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Challenge-Based Learning

Ms. Notestine and Mrs. Chalberg guided seventh graders through a student-generated project about composting in Westminster's campus garden. An e-mail explaining the basics of the challenge is pasted below. And (drum roll, please)...here is the winning entry. SPINPOST!

In the Zone

Being a camp counselor at Camp Sea Gull altered my entire career path. At camp, Captain Lloyd, the camp director, used to tell me, "Bo, you teach kids how to swim; you do not teach swimming to kids." Captain Lloyd was insistent that we taught children, not a subject.

Years later, my mentor in graduate school, Frank Pajares, insisted that we immerse ourselves in the writings, theories, and practices of Lev Vygotsky. Of particular importance,Dr. P wanted us to truly understand the ZPD - zone of proximal development. The ZPD is that cognitive "place" where a learner stretches to comprehend something just beyond his mental reach. Usually some coaching and scaffolding is required. Here is where learning takes place.

Now, as I reread W. James Popham's book, Transformative Assessment,I am reminded that formative assessment is not so much an instrument or tool, as it is a PROCESS. Formative assessment provides the feedback for both learners - teacher and student - so that we can stay in the zone...the ZPD. When we are content driven, mere teachers of a subject, we don't tend to evidence much real caring for the zone. We just have to get through the material. When we use learning targets, formative assessment, and the magic of feedback, we begin to teach the child. We start to realize the importance of differentiation because we are teaching learners who might have slightly different ZPDs.

When we teach a subject, we get the pace and methodology right for some in the class. For others, the material is too easy. For others still, it is too difficult. When we teach children, we pay attention to where they are as unique and individual learners. We require the process of formative assessment so at we can tweak, alter, and adjust instruction so as to stay in the sweet spot - in the zone - as much as possible.

Here is a great article that helps tie it all together: http://www.edweek.org/media/formative_assessment_next_generation_heritage.pdf

One Step at a Time

With the gracious permissions of two extraordinary teachers, who also serve as co-facilitators of our middle school math PLC, I am pasting in a recent e-mail thread that transpired between the three of us, as well as one other teacher who teaches on the Algebra I team. As a school, we are making thoughtful transitions toward student learning that involve more real-life problem solving, project-based learning, and balanced assessment. Often the journey is difficult, challenging, and frightening. This journey forces us to reconsider some habits that we have developed as educators in our twenty-years careers. However, we are not alone, and we don't have to "change everything," especially not all at once. We can take one step at a time, and we can do so arm-in-arm with our colleagues.

Quick Cartoon "Commercial Break"

>>> JG 11/15/2010 1:49 PM >>>

Please watch when you can and let's talk about it.
Conrad Wolfram: Teaching kids real math with computers
http://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_teaching_kids_real_math_with_computers.html

>>> DD 11/16/10 11:51 AM >>>

It's a great talk. I agree with most of what he said. My problem is I was trained the way he says we are inadequately teaching. I don't know how to do what he says to do. I think you need to understand math a lot more than I do to see most real world connections. I have been hearing this idea a lot; but where is the curriculum? Where are some books that will help guide me to teach this way? If that isn't on its way, then I guess I need to go back to school or get a new job. It is as daunting as if someone said I needed to take someone's Latin class over and teach it.

I would like to discuss it in PLC.

>>> JG 11/17/2010 1:02 am >>>

Reading Dan Meyer's blog offers good ideas:
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/

If you have not seen his TEDNYed talk, Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover, it offers a way to use our current books.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html

>>> Bo Adams 11/17/2010 5:16 AM >>>

DD,

I respect your thoughts on this, probably more than you even might realize. However, I truly believe that any journey, any journey at all, begins with one step. Just one step can start the path. You have already made MANY steps toward the type of teaching that Conrad describes. In fact, you have been doing it for years. With the support of the PLC structure, I think your Algebra I team has made MANY steps toward this journey.

As a runner, I travel a sinusoidal curve in my training. When I am at a low point, and I am trying to make a run of significant distance, I often pick a short-term point in my vision - maybe a street sign, maybe a telephone pole. I just tell myself to "get to that point." Then, I pick a new point. Often I feel like Donkey (no comment from any of you necessary) when Shrek was coaxing him across the rickety-old bridge that separated Princess Fiona's castle-of-captive from the other side of a lava-filled gulf. Donkey made it with encouragement, ONE STEP AT A TIME. He did not have to jump the entire gulf in one fell swoop. [Sorry to mix metaphors!, but I did call myself an ASS!]

SHRINK THE CHANGE. Just pick one thing during one class to try. 20 minutes worth. You do this type of "action research" all the time! You are used to it. You just have to pick the next step in your journey's path. And you have lots of support in your team and in me!

Bo

>>> DD 11/17/2010 11:10 am >>>

That was a great suggestion. It seems simple but I need to remember that when I start to feel overwhelmed. One step at a time.

>>> Bo Adams 11/17/2010 11:29 AM >>>

How would you two feel if I put all of the below in my "It's About Learning" blog? I could remove your names, or leave them if you don't mind. I think these emails make for a good story that could help support others.

The Decline of Creativity in the United States

Recently, a parent of two middle-school students sent me a link to a Britannica Blog entry entitled "The Decline of Creativity in the United States: 5 Questions for Educational Psychologist Kyung Hee Kim." The full article is fascinating, but I felt compelled to copy and paste a large section below. Actually, what is quoted below from the blog is Dr. Kyung Hee Kim's response to the fifth question. It is a fascinating and thought-provoking (and long) list of things for us parents and teachers to consider if we want to rear and educate creative children.

Britannica: Are there programs or activities that parents and teachers can use to encourage children to be more creative?

Kim: To strengthen children’s creativity, parents and teachers must not only find or develop programs or activities with new techniques, but must first change environments that inhibit creativity. The best creative techniques, or the strongest creative programs, cannot compensate for a culture that crushes creativity. Creative growth demands that we adapt our environments into a creativity-friendly environment. Only through a self-evaluation of our culture to determine the elements that are blocking our children and through the construction of more fertile creative soil can we lead our children to new levels of creative achievement.

Individuals are born creative, some more, some less. Creativity is killed first by parents (especially parents who are perfectionists), then later by teachers, schools, society, cultures, and the like. So before we worry about encouraging creativity, we should learn to preserve it. Research has determined that there are many ways to preserve creativity in our children.

Preserve Curiosity: To preserve creativity, children’s curiosity should be satisfied and encouraged. Most children go through a period when they ask a lot of questions to parents, teachers, adults, anyone where they can get answers. Parents take the brunt of this questioning and at times this gets annoying. However, instead of getting annoyed and discouraging this curiosity, parents should take the time to try to find the answers and, probably more importantly, to demonstrate to their curious children how to find the answers.

Focus on Ideas: I watched a mother criticizing her little son because he drew a dog with red fur. If he had drawn wings for his dog, she would have screamed at him. For her, spelling the right words was more important than having ideas or imagination. In contrast, Cathy who is one of the participants of the Torrance’s 40-year (from 1958 to 2008) longitudinal study still remembers that when she was writing essays in fourth grade, the teachers who participated in the study did not emphasize spelling, but emphasized original ideas in the essays. Thus, parents and teachers may not want to always emphasize getting the “right” answers and or even the correct spelling; they should instead peek into a world of child fantasy, imagination, and inventiveness and encourage that ability. They can always help children prepare for being wrong or making mistakes and correcting those mistakes.

Raise Nonconformists: Creative individuals do not like to follow the rules; they tend to follow their own rules. They tend to question and rebel against established norms. Perceptual and mental-sets, well-learned and habitual ways of thinking, and rules and traditions that restrict individuals’ behavior stifle creativity. Thus, parents and teachers should welcome unorthodox views and accept when children have different ideas or want to be different.

Raise Girl-like Boys and Boy-like Girls: Creative individuals show integration of feminine and masculine components. In our culture, however, sensitivity is viewed as feminine and independence as masculine. Creative children tend to sacrifice their creativity to maintain gender role expectations that parents and teachers imposed upon them. Parents and teachers should welcome girl-like boys or boy-like girls.

Be Playful: Creative individuals tend to have a sense of humor, flexibility, and playful thinking. Parents and teachers should not force children to think and act mature and should provide opportunities for spontaneity and play, playfully engaging students, and encouraging childlike or even silly approaches to problems.

Be Ready for Drama: Creative individuals tend to be restless and energetic. They can be very talkative and have stronger needs for self-expression and a fuller range of emotional expression than other children. They are spontaneous and even impulsive. Highly creative individuals may be hard to live with. Research shows that many children diagnosed with ADHD are creative, and many creative children are misdiagnosed as having ADHD. The very qualities that facilitate individuals’ creative accomplishments can be the same ones that may cause them to have problems. Research shows creativity is punished and discouraged by parents and teachers who perceive creative behavior as inconvenient and difficult to manage. Parents and teachers need to be patient and understanding of the characteristics of creative children, and there are many books and research articles on the subject that may help.

Be Less Protective: Creative people tend to have a somewhat marginalized family background, which means that they tend to be a member of a minority group in some ways (e.g., ethnicity, culture, language, geography, sexual orientation, religion, etc.). This could be because experiencing difficulties psychologically and emotionally may foster resilience, which allows them to become stronger and more persistent than those who are not experiencing such difficulties. Thus, having a perfectly happy and protected childhood can be worse than having an unhappy childhood in terms of fostering children’s creativity. Parents and teachers should not be overly protective of children and prevent them from having difficulties. Instead, parents and teachers should observe and understand the difficulties and be ready to discuss issues with a child.

Foster Independence: Mild parental rejection is necessary for encouraging a child’s creativity because a lightly rebellious attitude leads to more-independent thinking. Enjoying experiences separate from the family, and less encouragement of all family members doing all things together, can encourage creativity. Thus, parents should let their children sleep-over or camp-out without their parents, under adult supervision, but not overly close.

Travel: Creative people tend to be well traveled. Traveling and experiencing places with different scenery or different cultures can encourage open-mindedness and seeing from different perspectives. Living in more than one culture or speaking more than one language can also foster creativity. Parents and teachers should be able to introduce children to different experiences including different places, cultures, food, languages, and different people.

Give Time Alone: Most creative people have needs for privacy or time alone so that they can incubate their creative ideas. It is important for parents to let their children explore their interests by exposing them to different subjects, topics, programs, and areas. However, it is more important for those parents to give their children time alone. In addition, parents who nurture creativity tend not to rely on the use of premature and excessive worksheets and academic material.

Teach in Nonconventional Ways: Creative individuals do not like competitive situations or restricted-choice situations. Thus, allowing choice of topics and variety of assignments is important to encourage creativity. Creative individuals do not like rote recitation, precise performance under time pressure, completion of familiar and repetitive procedures, or classes in a formal manner. Parents and teachers should give children open-ended assignments or components, encouraging brainstorming and intellectual risk-taking, encouraging intrinsic (not extrinsic, because these children will perform when they like to) motivation and persistence, and delaying gratification.

Be Less Clean and Organized: Parents of highly intelligent children focus on visible qualities such as right answers, cleanliness, and good manners, whereas parents of highly creative children focus on less-visible qualities, such as openness to experience, interests, imagination, and enthusiasm. Very organized and clean home environments can stifle children’s creativity. A mother built an experiment room in the basement of her house for her fourth-grade son who liked taking things apart and doing all kinds of experiments. The floor and walls of the room were made of tile so that it could be cleaned easily. Teaching children how to clean and organize is a good life skill, but it should not limit the child’s freedom to explore or satisfy their curiosity. When there is no space for additional room, then parents and teachers can designate a corner or space in which children can draw or build whatever they want and can make a mess.

Find a Friend: Creative individuals tend to have imaginary childhood playmates. Talking to visible or non-visible, non-human-being objects should not be discouraged. Creative individuals tend to have friends who are younger or older than themselves. Parents tend to welcome older friends for their children compared to younger friends. However, not only does being friends with older children foster a child’s maturity and resourcefulness, but also being friends with younger children can foster a child’s leadership skills. Being friends with non-peer group members can foster an ability to see from different perspectives than their peer group.

Find a Mentor: Torrance’s 40-year longitudinal study and other studies found that individuals who are creatively successful have at least one significant mentor in their lives. Introducing children to creative adults, especially those with similar interests as the children, is necessary to inspire creativity. Books, video tapes, and movies (especially good with guided viewing) that depict creative individuals are helpful for creative children with regard to their self-understanding and self-acceptance and for their identity issues and social and emotional needs.

Be Educated: Teachers who claim to value creativity often display a preference for non-creative personality traits over creative personality traits in the classroom. Parents and teachers often say that they enjoy working with creative children; however, when they are questioned about the qualities of the ideal child, these qualities rarely include characteristics of highly creative children. Not only do parents and teachers often fail to recognize the talents of the creatively gifted, but these children are often treated with contempt.

In the U.S, a marriage license is required to get married. But, no license is required to have a baby. Parents and teachers should be educated to understand creative minds. When parents become educated about creativity, they can help their children preserve their natural creativity which I believe is the first step in fostering creativity in our society.

Digital Learning Environments

This week I felt very blessed to explore a few "digital learning environments." First, on Tuesday, November 9, I attended an event at Greater Atlanta Christian School hosted by Apple, Inc. While I participated in the three-hour, morning session, I gathered some artifacts of my learning. Then, I spent an hour producing this 3.5 minute video.

Next, I enjoyed the encouragement, modeling, and instruction of a colleague as three of us teachers explored graphical blogging, or glogging. In preparation for a devotional that I am presenting next week, I experimented with a glog myself...

1-Buttock School

Finally, in an English PLC (professional learning community) meeting, I was fortunate to be part of a thought-provoking discussion about the possibilities of 21st century learning and the potential dangers of fetishizing technology. From the rich and thoughtful comments of my friends and teachers, I was reminded of the advice that digital learning environments are NOT about the technology. The technology should be like air - virtually taken for granted. The technology is merely a means to the learning - learning about mitosis, Romeo and Juliet, Spanish, writing, graphing, letting the learning move us to one buttock, looking for the ways we can help others' eyes shine, thinking about how to start a movement. It's not about the technology. It's about learning.

21st C. Learning Summit - And End and a Beginning

On Thursday, October 14, 2010, Solution Tree's 21st C. Learning Summit closed with provocateur Will Richardson. For the first time that week, rather ironically, the speaker established a backchannel for behind-the-scenes conversations and questions. For the first time that week, rather ironically, the speaker used a share-able presentation tool that required no paper.

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ah8n38hnwpnq_765gr5sjmd9

With a similar message to that of Chris Dede, Will Richardson compelled the audience to realize that learning is a 24-hour-a-day possibility with the advantages of countless learning networks. Education is distributed now, and it is no longer essentially confined to the time and space called school. In fact, school sometimes gets in the way of deep, efficient learning, because it often is the slowest institution to change and adapt. Students utilize smart phones rather effortlessly to stay connected and to learn, but schools often ask students to check their phones at the door. Cheryl Lemke had said it the day before - school is now but one of many nodes on a stident's primary learning carrosel, and we need to accept that we no longer occupy the most important or central position...not while we lag behind this generations normal modalities of learning and growing. Doug Fisher, too, practically scolded us for banning cell phones from students in school. If we don't teach students to use their networks and tools wisely, who will? Schools, let's make sure we stay relevant and provide the coaching and immersive education that students deserve.

21st C. Learning Summit - in progress report

During this week, I am attending Solution Tree's "21st C. Learning Summit" in Chicago. So far, we have heard from Ken Kay of P21, Rick DuFour (one of my main heroes)of PLCs, and Chris Dede of Harvard and "immersive learning."

Ken Kay's message, in my own words, is that we need to blend the 3Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic) with the 4 Cs (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity) to facilitate interconnected content and skill development for students in the 21st C.

Rick Dufour made the case that we can only get to Ken Kay's vision if we have a plan for teacher learning - professional learning communities that provide workplace learning everyday instead of workshop learning a few times a year. The evidence of PLC effectiveness is convincing and compelling. We just need to do what we know works! Learning must be the focus, collaboration must be the culture, and results must direct our course. Four Qs should guide us...1) what should students learn? 2) How will we now that they have learned? 3) What will we do when they don't learn? 4) What will we do when they already know it. We teachers should model the four Cs in the way we work...modeling is a powerful teacher for students.

Chris Dede spoke of distributed education - a system that extends beyond the school in space, time, and people. And learning should happen through collaborative problem resolution via mediated interaction. We should help students with real life by making learning less segmented and more integrated through projects, situated learning, and immersive learning. Furthermore, good formative and diagnostic assessment could replace summative assessment as we scale effective assessment of skills and content in context.

Daniel Coyle's Opening-of-School Letter

Thanks to Leslie Ann Little for sending me this from Daniel Coyle's blog. I am pasting the content below. http://thetalentcode.com/2010/08/24/letter-to-students-cliffs-notes-for-a-faster-brain/

"Dear Kids,


Happy first day of school! I’ve got good news and bad news.

First the bad news: You are about to spend hundreds of hours learning a bunch of small, interconnected facts, most of which you will never, ever, ever use again. (Proof: ask your parents how to calculate the area of a rhombus. I rest my case.)

Now the good news: school is hugely, amazingly, life-changingly worthwhile. Here’s why: learning bunches of interconnected facts makes your brain faster and stronger. School is like a machine for improving your brain. But in order to improve it the most, it helps to know the basic rules of how that sucker works.

(Why don’t more schools spend time — a half-day, say — teaching kids the how their brains work? This state of affairs seems utterly crazy to me. Would you try to teach someone to drive a car without showing them the accelerator and steering wheel?)

So before you get started filling your brains with facts, here is a (very) brief user’s manual for your brain.

Rule 1: Feel the Burn

If you want strong, fast muscles, do you:

• A) do nothing and wait for your muscles to get strong

• B) Go to the store, buy bags of marshmallows and lift them over and over

• C) Go to the gym and work out until your muscles burn

Congratulations for picking C) – because here’s the deal: your brain works exactly like your muscles. To get stronger and faster, you have to push yourself right to the edge of your ability, until you feel the burn — which in this case is that spot where you make mistakes.

This is not easy. It feels uncomfortable – sort of like lifting a heavy weight. But it’s how you’re built. Struggle is not optional – it’s a requirement.

• Do: Be willing to make mistakes, fix them, reach again. Mistakes aren’t verdicts – they’re navigation points for the next try.

• Don’t: Sit back and let information flow over you like a warm, comfortable bath. This feels good, and it’s an absolutely terrible way to learn.

Rule 2: Repetition is Underrated. (Repetition is Underrated.) Also, Repetition is Underrated.

When it comes to learning, there is nothing (repeat: nothing!) you can do that is more powerful than repetition when you are pushing yourself to the limits of your abilities, practicing, making mistakes, evaluating, making corrections and practicing again. Practice makes permanent! The reasons are complicated, but boil down to this: intense repetition makes the wires of your brain work faster. A LOT faster.

• Do: Picture the wires of your brain working faster and faster with each rep.

• Don’t: Think of repetition as drudgery. It’s not like doing boring chores. It’s a lot closer to installing high-speed broadband.

Rule 3: Steal From the Best

Look, I know your teacher and parents tell you that you are special and unique, but the truth is, you aren’t the first person in the history of the world to do math, music, art, or sports. In short, it’s not about you. When you encounter a problem, look to others. Find the people who do it well, and copy how they study, how they listen, how they take notes. Rip them off. Steal their habits, figure out the way they think, break into their vault. Your brain is built to mimic.

• Do: Keep a list of useful habits you’d like to steal.

• Don’t: Take defeat too personally. (Same with success, for that matter.)

In sum, making your brain fast and strong is all about doing the three R’s: Reach, Repeat, and Rob the Banks.

Good luck!"

From (with minor editing):

http://thetalentcode.com/2010/08/24/letter-to-students-cliffs-notes-for-a-faster-brain/

Students Lead Email Conference with Parents

This past week in Synergy 8 - the interdisciplinary, problem-solving course in Westminster's Junior High - students emailed their parents with two document attachments. The first was a collaboratively created newsletter that hosted six stories from student teams and an article from Ms. Gough and me. The story teams consisted of four students each, and the teams addressed a major question that parents had expressed at Class Rotation night. By responding to these parent questions, such as, "What is Synergy 8?," students detailed what we've been doing in this learning environment for the past month.

Even more importantly, though, students attached a personalized progress report with anecdotes about the learning and growth that each had experienced during the first month of Synergy 8. In the past, marking periods at school involved at least two adults "talking" about a student's learning. A teacher wrote a comment to a parent, and the student sat relatively passive, waiting to read the comment until it was published. This week, however, the students returned to the drivers' seats, in the position of first-hand describers of their own learning and growth.

In addition to thinking back with the use of the newsletter articles, student reflection began with a rubric that Ms. Gough and I designed (a portion is pasted above). The rubric organized the twelve essential learnings of Synergy 8 into four categories and students indicated their perceived learning and growth using a four-point scale with simple criteria. Then, students selected their greatest area of learning and growth - their "bright spot" (a la the Heath brothers' Switch) - and engaged a writing exercise to explain their development in that area. During the drafting and revising stages, students posted their rubric ratings and writing samples to a GOOGLE form so that Ms. Gough and I would have the student data. After completing a revised draft, students sent a progress report that included at least two drafts of their reflection and writing. Parents and teachers (copied on the e-mail) could read about the student's learning and growth, and we could see the actual progress of the writing by way of the multiple drafts included.

Here's an example of one student's reflection:
"Synergy 8 is not the most typical class in school. It is very different from other classes. ‎The teachers are more our equals than our teachers. We are all learners in this course. However, ‎because Synergy 8 is a new course, we still have to work out the kinks. I have become an ‎excellent problem solver because of this. I have been taking notes in my observation journal to ‎help me identify ideas or problems. Through these notes, I have asked questions about our school ‎and our community. I have also posted on Grou.ps to help others solve their problems.‎
"One specific journal entry I have written is about cell phone usage during school. This ‎was one of my early journal entries. I asked some questions concerning cell phones during school. ‎When we started using Grou.ps as a communication tool, I found that others had similar ideas on ‎cell phones. From here, many of us have commented on whether they think cell phones would ‎work during school. Beau M. says of cell phones, “It all depends on how you use the device. ‎If you use it responsibly, it’s beneficial. If people can’t use it like they should, well, it’s not ‎beneficial. The 6th grade laptops could be used as "what’s for lunch" devices, but they use them ‎correctly. I think we have enough responsibility to do the same.” I agree with Beau. With cell ‎phones, we can take notes and search questions or ideas we have during class. The next step for ‎this is to take action and create an experiment. This way, we could see if this is a realistic goal.‎
"From a small journal entry, we have created something much more. We have produced ‎rich conversation on this topic, and this is what Synergy 8 is about. For me, learning how to ‎identify a problem and take action to fix it is what we need to do. This is why we are here. From ‎Synergy 8, I have learned to take note of the world around me—to live in the now. There will ‎always be another challenge waiting for me if I look around.‎"

Don't we want students in middle school to take more ownership of their own learning and growth? Don't students have the capacity to describe their own development? Shouldn't students be able to explain what and how they have learned? Instead of having students read an adult conversation about their school experience, I am thrilled that the Synergy 8 students directed that conversation this week.

Homework by Choice

This first semester of 2010-11, Jill Gough and I are co-facilitating an eighth-grade course called Synergy 8. In brief, Synergy 8 is a inquiry-based, community problem-solving, persuasive communication course. For several days, we have been working with our 24 students to determine which archive/communication tool we will use for the class. Journaling, class discussion, data mining, and polling have been steps in the process. In the last two class days, we have been experimenting a bit with Grou.ps as a tool. Ms. Gough and I have assigned no homework with respect to Grou.ps. However, students are choosing to post blogs there, form groups, write to wikis, and comment on videos. They are messaging each other and giving the chat feature a try. Two students have attempted to invite their parents to see what they are doing on the site. The posted work, in most cases, is high-level, in my opinion, all things considered. Why are students choosing to assign themselves homework? Some teachers believe that students are only motivated by the currency of grades and the authority behind homework. Perhaps, as they started in the world before school, children are motivated by LEARNING. Maybe we teachers have habituated them to the seeming rewards of grades and check marks for completed homework. Maybe we don't give children and students enough credit - the real kind. Maybe we need to make the learning more fun, more relevant, more engaging, and more enticing.

David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization | Video on TED.com

David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization | Video on TED.com

Quick Assessment Results from "Build Something Together" Project Faculty Meeting

On August 12, the JH Faculty took the next step in the "Build Something Together" Project. The essence of the meeting involved a facilitated exchange of ideas that could grow and morph into realized project-based learning plans. At the conclusion of the meeting, we used Poll Everywhere to establish a quick snapshot of people's reactions to the meeting.

The "Build Something Together" Project

What would make a faculty meeting FUN? WORTHWHILE? FULL OF LEARNING? IDEA-PROVOKING? INSPIRATIONAL? PRACTICAL? What do people want and need to learn and concentrate on for the start of school? If there are 80 faculty, how many needs and wants are there...80? Are there trends, patterns, groupings of wants and needs? What can pull us together as a team...as a community?As a principal who wants to serve his faculty well, these are the questions that challenge and motivate me.

In one week from today, the Westminster Junior High faculty will meet for our first gathering of the 2010-11 school year. Last spring, I encouraged the faculty to read Trilling and Fadel's 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times. How could we connect this book with our last common read, Carol Dweck's Mindset? What could we do with the 21st Century Skills book that would make the potential for project-based learning come alive...that would encourage a growth mindset for further developing 21st c. teaching and learning? What if we had a project ourselves? What if we built something together? How could a challenge be structured so that people might work together to build project-based learning ideas for their own classrooms and learning environments? How could we weave together the expectations that we all face, such as establishing a goal that I care about and want to pursue, such as visiting my peers and exchanging ideas about learning, such as taking risks and trying something new and different, such as showing evidence that my students have learned with enduring understanding? How will we measure if we are successful? What does success look like in this case of a meta-project for facilitating faculty development of project-based learning?

THE "BUILD SOMETHING TOGETHER" PROJECT: Coming Soon!

In the meantime, a few TED talks to inspire...

• A Need for a "Radical Shift in Tactics"... http://www.ted.com/talks/lewis_pugh_s_mind_shifting_mt_everest_swim.html
• An "I Can" Attitude... http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/kiran_bir_sethi_teaches_kids_to_take_charge.html
• Developing "Patient Problem Solvers"... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWUFjb8w9Ps

And, YES, I do see these as a package deal, which is to say...even better viewed as a synthesized whole.

Learning in the 21st Century

When I served as a camp counselor at Camp Sea Gull, I became convinced that I wanted to be a teacher. As I began my career in teaching, I could hear in my mind Captain Lloyd’s insistence that I was to teach children how to swim rather than teaching swimming to children. Twenty years later, as I strive to adapt for teaching in the 21st century, I continue to hear those wise words from Captain Lloyd—to place emphasis on the child above the subject matter...to personalize my teaching.


When I began playing soccer, my first sport, I was immediately hooked by the sense of team—team fun and team accomplishment. Throughout my life in sports, even in the more individual-oriented sports, I am struck by the fact that I accomplished my top achievements on teams and with the help of others. As I study and participate in 21st century teaching and learning, I am convinced of the importance of teams...collaboration is essential.

When I reflect on my peak learning experiences, I realize that there are many and that they share some common traits. Most likely, my uppermost peak learning experience involves being a parent. As a parent, what I do matters to me and to others, I have to address real-world issues that have consequences for me and others about whom I care, and I have to use all of my best thinking from multiple areas in an integrated fashion. However, if I replace “as a parent” in the previous sentence, the rest of the sentence describes my other peak learning experiences, too. For instance, “as a college freshman,” “as a first-year teacher,” “as a husband,” “as a principal,” etc. are all times during which I have been most engaged as a learner, and they all possess the element of authenticity.

In education, most people are engaged in dialogue and discussion about “21st century teaching and learning.” Some seem to be energized and excited by the term, while others appear to shudder at the mention of the phrase. Healthy debate exists around the exact meaning of 21st century education, as people try to develop a common understanding of what we mean by that phrase.

As for me, I am one who is energized and excited by the discussions concerning 21st century teaching and learning. For certain, we are educating our children today for many tomorrows in the 21st century—a century with marked distinctions from the previous century. I believe that 21st century education possesses three essential, inter-related characteristics: personalization, collaboration, and authenticity—the bold words from the first three paragraphs. Imagine them as the three strands of a strongly braided rope.

Twenty-first century education is about personalizing instruction. In short, I believe that the recent past in education has been defined by an industrial-age model. Analogous to an assembly line journey, students traveled through hallways, with about hour-long stops in classrooms, to be filled with math, then English, then history, etc. However, in the past twenty years, we have learned 95% of what we know about the human brain and how they work. The brain is not a cup to be filled with knowledge, and people possess very diverse, dynamic, and distinct brains (Robinson 2009). In part, the 21st century movement in education is about transforming the factory model to the personal model—facilitating growth for each participating learner rather than merely teaching a subject to an audience. In fact, the movement is largely about returning to a focus on personalized learning instead of a concentration on standardized teaching. Much of the progress in this first attribute of 21st century education depends on assessment—employing methods that allow teachers to collect a more accurate account of what individuals have actually learned and to adjust our paths based on the results. One assembly line cannot serve the diversity of learners. We need to personalize education to a greater extent.

What people can achieve individually pales in comparison to what they can achieve collectively. A high functioning team is a thing of beauty and wonder, largely because of what a team can accomplish that an individual cannot. An appreciation for teams explains part of why we love sports and marvel at great bands and orchestras. Since Peter Senge’s work, first detailed in The Fifth Discipline, organizations have moved more and more to collaborative models. Learning is social, and we understand that co-laboring can produce superior results to working alone. As we move away from some of the assembly-line features of education, we can establish learning environments that leverage the advantages of working together in collaboration. In the more global community of the 21st century, identifying the issues and solving the problems that exist will demand various partnerships, groupings, and teaming so that we can utilize collective strengths and abilities. Education should assist students in developing these teaming skills that are essential for the present and the future.

To borrow further from the sports world, the best coaches have known for a long time that practice should resemble the play for which we are preparing. Not since I was in school myself has my brain worked for an hour as a math brain, then for an hour as an English brain, then for an hour as a history brain, etc. In reality, my brain—each of our brains—works in an integrated fashion because the disciplines of thought are integrated and interconnected. For a 21st century education, schools need to design ways for students to practice the integrated thinking that occurs naturally in “real life.” The practice needs to resemble the play for which we are preparing. An authentic learning experience integrates the disciplines.

Additionally, an authentic learning experience possesses relevance. We are all most engaged as learners when we care about what we are learning, when we see a value and purpose for what we are learning, and when we understand how to use what we are learning to contribute to whatever situation we face. Moreover, we are more engaged as learners when we hold a certain level of control about what we are learning and doing. In large part, 21st century education encourages project-based learning so that students can apply developing knowledge, in an integrated and realistic manner, to real-world issues about which they care. When learning is authentic, it answers the age-old question, “Why do we have to learn this?”

So, where is technology in all of this? Isn’t 21st century education all about technology? I believe that technology is a toolbox with which we can make teaching and learning more personalized, more collaborative, and more authentic for our children who are growing up in a highly digital world.

The Junior High School at Westminster has long stood as a strong educational community. Part of the reason that the Junior High has been and continues to be so strong exists in the reality that the Junior High is willing and able to examine its practices and to explore enhancements and developments in education. We are a professional learning community, and we will set our sights high for the 2010-11 academic year. Years ago, the blind mountaineer Eric Weinmeier visited the Junior High. He captivated the students and teachers with his story of summiting Mt. Everest. In his remarks, he explained that his rope—his life line—was his most important piece of equipment. As we venture further up the climb of 21st century teaching and learning, we want to equip our students with a rope—a life line—braided together from the strands of personalization, collaboration, and authenticity.

I am so proud and blessed to work with the Junior High faculty, students, and parents. Within this community of learners, I am energized and excited for the year ahead, tied in with each and every one.

Bo



Robinson, Ken. The Element. Penguin Group, New York: 2009.

Kathy Anderson, president-elect of Phi Delta Kappan International, posted this YouTube video about people's senses of time and the effects of those differences. Very interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3oIiH7BLmg

After watching, I clicked on a suggested, related video from Dan Pink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=channel

Then, I posted this to PDK...
"I am spending considerable time researching project-based learning. Currently, I am reading Powerful Learning (Linda Darling-Hammond). According to much of the research (and a great deal of common sense), project-based learning (also problem-based and design-based) appear to provide the students with ENGAGING, ACTIVE learning for a PURPOSE...to have something to control that matters to the students and to the community. PBL also reproduces the conditions under which most of us work 'in the real world.' What superb training and education that might turn out to be. Thanks for sharing the video."

To discover what motivates our students and ourselves would be a key to a great shift in education and learning!

Bright Spots

I am re-reading Chip and Dan Heath's Switch. The concept in the "direct the rider" section about BRIGHT SPOTS is so compelling that I cannot get the idea out of my mind. Why are we so problem-solving oriented versus bright-spot-reproducing oriented? We should be recreating more of the moments when things work well, when our strengths are revealed and engaged, when our efforts are at our best. We should write and send more "class acts" than "class demerits." What has made us so focused on locating and addressing "the broken" that it has us habituated to such behavior? At my school, we use teacher peer visits as an element of a growth system. As the peer visits model is expanding,several are resisting the idea. Much of the resistance seems to center around who will read the peer-visit notes. But the peer-visit notes are strength-based...they are bright-spots notes. Yet he habit in people seems to assume that admin is looking for what's broken. That's something to fix - the assumption that we are mining what's broken versus building on what is strong. Here's to a bright-spots movement!

Recent Participation in TEDx Atlanta - RE:LEARN

Please visit the TEDx Atlanta site and read about the recent May 18 event - RE:LEARN. Also, here is a link to a video blog in which I participated...on TechDrawl

In a couple of months, the TEDx Atlanta talks will be posted to the website. In the meantime, here is a link to one of my "rehearsals" for the talk I gave...Screen Cast.

Slow to Change - Rate of Exchange

In countless conversations, I have talked with numerous people about the phenomenon of school change. Basically, schools are slow to change. At TEDx last week, several speakers made mention of the almost glacial rate of change that seems to describe schools. Why are schools generally so slow to change? Certainly, the slow rate of change must be related to the degree of isolation that describes the condition of most teachers in most schools. Since the Prussians created that model of schooling over 200 years ago that still exists in most U.S. schools today, teachers have worked in relative isolation. For the most part, schools have not enabled systems for teachers to work and learn together, collaborating during job-embedded team time. During my recent TEDx talk, I mentioned Kathy Boles' description of schools as the "egg-crate culture." For the most part, teachers do not live in a system that encourages exchange of ideas.

Then, on Saturday, the Wall Stree Journal published an essay by Matt Ridley - Humans: Why They Triumphed. Essentially, Ridley argues that creative invention among humans occurs because of exchange...trade. "The rate of cultural and economic progress depends on the rate at which ideas are having sex."

So, if schools hope to keep up with the rate of change predicted for the 21st century, then we must create opportunities for greater exchange and trade of ideas among teachers. We must enable teachers to collaborate as a regular and expected mode of work. Let's practice what we know to be best practice. What if we re-imagined the egg-crate and nested the eggs together? What if schools were structured so that teachers could exhange ideas and creatively innovate for educating 21st century learners? Schools might lead the change of the future, rather than struggling to keep pace.