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>> You've tuned into HubTalk, a podcast about teaching, learning, and technology.

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>> Welcome back to this episode of HubTalk. I'm Colin Stapp.

>> I'm Bill Hamlin, and we're here with Jean Mittlestaedt. And she is a faculty member here at Chemeketa, and she recently gave a little workshop at our faculty retreat. It was all about countering classroom crickets, and cultivating classroom community. She explored different active learning techniques, like icebreakers, and jigsaw, and many others that we're going to talk with her about today.

>> So Jean has been at Chemeketa since 2009. She teaches part-time here, and also teaches at Portland Community College. She got her bachelor's degree in education from Western Oregon, has a master of arts in teaching, and also a master of arts in English. Jean, welcome, and thank you for coming to talk to us today.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> So, Jean, I have to ask. With the title of your workshop that you gave, "Countering Classroom Crickets," does that mean you've had some classroom crickets in the past?

>> Oh, my, yes. In fact, that's where this workshop grew from. It's -- you stand in front of a classroom, and you ask the greatest question that you have ever created. Perhaps it came to you on the drive down here, and you could not wait to ask it of your students. So you ask it, and -- there are the crickets. So that was happening a little too often for me, and I started to ask myself, "Is it me? Is it them? What do I need to be doing differently so that we're not hearing these crickets?" But the ultimate aim was not just to get rid of the crickets. It was to get students talking to each other, so that, you know, maybe if I asked a question, they didn't feel like answering in front of the class, but they would talk to each other. And so, that's really where this came from.

>> When you had these crickets, these were open-ended questions? You asked a thoughtful, deep question, and got no reply whatsoever.

>> Sometimes it's just a quick fact-based question. I find yes and no's are usually answered, but even when I ask, "What is the appeal to logos? What is that all about?" And I see a little deer in the headlights myself sometimes. But it is, of course, the open-ended questions as well. Nobody wants to appear wrong, or stupid, or they really don't know, so they're not going to open themselves up, and seem wrong or stupid. And so, I wanted to think of ways that I could do better with giving them chances to answer, so they don't feel dumb, or stupid, or like they really don't know. And as a lot of research has shown, meaning-making in the classroom is often made collaboratively. And so, that's another motivation behind a lot of the techniques that I used in the workshop that I shared.

>> So you mentioned the key word of "research." So did you start looking at the research and see what was out there, talk to other faculty of what they're doing? How did you come to changing your approach?

>> Well, a lot of the things that I do have come from workshops, and reading professional journals, and talking to colleagues. And sometimes it's just -- I hear about a good idea, and I try it, and it works great. So I try it again, and it maybe works differently. So part of the research is trying something in my own classroom and seeing how it works, and sometimes it does work wonderfully well, and sometimes, I fall flat on my face. But that is how we all learn, is trial and error. If we try it and it doesn't work, we figure out how to do it differently. And so, part of that, too, I think, involved me being willing to step out of my comfort zone. Of course, I probably am an age where I come from a time of lecture, test, lecture, test, lecture, test, and as we know, that is not the most effective way to teach, especially adult students. And so, I have really worked very hard the last several years on what can I do with my students to give them more hands-on, more active learning opportunities. And one of the best things I can do is just give them opportunities to talk to each other, and have a conversation, and that's what a lot of these activities are for.

>> With more engagement and interaction through some of these strategies and techniques that you've implemented, I'm guessing you see, or hear, fewer crickets, and you see some more, you know, talking with each other amongst your students. I'm guessing you get involved, too, but do you see any correlation with their writing, or their other activities within your class, beyond just those immediate conversations they're having?

>> I actually do. I recently had a conversation with my writing 122 class in which we were talking about safe spaces and trigger warnings. And we had read a few texts, and they had worked with their workshop teams, which are small groups that I form within the classes. And so, they had done some conversing with the small groups, and so, kind of the culmination was this large group conversation around the question, "Have colleges gone too far with safe spaces and trigger warnings?" And so, they had read some texts. They had done some conversing, and now, it was time to bring the whole class together. I'm really fortunate with this class, because it is a good mix, and we've -- they've been able to build a good classroom community. And I think it's just as much the mix of students as it is anything I'm doing, but I allowed -- I believe it was about 20 minutes for this conversation, which, in some instances, is far too long, because you really do start to hear the crickets. But they wanted to keep going. The unfortunate part was, I didn't have time to allow that, because we had other things to do. But I encouraged them, in their writing, because they were doing an assignment I call a writing journal that was due later that day -- and I encouraged them. You can continue this conversation in your writing journal, and many of them did. And oftentimes, in shorter or even longer writing assignments like that, they will mention something that someone said, or in a conversation with me, they'll bring up, "Oh, so-and-so said this." And yes, I do find it continues not just in the classroom activities, but into their writing as well.

>> That's cool. So you mentioned something a minute ago about, when you've tried some of these things, it has just been trial and error, and you've fallen flat on your face. We know that students don't want to seem like they don't know an answer. Oftentimes, as instructors, we don't want to get up and fall flat on our face. What did you do when that happened, and how did you keep going?

>> So if I'm in front of students, and something doesn't work, I try, "Okay, let's wrap it up, and we'll move on." But one of the first things I do, as soon as I can afterwards, is to reflect on what went wrong and what didn't. Often, that will occur on my commute, because I have about an hour commute back to home from each of my classes. So that's where a lot of my thinking goes on, but I also keep a professional journal where I write about these things. And I've kept one for probably a good 10, 12 years, and I have all of them. So I enjoy looking back at these journals in which I jot down things I do want to try, but then I reflect on how it went. And so, if I find that it did not go all that well, I reflect on why. And do I want to keep going with this, or should I maybe give it a break and try again with another class, and pull out again sometime?

>> Yeah, that's great, because I think it is important, like you also mentioned, that some of this was stepping out of your comfort zone. And I think any time we try something new in the classroom, whether it's an activity, or using technology, there's disruption, and that kind of gives us little heart palpitations maybe, even though we're very comfortable in the classroom. And so, I think you just bring up a great reminder that it's okay to step out of our comfort zone, try something. If it doesn't work, reflect on it, and not just, "Oh, it didn't work. I'm never doing it again." Maybe, why didn't it work?

>> I think that's very, very important in the kind of work we're doing, especially if we're going to grow as instructors. And I know of no better way than engaging in that reflection, other than engaging in conversation with colleagues. And I really enjoy those opportunities, like this today, but I would love to talk with colleagues at any time about this practice of teaching. I think it is one of the most important kinds of work that we're doing in the world today, for a lot of reasons. But I really feel strongly about that.

>> That's great, and that's why we like having faculty on HubTalk, and expanding our teaching practice as well. So as you've reflected on when -- I don't mean to focus in on when it doesn't work, but I think that could be the concern for a lot of people of trying something new. What if it doesn't work? You said that you reflect on that hour-long drive. Have you reflected of maybe it was just this class, and you try it again another term? Do you abandon something altogether? Like, how many terms do you try it before you realize this just doesn't work for me? Do you have an approach to that?

>> Again, it's just really trying something, and seeing how it works. If this is a class, say, that's an 8:30 in the morning class, they're going to respond differently than an 11:30 class would. So what works with that early class may not work with the later, or vice versa. So sometimes, it is the time of the class. Sometimes, it's the mix of the students. As I said, this writing 122 section that I have is a dream. It's one of those classes that comes along maybe every couple years, that's a really good mix of students for whatever reason, and it just -- it's wonderful. So many things I've tried with them have worked well. So figuring out what works and what does and doesn't -- it does take time, and I see where a colleague might say, "I just don't have time for that. I have this number of students, and I just don't have time to, say, try some of those cool things that you did, even though I liked the theory." So what I have heard from other people is, you pick one thing. You try it. You see how it works. Then you move on to something else. If that doesn't work, then, you know, maybe you just stick with what you're doing for now. But I think that's probably an effective way to do it. You're not going to be able to change your entire practice overnight. I wouldn't recommend it, certainly, but if you can make one small change, at least you feel like you will have done something. And I think that's important.

>> Yeah, that's great.

>> I guess shifting our lens to look at the students for another minute, when you introduce different active learning techniques, ice breakers -- activities, whatever it might be, first question would be, do you ever get situations where students just maybe not refuse to participate, but are reluctant? And, you know, they've done icebreakers in other classes, and they're just not comfortable with those, or something like that. And then, second question, do you ever, kind of on the fly, adjust the activities based on those, how you're feeling the students are reacting to what you're asking them to do?

>> To address the second one first, yes. You have to adjust, but that's part of teaching.

>> Sure.

>> If you have something planned, and you think, "Oh, this will take 20 minutes," and it ends up taking five, well, you've got to adjust on the fly. And that's just how it is. At the same time, if you've got, say, four or five activities planned for an hour and 50 minute block, and you only get to three of them, then you have to figure out, "Are these other two things necessary? How could I do them next time? Could I maybe transfer them to online, or some other medium?" So adjusting on the fly is just part of the teacher toolbox. It's just something you have to do if you're going to teach students, because again, you may not have all your students there. You may have a fire alarm. You may have a student pass out in your class. I've had those things happen.

>> Wow.

>> And so, to be able to adjust to differing circumstances is just something we need to do as teachers. So to answer your first question, what if there is a student, say, with an icebreaker or another activity that's like, I don't know about that? I did have a student one term, when I was doing a similar icebreaker activity -- I was asking questions like, "Describe the best gift you ever gave someone. Who is your favorite relative?" And the student decided not to participate in this particular activity, because such personal questions really raised some trauma for him. And he spoke to me, and told me what was going on, and I said, "Okay, this is relatively minor. You know, there will be other opportunities for you to talk to your classmates. So if you need to sit this one out, then you can do that." Now, that obviously would mean that the student would feel comfortable enough to tell me that, and I feel really good, because this was only on the second day of class.

>> Yeah.

>> That's great, yeah.

>> So I'm glad that he was able to tell me that, but yes, that's what I try to do.

>> We've been talking about how to avoid the classroom crickets, and I know you're going to share in a few minutes some specific strategies. But as you've adjusted your teaching practice, have you noticed that it's also cultivated that classroom community? Because that was part of the piece of your workshop title was "Cultivating Community," and I know that's really big in online. Like, you want to develop an online community. Do you see that that's working in a face-to-face classroom where you're getting students to talk, and they kind of feel more familiar?

>> Well, Colin, I think that's an important thing that we need to do as teachers, is cultivate that classroom community. And the presentation that you're talking about actually started off as "Countering Classroom Crickets and Getting Students Talking," was the original title. But community, especially classroom community, has become a professional interest of mine, and that actually hearkens back to when I was working on my second master's degree. My area of interest was community in 19th and 20th-century American literature, how it's depicted, but also how the literature helps to create community, ultimately forming this community that we call the United States of America. And since I teach at a community college, that's kind of become a key word for me in my classroom. And so, I use the word a lot, but I also emphasize with the students that a lot of what I'm doing, whether it's asking them to read this text, or engage in that activity, or work with these students, is designed to create our classroom community, where we can feel like we are part of a group. That's also situated within a center or a campus, that's also situated within the larger school community that is Chemeketa Community College. And so, yes, I've seen that a lot of these activities do foster community. In fact, I'm engaging in a little research right now. I sent out a Google Form to my students recently that specifically asked items like, "What do you feel community is, and what communities are you a part of?" And I specifically asked, "Do you feel like you're a part of a community in our writing classroom?" And I gave them a list of activities. Does this make you feel like you're a part of a community? And I had them write them. And so, I'm waiting to see what responses I get.

>> Wow, that's great.

>> So, Jean, we've talked about the benefits, the instances where things don't go as planned. Can you share with us what some of those activities or strategies look like, maybe a top three that you could share with your colleagues listening?

>> Sure. One of the first things that I did in this presentation, and that I consciously started adopting just a couple years ago, was the use of icebreakers. And I know nobody likes answering the question, "If you could be any kind of an animal, what would you be?" Or, "If you could have any superpower, not flight or invisibility, what would you choose?" I find those incredibly lame, but at the same time, activities like that is a relatively low-stakes way of getting students talking to each other, and starting to create those bonds that help to build this community. So from day one, one of the very first things I like to do is introduce brain breaks. And sometimes, they're just silly little things, like stand up and breathe. But the fact that they've been sitting in a chair, usually a hard plastic chair, for the last hour -- they've got to stand up and get the blood moving, and that gets it in and out of the brain. And the brain also needs to disengage for a little while. And so, I might pair students up and say, "Okay, explain to your partner if you prefer sweet or salty, and why in just a couple of minutes." And then, I might ask another question like, "Thick or thin crust?" Or, "Morning or afternoon person?" Or, "Do you prefer city life or country life?" And it's just a quick way to make a quick connection with a classmate, and you may find some kind of a connection. It's really great when the weather is nice, and we can walk outside for these, because then we get the benefit of the fresh air. But even if you just stand up in the classroom and make a ring around the walls, and pair up and talk, it's a way to make a connection and start to form that community. So I actually try to do a brain break every class, and sometimes, it's those silly questions. Sometimes, it's -- I might ask them about something from the curriculum. I might ask a quick check on something we just covered. "Explain such and such to your partner." And it's just a quick way to reset the brain, but also to make those connections. So brain breaks are something that I have found I really like. So probably another thing that I like to do is to get students up and moving, and so, I like to do things like poster discussions and jigsaw.

>> Can you describe those for us?

>> So on a poster discussion, you get those big poster sticky-note things, and you write questions on them. I did this just the other day with my writing 115 class. We are reading "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe," and I actually had the students write the questions. So I gave each workshop team one of those big papers, and I said, "We're going to write discussion questions." We had already, over the previous few weeks, been engaging in discussion questions, so they knew what discussion questions were. So they were able to come up with some pretty darned good questions, and then we took these posters, and we put them up around the room. And I said, "Okay, go answer two questions in writing." And the activity, and the level of energy, and the engagement were just amazing to watch. All I had to do was sit back and let them do it. I sometimes had to, you know, "Go over to that poster," or, "That one looks like it could use an answer," but something like that, you can then collect the answers. You can make a handout from them. You can post the top three comments. I also, after they had finished answering questions -- I said, "Now go and like," and they really liked that part.

>> That's cool.

>> I like that, yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> You can do the same thing with whiteboards, if your classroom has whiteboards. You can do it with pieces of paper on a table. You can do it with sticky notes, but just something that gets them out of their seats, and maybe engaged with a different set of students. You can do the same thing with the four-corners type discussions. So I did one just the other day with this writing 122 class. We were talking about, "Is technology a serious threat to our privacy?" And so, I started with, "Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree?" So they had to pick a corner. And so, I read statements like, "Google is collecting too much information about people. Snapchat is collecting too much information about people. The use of the GPS feature on your smartphone is an invasion of your privacy." And so, I had them move around to the corner that they agree with, and doing something like this, you can stop and have a conversation. You can pair up the strongly agree and disagrees. You can just -- it's a great pre-activity that you can do at the beginning of the unit. You can do it at the end of the unit, can do it in the middle of the unit to kind of just take the temperature. And so, things like this that get students up and out of their seats, first of all, but also engaged in conversation with each other, I think it has proven really, really useful, and really helpful. So I think the third thing I really like to do is actually very similar to four corners, and that's what we call jigsaw. And that's a classic active learning technique, where you assign some material. You have students become experts in that material. So let's say you have three articles. You assign students to read each of those three articles. They become experts, and then they go to other groups, and teach them about what they read. So if you've got the three articles, then you can divide this class into groups of three. One teaches about the first, the second, and the third. And so, what I like to do -- one way I employ it is, when I am teaching argumentative writing, I like to use this to teach Rogerian and Toulmin argument. And so, I have material that I assign to one set that's all about Rogerian argument, and then I have material that I give to the Toulmin folks. And so, they divide in half. They review the material. There's usually written material and a video. So I do the video on the workstation while the other group is reading, and then I bring the first group back in.

>> Oh, sure.

>> So then, the groups confer on what are the important ideas from this, and then they take those ideas back to their workshop teams. And it's usually two of each, and teach the other two about what they learned. And that's one of the things that is an outcome of writing 122, is the vocabulary of argument. And so, that's a way to start to get into that vocabulary and get students more familiar with it. But you could do it with any -- you could do it in a -- say an A&P class. You could do it in a math class. You could do it in a -- I can see even a CTE class. So I would say those are my top three, but that the main, I think, overlying theme behind those is getting students up and engaged with both the material and with each other. Because that's where most of the learning will occur.

>> Yeah, that's great. Those are -- so icebreakers, four corners, and jigsaw. Jean, you mentioned starting small, just starting -- picking one item, and trying that, as that activity. You also mentioned the key thing of being willing to step out of comfort -- your comfort zone, and just trying new activities. What is one other thing that you would suggest?

>> Yeah, I think -- so I think one of the best resources here at Chemeketa is the tech hub, because this is where the commitment to teaching and learning is. So whether you are at Salem, whether you are at Polk, whether you are at YVC, whether you are at Woodburn, or Brooks [assumed spellings], make use of the resources here, and it's not just people, although they're awesome. There are online resources. There is a library here. There are trainings. So if you want to learn something to make yourself a more effective instructor, no matter your subject, get them up. That's what they're here for.

>> Yeah. Well, thank you for that plug, and we'd love to have you do this workshop for us again.

>> All right, thank you for joining us today, Jean.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> And we will be back with more episodes of HubTalk later on in the term. So stay tuned.

>> HubTalk is produced by the Center for Academic Innovation at Chemeketa Community College. Visit our website, facultyhub.chemeketa.edu, to find helpful resources about teaching, learning, and technology integration, along with video tutorials and more podcast episodes just like this one.

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