Education is smack in the middle of an earth swell of change. No matter how hard the system tries to maintain a rigid set of evaluative assessments, something has to give. Otherwise, we will lose too many teachers over restrictions, and worse, too many young people who know that outside of school the freedom to learn, experiment, and create exists.
Source: ASIDE, 2015
Sure, we know that the fundamentals of reading and writing are key to understanding complex information. We are not advocates for throwing the baby out with the bath water. But perhaps the recent change in Finland to dump teaching subjects in favor of topics should send shockwaves through a system that constantly tries to reinvent itself with nothing more than new standards.
While we know that schools are not businesses, we also know that the insights Stefanovich tries to bring to companies apply to any institution with the desire to promote innovative thinking. His ideas and concepts cross over into any discipline. His fundamental formula:
I + C = I, or Inspiration + Creativity = Innovation
This equation also applies to education. We seek to inspire our learners to use creative thinking to come up with innovative ideas; likewise, we hope to do the same with our approach to teaching.
To inspire others is, after all, why we teach. We rely on inspiration as the fuel for engagement. Just like a business, we want to encourage an environment of productivity for learners. To do this, we can no longer sacrifice inspiration for efficiency.
Source: ASIDE, 2015
The framework behind LAMSTAIH includes five key drivers, including mood, mindset, mechanisms, measurement, and momentum to push the thinking and change the behavior in order to extract new ideas.
The concept behind each “M” not only provides a way for leadership to look at the needs of an institution, but it also helps to promote innovative ways of teaching and learning. Educational conversations circle around many of the same ideas.
So perhaps we could learn a thing or two by looking at more, including the insightful description of the three kinds of curators mentioned the book. On the one hand we have the traditionalist, who is the keeper of objects with the role of making sure that people of the future benefit from the collection of knowledge, and the Zeitgeist curator, who captures the essence of today and connects it to the not too distant future. This sounds like the role of the teacher. And then there is the hunter-gatherer curator, who constantly searches for anything that interests him or her and shares it with the world. Sound familiar? This represents most of the learners we teach.
Source: ASIDE, 2015
So where are teachers and learners as curators? More importantly, where do we want to be? At the moment, many educators are in the middle, yet our students outside of school are hunting and gathering.
Life-long learning is far more like the migrating hunter-gatherer, and technology has opened that door. We need to harness that energy, that inspiration, and that understanding of the power of connections to explore ideas. We can’t keep kids from exploring, connecting, and learning; we want them to be inspired, creative, and innovative.
We’re in the midst of our fifth season working with our elementary students on the entrepreneur project-based learning unit. Even with the flexibility in our curriculum to teach, we still find that each year it gets harder to get kids to extend themselves, to take a risk, and to dare to be different.
Not that a car commercial could change all that, but lucky for us, Cadillac launched its new ads during the Academy Awards to promote its latest luxury sedan. In all four commercials, the last frame appears with the line:
“Only those who dare drive the world forward.”
We wrote it on the board without the credit line. Surprisingly, kids, teachers, and even some administrators who visited the classroom remarked about the statement. Of course, we then gave credit to Cadillac. By not associating the carmaker with the word “drive,” it changed the interpretation of the quote, making it a far more powerful statement about human motivation.
Most of our students didn’t realize that the carmaker was a 112-year-old company, nor that the association with the word “dare” represented a company not afraid to reinvent itself by making connections with other innovators such as fashion designer Jason Wu, “Boyhood” director Richard Linklater, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. It even promoted the social media connection with its #DareGreatly hashtag. Needless to say, it became our mantra for the spring. Those who dare to think, see, and do things differently change the way we think.
We piggybacked “The Daring, No Regrets” video from Cadillac with the motion graphic “What Is Innovation?”, designed by Rafa Galeano and written by Fast Company blogger David Brier. Brier’s post on the making of this video describes his own inspiration for the theme and the motivation to use his essay to make a motion graphic on innovation for others.
It provided our students with another view of how ideas, from the discovery of fire to their own electronic devices, came from the motivation of others who saw the potential in their creations.
Perhaps the last four lines of this video drive home the point we want our kids to understand:
"So what is innovation? Those other dots. The ones others miss. And having the certainty to know that the dots you see are not only valid, but necessary if the world is to move forward."
Providing opportunities for students to see the potential of others driven by need, or a desire, helps them to let go, to dare. We want them to not only see the possibilities of being an entrepreneur, but also to embrace the notion that it can be a reality. That’s when we showed them 11-year-old Lily Born’s Kangaroo Cup. That made the most impact on the kids and their ideas.
Lily wanted to build a better cup to help her grandfather who has Parkinson's disease. Lily's advice to fellow pre-teen entrepreneurs actually applies to all ages: "Don’t freak out if you screw up or fail, because you’ll fail a lot before you get it right." She also says, "Don't be afraid to ask for help." She used her ingenuity to rethink how best to change an ordinary cup to help others. She dared to make a change and never gave up on her idea. This video made an impact on the students.
With a little ingenuity, Lily redesigned an ordinary cup to function for someone with special needs. More importantly, she started making prototypes at the age of eight. It took three years and plenty of iterations before going to market.
Creativity takes time, and it’s not a simply "point and click." Cultivating that initial idea remains the hardest part for our young entrepreneurs. We push them to think beyond the craft kit, bake sale, or carnival game. Frustration often sets in because immediate gratification isn’t the name of the game. It takes hard work, failure, and perseverance.
Accepting feedback, or a simple, "no, that idea won’t work," sends some off in tears. They come back. Some build a prototype to prove their idea works, some return with a new iteration based on an earlier model, and others completely scrap an idea for a new one. Great! This is exactly what we want. We only have a semester, not three years, but nudging them out of their comfort zones is all part of the process. And sometimes, it’s not an easy thing for many a 10 year-old.
Steering learners away from
settling on the status quo forces them to see the potential of taking a chance on their ideas.
Dare to be different, dare to take a risk, and dare greatly. As
educators, we believe it will foster their entrepreneurial spirit for a
lifetime.
Perhaps only an EdCamp could inspire educators to dedicate a September Saturday to vigorous professional development. Despite the bustle of back-to-school work — and the ache to cling to summer's penultimate weekend — several hundred teachers and parents convened yesterday for the inaugural EdCamp Long Island event at the Willets Road School in Roslyn Heights, NY.
Following the mold of the EdCamp movement, this “unconference” featured a roster of organically generated sessions. Rather than being tethered to a prefab schedule of speakers, participants at #EdCampLI could join conversations posted by like-minded souls on a wall-size chart of sticky note suggestions.
Not surprisingly, many of the workshops centered around technology. We were intrigued by Voxer in its combination of voice, text, and photos. We were also excited to try TodaysMeet as an easy backchannel for student questions and feedback. Our two favorite sessions, however, had little to do with edtech and everything to do with communication and leadership.
The meeting about “Transformational Leadership In The 21st Century School" with Dr. Sheilah (@docsheilah) demonstrated a host of tried and true ideas built around the philosophy that just because it’s always been done one way, it doesn’t mean you can’t step back and rethink the purpose. Imagine faculty meetings where the administrators make their own simple “TED” style talks to promote discussions, or an a la carte menu of meeting topics from which teachers get to choose. This forward-thinking approach made it clear that in this type of school, the administrators model the concept of "lead learners."
The round-table discussion on “Fostering 2 Way School-Home Communication” gathered thoughtful teachers and parents who were genuinely motivated (and at times frustrated) in getting school constituencies on the same page. The small-group seminar was organized by principal Dennis Schug (@DJrSchug) of Hampton Bays, NY, and parent Gwen Pescatore (@gpescatore25) of Philadelphia, PA (and #PTchat). The unstructured confab yielded honest questions about the most efficient technologies for communication and the barriers to inclusivity in PTO meetings. There were also creative strategies to welcome non-English-speaking families and adults intimidated by social media.
In fact, the day’s free-flowing learning made us realize that regular faculty meetings could be better structured like an EdCamp. They could involve authentic colloquies spawned from the bottom-up. They could welcome differentiated dialogues initiated by teachers themselves, rather than administrative decrees.
Even more, our classrooms could become miniature EdCamps. We could do more to solicit interest from the students themselves, to invite direction based on kids’ curiosities and passions. Our daily lessons could embrace the messy beginnings of finding a path and honing an objective. In the end, we would probably still nurture the same key skill sets. But we would reach our goals by letting the children themselves scribble post-it notes of wonder and glom onto subjects that matter not to us, but to them.
If you were unable to attend, here is the Google Doc of session notes from Saturday. Also, the hashtag #EdCampLI captured all of the lively exchanges and resources. Many thanks to the organizers who staged yesterday's event, and we look forward to EdCampLI 2.0 next year.
(This is Part Two in a two-part series about the expectations of
learning relationships. Please check our previous post in Part One: "5 Things Students Expect From Their Teachers.")
More and more in recent years, we've started referring to the kids in our classes as "learners" rather than "students." It began unintentionally but became more and more frequent. We gradually realized that the relationship between learner and educator is not always the same as between student and teacher. As we explored earlier in the "5 Things Students Expect From Their Teachers," we are shaping our goals for new school year, and we're trying to consider an even more nuanced connection between any learner and his or her guide.
A learner is someone who seeks knowledge, who solicits professional development, who values links from a Twitter PLN, or who watches YouTube videos to hone a skill. Employees and entrepreneurs, welders and poets all further themselves by seeking insights from a trusted specialist. Any interaction that results in greater understanding or proficiency forges a learner/educator bond.
The word "learner" suggests an open-mindedness and a self-initiation. The word "student," however, implies a hierarchy. It defines a status, where one is the instructor and the other is the pupil. This difference is akin to actively enrolling in a class versus being at the mercy of a class. It is the difference between training and tutelage, between aficionado and authority.
We’ve all experienced the letdown of learning, whether at disappointing conferences or half-hearted meetings. As both educators and life-long learners, therefore, we want to make every effort to cultivate scholarship by aligning realistic expectations.
What do learners expect from their educators?
Expertise
Any learner who willingly admits that they do not know something is relying on the expertise of the person at the podium or the webcam. A genuine educator needs a reflexive, virtuoso mastery of the content, so they can then focus on the complicated business of information delivery. Their prowess should be evident and even taken for granted, so the learners can feel safe. Novices can know they won't be led astray or put to the mercy of someone bluffing through sessions in exchange for a paycheck.
Clearly Delineated Goals
To march hand-in-hand with a coach means that there should be targeted, mutually agreed upon goals. Physical therapists and personal trainers know this, but sometimes traditional classrooms or webinars avoid this crisp delineation in favor of generalized discussion. Jointly designed benchmarks and precise assessments can ensure that every moment matters. For both adult learners and middle schoolers, a specific end is critical to seeing a process through with motivation.
Mentorship
Hesitation and insecurity are natural byproducts of learning. Coming to grips with a difficult skill often requires asking for help. In this confession, the apprentice hopes for a mentor's empathy. Mentorship means partnership. A mentor's role is one part confidante and another part older sibling. It involves the sharing of wisdom and the patience of listening. Even in a crowded classroom, a teacher can try to remember this counseling, advising mindset that lets every learner feel heard.
Feedback
Feedback is perhaps the most difficult thing to give and, therefore, the rarest dynamic in learning. Authentic feedback takes time. It requires a bias-free, assumption-free language to offer constructive advice. Knee-jerk criticism and empty praise are not feedback. In fact, they do more harm than good. Feedback is one-to-one, honest, actionable input about what went well, what didn't, and what steps can be taken to go forward.
Deftness With Necessary Tools
A valued educator needs a fluency with the most apt resources for his or her field. Even a talented professional will draw skepticism if he can't nimbly negotiate the tools of his trade. A chef with a sophisticated palate will still be circumspect if she can't effectively wield her knives. An architect with a revolutionary design will still invite worry if he couldn't safely construct his home. This agility refers both to the latest instruments and the time-honored implements. We can't force children to use typewriters just because we did when we were their age.
As the summer is winding down, we’ve begun mapping out the first few weeks of classes in September and also sketching out our goals for the new school year. This planning has inspired us to reflect on our personal aspirations as professionals and life-long learners. It occurs to us to ask if there’s a difference between a “student” and a “learner,” between a “teacher” and an “educator.”
Teachers want their students to be responsible and curious. They expect their students to follow class rules and do their homework. But what about the reverse? What do students want from their teachers?
If we gave students a choice about which classes to attend each day, would they choose our subject? Would they view our pedagogical approach as worthwhile and interesting? A teacher’s job is not to be an entertainer, obviously. Gail Godwin’s quote, that “Teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater,” holds true only on a certain level. But the role of the teacher is undoubtedly to engage each child and inspire interest.
The partnership between student and teacher relies on expectations. When these needs are met, they create decades of learning and admiration. When unmet, however, they foment years of delay and resentment.
What do students expect from their teachers?
1. Moments Of Wonder
Students yearn to feel inspired by what they are learning. They want to know that their time in our classroom is worthwhile. Instances of surprise and enlightenment, even if brief, can make all the different in motivating children to explore and delve deeply. One "ah ha" moment is worth one hundred perfect test scores. Arousing astonishment and eliciting revelation are the hallmarks of a talented teacher. We want to give our students an intriguing tidbit to fill the conversation void when parents ask at the dinner table, "So, what did you learn at school today....?"
2. An Understanding Of Their World
Students, especially middle schoolers, will always look at their teachers with a charitable disdain for their patently uncool status. Adults, in their minds, have no idea what it's like to be a child today, and they couldn't possibly listen to the right music or wear the right clothes. Still, a teacher has a duty to figure out how to convey an understanding and an appreciation for children's worlds. This means being able to navigate pop culture and especially being deft with technology. Essentially, it means not alienating young eyes by being deliberately out of touch with what is important to them.
3. Mutual Trust
The most common complaint from students of any age is, "That's not fair!" The students are right. Too much homework and too difficult tests are not fair. Double standards with class rules and draconian punishments for misdemeanors are not fair. Fairness equates to trust. Trust means clear expectations. And sticking to these expectations is the best way to let students know that, no matter how hard the test is, they are well prepared and validated along the way. If students don't trust that we as teachers are going to keep our word, treat them with decency, and give them the benefit of the doubt, then they will tune out everything else we try to communicate.
4. A Bit Of Humor
The most critical element in creating a successful learning community is the mood of the class. What is the tone of the instructor's language? What is the tenor of the student-teacher relationship? Laughter is a key to keeping this mood light and productive. Even the toughest of teachers wins points from her students if she can crack an unexpected joke. Witty banter and a dose of silliness go a long way toward keeping children engaged. They make the minutes tick by with less tedium, and hopefully maybe even some anticipation.
5. A Lively Environment
The environment of the class is a close cousin to the mood. This atmosphere refers to both the physical space and the personality of the teacher. Is the room decorated in a visually stimulating style, with enriching posters and relevant student work? Is the layout lively and pleasing, and the design kid-friendly and complementary? Furthermore, is the temperament of the teacher upbeat and joyful, with a stimulating sense of optimism about the journey the child and the adult are about to take together?
An increasing refrain from various rungs of the educational ladder is that students are scared to take intellectual risks. Teachers note that pupils are reluctant to guess, to stretch themselves, or to experiment. Perhaps it's a consequence of the "praised" generation, when kids receive trophies for participation and adults shield adolescents from failure. By protecting them from disappointment, however, well-intentioned parents end up insulating children from the experience of trial-and-error. By differentiating just-right reading groups, well-meaning elementary schools end up barring learners from grappling with concepts or language.
Naomi Wolf lamented in The Guardian that "children raised this way are often very nice; but they are notably passive and indecisive." It's no wonder that entrepreneur fairs and maker spaces are sprouting up in schools. Institutions are now forced to "teach" what used to be called "growing up." The joy of tinkering, creating, and imagining have become sources of angst for a generation of safe learners.
Source: ASIDE 2013
The concern is that this hesitancy in intellectual risk will result in hesitancy in life. We've put together the diagram above to graph some of the issues we're wresting with in guiding our students. The different spectra on the "x" and "y" axes represent the different ways people respond to uncertainty and action. Hopefully, by making the dangers of standstill explicit, educators and parents can nudge their kids toward the development of opinions. They can learn to enjoy a cognitive gamble.
Educational
(click for larger version)
The classroom should be the incubator of ideas. In a safe learning environment, students can cultivate their own voices. They can wonder. They can make conjectures about cause-and-effect, and they can test hypotheses about future events. One of the glaring symptoms of youthful reluctance is a student's shrug when invited to express a point of view. There is nothing more dispiriting for a teacher when she asks, "Who is your favorite president?" and the child responds, "I don't know." Or when a teacher welcomes a student to draw a picture, and the child anxiously confesses, "I don't know what to draw." The worst-case scenario is that this nervousness about trying something new will lead to resistance to exciting opportunities or retreat from difficult situations.
Professional
If children rely on parents or teachers to tell them what to draw or to instruct them in every action, they enter their later years with a motivational delay. They aren't used to reaching their own goals, and this lack of initiative sets up lives without intent. Sometimes the most fulfilling life achievements demand taking chances. Becoming an astronaut or writing a blog requires a certain training and a degree of confidence. Young people who are diffident in aspiration don't leave school equipped with the tools to make plans.
Personal
Personal risks seem the least obvious but are actually the most crucial of life's ventures. If students are uncomfortable expressing themselves, how will they stand up for their own beliefs? How will they step outside of themselves and intervene on behalf of others? Outreach is the cure to being a bystander, but teenagers panicky about self-assertion may remain forever insular. If we want our children to be good citizens and defend their values, we need to nurture their self-confidence from the youngest ages.
All of these worries about taking chances remind us of the video called "Growing Up." Created by by Jorge R. Canedo Estrada, Kasey Lum, Marisa Tores, and Alexander Badr, this award-winning clip uses lively visuals to show that the world is not so scary after all. There's lots of excitement to look forward to, and we can help children take the step forward.
All parents want "enrichment" for their children. Kids, without knowing it, also crave enrichment, because it's the fun stuff, the hands-on exploratory stuff. Teachers, when they have the time and support, ache to offer students expansive investigations and motivating projects.
For many students, the classroom at times can seem dull, yet the Internet is their reliable playground. During recess, they huddle around laptops to watch YouTube videos, check sports highlights, and scope celebrity gossip. We admit that for us, the panoply of web media has taken on much the same enlightening distraction. The extraordinary graphics and nimble videos that we find via Twitter have filled our bookmarks and our evenings with professional wonder. Everyday we find something new that we want to share with our students. But when the realities of curricula, schedules, and assessments set in, we frequently can't find the "extra" time required to show supplemental maps or photographs or poems.
Because of all the captivating online creations, and because our students latch on to visual resources, our History and English teachers in grades 5 - 8 joined together to assemble a website of self-directed learning. We created a Humanities Enrichment Tumblr page. Anything helpful or fascinating that we come across and that our students might find intriguing, we post on our page. Tumblr proved to be the ideal platform for quick, constantly updated posts that scroll easily through the days.
The goal of any enrichment is to enhance learning or add nuance to quotidian ideas. This kind of self-guided enrichment, where students can click on pictures that grab their attention and skip elements that seem bland, is valuable for learners along the spectrum of academic achievement and capability. It also offers a wonderful outlet to inspire a distracted child or a "bored" student. Additionally, enrichment pages are ideal for letting parents know that we as teachers are excited about providing their children with dynamic complements to the school day.
We are strong believers in cross-curricular learning, so we teamed up with our English colleagues Gina Sipley and Barbara Thomas in cooperatively designing a joint page. We all want our students to recognize the intertwined nature of their Humanities studies. All four of us, therefore, post media about the blended worlds of social studies, language, geography, literature and cultural research.
Thanks to our favorite websites and our PLN, it's not hard to
find links to display. So far, we've been able
to post a new tidbit each school day. It's a great way to cultivate
collaboration among fellow faculty members and to learn from the exciting resources each person unearths.
Each of us maintains the page link at the top of homework assignments and/or class websites. It turns out our students check the page regularly. They frequently remark in class about a fiction contest or antique map or financial infographic that appeared during the prior evening. Sometimes the humanities posts connect directly to what they're learning in class, but just as often, the snippets relate to current events or quirky scholarship.
Please feel free to check out our Humanities Enrichment page for yourself. We've intentionally tried to keep it clean and simple and unassociated with any person or institution. Also, feel free to share it with your students. Because it features varied media such as animated clips, museum exhibits, and historical etchings, the page is hopefully relevant for any age group. Each item is something that caught our eye in the first place, so we think kids will find them curious as well.
What makes us do the things we do as teachers? Do we call it opportunity, responsibility, or motivation? Countless books, articles, and news reports look at the education system and question where the problem is with motivating students. Well, what about the teacher? We could argue that if we take away our passion for teaching, we in effect take motivation away from our students, too. Forced deadlines for units of study, scripted programs, and off-the-shelf “boxed” curricula leave little room for creativity. Teachers, like students, need to feel empowered to make choices to engage their learners in a more meaningful way.
Perhaps it is Daniel Pink’s latest book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and the subsequent referrals in a host of publications that prompted this post. For Pink, motivation is driven by mastery, autonomy and purpose (MAP). The power of incentives comes from within, which he calls intrinsic motivation, and not from extrinsic motivation, built around rewards. Guy Kawasaki, too, talks about these same ideas in his book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions. He refers to Pink’s MAP and the art of "enchanting down" in a work environment. If you have an enchanted employee, that employee radiates enjoyment and passion to the customer. Think about how this applies to education. If we had more enchanted teachers, wouldn't we have more enchanted learners?
As for the ASIDE blog, it grew out of our desire to infuse curriculum with new approaches to teaching and thinking through innovation design in education. Essentially, we were motivated by the idea that teachers, as well as students, could be motivated to “map” the way to change. Our drive for mastery, autonomy, and purpose reflect a similar drive for motivating teaching and learning. When teachers and students both share in designing the learning, they are motivated to take responsibility, seek opportunity, and desire more.
Motivation leads to action as questioning leads to awareness. We will better equip our students to participate as active citizens if we push them to make choices, encourage them to be selective, and engage them at all levels to participate in their own learning. Questioning is key, and it starts with "so what?"
Seven years ago, we started an eighth-grade independent research project affectionately known as the IRP. The objectives for the project were to create a sense of independence and self-direction for students in a limited time frame and to build on the inherent value of “choice” in students’ self-guided learning. It was the sense of choice that empowered them to feel motivated and passionate about what they were learning. The original IRP project focused on areas within the American History curriculum but has since evolved into the IRP World with an emphasis on global change. We have presented the elements of this project at both the National Council for the Social Studies (2009) and the National Middle School Association (2010).
Design: ASIDE, 2011
The success of the project is largely based on the power of choice. Students get to pick the topic for their learning, design how they want to orally present the information to their peers using technology tools such as Prezi, and create an engaging handout with select information as an overview for their classmates. There is a direct connection between choice and empowerment that we continually see in the effort and focus they give to this project. Without a doubt, the students are motivated by a sense of purpose. They see an opportunity to work autonomously and take the responsibility of independence seriously.
The article, “The Responsibility Breakthrough” by ReLeah Cossett Lent in Educational Leadership (ASCD September 2010), builds a case around the idea of motivating students through responsibility. The author cites the work of Australian educator Brian Cambourne who maintains that there are eight conditions for literacy development. One of them is responsibility. For Cambourne, learners who do not have control over making their own decisions become disempowered. Lent also refers to Daniel Pink’s latest book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, and here, too, she points out how Pink’s ideas about mastery, autonomy and purpose are the factors that create responsibility.
Design: ASIDE, 2011
The last component of the project, or the “so what?,” is not only the most important part of the process, but also the hardest part for our students to grapple with in their research. We want them to ask the question, “so what?” It is not the event itself that they report on, but its impact. How does it relate to change in that region of the world, whether societal, financial or otherwise? This project is not about straight reporting. Instead, it is built around the “so what?,” and they need to have this message clearly stated in their thesis.
In his work, “Encouraging Critically Engaged Citizens: So What?" (Independent School 2011), Mark Piechota pushes his students to develop the habit of questioning with the clear purpose of making engaged citizens who do not just passively accept issues as delivered by the media. Empowering students with the habit of asking “so what?” will ultimately help develop a keener sense of the world around them. Like Lent and Piechota, we want our students to take ownership over the design of their ideas and learning.
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