When I think about the learning process and learning experiences for students, the main components that come to mind are being student centered and being the kind of education that I want for my own children. I want children to be ready for the future and to be successful at the criteria that will be sought after for future careers. Students should learn how to embrace challenges, collaborate with others, be innovative, respond with empathy, and know how to contribute positively to society. When I think about learning experiences for students in today's classrooms, they should be filled with deep discussions, real world contexts, and open ended projects that force kids to think outside the box. Technology should be used as a tool to transform the learning by providing personalized learning experiences and making outcomes more student driven, giving the teacher the opportunity to be more of a facilitator and coach. Teachers should be incorporating voice, choice, and goal setting to increase student engagement and ownership. When looking at this video, it reminds me that learning targets cannot be in isolation as a means to say that we "taught something." Students have to be able to envision solutions to problems that haven't even happened yet, and they have to be comfortable with productive struggle when presented with problems. For example, in this video (Kaplinsky, 2013), the student struggles to answer this math problem when presented in a real world context, but then solves with just quantities. Even his explanation doesn't REALLY prove he knows why he got the correct answer. We have to do better than this to set our students up for success in the long term.
I believe that it shouldn't matter what classroom in a grade level a student is in because every classroom should encompass learning at high levels. We shouldn't have certain teachers who go above and beyond with high leverage, engaging activities on technology platforms, and others who only use worksheets. All students have the right to a viable curriculum and a rigorous education to prepare them for the future. This is why I wholeheartedly believe in collaboration and teachers working together so that they are a team learning from one another and creating an environment where the students as a grade level all benefit from every learning experience regardless of who the teacher is. I also believe that all students should have access to the curriculum. One of the issues that was really brought to light this year was the amount of inequity when it comes to technology, access, and home environments as we embarked on virtual learning from home. Impairments, socioeconomic status, race, access to technology, access to internet, access to a support system at home, etc, shouldn't determine whether students should learn at high levels. We need to provide scaffolds and remove barriers so that they can also access their education to the fullest extent. I am lucky to work in a district that worked tirelessly to address these inequities, but there is still much work to be done. Take a look at this graphic that beautifully shows how equity and equality are different. It even takes it a step further to show that when inequity is addressed and barriers are removed, everyone benefits.
Another issue in public education right now is teachers not having enough time. It takes so much longer for teachers to create meaningful, authentic learning experiences for kids than to just pull out the worksheets they used for the last several years. Even though students are so much different than they were 20 years ago, there is little that has changed about how many teachers approach instruction. One of the fundamental issues is that teachers' contract time ends at 3:20 in my district. A lot of teachers do stay past that time to work, essentially without pay for it. So if teachers do leave at 3:20, it is almost impossible to be prepared with highly engaging and authentic learning experiences for students. Teachers do get a planning time during the day, but a lot of time is taken up by parent conferences, team meetings, preparation, and 504 or ARD meetings. One way this could be fixed, is to extend teacher contract time and pay them for it. I know teacher funding is one of the biggest issues as well, but there is a ton of funding that goes into state testing each year. I wonder if when we switch over state testing to online, how much money is left that can go to teachers? Teachers are some of the lowest paid experts in the professional world. If we want teachers to have time to learn, research, implement best practices for students, and truly do transformational teaching within our field, they need to be treated like professionals and be given the means to carry out their learning. We also have to provide teachers with the means to support students with the amount of technology in their classrooms. We can't ask educators to provide all of these experiences if they don't have the equipment and training to be highly successful.
There are also so many things going right in education. In my district, we are encouraged to be innovative, and our district really practices what we know as best practice according to research. All of our schools are in a roll out process to be one to one with technology, so that teachers and students can more easily be risk takers in the classroom. Schools are also getting furniture refreshes, so that our classrooms can be more flexible and give each student the learning environment they need to be most successful. Our district relies on research and what is best for students at every decision making level and provides campuses with whatever support they need to reach campus goals.
Within digital learning and leading, I find myself wanting to continue to break down the old methods of professional learning. Teachers should be learning in ways that we know are best for learners in general. There should be no more "sit and get" professional learning experiences. Teachers should no longer have to sit through learning that they already have mastered. We need to practice what we preach and let teachers feel the difference in excitement and ownership that goes along with authentic learning experiences. If we are expecting teachers to transform their classrooms through use of technology, we have to help them experience these learning platforms as learners themselves and train them how to use them. I have been creating professional learning for my campus and district for over a year now, and we are always trying to reinvent the way we offer it. Here are some examples of what I have collaborated on so far.
Equality vs Equity. Diffen. https://www.diffen.com/difference/Equality-vs-Equity.
