The Need for Collaboration

My school’s Student Commons (or cafeteria), during third period.

When is the last time you worked on a project from start to finish entirely on your own? It’s rare, isn’t it? In some capacity you collaborate with colleagues, professionals in a related field, or with customers who shape your vision. The physical design of most high schools and the curriculum, unfortunately, is organized in a way that encourages individual work, both for the professional development of teachers and for the education of students.

Many high schools are arranged by department; Social Studies, English, Science, World Language, Mathematics all in separate areas of the building. One might argue this is so like-minded colleagues can offer common assessments and share teaching strategies. This could be true if the high school schedule was not further divided into separate periods where one would be lucky to share a period with a similar teacher. Also, demands placed on teachers ultimately means any non-teaching time in school is pre-established for looking at student data, monitoring hallways, contacting parents, grading assessments or preparing daily lessons. A traditional high school offers little time for collaboration. With a little creativity, we can begin to break the mold.

Let’s start with the easiest solutions. Rather than sequestering oneself in a teacher workroom during prep time, open yourself to sitting at a desk in the hallway, in the library, or in the cafeteria. If you make yourself visible, you will find others will sit next to you and chat. Is this always productive? No, but the first step to collaboration is opening yourself to new people and new ideas. You will need to change your physical behaviors for this to happen. In Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, he noted that Jobs built his Apple headquarters with centralized common space. Restrooms were only in this common space, and people were forced to mix. With the physical mixing of individuals, new relationships were formed and new ideas sparked. The first way to increase collaboration in high schools is through opening up to common space.

Our Knowledge Commons (or library) at any given time of the day.

Next, convince your administration to allow talking in the library. Convince them to use the cafeteria during off periods for group work. Get chairs and tables for lobby areas so students can work. Open these physical spaces, limit the rules, monitor the space of course, but open it up. Once these spaces are used, teachers should work there too. This mixing of ideas, between teachers and students, will increase collaboration on projects.

One last idea with physical space—and this one is much more difficult—encourage the administration to let you teach in another wing of the building. Some subjects will find this easier than others, but the more you mix teachers in a building, the more you will share teaching ideas with those outside your discipline. You will collaborate more.

After you open the physical space in a building, open your doors. Search for interested community members to teach a lesson, give a guest-lecture, speak in a native language, or assist in a lab experiment. Many community members want to help, and collaboration outside the building is crucial. Connect with interested educators and community members via social networking. Bring their ideas into your school. Skype with your classes. Travel to visit their school, if funds permit. By connecting with individuals outside my school, I have been able to arrange a New York Times bestselling author for a future visit. We frequently have many interested businesspersons in our building too. These connections are crucial for collaboration.

Once you establish these connections and you mix with others in the building, share your ideas on how to improve your teaching. Build group projects that cross curriculum. Invite experts from the professional field to assist in authentic learning in the classroom. Require your students to communicate digitally with a classroom in another state or country on a project. Students need the ability to build these relationships and work on projects in this way. The global society they will graduate into demands it.

As teachers, we must model effective collaboration and idea-sharing before our students can perform. Students need this skill to succeed in the modern workforce. It is only with collaboration and cross-discipline ideas that one can hope to innovate and perfect education for his or her students. Unfortunately such collaboration is starkly missing from most high schools.

Unless we, as individual teachers, attempt to make the changes, we will continue teaching in a model built in the early 1900s, and our students will suffer for it.

Off to See President Obama’s Inauguration

Tomorrow morning over 120 students from the Downingtown STEM Academy will travel to Washington, DC to celebrate President Obama’s second inauguration. Bright and early students and teacher chaperons will board buses from the STEM Academy and head to Washington, DC. We plan to hit the National Mall around 9:30 and take our spot as close as allowed. After enjoying the festivities, we will talk to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. We will spend the afternoon in the museum before hitting the train and bus back to Downingtown, with hopes to arrive shortly after 10PM.

This trip will be the first time I’ve seen a Presidential Inauguration. I’ve seen both President George H. W. Bush and candidate Obama speak in Downingtown, but I have never been to an inauguration. I anticipate a day of excitement for the students, many of whom will hear the President speak live for the first time. It is a thrill hearing such a powerful world leader speak about the start of a new term. I believe seeing the students’ excitement will make the day exciting for me.

If you are traveling to the inauguration, please be safe. Enjoy your trip, and take in the 57th US Presidential Inauguration.

DASD STEM Academy in Space

Recently while participating in a weekly #edchat discussion on Twitter (every Tuesday at 7PM EST), I happened into connecting with Dr. Jeff Goldstein (@doctorjeff). Dr. Goldstein is the Center Director for the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, and Program Director for the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program. As such, Dr. Goldstein informed me of an opportunity that was out of this world. If a school community participates in the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program (SSEP), one group of students from that community will have their experiment tested on the International Space Station.

I was hooked immediately. After winter holiday, I talked with Dr. Goldstein, and he walked my colleague (Mr. Eric Daney- @EricDaney) through the implementation process. Dr. Goldstein could not have been more helpful. Eric and I couldn’t have done more excited fist-pumps and silent “WOWs” during the phone meeting. Immediately we set to work to plan how the DASD STEM Academy could implement such a cool program. The process wasn’t easy. We wrestled with questions like whether we could really get students to complete a 40 hour research design process in a nine-week period, to compete for the spot on the International Space Station, without overwhelming the students. We did not know whether we would get the approval from administration or the buy-in from teachers. We did not know if we could help fund the $21,500 to run the program. We did not give up, though. As our school’s headmaster Mr. Art Campbell (@DASD_STEM) said, if we pass on this opportunity, we would always wonder if it were possible. So, we moved forward, and I think I can confidently say that in October 2013, we will send a student experiment into space!

At a point in the process, Eric and I were really unsettled with the magnitude of the program. We kept moving. Several teachers, like Headmaster Campbell, reminded us how big an opportunity this was to pass. When Mission 4 to the International Space Station launches, the DASD STEM Academy will be one of perhaps only 80 K-12 school communities to have taken part in this program.

If you see an opportunity for your students, no matter how big, never pass them up. Yes, you might fail in succeeding, but failure is part of the learning. If you succeed, you bring big  ideas and authentic learning into the classroom. Either way, you win.

Once the DASD STEM Academy is officially recognized in the program, we will have an official community blog. I will keep updates here until that blog is set up. I am excited to share updates and student reports as the program unfolds.

A Dream Job- Teaching at the Downingtown STEM Academy

The middle of the school year is difficult- short daylight hours, post-Christmas lulls, midterm exams, grading, grading, and grading. This time of year has always been difficult for me. I have seen similar feelings among my colleagues this week. The International Baccalaureate Learner Profile, guiding principles for my school, identifies ten character traits of learners. One of the traits is reflexive. Midyear, I became reflexive on my school. I’ve reaffirmed how lucky I am.

I started this reflexive thought process by imagining I was applying for teaching jobs in other districts (I’m not looking for jobs, just in case anyone I know really reads this!) If I were offered a position, I would set forth to change my environment in the new school. What follows is a list of changes I would make, in the order of importance, to make the new position comfortable.

1. Trapezoidal Desks. Desks in my school now are trapezoids. The chairs are unattached from the desks. Every day, nearly every period, the desks move. Desks are never in straight rows. This flexibility and adaptability lets my students know every day is a new adventure with nearly limitless possibilities. Mindsets change with a simple furniture change.
2. Abandon Textbooks. I love teaching social studies without a textbook. I never want to return. So much information is available to students in so many other ways. Why would I want to waste money on a text.
3. 1:1 Internet Access. Key to teaching without a book, students would need 1:1 access, at least in the classroom, to tablets or PCs. Worlds come alive with an onramp to the information superhighway (remember that??).
4. Educational Technology Surplus. SmartBoards, document cameras, teacher laptops and iPads. Tools to teach. Not overhead markers and photocopies.
5. Freedom. Allow students to work in the hallway, library, cafeteria, or common area without a pass. Trust they will come back. Eliminate bells. Students and teachers have enough structure without adding some of these superficialities of institutionalized school.
6. Change. Teachers and administrators who are willing to adapt and change to new ideas and who can admit past ideas were not perfect. Administrators and leaders who ask for your input and act based on it.
7. Willing Students. I know. Teachers cannot control this one, but it would be nice wouldn’t it.

How much would you trade for such a work environment? How much are the above ideas worth? By engaging in the reflexive activity, I recognized how special my job was. Apart from having the BEST JOB IN THE WORLD (spending every day teaching students), I teach in one of the best schools you could come by. I am blessed.

Sometimes we get so involved in our daily routines that we cannot see the forest from the trees. After some midyear reflections, I realize I couldn’t be happier with where I am. I hope you are just as happy as I am with your job

DASD STEM Academy Applications

Future students, today at our faculty meeting, Headmaster Campbell announced acceptance notifications were being sent (or called, I cannot remember which) for the 225 or so of you who will be offered a position at the Downingtown STEM Academy as freshmen for the 2013-2014 school year.

To those of you who get offered a position, congratulations. This post is not for you, however. This post is for those of you who will not be accepted. By Headmaster Campbell’s announcement, fewer than half of the applicants will receive acceptance notification. If you do not receive acceptance, please understand this does not shut doors for your future.

Acceptance into a group should never define who you are. Ambition, drive, and effort will make you successful in your life. These qualities will guide you at either Downingtown East or Downingtown West. Do not let a failed experience set you back. Let it embolden you. Let your actions, your efforts, and your triumphs characterize who you are. These qualities will lead you to success.

This summer I applied for the Google Teacher Academy, and I was rejected. After reflecting over my disappointment, I came to the following conclusions. If you are upset, I hope you find some comfort in the words below.

I went through the “I can’t believe they didn’t pick me” angst and quickly into the “They don’t know what they are missing” phase.  Then I realized I was silly.  I only applied on a whim, and I knew I wasn’t a great fit.

Then the life lesson kicked in.

 

You cannot define yourself by the rejections you receive.  You cannot let a failed attempt keep you from your success.  Whether it’s a GTANY application, a job interview, or a college application, your success should not be defined by another person or organization’s evaluation of your talent, often from a very brief application.  Take the knock to your pride and move on.  As leaders, you need to move beyond small setbacks to achieve even greater success.

What defines your success?  Professionally, I define my success by how many teachers I help understand and implement new educational technologies.  Personally, if my family is safe, secure, and happy, I’ve been successful.  Google, nor any other organization, will not define my success in either arena.

Whatever you do in life, do not let another person or group’s definition of success limit your aspirations. Define success on your own terms. Fulfill your own dreams. Work hard. These traits will yield success in any endeavor.

Ignorance and Education

This Christmas, not unlike others, I struggled for gift ideas to give my parents. I tried exceptionally hard to not put clothing or gift cards on my list. Instead, I found thought-provoking books to challenge my ideas on education, how individuals learn, or how individuals cultivate one’s creativity. As a teacher, I know I need to change how I teach so students have more control over their learning.

I turned to my PLN on Twitter for help. Maria Popova (@brainpicker) put together her year-end list of books. In particular I found the Best Science Books of 2012 very interesting. I vetted the list through Google and Amazon reviews, and I settled on Stuart Firestein’s Ignorance: How it Drives Science.

Firestein wrote a very brief book about why the questions in science, research, and education are more important than the answers. In his book, he explains his work as a neurobiologist and college professor has taught him that scientists and students need NOT to spend their time memorizing and studying large amounts of data. Volumes of new studies are published every day. The Internet has become a sufficient database of knowledge. Rather than focus on facts and what is known, scientists and students must focus on the unknown, the questions.

Firestein takes the reader through what types of questions are appropriate to ask; not all unanswered questions are appropriate for scientists or students. Using examples from his class and from his science, he supports what types of questions are useful to uncovering new knowledge, not simply testing what already exists.

The last few pages of the book are devoted directly to ignorance and education, from which the excerpt is taken.

“Perhaps the most important application of ignorance is in the sphere of education, particularly of scientists. Indeed I first saw the essential value of ignorance through teaching a course that failed to acknowledge it. The glazed-over eyes of students dutifully taking notes and highlighting line after line in a text of nearly 1,500 pages, the desperation to memorize facts for a test, the hand raised in the middle of a lecture to ask only, ‘Will that be on the exam?” These are all the symptoms of a failing educational strategy.

We must ask ourselves how we should educate scientists in the age of Google and whatever will supersede it. When all the facts are available with a few clicks, and probably in the not very distant future by simply asking the wall, or the television, or the cloud—wherever it is the computer is hidden—then teaching these facts will not be of much use…

Instead of a system where the collection of facts is an end, where knowledge is equated with accumulation, where ignorance is rarely discussed, we will have to provide the Wiki-raised student with a taste of and for the boundaries, the edge of the widening circle of ignorance, how the data, which are not unimportant, frames the unknown. We must teach students how to think in questions, how to manage ignorance.”

With unbelievable access to knowledge, students should not be learning facts. Students should learn to read and interpret facts and ask questions on the cusp of what is known and unknown. Firestein’s book explains why inquiry in education is so important and how science, among other fields, will suffer if education continues to emphasize memorization over inquiry.

Green Energy Tour

Inside a new 62.5 megawatt turbine, one of my students wrote STEM in grease… after getting a handful of grease from the small doorway.

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, seventeen students from my school, the Downingtown STEM Academy, visited three “green energy” sites. Holtwood hydroelectric facility and Turkey Hill’s wind turbine and methane-gas facility.

Our first stop was the Holtwood Hydroelectric facility, owned by Pennsylvania Power and Light. This facility was built in the early 1900s, and it has produced clean energy from the Susquehanna River for over 100 years. When it was built, this 100-megawatt facility was the second longest hydroelectric dam in the USA and the third longest in the world. Currently it is under construction, which will increase its output by about 125-megawatts with two, 62.5-megawatt turbines. The original plan has 10, 10-megawatt turbines. The new turbines are MASSIVE (the students and I got to stand right beside the turbine in the intake for the river… which was dry of course). We got to stand inside approximately a ten-story turbine facility. It was… awe-inspiring. The old turbines, which are largely the same as the original turbines, have a world-renowned feature. The Michell/Kingsbury bearing sits beneath the 220-ton original turbine. It has worked since its installation in 1910. In 1950, when the turbine was shut down for inspection, the Kingsbury bearing was still flawless, and engineers suspected it would last over 1,000 years-truly remarkable. Students were impressed by the tour, led by the plant manager.

He gave us an unrestricted tour- showing us the main floor of the plant, the spillway, the fish elevator, up-close views of the turbines, beneath main floor so we could see the turbines spinning, through the extension to the new plant, the new turbines, and the new goes-inta (or intake) to the new turbines. We could not have asked for more. For obvious reasons, I cannot post the pictures I took inside the plant. However, the few here are just a small hint of what we got to see.

The second leg of our journey took us to see wind turbines and a landfill gas-to-electricity facility. Unfortunately the wind turbines were not spinning (they require an 8mph wind to turn).

The turbines, when spinning, do provide 33%-50% of the power needed to run Turkey Hill dairy and make their ice cream!The wind turbines are clearly visible from the Route 30 bridge over the Susquehanna River- if you look south you can see them! On my most recent trip across the river, I saw them for the first time, though they have been slowly spinning since 2010.

Right next to the wind turbines was a facility to recover methane gas from a landfill and burn the gas to produce electricity. Because we were running late, we were unable to view the facility beyond seeing the hill outside. I made sure to ask about the hill, because if you were not paying attention, you could miss that the hill beside you was producing electricity.

According to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2012, the USA will be the world’s top oil producer by 2020, and by 2030 North America should be a net-exporter of oil. Advancing technology in oil extraction combined with tapping renewable energy will help the USA propel forward as a global energy superpower. The diverse, innovative solutions will help the USA achieve energy superiority.

I hope my students remember one solution is not a fix for our global problems. Many times difficult problems require many partial answers, which together solve the problem.

Project-Based Learning at DASD STEM Academy

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How often do you get awestruck at your job? Today I had one of those moments, and I have come to realize I need to share those moments when they happen.

My school, the Downingtown STEM Academy, operates on a modified block schedule.  One day we have 50-minute traditional periods and the next we have 90-minute block periods.  This schedule, while difficult at first to manage, has become very liberating.  My students engage in content through problem-based, or inquiry, learning.  During a project, students are allowed to work throughout the building.  My school has collaboration rooms and a large Knowledge Commons, what you might call a library.  Students work in these areas all the time.  We use Google Chat to manage our students when they are away from the classroom, and I continuously walk around the building with Google Chat on my iPad to monitor their progress.

Today I was so impressed that everywhere I went students were working.  Students were working in the hallways without supervision.  Students were being taught mini-lessons by their English teacher in the Knowledge Commons while other students were working in small groups on French or Math Analysis projects.  Physics students were studying vectors in the hallways.  All the while, teachers maintained contact with students electronically and met in small groups throughout the building.  Learning in my school takes place beyond the classroom.

Our school operates without bells, desks are not in rows, and our classroom walls do not prohibit the learning.  Students actively engage with teachers from every subject.  While my students were learning about Federalist 70, I also checked in on students comparing the Mongol and Roman civilizations, students preparing for a debate in French about social life in high school, students understanding parabolas with super balls in the hallways, and students preparing short presentations on the Odyssey.  Everywhere I went students were engaged.

Give students freedom and responsibility and you may be surprised how attentive they are to their work.  Keep the academic expectations HIGH and students will achieve them.  All the while, students may actually enjoy school.

I do not profess that my high school does everything correctly, but we are working quickly on a path to education reform (dare I say revolution) that others need to follow.  My school needs to be challenge to improve our practices, and this will only occur as other schools begin reforming and pushing traditional education aside.

For the critics that will argue all this non-traditional learning is fine, but students may not perform as well, I will heartily disagree.  My school, next year when fully enrolled, will be the largest International Baccalaureate school in the western hemisphere.  The only course of study for our juniors and seniors is a full slate (six) IB classes.  There is no other option, and students like the challenge.  Very few (dare I say no) other schools in the nation have approached public education this way.

Every single day I am impressed with what I see around me.  I cannot shake the feeling that this is what public education should look like.

Do Algebra and STEM matter?

Recently Roger C. Schank wrote posted some revolutionary ideas about education online.  Yes, these ideas promote his book, Teaching Minds: How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools.  His ideas also challenge some of the basic notions of public education.  He has claimed Algebra and STEM education as overrated.  He also called out every “core” subject in education in his blog post on 2 September.  How should we answer him when he says:

“Know what matters to you.  Learn that.  Temporarily memorize nonsense if you want to graduate but have a proper perspective on it.  Nothing you learn in high school will matter in your future life.”

First, I am offended that “what matters to you” and what you learn in high school are not closely correlated.  Yes, I understand the Honors Biology, Chemistry, and Latin I learned are of little use to me now.  Wait, I probably use them every day, but on a simple level.  What I argue is the subjects are not as important as the ability to solve problems in the subject.  Rather than teach about biospheres and the impact of chemicals in nature (I’m stretching here, I’m a Social Studies teacher), why not ask students to determine an environmental impact study for their new business, house, etc.  Rather than completing rate of flow problems in Calculus, have students determine a better drop-off plan for students at the beginning of school (something that is becoming a problem in my school).  Rather than lecturing and memorizing political party ideas, have students create factual, accurate political campaign commercials.  Problem-based learning, especially when teachers allow students to identify the problem, is MUCH more engaging.

Second, when Shank says nothing you learn in high school will matter in your future life, I cannot believe this is more wrong.  Yes, I excelled in math and physics, taking advanced placement courses in both.  As a Social Studies teacher, both these courses have little impact on my life.  However, when trying to answer “why” things happen to my three boys, these skills come in very handy.  My son asked me how ears and hearts worked this summer.  Yes, I could have looked these up on Google, but a simple understanding of how stuff works is important.  When replacing the brakes on my car, a simple knowledge of friction is important.  Yes, I could just follow the supplied directions or the YouTube videos, but a rudimentary understanding of Physics helped me ensure I was safely fixing my car.

I understand not everything I teach my students will impact their lives directly.  This week we are finishing a text-analysis of the US Preamble using historic and modern interpretations.  I do not expect all students will remember the content they learn.  I do expect they retain the skill of reading for a purpose, making an argument, and vocalizing that argument in a concise oral report.

Though many educators will quickly denounce Shank’s criticisms of public education, I also feel every statement has some amount of truth in it.  As public educators, we need to hear his criticism and consider whether we are teaching a certain way because that’s how we learned or because it actually benefits our students.  If it is not the latter, no one wins.

Year 2 in an Apple Distinguished School

This past week national Apple executives met with my Superintendent (@lmussoline) to assess the progress of our 1:1 Macbook program at the DASD STEM Academy (official site & my link).  They reminded our superintendent NO SCHOOL has ever gotten the Apple Distinguished honor in the first year they applied AND the first year of its existence.  Further, we only had 450 students last year.  Again, a feat they said was remarkable.  In the past year, Apple has sent administrators from around the world to see the progress in our school.

When executives from Apple’s education division came to our school last year, I got to meet with them and they were impressed how our students, in only half a year, were using their laptops for instruction, not just as an add-on.  I was impressed that no other school had done anything like this.  The Apple executives said they asked students in every corner of the building, searching for all different types of students, what made the school so great.  The students resoundingly answered the same thing.  Guess what it was?  Not the sports teams, the band, the fact they got a Macbook… they said THE TEACHERS!

To implement a successful ANYTHING, and technology is no exception, TEACHERS are key.

This year, one of the many topics I will continue to track in my blog is how our 1:1 Macbook implementation is progressing in year two, and how teachers and students use their laptops in the classroom.

I look forward to an exciting year, and I expect questions and critique of our program as we go.  If you are in the Philadelphia area, I suggest you stop by.  Seeing our school in action is better than any blog or video could describe.