Thinking....

I'm thinking today about instructional time, and / or lack thereof....stay with me on this.

When I look at educational systems and structures across countries,and school breaks within those systems and structures, it becomes more and more clear to me why the United States remains consistently behind other countries in terms of graduation rate etc.  

Think about this with me for a moment.  In most states in this country we have roughly three months off in the summer, followed by not even two months of school and then there is another break (MEA etc.) then a few more weeks until Thanksgiving break, then a few more weeks (where teachers tend to not do any heavy instruction) until Christmas and New Year's. So, basically from June- December  student school hours equate to very little in comparison to other countries.  Continue on with me...We continue on in school in January with multiple days off again between January and February between holidays, and conferences, and teacher professional development etc. Then March is spring break, and then we test in April. Then May rolls around and for some reason teachers see from May to June as "light" instruction, because the test is over.

I can say these things, because I have worked now in enough schools, and districts, to notice patterns and patterns of teacher behavior which can often time be that before and after any break in the school year we should offer "lighter" instructional days, because "kids are so excited".

This is a problem....this is a significant problem. We have a mindset in this country that needs to change as it considers the balance between instructional time, and breaks, within a school year. We have to change our mindset around accountability within instruction during instructional time within the school year.  I see this over and over again, and it continues to make more and more sense to me as to why we have on average a  32% graduation rate in this country.

This is a large scale issue...I understand that. We are talking about systemic educational patterns that have been in place for generations.

All I'm saying, is that we have to start to notice this, address it, and change mindset around it in this country, in this state, in our districts, and in our schools...or we will continue to leave kids behind.

I understand this is not an "uplifting"post, but it is a necessary post. A topic for discussion, but more importantly a topic for change.

In the face of challenge...

In the face of challenge, we must choose a mindset of strength and fortitude, not fear. We must choose to believe that what we are going after is really the pathway that will lead to greater to success for ALL, and we must determine in our mind that the steps within this pathway to success may fail at times along the way, but those failures will be opportunities for us to learn and grow in the journey, and they will not be stumbling stones that hold us back.

In the face of challenge we must seek to find the voices of hope, the voices of innovation, and encouragement, and the voices that speak the loudest message with the softest tone. We must choose to seek the strength in stakeholders in the work, we must choose to believe in positive intent, and we must choose to take a moment to set aside our ideals, and welcome the ideas of others in the process.

In the face of challenge we must choose heart, innovation, collaboration, and a willingness to be a true partner in the process of all that lies ahead.

We are the change agents. Repeat after me....we are the change agents.  We have the capacity, the ability, the intelligence, and the drive to change systems, structures and to challenge the status quo.

In the face of challenge, choose to be the one that makes the decision that no matter what there will be laughter, smiles, and humility in the process, and success in the outcome.:)

I have presented now a total of four plans over the week...plans that challenge the status quo, that seek to build teams of stakeholders in the process, plans that highlight current strengths and challenge current weaknesses, plans that ask for nothing more than optimal impact within collaboration around innovation. These plans are asking schools to step up and work the possible, within what seems the impossible.  These are plans that share a vision of success for ALL students, with teacher leaders at the core of the work. These are plans that require change agency from all involved, and require a pathway to be built in such a way that an organic experience comes out of a very non-organic structure.  These plans lay out a vision to challange everything that has been, and consider all that could be...they are future, they are hope, and at the heart they are the voice that students will hear that says, "No matter what...in this school you are worth it.":)

And guess what? Not one plan has been denied..not one, because at the end of the day, what educator wouldn't support that voice that students will hear loud and clear as a result of the outcome.;)

I Stopped Giving Tests

There is a fascination in our country around standardized testing. Testing is BIG BUSINESS---and can be used to not only discredit teachers, but students as well. Don't get me wrong, I like some testing, but not probably in the same way others like it. I love testing because I love for kids to see themselves improving and showing growth.

I will be honest with you: I have not given a test in the past 8 years. Once I began to shift to a workshop model, where I was conferring with students about their work/growth/needs, I no longer had any need to give a test. Tests are not to be "GOTCHA's" to see if you: read the chapter, listened to the lecture, looked at the vocabulary.etc . Assessments should be used  to determine next steps for both the teacher and the learner.  

I am not against tests, per se, but I believe that too often tests are not for students. If we want to change the mindsets of our students, then it's important for us to focus on ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING,  Better yet..shifting to ASSESSMENT AS LEARNING. This involves students being aware of their own learning objectives. This also entails students taking responsibility for achieving these objectives, and teachers as facilitators along the way. We want students to be able to self-reflect on their behavior and attitudes as WELL as their learning!!  

Once we stop doing assessments TO students --and do assessments WITH students, then we can actually build the capacity of our students to think critically!!
THIS---this is something I want to be a part of! 

Design Thinking

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

Awakening true impact...

When we speak about awakening impact, we speak of doing that in a variety of settings, each with varying degrees. However, the true work of awakening impact comes in the work that we do with the students that have the biggest challenges to overcome.  I am talking about the ones that many schools give up on, suspend, kick out, dismiss, ignore...the students that if we look beyond the behavior have had trauma in their lives that impact how they act, and react to learning.

As educators, we tend to have a fixed mindset around students and learning. We tend to have a vision for learning, and in that vision we see students that fit the educational "status quo". Yes, I bring it up again, because I see our largest issue in education is that we have put systems and structures in place that are only effective for a certain "type" of student, and if we were to be truly honest that student would be the one that comes ready to learn every day, is internally motivated and engaged, has consistent support from school to home, and is given opportunities outside of school to learn and apply.  That's the status qou student that our current system is operating under.

Now, back to my point on the students with the greatest challenges.  These students usually are acting and reacting out of root cause issues that have nothing to do with school. They are typically coming from home life environments where they have experienced trauma of some kind, whether directly or indirectly, and as a result they are reactive and in constant fight or flight mode.  Research says that we use the same part of our brain to process learning and stress. Now, imagine a student coming from a stressful environment into a learning environment. As their brain is in a stressful state, they are coming and being put into an environment and asked to perform in that environment that is not structured for students coming in with tremendous stress, but rather our "status quo" student that was mentioned above.  Imagine these students coming to school each and every day from extremely stressful and traumatizing environments into school where they have to use the part of their brain that is under stress to learn.

Typically what happens, is that these students have no time to decompress, or take down their stress level. They go from home immediately into school where they are asked to instantly work to learn while under stress. In that moment, it all becomes overwhelming for them and instead of being able to take in the learning, they play off of the stress and react out of that, usually in behavior that gets them kicked out of class, and school.

Now, imagine years of that. Imagine a student going through that each and every day. Imagine how defeated they feel right off the bat coming to school each day. Imagine how behavior then becomes the one and only thing they feel successful at, and therefore the one and only thing they know to do in response to their fight or flight.

Now imagine how much instructional time is lost in their school day, and imagine how over time their gap in learning becomes increasingly overwhelming, and the more overwhelming it becomes, the more defeated they feel, and the greater the increase in behavior....it's a cycle.

Here's the thing...there are variables of this that we can't control, but there are variables that as educators we can. The variable that we can control is our mindset around this student, and the learning opportunities that we can establish for them when we have the mindset of understanding why the act, and react they way they do. We can control our actions in the learning environment towards that student. We can control how we establish systems and structures that support those students, and we can control how we treat those students in our schools each day.

Mindset...everything and anything that we do goes back to our mindset around the situation and circumstance. 

Right now, I am working on establishing programming in level 4 EBD where students are sent from schools that have given up on them, and this is their one and only hope left.  Why is it that we can't establish a more cohesive system and structure within schools to support these students during the day, why is it that because we don't, these students, who have already been transitioned all over in their life, are now being transitioned all over in their school life? Something is wrong with the system....we can do better. We have to do better. We are educators. Enough of the fluffy saying about changing lives. Don't say it, if you have no intention of doing it with equality across all learners. I think it's time we take a critical look at mindset around educators, and educational systems and structures. We cannot afford in this country to continue to have inequality in education across the board. An average of 35% of our students graduating college and career ready is unacceptable, and at the heart of that issue is mindset.

If these students are made to feel "not good enough" at home, and them come to school and are made to feel "not good enough", then where in their world will they ever build any kind of self-confidence, self-esteem, success, sense of worth? Where else will they get that if we refuse to do that in school?

I have no problem saying these bold statements, because if you saw what I am seeing in schools each and every day your heart would feel heavy over this too. It's unacceptable for us in education to give up on these kids. They get that all day outside of school, and it's our job to build them up, give them hope and provide them lots of opportunities to be successful. For many, we are all they have in their day...that's it. It's us...

This post may anger many, but we need to stop dancing around the big elephant in the education world, begin to have courageous conversations around mindset, and start to make changes from undergrad education programs through schools and districts, and states across this country. It's time. We can rewrite the Common Core over and over and over, but until there is a drastic shift in mindset around equitable education for ALL, and drastic shifts in the educational system in this country, there will continue to be thousands and thousands and thousands of students left behind.

Starting points....

I love Kari's resources in reimaging education. What a powerful message for us as we consider awakening impact across educational systems and structures.

In my work right now, I am very much in the push and pull of starting points.  Where do I push? Where do I pull back? What starting point is the most effective, and with what stakeholders will this need to have in this work to have the greatest impact.

My work always begins with relationship first. Now, for those of you who know me this should not come as any kind of surprise.  My top strength on the Myers-Briggs is "Whoo". I am the cheerleader, the heart on my sleeve, the "you can do it, or better yet WE CAN DO IT TOGETHER!" Let's go!  I hug everyone that will let me, I don't hold back my thoughts, opinions, heart, any of it. I'm about as real and genuine as they come. Now, this makes me somewhat of an outlier in this type of work, as many of the people that I work with tend to be more conservative, more held back, they have the most amazing thoughts, but will hold them in and wait for the right, safe time to bring them out. Whereas, I tend to just say it, cross my fingers and hope for the best, ha!

Regardless of your "type", each stakeholder has a critical role in the ongoing conversations, and work surrounding school improvement efforts. After all, we all know that one spoke alone does not hold the wheel, but rather all spokes working together make the wheel turn at it's finest. The question becomes, "Where do I start?  How do I begin to bring the right people around the table to address some courageous conversations?"

My first starting point is always the same. We must build relationship first. We must observe all educational settings, and take in what is current in the classroom, and at the building and district level, we must invite conversations around teaching and learning, and within those conversations we must be the lead "listener". Just listen....hear voice, tone, strengths, weaknesses, fears, concerns, questions, celebrations...just listen. Take it all in, and after these conversations note patterns.  What are the patterns that I see in observations?  What are the patterns that I see in conversations around teaching and learning? What are the patterns that I see in the data, and how are these patterns connected?

This is the start. This is a highly critical time, and although it is slow, and doesn't tend to feel like much is happening, you need to hold tight to the fact that slowing down, and building a strong foundation will pay off later when you begin to do the work of building solid systems and structures piece by piece.  After all, we know it is human nature to want and NEED to trust in people first, before processes.  Once relationship is established we can then move into our second starting point.

Starting point two is to take the patterns taken from observations, and conversations, and data, and begin to outline themes. This work is often called root cause analysis, and tends to be the point where buy-in to the process happens. This is a highly critical process. It is difficult, but necessary. It tends to bring up discomfort, and fears, and a sense of change looming.  Stakeholders at this point will often dig their heels in on what they fear may be lost in the change process. These conversations are courageous for a reason after all, they are going right to the root of the problem, and usually that makes for a very uncomfortable atmosphere. However, if you know up front that is the likelyhood, then you can plan...plan for discourse, plan for questions, plan for sharing, plan for breaks, and plan to be flexible. Be clear upfront about what the intended goal (or in the educational language..."outcome') is, the time frame you have, the process that will happen to guide that, and the decision that needs to be made in the end. Create a pathway for the conversation that assumes positive intent, and creates a pathway for productive conversations that are solution orientated.

These are starting points, and they are the most critical part of the process...they are the foundation. Consider this time like dating....yes, go back in your mind to dating.;) In dating you are observing how the other person acts, reacts, treats people, treats family, treats you...you are observing behaviors, patterns, responses, engagement in the process...all of it. You are taking it in, and as you take it in you begin to use that as starting points in conversations. Conversations that lead to knowing each other better, and often times will in the beginning have moments of bliss and moments of discomfort as your approach a variety of topics. All of it leads to one thing...trust. Can I trust this person with my world?  Right? It's the same idea here. We may not be trusting our colleagues with our personal world, but most definitely our professional world,and we know that personal often impacts professional so trust in any change process is highly critical.

So, I encourage you today to consider when the last time is that you stepped out and observed what is happening around you. What is happening in other classrooms, in the building, at the district level. When is the last time you used PLC's to engage in courageous conversation around observations and data? How have you used that to consider patterns, determine root cause, and analyze solutions collaboratively around teaching and learing.

Starting points. They are messy...and usually difficult, but difficult is necessary and will begin to awaken impactful conversations, solutions, and in the end create greater work around impact. If we are really opening up a growth mindset around educational reform, the reform starts here...small, but impactful starting points in every classroom, building, district and system in this country and around the world. Wouldn't it be wonderful to start conversation here...with this blog...let's bring a more global perspective to this work.:)