Leading The Dance of Change

After reading The Dance of Change" by Peter Senge and a host of other authors, I realize the need to capitalize on more ways to sustain momentum in our learning organizations. I realize there is a huge "dance" going on related to the learning when it comes to planning, facilitation, instruction, asking questions, offering solutions, providing feedback, assessing and reflecting. Our students need to play a more significant role in all aspects of our learning. The more of this "dance" I share with our students, the more engaged they are, the more of the learning they own and the more passion they find in the furtherance of their education. Here are several ways I'm learning with our students.

• Students asking questions - In order for our students to be doing more of the thinking, we need to provide them with more opportunities to be asking the questions and thinking through the various solutions. Our Probability and Statistics seniors are being presented with prompts or situations where they're asked to compare and contrast or differentiate the thought process behind mathematical concepts. Their questions are becoming exceptional and they're taking the questioning in directions I had not anticipated. Thanks to Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana (@RightQuestion) for their book "Make Just One Change" which has helped to transform our learning through questions. 

• Students facilitating learning - Our Honors Pre-Caclculus students are regularly offered the opportunity to start class with something they are unsure about from a prior class or something they've been pondering and have questions. They take center-stage and facilitate our learning with their questions. Their questions combined with the collaboration of their peers creates a learning environment that is often conducive to frequent "aha" moments and expressions of radiance that reveal deepened understanding. I'm so grateful for the Culture of Learning that we have fostered to empower learning to this level. I wish to thank Michele Corbat (@MicheleCorbat), Rodney Hetherton (@RodneyHetherton) and Adam Hartley (@aj_hartley1) for their leadership in our weekly discussions around developing a genuine Culture of Learning (#COLchat). 

• Students requesting practice - More and more students are requesting Extra Practice as they have a greater desire to improve and reach for higher levels of proficiency. Our Standards-Based Learning environment focuses on the learning to communicate more effectively. Lately we've had several Algebra 2 students request specific math practice as they've learned through their ungraded feedback exactly what they need to practice to gain the expertise they desire. I continue to be in awe of the dedication, perseverance and follow-through of our students in their quest to become more proficient, and they say to not disappoint! Thanks to Danny Hill (@hilldw61) and his powerful read "Brick House". 

• Students owning learning - Several of our students have recently taken a more serious approach to their studies by taking more responsibilty for their learning. Many of our Algebra 2 students have become more aggressive. I continue to hear "I know I can do this.", "Look at what I just figured out!", "I've been examining your feedback and I just realized..." and "I dropped from an A to a B. I promise you that won't happen again!". These students mean business and it's an honor to learn alongside them each day. I look forward to hearing some students walk into class saying "I can't imagine what Rowe has in store for us today!". I realize this comes down to leadership and influence and I need to share my appreciation for Salone Thomas-EL (@Principal_EL) and his "The Immortality of Influence". 

• Students providing evidence - One of our Probability and Statistics seniors approached me the other day with the statement "I've been thinking about what we've been learning recently and I've come to understand something. Let me show you.". On our whiteboard, he detailed the differences between Combinations (nCr) and Permutations (nPr) in a very clear and meaningful way. His explanation was something I wish I had seen and shared with our students. We incorporated his thinking and findings into our collaborative learning that day and gave him full credit for his deep understanding. He went on to share that he was thankful for us providing a learning environment where students are prompted to think outside of class time. He is one exceptional student and an even finer young man. 

• Students having pathways - Finally, one of our Algebra 2 students recently shared with me his deep conviction for students learning at various paces and the need for teachers to accommodate the needs of all students. He said "Mr. Rowe, let me suggest some ways I think we can help more students in our class to learn at their own pace.". He provided specific ways our learners could benefit from traveling on parallel pathways appropriate to their pace of learning. He prompted me to think about our students on an "Expressway to Learning", a "Main Street of Learning" and the "Scenic Route to Learning". I am now challenged to offer better and more varied "Pathways to Proficiency" where our students can reach and exceeed their potential! 

Getting On Board

Since our students spend much on their time on their mobile devices, I'm thinking it's wise to enable them to access our learning on those same digital tools. I've been in search of a platform that is browser-based, collaborative, intuitive, clutter-free and accessible from laptops, tablets and smartphones. Thanks to John Miller (@agileschools) for introducing me to Trello as a digital tool for collaborative learning. Trello enables us to create a "Flow of Learning" on a clutter-free canvas where we can collaborate and communicate with our students regardless of where any one of us is located. Trello has a Board as its canvas. We can place countless Lists on these Boards. Each List can house many Cards. Each Card can have checklists, attachments, links, conversation activity and more, We have the ability to integrate Trello with Evernote, Twitter, IFTTT and more tools that I rely on daily. I've recently created a Flow from Evernote or Email directly to any Card on any List on any Board. This is helping to have Trello be a central repository of content for our learners.

Our students easily adapted to Trello and are already communicating with me and each other on the Trello Cards specific to our content. I'm attaching documents and links so our students can operate from a central location to learn, understand and apply our content. Trello enables us to create a left-to-right flow that becomes intuitive on our learning journey. As we make progress through our learning, we move our Cards through the Lists from "Still to Learn", "Now Learning", "Learning To Be Assessed", "Assessed Learning" and "Reflections of Learning". Everyone on the Board can visibly see where we are in the process and with what content it is related. The "Reflections of Learning" List holds a card entitled Reflections document. I see this as a shared document for all learners to record our thoughts and reflections on our learning. I can see it housing many "aha" moments and after the fact realizations. All learners can access these thoughts at any time, but might be especially useful to study for tests.

We are in a Standards-Based learning environment and our Trello Cards are created based on the Standards we're learning. Cards can easily be added, moved and archived to create our Flow. Our students and I are already accessing Trello on our mobile devices to work through suggested practice, review checklists aligned to our material, see relationships with Mind Maps and have conversations with each other to clarify and deepen our learning. Each student is a Member of the Board and can move their avatar to any Card indicating that content is something they're currently learning. All individuals in our learning environment can see at any time who is where, who might be helpful as a resource and who might need our support.

With each passing day, I'm realizing there is so much more to Trello to track our learning journey and to keep all involved persons connected to each other and our learning. Just recently, teachers and administrators in other districts asked for access to our Boards to share in the learning, get ideas and to stay in contact with each other. In addition to John Miller, I'd like to thank Mark Kuniya (@MKuniya) and Lauren Moon (@elmoonio) for being inspirational and supportive as we collectively move to make our learning more visible to our students with the aim of putting them in the Driver's Seat for their education.