Finland Teachers in The U.S.A.

I recently read an article that interviewed three teachers originally from Finland that now teach here in the United States.  I found that article interesting and somewhat sad.  I have always been fascinated by Finland's education system because of their flexibility, allowance for individuality, and impressive  results like 66% of students moving on to attend college, 43% attending vocational schools, and a 93% graduation rate (wow!).  Finland also consistently tests at the top or close to the top on international standardized tests despite the fact that they do not measure children at all the first six years of education and have only one mandatory standardized test at the age of sixteen.

The teachers that now work in the United States and had previous experience in Finland report being overworked, overwhelmed, and all mention the fact that there is very little autonomy.  Standards are strict, specific, and curriculum is basically predetermined to be taught in a certain way.  One quote from the article states exactly how our classrooms look. "Muja finds that her level of professional freedom is often restricted by the structure of the school day and a long list of teaching responsibilities in America. “I teach six classes a day with a one 45-[minute] ‘planning’ period,” she said. “My classes are at three different proficiency levels, and I have four minutes between classes to prepare for the next class. At the same time, I am expected to stand in the hallways to monitor students as [they] transfer from class to class, and to check my email for last-minute updates and changes because of ongoing testing or other events."" She goes on to say: "All of those tasks, and several others, wear her down: “I feel rushed, nothing gets done properly; there is very little joy, and no time for reflection or creative thinking (in order to create meaningful activities for students).”" which I 100% agree with.  Reflection is such an important piece of lesson planning and we have time for very little, if any.

The article talks about how teachers and students in Finland get a 15 minute break every hour.  In contrast our students are expected to take their 4 (maybe 5) minutes in between class to use the restroom, walk to the other side of the building, stop at a locker, and get to class without being even a second late to not be marked tardy- can you even imagine if adults were held to these same standards at work?  How stressed would we all feel if we needed to ask permission to use the restroom, had designated times we could get out of seats, could not talk to others around us or check our phones?

In Finland there are so many things that make their schools successful but here are some of the things that stand out to me as a teacher.  Teachers have a similar status to doctor and lawyers, are seen as important and treated that way, are required to have a masters degree (which is subsidized) and are selected from the top 10% of graduates.  There is national curriculum but it is used as a broad guideline instead of specific standards meant to be used with curriculum maps and unit guidelines that outline almost every aspect of what is to come.  While Finland has the same amount of teachers as New York City it has a lot fewer students.  Teachers only spend four hours in the classroom each day (apposed to our 7.5) and take two hours per week for professional development (we have no weekly professional development time but are forced into several useless meetings and trainings- usually during our own time or planning time).  Finally, Finland sees the value of play in development and gives their elementary students 75 minutes of recess a day instead of the 25-30 minutes our students get.

It is easy to say we need to make changes but what changes need made?  I have a few suggestions for our education system from my own experiences and research on successful education systems all over the world.  First things first, Finland's system works because there are better quality teachers (and yes I am a teacher saying this, but lets be honest there are so many teachers that should not be teachers, they lack education as well as passion).  Higher education requirements for teachers- a masters level at least and possible willingness to work towards a doctorate and assist those teachers with their education costs. Education is one piece but also requiring teachers to be passionate is a must!  Treating teachers like professionals by allowing autonomy, throw out curriculum maps and strictly structured standards that are followed to the letter and instead make a guideline that can be adjusted and changed to meet students needs.  Allowing teachers to take their planning time at home or at a coffee shop- planning can be done anywhere and often being outside the classroom where there are no distractions is better in my experience.  More planning time, less class time- Finland's four hours of class time a day allows for so much more planning, reflection, and creativity to the point where I can't even imagine how great my lessons would be.  Students aren't absorbing information when they are rushed and overwhelmed so allow for more time in between classes, longer recess for younger students, and less standardized testing.  Allow for longer classes so students can achieve more (instead of 40 min) like Finland's 75 minute classes, but only do 3 or 4 classes a day with several breaks in between (15 minutes every hour is a great start).  Meaningful learning experience come from hands on projects, reflection, and critical thinking which is not possible with our overly short class periods. No more than 20 students per class!  I can see a major difference in my student's classwork when I have 20 students vs. 29- it is so major that I feel so strongly we are cheating our students whenever there are more than 20 students in a room.  Less truly is more.  I also believe everything from 16 years on should be completely career focused instead of general education that has nothing to do with a students future career.  Why should a student take honors chemistry if they want to work in graphic design?  Why is a future plumber required to take Algebra II rather than math related to plumbing in a vocational school offered to students 16-18 years old? Why is America so convinced that more is more?  Students learning a few subjects in depth and fully (that are relevant to their lives) is so much more valuable than students briefly memorizing something to pass standardized tests in every single subject that they will not use again to that extent nor would they remember it even if they needed to use it later on because it wasn't fully and effectively absorbed.

In closing, instead of making no child left behind legislature which helps no one, increasing standardized testing, or offering vouchers to private schools how about funding our education system to value teachers? Require more of teachers upfront- better training and education to begin with, an advanced interview process to ensure they are not only educated but PASSIONATE, along with time to continue to improve each week and reflect, and subsidizing our education to ensure all that is possible. Change our outdated structure of 7 short classes a day with 4 minute "breaks" to 4 long classes where students have real breaks to actually absorb what they're learning and refocus.  How about making education relevant to individual student needs and not a one size fits all solution to a student who is only 2 years away from the workforce?  Lets stop failing our children and forcing an enormous amount of stress and pressure on them with little positive results and effects!  Lets allow them to find a love for education rather than a dread of the school day.

Interesting articles to explore this further:
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/11/when-finnish-teachers-work-in-americas-public-schools/508685/?utm_source=yahoo&yptr=yahoo

https://fillingmymap.com/2015/04/15/11-ways-finlands-education-system-shows-us-that-less-is-more/

Aesthetics

As a teacher aesthetics may not be the first thing we think about when we design lessons.  I realize more and more though that the aesthetics of our classroom and lessons is important.  I incorporate posters, graphics, and vinyl wall stickers to try to improve the overall aesthetics of my room.  I also have oversized colorful bean bags that can be used in brainstorming sessions.  One thing  I was lacking was aesthetics in my assignment sheets.  I have begun to rework all my assignment sheets to have color, borders, images, and a work scenario.

The visual improvements align with the overall gamification of my classroom but the work scenario takes the aesthetics (or the overall game experience) a step further. By "work scenario" I mean I am giving the students a real world situation in which they would have to do the project we are doing in class.  I am starting to include a brief story or background that would justify how the project would be proposed by an industry professional.  Some may be a little bit of a stretch but overall the work scenarios are things that could happen in industry.  I went back and adjusted all assignment sheets we've done this year to include the "work scenario" and let my students know they can find those in the lesson archives if they were interested.  I also told them that future assignments will always have work scenarios on them.

I stressed to the students that I want them to give me feedback on the new look of the assignments, work scenarios, and anything else they feel I should adjust.  It is important for me to get feedback from my students and put that feedback to work so students know they are a part of the process.  The point of all this is after all to improve their overall learning experience.

Software Development Class Project

My students are currently working on a software development project that includes everything in the process from brainstorming through release. A lot of my students are currently trying to narrow down their problem statements, target market, and completing customer surveys to guide project direction.  I want to help them understand that software development isn't just about coming up with an idea they are excited about but adjusting that idea to match customer wants and needs. 

Students are giving people within their target market demographics surveys that give them feedback on what those potential customers want to see in the game or app they are developing.  The survey results help guide revisions they make to their problem statement and design.  I am proud of my students everyday when I walk around the room and hear conversations about timelines, adjustments to mechanics, fatal errors that need fixed, and how to deal with problems which arise daily.  They may not realize it but this project is directly preparing them for the workforce by improving problem solving and critical thinking. 

I keep saying that I don't want to teach my students; I want to guide them down a path that leads to learning and most importantly thinking for themselves.  If my students rely on me to provide resources and walk them through each problem they never find out their capability which is more than they (or I) can imagine.  With online resources possibilities are endless if they know how to find answers and work toward solutions.  As teachers let's take a step back from our own egos and say that it is the students who do the hard work and we need to trust them to do so.  When we provide step by step instructions and allow no flexibility, creativity, or choice in assignments we stifle student's ability to really learn.

Gamification Expanded

I have been thinking about what information I want to offer for my gamification consulting workshops.  I've also started to revamp some of the things I am doing in class to redesign and improve what I am doing.   It is important for me to design gamification techniques for those who have computers for each student and those that may not have any technology in the classroom because I want my techniques to be user friendly for all types of classrooms and subjects.

I'm reading every article and peer reviewed research I can get my hands on and have started to narrow down what I think is important.  I know the main topics I want to cover include: what is gamification, how it looks in my classroom, setting the right classroom culture, game based principles, using storytelling, aesthetics (electronic and non electronic techniques), game mechanics, and a final closing and reflection piece.  I believe it would be a good gamification 101 workshop for any teacher so that they would enough information to actually get started in their own class afterwards. 

One of the things I've considered while designing the workshop is how many trainings I've gone to that either cover too much information and I feel overwhelmed or too little so that I feel like I need several more before I can put anything into practice.  I want to find a happy medium so that teachers can implement practices right away and know where to start.  I also began to work on my website which is: http://mrskirk.wixsite.com/accomplish.  I am excited to start this new adventure soon!

Different

My classroom is different.  I am not an overly confident person but I know there is one thing I excel at and that is teaching. Truthfully I don't consider myself a "teacher" in the traditional sense.  I am not a traditional lecturer.  I do not have homework, busy work, award extra credit, or points for turning in forms at the beginning of the year.  I only award grades based on competency based projects where students demonstrate skills they can use outside the classroom. I push students to think creatively, try new things, step outside the box, and find their own interests and passions within class projects.  I guess instead of excelling at teaching I should instead say I excel in facilitation, support, and advocating for my students.  I care about each of them and I want them to be as successful as they can be.  I want them to take ownership of their learning and be proud when they leave my class.

I do not want a PowerPoint for every project- I want the students to try something new wherever they can. Want to demonstrate programming knowledge?  Try a new tutorial, build an app, write a blog post about coding, or create a game.  They can all show the same knowledge just in different ways so why limit the student?  I tell the students about industry trends and what a manager would expect in the real world.  A manager would not give you a detailed rubric with step by step instructions and one particular forma- a manager would say here's your task get it done however you can.

In my class group work doesn't mean one student picks up the slack of others and does all the work.  Group work means each student holds a unique role within the group that they must fulfill and they get a grade averaged between three things: their portion of the work, the overall project, and a grade their peers within the group give them- not just the final project itself. 

I think as educators we need to ask ourselves the hard questions and attempt to improve and grow at every turn. Why do we try to fit all our students into one neat little format and require them to turn in identical work?  Why are we afraid of change?  Why can't we admit when it is time to change?

Gamification

If you have been following my blog you know I took a big leap this year and decided to completely gamify my classroom.  I had quite a bit of knowledge about overall game design due to the courses I currently teach (Game Design, Foundations, and Programming) but I had to look at those principles from a totally new point of view.  I did extensive online research, read several books on gamification both in education and business and had discussions with the students about their preferences.  I had the students assist me with mechanics and what type of badges they would personally be interested in, I created leader boards and we ran with it first thing this school year. 

Gamification in my classroom has been a great success so far.  I've already awarded several badges and I've even had a few students already pursuing "side quests" on their own.  I believe the feedback they get from receiving the badges and seeing their XP go up on the leader boards has contributed to the students motivation but it is more than that.  Showing the students the leader boards, giving little prizes, and building a culture that allows the students to have choice in what they do.  Gamification alone is not enough but it's a great step to add to the positive environment I am trying to build.  Getting excited when the students go above and beyond, showing interest in their interests, and treating the students with respect is responsible for as much of the classroom success as the gamification itself is.

The gamification process itself was difficult to begin.  A lot of time and planning went into its implementation and I've made a lot of adjustments through trial and error.  With the positive response I received from the students and their improved quality of work I decided to move forward with a new business venture- Gamification Consulting!  I had considered consulting for quite a while (I do have my doctorate after all) but I was torn about what I wanted to consult in.  Gamification consulting will allow me to help other teachers and school districts successfully gamify their classrooms and see similar results to what I have achieved.  As part of the gamification training I want to offer I will also cover how to build a growth mindset culture, cater to 21st century skills, and the importance of building mutual respect and trust with students.  Below is the vision I have in mind along with the services I will offer. 

My vision is to help teachers accomplish their goals of increased student engagement and improved 21st century skills while catering to a growth mindset.  I want classrooms I work with to become fun, collaborative environments where students take ownership of their own learning through a competitive game that encourages students to go above and beyond on every assignment in a new way.

• Consulting and training:
  • Summer teacher workshops
  • Summer leadership workshops- school and district leadership
  • One on one teacher training
  • One on one leadership training
• Standard gamification packages that can be used within multiple subjects.  Includes: classroom game mechanics, badges, and leader board templates.
• Custom gamification packages based on subject area.

Endings and Beginnings

As another school year starts I think about how I want to build a positive classroom culture.  A culture that revolves around mutual respect and hard work while having fun.  I want the students to understand that while it is gaming classroom and sometimes we will play, test, and evaluate games the real purpose is to prepare them for the world outside the classroom doors.  To get them to use critical thinking skills, creativity, collaboration, and so much more.  To have them think and be responsible for themselves and their own learning.  It is a fun classroom but it is also a hard working one.  It's finding a balance that we are all happy with and it is always challenging (and exciting) at the start of each year.

The first two days of school flew by and today we come to the close of the week.  I think of this new beginning and how I have changed things to the setup of the classroom and culture to get to what I am working towards.  One of things I am starting this year is celebrating failure.  Failure is necessary if you want to succeed and I want them to start to understand that it is okay.  We all fell many times before we walked.  Programmers will have a lot of trial and error in working through issues, bugs, game crashes, and more.  Concept artists may have to re-do a concept 50 times before it is right.  Life is too short to give up on things because you failed at them before.  You get up and try again until you succeed or you find a work around that accomplishes what you were trying for.  I hope my students never hold back because they are afraid of failure.  If we did everything perfect the first time how boring this life would be.

Failure has been the story of my life. I struggled to read when I was younger, I was introverted all through school, I am one the clumsiest people I know, and I fail at something daily.  Yet here I am extremely happy, a Doctor, and successful in something I love doing.  After this summer I have had a new or at least renewed outlook on how short life is.  My father passed away from stage 4 cancer.  He lived his life to the fullest and had more stories about his adventures (some good, some bad) than most people could even dream of having.  I hope I have those stories one day- stories where I can laugh at all my failures and rejoice in all my successes because it takes both to make an interesting life.

Final Project

My students finished up their final project of the year last week and I was proud of the results.  While some games were more advanced than others everyone put in a lot of effort and showed real growth.  For the final project I wanted to do something that combined multiple skills, showed competency of the overall subject matter, was interesting, and gave the students flexibility.  I decided on a final game that would be done quickly (four weeks total) with required documentation to back-up their overall process. The required documentation included: timeline of deliverables, storyboard, architecture chart, design document, marketing materials, source code document, test cases, and the final executable. 

The first step of the process was having the students set their own timeline with due dates for each deliverable.  All students had the same date for the final executable (last week) but all other deliverable dates were set by each individual student.  The students were then able to determine which pieces may take them longer or shorter than others and tailor their time management appropriately. I think it is important to give the students just enough information to jump right in while not spoon feeding them into complacency that requires no real thought.  The project was a success and it was fun to see what they came up with since they got to choose their own themes, backgrounds, and assets.  The students were required to use quite a bit of coding instead of "drag and drop" buttons which can be a trial and error process when debugging so it was great to see what the students did to solve errors they got.  Click here to see some of the samples of student's final games.

As I head into the summer I plan on working on several new lessons, projects, and videos students can use to personalize their learning even more next year.  Working on things like updating my website, finalizing grades, and ensuring I am prepared for the new courses I'll teach next year will keep me busy but also energizes me for what's to come.  I can't imagine a job I could possibly enjoy more. I get to work with so many amazing learners who make me look good through their hard work and effort. 

I'm proud of myself...

The words "I'm proud of myself" should be what every teacher strives to hear from his/her students.  As my students finish up their final culminating game build I heard those words a few times and nothing could make me happier.  Not because I felt like I did a good job or I taught them well but because it means I allowed the students to take charge of their own learning and do things for themselves.  Had I of given the students step by step instructions and a strict guildeline I don't think I would have heard those words.  After all- handing someone answers doesn't mean they'll ever be able to do it for themselves; let alone feel pride in what they accomplished.  Working through issues, getting stuck and turning things around, problem solving, and coming out with a viable product fosters pride.

I'll post a dropbox link to some of the students games soon but those words "I'm proud of myself" make me proud to be a teacher.  I don't need validation of my teaching skills or for my students to think I am all-knowing (because I certainly am not) but I do need to know that my students feel comfortable, proud, and confident in my class.  While I cover standards and follow certain rules none of those are my ultimate goal.   My ultimate goal is to know my students are thinking for themselves, making their own conclusions based on facts, and keeping an open mind to new learning experiences. All in all I'd say this school year has been a success on all those counts.

Final Exams

It's that time of year again and final exams are coming!  While preparing my final exams it is important to me to test actual learning and not my students ability to make a guess based on four possible answer choices (i.e. multiple choice questions).  I am designing my finals around project based learning just like lessons.  No standardized testing will be used as I don't believe you can can judge a goldfish on its ability to fly.  It is however important to ask- what have my students really learned this year?

Students will need to demonstrate overall game design knowledge by creating a game on exam day- similar to a quick game jam.  Students will have choice in the theme and type of game with several options to choose from.  I am also having students choose one area to show me advanced learning in which needs to be game related and based on their career interests.  Students can choose things like creating 3D models in Blender, 2D models in Photoshop, concept art using digital tablets, coding samples in notepad ++, business requirement and architecture documents, etc.  There will be a few question based items as well that require the students to think like game designers.  I am hoping for successful exam days and wish all the students good luck! I am excited to see the differences in what students come up with which will hopefully all display learning- just in different ways.

Doctorate and Gamification

Obviously there's been a delay in posting for a long time but I hope to be able to post more regularly in the future!  Yesterday I successfully defended by dissertation "Examining the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® Model Use by District Managers Responsible for Sales".  I have a few pieces of paperwork to send in and my editor is finishing up final edits before we can publish but I am within a couple weeks of earning my Doctorate in Business Administration with a concentration in Management.  Anyway back to the topic at hand- personal learning!  

I am very excited to completely re-work my class for next year and I have enlisted the students to help me.  Next year we will still have a gaming class with the amazing culture that we've built this year but in addition we are working towards complete gamification of the course.  I sought out the students input along the way because, as always, I want to hear their input.  The students created the "game mechanics" and badges that would be awarded and we worked together to build a gamification process to motivate students to go above and beyond.  It is important to note that the XP and badges they earn will not be for completing regular course work.  You only get awarded XP and badges for going above and beyond which allows me to post the leaderboards for motivation.  Students do of course have have the option to "opt out" of the leaderboard if they do not want the other students to know how much XP they have earned.  Next post I will go into more detail about the usefulness of gamification but here are some of the things my students and I came up with for next years game!

Student Created Badge Examples:

Below is a summary of how rules and descriptions of the overall "game":

Story (fictitious):

Tencent Holdings Limited has left the video game industry and now the remaining companies are vying to control the industry!  Test the strength of your company and individual game development skills to try to prove your company and division is the best!

Rules:

You earn badges for various things.

You can’t be rude towards other players and or not showing sportsmanship. This is for fun.

Each player must cooperate with their division (group) and company (period).

No cheat codes.

Leaderboards:

There will be four different sets of leaderboards. One ranking the companies (periods) as a whole against each other, one ranking the individuals in their respective companies against everyone else in that company, one ranking the individuals against everyone in all three companies, and one ranking the members of the divisions/departments in each company against the rest of that respective company.  You can opt-out from the individual leader board rankings if you wish- see Dr. Kirk to do so.

Leaderboard Descriptions

1.  Companies (periods)

2.  Divisions/Departments (groups of 5)

3.  Individuals (from all three companies)

4.  Individuals (only listed with others from their own company)

The rankings will be based on XP. Each individual’s XP is added towards their division and company. Say, SONY had 200 XP total, and a division in that company had 20 XP, before one of their members, Sharon, earned an extra 5 XP, giving their division 25 XP and their company 205 XP.

Each company’s XP can be raised or lowered at any time if each company does not have the same number of players participating.

Levels:

Level 1 (50 XP) - Entry Level QA Tester

Level 2 (75 XP) – Game Designer

Level 3 (100 XP) - Lead Designer

Level 4 (125 XP) - Project Manager

Level 5 (150 XP) - Creative Director

Level 6 (175 XP) – Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Chief Executive Officer is the highest level/title but you can continue to accumulate points.

XP:

The XP earned through the badges will grant the player access to any reward that the card specifies, if specified, plus an XP bonus depending on how quickly the badge was earned and how much XP it was. There shouldn’t be a bonus for a card easily obtained/able to be normally achieved in a day. 

Starter Badges:

Self-explanatory. Players only gain these badges once at the beginning of the game (school year), and cannot be earned later on.

Leader Badges:

The same Leader Badge can only be earned a limited amount of times. The limit depends on the badge itself. If it’s a badge that can easily be exploited by offering max XP (15), only allow each player to earn it three-five times (depending on how difficult it is to earn said badge). 

Mini Badges:

This type of badge can be earned up to 10 times (depending on the badge- only badges 5 points or less). Keep in mind the limit, especially if it offers the max XP (10) to prevent exploitation of the system. Mini badges worth more than 5 points can be limited by the teacher at any time but to start we’ll put the limit at 3 times per year. Participation mini badges (worth 1 point each) can be earned each day.   

Side Quests:

Players can only complete a specific Side Quest once. If the player decides to complete the same Side Quest more than once, they will only receive that badge once, regardless of the amount of XP the badge is worth.  The side quest they choose must be good quality that took time outside of class to complete.

Negative Badges:

Players earn this type of badge which removes XP from their overall XP for ignoring assignments, being a hothead, watching too many hours of unrelated YouTube, being rude, etc.  It pays to work hard and be kind to others!

Boss Level:

Divisions will face against each other in their own company over large amounts of XP. These competitions can range from constructing a specific game to creating the best assets. It’s somewhat like an Olympics. It challenges each division on everything that’s expected in a decent game. The winning division in that company will receive a fixed XP boost and will be able to compete with the winning divisions from the other companies. The overall winning division will receive a bigger XP boost and earn a pizza (or some kind of relatively universally appreciated food stuff like that). The XP earned will not go towards individual scores but it will go to the divisions.

Winning Condition:

To win this game, the player/division/company must have more XP than anyone else. There will be different awards for the winners of each section, but each award will be different, the grandest one going to the player with the highest overall XP.

 

 

Students in Control

I watched a Ted talk today by Willem Jan Renger about games as a way for teaching and learning.  He talked about teachers who are afraid of technology- teachers who need control so put the phones away when you walk in the class and you can get them back at the end.  Teachers who are part of a generation gap when it comes to technology because we were not raised with it and it is true.  Even young teachers like myself have not been using technology as long as most of my students.  I got my first laptop when I was in high school in 2001 and barely used it.  I just started using the internet effectively for learning in the past 10 years when my students have used it since they were very young- maybe even five or six. 

I strive constantly to keep up on new technology and not be a part of that generation gap and to not be afraid to try out new technology in my classroom.  I don't want to limit my students on what resources they can use.  I don't want to remove tools that could be useful in learning just so I have more control and yes, that does mean that a student may take advantage of it occasionally.  Personally, I would rather give my students more freedom and have 1 student on YouTube watching a music video and 20 students on tutorials learning what interests them than say no one can use YouTube in my classroom.

I want a classroom where the students have control and responsibility.  They get dynamic feedback and are required to use strategic decision making- just like games require players.  I want my students to feel like respected equals who are a part of my class- not students who have no control.  I want my classroom to be ran like a video game which never treats players like players but instead puts them in the game and gives them full control.  We hold students back by assuming the worst will happen if we let them have freedom and flexibility. 

Instead of longer seat time, lectures, and standardized tests we should be allowing students to stay in classes longer when they need help and less when they are ahead of the class.  We need to allow students to apply the things they are learning to problem solving projects instead of filling in multiple choice bubbles.  We teachers need to do better and it will be harder but it is time we take the harder route and do what is best for our students instead of what is easier for ourselves.

To see the Ted talk the link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPePpD5kPJo

Facilitation

Last week visited a school in Louisiana- St. Charles Satellite Center.  It is a school not unlike CAS with smaller class sizes, project based learning, and a flexible environment.  Although I get to see the progress my students make every day it was great to see a similar learning environment where students use critical thinking and problem solving skills throughout class.  Talking with those students also made me remember why I love doing what I do.  I felt like I lost site of that (at least slightly) during the rush of the new semester and starting my dissertation but after the school visit I am reengergized and back on track.  Once I returned I had an open discussion with my students about the recent quality of their work and how I wanted them to take even more ownership.

My students are working on finishing up a major game build and I love walking around the room and hearing the conversations they are having; it really engergizes me (well that and coffee).  Fixing issues together, researching coding errors, and learning how to do test cases.  It is amazing what they can accomplish with nothing more than facilitation.

We hinder students when we give them the answers up front.  We sell learners short when we hand them step by step instructions instead of allowing them to discover a process on their own.  It is important to have facilitators to help guide but I hope that is all I am, a guide and not someone who feels the need to control every little thing.