Student Choice in Education

Student choice is a topic and idea in education that can sometimes be hard to come to grips with. Of course it sounds good to have students be a part of their learning but to truly allow them to have say in what they learn and what is covered in the classroom is a whole other issue. 

Our education system has always and to this day is designed by curriculum companies giving teachers the information to instruct and ways to pass this information to the students. You will rarely if ever find a curriculum that asks the students what they want to learn and to base your instruction around that. However through some work being done at my school and some personal research, I am continuing to try different ways to incorporate students ideas into our daily classroom instruction. 

It started by having one of my team members sharing a reflection sheet that she was going to use on an assessment in her classroom. I took it and gave it to my students as well. It asked the students to grade themselves and then explain why they gave themselves that grade. The students were surprisingly very honest and knew what to grade themselves because they knew how confident they were in their skills. They also were able to describe why they were not necessarily as confident in one skill compared to the other. To me this was true student involvement in their learning. I am now able to use these reflections as a guiding tool in my classroom and will instruct students and what specific skills they need based on their reflections. Below are some specific examples of students assessing their skills on either standard algorithm multiplication or solving for volume using the equation Length x Width x Height.

Now while I did feel that this was one step forward to incorporating student choice in my classroom, I saw something on Twitter the day before break that challenged me to do more. The article was titled, "Taking the Manage out of Classroom Management" and it really challenged you to incorporate your students ideas into your classroom. So I decided let's give this a shot. 

I showed the students a Ted Talk about a 12 year old who asked one simple science question that turned into her and other students being the youngest published scientists in the world. This prompted the students to come up with one topic or question they want to discover about in science. It was amazing to see some of their questions. They were things I would have never even thought of. Some examples were:

• What is the physical limit of our body?
• Why do our hands get sweaty when were nervous?
• How do our reactions react?
• Why do we need more inventions when they pollute our earth?
• Ocean levels and temperature
• What are possible planets to live on?

These were just some of the examples that my students came up with. Now I am challenged with what to do as an educator? Do I go back to my curriculum and instruct students with what the curriculum says or do I embrace this student choice and let them discover and solve their own real-world questions? I think I know what the students would rather do and what I think is more beneficial to their learning. Why not let them discover their answers and tie the curriculum into what they discover? That is true authentic learning that is based on #StudentChoice. 

  

The story of the 2010 State Grafton Baseball Team

As I think about blog ideas and things to share just recently I ran into a parent of one of my baseball teammates and then I found myself again bringing up this story to a friend. After seeing the parent who is now battling cancer, I remembered just how short life can be and that is the driving force for this blog post.

After going 9-43 in my first two years of Varsity baseball, we all had high hopes for the 2010 season, little did we know what we would accomplish. There was a solid group of us who had played with and against each other through Grafton Little League and on Varsity as Freshman, Sophomores, and Juniors. The class of 2010 and 2011 were two groups of kids who loved baseball and worked and wanted to change the face of Grafton Baseball. While we were young players on Varsity we had to take our lumps but as we said at the end of the 2009 season, next year "We are going to state".

We all put in our work in the off-season and we were finally gearing up to play some spring baseball and get ready for the season we were all waiting for. Then something changed on the night of March 12th. I will never forget that night. I remember coming home from a friends house that night and staying up later than I usually do. I still woke up early like I typically do and then I got a phone call at 8:15 that Saturday morning the 13th. Mattie Malkowski, a friend and teammate was in a car accident the night before and was in serious condition at the hospital. He battled for about 7 weeks before passing away on April 30th, 2010 from injuries in the accident caused by a drunk driver. That day, April 30th I will never forget the mood around the school and the community for the coming weeks. It was a very difficult and trying time for everyone who knew Mattie. And our season we all had been looking forward to since our Little League days was to start in just 2 weeks.

It was amazing to see how our team, school, and community all came together after this tragedy. A huge credit to the Durst family and the Malkowski family for the fundraiser of "I Hit for Matt" T-shirts. That shirt and motto became our rally cry for the season and something that you could not go a day without seeing that shirt in the Grafton community. It was truly amazing to see the Little League, School District and community just absolutely embrace this family and fundraiser. To this day you still see the "I hit for Matt" T-shirts in the community and it just reminds me of the special season we were about to have.

We started the season all excited and still a little struck that we were about to take the field without our friend and left-fielder. We decided to embrace the situation we were put in and come together as a family to do all we could to honor our teammate every day. Mattie was always someone who played with a fun, passion and enjoyed the game of baseball so that is what we tried to do every day. We started the conference season with a record of 4-1 and were off to a great start with our one loss coming to a strong Muskego team. Now the true battle was about to start and that was the North Shore Conference. We knew if we wanted to change Grafton Baseball this is when it would be done.

We started the conference season with a nice win against our rival Port Washington. Next was the powerhouse Nicolet Knights and they showed us how good they were by run ruling us. Our next 2 conference games is when our season changed. Conor Fisk, who was drafted this same week by the Milwaukee Brewers, proved to be our workhorse as he put up a 1 hitter against Cedarburg who we beat 2-0. Then the next week, he went 8 innings allowing 1 run against power Homestead as we pulled out a 5-1 extra inning victory. I remember getting off the bus that night and all of us were like we can really do this, this is our season. That was the changing point of the season for us as we had a solid season where we took 3rd in the difficult North Shore Conference with 4 of our losses coming against Nicolet and traditional power West Bend West. We finished with a 18-9 record during the regular season and we were ready to start our journey to state.

We beat Port in our first playoff game fairly handily and got a nice draw when Brown Deer upset Cedarburg in the first round. We were going to sectionals having to win 2 games in 1 day which turned out to be 2 days because of a rain delay and we were able to save our Ace, Conor Fisk, for the Sectional Final. One of Mattie's best friends on the team, Dylan Mayer threw the game of his life in the sectional semi-final as we beat Brown Deer 4-2. That setup a matchup with the number 1 team in the area and the offensive power, Nicolet. They were averaging over 8 runs a game and Conor Fisk did not disappoint and shut them out as we scored a 1-0 victory over Nicolet to head to state for the first time since 1983.

There are 3 moments from that game that always stick out and I will never forget. The first was in the bottom of the 6th inning, Nicolet had bases loaded with 1 out and a good hitter at the plate. He grounded back to Conor who threw home, to Skyler Bohn and then to first, Dylan Mayer for a 1-2-3 douple play to get out of the inning. I remember running into the dugout from that inning and jumping up and hitting an assistant coach and in the dugout that inning I remember thinking, we are going to do this! My next moment that I will never forget is as we are in the field in the last inning, I had a great view from 3rd base of all the Grafton fans who came to support us. I remember just looking at the crowd with all their "I hit for Matt" shirts and them chanting "Hit for Matt" as we fought for the last out. There may not be a better picture in my life. Then when Conor struck out the last hitter it was like it happened in slow motion. The pitch, waiting for the ump to make the call, then just swarming Conor, throwing my glove in the air and dog piling on the field! What a moment it was!

We had officially accomplished the goal that Mattie had set out for us the previous season, to get to state! That journey and season was so special. We carried him with us to every game and practice. At every BP, you would see our whole team wearing "I hit for Matt" shirts no matter how many games we had that week. We kept his jersey in our dugout, we went out to left field before and after every game to hit the "MM" sign that was put up and we all gave his mom a hug before and after every game.

It was an emotional season but it was a season that us 20 players, coaches, family, friends and Grafton community will never forget. To be able to bring Grafton Baseball to a state tournament after years of losing seasons was something that people thought would never happen and for it to happen 2 after losing a teammate, made it that much more special!

To all my teammates, coaches, friends and family who were a part of that journey, Thank you! And lastly to the Malkowski family, we will never forget Mattie and this story will always live on!

Fundraiser for Mattie's Field of Dreams