"FLOW" in the classroom - Do we have to stop?!

When my students don't want to stop...and they beg for more time in the classroom "doing work," I know that I have achieved what every teacher hopes for - student engagement!

Recently I found some articles talking about student engagement using technology.  I had just started a project in my classroom as a culmination of our Civil War study and had begged, borrowed and stole enough computers for all of my students to work independently. We are a school district with 4 computers in each classroom (2 are laptops), and then a travelling cart with 12 laptops. I borrowed additional laptops from across the hall, down the hall and the technology teacher had a few extras. We were set...each student had a work station and the computers were mine for 3 days.  We have a computer lab and are allotted 2 30-45 minute time slots per week with open times that you can use if no one else has signed up for them, but that was full.  Mission accomplished - computers for all (how I hope and wish that I will someday have 1:1 computing in my classroom on a 24/7 basis).

What I witnessed in that first hour pleased me to no end.  The task was to create a powerpoint show about the Civil War.  That's all - no additional guidelines....they had the instructional background - we had watched video clips, taken virtual field trips to some of the battlefields, read in our textbook, looked at primary sources and now they were to apply what they learned in a presentation.  I told them to make it their own and ceate/publish in a way that would show what they had learned. We talked about the intended audience and how to paraphrase and not copy someone else's words.

Then...later that evening at home I was on Twitter and saw a tweet about student engagement, which led me to learning about "FLOW,"  (http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-engagement-elena-aguilar ) I was very excited about this, because that is EXACTLY what was happening in my classroom. The author states:

1. The goals are clear (i.e. design an experiment which demonstrates xyz, write a persuasive essay, paint the ceiling of the chapel)
2. The goals are attainable and within one's skillset and ability; and the challenge level and skill level are both high
3. You get clear and immediate feedback so you can adjust your course

I did more research and found this graphic: (flow-a-measure-of-student-engagement/)

This graphic shows exactly what my students were feeling...they were all in that top corner - they were interested and being successful!

Take a look at these candid shots to see the level of engagement that was happening in my classroom -

Here are some samples of finished products. The work is all done by the students. They helped each other with design elements, and then used the information from class and a folder of pictures that the technology teacher and I had pulled as a resource.




We worked for 3 days on this project - for a few hours each day and when I announced we had to finish because Spring Break was starting in 2 hours, there were actually moans because they wanted more time! It was a GREAT time to be a teacher! :)

I can only imagine the kinds of activities and student engagement I could achieve in my classroom if I had technology available to these students on a daily basis. If you have 1:1 computing in your school, what kind of activities and student projects are your kids working on and how do you manage it?