"I am done, What do I do now?": The most hated question in tech/engineering class

The question I hate most in my classes is "I am done, What do I do now?". I hate it more than kids who choose to play games on the computers when they are finished (and sometimes before they are finished). I know I am a teacher but I see myself more as a project manager than an entertainer. I know there are some teachers out there that see themselves as a entertainer but that is not me. I know that some presentations & articles I have read equate teaching to entertaining because we have to compete with the likes of sensationalized TV and Games as well as easy access to music. It is hard to complete with the immediate feedback and gratification from these entities as well. However all that being said I do have a tool I use to help combat that question and also help students start to build some of the soft skills employer's look for in a potential future employee. The idea is what I call Leadership Points.

I got this idea from a fellow teacher who used something similar in their class as a way of keeping kids busy if they finished work early. Now I know that some of you will automatically start thinking of these things a just busy work. The idea is that students have a series of tasks to choose from that they can do with minimal to no help from me or others. The tasks fit into 5 areas of Employ-ability skills:

• Professional development
  

• Taking Initiative
  

• Management
  

• Career Prep
  

• Community Service
  

I have run these by employers and most feel these are good soft skills for students to start working on at a middle school level. I know there are more than just these 5 employ-ability skills; I choose these 5 as they are easy for middle school kids to understand and relate to. Within each of these areas are tasks kids can do that earn them a select number of points. Tasks range from easy things like: 

• tracking daily work in planner
• cleaning the classroom
• filling out an application

to harder ones like:

• designing a new job
• reading a book or article relating to subject of class and reporting back on it
• 1 month of community service
• teach the class (with lesson plans and assessment)

The harder the task the more points it is worth. I try and make it easy for them to get the points by just requiring that they show me or an adult over 18 evidence of completing the task. The one catch is if they loose the form before completing the 300 points they loose the points unless they can show evidence of completion. This is probably the biggest issue I haven't found a way to resolve is kids loosing the form but it is a good lesson for them to learn when the stakes are low.

I have heard from both students, parents, and other teachers many issues with this assignment. When I first started out a lot of people saw these as just busy work which yes they kind of are but when coming up with list of tasks I tried to think of ones that not only fit the category but also were relevant to both the class and it's operation which helps add value to them and makes them seem less as busy work. I get 3 big complaints from students and parents when it comes to this assignment. The first one is that there are too many, I require 300 points in a semester. However when I break it down in terms of how long they have to do them, 1 semester or about 4.5 months, that tasks the wind out of that complaint. Also once people see the type of activities and how easy some of them are it also helps to minimize this complaint. The second biggest complaint I get from both parents (although not so much once I explain/remind them when assigned) and students is I didn't get them enough time. This is mainly because students wait till the last minute to do them and find they don't have enough time to complete 300. The third biggest complaint I got was that they had too much of an impact on student's grades. This one took some time to figure out as I wanted the kids to take the assignment seriously but also didn't want it to cause them to fail the class if they didn't do them but did the other work for the class. What I have settled on is making them 20% of the grade in my class and making sure to have points they can get for doing everyday tasks in class.

All in all over the last 4+ years I have been doing Leadership Points I have found them to be beneficial for both me and others. Some of the changes I have made over the last 4 years to make the experience easier and more motivating are to give parents and other teacher the ability to sign off on points, the willingness to let students negotiate what they can to do to get points, and the newest thing creating a Leadership badge students can earn and proudly display if they complete their 300 points before the due date.  I have posted a copy of the form I hand out to students as well as a link to my podcast on this topic. Feel free to make a copy of the form and use it in your classroom. You have my permission to modify and change the form to fit your unique situation. I also welcome your thoughts on the topic and ideas of tasks I can add.

As always:

Go Forth & Do Great Things!
All pictures are in the public domain

Files/Links:

Leadership Point form.
Link to Podcast
Interland by google
Codecombat