My new classroom for 2014

2014 marks a new school year and a new school for me -- which means I have a new classroom! Here are some pics and highlights from the classroom that I designed and created (with lots of help) for 2014.

Choice and Comfort

Many years ago, I moved a way from desks to tables to reflect a more collaborative learning space, and this year I wanted to create spaces for students so that there was more than one place for them to learn. The fixed size of my classroom and the growing number of children in a class are two variable that make this a challenge, so I had to get creative.

Here is a quiet reading corner where students can relax and read. I wanted this corner to somehow feel like a room inside the classroom -- while still allowing for supervision. I purchased two floor tri-folds, one of New York and the other of London, to provide some sense of a room inside a room. I think as many as 10 grade 6 students could sit in this area.

The carpet is a durable indoor/outdoor rug that I will have to monitor for cleanliness. Not sure how long it will last, but it looks cools and offers a different feel for students to sit on. The green boxes are cushioned and open up where I will cycle a variety of reading materials -- I'm starting with magazines.

I brought the baseball chair from home and the blue chair was my mom's. Thanks mom!

I can turn the fluorescent lights off above this reading corner and turn on the floor lamps which offers some warmer lighting for reading. The change in lighting also adds to the feel that this is a special place.

I will introduce this reading corner as a place to read. It's not that students can't talk here, but if kids want to use this space, they primarily need to be reading. There are other places in the classroom for discussion.

Small Groups

Pictured above is a space for small group work that might include peer editing and literacy games with word tiles (think Scrabble or Bananagrams).

Sharing

My TV is hooked up to an Apple TV. I use the schools public Wifi to access YouTube, Netflix, etc. and airplay from student devices. The TV will be used by me and the students to share stuff that we find on the Internet and stuff we create on our devices. Plus, baseball's post-season starts soon, and the children need to learn about baseball. The TV was from my mom and dad -- Thanks mom and dad!

The black bulletin board will be used to display stuff the students create.

The small table has the computer that is attached to the SMARTBOARD. You'll notice that I do not have a teacher's desk. I tossed my teacher desk four years ago, and I don't miss it. Without a teacher's desk there is way more room for the students. Teacher desks are like a virus, if left unchecked, they grow and grow and grow until one day there is no room for anything else.

Bulletin Boards

Using push pins and yarn, the students will identify where in the world their family came from. The yarn will run to a recipe card that will have the students picture and a short description of their family's past. Students may come from more than one place, so multiple strands of yarn can be run. I have a two bulletin boards like this at the back of the classroom -- one for my grade 6s and one for my grade 8s.

Books, Supplies and Shelving

I love books so it goes without saying that I love that my entire north wall is a bookshelf. However, the shelving was pretty beat up (read: it looked like crap). I thought about painting but decided to use coloured duck tape to cover just the shelve's edge. I think it worked!

All of the books and all of the classroom supplies are available for all to access. The kids don't ever need to ask my permission which frees me up to teach.

Fish Tank

Durable fish (read: hard to kill) will find a home here. Some students love to look or listen to a fish tank. It offers a calming effect to a classroom that can sometimes be best described as organized chaos. Some students love to care for the fish which helps make the classroom feel like theirs. Thanks Tamara!

Insightful Quotes

I love quotes almost as much as I love books, so I dedicated a bulletin board to a wall of quotes. Using permanent marker and small canvases, I display my favourite quotes that I inevitably refer to through out the year. Some of my favourite include "Mistakes are our friends", "Progress NOT Perfection", "Think for yourself, your teacher might be wrong", and "The best things in life are not things". As the year goes on, I invite students to create their own canvases with their favourite, insightful quotes.

As for technology, I have limited access to school supplied devices. There is a computer lab and there laptops on carts so I will use them as much as I can while sharing with other teachers. I will invite students to bring their own devices. To be clear, there are huge equity issues around technology.

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It's going to be a great year and I think my classroom will provide a safe and and inspiring learning space for students to learn and for me to teach.

I'm always looking for more ideas, so please feel free to leave a comment or email me with any of your ideas.

Be careful who you follow

Be careful who you follow.

Good intentions are not enough.

Charisma is not enough.

Being nice is not enough.

Echo chambers and halls of mirrors may be comforting but we can get lost in self-deception and confirmation bias.

Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson write in their book Mistakes Were Made (but not by me):

"In normal circumstances," wrote Hitler's henchman Albert Speer in his memoirs, "people who turn their backs on reality are soon set straight by the mockery and criticism of those around them, which makes them aware they have lost credibility. In the Third Reich there were no such correctives, especially for those who belonged to the upper stratum. On the contrary, every self-deception was multiplied as in a hall of distorting mirrors, becoming a repeatedly confirmed picture of a fantastical dream world which no longer bore any relationship to the grim outside world. In those mirrors I could see nothing but my own face reproduced many times. over." 

Given that everyone has some blind spots, our greatest hope of self-corrections lies in making sure we are not operating in a hall of mirrors, in which we see our distorted reflections of our desires and convictions. We need a few trusted naysayers in our lives, critics who are willing to puncture our protective bubble of self-justifications and yank us back to reality if we veer too far off. This is especially important for people in positions of power.

We all have the responsibility of thinking for ourselves -- however, the best leaders go out of their way to seek dissent and encourage lively debate because they know that mandating optimism and confusing collaboration for compliance can lead to awful conclusions.

See the picture.

What is changing about being a child

When I think about what is changing about being a child and an adolescent today that we must attend to, I find myself tying to figure out what is really plaguing public education.

If I had to pick just one problem, I would say there are two:

poverty and inequity

Some say that public education is the great equalizer. Some say that the antidote to poverty is education.

But what if the opposite is true?

What if public education perpetuates some of the worst injustices and inequities of our society? What if inequity and poverty are advanced, rather than stifled, by public education? What if public education is really the great divider?

These are scary questions -- nonetheless, important questions we really shouldn't run from or shrug at.

 So what are the implications of poverty and inequity?

With the shrinking of the middle class comes the inescapable truth that the social contract between education and community is being broken. While past generations found salvation in the advice get a good education and you'll get a good job the current generation of students are finding this to be a risky proposition.

As inequity and inequality increase, society and schools are likely to adopt an even more competitive mindset that encourages children and adults to see their peers as obstacles to their own success. When competition trumps collaboration, the ideology of rugged individualism tends to trump teamwork.

If we are competing, then we aren't collaborating. The ideology of competition says that everyone benefits, but when in reality competition is for the strong -- the winners continue to win on the backs of the losers.

Inequity and poverty are only destiny if we choose to ignore them. People who say poverty is no excuse are making excuses about doing nothing about poverty. Children never choose to live in poverty, but society can choose not to ignore it.

So where do we go from here?

Schools and society need to stop using excellence for the few as the driver for progress and start making equity for all our focus. Some might think by focusing more on equity that we have to focus less on excellence; this is a misconception. When we focus on equity, excellence becomes ubiquitous.

So how will we know if our education system is advancing inequity? If the affluent provide their children with a good education and a different education that is good enough for other people's children then we know something is amiss.

Educational Transformation in Alberta via Collaboration

On September 22, I had the pleasure of representing Red Deer Public Local #60 teachers at Alberta's Fall Education Transformation meetings. This meeting hosted three parties who play an intricate part of public education in Alberta: Alberta Teacher's Association, Alberta School Boards Association and Alberta Education.

I spent the day at Barnett House in Edmonton, the home of the Alberta Teachers' Association, sitting with my school district's superintendent, two school board trustees, two members from Alberta Education and two other teacher representatives from my local.

The day was spent discussing these three focus areas:

 FOCUS AREA #1: SHARED UNDERSTANDING/SHARED OPPORTUNITY
OUTCOME: SUPPORT FOR THE IDEA OF TRANSFORMATION AS A SHARED PROCESS

• What's the most important characteristic of education transformation for you?
• If transformation is about moving from one reality to another, what does this entail (e.g., is this about learning outcomes being different, is it about the classroom, is it about how education is governed?)
• Discuss the relationship enhancements that articulate a new way of working together -- what do we have to change about how we relate to one another?

FOCUS AREA #2: MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER: WHO DOES WHAT?

OUTCOME: SHARED COMMITMENT TO PRIORITY ITEMS / ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• If we are to collaborate on transformation, what's most important to work together on?
• How do we define our respective roles and responsibilities in taking on these topics?
• How do we hold one another accountable for our mutual success?

FOCUS AREA #3: NEXT STEPS

OUTCOME: SUPPORT FOR MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER

• What are some ways Alberta Teachers' Association, Alberta School Board Association and Alberta Education can start taking action for transformation?
• Is a plan required to guide the process? If so, what types of plans/planning are needed and who should lead their development?
• How, when and at what levels (local/provincial) do we involve other stakeholders in the process?

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I walked away from this event thoroughly impressed with the level of commitment each of the three organizations (teachers, school boards and government) showed for rethinking how we can work together. There was no finger pointing or blaming. 

Not once did we discuss test scores. 

Not once.

I can only imagine the legacy of hard feelings and grudges that have developed in Alberta between teachers, school boards and government, however, in spite of any potential desire to accuse, blame and criticize each other, there seemed to be a real commitment in the room to move forward together.

So what's next?

On November 4 & 5, The Alberta Teachers' Association and Alberta Education are hosting a Combined Professional Development Area Conference and Invitational Curriculum Symposium. This is remarkably cool because the government and the teachers together will collaborate on rethinking curriculum in Alberta schools. Essentially this event will provide the teachers and government an opportunity to work together to rethink curriculum with a focus on our partnership with Finland.

Perhaps the only hesitation I have with this opportunity is to ask what role the Alberta School Board Association will play in this rethinking curriculum process? Seeing as how they aren't invited.

Easing test pressure

I just read Jay Mathews' post Easing Test Pressure won't Save Kids which addresses the Atlanta cheating scandal.

The premise of the post is that despite all the evidence showing the cancerous consequences of high stakes standardized testing, Jay Mathews wants to stay the course.

I guess he hasn't seen enough blood, sweat and tears from the victims of testing. After reading plenty of other blogs and columns point towards the inappropriate and unreasonable pressure brought on by high stakes testing as a source of the cheating, Mathews isn't convinced:

I have trouble squaring with reality their conclusion that the fault was too much test pressure and that our schools will work better once we dial that down.

If he isn't prepared to dial down the test pressure, then I have to assume that Mathews wants to either keep the pressure the same or perhaps even increase it - either way, such a stance is completely ignorant to a social science law called Campbell's Law.

In their book Collateral Damage, David Berliner and Sharon Nichols summarize a stack of high stakes testing cheating scandals. Their premise is built around Campbell's law which states:

The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it was intended to monitor.

Like Wile E. Coyote's relationship with gravity, pundits like Jay Mathews find Campbell's Law to be quite inconvenient - so they simply ignore it. But if you've watched any of the cartoons, you know how this ends. Whether laws are of the physical world or the social science variety, they don't like to be ignored. Humming and hawing over their existence like Matthews does simply won't take us anywhere productive.

Here's Mathews:

We are trying, as a country, to raise achievement so that when students graduate from high school they will have the reading, writing, math and time-management skills that will allow them to do well in the workplace or college. How do we do that without motivating them and their teachers to do the work necessary to achieve those goals?

Unfortunately, student achievement has become code for nothing more than high scores on bad tests. It's also important to note that when Mathews wrote that last sentence above, he wasn't really asking a question. You see, he may have wrote this:

How do we do that without motivating them and their teachers to do the work necessary to achieve those goals?

But what he meant was this:

How do we do that without motivating them and their teachers to do the work necessary to achieve those goals!

Putting an exclamation mark at the end, rather than a question mark, is the equivalent to putting your fingers in your ears and saying, "La la la la la la". It's not an honest attempt to ask a question to which you don't know the answer -- it's an act of willful blindness.

Mathews and other pundits like him not only get school reform wrong, but they also get motivation and learning wrong, and to grasp just how wrong they are when it comes to supporting high stakes standardized testing, Richard Ryan and Netta Weinstein's Undermining Quality Teaching and Learning is a must read. They conclude:

High stakes testing represents a motivational strategy that, because it is controlling and extrinsic in character, often raises targeted test scores in the short term while producing a plethora of unintended negative long- term consequences. Nichols and Berliner (2007) discuss these issues in terms of Campbell’s law: the idea that attaching serious consequences to any indicator increases the probability that its meaning and utility will be corrupted. While that names the problem, it does not explain how and why such corruption occurs. Teaching to the test, narrowing of curricula, crowding out of enriching student activities, test preparation resulting in poor generalization of gains, and the other corruptions we described, are motivated phenomena – they occur because of the controlling nature of high stakes testing policies. These effects of high stakes testing can all be predicted from Self-Determination Theory, and indeed have been for over two decades.

You don't make change by manipulating people who have less power than you, and yet that is precisely what Bush's No Child Left Behind 1.0 and Obama's No Child Left Behind 2.0 are designed to do.

I find it more than a little disturbing that Mathews' title implies that he has the kids' best interest at heart by refusing to ease the pressure of testing. Is he, and others like him, not aware of the harmful and destructive affects high stakes testing has on children? Alfie Kohn writes:

The significance of the scores becomes even more dubious once we focus on the experience of students. For example, test anxiety has grown into a subfield of educational psychology, and its prevalence means that the tests producing this reaction are not giving us a good picture of what many students really know and can do. The more a test is made to "count"—in terms of being the basis for promoting or retaining students, for funding or closing down schools—the more that anxiety is likely to rise and the less valid the scores become.

Accountability, if nothing else, should be about transparency. That is, at the very least, citizens should know what they need to know about their schools, and yet the more pressure applied to high stakes testing, the more distorted and corrupted the scores become. 

While easing test pressure may not be sufficient it most certainly is necessary if we wish to save our kids and our schools.

Interview with Mona Knudslien & Joe Bower

Here is a 12 minute interview featuring my past principal Mona Knudslien and me. Together, we discuss how a school can innovate and improve while focusing on progressive education.

I enjoyed reminiscing with Mona how both of us experienced our time together, and I will be forever thankful for her supportive, and nurturing leadership.

Thank you to Brian Mason and Tim Lee for putting this interview together!

Teamwork

Here's a rather entertaining video that I came across the other day.



My favorite line is:

We all know the old saying that there is no 'I' in team, but there's also no selfish hypocrisy in team either.

Abolish Grading Video - character education and collaboration

Here is my first go at a videocast. Inside of 5 minutes, I discuss why we need to abolish grading so that we can properly teach students good character education and collaboration skills. I would love to receive feedback on what you thought worked well and how I could make my second videocast even better.

No grades and Group work

I have had a number of people comment or e-mail me asking how I conduct and assess group work if I have no grades. I have a true story for you to read. Take a look:



When it comes to group work there is no complaining, whining or competing over grades in my classroom because their are no grades to fight over. Instead of my students seeing each other as obstacles to their own success, they see each other as collaborators. Rather than competing over grades, my students collaborate over their learning.

After reading my story, do you see how the real problem is not that Samantha gain proper credit, or that she be overly concerned about her own learning? 
 
She was learning.
 
She knew it.
 
I knew it.
 
Her partner was not learning as much as her.
 
She knew it.
 
I knew it.
 
Hell, even her partner knew it.
 
This is where real character education is born. I provide Samantha with an extrinsic-free learning enviornment, so she can spend less time worrying about her own learning and competing for her own share of the grade-pie, and spend more time thinking of others. This is all very cool because while she is stressing less over her own learning and helping others, she is bettering her own learning.
 
Competition is a zero-sum game.
 
Collaboration grows learning exponentially. We all win.
 
Words can not properly express how mind-blowingly different this environment is compared to the school you and I experienced.

For more on abolishing grades, take a look at this page.