Tag: #TeachSDGs

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 fear of the inadequacy and outdated teaching methodologies…fear of going back to school with Draconian classrooms…..fear of learning loss and conceptual gaps…….fear of ….(fill in the blank)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?

The Journey to Develop an Enhanced #PYP Programme of Inquiry

The Journey to Develop an Enhanced #PYP Programme of Inquiry

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As a curriculum coordinator, deciding where to begin with the Enhancements has not been easy. I have read through all of the Programme Resouce Materials on the IB’s website and stared at this new re-branding symbol in the hope of greater clarity.  When I gaze at the word Agency, I recognize that it isn’t a small word–it’s full of big ideas and demands a significant amount of energy and change in our schools’ culture. Agency, in my mind, has become the driving and sole mission of the PYP Enhancements. But there isn’t a guide book on this topic–A sense of “Start Here”! I feel as if we are defining this collectively as we inquire into Agency in our PYP schools.

poi why
My reflection on the rebranding symbol, which feels connected to the work of Simon Sinek and his beacon call to Find Your Why.

So, you can’t simply direct staff to change their paradigms overnight.  One of two clever provocations during a staff meeting isn’t going to cut it. It’s a process and will take time to evolve our thinking. I recognize that I am deeply and personally involved in the changing of mindset as well. I do not sit outside of others. I too am a caterpillar incubating in its cocoon. I am completely in the midst of transforming what school is to what school could be. This is as much a personal as well as professional journey that we all are engaged in.

So, as a pedagogical leader, I have decided to start with our “What”–our written curriculum. It feels like our map on our journey. We need to have the “right” map in our hands before we go about transforming our school. With that in mind, our school has embarked upon enhancing our school’s Programme of Inquiry and in the first phase of change. To be clear, it’s not about rephrasing central ideas– if we are going to do this, we need to do this with our students. The students need to be involved in this process. They need to have a say in WHAT we learn so teachers can start developing new strategies into HOW they learn it.

We are breaking with the traditional approach that we, as educators, get to decide what is important to learn. The students are our “standards” and they will guide and decide our “learning outcomes” through means of direct input into our POI.  Agency into the WHAT we learn at school feels like the first step in figuring out the HOW we can put kids in the center of our pedagogy.

So we have embarked on a “listening campaign” that involves the students first and foremost, but we intend to mine for the gold in our community–What are the values and concerns that our families hold? What are the cultural forces in our community and the resources that we can tap into? This is also a component of our Listening Campaign.

enhanced poi

Teachers have formed teams that will help organize and collect the information we need to start re-envisioning our POI. There are 4 focus groups that will capture the elements of student agency, transdisciplinary learning, international-mindedness, and the Learning Community. Throughout the coming months, we will be doing a school-wide inquiry into the following areas which will influence how the POI will be enhanced:

data groups

Student Voices

Our current thinking is that we will have students in Grades 1-5 reflect on the units of inquiry from the grade level below, their current grade level, and the grade level above in order to gauge their level of interest. In order to do this, we will conduct a special school assembly that will explain how we will do this.

Outside of classroom discussions, we intend to have these grade-level POIs posted and give students the chance to have discussions and rate the units. For the ease of data collection, we will use stickers to have them “mark” how they feel about the learning within a unit of inquiry. Here are the stickers:poireviewstickers Along with critiquing the current Programme of Inquiry, we will provide opportunities to make suggestions and express how they enjoy “showing what they know” as well as improving current units. In this way, we have more insight and feedback into the current units of inquiry.

Student Hearts

There is a myth in our world that children lack depth. I believe that we are hardwired to care and empathy is a skill that can be developed naturally in our learning communities. As an educator, it simply isn’t true that kids are completely selfish and self-absorbed. Yes, their worlds are small, but it’s obvious when you teach young children that you can see how learning about issues impacts them.

With that in mind, teaching the United Nations’ Sustainability Goals is something that needs to be embedded in our Programme of Inquiry. Currently, it is not a trend, let alone an expectation to do so in our schools. There is a smattering of educators who take it upon themselves to discuss and include the goals in their units. I find this to be a missed opportunity. The Sustainability Goals are for our current generation of students, as it aims to achieve these goals by 2030–that’s only a decade away!

So, in order to draw awareness of these issues, we want to tap into the hearts of our students and call their attention to these goals. We have decided to create a school-wide week of provocations (March 23-27th ) since there are lots of international holidays that tie into the goals then. We would send out announcements to families about our intended activities and then use our Art Fair as an opportunity to reflect on the Goals and see what inspired them. That school event is in high attendance so it could be a great chance to get the parents educated a bit too.

Malala Yousafzai | SJSU WOMS 20. Women of ColorWe would use these reflections from this week to inform our curriculum, considering which SDGS really sparked a natural interest and could gain overall support from our community. You see, in my mind, it’s not enough to just “expose” kids to the UN’s SDGs, but we would want them to take action to actually work on them. Garnering their interest and using it as a springboard for continued efforts toward achieving these goals would help cultivate the change agents that they would need to become in order to make their goals a true reality.

Community Values

Every school has a unique composition of its members, from parents to teachers to other community members. In short, we want to determine the strength of our Learning Community by tapping into its main shared values. This will help us to determine our main mission and focus of our Programme of Inquiry. It’s easy for our Learning Community to rally behind its school’s pillars when its member believes in it and want to support it. This is the essence of what we want to do and who we want to become: grounded in our values and driven by our larger mission. 

So, we have designed an activity that we will promote during the Art Fair that will help us collect data about the values that our families. They will, in short, share their top 5 values and help us to appreciate why they are important to them. We will use these values as a component of strengthening our Programme of Inquiry, particularly in developing stronger bonds between home, school, and our local community. We hope to have more coherence and collaboration with the “big L” of the Learning Community as a result of including this information in our decision-making process.

Resources

This is a tremendous effort underway to create a database of people and places that we can have access to which will enrich our learning. We are lucky to have a wide swath of professionals in our parent community who are willing to come in and share their knowledge and experience with our children. So, this database will include families just as much as it will include other community members who can benefit and expand the experience of learning in our school. We will also include information for planning field trips to streamline the vetting process and help teachers design more authentic and meaningful experiences outside of classroom learning.

One of the important aspects of curating these resources is that it must be organized in such a way that it makes it easy to filter information and locate the resources we have. So, this group is not only researching and collecting this information but also determining what is the best way to sift through it.

Whole Learning Community Listening

Needless to say, this isn’t a little endeavor, but a larger desire to listen to the WHOLE community. To get everyone on board and engaged. We want our students to be truly inspired and ignited into action. We want to tap into their interests, their concerns, and their families’ values, so we can truly have agency that is authentic and relevant to them.

Needless to say, this journey into creating a truly “enhanced” POI is an experiment–an inquiry in and of itself. At our school, we say “it takes a village” to educate a child, and we believe that this listening campaign can help us capitalize on “our village” and inspire the generation of students we have in our school today.  Once we have collected this data, we will use it to revise our current Programme of Inquiry to reflect the students, the families and our community at large.

 

**Please feel free to comment and add questions that will spark ideas and help us to further refine our process. How is your school ‘enhancing’ the Programme of Inquiry?

 

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.

 

Why we are failing and What Can We Do About it? #TeachSDGs

Why we are failing and What Can We Do About it? #TeachSDGs

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As I look out my window, my heart sinks as I can see that it’s an extraordinarily polluted day here in Laos. This landlocked country, sandwiched between the biggest manufacturing countries in Asia-China and Vietnam- doesn’t stand much of a chance of having “fresh air” during its dry season, especially when it does its own agricultural burning, adding to the mix of the smog. I was reminded the other day that other countries like America and England were in the same boat, not that long ago, except its citizens didn’t know any better. Now, politicians want to summon all those factories back on their lands, not realizing that when we shut down all those manufacturing plants, we outsourced our pollution as well.

As I consider this, I think this is evidence of our failure in education. How come we keep doing the same things and keep expecting different results? Isn’t this the definition of insanity?

Although there are pockets of societies in isolation, it’s hard to believe that the majority of us deny the responsibility in polluting the very environment we share with others. I remember thinking that students should learn the way I taught- they should adjust to me. I could not have been more wrong. A great teacher adjust to the learner, not the other way around (5)Why don’t we care more? Why can’t we change? Why is money more important than well-being and health? Can’t we evolve our political systems to match the global needs of society vs. the interests of business?

Recently someone connected with me on Twitter and then apologized for reaching out because we have different interests. He: Politics and Leadership. Me: Education. However, in my mind, politics IS an education problem and vice-versa–whether you teach little ones or adults. Politicians are always “getting their message out”, trying to shape and form the opinion of their constituents, and our news channels, who purport to be “fair and balanced” are anything BUT THAT, summarizing information into headlines and sound bites, emotionalizing information so we stayed glued to their channel. So, when I think about the future, I think about how education has to change in order to see its ripple effects, with better-informed citizens, who can not only recognize when they are being bamboozled in order to buy soda and “think like the (political) party” but to flip this behavior so that they recognize they are being manipulated and instead the “party” starts to think like them.

I recently watched this TED talk and I found its promise both intriguing and worrying.

 

What if we took corruption and influence out of our politics? Would AI prove to be an infallible system?

However, this would have to assume that we, as citizens, not only were informed but CARED about the issues that were being voted on. In my mind, a lot of people don’t care about issues like climate change, gun violence or equal-pay for equal-work, because if they did, it would place the onus on them to change. And we all know that change is hard.

It’s for this reason why I think, and I can’t stop promoting, the need for schools to add the UN Sustainability Goals to their curriculum. In this way, we can cultivate awareness of issues that face humanity, not just the self-interest of corporations, and start changing the paradigms that ensnare us today. Care for our world will deplete some of this passivity that cultivates the narcissism and corruption that is chronic in our countries today.  Over time, I believe, will transform these systems and archaic beliefs which keep us handcuffed to the past behaviors that create the problems we face.

I know that in many IB schools, we start to reflect on our units of inquiry. I hope many schools will reflect on how they can embed these goals into their curriculum so that we may start creating a future world that works for everyone, with hearts and minds who are truly educated instead of blindly following the “masses”. We need some open-minds to dream and create possibilities not yet imagined, “clearing the air”, sort of speaking, on issues that impact, not only our corner of the globe but our world.

 

#TeachSDGs: Hope, Peace, and Love in the Near Future

#TeachSDGs: Hope, Peace, and Love in the Near Future

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Perhaps it was a mistake to pick Refugee, by Alan Gratz for our family “listen-aloud”. It is tearing a hole in my heart, as the tales of 3 children are mingled together through time and space, as they escape atrocities in their homeland. The book said it was appropriate for 9-year olds, but I feel that I may have chosen an audiobook that is too harrowing and intense for my daughter to take in. Even though this is a work of historical fiction, goodness knows its desperately painful and cruel moments were truthful for many people who underwent the moral crises of the Holocaust, the Cuban exodus of 1994 and the more recent Syrian refugee crisis. Luckily, in some aspects, my daughter is unaware of history, and she just finds the story gripping; however, my feeble heart is retching with sadness and compassion, especially when I think about the immigrants in the American detainment centers, with children in cages separated from their families and this talk of wall-building to keep out “caravans of criminals” that are marching toward the American border. I have to wonder if we have no soul left in our politicians and if our societies will move toward extremism, trying to “eradicate” these despairing individuals from within their borders.

Voltaire once said:

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

 

And as I consider the research and work of Steven Pinker in his book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, there is a reason to be optimistic. Education, with increasing literacy rates, has played an important role in subduing violence in society, and the trend, despite what the newsfeed may tell us, is that the world is becoming a more peaceful place as access to books is giving us a chance to inhabit each other’s minds and gain insights into new perspectives and cultural realities.  Our hearts are growing alongside our brains and evolving to become more empathetic. Clearly, as I read the book Refugee, I am embodying this experience and can definitely testify the impact of this book on my mind and spirit, so I can only guess that, despite my daughter’s ignorance of the specifics of these situations, she is opening her mind to the point of views of others and the resilience of the human spirit.

agreessionMoreover, my daughter, like so many of children her age, are now encountering the Flynn Effect, in which our kids are literally getting smarter with each passing decade with increased IQ scores and an improved ability to reason. This is great news because smarter people do less cruel things and engage in more humane actions. Furthermore, our perspective is shifting on a global scale from this “eye for an eye” mentality, in which violence now is becoming a problem to be solved, rather than looking at each other’s interests as a contest to be won. It is only a matter of time, in which sustainability is no longer a fringe ideal but a Science and Design norm, in which elements of our societies come into a shared understanding of the importance of developing our economies to move into alignment with these values.  What I find especially heartening is that even in developing nations, the IQ gap is closing between those countries and developed countries. This is a global epidemic and, in my opinion, an exciting time to be alive and be in education, as we move into new educational paradigms.

But in my mind, we can set an intention to escalate this transition to greater equanimity and more intelligent thought. As our process of educating young children improves, placing greater emphasis on creativity and critical thought, a direct and compounding effect will occur in the children’s brain, which in turn creates new ways of thinking and problem-solving. However, it can’t only be the methods and tools that improve, the content that we teach to children must improve as well. I don’t think all knowledge is created equal–I think there are certain concepts that deserve more attention than others. With that in mind, teaching the UN’s Sustainable Goals (SGDs) need to be a part of our Programme of Inquiry. If we, as educators, have a true desire to promote greater well-being and peace in our world, then we have a responsibility to advocate for focusing our academic attention towards these 13 goals, and even if we can’t “cover” all of them, making an effort, no matter how small, is a first start in evolving our school’s mission.

There is no more powerful transformative force than education—to promote human rights and dignity, to eradicate poverty and deepen sustainability, to build a better future for all, founded on equal rights and social justice, respect for cultural diversity, and international solidarity and shared responsibility, all of which are fundamental aspects of our common humanity.
—Irina Bokova, former Director-General of UNESCO

I know for many schools, PYP coordinators are beginning to prepare a “POI Review” around this time. Instead of just thumbing through IB documents and asking if your POI is transdisciplinary enough, be asking if what the students will be learning is actually going to make a difference in the world–does it connects to any of these goals? And if not, why not?–and How might we change that? There is no reason why we can’t be harbingers of peace through our academics. And, I’d like to add, that making these goals front and center, I believe, will naturally steer our programmes into more transdisciplarity.

It is my desire for us to go deeper in our learning, not just in our pedagogical practices but in the very context of what we are learning. If we can do that, there is no doubt that there will be hope, peace and greater understanding in our near future because we made it so.

 
Digital Lunch: Using Google Search Operators to Research How to End Hunger (#TeachSDGs)

Digital Lunch: Using Google Search Operators to Research How to End Hunger (#TeachSDGs)

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What does the word “ hunger” even mean? Many of our students, particularly in our international schools,  have very little experience with this concept. They may say that they are “starving” when they are 10 minutes late to lunch, but have no authentic connection to this idea of “Zero Hunger”, which is the subject of the second Sustainable Development Goal put forth by the United Nations. corecompetanciesAlso, they fail to appreciate the components that all have to work together to ensure that their lunch even makes it to the cafeteria. You can understand why one of the first of UNESCO‘s “key competencies” is to develop an understanding of the processes and mechanisms that create or diminish hunger using a systems thinking approach. 

Systems thinking, in a nutshell, can be described as a way of thinking about, and a language for describing and understanding, the forces and interrelationships that shape the behavior of systems. This discipline helps us to see how to change systems more effectively, and to act more in tune with the natural processes of the natural and economic world.

Peter Senge , quoted originally from The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization

You can see why UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) believes that it is critical to use this approach in order to advance sustainable development goals. When connecting the dots,  students need to research the underpinnings of the problem in order to introduce new tools and methods that could develop more sustainable pathways for those people and communities that are facing an experience of true hunger.

zero hunger objectives

Thus it seems vital that, as we explore Google Apps for Education, we explore the importance of Google search operators that eliminate frivolous information and refine research efforts so that students can cut through the nonsense and find relevant and helpful information as it relates to this SDG. 

However, perhaps before launching into a tirade of internet research, you can share an inspiring story of a person or organization that is attempting to do their part to tackle Zero Hunger. There is a great story about the former President of Trader’s Joe Grocery chain, Doug Rauch, who went into retirement but then traded in his golf clubs because he wanted to address the hunger-related problem called “food deserts” by creating a food market; the Daily Table helps those impoverished community members in the Boston area. He is a great example of someone who examined the systems around food deserts when developing this grocery store, and his story can provide a lot of “food for thought” (sorry I couldn’t resist the pun) as a provocation. 

Now going back to Google Search……

Rember that in a typical Google Search, there are thousands if not millions of results of sites that are indexed for the content you could be looking for. It’s overwhelming and most of the time, students go down a rabbit hole, returning with very little data related to their topic. However, Google has a list of “operators” which are symbols and special characters that extend one’s web search capabilities within the Google Search Bar. They have created over 40 different search operators that help filter and refine web search results, making it easier to find appropriate and relevant content. Using one or more of them improves your web results. For example, when a student puts in the word “hunger” look what comes up:

hunger webpage

Now at this point, there are 3 predictable things that students are going to do:

  • click on Hunger by Wikipedia, feeling pretty confident that they got all the information they need,
  • or they going to start watching one of those videos (wholly off the topic, but can’t resist the urge to be entertained)
  • or they will recognize that their search term wasn’t specific enough to warrant quality result and put in new search terms.

We want to develop this last behavior as a research skill. We want to them to be thinking critically, solving problems and developing resiliency, and believe it or not, simply exploring search operators will give them a huge leg up on cultivating these behaviors.  Because, as you can see, none of these web results would be particularly helpful in finding information related to our Sustainable Development Goal of “Zero Hunger”, and if you put in “Zero Hunger”, still 35,000,000 results come up. So let’s take a look at some search operators that can help students conduct research. In the charts below, you will notice the search operator in the left column, while the right-hand side explains how it works and some considerations that we need to be mindful of.

googlesearch1

googlesearch2

I created a video tutorial to show how the search operators make a significant difference in generating more relevant and useful research on the internet:

It is my hope that you can see the impact of these operators in action. However,  I’d like also like to share with you another amazing way to do research online which works great if you teach older students (think High School) or you are personally working a degree program: Google Scholar, it takes internet research to another level.

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

All the results you get are from academic journals, so it is a wonderful way to sieve through the articles. Here is another video tutorial on how to use it:
Between using Google Search operators and Google Scholar, students should have no problem researching the local and global issues that are related to the systematic challenges to ending hunger. It is my hope that through deepening our understanding of this sustainable development goal (SDG), we can truly attain this ambitious target. I believe all of us in education should do our part to contribute to this worthy endeavor.

*This is the 2nd of our Digital Lunch series, in which using Google Apps for Education training was used to support teaching the Sustainable Development Goals put forth by the United Nations. In this lunch hour training sessions, participates were exposed to SDG #2: No Hunger and the operator terms used for Google Search. This blog post gives an overview of the training.

DigitalLunch: How to Bring an End to Poverty (#TeachSDGs) using Google’s Blogger App

DigitalLunch: How to Bring an End to Poverty (#TeachSDGs) using Google’s Blogger App

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To imagine this goal- ending poverty in all its forms everywhere- seems like humankind would need to make a mighty effort to bring this into reality. However, I felt inspired by the research presented by Peter Diamandis in his book, Abundance, the Future is Better Than You Think. Extreme-Poverty-OurWorldIn his book, he presents really interesting data that shows that current efforts are making an impact, helping people get out of “absolute poverty” or extreme poverty which are defined as income levels that are below the minimum amount to sustain people’s basic needs. Although this is a dreadful situation, I believe as educators, we should convey a sense of optimism to our students–that WE can be the Change, while bringing them into awareness of the issue and compel them to eradicate it.

If we are to take on the challenge of teaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), then we can look to the work done by UNESCO to find learning objectives that we may embed into our current curriculum. They suggest to create a conceptual understanding of extreme and relative poverty and to critically reflect on the underlying cultural and behavioral practices that create these conditions. Furthermore, it should be our intention to connect the head to the heart, adding social-emotional learning objectives so that students begin to show sensitivity to the issues of poverty as well as empathy and solidarity with poor people and those in vulnerable situations. (Education for Sustainable Goals). I believe wholeheartedly we can do this, and I’d like to suggest using the Google App Blogger to cultivate knowledge of the local, national and global distribution of extreme poverty and extreme wealth.  In my opinion, student blogs can be a great way to chronicle their learning journey because they combine both traditional writing skills with the new literacy skill of visual messages as students create reflections and powerful posts that respond to their deepening understanding. 

Here are some of the basic reasons why I would use Blogger:

  • Free and easy to set up–all you need is a Gmail account.
  • Simple and easy to use its features.
  • Autosaves their work as a draft, and they can go back in “history” to review changes.
  • Can be used as an individual or collaborative blog
  • Great context for important problem-solving, critical thinking and cultural awareness.
  • Has the opportunity for an authentic audience experience.
  • Transforms students of “consumers” into “creators” of media.

My Personal Recommendations….

  • When you have the students sign up Blogger, make sure they DO NOT sign up for the G+ platform or it will not allow the blog to get set up if they are under 13 years old.
  • Make sure you have Admin privileges on the students’ accounts, so you can have editing privileges and can moderate comments.

Click on the video below if you are ready to learn  How to Create a Blog for Student Learning Using Blogger.  (If you are already familiar with Blogger, then you can continue to read how we could use to blogging to journey students through an inquiry into poverty…… )

 

Okay, so now that you have a general sense of the power of blogging in learning and how you can get started using Blogger, I’d like to provide some ideas of how you use the blog to show growth in their understanding of issues surrounding poverty, in their local and community and globally.

Suggested Provocations:

  1. Watching the film Living On One Dollar . Also, there are a ton of resources on that website and additional work done by the filmmakers. By the way, not an easy documentary to watch–will evoke strong emotions.  (I’m tearing up just thinking about it.)
  2. Field Trip to the Landfill. What does the trash tell us about the wealth in our community?  Depending on where you live in the world, you may actually bare witness to people who are living in extreme poverty.
  3. A ride on the local bus through impoverished neighborhoods. In some places, just the bus ride alone can be quite an eye-opener to the people who live in poverty. I would add the See, Think and Wonder thinking routine to this excursion.
  4. Student Challenge: What might it be like living on 1 USD a day?

Blogging about these experiences will be illuminating and can be done either in-class or for home learning. Here are some possible blog prompts:

blog prompts.png

I would also recommend that students read and respond to each other’s blogs using the comment feature. No matter the age-group, I think a review of what constitutes a helpful comment would be a smart idea. I would NEVER assume students understand the complexity of netiquette. In first grade, these were some of the “starters” we gave them to help guide appropriate responses: Helpful Comments. Perhaps those might provide a guide on how you might want students to engage with each other online.

These suggestions, as well as the blog prompts, are merely the beginning of what could be possible. If you go to the TeachSDGs website, you can find more resources and ideas. The great thing is that students could share their blog posts on social media platforms to further spread the message of the SDGs as well as be a resource to others grade levels within our school communities or across the globe.

If you have any feedback, I’d really appreciate how you felt about this information:

 

*This is the 1st of our Digital Lunch series, in which using Google Apps for Education training was used to support teaching the Sustainable Development Goals put forth by the United Nations. In this lunch hour training sessions, participates were exposed to SDG #1: No Poverty and the digital tool of Blogger. This blog post gives an overview of the training.

#Edtech: 5 Ways to Avoid Becoming Fossil Fuel

#Edtech: 5 Ways to Avoid Becoming Fossil Fuel

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Warning: The following blog post contains strong language and opinions that may be offensive to technophobes and Luddites. Proceed accordingly. 

Hey dinosaur, I’m talking to you. Don’t become fossil fuel. Evolve or get out of the classroom.

Now I know what you are saying, me?–a dinosaur? How dare she!!!  Well, showing students, Youtube videos doesn’t make you a “21st Century Educator”.  Assigning Khan Academy for homework doesn’t make you a “21st Century Educator”.  Sending an email to parents doesn’t make you a “21st Century Educator”.  Putting together a PowerPoint presentation doesn’t make you a “21st Century Educator”–even if you used animation. I know you think you are dabbling with some fancy technology there, being more “paperless” and “productive” but really you have put in minimum effort to stay relevant. And ….it shows.

Now maybe you teach in a distant Columbian jungle school, in which you zip line to class every day, but even if you live in Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland, one of the remotest places on this planet, I’m not letting you off the hook. Because these faraway places, places culled from technology are the most vulnerable to suffering from the digital divide.  Classroom technology narrows the education gap,  which I can speak to first hand having had the opportunity to teach in underserved communities internationally–Heck, I think my friend in Montana would tell me that there are quite a few schools on the Native American reservations that also face a similar plight due to the challenges that poverty creates for education. So if you teach there, don’t tell you “can’t do technology”–nope, you just don’t want to, and you’re not fighting hard enough to get those communities connected. C’mon Chalkdust, get busy- those kids really need access to technology if they are going to raise themselves out of poverty.

I know, I’m being a really cruel and insensitive here, especially if you actually teach in a school whose main form of technology is a chalkboard and chalk, but most of us don’t teach in such environments and yet we fail to update our skills.  Quite a few of us teach in technology-enriched schools, schools with iPads and laptops and interactive whiteboards–goodness knows what else–and yet we fail to appreciate and use technology efficiently and effectively in our classrooms.   What’s the excuse?

The other day I was sharing with a colleague that I was going to through the Google Certification program and they asked me, “Why do you want to do that?” Truthfully, I was taken aback. They might have well said, “Why do you want to improve teaching and learning in your classroom?” Um……I don’t know, maybe because it’s my job and I teach digital natives. Of course, I recognize that they think it’s about “the badge”, but that is really misplaced motivation for upskilling. Do it because it makes you a better educator. Do it because you are a life-long learner. What is a badge anyway but a recognition device for your skills and pedagogical values? When soldiers decorate their uniforms with “badges” it shows their commitment and principles. Medals of honor are given to those who serve above and beyond their call of duty. If you got saved in combat by another platoon soldier and they got a medal of honor to risking life and limb, we’d never say to them, “You’re just a show-off. You’re just doing that for the badge.” Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? So,  I have to say that I have high respect for those who don those learning badges because it means that they are passionate about learning and are diligent in improving their practice. Also, it indicates someone that can be my mentor, someone I can turn to if I have questions or when things get messy I know they can help show me the way through it.  As educators, we are all on the same team, which is why I am here to give you a stern talking to. I care about the difference you make in classrooms.

Now I can’t make you take your personal time and professionally develop yourself, jim kwik quotebut there may very well come a time in your career that you will be asked to move on or move out of the profession simply because you DON’T have the 21st-century skills to continue teaching. You do more harm than good in the classroom. So I hope this tough-love message is a wake-up call.

 

So Here are 5 Things You Can Do to Upskill Your Tech Knowledge

Depending on your school’s context, there is a variety of free to low-cost options for professional development. This is is really NOT an exhaustive list.

  1. Microsoft Innovative Educator Program: There are so many resources here, which is why I put it as my #1 resource. I made a podcast episode about it. From webinars to quick tips, or you can go through a “learning path” to get badges–whatever your desire is, there are things to suit. It’s not just about Microsoft programs either, there is STEM stuff, Skype, Minecraft, and Project Based Learning (PBL). I recently took a course about teaching the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals (#WorldsLargestLesson).
  2. Google for Education Certification: I know you think you know Google apps, but I’m telling you there is so much more you can do with students if you go through this program. I actually feel schools that use Google in their administrative management systems (like school emails and shared docs), need to make Level 1 Certification mandatory because these apps are so robust. It cost a little bit of money, and the exams are 3 hours long, but it’s so worth it. There are a ton of Google Trainers and Google Innovators who have resources and videos, so you can also use them as a study resource.
  3. Common Sense Education: This is the go-to place to learn more about digital citizenship. They will give you a “webucation” on a myriad of topics through blog posts and webinars. They also have lots of tech and media reviews, which I found extremely helpful when I am looking for specific types of apps. The only cost to this is your time–and that’s well spent!
  4. Apple Teacher Program: It’s a free, self-paced program, that gets you knowledgeable about their main apps: Pages, GarageBand, Numbers, iMovie, Keynote through the app lens of either the Mac or iPad. There’s so much you can do if you know how, and if you want to go further, they have an Apple Distinguished Teacher Program. After going through the program, I got super inspired and started a podcast simply so I can have a deeper context of some of GarageBand’s capacity. I hope it inspires you too.
  5. Code.Org: I remember reading HTML for Dummies years ago but now you can learn computer science and computational thinking through code.org for FREE. You just sign in and pick your path. They also have workshops that you can attend, which I am going to do when I go home to the States this summer. Maybe I’ll see you there. (:   (Psst…those are also free.)

These are really just a handful of places to start. But if you use a particular software or digital tools at school, then seek out professional development in them. There’s always an opportunity to deepen your learning and use the tools to be more productive and effective. For example, after doing the SeeSaw Ambassador Program, it unlocked worlds of possibilities for using it to document student learning. Now I can’t wait until the next “PD in Your PJs” comes out since I want to learn new ways to unlock student learning. I’m telling you, the more you know about tech, the more you can do with tech. If you’ve got devices in your school, you have got to avail yourself of these online learning resources. And maybe you can encourage a friend to sit and do it with you–that would be even more fun. Professionally developing yourself shouldn’t come as a mandate from the administration, it should come from within. Your work matters. You are impacting lives. Take it seriously.

I hope this harsh nudge from me gets you motivated. My parting advice is that you find some time this summer to do at least one of these programs and then set some goals for next school year to embed some of this into your classroom. We have such wonderfully designed tools at our disposal. It’s like having the BatMobile at your disposal and never driving it. C’mon take a spin with tech!

 

 

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