Thoughts About This Coding Craze

In 1976 I set off to the University of South Carolina on a Navy ROTC scholarship to major in Math and Computer Science. In 1986 I was taking courses in computer architecture and the language ADA as I worked on my master's degree in Engineering. In 1992 I helped teach a computer class to teachers while being a graduate assistant and getting my master's degree in Education. I hope you believe that I get the importance of using computers as a tool.

Now, everywhere it seems, I keep reading how important it is for students to learn coding. I know the value of understanding the set up of code and algorithms. I can still remember my first assignment in the Fall of 1976 using PL1/PLC. It was to write a program to determine how many cars went through an intersection. The cars approached from each of the four cardinal points at different rates. The length of time the red, yellow, and green lights stayed on also varied. I may have loved math but this was a new animal and it hurt my brain.

But do we need to have every student take a coding course? And where, please tell me, do we get people qualified to teach these courses? I fear that the "Teacher as student" idea will trickle down here and will waste a lot of student time. Without proper guidance I see students going to places like Code.org and playing games. Oh they are being exposed to coding but are they learning the code or just the shape of the icon representing the code? And how many of the English, Math, Science, Social Studies teachers are going to really figure out how to work coding into their curricula?

Will administrators jump on board this coding train, having no understanding of coding themselves, requiring their teachers  to embrace this "coding stuff?" You bet they will. If there is funding and parent demand there will be administrators turning this demand on its head and requiring teachers to figure coding out.

I saw (and am still seeing) this with the topics of PBL, Inquiry, and (lately) Design. These are ideas that, when done well, are incredibly valuable and help students go deeper in their understanding of content. Because of publicity superintendents and principals get excited about things that will make their students be the best students. Suddenly they say things like, "This PBL stuff is good for our kids so lets get some training in it!" Grants get written and training begins. But soon the funding for the training dries up. And then we hear them say, "Now that we've trained some teachers, we need PBL to be done in EVERY classroom!"

But the schools/districts rarely get to the level where instructional coaches, assistant principals, and principals understand what they are seeing in the classroom.  It follows that these same academic leaders can't help their teachers grow in this new "PBL world" that they have created.

Will this happen in the world of Coding? Sadly, I'm leaning towards, "yes." Why? I'm willing to use myself as an example.

At my school parents and students demanded a computer science course. I was hired to teach Design Thinking, but I had a computer science background. So I was asked if I would teach a section of computer science. With very little time to come up with a plan, the school year started.  I decided that I would see what these students wanted in their computer science course. When I asked them I got the following: App Design, Web Page Design, Game Design, Coding, and Movie Creation. I let the students self-select into each of these areas and we spent the first semester exploring these topics with me as "facilitator of learning" and "calendar enforcer."

There was some good news from the semester.  Many of the students went way further than I thought they would go and learned more than I could ever have helped them learn. And, most of the students learned about what I expected they would learn in a self paced course. And, of course, there were some students who "also participated" in class. It was a pretty normal breakdown for students for any class and in any content. Nothing surprising there.

Still, I can't help but wonder what these same students could have done with a teacher who was at the school to teach students all about computers and coding. We're a small, academically oriented school with great parents and staff.  Hopefully, we will have a certified computer science teacher - or, at least, a person who loves to immerse themselves in all things computers. I'm not that guy. And, because I HAD to teach computers, I haven't put forth the effort required to make the course be truly awesome.

I find myself wondering: "how many teachers are going to be required to 'put coding into their course?'" If you aren't into computers, you aren't into computers. I love working with them and I want the latest app to use on my mobile device. But I'm not a person who spends hours coding. And I'm not a "maker." It isn't fair to my students to have me be their computer science teacher. They deserve better.

Schools and school districts are jumping on the coding band wagon. But do we suggest that all students learn coding when there aren't teachers in place to make it happen? It's hard enough to get a quality math teacher; or science teacher; or English teacher; or social studies teacher.  We need teachers who are passionate about their subject. Let's build capacity with computer science teachers before we suggest our students all take a class in coding.

You See, It Takes Time

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We are seeing a real dichotomy in education these days. Thanks to social media we are exposed to teachers, at all levels, doing wonderful things with their students. We're seeing students doing incredible things that they have chosen to do - not because they are completing an assignment that they have to do.  

We are seeing images of happy and excited people from gatherings of educators at edcamps, conferences, and webinars. And we're also seeing students in these images. Students - outside of the normal school day!

Then there is the reality of schools being labeled as "low performing." And students dropping out of school because they perceive life will be better with their gang family or, sadly, because they need to provide for their family. The images we see are of unhappy and, often, angry students. 

Between the two extremes lies the average school in the average district. And, at the average school, teachers are pressured to meet certain test requirements. To meet these requirements they must follow a strict curriculum with every day mapped out for them. They don't dare deviate from the course. The strict curriculum is designed by "experts" who know that teaching a certain topic in a certain way will guarantee the average student will succeed. And by succeed they mean pass the state test. 

But there are INCREDIBLE things going on all over the world. Students are going deeper in their learning. Student attendance rates are improving. Students are, (gasp), having fun and are enjoying learning. If students are attending classes and having fun in school then maybe, perhaps, their scores on state tests might just be improving! What a crazy concept!

Schools are having success. But there is this little statement that stakeholders in schools hate to hear - it takes time.  We saw it at Manor New Technology HS. My first year our scores in math were not good. There was hope that I, the "Old Math Teacher," could suddenly make things better. But what was lost on all of us was the fact that we were doing things differently. Our students had to learn how to learn and our teachers had to learn how to help students learn in this world of project based learning (PBL).  The superintendent and principal bought into the idea of "Trust the Process" and the teachers had incredible support and autonomy. We could try new things, and fail, without a huge to do about it.  And the school's scores started improving. 

All it took was time and the willingness of stakeholders to allow things to not go well so that we could figure out how to do it right. States and school districts have got to be willing to take risks and try new things with their students. Even though things might not immediately improve.  Are you willing to try something that excites students? Are you willing to try something that increases attendance rates? Are you willing to try something that keeps students from choosing life without school? Are you willing to give it 3 to 5 years? Are you willing to see test scores, possibly, stagnate or even go down? All we ask is for you to Trust the Process. Because, you see, it takes time. 

Putting Together a Design Class in a IB World School (Part 2)

Screen Capture from - https://goo.gl/VoUfRT

[NOTE: Originally written a week ago]
"So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. Thank you." Willy Wonka.

 Right now I'm feeling like a cross between the Scarecrow ( giving directions in OZ) and Willy Wonka these days. One minute I'm heading one direction and the next I'm heading in a completely opposite direction. But, the bottom line is that, wherever I end up heading needs to be a direction that helps our students and our school. I can live with that.

A long time ago (yesterday) I wrote the first part of this group of posts. At that time (yesterday) I felt like I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel - the tunnel of planning what my class would look like this year. Evidently the light I was seeing was a warning sign that said "Detour Ahead."

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonmary/

It now looks like my focus needs to be around the word Community. What does it mean to be a part of a community:   The classroom community, Our school community, Our "local community," and the world community?

The first project, that I will be doing with my science teacher neighbor, will now focus on my helping my teaching community. We will do the Rube Goldberg Machine because of the teacher's needs to teach certain concepts like momentum and speed.  We will build because of the need to have visual representations of the science concepts they will be learning. We will be doing all of the other components of the project so that everyone in my classroom community understands the parts of the design process.

For the school community I will be making sure that my students are learning the IB concepts at the MYP level. This will build on their years of learning these concepts at the PYP level. And throughout this unit, and the rest of the year, I will be referencing how our learning impacts (and is impacted by) the local and international communities.

It will be a time for me to join the Meridian World School community as well.  Let the school year begin!

[END NOTE: Stopping here. This was to have gone out last week. It's time to start writing the next post. School started today. And we are rolling! Come join my community. ]

So I'm Going to Teach This Computer Science Class

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On Friday I had a chance to talk with my new principal. If you haven't heard about that feel free to get caught up with my earlier post.

During my initial interview (with The Head of School and the Secondary Principal) I was informed that they really wanted someone who was able to teach a computer course. I never said I wouldn't but I said that it had been a long time since I had worked with a programming language. So when they hired me I was told that I would teach 4 sections of Design Thinking, 1 section of math, and another subject to be decided at a later date.

So, along comes Friday and the subject of computer science comes up. I quickly say that I'm not against teaching computer science; I'm just a little rusty and would have to learn a ton before the students walked into the room. By the end of the conversation I had committed to teaching one section of Computer Science I for 15 to 20 Juniors who had signed up for the course at the end of last school year.

By Saturday morning I realized that being a teacher with experience with Project Based Learning; a teacher open to learning with my students; and, a teacher with a couple of thousand Twitter followers makes me nearly freaking unafraid of anything. I will have "experts" available to help me with this and the 20 of us in that classroom will be going deeper and doing cooler things than your average computer science classroom in this world (insert maniacal laugh).

I was energized, excited, and (to be completely open) a bit terrified. With Saturday being the 4th of July, I decided pursuing this could wait a day or so. Finally, last night (the 5th), I ventured onto Twitter and wrote: " Any of you at #kidscancode, #EdTechBridge, #DTk12chat have opinions on the language I should use for Comp Sci I class I am putting 2gether?"

Where did I get the hashtags? I went to my first source for all things educational chats - my old friend Jerry Blumengarten (@cybraryman1). I looked through his list of chats to see which ones sounded like they dealt with computer science and/or coding. Then I added my Design Thinking group because they are always working with people in the maker world and coding world. They are just smart folks and know everything about anything.

As I was sending out that tweet I noticed my friend Rafranz Davis was on and so I sent her a note too: "I know you know people who know people...I am putting a Comp Sci class together for HS Jrs. Who should I get to know?"

I was soon exchanging thoughts with Lisa Palmieri (@Learn21Tech) but I had to go so I could watch the Women's World Cup final which, of course, the US Women's National Team won. When I got back online 4 hours later I was greeted with a list of people to follow from Josh Gauthier (@Mrgfactoftheday) .

That list included: Myra Deister (@shhsMath), Jim Klein ( @jnetman1), Jared Cosulich ( @jaredcosulich ), Vicky Sedgwick ( @VisionsByVicky ), and Brian Briggs ( @bribriggs ).

I started conversing with Vicky Sedgwick and was later joined by Melissa Techman ( @mtechman ). Then Lindsay Unland ( @Lindsay_Unland ) suggested that I follow D Martin ( @D_Martin05 ). Vicky followed with a suggestion of Alfred Thompson ( @AlfredTwo , someone I actually have been following for a few years). Alfred came back and sent his list of CS Educators on Twitter  - only 290 people on that list (a gold mine!). 

In less than 24 hours from the first tweet, I had a list of about 300 people who I could reach out to for help and suggestions in this quest to create a computer science class for this Fall. I am so fortunate to have decided (nearly 8 years ago now) to get on this Twitter thing. I never have to worry about finding help. There are people, much smarter (or, at least, more experienced) than I am. And, they are smart with just about anything I might need help with.

So, I'm going to teach this computer science class - and it's going to be OK.  Follow along for future events in my first year at Meridian School as I figure out teaching Design Thinking, math, and computer science.

In Which We Are Introduced to My New School

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On August 10 I will be starting a new school year with new students at a new school. But what does that really mean? Every year we get new students. Every year is a new school year. The only really new thing is the school I will be working at - Meridian School in Round Rock Texas.

I interviewed for this school so I've actually stood in the building before. I even met a teacher from this school at SXSWEdu. He enlightened me about the fact that the school was K-12 (and not just an elementary school). I even suggested this school to another teacher-friend of mine and he not only applied for a job; he was hired to work there.

But my accepting the job is less than 2 weeks old and I haven't been able to go to the school since to see what it looks like or even finish all of the paperwork for the job application. Yet on August 10th there will be students walking into my classroom. It is NOT too early to start putting together my teaching strategy.

Meridian School. I am a retired Naval Officer and have taken many hours of navigation classes and have spent hours on the bridge navigating ships around the globe. So I know what a meridian is. But why meridian for the name of the school? I looked to see if there were other meanings to the word meridian and I found that there was one that I really liked (whether this meaning is the one meant by our school's founders, I'll have to wait to see):

 "Meridian - Any of the pathways along which the body's vital energy flows according to the theory behind acupuncture."

If I am to be a truly effective teacher I will want to know how to help the energy flow of my students along their meridian from head to heart to hand and back again.

During the next 6 weeks I will be writing posts about my preparations for this school, the school year, and my students. I will be discussing how I set up my room, how I design my calendar, how I design my first week's lessons to support a collaborative environment, what my parent/student/teacher communication plan will look like, what technology I will have and what choices I will make for the use of that technology, and much more.

I am a teacher who will be having inquiry, collaboration, questioning, and design at the heart of all that we do. All of those discussions and suggestions I've had with teachers (in my role as a coach) over the last three years will have meant nothing if I don't attempt to replicate those practices that I have talked (and written) about with such enthusiasm.

Come along with me on this trip of discovery. Discovery about who I really am; what I really believe; and, what I am ready to practice with my students.

I'm Not a Techie

Technology Cow via http://goo.gl/XR2MYi

In 1976 I went to the University of South Carolina to be a dual Math and Computer Science major. I got my math degree but gave up on computers after spending hours at the card punch machine at late hours on the university's one computer (that also had to do research and university business).

In 1985 to 1987 I attended the Naval Postgraduate School where I majored in Weapons Systems Engineering. I got a masters in engineering and the equivalent of a bachelors in physics while studying robotics. I worked on an IBM AT and an IBM XT for the robot work and I had a computer built to my specs for home where I could connect to the school's mainframe.

In 1992 I finished my masters in education and I co-taught a computers in the classroom course at Old Dominion University. We used the Apple IIE and I got to see teachers experience the world wide web (and accidentally find porn sites).

In 2008 I started work at Manor New Technology HS and the first question I was asked was whether I was a Mac or a PC person. I had never had a Mac but I knew the correct answer - give me a Mac! A couple of years later we added iPads to our repertoire.

During the years 2008 to present I actively reached out to like-minded teachers who were on Twitter, used Macs and iPads, and were discussing the future of education. So many of my first Twitter friends have become, what I like to call, Twitter Gods! They go to all of the cool conferences, hang out with all of the coolest people, and write books and have well-followed blogs. And many (most?) of them are techies. But not me.

That's right. I'm not a techie. I appreciate technology. I use technology to help me work more efficiently. I love discussing the latest apps, the latest websites, or a great blog post. But I'm not a techie. I still want to be where all of the "cool kids" are like SXSW, ISTE, or Ipadpalooza. But you know what? I can't afford to go to these conferences and I'm not in technology at a school district so I can't expect anyone to help me financially. Because I'm not a techie.

What I am is an education nerd. I love talking about curriculum and pedagogy. I love finding ways to help kids enjoy learning. I try new things in the classroom and want teachers to be better because our kids deserve the best teachers they can have. And if that means a cool app that improves inquiry and helps a student go deeper with their learning, then I'm all on board. But if a teacher has the latest bells and whistles tool, but can't reach the kids, then I don't want to hear about it.

Too many education conferences are focusing on those "precious" things called technology. Teachers by the hundreds are attending these and hanging out on the vendor floor with stars in their eyes. But what about learning about becoming a better teacher! What about finding ways to get students more involved with the content?

I just finished 3 weeks where I spent 11 of the 15 work days in front of teachers wanting to learn about PBL. They designed projects built on their content standards. And they designed these projects to help students make connections to the learning. Not once did I suggest an app, some software, or any hardware. Because I'm not a techie.

What I did do was help them understand how to turn the verbs written into their standards into some real-world, authentic, activity or problem. If, through examining this authentic problem their students might need some sort of technology we'd discuss that but technology was never at the center of the discussion. Because these were teachers - not techies.

It is 2015. It is time to FINALLY get to the point where we were at Manor New Tech 7 years ago - technology is the invisible tool. It is a tool. That is all. A tool. Like a pencil or pen. Like a chalk board, a white board, or a SMART board. A tool. We need to be tool masters not techies. What tool do we need to use to successfully complete this task? Whatever tool works best.

Can we finally stop sucking on the technology teat at education conferences? Probably not. But can we please get principals to the point where they see technology as just a tool? Then, and only then, will we be able to push teachers away from their "precious."

We just might get back to where we were in 1976 when I graduated from high school - we used the best tools that we had available. It just happened to be that it was a stick of chalk and a chalk board - although some of the rich kids could afford a Smith Corona electric typewriter - now THAT was cool!

If You Borrow It, Tell Someone

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kittiesmademedoit/

Those are words of advice given to me by my Father. Actually it was more like, "Hey, I don't mind if you want to use my tools but put them back - in the same spot - when you are finished."

Isn't that really the point of attribution? You are borrowing someone else's words or pictures. You may not be able to "put them back in the same spot," but you can send others back to the spot where they were found.

Too often on Twitter and Facebook I will see something that I know I have seen before. Almost invariably I do some digging and I find the original news article, blog post, or image that it came from.  Sometimes it is in a re-tweet (RT) and the person who originally tweeted it is the guilty party of not giving credit where it is due.

So, what should you do before you re-post something? My immediate answer may surprise you after my intro here. I say it depends. If you are in the middle of a twitter chat where 50 to 100 tweets are flying by every minute, then you may miss  hundreds of tweets with great nuggets by researching that one tweet. Just favorite the tweet prior to RT'ng it and then you can go back and give the original item the proper attribution after the chat.

If, on the other hand, you are seeing a tweet outside of a chat or in a slow moving chat then take the time to check it out and if the original person wasn't mentioned in the tweet take the time to include "via @originalperson" in your RT. If you need to modify the original tweet prior to RT'ng it to fit the "via," then remember you are now tweeting a Modified Tweet (MT) not a re-tweet.  Just use MT instead of RT and everyone will know what you did.

Finally, if you are going to be the original person putting something up on Twitter or Facebook, then take the time to craft your tweet or post so the attribution is included. If you can't find the person's Twitter handle through the twitter search do a web search using the person's name and the word twitter - "chris fancher twitter" for example.

If that doesn't immediately give you what you need, then research where this person works. Is he or she with a business, at a school or university, or in a school district? If nothing else find a twitter handle for the specific place of employment and include that.

Take the time to do the simple task of giving recognition to the originator of whatever "tool" you are using. You owe it to them and to your followers to do it right.

Feeling Radioactive

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WARNING - NEGATIVE RADIATION CONTAINED IN THIS POST. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

[Originally written mid-April, 2015 ]

Yesterday I went for a run/walk as I try to regain my body - my body that is currently almost 70 pounds overweight and tired.  While I was out plodding along and listening to my running playlist, the song Radioactive by Imagine Dragons started playing and I realized that this song has a different meaning to me than most others.

It was about 15 months ago when I was out in similar fashion (except I was only about 50 pounds overweight then). As I was running I heard Radioactive and a huge vision of my brother undergoing chemo-therapy popped into my head and tears filled my eyes. I replayed that song countless times that morning while moving forward at a snails pace.

Now when I hear that song I feel a connection to my brother who lost his fight with cancer almost exactly a year ago. But, in a weird way, there is a deeper connection than just the title and cancer. In a way I have become very radioactive this past 12 months. I have become much less sociable and withdrawn - not wanting to spread my radioactivity to others.

I once was very active on Twitter - to the point that over 3000 people now follow me. I was also very active on Facebook - friends could guarantee a quick response to postings. And I used to write blog posts with regularity. Now I'd rather stay home and "work" although I am often just going through the motions. At school I am getting much less accomplished and I'm less and less able to keep our teachers smiling.

My school and district are a huge source of my radioactivity. Trying to "do right and fear not" is getting to be a real challenge when there are people around me who are doing wrong and fearing not. I am surrounded by too many people who are unhappy and want change. That negativity fuels my radioactive juices.

By the end of the calendar year I hope to eliminate (or drastically reduce) the radioactive levels flowing through my soul. The first order of business will be to find a new job. If that can't happen then I worry that this past year may pale in comparison with the amount of radiation I might have to absorb in the coming months.

[Updated 16 May 2015]

I will need help to do this. I need to be among people who are strong, positive, and smart. There are some incredible people in my current school district who fit that bill but more and more those people are leaving like the proverbial rat leaving the sinking ship. Just last night I learned of another person who is leaving. I was hoping to be able to work with this person at some point in my career but that will now not happen. My radiation levels creeped back up last night.

The possibility of being too old and, therefore, not hirable is also starting to enter my brain. There are tons of things I would love to do but I worry that people are going to start choosing younger minds with better physiques over me. Up go the radiation levels. Thank god I have my work with the Buck Institute for Education (BIE). It allows me to be around adults who are learning about a way of teaching that I firmly believe in. It allows me to be encouraging. It allows me to be cheerful and positive. It allows me to lower my radiation levels quickly.

I don't know what my life will look like 12 months from now. I could be doing something completely different from what I am currently doing. I could be doing instructional coaching in another school district. I could be doing the exact same job I'm doing now.  Except that very little will look the same at Decker Middle School.

The 2015-2016 school year will have a totally new administration - a new Principal AND new Assistant Principals. What will this new regime bring to DMS and what will this disturbance in the force do to the nearly 1000 students coming through the doors? Our poor 8th graders will have had a new principal every year they were in middle school. But our leaders don't think about such silliness. If our test scores go down it will be the teachers' faults for not doing their jobs.

Radiation levels could go critical!

Anyone have a dosimeter I can borrow?

Another Take on Problem Based Learning for Math

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I have been wrestling with the marriage of Project Based Learning (PBL) and Math for nearly 8 years now.  A few years ago I moved towards Problem Based Learning (PrBL) instead of Project Based for math. It just seemed to make more sense.

With PrBL there are shorter time periods to complete a problem which, to a math teacher, frees up more time for "Math Skills." Of course a veteran math teacher, using inquiry-based teaching (PBL or PrBL fall into this niche), will find opportunities for practicing math skills.

Once a teacher decides to pursue PrBL, he or she will need to figure out which math units fit best. Or at least that is what I used to think. Now, after years of working with this, I realize that instead of figuring out which units and then what specific problems to work with, there is a better way.  Teachers need to start the planning process with great "Open-Ended Questions."

Now I use the term "open-ended" loosely because many of the problems I found with that label were actually closed problems.  The open-ended problems I am looking for may have multiple solutions but they may just have multiple paths that can be taken to get to an appropriate solution.

So here's a problem I found for middle school students (taken from the Math Forum):

I can see this being used as an introduction to area. During the first day's questioning I would hope there would be obvious questions about how to calculate area. But I would also hope to hear questions about whether the "whole number dimensions" have to be in feet. Could they be in "whole" inches? How about a question about whether "rectangular" means it has to be four sided - could it be a composite figure of rectangles? There might be a question that comes up that I would never think of.

The beauty of this is that the students can explore their specific questions to solve the problem going down a path of their choosing. At the end of the week the real question is: "Can the students solve a 4-sided, rectangular figure, with a length of L and a width of W?"

My big AHA! then was this - what if I found 20 or 30 or 50 great open-ended questions that represent content I want my students to learn during a school year?  I could then lay these questions alongside my district Year at a Glance or Pacing Guide to see where the questions would make sense on the calendar.

Now as a teacher gets to each unit they will already have 2 or 3 (or 5) open-ended questions that have been vetted. These will be the problems used in class to foster inquiry.  These problems will take 3 or 4 days from start to finish. There will be opportunities for questioning and brainstorming; creating drawings or other models; presentations; and reflections.

For example, the questioning and brainstorming might be completed on the first day. The modeling (along with the requisite critical thinking) might be on day two. On the third day there would be an opportunity for an informal presentation of how the groups solved their problems, followed by a reflection. On the last day of this PrBL there might be an assessment on the learning that was completed.

This all started from having a sound, content specific, question that fueled inquiry, questioning, and thinking. Using an open-ended question allowed students to go in different directions in pursuit of answers. Successful students ask questions, think critically, and defend their ideas. That is where deeper learning happens and that is how we help our students develop perseverance.

What is Essential For Successful PBL?

   

http://earthmosaic.org/index.html

This year the Buck Institute for Education (BIE.org), of which I am on the National Faculty, is re-examining the "Essential Elements" for PBL.

As I was thinking about it I remembered that I have posted about these elements a few times, over the years, and I came across this post from July of 2013.

So, in the essence of recycling, please read it again, or read it for the first time, so that you too can begin thinking about what the Gold Standard should be for PBL:


THE NINTH ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF PBL(7/7/13) -  I am about to work in my last co-facilitation with the Buck Institute for Education (BIE.org) doing what they call a PBL 101. A basic, 3-day, course in the planning, managing and assessing of a PBL project.

Within a project most people can agree that there are certain items that make it successful and BIE has narrowed the list down to 8 items that they call the 8 Essential Elements of PBL (see the diagram to the left).

Anyone who has truly done PBL knows that there must some sort of significant content, there must have been a way to establish a desire for inquiry (in this case by having a driving question and by overtly discussing what it is the students will need to know), and there must be a public audience so students feel an added desire to do their best.

Through group work, research, and the inquiry process students end up having to do, what most people call, 21st century skills.  These skills include, but are not limited to, collaboration, critical thinking, communication (orally and in writing), and creativity. Finally, there must be a chance for students to have their work assessed. At that point, they must be allowed to revise their work and reflect on their assessment. This ensures the final product is something the students are proud of and the product demonstrates the knowledge that the students have gained during the project.

As I said, most people can agree that these 8 elements are key components of a classroom or school that uses PBL as the primary mode of instruction. But these elements are not as connected as the diagram might suggest. The glue that holds these 8 elements together is the classroom, school, or even district culture. Culture is the 9th Essential Element. Without a proper culture students might not be allowed to have voice and choice in the products they work on. Without a proper culture students might not be willing to do revisions of their work or they may not feel a need to reflect on their learning.

Even the 21st century skills can be restricted when there is not a culture of collaboration; students aren't encouraged to think critically; student communication is not allowed or shown as unimportant; or when students have no outlet to show their creative side. Each of these issues with students comes directly from the way teachers and administrators interact.  If the teachers don't collaborate, communicate, or get a chance to try creative things in the classroom then there is a shadow upon the entire school culture that can't be ignored.

So, teachers, as you finish your PBL 101,  your New Teacher training with the New Tech Network, or some other PBL training this summer, remember to work hard and stay positive. You can do this. But get your fellow teachers and administrators involved in what you are doing. Get the PTA or other parent organization involved too. It is time to work on the entire educational system so that you and, more importantly, your students can be successful pursuers of inquiry.

Make That Desert Project More PBL'y

http://goo.gl/XqZSjZ

Friend of mine had their son bring home a "project" to make a cell membrane.  I sighed. But then I thought about how the teacher could have done something with the same material.
And it hit me - science teachers need to see how to take that internet or youtube project and make it a PBL project.

So, I googled "make a cell membrane project," just now to simulate this process that the teacher might do.  Based upon 13 ratings it (the one I selected) had 4 stars (out of a possible 5) - so it has to be pretty darn good, right?

The Objectives of this project: (1) To build a model of a cell membrane and (2) to investigate how the cell membrane regulates what moves into and out of cells.

The "Research Questions" of this project: (1) What molecules of the cell membrane do the cotton swabs represent? -and- (2) If a molecule needs to enter or exit the cell and it cannot fit between the phospholipids, how can it cross the membrane?

Reading this made me think of the movie I enjoyed as a young boy: Fantastic Voyage. And I suddenly had a concept for the project. What if the students read the book or watched the movie and had to write their own chapter for the story where the crew had to move between cells in their craft.

http://goo.gl/1YsMlm

What if they had to create a cell and craft that were able to fit on a small table (for display)? What would they make the cell out of? What if they were required to explain how the craft moved through the cell walls?

Let's roll with this idea - Students are working for a toy company who will be working with a movie company creating an updated version of the movie "Fantastic Voyage." They are to create a mock up of a vehicle and a cell that would be scientifically accurate and will be sold to children ages 8 to 12. Their cell structure is to have an educational value and must be able to show the structure of a cell and must demonstrate the process of a molecule crossing a cell membrane. And, for this situation, the vehicle the crew will travel in must move like a molecule.

There you go. (Almost) the same project that I found on the internet. Except, in this case, the students are given the task of creating a cell structure that can demonstrate molecules crossing the cell membrane. They will have questions that will lead to inquiry (we can assume) which, in turn, will lead to a need for scaffolding (by the teacher or a guest lecturer) about how cells function.

And, if done right, students will have to interact with a book or a movie giving this project an additional literacy angle for a written product.

I'm not a science teacher but I'm betting your average science teacher could take what I suggested and run with an awesome (and fun) educational project that will help students understand the cell structure and the function of the various parts of a cell.

If you are a good science teacher tell us about this project by using the resources at BIE.org.  Start with the Project Planner.  Once you have it all planned out send me a link in the comments section and then I can share it out on Twitter to our science friends using #scichat.

Resolve to Stop Using the Word "Fail"

http://goo.gl/ssvt4z

This year I want to see educators using the word "fail" less. In 2013 and 2014 it seemed like it was the word to use when it came to discussing student resiliency.

Half a century ago Winston Churchill talked about failure not being fatal. He then went on to emphasize the importance of not giving up. That is the message we want our students to carry with them.

Unfortunately, in the world of education, we have associated the word "failure" with grades and academics. If you aren't very smart, you fail. If you aren't successful in a class you are a failure.  This all comes down to the idea that we must assign a grade to everything our students do in the classroom. 

So now schools are trying to have our students build grit. We hear about agency and wanting our students to never give up. There are dozens of posters out there proclaiming failure as a starting point. I was even guilty of printing out signs that stated "FAIL = First Attempt In Learning."

But what are we saying? Is it really OK for our students to fail at something on their first try? Don't we want to build a layer of knowledge so that our students feel somewhat successful on their first attempt? Don't we want our students attempting a second or third try because they are feeling like they are figuring it out?

We need to come up with another term besides "fail." Remove that term from your lexicon. Failure should only be used when a student is totally unsuccessful after multiple attempts. And, even then, we need to be there supporting them.

My nice-sounding suggestion has some hurdles if it were put into practice. There are those parents (and institutions) who consider grades more important than, or at least equal to, learning.  What if every kid who had a solid understanding of a concept passed? Then none of those students would be failures. Is that a bad thing? There still would be people who would want to know how the students compared on a pecking order.

Assessment and grading is such a big topic I'll leave those for another day. But let's pause before we use the word "fail." Let's not encourage students to fail first. Let's encourage them to try again. 

Take Time to be Thankful (even in a crappy year)

Via Smithsonian

There is so much going right in my world that I shouldn't dwell on the downer stuff - but the holidays push me towards that abyss. And no one would fault me for whining and complaining. But I'm going to try and take a different tack.

Tomorrow will be the first Thanksgiving that I won't get to talk with my big brother. There's been a lot of firsts since that sad day last Spring when cancer took his life. 

That's the mean thing about death. Those left mourning get to experience the first birthday, first pick-a-holiday, and first pick-a-season.  But what about those others who are living with this? Every day I read about another person who was wiped off of this planet by something tragic. There are a zillion people experiencing their own first______ since ______ died. 

I want to celebrate resiliency.  My brother had 2 sisters and me. [Our parents passed years ago.] He also had a wonderful wife,2 sons, and a daughter. Each of those people have their own family. If we call these folks the immediate family circle, then we have 15 individuals who all are dealing with this loss in different ways. And they are all going to be ok - we're all going to be ok. 

So I want to think about things I am thankful for, such as:

• 25 years of marriage
• a great wife who keeps the ship heading fair
• a great daughter and son who are heading in the right direction and, by all accounts, will be people others will look up to in life
• wonderful sisters (MaryAnn, Janice, Alice) 
• incredibly gifted nephews/nieces - 6 amazingly talented people.
• a job with a good salary - I get to work with some great professionals
• good health - I haven't had to spend time in a hospital since losing my appendix back in 1987.  
• ready to go somewhere else to work - and there are options out there!

It's Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for and I am already looking forward to Thanksgiving 2015 - because it won't be 2014!

My best to each and every one of you. Take time to find at least one thing you are thankful for - and then hold on tight to that one item. Keep a vision of that one thing with you for all of those bad times that are waiting out there for you. Here's to resiliency - cheers.

There Was Gold In Them There Colorado Hills

http://goo.gl/oNBuIc

A Gold standard for PBL - that's what the folks at BIE.org are trying to define. And we are reaching out to all of you who are practicing this in your classrooms and schools. This past week the National Faculty (NF) met for our Fall summit and we had some rich, deep discussions on the topic. My takeaways:

(A). Many people refer to our 8 Essential Elements for PBL. If we are defining the Gold Standard then we need to determine whether we keep these as they are; we change them all; or, we just change key elements. For our summit we decided to start here and we were shown a proposed new look that is far from the finished product. The original 8 elements will probably be changing slightly. For example, Public Audience might be replaced with  Public Product.

Outside of the original hexagon there might be a new layer of teacher/facilitator practices. The idea here is that the teachers will now have specific things to think about as they create,facilitate, and assess projects. My question on this layer is the shape - do we keep it hexagonal or do we use a circular or rectangular shape to show how this layer envelops all of the 8 essential elements.

Look for more on this as we go through the next few months and follow #goldstandardpbl on Twitter.

(B). In our signature PBL 101's we concentrate on helping teachers create projects and we refer to the importance of them taking their students' learning deeper. Who are we educating in these sessions? Adults, of course. 

We acknowledged that we need to do better at educating these teachers. To do this we need to increase our knowledge of adult learners. This was our next focus for our summit - the adult learner. As with all summits I was amazed by the level of knowledge of my fellow NF's. 

We looked at various aspects of learning and we had a very informed discussion from our own Jennifer Klein on the Male and Female Brain. She even gave us a diagram of the 8 essential elements with how each type of brain interacts with that element.

(C) Another key topic in our summit was the idea of PBL Sustainability. As one NF put it, for true sustainability we need to work ourselves out of a job. We want our clients creating a culture of collaboration on their campus. We want our clients growing their own PBL "experts." And, we want our clients creating a culture of learning for all of the stakeholders. Teachers should be co-creating projects with community members and students should be interacting with local companies.

When we have a sustained "gold standard" of PBL in a community or school we will truly have reached the gold standard for education. Then, in fact, we will have worked ourselves out of a job at BIE. And I'd be OK with that.

(D) With each summit I attend I find myself increasingly excited about working with this incredible group of NF's. They come from diverse education backgrounds and experiences and we push each other by questioning accepted norms.  

When you see the book on Gold Standard PBL come out (next Summer?), you can bet that it will have been discussed, analyzed, and vetted by some of the greatest minds in education. And, some of those minds will be BIE's own National Faculty. Feel free to add your thoughts via Twitter. Remember the hashtag: #goldstandardpbl.  

20 Thoughts on Instructional Coaching

http://goo.gl/CxWFJb

Thursday and Friday I attended an incredible training by Steve Barkley. If you haven't heard of him, get to know him. If you have heard of him and haven't attended one of his sessions then get going and attend one. As a coach, this is one of those must attend events.

What I learned is forever going to change how I look at the coaching process and teaching, in general. I know this is true and, from talking to the other coaches in attendance, I know others felt the same.

 Here are 20 things mentioned in these two days that caused me to stop and ponder:

1. How can your teachers trust each other if they've never been in each others' classrooms?
2. Are your teachers a franchise or are they a team?
3. Department Heads should be the model classroom.   
4. When using rubrics have the "top" line be created by the students.
5. Students cause student achievement. Teachers do not cause student achievement. Therefore, coaches need to focus on students when they observe.  
6. You can't teach a student math. You teach a student how to learn math.
7. Teachers should use their inclusion teachers to model expected behaviors, thinking, and discussions.
8. Schools should do Emotional Walkthroughs. On a 1 - 5 scale what is the emotional level of each classroom?
9. When you walk through your school, how many Wow!'s to you get?
10. If students complete the exact work assigned they should get a "C." Go Beyond that for a "B" and go above B-work for an "A."
11. A student's major work shouldn't be graded until the end of semester or year and students should have multiple opportunities to revise/edit.
12. Students should be exposed to more book options. One teacher put 5 books on each of 20 tables at beginning of the school year. Students rotated, table to table, and scored the books based upon interest. At the end of one class period they had seen 100 books and should have seen a few that met with their satisfaction.
13. The hardest part of teaching is when the students aren't there.
14. Coaches, you have been hired by your school to change kid's behaviors.
15. Homework should never be the same for the entire class.
16. Teachers should have a 3 year commitment to kids: Spend time with them the year before they come to you. Spend time with all of the students on your grade level. Then spend time with them the year after you have them to see how they are doing.
17. We tend to do vertical alignment without the students.
18. Instructional coaches should be evaluated on the teacher growth during the year.
19. We were hired to bring discomfort to our school. We want a culture where our teachers are comfortable with discomfort.
20. The biggest coaching mistake is to let teachers know what the coach is thinking before the coach knows what the teacher is thinking.

Google Apps - Someone Needs To Be In Charge

https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/

Labor Day weekend. Time to take a break from our first week with students. Time to relax, have a cook out, watch some football. And, time to organize my folders for the semester planning sessions that are about to roll into full swing this week.

Our school district uses Google Apps and, therefore, we have the ability to collaborate with people - in real time- from wherever they may be. And, we can share documents - placing them into folders accessible to our coworkers at any hour of the day and, even on holidays!

Today I organized our school's folders. In particular, there is a general "Planning" folder and inside that folder are folders for the four testable content areas. Inside each of these four folders are folders for each of the grade levels. Going to the next level we have Assessments, Lesson Plans, and other resource folders. And, eventually each of those will have folders within them.

The TRICKY part is the sharing of these folders. If you, for example, share the main Planning folder with everyone and allow them all editing rights, then everyone will be able to go down to the smallest file in the deepest folder and edit it. So someone, with no malicious thoughts, goes in and finds a file and starts editing it. Then they decide they want to move the file into their personal folder (a folder with no sharing rights). Suddenly, poof!, no other teachers see this file any more. It happens. Quite a bit.

After 6 years of using Google Apps, I know to go in and make the outer most folder "View Only." Teachers can make copies of any file they want and make it their own - leaving the original undisturbed.  But what about this collaboration that is so great with Google Docs? That's where I go in and make conscious decisions about the rights of every folder - from the outside, in.

For example, if my 6th grade math teachers go inside the math folder and then open up the 6th grade folder they will find they have editing rights to everything inside of that folder. My 7th grade math folks have view only to the 6th grade folders - we don't want them accidentally removing or destroying an important file for the other teachers.

Google Docs are an incredibly great tool for teachers to use. Having someone in charge of the overall rights to the folders makes everyone a LOT happier.

Which Came First PBL or Small Group Instruction?

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Ye Olde Chicken-Egg story. Why am I wrestling with this? Because many consider me pretty smart about Project Based Learning(PBL). And, our school which calls itself a PBL school, is pushing small group instruction.

So, is PBL just a version of small group instruction? Not sure. And when you infuse a very structured form of small group instruction will teachers feel that they can't do PBL any more? Yes, unfortunately.

True confession. The title doesn't really align with what you are about to read but, hey, it got you to click on the link and start reading this, didn't it?

Right now our school is in its third year of using PBL as its primary mode of instruction. Now, primary is a funny word. Two years ago we started with our 6th grade teachers and many of them struggled to understand how to do a project. Many, however, excelled and became known for their expertise.

Last year we pushed PBL out in all three grades and also insisted upon having small group instruction. The same 6th grade teachers, who had success in the first year, continued to do well and incorporated a rotation to a teacher table into their daily process. A few additional 6th grade teachers took on "a project" during each semester. And, many teachers created projects during each semester. Almost all of the ELA teachers and most of the Social Studies teachers created classrooms with good to great small group rotations.

So, at the end of year two we had a large group of teachers doing good small group instruction. And, we had a large group of teachers who had run at least two projects during the year with varying levels of success. The best news was that we had teachers in both sets: a win-win situation! We decided to minimize change for year three and the word we used was "enhance." As in we will enhance our instruction.

Then we discovered Glenna Tabor and her Tabor Rotations process for small group instruction. If you get nothing else out of this post, go look at Glenna Tabor's stuff and, better yet, figure out how to get ALL of your math teachers to one of her trainings (or get her to come to your district). A day with her was one of the best PD's I have ever attended (if not the best ever).

Tabor Rotations is a VERY structured plan for small group instruction. And, that is its biggest strength. I held a half day training with math and math-inclusion teachers yesterday for our school district. We will be sending nearly 40 people to a Tabor Rotation training day in Dallas next month and I wanted to pre-teach some of the concepts and give them an overall view of the process. Our inclusion teachers summed it up best - "With Tabor Rotations you get all of the best practices for SPED and ELL students rolled into one package."

So, here's the dilemma - Tabor Rotations is very structured and many of our best PBL teachers are in the math department. Why is that a problem? Several felt that the structure doesn't work with what they do. With Tabor Rotations we have 4 heterogeneous groups for part of the week and 4 homogeneous groups the remainder of the week and these teachers are used to project groups of 3 to 4 students in each group. When you have a class of 30 students that means 7 to 10 groups for projects. Do we have 8 groups of students who are working on a project; a different set of 8 students working in their Tabor Rotation groups for a couple of days; and, a third set of 8 students working in their Tabor Rotation groups for the other days of the week?

And how do we do Tabor Rotations with research days and presentation days?

All of these questions are now fully engulfing my brain. Our teachers will be going to the training in two weeks and then I'll have other brains to help me figure this out. Because we will figure this out. PBL will work in every environment. PBL will help your students go deeper with their learning. Tabor Rotations will help your students go deeper with their learning too. The marriage of the two will be a truly magnificent thing. Just give us time to perfect it - because our teachers can, and will, figure this out.

Sometimes Words Do Hurt (My Brain)

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When you are over 50 years old and have been in a profession for a couple of decades, you see periods where certain buzz words are all the rage.

I googled "education buzzwords" and found a list of some words I have heard a ton within the last few years but the following is a list of words that I feel are use wayyyyy too much.

The list, in no particular order, includes: Rigor, Grit, Agency, Influencer, and the phrase "allow to fail." If you notice, with the exception of Influencer, they all deal with getting students to work through their problems. We want them to have stick-to-itiveness and not give up until they have exhausted all options. Or, most commonly, to persevere: To keep steadily on in doing or striving; persist 
 
So why can't we just say we want them to work hard and not give up? Instead we talk about increasing the "rigor" - does that mean they have to work harder to understand? Well last time I checked the ol' Funk and Wagnalls, rigor meant: Stiffness of opinion; Strictness; Harshness; Austerity . That definition doesn't make me want to do that to anyone. So why would we do it to our students? Intuitively I knew that someone must have the same issue with this word and so I started searching.

Having heard Alfie Kohn talk about his dislike for the word rigor I wasn't surprised to see his name linked to many posts on this word. But the best post I found was by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach from a few years ago. It is called In Defense of Rigor and she has already done the legwork on this topic. Take the time to read through the comments left there before you decide what side you are on. In the end I still feel the same.  Why should I use a word that has so many meanings to so many people? It just renders it meaningless in the end. Head aching....

When I was 11 years old John Wayne starred in a movie called True Grit. I also helped my Dad a lot and I knew it was important to have the right sandpaper grit for the job that you were working on. Since I was young I took the word grit to be synonymous with the word tough. I was happy to go through life keeping those two words together in my mind. They remade the movie in 2010 and I went and saw it and liked it as much as the first one. It was different but still great. And I never had to think about the word grit because I already had my definition.

Suddenly I'm hearing that we want our students to have grit. The vision I had for 50 years of a stern, driven, and not so nice person wasn't what I wanted my students to turn into. But I do remember hearing the adage "grit and determination." As in he did the task with grit and determination.  It couldn't be that bad. Maybe, just maybe, it had more to do with perseverance than being a tough old goat.  Having to shift my definition of the word meant more headache.

About the same time the new version of True Grit was coming out I heard the New Tech Network talk about a new learning outcome. It was all about perseverance and the word they were using was agency. Like a travel agency? An acting agency? No, I was told, agency meaning students being resourceful and continuing to work on a project exploring all options rather than giving up.  Ummmm, isn't that perseverance?

I have been completely happy using the word perseverance all of my life. Why then, can't we use this word? It seems that "real" academicians use the word agency because it is better than perseverance. I'm sorry. Even though the word has grown on me I still prefer my own words and you won't hear be using agency in a sentence describing our students. That would just add more pain to my growing headache.

The expression "allow to fail" is used when you say that you want students to persist even if things aren't going well. We don't want teachers telling the students how to solve the problem, directly. We do want teachers guiding the students to find the answer though. I don't have a problem with this concept. But I do have a problem with the word fail. Allow students to struggle? I can live with that. I just don't want to have students who are so tied to academics to think it is ever OK to fail. So I won't be using that with my teachers. I will be asking them to get away from giving the students the answer quickly however. I want the students to struggle and then persevere.

So, out of the first 4 things I've talked about I only plan on using one of them. I will now add grit to my lexicon. As for the last word, influencer, you won't see me ever using it. I haven't really seen this word used in the education world, yet. But it is used in business all of the time. Anybody who is influential is an influencer. Well, duh, why don't we just call that person an influential person. Why do we have to make up a word?

So, if you have finished this post and I have swayed you in any way, please feel free to consider me an influencer. Just don't make me describe myself that way.