Thanks to HSE High School English teacher Jacquie Carson for today’s post, and for her willingness over the last several years to take risks and embrace change.
Dana Garvey’s character in Wayne’s World, Garth, makes the observation that he and Wayne “fear change.” That is one of the reasons so many of our faculty are a little worried about change that is coming down the pike. This idea of 1:1 instruction and UbDs and flipped classrooms seems daunting, especially when it all seems to be coming at the same time, like one big progressive avalanche.
I, too, tend to fear a lot of change. I have a hard time buying a new car or even picking a paint color for my master bathroom. It did take me a bit of a change in mindset to get into this whole 1:1 thing, this new vision. My fear was one of the reasons I joined my building’s HSE21 Team, to force myself to be more open, a move that was a good motivator for me. Being an HSE21 Trainer in my building has helped me to continually push myself to embrace these changes, especially by trying to incorporate new ideas into my teaching.
I now love flipping my classroom once in awhile. For example, this year my English 10H students took notes on sonnets while listening to my lecture posted on Blackboard (a lecture that usually took me a day-and-a-half to cover in class and made the kids miserable). With the class time I’ve gained back, I’ve now planned an activity in which my students will take a pilgrimage throughout the school as a culmination to our reading of The Canterbury Tales. Flipping my lecture made this fun authentic assessment possible.
Like Garth, I still find change disruptive and a bit scary; however, I am trying to fear it less. I’ve learned that I don’t have to change everything I do, and I don’t have to change all at once. But by being willing to modify a lesson here or there, we can manage to embrace change and see what good it can do for us and for our students.
A few of the kindergarten classes at Brooks School Elementary had a very exciting day! We had the great opportunity to Skype with a local firefighter. Our class had not used Skype for learning in the classroom yet this year, so I thought that we should start off small by using it to reach out to someone in our community. In our social studies lessons we are learning about our community and the leaders that help us and our neighbors. I reached out to a firefighter and asked if he was interested in answering some questions from my students to help us learn more about a day in the life of a firefighter.
NASA might not have a flight center in Indiana, but that didn’t stop BSE fourth graders from interacting with a NASA scientist! Through NASA’s Digital Learning Network, Brooks School Elementary fourth graders spent two hours this week with David Alexander, STEM Scientist at NASA’s Neil Armstrong (formerly Dryden) Flight Research Center. Alexander’s lessons focused on physics and aeronautic principles (flight, force and motion) and on NASA’s historical and current work.
The connection that Mrs. Murch’s students have established with NASA isn’t over. “My students are in the midst of their first Genius Hour Projects,” said Mrs. Murch. “They’ll be connecting with STEM Scientist Alexander again later in the year to share their learning. I have students experimenting with robotics, exploring dry ice, creating volcanoes and building video games… all of which David covered in his presentations. The boys and girls were thrilled to discover that the personal interests they are pursuing during Genius Hour have ‘real world’ applications.” Who knows? Perhaps one of these BSE students will take part in a 2035 mission to Mars!
His name is Rusty (the droid, that is). Kneeling next to Rusty is Mr. Alex King, a fifth-grade science teacher at Sand Creek Intermediate School. It all started one day last winter, when Mr. King learned that he’d been awarded a 
HSE21 Shorts: How have and will you continue to partner with Rusty in your teaching and in the community?
Walk into Mike Fassold’s sixth period social studies class at Fishers Junior High, and what you won’t hear is a standard lecture. What you won’t see are students silently completing worksheets. Instead, you’ll experience a student-centered learning lab, with groups of students working together as they research and evaluate key questions surrounding American history, law, and society.
He worked closely with students to help them build their four-minute opening statements, which they presented today before an authentic audience of legal scholars from the community (pictured on right). HSE21 Shorts will revisit this innovative class later in the year to follow the students’ progress and get their perspective on this unique learning experience. Stay tuned!
HSE21 Shorts 
