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?