The first term of Impact Projects has been a good learning experience for me as this is the first time I have been involved for the full day as last year I was only 1 block at the end of the day.
I have 3 areas I have been focusing on to ensure that my role as the facilitator is as effective as possible. These areas are the collaborative aspect, the management of large numbers of students, and identifying the best ways to support student engagement. I will also reflect on the overall purpose of Impact Projects and discuss some of the change that has occurred in my belief about what the projects should look like.
The collaborative aspect includes working with Kama and Rose to plan and deliver direction for all students in the best way we can. Essentially we must work together to 'facilitate' these projects under the term 'Sport Academy'.
What is the 'Sport Academy'? The first hurdle included clarifying what this meant. Did it mean running an academy in the sense that is known traditionally which would be far more teacher-driven and the students would work collaboratively together toward a common goal. As we discovered the idea was that these students were with us as the 'sport' advisers or experts as they would likely to base their project around a sport-based theme.
Once we had this direction it was easier to plan how each Friday would unfold. Working together has been smooth sailing in my opinion with each of having strengths in different areas. One aspect that will need ongoing attention is that of shared non-contact to enable time to plan each week. We are often having to meet at undesirable hours and running short of time. Time together is the key to improving our collaboration at this point. Time, time, time.
The management of a large number of students has been a personal challenge and I've watched my colleagues also suffer a sense of mental exhaustion at the end of a Friday. I liken it to teaching approximately 20 students in maths class 20 different maths concepts. It is a challenge. Time is again an issue - quality time with individuals and getting enough time to see all students. At this point I feel that students need more time with the project process so that teachers can become more hands-off. I would also like some professional development around managing student accountability without giving myself mental exhaustion. It is a true challenge to constantly be thinking creatively and asking questions that bring students toward their goals. I believe it is time to step back and let the students take the responsibility for asking for help and seeking their own answers rather than the teacher always doing the thinking. There may also need to be PD around this.
On top of this there is remembering all students projects and their needs as there are so many varied stages and needs for individuals. To begin with each of the teachers would rove the entire 55 or so students with the intention of getting familiar with all projects and not just having one set of eyes helping. We also tried to comment each week of a different set of students through Google docs but it became cumbersome and difficult to track students and we have moved to a set of students that we will oversea more closely and report on. We will still look over all students in the entire group but less frequently and on a needs-based system.
As the term has gone on we have developed some strategies to manage students but I still see this as an area for reflection and improvement.
Student engagement. Hmmm. I would love to do an Impact Project as a student. I would not like someone telling me that I had to sit in a class most of the day for the first few weeks writing and listening to how a proposal would look, filling in justifications for why I'm doing it and being told that my project doesn't meet Bronze because I haven't met someones criteria for what my learning looks like. I am instantly put off and I believe the students are too. There is a difference between a student who does no learning and a student who does not show evidence under the umbrella of some bureaucratic framework. We are constantly looking for ways to engage boys and Maori. These frameworks work against our goals. As teachers we fear the inability to show evidence. I see more evidence when I see engagement than when I see paper. The education system that has 'failed' learners for the first 9 years of their school will continue to 'fail' them if we ask them to prove their learning.
I have 2 examples. Last year I saw only the 'product' of a students project. It was an Alaia surfboard. He got a Level 2 as it did not impact anyone else (yet). He helped me build one later on. He never documented that he helped me and our conversations were never recorded but the learning, reflection and teaching (by him) was outstanding. I asked about his learning recently and he was articulate and in my opinion was failed by the bureaucracy of evidence. There was far more for that boy than in lots of other projects who had higher grades because of better written and compiled paperwork.
The second example is another boy who when allowed to run with his ideas is organised, passionate, engaged and learning. When we ask him to complete a plan or a reflection for the day he reclines into his shell and the undesirable behaviour that he is commonly known for will resume. I broke our project group protocol to allow him to 'go-with-the-flow' during one Friday block and he was allowed to learn for the first time. The teachers he had left us to see reported that he was on-task, engaged and on-to-it with what he was doing.
This is a tricky area for me. There are a number of practises that I find contradict each other. The goal is to find a balance between following school/ministry expectations and following best practise according to the research. An area for ongoing reflection and practise.
