Edmentum Educator Summit Recap - GROW

"Innovated to something greater!" and " We don't want to be left out of learning" are two things that resonated with me profoundly. Those words were spoken from the heart of Ja'Davion a High School Junior and a participant in the round table discussion that took place on June 14th, 2019 at the Edmentum Educator Summit, held at the Edmentum headquarters in Richardson Texas.

Ja'Davion like many of the educators who were included in the world of Edmentors was asking, "why can't we do better?" If you are an educator at some point you have used the phrase, "I was called." You see, being an educator, a shaper of lives, a giver of knowledge, you must be called, as it is not a profession for the weak, or apathetic.

For two solid days, my peers and I were given the royal treatment by an organization that leads by example, walks the walk, and talks the talk! (please pardon my cliches) #EducatorsFirst.

But wait, why not children first, or students first? After spending time with Edmentum superstars, Winnie, Dave, Christy and the Dallas team, I can tell you why; they get it! Like the flight attendant on an airplane will tell you, "if this plane loses pressure, place the oxygen mask on yourself before giving it to the child sitting next to you!" WOW, absolutely! On the way home from Dallas I had a boy about 11 sitting next to me and traveling alone. The attendant said, "remember, place the mask over your nose and mouth before offering it to..." At first I had a horrible pang of guilt, and then I remembered why the stronger of the two individuals must have the ability to save others.

Edmentum had the oxygen flowing, (along with incredible food!) and was filling us up with a renewed sense of purpose, belonging and importance. I had forgotten how important it is to engage in "self-care." The Educator's Summit was a spa, Ah, Ah Ha moment for me. I grew over those two glorious days.  As I sat in amazement watching outstanding leaders from neighboring states laugh, smile, joke, cheer each other on, support, high five, and "shake hands" (don't look too long or squeeze too hard!) I sat back and said, "yes, I do belong, these people are my tribe!"

We were encouraged to reflect, plot, plan, set goals, and in the end, put #educatorsfirst with the support of truly committed professionals. Page six of the Educator Summit handbook "Making the Most of Your Summit Experience" is wildly important because I keep going back over it and reminding myself to breathe deep into the survival mask and "innovate to something greater!"

As I was pondering the profound work that Principal Dr. Zach Bost and Principal Kristopher Byam are doing to transform their school communities I wrote a note and pasted it to my handbook "GROW - Gaining Rich Opportunities Within." I realized that it is not just about me and the experience, but what I know and dream of bringing to whatever learning community  I am called to lead.

To answer a couple of the questions that were included on page six: Why am I Here? WOW, we often ask ourselves that question from a literal to a metaphysical perspective. The questions: What is my purpose? "My purpose is to connect, discover, grow in understanding and emerge renewed. Learning from others is meaningful, and purposeful, and seeing things grow is what moves me." What are my strengths? Knowing your strengths and standing upon them makes all the difference. "I know curriculum and instruction and how to connect the dots. I am a life-long learner who looks back at the end of every day to see what I learned, did or experienced that was new.  I dig deep. I am a trouble-shooter and look for "gotcha's" before moving forward. I love improving systems and people. I am a project specialist. I am good at growing things. I am an elevator and a servant." How do I want to Grow Professionally? "I want to impact the lives of as many individuals as I can. I am working methodically on my garden. I have been toiling away at it for a few years now, systematically arranging perennials, interspersed with annuals for the sole purpose of moving to a point of minimal effort and greater enjoyment as I see all of my babies grow to fruition. I have been toiling away in my educator's garden for more years than I can count as a first teacher to my amazing adult daughters, then as a professional educator. Like my perennials, I know what is an immediate aha, and what is a perennial that I will draw upon in years to come.  How can I change my perspective? (have you ever noticed they always save the hardest question at the end?) I need to emerge from my place of fear and stand boldly upon the answers to the preceding questions and GROW - Gaining, Rich, Opportunities, Within!

Remember - Less Time, More Time, ponder that one. Oh and it is okay...#EducatorsFirst 

American Kids Are Still Testing Below the Fifty Percentile

Here is a great article that highlights some of the issues plaguing education and why we continue to have sagging reading scores. The chart below is relatively misleading. Imagine if the 100% was visible in this chart as opposed to having it stop at 60%, and then imagine if it were turned to represent a horizontal depiction as opposed to vertical. The results are actually staggering!

Percentage of U.S. students proficient in reading

My Immediate Response:

It is still shocking that only 36% of our nation's 8th grade students are reading at grade level. That reality has not changed very much since 1974 when nationalized testing began. Here are a few thoughts on that issue:

School has become about far more than giving our kids the basics necessary to survive in a world dependent upon common symbolic representations of language. When Nationwide testing began in the early 70's it was discovered that in theory the majority of the USA was illiterate or maybe, the testing did not really measure the actual ability of the 3rd/5th grade test taker. Nothing has changed! At that time millions - now billions of dollars has been invested into research to understand that our 3rd/5th grade students have not really progressed over the past 40 years, because the research is ignored!

First and foremost, all teachers need to be diagnosticians with the time and support needed to help identify our struggling learners. Additionally, we need to eliminate or at the very least reduce the quantity of standardized testing and all the many tests that do not diagnose issues, but merely give a level of data that only shows a commonality among the students. Assessments must be meaningful, pertinent and purposeful.

It is an imperative that parents along with teachers and association/unions come together to fight the insanity that has become standardized education. I have said for as long as I have been in education "follow the money" therein lies your answers." Then, listen to the warnings out there about the overuse of mobile devices, internet and social media, unless it is purposeful and advancing a student's learning. Failure to do so is setting our kids up for failure. The overuse of testing is taking away from our student's ability to progress. Remember - "Tests do not teach," only one on one time focused on what needs to be learn teaches humans. Data can be used to identify growth, but only when a person is actually being measured specific to what has been taught and that is not necessarily appropriate by way of standardized testing.

https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read

Bridging the Achievement Gap through PBL3 and a PC!

Bridging the Achievement Gap through PBL3 and a PC! Increasingly with the inception of multi-facted technological advances, both parents working outside of the home, single-parent homes, and movement away from the parental family nucleus, (logistical concerns) children are coming to school deficient in not only language acquisition, as a result of rich experiential language sharing, but, deficient in simple problem solving strategies, hand's on development, in some cases deficient in learned skills such as riding a bike, skipping, in short kinesthetic, hand-eye developed skills. Schools must fill this void or like a child who walks before crawling, must go back and learn to crawl or suffer developmentally. NCLB and governmental imposed standards have diminished the plausibility of this taking place in the early developmental period. In the place of show and tell, skipping 101, hopping 101 and tumbling 101, finger painting, etc., is Alegbra Readiness and standardized test prep. Teachers of pk-3 know the importance of play. They chose to go into that level because in their souls they are still remembering the with fondness the time when they began to play at “school.” They wanted to continue this approach. Their Professors reminded them of the importance of “playing school” with their soon to be students. Instead they are quickly swept into the bureaucratic nonsense of the day. Along with this reality is the ever increasing achievement gap. While there has always been an achievement gap predominately due to the generational poverty both economically and academically, the reality of our current cultural demise has greatly contributed to this particular culture group. The need for play based learning to take a lead in educating all children, but most especially those who are suffering, who are caught in the achievement gap-hose is more important now than ever. Children play at growing up. School should feel like they are playing at becoming who they want to be when they grow up. Children should be playing at becoming doctors, lawyers, they need to be playing at who they will be, because that alone infuses goal based learning, success determined play. More importantly during some of my recent inquiry into advancing my research I discovered something quite telling about the “great divide” in academic outcomes. While we continue to glory in the technological advancements of our day, we ignore this simple fact: NOT everyone is advancing with it! In 2003 we were introduced to youtube, that was only 10 years ago. When I entered my first classroom as an educator in 2000 very few people had cell phones. Very few people had laptop computers. Many were still saying goodbye to their antiquated “machines.” While the academically inclined, the upper middle class were making room for their home computer systems, many were still hoping for a place to live for more than 6 months at a time. We have advanced rapidly, however, our school systems and our average urban home has not. They still fight to keep their lights on, let alone have a PC on their living room tables, or wifi accessibility for their kids to apply for jobs, do their homework and yes, take an online survey. A prior Post on Paper and Pencil = PC As long as that divide is in place we will not advance all populations, thereby closing the achievement gap. How is this for an idea? Bill, why don't you and all the other IT giants get together with Arne Duncan and instead of ensuring that everyone has an free phone, ensure that everyone has a pc, wifi (which should be free now anyway) and teach them how to use their pc's as a phone? It is a win-win situation. That is a start. Now, let's go play!