A few thoughts on collegiality and a story about wrecking the homecoming float

My career began in 1999 at Simonsen 9th grade center in Jefferson City, and I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I was overwhelmed, partially because of a homecoming float. The principal offered to “sweeten the pot” on my salary if I agreed to be stuco sponsor. That allowed me to bring home an extra $36 a month, but it came with expectations- the freshman class always won the homecoming float contest.

I became obsessed- not with classroom management or assessment, but with float construction. I spent hours placing pomp in chicken wire with a student named Terrance and his cohorts. On parade day our entry was solid, with a skirt that read “Jays Beat the Eagles.” Controversy surrounded who would ride as the mascot, but I stuck to my guns (I got paid big dollars to set the starting lineup for the frosh float) and Terrance suited up as Jasper the Jay. We took off down the parade route, pulling the float behind my Mazda pickup- bound for glory.

At the first turn, disaster struck. I cut the corner too sharp. The trailer rocked. The skirt caught the curb. Soon the pomp read “ ays  eat the gles!” Terrance almost went to the emergency room.

I felt like a failure. 

In the classroom, it wasn’t much better. I didn’t know very much, but I hoped if I could keep the 14 year olds busy, they wouldn’t eat me. During the first quarter the kids did 17 worksheets a day and we read half the literature anthology. I spent every minute I wasn’t building floats grading each of the 17 worksheets my 120 students did everyday.

Fortunately, talented educators intervened. The chair of the English department, Laramie Thompson, and my mentor, Kim Sellers, are two of the most thoughtful teachers I’ve known. They took time to speak wisdom about what was worth stressing over and what wasn’t. Laramie showed me what leadership looked like. She ensured each of the 700 freshman were challenged and supported in their growth as readers and writers. There were six English teachers in our department and our time together was focused on student learning. We didn’t always agree, but we did work together to craft common assessments and evaluate data. Years later I went to my first PLC meeting- I was convinced that someone had stolen all of Laramie’s ideas.

I left Simonsen for coaching opportunities. I taught in great schools with talented staffs, but I did not find the same professional challenge and support I experienced at Simonsen. Camaraderie existed, but not the same level of professional collegiality. We met for administrator led meetings and at lunch to share grievances, but we did not have deep, teacher led conversations about teaching and learning.

Fortunately, I found that same level of collegiality again before leaving the classroom at Harrisburg Middle School. Teachers had real conversations about supporting and challenging our kids, which included a significant number of students in foster care. As a staff we worked to ensure our school was a great place for all students to learn, regardless of their life experiences. Our conversations were collegial, centered on work, not grievances. We didn’t always agree, but we worked together for the kids. I remember my friend Brian’s response to the suggestion that the staff be on the same page: “That’s fine, but maybe we should be on the page the kids need.” The point was taken. In the end, the work, guided by collegiality, produced a strong sense of camaraderie. We were serving our students well and we knew it.

I’m not as involved in building level work as I used to be. Busses, budgets, and building maintenance dominate my workdays. I miss the collegiality and camaraderie of teachers when they are focused on teaching and learning. As much as I can, I try to support practices that allow those conversations to take place.  Good collaborative work is occurring in the Norborne district right now. I’m thankful for the experiences I had as a teacher that allow me to recognize it.

What should change most about schools? The pace!

Slow down
Recently, I was challenged by a professor to identify one change I would make to improve American public education. In my opinion, there is one place to start: pace. Our schools, in response to the annual testing cycle, simply move too fast.

Alternative visions for education are cast by Sir Kenneth Robinson, who advocates for slow learning, and the Finnish educators who are often highlighted by Edutopia. If our education culture were not so driven by the data cycles, more time could be devoted to creativity, collaboration, and deeper transfers of content knowledge.

Content Knowledge
Research proves that spaced practice yields more benefits than massed practice. Students need time to learn, and some need more time than others. However, many teachers, responding to poorly communicated expectations from leaders, often forfeit reteaching to maintain fidelity to regimented curriculum sequences. Projects, the kind that promote mastery and that show the relevance of content in real world applications, are also casualties. If we truly want all students to learn at high levels, we must be willing to support adjustments to the pace of learning that currently is demanded.

Relationships
Schools are dependent on healthy relationships, and cultivating healthy relationships takes time. Often the behaviors that impact learning are driven by emotions and experiences that lie under the surface. Strategies such as Conscious Discipline help students process their behaviors and motivations, but these interventions require time. Students often encounter set backs in their lives outside of school. The pace of schools should be flexible enough to support them as they bounce back. Teachers would also benefit from a slower pace. The collaboration and coaching that we all desire can not exist without time. Five minute feedback is better than none, and forty minutes of collaborative time beats none, but we could do better.

Slowing the pace of our schools would require substantial cultural and institutional changes and sacrifices. Making such sacrifices may not be realistic, but we should all consider what we risk sacrificing, richer learning opportunities and healthier relationships, to maintain the current pace.

A Few Thoughts On Assessment

Hattie's research demonstrates the importance of feedback. All of the individual techniques that yield high effect sizes do so because they are avenues for feedback. Because the quality of feedback depends on the quality of the assessment, time spent considering assessment practices is valuable. Rick Wormeli's Fair Isn't Always Equal provides guidance in this area.

Purpose
A core belief communicated by Wormeli is that the main purpose of education is to promote mastery. Most teachers embrace this concept in regards to instruction. However, remembering to extend the emphasis on the promotion of mastery to assessment is difficult. Often assessments are treated with finality. All teachers are forced to operate within fixed time frames for courses; the most thoughtful teachers extend the opportunities for mastery as much as possible within those parameters.

Differentiation
When teachers see assessment primarily as a tool for promoting mastery, they see the need for differentiation more clearly. Because all students are at different stages in the journey toward mastery, it is necessary to adjust assessments accordingly. If the goal is mastery for each student, the act of extending a deadline, allowing a second chance, or providing extra scaffolding becomes the most pragmatic response. If treating a student exactly the same as a peer does not move the student closer towards mastery, then alternative practices should be employed.

Three Practices Worth Scrutinizing
Wormeli identifies ten practices that do not lend themselves to differentiation or the promotion of mastery. I'll briefly discuss three. Assigning grades to homework or quizzes given immediately after a concept is introduced does not respect differentiation or mastery learning. This does not mean that feedback should not be given when a student has not mastered a skill. Students need feedback, but it should not come in the form of 4 out of 10 points. Similarly, forbidding second attempts on assessments limits mastery. If the goal is for the student to demonstrate knowledge and skill, it should not matter how many opportunities they take advantage of. Lastly, is the practice of assigning grades to behaviors. Behaviors should be addressed, but averaging in grades for "showing up to class prepared," will result in final grades that do not accurately communicate the student's mastery of the content.

Perspective
Wormeli acknowledges that differentiation is not easy. When teachers are asked to process grades for over 100 students a cycle, precise calibration for each one is impossible. Wormeli also grants that there are times when students will not perform without the threat of a grade penalty. The "ten practices to avoid" could perhaps be deemed "ten practices to minimize."

I won't take a dogmatic approach to specific practices; however, I believe the healthiest classroom cultures will be visibly influenced by the values of mastery and differentiation.

What lessons can schools learn from the Kepler 16 solar system?

As an amateur (and even that is a stretch) astronomer, the kind who can barely track the path of Jupiter's moons, I am fascinated with Kepler 16-b. Kepler 16-b is a circumbinary planet, meaning it orbits not one, but two stars.  A two star solar system forces a paradigm shift for us when we are first exposed to the idea, which makes it a perfect metaphor for classroom and school culture.

Kepler 16-b's orbit is driven by the gravitational pull of stars: Kepler 16-A and Kepler 16-B. These stars are not considered opposite, or competing, but one binary star.

Similarly, master educators are driven by one binary star, with two factors: challenge and support. At different times in the life of a classroom, each mass has a stronger gravitational pull. Master teachers know when to give the stern look, and they know when to smile. They know how to present the rigorous assignment, and the scaffolding necessary for students to meet the challenge.

Likewise effective schools must be flexible enough to exert the forces of challenge and support as needed. Students must be held to high standards, academically and behaviorally. Systems must be in place to help them meet those standards, and support them when they fall short.

Questions to consider:
1.) What aspects of the class or school culture are designed to challenge?
2.) What aspects of the class or school culture are designed to support?
3.) What data is used to determine when the orbit of a class or an individual students needs to be influenced more by one than the other?

Confidence: The Key to Differentiated Instruction

Most individual growth, whether it be in knowledge or skill, begins and ends with confidence. The confidence required to attempt. The confidence gained with success. Last weekend I watched my eleven year old daughter make an advancement in two important skill sets, at least for our family: canoeing and fishing. Before that afternoon she spent many hours in the bow of our canoe fishing for bass while I paddled and coached, but that afternoon she made it clear she was ready to pilot alone.

There were risks she had to weigh, the most likely drifting to the far side and being forced to walk home through brush and tall grass, but she had just enough confidence to try. 

There were factors in place that buoyed her confidence: getting the opportunity on a calm night when the water lay like glass, a heavy rock placed in the empty stern to counter balance, a voice of encouragement from the bank. The accommodations gave her confidence, which led to her success, which in turn led to greater confidence.

And so it is with differentiated instruction. Students need to be challenged in environments where they feel influences they know will contribute to their success. This is what I see everyday in classrooms. Teachers allowing the counterbalance of a calculator, so a student, still working toward automaticity with math facts, can begin learning the concepts of an equation. Teachers requiring, not just allowing, a test to be retaken on a day when the waters of a student's life are more still. Teachers encouraging, always encouraging in a voice with the perfect mix of challenge and support. The result of meeting students where they are, a tough task even for talented teachers, is greater student confidence.

Differentiated instruction begins and ends with confidence.

Troy