Are there lessons to be learned from the "Hole in the Wall" project?

After you watch this video you will have learned the natural curiosity in children will support them in learning just about anything if something engages them to try.

The children in the "Hole in the Wall" project did not have the necessary school readiness skills educators feel are so vital to early success. They were children from the slums in India and they had never been to school. They didn't have a teacher breaking tasks down into little bits, prompting reflection at each stage of their learning. The natural curiosity and collaboration skills the children possessed guided them in tackling the computer they found in the wall and they made it work. Is there a lesson for us here??

My instructional leaders, along with myself, are burning up lots of brain cells trying to figure out how we can help our students to be more successful in Math. Most of our students, for a variety of reasons, don't come to school with the necessary school readiness skills either and Full Day Kindergarten isn't proving to be enough of an equalizer. When I was reflecting on this problem last week I wondered what would happen if we replicated a "hole in the wall" type experience for our kids. Would their natural curiosity, and the draw of technology, help our students to make gains in math that currently they do not seem to be making? I don't know the answer to that question but I am going to take a risk and try. The plan is this:

1.  Using a Math Games site, something like Sumdog, that has some incentives built in, I am going to pair students up to solve math problems. My hope is the engaging and challenging format of gaming will intrigue the students and promote the grit necessary to help them persevere.

2.  As the pairs solve the math problems, they will be asked to explain their strategy to the rest of the class orally. The teacher will scribe their explanations using google docs or some other format, posting the explanations so the rest of the class can see as well as hear.

3.  The other students in the class will be coached to give the pairs one complement on their strategy and then ask a probing question.

4.  After a few months, pairs will scribe their strategies on chart paper, post for the other students to see and then explain their strategy orally as well.

Target group - grade one

My hope, hypothesis, belief - this strategy will make the introduction to Math and numbers fun, engaging and will build the childrens' abilities to explain their thinking for an audience.

I know there is an If/Then statement here so: If we introduce grade ones in pairs to math problems using computer games, then their engagement and natural curiosity will build a love of math at a very early age.

Comments??

Today was a Professional Development Day

Today many of our schools demonstrated the power of Twitter as a public relations tool. Parents have often wondered just what teachers do on those mysterious PD days but through the use of Twitter they will wonder no more. Central Peel has been tweeting all day about their mental health focus this morning and their literacy focus in the afternoon. Gordon Graydon is doing a session on bullying with the Red Cross. Brampton Centennial P.S. has a student teaching some staff about a new tech program and Rick Hansen had a wonderful restorative practices workshop with the Board's climate team. All of this I know because of Twitter and parents will know too.

Many folks ask me why I go on Twitter and how I find the time. Twitter is the best 20 to 30 minutes of PD that I do for myself each day. I don't go online for 30 minutes straight but rather off and on throughout the day. I find links, ideas and leadership advice that all help to expand my practice and challenge my thinking. This morning I Tweeted out to see if any of my followers could suggest some good links that would help my Superintendency with some creative ways to teach math to our students. Within 30 minutes I had several replies.

So to the folks in my Superintendency who are still not on Twitter, let me ask you why? Through your connections and contacts you will get ideas and suggestions that will inspire you to try new things. When you have run out of ways to solve an instructional issue, someone on Twitter will Tweet out an idea that you never would have come up with on your own. It is time to get connected, to enter the new world of professional development and make joining Twitter part of your 30 day challenge.

And by the way..........check out this hashtag, #mathchat, you will come across all kinds of innovative ways to teach math supported by technology.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you have a great weekend.

So my Principals and Vice Principals threw it down!!

I need to set a context for this blog. I have always said to my Principals, Vice Principals and Resource Staff that if we are going to lead it then we also need to do it. Change comes so quickly in education as in other industries and vocations. It is important that those leading the change understand what they are asking others to do and work along side them to make it happen.

In my previous blog I explained that we had adopted a theory of action this year and that we were working to develop If/Then statements to help guide instructional improvement to enhance student success. I insisted that all of us, myself included, participate in the goal setting and we had to be transparent and share our If/Then statements with our staff. Using a "ready, fire, aim" approach encouraged by Michael Fullen, we decided to use the 30 day challenge concept to frame our work. Every thirty days we would share our action statements, talk about our successes and our challenges, and then with feedback from our colleagues, refine our statements in an effort to make them more precise and effective. So far, so good.

My first action statement was, If I send out a bulletin every Friday with ideas, inspirational videos and Ted talks, then the Principals and Vice Principals will continue to be focussed and motivated. Following my own guidelines, I asked my group how they were finding my bulletins and if they were helpful. Many nodded yes and then one Principal shot up her hand and said, " But I want to see more creativity and innovation. I want to see the bulletin in a blog including the videos and Tedtalks, and I want it delivered in a Tweet. Now you may be thinking to yourself, "No big deal. She is already blogging," but it is a big deal!!! I haven't learned how to insert things yet. So, If I want to lead it, Then I have to do it. I am going to give it a go :)


The focus of our Board Improvement plan this year is Numeracy. We have made huge strides in the areas of reading and writing but Numeracy continues to be a challenge. As a collective group we are determined to make a difference in our students' understanding of Numeracy but I think we are all struggling to determine the difference that is going to make the difference. Dan Meyer has done several Tedtalks on the topic and he focusses on the importance of student engaged and using an inquiry based approach. I am attaching one of his talks for folks to listen to and think about. I would also encourage my instructional leaders to think about the role that technology can play in the kinds of learning experiences that Dan describes. I am looking forward to getting some Tweets with your thoughts on the talk. (Okay, here goes!!)

VICTORY!!!

My First Superintendent's Meeting of the year - establishing a Culture of Action

Today when I met with my school administrators I wanted to come with a manageable way to begin to introduce the concept of Instructional Rounds. It is difficult in education not to feel that layers upon layers are always being added to the work that we do each day. I didn't want my administrators, and conversely their teachers, to just think about instructional rounds as the flavour du jour so I came up with a frame that I hope will guide our work as we move forward.

This morning I introduced our Mantra for the year; Culture of Action. Within the the frame of if/then statements, I wanted to let my folks know that we need to be prepared to look at our professional practice and take action on things we know we need to change. If we are to ask teachers to take action, then as instructional leaders we need to be prepared to model our willingness to take action too.

Within our Culture of Action, I proposed to my group that we frame our if/then statements into 30 day challenges. At each Superintendent's meeting we will report to each other the success of our action statements, discuss challenges that we faced in accomplishing our actions and then create a new action statement for the next 30 days. I have also asked my administrators to share their 30 day challenge statements with their staff.

Our goal as a group is to model setting our "30 Day Challenge" action statements with our teachers, to have our teachers engage in a similar process with each other and to encourage our teachers to share their action statements with their students. How powerful would the experiment be if students began to create their own 30 day action statements?

I have no idea how this is all going to turn out which is the exciting part of taking a risk, but I do know that the talk and the collaboration that this process will create can't help but assist us in growing. We can't continue to do what we have always done or teach the way we have always taught. We must find ways to embed technology in all that we do and we must make education more engaging and inviting.

This morning we threw it down and decided that it was time to take Action. Maybe this Tedtalk will inspire you too.

As an aside, we also talked this morning about what we were going to ask teachers to stop doing. If we don't want teachers to feel loaded down as we learn better ways to improve our practice, we have to abandon strategies we didn't find effective.

Guest Blog from Shawn Monyihan on Learning from the TLDW conference

Ten Things I Learned at Teaching and Learning in a Digital World


1. Social media are becoming a significant vehicle for instructional leadership and professional learning.  Hence, this is my first blog post, courtesy of my friend and colleague Hazel Mason.  I have also entered the twittersphere.
2. We have amazing teachers and administrators in Peel.  O.K., I knew that before the TLDW conference but the energy and brilliance of folks at the conference was inspiring, humbling, and pride-inducing.
3. Going through many examples of SAMR ladders really consolidated my understanding of meaningful implementation.
4. Ruben Puentedera and George Couros are an amazing combination of "mind" and "heart".  Together, they are the 21st century teaching and learning equivalent of peanut butter and jelly.  
5. Social media need to be a key component of implementation and on-going professional learning.
6. A mix of keynotes, breakout sessions, poster sessions, and ample time to connect in less formal ways is a winning formula for professional learning.
7. It was the first conference that I have helped organize where there was evidence (e.g., twitter, blog posts, etc.)  during the conference that practice was changing.  
8. A real "problem of practice" was the foundation of the conference: "How do we support our students and each other in learning in a digital world?" This created a learning stance which permeated the conference.  Although there were many demonstrable "experts" and "novices" attending, everyone felt challenged and safe to take risks because we were all in a co-learner mindset.
9. The structure of conference enabled "guided practice" to happen all the time.  Remember when we used to have technology workshops where only the presenter had access to the technology and everyone else took "notes"?
10. If we keep our focus on the learning, not the tools, then our practice encompasses both the learning and the tools.

Moving forward with 21st Century Teaching and Learning

It has been about a year and a half since I started my journey towards 21st Century teaching and learning. When my journey began I was really focussed on technology and how the use of technology could enhance the education process. Since that time my thinking has grown in a number of different directions.

I think perhaps the biggest growth has been to realize that 21st Century teaching and learning is not just about technology. It is really about reinventing how we teach and creating new opportunities for children to learn. That sounds like a really fancy statement but what does it really mean?

A 21st century classroom means a dramatic change in the power structure in a classroom. The teacher must move from being the "sage on the stage," to being the "guide on the side." Inquiry based learning becomes the order of the day and students are actively involved in their own knowledge acquisition.

As I have begun to look at ways of translating the ideas of 21st Century teaching and learning into reality I have begun to question how, in the context of our data driven, test driven educational agenda, we ensure the move to 21st Century teaching and learning continues to develop the high levels of literacy and numeracy we believe are so critical to the future success of our students?

21st Century teaching and learning is being touted as a necessary change for education to prepare our students the future. Technology has become a necessary part of life. Children as young as two are using iPads and other forms of technology to read, watch educational programs, play educational games and communicate with members of their families. These children will be walking into our kindergarten classes and what does that mean for how we run our classrooms?

The answers to these questions may seem quite obvious and rhetorical but I am raising them because I recently attended a session with Lynn Sharratt where she led myself and a group of my colleagues through the ideas in the book, Putting Faces on the Data. Since then I have been trying to reconcile the points that she made with the ideas implicit to 21st century teaching and learning. The kind of process that Lynn led her Board through was very prescriptive and specific with the goal being to  raise the literacy and numeracy levels in the Board. The process was very successful but how does that process fit with the creative and innovative thinking encouraged in a 21st century classroom? A classroom by its very design encourages students to demonstrate their thinking in a variety of ways? For me this has become a very fundamental issue and one I believe I need to be able to articulate clearly as a strong advocate of 21st Century teaching and learning.

Today when I met with my Steering Committee we came up with 6 inquiry based questions that we are going to use to guide our work moving forward. These 6 questions will be shared with all of the Principals and Vice Principals in my group and will be used to guide our work moving forward. What is absolutely fundamental and essential to me as an educator is that I am able to quantifiably demonstrate the move to 21st Century teaching and learning is dramatically improving the learning experience of our students while maintaining high levels of literacy and numeracy. Our 6 guiding questions are as follows;

1.  How do we know that student's are working at or above level in literacy and numeracy when we are using 21st Century teaching and learning strategies?
2. How do we know that we have a higher level of engagement?
3. How do we know that boys are doing better in greater numbers?
4. What data do we have to substantiate our claims?
5. How do e-portfolios help with these answers?
6. How do we measure 21st Century teaching and learning with 20th Century tools?

Teaching and Learning in the Digital World

Today was the second and last day of Peel's first Teaching and Learning in the Digital World conference and it was amazing. 600 Peel Educator's gave up two of their last few days of summer to come together and learn, share and collaborate about teaching strategies and pedagogy for the 21st Century. The energy and enthusiasm that could be felt during the conference was absolutely inspiring.

We had two amazing presenters at the conference, Ruben Peuntedura and George Couros. Ruben spent the first day helping us to understand the SAMR model and he helped us vision what a classroom should look like in 2018. Ruben challenged us to understand the incredible possibilities that technology, used effectively, can create for our students. Technology can help students to explore, discover, create and innovate. Through technology we can challenge students to push themselves to discover knowledge, information and meaning far beyond what we may have previously thought possible. Ruben provided us a roadmap for moving forward and concretely demonstrated the SAMR ladder through simulated lesson plans. He walked us through how the classroom experience for students would differ at each rung of the ladder. Ruben challenge our minds, and our practice. George took over for day two and challenged our spirit.

George arrived suffering from jet lag and claiming to not be quite on his game. He had just flown back from Australia after presenting at a conference there. I have to tell you if that was George jet lagged then I would love to see him when he is fully rested. He absolutely fired up the group. He had the crowd laughing, crying (yes crying) and then cheering his ideas and suggestions. He built on Ruben's message from the day before by developing a compelling case for why the use of technology in the classroom is no longer an option. He likened not allowing kids to use their digital devises in the classroom to eliminating all of our libraries. We would never consider closing all of our libraries and yet we would forbid students from using their devises which have become their digital libraries. Why? George was so motivational.

I am sitting here writing this blog tonight because George inspired me to get back at it. Like the other 599 people at the conference I walked out determined to lead the change by changing. If I want my Principals to lead change in their schools then I need to model the change. If Principals want teachers to lead the change in their classrooms, then Principals need to model the change and if teachers want students to lead the change in their learning, then teachers need to model the change.

Computers will never replace Teachers, Principals or Superintendents but Teachers, Principals and Superintendents who use technology will quickly replace those who don't.