Episode #11

Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D. is Superintendent at Salisbury Township School District and Clinical Adjunct Professor at Moravian College in Pennsylvania. Randy is a blogger, speaker, and podcast host at TLTalk Radio and Shift Your Paradigm.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

I have known Randy for several years on social media and have been fortunate to be on his podcast show twice. When I met him in person at Educon last January, we had a great talk about the future of learning. I knew then he was going to keep pushing the edge with his co-host Lynn Fuini-Hetten, especially now with their new show, Shift the Paradigm. I was so excited that Randy agreed to join me on my podcast and below are excerpts from our conversation on learning.

Can you share about you, your background, and your journey as superintendent of Salisbury Township School District?

Yes, I am currently Superintendent of Salisbury Township School District in Pennsylvania. It was fun meeting you at Educon in Philadelphia last year. In fact, we’re located about an hour north of Philadelphia and 90 minutes to New York city. It’s a great place geographically being so close to cultural events. This is my 32nd year in education. My first 12 years I taught middle school music, general music, and musical theater. I was a music major in college. About 8 or 9 years into my teaching, this thing called a computer landed in my classroom. I got very curious about what I could do using computers for kids learning music. We were sequencing music and making all sorts of sounds. If you walked by my room, it was like a three-ring circus. Kids were doing all sorts of things connected to their interests and passions around music. During that time, I became interested in not only musical things but learning about technology.

After 19 years in the school district next door, I moved to a more formal leadership position as the Director of Technology here at Salisbury Township and did that for six years. I have the pleasure of working with an amazing team of teachers, students, and parents. We accomplished a lot of things during that time. Back around 2006, there was one desktop PC for each instructional area. It was a pretty traditional school. Now we are a K-12 school district where every student has their own learning device which took a lot of planning, thinking, collaborating, and work to get there. One thing I shared with Lynn Fuinehetten, my podcast collaborator and assistant superintendent here is that it has been an interesting journey to see how the conversations and the transformation really moved away from the technology to really focus on learning. Learning has changed and can change as a result of having access.

Mission: Salisbury…Inspire, Think, Learn, Grow… Together!

Can you share how you and your administration created a culture of learning?

All that I learned about leadership, I can trace back to the roots of being a musician. The way that musicians learn mirrors the way we believe powerful learning happens. As a music teacher, much of what I did involve leading groups which helped me shape what I believe is leadership. One of the things we embrace around here is that everyone is a learner and everyone is a leader. That culture of learning is exemplified in the profile of a graduate. We had a lot of conversations on what learning looks like. A few years ago we embarked on this process where we asked two basic questions to help shape our culture of learning:

What knowledge, skills, and dispositions do our current learners need to have to be successful once they leave us? We call that life; not just focusing on a career, not just making money, not just being a good citizen, but just living a good life.

What kinds of learning environments are going to help us to help them best get there? What do we believe about learning not only for our children but across the organization? If we are all learners and all leaders, then all those things we believe about learning apply to all of us.

Are these the questions you used to develop a progressive vision for teaching and learning in 2020, the Profile of a Graduate and Learning Beliefs?

It’s been good to have those two questions and the work around the profile of the graduate and learning beliefs really ground what we do around here. The profile of the graduate is essentially our vision and our job is to provide the resources and support to help you get there. We want to empower our leaders and teachers to ask those questions and think deeply about those questions because they are not questions that are easily answered. Lynn and I met with our stakeholders on their turf. The stakeholders were our students, parents, teachers, leaders, and our community and asked them those questions. We then synthesized those in the profile of our graduate and the learning beliefs to help us get there. We had to create some action plans around a culture that model those learning beliefs and that empowers our teachers, our leaders, and our students to learn in a way we say powerful learning happens.

We created professional development opportunities that really allowed our principals and teacher leadership teams to personalize their own learning journeys throughout the year that was tied to the profile of the graduate goals. What was really exciting and kind of frightening was we found that every school was not doing the same thing in the same way at the same time. Each principal and leadership team had the opportunity to identify the needs, the gaps, how to harness the strengths of the people within their school, and how to create something new to move them toward the goals. Each school is different and the work models our emphasis on personalization. Hope this gives you from a leadership perspective a background of Salisbury as a learning culture.

Are these the questions you used to develop a progressive vision for teaching and learning in 2020, the Profile of a Graduate and Learning Beliefs?

It’s been good to have those two questions and the work around the profile of the graduate and learning beliefs really ground what we do around here. The profile of the graduate is essentially our vision and our job is to provide the resources and support to help you get there. We want to empower our leaders and teachers to ask those questions and think deeply about those questions because they are not questions that are easily answered. Lynn and I met with our stakeholders on their turf. The stakeholders were our students, parents, teachers, leaders, and our community and asked them those questions. We then synthesized those in the profile of our graduate and the learning beliefs to help us get there. We had to create some action plans around a culture that model those learning beliefs and that empowers our teachers, our leaders, and our students to learn in a way we say powerful learning happens.

We created professional development opportunities that really allowed our principals and teacher leadership teams to personalize their own learning journey throughout the year that was tied to the profile of the graduate goals. What was really exciting and kind of frightening was we found that every school was not doing the same thing in the same way at the same time. Each principal and leadership team had the opportunity to identify the needs, the gaps, how to harness the strengths of the people within their school, and how to create something new to move them toward the goals. Each school is different and the work models our emphasis on personalization. Hope this gives you from a leadership perspective a background of Salisbury as a learning culture.

Can you share the background of TLTalkRadio with Lynn Fuinehetten? with Working at the Edge?

Lynn and I wanted to model this idea of being learners. There was professional development focusing on pockets of innovation that was happening in districts. Mostly our conversations were with teachers who did project-based learning, personalized learning, genius hour, digital portfolios, etc.  We decided to find educators and authors who were mostly curious and open to change like you and Kathleen. Lynn and I modeled the learning process by reaching out to you and others, reading your books, and having conversations with you. We hope to take an hour of your time and get inside your brain, understand your expertise and bring that back to our community. The podcasts, especially with authors, have been informing our practice.

One person we interviewed was Education Reimagined’s Director, Kelly Young and that’s where we were exposed to the idea of the North Star that they have in their white paper. We dug into the lexicon around words and these ideas of not defining terms but defining the parameters. Then letting educators inside those parameters like a sandbox. How do they create their own understanding and possibilities out of setting those parameters? We became very interested this strategy in involving all of our stakeholders to adapt and tweak the five learning beliefs with some more refined statements, parameters, and boundaries. We wanted everyone to be involved in the design from a learner’s perspective instead of top-down decisions.

Now you are sharing your learning and thinking on the Shift Your Paradigm Project. Can you tell me about the conversations and how you and Lynn make connections to practice?

As we were having these conversations around the five elements of the North Star, we inquired about this idea of leadership. If we are to create these learning environments, what kind of leadership does that require? Reflecting on our own practice, Lynn and I came to the realization that we do have to behave differently as leaders with different mindsets and potentially different skills. Shift Your Paradigm is designed to connect with leaders and learners from around the country who have created and are working on creating these kinds of learning environments. We try to get inside their heads to understand the ways in which they lead these kinds of learning cultures. That’s been a fascinating project and it’s really only begun with about nine episodes now. We expect this to be a pretty extended project, but ultimately, Lynn and I in the end really want to contribute something new to the conversation around re-imagining leadership through the learner-centered paradigm.

If shifting the paradigm doesn’t make sense, I suggest linking to the work at Reimagined Education. What’s so freeing about it is when you shift your paradigm to the idea of learner-centered, you begin to look at everything that happens within our culture that way. That’s what got us to look at leadership because this is so different. The dominant conversation is school-centered, top-down control that does not include learner agency. Now learner agency is at the core of everything that we do. As leaders, it also needs to be at the core of what we do too. How do we create opportunities for others to experience that learner agency? When you shift your thinking from the top-down control even though there may be times for that in our highly regulated domains of education, there are more times than not when we can truly be learner-centered throughout the whole system. We’re sort of beginning to uncover how we can do this differently not only in the classroom but across the whole organization. We’re a small school district with 1600 students. The shift in paradigm is about having conversations and building relationships and it is easier when you can get to know everyone.  http://workingattheedge.org/shift-your-paradigm/

I’d like to expand on the idea of building relationships. What do you think of taking the first two weeks to build culture before jumping into academics?

One of the things we need to know about building relationships is that it takes time. I know so many school leaders that jump into quick solutions. You have to not be distracted by that. You have to be willing to put in the time to have conversations with people because it is a shifting of a mindset. In order to do that you have to build a relationship with that person or a group of people. Everybody needs to understand the intent and the way that you are approaching things. If you don’t put that time in, that’s when you might get something but it will not stick around or last. It hasn’t grown those roots or given it that time needed to take hold. I think that’s one of the things that is a little upsetting for our education community in general. There are a lot of ideas that are perceived as the silver bullet or the quick solution. Just read this book or follow this formula and then you will make it or it will happen and your life will be better. They can be great resources to start the conversations to get the thinking going. Every context is different. If you want to change the context, you have to have the conversations and believe those efforts will move you forward. There is no quick answer or silver bullet for any of our problems. If there was, then we wouldn’t be here wanting to shift the paradigm. That’s one of the things I struggle with. As a leader, how do we hold that “stuff” at arm’s length and say maybe there’s a value in that but let’s be very critical about what is that value. We need to allow the space and the time for people to figure that out.

It’s not just me doing this. My colleague Lynn does a fabulous job building relationships with people and encouraging conversations. I just happen to be the superintendent. It takes a whole community with everyone involved including our amazing kids. This year we are going to schedule conversations with kids so you can hear their voices and more on social media.  My district’s Twitter handle is @yoursalisbury

Connect with Randy on Twitter, the TLTalkRadio podcast, and the Shift Your Paradigm podcast!

Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D. is Superintendent at Salisbury Township School District and Clinical Adjunct Professor at Moravian College in Pennsylvania. Randy is a blogger, speaker, and podcast host at TLTalk Radio and Shift the Paradigm.

Randy is a life-long educator with 30 years of experience developing a passion for teaching, learning, leadership, technology and supporting the life-long learning of all students and staff. Strong background in developing and leading the implementation of a progressive vision for education, balancing increased opportunities for students with fiscal responsibility. Highly motivated by organizational challenges that involve new learning and problem-solving. Skilled at working collaboratively with a variety of stakeholders in the organization on small and large-scale projects, utilizing a data-informed stance to identify needs and take action to achieve goals. Accomplished educational professional with refined interpersonal and communications skills.

Twitter: @ziegeran
LinkedIn: rziegenfuss
Email: ziegeran@gmail.com
Website: http://www.workingattheedge.org
Podcast Shows: @TLTalkradio and @ShiftParadigmPC

Weekly Podcast: Future Learning
Lynn Fuini-Hetten (@lfuinihetten)
District Twitter: #YourSalisbury

Latest Publications

• The eBook 3 Key Principles of Digital Transformation.
• The K12 Leader – January 2017 – Edleadership Blindspot: A Compelling Vision for Learning
• Edutopia – May 2016 – Innovate Salisbury: An Action Research Project (Co-author)

Episode #10

Ryan Sheehy is principal of Highlands Elementary School in Concord, CA. He is in charge of executing the school’s vision, building and implementing an instructional framework, and collaboratively working with staff and community to design a school that is student focused.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

I was introduced to Ryan Sheehy by Adam Welcome who had a conversation with me earlier [Running Because Kids Deserve It]. I first connected with him on Twitter and it became really apparent how passionate he is about doing whatever he can for kids. Ryan came up with something I just had to share with my audience. Be the One! Below are excerpts from the podcast I had with Ryan. Enjoy!

Can you tell me about you, your family, and your background?

I grew up in San Diego and am the second oldest of eight kids. I had a diverse educational background. I went to public school, got home schooled for 3-4 years, went to private Catholic school, and then went to public high school. I met my wife in community college a couple of weeks after I turned 18 and have been married for 12 years with 4 beautiful children: Robert (10), Joshua (9), Juliana (7) and Zachary (4). We have a busy household and am currently moving to a new home. School Website

How did you come up with Be the One for your blog? Why is it important for you to write about this?

I met Adam Welcome who was my vice principal in another district, and he encouraged me to start blogging so I took the challenge. I try to put out one or two blog posts a week. This is something I feel very passionate about. I found my voice through blogging. I’ve worked at 14 different schools because I was an elementary physical education teacher working at 3 to 6 schools at a time and every staff room had one thing in common. People were scared to take that step to go outside the box and “Be the One” that changes it.

I’m passionate about the idea that one person can change the life of a child and change education for all. For me, I’ve been the one really pushing the envelope and changing things so now it’s time for me to share my message, my manifesto with the world. It’s been a model I’ve lived my life by. We all have the power to “Be the One.” All educators can live their life by this model because we’re in the business of kids and we need to “Be the One” for them, for each other, for our families, for education, and for life. Website: Be the One

You ask 2 questions in your blog “Who Tells Your Story” to teachers that tell you everything about the climate and culture in their classrooms: How do you connect with your families?  How do you tell your classroom story?  Why these questions?

When you walk into a classroom, you can instantly get the feeling in the classroom. Is this teacher showcasing everything they are doing in their classroom? These tell you how invested they are in their kids.  We as an education profession have a hard time bragging about all the wonderful things that are happening in our classrooms. Most of us are in this for the right reasons, and we really need to showcase that. We need to “Be the One” that tells those stories. Too often we hear about all the negative things that happen in education and rarely hear the positive things. We know that there are negative things that happen and constantly face adversity.

We can “Be the One” that flips the script and tells the positive story. We can flood positivity through social media, newsletters home, and any other ways we connect and communicate to share our successes with everyone. Back to the two questions, I ask these questions when I do presentations with teachers and they tell you how invested they are in it. Too often we are afraid to tell our stories. They just need that extra push.  It may feel like bragging, but it is showcasing. As a profession, we have so much power to share. Because I am connected with principals across the country, I’m able to take what they are doing and reshape it for our teachers in Mount Diablo Unified. Blog post Who Tells Your Story. 

In a blog you wrote about relationships, you mentioned that you need people that challenge your thinking, not just like-minded folks. Can you share why relationships matter?

Relationships for me are the center of my world. As a teacher who went to different sites one day a week made me dig deeper about my teaching and how to create those relationships with teachers and students. On my first few days of teaching, I was thrown in right away with about 120 kids in each class. At one high poverty school where gangs were on the black top, kids were looking for positive role models and connections. Where do you learn about the school? On the blacktop.

That was where I noticed a fourth grader making some bad choices with a group of kids that were not always making the best choices. I brought him over and started talking to him to forge a relationship with him one-on-one. One of the things he told me was that he loved soccer so we started playing soccer together. It was a lot of fun. I continued that bond with him the next year and even taught his sister.  When he finished 5th grade, I gave him a soccer ball. Where he lives, families cannot afford that type of stuff. He asked me to sign it for him so I did with a message. I still run into his parents at Costco, and they tell me about how he is doing in college. I also saw him when he was a server at Cheesecake Factory. It’s all about building relationships. No matter where you are or what your role is, you have to take that time to build those relationships with your students. Kids need somebody. We all need to be the one for them. We have the power to make those connections, be there for them, and that will change their lives forever. Check post: Get Connected and Build Relationships

Another post was about Everyone Needs an Advocate. Who was your advocate? Why do our kids need advocates?

Growing up, my advocate was my mom. We didn’t always see eye-to-eye especially during my homeschooling years. She would have broken any barriers for me. Now my wife is my advocate. She’s pushing me to be a better person, a better husband and father, a better educator, and better writer. I never thought I was a good writer, but now my “Be the One” blog has had over 12,000 people read it. That’s the awesome power about have the advocate who pushes you. I’ve surrounded myself with people who I want to be like. I want to increase the level and rigor in my writing. Adam Welcome has been a huge mentor to me, a close friend, and believes in my message. My mom is still my advocate. My wife is the one who pushes me to be the man I am today. Post Everyone Needs an Advocate

It’s all about building memories and a positive environment. What if educators share their memories (good and bad) with kids? Is that okay to be vulnerable?

Vulnerability and sharing those real life experiences is huge. That’s going to look completely different in elementary school from high school. That’s what people need to be careful about. We don’t have to always go into the details. I swam and played water polo in college, but when I went to Cal State East Bay, they didn’t have water polo. So I joined the cross-country team. I wanted to be part of a team, and I was horrible. I came in the last place in almost every race, but I did it. I was consistent on it and stayed with it. It is not me gloating when I share these stories. It’s okay to fail. If we can relate our stories back to that it is okay to fail, model that and share our circumstances, then that’s a win. FAIL = First Attempt In Learning.

We need to create a culture at our school where it’s okay to fail. That’s one of my big messages this year to my staff and students. It’s something I started last year. I tell kids that I fail on a daily basis. Kids come up to me and say “Mr. Sheehy, fail harder.” I tell them that it is okay to take those leaps and chances to do that. 

If we can model all that as educators through our own personal stories and admitting when we fail, then that speaks volumes to us. It teaches our kids to go out and create those relationships.Kids are going to remember those positive relationships with their teachers. It is the same with teachers. If some one is talking at a staff meeting and you don’t have a positive relationship with them, you tune them out. The same thing happens in your classrooms. We need to do some self-reflection so we can be the one to sit back, think about it, and challenge it to create those relationships to establish a positive classroom environment where all kids can learn. Read Be the One Who Makes School a Positive Memory

I just saw another new post from you about Keep Them Moving. Why do you feel it is important for kids to keep moving?

It takes me back to my physical education days. It was hard to be at some many different sites and not be part of the staff because you are always moving. One of the things I used to do was write for physical education journals and websites. I would write about how we can enhance physical education. Kids need to be moving so I wrote this latest blog for some easy ways to get kids up and moving. Physical education is not an outside class like in secondary schools. Teachers, especially in the elementary level, can get kids moving every day in their classrooms. My latest blog post is about being the one that gets kids moving but not take them away from the content. It is about using physical activity to enhance the classroom experience, enhance the curriculum and enhance relationships. You will see kids more engaged. So Keep Them Moving. 

What are you going to be doing this coming year?

I’m going to be continuing blogging this year. I’m on fire right now with a passion for “Be the One.” That’s my manifesto. That’s something we all need to live by. I think there is so much passion in there that we need to invest our time to create relationships, accountability, trust, and elevate our game. I think we more we can get our messages out to people, the more we become better educators for kids. That’s the bottom line. We are at a time in education, that we need to showcase that there are amazing things happen in our schools. We need to celebrate it. We need to grow as individuals and educators to “Be the One.”

****
Ryan Sheehy is principal of Highlands Elementary School in Concord, CA. It is a TK-5th grade school with approximately 650 students and 75 staff members. He is in charge of executing the school’s vision, building and implementing an instructional framework, and collaboratively working with staff and community to design a school that is student focused. Ryan is also an adjunct professor in different credential programs and teaching classes to special education and administrative credential programs.

• School email: sheehyr@mdusd.org
• Email: mrryansheehy@gmail.com
• School Website: Highlands Elementary School
• Be the One: http://rsheehy.blogspot.com/
• Twitter: @sheehyrw  #BeTheOne

Every school is unique and has its own demographics and issues. Every learner comes to school with their strengths, challenges, background, and concerns.  In fact, each class is unique because of the teacher and how they present what it means to be part of the class. One way to build the culture is to start the year by getting to know each other. The time you spend building a strong classroom culture in the first few weeks of school will bring amazing returns every day of the year.  You can build a compassionate classroom and place relationships at the center of the classroom that are based on trust and respect. Relationships matter! So how do you build trust and a caring classroom?

Our first questions should be, “What do children need?”…
followed immediately by “How can we meet those needs?” Alfie Kohn

Culture Building Activities

Here are a few culture building activities for any age learners to build a positive classroom culture where they get to know and care about the teacher and each other. 

1. Welcome Message

What message does your classroom give right when people walk in? What about creating a welcome sign? The picture on the left has a message that you can make personal to represent the culture in your class. The welcome sign doesn’t have to be a sign; it can be a poster or a welcome mat. The idea is to make your classroom inviting to anyone who wants to learn or visit your class.

2. Special Greetings

Instead of jumping right into academics as soon as your learners come in the door, what about coming up with a special greeting just for your class? Some teachers even have special handshakes. You don’t have to memorize a special handshake for each learner, but please memorize their names. Find a way to make each learner unique and valued for who they are. Do some homework to find out something each learner is passionate about or some event they were involved in. When you greet each learner, look them in the eye, say their name, and mention something or ask a question about them, it makes a difference. I saw this video from the Atlanta Speech School on Facebook and felt it just had to be shared here also.

3. Morning Meetings

A compassionate classroom is also a responsive community.  A morning meeting is an engaging way to start each day and to focus on social-emotional learning using strategies to foster a sense of belonging and caring. The teacher can start off the year defining empathy and model how to do active listening. Learners can sit in a circle and greet each other. The teacher can invite learners to pair with someone they haven’t shared with before. Then have them ask each other questions about something important in their lives. The teacher can then bring everyone back and start the day with an activity or question to think about during the day. One question could be “How will you reflect on your learning today?”

4. The Power of YET

Start the year by reviewing the words we say and what they mean. In a previous post, 7 Ideas to Discover Magic in Your Classroom, I mentioned fixed vs. growth mindset. After meeting with some teachers and learners, I saw the emphasis on using the word: YET. Start off the year talking about mindset and the words that demonstrate a fixed mindset and how changing the words and statements so they demonstrate a growth mindset. But we are humans and creatures of habits. We tend to go back to saying “I can’t..” and “I’m not…” Share the word YET and see the power of it. Say it over and over until your learners use it all on their own and maybe even to correct you.

5. Me Too Activity

Have learners share something about themselves and what they like to do such as “I like Minecraft.” If other learners also like Minecraft, they then stand up and say “Me too!” Continue to invite learners to share something and see who else has the same interests or facts. Then give them time to share with each other. If they enjoy tinkering, designing, and building, invite them to put together a proposal on what they would like to create together. Have them share with another group for feedback. This Me Too activity can be used for anything that learners may want to do together.

6. Reflections

Put time aside at the end of the day or period for reflection. Come up with a question for learners to consider for reflection. A question could be about “What did you do to take a risk today in your learning?” I saw learners doing this reflection at Viscount Primary School in Mangere district of Auckland . It was very powerful to listen to the discussions they had with another learner about the risks they took. Then the teacher invited all learners to sit in a circle and share any thoughts about their reflections. It was so cool that everyone wanted to share. You could see a real compassionate classroom where everyone cared about each other.

You may find that building a culture is bigger than just one classroom; it involves the whole school. Check out the resources put together by KnowledgeWorks to help you build a positive culture.

Back to School Culture

Download KnowledgeWorks Get Ready: Back-to-School Culture Toolkit to uncover insights from other district and school leaders on:

• How to engage parents, community members, and business leaders

• 5 goals to set for a strong school culture

• Tips for helping students develop critical social-emotional skills needed for the future workforce

• Guidance on aligning budget decisions to your learner-centered vision

When you walk into your school, what do you see? Are kids motivated to learn? Do you see effort and persistence? Are teachers excited about all the kids in the school? Just as the Iceberg Illusion by Sylvia Duckworth, @sylviaduckworth, shows, sometimes we only showcase success after learning has happened. This post is about creating a culture of learning that is visible in your school as learning is happening.

Why do we need to do that? The idea of school is changing. It has to now because the world has changed and keeps changing. Life for our kids is so different than it was ten or even five years ago. For learners to grow and flourish, we need to create learning environments where every child is recognized as a learner while they are learning. Some kids never get showcased or recognized. A culture that values every learner will empower them to discover the joy of learning.

“Culture has been defined as ‘the way we do things around here.” Richard DuFour

Schools have been doing things the same way for hundreds of years. Culture change or shift is defined as lasting changes to the shared ways of thinking, beliefs, values, procedures, and relationships with the stakeholders. A school needs trust in changing beliefs, values, and relationships. Change is a difficult process. There are so many types of relationships in schools that impact how people think about school. Teachers and leaders are learners, too.

“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” John Dewey

Here are 18 ways several authors shared in their books how teachers and leaders can celebrate learning as the culture:

Recognize the joy happening right now in your school

I chose a few of Dean Shareski’s @shareski suggestions in his book, Embracing a Culture of Joy: How Educators Can Bring Joy to their Classroom Everyday, on capturing and sharing the joyful moments:

1. When the bell rings and students don’t leave because they are in the midst of an engaging conversation.
2. When students are fully attentive as the teacher reads them a story.
3. When students cheer at the success of a third try at a science experiment.
4. When a teacher asks students about their soccer game.
5. When a student solves a difficult problem.
6. When a student comes in early to work on a project.
7. When a teacher acknowledges a student as an expert.

Be the Change

According to Eric Sheninger @E_Sheninger and Tom Murray @thomascmurray in their book, Learning Transformed: 8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow’s Schools, Today, here are a few of the strategies they suggest for leaders to help colleagues begin the process of changing their professional practice: 

1. Lead by example even when (initially) it might be a lonely place. Real change comes from colleagues modeling expectations for one another.
2. Share current research and practices that support the change you are championing.
3. Encourage colleagues who might be resistant to change to attend professional learning opportunities with you. At the very least, make sure you share your experiences during a faculty meeting or in personal conversations.
4. Help others see the value of the change on their own.
5. Be patient. Like you would your students, treat your colleagues with respect and remember how satisfying and rewarding it is when you help students succeed.
6. Get your students involved. There is no better way, in our opinion, to convince educators to change than when they can see firsthand the impact it has on kids.

Begin with Reflection

I chose a few of Pernille Ripp’s @pernilleripp, suggestions in her book, Passionate Learners: How to Engage and Empower your Students, on how teachers can reflect on making learning visible:

1. Film your teaching. Are you talking more than your learners? Are they not listening or were you too focused on covering the curriculum?
2. Have students time you. Set the timer for 10 minutes and when it goes off, stop talking. If you need more time, negotiate with your students.
3. Give them time to be experts. Find out what your learners are passionate about. Then facilitate opportunities for them to share their expertise.
4. Stop answering all of their questions (or at least some of them). Ask a question back instead of answering or refusing to answer. Ask something like “How will you find out?” and maybe keep going by asking “How else can you find out?” Also, wait and see if other students share the answer or help another student.
5. Don’t stop asking yourself the hard questions. Would you still like being a learner in your classroom? Trust in yourself and your ability to create a better environment for all the learners who are in your class. Push yourself forward so that you do not become stuck in a routine. Learners change every year and so should our approach.

I want to come back to the idea of the Iceberg Illusion from Sylvia Duckworth at the start of this post. What is the culture you see when you go into your school? What are you missing? Is it only about the successes you see or is it the learning culture that happens every day? How can you make learning visible so every child is valued?

 “If culture changes, everything changes.” Michael Fullan

Thank you, Dean Shareski, Eric Sheninger, Tom Murray and Pernille Ripp for sharing your writing and ideas with the world! I highly recommend educators and those in my PLN to read your books. Thank you, Sylvia Duckworth, for giving me permission to use your drawing in this post. For more information about her work, please go to sylviaduckworth.com.

If you have any tips, resources, or comments on creating a learning culture, I welcome you to share below.

For all learners to grow and flourish, we need to create environments where every child is recognized and validated as a learner with unique talents, interests, and beliefs. A culture that values every learner will empower them to discover the joy and purpose of learning. However, building this culture doesn’t happen overnight.

We need to unlock the learning by recognizing the key constraints that keep our kids from reaching their full potential as learners.

The key constraints that might inhibit learning and a sense of belonging include:

Compliance. When learners feel uncomfortable or are not sure about something, they tend to go back to what they did before and resist new challenges and ideas.

Low Self-Esteem. Learners may feel insecure by being concerned about losing face, being uninformed or feeling not particularly smart. This could also impact how they relate to others.

Fear of Failure. Learners may be afraid to take any risks and tend to seek ways to avoid the embarrassment that they believe happens from failure.

Secrets. Learners come to school with issues at home, with family, or with peers. Some secrets are big and may be difficult to talk about. These secrets probably impact how they feel about themselves and others.

These constraints could be the reasons why some kids have trouble succeeding in school. I believe it is important to take at least two weeks at the beginning of school to get to know your kids. Creating a culture of learning is about developing relationships based on trust and respect. Each child needs to have a sense of belonging in the classroom community and to feel that you and others in the class care about them before you jump right into academics. For some kids, you may find it will take longer to build that relationship especially if they hold on to some secrets that are harming them or cannot open up to share their feelings with you. The following tips may help your learners feel like they belong and want to participate in the class community.

8 Tips to foster a sense of belonging:

1. Introduce you. Send an email, note, or a link to your website or blog to your parents to introduce you to their family.
2. Make it personal. Include a fun picture that includes your family members, pets, or you doing your favorite hobby. Write a personal note about what your class is going to be like this year along with contact information.
3. Know their names. Get a list of your children’s names with pictures before the first class and memorize their names.
4. Greet each child. Stand outside the door, greet each child and say their name while shaking their hands. You can even come up with a fun way to make it more personal by creating your own special handshake that you want the kids to memorize.
5. Create Outside Inside. Have each child create a drawing or write a reflection of themselves. Ask them to write on the left side what people see and know about them. On the right side, ask them to write what they believe about themselves that others may not know.
6. Encourage voice. Invite your learners to brainstorm together what they believe is their Bill of Rights and Rules for the classroom. Ask your kids to come up with their own handshake to teach you. Share your stories of how you learned from failure. Encourage learners to be open to voice concerns so they can learn from mistakes instead of feeling like a failure.
7. Provide journals. Give learners a journal so they can reflect on their feelings, how they learn or have trouble learning, and how they interact with others in the class. Make sure they know the journals are for them only and it is up to them if they want to share them with anyone even you.
8. Schedule meeting times. Invite each learner to schedule times on the calendar for you to meet one-on-one with each of them to reflect on their Outside Inside and, if the learners are willing to share their journals.

These are just a few tips to start building a positive culture and can be adapted for any age. The idea is to develop relationships based on trust and respect. There are other tips but thought I’d start with these first. I’ll be adding future posts with other tips for culture building and socio-emotional learning activities.  I welcome any comments or tips.

All of us were born passionate learners. We came into the world curious about everything around us. We had a strong desire to want to talk, crawl, and walk. Watch a toddler take their first step, and you see passion-based learning. Listen to a musician practice a difficult piece until they are ready to perform. Watch a skateboarder try a new trick over and over — that takes persistence and passion to not give up.

You don’t always see that same type of passion in “school.” In many cases, school has been associated with pacing guides, required curriculum, grade-level standards, bell schedules, grades, and teaching to the test. In these situations, the teacher or the administration are the ones in control. The teacher tends to become the one held accountable for the learning. Yet to really LEARN something, the learner needs to own and drive their learning.

The focus on teaching and doing work that wasn’t relevant to me changed my thinking about who I was as a learner. I learned to play the game of school and “do” school so I could get “through” school.

Why do we have to change school to focus on passion-based learning?

School changes what kids believe what they are supposed to learn. If you ask kids around 3^rd or 4^th grade what they are learning in school, you might hear answers around how to behave, be a good listener, or how to do well on a test. We learned how to be compliant and follow the rules. Is this really what we want as the focus of school?

Now it’s time to bring back creativity, joy, and focus on the power of passion for learning.

A few suggestions from some awesome educators to encourage passion-based learning in your school:

1. First few days of school.

Get to know your learners right away before you start teaching. Every teacher and learner deserves a new opportunity to achieve. Consider waiting at least two weeks before jumping into academics. If you already started teaching academics before getting to know everyone, pull back. Check out Rich Czyz’s ideas for the First few days of school 

2. Get to know your learners and their interests.

Invite your learners to share what they are interested in and their talents and aspirations. Have you ever thought of spending time one-on-one with each learner maybe schedule a lunch date? Ask them to start a journal or portfolio so they can share stories of their interests. Check out Michael Wesch’s Journey to the Joy of Learning so you too can see each learner differently.

3. Share interests.

Ask learners to do a pair/share where two share with each other what they are interested in. Invite them to ask each other:

1. What are three things you are really interested in?
2. Why did you choose each of those?
3. Which one excites you the most? Why?
   

Then have them choose one with the help of the partner to share their first choice with all learners in the class. Encourage the class to ask questions and provide feedback with these two prompts

1. I like…
2. I wonder…

4. Explore interests.

Encourage them to explore their interest and how it might have a connection to the real world. Since you are probably still a part of the current traditional system, invite your learners to connect to required standards. Have them create a mind map of their interest and ways they can connect to what they know, what they have to learn, what they would like to learn, how they could demonstrate that they learned, and what questions they might have.

5. Identify a real-world problem.

Sometimes learners cannot connect their interest with a real-world problem. You could start with a problem where they might be able to make a real difference if they could solve that problem together. Walk around your school and go outside to observe what is around you. You and your learners may find a problem or issue you never thought about before. This is called “generative curriculum” which means coming up with questions and direction for learning as you learn.

6. Plan learning.

Let them plan together or individually using the following 3 questions from George Couros that drive Passion-Based Learning from his blog, The Principal of Change

• What will I learn?
• What will I solve?
• What will I create?

7. Make learning meaningful.

Dr. Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D [https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/ ] shared experiences where she noticed that there was a problem with how she was being asked to learn. She was cramming and memorizing information, being tested for mastery prior to having enough practice time and learning facts with no context or relevance to what she needed to learn. In her post, she hit the nail on the head when you wrote, “The unintended consequences of these artificial and unnatural ways of learning include believing that learning should be difficult, painful, disciplined, and not fun. She also discussed the importance of context as relevant meaningful tasks.

“Learning can and should be natural, fun, and engaging.” @jackiegerstein.

I agree with Jackie that learning has to be meaningful and have a purpose.

[Source www.personalizelearning.com/2015/04/learning-can-and-should-be-natural-and.html]

8. Build a new culture of learning.

Give good reasons for learning. Watch this video from Dr. Tae about the culture of learning  with secondary science teachers and university professors. What is the secret to learning? Real learning is mostly self-motivated paired with the right mentor.

Read Terry Heick’s article Promoting a Culture of Learning  that walks you through using a gradual release of responsibility model:

• Show Them
• Help Them
• Let Them

9. Create a Makerspace.

Diana Rendina, Media Specialist/School Librarian at Stewart Middle Magnet School in Tampa, FL transformed her library to serve as an informal STEM learning space for her learners. Check out Renovated Learning to follow her Makerspace journey.

10. Develop Passionate Learners.

I highly recommend that you read Pernille Ripp’s book “Passionate Learners.” Pernille, a 7th grade Language Arts teacher at Oregon Middle School, Oregon, Wisconsin,being met. She then listened to their answers and tried to develop pathways writes her story how she had almost quit teaching because she didn’t like the teacher she had become. She started by asking her learners which needs they have that are not that may include their requested modifications.

Example Passion Projects

Julie Rogers Bascom, Service-Learning Coordinator for Edina Public Schools in Minnesota, shared with me how the following year-long Passion Projects engaged learners in authentic real-world activities. [Edina Service Learning http://www.edinaschools.org/domain/78]

All 680 tenth grade learners in Edina High School’s Pre AP Language Arts Class engaged in a year-long Passion Project, digging deep into their interests as a way to meet learning standards.  Each learner chose a topic of importance, researched and investigated the theme they chose and wrote a ten-page research paper. As part of this course, each learner took action for an identified problem in their area of interest. One learner who is interested in computer science held an e-waste collection, filling two semi-trucks with electronic waste, diverting the waste from the landfill. One learner, concerned about clean water for a village where her grandparents live, designed a water filter that would help filter out excess fluoride from wells in rural India.  Another learner, having been a foster child, lobbied for awareness and advocated for resources for foster families.  Following the service-learning cycle:

IPARD – Investigation > Planning > Action > Reflection > Demonstration, learners used their knowledge and experiences from their research to solve community problems by engaging in authentic service-learning. 

When you look at the bigger picture, it all comes down to one thing: passion to learn and changing the focus to learning not on teaching. This has been my mission for over 25 years. Now I’m finding more and more examples of passion-based learning. Julie’s example of service learning is more than an assignment. The learners found a problem they were passionate about and used critical thinking skills to solve it their way.

When I think of all the educators I know who stretch their thinking and go the extra mile like Diana, Julie, Rich, Jackie, Pernille, and George and others, I know that no one can transform education alone. We all need to share and learn together. I found my purpose. It is to learn all I can about learner-centered environments, connect to others who believe all learners can learn their way, and share their stories of transformation of “school” to cultures of learning. I wrote this quote over ten years ago…

“Go with your strengths and interests, find your passion and, then discover your purpose.”

I am thinking of changing that last part to “and your purpose will discover you.”
Has your purpose found you?

[This post was created for an article in the Fall OnCUE 2015 issue]

Society has always been impacted by technology. Each invention has affected how people relate to one another and how cultures have expanded or ended. Technology impacts how cities grow, where people live, and who owns what. Technologies are the reason a few people are very rich, that people are more social, and that teaching and learning is changing. We are at a crucial time in history where educators can make a difference in how our students interact with one another and make a place for themselves in society.

Historical Perspective

People developed a language so they could communicate and learn from elders through their stories. They invented tools for agriculture, to build homes, and to create weapons for hunting and protection. Civilizations have been impacted by natural disasters, encroachment from other civilizations, and from problems within their own community. Technology not only increased humans’ life span but how we live, how long we live, and how many there are of us.

[Human population growth over time]

The population doubled from 2.5 billion to 5 billion in only 40 years after 1950. The world population passed 6 billion just before the end of the 20th century. It is estimated that the population will reach 8-12 billion before the end of the 21st century. More people means more technology.

People migrated to find a better life. For most of history, only the wealthy had access to literature and a good education. The printing press allowed the masses to receive news, read books, and attend school. Inventions changed the way we worked like the cotton gin where slaves were stolen from Africa to be used as free labor with no rights, and the railroads that were built with Chinese labor who had little or no rights, no property, or a fair wage. Communities developed within large cities to protect and sustain the different cultures.

After World War II, freeway systems led to the suburbs. Public transportation changed when the automobile became part of every family. Television shows replaced dinner conversations. We saw man walk on the moon and the horrors of war in our living rooms.

So Where are We Now?

The Internet and mobile technology are changing the way people interact, work, and learn. Everyone can report the news or share a picture from their cell phone. You can produce your own music, publish your own book, blog your thoughts that you usually keep to yourself, create a website with even personal information, Twitter what you are doing right now, and talk on your cell whenever and wherever you want. We are using technology for our own use yet it infringes on others. Does this technology allow us to respect each other and value each others’ time and work or do just the opposite?

Consider these questions about today’s technology:

• Do you answer your cell phone when you are at a party, in line for coffee, dining with friends, etc.?
• Would your children rather text message instead of talking to your friends face-to-face?

Image from Consumerist

• Do you post to your blog your thoughts and link to others without researching if the information is valid?
• Do your children have a FaceBook profile with links to friends they don’t know?
• Would you rather visit a museum in SecondLife than visit a real museum?
• Do you believe that all music, art, and literature should be free?

Our connections seem personal, but are they? Many young people value the number of friends they have more than the quality of those friendships. The appeal of technology is real. Do you have an iPhone or a Droid? What about an iPad? Today, the arts, artists, and culture do not seem as valued as in the past. Who owns the work? How would the Beatles promote their music today? They probably would create a FaceBook site and give away samples of their work. With a Creative Commons license, they would probably allow others to use but not modify their work. How do artists make money? How does the viewer find this artist if the artist is not tech savvy? How do you know if the artist is the original artist? With the proliferation of social networking tools where everyone can share and publish on the web, artists will have to be innovative and entrepreneurial to be successful.

Web 2.0 allows us to be self-absorbed yet more connected than ever.

“The consequences of Web 2.0 are inherently dangerous for the vitality of culture and the arts. Its empowering promises play upon that legacy of the ’60s–the creeping narcissism … with its obsessive focus on the realization of the self.” . [Andrew Keen’s reference to Web 2.0]

Every day there are new Web 2.0 tools that let you create, publish, and share. This is a time in history we will look back and say either “I wish I had created my own Web 2.0 or mobile app”, “I lost everything because I gave it away” or “what is Web 2.0?”

Okay – so I twitter [twitter.com], blog [barbara.bray.net], and have my own learning community [my-ecoach.com]. I’m not alone. People are leaving landline phones, books, and television by the millions. They use Internet-based services like YouTube or Hulu to watch their favorite shows and Skype to virtually connect — for free. It is a generational shift with even older generations jumping on board. Companies are marketing to a new kind of multinational and navigating the digital Silk Road. The growth of technology in China and India already affects how we use technology just because of the numbers of people involved. Video games have professional leagues with international online contests and self-made celebrities [Major League Gaming: http://www.mlgpro.com/]. Digital fads that are global may work in one country and not in another. Student tutors mentor students in another country. The old hierarchical system is falling away. Textbooks are starting to become open source such as Curriki.com and MIT OpenCourseware. Even marketing is changing. Viral marketing launches companies like Threadless T-shirts where the consumers design what they want. Will our students design what they need to learn? Will teachers learn how to be the digital guide?

Value Arts and Culture

With more people and crowded conditions, new technologies will be necessary to support and sustain us. Let’s also make sure we use these tools to tell and protect our stories. Video, audio, images, and interactive features open doors to worlds and cultures that children could never learn in a book. We need to allow for private spaces for confidential discussions and provide guides for tentative and eager participants. It is our duty as educators to guide students and other educators as they become innovative producers, teach them to become cautious consumers, and learn how they can use these tools to reach their fullest potential. We need to support the arts and artists and value each others culture. Let’s take these next few years to design digital ways to connect us not only to each other but to promote our values, to respect each other, and to encourage innovation as we develop a place for ourselves in the 21st century!

This post was updated from the original post on Rethinking Learning September 2007

“Schools in their present state are anti-creative.” [source] There are more than 120 different definitions of creativity but, in the case of creative thinking in schools, it is not just about bringing arts into the curriculum; it is about changing how we teach and learn. It is about creating a new type of school culture where learners are innovating, being curious, taking risks, and are okay about failing and learning from mistakes. Read Creativity at School: is it even possible?

I have been thinking about creativity while working with 1:1 laptop programs and schools that are integrating technology into the classroom. Just giving students a laptop or using technology in a lesson is not changing the culture of the school and how students learn. Learners need critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Teachers become more of a facilitator guiding the buzz happening in their classroom and online. We hear the why we need to change over and over at conferences, in speeches, on YouTube. We get it. We have to change our learning environments to prepare our students to be 21st century citizens. Read Ben Johnson’s post on “How to Ignite Intellectual Curiosity in Students” on Edutopia.

Changing schools like this is not something that happens right away. In fact, changing schools and school culture takes years. The reason is that the adults who work in the system, the teachers, administrators,  parents — all were taught in systems where creativity was not allowed. It was about memorizing facts. I still hear from some parents “if it was good for me, then it is good for my children.” The problem that we need to get across to these parents is that yesterday’s schools won’t work today and are harmful for our children’s future. The jobs you prepared for in the past are no longer available today. The world has changed and is changing faster than we can keep up. Our kids cannot compete now. How will they compete as a global citizen?  I said it once before — this is a moral issue.

Most innovative programs are with soft money (grants). When the grant ends, the program ends unless they find other money. Some grants are for one year. Some lucky grants are three to five years, but that still is not enough time to change the culture of the school. I’ve been throwing around in my head how much time is enough time for change. Every school, every teacher, every student is different and unique. There is no clear cut formula on change. How you deal with change is personal.

When you think about changing the culture in a school, you need to be creative and innovative. Actually, those are the skills you need to teach. How do you teach something you may not know about? We ask our teachers to integrate technology but, in many cases, we don’t provide enough technology or training, current technology, or technology that works all the time. In fact, it’s not really the technology that makes change. We continue using the same school schedule and assessment strategies. In other cases, we assume if we teach teachers how to use a technology, then they will automatically know how to include it in their lessons. Teachers will use an interactive whiteboard just like they used a whiteboard; in front of the classroom. They will use PowerPoint to present their lessons. Animating bullets may be all a teacher feels comfortable learning and doing. Teaching teachers to let go and let students become more responsible for their learning just doesn’t seem right for many teachers. Being a facilitator instead of a lecturer is not an easy move for teachers especially if teachers are told to teach to the test and follow a pacing guide.

Bringing creativity to the classroom is so big and scary for schools that it IS going to take time before we see full scale change. There are pockets of excellence here and there. There are programs like New Tech High and the Buck Institute where schools are changing to project-based learning. This takes a big effort from everyone and a commitment to invest time and money into people and appropriate resources.

Next post will be about a change process I’m working on with several schools. I thought I’d share how it works while it is being implemented. Going to take a few risks myself so all of us can learn together.