Learning Habitats and the Educational Environment

The word habitat is defined as: The natural home or environment of an animal, plant or other organism. Humans put great importance on most of our habitats.  Our homes are designed with furniture and decorations that make us feel comfortable and put us at ease.  When we bring a new baby home from the hospital we have a newly painted room, with kid-friendly wall paper (whatever that is), and special furniture. Our habitat accommodations even extend to animals when we put them in a zoo. I once saw a prairie dog exhibit at a zoo.  They had special grass, decorative driftwood, hollow logs... for prairie dogs... underground rats.  One more example--carnival goldfish.  Even those free fish we reluctantly win at carnivals get a round bowl with rocks at the bottom, fake plants, a castle to swim through, and sometimes we even buy them a friend.  We are all about the habitat.

Consider all of that, and then think about most secondary schools and the classrooms within.  Our elementary years are spent in colorful classrooms with decorations and sometimes a special rug where students can comfortably sit.  As students transition into junior high and high school they typically enter bland walls, desks in rows, maybe some "inspirational" posters about doing your best--an environment more suitable to prison life than student life.  The inside of most classrooms are institutional, stiff, and unwelcoming.

I think we need to create a habitat of learning in our classrooms.  A comfortable, welcoming learning laboratory   Students should sit in groups.  Seating should be comfortable--how creative and engaged would you feel sitting in a school desk all day?  Leading companies like Google have embraced this, how have we ignored it for so long?

Going One-to-One: There Will be Blood

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Unless you have a master plan, incredible support, and more luck than a leprechaun at the end of a rainbow, sitting on a pot of gold, up to his ears in four-leafed clovers, going 1:1 can be painful.  There will be blood.  Its going to be bad (at times), but hang in there, it gets better.

Going 1:1 is like jumping on a moving train.  The jolt of inertia immediately puts you behind.  You're not even sure which direction you want to go.  The only thing that helps you progress is to constantly move forward. Rely on your leaders and PLN to help establish a direction, and just keep moving. You have to have grit.  Its the latest buzz word in education, usually applied to students, but teachers need to have grit to go 1:1.

There will be blood, but eventually, as you learn to work with the train and not against it, you will be progressing, growing, and learning at a pace commensurate with the advancements in technology and learning.

You have your local leaders, an ocean of resources on the web, and probably some tech Jedi's that just became superstars in your school in at 1:1 environment. Use them and may the force be with you.

Our 1:1 Story
Beginning
End of Year One
More End of Year One
Beginning of Year Two
Mid Year Two
End of Year Two

Our Summer Schedule

Last year the Indiana Department of Education provided a grant to 17 schools to host a professional development conference.  This summer has been dubbed the The Summer of eLearning.  As a professional development junkie, I was really excited and proud of my State.  I decided to attend everything within 2 hours drive and take as many teachers from my school as I could. In the end, 25 of our 87 teachers volunteered their time to attend at least one conference, saying loud and clear, 'I want to get better'!  I was pretty proud of my colleagues.

If you want to connect with Education Shift, we will be presenting and/or attending several conferences/workshops this summer:

• Edcamp Indy (Franklin) June 6th (over)
• Knight Time (East Noble) June 12 and 13 (over)
• Southern Wells Workshop (Poneto) June 18 (closed)
• e3 Technology (Warsaw) July 29 and 30 (open)
• eQUIP (Plymouth) July 31 (open)
• The Digital Shift (Lebanon) August 1 and 2 (open)

This was the second year from Edcamp Indy.  Edcamp Fort Wayne was in early May.  Edcamp is an amazing concept that we fully support and hope will continue to gain traction in Indiana.  The Knight-Time conference just wrapped up last week.  It was a great opportunity to learn and connect with other educators.  Richard Byrne and Vicki Davis were the keynote speakers, and the good people at East Noble did a great job organizing their conference.  Southern Wells is a closed Google workshop for their staff.  The remaining conferences promise to be amazing opportunities to learn and connect.  We hope to see you there!  

What is an Expert?

What would you call a professional who did actual field research 36 weeks a year?  They were classically trained for 4-6 years and continue their education to stay current in the field.  They collect quantitative and qualitative data, evaluating singular and large samples sizes.  The record their data and make predictions, which they share with a community of other professionals who combine their findings to refine their theories.  Would you call them a scientist?  Would you call them an expert?  I would call them a teacher.

Unfortunately the de-professionalization of teachers throughout the history of public education has attempted to reduced our role to that of a worker on the assembly line.  More importantly it has reduced our public image and therefore our general influence over change in our own profession.  We are the receivers of educational policy.  We need to be the makers of educational policy.  Aren't we the experts?

Kids Can't Learn From Teachers They Don't Like

Rita Pierson grabbed the spotlight and spurred a great conversation with her recent TED Talk titled Every Kid Needs a Champion (below).  In her talk she asserts the title of this blog--'kids can't learn from teachers they don't like'.  A statement like this would likely sound like heresy to rigid traditionalists.

'I'm not here to be their friend'.

'I don't care if they don't like me'.

I remember teachers in my youth that made statements like this.  I even remember having instructors in college who reminded us that 'we are not there to be their friends'.

While all of this is true to some degree, being 'liked' by your students opens opportunities that wouldn't exist without the foundation of a strong relationship.  Your students need to know that you care about them and feel the passion you have for  your class.  If you don't show that you care and have passion, why should they?  And you have to be authentic.  Students can sniff out someone being 'fake' like a shark smelling blood in the water.  They have to truly believe that you care about them and the stories they tell, and wow, do they have some stories to tell! Listening to your students and asking them questions about their lives is an investment that will pay dividends throughout the year.  Building meaningful relationships with your students is the cornerstone of effective classroom management.  Here are some ideas:

• Ask questions--Show a genuine interest in students' lives by asking questions and then checking in throughout the year.  
• Be funny--I know its 'not your job to entertain them', but humor goes a long way and makes a good first impression.
• Individualize your relationships--I used to be able to describe the character of a class period, but not necessarily the individual students before I moved to conversations as my main assessment method.
• Let them teach you--Students love it when you are open enough to allow them to teach you something.  Its an act of sincerely listening and students eat it up because they love to be heard.
• Talk to them after/out of school--While I'm sure its been a long day, going to watch their game or chatting with them after school will earn you  a great deal of credibility. 
• Let them be heard--Most students love to be heard.  Their families, dislikes, funny stories, pets, etc. all provide good material for conversations and the beginning of a productive relationship.  
• Be playful--Once you have established the foundation for a relationship and that your class is a place of learning, its OK to lighten things up a little with some playful behavior and non-offensive sarcasm. There is a fine line here, but a little play will go a long way to show students you care about them as a person, not just as a student.
• Be the captain--Being open and playful requires the need to drop the hammer too.  Students need boundaries, and they actually like it when you fairly keep them within class expectations.  I alway error on the side of fairness when I have to discipline students.  

Many students come to school without the first levels of Maslow's Hierarchy satisfied   How can we expect a student to learn if they feel hungry, unsafe, or unloved?  As effective teachers, it has become an unspoken part of our jobs to find a way to bridge these gaps left by a bad home life.  Many of us would probably agree we are part teacher, part counselor.

Building an organic, individual relationship with our students will have a greater impact on learning than any piece of technology or model of pedagogy.  If we scoff at the idea that 'kids can't learn from teachers they don't like', we are undermining any other measure that we believe is effective and spinning our educational wheels.  

De-Professionalizing Teachers

Today in education you may hear people talk about "professionalizing the profession".   It dawned on me recently that the teacher's role in education has been historically moving toward de-professionalization and recent conventions have rendered us nearly obsolete.  The fact that we are discussing how to "professionalize" a profession like teaching is evidence of the erosion of authenticity and specialized skills of the modern concept of what it means to be a teacher.  Several events in the history of education have been key moments that have slowly de-professionalized the teacher.

Teachers were originally professionalized by their content knowledge.  They held special knowledge that was not easily available to their students.  Later, standardized textbooks and teacher editions provided a content crutch.  Teachers could lean on this one resource rather than learn a rich body of authentic, specialized knowledge that was once a premium.  The component of content knowledge was stripped away from the profession.  More recently, the Internet has 'flattened' the world and put the collective knowledge of humanity at any students fingertips.  Teachers are no longer needed to be the 'knower of everything' and 'answerer of questions'.

The required professionalism slipped further when textbook companies started to offer resource packages and curriculum guides.  Another pillar of professionalism began to crumble.  Flash to today where many large school districts create pacing guides to be used among all the teachers of a given class.  A dozen or more 8th grade math teachers teaching the same basic curriculum at the same pace.  While I can understand the concept of a guaranteed curriculum, this reduces teachers to a simple deliverer of a one-size-fits-all 'education'.  Large online classes are are natural extension of this model.  In this type of course the 'teacher' simply needs a general disposition to facilitate the provided curriculum.

All of these developments or what I would label education de-form, rather than reform, have created a completely different role for the once professionalized job of being a teacher.  It has also created low expectations.  You don't need to know too much.  You don't need to be able to create authentic course work.  You really don't need to plan a curriculum.  You simply need to implement.  All of the art has been reduced to a calculated, one-size-fits-all science.  The salary (which began low) followed the decent of professionalism.  This has made recruitment of unique talent a difficult task, but then again it isn't really necessary.  Often, when it comes to hiring, schools are more concerned with filling a role.

I am not a role.  I am not a deliverer of a pre-formed 'education'.  I believe many teachers would reject this description, but we are the sufferers of a system of de-professionalization that has come to dominate mainstream education.  The progression of our education de-form has created a culture of low expectations and reliance.

Despite the sad story I've told, I truly feel the tide is turning, or being turned.  Leaders such as Sir Ken Robinson and Will Richardson are changing the conversation.  School leaders and teachers are listening and the ranks of educators that reject de-professionalization is growing.  I was never really aware of all of this.  I accepted the de-professionalized role when I first became a teacher.  It was only when I got connected to Twitter and reading other educators' blogs that I realized a battle was being waged to change the culture.  A great deal has happened since then and the change is clear.  Will Richardson calls for authentic, personalized, real world learning.  He is keynoting 4 of the 17 major professional development conferences being promoted by the Indiana Department of Education.  His message is not well received by traditionalists, so his mere presence is an exciting sign of change.  

How can we re-professionalize the profession?  I think we start by philosophically rejecting the conventions above--textbooks, pre-made pacing guides, workbooks, etc.  A massive gulf exists between connected and disconnected educators.  Teachers need to be connected--not just to those in our districts, but to greater world of education.  We have to be aware of the efforts to reform and deform education, so we can recognize the difference.  We need more educators, student, and parents talking about real education reform.  Teachers need to exercise their professionalism and promote positive reform--in their classroom and publicly in social media.  This is a numbers game and we need to grow our ranks.  We have to change the conversation.  What are you going to do about it? 

Unpredictable Environments

One of my favorite times of the year is just around the corner.  Morel mushroom season.  For those who don't know, morel mushrooms are an elusive wild mushroom that can't be domesticated and are therefore a seasonal delicacy for those who are lucky enough to find them during their 3-4 week growth period.  The defining quirk of morels is their random growth patterns.  They tend to grow well near elm, ash, and poplar trees, but sometimes they pop up in the middle of a tree-less patch of grass or even a gravel driveway (I've seen it).  The unpredictability can make morel hunting frustrating, but it is also what makes it rewarding.  As I reflected on the nature of morels, I couldn't help but compare it to learning.

Morel growth is random, surprising, and inconsistant, and so is authentic learning.  I don't mean memorizing facts.  I mean that moment when a student makes a real, lasting connection to what he or she is learning, it clicks... an 'ah-ha' moment.  These moments are the cherished treasures of educators.  This is why we teach.  Unfortunately, these moments randomly occur in the same inconsistent fashion that morels grow.  So how do we create learning environment that increase the likelihood of these types of authentic learning moments?

While there is no good answer to making the inconsistant consistant--you have to play the odds, like hunting morels.  Since morels can grow anywhere, hunting them down can be maddening, so I play the odds by stopping at every elm, ash, and poplar tree I see as I walk through the woods.  Similarly, I try to play the odds by creating a culture of learning in my classroom with some of the following measures:

• Reward good questions, not just good answers
• Make creative, critical thinkers (students) famous by sharing their thinking with the class
• Provide multiple opportunities to show understanding--digital, physical, verbal, written, etc.  
• Be supportive, but encourage independence
• Award an informal "Genius of the Day" for good thinking
• Provide many opportunities for authentic creation rather than inauthentic regurgitation 
• Model and emphasize real learning as part of your daily language
• Develop sincere, individual relationships with students
• Get feedback from your students about your room, lessons, and class overall--let them be heard
• Have high, yet reachable expectations
• Have passion for EVERYTHING you do--if you don't have it find a new job
• Cover everything you do in a thick layer of enthusiasm--its infectious and makes everything better

I am continually surprised at the odd times that students have a moment of authentic learning, as I am surprised when I found a dozen morels growing in an empty grassy lot last year.  Both unpredictable environments can be frustrating, but also highly rewarding when you play the odds.  

ASCD Final Reflection

Its Monday night and time to wrap things up and reflect on the whole ASCD conference. Prior to the conference I shared my inclination that large expensive conferences might be an obsolete form of professional development. I always think about the scene in Goodwill Hunting where he tells the ponytailed Harvard grad-student that he 'wasted $150,000 on an education he could have got for $1.50 in late charges from the public library'. I think that situation has relevancy to the annual ASCD conference. Our district spent close to $10,000 (from a grant) on this undertaking. How many books could we have purchased? How many hours could we afford to pay our entire staff to collaborate? How many in-house training sessions could we have organized to set up each teacher with a high functioning PLN? Do large conferences like this simply subsidize teachers and administrators that are too lazy to self-direct their own professional development?  

The first half of day one was nearly a total loss partly due to the lack of organization, my mistakes, and poor presentation skills. If WiFi is down for more than 30 minutes someone should be fired. After we went without an Internet connection for half of the first day I was jaded. The long line to "register" was another immediate sign of disorganization.  I should give them more credit I guess.  There was 10,400 people attending over 400 sessions and it went pretty smooth.  I pulled an arrogant, idiot move by leaving during the introduction of the first keynote speaker Freeman Hrobowski because I thought the guy introducing him was Hrobowski--who I knew little about until I read about him that night. The introducer called a hashtag a “pound sign” and my nerd hackles shot up. Shame on me. I heard Hrobowski was fantastic. 

What was not fantastic was being read to in the next session. I call for legislation against reading text from a presentation slide, enforced by corporal punishment executed by the suffering audience. The highpoint of the entire conference luckily occurred at the end of the first day, so I ended on a good note.  Will Richardson’s session From Old School to Bold School was the total package for me. He is a fantastic presenter. His message was challenging and provocative--this is the draw of a national conference for me. I want to be blown away. I don’t want an idea to refine what I’m doing, I want an idea that forces me to completely rethink everything I’m doing. I don't want to spend this kind of money for incremental professional adjustments.

The second day was very similar to the first.  There was very little that I found useful with one saving grace--Maya Angelou. It was a great honor to hear her speak. Mother Angelou is a national treasure; a "rainbow in the clouds" for us all. Most of the garbage sessions (sorry, at this point my professional filter is getting thin) were about Common Core--they were sooooo boring. Mind numbing may be a better description. Common Core is all over the place these days.  ASCD surely wanted to delivery sessions on hot ticket items, but engagement has to be considered.  This isn't the tax code, its education for crying out loud.

Today (day three) I got a late start, possibly due to my overall lack of enthusiasm. I missed an early shuttle and arrived late to the session, which was full. I wanted to wait around and hear Van Jones talk about a green economy and educational opportunities, but we had to meet back at the hotel by 11:00 to check out, so the day was a total loss. 

 
Despite my muckraking negativity I did enjoy the conference overall, and I deeply appreciate being included in the group from my school that was fortunate enough to attend. As I reflect I realize that the real value in this conference were the great speakers/presenters, not the content.  I think a good deal of my sour feelings stem from the fact that I was not a good attendee of ASCD.  I had overly high expectations. I chose sessions poorly and more importantly I’m a self-directed learner with a huge appetite. It sounds arrogant, but I’ve heard many of these ideas before. I’m sure many of the 10,400 attendees experienced amazing growth, but the best idea I heard all weekend came over lunch with my principal, and was completely unrelated to any session (a whole other post).  I probably learned more on Twitter and Google Reader this weekend than I did from my sessions.  Did I just waste $1,000 on an education I could have got for free at home?  In the spirit of Will Richardson's book Why School?, I think I can summarize my feelings with "Why Conference"?

ASCD Reflection Sunday

I’m not sure how to describe today. My first session was about Inquiry-based learning design. Sounds good. Not so much. The room was probably ¾ full when it began. When I left, about 50 minutes in, about half the people remained. There was a pretty steady flow of people exiting the room, I felt bad for the presenter. Maybe her best stuff was yet to come, but I was getting nothing besides a very general description of inquiry learning. Are my expectations too high? Am I picking poor sessions? Am I just a snob?

Maya Angelou is amazing. Plain and simple. She didn’t give a lecture, she told a story and today I really understand the stark difference between the two. She is truly an orator, which I think is a dying art. She is an inspiring speaker and definitely one of the high points of ASCD.  It was a nice gift for St. Patrick's Day. 

Disappointment struck after lunch when I couldn’t get in Common-Core related Performance Assessments. I love performance assessments, but the McCormick staff member stopped me in my tracks and wouldn’t let me enter, lest I break the fire code. I slipped into Using Common Core to Enable 21st Century Learning. BORING. I sincerely apologize. Really. I don’t know if a full belly and late night last night had something to do with it, but this session nearly put me to sleep. There was one really great slide with about 10 good ideas on it, but many of the slides were very wordy rubrics or screenshots of documents with fonts too small to read. The last speaker of the trio had a novel idea: provide the documents to the audience so we can actually read them and have a legitimate takeaway besides the awkward sounds of yawning and the door closing as people walk out. The final speaker of this session focused on problem solving and his handout was actually very useful, but 10 minutes into his speaking he lost my attention.

The last session of the day that I wanted to attend was full and my backup was cancelled so I called it a day. I’m still disappointed in the organization of the conference. They are cancelling sessions without updating the app they provided, or I can’t figure out how to access it. Hopefully Monday will provide some redemption. I also want to apologize for my lack of careful editing as I am trying to put this out as fast as possible.

ASCD Reflection Saturday Afternoon

Redemption and mistakes.  I would first like to apologize for misjudging what I thought was the keynote speaker of the First General Session.  Turns out I walked out during the speaker that introduced the keynote speaker.  I heard Freeman Hrabowski was absolutely EXCELLENT and I missed him because I walked out during the guy who introduced him.  My bad.

My day was totally redeemed by Will Richardson.  His session From Old School to Bold School was so inspiring.  He pointed out that some people attend conferences like this to make their school better and some attend to make their school different.  The difference is significant. Are you simply trying to do the same old things better?  Will explained how school began in a time of information scarcity, but we now live in a environment of information abundance.  What are schools doing differently? What should they be doing differently in an era when every answer is a click away and you don't need to go to school to learn anymore?

Ubiquitous information has allowed individuals to pursue their own interests.  As our society becomes more self organized rather than institutionally organized, so too should our education.  Richardson gave 9 Qualities of a Bold School:

• Learning centered
• Inquiry driven
• Authentic work
• Digital
• Connected
• Literate
• Transparent
• Innovative 
• Provocative

My spirits are lifted and I'm looking forward to Sunday's sessions.  Some of my original feelings are being solidified,  but I want to keep an open mind and give ASCD a change.  More to come.

5 Characteristics of a Change Agent [Amended]

The following blog post is by George Couros.  He writes on his blog The Principal of Change.  Its fantastic and I wanted to share some excerpts of a recent post that really hit home for me.  Its about Change Agents.

5 Characteristics of a Change Agent: "In my work through school and organization visits, I have been fascinated to see the correlation between the speed of change and an individual who is “leading” the charge.  The schools that have someone (or a group of people) helping to push the boundaries of what can be done in schools seem to move a lot quicker with a larger amount of “buy-in” through the process..."
"Below is a list of what I have seen consistently."
1.  Clear Vision – As mentioned above, a “change agent” does not have to be the person in authority, but they do however have to have a clear vision and be able to communicate that clearly with others... It is essential to note that a clear vision does not mean that there is one way to do things...
2. Patient yet persistent – To have sustainable change that is meaningful to people, it is something that they will have to embrace and see importance.  Most people need to experience something before they really understand that, and that is especially true in schools... change agents just help to make sure that people are moving ahead.
3. Asks tough questions – It would be easy for someone to come in and tell you how things should be, but again that is someone else’s solution... Asking questions focusing on, “What is best for kids?”, and helping people come to their own conclusions based on their experience is when you will see people have ownership in what they are doing.  Keep asking questions to help people think, don’t alleviate that by telling them what to do.
4.  Knowledgeable and leads by example – Stephen Covey talked about the notion that leaders have “character and credibility”; they are not just seen as good people but that they are also knowledgeable in what they are speaking about...  If you want to create “change”, you have to not only be able to articulate what that looks like, but show it to others...
5. Strong relationships built on trust – All of the above, means nothing if you do not have solid relationships with the people that you serve.  People will not want to grow if they do not trust the person that is pushing the change...
"...positive change is not reserved to be the responsibility of any position... I can think of many people that I have encountered who have helped pushed their organizations ahead that have no formal “authority” over any individual... some of them do it in spite of their principal or superintendent and often feel that they are in constant conflict..."

I was part of a group of people who brought major changes to my school district.  We implemented a 1 to 1 program in grades 4-12 and are working to change instruction and assessment across the board, while maintaining rigor and expanding opportunities for students.  This would have never happened were it not for the change agents within our school.  The list provided by George Couros is excellent, but I would like to offer a few amendments.

6. Willing to challenge conventional thinking -- Change can never happen unless we have someone who is willing to think outside conventional wisdom.  This goes with 'asking tough questions', but the difference is important.  Traditions must be challenged, routines should be questioned.  Are we doing this, because it is what is best for kids in this day and age or because this is the way we have always done it?  I say question everything.  Often change means glueing a new idea to an old one, but rarely do we evaluate the entire substructure and foundation and consider rebuilding from ground zero.
7. Draws knowledge from a diverse PLN -- I don't know how an agent of change could have the knowledge and inspiration without being plugged into multiple social networks that help them maintain a diverse professional learning network.  A PLN dramatically expands the vistas of possibility.  My list of blogs in Reader, Twitter community, and other smaller communities in other social networks inspire and motivate me daily, e.g., George Couros.
8. Works overtime -- Change agents don't work from 8-3.  They are driven by passion, and that often means they never "stop working".  They reflect on their lessons all day, they think of new class activities at home, they listen to education podcasts when they have time, they participate in Twitter chats, they answer emails until they go to bed, they "talk shop" with teachers and non-teachers, and they read.  They read a lot.  Change never comes easy, and it will never happen during school hours only.

What else can we add it this list?

A One Day, 250 Student Project-Based Learning

Our school went 1 to1 last year.  We embraced project-based learning about the same time.  Since then, several schools have visited our school to see it all in action.  We aren't experts, but we are in motion and functional.  After a neighboring school came to visit, my principal approached me with a unique idea.  What if we took our entire 7th grade student body to the visiting school and did a one day technology-rich project to really show them what we do.  He charged the 7th grade team with designing a project to be completed in one day that would demonstrate how our classes operate.  Whoa.  With schoolboards, newspapers, and a school of teachers observing, participating, and evaluating our work, the pressure was on.

We decided to design a complex murder mystery project that would incorporate Common Core standards in mathematics and English language arts, as well as content from our state science standards.    For nearly a month we toiled away on a shared Google document designing learning activities, writing testimonies and biographies of the suspects, and finding a way to connect everything. We created a fictional narrative and 8 learning activities that involved an initial murder followed by a second murder that occurs mid-day.   The initial evidence pointed to the victim of the second murder, so students were going to be forced to reevaluate and revise the evidence.

Students were asked to create a short presentation of who they thought the killer was considering the evidence and motive in a clear, logical summation.  We created two rubrics--one to use while students worked and a second for their final presentation.  When the work time was over, students shared their presentation with multiple teachers to provide opportunities for revision.  Teachers discussed the results and chose 5 groups to showcase at the end of the day who then presented to the entire group of 250+ students, 20+ teachers, schoolboard members, and local media.

I built a website to host and organize the activities and provide information that students would need throughout the day.  The students were not given any direct instruction and only minimal guidance during our entry event.  We invited a local police officer to interrupt the opening statement on a fake project about topsoil to trick the kids and grab their attention.  The police officer came in yelling, "stop, stop, stop, I have to stop this project!".  We divided 250+ students into four main areas with at least 2 teachers per area.  The schedule for the day was completely loose and students worked through their lunchtime.

The nature of the project was unique.  Its was meant to be instructional to students and teachers.  We wanted to create an engaging, independent learning activity for students, but also a sound demonstration of a free-range, student centered approach to teaching learning in a 1 to 1 environment for the teachers to observe.  Our activities and overall concept was designed for two simultaneous audiences.  The school we visited plans on moving into a 1 to 1 environment next year, so they had an interest in seeing our simulated environment in action.

I think it was a fantastic success, and I think everyone learned something.  We had some major technology issues right at the beginning, which hurt our momentum.  We tested all of the material on our students computers at our school, but for some reason almost everything was blocked at the school we were visiting.  This was a great lesson to learn about technology--you must remain flexible and be able to improvise   Create paper-backups for critical parts of the project in case technology fails.  We also learned that if you are planning on having 250 students move around an area, there needs to be some traffic control to prevent groups of students from turning into herds.  For this project, 4 students was probably too many in a group--as it usually is.

I felt like there was a stark difference between the kids who were accustomed to an independent/project-based environment and those who were not.  Their use of technology also demonstrated this difference.  Some of the students at the school who didn't have experience learning with computers used their array of borrowed laptops, personal tablets, and cell phones for games and other time-wasters.  I only had to talk to 4 or 5 students all day about staying on task, but it shows that there is a learning curve to this style of learning and schools need to slowly foster a change in their overall culture.

Our 7th grade team took this opportunity to experiment with an open schedule.  Students didn't go to "classes".   We focussed on one project all day that was heavy in English and math.  We would like to do this more often in 7th grade and focus on other subjects. We are working on other projects similar to this and discussing new daily schedule options.  I will be sure to blog about it!

Authentic Assessment and Professional Development

I made the complete switch to authentic assessment two years ago.  Since then, I haven't given a traditional quiz or test for a grade.  My students demonstrate their knowledge and skills by creating authentic projects and presenting them to an authentic audience--other teachers, community members, professionals--when time and personel allow.  Designing the projects and assessments has taken a great deal of time and effort, but my students have definitely reaped rewards of engagement and enthusiasm, as well as opportunities to build their collaboration and communication skills.  This is a tall task for many teachers.  Its hard to know where to begin on a journey to authenticity.  An article I read may supply an answer.

Recently Edutopia published a great article by Bob Lenz of Envision Schools.  Titled How Authentic Assessment Heightens Accountability in our Schools, the article explains how Envision Schools have their students create a public showcase of their work in a museum-style exhibit throughout the school.  Lenz extols authentic assessment, as opposed to traditional assessment, because it publicizes student work and by extension, teacher support.  Teachers feel the pressure of facilitating student growth that will be on public display at least twice each year.  When everything is in plain view, students and teachers both work harder to demonstrate their competencies.  Does this practice help students memorize facts and facilitate higher scores on standardized tests.  Probably not, and I'm Ok with that.  Just as I would not pander to a dictator, I won't indulge an inferior assessment model at the expense of authentic learning.

Another fantastic idea in this article is the idea of "instructional rounds".  Teachers, administrators, schoolboard members, community members, and other stakeholders...

"gather at each school in the Envision network twice a year to help each school investigate a "problem of practice." The school opens all of its classroom doors for observation from the group assembled in the morning. In the afternoon, the group works with the school to move from observations to action -- concrete next steps. Envision Academy asked the question, "How are teachers moving students towards more independent learning?"

This strikes me as a great professional development model.  When we train doctors, we don't stick them in a classroom for six years and then rush them right into surgery.  Doctors are constantly observing and evaluating their peers to learn new practices and hone their skills.  Teachers could learn a great deal from taking guided rounds through the school.  For teachers who want to learn authentic practices, observation is invaluable.  I've sat through several project-bases learning training sessions, but nothing prepares you more than experience.  I would have loved to be a fly on a wall of a few classrooms that were using project-based learning before I actually took the plunge.  The teachers being observed will also work that much harder to ensure their project goes smoothly because they are being authentically assessed by their colleagues.  This could completely change the climate of a school if exercised on a regular basis.

Assessing teachers with a one-time class visit will create a dog-and-pony show.  Using test scores and other quantitative data will encourage teachers to teach to the test.   Regular instructional rounds will create a more authentic assessment of a teacher's classroom.  The added benefit of using this a as supportive teacher observation/professional development process makes this a win, win, win.  A process is often defined by the method of assessment, so too is education.  In the famous words of Will Richardson, "if we don't assess what we value, we will only value what we assess."

Status of Education in 2012

Technology has pushed education into a transition period on many fronts.  Our tech-based economy, ubiquitous information, the need for 21st Century skills, PLN's and the sharing of best practices, publishing to authentic audiences, and global competitiveness are just a few areas where technology has forced the education industry to question itself.  All of this questioning has led to, potentially, the most revolutionary period in public education's 100+ year history.  As in all revolutions, there are several interested groups pushing and pulling the revolution in the direction they think is best.

Generally, we have progressive education gurus such as Will Richardson, Alan November, and Sir Ken Robinson pushing school teachers and administrators toward a major paradigm shift.  On the other end legislators, politicians, and the high stakes testing industry hold school administrators and teachers accountable to standardized test scores.  The dichotomy of pushing and pulling has left teachers and administrators moving in two directions.  Teacher salaries and administrators jobs now depend on test scores, but we all nod our head in approval of people like Alfie Kohn.  We see the future, but we are still anchored to the past.

Some people feel there are not two different directions.  They would argue that progressive education will/should lead to higher test scores.  This can be argued and legitimized by data, but its new music in old ears.  I think it is safe to say the average teacher or administrator feels like they are being given opposing orders.  Mom says 'stay' and dad says 'go'.  The Google Story Builder video in this blog probably describes the general feeling across many school districts.  The polarized status of education in 2012 needs resolution.  A simple, well-framed resolution.  Opposing sides will need to come together, lest we live in pedagogical limbo, which will result in a low-profile maintenance of the status quo and continue public education's glacial slip into obsolescence.

DIY Education

I haven't cracked open a textbook in 2 years.  When I did use the textbook, I used it sparingly.  The Internet provided me with all of the content I needed to teach my 7th grade social studies class.  I would be willing to bet that ANY class's curriculum requirements could be met with FREE materials from the Internet.  I'd love to take that challenge.

Worksheets?  When I used them, I always used my own worksheets.  I don't even like to say the word. Worksheets are an artifact of an obsolete teaching method, especially in a 1 to 1, digital curriculum.  Engaging projects are easy to build and far more effective.

Most people love a good Do It Yourself project.  Why do we shy away from it in education and rely on stale, static resources (textbooks/worksheets) that everyone agrees are not best practice?  A DIY Education would be authentic, engaging, and cost effective.  A small district like mine can easily spend $90,000 on textbooks and related materials every six years.  EVERY SIX YEARS!  While we are reimbursed for that expense, the money has to come from somewhere.  It would be much better, in many ways, to pay teachers a higher salary and require them to create their own materials.  If teachers simply pass out textbooks, assign questions, grade, and repeat, we should probably be replaced by a computer program.

Encouraging Students to Have Pride in their Work Part 2

Being a teacher is like being a poker player.  There are highs and lows and sometimes you win big and sometimes you go all-in and bust.  Recently in my 7th grade social studies class I think I won big.  One of my standards is about international organizations, so I made a TIME Magazine template in the Mac program Pages, and student chose international organizations from a list by the acronym only.

Students researched their organization and tried to answer the basic questions: what does the acronym stand for, and what does their organization do.  The research phase only took about 1 day.  We spent another 1/2 day looking at TIME Magazine covers and looking for similarities and themes.  I gave my kids a few requirements:

1.  Design a TIME Magazine cover with 3 areas of text.  The text must describe the international organization.

2.  Use 1 main image on the cover to draw attention to your magazine help explain your international organization

3.  Use smaller images to give more details about your international organization.

4.  Use the logo of your international organization.

As students began to create their magazine I started to use the phrase, "would you pick up your magazine?".  Basically, was the cover gripping?  Did it make you want to read what was inside?  This became more important to most of my kids than anything else.

I think we took 2 days to create the cover, and at one point I had students do a gallery walk to take a look at everyone's work.  When students saw some of the covers like the ones I have on this blog they sprung into action and completely started over.  I told several students, "you don't need to start over--you've met the requirements, you are going to get full credit".   They didn't seem to care--they didn't even hesitate as they deleted their old work.  This was art, and the grade didn't matter.  They were on a mission.  To be fair, it wasn't all of the students, but somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of my students started over.

I graded this the same way we always grade--one on one conversations, what I have also heard called "oral defense" and presentations.  The day before we presented, I sat down with students who finished early and asked them content questions about their international organization. We then reviewed the requirements and negotiated a grade that seemed fair to both of us.

Now for the best part.  After I graded many of the students asked if they could make changes before they presented the following day.  I told every student it wouldn't change their grade, and yet every student made changes to their work before they presented the following day. About 1/4 of the students graded out early and made changes to their work without ANY encouragement from me.

 I was so proud of the the pride they had in their work that I honored each student who made grade-less changes during presentation day.  Each time, the class gave an unprompted round of applause to the student.

This was a big win, for all of us, but why?  What made these kids have so much pride in their work?  Why this assignment?  Maybe this assignment was not too hard and the tools to make it top notch were well within their control.

This is the goal--I want my students to have pride in their work.  They are engaged, interested, excited, and most importantly they are learning.  I couldn't believe how well students knew their international organization, and it seems to be sticking because we are doing a project about world conflicts right now and students have to come up with a solution to the conflict.  Many of them are relying on their knowledge of international organizations.

I try to emphasize learning--I don't mean this as a cliche'.  I say the words and reinforce the goal everyday in my class--LEARNING.  With every activity or project I encourage students to make something amazing--"blow everyone away", I tell them, "impress me"!  When students adopt this mentality, even for a few class periods, the learning naturally happens in an authentic and real way.  Imagine if an entire school took this approach!

I don't want to use fear of a bad grade to get students to learn or threaten that, "this will be on the tests" to force information into their short-term memory.  Learning is like love, you can't force it, and if you do, it doesn't last.  

Middle School News Team

One of the many things I love about my school, Wabash Middle School, is that we offer something for every student.  I have never seen such a small school with so many opportunities for diverse student interests.  We offer everything from tennis to Spanish Club.  Our newest edition is the APAX News Team.  Since our school is 1 to 1 we have incredible digital potential.  We have about 20 students who do a variety of jobs.  We meet everyday in our after school Computer Club.  Some days we have several stories to cover, on slow days we just hang out and think of fun things to include in the next broadcast.  I work with another teacher-sponsor who was a journalism major at one point.  She writes or at least edits most of the script, and I handle the video editing.  We are planning to hand this off to the students eventually, but its middle school.  One the things I love about this is the diverse group of students who are involved.  We are attracting new members all the time and the APAX News Team is all the rage in Wabash.

This is a perfect example of the fantastic opportunities afforded to 1 to 1 schools.  This would be very difficult without our infusion of technology.  You can follow our broadcasts at our website found here.

Computer Club

The summer before my school went 1 to 1, we tried to prepare for any foreseeable problems our students, parents, or teachers might encounter.  One issue was Internet access. There are many in our community who suffer from unemployment or underemployment and roughly 70% of our students receive free or reduced lunch.  What are students supposed to do if they have homework and they need the Internet to complete their work?  While they likely have local hotspots, friends, or relatives who have Internet, as a school we can't ask them to "just figure it out" without a reasonable option.  My experience has been that students are efficient excuse machines, and if given any legitimacy, they, and their parents, will overrun you.

Thus, the creation of Computer Club.  Computer club is an after school, supervised place for students to  work on homework or just hangout and use the school's Internet access.  This is also a place to get help with computers.  Teachers often send student to me in Computer Club to learn how to use iMovie, iPhoto, or some web tool.  Teachers themselves regularly drop in to get tech advice or troubleshoot a problem.

To be fair, lots of kids come to Computer Club to play non-educational games like Minecraft, and hang out with their friends. However, one could argue this is a great alternative to having them walking around town getting into trouble or returning to an empty house because their parents are at work.  Last week I sat up and surveyed the kids in Computer Club.  There were several athletes using it as a pre-practice study hall, there were 2 kids discussing their new blog and how to promote it, our APAX News Team was planning their next broadcast, about 12 hardcore Minecraft builders hunched over their computer, and another 6 or 7 kids floating from group to group socializing and casually working on homework.  It was exciting to see kids engaged in what they were doing and having fun in school.  Computer Club has been an integral part of our 1:1 plan, it has also become a time for clubs to assemble like APAX News Team and the new upstart SWAT Team (Students Working to Assist Technology).  Great things are happening in little Wabash, Indiana, and like our announcements regularly say, "its a great day to be an Apache".

Group Project, Individual Grades

Collaboration is a 21st Century skill, and despite the social nature of today's youth, it doesn't come easy.   Leaders need to learn how to delegate work and direct people in an effective way.  Shy students need to learn to speak up.  Socialites need to learn to stay focused on the task at hand.  Group projects are a great opportunity to learn collaboration skills, but they can also be disastrous, especially when it comes to grading.  Its inevitable--someone doesn't pull their weight in the group, the group gets a low grade, and suddenly its 'not fair'.  While the old adage is true, life is not fair--group grading should be.

Last year I experimented with a grading style that helps to avoid this.  Rather than grading the entire group at the end of a project, I grade the students individually based on their contribution.  I formatively assess throughout the project, and by the end of the project I usually have a pretty good idea of who has done their work.

In addition, I like to design my projects so that each group member is responsible for an independent part of the whole final product.  In the end, the group must find a way to put all of their work together into one presentation.  Its important to make each independent part so that the other group members don't rely on the completion of another student's work.  For example in my recent project Exploring the World Project, students had to research the most amazing physical features in the Eastern Hemisphere.  They each had to make several presentation slides, create a map, and create a written explanation of how each physical feature formed.  The group had to combine their work into one presentation, map, and written paper.  Of course Google makes this very easy.  When the group presented, each group member presented their independent parts.  When they were finished, we graded out individually.  Life was finally fair.

K-12 Alignment

Districts have made attempts to align their curriculum from kindergarten to grade 12 for years.  Common Core standards and state content standards before them furthered this idea.  I reflected on this idea recently with a colleague and we had an epiphany. It shouldn't be K-12 alignment, it should be H-12 alignment.  The "H" stands for home.  The inclusion of parents has been the missing link in curricular alignment.  It has been pointed out recently by a great video produced by NBC that students who come to school behind their classmates fall further behind every year especially during the summer.  Why have we never seriously addressed this?

There are no easy solutions, but schools must make a revolutionary effort to bring parents into the schools, not just in elementary, but through student's senior year.  It seems parent involvement wanes as students work their way through school.  Parent-teacher conferences twice a year is a paltry attempt to involve parents in their student's education.  Parents need to be in the school, have knowledge of and participate in learning activities, and also be held accountable to their student's education.  Teachers are held to the highest order of accountability for a student they have for an hour each day.  Isn't there some kind of incentive we could offer parents?  Clearly the incentive of a better education is not enough.  What about free textbook rental?  What about a tax credit?  If we want to revolutionize American education and compete in a global world, education must begin and be sustained at home.