Igniting Curiosity: New Approaches to Get Teens Excited About Learning | Season 2, Episode 4

In this episode of Falling for Learning Podcast called Igniting Curiosity: New Approaches to Get Teens Excited About Learning - Episode 56, T.D. Flenaugh dives into the core reasons why traditional schooling methods fail to engage teens and how innovative approaches can reignite their passion for learning. This episode is packed with actionable insights and practical strategies for parents, educators, and advocates to help transform the educational experience for teens.

---

 Key Discussion Points

1. The Problem with Traditional Schooling

   - Traditional methods haven't evolved in decades, leading to disengagement.

   - Importance of finding innovative ways to engage learners.

2. Project-Based Learning (PBL)

   - Shift from teacher-centered to student-centered learning.

   - Examples of PBL: Advocating for community policy changes, publishing a book, starting a social media campaign.

  - Benefits of PBL: Real-world implications, civic engagement, and enhancing academic skills through practical application.

  - Success stories: Watch our interview that features Social Justice Learning Institute’s 

impact on youth -  SJLI Interview with Derek Steele - 

https://youtu.be/Nr3aFlE4e_g?feature=shared

3. Maker Spaces and Maker Labs

   - Definition and benefits of maker spaces: Hands-on learning through tools and creative 

projects.

  - Types of projects: Art, robotics, coding, culinary arts.

  - How to implement maker spaces in schools and communities.

  - Encouraging entrepreneurship and trade skills among teens.

- Here is a link to the HGTV show that features a makerspace for building and designing 

furniture - Flea Market Flip - https://www.hgtv.com/shows/flea-market-flip

- Los Angeles also has a makerspace for kids. Find out more - https://lamakerspace.org/

4. Interdisciplinary Learning

  - Combining multiple subject areas to enrich learning.

   - Examples: Writing poetry about history, creating science fiction, using 3D printers to understand viruses.

  - Benefits: Broadening educational dimensions and enhancing creativity.

5. Passion Projects and Independent Research

   - Encouraging students to explore interests beyond the classroom.

   - Examples: Participating in research projects with organizations like the Natural History Museum’s Community Science Initiative - 

 - Personal anecdotes: The host's experience with gardening as a passion project.

   - How to support teens in pursuing their passions, even in limited spaces.

- Community Science with the Natural History Museum - 

https://nhm.org/community-science-nhm

6. Alternative Assessments and Grading

Transcript

TD Flenaugh: 0:00

Your child is bored at school, and I'm going to tell you why. School - the way that it is fundamentally taught, has not changed for decades, even hundreds of years in some cases, and that is a huge problem, especially our teens are... Our teens are especially having a problem being motivated and excited to learn. So we need to make sure that we are thinking about innovative ways and new ways to engage learners in schooling, so that we have a generation that loves to learn and is engaged. We want to make sure that they are making strides in the world, they are reaching their goals, and they are on track for success. I All right, thank you for joining us. Here we are on track to have a wonderful, beautiful podcast look, because we've been using our Ecamm live and so shout out to my producer, Ella Glasgow, who has been helping me, you know, level up and glow up The Falling for Learning Podcast. We're really happy about that. So the next thing that we are going to be talking about during this episode is really about how important it is to ensure that we are being innovative in our approach to learning. So we're going to talk about some ways that it's really going to help us to think about how we can rethink the learning process, the learning environment. This is for our homeschool parents. This is for our public school parents, our private school parents, all of us out there, because we can advocate for these changes, right? And we can even put them in place ourselves. We might be a part of these processes. We're going to talk about opportunities to do that. I've got my notes and I'm ready for it. Okay, okay, so let's get into it. First of all, let's talk about project based learning. So project based learning can be achieved by instead of having a teacher centered approach, right? This is what I'm going to teach through the year. We're talking to students about what topics they're interested in, and taking those topics and designing a project that's going to have a real world implications. So it could be something like getting a particular policy changed that is in their community. It could be them actually publishing a book, them starting a social media campaign to advocate for a new policy, a new law, a new type of protection that they need or something that they need to stop doing, right? Because sometimes there's over policing, or there is really draconian types of policies in place against youth, and when they can speak up about it, and we can make a change for them, they're going to feel better about what's going on in their community and in their life, right? So project based learning, again, could come out as something that is done by a community organization, or something like that. I've talked about before the Social Justice Learning Institute that we had the director on as a guest about how they get children into that youth participatory action right in changing laws and changing policies in their district and the Los Angeles Unified School District. So the show notes have it. So you could take a look at that episode. You want to know more about that. Of course, as parents, we could advocate for certain organizations to come on our campus and work with our students so they could have that type of project based learning. Individual teachers could also implement this in their school, if they have the autonomy to do so. Certain schools have more stringent policies on what needs to be taught, when it needs to be taught, and how it needs to be taught. So parents can get involved through the School Site Council and advocate for them to have more autonomy, to bring about learning in a way that it has civic engagement attached to it. I had a colleague that had advocated for there to be a crosswalk, to be put in a crosswalk, and a crossing guard in his neighborhood school, and they were able to advocate for that through, you know, the action research, right? They're not just researching for researching sake, but they're researching, because the teacher is guiding them through a process of how you engage in changing your community. You're using your reading, you're using your writing, you're listening and speaking skills, sometimes even your math skills, measuring certain things, about money, about you know, the distance to the how long the the crosswalk takes for people to go through, you know, looking at how many cars go through, all these different metrics you could be measuring and using those mathematic skills for real world application and really advocating for a policy, going to the council meetings and talking to people about what you want and why you want it, writing articles, putting up social media postings, reels, videos, short, little documentaries, public service announcements, so that you can get it done. So it means a lot to kids when they are able to make a change and they're not just doing work for work sake, right? And that's what some of them think they're doing. They don't know what the reason they're doing this. They think it is just like it used to be, and it's just so that they can check off some boxes, instead of thinking about how it's used for liberation, how it's used to engage them in the political process, in being a citizen that is helping and supporting other citizens that they live with, being a good neighbor, right? So that brings me to the next topic, which is having to do with maker spaces and maker labs. So I don't know if you've heard about this, but there are things on television, and it's like there's a show on HGTV where they have maker spaces, where they do these swap meets. They have these swap meets, these flea markets, and people buy things. They give them money to buy things, and they will up cycle the stuff. They will make something new. They'll make something different. And the way they do that is they let them go to a maker space where they have saws, tools, things they could drill. They give them a little bit of money to, you know, buy things and to, you know, put things together, to paint. And so maker spaces can be used for different purposes. Of course, it could be about art, building furniture. It could also be a maker lab, as far as dealing with robotics, dealing with coding, making different things, with using electronics. So there's all different reasons for maker spaces. They also could be a kitchen or something like that, to be very creative in cooking and culinary arts. So that is another way to get kids involved. Now, obviously there are some schools that allow kids and have the resources for kids to be in a cooking class, to be in a coding class, to be in drafting or construction. So they do have maker spaces that are available to them depending on the children's schedule. They may not be able to take that course or may not be eligible for the course. So sometimes they have after school activities or clubs that they could get involved with. And again, think about advocating for this and parents who are homemaker parent or homeschooling parents, sorry, homeschooling parents, make sure that you reach out to the community and see in your collaborative schooling circles and homeschooling collectives that you're talking to one Another to see about what you can do to help make this happen, because kids are very imaginative. And when we're talking about our secondary kids, they're very imaginative and they're very capable. And of course, they're capable for showing them and leading them in that direction. And while some of our kids, and we've talked about this a lot, are not. Wanting to do four year university is very lucrative. To be an entrepreneur, to be a person who is a maker, to be a person who does trade and who creates so help the child to pursue their passions and their interest. They might get into it and realize, nope, I'd rather go to college. Or they may be like, This is my passion. This is what I'm going to do. People could be buying things from them before they graduate from high school, before they graduate from middle school, if they're really good at it. So get them involved and think about how you can be creative in the learning process with your child. It is going to mean so much to them, if you're thinking about how to help them pursue their passions, their interest and their goals, and not just make learning about sitting down and reading from a book, but actually getting involved in making things and putting out content into the world in different ways, not just one way, writing something or reading it or or whatever, but also building things as well, advocating for something, pushing for change, right? So that brings us to the third way, is interdisciplinary learning. So as an English teacher, one of the really great things that I love, love live about English is that I could teach almost anything and teach English I have been fortunate enough, and part of my teaching journey to be at school sites where they are okay with us being creative and pursuing the type of topics that we're interested in and so so one of those things that you could do with interdisciplinary so I taught English and history. Interdisciplinary is all about more than one subject area. So with our English students, who are also learning history, we were able to write poetry about history, right? We were able to do some theater arts in our history class. We were able to create some historical fiction with what we were learning in history, so math and science teachers as well. Can do the labs and get the math and the science together. I even had colleagues who they were in a grade ahead of me, and I thought it was such a great idea, but I didn't do it because they were already doing it with their the next grade level was the English teacher and the science teacher joined together and had created science fiction. So they learned about science, and they were able to make fiction based on the science that they learned. And then even I had another colleague who leveled it up and even had access to 3d printers. So then they could print, for example, a virus that they created, the shape of the virus and how, based on the shape, what they've learned which ones were kind of stickier. Viruses easier to be contracted, like it's because it's shaped in this way. It's easier to be spread. It's easy to be, you know, it's basically very contagious. So so these are different ways to really level up the engagement with kids. So sometimes it could be student centered, but sometimes we are thinking outside of the box, because it is true that certain content areas you are supposed to be teaching certain content. Now, the way that you teach it, of course, can be creative, and that's what we're thinking about, being creative and doing it, and so teaming up with another teacher in a subject area to think about how we can, you know, broaden the dimensions of what we're teaching, how we're teaching it, and making it very engaging and creative for the students. So interdisciplinary learning sometimes comes in the forms of having double blocks, like I said when I was teaching middle school, teaching both the English and the history with our students really was something that gave me more space to do creative things with the students, and we really had a good time together. Okay, so this brings me to the passion projects and independent research. Now, sometimes kids can go beyond what's in the classroom. Like I said, you know, advocating for a project through project based learning, but also they might be even presenting their work at conferences, getting involved with resource research organizations such as the Natural History Museum offers. The Natural History Museum offers something very special. I'm going to learn about it right after the. Break I Okay, so the natural Natural History Museum has projects where you as a individual, right, could be individuals, or you as your class can be a part of the research going on in The community. So tracking the type of flowers and plants and animals and insects that you find, and there's a way that you can add it to that research and information, those observations, to the Natural History Museum, and give them information. And so you, in fact, are working with the scientist in the area, so it's something that you could be a part of. And I highly encourage you to do that. And again, in the show notes, the information is there and we're giving you value. So make sure you stop. Give us a like right subscribe. If you're not already a part of the falling for learning community, we're here for you to make sure you have the value that your kids need, that you're thinking outside of the box. Your child is getting the advantages to make sure that they are on that path to success. Okay, so think about how you can get your kids doing research in their community, how they can be doing research and presenting at conferences, how they can be entered into contest. And it could be as simple as being a part of the fair, putting your what you did to grow your science project at the fair. That is a way of being a part of passion projects and independent research. When I was a kid, my passion project was my garden. So we lived on some land. It was kind of junky land. Some people would call it a junkyard. Anyways, my dad did clear me some part of the land so that I could have a garden. And he even made me a makeshift greenhouse, and we grew tomatoes. We grew up in Alaska. I grew up in Alaska, so this Alaska during the summer, right? We had those 24 hours of daylight, and we were able to grow some big old tomatoes, a big old cabbage, greens, you know, carrots. My carrots were sweet. And in Alaska we don't get the best produce. And when I tasted sweet carrots, I was like, This is ridiculous. Out of the ground. Rinse them off. They taste sweet, nothing like that harsh stuff in, um, on the grocery store, and I'm allergic even to whatever that is in there. But, you know, it's a little aside there. I don't know what that is that they put on the carrots, but if it's raw, it's giving me, you know, swollen lips, swollen tongue, so I don't mess with uncooked carrots unless they come straight out of the garden and they are delicious, right? Tastes so much different. Okay, so independent research and passion projects is something you can get your child involved in, even if you live in an apartment, you can get them a little gardening area in the apartment, trust me, it works. You can do it, you can do it, you can do it. Okay. So now the last thing that we want to talk about is the so there's these alternative grading and alternative assessments. Now we know if you're like in public schools or in most school systems, there's some kind of mandated test because they want to make sure that they're tracking growth. Now is a lot of been vilified about testing, but of course, we need some type of assessment to see if the work and the learning that we're doing is. Is actually translating to growth and achievement with our children, right? So we do have to have some assessments, and alternative assessments as one way. And an alternative assessment would be for children to present their work to an audience to be able to perform something, right? Many, many music teachers, orchestra teachers, theater teachers, their assessment is seeing how well they do in a performance, right? Because that's the ultimate test. Can you get up on that stage and do what you've been doing privately or in the comfort of your classroom. So that is a test that is very difficult to refute, right? It's like it's a real test. You know, can you sing the same way you can in my classroom or during our lesson? The way in front of the audience is hard, right? So that's an alternative assessment. It's not a paper pencil, like sit down answer the fill in the blank. It's can you produce? Can you perform? And so thinking of alternative ways, another way is a portfolio system saying by the end of this semester or this grading period, you need to have these things. You need to have an essay. You know. You need to make sure that you cited sources in those essays. You need to make sure you have a narrative. And you know, by the end of the semester, you need to have be able to read several books and do notes on them and produce a project related to that book. You need to have produced a speech or a podcast by the end of the semester, so you may have a menu of performances or tasks that you completed to demonstrate your knowledge and your understanding. So it's very important, do you have that? Can you show that? And, you know, it's, again, a lot more challenging than just filling in the blank, or, you know, just a test that you take, or even an essay test, right when you really have to approve, when you really have to perform it and produce in real time. You know, it's a challenge. So that's an alternative assessment, which also leads to thinking about alternative grading practices. So there is something that they were calling mastery learning, and in my district, they've changed it to, what did they call it? I thought I forgot the name real quick. So there's mastery learning and grading has changed to, I don't know what it was called. It'll come to me in a minute. So mastery learning. They wanted to change it because, you know, we're in California, and Californians are very sensitive about, you know, terminology, and so mastery, of course, things that are like it has its roots in slavery. So they change the language. But I know what it is. It's equitable grading and instruction. So they changed it to equitable grading and instruction, because it really is about making sure that children are not penalized for things that do not involve them. So the grades for homework are very much reduced. I don't think you could it's less than it has to be 10% or less, because we know that homework is really about if your parent is there and able to be there and help you with your work and to make sure that you're getting that work done. And because everyone doesn't have the same home life and family life, they may not have someone who's able to check on them to make sure their homework is done or to even help them with homework. So giving a kid a fail because they didn't do homework, you know? So you can't you get it, it's worth 10% or less of the grade for homework, because we cannot penalize kids whose parents don't prioritize homework or who aren't able to help them with the homework. Okay? So that's part of the equitable grading and instruction. Another part of it is not having zeros, right? So not penalizing kids for not doing assignments. Because, again, a lot of that does happen. Happen have to do with parent. Parental involvement. Is my parent going to help me get my work done? It also has to do with a work habit which is different than my ability. So I may be very lazy or irresponsible or disorganized, or have a chaotic home life. There could be a number of things and I don't get my work done. I lose my work. Um. My work is not organized. It's, you know, crumpled up. I have a baby brother that tears it up. Whatever the case is, getting zeros is oftentimes, statistically, very hard to recover from. And so what happens if kids are getting a lot of zeros, they're getting penalized for things that are out of their control. Is what happens, is kids give up. So kids get bored because they've given up because statistically, it's hard to overcome a zero, they're not going to get a passing grade if they try right, if they get really in stuck, and then we don't even, we're not even thinking about the kids and their mental health. What is happening? Did something happen in their life where they're not able to really concentrate on their work or get their work done, and then they're trying to pass a class, but statistically, they got zeros. They got so much writing on the homework grade, and they're going to fail. Now I do want to say this. Let me just say it. Let me just say it. I have found that some kids take advantage of the No, zero policies of not penalizing kids for late work. And so as teachers and educators, we really have to think about ways to combat this, because they're finding those loopholes. And so it's not perfect, right? As you're changing and making making a shift, it is very much you're going to find there'll be some loopholes, there'll be some problems, and we're still working those out. Different teachers do have some kind of ideas of what they do about it. I've done some things, but not to get too far into that. More about alternative grading or equitable grading is if a child fails a test or an essay, they will have an opportunity to do it. So we know, and the way I grew up, you got that zero, you didn't turn it in. That's it a zero. You cannot turn it in tomorrow. You can't. And then if they did, you do turn it in tomorrow. It's like 50% worth of the grade, so you still are going to get an F no matter what you do. And so the alternative grading is thinking about ways to be equitable to students, not just students that get have the extra support at home, but everybody is able to retake the test. And I know like this used to be a thing where you know certain parents know to ask to get a retest, and some parents didn't know to ask to get a retest, so the kids whose parents asked got it, and those who didn't didn't right. And so this is now letting everyone know we're all able to take the test if you don't do well, you're all able to resubmit your essay if you didn't get a hit score, and so that they all have an opportunity to do better. Super important. Okay, the other thing that I want to talk about with the grading system is making sure that the percentages aren't inequitable as well. Because when you have 10% for an A, 10% for a B, right? 90 to 100 for a, and then most of it was reserved for an F, right? So it's the zero to 59%. Is the F. So it's easier to fail because there's so much room for failure, so then changing those percentages so it's more equitable to get it F, A, B and C, right. Again, I have seen some kids really take advantage of that, and again, we it's a work in progress for me about really trying to figure out the best way to give students grades in an equitable way, and, you know, give them extended time, but then not be in the situation where I have, you know, 60 students turning in 60 assignments a week before the end of the school year, right? Because that could happen if we just give them unlimited amount of time to turn and work, and that is a challenge, right? You want to be equitable, but at the same time, you have to be realistic. And there are deadlines, and part of the issue I find with it is thinking about the lessons not being learned, because I don't know if the kids get it, if they know, they just have, you know, just an extended amount of time, an extended amount of time. So they do have a cut off for me, and I could tell you about that in another episode, but at this point, we know that there are things that we can do to make sure that our children are more engaged in the learning process, and that's by. Trying by trying alternative methods for engaging them in the process. So first of all, thinking about how we can have them in project based learning. So it could be civic opportunities. It also could be bigger projects, like creating a novel or something like that, creating a magazine every month or twice a month, twice a year, every quarter, so different, you know, big projects that they could put together that includes the standards of their learning, and it is a tangible, real world product. Or, like I said, that youth participation, youth participatory action, right? So they are engaging in a civic in the civic process, advocating for a new policy in multiple ways, right? A social media campaign, a an ad campaign, where they're doing videos, and all of those different ways to bring attention, to highlight an issue. This is really, you know, a direct when we think about that, that is the opposite. It's the opposite of that school to prison pipeline, right? Instead of a school to prison pipeline, we are thinking of a school to legislator pipeline, right? They are engaged in that legislative process and that civic responsibility. So let's change that game by thinking about alternative ways. Of course, we can have maker spaces for children. So that number two way is having maker spaces, maker labs to make sure that kids have access to all types of tools and materials to create and to engage their imagination, to engage in critical thinking and problem solving, right when I think about that supermarket, it's not supermarket. It is the swap meet. Is like us. I don't even know the name of the show right now, but I'll put it in the show notes, but it's the they are going to the swap meet or to a flea market, and they are engaging in a competition about who can remake and upcycle these materials best, make the most money, right? Save the most money and get in that Makerspace and create something that is that is like such good TV, but I know the people who are engaged in it feel so empowered, like I had this piece of crap and I created something new with this, right? So, yeah, and this could be, you know, created in your individual home, in a school you could have, you know, actual professionals come in and help, you know, volunteer and help guide kids in, in using those things so and again, from school to trade. That's, you know, creating new pathways, not to school to prison, but school to trade. Get them the Career Ready, college ready, right? And then, of course, helping them to get into passion projects, passion projects and independent research, thinking about ways where they can go beyond the school and actually present at conferences, get into the contest, involve themselves with scientists in the community that are researching the environment, and have them submit their research and be a part of the people who are contributing to environmental progress, environmental Preservation and then observation, right? And then, of course, the alternative assessments, right? Really talking about how we can challenge children to perform and to not just sit down and do paper and pencil tests, but actually create a podcast, create a newspaper, create a speech, and actually, you know, be a performer in a play, and get judged in and assessed that way. And, of course, the alternative grading systems, so giving them a path so that they could still pass, instead of giving them zeros or not letting them make up work or not considering that maybe they did have a meltdown, they had a bad day, they had a major life event that ended up bringing down their test scores. And some things are protected, obviously, if they lose a sibling or something like that. That they Well, let me just stop, because I know a situation where a child did lose their sibling, and they did fail and and everyone failed them, and it's like, do you understand this kid's family member died in front of them? And how could you work with her? You know, but sometimes we don't know or or I don't know if the kid let them know, or if other people let them know. It's something I heard of, so I wasn't directly involved in this situation. But again, sometimes we don't know what kids are going through, so we have to be sensitive to that and help them out. And and again, that's why the alternative grading works, because it's equitable for everyone. It's not just for a kid who had this major life event, but everyone gets extended time. And of course, when they get older, they're going to have to learn some hard lessons. But of course, in the meantime, we are helping them to feel that they can be successful, instead of having them so far in the hole with the 22% and no way to it's halfway through the semester, there's no way to pass at this point, right? So the alternative grading system gives them a path to pass even when they've had major mess ups. And you know, there's a lot of debate about it and controversy, but we know that kids who are failing a lot of times have some social, emotional and trauma going on that really speaks to that. And sometimes you could look at a kid and you're like, that's not what's going on with this kid, and you actually don't know. You don't know what they're going through at home, what they're facing at home, and especially high schoolers, they're not necessarily going to tell you. Sometimes you don't have that relationship with them. Sometimes you didn't know them long enough for that, and they're very much guarded. So it's why it's equitable for everyone. Everyone gets these particular advantages so that there's a path for them to pass, even when they've messed up significantly. So there you have it. Let's put, you know, put a little like a comment, subscribe, be a part of our community. And if you want to hear more topics, please let me know, because we're want to be here for you to make sure that you have the topics and information you need to get your kids together, to get them on track, to get them not just to learning, but to love learning. Okay, have a great week. You.