Category Archives: Creative

Puppets & Play (Learning by Trial and Error)

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Watching the Muppets on Seasame Street and Fraggle Rock made my imagination grow, and I am still fascinated with puppets today. Which is why I was so excited to be part of the Audrey II team and work with the students to build the 4 puppets needed for our spring production of Little Shop of Horrors.

Making the Audrey II puppets started in August with a workshop and have continued 2-3 days a week since then. Since January it has been 4-5 days a week afterschool and at lunch/x-block.

Kameron, Zoe and Rachel learn from a puppeteer from Cal Shakes.

Rachel shows the beginning of Audrey II, a complete top mouth with teeth.
Audrey II.1, Audrey II.2 & Audrey II.3 are mostly done–final paint stage. 
Zoe works on the detail painting for Audrey II.3

Audrey II.3 had probably gone through the most  transformation in it’s structure and looks from the drawing in August. This was also a spot in the projects where the students learned that communication is key–that you can’t “assume” that someone else “knows” what they are doing.

Rachel and Zoe both had a lot of fun while making their puppets. Even when the spray glue wouldn’t stick and they had to sew more than they planned or when the paint wouldn’t stick to the pot–these two persevered to bring their creations to the stage.

Fully assembled Alex Lewald (playing Seymour) tries out the puppet that he will have to manipulate during the show.
 Now it is time to make the man-eating largest version of Audrey II. 

Kameron and Zoe have directed most of the Audrey II puppet builds.
Here they test that she her big enough to “eat” people.
The top of the mouth now has “skin”, onto the bottom and insides.
In reflection with the students there was a lot of trial and error on figuring how to make these puppets. No matter if it was the smallest or the largest, each had their own unique challenges.
They appreciated being able to “try things out” and that it was “okay to fail” while figuring out the best way to do something. They also liked that the teachers took a step back and that it was up to them to experiment how to build the puppets and not follow exactly what a teacher told them to do. They like “owning” the project/puppets and look forward to showing them off in April.
In the end the students that worked the hardest, the ones that kept trying to figure it out are the most satisfied with the project.

Alternative Assessment

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Chapter 7 in our Algebra 1 textbooks is all about exponents and exponent rules.  It is super dry (lots of rote memorization), but critical to their success in future math chapters and classes.  So I decided to try something a little different because I wanted my students to be able to fully understand and explain these exponent rules, not just regurgitate them on a typical test.  As I often do in class, I referenced my favorite Einstein quote, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough,” and decided to ask the students to explain the rules to me–via video.  The expectation was that they would explain why the exponent rules work, not just show me that they work.

Not quite sure the best way to do this, I attended Joan’s lunch demo of screencasting (such perfect timing!) and she really helped me get the ball rolling.  We found a great app (ShowMe) to record videos with, but when the time came to submit these videos, there were quite a few issues.  The biggest being that most of these videos are 5-10 minutes long and few platforms have the capacity to store that amount of content.  We are still working through this part of it.

I haven’t made it through all of the submissions yet, but so far they have been amazing.  Allowing the students to prove their understanding in a creative way really helped me see them in a different light … and we don’t even need to get into the brain science that supports using both “sides” of your brain in a math classroom.  The creativity of this one in particular blew me away:

Chapter 7 Alternative Assessment Student Sample
*It is over 7 minutes long so you obviously do not need to watch all of it, but the creativity comes across right away.

Even after all of the logistical snafus, the feedback from the students was very positive:

Almost 70% said that this type of assessment helped them understand these concepts more than if they had taken a traditional test.

Grappling with muscle function through creativity and engineering

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One of the most difficult concepts for students to learn when it comes to muscle function is the Sliding Filament Theory of Contraction. For years I  had students make a model of the theory after giving them the details and providing most of the information at the start of the unit.  Last year, I decided I would force the students to figure the theory out while building their model.  I am honest with students from the start and explain that I am purposefully not giving them  the details and that I want them to struggle a bit to figure it out.  I promise to address misconceptions later in the process so that they can make modifications and adjustments prior to presenting.

Students start by researching the parts of the muscle required to make contraction happen.  I post a few videos on Schoology as a reference but they are invited to use any resource they choose.  The next step is to try and map out the actual steps of the theory and figure out how they will demonstrate the steps in a working model.  When ever I assign a project the fear is will the students stay on task? I haven been very pleased to hear the students talk to each other about the movement of muscles and try and explain it to each other.  I encourage them to use other students as a resource – if they hear someone explaining a part of the process they should ask them to explain and help them understand.  This process helps both sets of students the “teacher” of the material and the “student”.

Last week, the students started the project with a lot of enthusiasm, determined to figure this difficult process out.  On the rubric I provided, I reserved the last 2 points for “WOW factor”  and that brought out the competitive nature for many of these groups who are determined to “wow me” (their words).

This project is creative and allows students to use their artistic talents.  There is also an engineering component because the model has to move and the various pieces have to work together.  In the end each student will present their model to me, walking me through the specific steps of the theory of contraction and explaining their model.  I have them present individually even though they build the model as a pair.  I started this process last year to ensure that BOTH students understand the steps and can both be successful with the material.  It forces both partners to be engaged in the process and also take ownership which I believe increases the level of discussion.

I enjoy the process of letting the students “figure it out”  but I also see the need for concept checks to allow for revision and corrections.  Students in the past have reflected that this project is very challenging but they they learned a lot and won’t forget the sliding filament theory.

Giving An Assignment Without Specific Requirements Can Produce Amazing Results

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At Carondelet the message I was clearly given was that within the Charism of the CSJ, they had a profound love of God and a love of dear neighbor without distinction. I believe that I’ve seen this embodied by the senior class that I teach, and I wanted to introduce it to my Freshman class.

Each individual student in my Freshman classes were asked to “show” the profound love of God and love of dear neighbor without distinction. I told them that there were now boundaries to how they could show me this. They could use any form of media or any medium that spoke to them. They could use technology, but it wasn’t required. Essentially they were permitted use their gifts to best create an assignment that was individual to themselves, and enlightened the class on how to think outside the box.

I know that this could sound like an assignment without enough direction and that the students would need more information in order to succeed. I am happy to say that these young ladies did the exact opposite. Not every project was outstanding, but the outstanding assignments went so far beyond my imagination, that I wouldn’t have done this differently if I had to do it again.

Four examples I would like to share show the creativeness of the young ladies and very different ways that they achieved the goal of the assignment. The examples that you can see below include a young lady that texted her friends messages of affirmation, The assignment written out in different languages, a video showing concrete ways this assignment can be lived out, and lastly an original composition that was performed in front of the class.