PROCESS POST: Pushing my thinking evolution about master planning in education and schools

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Campus master plans are beautiful, elegant solutions. They make visible entire systems of complex thinking. Is there any comparable practice in schools when it comes to “pedagogical master planning” or “instructional systems thinking?” I don’t think strategic planning is even remotely comparable given the manner in which it is most commonly done. Isn’t that fascinating? We spend enormous time, energy, and resources on physical-space planning, yet we don’t really do such with the core of what really exists at the center of learning in schools.

Can you show a visitor your “pedagogical master plan” if she asked to see it…like you could a campus master plan? Could you point to the system of blueprints, engineering details, and relational diagrams?

On the University of Buffalo’s “Building_UB Photostream” on Flickr, you can see in their campus master plan the thoughtful planning that undergirds all of the eventual blueprinting, engineering, and constructing. You can see sets of plans that provide intentional detail about how buildings will relate to one another by function and geography. You can see green-space drawings and bubble diagrams that reveal why various operations are grouped and coordinated in particular ways. You can see the whole…and all of the virtually countless parts.

by Building_UB, Flickr, Creative Commons License

Of course, after such thorough master planning is completed, the “real work” is only just beginning. Renovation schedules must be developed and articulated. Architectural blueprints and renderings must be created. Engineering schema must be decided – water, electrical, gas, flooring, lighting, etc. FF&E (furniture, fixtures, and equipment) must be selected. And, if done well, ALL of those countless decisions radiate from the uber planning – the campus master plans. It just has that “this-makes-sense” kind of feeling.

Do schools have anything comparable in terms of planning and implementation for the overall system of instruction and pedagogy that should exist at the heart of any and all educational organizations?

Schools seem to be making countless decisions…

  • Technology – laptops, tablets, Apple, PC, BYOD/BYOT, interactive white boards, student information systems, social media, etc.
  • Methods – lecture, experiential, PBL, CBL, DBL, flipped classrooms, discovery, inquiry, Socratic, etc.
  • Content – math (algebra, calculus, statistics), English, history, science (physics first?), what world languages?, advisement, PE,…what about anthropology, psychology, biomechanical engineering, wood working, metallurgy, etc.
  • Assessment – grades, standards-based, zeros, averaging, mastery, rubrics (how many levels?), standardized testing, authentic and performance-based, etc.
  • Professional development – conferences, PLCs, Critical Friends Groups, portfolios, in-service, FedEx days, task forces, etc.
  • Learning spaces – …
  • Skills – …
  • [And the list goes on.]

Are we developing master plans that make visible the links, connections, relationships, influences, and impacts that each of these “buildings” has on the other “buildings” on campus? Are we designing the architectural blueprints and engineering blow-ups that show each and every one of these categorical constructs working and existing in harmonious symphony with the other interrelated elements?

Can you show me such plans? Can you show me how a decision to implement PBL – just one pedagogical methodology – impacts the ripple-decisions of technology, professional development, assessment, learning spaces, etc.?

The system is a whole. It reminds me of the song about the ankle bone connected to the shin bone, the shin bone connected to the knee bone, the knee bone connected to the thigh bone,….

I wonder what would happen on a school campus if a small group of builders just squatted on a section of property and began building. What if this “rogue” group sawed, hammered, and nailed their creation without much coordination with the campus master plan. Not from spite or rebellion. Just from lack of clarity and collective connectedness.

Such happens every day in the pedagogical and instructional system of a school. Lots of independent contractors not having the level of master plans to which they have contributed and from which they can coordinate.

[out of writing time for now.]

Denver – @GrantLichtman #EdJourney, episode 2 – 9.13.12

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In the first chapter of The Falconer – a chapter interestingly titled “Step -1: Who Do I Want to Be?” – Lichtman concludes the chapter as follows:

We all have heroes. They are people who we perceive are somehow better than we are. We want to be like them. They provide for us a template of how we can feel happy and proud that we had a life on this earth. They are not perfect by any means, but they have particular characteristics that we want to combine and emulate….We take the pieces and ask the question, often without knowing it: how can I come closer to each of their strengths and avoid each of their weaknesses?

Without sacrificing our concept of self, the templates of our heroes can help us know, concretely, where we want to go. Whether we admit it or not, knowing where we want to go is always the first step in a journey.

Do you know who you want to be as a school? Who are your school heroes? Your educational heroes? Your learning heroes?

Do you know where you want to go on your journey to become a better school? Are you constructing detailed plans to decipher and determine your paths as a school community?

Grant Lichtman spent his week in Denver, CO. He shared time, stories, and practices with four different schools. Lessons from these examples can help us know better who we are as a learning community. Lessons from Grant’s travels can reveal the school heroes we want to emulate.

What form of leadership will you employ at your school? In what ways will you facilitate students interacting with the “real world?” How might you experiment with various methods and approaches? Grant’s waypoints in Denver can provide great touchstones on which to reflect and plan your own journey.

Tune into Grant’s individual posts from his first week on the road for #EdJourney…

courtesy of Steve Goldberg

Image from Google Earth courtesy of Steve Goldberg (@SteveG_TLC).

Ed Zed Omegas: High School Dropouts Band Together to Learn

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Six disenchanted young people have dropped out of high school, hooked up with a guidance counselor, and banded together to study the education issue into which they have plunged. And they are crowd sourcing their learning about the deep dive on high-school alternatives. We can follow along with their blogs, their collective site, their tweets. We can even watch on public television.

Check this out…

And then, be sure to read here…

Fascinating!

[Thanks to Chuck Reece for putting me onto Zed Omega.]

Disruption, GOOD #FutureLearning

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In “Graduating All Students Innovation-Ready,” Tony Wagner ended his piece with this question about courage:

Our students want to become innovators. Our economy needs them to become innovators. The question is: As educators, do we have the courage to disrupt conventional wisdom and pursue the innovations that matter most?

Recently, GOOD published a piece about a few of the disruptors – those who are pushing us to consider the bigger possible (r)evolutions in education. It’s great material for a bit of optimistic brain stretching…


Future Learning Short Documentary (12:50)

More about the film
GOOD Video: How Do We Make Learning Relevant to Students?

[Thanks to Govantez Lowndes for putting me onto the documentary on GOOD. I had missed it.]

PROCESS POST: Organizing and Annotating – #MustRead from Tony Wagner: “Graduating All Students Innovation-Ready” #EdWeek

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[Disclaimer: No one but I may want to read this post. Essentially, I am using this space to organize some past posts that I have written – to organize them in relation to Tony Wagner’s recent article about graduating innovation-ready students. The following is like a form of sticky-noting on my blog. But, as I have come to believe, why do this only for myself in a physical notebook…when I could share and possibly help another educational thinker/doer.]

Earlier today, I read a very powerful article about education and innovation – Graduating All Students Innovation-Ready, By Tony Wagner, September 12, 2012 Education Week. The article resonated with me in a way that only a few articles do. Even though I read voraciously, and even though I mark several articles a week “#MustRead,” I only occasionally discover and read one of those top 0.001% pieces of wonder.

In part, I think Wagner’s piece resonated so profoundly with me because I am doing some ongoing work that is providing mental velcro for such a piece of thinking-stimulant. Wagner’s four main implementation recommendations rung in my ears and everywhere else. I myself believe in:

  1. digital portfolio and authentic assessment over traditional, siloed marking and grading;
  2. teacher assessment based on professional learning and growth and evidence of student learning beyond mere “test scores.” Also, I believe admin should do what we expect of teachers and students! [related – Folio]
  3. schools collaborating together, and with business and non-profits, to create R&D for education…and to impact the world more positively now;
  4. learning built on play, passion, and purpose…learning infused with choice and global relevance…learning contextualized with real life. [related – #PBL, #FSBL]

This blog is one of my own R&D spaces…one of my own digital portfolios…one of my own passion and purpose-based play spaces. I have been writing for months on the four topics above. In particular, I engaged in a 60-day experiment about how we might transform school and education (CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60). Tony Wagner’s piece made me recall much of that thinking.

Tony Wagner’s article also further contextualized the exact reason that I left Westminster to join Unboundary as Director of Educational Innovation.

So I am organizing, and I am making some annotations…

Our students want to become innovators. Our economy needs them to become innovators. The question is: As educators, do we have the courage to disrupt conventional wisdom and pursue the innovations that matter most?
.

1. Digital Portfolios and Better Assessment:

“First, I believe the U.S. Department of Education and state education departments need to develop ways to assess essential skills with digital portfolios that follow students through school, and encourage the use of better tests like the College and Work Readiness Assessment.” [emphasis from my highlighting in Diigo]
2. Teacher Effectiveness and Professional Learning:
“Second, we need to learn how to assess teachers’ effectiveness by analysis of their students’ work, rather than on the basis of a test score. Teachers and administrators should also build digital portfolios, which their principals and superintendents should assess periodically.” [emphasis from my highlighting in Diigo]
3. Research and Development Labs:
“Third, to push educational innovation, districts need to partner with one another, businesses, and nonprofits to establish true R&D labs—schools of choice that are developing 21st-century approaches to learning.” [emphasis from my highlighting in Diigo]

4. Play, Passion, and Purpose:

“Finally, we need to incorporate a better understanding of how students are motivated to do their best work into our course and school designs. Google has a 20 percent rule, whereby all employees have the equivalent of one day a week to work on any project they choose. These projects have produced many of Google’s most important innovations. I would like to see this same rule applied to every classroom in America, as a way to create time for students to pursue their own interests and continue to develop their sense of play, passion, and purpose.” [emphasis from my highlighting in Diigo]