We need to teach into the unknown. Innovation is preparing students for their future, not our past." Grant Lichtman's TED Talk about his experiences on his road trip to observe schools across the nation over ten years ago really resonates with me and my innovation plan, teaching 21st century skills in a blended learning environment.
I do not disvalue my educational experience as a student or the experience of others, but let's be honest. It is outdated. Some of us lived in the student world that transitioned from learning from transparencies on overhead projectors and chalkboards to INCREDIBLE technology... where computers were gigantic monitors and towers, the internet came on an AOL CD, can you hear the dial-up sounds in your head right now? Our ringtones came up recording the audio from the radio at just the right time or from our Limewire downloads and advanced technology was an anti-skip CD player. Others of us lived when these things were science fiction. If we continue to use what society has engrained in us to believe is proper education, factory-model instruction, one-size-fits-all standardized testing, sit-and-get teacher-centered lessons, we are living in a time machine that is taking us to the past where we don't belong. It brings slight comfort to know that Grant was able to learn that for one school's problem, another had a solution, and vice versa. What stinks is I would love the time to go explore other campuses, other math classrooms, and see successes, but when is there time? This goes into developing effective professional learning, where time and resources could be spent on teachers to actively engage in their learning through continuous observation and feedback. But doing this requires systemic change, so what influence can we have to get this change to happen? One possibility is moving higher up in the educational hierarchy but with my experience, those who move up get sucked into the vortex of the past and forget how to consider challenging the status quo. Another possibility is through voting and impacting legislation but I am not sure what that really looks like. When we look at resources like this, looking to see what these presenters are doing now helps me strengthen (or sometimes weaken) the message. Fortunately, Grant is still blogging (https://www.grantlichtman.com/blog/) and one post he has is from December 19, 2019 (The Three Tipping Points for School Change). He continues to write through the pandemic, but even though this post was just months before our worlds were flipped upside down, he captures what is needed eloquently.
The Desire to Change
“We want something different from what we have.” The Dedication to Challenge “We ask our students to get outside of their comfort zones and take risks.” The Decision to Control “We can’t control everything, but we are going to totally own what we can control.” (Lichtman, 2019) This could apply to us right? We want something different from what we have, an educational system that supports and encourages authentic learning. We ask ourselves to get outside of our comfort zones and take risks, embracing innovative lessons. We cannot control everything, but we are going to totally own what we can control, which is what happens in our classrooms daily. This blog is now bookmarked, Grant seems to be on to something...
References
Lichtman, G. (2019, December 19). The Three Tipping Points for School Change. Corwin Connect. https://corwin-connect.com/2019/12/the-three-tipping-points-for-school-change/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=SAGE_social&utm_content=corwinpress&utm_term=6bad4b6b-44c0-4546-be62-e90caed921e8
TEDx Talks. (2013). What 60 schools can tell us about teaching 21st century skills: Grant Lichtman at TEDxDenverTeachers [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZEZTyxSl3g
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We have globally moved from the industrial age to the digital age, but our educational system relies heavily on industrial age techniques. Classrooms mimic the factory-model process where, according to Thomas and Brown, “learning is treated as a series of steps to be mastered” (2011). When students are addressed as though they are machines achieving repetitive tasks as efficiently as possible, success is defined by the results they produce through standardization of assessments and grades (Thomas & Brown, 2011). One thing that remains constant in this world is that it is always changing, but our educational system attempts to force an outdated approach in this new environment and reality. Rather than trying to play catch up, we need to grow and adapt with the current digital age. Part of this requires adopting a new culture of learning. One reason teaching high school mathematics can be challenging is because of the instilled societal mindset: people are born good or bad at math and there is nothing one can do to change that, so why invest one’s time into something they will “never” be successful in? While a yet mindset can address this concern, incorporating a wider set of characteristics and skills that all people need, regardless of their choices in life outside of the mathematics classroom, bridges the connection between one’s passions, desires, and dreams for life with the academic knowledge. Yes, a significant amount of math content is explicit knowledge, “content that is easily identified, articulated, transferred, and testable” but despite that, according to Brown, “the pool of unchanging resources is shrinking, and that the pond is providing us with fewer and fewer things that we can even identify as fish anymore” (Thomas & Brown, 2011). Math is important, don't get me wrong, but as math teachers we need to be realistic and consider all of the other skills students can learn beyond the math content. How many students are going to be graphing transformations of functions and writing the key attributes domain, range, intercepts, etc.? Not many, but how many of them are going to have to analyze visuals and draw information and conclusions from these visuals? Plenty. Rote memorization only serves a small group of students, holistic approach serves all. Teaching 21st century skills in a blended learning environment through the lens of mathematics requires the new culture of learning approach, which heavily relies on adopting its two essential elements simultaneously: global connectivity and structured environment. With the world and information at our fingertips, society has “unlimited access and resources to learn about anything” (Thomas & Brown, 2011). There is, however, a need to be able to discern between what is valuable, relevant, and appropriate, and what is not. The focus should not be on just answering prefabricated questions, but using these answers to generate more questions because this continuous cycle fosters the mindset of life-long learning. It shifts our view to not valuing what we already know but embracing what we do not know yet and allowing us the opportunity, the time, and the space to discover and create new ideas and perspectives. Critical and analytical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, and metacognition are all 21st century skills that current and future employers seek because our world is experiencing new problems and questions we could not fathom even five, ten years ago. All levels of companies and brands need innovative employees to think outside the box and really utilize and adapt the current reality to fit the needs of the future. These skills are only taught through experience. The analogy of learning to ride a bicycle comes to mind. One can watch others ride a bicycle, get all the safety gear and training wheels, have someone coach and guide them through staying balanced, but you only know you have learned how to ride the bicycle when you fall, get back up, keep adjusting, and then having the elation of finally pedaling a few feet without crashing. Once one learns and truly understands how to ride a bicycle, other ideas and tricks start to emerge, like wheelies or trail riding. If you have not been on a bicycle in a while, getting back on takes a little time but it becomes second nature. Being able to ride a bicycle opens up the world even more than on foot. Our classroom needs to have the structure of the watching others, providing safety gear and training wheels, coaching and guiding through setbacks. Students will make mistakes and fall down, but the culture in feeling safe to get back up because those around you will support you is vital. Additionally, learning is enhanced when it becomes a collective through the relationships, and a blended learning environment that intentionally incorporates communication and collaboration builds the opportunities to develop those relationships that will improve student engagement and learning. Not only that, but it also mimics our global society, where everyone’s individual perspective and experience is relevant and valid but can positively contribute to the collective and help us to adapt our own viewpoints. Creating a significant learning environment through blended learning addresses the problem that our community considers the educational system as broken, because it is not helping students grow into young adults that can positively contribute to society. A big challenge that comes with building a blending learning environment is battling the established perception that a traditional classroom is the only appropriate structure for mathematics, but according to Gallup (Inc, 2022), Americans are at an all-time low in terms of satisfaction in the education system. The top three reasons Americans are dissatisfied is the quality of education: 65% believe there are problems with the curriculum or educational approach, 15% believe the curriculum is poor and/or outdated and 9% believe students are not learning adequate life skills. Now is the time to shift from the present average methods that produce average students with ostensibly average results to innovative environments that prepare students for a relentlessly adaptive future (Harapnuik et al., 2018). The current data shows that the current educational approach is not generating growth or superb results. Also, college is losing its leverage as a necessity to enter the lucrative workforce. With organizations conducting micro-credentialing options for specific on-job skills that introduce and strengthen an employee’s projected professional abilities and business standards (Pelletier et al., 2022), this leaves the public education system to provide significant learning environments where students can begin to develop the traits that can set them apart and help them rise above the status quo. Students will reflect your attitude and mindset towards learning, so when we shift to creating significant learning environments, we need to establish structures and routines that support students to find passion and imagination in any content area. I tend to think about the big picture but introduce things to students in pieces, starting with mindset. As the year progresses, I add other pieces that involve additional 21st century skills. Everything at once would be overwhelming, especially at the high school level, where usually up to this point, they have been conditioned to learn the game of school and think drill and kill is what teaching looks like. Incorporating reflection throughout the learning process creates a supporting layer where the small steps of growth can be redefined as exponential growth as those small pieces are added to build to the back of the puzzle box big picture. Imagine trying to do a connect the dots puzzle but without the numbers. Unless the picture is overtly obvious, it is highly unlikely we would be able to accomplish the task of creating the final picture. So many possibilities of how those dots could connect, this could easily be turned into a math lesson. If you have a picture with 10 dots, and you connect all of the dots together, that would create 45 total lines with a 362,880 combinations of ways to get those 55 lines. WOW. Imagine trying to put a puzzle together but without a picture. They actually sell those for people who want a challenge! Okay, now let's say you have that picture. What process do you take? A lot of people will start with the edges first and work their way in. Some people look for color patterns, others look for piece type patterns, and it makes managing a 100-piece puzzle that mathematically has approximately 9… with 157 zeros… 9000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 ...ways to choose pieces and put them down in the correct place so much easier. When you do puzzles with friends, the different perspectives help. As educators, we have the final picture, and it is our learning environment that provides students the pieces. How we provide those pieces is what makes the difference between collecting dots and connecting dots. Because we have put together this puzzle year after year, we must intentionally consider how to provide students access to these different pieces and implement structures to give them opportunities to explore how to put them together independently or collaboratively. We can tell them all we want how to connect them but it is not until they realize for themselves the connections that they really get it. Teaching 21st century skills in a blended learning environment through the lens of mathematics requires a new culture of learning approach, relying on two essential elements simultaneously: global connectivity and structured environment. With our connections to worldwide communities and the intentionally designed settings that nurture the new culture of learning, we can change the world one student at a time, turning them into the heroes of the future. References Beautiful butterfly jigsaw puzzle. (n.d.). Lovejigsawpuzzles.com. https://www.lovejigsawpuzzles.com/jigsaws/butterfly-jigsaw-puzzle/butterfly-jigsaw.jpg
Butterfly extreme dot-to-dot / connect the dots PDF. (2023). https://teachsimplecom.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/images/butterfly-extreme-dot-to-dot-connect-the-dots-pdf/image-1628885272548-1.jpg Free Vector | Bicycles icons flat color set with people riding bikes isolated vector illustration. (n.d.). Freepik. https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/bicycles-icons-flat-color-set-with-people-riding-bikes-isolated-vector-illustration_38754353.htm Free Vector | Character illustration of people with global network concept. (n.d.). Freepik. https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/character-illustration-people-with-global-network-concept_3425172.htm Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning. Creative Commons License. Inc, G. (2022, September 1). Americans’ Satisfaction With K-12 Education on Low Side. Gallup.com. https://news.gallup.com/poll/399731/americans-satisfaction-education-lowside.asp Pelletier, K., McCormack, M., Reeves, J., Robert, J., Arbino, N., & Educause. (2022). 2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report, Teaching and Learning Education. Educause. Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning : Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Douglas Thomas And John Seely Brown. What is fantastic about my collaborative group is that not only do we influence our social ability, we delegate our time and conversations between the courses we are taking together. While there are a lot of similarities between how we approached our course on Leading Organization Changes to the Growth Mindset course, there were also distinct differences. These differences can be categorized into leading, organizing, and changing, just like the class covers and they apply to my individual approach as well. Leading Leading for me is not necessarily attached to an official title, but rather being the example or role model for others to see, hear, and act like to be better themselves. Being actively engaged in the weekly class meetings as well as in the discussion boards were some ways I led, but something I know I can improve upon though is my timing and being proactive in completing readings, reflections, and posts in case of setbacks. This term's setback was getting the flu. Could I have foreseen the illness? No, but I could have not procrastinated to the point where I needed to ask for an extension on my Big Picture Growth. If I had been intentional about spacing out my work and not relying on being able to complete it in a short amount of time, it is likely I would have been fine. Even after my submissions, I would go back and adjust components based on my new learning and perspective.
Organizing What felt like the most intense reading expectations so far in our master's program, we identified that splitting the work and becoming mini-experts in a section was best. We agreed that everyone would be expected to read the introductory and concluding chapters, otherwise the reading was divided amongst us by chapters or topics and we would summarize we have read in a shared document. Choices were made based on our innovation plans and education roles. A screenshot of our Influencer book notes. A screenshot of our 4 Disciplines of Execution book notes.
We also looked to include examples we found in past student work, articles, or other professional blog posts that included the fundamentals of the four disciplines of execution or explaining the why. It did not hurt either that Hillary's husband found a great summarization of 4 Disciplines of Execution and that Amanda reads Crucial Conversations every year (I think she has some fancy certification as a trainer for it). Even if I did not always participate in the discussion boards during the appropriate weeks, that did not prohibit me from reading what others shared to start formulating my own connections and ideas. This also led me into a routine of revisiting assignments or blog posts to integrate my new learning and connections from other's viewpoints or ePortfolios. Changing A lot of changing happened during this class too. There were times when the readings, assignments, videos, and discussions were deprioritized. Even now, when writing this, I am fully aware there is a discussion board I have not posted to... yet... but my self-responsible nature will nudge me to getting it done. I sometimes become figuratively paralyzed due in large part to the juggling act of all of my professional and personal roles especially in the midst of a NOW culture. Reflecting my journey from where I have left to where I am headed, including my mental health journey, helps me remember that we exist in a gray world and depending upon the day and circumstances, we could be anywhere in that spectrum of gray. It changes every day. Ultimately, the course on leading organization change incorporated each word: changing in the form of Big Picture Growth, leading and organizing in the form of Big Picture Goals. We often let life and the whirlwind can take over but once the storm clears and the rainbow comes, we can keep moving forward together. While I was never at 100%, I would give myself a 93/100 to my contributions to learning in my Leading Organization Change course. If I keep leading, organizing, and changing, it will only get better. References Covey, S., McChesney, C., & Huling, J. (2018). 4 Disciplines Of Execution. Simon & Schuster Ltd.
Grenny, J. (2013). Influencer : The new science of leading change. Mcgraw-Hill Education.
Something I have learned through my role as a student (The Yet In Me - My Mindset Experience as a Student) and an educator in the education system is the word "yet" does not mean that I am on the cusp of a dramatic change or extreme growth in a short period of time but rather an opportunity to grow in almost a miniscule way in the moment, but those moments add up. I am still working on feedback though and my response to it. I accept all constructive feedback and prefer when people have suggestions or recommendations on how to proceed forward. Even prompting my thinking with questions helps. Typically though, others believe I am mad at them because I get upset, then the reality is I am upset with myself for not thinking of the ideas sooner.
This can be the same for our students. When a student has devoted a lot of time and energy from their perspective into solving a problem or completing a task, and then they get feedback on how to improve and adjust, their response is a reflection or deflection. When they reflect and understand intrinsically that it helps them learn and grow, the response comes out in a positive manner. When they deflect and the response comes out negatively, I am not sure it is because a student does not care, but they are building up a wall for some reason. Reflecting is uncomfortable. Realizing that we could have been better in the past "if only we had done this before" is humbling. Our response to the feedback and having a growth mindset in which to receive and accept it makes it less uncomfortable. The destination always seems to be the emphasis. The final grade, the diploma, the big promotion, all of these things are what we openly celebrate and praise. What if we focus more on the journey? Consider the space program and all of the failures that led up to the success. Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon literally defined it as "one small step of a man" because that's actually all it was. The "one giant leap for mankind" encompasses all of the events that brought them to that moment. Through trial and error, through meticulous research and development, they learned when failures happened and how to adapt their understanding to build a rocket that takes people out of this world and onto the next. You could even consider Elon Musk and all that he is involved in with SpaceX. He can be viewed as genius or lunatic, but if we consider the great innovators of humanity, wouldn't we possibly classify them as either of those labels? They are ones who decided to ignore people limiting them and just try new things to see what happens. When the failure struck, the negative criticism did not stop them but rather encouraged them to try something else. We should consider the impact The Yet Mindset has as one small step for a student, one giant leap for education and the world. Let's get out of the world we are in and look towards the future.
References
NASA Video. (2013). One Small Step, One Giant Leap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSdHina-fTk
My Why: The Purpose
Everyone deserves access to opportunities that nurture the deeply intrinsic human desire to make the most out of life by learning and growing daily through experiences as individuals in a global community.
My How: The Process
Supporting students to become the better people they desire to be by pouring into them the love, encouragement, support, and feedback that has been poured into me comes from teaching 21st century skills in a blended learning environment through the lens of mathematics.
My What: The Result
Students will learn connections between mathematics and the characteristics that set them apart to be positive contributing adult members of society with more opportunities to continue learning and growing in college, career, and/or military.
Education and learning has been my safe space for as long as I can remember. While my parents provided me the foundation for Maslow's Pyramid of Needs, including the physiological and safety needs, it was through my friends and teachers in school that I progressed towards self-actualization from belongingness, love needs, and esteem needs (The School of Life, 2019). I have had the deficiency needs met almost daily and the growth needs fulfilled almost daily as well in some capacity (Hierarchy of Needs, n.d.). I also recognize that I come from privilege and I have been called to use my privilege to provide others opportunity to move from the deficiency needs to growth needs. For most teachers, we get a group of students for only one academic school year while they sit in our classrooms as students on an official roster. We also recognize that our students become a part of our hearts forever, even after they leave for the summer, graduate from high school, and move into adult life as a college student, career person, or military personnel. Because we are invested in their livelihoods as well as academic content, we cannot just spend time focusing only on the subject knowledge. Students who buy into your classroom are the ones who know why we do what we do - we care about their well-being and their future. Our actions of what and how we operate in our classrooms, lessons, and interactions are rooted in this belief in them. We urgently need to meet students where they are at in their hearts first to create deep, meaningful impact on their lives because they deserve the opportunity for someone to invest in them and this very well may be the only chance. We cannot assume students have this in their lives yet through parents, coaches, or other teachers. We could literally be the teacher in their life that they reflect back on and see a monumental shift in their future. We can know that students need this but feel like it is too much work. It is just like, you can know you are smart but feel dumb. You can know you are beautiful but feel ugly. You can know you are valuable but feel worthless. Just because I know something to be true doesn't necessarily change how I feel 100% of the time. This reconciliation of heart versus mind is something I personally struggle with in certain capacities in my life, but part of my personal decision and intrinsic motivation in moving towards change is that I have been able to convince my heart and rely on my past experiences to acknowledge the disconnect between logic and feeling and keep moving towards a goal. It makes me consider all the times when I have tried to build relationships with challenging students. Daily battles, feeling like I did not matter to that child and nothing I could do would change that, did not stop me from continuing to try because I knew that at some point, whether in my classroom or not, they would have an opportunity to reflect back and know that I cared deeply about them as a student and a person. I know this to be true because I have had a student or two who would, at the end of the year, express their appreciation for my role in their education and life. In contrast, there are students who have also expressed their elation for never having to step foot in my class again... but those moments of clarity and reflection from the positive provide me memories and reminders that even when the head doesn't agree with the heart, keep moving until they do. Rather than asking why, we should ask why not now? Tomorrow may be too late and yesterday did not have this opportunity. Today is it.
References
Cassie . (2021, December 21). 23 Inspirational Quotes for Teachers to Lift You Up When You’re Down. Teach Starter. https://www.teachstarter.com/us/blog/10-inspirational-quotes-teachers-us/
Hierarchy of Needs. (n.d.). Www.wichita.edu. https://www.wichita.edu/services/mrc/OIR/Pedagogy/Theories/maslow.php#:~:text=Maslow The School of Life. (2019). Why Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs Matters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0PKWTta7lU Jr, M. (2017). Know Your Why | Michael Jr. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytFB8TrkTo
In high school, my best friend Laura and I would sleep over Saturday night and when waking up Sunday morning, rush to hear the now nostalgic sounds of dial-up and read through secrets from around the world. Frank Warren started the blog with the intention of connecting the world through the art of secrets and I have been following PostSecret pretty close to its inception. Full disclosure, there can be some very graphic language and images, depending upon the secrets. Here's a TED talk that gives a glimpse into the beginnings of the project:
I mention this because every so often, there is a secret that really speaks to be, almost like a reflection in the mirror. I posted this one on my personal social media page when I started teaching at the high school. The impact we made as educators may seem small, insignificant, even non-existent at times, but all it takes is inspiring one other person to be better, to learn and grow, to give back to the world to have deep impact. If we positively influence two people, and those two people influence two others, well that's exponential growth... Before beginning the program, it was abundantly clear that this would be different that what we have experienced as students and teachers but it was in the best interest of me and my peers. We would not be formed into professional robots emitting the same signals and performing repetitive computations but rather into genuine individuals making powerful decisions and changes in our educational worlds. It is empowering me to create the ripple effect through thinking outside my comfort zone and break the outdated norms of education. It does this by actually implementing the structures they believe will save the world of education: COVA and CSLE.
Choice, Ownership, Voice, Authentic Learning Opportunities and Creating Significant Learning Environments
When we had our first virtual meeting and our first breakout group, I shared a secret: I have been questioning myself. What did I sign up for? What did I get myself into? What a relief when I found out I wasn't alone. Succeeding in this program is about being the students we want our students to be: ones open to community and collaboration, ones free to express ourselves and discuss our perspectives, ones willing to try something new and break the norm. While I would not change anything about the traditional academic path that led me here, I do have the power inside to create the path my students will reflect back on. A Masters in Education means changing the world, one year, one class, one student at a time.
References
Warren, F. (2012). Half a million secrets. Www.ted.com. https://www.ted.com/talks/frank_warren_half_a_million_secret
Warren, F. (2019, July 27). PostSecret. PostSecret; PostSecret. https://postsecret.com/ |
My husband lovingly teases me when I reflect on my day with him and say "I learned something new today!" because he would be surprised if I didn't learn something new.
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