Learning to Change

The compelling case for reimagining schools is not difficult to make. It's a combination of common sense and a clear understanding of how the changes in the world are creating new challenges and opportunities for learners both in and out of school. In other words, the compelling case is built on a sense of urgency that comes both from what we know and what we don't know.

That's the discussion that Bruce Dixon and I are having in this our 54th episode of the Modern Learners Podcast as we get back behind the microphones after a short hiatus for travel and invention. If you're looking for some really challenging conversation about the purpose of schools and what the future requires of our kids, I'm thinking you'll really enjoy this discussion.

Just to whet your appetite a bit, here's a quote from a powerful speech we reference from Carol Black:

So, one of the weirdest characteristics of education in our society, and there are a lot of them, but one of the very weirdest, a lot of indigineous people from around the world will tell you, is that our approach to education is extraordinarily authoritarian. It is obsessed with compulsion and control. So the child in a modern classroom, may not move, speak, sing, laugh, eat, drink, read, write, think her own thoughts, look out the window, or even use the toilet without explicit permission from an authority figure.

(UPDATE: Just realized that most of this speech is adapted from her post "A Thousand Rivers.")

And, from Yuval Harari's new book:

The best advice I can give a 15-year-old is: don’t rely on the adults too much. Most of them mean well, but they just don’t understand the world.

As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment thread below. Enjoy!

Links:

Carol Black: Alternatives to Schooling

Carol Black's Blog

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Harari

International Baccalaureate

Modern Learners Podcast #45 - "Watching Our Kids Too Closely" (Discussion of a Carol Black post.)

Will and Lyn talk with educator and library administrator Bud Hunt who asks us to consider when we stopped making schools a place of wonder? We discuss the connections between literacy and making ("making is a fundamental thing that people do"); a library's purpose as a community space where people can engage in civil discourse; "drone literacy" (it's a thing!); what we actually mean by "modern literacy" and how we can support teachers and learners in becoming most literate; and the algorithms influencing and often censoring our digital interactions with one another (Noble's Algorithms of Oppression is referenced).

Thanks for tuning in!

Teacher-librarian and Senior Fellow for the Foundry Makerspace Heather Lister joins us for a conversation around this month's Modern Learners Community theme: modern literacy. Heather provides valuable insights on the changing role of libraries as she works to fulfill her mission of "abolishing the stereotype of libraries and librarians." In this podcast we discuss copyright ideals, how to best help teachers and students understand the nuances of information in the digital age, strategies for discussing "fake news" and evaluating credibility of sources and other media literacy topics, and the connections among making and literacy. A number of resources are referenced including:

* Eli Pariser's The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think and TED Talk

* James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me

* The work of Angela Stockman

* Asking the right questions

Change School alumni Mark Heintz joins Bruce and me in another episode of the Modern Learners Podcast. You can join is in Change School. All the details are on the site!

Mark is a Teaching and Learning Facilitator at Elk Grove High School in Illinois. Tired of viewing success only by a score. he and other school leaders at Elk Grove are pushing the boundaries, refocusing on learning, and bringing back the autonomy to teachers and students.

Big Questions Facing Educators

Mark opens up on a number of topics regarding schools and education. He also shares some personal stories of how he and his colleagues are grappling with some of the big questions that are facing educators regardless of where they are in the world. For example, "What could I change?" and "Why should I change?"

The Collab Lab Blog

Mark writes an almost daily blog for The Collab Lab (@EGCollabLab), a community of learners--staff, students, and parents--who partner to transform learning across the school, District 214 and beyond.

Change School alumni Mark Heintz joins Bruce and me in another episode of the Modern Learners Podcast. (This week is open enrollment for Change School 6. Join us!)

Mark is a Teaching and Learning Facilitator at Elk Grove High School in Illinois. Tired of viewing success only by a score. he and other school leaders at Elk Grove are pushing the boundaries, refocusing on learning, and bringing back the autonomy to teachers and students.

Big Questions Facing Educators

Mark opens up on a number of topics regarding schools and education. He also shares some personal stories of how he and his colleagues are grappling with some of the big questions that are facing educators regardless of where they are in the world. For example, "What could I change?" and "Why should I change?"

The Collab Lab Blog

Mark writes an almost daily blog for The Collab Lab (@EGCollabLab), a community of learners--staff, students, and parents--who partner to transform learning across the school, District 214 and beyond.

Now that everyone is turning their focus to developing the skills and dispositions kids need to thrive in the future, many are starting to ask "Well, how do we assess those things?" As in how do we create a data point for curiosity or creativity or persistence? And what skills and dispositions should we be measuring? Should coping skills and "finding humor" be in the mix?

In this our 50th podcast, Bruce and I discuss our visit last month to an extraordinary school in Christchurch, NZ where the emphasis is on doing and making and developing all those aforementioned skills. The Haeata Community Campus serves about 800 children who were forced out of their own local schools when the earthquake hit the area in 2011. It's an open classroom environment that mixes grade levels, is almost totally student-directed, project based, and without traditional assessments.

Afterwards, we go into depth on two articles which appeared recently online that discuss the challenges of trying to measure what by all accounts is very difficult to measure. The first is in EdWeek titled Schools Should Teach (and Measure) 'Soft Skills,' Parents and Educators Agree. The second is a great piece from the Brookings Institute titled Firetrucks on Ivory Towers. We discuss how very few of people's most powerful learning experiences happen in classrooms, and that we might want to think about discussing what important learning is to kids in order to guide our own conversations around assessment.

Now that everyone is turning their focus to developing the skills and dispositions kids need to thrive in the future, many are starting to ask "Well, how do we assess those things?" As in how do we create a data point for curiosity or creativity or persistence? And what skills and dispositions should we be measuring? Should coping skills and "finding humor" be in the mix?

In this our 50th podcast, Bruce and I discuss our visit last month to an extraordinary school in Christchurch, NZ where the emphasis is on doing and making and developing all those aforementioned skills. The Haeata Community Campus serves about 800 children who were forced out of their own local schools when the earthquake hit the area in 2011. It's an open classroom environment that mixes grade levels, is almost totally student-directed, project based, and without traditional assessments.

Afterwards, we go into depth on two articles which appeared recently online that discuss the challenges of trying to measure what by all accounts is very difficult to measure. The first is in EdWeek titled Schools Should Teach (and Measure) 'Soft Skills,' Parents and Educators Agree. The second is a great piece from the Brookings Institute titled Firetrucks on Ivory Towers. We discuss how very few of people's most powerful learning experiences happen in classrooms, and that we might want to think about discussing what important learning is to kids in order to guide our own conversations around assessment.

In episode 49 of the Modern Learners podcast, Missy and Lyn talk with Superintendent Dr. Joe Sanfileppo of the Fall Creek School District in Wisconsin. Joe is known in educational leadership circles as "the relationships guy," a dynamic school leader who speaks often about the role of relationships in learning and who celebrates loudly the accomplishments of his teachers, students, and community. The #gocrickets message is more than just a hashtag, but a rallying spirit around the ideals this school community stands for. Throughout this podcast we talk with Joe about:

*ownership of learning throughout the organization

*how teachers share their learning at Fall Creek

*buy-in vs. trust

*the need to provide time, resources, and opportunities for learners and adults

*making ownership of learning a priority in a time of standardization and mandates

*his belief in the power of affirmation to approach critical conversations about learning

#gocrickets!

Resources mentioned:

The Power of Moments (Chip & Dan Heath)

In episode 49 of the Modern Learners podcast, Missy and Lyn talk with Superintendent Dr. Joe Sanfileppo of the Fall Creek School District in Wisconsin. Joe is known in educational leadership circles as "the relationships guy," a dynamic school leader who speaks often about the role of relationships in learning and who celebrates loudly the accomplishments of his teachers, students, and community. The #gocrickets message is more than just a hashtag, but a rallying spirit around the ideals this school community stands for. Throughout this podcast we talk with Joe about:

ownership of learning throughout the organization

how teachers share their learning at Fall Creek

buy-in vs. trust

the need to provide time, resources, and opportunities for learners and adults

making ownership of learning a priority in a time of standardization and mandates

his belief in the power of affirmation to approach critical conversations about learning

#gocrickets!

Resources mentioned:

The Power of Moments (Chip & Dan Heath)

As I wrote about in last week's column, this new book titled Timeless Learning by Ira Socol, Pam Moran, and Chad Ratliff may just be the best book I've read about how to change schools and bring all the things we know are important about progressive learning to traditional public and private schools.

In this interview, I get a chance to talk to Ira and Pam about a number of topics:

* Why this is the right time for progressive education to take root

* The challenges of moving centuries old practice in classrooms forward

* Some of the best ways to make change happen in schools

* And what skills, literacies and dispositions kids need to have to thrive in the modern world.

I know you're going to enjoy the conversation.

The illustration at right, by the way, was done by Linda Ashida, a Change School alum who was watching and listening on Facebook during our live interview. (Click the image for a larger version.)