feedback

A while back I wrote about teacher’s needing feedback too. And I got it! And I am so glad I did. While I thought things were going very well, they only got better.

The students and I have developed an even deeper respect for each other. I have heard them, I have listened to them and I have changed. And so have they.

I was reading Seth Godin’s book Tribes and in it he asks, “How was your day?” He suggests that answers like, “fine” or “okay” imply a passionless job. My answer to that question is almost always, “Great!” It most likely would be expanded with, “It was so busy.” or “It was fun!” or “I am exhausted.” or “I learned a lot today.” But never “fine.”

So, I know I have found my passion. Now, how to help my students find theirs?

Last year I read a book about Google and their 80-20 time. Since then I have read many blog posts and articles about the same. Some call it Oasis Time, or Free Inquiry Time or Genius Time. I am completely sold on the idea.

Last year, our Grade 3 team (two classes) started out by giving our students one period a week of Free Inquiry time and asked them to relate their inquiries to the unit we were working on (at that time it was a Forces unit so it was easy to link inquiries that way).

It has since evolved into an open inquiry time. Anything goes, as long as the question has been passed through me. It has been really interesting. The students LOVE it.

The other day some girls decided to make a seismograph (we are studying earthquakes) while another three boys went outside to test which ball could be kicked the furthest. Hmm. They needed a little guidance in that investigation (like how to make sure there is only one variable, how to judge what qualifies as a ‘good kick,’ etc.) but I know we will get there. Sometimes just playing around leads to a good question.

These kids are serious about their learning but not solemn about it. They like having fun. The passion and excitement I see in the Oasis Time is enough for me to realize we are on to something here. One boy went around and taught others how to draw an airplane. He is an incredible artist but not such a good English speaker so this was a huge confidence booster for him as he was getting so much positive feedback from his peers.

Two other girls have decided to write letters to the PTA to convince them to change the style of water bottle they have chosen. There are a few kids that wander around observing their classmates. And that is okay too. Sometimes we need to wait for inspiration. When observing they usually become involved by giving suggestions, offering feedback or helping out.

What I haven’t done yet but am planning to do next week is introduce the accountability factor into the inquiry. The students will explain their questions and their research to each other. I think this will refocus some students as well as start discussions and sharing amongst them.

These students are learning how to ask a good question, how to research it, how to fail, how to start again, how to go deeper, how to self-manage, how to self-assess and most importantly, they are learning how to be passionate about learning!

I had asked my students to set learning goals for themselves and I wanted to set a learning goal for myself as well.

I gave my students a teacher appraisal form to get feedback from them about my teaching and their learning to help me identify areas for improvement.

On a scale from 1-6 (strongly disagree, strongly agree) the students rated me in terms of respect, care, explaining, feedback, etc. (see attached scale)

Upon tabulating the results, I saw that the kids loved learning in my class (“The teacher makes lessons interesting” – 5.8 out of 6), they loved the inquiries, they loved school BUT:

1. They felt they weren’t learning much and (4.1)

2. They felt I didn’t show that I really cared about them (4.6)

It was very surprising! I talked with my Teaching Assistant and our Grade 3 ELL teacher who both said, “If you don’t care then no one does!” and “These kids are learning so much! What do they mean?” We hypothesized as to what the results meant and then I went to ask the kids.

I shared the results with the students and asked them to help me understand how I could improve. Interesting feedback. The ones who felt I didn’t care were the very independent students. I realized that I was often sitting down and helping out the ones who needed more support and allowing those others to continue capably on their own. They need my attention too! That was easy to fix.

As well, to put the power of ‘proof’ into their own hands, I gave a class list to a student and asked her to keep a tally of who I asked questions to and who I worked with. Kind of like a ‘don’t believe me, see for yourself’ type of data collecting. By looking at the data she collected, she soon realized she was getting more equal attention that she thought she was.

As for the students believing that they don’t learn much, we realized that ‘work’ to many students meant sitting at their desk doing pages and pages of math questions and being bored (their definition!). Because they were enjoying learning in school, they didn’t think they were learning.

We solved that problem by explicitly talking about what was being learned (e.g. “Hmm, so by doing this you learned that friction can cause a car to go faster or slower. That rubber has high friction and tiles have a lower friction. Interesting.” Or, “So, tell me what you learned today.”)

This process made me realize that as we develop students to be passionate independent inquirers, teachers are going to have to be activators, constantly reflecting out loud, asking questions, seeking feedback, giving feedback to everyone, showing they care and talking about learning.

student feedback on teacher