Jill Jensen IDEAS

Two weeks ago, one of the school-wide events I help organize took place. Girls and Engineering Day is held on a Saturday and intended to have the girls that attend my school learn more about STEM fields and experience some engineering design challenges with a family member. The day begins with guest speakers sharing information about their education, place of employment, projects they have worked on or are working on and skills they use in their field. This year there were fourteen guest speakers for my students to choose from. I was honored and thrilled so many women were there to speak about their work. More importantly, this diverse group of women put a real life face to the sometimes imagined view of a scientist or engineer, allowing many of my students to see a version of themselves doing work in science.

Following the guest speakers, students and their parents took part in three different challenge classes that they chose from a list of ten possible options. Classes included: learn to solder, program a microbit, design a  slime (chemical engineering), drive DASH the robot, make a maze for an Ozobot, discover Littlebits and Cubelets, a zipline challenge, design a better catapult, design a better foam rocket, sphero water rescue and building challenges (Lego’s, gears, cup towers, blocks, PVC pipe creations etc…)

So much happiness comes out of our building on this day, I feel like we are glowing. I love seeing students engaged in a novel challenge, introduced to a new equipment, challenged to think creatively, learn how to operate a variety of tools, focused on a task interesting to them and engaged in conversations with an adult. The adults were an interesting group to observe, and several categories emerged: The ‘You’re Doing it Wrong, Let Me Show You’; The ‘Scrolling on My Phone, Don’t Even Know What You Are Doing’ and the just right ‘Tell Me What You Think You’ll Try Next’. Which makes me wonder ‘How Might We communicate to parents participation strategies?’ Should some language go home on the fliers? Should the teachers running the classes include a blurb in their intro to the class? Should parents be expected to know intuitively how to best help their child?

The other piece of information I’ve been dwelling on since this event was a comment made by one of the teachers running a class. She noted how engaged all of the students were and laughingly said how that she wishes that happened more in her class (I don’t know that I clearly remember all of her comment, I feel like she mentioned during a specific time) This is not an isolated comment, nor is it an indication of the quality of teacher she is. So where does the wonder get lost? What outside factors are playing a role? How Might We increase opportunities for wonder in the classroom? How might we infuse creativity into reading and math?

Many of my questions come from honest to goodness not knowing. I’ve been teaching in an elementary school for the past eleven years, but have never been an elementary classroom teacher. I’ve never had to teach a struggling reader reach a certain level or a help learning disabled student solve story problems. My colleagues, and other elementary teachers are doing feats like this every day. Because reading instruction is not my expertise, I marvel at their abilities and am awed by what they accomplish. Is it possible to bring the joy that I saw at this event on everyday? What would have to change to make this possible?

Last week, fifth graders spent some time brainstorming ideas for a newly created space in our outdoor classroom. The classroom teacher was able to help students move forward with their ideas by sorting the brainstormed ideas into categories or themes. Small groups and pairs of students then selected a theme that spoke to them and they started some initial research into the benefits of their idea. She also connected this project to the theme of persuasive writing and spent some time introducing the qualities of this writing style.

Originally, my thought was to have students go through a set of steps including: flesh out their idea in maps and diagrams with labels, research the components of their ideas and include a budget, present their idea to myself and our principal, do a class voting on the idea(s) that looked the ‘best’ and bring them to a school-wide audience. While I haven’t done this exact process before, walking students through an open-ended challenge is something I feel comfortable with. I had a mental vision of how this looks and feels as a process.

Just when I thought I had a plan,  I had a virtual training with the team from the Teachers Guild regarding my fellowship project. These conversations continue to expand my knowledge around the topic of design thinking, stretching my creativity, pushing me to expand my view of collaboration, shifting my focus toward empathy  building my courage to take risks and live through ambiguity. On this particular training, we discussed the idea of rapid prototyping. My initial reaction, to be perfectly honest… wait, what? Rapid prototyping? What about the polished product? But the idea that stuck with me was the notion of loving your idea but letting it go… and I feel like that was when I finally connected some dots.

Students had ideas for space, but they were what they wanted. Before students got any further into their idea, feedback was needed. Who better to give feedback than a first grader? So, once again, I am grateful for colleagues who are flexible, friendly and patient. With plans in hand, fifth graders walked into the first grade class ready to share, ask questions and listen to suggestions.

The fifth graders left wide-eyed and full of smiles. Reflections afterwards included: ‘Was I like that in first grade?’ ‘I don’t remember how small everything was.’ ‘They had a lot of ideas!’ and my favorite ‘I don’t know if I can add a wedding to my plan.’ While not every suggestion will be incorporated into their plans, the majority of fifth graders said they are going to revise their plans based on what the first graders told them.

The biggest learning for me was the power of taking time. Calendars and schedules will be a constant tug, and I had to live through the discomfort of feeling like I was flying by the seat of pants. But after watching the interactions between these two grade levels work together, I felt a joyous moment: ‘Ok, I can do this. This was a good thing. ‘

So I’m learning to loosen the knots, take some deep breathes and take one step at a time. As @Ed_by_design recently stated: I’m ‘living in the spaces between knowing and not knowing’ and I’m going to see where it goes.

Last week I was able to arrange a very last minute brainstorming session around how we might use the new space in our forest created from the removal of buckthorn. A 5th grade teacher, a 3rd grade teacher, a 1st grade teacher, our building chief, a parent, a member of the office staff and a guest from the Tree Trust organization were all present. Adults had a few minutes to think to themselves about idea for the space and record their thoughts on post-its. Each person was then asked to share out loud their idea and it was placed on a piece of poster board. As people shared, if they thought of other ideas, more post-its were available. During this process, students observed and started thinking of their own ideas.

It was a pretty amazing process to watch and I was grateful for the number of people who took time out of their day to join us. I appreciated that the students heard from a range of voices and it was interesting the perspectives that were brought. The building chief had the idea of planting grass seed and getting picnic tables so students could have outside lunch. The Tree Trust representative wanted to make a chickadee landing zone for students to see birds up close. The third grade teacher suggested a greenhouse, big enough for a whole class to sit and do a lesson outside in winter but still be warm.

You could feel the excitement build as each idea was shared; energy was bubbling up. When students started sharing, many started with ideas similar to existing ones. But then, it was like a dam burst. Suddenly, someone had a unique, original idea which led to ohh’s and ahh’s from the crowd and suddenly a flood of connections and tangents of that idea. Then another idea would pop up and the same thing would happen. It was like seeing exponential growth in real time. The longer we spent, the greater the ideas that came: forts, mazes, story walks, trust course, yurts, building stations, outdoor makerspaces; I could go on and on and add an exclamation point after each one to convey the enthusiasm of this idea . Of course there were a few that were truly out there and some students started questioning the feasibility of a few of the ideas. Judgements and reality will come later. Dreaming big was the goal of the day, and it was met.

This also started a flood of ideas rolling around in my brain. Not necessarily ideas for the space, but ideas of how to move forward; ideas of how to do this same process with other grades and classes. Then, of course, come the questions: How will we decide? Who should decide?  How will we share? Should we vote? Who should vote? How would voting happen and when? What if we let families come up with ideas too, how would they share? So much to think about! But what a fun problem to have.

If you could make anything you want in a clearing in the forest, what would you do?

Serendipity: the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. I have been fortunate enough to have some serendipity in my life recently. Last weekend we had our annual buckthorn removal event. This is the third year of asking volunteers to come on a Saturday morning to cut and haul this invasive species from our school forest.

There are many issues with the buckthorn, including: thorns, it creates such a thick undergrowth that the forest becomes impassable and the diversity of other native plants is reduced. At my school we have around 40 buckthorn trees per acre of forest, more than double any other species. That’s a lot of buckthorn! This year, we focused our work on one particular section of the forest. The goal was to go for depth rather than breadth. I did not expect the results we got.

SO much buckthorn was removed that a new clearing was created. It also so happens that this particular section is directly across from the existing outdoor classroom, and directly behind the place where the new stage was scheduled to be installed. The picture can not do justice to truly how much new space there now is; and what perfect timing. I had just been communicating with my mentors at the Teachers Guild about my Design Project and how to move forward with the next step when this event occurred. Luckily, I work with some pretty amazing people who are willing to try something new, even last minute.

So Monday morning, I’ll be visiting a fifth grade classroom along with our building chief, a first grade teacher, a third grade teacher, parent and a member of the office staff. I’ll be facilitating a brainstorming session with the adults in front of the students on what we might do with this newly created space. Then, students will be contributing to the ideas as well. I have never done something like this, but I am eager to see how it plays out and what ideas are generated.