Engaging Students: The Next Level of Working on the Work

"Rather than seeing schools as knowledge distribution systems, schools must be seen as knowledge work systems." (pg.9)

This book had a profound impact on how I view the role of educators and helped shape my understanding of the importance of focusing on working on the work. I found this study guide useful to frame my thinking as I read the book.

Schlechty defines student responses to a learning task as: (pg 16)

Engagement: (High Commitment/High Attention) The task is relevant and meaningful to the student and so the student is attentive, focused, and will persevere. This learner volunteers personal resources of time, effort and attention. 

Strategic Compliance: (Low Commitment/High Attention) The student is willing to do the work as long as extrinsic rewards (grades, class rank, college/career opportunities, parent approval) are present. Remove the reward and the student withdraws effort. This learner invest as much as is need to gain the reward.  (Question these students might ask:  Is this right?) 

Ritual Compliance: (Low Commitment/Low Attention) This student is compliant without engagement. They simply want to get it over so they can get out.   This learner generally requires supervision to get work completed. (Question students at this engagement level might ask:  Is this good enough to pass?)

Retreatism: (No Commitment/No Attention) The student is disengaged.  He/she sees no reward in the task and therefore abandons it.  Student is off task, but generally strives not to bring attention to themselves.  In my experience, these students might be observed fiddling with items in their desks, staring into space, or doodling.  When a teacher intervenes, these students may move to rebellion or ritual compliance.  However, these students often "fly under the radar."

Rebellion: This student is more active in their replacement activities than the retreating student. This student focuses attention on something else and is often seen as disruptive. 

I found the engagement profiles of a classroom extremely interesting,  especially the Engaged Classroom.  Even the engaged classroom is made up of students at various levels of engagement. The difference can be seen as one compares the profile of the Engaged Classroom, Well Managed Classroom, and the Pathological Classroom.

Schlechty’s comments about assessing engagement are particularly thought provoking as many schools build observation of student engagement into walkthroughs and teacher evaluation observations.  

• On task behavior can be confused with engagement. A teacher cannot judge engagement simply through observation. Has the student persisted? How committed is the student? Why is the student investing attention?
• Conversation with students is critical to uncover the level of engagement. This conversation only can happen if a trusting relationship has been built with students.

Schlechty states that "assessment of engagement are team efforts" and advocated collegial collaboration in gathering data to reveal patterns in engagement.  I believe that collegial conversations about engagement will have a profound impact on faculties, professional learning communities, and coaching activities. 

Above all, Schlechty advocates asking students questions routinely in order to gain feedback from them regarding the quality of work being provided to students:  

Here are some questions he suggests for an engagement conversation: (pg 28)

• Did you enjoy the class? What made it enjoyable? What would have increased the level of enjoyment?
• Did you find any part of the work difficult? If so what did you do? How do you feel about what you did?
• Do you think you learned anything from the work you were assigned that was worth while? What and why? How could I know what you learned?
• If you were to teach the class what kind of activities would you build in and why?

"The primary task of teachers is not to motivate students.  it is to design work they provide to student or to encourage students to undertake in ways that maximize the likelihood that the motives students bring to the work will be responded to and satisfied   The task is also to design the work in a way that minimized the likelihood that student motives will be frustrated or need to be suppressed." (pg. 81) 

The emphasis on designing rather than planning could provide teachers a clearer understanding that it is “what the student does” that produces the learning.

Some of Schlechty’s distinctions between designing and planning: (pg 48)

• Design begins with the needs of customers.  Plans begin with goals, objectives, activities.
• Design assumes divergence, disruption, and chaos.  Planning assumes convergence, linearity, and order.
• Design is expressive and embraces values and emotion.  Planning is instrumental and embraces deductive logic and rational analysis.
• Design seeks alternatives and invites invention.Planning seeks to limit alternatives and encourages conformance.
• Designers synthesize and unify.  Planners analyze and segment.

For teachers to be designers they need to know about their students….what motives they bring to the classroom.  This kind of work would suggest to me a high need for collaboration. Teachers collaborating in knowing students and informing each other about what they know. The creative process of design should be enhanced by teams through collaboration.

Teachers focused more on designing than planning will need reinforcement from principals and collaborative coaches. The questions that principals and/or coaches ask teachers can communicate the importance placed on student engagement. Here are some from Schlecty: (pg 133)

• Describe a successful unit of schoolwork that you provided your students.
• What portion of the students were engaged--- demonstrated attention and persistence and commitment? How did you determine the level of engagement?
• To what extent did the students learn what you wanted them to? How did you assess the results?
• What about the learning experience made it as engaging or discouraging engagement as it seemed to be?
• If you were to redesign this unit for the same group of students, what would you change? Why?

Each student learning activity should be a teacher learning activity.  Educators should be consistently learning about his/her students and alternating the next design based on that learning.  

As a coaches, we might consider the same question following a classroom observation or professional development session.  I can ask myself "What did I learn about the students, teachers, staff?"  "How will that learning impact the design of my next interaction with the teacher(s) and staff?"   When we focus on working on the work rather than "fixing the people" our efforts will be maximized.  

More information about Student Engagement and Design Qualities can be found here.

This post it part of my Book-A-Month Challenge.  

The Active Learner: How Are You Keeping Up?

My school has to keep up with me, not the other way around.  -The Voice of the Active Learner.

When I walked the stage and collected my undergraduate diploma, I thought "I'll never have to read another book again."   Seriously, that thought entered my mind.  I mistakenly thought I had learned everything I needed to know in order to be an effective educator.  I quickly learned that if I wanted to keep up, I needed to become a lifelong learner. 

Reading educational related journals and books (yes, books do still exist) as well as attending district workshops and regional conferences have been a great ways for me to stay up with current trends in education.  Another way I am striving to keep up is by becoming a connected educator.  By plugging myself into the collective learning of educators across the world via Twitter, MOOCs, Google Hangout, following numerous blogs thanks to Google Reader, etc...I have grown so much more than I had ever dreamed.  

The world around us is changing at lightning speed.  It is easy to get overwhelmed.  Setting aside time to checkout Twitter, reading  a book, or viewing a webinar not only benefits me, but the teachers and students in my district.  I know I still have much to learn, but I am no longer standing still.

How are you keeping up?

Teacher Leaders

On October 12, 2012 my colleagues and I were invited to present our work at the NCTM Regional Conference in Dallas during Math-A-Rama.

Kellee Stephens, an amazing Lewisville ISD teacher leader, facilitates our session.

When we presented previously, I had just moved into the role of an instructional coach.  At that time, I thought that my role as a coach required me to be an expert in everything.  When we planned our presentation in 2009, I have to admit that I took the lead--not because my colleagues were incapable, but because I thought that, as a coach, I was supposed to "take charge."

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to learn alongside many colleagues including Kellee Stephens.   Together we have deepened our understanding of math content and developed our instructional beliefs grounded in theory.  I have learned so much from our relationship, but the most powerful lesson I have learned from Kellee is the importance in supporting teacher leaders.

My colleague Christy and I, both coaches, encouraged Kellee to take the lead during our presentation this year and we took supporting roles.  To say Kellee did a fabulous job would be a complete understatement.  She was in her element, speaking with such passion about her students work and the joy she got from seeing the connections they were making.  Our colleagues who attended our session asked her many questions and she earned rave reviews.  Three years ago when we first presented this, I would have thought I was not living up to my "position" of a coach if I was not leading the session.  Now I understand that I don't lose my "status" by empowering others.     

I am reminded of John Maxwell's Law of Empowerment.  He writes "to lead others well, we must help them to reach their potential.  That means being on their side, encouraging them, giving them power, and helping them to succeed."  (Maxwell 146)  Kellee is a passionate educator who has developed into an influential teacher leader.   I am looking forward to collaborating with her and doing everything I can to support her as she continues her journey as an instructional leader.

In what ways are you empowering teacher leaders?

John C Mazwell, (2007). The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. 2nd ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Let Me Count the Ways

Shifting the Monkey

As part of my involvement with my PLN at #txed, we participated in a book study of Shifting the Monkey by Todd Whitaker.  Todd, very active on Twitter, faithfully dropped in our weekly chats about the book.  I am constantly amazed of the connections that can be made via social media outlets like Twitter.  Being able to interact with an author while reading their book had a profound impact on my learning.  Todd is very gracious and has recently became an advocate of using Twitter.  He talked regularly about our group as he visited districts around the state and country.  This resulted in many new voices in our conversation and rich dialogue filled with reflection and insight.  

The message of this book seems overly simple:  to ensure that the monkeys, the  "responsibilities, obligations, and problem everyone deals with everyday," are in their proper place.  While this seems simple, in practice it is very difficult to do.  Often times, we take on the monkeys of others because it is easier to do the job ourselves.  We may take on misplaced monkeys to avoid having a difficult conversation, or we may shift extra monkeys to our best workers because we know the job will get done.  


Todd encourages leaders to take care of their best employees so they feel rewarded, protected, and have autonomy.  Beyond that though leaders need to take steps "shift monkeys to change behavior, so that people behave themselves even when the boss isn't looking."  To do this, he encourages leaders to ask themselves three questions:

1.  Where is the monkey?
2.  Where should the monkey be?
3.  How do I shift the monkey to its proper place?

One technique Todd shared was to treat everyone well.  When Todd says everyone, he means everyone--even the "slackers liars, and criers".  While this at first seemed counterproductive; however, when we presume positive intent in others we can shift behaviors.  He encourages leaders to address He juxtaposes this with the treat everyone as if they were guilty approach that many leaders take.  


As I read this book a personal experience came to mind.  I worked for a boss who sent out blanket emails whenever someone did something that needed correcting.  For example, we would all get a "be sure you are at work on time" email when someone ran late for work.   The crazy thing was even if I was at work on time that day, I would worry that the email was directed to me.    I would console myself by thinking if my boss had a problem with me, she would come speak to me.  One day, we all received another blanket email for an infraction that I knew was directed solely to me.  The problem was, my boss had never spoken to me about it.  I realize now that my boss was shifting monkeys of a few on to the group as a whole rather than speaking directly to the person involved.

I especially enjoyed discussing this book with colleagues from across Texas (and beyond) via Twitter during #texedchat.  

iPads and Innovation

During the October 8th inservice day, our team embedded Design Thinking by IDEO into an interactive hands on learning experience at Parkway and Hedrick Elementary.  

During our session, we began with introducing brainstorming norms by inviting participants to brainstorm the following question "When is a paperclip not a paperclip?"  

Next, Teachers sovled a mini-challenge which resulted in their dividing themselves into new collaborative teams with participants from each of the two schools.   Teams were given a design challenge and had the opportunity to learn about five new collaborative iPad apps to chronicle their team's journey.  The session closed as teams showcased their work in speed sharing rounds. 

This was our team's first opportunity to present to entire campuses.  We learned a great deal from this experience.  One important takeaway is to always be prepared.  We had some connectivity issues during the first session. Luckily we had downloaded copies of the video and our Prezi so after just a few minutes we were back up and running.  First impressions are vital so I hope participants focused on the fact that we had a solution and not that we stumbled for a moment.  I know things like this will happen from time to time so I am not going to dwell on it.  

Overall, it was a day filled with laughter and the teachers seemed genuinely pleased with the apps they learned in the process.  Teachers were able to list several ways they would be able to use them in with their students, so based on that alone, I feel the day was successful.  

Lewisville AP Who Owns the Learning Workshop

I am participating in my districts Assistant Principal Who Owns the Learning workshops.  

Round One (September):  During this first round, our main focus was to create a common language of the criteria what we would expect to see in a student-centered classroom.  We brainstormed in small groups and then were asked to create a product to show our understandings.  After working with our small groups we then went on a gallery walk to see what the other groups included in their products and could add criteria to our products.  Finally, we had the opportunity to walk classrooms at the cooperating school we were at to look for some of the criteria we had established.  

A take away from this experience for me was the importance of establishing protocols when facilitating conversations after walkthroughs.  The facilitators of the workshop did a nice job modeling this for us.  Initially our discussions were focused on what we did not see.  After we were introduced to the protocol, we were able to focus on the criteria we did see.  This resulted in a more focused and positive discussion.  Our discussion then moved to next steps to continue to move our campus forward.  


Round Two (October):  The focus of our second was curriculum.  Every small group was assigned a grade level to work with.  We spend time looking at the resources in Stage 1 of Eduphoria to learn more about what students should know and be able to do during the six weeks.  We then walked classes to observe instruction.  When we came back to our small groups, we discussed our observations and cross checked it with the curriculum in Eduphoria.  Finally, we planned what we might say during a coaching conversation with the teacher.  

I have served the district for the past two years as an instructional coach.  This type of conversation was very familiar for me.  The difference is that as a coach, I had been invited into classrooms by teachers and asked to give them feedback.  It was interesting to discuss how to frame the conversation when the visit had not been initiated by the teacher.  It is so important to collaborate with teachers as they reflect on their practice in the classroom.  Often times, leaders fail to provide much needed feedback to their teachers.  I know as a teacher I rarely received feedback beyond my summative PDAS evaluation and even that feedback was of limited use in helping me grow as a teacher.  

I have been reading Schlechty's Engaging Students.  In this book, Schlechty states that engagement cannot be observed only.  It can only be determined through observations combined with having conversations with the students.  During my time in the classrooms, there was an opportunity for me to speak with the students and this helped me gain insight into the engagement level in the classroom.  This level of understanding with would also provide opportunities for me to frame a conversation with the teacher.   This experience will help me as I move forward. 

Round Three (January):  During this third round of the workshop series, we discussed Schelechty's Design Qualities and design thinking.  This topic will be the focus of our February 18th zone collaboration day.  In small groups, we discussed one of the qualities and then shared our learning with the entire group.  We then walked classrooms to observe and record which qualities we saw present in lessons.  When we came back, we charted the qualities and made some interesting observations.  We were given an assignment to complete during our next session.  We are to create a digital project that shows where we are as a campus, where we want to be, and how we will get there.  I will be collaborating with Lisa Phelps and Michael Castillo of Sourthridge on this project.  We had already begun working on this during the campus PLCs.

Round Four (February):  Below is the link to our project.

 

Strategic Design Boot Camp

Participation in the Strategic Design Boot Camp had a significant impact on my career.  During the 2011-2012 school year, I had attended a community summit, participated in the Digital Town Hall meeting, and was asked to serve on the committee that developed Goal 4.  As I began my position as a Strategic Design coach, I was confident that I understood the beliefs, vision, goals, mission, and goals that our community had established; however, my time in boot camp brought about profound learning.

During boot camp, we spent significant time exploring and discussing each aspect of the the process.  We analyzed each belief and goal so we could understand at a deep level what our community was calling for.  

One of the most exciting aspects of our new Strategic Design process for me is our district vision. 

All students enjoy thriving, productive lives in a future they create.

This forward focused vision serves as a filter from which we can use to make decisions upon moving forward.  We need to add practices that help us reach this vision and discontinue outdated practices that do not support this vision.

As part of our boot camp, we were asked to define our new roles.  Below is the project my group collaborated to create to explain what we felt our role would be.  We created a commercial that was eventually chosen to share with the school board.  

I am excited to collaborate with our teachers as we move forward in the implementation of our plan.  

Strategic Design Commercial