Promising Futures

For class this week, I began with the Promising Futures report on secondary schools. It was incredibly interesting to me, as a high school teacher. I felt like I knew what was best and worst about my school, having been there for a while, participating on every known team there is, and chairing one of our accreditation teams. So, it was a bit surprising to read the report and realize that even some of the elements we are most proud of need revision, and some of the things we are dying to get rid of or have gotten away from are actually recommendations of the report. While working incredibly hard, and thinking very carefully and deeply, and trying nearly every new thing out there, we really haven't come very far at all from the reality of public high schools when Promising Futures was written.

As I began reading, I felt like we had some, but definitely not all, of the core practices recommended in the report. We respect our students (from my perspective - others might disagree, including the students!), have some collaborative teaming, and have professional development plans. However, we are missing many of the other core practices - there is little student voice in what or how they learn material. The students are very unfamiliar with the learning results and standards they are required to master, never mind how our plan for them will help them accomplish this. In fact, when I moved on to the "practices to phase out" section, I was dismayed to see that we still adhere to every single one. That's right - from a master schedule through graduation requirements based on Carnegie Units and the holding tank mentality, we have not begun to phase out any of these identified "worst" practices.

I pondered as I read, what would a school like this even look like? Tackling the first one, getting rid of a master schedule, is mind-boggling to even think about. It came down to an issue of trust for me, but perhaps this is just how I've been feeling lately professionally. The master schedule is there, it seems to me, to keep track of who is doing what when, and ensure that it's all "fair." Each teacher needs to have similar class loads, teaching time, and duty schedules, in order to maintain fairness. However, when it really is examined, the master schedule doesn't take into account what is truly done, and the "fairness" is superficial. Science teachers (a personal favorite of course) have quite a bit of set-up, take-down, and maintenance that are not built into this "fair" schedule, while English and history teachers should have their written work grading requirements taken into account. Math is a critical skills-based class, but there is no extra time devoted to allowing practice with a guide. It must be built into instructional time.

We have flexed and bent in every direction to try and think outside the box, while refusing to get rid of the darn box. If we fail to remove barriers like scheduling, traditional school day and year calendars, lack of student and parent voice, and so on, this feeling of banging our heads against the wall will only continue, because we are not removing the walls in our way. I'd like to be able to envision a Promising Futures school, because at least with an understanding and vision of how it might work, I could begin to initiate some phasing out and introduction of core practices in my own school.

There's an App for That!

In today's educational world, teachers are becoming more and more outpaced by their students. As hard as we try to keep up with the expanding online world, kids are immersed in the web and technology to a degree we cannot match. In the morning, they check for snow days on the web. They facebook (also now a verb, like Google) their status to friends, and search online for homework help. At school they text their friends (hopefully not while in class), making plans and sharing news. They often have one-to-one computing for classes, and utilize a variety of social and informational sites to complete work and virtually mingle with peers. After school, even activities that use to be individual such as playing video games are now able to be played with groups over vast distances. The world is more connected today than ever, and our students know how to navigate it - do we?

One of the major questions that came from this chapter for me was how can we, with only partial knowledge and understanding of technology, utilize it in our classrooms so that students are truly educated to be citizens of the 21st century? Too often schools today are more hesitant, if not frightened, of the digital world. I have the personal experience of various bans on Facebook as a way to connect with students, many cautionary tales used to dissuade teachers from interacting with students online, and sets of regulations about what can and cannot be accessed in schools. Students, and teachers too, are often frustrated by these imposed limitations on what could be a truly educational experience and new mode of learning.

While we are always scared of the new, as educators, I believe our job is three-fold. First, we need to learn. The catch-phrase for many teachers in interviews and so forth is that they are "lifelong learners" - well, this is one area where that truly needs to be demonstrated. As lifelong learners, it is imperative that technology and the expanding online world is an area we continue to focus on. Secondly, we need to educate students about this same world. Their experience in the online world is somewhat limited - despite their prowess, they focus on what is interesting - social networking, games, and so forth. There is a wealth of resources out there that they do not know about, and it is important that they learn the geography and culture of this world, just as they learn about the geography and culture of the physical world. Finally, in order to truly teach our students for tomorrow's success, technology needs to be integrated to our curriculum, not just added. Many teachers view technology as an addition to the already-packed curriculum. To really benefit the educational process, technology shouldn't be added on, but must be worked within.

I suppose the final message is that technology, while new and ever-expanding, is relevant, necessary, and vital for educational success.

Playing More, Learn More

In our assignment this week we were supposed to consider the role of elementary education and its curriculum. In the reading and the TED Talk from Kiran Bir Sethi, I had some thoughts, but I went off on a tangent a bit as I believe this class encourages. I watched an additional TED Talk by Stuart Brown entitled "Play is More than Fun" that I believe ties directly into my thoughts on early childhood and elementary education.

Today's elementary curriculum is quite different from what I remember about kindergarten and the early grades. My kindergarten classroom was like a wonderland - we had an indoor plastic climbing gym, that in retrospect seems big as a house, in one corner of the classroom. There was another corner where we could play house. There was a sand and water table, a rug with a tape outline for circle time, an easel where we wrote letters and journals of the day, a reading corner, a sink where we made Stone Soup and Spaghetti Squash, a dress-up box, and various other exciting play opportunities I can still dimly recall. Kindergarten was FUN - we PLAYED - and from it, developed essential skills that Stuart Brown speaks to.

Kindergarten, as well as other levels of elementary education, today have evolved to be more difficult and less playful. I recently heard of one school whose kindergarten class got one recess a day, of only a mere fifteen minutes. When did we lose sight of the fact that kindergarten students are five years old? Who ever decided that little children can play less and yet learn more? To me this is an oxymoron.

From an evolutionary point of view, play has a vital purpose in social and cognitive development. From playing, we learn to take turns, work collaboratively, problem-solve, think, reason, and make informed decisions. I am writing this while watching my daughter "clean" her play kitchen. The fake tube of cookies is too big for where she stores the play food, so she is reasoning through various other decisions. Can she put it in a cabinet? Not if the plates are in there... maybe the plates can fit in the fridge. Now she moves on to making soup for her "babies." She is learning as she does this - and practicing organization, care-taking, and countless other skills that will benefit her for life.

Granted, my daughter is only three and a half, but I hate to think that in a year-and-a-half she'll become chained to a desk with only a brief respite for play. I watch her now, and she is learning more than my high school students often do in a given day because she is experiencing through play. I know the elementary teachers will do their best to provide a rich, exciting elementary curriculum, but with the demands placed on them today, I think time for play has been largely lost.

Stuart Brown has proposed studying play and its role in cognitive development. His proposals for grant funds have largely been turned down because as a people we see play as a frivolous thing - something only for children. However, he believes and I agree that a society that provides time for play for all ages would make great strides in morale, intelligence, creativity, and social development. As Kiran Bir Sethi showed in her video, Ahmedabad now shuts down periodically to show its appreciation for children and their play. This has led to innovations and improvements city-wide, led by children, and in return the children will grow into adults who give back to their city.

Mr. Brown studied play in various animals to see its effects. He told a particularly intriguing story about play in rats. One rat group was allowed to play during development, as rats do, while the other group was play-deprived. When presented with a predator scent, both groups hid, but the play group eventually came out to explore and resume activity. The play-deprived group however continued to hide, and they hid, and they hid until they eventually died. They never regained control of their environment, and this is directly linked to the lack of exploration during development as they were play-deprived.

Stuart Brown didn't originate in the theory of play. Initially, he worked on violent crimes and murders. What spurred his interest in play was the identification that many violent criminals have limited play histories. There seemed to be a strong correlation between anti-social behavior, including violent crime, and a lack of playing in development.

The TED Talk concludes with the statement that although many people believe the opposite of play is work, in truth the opposite of play is depression. Think of a world with no play activities - no sports, no movies, no playgrounds, no games... without play, we are a depressed society.

As we continue to reform education, I hope that we maintain focus on child development and remember the importance of being a child. Elementary years should include a major emphasis on play. Although I know we do not want to get "behind" in comparison to other countries, and so we have increased expectations for younger children, I think there is an inherent danger in depriving kids of time to play. What good is academic achievement in maladjusted individuals? In the beginning I mentioned that we had this idea of playing less and learning more. I believe the solution is, in actuality, play more, learn more.