Joining in the Present to Build an Equitable Shared Future: A Collaboration of Teachers to Study How they Embody the Principle of Equity
Adam Kinory at the School of the Future in New York, NY and his colleagues are educators who sought to reconstitute the long dormant New York City Chapter of the New York State English Council and National Council of Teachers of English. The chapter will be open to any teacher, across content areas, that seeks to improve their instruction of reading/writing, with the nucleus of teachers being from their school. The process of forming a chapter, will provide a vision around which teachers at the school can unite, learn to improve their ability to collaborate, while also address inequities in student achievement. By coming together in service of starting a NCTE chapter they hoped to prioritize creating a shared, preferred, vision of the future over of the self-flagellation and critique that too often results in pessimism and disenfranchisement.
What is the project and their goals?
Join in the Present to Build an Equitable Shared Future is a collaboration across teachers to look at how they embody the principle of equity in interactions with each other and students they teach. To accomplish this, they had two goals.
- They wanted to read a shared text, using protocols, and rotate the role of the facilitator. They sought to create a sense of “equity” amongst teachers and empower them with the tools they needed to take charge of their own professional development.,
- Using this core group of educators, They wanted to form an affiliate chapter of the national council of teachers of English (N.C.T.E..)to plan a conference, where participants would have a shared experience of creating something new. Through their new chapter creation, they could adjust social norms and reflect on how equity informs decisions that are made.
What did they accomplish?
The project goals were met and new a project was created.
Using the teachings of Peter Block’s text Community, they rotated the role of the facilitator, and used the protocols of the National School Reform Faculty, and ensured that everyone was “equal” in the control they had over the destiny of the group.
In re-starting the New York City chapter, Adam joined the board by request and attended board meetings regularly. They learned that the United Federation of Teachers (U.F.T) already had an existing New York City affiliate of the N.C.T.E., however the affiliate was dormant. The N.C.T.E wanted to restart the chapter but did not have a point person to do this for them. Adam worked with the representatives of the U.F.T to restart the committee and held two committee meetings.
Shared read became a separate project. Teachers across grades 6-10 met and engaged in a shared read of professional text, and used it to explore how to improve equity in teacher-teacher and teacher-student relationships. In creating equity by conducting a shared read at school, they established a common vocabulary as to the characteristics of an equitable community and have taken steps to integrate those characteristics within their pedagogy. Teachers have reported that their participation has led them to re-conceptualize how to interact with their students, reconsider curriculum, and clarify their own sense of mission and purpose.
What challenges did they come up against?
Trust was the most basic challenge. Building trust was a challenge in reinstating the affiliate committee with the U.F.T. Trust was a challenge that made it uncomfortable to collaborate with people that Adam had not worked with before and to make sure people felt free to talk. Participants did not immediately take to the text of Community.
Exciting Projects
The committee has less than dozen people from across New York City. They hope to grow the committee over the new few years.
They are considering two specific protocols to utilize within their practice.
They are considering a shared read of Freedom and Accountability at Work by Peter Koestenbaum and Peter Block. By having a shared read of this text, participants will have the opportunity to explore how to deal with the anxiety that comes from having choices and control over our own lives and dealing with the denial that those choices exist as such denial often leads to hierarchy as people trade their freedom for certainty. If we accept our anxiety and explore the root of it, we can create equity in our relationships with ourselves and others.
The Second consideration for a shared read is Collaborating with the Enemy, by Adam Kahane. If this shared read is chosen, participants would explore how to build equitiy and agreement even when they fundamentally disagree with the most basic assumptions of those they engage with. They want to move from the broad sense of “equity” by design to choosing and using
specific protocols to evolve the way they structure interactions that address the following questions: How do we maintain a stance of equity when interacting with those who seem to diametrically stand in opposition to us? How do we clarify the choices before us so that we do not blame some outside force (other teachers, the principal, parents) for our own disappointments? What does equity look like when we are attuned to our own neurosis?
Further Reading
- Equity in Education: Where to Begin?
- 9 Ways to Promote Equity in Our Schools
- What Research Can Tell Us About Educational Equity Guiding Principles for Equity Part 2: Drive Your Equity Plan
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Global Learning Experiences Take Students to New Heights: Collaborating with Students in Other Countries On The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals
It is often said that teachers create magic in their classroom. Kathryn Crawen at Ashford School in Venon, CT took creating magic to a global classroom with the project, Global Learning Experiences Take Students to New Heights.
They are developing an exciting and immersive cultural exchange for students from Kindergarten to 8th grade using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a launching point for project based learning and collaboration with students in other countries (both in person and virtual). Students in K-8th grade will be immersed in school-wide projects that connect them with their global peers, working to engineer solutions the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This project is the first of its kind to utilize these parameters and tools laid out by the United Nations.
What is the project and their goals?
The goal of the project was to create global competency opportunities through international student-led collaborations focusing on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Students met the following criteria defined by the Asia Society:
- Recognize perspectives from around the globe
- Communicate ideas to diverse populations
- Take action to design innovation solutions to global problems
- Investigate the world
Prior to their collaboration, 7th and 8th grade students completed a reflection rubric on their global leadership skills. The rubric included questions and scales for the four criteria from the Asia Society (above). The same students completed the survey at the mid year point and on average they moved 1.8 levels on the global leadership rubric.
The students had the opportunity to practice recognizing perspectives from around the globe by using Skype with German students on topics such as climate change, gender equality, and sustainable economics. They communicated ideas through presentations both in Germany and within the local community. They took action through creating an interactive GIS map of indicators of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. And, most importantly they had the opportunity to investigate the world through the district’s first exchange program.
What did they accomplish?
Students created the first part of a StoryMap on ArcGIS. Each student generated a question based on a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal. As a whole school, they collaborated with their German friends to discuss the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and how to meet them. Most of these collaborations were done via Skype, though they had substantial collaboration while in Germany as well. Kathryn Craven states, “It was fun to watch them all grow while working to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”
How has this project affected the learning of students and/or teachers?
Katheryn Craven and her colleagues were thrilled and honored by how involved their whole district got in the Global Learning initiative. In addition to making progress towards the goals listed above, their major achievements for this year were:
First International Exchange for Ashford School:
They participated in the first international exchange ever for their district. Most of their students had never been out of the country or on a plane before and grew enormously while in Germany. This exchange was life-changing for the core group of 20 students, and also reached every part of their school through virtual collaboration and exchanging ideas and solutions back and forth. See students working on their exchange here: http://ashfordabroad.weebly.com/
First District Wide Teacher Exchange in the state of Connecticut:
While they were in Germany collaborating with other schools, they realized that teachers could also benefit from teaching abroad. They met with administrators at the German partner school and then in their home district, and came up with an idea for a reciprocal exchange in which teachers
switched classes for three weeks. Since their district is so enthusiastic about the partnership, it allowed them to use district funding for this – a sign that the relationship is going to continue for a long time!
Schoolwide Global Learning Initiative:
All students have engaged in Skype sessions with partner classes where they talk about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, they were accepted as one of four Empathy Project schools in the United States. This means that each student in the school in grades 1-6 will have a virtual partner school in a different country.
Collaboration on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:
Their collaboration focused primarily on students developing solutions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Students have worked on solutions to goals like UNSDG-13 (Climate Change) by holding a maker drive.
What challenges did they experience and how they are addressing the challenges to improve the project?
One challenge that they faced with getting the program up and running was that some people in small towns can feel intimidated to get involved with international exchanges. In fact, prior to the proposal, their school had never had an international exchange before, and many students had never even spoken to someone from a different country. However, the support and the enthusiasm about global learning garnered by this grant helped them to overcome these problems. They used to have children who struggled to converse with anyone with an accent. But through these in-person and virtual exchanges, their students’ natural curiosity helped them overcome these challenges as they learned that people in other parts of the world have amazing stories to tell. Currently, each classroom has a virtual partnership, and they were blown away by the difference in their students when it came to talking with people from around the world. To continue their growth in this area, they would like to begin collaborations with non-Western countries so students can continue to gain different perspectives from around the world.
Further reading
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Cavity Nester Citizen Science Study: Field Biology Boosts Math and Science
In 2012, HawkWatch International (HWI) created a school-based “Cavity Nester Urban Bird Study” in partnership with the Salt Lake Center for Science Education (SLCSE) in 2017. Designed to be a student-led expansion to the project, the study has allowed them to start studying all cavity-nesting birds living in urban settings.
In this project you’ll learn more about how citizen science increased student awareness related to cavity nesting species, specifically the American Kestrel, a species in decline across much of its natural range. Both the Salt Lake Center for Science Education (SLCSE) and Farmington High School participated.
What were the goals of this project?
The goals for this project were to collect data that allowed an understanding of the
survivorship and reproductive success of the American Kestrels, and to reinforce high school math and science concepts by allowing students to gain hands-on experience in field biology. Students would complete a field journal where they would record observations, collect data, and draw conclusions. They would also present their findings at a symposium open to their peers, families, and the broader community. The journals and presentations were to be shared to draw attention to the project and its benefit to local students.
How did they approach the project goals?
This goal was achieved through several visits to each classroom, a total of eight visits — focusing on project and monitoring procedures, natural history information about American Kestrels and other cavity nesters, nest check ethics, and how to determine the age of nestlings. They brought in live birds to connect students to the natural history of raptors, as well as actual monitoring equipment for the students to become familiar with the technology used and to ensure a comfort level with the process.
Participation in Large Scale Citizen Science
Working directly with the students and teachers in the classroom and in the field to practice and understand the necessary protocol to monitor the nest boxes, capture photos and videos of the activity in the boxes, and to enter their nest box data. Project leaders worked with students and teachers to learn how to use the technology employed to check the nest boxes and how to use the data platform, Jotform, to enter the data. And they participated in the regular monitoring of the nest boxes.
Journaling for students and lesson plans for teachers
They developed sixteen lesson plans related to both math and science, as well as a journal developed with teachers for students to keep track of their own data. The journal also included some valuable reference information about the American Kestrel and the nest box procedures.
How did they achieve their goals?
Through the project, three visits were offered to SLCSE and five visits to Farmington High School. These visits helped develop relationships with students and teachers. At each visit, they established an aspect of the project, covering the concepts of natural history of cavity nesters, procedures for the project, and practiced how to use the technology and equipment necessary for the project. This was accomplished using Powerpoint presentations and actual equipment in the classrooms.
Additionally, they went out with the students and teachers on nest box checks to make sure they understood the process and equipment use.
What was the impact of this project?
Here is a quote from one of the participating teachers.
“We have a student at our school who is autistic and struggles socially and academically. In an effort to provide opportunities for students of all abilities, we’ve invited this student to participate in our nest box monitoring because of his love of birds. Each week we checked the nesting boxes, and this student was required to complete all of his homework to attend because he was not actually in the statistics class. He did not miss a week. He is constantly telling me about the new information he is learning about random raptors. Just today he went out with his group to check his assigned boxes and there were some people there from Hawkwatch who were kind enough to point out some nearby raptors. His enthusiasm about birds keeps growing.” -Emma Chandler, SLCSE science teacher
Working on this allowed educators to develop and execute an in-depth citizen science program. They often only see students for one class period and then part ways, but with this project, programs were offered for teachers and students on a regular basis throughout the semester. They were able to share their passion with them and engage students in a way wherein they started looking forward to checking boxes and developing “relationships” with the nestlings in their assigned boxes. Having the students see science careers that happen outside the lab and working directly with scientists was beneficial for students in considering higher education and career opportunities in science.
What challenges did they encounter?
They budgeted for 12 cameras for Farmington High School, but had to allocate 4 of those cameras to SLCSE due to wear and tear on the older cameras. In an effort to mitigate this challenge next time, they plan to meet with the administration of Farmington High School to encourage support for allowing the students to check boxes during school hours. They will also ensure there is a camera and set up for each group, rather than a certain number per school.
The other challenge faced was ensuring timely and accurate data entry by the students. A greater focus was needed in emphasizing the importance of entering the data in a timely manner from the nest box checks. The same is true for the accuracy of the data entry by the students. A fair amount of time was spent by staff going back and verifying data entries with students and/or teachers. In the future, they plan to practice data form entries more diligently with the students prior to actually checking nest boxes in an effort to prevent these kinds of challenges moving forward.
Explore Citizen Science
- Students as Citizen Scientists – It’s Elementary, NSTA
- Unlocking the Potential of Citizen Science, ESRI
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No Benchwarmers Allowed: Student Sportswriters
It’s pretty common to use sports as a means to get kids out of their seats and on their feet. But what if we flipped that thinking? What if there was a way to use sports as a way to engage students in writing and literature that they normally wouldn’t look at twice. That is what Jeff Mann at Belzer Middle School is trying to do with his program No Benchwarmers Allowed.
What is the project and their goals?
No Benchwarmers Allowed is a unique, hands on literacy project that will connect middle school students’ love of sports to reading and writing. This project will create two key components that no middle school has ever offered:
- Create the first nationally available sports magazine written entirely by middle school students,
- Create and offer the first middle school language arts class that will teach the traditional standards in a non-traditional and engaging way using sports literature and sports writing.
In short, sports will be “the bait” that lures students to becoming better readers and writers. What’s exciting about this project is Jeff’s clear knowledge of his students interests and passions, and how he planned on using a near universal love of sports to get them excited about reading.
What did they accomplish?
In August, the sports class was created and put into place. Once established, the planning for the curriculum was ongoing throughout the year. Meanwhile, the writing and reading for the course was adjusted to not only fit the students interests but also to help have completed writings from which to select for the magazine.
According to Jeff, the students displayed a clear interest in writing and reading more than they would have in other traditional language arts classes.
Students began submitting pieces from about October and they concluded the writing portion at the end of March. This left April for selection, editing, ideas, and publication of the journal. The journal was a big success, despite some timing hiccups that prevented publishing by the original date. But they were distributed by the principal throughout the school and a number of other educators were asking about how they could get involved.
In the end No Benchwarmers Allowed made students work harder than they thought they were going to have to, the writing took much more time than any of them anticipated, and the final product came out much better that they’d had hoped.
What challenges did they come up against?
While most students took a sports centered approach, there were still some outliers and the teachers needed to make adjustments to keep those students engaged as well.
Some of the larger challenges dealt with the publishing of the sports magazine, but with the premier issue out, and now armed with the knowledge of how it works timing wise – they ae much better prepared to tackle this in the new year.
Another idea for improvement would be to bring in more professional sports writers in order to demonstrate how a love of sports and a love of the written word can find a great synthesis between the two. Hopefully, this exciting program will continue to turn out great products in the form on their magazine as well as to keep the students plugged into books.
Further Reading
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Quest for STEM
There are a lot of gatekeepers in this world, barring women from careers, hobbies, and involvement in popular culture. And this year is, for many reasons, been called the year of the woman. So, what better time to focus on getting our girls plugged into fields of interest that have been traditionally closed off to them by these arbitrary, and mostly unwritten, rules. This is what the Quest/STEM program at Marian Middle School is all about. Marian Middle School is an all girls school, so what better place to put this pilot program into practice.
Goal
In order to understand the things they’ve accomplished, we need to understand what their stated goal was when conceiving the program. The goal was to get Marian Girls to be workforce ready critical thinkers, creative problem solvers with the skills to be highly employable in STEM careers. But even simple goals often require multi-pronged approaches as there is no one avenue into the myriad of career possibilities in the STEM field.
What did they accomplish?
Broken down into a three-pronged approach, the educators focused on the following:
- Learning through project- and inquiry-based learning and the Engineering Design Process
- “Through their STEM Quest classes this year, students were given a choice in the projects they wanted to take on based on their interests and passions. Some projects that were undertaken included rebuilding two motorized scooters, creating original video games, developing animal-friendly beauty products, designing a school prayer garden, and building a virtual school tour for the school’s website, among other projects. All projects were real-world tasks requiring students to research, plan, design, build, and evaluate. They applied learning from their traditional courses to create original work. Working with peers through the design process challenged students to think creatively, to work collaboratively, and to continuously evaluate their work to improve their product. Though it can be difficult for adults and middle school students alike, through this process Marian students are building a myriad of skills that make them highly employable for internships, positions, and opportunities available to them at their age and on which they can grow in the future.”
- Increasing interest in STEM careers
- By using a simple survey to collect data from students regarding their top three career interests they were able to categorize these careers, identifying those with a STEM focus. Year after year, comparisons are made and trend lines are established as each class moves from fifth grade through eighth grade. Students who named a STEM related career in one of their top career choices this school year include:
- 13/15 5th graders (87%)
- 15/17 6th graders (88%)
- 16/17 7th graders (94%)
- 17/17 8th graders (100%)
- Overall Total — 92%
- Through their STEM classes and Marian programming, they have been exposed to professional careers they may not have previously considered. As a result, the range of occupational interest’s students are considering for their futures is as impressive as it is diverse. Careers of interest from the survey include music producer, veterinarian, architect, marine biologist, computer engineer, paramedic, farmer, pediatrician, plastic surgeon, photographer, zoologist, neurosurgeon, cardiac surgeon, entrepreneur, obstetrician/gynecologist, film editor, forensic psychologist, federal agent nuclearmaterial courier, nurse, and occupational therapist, among others!
- Making statistically significant gains on STEM areas of standardized tests.
- Marian students took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills in September 2017 which includes Science and Math components. 72% of eighth grade students made significant gains in math and 67% made significant gains in science as compared to previous scores. The small sample size makes 1 or 2 outliers significant. All sixth and seventh graders made significant gains in math. Science averages of our student body increased in 5 of the 6 domains tested. Student averages in 4 of the 6 domains are now above the national average as compared to only 1 above the national average last year.
- By using a simple survey to collect data from students regarding their top three career interests they were able to categorize these careers, identifying those with a STEM focus. Year after year, comparisons are made and trend lines are established as each class moves from fifth grade through eighth grade. Students who named a STEM related career in one of their top career choices this school year include:
A couple of exciting projects
One of the more exciting projects is the Prayer Garden. Students performed research on prayer gardens, as well as a number of other themed types. By assessing the needs and space available to them they were able to identify the elements they would propose. After a presentation, complete with visual aids, to the principal they were given the go ahead to purchase supplies and begin construction.
The other project is the Animal-Friendly Beauty Products. By researching practices that impact animals and products that already exist they planned, budgeted, purchased and actually made some products including animal-friendly nail cuticle oil.
In order to evaluate the success of the products, they created a survey that was distributed with the products to solicit feedback They subsequently revamped their products based on feedback for redistribution.
Not only that, but 19 Marian Girls competed in the Clavius Project Robotics Jamboree at St. Louis University High School in January. Out of 27 participating schools, Marian students won the first-place platinum award, and on top of that, were also awarded the Leadership with Distinction Award for their evident teamwork, persistence, and problem-solving skills.
And an even more unique feather for this projects cap: An article was written on the National Nuclear Security Administration website about one of their 7th grade student’s curiosity in becoming a Nuclear Material Courier! This is a testament to the students’ increased interest in many different STEM related careers!
What are some of the challenges they faced?
As exciting and successful as this project has been – it is not without challenges.
They’ve tried to be proactive about revising the programming and goals based on student interest, progress, and feedback. One difficulty they faced was the length of time students need to complete a project and how difficult it is to determine at the outset. They plan to figure out how to include more flexibility in scheduling. Additionally, timing is important in the optimal utilization of workshop space and sharing of available technology to meet everyone’s needs. Ideally, they could more regularly engage community experts in STEM fields as facilitators and instructors for the students. However, school hours are also work hours, which makes optimal engagement difficult.
These challenges aside, they have made great strides in accomplishing their goals and we at the McCarthy Dressman Education Foundation are excited to see how this project progresses.
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Girls Quest for STEM
There are a many gatekeepers in this world, barring women from careers, hobbies, and involvement in popular culture. And this year is, for many reasons, been called the year of the woman. So, what better time to focus on getting our girls plugged into fields of interest that have been traditionally closed off to them by these arbitrary, and mostly unwritten, rules. This is what the Quest/STEM program at Marian Middle School is all about. Marian Middle School is an all girls school, so what better place to put this pilot program into practice.
Their stated goal. 
In order to understand what they have accomplished, we need to understand what their stated goal was when conceiving the program. The goal was to get Marian girls to be workforce ready critical thinkers, creative problem solvers with the skills to be highly employable in STEM careers. But even simple goals often require multi-pronged approaches as there is no one avenue into the myriad of career possibilities in the STEM field.
What did they accomplish?
Broken down into a three-pronged approach, the educators focused on the following:
- Learning through project- and inquiry-based learning and the Engineering Design Process
- “Through their STEM Quest classes this year, students were given a choice in the projects they wanted to take on based on their interests and passions. Some projects that were undertaken included rebuilding two motorized scooters, creating original video games, developing animal-friendly beauty products, designing a school prayer garden, and building a virtual school tour for the school’s website, among other projects. All projects were real-world tasks requiring students to research, plan, design, build, and evaluate. They applied learning from their traditional courses to create original work. Working with peers through the design process challenged students to think creatively, to work collaboratively, and to continuously evaluate their work to improve their product. Though it can be difficult for adults and middle school students alike, through this process Marian students are building a myriad of skills that make them highly employable for internships, positions, and opportunities available to them at their age and on which they can grow in the future.”
- Increasing interest in STEM careers
- By using a simple survey to collect data from students regarding their top three career interests they were able to categorize these careers, identifying those with a STEM focus. Year after year, comparisons are made and trend lines are established as each class moves from fifth grade through eighth grade. Students who named a STEM related career in one of their top career choices this school year include:
- 13/15 5th graders (87%)
- 15/17 6th graders (88%)
- 16/17 7th graders (94%)
- 17/17 8th graders (100%)
- Overall Total – 92%
- Through their STEM classes and Marian programming, they have been exposed to professional careers they may not have previously considered. As a result, the range of occupational interest’s students are considering for their futures is as impressive as it is diverse. Careers of interest from the survey include music producer, veterinarian, architect, marine biologist, computer engineer, paramedic, farmer, pediatrician, plastic surgeon, photographer, zoologist, neurosurgeon, cardiac surgeon, entrepreneur, obstetrician/gynecologist, film editor, forensic psychologist, federal agent nuclearmaterial courier, nurse, and occupational therapist, among others!
- Making statistically significant gains on STEM areas of standardized tests.
- Marian students took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills in September 2017 which includes Science and Math components. Seventy two percent of eighth grade students made significant gains in math and 67% made significant gains in science as compared to previous scores. The small sample size makes 1 or 2 outliers significant. All sixth and seventh graders made significant gains in math. Science averages of our student body increased in 5 of the 6 domains tested. Student averages in 4 of the 6 domains are now above the national average as compared to only 1 above the national average last year.
- By using a simple survey to collect data from students regarding their top three career interests they were able to categorize these careers, identifying those with a STEM focus. Year after year, comparisons are made and trend lines are established as each class moves from fifth grade through eighth grade. Students who named a STEM related career in one of their top career choices this school year include:
A couple of exciting projects.
One of the more exciting projects is the Prayer Garden. Students performed research on prayer gardens, as well as a number of other themed types. By assessing the needs and space available to them they were able to identify the elements they would propose. After a presentation, complete with visual aids, to the principal they were given the go ahead to purchase supplies and begin construction.
The other project is the Animal-Friendly Beauty Products. By researching practices that impact animals and products that already exist they planned, budgeted, purchased and actually made some products including animal-friendly nail cuticle oil.
In order to evaluate the success of the products, they created a survey that was distributed with the products to solicit feedback They subsequently revamped their products based on feedback for redistribution.
Not only that, but 19 Marian Girls competed in the Clavius Project Robotics Jamboree at St. Louis University High School in January. Out of 27 participating schools, Marian students won the first-place platinum award, and on top of that, were also awarded the Leadership with Distinction Award for their evident teamwork, persistence, and problem-solving skills. And an even more unique feather for this projects cap: An article was written on the National Nuclear Security Administration website about one of their 7th grade student’s curiosity in becoming a Nuclear Material Courier! This is a testament to the students’ increased interest in many different STEM related careers!
What are some of the challenges they faced?
As exciting and successful as this project has been – it is not without challenges. They’ve tried to be proactive about revising the programming and goals based on student interest, progress, and feedback. One difficulty they faced was the length of time students needed to complete a project and how difficult it is to determine at the outset. They plan to figure out how to include more flexibility in scheduling. Additionally, timing is important in the optimal utilization of workshop space and sharing of available technology to meet everyone’s needs. Ideally, they could more regularly engage community experts in STEM fields as mentors, facilitators and/or instructors for the students. However, school hours are also work hours, which makes optimal engagement difficult.
These challenges aside, they have made great strides in accomplishing their goals and we at the McCarthy Dressman Education Foundation are excited to see how this project progresses.
Further Reading
· Girls in STEM: Answering the Call for STEM Skills in Our Global Workforce
· 10 Ways to Prepare Our Daughters for STEM Careers | NetApp Blog
· Preparing K-12 Students for Future STEM Careers – The Tech Edvocate
· Starting Early: How to Address the Lack of Female Engagement in STEM at School
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Design Thinking in Middle School: A Human-Centered Approach to 21st Century Learning Vision
Technology advances at a rapid pace. So fast that it often outpaces advancements in education policy and practice. Students are often way ahead of the curve while teachers who learned pedagogical methods in days when there were many less avenues for incorporating technology into classrooms lag far behind them in terms of technological facility. This is compounded by the fact that every student learns in a different way, and with more and more options, it gets increasingly difficult to cater to the individual needs of students. This is what makes the Design Thinking in Middle School: A Human-Centered Approach to 21st Century Learning Vision project really stand out. They aim to bolster the technological aptitude of their educators while designing more individualized curriculum for their students. In pursuit of this vision for student learning, a team of teachers at Southeast Middle School applied with their Board of Education to open a magnet center on campus. The focus of this magnet center is to bring a three “I” – Interest, Impact, and Innovation- driven approach to teaching and learning.
Goals
In order to better understand where they find themselves as of their last progress report, it’s important to understand the goals they set out to accomplish.
Students will work on collaborative, cross-curricular projects that center on design thinking, a powerful learning tool that teaches students to use empathy and critical thinking to tackle problems of any kind from a human-centered point of view. In their model, the teacher’s role is to provide opportunities for discovery and to guide students to understanding through their innovation projects. The transition from a teacher-centered, depository learning framework to a student-centered, design-based learning approach requires teachers to work in a highly collaborative environment to develop cross-curricular and student-centered projects.
So, in their first year, how did they go about doing this?
Before they could start they had to answer a few key questions for themselves, and anyone looking to replicate this program would do well to do the same.
- What resources are currently available and/or necessary to obtain in order to successfully realize their stated vision?
- How might the concepts learned in the theme-based professional development activities be applied to their specific school context?
- What effect(s) might a design thinking approach to teaching and learning have on school performance, as measured by five instructional pillars (teaching) and the ISTE 21st century skill standards (learning)?
These questions guided their approach and the following methods were applied.
- Conduct a needs assessment and establish a teacher growth plan,
- Plan and implement teacher developed lessons tailored to the classroom context, and
- Evaluate the impact of the project on student learning and extract teacher learning through reflective practices.
Their first year found its focus in the first two milestones. One of their priorities this year was to help the new magnet teachers build a theoretical grounding in the foundations of design thinking in K-12 education. They found early on in the project that this looked different for every teacher, based on their subject area, experience level, and their personal interests in areas of growth. Because of these disparate levels of experience, as a team, they decided that more experienced teachers would take on a more robust menu of learning opportunities that were designed to fill in gaps in theoretical and clinical knowledge and to prepare themselves to be teacher leaders in the new school. Their primary learning focus as a teacher leader team was to increase their capacity to understand and teach in alignment with a program theme of design thinking through project-based learning.
So, a year in, where are they?
Their collection of professional development opportunities during Year One has helped teachers develop a greater capacity for executing the magnet program’s vision of developing a human-centered approach to 21st century learning. Teacher leaders are using their learnings from model school visits, workshop and trainings, and collaborative planning sessions, to develop a comprehensive instructional technology plan, to plan and implement theme-based lessons tailored to their classroom contexts, and to develop a comprehensive introductory professional development plan for novice teachers. This included the teacher leaders themselves sharing their learnings through professional development sessions that they curated from their experiences in Year One of the project.
Students were able to develop their skills as digital citizens, innovative designers, knowledge constructors, creative communicators, empowered learners, and global collaborators through design-based, project-based learning tasks throughout the school year. Additionally, they were able to showcase their learning at multiple community events at their school site and within the larger learning community of South Gate. News and pictures of the events were shared on the school website at <http://southeastms-lausdca.schoolloop.com/>. Teacher-leaders are currently designing their digital portfolios to showcase their student projects on the magnet program website <www.dreamsmagnet.org>.
But no project is without challenges. What were some that they faced?
The biggest thing they had to contend with was finding substitute teachers within the budget. This allowed the participating educators to take time off from class for professional development. This is being solved in the second year by reallocating some of the grant money to pay for that.
It’s never too late to educate yourself on the latest technology. Even though chances are, by the time you’ve mastered it there will be something new. But that shouldn’t stop us from trying to narrow the technology gap between students and educators, and this project sounds like one way to do it.
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Playmaking Puts Fundamentals in the Spotlight
LAMusArt’s Playmaking project approached their goals with a lot of ambition and spirit. Their program was an exciting one, aimed at engaging students ages 9 – 11 in the fundamentals of playwriting over the course of 10 weeks, culminating in a full scale performance of the student written plays by adult actors. It can be extremely difficult to schedule several adult actors to appear in one place at any one time, but in Los Angeles this difficulty can be compounded. So the fact that they were able to get 11 kids plays up and running cast with professional actors is something that on it’s own should be applauded.
Project Goals
But before we get into what they accomplished, let’s take a dive into what goals they set out to accomplish.
1) to give underserved students in their East Los Angeles communities a public opportunity to experience success and recognition through artistic expression, authorship, and performance regardless of race or gender.
2) to aid the growth and development of each student’s important life skills, including their cognitive and emotional evolution, and their creative, academic, social, and behavioral progress by way of artistic opportunities.
3) to validate each student’s unique voice by giving them an opportunity to tell and see their own stories about their respective experiences.
4) to bridge the gap between our community and the life-affirming power of the arts, which they’ve been traditionally barred from due to barriers like language, finances, and exposure.
5) to provide students with the academic attention they lack in public schools, including inclusive and enriching creative programs and better student/adult ratios.
4) to increase student learning in fundamental theater concepts and practices.
Now, a number of these goals seem a bit hard to quantify. Many of which won’t be fully known until long after the student has left the program. But, you might be surprised by the results that the parents are reporting. But we’ll get to that shortly.
So how did they accomplish their goals?
Over the course of 10 weeks, each student kept a notebook of their weekly writing exercises, vocabulary lessons, and understanding of key concepts. Each student was able to grasp these exercises, as proven by the completion of their original plays. Although some plays were more complex than others, every student completed a play with at least two characters and a central conflict between those characters. The driving idea that was used to emphasize dramatic storytelling was “Want. Conflict. Change.” They started the course by establishing that every character must have a strong want or wish. To move the story forward, they put characters with different wants in a scene together to establish a high-stakes conflict, in which the characters want to get in the way of each other. To resolve the story, they needed a change, from either one or both characters, or an outside force. The idea of “Want. Conflict. Change.” was interpreted in different ways by each student, resulting in wildly different, but entirely vibrant and entertaining works. And having personally attended the event I can say that what resulted was a wildly surreal night of shows. Even though their concepts were simple… or often nonsensical (like the boy and his friend, and a slice of pizza) what they demonstrated was unfiltered creativity. It’s not often that playwrights get to write without self consciousness, and while it’s doubtful that they approached it without self doubt — the final product betrayed a sense of fun, unfettered imagination, and clear encouragement to tell the story they want to tell.
So where are the students now and how are they doing?
According to reports from the parents, the students have seen vast improvement in all areas that the program set out to address.
- 100% said they would recommend the program to others;
- 100% said that the elementary school their student attends does not offer a program similar to Playmaking, which tells us the program is unique and needed in the community;
- 100% said their student’s literacy and writing skills developed over the 10 week course;
- 100% said their student’s listening skills developed over the 10 week course; and
- 100% said their collaboration and creativity skills developed over the 10 week course.
Now, I’m no math teacher, but 100% returns across the board seems to me to be pretty good results. If not pretty great.
But no program is without its challenges. How can this one improve?
The most notable challenge was the coordination of rehearsal time for all eleven groups of adult actors and directors. It was difficult to fit adequate rehearsal time for all eleven plays into a two week period, causing them to schedule additional rehearsals with actors and a prolonged tech period in the theater space.
Another challenge they faced was giving the composer sufficient time to compose an original song for each play. Because the songs and plays were not written until Play Day, the composer was unable to read the plays and lyrics until a day before the first rehearsal, giving barely enough time to compose a new piece. They believe this can be improved by having the composer present on Play Day to aid the students in writing their lyrics. This will also give the composer a better idea of what the student has in mind stylistically for their song.
Completely surmountable challenges aside, this program seems to have legs that are going to carry it into the future and help improve the confidence, writing, and collaboration skills for any students involved.
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Math and Maritime Place-Based Learning – M2BPL Re-thinks Math Workshop
Math and Maritime Place-Based Learning
Rig up the mast, batten down the hatch and come sail away with the educators at the Blue Heron School in Port Townsend, Washington as they embark on their exciting project: Math and Maritime Place-Based Learning – M²PBL. The district’s Maritime Discovery Schools Initiative (MDSI), implemented in 2014, is guiding their transformation by encouraging teachers to change instructional pedagogy, increase student engagement, and experience connections between classrooms and business partners. This proposal develops 30 teachers over three years.
What exactly is the Math and Maritime Place-Based Learning – M2PBL?
Research has shown these educators that students benefit highly from using a Math Workshop (MW) model.
When executed successfully, MW models support a culture of underlying beliefs:
- all students are capable of quality thinking;
- participation through hands-on activities and discourse builds student thinking;
and - through true engagement, all young minds can make real sense of mathematics.
An engaging environment is also the premise for Project Based Learning (PBL), where students use 21st century skills to learn collaboratively while working on projects to benefit themselves and others. The M²PBL proposed a structure for K-8 teachers to collaborate and design sense-making math environments tailor made for their students.
Through deepening knowledge of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM) – particularly in Number and Operations, Measurement, and Geometry – teacher teams (K-2, 3-5, 6-8) focused on:
1) Number Talks (NT), a workshop element where students apply and verbally share strategies to solve and improve mental computations (number fluency),
and
2) PBL projects to apply students’ growing math strategies and conceptual knowledge. The MDSI promotes community partnerships between the school district and maritime-related industries.
As exciting as this is for the teachers, when the students get involved it brings it to another level. The educators are partnering with Port Townsend Sails, a local business specializing in “quality sails for traditional and modern rigs.” Teachers, students, and employees will collaborate to explore authentic mathematics on-site in the sail loft. There, and in classrooms, student mathematicians will count and measure to possibly build boats, design sails, and and/or navigate!
What were the goals for M²PBL?
They had two primary goals to accomplish in year one. They wanted answers to the following questions:
- How do Number Talks increase the quality of students’ number fluency?
- Does authentic application of number fluency deepen student learning in project-based mathematics?
Eleven teachers initially met for professional learning in an elementary group and an intermediate group; each grade level met for two full days (early fall and mid-winter).
Those teachers recorded 10 half-day visits into classrooms (using a substitute) which totaled to around 15-20 visits arranged during planning times and/or with colleagues to “step out” for a short period to observe. One teacher also requested a grade level team observation one morning, so three teachers not technically a part of the grant this year joined in on observations of Number Talks. This was a productive way to share knowledge around fluency outside of the core group. Teacher texts, classroom fluency instructional materials, and PBL supplies were purchased. Items included: student journals, chart paper/markers, wood (for boats), bird feeders, bird ID texts, meter tapes, weights, calculators (specifically for order of operations), and math manipulatives for Family Math Night (dice, spinners, etc.). There, two classes taught fluency activities to parent/students, and the activities went home for continued learning. In-kind donations included dowels (masts), sail cloth (from PT Sails), sand paper/wood pieces for sanding blocks from the high school shop. Volunteer support was received from parents (chaperones), the Schooner Martha captain and family, the Northwest Maritime Center/Wooden Boat Foundation shop personnel, Carol Hasse and crew of Port Townsend Sails, the PT High School STEM/maritime students, and parents to help first graders drill boats for the mast and to tack sails to masts.
What were some of the challenges?
As we can see, they’ve been busy this year. But like all new project ideas, they are not without challenges. The biggest challenge was the collaborative work that required teachers to be out of their classrooms. One participant asked that her grade level team be able to collaborate around classroom observations, and that was accomplished. It’s also been more difficult than anticipated to get teachers to keep up with data collection. But they are already coming up with ideas on how to improve next year. Things like: 1) Supporting a full day of professional learning around math fluency/PBL for any teacher not involved in year one who volunteers (sub time/materials stipend); 2) Supporting grade level teams to collaborate around math fluency through collegial visits/observations (sub time); 3) And finally, approaching Port Townsend Rigging Company as an additional maritime partner to help expand and grow the program for years to come.
All in all, it’s an exciting project to see come together. We’re all waiting with bated breath for this ship to come back to harbor with tales of their next success.
Learn more
- Project-Based Learning: Students actively investigate solutions to complex, long-term challenges, often in groups
- Problem-Based Learning in Mathematics: ERIC Digest
- Maritime Discovery Schools Initiative
- Maritime Discovery update: Students helping salmon
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Full STEAM Ahead with Project Based Learning
All aboard and Full STEAM Ahead!
The educators over at Bates Middle School in Sumter, South Carolina have been working hard laying tracks for the past year in order to bring their exciting project to fruition. By combining Project Based Learning (PBL) and a curriculum focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) and working with local businesses they are hoping to create a new generation of students who are prepared to be in an agile and competitive work force. One of the brilliant concepts behind this project is that nothing exists in a vacuum. You can’t well understand engineering if you don’t have a good handle on physics. You can’t code a videogame without understanding the underlying code. And you certainly can’t have music without math.
The Full STEAM Ahead project aims to remove the traditional isolation of subjects through the use of the “Critical C’s” of Collaboration, Cooperation and Communication which are emphasized with project based learning through interdisciplinary activities.
Now that they are a year in, let’s see what has transpired.
Bates teachers, led by the Transforming Learning Together (TLT)
mentor teachers, in the first stage of this initiative begun by identifying large-scale student learning goals for the year. They then researched new teaching approaches in order to integrate STEAM and Project Based Learning to help them achieve their goals, along with developing “action plans” for each year’s practice. The belief was that art can spark creativity in young scientists and engineers, develop observational abilities, and strengthen collaborative skills. One of the guiding questions for this project is ” How can we improve instruction, pedagogy, and student learning across the curriculum through the use of STEAM and PBL?”
So how do they propose to do this?
They began by having their trainers and the TLT team attend a PBL and STEAM workshop that spaned six sessions. This team returned to Bates to lead the entire staff through a STEAM Project Based Learning activity in order to familiarize everyone with the methods. Teachers investigated and utilized critical inquiry to work through this challenge. The thinking was that teachers will experience everything that the students do, giving them the tools to help elevate the projects as well as answer previously unanticipated questions. Teachers then guided students through one PBL unit in the first year of implementation.
A year in… where are they now?
They started off by providing professional development to their teachers during the first semester of the school year. STEAM lessons were developed to be a part of the regular curricula as well as embedded in Project Based Learning. The second semester brought about school-wide PBL units. Then on March 24th, there was a school-wide PBL Kickoff to begin the grade level units. This is where things really began to take off. For this initial thrust into the unknown they gave each year a different subject field to dig into. Sixth graders explored the guiding question: “Are animals placed in captivity at an advantage or disadvantage than those in their natural habit? Why/ Why not?”
The kick-off was a field trip to the Riverbanks Zoo. The 6th graders researched the question and created suitable habitats for animals of their choice. The 7th graders explored the guiding question: “How can we be prepared for the unexpected?” Dealing with the preparedness for natural or man-made disasters was the focal point. The Red Cross, Fire Department, EMS, Disaster Management, Police Department, Shaw AFB and Salvation Army each set up a station to explain their role in disasters and how the community can prepare for disasters in the future. Students researched a disaster and prepared community service presentations on disaster preparedness. Eighth graders explored the, very relevant, guiding question: “Can separate be equal?” This question dealt with the Civil Rights movements of 1960 -1990. Guest speakers, Nathaniel Briggs (Briggs vs. Elliot) and Artrell Benbow (civil rights activist in Summerton and Sumter) spoke to the students of their personal experiences. This culminated with the 8th grade Drama class presenting a skit about the infamous Orangeburg Massacre. Students then rotated rooms to watch films about civil rights, explored civil rights virtual museums, and participated in gallery walks. Students researched the civil rights eras of 1960’s through the 1990’s and created projects to address the guiding question. The PBL classes occurred every Tuesday and Thursday beginning March 28th and ended in a PBL Excellence Fair held on May 4th at 6:00 pm at BMS to showcase student work and presentations.
What are some challenges facing STEAM/PBL learning?
For as exciting as this method of PBL learning is, and it’s clear that it’s starting to work; students and teachers on the whole are more engaged in their study areas… it’s not without it’s challenges. One of the biggest cited in the report is that not all of the teachers have bought into the STEAM /PBL concept. This makes communicating those ideas to students that much harder. Further professional development is needed in order to ensure more participation by teachers. They have also had some difficulty setting up model classrooms so we are hoping teachers observing other teachers will assist in this. But as more teachers undergo professional development and find the merit in this method of teaching the easier it will get. And year two has some exciting things in store for the students. One word: Robots. We look forward to hearing about their experiences with Robots.
How might Robots, cross-cultural references and civil rights intersect?
Let’s mix up that engineering and art a bit, shall we? The term “robot” came from a Czech play called Rossums Universal Robots and is derived from the word “robotnik” which means slave. It’s about a robot who is forced to work for a shady company that then rebels and leads to the extinction of the human race. It’s bleak, but not without hope. But it’s a good lesson and a challenge for students on how we should be thinking about a newly created servant class. Just some food for thought.
Learn more
- STEAM, not STEM
- STEAM Rising: Why we need to put the arts into STEM education
- Project-Based Learning: PBL is a dynamic classroom approach in which students actively explore real-world problems and challenges and acquire a deeper knowledge
- Project-Based Learning: Students actively investigate solutions to complex, long-term challenges, often in groups
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