Operating on Data Mathela: Who Says Kids Get to Have All the Fun?

I have been a P.I.R.A.T.E most of my teaching career and just didn't know it until reading Teach Like a PIRATE many years ago. Over the years I have had many ups and downs with how much of my "PIRATE" approach shows up.  I have allowed others to silence me, I have not done the out of the box things I have wanted at times, and there are times I have stepped really far outside of the box. 

The past 2 years have been a great adventure and struggle at the same time. I've been blessed to go to Ron Clark Academy and see so many engaging ways to work with students in a way that they reach high levels of learning. The problem....I don't have my own classroom to go back and implement these great strategies in. I am an instructional facilitator so much of my time is spent working with adults. I knew that in order for me to be fulfilled in this profession and not be burned out, I had to find my PIRATE self again. I had to figure out how to try out some fun, engaging ideas with the adults I work with. 


 Now that all that boring background stuff is out of the way, let's talk about Operating on Data Mathela. The idea was inspired by Kim Bearden at RCA who has sometimes set up an operating room in her class for students to work on words, grammar, and more. After a meeting last week to discuss district benchmark data and an upcoming meeting centered on that data, I knew that I could not avoid discussing our local level data with our teachers. I won't lie. I did NOT....let me say that again...I did NOT want to have this data discussion with my teachers. Aaaannnnndddd based on comments from them, I was doubting they wanted to really have the discussion either. Hey, I'm just trying to be honest and real here. 

Then around 3 or 4 in the morning on a FRIDAY, the idea sprang to life. I knew what had to be done. We were going to operate.

You see I knew that I needed a way to engage myself in the process and therefore engage the teachers in it as well. Every had those moments in the classroom? In a staff room?What better way than to have them scrub in for surgery! Friday morning I scoured our science kits and pulled together most of the materials I needed to create our operating room. Then I set to work printing the needed data for the teachers. Between classroom visits and teacher meetings, I worked on turning the data room into an operating room. I didn't quite have everything I needed so I did pull a few medical supplies from home and made a quick $10 trip to the local dollar store.

An operating room was now ready for patients and surgical teams:

On operation day teacher teams had to scrub in before entering the operating room:

They listened to a quick briefing on our patient, Data Mathela, then proceeded into the OR.

Once in the operating room, teachers had to extract all the foreign objects that seemed out of place (the wadded up pieces of paper with grade level item analysis data on them); everything else could stay. Afterall, everything else was the learning that "stuck" with Data Mathela.

Once all the foreign objects/specimens were collected we made our way to the analysis room to determine a treatment plan for Data Mathela moving forward. 












We removed items from the collection trays, unwrinkled them, and studied the data. Teachers shared what they noticed overall and we referred to the benchmark assessment questions for further discussion. After discussing overall grade level results, teachers received their individual lab reports (their class data). Teachers then used this data to determine a "treatment plan" for their patient (class). 

My biggest goal for the day was for teachers to spend time actually analyzing the data and not focus on comments about the benchmark assessment. Based on discussion, I feel this goal was met. 

My other goal was for teachers to have discussion on ways to incorporate days like today's operating room for their students. Most teachers had numerous ideas on what they could do and the pleasant surprise for me were the confessions from teachers who said things like, "I have really been wanting to try _____" and "I've seen ideas where teachers turn their classrooms into _____". I am encouraged and excited to see what our teachers actual try out in their classes to increase engagement and get our students wanting to come back for more.

As with many things I am a little hard on myself so I did not walk away feeling as energized and excited as I expected. I saw so many ways I could have done things better. Next time I know I will stand  and stay in "character" as the clinical professor. I know that when I sit among the group, my interaction level and energy levels drops off in a drastic way. Next time, I would definitely try to transform the room vs. limiting myself to a tiny space within the so that the atmosphere is throughout the workspace.



In the end, I must say that I would do this again in a heartbeat. I've learned a few things from this first attempt and I look forward to the next one. 


What have you done to transform your classroom? Your meeting space with teachers? Your PLC? What have you turned these spaces into? How did it work out?