So the school year is officially over. Students, with their report cards in hand and memories quickly fading are out the door and teachers have relocated to the cottage or the patios and are sighing deeply. What now?
My summer seldom starts this way. Again, I have spent much of this first week of summer back at my school preparing for September and attempting to build strategies based on “new” pedagogies for the coming year - both for me and for the teachers I attempt to support. Two things have popped into my mind these last few days. One - it is amazing how “new pedagogies” aren’t that new .. from Dewey in the early 1900s to authors in the 60s and 70s (ie Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed; Illich’s Deschooling Society; Postman’s Teaching as a Subversive Activity, etc ) that speak of the need to modernize learning. Currently there is a deluge of new books in the marketplace, reviewing, reconstructing, and restoring the concepts explored at these earlier times. While I enjoy reading these new entries into the effort to build modern learning, I am struck by the realization that little momentum has been established. As the phrase “What’s old is new again” suggests, we are constantly trying to fuel the fire of change and are still, seemingly, fighting a losing battle. As the starfish story illustrates however, each teacher or school that embraces modern learning makes a difference for those learners and for this reason I applaud these new books and their place in building some momentum, however minimal it might seem. The second is related. It’s the word “congruence”. It seems that when adults (including educators) are surveyed about their experiences in meaningful learning or their reflection on their public school years, virtually all of them speak to personal and choice driven learning where they utilized resources, coupled with their passions or questions, to build knowledge and capacities that were both valuable and meaningful (and in contrast to their lived experiences in most formal education). Yet, when asked about changing schools, many feel uncomfortable with really changing very much at all (some teachers and the systems in which they work are often the worst for this resistance). This brings me to the word congruence - what can I do to be more congruent - having my teaching experiences match my beliefs about learning and how can I support or encourage that in the colleagues within my sphere of influence? So, while I would like to pen the next great tome in the realm of educational wisdom, I wonder if this would be the best course of action. Maybe I just need to do what I know is right. Do it with passion. Build connections with others and with the resources available and encourage true congruence of belief and action and see if, together, we can make a difference.. Thoughts? PS. I hope to read several books this summer to fuel my passions, equip my intellect, and direct my actions. I hope to add some of these reflections in future posts. Enjoy the sun.
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Well, I've been challenged by more than one person to return to writing some thoughts, however random they might be, more regularly. Here we go: The trick to having good ideas is not to sit around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts on the table. —Steven Johnson This is my current challenge ... to add to the conversation; to inspire the conversation; to get new ideas (or at least those I think are new) onto the table. This blog post might just be the beginning of this. Another quote related to this from Katie Martin “Learner-Centered Innovation: Blogging and even quick shares on social media provide an opportunity for self-reflection and then takes those reflections public, where others can read, critique, and learn from us. It also gives us an authentic audience and level of accountability that pushes us to think through our ideas even more and to be open to accepting feedback in order to push our own thinking. Knowing that we have a wider audience to critique and support us empowers us to try new things, and take risks, and hopefully leads us to innovate to create better experiences in our schools and classrooms. I have been thinking about the pros and cons of educator personal branding. On one side, it seems that the motivation to do something worth being "known" for would be good thing - building expertise and sharing it with others (for a price) - what could be a better example of commercialism feeling growth? Everyone wants to feel valued and make a difference. I often feel the "need" to brand myself so that I "feel" that I have something that is valued by others.
My fear, however, about educator branding is two-fold. Often I find that teachers just change the wording of a known or prior concept, take ownership of that, and package it in a way that other teachers would want to purchase. Teachers then use their own financial resources to get what could be freely available elsewhere. The teachers who are in the process of "branding" may not be interested in collaborating (or sharing credit) since that would impact their branding. What they want to do, in my observation, is team up with other educators who are branding and then promote each others. This creates an additional power to generate revenue but, I fear, it may not actually provide teachers with the correct resources. The third concern is about the teachers own learning. I wonder if it wouldn't be better for other (each) teachers to actually do some thinking for themselves and do the research - building their personal construct of the "truth" for themselves. Why are teachers so quick to "hero worship" instead of create their own truth and build their own strategies? Is it because it easier to just use what has been packaged or is it because they are unable to think outside of the box and create something for themselves that works for their students. In conclusion: I truly enjoy reading and learning from educators who have gone to the work to "brand" themselves and share valuable insight. Educators like Katie Martin, George Couros, Will Richardson, Sir Ken Robinson, and many more have provided me with many ideas to ponder and determine what fits for me. I also enjoy creating my own ideas from other research and my own experiences. Sometimes I wonder if my ideas would be something I could "brand" like these others or if I should just consume from these stalwarts of educational reform. So what could hot rods, history, and educational change have to do with each other?
When I was young, I dreamed of many things. Sporting success. Wilderness survival. Building my own exotic hot rod. Being a cowboy in the Wild West or living in a castle or on board a pirate ship. What I didn't dream is to spend my life in a classroom in hopes of improving on my educational experiences. So why? I believed that my real learning - that which happened in my novels and hot rod magazines and the related quests for understanding - was the way people need to experience true and personal learning. This dream has fuelled me through years of discouragement and disappointment. Finally, the curriculum has changed to assist and instruct teachers to provide personalized learning opportunities for students. Yet, in this time of encouragement, I find well-meaning teachers spending an inordinate amount of time creating prescriptive plans and specific learning paths for students, denying them the true agency to learn within their dreams and passions. Now, I task myself to continue to dream and provide the few students I have yet to influence to learn from their imagination and their passion and, in so doing, quite possibly still live the life of a cowboy, a knight, or a pirate and build the hot-rod of my dreams through the successes of these students. I shared this with some colleagues & received this reply - made me think that we still have a long way to go. 8 Things to Look For in Today's Classroom https://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/3586 … via @gcouros I replied saying that while the "words" of support are often given, the "actions" aren't. Here was my friend's response to the blog: I don't think many people would dispute that we need to see more of these attributes demonstrated in classrooms. I have never heard anyone say... • students shouldn't have a voice • students shouldn't have any choice in how or what they learn • students shouldn't be allowed time to think and reflect on their learning • etc... But I wonder... • Do school administrators and upper management REALLY want staff who exemplify, model and teach these qualities? If so, what are they doing to encourage their development? • Do a majority of workplaces and/or secondary institutions REALY want staff/students who exemplify and model these qualities? • Do "compliance" and "doing what you are told" still have a powerful grasp on corporate/education institutions and the people working in them? My response was as follows: I haven’t seen as much “will” as words from upper administration etc. I was chatting with someone today about how the expectation of the new curriculum and the expectations of prior and, likely, current teacher evaluations aren’t coordinated. So, to answer your question, I don’t believe (yet) that upper admin actually show that they want teachers to change how they teach or how classrooms operate. Like the line I once read, “New learning cannot be measured with old measuring tools” implying that if we are asked to measure the old ways, we will teach in a way (an old way) to get those results. I, sadly, still feel that, for the most part, compliance is still the expectation-both from teachers and from students. This won’t change until a radical SYSTEMIC change occurs way up the power ladder. It is important, I believe, for a constant effort by as many teachers and school admins as possible, to implement powerful changes in their classroom and schools so as to make a voice that cannot be ignored (maybe punished but not ignored). *** Here is the image that the original post and discussion revolved around: I think the discussion around employers and higher level educational institutions is also valid ... do they really want the kind of person/learner as described in the above poster? This is worth thinking about.
It is summer holidays and I miss my students ... more specifically, I miss the interactions with them and their wonderful thinking. I understand that a lot of people believe that students, especially middle school students, have lost the ability or the willingness to think deeply but I disagree. We "loop" at our middle school - meaning I began with a group of grade 6 students and had the same group (more or less) for two full years. I have focused most of my instructions and expectations on these six pillars - Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication, Collaboration while making Connections with the required Curriculum (all C's ... pretty nice!). In most activities, I require students to think about these elements and share their reflections (metacognitive) with me. Most are pretty (actually very) perceptive. I also share a warm up activity with a thinking poster of sorts and ask students to consider what the quote might mean or how it might apply to people their age and in their situations. I miss the dialogues around these - many of the students have become budding philosophers. Well, I decided to post a "thinking" poster on my Google Classroom for the students to respond to - not really expecting many (if any) to actually read it. Today I received my first response ... I'll quote it after posting the image. I don't know whether I am right or wrong but the message that I picked up through this poster is, instead of just looking into someone's eyes for an instant, look into their eyes and read the many messages that their eyes are telling you. Many messages are conveyed through eyes... ones which can not be conveyed through words, however, the problem is that no one pays attention. No one realizes that if you look into someone's eyes and dig into their soul, you may find pain and sorrow buried deep within their eyes. You would've never seen that pain if you hadn't searched their eyes for answers. You may find all that pain however, it may be another emotion too. Sometimes, happiness or joy will be dancing in someone's eyes. Again, you will never be able to figure out if someone is trying to tell you this through words. Eyes are powerful and looking into someone's eyes may show you a completely different world. Why would it be a miracle if we were able to look into others' eyes for more than just an instant? The answer to that is because if we do start looking into eyes piercing into someone's soul, we can maybe save them. Save them from that pain that they are going through. If not save them, maybe we could lessen that pain simply by sharing it because if the person is going through all that alone, it'll be extremely hard for them to find the light. Therefore, it is important. It is important to look into someone's eyes. You may find something that you would have never known if you hadn't looked into their eyes. I hope to find some more thoughtful responses in the coming days but I think that this one gives me hope that deep thinking is alive and well in middle school.
Travelling and change
Let me begin by saying that my wife and are are on vacation. We don't travel much and this "vacation" is a trip to elderly relatives who could use a little company and a lot of help around their yard out in rural, Northern California. Because we are coming to help, they "paid" for the flights using their Air Miles. As is often the case, Air Miles travel results in terrible departure times, layovers, and connections. This was no different. As we were sitting around and waiting for another plane, I thought about how trips like these, and maybe others, are a lot like educational change. Let me explain. First, with change we imagine something amazing (or better) in the future for our students. With a vacation, we also imagine a change of location that is probably deemed as an upgrade to our daily existence. We start with a plan and it all seems to make sense and it is exciting. Then reality kicks in: we get to the airport, early because our ride has to go home. We wait in the teminal afte an uneventful trip through security. We wait. We wait. This is like change: we plan; we get started and then we wait - we wait for bureaucracy; for tools, for technology, for teams for acceptance. Eventually, the plane is available and we board. This is exciting but it is a small, prop plane that is simply there to get us to another airport. There is little room. It is noisy. This is like the rough beginning often found in change. We use make-shif supplies and old technology. We adapt old material and resources but, eventually, we make it to the major airport. Again we wait. To be continued Today's quote is from the book, inGenius (page 93).
Inside corporations many innovators are introverts or simply don’t have the courage, or the strength, to fight for their ideas. Fear, inexperience, or just a lack of an innovation culture inside the department or inside the whole organization can block employees. So, corporate innovators needs a sponsor – often the superior on their side. - See more at: http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/12/05/every-engineer-needs-a-businessman/#sthash.aDAvNbag.dpuf
*** Educational innovators are often similar to the engineers mentioned in this article. They too need a "businessman" to help guide them into the "marketplace" so that their ideas of innovative education might be shared with many. In the absence of this leadership and guidance much of the "noise" in educational reform comes from those who will make money on tweaking or rebranding the status quo - non educational innovators but those who promote ways to do things that simply build from what has happened in their past but with more bells and whistles - and usually something to buy from the publisher promoting this "new" idea. Much of the standards movement, systemic high-stakes testing, and "back to basics" and the related products fall into this category. Much of my recent "required" Pro-D also falls into the area of mislabeled but well marketed "innovation" that changes the recipe to a degree (maybe the order of ingredients) but keeps the menu basically the same. What schools, districts, and political regions need, as suggested by this article, are those with a business understanding searching out pockets of educational innovation within their classrooms and encourage those innovators or give them a voice - not for the benefit of the district or the administrator (or a publishing company's bottom line) but to expand the benefit for learners that might be connected to that innovation. Optionally, maybe teachers should take classes in business, finance, and entrepreneurship to help them develop their voice should they become one of the previously silent innovators. Maybe everyone should. Such is the "musing of a hopeful idealist". *** An original and more eloquent post was written and then lost in the uploading process by my new iPad app. Such is the price of innovation that hasn't quite arrived. I've long since been interested in the concept of modified or modifiable learning spaces - since a workshop I attended in the early 90s (Rita May??? on Learning Styles).
The following quotation would be something of a dream ... to be able to both modify and control the learning space, depending on the purpose at that time with that group of learners. Brilliant. I love the image of an early theatre ... where the sets change depending on needs and there is a "place for that" ... *** Page 92 "InGenius" by Tina Seelig One of the reasons I appreciate teaching in the d.school is theat we can design the classroom differently for each session, depending upon what we are doing that day. Sometimes the students sit in small groups around tables that easily roll into place; other times the chairs face the front for presentations. Sometimes the students are arranged in pairs; and other times the room is divided into halves or quarters, with different activities happeing in each section. All of the furniture, includeing ttables, chairs, whiteboards, and foam cubes (which can be used for sitting or for carving up the space), is designed to move easily and to essentiailly disappear when not needed, so that the teaching space can be transformed almost instantly, sometimes several times during one class session.... |
CategoriesJames KlassenI am a teacher. I have held various teaching positions, mostly in Abbotsford, BC, Canada, since 1987. I believe that teachers have the opportunity to inspire deep and meaningful learning and that all learners create their knowledge in ways that are connected to their interests and within their social context. I have observed many waves of educational "reform" come and go and remain hopeful that schools will be transformed into places where all learners desire to be creators and consumers of knowledge and that, together, each member of this community will become prepared to face their world in both skills and attitudes. |