After attending my first EduCon at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, I was inspired. Also inspiring has been reading Paul Solarz's Learn Like a Pirate. Both of these experiences have motivated me to not only move to a more student-centered classroom (something we've been working towards all year in the Rio Lab Class), but to a more student-led classroom. One where students make choices about their learning and everything they do in the classroom.
The first step towards this goal was to have a student-led parent night. One of our aims this year for the Lab Class was to try to increase parent participation with middle school parents. We have held a couple parent nights to show parents what we are doing in our class that is a little different than what they've seen in the past. We've gone over class technologies, discussed growth mindsets, and even had parents participate in number talks. This time we decided to leave it up to the students.
The students had lots of ideas (as they always do!). Ultimately what they decided on was to have the parents go through what a typical day might look like in the Lab Class. They planned everything. The created the groups that were in charge of the various tasks and chose who would do what. Everything from flyers & posters to food & beverage to all of the activities that the parents would do. They decided the order of events and who would say what.
Going into the night of our parent night, I really expected many to fail (which would be a learning experience in its own). As parents began to arrive, the students became a little nervous. The food group got all of the pizza and snacks ready to serve. The parents filled the room and then some (we had 22 of our 27 families represented).
Our number talks group kicked things off with a number talk using the Bridge Riddle from TED-Ed. They set it up with a brief explanation of what number talks are and how we do them in our classroom. They then showed the first part of the video which sets up the riddle. Parents then had to collaborate with each other to try to come up with a solution. They were highly engaged, but struggled both with the riddle itself and the collaboration.
We then went into a blended learning model where students led three group: 1. An independent group using the computers where they taught how to use Student Connect to check grades, ST Math, and blogging using Blogger. 2. A collaboration group where they did a hands-on experiment and did some research together and 3. A student-led discussion on "grit" including the spaghetti challenge where parents tried to build the tallest structure that they could in collaborative groups using just raw spaghetti and marshmallows.
Overall, the student-led parent night was a huge success. The parents were highly engaged and seemed to have a really good time. We had several parents thanking us for a fun evening and that they learned so much. I was really proud of our students, and it showed me how much they are capable of when given the opportunity. Sometimes we just need to get out of the way and let them lead...
Post by Jay Sorensen (@MrSorensen805)
