by Lu Gerlach When I think of ownership, I think of this podcast. At the beginning of this pandemic, I felt such an urgency to create content that would help other educators who were struggling with virtual teaching. Although we are PYP practitioners, teaching virtually feels like we’ve re-entered teacher’s college all over again. To be honest, I didn’t know where to start, but I knew I wanted to help. I began by making posters, writing some descriptions, voice recording my observations ideas, making video clips, and posting across social media. What I discovered is that I really enjoyed sharing my unique voice with the world. Like most educators, I felt that if I made one teacher’s life easier, it was all worth it. I still do. To me, this is ownership. I had to figure out my own path in this weird new world of podcasting. I had to make a plan, find unique ideas to share, and give my own voice to the project. I own the many mistakes I’ve made along the way and the successes too. This is how we learn best. We learn by making plans, executing them, tweaking what doesn’t work, and reflecting on the process. This is so important for our students to experience, because it’s at the heart of education. Can you imagine how amazing school would be if every student was valued based on their ownership of the process, rather than, their standardized test score? In confession #9, we explored different ways to engage our students into their thinking. This is ownership in hiding. I wanted you to experience ownership on a basic level and now, we are going to explore the stages deeper by evaluating the Ownership Continuum. Ownership is very abstract. The idea is quite vague and difficult to define. With voice and choice, you are able to complete tangible actions that show clearly what they are and how they work. Ownership requires a deeper look, because it’s a state of being, rather than some task we complete. ComplianceWhen I think of compliance, I think of a defeated soul. The person has to comply with the rules or they will face the consequence. There is little ownership of the learning, since someone else is guiding the process. CommitmentMany of us think of commitment as a connection between people, whether it be with a significant other, family, friends, etc. Commitment in ownership is sticking with the process until I understand the big ideas and am able to share my ideas with others. ConnectionSome of the most amazing connections occur when we are working with others. This is true of ownership. We own the learning when we experience relevant connections through collaboration. CreationAs we commit to new learning experiences while connecting with others, we are able to innovate and create. This is where the magic happens. We create for ourselves and to help others. Take out that Agency Continuum again and make a goal of where you think you land on the Ownership Continuum. Remember to choose something that you think is a growth area and provide a specific target for this school year. This will make it easier for you to reach your goal. Now that we’ve had a chance to add ownership goals to the Agency Continuum. Let’s examine where most of your goals lie. Do you notice any patterns in the types of goals you have chosen? Here’s an example of one I completed. Since ownership is so abstract, how do we break it down for our students? Here are some possibilities that you can use in your classroom. Which one will get you started in unpacking the magic of ownership? Create Essential AgreementsOne way to get students to own their learning goals is by co-creating essential agreements. These replace traditional rules, because students create potential learning targets with their classmates. Everyone agrees to these agreements and they create possible consequences for violating these norms. This encourages full buy-in from students, since they create the agreements. Shift our MindsetA difficult task for many teachers is to shift our mindset towards agentic thinking. We love to guide the learning process, sometimes a bit too much. When we make a mindset shift, we see our learners as capable young people who can take ownership of their learning. This is difficult to do, especially now in the virtual world. What is something little you can do to show your students that you still want to shift your mindset? Support Creative ThinkingNot all people are quick on their feet in making decisions. Some require a bit more time to reflect, process the information, and make an action plan. In our world of instant gratification, this can be a huge frustration with our students. I’ve seen a lot of memes making light of students not performing in a virtual world. It’s just as foreign to them as it is for you, especially since most of the sessions are video recorded. Their deeds and words are captured forever for anyone to see. Allow some time for them to create differently in small meeting rooms, so they can get their thoughts together in a way that’s logical for them. Provide Feedback and FeedforwardMore than ever, your students need immediate feedback and feedforward. They are walking in a virtual world of uncertainty, especially our youngest learners. They lean on you to guide their missteps, clear up misconceptions, and provide a new way of thinking about traditional ideas. Also, they need feedforward to guide the next steps of their development. It needs to be presented in a variety of formats, such as verbally, graphically, and written. This will greatly decrease miscommunication as we learn remotely. Give FreedomOne of the hardest things to do is give freedom. We are feeling the heat from our school leaders to get in all of the instructional minutes. This is a defining time in our educational systems. What is more important: compliance or creation? Our actions in the next year will have a great impact on the educational future of many of our students. More than any other time, our students need a little freedom to get their ideas out into the universe and process their implications. Will you give them that freedom? As you can see, ownership requires a deeper sense of being. I think many educators struggle with this part of agency, so they side-step it. They briefly talk about ownership to ensure it’s been “covered”, but they don’t know how to “unpack” it for meaning. Now is the time to decide if you will continue that journey or do the hard part of unpeeling the layers of agency.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
February 2025
|