What's the Difference?

UDL - A Framework for Research-based Inclusion

11/12/2021

Last month I ventured out of the country for the first time since February 2020. My destination? Nottingham, England. Having left my rental car in the Maid Marion car park, I took the opporutnity to visit Nottingham Castle, wander up Friar Tuck lane and soak in the wonderful atmosphere of this ancient market town. Having said that, I wasn't just there as a tourist. My actual purpose was to spend a Saturday sharing ideas at a ResearchED conference with teachers and administrators from around the region, and specifically to talk about how we utilize Universal Design as a philosophy and framework for our research-based approach to meeting the needs of students with diverse learning needs.

As most people are aware, Universal Design is known more as an architectural concept that an educational one. But, in actual fact, the principles used in designing buildings, or innovative assistive technology or personalizing learning are much the same. The basic precept is that "what is necessary for some" is potentially beneficial for all. Automatic doors at the grocery store allow people with mobility issues to enter easily but also open up to ensure that I can get out with my giant shopping cart or arm-load of impulse bought packages. Close captioning for hearing impaired individuals provides me with the ability to read the news broadcast on the ceiling of my dentist's office, or "hear" the play by play of a baseball game in a noisy sports bar. My school is ramped to be accessible, but most of the use of those gentle slopes is to move furniture and supplies easily in and out of the building. In short, often innovations designed for one specific purpose have a host of spin-offs that benefit a much larger target group.

In our school we have adopted a universal design approach to how we teach, provide supports for students who are struggling, organize our timetables and design and furnish our classrooms. Our programme is characterized by direct instruction based upon cognitive load theory; daily one on one tutoring which utilizes the lessons of Ebbinghaus's "forgetting curve" and the mechanics of systematic phonics for children who are struggling to read. We draw upon such disparate sources as Daniel Pink (When) and the research on timing, pacing and the use of physical breaks in the out of doors; Andrew Solomon (Far from the Tree) who looks at parenting neurodiverse children; the outstanding brain research of Stanislas Dehaene (Reading in the Brain; How we Learn); Dan Ariely (Predictably Irrational); and even Neil Postman (Building a bridge to the eighteenth century).

So how does Univeral Design fit in to all of this? UDL reminds us that, while "one size does not fit all", teachers, and classrooms and schools need an all-inclusive framework that allows for the variances in student needs and gives the learners options that will help them (with teacher direction and support) to construct a personalized programme approach that will work for each and every one of them.

Our school is "exclusive" in that we only admit students with identified learning challenges. Having said that, it is also incredibly inclusive because when we recognize that everyone is following their own unique learning path, being "different" becomes the norm.

By the way, it took me quite a while to get out of Nottingham on the Sunday following ResearchED because, of course, it was the day of the Robin Hood marathon!

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Mind the Gap

10/12/2021

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For schools in British Columbia there is a bit of a (slightly smug) view that we "dodged the academic bullet" with respect to COVID-related lockdowns and disruptions in learning. Altlhough the whole province was out during April and May of 2020, the last year and a half have been generally characterized by modified timetables, cohort management, and following public health protocols as best we can. School has had the feel in general of business as usual and teachers and students have attempted to move forward as if nothing had really happened.

Generally it is assumed that the whole exercise (while bumpy) has seen a relatively seamless transition back to a semblance of normal. The challenge in this assumption is that it reflects systems thinking rather than looking at the small scale personal costs that many students in the province paid.

In February of 2021, the Ministry of Education published a study of the some of the impacts of the short-term lockdown on the graduating class of 2020. Although there are some positive aspects to the picture that the report paints, there are also some glaring societal concerns that we should all keep front of mind.

What the COVID 19 Student Impacts report shows us is that even in a levelling experience such as a total system lockdown, there were disturbing variances in the outcome. The study looked at the the June 2020 grads and found the following: (note: in none of these statistics is there any comment on either the qualifty of the educational experience or its impact on post-secondary performance).

- students who were enrolled in "bricks and mortar schools" felt generally little impact upon their educational path. Over 90% graduated and did not return to secondary school in September while around 5% did not graduate or return to school at all the next fall. In distributed learning schools (chiefly online) only about 20% graduated while another 30% returned to complete their diplomas. It should be noted that the largest group (around 40%) neither graduated or returned. In more traditional continuing education programmes, those numbers we even worse.

- for what the authors characterize as "more vulnerable subpopulations" within the province the numbers are also discouraging. Large numbers of ELL students (50%) , Indigenous students (40%) and Special Needs students (40%) did not graduate. The majority returned to finish their schooling but significant numbers did not.

Of particular note, of the 48,110 first-time Grade 12s in the 2019/20 cohort approximately 14.1% (6,809) had a disability or diverse ability ("special needs designation" or " learning disabled designation". However, almost one third (1,384 or 31.9%) of the 4,284 students who did not graduate in June but returned to school in September had a designation. And, even more disturbing, of the 4,671 students who did not graduate and did not return to school in the fall of 2020, 21.4% had a designation.

It would seem that our "success story" had some victims. A disproportionate number of students with a Special Education designation failed to graduate in June and either had to return to finish their diploma or dropped out altogether.

So where does this leave us? It is clear that a one size fits all approach to systems management, results in large gaps in service to vulnerable populations. Students for whom English is a second language, indigenous students, and students with a Ministry Special Education designation were especially disadvantaged by even a relatively short, two month, lockdown. One can only imagine the even greater impact in those provinces and international jurisdictions, such as the United States, where there were either multiple lockdowns or even year-long closures, has had upon their more vulnerable learners.

Education systems that merely look at the "learning gap" for students that remained in school are ignoring what will be an even greater social/educational issue in the decade to come.

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This Remembrance Day: It's our turn to "sacrifice"

11/10/2020

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Most years on Remembrance Day, I post a reflective piece about my Grandfather, Dad and Uncles who served in the armed forces in two World Wars and the impact that they had on my life. This year however, is a little different. I was rummaging though family keepsakes over the past few weeks and stumbled upon two small lapel pins that I had kept a few years ago after my Mom passed away at the respectable age of 94.

The first, belonged to my Grandmother. It was given in recognition of her work as an "Emergency Reservist" during World War I. This was in reference to the creation of the Women's Emergency Corps which was established in order to place women into the crucial war effort jobs in Canada so as to allow more men to transfer overseas to the fields of Flanders.

The second - "Women's War Work" belonged to my mother whose war effort involved working at a General Motors plant which had been converted from car assembly lines to the production of personnel carriers and tanks for use in the Second World War in Europe.

Two small pins which tell a very large story. War is not just won on the battlefield. To be successful in a national conflict, a country has to mobilize everyone. There is no room for selfishness, no room for passing the buck to someone else, no room for deciding that your inconvenience is more important than someone else's life.

This year, Remembrance Day takes on a very different tone. For my generation and younger, it has always been a time to reflect and remember the sacrifice of others. But this year is different. This year it is us who are being called upon to sacrifice in order to save the lives of our friends, neighbours, family and even passersby on the street. COVID has brought an expected new level of social responsibility to our day to day life. We have done a great job of praising, in the abstract, the selfless actions of our ancestors. It is now our time to step up and do our part.

Wear a mask in public, practice physical distancing, avoid crowds, don't travel - in short, take a little personal responsibility for fighting an international crisis.

The soldiers in this battle are our health care professionals, research scientists, essential workers in transportation, food distribution and sales, civic employees, teachers, and childcare workers. And we are the citizen "army" that has to have their backs.

Please stay safe over the coming weeks. Tomorrow is Remembrance Day and a perfect time to recommit to winning our battle against this global pandemic. Our forebears would expect nothing less.

Lest we forget.

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Taking a page out of the Hallowe'en playbook!

10/28/2020

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End of October! Kids and parents are usually gearing up for the day that outperforms every other holiday that you can think of. But, perhaps, not this year. Classroom celebrations, trick and treating, and costume parties will be largely absent and the day may even go a little unobserved this year. Even the government, jumping on the "grinch" (sorry for the mixed metaphor) bandwagon has announced that this will be the last year for Hallowe'en fireworks. Even the thrill of mask-wearing has become a little passé as covering our faces has become a social imperative, rather than an exciting aberration!

So, let’s face it, it's pretty clear that Hallowe’en will be a little anti-climactic this year! After all, we’ve all been wearing masks for months. In fact, as we continue to navigate through the ups and downs of this remarkable time in our lives, it is really quite astounding to see the extent to which the “new” normal has simply become normal.

The real question is what will happen when the curtain finally closes on the pandemic and our collective response to it. Will things go back to the way that they were? What might change? Will our social interactions remain a little more limited – fewer dinners out? Avoiding movie theatres? Working remotely? Taking more walks and hikes? Fewer evening meetings and more family dinners? Staying a little closer to home on holidays? What do you think the “new” “new” normal might look like in your household?

My hope is that we all come out of this having slowed down a bit. That we take more time to appreciate our families and close friends; that we look around more and spend more time in the out of doors; that the highways remain just a little bit emptier and rush hour remains more muted.

For those of us who have grown up and lived in the post-war era, this is the first real collective challenge that we have faced as a society. As much as it has had an impact on our lives and ways of looking at the world, it is bound to have a more profound, long-term impact on our children. Decades ago, in school, I saw a movie entitled "You are what you were when". It looked at how generational values had been created in times of social and economic change. Ideas about finance and risk were formed during the Depression, heroism and self-sacrifice during World War II, and a belief in continuous progress during the 50s and 60s. There is no question but that a year of global pandemic will have a major impact on our values and perspectives going forward.

So, as a parent, I am looking at this experience as an opportunity for a bit of a re-boot and as a unique chance to strike a productive balance between managing the demands and lures of technology, with a return to a better quality of life.

In the best of worlds, the disequilibrium of the pandemic will leave our lives more in balance. And that is not such a scary thought – even on Hallowe’en!

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School in the Time of COVID (with apologies to Gabriel García Márquez)

8/26/2020

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Ever since I was a kid, I have always avoided riding a roller coaster. The ups and downs, sharp turns, gut wrenching plunges and sudden stops have never held any great appeal for me. Clearly this was a mistake. If I had embraced the "thrills" of being yanked one way or the other between moments of utmost calm and abject fear, I would have been much better prepared for navigating my way through the past five months. Having said that, we may have not reached the end of this wild ride, but I am hopeful that we have hit that last ratcheting slow down that means that we are almost ready to finally get off.

Next Tuesday, school starts again. Actual, go to class, see your teachers, reconnect with your friends, kind of school. For those of us who have been haunting echoing halls and empty classrooms since last March, these are enervating and exciting times. Right now, the building is buzzing with activity. Rooms are being rearranged, organized and decorated to welcome everyone back, teachers and tutors are excited to reconnect with their students and even the various new systems and protocols that we are putting in place are not getting in the way of excitement and anticipation of next week's restart.

So what will the "new normal" look like? To be honest, as much as I groused about it at the time, our dry run in June (two weeks, voluntary, part-time attendance) both gave us great insights into how this can work, and noticeably lowered our collective angst about the prospect of all being here together again.

The routines that we established in June for health checks, hand-washing, and sanitizing surfaces and equipment seem much less daunting to re-establish now. In place of the smaller numbers we had to manage last Spring, this time we have our designated learning groups (or cohorts) to help us in the process of education and collaboration between and among students and teachers. We have organized our arrivals, departures, play spaces and even our washrooms to ensure safe, controlled and manageable interactions.

Will it be perfect? Not a chance. There will be glitches, unexpected complications, and moments of uncertainty as we tackle these new challenges. We have been fortunate at KGMS to have had a highly dedicated staff, and tremendously supportive parent partners to help shepherd our students through a time of great anxiety and abnormality for all of us. Next week we take a strong step forward to re-establish the routines, personal connections, and sense of community that we have all been missing.

So, as we head back, I want to express my gratitude: to our families, thank-you. None of us signed up for this, but that didn't stop you from stepping up and filling the gap the closing of our school left for your children; to our faculty and staff, to a person, you have been outstanding in your professionalism and dedication in the service of our kids as you made a complex series of transitions appear seamless and natural; and, finally, on a personal note, I have been incredibly fortunate to have been surrounded by an amazing leadership team who have worked through breaks, weekends and summer holidays so that we can be ready to welcome all of our students back next week for the beginning of a safe and productive school year. You have gone far above and beyond - and it has made a world of difference!

Let me close with a quote from Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera" :

"It was the time...without hurry or excess, when [all] were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other mortal trails, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore. ”

It's my belief that that shore is just ahead of us now and that our collective effort will get us there together.

See you next week!

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Back to School: A tentative step back towards normal

6/3/2020

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First day of school! Always a time of excitement, a little nervousness, and anticipation for a new beginning. This year we have had the experience in spades! September 1st we opened the doors on what everyone assumed would be a typical year at school with all of its hills and valleys, great days (and sometimes not so great days), and halls and classrooms full of energy, laughter and learning. Who knew? We bid farewell to our students on March 12th for Spring Break, expecting them to be back in a couple of weeks and now, two and a half months later, that return has finally come to pass!

In the meantime we had another first day of school. April 1st was the opening of KGMS: Virtual, our new face to face, real time experience in teaching and learning from home. The connections were still there, the conversations and the sharing of ideas were kept alive, but in the depths of a global pandemic, that was as close as we could get.

Finally, after two months of connecting exclusively on-line, this week we were actually able to take a baby step towards a full return to school in the coming months. About half of our students have returned this week while the rest have continued their online classes and tutoring at home. Needless to say, we were all a bit nervous about what it might mean.

The school had been empty and silent for months. There were many days when I was the only one here and the halls, instead of echoing with happy shouts and conversations, were eerily quiet as we all waited for the day when the doors would open again. That happened on Monday. Our third "first day of school" this year!

Things looked very different for the first arrivals. Classrooms were stripped bare, desks were centred in masking taped islands to keep everyone a safe distance from one another, and students were greeted by a health check, hand-sanitizer, and an escorted walk to meet their teachers. The every other day model that we adopted for our elementary students meant that the whole class still got to meet regularly online and that the students who chose to continue learning at home still saw their tutors and teachers every day. It is not business as usual, but it is a start.

I have had the absolute pleasure of being the official daily "greeter and health checker" for the high school over at our Annex campus, and I can't begin to describe the pure joy of personally welcoming the various cohorts of our returning secondary students as they arrive at school. The set-up is a bit weird, but their teachers and many of their friends are there, and they have been thrilled with the chance to reconnect in person.

Needless to say, this is just the test drive. All of us have made major changes to our habits and lifestyles over the past few months, and school is no different. The lessons that we have learned, and continue to master will inevitably have a profound impact on how we teach, gather, and interact with one another. But even as uncertainty still hangs in the air about what things will look like in September, you can be sure that the next "first day of school" will be like every other one with students and teachers and tutors coming together to learn and enjoy each other's company in whatever form it takes.

That is the one thing about schools that never changes!

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Start Summer Early? You have got to be kidding! (V-Day +12)

4/13/2020

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Read any school website in any city, province or country and you will find something like: "We work in partnership with parents and extended families to maximize the learning experience of our students". Traditionally that has meant some combination of regular communication, encouraging parent volunteerism, an open door policy and numerous school community events.

Until the past month, it has never meant "parents we need your active help in teaching our kids". With its emphasis on remote and virtual learning, education in the age of pandemic has come to redefine the school, family partnership. All of a sudden we have been thrust into a new paradigm. Students stay home, teachers reach out, parents, extended family members, and caregivers help to deliver the goods. This is not what any of us signed up for. The greatest joy in teaching has alway been the daily face to face connection with students. Personal satisfaction coming not from laying on a curriculum, but rather from seeing, first hand, the growth in student knowledge, confidence and productivity that comes with careful and deliberate instruction, support and personal connection.

So how does that play out in the new virtual learning environment? For us it means, as much online face-time as possible. It means regular meetings, office hours, one on one time with a tutor, small group instruction in a virtual classroom. It also means, for the first time for everyone, that families can have a front-row seat in the learning process. No longer is the home school partnership defined by the limits of emails, phone calls, and occasional parent/teacher/tutor meetings. It has become a legitimate team effort in real time. Teachers delivering programme, and families providing emotional support, gauging when their child needs a break, or a snack, or simply to disengage from their screens. It's not the model that we are used to, and it has totally redefined, perhaps forever, how schools and families define their partnership.

The perennial question, "what did you do at school today?" has been flipped. No longer is it a dinner table conversation where an account of each child's day is prodded by strategic parental questions. These days it is found in an end of the day chat on Zoom, or Hangouts, or Meeting or whatever other platform teachers are using to connect with their students. For the first time in their careers, teachers haven't spent the day with their students, but parents have.

This morning, a local education reporter commented that the current situation was too stressful for parents and teachers and that the government should simply declare that summer holidays should begin immediately and put this remote learning experience out of its misery.

There may come a time when that will happen, but to even pose it now only demonstrates a basic ignorance of what is actually happening in homes and school communities. The days have structure and focus, students are connected with their peers, and teachers, and tutors, in most cases, face to face every "school" day. Parents are engaged in student learning in a rare and positive way, not just task masters at homework time, but as partners in supporting and connecting with their child's school experience.

Is it perfect? No. Is it better than attending school? Well, much has been lost, but some interesting things have been gained that are bound to inform educational practice, and parenting, in the future. Anyone who thinks that our kids would be better off if we ended this experiment really has no idea what they are talking about!

Nobody asked for this. As a life-long educator, I have never seen anything like it. It has been an amazing revelation both as a teacher and as a parent. The years of lip service to the school/home relationship are over and a new reality has set in. It's still rough around the edges, but it is working.

So, thanks to all of the dedicated educators that I work with every day, and especially to my own children's teachers who strive to make every day a challenge that is manageable and often quite fun! But especially thanks to those families out there who, in the middle of a global pandemic, are working tirelessly to maintain a sense of normalcy in their child's lives.

I cannot think of a better partnership.

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Building Community in a virtual world: V-Day (+5)

4/5/2020

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It's a quiet Sunday morning. Looking out the kitchen window I can see a hockey net set up on the patio, a pitch-back and baseball gloves in one corner of the yard, and horseshoes strewn in another. The playgrounds are closed, outdoor tennis and basketball courts are locked up or surrounded by caution tape and so we have been forced to create our own alternative outdoor activity option for ourselves and our two teenaged boys. In addition, we are lucky in North Vancouver, there are beautiful wilderness parks and trails and a broad selection of places to walk the dog, or go for a hike and still maintain responsible social distancing. The streets are quiet, rush hour is a thing of the past, most stores are shuttered and theatres and cinemas are dark. It is tough to maintain a sense of community when our biggest public duty is to avoid being too close to one another.

So, what about school? School is the ultimate community builder. When Spring Break ended, our sons, after sitting around for two weeks, were dying to reconnect with their friends and their teachers. By contrast Rheanne and I had spent the previous three weeks in constant communication with our peers as we worked at putting together virtual learning plans and structures for our respective schools. For us, the compulsory "staycation" became more of a "workation" and, as last week began, all of us who had been exploring platforms, building teaching and learning sites, and ramping up our own technical skills, held our collective breaths as our teachers and tutors came back online and we began the headlong rush towards an April 1st launch of our virtual learning programmes.

V-Day was on us in a flash, and right on schedule, miraculously, wonderfully, our students reappeared in our lives. To be honest we didn't know what to expect. Like us, they had been cooped up in their homes for over two weeks where your community shrinks to four walls and is made up of you and your nuclear family. It was a great reunion, lots of laughs and smiling faces (with maybe a few tears offline) as we began to adjust to this new definition of community. No fist bumps and corridor banter, no fort building and shooting baskets together on the playground, no walking to the corner at lunch to find some unhealthy snack but still, it was there. The sense of community and belonging hadn't been broken by weeks of self-isolation, it had been strengthened. And, on the strength of that community, the process of teaching and learning began anew. It wasn't the same, but it wasn't all that different either. There was the give and take, the laughter, the light of understanding, and the quiet asking for help - in other words - school was back in session.

So, even though we only have our first week under our belts, here are two take-aways for me from the past five days.

1. Community means everything. I realized that I had taken for granted the power of networks and mutual support systems. My spring break was spent leaning on our network of school Heads from the lower mainland and across the country for their insight and support; our KGMS Board met regularly through Zoom to discuss issues and offer ideas; and, I especially profited from the energy, creativity and dedication of our school leadership team - four remarkable women who collectively reinvented our programme and refocused our financial and business plan and gave us the power to move forward to support our kids.

Last week I had told everyone that we would have to treat this week like it was the beginning of the school year. We would have to establish new routines and expectations, redevelop our "classroom" protocols, and get our students back into the swing of learning. I was totally wrong. Our students came roaring back, happy to have the structures of school returned to their lives, over the moon to reconnect with friends, tutors and teachers, and excited to get back to the business of learning.
Our staff was equally thrilled to see their kids, to touch base with colleagues and to have something to take their attention away from the dire news that seemed to constantly fill the airwaves. They have been amazing, retooling their programmes, adjusting their teaching and tutoring styles, mastering new communication platforms and doing what they love, working with students.

I had worried that our school community might be broken, it has grown stronger in adversity.

2. Common cause strengthens family. Our boys, although frustrated that they have been cut off from their friends and that many of their favourite pursuits (baseball, basketball, dance, theatre, etc.) have been cancelled, have still remained resilient. They have set up their home offices, and have thrown themselves into this new world with determination (if not enthusiasm!). They too have enjoyed the chance to reconnect with their larger school community. And, if Rheanne and I used to spend half our time talking about school, and kids and programme challenges, now it seems like we devote about 150% of the day doing it! Having said that, I get the better of that deal as she is the most creative and talented educator that I know. And, there is always something new for me to learn.

Finally, one added benefit of no practices, swim classes, or evening meetings is that there are more games nights, family puzzles have re-emerged on our dining room table, we have resurrected nightly family dinners and discovered, thanks to virtual school quiet hour, the pleasure of having lunch together most days.

On Friday after school we had a staff virtual "Happy Hour". Over sixty of us (relegated to postage stamp sized windows on our respective computer screens) raised a glass together, talked over one another, were serenaded by our music teacher, and shared war stories about the week just passed. In other words, it was business as usual.

If this is what turns out to be the "new normal" for a while, I think that we are going to be okay.

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Going Virtual - School Like we've never known V-Day (-5)

3/28/2020

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When I started teaching, it was with a backdrop of blackboards (or green boards in the updated classrooms), chalk all over the arms of my blazer, pens and paper, and keypunch rooms for computer studies. Technology was limited to overhead projectors (the tech dream come true for math teachers); autoload movie and filmstrip projectors, and gestetner and ditto copiers. Photocopiers were reserved for wealthy businesses, and cell phones, laptop computers and video screens were something that you only saw on Star Trek (the original TV series that is!).

In that world, if a disaster hit, school would be shut down, shuttered and not reopened until the coast was clear. But luckily, we are not living in that world. We are living in a time and place where almost everyone is interconnected, information transfer and communications are instantaneous, and every home office, kitchen table, and basement rec room can become a combination of classroom and movie studio. This is the new framework for virtual school.

Just to clear, virtual school, as it is just starting to be delivered, is not online learning in the way that it has been practiced in the past few years. What had been "cutting edge" a month ago, is now passé. We are no longer talking about a student completing work and having it marked and returned remotely, where teacher/student contact is primarily by email and text, and the relationship is more clinical than personal. Virtual school is face to face, in real time, with not only teacher or tutor and student interacting, but classmates, popping up around the screen like some 21st century Brady Bunch intro, talking and sharing and joking with one another. To be honest, it's not as good as being together in the same room, but it is way better than the alternatives.

Next Wednesday, April 1st, KGMS goes live (well, virtually live anyway!). There will be an eclectic mix of direct instruction, real-time one on one tutoring, virtual hangouts, small, live, teacher-led learning groups, face to face personal counselling, SLP support, and self-regulation coaching. In addition, students and families will have access to a bank of resources and activities that can enrich learning even when not directly interconnected.

Will it work? Will it do all of the things that currently happen in our bricks and mortar school building? Who really knows?! All I can tell you is that it will be a product of careful and meticulous planning; enthusiastic professionals teaching and learning themselves as things evolve; and students, who will be tentative at first, but who will rise to the occasion and do the best that they can in this new world of school!

The last few weeks have been an incredible roller coaster, all of our lives have been turned upside down and inside out and many of those things that we have always taken for granted have been, one by one, closed or restricted or become too risky to do. Our challenge, in this time of becoming incredibly insular and fearful, is to begin to rebuild community, to reconnect with friends and colleagues, and educators with their students and their families. The COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 has now become part of our collective global experience. The larger world will never be quite the same, so let's do our best to preserve the things that we value in our own lives, and work together for the benefit of our children.

Today, for us, is Virtual Day minus 5. The countdown officially started yesterday with a "Zoom" staff meeting with over 75 colleagues reconnecting and decompressing a little bit realizing that they were not alone in facing these new challenges. None of us; students, families, educators, or administrators signed up for this. But here it is anyway!

As I said to our KGMS community this week, Barack Obama had it right in his first Inaugural Address in January 2009 when he said: "The world is changing and we must change with it."

I can guarantee that he wasn't thinking about the world with which we are currently dealing, but it is still good advice for these remarkable times.

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Memory on Overload!

9/16/2019

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A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak at the ResearchED National Conference in London (UK). One of the unintended benefits of speaking to teachers, educational researchers and parents about what we are doing in our Universal Design approach to working with our students at KGMS, is that it forces me to reflect about why we do what we do. Almost invariably I end up turning back to some of the research that drives different parts of our programme and what it looks like in practice in our classes. On occasion it also makes me think twice about certain practices and whether or not we can do them better.

Many of our students struggle with Working Memory challenges. Working memory is the ability to hold information in the short term while performing complex tasks. It incorporates the ability to "draw on past learning or experience to apply to the situation at hand or to project it into the future". As an analogy, I recently heard on Quirks and Quarks that while the "hard drives" of long term memory in our brains can store an impressive 100 terabytes of information, our RAM - or working memory - holds very little but that limited data is critically important to the management of our moment to moment operations.

"It’s like mental juggling", says H. Lee Swanson, PhD, a professor of education with the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. “As information comes in, you’re processing it at the same time as you store it,” he says. "A child uses this skill when doing math calculations or listening to a story, for example. She has to hold onto the numbers while working with them. Or, she needs to remember the sequence of events and also think of what the story is about" .

Unfortunately, teachers can overload a student's working memory capacity before he or she has the chance to cement it in their long-term storage. Often it is inadvertent and done mistakenly with the best of intentions. For example, if a teacher is thinking of "multiple modes of presentation" of materials (a basic principle of UDL) or gets caught up in the myth of "learning styles" and thinks in terms of auditory vs. visual learners, she or he might decide to present information in two different ways at the same time. Many teachers make the mistake of verbally giving directions, while posting them on the white board or SMARTBoard simultaneously. Faced with two discordant inputs of the same information, students can become confused and their working memories overloaded. A classic example of this, and one that most of us suffered through in school, is having a "read-aloud" session while the class follows along in their own books. Whether it is the teacher reading, or a series of students, the result is the same. The reader never reads at the same speed as the listeners. Consequently, everyone in the class is getting two out of sync inputs. What they hear and what they are seeing on the page do not match. Working memories are overloaded, and no-one can actually follow the plot.

Contrast that with a typical primary classroom where the teacher reads from a picture book and the students look at reinforcing images. Two complimentary inputs rather than competing ones. The visual image supports and reinforces the auditory inputs rather than muddling them.

When I think of my own experiences as a learner. I reflect that a lecture with visuals, or a short documentary film gets lodged in my long-term memory much more quickly than something listened to in a podcast or read in a book. It is important to remember that reinforcement, rather than duplication, is the key. And that when we think of multiple modes of presentation, it is not about learning styles, it is about managing our cognitive load and cementing our knowledge in our long-term memories.

Learning takes place when students successfully transfer new information from their working memories into their long-term memories. Once those decks are cleared, their working memories are open to absorbing new knowledge and begin the process over again. Long-term memory is like having a database in your brain. You can draw on any of your stored memories without effecting your ability to add new learnings. The faster and more efficiently that we can support our students in accomplishing this, the more their minds are open for business to learn new things!

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