Category Archives: #bethebestyoucanbe

Why Teachers Must Become Change Agents

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Issue Table of Contents

Michael G. Fullan

Teacher education programs must help teaching candidates to link the moral purpose that influences them with the tools that will prepare them to engage in productive change.

Teaching at its core is a moral profession. Scratch a good teacher and you will find a moral purpose. At the Faculty of Education, University of Toronto, we recently examined why people enter the teaching profession (Stiegelbauer 1992). In a random sample of 20 percent of 1,100 student teachers, the most frequently mentioned theme was “to make a difference in the lives of students.” Of course, such statements cannot be taken at face value because people have a variety of motives for becoming teachers. Nonetheless, there is a strong kernel of truth to this conclusion.

What happens in teacher preparation, the early years of teaching, and throughout the career, however, is another story. Those with a clear sense of moral purpose often become disheartened, and those with a limited sense of purpose are never called upon to demonstrate their commitment. In an extensive study of teacher burnout, Farber (1991) identifies the devastating effects of the growing “sense of inconsequentiality” that often accompanies the teacher’s career. Many teachers, says Farber, begin their careers “with a sense that their work is socially meaningful and will yield great personal satisfactions. ” This sense dissipates, however, as “the inevitable difficulties of teaching … interact with personal issues and vulnerabilities, as well as social pressure and values, to engender a sense of frustration and force a reassessment of the possibilities of the job and the investment one wants to make in it” (1991, p. 36).

A Natural Alliance

Certainly calls for reestablishing the moral foundation of teaching are warranted, but increased commitment at the one-to-one and classroom levels alone is a recipe for moral martyrdom. To have any chance of making teaching a noble and effective profession—and this is my theme here—teachers must combine the mantle of moral purpose with the skills of change agentry.

Moral purpose and change agentry, at first glance, appear to be strange bedfellows. On closer examination they are natural allies (Fullan 1993). Stated more directly, moral purpose—or making a difference—concerns bringing about improvements. It is, in other words, a change theme. In addition to the need to make moral purpose more explicit, educators need the tools to engage in change productively. Moral purpose keeps teachers close to the needs of children and youth; change agentry causes them to develop better strategies for accomplishing their moral goals.

Those skilled in change appreciate its volatile character, and they explicitly seek ideas for coping with and influencing change toward some desired ends. I see four core capacities for building greater change capacity: personal vision-building, inquiry, mastery, and collaboration (see Senge 1990 and Fullan 1993). Each of these has its institutional counterpart: shared vision-building; organizational structures, norms, and practices of inquiry; the development of increased repertoires of skills and know-how among organizational members; and collaborative work cultures.

But we are facing a huge dilemma. On the one hand, schools are expected to engage in continuous renewal, and change expectations are constantly swirling around them. On the other hand, the way teachers are trained, the way schools are organized, the way the educational hierarchy operates, and the way political decision makers treat educators results in a system that is more likely to retain the status quo. One way out of this quandary is to make explicit the goals and skills of change agentry. To break the impasse, we need a new conception of teacher professionalism that integrates moral purpose and change agentry, one that works simultaneously on individual and institutional development. One cannot wait for the other.

Personal Vision-Building

Working on personal visions means examining and re-examining why we came into teaching. Asking “What difference am I trying to make personally?” is a good place to start.

For most of us, the reasons are there, but possibly buried. For the beginning teacher, they may be underdeveloped. It is time to make them front and center. Block emphasizes that “creating a vision forces us to take a stand for a preferred future” (1987, p. 102). To articulate our vision of the future “is to come out of the closet with our doubts about the organization and the way it operates” (p. 105).

Personal vision comes from within. It gives meaning to work, and it exists independently of the organization or group we happen to be in. Once it gets going, it is not as private as it sounds. Especially in moral occupations like teaching, the more one takes the risk to express personal purpose, the more kindred spirits one will find. Paradoxically, personal purpose is the route to organizational change. When it is diminished, we see in its place group-think and a continual stream of fragmented, surface changes acquired uncritically and easily discarded.

Inquiry

All four capacities of change are intimately interrelated and mutually reinforcing. The second one—inquiry—indicates that formation and enactment of personal purpose are not static matters but, rather, a perennial quest. Pascale (1990) captures this precisely: “The essential activity for keeping our paradigm current is persistent questioning. I will use the term inquiry. Inquiry is the engine of vitality and self-renewal”(p. 14, emphasis in original).

Inquiry is necessary for forming and reforming personal purpose. While the latter comes from within, it must be fueled by information and ideas in the environment. Inquiry means internalizing norms, habits, and techniques for continuous learning. For the beginner, learning is critical because of its formative timing. Lifelong learning is essential because in complex, ever-changing societies mental maps “cease to fit the territory” (Pascale 1990, p. 13). Teachers as change agents are career-long learners, without which they would not be able to stimulate students to be continuous learners.

Mastery

Mastery is a third crucial ingredient. People behave their way into new visions and ideas, not just think their way into them. Mastery is obviously necessary for effectiveness, but it is also a means for achieving deeper understanding. New mind-sets arise from mastery as much as the reverse.

It has long been known that expertise is central to successful change, so it is surprising how little attention we pay to it beyond one-shot workshops and disconnected training. Mastery involves strong initial teacher education and career-long staff development, but when we place it in the perspective of comprehensive change, it is much more than this. Beyond exposure to new ideas, we have to know where they fit, and we have to become skilled in them, not just like them.

To be effective at change, mastery is essential both in relation to specific innovations and as a personal habit.

Collaboration

There is a ceiling effect to how much we can learn if we keep to ourselves (Fullan and Hargreaves 1991). The ability to collaborate on both a small- and large-scale is becoming one of the core requisites of postmodern society. Personal strength, as long as it is open-minded (that is, inquiry-oriented), goes hand-in-hand with effective collaboration—in fact, without personal strength collaboration will be more form than content. Personal and group mastery thrive on each other in learning organizations.

In sum, the moral purpose of teaching must be reconceptualized as a change theme. Moral purpose without change agentry is martyrdom; change agentry without moral purpose is change for the sake of change. In combination, not only are they effective in getting things done, but they are good at getting the right things done. The implications for teacher education and for redesigning schools are profound.

Society’s Missed Opportunity

Despite the rhetoric about teacher education today, there does not seem to be a real belief that investing in teacher education will yield results. With all the problems demanding immediate solution, it is easy to overlook a preventive strategy that would take several years to have an impact.

Currently, teacher education—from initial preparation throughout the career—is not geared toward continuous learning. Teacher education has the honor of being the worst problem and the best solution in education. The absence of a strong publicly stated knowledge base allows the misconception to continue that any smart person can teach. After visiting 14 colleges of education across the U.S., Kramer (1992) concludes:

Everything [a person] needs to know about how to teach could be learned by intelligent people in a single summer of well-planned instruction (p. 24).

In a twisted way, there is some truth to this observation. It is true in the sense that many people did and still do take such minimal instruction and manage to have a career in teaching. It is true also that some people with a strong summer program would end up knowing as much or more as others who take a weak yearlong program. In her journey, Kramer found plenty of examples of moral purpose—caring people, committed to social equality. What she found wanting was an emphasis on knowledge and understanding. Caring and competence are of course not mutually exclusive (indeed this is the point), but they can seem that way when the knowledge base is so poorly formulated.

Teacher education institutions themselves must take responsibility for their current reputation as laggards rather than leaders of educational reform. I will not take up the critical area of recruitment and selection in the profession (for the best discussion, see Schlechty 1990, chapter 1). In many ways an “if you build it, they will come” strategy is called for. It is self-defeating to seek candidates who turn out to be better than the programs they enter. What is needed is a combination of selection criteria that focus on academics as well as experience (related, for example, to moral purpose), sponsorship for underrepresented groups, and a damn good program.

Teacher educators like other would-be change agents must take some initiative themselves. Examples are now happening on several fronts. At the University of Toronto, we embarked on a major reform effort in 1988. With a faculty of some 90 staff and 1,100 full-time students in a one-year post-baccalaureate teacher certification program, we piloted a number of field-based options in partnerships with school systems (see University of Toronto, Making a Difference Video, 1992a). In 1991 I prepared a paper for our strategic planning committee, taking as a starting point the following premise: Faculties of Education should not advocate things for teachers or schools that they are not capable of practicing themselves. Using a hypothetical “best faculty of education in the country” metaphor, I suggested that such a faculty would:

  1. commit itself to producing teachers who are agents of educational and social improvement,
  2. commit itself to continuous improvement through program innovation and evaluation,
  3. value and practice exemplary teaching,
  4. engage in constant inquiry,
  5. model and develop lifelong learning among staff and students,
  6. model and develop collaboration among staff and students,
  7. be respected and engaged as a vital part of the university as a whole,
  8. form partnerships with schools and other agencies,
  9. be visible and valued internationally in a way that contributes locally and globally,
  10. work collaboratively to build regional, national, and international networks (Fullan 1991).

To illustrate, consider items 3 and 6. It would seem self-evident that faculties of education would stand for exemplary teaching among their own staff. Faculties of education have some excellent (and poor) teachers, but I would venture to say that hardly any have effective institutional mechanisms for improving their own teaching. Regarding item 6, many faculties of education advocate collaborative work cultures for schools, and some participate in professional development schools. This leads to two embarrassing questions. First, to what extent are teacher preparation programs designed so that student teachers deliberately develop and practice the habits and skills of collaboration? Even more embarrassing, to what extent do university professors (arts and science, as well as education) value and practice collaboration in their own teaching and scholarship?

Key Images for Teacher Preparation

With such guiding principles, and some experience with them through our pilot projects, we at the University of Toronto have recently begun redesigning the entire teacher preparation program. Our Restructuring Committee has proposed that:

Every teacher should be knowledgeable about, committed to, and skilled in:

  1. working with all students in an equitable, effective, and caring manner by respecting diversity in relation to ethnicity, race, gender, and special needs of each learner;
  2. being active learners who continuously seek, assess, apply, and communicate knowledge as reflective practitioners throughout their careers;
  3. developing and applying knowledge of curriculum, instruction, principles of learning, and evaluation needed to implement and monitor effective and evolving programs for all learners;
  4. initiating, valuing, and practicing collaboration and partnerships with students, colleagues, parents, community, government, and social and business agencies;
  5. appreciating and practicing the principles, ethics, and legal responsibilities of teaching as a profession;
  6. developing a personal philosophy of teaching which is informed by and contributes to the organizational, community, societal, and global contexts of education (University of Toronto, B.Ed. Restructuring Committee, 1992b).

We are now developing the actual program, curriculum, and teaching designs. Everything we know about the complexities of change applies in spades to the reform of higher education institutions. Nonetheless, after four years, we have made good progress and look forward to the next four years as the ones when more comprehensive and systematic reform will be put into place (see also Goodlad 1991, Howey 1992, and the third report of the Holmes Group, forthcoming).

To summarize: Faculties of education must redesign their programs to focus directly on developing the beginner’s knowledge base for effective teaching and the knowledge base for changing the conditions that affect teaching. Sarason puts it this way: “Is it asking too much of preparatory programs to prepare their students for a `real world’ which they must understand and seek to change if as persons and professionals they are to grow, not only to survive” (in press, p. 252, my emphasis). Goodlad (1991) asks a similar question: “Are a large percentage of these educators thoroughly grounded in the knowledge and skills required to bring about meaningful change?” (p. 4). The new standard for the future is that every teacher must strive to become effective at managing change.

Redesigning Schools

One of the main reasons that restructuring has failed so far is that there is no underlying conception that grounds what would happen within new structures. Restructuring has caused changes in participation, in governance, and in other formal aspects of the organization, but in the majority of cases, it has not affected the teaching-learning core and professional culture (Berends 1992, Fullan 1993). To restructure is not to reculture.

The professional teacher, to be effective, must become a career-long learner of more sophisticated pedagogies and technologies and be able to form and reform productive collaborations with colleagues, parents, community agencies, businesses, and others. The teacher of the future, in other words, must be equally at home in the classroom and in working with others to bring about continuous improvements.

I do not have the space to elaborate—indeed many of the details have not been worked out. The general directions, however, are clear. In terms of pedagogy, the works of Gardner (1991) and Sizer (1992)—in developing approaches to teaching for understanding—exemplify the kinds of knowledge and skills that teachers must develop and enlarge upon throughout their careers.

Beyond better pedagogy, the teacher of the future must actively improve the conditions for learning in his or her immediate environments. Put one way, teachers will never improve learning in the classroom (or whatever the direct learning environment) unless they also help improve conditions that surround the classroom. Andy Hargreaves and I developed 12 guidelines for action consistent with this new conception of “interactive professionalism”:

  1. locate, listen to, and articulate your inner voice;
  2. practice reflection in action, on action, and about action;
  3. develop a risk-taking mentality;
  4. trust processes as well as people;
  5. appreciate the total person in working with others;
  6. commit to working with colleagues;
  7. seek variety and avoid balkanization;
  8. redefine your role to extend beyond the classroom;
  9. balance work and life;
  10. push and support principals and other administrators to develop interactive professionalism;
  11. commit to continuous improvement and perpetual learning;
  12. monitor and strengthen the connection between your development and students’ development (Fullan and Hargreaves 1991).

We also developed eight guidelines for principals that focus their energies on reculturing the school toward greater interactive professionalism to make a difference in the educational lives of students. However, as important as principals can be, they are a diversion (and perhaps a liability) as far as new conceptions of the professional teacher are concerned. In a real sense, what gives the contemporary principalship inflated importance is the absence of leadership opportunities on the part of teachers (Fullan 1993).

A New Professionalism

Teacher professionalism is at a threshold. Moral purpose and change agentry are implicit in what good teaching and effective change are about, but as yet they are society’s (and teaching’s) great untapped resources for radical and continuous improvement. We need to go public with a new rationale for why teaching and teacher development are fundamental to the future of society.

Above all, we need action that links initial teacher preparation and continuous teacher development based on moral purpose and change agentry with the corresponding restructuring of universities and schools and their relationships. Systems don’t change by themselves. Rather, the actions of individuals and small groups working on new conceptions intersect to produce breakthroughs (Fullan 1993). New conceptions, once mobilized, become new paradigms. The new paradigm for teacher professionalism synthesizes the forces of moral purpose and change agentry.

References

Berends, M. (1992). “A Description of Restructuring in Nationally Nominated Schools.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.

Block, P. (1987). The Empowered Manager. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Farber, B. (1991). Crisis in Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Fullan, M. (1991). “The Best Faculty of Education in the Country: A Fable.” Submitted to the Strategic Planning Committee. Faculty of Education, University of Toronto.

Fullan, M. (1993). Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform. London: Falmer Press.

Fullan, M., and A. Hargreaves. (1991). What’s Worth Fighting for in Your School? Toronto: Ontario Public School Teachers’ Federation; Andover, Mass.: The Network; Buckingham, U.K.: Open University Press; Melbourne: Australian Council of Educational Administration.

Gardner, H. (1991). The Unschooled Mind. New York: Basic Books.

Goodlad, J. (1991). “Why We Need a Complete Redesign of Teacher Education.” Educational Leadership 49, 3: 4–10.

Holmes Group. (In press). Tomorrow’s Colleges of Education. East Lansing, Mich.: Holmes Group.

Howey, K. R. (1992). The Network of Fifteen. Columbus: Ohio State University.

Kramer, R. (1992). Ed School Follies. New York: Foss Press.

Pascale, P. (1990). Managing on the Edge. New York: Touchstone.

Sarason, S. (In press). The Case for a Change: The Preparation of Educators. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Schlechty, P. (1990). Reform in Teacher Education. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Colleges of Education.

Senge, P. (1990). The Fifth Discipline. New York: Doubleday.

Sizer, T. (1992). Horace’s School: Redesigning the American High School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Stiegelbauer, S. (1992). “Why We Want to Be Teachers.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.

University of Toronto, Faculty of Education. (1992a). Making a Difference Video, Toronto, Ontario.

University of Toronto, Faculty of Education. (1992b). “B.Ed. Restructuring Committee Report,” Toronto, Ontario.

Michael G. Fullan is Dean of Education, University of Toronto, 371 Bloor St., West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2R7.

Phones and Middle School

#bethebestyoucanbe, #justbecauseyoushouldknow, #pieedu, 21st Century Learning, Disorders, Technology

Middle School Misfortunes Then and Now, One Teacher’s Take

Middle school 2008 vs 2018.jpg

By: Benjamin Conlon

Let’s imagine a seventh grader. He’s a quiet kid, polite, with a few friends. Just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill twelve-year-old. We’ll call him Brian. Brian’s halfway through seventh grade and for the first time, he’s starting to wonder where he falls in the social hierarchy at school. He’s thinking about his clothes a little bit, his shoes too. He’s conscious of how others perceive him, but he’s not that conscious of it.

He goes home each day and from the hours of 3 p.m. to 7 a.m., he has a break from the social pressures of middle school. Most evenings, he doesn’t have a care in the world. The year is 2008.

Brian has a cell phone, but it’s off most of the time. After all, it doesn’t do much. If friends want to get in touch, they call the house. The only time large groups of seventh graders come together is at school dances. If Brian feels uncomfortable with that, he can skip the dance. He can talk to teachers about day-to-day problems. Teachers have pretty good control over what happens at school.

Now, let’s imagine Brian on a typical weekday. He goes downstairs and has breakfast with his family. His mom is already at work, but his dad and sisters are there. They talk to each other over bowls of cereal. The kids head off to school soon after. Brian has a fine morning in his seventh grade classroom and walks down to the lunchroom at precisely 12 p.m.

There’s a slick of water on the tiled floor near the fountain at the back of the cafeteria. A few eighth graders know about it, and they’re laughing as yet another student slips and tumbles to the ground.

Brian buys a grilled cheese sandwich. It comes with tomato soup that no one ever eats. He polishes off the sandwich and heads to the nearest trashcan to dump the soup. When his sneakers hit the water slick, he slips just like the others. The tomato soup goes up in the air and comes down on his lap.

Nearby, at the table of eighth graders, a boy named Mark laughs. He laughs at Brian the same way the boys around him laugh at Brian. They laugh because they’re older, and they know something the younger kids don’t. They laugh at the slapstick nature of the fall. The spilled tomato soup is a bonus. The fall is a misfortune for Brian. That’s all. It’s not an asset for Mark. A few kids hear the laughter and look over, but Brian gets up quickly and rushes off to the bathroom to change into his gym shorts.

Mark tries to retell the story to a friend later. The friend doesn’t really get it because he wasn’t there. He can’t picture it. In fact, Mark seems a little mean for laughing at all.

After lunch, Brian returns to homeroom in his gym shorts. No one seems to notice the change. He breathes a sigh of relief. The cafeteria fall is behind him. He meets his sisters at the end of the day and they ask why he’s wearing gym shorts. He tells them he spilled some tomato sauce on his pants. They head home and spend the afternoon and evening together, safe and sound, home life completely separate from school life. Brian doesn’t think about the incident again. Only a few people saw it. It’s over.

Now, let’s imagine Brian again. Same kid. Same family. Same school. He’s still in seventh grade, but this time it’s 2018.

When Brian sits down for breakfast, his dad is answering an email at the table. His older sister is texting, and his younger sister is playing a video game. Brian has an iPhone too. He takes it out and opens the Instagram app. The Brian from 2008 was wondering about his position in the social hierarchy. The Brian from 2018 knows. He can see it right there on the screen. He has fewer ‘followers’ than the other kids in his grade. That’s a problem. He wants to ask his father what to do, but there’s that email to be written. Instead, Brian thinks about it all morning at school. While his teacher talks, he slips his phone out and checks to see how many ‘followers’ the other kids in class have. The answer doesn’t help his confidence. At precisely 12 p.m., he heads to the cafeteria. He buys a grilled cheese. It comes with tomato soup that no one ever eats.

At the back of the lunchroom, Mark sits with the other eighth graders. He holds a shiny new iPhone in one hand. Mark has had an iPhone for five years. He’s got all the apps. Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. He’s got lots of followers too. He doesn’t know all of them, but that’s okay.

A few years ago, Mark made his first Instagram post. It was a picture of his remote control car. Mark used to really enjoy remote control cars. Mark checked Instagram an hour after putting up that first picture. A bright red dot showed at the bottom of the page. He clicked it. Someone had ‘liked’ the picture of the car. Mark felt validated. It was good that he posted the picture. A little bit of dopamine was released into Mark’s brain. He checked the picture an hour later. Sure enough, another ‘like’. More dopamine. He felt even better.

For a while, pictures of the remote control car were sufficient. They generated enough ‘likes’ to keep Mark happy. He no longer got much joy from actually driving the remote control car, but he got plenty from seeing those ‘likes’ pile up.

Then something started to happen. The ‘likes’ stopped coming in. People didn’t seem interested in the pictures of the car anymore. This made Mark unhappy. He missed the ‘likes’ and the dopamine that came with them. He needed them back. He needed more exciting pictures, because exciting pictures would bring more views and more ‘likes’. So, he decided to drive his car right out into the middle of the road. He had his little brother film the whole thing. He filmed the remote control car as it got flattened by a passing truck. Mark didn’t bother to collect it. He just grabbed his phone and posted the video. It was only a few minutes before the ‘likes’ started coming in. He felt better.

Now it’s eighth grade and Mark has become addicted to social media.  Sure, he needs a lot more ‘likes’ to get the same feeling, but that’s okay. That just means he needs more content. Good content. Content no one else has. That’s the kind that gets a lot of ‘likes’, really, really fast. Mark has learned the best content comes from filming and posting the embarrassing experiences of classmates.

When he notices that water slick at the back of the cafeteria, he’s ready.  Each time someone walks by and falls, their misfortune becomes an asset for Mark. A part of Mark wants them to fall. He hopes they fall.

Brian walks across the cafeteria with his soup, minding his own business. Suddenly, his feet slide out from under him. The tomato soup goes up in the air and comes down on his lap. He’s so embarrassed, that when he stands up and rushes off to the bathroom, he doesn’t notice Mark filming.

Mark’s fingers race over his iPhone screen before Brian is out of sight. That was a great video he just took, and he wants to get it online. Fast. He knows he’s not supposed to have his cell phone out in school, but the teachers really only enforce that rule during class. They all use Twitter and Instagram too. They understand.

Mark doesn’t know who he just filmed, and he doesn’t care. It’s not his fault the kid fell on the floor. He’s just the messenger. The video is a kind of public service announcement. He’s just warning everyone else about the water spot in the cafeteria. That’s what Mark tells himself.

He gets the video uploaded to Snapchat first. No time for a caption. It speaks for itself. He has it up on Instagram seconds later. By then, the ‘likes’ are already coming in. Dopamine floods into Mark’s brain. There’s a comment on Instagram already! “What a loser!” it says. Mark gives the comment a ‘like’. Best to keep the audience happy.

This has been a rewarding lunch. The bell’s going to ring in a few minutes. Mark sits back and refreshes his screen again and again and again until it does.

Meanwhile, Brian heads back from the bathroom, having changed into his gym shorts. He’s still embarrassed about the fall. It happened near the back of the cafeteria, though. He doesn’t think many people saw. He hopes they didn’t. But when he walks into the classroom, a lot of people look at him. One girl holds her phone up at an odd angle. Is she…taking a picture? The phone comes down quickly and she starts typing, so he can’t be sure.

Class begins. Brian is confused because people keep slipping their phones out and glancing back at him. He asks to go to the bathroom. Inside a stall, he opens Instagram. There he is on the screen, covered in tomato sauce. How could this be? Who filmed this? Below the video, a new picture has just appeared. It’s him in his gym shorts. The caption reads, “Outfit change!”

Brian scrolls frantically through the feed trying to find the source of the video. He can’t. It’s been shared and reshared too many times. He notices his follower count has dropped. He doesn’t want to go to class. He just wants it to stop.

He meets his sisters outside at the end of the day. Several students snap pictures as he walks by. Neither sister says a word. Brian knows why.

Home was a safe place for Brian in 2008. Whatever happened in school, stayed in school. Not now. Brian arrives at his house, heart thundering, and heads straight to his bedroom. He’s supposed to be doing homework, but he can’t concentrate. Alone in the dark, he refreshes his iPhone again and again and again and again.

Brian’s family is having his favorite dish for dinner, but he doesn’t care. He wants it to be over so he can get back to his phone. Twice, he goes to the bathroom to check Instagram. His parents don’t mind, they’re checking their own phones.

Brian discovers that two new versions of the video have been released. One is set to music and the other has a nasty narration. Both have lots of comments. He doesn’t know how to fight back, so he just watches as the view counts rise higher and higher. His own follower count, his friend count, keeps going in the opposite direction. Brian doesn’t want to be part of this. He doesn’t like this kind of thing. He can’t skip it though. It’s not like the dance. And he can’t tell a teacher. This isn’t happening at school.

He stays up all night refreshing the feed, hoping the rising view count will start to slow. Mark is doing the same thing at the other side of town. He has lots of new followers. This is his best video ever.

At 3 a.m., they both turn off their lights and stare up at their respective ceilings. Mark smiles. He hopes tomorrow something even more embarrassing happens to a different kid. Then he can film that and get even more ‘likes’. Across town, Brian isn’t smiling, but sadly, he’s hoping for exactly the same thing.

From the Author

I started teaching in 2009. At that time, public school was very much the way I remembered it. That’s not the case anymore. Smartphones and social media have transformed students into creatures craving one thing: content. It’s a sad state of affairs.

But there’s hope.

Over the last few years, my students have become increasingly interested in stories from the days before smartphones and social media. In the same way many adults look back fondly on simpler times, kids look back to second and third grade, when no one had a phone. I think a lot of them already miss those days.

Smartphones and social media aren’t going anywhere. Both are powerful tools, with many benefits. But they have fundamentally altered how children interact with the world and not in a good way. We can change that. In addition to the “Wait Until 8th” pledge, consider taking the following steps to help your children reclaim childhood.

  1. Propose that administrators and teachers stop using social media for school related purposes. In many districts teachers are encouraged to employ Twitter and Instagram for classroom updates. This is a bad thing. It normalizes the process of posting content without consent and teaches children that everything exciting is best viewed through a recording iPhone. It also reinforces the notion that ‘likes’ determine value. Rather than reading tweets from your child’s teacher, talk to your children each day. Ask what’s going on in school. They’ll appreciate it.
  2. Insist that technology education include a unit on phone etiquette, the dark sides of social media and the long-term ramifications of posting online. Make sure students hear from individuals who have unwittingly and unwillingly been turned into viral videos.
  3. Tell your children stories from your own childhood. Point out how few of them could have happened if smartphones had been around. Remind your children that they will some day grow up and want stories of their own. An afternoon spent online doesn’t make for very good one.
  4. Teach your children that boredom is important. They should be bored. Leonardo Da Vinci was bored. So was Einstein. Boredom breeds creativity and new ideas and experiences. Cherish boredom.
  5. Remind them that, as the saying goes, adventures don’t come calling like unexpected cousins. They have to be found. Tell them to go outside and explore the real world. Childhood is fleeting. It shouldn’t be spent staring at a screen.

 

Benjamin Conlon is a public school teacher and author of The Slingshot’s Secret, a middle school mystery for anyone trying to find old-fashioned adventure in the digital age. Benjamin grew up in New England and spent much of his childhood exploring the woods surrounding his hometown. After college, he began teaching elementary school. He wrote The Slingshot’s Secret as a reminder that even in a world filled with technology, adventure abounds.

 

Please consider delaying the smartphone for your child with the Wait Until 8th pledge. There are so many reasons to wait. Currently the average age a child receives a smartphone is 10 years old despite the many distractions and dangers that comes with this technology. Join more than 15,000 parents by signing the pledge today.

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Create your PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENTS

#bethebestyoucanbe, #justbecauseyoushouldknow, #pieedu, #whyamIhere, 21st Century Learning

Steven Covey (in his book First Things First) refers to developing a mission statement as “connecting with your own unique purpose and the profound satisfaction that comes from fulfilling it.”

 

The Five-Step Plan for Creating Personal Mission Statements

by LiveCareer Staff Writer

by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.

Steps for Developing a Personal Mission Statement

Step 1: Identify Past Successes.
Spend some time identifying four or five examples where you have had personal success in recent years. These successes could be at work, in your community, at home, etc. Write them down. Try to identify whether there is a common theme (or themes) to these examples.

Step 2: Identify Core Values.
Develop a list of attributes that you believe identify who you are and what your priorities are. The list can be as long as you need.

Once your list is complete, see if you can narrow your values down to around five or six of the most important values. Finally, see if you can choose the one value that is most important to you.

Step 3: Identify Contributions.
Make a list of the ways you could make a difference. In an ideal situation, how could you contribute best to:

the world in general | your family | your employer or future employers | your friends | your community

Step 4: Identify Goals.
Spend some time thinking about your priorities in life and the goals you have for yourself.

Make a list of your personal goals, perhaps in the short-term (up to three years) and the long-term (beyond three years).

Step 5: Write Mission Statement.
Based on the first four steps and a better understanding of yourself, begin writing your personal mission statement.

Sample Personal Mission Statement Development

1. Past successes:

a) Developed new product features for stagnant product
b) Part of a team that developed a new positioning statement for product
c) Helped child’s school with fundraiser that was wildly successful
d) Increased turnout for the opening of a new local theater company

Themes: past successes all relate to creative problem solving and execution of a solution.

2. Core values:

Hard-working | Industrious | Creativity | Problem-Solving | Friendly | Outgoing | Positive | Family-oriented | Decision-maker | Compassionate | Spiritual | Analytical

Most important core values (ranked according to importance):

Problem-Solving | Creativity | Analytical | Compassionate | Decision-maker | Positive

Most important overall core value: Creativity

3. Identify Contributions:

The world in general: develop products and services that help people achieve what they want in life. To have a lasting impact on the way people live their lives.

My family: to be a leader in terms of personal outlook, compassion for others, and maintaining an ethical code; to be a good father and husband; to leave the world a better place for my children and their children.

My employer or future employers: to lead by example and demonstrate how innovative and problem-solving products can be successful both in terms of solving a problem and successful in terms of profitability and revenue generation for the organization.

My friends: to always have a hand held out for my friends; for them to know they can always come to me with any problem.

My community: to use my talents in such a way as to give back to my community.

4. Identify Goals:

Short-term: To continue my career with a progressive employer that allows me to use my skills, talent, and values to achieve success for the firm.

Long-term: To develop other outlets for my talents and develop a longer-term plan for diversifying my life and achieving both professional and personal success.

5. Mission Statement:

To live life completely, honestly, and compassionately, with a healthy dose of realism mixed in with imagination, and to know that all things are possible if one sets their mind to finding an answer.

Final Thoughts on Developing a Personal Mission Statement

A personal mission statement is, of course, personal. But if you want to truly see whether you have been honest in developing your personal mission statement, I suggest sharing the results of the process with one or more people who are close to you. Ask for their feedback. And develop further from there, if necessary.

Finally, remember that a mission statement is not meant to be written once and blasted into stone. You should set aside some time annually to review your career, job, goals, and mission statement — and make adjustments as necessary.

And for more ideas on creating a personal mission statement, read one of our other articles, Using a Personal Mission Statement to Chart Your Career Course, which includes links to other mission-building exercises. Also, know that LiveCareer has all of your career needs covered. When it comes time to start applying for jobs, put our Resume Builder and Cover Letter Builder to use and generate winning, attention-getting documents in no time at all!

Dr. Randall S. Hansen is founder of Quintessential Careers, one of the oldest and most comprehensive career development sites on the Web, as well CEO of EmpoweringSites.com. He is also founder of MyCollegeSuccessStory.com and EnhanceMyVocabulary.com. Dr. Hansen is also a published author, with several books, chapters in books, and hundreds of articles. He’s often quoted in the media and conducts empowering workshops around the country. Finally, Dr. Hansen is also an educator, having taught at the college level for more than 15 years. Visit his personal Website or reach him by email at randall(at)quintcareers.com. Check out Dr. Hansen on GooglePlus.

Give the Gift of Massage!

#bethebestyoucanbe, #justbecauseyoushouldknow, #pieedu, #whyamIhere, Massage

According to the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) Consumer Survey, 72 percent of individuals surveyed claim their primary reason for receiving a massage in the previous 12 months was medical (43 percent) or stress (29 percent).

A growing body of research supports the health benefits of massage therapy for conditions such as stress, fibromyalgia, low-back pain and more. Find out how you can benefit from adding massage therapy to your health and wellness routine.

References

1. Relieve stress

2. Relieve postoperative pain

3. Reduce anxiety

4. Manage low-back pain

5. Help fibromyalgia pain

6. Reduce muscle tension

7. Enhance exercise performance

8. Relieve tension headaches

9. Sleep better

10. Ease symptoms of depression

11. Improve cardiovascular health

12. Reduce pain of osteoarthritis

13. Decrease stress in cancer patients

 14. Improve balance in older adults

15. Decrease rheumatoid arthritis pain

16. Temper effects of dementia

17. Promote relaxation

18. Lower blood pressure

19. Decrease symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

20. Help chronic neck pain

21. Lower joint replacement pain

22. Increase range of motion

23. Decrease migraine frequency

24. Improve quality of life in hospice care

25. Reduce chemotherapy-related nausea

https://www.amtamassage.org/articles/1/News/detail/3124/25-reasons-to-get-a-massage

MATHCOUNTS

#bethebestyoucanbe, #justbecauseyoushouldknow, #mathiswhereitsat, #pieedu, 21st Century Learning, Mathematics, Mathisfun
MATHCOUNTS Competition Series Registration Is Open!
REGISTER NOW
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Some students love math. Other students fear math.
MATHCOUNTS is the place for both.

We provide engaging math programs to U.S. middle school students of all ability levels to build confidence and improve attitudes towards math and problem solving.

LEARN MORE
Our Programs

A national middle school mathematics competition that builds problem solving skills and fosters achievement through four levels of fun, in-person “bee” style contests.

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A national middle school mathematics enrichment program that gives educators the resources and guidance needed to run math clubs in schools and other groups.

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A national middle school contest that blends math, creativity, art and technology and challenges students to produce a video solving a math problem in a real-world setting.

LEARN MORE
Problem of the Week
Fall Leaves
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It’s Autumn, and that means leaves are falling! Amber’s house occupies 2650 ft2
in the middle of a 50-foot by 80-foot parcel of land, and the leaves that fall cover the ground
all around her house. If it takes Amber’s family 4.5 hours to rake all the leaves…

SEE THE REST OF THE PROBLEM

Resources

ONLINE PROBLEM LIBRARY (OPLET)
VIDEO LIBRARY
INTERACTIVE MATERIALS
ONLINE STORE
ALUMNI RESOURCES

BUILDING MODERN CLASSROOMS THAT MEET THE NEEDS OF ALL LEARNERS

#bethebestyoucanbe, #justbecauseyoushouldknow, #mathiswhereitsat, #pieedu, 21st Century Learning, Mathematics

by  | 09.11.18

A couple of years ago, I started my fourth year of teaching high school math at a new school in Washington, D.C. What struck me right away was the diversity of learning levels in my classroom. More specifically, how many of my new students believed they just didn’t belong in a math classroom at all.

I knew I had to shift that mindset – and that meant changing my instructional model in a significant way. I had to meet the needs of my quickest learners while simultaneously providing the appropriate support for my students with critical learning gaps. I worked to develop a three-pronged approach built on blended instruction, self-paced structure and mastery-based assessment.

“Blended learning” involves leveraging technology in the classroom to replace my math lectures with instructional videos. My instructional videos are created simply by screencasting my PowerPoint presentations with my voice recorded over. By removing the traditional lecture from my class, I am free to spend my entire class time working individually and in small groups with students.

By blending my instruction, it allows my students to learn at their own pace. Students are no longer reliant on a short presentation at the beginning of class to access the content. When students walk into my classroom now, they look at the publicly displayed pacing tracker to remind themselves which lesson they’re working on. Each day, they pick up where they left off the day before, ensuring they are only progressing when they are ready. My students control where they go and what they do. I spend the class period going over lesson revisions with individual students and reteaching concepts to small groups.

My class is “mastery-based,” meaning my students can’t move to the next lesson without showing mastery on the previous lesson. At first, my students have intense emotional reactions to this: They’ve turned something in, and now, I am telling them it does not exhibit mastery and pushing them to revisit their thinking and try again. It requires a shift in mindset from completion to mastery. To get there, my class revolves around the core components of revision, reassessment and reflection to facilitate a daily journey to mastery.

Although there is initial resistance, within a few weeks, every student experiences authentic mastery. Every student learns what it feels like to travel through a lesson and work through setbacks. Every student experiences excellence.

This model is tough for my students at the beginning of the school year – but it’s also tough for me. I have to be very consistent and accept a level of chaos. I have to be patient and trust that the transformation will happen. If a student isn’t using their time productively, I do not micro-manage their behaviors. I have an open and honest conversation with them about their use of time. We discuss the real implications of their decisions, and I put the responsibility on them to use their time wisely. Eventually, after seeing the impact of their actions, they develop into self-directed learners who take control of their learning process. That early chaos pays off.

If you’re a teacher who wants to try my approach, my first piece of advice is: Do not be afraid to take a risk. When I started my model, my level of understanding of technology was nothing special, and my experience with self-pacing and mastery-based learning was limited. However, I felt comfortable taking major instructional risks because I knew the status quo was unacceptable. To support teachers in adapting my model, I have developed The Modern Classrooms Project, a nonprofit that helps teachers redesign their learning experience to infuse blended, self-paced and mastery-based instruction to meet the needs of all learners. To learn more about my nonprofit, you can visit www.modernclassrooms.org.

As you reconsider your own learning model, you have to take a step back and let go of your narratives about what teaching and learning look like and ask yourself, “What do my students need?” When teachers ask themselves that question, we so often land in the same place. We know that students should only progress when they have exhibited mastery. We know kids need to learn at their own pace. We know kids need individualized instruction. And as teachers, we can’t be afraid to take risks to meet those needs. We have to be brave enough to let go and try something new.

About the Author

Kareem Farah
KAREEM FARAH

Kareem Farah is a high school math teacher and executive director of The Modern Classrooms Project. Follow him on Twitter @Kareemfarah23.

California Mathematics Council Awards and Scholarships

#bethebestyoucanbe, #mathiswhereitsat, #pieedu, CMC, Grants, Mathematics

CMC Awards and Scholarships

CMC North Mini Grants: Need supplies or materials for your class? Are you a member of CMC in the Northern Region (See your member profile)? Apply for a CMC North Mini Grant. Contact Linda Flood for more information at minigrant.CMCN@gmail.com.  Deadlines to apply is November 1 and March 1.

CA Math Festival Scholarships: In order to expand the opportunity for K-8 schools throughout California to benefit from the exciting learning of a Math Festival, CMC is offering up to a $1,000 scholarship to partially fund your school’s daytime or daytime/evening Festival. Deadline to apply is November 1.

For more details about the Math Festival program including the fees, visit the Math Festival website.

Nine Professional Dispositions of a Good Teacher

#bethebestyoucanbe, #justbecauseyoushouldknow, #pieedu, 21st Century Learning, Educational Resources, Educational Support, Passion, Teacher Support

Do you know how to exercise? Do you exercise? Your answer might be “yes” to the first and “no” to the second. The first question asks about ability: Do you know the ways to exercise so as to do you some good? The second question goes beyond ability and asks about inclination: Are you disposed to exercise? Do you exercise regularly?

Professional dispositions are the principles or standards that underpin a teacher’s success in the classroom. They are the values, commitments, and professional ethics that govern how a teacher acts with students, families, colleagues, and communities.

https://education.wsu.edu/undergradprograms/teachered/professionaldisposition/

From Washington University

The Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) mandates, through the Washington Administrative Code (WAC), that all certified educators must be “fit to teach” and “have the proper dispositions to teach.” The transformation of a person from one who merely possesses knowledge and technique into a superior teacher must include the development of characteristics such as a capacity for active and creative communication, a tendency to probe, and a willingness to explore topics from a variety of perspectives. Further, an outstanding educator must possess the desire to engage and encourage students who have a wide range of abilities, interests, and temperaments.

In order to provide the highest quality teacher force possible, Washington State University ’s College of Education has the responsibility of evaluating teacher effectiveness along a variety of dimensions. It uses many instruments and methods to assess the effectiveness of prospective teachers, to make certain they have the knowledge, skills and professional habits necessary to serve in the highly dynamic and complex classrooms of the 21st century.

Good teachers come fom widely different backgrounds, and have varied opinions, interests, and personalities. But some qualities, such as the ability to communicate clearly, are common to nearly all good teachers. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine a teacher being a success without possessing these qualities.

Likewise, students in Washington’s K-12 classrooms come from varied backgrounds. They have a wide range of abilities, different levels of prior knowledge, and vary in how they feel about learning and school. These young people grow and develop, sometimes slowly, sometimes with astonishing quickness. Each classroom, therefore, is a mix of dozens of competing interests, stages of development, and strategies for learning.

Even within a single student’s attempt to learn, a teacher may have to try several approaches before finding one that succeeds. A student may believe that she is “no good at math (or science or history or reading),” for reasons having nothing to do with her abilities.

With as many as a hundred different students and several different subjects to teach every day, teachers have an almost impossible mission. Yet we expect nothing less of them than success with every student.

In order to be successful—to leave, truly, no child behind—teachers must purposefully act in caring, fair, professional, respectful, and responsible ways.

Professional dispositions of good teachers

  1. Good teachers are active, respectful participants in discussions.
  2. Good teachers express themselves clearly and effectively.
  3. Good teachers listen thoughtfully and responsively.
  4. Good teachers engage in lifelong learning, aided by reflection and assessment of new information and ideas.
  5. Good teachers interact effectively, respectfully, and empathetically across a wide range of situations and people.
  6. Good teachers work to ensure system-wide high quality learning opportunities and experiences for all students.
  7. Good teachers seek understanding of complex issues in order to solve problems both independently and collaboratively.
  8. Good teachers are committed to mastering best practices informed by sound theory.
  9. Good teachers are responsible colleagues.

How is it possible to tell whether a person possesses these professional dispositions? By careful observation of their behaviors and actions. Is the teacher candidate a thoughtful, active listener? Does he or she participate in discussions, and is that participation respectful? Does the teacher candidate give help readily?

Excellence is a long, laborious process. It is not always easy to foretell which teachers will excel in their careers. But patterns of action that show up in the course of teacher preparation can be presumed also to show up later on the job. A person demonstrating promptness, courtesy, and scrupulous attention to detail in teacher preparation will likely act likewise when employed. A person habitually late, or rude, or careless in pre-service work will, in contrast, be likely to have trouble in a teaching position.

These are judgments about professional potential, not about persons or their opinions or beliefs. Institutions certifying teachers owe the state’s citizens their best judgment and keenest observations when making decisions that will have such profound future effects. The identification and evaluation of professional dispositions is a valuable tool for identifying and capturing important information about prospective teachers, to make sure that they are best prepared for their professional lives.

Read our Professional Disposition Assessment Form (PDA).

The issue of dispositions has been widely discussed. The President of NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education) has responded to claims in the press. Read the letter by NCATE President Arthur E. Wise.

See how our Professional Disposition Assessment (PDA) formcompares with state, national, and accreditation standards.

Professional disposition forms

PROFESSIONAL DISPOSITION ASSESSMENT (PDA)
PROFESSIONAL DISPOSITIONS EVALUATION FOR FIELD EXPERIENCES (PDEFE)

The Professional Dispositions Assessment (PDA) is the form used by the Department of Teaching & Learning to document a student’s disposition to be a teacher based upon their performance in the University classroom.

The Professional Dispositions evaluation for Field Experiences (PDEFE) is the form used to document a student’s dispositions during practicum/field experiences. The PDA form and the process used by the Department of Teaching and Learning have received national accolades.

The procedures for the forms vary depending upon a student’s tenure in the program and the circumstances that precipitated the documentation. For example, all students taking T&L 301 will receive a PDA indicating strengths and weaknesses (if any). In T&L 301, students will discuss the concepts of teacher dispositions. Later in the program, a professor may issue a PDA/PDEFE when specific behaviors are noted and must be documented.

If you have any questions about disposition or the PDA/PDEFE, do not hesitate to contact Chris Sodorff, Director of Field Services at csodorff@wsu.edu or 509-335-0925.

Professional disposition