Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

Teacher-Led Professional Development: Eleven Reasons Why You Should be Using Classroom Walk Throughs

I frequently conduct large-group workshops for an entire school or district. I use a variety of methods (like audience response systems) to create engaging events that model the practices I am promoting. The workshops resonate well with teachers and I am often asked to come back and "do some more." 

My reply is typically something like, "I'm done talking ... it's time to take this training into the classroom - that's where the teaching is going on. Besides, you need to build your local capacity." Over the last 3 years I have developed a classroom walk through (CWT) approach that works. When I return to a school my goal is to serve as a catalyst for dialogue that can be self-sustaining (read - no consultant required). 

During my return visit I typically lead groups of teachers on brief CWTs in an effort to try to identify the instructional elements that we addressed in our large-group session. For example, if my large group session was on fostering higher-level thinking skills, then our CWT focuses on trying to see if the CWT visitors can answer the question, "What kinds of thinking did student need to use in the lesson segment we just saw?" If the large group session addressed fostering student engagement, then my walk-through reflection might be "What choice did students (appear to) have in making decisions about the product, process or evaluation of the learning?" 

If the large group is "the lecture," the CWT is the "lab."

The specifics of CWTs are tailored to the school, but  here's a few of protocols I generally use:

1. CWT groups are kept small  - usually only 2 visitors per classroom. (I guide larger groups of teachers, who break into smaller teams to visit classrooms.)

2. Individual CWT visits usually last 10 minutes or less. No note taking or elaborate checklists to fill out. Just watch and listen with a focus on the learning. The real insights occur when we later process our different perspective about what we thought we saw during the CWT.

3. We rotate a pool of subs (or use planning time) to free up teachers for a series CWT sessions that total about 1-2 hours.

4. Teachers are asked in advance if they want to join the CWT and / or be willing to "host" a visit. No "gotchas" or surprises allowed!

5. All teachers are told in advance that we are not doing CWTs to "evaluate them or their lesson." Our purpose is to use a brief slice of their lesson as a catalyst for a discussion about learning. I ask teachers who did CWTs to get back to the host teachers later in the day to follow up and assure them that our dialogue was about learning, not "their" teaching.

Eleven Reasons Why You Should be Using Classroom Walk Throughs

1. Staff development should look like what you want to foster in the classroom
CWTs can be conducted like roving Socratic seminars - engaging participants in observation, reflection, and discussion. Isn't that the perspective we want to foster in our students? - thoughtful learners who are reflecting on their progress. 

2. CWTs relies on local resources not consultants
Typical PD takes place in the isolation from the students. Herd the teachers into a large lecture hall and let some consultant talk at them. Too often the consultant is viewed as a person with a PowerPoint from somewhere else who wants to sell you the solution to your problem. CWTs can be lead by teachers and move the discussion to the reality of the classroom. More importantly, instead of treating teachers as a passive PD audience they are active participants in staff development. 

3. CWTs break through teacher isolation
When I first started teaching 38 years ago, my department chair handed me my class lists and keys and said "Don't let the kids out 'till the bell rings." From that day I was on my own and for years I worked in isolation from other adults. Mentoring programs have made great strides with novice teachers since then, but can't more experienced teachers also benefit from thoughtful discussion and collaboration? 

 4. CWTs change the dialogue
Let's face it, our teachers' lounges are often dominated with complaints about problem students, annoying parents and the unpopular "reform-du jour" from district office. CWT fosters a different discussion. Teacher gain greater respect for their peers. Conversations move in a positive direction - observing, for example, how that problem student behaves in another classroom setting.

5. CWTs clarify your school's vision of teaching and learning
We spend all this time crafting a school mission (or is it vision?) statement. Let's see if it holds up in action. Are students given responsibility for their learning, or are they asked to simply follow instructions? If we believe in life-long learning, then how do the educators dialogue to improve our craft?

6. CWTs foster a K-12 conversation
I often lead K-12 teachers on CWTs at different school levels  - for example, take high school teachers on a CWT of their feeder elementary and middle school (or vice versa). As one high school teacher said to me as we walked out of a fifth grade classroom, "I didn't realize what these 5th graders are capable of - I think I need to 'ramp' it up a bit at the high school."

7. CWTs are naturally differentiated
Teachers bring a variety of background knowledge and experiences drawn from different disciplines and grade levels. Our discussion are enriched by their varied perspectives and teachers are free to take away the ideas that resonate with them.

8. We can all learn from each other
During a follow up debriefing, a math teacher remarked to our CWT group that she felt stuck in her approach - it was always foundations first, then have students practice with a series of problems. She asked, "how can you reverse the order and use problems to generate foundation understanding?" The PE teacher replied "when I coach the wrestling team, I put students into a new position and ask them to wrestle their way out of it. In doing so, they discover their own understanding of movement, that I later reinforce with techniques that work from that wrestling position."

9. It models life-long learning to the students
We ask teachers to explain in advance that teachers will be visiting classroom to improve their skills. As one student once remarked to me, "Still learning to teach? Just kidding - it's cool to see that you teachers keep working on it!" 

10. CWT's are cost-effective PD
No travel, materials, software, hardware required. With practice, you don't need the services of an outside consultant. Many of my clients have felt our CWTs were such powerful experiences, that they later continue the CWTs with teachers serving as facilitators.

11. This is PD that is equally valuable for  administrators
All my observation about the value of CWTs apply equally well for training administrators. I have led principals (and other admin) on CWTs and found principals to be eager to refocus their thinking away from the traditional evaluation of teachers to more fundamental reflections on the varied dimensions of learning. 

If you've read this far,  you might also like a few other posts:

A Guide to Designing Effective Professional Development: Essential Questions for the Successful Staff Developer

What Questions Should School Boards Be Asking about 21st Century Learning? 

How to Become a Teacher: Resources for Certification and Interviews

The "Simpsons" Debate the Role of Social Media and Cell Phones In the Classroom

The latest episode of "The Simpsons" (Oct 5, 2009) uses two scenes to satirize the debate over the role of social media in the classroom. 

Social Media as Classroom Distraction

Social Media as Instructional Gimmick
Note: You may need to reload the page before watching the second clip

Much of the debate over the role of technology in the classroom is clouded by stereotypes of Luddites vs. Techies. What's often missed is the point that it's not about the technology, but the level thinking that technology can support. A PowerPoint can easily dumb down information into a series of shallow bullets, while a Wordle can help us to visualize text to support revealing insights.

Schools should be thoughtfully-designed learning environments where students can investigate information and be given a chance to reflect (with their peers) on what they learned and how they see themselves progressing as learners. That can be done with a variety of technologies - even pencil and paper. A social network is already sitting in the classroom that can interact with information and each other without the need to go online. But at the same time, handheld technology can support a level of investigation and teamwork that far exceeds the traditional classroom discussion group. 

I'm always looking for the cheapest, most dependable, and accessible instructional tool to get the job done - depending on the situation - chalk or Twitter may fill the bill.

Defining Creativity - Higher Order Thinking for All Students

Sir Ken Robinson was recently interviewed for  the "Teaching for the 21st Century" issue of Educational Leadership. more   

The article "Why Creativity Now? A Conversation with Sir Ken Robinson" notes three misconception that people have about creativity.

"One is that it's about special people—that only a few people are really creative. Everybody has tremendous creative capacities. A policy for creativity in education needs to be about everybody, not just a few.

It's about special activities. People associate creativity with the arts only. ... education for creativity is about the whole curriculum, not just part of it.

It's just about letting yourself go... Really, creativity is a disciplined process that requires skill, knowledge, and control. Obviously, it also requires imagination and inspiration.... It's a disciplined path of daily education."

I agree with Robinson but he defines creativity in a way that I find a bit narrow  "a process of having original ideas that have value." I define creating more broadly as "a new combination of old elements." The distinction between the two definitions is important. As educators we want to move all our students along a full spectrum of Blooms' Taxonomy. If we want our students to reach the highest level of critical thinking, then we need to be clear on our goals.

Creating requires both a strong foundation in content knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge in new ways - usually across a variety of disciplines. And it requires using all of Bloom’s skills from remembering through creating. It begins with a firm grasp of the basics and includes analyzing patterns and needs, evaluating alternatives and finally creating something new. When seen as as "a new combination of old elements," creating is not  limited to the "creative." It's something that all students can do.

To illustrate the point that all students can create, here's a photo of my granddaughter, Zoe taken when she was a toddler. I had walked into her room and saw her sitting in a mesh basket used to store her stuffed animals. When I asked her what she was doing, she quickly replied "I have a toy bath."

Was their "value" in her "creation?"  Probably not. 

But don't try to tell me that this little cutie isn't creative!

Harness Twitter and Your Audience Backchannel with Wiffiti

Recently I posted about trying out Wiffiti in my professional development sessions. "Use Wiffiti to Engage Your Audience." Since then I've used it a few more times with great success. I thought I'd share a live Wiffiti screen with my readers. This is from my most recent training session at Pomperaug High School in Southbury CT.

Wiffiti accounts are free and it's very easy to use. I created a new Wiffti screen using the school logo and set it to gather the tag #R88. The evening before the presentation (and again that morning), I posted a Tweet asking for greetings - “Say hi to Monday's teacher workshop at Pomperaug HS. (Southbury CT) Go Panthers! Tell us where you're from & why you Tweet. Add tag #R88”  As participants arrived in the workshop, they were greeted on the big screen with encouraging words from all over the world. 

During breakouts I switched back to projecting the Wiffiti screen and invited workshop participant to text message into the screen. They had fun with shoutouts to their friends and comments about the workshop.  Pretty impressive when you're talking about the impact of technology on teaching and learning!

Many thanks to my Twitter PLN who took the time to send us a greeting. You made this possible!

First Day of School? Don't Pass Out Books - Problem Solve!

I first published this post at the start of the 08-09 school year. It proved to be very popular and I've had thousands of downloads of the murder mystery students were asked to solve. I've added a second mystery - a bank robbery - and republished my original post below. Enjoy!

~ Originally published August 27, 2008 ~

As a social studies high school teacher, I faced over 25 years of the first day of school. When I first began teaching, I did usual thing – working through the class list (“do you prefer Patrick, or Pat?), a dry recitation of the class rules,  passing out the textbooks. Blah, blah, blah – think of the message it sent to my students.

As my teaching style evolved from the lecture / work sheet model into a more engaged learning environment, I redefined how I wanted to introduce my students to my course. I also came to understand that it was imperative that I get all my students to contribute a few comments to the class during those first few days. Very quickly classes learn which students are the talkers and non-talkers. Once those roles are locked in – it’s very difficult for student for break out of them.

So I did not waste the opening week of school introducing the course – my students solved murder mysteries. I took simplified mysteries and split them into 25-30 clues, each on a single strip of paper. You can download one of the mysteries and a set of rules from my website.  I used a random count off to get the kids away from their buddies and into groups of 5-6 students. Each group got a complete set of clues for the mystery. Each student in the group got 4-5 clues that they could not pass around to the other students. They had to share the clues verbally in the group and that guaranteed that every student is a talker on day one.

While the students worked to solve the mystery – I concentrated on learning the student names. After I introduced the mystery, I bet them that by the end of the first class, I could go around the room and recite their names. While they worked on the mystery, I circulated getting to know students and their names. Another message – in this class, we’re all learners.

Over the next few days we would process their problem solving skills, group dynamics, differences between relevant and irrelevant information and introduce the idea of higher-order thinking like analysis, evaluation and creating. We might even have time to try another mystery to see if they got better.

Learn Mathematical Thinking From the Wrong Answer

I recently saw this video clip from an old Abbott and Costello film (thanks to my Twitter network). It reminds us that math isn't simply about learning a computational process, or getting the right answer.  It's pretty clear that Lou Costello has learned the wrong algorithm, and he defends his approach it with great determination.  See the same mathematical thinking by Ma and Pa Kettle. 

We learn math skills so that we can apply mathematical thinking to the problem solving we will need in our lives. Thus, much can be learned from the procedures we use to generate both the "correct" and the "incorrect" answer. Sharing our thinking with others allows us to negotiate a deeper understanding of algorithms and their application in the real world. 

The video clip neatly "illustrates" a teaching strategy from Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire by Rafe Esquith. The book details Esquith's fifth grade teaching methods in a rough LA neighborhood. Esquith shows us what students can learn from the wrong answer and his process can be easily applied across the curriculum. While it makes for an excellent test taking strategy, its real power is that gives students an engaging perspective to think more deeply about teaching and learning.

Esquith writes,  "Let's say I'm teaching addition. Just before I give the kids their own problems, I put one more problem on the board: 

63 + 28 = 

Rafe: All right, everybody. Let's pretend this is a question on your Stanford 9 test, which as we all know will determine your future happiness, success, and the amount of money you will have in the bank. (Giggling from the kids) Who can tell me the answer? 

All: 91. 

Rafe: Very good Let's place that 91 by the letter C Would someone like to tell me what will go by the letter A? 

Isel: 35. 

Rafe: Fantastic! Why 35, Isel? 

Isel: That's for the kid who subtracts instead of adds. 

Rafe: Exactly. Who has a wrong answer for B? 

Kevin: 81. That's for the kid who forgets to carry the 1. 

Rafe: Right again. Do 1 have a very sharp detective who can come up with an answer for D? 

Paul: How about 811? That's for the kid who adds everything but doesn't carry anything. 

In Room 56, the kids come to learn that multiple-choice questions are carefully designed. It is rarely a matter of one correct answer and three randomly chosen incorrect ones. The people who create the questions are experts at anticipating where students will go wrong. When a kid makes a mistake somewhere in the course of doing a problem and then sees his (incorrect) answer listed as a potential solution, he assumes he must be correct. My kids love to play detective. They enjoy spotting-and sidestepping-potential traps. 

When students in Room 56 take a multiple-choice math test with twenty problems, they see it as an eighty-problem test. Their job is to discover twenty correct answers and sixty incorrect ones. It is hysterical to listen to the sounds of the class when the students take a standardized math test. The most common sound is a quiet giggle of recognition. The kids love to outsmart the test and can't help laughing as they discover one trap after another."

Use Wiffiti to Engage Your Audience - Big Screen Live Presentation of Feeds from Twitter, Flickr and Text Messages

I'm always looking for ways to make my presentations more engaging and interactive. (A must if you're advocating more student-centered instruction.) I've been using a TurningPoint ARS for years with great results and have tried live blogs at my larger workshops. As a convert to Twitter, I thought it was the logical next step. 

I've experimented with Twitter visualizers on my blog- StreamGraph,  TwitterCloudExplorer, and most recently, Wiffiti. When I saw how good Wiffiti looked on my blog, and I realized it would be a great way to capture the backchannel at workshops. Users can interact with Wiffiti from their mobile phones or the web. It looks great on the big screen - plus it can feed from Twitter, Flickr and text messages.  

I opened a free account and gave it a trial run at my recent workshop in Moriarty-Edgewood SD, New Mexico. It was easy to create a new Wiffiti screen with custom background. (I selected a local landmark neon sign from old Rt 66 in Moriarty.)  I set up the Wiffiti screen to capture Tweets tagged with my Twitter user name @edteck.

The evening before the presentation, I posted a Tweet asking for greetings - “Say good morning to my teachers' workshop on old Rt 66 in NM. Where are you from? Why do you Twitter?”  As participants arrived in the workshop,  they were greeted on the big screen with encouraging words from all over the world. Pretty impressive when you're talking about the impact of technology on teaching and learning!  Special thanks to all that sent greetings - it was an powerful demonstration of the new landscape of information and a display of the power of Twitter / social media!

I shot a bit of video to give you and idea what it looked like.  
 (Remember, the live version of this screen no longer has Tweets relevant to the workshop.)

New Wiffiti messages are instantly displayed center screen and are easily viewable from a distance. Older messages then fade back and move as an animated cloud. Updates from both mobile and web are displayed synchronously across all screens subscribing to the same tags, encouraging the creation of a wide, cross-channel audience.

 Using Wiffiti in Breakout Sessions

I also created a second Wiffiti screen to use during break outs. This one was designed to capture text messages from participants. For those that did not have cells, we set up computer stations where they could make comments directly from the Wiffiti website.

Here's some sample comments - a nice mix of thoughtful observations, fun comments and a few critiques. (Note: I kept it real and I ran my system unmoderated, but it is possible to have someone monitor comments.) 

“School is where kids go to watch old people work really hard”

“My Brain Hurts!”

“Let's get going!”

"disequilibrium, change, and freedom”

"same old stuff, different day!"

“the table in the back rocks!!”

“English teachers and librarians rule -all others drool!”

“having a blast!”

“science is over here.”

“This is a great workshop!”

“Enjoying the presentation Peter. Especially the film clips!”

“Rigor and Relevance for the English Department: Rigor: Apply knowledge and skills in complex ways to analyze and solve real problems..."

My bottom line? Wiffiti is a great way to harness back channel workshop comments. The free version works well and paid versions offer more opportunities to customize and monitor comments. 

Innovative Teaching is to Sustainable Farming as Test Prep is to _____?

Recently I spoke at a project-based learning conference in Wisconsin. I had been reading Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma,” so I had farming on my mind as I drove from the Milwaukee airport to Janesville WI past vast cornfields punctuated by enormous grain silos.

Pollan observes that high-yield corn is a product of genetically identical plants that can be densely planted without fear of any stalks monopolizing resources. As corn dominated the midwestern landscape, the region became an agricultural monoculture of expansive corporate cornfields – pushing out other crops and more diverse family farms. Cheap corn created the "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation," where never-ending truckloads of feed are used to fatten cattle in the least time possible. "Big" corn and cattle production are artificially supported by vast, but unsustainable, industrial inputs of fossil fuels, petro-chemicals, and an elaborate transportation system.

And somewhere on the drive to Janesville, I got thinking that Pollan's indictment of corporate agriculture might be extended to some aspects of education. The testing regime is turning our kids into a high-yield, uniform commodity. Rows and rows of competent, standardized students, that can be delivered according to employers' specifications for a "skilled workforce.” Children “force fed” in test prep programs in efforts to quickly “fatten” the scores to meet AYP. Like the cornfields and feedlots that are disconnected from local ecosystems, the movement toward national educational standards erodes at local control and innovation.

Fortunately when I got to the conference I saw another side of contemporary education - innovative teachers. It was like walking into a sustainable farmers' market.

The conference was held at the TAGOS Leadership Academy and hosted by Project-Based Learning Systems, the developer of Project Foundry, a web-based management tool for innovative learning environments. Teachers had come from across the country - Chula Vista CA to Waterville ME. Like sustainable farms, their schools were deeply rooted in their communities, each closely tied to its unique local social ecology. Their programs fostered interdisciplinary learning, like the symbiotic polyculture of a farm based on a rotational interplay of crops and animals.

The PBL approach is based on the notion that rather than simply apply bodies of knowledge to problems, the exploration of problems can generate new bodies of knowledge. Teachers didn't attend the conference to simply “sit and get,” they were there to share. After my introductory talk and a planning session using my audience response system, the teachers self-organized into a series of peer-teaching sessions that took them through most the rest of the conference. 

The next day I headed home feeling upbeat. I had met many fine teachers and instructional leaders who reminded me of why I went into education. Most of all, I thought about the scores of teachers across the country, working in innovative schools (or perhaps subversively innovating in traditional schools), committed to raising a “crop” that can sustain itself through a life time of learning.

School Board Leaders Reflect on Essential Questions and 21st Century Learning

Last week, I did a 90 minute keynote at the New Mexico School Board Association's Leader's Retreat. I used a "Socratic approach" and framed my talk around a series of themes and sample questions in a talk called "What Questions Should School Boards Be Asking about 21st Century Learning?" For details on my keynote theme, essential questions and blog reader comments click here.

The school board leaders had some interesting responses to my evaluation that inspired me with their willingness to rethink the landscape of teaching and learning. Here are my three evaluation prompts and some of their responses: 

What did you find to be most valuable from today’s workshop? 

Changing the mind set of traditional thinking in schools.

Giving kids a chance to be thinking and problem solving on their own - that's relevance.

Looking at rigorous and relevant thinking skills in action.

Innovative uses of technology in the classroom.

Simply having students follow a process is not relevant learning.

The importance of rigorous thought and the creative thinking process.

It's not enough to simply use technology - it needs to be used to support rigorous thinking.

These are questions we need to be asking ourselves, daily.

A multimedia presentation, with a participatory focus on the big picture of learning.

I liked the questions for board members format - will be easier to report back to my colleagues.

Education will need to change to reflect the information age.

You used the techniques you were teaching, which was very helpful.

 Eye opening and Thought-provoking.

What was a frustration you had today?

Public schools have a multitude of mandates which tie our hands.

How will we measure problem solving and creative thinking in the context of NCLB testing mandates?

The process of applying technology for learning moves more slowly than the technology developments themselves.

Legislators don't understand these concepts.

This talk is best directed at teachers and administrators. Boards don't want to be perceived as micro-managing educational methods.

Would have liked to spend more time doing TurningPoint surveys.

This information has been around for along time and little has changed.

How do we provoke the state and their testing regiment to reflect on the need for higher level thinking and not regurgitating?

How do we get this information to our legislators in away that makes them think?

How will today’s workshop impact your school board planning?

I will use some of these questions in discussions with our superintendent.

Bring our planning into the 21st century.

We need to think more about relevant 21st century skill development.

I do process agenda for our board work retreats and I'm more aware that we need to hold ourselves to rigorous analysis of the products of our district.

We need to think more about the "how" than the "what" of instruction. 

It will help me to formulate questions to ask myself and the district - are we 21st C ready?

Your example of toddlers categorizing means we need to ask more about higher-level thinking at lower grade levels.

We will continue to collaborate and refine our goals.

Ask better questions - demand better answers. That includes of ourselves and our planning process.

We need to prepare our students for a future of thinking, creating, exploring and collaborating.

How do we get this approach throughout the system, so students are not penalized for learning outside the established system?

We need to re-think our educational model and priorities.

What Questions Should School Boards Be Asking about 21st Century Learning?

Next week, I'm keynoting at the New Mexico School Board Association's Leader's Retreat. I plan to take a "Socratic approach" and frame my talk around a series of themes and sample questions that I think school boards should be asking in response challenges and opportunities of 21st century learning. 

I wanted to offer readers the chance to offer their suggestions - via this blog's comment or Twitter/edteck.

I plan to address three themes and pose some reflective questions for board members to consider. 

Theme 1. Learning must engage student in rigorous thinking at higher levels of Bloom - analyzing, evaluating and creating. School boards should ask:

• Does our school community recognize the difference between higher and lower order thinking?
• Are students expected to just consume information, or are they asked to create something original that demonstrates their learning?
• Is our district a creative problem-solving organization?
Answers: We cut music and art for remedial math. (Wrong!!!)
We recognize music and art are vehicles to teach math. (That's better!) 

Theme 2. Learning is relevant when the student understands how the information or skill has some application to their life, has an opportunity to figure out their own process rather than just learn “the facts," and is given opportunities to reflect on their work and their progress as learners. School boards should ask ...

• Do our students get high grades for simply memorizing the review sheet for the test?
• Do our students “follow the recipe” or are they increasingly asked to take responsibility for their learning products, process and results?
• Is the audience for student work simply the teacher, or are students asked to share their learning with peers, family, community? 

Theme 3. The digital age has redefined literacy. To paraphrase David Warlick, Literacy now means the ability to: find information, decode it, critically evaluate it, organize it into digital libraries, and be able to share it with others. School boards should ask ...

• If we’re no longer the "information gatekeepers," are we teaching our students to critically evaluate information and use it responsibly?
• Does our technology get used mainly by the educators, or are students regularly employing it to create understanding and share their learning?
• Is our credit system based on seat time or can it be expanded beyond the school walls to any place / time virtual learning?

And finally I will wrap up the talk with an overarching perspective on accountability and assessment. I find it ironic that while schools chase NCLB “proficiency,” life has become an open book test. We need to unleash the power of assessment that targets and inspires. One-shot, high stakes tests are just autopsies. Students need regular check-ups where teachers can gauge student progress and target instruction. Ultimately the program must be designed to foster student self-assessment that gives them responsibility for monitoring their own progress. Students should be supported in on-going sell-reflection that addresses questions such as:

• How can I use this knowledge and these skills to make a difference in my life?
• How am I progressing as a learner?
• How can I communicate what I’m learning with others?
• How can I work with teachers and other students to improve my learning?

Schools will need to become places that create engaging and relevant learning experiences, provoke student reflection, and help students apply the learning to life. Authentic  accountability is reciprocal ...  leadership is responsible to provide resources for success, educators are responsible for results. Simply sorting students along the "bell curve" won't do.

... Please add a comment below or Twitter to let me know if I'm leaving anything out.

Sept 22, 2009 UPDATE: For School Board Leaders' responses to the workshop see: School Board Leaders Reflect on Essential Questions / 21st Century Learning 

Students Tell Us About “Living in a Digital World”

Congratulations to Karen Rose and her 3rd grade class from the Melissa, Texas. Selected by attendees at the 2009 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) as "Best Picture" from among digital shorts produced and edited by students and teachers from across the country.

Learning the Lessons of Teaching in a Block Schedule

I've been preparing for an upcoming two day workshop at Nassau County SD (FL) - assisting high school teacher with strategies for teaching in a block schedule. It got me thinking about my attitude about class length and how my perspective evolved as my instructional vision changed.  

When I first started teaching high school social studies, the central planning question I asked myself was, "What am I going to do with my students?" The focus was on my activities, because I thought my job was to convey information to my students - to tell them things they didn't know. Then they could practice working on what I told them. Finally my students could prove they "got the things" by giving me back what I gave them on a test. Thus my curriculum planning centered about how I was going to deliver the information to them. I had a lot of information to cover and had to figure out how to cut it up into 180 bites. "This year I hope we can at least get to WWII!"

Seen from the "lecture" perspective, I liked short classes -  holding the attention of 30 high school kids was a challenge. I remember when our class periods got cut from 48 minutes to 45, I thought - great, now I don't have to talk as long. I can shave a few minutes off my delivery.

After a few years of lecturing, I had the realization that I was the hardest working person in my class. I was doing most of the learning - research, analysis, synthesis and preparation of summaries to share with my students. And so I began the long journey of redefining my role as teacher from "teacher as talker" to "teacher as designer of learning environments." I had to figure out how to create situations where my students could "research, analyze, synthesize and prepare summaries" to share with audiences (other than me).  And as I made the transition, I longed for longer blocks of instructional time. I found that students needed time to decide how to approach a task, trouble shoot their approach, execute their plan, present what they learned and reflect on how it went. 

Thus I learned the first lesson of transitioning to the block schedule. Don't ask teachers who lecture to suddenly work in a block schedule - get teachers comfortable with student-centered learning and wait for them to demand longer class periods. In other words, instructional vision precedes organizational tinkering. (Later as an assistant superintendent, I put that lesson to good use.)

So how will I structure this week's block scheduling workshops ? For starters I won't spend the day talking at them. Of course, teachers will want specific strategies they can use. While I will share many approaches, the workshop has to be more than a collection of lesson ideas. That's too much like my early method of teaching -  me simply delivering information.  Besides I won't be the smartest person in the room.

Staff development should model what you want to see in the classroom. As Donald Finkel has written,  teaching is "providing experience, provoking reflection." My goal will be to give the teachers the experience of transitioning through a variety of learning situations of varying lengths. I want them to see the learning strategies in action and get a feel for how their level engagement can impact their sense of passage of time. I want them to leave with more than teaching ideas. I hope to provoke their ongoing reflection on what happens when students have more time to take ownership of the content, process and evaluation of their learning.

Engage Student Discussion: Use the Social Network in Your Classroom

Watch a typical whole group discussion in the classroom and you'll most likely see a "hub / spokes" flow of information. Teacher to student A and back to teacher. Teacher to student B and back to teacher. So it goes as the "bluebirds" get to show how smart they are. 

Over time, students learn that their comments are of provisional value until "approved" by the teacher. That's because in this style of discussion the teacher is most likely searching for specific replies - sort of playing "guess what I'm thinking" with the "best" students in the class.

Students tend not to listen to each other and only focus on what the teacher says or validates - "will that be up on a test?" When students are put in small group discussion, they rapidly get off subject. With no teacher to validate their comments, they naturally gravitate to other subjects where peer   comments are valued - "what are you doing this weekend?" Often teachers then conclude that small group discussion doesn't work.

In my workshops I train teachers in discussion techniques that foster student reflection and interaction. The strategies are focused on getting the teacher out of the role of information gatekeeper and encouraging student-centered dialogue. 

With practice, teachers find that students are eager to engage and participate. We know they want to contribute, because outside the classroom, students are flocking to social networks to share their thinking with one another. It's unfortunate that our students can't be part of the (offline) social network sitting beside them in class.

While students don't need classroom computers to be part of an engaging discussion, technology can be a catalyst to foster engagement. I was interested to see the following video of The Twitter Experiment - Bring Twitter to the Classroom at UT Dallas.

"UT Dallas History Professor Dr. Monica Rankin, wanted to know how she could reach and include more students in the class discussion. She had heard of Twitter... The following is a short video describing her "Twitter Experiment" in the classroom with comments from students about the pros and cons of Twitter in a traditional learning environment." (Filmed by UT grad student kesmit3.) Link to notes on the experiment.

BTW - I found this video via my Twitter network. Follow  @monicarankin  @kesmit3 

What is the Real Value of Educational Technology?

I've come to depend on the folks I follow on Twitter to keep me informed and thinking. One of my favorite contributors is Instructional Technology Coordinator, Ben Grey. This morning I followed his tweet to the post "Why Technology?" he did at the TL Advisor Blog.  Ben raised an important question, 

"Something has been happening lately in education, and the implications are a bit unsettling.  People are beginning to ask a cogent question, but I fear it's being framed for the wrong reason.  I'm hearing more and more important decision makers asking, "Why are we using technology?"

... If tomorrow you had to stand in front of your Board of Education and respond to the question, "why should we continue to use and pursue technology in our district," what would you say?"  more

I invite you to join Ben's conversation. I posted a response to his question at the TL blog. But I want to reprint it here to share with my readers. 

My response:

It's a great question and one that I've had to answer as an assistant superintendent for instruction. Here's a few elements of what I'd say to the school board.

As more information is digitized, we move from a top-down broadcast model of communications to one that fosters creativity and collaboration. The digital age devalues lower-order thinking skills but provides tools that allow us to analyze, evaluate and create. 

New technologies can put our students in charge of the information they access, store, analyze and share.  Many of our students only have access to those tools in our schools. They have the right to participate in the digital age.

Investing in technology should not be a thoughtless response. New technology does not necessarily improve the quality of instruction  (We have all sat through dull PowerPoint presentations that were as "mind-numbing" as an old filmstrip.)

We should continue to look for a ROI on our technology investments, but it may not be tracked in test scores that simply measure lower order recall of information. A better metric would ask if a technology helped us to create learning experiences that provoke student reflection in a new, more engaging and collaborative way. Such as...

• Wordle, a free Web 2.0 offering allows students to visualize and interpret text. 
• Google docs allows students to share their thinking in a way that is difficult to replicate on paper. 
• Web access and social networking allows students to collaborate beyond the confines of the classroom and school day. 

Here's an example of all three put to use in a collaboration by a self-directed international group of teachers (It was mainly coordinated / promoted via Twitter.) "Build Literacy Skills with Wordle"  

Shouldn't our students have access to the technologies that allow them to create, collaborate and share their thinking on subjects that matter to them?

Why Don't We Teach Sequencing Skills? It's an Essential Higher-Order Thinking Strategy

We spend a lot of time in school getting students to learn sequential information - timelines, progressions, life cycle of a moth, steps for how to. Typically the teacher teaches the student the sequence and the student correctly identifies the sequence for teacher on the test. Thus we treat a sequence as a ordered collection of facts to be learned, not as a thinking process for students to use.  This memorization reduces the student's "mastery" of the chronology to lower order thinking. I was guilty of this when I first started teaching history "Can someone give me two causes and three results of WWII?" 

When students are asked to observe a process and develop a sequence they have an opportunity to use a full spectrum of higher-order thinking skills - they must recognize patterns (analyze), determine causality (evaluate) and then decide how they would communicate what they've learned to others (create). Sequencing can be taught across the curriculum at a variety of grade levels - we simply have to ask the students to observe and do the thinking.

There is some interesting research that demonstrates that students have trouble when asked to develop sequences. It comes from the Program for International Student Assessment.  PISA is an assessment (begun in 2000) that focuses on 15-year-olds' capabilities in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy. PISA studied students in 41 countries and assessed how well prepared students are for life beyond the classroom by focusing on the application of knowledge and skills to problems with a real-life context. For more examples of PISA questions and data see my blog post.

Sample sequencing problem from PISA 2003.

The Hobson High School library has a simple system for lending books: for staff members the loan period is 28 days, and for students the loan period is 7 days. The following is a decision tree diagram showing this simple system:

The Greenwood High School has a similar, but more complex library lending system:
All publications classified as “Reserved” have a loan period of 2 days.
For books (not including magazines) that are not on the reserved list, the loan period is 28 days for staff, and 14 days for students. For magazines that are not on the reserved list, the loan period is 7 days for everyone.
Persons with any overdue items are not allowed to borrow anything. 

Task

Develop a decision tree diagram for the Greenwood High School Library system so that an automated checking system can be designed to deal with book and magazine loans at the library.  Your checking system should be as efficient as possible (i.e. it should have the least number of checking steps). Note that each checking step should have only two outcomes and the outcomes should be labeled appropriately (e.g. “Yes” and “No”).

The student results were rated on a rubric scale.  Only 13.5% of US students were able correctly answered the question. Their international 15-year-old peers didn't fare much better - 14.3% of them answered correctly. 

The correct response looked something like this.

Teaching Visual Literacy: Media Studies Before the Internet

I thought I'd share this recently rediscovered relic from my early days as a teacher. Keep in mind that when I began teaching, educational technology featured:

• Mimeo ~ remember the smell?
• Filmstrip ~ who wants to advance the slides?
• 16 mm film ~ you kids be quiet while I splice the film! 

When the Betamax arrived to my classroom I was in heaven! Back in the late 1970's I started teaching a high school "Media Studies" class. (Pittsford-Sutherland HS, Rochester NY). It was one semester, social studies elective that examined the impact of media on society (mainly TV - and all very McLuhan). 

Duane Sherwood and I were inspired by early TV pioneer, Ernie Kovacs to shoot this 1 minute video. I used it after my first few introductory lessons. That day, instead of their teacher, my students found a TV / recorder in front of the class. The sign instructed them to "watch this video." 

The shot took hours to set up. I attribute my bad acting / missed lines to sitting sideways and trying to keep a straight face. It's just too bad I wore red flannel and khakis that day....

Middle School Students Video - No Future Left Behind

Here’s a great new video, from the Suffern NY Middle School Tech Club students. Let's help these kids make sure their message is heard! Follow link to No Future Left Behind Ning page for full credits and discussion. 

Setting Free the Information (in Museums and Schools)

Museums share at least one thing in common with schools. They have traditionally functioned as repositories of information. 

Visit a museum and you can view the information (art) that a curator has selected, organized, and presented. Often its significance and meaning will be explained to you in a wall label. In the traditional school, curriculum experts select information that teachers organize and present to students. Most teachers talk a lot, so students spend much of their day being told what information is important and why. Later they sit at their desks and fill out worksheets that reinforce what they just heard.

Schools, museums and other traditional information gatekeepers (think newspapers, publishers, etc) got along fine when they were able to control information and its flow. The one who "owned the presses" decided what was important. Most of us were accustomed to this asymmetry of information production and distribution. After all, it was much easier to read a book than to write and publish one.

What is "revolutionary" about the information revolution is not all the "cool" new technologies - it's the fact that the information monopoly enjoyed by the gatekeepers has been broken. We can now control the information we access, save, alter and share.

Today's New York Times features a story about how museums are re-thinking their web presence in light of the rapidly changing information landscape. "To Ramp Up Its Web Site, MoMA Loosens Up" NY Times March 4, 2009.

The museum wants the site to transform how the public interacts with an institution that can sometimes seem forbidding and monolithic.

“The notion of opening up the museum’s singular voice is really the driving thought behind this,” said Allegra Burnette, creative director of digital media for the museum, who has been working on the redesign for a year and a half. She added, “We’re opening the doors, though not necessarily throwing them open.”

The site, which she and other MoMA officials stress is a work in progress, will now include what its designers call a “social bar” at the bottom, which when clicked will expand to show images and other information that users can “collect” and share after registering for a free account at the Web site (moma.org). A user could build a portfolio of Walker Evans photographs or Elizabeth Murray paintings and send them to friends, Ms. Burnette said. The site will also eventually make it easy for users both casual and scholarly to trace lines of interest, digging up more information about works from publications and curators, she added.

So what lessons can school learn from MoMA? 

Put aside all the social networking / Web 2.0 features MoMA is adding to its site, and it's really about giving viewers more functionality and control over how they interact with the museum's collection. MoMA and other museums realize that they will need to stop treating their audience as passive consumers of information. 

I'm not suggesting schools need to run out and build new 2.0 websites. Actually we already have an audience of students sitting in the classroom who can interact with information and each other without the need to go online. What educators need to do is rethink what teaching and learning is all about. It's no longer "teaching as talking." Nor is the purpose of school to simply dispense information to students. Schools need to function as thoughtfully designed learning environments where students can investigate information and be given a chance to reflect (with their peers) on what they learned and how they see themselves progressing as learners. That can be done with a variety of technologies including pen and paper. A social network is already sitting in the classroom.

First Google Map Discovered - Created in 1652!

I enjoy looking at historic maps and other visual displays of information. I was browsing online images from the National Gallery of Art's current exhibit "Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age" and was startled to see  “A Bird’s-Eye View of Amsterdam” painted (around 1652), by Jan Micker.

Micker's work certainly parallels the Google Map satellite view. Especially noteworthy are his realistic depiction of details, shadows of clouds and the large key with drop shadow in the lower right corner. Not bad considering he lacked an aerial perspective. He was inspired by a similar work (minus shadows) from 1538 by Cornelis Anthonisz. 

Click image to enlarge.

Below is a current Google Map of Amsterdam for comparison. 

Note: the Google maps faces north. Micker's view faces south.

Click map to enlarge or go to Google map of Amsterdam 

Why Study Algebra?

Today I listened to NPR's Scott Simon and Keith Devlin of Stanford University, answer the question: Why Do We Need to Learn Algebra? (NPR Weekend Edition Saturday~February 28, 2009). Devlin described how spreadsheets have become essential to managing everything from your finances to your fantasy football team. And of course, spreadsheet are basically collections of algebraic formulas. You can follow this link to the NPR story, comments and audio file. Teachers might use Devlin's comments as a springboard for getting students to think and discuss the application of algebraic thinking in their lives. 

 

This is essential, since algebra is emerging as an academic gate keeper. I'm not a math teacher, but I suspect it stems in part from the fact that many students lack basic computation skills. But more importantly,  students have to be able to transition from concrete lower order thinking skills (arithmetic) to higher-level and more abstract thinking (algebra and beyond).  

As Doug Reeves has noted, "The single highest failure rate in high school is Algebra I. After pregnancy, it’s the leading indicator of high school dropout. The leading indicator of success in Algebra I is English 8. The Algebra 1 test is a reading test with numbers.”  District Administrator, April ‘05

If Reeves is correct, then this is as much a literacy problem as a math problem. Teachers of all content areas can pitch in to support the higher order skills (analysis, evaluation and creating) that will help students with more advance mathematical thinking.