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Why we want to talk about Humanizing Distance Learning 

Most of us have little choice now about incorporating digital pedagogy into our teaching. But that doesn’t mean we have to succumb to the dehumanizing effects of individualized or digitally driven education technology. We don’t have to force students to use web-based adaptive tools or make them simply watch videos of our teaching. There are ways to humanize digital pedagogy, in an effort to preserve our students’—and our own—a sense of humanity while we’re all teaching and learning remotely. [Edutopia article: 3 Tips on Humanizing Digital Pedagogy]

What does Humanizing Distance Learning look like?

• incorporating student voice
  
• promoting student independence
  
• deindustrializing your curriculum
  
• centering identity
  
• intensifying SEL
• building classroom norms collaboratively

   More here: https://buff.ly/34FZXSI

I’d like to discuss deindustrializing your curriculum first. This seems to be more about trying to change the system. How do we do that? Where do we start?

It is and it isn’t. We have to attack this from both ends, and unfortunately, teachers do not have the power to change the entire system on their own. But they can make small changes to their pedagogy that deindustrialize and personalize learning.

Why not use this unique moment of time to reconnect with the true purpose of teaching: to help our students become liberated learners and free thinkers?

Let’s talk a bit about EdTech Minimalism. How can teachers be EdTech Minimalists in an era where they are forced to use so much of it?

• Maximizing active screen time, as opposed to passive screen time
• Moving away from app-centric learning
• Minimizing quantitative data
• Centering human connection — always

What are some ways to intensify SEL (social-emotional learning) in a remote teaching environment? What tips do you have?

In my book, Humanizing Distance Learning, I talk about structure and continuity, building a sense of community, strategies for hope and gratitude, and building a resilient classroom culture with feelings check-ins, stretch breaks, and other ways to keep your classroom community tight. I think the biggest idea is de-centering academics. We have to get comfortable with the fact that we make no meaningful progress on academics without a strong foundation of social and emotional learning. Click on the image to access my book Humanizing Distance Learning: Centering Equity and Humanity in Times of Crisis.

eTextbook available on Amazon
Paperback available from Amazon on January 9, 2021

Paul’s Contact Information

Website: paul@paulemerich.com 

Twitter @paul_emerich

Check out the podcast with Paul: Episode #78: Reclaiming Personalized Learning

More about Paul’s consulting services: https://paulemerich.com/consulting/  

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Interested in checking out more of the Rethinking Learning podcasts and reflections, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below, or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

Go to this page for resources, guiding questions, and more information about Barbara’s book, Define Your WHY.

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Barry Sommer is a Licensed Educational Psychologist, Marriage and Family Therapist, and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. He recently retired as the Director of Advancement at Lindsay Unified School District where he was responsible for Lindsay Leads which was the CyberSchool reimagining learning at Lindsay Unified. Currently, Barry and Kelley Layton are consultants advancing Lindsay Leads and supporting districts outside of LUSD through visitations, training, coaching, and publications.

Your background

I am a native New Yorker, born in the Bronx. I have an older sister where I learned to live in small spaces with lots of women. I have two daughters and two granddaughters. I went to the Bronx High School that was a magnet HS of science where I learned how to learn. Then I went to Cornell University in upstate NY where I planned on being an architect.

When I was 15, I had a summer experience working at Camp Limelight in the Catskill mountains for disabled children that changed my life. I discovered that working with people was infinitely more rewarding than inking drawings. I ended up working at the camp for 10 summers and eventually became the director of the camp. I learned a lot about leadership from some gifted people at Camp Limelight and decided to change my major to human development, family studies, and psychology. I went back to New York City and got a graduate degree in Education and Psychology. I got licensed as a school psychologist certified as an Educational Psychologist, then licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist. I met my wife, Donna, who was studying special education at Buffalo State University and was a counselor at the camp when I was her boss. We decided to move to California. We’ve been married almost 42 years and now we have 2 daughters and 2 granddaughters, 8 and 5 years old who live in Portland, Oregon. I started a practice and working in schools, now over 41 years. In the last 10 years, I’ve had the opportunity to do some teaching at the graduate level both locally and at Columbia University.  

Barry mentioned the Netflix movie, Crip Camp which was similar to Camp Limelight but was about efforts to bring equity to people with physical disabilities and the American Disability Act. I saw it and highly recommend watching it.

What was it like for you growing up and as a student in the Bronx

Growing up in the Bronx was a real advantage to learning how to get along with people really well. I went to public schools and that was challenging at times. It was during the time of experiments called “skipping” based on a test they gave you when you were a kindergartener, you could move through the system quickly. So I skipped third grade which was a handicap because I never learned cursive writing and didn’t get introduced to multiplication and division until I was older. I did 7th and 8th grade in one year. I was very young when I started high school. Competing athletically was impossible because I didn’t even weigh 100 pounds and was 5 feet tall. I did have a keen interest in music and developed a good connection with others. Graduating right before my 17th birthday, I was able to eventually start my career at a very young age. School wasn’t personalized in any way for me and was very different from what I wanted for my children’s experience.

Your journey as an Educational Psychologist and Therapist

As a junior at Cornell University, I had the opportunity to be a Saturday group leader with a group of school psychologists for young boys who were emotionally disturbed and have behavioral problems. My camp experience put me in a favorable position to get the position. Every Saturday I witnessed how excited the school psychologists were about what they do. They are making a difference in the world and they have summers off. So I became a school psychologist, Educational Psychologist, and helping families with children with disabilities that led me to marriage and family therapist that I still do 2 days a week in my own practice that I have done for 40 years.

Teaching Conflict Resolution during the pandemic

For the past eleven years, I have been teaching at Columbia University international graduate students who are getting a degree in Peace-Making and Conflict Resolution. I teach a class called Intrapersonal Dynamics and Conflict. My students have seen the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to practice conflict resolution. Clearly, it is bringing up some significant conflicts. Now that we are in our homes without structure, routines, comforts, and maybe over-eating, over-drinking, and over-drugging, there are big concerns for families. Kids are social beings. Teenagers who lost their graduations and proms and so many things they looked forward to are feeling remarkable stress. Families are dynamic systems. If one person is feeling stress, it’s going to be evident to everyone. All of us are worried. Health is a giant concern so people are very anxious. Now it’s about community and a transformation about a very different way of being. I have been lucky to be connected to gifted leaders and people who are supportive. 

[Check out this article: Learning and Loving are Not Cancelled at Lindsay Unified Anywhere/Anytime Learning — Lindsay Unified School District’s response to COVID-19]

Lindsay Unified School District Re-Invented

Lindsay USD is in the Central Valley of California. It was in real deep pain about twelve years ago because we had poor achievement, bad attendance, and contributing to gang affiliation, high dropout rates, teen pregnancies, etc. We realized that what we were doing was obviously not working and decided to re-invent education in Lindsay. We started with a year study inviting parents to respond to what they want for their kids. We asked questions such as:tt

• Why do we exist?
• How are we going to work together?
• What do we believe about learning?
• What are our core principles?
• What should a graduate look like when they leave our system?

When we reviewed the responses from the community, we established the Lindsay Unified Strategic Design that has been adopted as our blueprint for the last 12 years. These include the Core Values, Beliefs, and Guiding Principles. We are making steady progress every year.

Education Reimagined article Lindsay USD asking What ifs? 

Digital Promise article Lindsay USD – Inviting Stakeholders to the Table

Check out Beyond Reform: Systemic Shifts Toward Personalized Learning written by Lindsay Unified School District that included Barry

Home Learning opportunities were initiated in 2009 and now every one of the 4200 learners in the district can tell you what and why they are learning. All learning is 24/7 for all learners and has connectivity and devices at home. Listen for more information about Lindsay USD being the service provider providing wifi and broadband for the entire city of Lindsay starting a 25:00 in the podcast.

Lindsay Leads is needed now more than ever

Being able to connect with people during this pandemic is a moral imperative. It is essential that every learner is known, seen, and heard. Lindsay Leads was organized in 2016 when the district was inundated with visitors. Most of our partnerships are outside of California in states around the U.S. When the need grew beyond our capacity, we received support from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative to organize a team of learners, classified staff, administrators, learning facilitators (what we call our teachers), parents, and board members to help people develop their models. Before the pandemic, we would take teams including learners to districts to develop their model on-site. Learners were paid and received credit plus they continued corresponding as virtual penpals as good ambassadors and be good consultants. 

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Barry Sommer recently retired as the Director of Advancement at Lindsay Unified School District responsible for grant writing, partnership development, scaling PBS, publications, communications, and leadership development.  He continues to be a Licensed Educational Psychologist, Marriage and Family Therapist, and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. Barry with Kelley Layton continues to advance Lindsay Leads and support districts outside of LUSD through visitations, training, coaching, and publications.  

Contact Information

barrysommer.lindsayleads@gmail.com
Follow Lindsay Leads on Twitter @LindsayLeads
Facebook @LindsayLeads
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/barry-sommer-5a08a420/ 

Co-Director of Lindsay Leads, Kelley Layton
kelleylayton.lindsayleads@gmail.com

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For all of the Rethinking Learning podcasts and reflections with Barbara Bray, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below, or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

Go to this page for resources, questions, and more information about Barbara’s new book, Define Your WHY.

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Moving from Theory to Practice through Proficiencies, Pathways, and Profiles

Four years ago, we attended the Edina Summer Institute where Barbara Bray was sharing her expertise in personalized learning as the keynote speaker. She struck a chord with us on many levels that day but when she said, “Teachers are doing all the work…” our trajectory as teachers immediately changed. After her keynote, we set a goal. We planned to personalize our class one unit at a time, and that is exactly what we did.   

As we embarked on our personalized learning journey, we would never have imagined that a pandemic would have us all teaching and learning from home with very little lead time to prepare for this drastic and urgent shift. What quickly became clear was the optimal position our learners were in from the onset. Our gains in establishing systems and supports around personalized learning as instructional coaches and classroom teachers became levers we accessed to design an immediate response to teaching during a pandemic. Because our learners experienced opportunities to control, engage, and reflect in the learning process, they were able to capitalize on their established agency.   

There are countless definitions of personalized learning. We define personalized learning as three interrelated layers that involve:  

1. Placing learners at the center where multiple pathways are possible to develop essential skills, and competencies.
2. Guiding individuals to become agents of their learning through goal setting and reflecting on the learning processes. 
3. An active method where educators recognize the need for flexibility around pace, content, style, skill, background knowledge, location or some other learning dimension.  

Currently, we are personalized learning coaches and classroom teachers at South View Middle School in Edina, MN. South View Middle School, hosts multiple site visits and professional development training for personalized learning. When we reflect on the momentous growth around personalized learning in our school, we relate it back to two things: updated systems and job-embedded supports. Building systems that back effective and responsive teaching is essential. Establishing ongoing supports that remove barriers for professional growth (i.e. time, resources, strategies) are critical. 

One system we constructed in order to personalize the learning process was designing a school-wide unit guide accessible to any content area. The idea of the unit guide is to create a template with three key components that any teacher can adapt for their courses. The three components are the 3Ps, proficiencies, pathways, and profiles. The unit guide is a simple Google document that is shared with learners via Schoology or Google Classroom. The general template of the unit guide outlines the learning targets and standards (proficiencies), lays out the pacing of content (pathways), and gives learners a place to reflect and track their learning (profiles). Adopting the unit guide ensures each student has their own copy of a resource that provides consistent support for their learning experience. Further, the guide gives learners a foundation for which they can begin navigating and controlling their learning choices. When introducing the unit guide with learners we asked the question, “What is the purpose of this document?” To which they responded, “To track our learning, to know where we are going, to have resources…” 

Once we transitioned to distance learning we were still able to use the unit guide in the same way we did while we were in the classroom together. Learners knew where to find learning targets, set goals, access key resources, seek feedback, and reflect. Learners reported that their unit guides were extremely helpful, especially when many other elements of their school experience were dismantled and unpredictable. The unit guide offered learners connection to their agency because they could see what was coming next, they knew how to locate all of their resources and assignments, and they could demonstrate their learning through ongoing reflection.    

Proficiencies

At the start of a unit of study, we begin with the “why” and show the competencies, standards, or proficiencies that learners will work toward meeting. As Dr. Jim Rickabaugh says, “If one starts and stays with the why, this opens the flexibility for the how.” To form the foundation of the ‘why” for learners, we develop an essential question based on course standards. The unit guide maps out the required summative (“final” assessments that measure competency), that all learners must meet in order to demonstrate proficiency. Beginning each unit with an essential question every learner will address is a great place to incorporate voice and choice. A well-written essential question allows the learning to be connected to task performance. A task performance calls for the application of knowledge and skills, not just recall or recognition is open-ended and typically does not yield a single correct answer. Also, it establishes a novel and authentic context for performance and provides evidence of understanding via transfer.  

When considering the on-going assessment of learning, traditionally teachers create projects or tests for learners to complete. Teachers put an ample amount of time and creative thought into designing these types of completion assessments. As responsive educators, we need to ensure that the teachers are not doing ‘all the work’ as Barbara Bray points out in her invite to rethink how teachers design instruction. In other words, we need to develop learner capacity in ways that assure the cognitive load is carried by the learners. 

As Zaretta Hammond states in her book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, “Our ultimate goal as culturally responsive teachers is to help dependent learners learn how to learn. We want them to have the ability to size up any task, map out a strategy for completing it, and then execute the plan.” (Hammond 2015). While we still have assignments that all learners complete, such as essays (literary analysis, expository, and narrative), we also design experiences that allow learners to dictate how they will demonstrate meeting a standard. This invite allows the learner(s) to express original thought, refine critical thinking skills, seek solutions, and grow in learning independence. Most importantly, this allows learners to tap into their passions and interests. We have seen learners more excited, engaged, and motivated when they have an active role in constructing their own summative (assignments that measure mastery of a standard). And we have witnessed individuals stretching themselves further than they imagined, thus enhancing their self-efficacy. 

Consider the following example for a unit where the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird serves as the vehicle for the learning. For one standard, we have learners complete a literary analysis around the evolution of the theme (learners chose the theme). The analysis is a staple and it’s a common summative each learner must accomplish. Learners are also asked to meet the standard of 9.9.8.8 As an individual or in collaboration, create a multimedia work, a remix of original work and the work of others, or a piece of digital communication for a specific purpose. They need to answer the question, How is one inspired, influenced, or impacted by their community? (there is that “why” again!). Learners are able to express their understanding through this choice and they welcome this opportunity. We encourage them to consider their personal passions around elements of a community be it volunteering, sports, environment, literacy, music, and art (just to name a few) and incorporate them into their learning. Structuring a unit in this manner resulted in authentic, meaningful projects full of inspiration, simply because we tapped into one of the most underutilized resources in classrooms today, the learners themselves.  

Example projects  

Pathways

We view personalized learning as a verb, an active method of best practice that puts the learner at the center of instruction. Thus, we are compelled to use a variety of strategies with multiple pathways designed to meet the needs of all learners. Once the standards or learning targets are determined, different avenues for learning can be established. The body of the unit guide is a pacing guide that allows learners to have access to the content and resources with live links or directions to drive the learning which allows learners to engage with the materials in different pathways.

While there can be many learning pathways, our school landed on creating norms and common language around teacher seminars (direct instruction with the teacher), collaborative groups (2-4 people working together on a common goal), and independent flex. At the start of a school year, each grade level spends time discussing, practicing, and naming each pathway. Naming, practicing, and reflecting on the effectiveness of each learning pathway engaged the learners in the learning process. They could choose which pathway was best for their learning and be in control of the pace. Once again, this training in learning pathways and common language made the transition to distance learning easier for learners and staff. Teachers began to offer teacher seminars via Google Meets and breakout rooms via Schoology for peer collaboration. Since learners had experienced different learning pathways, they were able to better understand and handle not having a teacher physically present, and alongside them to learn.  

When we first started to personalize and offer choices in learning pathways, we were often questioned by fellow educators working in other schools. We would be asked by fellow teachers and parents alike, How can you trust that kids will make the right choices for their learning? That question and the concerns that come with it, expose a glaring disconnect in education today. If educators are not preparing and allowing learners to have a choice in their learning, and if we aren’t prioritizing ways to build learner agency, then we are doing our kids a tremendous disservice. Learners develop independence, self-confidence, and ownership if we set the conditions where they have more voice and control in their learning processes. Fast forward to COVID19, that ownership allowed learners to transition to distance learning more confidently because they knew how they learned best, they experienced advocating for their needs and they believed in their ability to take even more ownership and control. 

A teacher’s role during distance learning is not any less important than in a more traditional setting. In fact, we would argue that the teacher’s role in guiding, modeling, and monitoring the learners so that they understand what choices to make and how those choices impact the learning is even more significant. The teacher role in this capacity is even more necessary and meaningful to learners. When the purpose is clear (connected to standards/learning targets), formative assessments are used to open channels to feedback, and reflection is ongoing, the learners can be trusted with making informed choices alongside their teachers.

We guide learners in knowing what learning pathways to choose through timely, specific, and actionable feedback. Like many schools, in the past, our traditional practice around feedback consisted of points/grades for formative (daily) work with more thorough comments given on a summative (final) assessment. Teachers have now reversed that order and invested more time offering feedback in the form of comments on the formative work and only a final score on summative work. John Hattie (2007) places feedback in the top ten influences on achievement. There is variability when it comes to feedback, so teachers and students need to understand which feedback is most effective. “Feedback should, therefore, be useful when it helps students navigate this gap, by addressing fundamental feedback questions including ‘where am I going?’, ‘how am I going?’ and ‘where to next?’(Hattie, 2007, p.3). Thorough feedback in the formative process informs learners what they know, along with direction for an appropriate pathway to continue learning.  

Reflection (Profile)

Another critical lever to put learners at the center is the implementation of a learner profile. For years teachers have been compiling data and information on learners to guide instruction, but how much of that information drives the learning? If we want learners to be able to have voice and choice in their learning, they have to understand how it is they learn best, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to apply their skills and interests to their learning experience. The final component of the unit guide is a space for learners to track, record, and reflect on their learning process. Asking learners to reflect regularly, reminds them to focus on the learning process rather than striving to be compliant. Everything we do is an opportunity for learners to discover something about themselves. Learners use the pacing guide to reflect on the feedback they receive from the teachers and peers and document what their next steps should be.

“When kids have an opportunity to reflect on how they learn, this can be a way for them to explain who they are and how they learn and to have their learning validated.” (Bray & McClaskey 2015). During distance learning, we begin each class by setting a goal, and at the end of class. The learners are prompted to reflect on that goal, the choices they made in pathways, and what learning occurred. The learners also linked any evidence of their learning in the reflection box so we could monitor their progress and provide feedback. Reflecting on the unit guide made it easier for learners to track teacher feedback and use to plan for the next steps. This consistency shows learners that by engaging in this process they are continuing to grow their skills, to self-regulate, and to be in control of their learning. 

Even in the face of uncertainty, there is no looking back.

While none of us could have predicted or fully prepared for a worldwide health pandemic that would close school buildings, we do believe our efforts around personalized learning positioned our learners for an easier transition to distance learning. Our pillars of personalized learning; proficiency (process over content), pathways (multiple ways to engage in learning), and profile (reflection over compliance) prepared learners to be engaged, independent learners. The agency and confidence that our learners have built through choice have empowered them to assuredly and confidently continue their learning outside of school and beyond. 

As our school considers what learning may look like in the fall, one thing is certain, the unit guide will serve learners well whether they are in the classroom or learning remotely. The unit guide provides meaningful consistency for how learners engage and reflect on their learning. In turn, teachers are able to build in ways to make personal connections beyond greeting learners at the door or validating learners on site, because they aren’t spending significant time building a system for learning. 

Barbara Bray’s keynote gave us a new lease on teaching and for that, we are forever grateful. She inspired and challenged us to change our practice in order to take the theory of learner empowerment and put it into action. Finally, Barbara Bray gave us an on-ramp to tap into what Dr. Jim Rickabaugh says is the most important resource in the classroom today, the learners themselves. We haven’t looked back. 

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Michaela Loo, Personalized Learning Coach, Teacher, and Consultant, educatorsignite@gmail.com,  @MichaelaMLoo 

Michaela is a personalized learning coach, teacher and consultant in MN. She supports the implementation of learning processes that offer multiple pathways and allow for continuous reflection on personal growth against core competencies. She leads professional development and site visits on personalized learning for teachers and educational leaders from multiple school districts in MN. She is in her 17th year as a proud educator and teacher leader.

Patricia Pettis, Personalized Learning Coach and Teacher, educatorsignite@gmail.com, @triciapettis10 

Patricia is a personalized learning coach, teacher, and consultant in MN. Patricia works with teachers, administration, parents, and learners on implementing personalized learning practices that engage learners in the learning process. Patricia leads professional development training on offering multiple pathways for learning through goal setting, feedback, and reflection. She empowers learners to develop their skill sets and become agents of their learning. 

Follow both of their journeys at the Team Teaching Sisters website:
http://sistersteamteaching.blogspot.com  

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References 

Belfield, C. (2015). The Economic Value of Social and Emotional Value. Online. Available. March 5, 2020. https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rulesforengagement/SEL-Revised.pdf 

Bray, B. (2020) Define Your Why: Own Your Story So You can Live and Learn on Purpose. Alexandrai, VA. Edumatch Publishing.

Bray, B., & McClaskey, K. (2015). Make Learning Personal: The What, Who, Wow, Where, and Why. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.  

Hammond, Z. (2014) Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Hattie, J. (2007) The Power of Feedback. Online. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/003465430298487 

Rickabaugh, J. (2016). Tapping the Power of Personalized Learning: A Roadmap for School Leaders. Alexandria, VA: ASCD 

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Laura Robb, an author, teacher, coach, and speaker who has completed more than 43 years of teaching in grades 4-8 and has written more than 25 books for teachers. She presently coaches teachers in reading/writing workshop at Powhatan School in Virginia and coaches teachers in grades K-8 in Staunton, Virginia, Long Island, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and West Nyack, New York. Her latest books that she wrote with Evan Robb (her son) are TeamMakers and School Full of Readers.

Your background 

I came to teaching very unexpectedly. I never had any education classes when I went to Queens College as part of the University of New York. I majored in English and French Lit and then got married. My husband, a singer, and a voice instructor went to Julliard which was expensive even on a scholarship. I was writing copy for an ad agency in the city and then I got a job teaching without an education background. That’s when I realized that the best teachers were the children. If I had the courage to ask them what was going well and what was going wrong to find out what they needed, I was learning and growing. I began to read a lot of professional books for teachers. That first year I taught sixth grade in a little country school, it won my heart. That’s when the story of my life really began.

Your work now as a reading teacher and coach

For the last four years, my focus is to work with kids in the public schools who are reading 3 or more years below grade level. My first year of teaching was in 1963. I did not get a master’s in education until 1987. I had both of my children, Evan and my daughter, Enina who did teaching with Teach for America. I decided that my children had to be my number one priority. Self-learning is more important than ever. I’m glad I got my master’s but I would say my children taught me a lot and they still do every day. 

What was fortunate for me, was my granddaughter, who was dyslexic asked me to work with her. In third grade, she was reading at a first-grade level. She was relentless about me making up the work with her. She’s now in 7th grade and she’s in a regular English class. When she was in 5th grade, she asked me to help her friends who were not reading well. I made an appointment with her principal and found that a third of the students were reading way below grade level. I made an agreement with the principal as long as we were not going to grade these kids unless you give them As or Bs with a qualifier and we need a lot of money for books they can read. The kids need books and they need choice. We got them and it made such a difference with the teachers I trained who are doing phenomenal work. 

It all starts with choice, reading, and feeling safe in that classroom. Kids were worried about other kids making fun of them. We got them opaque envelopes to take home books. We waited until they could choose and take books home that they really enjoyed. 

You cannot force things on children. It has to come from deep inside. When it does, it’s lasting. Reading is an intervention. If we want kids to be readers, they have to want to read. They need to have books they can read all day long. We need to be able to read together. We started every day with 15 minutes of independent reading. When we were in session, you would see kids pick a book, find a comfortable place to read, then silence and reading. Books make a difference.

A few of Laura’s Books

[This is Barbara. Laura shares strategies for intervention and to provide choices for books that make sense for each child. I learned so much from Laura that I hope you listen to the whole podcast and check out her books.]

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Laura Robb is a keynote and featured speaker at conferences and leads workshops all over the country and in Canada. She writes articles for education journals. Her blog for MiddleWeb, “Our # 1 Reading Problem: Persistent Inequalities” was published in April 2014, another MiddleWeb Blog was published in March 2016, “Ten Motivators to Promote Playful Learning.”  Her blog published by MiddleWeb: “ Democracy Needs a Nation of Readers & Thinkers.” 

Laura Robb has written more than 25 books for teachers. In 2016, two books were published: Reading Intervention Toolkit by Shell Education in April 2016 and Read Talk Write: 35 Lessons That Teach Students to Analyze Fiction and Nonfiction published by Corwin Literacy in 2017. Corwin Literacy also published Robb’s Vocabulary Is Comprehension: Getting to the Root of Complex Texts was available in 2014.  Her book for Heinemann is a First-Hand Curriculum: Smart Writing: Practical Units For Teaching Middle School Writers and a book, and a professional book, Teaching Middle School Writers: What Every English Teacher Needs to Know. For Scholastic, Robb has completed Unlocking Complex Texts; the book provides teachers with detailed reading and writing about reading lessons.  Robb has designed classroom libraries for Scholastic for grades 3 to 9. She developed, with Jeff Wilhelm, XBOOKS for middle school readers: nonfiction print texts with an online curriculum organized by themes such as forensics, tyrants, war, medicine, and strange.

Her latest books are TeamMakers and School Full of Readers that she co-authored with her son, Evan Robb. 

Laura’s Contact information

Twitter: @LRobbTeacher

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/laura-robb-b2b6491b

Website: http://www.lrobb.com/ 

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For all of the Rethinking Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below, or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

Go to this page for resources, questions, and more information about Barbara’s new book, Define Your WHY.

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Dr. Michael Crawford is the co-founder of EdSpace, LLC, the social learning network for teachers. A researcher by training, with passion at the intersection of human development, social impact, and entrepreneurship, Michael drives all things product and community. Prior to EdSpace, he worked at Real World Scholars and the Kauffman Foundation, and he recently completed his Ph.D. in educational psychology, focusing on adolescent development and non-formal learning environments. 

Your background 

I am currently living in the city I was born and raised in, Novi, Michigan ––a Detroit suburb. I played a lot of sports, as a young person. I had a great time in school when I was younger, at least I thought so at the time. I didn’t have to study too hard and got mostly good grades until I went to college. I thought I was smarter than I was when I took an ECON class during my first semester and that set me back a bit. I had to study more than I had ever done before.

After graduating, I worked in an organization called Michigan State Youth Soccer Association which is the governing body of youth soccer in Michigan. That is where I saw coaches and parents interacting in a way that moved me to want to learn more and understand how adults could help and harm young people. That’s when I decided to get a Master’s degree in Sports Psychology; a field that can go in a number of different directions. I had this sports background and recognized the power of teams with motivation, perseverance, physical fitness, and mental health. I wanted to learn more about improving team dynamics and at Michigan State University they have a great organization called the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports. I wanted to know about the sports context that can contribute to young people. Sports is one context where young people have developmental opportunities and experiences to grow and learn to become adults.

I needed to zoom up and get a broader understanding of my interest in adolescents. I saw them as the jump-off point between childhood and adulthood. If I could make a difference among teens, then I could positively affect the trajectory of their world. That’s what led me to the University of Kansas for my Ph.D. in Educational Psychology under the work of Dr. David Hansen studying adolescent development, research methods, and exploring learning in school in a different kind of way. 

Your family

Both of my parents are retired, public school educators. My mom was an elementary physical education teacher and my dad was a high school math teacher. Both were coaches so I grew up with teachers and was versed in the grammar of schooling. It made me wonder what was school was, what it can be, how it influences young people. What doesn’t get talked about enough in school is the hidden curricula. What are young people learning when everything is provided for them? What are they not learning? What are the impacts of those things for their future? 

I met my wife, Maureen, in high school. She was two years behind me and was the best soccer player. We dated in college. My son Lars is in Kindergarten at the same school that my wife attended and we have a 9 months old named Lennox. 

What are your AHAs?

I’m fascinated by people and how they think and make decisions, influence one another.  Young people go to school for a long time, but they also spend a lot of time outside of school and formal academics. 

One of the AHAs I got that I didn’t know was that adolescents are much more capable than adults give them credit for. They are closer to being young adults than old children. The programs that we provide to them don’t align with the kinds of desires and critical experiences that they need. 

Students are getting bored over time, disengaging, and not seeing the relevance. The environments that we are giving adolescents is less appropriate than when they were younger. The kinds of things that children are provided when they get older become less aligned with their needs, goals, and aspirations. I’m not surprised that engagement goes down with years of schooling. My AHA is that this is becoming more apparent where we are focusing more now on student voice, agency, young people being able to design their own projects, and showcasing their learning. This is in the right direction. 

Question from Michael for you:

What are the ways in which we are empowering, supporting, and engaging young people in the creation of themselves, their future, and their environment?

EdSpace, a social network for educators

A project born from our work with Real World Scholars, EdSpace (www.edspace.live) is a social network where educators use short video posts to connect and grow together, without the toxicity of followers, likes, and view counts. Think Snapchat meets Slack, for the world of education. 

EdSpace aims to play that key role in keeping you connected, by helping you access the people, resources, and tools you need to survive and emerge better than ever.

You can download the mobile app, explore channels and conversations, and show your fellow educators some love. To learn more, visit www.edspace.live.

I know we have to distance — social distancing. But that’s not the right term. It’s physical distancing, because we have to stay social, and help each other.

 

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[This is Barbara: keep listening to Michael from 27:00 on. He’s so right on that I don’t want to transcribe any more. I want to make sure you listen to all of his thoughts about moving in the right direction especially for our adolescents. Check out Edspace. I’m honored to be a featured Spotlight and have my own channel. In fact, you can set up your own channel. Please log in and ask me a question. )

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Michael Crawford, the co-founder of EdSpace, LLC, is the lead on all of the software development, from conception to delivery to management, working directly with the development team to build and maintain the platform. He is the point person for partnerships, which includes strategy and execution for branding, design, marketing, and launch, working closely with both internal and external teams. Michael drives recruitment and community cultivation, engaging users on the platform, and managing all platform and user needs as the sole system administrator.

As Director of Strategy and Partnerships at Real World Scholars, Michael was perpetually on the prowl to broker connections with dynamic people and organizations (e.g., curriculum providers, community foundations, school networks, for-profit companies, rockstar educators, etc.) to maximize our collective impact. He guided strategic decision-making, establishing and refining resources and systems for teachers, students, and partners. Michael collaborated with external researchers to extract key learnings and manifest valuable improvements.

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/crawfordjmichael
• Email: crawfordjmichael@gmail.com
• Twitter: @mjcraw

How can we sustain and build on these innate drives [innovation, creativity, collaboration, community building] once young children enter school? One answer is teaching entrepreneurship education.

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Michael’s Favorite Quote:

“To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

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For all of the Rethinking Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below, or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

make sure you go to the bottom of the podcast page to access the posts that go with each podcast. 

Go to this page for resources, questions, and more information about Barbara’s new book, Define Your WHY.

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What do you do if your child fails first grade? The system can label your child. That label then defines your child. That happened to Lois Letchford’s son, Nicholas, and Lois decided to change the label and his mindset to overcome the odds so he believed in himself. I asked Lois if she could share this story in my book. I was so moved that I asked Lois to have a conversation with me about her journey as a literacy spokesperson for struggling learners.

Lois Letchford has been a literacy problem solver. She specializes in teaching children who struggle with learning to read, her creative teaching methods vary depending on the reading ability of the student, employing age-appropriate, rather than reading-age-appropriate, material. Lois’s non-traditional background, multi-continental exposure, and passion for helping failing students equip her with a unique skillset and perspective.

“The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily but how many questions he inspires them to ask him which he finds hard to answer.”  –– Alice Wellington Rollins

Lois and her family

Lois Letchford has been a literacy problem solver. She specializes in teaching children who struggle with learning to read, her creative teaching methods vary depending on the reading ability of the student, employing age-appropriate, rather than reading-age-appropriate, material. Lois’s non-traditional background, multi-continental exposure, and passion for helping failing students equip her with a unique skillset and perspective.

Reversed Memoir Book Trailer

Originally a physical education teacher, she later completed a Master’s in Literacy and Reading from the State University of New York at Albany. Lois has presented her work at SPELD in Australia, the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children, the Spring Festival of Children’s Literature in Maryland, and the Ireland International Conference on Education. She is a member of the Australian College of Education.

Reversed: A Memoir (Acorn Publishing), the story of her son’s—and her own—learning disability, is her first book.

Nicholas talking about his learning:

Lois mentioned these books in our conversation that she uses to teach pronouns: 

 “Ahhh,” Said Stork  by Gerald Rose  

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Lois Letchford
@LetchfordLois

Website: https://www.loisletchford.com/ 
FB: https://www.facebook.com/loisletchfordauthor/

“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.”
––Babe Ruth

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For all of the Rethinking Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below, or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

Go to this page for more information about Barbara’s new book, Define Your WHY.

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Carissa Duran is a Teacher, an ELD/Literacy/EdTech Instructional Coach, and Testing Coordinator at Del Lago Academy in the Escondido Union High School District in the San Diego, California area. I met Carissa at the Aurora Institute where she was awarded the 2019 Personalized Learning Teacher of the Year and invited her to share her story on my podcast.

Your background 

I am a Californian native, born in Orange County, grew up mostly in Riverside County, and now live in San Diego County. Southern California is kind of my stomping ground. I did spend a few years living in Oregon right after my first year of college and then returned back to southern California to get my degree at UC Riverside. 

A fun picture of me with siblings and cousins

I am the 7th of 9 children. We were raised by my mom and grew up in Riverside in one of the more disadvantaged neighborhoods and was exposed to a lot of diverse cultures from people from different backgrounds in my community and in my schools. 

What it was like for you as a student

School for me was a place of privilege. I used to think I had no privilege at all. I grew up really poor as a minority female in a single-parent home. The first day I was terrified of the unknown with a puddle of tears. My teacher, Mrs. Takanaga, welcomed me in and gave me time and let me hide under her desk for four hours until I was ready to come out. She made school really safe for me because home was not a safe place for me. Because I felt safe [at school], I went all in and was really privileged because traditional school was more or less became natural for me. Being successful in school changed the entire trajectory of my life.

I was one of those under the radar kids who didn’t demand a lot of attention. My school had no idea that my family lost their home between 8th and 9th grade and that I started high school homeless. They didn’t know what was going on when it was happening. I was good at school and making myself small enough to fit into that mold, but the school didn’t see me the way I saw it. I was able to stay under the radar. That’s why I was unprepared for life after high school. I dropped out of college after my first year and moving out of state for three years before I realized what I had to do to be successful and how to navigate the system on my own before I returned to get my degree. Success was all about how I felt about a school not about how school saw me.

Your journey as a teacher

I did not always feel I was going to be a teacher. At one time, I thought of political science, pre-law, but none of that worked out. I became a teacher partly because of a dare and another part because of a tragedy. I haad a friend that was trying to become a teacher and was having a tough time passing his exams (CSETS) for his credential. He dared me to try to pass the exams myself. I passed on my first try. But I was close to graduation at UC Riverside. A couple of months later, my brother’s life was unexpectedly taken. I was a mess and couldn’t think of planning my future.

My friend reminded me that I passed that exam and should apply to the school of education. I got accepted to earn my credential and masters in education. I started teaching 9th grade English right out of my graduate program, but I was also given a release period to Educational Technology teacher on special assignment. I was later assigned a 7th-grade remediation class for high school seniors who had struggled to pass California’s HS exit exam and were in danger of not graduating and had scores in the elementary test score range.

After the first day, I realized that a handbook with worksheets for students to go through to prepare them for the test wasn’t going to work. I stopped using that handbook and didn’t use a lot of teaching and content delivery methods. I did a lot of relationship building and talked with them about where their skills were and the benefits of getting a high school diploma. What we learned is that these students mostly had the capability of passing the test already. Maybe they didn’t have the right mindset or motivation around it. In talking with them one-on-one and in small groups and what it meant for their future, they were able to show us what they already knew. They taught me more what it means to meet students’ needs.

Building those relationships with students makes it so school really sees kids. Feeling seen and known at the beginning helps build the foundation they will need for their future. Without that foundational connection with school as a place that knows you and is for you, it makes it less successful for you in the end. Relationships matter when someone cares. I thought about what I felt about school and realize that I could do it because I didn’t have the same problems they faced and thought about school. When you build relationships intentionally, you don’t have to wait for a student to tell you that something is happening.

Del Lago Academy

My second year of teaching was at Del Lago Academy, a public high school, in Escondido USD and I’ve been there ever since. We don’t have remediation classes. We believe all of our students can achieve high levels. All of our students take a pathway (college preparatory) regardless of their pathway, background, skill, language, or special needs. I’ve never had to teach a remediation class here. We may have a single pathway and support but the additional instruction, support, and scaffolding are completely personalized.

Del Lago Academy’s Core Beliefs

We believe learning is a social process and relationships are important. Scholars that are known as individuals, challenged intellectually, respected, supported, and connected to their learning will be successful. Read more…

Resources on personalized learning at Del Lago Academy

• Learn about Competency X…
• Read about Digital Badging and Internships…
• Read about Personalizing Assessments on the Fly..

Aurora Institute 2019 Personalized Learning Teacher of the Year

Press Release about Carissa’s Award

Your WHY

School changed my life. But it doesn’t do that for everyone. So I want to contribute to transforming education so schools see every child. So every child is empowered to change their own lives. I believe in education. I recognize the flaws in the traditional education system, but I do not believe that our system is beyond saving. Through the ingenuity of educators and the resilience of our youth, education can be the saving grace of society. I’m passionate about equity and providing opportunities for young people to have a voice in their own education. We don’t learn unless we participate in our learning. 

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Carissa Duran

I am dedicated to disrupting inequities within existing systems of education. I started my career in education in Southern California as an English teacher and now serve as a Teacher on Special Assignment, where I coach, coordinate, and consult in the areas of literacy, English language development, educational technology, and testing.

My brain is currently brimming with ideas about alternative assessment, curriculum redesign, and equipping students with the know-how to navigate complex systems.

I’ve been teaching since 2011 and have been fortunate to learn from some of the best educators from Riverside Unified School District, Temecula Valley Unified School District, and Escondido Union High School District.

Contact Information

Website: https://seejodee3.wixsite.com/carissaduran

Twitter: @seejodee 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carissaduran/

Portfolio: https://portfolium.com/cduran/

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For all of the Rethinking Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below, or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

Go to this page or more information about Barbara’s new book, Define Your WHY.

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Andelee Espinosa is a special education teacher and has been supporting students in high school regular education classrooms for 20 years. She has a passion for personalized learning and teaching students to use their voice. She currently supports in Physics and Biology classrooms at Brookfield Central High School in Brookfield, WI.

Your background 

I have lived in Wisconsin my entire life. We can have extreme weather with 100-degree weather in the summer and 50 below in the winter. My family is mostly here in Wisconsin. I grew up in Menomonee Falls outside of Milwaukee and now live in Wauwatosa that is close to where I teach in Brookfield.

Your family

Both my parents were teachers. My dad was a Science teacher and my mom was an English teacher. They started in middle school but finished their careers teaching at the high school level. I would see my mom sitting at the kitchen table before any of us got up in the morning grading English papers, and my dad spending weekends reviewing lab reports. They were both active in different aspects at their school either the theater program, yearbook, or my dad was involved in the teacher’s union. From my perspective, being a teacher means you are doing a lot of service for others.

My husband, Brian, and I have two sons, Ethan and Logan, who are freshmen in high school, the same age as the students I teach in my school. Logan is on the left in this picture – fun fact, he’s always on the left in any posed picture. That’s how we’ve kept them straight throughout the years. My dog’s name is Arthur, a rescue from Alabama, so we don’t really know much about his make-up.

What it was like for you as a student

I was pretty good at playing school. I played it safe and knew what the teachers wanted. I was far more passionate about everything that I was involved with outside of school especially the kids I was learning about on the weekends and nights. I was really active in 4H for eleven years doing a lot of service work. The part of 4H that I loved was the service aspect. I was planning community service in 4H and what that looks like for a teenager or an elementary student. Then I was involved in student council in high school through my passion for a community service component. Going into education was a natural progression for me regarding the things I really enjoyed, learning about myself and learning about different disabilities along with the challenges they faced in school and combining those with community service.

Did you always want to be a Special Ed teacher?

I always wanted to be a Special Ed teacher. I got involved in this field at a pretty young age. I was eleven and was the babysitter for a family down the street from me that had twins where one of them had cerebral palsy. Throughout middle and high school, I understood what a family who has a child with significant needs goes through. I think that some of those fears and apprehensions that people have — that was my babysitting gig. I was their go-to person. The mother had started some support groups for families in the community with children with special needs. The word got out about me as a babysitter so I had a little monopoly going on.

Your journey to become a Special Ed teacher

When I was in my freshman year in college, I had an inspiring Biology professor. I was really considering switching majors and going into regular ed focusing on life or earth science. Then I went back to my roots and thought that this wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to be involved in the curriculum but science wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. So I became a Special Ed major with a Biology minor. That can be helpful because I wanted to work in a regular classroom beside the teacher supporting the students and working on curriculum figuring out ways that all students can be successful. Having that background knowledge of the science curriculum definitely has been helpful. In 2004, I earned my National Board Certification in the area of Exceptional Needs Specialist and successfully re-certified in 2012.

I currently case manage approximately 15 students with disabilities including specific learning disabilities, emotional behavioral disabilities, other health impairments, and autism. In addition to case managing, I support Biology teachers one semester and co-teach Physics with Mike Mohammad in a 1:1 technology environment the other semester. One of my missions over the years to really make sure that we protect our Special Ed teachers because there are only so many directions we can be pulled at during the day. Between case managing students and being available at any moment during the day, don’t put us in three different classrooms. Let’s spend time getting good at one area where we can make a difference and develop relationships with our fellow co-workers in one content area instead of being pulled in too many directions. 

Moving to Personalized Learning

In our district, Personalized Learning rolled out slowly. For a while, special ed was not part of the cohorts that were being trained with it. Mike and I have grown together developing our vision of personalized learning together. When I work with other teachers or present at conferences, I mention that what Mike and I built did not happen overnight. This was eleven years in the making. When we talk about Personalized Learning, we often tell teachers that you pick one thing that you are going to work on or one way to change your way of thinking in this unit. Then next unit, you may add a second thing. Then the next time, you may go back and revise. You’re constantly making things better and you’re going to reflect that you can’t change everything in one fell swoop.  

There is a misperception about Personalized Learning that kids have full freedom and that’s not it at all. It is meaning that all kids have access to whatever it is that they need. We are all working toward the same endpoint but how we get there is different.

Student-Led IEPs

Below is a link to a Google Slide deck that provides the structure for my student-led IEPs. This is where we start and I add or delete slides to personalize it for the student’s need. The student and I work on it together so by the time we go into the meeting, they are comfortable with the conversation. 

 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1y78q5-aUuEAXZitrYDCkRzqBKK2zfGKgi5JGK_Etw54/edit?usp=sharing

Inclusive Practices 

Below is a link to a blog post and a video about a really cool project Mike and I did in conjunction with our school’s FabLab. http://arespinosa.blogspot.com/2018/12/and-its-inclusive-practices-for-win-or.html

https://youtu.be/dcAQf33PgvE

[This is Barbara – Make sure you listen when Andelee explains in the podcast how she encouraged student voice and developed relationships with students from what they shared about themselves in their Learner Profiles.]

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Andelee Espinosa, a National Board Certified Teacher, is passionate about meaningful inclusive practices, Universal Design for Learning, Personalized Learning, strengthening co-teaching teams, utilizing Learner Profiles to help students better advocate for themselves in the classroom and conducting student-led IEP meetings. She enjoys integrating activities that promote collaboration, critical thinking and communication such as BreakoutEDU and Project-Based Learning in her classes. In addition to case managing, she co-teaches Biology and Physics. Outside of school, Andelee is actively involved in Destination Imagination and enjoys spending time getting dirty in her butterfly garden or cooking with local and seasonal ingredients.

• Website: http://arespinosa.blogspot.com/
• Email: andelee.espinosa@gmail.com
• Twitter: @AndeleeEspinosa
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andelee-espinosa

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For all of the Rethinking Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below, or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

Go to this page or more information about Barbara’s new book, Define Your WHY.

I’ve spent most of my life as a teacher, a coach, and a mentor supporting teachers and administrators. Something is different now. I feel there is a sense of urgency to rethink the idea of “school” and what it means to be a teacher, a principal, and a student. I have also heard from people in and outside of education who felt lost and didn’t know their WHY. They said they accepted that they went down the wrong path and felt they were living someone else’s story. This made me stop and rethink my WHY. I became aware that that had happened to me. I thought I had no other choice to keep doing what I was doing, but I did. I thought of Churchill’s quote and that all of us need to live for something. 

“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.” ―Winston S. Churchill

Through these conversations, I realized how challenging it was to teach, how difficult it was to be a student, and how many educators had gotten lost in the WHAT and HOW that they’ve forgotten or maybe never knew their WHY. 

In 2017, I started the Rethinking Learning podcast to share stories about people who inspired me. It wasn’t long before I got it. It was all about the stories. I needed to learn more. In the process, I found out that most everyone I talked with had struggled or had made choices that didn’t always work. In fact, those struggles made them stronger. At this same time, I was searching for my WHY and considered the different struggles I had and other events in my life. I had changed careers, had taken projects that were only for the money, and went in a direction that was more about the WHAT and HOW instead of the WHY. 

I needed to search for my WHY. I adapted the strategies that I used during my coaching sessions and workshops to learn more about me. What did I love? What am I good at? It all came back to the stories and my love of writing. You see, I used to write poetry and short stories years before. I did co-author two books on personalized learning which I enjoyed, but that was not the kind of writing I wanted to do. I wanted to write about the stories and the WHY. To get me in the mood to write, I decided to blog, journal daily, and write a post for each podcast. The posts changed me. I realized that when I listened to the podcast I wasn’t connecting to the person as much as I wanted.

I asked my guests to share information about themselves in a Google doc so I could do research about them before our conversations. I also decided to listen closer by transcribing some of the conversations for the post. If I wanted to learn more, I reached out to the person after the podcast for more information. I know I was spending way too much time on each post, but I loved it. I loved learning about each person and collaborating with them to find pictures, links, and other resources about their lives. The stories motivated me to want to write more.

I asked different people who were on my podcast if they would like to collaborate with me by sharing some of their stories about their WHY in a book I wanted to write. 26 people said yes. I found My WHY: to write my new book, Define Your WHY. I’m really excited to share the stories and the strategies I used to define the WHY. I’ll be sharing more soon because my book is launching on Monday, February 17th and the link is up on Amazon for pre-order. http://bit.ly/defineyourwhybook

“Believe in yourself, your abilities and your own potential. Never let self-doubt hold you captive. You are worthy of all that you dream of and hope for.”     

––Roy Bennett

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Aidyn Grice is a 6th-grade doing 9th-grade math and is a student at Norris Academy in Mukwonago, Wisconsin. I met Aidyn and his mom, Nicole, at the Aurora Institute (past was iNACOL) conference in October 2019 in Palm Springs where Aidyn who was an amazing speaker on the student panel. After talking to Aidyn, his mom, and Johnna Noll, Executive Director of Norris Academy, we decided it was time for a conversation with Aidyn on my podcast.

Where did you grow up

I was born and raised in a small city outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. About two years ago, we moved to Mukwonago when my mom got a job at Norris Academy.

Aidyn eating pancakes with maple syrup he made at Norris Academy.
They tapped maple trees and boiled the sap down to make the syrup.

Let’s talk about school 

I thought school was normal until I went to Norris Academy and I saw how big a change it was and how the communities are different than my other school. Kindergarten was fun at West Allis with a good environment and nice people. Then starting in first grade, we were sitting at desks doing your work all day through session after session. We did math in the morning and then reading in the afternoon every day for the entire year. It kind of got boring after a while. I thought that’s what school was going to be like for the rest of my life. This is what I would have to do: suck it up and deal with school so I could go on with my life.  

After you started Norris Academy, what was different about school for you?

It was really different, actually. There is a big difference between this school and the local school in how the school is structured and the environment. This school is way more about you and not always thinking it’s the kids, sometimes it may be the teacher. Sometimes you might like a teacher but sometimes you may need a different teacher. In my other school, if there was a problem, it was the kids problem. But at Norris, we look at both sides of it so we can work it out. 

Johnna Noll, Executive Director of Norris Academy, jumped in. “As the staff here at Norris, we focus on a learner-centered environment. What Aidyn was explaining is that at some schools, people tend to look at the learner and what they are doing wrong and why they aren’t improving. For us, we look at the lack of growth and improvement of any of our learners as our failure of what we’re doing and what can do to better support that learner. When I heard Aidyn say it is sometimes the teacher or its other people, I think that is indicative of when we see a learner has not had much success, we wrap a team around that and try to offer supports that will be more helpful to Aidyn.”

Aidyn and his Learner Profile

At first, when I worked on my Learner Profile, I thought it was a little weird. Then I got used to it and I realized what they were doing.  It felt good to write about me. You always learn stuff about yourself and then the teacher knows about you and how you learn best. The questions they asked like “what are your triggers?” and “what do you like doing?” and “what do you want to do on a break?” and “what’s your favorite subject?” helped them to get to know me. They’re not trying to figure it out on their own. 

What is it like for you at Norris Academy?

I can read articles to get science and math competencies together instead of separate like at my other school. Each grade level has its own amount of competencies within the subjects. If you get all of those competencies, basically, you keep going up in your subjects. My cousin is in a local school and has all straight As and cannot go up and beyond what she is doing higher than her grade level. 

When I confer with my learning specialist three times a week or more, I share the evidence of my learning and how much I’ve grown in my pathways. We usually talk about how we’re going to the next step forward and maybe beyond. We talk about new pathways that she can make for me. Our profile is on Google and we link everything we do onto our profile there. The specialist can get to my profile to learn all the things they need to know about me right from the first day of school. Everything can be accessed from my profile. The video from the student panel at the conference will go there. I also created a resumé for things I’ve done and put that in there and a few other things I do. I help around the school and clean the floors. I sold eggs for a while. 

Aidyn and the chickens with the Farm Fresh egg Division of Norris

One year, someone had a pathway where he wanted to build a chicken coop with chickens. Now we clean the eggs and sell them. I made a pathway a little while ago to be a pilot and used VR to make a plane and fix it. I did research on all the different planes. I talked to the employability specialist and we found a pilot who taught me all about the plane. He took me in the cockpit up into the sky and told me what to look for when flying. 

I also have other things I’m interested in learning more about like being a police officer and playing football. 

Do you have any advice for teachers on what they can do to change their teaching?

Don’t control me and treat me like a robot. In my other school, you are the robot and the teachers control you. You do what you are told to do and there are consequences. At Norris, you have your controller. If you don’t necessarily do what they want or expected, teachers can work around that instead of just sending you to the office. Your teachers can still have you in class and work around what your needs are right now. You can be the controller of your own learning.

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About Norris Academy from Johnna Noll

Johnna shared: Norris Academy is part of the Norris School District and has been here for 100 years. About five years ago, our board of education made a commitment to transform the Norris School District to a learner-centered environment. That is when Norris Academy emerged. We are the smallest public school district in the state of Wisconsin. We serve not only residents in our school district, but we also have a large population are joining us through tuition payments from other districts as well as open enrollment learners. We’ve really diversified our learners as we made a shift to learner-centered environments that is competency-based. 

All of our learners have a profile across four dimensions: Academic, Citizenship, Employability, and Wellness and do self-reflections among those dimensions. Learners then meet with a learning specialist to develop personalized plans and pathways that are unique to their interests and needs across those dimensions. They work on their competencies at their level such as Aidyn as a 6th grader is doing math at a 9th-grade level. 

• The Power of Profiles:  Developing a Sense of Urgency on Leaders and Learners at All Levels. Voyager Weekly, Insights.  November 21, 2019
• Designing a Framework of Innovation.  Wisconsin School News. March 2019, p 30-31.
• This is What Learner Agency Looks Like, Pioneering, May 2018
• Education Reimagined: Academy Profile, November 2017
• Ed Surge,  Rewriting the Game of School, August 2017
• Norris Macrocosm Overview 
• Norris Profile of a Learner
• Norris Learner Outcomes
• www.norrisacademuywi.org

Contact Information

Johnna Noll, Executive Director
jnoll@norrisacademywi.org
Norris School District | Norris Academy
Website:http://norrisacademywi.org

Nicole Grice, Aidyn’s mom
Chief Operating Officer
Norris, Inc. www.norriscenter.org
ngrice@norriscenter.org

Here’s the picture I took of Aidyn on the stage at the Aurora Institute in front of 3,000 educators.

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or all of the Rethinking Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below, or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/