"If I could learn about anything in the world, I would learn about...."

Walking into Mrs. Dwyer’s first grade classroom to find they were working on their passion projects, made my heart smile! First graders planning, researching, and creating a product to show off their learning about their self-selected passion is a dream come true. Passion projects are a way of investing in each child by naturally differentiating because the whole process and product is about them.

Read more to find out what Mrs. Dwyer, a teacher at Schluter Elementary had to say about launching passion projects in 1st grade:

I was determined to bring passion projects to life despite the differences in age and independence. It was important to me to engage them in relevant work that inspired them. I never want to limit my students, especially their beliefs about themselves. Back in October, I finally got brave enough to voice my vision aloud to one of my mentors, Liz Smith, GATES teacher. She came alongside me, helped me launch the project and pitch it to my kids to get their buy-in. We got down on the floor together and conferred with kids, to understand their passion, listen to them, and help them struggle to find their voice.

Time was always a constraint. I put two 15-30 minute blocks of time on the calendar each week to work on passion projects, and I accepted that life happens. If it didn’t work one day, one week or even one month, we just picked up where we left off when we could. Mrs. Smith pushed in the classroom when she could, and a few times we would divide and conquer. I would teach small groups while she conferred. Overall, we maintained flexibility.

In the planning process, students chose how they would share their learning and what product they would create. When we finally got to that stage, it got even more fun. It was also a dance, going back and forth between guiding and allowing student-independence. For example, one student would decide on making a video. The next student automatically wanted a video to be like a peer. We had to spend time talking about purpose and audience to help kids understand that a video may not be the best fit for every project. I thought I would get tears, but I did not. I think they felt so empowered, they would nod and say, “Maybe on my next project.”

There were a few projects where we had to get parent involvement in order for it to be a success for the student. Talk about engagement! I actually received an email from a parent, thanking me for the project because she saw her daughter light up in the process. Media was following her around with cameras thinking she was a big time YouTuber. I ran into another family at the indoor soccer fields, and it was awesome because I “caught” my student working on his passion. He was so proud! Another student, who wanted to learn all about ballet, came back to school in January excited because her mom agreed to sign her up for ballet class.

It fills me with so much joy to see how far my kids have come in this process. The difficult parts for me of managing 20 individual projects, scaffolding, and differentiating for each child, and mostly understanding exactly what they wanted to be the outcome of their work, were more than worth it. It was a definite growing experience for me as an educator. We can’t wait to share the finished products at EXPO and Open House. We are hopeful to get another project in before the end of the year now that we, as a class, have more skills and practice!

As you can see, Mrs. Dwyer and her students both gained substantial knowledge during this experience. Schluter Elementary set a goal at the beginning of the year as a campus for each student to take ownership of their learning process in planning, monitoring, and reflecting on individual and/or collective work in order to meet their highest potential. This learning definitely showcases the students ownership of their learning process and what high potential they each have. Check out all of Mrs. Dwyer’s students learning here.

Blogging Challenge

The Librarian at Schluter Elementary has challenged the entire 4th and 5th grade to become bloggers! She started the challenge out by having each class come to the Library. The classes brainstormed what a blog was and what they could blog about. The conversations naturally led to having passions, and that's when the spark was ignited! The second the students realized they had choice in what they were able to blog about, they suddenly got interested in this challenge. Each student had to brainstorm what they wanted to write about and the title. Then used Blogger to execute the challenge!

Mrs. Pospisil used her connections and reached out to people in the district to be mentors for the student blogs. She wanted their voices to be heard! 85 people jumped on board. Principals, Assistant Principals, Librarians, Instructional Coaches, and people at the Administration building all wanted to be a part of the challenge of mentoring students in a digital world. The mentors respond by leaving a comment on their assigned students blog once a week. This ongoing process encourages students to keep writing for their authentic audience, while building a relationship with their district mentor.

Blogging gives students a way to reflect, grow, and learn about themselves as a 21st century learner. We need to vary our methods of reflection and blogging is a great outlet for many people. It offers ongoing documentation and long-term reflection. 

Here are a few student blogs to check out:

An Addition To Math

All Elephants

Imagine.Dream.Think.Real

The More You Know 2018

Cabeza de Vaca Goes Digital!

Who is Cabeza de Vaca?

Schluter 4th grade students created an authentic game-based learning platform to show depth and mastery of knowledge on the DBQ study on Cabeza de Vaca. This fun project supports Social Studies and History skills in which students demonstrate communication skills by creating written and visual material, as well as identifying the accomplishments and explaining the impact of significant explorers on the settlement of Texas. (TEKS SS 4.2B & 4.22D)

Using the game platform Kahoot! each student created their own questions about Cabeza de Vaca with answer choices, identifying the correct answer. Students chose either multiple choice or true/false questions, and they could upload visuals to accompany the question. Students received feedback from classmates and their teacher as they developed and tested their questions. As one student describes, "We were testing each other to see if we really knew the information."

Students collaborate & discuss accuracy of other students' questions

To provide peer feedback, students play each other's game to see who "wins" by correctly answering the questions.

Multiple classes worked on this project, which provided a unique opportunity. After students completed their assessment questions, a set of questions was created for each class and then... they switched classes! Each class played another class' game to provide not only a review of the material but also to experience how other students created unique questions covering the same material.  

The excitement shown by students who get the correct answer says it all!

In addition to demonstrating content-specific skills, this project utilized technology in a way that enabled students to demonstrate how they are empowered learners and creative communicators, crucial skills for being future-ready. (ISTE Student Standards)

Some students will be presenting their Cabeza de Vaca Kahoot! project at Techno Expo on February 23, including the opportunity for audience members to play a sample game to test their knowledge of the impact of Cabeza de Vaca on Texas history!

Do You Know Your Brain?

Can you name all the parts of the brain and their functions? No worries, Mrs. Smith's 5th Grade GATES class at Schluter Elementary has you covered. Students embarked on a cerebral adventure in which they created original work to showcase their knowledge of the brain. Students could choose any digital tool, and their resulting products reflect each student's passion for learning.

"We made a song about the brain parts as a parody of the song Heathens. We went on YouTube and found background music. We kept on thinking of things that would fit in, if the words went with the song. We alternated between our lyrics and the rhythm of the music to make sure they matched. I don't think we would have been able to do this project without technology. We had fun and we learned more about the brain by making the song."
~Luke & Christian 

 

"We needed to find a way to teach people about the brain, in a more fun format. We chose to do a parody of YMCA. You have to find research, a lot of beforehand research. We used a notebook to write lyrics and multiple devices. It is easy to decide on the lyrics by finding the lyrics to the original song online and as you go along, you change out the words for what you want it to say. Then you get a device to record. We used a piano version of the music, which felt slower than the original version."
~Brandon & Trevor

Powtoon Link (Brylee)

Powtoon Link (KiKi)

"The purpose of this project was to explain what we've learned about the brain and our growth. Working with Powtoon was hard at first, but we liked it because you can express it in different ways, how you feel about it. We learned more about the brain from doing this project because you have to write it out and research and really have to think about it and plan it out a bunch. I shared it with my parents and they were amazed and proud of me because they liked how we expressed it different ways." ~Brylee & Kendall

"I've used Google Slides before; for each slide, I chose what went together. If we didn't have technology, I probably would have made a poster. I prefer Google Slides instead of a poster because it is neat and organized. If we didn't do the project, I wouldn't have wanted to learn more about the brain." ~Lucy 

"I did a Smore and I wanted to use it differently than I have before. When you share a Smore you can look and see where it went and who saw it, all over the world. For Smore, you can look more about what you're working on, which you can't do with a poster. We didn't go full-on in class about the brain, so this project let us go in more detail and learn more." ~McKenzi

These student products not only teach others about parts of the brain, they also showcase how these future-ready students are empowered learners, innovative designers, and creative communicators, standards described by the International Society for Technology in Education.