What Is Sustainable About Student Work?

Nothing - by Naomi Shahib Nye, Young People’s Poet Laureate 

from her book Cast Away, Poems For Our Time.

Nothing a child

ever does

is trash.

It is 

practice. 

April is Earth month. Sustainable practices are one way to be environmentally conscious. Efficiency and conservation of resources are part of sustainability. Finding new uses for objects and shifting away from single use materials are key actions. How does this translate into our classrooms? What is sustainable about student work? How do we construct assignments or tasks that have more than one use? Nye’s poem made me think about all the energy that teachers put into grading and putting feedback on student work. I have shared before that grading isn’t feedback.  One of her other poems, Three Wet Report Cards is about old homework papers and report cards she finds lying on the ground, discarded. “Smudgy grades. Teacher Comment areas bare…Feeling great sadness for the hard work of teachers filling in so many little boxes dreary evaluating and judging when what teachers love best is that spark of discovery that great question the shy person finally speaking from the stage”. How does this spark your own thinking about how to continue to support learning as inquiry? How will you change your feedback over the next few weeks to be more of a dialogue with students rather than a one way conversation.  Work worth doing is work that provides opportunities to grow knowledge, to learn from mistakes, or gives students entry points to apply their thinking and get feedback to refine it.  Recycling bins are filled with student work that has been discarded.  What if instead students curated all of that evidence of their learning progress in a notebook or digital folder arranged not by due date or unit, but by what they learned from doing it and how it moves them toward a goal? Work that could be revisited, repurposed or used to spark a new idea. Work that becomes the starting point for dialogue about learning with teachers and classmates.  April is the beginning of fourth quarter, and a chance to make your student work more sustainable! 

Resources To Spark Your Thinking

• Edutopia Article - 3 Techniques For Providing Students With Feedback

• Better Lesson - Giving and Receiving Peer Feedback 

• PBS Learning Media Earth Day Resources 

• NEA’s Earth Month interactive calendar of resources 

• Earth Day 2024 -Planet Vs Plastics

Upcoming Opportunities

Calling all educators! Register today for the May 9 FREE Northwest Ohio AI Summit @ Kalahari: bit.ly/NWOhioAISummit24 Educators from across the state of Ohio will come together, be inspired, and share their expertise and ideas around AI Literacy and innovation. Learn more about AI trainer and keynote presenter Rebecca Bultsma: https://rebeccabultsma.com @rebeccabultsma @aiedu_org @oesca

How Are You A Projector Of Your Student's Strengths?

 “Even though I know some day you’re gonna shine on your own, I will be your projector.” Beyoncé  from the song, The Protector, on her new album, Cowboy Carter

This one line expresses so clearly for me what it is like to be a teacher who believes each and every student has a spark that is worth protecting and growing.  A teacher who sees students through a lens of what they bring to the learning, not deficit thinking.  A teacher who makes sure all students are seen and heard.  We can get so caught up in the adult side of education, that we may unintentionally neglect our role of projector, a person that brings into focus student strengths and makes sure they can see these in themselves. 

April is a good time to revisit this by intentionally engaging students in reflecting on where they have come as learners. What are they still curious about? What are they passionate about? Have they accomplished their goals? Do they need to revise their goals? This is where you can be the projector, making sure that they can see themselves as being valued members of the class, and successful learners. And, making sure they hear and see that you believe in them, and have high expectations for each of them.  I will be honest.  Asking students to set a goal where they improve a score from 67 to 75 without actually identifying what will change in their own knowledge/skills or what they will do/have done to make that change isn’t really acknowledging that they can shine. Teaching students how to write their own SMART goals is one alternative.   This is where Generative AI can be useful. It can create goal stems that students can use to create a personalized SMART goal. It can also be used to create student friendly rubrics to help them reflect on their learning progress either through journaling or curating a portfolio of their work.  Integrate peer feedback and collaboration by pulling in student work samples from this year or years past to provide context so students see where they have been, where they are and where they can still go. 

April is also a good time to check in on your own planning for the rest of the year. Where are there opportunities to make connections to your students’ lived experiences? Generative AI can help here by suggesting ways to incorporate student cultural backgrounds, interests and experiences into lessons.  How can you reimagine lessons or tasks to give more student voice and choice in a safe place to iterate, to be creative or to push their own thinking? Using choice boards, project based learning and inquiry activities are all effective strategies. Generative AI can be useful in framing project based learning and inquiry activities that are aligned to student interest and grade appropriate knowledge/skills.  How will you keep the projector on in your classroom?    

Resources To Spark Your Thinking

• You can watch the music video for The Protector, which includes Beyonce’s 6 year old daughter, on YouTube. 

• Indiana University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning Blog - Rejecting the Deficit Model

• The Power of Collective Efficacy - ASCD

• ChatGPT 3.5 no longer needs a login, although if you have a login it will save your conversations.  This is a good chance to compare Open AI's ChaGPT 3.5 with Microsoft Copilot, which incorporates Open AI technology.

Upcoming Opportunities

• Greater Cleveland Council of Teachers of Math (GCCTM) Spring Workshop is just around the corner April 13  9:00-1:00 at the ESC of Northeast Ohio 6393 Oak Tree Blvd South, Independence.  Register HERE 

• Student Achievement Partners secondary literacy course, Improving Reading for Older Students will open this month! This is not an Ohio DEW approved course. It is a useful course for teachers, higher ed staff and administrators looking to continue to expand their learning around specific Tier 1 instructional strategies for supporting literacy in secondary classrooms. Sign up to be one of the first to know when you can enroll. https://buff.ly/3vsbLIp 

• You are invited to attend the aiEDU and Ohio Educational Service Center Association's 2024 AI Summit Registration! We invite educators from across the state of Ohio to come together, be inspired, and share their expertise and ideas around AI Literacy and innovation. Choose from one of four AI Summits scheduled during May and August 2024. I am one of the presenters at the Sandusky Summit on May 9. All AI Summits are FREE to Ohio ESC employees, district leaders, building leaders, and K-12 teachers.  REGISTER HERE The AI Summits will take place from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM ET on the following dates:

• May 2nd, 2024 AI Summit - Dayton, OH

• Venue: Sinclair Community College Bldg 12, 444 W Third St, Dayton, OH 45402

• Hotel Accommodation: AC Hotel, 124 Madison Street Dayton, OH 45402

• Hotel Website: AC Hotel Dayton

• Keynote Speaker: AJ Juliani

• May 9th, 2024 AI Summit - Sandusky, OH

• Venue: Kalahari Conference Center, 7000 Kalahari Drive, Sandusky, OH 44870-8628

• Hotel Accommodation: Kalahari Conference Center, 7000 Kalahari Dr, Sandusky, OH 44870

• Hotel Website: Kalahari Conference Center

• Keynote Speaker: Rebecca Bultsma

• May 23rd, 2024 AI Summit - Independence, OH

• Venue: Holiday Inn - Independence, 6001 Rockside Road, Independence, OH 44131

• Hotel Accommodation: Holiday Inn - Independence, 6001 Rockside Rd, Independence, Ohio 44131 United States

• Hotel Website: Holiday Inn - Independence

• Keynote Speaker: Ken Shelton

• August 13th, 2024 AI Summit - Cambridge, OH

• Venue: Pritchard Laughlin Civic Center, 7033 Glenn Hwy Cambridge, OH 43725

• Hotel Accommodation: Fairfield Inn & Suites, 8700 Dozer Road Cambridge, OH 43725

• Hotel Website: Fairfield Inn & Suites Cambridge

• Keynote Speaker: Dan Fitzpatrick

How Are You Intentionally Putting Brain Research Into Practice?

How are you intentionally putting brain research into practice in your classroom, building or district?  What is changing as a result? This weekend, I attended Glen Whitman and Meg Lee’s ASCD Conference session, Redesigning Teaching, Learning, And Schooling Using Brain Science. They started off the session with a table based discussion using the Face The MBE (Mind Brain Education research) Card Deck developed by The Center for Transformative Thinking And Learning. The goal, can we identify the neuromyths and the neurotruths.  We sorted cards into piles either I already know and do this OR I purposefully avoid doing thing. Here is one of the cards we discussed: “Class time is too valuable to use for tasks focused on student reflection and metacognition” Is this neuormyth or neurofact?  Check the Resources To Spark Your Thinking section below to see the answer, and the research citation.  How do neuromyths impact decisions about what to do or not do in a classroom? Glenn Whitman has made it a goal to ensure 100% of his faculty use MBE research in their instruction and avoid nueromyths.  Each teacher has posted outside their classroom an info page - Researched Informed Teaching In My Classroom- that includes their name and picture, what they teach, a brief description of their passions, the books that they are currently reading related to their professional/subject interests, and the Research Informed Focus being applied in their classroom - and why.  In the example they shared, the Chemistry teacher was currently implementing active learning strategies to increase student engagement and content comprehension.  

This presentation sparked a number of ideas for me.  I liked the cards as a way to incorporate Mind Brain Education research into a staff meeting, principal newsletter, TBT or BLT time or a professional learning session. The teacher info page would be a great tool for principal walkthroughs and observations - giving a specific focus for questions pre/post observation around what MBE research will look like/sound like in the classroom. What will the teacher be doing? What will the students be doing? What feedback will be helpful in refining the implementation of MBE?  Taking time as a staff to talk through the neuromyth cards, where might those myths be in practice in the school? Why? How does the research change thinking about it? What new professional learning might be needed? In addition to the card deck. The Center For Transformative Thinking and Learning has also developed coaching materials, along with books, a blog, and roadmaps for MBE teaching - by grade band.  Are you interested in testing your own Mind Brain Education IQ? Take their free diagnostic HERE. 

Resources To Spark Your Thinking

• https://www.thecttl.org/research-base/ 

• Frederick County Public Schools - Maryland MBE Resource Page 

• TedTalks - TedEd Collection on the topic Mind Matters

• Answer to the MBE Card… False (nueromyth) “Research suggests that interventions focused on building metacognitive ability can have a great impact on student achievement. However, doing this can be difficult and requires strategic effort over time on the part of the teacher - hence, the benefit of doing it in class. Remember that reflection and metacognition are different. Think about how you can structure reflection activities in ways that build metacognition”  citation: Bruyckere, P. D. (2018). The Ingredients for Great Teaching. SAGE Publications Ltd.

How Poetry Can Enrich Any Classroom

Thursday is UNESCO World Poetry Day.  It is an opportunity to experience voices you may not have heard before, or see the world through a lens that is dissimilar to your own.   Poetry crosses cultural boundaries and global borders.  As a writing form, poetry can succinctly express complex concepts or synthesize ideas in any content area.  I have written many times about the importance of text sets, especially as a way to expose all students to complex texts.  Poetry, because of its patterns and structures, is usually a more complex text.  So, including a poem in a text set is one way to boost text complexity.  Offering students the choice to create a poem to demonstrate their mastery of content, express their opinion, and make connections to their lived experience is one way to differentiate instruction.   Poems can share joy, spark creativity, build empathy, capture deep emotion, honor a life, amplify a cause, or when poems become songs… move a generation. 

My mind is an endless garden where seeds of knowledge grow,

Twining vines, branching trees, spreading moss, intruding weeds

Sometimes a jungle of tangled ideas

Sometimes an impenetrable hedgerow of frustration

Sometimes a winding path of inspiration waiting for the right time to bloom

Inhabited by people real and imagined

Their voices are the rain, the wind, the sun

Each new experience

Each new opportunity 

Adds soil where new seeds take root

---- Char Shryock

Poems To Spark Your Thinking 

• UNESCO World Poetry Day Homepage

• Poets.org World Poetry Day links to poems from across the world

• While AI can provide feedback on word choice or suggest ideas, this article from the MIT Press Reader looks at Can AI Write Authentic Poetry?

• TEDTalks on Poetry

• My favorite book of modern poems from around the world edited by American poet Naomi Shahib Nye - This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World.

 

What Changes If We Associate Tier 1 With Words Like Proactive or Preventative?

What would change if we started to associate the words “Tier 1” with “prevention” or “proactive” rather than “intervention”?  I have been reflecting on this for the past few weeks.  Typically, a pyramid is used to represent multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS).  Tier 1 is the base segment, and contains the interventions in place for all students.  I am wondering if labeling this tier as intervention contributes to a “someone else's responsibility” mindset when it comes to meeting the needs of all students? What if we revised the pyramid drawing to show the students AND the adults that are involved at each layer? Tier 1 is for everyone. All students. All teachers. All administrators. All support staff. Everyone.  I thought of the using the word “prevention” or “proactive” for Tier 1 because, if students have the opportunities to grow their knowledge/skills by working with high quality instructional materials, engage in learning that reflects their own lived experience or helps them see new perspectives, connect with teachers and administrators who have high expectations for all students, and are surrounded by a school culture that views data as a powerful driver for action…fewer students may need the additional supports and targeted intervention that comes through Tier 2 and Tier 3 within the MTSS.  

How do we shift the mindset on Tier 1? Be intentional when making distinctions between the day to day classroom instruction that is Tier 1, and targeted interventions.  Start with what is best for ALL students. Scaffolding techniques create a learning “framework” that benefits all students.  How can graphic organizers, think pair share, sentence frames, anchor charts, visual cues, concept maps, manipulatives, or chunking texts, for example, support students as they build skills?  Accommodations can remove barriers to learning, without changing expectations for learning. Changing presentation or response modes, adjusting seating, moderating noise levels, using adaptive tech - like text to speech or speech to text, and thinking about time and scheduling can benefit all students too.  Differentiating (meeting the needs of groups of students) or Personalizing instruction (starting with the needs of each student) includes student voice and choice in how they build knowledge, demonstrate mastery of knowledge and skills, or make connections between knowledge/skills and their own interests and passions.  Using choice boards, SOLE (Self Organized Learning Environments), portfolios, flexible groups, project based learning, and virtual simulations are all examples of planning instruction based on student needs and interests.  Consistent implementation of PBIS at the district, building and classroom level contributes to a preventative Tier 1 environment.  Classrooms that are safe spaces for students to be curious, to practice and learn from mistakes, to innovate and explore ideas, and set and monitor their own goals are essential to the success of all students in a Tier 1 setting. 

Embracing the idea that Tier 1 is for everybody by everybody invites teachers and administrators to look more closely at indicators that Tier 1 may need some changes to be more preventive.  Pay attention to attendance data, student engagement levels, behavior data, inconsistent achievement or growth data -especially within subgroups, and minimal connections to real world applications. 

Resources To Spark Your Thinking 

• Ohio PBIS.org

• Scaffolding In Reading - Gr 6-12

• IRIS Center article on scaffolding

• Ohio Personalized Learning Network

Upcoming Opportunities

• Ohio Dept. of Education and Workforce is offering a Math Series in partnership with BetterLesson. Learn more and sign up HERE  The upcoming series on mathematical language routines is especially powerful as a way to make connections between mathematical practices and content literacy. 

• What does it mean to be a High Quality Instructional Material? Must it be a textbook? What should I look for when selecting my school district’s science materials? Meet with the Science Team from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and Ohio HQIM Specialists to gain insights into these questions, discuss the components of a High Quality Science Material, and prepare yourself for your next science materials selection process. SECO is hosting this free event - March 18 4:30-5:30  Register HERE

• Looking for an interesting webinar? Solution Tree has an archive of webinars available for free HERE

 

Why Feeling Heard Is An Essential Outcome Of A Trusting Culture

The fourth word for this month’s blog series is… Heard.  That feeling of being heard is one of the essential outcomes of a trusting culture. This became very clear to me when, as a Superintendent, I was faced with a wide range of stakeholders who were very willing to share their own opinions, questions, concerns, fears, and anger over decisions the district team were making around masking, social distancing, transgender students, equity, …all of the topics that have been on the burning edge of discussions over the past 5 years. One approach that I have used to lower the temperature in these heated confrontations is to take time to listen with empathy, and ask questions from a lens of curiosity. This is hard to do. Especially when the stakeholder questions and opinions reflect misconceptions and misinformation or the conversation feels like a personal attack.  “Talk to the hand”  may feel like a more satisfying response,  it will most certainly shut doors, and will absolutely not solve problems. Instead, when possible, flip the situation so that the individuals walk away feeling heard.  Find a time to sit down face to face to talk, especially with a leading voice who will take the conversation back to others.  Let them talk. Be empathetic. Ask clarifying questions. As much as you want to jump in and refute what they are saying, solve a problem, or correct a misstatement, don’t interrupt. Take notes instead. Follow up with phrases like, “Would you be willing to connect some dots for me and help me to see how you landed where you are?”, and, “Would you be open to hearing how I connected the dots to land on this decision?” Thank them for taking time to talk with you. The goal is for them to feel like you worked to see the situation from their perspective, reflected on their concerns, and found some common ground with them (usually this is the fact that we all want what is best for students). Sometimes this is all they really want and they may shift their focus elsewhere. Sometimes, even though they may still not agree, they may have an increased level of trust in you and will tell that to others.  While they don’t agree on one decision, they may be more open to trusting other decisions in the future.

How do we ensure that our students and staff feel heard? What actions do we take to make space for students to share their lived experiences? How do students see these reflected in their instructional materials and classwork? When students are passionate about an issue, do we have a system in place that they can use to act on that passion within the safe space of our schools? I think about the student leaders who approached the school administration with their plan for a peaceful walkout to protest gun violence in schools.  They felt heard by the administration, who listened to their concerns and their plan, asked questions to better understand the beliefs and experience of the students, then made sure that the students had a safe space to hold the demonstration. I think about the classrooms where students are heard, so they feel safe to share their thinking with their classmates and teachers who listen, ask questions and work together to make sure everyone is included in the learning. I think about teacher teams who have implemented effective PBIS systems because they took the time to really hear each other, their students, and the voices of community partners.  I think about the district transportation team who felt heard in past discussions with the administration, as a result, felt confident as valued members of the district team, and proposed an idea for a Little Free Library by the bus garage, housed in a little bus, complete with student designed bus safety bookmarks. Prioritizing hearing over listening can empower everyone within your sphere of influence and expand your own capacity as a leader - in your classroom, building or district.

I created a set of guiding questions to to start your reflection on your ability to ensure others feel heard:

• How often do I actively try to understand the emotions and perspectives of those I lead?

• What does it look like when I make a conscious effort to see situations from their point of view?

• What helps me to refrain from interrupting and allow individuals to express themselves fully?

• How am I aware of the impact of my non-verbal cues on the perception of being heard?

• How frequently do I paraphrase or summarize what others have shared to ensure understanding?

• How often do I use open-ended questions to explore the thoughts and feelings of others?

• When do I create a safe space where individuals feel accepted and free to express themselves?

• How do I highlight and leverage the strengths and resilience of individuals on my team?

• How do I perceive the impact of my communication on the relationships within the team or my classroom?

Resources To Spark Your Thinking

• Two Ways To Help Your Team Members Feel Heard - Greater Good Magazine UC Berkeley

• 7 Ways To Make Employees Feel Respected According To Research - Harvard Business Review

• 6 Small But Mighty Ways To Make Your Students Feel Important - Edutopia

• 6 Ways To Improve Your Listening Skills - Harvard Business Education

• Great Educators Are Active Listeners- How to Help Your Students Feel Heard - Scanlan Center For School Mental Health (Univ of Iowa)

Tools To Add To Your Toolbox:

• Literacy and Math walkthrough tools https://www.learnwithsap.org/ (Achievethecore.org)

• World Knowledge Expert Tasks - https://www.learnwithsap.org/peersandpedagogy/world-knowledge-companion-text-sets-empowering-educators-and-inspiring-students-through-literacy/ 

• Doug Reeve’s ASCD blog post on Systems Thinking https://www.ascd.org/blogs/lets-stop-treating-achievement-discipline-and-attendance-as-separate 

Happy Holidays to all of you!  I hope you take time during the winter break to do things that bring you joy, reconnect with family and friends, read the books that have been piling up next to your chair, and remember that you are making a positive difference in the lives of all the children that you support through your work.

Talk-OH-Tuesday will be taking a break too - and will return on January 9, 2024!