This week was definitely an interesting week. I continue to grow and learn more each and every day. In the past, I have taught a variety of students. However, I had never experienced as large a variation in learning abilities in one class as I have this week. I have one section where I have students who are Honors/Pre-AP level students in the same classroom as students who are classified as exceptional children (EC). I also have a large number of students who are ESL (or EL) meaning that their primary language is not English. Most are functional in English but I have a few who do not speak minimal English at best. I am also working with one student to learn to speak English. The student's native language is Arabic so I ordered some flash cards with both English and Arabic on them. The student's goal is to learn to speak English and many of the students are also helping this student with learning English vocabulary. Also in the class are students who are on the Occupational Course of Study (OCS) track whose focus is to prepare for job training. There are times during this learning where I am challenged to balance the varied learning needs of the students and often have to modify several assignments to better accommodate the unique learning of our students. Needless to say, I and the other co-teachers must always be alert, active and on our feet to serve our students.
While this is a challenging task, I know that it is well worth it. Earlier last week, I attended a twitter chat on Design Thinking. I loved this twitter chat as it helped me connect to other Design Thinking instructors. Twitter chats are a great way to reach out and learn from other colleagues across the globe. During this twitter chat, one of the participants discussed an experience that she had a student in her Civics class. There was a question on a test where the teacher asked students if they will vote at 18. The twitter chat participant said that she would not since she had the choice as she lived in a democracy. The teacher phoned home to complain what was perceived as an insubordinate answer from the student. The participant pointed out that because she lives in a democracy that she has the choice about voting. Based on my perception of her response, she had clearly learned her "Civics" and was duly exercising her right as a citizen. As we explored this experience further, we determined that the student was in a system that was flawed. The system created by the teacher supported an earlier form of education where we simply prepared students for working on assembly lines and factories. Essentially, we only want them to learn just enough to be compliant and do what they were supposed but not move beyond surface level knowledge and compliance. The education system was flawed and the student was pointing it out with her response. While I suppose the teacher found her response to be insubordinate, I perceive her response to be brilliant. She was able to apply the information that she learned in a new way. Essentially, she was innovating. While I think it is important to vote personally, I feel that the teacher missed a real learning opportunity here. The teacher had a student who clearly understand her role in a democracy and was able to apply information in new way. While this way may have been unexpected by the teacher, the response was everything that I would want my students to share and do in our Design Challenge course. The response shows evidence of deep critical thinking and problem solving.
If a student leaves my classroom at the end of the year able to apply what they have learned in a new way to solve a problem, then we will have been successful. Here was the participant from the twitter chat clearly showing that she could apply what she learned in a new way while thinking critically to solve a problem. I was so inspired by what I learned from this twitter chat that I created a new assignment. We had met previously with an awesome interior designer who is helping us transform our spaces. She had asked us to get the dimensions of the room and provide her with this information. So I thought "What if we had our students do this?" I then thought about how we could do it in a different way that involved problem solving. I initially thought about borrowing meter sticks from the science teachers. But then it hit me - how many times do we find that we don't have the tools that we really need to solve a problem. So after consulting with my co-teacher, we decided not to provide any rulers or metersticks. Instead, students would have to figure out a way to measure the length and width of the room. We purposefully provided minimal directions on how to do this. Instead our students had to figure it out. In our course, we want our students to find new and untested ways to solve problems. Several of our students attempted to use their feet/shoes to measure the dimension. While this is not necessarily a bad method, I observed and shared with the students that they were not always putting their feet in the same positions. Sometimes they had a space between their feet while at other times there feet touched each other. I asked them about their consistency and they quickly realized that there may be flaws with their design.
They were challenged to find a new and better way using what resources they had available. How often do we, as adults, find ourselves without the resources that we need to solve a problem? A lot of groups realized that they needed something that would serve as a consistent standard for their unit of measurement. This is where I found our students to be very resourceful. They had to listen to each other's ideas, consider them, and get feedback on them. Several groups came to me for feedback. As we discussed their ideas back and forth, many students became somewhat frustrated with this challenge. They found that it was not as simple as they initially thought that it would be. Also, they had to really think about the resources available to them and had to be creative. In the end, all groups experienced some level of success. Several groups used clipboards to measure the length and width of the classroom. One particular innovative group used poster paper to find the measurements which I found so extraordinary. A couple of groups manage to salvage a broken door from a locker and used it to find the room's dimensions. Students also grappled with finding the area of the room. They had to connect what they had previously learned in math about finding the area and apply it in a real world context. It was amazing how many lightbulbs that I saw go off when they connected the theoretical (what they learned in math class) to the real life (finding measurements that you would need for an interior designer). As a final challenge, they had to report the units for the area. This gave us a great opportunity to create some more confusion but also make a powerful connection to math. When I asked students about the answer to "x times x," most told me "x squared." So I then asked them about the "door time door" and so many of them instantly said "door squared" and then the light bulb clicked again. It was their brain growing and making powerful connections between the theoretical and real world again. I can say that I was very proud of my students willingness to hang in there and really grapple with the complexity of this task. For many of them, it was challenging and pushed them. It also caused them to have to think at a higher abstract level. In other words, they were growing. Growing is challenging and can be very uncomfortable. But I think that they learned the importance of persevering and how to ask for help when needed. Many of them said it was "Friday and they did not need to think that hard on a Friday." With realizing it, students actually paid us a great compliment. They were learning through being challenged and that is what our course is all about.
This was our first full week of Design Challenge. I was not prepared. I am certain that I grew more and learned more in this one week that I think that I have ever done in my previously 21 years working in public education. I was fortunate to have strong support from my amazing coteachers, Mrs. File and Mr. Causby. Without them, I don't think that it would have been as smooth. Also a special thank you to Mr. Martin for helping us during 2nd period as well. I must admit that I considered multiple alternative jobs frequently during this week. It was one of the most challenging weeks that I have ever experienced. The challenges were frequent and often we failed at them. But that is the beauty of what we are doing. We are learning from our failures and developing new solutions that will result in us better serving our students. We are actively adjusting many of our plans and having to create new possibilities on a moment's notice.
Some of our challenges involved students for nearly 200 minutes each day. Another formidable challenge involves working with 70 students for nearly 100 of those minutes each day. We are also challenged with instructing all students with very different abilities at one time. We may have an AP/Honors students seated next to a non-English speaking student who is seated near a student with a learning disability. Like any other classroom, our students motivation varies. We learned that some of our students do not see the value of the Design Challenge experience. We have also learned that many of students are very creative and ingenious when it comes to solving problems. We have also learned that the majority of our students really like their teachers and appreciate their willingness to help and encourage them to be successful. We were often challenged with solving new situations that I would never have previously imagined in teaching. But I think that this is what makes us grow.
Growth is something that lots of educators value but it is a messy and chaotic process. It can be very frustrating and discouraging while you are experiencing it. In short, I am very confident that I learned so much more about myself, my students, my teaching ability, and my problem solving abilities that I ever would have else where. There were days when I honestly came home and wondered if I would ever return the next day. It reminded me of being a first year teacher all over again. But then each morning, I was up and going to school earlier than I had to. I was essentially in there "busting my butt" to adjust to what our students needed and working with my colleagues. In short, I was growing. One day, I had to submit two discipline referrals. I had years in my previous positions where I never had to submit two discipline referrals. Yet, I learned so much from the experiences this week.
I saw that I have a lot of students who genuinely want to learn and have a goal after high school. I developed some preliminary relationships with several students and I know that I care very much about all my students already. I left at the end of the week hoping that I gave all of them something to go forward with and hopefully helped them to be better. I know that we will continue to experience challenges but I also learned that these challenges are not insurmountable. There will be times when I will be frustrated. Students saw this a few times. But what was even more important for them to see is what I responded to that frustration. I feel that it is imperative that the adults who work with our students model appropriate responses to situations so our students have a positive model to use. Our students also saw the adults in the classroom working collaboratively to ensure that we were moving them forward. Once again, a great model for them to emulate later on.
As I reflect on the many failures that we experienced, I could not "be happier" as our principal shared in my interview. It is failure that often teaches us so much more. In the past, when I have been successful initially, I often did not learn many of the lessons that I needed to learn since I was not faced with failure. I realized in later years that I often made mistakes that I would not have been if I had failed earlier. Thus, failure is an opportunity to learn. I really developed a new appreciation for failing forward and it is my hope that our students will also learn that failure is an opportunity for them to grow and learn valuables lessons. Next week will also be another opportunity for growth and change. But then again, I am developing a deeper appreciation for what failure teaches us and learning how to growth from it. In actuality, I could not be happier.
We have completed our first days of "Restart" or how I really prefer to think of it as a "Relaunch" at North Rowan High School. While our technical status is "restart," I really feel that we are more appropriately "relaunch" North Rowan High instead. As I write this post, I searched the differences between start and launch. While these terms are often used interchangeably by speakers, there are subtle differences that cause me to prefer the term "relaunch." One site that I found references the difference as launch meaning that it will "continue with its own momentum." As I think about this, I really feel that this is what we are working to accomplish at North Rowan High School.
I met my new students for the first time this past week. I found many of them to be eager and interested in the relaunch. There were some, understandably so, that are less certain and some that are just unsure about school in general. I will team teach with a super team of two other teachers. Due to the size of our school, we will teach all sophomores. This includes all levels of students ranging from honors, standard, and students with various disabilities. Added to this mix are several students who are non-English speaking as well. As we attempt our ambitious and vital goal of implementing Design Thinking with students, we must be cognitive of keeping all of out students and their various abilities and backgrounds in mind. Our goal is for students to be successful at a level that is appropriate for them. This means that we must measure success in new, different ways or metrics than have been used in the past.
As I experienced in the classroom last week, students have a range of abilities, talents, and skills. Some students are particularly advanced in several skills while other students are still developing their skills, abilities, and talents. In doing so, the way that we measure their successes will vary tremendously among students. It is our charge to figure out where our students are and how we can help them to move forward. I explained to the students that our course will be very different from their other courses. What we will seek to do is to help them learn about their individual passions, interests, and talents and help them develop and expand those into strengths that can be used in the future. While our initial goal is to help our students graduate high school, our hope is to provide them with skills and experiences that will create a more successful and fulfilling life in the future. Regardless of their plans after high school, we want our students to have the skills, knowledge, and experiences needed to create a life that brings them joy and gratification.
I shared with our students that their school and community historically have provided strong leaders who continue to move our county forward. Some students looked at me puzzled. I asked them to think about the different regions in Rowan County. Many of our county commissioners, school board members, leaders of various organizations, and other community entities have a North Rowan connection. I do not think that this is by chance. I explained that this was due to individuals who attended school in the North Rowan area understanding how to work effectively and productively with individuals who are quite different from them. In our classes, we had a diverse mix of students from various backgrounds (ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, different family structures, religious, etc). One of the reasons that North Rowan produces strong leaders is due to this diversity. Individuals learn how to work with others who may hold very different viewpoints. They find common ground and are able to work to make our community a better place to live by generating solutions that make positive impacts.
As we move forward, our work will be challenging. We will need to work to shift many mindsets. Many of our students were surprised by the acknowledgement of the leadership capability that occurred in class. We will continue to challenge previously held mindsets and help move students into new ways of thinking. In our class, we will stress the importance of failure. Failure is not a bad thing. In fact in my experience, I have learn more from failure than from success. With failure, we are challenged to reflect and think about why we failed. We attempt to answer "Why was I not successful?" and to find possible solutions. We then relaunch into a new solution carrying with us the lessons that we learned from our failure. As we move forward at North Rowan High, the fear of failure is no longer a concern. In fact, we will embrace failure and help our students see the value of learning from failure. We will move into a new mindset where our students celebrate their failures by learning from them. I realize that this will be a challenge and require a lot of investment. But in the end, it is really what we need to give to our students the most. As a chemistry teacher, I can teach various algorithms on how to solve problems and equations. In the past, I have graded students based on how well they are able to replicate the algorithms and that determines their success. While we must do these kinds of things in various classes due to the restrictions and expectations that we have as public schools, we now have the change to let our students see that there is so much more to preparing them for life than taking a standardized test in the end. Their value and worth as a person is not determined by a test. Life, itself, is much more complicated that this. We must work to prepare them to meet the challenges of living in the 21st century and to adapt to a world that will change exponentially in the course of their lives. Just as we have heard previously, our students will work various jobs that do not yet exist. We cannot even imagine some of these jobs today. Thus, our work at North Rowan High is much more important than just helping our students prepare for "THE TEST." The most important work that we will do is to help students master the skills needed to have a productive and passion filled life where they understand failure is something to celebrate and learn from as they are able to generate new solutions to solve problems. It is our hope and goal that they will learn how to use what they learn from failure along with their own skills, talents, and aptitudes to move forward in the complexity of life. Thus, they will propel their own selves and move forward as needed. This is why I see our work at North Rowan as a "Relaunch."
We also received some great coverage from the Salisbury Post on our first day.
Today, I was fortunate to have a longer drive to a conference in Asheville. As I drove to Asheville, I thought about the new school year that we will start with students on Thursday. Earlier today, we hosted an Open House where parents and students were invited to pick schedules, register, and receive their laptops. This was my major experience with a cross section of the North Rowan community. I had longed wondered how the community would be. Given the status of Rowan-Salisbury's first "Restart School," the school year is beginning two weeks earlier than most other schools. We are also changing the school curriculum for all 9th and 10th graders. As I worked with a variety of parents and grandparents registering their students, I was impressed at how genuine the community was. The parents were kind, excited, and asked questions. I think that perhaps the best thing that I realized is that the parents and community are interested in what changes are occurring at the school. There is excitement and hope with the changes that are occurring at North Rowan High School. I had several parents visit with students and they asked a lot of questions about the Design Challenge course. We explained to them that this class would help them to solve problems while applying critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. We also shared that we wanted them to be excited about the course and have the ability to explore their passions. This seemed to be a pleasant surprise for some of the students. We explained that we would focus on helping them learn and expand their strengths while helping them discover new abilities. I was very energized by the positive interactions. My hope is that the community will continue to support the school in our quest to #changetheequation and engage students. We want our students to come to school eager to learn and be challenged at levels that allow them to grow. We want students to explore their passions and discover new talents. We want students to develop the necessary skills and talents to live in an ever evolving society where they are prepared for unimaginable opportunities that do not yet exist. In short, we want our students ready to meet a future that no one change yet imagine. We will work to accomplish this and more. With continued community support, North Rowan High School will transform in a model of success and hope to guide other schools. The North Rowan community has long produced many talented leaders who are able to work with a variety of people to find solutions to problems. Today, I saw many of the faces that I will be blessed to teach this year. I now understand the importance of our work and see that it matters so much more.
I have spent the past two weeks serving as a Digital Learning Ambassador for public educations across North Carolina. Starting with certificate renewals for June 30, 2019 and beyond, all educators are required to have a minimum of 2.0 CEUs (continuing education units). When North Carolina passed this requirement, it was definitely a move forward. Many school systems now provide a digital device for student use during the school day. Some systems such as the one where I work, allow our students to take their devices home as well. Many years ago, I remember learning about the "Digital Divide." As someone who taught at an inner city school, I was fully aware that some families where able to provide their students with access to an electronic device to learn. But I also saw that many other families were unable to provide a device for their sons and daughters due to financial limitations. There was a growing concern at that time that those with access would be able to move exponentially forward while those without a device would be left behind. I applaud school systems for working to figure out how to provide all students with access to devices. Many times these school systems have made financial sacrifices and reduced other valuable programs. But I sincerely feel that this has made a world's difference for so many students. We tend to hear less about this digital divide since so we have made progress.
But our work here is not yet done. We must continue to work toward all students have access to an electronic device as well as ensuring that students understand how to manage their lives in a digital world. For the first time in human history, students have the potential to have their entire lives captured digitally. Our students also have the opportunity to learn in enhanced ways that we could have only dreamed about a few years ago. With the advances in technology, it is very opportune that our state has created Digital Learning Competencies to direct teaching and learning in our public schools. These competencies serve as a primer to help educators identify how to effectively integrate digital tools for learning. Additionally, educators are charged to be leaders in digital learning while collecting and evaluating data to make relevant decisions regarding student learning. Further, and in my opinion most importantly, educators are charged with ensuring that students understand how to behave in a safe, legal and ethic way in a digital world. This is what we commonly call digital citizenship (dig cit). Digital Citizenship grew out of citizenship, a key focus area of education. As our world become more digitally integrated, we must ensure that our students develop healthy and appropriate relationships with technology. In my previous role as an Instructional Technology Facilitator (ITF), I was initially surprised at how much time I spent working with parents, grandparents, and guardians of students in helping them understand how to best support students in developing appropriate and healthy relationships with technology.
As I reflect on the important and crucial work that has occurred over the past few weeks with public educators, I am amazed at how much much has been shared and the extraordinary ideas that have been generated. I have seen educators get re-energized and abound with enthusiasm about returning back to school in the next few weeks. I have seen the synthesis of new ideas born of creativity that serve as innovative digital learning practices. I feel good about what educators will be doing this year when students return back to the classroom. I applaud North Carolina, the General Assembly, and the State Board of Education for their support of the Digital Learning Competencies. These entities definitely got it right and the end result is that our students will have a greater opportunity for success as a result of this forward thinking. I am pleased to express my appreciation to those who with the insight and forward thinking to see the need for Digital Learning Competencies for educators. Each of you got it right also!
The ideas shared here are my own and do not necessarily represent my employers, associations, or organizations. These thoughts are entirely my own.