There's a group of freshmen boys that I try to check in with everyday. They all sit together for lunch at the same bench. They're sweet, funny, and curious. They sort of remind me of me as a freshman, though that's not why I check in with them. They're on the right path, and I guess me checking in daily is my way of ensuring that they stay on that path. We talk about all kinds of things, but the other day I walked over and one of them hit me with this:
"Kobe sucks."
I guess I should have inquired more, because for all I know he had a piece of overcooked meat the night before and was forever tainted. But I had a feeling what he meant, so I immediately engaged. "Define sucks." The others saw me jumping into the ring and gathered around to watch. Slowly I took the youngster's argument from, "Kobe sucks," to something more substantial, "Look at his shooting percentage, it's terrible." Okay then, "Define terrible."
We went back and forth for a while, with me not defending Kobe so much as I was working to get the young debater to base his arguments on facts and even validated opinion versus simple hyperbole. And he was PASSIONATE. I mean, we could have gone on for days. He got into why he believes LeBron is better than Kobe (I didn't let on that I actually agree) and that Jordan couldn't stop LeBron (I agreed here, pointing out that Jordan is 50 and definitely couldn't stop LeBron). I was a freshman in high school almost 25 years ago and I was having the same argument with my friends about Magic and Jordan. I was PASSIONATE! However, I was quite uninterested in school. Not that these boys are uninterested in school. Most of them are far better students than I was. But I don't think they're as passionate about school as they (or at least this one in particular) are about debating LeBron versus Kobe. Can we change that?
Not if we don't give them the chance to have their own ideas. Not if we don't allow them to experience the curriculum on their terms. Not if we talk at them instead of to them. Or even better we could talk very little at all and ask them questions that would get them doing the talking. Or even better we could teach them to ask the questions so that they'd have a genuine desire to go find the answers.
I came upon this website a while back and enjoyed one entry without looking around much more. Then I came upon it again recently and have been unable to pull myself away. What if school was more like this? What if we allowed kids to ask 'what if' and then dove in headfirst trying to figure out the answer? What if for homework we asked every kid to tweet a 'what if' question and then chose one and it became the focus for the week? How cool would that be?
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Monday, December 17, 2012
Reinvention
Take the phone, try to act as if it never existed. Now reinvent it. You might come up with this or this. The television? As a kid I could have never imagined this. The modern corporation? Oh yeah. But can the same be said for public education in America? If we were to completely reinvent it, pretending as if its genesis and subsequent evolution never happened, would the resulting reinvention still produce what we have today? I sure hope not.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a public educator and plan on being so for the rest of my working days. I just think we can be doing so much better.
Other than the fact that we talk into it and hear someone talking from the other end, in what ways is the phone today the same as its ancestor? The television? The first remote control that my family had came with a WIRE! And this was 60 years after its creation. Google? I just don't see the factories of the late 1700s having day care, free sushi for lunch, and playrooms. But the American school system is by and large the same as it ever was. Just ask Sir Ken Robinson. Why is this?
I have a theory...it's untested and based not whatsoever on research. Everything else I described above came to be because of the user. Phone users demanded a camera coupled with a calendar and an internet browser and a gazillion apps and a music player and unlimited texting. Watchers of television demanded flatter, crisper, 3D, streaming Netflix, a gazillion pixels. But school isn't created for the user. Not for today's users.
Today's users demand interaction, collaboration, stimulation. They demand opportunities to think and apply what is being learned to something that they can relate to. They demand change and movement. They crave compassion and want badly for their voices to be heard. But we're not listening.
There's so much talk today about reforming education. Let's take it a step further. Let's reinvent it.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a public educator and plan on being so for the rest of my working days. I just think we can be doing so much better.
Other than the fact that we talk into it and hear someone talking from the other end, in what ways is the phone today the same as its ancestor? The television? The first remote control that my family had came with a WIRE! And this was 60 years after its creation. Google? I just don't see the factories of the late 1700s having day care, free sushi for lunch, and playrooms. But the American school system is by and large the same as it ever was. Just ask Sir Ken Robinson. Why is this?
I have a theory...it's untested and based not whatsoever on research. Everything else I described above came to be because of the user. Phone users demanded a camera coupled with a calendar and an internet browser and a gazillion apps and a music player and unlimited texting. Watchers of television demanded flatter, crisper, 3D, streaming Netflix, a gazillion pixels. But school isn't created for the user. Not for today's users.
Today's users demand interaction, collaboration, stimulation. They demand opportunities to think and apply what is being learned to something that they can relate to. They demand change and movement. They crave compassion and want badly for their voices to be heard. But we're not listening.
There's so much talk today about reforming education. Let's take it a step further. Let's reinvent it.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
By-Products
One of my passions is learning about organizations that achieve success by focusing on something other than what the success is traditionally measured by. Examples:
- De La Salle Football, winningest high school football program in the history of the universe. They focus non-stop on commitment to and love for one's teammates. The traditional measure would be victories/championships.
- North Carolina Basketball (under Dean Smith). He focused on three things: Playing Hard, Playing Smart, Playing Together. Again, traditional measure would have been victories/championships.
- Apple. Focus on creating the most innovative, user-friendly technology. Traditional measure would be company profits and sales numbers.
Schools are measured against so many different parameters: test scores, average cumulative GPA of graduating classes, number of graduates attending 4-year universities, etc. But ultimately my belief is that a school, like the organizations I mentioned above, could and would achieve any traditionally measured success if they'd just focus relentlessly on deeper underlying principles. I just can't figure out what the heck they are. Until now. The other day, one finally hit me.
High Expectations.
May not seem like much, but it's a philosophy, a belief. Something that we can all control no matter what the circumstances. Doesn't matter if a kid has personal issues, comes from a crappy background, if our classroom has too many kids, if our projector isn't working. We can focus relentlessly on holding ourselves and our students to high expectations. And we can define what high expectations means to us. What do high expectations look like in my classroom? In yours? In our collaboration? On our sports fields? In our weekly admin meetings?
But that's only one. I need a few more. Thoughts?
Thursday, October 25, 2012
WASC
This past Sunday through Wednesday I spent time at a high school on a WASC visit. WASC stands for Western Association of Schools and Colleges and it is one of six regional accrediting associations in the United States. My role was to serve on a team that read and discussed a school's self-study, verified that what was stated in the report was actually happening on the campus, and offered feedback. My team recommended to WASC a term for accreditation and WASC makes the final decision.
A few of the teachers at the school asked me why I do it and my answer is simple. I do it because I want to learn. The WASC organization says that serving on a visiting committee is one of the best professional development opportunities around and I completely agree. A few years back an assistant principal suggested I serve on a visiting committee and now I've been on three: two full visits and one that was a one-day revisit.
It's an amazing process. The school being visited goes through an extensive reflection period, thoroughly looking at its entire program. A report is compiled, the previously mentioned self-study. The WASC visiting team then reads the self-study and meets for the first time on Sunday afternoon to discuss, share thoughts, and develop a schedule. Beginning later Sunday afternoon and continuing throughout Wednesday the visiting team:
- visits classrooms
- meets with parent groups
- meets with site leadership (department heads, administrative team)
- visits classrooms
- meets with focus area groups (school governance, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and school culture)
- meets with student groups (leadership, an "ad-hoc" group where the visiting team selects students to get a decent snapshot of the student population as a whole)
- meets the support staff
- meets the counselors
- visits classrooms
- meets district folks and board members
...all the while discussing, reflecting, asking questions, answering questions. It's awesome.
As a full-time educator, and when I say full-time I'm not just referring to my contracted time but implying that for the most part I live and breathe my work, it's tough to find the time to step back reflect on my practice. WASC affords me the time away from work to do this, but to do it in an action-research setting. I'm reflecting on my work and my school and our progress by thoroughly examining another institution. By no means does that entail comparison. It's not at all about comparing the school I'm visiting with the school I'm at or any other school I've been to or worked for. It just helps, when reflecting on my work, to be immersed in the environment of work but not at my site. In those three days I see and hear and discuss so much. It would be impossible not to learn from that.
Additionally I get to spend time with other passionate educators. On this visit there were eight of us: a retired principal, an assistant superintendent of HR, two high school principals, two teachers, one counselor, and myself. Get that many inspired educators together examining an institution and some serious learning is bound to happen!
All in all it's a fantastic experience and I recommend any educator who is interested in improving join a WASC team.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Start With Grading
To increase student learning, start with grading.
The conversation about grading has many entry points, but get the conversation going. What does an A in World History represent? What does a D represent? Have those discussions and DO NOT take them lightly. Too much depends on it.
We're both applying for admission to Stanford. Nearly EVERYTHING about our applications are identical: good grades, extracurricular activities, obstacles overcome, leadership demonstrated. But I got a C+ in Calculus and you got a B+. You get accepted. But why?
Turns out your Calculus teacher incorporated things like classroom participation and homework completion into his grading policies. You barely had a "basic" understanding of the concepts within the Calculus curriculum. But you turned in every homework assignment, went in for extra tutoring, always raised your hand in class. I, on the other hand, had a teacher who utilized Standards Based Grading. My grade was (as close as possible to) 100% indicative of my mastery of the concepts. Homework completion and classroom participation had no bearing whatsoever on my grade. Simply what I learned and did not learn. My C+ had me on the borderline between a basic understanding and a proficient one. But you got accepted because some admissions counselor at Stanford had to trust your teacher over mine.
So grades matter a lot. But more importantly they drive what we teach and how we teach it. If we value the effort our students are making to learn we choose to assess them based strictly on whether or not they have demonstrated their knowledge and skills. We take the time to create grading procedures that are a clear indication and reflection of knowledge and ability. We are concerned about the students not only in our classroom but those in the classroom next to us, and in the classroom in the state next to ours. Because we want all students to have a fair chance to compete for the college/career of their choice. So we sit with colleagues and ask them about their grading policies, and what concepts they are going to teach this year, and how they will teach those concepts so that the kids will learn, and how they will assess that learning.
Then we create assessments that enable and empower and inform our students. We see them not just as potential receivers of knowledge but as co-creators of their education. We know that our assessments must provide them with information about where they are weak and where they are strong. We allow for multiple avenues of assessment because we understand that different people learn (and demonstrate that learning) in very different ways. And this leads us to talk more; to our students, to our colleagues, to our coaches. We want to do better for our kids. They become our partners in this journey. We become dedicated to doing better for them.
Slowly our pacing becomes common with others in our department, in our district, and in our state. We see that it would be a disservice to give any less to our students than what they deserve. We start to blog and tweet and share best practices for instruction, collaborative learning, formative assessments. Our students begin to recognize how much we care. Our dedication to their progress increases exponentially, and we do things like give them our cell phone number and tell them that they can text us when they are confused about a homework assignment. Never...never...NEVER is a grade punitive. Instead of coming to us and saying, "What can I do to raise my grade?" they are now coming to us and stating, "I need help understanding the causes and consequences of The American Revolution." And we are inspired when we hear this!
This happens because we started talking about grading.
The conversation about grading has many entry points, but get the conversation going. What does an A in World History represent? What does a D represent? Have those discussions and DO NOT take them lightly. Too much depends on it.
We're both applying for admission to Stanford. Nearly EVERYTHING about our applications are identical: good grades, extracurricular activities, obstacles overcome, leadership demonstrated. But I got a C+ in Calculus and you got a B+. You get accepted. But why?
Turns out your Calculus teacher incorporated things like classroom participation and homework completion into his grading policies. You barely had a "basic" understanding of the concepts within the Calculus curriculum. But you turned in every homework assignment, went in for extra tutoring, always raised your hand in class. I, on the other hand, had a teacher who utilized Standards Based Grading. My grade was (as close as possible to) 100% indicative of my mastery of the concepts. Homework completion and classroom participation had no bearing whatsoever on my grade. Simply what I learned and did not learn. My C+ had me on the borderline between a basic understanding and a proficient one. But you got accepted because some admissions counselor at Stanford had to trust your teacher over mine.
So grades matter a lot. But more importantly they drive what we teach and how we teach it. If we value the effort our students are making to learn we choose to assess them based strictly on whether or not they have demonstrated their knowledge and skills. We take the time to create grading procedures that are a clear indication and reflection of knowledge and ability. We are concerned about the students not only in our classroom but those in the classroom next to us, and in the classroom in the state next to ours. Because we want all students to have a fair chance to compete for the college/career of their choice. So we sit with colleagues and ask them about their grading policies, and what concepts they are going to teach this year, and how they will teach those concepts so that the kids will learn, and how they will assess that learning.
Then we create assessments that enable and empower and inform our students. We see them not just as potential receivers of knowledge but as co-creators of their education. We know that our assessments must provide them with information about where they are weak and where they are strong. We allow for multiple avenues of assessment because we understand that different people learn (and demonstrate that learning) in very different ways. And this leads us to talk more; to our students, to our colleagues, to our coaches. We want to do better for our kids. They become our partners in this journey. We become dedicated to doing better for them.
Slowly our pacing becomes common with others in our department, in our district, and in our state. We see that it would be a disservice to give any less to our students than what they deserve. We start to blog and tweet and share best practices for instruction, collaborative learning, formative assessments. Our students begin to recognize how much we care. Our dedication to their progress increases exponentially, and we do things like give them our cell phone number and tell them that they can text us when they are confused about a homework assignment. Never...never...NEVER is a grade punitive. Instead of coming to us and saying, "What can I do to raise my grade?" they are now coming to us and stating, "I need help understanding the causes and consequences of The American Revolution." And we are inspired when we hear this!
This happens because we started talking about grading.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Second Base for the Yankees
A friend once said, when describing a job change he had made, "I went from playing second base for the Milwaukee Brewers to playing second base for the New York Yankees." I understood the analogy, and as he continued to describe his new company he said things like:
- Top to bottom they value their people.
- I've never been involved with an organization that was all about the right things.
- Every cent of my _____ will be with this company, not because I receive a discount but because of how strongly I feel about the company and what it stands for.
Needless to say I was envious. At the time the only organization I had ever been associated with that made me feel that way was The Boomerang Project, and that was only as having attended one of their trainings to be a Link Crew Coordinator at the high school I was working at. But I knew they were amazing, and eventually I was fortunate to be chosen to serve as one of their "coaches." However that was a side-job, so while much of it gave me goose bumps it only represented 1/100th of my professional life, at most. But I feel like I recently got traded...
This isn't to say anything negative about my previous work experiences. I am proud to say that I've worked with countless dedicated, passionate and qualified people. But Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District is the Yankees, and I'm honored to be a ball boy, if that's what they want of me. The people I work with and for are incredible: inspirational, wondrously intelligent, funny, real, honest, passionate. It truly is an amazing place to work, and I'm forever thankful for whatever landed me here.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Design and Story
A few years back the good people at The Boomerang Project recommended "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink. If you click on that link you'll see a brief description stating that the book "...reveals the six essential aptitudes on which professional success and personal fulfillment now depend..." According to Pink two of those aptitudes are design and story. I enjoyed the book and have found it quite useful.
This past February my wife and I decided that it was time for me to start applying for a full-time administrative position. In 6+ years at a traditional high school as a Math Teacher I had gained valuable experience with things like serving on the staff leadership team, serving on WASC visiting teams, coaching, etc. During the last 2 years I was the Lead Teacher at a small charter school and it was during this time that I gained invaluable administrative experience working on school discipline, coordinating the administration of standardized exams, developing curriculum, leading professional development, etc. However, as "Lead Teacher" I wasn't officially an administrator, so I knew that when applying I'd be viewed as not having enough experience. I had to do something that would separate me from the pack.
I put design and story together and somehow came up with the idea of creating a video. I contacted former students, parents of current students, friends and associates, former/current colleagues and former supervisors and humbly asked them to make a short video of themselves completing the following statement: Alex would make a(n) __________ school leader because __________. The videos were incredible! I put them together in iMovie and came up with a 4-minute compilation that told a story about who I am as an educational leader. I uploaded the video and in each application and cover letter included a link.
The video certainly opened a lot of doors for me. One deputy superintendent remarked that he had never seen anything like it before and asked me if he could use it in a Masters class he teaches. I do believe that it played a significant role in me landing my current position. I've never thought of myself as much of a right-brainer but I guess an old dog can learn a few new tricks.
(I'm a little hesitant to include a link to the video because while it was a purposeful and effective way of marketing myself for a job it feels a bit pretentious to just put it out there. But, if it can help others market themselves and learn something then I think it's worth it. Click here.)
This past February my wife and I decided that it was time for me to start applying for a full-time administrative position. In 6+ years at a traditional high school as a Math Teacher I had gained valuable experience with things like serving on the staff leadership team, serving on WASC visiting teams, coaching, etc. During the last 2 years I was the Lead Teacher at a small charter school and it was during this time that I gained invaluable administrative experience working on school discipline, coordinating the administration of standardized exams, developing curriculum, leading professional development, etc. However, as "Lead Teacher" I wasn't officially an administrator, so I knew that when applying I'd be viewed as not having enough experience. I had to do something that would separate me from the pack.
I put design and story together and somehow came up with the idea of creating a video. I contacted former students, parents of current students, friends and associates, former/current colleagues and former supervisors and humbly asked them to make a short video of themselves completing the following statement: Alex would make a(n) __________ school leader because __________. The videos were incredible! I put them together in iMovie and came up with a 4-minute compilation that told a story about who I am as an educational leader. I uploaded the video and in each application and cover letter included a link.
The video certainly opened a lot of doors for me. One deputy superintendent remarked that he had never seen anything like it before and asked me if he could use it in a Masters class he teaches. I do believe that it played a significant role in me landing my current position. I've never thought of myself as much of a right-brainer but I guess an old dog can learn a few new tricks.
(I'm a little hesitant to include a link to the video because while it was a purposeful and effective way of marketing myself for a job it feels a bit pretentious to just put it out there. But, if it can help others market themselves and learn something then I think it's worth it. Click here.)
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