Phase V: Conferring with Colleagues & Student Focus Group
For several weeks I have reflected on my dilemmas from Phase Four. The dilemmas revolve around the fixed mindset of my students and technology maintenance in my Maker’s lab. I have also spoken to my colleagues about my ImagineIT project. My colleagues enjoyed hearing about my ImagineIT project and were excited to see the results of this yearlong project.
Most of my colleagues had the same-shared experience with many of our students’ fixed mindsets. We discussed how many of our students when faced with adversity tend to give up and rather just not try, than try and fail in front of others. This type of mentality is not just present in most of our students, but especially the students that are deemed “smarter” or “brighter” than others. Most of these students tend to stay on the safe side of learning than risk the challenge of looking bad in front of others. As we discussed this dilemma of a fixed mindset, my colleagues gave me ideas on how best to allow failure in a positive manner. They encouraged me to discuss my failures in an open manner with my students in terms of my journey in making. In terms of my other dilemma about technology maintenance, my colleagues couldn’t give me a solution considering most of them didn’t understand why things didn’t work.
After conferring with my colleagues, I decided to create a smaller focus group and to discuss with them about their experience in a maker’s classroom and their thoughts on how best I can support them in their journey. These are the questions and responses I received:
Q: What expectations did you have coming into this class? What are your expectations now that we have started?
“I knew this class had to deal with technology and to do projects and learn through innovative methods”
“Expected to design things”
“To be learn to be more creative”
“To make the impossible seem possible”
“To getting more intelligent and create something of interest”
“To make the fake real”
“To push us past challenges”
“I learned that we need to be able to learn more from each other than from you”
“To learn to fail and be okay with it, which I’m still not”
Q: How does it feel when you ask me a question and I don’t tell you the answer and I tell you to ask other students? Do you find it easier to learn from other students?
“We are learning on our own. We are learning through the videos that are provided”
“I’m going to know more than the teacher.”
“FRUSTRATED”
“Mentally abused, because you aren’t helping”
“Effective but intimidated that we have to learn from each other”
“Uncomfortable, because we never experienced this type of learning style”
“By helping each other, it’s not just helping the students, you are getting a more in depth knowledge, because you have to explain it to another. It shows me actually how much I do know about what is going on.”
Q: How can I help you in your journey in the Maker’s mindset and in your learning?
“Help us not assume that you know everything”
“Look at the lessons and challenges we are encountering, and guess what problems you might see for us”
“Experience making with us”
“Keep reassuring us that failing is okay”
Q: There are no grades for this class. But if we made this into a formal class in the future, how would you like to be graded in this program?
Effort
Time
Test – on the programs we learned
How much we get done in a week
Creativity
Passion for what we are doing
How well we follow directions
Q: On some days, we can potentially have a lot of technology problems? What do you think are some ways we can solve this issue?
Teach us how to troubleshoot some of the basic problems when using the computer
At the end of my focus group, I gave students a survey asking them questions about how they see themselves in different situations about their thinking. The survey when scored is supposed to give me an idea of which students have more of a fixed mindset about themselves and which have a growth mindset. I shared these results with my colleagues and we can up with a plan to follow up with these students individually and help them understand that they all can have a growth mindset. Before we dismissed, I shared one last video of John Legend talking about success through effort. The next day we discussed as a group why they thought I showed them the video and how it related to the Maker’s mindset. My students really felt the power in his voice and his struggles to becoming a great artist.
In terms of my technology dilemma, there isn’t much I can implement this year to thwart the problems in my laptop cart. I’ve tried the tech crew approach, but every password is centralized within CPS and trying to give rights to students is a complicated process. There are two students in my Maker’s class that do help me after school maintaining the ever growing problem on these devices, but besides of getting a dedicated computer cart for this class, there is nothing short term that I can rely on to fix my issues.
Going forward, I’m looking forward to continually implementing my project and seeing my student’s grow in the Maker’s mindset.
Most of my colleagues had the same-shared experience with many of our students’ fixed mindsets. We discussed how many of our students when faced with adversity tend to give up and rather just not try, than try and fail in front of others. This type of mentality is not just present in most of our students, but especially the students that are deemed “smarter” or “brighter” than others. Most of these students tend to stay on the safe side of learning than risk the challenge of looking bad in front of others. As we discussed this dilemma of a fixed mindset, my colleagues gave me ideas on how best to allow failure in a positive manner. They encouraged me to discuss my failures in an open manner with my students in terms of my journey in making. In terms of my other dilemma about technology maintenance, my colleagues couldn’t give me a solution considering most of them didn’t understand why things didn’t work.
After conferring with my colleagues, I decided to create a smaller focus group and to discuss with them about their experience in a maker’s classroom and their thoughts on how best I can support them in their journey. These are the questions and responses I received:
Q: What expectations did you have coming into this class? What are your expectations now that we have started?
“I knew this class had to deal with technology and to do projects and learn through innovative methods”
“Expected to design things”
“To be learn to be more creative”
“To make the impossible seem possible”
“To getting more intelligent and create something of interest”
“To make the fake real”
“To push us past challenges”
“I learned that we need to be able to learn more from each other than from you”
“To learn to fail and be okay with it, which I’m still not”
Q: How does it feel when you ask me a question and I don’t tell you the answer and I tell you to ask other students? Do you find it easier to learn from other students?
“We are learning on our own. We are learning through the videos that are provided”
“I’m going to know more than the teacher.”
“FRUSTRATED”
“Mentally abused, because you aren’t helping”
“Effective but intimidated that we have to learn from each other”
“Uncomfortable, because we never experienced this type of learning style”
“By helping each other, it’s not just helping the students, you are getting a more in depth knowledge, because you have to explain it to another. It shows me actually how much I do know about what is going on.”
Q: How can I help you in your journey in the Maker’s mindset and in your learning?
“Help us not assume that you know everything”
“Look at the lessons and challenges we are encountering, and guess what problems you might see for us”
“Experience making with us”
“Keep reassuring us that failing is okay”
Q: There are no grades for this class. But if we made this into a formal class in the future, how would you like to be graded in this program?
Effort
Time
Test – on the programs we learned
How much we get done in a week
Creativity
Passion for what we are doing
How well we follow directions
Q: On some days, we can potentially have a lot of technology problems? What do you think are some ways we can solve this issue?
Teach us how to troubleshoot some of the basic problems when using the computer
At the end of my focus group, I gave students a survey asking them questions about how they see themselves in different situations about their thinking. The survey when scored is supposed to give me an idea of which students have more of a fixed mindset about themselves and which have a growth mindset. I shared these results with my colleagues and we can up with a plan to follow up with these students individually and help them understand that they all can have a growth mindset. Before we dismissed, I shared one last video of John Legend talking about success through effort. The next day we discussed as a group why they thought I showed them the video and how it related to the Maker’s mindset. My students really felt the power in his voice and his struggles to becoming a great artist.
In terms of my technology dilemma, there isn’t much I can implement this year to thwart the problems in my laptop cart. I’ve tried the tech crew approach, but every password is centralized within CPS and trying to give rights to students is a complicated process. There are two students in my Maker’s class that do help me after school maintaining the ever growing problem on these devices, but besides of getting a dedicated computer cart for this class, there is nothing short term that I can rely on to fix my issues.
Going forward, I’m looking forward to continually implementing my project and seeing my student’s grow in the Maker’s mindset.