Disruptive Thinking

Eric Sheninger’s Disruptive Thinking encourages the reader to rethink the learning, rethink the Learner and rethink our mindset. This brings about greater passion for the Learners and the educator as we focus more on our culture for learning and a new culture of thinking. To better prepare our Learner for their future, we’re aligning much of the guidance in Eric’s Disruptive Thinking. Our Learners are so engaged this year! We believe that some is due to how we’re disrupting their thinking, how glad they are to be back in person learning together and how much fun we have learning high school Math. We appreciate that Eric encourages us to see our kids as Learners, not just as students. This is changing our mindset to engage in more thinking and learning, not merely doing. 

     Eric reminds us to start with our why (from Simon Sinek) and our philosophy for learning as we rethink what learning can look like to bring about more inspiring experiences. He encourages us to rethink why we facilitate learning, how we can create opportunities to learn, relate, and integrate concepts that empower our Learners to truly engage. We can ask the right questions to cultivate a thinking culture and create environments that our Learners really need and want to prepare them for their future. 

     The author encourages us to know our Learners, their gaps, their needs, their challenges so we can better create learning opportunities that engage thinking, chase growth (not perfection), personalize the learning and bring out the awe in our day to day learning. We get to know our Learners by understanding what they bring to our learning environment from past years, past courses, the courses on their current caseload and the extra curricular activities in which they engage. We make weekly #GoodCallsHome to connect with their parents to better support our Learners and our learning. Eric reminds us that involving families is a vital component of empowering greater learning. 

     He suggests we find the connectedness in our content to bring about greater understanding, to integrate concepts, to find the relevance to drive thinking and to create opportunities that encourage thinking through play. We create more visual learning, more Tic-Tac-Toe learning opportunities and BINGO games to bring about more play, competition and fun. Our Learners are regularly at the board. They are teaching. They’ve asked to have their voices take up 80% of our class time where my voice they’ve capped at about 20%! Actually, they tell us they learn so much more when they are doing the thinking, speaking, and applying.

     To best use our time in class together, Eric reminds us to give the beginning, middle and end more significance and delineation. The first 5-10 minutes he suggests creates engagement, hooking our Learners and offering them a sense of where we’re headed. Eric guides us to recognize that technology can be incorporated during a Do Now, a Check For Understanding or an Exit Ticket. We use Google Forms and project visuals on the board to make learning more visible. The middle portion of our class includes time for our Learners to ask their questions, time for them to engage in independent practice and time for them to get feedback through thinking and questioning. The last 5-10 minutes should bring about some closure to the goals of the day. This is a great time for a formative assessment or Exit Ticket that checks for understanding and offers the opportunity for our Learners to apply their thinking and ultimately get feedback before class ends. Our Learners often correct their Exit Tickets before they leave and jot themselves notes as to where they might want to improve during our next class.  

     The main portion of our class time is best designed using Universal Design for Learning where all Learners can individually understand and connect to the learning since we’re minimizing all barriers to learning. To bring out the best in our Learners, we encourage our Learners to lead the learning, let their questions drive our thinking and learning, and offer them time to practice the learning while we are available to provide them guidance. 

 

     In closing, Eric reminds us to let our Learners see how much we care about them, our learning and collaboration to unlock their potential. When we do, our Learners can reach and exceed their potential to unleash their greatness!

Making Connections

To start December on a positive note, I've decided to share some of my recent thoughts on how "Making Connections" is enhancing our learning.

• Making weekly #GoodCallsHome is one way to help our learning take on greater meaning. When we reach out and connect with the Parents / Guardians of our Learners, we are sharing the admiration, respect, and appreciation for them. Countless Parents have stated they feel more connected to school and their kid's educators after receiving these positive phone calls to home. Many of our Learners approach me after the call and say "Thank you for calling my Mom/Dad. They said they were really proud of me and hugged me".

• Getting to know, understand, and appreciate our Learners empowers educators to make the learning more meaningful to each individual. The more we understand how they learn or why they struggle learning helps us create learning opportunities that stick, are relevant, or connect to their prior knowledge.

• Tutoring Learners in other districts has enabled me to see how learning is sometimes disconnected or taught in isolation. Recently, I've been tutoring Learners at the high school or college level that share with me that they have yet to see where their current learning fits. Once I share with them the bigger picture, they have a greater appreciation for what they are learning. Let's make sure we're showing how the learning fits together by making connections. 

• We're sharing with our High School Algebra Learners in our Functions Unit how Evaluate, Graph, Solve, and Transform are relating Absolute Value Functions as well as Piece-wise Functions. For example, we're showing a Graph of an Absolute Value Function and explaining the connections between Evaluating, Graphing, Solving, and Transforming the Function. By explicitly showing the connections, the learning is more rich and the retention is deeper. 

• Our Standards-Based Learning chat (#sblchat) during the first and third Wednesday of each month is yet another way to make connections for ourselves that in turn benefits our Learners. During our collaboration, we learn from each other, we connect on Twitter with other professionals, and we take away ideas to bring to our Learners. I have appreciated the connections I've made with countless dedicated educators that frequent our chat. 

I welcome your thoughts on how you're "Making Connections" for learning! 

What I'm Learning From Our Students

     Listening to our Learners and sitting alongside them has recently been eye-opening. I'm learning more about them, how their fears and confidence affect learning, and how taking an interest in them as inviduals is becoming life-changing for me as an educator.  

     Our high school math seniors and I have been experiencing a time of reflection at the start of each week. We share vulnerabilities, times of being especially authentic, reasons to ask for forgiveness, and the need to take time to be more aware and simply present. Each week, we continue to be humbled by honesty shared, fears revealed, and a hunger for being exceptionally genuine. They claim this "different kind of math class" is helping us learn more deeply, make better connections, ask more questions, and be more vulnerable for the sake of learning. It's difficult to convey in words the depth of communication we're experiencing by having this safe place to just be. Little did I know how much this collaboration helps retention and relationship-building. One of the reasons why I believe this has been possible, is the #BlueMind I'm developing after reading the book of that title by Wallace Nichols. We have four posters in our math classroom of water scenes to help us connect, relax, be aware, and experience serenity. 

     This past week, I've worked alongside several 9th graders on our Entrepreneurial Team who have attended our after school help. During this time, they've experienced some refreshing moments of learning while I sat closely alongside them and listened to them as they articulated their thinking and questions. During these moments, they realized and I realized their errors and strengths in thinking. This has enabled me to better understand their gaps, how they think, what fears they have, and how to individualize our learning paths. 

     I challenge you to dare to be more authentic, share your vulnerabilities, and more clearly articulate your uncertainties in order to reach even greater success! I have so much to learn from our high school students. 

Retrieval Practice is Engaging Our Learning!

Thanks to "Make It Stick" and "Small Teaching", we're learning to incorporate regular retrieval of background knowledge, previously learned skills, and the making of connections between the skills. By using daily Distributed Practice, regular Exit Tickets, and daily collaborative questioning, we're seeing our Learners make significant connections between concepts. Some of our Exit Tickets are in paper form, though more and more are done using Google Forms. When our Exit Tickets are in a Google Form, Learners get immediate feedback to their thinking and often have the opportunity to reassess after they've acquired that feedback. Each time they launch our Google Form, the questions are jumbled to keep the thinking fresh and dynamic. Many of our Google Forms use checkboxes that allow for multiple answers. Using this approach, Learners are prompted to think more thoroughly and to include all responses that suit the prompt.

We've seen our Learners make such great connections, assimilating learning, and being engaged in our learning that we've been able to move ahead of our curriculum maps! Our Learners are always encouraged to reassess to demonstrate their highest proficiency on each Standard or Learning Target in our Standards-Based Learning environment. When our Learners reassess, they often experience aha-moments in seeing how our learning is related, connected, or how it's interwoven. "Make It Stick" and "Small Teaching" are inspiring greater teaching, assessing, and learning. 

Efficiency or Effectiveness?

I'm in a debacle as to whether to record the specific feedback I provide to our Learners or simplify identify whether they were a 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, or 1.0. If I record the feedback, I can better monitor their progress and respond to it. Recording that daily feedback will take more time. However, if I simply record their proficiency level of our Formative Assessment (FA), it's quicker, though less informative for teaching and learning.

This first image, with the Learner's name off screen to the left, has the Date, the Standard, Type, specific Feedback, Class Section, and Proficiency Level. This can identify the specific feedback that was provided to the Learner.

This second image is our Google spreadsheet of grades by Standard of the Formative Assessments (FAs) once graded. Many initial ones are ungraded. 

My question is whether to take the time and effort to record the specific or simply the proficiency level of the Formative Assessment.

Please share your thoughts as to what is ideal for our Learners and our learning. Thank you! 

Surprising Snow Success

During our first SNOW day of the 16-17 school year, I returned to Hacking Assessment by Starr Sackstein. to continue reading. Our classroom learning environment was about to be overhauled. After reading Starr's explanation of how menu options should be offered to our Learners to enable them to choose from which Learning Opportunity might best suit them on a given day, I realized another way to make learning more personal in our Standards-Based Learning environment.

I realize that restaurants would not have many return customers if the restaurant offered what they wanted to serve to their customers on a given day. Customers should have the right to select from a menu of choices based on what appeals to their appetite. I compared restaurant goers to our Learners and asked myself whether our Learners would choose to frequent our learning environment if the learning was but dictated to them so they had little to no say in the learning being made available. Once I conceded that many would not return if given that option, I chose to consider providing a Menu of Choices to our Learners. Even though I'd read Make Learning Personal by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey back in 2015, I realized I needed to take another step toward offering a more personal approach to learning.

At that point, I created a quick outline defining the proposed generic Menu Options for our Learners. After getting feedback from Bryn Williams, Derek Oldfield, Megan Moran and others. I updated the outline to include our innovative approaches to more tasteful and #MAD Learning. I'd be remiss if I did not give Bryn Williams credit for #MAD Learning. Bryn knows I teach High School Math.

#MAD Learning:

• Multiplying the Learning
• Adding to the Learning
• Dividing up the Learning

At the outset of our learning on Friday 2/10, I shared with our #MHSAlgebra1 Learners our proposed Menu Choices and asked for their feedback. They expressed immediate interest and asked if we could start it today! I agreed and offered today's three specials. No sooner were our Learning Opportunities made available, our Learners made their selections and began indulging in their learning. I noticed more collaborative learning, a bit more chaos, and more energy in the room. 

Thanks to Starr, Bryn, Derek, Megan and others, our Learners will be experiencing more tasteful learning, more personalized learning, and I anticipate higher proficiency levels since the learning is now even more Learner-centered! Bon Appetite! 

Integrating Distributed Practice and a Mobile App

I recently aimed to integrate our Standards, Distributed Practice, and the development of a mobile app for our Marlborough High School Learners. I transitioned to Marlborough High School, my alma mater, on November 7th and have been graciously welcomed by the administration, students, colleagues, and parents alike.

After reviewing our Math Department's curriculum for the courses I was scheduled to teach, I took the following steps to streamline the planning and learning process:

• Identify the Power Standards from the Standards for our classes. - Since I started the first day of the second marking period, and had a bit of catch-up to do, I identified the crucial or Power Standards around which to build our learning road map. 

• Determine the Dates of our class meetings. - Using the school calendar and the new pilot rotating schedule, I identified the dates, times and durations of our classes. 

• Create a Syllabus of the sequenced Power Standards. - In a Google sheet, I created columns for Date of class meeting, Learning Objective, supporting Power Standard, Vocabulary needed for the lesson, what the Proficiency Ticket of the day would include for skills, what the Sequence number of the lesson was, and in which Unit the lesson was included. This spreadsheet contained the data that would be available to our Learners in our Syllabus mobile app.

• Create an integrated Distributed Practice for our spiral learning. - In the Google sheet, I created another tab to contain the Distributed Practice that included the New Lesson along with the lessons from the prior four (4) class meetings. With each day's lesson integrated with the lessons from the prior four meetings, I believe we can transition smoothly from one lesson to another, apply the spiral learning described in "Make It Stick" and integrate the learning of the lessons in a seamless way.  

• Develop and deploy a mobile app using the AppSheet add-on in Google sheets. - After designing the Google sheet with the above-mentioned columns, I launched AppSheet to build a mobile app for our Learners, After adding column headers, an About box, and testing the prototype, I deployed the mobile app via email addresses to various members of our Professional Learning Network (PLN) to provide me with feedback to improve the app. 

This is where I stand now. I'm awaiting feedback from administrators and teachers. I anticipate this integrated planning, mobile app for our Learners to access our Syllabus, and the Distributed Practice that is accessible via a tab on this blog to streamline the planning, learning, and our communication. I welcome your thoughts.  

Standards to Mobile App in 8 Steps

I've been wanting to design and develop a mobile app to empower our Learners to become more interested, engaged, and connected to our learning. Here are the steps I recently took to develop my first mobile app (iPhone 5S).

8 Steps:

• 1st: Identified Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to our Course - The CCSS were identified from the Mastery Connect app. 

• 2nd: Determined Power Standards - After careful scrutiny, the crucial or Power Standards were determined to be the Standards on which our learning would focus. The other Standards were used as supporting ones.

• 3rd: Sequenced Power Standards - The Power Standards were listed in an order where our Learners could see the connections or relationships between them or how the Standards built on the ones prior.

• 4th: Separated into meaningful Units - The Power Standards were broken into nine (9) meaningful chunks or Units and were organized on a Trello Board. This image is filtered to only show the Power Standards, though the link is the entire Board for our Algebra 1 course. 

• 5th: Identified lessons or relevant sub-divisions of Units - Each Standard has lessons created for support since several learning activities are often needed to develop a Standard. 

• 6th: Sequenced lessons to build upon background knowledge - The lessons were then ordered or sequenced in a way to hope to provide ideal connections, relevance, and understanding to our Learners. 

• 7th: Aligned lessons to days that our class meets - Since our block scheduling has classes only meeting every other day, the lessons were aligned to calendar dates. On each date, I attached links to our "What Do You Notice?" Trello Board to jumpstart the learning for that class. Each day also has a link to our Class Practice. Somedays we'll launch Formative as our new Formative Assessing tool. 

• 8th: Launched AppSheet and specified Google sheet containing lessons - Finally, I went to AppSheet and launched the browser. I indicated I wanted to create a new app. I specified the Google sheet as my data source and AppSheet did the rest!

It was actually that streamlined. AppSheet has a great deal of functionality and customization available so you can design and develop an app quickly, but enhance as you go. There is a very helpful community on Google+. Check them out! 

Learning Through Interdependence

Effective feedback received on a learning journey makes the learning more enjoyable and more productive. When feedback is built into every phase of skill acquisition and application, we're better able to get on the track and stay on the track toward proficiency and even mastery.

I've been reviewing the ADDIE Model and Instructional Design and keep seeing how our relationships, collaboration, and feedback are vital to our learning growth. The ADDIE Model I've seen includes:

• Analyze - This is where we determine the scope of the course or learning. This is where we ask the Who, Why, What, When, Where, and How. We analyze the needs of our Learners, the environment, and the expected learning outcomes or standards. As there are often too many standards to include in the time allotted, we often want to identify the crucial or power standards. A vital aspect of the analysis that is often overlooked is understanding who our Learners are and identifying their specific needs, passions, and interests. It was through reading "Make Learning Personal" by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey, that I realized the importance of placing our Learners at the center of the learning, rather than the center being the content or curriculum. Only after we aim to understand our Learners, can we more ideally design our learning journey. The environment often includes the culture of learning (#COLchat) being fostered, the specific time of day of the learning, whether useful technology is available to reinforce the learning, and whether any distractions exists inside or outside the learning space. Only once the components of the analysis phase have been identified and resolved, does it make sense to transition to the design phase. 

• Design - We start by sequencing the standards (#SBLchat) or learning outcomes based on the time available for the course and the needs of our Learners. After the standards are sequenced, we usually chunk them into themed units. Unit assessments are then designed to meet the known target. This is often referred to as Backward Design, a crucial piece in "Understanding by Design" (UbD). Any needed resources are identified and collected. After we have a solid design of our anticipated learning, should we move on to develop the components in the next phase. 

• Develop - During the development phase, the instructional materials are built. The thresholds for passing and proficiency are solidified. Course-, unit- and standard-level assessments and instruction are developed to support the design. As we develop materials, identify methods and media, we want to be aware of the variability of our Learners. When we design to the edges, we provide access to learning for all Learners. When we develop activities with low floors and high ceilings, we're better able to reach and empower our challenged Learners while offering additional enrichment to those more gifted and talented. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides guidelines and principles to reach all Learners. The following image identifies the three (3) UDL networks across the top along with what to focus on to enable Learners to access, process and internalize our learning. Once the methods, materials, and media have been identified, then we're ready for the next phase. 

• Implement - The implementation phase is where the syllabus for the course is created, once we understand our Learners and the learning outcomes.  However the Learners will be graded, the procedures have to be documented and communicated clearly. During this phase, the learning is facilitated, the instruction is delivered, or the Learners are provided access to our learning loop (instruction, practice, feedback, more practice, formative assessments, etc.). We want to regularly refer to the above Univeral Design for Learning (UDL) reference to verify that all Learners are given learning opportunities with variability. 

• Evaluate - Each of the preceding phases maintains its own evaluation so the learning can be clearly defined, acquired, and kept on track. Each phase should function to double check the prior phases. Once the instruction is complete for a Unit or a Course, a summative evaluation is useful to determine any aspects of the instruction that might need improvement (in the current or future year). Learners and educators should be encouraged to self-assess and reflect throughout the learning journey. This evaluation or reflection reinforces the interdependence so vital to a culture of learning. When we reflect, self-assess, and request feedback, we often close gaps and enrich the learning journey from those "aha" moments that so often result. 

As we prepare to start the 16-17 school year, let's be mindful of this iterative and phased approach to learning. The more communication and collaboration we build into our learning journey, the more engaged, meaningful, and relevant it will be for everyone. Join me in building in the Interdependence for Learning! 

Five Levers to Learning

Having just finished reading "Five Levers to Improve Learning" (#5Levers) by Tony Frontier and Jim Rickabaugh, I'm in a reflective mindset to connect this new knowledge to make more sense of it. Tony and Jim focus their book on the following five levers:

• Structure - Logistical components of districts, schools, and classrooms, such as schedules, staffing, and administrative processes 
• Sample - Grouping of students in any classroom or program any at given time
• Standards - Expectations for quality and articulated pathways for growth as related to student learning 
• Strategies - The practices teachers use to help students deepen their understanding of content and improve their ability to use important skills 
• Self - Beliefs that teachers and students have about their capacity to be effective 

The structure and sample levers are provided by administrators and district leaders and are the only visible components of their "learning iceberg". The standards, strategies, and conceptualization of self are invisible aspects, though fundamentally important to the learning. 

As a participant in our weekly Standards-Based Learning chat, #sblchat, I know how vital standards or learning outcomes are to our learning journey. We engage daily in lessons or learning opportunities aligned to one or more of our standards. Teachers and students collaboratively engage in sharing practice, feedback, assessing and reassessing until students reach proficiency or higher. As I'm integrating Standards-Based Learning (SBL) with Understanding by Design (UbD) with Trello, I'm creating Course Level learning goals or Big Picture goals, supported by Unit Level learning goals and aligned to Standards-Based learning goals. All learning activities are aligned to standards to reinforce the learning and to facilitate and foster communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity in our Learners. I believe that flow happens more often when our Learners take the Driver's Seat and own their learning through facilitation. They learn so much about themselves and each other when they facilitate rather than leaving the facilitation to just me. 

Some of our learning strategies that appear to solidify understanding and deepen proficiency include having our Learners facilitate, having everyone take ownership for providing feedback, and having everyone engage is self-assessing to determine where we still have gaps. The more our Learners take responsibility for collaborative questioning, providing feedback and reflecting through self-assessing, the deeper our relationships become. Every Learner can contribute to our learning environment and can benefit from our collaborative classroom. All Learners in our environment see feedback as crucial to learning whether it's peers making connections to background knowledge, teachers offering a prompt to guide the learning, or self-assessing that seems to resolve where gaps in learning may still exist. 

I wish to thank Tony and Jim for their careful analysis and sharing of their "Five Levers to Improve Learning". If you've yet to read their book, consider adding it to your reading list. 

Are Grades in our Way?

Many participants were grateful to see Starr Sackstein at our Building Learning Communities Conference (#BLC16) thanks to Alan November with November Learning. Starr facilitated our session on "Empowering Learning Through Mastery".

As is Starr's style, she welcomed us to move our seats from traditional rows to a collaborative circle where each participant had equal voice and representation. Our circle continued to expand to include more and more conference participants who found our session. Everyone felt they had a voice and was welcomed to share our challenges, questions and concerns with moving learning to the front and grades to the back.

Starr began by sharing her journey of how grades can stifle learning and some options for shifting the paradigm to focus on growth through feedback to empower more creativity and engagement in the learning. She shared her visionary journey in her district and how well her learners have responded and respected her entrepreneurial spirit. She mentioned how she conferences with her Learners to collaboratively reflect on their growth, gain and progress. Starr has seen incredible growth in herself and in her Learners. She and they continue to make their writing visible globally and challenged us to empower our Learners to not merely submit work to their teachers, but instead to share the learning globally!

Check out Starr's Ted Talk!

Global Collaboration

Craig Vroom and I have been connected via Twitter for several years now and we finally had the opportunity to meet in person as he presented a session at Alan November's Building Learning Communities (#BLC16) in Boston on "Global Collaboration for Local Impact". Craig's charisma and genuine presence created an ambiance when attendees immediately became participants. Even though many of us had not yet met, the exchange we experienced quickly became collaborative and the sharing flourished.

Craig started with The Power of Twitter. We discussed how Twitter can enable us to engage in useful Professional Development (PD), more reflective exchanges (through chats), effective communication with educators worldwide and through becoming and maintaining being a connected educator. Twitter has been the medium that Craig and I have used to encourage, support and challenge each other. After Twitter, we shared how to Find Your Tribe and the Power of Blogging. We shared how blogging is an individually reflective endeavor that is key to making sense of our learning, while also connecting to each other as we often share a similar purpose.  Next, we discussed the importance of the First 3 Days. The first 3 days is a time for building relationships, fostering a safe and trusting environment and building an interdependence that is crucial to retained and collaborative learning. Hundreds of educators will be sharing with #1st5Days on Twitter. Finally, we ended with Being a Lead Learner. We shared how one can be a Lead Learner as the facilitator of a district, a school or a classroom. In all cases, play, humor, listening, empathy and perseverance are key aspects of learning that lasts! Thank you Craig!

Humor Facilitates Learning

I've just experienced much rich learning and sharing at Alan November's Building Learning Communities (#BLC16) in Boston. After chatting with Lena Marie Rockwood this morning, I've decided to write a number of brief posts to share the learning. Here it goes...

Charles Cooper facilitated a session on how humor can be a significant component to fostering an environment in which learning, sharing, collaborating and asking questions end up being natural by-products. When I arrived to the session, there was a YouTube video on showing very young children laughing silly with their parents. The participants in the session naturally broke out in laughter. We started laughing silly, connecting with those around us and had not yet bothered to introduce ourselves. It was almost like a basic need of connecting was already established due to the silly laughter. The laughter has facilitated our connections,

Imagine if natural connections through laughter could be one of the ways our learners connect in a classroom environment! Laughter can dispel fear, anxiety and reluctance. As long as the laughter is not at the expense of anyone in the room, a more relaxed and connected environment seems to be immediately created. Whether a humorous video is showing as learners enter our environment or whether we show a silly video prior to an assessment where learners might be a bit on edge, humor can help to calm us and help to facilitate an environment where learning and connecting is more natural.

Check out this link: Contagious Laughter

Gratitude

This reflective post is inspired by our Learners and dedicated to an #edchatma colleague of mine, Maureen Devlin. Every day our Learners share their intrigue, their interest and their energy with me. I'm filled with gratitude for the Culture of Learning we've fostered that enables us to learn alongside each other every day with respect, trust and honesty. Maureen Devlin continues to inspire her Learners and her colleagues in our Professional Learning Network (PLN). I am so grateful to have met Maureen and continue to be inspired by her. Check out Maureen's blog.

Just this week, I've been inspired by the following individuals:

• One young man that has learned to appreciate math in a whole new way after arriving to our high school informed me Wednesday that his grade was "only a B" and stated, "Mr. Rowe, you and I both know I'm capable of better than that. What can we work on together so I can demonstrate my understanding at a higher level?" After I gained my composure after a statement like that, we identified one math standard where he could use Extra Practice and more get more feedback. We worked together with questions alternating between he and I. The connection we have has developed over our school year and is one reason why this is his best year of math. 

• A young lady who shares a math class with me in addition to our Interdisciplinary Block weekly communicates with me as to how she can get more practice to connect and integrate our learning at higher and higher levels. She has become an exceptional student of mathematics with an unending desire to reach greater levels of proficiency. Her sense of humor and willingness to help me and her peers contributes significantly to our Culture of Learning. I've been asking her if I could call home to share with her parents how significantly she contributes to our learning. She has been reluctant saying "Mr. Rowe, no teacher calls home to say good things about their students." She does not know about our nationwide movement of #GoodCallsHome that continues to empower Learners, Parents and Teachers about the great learning happening in our schools. On Wednesday, she finally gave me the okay to call her home!

• A young man in one of our math classes has transformed his attitude towards math and it has enabled him to reach success like he's never seen before. He and I have worked through many challenges this year. Our dedication to each other has enabled him to finally like and look forward to math. We can both attest to the fact that our dedication to our Culture of Learning has not only improved our ability to communicate math more clearly but to also appreciate others with different strengths and interests. He gets our "Transformer Award". 

• As I was leaving school today, another young man in one of our math classes shared with me how this year has opened his eyes to appreciate and value mathematical understanding and reasoning at a whole new level. I'm very grateful when our Learners communicate to me that they look forward to our time together and enjoy learning with me. Learning can and should be this enjoyable. As we parted today, he said, "Mr. Rowe, I'll see you tomorrow first block for math". What a way to connect with our Learners!

• Yesterday I was greeted by a prior student who returned to our school as a substitute teacher. He shared with me his appreciation for how we learned together. He is just finishing his undergraduate study at college. He said he wanted to support learning and really enjoys the one-on-one connection teachers and students can and should have. He thanked me for my influence on his life. Seeing him again and sharing with him really made my week. 

In our classes, we Yearn to Learn every day! Thank you for reading.

Reflecting After Surveying Our Learners

In John Hattie's "Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning", I found his survey and provided a Google form to our Learners to offer anonymous feedback. The following is the aggregate of these findings. For each of the survey questions, our Learners were prompted to select a rating of  1 (Lowest or Rarely) to 5 (Highest or Mostly). The percents below represent Learners who rated me in the top two tiers (4 and 5).

7 Cs Classroom Climate Survey
Percents of 5's or 4's ratings out of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest)	A	B	C	D
Number of Learners	20	17	20	18
1. Care
Our teacher in this class makes me feels that he really cares about me.	85	82	80	89
Learners in this class treat our teacher with respect.	100	53	75	89
2. Control
Our class stays busy and doesn't waste time.	85	47	85	66
Our teacher has several good ways of explaining each topic.	90	82	80	82
3. Clarity
Our teacher really tries to understand how Learners feel about things.	90	82	95	94
Our teacher explains difficult things clearly.	80	94	84	82
4. Challenge
In our class, we learn a lot almost every day.	95	76	74	94
In our class, we learn to correct our mistakes.	95	94	89	93
5. Captivate
Our teacher makes learning interesting.	80	71	70	72
I like the ways in which we learn in our class.	80	82	74	82
6. Confer
Learners speak up and share their ideas about our learning.	75	76	95	71
Our teacher respects my ideas and suggestions.	85	82	84	94
7. Consolidate
Our teacher checks to make sure we understand when we are learning.	90	94	84	88
The feedback I get on my work in this class helps me to understand how to improve.	85	82	84	88

Possible areas of improvement:

• The lack of respect that some of our Learners (B) may have for me may be tied to their perception that we do not stay busy and may waste class time. Our Learners (C) that may have a reduced respect for me may be contributing to why they believe I don't make class as interesting as the other classes. Our Learners (C) also indicated that they believe they learn less per day than the other classes. 
• Our Learners (B) were the only class to generate a percent in the 80s related to "our teacher really tries to understand how Learners feel about things". 
• Our Learners (A) have their lowest rating for me on sharing their ideas about learning even though they are the only class to offer a full respect for me. 
• My lowest rating was associated with using class time well and not wasting time. 
• My second lowest rating was tied to me not regularly making our learning interesting. 

Possible areas of strength:

• Our Learners (B) were the only group to result in a percent in the 90s for "our teacher explains difficult things clearly.".
• Our Learners (C) provided a rating in the mid-90s for "Learners speak up and share their ideas about our learning" compared to the other classes all being in the 70s. 
• All Learners offered high ratings that they learn to correct their mistakes.
• Our Learners (C) not only shared the highest rating for "their teacher tries to understand how Learners feel about things" and that they speak up and share their ideas about learning. 
• Our Learners (D) shared my highest rating for caring about them and for me respecting their ideas and suggestions. 
• My highest rating was for our Learners learning to correct their mistakes. 
• My second highest rating was that our Learners feel I try to understand how they feel about things. 

I absolutely welcome your feedback, thoughts and comments about how I might improve our learning environment to stimulate life-long learning and critical thinking. I appreciate your reading this post and I thank you in advance for any feedback you might provide. 

Distraction Attraction?

Are you attracted to distractions? Are you drawn in by notifications on your mobile device? Are you lured by hyperlinks on a webpage? Is your focus easily broken when someone on social media tags you, retweets your tweet or likes something you recently posted? When you're exercising on cardio equipment at your local fitness center, do your eyes jump from one TV screen to another? Might it be intrigue or boredom? Why are we so easily drawn away from our task at hand by something that could likely be so trivial?

As the psychotherapist Micheal Hausauer notes, teens and other young adults have a "terrific interest in knowing what's going on in the lives of their peers, coupled with a terrific anxiety about being out of the loop." Could this describe more than just teens? 

These excerpts are from The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr:

• "The Net seizes our attention only to scatter it."
• "When we're online, we're often oblivious to everything else going on around us. The real world recedes as we process the flood of symbols and stimuli coming through our devices."
• "When our brain is overtaxed, we find 'distractions more distracting'." 
• "The Net is, by design, an interruption system, a machine geared for dividing attention."
• "The more complex the train of thought we're involved in, the greater the impairment the distractions cause. "

I'm finding the following activities are regularly or maybe constantly being interrupted:

• Driving - I took a pledge two years ago to not text and drive. Since I was almost hit in the crosswalk by a student of mine in front of our school, I'm very sensitive to this subject. Before sending a message to someone, I think whether they might be driving. If so, I wait to send the message. Daily, I see so many drivers appearing to be even slightly distracted from their driving due to some mobile device. Many appear to be clenching their device while attempting to drive. 

• Reading - I greatly enjoy learning through reading. I'm often reading on my iPad. I'm now noticing how often notifications appear in the banner section of my device. My eyes are drawn to it as my ears hear a tone announcing the distraction's arrival. Sometimes I switch from reading on my iPad to reading on my Kindle where my focus cannot be broken by social media notifications. 

• Learning - When our Learners are in a state of "flow" where engagement, attention and communication are rich and that dreaded announcement comes over the PA System beckoning some uninterested strolling learner to visit the main office, I wish we had the opportunity to disable more 'notifications'. I've read that schools in Germany and Japan see learning as sacred and would not disrupt learning unless it was an emergency. 

• Listening - I've been in meaningful conversation countless times with people in and out of school only to be distracted by their mobile device. Virtually every individual chooses to yield to the distraction. After reading the above-mentioned book by Nicholas Carr, I understand why we change our focus even though I still see it as somewhat disrespectful and impolite. 

• Reflecting - Just while I've been writing this reflective post, I've received about twenty notifications scrolling at the top of my iPad. None of them were worth the loss of my focus. I've realized this year just how important reflection is and am trying to spend more time each week in a state of distraction-free reflection. 

As always, I appreciate you reading my reflection and welcome your thoughts. I wonder how many times you were distracted while reading this brief piece. If you were distracted, did you choose to yield to it and why? Was it worth it? 

Learning Life Lessons

Today I attended the funeral of the dad of one of our Learners. One of our senior boys, not only attended, but honorably participated in the funeral for his dad.

I went to pay my respects at the funeral home at the last viewing of the dad of one of our senior young men. As it turned out, I was in for a life lesson. As I learned today, Eric is a mature 17-year old young man with a level-head, a deep-rooted love for family and a yearning to love and support his friends, family and everyone with which he comes in contact. Just as soon as I entered the funeral home, he introduced me to his mom and his younger brother and sister. Soon after, he was sharing memories of his dad through the hundreds of photos displayed. These photos captured precious memories of everyone in his family with a focus on dad. Eric expressed such heartfelt love, respect and adoration for this man. I kept hearing, "Mr. Rowe, I have learned so much from my dad." Eric shared his love for hockey and all the support his dad had provided for him and his teammates. I later learned that his teammates were either at the wake the prior evening or at the funeral today. In addition to Eric's immediate family, I had the pleasure to meet some of his uncles, his grandmother and grandfather. Come to find out, his grandmother had substituted for my classes when I had been out of school last year.

After a short walk to the church where the funeral was held, I was greeted by several of Eric's classmates. They were well-dressed, well-spoken and so appropriate given the situation. Upon arriving inside the church, I sat with Eric's classmates and teammates that filled about four pews. It was a sight to see nearly fifty respectful young men there to pay their respects and to support Eric. Eric's dad had influenced many of these classmates and hockey players. I was more than humbled by the way these young men represented themselves, their families and their community.

What had the greatest effect on me was when Eric made his way to the front of the church with his mom to eulogize his dad and her husband. Eric's mom initially spoke offering such love and commitment to her husband. She smoothly transitioned to enable Eric to speak as she gracefully stepped back and Eric approached the microphone. At that moment, my tears began to flow as they are at this moment. This 17-year old young man spoke with such strength, honor and gratefulness for the man his dad had been to him. Eric shared that his dad had been his best-friend, hero and role-model. Through Eric's words, he shared that he was committed to follow in his dad's footsteps and be a role-model and be there to love and support those with whom he connected. Eric conveyed that he knew he was now the man of the household and promised his dad that he would make him proud. This young man taught us a great deal today. I'm sure his dad is already so very proud of his son!

Learning on Vacation

Whether it was the beauty of Bermuda's pink sandy beaches, the 185 steps to the top of the Gibbs Lighthouse, the sights from the Bermuda Island Drive, the glass-bottom boat cruise along the water's edge to view the homes of famous people living in Bermuda or the incredible entertainment on the cruise ship, we were learning every day how to appreciate life with other cultures.

• Trust - As our captivated audience was spellbound by Jocka (@JockAcroFlyer) and Maria (@MaRiAerialDancr) and their Aerial Flyers show, the trust they had for each other was evident. Their balancing and flying stunts were only possible with implicit trust in one another. After meeting them F2F after their show, it became even more apparent the passion, trust, respect and dedication they had for one another. 
  

• Arts - In addition to the awe-inspiring aerial and balancing show that Jocka and Maria put on, we were entertained by Luke in the piano bar. Luke graduated from Berkeley School of Music in Boston, and like Jocka and Maria, were booked as entertainers on our cruise ship. Luke's personality and connection with his audience created repeat customers night after night. In addition to taking many requests, he took time during his breaks to relate to his audience. 

• Dedication - The cruise ship's Production Crew was more than sensational in their song and dance. Their commitment to the family they have fostered in their Crew and the time and effort they give to one another to bring out the best in each other was paramount. Having the chance to meet and talk with them in the cruise ship's fitness centered reinforced their commitment and  dedication. 
  

• Questions - Taking the opportunity to ask questions of Jocka, Maria, Luke, the Production Crew and so many tour guides and servers greatly enriched our cruise. So much can be learned through clarifying questions, reflective inquiry and questions conveying interest. We felt that our questions and their responses added so much to making our vacation even more relaxing, enjoyable and fulfilling. In addition, by being observant and asking questions at the right time saved us a great deal of time and money. 

• Communication - Our vacation was enriched through the constant communication with servers, cruise ship staff, tour guides and fellow vacationers. Whether it was in a glass elevator or a piano bar, we met and chatted with students that had previously learned in class with me or teachers who taught next to me in our district. It was mind-blowing to be on a cruise ship and have another guest call you by name and share how you've impacted their life. 
  

• Interdependence / Community / Family - In addition to the ship's Production Crew working together as a family, so many of our servers exhibited a sense of family and community by connecting, disclosing and asking questions. At least two of our servers had a fiance waiting for them at home at the end of this commitment on this cruise ship for a wedding around the corner. In addition to Jocka and Maria, the Production Crew of singers and dancers, our Thrillussionist David and his wife and child on the ship displayed a commitment to family and community. 

• Adapting - Learning to adapt and graciously accommodate other's needs in a changing schedule can not only reveal one's heart, but often comes with unexpected and pleasant surprises. We were invited to join other guests one evening in the dining room and found it to be a very pleasant and uplifting experience. We inquired as to their plans on the ship and met them at other times. There was a time change as a result of traveling through different time zones that caught some guests unaware. Adapting in the early morning for breakfast or at a showtime when they've failed to change the clock caused them to learn quickly. We had a tour that was originally scheduled for Sunday that was changed soon before the tour to a later day. It's stress-free when you can learn to just adapt. Even coming upon 12-foot waves on a cruise ship in the Bermuda Triangle causes one to learn to adapt and take a couple of Dramamine. On the island of Bermuda, traffic drives on the left side on the street and traffic moving clockwise around a roundabout caused many to quickly adapt. 
  

• Listening - Many of the above could be summarized in the need to listen intently. Whether it was being on the correct side of the glass-bottom boat prior to crashing waves, the time to be on which deck of the same boat, the time changes for dinner, shows or disembarking, it really pays to listen with the intent of understanding and adapting. 

Overall, our vacation was exhilarating while relaxing due to many of the above. Let's incorporate these into our learning environments as often as possible to enable our learners to experience smooth sailing. 

Advocates For Learning

I aim to always be learning with and from our Students, our Professional Learning Network (PLN) and from personal reflection based on my journey. On Friday May 1st, our Algebra 2 Students inspired, encouraged and caused me to see learning from their perspective. Our class Friday was last block of the day with the anticipation of the weekend and the Senior Prom in the evening. Our Students did not let up for a moment with their laughter, engagement, collaborative questions and interegating me with why I continue to raise the bar with our learning. As I'm writing this post, I'm  realizing how thankful I am for responding to the Call of becoming an educator. Regularly, I see struggles, maturing, heartache followed by understanding and so many other benefits of learning alongside them.

Planning - In preparation for Friday, I had reviewed their prior learning, offered feedback about it and made notes about how to adapt our learning based on where our understanding was currently. After reviewing their prior learning, I better understood some next steps to bring our understanding to a deeper level and to make more meaningful connections. I designed four (4) different avenues of learning for our next class together, hoping to stimulate their thinking, prompt more questioning and extend our learning to greater depths to help solidify their understanding. 

Executing - As our Students entered our learning environment, they could view our daily agenda on the board listing various opportunities for learning. As they were arriving, I returned their papers from our prior class with my written feedback. Once settled, we reviewed our agenda and I asked our Students to individually choose which of the four learning opportunities they thought would resolve the most questions, stimulate their thinking and challenge them to new thinking. I requested they work to complete a couple of them prior to the end of our 84-minute block. They knew it was their choice to learn through any of these options. There was a bit of chatter among their learning groups as to which opportunities they wanted to undertake. At that point they began their individual learning. I was so encouraged to hear our Students exchanging "You get the one on Logarithms and I'll help you with it", "Can someone help me with the Exponentials since I'm still struggling with them?" and "Mr. Rowe, would you please explain to me what I'm doing wrong in this third step since I know that's where I'm messing up?". Our Students have become advocates for their learning with their collaborative questioning, confidence through challenges and willingness to put themselves out there when they know they're missing a piece of the learning. As they were working together in groups of four or five, they were helping each other, asking each other questions and developing deeper relationships with their peers. We hold in highest regard the Culture of Learning that we have fostered during this school year. The interdependence, respect, trust and sas / attitudes was very obvious as the chaotic learning was unfolding. Every few minutes I was summonded to respond to some questions by our Students. I aim to encourage our Students to think deeply about possible responses to the questions and think through some of the better approaches. I rarely answer their questions for them. One of our Students uttered the statement twice during our class, "Mr. Rowe, my brain hurts again!". At a certain moment during our learning, I realized we had engineered the learning to be student-centered, student-driven and student-owned. I reminded our Students how grateful I was with their focus, their perseverance and cooperation. One of our Strudents simply stated, "Mr.Rowe, it's just what we've learned to do. That's all.". I was stunned! 

Reflecting - This post serves as the start of my reflection based on Friday's learning. I realize we experienced Personalized Learning, freedom to ask anyone any question to clarify the understanding and a safe environment in which to laugh, move around, help one another and stay focused on a task. I don't remember learning this way during my high school days, though I wish I had. 

Thank you for reading and for sharing this learning journey with me and our Students! 

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!