Learn Like a PIRATE
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  • Improvement Focus
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  • 21st Century Skills
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Empower your students to collaborate, lead, and succeed!



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My newest book has been published: "OPTIMIZED LEARNING"

7/4/2024

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Join the Summer Book Study to discuss it with others! We start in less than a week!

​Amazon: bit.ly/OptLearn 
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Here's some information on the book:

Imagine a classroom where self-driven, collaborative learners fill the space. Students who possess the ability to navigate their educational journey with confidence, purpose, and a clear sense of direction, equipped with the skills to conquer any task, big or small. Everywhere you turn, you see students wisely managing their time, completing tasks with accuracy, and handling setbacks and conflicts independently and with maturity.

These students possess a profound understanding of what needs to be done, how to do it, and the motivation to excel in their work. They aren't in a race to finish first, nor do they constantly rely on the teacher for directions. They don't waste time or veer off-task; instead, they have a clear grasp of expectations and possess the tools, drive, and determination to accomplish their work with excellence.

This is the kind of classroom that Optimized Learning is designed to create. Jump in and get started! You and your students will be really glad you did!

Optimized Learning - 180 Mini-Lessons That Transform Today's Students Into Confident, Capable and Collaborative, SELF-DIRECTED LEARNERS
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Exploring the dilemma of "Teaching" intrinsic motivation

8/22/2022

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One of the toughest challenges I never quite figured out in my twenty years of teaching was how to get kids to be intrinsically motivated if they weren’t already so. It was fairly easy for me to extrinsically motivate my students, but getting someone to do something that is supposed to be innate is downright illogical! 

During my early teaching years, I gave out a lot of candy, stars, extra credit, etc., but that quickly got pushed aside for a more powerful motivator:  impressing their teacher! I taught the fourth and fifth grade, so my students still cared about what I thought, how I perceived them, and what I might tell their parents! Therefore, my students worked hard for me, quickly fixed behavior issues, and put forth their best effort on just about everything! But this was due to extrinsic motivation - a deep concern for the approval of their teacher and their parents.

On my journey to create intrinsically motivated students, I made several attempts to mold their brains into ones that cared. I taught lessons explaining the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. I showed them how extrinsic motivation can be powerful if the reward or punishment is strong enough. We talked about famous people who accomplished great things because of their internal drive. But immediate results never appeared. IF my students became more intrinsically motivated, it must have happened after they left our classroom. And because of this, I’ve always been interested in learning more about the topic of increasing intrinsic motivation in students.

Self-Determination Theory (source) suggests that people are motivated to grow and change by three innate and universal psychological needs: competence, connection, and autonomy.
  • Competence refers to one’s ability to learn and grow, without too much struggle, so that they can continue to be motivated to go further. When we have the tools we need to keep plodding forward, we find it within ourselves to push on through the tough stuff. If I hit a roadblock, I generally know what my options are. We need to make sure that our students do as well.
  • Connection refers to interpersonal relationships. If a student doesn’t care for their teacher or their classmates, it will be hard for them to go above and beyond. I extend this to a connection with the task as well. I’m a hard worker who is pretty intrinsically motivated to produce high quality work, but if you make me put forth my best effort to write a grammar textbook, you’ve lost me!
  • Autonomy refers to being in control of one’s own behaviors, tasks, decisions, etc. When teachers control everything that students do (read: micromanage), they rob them of the experience of improving their decision-making skills. Students are going to make a ton of mistakes at first, but that’s what learning is all about! We, as teachers, need to make sure we create a classroom culture where students are expected to make mistakes, but are supported when they do, so they can learn from them and improve!

After reflecting on Self-Determination Theory, I realize that those three tenets were the driving forces behind what I called our “Student-Led Classroom.” I worked hard all year to help my students gain the skills they needed to handle any problem they faced. I made it my number one priority to create lasting relationships with every single child in my classroom AND help them do the same with their peers. And I gave them the most autonomy I could, so they could run our classroom, collaborate with their peers, and make decisions freely without asking for permission first! Because I set clear expectations, provided a clear structure for behavior and student responsibility, and set up routines and rituals for most student actions, my kids were able to run the show with or without me! This structure provided them with autonomy to do things themselves, while knowing they had the competence to do things successfully and the connectedness with everyone in the classroom. Turns out, my students MIGHT have increased their intrinsic motivation all along! Maybe they weren’t just doing everything to appease me and their parents. MAYBE I accidentally created a classroom culture where students were able to achieve Self-Determination!?

Will you create a classroom culture that provides students with competence, connection and autonomy? If you do, let me know how it affects motivation in the classroom! I can’t wait to hear about your journey. - Paul Solarz ([email protected])

For more information on creating a student-led classroom where student autonomy is a main focus, check out my book, “Learn Like a PIRATE: Empower your students to collaborate, lead, and succeed!” Amazon: amzn.to/3c1946N 

My next book focuses on how to provide your students with all of the skills they need to feel competent to direct their own learning (Title coming soon!). Have a great school year everyone!

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Join us for a #LearnLAP Twitter chat - We have them every Monday evening from 7-8pm Central (except holidays)

8/22/2022

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The EdTech Series:

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​The Author Series:

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All Moderators:

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Our Class' Favorite Novels over the past 20 years!

8/8/2019

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Click on each image below to enlarge them...
(Books are sorted first by MEAN AVERAGE RATING, then by MEDIAN AVERAGE RATING.)
I've included several individual ratings for you to see, but several books have more ratings that had to be cut off.
I didn't include any books that had four or fewer ratings due to small sample size.
These are the books we use during "Literature Circles" and are read aloud in partnerships to each other.
Enjoy!
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End-of-Year Student Videos - "Explain what makes our classroom great"

6/8/2018

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Click here to visit this Playlist: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO2eKTU5h79juwwqLyfq2rpDwwypOMn2F
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Learn Like a PIRATE turned three this month! See details below...

3/11/2018

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via GIPHY

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Peer Revising Writing with Precision and Self-Reflection

3/2/2015

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So I was looking over my students' Human Body Research Papers in preparation for report cards, and I noticed that some students have been forgetting some of the writing requirements that we had for this assignment.  We've been writing these research papers for almost two months now (as we learn about each system of the human body), so it's not a huge surprise that they would start forgetting all the small details.

What I decided to do, though, was to partner my students together and have them peer revise each others' essays.  Of course, when I was a kid, that didn't go very well and that thought immediately crossed my mind.  Some kids just used that time to chat, while others read each others' stories, but said they were great as they were even though there were tons of mistakes.  I wanted to make sure this was different.  I drew on some of the energy from our "Quality Boosters" lesson to try to make sure that my students would take it seriously, while also being confident and helpful.

Here's how I did it:

  1. I told my students what was going on.  I wanted them to know that I was about to partner them up with someone in class in order to help them revise their writing, based on perceived strengths & weaknesses.
  2. I told everyone that they were not to act judgmental (even though they were evaluating another person's work), but rather to find areas of their writing that could be better and politely suggest ways to improve it.  I also asked students not to think that others were full of themselves when they were giving suggestions, because they're just following my orders!
  3. Next, I asked my students to move to three different parts of class.  One area was for students who felt confident that they had nearly all of the components and requirements necessary for these essays and could confidently explain it to another student.  One area was for students who worried that they might be missing some components and would appreciate another person looking over it with them.  And a third area was for students who fell somewhere in between.  I told them that after I have them move to the proper areas, that I might ask them to adjust slightly later in order to help even out the numbers. 
  4. I thought I would have too many over-confident kids, but what I had were a lot of students wanting someone to look over their writing, and a lot of students in the middle!  I asked the students in the middle to reconsider joining one of the other groups if they were comfortable doing that.  Some moved.
  5. Now, I had the same number of students in the "Confident" group and the "Wanting Help" group, so I partnered them up randomly with each other using sticks, matching a confident student with one who wanted help.
  6. Next, I asked the students in the middle to divide based on slightly more confident and slightly less confident, then I partnered them up with each other.

Here's what that all looked like using sticks (the names have been randomized):

Students first attempt to divide up.
After asking the kids in the middle to reconsider.
Partnering up the students.
Partnerships and the middle group.
All of the partnerships.
PictureWe display the Online Stopwatch in our classroom.
After I partnered everyone up, I gave some directions about what I wanted them each to do while revising their partner's writing, and how I wanted them to do it (read each others' writing out loud, etc.).  I set a timer for 20 minutes and said we would switch to the other partner's writing when the timer went off.  I then walked around and checked that students were following directions properly (one group wasn't, so that was important).

I observed each partnership reading and giving suggestions, making corrections, and improving word choice.  Since each partnership was asked to start with the most recently completed essay and then work backwards, my students were working with their best piece of writing (theoretically, since they should be learning from each prior piece), and had plenty of essays they could work with in case they finished early.

PictureTaking a Stretch Break!
Once it was time to switch to the other partner's writing, I shared how I just managed to publish my first book despite the fact that my high school English teacher called me "the worst writer he had ever had!"  It just shows that you can accomplish great things if you work hard and have a great team around you (my editor & publisher for me, and their partner for them).

I told them all to revise confidently with their partner no matter if they feel they are the weaker writer. Everyone has something valuable they can contribute, and no one should feel that they are not a good enough writer to help out one of our peers!

I asked them all to take a stretch break and then get back to work!  It was important that we made sure that each partner got equal time and effort in revising their story!

When the period was over, my students were drained, but their writing was drastically improved!  Although it was now a collaborative effort, it became a new opportunity for my students to learn.  I may struggle to identify exactly what each student did on their own, but that shouldn't be what matters most.  I'd rather know that each of my students are going on to middle school more confident writers because they got the attention they needed and their questions answered.  I can't always provide that for each of my students as often as they need it, but when we work collaboratively, many of my students' needs get met!  The power of collaboration!

The comments section below contain my students' thoughts on the activity. These are the reflection questions they were asked to answer:
  1. How do you think today's peer revision activity went? Explain.
  2. What was most beneficial for you during today's activity?
  3. Would it be a good use of time to do this peer-revision activity again on other human body systems?

I only gave them 5 minutes to answer, because another class needed the computers, but you get the idea from their answers...
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Invite parents into your classroom, even if it's only virtually!

2/16/2015

5 Comments

 
PictureMadi uploading photos to the Daily Photo Journal.
    What parent wouldn't want to know what their child did in school each and every day when their child comes home from school excited and motivated to learn?  When your students are Learning Like PIRATE's, they're bound to be excited about something happening in school!
    Even when children are passionate and enthusiastic about what they're learning in class, they're still bound to suffer from "After-School Amnesia."  They never seem to remember what they did in school, because they're hungry, tired, and needing some time to unwind.  That's where our Daily Photo Journal comes into play.
    Throughout each school day, my students and I grab the classroom camera and take pictures of all of our learning experiences.  At the end of the day, one student is in charge of uploading the photos to our classroom website and giving each slideshow a title.  Now, even when a child "forgets" what (s)he did in school that day, parents can check the website and ask specific questions about what they see!
    Throughout the school year, students often use our Daily Photo Journal to grab photos to put into their blog entries or print out for projects.  This saves us some time because it means that students don't always have to individually take photos during activities and upload them in class.  Instead, we can all use the same photos in our blog entries, with just one student taking the time to upload and post the photos online. 
    As an added bonus, these photos are a valuable resource that we can use at the end of the year. 
I've used the Daily Photo Journal as a reflection tool for students to use to think about what they learned over the school year and to create blog entries about our experiences.  Parents and students have both commented that the Daily Photo Journal is a lot like a yearbook just for our class!  I've had parents grab the photos of their child from the whole school year and print them off or put them into electronic photo albums!
    I have chosen to use Weebly to host my photo slideshows, but there are dozens of ways that you can do this differently!  I can imagine that some teachers may prefer to post their photos on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, while some may prefer to post photos on a site like Snapfish or Shutterfly.  Whatever you choose, parents and students alike are sure to appreciate the year-long cache of photos showing all of the exciting activities that you completed throughout the year.

LearnLAP Note: Empower your students to take pictures during each and every lesson!  You will often forget, but they will generally remember!  My students love to take pictures when I'm lecturing or demonstrating something, because they think of taking pictures when they're passively sitting and listening.  But when students participate in an activity that is more active and collaborative, they often forget to take pictures!  They're so engaged in their learning that they forget to handle the minutia of taking pictures.  Fortunately, that's when I generally remember!  I hope you'll try doing this in your classroom - Good luck!  :)

Links to our Daily Photo Journals over the years:
2014-2015:
http://paulsolarz.weebly.com/daily-photo-journal
2013-2014:
http://psolarz.weebly.com/2013-2014-daily-photo-journal
2012-2013:
http://psolarz.weebly.com/so-what-did-you-do-in-school-today

Sample Daily Photo Journal Post: "Using Hands-On Equations to Learn Algebra"

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