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Bonnie Nieves says a learner-centered teacher is in the mix.
80 Plays9 months ago
Website: www.educateonpurpose.com
Linked In - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonnie-nieves-b07881101/
Facebook - @biologynieves
Twitter - @biologygoddess
Instagram - @educateonpurpose
Music by AudioCoffee: https://www.audiocoffee.net/
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Learner Centered Spaces podcast, where we empower and inspire ownership of learning, sponsored by Mastery Portfolio, hosted by Star Saxton and Crystal Frommer. In each episode, we will bring you engaging conversations with a wide variety of educators, both in and out of the classroom.
00:00:22
Speaker
This podcast is created for educators who want to learn more about how to make the shift toward learner-centered spaces for their students, schools, and districts, or education at large. The learner-centered spaces podcast is now a member of the Teach Better Podcast Network.
Who is Bonnie Nieves?
00:00:44
Speaker
We are so glad to have Bonnie Nieves as a guest today on Learner-Centered Spaces. She has an M.E.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and Education Leadership. She is a high school teacher at Nipmunk Regional High School in Massachusetts, a science and ed tech consultant, presenter, and author. Bonnie is the founder of Educate on Purpose Coaching, where she provides online courses and virtual and in-person professional development training for schools and individuals.
00:01:14
Speaker
We are so excited to have you on the show today, Bonnie. I'm particularly excited to have you as a part of our show since you were part of my latest book. And I'm so grateful that you were able to contribute and share
Why Did Bonnie Become a Teacher?
00:01:29
Speaker
some ideas. And today we're going to dig a little deeper into, you know, how you became interested in learner centered spaces and maybe an interesting fact that people might not know about you from your journey.
00:01:44
Speaker
I began teaching because I had a really bad educational experience for myself in high school. And I know the more people I talked to, the more it seems that teachers became teachers because they had a great experience or they did not have a great experience. So I wanted to
00:02:10
Speaker
become the teacher that I wish I had when I was in school, which is someone who would let me explore my own interests instead of forcing me to
00:02:24
Speaker
research the things that I wasn't really interested in and write about the things that I was interested in, but in a way that didn't serve me. So the learner centered spaces is really the reason why I started teaching.
What is a Learner-Centered Space?
00:02:41
Speaker
OK, so can you tell us a little bit about what a learner centered space looks like, feels like, sounds like to you? Like when when you hear that term, what does it mean?
00:02:55
Speaker
So when you walk into a learner centered space, you will not immediately know where the teacher is, but you will immediately see high energy interaction between students. And the interactions will look different depending on what they're working on and how they're working on it.
00:03:24
Speaker
And what it feels like is, as a teacher, it's
00:03:32
Speaker
feels like walking on a tightrope across the Grand Canyon where I know I'm going to get to the other side. I'm confident in my ability to get these kids to the other side, but it's all about balancing and when to take back control and when to just trust the process and go one step at a time.
Student-Led Symposium Project
00:04:03
Speaker
paying close attention to what kids are working on and how they interact with their learning. And that can be in a lot of ways. So either what I narrow it down to are two
00:04:26
Speaker
things, either knowledge acquisition or knowledge demonstration, and being able to vary both of those things in ways that are meaningful to the kids.
00:04:44
Speaker
And yeah, I'm sorry, Bonnie. I as you were speaking, I was thinking about all of the different things you're talking about. And do you think you could give an example of some of the things that you're talking about? Because I think you do. I happen to know you do amazing things like this in your spaces. Can you just give the listeners a little window into what it like what it looks like in your particular space or an example?
00:05:14
Speaker
Yeah, let's do what my students are currently working. My students are currently working on a project that we started in October.
00:05:30
Speaker
It's a student-led symposium where the only requirement is for them to produce something that can be displayed publicly.
00:05:48
Speaker
Traditionally, it's displayed publicly in our school's gymnasium, and there are over 100 students this year, so it's a team effort. My students are working on
00:06:02
Speaker
their public displays being either in the form of a poster or a podcast or a course that a person can take that will teach them about the topic that they were interested in. So our process started out with lots of exploratory work and
00:06:28
Speaker
Back in October, when I really was just getting to know students and they were getting to know me, it was a lot more structured.
00:06:40
Speaker
which it has to be because you can't expect students to use unlimited freedom and be able to focus on one thing. So helping them find their interests through a variety of activities, reading, watching videos, going through interactives, and performing lab activities, which I put into
00:07:07
Speaker
a wakelet. So imagine I think a lot of people listening have experience with wakelet. So imagine there are just tons of different types of resources all on similar but not identical topics.
00:07:27
Speaker
And then once students gather information about a topic that they're interested in, they meet with other students like jigsaw style to talk about things that are the same. And then students talk about topics that were very different.
00:07:46
Speaker
in order to finally decide what is going to be able to sustain their interest until January. Because whatever they choose needs to be interesting enough for them to stay engaged until the symposium and to be able to
00:08:11
Speaker
create something that will be meaningful not only to themselves but to the people who attend or see their presentation.
Role of Assessment in Learner-Centered Spaces
00:08:25
Speaker
I like what you said, this is Crystal here, I like what you said about
00:08:30
Speaker
a few minutes ago when you walk into a room and you're not quite sure where the teacher is and I've never really thought of it that way and I think I will always think of it that way now. I'm an administrator at my school and when I walk into a teacher's classroom it always brings me joy when I see the kids buzzing and the teachers amongst the kids kind of in the mix.
00:08:51
Speaker
And that just says there's a liveliness. There's an engagement that's going on in that class. So thank you for putting that in such distinct meaningful words. So I will be sure to use that from now on. So my follow-up question to what you're saying about displaying their work and having an audience, which I love,
00:09:11
Speaker
But I am a math teacher. And I'm curious, how would assessment play a role in a learner-centered space, like you're describing, for skills and something in math? I can see this in science. I can see this in history. I can see this definitely in languages. But in something in math where there's a skill that needs to be demonstrated, what suggestions do you have for teachers for how to assess that in their classroom?
00:09:42
Speaker
For myself, the courses that I teach are biotechnology,
00:09:47
Speaker
anatomy and physiology and freshman health, which I say differently because I don't usually teach freshman health. And I am enjoying the heck out of that. These kids are so fun, usually dealing with juniors and seniors. I don't get the super high energy of freshmen, which is really refreshing. But I will talk about the
00:10:14
Speaker
biotechnology and how this year I took a skill which ordinarily would have been very rote and unengaging and
00:10:34
Speaker
I decided to turn it into a badging process where the tool they need to use is a micropipette, which if you're listening and don't know what it is, you can look up a picture of it. But you've seen people use them on every CSI show in every science lab, and it's a basic tool for anyone. And usually,
00:11:02
Speaker
we would have gone through a series of activities and then get checked off and move on to the next. And each student would go through until they get to complete mastery. And then in the last couple of years, what I found is that
00:11:23
Speaker
Not every student needs to get to complete mastery and what looks like mastery for some isn't mastery for someone else. And I decided to let kids or let's say empower kids to choose the level of mastery they wanted to reach.
00:11:42
Speaker
And this could be based on the course they plan to take next or the career they plan to have or if they're just in the class because they have an interest and they're not sure if they're going to take it to the next level. And now when you start to look at it that way, it made it easier for me to see that not every kid needs to have the same level of mastery. If they're just in this course to be in this course, then, uh,
00:12:13
Speaker
what would be a C level mastery is really good for them and it's enough for them. So it was really student led and student driven and a little competition driven because of the badging. And each time a student demonstrated a skill,
00:12:43
Speaker
they would earn a badge or it was actually a sticker, a colored sticker that they designed for their school ID. And they'd collect the series of badges every time they went up a level. And when they got to what level they felt was mastery, then they all got the same colored sticker.
00:13:09
Speaker
So it wasn't as if you could tell that some kids were at moderate, or our color was blue, and then the top level was pink. It was when you reached the level that you wanted to be at, you got the top level because that was your top level.
00:13:33
Speaker
That is really creative and so cool. It reminds me of like getting belts in martial arts. And it also reminds me of a book called specifications grading by Dr. Linda Nelson, where, and listen, I'll put a link to this in the show notes, but listeners can look up this book, but it's about your hitting mastery and certain skills. And you do that until you're
00:14:01
Speaker
complete it until you have the mastery. And then you can move on to the next one rather than, oh, you got a 75 on this, but we're moving on anyway. And so it kind of reminds me of that with the badging that's really creative.
Advice for Newcomers to Learner-Centered Spaces
00:14:12
Speaker
So my next question, Bonnie, is if there's a listener out there who wants to get started with learner centered spaces and they're not sure where to start, what advice would you give them?
00:14:27
Speaker
Oh, I would say the first step would be to start with student reflections and make sure they understand how important you feel that is in their learning process. And as you start reading their reflections,
00:14:57
Speaker
your next steps are naturally going to lay out for you, I think. I'll also connect with other folks who are doing the same work. And I say this because
00:15:18
Speaker
And I mean this, and I'm not just saying it because Star is in the room, but if it weren't for reading Star's book Hacking Assessment, I wouldn't have gotten to where I am as quickly as I had because I thought I was the only person that had those ideas. And there were things I wanted to try
00:15:46
Speaker
But I didn't have the courage to because I thought no one else was doing it or no one had done it before me and gotten results. So do not underestimate the power of having
00:16:02
Speaker
a supportive group of teachers or any educators on your side and if they're not at your school find them somehow if you're listening to this you're already on the right track and yet let the students help guide you because students are so curious and
00:16:28
Speaker
if you're communicating to them how interested you are in their journey, they will open up and show you how to get them there. Bonnie, you are so kind and I'm glad Hacking Assessment had that impact for you. That was my hope. I certainly
00:16:53
Speaker
I did a lot of things wrong before I got to what ended up in hacking assessments. So I'm glad that you, you were able to learn from my experience and that was meaningful to you. Science and math used to be two of the subjects that most folks pushed back on me. So every time I hear a success story from a math or a science teacher, I'm like particularly
00:17:21
Speaker
I'm more, not that I'm more excited than somebody who's in the humanities, because to me it's a pretty natural fit in the humanities, but there's something special when I hear folks who are
Acknowledging Inspirational Educators
00:17:36
Speaker
in different content areas who did the work and were able to adapt it for their own spaces and see it. And so I'm grateful for your experience, your shared experience after having the courage to take that leap.
00:17:50
Speaker
Because even sometimes when you have models, it's not so easy to do. So to that end, if you could share some of the folks you think could be helpful for others listening right now. So who are some of the shout outs to the people that have helped you develop the learner-centered spaces that you're in? Abby French, absolutely.
00:18:20
Speaker
And Mel McAllister, who teaches a completely different subject in a completely different grade level, but her methods of just kindness and inclusion
00:18:42
Speaker
just transfer. So definitely keep an eye on everything she does. And then my coworker, my colleague, Jim Gorman, who he's
00:18:58
Speaker
not really active on social media, but I definitely need to give him a shout out because he is a complete inspiration to me and just such a valuable person to have in the same building.
00:19:16
Speaker
which leads me to think that everyone listening has that person in their building, right? Or you're the person that someone else is looking for. So you really need to consider that as well, right? If you're not finding the person who inspires you, maybe you're the person who will inspire the next one.
00:19:43
Speaker
Thank you for
Bonnie's Social Media Presence
00:19:44
Speaker
that. And I know our listeners would love to find you online. Where can they do that?
00:19:50
Speaker
So I used to be really active on Twitter, and that's biology goddess. And since the algorithms have changed, I have moved to LinkedIn, where I post most frequently. So I really am just bonding Nieves on LinkedIn so you can search me there.
00:20:15
Speaker
Facebook, biology, Nieves, and Instagram, educate on purpose. Thank you. I'm also wondering, is LinkedIn becoming the new Twitter for teachers? I don't know.
00:20:33
Speaker
We don't have anywhere else to go. I hope not, but it does seem to be. I liked LinkedIn when it had more in-depth content and now people are just posting quick things, which there's nothing wrong with that. That's just not what I was going to LinkedIn for. There's also a really cool
00:20:58
Speaker
It's almost a Twitter replacement called K-12 Leaders. And it was started up by a couple of local educators here, and it's really caught on. So if you're looking for a space to connect that feels like Twitter but doesn't behave like Twitter, then look into K-12 Leaders.
00:21:26
Speaker
Thank you for that tip. I will also add that to the show notes. I have never heard of it, so I will check it out. I want to check it out too. I've never heard of it either. Oh, yeah. I can send you the link to it too.
00:21:42
Speaker
This has been so educational for all of us and we really appreciate your time. Thank you, Bonnie. Oh, thank you. Thanks so much, Bonnie. It's always great to hear from you. Oh, thank you. It's fantastic to have been here and I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. Thank you for learning with us today. We hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as we did. If you'd like any additional information from the show, check out the show notes.
00:22:10
Speaker
Learn more about Mastery Portfolio and how we support schools at masteryportfolio.com. You can follow us on Twitter at masteryforall and on LinkedIn on the Mastery Portfolio page. And we'd love your feedback. Please write a review on your favorite podcasting app.