Eden's Great Blog

My project was based on student feedback as I felt it was a problem in schools that the classroom guidelines and activities lack the students preferences leading to a reduction in motivation by the students. My solution of student feedback would better represent the students of what they like and don’t like while also allowing the teachers to better understand what their students are motivated by. I came across this problem through noticing how classes still use old techniques of teaching such as lecturing which limits creative freedoms of students and creates a disconnect of interest between the student and the teacher.

In thinking about how to better involve the students in the classroom, I wrote down some solutions through initial brainstorming such as by having school poll surveys about scheduling or preferences of school events, administers can have a better idea of what is ideal for students and understand what students tend to like more. I researched how students are affected by the pure recognition of their opinion in the classroom. Listening to and acting on student preferences, interests, and perspectives helps students feel invested in their own learning and can ignite passions that will increase their persistence. 

• • Research indicates that students who believe they have a voice in school are seven times more likely to be academically motivated than students who do not believe they have a voice (Quaglia Institute for School Voice and Aspirations, 2016). According to this 239 school, 14 state study, student voice leads to an increased likelihood that students will experience self-worth, engagement, and purpose in school. Research also shows that active teaching strategies increase lecture attendance, engagement, and students’ acquisition of expert attitudes toward the discipline. Despite this overwhelming evidence, most instructors still use traditional methods, at least in large-enrollment college courses.

Then I looked at how student feedback would benefit the classroom and engage students more.  Even when giving feedback, students are focused on the aim of the day. Throughout the process, students may identify areas of growth in their own work, find peer examples as models, and take ownership over their work.

• • When schools create a culture of feedback, they “send a strong signal to students that they care about their point of view, while also creating opportunities to model how to productively receive and respond to feedback,” according to educational researcher Carly Robinson, a Ph.D. student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A solution for providing timely and specific feedback exists. Technology, in the form of Adaptive Learning Programs (ALPs) and digitally-based formative assessment, can facilitate the teacher’s work in providing ongoing feedback.

The final step of my research was looking at methods that teachers could use to make the classroom more interesting and engaging for students. I learned that there are 5 methods known as the 5 R’s: Relaxed, Relevant, Rationales, Rapport, and Reflective. Use active learning techniques as problem-based learning, team-based learning, undergraduate research, and community engagement which have been shown to increase learning. In my presentation Google Form, 83.3% of the classroom prefered a relaxed classroom.

Things that could have gotten better based on the feedback received from my presentation Google Form, I could have focused a little more on explaining each concept and providing some generic examples relevant to the information being given. However, my project had a sound research base and listed many solutions to implement feedback loops and active classrooms better. Our English III class has well incorporated what an active classroom looks like by not sticking to one method. Going into all the R’s and throughout the year had become more comfortable for the class as the students were more open. Having this classroom evolve as it did, the results showed through my improvement in reading as I gained more encouragement to asks questions and to analyze the text thoroughly.

How would I create an effective feedback loop and implement the students opinions?

Since each grade has class officers, I believe it would be a beneficial idea for them to run polls throughout the year based on different topics of campus life and preferences to classroom education. Teachers can easily implement feedback loops into the classroom through technology by Adaptive Learning Programs (ALPs) and digitally-based formative assessment, can facilitate the teacher’s work in providing ongoing feedback.

Learning methods based on research:

Relevance – The role of teachers comes in helping students understand and apply the relevant information, not just disseminate it. Therefore, the teaching pedagogy should include connecting the course curriculum to the current trends and formulate relevant activities and learning outcomes.

Rationale – Raised in a non-authoritative environment where there is a justification for every decision and action, students demand rationale behind new ideas, policies, regulations, and processes. When teachers provide these young learners with socio-economic rationale and appropriate reasoning for any course policies and assignments in a learning atmosphere, they respond positively and grasp quickly.

Relaxed – Friendly interaction with the professor, discussion with their peers and a warm and empathetic learning environment where there are no “wrong answers” – this is what young learners prefer. A restricted classroom session hinders their creativity and freedom to express their opinion. A relaxed collaborative environment with minimum pressure and maximum freedom to finish assignments are what students wish for.

Rapport – Students feel comfortable and show enthusiasm to pursue learning outcomes when teachers show a personal interest in their achievement goals and training and development plans. Developing a positive rapport with students is one of the most difficult of the five R’s, however, with teachers and instructors modifying their teaching strategies and delivery methods, it can be achieved easily.

Reflection – Having student reflect and think through topics with their own opinion is a crucial part of all methods of learning. Being able to take away a concept, or evolve into a deeper understanding by asking questions is a critical part of academic success.

Teacher’s Opinions:

• Coach Hoang (History Teacher)= “Student feedbacks are important for teacher’s growth in the classroom when it comes to teaching and implementing activities. For me, I may like a lesson and thought it went well  – but it may not have gone over well with the students. Furthermore, it also provides some insight into our own teaching. In addition, it gives students a voice in the development of their learning. However, there is a correlation between a student’s grade and their feedback – if the feedback form is done incorrectly. It provides students with an opportunity to not better their own learning but to be hurtful towards their respective teachers.”The issue with Episcopal is that we do it once a year – and it is not enough time to deal with some of the biases and issues toward providing feedback such as recency bias and friendship bias. While they are not the end all be all – they have a place and can improve the experience for the student in the classroom.
• Coach Young (Math Teacher) = “Feedback is an important part in the classroom which not only betters me as a teacher, but more important to me to be able to help educate my students. As a teacher, I feel it is an essential part of learning to try to motivate students to want to learn.”

I tired to receive the opinions of two different teachers that educate in different fields to see if there was a differ in opinion.

Everyone benefits: 

Students who receive feedback, students who give feedback, and anyone who listens to the feedback. Even when giving feedback, students are focused on the aim of the day. Throughout the process, students may identify areas of growth in their own work, find peer examples as models, and take ownership over their work. As a teacher, their instruction is informed through these feedback loops. Listening to these loops tells them if they need to revisit a certain aim or set my expectations higher. Teachers can pull examples and students to model their thinking aloud. All learners benefit from effective feedback loops.

 

What are some solutions to have more input by the student body?

By having school poll surveys about scheduling or preferences of school events, administers can have a better idea of what is ideal for students and understand what students tend to like more. Having engaging classroom discussions can allow students to change their view of a classroom space to be more comfortable. By adding various learning centers or activity centers the students will know that this is a classroom that likes to do hands on experiments. It also conveys that they will not just sit and take notes, but they will act out whatever subject they are learning.

Personally I feel like I have a lack of creativity in my day to day life at school with a delpishtoin of freedom to do things differently. A majority of my classes are math driven with a one way solution or are definition based to where you are given a powerpoint or are told to write something down and you memorize that. I don’t feel like successful students are seen as people who are creative, but the most successful students are those who can memorize something the fastest. This year I took media arts which is photography and design based and encourages you to be outside of the box and do things in your own style. Being able to do something my way never felt more feeling and made me realize how creatively confined students are in school. The only academic class that I feel free to be myself in is English. The basis of what we have learned this year has been questioning everything which has inclined me to think for myself and find my style through writing my interpretations and points of view. 

Another thing that I feel school should improve on is:

1. Why aren’t there better implementations of how students prefer to learn?
2. Why aren’t arts considered as an academic subject?
3. Why don’t schools view students as individuals?
4. Why don’t students have a say and how school systems should work?

If school could pay attention to the students past their academic success and more into how they are as people…maybe they could see the struggle the students have in trying to adapt to a rigorous curriculum. In terms of scheduling classes and how school events are runned, why don’t they ask about the students’ input. What would the students prefer? Students have a more concise idea of what our student body is like and how a successful school system could run. I feel like we have come to a point in history where we can be more personal and creative in classrooms.

During the third quarter, my class spent a long time reflecting on our interpretation of the book and how we can use our opinion as part of our identity. During the video essay process, I started to become more confident about my opinion of the book and more knowledgeable of the book’s effects not only on the reader with the story but the reader’s views culturally and historically.
In my video essay, I discussed how the Congolese culture was not fully represented. It unifacially displayed a side of the Congolese people that caused criticize and distaste towards their culture. After researching, my viewpoint of the natives positively shifted, and I became historically more aware of the relationship between the natives and Europeans during the 1890s. This quarter has encouraged me to be more involved with novels and question how the book affects me as a reader and my outlook on the world.

We are now in the fourth quarter of school and summer is around the corner. All year I have been dreaming about going to the beach, spending all day playing tennis, and  beach volleyball. Over the summer I want to do some tennis camps and compete in tournaments. I have really been inclined to tennis lately even though I have been playing for almost three years now. Every time I play tennis I feel a sense of nostalgia from when I was a kid running around Bocage. I always go back to that place of pure bliss while I play and influences me to continue playing. However, it probably one of the most difficult sports as it is not only physically challenging, but it is also mentally complex. It ‘s a sport that will stick with you forever as people of all ages play and come together to enjoy each other through the love of the game. Or match I should say. Hopefully over the summer and I can meet some new people at the tennis camps who I can scrimmage with.

Deep Fakes are created with AI and 3D modeling to make a photorealistic fake videos of people synced to an audio. It was originally created to bring holocaust survivors and their stories back to life. Deep Fakes create a more personal and human connection. Many have used this technology to bring loved ones back to life on the screen creating a deeper remembrance.

Downsides of this technology would be the use of impersonation to make famous people to seeming make them say things they never said. Deep Fakes could easily be a political threat in attempts to sway a political party by falsely impersonating a candidate. However, there is technology being created called the “Reality Defender” to detect and flag potentially fake content. One way to spot out a Deep Fake is by noticing the blinking of the 3D model as they blink less frequently or not at all since in photographs people’s eyes are open. It is important for everyone to be aware of this technology as we can continue to view content cautiously. Would you be able to tell if a video was a Deep Fake or not?

This weekend my friend who goes to Live Oak is going to hang out with me this weekend. Her name is Grace and I never get to see her. We know each other from doing club volleyball together at Red Storm about 4 years ago. I had made very close friends with 3 of the members on that volleyball team: Olivia, Chanler, and Grace. We call ourselves the banana squad. Our title came to be after our first sleepover when we created banana milk to drink for breakfast, I would highly recommend trying it if you have not yet had the opportunity. From that point on, we have remained best friends.

However, Grace has been given a full ride scholarship to a top university in Alabama, so we only have so few months with her till she moves. I never get to see her already since she lives in Central, but hopefully we can enjoy this weekend we have to make up for the already lost time we’ve been separated. #bananasquadforever

 

For a while now, I have been on an endless schedule having to do something everyday. I never seem to have a day off anymore with my club volleyball, tennis, school, and doing just little things to have some social life. Whenever I do hangout with my friends during the week it only seems to be for an hour if that to get food, then I’m off to practice, or training.

Not long ago I was really enjoying being able to go to yoga classes during the week. The classes allowed me to be able to release any stress I had from the week so far, or just took my mind off of all the things I needed to do. I suppose I rather be doing a lot than nothing because I would then probably go crazy from not doing anything coincidentally. At least break is coming up soon to give me some relaxation time.