Thinking and Linking About Learning Outcomes

I've started a collection of links to news and research articles that somehow relate to our school-wide learning outcomes. Enjoy!

Autonomy
Structures that help students engage in learning
Promoting autonomy in learners

Interdependence
Digital citizenship
Social/emotional learning

Critical Thinking
Culturally responsive instruction
Build curiosity via student questions
The importance of critical thinking

Creativity
Cultivating creativity
Teaching creativity
Expanding concepts of art

Communication
Fighting to save sea lions

Technological proficiency
Kids produce a TV show
Ipads in Kindergarten
Games as instructional devices
50 uses for the iPad in the classroom
Taking a break from tech
Using tech to do research
Tech in the classroom

Health and Wellness
Gardening at school
Beating obesity
Bake sales and obesity
Fit children score better on standardized tests
Jumping rope for fun and fitness
Lifetime fitness classes
Eating right
School staff modeling health
HealthTeacher.Com
Vitamin deficiencies
Body image
Obesity and school attendance

Discipline Understanding

Personal finance for 4th graders
The law for middle schoolers
Geography via the Olympics
Cultivating alegebraic thinking before 8th grade
Using art to teach middle schoolers about the Holocaust
Recess and reading scores


Learning habits
Why failure is important for learning
Sleep impacts performance
Meeting all students needs
Engaged parents help students learn

Great NYT interview about leadership

This NY Times interview with Charlotte Beers is really phenomenal. She touches on so many topics in leadership that I find relevant to my work - learning to self-correct and not interrupt others (one of the action items in my PD goal of improving my communication), finding out how others see you (my upcoming Division Head assessment), assessing the "whole person" (my supervision of faculty), the importance of being able to lead "from the front" using the strength of your values and beliefs (my recent work with the community about a parent suicide), the challenge of trying to change a culture (my NAIS Fellowship project), and what to look for when hiring (a process I just went through).

Scenes from Step-Up Day

Today was our annual Step-Up Day, when students at each level "step up" to the next level for the morning to experience what life will be like in the next grade: ECC to K, 1st to 2nd, 3rd to 4th, 5th to 6th, and 6th to 7th (the 8th grade spent the morning working on their graduation projects). This event helps children engage in the transition to a new role, whether moving to a new classroom or, for current K, 2nd, and 4th graders, experiencing what it will be like to be the elders in a  classroom with a younger cohort joining them. Here are some photos from the event.

Blackberry (K/1): During an open work period, children were at the listening station, painting with watercolors, doing needlepoint, and in the block area.

 

 

Laurel Creek (K/1): During an open work period, children were playing games, in the block area, in the dress-up, doing logic games on the computer, making flags, and working at the creation station.

 

Sweet Briar (2/3): During math period, children played the game "Skunk"

 

 

 


Temescal (2/3): During an open work period, children were using the Montessori maps, the Montessori bells, using geometric cubes to do multiplication, and drawing three dimensional shapes on 3D graph paper.

 

 


Cerrito and Strawberry (4/5): During a math workshop, children were in pairs and table groups playing games including Close to 100, Boxed In, Top Sums, Concentration, and Find That Number.

 

 

 

Today's sign that the apocalypse is upon us

Today US News published its annual list of the "best high schools".

Some people are complaining about the methodology, though methinks this is sour grapes because they want to score higher. And some people are pointing out actual mistakes in the data used in the rankings, which should be appreciated (especially when a principal is saying a school doesn't deserve its ranking).

While this critique from the NASSP points out that objective rankings are impossible no matter the methodology due to the huge variability in contexts from state to state in standards, rigor, and school funding (not to mention the issue of societal inequities affecting the populations that attend the various schools), and it makes a suggestion instead to look at the degree of improvement in student performance, even this misses the point. There's a much larger problem than these, since no methodology is going to satisfy everyone all the time, as this isn't an empirical scientific experiment anyway: just as grading students is an intellectually dishonest way of reducing student understanding to a meaningless, subjective, abstract symbol, so to is attempting to rank schools! What is this obsession and desire to compare everyone against everyone else, or every school against every other - why do we want to judge the quality of the student, rather than celebrate her successes and support her in tackling her challenges? This ranking does nothing but provide schools on the list with an opportunity to add a gold, silver or bronze star to their websites and Wikipedia pages, and give districts the chance to issue self-congratulatory press releases. It's a grotesque trivialization of the teaching and learning that goes on in every one of these schools, and it's shameful, exploitative attempt to sell magazines based on activating people's emotions, be they pride and joy or fear and anger.

We - by which I mean the American public and media - need a better, more nuanced, more thoughtful way of thinking about what it means for a school to be good, beyond test scores (and, fortunately, there are lots of teachers, administrators, researchers, theorists, and even a few policy makers who are thinking about this). There are many things I would be interested in knowing about schools - how well they fulfill their mission and learning objectives for their student bodies, how well they do at closing the achievement/equity gap between whites and minorities or between the middle class and the poor, how well they do at cultivating engaged and active citizens on the local and state and national level, how well they do at providing developmentally appropriate learning environments that foster self-esteem and intellectual curiosity, where they have focused their professional development efforts and what sustained impact that has had on classroom practice by teachers....but I'm not interested in judging one school (or child) against another.

Today's Admin Team Meeting

Here's a window into today's admin team meeting, which covered three topics.

First, we looked at draft schedules for the faculty work weeks that happen June 18-22 and August 27-31. The June work week includes all-faculty and division wide meetings, an information session with the faculty on our ongoing marketing and branding efforts, time to finish up progress reports, and of course a good-bye/closure party. The following week we'll have a senior admin meeting, and rearrange the office locations of administrators to better support our work. The August work week will include various full staff and division-wide meetings, CPR and First Aid training, Disaster preparedness training, New Faculty Orientation, New Family Orientation, and of course a TGIF!

Second, we had a brief budget review to see where we are against the projections for the year, and to think about ways we can successfully manage the budget through the remainder of the year to provide all of the materials, resources, and items necessary for our program while also hitting our financial targets for improving our cash reserves, as is necessary under the terms of our bond agreement.

Third, we collectively dug into the aforementioned office reassignments, which is necessary because of the shifting positions and roles outlined in the letter Mitch sent to families last week. Mitch used the design thinking method to drive our process, beginning by posing the design challenge: How can we configure the admin and staff offices to best allow the organization to function in ways that demonstrate knowledge, preparation, and responsiveness to the need of children, families, and faculty? From here, he articulated a few constraints, including not making physical changes (i.e. knocking out or putting up walls) to the existing spaces, maximizing the ease of communication and collaboration among various administrative teams, and creating work environments that facilitate and match jobs and responsibilities as much as possible. We left with a map of the office, a list of the people and positions, and the assignment to generate our best idea of who goes where by this Friday.

NAIS 2013 Annual Conference presentation proposal

Today I submitted the following proposal to present at the NAIS 2013 Annual Conference (which will be in Philadelphia). Writing this was an interesting process, as my first draft - which flowed from ideas to writing quite quickly - was about twice as long as the maximum character limit allowed, so I wound up having to edit it down to the essential ideas (a good pre-lesson for what I'll need to do if/when I actually prepare this presentation). I'm hopeful that my proposal is selected, as sharing this work and engaging in conversation with the field of professionals will be an exciting opportunity!

1. Title: Changing School Culture At the Division Level

2.  Description of Presentation (1000 character maximum including spaces).

This presentation arises from the project I undertook for the 2011-12 NAIS Fellowship for Aspiring Heads. The first third will be an investigation and review of the concept of culture, including definitions of terms such as culture (values and beliefs that drive action) and climate (the feeling or tenor of a group), and identifying the levers that administrators can pull when trying to shift cultures. The middle third will be a case study of my work with the Elementary Division at The Berkeley School, including the action plan I created to manage this project, and the successes and failures I experienced. The final third will be an opportunity for participants to begin applying the concepts within a pragmatic framework for work at their school sites. The learning outcomes for participants include a theoretical basis for thinking about the concept of school culture, detailed understanding of a particular case, and tools and methods for initiating culture change at their sites.

3.  Conference Program Abstract (375 character maximum including spaces).

School culture needs to be cultivated and developed through intention and effort to support and align with a school’s mission. Learn about the theories behind how cultures form and mature, delve into a case study of one school’s work in this area, and leave with pragmatic tools and ideas for nurturing the culture of your school at a division-wide level.

Aug.22 Update: My proposal was accepted! Huzzah! I hope to see you at this workshop in February, and I'd love to begin a dialogue about it in advance, so be in touch if you have questions or ideas.

Standardized Testing at TBS

In the current era of "high stakes testing" created by the No Child Left Behind legislation, public schools are forced to test students as often as every six weeks. However, weighing a chicken more often does not help it grow; at TBS, we know that good instruction, based on progressive principles and balancing inquiry-based investigation with direct instruction, creates an environment in which learning thrives. We also recognize that in order to best serve our students, we need to make use of the full range of assessment devices available, which means utilizing standardized testing in an ethical fashion that meshes with our educational beliefs. 

For this reason, each spring all students in fourth through eighth grade take the CTP 4, designed by the Educational Records Bureau. TBS uses the ERB scores as an in-house accountability measure, since our students do not spend time working with these assessments in an ongoing way. They are just one more way that we can assess our students' learning, and our teachers' teaching. We analyze the results for broad patterns across classes and grades, which can be useful for identifying areas of relative strength or future growth in our curriculum. As a parent, it's important to remember that ERB results are a moment-in-time snapshot of your child's learning through a specific lens, and should be integrated into the whole picture of your child's learning profile rather than considered a definitive summation of your child as a learner.

Before the testing, teachers explain to the students that the results are used to help teachers learn and understand their students' growth better.  Students have opportunities to practice mathematical reasoning and computation, reading comprehension, and literacy skills that are included on the test.  Teachers also give instruction on test-taking strategies, time management skills, and stress-reduction techniques.  Students with demonstrable need are given a range of accommodations, overseen by MaryBeth Ventura, our 4-8 Learning Support Coordinator.

Taking the CTP 4 also provides important practical life experience for our students. Eighth grade students who apply to private high schools take standardized entrance exams that have actual high stakes attached to them, as do the standardized tests all high school students take. By giving our students experience in taking these types of  test, and teaching them the tools to succeed on them, we believe we prepare them for the academic environments they'll encounter after graduation, without sacrificing our commitment to an authentic progressive education.

Next week we'll administer the ERBs to all students in grades 4-8. Here's what our schedule for testing looks like:

Monday, 5/14
8:30 - 8:45                        Attendance, Prepare for testing
8:45 – 9:25                       Testing: Reading comprehension (40)   
9:25 - 9:40                        Quiet break in class (15)
9:40 – 10:10                     Testing: Writing Mechanics (30)
10:10 – 10:55                   Break - All to park (45)
10:55 - 11:40                    Testing: Math Part I   (40)

Tuesday, 5/15
8:30 - 8:45                        Attendance, Prepare for testing
8:45 – 9:25                       Testing: Math Part 2 (40)

9:25 – 9:40                       Quiet break in class   (15)
9:40 – 10:25                     Testing: Writing concepts & skills (45)
10:25 – 11:10                   Break - All to park  (45)
11:10 – 11:40                   Testing: Reading comprehension CR (30)

Wednesday, 5/16
8:30 - 8:45                        Attendance, Prepare for testing
8:45 – 9:30                       Testing: Quantitative reasoning (45)
9:30 – 9:40                       Quiet break in class  (10)
9:40 – 10:00                     Testing: Vocabulary (20)
10:00 – 10:45                   Break - All to park (45)
10:45 – 11:30                   Testing: Verbal Reasoning (45)

Thursday, 5/17
8:30 - 8:45                        30 minutes in classroom
8:45 - 9:20                        Testing: Math CR (35)  

Begin make up testing (in Depot) and continue Friday.