Identifying The Thoughtful Classroom
I am writing this post while on the flight home from Las Vegas. I flew in this morning to be a part of a Data Driven Instruction professional development. During the professional development I was asked the question of what a highly effective classroom looked liked. I was also asked if I thought it looked different for face to face instruction or virtual facilitation of learning. While there are certainly modality differences, I said great instruction is great instruction. Period.
Then I went on to discuss the adjectives I would use in describing a highly effective classroom. I used these five: engaging, comfortable, collaborative, flexible, and safe. Really, all of these have to do with the physical environment of the classroom. There are then cultural forces that go along with each of these adjectives. To be engaging the teacher will use rigorous lessons that might include global connectivity and uses a relevant context that the student cares about. A collaborative environment has a lot of student to student interaction and might include partnerships with business and industry for enabling the students to solve/research real world problems. Flexibility is also the key – in a brick and mortar setting there should be no front or back to the classroom and in a virtual setting many different modalities of technology may be used. Finally, the environment must be safe. This safety not only includes physical safety and safety from bullying, but also a safe environment where students are encouraged to think creatively, be curious, and share those thoughts.
The routines and structures that guide the life of the classroom are also important to creating an engaging and thoughtful classroom. Instead of creating thinking -skills lessons, highly effective teachers must create rich thinking opportunities. It is important to create relevant content students care about. Relevancy matters! Relevant context must be the norm, not a discrete context disconnected from anything going on in the student’s life. Course themes and generative topics make learning opportunities relevant to the students.
Guiding questions help the students keep in mind the big ideas. With the standards it is easy to get bogged down with isolated bits of knowledge. We must remain aware of the forest even as we look at individual trees. Connecting course activity to big ideas enhances the purpose and meaning of the work for the students. In other words it gives them the “why” of what they are learning. How many times have we heard students, or even ourselves for that matter, say, “Why do I need to learn this?” or “Where will I ever use this?” This relevancy makes it easier to engage students in the thinking because they are actively exploring.
Having the students pose unanswerable questions will also foster engagement. Teachers should expect students to be independent thinkers, take risks, and show initiative. Again, why it is important to have a safe environment. Making assignments iterative is also very important. There should be several drafts involved in assignments. This will emphasize process refinement.
This all really means creating a student self managed environment. This includes student to student interactions that the teacher does not control. The teacher should be a role model of engagement in the context of the class. The bottom line is we must provide students with Thinking Opportunities!
Leading Audaciously!
As I write this post it is the eve of July 4th, 2014. I have had some incredible Fourth of July Celebrations, such as being the Grand Marshal of Lebanon, Indiana’s Fourth of July Parade in 2010. To read about that experience click here. This year, however, my family and I are spending the Fourth of July in our Nation’s Capitol. I am so excited that we will be watching the fireworks from the Washington Mall in view of all the monuments of our great leaders. Many people are writing and talking about doing audacious things these days, but what does that really mean.
In thinking about what it means to lead audaciously, I reflected on our founding fathers. Now there was some audacious leadership! These audacious leaders defied convention and stepped beyond the ‘norms.’ They provided us out of the box solutions for a group of colonies made up of people looking for something a little different. When we have the courage to live out our convictions, Walk the Talk, we lead the way for others to do the same. In other words we are serving as trail blazers. Audacious Leadership works with people to make the changes within themselves to affect and create social change for the world around them. We are all far more audacious and powerful than we think we are. What would you do that would be considered audacious if you knew you could?
Signing of Declaration of Independence
Even though the first Fourth of July happened in Philadelphia, not Washington D.C., and did not have any fireworks or really any signing ceremony to speak of; I am still in awe of the audacity of the leaders involved on that historic day! Really, not much is known about the day except that on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia. It debated whether to adopt the Declaration of Independence. The delegates had come from the 13 original states. Many things, including the Stamp Act and other taxation without representation, to lead up to this point. Originally, the colonists thought boycotting British products would cause change. We all know, however, that even the Boston Tea Party was not audacious even to effect social change.
Printed Material Stamp
So, on June 7, 1776, the 2nd Continental Congress met and debated whether to break ties with Great Britain. The separation seemed likely, so the Congress assigned a committee to write an explanation of the decision. As we know, this committee then gave the job of writing to Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson took two weeks to write the Declaration of Independence, so on July 4, 1776, Congress voted to adopt. John Hancock immediately signed in large print to signify his bold statement of committing treason. Pretty audacious, don’t you think? Then on August 4, 1776 the rest of Congress signed the Declaration of Independence.
I am truly in awe of the audacity of these leaders. They lead our nation to independence. That is about as anti-status-quo as you can get. Thomas Jefferson captured the ideals of the United states in writing. Those words inspired the original Patriots who audaciously fought against insurmountable odds. They have also inspired movements of Americans against slavery, for civil rights, for women’s rights, for education reform, and social justice in not only America, but around the globe.
On this July 4th I invite you to celebrate the audacity of our Founding Fathers and challenge you to lead audaciously to bring about social change for the people of our great nation and the peoples around the world! Happy Fourth of July!
1,000 Vs. 30,000 Foot View
30,000′ View
I already wrote one post this week that was motivated by Rich Horwath’s book Elevate: The Three Disciplines of Advanced Strategic Thinking. Click here to read Competere. I also wrote another post View From 30,000 Feet that has thoughts on strategic thinking and leading strategically as well. While finishing reading the book for the second time I was on my way home from Washington D.C. It was nighttime and if I sit next to the window I love to look out and see if I can identify the cities we are flying over.
This time I was struck by how little detail you really can see at 30,000 feet (actually, according to the pilot were cruising at 32,000 feet). I have shared a picture I took out the window at this altitude with you in this post. Then, when we were getting ready to land I took another picture at what I guessed was around 1,000 feet. I have shared that picture in this post, too.
1,000
It was amazing to me the difference in detail that could be made out. This was one of the points that Horwath was trying to make in his book. He contended that the old adage of taking a 30,000 foot view is too high. You are too high up to see anything with any precision.
He likes to use the analogy of a helicopter at 1,000 feet. here, he argued, you can see with precision and clearly recognize what you are looking at. You can see houses, trees, flow of traffic, and trucks backing into docks. So, what did I learn from my experience looking out the plane window?
The 1,000 view enables me to see the whole picture with detail. this will enable me to lead in a way that strategy is developed first, so that great tactics (key initiatives) can be put in place. Think of it this way: as I write this I am on an airplane headed back to Washington D.C. The plane I am on is the tactic. While the plane is what is getting me to my destination; it would probably not be a very successful, or safe, flight without an accurate flight plan. This flight plan and allocation of the airplane to Washington DC is the strategy.
The airline was even able to be strategic and route us around a storm. The reallocation of extra fuel to send us around the storm made our flight safer, smoother, and more enjoyable. The only negative was it took about 8 minutes longer. A pretty good trade off in my book. If this example didn’t make for a great story, I don’t know what would.
From all this I have learned that I must get myself to the optimal height to see the detail needed, but yet still get the big picture. This really becomes a question of strategic insight. An insight is the combination of two or more pieces of information or data in a unique way that leads to the creation of new value. Strategic thinking, then, is the ability to generate insights that lead to competitive advantage.
Putting strategy in action we begin to think about why initiatives need to be pursued instead of just what is being done. This kind of thinking is so important in all industries, but is crucial in education. There are thousands of tactics available that are touted as the next tool for enabling the highest student achievement. But, we have to remember that without strategy we are flying blind, literally! Without a clear strategy and theory of action, we are just completing “to do” lists!
Great strategy enables us to be agile and allocate and reallocate resources to be successful!
Competere!
Strive Together!
The term compete comes from the Latin competere meaning “to strive together.” When I first saw this definition I was taken aback. I always viewed competing as striving against someone else. But, as I have learned from my journey of learning this year on strategy, it is all about making sure every individual on our team or staff understands his/her role working toward the vision/mission.
The analogy I like to use is a football team. For a defense or offense to be successful every player has to execute his ROLE. But, before he can execute this role, he must know what his role is (eg. who to block, what route to run, et cetera). It drives me absolutely nuts to be watching a youth football game and the coaches say, “Just hit somebody!” No! That’s absolutely wrong! The young men must know who they are supposed to hit, and where! Think about it…Does everyone on your team know what their role is?
Competition involves striving together and reaching for higher levels of performance. Those higher levels of performance are directly related to your insights for providing your stakeholders with differentiated value. There are three competitive conditions we find our schools, businesses, and organizations in: leader, challenger, or spectator (Horwath, 2014).
The leader is systematically looking for audatious ways to change the way our world looks at current products, services, education, or organizations. Additionally, the challenger creates ways for people to use and become part of what the leader has created, transformed, or innovated. Finally, the spectator sits back and watches it all happen. The spectator is probably acting out of apathy or status quo (Horwath, 2014).
As leaders, lets make sure we are enabling our team members to understand their role in the strategic plan. In other words, lets coach our team to compete, strive, and reach it’s full potential!
Reference
Yellow Flag Leadership Strategies
Be A Leadership Lifeguard
This past weekend as I was re-reading Leverage Leadership I was struck by the analogy used of yellow flags used on beaches. The section of the book was, “Early Warnings, Yellow Flag Strategies.” As we know, a yellow flag means the potential for rip currents or danger exists. Well, as you know, I love the beach and I have always noticed that very rarely is there a green flag flying. The green flag signifies calm seas and no threats.
This is rarely ever true with oceans, or our classrooms and schools. There is always the threat for riptides or something to go astray. In the ocean if caught in a riptide it is very specific what you do. Riptides (properly called rip currents because they are not actually a tide), are long, narrow channels of water which move from shore to sea and can take you with them as they go. 80% of all water rescues are because of riptides and claim over 100 victims per year.
If you get caught in a riptide, here’s what you do: Don’t panic. You will feel like you are getting swept out to a deserted island, but most riptides go away in 50-100 feet. Don’t swim against the rip. No one is strong enough to swim against the riptide and this exhaustion is what causes most deaths. Swim parallel to the shore. You want to swim perpendicular to the rip current. In 20-100 feet you will be out of the current and you can swim at an angle away from it towards the shore.
Similarly, strategies should be employed when teachers are continuing to struggle, and the standard observation and feedback cycle needs additional structure. Author of Leverage Leadership, Paul Bambrick-Santoyo points to the following as “Yellow Flag” strategies: provide simpler instructions and techniques (bite-sized, as John Wooden would have called them), give face to face feedback more often (face to face makes the difference), plan an immediate post feedback observation, arrange for peer observing, and choose interruptions of the person you are coaching with care. Desire alone will not help you improve a struggling teacher (or team member in any industry/organization). You need effective systems and approaches that can be put in place immediately for teachers (or team members) who need them.
Really, when you think about it, these “Yellow Flag” strategies can be applied to any field; not just education. As leaders we must always be watching (awareness) for those where our feedback/coaching just isn’t helping or they just need extra help. Think about the last time you were trying to swim out of the figurative rip current! Let’s all try to be better leadership lifeguards!
Global Think Tank TopTweets
This week I was back at Harvard University for the Think Tank on Global Education. This program was put on by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. As with all of my educational experiences at Harvard, it was an incredible learning experience. Dr. Fernando Reimers, Professor of Global Education, was the facilitator of the program and was incredible. He stretched us to become more global minded citizens.
For all of the other programs I have been through I created top lists of everything I learned for this blog. This time, however, I am going to do it a little different. Dr. Brandon Wiley, Executive Director of international Studies Schools Network – Asia Society, was part of the program and really encouraged the use of Twitter for this professional growth opportunity. Well, those of you who know me know that I don’t need encouraging when it comes to Twitter. I had already been Tweeting it up. Dr. Wiley even told us there would be prizes for the top Tweeters. Well, you guessed it; I won!
Therefore, I decided that a very fitting blog summary would be to create a top 100 Tweets List. Well, actually, it’s 110 because there were so many great tweets to the hashtag #hgseglobal that I had to pick 110. You can go to the hashtag and see them all. You will also want to check out the videos, pictures, and PowerPoint slides we posted to #hgseglobal during the program. The use of Tweeting with a hashtag is an incredible way hone in your thoughts and reflect during professional growth experiences! Not to mention, anyone could have been following along with us, from anywhere! You should try using Twitter at your next conference, professional development, or professional growth experience.
So, here it is (in no particular order):
1. No ADHD kids in Finland. They call it childhood!
2. Let’s help our students be producers of goodness.
3. What if great thinkers in history had not had the opportunity to have a global experience.
4. Finland believes that a child’s job is to play. Kids start school at age 7.
5. 3 reasons for networks: relationships, resources, and resiliency!
6. We must have job imbedded professional development around global education for this movement to succeed.
7. What is the global education leadership challenge that you will make when you get back to your school?
8. All students must be globally competent – not just our most advantaged.
9. Global education could be a Trojan horse to reevaluating the competency of our educational system.
10. Leading together by working together.
11. Nothing human is foreign to me.
12. Need a school-wide approach to promoting global education; networks to share what works.
13. Living in a highly interdependent world is not an option, but being educated to do so competently is.
14. 1 in 5 Americans don’t see themselves as a global citizen.
15. 700 million fewer people worldwide in extreme poverty in 2010 vs. 1990.
16. Deep global competency cannot be achieved with “globalization lite” in the schools.
17. Novel idea: what if college readiness meant higher ed was ready for our kids as much as the other way around?
18. In Finland, “school readiness” means the school is ready to meet the needs of the student.
19. School needs to be ready for the student, not the other way around.
20. In Finland there is a great deal of trust (92%) in teachers by the public. In the US only 29% have complete trust in our teachers.
21. Learning a foreign language is one stepping stone to advancing global education.
22. As a leader you must find your entry points and your allies!
23. Great facilitation of learning answers the question: Why am I doing/learning this?
24. As leaders we must balance having a bold vision with what to do next.
25. Waiting for everyone to get on board is shirking your leadership responsibility.
26. It all starts with you! It is your Job to intrigue your leadership team on the global education topic.
27. Wherever you sit in the system, there’s a tendency to wait for others to lead. You can lead from wherever you sit.
28. Sometimes we proceed as if the US is the world, when in reality we are part of the world.
29. Find your entry point and begin there on the road to global education.
30. What’s your leadership commitment to moving global education forward.
31. Engagement is the key to having teachers lead this movement in global education.
32. We are talking about “bottom up” and “top down” leadership. How about we just talk about leading from where you are?
33. Good point, Byron. Requires leaders to REALLY know where they are to determine where they need to go. LISTEN, LEARN, PLAN.
34. Actually, Byron, I like alliteration better…LISTEN, LEARN, LEAD. 🙂
35. Start somewhere. Even if it’s a small core group, start something.
36. Mindset is critical in leadership.
37. When it comes to global leadership, will your school be a leader, challenger, or spectator.
38. I have really been reflecting on the idea of having the balance between “bottom up” and ” top down” leadership for initiatives.
39. Students get it! Global education is engaging and relevant!
40. I need to remember this: I must facilitate learning for our teachers the same way I want them to teach our students.
41. There is no such such thing as normal when it comes to global education.
42. Twitter – the greatest professional development tool ever!
43. Foreign travel is great because it makes us uncomfortable and understand what it is like for our ESL (English Second Language) students.
44. You do not need to leave the classroom to bring the world to the classroom – technology.
45. We must nurture our teachers’ own global competence!
46. Sometimes a barrier is teachers talking to students about issues. We need to remove the barriers!
47. Rethink WHAT we think in foreign language classes.
48. Global education is not just about economics, it has to be about citizenship and global awareness!
49. “For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Used.” Hemingway’s six-word memoir.
50. Global Competence Six Word Memoir: Kids Need Skills To Navigate Globally!
51. Another six word memoir: Kids Need To Navigate Shrinking World!
52. Love your interaction on Twitter…just the start of the conversation!
53. As educators, we are in the relationship business.
54. We must have an intentional/strategic curriculum for global ed, not just a few activities.
55. Great website for global education: blogs.edweek.org/edweek/global_learning/
56. SAGE: STUDENT choice, AUTHENTIC context, GLOBAL significance, EXHIBITION to an audience.
57. None of us are afraid of holding students to high standards…
58. The world is getting smaller and kids need the skills to navigate globally!
59. How do we create a sense of urgency around global education?
60. All students deserve the right to be globally competent.
61. Students must learn how to be able to take action.
62. Finland only takes the top performing 10% of students into teaching!
63. To the world you may just be one person…but to one person you might just be the world. ~ Mark Twain
64. I love Harvard! I just spend the last hour discussing global education with individuals from 5 other countries!
65. 4 Rs: Rigor, Relevance, Relationships, and Resilience!
66. Personalize the relationship with students.
67. Don’t just try to do more, do more quality.
68. If you’re leading your people toward 18 initiatives of anything, you are headed for failure!!!
69. 18 skills of anything is too much! Why do we make leadership so complicated?
70. Adapting Professional Learning Communities for school leaders as well as teacher leaders – AWESOME IDEA!
71. The stars align when you can get the right groups together!
72. ABCs of Immersion: Academic Achievement, Bilingualism/Biliteracy, and Cultural Competence.
73. In order for “top down” to work there must be “bottom up!”
74. Interesting! Utah Senate Bill 41 (2008) 50/50 Dual Language Immersion Program: YouTube.com/watch?v=hTG0YF
75. Do you agree or disagree? Monolingualism is the illiteracy of the 21st Century!
76. We need to be at the table so we are not implementing initiatives we were not a part of developing.
77. The way to support the common core in global education in helping students learn to take action is through CTE courses.
78. An important question we forget to ask: What does success look like.
79. In education, we need to stop using the “add & stir” approach!
80. Right now we are at a time of remodeling teaching & learning: tearing down, renovating, & redecorating.
81. Tridimensional global competency: Academic, Action, & Affective!
82. We must focus on our immigrant students’ assets instead of deficits.
83. Hanging world flags and doing multi-cultural days with different ethic foods does NOT make you global competent.
84. Just because you turn to chapter 8 doesn’t mean all the Egyptians died.
85. Books to help us all as administrators & teacher leaders: Todd Whitaker’s Books
86. Professional development for global education must be differentiated. We must meet teachers where they are!
87. The phrase: “They’re in a different country!” is not an excuse anymore with the technology we have.
88. There is a fine line between professional development and professional discouragement.
89. Sometimes we need to rethink the “WHAT” of what we teach instead of adding more!
90. We must let the ownership of the story remain the student’s!
91. We must nurture our teachers’ own global competency!
92. We have to be careful of homogenizing our schools and not recognizing differences!
93. Students must gain capacity & disposition to understand and act on global issues.
94. We must use the community/world as resources for global education!
95. Many schools are technology rich, but technology user stupid!
96. Project Based Learning is a great place to incorporate global education.
97. Check this out : www.asiasociety.org
98. Students need to know how to mine information from a global perspective.
99. Don’t pose a problem without stating WMWD: What We Might Do?
100. Education is a civil right!
101. Does a focus on “college & career” readiness narrow our view of education, perhaps at the expense of citizenship or other aims.
102. Knowledge & expansion of worldview is more important than knowing a second language.
103. Do you need to become nationally aware to be a globally aware person.
104. Developed countries don’t hold the market on global education. Tech is democritizing ed & we can all learn from each other.
105. Need a school-wide approach to promoting global education; networks to share what works.
106. I don’t think we have to “know” multiple languages to be globally competent; I think we need to care to “learn” languages.
107. Fantastic tool to see how global your town or state is: www.mappingthenation.net
108. Show a people the same thing over and over again, and they become that one thing. Video: The Danger of a Single Story
109. You do not become a leader by trying to be a leader. You become a leader through your actions.
110. I believe people are in our lives for a reason. We’re here to learn from each other. ~ Gillian Anderson
Hopefully you get the idea of the depth of content that was covered during the Think Tank on Global Education. I continue to be blown away by the personal growth and learning I gain every time I am at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. As with all programs we were asked to answer the following: I used to think…But now I think…
I used to think global education could be taken care of by having a curriculum, a few special programs, a special class or two, world language classes, and maybe taking a few students on a foreign trip. Now I know global education is much more! The skills and insights students can gain from interacting with people of different nations and cultures is critical as America engages more intensely with an increasingly global marketplace and interdependent world. As an educational leader, I must lead the charge to help the students I serve to have a high quality global education program. A great global education program is multi-faceted, fully job imbedded professional development for the teachers, and has transdisciplinary themes. Finally, I believe all students have the right to deep global competency!
iREAD Because I Lead!
David Marquet’s Tweet
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” ~ Harry S. Truman
I was reminded of this quote from our 33rd President this past week when @LDavidMarquet tweeted it. I, of course, immediately retweeted. On the same tweet, he (Marquet) also asked the question, “What book is sitting on your nightstand?” Those that follow me on twitter, @ByronErnest, know that I can’t resist answering questions. So, I answered that I just finished The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen’s Race to the South Pole by Roland Huntford and Paul Theroux. And, since I am such a fan of David Marquet, I had to throw in that he (Marquet) is like Amundsen is this contrast of two leaders. You will also notice from the picture on my response that I am now using GoodReads. It is an awesome way to keep track of books, get recommendations, and make recommendations. It even lets you scan in your books using the barcode. I learned of this app while discussing books with one of our awesome teachers, Allison Marchisani. I love the team we’ve got here because I learn from them every day.
My Response Tweet
This post is not a review of any books. I can guarantee you that I will be posting to my blog about David Marquet, however, in the future. So, watch for that, but today my post deals with the importance of reading. It is interesting that earlier in the week before being asked the question of what book was on my nightstand I was reminded of just how many books I have read this past year. In fact the exact number is 35 since July 1 of 2013. The only reason I know this is because our Media Specialist keeps track of it for our iREAD – I Just Finished Reading program. She sent out a report last week and I was amazed, as was our staff, how many books I had read!
Our school has the goal of every student and staff member reading 30 books per year outside of the normal school reading. This is a huge undertaking, but research shows that high school students should be reading 30 books outside of school per year. Therefore, our staff believes that if the students are doing it, we should be doing it. I am excited to already be five over the goal. Keep in mind I read in three modalities: book in hand, Kindle app on my iPad Air, and Audible app for listening. As a leader the benefits of reading are wide-ranging. Evidence suggests reading can improve intelligence and lead to innovation and insight. Reading — whether Wikipedia, Michael Lewis, or Aristotle — is one of the quickest ways to acquire and assimilate new information. Harvard research claimed that reading across fields is good for creativity. As a leader who reads, I can sample insights in other fields, such as sociology, the physical sciences, economics, the military, or psychology, and apply those insights to my own organization. Think about it, I can take the incredible leadership lessons of David Marquet and apply them to my own leadership journey to help us innovate and prosper.
So let me explain how we do our iREAD – I Just Finished Reading program: On the honor system, each student and staff member are responsible for reporting to our media specialist the title of each book finished. The media specialist then records the book and makes a laminated picture of the cover. This cover is then put on the walls out in the building (see picture). Our halls are filling up with cover pictures. It is great to see students and staff perusing the titles and having conversations about the books.
Book Covers
In addition, I have gone one step further with my Principal’s Picks 13-14 Program. As I finish books I actually buy a copy to be put on display in the Principal’s Picks 13-14 Display (see picture) in the media center. A card is placed in each book and staff and students can sign up to win the drawing for their very own copy of the book. There are usually four to seven books that I have read on display at a time. This has been such a fun way to promote reading. In fact it has become quite competitive when it comes drawing time for the books. There have also been some great discussions about reading that have developed out of this program.
As I close this post I would say that I really do believe that leaders are readers. Also, I want to share my list of 35 books I have finished so far since July 1 of 2013. Click on Principal’s Picks 13-14 to see my list. Since everyone will ask which is my favorite of the 35, I’ll tell you: Turn The Ship Around: A True Story of Turning of Turning Followers Into Leaders by David Marquet. Did you make the connection to where I started this post? We are full circle back to David Marquet! Because of iRead I have now made a connection to a great leader and author. Don’t forget if you lead, you must read!!!
Principal’s Picks Display
Angry Birds University
Power-Up University
Back in 2012 I wrote a post about Angry Birds for the first time. To read my post The Angry Birds Effect click here. Amazingly, this game has not gone away, but gotten stronger, added different versions, and created tutorials and educational materials. For those few of you who have not had the Angry Birds educational experience, the main goal of the game is to sling-shot birds into a structure made of wood, ice, stone, or other materials in order to have the structure collapse and kill cartoon pigs. Each level offers a more challenging structure to topple and several different kinds of birds (of different sizes and capabilities) to utilize as weapons. Now there are even new versions such as Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Space, Star Wars Angry Birds, Angry Birds Short Fuse Aftershock, and many more.
I am still a major believer that Angry Birds is a powerful exemplar for facilitation of highly effective learning. As I play the game, I cannot not help but think: what if all teacher’s classrooms were more like this? Would students have a better learning experience? Would there be more focus on learning than teaching? I believe the reason the game is so addictive is because it plays to our meta cognitive skills. We all want instant feedback. We also want the chance to use that feedback to make adjustments and try again to ultimately attain mastery. There is no risk in trying new techniques and there is no limit to the amount of tries. This is why I am a believer in standards mastery grading using a narrative report card.
Angry Birds now has tutorials and additions such as Power-up University. This is a game segment you complete in order to learn to use special “power-up” powers given to the different characters. Power Ups can help you improve your scores in levels and help you get more stars. There are 4 Power-Ups, and you can use 2 per level. Here are the 4 Power-Ups:
- Super Seeds: Super Seeds turn any bird on the slingshot bigger and tougher.
- King Sling: King Sling upgrades your slingshot so that when flung, birds can go faster and farther than before.
- Sling Scope: Sling Scope allows you to see where your bird’s gonna go before you fling them.
- Birdquake: Birdquake rumbles the ground in a level and can make pig’s structures fall down.
As in the best video games, students need a safe place to try and fail until they succeed. There is the buzzword, “gamification” in education. Many are just taking this to mean using games for teaching, but I believe we should be on the quest to make learning more like a video game. In order to do this let’s take a look at the best practices we can learn from Angry Birds that I outlined in my original post The Angry Birds Effect:
1. Early in the game, the single Red Bird is the only one available-basic knowledge.
2. Players advance at their own pace.
3. Mastery is required to advance – You must have cleared a level three times with score improvement each time before moving on.
Instant Feedback
4. As the player advances, new levels are introduced.
5. The player can move ahead and clear levels beyond the one they are presently in, but not too far.
6. Different contexts are portrayed (deserts, gem mine, city at night, et cetera) to make it interesting and relevant to the player.
7. The player is given new tools (different types of birds) to use as he/she advances and unlocks higher levels.
8. Immediate feedback is given. The player knows the score immediately.
9. Ability to go back and retry and review any level any time.
10. The next level is always “just above” (Christensen et al., 2011) the players ability. Not too far above, but “just above.”
It is no wonder we are all addicted to this game! Now if only we could ensure that our classrooms are always safe spaces to practice new strategies, offer students a range of possibilities for how to succeed in their learning, give our students constant feedback, and support knowledge transfer within and among our courses. Angry Birds could be our exemplar for helping to close the achievement gap!
Reference
“They Were Scared!”
Last week I had the chance to go to a Lebanon High School basketball game. As you know this was the school I taught at and that my son, Heath, attends. His middle school basketball team was recognized at half time so I was excited to be there. I was also excited to watch my friend, Albert Hendrix (LHS Head Coach), coach the game. You also know from reading my blog posts that I am a huge fan of Albert and have learned so much from him. It’s hard to hang out with this guy and not learn something, so I was excited to get to visit with him after the game. Click here to view past posts that include wisdom from Albert: Own Your Own Expectations and Learning From SMART Coaches.
This particular night Lebanon played Zionsville. this was a little intimidating because former NBA and Indiana Pacer, Rick Smits’ son, Derrick, plays for Zionsville. At 7′ he was intimidating for the smaller Lebanon players. Zionsville also has other tall players making it a daunting task. Needless to say, Zionsville jumped out to an early and big lead. At half time Albert worked his coaching magic, made adjustments and Lebanon got back in the game.
After the game I visited with Albert and told him I was impressed with the half time adjustments. He said the big problem was that “they [the team] were scared!” He was speaking of his team and it was obvious they were scared in the beginning. It was such a shame because once they got past their fear, they were back in the game and playing the fast paced, aggressive basketball that Albert coaches.
The phrase, “They were scared!” has really stuck with me since that night. I told you I always learn from Albert and this day was no different. Really, when you think about it there has been a rather troubling trend across sports and really all walks of life lately. That trend is the common weak emotion – fear. It seems that people are more shook than ever when it comes to facing adversity.
I’m not just talking about physical adversity. I’m talking about all adversity. How many times have we not started a new project, applied for a different job/position, or taken on something really tough just because we were downright afraid of failure. Let’s face it, we are scared!
Can you imagine if Michael Jordan had given into fear? I had the chance to hear Michael Jordan speak at an event a while ago and he said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Again I ask, can you imagine if Michael Jordan had given into fear?
I love two questions related to fear of failure posed by John Maxwell in his book, Sometimes You Win Sometimes You Learn: Life’s Greatest Lessons Are Gained from Our Losses, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you wouldn’t fail?” and “What do you learn when you fail?” Our fear of making a mistake or failing seems to be based on the hidden assumption that we are potentially perfect. Sometimes I think we believe that making a mistake causes us to somehow betray ourselves. I really like what Mark Twain said when asked to name the greatest of all inventors. His reply: “Accidents!”
Remember, it’s easier to go from failure to success that it is from excuses to success!
Better in 2013
Those of you who know or follow me know I am a veracious reader. As we came to the end of 2013 I was trying to decide whether to do a top 10 reads in 2013 or what what to do to reflect on my reading. In considering my options I decided to write this final post of 2013 on what was clearly the best book I read this year. In fact it was so great I read it three times! It was not the first book I read from this author, but I was extremely moved and motivated by this book. What was the book? Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance (2007) by Atul Gawande.
I am in education, but as I always say there is about 90% similarity between all industries and only 10% difference. There are amazing connections between the field of medicine and education. I have read all the books of Atul Gawande. He is widely known as an expert on reducing error, improving safety, and increasing efficiency in modern surgery. He wrote the books Complications: A Surgeons Notes on an Imperfect Science, A Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, and The Best American Science Writing 2006. All of his books are incredible, and I was particularly moved by Better.
There are always takeaways that are personal to the reader in any good insightful book, and this book was no different. One of his themes he discussed was the variation in doctors. Those doctors who are “the best” doctors with the best outcomes. Who are they? Why are they better? He calls these doctors “positive deviants.” The biggest question: How do you become one? As I read the book I also considered the variation in educators and educational leaders. Really, you could do this reflection on any profession, including your own.
A paragraph early in the book really touched me and set the stage for my intense study of the entire book. Gawande said: “Betterment is perpetual labor. The world is chaotic, disorganized, and vexing, and medicine (education) is nowhere spared that reality. To complicate matters, we in medicine (education) are also only humans ourselves. We are distractible, weak, and given to our own concerns. Yet still, to live as a doctor (teacher) is to live so that one’s life is bound up in others’ and in science and in the messy, complicated connection between the two. It is to live a life of responsibility. The question, then, is not whether one accepts the responsibility. Just by doing this work, one has. The question is, having accepted the responsibility, how one does work well.” (p. 9) You will notice I put ‘education’ in parentheses beside ‘medicine’ and ‘doctor.’ Do you see the connection between the two? You could put your profession in this paragraph too!
Now, I want to make sure you caught the responsibility part. People talk about accepting responsibility all the time and the question is asked if we accept responsibility. Think about what Gawande said here. Just by doing the work we have accepted the responsibility. Therefore we have accepted the responsibility to work to be better or best! This thought alone really brings urgency to what I do every day!
At the end of Better Gawande had five suggestions for anyone to get better:
1. Learn something about your patient. He says to ask “the unscripted question,” like where did you grow up? tell me about your family? He talks about making the human connection. Really it comes down to what I consider to be one of the most important components to education – Relationships. Without relationships and knowing your students (patients) there can be no learning.
2. Don’t complain. This is tough! It is easy to complain, but think about it… None of us like to hear others complain. Really, complaining becomes a poison to an organization. Be a solution to problems, not part of the problem!
3. Count something. We should be scientists and do action research. My doctoral degree journey really drove this home for me. By picking a problem to research that I was passionate about, I found a love for digging in and quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing. I have also learned to let the data speak for itself. It is also important to look at the data without judgement. We tend not to look deep enough into successes; it is easier to study failures.
4. Write something. Gawande said, “What you write need not achieve perfection. It need only add some small observation about your world.” I have always said that my posts to this blog serve more for my learning than for others. Even though it is really awesome to have others read what you write, writing is personal and causes us to reflect and learn.
5. Change. Gawande asserted we should, “Make yourself an early adopter. Look for the opportunity to change. I am not saying you should embrace every new trend that comes along. But be willing to recognize the inadequacies in what you do and to seek out solutions.”
Hopefully if you have not read this book yet, I have given you enough of an intellectual appetizer to convince you to read Better. If you have read it, I hope I have caused you to go back and look at your highlights and reflect on your reading. As we close out 2013 and begin 2014 I want to use Gawande’s five suggestions to help me achieve his three core requirements for success: (1) Diligence; (2) Do Right; (3) Ingenuity – Thinking Anew. My wish for everyone in 2014 is to truly be BETTER!
Byron's Babbles 
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