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.