Technology Didn't Make the List

by Sean Wheeler

 f/m flickr.com CC Licensed by MinimalistPhotography101.com

In an all-day district meeting, I heard plenty about "roll-outs", action plans, and "The 5 Step Process".  Luckily, an academic coach next to me had reached the absolute limit of her attention span exactly when I did.  Mid-presentation, she turned to me and asked, "If there were three things that you'd say were the most important things to the work your group is doing in the classroom, what would they be?"  I didn't miss a beat.

1.  "We learn."

The teachers I work with think deeply about our need to model learning for our students.  We share links, discuss what's working, and all subscribe to a wide-variety of blogs and twitter feeds.  Our PLN expands all the time, and our students can clearly see that we are learning all the time.

2.  "We collaborate."

Our LHS 2.0 group 's collaborative model starts with the teachers.  We watch each other teach, jump in on each other's lessons, and work together to help our students regardless of content.  We co-design projects.  And we talk, all the time, about how we can work together better.

3. "We're patient."

Sometimes learning something takes awhile.  It takes some failure, some frustration, before ideas and skills start to set in.  Our natural inclination as teachers is to press for time, to move on because we're falling behind our pacing guide, or because we have to give a common assessment in two weeks and we can't afford to wait around for kids to actually learn the content.  The teachers I'm working with are learning to be patient.  We're not there yet, but we wouldn't be where we are without it.  Real learning takes time.

Of course, that isn't exactly what I said, but it was something like that.  The state "improvement coach" rolled on with his presentation.  "The Common Core = Rigor", or something to that effect.  The woman next to me leaned in and whispered, "But... technology wasn't on your list.  Why not?"

I'd like to say that I told her that technology wasn't the house but the hammer.  I would have loved to have asked her what her three things were.  It would have been worthwhile to go back and forth about the role of technology in the work that we do.  But none of that happened.  Just as she asked her question, the improvement coach broke us into "leadership teams" to make SMART goals.

What We Cheer For

by Sean Wheeler

 

I applaud things I agree with.  Sometimes I'm the only one clapping and that has it's ups-and-downs, but usually I clap when everyone else does.  Usually, if that many people join in on clapping for something, it's a pretty good thing to be clapping about.  

Not today.

Our first staff meeting was a barrage of "compliance" and "discipline" rhetoric that, though hard-knuckled, had nothing to do with teaching and learning.  We got the new hall pass run-down, policies for tardy students, changes in our in-school suspension process, a reminder about appropriate teacher work attire, and finally, we were told that "Saturday School" was back.  The room erupted in applause.  

Why?

How come teachers are pandered to when it comes to celebrating discipline, while any message of engaged teaching and learning is approached with delicate steps, and "pilots", and "roll-out plans"?  While I appreciate teacher frustration in regards to classroom management, the answer shouldn't be to leave the classroom broken and come up with new and better ways to punish kids.  All the hall passes and tardy slips in the world can't help students want to learn.  Why was I sitting in a room full of teachers applauding the effect and ignoring the cause?  Admittedly, teachers have been, and are, continually wrung through the wringer  on all fronts.  It's a tough job and sometimes you just want someone to fix something, anything.  I just wish the first staff meeting of the year could have been about learning.  Or at least it would have been nice if it even got mentioned.

After the applause, of course.

Are we in a fight?

By Sean Wheeler

Stag at Sharkeys - George Bellows. Cleveland Museum of Art

Is education reform a "fight"? 

 I spent the morning with some teacher friends having coffee and discussing how we all felt about the upcoming year in relation to how we're feeling after the end of a relaxing summer.  One of my friends shared that she was working on implementing a more taoist approach to the school year.  And as we talked we found our way into thinking that one of the keys to stay sane in these times is to consider your framework, your approach to things.  I, of course, couldn't help but frame the upcoming school year as a fight.  That's what it feels like, like the picture at the top of this post. It's not really about fighting people as much as it is about fighting against ideas that are incredibly entrenched.  My friend told me that I had the framework all wrong.  She said it was more of a process than a fight.  And that I'd do a lot better, mental health-wise, to see our work as evidence of the change that I think I'm fighting for and then to step back and let the work speak for itself.  I know she's right, and I'm so thankful for such great advice from a great educator.  So why can't I shake this feeling like it's round 7 and I'm down on points?  

I'd be interested in knowing how other people see it.  Is education reform a fight?  Should it be?  Is it a process?  Can/should we "push the river"?  This is one I'd really like to hear back on.

A Rose by another name

by Lisa Wiegand
Intervention Specialist

I was just reading one of my many blogs and it struck me....pbl ...we keep calling it project based learning but the other blogger called it problem based learning....hmmmmm sounds a lot more enticing and realistic...let's solve some problems....

Sisyphus Making Waves

by Sean Wheeler

Resistance is a natural response to change, and all too often working in education reform, that resistance takes a toll on those of us pushing for it.  It's tough to walk down the hallways and look in classrooms that have teachers barricaded behind their desks giving orders for search-and-destroy worksheets, knowing full well that the very same teachers will block your every move and cast every nearby stone at the afternoon's department meeting.  It's draining to have your head in all of this new information about teaching and learning and then have to explain it to everyone who asks what is so special about your classroom.  It's lonely, it's frustrating, and it's consuming.

At times, Sisyphus looks like he had it easy.

Whiny enough?  While those feelings are very real, they're also self-defeating.  Sisyphus was doomed, we're not.  I'm learning that change will never happen because I made it happen.  It will occur only when we get together online, in public, and at school, to each chip away with the same tools, ideas, and solutions wherever we are.  While tidal waves happen once in awhile, it's rarely a single wave that changes the landscape.  Sure, we all get flack for creating waves, and it is taxing, but let's not forget that making waves is part of something bigger; erosion.  As I connect with more and more educators, I'm certain that I'm beginning to see a new shoreline.

SBG and Feedback

Ken Kozar - Biology Teacher 

One of our goals this year to provide better feedback for our students.  Since we have moved away from a traditional grading system to one where we focus on learning, I believe we also need a vehicle to provide feedback to both students and parents WHILE that learning is taking place.  Far too often we report out to parents after it's too late which leaves them very frustrated with the current model.

Enter Blue Harvest created by Sean Cornally.  Sean teaches physics in Iowa and was tired of how his district reported grades so he made his own.




Using traditional grade programs to report out just isn't providing enough information to our students and parents.  This program allows teachers to leave comments, add links to projects or other evidence of learning, and instantly have feedback sent out to parents via email or text message.  Is it finally time to move to a more flexible grade book?  Take a look at let me know what you think. 

Google Doc - Rough Outline of Wkiseat Project

By Sean Wheeler

I've put the early plans into a Google Doc and I'd love any suggestions.  If you'd like to be included as an editor of the document, please leave your email in the comment section.  Thanks.