marklee's Blog

Dan-
ch 9's data streams sounded like a great idea, but I was struggling with ideas to use. I'm not sure how idea 3 above gets implemented but idea 1 & 2 are very powerful and just the kind of ideas I was lacking. Thanks for sharing.

Mark

Changing Environments
As I read chapter 9 several questions kept recurring.
Is there anything about the physical environment of our school that might be changed in order to better allow some of the changes we have discussed? In thinking about the answer to this I have gone and ahead and decided to treat the school schedule as a part of the physical environment since it determines how teachers and students are placed throughout the day. I work in an elementary school where I see students for technology class in 30 minute blocks of time, once per week. Teachers have planning while I teach, thus we cannot plan together unless it is outside of the school day which many teachers (more and more each year) are less willing to do. This relatively short amount of teaching time restricts the types of projects I can do with the students on their computers. Ideally I would have longer blocks of time that would allow for both instruction and then application/creation on the student’s part. I have tried to shift some of the instruction to outside the school day by using online avenues (Blackboard). Unfortunately for the age students I work with school is still a physical building that closes at 4 pm. The only traffic I get from students hitting my course sites are those that are truly enamored by technology. Ideally I would be able to meld what I do to support the curriculum of the classroom teachers but they feel some of the some physical restrictions in that they must share technology resources (computers).

Affordable 1-1 technology will be a huge boon to the way schools do business with their students. Unfortunately even when the technology does become affordable our schools will not be ready for the sweeping change. I wonder if classroom teachers feel the same limitation of the schedule and the way we chop up the subjects into predetermined times. Ie All math learning will occur between 10-11 am. All science learning will occur between 11-11:45 am. Although there are so many tie-ins between the two subjects (as there are between reading and social studies) we continue to physical separate the subjects. Do teachers see this or is it something we have been doing for so long that we fail to notice it?

The authors continue to discuss the importance of reinforcing vital behaviors in chapter 9. While I’m not sure our school has agree to what the most vital behaviors are (we really should) these behaviors need to be reinforced in order to change the existing concept map of our teachers. My goal is to get teachers to try new, more engaging ways of teaching and to give children more opportunities to CREATE in the classroom as opposed to REGURGITATE. If our school/district leadership decides this is a vital behavior we must find ways to reinforce it. One such way suggested by the authors to change the concept map (try something new or different) is to surround teachers with a focused data stream that reminds them of the importance of these behaviors. With the proximity (or lack of) teachers have from each other (close the door and teach) how do we create such a stream and what information becomes part of that stream. I enjoyed the HP story but don’t see a school stopping business to do that. After all, we have 500 students to supervise. Contractually we can only require teachers to be together a certain number of minutes beyond the school day.
Interpersonal relationships are important to collaborative efforts, but in our building over the past few years less and less teachers even make their way to the staff room to eat lunch and visit. This subtle change over the years has lessened the cohesiveness of our staff.
I’ll be curious to read other takes on chapter 9.

Kim-
Can't agree with you more on "unintentional" rewards. I cringe when another tells me they can't wait to have summer off. Yes, summer is to recharge...but part of that recharge should be spent on new learning. I know there are problems with the merit pay system, but what is the incentive for a teacher to participate in summer development. Are we rewarding people for not doing PD in the summer and acquiring new skills to make them more effective in the classroom simply by not requiring it or making it part of a teacher's mission?

I saw you had a blog and checked it out. I was fascinated by your drawings summarizing Diffusion of Innovations and Influencers. What a great way to organize the ideas of each work.

Mark

Scott-

Sounds like your SMART goals from the excellent white paper you did for Microsoft a few years back.

Your five step process listed above is what schools should be doing to address their gaps in hitting those mandated achievement numbers.

Why aren't we (schools...not just my school) doing this on a wider basis? Is it just "old ways die hard" or dare I say it fear of doing something different or could it be a lack of knowledge to make it happen?

Teachers are splintered in how what they teach and how they teach it. The PLC brings everyone back to the same page and gives people the chance to share what works....ie tell the story!

I know teachers in many different local districts and not one uses the above 5 steps you list on a regular basis (if at all).

My own theory is that for most teachers teaching is still about the teaching....the performance, the act of relaying the information. In your steps it is about student learning...not just the act of teaching. Your steps couple the measurement of learning with determining the most effective pedagogy in order to benefit the individual students.

The use of formative measure (Inside the Black Box) have been shown to have great impact in growing student learning. If your steps are the right behaviors (or at least a great step in the right direction) why not find ways to reward those desired behaviors? And if you are to reward behaviors is it a public or private matter? I recall a number of years ago when the first teacher in our district achieved national board certification. The district made a huge deal of it and I was shocked because there were many teachers who resented this teacher for the recognition she received.

Mark

As I read chapter 7 I asked myself how much “social capital” was present in my school. As I reflected on the people with whom I work I recalled how supportive people are of each other with their actions. When someone is ill, dinners get made and shared with families and donations are made to help. Our group is tight.

Then I began to recall some of the failed change efforts in our district. Each change was embraced by a core group of teachers who had convinced the administrative team to move forward on the change.

However, “social capital” of the professional relationship between teachers wasn’t strong enough to make the change a reality for any sustained amount of time. The solidarity shared in successful change efforts in the book was not present in our school. The practice of Delancey’s residents “challenging each other” isn’t easily done in a school system. Too often teachers are islands of professional practice in that they plan alone, execute alone, and reflect (when time) alone.

How does a staff build the professional social capital about what needs to be done and build solidarity to ensure that all staff members are doing the “right” thing (which for people in education will always be debatable)? Teachers cannot bang pans outside another teacher’s classroom. Teachers rarely seem to know how or sometimes even what their next door neighbor is teaching.

Greg-
Your question made me think of my own PD experiences. The majority of it info disseminating (sit n get). I agree with your next layers which at some point have to become "do" focused. However, I don't think we do that in schools. We plan the PD, the PD is taught, but at least in my experience there isn't a "do" step....or even an expectation of "doing" often enough. Some of the most lasting PD has been when the admin has assigned "homework" or "application" work related to the "sit n get" session. I was surprised how many teachers resented that "assignment" or being asked to "do". And beyond being asked to "do" an admin or the building leadership (perhaps curric. committee members, etc) then have to dialogue with staff about the results of the "do" step. If we miss these critical steps it will never "stick".
Mark

Greg-
I think you make a logical point and logical assumption that a PLC can lead to new behaviors. Why seek new learning or knowledge if there is not a resulting behavior change? Do we join a PLC in order to just acquire additional information? I would think not although we might not say that up front. I would think most teachers participate in a PLC because it is the PD du jour or because they really have a topic they want to learn more about (or perhaps a combination of the two).
However, I wonder how many teachers seek PD purely because they are seeking a behavior change. I am participating in this book discussion not because I want to change my behavior but because I seek to change or at least influence someone else’s behavior.
I was a bit ahead in the book so took a bit of time off and started reading again today. Reviewing my notes on chapter 5 made me feel slightly unsettled as I began to recall BF Skinner’s work on operant conditioning and I felt a little uneasy. I’m wondering if anyone else feels at least a little uneasy?

The authors remind us in chapter 4 that in order to make something undesirable the new desirable we need to change a reaction. The way to do this is create new experiences and create new motives. This made me reflect on my own school setting. We are very high performing school district fortunate to have involved parents and active students. We are located in an affluent area and as in many affluent areas we have high test scores because our students have high ability.
My goal is to get teachers to use technology to make the learning experience more engaging for the students. I have a tough sell since our current measures say the students are succeeding and making their state mandated goals. For several years we surveyed the entire community about different parts of the “school experience” and had very good results across the board.
Some teachers are constantly ready to try new ideas, practices and tools in the classroom in the interest of raising achievement, engaging the students, and keeping themselves interested as well. However, for those “laggards” it is a tough sell since their experiences are positive i.e. high test scores. A teacher can simply say, “why would I change?”
As I read this book I am thinking of the laggard or even resistant teacher. Why would they change if their experiences are positive? I think reconnecting them to their own teaching and learning values would help. I don’t think anyone I work with went into teaching for the summers or so they could teach the same way every year. Rather I think they went into teaching because they love children and want them to develop and grow. There is so much information out there saying the children we teach are very different from those we taught even 8-10 years ago. Making teachers aware of those differences is huge as is reconnecting them to their original values. I think reinstituting a student satisfaction survey might also be a good step in the right direction.

Reminds me of the quote at the beginning of chapter 2: "It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do , and THEN do your best" -- W. Edwards Deming

Many teachers I work with can literally do no more or give more time than they already are. The above quote (and David's above post) really helped me reframe the whole concept of what we do and the time we take to do it. I do think teachers are doing their best...however, are they doing what is right or best practice? That becomes the real question. Are we doing what we've always done just because that is our habit or the way we learned to do things? How much of what we do in the classroom is even still connected to what we believe about education and the values we associate with teaching and learning?

Hi Greg-
You make a great point....but I'd have to say that it is not often that we get near the type of conversation you are visualizing. The class takes place during the summer and almost of the teacher discussion is geared towards teacher behaviors and teacher skills. I might try to "sell" the work involved in creating these projects as being great for student engagement levels...but for teachers it is much more about coming to the understanding of "I can do this" in terms of the newly learned tools/skills. In an ideal situation I would have a class during the school year that would last weeks, months and would involve more "field" work....as in "now try this with your kids and report out". However, in the past teachers did not want to make that kind of commitment.

Skip-
Great quote from Garagnon. I do think it is possible to create vicarious experiences in schools. We just have to take the time to do it. That might mean something else falls to the side or gets moved elsewhere. The story or vicarious experience is powerful. In your post you didn't think it was possible to have these experiences for teachers. I'm curious what change in behavior you are seeking. Can you share with us?
MarkLee

Hi Greg-
I've never thought of them as stories per se but there is plenty of sharing in the classroom...both informal and formal. At the midpoint or a bit earlier in the class teachers are asked to share where they are headed as they asked to be working on a independent project at the same time they are learning the new content I present. They also present at the end of the class. However, the real power comes in the informal sharing. This is the sharing that happens between other people in the classroom who they just happen to be sitting beside. Teachers who have had success with the technology will definitely tell their coworkers that "if they can do it"...anyone can do it. I hear that message all the time when teachers get a chance to work on these tech projects together or just interact with each other as they are working on their own projects. I can tell them they can do it, but in some ways I don't have the same credibility as a classroom teacher. I'm the computer teacher so of course I can do it. ;)
The "is it worth it" discussions are hard to quantify in terms of how much was learned but teachers will talk up the fact that the students enjoyed the projects, software, tools or whatever it is and that they were more engaged. Without engagement or even sufficient levels of engagement can students truly learn?

Greetings...
I am the technology specialist at Indian Hill Elementary in Cincinnati, OH. I follow Scott's blog and was excited to see he was leading a book group. Our building is undergoing some much needed change (although somewhat resisted by some) and I figured the discussions that result from this book group might be used to benefit the change process in our building. I also am trying to learn more about how PLNs function as part of some upcoming local inservice and I think this group is an excellent example of one more way we can keep learning.