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

Role Models

I laid in bed last night just thinking about all the positive role models I have had in my life. It started with thinking about how fortunate I was to have 3 amazing Varsity coaches in High School and from there my mind just kept going.

I am going to pause for a second and just really begin to think about what is a role model? This is something that I ask my students every year and maybe I don't ask it enough. The typical response is a parent or grandparent and not to say that they are not role models but what defines everyone who we view as a role model? For me every time I hear a student explain a role model or someone they look up to, it is someone who cares about them! Whether it be at home, at school, at church, in sports, in extra-curricular's or just a friendly face, a role model can almost always be defined as someone who cares about you and will push you to be the best that you can be.

Back to my mind racing. It all started with me thinking about how awesome it was to see a co-worker and the local Varsity Girls soccer coach at a youth girls soccer game that night. Not only was he supporting his students but also his future players, that is a role model! That got me thinking about my 3 varsity coaches I had in High School. Each of them brought something different to the table but were 3 of the most influential people in my life.

• Soccer Coach, Don Arnold: One of the most demanding but fair coaches I had, he always expected us to do things the right way and we knew not to step outside of the right way to play the game. #HeartPassionDesire
• Basketball Coach, Kevin McKenna: One of the most intense coaches I had, but he showed me so much trust and willingness to listen to any thoughts or ideas I had. He always respected me as a point guard and trusted what I saw on the court. 
• Baseball Coach, Brian Durst: "Respect the Game". When I think of Coach Durst, that is what comes to mind every time. He has helped me so much as a player, coach and person that I can just summarize it as Respect Life. 

While these 3 coaches were phenomenal and huge role models in my life I would be mistaken if I didn't  mention some of their assistant coaches because they had just as big of an impact on me! Some other coaches who stick out are James Johnson (Soccer- "I got jokes"), Wycklendt, Finn, Myles for baseball and I cannot forget my father. While all my coaches demanded and expected a lot from me, I am not sure anyone taught me more about every sport (other than soccer) and how to play the game than my father and for that I am truly thankful!

While these are coaches who I immediately thought of as role models, the role models in my life go far beyond athletics. While in bed I thought of so many others who have positively impacted my life but one story stood out. I thought of the lady who bought me M&M's at every softball game at Kennedy as a little kid and then one final "Big Bag" of M&M's when I graduated high school. How cool is that, just the act of buying a 5 and 6 year old kid M&M's was something that stuck with me to this day. This story along with so many others have provided me with hundreds of role models in my life, so Thank you to all the role models that I have had in my life!

So who is your role model? What defines your role model? And lastly are you a role model for someone? What can you do to help someone close to you?

The video I will leave you with today was shown to me in my class today as the students suggested this song for Tuesday Tunes. I had never heard of it before but it was so cool to see the WHOLE class singing and enjoying this song, it didn't matter if it was an athlete, a smart kid, a kid with challenges, or just an average student, everyone in my room was enjoying this song, so why not share!

Twitter in Education?!?

The last week or so I have witnessed the power of Twitter and just some of the possibilities through one social media outlet. One of my goals through not only this blog but some other avenues is been to try and spread positive things and thoughts that are either in my life or around me. I truly believe Twitter has brought me many connections and moments in just the last week that are hard to come by.

First, last week I participated in a baseball coaches chat (#ABCAChat). Not only is this a great place to gain knowledge from thousands of coaches around the county, it is a very inviting chat! In just the last 2 chats I have connected with other coaches from Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Texas and California. One of the coolest moments for me was through the chat and sharing ideas, the head softball coach from UW-Eau Claire liked and commented on one of my Tweets. This actually brought back a connection that I had in college as we reconnected from a time when we participated in a bible study together in Eau Claire. How awesome is that? Reconnecting with someone from college through a Twitter Baseball Coaches Chat!

While that connection was awesome and I have been welcomed by so many other coaches across the country and have been encouraged to and will attend my first ABCA Clinic this January in Dallas, Tx, I have felt my role with Twitter is just getting started! This past week at school, I hosted 4 different PD opportunities with our staff about Twitter. It was so encouraging and motivational for me to see so many staff members embrace the idea of Twitter and come interested in trying something they thought they would never use! It does not matter whether you a millennial or a dinosaur, the educational opportunities on Twitter are endless!

This last week alone, I have found 24 exit ticket questions that I can use in my classroom and shared a Investigative social studies website for teachers and students. That does not include all the other awesome ideas and articles I have found on topics such as Standards Based grading, #MathChat, or #SciChat. In addition to all these great resources on Twitter, our staff at TJ has begun to embrace Twitter and we are sharing so much of all the great things that are happening in our classroom everyday! Please go on Twitter and follow @TJMSPride and search the #TJMSLearning. Our staff is working hard on finding positive resources to help in their classrooms while also sharing all the wonderful learning occurring in our classrooms daily!

Once again I will leave you with a video just to reinforce the idea of how powerful Twitter can be in Education!

Brewers NLCS Roster and Playoff Predictions

As long as I can remember I have been very superstitious around the game of baseball. I don't know what it is about baseball that brings out so many superstitions but it is a part of the game and has been for years. That being said, I am sticking to my roster and playoff predictions for each round as it worked out in the NLDS for the Brewers! Even though a lot of my predictions were incorrect, the Brewers won the series and moved on!

The Brewers will have more tough decisions to make now having to worry about a 7 game series instead of a 5 game series. It will be interesting to see how the Brewers line up their pitching against the aces of Kershaw, Ryu and Buehler from the Dodgers. But I will give it a shot and support my claims once again for the Brewers roster and the League Championship Predictions. I will start with my locks once again:

• Catchers: Manny Pina, Erik Kratz
• 1st Base: Jesus Aguilar
• 2nd Base: Jonathan Schoop, Hernan Perez
• Shortstop: Orlando Arcia
• 3rd Base: Mike Moustakas, Travis Shaw
• Outfield: Ryan Braun, Lorenzo Cain, Christian Yelich
• Starting Pitchers: Jholys Chacin, Wade Miley
• Relief Pitchers: Corey Knebel, Josh Hader, Jeremy Jeffress, Joakim Soria, Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff

This scenario puts us at 11 position players and 8 "out-getters" as Craig Counsell would call them. Leaving us with 6 positions to fill once again. 

• Keon Broxton- I think the Brewers need to keep Keon once again just because he is their one guy off the bench they can use to pinch run and can also be used as a defensive replacement
• Curtis Granderson- Counsell needs to have a lefty bat to come off the bench. I think his experience will now give him the spot over the red-hot Domingo Santana. 
• Gio Gonzalez- I believe with a longer series will provide at least 1 start for the Brewers in this 7 game series. 
• Xavier Cedeno- I was shocked he did not make the roster in the NLDS, I imagine with the lefties in the Dodgers order, he would be on the roster in the NLCS
• Junior Guerra- I believe he has thrown well enough in relief appearances in September and he can provide you early to mid innings in a bullpen game, that Counsell will keep him around again. 
• My last spot will go to...
• Zach Davies, I think Davies provides you stuff that is more successful against Dodgers hitters than Freddy Peralta. I would rather go soft with change-ups and curveballs then trying to challenge the Dodger order with Peralta fastballs. 

I will once again state these are just my thoughts and opinions and really don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things as long as the Brewers move on to the World Series! 

On top of my League Championship predictions, I am going to provide my expected pitching matchups in the NLCS because I think that is more of a game than anything right now for the Brewers. 

NLCS: 

1. Game 1 in Milwaukee : Kershaw vs. Chacin
2. Game 2 in Milwaukee: Ryu vs. Woodruff and bullpen game for the Crew since they have a travel day after
3. Game 3 in LA: Buehler vs. Miley
4. Game 4 in LA: Hill vs. Gio Gonzalez
5. Game 5 in LA: Kershaw vs. Chacin
6. Game 6 in Milwaukee: Ryu vs. Bullpen- and the Brewers win the series in 6!

ALCS: 

1. Astros beat the Red Sox in 7 games

I will leave you with Brewer highlights from the last week! Hopefully there are more highlights next week! Go Crew!

A day of Professional Development...

These words, A day of Professional Development, can sometimes make us flinch or grimace. Whether you are in education, business, trade job or customer service, a day of professional development and meetings tend to be ideas and practices that we do not look forward to. I always try to look at things through a positive lens and after a day of professional development, I thought I would share my story about how the professional development we had today inspired me.

When we are talking about Professional Development (PD) let's develop what the true intention of these days are. I think a lot of PD days are designed to give us new ideas, inspire us to look at things differently or provide reassurance on what is already occurring in our classroom. Today provided me with so many AHA moments that relate to so many different educational practices.

First through discussion on re-assessment and grading practices, it reassured me the idea that all students learn at different paces and we as educators have to embrace this idea! Our goal as educators should be to help ALL students learn the content needed no matter at what pace or in what direction. Then we need to assess the students on their academic ability and not their ability to sit still and do what is told. How many of us adults learn in various ways, models, and environments? I know throughout this day of PD I was constantly up and moving and taking cues and discovering my own learning different than my co-workers. Does that mean that I did not learn or did not gain knowledge? We have to embrace students different learning abilities and styles in order to best help them explain their thinking!

This PD also inspired me to go further with my thinking and challenged my thoughts on what my classroom looks like and how I instruct in my classroom. Through small breakout sessions and large group discussions, it was very cool to see how other teachers use so many different tools to help reach their students. Again is that not the point of PD, to share and bounce ideas off of each other on what we can do differently to best help our students!

I was also able to reflect on my practices while providing self-motivation to try new things and challenge my thinking on certain topics and ideas. Now that is what I call a powerful PD! So once again I could just focus on the negatives of it is another meeting, or another initiative, but who is that helping? If you are able to take a step back and take one positive from a day of PD that can lead you to a whole new world of growth!

I will leave you with a clip from one of my favorite movies that our PD leader, Garth Larson, showed today. He asked, "How does this clip relate to education?" So I am going to ask how does this clip relate to education and or your job or your life? Their are so many parallels between Baseball and life.

Brewers NLDS Roster and Playoff Predictions

As an avid baseball fan I had to create a post about the most exciting time of the year in America's Pastime. The month of October is a part of baseball that only 10 exclusive fan bases get to celebrate every year and is part of the reason why I think baseball playoffs are so exciting, it is so exclusive. As Brewer, Cubs and many other fan bases can tell you it can take years to make the playoffs, win a division, get to a World Series or win the World Series. That being said this piece will provide insight to who I personally think the Brewers will have on their 25 man roster for the NLDS along with my unprofessional judgement on how the playoffs will play out.

One of the unique problems that the Brewers have coming into the playoffs is limiting their roster to 25 guys. I have never experienced a team who for better or worse is so deep and has so many decisions to make on their playoff roster as the Brewers have legitimately used 35 guys in the month of September to help them win the Division. So to get started here are my locks for the Brewers 25 man NLDS roster:

• Catchers: Manny Pina, Erik Kratz
• 1st Base: Jesus Aguilar
• 2nd Base: Jonathan Schoop, Hernan Perez
• Shortstop: Orlando Arcia
• 3rd Base: Mike Moustakas, Travis Shaw
• Outfield: Ryan Braun, Lorenzo Cain, Christian Yelich
• Starting Pitchers: Jholys Chacin, Wade Miley
• Relief Pitchers: Corey Knebel, Josh Hader, Jeremy Jeffress, Joakim Soria, Xavier Cedeno, Corbin Burnes

This puts the Brewers at 11 position players and 8 pitchers for a total of 19 players, leaving 6 spots open. Part of the thought process for the rest of the roster could depend on who the Brewers are facing and the match-ups the Brewers front office thinks they can take advantage of on the mound. But I will just go ahead and make the case for who I think will round out the roster and why:

• Domingo Santana: Has gone 8-18 (.444 avg.) since being called up in September and has provided consistent quality at-bats all month and provided a huge pinch hit against the Cubs to help win the division.
• Keon Broxton: While Santana will provide an offensive spark off the bench, Broxton will provide defense and 1 true speed threat for the Brewers off the bench.
• Gio Gonzalez: I believe will be the Brewers 3rd starter for the NLDS as the Brewers will lean on his post-season experience. I believe he will start game 2 for the Brewers. 
• Brandon Woodruff: Will provide the Brewers with a long-reliever in the NLDS as I believe they will try and get by with 3 starters and thus Woodruff could throw some critical innings. 
• Zach Davies: If the Brewers do end up using a 4th starter in the NLDS, I would think Davies would be the man as it appears the Brewers have lost faith in Chase Anderson
• The last and final spot I believe will go to....
• Dan Jennings: I believe the Brewers will keep the lefty who has struggled lately as a situational lefty. Both the Rockies and Cubs lineup has some big lefties in it and if Hader is unavailable for a game because he went 2 innings the night before, I believe they will want to have Jennings available along with Cedeno. 

Again these are just my opinions and thoughts based on what I have seen and expect the Brewers to go with for the NLDS. In this situation I think the one big name left off is Curtis Granderson but I think as we have seen the last couple days, Santana and Broxton provide more at this point than Granderson does. All that being said, I don't care who is on the playoff roster as long as the Brewers are moving on to the NLCS!

Here are my predictions for the two wild card games and the Divisional rounds:

NL Wildcard: Cubs over the Rockies: Lester throws another gem in the post-season

AL Wildcard: A's over the Yankees: Severino struggles again and the Moneyball A's transcend baseball with winning a 1-game playoff with a bullpen game!

ALDS: 

1. Astros take down the Indians in 5 games. I love both these teams but I think the starting pitching of the Astros and the deep lineup will be too much
2. Red Sox beat the A's in 4 games. The Red Sox offense will not slow down and prove to be too much for an A's team without the best staff. 

NLDS:

1. Dodgers sweep the Braves in 3 games. Experience and their recent surge will continue as the Dodgers roll into the NLCS. 
2. The Brewers beat the Cubs in 5 games. I believe the deeper lineup and deeper pen will prove pivotal over a team with more post-season experience and the Brewers move on to the NLCS!

I will leave you all with this: The Brewers reenacting one of the best baseball movies of all time! 

Go Brewers!!!