I very much enjoyed the last chapter of Linda Darling-Hammond's The Flat World of Education. It really brought together so much of what I am feeling in my current position. This gave me some reflection on the fact that with California State Standards and CAASPP, we are making some headway.
These changes in policy could make some real changes in education, but we have to agree on them. John Dewey's quote highlights that our democracy is so strong because All means All. They are ALL our students, and in order to have an effective educational system we need to recognize that they are all our students, regardless of background or knowledge. In light of this, there were a few poignant things that I believe will affect a change in education. 1. External Assessments (State and Federal level)--As she notes they need to used "sparingly". Once a year, like CAASPP is, and they need to be focused on capturing if students can analyze and apply the content they have learned. I believe we are moving forward with this. 2. SBA (School Based Assessments)--These need to be the assessments that capture the 21st Century Skills (the 6Cs for us in NVUSD). They need to portfolio work, oral presentations; a way for us to capture this learning at a deeper level. 3. "The Curriculum Wars-Content vs. Skill"--I loved this section where she notes that it can't just be enforced rigid pacing guides, and standards. Those are simply GUIDES, and we need to use them to apply them to our "real children" in our "real classrooms". There will be gaps students have, and we will have to back and re-teach, we need to account for that and deviate if need be. In the work I am currently doing, this quote really resonated with me "...Students need more strategically managed direct instruction and opportunities for inquiry, and that they need to master basic skills in ways that ensure they can decode and multiply as well as higher-order skills that allow them to solve complex problems and produce their own knowledge and products". THEY NEED BOTH! Ahhh, finally some recognition of that. You cannot have these beautiful inquiry based projects, without having mastered the basic skills to complete and participate in those higher order skills that live within the inquiry. 4. Revamping NCLB--"A substantial shift is needed". Darling-Hammond calls for an "intensive development effort" that utilizes federal labs, state universities. Much of this needs to focus on the skills of the practitioner, the teacher. We need expert teachers, who are skilled in how to create, and adapt curriculum for all students. We need to understand how to use the SBA and State Assessment data to inform, shift our teaching. It begins with the teacher, and it can't just be ONE and DONE, it has to be ongoing and maintained by more than just the school district. Dewey's quote is still very relevant today, I would argue even more than ever. As our recent election results reflect, we are deeply divided nation, and we need to put some of the measures in place for equity across our country. Then the states need to step in and provide the vision for our localized education. And now, let the REAL work begin.
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After viewing these very different videos, I feel I have learned so much more and seen so many different viewpoints. Ken Robinson lays the groundwork with his video focused on "Creativity". His believe that we "get educated out of creativity", and that "creativity is as important as literacy" goes counter-intuitive to what our current education system emphasizes. That said, with CCSS we are shifting to a new way of teaching. The teacher is the facilitator of knowledge, there is not always one right answer, and there are many different ways of solving a problem, understanding a piece of text.
The CAASPP highlights there is not always one right answer, and the importance of reasoning which is new and different, can be a form of creativity. A student can get the answer to a math problem wrong, but if they can reason why they got the answer they did, then they can receive credit. This to me is progression toward what Ken Robinson is saying. In Daniel Pink's The Science of Motivation video, he discusses that importance of intrinsic motivation and the idea of looking at things on the periphery. The Carrot and stick doesn't work, and with globalization changing what is classified as a "white collar job" we have to teach our student's that there is not just one track. When looking at the candle problem, being able to turn it on it's head and think about something that might not be right there in front of you is VERY powerful. This lends itself to the inquiry based learning we are striving for as a district. But, how can you craft this learning, make it powerful and hold student's accountable? This is the balance I feel like I need to find. There is something to Google's 20% time, where they give their engineers one day a week to work on something outside of their job description. This is where Google Drive came from. The idea that there are some "Must Dos", but then you are able to work on some "May Dos", and if structured correctly that is where the creativity comes in. To bring it home John Seeley Brown talks about the Blended Epistemology: Homo sapiens (Man as knower) and Homo Faber (Man as maker). He states meaning emerges as much from context as content. Our context used to be relatively stable, and now it isn't with our new world of social media. He uses Blogging as an example of how it can change the context. We consume information in a new, different way. Our students are being raised in a world where there is not just one word, message; they too can craft their own context, which can change the content. It is not just Man as knower, and man as maker, Brown introduces that idea of Homo Ludens (Man as player). Currently, I am working on developing a Maker Space for my child's elementary school. There is such power in this maker's movement. This drives home the idea that Brown is highlight a new type of "deep tinkering" that plays with change. Knowing, Making, playing cultivates imagination. This theory puts into context for me the importance of this "play" aspect. Again, this lends itself to the inquiry based. We are all looking at the content, but how can we shift the context and allow student's the imaginative opportunity to "play" and come up with a potentially different outcome. The Entrepreneur spirit is a Must have vs. a nice to have to be successful in our new, changing world. Cultivating that is key! Lastly, there are Mobley's 6 insights. How can that help my student's think creatively? It really summarizes all the content we looked at in this class. Touching back to Robinson's sentiments, Mobley states that creativity is "unlearning rather than a learning process". This also touches back to Pink's thoughts on seeing the periphery vs. what is right in front of you. You can't learn it, you have to BECOME it. He also states the importance of failing-you have to be wrong to understand what went wrong and how to come about it in a different way. In my current position I do a lot of work with teacher's professional learning. One of the big ways we have shifted how we are thinking is less sit and get, spray and pray, and more processing and application time. As teacher's we need to plan out the journey for student's to be creative. This needs to be done explicitly. Project learning can go wrong when there isn't a plan. Need to knows NEED to be revisited, they need to be crafted with focus, and student's need tight learning objectives. They need to know the confines so that they can then be creative in how they learn. There needs to be that balance. |
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