The Moral Imperative to Share - #ASCD13

This past weekend I was able serve on the press corp and interview some of the award winning schools and individuals that were being honored at ASCD’s annual conference. One group that I was fortunate enough to chat with was the leadership team from Milwaukie High School in Milwaukie, Oregon. They were sharing their story about how they took many steps to transform the learning in their school. We talked at length about the various interventions they put in place and the partnerships they were able to forge in an effort to support their students. Without going into great detail, it is safe to say they have been doing some great work.

Towards the end of the conversation I asked them how they planned on sharing their story so others could benefit. They honestly really didn’t have an answer initially. One of the members of the group indicated he didn’t have time to do that on top of what they were already doing. Now, we have all heard this excuse and in many cases it is a truly valid reason. However, I have always been a believer in the idea that we make time for those things we value.

What worried me more was an individual not in their group that did not think it was important that they share their story for others to learn and even pushed back at the notion. If we are to be better at what we do for and with kids, we have a moral imperative to share our best work. How are we to be better if we are not learning from each other? Not all learning happens in a textbook or graduate class but in the spaces in between where we share our success and failures.

One member of the leadership team said, “We didn’t know we had a story to tell.” We all have a story to tell and it needs to be told. Regardless of what space you use, our stories need to be told. Move past the notion that your story is not worth being told. It will have value to someone and we have an obligation to share what is working for us in an effort to improve education for all…not just those in our own school or classroom. 

5 Things

I was recently in New York City to do a little project with the Pearson Foundation. Part of it was to do some writing about 5 Things I Know. My five are listed below and you can check the original site for a few of my friend’s lists. They also did a video based on one of our “five”.

1 - Kids are humans…and therefore should be treated as such.

Kids are naturally curious and creative. This is an inherent skill that kids have and do not need to be taught. Watch the way a young child explores the backyard or colors a picture on the sidewalk. Through these seemingly irrelevant actions kids are making sense of the world around them and constantly learning. This is natural and intuitive learning and expands their learning potential. When students come to school we slowly take away creativity and curiosity and replace it with bubble sheets and rubrics. Rather than removing these natural parts of kids, we need to honor and cherish them to promote creative and curious learners. Learning happens in its truest form when students are learning through a genuine sense of curiosity rather than a forced sense of duty.

2 - Creativity and curiosity are crucial in learning.

Too often we change the way we work with kids under the assumption they don’t operate under the same human emotions and motivations that we all share. We talk about what motivates adults in the workplace without thinking that the same beliefs hold true for kids. We know that a group of highly inspired adults can and do achieve great work and yet we often don’t allow kids to work this way in schools. I know that the moment we start recognizing kids as more than a student but as a person we unlock their truly unlimited and too often untapped potential

3 - We are all on a journey.

Every one of us is on a learning journey in the same way that all of our students are. Some of us have progressed far on this journey and have experienced tremendous growth and success. Others of us are farther behind due to a whole host of reasons that may or may not be in our control. However, we are all on that journey together and with that understanding comes with it some obligations. Those that are behind have an obligation to learn and seek the advice from those further ahead. We have to be able to ask for help and recognize where we need to grow. For those that are further ahead, we have an even bigger obligation to reach out and bring those behind us along for the ride through support and compassion. Recognizing where you are on the journey is key but does you little good if you are not moving yourself forward or helping someone else do the same.

4 - Change doesn’t happen when we are comfortable.

When we are comfortable we are complacent and when we are complacent change cannot happen or be sustained. Being outside of our comfort zone allows us to experience new things and be open and susceptible to new ideas. It is through these new ideas that change and evolution happens. Stagnation and failure to evolve is the death of any industry and this holds true in education. Educational institutions that fail to adapt and recognize a need for change will fail. I know that I improve and become a better teacher when I am challenged and uncomfortable. As a teacher I know I need to challenge my students to be on the edge of their comfort zone and therefore continuously changing.

5 - Growth happens through failure.

Whether you are falling off your bike and getting back up or flunking a test and coming back to learn more, all failures are opportunities for growth. It is through these failures that we learn about our own limitations and set new expectations. The key is to recognize when we fail and how to go about learning from that failure.

As a teacher we have an obligation to provide a learning environment that not only allows, but also encourages growth through failure. No learner has achieved success without failing at some level or at some point during their journey. I’ve learned those that fail are those with the greatest potential for continued improvement and lifelong growth.

Common Core - This Too Shall Pass

Everywhere you look in education you see the words Common Core. It is plastered on the covers of textbook and workbooks being pushed by publishers. You see it infecting conference session titles and keynote speeches. It has literally taken over the conversation in education and every facet of it. Yet, nobody really knows what it means or what it will look like when it fully takes over public education in the states that have chosen to toss their eggs into that basket.

I have my reservations about Common Core in terms of what it may or may not do in by way of lasting impacts on public education. In many cases the standards are better than existing ones that states have been using. On the other hand, it has yet to be tested and proven to be any more effective than current practice. A lot remains to be seen but the one thing I do know for sure is the Common Core will come and it will go. As with any other initiative in education, just wait long enough and it will run it’s course and be replaced by something new. In many cases that “new” is just something old in a new package where someone other than a teacher will make millions off it.

With that being said, I am not getting worked up about Common Core and how it may or may not transform teaching and learning in our country. One of the big pushes is the notion that we will have a core set of standards that will be common. Yet anyone that has ever worked in a school knows there is no such thing as common. Every school and every classroom has its own nuances and contextual pieces that make it anything but common. 

It is this very reason that I chose not to focus on Common Core and obsess over every new textbook, conference session or CCSS aligned resource. Rather, I would like to focus on the true core pieces of teaching that should be common regardless of the standards. Let’s encourage teachers to look at effective questioning skills rather than teaching to a bubble sheet test? Can we move away from obsessing over the right textbook but show teachers how to use the infinite resources available at our fingertips in the technology rich world our kids live in? Instead of ballrooms filled full of conference attendees looking for the top ten iPad apps for CCSS, let’s promote discussions about what learning looks like and how many of us are getting it wrong?

I have been in education a relatively short amount of time yet I have been around long enough to know that things like Common Core will come and go. What should really matter is the dialogue we have about teaching and learning and the core beliefs we hold to be true. Programs such as Common Core will always be around in some form or fashion but the people in the classroom will be the only constant and therefore should be our focus.  It is time we shifted the conversation away from inevitable top down programs and started talking about bottom up beliefs about what is best for the learning of kids in our classrooms. 

Innovation Day - The Trilogy

As many of my readers know, my school started an annual Innovation Day where we allowed students free reign of their learning. The first year it became pretty popular and the second year was just as successful. I have enjoyed helping other classes and schools get their own Innovation Days off the ground and love seeing the idea spread. This past week we held our third annual Innovation Day at our school and it was by far and away the most successful one yet for one big reason.

Several months ago, I sent the following tweet out to Reed Timmer, a meteorologist, from Discovery Channel’s show Storm Chasers.

I listened to Reed’s keynote at the ASCD conference in the spring and loved what he had to say. He spoke passionately about his life’s dream of learning about weather and everything that goes with it. I had one student in particular that was highly interested in weather and was a fan of Reed. My initial thought was the have Reed connect with this one kid and that idea snowballed into him addressing all of my students as part of Innovation Day. What better person to speak to our students about following their passions in life and pursuing your interests? My hope was to get Reed to Skype in for a short interview that I could record and show to the entire grade level to kick off our Innovation Day. However, that was not what actually happened.

Instead, the power of social media unleashed itself and within a short amount of time and a few dozen tweets I was in a meeting with personnel from Discovery Education planning an actual site visit and activities with Reed Timmer. Fast-forward to last Friday where Reed drove nine hours through a snowstorm to visit our school and deliver a keynote speech to kick off Innovation Day. He spoke about his passion for chasing storms and learning about the science of weather. Of course he showed some amazing footage of the Dominator driving right into the belly of some intense tornadoes. I could not have picked a more perfect start to the day or a more perfect message to be delivered.

After the keynote, Reed did a small group meet and greet with some extremely passionate young scientists and then roamed and spoke to kids about their projects. One young man made a documentary of the day and here is a small clip of his interview with Reed.

Of the three years that we have been doing the Innovation Days at my school, this was by far the best one yet. We had the gambit of projects that reigned from choreographed ballets and stop motion film making to tension bridges and documentary making. The addition of the guest speaker was fantastic and the kids just were so tuned into their learning. Our deputy superintendent visited our school for the keynote and hung around to watch kids working on their projects. Afterward he emailed me the following comments,

“The whole day was just awesome!  I have been an educator for 42 years and have never seen such a high rate of engagement where 300 students were totally into learning as they worked on their projects.”

That pretty much sums it up…just a great day of student learning. Period.

Student Thoughts

#METC13 Session Slides

I finally got the sessions uploaded from my METC13 sessions. Some of the fonts got goofy when it went into SlideShare but here you go. You can also click on the link to see an archive of the live stream from the PBL session. Enjoy!

Pbl from stumpteacher

To Fix Public Education

I've been asked several times what I think the number one problem in public education is. More specifically I've been asked if I could change one thing about public education what would that be. Most people are going to assume that I would said we need to get rid of standardized testing or get rid of homework or get rid of the bloated curriculum the we are required to teach. Some might think I would say we need more technology or that every kid should have access to a device every single day they are in school. Any one of those ideas would be worthy of discussion and certainly have been. However, if we want to make real change in education I think we may have to start at square one. By square one I am referring to our teacher preparation programs.

You don't have to look very far to see first year teachers in classrooms with the deer in the headlights look. Many of them are ill prepared for the challenges of the daily job of a classroom teacher and are frankly scared out of their mind. Now that's not to say that the colleges and universities are not doing the best they can. However, what they are doing is just not good enough anymore.

For starter, let’s look at the time these individuals actually have to practice the art of teaching. How long are most student teaching experiences and how many hours are preservice teachers required to be in a classroom before they student teach? While this number varies greatly, a majority of student teaching experiences last one semester. If the college or university is on trimesters, the time is significantly shorter. While many other professions require intense internships, why is that teachers do not? Why do we not have a minimum requirement of a one-year internship for all teachers? What better way to prepare them for their first year then by giving them a first year with an experienced mentor teacher?

Another issue that comes to mind is that way in which preservice teachers are pushed on through the program regardless of their abilities. I have seen first hand student teachers that should not be left alone in a classroom with children and leave me scratching my head about how they made it this far. Why is it that we feel an obligation to push these students through even though they are not cut out for the job? Are we feeling we owe it to them because they have invested an insane amount of tuition money? Should we push a student through just because they have put their time in and “earned” it? Why not give them more experience earlier in programs and provide more critical feedback to help improve these future teachers or provide them an opportunity to seek another career path?

One issue that may not win me many fans is with the college professors themselves. Frankly, a lot of these professors are poor teachers. For me, I was a history degree major when I was studying in my undergrad. I will tell you I had some of the most brilliant historians teach my history classes. Yet being a master of history does not make you a good teacher. Nearly every single professor I had stood and delivered everyday, every class for four years. Any teacher work their paycheck knows that is not good pedagogy and certainly won’t work in a K-12 environment. Again these people were brilliant historians and scientists and mathematicians but they were not trained as teachers.

Education professors by in large are working on a model that has existed for 100 years and are continuing to perpetuate these ideals through their undergrad and even graduate programs. While the professors are pushing methods and procedures thought best practice in the 1920s, our future teachers are not in touch with current trends or movements. Do we have a place for healthy debate about educational theory in practice in our undergraduate programs? Should we? Are we more concerned about the way in which a college senior is writing a lesson plan or about what they believe about student learning and instructional practice? That is not to even mention the lack of technology training that is a whole issue unto itself.

If we want to change the system of public education in this country, it has to start at the college and university level. These are the students that will come out to be the future teachers in our country. These are the ones that have not been jaded or beat down by curriculum or incompetent administrators. They have yet to be burdened with education politics or incessant hoop jumping. Colleges and universities have a tremendous opportunity to do this.

We don’t need programs like Teach for America or any other one-stop shop cookie cutter convenient drive thru teacher prep programs. We need colleges to adapt to the changing landscape of public education. Colleges have value and have a place in preserving education in America and pushing it to where it should be.