How Will I Monitor for Impact? What have I Changed?

I will constantly be looking at how well the workshops are working and making changes as required.

Tracking of students:

From the initial Google doc where I had the students' names at their start points, to use of Trello* to track their progress.  This is so much easier to do and because I put their starting Workshop number on their name card, it is more straightforward to see how far they have moved.

Individual Tracking sheets in the students' books:

I've abandoned these because I was constantly reminding kids to update them.  They just didn't care - and I guess I didn't really, either.

Student organisation for workshops:

Students are expected to turn up on time for their workshop, with their books ruled up, title and learning intention.  At the start of the year they were grotted** if they weren't organised / late.  Now instead of being grotted, they lose HP***.  The other change is that they only need to write their learning intention once - as soon as they move up a workshop.

The table!

We now have a kidney shaped whiteboard table.  The kids like to write on the table, and my upside down writing has improved a lot!  This is a fantastic resource for small group teaching as everyone is really close.

Operating the Workshop Wall

One of the most difficult aspects is when I have a large group.  Now I often divide groups into smaller sub-groups.  It means I don't get to see so many students, but I feel the learning that takes place is a lot more powerful.

When I first started taking workshops I would make my times sequential eg Workshop 2 at 11.30, Workshop 3 at 11.45, Workshop 4 at 12.00 etc., thinking that as students moved up, they would just get a double dose of workshops.  It turned out that I ended up with too many students at different stages of that workshop.  Now I sequence backwards.  It also means I can ensure I have no more than six students per workshop, which is very productive.

*Trello = This was a fantastic find for anything you want to organise in a linear fashion, while keeping track of everyone.

**grotted = QZealand word for fined.  Students have to pay local currency (snidges)

***HP - Health Points in Classcraft, another game which goes on in the background in QZealand.