Principle #10: An Evolution Through a Familiar Avenue

  This is not only my last post of 2019, but also the last post of a series of 10 which focused on 10 Principles for Schools of Modern Learning.  The goal for me was to reflect on each of the 10 principles as they compare to what is currently taking place in our school district.   Overall, we have some growing to do, but that is something that is #1 not a surprise and #2 is expected as spelled out in principle #10 for schools of Modern Learning.

Principle #10: Modern Schools embrace and anticipate constant change and evolution.

     This is where my science background comes in handy as I tend to view many things through the lens of  Biology. Viewing Schools as a Greenhouse and The Red Queen Effect are just two examples of applying that Biology lens to schooling.  In this case, principle #10 points out that schools need to be in a constant evolution in order to stay relevant, which is basically The Red Queen Effect as applied to the culture of schools and not just individual professional development.  This is the challenge as the ability to change a culture, by definition, is a much harder task than to change the view of an individual. However, “little drops of water and little grains of sand make the mighty oceans and the pleasant land…,” so with this in mind I would like to suggest how our district can continue our evolution.

     The foundations of this evolution are really already in place.  Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) provide an avenue to come together and build collective efficacy as mentioned in an early blog post.  This structure  allows us to work towards building a culture from day one that is student centered and focused on continuous improvement and growth for all.  I suspect you remember from Biology class that evolution is connected to the phrase “survival of the fittest” which is the common description for natural selection.  However, the phrase I emphasized when teaching about natural selection was “survival of the best fit.” The reason for this slight play on words is because often times the “fittest” did not survive (think of dinosaurs), but instead those that best fit into the pressures from the current environment.  It is these “pressures” that are the real driver of the evolution that takes place because without the pressure there is no need to change and therefore no evolution.

     If we want schools to evolve, there needs to be a similar environmental “pressure” that drives the needed changes.  Those pressures arise from the opportunities to stay abreast of changes both inside and outside education and those opportunities can arise during professional development.  It is through PLCs that we can support innovation and trying new things from a pedagogical standpoint. The conversations and reflections about the innovations that take place during a PLC meeting serve to provide the pressure for change in the form of “discomfort and depth” while at the same time allow teachers to follow and share current best practices.  PLCs are professional development opportunities that are valuable because they are considered to be both continuous and job embedded.

Job embedded professional development gives teachers the time to collaborate and focus more on assessments for learning (formative assessments).  It also promotes peer-driven networks focused on student learning which help teachers shift the prime motivator of success from the fear factor of standardized tests to the peer factor of collaboration with a focus on student learning as a measure of success (Hargreaves & Shirley, 2010).  Linda Darling-Hammond has supported this idea stating, “Effective professional development is sustained, ongoing, content-focused, and embedded in professional learning communities where teachers work over time on problems of practice with other teachers in their subject area or school” (Darling-Hamond, 2010, p. 266).  

PLCs do provide more time for teachers to work together which has the potential to lead to an increase in student learning.  However, “For [teachers] to learn from one another, they must readily share information about their success and failures, as medical professionals do, rather than act as rivals in a struggle for survival” (Ravitch, 2010, p. 228).  Therefore, if teachers are to be most effective they must not work in competition or in isolation, but instead work together to diagnose why a student is struggling much like doctors diagnose a patient when making rounds. These teachers should also use data to inform instruction rather than drive instruction.  

So, in the end, I believe PLCs provide the avenue to “embrace and anticipate constant change and evolution” that schools of modern learning demand.  They are the best way for us to build and support a culture that promotes continuous improvement which will provide the pressure needed to lead to an evolution of our schools.

References

Darling-Hammond, Linda (2010).  The Flat World and Education.  New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Hargreaves, Andy & Shirley, Dennis (2010).  The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Ravitch, Diane (2010). The Death and Life of the Great American School System:  How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Communicating Service to Our Communities (Principle #9)

Principle #9:  Modern Schools encourage community wide participation in the equitable, effective, educaton of children.

     I’ve  mentioned the importance of getting the community in the schools and the schools in the community in a post titled Connecting to the Community to Enrich the School Narrative, so I will try not to go down that path in this post.  I do think it is important to recognize that Principle #9 is the second (Principle #5) to emphasize the importance of the community and school connection.

    Principle #5, which focuses on real world application, differs slightly from principle #9.  Where the former focuses on young people in schools getting into the community the latter emphasizes getting the community into the schools.  This is a fine line that schools must walk, but I think it boils down to communication. Most communities trust their schools and often acquiesce to the expertise of the teachers and principals as long as they are kept in the loop.  It is important for schools to communicate to all parents and be sure not to listen to just the loudest parents. One way to help avoid this trap is to set up a consistent way to communicate with parents and the community as a whole.   Meeting with community leaders in order to not only share the vision of the school, but to revisit it with examples from the school is important. This can be done through organizations that are already established such as Rotary, Chamber of Commerce,  and Parent Teacher Organizations to name a few examples. By communicating with these groups we provided a narrative beyond the test scores and rankings which they can then share with other members of the community. These relationships also allow the schools to keep a pulse on the needs and concerns of the community.  This is important because a district which has the flexibility to adapt to not only the needs of the young people in school, but the needs of the community surrounding the school will be one that will be valued and supported.

Aurora Learners-Future Ready (Principle #8)

Very rarely does the title of a blog post come to my mind before the actual post is written.  Similar to writing an introductory paragraph for a paper, I typically write the body of the blog and then try to come up with a title based on the overall message.  However, this morning “Aurora Learners-Future Ready” immediately came to mind after reading Principle #8 from the 10 Principles for Schools of Modern Learning. 

Principle #8:  Modern Schools develop and communicate in powerful ways new stories of learning, teaching and modern context for schooling.

The reason “Aurora Learners-Future Ready” popped in my head is because it is one of the proposed “mantras” for our district’s new Strategic Vision.  I say “one of the mantras” because there are two out there. I like this particular mantra, which was actually proposed by one of the students on the committee, because it speaks to Principle #8.  Besides, you can’t go wrong when young people play a key role in your district’s strategic vision. To be honest, the strategic vision is not technically finalized, so I am not going to reveal too much of it just yet.  However, I can share some information obtained from an anonymous source within the committee. :)

     It is no secret that I believe schools should not be run as a factory or a business, but that schools should instead be looked to as a greenhouse.  (See Adopting a Greenhouse Philosophy for Schools).  The metaphor for schools as a greenhouse works because nurturing takes place in both a school and a greenhouse.  In a greenhouse the roots of plants are nurtured so that as they develop they will be able to successfully anchor and support the plant no matter the environment outside the greenhouse.  The analogous “roots” of students which are nurtured in schools are the soft skills students develop that are not seen on the surface nor are easily measured. Nonetheless, these “soft skills” or “competencies”  help anchor and support the young person no matter where they lay down their roots once they leave school. It is the development of these “roots” or “competencies” of the young people attending Aurora Schools that our strategic vision is built upon.  

     We introduce this new vision of schools with the following narrative:

Today’s schools must not only build a solid foundation of academic knowledge, but also nurture a deep sense of purpose and self in young people. These young people are not merely students, but LEARNERS with a skill set that prepares them to be successful in an ever changing world.  The following six competencies paint a portrait of our areas of emphasis for all young people (K-12) in the Aurora City Schools as defined by community stakeholders. 

This narrative ties in nicely with the aforementioned mantra:  Aurora Learners-Future Ready This mantra is a sound byte that can easily be shared and when combined with the strategic vision visual will help build the capacity of our community to understand the changes required for a modern education.  I would love to dive deeper into the competencies, but as I mentioned earlier, they are not yet official. Instead, I will just say that they are congruent with A New Narrative for our Schools introduced on this blog in September and leave the rest for another time.   

Using Technology Less for Teaching & More for Learning

With apologies to Charles Dickens: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was an opportunity to use technology to expand thinking, it was a requirement to store technology in pockets, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.  So goes the story of young people as they travel from classroom to classroom throughout the school day.

Principle 7: Modern Schools use technology as an amplifier for learning, creating, connecting, communicating, and problem solving.

  One of the more puzzling observations I have made in our district, one in which we are one-to-one with chromebooks in grades 2-12, is the mounting of cell phone holders on some classrooms walls.  If you don’t know what I am talking about, see the picture at the left. Someone came up with the idea to take a shoe holder for your closet (pictured on the right), put numbers on it, and then market it to schools as a good idea.  Students enter the classroom, take out their cell phone, and place it in the presumably assigned pocket number so that the cell phone does not become a distraction during class. Before anyone gets too worked up about this observation, one way or the other, I am NOT saying that valuable learning isn’t taking place in classrooms with these cell phone holders.  I am just saying that schools are sending a mixed message to young people concerning the value of technology in the age of information if these pocketed cellphone holders co-exist with one-to-one technology. If this is a familiar dilemma in your district,two questions you might ask are:

How are young people and adults using technology to learn?

To what extent are personal devices controlled by the user?

     “In the modern, globally connected work and life environment, everyone is expected to have skills that allow them to both consume and create content for the Web and that show an ability to connect, collaborate, and problem solve” (Richardson & Dixon, 2017, p.14). This is a big part of the reason that schools have spent public funds to provide young people access to the internet via one-to-one devices. However, these devices should not only be used as electronic versions of chalkboards, notebooks, or filmstrips.  They instead should provide opportunities for young people in schools to think and learn differently than in past school environments. In other words we need to help young people to take advantage of all the information that is now available to them. Today learning in schools should be less about accumulating information and more about learning to use information.  We could get lost with all the different ways chromebooks can be used to help young people to learn how to learn, so instead I wanted to share three ways in which we are using technology to help young people think, create, and problem solve differently in Aurora.  

     The first is the use of Bee Bots in our kindergarten classrooms.  These little guys allow our kindergarteners to collaborate and problem solve how to “program” the bee to travel through a series of steps that they can determine or that is given to them as a challenge.  The Bee Bots basically provide the opportunity to allow for learning and discovery involving programmatic thinking through play. That is to say young people learning socially with no direct instruction.  I’ve seen these guys in action and it is amazing some of the conversations, thinking, and application through collaborating that are taking place between these 5 to 6 year olds. A second use of technology that promotes thinking and is completely controlled by young people is the use of Dash Robots in our second grade classrooms.  This technology allows the second graders (and eventually first graders once our pilot is done) to think programmatically through scratch coding.  The second graders have loved the challenge of getting the robots to do various tasks and again the conversations and thinking are impressive.  Finally, the third way of promoting thinking, collaborating, and problem solving is being used in the 5th grade with the goal of expanding to 3rd and 4th for the second semester.  This group of young people are using Turing Tumble to promote programmatic thinking using this more mechanical versus electrical set-up.  These young people are learning to think logically, visualize what moves will need to be made, collaborate to determine what parts need to be placed where, and basically develop their ability to problem solve.  Each of these activities are great examples of what can be done in all classrooms, but they do come across as more of an add on than a daily use of technology. The reason why I bring them up is all three demonstrate how we can use technology to help young people create, collaborate, and problem solve.  These same skills can be applied everyday in the classroom with some forethought on how to use chromebooks in a similar manner. The key is to use technology to promote the process over producing a product. If we can use this as our guiding factor for the use of technology in each of our classrooms there will be a clear message to young people on the value of using technology to promote learning in the Information Age.

References

Richardson, Will & Dixon, Bruce (2017).  10 Principles for Schools of Modern 

     Learning.  White Paper from modernlearners.com.

Providing Transparency to Teaching & Learning

It was not long ago that the vast majority of teachers preferred to shut the door and be left alone to teach.  As Rick DuFour put it, we as teachers thought of ourselves as independent contractors united by a common parking lot (DuFour, Eakar, DuFour 2005).   Thankfully, there has been a shift in pedagogy, in part precipitated by Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), over the last decade or so which has increased teacher collective efficacy through collaboration.  This trend is slowly growing around the country and is the message of the sixth principle for  Schools of Modern Learning.  

Principle #6:  Modern Schools see transparency and sharing as fundamental to a powerful learning environment.

     Whenever I hear the saying, “making lemonade out of lemons” one of the places my mind goes is to when I was a “traveling” science teacher.  For a time, I didn’t have my own classroom and had to travel between science rooms on a cart. This actually took place in three of the four school districts in which I taught.  I suspect you can imagine there was a lot of stress involved, as well as extra time needed, to prepare and organize lab materials that could be quickly loaded on and off of a cart which was then rolled through student filled hallways from one classroom to another throughout the day.  Although it was a pain, I was happy to have a job, and in looking back I would not trade those years of traveling between classrooms if given the chance to do it again. I know it sounds crazy, but the unexpected opportunities that came up for me to listen to and observe teachers whose classroom I shared provided a window into the power of learning from other teachers.  This was especially important for me as a “newer” teacher as it led to conversations about labs, teaching techniques, and philosophical pedagogical differences with my teaching colleagues. I took full advantage of these conversations, asked a lot of questions, shared a lot of material, and liked to think I contributed as much as I consumed while setting up my teaching network.  In many ways, even though I was “newer” I connected with more of the teachers than some of the veterans because of the opportunity to be in so many different classrooms. This experience, without question, sold me on the power of collaboration and the importance of learning from each other.  

     This power of networking and sharing should not be limited to the adults within a school.  Learning is a social process and it is important that classrooms provide the opportunity for young people to “network” with their classmates everyday.  It has been said that whoever is doing the talking is doing the thinking, so if that is true we need to be sure to provide opportunities for young people to share their thinking with each other both in and out of the classroom. Having students share their thinking inside the classroom is much easier than sharing it outside the classroom as there are very few avenues available.  The importance of this was addressed in last week’s blog Connecting to the Community to Enrich the School Narrative, but how this can be done is what principle #6 is all about.   Transparency needs to more the norm than the exception in schools and especially so for each classroom.  

     More and more teachers are tweeting what is happening in their classrooms which does promote transparency.  However, I think a more powerful approach is to have young people share their learning and one way to do this is through an online presence in the form of an e-portfolio.  Google Sites is a very user friendly way for young people to create an e-portfolio.  In fact it is so easy, I have been using it for my own Learner's Portfolio which I linked to my email signature.  Understanding how to build an online presence is a valuable skill for young people to develop as “increasingly, there is an expectation from employers that students have built an online portfolio of work that shows creativity, curiosity, collaboration, and persistence”  (Richardson & Dixon, 2017, p. 13). It is important for young people to know how to actually build an online or e-portfolio, but the value of the process comes from understanding what pieces of evidence and accompanied narrative young people should provide to demonstrate their understanding of learning.  The more adults and young people in schools share their learning, the more opportunities they create to learn from each other. These opportunities provide a window into the classrooms that, like visiting the classroom in person, can promote conversation, generate ideas, and enhance learning between schools, classrooms, teachers, and most importantly young people.

References

DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & DuFour, R. (2005).  On common ground: The Power of

Professional Learning Communities. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.

Richardson, Will & Dixon, Bruce (2017).  10 Principles for Schools of Modern 

     Learning.  White Paper from modernlearners.com.

Connecting to the Community to Enrich the School Narrative (Principle #5)

One of the biggest challenges for schools is also one of the most impactful for demonstrating the value of schools.  This challenge is to get the schools into the community more and the community into the schools. This interaction happens most effectively in the fine arts and through sports.  The pride our young people and parents share through the production of a musical, attendance at a concert, or cheering on a team on the field or court goes a long way in promoting pride in the schools for many communities. However, there are very few schools that take this same approach to the learning taking place within the school and overcoming this oversight is the focus of Modern Learners’ fifth principle.

Principle #5: Embrace and emphasize real-world application and presentation to real audiences as assessment for learning.

     There is no reason that the same pride a community feels after a win on a Friday night football game can’t be applied to the learning taking place within the school day.  In fact, many communities place a tremendous amount of pride, and local realtors capitalize on this pride, through the announcement of state test scores and the corresponding ranking of  districts. Unfortunately, this pride is misplaced, as test scores alone neither demonstrate the learning taking place nor equate to a quality education. It should be no surprise that test scores and rankings are utilized because in order to determine if the schools are providing a quality education,  parents who do not get the information they need from the schools, are forced to “clutch at the straws of test scores as substitutes for richer relationships that concern their own children” (Hargreaves & Shirley, 2010, p. 78). This is why it is important to get the schools into the community more and the community into the schools.  If we can be successful in doing this (Principle #5) it will change the narrative for schools as parents will now have those aforementioned richer relationships.

     One of the most powerful ways to share experiences is through stories and each day young people are in school they add to their own story.  That story is carried home at the end of the school day and often shared with parents. This is especially true at the earlier grade levels.  As a result, when we design our learning environments we need to keep in mind the school experiences of young people because these experiences will become the narrative of the stories going home each day.  A bad experience can lead to a bad story, yet a positive and enriching experience can lead to a much better narrative. This is the first place we, as educators, can have a positive impact on the narrative parents will hear.   If those learning environments we design in school can tap into the passion and interests of young people it can become a powerful message going out to the community. I have already shared the specification of these powerful learning environments in A New Narrative for Our Schools, so I won’t reiterate them here.  Instead, I would like to focus on the back end of the design which begs the question,  “How do we share the learning taking place in school more effectively with our community?”  As soon as I asked myself this question a second popped in my mind: “Who do I mean when I use the pronoun ‘we’?”  If “we” means the adults, then we are missing an opportunity. If “we” means young people and adults than I think we have something.  So, how can young people share their learning more effectively with our community?  

   One idea is currently being piloted in our 8th grade classrooms.  This group of teachers are using student led parent conferences as an avenue to allow young people to demonstrate the learning taking place in school.  Although a small step, it is a step in the direction of providing parents with a richer narrative of their child’s education that goes beyond test scores.  Classes which get young people out into the community, such as Service Learning, also enrich the narrative as they provide opportunities for connecting the schools to the community.  One of the reasons that a class such as Service Learning is a natural connection to the community is because it causes young people to focus on real world problems. That insight leads to a question that just might help us make the next step toward our goal of  positively adding to the narrative of schools. In each of our classrooms, what real world problems or questions are students and teachers building their work around? That answer is going to be unique for each group of young people in each classroom, but that is the power of the question. I can’t sit here on my couch and provide a clear picture of what the product might be, but I can confidently state that the process is where the value will be reaped.   “The skills that go into problem finding and solving, communication and presentation of ideas and doing world-changing work are among the most sought after in the modern workforce” (Richardson & Dixon, 2017, p. 12). By creating environments in our classrooms that provide opportunities for this process, we will not only be working toward a school culture which prepares young people for life, we will be embracing and emphasizing a connection to the community which will enrich the narrative of our schools far beyond scores and rankings.  

References

Hargreaves, Andy & Shirley, Dennis (2010).  The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future 

     for Educational Change.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Richardson, Will & Dixon, Bruce (2017).  10 Principles for Schools of Modern 

Learning.  White Paper from modernlearners.com.

From Consumers to Contributors (Principle #4)

I feel comfortable stating that in most of our classrooms we don’t want young people to solely be consumers in the classroom, but instead want them to contribute and be a part of class in some form.  In Aurora I have seen this range from a more traditional interactive lecture in which teachers engage students with a series of questions about the information being presented to a classroom in which young people choose what they would like to learn and how they would like to learn it through their selected “plunge” in Independent Learning.  Both approaches promote young people contributing to the classroom in one form or the other rather than passively consuming information being presented. However, it is the degree in which young people are engaged and contribute that is stressed in more Modern Schools versus schools that are more traditional.

Principle #4:  Modern Schools see curriculum as something that is co-constructed to meet the needs and interests of the child

     The first thing that came to mind for me when reading principle #4 was a question.  How many of us (educators) see curriculum as the centerpiece of our classroom versus seeing young people as the focus?  I wonder because, I believe your position on that question will determine how your classroom will be designed. (see also Guilty as Charged)  I am “tipping my hand” on my view by stating that the curriculum is meerly the medium in which we work.  As educators we do need to have a certain amount of content/curricular knowledge, but ultimately it is not the content knowledge that separates out the more effective teachers from less effective.  We should not only ask ourselves, “Do you have the knowledge to teach?” but also “Do you have an understanding of how young people learn?”  

     Having solid knowledge of the curriculum along with understanding how young people learn gives teachers the ability to design learning environments that will emphasize  George Couros' eight signs of an innovative classroom.   These learning environments will then give young people and teachers the opportunity to co-design curriculum that works toward the standards, but still meet the needs and interest of the child (principle #4).  The shift is from a teacher centered classroom in which the teacher’s thinking is demonstrated to one in which the young person’s thinking is instead on display. Similar ideas to this principle were shared in “Can Playing and Learning be Synonymous?,” so I won’t go too much farther down that path.  However, I do think it is important to emphasize that if we look at the curriculum as the medium in which we work to help all young people learn we will better be able to teach.   The origin of the word “teach” comes from the Old English term “techon,” which means “to show”...not to tell. Putting students in situations and giving them time to process and make or see connections is what we should be doing, but we must be able to recognize where the students are developmentally, understand the scaffolds of our subject area well enough to know where the students fit, and have the ability to put them into the next best situation that would allow them to see and ultimately make those connections.  That is helping young people go from being consumers to being contributors in the classroom which is principle #4 in a nutshell.

Principle #3: Self-Determined Learning

Thanks to the push for standards in education, the Modern Learning’s third principle which states, “Modern Schools have cultures where personal, self-determined learning is at the center of student and teacher work” is more challenging to meet.  However, standards don’t eliminate this idea and still should play an important role in education as stated in this 2017 post.   At the same time, I do believe there is a way to incorporate more self-determined learning within schools in the form of choice.

   Certainly as parents we believe self-determination is the goal for our kids and similarly in schools teachers work with young people with self-determination in mind. (see also Reminder to Self: Self Determination is the Goal).  However, when school is combined with standards this is where the art of teaching comes in to play and demonstrates teaching is not rocket science.  It is actually much harder.  Physics makes rocket science complicated, working with young human beings makes teaching complex.  Complex is always more challenging than complicated because it comes with unpredictability. That is why teachers must not rest on good teaching, but continue to hone their skill (see also Red Queen Effect) in order to meet all young peoples’ needs .  Where principle #3 comes in to play is that "working to improve" does not necessarily mean to improve your teaching (though it can’t hurt), but instead to work to be a better learner.  In an Apprenticeship for Learning I mentioned that “Learners beget Learners.”  That means if we want our young people to be learners, we (all educators) need to be learners ourselves.  We have to ask ourselves if our school supports a teaching culture or a learning culture? The former is more traditional, but the latter is more applicable for what young people need today.  

Principle #2: "Living" the Vision

Last week’s post  was the first to address the 10 Principles for Schools of Modern Learning which emphasized the importance of having a vision.  The second principle basically states that having a vision is not enough, as you also need to actually follow or live the vision.  In my mind, there are two questions that we need to be considering for "living" the vision. The first question to ask is, “Does our vision of schooling align to what we believe is the purpose of school?” and the second is, “How do we plan to follow the vision of our school?”

Principle #2:  Modern Schools live a mission and a vision deeply informed by new context of learning.

     In this principle, Will Richardson and Bruce Dixon allude to the importance of recognizing that schools need to help prepare young people for their future rather than our past.  This “new context of learning” means that the traditional approach centered on the accumulation of knowledge, efficiency, and compliance is no longer as applicable to the needs of young people.  Instead the purpose of schools needs to be preparing young people for life (see What is Your One Wish for this School Year?  and How are you Celebrating Question Week?) .  So what does a vision of preparing for life look like?   Richardson & Dixon state that your “mission and vision should be built on what the school community believes about how children and adults learn most powerfully.”  That means this vision would depend on the community in which we live and so, this brings me back to our strategic vision.  

     The strategic vision for Aurora, as mentioned last week, is very close to being ready to be officially rolled out.  As a matter of fact, parents and community members are invited to a focus group this Monday, November 4, 2019, at the Aurora High School library in order to see and provide feedback on the six core competencies of this strategic vision.  These competencies were identified as key characteristics that young people in Aurora should develop or possess and therefore point to the purpose of our school district as determined by the community.  Once these competencies are finalized (notice I am purposely avoiding stating them just yet) the next step for us will be to consider how to achieve or develop them in our young people.

     Once we have determined our purpose/vision for our schools the second question to ask is, “How do we plan to follow the vision of our school?” I shared my hope for this in an earlier post titled A New Narrative for Our Schools, so I will try not to be too redundant in this week’s thoughts.  However, I will say that if we want young people to develop their “roots” and be questioners, problem solvers, collaborators, learners, empathetic, balanced, resilient, etc.  we need to design environments which will provide the opportunities to nurture these skills. If this is the narrative we choose to follow, rather than one of “rigor or excellence” I believe we better set our students up for success as defined in our strategic vision.   As a side note, I feel I need to provide the disclaimer that when I was principal of Aurora High I often mentioned if there was one word I would use to describe Aurora it was “excellence.” Excellence in academics, excellence in the arts, and excellence in athletics. In hindsight, these statements, though good intentioned, inadvertently contributed to undermining this new narrative.  As a matter of fact, new research is pointing to students in high achieving schools (ones focused on excellence) are now being identified as a new at risk group.  I can’t go back in time, so going forward instead of emphasizing “excellence” as the one word to describe our schools I would suggest we emphasize “opportunity” in this new narrative.  If we ask ourselves, “What opportunities can we design in our classrooms which will allow young people to nurture their roots?” (a.k.a develop these skills) then we will make steps toward living the vision informed by this new context of learning. 

Reflecting on the First of Ten Principles for Schools of Modern Learning

This past week a colleague asked if I was familiar with the Modern Learners initiative headed up by Bruce Dixon and Will Richardson.  At the time I was not, so this week I decided to look into this group.  I was surprised to find out the Modern Learners initiative has been established since 2012.  One of this group’s goals is to “move the discussion about change in schools into real action.”  One of the steps to meet this goal was to establish a global community that could share ideas and experiences.  Hence, the Modern Learner initiative. As I read more about this group I came across some eerily similar beliefs to those I have independently formed since my transition out of the classroom.  Ironically, also back 2012, I first shared the idea of Schools as a Greenhouse, with someone other than my wife, when I became the new principal of Aurora High School.  

     The first of these common beliefs included the idea that schools today are at a crossroads.  This was a topic in my very first principal’s newsletter to our staff which included the commentary Hope for Improving Student Achievement.   Modern Learners addressed the same topic in  whitepaper titled “10 Principles for Schools of Modern Learning” (see the free download at the bottom of this website).  The second overlap was a shared belief that traditional schools which optimize on efficiency or “doing things right” are not meeting the needs of young people today who need schools to optimize on effectiveness or “doing the right thing.”  (see Time, Priorities, & Sharpening the Saw and Do Your Practices Match Your Beliefs).  Finally, I came across a third similarity between some of my own early ideas and those of the Modern Learners when reading that the founders of this movement believe “The modern world demands...classrooms where (young people) act as apprentice learners who work with teachers, who are master learners, first and foremost, not where they are seen as ‘empty vessels to be filled with knowledge.” (see also An Apprentice for Learning).  Given all of these common beliefs, I started to think it was worth finding out a little more about Modern Learners.  As mentioned earlier, this group produced a whitepaper which introduces what they believe are the 10 Principles of Modern Schools.  I thought each of these principles would be worth reflecting on and comparing to Aurora or at least where I believe Aurora could go, so I think I found topics for my next ten posts.  :)  

Principle #1:   Modern Schools have clearly articulated and shared beliefs about learning

The authors of the whitepaper propose that, “School communities without clearly articulated beliefs around learning create wild inconsistencies for students as they travel between classrooms…”  I believe we, in Aurora, have captured the spirit of this principle in that we utilize Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to minimize the educational lottery that can take place from teacher to teacher in a particular grade level or subject area.  The use of common math and ELA frameworks at the K-5 level also gives us a chance to create consistent experiences for the young people in our district. However, we do have room for growth under this first principle. I believe we all say that we want what is best for kids (ex. Kids come first), but I don’t think we have shared beliefs about what learning looks like.  As an example, many of our classrooms are more teacher centered than student centered even though we say we want student centered classroom that include more voice and choice for young people.  When we talk about “learning,” I think it is important to ask “Whose thinking are we talking about?”  Is it the teacher’s thinking or the student’s thinking? We say we want young people to see relationships and make connections, which would point to the student’s thinking.  However, if we find ourselves telling students what they should know or how to do something it points more to the teacher’s thinking than the student’s.   Ultimately, I believe that to have shared beliefs about learning you have to value a shared vision.  

     Without repeating everything from my 2018 post  The Value of A Shared Vision I do want to emphasize that we must overcome the fear of falling test scores or lower school rankings if we are going to truly design environments that are optimal for young people to learn and create a school culture focused on learning.  “There are two fundamental things that brains want: to be safe and happy” (Zull, 2002, p.49).  If there is a perceived fear, such as repercussions from low test scores, that exists than one of those two fundamental requirements of the brain are not being met.  Often it is the feeling of loss of control that provides the fear for our brains to not feel safe. So, whether it is our young people in the classroom or ourselves in the schools, it is important to feel in control.  “The brain evolved to detect and resist exactly this type of thing (loss of control) for over five million years. It is not going to give in now” (Zull, 2002, p. 53), so it is best to take this into account when supporting a culture of learning.  

      We are getting very close to rolling out a new strategic vision for the Aurora City Schools.  I am excited for this event to take place because I believe this vision will allow us to have more conversations on what learning should look like in our schools.   We will be able to use the six competencies of an Aurora student as a sort of north star for decisions both in and out of the classroom and move closer to meeting the first principle for a school of Modern Learning.

References

Zull, James (2002).  The Art of Changing the Brain.  Sterling VA: Solution

Tree Press.Stylus Publishing.