Enjoy Summer Break!

As we all get ready for the joys and fun of summer break, below are some inspirational and provocative quotes about teaching and teachers.

Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or in the same way (George Evans)

Do not train children to learn by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each. (Plato)

As a teacher I feel I have a moral obligation to help the children in my classroom grow toward becoming full human being and to feel successful. Teaching cognitive skills is not enough. (Jean Medick)

It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts...it is to teach them to think, if that is possible, and always to think for themselves. (Robert Hutchins)

They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel. (Anonymous)

I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand. (Chinese Proverb)

It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated. (Alec Bourne)

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater. (Gail Goodwin)

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous. (Confucius)

It's not what is poured into a student, but what is planted. (Linda Conway)

Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand...what he learns and the way he understands it. (Soren Kierkegaard)

A word as the education of the heart. We don't believe that this can be imparted through books; it can only be imparted through the loving touch of the teacher. (Cesar Chavez)

The highest result of education is tolerance. (Helen Keller)

You can teach a student a lesson for a day, but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. (Clay Bedford)

Nothing is ever achieved without enthusiasm. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

The important thing is to never stop questioning. (Albert Einstein)

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonsrates. The great teacher inspires. (William Arthur Ward)

How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it. (Alexander Dumas)

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. (Abraham Maslow)

And my favorite--even though it's questionable that W. B. Yeats wrote or said it:

Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.

Enjoy the summer!

The Importance of Critical Thinking

Just about every school has the goal that its students will learn to think critically (as well as creatively).

Being able to think critically is perhaps more important than ever as we now live in a YouTube world--what Harvard professor Tony Wagner refers to as the age of information "glut and flux".

Despite its importance (and presence in mission statements), critical thinking is not emphasized in schools that are rated and evaluated by their students scores on various standardized tests. Rather, the schools logically focus on preparing students for the questions on these tests, which more often than not focus on lower-level thinking skills.

There is nothing wrong with lower-level thinking skills--like the ability to remember--but it's far easier to construct test questions with one right answer that focus on lower-level thinking skills than questions and answers that require higher-level, critical thinking.

Bloom's Taxonomy of thinking skills has the following stages of increasingly more complex thinking: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create.

Because many schools no longer have students read complete novels or complete longer-term projects (because they don't help prepare students for standardized tests), students are not being given opportunities to develop these higher-level thinking skills, which ironically are what's needed for success in a competitive workplace.

Even when schools--like Orchard--emphasize critical thinking, there are still limits to what we can accomplish. First, students needed to be asked to think in developmentally and cognitively appropriate ways. By the end of 8th grade, most students are still more comfortable thinking literally and concretely and often struggle to think on an abstract level. Almost all of us naturally mature cognitively during our high school and college years, and there's no way to rush this process. Similarly, an adolescent's brain is not fully formed, especially the prefrontal cortex that helps us see cause and effect and evaluate options in a logical, rational manner.

So what should teachers and parents of elementary and middle school children do to foster development of higher-level, critical thinking skills?

A fellow head of school once told me that his main educational objective was to develop in his students "healthy skepticism", where students wouldn't be cynical but would seek evidence and proof of ideas, interpretations, and opinions of others. This includes taking the time to think of the reasons and evidence one has for his/her own opinion. In my classes, students are very willing to state their opinion of almost any topic, yet, if asked to justify,  too often students have very little detail or evidence to substantiate their position. While it is a challenge for students to justify their opinions, it is vital that adults constantly push them to do so. Similarly, it's important for us to develop healthy skepticism in kids. Children are often too trusting of anything published, shown on TV, let alone available on the Internet. Constantly asking students to question how reliable and credible a source is will help them become more savvy consumers as well as help them develop critical thinking.

After reading a book or short story, ask a child what an alternative ending could be. Ask them why a character made the decision he/she did and how the story might have been different if the character made different choices. In math and science, students need to time to think and share of multiple ways to solve a problem.

The overall point is we adults in order to help our children learn to think critically need to be more comfortable with ambiguity and less concerned with the one right answer or the one path to success. And while there is inevitability in terms of the biology of children developing the cognitive means to think crticcally, kids still need practice in order to develop fully.

Qualities of a Successful Reading Program

A recent Educational Leadership article recommended six experiences children need to have in order to become "successful, engaged readers."

1. Every Child Reads Something He/She Chooses: While there will always be teacher-assigned books, especially by upper elementary school, research is conclusive that children must have opportunities to choose some of the books they read.

2. Every Child Reads Accurately: The key here is a child needs to read primarily at the right level of difficulty. "Spending more time reading doesn't help unless students are reading at 98% or higher accuracy. When students read accurately, they solidify their word-recogntion, decoding, and word-analysis skills."

3. Every Child Reads Something He/She Understands: The authors describe that too often struggling readers get intervention that focuses on basic skills in isolation rather than on reading "connected test for meaning." To keep a child's interest, books read need to be engaging and comprehensible.

4. Every Child Writes About Something Personally Meaningful: Although the key to becoming a better writer is to read, this research also shows that writing practice also enhance reading skills.

5. Every Child Talks With Peers About Reading and Writing: Small-group, in-class student discussions improve overall comprehension and engagement with books. "Time for students to talk about their reading and writing is perhaps one of the most underused, yet easy-to-implement, elements of instruction."

6. Every Child Listens to a Fluent Adult Read Aloud: Even though this is a standard in preschool and early elementary school, it is important for students in upper elementary and middle school to hear adults read aloud.

As I read the article, I was pleased that Orchard employs all the above, including student-choice books in literature class, small-group discussions, a commitment to writing, and teachers reading aloud to students (even in middle school).

But I was also disappointed that so many other schools do not include these experiences in their reading program.

The authors conclude their article by strongly advising schools to eliminate two new realities in the high-stakes testing and standards-drive era:

1. Eliminate virtually all worksheets and workbooks and expand classroom libraries

2. Minimize and even eliminate test-prep activities and materials from school--particularly since there's no evidence these techniques improve reading or test scores.

Technology and School

The other day I was talking to a fellow head of school. While we focused on a number of mundane issues and concerns that all heads of school face, our conversation eventually focused on what we envisioned were the “really big issues” facing schools in the coming years.

We settled on three: the challenge of allocating the precious resource of time in a school day with so much expected of schools; the economic sustainability of private-independent schools; and the proper utilization of technology in schools.

The subject of this blog is utilization of technology. (I’ll focus on the other two in subsequent blogs.)

It is difficult to read articles in educational journals (and even more mainstream newspapers and magazines) without finding articles lauding or damning technology in schools.

A recent Pew Research survey revealed that technology experts are equally divided on whether technology will positively or negatively affect students in school: 55% believe technology will be a boon while 45% feel technology will have deleterious effects on student performance.

That same survey revealed that 95% of teens (ages 12-17) are frequently online, 76% use social networking sites, and 77% have cell phones.

(As an FYI, I recently read an article that stated that there are more cell phones in America than people.)

For those who view technology in schools as a negative, the most common complaints are that technology leads to increased laziness in students, especially in terms of higher-order thinking skills; a weakness in being able to provide detail to support their opinions/answers/etc; an inability to access the credibility and accuracy of information; and difficulty focusing on one-task for a sustained period of time.

Those who are bullish on technology focus on how it helps students learn to multitask, to connect with people beyond the school and local community, to become not just consumers but producers of information, to be more self-directed, and to be more inclined to collaborate (and open to peer feedback).

Harvard education professor, Chris Dede, refers to technology, specifically the use of mobile devices—like cell phones, laptops, and iPads—as a “sea change in the educational landscape.”

Schools are beginning to adjust to the changes in technology. Among others, elementary students now use iPad apps to learn to read and to move to and from an analog and clockface (Clockmaster), English classes are experimenting with e-novels, teachers use instant polls in class to assess student understanding and Twitter for writing assignments and Pinterest for group projects.

Nevertheless, experts warn that for schools to truly embrace and to best utilize technology, they need to change the how (pedagogy) they teach—and right now, this is not happening in most schools.

Many teachers (myself included) are using technology to teach in the same old way. Until publishers add more links and interactive resources, e-textbooks are nothing more than a digital version of an old textbook.

Using mobile devices can help students personalize their learning. Features on a laptop, smart phone, or iPad give students many more options in terms of acquiring information/knowledge and demonstrating understanding; however, teachers and parents need to move from a mindset of linear, identical learning to a freer one where students have more latitude—and ownership—of what they’re learning and how they prove their understanding.

A recent article I read explained how high school students in Louisiana researched historical sites in their town and then created a walking tour with the information accessed through QR codes. This is an example authentic assessment via technology.

Alvin Toffler has written that we now live in a world of constant change and that a vital skill all of us must develop is the ability to "learn, unlearn, and relearn."

Technology is a “brave new world” for teachers, but I put myself in the 55% that see the benefits of technology in the classroom. The daunting task for schools and teachers is to let go of our “tried and true” classrooms practices.