Professional Learning Communities: A Reflection on Phoenix

The Solution Tree Professional Development in Phoenix

It is a little more than a week since our trip to Phoenix, where a number of Westlawn staff members listened to a variety of keynote speakers presented by the solution tree, and here are my thoughts on the three day session.

When asked in person how the session went I have developed a standard response: "It was great, motivational and inspiring, but it was also a little repetitive. We heard from a variety of speakers encouraging our team to make sure every student learns at a high level in our classrooms, schools and district. It really is a common sense message that is impossible to disagree with." And that is it. That is everything I learned in a nutshell. Sounds easy right?

But that's the thing. It isn't easy, and that is the key message from these authors, leaders and professionals. Making sure that every student learns at high levels is astoundingly difficult.

I want to do three things in this reflective blog post: 1) outline why it is so difficult 2) discuss the solutions that the conference teaches and 3) apply those lessons to exactly where Westlawn stands in our approach towards the stated goal.

First of all, why is it so hard to ensure that all students learn at high levels? It is difficult because there are 30 students to one teacher and six teachers for every one student every day. There are four core subjects, two languages, physical fitness and complimentary courses. Each one of these classes has dozens of learning objectives and goals for every unit of study and the most complicating factor in getting every single student to learn at high levels is the fact that every single student is a unique individual.

With that many students, learning goals, classes and teachers, how can we possibly ensure that they all learn at high levels? Enter the current pedagogical approach used since the days I became a student, and probably much earlier. Group students into age levels, segment them into different subjects, put them with 25-35 of their peers and give them one teacher at a time. That one teacher will work their hardest to teach everyone, and anywhere from 65% - 85% of the students in a given classroom, school or district will succeed and learn at high levels. Fine, good enough, right? Well not according to current social pressures. Our standard curve of acceptable levels of education are shifting and more students need to be more highly educated in order to succeed in the modern world. We need to raise the number from 70% success to 95% success, and then look at the final 5% that are just not coming to school or still failing despite our efforts.

So there is the problem. What then, do the authors and professionals from the solution tree prescribe as the solution? Simple: 

1. We accept learning as our fundamental purpose.
2. We will work together to achieve this goal.
3. We assess effectiveness on the basis of results.

This is where an outsider would step in and say something like, ``you went to Phoenix to learn that? I Could have told you that!`` but the problem is that it is just not that easy. Here is what needs to happen in school - I am going to try to contrast the problems I outlined in the preceding paragraphs with the solutions just stated.

Do we accept learning as our fundamental purpose? I must say that for the most part schools do accept that learning is the fundamental purpose of their existence, from the classroom all the way to the district and provincial level, but if that is the case, then why are students grouped according to age? Why do we treat 30 individuals as a group? Why do we organize school wide events and funnel limited resources into events that do not help students learn?

Do we, then, work together to achieve our fundamental purpose? We often work together, but this process needs to be monitored and refined.

How about number three? Do we assess effectiveness based on results? Here we have more of a disconnect. Yes we have results, yes we have assessment, but how often do we strategically and purposefully look back at our practice based on the results and make changes?

Here is the last part of the post. I don`t know how many of our staff read this blog, but I am going to try to live up to the name of the blog and look critically and honestly at where Westlawn is. I will get specific, but if I offend you please keep in mind that this is purely reflective.

Westlawn is working in collaborative teams, and we are focused on learning. We are also on our way to measuring effectiveness based on results, but there are some things we need to work on.

Our humanities team has had to work through many changes in people and they have two daunting curriculums, so it is understandable that they have not yet produced usable ELO`s. The humanities team, based on this fact, is not functioning as effectively as it should. They need to focus on detailing a handful of key outcomes and creating at least one common formative assessment for each grade level and class. One of the ways to ensure this, and to make sure the work that needs to be done is getting accomplished, is to a) establish clear and easy to follow team norms and routines (I suggest the vote of 5), set clear and achievable goals at the start of every meeting, establish a zero tolerance approach to language or behaviour that distracts the team, and, to be quite honest, establish time limits on an individuals talking time. In order to ensure these things happen, there needs to be someone from leadership helping the team establish and affirm their protocols. Once the team has experienced some success then leadership support can step away and let them get on with their good work.

Team science is just too damn small. They need any extra minds and hands that are in the building to get into that room and help with the work that needs to be done. Leadership support could go a long way in helping to build the materials and share in the labour of team science. They are doing great work, but they run the risk of focusing too intently on day to day planning at the expense of creating usable CFA`s that can then be analyzed to look at the results of classroom practice. Are there CFA`s that are being built collaboratively? Team science is on a bit of a roll as far as the impact their work is having on the students, but they could be even more effective if they took a step back and looked at the three step approach outlined above? I challenge you, team science, to tell me where in the three steps either planning field trips or creating labs fits? They do, of course, fit, but can the results of their effectiveness be assessed with CFAs?

Math guys are ahead, and I am seeing far fewer students in the office that are frustrated with math and giving up on math, so there is a big pay-off to helping every student learn to high levels, but I would challenge team math to look critically at their classrooms. Is there room to change the pedagogy and then assess the effectiveness of that change based on results? Are you able this year to take one ELO and one CFA and change the instructional approach? You can then have real data about whether or not that instructional approach was superior, inferior or the same as the traditional approach (teacher teaches, does an example, students practice, students ask questions, students practice, students are assessed). I am not saying this approach does not work. I am just saying other approaches might work better, depending on the learning goals, and team Math is ready to experiment with instructional approaches.

Second Languages. We need a second languages team time, not at the expense of the other teams, but if the group approach works for the other teams, then why not this one as well?

Leadership team. There needs to be more continued emphasis and importance placed on our team time and the PLC approach. Support within each team and awareness of what each team is doing is critical for a few reasons. Staff need to know that their hard work is being noticed and celebrated. Staff also need to know that when a team is falling behind they will get the support and encouragement that they need to be more successful.

When leadership (of which I am a part) insist on a project such as I-Cubed or Digital Storytelling, then they need to be able to prove that this conforms to the three step-process outlined above. They also need to help create CFAs that align with a teams ELOs and not just insist on something being done. This is something I tried with digital storytelling, and that I need to be responsible for with I-Cubed.

Every time I am working at the office I need to check my path.

If I am not doing one of these three things:

1. We accept learning as our fundamental purpose.
2. We will work together to achieve this goal.
3. We assess effectiveness on the basis of results.

Then my path is invalid and I need to delete that item.

Why this year is working.

There are so many positive things happening at Westlawn this 2012/2013 year that I wanted to take a second to acknowledge what is happening. I also wanted to try and explain why these things have occurred.

I'll start with a disclaimer: There is the possibility that here at Westlawn there is an unspoken undercurrent of discontent that I am simply not aware of. Now that I am in the office and not in the classroom I do not have access to all of the conversations that are happening behind the scenes. You know those conversations that are negative and critical of school direction. I imagine that there are still some critical and negative conversations taking place in a few corners here at Westlawn, but maybe there aren't. Besides, I have better evidence than teacher satisfaction to prove that something is going right here at Westlawn, Student satisfaction.

Students in Junior High let you know when they are not happy. Over the years here at Westlawn I have heard no shortage of "Westlawn Sucks" and I have seen more than one graffiti tag in the bathroom commenting on Westlawn's propensity for ball licking. Not this year though. I see something different in our students. They are being silly, they are being themselves, they are having small conflicts with their peers and coming up with peaceful solutions. I see students that are happy with their classes, and I hear about students that love their math class or their science class. I see less students isolated and alone, and I see more teachers trying to talk to those students. I see our gym full during sporting events, and I see teachers being listened to and respected when they talk to students. All of the evidence points to a student body that feels safe and cared for and challenged and happy. 

So what is causing this positive shift in student attitude? 

1. ME - I am! Hey I called this the honest educator didn't I? I have had an immense impact on this school, and I want to do so much more, but at the same time
2. YOU - Every time you take the time for the student and sacrifice yourself for them you are making a difference.  The individual relationship changes the student. Nothing can replace the impact that the individuals in this building have on the students.

It would be very easy to misunderstand this celebration of individualism, so let's not do that. Individuals still choose to work well in a team. Individuals are the ones that either talk positively or negatively. Individuals put in the extra work to make sure the entire group benefits and that is what is driving this school. Anybody at this school that wants to be great and do great things in their realm can. We have the freedom to put in long hours, to take the time to talk to kids, to care about how students act and behave. There is no edict telling us to behave this way. All of the successes are individual efforts that come from somewhere inside of the individual that decides to care enough. 

We are lucky enough at Westlawn to have enough strong individuals that care about doing the best damn job they can for themselves and for these kids, and you know what the beautiful thing is about the whole thing? It is downright contagious. 

And yes I was talking about you. 

New Year's Resolutions

Way more interesting than an update to my professional growth plan, here are my New Year's Resolutions for Westlawn School, complete with indicators of success.

I want to focus on three attainable goals from my professional growth plan. 

1. Continue the whole school student assessment of ability at mid-year (end of January and February). I need to improve upon the test format to try to eliminate error, speed up the tracking and posting of results, and keep a closer eye on the resources post-test. In the office, before the end of January I resolve to have the next stage of testing ready for school-wide implementation. Measure of success: Whole school data available by February 14th.

2. Math Intervention Plan. I have been struggling with this since May of last year. Our students are constantly asking for Math intervention, but there is no effective program in place. The after-school sessions could work, but there aren't any "teachers" in the library, and students do not consistently attend. As well, after school is not enough time to catch and assist our failing students. It is my personal believe that something radically different needs to happen in the math classroom for there to be more success overall,  

but that is not my arena to fight in, so I will stay focused on the intervention plan. Measure of success: by Spring Break, when I have students in my office that identify difficulty in math as a leading cause of behavioural problems and anxiety I will have a clear and concise strategy to help them through this. 

3. FNMI parent involvement. I resolve to improve my ability to collaborate by working closely with Ms. Cardinal in a project designed to invite Aboriginal Parents and Families into the building. Indicator of success: Parents and Families will help organize and implement the Aboriginal day celebration at the end of June. 

Can we get here by June 2013?

Well here we go! What are your resolutions for 2013 at Westlawn or at your school?

What to do about Malala?

It is so crucially important that when sharing a story like this one that students feel not depressed but empowered.

This is the time to connect our 11-14 year old students to the world and an issue that should matter to them. They want to connect with this girl and her cause. Teachers please use this moment to let students explore their own ideas of how to connect. 

Start with the story, and then ask the question. What can we do? 

There ought to be time for students to struggle with their own understanding of how to connect with the world at large. All they have been equipped to do is connect with their own teachers and their peers, this they are not ready for.

Don't give them the answers right away. They may have a better idea than what can be provided for them. 

Instead help the students see, feel, and experience their connection with this girl. 

Instead let students ask the questions about our nation, our region, our world and our involvement, potential, real, imagined or otherwise. 

The key here is empathy. Can our young students (especially the girls) connect with Malala and her cause?

Only after students have been given a considerable amount of time to consider what should be done, what can be done should a teacher step in and help them decide on what they can do (and only if the students need our help). 

Here are some ideas to help students connect:

• write letters to Malala
• research her cause and her story
• find out about more about Pakistan and the Taliban.
• Read her diary - her entire diary
• send original artwork or video to Malala's family
• Write letters/video/art to our MP Laurie Hawn, Stephen Harper, or a responsible minister (can you think of a better way to teach students about what a cabinet is than to have them find out who the minister of justice, leader of government, minister of foreign affairs, finance immigration is?)
• research and connect with the NGO's that are active in the cause and the region
• write letters to the Pakistani government
• Extend this event into an understanding of the girl effect 
• Connect with schools in Pakistan and show them our support.

What will Westlawn do to help empower and connect our students today?

I heard this on the web

I can't remember where I read this, but some man or woman smarter and more succinct than I said,

“Education will only truly be transformed when we stop trying to jam content into our kids’ heads and start allowing them to explore and learn in contexts that feed their desire to keep learning."

This quote reminds me of something another man much wiser and more succinct than I had once said,

Education Is Not the Filling of a Pail, But the Lighting of a Fire

Light it, it's exciting!

Motivation in the Classroom

Motivating students should be our very first job in our classrooms. Students need to know why they should care and why they should learn. If schools are functioning properly then Div 1 + Div 2 (grades 1-6) should utilize the pre-built motivation that students bring with them to ensure that students gain the basic literacies needed to survive the more rigourous studies that will be asked of them. In Div. 4 (grades 10-12) the studies get serious (a little too serious in my opinion, but that is for another post) and students must be motivated to succeed and start to refine the work habits and abilities that they have built through the years.

So where does that leave us in Div. 3? Middle School, Junior High, Grades 7-9?

We have the task of motivating students. We have to fight the growing teenage mind and convince it that Algebra is more important than One Direction

This is what we are competing against. Yes it is daunting.

We have to prove that understanding metaphors is more valuable than the gossip about friends and enemies. How many 12 and 13 year olds actually believe that history includes them and should matter to them? I will tell you, not that many. That is what must be taught.

Everyday Message to students: "This stuff matters, kids. This stuff is important to YOU right now."

If all that is accomplished in a students entire Div. 3 experience is that students begin to love learning and students start to care about the world of information, knowledge and skills around them then the job of us middle-school teachers is almost complete.

It is also a crucial time in teaching young humans how to be good and decent human beings, but that is also another blog post.

Motivation is so entirely crucial, relevance is never more important than it is at this age and time and place. Please teachers, make sure your students are motivated and interested. So many students are so intensely bored by their entire day at school, and yes that is the responsibility of teachers.

I'm sorry if this offends, but look at what you are competing against.

Try to get my attention when I have this waiting at home.

We are in a cultural battle to make learning important and meaningful to these youngsters. Take the time to make them care, because if you don't show them and reveal to them why it matters they will not figure it out on their own.

Now That We Know, What Do We Do?

There's this school that I heard of. One September they ran some tests to find out where the students sit in their Mathematical skills and abilities and their reading comprehension abilities. This school was able to pull results for entire grade levels and for individual classrooms.

This hypothetical school had some revealing and important results.

I will leave the chart untitled to protect the identity of the school and the classroom, but suffice it to say that the majority of the diagnostic results for both Math and L.A. across the grades and classrooms revealed similar results.

This particular school had a majority of students within each classroom that were reading below grade level and performing mathematical skills well below grade level.

This school and it's teacher were thus left with a dilemma Now that they know the results what do they do with the students?

The answer was not as complicated as it first appeared.

The answer lay in the minds and will of the individual teachers. The answer was indeed completely liberating. The teachers in this school rejoiced at the freedom they were given to operate and experiment at this school.

The answer, for the teachers was that they could Do whatever they wanted!!!

As most people could tell from the results this was not a typical classroom, not at all.
What a school to work in? It was practically risk free and it quickly became a breeding ground for the best and most innovative educational ideas. Consider the following argument, that led to the innovation:

1. The teachers assumed that most of these students had been taught in classrooms that were segmented into age directed grade based levels, broken up into pieces of disciplinary segments (math, social, science, L.A.) where students sat in rows or groups of students and attempted to learn what a teacher gave them to learn. 
2. The teachers also assumed that the students in this classroom had a variety of learning barriers, gaps in their learning, a deficit in the family support system and less than perfect attendance (read: a horrible attendance problem that proved to be a major barrier).
3. The teachers then concluded that if they were to continue to teach the students in the same method detailed in assumption #1 and there was no meaningful progress in alleviating the barriers outlined in assumption #2 that they could reasonably expect that there would be no real change in student results: a majority of students would continue to perform underneath "grade level" expectations.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

My Message that I take away from the school in the above story: We can do anything we want with these results.

We can innovate. We can teach individual students. We can allow our highest achievers the freedom to grow at an accelerated pace. We can slow things down and start motivating students to want to learn. We can throw out the curriculum and focus on literacy. We can meet the students where they are and raise them up. We can spend half a day bonding with students because we know that when they feel safe, then they feel safe enough to learn. We can turn the bells off or we can keep them on. We can give students play time. We can show kids why we learn math, and why it is important. We can ignore the judicial branch of government unless a kid cares about the judicial branch of government. We can stop making thirty different kids read the same damn book, unless, of course they want to learn in a community book club. We can let the kids that hate volleyball play around and wrestle instead. We can give ourselves the freedom to care a little less about structure and a little more about learning. We can stop worrying about things we can't control, like families and previous learning experiences, and chronically poor attendance, and we can start caring more about the things we can control, like helping kids see the joy in learning and helping students see the importance of growing through academic pursuits.

By avoiding the status quo it would, at least, be possible to succeed. Honestly, turning the whole school upside down seems a lot less insane then keeping things the same way.

Are you with me?

In Solidarity

I am in more than a little torn about the idea of unions. I appreciate the idea of a strong union for the obvious reasons, and I also acknowledge the periodic necessity of the institution, but I also appreciate and acknowledge the obvious and oft-repeated criticisms of unions. This post is not necessarily about unions, but I wanted to make clear my position as a member in good standing with the ATA, but also as an, at times, critical member. Let's be especially clear (in order to avoid these words coming back to bite me). Unions are effective, and often necessary, but they, like any institutional organization, deserve to be regarded thoughtfully and, at times, critically. I reserve the right to question the actions of my union. Have I covered my ass enough yet?

EA's are able to bond with and give so much to special needs students. 

This article isn't about unions, it's about school support staff. Most particularly this is about Educational Assistants. I'm not going to lie. I am grossly uninformed about the supposed strike that the Catholic School Board Support Staff is undertaking right now. All I know is that on Monday hundreds of support workers for Edmonton Catholic Schools walked off the job.

I also know that Edmonton Public School support workers are currently in contract negotiations. This got me to thinking. What if the same happens here at my school? I have worked closely with the EA's in my school and I do not think there is a more underpaid, overworked group of intelligent, effective and caring people in this school.

Could I cross their picket line? Not in good conscience. Could my union make me cross their picket line? Probably, but isn't that hypocritical? Do I support the women that I have worked with closely in the last two years? Wholeheartedly. If anyone deserves more recognition, more hours and higher wages it is the EA's in this school.

Even while writing I have a curious feeling. I can write honestly about any number of educational issues and I never hesitate to click publish. But talking about unions, and talking honestly about working conditions... can I publish?

__________ right I can

Can You Work More For Me?

Well we all survived the first day of school. I have a new position in school leadership, but I am worried about one thing in particular: Can I Ask Teachers to Do More Work?

September workload can be overwhelming.

The nature of leadership requires me to ask staff to do things. I don't have a problem asking them to do reasonable tasks, but asking them to do extra work is difficult. Teachers have the most tasking and time consuming job in the school. I can't, in good conscience, ask them to do extra work on top of their already immense workload.

So what can I do when I need the teachers to do something for me?

The answer, as I realized while running last night, is not as complex as it appears. If the time needed from a teacher to complete a task is greater than the combination of the time gained by a teacher plus student achievement and growth then I can justifiably ask a teacher for help. This can actually be expressed in a formula.

If T (needed) < T (gained) + Student Achievement then ✓

If T (needed) > T (gained) + Student Achievement then X

This is not some floofy fake formula (alliteration not intended). This will actually guide my formal interaction with staff throughout the year. Admittedly the student achievement is difficult, but not impossible, to measure.  For this to work I need to test the formula for validity. So here is my first test:

I asked and expected all of the teachers to administer an exam to students in their homeroom. This was part of the first day package and the office was able to have all of the exams printed and handed out to the teachers, so there was no work required there, but I also asked the teachers to grade and record the exams, so here I am asking them to do more work. I need to ask myself, is it justified? 

Time Needed from Teachers = 30 minutes to grade on scantron and record the marks.

Time Gained from Teachers = 10 minutes of planning time for the one hour of class to write exam

Student Achievement = Use results of exam to track student growth over the year, identify outlying high performing and struggling students on the first day of school, use this data to help teachers plan intervention strategies.

30 min. < or > 10 min. + Early Identification\Intervention Planning?

The third variable in the equation is not yet measurable, so the formula is still of the typical floofy education variety. How much time would it take for a teacher to identify and begin planning intervention strategies for the outlying high and low performing students in their classes? An experienced teacher could have this accomplished in one class period 40 - 50 minutes. They would not, however, have comparable school wide data that could be used across their teacher teams. They would, most likely, have a sample of student work and their own professional anecdotal evidence about the students. Even if I ignore the last point and use the smaller number the answer is clear. I am justified in asking teachers to grade and record the student exams.

30 min. < 10 min. + 40 min.

I am justified in asking teachers to grade and record the student exams because it will actually save the teachers some time in the long run.

It is my promise to teachers that I will not ask them to do anything that will only create more work for them. If I ask anything of teachers this year it will be under the auspices of this formula.

You can hold me to this.

Ideas I am Still Formulating

Here are some ideas that I originally encountered two years ago while George Siemens was writing at elearnspace. The original post, Questions I'm no Longer Asking, is thought provoking enough, but I wanted to revisit and reinterpret what they mean to me today as I enter into a new role as curriculum coordinator here at Westlawn.

1. Learners should be in control of their own learning. Autonomy is key. Educators can initiate, curate, and guide. But meaningful learning requires learner-driven activity.

I try to use a creative commons search, but I get nothing.
For now I steal and borrow from Google Image Search.

This idea runs up against how the k-12 system is structured the second students walk into the classroom. It does not have to be this way. As soon as we make all of the 8-2 kids go to Math class and learn the exact same thing at the same time and in the same way we are taking away their autonomy. Of course they will not be interested they are not the architects of their learning at all. Even if a teacher assumes the overarching structure cannot be altered, a false and damaging assumption, they should still try to increase autonomy within the classroom as their number one goal and guide.

2. Learners need to experience confusion and chaos in the learning process. Clarifying this chaos is the heart of learning.

To the teachers at Westlawn: BE THE CAT!

Confusing students and creating dissonance within the minds of students sets the groundwork for an open mind that is ready to learn. Show them the broken pieces of their understanding and allow them to piece their own world together into something that is reasonable and comprehensible. Let them create their own understanding and check their understanding against the learning of their peers. Already this probably sounds great in theory, but it goes further than being a nice idea. As soon as we act on the truth that learning is why our classrooms exist then we can put aside the factory structure that prepares students to write a grade nine multiple choice exam.

3. Openness of content and interaction increases the prospect of the random connections that drive innovation.

Open it up, or think differently about what it means.

It is difficult to find an idea that is more opposed to current school culture than openness of content. Students need to know what they are learning, why they are learning it and they have the right to question it's relevance. Part of the reason why we have students closed off from the original content of what they are learning is because we, as teachers, don't always agree. If this post is starting to sound like it is against standardized curriculum that's maybe because it is. I didn't intend for it to be. I am testing my own ideas against those of George Siemens. What do you think? Comment below. 

I will let these last four ideas stand alone without comment. It is still summer after all. 

4. Learning requires time, depth of focus, critical thinking, and reflection. Ingesting new information requires time for digestion. Too many people digitally gorge without digestion time.

5. Learning is network formation. Knowledge is distributed.

6. Creation is vital. Learners have to create artifacts to share with others and to aid in re-centering exploration beyond the artifacts the educator has provided.

7. Making sense of complexity requires social and technological systems. We do the former better than the latter.