Consider when you first learned about the concept of numbers and counting. You probably learned one to ten because of your fingers and toes, using a tangible representation. At this developmental stage, this information was the reality, but eventually we learn that there are numbers beyond that.
Counting to 20, or 100, became another milestone. Negative numbers represent the lack or reduction of a quantity, so comprehending we can count forwards and backwards became the new truth. Eventually math extends to fractions and decimals, irrational numbers, and even more abstract concepts like imaginary or complex numbers. When does it stop? Getting metacognitive, what are numbers without objects? Did we discover math or invent it? Jeff Dekofsky addresses this question. This progression through the simple concept of numbers can happen organically in a mathematics classroom. It is not limited to numbers, really any math idea or topic can be expanded upon in this way. Now, consider when we first learn to communicate. We start expressing ourselves through sound and movement, developing oral language starting with simple one-word statements and eventually crawling, walking, and running around to speak through body language. As we age, we acquire new vocabulary in a variety of contexts, such as academically through literature, or socially through friend groups and family dynamics. We develop multiple ways of conveying our thoughts, feelings, and ideas. According to Lingua (2022), there are over 7,000 languages around the world, and new bussin’ words are added to language every year. In her TEDTalk, Lera Bordotisky explores how languages shapes the way we think. Just as math concepts and language can be organically explored, so can 21st century skills. What if this approach is the cheat code to our future? My innovation project,teaching 21st century skills in a blended learning environment through the lens of mathematics has definitely evolved from the past into the present and it will continue to evolve towards the future. As I reflect on my journey, I need to consider how to start at the foundation and root of one idea, building and growing outwards and upwards, expanding to new connections and possibilities.
The Past
When first developing my innovation plan, it really inspired me to start thinking about what education gifted me, which is the skills and characteristics that support my continuous growth and improvement towards success. Being a millennial and growing up in the transition of Y2K, 21st century skills were something society just began articulating and my path through high school in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program and college gave me opportunities to develop these skills real-time. My transition from a student to an educator aligned with my learning philosophy and starting the Applied Digital Learning (ADL) program, I learned about the new digital age and new learning culture. A lot of reading research and literature on blended learning environments and 21st century skills reinforced my experiences and were consolidated in a literature review. I spent the summer producing an implementation outline ambitiously anticipating I could flip my classroom on its head within a year and refine after the follow two. Unfortunately, while I was learning what my mind and spirit felt true all along, putting those ideas into action fell short.
Creating my innovation plan felt natural and sharing my ideas with others was also exciting. A new school year meant this new opportunity to go for it and transitioning from teaching Precalculus (a subject I had taught consistently for the past seven years) to teaching Algebra 2 also provided a chance to use the change for the better. Breaking the cycle of factory model is hard, especially when collaborating with other teachers who have a fixed mindset and are closer to the end of their careers. With the team I am working with this year, I honestly cannot blame them at times for wanting to stick with what is comfortable because everything about education is exhausting. Despite my initial enthusiasm, there were many obstacles hindering me, and the vortex of the whirlwind sucked me right up into the abyss of a fixed mindset, rather than my yet mindset. I found myself ignoring my innovation plan because it seemed like it would have created double work for me on a lonely island under attack from the outside world. My soul has felt crushed one too many times to count for pouring my blood, sweat, and tears into a lesson, unit, activity, student, etc. that feels like no positive results are being produced. I want to be a great teacher, but what makes a great teacher?
Periodically, I would develop a lesson that incorporated some technology components, but it was not done consistently or with intention; I was just using technology for technology's sake or doing a great activity amid all the same old repetitive routine. This barely appeased my guilt of not teaching 21st century skills through the lens of mathematics in a blended learning environment to meet my student needs. Looking at my Implementation Outline – Version 1, it is safe to say I have done nothing since August 2023 as listed in this outline. If I have, it was done by accident or without the focus of the innovation plan. Everything changed though in December to now.
The Present
As semester exams were just around the corner, an overwhelming sense of regret and frustration brought me to a breaking point. When students were demonstrating that they retained little content but also lacked the skills necessary to take responsibility for their learning, it forced me to reflect and be self-critical. How can I expect students to attain these skills if I have yet to give them the significant learning environment in which to develop and refine them? I had completed practically nothing except the initial stages of my project.
In one of the discussion boards, a classmate recommended Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics by Peter Liljedahl, so I added it to my list of books. Coincidently, a few months later, my district launched a cohort to do a book study on that same book. The first meeting in November incorporated the first three practices within Liljedahl’s writing and encouraged implementing some of the 14 practices in our classrooms. I told myself I would wait until the spring semester, or even next school year, pushing what needed to be done now into the future. It hit me like a brick wall. I needed to adapt my innovation plan to utilize these practices that break the norms of a traditional mathematics classroom and through these structures, identify technological components that would enhance the learning through a blended learning environment. I drafted, revised, and finalized an article about my journey from past to present, promoting the publication through podcasting and reflecting on writing through writing. I am learning that I am still a recovering perfectionist and that my life of "balls to the wall or not at all" can really be a detriment to my professional growth and ultimately my students’ learning and engagement. I would not consider my innovation plan a win or a loss, but unavoidable in identifying how to actually follow through with my plans.
The Future
Now that I can reflect on what I have done and am currently doing, seeing the the back of the puzzle box - the big picture, there are some things I intend to address and implement in the future.
Amidst the chaos, I realized the importance of getting more people alongside me earlier on and using my voice to speak up and say that we should try innovative ideas for students. If anyone questions us, we need to stand firm and articulate that what used to work is no longer effective and we cannot be instructing students with the ways of the 20th century, considering where the head and heart meet. This is especially difficult with math because it seems like math never changes. Facts are facts, order of operations will always be true, and there's not really ways to be creative with math when we know the most "efficient" ways to solve problems. This is not true, but the fixed mindset of some of my colleagues believe this in their souls. Fortunately, I have one colleague in my content team, along with the Building Thinking Classrooms cohort, doing similar innovative structures to collaborate with, and I can take my experience from this program and really use it to my advantage (plus there will be so much more time once I graduate!). Another improvement is being slow and steady with my changes within a NOW culture. I initially asked why not now? but it takes time and effort to figure out what works and what does not, along with making the systems and structures that do work more efficient over time. My innovation plan will look remarkably similar to before, but the timeline will be adjusted to refine components at a more appropriate and sensible pace. Focusing on a few 21st century skills, such as communication, collaboration, and reflection, rather than the larger list, will also make things less daunting. This is definitely something I would have done differently if I could go back in time and start again. My ambitious nature can be beneficial in certain situations, but this was a time when the goal’s timeline was too sudden to realistically implement amongst the other obligations as a teacher. Through my roles as a content team member, department lead, and cohort member, I will intentionally share what I am doing in my classroom with my peers through writing, conversation, and even observations. Inviting others into this new world will also hold me more accountable with following through on my plans. My failure to follow through with my plans is actually a win. Often times, educators do dream big, but we have conflicting responsibilities and commitments that hinder our capacity to make these dreams a reality. What I have learned throughout the ADL program is that a lot of work is done behind the scenes before anything can be done in front of the students. This journey of learning and growth highlights the iterative disposition of education, preparing me for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
References
Boroditsky, L. (2018). How language shapes the way we think | Lera Boroditsky [Ted Talk]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k
Dekofsky, J. (2014). Is math discovered or invented? - Jeff Dekofsky [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_xR5Kes4Rs Fractions explained - a guide for parents. (n.d.). Komodo Learning. https://komodomath.com/us/blog/fractions-explained-parents-guide Lamb, R., & Shields, J. (2008, June 24). How are Fibonacci numbers expressed in nature? HowStuffWorks. https://science.howstuffworks.com/math-concepts/fibonacci-nature.htm Liljedahl, P. (n.d.-a). 14 practices. 14 Practices. https://buildingthinkingclassrooms.com/14-practices/ Liljedahl, P. (n.d.-b). Https://buildingthinkingclassrooms.com/. Building Thinking Classrooms. https://buildingthinkingclassrooms.com/ Liljedahl, P. (2021). Building thinking classrooms in mathematics, grades K-12 : 14 teaching practices for enhancing learning. Sage Publications Inc. Lingua. (2022, June 29). How many languages are there in the world? | lingua.edu. Lingua.edu. https://lingua.edu/how-many-languages-are-there-in-the-world/ Newmarket. (2019, November 30). How to get past counting on fingers & toes. https://www.mathnasium.com/ca/math-centres/newmarket/news/how-to-get-past-counting-on-fingers-toes TEDx Talks. (2017). What makes a good teacher great? | Azul Terronez | TEDxSantoDomingo. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrU6YJle6Q4
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When I first applied to the Applied Digital Learning (ADL) program, I genuinely thought this would be a walk in the park, breezing through the content in a few weekends, taking any assessments, and having the rest of the time to relax. I would follow what seemed to be the easiest path to learning some information, regurgitating it in assignments and tests, and walking across the graduation stage with a master’s degree, ready to change the world. I now know how naive that perspective was but how grateful I am to be wrong. It was apparent from my first course in ePortfolios that choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning environments (COVA) would be something I would experience firsthand (Harapnuik et al., 2018). It did not take me long to be VOCAL and embrace the COVA approach despite the discomfort. Looking through all of the examples and suggestions on how to build an ePortfolio, I was overwhelmed with the abundance of options within a number of blogging websites for layouts, fonts, and colors that I would have to choose from to represent my brand, my spirit, and my passion for education. I quickly realized my use of language, pictures, and videos would help me be vibrant and share my love of teaching. I even wrote about my path in building my ePortfolio a few times early on... ePortfolios - GenuineLee Me, ePortfolios - GenuineLee Me Pt. 2, and Exploring Worlds through ePortfolios. Getting feedback that did not address my lack of color but really about the content supported my understanding that I genuinely had choice, ownership, and voice over my products and even the process to building them. The initial shock of the program being the exact opposite of what I had anticipated wore off pretty quickly, but that also is likely due in large part to being a life-long learner (see my post on the Living Museum of Me, Math, and More). I figured out quickly that this program is the antithesis of my previous experience as a student, which initially was overwhelming. Freedom and responsibility for my learning means making more decisions on top of the numerous other decision I make daily as a teacher, leader, wife, dog mom, and friend. Embracing the challenges and discomfort of freedom has nurtured substantial personal growth than a factory model program I expected. One decision I am beyond thankful I made was taking ownership and tackling everything head on, including forming a collaborative group. Finding others as eager as me meant looking at discussion boards, actively engaging in breakout rooms during class meetings, and being bold to initiate the awkward conversation of “hey, do you want to be in my collaborative group?”. This actually reinforced my confidence in my own voice. I have always had a strong opinionated voice and being more confident and comfortable in my own skin came out of my mental health journey (one which I am still very firmly on...). What this program is helping me to do is to speak more boldly at school. My innovation plan, Teaching 21st Century Skills in a Blended Learning Environment, is very authentic but has evolved into one that utilizes Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl to provide opportunities for students to use 21st century skills. First semester, I did little to nothing regarding my innovation plan with the exception to telling colleagues about it in the first week back to school. The challenge has really been about how to articulate my plans effectively in my organization and acquire the support I feel I need to bring people alongside me in my innovation plan to help me be intentional and consistent in my work. As we learned about how to influence people by identifying vital behaviors in my big picture growth and catering to the six sources of influence, motivation, and ability in the personal, social, and structural categories (Grenny, 2013), as well as Covey’s four disciplines of execution in my big picture goals, (Covey et al., 2018), realized why I was ineffective in gaining traction from the beginning of the school year, essentially abandoning my notion of change in the fall semester. Even if I had gotten others invested in my ideas and dreams, the whirlwind got in the way, and I did not focus on my big audacious goals. My goal, like most teachers lately, became to survive. Lately though, it has become overwhelmingly clear that the work is hard, but necessary and I should not let obstacles or fixed mindsets hold me back. My innovation plan was not just created to get through the course work; I really hope to change my organization from inside out, starting in my classroom and working out in waves across my content team, department, campus, and district. One major change that I desire to bring is actually utilizing COVA and creating significant learning environments in the math classroom. The analytical logical person I am finds comfort in the cognitivist mindset within my learning philosophy, building connections between what I know and what I am learning to weave everything into the existing web of information, but the ADL program has evolved my perspective into a blend of cognitivism and constructivism. If I cannot find a connection, I ask questions and search for my own answers, making and creating new connections. Another way I fuse these viewpoints together is through my writing and the use of analogies. They help me to create a picture of what my brain visualizes and understands to be true, attempting to articulate that viewpoint to others also have their own unique perspective and internal philosophies. With this new viewpoint of the importance and necessity of COVA and CSLE, I am empowered to make decisions that disrupt the comfort of students, parents, colleagues , and administration with purpose, to engage students in deeper learning than they have probably ever experienced inside the walls of a classroom. My campus has a legacy of high achievement in the state and nation, so changing the pedagogy that produced those results seems ridiculous. Why fix what does not seem broken? If it worked before, it should work now, right? Realistically, because our society has evolved exponentially over the past decade, we cannot continue implementing past practices in a future world. Disturbing the sense of order is daunting because it directly impacts others and their sense of comfort and safety in what they feel should be normal. Going through this program though has immersed me in the environment I know I need to build for my students. Having lived the life of a learner breaking out of my comfort zone of regurgitating information on an assessment and into a world of connections and creation, it is inspiring me to really consider the possibility of what might come out of doing this in a mathematics classroom. Conflict will inevitably arise from developing an expectation that what was once the norm is now in the past is scary, because it will be, at times, exhausting to manage the combatting side. It will definitely require me to be even stronger in my conviction that COVA and CSLE need to happen now and not later, breaking the chains my current setting has me in. If we want to maintain the legacy of high achievement, we must evolve with society to reach these new heights. I will start by bringing in other members of my content team to come beside me and learn by implementing innovative plans together. I will use the knowledge and resources I have built within the structures I have learned about in the ADL program to develop professional learning that models the blended learning environments we should be creating, providing those attending a glimpse into what our students’ realities could be. I need to be intentional about what I am doing and why. Explicitly sharing the reasoning behind my actions can obtain buy-in and continuously reiterating this rationale throughout the year will only emphasize its importance to me. It is challenging still for me to consider what choice, ownership, and voice looks like in a math classroom bounded by state objectives, grading guidelines, and standardized tests. In a subject where the question usually leads to one correct answer, being intentional about questioning that requires open-ended responses and can lead to multiple answers and even more questions will take work, time, and energy. Current available resources like this are few and far between. Also, the control aspect of the classroom is why teachers, specifically math teachers, tend to stick with the factory model. Math logic is “always” true but when computers can run calculations, we are essentially training our students to also be computers cranking through calculations rather than making connections. Students have been subconsciously conditioned to expect this from a math classroom, which is why my innovation plan and Building Thinking Classrooms principles are so troublesome for a lot of people. I can already hear the complains in questions:
Nobody will argue that 21st century skills are vital to one’s future and society’s survival, but the learning environment needed to facilitate acquiring and refining these skills does not meet the norm. Again, I need to be intentional about what I am doing and why. Explicitly sharing the reasoning behind my actions can obtain buy-in and continuously reiterating this rationale throughout the year will only emphasize its importance to me. Being transparent in my purpose will begin building a culture of trust and collaboration, encouraging students to take risks and explore in their learning. To incorporate COVA, I must provide opportunities for students to have choice, ownership and voice.
As I include these opportunities in the classroom, I can use strategies I have learned about action research to determine the impact of specific structures and share my findings with colleagues to further enrich the work they are doing in their classrooms. Applying effective structures and strategies within professional learning and reinforcing their effectiveness by including my findings will further develop the same culture of taking risks and exploring ideas I hope for in my classroom. If you had told me a year ago that this is where I would be, after ten years of experience in the classroom, ready to start again like a first-year teacher by finding my groove and establishing what my classroom looks, sounds, and acts like with the COVA approach to create a significant learning environment, I would likely say you are nuts. But let’s go crazy and change the world. 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. Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning. Creative Commons License. Liljedahl, P. (n.d.). Building thinking classrooms. Building Thinking Classrooms. https://buildingthinkingclassrooms.com/ Liljedahl, P. (2021). Building thinking classrooms in mathematics, grades K-12: 14 teaching practices for... enhancing learning. Sage Publications Inc. The past few weeks have been challenging. It feels like there's nothing I can do to have a positive impact. Why do this? My masters in education means changing the world, so why does it feel like I am changing the world for the worst and not for the better? These feelings happen in cycles for me and when I am at the bottom, I take a moment to wallow in the misery and validate my feelings. This approach to my mental health comes from my mental health journey, where I learned how to cope with the imbalance between my head and my heart. It usually results in eating French fries and having a stream of consciousness monologue with my husband as my rubber duck. He offers me a safe space to be upset but then encourages me gently to move forward. Moving forward usually takes the form in reading and reflecting. The next term of my master's program starts in January, but I have access to the reading list ahead of time so I decided that's where I would start my journey back up the mountain. The first pitstop is picking a few articles on technology integration at Edutopia and a quick search of math technology resulted in something I had never heard of before, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and this aesthetically pleasing Venn diagram (sometimes it's the simple joys in being a math teacher). Now, breaking this down took a few rereads and a request in ChatGPT to summarize it, but here is my summary:
Right now, I feel like I am in the separate entities of the knowledge but no overlap. Even with the decade of experience I have, imposter syndrome feels very real but with the shift in education, it may be appropriate to realize I am beginning all over again in this new digital era. I am also reading Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl as part of a district high school math cohort and within the first few pages, I found myself nodding my head and coming to the sobering conclusion that no thinking is happening in my classroom. I am passively integrating technology by transferring the physical documents to digital but the repetitive, factory-model system of notes, worksheet, notes, worksheet, here's an assessment, next unit has consumed the soul and joy out of my classroom like a dementor. My innovation plan that came out of my first master's program class, teaching 21st century skills in a blended learning environment, is that intersection of technological pedagogical content knowledge. It feels like the whirlwind is taking over and I am finding myself sucked into ineffective familiarity. The struggles students have are not about thinking but about mimicking the steps I have robotically showed them to follow. Purposeful struggle is a phrase I have used before but it seems that there is reason to intentionally incorporate it into my classroom environment and expectations. Cathy L. Seeley's article on Turning Teaching Upside Down through the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development highlights how we need to shift from teachers showing students how to think first to students showing teachers how they think first. There should be more than just teaching math in my classroom, but right now not even that is happening. I have plans to use the new year, new semester, as an opportunity to transform into the space I have dreamed of, a significant learning environment where students do the thinking and the growing and I just facilitate the surroundings to help it flourish. For now, reading and reflecting, reading and reflecting, so I can move forward a better educator. References Koehler, M. (2012, September 24). TPACK explained. Tpack.org. https://matt-koehler.com/tpack2/tpack-explained/
Liljedahl, P. (n.d.). Building thinking classrooms. Building Thinking Classrooms. https://buildingthinkingclassrooms.com/ Liljedahl, P. (2021). Building thinking classrooms in mathematics, grades K-12: 14 teaching practices for... enhancing learning. Sage Publications Inc. The Parable of the Sower comes from the Bible, Matthew 13. Jesus talks about how a sower scattered seed along a path, amongst rocky places, around thorns, and within good soil. Depending upon the environment depended upon whether or not the seed could develop into a plant, sustain itself through harsh weather, or thrive in the time of harvest. While Jesus was referring to the Gospel, this can also be pertinent to creating significant learning environments for our students and even ourselves as educators. The past few months have really made me step back and reflect, realizing that I scattered the growth mindset ideas onto paths with no depth, rocky places with no nourishment, and thorns with stronger holds. There is beauty in realizing my shortcomings because now I am choosing to walk away towards cultivating the soil that is my classroom and building a space for flourishment. There are some things I have written and creating to get to this place. Through the lens of mathematics, teaching 21st century skills in a blended learning environment demands a fresh approach to the learning culture. The combination of global, uninhibited connections within a structured, safe environment has the power to transform students into who we need to make the future one to blossom in. Amplified by Piaget's cognitive learning theory, my learning philosophy explores how my perspective on education translates into the classroom for my students. We gravitate towards making sense of everything around us through experiences, connections, and patterns so providing students opportunities to start making sense of themselves and others ensures the foundation for future growth. There was compelling evidence that in order to create significant learning environments for students, I needed to create significant learning environments for myself and others to try this together. Through Dee Fink's 3 Column Table, Learning Environment/Situational Factors Outline, and Questions for Formulating Significant Learning Goals and its comparison to McTighe and Wiggins' Understanding by Design Template, I have a metacognitive plan on creating significant learning environments for teachers to learn about how to create significant learning environments. The stage was set by my growth mindset plan but it was really shaped recently when I realized it really takes a village for the rehearsals and performance to take shape and come alive. I am committed to establishing significant learning environments that foster growth mindset through active engagement, not by passive means, by seeking and sowing the soil for our collective growth. With these things working together, the back of the puzzle box is really starting to reveal the big picture. Ideas are meaningless unless acted upon and implemented, and growth only comes out of reflection and adaptation. Creating a significant learning environment focused on authentic learning first will forge a stronger path for my innovation plan to mold students, fellow educators, and myself into the strong, powerful people we are capable of becoming. References Dee Fink, L. (2003a). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning designing courses for significant learning. https://www.bu.edu/sph/files/2014/03/www.deefinkandassociates.com_GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf
Dee Fink, L. (2003b). Creating significant learning experiences : an integrated approach to designing college courses. Jossey-Bass. Dee Fink, L. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences the key to quality in educational programs. https://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/51/11181242/1118124251-7.pdf Matthew 13 NIV - - Bible Gateway. (n.d.). Www.biblegateway.com. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2013&version=NIV McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2009). Essential questions to promote staff inquiry and reflection (examples). https://jaymctighe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Essential-Questions-for-Educators.pdf McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2012). Understanding by design framework. https://files.ascd.org/staticfiles/ascd/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf
Lately, I have realized that it requires community to build growth mindset. Personally, the last few weeks have been challenging, particularly when it comes to what is going on in my classroom.
It would be realistic to say that we all have students who simply do not care about our course or about school... or at least they give on this perception. This looks like heads down on desks, hands glued to cell phones, mouths talking about anything but the subject or talking poorly about the subject. What this really comes down to is attribution theory. Are students acting the way they do because of who they are or because of the situation they are in? It is easy to say that a student is just lazy or does not care... and it is very hard to realize that we are putting students in situations that produce the behaviors we get frustrated by the most. As the semester comes to a close, there are days where I just want to throw my hands up and stop investing my heart in caring about what other people are doing because it is exhausting having to face that they will not always (or seemingly ever) do what we want or believe they are capable of. This reflection really is a fixed mindset, something I claim to almost never have. I feel powerless, helpless, like there is no point in trying anything else because nothing will come of it. Naturally, by what I consider divine intervention, I find this infographic. Right now, I am definitely at the beginning of the road, the fixed mindset place. It feels like I am moving the opposite direction on a moving walkway, not getting anywhere. Since writing about my growth mindset plan, The Yet Mindset, I have learned that it takes more than just talking about a growth mindset to get there. It requires action to move forward into it and what I really need is to turn people around and walk against the grain with me. Developed in September this year, my growth mindset plan had an outline of steps but not how to implement the steps, picture frames but with no pictures. I also did not really have any walls to hang these pictures on. What has shifted is I am not waiting anymore for someone to build the walls while I twiddle my thumbs. I have to be the carpenter of the setting or I have to look for others who have walls built to learn from. This analogy translates directly to my professional learning, which transfers to the learning environment in my classroom. Being a part of the community built within my master's program has been the start, but since August I have joined a Building Thinking Classrooms cohort amongst high school math teachers in my district, as well as delivered professional learning opportunities for Algebra 2 teachers to move from the outdated factory model of education into innovative significant learning environments, which has began the cultivation of another professional learning network. With these groups, I have found some resources to start implementing in my classroom:
This is just a handful of resources I have available, but what does implementing them look like? It starts with my own mindset and reflection on what my classroom actually embodies versus what I think it should (but then blame the students for it not being a sparkly ray of sunshine). To really have an impact on growth mindset with my students, it starts with me creating the significant learning environment for it to grow and be reinforced. I periodically model growth mindset to my students; not a day goes by that I do not mess up an answer on the answer key or a plus or minus symbol in an example. When these mistakes do happen, I will be the first to confess that I made a mistake but show immediately how I will fix it and try to keep that experience in mind for the future. How do I give students this opportunity? The first place I see the biggest area of improvement is feedback. Using blended learning and the station rotations model, students would have access to content but also be required to go through feedback/feedforward cycles. These cycles can be teacher to student, student to student, student to teacher, or student to self. The feedback can be on explicit math content but more importantly, on the process of growing to have a better understanding of the world, strategically within the mathematics lens. Consistently investing the time for students to be a part of the conversation is necessary. I should not be doing all of the work because the ones doing the work are doing the learning. Does this exempt me from learning alongside my students? Absolutely not, but it does empower me to model for them what learning looks like, especially as they are young adults about to go out into the real world and get big jobs (like being a teacher). This has potential to shift away from grades being the key to the future but rather learning being the open door. Does this mean throwing them into the fire and just hoping they do not get burned? Does this mean throwing them into the deep end and just hoping they can swim or survive by floating? No. Supports are needed to wade into the water, get familiar with the foundations, and work towards the deep. Within my class on creating significant learning environments, I developed resources to expand my capacity to actually implement the concepts I have been reading about.
It is not enough to just say have a growth mindset and make students say "I don't know yet". I am setting the expectation for myself to create a significant learning environment where my students can thrive and embody a growth mindset through action and I am setting myself up for success by creating, finding, and joining significant learning environments for myself as a learner. It really takes a village to learn and grow.
References
Gerstein, J. (2014, July 27). The educator and the growth mindset. User Generated Education. https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/07/27/the-educator-and-the-growth-mindset/
Gerstein, J. (2014b, September 28). How educators can assist learners in developing a growth mindset. User Generated Education. https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/how-educators-can-assist-learners-in-developing-a-growth-mindset/ Practical Psychology. (2021, April 9). Attribution theory (examples and what it is). Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoTBPwMeAyo
While I have never sat through the entire movie Back to the Future, I am well aware of its premise and some of the famous lines...
Being comfortable with being uncomfortable takes time, and with the help of discussion boards for my master's program, peers have really opened my eyes to seeing bigger pictures from different perspectives. I am a firm believer that we need to move away from the factory-model structure and towards innovative practices in education but that requires change. Someone mentioned the analogy of a time machine, and if you read any of my other posts, such as I Want to Be a Butterfly and New Digital Age, New Learning Culture, you will notice how I thrive on analogies. They help me connect the dots. Sometimes, it feels as though we are in the present and choose to go back in time by continuing to implement the same educational practices that we were a part of our personal experiences. But, consider this - do we choose to go back in time year after year from the present, or have we been perpetually stuck in the past and need to climb into the time machine available to us to jump forward? Past is comfortable in some regards because we can anticipate what is going to happen. The future is what scares us because we do not know if it will follow the patterns of the past (and actually I think we know it will not follow those past patterns) so when everything around us is zipping forward and it becomes overwhelming, a way to find comfort is sticking with what we know, even at the expense of others. Monica Oslo gracefully challenged my thinking by posing questions to my reply:
She also made me consider how to teach the past to understand what mistakes we made, what is cause and effect of certain events, and how we can learn from the past perspectives to move forward into the future. For me, it is more about using the tools of today and the future and the tools of the past can be used as a bridge to the here and now. We should not necessarily force students to use the past tools just because that is what we are comfortable with or "how we were taught", only using them as they were used in the past. I teach math so the tools of right now include Desmos graphing calculator and tools like PhotoMath, SymboLab, Wolfram Alpha, etc. Why not embrace these tools? There are still a number of teachers who think students should not use calculators ever. I actually was one of those teachers a few years ago because I thought WHAT! They do not know math if they type in 2+2 to get 4, the calculators will just give them the answers!!! What needs to change in my classroom (and with my mindset) is that structures can be put in place to have students use the tool but still understand HOW and WHY the produce the results they do. This could go back to visual representations and talk about the history of computation devices (i.e. abacus, slide rule, etc.) so when the technology does fail, we understand how and why it works the way it does and rely on our brains and experiences. We can then conceptualize how to create our own work without technology through a pencil and paper. We also can discern whether or not the technology is accurate. Technology must be utilized in a way that does not just generate answers. We need to have students generate questions and justify, explain, validate or discredit a resource or "answer". We need them showing their thinking with pencil and paper, through dialogue, through motion, through any medium, but also include technology as that medium. A really great video I revisit from time to time is the 3 M's.
see
There was a particular topic I asked ChatGPT to help me check my work on an equation. While at quick glance everything looked accurate, there was actually a huge error in a calculation that resulted in a way off answer that I got. I compared my work to it, was able to tell ChatGPT exactly where its error was. It "apologized" for the error, made the correction, and bam! Our results matched. I have also asked it to make me problems and an answer key, just to see what it could do, and it created what looked like an amazing worksheet but all of the answers in the key were horribly wrong! It is not about relying on the technology to do all the work for us, but how to leverage it to build our thinking further, and we need to give students the opportunities to experience this because this is the reality of society. Another example I have heard of initial resistance but eventually embrace is spell check (check out spell checker history). I know I had weekly spelling tests in elementary school but do those still happen? Honestly I have no idea but we rely on spell checker for a lot of things. Does it catch all of our mistakes? Absolutely not, especially when we misspell a word that is another word! One of my biggest pet peeves is when people use the word "loose" for the word "lose". I do not want to loose my job! Wait, what? But as thinkers and learners, we use this tool but criticize it, analyze it, and even ignore it at times because it is not always right and we know and understand the bigger picture. Technology is only as "smart" as the user, so let's give our students and ourselves the opportunity to get smarter by seeing that technology is not replacing thinking, but we can adapt it to extend our thinking and perspective beyond what we can fathom.
References
3 M’s - media method modality and their roles in educational technology use. (2018, August 24). Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ56_tcvocY&t=1s
Minions - what?! (2013, July 27). Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfylJy_nMbM pajak2d. (2015). Roads?! Where we’re going we don’t need roads!!! In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3AfIvJBcGo After watching Angela Lee Duckworth's video for the thousandth time (this particular video seems to come up a lot not just in this program, but a lot of professional development workshops I have attended), I wanted to explore more. What has she been up to the past ten years? Is she still engaged in education and teaching students about these other traits that develop their character? She is!
I wrote about it in another blog post, My Name is Ashley, and I am a Recovering Procrastinator (believe it or not, it's true), and a new perspective I am starting to see is how growth mindset and learner's mindset can apply to procrastination. Growth mindset and learner's mindset is not something that you can implement in a day; it requires continuous, small but substantial incremental steps that add up. Growth mindset really impacts those learners who struggle in the traditional academic setting but not so much for high achievers. They see growth mindset is just another thing they can be smart about, which follows a fixed mindset perspective. Often times, my high achieving students stop trying when problems or questions become challenging, because then their intelligence cannot be questioned. You can't say someone is wrong if they never made an attempt in the first place, right? That's their viewpoint. They will believe they have a growth mindset, but it requires intentional reflection and metacognition to realize that no, you actually don't. Lately I have been privileged to witness some beautiful student character. I teach level and honors Algebra 2, and in level Algebra 2 I have a wide range of students. Students who have had to repeat every math subject in summer school or credit recovery up to this point, students who have major discipline and attendance issues with constant disruption to their engagement in the classroom, and students who at one point were in honors classes but decided for a number of valid reasons they needed to "level down". When students finish assignments early, I introduce them to the honors content for that day, which typically extends the knowledge just applied or enriches their knowledge with additional topics. Usually, students just smile and nod, going about working on tasks for other classes. A few of my students though have been more engaged, pushing themselves to complete the required level work so they have more time to explore and try the honors material. In fact, I have shared with them the honors OneNote and OneDrive folder so they can independently review the material and track their progress and understanding through my posted keys. What stinks is they cannot "level up" at this point; our campus and district policies do not allow that during the school year, so they technically will not receive any additional credit or grade points for learning honors material. What is incredible though is witnessing the growth mindsets they have to choose to learn because learning and challenging oneself to go further is what really matters. This same experience happens for those students who historically have not been successful in a math class, except with the level content. For them, that is the chance to explore and try, push themselves to deepen their mathematical understanding, and finally feel success through hard work and effort. My activities are at different levels within a class and I assign them the one that meets their needs. If they finish, they know they can move to the next level activity to keep growing. At first, there is moaning and groaning because "I finished already!" but soon they realize that learning is never over, and they can build their confidence further and improve even more than before because they have established a background and foundation to build on. These experiences make me consider the lead versus lag measures too, which I have written about in my Big Picture Goals. Our culture is a now culture - instant gratification and we want to see results instantaneously. A growth mindset requires lag measures, reflecting back on where we started and the journey to where we are today, as well as being inspired to keep moving forward towards more transformational growth. Our students deserve the time investment to show and model what growth mindset looks like, sounds like, acts like, and feels like so they can carry it into their futures. I am realizing that I need a growth mindset on what growth mindset looks like for different people and different students. Meeting people where they are at and modeling for them how they can respond to grow is another way to positively impact lives. As educators, we need to model what being comfortable with being uncomfortable looks like and acts like. The way it feels is different for everyone, but as we show them how we respond when things get messy, they can see a way out. It reminds me what a classmate of my masters' program, Danny Hernandez, said in a discussion: "If we ask for rain we must also prepare for the mud." The picture on the left is the runoff creek connecting to Clear Creek, pictured on the right, when the raining finally stopped after Hurricane Harvey. Sometimes, the rain is overwhelming. Not only is there mud though with the rain, there can be lightning, flooding, tornados, the works. We have to remember though, THE STORM ALWAYS HAS AN END. The clouds will clear, the sun will come out, and a rainbow might even be the cherry on top. Having faith in the storm that fighting through it will lead to the end can keep us going. It also doesn't guarantee that there won't be another storm, but we can learn how to handle these storms and mud for the future. Students will follow a teacher's lead in how they respond to a situation. Earlier this year, my projector's bulb went out and when the technology support came to fix it, a piece broke off inside the projector so it wouldn't register a lid closed and therefore never turn back on. This required dismounting my projector from the ceiling, ordering a new one, and installing it. That day, I was supposed to cover graphing. Now imagine, trying to graph on a whiteboard... not ideal. Did I panic? No. Did I throw my hands up and say oh well, since that lesson is for our calendar today, we just have to wait? No. We just did lessons "out of order" and guess what, we still learned! Students didn't panic or ask if we would have a free day, they just reacted to my calm reaction: "this is a first-world problem... if this is the worst thing that happens today, then today is a good day". Now, there are other times when it is much more serious than a projector bulb going out. A few years ago, our school went into an actual lockdown because a student reported her older ex-boyfriend threatening to hurt her, that he had access to a gun, and he was seen on campus. Having a retired police officer and retired ER nurse for parents, I learned to stay calm in these types of situations and assess my surroundings. Here's me dressed up like my mom for "career day" at school, my mom at Christmas, and my dad acting like a bossy firm teacher at my desk the first year I started teaching high school. We went through the lockdown protocol and sat in silence. Initially, I thought it was just a drill, but five minutes turned into ten, ten into twenty. When the shadows of police officers with bulletproof vests and AR-15s could be seen outside my classroom windows, I knew this was serious. Students started to quietly ask, "is this a drill or is this for real?" and it turned into a teachable moment. Yes, it is for real but let's consider what we see and hear and how we could act. We see officer presence, we don't hear any screaming or weapon fire, we will remain calm and quiet unless we need to defend ourselves by throwing chairs, laptops, desks at anyone who tries to enter. Were we uncomfortable? ABSOLUTELY, this was only something we saw on the news happen to other people. Did we learn how to be a tad more comfortable in that moment? Unfortunately yes. We cannot plan for everything that happens but hypothetical situations do arise for us to consider how we might respond. Being comfortable with being uncomfortable means understanding the world around us from our previous experiences, recognizing that a new situation is in front of us that we may not have experienced yet, considering and analyzing how we can use our past to adapt to the present, and move forward. This is why I strongly identify with a cognitivism learning theory. This also means relying on the past experiences of others can really enhance our response. If I did not have parents with the service professions where they saw disorder, lawlessness, and trauma almost daily, they would probably not have had the experience to teach me how to consider responding to these situations, and then I would not have responded the way I did in the classroom. When we look at our classrooms and students as part of a community that can support and enrich each others' lives, then we all benefit. Being comfortable with being uncomfortable makes life that much sweeter when we get the rainbow after the storm. References Magee, J. (2020, December 14). Friendswood applies for $78 million grant for local drainage project. Community Impact. https://communityimpact.com/houston/
pearland-friendswood/government/2020/12/14/friendswood-applies-for-78-million-grant-for-local-drainage-project/ Considering my own journey, my why, and where my head and heart meet, I am a lifelong learner. For as long as I can remember, I have loved learning and actively sought after and found opportunities to push out of my comfort zone so I could learn and grow. This mindset has gifted me with such tremendous experiences that I know I will continue to add to the Living Museum of Me, Math, and More. Starting my career in education, not much has changed in regards to my admiration for learning. Even my blog's title, "I Learned Something New Today!" speaks for itself. Because of this intrinsic desire to learn and grow, I model for students what it looks like to be a lifelong learner, but why stop there? When I submitted my first letter of intent for department lead, I expressed the desire for the role to "allow me to continue the passion I feel to serve and support others to be the best versions of themselves for students and colleagues. I can balance what is best for teachers and their students with administrative responsibilities and I have the capacity to appropriately push people out of their comfort zone in a way that causes them to reflect and adjust their practice for the better." Every two years, the position opens up, so when submitting my second letter of intent, I clearly stated that "for me, a more critical piece (of the department lead position) is the impact on teacher growth, especially in the coming years with adapting instruction and practices based on the rapidly evolving technology." I have always sought to provide others opportunities to blossom, so they can create significant learning environments for their students too. Before creating a presentation, I considered who my audience would be. Initially, I thought about including the entire administrative team at my school. I also thought about presenting to the Director of Advanced Academics and GT Services, the Secondary Math Curriculum Coordinator, and the Superintendent (who was, at the time, the principal who hired me). While these people are important, it made more sense to start at the core of what I do, which is serve students and serve the other math teachers in my department. The two people who also include this in their work are the Dean of Instruction and our Instructional Coach. I also have worked with them closely to support teachers in other ways in my department lead role, so that culture of improvement and collaboration is solid. With this focus, I knew how to move forward. When creating these resources, I really wanted to let pictures capture my small audience and give them stories they can directly relate to. They know and have worked with Mikayla and Monica personally (you will see these two women in the presentation), so capturing their hearts with people we mutually love and respect made sense. After that, getting into the research I did was necessary. Our Dean of Instruction is data-driven; she loves looking at statistics, comparing our progress with the progress of other campuses in our district, area, state, and nation. She has a heart of gold, but her analytical mindset is hooked with objective information. On the other hand, our Instructional Coach, who also is such a vital support to our work, is hooked through the opportunity to serve others and help them grow. She has witnessed current teacher struggles with providing impactful instruction, especially with a decline in student efficacy, so including how her role can offer her another structure where she can coach teachers to bring strategies into the classroom and really serve them to reach their full potential also needed to be included. This meant reading through a number of articles and reports that compared our current state of professional development with the potential of effective professional learning. Anything that captured my attention and/or would capture my audience, I recorded in a notes document. From there, as I considered the progression of my presentation, I included information from these resources if it followed the narrative I was seeking. Below is a picture of my screen where I have my notes I am going through and the slides I created with the script underneath. The PowerPoint document Effective Professional Learning for Teachers - Pilot is the presentation I would give to my Dean of Instruction and Instructional Coach. The PDF document Effective Professional Learning for Teachers - Pilot NOTES underneath the presentation contains my script that I would practice and use when presenting. The embedded document below contains both the slides and the associated script. My plan is to go through the presentation live with my Dean of Instruction and Instructional Coach, using the script with what to say during each slide while using a clicker to advance the slides on a projection screen. This script allows me to give context to the slides, rather than put it all the text on each slide and just read it to them. I followed strategies included in Garr Reynold's Presentation Zen and Nancy Duarte's Resonate, which highlight the story-telling aspects of presentation through engaging the audience early and setting a clear vision for change (Duarte Inc., n.d.; Reynolds, 2014). If I had chosen any other audience, my presentation would be drastically different. With the relationships I have built over the years with my Dean of Instruction and Instructional Coach, I believe that after this presentation, they will be inspired and respond with "let's get started now". I am excited to see where this journey takes us as we collaborate together to bring teachers effective professional learning. References Duarte Inc. (n.d.). Resonate®. Duarte. https://www.duarte.com/resources/books/resonate/
Goodwin, B. (2015). Research Says/Does Teacher Collaboration Promote Teacher Growth? Educational Leadership, 73(4), 82–83. Retrieved from http://www.ascd. org/publications/educational-leadership/dec15/vol73/num04/Does-Teacher- Collaboration-Promote-Teacher-Growth%C2%A2.aspx Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. Center for Public Education. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/system/files/ 2013-176_ProfessionalDevelopment.pdf Hill, Heather. (2015). Review of The Mirage: Confronting the Hard Truth about Our Quest for Teacher Development. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved from http://www.greatlakescenter.org/docs/Think_Twice/TT-Hill-TNTP.pdf Joyce, B. & Showers, B. (2002). Student achievement through staff development. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Kane, T. J. & Staiger, D. O. (2012). Gathering feedback for teaching: Combining high-quality observations with student surveys and achievement gains. Seattle, WA: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Pope, C., Beal, C., Long, S., & McCammon, L. (2011). They teach us how to teach them: Teacher preparation for the 21st century. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 11(4), 324-349. Retrieved from http://www.cite journal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/v11i4languagearts1.pdf Reynolds, G. (2014). Presentation Zen. Presentation Zen. https://www.presentationzen.com/ TNTP. (2015). The Mirage: Confronting the Hard Truth About Our Quest for Teacher Development. Retrieved from http://tntp.org/publications/view /evaluation-and-development/the-mirage-confronting-the-truth-about-our-quest-for-teacher-development Toikkanen, T. (2016, June 30). Learning Despite School. Retrieved August 1, 2016, from https://medium.com/lifelearn/learning-despite-school-d0879be9464f#.f6roydrfs Wei, R. C., Darling-Hammond, L., Andree, A., Richardson, N., & Orphanos, S. (2009). Professional Learning in the Learning Profession: A Status Report on Teacher Development in the U.S. and Abroad. Technical Report. National Staff Development Council. Retrieved from https://learningforward.org/report/status- professional-learning-2/phase-professional-learning-learning-profession/
A lot of my master's program requires reading articles and reports, watching videos and presentations, and then synthesizing this information into our innovation plans and classrooms. Not only that, we learn a lot about ourselves as teachers and as people.
Angela Lee Duckworth gave a TED Talk in 2013 I've viewed many times in multiple professional developments about grit. Naturally, with this presentation being over ten years ago, I was curious about what Angela was up to now. Her website https://angeladuckworth.com/ highlights her successes in publishing a New York Times Best Seller, but then I stumbled upon Character Lab and started perusing through her tips articles, especially since they provide "sixty seconds of actionable advice, based on science" (Character Lab, n.d.). Something that stood out was an article called No Need To Wait How to beat procrastination. I am a recovering procrastinator who relapses from time to time! In previous personal learning, trying to figure out why I continued to procrastinate when I knew it only led to more suffering, I discovered that procrastination is the brain faking you out. Chemical signals are sent saying DANGER DANGER and we go into fight, flight, or freeze mode, often choosing flight or freeze. Is there a real danger? No, of course not, but our brains naturally level down to the biological survival mode. How do we counteract that? We just start the task, ignoring the "danger", and within five to ten minutes, our brain stops sending that signal. Usually, this is when we have the realization that the task isn't so bad. This typically happens for me when it comes to grading, the bane of my existence. My students procrastinate all the time too! This is great! For students, it is usually when they are met with a task they do not feel they can be successful at or they do not see the value yet in their lives. Christopher Bryan, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin wrote about Tough New Growth, introducing a synergistic mindset that acknowledges and addresses the feelings of stress that come with a challenging task but reframes those feelings away from avoidance and procrastination towards action and progress. If you are a recovering procrastinator like me, let's continue this journey together forward and get stuff done! If you are a current procrastinator, consider this your sign to make a change and grow. You will make mistakes and relapse along the way, but as long as you continue to improve with a growth mindset that you will not always be a procrastinator, think about all that you will accomplish. In an upcoming lesson, my goal is to provide students the opportunities to explore these articles and videos to discover how this obstacle can be turned into a tool for moving forward.
References
Bryan, C. (2022, October 23). Tough New Growth. Character Lab. https://characterlab.org/tips-of-the-week/tough-new-growth/
Character Lab. (n.d.). Tips. Character Lab. https://characterlab.org/tips-of-the-week/ Duckworth, A. (2013). Grit: the power of passion and perseverance | Angela Lee Duckworth. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8 Gillihan, S. (2023, January 22). No Need to Wait. Character Lab. https://characterlab.org/tips-of-the-week/no-need-to-wait/ TED-Ed. (2022, October 27). Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad. Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWTNMzK9vG4 |
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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