The blog assignment this week is to write about
a project that I have worked on in the past that was not successful or did not
result in the desired outcomes. I have been an elementary school teacher for 13
years. I have not led a special or specific project in my personal or professional
life. I am not one of those do it yourself type people when it comes to home
repair, baking or anything of that nature. I will pay for whatever service I
need. That being said, this assignment
is hard for me. I can only relate to experiences in the classroom. I can
honestly say however, that after teaching many years in the classroom (both
brick and mortar and virtual schools), I am still learning how to be a more
effective teacher. I will often make the mistake of assuming that my students
have the prior knowledge needed to complete assignments when in fact they do
not. Here is an example of a recent
fail.
I had to create a lesson for my fifth grade
students based upon the following Florida Next Generation Sunshine State
Standard: “The student will write directions to un-familiar locations using
cardinal and ordinal directions, land marks, distance and create an
accompanying map.” From an adult
standpoint, I assumed this would be an “easy” lesson to teach. The majority
of my students were familiar with a compass rose, as well as the cardinal and
ordinal directions. They also understood
the importance of map reading incase their GPS systems fail. The lesson went off without any major issues,
or so I assumed. It was when I began
receiving the homework I assigned is when I knew this lesson had failed.
The homework assigned was to construct a map of
your favorite park, town, favorite place, or create your own city, town, place
or park. Students were also encouraged
to create their own road map. In
addition to these requirements, students also were instructed to: On a separate
sheet of paper, you will need to specifically give instructions on how to go
from one point on your map to another.
(You will need to do this for two separate locations) Example: To go from the bank to the library
you will need to go North on Baker street until you get to Lemon street, turn
right, go 2 blocks and then turn left onto Orange Street. The bank will be on
your left.
The majority of the maps looked great and met the
requirements for compass rose, map legend, etc. It was the direction piece of
the assignment that fell apart.
After conducting a post-mortem,
which is a review conducted after the project (or in my case a lesson) ends, I
was able to identify mistakes that I had made when creating and delivering the
lesson. According to Greer (2010), a post
mortem will assist in developing a list of lessons learned so mistakes are not
repeated with future projects. I used the two step process recommended by
Greer, (2010)
1. Prepare a whole bunch of specific questions about the project and
allow ample time to think about them and
prepare responses.
2. Hold a meeting to discuss the responses to the questions. Note:
The result of a discussion is often a list of "Lessons Learned.”
Additionally, Allen and Hardin (2008) recommend looking
at both successes and challenges for the project as well as conduct an analysis
of outcomes and strategies.
Successes
of the Project
Students
were able to successfully construct their own maps with correct usage of map
key, map legend and map scale.
Challenges
of the Project
Students were not able to construct detailed instructions
on how to get from Point A to Point B on their maps. Some students did attempt this part of the
assignment, with minimal success. Other students were either way off on their
directions or did not attempt this part of the assignment.
Instructor
Mistakes
After
reviewing the lesson, I realized I had not modeled how to create instructions
from Point A to Point B. I assumed that students would be able to use the
directions from the compass rose and design their own instructions going from
place to place. Based upon the positive
interactions I received during the lesson itself, students seemed eager to
complete this assignment.
I should
have given examples of how to create step-by-step directions. In addition I
could have given sample directions as well as created directions with student
help during the lesson. Students would
have had visuals as well as hands on experience and may have been able to
successfully complete the assignment if these tools were available.
Instructor
Re-Work
Due to
the failure of the second part of this assignment, I now have to go back and
reteach this lesson. I clearly did not meet the benchmark as
required by the state of Florida. This
lesson has been an eye opening experience. If this had been an Instructional
Design project for a client where money had been involved, this would be
considered a huge fail.
I am
grateful for the opportunity to learn from my ongoing teacher experiences and
will strive to always be an effective teacher even if that means teaching the same
lesson more than one time.
References:
Allen, S., & Hardin, P. C. (2008). Developing instructional
technology products using effective project management practices. Journal of
Computing in Higher Education, 19(2), 72–97.
Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just
enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate
Education, Inc.
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