Student Behaviors

Robert Temple Ayers - https://www.flickr.com/photos/42787780@N04/4975296555 — Robert Temple Ayers – https://www.flickr.com/photos/42787780@N04/4975296555

I have recently been reading the book David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell. I’m not sure if any of you have ever read anything by him, but he often picks a story to share, and then spends the rest of the book talking about the psychology behind what “really” happened. He does a ton of research, interviews a wide variety of people on a wide variety of topics, and then puts it all together in a way that ties back to his original message.

If you remember the story of David and Goliath from ancient Palestine, you will remember that David miraculously felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a pebble and a sling. Now, any rivalry game where one team is hugely favored and the underdog wins is often referred to as a battle of David and Goliath. What I have taken away as one theme of the book is that sometimes there are times that the win by David is not as improbable as you might have suspected.

Let's hope your class doesn't look like this!!! http://gatheringbooks.org/2011/05/10/miss-nelson-is-missing/ — Let’s hope your class doesn’t look like this!!!
http://gatheringbooks.org/2011/05/10/miss-nelson-is-missing/

In one portion of the book, Gladwell is talking about classroom management skills. He describes walking into a classroom that appears to be absolutely in chaos. The teacher is at the front of the room doing a read aloud. One student is standing next to her and they are taking turns reading from the story. Kids are making faces, one girl is doing cartwheels, and several students have turned their back on the teacher. The situation is unpacked a little more greatly in the book, and it becomes obvious that the teacher in this situation is using some very poor classroom engagement strategies which lead to the classroom management issues, but something that Gladwell said struck a chord with me:

“We often think of authority as a response to disobedience: a child acts up, so a teacher cracks down. Stella’s classroom, however, suggests something different: disobedience can also be a response to authority. If the teacher doesn’t do her job properly, then the child will become disobedient.” (Gladwell, pg 339)

A view of some of the projects in Brownsville - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Qbridgenycha.JPG — A view of some of the projects in Brownsville – https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Qbridgenycha.JPG

In the same chapter, Gladwell then shifts to a story about a program based in Brownsville, a residential neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn, NYC. If you were to visit, you might be inclined to refer to this area as the projects. In 2003, a police officer took charge of the city’s Housing Bureau, and their primary responsibility was the Brownsville projects. In an effort to try something new, they started trying to help the troubled youth in the area. They identified all the juveniles in Brownsville who had been arrested in the previous year. They reached out to those kids and their families. Kids who were brought into the program were told that the cops in this group (called the Juvenile Robbery Intervention Program – J-RIP) would do everything in their power to help. They would get them back in school to get a diploma, bring them needed services for their family, find out what’s needed in their household, provide job opportunities, educational opportunities, medical – everything they could. The program would work with the kids, but there was one circumstance. The criminal conduct had to stop. Kids were told that if they got arrested for anything, the cops would do all they could to keep them in jail.

The cops in the J-RIP program seemed to be everywhere these 106 kids went. They’d show up at their home, find them hanging out in other parts of the city, walk up to Facebook friends and talk to them about what they’ve been up to. These cops lived in the world of these kids. Initially things did not go well. The kids didn’t want to interact, the families didn’t want to interact. The cops had the best of intentions, but they weren’t getting anywhere. Finally they had a breakthrough one November. One of the cops decided it would be a great idea to help out one of the kids they were most worried about losing. One the Wednesday before Thanksgiving this officer went out and bought a Thanksgiving dinner for the kid’s family and delivered it. They knew they might not be able to get through to the main target, but maybe they’d have a breakthrough with the kid’s seven siblings. That year, through the efforts of the commander of the unit, they were able to get funds to be able to deliver a turkey to the home of every kid that was on their list for Thanksgiving.

The reason they were so persistent in trying to meet the families was because police in Brownsville were not seen as legitimate. A large percentage of the families in Brownsville had only had negative interactions with the police, and multiple people in most families had spent time behind bars. By taking turkeys to the families of the J-RIP kids, the cops were saying to the families “we really do care about you and your family, and we want to help you make the most of yourself, and most important, we want you to have a good Thanksgiving.”

After this, things in Brownsville began to turn around. The trend line on all crime in Brownsville dropped significantly in the following 5 years. Kids who were in the J-RIP program went from a total of over 350 arrests in the year before being added to the program, to less than 40 arrests. Gladwell argues that what this proves is that

“the powerful have to worry about how others think of them – that those who give orders are acutely vulnerable to the opinions of those whom they are ordering about.” (Gladwell, pg. 356)

As teachers, we are clearly in a role of power. Some of our parents are scared to be involved in school because they may have had bad experiences when they were in school, or maybe their child has had bad experiences in the past. Some of our students are nervous in the classroom because of things beyond our control, maybe a bad experience in another class, or their perception of the teacher. As people in power, what actually matters are the hundreds of small things that we as the powerful do – or don’t do – to establish legitimacy. When power is not seen as legitimate, it can often have the opposite of the intended effect.

https://allthingslearning.wordpress.com/tag/trends-in-education/

We are dealing with the minds of 10, 11, and 12 year olds. Sometimes they struggle to understand the things we say, the jokes we make, or the ways we interact with them. Things like sarcasm and a sense of humor that may make perfect sense to the adults in our building will fly right over the heads of our kids, and instead they will feel that you are actually being serious, or possibly making fun of them. For some of our kids, the direct approach doesn’t work because it only leads to a shutdown.

Think about what you do to build legitimacy with our students. Keep in mind that what works with one kid may not work with another. Also keep in mind that without legitimacy, our students may not see us as people who care for them, but rather as the person who’s trying to keep them down. If you want to build better legitimacy with your kids, give them a voice. Also, give them the time to talk about their interests. Think about the J-RIP program – they took a small group of kids living in Brownsville and truly showed those kids that the cops cared about them, and many of them changed their ways. It also had a larger effect of changing the culture of crime in the entire neighborhood. Who are the kids that you would identify as needing to know you care? How can you show them that you care? How can you build greater legitimacy so that your power has the intended effect, and doesn’t lead to unintended consequences?

Mindsets

What is your mindset? Do you see the glass as half empty, or half full? Attitude and mindset are two of the greatest determinants of success. Having our minds open to new approaches can allow huge changes in schools, which in turn could make life easier for all of us. In the coming weeks we’ll be talking about various mindsets that may be affecting us in our classroom, and by extension be affecting our students.

Today I wanted to share a short YouTube video that shares the results of a study on praise and mindset. The video has a run time of just under 5 minutes.

Something like this could help our students change their fixed mindset ideas into growth mindset thoughts.

If you’d like to see the TED Talk that relates to the research by Carol Dweck on growth mindsets, here you go:

How can this knowledge of mindsets impact your teaching right now? Share something that you might do differently based on these videos.

Preparing our Students for the Great Unknown

When you were in 6^th grade, what did you want to be? When you talk to our students, what jobs do they want to have some day? The amazing thing is that some of the jobs that my classmates are in did not exist when I was in 6^th grade. How many jobs that our students will end up doing don’t even exist yet? In a previous post I shared the following quote from Thomas Friedman:

“Today’s workers need to approach the workplace much like athletes preparing for the Olympics, with one difference. They have to prepare like someone who is training for the Olympics but doesn’t know what sport they are going to enter.”

Matt Miller - http://ditchthattextbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/jobs-that-didnt-exist.jpg — Matt Miller – http://ditchthattextbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/jobs-that-didnt-exist.jpg

A quick search of the top jobs for 2015 lists things like computer systems analyst, software/app developer, information security analyst, and IT manager. These are all relatively new jobs. A couple weeks ago, I talked about the importance of being able to learn, unlearn, and relearn. What does this look like when we don’t even know what jobs may exist when our students enter the job market?

To me, there are a few skills that will always be valuable. These are the skills that are most important for our students to learn. Here is a list that Matt Miller shared of a few skills that will help our students be better prepared for the real world when they get there:

Adding value
Creating content online
Continuously listening and watching for new ideas
Glamorizing hard work
Turning wasted time into productive time
Cultivating relationships
Being financially responsible
Staying on the cutting edge
Maintaining a balance between professionalism and being a real person
Becoming a twenty-four-hour worker

Some of these may be hard to visualize in practice in the school building. If you’re looking for further description on any of these skills, let me know and I can share a more detailed explanation.

Are there any skills that you feel are left off of the list above? What would you add? Share in the comments below!

Gatekeepers or Travel Guides

Prior to the development of written language, the gatekeepers of knowledge were the village elders who could tell stories about the history of a village or society. Those elders would teach the “smartest” members of the village the old stories so that the history could live on. Once societies began to develop a written record, this role began to phase out. In more recent history, the gatekeepers of information were the librarians, teachers, and college professors. They gave the knowledge to their students through lecture format and rote memorization.

Today the role of a teacher is changing. Our students don’t need gatekeepers to provide them with the knowledge they need. Our students won’t quit playing a video game because they get stuck, they watch a YouTube video to show them how to go further. If they see a reference to someone and they want more information, they grab their phone and find out more from Wikipedia (for base level knowledge, it does a pretty good job!). If they are arguing a trivia fact they can find the answer through a Google search – for some of our kids, the Google app is one of the most used.

When we provide more students the opportunities to share in the classroom, we are building bridges to the world instead of placing them in a silo. https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14749002232/in/album-72157645530010989/ — Matt Miller – https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14749002232/in/album-72157645530010989/

Even though students have the ability to find the answer to their content questions, they still need our help. They need us as mentors and guides who can help them discover their passions, and then investigate those passions using the skills that will be valued by our changing world.

How have you noticed your role changing in your classroom as it has become easier for students to find the answer to their content questions? Share some thoughts in the comment section below.

The “Typical” Day

What does a typical school day look like? Get to school on time, go to class, sit quietly, do your work, write all your answers down, listen and take notes, leave at the end of the day, do more work when you get home. This sounds pretty routine, and is exactly the model that Ken Robinson was arguing against in his “Changing Education Paradigms.”

Matt Miller - https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14562421540/in/photostream/ — Matt Miller – https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14562421540/in/photostream/

In a recent MIT study, researchers identified two categories of work that have been in a fairly consistent decline since 1960. Those are the jobs that are defined as routine and manual. The jobs that have been growing are the non-routine tasks. Those are the tasks that require problem-solving, intuition, persuasion, creativity, situational adaptability, visual and language recognition, and in-person interaction.

In our school improvement plan we say that engagement and inquiry should be in the forefront of our planning. I believe that it is much more important for our students to know how to ask the right questions, and then how to find the answers themselves, rather than simply answering the questions we ask. In the book Future Shock, Alvin Toffler said “The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write. The illiterate will be those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” This applies to education just as well as it does to any other part of society.

Matt Miller https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14562423080/in/album-72157645530010989/

I think that as teachers, many of us think that our classroom should somehow resemble the classrooms of our childhood. When I first started in education, I thought it was a good thing for my students to be quiet – especially when my principal came in the room. Now I don’t feel that way. When a classroom is silent, my first reaction is “are they taking a test?” Collaboration and problem solving rarely involve silence. I’m not saying that it should never be silent in a classroom. There’s a time and a place where that is necessary. However if we are trying to meet the concepts of the Best Practice Model, should it be silent most of the time?

Reflect on your own classroom. What does your class look like most of the time? What changes have you made, or will you continue to make, in order to help your students be ready for the non-routine tasks of their future? In the comments share some of the things you’ve tried before, or share something that you feel like you want to try soon.

Focus on Student-Centered Activities

Last week I shared a TED Talk from Sir Ken Robinson. In that video he talked about the factory model that some schools have become. Our students can be really good at playing the game of school here at RSI, or in junior high, and possibly even in high school. By playing the game of school I mean finishing homework, not causing issues in the classroom, and being what would generally be considered a “good student” in the old factory model of education. But when they go on to college, or when they are out in the real world, those students who played the game are not ready for real life. Know this: Homework completion in fifth and sixth grade are not a sign of success in the future – I consider myself a walking example of that statement. When graduating from college, our students may have a degree that they don’t really know what to do with, and send out resumes that put them into jobs that they do not find inspiring.

http://www.hse.k12.in.us/resources/pdf/ADM/academics/hse21/best%20practices%20model.pdf

The best way we can break this model is through providing more student centered approaches in our teaching (think back to the post on the HSE²¹Best Practice Model). When students are investigating things that are high interest to them, they find passion and purpose in their learning. When students want to learn more about their passions, they need only type a few key words into Google. Through that search they can be directed to pages of information, videos, pictures, and blog posts that may help them learn in a way that fits their learning styles.

Matt Miller - https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14726101996/in/album-72157645530010989/ — Matt Miller – https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14726101996/in/album-72157645530010989/

Through integrating the Internet and online tools, you can help students realize that there are things in the world that they want to explore. You can help provide them with that spark that may ignite their passion.

In what ways have you tried to factor in your students own curiosity in your classroom? When you try to be more student centered, what do you notice about classroom engagement? Share some ways that you have tried to keep learning and teaching “student centered” in your class.

Sir Ken Robinson!

Many of us have seen the TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson titled “Changing Education Paradigms.” It is a talk that I find myself going back to again and again. Early in the talk he shares the story that kept many of us in school. That story was that “if you worked hard and did well, and had a college degree, you would get a job.” He goes on to say that in today’s world a college degree, while it does generally make you better off, it doesn’t guarantee a job anymore.

For this week’s PD, I am going to share a link to that video. The run time is just under 12 minutes. Don’t be surprised if, like me, this video sends you down a wormhole of other talks by Sir Ken Robinson and some other speakers who are working to transform teaching and learning.

Did you come across any nuggets of wisdom that will transform something that you do in your classroom? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

If you’re interested in more, I included links to a couple other Ken Robinson TED Talks (I love them all!):

Bring on the Learning Revolution!

How to Escape Education’s Death Valley

Getting ALL our students to participate in the classroom

This photo was titles "Boring Lecture, 1940s" https://www.flickr.com/photos/dukeyearlook/2076633334/in/photostream/ — This photo is titled “Boring Lecture, 1940s”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dukeyearlook/2076633334/in/photostream/

This summer the entire HSE administrative staff participated in a 2 day workshop titled “Undoing Racism.” For two days all of the central office administrators, principals, assistant principals, and deans sat in a large circle talking about some pretty heavy topics. Several times things came to mind about the discussion, but I found it hard at times to share that thinking with everyone in the room. I didn’t want to be judged. My own insecurities prevented me from actively participating in the discussion at times.

In your classroom, there are students who are actively engaged in your lessons, who have ideas that could be beneficial to all in the room, but for whatever reason they are afraid to speak up. Using a backchannel during your class (especially a lesson that is heavy on direct instruction, or possibly during a video in class) could serve a couple of purposes. A backchannel could allow students to share thinking while they are receiving information, it allows more students the opportunity to share their responses (those times when you can’t call on all the hands that go up – just have them all enter share their response in your backchannel), and a backchannel could even be used for a quick check formative assessment to see where kids are in the middle of a lesson (ask a question, tell kids to type in an answer but wait for your instruction to post, and then have them all post at one time).

Sites such as TodaysMeet.com can allow us to set up a place for our students to go where their voices can be heard, but they don’t have to worry about being singled out or having everyone watch them. Everyone gets to have a voice. And it only takes a moment to set up a room (that you can leave open for the entire school year).

Have you tried a backchannel in your classroom? What went well? What were some of the struggles? If you’ve never tried it before, start small. Have students pose questions or connections while watching a video so that you can more easily monitor the discussion.

Technology to Make Life Easier

Last week I talked about how living in a digital world makes it easier to connect with people all over the world, or in your own backyard. In addition to allowing us to communicate so easily, technology can make us all more efficient. While there are times that technology might seem to make life more difficult, there are so many benefits that it’s hard to ignore.

Here are just a few ways that tech can help us transform teaching and learning:

-Field trips – instead of spending weeks planning and preparing for a field trip (think scheduling the trip, collecting money, permission slips, scheduling buses, etc.) you can create a field trip experience during a class period without leaving the room. Skype or Google Hangouts can let you chat with people almost anywhere in the world.

-Grading – instead of sitting at your desk with a stack of papers, you can use online methods to assess your students. In the case of simple assignments, they can be auto-graded through apps and websites. Something more complicated can be assessed and returned to students anytime of the day.

-Materials – no more digging through file cabinets, folders, or binders. Now you can do a quick keyword search in Office 365 or Google Drive to find the document you need.

-New ideas – you don’t have to spend hours flipping through books to find new ideas, now a quick search on Google or communication through social media could come up with new ideas in a matter of minutes.

Those of you who know me well know that I am pretty “techy.” If any of the ideas above sound like something you’d like to learn more about, let me know. I can help you find resources to use the digital world to allow yourself to be more efficient.

What tech have you used to make life easier in your classroom? Share some ideas in the comments below so that others can learn from you!

Making Connections

In last week’s post we were talking about the HSE Best Practice Model. There are many ways we can help our students be successful in the 21st century. Our digital world, while not the only solution, is one of the keys that can help unlock the door to that success. As an example, I’d like to share something that happened to me last spring. I was reading a book and the author made reference to a spreadsheet that she used to track data on students. While in theory I could guess what it probably looked like, I was having a hard time visualizing it. I flipped to the appendix hoping to find a version, but no luck. After rereading the passage I still had questions. I decided to look on Twitter to see if the author had an account. Sure enough, she did. I sent a tweet to her, and in a couple minutes she responded. Through a direct message I sent her my email address, and 10 minutes later I had a screen shot of the exact spreadsheet.

Matt Miller - https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14746748124/in/photostream/ — Matt Miller – https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14746748124/in/photostream/

Who are the people you’d like to ask questions? In a less connected world, you might have been able to track down a mailing address, send a letter, and hope for a response in a couple of weeks. Today through the use of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other digital services, we can connect immediately. As teachers, we can leverage those connections into ways to help our students interact with the larger world. Your class is learning about space science? Have them compose a tweet to NASA or an astronaut (think about Scott Kelly on who is currently involved in the Year in Space Mission). Did your students have a question about a book? Try tweeting the author, or have your students share their reactions via your twitter account.

Sylvia Duckworth: https://plus.google.com/+SylviaDuckworth/posts/61rTzdcJ1yG?pid=6097161572876797314&oid=114228444007154433856

Personally, I look at Twitter as less of a social media site, and more at a Personal Learning Network. I have connections to resources who share their ideas, and I can communicate back and forth with them. And the best part of all of it? I can do this anytime that works for me! I don’t have to rely on anyone else’s timeframe to guide my learning.

Sylvia Duckworth: https://www.flickr.com/photos/15664662@N02/20735433665/

How many of you use social media for the purpose of learning? What sites have you found successful? If you’re on Twitter, share your username so that we can follow you.

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