What I Learned this Week 8/13-8/19

Sometimes learning comes easily, sometimes it is much harder.  The larger question when I think about my learning this week is where does my comfort zone for learning lie, and how can I push myself to expand it.  Let me explain.  This week I started an Ed x course through The Smithsonian Institute titled The Rise of Superheroes and their Impact on Pop Culture.

The course offers students three options for their study of this topic.  The history track, the creative track, and the combination track. The choice of which option to pursue is up to the individual learner.  Within the history track students will study a historical era and the superheroes of that era with a final task of discussing how a particular superhero of the student's choice evolved from myth and through time.  Within the creative track, the student will create a new superhero and over the weeks develop a villain,  a setting, story, and finally design and illustrate a scene.  The combination track has the student do both assignments each week.

My difficulty came in choosing which track I would pursue.  If I chose the history track I would be working in an area that I was very comfortable with, using methods of inquiry and writing that I had done before.  If I chose the creative track, I would be exploring a side of myself that I  use, but not in the context that I would be asked to work.  Particularly the ability to draw characters.  Despite the fact that I could use a character generator, draw stick figures, or use images from the internet, I was very uneasy about pursuing this learning.  It was well outside my comfort zone, and it would push me academically in ways that I had not been before.
Ultimately, I chose to audit the history track and pursue the creative track, despite my nervousness about this type of study and stretch myself to learn new skills, despite my misgivings about my success because this is the type of learning I want my students to pursue as they go through not only school but life.

In the course of my studies this week I was able to learn that most superheros are based on ancient myths, that among my classmates Batman (my favorite) was their favorite superhero, that their favorite villain was the Joker (mine is Lex Luther), that if my classmates could have any super power it would be teleportation (mine would be the ability to fly because I am afraid of it and I don't).

For my first assignment I searched for Gods and Goddesses that focused on learning or wisdom as I wanted to design a character that would inspire others to learn and grow.  My research uncovered two gods and one goddess that I was intrigued by: Coeus a Greek wisdom god, Snotra a Norse wisdom goddess, and Thoth the Egyptian author of the Book of the Dead who is the god that is the master of time, mathematics, astronomy, reading, writing, and arithmetic.  The choice came down to the fact that this god had a picture, while the others did not.

Unfortunately, I did not learn what UCT time was until after I tried to turn in my superhero slide only to learn that 23:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) which was 7:00 PM Eastern time. Thus, there seem to be even simpler lessons to be learned in the midst of my broader learning experience.

Things I learned visiting classes this week:

1. Stages originally were set on a slope or hill that tilted downward towards the audience.  Thus the term moving downstage, related to going downhill or towards the audience.  Upstage referring to moving up the hill or away from the audience.
2. You can use Google to convert currencies.  I realize this might seem obvious, but I had been using xe.com which was my primary source for this information when I taught Econ.
3. Language acquisition takes 5-7 years in total.  Social language develops faster than academic language second and takes longer.

Things I learned from students this week:

1. Junior year is hard.
2. Psychology the whole Chapter 1
3. Adhesive tape uses moisture to stick. 
4. In English class we read a poem about the Native Americans and how they had their land stolen.
5. We watched an inspiring story about an wrestler who had MS and lost every match, but persevered and finally won.

What I read this week that taught me something new:

1. Converse gym shoes originally made entirely from rubber to keep the wearers feet dry and sand free on the beach.  The article From Converse to Kanye: See the Rise of Sneaker Culture from 1917 to Now in Fast Company gives a brief history of sneakers, including my daughters favorite-Chuck Taylors.
2. Edutopia features classrooms designed by teachers on a budget in their article Tips for Creating Wow-Worthy Learning Spaces gives teachers 6 simple areas of design (flexibility, belonging, interaction, attention, neat, and concentration) to consider as they think of reworking their learning space including videos of teacher rooms. 
3. Ed Bates, writing in SmartBlog on Education, gave out Classroom Management Tips and Tricks for the start of the school year.  His focus on establishing consistent procedures and expectations for students helps to create a classroom that encourages learners to learn.  

One last thing I learned, how to tie a bow tie, but you will have to wait until tomorrow morning to see that :). 

What I Learned this Week-August 5-12

Last Wednesday we began our transition at PHS to both a balanced calendar and from a 5 period a day trimester schedule to an 8 period day semester schedule.  The adjustment in everyone's equilibrium continues to be an ongoing learning process as staff members adjust to an entirely different pacing of classes, students adjust to more coursework due to the increased volume of classes, and I adjust to trying to figure out what period we are in on a daily basis, plus the shortened time between classes to visit classrooms and see students. All in all, it has been a smooth transition though.

As part of my thoughts on a new year, I wanted to step up to an article I had read earlier this summer in which educators were challenged to make their learning visible.  The article, which I have subsequently lost in my Pocket archive, made me really think about my role as an educator who has a passion for learning, and helping others to learn as well.
At roughly that same time, I happened upon my blog and realized that it had been nearly a year since I had written anything.  A year in which lots of learning occurred and the sharing of links happened on twitter, but the internal processes, and the growth I made from that reading stayed hidden and unshared with a wider audience.  Something that goes against my very core as a learner.

Finally, I put all of the ideas together while reading Edutech Musings Blog written by my twitter friend Chris Fancher formely of Manor New Tech in Texas, now an instructional coach at Decker Middle School in Manor.  Each week Chris has a post titled Things that Peaked my Interest this Week in which he lists some of his favorite readings and videos of the week.  I like reading this, and usually save 3-4 of the articles for me to read at a later time.  But it lacks an insight into what Chris is learning from these articles, and how he is growing.  Something that he does so well in his other posts.  

All of these sources made me I want to model a weekly post about what I was learning along the lines of what our Assistant Principal, Kyle Coffman, does with his weekly Friday Flash email that highlights comments from students as they answer his question: "Tell me something good" as well as information about literacy, a passion of his, and staff/student/school accomplishments.   Thus I hit upon What I Learned this Week Wednesday.  Each week it will be my goal to highlight things that I have learned while visiting classrooms, talking to students, and reading from a variety of sources.  This weeks list includes:

What I Learned in Class this Week:

1. Ragtime was a pre-1900s music sensation.  As a history teacher I am somewhat embarrassed that I did not know this already.  
2. Cadets at the United States Air Force Academy sleep on the floor so that their beds are always perfectly made in the morning, and thus they can save a few minutes for extra sleep.  
3. If you give a teenager a card that says-Get the ingredients you need and make Rice Krispy snacks-what you end up with is nowhere as good as when you give them more detailed directions.

What I learned from Students this Week (all entries are quotes from students who were asked, "what did you learn this week"):

1. I am really liking building trades we learned how to find the height of a building without going up it.
2. I learned 127 medical terms, my favorite is rhinoplasty which is surgery to the nose.
3. I learned trying to graduate early is kinda scary, but over the last 2 years I've learned when times are rough you just need to push through it.
4. I learned about a new business in Plymouth-The Potters Pad where you can go paint your own pottery.

What I Read this Week that Taught me Something New (Truth disclosure, this first set are items from over the summer as well as this week):

1. I learned that the simple nudge of a text message can help students learn more by reminding them to do their homework.  The article from KQED's MindShift titled "Can Text Messages and Interventions Nudge Students Through School" so inspired me that tomorrow we are meeting with the students who our guidance department has identified at most at risk to have them sign up for a Remind course so that our Director of Guidance and I can send nightly reminders for students to do their homework.
2. On a related note, I learned their is a web based app called Whats Due that will automatically send students due date reminders to their iOS (Apple) and Android devices.
3. Finally, from Fast Company, I learned that changing your reading habits can have health benefits.  The article titled "How Changing Your Reading Habits can Transform Your Health" showed how reading can change your perspective on life and gives you a renewed understanding of yourself.  This renewed understanding can help to make you more resilient in the face of challenges.  Additionally, reading for pleasure, can reduce stress, lower your chance of suffering from depression, and even help stave off dementia.  The ways to change your reading were to: Read what interests you, and not what you think you should read, Find 30 minutes a week to read, Create a challenge for yourself, and to Not stick with a book your not enjoying. 

Image from http://www.theworld4realz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/lightbulb-moment-300x300.jpg

Blended and Online Learning Class Reflection on Motivation

This week we finished our studies by listening to Dan Pink discuss his findings on motivation.  In his July 2009 Oxford, England TedTalk, Pink rebuts the idea that if...then... motivational strategies work best.  Citing research like the Candle Problem, Pink shows that if...then... motivational strategies in which workers are rewarded by getting more pay, or other incentives, while effective in repetitive tasks do not work for the complex tasks of the 21st century.  With this in mind we, were asked to reflect on how we might incorporate autonomy, mastery, and purpose into our professional situation.

Last year, I attempted to use some rewards to try and get students to class on time.  When students had an excessive amount of tardies (over 12 in a 12 week period) they were assigned a week of lunch detention.  After seeing this not be a deterrent for a majority of our students who were habitually late, John Fishback (one of our guidance counselors) suggested that we try something beyond punishment as a motivator.  With that in mind, I began offering students in this situation, and for tardies beyond 12, the following incentive.  For everyday that you are on time for all of your classes, the next day's lunch detention will be removed.  For many students this worked, they stopped being tardy, for a week, to avoid the lunch detentions, but then they would be back in for getting to 15 tardies.  At 15 tardies, they received a week of lunch detentions, plus two 1 hour after school detentions.  Again they could remove the lunch detentions for being on time daily, and for every 2 consecutive days without tardies the after school detentions would also be removed.  Again for a majority of the students this worked, for a week, but there were still some students who got to 18 tardies, which lead to 1 week of lunch detention, 2 after school detentions, and 1 2 hour after school detention to be served on a Wednesday, between the after school detentions on Tuesday and Thursdays.

The incentives at this level were the same, but in order to remove the 2 hour detention, students needed to be on time for every class for 5 consecutive days.  Again, this worked for the majority of students, but there were still 2-3 who progressed to ever longer periods of lunch detention, after school detentions, and 2 hour detentions.  This example shows that for a routine problem, getting to school on time, the carrot and stick approach would work.

Much like Pink shows though, for tougher motivational problems, like improving grades, students need more than a carrot and stick approach.  For these kinds of problems students need more than just being paid, although Steven Levitt in this blog post shows that when faced with the potential loss of money students will do better on tests, they need something that will engage them in what is to be learned.  This is a much harder system to design, on the surface, than simply paying learners to do well on a test.  But, it is not as hard as it seems to be.

The keys to getting students, and workers, motivated for these higher end tasks according to Pink are autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  With these tools, students become engaged in what they are doing. To get our students to do more, we simply need to find ways to give them autonomy and purpose in what they are doing.  When I taught at Bremen, this occurred in 1 trimester when I taught US History B by theme as opposed to by chronology.  The students looked at American history for the 20th century and created decided on the themes we would study.  A majority of what we studied within each of these themes was presented by students in a manner that they chose.  The students were motivated, grades improved, and the presentations were incredible.  I could not wait to for that class to arrive each day, and I think the feeling was mutual based on conversations we had.

At the E3 Technology Conference this past week at Warsaw High School, Angela Maiers termed this Unleashing Genius, while Kevin Honeycutt would regularly go to students he was teaching with a unique problem or software he wanted the class to use.  He would ask them to do him a favor and learn the software, then present it to the students.  The student would learn the software, present it to the class, and in an added bonus have an opportunity to shine in front of their peers.

It works for adults to, Kevin got me to spend 2.5 hours creating the Youtube Video below, after a 30 second conversation about a method I use to monitor my daughters' social media posting.  The conversation, after a session on parenting and social media, went something like this:

Me:  Kevin, have you heard of If This Then That.
Kevin:  No.
Me:  You can use it to set up recipes to email you when your children post pictures to Instagram
Kevin:  That sounds great, I had heard a little about it but don't know much.  Can you do me a favor, can you make a video on that and send it to me via twitter.
Conference ends, I go home, have dinner with my family, spend 2.5 hours producing this over too many takes.

This year, I am focusing on how I can unleash the genius of my students and peers.  I am asking at least 3 students each day, and 1 staff member, what their genius is.  I am then asking them how they are sharing that genius with the world.  All it is really going to take, is to find ways for them to utilize that genius within their classwork.

Liberating Genius: A Day with Angela Maiers

I spent yesterday at the e3Tech Conference at Warsaw High School.  In reality, due to the keynote and sessions that I chose to attend, I got to spend my day with Angela Maiers.  It was a great way to re-invigorate myself and get fired up for the coming school year, which I was really needing.  In a weird twist, after having a great year last year and being excited about our senior mentor program, freshman homeroom program, and STAT revisions that we have been working on this summer, I was very down about my job.

When I took the job at PHS the greatest disappointment was that they changed my title from Assistant Principal to Dean of Students.  It may not feel like a major change, but mentally this made me feel pigeon holed into being merely the discipline guy.  I believe that I did this job well, but I longed for more outside of the area of discipline and attendance.  This year, with the creation of our freshman homeroom program, senior mentor programs, and re-calibration of our STAT program, but in many ways I still feel that restriction as being "the discipline guy".  In fact, when most people hear what my job is they instantly say, "oh so your the guy that deals with all the bad kids", or something to that extent.  In my mind, I think they are picturing this guy:

Mrs. Maiers opened the day by asking me what my genius was as I was standing in the hallway waiting for her to get done talking to a friend of mine.  In my typical, "I suck" manner I told her that I really had none, for which I was gently scolded by her.  Great start to the day...

During her keynote presentation she asked everyone in the audience to be courageous and take a selfie, then tweet it out by stating what our genius was.  Being the lemming that I am at heart, I turned, and snapped a selfie:

As the day went on and into the night when I was at home, I though of more to add.  Thus, this is my genius (for the moment):

• Sharing my passion for learning
• Thinking creatively
• Connecting with at risk students
• Caring for others
• Using technology

Hopefully this list will as I continue to grow as an educator.  Ideally, at the end of this year it will include an entry that says "Helping others to Liberate their Own Genius" so that I can do for the students I interact with what Angela Maiers did to me; make me see and believe that I am more than just the Dean of Students, help them to see that they too are geniuses and that they need to share their genius with the world.

Please comment below, so I can learn what your genius may be.

Reflections on a Growth Mindset Part III-The Music of Growth

This summer I attempted to go back to running.  I set a goal of running at least 1 mile per day from the day after graduation until school resumed in August.  I made it 32 days in a row, but have not run now in nearly 3 weeks.  The idea that we form habits by doing something for at least 28 days is true, and my running had become a habit, but the habit of not doing something is also very powerful and often hard to overcome because it is soooo much easier than doing something.  For example, last night I had intended to start running again, get a new streak going, but it was too cold to run.  Yep, it was 70 degrees in Indiana in July and I was too cold to run, I wonder what will happen when it is -10 in February and I have to get into my street parked car to drive to work?  I am not sure if this inertia is the result of a fixed or growth mindset, but what I do know is that this inertia keeps me from experiencing my daily dose of growth mindset via Miley Cyrus, Eminem, Kristin Chenoweth, and Idina Menzel.

As I ran more, I started creating playlists of music, searching for songs to keep me going.  The three best songs in those runs became The Climb by Miley Cyrus, Lose Yourself by Eminem, and Defying Gravity sung by Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel in Wicked.

I tried to time the songs to my runs, so they would come out at the times when I most needed to be inspired to dig deep and keep going.  Inevitably they always would, because each song speaks to that biological desire we all have to learn, grow, and become better versions of ourselves.

Ultimately this matters because the more we can expose our students to a growth mindset, in ways that they can connect to and internalize, the sooner they will begin to embed that mindset into their own lives.  And that is when we will be able to see their growth begin to take off.

Blended and Online Learning Class-Module 3 Reflection

This week's reflection is centered around the Florida Center for Instructional Technology's Technology Integration Matrix and I focused my study of the available resources on my former area of teaching, Social Studies.

The matrix is a very valuable took, in that it allows teachers to explore lessons that integrate technology at a variety of levels.  These levels are:  Entry-the teacher begins to use technology tools to deliver curriculum to students, Adoption-the teacher directs students in the conventional and procedural use of technology tools, Adaptation-the teacher facilitates students in exploring and independently using technology tools, Infusion-the teacher provides the learning context and the students choose the technology tools to achieve the outcome, Transformation-the teacher encourages the innovative use of technology tools, technology tools are used to facilitate higher order learning activities that may have not been possible without the use of technology.

In addition to describing levels of technology integration, the matrix is also segmented on the vertical access by different types of learning environments.  The environments are:  Active, Collaborative, Constructive, Authentic, and Goal Directed.  This segmentation furthers the usefulness of the tool so that teachers can tailor the ideas from the tool to the learning environment that the students will be working in.

Based on my teaching practice from when I was in the classroom I believe that I would be at the collaborative adaptation or collaborative infusion level depending on the lesson.  I was a fairly early adopter of technology in my school district and worked hard to integrate it into the classroom in unique ways, but I do not believe I ever reached the transformative stage where students were driving the use of technology, except for maybe in the creation of a class blog and podcasts maintained by the students, which never really worked the way I envisioned.

If I were still in the classroom, I believe that I could get to the transformative level by the end of the 1st grading period this coming year, however, I would  want my learning environment to change from being a collaborative one to being an collaborative/authentic one as I would want to implement PBL within my classroom the majority of the time.

In order to make that growth happen I would need to restructure my lessons so that they are PBL based, provide learner development in the PBL process for students early on, and utilize BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) to create a 1:1 technology environment in the classroom so that students can easily and fully integrate tech into the daily flow of class.  Along with this, my class would go 100% digital through the use of the Canvas learning management system..  Additionally, as tools are rolled out with projects via Canvas I would need to provide learner development lessons in the use of that technology.  For these I would want to create student lead lessons given by students who had already mastered that technology and allow for students to suggest tools to use for each upcoming project.

Reflections on a Growth Mindset, Part II-Growth is Hard Work

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”-Thomas A. Edison

As always, I am a little behind in setting my thoughts to computer screen, and thus what should have been my culminating post for the week becomes the second of what will now be a four part reflection on a growth mindset and grit.  The first piece in the series focused on Pursuing a Growth Mindset, and was more a response to an article by Alfie Kohn from the New York Times on May 24, 2014 entitled Do Our Kids Get Off Too Easily.  This time I am reflecting on David Brooks New York Times piece from June 16, 2014 entitled Learning Is No Easy Task and is based on a blog post by Scott H Young in a on growth.

In his article, Brooks describes a series of growth paradigms.  He begins by noting that growth is not linear, as we often think it is, but rather comes in a variety of forms that rately proceed from point A to B in a structured consistent manner.  One of the challenges in education, for eternity, has been balancing this non-linear growth with the linear outline of courses...Today we are going to study the Civil War, next week will be Westward Expansion, and in two weeks we will be looking at the Second Industrial Period in US History...even if Johnny and Suzie are still stuck with why the North couldn't just let the South leave and avoid all the blood shed after the unit ends.  Our linear path, does not often leave us with a model that embraces the different structures that Brooks describes in his article.

The first structure that Brooks describes is that of logarithmic learning, and this is the type that I want to focus on the most.  This is the learning that takes place when we take up a new sport or activity, like running.  Brooks, citing Young, notes that in the initial stages you make a lot of progress quickly, but then as you grow in the activity, your growth slows down and the breakthroughs become fewer and further between each other.  Those initial runs, while hard, lead very quickly to improvements in endurance and technique and to large drops in time when you race.

This spring when I began running again, my first 5K I was only able to run 2 miles of it, and that by running the first mile, walking the second mile, and then running to the finish where there were spectators again (yes vanity is a motivating factor), and it took over 45 minutes.  My next run, less than a month later and after I had only been running for 10 days and had yet to go over 1.5 miles at a time, I was able to run 2.5 miles of the race by running the first 1.5 miles, then walking .5, and running the final mile again.  My time also dropped to just below 40 minutes.  That is very strong growth in a short period of time.  As I progress, and keep adding distance each week, I feel myself getting stronger, but my ability to drop time is likely to be a lot less pronounced and eventually I will plateau somewhere around a 27-30 minute 5K.  Still, great growth from where I started, but in order to drop further below, I will need to change my training more, vary my run distances and focus on technique much more than I do now, and then to only get small amounts of growth.

Much like when I coached swimming and our new swimmers would drop time nearly every meet, and drop a lot of it, while our experienced swimmers would need to focus for weeks on end on very tiny adjustments to drop a few tenths of a second, the discipline to keep at it when the task becomes harder requires a different mind set from those first weeks when results come easier.

Brooks then goes on to describe exponential growth, where you need to put in Malcoom Gladwell's 10,000 hours before you can truly master the skill.  Learning paths that resemble a staircase where you grow a little and then have a period of stagnation followed by another period of growth.  Learning that acts like waves lapping at the beach, they come in and leave a little residue of knowledge, then recede, then return, to leave more and solidify what came before.  Finally, he describes the valley shaped learning curve, where you have to go down before you can rise up.  He likens this to the immigrant experience in America, but for many of our students, immigrant or not, this is the path that they often take when coming to school, and it is in the depths of those valleys, when support is not offered that we often lose them for good.

Brooks concludes by noting that "Thinking about growth structures reminds you that really successful people often have the ability to completely flip their mental dispositions" and that "the crucial thing is not what traits you intrinsically possess.  The crucial questions are: What is the structure of your domain?  Where are you now on the progress curve?  How are you interacting with the structures of the field?"

In describing these differing growth structures and asking these final questions, Brooks speaks of the nature of having a growth mindset, of being able to recognize that in our students growth occurs in different ways, at different times, and along different paths.  As educators, we need to not only recognize that this occurs in our learners not merely from the start of their school lives, but within each year and within each course.  We also need to plan for the varying types of growth and shape the path of learning to best support our learners where ever they may be on that path.  For logarithmic growth we need to make sure that they have the discipline to continue to work hard in those initial euphoric stages when the learning comes easy, and then the growth mindset to continue to persevere when the learning becomes slower as the skills needed to improve become harder to master.  In many ways, it is through this shaping of the path that we might best help our students.  By giving them confidence in their ability to learn early in the process we will be able to give them encouragement to continue on.  By creating a growth mindset in them, and supporting their efforts, when the tasks become daunting we can supply them with the fortitude to master deeper levels of learning and make those minor adjustments in their learning process to find significant breakthroughs.  The ability of us as educators to cultivate in our students the type of grit and mindset that allows for not 10,000 failures, but rather 10,000 insights into what might work, may be the most important innovation we can make as a profession.