To help encourage conversations, reflection, and dialogue about learning, our question of the week is: How do you define learning? Learning Gains (Week of 3/21/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey
The sunlight and warmer temperatures have been a wonderful way to welcome in the official start of spring. It was great to get outside a bit for some walks and to be back in the garden for spring clean-up over the weekend. Transitions abound at this time of year, and we know that more are on the way, so just being outside was a natural way to slow things down a bit.
Some Questions
- What is learning?
- How do we define learning?
- How is it measured? How do we measure learning?
- How (as Clark says) does chaos play into learning?
- What conditions foster learning?
- Is there a difference between ‘in school’ and ‘out of school’ learning?
We (using this ‘we’ in a very broad sense) spend so much time discussing learning, planning learning, and assessing learning - I’m hoping we (again, the broad ‘we’ - at Blake/Medfield and the larger scope of educators as well) can take a step back and calibrate/recalibrate the term ‘learning’. As we have discussed a lot over the last month, we have a unique opportunity to reset, listen, archive our own learning from this past year and calibrate our efforts to support all of our learners. It brings me back to Justin Reich’s words about coherence...
At the outset of our faculty meeting this week, this week’s prompt helped me (and hopefully others) to get a sense of our own learning from a ‘year of chaos’...
One thing I learned over the last year (these are from our staff - responses from the weekly prompt are listed below as well)...
- Best laid plans can blow up at a moment’s notice
- Ask for help!
- Flexibility
- Grace not perfection (not learned but reinforced)
- To be flexible
- How adaptable we all can be
- Actually, Yes, we CAN do that and Yes, it WILL get done.
- I/we are so flexible
- I can do hard things
- For better or worse, humans can get used to anything
- Slowing down is critical and really hard to do
- Marie Kondo folding
- To be grateful for what I have in front of me
- Just keep swimming
- Breathing helps.
- That I miss smiles
- Flexibility
- I am the resource
- The need to be flexible
- One day at a time!
- To be happy with our best efforts
- Thinking on one’s feet
- To rely on others more often.
- It’s okay if things aren’t perfect
- Deep breaths
- I can make it work. Might not be ideal but I can make it work.
- Practicing patience is easier said than done
- I like walks
- The struggle is real
- That the work always gets done
- Not to worry about too much initially because it will change!
- Things aren’t going to be perfect, but everyone will still be okay
- My lesson presentation really matters for many students.
- Less is more
- To just jump in and try it even if its messy
- How to interpret a story in a wider way
- It all works out
- Just keep going
- Be ready to change.
- Saying no.
- How to use Google classroom and EdPuzzle and Screencastify and Quizziz and about twenty other things I'd never heard of before September
- Importance of rolling with the changes
- Roll with change
- How busy my life was pre-covid with all my family’s activities, my activities!
- I can do hard things
- roll with it
- Relationships, patience, perseverance
- Students want to do well!
- animation
- How to embrace reality vs my expectations, not be disappointed by how lessons actually go
- I’ve learned/recognized that there are so many great parents and students that work hard each day and have our backs.
- relationships are the driver
- How to teach with my iPad
- LEAN IN
- Flexibility - knowing that every minute things can change, and you need to be ready to help everyone adjust
- How to make an underline that students can actually write on in Google Docs.
- How to really interact with students remote, in-person, attendance, google classroom slide shows that include student work
- Kids are resilient, and we adults can learn to be once again.
- Little by little, a little becomes a lot
- Tests do not gauge learning
- Accepting what I cannot change and rolling with all the changes
- I cry for a day when I am asked to change things quickly, but then am able to move on. We have been really resourceful this year!
- Focus on the things that are important and that list isn’t as big as I used to think it was
- Many new tech platforms that allow me to see student work in real time
- The pandemic has exposed so many inequities that I knew about, but hadn't experienced.
- A lot of things that we all thought were really important, really weren’t important at all.
This relatively simple prompt alone serves as a great example of how learning is realized in various and personal ways - I hope that is not lost on us as we think about implications for our students. In reflecting upon the prompt ‘Imagine If…’, inspired by the legacy of Sir Ken Robinson’s work, it is important that we also keep aspirations, imagination, and #willfulhope at the heart of our practices - without these, adaptation, action, and learning will not take place….
How would you finish the sentence, “Imagine if…”? - Sir Ken Robinson
(1:30)
I am inspired and bolstered by the responses from our staff…
- all students learned in districts with equal funding.
- 2020 never happened & the world didn’t change… on so many fronts… in the ways that it has!
- Everyone was able to experience empathy for others
- You were a student returning to a more “normal” back to school setting, how would you feel?
- Personally: imagine if I didn’t have student loans. Less self-centered: imagine if bad things didn’t happen to good people.
- we could always have class sizes this small!
- Imagine if we didn’t ever have the opportunity to slow down and learn to appreciate the little things.
- everyone were reflective and kind
- Imagine if kids became more resilient as a result of what they have been through?
- Imagine if someone had told us last January that there would be a global pandemic and life come to a halt. . . what would we have expected it to be like?
- …the grass wasn’t greener
- Imagine if we knew on March 13, 2020 what the next year was going to be like
- Imagine if I had never revised my resume…
- … we had three more hours every day
- Imagine if I had bought stock in zoom in February of 2020
- kept accessibility in mind
- We keep some of the positive things from this school year.
- The world returned to a sense of normalcy
- If success were defined differently,
- Every student felt equally cared for….
- We can continue to figure out and work on the really important things with our students (life skills) through our content area.
- There was no poverty
- we could keep the small class sizes
- Everyone was kind
- we were freeeeeee
- All students had similar opportunities
- there were a world with no crime
- there were no hatred and unkindness
- Students could focus on school when they’re here and not have to worry about the struggles they may face outside of school.
- Everyone has access to food and water
- We always had smaller classes
- We didn’t rush back to the same old rat race lifestyle / economic structure, that we all decried, after the pause of COVID, and we actually used it as an opportunity for real change
- We could travel to the future to see what stuck what changed who benefitted etc… from this time during the pandemic
- our US history invested in equity and sustainability from the start. Also, imagine if we played music in the hallways again! ;)
- Every kid had someone that made them feel like they truly belonged
- There were no inequities in resources and education - equity is not equal
- kids and families didn't feel pressured to achieve at high levels...staff, too.
- Imagine if our society prioritized the group’s success over the individual’s success.
- There was no social divide
- we just acknowledged the benefits to privilege
- we could continue to work with students in smaller groups
- We were more community oriented and less focused on the self, individual wants and success.
- we had a snack break outdoors built in to our schedule next year!! :)
- Everyone had equal access to vaccines around the world
- imagine how Zoom classes would be different if you didn't have the choice to turn off your camera or microphone
- We always had smaller Advisories.
- The theme of building connections could be every year
- all kids felt safe and supported
- If everyone led with kindness
- if we protected some of our time rather than planning and spending all of it
‘Learning Loss’ - Learning Gain?
Since last spring (about a month into lockdown) the term ‘learning loss’ has been a constant in conversations/discussions at local, national, and international levels in the realm of education. And, the presence of this term/concern has been increasing as we (again, both the local ‘we’ and broad ‘we’) are planning and actualizing the return to ‘in person’ learning. It is a fair concern and one that we must address. But, before we do this...we must have important conversations about the ways in which we foster, define, and ‘measure’ learning. If we do not do that, how can we define loss? It concerns me, on both a personal and professional level, when assumptions and conclusions are drawn about the ways in which we define and measure learning without having the critically important conversations and discussions about the ways in which these assumptions and conclusions are made (what’s behind them). As with many oft-used phrases/terminology, ‘learning loss’ (‘Speaking from the I’ here) is an overly simplified term for a broad area - learning. Again, Justin’s words resonate - we need a coherent and calibrated approach - and I look forward to these conversations. They are important. I hope we can take the concern of ‘learning loss’, define it, address concerns, and make necessary changes - that said, we also (and, maybe more importantly), need to make sure we focus on the ‘learning gain’ that has taken place - for our students and our schools.
Earlier this week, Diane Ravitch (@DianeRavitch) referenced the work of Yong Zhao (@YongZhaoEd) on her blog (Yong Zhao: Beware the “Learning Loss” Trap). I had the true fortune of hearing Zhao speak a few years ago - he was sharing insights from his book, What Works May Hurt - and, I could not agree more with Diane Ravitch’s description/assessment of his work…
Pay attention to whatever Yong Zhao writes. He is among the very top tier of educational thinkers in the world. I always learn when I read his work.
Here is an excerpt from Zhao’s post (Build back better: Avoid the learning loss trap) that Ravitch shares…
Education has many desirable outcomes (Zhao 2017, 2018b). These outcomes can be short term or long term, cognitive and non-cognitive, and instructional and educational. Short-term, cognitive, and instructional outcomes do not necessarily translate directly into long-term, non-cognitive, and educational outcomes. For example, test scores have often been found to have a negative correlation with students’ confidence and well-being (Loveless 2006; OECD 2019; Zhao 2018b). Test scores have also been found to have a negative correlation with economic development and entrepreneurial confidence and activities across (Baker 2007; Tienken 2008; Zhao 2012). Test scores do not predict the future of an individual’s success very well, and non-cognitive skills may play a bigger role than cognitive skills play (Brunello and Schlotter 2010; Levin 2012). Some assessments show successes that are only productive in the short term, while failures may actually be more productive in the long term (Dean and Kuhn 2007; Kapur 2014, 2016).
The post is worth reading, bookmarking, and holding on to as a reference - within, Zhao outlines ‘productive actions’ that can be taken ‘when the pandemic is controlled and schools reopen’...
- Meet the students where they are.
- Pay attention to all educational outcomes.
- Engage learners as partners of change and owners of their learning.
- Keep families engaged.
- Keep online/remote learning.
- Build back better.
It is this last ‘productive action’, Build Back Better, that I believe will help us both now and in future days. We should always be looking to ‘build back better’ - through programs, interactions with students, relationship building, assessments, feedback, and growth. If we can keep a mantra of ‘building back better’ in our work, we will be sure to keep our eyes on ‘learning gains’. The posts below are ones that provoke thought and action - I am interested in the thoughts and reactions from others and look forward to the dialogue...
What ‘learning loss’ really means
by Valerie Strauss in The Washington Post
Included within is a post by Rachael Gabriel…
There is no such thing as learning loss. When it comes to K-12 schooling, the truth is that some of us are more used to interruptions than others. Those of us who have to move around a lot, are living between two countries, or who have experienced a major injury, illness or are chronically ill, and even those who just changed schools once know what loss feels like. But it is not a loss of learning. It is loss of a previously imagined trajectory leading to a previously imagined future. Learning is never lost, though it may not always be “found” on pre-written tests of pre-specified knowledge or preexisting measures of pre-coronavirus notions of achievement.
The truth is that we are all in the process of learning and unlearning; of being schooled and unschooled. Our imagined trajectories were disrupted, and this particular disruption with its layers of grief and edges of uncertainty cannot be overestimated in scope or impact. This is precisely the reason we must stop telling the Corona Kids that they fell behind and have to catch up. Anything other than acknowledging unconditional learning is a lie that sustains fear-fueled systems of inequity.
If school is not a time for creativity, empowerment, choice and engagement, it is not likely to be a time of growth either.
If we narrow what counts as school to the aspects of school that can be counted and compared, we will certainly lose opportunities to engage students in formal schooling, but students will still learn. They always do. If educators and policymakers want to be part of guiding that learning, they need to honor it where it exists, and fuel it where it thrives.
The Key to Better Student Engagement Is Letting Them Show You How They Learn
by Jacquelyn Whiting in EdSurge
A year into the pandemic, the instructional sands keep shifting from in-person, to remote, to concurrent (or hybrid) and back again. And almost every conversation I have with educators regardless of whether they are classroom teachers, instructional specialists or administrators is around student engagement. Sometimes these conversations are with administrators concerned about the increasing numbers of students on the school’s D-F list or with teachers disconsolate about students who won’t turn on their cameras, turn in work or participate in discussions and whose attendance (virtual or in-person) is sporadic at best. All of them are asking, with some urgency, about how we can boost student engagement under these difficult and fluctuating circumstances. From my vantage point, the causes and symptoms are multi-faceted. We need to partner with students—individually and collectively—to discover the root causes and empower them to be their own antidotes.
When considering students as individuals and trying to identify the root causes of their perceived disengagement I find it useful to consider the variables of performance success—knowledge, skills, an environment conducive to learning and the motivation to learn. Missing just one of these variables can have a profound impact on engagement.
The more that our students become aware of their learning processes and can make their thinking visible to us, the better we can nurture their development. When students have agency over the path, pace, time and place of their learning, they will invest in it. The more we all make our thinking visible to each other, the better equipped we are to build strong, equitable learning communities that can thrive in these fluid educational circumstances.
Thinking Is a Mess We Should Talk About
by Emily Kaplan in Edutopia
At its core, learning is a change in the content, the patterns, and the movement of thought. In the physics of the intellectual universe, thoughts are the atoms out of which everything is made, bouncing around to form the molecules, elements, and matter of cognition. But thoughts, like atoms, are invisible: Even in the realm of education, we most often talk about finished products—the answer, the sentence—and not the messy, iterative, highly personal processes that built them. And even when we do talk about process, we tend to do so in superficial terms: one or two steps we took, perhaps, but not everything we considered, tried, ruled out. We don’t talk about what thought looks like, what it sounds like, how it feels: the tension and excitement of holding on to multiple options at once, the anxiety of forging ahead and drawing a blank. The dead ends.
When we teach students the components of thought, we should get granular. We should talk about what happens when a mathematician solves a problem—the way she might look at it one way and then another, brushing aside a thought or two about what to have for dinner—or when a writer composes a sentence: the pencil scribbling, pausing, hovering, erasing. We should teach students that creation is always a process, and the process is as complex as it is variable.
The finished product always reveals less than it obscures—and it obscures, well, pretty much everything. If, for some reason, you wanted to learn exactly how I develop and describe metaphors about thought, you wouldn’t be as served by reading the paragraph you read first—the final draft—as much as following the slippery, sometimes chaotic actions I took to get there.
Want to Tackle Learning Loss? First Listen to Your Students (Opinion)
by Max Silverman in Education Week
As the head of a group that works with school and district leaders, I too often hear of leaders’ eagerness to talk with students but rarely see this intention turn into a thoughtful and sustained approach. And that has me worried that we may miss a once-in-a-generation chance to remake the school experience so schooling works for all students.
To be clear, student experience shapes academic achievement as well as outcomes like identity development, social and emotional competencies, and a sense of purpose. In our own work talking with K-12 students around the country, students consistently say they want to feel happy and proud at school. They want to be known, seen, heard, and valued. They want a sense of belonging. They want a sense of accomplishment. Learning only gets harder when these things are absent, research increasingly suggests. So when district leaders stop to understand what their students experience at school, it helps put students where they belong—back at the center of district planning.
Fundamentally, schooling is for and about students. And students are the experts of their own experience. In this moment, with so much at stake, leaders need to stop and listen to the experts.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: Over the last year one thing I have learned is...
- I appreciate my family and the way we have adjusted to all the changes this past year has brought.
- That is if you work really hard then something good will always come out of it
- I do not do well at home learning
- I learned throughout this year, during all of the COVID 19 Pandemic, that change can be hard, but it can make you a better person, and helps you improve and get better at different things, including new habits, and trying to be a more advanced and superior individual.
- How to learn remotely
- Stay focused
- People can adapt to new situations really fast, and even while being isolated, some still can spread joy into the world
- How to adjust
- I may not be ready to handle the amount of responsibility and independence I thought I could
- I have learned that people can solve any problem with enough time.
- That I can do anything if I put my mind to it
- I like scrambled eggs.
- About checks and balances
- How valuable time is with people
- y=mx+b
- To adapt
- I have learned that I can adjust to hard situations
- That you have to get through everything and you have to adapt
- Algebra and fossils
- Over the last year I have learned that we can't always predict what's going to happen next, but we can be ready for what might happen.
- The longer the storm the brighter the rainbow
- I learned I know more than I thought about Greek religion.
In keeping with the practice of highlighting words each week in honor of Women's History Month, the words below are ones that shine a light on learning and the process of learning...
As always, let me know of any questions/concerns.
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Take care.
Nat
“Education is really the only equalizer we have.”
—Robyn Jackson, ASCD Author
#willfulhope #willfulaction #longasIcanseethelight