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!