Let's Celebrate

Too often, I finish a task, put away my materials from it, and start thinking immediately about the new task before me. Last night, I finished another chapter in my dissertation writing, and I went right into an outline for the next one. I didn't even mention it at home or at work. I just saw it as a part of an overwhelming whole and moved on.

In talking to a colleague today, I realize I shouldn't have done that. I should have told my family (they were all in the room). I should have told my friends at work. Heck, I should have tweeted it or put it on Facebook. Why? Because celebrating the steps, the small successes is important - and often overlooked.

Do we do this in our courses? Probably somewhat. There are some busy times of the year when we all are just trying to get by. I think, though, that celebrating those successes would actually make us feel better when we are doing what seems overwhelming. Take a look at this video where complete strangers shared their successes:

In our district, we try to celebrate Strategic Design successes on our Strategic Design in Action website, which is regularly updated. On this site, we celebrate amazing learning experiences, provide a means for any stakeholder to nominate a bright spot in the district, and run a twitter feed showing how our goals and beliefs look in real life.

What about in our courses? How can we celebrate the successes? How public should that be?
I'm not sure about all the answers to this, but here are some thoughts:
Badges - my Creative Writing course runs on badges. Some indicate mastery of a module, but others are spontaneous. They include being a good communicator, being insightful, and other qualities I want to highlight. Those badges show up on their profile for all to see.
Twitter - we can celebrate successes more publicly on Twitter. If the person we are celebrating is also on Twitter, tagging that person can encourage others to chime in and celebrate as well.
Padlet / Lino / Whiteboard - we could have a space embedded for people to paste successes on the wall. This way the students could have some say in what gets celebrated. We may find out more about their lives, and this will certainly build the relatedness needed.
Synchronous Sessions - early time in synchronous sessions could be used to encourage people to share successes of their own or of others in the room. This will build community, which is also so important.
Showing gratitude - with successes comes the idea of sharing gratitude for someone who did something that really meant something to you. That's a celebratory-worthy act as well. Even paying a gratitude visit can be worth discussing and celebrating.
Specific, Positive Feedback - in our opportunities to provide feedback, I think we can celebrate what the student does well. I think this can be more celebration-worthy when the student shows significant growth in a certain area. For this to be a celebration, I think the more specific the better.

As we move from one module to the next, from one unit of study to another, from one project to another, what can we stop and celebrate along the way?

So, Which Frozen Character are You?

Many of us have taken personality quizzes on Facebook or other sites. Buzzfeed, in particular, holds many popular ones. In this clip, Ellen takes a quiz on which queen of comedy she would be:

Ellen asks an interesting question in the clip. Basically, she wants to know why finding out what kind of pizza slice we might be helps us in the world. Likely, knowing that I'm a particular type of pizza won't spring to mind when I'm facing a difficult problem. Knowing that won't help me make an important decision, or explain a particular reaction (other than when it comes from pizza). Pizza slice aside, how can finding our role in a popular television series, film, book series, or play benefit us at all?

In Convergence Culture, Henry Jenkins discusses the need for role play. In discussing the Sims, a favorite of my daughter's, he wrote, "nothing is ever just a game. Games have consequences. Games also give us an opportunity to break out of the roles and actions that we might be forced into in real life" (231). I don't want to go down the trail of games in general, mainly because I already have before. In this case, I want to specifically look at the benefits of role play.

A recent Mind Shift article discussed the use of role play in a college course. And, of course, the article mentions a book to add to my wish list. In the article, the students reflect on a long-term use of role play to cover content. Students brought up engaging aspects of this kind of learning experience that included engaging the competitive spirit in some, engaging curiosity to learn how to play the appointed role in others, and more lively discussion.

Structuring a course-wide role play can be difficult to design, and may not be practical for some high school courses. In some high schools, student populations change, which makes a sustained role play hard for students with schedule changes and new students. Here are some smaller possibilities:

• scenarios or simulations - these can be on a small scale as a beginning of class activity or a review towards the end. Here is one I wrote to review SCARF.This is more indirect role play, but people can read out the parts (that's what we did).
• short skits to explore an idea - when done using a protocol (here is the protocol we used for the observers during SCARF role play where teams could tag in and tag out when it was their turn).
• creating personality quizzes to help students with choices - one of our VLA teachers created a great personality quiz to help students see which book may be more to their liking, but this possibility can go beyond the book into types of writing, projects, etc. 
• creating or using personality quizzes to begin discussions of texts or other content - if we are more like Elsa in Frozen, for example, what does that say about her? about us? do we even agree?
• finding online simulation games where students can role play in a content-oriented situation, explore possibilities, discover consequences, and reflect 

I'd love to hear how other people use this strategy for engagement! 

Changing Your Flag

I was intrigued by some of the coverage over Scotland's upcoming vote. Many journalists covered the economic and political ramifications of a free Scotland, but PRI's The World used a different angle: the ramifications of the flag. You can read the story at this link to PRI.

I had not thought of the ramifications to the flag, or of the process needed to change a flag. The complications involved in discussing how a nation's identity and makeup change over time can provoke a lot of reflection.

Just the presence of a flag can produce an effect called priming (talked about in this article). We've already done that in our classrooms. We spent much of the first weeks crafting welcoming documents, breaking the ice, and trying to show students our expectations and what matters most to us.

Just like the presence of the flag, we have to keep priming the students. We need to keep reminders present in our online, blended, and traditional classes. We do this through establishing and reinforcing the community building we started those first weeks. We can look at what we post on our walls / site, what sayings we repeat, and what we demonstrate we value based on emphasis and assessment.

One article that offers more insight into socialization and community building online is this iNACOL piece "Socialization in Online Programs." Another article encourages us to be proactive and consider communication barriers so that we can avoid them in "Analysis of Communication Barriers to Distance Education."

Giving the students a chance to build the norms and expectations of the class helps them create a sense of ownership and belonging as well. Strategic Design includes this kind of co-creation, and students enjoy these opportunities. For example, when Kid President asked for input on how to make things awesome after his video, he got a ton of responses that became part of the conversation:

I like ending on a high note with Kid President, because he reminds us that what we say and how we act sends a message about us, our course, and what we value. I think you all are awesome! I've enjoyed getting to see the great things you are doing and look forward to more conversations.