2/9/13 2/9/13

A Night with Michelle Rhee

On Wednesday evening I attended an event at the Free Library of Philadelphia to listen to Michelle Rhee speak about her new book, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First. Full disclosure that I knew walking into the event that I disagreed with the most of what she champions in the name of education reform. During her tenure as the chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public schools from 2007 to 2010, I was teaching in Philadelphia. The stories of her strategies for improving the schools were commonly finding their way north to the papers and blogs in Philly. When I realized that I had the opportunity to hear her speak, I opted to do so.So, on Wednesday night I found myself walking into the auditorium of the Free Library with two other lovely teachers (Larissa Pahomov and Meenoo Rami), which I have done on so many occasions. One thing that was different this time, though, was that the greeters were handing out index cards in order to collect questions ahead of time.Pardon?As I walked to my seat, I processed what was occurring... Rhee's visit at the Library was contingent on her screening questions. In that very same auditorium I had seen Colin Powell and Madeline Albright take questions from the crowd and answer with grace and dignity. These former Secretaries of State served during major wars, botched intelligence incidents and scandals. They took questions from the crowd. Down at the National Constitution Center, I saw Donald Rumsfeld, one of the most polarizing figures from the Bush administration, do the same, accept questions cold from the crowd and answer with poise and clarity. Rhee needed screening. *sigh*Two things.

I am incredibly disappointed that the Free Library agreed to these parameters for Rhee's speaking engagement.
Rhee need be ashamed. For the past 4 years, I have known the Free Library Author Events as a place for the exchange of ideas on timely topics with authors. This was more advertisement than a thoughtful exchange of ideas on Rhee's career in educational reform.

When one chooses to place a 'radical' set of ideas out into the public sphere to alter the function of a major societal system like schools, one need be prepared to engage thoughtfully in conversation with those that disagree with those ideas. To do otherwise is a sad commentary on book sales and public persona 'handling'. I am glad I went, but could not be more disappointed in the manner with which the audience was kept at bay during the hour long exchange.

1/30/13 1/30/13

The importance of sharing positive stories

Most mornings I start the day by running through my email, play a few rounds of LetterPress, casually browsing Twitter and catching up on my RSS reader. I will not read 'everything', but rather take a wander through content and ideas shared since I went to sleep. Some mornings, the posts and writing that are shared seem to be moving in a direction. Such was this morning.First I came across the most recent post from Sam Chaltain asking us to tell a different story about public education. At the end of the post he asks, "Everyone knows what it feels like to go to school. What if everyone knew what it felt like to go to a great school?" He posits that we are having the wrong conversation about public school and that we need to be cognizant of the damage done by buying into the idea that our public school system is all about 'content, conflict and catastrophe". We need to share widely stories that move past this layer of negative storytelling and offer a better narrative of learning. He is highlighting the A Year at Mission Hill project, that endeavors to do just that.Next, I was thrilled to see that Karl Fisch had posted the Arapahoe High School faculty dance performance for 2013. I'm not sure how many years Karl has been posting these, but its been for several years. (I am reminded of Chris Lehmann's post, Take the Work Seriously, But Don’t Take Yourself Seriously as I watched this.)[youtube=http://youtu.be/9cQUiyyXRZM]To say that I love that this occurs annually, would be an understatement. You can absolutely sense the energy and enthusiasm by both the staff and student body. In this moment, the students stand to encourage the work of their teachers. Pulling this off is no small feat. This took some time and dedication by the staff to contribute to the school community in a very 'non-academic' way. And it is spectacular. Teachers were willing to publically perform when they weren't perfect or gifted, and it was celebrated. What a moment of modeling risk-taking, joyfulness and performance.When I coached middle school basketball (girls and boys, for years), I recognized that the hours I spent with the students after school made the classroom flow so much easier. Understanding that the work of the classroom is derivative of the culture of the whole learning environment ... is so important. As the adults in those spaces, we can play and laugh and be silly while also expecting much out of the students academically. These are not mutually exclusive.Thanks for Karl and Sam for bringing a few moments together this morning to evidence the importance of telling positive stories of education and joy in our learning environments.What is your story? What are the positive moments of learning and school that you see happening?

12/27/12 12/27/12

Where I come from... part two

A second installment - the first installment was written in 2008.For anyone that has been around me for about 5 minutes will probably hear some reference or story about my hometown. Alma Center, WI - population 454 (at least while I was living there). As kids we jokingly referred to it as Action City, because the only time people were out past 9pm was if there was a basketball game at the high school. Growing up here was pretty idyllic, surrounded by a large extended families, both sets of grandparents within 5 miles of my house, 16 sets of aunts and uncles, more cousins than is fit to count and a community. Now, when I was growing up here, I really understood the smallness of it all, how it was unlike 'the rest of the world', and I didn't always love it. But it was here that I was able to play 3 varsity sports with a limited amount of talent, play in the band, sing in the choir, have a part-time job, work on the farm... One summer I spent afternoons in the hammock reading every book Steinbeck wrote . It was uncommon. Not better, nor worse than another place, but it is the place I know best and continues to be a unique place in the world. When I would share these stories in my classroom, I know they often thought I was making some of this up, that these places just don't exist anymore.For the past three weeks I have been staying with my parents in a lull between my work on the road. I've been running errands, playing Yahtzee with my grandmother, snowshoeing with my mom, babysitting my 7 nieces and nephews and generally trying to have fun and be useful. Luckily, my Dad hasn't found many reasons to recruit me to help out with the cows or his current logging endeavor. Being here for this amount of time allows me to remember just how different this place really is... especially as my mom picked up the phone this evening to talk to my grandmother. Here is the story...On Christmas Day, my grandmother, who is 80, called to let us know that her car has a flat tire. My Dad went up early the next morning and put air in it, but we knew it was going to need some attention, so my grandmother left a message at with the mechanic. I was waiting for the call from her to let me know what time I needed to come into town to take the car up and drop it off... its only a few blocks, but not a distance for her to walk with all the ice and snow. When the mechanic arrived into the garage that morning, he called my grandmother back. He said not to bother me, that he would just walk up and get the car. So, he walks the few blocks, to her door, collects the keys and takes the car to the shop. Later in the afternoon, he brings the car back, puts it in the garage and hands the keys back to my grandmother. She then asks what she owes him. He responds $5. She gave him $10.Now, while I am pleased to see how excited people are to document their #26acts of kindness and genuinely touched by the memory it is serving to honor. I find it incredibly important to also realize there is a version of human that lives it everyday, not because it is shared with or applauded by their network, but because this is the type of life they live. As you look to those who are sharing stories of their generosity over the holiday, please make sure to also look around in your daily life to celebrate those that live it everyday. While not a grand gesture, I could not be more impressed with the actions of this lovely mechanic who went out of his way to help my grandmother. He's quite a guy. And I could not be more proud to call this place my hometown.

11/23/12 11/23/12

Black Friday with my family

I write this post from a hotel room overlooking downtown Kuala Lumpur, watching all the twitter updates and Facebook statuses about Black Friday and I cannot help but reminisce about the Laufenberg family tradition for Black Friday that held for 25 years. Anyone who knows our family knows that we are a haven for small ventures off the farm - selling firewood, timber, sweetcorn... we raised 100 puppies a year for 10 years and parakeets for 4 years... there were horses, cows, chickens, pigs. This was a farm with all members contributing to make it work. We raised, worked and sold all kinds of things. To date, my favorite part was our Black Friday tradition - setting up the Tree Lot.My dad planted christmas trees in the mid-80s - and the shortly after was a drought. I vividly remember that my sister and I were charged with carrying a 5 gallon bucket and cup, up and down the rows of acres of trees, in an attempt to save them from their natural fate. And then years later, I remember working with my dad to unload those same trees at our lot in Eau Claire, WI. Set up on the massive front yard of a longtime Eau Claire family, we assembled the Laufenberg Tree Lot on the day after Thanksgiving every year for 20+ years.In the beginning it was mostly just my dad, then my sister started helping out and eventually it turned into an all hands on deck affair. I didn't start helping out a ton until I moved to Eau Claire for college. Working at the tree lot meant very busy weekends and then occasional sales when I was able to stay later into the evening on week nights, so my dad could get home and reload before it became much colder and/or darker. The hours were such that I could work on my homework, in between sales, tucked inside this tiny camper with space heaters blasting. Some years the weather was glorious, one year it was so warm we were in t-shirts and I was interviewed for local TV about the weird weather and how it affected the lot. Some years the weather was dreadful, people pulling up and cracking their windows about an inch to say, "Put your favorite tree in my trunk, I'm not getting out of the car". My sister made 100's of handmade wreaths and toward the end of the run, her kids would stop by to see the lot and help out here and there. It was a family affair.Our lot was situated overlooking the highway that led to the mall. While we were setting up we would wait to hear the screech of tires and one year even watched a semi blast down the hill toward us as it slid out of control. Getting to the mall was so important that bodily harm was risked. The weather may have changed from year to year, but the crazy situation on that highway did not. For those that enjoy the sales and the energy of the mall, I wish you the best. But to this day, I find myself unmoved to consume on that day. The day after Thanksgiving will always be about family and assembling this space that brought so much wonder and joy to the families that would visit. I have never been one to enjoy selling 'stuff', but the things that I raised, or picked or cared for - I didn't have trouble with that. People would ask where the trees came from and I was proud to be able to say, our farm.As a farm kid, I had an increasingly uncommon childhood that required an intense amount of productivity. We were hardworking at school, in sports and on the farm. It was not always a pleasant existence. I was not always the best worker. The tree lot, at times, was brutal. We would find ourselves laughing and cursing at how the cold or wind brought general unpleasantness. At other times, it was glorious, watching the families return year after year, kids getting bigger as time passed. And, there we were year after year, led by the unending work ethic of my father. That was our Black Friday tradition for more years than not. And it was about the two things that are still most important to us, being with family and being productive. Because you can add all the college degrees you want, but my siblings and I will always be most influenced by life on the farm.

11/5/12 11/5/12

The Election Day Interviews: A Look Back

Four years ago I was in Philadelphia at the Science Leadership academy working with that first graduating class. On this day they fanned out into their neighborhoods to conduct voter interviews. There were photos, videos, audio... I thought I would share some of that audio from that first round of interviews![audio http://laufenberg.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ayana-jones-mccants.mp3][audio http://laufenberg.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/jerome-mcleod-jasmine-thomas.mp3][audio http://laufenberg.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/gianni-ferrera-2.mp3][audio http://laufenberg.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/sabrina-lebron.mp3]Many of these students will be casting their first ballot in a presidential election today. Some have reached out on all manner of social media to let me know they are voting and encouraging those around them to do so as well. I could not be more proud.

11/4/12 11/4/12

If I were in the classroom right now...

I would teach something like this.Watch this -[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4h62jRiUcc]

Ask students for general observations.
Watch again and ask them to focus on a particular region of the country and repeat the observations.

Introduce them to this tool- http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/15/us/politics/swing-history.htmlYou can go a number of ways from here -

Students can again do general observations.
You could have students look at a particular election.
You could also have students watch a particular state over time.
They could be watching for trends, anomalies, you could ask them to come up with which state was most consistent, least.

After all this observing and analyzing, ask them what questions they have about these trends and patterns and presidential elections.Possible continuation of the inquiry – have students sample examples from The Living Room Candidate - http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/ - these are my favorites!Students are to look at a particular election year, reference the graphic and start to make some connections about what was happening at that time. Students could then (either) create a new campaign ad for the current candidates in the ‘old’ style or create a new campaign ad for an old candidate in the new style. You could give them the charge of appealing to a particular swing state… now or then. This can all move in the direction of having them assess their own issue preferences, what they are concerned with and how that compared in history to other times.Then spend sometime with this amazing graphic to discuss the cascading possibilities on election day this year - 512 Paths to the White House. Then on Election Day have them go out to the polls - http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Coll_dlaufenberg/ElectionDay - and as you watch the results roll in open a todaysmeet room or a private chat room (we used Moodle at SLA)

10/28/12 10/28/12

Getting it Right - Arrowhead Union High School

Months ago I received and email from the resourceful and talented Donna Smith where she invited me to join her staff in October. This past week I then joined the staff of Arrowhead Union High School for a day of professional development. The general structure of the day was simultaneously traditional and a departure from the usual. Professional development can be regarded as an awesome experience, but more likely it is regarded as something the likes of eating your least favorite vegetables. To quote the thoughtful David Jakes

Professional development carries baggage, and lot's of it. For teachers, it's seen as more institutional control and time-wasting on topics of little interest and meaning to them. And for the institution, and one even with the best intentions and programs, it's about low attendance and interest on the parts of teachers, complaints about time, and little carry-over to the classroom.

While I cannot ensure that every person was thoroughly engaged in the day, I believe that there were some incredibly intentional features of the agenda that contributed to a productive and enjoyable day.

Teachers were heavily involved in the process of planning and scheduling the day
There was fun involved - the intro of the day was a staff created video, a script that was read by multiple staff members peppered throughout the auditorium, prizes were given out at the end of the day
Delicious food was served - breakfast included such rare features of a school breakfast as fresh berries, muesli, yogurt, melon - there was a much anticipated snack break with caramel apples and toppings. Lunch was delicious - two types of chili - four types of cheese (it was Wisconsin after all). These moments of breaking bread and shared meals really matter in maintaining community.
The morning sessions were short and moved quickly, lots of idea gathering.
The afternoon session was completely unscheduled with staff members free to work with the material from the morning and make sense of it in their own practice.

None of this is incredibly revolutionary, but it points out a few things I've watched schools get wrong in the past: no time given within the day to process the information learned, no sense of fun, teachers left out of the planning process.So, this week's installment of Getting it Right goes to the fine staff at Arrowhead Union High School in Hartland, WI led by their supportive principal Gregg Wieczorek. Thank you for including me in your day.

10/20/12 10/20/12

Getting it Right - San Marcos Unified

The excitement for learning and teaching with inquiry and amplified by technology... pretty darn awesome here.— Diana Laufenberg (@dlaufenberg) October 19, 2012

For the past 12 days I was on the road doing a nice blend of conference presentations and workshops as well as some school-based professional development. The two conferences were lovely experiences as I was able to share best practices, take apart this curriculum maze we are all trying to navigate with technology and learn with some really dynamic and thoughtful educators.The final two days of the stretch were spent with the San Marcos Unified School District in California. Adina Sullivan and Brian Frost are working with a large cohort to launch a new endeavor to go 1:1 in a ton of classrooms this year, while working on using an inquiry-based framework for shifting the teaching and learning. On Thursday, I met with the middle and high school teachers and on Friday I met with the elementary teachers (special shout to Anthony Barela, one of the Elementary principals who I had the pleasure to meet at ISTE this year, for all the obvious support and energy he gives his staff and school).

Teachers are deconstructing an inquiry unit looking for the questioning, research, discussion, creating and reflection pieces.— Diana Laufenberg (@dlaufenberg) October 19, 2012

After spending eight hours over the two days with these teachers, it became apparent that what was happening is that they are getting it right. Now, I am not privy to the specifics and I know there have been challenges and hiccups along the way. At the base level, though, this is an endeavor that brings an initiative for technology on board while also focusing on how one can teach and learn differently with the new tools and expanded access to information. We spent the first half of each day discussing how the teaching and learning was progressing. Teachers were openly sharing their successes, stresses, strategies and work arounds. But most of all they were in engaged in meaningful dialogue about teaching and learning using a shared protocol for lesson planning and discussion. From my vantage point they:

Established a pedagogical framework for teaching and learning that was to be used in the initiative
Provided release time, extra support and feedback throughout the process
Disseminated the resources/gadgets/'the shiny' to the teachers
Continue to revisit, share and reflect frequently.

While this should not be something unique, new initiatives are increasingly bungled in many districts due to trying to do more with less, change on the cheap. SMUSD is just doing more, smartly. Thoughtfulness and planning went into this structure and not everyone gets this right. Kudos to all of the hard work and transformation that they are cultivating. Am excited to see where the future of this initiative leads.

9/26/12 9/26/12

Professional Collaboration in Action Continued

On Monday night #engchat and #sschat joined forces to have a combined #engsschat. There were a ton of good ideas flying around and one such idea was explored by Larissa Pahomov - @lpahomov - and I. The question came up around what teachers were planning to do with the upcoming Presidential Debates and she remembered this great poster on logical fallacies that she used last year. In addition, I played State of the Union Bingo with my students last year and an idea started to form. Right after the chat Larissa posted a lovely reminder about the reach of professional collaboration. She writes:

We teased this idea out during #engsschat, and then I shot of a quick e-mail to the 11th Grade English and History teachers at SLA. Is this definitely going to work out, or look anything like I just described? I can’t say for sure, but we’ll end up with some variation on this idea for sure.

So yesterday I took a moment to revisit the bingo card from the State of the Union, care of the National Constitution Center. Then I set about creating one that would work for the debate. So the thought process goes:

Students need real experiences to learn content and skills.
The debates are an authentic event that lends to building fluency with issues related to policy and government.
One of the key parts of analyzing the language of debates is to understand logical fallacies.
Kids like to play games.
Therefore, a game card that reinforces the role of logical fallacies with the content of the Presidential debates will accomplish a plethora of learning goals.

So yesterday, I spent a few minutes and made a game card and suggested directions for use. Here is the PDF file (Presidential Debate Bingo - 10:03:12), as well as the raw .doc file (Presidential Debate Bingo) and the page where you can see the logical fallacies sheet we used. There are more logical fallacy sites out there with greater detail - here and here.If I were to use it... I would have students review the different types of logical fallacies and then place them on the squares themselves. Allowing choice means a thought process evaluating the options, which will increase their ability to interact with the information as it plays out in the debate. I would also allow for fallacies to be placed 2 or 3 times if that is what the student felt was going to play out in the debate. Other teachers may make a different decision.Thanks to Larissa and #engsschat for the venue to spin up ideas for use in the classroom.

9/9/12 9/9/12

33 years.

Starting in the fall of 1979 until the end of school 2012… I have never, not been enrolled in or employed by a school. K-12, led directly to college, which led directly to teaching… 33 straight years of first days After deciding last spring that I was going to take a year to travel, consult and breathe, I knew that the day would come and go that I was supposed to go back to school.Today was that day, as SLA started school this morning. Now, I wasn’t exactly absent the process, as Ms. Hull and I are still working with the ever talented and delightful Hullenberg Advisory. While Ms. Hull distributed 350 computers to SLA 10-12th students, I was in a Google Hangout with the advisory, doing their transcript review, giving out locker assignments, filling out paperwork and answering questions. I was there (via webcam) for two hours. It was lovely. But it wasn’t my first day of school.I certainly have embraced change in my path over my career, but it was always from one school to the next. Today, today is a different kind of change. Good in its own way, just different. I love working in schools and with teachers and students. This year will be different from the previous 33 in some big ways. Today, was a first day of sorts for me, just not the first day of school I’ve been accustomed to.

7/13/12 7/13/12

Teaching History Thematically

The Pitfalls of Chronology

History is a series of events and causal relationships, stories and tragedies and successes, that when strung together weave narratives of peoples and places. To teach this has proven quite tricky throughout American education. Any history teacher watching Jay Leno and his random trivia questions cringes in horror at the utter lack of historical understanding in the greater American populace. However, one must ask, "If we teach history every year in school, why do the students retain so little of the information?"

This is the perfect time to invoke Einstein's famous quote, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." After a number of years of teaching history chronologically, I made the curricular decision to shift to a thematic approach. I am privileged to work in schools that allow me the flexibility to make these types of classroom decisions.

My rationale for this change was grounded in a number of gut-check teacher experiences but also in the writings of Sam Wineburg, Eric Foner, David Perkins, andJames Loewen. America has never excelled at knowing its own past. As I watched the school days pass, I observed that students participated and engaged, but still did not meaningfully retain the information. Something had to give. I ditched chronological teaching.

The way that I choose to envision the problem for the average student of history involves papers, books, and bookshelves. We teach students history by giving them pieces of paper (facts) with no real understanding of how to connect or make meaning. These papers stack up, but the learner can never find anything because the information is without structure or organization. Our students need bookshelves before we can really expect them to put any of the information away. Once the bookshelves exist, they can then begin to shelve their information in a way that allows for understanding and recall. In my classroom, each of the themes then becomes a shelf and as students understand the greater historical narrative they look for patterns and trends and flow over time. This long look at history invites the student into the story. Also, it provides shelves on which they can then store historical knowledge as they move into adult life.

But What are the Themes?

The themes that I teach in American History are: American Identity, Political Participation, War, Business, Balance of Power, The American Dream, Environment, and Pivot Points. This is certainly not a comprehensive list or the "right" list, but it is the one that I settled on after much collaboration, discussion, and debate with a number of teachers. We work through two themes per quarter and have a project attached to the learning goals of each theme.

A Closer Look

One unit that gets better each time I teach it is the War unit. Many K-12 history students feel like history class is one long study of America at War, rather than of the rich narrative that accompanies the nation’s endeavors. My War unit asks students to define war. One would think that with the amount of conversation about war we foster in America that this would be an easy process. Let me assure you it is not.

I start by asking students to write their own definition, then work with a partner to get one definition between the two.

After that, the partners join another partnership. We stop for a bit at this point and the students take their group definition and apply it to the American historical record. Each student is responsible for a section of years and applies their group's war definition to determine if America was at war that year. They then name the war and the place it occurred and report the death tolls. This is a bit time consuming, but I find that this process makes students reconsider the definition as well as thoroughly examine the historical record. We then return to the definition activity and repeat the consensus process until we get to a whole-class discussion.

The goal of the whole-class discussion is for the students to come to consensus on the definition of war. It takes all 65 minutes of class. I do not actively participate at all; I observe. This is about them and their ideas. The students sit in a circle and decide a process and go. Watching it unfold this year was like educational bliss: students asking really tough questions, listening hard to the answers, pushing back when they did not agree—but doing so respectfully, other students making sure each person’s voice was honored in the process. In the end they have a definition, but they also have a sense of the concept that I could not possibly instill in them in any other way. They did this. The creation of the definition was also the creation of their learning.

We then layer this theme over the previous themes and discuss connections and patterns and flow and trends that exist when we look at multiple themes at once. Then we move forward with another theme. By the end of the year they have seven shelves onto which to load their learning. The final unit has students choose a pivotal point in history and change the outcome. This final unit draws upon all the previous themes to craft a story that retells history.

Thematic teaching may not be the answer to improve the responses for the Jaywalk All-Stars, but in my 14 years of teaching, I have never felt more confident that my students are learning history in a way that allows them to learn beyond my classroom, beyond the textbooks, and beyond the boredom that many of them attribute to history class. Our struggles as a nation require a populace that is engaged and informed. Our history classes need to be a place that establishes the framework that assists them in becoming the citizens we need them to be. I believe that thematic teaching moves us closer to that goal.

5/22/12 5/22/12

Thoughts on Group Work

Tomorrow I will be working with a group of roughly 65 professors at West Chester University. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to the about PBL and the pedagogical foundations that support such learning. The organizers of the event did a survey and asked if the attendees had any requests or questions. One consistent theme ran throughout the submissions: How do we create functioning, collaborative groups? So I did a little thinking about the pieces of the puzzle the I consider when to facilitate effective collaboration and searched for some reputable sources for more ideas.My thoughts on group work and collaboration:

Group work is tricky. For me there are two goals with group work: individually assess student capabilities and fostering more effective collaboration skills. In order to accomplish this goal I grade a portion of the group work as individual and the other portion as group. For instance, at SLA we use a common rubric. There are 5 categories and for most group projects I assess the students individually on Research, Knowledge and Process while assessing the group grade through Design and Presentation. This allows for students to evidence individual learning while also collaborating on a group endeavor. I find that this lessens the… I’ll do everything myself syndrome that plagues group work.
Another idea is to contract for the work… I create a work contract that identifies the different roles/products the group members are responsible for completing. All members of the group sign the contract. When there are concerns or questions, the contract is referenced and used to settle confusion or disputes.
Allow students to identify one person in the room they would like to work with and then pair up the partners. Choosing to work with at least one person they know or trust goes a long way to moving the collaborative process along.
Allow for mid-project reflection. Ask them how it is going. Let them tell you when it is going successfully or poorly and you should have some suggestions for course correction.
Let students self-assess work. This gives you an interesting insight into how the student views their accomplishments while also providing some context to the whole learning endeavor.
Use a project management tool to keep track of the progress. There are any number of project management tools out there to pick from - http://www.wrike.com/ or https://trello.com/ or http://www.zoho.com/projects/ or... google it, the list goes on. having the work process out in the open provides a level of transparency between group members and the instructor to communicate what is happening in the day to day working of the group.
Call out the free rider. It is incumbent upon the instructor to address issues of the 'free rider'. I have often severed them from a group and given them an adjusted (and hefty) individual version of the work if they persistently underperformed after multiple conversations about improving the working relationship.
Don't make every project group work. It is completely possible to have meaningful collaboration with your class while creating an independent project. Class time can be used to workshop ideas, assist in thinking, run scenarios, etc. Just because someone is working independently, doesn't mean the classmates can't collaborate on their work.
Try to work on a group project yourself. Own the fact that it is challenging, and have some compassion for the difficulty that comes from working with others.
Be prepared to keep tweaking your approach, talk to your colleagues, adjust the parameters... tinker. This is a process much like anything else and there is no list with all the special tricks that if you complete, you will have the perfect groups. This is learning as much for the instructor as the students.

What ideas do you have in the way of suggestions for effective collaboration and group work?

4/29/12 4/29/12

TEDxSummit Talk: The low-tech version

Two weeks ago, I was fortunate to be part of a really dynamic opening night line-up at the TEDxSummit in Doha, Qatar. I was asked to speak about the reaction to my initial talk in 2010 and how my life has been impacted by the reaction. It was filmed, but I am not sure that it will post online due to the odd nature of the talk... it was a talk about a talk (very meta). The trip allowed me to interact with a range of really wonderfully interesting people. I met Hans Rosling, a man I have thanked many times inside my classroom for Gapminder. Special thanks to Nate Mook, Bruno Guissani, Jaime Siordia and Andrada Romagno for all their help in the endeavor. It was an event that I was grateful to be included.So, I am posting my slides and text of the talk. I didn't deliver it word for word and was actually pretty frustrated that I missed an important line at the end... but here is what I crafted and (almost) delivered to the audience in the Katara Amphitheater on April 16th, 2012. So here it is...Nearly 2 years ago I was on a river trip with 10 kids from Philadelphia. For 4 days we were completely unplugged. On our way back to Philadelphia, we heard of the Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. My students were oblivious to the history of such events, man-made disasters. That conversation sparked an idea that I should do a series of environmental history lessons upon return. Those lessons were shared with teachers on the internet, one of whom invited me to his online show to talk more about it, that show was attended by a writer for the NYTimes who then asked me to write about, which was then read by an individual who shared it with the organizers of TEDxMidAtlantic. And on a sunny Friday afternoon, I received an email inviting me to join their event. I enthusiastically accepted.I thought hard about what my big idea was and I ended up where I often end up, that we underestimate the potential of our young people. So few people share positive stories of children and schools, in the US. I wanted to use that time and space to share ideas about what can happen when you look to a more modern and connected version of learning. Let the kids voices tell their own stories, crafting their learning through real experiences and learning how to fail productively along the way. It was well received. Immediately after the talk I was approached by many of the attendees wanting to share their own stories of school and learning. This was a special event, carefully designed to allow for connection, bouncing ideas and thoughtfulness. It was positively delightful to be able to share that space with a diverse crowd from all walks of life and watch the ideas percolate, connect and grow.Then I went back to my high school classroom, where 128 students were ready to dig back into the learning. Life went on. However, one month later, after a morning of teaching, I went to check in online. I had a ton of new twitter followers and hits on my blog. I thought, oh no… spammers. It took a minute for the realization of what had occurred to sink in… my talk was the TEDtalk of the day. To say things have not been the same since would be a bit of an understatement.As a history teacher, you do a job that is intensely meaningful, are blessed to be welcomed into the lives of young people looking to maximize their potential but the occupation is not one where you see a ton of attention. And all of the sudden, I was receiving email from people around the world… parents with questions about how to find these types of learning spaces for their own children, teachers looking to reinvigorate their classrooms and schools, relatives checking in, journalists requesting time, a particularly amusing moment where someone I met in Ecuador 4 years ago randomly saw the video and reached out to say hi…. Former students have had professors show it and were able to say… hey, that’s my teacher. I’ve been interviewed on TV, filmed in my classroom, presented all over the US, and flown to Australia (twice). Opportunity, serendipity and chance have all combined to put me on a very interesting path. It has been an amazing and humbling experience.But here is the truth of it all… its not about me.I am the product of a network of people sharing, growing and learning, that started on a farm decades ago and continues on in my school and in online networked spaces, today. Its about being part of a community where ideas can be shared, built upon and grow. Its about the real spaces where we gather, like TEDx, to start this sharing and the digital spaces where the ideas take root, to grow into completely new versions of themselves. The message of an individual has never had such an opportunity to amplify as it does in our socially networked world, where the voice of an ordinary person can find agency and audience.Everything can be different if we have the will to connect and build a version of the world that reflects the full measure of our potential. These events, like the classroom, are chock full of possibility. There is potential to identify problems, brainstorm solutions, ponder complexity, sit in awe of simplicity, celebrate joy, applaud both success and failure, and then go out and do something with that conversation that started on that one day…. because to only share ideas, but never act would be the greatest oversight with these experiences like TED and the classroom. The talking and sharing is only the beginning.What I have come to believe about the success of my talk is that it is but a reflection of a world that wants to honor children with an education that is worthy of their potential. Being asked to speak widely about the thing I am most passionate about has been a gift. Much like my voice was amplified through TED, I challenge all of you to find those teacher and student voices from your community schools in need of audience and agency, amplify them. Honor them with your time and attention. And although I formerly spoke of embracing failure, these past 18 months have reminded me that when you experience success, you must never forget to graciously thank those that contributed and supported you along the way. Because my life and this whole experience is evidence that success is very much a collaborative effort.

4/22/12 4/22/12

On to New Adventures

When I joined the staff of SLA, 4 years ago, I made a bargain with myself... I would live in Philadelphia because I wanted so badly to teach in a place that was getting it right, work with people who were pulling in the same direction and where I was amongst teachers teaching like I teach. The reality is that I never saw myself living on the East Coast, so I assured Chris that I would make it at least 2 years, but 4 years was the expiration date. This June will mark 4 years and last week I processed the paperwork to resign my job.Leaving SLA is sad. This is a job I love. I work with the most talented, committed group of students, staff and parents. Working with them has allowed me to become a better teacher. It has been a gift. Meenoo will be taking over Debate. Caitlin Thompson and Matt Kay will keep the GCY river trip going. I will still be helping with EduCon. And they are currently interviewing for a new person to add to the history department. To be clear... I am not burned out. I do not want to stop teaching forever. I am fully committed to the mission of SLA and its future progress. But, for me personally, leaving is the right move for right now.And so... you ask... what will I do? I joke with our seniors that I started SLA with them, and I will graduate with them... and then I'm taking a gap year. ;-) Maybe the better term is self-funded sabbatical. I need to figure out a place to live, this nomadic thing is awesome and exhausting. I hope over the next year that I figure out a home base that I can be in for awhile (my page in my mom's address book has worn through with erasing) Since college its been 4 years, 1 year, 3 years, 8 years, 4 years... in new places. It is a ton of fun but am feeling like I might like to plant myself (and from there still adventure and travel like mad) in a place that is more 'me'.During the next year I have a few goals. First on the list is to spend time with the people (outside of SLA) that are closest to me... I've felt myself struggling to find the time to spend with my family and AZ friends. Coincidentally, they also run programs that I would like to be helpful with along the way... my brother-in-law is the Principal of my home elementary school and my best friend runs an experiential education magnet program in Flagstaff. There is also work that I want to do with the SLA community: publishing units/curriculum, building/improving SLATE, and drafting a list of school creation/reform conversation protocols. And then... its wide open.I am excited to see what rolls out next. I am working with a few schools this summer on PBL/1:1/Inquiry Driven workshops and am very much looking forward to that work. Basically, I would like to continue to use my energy to help schools, teachers and students realize their full potential. It is a broad statement, but really is what I've been doing for the past 15 years, next year will just look a little different. (I joke that the mid-westerner may kick in mid-summer and I will find myself 'needing' to find a job, because it isn't very midwestern to take a year away from full-time work)So. There it is. As of June 19th, I will be without 'a job' for the first time since I was hired at Subway to be a sandwich artist in 1990. On to new adventures.

3/25/12 3/25/12

Building Strong Relationships: Byrne Creek Secondary School

This afternoon I had the distinct pleasure to sit down with a really dynamic staff from the Byrne Creek Secondary School from Burnaby, British Columbia. Taking part in the conversation was:

David Rawnsley - Principal
Lynn Archer - Director of Instruction
Lorraine Hodgson - Counsellor
Iha Farquhar - Community School Coordinator
Mirella Gargiulo - ELL Coordinator and Teacher

Byrne Creek was awarded the Vision in Action: The ASCD Whole Child Award - in the press release it states:

The overall success at Byrne Creek is the result of passionate staff, thoughtful planning, and integrated programming coming together in a vibrant and diverse community. The staff members at the school are dedicated educators who genuinely care for their students and approach each new challenge with an open mind.

In conversation with the staff I learned some wonderful information about their model, but one of the most interesting parts of the conversation (for me) was hearing about how they came up with the model and implemented that model in their community. Many people believe SLA should be scaled or replicated, which is a complicated conversation. A conversation I love to have, but the end run for me is that schools need to be responsive to the communities they serve. In chatting with this delightful group, it became more clear to me how important this really is in the visioning and building of a new or transforming school.

Lynn Archer, Director of Instruction, who was part of the 4 year process of visioning the school, spoke at length about the protocols they utilized. To start they polled the community, analyzed demographics, and formed a parent advisory council prior to the opening of the school. After doing all of this work, she acknowledged that the school could have gone off in a number of different directions. It was the work of the administrative team to synthesize all of the community generated information to then build systems and structures that "focused on learning within the framework of the whole child so that they become contributing citizens. Once the school was open one of the most critical pieces to put in place was establishing a positive school culture and Ms. Archer identified the fine arts as exceptionally key in the process.

Learning about the Community School Coordinator position, which was added this past year, was encouraging. Iha Farquhar, who serves in that role, was incredibly energetic and interested in the conditions for building strong partnerships with families and breaking down the barriers for parents and community members to be more active in the school environment.

When I asked about what has worked well from the beginning, Counsellor Lorraine Hodgson, commented on their Code of Conduct which utilizes an acronym - HEART – Honesty, Empathy, Achievement, Respect, Teamwork. She noted that the visual was especially helpful because of their substantial ELL population -

The area has a high population of immigrant families, many of whom are refugees from war-torn countries. More than 60 percent of the students come from families where English is not the primary language spoken at home.

In addition, they implemented teacher collaboration time each week to embed professional development and learning. The final point was that the administrators truly embraced the idea of fostering reflective practitioners

Mirella Gargiulo - ELL Coordinator and Teacher - spoke masterfully about the adjustments they made throughout the years with the intense experience of educating a large portion of students that not only were learning the English language, but learning a written language for the first time. As a teacher who worked with a sizable ELL population in Arizona, I know what a challenge it can be to get it right. The steps they are taking to evaluate and re-evaluate the successes and adjust for new realities is impressive.

Throughout the whole conversation, they emphasized the importance of relationships as the foundational element that allows them to pursue lofty academic goals for all students. They spoke of individualizing the definition of success due to the variety of circumstances that the students bring to the school community. This school gets it. It was a pleasure and joy to have the time to share and chat about what makes them so successful. I hope to be able to visit them in the near future and see the space and environment with my own eyes.

3/19/12 3/19/12

World of 100

At the beginning of each course, I try to bring some perspective to the students through a variety of methods. For instance, in US History, they take the citizenship test and come to terms with how little they have retained about basic American civics and history. It creates need, awareness of what is not in their wheelhouse of knowledge. When I started teaching Globalization, I decided to employ an activity that I used in middle school geography class, The World of 100.This activity asks students to imagine the world is 100 people and then guess what portions would fit into different demographic categories - gender, age, literacy, etc. Here are the steps in the activity as I most recently used it:

Hand out the World of 100 Worksheet
Students do their best to accurately fill in the demographic information
After they have their answers, students then report their answers into a google form
While the google form is getting populated with data, students begin graphing 4-5 of their demographic categories. I used googledocs for this part and it is really quite straightforward to make graphs and charts.
After students graphed their individual data, they then pulled (from the mass data spreadsheet for all students) the averages of the same demographic categories that they originally graphed. The goal was to then graph this set of data as well. It is important to realize that these graphs will need to be bar charts as opposed to pie charts due to the fact that the class data is averaged.
The final step is to then pull the correct data and mesh that next to the individual and class data.
Once all the graphs have been created the students go through an analysis of the information. Which categories were you most accurate? inaccurate? Explain why you think that was the case. Which of the real/correct answers shocked you the most? Explain. If you were way off course in your predictions, explain why it is that you feel that happened. If you were spot on, explain why you think that happened.

****** Use data to support your answers when appropriate*****The end products find students looking at their vision of the world, next to reality. They start to grapple with why their world view is so skewed. It grounds them in a place of understanding about what they don't know in the most organic of ways. Here are some of their reflections:

Matt Reflects: I over estimated the percentage of people that actually speak English. I figured that Spanish would be second most because of Mexico and South America and Spain, but I forgot how much China's population made up the world. The only reason why I thought that English was most spoken is because of where I live and what I am used to. America is one of the most inviting countries and so I figured that at least 30% of the world would speak English, but really only 5% speak English. America doesn't seem like 5% of the world along with some of Europe.

Emma writes: I understood that a lot of the world is impoverished, but didn't realize until the answers came back what it means to be privileged in certain countries versus others. Given these views, I was really surprised at how far away I was from guessing the poverty in the world. When tallying the amount of people per category, I realized that I just don't know much about the living environments, income, death rates, form of government, etc of those in the surrounding countries.

Natalie offers: My prediction on the distribution of people in the continents of the world was also inaccurate. My predictions were pretty similar to what my classmates thought in most cases for this category. In reality, there are a lot more people in Asia than there are in all of the other continents.

Donna writes: I think that I was way off on all of them because honestly, I didn't know. I wasn't sure about certain things like, if everyone was going be living in one country, if we were all spread out around the world, how much different would the world be from it is now, etc. It was kind of confusing. I wasn't spot on for any of them. It was kind of disappointing, but it was fun to learn some new and interesting facts from this assignment.

This activity allows the course to start with more questions than answers and a connection to their own sense of the world, that may or may not be grounded in reality. This is a wonderful place to jump off from into learning.

3/18/12 3/18/12

Textbooks.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkhpmEZWuRQ&w=420&h=315]

When I first started teaching the textbook was the most efficient and cost-effective way for students to gain access to information. But I never fell in love with it. I knew it always lacked what I was really craving in a classroom experience. The information landscape has changed dramatically since I first walked into that classroom in Wellsville, KS 15 years ago. I made due, finding a way to make the learning authentic even back in the good old early days of the internet.Now, though I have been fortunate enough to live in a time that delivered the type of student access to information that I craved. And then fortunate enough to be in a school that is getting it right with regard to information access. And finally fortunate enough to work for a principal that encourages creativity and innovation in the workplace. In this space I am able to challenge students to not just consume information but judge it, look for bias, sort the pile of results from google, be discerning... know how to detect crap, and then create.The video above is my student and the textbook that I now have in my classroom. Its a class set by Eric Foner and it is lovely. We use it from time to time and it is a valuable piece of context for learning. Each student also has a copy of A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. Even though we are 1:1, I do not *just* use what we can access on the computers, nor do we have the computers open all the time. The time in class is spent exploring information, to become historical thinkers and then use that knowledge to go out and practice... practice being movie makers, infographic creators, historians, performers, poets, lyricists, web designers, etc. Not only do I not employ a textbook as the primary learning tool, but I also teach thematically. I heavily buy into the idea that using a variety of resources, borrowing from current events when it makes connection, and exploring themes rather than just a timeline, allows for a student to interact with the information in a more organic, realistic manner; much the way they will need to interact for the rest of their days outside the classroom.Today I will travel to Silver Springs, MD and the Discovery Channel headquarters to participate in a robust conversation about where we are headed #beyondthetextbook. Please use the hashtag to participate in the conversation as it happens over the next 36 hours or so, and as it lives on in those online spaces. As I head into the event, these are the questions I have about the #beyondthetextbook conversation:

How do we afford a robust and well supported 1:1 program to allow for life #beyondthetextbook?
I have taught all grades 7-12, but have very little hands on experience with pk-6. How does the version of information access in the classroom (that I have experienced) translate in the younger grades?
How do we develop systems and structures that support learning/teaching in this world of information surplus?
How do we stay agile enough to continue innovating and improving information access/consumption as the technology changes?
What is next?

Do you have answers? suggestions? comments? more questions? Please chime in with your ideas!

2/23/12 2/23/12

Real Life: Partnerships and Learning

The ability to bring "real people" into the classroom is a gift. This year SLA has been given just that gift in the form of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. A conversation that started almost a year ago ... on my cell phone ... in an airport has yielded a beautiful opportunity that puts journalists directly in contact with students. The conversations will direct the themes of our study this semester in Globalization and I could not be more excited about the prospects. This week we welcomed in Steve Sapienza to talk about his work which largely focused on Peruvian Gold Mining. We will use his work to kick off the first unit of study on Global Goods, Local Costs. The goal is for the students to eventually tell their own under-reported stories from their own communities and publish at the end of the semester.Between this partnership and the International Election project, I am hopeful that the blended learning model will be successful. Thank you to everyone at the Pulitzer Center who make this possible for my students. I am forever grateful.

2/22/12 2/22/12

Adventures in Blended Learning

I dislike whining. It frustrates me. I have found myself whining about the same problem for the past two years and I decided over the summer to do something about it. So here is the attempt to address an issue I have been managing for the past two years: Apathy with 2nd semester seniors.The Issue: Effectively engaging 2nd Semester seniors in their required courses for graduation. Specifically:

Attendance has been a problem.
Much of class time becomes work time because ‘home work’ time is soaked up by Math, College and Capstone
They seem to have lost the desire to engage in their learning in their required courses.

Potential Solution: Blended Classroom (as applied to Globalization)

Students attend in person 2-65 min. classes/week (the other bands will be chosen to limit the 'down time' in building... choosing bands at the beginning and ends of the day)
Students digitally participate in an online environment for the some of the other learning 'requirements'
Students work with an outside partnership -
- Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and local stories to meet the remainder of the learning requirements for the course.
- Elections Project: Students will attempt to make inroads with teens in a country where an election is occurring to tell election stories from around the world.
Group work will have online and in person requirements
In class time will be used predominantly for activities and discussion.
If a student falls below a C average, they will be required to attend class all 4 days to address the failure to meet expectations.
Time that is not in scheduled classes (the other 2-65 min. blocks) will be available for teacher to work one on one with students or in more focused groups that are working on independent projects.
Time that is not in scheduled classes (the other 2-65 min. blocks) will be available for the teacher to intervene with Capstone projects that are not progressing.

Anticipated Outcomes:

Increased responsibility for the student to manage their own learning
Develop a community based project that is collaborative with other classmates and community members
Better attendance on the days when class is in session
More effective use and participation in class discussion and activities
Dedicated time to work with the students who are struggling to graduate
Less senior apathy. I recognize that there will always be some, of course.

The plan is to meet full time the first two weeks and then drop down to two in class meetings a week (starting Feb. 21). If students are not passing with a C or above they are required to come to all four classes for help in meeting class expectations. B and D bands will not be in class on Wed/Fri if they are meeting expectations.We started this today and one student commented that it was genius. I'm not sure about that, I would just like to feel it is effective.This is a pilot of an idea that, I feel, has real potential for the upper grades at SLA. Thoughts? What do you see as possible (unintended) consequences for this approach?

2/19/12 2/19/12

Creating the Classrooms we Need

In about 2 hours I am going to talk about creating the classrooms we need. Over the course of an hour, I offer a few qualities of said spaces and provide examples from my classroom. The list that I focus on shifts and changes depending on what I want to share that day... the list includes - Collaboration, Inquiry-Driven, Dynamic, Flexible, Resilient, Authentic, Relevant, Creative, Student-Centered, Less Helpful, Fosters Joy, Reflective.... this is by no means an exhaustive list. What are examples of what this looks like in practice? What are the other qualities that we need to be establishing as a part of the classroom environment? What can we do to inspire more spaces like this to develop?