The Hardest Question of All. . .

"Will my child be okay?" is hands down the most difficult question a parent can ask.

It's so difficult because, when a parent asks this question, there are often really complex issues driving the query.  Issues that do not have, and will never have, easy and pat responses.

And, I personally feel that the only teachers who are permitted to respond with a resounding yes to such a question are those who are brand new to the profession and have yet to develop the ability to respond to such a question with insight and plausible, workable solutions; who have yet to develop the confidence and insight that would enable them to answer "Yes, but. . .".

I also think that this is a question that reflects just how difficult it can be to raise a child, let alone a child who struggles .  A parent doesn't ask this question of just anyone.  They must truly feel (or expect) that, as teachers, we CAN fix the problems their children are experiencing; that we have the skills and knowledge to HELP. It is this incredible level of trust, perhaps even blind trust, or, probably more accurately, fear that their child isn't going to be okay,  that makes this question even more challenging.

So.  When I am asked to respond to this question what do I do?  What do I say? Well, I hope my response is guided by the late Rita Pierson whose mission in life was to find a way to help EVERY child learn and fulfill their potential.

I hope that my response, although guarded, is always hopeful.

I hope that my response highlights the strengths of the child.

I hope that my response honestly takes into account the child's challenges.

I hope that my response offers up plausible, actionable, possible solutions.

I hope that my colleagues and my administrators can  diplomatically voice our misgivings,  find common ground, and then work together to bring these solutions to life.

I hope that my response is taken in good faith, as I don't know everything.  I can only work to find solutions. I can only base my responses on what I see and know from my daily interactions with the child in question.

This leads me to another aspect of my response to the question "Will my child be okay"? Many times, there are things the child can actually do.  I love this quote.  In my classroom, I can always provide learning experiences that are interesting and personalized.  I can learn as much as I can about a student's learning preferences and style, I can be their champion and let them know daily that I believe in them, but at some point, a child who struggles is going to have to decide for themselves whether or not they are going to  be an active participant in their learning journey, instead of letting themselves be victimized and defined by their challenges.  This lesson is hard and not always palatable, but it has to happen.  In such a situation, though I hope:

That the child's voice will be heard.

That the child's own fears, misgivings, hopes and dreams will be taken into account and respectfully integrated into the proposed solutions.

That the child's needs supersede the expectations either explicit or implicit that I, the school, or the parents might have.

And finally, (and so many of the parents I have the privilege of working with do this with so much grace and aplomb that I marvel each and everyday), I can only respond to this difficult question when the partnership between myself and the child's parents is open, honest, and based upon mutual respect. Revisioning a child's path involves: finding solutions, building confidence and self-esteem, enabling learning, supporting curiosity, and looking towards a positive and productive future.  Those are my goals as a teacher.  But, without an entire team working together to engineer actionable solutions, I cannot  respond appropriately to the question posed by the concerned parent.

When we all work together as a team.  When we are  a kind and caring community,  when we look past marks and standings, when we stop pointing fingers and making excuses, when we sit down with our all our cards out in front of us and honestly express our hopes and fears, THEN, together, as a team we can all say "Yes, absolutely" to the most difficult question of all.

All students have LearnAbiltites. Let's make sure we give them what they need.

















 

Changing the composition of the soil: helping students see connections and possibilities through gardening, making and social activism

We have two aspects to our adult lives: our vocation and our advocation. The former pays for life, the latter makes it all worth it. Education, with vision and purpose, makes both possible.

I garden to feed my soul.  The fact that I also can feed my belly is an added perk.  Like all of those who put seed into soil, I find something utterly rewarding in watching my efforts come to fruition.  And, as a teacher, gardening seems to be an apt metaphor for so much that we do as as a recent #TEDEdChat on Ron Findley's Ted Talk  revealed.  I don't want to rehash every metaphor we explored, but I do want to speak towards the very powerful metaphor found in Findley's talk A guerilla gardener in South Central LA and how it relates to a fundamental purpose of education: helping students learn the skills and mindsets that will enable them to productively and meaningfully contribute to the communities they live in.

In his talk, Findley reveals how "I have witnessed my garden become a tool for the education, a tool for the transformation of my neighbourhood. To change the community, you have to change the composition of the soil. We are the soil." How can we as teachers change the composition of the soil so that we have fertile ground for life?  Let me suggest 5 ways:

1.  Eradicate poverty by ensuring the education that every student, in every school around the world, gets will enable them to be meaningfully employed for life:  Once again, developing strong skills in literacy, numeracy, science, and the social sciences probably is the best way to ensure that students have the basic skills and the learning skills needed for post-secondary (and I don't just mean university).

2. Create the kinds of lessons, units, and programs (hopefully interdisciplinary in nature) that give students the ability to solve novel, authentic, real-world, real-life problems using the skills they have acquired in all their courses.

3. Let them make mistakes, but ensure that you provide them with the supports to learn from their mistakes. If you want to change the composition of the soil, students are going to need grit.

4. Let them learn how to make something.  What is wrong with students knowing how to do an oil change, build something, cook something, sew something, fix something, create something?  The Maker movement speaks to something almost primal in our pyscholological make-up. The skills students learn in these environments just might be the avocation that gives purpose, excitement and flow to their lives for years and decades to come.

5.  Playtime.  Have as many different kinds of clubs and extra-curricular programs as possible in school.  Sports are vital, but, so is the crochet club, the manga club, the take-it-apart-and-put-it-back-together club. Even in high school, we need to help students learn to create balance in their lives.  Students with avocations are more likely to develop the skills that help them stick it out in their vocations.

So.  I have just given myself work for life!  Over the next year, I want to explore how I can help my students improve or optimize the composition of their soil.  And I don't think that academics is the only way.  I have spent more than half of my career in schools were many of my students will not go to university and will not have white-collar jobs. They will work with their hands and be active participants in society.  They raise families and pay their taxes.  But I am also very mindful that the last 10 years in North America has clearly highlighted how both these white-collar and blue-collar jobs that were once deemed life-time vocations are not as secure as they once were.  So, this brings me to my next point.

Education today must give our students the ability to be life-long learners with one more spectacularly important skill: the ability to see connections and possibilities that do not seem to exist.  And that is were I think we need to focus far more upon the connections between the disciplines; upon the fact that in life, rarely do you just use one skill to solve a problem.

I'm a big fan of Gever Tully and his Tinkering School: Life lessons from tinkering and 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do.  Gever Tully thinks that we need to let kids just get dirty and make things.  In doing so, they learn a lot, make many, many mistakes, probably cut themselves, and use skills from all of the disciplines to solve problems.  As a mother, watching my young children do this daily in our backyard, I'm scared silly, but it also fills me with awe. Children are natural makers and problem solvers and, when we cut up learning into isolated disciplines, we slowly kill that innate ability.

So out of all of these observations and ideas, I have a suggestion for a interdisciplinary, inquiry, project-based unit centred around the idea of gardening using Findley's notion that gardening is all about changing the "composition of the soil" and Tully's idea that there are  "simple things that we can do to raise our kids to be creative, confident and in control of the environment around them".

I'm going to call it "Life Gardening" (hopefully my students can come up with a much more inspiring and hip name) and I want to use it with our grade 7s.  We recently received a grant from the BP A+ For Energy program  http://www.bp.com/en/global/aplus-for-energy.html that will enable our school to build a greenhouse.  Initially, the grant was for grade 7 science and in particular for a single unit "Plants for Food and Fibre",  but I see the potential for something much bigger within that grade.

I'm toying with using Ron Findley's talk as the central text and then bring in math, science, language arts, social studies, food studies, art and music to create a 6-8 week learning experience that will not only help students master the skills and knowledge of grade 7 science, but, more importantly, help them make connections within all of their classes.  We might end up growing the plants that the First Nations people were cultivating in pre-colonial times here in Canada,  or honing our informational text skills by researching and reading about gardening, or donating our produce to the homeless at our local drop-in centre, or holding a fundraiser for materials to continue once the funds from the grant are used up,  or becoming politically engaged so that our environment can continue to sustain and feed all of the citizens of our planet,  but those are all big steps in making Grade 7 Social Studies, Language Arts, Math and  Science more relevant and real to a group of students who might, otherwise,  not be able to see the connections between those disciplines; who otherwise, might not be able to see early enough that all of life is connected in some meaningful and compelling way.

And, hopefully, in the end, the final result will be a dedicated and devoted group of kids who grow up to not only be avid gardeners,  with meaningful and productive careers in related fields, but adults with an advocation and passion for social justice that was ignited by the lessons they learned this year in a small greenhouse on the playground.

Talk about planting the seeds for the future; talk about changing the composition of the soil.

Come, let's revision our pedagogical practice together.

  

Leader's eat last: a nod to Simon Sinek, strong leaders, and the power of collegial environments.

Effective leaders with vision have one truly great skill: they are able to see past their own "importance" and build an environment that supports authentic collegiality. 

If you are observant,  Graduation banquets tell you a great deal about a school.  

When done well, with attention to a school's core values, with attention to the true purpose of such a celebrations, Graduation, whether is is for Kindergarten, grade 6, grade 9 or grade 12 is a truly moving experience. 

But this post, although inspired by what recently happened at my school's grade 9 graduation ceremony, is not  about grad at all.   It is, instead,  about a small gesture I took note of, probably not noticed by many, but one that spoke volumes to me. The gesture was the simple act of the attendees at one table who willingly and graciously chose to eat last.  

At that table, all of our school leaders.

  
Which brings me to the point of today's post.  What makes a great educational leader and how this question of leadership is the single most important factor in a healthy, innovative, collegial, collaborative, and, most importantly, a SAFE  school environment.

According to Simon Sinek's TED Talk Why good leaders make you feel safe, good leaders eat last.   This concept of eating last comes from the the Marines and how the leaders always ensures that his or her troops eat first.   Sinek relates the story of the remarkable Captain Swenson who willingly endangered his own life to save the lives of many of his own wounded soldiers.  And Sinek logically thought that perhaps Captain Swenson was only remarkable because he naturally was that kind of person, but, Sinek revealed in his TED talk that  "it's the environment, and if you get the environment right, every single one of us has the capacity to do these remarkable things, and more importantly, others have that capacity too".  

Amazing and effective  leaders create safe places where their employees can literally DO their job.  It seems so simple.  And, when you have the pleasure of being in such an environment, you don't realize it at all.  That's the problem with great leadership.  If it is done well, everyone thinks they can do it.  How hard can it be?  But, just wait until you work in a school or organization where someone has "power" and doesn't know how to use it.  Then, all of a sudden, it becomes crystal clear what good leaders actually do, and, how hard it actually is.  

Furthermore, those of you who have been following (Re)Vision It  have probably noticed that I write a great deal about fear.  Usually I write about fear from the perspective of my students, but this time, I feel I have to write about fear from the perspective of a teacher.  

In my chosen profession, there can be a lot to fear: parents, narrow, un-inspired curriculum, the political machinations of the current zeitgeist,  standardized testing that is punitive in nature,  lack of funding, lack of job security, and, let's not kid ourselves, even the students.  These are all very real fears and I don't think that there is a teacher out there who hasn't had their knees shake at one time or another regarding some the aforementioned issues, but perhaps the most frightening scenario a teacher can come up against is that of poor, ineffective, narcissistic leadership.  

Effective leaders with vision have one truly great skill: they are able to see past their own "importance" and build an environment that supports authentic collegiality, collaboration, growth, divergence and risk.  Narcissistic leaders can never let go of their own self-importance long enough to see that collegiality, collaboration, growth, divergence and  and risk are not a direct affront upon their own agenda and/or need to be at the centre of all  attention. 

Effective leaders see what needs to be done, know what the problems are, see their staff's myriad abilities, assign tasks and roles, and then let stuff get done.  They help direct.  They help shape.  They help solve problems as they arise.  But, they know that they can never do it all by themselves.  And that  takes humility and humbleness and a true desire to get it right.  Not because the leader wants the glory, but because he or she not only cares deeply about the organization they work for; he or she cares deeply about the people behind that organization. 

Which brings me back to fear.  If a teacher has reason to fear or not trust their leader this is what happens:
They retreat.  
They stop growing.
They atrophy.
They second guess their abilities.
They put themselves first.
They become silent.
They focus upon the negative.
They spend more time on their exit strategies than on their day-to-day tasks.
They don't open up. 
They close their door. 
They hate their job.
They stop trying.
They count down to the next holiday.
They lose sight of the bigger picture.
They stop having fun.
They don't connect.
They don't mentor.
They teach to the test.
They disrespect leadership
They stop caring.
They come late and leave early.
They just do what they have to do.
They do too much.
They cry too much. 
They don't cry.
They form cliques for protection.
They don't share.
They mistrust everyone.
They develop a herd mentality of us vs. them.
They believe nothing will ever change.
They lose faith.
They don't fulfill their innate potential.
They quit.

If, as according to Sinek, the environment makes or breaks an organization, this is most definitely not the kind of environment you want, especially in a school. 

What is it like to work in such a place, with such leadership? A never-ending desert. 

What is it like to work in a place where your leaders "eat last?"  Well, its like you've just come out of that never-ending desert into an oasis where someone hands you a tall glass of cold, clear water.  

When you no longer fear, when you are no longer thirsty, when the environment you work in feeds you, when the leader you report back to treats you with respect and autonomy, you, as a teacher, will and can move mountains.  But, most importantly, you emerge from your shell and join the group collective.  You begin to contribute to the whole.  You become part of the solution instead of a hapless, helpless victim.  You bring agency and verve to your classroom where YOU are the leader. 

That for me is probably the single greatest cost when a teacher is fearful because of poor leadership: they themselves cannot be the kind of leader students need.   

George Couros, a superb and forward-thinking Canadian educator recently wrote an interesting post on his blog The Principal of Change entitled 5 Characteristics of an Innovative Organization.  In this post, Couros wrote that effective leaders create safe and collegial learning environments when they focus upon:

1.  Promotion and modelling of risk-taking,

2. Competitive-Collaboration,

3. [Being] Proud of where [they] are, but know [they] have a way to go,

4.  Sharing,

and

5. Relationships, relationships, relationships.

Is this not what we as teachers strive to do each and every day?  Are we not leaders in our own right?  Do we not have a responsibility to ensure that we also create an environment in our own classrooms that echo the environments we want in our staff-rooms?  

I was so tired of being afraid as a teacher.  And, whether or not the fear I perceived was real or not, it consumed me.  This post has been very difficult to write.  I want to dispassionately reflect upon what fear  did to me and what it does to my colleagues for whom I have enormous respect.  I hate it when I see people hurt. 

Together, let's revision our pedagogical practice, so that we can help shape students into  leaders who know how to create the kinds of environments where, even though they eat last, they are sustained by the respect and admiration of those they lead.  

School needs no more fear. 

    

Listening to your students: thesis statements, individualized prompts and essay review

I think we really need to listen to our students.  We have to sit back and just let them talk to us and share their story.  Let them tell us about themselves.  Give them the time and respect that all people deserve.  I think I learn more about my profession and what my responsibilities need to be when I take the time to sit back and soak up what my students say to me on a daily basis.  So, when my student Ellie, a grade 9 girl,  tells me "the ideas that we make today create the future for tomorrow", I listen.  After all,  Ellie is right.  Her voice IS the future. 

Case in point.  This morning my principal sat down and evaluated me.  It wasn't the greatest time.  I'm in the middle of final review for my province's standardized writing exam, the dreaded PAT.  My plan was to go over the structure of the thesis statement and how it controls the organization of the entire essay.  Not exactly scintillating material. 

However, it all went well. After 15 years, I think I've figured out how to teach the essay.  But the best part was instead of doing a mundane review exercise for thesis statements with a dull prompt from a previous exam, I gave my students individual, hand-crafted prompts that were based upon something I had come to know about them over the last few weeks. I spend a lot of time letting my students talk.  As long as they are reasonably engaged in their learning tasks, I usually mingle and float around with one ear tuned into their discussions.  I learn about their lives, their habits, their hobbies, their plans at the same time I'm peering over their shoulder reading their writing or offering feedback or assistance.  So, it dawned on me that if I wanted them to really engage with this dull exercise, the best way to do that is to create a task that appeals to them.

As an aside, the Expository Pillar (see Barbara Mariconda), a method for teaching the organization necessary in the essay format is not really a priority for any grade 9 student, but, the essay, perhaps more than any other form, especially now in a time when to be a published essayist/blogger is easier than ever, gives the ordinary person a voice.  I want my students to be able to communicate clearly and efficiently because having a voice gives you some power over your life and your future. 

I was pleasantly shocked at how well the whole experience went.  Even more shocked that my grade 9 hipsters, cool cats, and seemingly blasé young adults were actually touched that I went out of my way to hand-print them a prompt, put in in an envelope, and seal it with a sticker that reflected their personality. But the most rewarding part of the lesson was how their faces lit up, how they looked up in incredulity, and how some actually laughed out loud when they saw that their prompt was about something they liked or were knowledgeable about.  And, even better, the focus and effort they put into crafting their thesis statements and body paragraphs was remarkable. 

Thesis statements are hard.  Normally, students try to dodge this practise, but today, because I listened to them, they learned something.  And, come Monday, when they have to sit down and write their PAT essay, I have the sense that they will remember how to structure their thesis statements and body paragraphs.  Not that achieving a high standard on a provincial achievement test is the end all and be all of their existence, but being able to clearly and effectively articulate their ideas, give voice to their thoughts,  and craft their future is. 

Any suggestions?  Together, let's re(vision) our practice together!

  

Thinking About the Future (Part 2)

Last week, I decided that I was going to find a way for my students to find their future.  I didn't administer an aptitude test, I didn't talk about careers, I didn't talk about the difference between a vocation and an avocation (which is worthy of a post of its own and, often,  the entire focus of my ELA Grade 9 program).  No, I had my students watch a TED Talk.

In this case, Matt Cutts' short gem of a talk:  Try Something New for 30 Days.  Afterwards, we talked about how it could be possible to enrich one's life and the lives of those around us by doing something simple for 30 days.  I shared with my students my own life goals big and small as examples.  And we talked about  our IPP goals (all of my students have learning disabilities). We talked about how it is often difficult to maintain a goal over a long period of time.  And, most importantly, we talked about how the goal has to have some sort of personal relevancy.  I also made the caveat that their goal could not be a school goal, but could be a learning goal.  I didn't want this goal to be something they are supposed to be doing already. And I have absolutely no intention of ever marking this activity. 

 For the remainder of class and most of the next day's as well, we formulated our goals.  Since I have learned over the years that you can't just assume that students know how to make a goal, let alone, know how to pursue one, I taught students the basics in terms of how to build goals using the  SMART method.  

 http://heidipowell.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Goal-Setting.jpg)

I like SMART goals. This methodology helps students create manageable goals that mean something to them. Even though the SMART goal method might seem self-explanitory to adults and students alike, I found that I had to spend a lot of time going through each concept before my students really understood exactly how a SMART goal works.  

Initially,  my students found it difficult to make goals that were very focused.   And, while it was wonderful to see students come up with big goals, I do want them to actually accomplish something in the next 30 days.  So, we worked on narrowing our focus until they had a goal that was not only focused, relevent, time-bound but attainable.  I want these 30-Day Challenges to become part of the fabric of our daily life.  If they are not something a student can do in their freetime, they won't happen.  Students also felt that it was enough to just "do" their goal, but I knew from prior experience, that if I didn't build in some sort of goal management they will not have the success they will need to want to continue. 

So, how do I build in goal management?  

It's not that hard.  I take literally two minutes a day in class and I personaly ask them how their goals are progressing.  I hold them accountable.  All of their parents know and, every day, their goal is part of their daily agenda.  But, I don't hound them and, most importantly, I understand when a student tells me, often very sheepishly or hesitantly, that they won't  have time to work on their goal because of a myriad of really good reasons.  We deal with it.  In fact, I have also had students realize that they can't accomplish their goal at this time and so we sit down together and quickly tweak or, if necessary, change it so it is attainable. My students also really appreciate the countdown that I have posted on my whiteboard.  And, because I'm so enthusiastic about these goals and because I believe in celebrating our achievments, we are going to have a goal party on May 6 in every class.  Nothing huge, but some treats and time to share our successes.   

Also, and we really spent a long time on this aspect of a SMART goal, we discussed what measurement is.  Many students thought that their goal was measurable if they completed it, but I don't think that measuring their goal only once is good enough.  So, what is good measurement?  Establishing base data.  Many students have physical fitness or specific goals related to the sports they participate in.  I asked them to track on the first day their current ability, endurance rate or skill level and then keep track of their daily progress.  For students who had goals that were not sports based, I asked them to record their feelings about their goals or build a check-list.  Who doesn't love to check things off!   Then, lightbulb! We realized that tracking our progress daily would be really easy if we used the cameras in our phones.  Everyone is taking pictures or video footage so at the end of this challenge, all of my students basically have visual documentation of the progress of their goal.   So easy, yet so effective. 

So.  Is this an easy activity?  Did any of my students come up with something earth-shattering?  No! They are 12-14year olds!   I had to really work hard to help my students create their goals and some are not exactly earth-shattering  in their scope.  But, for many of my students this activity was one of the first time they had ever been asked to think about a goal for something they were actually interested in.  And, since this activity is going to be part of my classes this year and I fully intend to keep it up next year, I think that we are building a culture of optimism and and efficacy one goal at a time.  

In my last post, I wrote a great deal about the future.  I know in my heart that students need to be the future makers and I don't think they can be futurists if they don't know (or have permission) to think big.  I also know, and Winston Churchill sums it up perfectly that "it is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see."  I think that both my students and I know that we need to look ahead.  We all know that, but I think that my job is to give my students the courage, the skills, and the opportunity to look further than they can see.  

And, speaking of the future, I think that next month, when it come time to begin our next round of 30-Day Challenges, we are going to start with a little bit of inspiration and view Bran Ferren's awe-inspiring talk To Create for the Ages, Let's Combine Art and Engineering.  Of course, we'll probably end up spending a class just talking about the ideas in this talk, but that's okay.  Also, I'm going to ask my students to read the following blog posts from TED: 

Helen Walters' What will blow our minds in the next 30 years?

and

Blaise Aguera y Arcas"s The Future is Coming. 6 Ways it will Change Everything

Together, with my student's energy and my determination that they not "miss the future", I think that we can embrace, enhance, enliven and enthuse their hopes and dreams.  

I can't wait. 

If you have any comments or suggestions, let's re(vision) our pedegogical practice together. 

Thinking about the future (and fear)

The future is, for many of us, the stuff of sci-fi movies: movies which tend to depict post-apocalyptic, depressing, dark (literally) worlds where human survivors battle zombies, aliens or despotic/autocratic governments in an often futile attempt to maintain a life with some semblance of dignity.

Yikes!  No wonder the future is a concept that really scares people.  And, as I've discussed in a previous post, fear shapes our actions/reactions in ways that are not productive or healthy.   

So why am I thinking about the  future today at Re(vision) It?   Well,  isn't education  about the future? I've been in the education business for 14 years.  In my experience,  schools often toss the phrase around that we are "teaching kids for the future".  Some are. Some really try. But there are still a lot of schools that don't actually discuss what the future will look like other than the construction of 1, 2 or 5 year plans that seem to be about the future but mostly focus upon a re-hash of tired professional development initiatives, quick-fixes or dismissals of complex problems, and the narrow focus of improving scores on standardised tests.  

As well,  especially here in North America, there is a strong lobby pushing for back to basics education. I can refer to  the recent discussion in my home province of Alberta regarding the future of math education and how, by bringing back the mandatory memorization of the multiplication tables in elementary schools,  back to basics math education will enable our children to become leaders in the realm of critical thinking. Yes, I think the powers that be have completely missed the point.  

Now, before everyone gets their undies in a knot, I taught grade 12 ELA long enough to understand the necessity of basic skills (and the resultant issues when they don't exist), but, I  am very terrified that by maintaining "traditional" teaching practices and/or curricula that haven't changed much since the Victorian Era, we are damaging our student's future even more.  Sadly, I think that this focus on basic skills occurs because of two reasons:  one, it seems easier to teach material this way and two,  back to basics doesn't make parents feel like their own skills are pushed to limits they don't want to admit that they have.  Fear seems to drive this educational movement. Education and learning should always have the future and it's lofty hopes and aspirations at its core; a sense that there is always more; that there is a higher purpose behind learning.  When, out of fear of failing standardized tests or making parents "angry"  we  focus upon the "basics" at the expense of essential questions and enduring understandings, possibilities and the future,  our fears make us teach in such a way as to limit our students' abilities to be active creators of the future/their future. 

Recently, At TED 2014,   Charlie Rose asked Larry Page, co-founder of Google,  what habit of mind has served him best.  Larry's response:  curiousity.  Seeing the possibilities of the future and doing something about it. But what really struck me was when Page said that the reason he feels so many companies and organizations simply stop existing is that "they missed the future". http://on.ted.com/qmu2

They missed the future.  Wow.   

I'd hate to think that that might be my legacy.  I'd hate to think that my students might miss the future because how I teach them disables their ability to play with, to toy with, two kinds of futures:  their own, and the one we will all live in together in the upcoming decades.

So, where am I going with this?  How can we revision our practice?  Perhaps with giving students access to the future  by bringing our innovators, dreamers, inventors, philosophers, futurists, writers, content creators, computer scientists and scientists working on the future into our classrooms.  If you need a starting point, go to TED.com.  Access the talks of our great thinkers and doers of now.  Ensure daily that  students SEE the connections between what they are learning in class and the future. Always teach with the big picture in mind.  But, most importantly, let your students shape their own futures. Give them the chance to have agency and purpose by teaching them these skills.  

Here's an example of how I try to incorporate the future and agency into my daily practice.  

Based on Matt Cutt's ted talk http://on.ted.com/c0723 "Try something new for 30 days", my students and I think about our futures and come up with an idea worth trying, a project worth trying, a goal worth trying. . .you get the idea,  for 30 days.  To make  this worthwhile, I have a few stipulations:

• Their goal can't be something mundane like doing their homework or chores every day.  If I want to encourage students to be futurists, their idea has to be big.  

• Their goal should be slightly scary, risky, out of their zone of proximal development.  This feature is important since you can't achieve anything if you aren't pushed out of your comfort zone once and a while.  I tell my students that it is okay to fail (they can always try again or revision their goal).  

• We express what our 30 day challenges will be and post them publicly (obviously, I have spent a lot of time on creating a safe and open classroom so that we can do this), but, if a student so wishes, they can "pass"; however, their goal has to be handed in to me at least.

•  We explore the SMART goal procedure and  plan out our challenges. 

•  Once a week, we have time to check in about our goals and report on our progress. 

• After 30 days, we re-evaluate our progress and start over (or continue if need be) . 

This activity is a manageable way to get students thinking about the future.  It also provides them with  a sense of agency, a sense of  power, and a  sense of accomplishment.  Furthermore, over time, many come to realize that the future is not a place of fear, but rather a place to look forward to.  

Courtesy of the TED2014 Blog:  If you are interested in reading about what the future quite possibly will look like, check out the following links.  I'm sure you and your students will find some interesting food for thought (or inspiration).  

What might happen in the next 30 years?

The future is coming. 6 ways it will change everything.

Let's not miss the future.  Let's revision our pedegogical practice together. 

Taking a good look at fear

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.  -Thomas Edison

Fear is powerful.  This emotion dictates, far too often, the kinds of decisions we make and our reactions to the events that take place in our lives.  It cripples our spirit and hobbles our innovation.

But what is the worst effect of fear?  It keeps us from fulfilling our potential.

Failure and risk.  Look at these two words.  Are they negative or positive?  I imagine our default response is negative.  But, let's revise our immediate response.  What if we could learn to embrace failure and risk as positive?  What if we could come to see that we can  reach our potential, or, better yet, extend past our percieved potential and astound ourselves by embracing the learning that comes about when we take a calculated risk; when we experience failure?
 

Recently, Commander Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut who was a commander at the International Space Station in 2013,  gave  a powerful TED talk about fear. What really resonated with me was Hadfield's thesis that you can't really get anywhere if you let fear stand in your way.  I know that this is not a novel idea, but Hadfield clearly outlined an approach for overcoming fear using an analogy that many of us can relate to:

 How do you get around it, though? How do you change your behavior? Well, next time you see a spiderweb, have a good look, make sure it's not a black widow spider, and then walk into it. And then you see another spiderweb and walk into that one. It's just a little bit of fluffy stuff. It's not a big deal.And the spider that may come out is no more threat to you than a lady bug or a butterfly. And then I guarantee you if you walk through 100 spiderwebs you will have changed your fundamental human behavior, your caveman reaction, and you will now be able to walk in the park in the morning and not worry about that spiderweb -- or into your grandma's attic or whatever, into your own basement. And you can apply this to anything.

What does Commander Hatfield's idea suggest to me, an educator?  Well, firstly, you can't have a meaningful learning experience that will stick with you, if you can't take a risk.  Secondly, you can't grow into your potential, if you are too afraid to make a mistake.

I know that in my classroom, an English Language Arts class, I demand that my students don't parrot back to me what they "think" I want to hear.  I want them to feel safe enough to tell me what they think. I want them to take intellectual risks and come up with their own ideas.  The best way I know how to encourage that kind of intellectual behaviour is to present my students with open-ended questions, and to insist that every question has a "response" instead of an "answer".  This wording might be linguistic hair- splitting, but an "answer" gives students only two options.  They are either right or wrong, therefore, they have to find the "right" answer which causes learning to become fraught with anxiety. Few students will take a risk when they are anxious.    Whereas, when I ask my students  to provide a "response" I indicate to my students that there are a variety of possibilities, which I respect,  and that finding the one that represents their thinking the best will potentially involve thinking outside of the box which is often inherently risky.

Now I know that in every discipline there are times when you need a "right" answer, but there are many, many times when a learning task or summative assessment in any subject can be open-ended. Why not start there?  Also, since many of us work in school climates that are based upon a numerical mark, why not ensure that students get used to taking a risk on formative assessments first?  Let's build up their confidence  in terms of risk taking and dealing with mistakes before we expect them to take a risk on a summative task.

So, how does an educator go about eradicating fear?   With mindfulness, effective narrative feedback, celebration of divergent thinking, and respectful learning tasks, educators can create a classroom environment where students know that it's okay to walk into the "spiderweb".

By the way, if you want to listen to Commander Hadfields entire talk, click on this link: http://on.ted.com/a05vW

I look forward to your comments and suggestions.  Let's revision our pedagogical practice together.