WHY Purpose & Passion matter

Why do some people appear to be so passionate about their work?

You know the people I'm talking about. They have excitement in their voices, they are constantly thinking of new ideas, they willingly accept new challenges, they work diligently to see things through, their words are convincing and they are inspiring. Hopefully, this describes YOU!

These passionate people believe not only in WHAT they do for work, but more importantly, WHY they do their work. It's their knowledge of WHY and their sense of PURPOSE that makes their words and actions authentic. They say and do things they truly believe in!

Authenticity is crucial in an organization because it contributes to the building of strong relationships. Strong relationships build trust, and with trust comes loyalty and a sense of belonging. The feeling of belonging, that one's work is valuable, important and part of something bigger, is what inspires people to go beyond the call of duty. "People working together for a common cause...is what creates the bond and the camaraderie that brings success." Sinek

This is what schools should feel like!

Passionate educators working together to ensure the best opportunities and best learning for each and every student. Students working together for a common cause and purpose. Adults and students working and learning together.

And just like everyone else, YOU have an important role to play in creating this.

So take some time to ask yourself, "Just WHY is it that I do WHAT I do?"

As you attempt to answer this question and clarify (or re-clarify) your PURPOSE you may begin to question some of your own practices. You may feel uncomfortable but this needs to happen if you are going to align your WHAT with your WHY. It's an important step in gaining (or regaining) your sense of PURPOSE and being able to approach your work with PASSION.

Don't resort to threats such as zeros and late penalties or incentives like bonus marks in order to get your students to take action. These are just attempts to manipulate! Approach your work with PURPOSE and your students with PASSION. Inspire them to take action!

I'd love to hear your WHY's and I encourage you to share with a comment! Thanks.

Novelty or Innovation?

#leadershipday12

"Real innovation changes the course of industry or even society."   
                                                                                      Simon Sinek
                                
(Yes, it's a day late but I wrote this in the spirit of #leadershipday12.)

In his book, 'Start with Why', Sinek (@simonsinek) references many examples from the business world (Motorola, Colgate, Apple) that we can draw parallels to in education.

As I listen to and participate in conversations face-to-face and through social media I sometimes wonder if our quest to create innovative approaches to learning has somehow resulted in our overemphasis on the shiny new tool. Is it good to be a trailblazer and be on the leading edge of a new approach to teaching and learning? Of course! However, we should also strive for our new approaches to lead to lasting improvements for all learners.

The newest laptop, the most recent version of the iPad...these are examples of shiny tools with added features, but in short order they will all be replaced. It wasn't long ago that the first iPad was being introduced and now people have the iPad 3, equipped with new features, in their hands. When it comes to added features, Sinek writes, "They are added in an attempt to differentiate, but not reinvent." So the question to ask before investing big dollars in the latest technology is whether the tool will help the teacher 'reinvent' education for today's learners or simply be a temporary engagement 'fix'  that learners will become bored of once the technology is replaced?

I'm as guilty as anyone else of being dazzled by the most recent shiny tool. I enjoy the flexibility of working from my iPad, MacBook or smartphone, depending on where I am and what I plan to do. But, it's not the shininess of the tool that has captured my long term attention. Instead, over the past few years these tools have supported my shift to become a globally connected learner. On a daily basis my network of educators exposes me to new ideas, challenges my thinking and inspires me! Is the technology itself engaging? For a while it was! But what keeps me coming back to these tools is that they have helped accelerate my learning. In other words, the way in which I am learning is the focus of my shift and the tools are simply supporting this shift.

In schools, we need to be approaching investments of time, energy and money with similar thinking. We're better off encouraging innovations in pedagogy that can be accelerated through the use of new technology instead of focussing on the learning of a new technology without a shift in pedagogy. Supporting teachers in their learning of new pedagogies such as inquiry-based learning or project-based learning, that can incorporate and be accelerated by technology, will lead to lasting advances in teacher and student learning. We should be supporting teachers' attempts to transform their students into active learners who are proposing questions, seeking answers and creating solutions to their own problems. And if their students' learning can be accelerated by becoming globally connected and they can share their learning by having access to creative presentation tools then we should be investing in the technology that allows them to do so.

While simply investing in the latest tools and training teachers to use the tool may lead to temporary improvements in teacher and student engagement it will not magically lead to a pedagogical shift. Consequently, teachers and students will likely revert to traditional forms of teaching and learning when the novelty of the tool dies down.

New frameworks for learning will demand our investments in technology. Investments in technology won't demand new frameworks for learning!

First WHY, then WHAT!

I am currently reading Simon Sinek's (@simonsinek) book, 'Start with Why - How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action'. In it, he stresses 'that people don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.' This has got me thinking a lot about how this applies to teachers, students and how students don't buy WHAT teachers do, they buy WHY they do it.




Consider Sinek's ideas in the classroom. Telling students WHAT to do (or even HOW to do it) isn't enough on its own to generate long term motivation. Instead, teachers who communicate WHY...the values and beliefs inherent in WHAT they are asking students to do are more likely to inspire long term action on the part of their students.

"When we communicate from the outside (WHAT) in, when we communicate WHAT we do first, yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information, like facts and features, but it does not drive behaviour. But when we communicate from the inside (WHY) out, we're talking directly to the part of the brain that controls decision-making, and our language part of the brain allows us to rationalize those decisions."  Sinek

As educators we must be mindful of this. We communicate to students a lot about WHAT challenges will look like and HOW they can go about accomplishing them. The WHAT involved in any particular challenge may interest and engage a certain group of students but it likely won't interest all students and definitely won't contribute to any lasting engagement. If our goal is to engage students in meaningful tasks, we must communicate the WHY! For learners, understanding the WHY is what creates the meaning in a task.

"We're drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe. Their ability to make us feel special, safe and not alone is part of what gives them the ability to inspire us. Those whom we consider great leaders all have an ability to draw us close and to command our loyalty."  Sinek

In the classroom, we are the leaders! Our ability to consistently motivate, inspire and convince students to do what is asked of them comes in large part from whether we communicate the reason(s) WHY we do WHAT we do! Our WHY'S should include explanations such as 'caring about students', 'wanting what is best for them in the present and their futures' and 'doing what is in their best interest'! Of course, these are not words we can say just once and expect they will believe. We must remind them of our beliefs and convince them through our actions! It is through our consistent words and actions that we tap into our students' emotions and build the loyalty and trust we all hope to create with our students. Once we've established our students' trust and loyalty, they will go beyond our expectations and agree to challenges even when they know they may not be to their liking.

Each of us can recall stories of specific students who truly seemed to work for us, regardless of their ability, the level of challenge or their fondness for a task. They are great examples of students who obviously bought into WHY we do WHAT we do! Through consistently supportive words and actions we demonstrate how much we care about our students. Once we establish trust and loyalty with them, they appear even better, more committed students. They consistently complete tasks when assigned to them, follow through on instructions and embrace challenges even when they know it will require considerable effort. Rather than questioning the logic behind completing such difficult challenges, their rational brains generate reasons to justify WHY they should embrace these challenges.

People may refer to all this as building rapport while others may call it fostering relationships. Most importantly, they both rely on a foundation of trust and loyalty that has been established by teachers who emphasize WHY before WHAT!

So the next time you catch yourself describing to students WHAT they are about to do, I urge you pause and consider whether you have emphasized WHY they should do it!

Here is clip of Sinek's TEDx Talk.

Fruitful Reflections on Learning

Earlier this week, I ventured to a local blueberry farm to pick some blueberries. What a great day to have been outside. It wasn't easy picking today as the farmer sent us out to a section of the field that had obviously already been picked over. Nonetheless, it offered me lots of time for reflection.

Perseverance
In my previous post I also wrote about perseverance. Let me tell you, picking blueberries definitely tested my perseverance. The berries were harder to find than usual and the plants were short, which meant for lots of crouching and kneeling. My knees ached, my shoulders were sore and there were a number of times where I felt like calling it a day and simply buying some ready-picked berries from the stand. But I had committed to picking a boxful and I wasn't going to leave until I had finished. Now, what is the connection to education? When students arrive at reasonable and manageable challenges, we must demand they persevere to the point of completion. On the other hand, we must not criticize their lack of perseverance when they lack the skills and ability necessary to complete certain challenges.

Uniqueness

I observed blueberries of all different colours. sizes, shapes and other unique characteristics. Some were very ripe and barely required my helping in falling off the bush. Others were nowhere near ripe and even with a gentle tug resisted falling off the bush. Again, how does this relate to education you ask? Each of our students is unique in his or her own special way. And much like berries, each of them matures and develops at his or her own pace. As educators, it is our responsibility to judge each student's development and gently pull them on to new challenges when the time is right.

Look Beyond the Obvious
Initially, it was discouraging not to find berries very easily. But I quickly learned that when I took a moment to look under some branches and peel back some leaves that there were many ripe berries to be found. I believe this is another important lesson for each of us who works with children. Rather than making judgments and assumptions about children based on what we see them demonstrate on the surface, it's important that we make the effort to get to know our students, find out who is truly behind the eyes we see on a daily basis and recognize each student's individual abilities and potential.

Perseverance & Resilience - A Responsibility

Ask teachers to describe some of the concerns they have for their students and it's quite likely they'll begin by describing specific portions of their course that students find more challenging than others. They may refer to students who consistently fail to complete work, are unprepared for tests, appear distracted by other interests or are very much disengaged. The list of concerns and frustrations can go on and on.

I often hear teachers compare the students of today with students of the past and claim that our present students 'just aren't the same as students were in the past'. They claim kids today simply aren't as responsible and lack perseverance and resilience in the face adversity or challenge.

I cannot deny the importance of students developing a sense of responsibility, perseverance and resilience. These are important qualities for students to develop and take with them into adulthood. However, some questions I'm pondering are:

• Is our assertion that students would be more successful if they demonstrated more responsibility, more perseverance and more resilience simply an excuse for us not to examine and be critical of our practices?
• Are we 'forcing' students to persevere through their learning when we should be looking for ways to engage them more in what we're asking them to learn?
• Is increased responsibility, perseverance and resilience the answer for some of our most vulnerable learners?
• What are 'we' doing to create an environment where students can develop personal responsibility, perseverance and resilience?

These are obviously big questions. Not ones that can be answered in one blog post. For the purpose of this post I'm going to focus on our assessment practices and how they may impact what we observe in our schools.

If you were a student who struggled to achieve learning mastery because the pace was too quick for you, the content was too difficult for you or you were lacking the skills to accomplish a task, what actions do you think you would demonstrate? To start with, you'd probably struggle to meet deadlines.
But if you took your teacher up on his/her flexible timelines, and sought out his/her assistance in helping you learn the necessary skills and knowledge, great! Your teacher would probably compliment you on how your commitment and handwork led to your achievement!

But, what if your teacher stuck to rigid deadlines, didn't 'insist' you come in for extra help and assigned you zeros when you failed to complete work on time? You'd probably get discouraged, your confidence would be deflated and gradually you'd probably resign yourself to failure. Over time, you'd likely appear disengaged. Your teacher might describe you as lacking initiative, lazy or as someone who gives up too easily. And just imagine if you'd been enduring these struggles for the many years you've attended school. Of course the lack of success would leave you feeling beaten down and you'd be far more likely to wave the white towel at the first sign things weren't going well! So while you'd have heard many people tell you that if you just 'worked harder, stayed up-to-date and learned from your mistakes' you'd be successful, you'd find it much harder to do so because the odds were stacked against you.

So if we insist on rigid timelines for the submission of work and apply punitive measures (zeros, late penalties) when students fail to submit work on time, what more can we expect to see other than seemingly irresponsible students who lack perseverance and resilience?

Is it really 'right' for us to be critical of our students and insist they will ALL be successful if only they were more responsible, perseverant and resilient? Or, do WE also need to look ourselves in the mirror and examine whether our assessment practices are enabling students to become more responsible, perseverant and resilient?

Please take a moment to read through the short list below and reflect on your own assessment practices. If you feel you could do more in any of the following areas as part of your daily routine as an educator, then I encourage you to make the shift.

• Provide 'flexible deadlines' to meet the needs of the range of learners you teach. (I'm not suggesting you eliminate deadlines!)
• 'Insist' that students see you for help outside of regular class time when you notice they are lagging behind or struggling in a particular area.
• Abolish '0'! Communicate with your students. Ask them 'why' they didn't complete their work, insist that they do so and if necessary, insist they do so in your presence so you can offer support and troubleshoot their mistakes.
• Involve parents in the conversation early on! Describe what you're observing in class, what their child needs to do in order to be successful and how you are supporting their child in achieving these goals.

And yes, I do realize that if you embark on any of these shifts in your practice, it may not be easy. It will require some intentional planning, hardwork and likely some adjusting as you reach some challenging moments and possibly some adversity. But if you commit to the shift, please stick to it. After all, isn't it our RESPONSIBILITY to do what's in the best interest of our students? And shouldn't we model the same PERSEVERANCE and RESILIENCE we demand of our students when things don't go perfectly?

Assessment Confessions & Apologies

Let me begin by making some confessions. When I started my teaching career 16 years ago as a Science teacher, I wanted students to believe that every class was important. So what I did on most days was assign work that counted for marks. I marked a lot of assignments, I entered a lot of numbers into spreadsheets and I frequently updated students with their marks. I sometimes assigned zeros when students failed to submit work and I sometimes assigned late penalties when students submitted work late.  This system seemed to work for a good majority of my students. My most motivated students appeared diligent about completing high-level work and most others seemed to comply to and complete a reasonable amount and level of work. Unfortunately, at least one group of students for whom this approach didn't seem to work for was my struggling learners...those who often appeared to lag behind. The other question that I now realize I should have asked is 'what was motivating my students to learn?'

Fast forward to just over a week ago and I had the opportunity to participate in an online panel discussion using Google+ and share my perspective on the 'no zeros' policy that has recently caught the attention of educators and the general public. While I don't consider myself to be an 'expert' on this topic, the chance to join the panel of Tom Schimmer (@tomschimmer), Tom Hierck (@UMAKADIFF), Joe Bower (@joebower) and Lorelie Lenaour (@LLeanaour) and respond to questions from a PLC organized by Rose Pillay (@rosepillay1) proved to be an excellent learning experience for me. I'd like to thank Rose for inviting me to participate and for challenging me to further clarify my thoughts and ideas on this high profile subject.

In the days following our discussion I have had the opportunity to reflect on my previous assessment and grading practices. I now feel I owe many of my former students some apologies.

I apologize if...

I assigned you a 'zero' when you failed to submit work.
A 'zero' signifies that you knew 'nothing' about the topic in question. If it really was the case that you knew 'nothing' about a given topic after I worked with you, then the person who should have received the 'zero' is me. After all, it was my job to help you learn. Each time you failed to fully complete work on time, I should have asked you 'why?' instead of assuming you didn't care, couldn't be bothered or forgot.

I discouraged you from learning or provided you an excuse not to learn.

If you had truly tried, struggled to understand a concept and consequently failed to submit work, receiving a zero would have been very discouraging. Instead of incenting you to continue trying, I likely demotivated you by signalling to you that you were unable to learn 'on time'. And at some point, when your discouragement contributed to your disengagement, I provided you the ultimate excuse not to continue learning. You probably told your friends and parents that there was no point in completing the work because I had already assigned you a '0'. I should have provided more flexible timelines and more opportunities for you to demonstrate that you could meet the learning outcomes.

If I didn't make learning mandatory for all of you, all the time.

When I witnessed you failing to complete work, I shouldn't have allowed you to walk away without insisting that you learn. Whether it meant spent additional time during class or outside of class, I should have sat with you, supported you and demanded that you learn.

I emphasized point-gathering rather than learning.
So many of the tasks I assigned you had marks attached to them. Each time I told you how many marks each assignment was out of and explained how to achieve those marks, I shifted the emphasis to point-gathering, not learning. In doing so, I used grades as a motivational tool to encourage you to complete work and not to communicate your progress towards learning outcomes as I should have. In some cases I may have extinguished your genuine passion and inspiration for learning and turned you into a desperate and competitive point accumulator. Instead of spending so much time marking your work with numbers, I should have spent the time providing descriptive feedback so that you would have known what and how to improve. This would have shifted our conversations towards 'learning'.

I assigned you an inaccurate grade.

Each 'zero' I assigned for work you didn't submit, was invalid, inaccurate and contributed to a distorted representation of what you actually knew. The zeros may have said more about your work habits and less about your ability to meet some of the learning outcomes. Needless to say, the grade I assigned you was likely a confusing combination that reflected your work habits and your ability to meet the learning outcomes. 

I made you feel like you were being judged and ranked.
Far too often and far too quickly I assigned numbers to your work. I know you compared numbers with your classmates and determined where your mark ranked within the class. For some of you, achieving a  high rank in the class became your motivation (which it shouldn't have) and for others, knowing you consistently ranked towards the lower portion of the class must have been extremely discouraging. Simply put, school should not be about surviving punitive grading practices. It should be about LEARNING!

No lectures, textbooks or worksheets - no problem

This post is long overdue. 3 weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend the ConnectED Canada Conference at the Calgary Science School, a Grade 4 - 9 school emphasizing student inquiry. I have grown increasingly more interested in learning about student inquiry so the opportunity to visit a school and see classes actively engaged in the inquiry process is something I couldn't pass up!

On Friday (Day 1 of the conference), we had the opportunity to tour around the school, visit classrooms in action and speak with students and teachers. Below are the key features I noticed after visiting nearly every class in the school.

I saw no evidence of...

• Lectures...I didn't observe any instances of direct instruction where the   teacher acted as the 'sage on the stage'. I didn't see any teachers 'presenting' content, nor did I notice teachers asking their students to copy notes from a screen.
• Worksheets...I didn't see students working through worksheet assignments searching for 'right' answers. For the most part, students were not trying to write answers or solve questions that the teacher already knew the answer to.
• Textbooks...I didn't observe thick, heavy textbooks sitting on students' desks. Nor did I see students being asked to read lengthy passages of text or search through page after page to answer questions listed in the book.

So, what did I see?

• Interdisciplinary tasks...Almost all of the work I observed students performing tied in elements from different curricular areas, Science and the Humanities in particular. Mr. Neal's description of  how he incorporated Science, the Humanities and Math into his students' cross curricular inquiry about the Weaselhead was by far the most powerful. Check out a quick video here.
• Relevant, meaningful, authentic tasks...I observed tasks that were being performed for real purposes. A group of students were creating 'kinetic text' presentations for the Mayor's Environmental Expo. The goal was for students to create a convincing and powerful enough kinetic text presentation about a local environmental issue that it would be worthy of being presented at the Mayor's Environmental Expo. The beauty of a challenge such as this is that students weren't just learning about environmental issues removed from their own context that were made up for the purpose of the classroom. They weren't being asked to '...pretend you are presenting to the mayor...". They were learning about real issues that were personally meaningful to them and relevant to their local community. 
• Public demonstration of learning...What makes the previous example of learning so much more more powerful is that students were demonstrating their learning to a real audience. Students were not just communicating their learning about a classroom-created challenge to their teacher. Rather, they presenting their learning publicly, to classmates, to parents and to the community. Equally as impressive is that the teachers at CSS are modelling the importance of publicly demonstrating their learning through 'Connect', their Professional Learning Journal.
• Teachers & students building criteria...Taking the previous example a step further, I observed Ivy Waite (@IvyWaite) asking her students what they thought would make for an effective 'kinetic text' presentation. As students provided input, she added the criteria to a google doc that she displayed for her students to see. Her students didn't always agree on the particular language to be used in the criteria and this prompted healthy discussion. It was clear to me that this collaborative process of building criteria increased the 'buy-in' on the part of students and also helped her students better understand the criteria. It's less likely that her students would get lost in the 'edu-jargon' and fail to understand the expectations laid out by externally-created rubrics.
• Collaboration...Two things stood out. In each classroom, I saw pairs of small hexagonal tables arranged together so that groups of four or five students could discuss, brainstorm, jot down ideas, problem-solve or work collaboratively using their laptops. Second, I saw considerable evidence of students (and teachers) using google docs to support collaboration.  I found it very interesting to see a group of Grade 5 or 6 students simultaneously working on the same piece of writing. They had recently completed some research, compiled their findings into a google doc and were working on revising and editing to ensure their writing conveyed their message and opinion. It was powerful to watch the students bounce naturally between reading each others' work, discussing different points, debating ideas and editing text in an effort to improve their passage of writing.
• Feedback...Teachers were 'guiding' (not directing) student learning. Often, students were the ones who were approaching the teacher with questions. And, teachers prompted students by responding to questions with more questions and circulated around the room to offer suggestions. It was refreshing to hear their conversations focus on learning and not once making reference to 'marks' or grades'.
• Technology...I'm not going to lie. I saw far more student and teacher access to technology than in most of our public schools in BC. CSS is a 1:1 school, each student being equipped with either a laptop or iPad. Each teacher had a laptop and a smartboard. But most importantly, the technology  wasn't responsible for the high levels of student or teacher engagement. The technology enabled students to access collaborative documents, publish written work publicly to blogs and wikis and quickly research a variety of topics but their high levels of interest came from the inquiries they were pursuing. 

Unfortunately, my one day experience came to an end, but I've returned home even more convinced of two things: the power of teaching and learning through an inquiry framework and that nothing is more important to learning than good teaching!

Thank you to the staff and students at CSS for inspiring me and all of us who attended ConnectED Canada!