#OneWordOnt

This school year has certainly been the most exciting and most challenging of my educational career thus far. I was given the honour of becoming a new principal in a large elementary school in our board. The transition to the new role has been a challenging one. We started the school year short two classroom teachers, and my husband and I, along with some very caring helpers including my nephew, some caring staff members, and some student volunteers, rushed to prepare the rooms to receive children. 

We were also short a secretary, a librarian, and two custodians. Not having a secretary was especially challenging given that I was new in the school, didn't know the staff or families, or where anything was filed, stored, or kept. Let's just say I learned quickly and painfully through trial and error, guess and check!

When I saw the tweets for #OneWordOnt, I thought, this year it is a no-brainer, my OneWord is "Listen". As I get to know new staff, students and parents, listening has become the single most valuable skill I've needed to draw upon. 

It is easy to jump to conclusions, to judge behaviour, to make snap decisions, to form quick impressions when we don't take the time to listen. But listening doesn't just happen. It is not always easy to do. It is a skill, and like any other skill, it needs to be learned, developed and honed. When there is a long list of things waiting to be done, and a crisis occurs - whether it be a parent who is upset, a fight on the playground, a child who has been bullied, or a staff member with an ill family member - it is tempting to quickly "solve" the problem, to say, "do A, B and C" without first taking the time to listen. But being new to the school community, it is so critical to take the time to listen, to get to know the people involved in the issue, to hear every side of the situation, and to learn the context. 

Listening means recognizing that behaviour is a form of communication. There are so many great quotes about listening, this is one of my favourites: 

 Listening is an art that requires attention over talent, spirit over ego, others over self. ~ Dean Jackson

Listening often means letting my ego go, and realizing that I might not have all of the answers, or know the best way of doing things. Listening means learning; I am not learning if I do all of the talking. Listening requires humility. Listening requires an open mind and heart, a readiness to hear the other person's perspective, it requires caring about what the other person is experiencing. Listening means hearing what the other person is saying, and not saying, without planning a response. Listening means caring more about understanding than about being understood.

This year is a year of building relationships. In order to do that, I plan to LISTEN.

To Know Me is to Love Me

Many years ago, when my children were still young, I joined a small faith-sharing group in our church. We met once a week to read scripture together and discuss the implications for our personal lives as young mothers. I grew very close to and fond of the other moms in this group. At one point I was writing a short article for the church bulletin about prayer, and I was thinking about how lucky I was to have such incredible women in my group, when it suddenly dawned on me that ALL people are incredible, we just rarely take the time to discover the unique beauty in other people that makes them so. Because we were in a faith-sharing group together, I had come to know each of these women on a personal level. I saw their strengths and their vulnerabilities, I knew them.

Nearly twenty years later, I became the Vice Principal of a K-8 elementary school. One day the principal and I were having a conversation about our staff and we are reflecting on how great our staff was and how lucky we were to work with such devoted people. I shared the story about my small faith-sharing group because I realized that it was a similar situation. I felt I had come to some great epiphany and I wanted to share it.

My principal, however, was not surprised. She simply said, "to know me is to love me".

It is that simple - to know me is to love me.

Over the last two years, I've achieved a certain clarity about what is necessary to be successful and find joy in the administrator's role. Love is a verb, it is not just a feeling, it is an action. Actually, it is a series of actions that you choose to make. Love is a decision.

In order to love someone, you have to make the effort to get to know them on a personal level. Knowing them as a coworker is not enough. You need to know who they are in their life outside of school as well as in school. You need to know what is important to them, what they enjoy, what they are afraid of, what their particular gifts are, and where they struggle.

Knowing who a person is, you must then shine their goodness, their assets, back to them. Be their mirror. This involves empowering them to use their assets, their gifts and talents, to help support the community of learners. Need them. Make sure they know they are needed. Let them know how they are needed.

Be of service to them. Take action knowing what they care about, what they need, where they are vulnerable, support them when and where they need support.

Yes, we need to know one another to love one another. But more than that, we need to be there for one another, we need to be of service to one another in order to love one another. It is not the act of being served that makes us love another, it is the act of providing service to someone else that leads to our loving them.

Love is a decision.

And here is the best part: with love comes joy. While love is a deliberate act, joy is its byproduct - a freely given gift to one who loves.

Being an educator is not for the faint of heart. Being an educator is a call to love. It is in the loving that we empower others to be their best selves, whether it is our students or our colleagues, and it is in the loving that we find joy in our jobs.

Developing a 21st Century Vision for Education

Our school board has provided administrators an opportunity to be in a book club together. The book we are reading is "The Leader's Guide to 21st Century Education - 7 Steps for Schools and Districts". Authors Ken Kay and Valerie Greenhill provide a 7-step framework for building professional capacity that will support schools in developing students who are prepared for the 21st Century.

Step 1 is a all about developing your own vision of 21st Century teaching and learning. In order to help you develop your vision, the authors provide 8 perspectives they believe worthy of consideration: the evolution of work and the change in skills required by graduates as they join he workforce; the flattening of the world with our increasing ability to access and participate in information creation; the increase in the service economy; the impact of citizenship in the global society; the ever-increasingly fast pace of change; the growing need for creativity and innovation, which is so closely related to the pace of change; the volume of available information and the shelf-life of that information; and of course, technology.

Kay and Greenhill suggest that the inclination of educators, when recognizing a need for change, is to focus too quickly on educational strategies, rather than first considering the desired student outcomes one hopes to achieve.  They suggest the "4Cs" as outcomes to focus on when developing your vision:

• critical thinking
• communication
• collaboration 
• creativity and innovation

I have strong ideas about how and why education needs to change. But I've never sat down and put into words my vision for the 21st Century learner. I wonder, though, if the term "21st Century Learner" is already out-dated. The first group of students born in the 21st Century are at the cusp of graduation already. 

I prefer to consider the changes in education necessary to support the "Networked Learner." I use this term because I believe it aptly describes our learners today. They are connected to the Internet and social media at a very early age, sometimes as young as five years old, and this greatly impacts who they are as learners and who they will be as graduates. Before we can even establish what outcomes we want for our students, we need to know who these students are as learners. How has being so "connected" impacted today's learner? And how does education need to change to support such a learner? 

I agree with Kay and Greenhill that critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity are outcomes today's learner will need as they enter the workforce, but I'd argue that today's learner needs those learning outcomes now, not just by graduation. They need them to navigate the world in which they are currently living, and possibly, as educators and parents, we are failing them in this. We make available all of the tools they need to connect, but do we provide the skills they need to take advantage of all that is available to them while being safe in the process?  On his blog, Principal of Change, George Couros paraphrases a student who says:

“Social media is like water because it is everywhere in our life.  We can ignore it and watch kids drown, or we can teach kids how to swim.  Which way are you going to go?”

In the Leader's Guide, the authors offer other outcomes administrators may want to consider adding to their vision for 21st Century learning, one of which is citizenship.  In my vision, citizenship is at the forefront, whether you call it "digital citizenship" or "global citizenship", it's recognition that we are all connected, and that the decisions and actions I make impact others. What are our civic responsibilities as global citizens? I want to help foster in my students a sense of responsibility and to consider their role in making the world a better place. 

The world is flattening. Knowledge is power, and for the first time, information is freely available to anyone who can connect. We also have an opportunity to share our voices and be a part of knowledge creation as never before. Our students are both accessing information and leaving their own digital footprints. As educators, we have a responsibility to ensure that they are thinking critically as they access that information - right now - because that information is impacting them and playing a role in who they are becoming and how they view the world. They are creating a digital footprint that will not be erased, and they need help in creating a footprint that will represent them well in the global community to which they belong. 

We can't afford to keep our heads in the sand any longer. We are not simply developing a vision that will help our students enter the world of tomorrow. We are developing a vision to support our students who are connected right now, and we need to educate ourselves on how to provide the type of learning they need to navigate the digital landscape in which they currently find themselves. 

Hail to the IT Department

We recently started a Makerspace Club in our school. Last week, we had MinecraftEDU installed by our IT technician so that we could use it for our Makerspace. The kids were so excited. But yesterday, when the students went to use it, we noticed that someone had inadvertently deleted the pathway. These types of glitches can be so frustrating and they happen all of the time.

For reasons I often rail against, we don't have administrative rights over our school technology. In my more frustrated and impatient moments, I can rant against the imposed limitations of not having administrative rights over the technology we use and the dependency on a "middleman". However, in my more rational moments, I understand the logic behind the school board having some control over what goes onto our computers. 

So this morning, I emailed our IT technician to tell him about our issue with the MinecraftEDU pathway disappearing and the kids not being able to log onto it yesterday. He answered my email within ten minutes, ON A SATURDAY MORNING! That made me think about how much I truly depend on our IT department. I call or email one or more of them several times a week. They must get so tired of  all of the calls they get, but they are always so polite and accommodating. It must be difficult to have a job where most of the people contacting you are contacting you because they are frustrated. (Of course, we could have a whole other conversation about why they are frustrated, and what needs to be done proactively so that no longer happens... but that is a for longer conversation another time.)

Our IT department is full of unsung heroes. They are pretty much at our beck and call. And we don't ever really acknowledge all that they do for us. We have "Secretary Appreciation Day", "Educational Assistant Appreciation Day", and "Teacher Appreciation Day". I believe we need an "IT Department Appreciation Day". In fact, I don't even know what we are supposed to be calling them. They are usually referred to as the "IT Guy" or "IT Person". I think "IT Technician" is probably the more accurate term, but I am not even sure. 

I would like all of the IT support people from our board to know how truly grateful I am to each and every one of them for all of the help they have given me over the years, the patience they've shown, and the openness to supporting all of my requests (even the seemingly crazy ones!). Thank-you Wayne, Bill C., Melba, Ryan, Paulo, Bince, Roger, Saleem, Victor, Beverley, Joanne, Mike B., Brad, Jason, Mike A., Bill B., Dan, Jeff, Carl, Todd, Martin, Jordan, and Tim! (That isn't even the whole team, but I've never worked with the Secondary folk). I hope I didn't miss anyone because you are all rock stars in my book!

Empowering Students to be Agents of Change - Battery Blitz

Yesterday, the Earth Rangers came to our school. It was an incredibly exciting presentation. It was also a call to action. Many of our students felt compelled to sign up with the Earth Rangers after seeing that presentation. The Earth Rangers are working hard to "Bring Back the Wild" and save our biodiversity.

The Earth Rangers  suggested that we can help our endangered species by protecting their habitats. They have a campaign on right now called the Battery Blitz Mission  to help dispose of batteries safely and keep them out of landfills.

Some of our Grade Six students were so empowered by this call to action, that they went home, created a flyer, and passed it out in their neighbourhood. They collected 159 batteries in less than 24hrs! Isn't it an amazing flyer?

We are learning to teach through inquiry in our school. But I think teaching through inquiry is just one thread in a much larger tapestry. I wish we were learning how to empower our students to have agency! Inquiry is one way to put our students in the driver's seat of their own learning. But it is not the only way. Some people feel the goal of teaching through inquiry is to keep students engaged in their learning. I don't think so, I think the goal of inquiry is to empower our students to recognize that they have power, or agency, that what they do and think matters, and that they can make a difference.

Students need to believe that when they don't understand something, or when they are stuck on a problem, there is something they can do about it. They are not helpless. They have the power to change their misunderstanding into understanding. They can get help or they can help themselves. There is always something they can do. We need to teach them that. We need to teach them how to be learners.

Once they recognize that they are in charge of their own learning, they become empowered to be agents of change in the world in which we live.

The Grade Six teacher was so excited when her students showed her their flyer. These students took what they have learned in school and applied it for a real purpose to solve an authentic problem in our world. And they did it on their own, not because someone told them they had to. They were autonomous, they had purpose, and they believed they could master the task. As Daniel Pink says, that is all they needed to feel the drive to get things done!

Inquiry is a powerful way to engage our students, but connecting an inquiry to a real-world problem that they can help solve empowers our students and provides purpose for the learning we ask them to do.

The Making of a MakerSpace

I want to create a MakerSpace in our school. A space where students can come to create, innovate, and explore. A space and place where they can make discoveries and solve problems. This space can also be a place where they are in charge, where they learn to collaborate, and truly work together to get the job done.

I want to do this for the students in my school. But I also want to do this for me. I NEED to create, to innovate, and to solve authentic problems. Creating this space will be a project that will serve my needs too. 

Students feel the same way that I do. There is undeniable pleasure and motivation in being a part of something that solves a problem, meets a need and makes the world a little bit better for someone else. 

Frederick Buechner said, "Vocation is where our greatest passion meets the world's greatest need". 

Daniel Pink says that for people to be motivated, they need to have autonomy, mastery and purpose. I am hoping to create a MakerSpace where students can create and innovate autonomously with tools they can be successful with. The trick will be to ensure that their creations and inventions serve a purpose. 

There have been many things I've been considering prior to embarking on this project:

1. Where will I find a space for it in the school? I've decided on the computer lab, which we call the "Lighthouse" (seems appropriate for an idea warehouse doesn't it?) Our Lighthouse is large, with tables in the centre of the room and computers around the periphery. We have storage cupboards in there as well. The walls are still bare - lots of potential for those walls!

2. Who will be using it and when? I've decided to start small. I am going to call it a "MakerSpace Club" and have it opened several days during the week during the lunch hour. That way, I won't be disrupting class use of the computer lab during the day. Ideally, I would love to see this evolve into a space where teachers feel the need to take their students to during the day to work on some problem-based learning and inquiry. 

3. Who will supervise students in the MakerSpace? Since it will be running during the lunch hour, I will need adults to supervise. Luckily, I am in a school where teachers are constantly giving up their lunch time in the service of our students and I've already got two volunteers!

4. What resources will I need and where will I get them? This is a bit trickier. As with all publicly funded schools, money is tight. I am starting with my own resources, Legos and K'Nex for building that my own children have outgrown, along with odds and sods of craft materials I've collected over the years. Being in the computer lab gives us the additional option of using the computers, so I've looked into getting a school account with MinecraftEDU so that students can also be creating in the virtual world as well. I'm planning on putting out a call to our parent community in the search for cardboard as well. The question is, should we also look for used electronics to start taking apart and building with as well, not to mention wood working materials? I don't know a lot about that sort of stuff, so am feeling a bit out of my comfort zone. 

One of the teachers asked if I was going to come into the school on the weekend to get it all organized, and that was my original thought. But I reconsidered this. If this is to be a space where students can work and explore autonomously, then shouldn't they be involved in the creation of the space? So tomorrow, we will begin together to create our very first MakerSpace. 

If you are interested in learning more about MakerSpace check out these links. 

Renovated Learning - MakerSpace Resources

Edutopia - Designing a School Makerspace 

#OneWord2016

Last year my #OneWord2015 was AGENCY. I'm still enamored with the word because I believe wholeheartedly the real "transformation" that needs to take place in education is the empowerment of our students to be agents of their own learning.

So I was really stumped. How could I pick a new #OneWord2016 when I'm still working through last year's word? (I think that word alone will continue to evolve for me - and for education - over the next decade!) I continued to ponder the word AGENCY and all that it has come to mean to me this past year.

In the hopes of getting inspired, I read other people's posts, including The Bloggess, Mark's Musings, Miss Kit Kat, Learning About Learning, and Living Avivaloca. I felt very inspired by each of those blogs, and they really moved me to think. I especially loved that Aviva chose "hearing" because unless we make the effort, we often don't hear what others are telling us. Without careful listening, we stand to miss so much!

Then I read David Fife's Perspectives and I was actually quite envious. His word is "mindfulness". I wished I had picked "mindfulness"! "Mindfulness" is strongly connected to "metacognition" for me, but it is far more beautiful.

I sat and pondered these posts thinking how each impacted me differently, how my thinking was extended and strengthened with each new post.

In his post David wrote that there are 3 simple steps to find your "One Word - Prepare Your Heart, Discover Your Word, Live Your Word."

So as I sat and pondered, and as I attempted to prepare my heart, I realized that my word had been with me all along. My #OneWord2016 is PONDER.

This year, as I learn to be a Vice Principal in a new school community, I want to be sure to think things through carefully before arriving at any conclusions; I want to contemplate all possibilities before making any decisions. I want to think deeply. I want to attentively listen to what others are saying and mindfully reflect on what I don't hear. This year I want to PONDER. 

Learning to be a Leader

I am learning to be an administrator. It is a humbling journey. The first thing I learned was how much I don't know and how much I still need to learn.

Back in August, our school board held a lovely retreat day for all of the administrators. Our guest speaker was Fr. Raymond Carey. His talk was inspirational, but one thing he said was that the analogy of a school community being a "family" was inappropriate. I disagreed with him at the time, and four months into the job, I disagree even more strongly.

It is not that I feel like a parental figure toward the staff, I don't. It is that I feel responsible for their well-being. It is that I've come to realize that "relationship building" is more than getting to know one another, it is about caring for one another; caring how other people are feeling, how they are coping, and actually taking care of them when they need a little extra support, even it is just doing a duty, or finishing off some photocopying for them because they are in a hurry. The staff at my school have taught me that as they have cared for and supported me in this new role.

I've learned that to be a VP means being able to fill in for anyone when needed. I've swept and washed floors, I've provided First Aid, I've done duties for CUPE members who can't do their usual duties because of job action issues. I've counted and deposited money, I've answered phones, wiped noses, sang songs, made bus tags - no job is too big or too small. But many of these jobs are new jobs to me and have required new learning on my part.

It often feels as though the bulk of my day is spent dealing with discipline issues, health concerns and busing. I was warned that this would be the case, I knew very well that these were a major part of the VP role, but somehow I really didn't understand the urgency of each of these or how utterly time consuming they would be. There are fire safety plans, concussion protocols, anaphylaxis and asthma protocols that all need to be created, shared and followed. It really has not left much time for focusing on what I am passionate about - learning and teaching.

I try to squeeze in those precious conversations about learning and teaching, maybe even just a well-timed question here or there, but it is truly a challenge to find those opportunities during the action-packed day.

Having a break has provided me with some valuable time for self-reflection; it seems that somehow the words "Leader" and "Administrator" have become uncoupled in my psyche and my days have been spent in learning how to be an "Administrator" - one who manages or operates an organization. Tomorrow I want to begin learning how to be a leader. As I head back to work, it will be with a renewed focus on learning and teaching. I plan to step it up and become a co-learner with the educators in my building, so that we can begin breaking down classroom walls, deepen student thinking and encourage students to own the learning.

It Should NEVER Be About Whether It Is Right Or Wrong!

Just have to weigh in on this one. It has gone completely viral, and everyone is talking about it. How awesome is that? All of social media is united in discussing the commutative property of multiplication!

Why 5 x 3 = 5 + 5 + 5 Was Marked Wrong

I think this whole debate underlines our assessment issues in Math today. Educators should not be marking questions like this as "right" or "wrong".  The point of math questions should not be about discovering who is right and who is wrong, but about uncovering student thinking. That is why it is far better to provide feedback rather than a "mark" on a question like this. Better still, use it to promote a class discussion. It isn't social media that should be discussing this math question, but the very class that was asked it.

We don't know what the student was thinking here. For question 2 the child drew an array, we don't know how the child was visually looking at that array without having a conversation with him or her about it.

Let's stop telling children they are right or wrong and start asking them to tell us about their solutions! They might surprise us all!

Who Is In Your Class? New Role - New Learning

I have a new role this year. I am a Vice Principal in a K-8 Elementary school. Some might see this as a "logical next step" or the "natural progression" of a career in Education. But in all honestly, Administration was NEVER on my radar. Those who know me know that I am passionate about children and I am passionate about learning. I have never been interested in management and I have always thought of administrators as managers.

Working in Curriculum, however, I had opportunities to go into many different schools, and it became quickly apparent that the schools that had a culture of learning, the schools that moved, were the schools where the administrators saw themselves as "Instructional Leaders". These administrators knew how to empower their staff and students to make learning happen.

How did they do it? Could I do it?

I strongly believe that the way we "do school" needs to change. I've been trying to find the best place I can be to support that change on a larger scale, because a great classroom here and there is not enough. Every child should have the opportunity to learn, to be motivated and interested, to be curious and to feel successful.

I had the pleasure of seeing Steven Katz speak last fall. He gave me lots to think about. According to Katz, the connection between changes in teacher thinking and practice and student achievement is very strong. But the connection between professional learning and changes in teacher thinking and practice is much more fuzzy.

What does this mean to me?

- Sending a teacher to a professional development in-service does not ensure changes in thinking or practice.
- Change in teacher practice is not enough - compliance does not beget improvement in student achievement. There needs to be a change in teacher thinking for the change in practice to actually have a positive impact.

So basically, whoever is doing the thinking is doing the learning. If the "System" is telling teachers what to do and how to do it, teachers aren't doing the thinking, the System is, so teachers are not learning. They may be compliant, and so it might look like their practice has changed, but unless they believe in that practice, it will not be enacted with a fidelity that leads to improvement for students. Nor will the change be sustainable.

What we need to do is provide the time, space, resources, and permission for teachers to do the heavy thinking. And we need to join them in it. Administrators need to learn with their teachers.

So, this year, my learning is all about how to do this best. Steven Katz asked us "Who is in your class?" And suddenly I realized I could be an administrator. It is not about being a manager (although those pieces need to happen as well... perhaps more on that in the next post). It is about building relationships and empowering people. It is about creating a culture of learning where it is safe to take risks and where we believe in one another's ability to do what is right and necessary.

If I believe that students should own their own learning, then I must also believe that teachers must own theirs. Steven Katz said that to be a good administrator is to "influence people to change". I think it is even more than that. To be a good administrator is to inspire and empower people to grow and to create the conditions necessary for that growth to happen.

That is what I am hoping to learn over the next few years. How do I create the conditions necessary for learning and growth? I'm blessed to be with a principal who has created a culture of learning in her school. I plan to pick her brain, question her every move, and take some risks of my own.

I will let you know how it goes.

Teacher Agency - Who Owns the Professional Learning?

This morning it feels as though my brain is going to explode. Actually, it feels like that most days lately.

In September I took a secondment with the Student Achievement Division on the Capacity Building Team at the Ministry of Education. In the past six months I've had the opportunity to learn from so many deep thinkers in education. I've been participating in wonderful reflections, discussions, and heated debates on teaching and learning and most of the time, my head is spinning and moving in so many directions that is difficult to tease all of that learning apart into specific threads.

But one of the threads that I keep coming back to is the notion of "agency". In January, they posed a question on the OSSEMOOC blog that I follow: "What is your #oneword for 2015?" Without hesitation, my immediate thought was "agency".

I first came across that word about a year ago, and I brought it up at one of our recent planning meetings at work. This word alone has inspired great on-going discussion and led to shifts in our current thinking on learning.

Agency ... is an individual’s sense of what they can do and what they think they can do. Duggins, Shaun D., "The Development of Sense of Agency." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2011. http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/psych_theses/88

Agency is the power of the individual to choose what happens next. (Lindgren, R., & McDaniel, R. (2012). Transforming Online Learning through Narrative and Student Agency. Educational, Technology & Society, 15 (4), 344–355.)

I first became intrigued by the notion of student agency when I saw these images on Twitter.

Images courtesy of flickr user Bill Ferriter

These images can be found on Bill Ferriter's blog The Tempered Radical where he distinguishes between the notions of engagement vs empowerment. I believe that "agency" is more than just being engaged in the learning; having a sense of agency is about being empowered to doggedly choose to pursue learning.

I've also been inspired by the work of Alan November and his book "Who Owns the Learning". Alan November explains that with the advent of educational technology we are living in the

"Age of the Empowered Learner". I have written a fair bit on how using blended learning in a grade six classroom really empowered my students and helped them to take ownership for their learning.

But in my current role I am not working directly with students. I support the learning of adults. To be specific, I support PROFESSIONAL LEARNING. I've been interested in professional learning for a long time. It is actually a rather elusive term for me. We tend to call any event where we pull educators away from their regular work to tell them something new "professional learning", but I often have my doubts that much "learning" is actually taking place. In fact, I wrote a blog post about the difference between professional learning communities and professional learning networks because I have sometimes been frustrated by the PLC's that I've been involved in (which you can find here). 

I believe we need to start considering the term "agency" more deeply when it comes to teacher learning. This question was posted recently on the OSSEMOOC blog:

"How does shift occur from a mindset where learning is provided to a culture where learning is sought?"

As I ponder the idea of teacher agency and reflect on our current professional learning practices I end up with so many more questions:

• Millions of dollars are spent each year on professional learning in the province of Ontario, how do we know what impact it has on changes in teacher practice and student learning? 
• How do we differentiate the learning of our teachers since we know that they all have different experiences, skills, strengths, interests, and most importantly - students with different needs?
• How do we provide system level and school level professional learning and yet still provide teachers with voice and choice in their learning? 
• How can we leverage the use of technology to empower our teachers to be innovative learners?

My friend Regan and I have had frequent conversations about professional learning. We often question our own beliefs about learning and teachers' motivation to learn. There is an expression in education that is "Go with the Goers". Some teachers are seen as "Goers" - they exhibit a learning stance, believe they can and should be constantly improving their practice, and seek out new learning on their own. I often wonder why it is we should go with the Goers if they are going to get there anyway? Isn't it the slow starters we should be focusing our attention on? 

This in turn leads to more questions:

• Can we help teachers develop an inquiry stance about their teaching practice if they currently don't have one? If so, how do we do that? 
• Can we impact teachers' motivation to learn? 
• Can we develop in teachers a sense of agency? If so, how do we do that? 
• How does our current professional learning practice either foster or inhibit a sense of agency in our teachers?

These questions are really important because research indicates that teacher efficacy directly impacts student learning, and teacher efficacy is tied closely to teacher agency. 

"Teachers who set high goals, who persist, who try another strategy when one approach is found wanting—in other words, teachers who have a high sense of efficacy and act on it—are more likely to have students who learn (Shaughnessy, 2004)" ~ as quoted in "Teacher Efficacy and Why Does It Matter".

I realized as I reflected on these questions that I had a fixed mindset about this topic. I believed that some people are more motivated to learn than others, some educators have a learning stance, and others don't. In fact, teacher agency is often defined as an innate quality.

Teacher agency is typically viewed as a quality within educators, a matter of personal capacity to act (Priestly et al., 2012) usually in response to stimuli within their pedagogical environment. It describes an educator who has both the ability and opportunity to act upon a set of circumstances that presents itself within that individual’s leadership, curricular or instructional roles. The educator described would then draw from acquired knowledge and experience to intercede appropriately and effectively. Agency is increasingly rare in the educational world of prescriptive improvement, and the term is too “often utilized as a slogan to support school-based reform” (Priestley, Biesta & Robinson, 2012, p. 3). Teacher Agency in America and Finland By Roger Wilson, GVSU Faculty

As I've been exposed more and more to the work of Carol Dweck, however, I realize that the definition above is very much a fixed mindset. Do we believe that all educators are capable, competent and curious? If so, then the old adage "Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire" by Yeats is as true for educators as it is for students. So the question for educational leaders becomes not "What should professional learning look like?" so much as "How do we light a fire in our teachers?"

How, then, do we (in the words of Lucy West) create a multi-generational learning culture in which educators - including ourselves - and students become learners in the company of one another?

Kristen Swanson poses the following question on her blogpost #HackPD:

What if the only PD ever offered by a school was "How to Learn Something When You Want to Know Something?"

It is time to re-think professional learning, to look closely at its impact on students and teachers, and perhaps to redefine it. We need to be thinking about why teachers need to own their professional learning and what that will look like at both the school and system level. We need to start thinking about how we are going to develop agency in our teachers and think less about what content, skills and strategies we need to be teaching them.

What is "New Math"?

Last week my father emailed me to ask what I thought of Mr. Anthony Quinn who is running for one of our School Board's Trustee positions. I told my dad I would look up Mr. Quinn and then get back to him with my opinion. I found the following from one of Mr. Quinn's campaign newsletters that I would like to discuss here.

This "news" piece really bothers me because it is rife with misconceptions and incorrect information. The current Math curriculum that we use in Ontario was written in 2005 and is an updated version of the older curriculum written in 1999, so why it is being called "new math" is something I am having trouble understanding. An analysis of curricula of high-achieving regions around the world indicates that our Math curriculum is aligned with those that are the most successful in the world. But in addition, it is my understanding that the gap between our highest achieving students and our lowest achieving students is smaller than anywhere else in the world. 

I am also struggling to determine where the term "discovery math" comes from. I have been an Elementary school educator for 13 years, and until now, I have not heard that term before. I did a search of our Math curriculum document and I found the word "discover" in two places:

Students who are willing to make the effort required and who are able to apply themselves will soon discover that there is a direct relationship between this effort and their achievement in mathematics. Pg. 4 of the Ontario Math Curriculum, 2005

and 

Graphs and statistics bombard the public in advertising, opinion polls, population trends, reliability estimates, descriptions of discoveries by scientists, and estimates of health risks, to name just a few.

Pg. 9 of the Ontario Math Curriculum, 2005

Certainly, as you can see, the term "discover" does not figure largely in our current Math curriculum in Ontario. However, Mr. Quinn seems to be under the misguided notion that students are expected to "discover" math concepts on their own, which is very much NOT the case, and he would know this if he were to have a look at our Math Curriculum document. In fact, if he were to scan the verbs used in our overall and specific expectations for Math he would find terms such as: identify, describe, construct, create, analyse, compare, connect, extend, and determine, just to name a few. 

Mr. Quinn also has an italicized quote that suggests that students are not expected to know their multiplication facts. Quite the opposite is true. Here is an example of an expectation from our Grade 4 Number Sense strand:

– multiply to 9 x 9 and divide to 81 ÷ 9,

using a variety of mental strategies (e.g.,

doubles, doubles plus another set, skip

counting);

If someone were to ask me what is the difference between the expectations in the Math Curriculum currently being taught from what was taught in the 1970's I would have to say that when I was growing up, I was expected to have rote memorization of my multiplication facts whereas students today are expected to have conceptual understanding of mathematical operations and can represent them in a variety of ways, as well as use them to solve problems. 

Students today are not only expected to solve questions like ¾ ÷ ½ = ?, they are also expected to be able to represent a real-life situation where that expression would be needed to solve the problem. I wonder how many people educated in the 1970's are able to do that? I was taught "Yours is not to reason why, just invert and multiply". Students today ARE expected to reason and they are expected to be able to explain why multiplying by the inverse fraction provides the solution for the division of fractions. 

I have spoken at several schools' Family Numeracy nights as well as at the Halton Catholic Parents Conference and each time I begin by asking how many parents in the audience think of themselves as "Math People". Invariably, less than half of the people in the room raise their hands. I want ALL of our students to see themselves as "Math People". Learning Math the way I did simply did NOT achieve that result. So I disagree strongly with Mr. Quinn's statement about "fixing something that wasn't broken"; there was something very "broken" in the way that Math used to be taught thirty and forty years ago. 

As Dr. Christine Suurtamm said at a recent symposium I was fortunate enough to attend, the mathematical thinking we are teaching is so complex, we definitely do not support "discovery" learning. But we do support the generation of student algorithm. We are supporting students actively participating and thinking, not just being passive consumers regurgitating and performing rote procedures. Kids need to do the math to learn the math. They need opportunities to makes sense of the mathematical skills they are learning. If you look at the curriculum, you will see it includes traditional algorithms and mental math, and in addition, the thinking involved in doing the math. 

Our current EQAO data indicates that students are actually doing quite well in using procedural knowledge. The area they are having difficulty with is in solving multi-step multi-strand problems. No amount of rote procedural knowledge is going to help them think their way through these types of problems. Students need to have deep conceptual understanding of number sense, including operational sense, place value, and proportional reasoning to be able to successfully solve the types of problems they are currently struggling with. They need to develop a facility in composing and decomposing number.

Our students need procedural fluency, which implies much more than merely knowing their Math facts. Yes, they need to know those facts, but that is not enough. Procedural fluency is the ability to perform math operations flexibly and see the connections between those operations. Rote memorization of a procedure does not mean that you have conceptual understanding of that procedure. 

Do we need to learn more about teaching and learning Math in Ontario? Absolutely! We need to support our teachers in developing their own conceptual understandings and pedagogical knowledge in Math because they are victims of what I will call the "old Math". We need EVERY student to achieve at high levels in Math in Ontario and we are not there yet. I'm sure if Mr. Quinn took the time to read the Board's Improvement Plan, he would see that a philosophy of continuous improvement exists and that no one is suggesting "there is nothing we can do".

I am sure that if Mr. Quinn is elected as a trustee he will dedicate himself fully and devote himself to representing the voice of our parent population. I hope that he, and all of our trustees, will take the time to look at our Math curriculum so that they can provide the informed support that is very much needed if we are to improve student learning in Math.

I will leave you with a typical question from the Junior EQAO Math Assessment. I ask you to consider - could you have solved this question when you were in Grade Six? Can you solve it now? 

Things We Learn From Our Students

Every year, in June, our school board has a special event called Staff Recognition Night. During this auspicious occasion, we honour those staff members who are retiring. Our retirees are asked if they would like to make a speech, and many of them do. I love hearing those speeches and listening to how our various staff members have been modelled and shaped by their careers in education. 

One of my favourite speeches this year was by a Secondary teacher named Mark Whinton. Mark taught Tech as a Department Head at one of our high schools for twenty years. In his speech, he shared how he was influenced and supported by his many colleagues. But what I really loved about his speech was how Mark shared what he has learned from his students over the years. 

I've asked Mark if I could share his comments here on my blog and he graciously agreed. 

CC licensed photo  shared by Flickr user DigitalRalph

From my students I've learned a few things over the years, primarily about technology;

            1. Be an early adopter of technology - while students were learning Facebook back in 2007 the             Board was busy blocking it on our intranet system so they couldn't use it but a                                         student showed me and others an easy way around it. - As of last August the Board now has its             own Facebook page and it can be accessed from school - who is teaching who here?

                       

2. Go to YouTube (now the third most visited place on the planet) was the “go to” place if you wanted to fix something.

3. What they were interested in was all self taught and they didn't do it for a credit or money but simply because they were interested in learning it. - texting, developing, editing and sharing images, videos and music. Creating and using social media sites developing websites and blogs etc. Amazingly I realized they had created nothing short of a new system of knowledge. This system is so prevalent and undeniable that in today’s society the primary source of knowledge comes from a system of digital news not a classroom, not a newspaper, not a book and not a teacher. It comes from everyone and anyone at anytime.

So in my retirement I see myself putting to good use the lessons I have been taught by my students by creating an HCDSB NEWS site for former students, and staff, something I hope that will keep me connected to my former students and my many friends at the HCDSB.

When I suggest to some teachers that they tear down their classroom walls by encouraging their students to connect to the world outside of the classroom, they tell me they are not yet comfortable with the technology. I think they need to learn from Mark Whinton's experience. Students are teaching themselves how to use social media to share, connect and learn from one another, not because they are being told to, just because they are interested in learning how. We need to jump on that bandwagon. We don't need to be comfortable to do so. Our students, even the youngest ones, will teach us! We can and should be learners together in the classroom. 

We need more teachers like Mark Whinton who recognize that in education we can't afford to be the last ones joining in the digital world. We need to be the early adopters, the trend setters, the ones willing to take the risks. That is what we need our students to become when they get out into the world to take care of us in our retirement, the innovators and problems solvers. We need to start promoting that now!

As you step into your classroom in the next few weeks, please think about technology. How will you make it available to your students? What would you like them to teach you about their digital worlds? How will you use the ability to connect with others outside the classroom to stimulate and empower your students this year?

Exploring Fractions with a Growth Mindset

I love summer. I love it for so many reasons. One of the reasons I love summer is because it gives me the opportunity to tutor students at my own pace with no "curriculum" other than what I believe to be good instructional practice to follow.

This summer I'm tutoring a 10 year old who has just finished Grade Five. I have worked with this student before, (I will call her Grace because she's an incredibly graceful young lady), and I know that she has struggled with Math for the last few years. Grace is pretty typical of many students that I have taught. Traditional math instruction is not that effective for her. She is quiet, and if something doesn't make sense to her she won't ask questions, preferring not to single herself out. 

Grace also has some issues with her short term memory. Many of her teachers have expected her to learn her addition and multiplication facts by rote memory. That is just not a realistic expectation for Grace. She has difficulty memorizing facts. Last summer, Grace and I explored repeated addition, skip counting, and making groups. Although she doesn't know her facts with lightening speed, she can figure out any multiplication question using strategies that makes sense to her. She understands what multiplication means. But some of her teachers don't value this, and as a result, at the tender age of 10, she does not really see herself as a "math person". 

I also love the summer because it gives me time to work on my own professional learning. In past summers I have taken Marilyn Burns' Math Solutions course and attended our Ministry's Math Camppp. This summer is no different and I am currently taking Jo Boaler's MOOC How to Learn Math. (You can watch the Youtube videos here). There is a common thread through all of the learning - Math is not a textbook subject! You don't develop deep understandings of mathematical concepts by completing worksheets or workbooks. In order to develop conceptual understanding in math, in order to see connections between concepts, in order to love math and think creatively in math, students need multiple opportunities to explore math. I love the summer because I can work one on one with students, give them those opportunities to explore and construct their own understandings, and watch and listen to learn how they learn. 

I knew that Grace had had trouble with fractions this year, so that is where we started this summer. 

This was an SOS I got from Grace in the Spring

More than ever, I've been trying to use Growth Mindset language. I've been using "traffic light comprehension" with Grace, asking her frequently if she is red, yellow or green light in her understanding, and asking her to really pay attention to her own learning. I'm being careful about the language I'm using, drawing attention to how successful she has been with her persistence and hard work. I'm also making sure that if she doesn't get something, we add the word "yet". I give her lots of time to explore her understandings and allow her misconceptions to "float" out there, merely asking questions that allow her to re-evaluate her own beliefs and re-adjust her understandings. 

We've spent three 90 minute lessons just on representing proper fractions using fraction circles, fraction strips, sets, area models and number lines. We compared these representations looking at the connections between them. I've been encouraging Grace to name her learning so that she can see her own growth and take ownership for her understandings. Grace has concluded that:

- the numerator counts how many parts you have (or are discussing)

- the denominator tells how parts make up the whole

- a proper fraction is always less than one

- in a proper fraction the numerator is always less than the denominator

- different fractions can represent equivalent amounts e.g. 1/2 is the same as 5/10 which is the same as 0.5

- the equal sign (=) means "the same as"or "is equivalent to" and not "the answer is..."

Grace doesn't have to memorize these things because she came to these understandings on her own. 

During one lesson while exploring proper fractions Grace said "My teacher kept giving me questions like this: 2/3 = ?/6.  I didn't know how to answer those". Those questions had absolutely no meaning for Grace at all.  She did not know what the teacher was asking or looking for. I pointed to the number line we had created and how we had divided it up many different ways. I pointed to the half and asked "How many ways could we name this fraction?" She said we could call it "1/2 or 5/10". Then she went to the fraction circles we had on the fridge and said "It's like 1/2 is the same as 2/4 and 3/6". I explained that is what the teacher was asking, that she was asking what fraction with a denominator of 6 was the same size as a fraction of 2/3. All of a sudden the question made complete sense to Grace but she needed to connect the question to a visual representation. 

 Today we began working on improper fractions. I could not believe how quickly she picked it up.  I guess it was easy after all the work we had done on proper fractions. Grace had such a deep understanding about the role of the numerator and the denominator she quickly deduced that if the numerator was greater than the denominator we were talking about a fraction greater than one. She had no trouble representing them in any format. Next week I will show her how to write an improper fraction as a mixed number. This should be easy for her to understand since she's already been naming them out loud as "two and a quarter" for example because she can see them pictorially as a combination of wholes and fractions.

Along the way we've been comparing fractions. As we put the fractions on the number line, as we use the fraction circles on the fridge, and as we draw our area models, I'm always asking "What do you notice about these two fractions". Eventually, I will teach Grace about common denominators, but not for a while, not until she has a really solid understanding of fractions, and has an idea of benchmark fractions on a number line so that she can estimate the relative size of a fraction. I want Grace to have many ways to compare fractions. She has already noticed that the larger the denominator, the smaller the fractional piece. I want her to realize that 7/8 is less than 9/10 because each fraction is missing only one piece but the tenths are smaller pieces, so 9/10 represents more. I want her to know that 9/20 is closer to half than 4/10 is, and I want her to know this without having to use a common denominator because she understands fractional parts.

I'm really enjoying the Jo Boaler MOOC. One thing that Jo said was that intuition is an extremely important part of math competency. I've often thought that having mathematical intuition was a genetic gift - I guess you could say I had a Fixed Mindset about math ability. But Jo has conducted research to show that it is mathematical understanding that helps a person to develop mathematical intuition. And having mathematical intuition, in turn, helps a person to develop their mathematical understandings. Jo Boaler explains it as an iterative process. This makes total sense to me. I'm helping Grace to understand fractions. I'm hoping this will help her develop an intuitive sense about proportional reasoning. Once she has honed this intuition, it will help her solve problems and make sense of problems involving fractions, decimals, percentages, rates, and ratios. It is my goal that Grace sees the connections between all of these beautiful math concepts.

Graces always texts me before she comes over. I told her I had bought her some fraction circles she could take home. She wrote "Do the fractions stick on the fridge?"She wants some like mine so she can play school at home and use them for math homework. Then she wrote "I can't wait". She clearly loves math, she just doesn't love it at school. Isn't that a shame?

Getting Your Technology to "Bing"

Four years ago I got a Kobo for my birthday.  I was really excited to have an e-reader, but after downloading my first book, I actually found it kind of hard to read on the Kobo. I had trouble navigating the pages, I'd try to turn the page but instead the menu screen would pop up. Sometimes the screen would freeze on me too. I couldn't figure out how to use the highlight or search features. So, while I read the occasional book on my Kobo, I mostly continued to read conventional books.

Then, two years ago, I went on an extended European holiday. Traditional books would be too heavy for my suitcase so I loaded up the Kobo and I've been using it ever since. But the other day I stumbled upon a book titled "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" in a book store; I was so intrigued I bought the book on the spot - in hard copy!

Harold did not let me down, it was a great read, but the whole time I was reading it I was quite frustrated. I couldn't highlight or bookmark the pages the way I had finally learned to do with my Kobo. I had also gotten into the habit of emailing favourite quotes I'd highlighted to my friends. I couldn't do that with a traditional book. While reading "Harold Fry" I suddenly realized that all of the things I used to find difficult and frustrating when using the e-reader had now become automatic. I guess it had happened so gradually, that I didn't even notice that I had moved to that level of not just being comfortable with my Kobo, I actually preferred it, and why wouldn't I? I can do much more with the Kobo than with a traditional book. I can search for a line or even a word and find it in seconds and my Kobo tells me exactly how many hours it will take me to finish my book. With my Kobo app on my phone and iPad, I can read my book wherever I happen to be waiting, and it asks if I want to sync my devices so I never have to search for my page.

While reading "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" I had to keep sticking tabs in for my favourite quotes, and I couldn't forward them on through email without first typing them up!

Learning how to use new technology is exactly that - it is learning. Learning can be uncomfortable and it requires lots of practice. With technology, you have to put in enough practice time to develop a level of automaticity and fluency to actually make using the technology worthwhile.

It is June now, and in the world of Curriculum, it is time to purchase textbooks. I've asked teachers if they would prefer to have a digital text - a text that includes a PDF version kids could download and print if they truly prefer a hard copy, but also includes online quizzes, videos, highlighting features, note-taking features, interactive activities, links to online resources, a calendar, and options for teachers to push notifications through to students. But the teachers I've offered this option to say that they, and their students, prefer to have a traditional text.  I couldn't understand at all why.

Then I thought of me and my Kobo. I actually preferred reading my traditional books at first too. Why? Because I was fluent at reading a book, I could get right to it and there was no new learning involved. But once I made the effort to learn how to use my e-reader, and got over that initial learning hump, I discovered that I preferred to read on my Kobo hands-down. There really was no competition.

I can remember back in the Seventies my grandmother telling my mom she didn't need an automatic washer, she preferred her wringer washer. I thought she was crazy, but now I realize she was afraid of the effort involved in learning something new.

Can you imagine using a wringer washer now? Or a rotary dial phone? Or getting up to change the channels on the t.v.? Making the switch to an automatic washer, a remote control, a tablet, a smart phone, all require new learning and are uncomfortable at first. (It took me a year to get comfortable at using the remote to switch from the DVR to my Apple t.v. or the Blue Ray). In the end, making the effort to learn is always worth while!

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? You sure can. I got this iMessage from my 73 year old mom the other day.

My mom meant to send this message to her 76 year old sister Eleanor. She was trying to help my aunt turn on her notifications button on the iPad. I think it is a beautiful example of learning made visible and persistence when something is uncomfortable and difficult. I think I owe my love of technology to my mom, she has every new gadget known to man, and won't sleep until she can get her newest gadget up and running, whatever it may be.

Making the switch to new technologies requires new learning, whether it's moving to a digital text or a Learning Management System. But in the end, we know that the tools and features they provide offer more and better opportunities for our students to learn.

As a teacher, are you making sure you are keeping up with the new technologies available to help your students get the best learning experience possible?

Professional Learning in the 21st Century

Learning through collegial conversations June 5th, 2014

Thursday was a good day.  I was invited to attend a day of sharing and reflection with teachers who had participated in some action research on 21st Century Teaching and Learning.  I got to listen to and take part in some terrific conversations that included more questions than they did answers.  I find that exciting.  I hope the teachers who attended felt the same way that I did.

More so than ever, I've been trying hard to pay attention to the impact Professional Development opportunities have on professional learning. I still have a hard time understanding the difference between "Professional Development" and "Professional Learning." I get the feeling that "Professional Development" is something that is done to you and it may or may not result in Professional Learning.  I see "Professional Learning" more as something you actively participate in and take ownership for.

The issue I'm concerned about is that many educators often complain about Professional Development (with good reason).  It takes them away from their class and students, often makes them feel incompetent suggesting that they could and should be doing most things differently and better, and can seem irrelevant to what they believe their students need to be successful learners, i.e. they don't buy in. It is not life-giving and it does not often result in positive changes in student learning.

I've tried hard this year to move away from providing "Professional Development" but rather support teachers in their professional learning. With some schools and with some teachers, I think this has worked out very well. There are many teachers who truly have a learning stance and they welcome opportunities to learn together.  But I've also encountered teachers who feel overwhelmed when it is suggested they learn something new, who feel there is no time, no support, and no follow-up.

We have adopted the ISTE standards for students in our board. We want to help our students develop into collaborative and creative problem solvers who use technology in innovative ways to make the world a better place, and who can successfully communicate their ideas with others. It is not enough for them to be consumers of information, we want them to be knowledge creators. But what about our teachers? There are ISTE standards for teachers too. As teachers in the 21st Century, we need to facilitate and inspire students' creativity and learning. We need to be comfortable with trying out new technologies that enhance student learning and empower our students to be drivers of their own education. We need to use formative assessment practices to evaluate the impact of our teaching and make adjustments accordingly. We need to teach our students to be metacognitive and set their own goals for learning. To do all of this, we need to engage in continuous professional learning and reflection.

But so much of the Professional Development we provide for educators uses archaic structures and methodologies. The Power Point presentation just doesn't cut it anymore. If we believe in 21st Century teaching and learning, then those of us providing professional learning opportunities for educators must model what we know are effective teaching and learning practices. If it works for students, I believe it will work for adult learners as well.

How do we "light a fire" in tired, over-whelmed teachers who are often just trying to keep their heads above water?  How do we empower them to be leaders and changers in education? Making the shift to student-driven education can be a huge learning curve, but somehow, if we can convince teachers that the effort up-front will lead not only to improvements in learning for their students but also increased engagement for teachers themselves, perhaps they will buy in and be open to making that shift.

But the shift is a huge one, and the learning curve, especially for some teachers, can be steep. No, it is not all about the technology, but digital fluency is a big part of helping students become collaborative problem-solvers who communicate beyond the classroom walls. Teachers need to become digitally fluent if they are going to support their students in becoming 21st Century learners. This can be a huge challenge for many teachers, and they need to know that they will be supported in their efforts and that their efforts will be worth while.

In order to support teachers with this shift, our Professional Development needs to be teacher-driven. We should differentiate the support we provide based on teacher need. It is important to encourage our teachers to be metacognitive, asking them, what do YOU need to learn about in order to be effective in moving toward technology-enabled student-driven eduction? Formative assessment practices, particularly self-assessment practices, are necessary for teachers as well as for students. Teachers need to have a voice in what the professional learning they are engaging in will look like. As leaders, we have to ask, "what is working for you; what isn't working? What do you need me to do differently so that you can be successful?"

Then we need to model and support teachers in becoming networked learners and provide on-going, "guided" support as they learn. 21st Century teachers are knowledge-builders, establishing parameters for our professional practice, leaders who support and learn from one another.

It stands to reason that taking a blended learning approach to professional learning is a logical next step for Professional Development and one that I hope to develop next year.

What would your ideal Professional Learning opportunity look like?