0 Chart Your Path: Navigating Massachusetts' Education Initiatives

I'm all for moving education ahead and meeting students' needs with the best of our intellect, energy, care, and attention.

I'm also an advocate for creating structures, schedules, and routines that support optimal education. I believe that teachers want to do a good job, but sometimes the supports are not in place to make that intent a reality.

Massachusetts has been leading the way with child-centered initiatives. Yet, at this juncture in the road, educators and leaders have to stop and survey the landscape, and make the time to look carefully at all the initiatives on the education table--initiatives that have the potential to move our schools forward with strength if carried out with care and attention.

The first reflection should be centered on the teacher--is it possible for a teacher to teach children well with little planning time and also complete RETELL, district determined measure pilots, new evaluation criteria, new content and pedagogy standards, recertification requirements, and their typical teaching responsibilities at the same time. The critical component that will make this possible is teacher-leadership collaboration that makes the time upfront to focus and coordinate all of these efforts in the following ways:

• Look for ways to combine the efforts so that you're completing more than one criteria at the same time. Leaders can support this by carving out time for teachers to work on these efforts in diversified, responsive ways.  

• Look for ways to complete the efforts and also advance on the pay scale--meet the requirements, earn credits, get new degrees--advance professionally so that your paycheck will rise with your hard work. Be on the look out for cost-free options in this regard. 

• Take the time to read all the information related to the initiatives; it could be that you've already met the standards in some of these areas.

• Organize your professional files, if you haven't already done so. I'm so sorry that I didn't make more time to put all those little PDP and course slips in a file--slips I thought wouldn't matter, but now could have made a difference with respect to the RETELL initiative and a new pay grade in my school system.  

• Ask questions, seek help, work with colleagues, and chart your professional path this month. You have the chance to turn this potent to-do list to your advantage if you make the time to carefully seek support and craft a plan. 

This is an example of a potential professional learning chart for MA educators.

Let me know if I've left off any initiatives.

Research and Understand

• RETELL obligations
• Special Education course obligations (coming up)
• New Standards expectations, focus.
• Teacher Evaluation System Expectations.
• Typical Professional Expectations.
• Recertification Information.
• District Determined Measures

Chart Your Professional Path.

Season/Initiative	RETELL	New Teacher Evaluation	Curriculum Standards District Determined Mesures**	Recertification or Certification	Professional Learning and Advancement
Summer 2013	Read and understand. Plan accordingly. If you’re in first cohort sign up on 8/5. This course is worth grad credits if you pursue it. Also, the credits can roll over to the next cert. period if you’re already for this year’s recertification.	Study and understand. Think about the goals you might write.	Create or study existing curriculum maps, standards.  Be prepared to apply and review  unit-by-unit. Understand which district measures are being piloted and what the expectation is in that regard.	Organize all materials. Prepare documentation for signatures. Know expectations, dates.	Create a professional path which will advance your career monetarily and w/regard to expertise and leadership.  Include new requirements in your plan such as the new special education requirement and RETELL*. Look for nocost opportunities to gain credits, learn, and advance.
Fall 2013	Take RETELL if needed.	Set goals, organize information. I recommend an online system of organization such as an ePortfolio. Collect evidence.	Apply and review.	Get signatures during initial evaluation meetings. Bring folder to the meetings.	Follow Plan
Winter 2013-2014	Continue course if needed.	Continue evaluation system work by collecting evidence, assessing efforts, revising where necessary, documenting.	Apply and review.	Apply for recertification if you’re ready and your renewal is due in June.	Follow Plan.
Spring 2014	Complete course if you took it. Document all certificates and efforts.	Prepare materials for final meeting.	Apply and review.	Apply for recertification if it is your time and you haven’t applied yet.	Follow Plan.
Summer 2014	Assess your needs in this area.	Prepare for the next year’s evaluation cycle.	Assess standards’ implementation and any new requirements such as PARCC (if officially adopted).	Make sure you’ve received a system reimbursement for license fee if that’s part of your contract. Check to make sure the process went as planned.	Assess and revise professional plan as needed.

*Starting July 1, 2016, in order to renew a professional license, all educators will need to accrue 15 PDPs in Sheltered English Instruction (SEI) and 15 PDPs in Special Education during each 5-year recertification cycle. The total number of PDPs required for recertification remains the same (150); however, 30 of those PDPs need to be in these specific areas.

**In 2013-2014, districts are required to research and pilot DDMs for some grades and subjects. In 2013-2014, at a minimum, districts must pilot at least one DDM that is aligned to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks in each of the following areas:

1. Early grade (K-3) literacy
2. Early (K-3) grade math
3. Middle grade (5-8) math
4. High school writing to text
5. Traditionally non-tested grades and subjects (e.g., fine arts, music, p.e.)

0 The New School Year: Website Revision and Prep

The new school year is right around the corner, and just before I take a few days here and there for summer fun, I'm prepping the last few "paperwork" items for the school year ahead, items including:

• The website updates
• Class Google Calendar
• Student Data Sheets organized in a private Google Class Website
• The Calendar Book (While online calendars are great, the calendar notebook remains integral.)

These are the kind of prep activities that set the stage for a good year.  

0 Welcome to the Learning Design Lab

This lab is not a room or a business, but instead a collaborative effort represented by the Learning Design Lab website.

Considerable reading and research, new content and evaluation standards, a grant to synthesize my work, an upcoming presentation, and a new school year on the horizon led me place my learning design efforts and guides in one place.

As I read many quotes about design, I was not surprised that I'm drawn to this endeavor. The following quotes in particular illustrate my passion for this area of teaching.

Design is where science and art break even. - Robin Mathew

People think that design is styling. Design is not style. It's not about giving shape to the shell and not giving a damn about the guts. Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something that the world didn't know it was missing. 
- Paola Antonelli

Design is an opportunity to continue telling the story, not just to sum everything up. 
- Tate Linden

The life of a designer is a life of fight: fight against the ugliness.  - Massimo Vignelli

0 4th Grade Unit Design: Place Value

After considerable research and reflection, I applied new learning to redesigning the place value unit. The new unit has many advantages including the following:

• Blended learning.
• Performance based.
• Easily differentiated.

The unit responds to multiple standards including the new Massachusetts Educator Evaluation standards, Grade 4 Common Core/MA math standards, and The Standards for Mathematical Practice. The unit also includes the 4C's and attributes of student-friendly learning design.

What the unit is missing is student response.  Hence, for now the plan stands as a framework for teaching--a plan that I'll follow when leading student learning.  As students engage with the activities, I'll likely refine, revise, and enrich the unit to meet students' interests and needs with regard to these curriculum standards. 

If you teach fourth grade and would like to use this unit, please do. Let me know what you would change, add, or enrich.  

0 ThingLing Math: Try It!

As I worked on growing my students' Khan project this morning, I finally played with ThingLing.

Click each part of the image below and it will lead you to explanations and other helpful information.  This will serve as a model for students' own creations or as a tool to help students with their project work.

0 Growing the "Khan" Project

Place Value Poster Exemplar

Just think it was only a couple of years ago that Kahn's math videos spread like wildfire throughout the Internet. In many ways, the number, variety, and depth of the films were a first. That was before flipping your class and the blended learning approach were commonplace.

Now Kahn's videos are a mainstay, a resource many turn to for a quick reminder, introduction, or review of a math concept.  Kahn Academy has an independent, grow-at-your-own pace system of math learning too--a place that students can turn to in an effort to develop their math repertoire with strength.

Two years ago, I had students create Kahn-like movies to demonstrate their knowledge of fractions. The project was a success because it fostered tremendous discussion, problem solving, and share of mathematical language, concept, and skill. Now with the advent of the common core and SMP's (Standards for Mathematical Practice), I am developing this approach with greater effort as one way to build students' ability to present and teach mathematical arguments, understanding, and questions with precision, use of models, and connections.

To do this, I am employing a four-step process:

1. Identify Standards.
2. Plan the Unit of Instruction (I adapted the standard unit template to include SMPs)
3. Teach.
4. Assess and revise as needed.

I tried out the Math Unit Design Template while updating my start-of-the-year place value unit. While a bit cumbersome to complete, I found that the template forced me to make the considerations that ensure the unit is standards-based, engaging, relevant, and responsive to students' needs. In the next few days I'll add a few more tech links and models of the unit projects. Then, I'm sure that once I begin to teach this unit, I will find myself refining and enriching each lesson and activity to best meet my students' needs. 

While the new standards for professional work and student learning are complex, they do serve to structure our work in ways that ensure quality, student-centered learning, and design.  

As always, please feel free to comment with suggestions, questions, or revisions. This is a work in progress--the first unit for which I've woven the Standards of Mathematical Practice and the new Massachusetts' Educator Evaluation standards into the design.


Note:
There are many ways that students can create short films or screencasts of their math thinking.  I will continue to add examples below.  For starters this example was made using Quicktime screencast, then uploaded to iMovie, edited and published via YouTube.

This is an example using VoiceThread

ThingLing is another option. Click each image and find a link to more information.


This video was made with Garageband.

Another option is to make a PowerPoint movie:

Note: One the students evaluate my examples, their work will be much better.

0 Learning Design 2013: Shortlist of Ideas and Links

Thanks to a Wayland Public Schools Foundation grant and the support of our system-wide leadership, I was given a stipend to organize posts I collected for summer study. At first I thought I would create a guiding chart, but found that the use of a unit design template, lesson plan template and this guiding post will serve colleague's learning and teaching design efforts better. The unit/lesson design templates give educators a structure with which to plan learning experiences that reflect current research, standards, and expectations. This guiding post leads educators through the many considerations related to dynamic learning design today. I've also offered examples that relate to each professional learning and design area.

I reviewed and organized the posts in order to guide colleagues and myself with respect to our ongoing efforts to teach children well. Rather than a comprehensive list or chart of all the great tools, strategies, and considerations one should access while designing learning for today’s student, this post serves as a road map of learning including a number of signature posts and links that represent many critical points, organizations, authors, tools, and strategies related to current change and evolution in education.

After sifting through numerous, diverse posts, I was once again struck by the universe of information available today, and the mighty task of knowing where to begin and what to do with all this information.

This question leads us back to the center of what it means to be human and to live a good life. Information should serve us, not the other way around. We need to find ways to encourage and invigorate learning so that children use information to pursue the good life--a life of happiness, fulfillment, and contribution

So I’ll begin with posts that inspired and challenged me.  Posts that told stories about the beauty, wonder, and struggles in our world. There are multiple stories like this online, but I offer this short list just to wet your appetite for the investigation and exploration available in our world today. Feel free to pass over these examples, but if interested, take a look.

Weaving: A Video Story Illustrates process, performance Building a Rainbow Igloo Do the Math: - How change happens? (Environmental Challenge) How Big is the Ocean? Honeybee story, environment

Now to start this guide post, I begin by challenging you to identify the stories you will bring to life in your classrooms--the tales of human endeavor, struggle, quest, and triumph that will excite and inspire your students towards their own discoveries, invention, and investigation.

Once you, your colleagues, and students have determined areas of exploration, the next step is to design the learning together. This collaborative design has developmental implications and will therefore look different at the various grades and levels in a school organization.

I was struck by Grant Wiggins discussion of this topic in his article, “Everything You Know About Curriculum May Be Wrong. Really.” The following quotes challenged me as I read the article:

• “The point is to do new things with content, not simply know what others know – in any field.”
• “. . .boredom is rampant in schools; perhaps it is the inevitable result of focusing on knowledge instead of performance (which is inherently more engaging). “
• “We might finally realize the absurdity of marching through textbooks.”
• “If curriculum is a tour through what is known, how is knowledge ever advanced?”
• “In other words, though we often lose sight of this basic fact, the point of learning is not just to know things but to be a different person – more mature, more wise, more self-disciplined, more effective, and more productive in the broadest sense.”

With Wiggins’ idea that the transformative process of learning is what matters, how do we design learning so that we focus on performance and new knowledge?

Couros and Granger lead us with a call to develop inquiry base units, take risks, and develop a love of learning. Developing learning like this leads us to employ Design Thinking that includes multiple Learning Maps, The Four C’s, and a solid understanding of what it means to learn. The best lessons will depend on information that is well researched using essential questions, academic search engines, and effective 21st century learning leadership.  

As we design learning we need to integrate today’s tools with attention to Digital Pedagogy, PBL, and Student Research. We can set the stage for this learning by encouraging students' “learning to learn” mindsets and habits, and integrating brain-friendly learning experiences. Sites such as these support this learning:

Processing What Educators Need to Know About the Brain Creativity Know Yourself: Mind Maps How your brain works.

Ongoing assessment of the learning environment by educators, leaders, families, and the community is integral to the process of building dynamic schools. The questions below serve to initiate school and classroom assessments:

Is your learning community effective? ( Stack ) Does your learning community work interdependently to advance student learning and academic performance for which we are collectively responsible and mutually accountable? Are students engaged in learning tasks and performance assessments that accurately measure learning and mastery of competency? Does the community fosters a positive school culture and climate for each of the stakeholders that promotes respect, responsibility, ambition, and pride? Is your classroom a dynamic,student-centered,engaging learning environment?(Couros) Do students have voice and choice? Is there time for reflection? Are there opportunities for innovation? Do you encourage and support critical thinking? Are students problem solvers and “finders? Do students self-assess their learning? Are you and your students connected learners? Does  your school exemplify the Attributes of a successful school? Are you an effective educator? Is your classroom and/or school an effective learning environment? (The Nature of Learning, Using Research to Inspire Practice) Is the learner at the center of all that happens in the classroom? Is learning a social practice in your classroom? Do students understand the why of learning experiences in your classroom? Do you make time for students’ emotions? Do you engage each student “where he or she is”? Do you offer a just right challenge for students so they are not “coasting” or “overloaded?” Is assessment meaningful, substantial, and used to shape the environment? Is learning interdisciplinary?

Also, are you ready for new learning--learning that has been identified nationally and locally in addition to learning that results from students’ passions and interests. Today’s learning requires familiarity and inclusion of the following areas:

Multiple Tools: Pedagogy Wheel The Achievement Gap: Know the Facts Multiple Search Engines Digital Literacy Tools and Skills: Multimedia Composition More Digital Literacy Skills STEAM: Coding, Let’s Teach Kids to Code Common Core

Multiple new tools and strategies exist in core curriculum areas as well. Here is a sample of a few links related to specific subject areas.

Math	The Dynamic Numbers Project: Mathematical Models Popular, proven math blogs and websites. “Math teachers must give up the love of scheduled quizzes and perfectly spaced exams in favor of an assessment scheme that allows students to show their learning when they actually achieve it. This scheme should include periodic reassessments of all of the learning targets in the course, such that students are sent the message that retention truly matters.” -Shawn Cornally of ThinkThankThunk “teachers must also make learning targets explicit.” - Cornally Dan Meyer, “Math Class Needs a Makeover” Analyzing Problems Students Have with Math
Science/Social Studies	Information related to integrating new science standards, Education Week Environmental Awareness PBL Rubrics
ELA	Tips from Ernest Hemingway re: writing fiction. Digital Poetry Student Research

Our ability to teach children well will depend on the way we integrate the new digital culture with the traditional culture of school. The manner in which leadership and educators synthesize social media, digital tools, today’s big questions, students’ passions, community context, and essential skills will impact the kind of learning environments we create. In the  Forbes article, “5 Ways Social Learning Communities Transform Culture And Leadership,” Biro supports this point when she writes, “Online learners will change culture.” and“. . .empower your employees to learn, participate and grow” with social media. Therefore the way we structure, navigate, and share our professional learning including the books, articles, and blogs we read, the conferences and courses we attend, and the professional learning communities we work with will impact the cultures we create in our schools.

A Very Short List of Blogs, Articles, Conferences and Organizations
Created from my Posts' Collection

Additions are welcome.  Please add your favorites in the comments section.

Professional Learning Models: Educon Growing your PLC, One Story A List of Blogs to Follow: Blog Reason for Follow Radical Learners High Impact Instruction TeacherCast New Ideas Langwitches Tech Integration Book Recommendations: Why School?  How Education Must Change When Learning and Information are Everywhere Multipliers - How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter Common Formative Assessment: A Toolkit for PLCs at Work Guided Inquiry Professional Learning Organizations Organization Rationale EdCamp Free, Great Teacher-Centered Learning, Multiple locations, times. Tech Integration Articles Tech Integration Innovation and Tech Tech Tools Tablets Socrative GreenScreen Ted Talks for Kids Power My Learning Gaming Tools Students Need to Know and Use Digital Skills Students Need to Know

In summary, this post offers you a map to guide your professional learning and design for the school year to come. The post also offers you learning and unit design templates which may serve to structure your efforts to promote engaging, student-centered learning design. Similar to the traveler's considerations as she studies the map to choose the best places to visit and explore, the educator today must study the educational landscape to determine the best paths to travel and promote to facilitate dynamic, engaging exploration, investigation, and development. Like the short tour of a new city or historic landmark, this post overs a drive-by view of learning, one which you may use to begin, review, or revise your own individual and collaborative learning design path--a path that leads you to best practice as an educator today.