Leaders Learners
of June 2011Vol. 4, Issue 3
The bi-monthly resource for Texas ASCD members
Healthy Family Initiative: RtI in Physical Education
4
9 Same Goal, Different Strategies: Which Drives Your Improvement Efforts?
1221st Century Education: Accepting the Challenges of Change
17The Future of Textbooks in Texas Classrooms
19Texas ASCD Calendar of Events
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 2
Leaders Learners
of
June 2011Vol. 4, Issue 3
Contents
Healthy Family Initiatives: RtI in Physical Educationby Melissa Chavez, Ph. D.
Same Goal, Different StrategiesWhich Drives Your Improvement Efforts?by Dr. Richard DuFour and Rebecca DuFour
FEaturES
In EVEry ISSuE
20Texas ASCD Membership Application
News and Events2
PresidentEllen V. Bell, Ph.D. Vice PresidentAl Hambrick, Ph. D.SecretaryAlma Rodriguez, Ph.D.President-ElectJanis Jordan, Ed.D.Past PresidentGena Gardiner
Yolanda M. Rey, Ph.D.Executive Director
Texas Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (Texas ASCD) is a nonprofit educational organization that improves learning through supporting all educators and school children of Texas in their educational endeavors.
Leaders of Learners is an official journal of Texas ASCD. If you have comments concerning Leaders of Learners, please send them to [email protected]. Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily the opinions or endorsements of Texas ASCD or our membership.
19 Calendar of Events
the Future of textbooks in texas Classrooms
21st Century Education: Accepting the Challenges of Changeby Jim Schmidt, Ed.D., Teresa Kross, and Kellie Dean
4
9
17
12
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 3
As the school year ends and summer “vacation” begins, there is still a lot of work to do. Just like there is little relief from the Texas summer heat, for those in Central Offices, there is no break from the work. And while teachers may have a break from the classroom, they are likely thinking ahead to the next school year, preparing for a new year, and wondering what to expect from the 82nd Legislature.
In this issue of Leaders of Learners, we open with the first in an ongoing series of articles about RtI by Melissa Chavez, the Executive Director of the UT elementary school. The first article focuses on Physical Education, which is a hot-button issue today because of the growing obesity rates among children in Texas and its associated health issues. Future articles will talk about using RtI in a variety of subjects.
This issue also focuses on 21st Century Skills in the classroom. Read about a potentially new direction for textbooks and how there is a Bill on the floor of the Texas House to address those changes. Also learn about how new technology tools are being utilized in classrooms around the world and how we need to catch up in order to be viable in the global economy of tomorrow.
Like all of you, Texas ASCD is not taking a break from the heat or the work. Our staff is as busy as ever preparing for the first ever Southwest BLC in just a few weeks. We’re excited that Alan November and his team will be delivering cutting edge workshops
and keynote presentations. This is a great opportunity for teams of teachers and administrators alike to take advantage of one-stop professional development centered entirely on technology and how to implement the latest tools in the classroom and beyond. You can read more about it here.
We’re also getting excited about our Annual Conference in October. The program is coming together brilliantly and we have just released the Registration Book. If you haven’t received yours in the mail, you can view it online by clicking here. It provides summaries about the keynote presentations by Rick DuFour, Debra Pickering, Douglas Reeves, Alan November, and Thomas Guskey. It also details the 5 Special Sessions and gives a tentative schedule for the entire conference.
This year’s A n n u a l C o n f e r e n c e falls during Halloween, and being in Austin, which has the country’s largest urban bat colony, there will surely be lots of fun and spooky extra curricular events. We hope you’ll be there to
learn and enjoy being with your fellow educators for networking and socializing.
Even though there is a lot of work to be done, both in and out of the classroom, we hope you can take some time to enjoy a little break this summer. Texas has so much to see and do – including lots of lakes and rivers and the Gulf of Mexico to keep you cool. So, enjoy your summer!
School’s Out for the Summer – But the Work Isn’t Taking a Break!
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 4
There is a gathering health problem for many young people and, by extension, for the country. The obesity problem is obvious, but as you begin to know your students better, you learn that everything from weight, diet, dental care, pediatric care, and a host of other issues is interfering with learning and wellness. The correlation with learning is recent news, but no surprise. If a student is overweight, eating a great deal of sugar and has not seen a pediatrician in two years, that student will likely have learning problems as well.
On April 15, 2011, on the front page of the “Austin American Statesman,” there was a color picture of children running, and the headline was “44 percent of Texas students fail fitness test.” This test was developed by the Cooper Institute in Dallas and was not only used in Texas but also in many others states and cities across the country. In Texas this is a state-required measure from grades 3-12 on cardiovascular fitness and the trends are getting worse. The older the student, the more likely the student is not fit. This well-respected test considers body composition, cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, endurance and flexibility.
The Healthy Families Initiative (HFI) is designed to be a model for intervening in many effective ways to ameliorate health and fitness problems and provide information both to students and parents that may be helpful. Getting students and parents to give up long-held unhealthy habits is not easy, but if you keep at it, it does make a difference. In order to make your classroom as effective as possible, you need to know a great deal about your students’ previous knowledge and abilities.
As you read through this series, you will see the letters RtI. This is a simple but effective method to gauge where students are in any content area, and that includes art and math, physical education and science – everything that is taught in UTES! RtI means Response to Intervention and is characterized by a triangle that teachers can use to understand where their students fit in a class. Teachers are extremely busy, and that is worsened by an economy that has produced layoffs, larger classes and fewer computers and school supplies. UTES has also been affected
by the economy, but our mantra remains unchanged: We must help students learn and grow in every subject to the extent possible.
Following are some concrete examples of how RtI can work across content areas to enhance health and fitness. First, let’s consider the RtI triangle itself (left).
by Melissa ChavezExecutive Director, University of Texas Elementary School
Healthy Family Initiative: rtI in Physical Education
Tier I Standards-based
instruction for all students
Coordinated school health Quality physical & health education
Tier II
Tier III Targeted interventions for some students Small groups during
school Goal setting & progress
monitoring Physical activity &
nutrition challenges
Intensive interventions for a few students Family involvement
after school Cooking lessons Family physical
activities Social support
Response to Intervention Preventive School Health
Developed by Brian Dauenhauer, University of Texas Elementary School ([email protected])
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 5
Healthy Initiative...continued from page 4
Your class is divided into 3 groups. Whether you are teaching in Scarsdale, New York or inner-city Los Angeles, RtI will work. However, RtI works best with urban students where there is a wider range of student mastery of skills. The largest group of students will fall into Tier I. That means they are able to achieve the core curriculum and require no outside intervention beyond what the teacher can supply. Tier I is usually 40 to 65 percent of your class.
Tier II students need additional help in the classroom. That can be anything from slightly more time from the teacher or help in the classroom from, say, an aide or an “intervention specialist.” The intervention specialist might be a trained aide, a volunteer parent, a reading teacher, a special education teacher or someone else. The intervention specialist provides additional support that is systematic and data driven, Tier II will be 15 percent to 25 percent of a class.
Tier III students are obvious from the first days of school. They typically comprise 5% to 15% of your class, they cannot complete the core curriculum without considerable help, which may take the form of another qualified adult in the classroom helping three or four students to read or do math. Pull-out instruction, after-school tutoring, or summer school
may also be required for some Tier III students. Again, Tier III provides additional support that is systematic and data driven.
RtI and formative assessment, the latter a phrase that will be illustrated in this article, is critical for being reasonably certain where your students belong in the RtI triangle. For instance, a science teacher might be planning to work with her fourth-grade class on foods as a result of a conversation she had with the PE/Health teacher. She might hand out a single sheet of paper listing foods in the primary groups and ask students to check the ones they eat and at what times of the day they eat a particular food. The teacher might include several items that are not healthy but are popular. When the teacher collects and analyzes the papers, she has just done a formative assessment. It’s quick, and it reveals the information the teacher needs to know.
The science teacher then begins a unit on foods. The math teacher has agreed to help by teaching percentages, quantities and other math information students will need to master to read food labels and understand all the quantitative information on labels that often are challenging even to adults. The math teacher might use a label she has constructed and
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 6
Healthy Initiative...continued from page 5
ask students to write what several things on the label mean – that’s her formative assessment. She now knows where the students are and, she can begin the instruction the science and PE/Health teacher need for their work. The PE/Health teacher may play the central role on the foods unit. He, the math teacher and the science teacher work as a team, each keeping the others aware of what they are doing. This is a good use of faculty-meeting time.
Remember, the math, science and PE/Health teachers all used RtI and may have gotten very different results, expected when you consider the differences in skills in math, science and PE/Health. At some point the three teachers, perhaps at another faculty meeting, can talk about assessments and how they can help each other in the food unit. The PE/health teacher, as an example, might teach about the digestive system and do a formative assessment on how well and how quickly students can walk. The digestive system is often fun for the students as they learn what is going on inside them. Walking is an activity that can help with weight loss and keeping fit as well as become a lifetime exercise. The formative assignment is fairly easy. The teacher simply marks off how quickly each student can walk one-quarter mile to get a fast look at what sort of aerobic condition his students are in.
Just as the science and math teachers occasionally have students working in groups, the PE/Health teacher uses many games that depend on team cooperation for success. The next chapter in the series is on social emotional learning. The groups in all content areas are also getting practice in listening, getting along with peers, succeeding with a team and other activities and will expose everything from leadership to bullying and you have a “teachable
moment.” There are always by-products when you teach, some of them not predictable.
All teachers should recognize that at intervals they should use RtI to move students to another tier if enough progress has been made, and perhaps invent other ways of formative assessment that only take minutes. This is another good use of faculty meeting time. The reading teacher might drop in from time-to-time during the unit to help or to check on certain children he thinks are ready to move from Tier II to Tier I. Those students might have been right on the edge of Tier I and just needed some special attention to fluency or vocabulary.
Reading and writing are not formally part of this unit. However, learning to read and analyze labels or short
pieces of writing about nutrition or the value of physical activity requires grade-level reading. The PE/Health teacher and the science and math teachers could talk about crafting a writing assignment they could do together, perhaps to include some percentages to reinforce that. The more students write about their
habits or new knowledge, the clearer it becomes to them which ones are healthy and which are not. Some teachers have students read what they’ve written out loud. That accomplishes two things. First, the students hear the range of what their peers have written about health and fitness. Second, no student is embarrassed by poor handwriting or technical mistakes when paragraphs are read aloud. Formative assessments are used daily in the classroom to assure that students are on track and instruction is working for all. Formative assessments are essential in daily instruction. However, moving through the tiers of RtI we use several universal screeners and researched-based assessments at the school with both are academics and PE program.
There are dozens of possibilities for teachers
to use ... But it is teacher implementation that
counts the most.
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 7
One issue needs to be singled out in HFI and emblazoned on a huge screen that everyone in America sees every day, and that is obesity which is fast becoming a national public heath threat. Epidemiologists are following the trends, taking into consideration age, ethnic group, income, neighborhood, opportunities to exercise and a dozen or more characteristics of the people they test or interview. In the second paragraph of this article, I referred to a news article on the front page of the “Austin American Statesman.” On Thursday, April 21, again on the first page, but this time in the New York “Times,” the closest thing we have to a national newspaper of record, appeared an article about online games. Clicking a mouse is not exercise, sharing online games will not count as physical activity, and subtlest of all is the advertising that is embedded in the games. While plain Cheerios may be fairly healthy, the advertisement is for Honey Nut Cheerios that many children find irresistible.
The school can’t do everything, but there are steps the school can take. While most of the faculty can work fitness and general good health into the subjects they teach, it is the PE/Health teachers in our school who have taken the lead once the unit is over by continuing to work with students on fitness. The moment students enter the room, they begin some physical activity: jump rope, skipping, or other activity that is an aerobic (language arts: vocabulary) exercise. Pedometers (language arts and math) are checked out in the same way library books (learn to use the library) are checked out. Both the student and teacher keep records (math), so they can see trends, usually up.
Students learn to make healthy smoothies in PE/Health. They cut fruit into small triangles (math) and learn to blend several fruits into a smoothie (Hmm, they’re already in chemistry.). Games such as four-square are taught and played – you only need a ball. Many games require cooperation (Social emotional learning is the next article). PE/Health is an area in which there is considerable RtI movement as students
master various exercises and knowledge of healthy eating and the value of both childhood and lifelong exercise.
Each month students receive a six-page color issue of “The Great Body Shop” to take home. It has ideas for fitness and health and much of it is aimed at the parents who do the family food shopping. In an Internet posting on April 21 taken from “U.S. News and World Report,” a poll among parents revealed that one-third want their children to have more time in PE. Interestingly, “Parents who had extra pounds themselves were more likely to think schools need to do more….”
There are many other possibilities for helping students and parents begin to practice better habits. A small plot of land could be devoted to a garden (First Lady Garden) where students, their teachers and volunteer parents grow healthy foods. If the school has a newsletter, e-mail, Web site or other ways of
Healthy Initiative..continued from page 6
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 8
Healthy Initiative...continued from page 7
communicating with parents, very practical things the family can do should be highlighted. Healthy foods could be mentioned; families might take a walk together on the weekend; unhealthy snacks can be identified, and the parents should be encouraged to limit those snacks.
Each school subject and activity is very important. Healthy living and fitness may determine how well you look and feel about yourself and how long you live a healthy life.
If you want to learn more about our HFI, please visit their website at utelementary.org.
If you wanted to spend your days putting out fires, you would have
become a firefighter instead of a school principal.
Learn How to Work Less, Produce More, and Still Get theJob Done in a Sensible School Week with Malachi Pancoast,President, The Breakthrough Coach. It’s one of the most practical – and liberating – programs you will ever attend.
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UPCOMING PROGRAMS IN YOUR AREA:
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About the AuthorExecutive Director Melissa Chavez served as principal of UT Elementary School for three years before being named Executive Director, and prior to that served as assistant principal. She was a teacher in Austin ISD for 10 years before becoming an administrator, including assistant to the associate superintendent for Austin ISD.Melissa has masters in educational administration and is currently a doctoral student at University of Texas at Austin in the department of Special Education.
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 9
1. We’re okay; they are not okay.This approach operates from the assumption that educators are doing a superlative job and need not consider making any substantive changes either to their professional practice or the structure and culture of their schools. Both the problems and the solutions lie elsewhere. Society must solve the cycle of poverty. State governments must provide more funding. Parents must become more involved in the education of their children. Students must become more responsible.
The results of the MetLife Survey of Teachers in the United States released in April 2010 demonstrate that this premise remains alive and well in our profession. According to the survey, 84 percent of teachers are “very confident” that they have “the knowledge and skills necessary to enable all of their students to succeed academically,” and the remaining 16 percent are “somewhat confident.” Yet only 36 percent of teachers believe that all of their students “have the ability to succeed academically” (their emphasis). We are confident of our own abilities to help all students learn; it is the students themselves that are the problem.
So despite the fact that the United States has dropped from 1st in the world in high school graduation rates to 21st out of 27 advanced economies, and from 1st to 14th in college
graduation rates, advocates of this approach insist there is no compelling reason for educators to change their practice. This is a perfectly logical conclusion only if one assumes that educators have no impact on student learning or that they bear no responsibility for improving the current conditions of schooling.
2. Sticks and carrotsThe assumption driving this approach is that educators have known how to help students learn at higher levels but have lacked the motivation to put forth the necessary effort to attain these higher levels of achievement. If this assumption is correct, the problems of education can be solved by creating sufficient penalties and incentives to elicit the required effort. Advocates of this approach argue that if parents have ready access to vouchers and charter schools, public schools will feel more competitive pressure to perform. If legislation can be enacted to establish increasingly punitive sanctions for failing schools, coupled with more than 30 different ways a school can be declared as failing, educators will be motivated by self-preservation to ensure their students learn. Although this strategy has failed to raise student achievement, it remains in place and is now coupled with financial incentives. Merit pay and monetary bonuses are proposed to spur educators to greater effort. These are perfectly
Same Goal, Different StrateGieS: Which DriveS Your improvement effortS?by Dr. Richard DuFour and Rebecca DuFour
While there seems to be a widespread desire to improve student achievement in the United States, we suggest that there are at least three competing approaches for achieving that goal that are based on very different assumptions.
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 10
logical strategies if it is true that educators have always had the ability to improve their schools but have been too lethargic to do so.
3. School improvement means people improvement.The assumption behind this approach is that educators have lacked the collective capacity to promote learning for all students in the existing structures and cultures of the systems in which they work. This approach flows from the premise that the quality of a school cannot exceed the quality of its personnel, and so it deliberately sets out to create the conditions that ensure the adults in the building are part of a job-embedded continuous improvement process that facilitates their ongoing learning. It calls for schools to operate as professional learning communities in which educators work in collaborative structures rather than in isolation so they can learn from one another and support one another. Teachers and principals are asked to gather evidence of student learning on an ongoing basis, use the evidence of that learning to inform and improve their professional practice, and create a plan of
intervention that guarantees struggling students will be provided additional time and support for learning in a way that is timely, directive, and systematic. Above all, educators are asked to work
interdependently and to take collective responsibility for the learning of each student.
This approach requires significant shifts in traditional schooling practices and the assumptions that drive those practices. American educators must be provided with time to collaborate and, very importantly, protocols and processes to ensure they co-labor on the right work. States and districts must abandon the notion that teachers are only working when they are standing in front of a classroom of students. Educators themselves must abandon the mythology that good teaching means working independently and in isolation.
The idea that the purpose of schooling is to ensure that all students are taught must give way to a commitment to ensure that all students learn and a recognition that helping all students learn requires a coordinated and collective effort rather than a series of isolated efforts.
The idea that the purpose of schooling is to ensure that all students are taught must give way to a
commitment to ensure that all students learn and a recognition that
helping all students learn requires a coordinated and
collective effort rather than a series of isolated
efforts.
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 11
Rebecca DuFour has served as a teacher, school administrator, and central office coordinator. As a former elementary principal, Becky helped her school earn state and
national recognition as a model professional learning community. Becky is coauthor of many books and video series on the topic of PLCs.
Richard DuFour, EdD., was a public school educator for 34 years, serving as a teacher, principal, and superintendent. He served as the principal of Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, from 1983 to 1991 and as
superintendent of the district from 1991 to 2002. Duringhis tenure, Stevenson became what the United States Department of Education has described as “the most recognized and celebrated school in America.”
About the Authors
The idea that the purpose of schooling is to ensure that all students are taught must give way to a commitment to ensure that all students learn and a recognition that helping all students learn requires a coordinated and collective effort rather than a series of isolated efforts.We submit that there is compelling and constantly growing evidence that this capacity-building approach to improving schools offers the best and most promising strategy for accomplishing that goal. For example, a recent study of the world’s best school systems concluded that those systems organized schools as professional learning communities in order “to provide professional development that is increasingly collaborative, data-driven, and peer facilitated, all with a focus on classroom practice” (Barber & Mourshed, 2009, p. 32). A study of districts and schools that doubled student achievement concluded, “it should be no surprise that one result of the multiplicity of activities was a collaborative, professional school culture—what some refer to as a ‘professional learning community’” (Odden & Archibald, 2009, p. 78).
It is time for all stakeholders to embrace this capacity-building approach to improving schools. Educators are not lethargic, uncaring, or unmotivated. They are doing the best they can with what they know in the flawed system in which they work.
Improving that system will require significant changes in the traditional structure and culture of schooling, and educators themselves must be fully engaged in and committed to the improvement process.
Meet the Author at the 2011 Texas ASCD Annual Conference
Richard DuFour will be a Keynote Presenter at this year’s annual conference in Austin, Texas, and be sure to visit the Solution Tree bookstore in the exhibit hall to learn about Dr. DuFour’s book signing! Click here to learn more.
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 12
Stepping Out of the 20th Century In 1941 it took five days for news to filter through households around the world via radio and/or print. Today, news travels as it happens. Anyone of us can be on the front lines because technology has reshaped our world. We no longer have to imagine what humanity is dealing with because the emotional impact is written on the faces via live rss feeds, twitter, and YouTube. This, in turn, has created a shrinking effect -- what happens on the other side of the world impacts us instantaneously. Education has not been immune to the reform driven by technology, and yet it is as if America is just now waking up from the Industrial age to find our educational systems still relatively the same. As other nations have made large strides in redesigning their educational systems, it is evident that America has fallen behind.
The nature of education is changing internationally. The United States no longer can claim that its educational results are unparalleled. Students around the world significantly outperform even the top American students on comparative assessments that measure competence in 21st century skills.1
In this article information that supports and encourages educators to make a shift from traditional instructional methods to the role of the facilitator will be explored. Many people recognize that educators are the most important factor in a child’s education and hold the key to change in the classroom.
Beginning of the 21st Century In 2002 a call-to-action to regain America’s position in educational leadership was instigated by a group of concerned community leaders, US industry
heads, and education organizations. They came together to provide a solution for the problem they were experiencing with high school graduates when applying for a job; hence, the onset of Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). Overall, the goal of P21 is to positively affect America’s children by narrowing, if not eliminating, the gap that exists between the knowledge and skills acquired during their formal school years (K-12+) and the knowledge and skills needed to be successful in the workplace today. Educator’s today need to be focusing on the P21 Framework:• LifeandCareerSkills• LearningandInnovationSkills• Information,Media,andTechnologySkills• CoreSubjectsand21stCenturyThemes
Who is implementing the P21 framework with their students? Perhaps the better question we should be asking is why aren’t all educators making the shift from a traditional classroom to one that promotes life and career skills, innovation and creative learning, technology skills, and global awareness? All our students need to be globally aware as they exit their formal education years.
As educators, new activities are introduced to students setting the groundwork for them to be successful learners. In order to do this there is a vision that educators see in their minds of what will happen and plan accordingly. What does the ideal classroom look like that plans for collaboration, innovation, critical thinking and problem solving to take place on a daily basis? Are the desks in a row? Is there discussion in small groups or reading from text books? More importantly what do the students look like?
21st Century Education: Accepting the Challenges of Changeby Jim Schmidt, Ed. D., Teresa Kross, and Kellie Dean
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 13
21st Century Education...continued from page 12
Redesigning the Classroom for the 21st Century StudentDuring a typical week students:• games3½hours• watchesTV16½hours• usesthecomputer5½hours• readabook2hours• listentoanipod5hours 2
In an interview with DesignShare, Bob Pearlman shared a series of questions that help educators think about how to design learning spaces for students of the future: “I
would ask them to describe what learning looks like in the 21st Century: Describe a typical classroom? What does it look like? What are the students doing? What are the teachers doing?”3
The BrickLab® Institute designed by PCS Edventures allows educators to experience the benefits of a 21st Century learning environment, while redesigning their teaching techniques. This professional development strategy empowers educators to engage in P21 concepts prior having to deliver them in their own classrooms.
Kellie Dean, Director of Training for PCS Edventures™ describes a kindergarten teacher’s discovery about her students’ skills after the use of the BrickLab. The teacher explained how students began using vocabulary she didn’t know they had and were helping others build the model. She went on to explain that it was her students’ first experience with the BrickLab and how she was impressed with the learning that took place and the level of engagement the students experienced throughout the lesson.
Time to ShiftLearning environments dictate how content is delivered to students and has a direct impact on what and how much students learn. Take a moment and reflect on the focus of attention in each picture below. The first two pictures of classroom environments demonstrate little or no change. Students sit at traditional desks that face the front of the room waiting for the next instruction. Notice in the last frame, the focus of attention moves from the front of the room toward each other, creating opportunities for innovation, and organically building interpersonal skills. This setting naturally allows students to draw from more than one point of reference, which in turn promotes working at higher levels of thinking than when working independently.
A 21st century classroom gives educators permission to help every student reach their potential even if that means learning looks different for each student. As mentioned in the article, Teaching for the 21st Century, Project/Problem Based Learning is one
Classrooms throughout History
19th Century classroom
20th Century classroom
21st Century classroom
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 14
of the most successful learning environments that embrace this type of classroom. As students work directly with classmates, both local and abroad, they take responsibility for their own learning in which the educator’s role now becomes supportive; they communicate with the students and scaffold ideas to fuel critical thinking skills. Unlike the classroom of the past, the globalization of the 21st century classrooms is flexible and intellectually productive.
From Isolation to Collaboration Isolation is the number one enemy for improvement throughout industry, education, and community leaders? It doesn’t allow ideas to blossom, ask for opinions, or promote change. Contrasting to isolation, collaboration draws from background experience that makes learning relevant, engaging, interactive, and encourages interpersonal skills. Social media has changed the face of the world for everyone. Students are constantly texting, twittering or interacting online. So students are already collaborating using social media.
Administrators need to prioritize providing teachers with time and clear framework to make collaborative planning a successful endeavor in their schools. The shift from teaching in an isolated manner subject by subject to a collaborative or student-centered methodology can be accomplished without creating anxiety in the hearts of educators. No huge leaps are necessary. Most educators find the time for students to participate in a special project or field trip during the year that requires cross-curricular planning.
Educators are leaders by nature, and like many people, feel uncomfortable when a change is implemented; this is true for the students as well. Educators need to remind themselves that it is okay and powerful to learn right along with their students. Modeling, experimentation and failure are equally valuable experiences in the learning process. Educators are capable and willing to make the necessary changes to shift, but the current education climate has placed most teachers in survival mode waiting for the next mandate to hit their desk.
About the StudentThink about this. America is a nation of test takers…there are tests to drive, to go to kindergarten, and test for employment. The No Child Left Behind Act forces educators to teach to the test. Educators understand that testing is not the enemy; it is the construct of the test that may not truly measure a students’ ability. Not all students are successful on a multiple choice test, for example, but can create a commercial that communicates what they learned through innovation and collaboration. A multiple choice test or a fun and engaging project…which are more appropriate for getting students actively involved in their learning?
One observation from Jim Schmidt, Director of Professional Development for PCS Edventures, is in the beginning of the BrickLab Institute educators see time away from the test content to be a distraction. However, by the end of the inservice, they realize that it is simply the test content delivered in a fun, relevant, and motivating method. The educators see how uncomplicated it can be to engage students in any topic with a manipulative. They become excited to share this new approach with their students.
Administrators Accepting the ShiftThe social system in schools begins with the administrators and filters down to the students. Therefore, schools are still subject to the constraints of No Child Left Behind. Administrators face a tough challenge in reforming the educational goals from traditional teaching methods to teaching collaboratively (P21), sin order for the annual yearly progress goals are still met. Professional development, educational resources, and unconditional support will be the backbone of this reform. An interwoven and interdependent program, shifting to a P21 classroom does not ask more of an educator, but instead asks them to change the delivery of content. Testing will always be a part of education, but a more comprehensive process needs to be developed to accurately measure student achievement and 21st Century Skills.
21st Century Education...continued from page 13
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 15
Administrators can be dictatorial and require educators to shift. However, it is more powerful to integrate change by collaborating to develop a plan, employ modern learning tools, and dialogue with those who have made the shift.
One example of collaborative planning came
from a 3rd grade teacher who attended a recent BrickLab Institute initiated by her school administrator. “My students saw the BrickLab bin full of bricks and were instantly engaged. I gave them two directions. First, clean off your desks so you are ready to retrieve bricks when you return from recess. Second, when you return from recess, retrieve the set number of bricks you need and head to your chair. The excitement was evident; my students have never come back from recess so quickly. It was amazing to watch the students complete the project. Those that didn’t follow the directions were still able to participate in the activity because they worked through the issues and, ultimately, made it work.”
Shifting always seems risky. However, the above example demonstrates that educator’s are not foreign to taking risks. Administrators need to be the driving force that leads the school community and stakeholders toward creating a progressive climate that accepts change. More educators need to experience the positive effects of accepting the P21 vision by revisiting their classroom environment and refocusing on the needs of the 21st century student. As a community we
recognize the need for change in our education system, but we need to realize that it is a shared responsibility of all stakeholders. There is a need for everyone in a community to be part of the shift to reinvent the schools for the 21st century. Everyone is accountable for the future.
SummaryThe whole community has a role to play in shifting the educational vision for its schools. Change needs to be communicated among all vested parties, students, parents, community leaders, educational leaders, educators. Not only is it necessary to share the changes but also how well they are working and a clear understanding of why they are working.
As educators we all need to be a P21 cheerleader to ensure the bulletin boards, newsletter, school hallways, and newspapers are chalked full of the positive results ensuring classrooms, students, teachers, and schools are being showcased. The result will be that more teachers and administrators want to catch the wave instead of watching it go by.
Resources1Quoted in Results That Matter, 21st Century Skills and High School Reform, March 2006, p. 3. (Retrieved March 7, 2011, http://www.p21.org/documents/RTM2006.pdf)2Nesbitt, B. (Producer and Writer). (2007, November 28). A Vision of K-12 Students Today. Podcast retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf83Quoted in Reconsidering the Design of Schools: Bob Pearlman Interview. (Retrieved March 7, 2011, http://www.designshare.com/index.php/articles/bob-pearlman-interview)4Andrew J. Rotherham and Daniel Willingham, “Teaching for the 21st Century,” Educational Leadership, September 2009. (Retrieved March 7, 2011, http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/[email protected])5Quoted in Learning Organizations for Sustainable Education Reform, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and sciences, Fall 1998, Vol.127, No.4, p. 14. (Retrieved March 7, 2011 http://www.pps.k12.pa.us/143110127103415203/lib/143110127103415203/resnickhall_lrngorgs.pdf)
“What we know now is that just as facts alone do
not constitute true knowledge and thinking power, so thinking pro-
cesses cannot proceed with-
out something to think about.”5
21st Century Education...continued from page 14
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 16
About the AuthorsJim Schmidt, Ed.D has been in education for 31 years with a variety of experiences. He has recently retired from the Boise School District to pursue other interests. Jim is currently the Director of Professional Development
for PCS Edventures and working as adjunct faculty for Idaho State University. He has worked extensively in K-12 and technical education.
Teresa Kross is the Director of Early Childhood Programs and a K-6 Content Specialist for PCS Edventures and holds a B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Idaho. Prior to joining PCS, Teresa worked as the Seattle District
Trainer for Children’s World Learning Centers; taught early childhood college courses at Edmonds Community College in Edmonds, WA, and was Treasure Valley Teacher of the Year 2006 by the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children (IAEYC).
Kellie Dean is a graduate of Boise State University. She proudly holds a BA in Elementary Education and is certified with the State of Idaho as a K-8 educator. Kellie’s professional career began with the Meridian School District where she
spent 12 years as a classroom teacher. In 2001, Kellie left the classroom to write, promote, and implement an education program for a history museum. After 7 years at the Warhawk Air Museum, Kellie opened another door with-in the education profession, training teachers and after-school facilitators. As the Director of Training for PCS Inc., Kellie Dean plays an integral role in the implementation of PCS labs throughout the county. Learning the needs of each PCS site, their curriculum goals, and general population is critical in the development of a training platform. Kellie also works closely with the sales teams developing proposals for educational institutions.
21st Century Education...continued from page 15
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 17
Under current law, Texas school districts must use their state textbook allotment for materials chosen by the Texas State Board of Education and the Commissioner of Education. The state control over the funds that are used to purchase textbooks has prevented districts from combining those funds with their technology allotment to purchase the content that will meet their instructional needs utilizing the delivery system that is most efficient and effective.
State funding for instructional materials is critical, and in today’s 21st century learning environment districts can’t consider content without considering the method in which that content is delivered. Two new bills, House Bill 6 and its companion Senate Bill 6, establish a state instructional materials fund that provides flexibility for districts in determining which content and delivery method is best for their student population.
The two new bills merge separate funds for textbooks, electronic textbooks and technology into one new allotment called the “Instructional Materials Allotment” (IMA). Each district is entitled to an annual allotment from the IMA for each student enrolled. Recognizing that Texas school children reflect a diverse mix of learning styles and backgrounds, the measure allows
school districts to use the IMA to buy instructional materials and technology that best meets the needs of their own students.The House and Senate Bill 6 empower local districts to transition from print to digital, by turning to instructional materials such as the Discovery Education SCIENCE TECHBOOK. Organized around an inquiry-based framework and aligned to TEKS, the service covers physical, earth and space, and life sciences in grades 5 through 8. It encourages student exploration, and stimulates critical thinking and deepens students’ understanding of science. The Discovery Education SCIENCE TECHBOOK provides core science content to students in ways that capture their attention and appeal to their individual styles of learning.
A variety of teacher resources are included to aid implementation, ranging from “5 Minute Preps” that provide educators valuable refreshers on science content, to full days of custom, in-person professional development that build educators’ capacity to leverage the power of digital content to engage students. In addition, the transition to digital is even more seamless for Texas educators as over 80 percent of the state has access to Discovery Education digital resources through Discovery Education STREAMING. Also, these technologies are a substantially less expensive option per student than traditional textbooks, with additional savings derived from a lack of textbook replacement or inventory costs.
HB 6 Committee Report was sent to Calendars on June 8. To voice your opinion on this and other legislative issues, visit the Influence page on our website, www.txascd.org. There you can find out who your representative is and how to contact them. To read about HB updates and other education-related bills being discussed during the 82nd Legislature, visit http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/.
The Future of Textbooks in Texas Classrooms
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 18
Our Administrator Certification Programs provide the guidance and
tools vital to your success. Both blended and online programs are available.
It’s Your Future.What Path Will You Choose?It’s Your Future.What Path Will You Choose?
Lead Someone Down the Path to a Bright Future. Tell them about Region 4’s
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June 2011 Leaders of Learners 19
CALENDAROF
EventsJune 2011
June 21Southwest BLC Pre-ConferenceWestin DFW AirportIrving, TX
June 22 - 24Southwest BLCWestin DFW AirportIrving, TX
June 29 - 30New Science TEKS Help for K-2, 3-5Channelview, TX
July 2011
July 25Differentiated Instruction - Brain ResearchNorthside ISD
September 2011
September 26 - 27Using Graphic Organizers and Assessment Tools to Make Mathematics Content More\Accessible to Struggling Students Northside ISD
October 2011
October 30 - November 12011 Texas ASCD Annual ConferenceAustin, TX
the SOUTHWEST
TECHNOLOGY & CURRICULUM CONFERENCE
visit www.txascd.org for more information and register today!
BUILDING LEARNING COMMUNITIES
JUNE 22-24, 2011 in IRVING, TX
This exciting conference will empower your districts to expand the boundaries of learning for all students through leadership skills, collaborative tools, web literacy, authentic work, and alignment to curriculum. Keynotes: Alan November, Marco Torres, and Dr. Micheal Wesch
Announcing the partnership of Texas ASCD and November Learning, which brings you
Dr. Micheal Wesch
June 2011 Leaders of Learners 20
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r Alamo Area (Region 20) $10.00 $ ______r Capital Area (Region 13) $10.00 $ ______r Central Texas (Region 12) $10.00 $ ______r Coastal Bend (Region 2) $10.00 $ ______r Crossroads Area (Region 3) $10.00 $ ______r Houston Suburban (Region 4) $10.00 $ ______r North Central (Region 10) $10.00 $ ______r Panhandle (Region 16) $10.00 $ ______r Paso Del Norte (Region 19) $10.00 $ ______r Piney Woods (Region 7) $10.00 $ ______r Rio Grande Valley (Region 1) $10.00 $ ______r Sabine-Neches (Region 5) $10.00 $ ______r West Central Texas (Region 14 $20.00 $ ______r West Texas (Region 17) $10.00 $ ______
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