Month: August 2020
Chaos to Clarity: PYP Practitioner Checklist for Synchronized and Asynchronized Learning

Chaos to Clarity: PYP Practitioner Checklist for Synchronized and Asynchronized Learning

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Six months. Half a year. 

That’s been the length of this experience, and, as the Covid-19 numbers are not abating, the “finish line” is not in sight. Shutting ourselves up in our homes and pivoting suddenly has been quite agonizing. When schools all had to suddenly go online, we scrambled to figure out the technology to continue learning.  Very few schools had the systems in place to support a smooth transition and while we trained teachers, we also had to train families and students. But here we are. 

I think about the gifts that are “wrapped up in sandpaper” from this collective experience. The prize chief among this is developing resiliency, in which I can build mental and emotional strength. There is a real possibility for ‘Post-traumatic’ growth. So when I look at that graphic, I can reflect on all the domains and see how I am for the better due to this pandemic.

And, although this has been hell, there has a great opportunity to turn this into a positive experience for us professionally. This is really a powerful moment when we are being confronted with what we truly believe about student learning and the role of the teacher. So we are really grappling with how to figure out how to create self-directed learning and do online learning really, really well. 

So, I feel one of the most important things I can do as a leader is to create clarity out of this confusion, provide structure despite the backdrop of turmoil and ambiguity.  Thus, when our school revised our online learning plan, I really wanted to define how we can do the PYP online because what we would have done over the course of a day now must be condensed into a handful of learning experiences.  I’ve developed an architecture around lesson planning for our teachers in order to support a meaningful and engaging learning experience for our students. For my new-to-the-PYP staff, I really wanted them to be able to name and notice the key areas of learning that we need to be planning for in our online learning program. Here is some of that thinking:

PYP Practitioner Checklist for Synchronized Learning

During this lesson, have I ….?

  • Lead with a Guiding Question so I can start with an inquiry stance
  • Developed a Concept 
  • Provided opportunities to grow one or more Approaches to Learning (Atls)
  • Cultivated the Learner Profile (in the guiding question or as a part of self-reflection)
  • Taught through interaction in order to honor Social Constructivism (dialogue brings new understanding)
  • Embedded Assessment

Structuring our lessons intentionally to “cover” this checklist will eventually lead teachers to develop “muscle memory” with practice. It’s important that teachers can name and notice these aspects of the PYP in daily synchronized lessons, which we conduct through the Zoom platform. We continue to reflect and refine how we teach our live lessons. 

But we also do a fair amount of learning through activities posted on SeeSaw. So, again, I have created another concise structure to delineate the elements that are important to cultivate self-navigating learners:

PYP Practitioner Checklist for Asynchronized Learning
  • Guiding Question (start with an inquiry-stance)
  • Concept Development
  • Success Criteria
  • Timely feedback

Here is an example of what a post looks like:

Although not stated in the checklist, teachers also have to include video, audio (translated into Portuguese), and visual instructions so that they can be successful in their learning. This is also included in our school’s online learning plan. 

As we continue to reflect and review our practices, I think these structures will serve us post-pandemic because it helps to develop teacher efficacy or as it is more commonly known as “competance”. They say that Practice makes progress, so I am hopeful that these structures facilitate the process of progressing from incompetence to competence as a skillful PYP practitioner.

So, in my heart, I want to support my teachers with this clarity and design frameworks for online learning that will help all our teachers, new or experienced into refining their ability to “make the PYP happen” online. Although this is not perfect, I believe it is a step forward in helping teachers and can act as a catalyst for the mindful practice of our pedagogical principles. 

 

Promoting Student Agency during #COVID-19

Promoting Student Agency during #COVID-19

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Control is an interesting concept, isn’t it? Here we are in the midst of a global pandemic and we are struggling to find some sense and meaning in this crisis. This confusion is the “white noise” that runs in the background of our minds. Within a matter of months, our lives have been turned upside down. We are bearing witness to the failure of our paradigms but where there are children, there is hope. Personally, I find the opportunity that we still can teach in this crisis to be such a refreshing part of all of this. 

But it has made me more aware of the need to develop creative problem solving and imaginative thinking. We need humans who can think for themselves and not only have the intelligence but the empathy to find solutions that benefit all of us. Perhaps it is naive of me, but I believe that if we knew better, we do better.

So I think, more than ever, we have to change our mindset and instead of  “getting through this” challenge, we really “rise above and engage” in the meaningful work that we do every day with students. Resilience has to become our new normal. 

So I think the greatest gift we can get and we can give in this experience is agency. 

(That’s still such a funny-sounding word, isn’t it? Grammarly is always trying to get me to add “the” to it so that it reflects a collective noun vs. an attribute of an individual.)

So whether you are online or in a hybrid situation, we need to be thinking about how we can promote and empower students during these times. Whether our students are 3 years old or 13 years old, we need to provide them with the opportunity to be self-directed and self-regulated. They can’t be waiting for their teachers and parents to tell them what to think or when to think. Thinking and learning must just become like the air that surrounds them–ever-present. They need opportunities to make decisions for themselves and to provide direction in the learning.

So…

How are you using technology to promote student agency?

What structures are you using to promote self-navigation?

Do you give students permission and opportunities to “learn without you” and run a lesson (online or in-person)? 

Let’s give these questions some more airtime….

Technology to Promote Student Agency

The best part of this time is that there are so many apps that are available to promote new forms of learning. The only obstacle we have is our imagination. If you took out a pen right now and listed all the apps you are currently using and then started to brainstorm all the ways you could use it to turn over the learning to students, you could probably come up with a decent list. I’ve set my timer for 1 minute–here’s my list…..

  • SeeSaw: 
    • The Choice Board
    • Student to student feedback in the comments
  • Student Help Desk using Zoom/Google Meet/Microsoft Teams
  •  Flip-Grid
    • Student-Led Book Clubs
    • Board: Student Help Desk with Math problems
    • Board: My home science experiments
  • Padlet or Wakelet
    • I have a question….who has an answer… (Q and A forum)
    • Boards that allow students to do their own research and content curation 
    • Student “puzzlers” (riddles or games) or jokes
  • Student-designed Google Site or Class Blog that they moderate
  • Student-designed Bit-Emoji classroom with links to learning websites and books.

Okay, time is up! Hopefully, this 1-minute brainstorm sparks some ideas—What can you come up with?

Structures to Promote Self-Navigation

First of all, I think we need to think about what it means to “self-navigate”. What are the aspects that impact their ability to make decisions in order to direct their learning? I think these are the main ones:

  • When they get to Learn: Their use and duration of time
  • How they get to Learn: Choice of media
  • What they get to Learn: Choice of activities in a content area
  • Who they get to Learn with: Choice of learning partners

I think EVERY DAY students need the opportunity to make choices within one or more of these areas. The choices students make reflect the values that they have. As a teacher, I think this is critical information to have as. teacher because it provides insight into the student’s heart and mind, directly impacting their level of motivation.  I don’t care how animated and interesting your teaching style is, in the absence of motivation, learning can’t happen. We know that “thrill leads to skill”. Student choice stimulates engagement and develops stamina to get through challenges. 

Choice boards are definitely a vehicle that can address the How to Learn and the What to Learn but the structure of the Must-Do, May-Do Charts also guide students in their decision-making. But I would also challenge you to let your students create their own choice boards and present it as option to think about how they might design their own learning.

The When and Who of learning is something that could be really helpful if you do hybrid learning because instead of a fixed timetable of lessons, students could create their own learning schedule and you could provide “workshops” on learning topics that are assigned on an asynchronized platform. In that way, you can meet with smaller groups of students (mixing in-person and online students who video conference into these workshops). I think when students return to face-to-face instruction, transitioning back to fixed timetables is going to be really difficult. They may find the pace too slow or too fast. We need to think flexibly about time and allow students to structure their learning in such a way that accommodates their needs and preference.

Permission to Learn (without adults)

A couple of years ago I shared a post about What If Students Ran the School? (#SOL meets #EmpowerBook). I know that most of us predict that we would break into chaos or recreate the “Lord of the Flies”  if we give students the freedom to provide governance in how schools operate. But I think this is an excellent opportunity, particularly with online learning, to invite students into the planning and execution of learning. Moreover, we want students to go beyond the “checklist” approach to learning and be able to articulate the different ways that they can exercise their minds on any given day.  I can’t tell you specifically what to do as a classroom teacher, but I would suggest that you pose some open-ended questions like How might we learn …? or What if we ..? and allow students to fill in the blanks. I think this would be where you could start. Imagine how empowering this would be though if we co-designed learning with our students. 

Gosh, I think doing this would be a ton of fun! 

Your Turn

So as we consider the inflection point we are in education, we need to exercise our imagination and engage in experimentation so we can make learning a “team sport”, bringing students’ voices into our planning and providing them with choice into their learning. Although this post is hardly a blueprint or how-to guide, I do most certainly hope it expands some thinking into how we could use this time of crisis for an amazing transformation in student learning. 

Now it’s your turn–what are you going to do to promote student agency? 

Thinking About How to “Make the PYP Happen” Online

Thinking About How to “Make the PYP Happen” Online

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Here we go again! Schools are beginning their 2020-2021 school. For many of us, this is another time at the bat to try on this thing called “online learning”.  Last spring, online was an “emergency” learning situation, but now we must have a more planned approach. Even those schools who are are coming back face-to-face still might see an uptick in numbers of COVID and be forced back into remote learning. Uncertainty is the new normal.

So this means that teachers have to get good at using technology in a thoughtful and intentional way. For our school, we have really been digging into the question of how do you do the PYP online? During our school holiday, I read Teaching and Technology During a Time of Crisis which provided stories about the myriad of approaches to dealing with the sudden shift to online learning. And as I read through these experiences, it got me wondering about how might these experiences be articulated through the lens of “Making the PYP Happen ONLINE”.

Hmmm…

Now that many of our schools get another crack at this, I think we must be truly reflecting on how our PYP students will experience learning differently than in other schools online. What is the difference in our pedagogical approaches?

Well, let’s be clear what online learning is NOT for our students:

It’s rather obvious that we don’t do an inquiry into “worksheets” or stop teaching certain subject areas because it’s too “hard” to do online. It’s not a bunch of choice boards either and calling that “agency”. These things might have been okay during “emergency learning” but now that we face prolonged online learning, we have to be much intentional and develop skillfulness in teaching in this new way.  It’s also not asynchronized lessons only (Google Classroom, SeeSaw, Schoology, etc..) or parking kids in front of a screen and doing synchronized lessons only (Zoom, Google Meets, Microsoft Teams). Why?  Because the heart of who we are as PYP educators is a firm belief in social constructivism.

Social constructivism: pedagogical approach that believes that knowledge is something that a learner ‘constructs’ for themselves, rather than passively absorbs.  Students construct their knowledge through conversation and interaction, with each other and with teachers. In this way, students cultivate a better understanding of concepts when they work together and discuss ideas. (Piaget + Vygotsky)

So, as we develop our online learning plans 2.0 and transition into hybrid learning we must keep in mind that students need time to construct meaning on their own and through group discussion. This is why we need a balance of synchronized and synchronized learning experiences.

So after reflecting on this, I sat down and considered the tech tools that classrooms might use to not only increase student engagement but also provide for social interaction online. This 2×2 matrix represents some of my thinking when it comes purposefully using technology to support the PYP online. I also thought it might help teachers think about what platforms they might need to not only get good at for student engagement but also for developing relationships online. Obviously this doesn’t represent every app out there and there’s a lot of nuances missing in how apps can be used, but I wanted our teachers to be thinking about purposely choosing platforms to support social constructivism, whether it was through a synchronized lesson or through synchronized learning. So let’s take a look at some apps and how they might support social constructivism.

Google Jamboard (Free)

If your school has a Google for Education account, it is typically in your suite of apps and is very easy to use. We use Zoom for our live synchronized lessons but when using the Zoom whiteboard in breakout rooms is really different to save and share work. So, Jamboard really comes in handy to promote small group discussions–whether brainstorming ideas, solving math problems, or doing visible thinking routines–this is a great platform for capturing student thinking.  

Pros: Whether you are using Google Meets (need a chrome extension for Breakout rooms )or Zoom, you can have students using this collaborative whiteboard through synchronized lessons in order to share ideas and develop conceptual understandings. It has basic drawing features, the ability to add images, sticky notes, and a variety of backgrounds to support different kinds of learning. 

Cons: Only provides for 16 “touchpoints”, which means that you can only have 16 persons working on a Jamboard at a time so this makes it tricky for a whole class to work on one Jamboard. No audio or video features so student thinking can only be captured in written form. Thus this wouldn’t be good for asynchonized learning. 

FlipGrid (Free)

For synchronized learning, this is one of the best platforms to have a “conversation” online. Students create video responses in order to discuss a topic or describe how to solve a problem. This has soooo many learning applications, that every teacher really should have this tech tool in their teacher toolbox. I’ve used this from everything like a Reader’s Workshop partner reading to sharing unit projects. How you use this platform is only limited to your imagination. 

Pros: Easy for teachers to create discussion topics and can embed a lot of content from other apps. Students love making and engaging in video responses but have the chance to “cover their face” with an emoji in order to protect privacy. Flipgrid has also added written responses as well for those truly camera shy. Also, has assessment embedded into the platform, making it easy to get feedback and have a well-round academic experience online. 

Cons: App smashing can sometimes be clumsy. For example, when students shared a Google Slide presentation, we had permission issues due to restrictions with our Google admin set up. That was more of a Google hiccup than a FlipGrid one–but you always need to test your boards to see their limitations. Also, since their recent updates, boards aren’t as easy to respond to now with their required email sign-in, making code sharing not as simple as before. If you use this with young ones, consider creating a “private” passcode that is easy enough to type in so that young students can make responses. 

Padlet (Free, but limited)

There are so many ways to use this platform, whether you share a padlet during a live lesson to facilitate a discussion or during an asynchronized lesson.  This also has many learning applications: you can curate resources for students, engage in a discussion, or collaborate on a project. 

Pros:  Super simple to use which makes this good for younger as well as older students. Just click on the page and add your content. As you can see in this image, there is a variety of content that can be shared. 

Cons: Adding content to the board is easy but making comments on this content is very limited, especially in the Free edition. So if you want students to make a comment on something shared, it has to be text-based. If you upgrade and get a paid account, there are a lot more features available but I don’t see how responses can be more versatile in this regard. 

Voice Thread (Paid)

This app makes me wish I was still “in the classroom” and not a dedicated PYP Coordinator. On their website, they claim “VoiceThread is a platform where students develop critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity skills.” After looking at some of the projects on Voice Thread library, I can see how you take a typical video lesson and amplify through creating interaction for students. 

Pros: Teachers can upload, share, and discuss documents, presentations, images, audio files and videos. Over 50 different types of media can be used in a VoiceThread, so you can literally have a discussion ON a particular piece of content. Students can comment using either a microphone, webcam, text, phone, or an audio-file upload.

Cons: For $79 per year or $15 per month, you better be committed to using this or you’re throwing your hard-earned money away. Also, I think teachers would need to spend a weekend, at least, at figuring out how to create and train students at creating responses. It’s a robust platform but may need some time to figure out how to use its bells and whistles. 

Parlay (Paid)

I came across this platform when researching new tech tools for online learning. I really liked its concept of chunking discussion into parts, making this very useful for social constructivism. If you look at how discussions are structured, students are provided a provocation and prompt in which they must reflect on it in written form. Then other students can engage in written discussion and provide peer feedback. Then, in the next phase of the discussion, students go “live” during a “roundtable” on Zoom or another video conferencing platform.

Pros: It has a solid approach to developing deeper learning through a process of critical thinking and discussion. 

Cons: You will notice immediately that this platform is better suited for older students because it relies on discussion forums and it frames discussions around a “course” (seems like the target is high school and college students) so test it out during PLC to have teachers think about how you could approach this with intermediate grade levels. 

Although there are lots of choices out there for apps to increase student online engagement, I hope teachers value interaction as a “must-do” for PYP instruction. Hopefully, this blog post provides some food for thought. 

What apps or platforms might you recommend for cultivating social constructivism through online learning? Please share!

Should Fear be the Basis of Decision-making in Schools?

Should Fear be the Basis of Decision-making in Schools?

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Today is our first day of school…online. And I couldn’t be more excited. Today marks the beginning of the end of traditional approaches to education. Tradition isn’t dead, but it is dying. I think we all know this.

But just as we launch our online learning, behind the scenes we are planning for our physical school re-opening. We don’t have a date or an hour, but we are gathering as much data as possible to get students onto campus, safely.

Safety as a primary driving force of education is an odd value to prioritize. In fairness, safety has always been a value but it’s about avoidance–avoidance of loss of life from bullying, drugs, guns, and fires. Lawsuits, mainly, from families because safety is a foundational concern for all our loved ones. But attempting to design our schools’ reopening through the lens of infectious disease protocols terrifies me. Why? Because we haven’t thought these fully through. We are thinking from a very short-term stance and not thinking about the long-term implications. The emotional and intellectual impact of having to teach in fear of disease. Really this fear is bigger than that–it’s the fear of living. This is what CoVid has cultivated in our society as we consider “measured risks” whenever we leave our homes. In the back of our minds, we have to consider if whatever we are going to do is worth dying for.

What a pathetic point of view to make important decisions through.

I am reminded of this quote that rather captures the sentiment of where most schools stand when considering our physical school re-opening:

Soltionitis is the propensity to jump quickly on a solution before fully understanding the exact problem to be solved…When decision makers see complex matters through a narrow lens, solutionitis lures them into unproductive strategies…solutionitis is a barrier to improvement in practice.
From Learning to Improve: How American’s Schools Can Get Better by Bryk, Gomex, Grunow, and LeMahieus

As I listen to architects’ plans of how we can conduct “social distancing” in person, I look at those models and it feels completely Draconian to me. So as teachers perform amazing acts of transformation with their pedagogy online, we have this opposing force happening on our campuses: lining up rows of desks, installing plexiglass between us, constructing cohorts of students to herd, putting down signage and floor markings in order to conduct the flow of traffic and deciding if we should have children playing on the playground.

It feels like a rubberband–there is this amazing force being created as we pull back our instructional practices and upgrade our use of technology as a transformational tool in learning. But there is a counterforce that we have to consider when we “snap back” into face-to-face instruction with all these social distancing measures that are fear-based.

We have to really think clearly about the impact of all of this. Not from a myopic view of “safety” but a broader view that includes student agency, innovation, and creating a more just society.

This post doesn’t have any answers to this conundrum but you can be damned sure I am thinking about. I think we all should in education.

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