behavior. 

After sharing with them this change, I did my last direct instruction for the week and got them started on their work time. The following day, I reminded them that I am not talking to the entire class other than asking for roses and thorns. They had a slide in nearpod that told them what they should be working on based upon the question of the week (see below). I thought more would not work and goof off. I was glad to see at least half watched the videos and started to practice the work. I will really get to see how many conversations I need to have on Monday when I have an entrance question about factoring. 

Here is the link to the Google Slides (which is tied to Nearpod) of the project.