During #DBC50Summer last year, I chose to implement (at least) one thing from each of the Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc books. I continue that practice now through #DBCBookBlogs; some thing are able to be implemented immediately, while some take time. Some haven’t been finished while some haven’t even started. Last summer, I read P is for Pirate, the third book in the DBC, Inc line co-authored by Dave and Shelley Burgess. To implement this adorable alphabetical picture book for adults, I chose to select five words that I hope students will use when describing my class environment. In Teach Like a PIRATE, Dave touches on this idea with a letter-writing exercise (see tweet below), and the Burgesses continue this idea making the 5-word GPS as the letter G in P is for Pirate.

I love the fact that I can read #tlap again and again, always picking up something new each time! This quote jumped off the page in the Transformation section today!

“You HAVE to have a vision…” – that’s what #EduEyeExam is about! Can’t wait to share my journey SOON! pic.twitter.com/sQLIGznGxm

— Alicia Ray (@iluveducating) July 8, 2019

My five words for 2018-2019 were:

• Welcoming
• Safe
• Exciting
• Memorable
• Uncommon

You can find more on why I chose each word here.

At the end of each quarter, I had students give me a grade based on how they felt I did with each of these areas. This grade was given on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. I was hoping for 4s and 5s from every student. Here’s what I received this year, and it was an eye-opener for sure!

Welcoming

1st Quarter: 97.4%

2nd Quarter: 98.2%

3rd Quarter: 90.5%

4th Quarter: 92.5%

Safe

1st Quarter: 93.7%

2nd Quarter: 91.6%

3rd Quarter: 88.3%

4th Quarter: 85.3%

Exciting

1st Quarter: 85.8%

2nd Quarter: 84.4%

3rd Quarter: 80.2%

4th Quarter: 78.5%

Memorable

1st Quarter: 73.3%

2nd Quarter: 69.5%

3rd Quarter: 57.8%

4th Quarter: 56.9% (ouch)

Uncommon

1st Quarter: 82.2%

2nd Quarter: 84.1%

3rd Quarter: 78.3%

4th Quarter: 71.9%

Students were also given the option to anonymously submit comments. Here are some of the comments I received (with no edits).

• Keep doing what you’re doing it’s great I would just add a couple of actives with what were doing in your class.
• You should get some last kids on earth books
• we should have more time in here cause we only see you 1 a mouth
• I think you should get more have everyone doing something in class.
• I think that the media class is like other classes but it is made fun.
• that i reall love her class
• To have one day when we go to our classes like normal but just play on our phones or do whatever.
• I love her class and I always get excited when we get to come to the Media Center
• i love coming to the media center
• I don’t feel very safe cause there are so many windows.
• you should let us have free time
• No because if someone dont feel comfortable about being here she has to change something.
• Through out the whole year media has been fun ❤
• I think we should come at least twice a month so I can remember things better.
• i really think we should have more exciting activitys
• Do more games that are educational
• i dont like this class!!!!!!>
• better time mangagement
• I want to do something else than what we do already like instead of typing we should do more interactive things like vr and stuff
• i feel save and welcome its just not that exciting
• thanks for making your classes fun but serious at the same time
• I don’t feel as safe because of the class windows, and how easily someone could break in.

So what do I do with this next year? I continue to make students feel welcome in the space, while also pushing to make sure I make our experiences in media more memorable and more uncommon than ever before. I completely agree with the student who mentions “better time management”. Because the majority of my time is co-teaching in other subject areas, I only get 57 minutes per month with students in media classes (which is what this survey is about). I cram as much into those 57 minutes as I can 10 times per year. I realize it can definitely be hard to remember what we did the month before, but I’m going to work even harder to make that happen.

As for the window comment, we are in the front of the school with a large wall of windows and two doors (which remain locked) that lead outside. Our media center feels very open, and for some that openness may feel unsafe. I can’t move windows, but I can provide several areas where those students feel more secure.

I don’t see this as a failure, by any stretch. If 7 out of 10 kids feel that their time in the media center is uncommon and exciting, I’m on the right track! Also worth mentioning, we spent the majority of our time together this year learning research skills, copyright laws, and digital citizenship.

School-Wide Implementation

Finally, I had teachers do this exercise at the beginning of the school year last year. Students then chose words from a drop-down list to see if they could identify which words their teachers used to describe their class. Check out the results here! It was pretty neat to see if students matched their teachers. I found it interesting that our encore teachers showed the same pattern across grade levels! 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students found their classes to be fun, welcoming, creative, challenging, and exciting overall!

What are your five words and how will you determine if your students are buying what you’re selling them?