TGPLANning in a Global Pandemic: After years of showing students how we are all connected on this fragile planet, the TGPLAN Project took a new turn this year. For better or worse, students are now keenly aware that global issues are also local issues. The pandemic impacted every aspect of the typical TGPLAN experience, from moving interviews to zoom (this tool would have come in handy in the past!), to analyzing each aspect of the "take action" service project to ensure safety and social distancing, to moving our in-person showcase event to an online conference, the project has definitely morphed into "TGPLAN-demic" territory. At the same time, my teaching partner, Edward Tierney, plus a cohort of other Austin High teachers and I have been digging deeper into PBL experiences by pursuing the PBL Leadership Pathway.
My focus this spring: REFLECTION
WHY: For the final semester of the PBL Pathway, I decided to focus on Student Reflection. From the moment we viewed and discussed “Austin’s Butterfly” in our first micro-credential, I have been intrigued by the power of feedback (from both peers and teachers) and the growth that occurs when a learner reflects on that feedback and makes changes to a product -- ultimately developing a deeper demonstration of their learning. This is one of the most powerful skills we can give to students who will enter a job market that will require skills we cannot currently fathom -- no matter what, reflecting on a process improves the quality of a product, the delivery of a service, and the development of a skill.
English II: For a spring PBL unit tied to service learning and advocacy,student reflection is key to the PBL process, because the journey IS the goal. Students may experience rejections, obstacles, and stumbling blocks as they attempt to interview experts, design a student-driven service project, then create an advocacy piece to educate and call others to action. Ultimately, their showcase night is about reflecting on the experience. Doing the work is one level of achievement, but reflecting on the skills gained can help students realize the relevance of what they have learned. The same strategy was also my focus for a Senior Seminar capstone project: community panels gave feedback during a project midpoint so that students could reflect on the feedback and improve their overall project design (implementing a solution to a community problem).
HOW: In order to build in opportunities for student reflection, I selected the following teaching practices:
1. Student identities, interests, and perspectives are used to design learning experiences: The first step of the process, Think Globally, involved students using a jamboard to brainstorm real-world issues that most interested them. After reviewing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals with students, our interdisciplinary teaching team narrowed the topics into four “umbrella” categories: Pollution, Poverty, Discrimination, and Pandemic. Using jamboard, students fleshed out ideas for more specific global issues with local implications in Austin for each category. In the “Problem-solving Locally” portion of the PBL unit, students individually interviewed experts in the field or stakeholders impacted by the issue, so project ideas were born out of empathy interviews and experiences shared by community members.
2. Opportunities were provided for students to reflect on their own data: utilizing virtual learning tools like Blend discussion boards and google slides, students recorded their own progress and monitored Know/Need to Know slides to create “to do” lists for the project. To adjust to pandemic needs for social distancing and remote learning, students were given the option of working independently or with a group on the “take action” service learning portion, and each group (of 1 to 6 students) met with a project adviser (a teacher from our interdisciplinary 10th grade team) three different times throughout the process to reflect on successes/obstacles.
3. Feedback and reflection drove the student learning for TGPLAN: From bi-weekly project adviser check-ins to critical friends protocols used to provide feedback on advocacy products, students reflected on both the service project implementation and their advocacy products (PSAs, websites, and podcasts designed to teach an audience about the issue). Using the language of the rubric to provide peer feedback helped students identify issues with their own products that they could revise and improve prior to Showcase Night with an authentic audience of community members, families, and peers.
THE FUTURE OF TGPLAN:
TGPLAN began about a decade ago when I realized a project we loved for skill development lacked connection to real-world issues. The way that we launch the project, group students, and develop learning activities has changed over the years, and each new teacher added to our team brings their own ideas and suggestions to the table, but at the heart of the project, our 10th grade team helps students realize that global issues ARE local issues. This world is both very large and very small, simultaneously, and we want students to recognize their own voice and power in making a difference right now. I always tell my students that I am not just preparing them to do great things "some day" (in AP classes, in college, as a "grown up"), but that I am expecting them to accomplish great things and change the world for the better RIGHT NOW.
I have presented this PBL unit to three national audiences in the past, and we have invited community experts and AISD School Board trustees to attend the Showcase Event in previous years. Our online conference may be a bit quieter than our normal celebration this year, but to add some authenticity, we are partnering with an ad agency in town that will help select “finalist” awards for the best advocacy product designs.
As an Instructional Coach on my campus, I work with other academy teams to design their own PBL units based on real-world issues and student choice; this year I’m helping teams roll out projects on biomimicry, the ethics of humanity and nature, and virtue projects tied to a flipped field trip I helped film that took students (through the camera lens) to various spots around Austin to explore truth, beauty, and goodness.
FEATURED PICTURE: Laney, Sophie, and Sloan head out with Mobile Loaves and Fishes to deliver meals, clothes, and period products to women living in poverty and unhoused Austinites. This TGPLAN group researched period poverty around the globe as well as the Pink Tax, led a letter writing campaign to abolish the luxury taxation of tampons, organized a donation drive of backpacks/tote bags/purses among neighbors, led a donation drive of period products and hand sanitizer among their peers, solicited donations from HEB for additional feminine hygeine products, and then created bags to donate to women, partnering with Mission Possible and Moblile Loaves and Fishes.
My focus this spring: REFLECTION
WHY: For the final semester of the PBL Pathway, I decided to focus on Student Reflection. From the moment we viewed and discussed “Austin’s Butterfly” in our first micro-credential, I have been intrigued by the power of feedback (from both peers and teachers) and the growth that occurs when a learner reflects on that feedback and makes changes to a product -- ultimately developing a deeper demonstration of their learning. This is one of the most powerful skills we can give to students who will enter a job market that will require skills we cannot currently fathom -- no matter what, reflecting on a process improves the quality of a product, the delivery of a service, and the development of a skill.
English II: For a spring PBL unit tied to service learning and advocacy,student reflection is key to the PBL process, because the journey IS the goal. Students may experience rejections, obstacles, and stumbling blocks as they attempt to interview experts, design a student-driven service project, then create an advocacy piece to educate and call others to action. Ultimately, their showcase night is about reflecting on the experience. Doing the work is one level of achievement, but reflecting on the skills gained can help students realize the relevance of what they have learned. The same strategy was also my focus for a Senior Seminar capstone project: community panels gave feedback during a project midpoint so that students could reflect on the feedback and improve their overall project design (implementing a solution to a community problem).
HOW: In order to build in opportunities for student reflection, I selected the following teaching practices:
1. Student identities, interests, and perspectives are used to design learning experiences: The first step of the process, Think Globally, involved students using a jamboard to brainstorm real-world issues that most interested them. After reviewing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals with students, our interdisciplinary teaching team narrowed the topics into four “umbrella” categories: Pollution, Poverty, Discrimination, and Pandemic. Using jamboard, students fleshed out ideas for more specific global issues with local implications in Austin for each category. In the “Problem-solving Locally” portion of the PBL unit, students individually interviewed experts in the field or stakeholders impacted by the issue, so project ideas were born out of empathy interviews and experiences shared by community members.
2. Opportunities were provided for students to reflect on their own data: utilizing virtual learning tools like Blend discussion boards and google slides, students recorded their own progress and monitored Know/Need to Know slides to create “to do” lists for the project. To adjust to pandemic needs for social distancing and remote learning, students were given the option of working independently or with a group on the “take action” service learning portion, and each group (of 1 to 6 students) met with a project adviser (a teacher from our interdisciplinary 10th grade team) three different times throughout the process to reflect on successes/obstacles.
3. Feedback and reflection drove the student learning for TGPLAN: From bi-weekly project adviser check-ins to critical friends protocols used to provide feedback on advocacy products, students reflected on both the service project implementation and their advocacy products (PSAs, websites, and podcasts designed to teach an audience about the issue). Using the language of the rubric to provide peer feedback helped students identify issues with their own products that they could revise and improve prior to Showcase Night with an authentic audience of community members, families, and peers.
THE FUTURE OF TGPLAN:
TGPLAN began about a decade ago when I realized a project we loved for skill development lacked connection to real-world issues. The way that we launch the project, group students, and develop learning activities has changed over the years, and each new teacher added to our team brings their own ideas and suggestions to the table, but at the heart of the project, our 10th grade team helps students realize that global issues ARE local issues. This world is both very large and very small, simultaneously, and we want students to recognize their own voice and power in making a difference right now. I always tell my students that I am not just preparing them to do great things "some day" (in AP classes, in college, as a "grown up"), but that I am expecting them to accomplish great things and change the world for the better RIGHT NOW.
I have presented this PBL unit to three national audiences in the past, and we have invited community experts and AISD School Board trustees to attend the Showcase Event in previous years. Our online conference may be a bit quieter than our normal celebration this year, but to add some authenticity, we are partnering with an ad agency in town that will help select “finalist” awards for the best advocacy product designs.
As an Instructional Coach on my campus, I work with other academy teams to design their own PBL units based on real-world issues and student choice; this year I’m helping teams roll out projects on biomimicry, the ethics of humanity and nature, and virtue projects tied to a flipped field trip I helped film that took students (through the camera lens) to various spots around Austin to explore truth, beauty, and goodness.
FEATURED PICTURE: Laney, Sophie, and Sloan head out with Mobile Loaves and Fishes to deliver meals, clothes, and period products to women living in poverty and unhoused Austinites. This TGPLAN group researched period poverty around the globe as well as the Pink Tax, led a letter writing campaign to abolish the luxury taxation of tampons, organized a donation drive of backpacks/tote bags/purses among neighbors, led a donation drive of period products and hand sanitizer among their peers, solicited donations from HEB for additional feminine hygeine products, and then created bags to donate to women, partnering with Mission Possible and Moblile Loaves and Fishes.