Tech Has Its Place

Posted on August 16, 2013 by sutterlearn

There is so much banter about educational technology. Teachers are pressured to use technology even through our evaluation systems, while plenty of educators (and the public) don’t completely understand how easily pedagogical tech and novelty tech can be confused. For example, on the surface (pardon the pun) a Smartboard in every classroom sounds like a boon for a district. Realtors would surely point this out. I wouldn’t trade my Smartboard for chalk, but to be completely honest it’s not a huge leap. I’m still standing in front of a group, presenting even interactive media, that only one individual at a time can participate in while many others observe. Change that picture to me and a few different kids having tablets, laptops, and mobile devices. Teaching and learning suddenly look different because they are different. When we are all looking at the same math problem, but while one student is working through it his own way, a group is following my example, and others are Googling extended concepts to share in the conversation, learning is authentic and the institutional classroom looks and behaves differently.
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Tech has its place when applied thoughtfully and when neglected intentionally. Unlike simple machines that were invented to make work easier, tech has the ability to be more cumbersome than efficient. Simple machines were derived to make things simple that we couldn’t otherwise do, such as a lever can lift things we couldn’t pick up on our own. We wouldn’t use a lever to move a pencil (that’s an ancient writing device) from one spot to another. So it is in teaching with tech.

On a morning at our breakfast table last Spring, my son asked me how the brain works when we think. Rather than pulling out my phone and searching for the right site or app that would exhibit synapses firing off and making multiple connections, I made a conscious choice to use my hands and have him use his hands to model this. While we talked of different topics that were related, we extended more fingers to one another to make connections. Later that day, we were riding along and a song mentioned a “K Car”. He asked what that was and because explaining that it was a model of a Reliant automobile would not help him fire any synapses, I handed him my phone and guided him through a search to find pictures of this vehicle. This would be more meaningful to him in the moment than additional confusing words. In the same day, I provided two methods of learning, but chose specifically which avenue was appropriate for the student, the learning, and the context. This is where we need to be very thoughtful about educational technology. Is it really improving pedagogy or are we using it because it’s there, a different way of doing the same things? Don’t just choose wisely, choose thoughtfully.

Posted in Teachers, Technology | 1 Comment

You’re Not The Only One

Posted on August 16, 2013 by sutterlearn

She called me an idealist like it was an insult. We were co-workers in an office world of cubicles that she may have been in too long. I’m not sure. The rest of the conversation stung more, degrading comments like, “…life hasn’t kicked you in the teeth enough to know better.” I smiled, probably further substantiating her claims that naivety wears into callus or idealism is akin to crazy.

Had it been more important to me to give examples than to be an example, I would have launched back at her. I would have explained that people have called me an idealist for years before her. I might have told her of the pre-marital counseling session where a personality test already proved her insult, that indeed I lean to idealism. But I smiled. When this happened twelve years ago, it felt like an insult. All of those experiences felt insulting. I didn’t smile because I was intentionally being the example I now believe in. I smiled because the insult itself had warn into callus. But now, that callus is a badge.Having worked in many different places, having been a dreamer as a child and rearing “what-if” dreaming children, having seen the virtues of the purely technical/rational and the beauty of the purely abstract/unrefined, having lived the value of achieving goals through incredibly hard odds, I have come to realize that idealism is just another word for vision. That’s not insulting because it’s something that so few people are able to articulate, but that you must have to succeed in anything. Without an ideal, what are you really trying to create…or are you just reacting and being molded to your circumstances and experiences. Are you becoming callus if you’re not a dreamer of what could be?

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It takes a lot of emotional intelligence and intellect, not to mention energy, to take reality and pragmatically dissect the limitations, lack of resources, challenges, and remain focused on the ideal you have created. Your ideal could be the type of teaching aspire toward, the type of classroom environment you create, of the type of person you want to be.

I wanted to learn how to carve a canoe paddle, so I went to Google to see what techniques and tools people suggested. There are about 763 different ways people do this, but one old timer wrote the best advice for carving wood or life as an idealist. “Take your board, doesn’t really matter what kind you get, then visualize what you want it to look like. Now, remove away everything that’s not a paddle.”

And pretty much, that’s it. Idealism is vision. It is being a dreamer. Being an idealist is seeing what could be or should be or, if you’re good enough at it, what will become. As you go into this new school year, expect to be kicked in the teeth, expect change, expect limitations and variables beyond your control, but visualize wonder, exception, and your ideal for what it will become. They may say you’re a dreamer, but you’re not the only one. I’ll be an idealist with you.

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Data Tells Stories…

Posted on July 10, 2013 by sutterlearn

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy recently released their 2013 Michigan Context And Performance Report Card. They also provide a handy, searchable database on their website to find your specific district and school results. BEFORE you start exploring, here are my two cents:

There is interesting information in this report. Looking at the methodology used to determine a CAP score is intriguing and I wish the powers of good, evil, and null would combine their forces to provide us one target. This ranking reminds me of what the Center for Michigan put out in January with value-added measures and rankings. After spending recent months enmeshed in the Michigan Department of Education’s data and measurement for my district, I see glaring differences in the three data points and wonder about the confusion it creates for the average citizen who only exposes himself to one set.

This got me thinking of when I did quality management. An external auditor came every six months to recertify us for ISO:9001. Keeping clients like Ford, Chrysler, and GM was dependent on us having that certification. The external auditor cost about $2,500 per visit and if we were non-compliant in an area without fixing it within six weeks we’d lose our certification. Oddly enough, there was only one time when a non-compliance was found that we couldn’t fix within six weeks. After that visit, we used a different external auditor, one that cost a little more even. When management explained the situation to the new auditor on his first visit, they set the expectation of the results they wanted to see (and were paying for). We had a long, positive relationship with this new auditor.

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This also reminds me of every time I’ve sold or refinanced a house. I will pay another $150 in a heartbeat to get the appraisal I want, be it higher for selling or lower for taxes. As much as I admire the work Audrey Spalding has done here for the Mackinac Center, I know that organizations would not spend money on a report that proved anything other than what they wanted.

Case in point, for the same period, any schools that received a D or F from the Mackinac Center should theoretically be a Focus school on MDE’s Bottom 30 list. These are reversed in a number of cases! Using similar adjustments for economically disadvantaged challenges and growth models, the Center for Michigan’s Value-Added Matrix identifies “champion” schools, often who have overcome odds with positive performance under harder conditions. Again the data points, all derived from the same MEAP results and economically disadvantaged numbers, are not really comparable with how MDE measures or ranks schools (and distributes funding) to districts.

In a circumstance where the education world is inundated with data points all while trying to determine standard indices by which to measure and guide our improvement, this can be confusing even to inquiring minds. School districts are just at the cusp of learning to triangulate data, so when those points don’t remotely compare it further confuses the system. What really scares me though, is that by the same theory that an organization will slice the same data to tell the story they want, a consumer who is only exposed to one of these stories, may develop an incomplete, or worse inaccurate, view of truth.

It seems that in such paradoxical conditions, it is critical for school leaders (that is ANYONE who works in a school serving our children) to be aware of these different data sets and be able to communicate to others the extreme caution that should be taken when making judgment about schools. We can’t afford not to look at external data points because our clients are looking at them, however they aren’t our money makers. What would be even better is if more of us pushed each organization who evaluates schools by any means, to articulate the good in their intentions AND work to align that good with the actual measures by which schools are funded and manage themselves. I guarantee if these methods were aligned with, not outside of, governmental measures, public schools could improve.

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Book Review – Your Life in Rhythm

Posted on June 27, 2013 by sutterlearn

For the past two years, I have kept Bruce Miller’s book, Your Life in Rhythm, as my “second”. I tend to keep a transitional book that I read between or along with others to avoid fatigue of one subject. This includes bouncing between editorials, blogs, and periodicals that I consume at a regular pace. I have reread chapters of this book deeply, and flown through a few parts. So it is that my reading habits represent what Your Life in Rhythm has spent the past two years convincing me: balance is a false goal.

Miller couches his argument in real-life contexts that are relatable. At first glance, I thought, “This is all about us.” My wife recommended the book to me. Then I realized, while his situations relate to many of us, Miller carefully bifurcates into two theories of time, kairos and chronos; time experienced versus time measured, respectively.

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Balance represents equality on both sides; enough of this to level out enough of that. Think about it, can you be the best spouse and the best employee at once; the best parent and the best community member simultaneously; the best teacher and the best learner at the same time? Even if “the best” is not your goal, Miller’s point is well represented in recent research of attention span, mind division, and multi-tasking. The quality and potential of anything we do is undeniably diminished when we strive for exact balance of our pursuits. Balance is a false goal.

Rhythm on the other hand is do-able, natural, and logical. There are times when work is heavy and family rides shotgun to support us. At other times, service to others trumps personal academics, and later these roles change. Approaching life with an expectation and acceptance of its rhythms changed my perspective. I realized, I am wired as a kairos person, one who experiences the moment deeply which means punctuality and measuring time are a challenge to me, albeit professionally and personally these are important to honor. Awareness is the beginning of improvement.

Your Life in Rhythm provides a new awareness and view on the false goal that now seems so cliché of finding balance. Recognizing the rhythms of ourselves and those around is so useful. I give this book four SutterStars and recommend you pick up a copy and blend reading it into your own rhythm.

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Unfunded Mandate

Posted on May 11, 2013 by sutterlearn

Here’s a quick update on the CCSS in Michigan. In June 2010, Michigan adopted the Common Core Standards, replacing the Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCEs). Shortly after, Michigan became one of the lead states in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, the testing platform and database that would replace the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP). Full implementation of these new standards and tests is to be the 2014-15 school year.

While public education is relegated as a State’s responsibility in the U.S. Constitution, Michigan and 45 other state departments of education contributed and adopted these standards and the testing consortiums for them. I have seen an unprecedented amount of teacher support for these standards. While there is anxiety about how hard the tests appear and how teachers realize their practices will have to change to support these standards, there is widespread support that they are solid.

Unfortunately, in February a bill was introduced in Michigan and sits in committee to make the CCSS illegal. As that stagnated, another bill (HB4238) was recently submitted to amend the state budget that funds cannot be used to support either CCSS or Smarter Balanced Assessments. This one has passed through the House and is in the Senate. According to my state representative, Tom Cochran, HB 4238 affects the Omnibus Budget, not the K-12 School Aid Budget.

This means that if it passes, districts could still use their per-pupil funding to support implementation of the CCSS and Smarter Balanced Assessments. It means that the Michigan Department of Education (that body who enforces standards and testing for the state) could not use funding for these standards or tests. Districts probably cannot fully implement the standards and testing on their $7,500 per pupil amount alone, and still provide buildings, buses, meals, salaries, etc. The MDE would have to spend their budget on something, which may mean defaulting to the GLCEs and MEAP tests if the law says they can’t spend on CCSS and SBA. It creates quite the conundrum. It also creates a truly unfunded mandate. If CCSS and SBA remain sanctioned by law, but another law denies funding of them, what do you do? That in itself is a catch 22, but the real cost is the crippling blow it would be to teachers’ faith in the system that is supposed to support our kids. If teachers are together and supportive of something so drastic as the CCSS, I’m trying to find the sense in unfunding it. I’m pretty sure this is an adult issue and it’s nowhere near about kids.

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Book Review – Outliers

Posted on May 11, 2013 by sutterlearn

I first heard about Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers from the parent of a former student, and friend. The way she described it was, “It’s about how really successful people aren’t just lucky, they practice a lot.”

Nearly two years later, I’ve read the book twice now. I would read a chapter, then go back and read it again to be sure I understood exactly what we being explained. It’s not hard to read, but the connections Gladwell makes are remarkable. Outliers is about more than the number of hours of practice that experts have. It is about the cultural legacies that influenced successful people. It is about the circumstances and era you were born into and how that affected your chances. It is about the social structures that sort and select who can thrive. It is about finding the common threads among seemingly uncommon people, making them common once you understand it all. Mostly, it is about opportunities that we can’t necessarily control, but that we can capitalize upon to become successful.

I give Outliers 5 of 5 Sutterstars as one of the most inspirational, revealing, and influential books on my thinking in recent years.

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Design Thinking from a 1st Grader

Posted on May 11, 2013 by sutterlearn

Earlier this week I was invited to visit the Henry Ford Academy Elementary School in Detroit. This site visit appealed to me because they are one of the few elementary schools that fosters Design Thinking. Design Thinking is different from problem-based or project-based learning, and really gets to the perseverance and iterative nature that is authentic learning…two of the behaviors tragically low among young learners these days.

When I walked into the first-grade “innovation lab”, there appeared to be four groups of about five kids each doing arts and crafts. I sat at one table after another, trying to fit in and figure out how this was different. Finally, I asked one of the students to explain to me what was going on and how did they get there. Here’s how he explained it, walking me through his notebook…a first-grader:

Discovery: “We went to the playground and watched kids play so we could find a problem. We saw lots of shoes were untied.”

Interpretation: “We talked about why there were so many shoes untied. We made lists, then we wrote a sentence about it.” The child showed me a list of nine questions and statements he had written exploring why so many shoes might be untied and how they could help. I noted that I couldn’t read these things because his letter-sense was still underdeveloped to create legible writing, but he knew the thought process he’d been through with his team and he knew that capturing his ideas on paper was part of it. His teacher swung by and explained that the final sentence, legible because the team wrote it together, was their point-of-view statement like a

Ideation: “Then we drew a prototype for a superhero that can help tie shoes.” Yes, he said “prototype” because this language is intentionally taught and used by first-graders!

Experimentation: “Now we are building our superhero by looking at our drawing.” This was the arts and crafts I walked into, but now I realized how much more it was and how these teams were each building their design to tie shoes…solving an authentic problem for themselves. Imagination was alive and well and the prototypes did not have to work in actuality for the kids to learn the process of design thinking. One group made the superhero, one was a jetpack that you put your foot into, another was a shoebox with arms that would tie the shoe for you with a remote control. J

Evolution: “We are going to share our prototype with users so they can tell us how to make them better next time.” The “users” this six-year old referenced, another term intentionally taught to him, would be other kids with the same problem of untied shoes who could perceive his prototype from the end-user perspective and give feedback on what might work better or what changes he could make. Then, of course, he would go deeper into the process.

While this design thinking is not integrated throughout their curriculum, it is an intentional process that could easily be woven into many curricular areas. While I was cautiously curious about this method with young kids, it was an inner-city boy of only six, in his first year of this environment who explained the application of design thinking better than any web site or dissertation I could have read.

Posted in Students, Teachers | Leave a comment

Twitter: My Newest PLC

Posted on May 11, 2013 by sutterlearn

I’ve bemoaned Facebook for all providing more information than anyone needs to know about each other. I’ve realized why the Me Generation is, after hearing about celebrities tweet their every pathetic thought for tweens to gush over. High school reunions have actually been cancelled because people had already caught up enough through Facebook. Marriages have been tested because of anonymous relationships forged online or old loves rekindled. Blogs are inherently a place for us to spout self-centered editorials about the world.
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While all of these observations remain true, I joined Twitter in late 2012 with a professional intention. Interestingly enough, even a social media latecomer like myself has been tempted to tweet a personal thought or observation, I have been very intentional about only using the medium for professional educator talk and connections. My work has grown richer for that.

Having a direct link to a growing network of folks, well-known and obscure, who share my passion for learning and public education of our children has exponentially increased my knowledge and interests. Checking in every so days, I get messages from both teachers I work with, researchers whose books I read, and the Secretary of Education himself.

Twitter is my newest and largest PLC. Follow me @Sutterlearn

Posted in Coaching, Professional Learning Conceptions, Teachers, Technology | Leave a comment

EdCamp Detroit

Posted on May 11, 2013 by sutterlearn

On May 4, a friend and I went to a dynamic professional learning called EdCamp Detroit. The premise of EdCamp.org is grassroots professional learning among educators in a vendor-free environment (“Edcamps should be about learning, not selling.”)

Picture this, we arrived at 8:30 am to a basement room in the College of Education at Wayne State University; Edcamp relies on free spaces.

There is a whiteboard set up as a grid with eight room numbers across the top and four, 75-minute time slots down the side. Participants sign up to “run a room”, leading a conversation on a topic of their choice upon which they want collaboration with other educators; Edcamp doesn’t preset learning topics; participants bring their own needs and interests.

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When the board is full, participants choose which rooms they want to visit, then “vote with your feet” if the conversation is serving your learning needs or not. Stay as long or short as you like; Edcamp is centered on participant needs and the expertise of those gathered, which is wide, deep, and varied.

Some sessions are formal presentations with slideshows and discussion, most are in-the-round Socratic discussions. It is a funfest for ADHD behaviors as most participants are on some sort of device taking notes, Googling for examples to share, and Tweeting about their learning as it goes; Edcamp is about collaboration near and far.

Lunch is on your own. We went to a pub nearby. We being my fellow teacher friend, but also about eight other educators from across the state, and Canada, who actually just met in the hallways between sessions; Edcamp embodies professional learning community.

After the afternoon sessions, we left with a shared Google doc full of notes from sessions ranging Minecraft in the Classroom to Math Fluency, some of which we didn’t even attend, in the spirit of collaboration our shared notes provided us with twice the learning opportunity.

Application of this learning, as always, is up to the individual. I’d like to host an EdCamp of my own this fall. Anyone want to join?

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Right to Work OR Privilege to Serve

Posted on March 28, 2013 by sutterlearn

In December 2012, ugly things happened inside and outside the capital building in Lansing, Michigan.  As with any human interaction, where you stood determined what you saw or knew and how you formed your opinion.  Inside the building, lawmakers quickly and quietly passed an agenda to name Michigan a “right to work” state, which is conventional language for saying unionized labor is not a required circumstance of employment.  Their behavior could be seen as slick political routing or sneaky injustice.  Outside the building, representatives from organized labor unions gathered in protest against the swift movement. Their behavior could be seen as reckless abandon or civil rights defended, by and for the people.

Today, that “right to work” law takes effect and we’ll see what happens.  I hope it’s not more ugliness from either side.  I wonder how our society could progress if the lawmakers who did this and the workers who oppose this approached their jobs not as a right to work, given or taken away, but as a “privilege to serve” others.

I can’t help thinking of my old hero, Abraham Lincoln.  When faced with the potential demise of the democratic experiment, in an all-out Civil War, Lincoln refused to consider an “us” versus “them”.  He didn’t even acknowledge the term “Confederate States” as doing so would confirm division.  In this context, the Union Lincoln tirelessly sought to preserve was us and them together. Lincoln undoubtedly believed it his privilege to serve.
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I’m as much a conspiracy theorist as the next guy when I see corporate greed and bipartisan dissonance deteriorate our country.  It’s tempting, easy, comforting even, to think that those with power are guided by greed and those without seek selfish salvation for their toil.  Accepting reality will only perpetuate it.

What if we all did our work with a servant’s heart?  What if we each counted our blessings that we have the physical and mental faculties to manage large organizations, pass laws, sweep floors, or teach children? What if our example as a manager mirrored the profit-blasting ethic we want from our workers and if our example as a worker mirrored the dignity, respect, and leadership we want from our managers?  What if both sides simply showed up each day and each considered their work as a privilege to serve?

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