Category: Change in Education

Keeping Optimistic When in the Vice Grip of Crisis

Keeping Optimistic When in the Vice Grip of Crisis

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herding tigers

I’ve heard it said that we either make our decisions based on fear or out of love/passion. Fear is based on avoidance, anxiety, and maintaining current paradigms. Whereas love and passion are based on change,  potential, and new paradigms for a new world. In leadership, we need to balance both. 

Although I cannot speak for ALL schools, as I talk to others in different parts of the world, it feels like schools, especially private schools,  are caught in a vice-grip- the pressures and challenges of our teacher community coming from one direction and those of the parent community squeezing in from another perspective.  For example, communities in Brazil are grappling with re-opening businesses to keep the economy chugging along, but hasten to re-open schools. And there is a good reason for this since our transmission numbers are still high. However, from the parents’ point of view, it seems morally wrong to open bars and clubs while we fail to provide access to schools to educate children. I totally get that and I agree that this pandemic is bringing up misguided values in our societies. But there is this other issue–health and safety which has really hardly been addressed. Humans are highly social creatures so demanding that they remain distant from one another seems unholy for this extended period of time. Why is the best we can do is still to wash our hands and wear a mask? I can understand and appreciate why teachers are apprehensive to come back to face-to-face learning. Teaching isn’t a career with high occupational hazards; it’s not like when you join the military, you can expect to die when doing your duty. Teachers are public servants who haven’t considered these types of risks before, especially since their pay does not reflect the value that they offer society. Because of these competing ideas, it’s hard to find a way forward when all of us need to figure out how to co-exist with COVID and do what’s best for the long-term.

As I reflect on the uncertainty of these times,  schools are confronted often with challenges from a fear-based perspective. Fear of losing student enrollment…..fear of increasing anxiety and depression of community members…. fear of the inadequacy and outdated teaching methodologies…fear of going back to school with Draconian classrooms…..fear of learning loss and conceptual gaps…….fear of ….(fill in the blank)

These are issues that suck the oxygen out of the room. Somewhere, in the midst of this crisis, we have to find some hope and reach for the “blue skies”. 

As a curriculum coordinator, there are so many of these things that I can’t impact. I have no control of, but then again, who in leadership does these days? So I am reminded of this prayer that has been posted on my refrigerator for ages: The Serenity Prayer. This is great advice for times like these: accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

So when I look at those fears, I wonder if I have any power to change these things and if I do, what might be those actions. I think that everyone is working at their full capacity, but I wonder if there are some tweaks worth making in order to address the needs of our community and who might be those people that could be of support. Hmmm…

But what if we move into a more proactive approach? What if we looked beyond this pandemic and start to move into more visionary thinking. This is where I would prefer to spend my energy–in a state of enthusiasm and passion.

Lately, I’ve been enthralled by Dan Heath’s book called Upstream in which the main premise is how to solve problems before they even happen. Some of the most interesting phenomena he details are the concepts and barriers to change:

  • Problem blindness: I don’t see the problem or the problem seems inevitable. 
  • Lack of ownership: That’s not my problem to solve.
  • Tunneling: I can’t deal with that right now.

As I read that, I thought about all the systematic changes that we need to make in education. Equity issues, outdated curriculum, and standardizing the heck out of our students’ souls. But we fight over banal issues like should we teach cursive handwriting? Seriously? THIS is important?

I just have to shake my head when I hear that. 

So many issues are floating to the surface right now that are more worthy of our attention and focus. But maybe we have “problem blindness” or feel powerless with a lack of ownership and tunnel vision. But what if, instead of looking at the standards as our compass for student achievement and commiserating about learning gaps, we looked at those as a reference guide. Instead, what if we could address “heart gaps”, using the Sustainability Development Goals to direct our outcomes? What if solving these issues became the student focus instead of test scores?

Okay, SDGs too political for your school? What about happiness? Surely that is a neutral topic. If you aren’t going to empower learners to change the systems of the world, then why not bring more joy to the planet? I admire the work of Project Happiness Global who’s goal is to impact 10,000,000 lives through developing kindness, mindfulness, and all the other tools to bringing out the best in us, and our society. When organizations cooperate with schools, then we can get change happening. Looking at schools in New Dehli, India, it is inspiring to see how they are really projecting new possibilities for our world. Personally, if our children learned these skills early, I think the SDGs would take care of themselves because no compassionate human being would be able to tolerate people languishing with poverty, a lack of wellbeing or education, nor could they stand by passively and watch out earth be destroyed.

So, as I keep one foot present in the current trauma of this reality, another foot is planted in the future–the future I want to build for our school community and for the world at large.

Recently, we have been involved in strategic planning and one of the goals we have set is to be a “learning hub for excellence”. I love this goal! But we don’t have an expanded description of “excellence” yet and those indicators that we could measure for its achievement. We have defined traditional hallmarks like higher “quality” teachers and creating more professional development opportunities for our teachers in our community and around the region. But I feel that if we only judge success in traditional academic ways, then we have really missed an opportunity to be worthy of admiration. We have to include our mission, which is based on developing “compassionate agents for a better future”. I think we need to really unpack that and reflect on whether the decisions we are making during this pandemic are getting us closer to that goal or further away. We need to be pulled by our vision instead of being pushed by the pain of shattering paradigms. So, I’m still lingering on how we can establish Post-pandemic “New Normals” and thinking about what S.M.A.R.T. goals we can create in order to achieve our school’s mission and the larger mission of the IB. This nagging for a new normal helps me to generate optimism and hope. The time is ripe for change and we must look to the horizon beyond this crisis to see an improved state of education.

What about you? How might you stir your heart and move your mind to envisioning a future world that works for everyone?

Post Pandemic: “New Normals” Worth Developing

Post Pandemic: “New Normals” Worth Developing

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What is education?

Childcare?

Job Training?

Citizenship Development? 

It seems like so many countries are grappling with the purpose of education, trying to balance the risk of bringing kids back to school. It is a critical moment in time when we really can evaluate our guiding principles in our societies. In so many ways, globally we are undergoing a “dark night of the soul”, deep in introspection as we reflect on all the incongruent “normals” in our educational systems. 

I digress for a moment……

I like to explore the word education semantically for a moment. Its Latin origins, mean “to bring out; to lead forth”.  The root implies that our intelligence is innate and can be developed.

When I think of this definition, I wonder what this global crisis has revealed about our educational systems? 

Inequity between public and private education–YEP!

Teacher-Driven models of education are not sustainable or appropriate online–YEP!

Misguided or completely absent set of values in our systems?–YEP!

Inadequate training and professional development of our teachers, particularly in using technology in our instruction–YEP!

More care and concern are focused on our current-day economy than designing a more equitable future?–YEP!

But the most disturbing is the lack of organizational leadership and creative problem solving since the best we can do is hole ourselves up in our homes until this thing blows over. This fact right here is the absolute reason why we have to look carefully at our educational systems and make changes as we create more agile and dynamic schools. We can’t keep educating our future generations to look for answers outside of themselves–we need an “all hands on deck” approach that involves integrated and collaborative communities of problem-solvers. 

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you do not blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need more fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You look for reasons it is not doing well. You never blame the lettuce.

-Thich Nhat Hahn-

Now is the time to seize upon this opportunity to make constructive changes in our schools and educational systems. When we look at our current crop of “lettuce”, I feel a powerful and urgent need of changing minds and hearts when it comes to reconstructing education. 

Purpose: Develop our Humanity

The International Baccalaureate is one of the few frameworks that actually defines who we want our students to become as a result of their learning. In a nutshell, we want to make “good humans”.

This shouldn’t be an exception, but should be a rule in ALL of our schools.

Yet so many schools still reflect a factory-model, industrial age approach to learning. In which when the system “spits them out” at the end, they have a conforming pattern and standardized base of knowledge. This is in direct opposition to what we know about our human design. Every aspect of who we are is unique and essential.

As educators, we must question the directives of our national and local authorities in order to change these definitions. We must demand to infuse our policies to account for improvements in our humanity, rather than look at defining our systems by creating subordinate and compliant masses who keep our economies chugging along.

But even if we can’t get change within our higher authority, we must be willing to be way-showers and make changes in our schools that move away from these vestiges of this outdated paradigm.

This graphic is from Bold Moves for Schools, ASCD, 2017, H.H. Jacobs and M.H. Alcoc and provides consideration of the areas in which our schools can shift from the traditional factory-model paradigm to a more fluid and contemporary model of education.

Teachers shouldn’t be waiting for leadership to make these changes. The level of complexity that it takes to make this shift is almost prohibitive. Teachers must dream and co-design with school leadership so that this is a thoughtful and collaborative grass-roots effort. Schools can’t restructure without a teamwork and ingenuity.

These shifts are not minor, these are transformational. We are providing structures that empower learners and create real-world applications that act as “training wheels” for dealing with challenges.

I hear Gandhi in my head …

It might take time but with collective and persistent patience, we can create a new future for education.

Redefine: Indicators of “performance” for evidence of learning

I remember a time when the standardized testing craze was contagious. I can recall a day when one of my Kiwi friends was lamenting that New Zealand was embracing the American antidote for education with school grading based upon students’ achievement on the general skill-based tests.  As she was explaining the new direction that the NZ education system was going, her cheeks turned red with emotion. I had to sigh, remembering my own experience and stress of teaching to a test. 

However, many schools get “graded” on student performance. The word performance implies some action or behavior that demonstrates a specific ability.  Learning, on the other hand, is a process, an accumulation of knowledge gained through experience that changes behavior. Although there is a thread that links the two, we often confuse student data as an indicator of learning, when, in fact, it is really the other way around. Learning can only be demonstrated by actions taken by students of the skills they have acquired.  Because of this, learning describes this innate capacity to “bring forth” our intelligence and creativity.

After this COVID crisis dies down and we return to our school, we must broaden our definition of performance that goes beyond knowing the “answers” to knowing the “problems” so that students can predict potential threats to our societies and create proactive solutions that innovate and address these areas of concern. It’s less about demonstrating knowledge and more about awareness.

A colleague of mine recently pointed out that there is not one standard in their national curriculum around discrimination and oppression. This is an example of how we censor reality.

Our national standards are helpful in understanding the cognitive milestones that we expect for numeracy and literacy, but they do not really reflect the “standards” we want for our humanity: kindness, resilience, cooperation, generosity, appreciation, curiosity, and joy. Content knowledge no longer holds the capacity for future success. We need “heart-based” standards and, as educators, model and facilitate the growth of emotional and situational intelligence.

Our students’ performance may not be as measurable and easy to assess when we focus on this area but I believe that we can still observe “learning” when students can manage conflict, articulate concerns, and self-manage their learning, returning home inspired and energized. Instead of knowledge, HOPE can be an indicator of performance standards.

Imagining New Normals

These are the “new normals” that I believe is worth striving for in a post-pandemic era of education: Value-based Goals for Education, Restructuring Systems of Learning, and Creating New “Performance Standards”.

When I consider the root meaning of “education”, I can’t help but contemplate what I wish to “to bring out; to lead forth” as a result of this experience. As difficult as this time is, we must lean on potential and think of the possible good that can come out of this experience.

What do you believe should become “new normals”? What do you hope to dream and scheme about as we reconsider the purpose of education?

Why is the Whole World Upside Down? Education After COVID-19 and #RemoteLearning

Why is the Whole World Upside Down? Education After COVID-19 and #RemoteLearning

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Lately, I’ve been reading and reflecting a lot about Darwin’s theory of Evolution. Somehow when I feel stressed, I turn to science as my security blanket. I feel comfort in the tested theories and proofs as if all of life’s unsolved mysteries can be explained with science. Surely, during these uncertain times, trying to figure out how we got here and where we go next is on everyone’s mind. Mine too.

Darwin’s theory is one that is easily misunderstood. Most people don’t know the backstory of how his theory came about and whether he actually agreed with his conjectures but we accept his ideas as a fact, by and large, and teach it in our textbooks. But his ideas are why the whole world is upside down.

The problem, whether we are aware of it or not, is that his ideas of “selection of the fittest” have paved the way for our economic principles and so much of the discrimination and atrocities in our human world–from civil wars and genocides, to acceptance of violence as a norm–justifying it as our primal urge to compete for scare resources and force “natural selection”. We’ve accepted his ideas because it was the first attempt of describing the complex behaviors that we observe in nature, but collaborationdarwinI think this COVID crisis is helping us to examine these ideas and ask ourselves if this is how we want to continue living as a species. Because the truth is, if we really make a study of nature, there’s a helluva lot more evidence for cooperation rather than competitition in the endurance of living things. Darwin actually wrote about this but it often goes unnoted.

But whether you are taking about plants (The Hidden Life of Trees  )  or microscopic , single-celled organisms (I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life), there is a complicated web of life that is the operating system that runs in the background of all things, from the most mundane elements of Earth (How to Read Water) to the deepest understanding of intelligence (Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness). And the fact that our economies are coming to a grinding halt during this pandemic exposes this fault in our thinking of our origins and purpose in life. Economists may have taken Darwin’s principles too far.

However, to not seize this moment in Education would be a terrible blunder. Especially since we now have the world’s attention of how dang important educators are in our societies. We really can’t go back to “business as usual” when our doors reopen. We need to be looking deeply into ourselves and asking if this world paradigmn that we live in is the world we want to continue into our future.

We’ve been granted a second chance.

Will we take it?

Needless to say, this is bigger than technology. It’s not about the level of preparedness that educators had when walking into remote learning. We could focus on that but I think we should be looking at the glaring equity issues we have–survival of the fittest–if you had access to technology and wifi, you got to continue your education online. If you didn’t, schools either were temporarily canceled or teachers made packets of uninspiring worksheets that put your brain to sleep–and ultimately got burned in a trash heap since districts were too afraid to have teachers actually grade them for the fear of spreading the virus. All that “school work” went up in flames. Ironic and metaphorical at the same time.

There’s this part of Darwin’s theory of Evolution that we should focus on. Adaptation: a change in a behavior or physical feature that improves a living thing’s ability to survive.  If we superimpose this concept onto culture, we call it innovation.

Innovation is often considered to be a value. But I don’t think so. It’s a necessity in my mind, a conscious decision. Natural selection is only one form of evolution but change can be also be a choice. That is where innovation comes in.

In the course, New Learning: Principles and Patterns of Pedagogy , Dr. William Cope reminds us that “

I share these thoughts of Dr. Cope to demonstrate how important this time is to reflect and consider WHAT’S NEXT in our human paradigm and our role to consciously decide as educators how we can support this transition to new ways of thinking and living in our world. I believe that as we move through this pandemic, we will also have a crisis of the heart and mind as we grapple with how we might use this opportunity to innovate in Education and embrace new ways of doing “school”. We can use the power of formal education to steer humanity in a new direction.

An Einstein Approach

Just as we are awakening to the ridiculousness of “standardizing” our students with testing, let’s not make the shallow mistake to make this about apps and tech. It’s much more primal and significant than that.

Albert Einstein once said:

einstein problems.jpeg

So, if our thinking has gotten us into our mess, then we have to revise it.  Education plays a crucial role in this.

The truth is that living things are exposed to disease all the time. That’s not new.

But we deem this a crisis because it has changed our way of living. And that may not be a bad thing in the long game if we get to eradicate the wrongful premise that the only way to survive is at the expense of others.

Because what the scientific evidence is now demonstrating is that it’s our relationships that helps us to solve-problems (code word: adaptation). And doing this TOGETHER will be the only way through this situation. We can not simply survive but we can thrive if we stop doing the same things and thinking in the same ways that got us here.

And, if we don’t want to be “same-same, but different” (same content but with a splash more of technology in there for good measure), then we need to look critically at our curricular content and school structures, while asking if it is truly serving a higher purpose for living beings, big and small. We have the power to choose this.

So, it is in the spirit of Nature’s truth that begs us to rethink schools and rebuild our world.

So what if we got Darwin all wrong?

Here is some of my first thinking what should be the basis of new standards in Education.

  1. Empathy should become a part of our content because it helps us to understand the relationship we have to our world.  We don’t read and write to pass a test, we do it to connect with the world.
  2. As a skill, explicit teaching of cooperation and collaboration should become the new “norm” in our school.
  3. Grades are an artifact of “selection of the fittest” thinking in which we rank and value our students based upon their academic knowledge. It’s an artificial and inhumane way to evaluate students. We need to stop this practice.
  4. No more, dog eat dog: content should include a new paradigmn in which we highlight peace and inter-relationships. How to solve conflict is an essential skill.
  5. Moreover, social emotional learning isn’t fluff. It’s a vital for developing human competence.
  6. Sharing is not just caring, it is an essential component to life. All life. So, the circular economy and sharing economy shouldn’t be a fringe idea, it should be a guiding principle.
  7. Awareness and appreciation of intelligence is not just a human thing. It’s in ALL things and when we recognize it, we can transform our life experience.

So, I want to restate what I said earlier:

We really can’t go back to “business as usual” when our doors reopen. We need to be looking deeply into ourselves and asking if this world paradigmn that we live in is the world we want to continue into our future.

We’ve been granted a second chance.

Will we take it?

Let’s set the world rightside up. We have the power to do that in Education.

 

 

 

 

 
Small Big Things: The Shifting Culture via #Remote Learning

Small Big Things: The Shifting Culture via #Remote Learning

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A few years ago, I was introduced to the “Ameoba of Cultural Change” model. I found it to be an interesting way to describe how innovation happens in organizations. As simple, single-cell organisms, amoebas blindly step into the unknown, reaching for “food”; so too do organizations, as innovators and change agents push people towards new ideas and inventions. Although I agree with the personalities within this organizational change model, I don’t think that change has to happen this slowly.

amoeba map

Clearly, we are in unprecedently times and CoVid-19 has certainly been the catalyst for rapid changes in “how we do school” across the globe. And you see nations whose educational systems are paralyzed in the midst of this epidemic. It reminds me of the book, Future Shock by Alvin Toffler that describes the emotional anguish that people undergo as they try to adjust to rapid and disruptive technological changes.  I feel that we are definitely in the midst of this feeling as educators who would have been labeled as “laggards”, “curmudgeons”, and “reactionaries” are now unwillingly forced into change. But even those of us who are the “change agents” and “innovators” in our schools can experience equally and acutely how terrifying and painful this experience of remote learning is. The only difference is that our “AHHHHHHHHHH” converts into “AHH-ha” in a shorter period of time. Toffler reminds us all that:

The responsibility for change…lies within us. We must begin with ourselves, teaching ourselves not to close our minds prematurely to the novel, the surprising, the seemingly radical.

~ Alvin Toffler

Wise advice for all of us, don’t you think?

Personally, I am excited by the forced change–not because I think we all need an Edtech facelift in our schools, but because of the transformation that is happening pedagogically. In a short amount of time, more and more educators are shuffling off traditional and inefficient models of practice to create more intentional and dynamic learning experiences. Image-1

At our school, we have transformed the way that we have been using SeeSaw in order to provide for asynchronistic learning activities and now we are using Zoom for real-time instruction and social engagement. In less than a month, the teachers have been moving fast and furious in developing a positive challenge mindset, figuring out they can be more collaborative, and fine-tuning intentional approaches to learning and assessment. Although it is very hard for some to see how amazing this metamorphosis is, as a PYP Coordinator, I am in awe of my teachers and have a deep respect for them plunging into the unknown of online learning together. 

Whether we are doing distance learning for another 2 weeks or 2 months, I know that no one will be the same after this experience. At the very least, we will be more critical of curriculum-in-a-box approaches to teaching students and develop the skill of distilling the concepts and the strategies that students need to be successful.  Alvin Toffler explains the importance of this skill well….

You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” ~ Alvin Toffler

To get good at reflecting on our practice is so crucial during this time. But I feel that after we retreat into our long holidays,  all of us will have the opportunity to feel proud of our growth and willingness to tackle fears. Yes, there will be some of us who may feel traumatized and stressed by this technological kick-in-the-butt, however, I feel that a larger majority will be transformed and energized by their professional growth. 

But, you know what they say: Shift Happens.

Professional Learning: Gearing Up for #Remote Learning

Professional Learning: Gearing Up for #Remote Learning

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As I sit here with my laptop perched in my lap, I hear birds singing and a car tumble down our steep road. I can see the light start to peek out behind puffy clouds resting on the tops of buildings and mountains. Today seems to be like any other day here in Brazil, but if I were to turn on my TV or dare to look at my internet news feed, I would experience a different reality–one that is gripped with fear. Fear of catching a virus. Covid19. You would think that this is some kind of storyline from World War Z, a once-popular zombie apocalypse movie in which people scramble to contain a terrible virus. I don’t think Covid19 is going to lead to the destruction of mankind, but we sure are behaving in a very cautious manner.

So, here we are, as educators, in the midst of figuring out how we can do remote learning. For many of us, even the most tech-savvy, we are grappling with the lack of experience with this kind of learning. As I write this post, our school isn’t facing the reality of doing this quite yet, but we are preparing for when learning goes online. But I live in Belo Horizonte, tucked in the mountains of Minas Gerais, where we only have 1 case within the whole city.  In Sao Paulo, the city that has the most cases of coronaviruses, they face other challenges. Our biggest and most extraordinary conference in this region is set to take place next week–AASSA Educators’ Conference that has educational rockstars like John Hattie, Cindy Moss and George Couros who will be keynote speakers. Yours truly was going to present as well. I have never felt so excited about a conference in my life.

But we received a notice last week that it’s …..getting canceled? Nope, it’s going virtual!! My first reaction was surprise. Woah–kudos to them for not outright canceling! I loved how the organization was really taking the lead on moving forward, despite schools’ travel restrictions. Of course, I was bummed that we weren’t going to Sao Paulo. Traveling and networking are some of my favorite part of these events. But as we sat in our principles office, it became clear, as the leader of professional learning, it was my job to be a cheerleader. (For anyone who knows me, this actually isn’t a stretch.) I was eager to turn lemons into lemonade.  Because our school had actually created Professional Development days on our school calendar in order for the bulk of us to attend. We were going to have our staff come on-site in order to ensure that they were distraction-free and had access to technology. I started brainstorming ideas of how we were going to make it fun and engaging.

But on Friday (the 13th, no less) I saw the email from AASSA with the subject line that said: AASSA 2020 Educators’ Conference – CANCELED

I blinked. Did I read that right? So I clicked to read:

We have continued to monitor the developments related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The situation is quickly evolving and schools in our region are attending to pressing demands that make participating virtually in a conference during this time extremely challenging.  Therefore, the AASSA 2020 Educators’ Conference is canceled.

When I read that my mouth dropped and my heart sank. it means that there are 2 unplanned PD days. Now, what are we going to do? Cancel those days and head to the beach? Hahaha–not a chance! With over 57 countries currently calling off school, my principal informed me that we are going to prepare for what now seems inevitable. Remote Learning.

The good news is that we have been preparing for remote learning for a while. Kasey Bell posted a really helpful blog post called: Coronavirus Closures? Online Learning Tips for Teachers and Schools that helped our school to create an Essential Agreement with our teachers for remote learning. For our lower school, it meant that we needed to get really good at SeeSaw and at Google Meets–the 2 platforms that we were going to focus on. (Less is more!)

Serendipitously, I had a recent chat with Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, and she inspired me with some ideas. So with that in mind, I started scrambling to get these 2 days planned.

My current thinking is that during our PD days we will play BINGO. My principal always asks me when I go to him with ideas–“so what are your goals?”  So, with that in mind, the goals of my PD BINGO are as follows:

  1. For teachers to PRACTICE online collaboration (with Google Meets)
  2. For teachers to LEARN more about remote learning through social media and blogs.
  3. For teachers to DOCUMENT their learning.
  4. For teachers to NETWORK with other educators outside our organization.
  5. For grade levels to feel PREPARED for our first day of remote learning.
  6. And most importantly, for everyone to have FUN while we are in the midst of stressful times.

Here is the draft of the BINGO:

Even though this isn’t at the same level of awesomeness that an in-person, live conference is, I do hope that this helps our staff to feel less stressful by getting prepared, connected and feeling competent with using the tools that we have designated for our remote learning. This also provides a window into any technical hiccups that we might encounter and allow teachers the support they need before we actually go live with remote learning.

I know that most schools haven’t had the luxury of preparing teachers like we might have. It’s not even a guarantee that we will go remote. But the pressure is on the local and national authorities to decide. And when they do, we intend to be ready!

 

Creating Depression-Proof Kids: The Hope of Positive Education

Creating Depression-Proof Kids: The Hope of Positive Education

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I think it’s time for new “standards” in education.
I believe that education, as a whole, is undergoing a transformation as we speak. Now we are at a precipice, questioning if this industrial model of education is still serving our future needs. We KNOW it isn’t but what should be our next purpose in education?

What if it was happiness?

The Bearded Backyarder: Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of ...When I think of the founding of my country, America, the pursuit of happiness was what they called “an inalienable right” to its citizens.
Ask any parent what they really want for their kid and what do they say–Happiness.
So why is it that we are chasing Knowledge as the carrot on the stick when we know that it doesn’t bring true fulfillment and meaning to overall lives to our students? When are we going to consider alternatives to our current paradigm in education? Certainly, policymakers and educational leaders have seen the growing body of research that shows that happiness is not only linked to positive emotions but includes all sorts of benefits, from higher earnings and better immune-system functioning to enhancing creativity. Surely we need to go back to the drawing board and rethink some things.
In the latest World Happiness Report written by the United Nations, they are reporting:

Numerous indicators of low psychological well-being such as depression, suicidal ideation, and self-harm increased sharply among adolescents since 2010, particularly among girls and young women (Mercado et al., 2017; Mojtabai et al., 2016; Plemmons et al., 2018; Twenge et al., 2018b, 2019a). Depression and self-harm also increased over this time period among children and adolescents in the UK (Morgan et al., 2017; NHS, 2018; Patalay & Gage, 2019). Thus, those in iGen (born after 1995) are markedly lower in psychological well-being than Millennials (born 1980-1994) were at the same age (Twenge, 2017).

This decline in happiness and mental health seems paradoxical. By most accounts, Americans should be happier now than ever. The violent crime rate is low, as is the unemployment rate. Income per capita has steadily grown over the last few decades. This is the Easterlin paradox: As the standard of living improves, so should happiness – but it has not.

Although it not a surprise that “money can’t buy happiness”, it is alarming to think that with each new generation of children, their mental health is declining. For a parent of a young girl, like myself, I need to be on the lookout for symptoms of depression in my child in which she is experiencing five or more of these symptoms during the same 2-week period:
  1. Sad mood.
  2. Loss of interest in life, loss of zest, loss of vitality.
  3. Significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain, or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day.
  4. Sleep disturbance in which you can’t get back to sleep typically out of a helplessness dream.
  5. Psychomotor slowness, being slow of speech and slow of motion.
  6. Fatigue and Fatigability.
  7. Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly every day.
  8. Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day.
  9. Thoughts of suicide and thoughts of death.

(Learn more: Depression Definition and Diagnostic Criteria)

YIKES!!! Who wants to live devoid of joy and meaning for any extended period of time?

 

Well, the good news is that this trend is absolutely reversible. Although current research shows that our genes may predispose us to some mood disorders like depression, there are other factors that make up 50% of whether or not we will live in a pessimistic and depressed mindset. In fact, neurologists are now showing that we can create alternative thinking pathways in our brains that create more optimism and resilience towards life circumstances. According to Dr. Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, “Optimism is a skill that can be learned. Teaching people to realistically challenge their pessimistic explanatory style and to learn optimistic explanatory skills reduces anxiety and depression and increases resilience.”

So, with that in mind, some schools are taking mental health seriously. In places like Australia, India, and New Zealand, countries are starting to take notice of the impact mental health has on their citizens and starting to develop programs to address these concerns. It’s not that they are throwing academics out the window, but they are integrating a “happiness curriculum” into their schools and teaching academic content through this lens. So what are they teaching? The skills that develop well-being:

  • Awareness and Mindfulness
  • Resilience
  • Assertiveness
  • Creative brainstorming
  • Relaxation

Along with these and other coping and decision-making skills, taking a strengths-based approach to character development Screen Shot 2019-05-03 at 4.55.38 AMalso helps to promote a positive self-image of children and reduce episodes of anxiety. In a nutshell, it incorporates Dr. Martin Seligman’s theory of well-being using the PERMA model to help shape the curriculum and develop the culture of well-being in schools. According to this model, cultivating these areas will promote more resilient and optimistic people comes from students knowing their signature strengths and doing those things they don’t enjoy using their strengths. (The test they use to determine their strengths can be accessed here) . So, what can we do, even if we aren’t in schools that are integrating positive education into our schools?

In the book, Atomic Habits, by James Clear, he points out that habits that are 1% better (or 1% worse) may seem insignificant but have a compounding effect over time. So we can employ that knowledge into our classrooms and school routines. When I was in the classroom, I started our daily routine with mindfulness and an exercise in compassion. It took 15 minutes from our academics but it grounded our learning community and developed a culture around self-awareness. As a PYP coordinator, I begin every meeting also with a brief meditation and often bring in practices that encourage deeper and more meaningful work and relationships at our school.  Although it would be nice to have a “well-being centre” on our campus and do more large scale practices, starting small in whatever ways you can, is always the best approach.

That being said, as a Primary Years Programme (PYP) school, it is also possible to design units and make larger school efforts around well-being. In order to promote a more vibrant and connected school culture, we can look for ways to embed the principles that unite our Learning Profile with the strengths-based approach found in Positive Education. So how might we do this? Well, let’s filter this question through PERMA:

Positive Emotion

In my mind, developing units of inquiry that explore emotions head-on and cultivate awareness is one of the effective to develop the skills that can generate positive emotion.

The rise in teaching Growth Mindset has certainly helped to reframe failure in our learning situations, however, I wonder if the “power of yet” is enough. Considering this, I think to move into other areas in which we teach other coping skills, along with gratitude, is of great importance.

Central Idea example: (*Who We Are) Humans grow and change over time

*I would recommend this theme so that we can bring in mindset and emotion. So often we think of growth and change as a physical aspect of who we are, but we mature mentally and emotionally as well. Wouldn’t this be fun to teach into? I think so.

Central Idea example: (How We Express Ourselves) We can recognize and appreciate beauty. 

Teaching the skill of “awe” is something that we rarely do in the mainstream classroom–we leave that to “the Arts”. But why not help kids to zone on to the good in life and learn how to convert an annoyance into the realization of its blessing? I think a unit like this could not only hone into qualities of aesthetics but provide opportunities to become more mindful and grateful to the everyday wonder in our world.

Central Idea example: Our actions impact relationships.

This central idea could fit into multiple transdisciplinary themes, depending on the grade level, and what we want to spotlight, so I would likely put it under Who We Are or How We Express Ourselves, and even in How We Organize Ourselves for Early Years learners.

Most of the time, a unit like this is heavily focused on doing and not being. However, I could see a unit like this to be a perfect opportunity to develop the skill of forgiveness and compassion. When we teach mercy and perspective, it creates “heart muscles” which lead to reduced anxiety and anger. Furthermore, when we add in the spirit of generosity and altruism, the volume of positive emotion is amplified.

Central Idea example: (How the World Works) Curiosity leads to discoveries. 

Honestly, this could be placed into other transdisciplinary themes as well, but I think it would be fun to break with tradition to just thinking of How the World Works as just “the science unit” and expanding that definition to include social-emotional learning. The skill of curiosity is most highly correlated to life satisfaction, happiness, health, longevity, and positive social relationships (Park et al., 2014; Buschor et al., 2013), so I think teaching it as such, would have a ripple effect in multiple subject areas.

Engagement and Flow

Although directly teaching this as a topic is possible, I believe that it would be better to simply create the conditions that promote this aspect of well-being. I find the increasing popularity of project-based learning to be one of those conditions. Also, adding more student agency into our classrooms further encourages and supports student engagement in their learning. Looking for ways to add these kinds of elements into learning would be the best way to approach this area, in my opinion.

Relationships

In the factory model of education, dehumanization was commonplace, with forced submission and punishments. Now we talk about school culture as a transformative agent, with the importance of valuing the learning community. But has our school discipline policies changed much?

Not only in Positive Education schools but other more traditional schools are taking an alternative approach to student “offenses” and incorporating “restorative practices” that are based on the premise that when a child who acts out in some way, they have to face the people that they have harmed in order to develop self-responsibility and empathy. The techniques used are modeled after restorative justice models, in which the child discusses the incident with their peers in a way that feels welcoming and provides the motivation for compassionate action. Here is an example of this practice in action.

 

Although we may not have some “true believers” in this approach (even though it has remarkable results) and schools may be hesitant to adopt this model, we can still bring the “circle” into our classrooms. We can co-design essential agreements for talking circles with students, and use it to discuss and diffuse situations.

Moreover, I think it’s vital that we teach students “how to be” with one another and manage conflict in situations. So with that in mind, I think teaching the skills of collaboration is a vital aspect of well-being. We often group kids together and ask them to do work without really helping them to understand what it takes to truly cooperate and share responsibility for learning. Lest we forget, when collaboration goes well, it has a high emotional quotient and makes for a more dynamic learning environment. Collaboration is a skill worth teaching.

Consider this quote:

You know the saying, ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’? Well, it gets even better. Happiness shared is happiness squared. When we share our joy with those we love, we feel even more joy. And when we love, we become more loveable.

From: Relate, Wellbeing Theory

With this in mind, instead of saying “Gosh, these kids just don’t know how to get along!”, ask “How might I teach these kids to get along”? That is a more empowering question that can be shared with others, including our students. This is the very basis of developing long-lasting and significant relationships in our children’s lives.

Meaning and Purpose

I already suggested project-based learning but if we want to elevate projects, then we need to take it a step further with challenge-based learning. This approach involves moving beyond the 4 walls and looking for opportunities to solve issues in the larger community.

Let’s take for example a likely project that one might see in a Kindergarten classroom, in which kids must create a puppet show (either digitally or in-person) that tells a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Instead of it ending at the classroom or school level, kids design these presentations for populations of people who suffer from depression, like the elderly or people suffering from chronic illness. They present their puppet shows at a nursing home or go to the children’s cancer ward at a local hospital so their learning goes beyond “the standards”. If the challenge is to cheer up people who are going through a tough time, then this project suddenly takes on a new meaning and turns an ordinary learning event into an extraordinary experience.

I also find challenge-based learning a wonderful chance to bring in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in order to teach into the difficulties we face collectively, whether it’s local or global. When we expand our context for learning into the real world, then we create purpose and value in our lives. Instilling the confidence that they can make a difference in the hearts and minds of our young people is much more than academic achievement, it’s a true accomplishment that will leave an indelible mark. We should also inspire that level of action.

 

Achievement and Accomplishment

Speaking of achievement and accomplishment, although I would hardly call this era of standardized testing the hallmark of “achievement and accomplishment”, I think it’s been our first foray into trying to define student achievement. Under harsh scrutiny, many educators are now in the rebellion of creating “standard” students and questioning whether this cultivates mediocrity in our schools. I think challenging this testing culture and asking if this is really what matters in education is exactly why we should pivot towards Happiness-based education/Positive Education.

I know in many schools, teachers give a general comment that speaks to the character of a child. kipreportAlthough I find this “report card” designed by the Knowledge Is Power Program (or KIPP schools) an interesting artifact that seems to capture more than the “what” of education with subject grades and defines the “who” we want our students to become. It intentionally focuses on developing key character traits, and, although I don’t know how I feel about scoring these areas (for example, what REALLY is the difference between a 4.17 and a 4.33?),  I do see the value and impact it can have on student personal growth.

However, in our PYP schools “grading” the Learner Profile is something that would be taboo, but I don’t see why students couldn’t have a reflective tool likes this to assess themselves on a more consistent and continual basis. Furthermore, it could lead to goal setting and other activities that could help cultivate the type of students we wish to create as a result of the learning in our schools. I don’t think we should shy away from these sorts of things, but instead lean into them and co-design with our students. In this way, they understand the true meaning of “achievement and accomplishment”.

A final thought

As I consider the urgency to address the social-emotional issues that plague our world today, I know that our schools can be the best testing ground for this sort of work. It is my hope that we stop looking at trying to make kids the best in content knowledge and skills as the measuring stick of “performance” and start considering how we can teach strategies and mindsets that empower students to be successful in life, now and for the future.

I don’t know if we can necessarily eradicate depression, but I do think we can elevate community and joy in our world through education. In my mind, layering well-being into our curriculum is an easy tweak that everyone can do starting today. Positive education shouldn’t be for the few, but for the many. I hope you will consider what steps you can take today to create a future world that works for everyone.

 

The #EnhancedPYP Planner: Who Gets to Plan the Learning?

The #EnhancedPYP Planner: Who Gets to Plan the Learning?

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They say that life begins at the end of your comfort zone. This couldn’t be truer when we consider the full impact of bringing the Primary Years Programme (PYP) enhancements on board. Making AGENCY front and center of what we do is a major paradigm shift, and if you don’t think so, then your school is either on the cutting edge or so far from the edge that the thought of empowering intelligent children with the capacity to self-direct their learning is downright heresy. Most of our schools fall somewhere in between–in our hearts, we want this, but in our heads, we aren’t sure how to make it happen.

Recently we got together in Sao Paulo to discuss how the Primary Years Programme Enhancements were rolling out in our schools. So much to talk about…so little time. But planning was a topic that we kept coming back to. There are quite a few schools that are developing their own planners, and their teams had a lot of discussion about, not only what elements need to be on the planner, but also where they wanted to begin their focus on the planner.  Here are some of the ideas that were shared that were Must-Haves and potential starting points of “The Planner”:

Reflection: Where are we now and where do we want to go?

Learning Goals: The purpose and conceptual focus of learning.

Language: Using the language of the PYP and developing academic language in meaningful ways.

Students: Their passions, interests, and resources that they can bring to the unit.

Assessment: Co-constructing success criteria and developing a continuum using solo taxonomy.

Tools and resources: The people, places, and tech that can be used to invigorate and engage learners.

Approaches to Learning: Ways in which student-initiated learning and agency can be nurtured.

Through these conversations, my mind wandered back to a blog post that I saw a few years ago: “We’re Going On An Expedition” and I keep wondering how we might make learning more like a journey for all students–not just during the PYP Exhibition–but for all grade levels. Moreover, asking the students who they want to become (Learner Profile Alert) as a result of their experiences this year and how teachers could be their guide through this journey. What if THAT was our starting point for planning?

comfort zoneAlso, if I think about “The Planner” like the map of this journey, then I am wondering how we might open up the planning of a unit to the students themselves. Instead of “The Planner” being a teacher-directed document, what if we had our official “Planner” for student-created which became the basis of the inquiry?  We flip the responsibility of this document so that students got to direct the learning. Hmmm….How might we structure the document in order for students to authentically co-plan with us teachers? I think THIS is the type of PYP planner that I want to create with my team. But what teacher team is so courageous to do this?

Now as someone who has co-constructed units of inquiry with students, I can attest that this made me uncomfortable. These kids don’t know about THE STANDARDS, so it’s not what guides them when we co-construct units. They think about what THEY want to learn, not what some educational body has mandated for them and outlined in THE STANDARDS. So I wonder how we can have true AGENCY if we are the ones telling them what they should know and when they should know it?

In my mind, Who gets to plan the learning? seems like the foundational question to ask when we develop new planning documents. Because if we, as teachers (bless us), get to plan the learning then I think we are the ones who “own” the unit. And if we define Agency as Voice, Choice, and Ownership, then clearly it will be a challenge for students to really take authentic action.

I’m am thinking about how we can use our Exhibition documents as the basis of creating an Enhanced PYP Planner, but I’m afraid that I have more questions than answers in how to approach this. However, the pursuit of these answers is something that I want to explore in earnest.  The process of this Enhanced PYP Planner will be a journey unto itself, but I am willing to engage in going deeper into how we create genuine student plans for THEIR learning rather than documenting OUR teacher plans.

I’m curious if anyone else has embarked in this direction or would be keen to go what has-been into what-could-be? What approach would you take?

 

 

#EnhancedPYP: An Inquiry into the Hokey-Pokey

#EnhancedPYP: An Inquiry into the Hokey-Pokey

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Whenever you move to a new school,  you inherit a space that once was someone else’s classroom or office. And as you begin to inhabit this space, you have to rummage through all the “old stuff” that once belonged to another. Some of the remanents of my predecessor were binders full of old Programmes of Inquiries and Unit of Inquiry planners. It was felt like the “PYP Through the Ages” as I combed through the documents.

One of the PYP planners had the title (remember when we used to have titles for our unit planners?): Let’s Do The Hokey-Pokey. I never thought the Hokey-Pokey was that deep. I just about peed my pants reading that. Oh, man, so glad we don’t do that anymore!!

But it’s not just that shift away from titles as topics that has got me thinking about the Primary Year’s Programme’s (PYP) evolution.  What are the “trends” taking place in education in general, and what really needs to be “enhanced” in our schools?

Do we need flexible seating, as much as we need flexible thinking? How can we “enhance” that?what kids remember.png

I don’t think we need Slide Staircases in our hallways and trampolines in every classroom to inspire creativity. I think kids come naturally equipped with curiosity and imagination. Let’s not forget what is behind this trend–that our learners are unique and that there are optimal conditions for them to thrive. It’s about the kids, not the cushions. Let’s enhance our relationships as much as we enhance our school design.

 

Do we need better technology or the more skillful use of it?  How do we enhance that?tech quotes

I don’t think we need to have virtual reality headsets and 3D printers to prepare our students for their tech-infused futures. Yes, we must replace outdated iPads that we can’t update anymore with new ones. We want tech that improves instruction, not impedes it. However, let’s remember what tech does for our learning–we can go further faster in our research skills and do some amazing innovative projects when tech gets involved.  Nevertheless, the trend with more technology in our classrooms is about enhancing student-directed learning and represents democracy in learning. Let’s enhance the student’s voice, choice, and ownership.

What really needs a facelift? It’s educators and our approaches to learning.

I share these 2 examples because I see a lot of schools are making superficial changes in their schools. Or schools that are being built from the ground up with some fantastic designs. The enhancements are not about the fresh paint and fancy bells and whistles. It’s about a shift in our practice. I know that doesn’t look as sexy on marketing brochures but it’s the truth.

And what has started with deleting the word, Title, on our PYP Unit planners is now evolving into something much bigger, much grander than these “school makeovers”. What is truly changing is the US, as we widen this definition to increase agency.

Now put your right foot in….and shake it all about
do the hokey pokey
And Turn ourselves around
That’s what it’s all about

Go As A River: Developing Professional Learners in a #PYP School

Go As A River: Developing Professional Learners in a #PYP School

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Professional Development is the life-blood of what I do.

effect plc
From the book, Teacher Collaboration for Professional Learning: Facilitating Study, Research, and Inquiry Communities

Being held accountable for improving the standard of learning is a weighty task, one that I take very seriously. It consumes a lot of energy in my role as a PYP Coordinator. Every Wednesday morning has been carved out for me to facilitate training and engage in a PLC (Professional Learning Communities). As you can see by this graphic, ensuring that our professional development time is well-spent is an important matter to be considered.

I’ve been in the field of education for 2 decades and I have definitely seen how it has evolved. In the book, Professional Learning in Action by Victoria J. Risko, MaryEllen Vogt, it was interesting that they noted research done by Kragler, Martin, and Sylvester that described the stages of professional learning over the years:

  • the in-service era (1950-1960s)
  • the staff-development era (1970-1980s)
  • the professional development era (1990-2000s)
  • the professional learning era (the mid-2000s to present)

Our current era, suggests that teachers must become leaders in their own learning, no longer passive receptacles but self-motivated and responsible. As educators, we are to engage in problem-solving, which is guided by our social constructivists’ principles. When we are intentionally directing our own learning, we are more purposeful in our decision-making in order to advance our knowledge and expertise.

In Zen, there is an expression: Go as a River.

Zen philosophy always likes to represent a complex idea in simple terms, but this saying suggests that we have the capacity to receive, embrace and transform concepts, emotions, and difficult situations, in order to create peace, freedom, and community.  The Nobel Laureate, Thích Nhất Hạnh, reminds us that we cannot reach the ocean like a drop of water, we must surrender our isolation and learn how to come together through compassion and a willingness to accept each other unique qualities in order for us to have the energy to do the work we dedicate ourselves to, which in his world, is mindfulness.

There is strength in community.

As a Primary Years Programme Curriculum Coordinator, the heart of my work is collaboration. I not only model it through my efforts with members of the leadership team but with other stakeholders. And, moreover, I strive to cultivate greater collaboration amongst my staff.

The types of collaboration I see teachers engage in happens on multiple levels

  1. In the classroom: with the teachers who support learners, and the learners themselves.
  2. In grade levels: with the team of teachers for that grade level.
  3. In the division: with the various teachers and students at the different grade levels
  4. In the school: with other divisions’ students and/or teachers, the school leadership or the parent organization.
  5. In the community: with groups that are affiliated with the school or other organizations that they volunteer or work with. But in a sense, they are an ambassador of the school.
  6. In networks: with individuals or groups that share common values or interests.

So I have taken this notion, to Go As a River, as the rational and objective of our Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) this year. In my mind, coming together to learn with one another is an intimate and vulnerable act, since it requires honesty, openness, and transparency.  There are so many models of PLCs, mostly data-driven, however, I wanted a different approach. I wanted to bake a process into our PLCs that did the following:

  • developed the skills of collaboration within our division and our teams.
  • allowed for teacher agency.
  • taught teachers how to be researchers and guided them through a process of putting educational theory into professional practice.
  • cultivated supportive teams that helped individual teachers through the struggle in order to build teachers’ self-efficacy, something that has a high impact on student learning, according to John Hattie.
  • built the capacity to debate and discuss issues without personalizing it, so that people can have the experience of having productive and meaningful conflict.

In this way, teachers are pushed out of their comfort zone in a healthy and safe way, and everyone in our program benefits from our risk-taking efforts, especially our learners, who need us to be responsive. I also felt that it would be important to incorporate  the “5 energies of high-performing teams” that you can see in this graphic:

high performing teams

Clearly, I have high hopes for our teams. Simon Sinek, a man whose work inspires me to stretch boundaries, reminds me in this TED talk, that developing the trust and will to cooperate is not something you can simply instruct team to do, (“Get along, people!) but it is a feeling that is cultivated through the climate you create to provide a sense of safety.

As someone who gets to “set the tone” of not only how we collaborate but who we become as professional learners, it would be easy to turn to the many books written about how to construct Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), and just copy and paste those systems. Drive Outcomes through Shared MeasurementBut the heart of these systems was designed for standardized test scores and relied on student data in order to inform practices of school improvement. I struggled with this for several reasons, chief among them is that I don’t want our students to fit into a “standard”, I want them to be looked at as unique and special. I didn’t want them to reduce to numbers. If we only use data as the foundation of what we do, then we would miss out on opportunities for genuine teacher inquiries. Speaking of which, I examined the structure of teacher action research and thought perhaps that applying this practice into professional inquiries would be the route to go. However, I found that this was a goal-orientated structure that didn’t actually “teach” teachers how to collaborate, and may not appeal to all teachers since it typically culminates into a research paper. I felt that this put pressure on teams, and why would I want to stress out teams for the glory of publication? The last professional learning structure I examined was the Lesson Study I felt that this was a great tool to incorporate into our PLCs but wasn’t the PLC itself. Thus, I wanted to take what was great about all of these systems and create something that is unique, something that represents, perhaps even mirror, what we might expect in our Primary Years Programme (PYP) classroom.

Speak the Same Language (Intellectual Energy)

In a previous post, What Can Pedagogical Leaders Do to Grease the Wheels of Innovation in Their Schools? I’ve talked about the importance of ensuring that teams have a shared instructional language. Our principal, Matt Ihle, says it best: “Building understanding is the purpose of communication”–and thus by coming into an agreement of what PLC means to us, is the foundation for the work we will do this year. 

plc staff definition
This is our working definition of a PLC

So, the first order of business was not to come up with “norms” but to come up with a shared working definition of what it means to be “professional learners in our community”. We have to make sure that when I say we are having a PLC meeting, staff know exactly what that means because we have co-constructed a description that is full of vision and purpose.

Be over Do (Social Energy)

Often times we create these agendas and rush into the “doing” of the work before us, squandering really important time to develop teams. I can’t begin to tell you how many schools I’ve either worked at or visited that have leaders who feel that all they need to do is to throw adults into the room, give them a 1/2 hour to establish “norms” and collaboration happens. No! And No!

Conflict happens and what we do with conflict determines the capacity to do good work in our schools and creates the climate in our schools. How we move through conflict has everything to do with trust. In the book, Speed of Trust, Stephen Convey explains that “Speed happens when people truly trust each other.”--one of the reasons why teams are more productive and efficient is due to working through conflict faster.  Think about this quote:

“In a high-trust relationship, you can say the wrong thing, and people will still get your meaning. In a low-trust relationship, you can be very measured, even precise, and they’ll still misinterpret you.”
― Stephen M.R. Covey, The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

You know that is true–communication and trust go hand in hand. You can probably think back to a time when someone said something to you that triggered in you some negative emotion and it made it hard to be around that person. However, you may have a friend or colleague who can say something critical and you can reflect on it without being offended by it. Why is that? The reason is that this friend or colleague shares your values. As a result of that, you choose to see how you are connected rather than distinct. Finding common ground is easy when you share common ideals.

So, again, we didn’t talk about “norms”, instead we talked about values. In our first meeting, we ranked and shared personal values with our co-teachers, and in the next meeting, we unpacked and discussed our professional values. It was incredible to see the shift and hear the conversations. People really got to know one another and have discussions that were meaningful, even if they weren’t directly about the PYP Enhancements and student learning. They had permission to be who they are, and what became the “norm” was acceptance and appreciation.

Tribes Vs Teams (Spiritual Energy)

Tribes represent a culture with shared interests and values. Leadership roles are distributed and dynamic. Individuals work toward a common goal, for the sake of their community. This is exactly what I wished for as the engine behind our PLC. These meetings should the development of a coalition that is dedicated to a purpose, so I wanted to turn teams into tribes.

So teachers took a Google survey to put their interests and questions around student learning. I looked for keywords and patterns in order to form the basis of the tribes, then sorted them into their inquiry groups.

  1. Encouraging Curiosity and Inquiry
  2. Translanguaging
  3. Student Agency
  4. Play-based Learning
  5. Student Motivation
  6. Differentiation and Universal Design for Learning
  7. Language and Literacy

When the tribes were inaugurated, I gave them a guide for this “vision quest” and referenced the work from the Center for Courage and Renewal circle of trust touchstonesas the premise for our rules of engagement and the Circle of Trust Touchstones became the “norms” of our tribes.

Tribes came together to discuss why this topic matters to them and unpack their philosophies and beliefs that will guide their practice. During another meeting, they crafted a mission statement for the work they will do throughout the school year. In their meetings, they would choose their roles, which were flexible, and purely determined by the group.  In this way, they could see the significance of their collaboration and develop a strong support system among them. Mid-year, we would examine and reflect on these mission statements, in order to determine the next steps. And, although some tribes were larger than others, every group has found their way to work through their challenges.

As a part of their PLCs, we had some meetings dedicated to going back to their grade level teams to share what they have been learning about and what their experience has been like doing the Lesson study and peer observations. We used the framework of the constructivist listening tool to provide for deep listening as people had time to share without interruption or judgment.

Acknowledging the Learning Pit (Psychological Energy)

I feel very strongly that if we are to take the profession of education seriously, then we will always be in a state of cognitive dissonance, as we grasp and reach for the “best practice” for the students that we teach. In my post, Why There is No Escape From the Learning Pit, , I explain this conundrum:

“It’s sort of ironic–me, the teacher, who is supposedly the expert, is often shoulder-deep with the students, trying to figure out the course and direction of the inquiry, instead of being assured and confident about the path we are going. It seems that bewilderment, frustration, and struggle have become the perks of being in a state of wonder and anticipation.” 

I think there is a real danger in not acknowledging the struggles we face when we start walking the talk, putting principles into practice. I wanted our teams to be prepared for it and accept it. Remember that Go As a River means that we the capacity to receive, embrace and transform concepts, emotions, and difficult situations, in order to create peace, freedom, and community.  

The Learning Pit is inevitable, in which we debate and grapple with who we are to who we wish to become as teachers. Furthermore, I explained that it was my job to get them out of their teacher’s comfort zone and that the structure of our PLCs was intended to push them into the pit, but it would also be designed to pull them out. Setting up this expectation was important because I wanted to normalize discomfort but also emphasize that it is safe to do it.

The Cycle of Professional Learning (Physical Energy)

action leanring

Years ago, I read the book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and the one big idea that I took away from it was that mastery comes from commitment. So I wanted to ensure that staff had the opportunity to test out and practice ideas, all the while, developing “staying power” when they face challenges with implementation. Thus are PLCs would be cyclical so people could problem solve and celebrate accomplishments. So our PLC meetings would include discussions around the following:

Research: Ask questions and seeking professional literature and learning resources that shed light on the most effective practices. 

Implementation: Discuss the challenges and successes of implementing new ideas and practices. 

Lesson Study: Develop lessons and integrate ideas into your learning community. 

Peer Observation: Watch a lesson related to the research topic. Engage in discussion and self-reflection afterward.

Data evaluation: Discuss the results of either formative, summative or anecdotal evidence of learning. 

Self-reflection: Consider your practice and develop your next steps on your learning journey.

Review and Debate: Examine ideas that have arisen as a result of your reading, feedback from your peer observation and implementation of new practices.

These ingredients would the agenda items for our meetings and represent the types of things we would do within our Action Learning Cycle.

Explore and Plan

First, each teacher inquiry needs to start by sharing the personal research around our areas of interest. We set up a SeeSaw PLC group so that people could post the things that were inspiring them. There’s a proverb: “to know and not do, is to not know”; so I wanted to ensure that teachers developed the capacity to read articles or watch videos with the impetus of testing ideas out in their classroom. To take curiosity and put into action, that would be the heart of the work we would do as life-long learners. Here is an anecdote from our PLC that facilitated this practice:

Pre-planning of a lesson: Translating Research Into Action

The research article I’d like to share:

A summary of the article:

The teaching actions are reflected in this article that I don’t do, but I want to try is….

Nothing fancy here, but it’s the lubricant of change and was the prerequisite for the lesson study. Again, I didn’t design anything complicated for that either. I wanted a simple format that would have the basic ideas for the peer observations:

The Plan: Framing the Peer Observation

What questions will drive the lesson? 
What planned actions will take place in the lesson? (Use the chart to simplify the “looks fors” for your peer) 

 

What the teacher(s) do(es)? What do the students do? 

As a result of applying my new professional learning into the lesson, I expect (my hypothesis about the unplanned actions) the students to…..

 

Act

This is the implementation phase when a teacher conducts a lesson that integrates their learning from their research and has a peer observe their attempt. The peer observation not only shares practice but it also holds teachers accountable to initiate their growth. Peers come together to share their notes and provide feedback.

And although implementation seems like an obvious action, going back into the research is also an action too. Research includes looking at student data, which can be formal or informal, and also examining more articles and videos–whatever resource they want to use to further their practice.

Bends in the River

As much planning as I put into cultivating the collaborative and trusting climate of our tribes, I have to also be willing to throw things out, as I reflect on what is happening in classrooms and in discussions. I must allow for things to happen organically. Sometimes it means allowing tribes to hold tension, giving them the opportunity to grapple with issues around what is the “best” approach. However, I think this is the kind of spirit that is imbued in the concept of “Go As A River”, as we transform conflict (whether it is trivial or substantial) and trudge out of the Learning Pit, becoming better for it, together.

It’s Time to Drop your Oars and Give Up Your “Bad Faith”

It’s Time to Drop your Oars and Give Up Your “Bad Faith”

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The Nobel-laureate philosopher Jean-Paul Satre reminded us that things don’t have to be the way things are. We live in possibilities, and we have the opportunity to ordain anything with purpose and meaning. We don’t have to live in “bad faith”, constraining ourselves to norms, living a certain way, closing ourselves off to opportunities, shackled to our capitalistic societies, pursuing money instead of passion. If we could liberate ourselves from these ideals, we could be truly free, meeting our full potential. He urged institutions to create new concepts and habits, rather than continuing to be ensnared by dogma and tradition. satre.jpegAlthough his battle cry of existential was influential and thought-provoking-it has yet to truly realize its potential for disrupting the status quo, but it seems that technology indeed has the capacity to transform many long-held beliefs and practices. Like it or not, we MUST change. The pick-ax has been replaced by the smartphone, in which our hands are no longer as useful as our minds. Nowadays our “Knowledge Economy” is transforming access to information, and so be it, we live in the “age of ideas”, in which creative thought and expression is our currency.

I think the time has come in education when we start to apply some of these notions to our schools, carefully examining our beliefs and practices and asking if what we are doing is even relevant and pertinent to the future world that our students will inhabit in 20 years.

As I ponder what Satre would say about our current school systems, I think he would lament that we have yet to “enhance” our schools in order to nurture truly alive individuals, who feel free to create and invent.

I think there are 3 things that need to shift radically if we really want to transform our schools into more agentic centers of learning.

Time

Recently I sat next to some design teachers at the United Nations International School who were sharing their ideas for re-designing their MYP design program so that it was less about paperwork and more about agency. Their team had some really brilliant ideas about personalizing the learning and making it less about grade levels and more about mastery and FUN. One of their inspirations was the teacher, Mark Barnett, who teaches design to K-12 in Hong Kong. When he added up how much time he got to see classes, it was the equivalent of 2 weeks for the WHOLE school year. So, instead of doing a two 40 minutes blocks a week, he took a grade level for 1 whole week a semester and engaged them in project-based learning experiences. For one whole week, they were absolutely engaged in their unit of inquiry. There wasn’t “Math from 8:30 to 9:10” and then from “9:15-9:55 Languages”.  It was one solid week of students engaged in learning and the single subjects were in service of the project.

When I heard that, it made me think of the book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. After I read that, I was profoundly affected, thinking about my use of time and productivity. In his book, he makes a case for extended periods of time for developing our “craft”, in which we apply continuous blocks of time to focus and concentrate our efforts in researching and creating. We’ve dabbled with that in doing “block periods”, but I think it would be worthwhile to have schools start experimenting with how we can have different time table structures that are flexible so that we can engage in meaningful projects.

Content

I think most of us can agree that the “what” we teach hasn’t changed much since technology has taken hold of our schools. We plan backward from our standards, developing a scope and sequence so that everything gets “covered”. Most of us have teacher-directed lessons, in which everyone sits down and we dispense the standards in whole-group fashion–what I have come to realize that this is still a One Size Fits All approach to learning. Flipped learning has been in our vernacular for a while now, yet only certain grade levels even dabble in it, and rarely have I seen it done in the primary grades.

Personally, I have been wondering if I have to give my Reader’s workshop “mini-lesson” to the whole class, at the same time. To get all of my 1st graders transitioned and on the carpet is a waste of time. I could just easily record my lesson and have them work at their own pace, with a partner, to get through the learning objective in less time that it would take me to go through the whole-group lesson. Meanwhile, it would free me up to conference more and pull groups. Although I have yet to try it, I think it would be a much more productive use of time, but I’ve been thinking about what types of learning management systems (LMS) I could use that would work with little ones. Plus, if I put the content into a LMS like Schology, then I could find better ways to differentiate and meet the individual needs of a student. Hmm….

SAmr.jpegOf course, if we were looking at this through the lens of S.A.M.R., I haven’t really gone deep into the “pool”, which isn’t bad, but I have to ask myself if I could do better than just “flipping” the content onto a screen. I think I have to ask myself, what can my students actually DO with this knowledge? How might they apply this through a project or idea, which doesn’t necessarily mean a summative task, but a context that is authentic to them–what do people do in the REAL world with this knowledge? I need more time to sit with this question, AND, I need to survey my students to ask them what they think so that we can co-create ways to demonstrate understanding. But I’ve come to a place where the “what” of the content isn’t as important as the “why ” and the “how” of what we do with that knowledge. I think we need to place more emphasis on this in our classrooms, and then find the tech to support this.

Assessment

I was recently listening to a webinar by Modern Learners about re-imagining assessment. One of the things that they brought up is how demotivating our assessment practices can be when we assign numbers to a student’s identity. I don’t think any of us want to be objectified like that and yet that is what our school systems do every day.  In this presentation, we are reminded that the root word of assessment (assidere) actually means “to sit beside”, so our focus needs to shift, in which we see assessment AS learning, recognizing that they are where they are. It’s not bad, it’s not good. It is a moment in time that we have put our attention on and can glean insight into how we can move them forward in their understanding. Consider this notion put forth by Modern Learner:

We need to develop partnerships between students and teachers, built around relationship, as co-learners, seeking to understand, guide and nuture new ideas, capabilities, and deeper understandings.

Does it remind you that your role as a teacher in the classroom needs to shift? We have to be the “researcher” and not the “knower”, being deeply curious about our learners and coaching them into deeper learning and appreciation for their unique perspective and gifts that they can offer the world. So assessment needs to stop being “evaluative” and quantifiable but instead reflect a more holistic approach, in which we are fostering life-long learning through authentic interactions and experiences that develop self-confidence and autonomy.

I think re-defining assessment in our schools would create a shift in power structures, which may be really challenging for some educators, and I think would definitely be difficult for our parents who grew up in these traditional paradigms. I’m not suggesting it is easy, but I do believe it is necessary.

It’s Time to Rock the Boat

Isatre boat.jpeg think these are the foundational pieces (Time, Content and Assessment) that create “bad faith” in our schools. Although I have ruminated a bit on these topics in this post, I have hardly dug deep into how we can transform them. I believe that is the business of EVERYONE to do in their unique educational settings. Maybe, as teachers, we start with Content, thinking about how we might “rock the boat”. And as leaders, we need to examine the other elements of Time and Assessment and start to challenge our dogmatic approaches.

One thing is certain, we cannot go into the future with one foot in the past. We must question and collaborate, working together in order to free our students to become the very best of who they can be. This is the only mission worthwhile, as I see it, as an educator.

 

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