Co-Creating Solutions. A CTL-sponsored blog to foster and encourage professional conversation about teaching and learning.

I live in a world of language. Writing, writing, writing. I am sustained by a world of images and objects, moving and still. I think in pictures and frequently use storyboarding to organize ideas.

As I’ve written about in other posts, digital imagery and video are a source of inspiration for me and something I have been keen to introduce into my own work and to the schools with whom I work.

Lately, I have been working in the creative arena, locating, developing and writing modules for the Artful Reading series. Artful reading is a series of lessons, using arts themed picture books to integrate the arts and literacy. My creative juices are flowing and I am consumed with brain storming and developing ideas. I am immersed in the land of picture book imagery and story. One of my favorite educational resources is the book, The Having of Wonderful Ideas, by Eleanor Duckworth. I am hoping to have some wonderful ideas and create work that will inspire teachers and students alike.

I am struck by the fact that whether I am making a painting or developing a series of lessons, it takes time to have the ideas and to flesh them out. How many times have I been in a classroom where students are asked a question and only given a few seconds to come up with an answer or a creative solution to a problem?

Because thoughts of creativity, inspiration, and the time necessary to engage with the arts and ideas are on my mind I would like to share a couple videos:

This first video, Deadlines, was developed by Café Creative, a Hungarian ad agency based in Belgrade. This video was short listed for the European Golden Drum award. In it, Café Creative responds to requests by clients to work faster/cheaper. The video is a great lesson for teachers and parents about the time necessary for the creative work of children.

The second video, Teachers Inspire Us, is created by students as a tribute to the ways teachers inspire. Another lesson on the power of creativity and the important role of arts education. On the technical side, the video is also a wonderful example of stop motion animation using drawing, a chalk board and music. For more information on stop motion animation see my post Creativity: A Stop-Motion Experience.

Let me know what you think of the videos. Take 10 seconds and complete the drawing starter from, Deadlines. How’d you do?

When our now grown son and daughter were in high school, they used to kiddingly refer to me as “Band Overlord.” They were both band kids (trumpet and bassoon, respectively), and I was the extremely enthusiastic president of our public high school’s band booster organization. With our fellow band parents, my husband and I made countless trips as chaperones for marching band contests and concert competitions, including two multi-day adventures with 150 teenagers via bus caravan from Kentucky to Florida and back.  And of course we were in the thick of countless fundraisers, year after year.  Band Fruit Weekend was a much anticipated annual event, and there was always a case of peanut M&M’s in the back of my minivan, each bag of candy representing another dollar toward new uniforms, new music, new instruments. 

Apart from band, there were the hours we spent with the school’s academic team, the meetings with teachers on school conference days and in between–and the list went on and on.  Our fluency in parent-teacher-ese began with our kids’ years in pre-school when we knew every teacher and every teacher knew us as a regulars in the building and exuberant supporters of all school activities, and of course as constant advocates for our son and daughter.

Our engaged parent role models included my own parents who, likewise, knew well and were well known by all of my teachers and coaches throughout my public school career.  They were always volunteering to help out with an activity (sometimes to my outward chagrin, but truly to my delight), and were there literally cheering me on in every endeavor, academic and extra-curricular.

…All of which floated through my brain as I read recently about what are being called new “parent trigger” laws, which generally make it possible for parents to have input into actual school management.  In some states, such as California, such laws allow a simple majority of parents to demand a new set of administrators for a failing school.  (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/opinion/sunday/new-school-trigger-laws-take-parent-engagement-to-a-new-level.html?_r=1&hp)  In CTL’s home state of Kentucky, the education reform pioneered in the early 1990’s included a provision still in force that requires parent representatives to be part of the site-based council that makes certain policy and other decisions for every public school.

Everyone agrees that parent engagement in schools benefits both schools and individual students.  But it’s also clear that knowing and communicating regularly with a child’s teachers, supporting a child’s academic and school activities, and even  helping to manage school functions that fall outside the academic realm are all rather different from having direct input into the day-to-day management of a school.  Education is a complex business, as has been discovered to the dismay of some savvy professionals who thought that expertise in the business world was immediately transferable to the complexities of running a school–until they actually tried running a school, accountable to students, teachers, administrators and the tax-paying public at large.

Should parents have the opportunity to be directly involved in school management?  What are the advantages to parents and to schools of such engagement–and what are the potential pitfalls?  If parents are going to be so engaged, should some preliminary introduction–professional learning or professional development–be required?  What form might such adult learning take to be both instructive and practical for interested parents?  What has your experience been with such involvement–either as a parent or as an educator who works with parents?  Please share your thoughts, and in a subsequent post, we’ll consider the broader implications.

As part of CTL’s book study for the Focus in High School Mathematics Reasoning & Sense Making (FOCUS), this is the sixth in the series of those blog posts. Last time we looked at what the authors suggested for those Reasoning Habits that assists students in understanding and using the mathematics needed for the 21st century – in other words, a way of thinking about the mathematical situation/problem. Let’s stay within the convenes of Chapter 2 and explore the mathematical process of modeling that embodies each of those Reasoning Habits.

Within the structure for thinking about the mathematics: analyzing the problem, implementing a strategy, seeking and using connections, and reflecting on a solution, I believe that mathematical modeling fits within each of those structures/processes of thinking. Additionally, mathematical modeling is also one of the eight Standards for Mathematical Practice from the Common Core State Standards(CCSS) for Mathematics.

The mathematical modeling process that the authors use is in Figure 2.2 on Page 13. It takes the mathematical modeling cycle from the real-world situation to the mathematical model including assumptions to the mathematical conclusions to the real-world situation and then repeats the process.

Let’s connect that process to the reasoning habits and mathematical modeling from FOCUS to mathematical modeling from the CCSS. Please note that these connections are not mutually exclusive thus lots of overlapping and connecting.

The Kentucky Department of Education, Kentucky Committee for Mathematics Achievement , and the Kentucky Council of Teachers of Mathematics have developed a series of podcast that provide instructional prototypes of the CCSS Mathematical Practices. I have posted the podcast for mathematical modeling – see what you think.

For the other podcast, go to http://www.kctm.org/ they are available through ITunes. Download ITunes and search for KY Core Academic Standards. For more information on the Kentucky Committee for Mathematics Achievement visit their forum.

See what you think and join us in the next blog post for the book study.

Grading has always seemed subjective. One teacher gives extra credit points for coming to class prepared (pencil in hand) while another teacher refuses to accept late work (even one day late). One teacher allows students to redo work until mastery while another teacher’s exams don’t directly address her standards. I recently read the November 2011 edition of “Educational Leadership” Effective Grading Practices. The feature articles and columns ask questions of grading practices and provide research, testimonials, and anecdotes that address grading practices from student, teacher, parent, and district perspective.

Redos and Retakes Done Right by Rick Wormeli dispels the argument that by giving students only one chance to turn in an assignment or take a test, we are best preparing them for the working world. Think about working world examples where we are given a chance to “re-do”? How about the ACT, SAT, LSAT, MCAT, Praxis, GRE and even our driver’s licensure? (And thank goodness for that last one because I was stamped failed before I even got to the parallel parking portion of the test!) After failing the test, I had to go back to the manual, go back to the practice course, and learn the essential content and skills in order to pass the next time. I was given a “re-do”. Imagine if the law stated that I had one and only one chance to ever pass that test. Do you think I would go back and learn the content and skills if there was no reward, in this case a license? Probably not. So when our students turn in inaccurate work or miss an assignment and we do nothing but record that low score, are we ensuring they are learning the content? Are they going back and learning it on their own? Thomas Guskey in his article Five Obstacles to Grading Reform notes there are studies to support that some students work hard to avoid the consequences of low grades (Haladyna, 1999) but the reverse isn’t true. There is no research to support that low grades motivate students to try harder.

Reporting Student Learning by Ken O’Connor and Rick Wormeli comments, “If we’re living up to the promise of teaching every student, we could turn all summative assessments into formative ones.” That does not mean final exams, projects, or standardized tests are removed, but instead that students are allowed to “re-do” them after feedback from the teacher. It is not bad pedagogy to allow students to revise their learning and learning. In fact, it is best practice.

Should any student be allowed to “re-do”? If so, what prevents a student from checking out during daily work knowing that he/she could retake the final exam over and over again until a passing grade is achieved? How do we hold students accountable? No Penalties for Practice by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Ian Pumpian speaks to how one school’s faculty addressed this concern. Health Science High and Middle College (HSHMC) in San Diego, California identified all the course competencies per subject (i.e., eight in algebra and 17 in U.S. History) and then agreed that students would need to pass all course competencies at 70% or better to pass each course. If a competency was not met, an incomplete would be recorded “on the books”.  The student could then retake an assessment only after completing the practice work assigned by the teacher. The practice work, whether completed as homework, in Saturday school, or after-school tutoring, would not be graded but would be required for a retake. Would students at your school be willing to spend time after school, outside of school, and/or on weekends to pass? How would these expectations be communicated to parents? To students?

I land on the belief that standards-based grading should be the norm and used to articulate how well students accomplish the standards. Where do you stand on grading? Has your school moved to a standards-based grading system and if so, what results have you seen?

Late in 2011 I read The Happiness Project (by Gretchen Rubin, 2011), a New York Times Bestseller about a young woman’s journey to improve the quality of her life through fairly simple goals she sets for herself each month. It’s hard not to think about starting your own happiness project as you read her reflections, but I wasn’t sure I could pull off such a feat given everything I already juggle with work, school, and travel. Nonetheless, I made myself a little “Happiness Project” note on my phone with some goals that seemed reasonable. Nothing earth shattering, but things that I knew would make my life fuller or better if I could muster up the discipline and build some new habits.

Then as the last work week of 2011 came to an end, I received an email from a blog I follow (Box of Crayons: Great Work Blog) that challenged readers to pick 12 words for 2012 that would steer the New Year. This was particularly intriguing for me and so I set out to make my list. The first seven words came fairly quickly, and lined right up with goals I had already made for my pseudo happiness project. But coming up with the remaining words took a lot of thinking. These words were meant to drive my entire year! I wanted words with weight and words that would challenge me as a person, worker, and artist. I asked friends for help, talked about it with family over the break, searched the thesaurus, and then finally one morning my list was complete.

As a lover of words, I was a little troubled that my words were so simple. Did I need more sophisticated words to inspire change? Would these words really make a difference in my daily life? Nevertheless, I saved the little note on my phone and also made a little video that I’ve played each day since as a reminder.

We’re not even a full week into 2012, and already I feel the influence of my list. Not all the words, but some. I intend to track the impact of the list on my world of work here on the CTL blog. Some connect clearly, but others seem a stretch. I’ll keep you posted.

All of this did make me wonder if the same idea would translate to a school setting. Can you imagine if the entire pool of stakeholders in a building all committed to 12 words? Words like Excellence, Best, Respect, Questions, Results, Lead…how might this impact the day to day work in a school. I have my hunches.

I challenge you to pause this week and make your own list of words to steer your year. What reminders do you need to inspire your best work? I’d love to see your list.

The impetus behind the development of common core standards was threefold: to hold schools responsible for fewer curricular objectives but taught in depth and mastered by students; to increase challenge and ensure that students were engaged in a rigorous curriculum; and to assure some uniformity of quality among states’ curricula and assessments. The standards hold the potential to improve student achievement but on their own will not accomplish that purpose. I believe two essential ingredients are not receiving sufficient attention. These are instructional pedagogy and principal leadership for instructional improvement.

While the “what” of teaching is critically important, so is the “how.” Even with higher quality and fewer standards, students will not be more successful unless classroom instruction does the following:

• Addresses the diverse learning needs of students.
• Provides sufficient support for students to meet more rigorous standards.
• Differentiates across key variables like time, difficulty of materials, instructional methods and means of assessment.
• Engages students in tasks that have interest, value and meaning for them, and that advance their understanding of important concepts.
• Establishes regular classroom routines that provide students with a sense of structure and with well understood processes for individual, group and whole class learning.

The current conversation about Common Core Standards focuses mostly on curriculum alignment or mapping, and also on anticipating the kinds of assessments that will be used to measure student achievement. That missing step, instruction, must be at the forefront of these conversations for the standards to make a difference in student learning. Moreover, the principal is a primary player in fostering effective pedagogy as described above. In addition to providing time for teachers to map their curriculum against the new standards, teachers also need opportunity to plan collaboratively the kinds of instructional practices that will make the standards come alive for students and will promote mastery of new learning. Principal actions can include: setting expectations for instructional practices; observing classes and providing individual and whole faculty feedback on use of these practices; making high quality professional development available and weaving teachers’ new learning into faculty meetings, work sessions, professional learning community/cadre meetings, and performance evaluation; participating with teachers in professional development and being knowledgeable about the practices; collecting data on the impact of classroom practices in conjunction with implementation of the standards; and, highlighting successful teaching in parent, community and student forums.

The emphasis on instructional pedagogy and principal leadership, with the adoption of intentional practices that support the new standards, can lead to sustainability of reform efforts.

Metacognition, even with its five syllables, has a simple definition. Metacognition is thinking about our thinking. As a mother, I see my four year old daughter practice metagcognition on a daily basis. Most often it’s when she is practicing using new words in speech and she’ll begin a sentence only to stop, self-correct, and replace the misused word. For example, during bath time she recently filled up a plastic cup with tub water and set it on the edge. She said to me, “Please do not dump that water. I am doing an experience to see…wait (pause). I am doing an experiment to see if the water will still be warm tomorrow.” She was having an automated internal dialogue with self to think about which word would convey her intended meaning. She was thinking about her thinking.

 
As educators, we are aware that students need these moments to pause and self-assess. Such moments move them from passive to active participants in their learning as they monitor how near or far they are from achieving the learning goals and measure if they learned what was intended for them to learn. The self-evaluation has them consider what they know/don’t know, their strengths/weaknesses, and their beliefs/misconceptions. The following example models how one Social Studies teacher has students demonstrate reflective behaviors during writing to demonstrate activities.

After students have answered the question/prompt, they are asked to monitor where they are in meeting the learning goal. They place themselves on the spectrum of confused, maybe, and for sure. The teacher, as a reader of responses, then marks on the “I Think” spectrum to show where the student actually was in terms of demonstrating understanding of content. The teacher then gathers evidence about students’ processes and responds to their immediate learning needs using a variety of approaches. The goal is for the teacher to engage students in metacognitive reflection to think about and talk about the learning process. Some of the questions that may be asked include:

 
• How did you figure out the answer?
• What made you think of that answer?
• What was your thinking process as you worked through the problem/question.
• What would you do differently next time?
• Which answers reflect best work?
• Is future learning needed?

Research suggests that the simplest tools to encourage student self-assessment are evaluative questions that force students to think about their work (Hart, 1999). Once a student has reflected on his/her learning, the student can begin to engage in conversation with self, with peers, and/or with teacher about what specific learning actions are necessary to meet the learning goal(s).
What simple tools do you use to encourage students to self-assess? Which ones have led to automaticity? What are your students saying in response to their thinking? Please share your ideas.

I talk about culture all the time, mostly in the context of literacy, but also in relation to college-going, school climate, and the arts. I’ve never been hard-pressed to offer a suitable definition for culture in any of these scenarios, but when you remove the word culture from the context it’s referencing it became trickier for me to define. It’s a feeling, an energy that a space embodies. It’s palpable, but at the same time can be invisible. It’s strong, but can be weak or unhealthy. It’s observable in the people, but also in the things. (See, it’s tricky?) What is it really?

Per an assignment for my “culture of high-performing schools” class, I headed out on a field trip to investigate this further. I’m on the road this week, so tonight I flopped down in a comfy spot in my hotel’s lobby and I prepared to soak up the evidence that would lead me to a more complete definition of culture. My assignment included guiding questions to steer my thinking: What do you suppose the mission and values of the organization are? What evidence do you see to support your hunch? Is there consistency in how employees and customers conduct themselves?

Here’s what I observed and my thoughts on the matter:

• Uniformed attendants, calm, cool and collected. One greeted me and asked about my day. (I’ve been here 5 nights already. She’s seen me come and go.) It’s worth noting that all attendants I’ve encountered here are young, professional, and kind. This is not the norm in the hotel circuit. It’s a refreshing change.
• Guests moving in and out of the dining area, some to get snacks that the hotel provides (fruit, yogurt, cookies), some needing caffeine (free coffee!), some partaking in the “manager’s meal” which is a tiny smorgasbord of themed dinner food the hotel offers each week night. Tonight it was a taco bar. (I have a calendar in my room alerting me of what foods happen which nights.)
• Guests checking in, weary from wherever they’ve come from. Some have multiple suitcases and pillows in tow. (Who brings their own pillow to a hotel? This was news to me.) Most guests are slick, regular travelers: one bag, a computer and maybe a purse.
• Hotel maintenance and cleaning staff are moving purposefully about the halls, all appear to be headed somewhere. One gal, whom I presume was part of the cleaning staff (she was in a uniform gray dress) saw a guest coming and held the elevator for her just in case she was going to another floor.
• Front desk attendants juggle arriving guests and phone calls, sometimes making guests wait while they answer phones. (This is a no-no according to the customer service training I lived through in the 90’s. I wonder if the rule has changed.)
• Guests requesting toiletries or asking questions of the front staff. Some lady needed a tooth brush. She got one.
• There’s a small business office tucked in a nook right inside the hotel lobby. There’s a man on the computer, and two others in suits all discussing something to do with engineering. They are noisy.
• There’s a large sign that declares, “All pets must be announced at check-in.” This makes me laugh. I envision introducing my shih-tzu to staff. I also am guessing she’d be warmly received. Just a hunch.
• There’s a giant stone fireplace by my chair, but no fire tonight. (too warm outside) Multiple areas in the lobby for small groups to congregate comfortably. Stools by the “bar”, chairs by the window and fireplace, couches in the center, arm chairs in the business office.
• Brochures and magazines about the town are available for guests.
• Hotel furnishings aren’t fancy but somehow feel trendy: chaise lounges; quirky pendant lighting; large, close-up photographs of musical instrument parts are framed on the walls; pillows have abstract and geometric designs; the walls are cool yellow or papered with a textured linen material. (It’s worth noting, my guest room is also just like this. But add to it stainless apartment-sized appliances, a full kitchen, a separate sleeping space, a “living room” and desk space, and a large bath and closet space. I even have a recliner in my room that doesn’t look like a recliner. Ben linens are crisp white and the kind that come off easily and can be washed…no crummy bedspreads here. It’s a bigger room than most any I’ve stayed in before for business.)

And so I’m guessing here, that this hotel strives to be a home-away-from-home that’s slightly cooler than where you live. Or at least more like a home than any other hotel you might frequent for business. I think they pride themselves on a courteous staff that stays out of a business traveler’s way, but is friendly and available to help a guest that needs assistance. They are committed to a unique surrounding that feels expensive but fits in the business traveler’s budget. They are not trying to be a mega-luxury hotel, but they want to stand out above the sea of options for long or short-term stays.

So how does this help me define culture? I’m beginning to think my definition of culture from above, is not all that incomplete. I think I would add to it that culture emerges from a vision for how things should or can be. It’s most definitely in the people and the way things look and feel, the way people move through a space and how they regard one another in and around the place. It’s shaped by common beliefs, or at least an agreement to adhere to a common way of moving through the work. When it’s healthy and good it’s hard to pin down, but when it’s awful it’s everywhere you look. This I know to be true not just from my years of experience in hotels, but from the reality of the schools I service. I am aware more now than ever that culture is worth fighting for. It’s a make or break component of success. And as a leader, I expect you have to be completely clear on you vision and mission in order to build or shape the culture you invest in. This is a good thing to know.

We are thankful for good colleagues, meaningful work, and the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of students.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Your colleagues at CTL

“Creativity is about connecting things.” Steve Jobs

This past summer I decided it was time to learn something new. I enrolled in a week – long class on stop-motion animation at Arrowmont School of Crafts. The workshop was led by two folks from TinyCircus, a stop-motion animation collaborative, Greta Songe and Carlos Ferguson.

In past blogs I have written about my interest in digital media and about using flip video movie- making in middle and high school classrooms. This interest has continued to grow and stop motion animation is an area I have been anxious to learn more about. It is a great avenue to marry my work as a visual artist with my interest in film making and storytelling that has many applications for use in classrooms. Plus, I love looking at stop-motion animations; think Wallace and Gromit and Claymation.

It was fun and challenging to be in a hands-on learning situation again. There were thirteen of us in the class, from a variety of backgrounds with varying levels of expertise using stop-motion animation. I was the novice of the group and keenly aware of the discomfort a learner experiences when they don’t know what they’re doing. My learning curve was steep. The class was constructivist in nature requiring lots of scaffolding and problem-solving, both creative and technical.

The week long class was organized around morning and afternoon activities. In the mornings we received a tiny bit of direct instruction on the basics of stop motion animation and worked together to make a class stop-motion film, Bear Trap. We collaborated on Bear Trap in the mornings and worked on individual projects in the afternoon.

This was a challenging learning environment and an interesting model for teaching and learning. In future posts I’ll share some of the processes and scaffolding the instructors provided to teach us the basics of stop motion animation that lead to the creation of Bear Trap and to more complex and independent work in making our own films. This includes:

• inspiration and idea generation;
• the role of collaboration;
• technical aspects of production;
• and applications to classroom practice.