Just in Case = Just a Waste

I have heard the phrases “just in case” learning and “just in time” learning several times in the last few weeks.   The concept has really stuck with me.

What if we took our curriculum and separated each section into one of these two piles?  What would the piles look like?  Even split?  I doubt it.

I would venture to guess that most secondary curriculum would fall into the “just in case” pile. This is a problem – I believe this is why our students forget the material months, days, even hours after they are tested on it. How many students really need to know how to find the axis of symmetry in a quadratic equation to live their life? How many students won’t be able to get through their afternoon without knowing the date the First World War started? Is there any surprise they forget it from one test to the next? Think of all of the time, energy, and effort teachers take everyday to teach concepts to students “just in case.”  It seems to me like it might be a waste.

What if we only taught “just in time” skills and content.  School would have to become individualized, differentiated, and would be much “harder” for the teachers to prepare and be experts in their areas; but I bet it would be SO much better for the students.

 

 

An Open Notes Kind of Life…

I love buying books. I buy so many I don’t remember what I have bought and often end up with multiple copies.  I even buy books I have already read just in case I want to read them again or give them away.  I definitely have a problem.

As an adult I also have the excuse of buying “self-help” type books.  You can actually follow the progression of my life by the books on my shelves. There are books about: being a teacher, being a single woman (my favorite is The Girls Guide to Fishing and Hunting), getting married, getting pregnant, getting your baby to sleep, potty training your child, disciplining your preschooler, and of course my newest collection – books on raising a child with special needs. I have not read them all cover to cover.  I am more of a skim as you need type of reader.  For example, I only open the sleep book when my kids are not sleeping.  I never even opened the potty training book – I figured that one out on my own.  The point is:

I DID NOT HAVE TO MEMORIZE WHAT WAS IN THESE BOOKS!  I can open them whenever I need help or advice or expertise because LIFE IS OPEN NOTE.

So why isn’t school?

Detours

If life is a journey then child raising is a very long cross country road trip.  The trip is filled with beautiful scenery, unforgettable moments, lot of laughs (especially if I am doing the driving), and most likely – some detours.  Those detours which require you to:

1. Take a different, unexpected, unfamiliar, and off course road

2. Spend more time than you anticipated

3. Feel anxious because the new road is not familiar

4. Completely overtake the good parts of the trip (see above) and turn your entire to focus onto – WHEN WE WILL BE ABLE TO GET BACK ONTO THE ROAD WE WANTED!

The detours for many parents occur when their children are in school.  It can happen at various times, from preschool (when your son is continually hitting the other kids and you are so appalled you feel the need to continually apologize to everyone)  to high school (when your daughter is struggling so much in her math class that she is crying every night, you have hired a tutor, and your mantra becomes “let’s just get through this with a “C”).  But these are the small detours – they only derail your road trip for a short time.  It is the big detours which are really frightening.

Like:  when your child gets kicked out of school – or when your child gets diagnosed with a learning disability – or when your child is being bullied in school.  These are the detours that leave us not only frustrated and exhausted – but TOTALLY OVERWHELMED.

I have a friend who is just hitting the detour signs… she is at the beginning of the detour when you are in denial ~ “maybe the road isn’t really closed” ~ she is also angry ~”why do they have to do construction right now!?!” ~ and she is scared ~”what if this detour doesn’t get us back on the main road and we are late?”

It is easy for me to identify with her situation because I have been on a detour for the last few years with my own child.  My detour has not ended, instead, our family has rerouted our entire journey. But now that we have rerouted and we know we will never get back on the main road – we are able to enjoy the scenery again, have lots of laughs, and enjoy all of those unforgettable moments we signed up for when we decided to become parents. There are still days I wish we could have seen the other road but not many – I have learned to accept and love the road we are on. I know my friend will get there too – she just has to take the time to figure out a new path for her trip.

 

Furry Learning

On Tuesday morning my seven year old son bounded into my bed at 5:55AM.  He whispered to me “Mommy, today is the day.”

He was referring to the fact that his class was having their “Total Talent Showcase” that morning in school.  A tradition we have where parents come in and see and experience what their children have been learning.  Having just finished up a unit on Dinosaurs this TTS was sure to be a treat.

Once in the classroom, parents and children were split into three groups.  In station 1, I would get to watch my son “excavate” dinosaur bones from a block of plaster paris. In station 2, I would look at the dioramas made in art class showing a scene from the Jurrasic period. And in station 3, I would sit in the hall while he showed me the ibook he made about “his” dinosaur.

It was awesome.

Sure the learning was great and the ibook was cool, but more importantly my son was EXCITED! He would finally be able to share with me all things that we never get to do together – all the things he does at school.

Later that day, his class would have a PJ’s and movie party because they had filled their “marble jar.” I offered to bring my movie style popcorn machine and go to town. While I was in the room another parent came in with a “special treat” – four 1-month old bunnies.  As I sat and watched 15 1st graders huddle on a rug in awe of newborn bunnies I could not help but think that everything I preach about lesson plans, learning targets, and assessments are useless.  The real learning that day came from four furry new friends and the chance to share their school life with loved ones.

He will learn how to read, write, and calculate some other time. But not on this day. And that is exactly as it should be.

The “P” Word

Over the last few years I have used the word progressive and seen others cringe. It seems that the word has too many meanings, some of which are unappealing when referencing our school.

It is a tricky word. I have heard some people call Montessori schools progressive, even though Maria Montessori developed her philosophy in the early 1900′s.   I visited a school a few years ago who “claimed” to be progressive. When I arrived, I did notice kids with bright pink hair who were wearing t-shirts and calling their teachers by their first name, but the classes I observed were a throw back to 1950.  It didn’t seem progressive to me.

I was introduced to two new “p” words by an Independent School Management consultant.  Process and Product.  He explained to our school administration in a meeting that independent schools were either Process orientated (in that their focus is on the process of learning) or a Product school (with a focus of the final product, i.e. getting kids into college). This didn’t help – these words went over like a lead brick.  That makes three “p” words that no one feels comfortable using as we describe our school.

I recently read a blog post by Will Richardson (http://bit.ly/wng9Q8) where he describes characteristics of BOLD schools. I can’t help it – I believe it is worth repeating so I have it posted it below.  I love it so much I have decided to take progressive out of my vocabulary.  From now on, I am going to strive to be BOLD! Hopefully, no one at my school will be nervous by this “b” word.

1. Learning Centered – Everyone (adults, children) is a learner; learners have agency; emphasis on becoming a learner over becoming learned.

2. Questioning – Inquiry based; questions over answers

3. Authentic – School is real life; students and teachers do real work for real purposes.

4. Digital – Every learner (teacher and student) has a computer; technology is seamlessly integrated into the learning process; paperless

5. Connected – Learning is networked (as are learners) with the larger world; classrooms have “thin walls;” learning is anytime, anywhere, anyone.

6. Literate – Everyone meets the expectations of NCTE’s “21st Century Literacies”

7. Transparent – Learning and experiences around learning are shared with global audiences

8. Innovative - Teachers and students “poke the box;” Risk-taking is encouraged.

9. Provocative – Leaders educate and advocate for change in local, state and national venues.

Seeing More

I have recently become acquainted with the work of Alison Gopnik – albeit on a minimal level. After reading a quote from one of her books, I copied and pasted it into a word document that I keep on my desktop so I can refer to it often. I have also found myself pulling it up to read to others – especially to parents who are dealing with children who “learn differently.”

          “…in the psychological case even more than the physical one, what counts as a problem depends on the context. When           nobody read, dyslexia wasn’t a problem. When most people had to hunt, a minor genetic variation in your ability to focus attention was hardly a problem, and may even have been an advantage. When most people have to make it through high school, the same variation can become a genuinely life-altering disease. To say this doesn’t imply, as [author and New York Times blogger Judith] Warner seems to think, that these are made-up problems, rather than real neurological ones. But it does suggest that changing the social context in which children grow up can be as important as directly changing their brain chemistry.”

(Gopnik, 2010)

A-ha! This is it for me! I have long believed that school is operating in an archaic and industrial – one size fits all – round hole, square peg model – but this quote really captures the entire picture for me.

It is the context and structure of most American Schools that is problem – not the child or children. When I think of all of the heartache, tears, and money spent by parents because their child does not fit the mold of our education system it breaks my heart. Every child has gifts, talents, strengths AND weaknesses. Unfortunately, our system of education has created a belief that only certain gifts are valuable and needed – like sit still and be quiet.

Last year I attended a workshop at Harvard on Learning Disabilities.  One of the speakers discussed “the gift of ADHD” and how many parents leave his office devastated instead of realizing the many positive things that come with an ADHD diagnosis.  I love this theory – let’s celebrate all aspects of every child – not just those that manifest themselves well into our one size fits all education system.

Gopnik uses a diagram of the infant brain compared to the adult brain in her book “The Philosophical Baby” with the statement: As we know more we see less.  This week, I am hoping to see more from my windowless office.

 

“No More Wire Hangers”

No, I am not a fan of Mommie Dearest or Joan Crawford. However, this is the exact quote that came to my mind this week as I was doing my daily duty of morning carpool. As I helped two middle school students unload from their parents car I watched them reach into the depths of the trunk and pull out poster board projects (encased in a garbage bags to protect from the rain) that were neatly covered in computer printer cut outs.

WHY?!? I thought. WHY are we still asking students to glue and paste onto poster board when every student at my school has a laptop with capabilities much better than any two dimensional poster board will convey.

And so, I did what I do with everything. I vented to my colleagues about it. Of course, one of them reminded me that school still remains a cultural shift. So although students and teachers would be better served using Prezi or Glogster, teachers still feel the need to touch the projects and then hang selected ones up on their walls. So now the question arises, how do we release teachers from feeling that they have to decorate their walls with student work to prove the students are learning?

How about doing more? How about using technology to document what students are doing? You will have to share it electronically (for parents, students, and the community) but you will have more “wall space” and it will last forever – no browning edges or dried up glue.

So, the View in my Windowless Office is that there should be No More Wire Hangers and NO more poster board and glue!

Education comes full circle?

I recently read a blog by Steve Goldberg called “Going to School to Learn.” In this blog he describes a new version of school that he calls a learning community where students (middle school aged) complete projects and work individually instead of the traditional model (click here for his link: http://wiltoday.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/going-to-school-to-learn/).  The premise behind the learning community is that it is much more real life where students will solve real world problems and write and present on them. The concept is very appealing to progressive folks like me, especially for young adolescents who often begin to lose their love of learning in the traditional school setting.

As I reflected on his concept, I realized that in a way, what he is proposing is really an apprentice model. When you think about it, 200 years ago, young children learned the 3R’s from their mothers in the kitchen and when they were old enough became apprentices. In these apprenticeships, young adults were trained to do the actual job they would do later on. A cobbler apprentice for example, actually worked on shoes. He didn’t sit with a bunch of other boys reading books about shoes or  being lectured to about shoes – he actually made and repaired shoes with an expert close by to offer advice, coaching, and expertise.

What Goldberg is proposing is really just like the cobbler apprentice of old but for the 21st Century. In order to prepare students to work in jobs where you will have to solve real life problems using research skills, technology, collaboration, and communication students need to actually do these things in school.

I have often heard experienced teachers complain that any new initiative is just a fad. However, I believe that what Goldberg is proposing is not a fad but rather education making a full circle; back to people taking a passion and practicing with experts nearby. I like it. I really like it. I look forward to seeing where Goldberg’s Learning Community goes.

Teacher of the Future?

I am lucky to be an administrator that also teaches. This year I am teaching a 7th grade Algebra class. It should be easy – I have done the curriculum many many times before, my students are “easy” to teach, and I have tons of resources. However, it is far from easy. I spend close to two hours every night planning for just one class (which only lasts 50 minutes).

Being a great teacher doesn’t seem as easy as it used to be years ago. Now I have to consider technology integration, differentiation, formative assessment, guided notes, and many other tools that lead to good planning and teaching. Is it possible that it truly is “harder” to be a teacher today than it was years ago?

Could it be that the teacher of the future spends more time planning than actually teaching? Maybe the school of the future is less about the buildings and the technology and more about teachers spending more time collaborating and planning so that the lessons they deliver pack more punch but require less contact time.

I can only imagine how exciting this type of school could be for students if all of their lessons were truly well planned. If more time was allotted for peer collaboration, individual help, and self exploration maybe every student would love school.

Pedagogy vs. Personality my internal Debate

I have grown to love pedagogy.  I love reading about it, thinking about it, and most of all – seeing it implemented in the classroom. I have also grown less tolerant of teachers that don’t employ it.

Over the summer, I spent time reflecting on teachers that I continually hear kids talking about (in good ways) who don’t use good pedagogy. How can this be I think? I know they are not differentiating, I know they are not using good teaching strategies, I know they are teaching the same way they were 20 years ago so why do the kids comment on “what a great teacher they were.”  I have come up with one answer – personality.

And so, now I have been grappling with which is more important? Pedagogy or personality? It certainly seems like I hear more kids comment on their favorite teachers based on personality and not pedagogy – and yet I know that good pedagogy leads to better learning and understanding.

By the end of the summer, I had decided that you needed both – that 50% of it had to be personality and 50% pedagogy – maybe that was the magic formula.  But now that the school year has started I am wondering again – which one wins out?

A teacher friend of mine recently told me that his principal uses the line “you have to reach them before you can teach them.”  I like this quote. It also gives me yet another possible solution to my internal debate: maybe you have to use personality to gain their trust, develop classroom climate and culture, and get them interested. Then once you “have” them – you have to teach them using good pedagogy.

Or maybe I am wrong again – I guess I am still undecided. Thus, the debate will continue in my head as I sit and stare from my windowless office.