Enriching Learning

There is ever-increasing pressure for us to provide children with greater mastery of skills at a younger age. Parents expose their children to lessons and activities; we send our children to camps to provide them with experiences that make them "well-rounded;" and schools feel more and more pressure to increase the amount of content and levels of proficiency for children.

In urban schools, this can present a significant challenge - according to the NAEP reading test data, an average of 85% of urban students do not perform at the "proficient" level in reading  http://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/AECF-Early_Warning_Full_Report-2010.pdf . My school is actually above that average - our baseline data for our turnaround is a 2% proficiency in ELA and Math. You read that correctly - 98% of our students are NOT proficient. The data shows that this puts them at a higher drop-out risk and an increased risk of living a life in poverty. And that does not even address the concerns that impact our community or our overall society and economy.

If our students are so far behind in reading and math, it may seem counter-intuitive to invest significant time and financial commitment to providing enrichment opportunities in the arts. We have, however, made a commitment to providing daily enrichment activities for the 800 students in our turnaround school. Our students are involved in 50 minutes daily of enrichment activities in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics). That includes 2D and 3D arts, design and architecture, poetry, dance, leadership development and social skills, photography, drama, and creative thinking.  According to multiple longitudinal studies by the National Endowment for the Arts, students who are considered "at-risk" are more likely to finish high school if they are engaged in arts education. Involvement in the arts and STEM fields increases background knowledge, builds a greater understanding of how our world works, develops vocabulary, and leads to greater curiosity and questioning. In Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future, he speaks about the importance of creative thinking in moving the future of American society and the economy. To summarize, we need to make sure that the next generations of Americans are curious, can think outside of the box, and can see the endless possibilities of the imagination. Enriching the curriculum with the arts provides that for our children.

This week in enrichment, our Kindergarten students did sink/float experiments with boats that they made out of a variety of materials in the pool (integration between PE, Science, arts, and engineering); our 4th grade students experienced ink rolling with a steam roller at a local university (arts, college and career readiness); and 3rd and 5th grade students worked in collaborative groups to build the tallest structure (engineering, design, architecture, cooperative learning); and 5th grade students planned to begin a Community Garden project that will involve work with a neighborhood community center and the construction of benches and a mosaic. While we are assessed on our growth in state assessments, particularly in ELA and Math, enrichment adds soul and dimension to the lives of our children every day.

It is said that when Winston Churchill was asked to cut funding for the arts during WWII, he refused and replied, "then what are we fighting for?" The arts are often the first thing to be eliminated from schools. In a turnaround school, it would be easy to increase time only for academics. We are fortunate to be able to enrich the lives of our children while we are working to improve their academic achievement. Adding enrichment to our day increases the value of the lives of our children - and that is what ultimately matters.

Teaching the Future

What do you see when you dream about the future? When you see your children or your grandchildren as happy, successful, and capable adults - what do you see? What are the skills that our children, our grandchildren, and beyond will need in order to keep up with the speed with which our world is changing?

These can be frightening questions because the answers point out the many ways that we are failing the future by continuing to "do school" in the ways we always have. School has always been my thing. I am a good reader, a good writer, and I was always able to use my creativity to my advantage. I liked the social interactions in school and I loved being one of the better students. When I think about the future, I realize that the skill set that I possessed that allowed me to do well in school would no longer be enough. I can manage technology, but I wouldn't consider myself confident about new technologies. I am lost with newer fluencies such as coding. I have to have correct grammar and spelling in my text messages. I keep up with many things just so I don't seem old to my kids. So, I am not the world's most techno-teacher. I am still using PowerPoint and I cannot figure out how to use LiveBinder or even upload music to my IPhone without my husband's help.  But to admit this about myself, means that I am aware that we are not teaching the future - that I know the classrooms in my school are not giving our students what they need to be 21st Century Thinkers, Learners, or Doers.

 In this video by 2Revolutions, they look to the future and ask if you are a dreamer or a dreader when thinking about the future. The dreamers look to the future and see how they can make anything possible, but it doesn't always turn out the way they planned. The dreaders look to the future and see how nothing is going to work anyway. They propose that what we actually need is a new category - designers - people who plan for and create the future.

Click here to play video on mobile device

I see the future for the students at my school. I see our responsibility in providing our students with every advantage so that they can have the skills that they see to manage the future. They must be literate, problem-solvers; they must be creative thinkers; they must see how to use technology to connect these skills and take them to the next level. Our children are the future and they must see technology as more than video games, Minecraft videos, social media, and "Googling." Our classrooms should be rich in digital access - digital portfolios, blogs, video presentations, adaptive and path-based software, and online checks for understanding are ways that we need to engage the future today. If we do not know or understand how to use technology in our classrooms, then we need to learn today because we are teaching the future. We cannot teach the future using the technology or approaches of yesterday.

Here are additional sources for blended learning and digital technologies:
http://www.knewton.com/blended-learning/

http://www.blendedlearningnow.com/

http://www.highlanderinstitute.org/

The Floor and The Ceiling

I was working with some brilliant people this week from The Highlander Institute who really challenged my thinking (which I totally love!). We were discussing standards and the way that teachers approach the standards and I was expressing that I felt that we were not pushing our higher students enough to really achieve at high levels. The response was eye opening. Are we looking at the standards as a floor or a ceiling? Wow! That was it! That summed up what I have been thinking about our approach to our higher students. When we look at the standards as a ceiling, our high students reach that ceiling and we, as practitioners, do not know necessarily what to do next or if we will have permission to do something that is outside of the standards, so we don't push too hard. If we shift our thinking and those standards become the floor - the baseline that we reach from - the possibilities are endless for us in terms of the ways we extend our students in their thinking and understanding.

What does it take for me as a practitioner to shift from the ceiling to the floor approach? I have to be able to go much deeper in my understanding of the standards and what they represent. I also have to have the autonomy (and the courage) to be able to pull away from "the script" and become more creative in my approach to the competencies in the standards. So, it goes back to having autonomy, mastery, and purpose in my work in order to feel confident enough to come "out of the box" and meet the needs of all of my students - including my higher students (Thanks, Daniel Pink!).

I am challenging myself and my teachers to re-think the way that we educate for the future. We are looking into blended approaches and more digital entry points for our students. It is scary to think about teaching reaching to children in a different way than we are used to. Blended classrooms do not look like traditional classrooms. But if we are standing on the floor and reaching up, rather than always hitting the ceiling, we have to take the risk. Our students have unlimited access to technology outside of school and the options are changing daily. When we think about the skills that our students will need in their futures - collaboration skills, the ability to access information quickly, being able to adapt to change, and communication skills - these are all embedded in a blended learning approach. Are we actually holding our students back because we are not comfortable with different approaches as adults?

 Click here to watch video on mobile device
As we move forward and change the way we think about what school should look like, we are in brand new territory. This takes courage, vision, and confidence - it may not work on our first attempt. But aren't we trying to teach our children those same things? Ralph Waldo Emerson said that a mind, once stretched by a new idea, can never return to its original dimensions. This is exactly what a turnaround school needs more of.