Few topics today are as hot and controversial as educational reform. The controversy isn’t whether or not we should reform education but rather how and who should do the reforming!
It seems to me, much of the philosophy about reform comes from the standpoint of “what should an incoming freshman to college know?” That was all well and good 50 years ago but quite frankly I don’t think it is the lens we should be looking through currently. If the “movers and shakers” doing most of the reform are from higher ed and the secondary level of education then I am sure that seems relevant and logical to them. After all, don’t we hear a lot in the news about how today’s graduates aren’t prepared for college? I come from the elementary perspective, though. My kindergarten students starting school next week will graduate in the year 2023. I haven’t the vaguest idea what they need to know for college in 2023 and neither does anyone else! Furthermore, maybe college will be obsolete and irrelevant then. Who knows?
So, does it make sense to scaffold education with only the end product in mind. The analogy I might use is: educating a student is a little like building a building. You have to lay a really good foundation for the structure to be sound and stable. (There are some “givens” students need to know in elementary regardless of what they will need as adults.) However, are we as educational institutions laying the foundation for a skyscraper when we really need to build a pyramid? That’s a whole other structure requiring a different kind of foundation. And the truth is, we really don’t even know!
Should education be dictated by legislators or universities; Federal, State or local government? Where are the teachers and students in the conversations? Are only administrators and politicians making all the educational reforms? Who is really the best qualified to make these decisions?
“It takes a whole village to raise a good child”. We need to make sure all participating parties are in the conversation about educational reform…including the students. We need to have a strong vision in mind but also need to be flexible and realize the vision we have may not be relevant in a few short years and be prepared to make adjustments.
I read somewhere that there is more information being created in two days now, that in all of time up to the year 2003! Think of that….if that is true, I am guessing one of the most valuable skills would be; how do we manage that information? I hear adults say they can’t even keep up with their email. If that is true, how are those same adults going to teach kids the skills needed to keep up with the information they will need to deal with?
Its a lot to think about and I don’t have the answers, just lots of questions. I do think both top and bottom (Federal and state government, administration and teachers, and parents and students) need to be in the conversations to have a fighting chance and create an educational system for students that will equip them with the skills they need as adults…college or not. We don’t know what the final building will look like but I do know that it won’t stand without a good foundation. The question is…what kind of foundation should we build? We can change the facade of the building, colors, windows, doors etc. much easier than we can change a foundation, once it is built, so we better get it right!
My grandmother lived to be 103! She was one of the few people who lived through the turning of two centuries since she was born in 1899. I am in awe when I think about the changes in technology she experienced. Grandma was a teacher around the time of the first World War (without a college degree). I wonder what her classroom looked like. A chalkboard and desks were probably about it. I attribute Grandma’s long life to her attitude about age and life in general. According to her, you are only as old as you think you are and for her, it was always decades younger than her chronological age. I remember asking if I could come over for a visit one day and she said she couldn’t because she had to take coffee to “those old people” that afternoon. (Grandma took coffee and cookies to the nursing home every Tuesday afternoon and at the time I am sure most of the people there were younger than she was!) Grandma bowled and played golf well into her 90′s and yes, she even drove until then. Her mind was sharp and most of the time her body was also.
Just imagine what it would have been like for her to go from no phones, to phones where you had to wait for a human operator to ask you for a 3-digit number to connect you, then to dial phones, 7-digit numbers, push button phones, adding an area code to a number and then cell phones – although the only cell phone she experienced was the old “brick” that had a battery life of about 90 minutes! What would she think now of the new cell phones that double as computers for most functions? She would have taken it in stride and joined up with everyone else.
You see Grandma had all the 21st Century skills. She knew how to collaborate and communicate. She also was innovative and creative. After living through the Great Depression she was a master at problem-solving and critically thinking through all kinds of situations. She read voraciously and was literate in so many subjects. She didn’t have the attitude of “I don’t have time to learn how to use that thing!” She would never have said, “I like doing things the way I ‘m used to doing them, I don’t have time to learn a new way of doing them.” I never would have heard from her mouth, “Learning to do that new way is just one more thing on my plate that I don’t have time for.”
These are all attitudes I have come across at times with other teachers. I have to wonder if improving their attitude toward change would prolong their lives just as much as eating right and being physically fit. All I do know is that even when Grandma’s body was starting to give out, her mind and attitude stayed young, right up to the end. She always enjoyed learning something new and visiting with people. She appreciated that she could learn from others as well as from books or television so in her own way, she developed her own PLN (personal learning network) so to speak.
This school year, think about how you can prolong your own life. Try something new. Develop a new skill. Invest your time up front to learn a new way of doing something to save time later. You are never alone so seek out other educators. Renew old friends on Facebook. Find innovative professionals on Twitter to follow. Share what you know with others. I can’t guarantee you will live to 103 like Grandma, but I will promise that you won’t get burned out and you will stay as young as you think you are.
Grandma would have loved Twitter!
I just finished 4 long but inspiring days at the Center for Integrated Arts Education Institute at the University of Northern Colorado. If you have a large group of people attending an event like that from kinder to college professors you will get varying reflections and opinions on its worth. This is my 4th year and I was honored to be invited to sit on a panel discussion with 4 University Professors and one other teacher. I have to admit it was rather intimidating to be a “lowly” teacher amidst such prestigious academia but it was also a thrill. As I reflect back on the conversations with the audience and the theme of the entire week I started to really “get” the theme of the week – the aesthetics of education and the impact of the aesthetic experience on education!
Sounds really touchy-feely and trite doesn’t it? But it isn’t and the sad thing is people don’t get it. I have been teaching in the arts field for over 20 years and didn’t get it – at least not to this extent – until this week. Let me try to explain:
My first husband was in air intelligence during the Vietnam war and part of the training was to go through training as a prisoner in a mock POW camp. The experience had lasting effects on him and so I understand first hand the psychology behind some of the brain washing techniques they use-even to this day. They all involve manipulating the aesthetic experience.
Think about it: prisoner is interrogated under bright lights. The room is hot. They are asked questions they can’t answer – and are sometimes punished for not knowing the answer. Then they are sent back to wait out their time with other strangers for awhile before it might start all over again.
Now:
Think of little Suzie starting kindergarten. She is filled with excitement and wonder. She is anxious to meet new friends, and her parents have told her how wonderful school is going to be. She skips into the classroom the first day at school and waves good-by to mom. What happens next? The school isn’t air conditioned. A stranger takes her to a quiet place to ask her all kinds of questions. Sometimes she knows the answer and sometimes she doesn’t. She feels the heat of the room and the bright lights from the fluorescent fixtures are a little uncomfortable. The chair is hard and uncomfortable. She is losing that excitement rapidly and wondering what naughty thing she could have possibly done to have her parents send her to such a place. After a time she is sent to play possible with other strange kiddos. Some are friendly and some might not be.
The similarities are pretty obvious. What might not be so obvious is the long range effects of this on her education for life.
Think of a time in your own life when something scary or unpleasant happened to you. Can you smell the smells in the room? Can you remember the smallest detail? All those aesthetics are what made the event memorable.
What does it take now for Suzie to overcome her first experience with school? Will any amount of recess, field trips, crackers at snack time or fun and engaging activities that Mrs. Jones the teacher supplies overcome that first day’s aesthetic impact on her? Maybe…maybe not.
I read with some amusement the 21st Century skill set that the State of Colorado Department of Education has attached as a focus for all content standards in their recent revision. First of all, let me say I am ecstatic that they were thinking of these things when writing the standards. The amusement comes from the realization that a kindergartener steps into our school doorway with all those things already!!!! What killed it so that now we have to remediate them all?
Well, in my humble opinion it could have all started with that very first day and the aesthetic experience of that day.
Just something to think about as we all plan over the summer for that first day of school.
I have been following with interest and amusement lots of recent tweets and blogs about the use of ipads in the education world lately. I have had several people email me directly for my opinion on whether or not they should or shouldn’t purchase one. I certainly don’t want the responsibility of that decision but I can give you my humble opinion:
In a nutshell I will use this as an analogy: An iPad is like a very fancy Airstream or Winnebago camper. Could you live in it? Sure but you might not want that to be your only residence. Does it have all the basic features to meet your domestic needs? Sure but it’s main feature is portability so to capitalize on that feature you might not have full function of some of the others. A laptop, on the other hand is like an apartment. It is smaller and less “permanent” but still has everything you would need to live there for long periods of time – but it isn’t a house. A desktop is like a house. It is not portable but sure can have lots of luxury and features you can’t find elsewhere.
If I were to continue this analogy, I guess I would say an ipod touch would be a hardshell camper as well, and a mobile phone device maybe could be likened to a tent.
I think everyone should certainly decide for themselves what their needs are first and then purchase. I think schools and school districts should also evaluate the needs first and then decide on the appropriate purchase for their budgets. I hate to see teachers or schools buy something just because they have heard it is the latest, greatest “flavor of the month” gadget. I have seen too many classrooms with document cameras, ipods, interactive whiteboards, etc. that sit idle after they were purchased just because they were the latest thing that was being promoted. All of these things are AWESOME but you have to use them! Technology should be a tool. The most humorous, but sad thing I saw was a picture taken of a high school classroom in our district with a brand new expensive interactive whiteboard and it was being used as the “screen” for a teacher to project an old acetate overhead onto the board. Really? Did they not know what they were purchasing? Was it something being pushed that they weren’t ready for? Was it a piece of equipment that the teacher couldn’t see the possibilities for ? Who knows, but I don’t think that would have happened if the school/teacher would have looked at: What do I want to teach? How can I teach it better? What can I use to teach it better?
I will admit to being a tech geek also, but I still don’t believe in purchasing something that I haven’t even seen the use for yet. Do I want only a “camper” and not a house or at least an apartment? No, but on the other hand if I am homeless that could be an adequate place to live for a while. Would I want only an iPad and not a computer? No, but if that was all I could afford for the time being, I could manage to make it work.
It’s about the learning – not the technology.
We all hear lots of buzz about 21st century skills and it always amuses me to hear what people have to say about that phrase. In an earlier post, I already gave my opinion about this phrase, so I won’t belabor that point here. I think that educators need to see what that is – not just the definition – what does that look like?
I have had several student teachers working with me this past year, from 2 different nearby universities. The last 3 out of 4 were good student teachers….very different from each other, but none the less, in my humble opinion, will do fine and have lots of potential. The thing that is surprising to me is how ill-prepared they seem to be for what a current classroom situation is really like. I’m not talking about things like classroom management here. I am talking about the shift in what education and instruction should be. It worries me that there seems to be such a disconnect between the college instructors who are supposed to be training future teachers and what schools are really needing from future teachers. We talk about what skills our students need for the future but I haven’t heard a lot about what skills our future teachers will need.
I teach music in an integrated arts school. Basically, what that means is that when I teach the skills and concepts of music to my students, I do all I can to integrate that instruction with either other skills or other concepts from other content subject areas. I do not let the music instruction become secondary to the content but I do try to bring in information and make connections with what other knowledge the students need to know, be it science, math, social studies, or language arts. This has proven to be an efficient way of teaching – kill 2 birds with one stone!
Last night my 4th and 5th grade students performed for their parents a musical play based on western expansion in America. They sang appropriate folk songs loaded with social studies information, and acted out short skits depicting real life situations in history. The students began this project with improvisational theater skills and then developed their stories.
In the past I have had students perform “canned” school musicals and the audiences enjoyed them but I always felt the message and “meat” of what kids could learn was missing. Students would spend 6-8 weeks learning lines and lyrics and they would definitely learn self-confidence, poise, and gain self esteem but what else? For the same 6-8 weeks, students could write their own play, research costumes, situations, historical influences, work out technical, issues, build and create sets and props and at the end how much more is learned? That is what I am talking about. It really took no more or less time and effort on my part as the instructor to do this kind of project. It is a change in my role (as I have said before) from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”.
None of my student teachers reported having any classes or background training in college about arts integration. They all reported little to no training in technology integration. I have to wonder then, are the universities aware of the 21st century skills we preach that kids need to know. Are they training student teachers to facilitate students being able to collaborate, create, critically think, analyze, etc.? A few of my student teachers were trained to write out the perfect lesson plan including the, now obsolete, state standards but they were at a loss as to how to tie the lesson into letting the students lead the learning. I have had supervisors from the universities come to do their observations of the student teachers and become totally side-tracked by observing how my classroom uses technology, and integration. They have been impressed by what they see in the classroom, which is a good thing, but it is still more than a little concerning that all of a sudden the last semester of schooling these student teachers are just being introduced to the new and current way education and instructional delivery is going. I am worried by the fact that the college instructors are surprised and amazed at the integration that they are seeing in a classroom. This should be the norm not the novelty. The colleges should be teaching student teachers how to include all kinds of content into instruction. The student teachers should be learning all the techniques they can to engage students through movement, visual arts, drama, poetry, and music. There should be required classes in how to integrate tools like iPods, interactive white boards, etc. into instruction so that the lesson is about the learning and not the tool.
How can we build the bridge from k-12 schools to these colleges? How can we promote the communication it will take to improve teacher training? Even more concerning…how do we get legislators and the general public to realize what are the skills teachers and administrators need when they are revamping the teacher/administrator evaluation process. Tying teacher pay to student performance is a risky thing to begin with but if you add in the reality that we aren’t even sure what teacher skills lead to exemplary student learning (I refuse to use the word “achievement” as I said in an earlier blog), we may be rewarding the very teachers and schools that hinder real 21st century learning.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of working with a most dedicated and inspiring group of people.
Our district has a group of elementary teachers who agreed to participate in a two year project to use ipods to help young students improve in early literacy and/or math skills. In the fall, I did a one day training for them to teach the basics of how to create podcasts and to give ideas of how to use podcasts for instruction. Even though these teachers hadn’t received ipods to use yet and the possibility was that they might not receive any for their classrooms, they were anxious to come and learn anyway. They had already put in many hours on their own because they could see the possibilities. Their motivation was in what would be good for their kids and finding new and innovative ways to reach the struggling learners.
Yesterday, I led the follow-up, second day of training. By this time several of the teachers had received ipods for their classroom use. Some had taken the initiative to go ahead and create some of their own podcasts and others had downloaded free podcasts from iTunes (like Hooked on Phonics, etc.) and had begun using them with their students. The teachers shared their stories and ideas with each other and I was amazed at the creativity!
Who would have thought that kindergarten students could take ipods home with them for homework? The projects ranged from helping English Language Learners to improve language skills to helping upper elementary students memorize math facts and to help struggling readers improve fluency and sight-word skills. As each teacher talked of how they were using the ipods or their plans for using them in the future, you could see light bulbs going off all over the room. Each idea sparked a new idea and project for someone else.
In the afternoon the participants had some time to work on their projects while I was present to trouble-shoot and give technical support. Again, I was amazed at the collaboration that was happening. Teachers were helping each other and sharing resources with each other across grade levels, content areas and from different schools. This is what today’s teachers should be like, I thought.
Many of these teachers had put in hours and hours on their own to create material for use in their classrooms but didn’t hesitate at all to share with another teacher to save them the time. This unselfishness is one of the by-products I have noticed with the availability of the web today. This is probably why copyright and fair-use issues are a problem with today’s students. They don’t see a problem with using something that another person has put work and time into creating. I think they assume that if they put something up on YouTube or wherever and don’t mind if someone else uses it, why should someone else care if they use a performer’s music or content in one of their projects? There is a lot of negative press about the influence of today’s web world – like violation of fair use – but the positive side of that is that people in general have become less proprietary and willing to share. I witnessed that with these teachers yesterday.
The teachers knew they wouldn’t get paid for all the hours they would put into creating these projects for their students. (They do receive a small stipend-very small) They were not concerned about getting paid for their time. The sole focus was how this would help their students. How sad that some of the public perception of teachers seems to be that we are over-paid, inept, selfish or not up on current instructional practices. If only those people could see what I saw yesterday!
It has occurred to me that we are in the midst of a huge change in educational philosophy and don’t even realize it. There has been lots of discussions, blogs and tweets regarding educational systems changing from the “industrial age” format to the new technology integrated type of education. The problem or disconnect is really quite humorous if one steps back and looks at the “big picture”. I was amused by conversation today about the start of online learning in our district and how do we offer this type of learning in our district. The amusing disconnect was in the subtle wording in the discussion. There was discussion about assessments, about hours of time online, about grading and grade levels and about the ever present standardized tests as measures of achievement. Aren’t all of those things from the industrial age version of education? In other words, the idea that if you are a specific age, you must take specific classes and pass them according to specific criteria created to meet other set specifications. There is still a misunderstanding of the anything, anytime, anywhere type of education.
How in the world should I know at this point what a 6 or 7 year old should know when he/she graduates? I have no idea what skills will be useful to them in their adulthood (and neither does anyone else) beyond being able to communicate, create, critically think, etc… and all the other buzz words currently associated with “21st Century” skills. (a term I hate, by the way, because most people using the term, don’t stop to think what the term means, never mind that we are 10% done with the 21st Century!).
Please do not misunderstand what I am getting at. I don’t think education should be an unstructured, mishmash of activities and social-networking without goals, meaningful purpose and objectives. What I find funny is that we are still trying to teach the same things from the 1950′s, in the same way as the 1950′s – only with new tools. I saw a picture of a 1950′s elementary classroom (black and white of course) and with the exception of the blackboard, and the clothing styles, I don’t think anyone could tell a difference from today’s classrooms. Most of today’s classrooms are teacher-led, information-fed and regimented to fulfill some curricular obligation that few have stopped to question whether is relevant in the future.
Here is an example of what I am trying to say: Our district, like many others, is going through huge financial crisis and the forecast is for things to be worse before better. One of the by-products of this is something we call “combo-classes”. These are classes that combine 2 grade levels into one classroom. The reality is that true multi-age teaching and learning is really a good 21st century type of instruction, in my humble opinion. The problem is combo-classrooms are not the same thing as multi-age classrooms. Combo-classes are the “wolves in sheep’s clothing” of today’s education. If we were to truly look at a new way of grouping students together, combining different age groups would be a good thing. To put a teacher in a room with 2 separate grade level curricular expectations is not the same thing. Actually, referring to grade level curriculum is also out-dated.
Terms I find humorous – or would be if we weren’t talking about something as serious as preparing today’s students for their future:
closing the achievement gap – the gap according to what measurement? Achievement of what???? some specified score on a test or true learning?
grade-level – why should children be grouped by birthdates?
research-based - much of what could be valuable is outdated by the time someone actually collects research data about it’s effectiveness. Does that mean we shouldn’t use common sense and try new things without the research?
data-driven instruction – instruction is being forced to be driven by data but the question is….what is valuable and relevant data? We tend to collect data, sometimes on what is easy to measure rather than what we really want to know and measure.
Every year at this time the news, blogs and conversations I am exposed to are centered around standardized testing, most specifically in Colorado, they are centered around CSAP.
Do people really ask the question: What is the value or point of standardized testing?
The obvious answer of course is: so we can measure what students know, and therefore, we can fill in and teach them what they don’t know yet.
This is based on the assumption that the test is really designed to assess what students NEED to know for their future. This is an assumption that I am not convinced is true but I will save that blog for another day.
The point that is less obvious is this:
Hiring in the business and the adult world is based on a person’s best qualities not their worst. When a business hires someone, they are interested in whether or not that person is good at—. They are much less concerned with what they aren’t good at. The opposite is true in education. We are constantly concerned with what kids are not good at and many times ignore what they ARE good at.
One of the joys of my job as a music teacher is to see students from a totally different point of view than other staff.
One of the most memorable students I’ve had was named Alvin – and he was just like Alvin from the Chipmunks! I remember the first day I met him. He came into my kindergarten music class like a tornado and proceeded to explore the room just like the wild animal his name reminds me of. I found myself calling his name louder and louder as he continued to ignore me – just like Alvin of the chipmunks! This student was so very talented in both art and music and yet by the time he was in 5th grade he was such a discipline problem that he was falling behind in most of the other subjects. His self esteem was so low that he was already looking forward to being at an age where he could drop out of school. I made a pact with Alvin that if he could make it through the week without getting into trouble and get his assignments done he could come to my room on Fridays and we would do whatever he wanted to do in the music room. How I wish we would have had LISA (Loveland area Integrated School of the Arts) in place back then!
Students like Alvin can be productive and quite successful in the “real” world if they capitalize on their strengths. Colorado is 5th in the nation in hiring for the creative industries. This is one of the biggest and fastest growing industries in the nation. Unfortunately, most the employees they hire in these creative industries come from out of state! Think about it. Where are many of the jobs with satisfaction and good income? Sports and arts! Kids figure this out much sooner that we give them credit.
What is the value of arts in education? On the surface, people will concede that arts provide enjoyment and a “break” from the other subjects. The unspoken part is that the other subjects are certainly more important and will surely contribute more to the success of students as productive members of society. Really? Is that true?
It tickles me that innovation and creativity are the two most important qualities that will assure career success. The new Bloom’s Taxonomy (2004) has placed creativity at the very top. (Creativity wasn’t even mentioned in the old taxonomy) Technology has changed the value of fact-based education. Knowledge is cheap. Most anything a person needs to know how to do can be learned through the internet. What IS valuable is what a person does with that knowledge. Can a student determine if what they are finding on the internet is true? Can they use that information in new and creative ways? Can they put that information with other knowledge and create something new with it? These are the qualities students really need.
Here is an example that illustrates this: Everybody needs a toilet bowl brush. That item has already been invented. What will be valuable is how can you improve on it. Can you design a prettier one? (creativity) Can you design one that works better or cheaper? (innovation) Can you convince the public to purchase YOUR toilet bowl brush instead of someone else’s? We can outsource the production of the brushes to other countries. Don’t we want to keep the innovation and design here in America? Isn’t that what we should be educating students toward? How is that measured on a standardized test? Where does a student learn to develop those skills needed for innovation and creation?
It isn’t rocket science – it’s the arts!
I just finished completing a survey from the district regarding budget cuts. One of the first or second pages had a question about how would I rate the importance of keeping the arts. Really???!! I would have believed that in 1980 but not 2010. Why would anyone in this day and age think arts are expendable? There were no questions about taking any other contents off the curriculum?
Let’s look at the value of the arts in the curriculum. What benefit do kids get from taking arts courses? They learn to think critically. They learn to create. They learn to be innovative. They make cross curricular connections. Has anyone looked at the new Blooms taxonomy lately? Creativity is at the top now. It wasn’t even on the old one. Why? Because creativity and innovation are fast becoming the most needed commodity in the world! Most of what the American education system trains students in (and I use the word “train” for a purpose because that is what we do with kids) are skills that even now are being outsourced to other countries…most notably the Asian countries. What will be worth the big bucks when our kids graduate? Innovation, Creativity, Flexible thinking, Critical Thinking….all the things kids learn from the arts.
The second shocking thing about having that question on the survey is that since the first draft of standards came out in the 90′s, music and art have been core subjects. The public gets “it”. The legislators get “it” and the kids get “it”. Why wouldn’t a school district understand this. The research has shown for more than 25 years that kids who participate in the arts score higher on SAT, ACT and any other standardized tests. There has been no research… none, that shows test scores go down when students engage in arts curriculum. Are we paying attention then to the research. Are we really letting data “drive” the education. If we are, then we should pay attention to the data that says the arts enhance the learning.
The arts will keep kids in school. How concerned are we about the drop-out rate that is soaring year by year – besides the students that leave to be educated by other means like online learning and home schooling. The research and data have shown that kids who take arts courses are much more likely to stay in school. Georgia Tech University accepts more students into their med school with music degrees than they do students with math or science degrees. Why? Because the get “it”. They paid attention to the research and understood the qualities you would want in a good doctor are the same qualities and skills that are learned through the arts.
I am hoping the survey question was a mistake.
I have been thinking a lot about what holds back schools from embracing the technology that is available to them. Of course there are always an every blossoming “wish list” but the truth is, we have a lot of technology available to us as teachers that isn’t being used or isn’t being used to it’s full advantage.
Take document cameras for instance: They seem to be the new hot “flavor of the month”. Who out there is using them for anything more than what they used overhead projectors for? The keyword in document camera is CAMERA, people. How many teachers out there take a picture of a document they are projecting so they can show it again later without the actual document? Even more, who is using it to record little mini-movies of a process so that a student who was absent that day can view how did the teacher demonstrate long division?
My personal perception of the hold up is that for whatever reason, teachers aren’t able to give up an old way of doing things for something new. The few that are really trying and putting their own time and effort into learning the tools of technology many times still see it as an “add on” and who has time for any add-ons? Somehow they must begin to see the fruits of technology as an “in-place of” and only then will they really embrace the benefits of technology.
That’s just my two cents.
Recent Comments