A Hot Mess? More Like a Soaring Success!

Just like all of us, Ms. Katelyn Schipits prepares for her classes. She meticulously plans and organizes, tries out technology, anticipates problems, and plays out different scenarios. And just like all of us, Ms. Schipits recently was reminded that some days all the prep work in the world just doesn’t matter and a lesson can take a turn for the worst...fast. But does that mean it’s time to scrap the the lesson?

In her Marriage and Family class, Ms. Schipits had planned on using Piktochart with her students as a way for them to demonstrate their knowledge of families on everything from structures of families to types of families to healthy vs. unhealthy families. Piktochart is a cool technology to create easy and engaging infographics and Ms. Schipits saw its potential for this lesson as an alternative to lecturing. In having them create these infographics, she also was able to put the students in charge of their own learning. As previously mentioned, Ms. Schipits prepared for her lesson by checking possible issues that could arise including a quick trip to Ms. Bodden’s office for a few last minute questions about the technology.

So the lesson went off without a hitch, right?

In class that day, Ms. Schipits asked the students to open the app, but found that they were unable to access what they needed and that, in essence, nothing was working correctly. Thinking on her feet, Ms. Schipits asked the students to open Piktochart in their web browser; however, she found that the website, that is not meant for mobile devices, was not easily navigable and again, not yielding the desired results.

So what did she do?

Ms. Schipits thought about what her CTE colleague, Ms. Linda Pribyl, had told her and turned the tables on her students. She explained to the students what she wanted in the end and simply asked them to use something other than a traditional Google Slides presentation. The inspiring words from Ms. Pribyl?

“You have to give up control.”

By the end of class, Ms. Schipits was elated with the students’ hard work and resulting projects. They chose to use a variety of methods including Pic Collage, Baiboard, and Videoscribe. Check out this project created by one of her students with Videoscribe.

Pretty awesome, right?

In the end, the technology created the problem, but also helped remind us as teachers that our very greatest tool in the classroom is our students. Allowing them to choose their route to the final product helped them assume responsibility for the culture of learning in the classroom and to initiate improvements to the lesson. They didn’t just learn about families; they also learned that their willingness to take risks and leadership within the classroom were not only valued, but also needed. How about that for a successful lesson?