My learning & Leading Journey: as a metaphor
What do you get if you take:
What you get is this: a well cultivated, growing greenhouse of powerful ideas and plans for the digital classroom-- both my own classroom and beyond. |
The road goes ever on...
I am so grateful for the journey, and this program. I was a reluctant participant in the beginning, very clear on how fabulous it would be to participate in the teacher coding camps and to hold the summer coding camps for students, but that this additional post-grad work wasn't what I'd planned on or bargained for. I wasn't seeking the credit hours or sure how I'd pay the tuition. Luckily, many of us who got to experience the teacher camps (which were built on self-directed learning). We saw firsthand a glimpse of the journey that we could embark on, and after the initial build of our EPs, where we outlined our Innovation Plan, we already had that momentum, so when given the chance to continue this program, it was just too good of an opportunity to decline.
I believe students already have their own ideas, and as educators, it's our job to nourish them and help them find ways to bring those ideas to life in the digital world through Significant Learning Environments. My class is built on that concept, but I never articulated it before this program. This work has helped me to distill my beliefs, strategies, and thoughts in such a powerful way.
I believe that as teachers, we are all still learning. This is not the end, but just a really incredible milestone. We should all be proud of the work we've accomplished this year, in a global pandemic, when we all had to relearn how to teach in so many ways. And still, we pressed forward, asked questions, researched our theories, and learned and refined new strategies. We are all better teachers than we were this time last year, for two reasons: the nature of the pandemic and remote learning, AND this program, which provided all of us a personal learning network.
I am so grateful for the journey, and this program. I was a reluctant participant in the beginning, very clear on how fabulous it would be to participate in the teacher coding camps and to hold the summer coding camps for students, but that this additional post-grad work wasn't what I'd planned on or bargained for. I wasn't seeking the credit hours or sure how I'd pay the tuition. Luckily, many of us who got to experience the teacher camps (which were built on self-directed learning). We saw firsthand a glimpse of the journey that we could embark on, and after the initial build of our EPs, where we outlined our Innovation Plan, we already had that momentum, so when given the chance to continue this program, it was just too good of an opportunity to decline.
I believe students already have their own ideas, and as educators, it's our job to nourish them and help them find ways to bring those ideas to life in the digital world through Significant Learning Environments. My class is built on that concept, but I never articulated it before this program. This work has helped me to distill my beliefs, strategies, and thoughts in such a powerful way.
I believe that as teachers, we are all still learning. This is not the end, but just a really incredible milestone. We should all be proud of the work we've accomplished this year, in a global pandemic, when we all had to relearn how to teach in so many ways. And still, we pressed forward, asked questions, researched our theories, and learned and refined new strategies. We are all better teachers than we were this time last year, for two reasons: the nature of the pandemic and remote learning, AND this program, which provided all of us a personal learning network.
Roselinde Torres suggests so many innovative things in not only how we think about leadership, but also how we can all be more effective leaders ourselves.
She asks if we're courageous enough to abandon the past. This is a fascinating idea, because I think it could certainly set us free from old habits and ways of doing things. It's the classic: "I don't know 'why,' it's just the way we've ALWAYS done things" kind of thinking that can be so detrimental to true change. I wonder if there's a both/and approach though, that might be yet another path... I wonder if we couldn't hold onto the valuable lessons we've learned over the years, while still forging new methods, ways and projects. I've been a teacher since 2000, and I think this has certainly been my mindset over the past few years. Some things we should absolutely leave behind, no question. But I think we risk something in throwing off every aspect of our previous work, without retaining the lessons we've learned. It's our charge to create significant learning environments for our students, through the COVA model. But even that model was refined over time as teachers experienced effective strategies in the digital classroom. Let's ask the hard questions as we move forward, including what we need to change and what we need to keep, while constantly refining through the iterative process. Here's to the next chapter... |
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One Surprising outcome after teaching in a pandemic
I used to think teaching was one of the hardest jobs out there. Don't get me wrong: it's fun, challenging and incredibly gratifying. But not easy. Teachers juggle an incredible amount of varied demands, with very little pay. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a teacher shortage.
Now I realize teaching isn't the hardest job.... It's teaching during a pandemic.
Take everything we did before as teachers, and add in:
Anyone currently in the classroom knows these struggles. Even many people outside the classroom know these struggles. In fact, after sitting in on Zoom classes with their own kids or attempting to home-school their kids, parents are more appreciative and respectful of teachers than ever before. Parents may say to themselves, "Wow, I had no idea this is tough. It's hard enough to teach my own two kids. I can't imagine a classroom of 30, and without the ability to threaten to take away screentime." To those parents, I say, "Yes! You nailed it." This is clearer picture for them of our daily work, and I hope that picture stays with our communities at large, because it's this kind of perspective that will ideally lead to pay increase for teachers.
So that's one thing that's positive that's come out of teaching during a pandemic-- some newly found admiration and respect from our community.
But it occurred to me last week that there's something else that we can take away from this crazy year. I think it's fair to say that every single one of us is a better teacher now than we were last year. Let's keep doing the good work, keep fighting that good fight. It's all worth it. Our kids are worth it.
Now I realize teaching isn't the hardest job.... It's teaching during a pandemic.
Take everything we did before as teachers, and add in:
- a majority of students joining the class through Zoom, along with tech hurdles on Zoom, plus any other new platforms, apps, websites, devices, etc.
- the necessary (but frequently annoying) 8-hours of mask-wearing
- how to help your in-person students with their work while maintaining a 6-foot distance (spoiler: not possible)
- keeping your anxiety at bay in a world of unknowns
- taking proactive steps toward getting vaccinated as soon as possible
- keeping your students on task during lessons while supporting their mental health
- staying healthy and supporting your own mental health
Anyone currently in the classroom knows these struggles. Even many people outside the classroom know these struggles. In fact, after sitting in on Zoom classes with their own kids or attempting to home-school their kids, parents are more appreciative and respectful of teachers than ever before. Parents may say to themselves, "Wow, I had no idea this is tough. It's hard enough to teach my own two kids. I can't imagine a classroom of 30, and without the ability to threaten to take away screentime." To those parents, I say, "Yes! You nailed it." This is clearer picture for them of our daily work, and I hope that picture stays with our communities at large, because it's this kind of perspective that will ideally lead to pay increase for teachers.
So that's one thing that's positive that's come out of teaching during a pandemic-- some newly found admiration and respect from our community.
But it occurred to me last week that there's something else that we can take away from this crazy year. I think it's fair to say that every single one of us is a better teacher now than we were last year. Let's keep doing the good work, keep fighting that good fight. It's all worth it. Our kids are worth it.
Coding Camp Journal
Here’s a peek inside my teacher coding camp experience.
Coding Camp Assignment -- Getting creative with loops
On one day of our coding camp, students explored loops in Garage Band on the iPads, creating their own original songs. Then students coded a Meebot to dance using Swift Playgrounds. They put it all together in a video that captured their robot dancing to the soundtrack of original music in Garage Band.
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Technology literacy in the digital age
To get a baseline reading, I took a tech literacy survey at the Digital Competence Wheel.
Here's my result:
Here's my result:
Pretty eye-opening! I always think of myself as excelling at content creation, especially with the creative focus of my graphic design and photography classes. But according to this profile, I'm stronger at communication and safety online. Both of those are essential and perhaps a prerequisite to successful content creation, when you think about it.
My results also included a list of recommendations and an overall total score which you can use to see where you're aiming to go next:
My results also included a list of recommendations and an overall total score which you can use to see where you're aiming to go next:
Here are a few more resources on Tech Literacy you may find interesting.
Alan November on the '$1000 Pencil' and Why Edtech Companies Aren’t Pushing the Envelope
Find the full Alan November interview here.
ISTE Standards for Students, Educators, Education Leaders, Computational Thinking, Coaches, Computer Science Educators, & Essential Conditions.
Alan November on the '$1000 Pencil' and Why Edtech Companies Aren’t Pushing the Envelope
Find the full Alan November interview here.
ISTE Standards for Students, Educators, Education Leaders, Computational Thinking, Coaches, Computer Science Educators, & Essential Conditions.
Growth Mindset
the power of YET.
What is a fixed mindset vs. a growth mindset? In a fixed mindset, a person doesn't believe change is possible, and in a growth mindset, a person believes that change may not be easy, but it can, and will happen.
In the image on the right, a scan shows activity in the brain while children encounter errors. Processing the error is shown in red. According to Carol Dweck, these images reveal what is happening in the brain for students as they "process the error, deeply learn from it and correct it."
Response & Questions Dweck's work examines what we're focusing on as we teach. Recent education practice has pointed students toward getting A's, passing tests and being rewarded, but how well does that serve students after they leave the classroom? Is it more valuable to learn something in a process, even if it takes awhile? Even if you're not successful the first time-- or the second? Have we been shortchanging our students and their own longterm learning by not allowing them the chance to "fail forward" and therefore, the opportunity for life-long, perhaps more authentic learning? What Teachers Can Do Today Dweck challenges teachers to think about how we praise students. When possible, praise a student's process, hard work, strategies, focus and perseverance. As a result, students begin to welcome a challenge and value their own resilience. It may be easier to praise a student's talent, intelligence or ability, but that doesn't serve them in the long-term and may result in them giving up more easily or accepting that they aren't naturally "good" at something, so why bother trying? One of my co-teachers shared an article with me back in 2007 called The Inverse Power of Praise, which also references Dweck's work in this field. "I love a challenge." I remember saying that sentence quite candidly at an interview I had in 2002. The job was to teach at a Title 1 middle school campus in Austin ISD that was being reconstituted. That means that every single teacher was either a new hire or a returning teacher who was re-interviewing for their job. After many years of failing test scores, the state was forcing the district to start over with this campus. I knew it would be difficult, but I had no idea what that would really mean. Luckily, I've always had a positive, tenacious spirit (due in large part to being raised in the military, I think). When I said I loved a challenge, I must've meant it because I stayed at that campus for 11 years, teaching ELA for five years and then continuing in the role of an instructional coach for six more years. Growth mindset was something I had before I knew what to call it. It may have been the reason I got that job, but more importantly, it's the reason I stayed so long. Updated...Distance learning since the Covid-19 closures has truly tested the reserves of my Growth Mindset.
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Moser, Schroder, Heeter, Lee & Moran, 2011.
Carol Dweck on Developing a Growth Mindset (9:37)
Eduardo Briceno on the Power of Belief (10:51)
Hungry for more?
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As a teacher, I have the same personality traits I had as a child: tenacity, creativity, positivity. I think those three character traits impact my Growth Mindset, because they tell me that I can do something if I keep trying, that an unseen outcome is possible, that it's good to try something in a new way, and by the end of it all, I will feel at the least, OK, or at the best, fully grateful, about the process.
Shifting to 100% digital classrooms through distance learning was a necessary evil, but it has only revealed the value of true blended learning, which I can't wait to get back to. My students do better when the work is challenging but supported, and many of them feel unsupported through 100% distance learning. Accessibility will always be an issue. The disparities in privilege are most keenly felt by those who are on the other side of the divide.
Additionally, the time I have gained back from certain tasks as a teacher has gone directly into tech support for my students. Zoom wasn't built with 12-year olds in mind. One thing is for sure, we are seeing that no system is perfect.
For me, I want to take the positive aspects of this experience into the fall with me, assuming we go back to *normal* school. If we continue distance learning, I'll have to be prepared that it will look even different than it does now, because this was a stop-gap or patch job on how to complete the end of the school year in whatever way we could, and intentionally setting out to spend a year in distance learning will and should look different. But the good news is, we'll know a lot more then than we know now.
And we are teachers.... We will always find a way to make things work.
New Culture of Learning.
It is obvious that teaching is a very special art, sharing with only two other arts: agriculture and medicine. A doctor may do many things for his patient, but in the final analysis, it is the patient himself who must get well, grow in health. The farmer does many things for his plants or animals, but in the final analysis, it is they that must grow in size and excellence. Similarly, although the teacher may help his student in many ways, it is the student himself who must do the learning. Knowledge must grow in his mind if learning is to take place.
Mortimer Adler
The key takeaway here is that the onus is on the student. The teacher's work is to supply the most nurturing environment, develop engaging lessons, provide anchors of support and multiple points of entry through differentiation, allow their students to forge their own paths and be flexible to support those journeys.
Passion, imagination, and constraint.
These things work together to synthesize learning. The fundamental ingredient that combines these three is play. Douglas Thomas defines play as "an emergent property of the application of rules to the imagination." It's worth noting that learning is most dynamic when passion, imagination and constraint are in balance. When there are too many constraints or roadblocks, teachers, who are human and became teachers for human reasons, will have a human reaction, which is to become disheartened.
The problem with the test.
Over the last 18 years in education, I've watched firsthand as standardized testing has sapped the imagination and creativity from teachers and their lessons, devaluing innovation or divergent ideas for both teachers and students. In my second year of teaching, back in 2001, I had a conversation with a friend's 16-year-old daughter who was enrolled at the time in a private high school. She didn't have to take the STARR (at the time, it was the TAKS) test, which blew my mind. I asked her how she would be evaluated, if there wasn't a standardized test. She said that every student picked a topic that interested them, and then they spent a year studying and learning about. They would create a report, presentation or some other kind of cumulative project at the end of the spring semester to show their distilled learning, and include their own reflections. She said this was the most powerful thing she'd done, and that as a result of this project, she'd seen her own friends choose their future career paths or areas of study in college. This kind of approach to testing is revolutionary, and this was 18 years ago! The biggest hurdle this kind of test would represent is that teachers (or groups of teachers) would have to evaluate all those projects, and they'd have to use a rubric to do so. They couldn't just easily run a bubble sheet through a scanner and get a metric. This will always be the challenge of qualitative versus quantitative, and just because quantitative is easier, doesn't mean it's best for students or for learning. In my own classroom, I've worked to take this kind of approach as much as possible. I always want my students to have voice and choice.
"FUN" shouldn't be a bad word.
Douglas Thomas challenges teachers by saying, "Our job is to create a context where we can cultivate imagination, where we can honor passion, and where we can help people connect their passions to the things that they need to learn." This represents a radical shift.
If you're a teacher, what kind of feedback are you getting from your students about your own approach and style? I receive little cards and notes from my students fairly frequently, but it wasn't until recently that I realized these little messages are unsolicited feedback I can use to measure my own work. They are my evaluations, even though they're not a part of my formal appraisal, but maybe they should be. Receiving a message like the one below confirms two things: that this student feels welcome and safe in my class based on the environment and my behavior, and that my lessons are engaging, or as this student said "fun." Which shouldn't be a bad word.
Passion, imagination, and constraint.
These things work together to synthesize learning. The fundamental ingredient that combines these three is play. Douglas Thomas defines play as "an emergent property of the application of rules to the imagination." It's worth noting that learning is most dynamic when passion, imagination and constraint are in balance. When there are too many constraints or roadblocks, teachers, who are human and became teachers for human reasons, will have a human reaction, which is to become disheartened.
The problem with the test.
Over the last 18 years in education, I've watched firsthand as standardized testing has sapped the imagination and creativity from teachers and their lessons, devaluing innovation or divergent ideas for both teachers and students. In my second year of teaching, back in 2001, I had a conversation with a friend's 16-year-old daughter who was enrolled at the time in a private high school. She didn't have to take the STARR (at the time, it was the TAKS) test, which blew my mind. I asked her how she would be evaluated, if there wasn't a standardized test. She said that every student picked a topic that interested them, and then they spent a year studying and learning about. They would create a report, presentation or some other kind of cumulative project at the end of the spring semester to show their distilled learning, and include their own reflections. She said this was the most powerful thing she'd done, and that as a result of this project, she'd seen her own friends choose their future career paths or areas of study in college. This kind of approach to testing is revolutionary, and this was 18 years ago! The biggest hurdle this kind of test would represent is that teachers (or groups of teachers) would have to evaluate all those projects, and they'd have to use a rubric to do so. They couldn't just easily run a bubble sheet through a scanner and get a metric. This will always be the challenge of qualitative versus quantitative, and just because quantitative is easier, doesn't mean it's best for students or for learning. In my own classroom, I've worked to take this kind of approach as much as possible. I always want my students to have voice and choice.
"FUN" shouldn't be a bad word.
Douglas Thomas challenges teachers by saying, "Our job is to create a context where we can cultivate imagination, where we can honor passion, and where we can help people connect their passions to the things that they need to learn." This represents a radical shift.
If you're a teacher, what kind of feedback are you getting from your students about your own approach and style? I receive little cards and notes from my students fairly frequently, but it wasn't until recently that I realized these little messages are unsolicited feedback I can use to measure my own work. They are my evaluations, even though they're not a part of my formal appraisal, but maybe they should be. Receiving a message like the one below confirms two things: that this student feels welcome and safe in my class based on the environment and my behavior, and that my lessons are engaging, or as this student said "fun." Which shouldn't be a bad word.
Authentic learning & Outcomes-based Education
COVA stands for Choice + Ownership + Voice + Authenticity, and can be combined with a Significant Learning Environment, or SLE, can be a powerful model in today's classroom.
When I studied Bloom's Taxonomy in college, at that time, the top tier was Evaluating, and I have to admit that I always felt frustrated by that. Thank goodness we now have an updated model, which recognizes the divergent, authentic "real world" assessment value of creating!
When I studied Bloom's Taxonomy in college, at that time, the top tier was Evaluating, and I have to admit that I always felt frustrated by that. Thank goodness we now have an updated model, which recognizes the divergent, authentic "real world" assessment value of creating!
I fully embrace the challenge of having my students create their own projects every single week for both my graphic design class and my photography class. So many students excel in a model whereby they first learn or reference some kind of background/context for a project, brainstorm their own ideas, learn or practice the tools necessary, draft, edit/revise and complete a final version of their work. It's been an effective model that replicates the creative process and falls naturally within the course of a week.
My students have lots of voice, ownership and choice within the bounds of each project, but this next year, in year two of our initiative, I'd like to go one step further and have students think of their own projects that they want to create. In middle school, we will always have students who say "I don't know," but that shouldn't be the reason we stop pushing. For every student who may say "I don't know what I want to create," there will be ten others who have brilliant ideas for projects beyond the scope of what I could have imagined. I think it would be appropriate for students to select their own project at the end of a semester, when they have lots of tools and knowledge in the content of either graphic design or photography.
Maybe disruptive learning can best happen when it disrupts the teacher's original plan or vision. Letting go of that control can be a little scary and certainly challenging to assess, but I think of nothing more powerful for both my students and me in terms of authentic learning.
Moving students along this continuum is critical to how I see my own success. How do we move students who are compliant to being actively engaged? Once there, how we do move students from engagement to being empowered? It might be the difference between a good class and a great one, a good teacher and a great one. I say: let's go for the gold.
My students have lots of voice, ownership and choice within the bounds of each project, but this next year, in year two of our initiative, I'd like to go one step further and have students think of their own projects that they want to create. In middle school, we will always have students who say "I don't know," but that shouldn't be the reason we stop pushing. For every student who may say "I don't know what I want to create," there will be ten others who have brilliant ideas for projects beyond the scope of what I could have imagined. I think it would be appropriate for students to select their own project at the end of a semester, when they have lots of tools and knowledge in the content of either graphic design or photography.
Maybe disruptive learning can best happen when it disrupts the teacher's original plan or vision. Letting go of that control can be a little scary and certainly challenging to assess, but I think of nothing more powerful for both my students and me in terms of authentic learning.
Moving students along this continuum is critical to how I see my own success. How do we move students who are compliant to being actively engaged? Once there, how we do move students from engagement to being empowered? It might be the difference between a good class and a great one, a good teacher and a great one. I say: let's go for the gold.
John Spencer, Making the Shift from Student Engagement to Student Empowerment.
Summary & Reflections
What a year. As I look back, I can see that this experience with Apple and Lamar has been an unexpected gift. It's forced me to refine not only my teaching practice, but my thinking as a teacher.
Being pushed through the process of keeping tabs on my learning and documenting it here in one place has also been incredibly valuable. It has helped me to distill my thoughts down and defend my own approaches and choices in the classroom. I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn something new, even the chance to fail, which means I'm in a new zone of discovery. I'm grateful for the chance to work through my own fears about *coding* and see how I can bring my students new resources and tools to create content of their own. Teaching from home during the unprecedented school closures has provided its own bank of lessons. |
I always prided myself on my boundaries between school life and personal life. A few examples: I didn't check email after school hours or on the weekend. I didn't have my school email or messaging apps like Teams set up on my phone, or use personal apps like Netflix or social media like Facebook on my school computer. I didn't even like to make home phone calls for students from my cellphone, but preferred to use my classroom phone.
Here's the thing. I am extremely privileged. To do all of that means I have my own access and my own devices. Which is fine, but it doesn't prove anything. Teaching from home during Covid-19 means zero boundaries. My classroom is currently set up in my craft room. Once again, I'm privileged enough to have a whole separate room dedicated just to creating. Lots of teachers I know are working and teaching from their dining room tables, patios or sofas. None of that is bad. It's just what is required.
I want to say at the end of all this, What's most important? What did I do to help my students have an authentic learning experience? What did they gain or learn out of all of this? What did I learn? Maybe we don't even fully know yet. One thing is for sure: I feel like more of a teacher than I've felt in a long time. Because we've shown that in a matter of days, we could regroup and pivot to change the entire vehicle of a traditional classroom or school. We do it for one reason: our students.
Here's the thing. I am extremely privileged. To do all of that means I have my own access and my own devices. Which is fine, but it doesn't prove anything. Teaching from home during Covid-19 means zero boundaries. My classroom is currently set up in my craft room. Once again, I'm privileged enough to have a whole separate room dedicated just to creating. Lots of teachers I know are working and teaching from their dining room tables, patios or sofas. None of that is bad. It's just what is required.
I want to say at the end of all this, What's most important? What did I do to help my students have an authentic learning experience? What did they gain or learn out of all of this? What did I learn? Maybe we don't even fully know yet. One thing is for sure: I feel like more of a teacher than I've felt in a long time. Because we've shown that in a matter of days, we could regroup and pivot to change the entire vehicle of a traditional classroom or school. We do it for one reason: our students.