Class Dismissed

Part two of a two-part interview.

To many Hamish Brewer is known as the tattooed skateboarding principal. However, he's also earned a reputation as a fixer. His intense but loving leadership style was a massive success while at Occoquan Elementary in Northen Virginia and this past year he took on a new challenge with Fred Lynn Middle school.

Can he do it again?

In part two of a two-part interview, Brewer tells us how he did not sugarcoat the challenge ahead for his students and teachers at Fred Lynn.

"People were having a lot to say about our school, my students. They were making assumptions, they were making generalizations, and a lot of people had something to say about my school that didn't know my school."

Brewer says before he came on board they had a lot of students going to other schools that were supposed to go to Fred Lynn. But he says in just one year that's changed, they've turned around a considerable transfer rate.

All In

One of the first steps Brewer took at Fred Lynn was to move his office to a central location in the school.

"I'm trying to say to them that their business is my business. My business is their business.  That I'm available, that I'm there for them. That I'm visible, that I'm in the middle of everything, that I'm up in the middle of their stuff," says Brewer.

"That they can't turn around without me being there to support them, hold them accountable and be right there in the thick of the action. And that's a message not just for students but for adults also. I sent a message to the adults that I've got your back that I'm all in. That I'm going nowhere."

The Skateboard Giveaway

Furthermore, Brewer put a skateboard rack right outside his new office. He loves to skate himself, and he hands out skateboards to students that have worked hard or met goals.

"I also give it to kids that need a pick-me-up. They need some love, they need to be showered with some love, taken care of, given a voice," says Brewer.

To hear more on how Brewer's first year at Fred Lynn Middle school turned out, listen to Episode 55 of the Class Dismissed Podcast on your favorite podcast app or iTunes.

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Part one of a two-part interview

Hamish Brewer is not your typical principal. He rides his skateboard through the school, tattoos cover his arms, and he high-fives students as he walks through the halls. However, Brewer expects and receives results from his students and teachers.

Under his high energy leadership, Brewer turned Occoquan Elementary, a school with sagging test scores and a large low-income population, into one of the best schools in the state of Virginia. He accomplished it through his style of "relentless" motivation and disruptive ideas and he's now on track to do it again at Fred Lynn Middle School.

The Recipe

At Occoquan he switched to unlimited field trips, he changed the schools lighting to daylight bulbs. He also installed advanced audio equipment in each of his classrooms.

Brewer believes that we're still building schools today using an old format and he gets frustrated that kids are living in what he calls a "square box."

"That's not their [our kids] world anymore," says Brewer. "I wanted to appeal to the senses. I believe if we can appeal to the senses of look, feel, touch, smell, great things can happen."

Leading with Love

Watching Brewer in action is enough to get any educator amped up. Recently featured in a YouTube video produced by FreeThink, you see Brewer standing on cafeteria tables and being boisterous during morning announcements. The New Zealander's delivery is impassioned and similar to that of a college football coach.

But when you look beyond Brewer's outgoing delivery, you'll notice he also motivates with one of the most potent tools many leaders forget to use. Love.

On the morning announcements, Brewer says over the loudspeaker "If somebody today didn't tell you they love you. Mr. Brewer's telling you today that he loves you."

"We forgot to tell kids that we love them," says Brewer. "So many of our kids don't hear that word enough."

Brewer says if students are in "hot water" with him he tells them that he doesn't like what they did, but he still loves them.

"If you build a culture and expectation around love, hard conversations can be had."

Brewer says he tells his kids that he loves them every day, and they have his back.

To hear the first part of a two-part interview with Principal Brewer listen to Class Dismissed on your favorite podcast app or on iTunes.

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A Huge Honor

The National Teacher of the Year Program began in 1952 and is one of the most prestigious national honors programs for educators.

Annually, the Council of Chief State School Officers brings together every State Teacher of the Year for a meet-up in Washington DC. The carefully selected educators have professional development opportunities, and they often have access to top education policymakers.

This past May, the group of teachers met privately with Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. They also went to a luncheon hosted by the second lady Karen Pence at the vice president’s residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Different Regions Different Perspectives

We wanted to learn more about the trip, so we contacted Texas Teacher of the Year Tara Bordeaux.

Bordeaux says the cohort of teachers is amazing, and while they may have differing opinions, there is mutual respect for each person's perspective.

"It's very eye-opening you get to see that the issues that are in education and politics and society as a whole differ throughout the country, and you have to take that into consideration."

The Wild Ride

Bordeaux says that being Texas Teacher of the Year has been an enormous honor, but she admits that being placed under the microscope has led to a bit of a "wild ride" for herself and others selected.

Bordeaux says earlier this year she commented to a publication about gun safety, but she was misquoted. She says the misquote led to her being attacked online.

Bordeaux also expressed concern about what happened to the National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning, during their trip to Washington DC.

A doctored video of a White House event made it appear that Manning refused to shake the President Trump's hand, and it was also altered to make it look as if she refused to clap for him.

Bordeaux says the misleading video led to Manning receiving death threats for something that she didn't even do.

"Here's this person that's an amazing educator. That's an amazing, mother, wife, friend, and she is taking the brunt of heat for so much anger and rage in America that is directed at the wrong person."

To hear more about the behind the scenes of the 2018 Teacher of the Year gathering and Bordeaux's experience as Teacher of the Year, listen to Episode 53 of the Class Dismissed Podcast.

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The "math person" myth

Far too frequently educators hear students say "I'm not a math person." Children and even adults convince themselves that they're "built" for other subjects like history or the arts and math is just not their thing.

Dr. Jo Boaler is a Professor of Mathematics Education at Stanford University and the faculty director of youcubed.org. She's made it her mission to prove that the idea of a "math person" is a myth. She believes (and science backs her up) that we all have the potential to be great at math.

So what are we doing wrong?

When asked what we're doing wrong right now with math education, Boaler says, "Where do I start?"

Boaler believes an emphasis on speed can be devastating in the classroom. She says it's particularly damaging when little kids are expect to memorize and regurgitate lots of math facts.

"At that point, when they're given those timed tests, many of them develop math anxiety, and from that point onwards, it's downhill for them," says Boaler.

Boaler also believes math teachers should not call on the first student that raises their hand with the answer to a math equation. She says it reinforces a misconception that you have to be fast with numbers to be good at math.

"If I was to ask an adult to do a calculation, an area of the brain would light up that is seeing fingers,"  Dr. Jo Boaler 

"I like to share the stories of lots of math mathematicians who will openly talk about how slow they are with math," Boaler says some mathematicians thought they were stupid in school because speed was valued.

It's ok to count with fingers

Boaler also talks about the importance of visual thinking when working with numbers. She says everytime you think about math; there are five pathways in the brain that light up. Two of them are visual.

"If I was to ask an adult to do a calculation, an area of the brain would light up that is seeing fingers," even if you're not physically looking at your fingers, says Boaler. "For adults, how well they know they're fingers, predicts how well they'll do on calculation tests."

To learn more about this and the tools, Boaler offers educators through www.youcubed.org listen to Episode 52 of the Class Dismissed Podcast.

Other show notes

From EdCamps to Google, 11 Professional Development Offerings for Teachers This Summer

When teachers at Robert W. Coleman Elementary in Baltimore are struggling with a students' behavior, the educators have an alternative to detention. They can refer the student to meditation.

The Holistic Life Foundation keeps three staff members in a "mindful moment room" ready to help a frustrated student with a 15-minute session of active listening, breathing exercises, and meditation.

Andres Gonzalez is the Director of Marketing and Communications for the Holistic Life Foundation and says that in the elementary schools they work with the students must be referred by the teachers, but in the high schools, the students can self-refer.

Over time, their program becomes part of the culture of the school, says Gonzalez.

"The kids kind of know what they're getting in to and they want to be there."

The Holistic Life Foundation believes that students are sometimes going through something, that's making their behavior a little off. It may be trouble at home or something internal, but either way, the students are screaming for attention and they're screaming for help.

"Instead of you punishing a kid for something you probably don't even know what he's going through," says Gonzalez. "Why don't we let the kid talk and give him tools that he can use in the future when he's faced with adversity, stress or trauma."

To hear our full interview about replacing detention with meditation, listen to Episode 51 of the Class Dismissed Podcast on iTunes.

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GeoGebra's mission is simple. They want to put dynamic mathematics software in the hands of students everywhere.

They offer graphing calculators, geometry applications and math-based augmented reality apps. Their products are available on, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Stephen Jull, the COO, and CFO of GeoGebra says it was originally started as a Masters Degree project.

"If you're a kid in Mumbai or a professor in New York, it doesn't matter," says Jull. Everyone can have access to same powerful math tools and resources because GeoGebra's tools are open source, therefore freely available for non-commercial users.

To learn more about the history of GeoGebra and how it's being used in the classroom, listen to Episode 50 of the Class Dismissed podcast.

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Once a year, parents and students scramble to find gifts for teachers to honor them during teacher appreciation week. Starbucks gift cards, mugs, cupcakes, gift cards for more school supplies. They're all things that teachers love to have and without a doubt, educators deserve to be recognized for all the amazing work they do.

But most teachers will tell you that the best gift has no monetary value. A simple "thank you" in the form of a note or in-person can be the best reward a teacher can receive.

Scott Olson, a psychology teacher from Maryland knows this first hand.  During Teacher Appreciation week he posted on Facebook...

"Dear former Students: For Teacher Appreciation Week, I'd love for my former students to reply to this post and tell me how they are doing and what they are doing now & maybe throw out a positive favorite memory about us, or maybe post about another teacher you remember fondly"

-Scott Olson

Olson received over 150 replies from past students and he joins us on Episode 49 of the Class Dismissed Podcast to tell us how it only reminded him why it can be so amazing to be an educator.

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Storytelling is one of the original methods of sharing experiences and lessons. A well-told story can grab a person's attention and help the listener absorb complex details.

Catherine Heinemeyer is a postdoctoral researcher and arts practitioner at York St. John University in England and she recently penned the article “The dying art of storytelling in the classroom”.

Heinemeyer points out that while storytelling can have an incredible influence, it's becoming endangered in the classroom. In part, because of the idea that students are always actively learning.

In Episode 48 of the Class Dismissed Podcast. Heinemeyer offers ways educators can integrate storytelling into their lessons.

"You don't need to be an amazing storyteller to get people really listening. There are certain kinds of trigger words signalled to us as human beings.", says Heinemeyer.

To hear more about those trigger words listen to Episode 48 of the Class Dismissed Podcast.

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Spark in the Classroom

Adobe Spark has been around for about four years, but recently, Adobe made a big push to gear their product towards education.

Dr. Monica Burns is an EdTech Consultant and founder of the Class Tech Tips Website and has been working with Spark since the product was in its infancy.

"What gets me really excited about it is how open-ended it is," says Burns. "It really is a storytelling tool that lets you use voice, text, icons, images, video clips you've captured, combining all different types of media to produce really three different types of products."

Those three products are a movie, a website or a graphic.

Burns says students can use Spark for persuasive writing activities. Such as an exercise where pupils create a public service announcement. Or Spark can be used in robust applications like building digital portfolios.

To hear more from Burns and about Adobe Spark listen to Episode 47 of the Class Dismissed Podcast.

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Packed with alliteration, math, and geography

Teens and tweens around the world are hooked on Fortnite. When kids are not in school, they're rushing home to hop on their Xbox or PlayStation to play one of the most popular video games in years. This past January, Epic Games said the title had more than 45 million players. But did you know Fortnite is packed with lessons of alliteration, math, and geography?

Denis Sheeran is the author of a brand new book called Hacking Mathematics, and he’s also the host of the #makeitreal chat on Twitter.

Recently on the Twitter chat, he and his colleagues began bouncing ideas off one another on how to make Fortnite a vehicle for lessons in the classroom.

"There are so many things that our kids are interested in a passionate about and that we are personally interested in and passionate about and that is the path of least resistance to an engaging learning opportunity," says Sheeran.

Sheeran argues that if the kids are already talking about something and they don't want to focus about your math class or your English class because all they want to do is play this game, then find a way to extract a valuable lesson from the game.

Legit Lessons

Sheeran and his colleague's ideas to use Fortnite as a vehicle in the classroom are not a gimmick.

For example, have a lesson on alliteration coming up? Every town in Fortnite uses alliteration. Like Dusty Depot, Loot Lake, Tomato Town.

Screenshot of the Fortnite Map

Have a lesson on Geology or Geography? Examine the landscape inside the game. You could ask students, where could this be if this was a real place?

Lesson on circumference? Do "storm circles" always close in at the same rate?

Have a math lesson on quadratics? Sheeran explains how Fortnite can be relevant.

To hear our full conversation with Sheeran, listen to Episode 46 of the Class Dismissed podcast.

Other notes

BBC Article discussed in Episode 46: "I was a teacher for 17 years, but I couldn't read or write"

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