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What's the difference?

Thoughts on making a real difference in the lives of learners...

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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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5 Things I learned about the Upside of Learning Down Under

4/12/2019

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Over the March Break, I had the privilege of speaking at an international Special Education Conference in Perth, Australia about our work here at Kenneth Gordon.​ Although it was a great opportunity for me to share our philosophy, approach, successes and challenges, the real learning came from having the chance to discuss ideas with researchers, teachers and other professionals from a different part of the world who work every day with students like ours.

I came back to school with a wealth of new insights, a library shelf worth of recent research to read and digest, and a great extension of the professional network of people that I share ideas with online. Upon reflection, here are my five main takeaways from my time in Perth.

1. Educators and parents ignore the body of solid research about how kids learn and develop at their own risk (and that of their students and children). Modern technology has given us the tools to understand how information is processed in the brain, and where and how different cerebral functions have an impact on learning. Considering that written language is a relatively recent cultural innovation in human development. It can be understood that the ability to read expertly (decode language and understand its meaning and context) depends upon adapting parts of the brain that were never intended for that purpose. One of the other speakers at the conference who is a recognized world-leader in understanding this field is Paris-based, Stanislas Dehaene who is a leading researcher about the cognitive neuroscience of language and number processing in the human brain. He delves deeply into this area in his book: Reading in the Brain. It is his contention that:

Parents and educators must have a better understanding of what reading changes in a child's brain. Children's visual and language areas constitute an extraordinary machine that education recycles into an expert reading device. [There is no question that] increased knowledge of these circuits will greatly simplify the teacher's task.

To be honest, after reading his research and speaking with him about it, I am convinced that he is right and that his findings can push us in the right direction. How simple it will be is a totally different discussion!

2. A systematic and explicit early teaching of the correspondence between letters and speech sounds is of great benefit to all children learning to read. It has become painfully clear that fads such as "whole language" or "reading recovery" are inefficient and often completely ineffective methods of teaching reading. Teaching by using a sequential phonetic approach offers the students the tools necessary to unlock the door to reading acquisition. As the student reads, he/she can apply the rules of our language and analyze what is written for greater understanding. This Synthetic Phonics approach (such as we use through our Orton-Gillingham trained tutors) is the learning of phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) and their corresponding graphemes (the written symbol for each phoneme) and, combined with Analytic Phonics (whole-word approach) which breaks down a whole word to its parts with the help of decoding, are all essential components of learning to read and correspond perfectly to current brain research.

3. It is important to remember that the issue in reading is not language acquisition. Almost all of our students approach reading with a rich vocabulary and understanding of meaning and syntax built in through years of talking and listening. Reading is just the process of establishing a visual interface between the symbolic representations of language on a page or screen and the massive database of words and phrases that are already imprinted in our long-term memories. As a result, the debate between coding and comprehension is a false dichotomy. They are not an either/or situation. Written language comprehension is simply the matching of decoding skills with existing spoken language comprehension. Expert reading is mostly a function of processing speed.

4. The acquisition of math skills follows many of the same patterns and pathways that the mastery and manipulation of sounds, words and language do. Daniel Ansari is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Western University in London, Ontario. Part of his research focuses on working out which brain regions are involved in our ability to calculate. How is brain activation during calculation affected by the particular arithmetic operation being performed (e.g. do different brain regions subserve subtraction and multiplication)? And, does the type of problem-solving strategy result in the use of different brain networks?  he is looking for answers to these questions in search for a better understanding of how the brain enables us to become mathematically fluent. What his research has determined is that the early acquisition of numeracy skills (number recognition and value, ordination, place value, etc.) is a great predictor of future math fluency. Jumping too early into computations, without mastering the basics, leaves students perpetually "behind" as maths become more complex.

​5. There is no, "one right approach" for every student. (Spoiler alert, I already knew this!). In UBC professor Linda Siegel's book Not Stupid, Not Lazy: Understanding Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities she cites the excellent work being done in early literacy by the North Vancouver School District in the last decade. However, as she notes, even with a comprehensive approach that saw almost 90% of the general school population hit expected literacy levels by Grade 5, the results for students with learning disabilities still hovered around the 20% level. One thing became very clear as I met with educators from Australia and South-East Asia was there was no alternative to face to face, one on one work with students as a path to expert reading. Forget about the gimmicking programmes, and quick fixes, learning to read is a science and requires steady, repetitive work.

So, in the final analysis, the one real "revelation" that came out of my week on the other side of the world is that while  research, analysis, and the anecdotal experiences of other great educators provide great insights and learnings, there is no substitute for roll up your sleeves work, day after day, to ensure real success for our kids.  



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Balancing your Cognitive Load

11/20/2018

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Working memory is a balancing act. We all juggle pieces of information to solve problems, understand different situations and acquire new knowledge. The amount that we are able to retain and manipulate in our short term working memories is called our cognitive load. The average person can only retain about seven chunks of new information at a time and can usually manipulate only about half of it. Cognitive load theory uses "knowledge of the human brain to design teaching strategies that will maximize learning" for students. In essence it is really looking at how to optimize to load on individual students' working memories to avoid overload and preventing them from mentally shutting down and failing to learn new concepts.

Simply put, 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 have a database in your brain. You can draw on any of your stored memories without effecting your ability to add new learnings. It is one of the reasons why learning processes tend to be sequential, as each new piece of information or concept is laid out and applied on the foundation of previously acquired knowledge. In other words, the more that you can draw on your long term memory, the more you can reduce the cognitive load on your working memory and optimize your learning.

Recently, the Centre for Education Statistics and evaluation in New South Wales (Australia) released a study entitled Cognitive Load Theory in Practice: Ideas for the classroom. ​ It looks at three key steps in the learning process that vary according to the level of knowledge and understanding housed in a student's long term memory - their personal baseline.
The steps are simple and not surprising:
1. When teaching new content to students without much pre-existing knowledge, teachers should provide students with lots of detailed, fully guided instruction;
2. As the students’ knowledge and skill increases, teachers should provide a mix of guided instruction and problem-solving practice; and,
3. Finally, as students become very proficient, teachers should provide minimal guidance and allow students to practise their skills with lots of problem-solving tasks. Some students will progress to independent problem-solving faster than others.
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The study goes on to outline seven different teaching strategies, with examples, of how to optimize cognitive load and maximize student learning. Two of these strategies in particular resonated with me. The first because it was something that was fundamental to our Universal Design approach; and the second because it provided a great insight as to how we could improve our own practice. 

The study recommends that information be presented both orally and visually at the same time. It notes that our working memories have "two separate ‘channels’ – one for dealing with visual information, and another for dealing with auditory information. By spreading the delivery of information across both of these channels at once, teachers can manage cognitive load and make it easier for students to learn the information." This can be done by communicating information using both images and sound. Typically, our teachers always review the outline of the day verbally while pointing at the visual schedule on the front wall. The two inputs reinforce each other and cement the knowledge more firmly in long-term memory. We call it a visual support.

However, the study also presents a cautionary note. It reminds teachers to limit "inessential information" that might clutter the student's working memory and lead to overload and shut down. By inessential information it means inputs that are either irrelevant to the central learning at hand, or redundant. Specifically, if the identical information is being presented in two different modes it can potentially confuse or overload working memory rather than reinforcing learning. For example, if a teacher puts a long quote up on the SMARTBoard and then proceeds to read it out loud, the two inputs compete for attention in the learner's mind causing confusion and making it more difficult to absorb the learning.
See, I told you that it was a delicate balancing act!

When schools and teachers spend time talking about Executive Function, usually a critical component of their concerns revolve around the need to optimize working memory. Balancing students' cognitive loads in a systematic and deliberate fashion through carefully constructed teaching strategies is a key component in maximizing student learning. This study goes a long way in supporting all schools to move more deliberately down that path.
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With IEPs, the Medium is the Message about learning

11/4/2018

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One fall, before most of the adults in my school were born, I gave up on an undergraduate course in programming at the University of Toronto (involving key punch cards with lines of code and searching reams of paper for error messages). In its place, I transferred into a philosophy half-course taught by Marshall McLuhan. It was a rambling, eclectic mix of communication theory, the impact of hot and cool media, and a critique on how the industrial model of education was designed to stamp out differences in learners in order to make them into conforming members of society as a whole. For McLuhan, classrooms were like a typewritten page with the heading (teacher) at the top and straight lines of words (the students) laid out in neat rows below; schools themselves were little more than assembly lines producing standardized graduates in the same way Henry Ford had churned out Model T's in the 1920s.

More than forty years later, the analogy often still holds true in many of our schools and school systems. They are still primarily built on a mass production, standardization, model. They start with the proscribed curriculum and learners are asked to adapt to it as best they can. Students enter, are delivered a programme designed to meet the learning style of the mainstream, and then exit - more or less successfully - to move on to the next stage in their educational lives. It is an assembly line system, softened only by the professionalism of the people delivering it. Replicated in community after community, it is the McDonalds of education. Now, in fairness, not all schools or even school districts conform to this model. There are lighthouses where flexibility and individual student needs trump the constraints of textbooks and exams. But it takes vision and leadership to break these bonds in a culture that often demands a standardization of approach. These systemic expectations may be driven by rigidly constraining working conditions agreements (think "class size and composition"), by budget priorities, or by public perceptions and political expediencies that are driven by the results on high-stakes tests.

Whatever the reason, what should be a universal design for learning to meet the needs of all learners has been flipped on its head to mean "one size fits all" schooling and equity in educational opportunity, has been replaced by equal access to programmes, but not learning.

We are fortunate as a small, independent option to be free of many of these constraints. By contrast, what we try to offer is based on a mass customization model. This is the essence of creating a path to inclusion through applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning. Although the wide variety of structures, supports, teaching/learning approaches etc. are accessible to all learners, there is no question but that at the end of the day we are delivering individual programmes for each and every student. Our slogan could maybe be taken not from McDonalds, but from Burger King - you know - "Have it your way!" It is our on-going mission to differentiate the learning experience for each individual child and young adult and to help them to find their personal pathways to success.

Last week our staff sent home IEPs for parent information, reflection and feedback. It is critically important for us to ensure that the pathway and priorities for each individual student be laid out and her or his progress tracked and reported on throughout the school year. The macro principle of UDL is "what is necessary for one is good for all", but the micro principle of "meeting each child's needs within the larger context of the group plan" is even more important to ensuring student success. When you apply the principles and best practices of Universal Design to create a welcoming and varied learning environment for everyone, the fine tuning for each individual student becomes just that much easier!




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Outside, inside - It's all about learning

9/30/2018

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Last week, buoyed by ​spectacular weather, our students spread out across the Lower Mainland. Groups were engaging in sub-alpine studies up the Chief, Grouse Mountain, and Mount Seymour; exploring the tidal flats along Burrard Inlet; hiking in Capilano Canyon; paddle boarding and kayaking in Deep Cove; and camping north of Whistler. If there was an outdoor activity worth pursuing, our students, teachers and tutors were there! It was a great three days in the out of doors.

Now, it's back to the daily routine of classes and tutoring. But will much change? Last week was about learning by engaging with the environment, exploring, discovering, observing and having flashes of insight. This week will be the same, only the venue will change. Students will still get their hands dirty exploring in the Science Lab or creating in the Arts. They will still get that personalized attention and sparks of insight that comes with hands-on math activities or focused tutoring sessions. Teachers will build upon last week's group bonding activities and reinforce them in their classroom communities. New friendships will extend out onto the playground or in clubs and sports activities.

Outdoor School is a great opportunity for staff to hang back, and while someone else is running the programme, they can really get a different perspective on their class in action. And this time spent by teachers and tutors carefully observing their students responding to new experiences and different types of learnings will help to inform their practice and give them insights into how each of their children and young adults learn best.

To be honest, the first few weeks of school are a bit of a waiting game for students and the adults working with them. There are the tentative first steps of renewing the learning process; establishing classroom routines and rhythms; doing math and language arts assessments; and structuring a tutoring plan for the year. But really, everyone in the school community is holding their collective breath, waiting for Outdoor School. The adults are waiting to fully solidify that bond that will propel student learning throughout the year; the students are waiting to cement friendships and get to know their teachers and tutors in a less structured, non-traditional environment - one in which everyone, adults and young people, are learners together.

The sunny days of Outdoor School are now behind us, and perhaps symbolically, the fall rains seem to have begun. But our community has gelled, the pattern of collaboration and learning has been cemented and we are all ready to plunge into our next adventure in learning.

I can't think of a better way to start the school year!

​


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Welcome (back) to the KGMS Community

9/7/2018

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What a great week this has been! On Tuesday the school and grounds were packed with families and friends and teachers and tutors who were all getting together to celebrate the start of another school year here at KGMS/Maplewood. This was a time to check things out, to make new friends and to reconnect with old ones. An army of parent volunteers sprung into action to offer food and fun activities and staff had the chance to spend some time with parents and students, so that we could dial back potential anxiety, and demystify what they might experience the next morning. General consensus? It was great to be back!

Now don't get me wrong, I haven't heard a single person complain about the summer that we all just enjoyed. Long sunny days, mild evenings, and a seemingly endless series of opportunities to enjoy the beautiful environment that surrounds us. That is not to say that there weren't challenges - near drought conditions in many communities; a proliferation of wildfires and the taste of smoke in the air even here in the Lower Mainland; but, in many ways, this summer was reminiscent of the ones that I remember from my childhood, the ones that seemed to go on forever.

But now, we are back in business, and on Wednesday morning the doors flew open and in surged a sea of faces: some excited, others anxious; some frowning, others with wide, sunny grins; some timid, others bold; some determined, and others reticent – and those were just the parents!  Our students came tumbling in the same way – there were the cautious steps of the newly arrived; the relaxed swagger of the old pros; and, everything in between. No matter how they stepped through the door however, by the time the school day came to an end I think that both our students and their parents made their way home feeling good about their days and their choices.

Needless to say, sooner or later the honeymoon will be over and the real tough sledding will begin. But for now, it's gentle as it goes as we ease into another long and productive school year. One of the greatest challenges in a school like ours is the development and nurturing of a sense of community among students, staff and families. There is a danger that people will see themselves as transient – taking time out from “real” school to do some academic skill building, personal reflection and growth, and, re-establishing a positive self-image before continuing on with their academic careers.

But this is a misconception. A year or two or three is an eternity in the life of a child. Each day is a new experience to be celebrated and integrated into a student’s sense of self and the world around her or him. That is why it is so important for us, as adults, to do whatever we can to provide opportunities for our students to feel that they are an integral part of something larger. 

Research indicates that family collaboration with schools increases student achievement. The benefits of parent and family involvement include higher test scores and grades, better attendance, more completion of homework, more positive attitudes and behaviour, higher graduation rates, and greater enrolment in higher education.  The payoffs for learning are obvious, not only for younger children, but for all our students. Although parent interest and attention is typically strongest at the primary level, continued involvement through the middle grades and in high school is important in encouraging and guiding our children’s development and achievement. At KGMS, we regard our relationship with our families as a partnership in which school and home share responsibility for each child’s learning. When this partnership is extended to include the larger community, the benefits are greater yet. Perhaps most important is that when responsibility for children's learning is shared by the school, home, and community, children have more opportunities for meaningful and engaging learning opportunities.It is our ongoing goal to provide a variety of experiences both inside and out of the classroom to continue to help our students to make those connections to the larger world.

Great summers, like this past one, allow us to recharge. Students, parents, and educators all emerge refreshed and reinvigorated from a summer like this. It’s a funny thing though, as much as I love summer, each fall when I experience first-hand the joy of learning once again, I remember that I love September even more!
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Boring is in the eye of the beholder!

8/23/2018

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As a long-time teacher of high school history, and the father of five children (the oldest of whom will turn 46 this Fall!), I have probably heard the phrase "this is boring" more times than anyone else on the planet. I have taken students across Checkpoint Charlie from West to East Berlin ("this is boring, it is taking so long just to go through this gate"); to the Tut exhibit ("can I skip the audio tour and go right to the snack bar?"); and to the steps of the Parthenon ("you mean we can't even go inside? What was the point of climbing all the way up here?"). I have listened to my own children complain about boring car rides, airplane flights, visits to the Louvre, symphony concerts, and baseball games (okay, may the last example is legit!) and I have heard countless times how boring I am because I would rather watch the news than subject myself to endless YouTube videos of questionable comedic value!

For my students, and even my own children, "this is boring" has typically been their first salvo in any negotiation about taking on a task that is difficult, cumbersome, or requires them to apply themselves without any apparent hope of instant gratification. Oh, I am sure that there are children out there (I hear about them at cocktail parties) who relish a challenge, throw themselves into the dreariest tasks, and will one day be on the covers of magazines that my own kids will be borrowing money from me to buy. I just haven't met too many of them! Most children and adolescents, while wonderful people to chat and play with, take on a new persona when the prospect of grunt work is laid before them. Even those of us adults who love their jobs, and parenting, and who would prefer to spend more time on their favourite leisure activities, have come to understand that hard and sometimes tedious work is often a necessary means to an end. Most young people, on the other hand, still live in that lovely world of believing that they only have to do those things which they find inherently interesting and enjoyable. And then, there is school....

As we approach the end of the second decade of the 21st century, the task of teaching has never been so formidable. How do you engage students who are used to being entertained rather than enlightened? How do you challenge children to stretch themselves beyond their perceived limits when the process might involve some tough sledding before the "fun" stuff begins? What implication does this have for the classroom? We all know that teaching and learning have changed. From the teacher-centred classrooms of the fifties and sixties, through the laissez-faire approach of the seventies and eighties, and following the data-driven decade at the end of the last century, the fourth era in modern pedagogy has emerged. The last ten years have seen the growth of outcomes-based, collaborative strategies that require hard work and commitment from both teacher and student.

Consequently, at the risk of being boring myself, the only real barrier to learning is the level of engagement of students and staff in the process. You see, to work effectively, this approach requires a lot of "boring" work! To be effective there must be time consuming planning and preparation by the teacher and tutor and serious application by the student. At Kenneth Gordon, we know that not every minute is going to be taken up by cool exercises with the SmartBoard, surfing the web on a laptop, or watching an engaging video on YouTube. There are actually going to be some minutes, hours, and days that are devoted to plan, old, boring work! Reading, researching, working through math problems, practicing songs, - you name it, it all takes time and effort.

If we want students to be capable, self-directed learners then we have to give them not only the tools to be successful, but to foster the attitudes that lead to success. Time dedicated to Social/Emotional Learning at our school is at least as well spent as hours on Language Arts and Mathematics. Students need to develop the confidence that they can learn, and that they can succeed in both school and in the larger world; and, they need to develop the ethic that, although some things don't come easily, they will come eventually, with hard work and parental and school support. If the outcomes are worthwhile, the attainment of them should be intrinsically exciting. 

As for me, I always subscribe to the philosophy that "boring is in the eye of the beholder". The task in front of us is always neutral. How we perceive it, is entirely up to us!

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The Banality of Zero Tolerance in Schools: A Donald Trump Story

6/25/2018

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People who read my governance blog (https://21stcenturygovernance.weebly.com/the-governance-corner) will be familiar with my series of posts on the lessons to be learned by school leaders from the actions and reactions of the current U.S. disrupter in chief in the White House.

This past week however opened up a new and significant series of events that are also instructional for not only administrators but teachers and parents as well. The separation of refugee children from their parents created a communications, logistical and human catastrophe on multiple levels. Based on a newly proclaimed "zero tolerance" policy for dealing with refugees entering the country illegally, the administration proudly proclaimed that arresting parents and seizing their children would create a "deterrent" that would prevent future violations of the laws and policies surrounding immigration. The result of taking this step, as we now all know, resulted in a human rights crisis and a public relations nightmare. And, even in backing down (while typically blaming everyone else), Trump and his leadership team demonstrated a remarkable degree of both tone deafness, and incompetence. Doubling down this morning, the President tweeted that all illegal refugees should be immediately deported to their native country without any legal remedy and offered to reunite families at the airport if the parents agreed to be shipped home without having the chance to make their case for asylum. Due process by damned!

So what are the lessons here for schools?

1. To begin with, zero tolerance disciplinary policies are invariably losers. In institutions that pride themselves on valuing the worth of each individual student, and that are committed to personalizing learning, the idea that "one size fits all" with respect to discipline runs counter to the expressed ethos of any school. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't have clear expectations, and a range of possible consequences, but they have to be tailored to the individual and applied with care and with a clearly articulated rationale. Arbitrary punishments are most often seen as unfair and lead to an "us and them" attitude towards school climate rather than a collaborative "we".

2. The threat of punishment is a very weak deterrent. Most people in our society operate on the assumption that when they break the law they probably won't be caught and therefore the potential consequences of their actions are immaterial to them. I would hazard a guess that there isn't a car-driving adult reading this blog who doesn't speed on a regular basis, or roll through the occasional stop sign, or check messages when stopped at a light. The fines are often quite hefty for these actions but our normal response is that we are "unlucky" when we get caught rather than seeing ourselves as guilty of an offence. Kids are the same way. They are not being defiant, or reckless, or sneaky when they break the rules. They are just being kids. Getting caught gives us a chance to act as educators with respect to acceptable behaviour - not  as judge, jury and executioner.

3. Due process is important! We are rightly outraged when people are incarcerated or deported without the benefit of a fair hearing and representation, but we violate the rights of our students that way every day. We isolate students from their supports, extract confessions, pressure them to testify against their peers, threaten to contact parents, and then mete out consequences in a kind of Principal's Court of Star Chamber. Like Donald Trump, we often convince ourselves that the ends (compliance, contrition, confession) justify the means. As the U.S. administration has found this week, fast tracking the process is fraught with peril and often results in unintended consequences for the school. In our case we have found that providing a student advocate (counsellor, trusted teacher, parent etc.), while making the process a little more convoluted and messy, usually results in a deeper student understanding of the issue at hand and results in a reduction in repeat offences.

4. Most parents, teachers and kids want a calm, positive and productive learning environment for everyone. Tom Bennett (@tombennett71), the leader of the researchEd movement worldwide, notes that "Low level disruption sounds cute, but it’s kryptonite for any lesson. It normalizes rudeness, laziness, and grinds teachers down over weeks and months. It is no small issue. It is the most common reason for classroom behaviour to disintegrate." He is right! And the best way to counter low level disruption is by setting and enforcing clear guidelines, expectations, and classroom norms. Buy-in comes from consistency, and peer community acceptance, and not from Draconian enforcement measures. Unfortunately, driven by the debasing of discourse through social media, we have become a society of "low level disruptors" which is why the extremism of the past week, while repugnant, was not particularly shocking to anyone. Schools are the key place to reverse that trend by reinforcing civility and social norms and expectations and not by turning a blind eye and a deaf ear towards breaches of classroom community norms.

There are a lot of strident voices in the United States right now falling on either side of the refugee debate. Illegal immigrants are either seen as innocent victims of the system or potential gang members trying to jump the line in order to get easy access. Currently there is little middle ground consensus on how to effectively address what is clearly a problem without trampling on people on the way.

Schools are like that too. An administrator friend told me recently that they had developed a "zero tolerance" policy for skipping school. If a student accumulated so many undocumented absences that they were affecting her or his academics, they were to be suspended for a week. When I gently pointed out the absurdity of exclusion as a consequence (reward?) for skipping, she looked at me blankly and said "There have to be consequences for skipping beyond simply failing the course!"

I guess we still all have a long way to go!

If you are interested in reading my ebook "Avoiding the Trump Trap: A Primer for Aspiring School Leaders" you can get it free on iBooks or by clicking this link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/797724

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What happened to the teaching part of teaching and learning?

6/3/2018

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This past week I had the pleasure of spending a day at Camp Jubilee, on Indian Arm north of Deep Cove, with our Grade 7s. A 20 minute boat ride takes you from the hustle and bustle of urban life into the edge of the backcountry and gives students the opportunity to try new experiences and test their limits in a safe and supportive learning environment. From high ropes to kayaking to archery to trekking through the bush our students were constantly challenged and rose to the occasion. Taking part in these activities, I was reminded of what a critical role teachers play in this learning process. One episode in particular stands out for me. One student, after completing his first climb up a cliff face, was sitting dejectedly on the prep bench. He was clearly upset and done with the process. Rather than letting him sit and watch his classmates, his teacher sat down with him and helped him work through the issue that was bothering him about his first climb. After a few minutes of quiet conversation and processing, the student agreed to give it another try. He would go on to scale the cliff five more times and by the end of the session, was beaming! Experiential learning is not just about the learner. The teacher plays an essential part in making it work.

One of the most popular oxymorons that currently dominates educational circles is the phrase "growth mindset". Given the fact that "mindset", by definition, is a fixed set of beliefs, then the flexibility and potential for change and growth would actually mean that a learner had no "set mind" or mindset about learning at all! The use of terms such as "mindset" or "grit" or "moxie" is just a trick for taking schools off of the hook, and placing the blame for a failure to connect squarely on the shoulders of the student. In actual fact, it is our job as educators to change attitudes about learning.  What we are really talking about is nurturing a young mind to embrace new experiences and challenges, supported by a low-risk learning environment, and dedicated to student growth and continued success. It doesn't just happen. We educators and parents have to make it happen. We have to help students to take a systematic approach to learning. Sometimes it means focusing less on content and more on attitude. It challenges us to ask: How can we create a culture of success? How can we help students to see challenging themselves is not risky, but is actually interesting and rewarding? 

A number of years ago, in another professional life, I was engaged by the Japanese Ministry of Education to review the delivery of their educational programmes, their teacher training, and their five year plan for moving forward. I spent a month touring schools; meeting with teachers, parents and students; consulting with university and Ministry personnel; and sitting in dozens of classes.

One experience during this time still stands out for me. I was in a classroom in a university laboratory school in Hiroshima. At the front of the class was a senior mathematics teacher – back to the room – scribbling formulas on the whiteboard and muttering fairly incomprehensibly about what he was doing. At the back of the class were ten student teachers furiously copying down everything that he wrote on the board so that they could someday use it in their own classrooms. In between were forty Grade 12 students who were paying no attention whatsoever. There were lots of conversations going on, some outstandingly artistic doodles being created, and a number of people catching up on an obvious lack of sleep – but no-one was actually learning mathematics. In my post-class focus groups, I discovered two things. To begin with, the teacher felt that it was his responsibility to teach, but not to ensure that anyone actually learned.  Secondly, the students felt that it was their responsibility to learn, but that the venue for that was not school, it was at home or at an after school cram session where they would spend hours self-teaching and practicing problems. It was this disconnect that the government was trying to address. The challenge was, that the issue was more cultural than pedagogical.

You know what Neil Postman would say, “I taught it, it’s just that they didn’t learn it” is akin to hearing a car salesperson say “I sold it, it’s just that they didn’t buy it”. We know that effective teaching and learning is an interactive process, and that to be meaningful, both partners have to actively engage in it. The transmission culture that brought us radio and television is rapidly being supplanted by the interactive culture that uses Google and Wikipedia and invites the user to engage and generate knowledge, not just receive and record it.

At Kenneth Gordon, like most schools, we sometimes fall into the trap of assigning what we feel should be a simple task and finding that a student has become paralyzed and unable to proceed. Even with the luxury of small class groupings and daily individual instruction, we are constantly presented with a variety of learning puzzles. Why did this student balk at this task when the nine who came before breezed through it? What necessary steps did I leave out, that account for my inability to engage this particular learner in a fashion that would enable her or him to feel confident in their ability to take this on?

This is a pivotal moment in the teaching/learning process. We can just shrug and pat ourselves on the back for a 90% success rate, or we can double down and become learning detectives, committed to finding the piece of the puzzle that eludes us. The response to this challenge is a window into the culture of a school. All students have a unique approach to learning. Most fall within a broad range that is typically addressed in school, but many are outliers. They have great, untapped potential that needs to be coaxed to the surface, nurtured and reinforced. It is hard work, for both educator and learner, but the possibilities are endless. Part of our challenge is to make students understand this correlation between work and performance, between perseverance and progress.

In all of the superficial discussions about "mindsets" and "learning styles" there is still a fundamental truth. If an educator is unable to convince a student to open her or himself up to the possibility of learning then no amount of instruction will result in a positive and productive outcome.

​This is the true art of teaching.

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    Dr. Jim Christopher is the Head of Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School and Maplewood Alternative High School in North Vancouver. A parent, author and long-time teacher, and educational administrator across Canada, he has been actively involved in the drive to differentiate learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

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