Upon reflection I’ve come to think of the H5 principle as being an overarching goal for education. Our objective on a day-to-day basis may be to get student M learning the letters of the alphabet, but our long term goal is to have student M learn those letters and use them to advance her academic performance. Then by helping her realize and reach her highest potential whether that is to become an astronaut or a cheese maker. Whatever is learned in our classrooms is what is built upon year after year until the end result is a student who has learned how to learn and is ready to continue growing either in college or the job market.
I was in a good situation this year to watch as the 6th grade students became more and more aware of their role in greater society. I worked with some 6th grade students in an EBD classroom who were being ‘mainstreamed’ into the general education classroom. I spent a lot of time in each of the two classrooms and watched as the year progressed. The students had some challenges in getting along and learning how to better work together. With only a few weeks of school left I’m impressed with the gains they have made. Most of the students now appear ready and anxious for the transition to middle school.
One of the activities they did this year was to work in the computer lab on the ‘Hour of Code’ project. This program was created to help students learn how to create computer code by carefully following directions and learning through trial and error. Many large US companies are scrambling to find enough software programmers and this project was established to help students think about programming as a possible job future depending upon if they liked the ‘Hour of Code’ and if they succeed at it. Although the project is called ‘Hour of Code’ the 6th grade students actually spent many hours in the computer lab working on this.
I watched with fascination as students worked through many stages of difficult challenging learning; the immediate thrill of being able to accomplish a project, the frustration they felt as the project became increasingly difficult, their decision to work with a partner (or not) to get assistance, and the sense of accomplishment for having done the challenging work.
In addition to the computer skills they acquired, students were able to take on a leadership role because after they completed a certain level of programming they became the teachers to the younger students in the school. As each class came into the computer lab for their assigned day and time, a small group of 6th grade students would be there to offer instruction, support and encouragement to the younger students. It was interesting to see how the 6th graders were able to raise to the challenge to this job. I was very impressed with how well they conducted themselves and myself, the general education teacher and the librarian all made various comments to them that perhaps they’d found their future job (either with the software programming or with the helping and teaching of others).
The evidence provided is a sample page from the ‘Hour of Code’ programming that students completed. This was a school-wide project that almost all of the students completed. To me it indicates an emerging level of competence for me because this is the type of thing that although I find very interesting, I’m not sure I would have been able to find and bring to my students without the support of a school-wide project. (Although once I know the exact grade I’ll be working with next year I will be better able to fine-tune my technology explorations.
As a result of having watched the 6th graders this year I got to watch the transformation of the students as they increased their awareness of themselves as something beyond elementary school students. They started thinking of themselves as programmers (or video game creators) and teachers. I learned that students can and do step up to the challenges presented to them and that most of them were very open to trying something new (in the form of programming or teaching).
Because of my involvement with the ‘Hour of Code’ project I am much more likely to try a similar project like this with my own students in future years. It will help me remember to work toward keeping students focused on the future from time to time and not get locked into the narrow focus of the right now moment. Being aware of the larger picture can be a challenging task for students who may lack the maturity to think about the future in a realistic and positive way. That’s where our jobs as teachers provide structure and support to help students begin to think about the possibilities.
Other ways that I could showcase student’s future roles would be to share information about some common jobs, both in the community and in private businesses as well then have them research additional details about the roles they find interesting.
Reference:
Hour of Code retrieved from http://code.org/learn
Lewis is learning 