Next Generation Learning: How Can I Help?

"So Keith my question is this, how can I help support students? How can those of us who are not in the classroom help the next generation be more successful? What can we do?  Because while we’ve established the fact that education is indeed everybody’s business, I am not sure we know exactly where to begin"

Ronda,

These are all great questions, and I'm hopeful that we can get more and more people who are not involved in the classroom to start (or continue) to think about these questions. Working at The Met School in Providence has afforded me the opportunity to truly connect students with community members, which has enhanced their education or (in some cases) changed their lives. To the surprise of a mentor, they usually get just as much of an education out of the experience as a student. 

The students at The Met are out at internships twice a week beginning in the middle of ninth grade up until they graduate. Becoming a mentor to a student is just one simple way to help the next generation become more successful. The real world experience a student gains from being at a workplace, having to be professional and punctual, listen intently to direction, while learning to enjoy the work and be creative are just a few simple life lessons learned. In some cases, students are leaving high school with a greater sense of how to manage the responsibility that comes along with freedom. How many bright young students enter college and leave because they don't know how to manage their time? Academic preparation is important AND knowing how to navigate various systems, communicate effectively with adults and peers, create a schedule, maintain organizational skills, etc. are also key components to being successful. As a mentor, you can help young people develop and hone these skills, so they are more prepared for college and life's challenges. 

Being a mentor can be time consuming, depending on the structure of the school or after school program. If you just don't have the time (but still want to help) allowing visits at your workplace or being a guest speaker will help students realize the relevance of certain learning. When the information is applicable to something that exists, the students can better make connections and see purpose to their education. This contributes to motivation, which in turn helps with work ethic, performance and minimizes behavior issues. These experiences can help the community build a relationship with teachers in the school, which could help teacher's have reference points for students and assist in the design of a more modern, relevant curricula. For community members and businesses, it can help tailor a more specific workforce that will be competent and prepared for future jobs. For students, it gives the opportunity for exploration and the possibility of pursuing their true passion. 

There are two other ways to help: money and advocacy. Using donorschoose.org to give resources to specific classroom projects is one route. Contacting the school and talking to teachers, department heads or administration can help narrow down what in particular the school may need. Also, if you talk to classroom teachers, (typically) you can get closer to the truth of what works for students and what policies help or hinder student learning. Inevitably teachers know the details differently because they are with the students in a learning environment throughout the entire school day. This information may help you become a more informed citizen on what an effective education could look like in your region/district, which can help you advocate for the positive things that will help students, which in the future will have ripple effect benefits we may not even be able to foresee.

- Keith 

Change to the blog

All,

To enrich the conversation, I'm pleased to announce that a colleague and friend will be joining the blog. Ronda Alexander is a member of the Ford Next Generation Learning National Team (Ford NGL)  (see her bio for more detailed info). Ronda has a great perspective on the bigger picture of education and the impact it has on societal changes. This will give a great boost to the blog as Ronda is well traveled and has the great opportunity to collect empirical evidence on what works in communities around the U.S. and what does not. Combined with my "classroom" or advisory experience with high school students, as well as coaching work, the hope is that we can more intentionally attack the broad issues of public education and get to the details of effective practices, programs and policies. 

Here is Ronda's first post: 

Inaugaration

Dear Keith,

Last Monday I was given the opportunity to attend the second inauguration of the 44^th President of the United States, and as I stood there among the million or so people in attendance I began to think about just how important education is to this country.

President Obama made a couple of statements that really hit home for me and reminded me of why I continue to advocate for the education of all people in this country. He said:

This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience.  A decade of war is now ending.   An economic recovery has begun.  America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands:  youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention.  My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it -- so long as we seize it together.

We are in this together so the future of our country depends on each and every one of us. What does that mean?  It means that in order to ensure the success of our economy, businesses, and culture we need to prepare our young people for success; and that does not mean just educators by trade, but rather each and every one of us who cares about the future of this country – in short, education is everybody’s business.

Those of us outside of the world of education may wonder why education matters, but I am a firm believer that education is key to success.  I don’t mean the education of old either; I’m not concerned whether or not students can recite facts and figures or characters out of book – it’s 2013, we have Google, so facts/figures are irrelevant.  What I mean is making sure our young people can identify and solve problems without being given all of the information; students need to be able to think critically, communicate and work collaboratively in a team. 

Furthermore, we need to accept that the way our parents and grandparents were educated is totally useless today.  “Learning” is not confined to the classroom; it happens at home, out in the community and in real-world working environments.

So Keith my question is this, how can I help support students? How can those of us who are not in the classroom help the next generation be more successful? What can we do?  Because while we’ve established the fact that education is indeed everybody’s business, I am not sure we know exactly where to begin.

Sincerely,

Ronda

We Don't Believe You, You Need More People

So . . .

I would like to welcome the one or two folks that may have read this blog at some point; thanks mom! (jk - she has not read it yet) 

A great deal has happened since the last post. The students from my first advisory have graduated and moved on to the next phase of their life. New students have entered The Met School in Providence, RI - wide-eyed and confused about what we actually do. I've developed professionally to the point where I am now a professional development provider for Ford: Next Generation Learning (Ford NGL). In order to not bore you with all the details, I'm just going to post some recent thoughts with the hope that readers can put the pieces together along the way.

My work around the country as a professional development provider (PDP) with Ford NGL and as an advisor at The Met School in Providence, RI continues to sync quite perfectly. The combination affords me the opportunity to bounce in and out (and around) the micro and macro perspectives of public education. After recently completing my third job as a PDP, I find it utterly disturbing the way some of the media have been portraying teachers as whiny, lazy, part-time workers who are earning more than they deserve. The teachers I've met in Detroit, MI, Philadelphia, PA, Daytona, FL, Mobile, AL, New York, NY, and (of course) Providence, RI have ALL been passionate, mindful, determined and diligent teachers who strive to do what is best for students. Am I visiting incredible schools with a unique plethora of supreme educators? Some of these schools are "failing" or are known as low performing schools. (According to the test scores, which is a whole other blog) Maybe, I'm continuously meeting the best teachers from these schools, or some of the media have a different agenda. Maybe, the educators are great at talking and learning about teaching, but when it comes to “game time” they collapse. I'll be doing follow up classroom observations to find out what the real deal is. No doubt I have many things to work on as an educator, but feel I have lots to offer to teachers that are attempting effective reform practices.

Teachers tend to truly care about their students. According to Dan Hargrave at The Sawyer School in Florida," In my observation the teacher that shows they care about the students, tend to have higher achieving students BECAUSE of the level of trust and engagement." Dan later elaborated, stating, “This did not mean students are enabled and can do whatever they please. It simply means those successful teachers truly listen to, respect and genuinely care about the young people in front of them.”

This leads to empowerment, which is all too often not the case because of various reasons, including conflicting agendas outside of the classroom. Politically, people want to see and hear the great headlines about test scores and "student achievement" (which seems like it would drastically vary using multiple assessments, but I digress . . .). This is good, as long as it fits the goal of the individual combined with assimilating to the existing society.

To quote one of my recent alumni, and valedictorian speaker of The Met School in Providence, RI, “Education’s purpose is not to have a person fit into the mold of things that already exist; no! The purpose of education is to empower a student to explore different opportunities, which allows them the chance to devise a plan on how they will enter the adult world," Sometimes that fits into part of the mold and sometimes it does not. Either way, every human should have the chance to decide. Entering the mold seems easier (and historically is), and most people will lead successful, happy lives doing so. However, we cannot eliminate the freedom of young people to pursue something else. This individual choice (and freedom to do so) will be the future of public education.

The lack of choice and freedom is one of the many underlying causes for inequity. This is partly the cause for a "gap" that needs to be filled. It will aid in "setting up our students for success" and all the other buzzwords flying around the country at this time.

When we (as small communities) acknowledge and act on the fact that humans should have choice, and challenge themselves intellectually within that choice, I believe many of the issues negatively affecting the economy, crime rates, judgments and even daily person to person interactions, etc. will steadily be minimized.

Waiting Them Out

MY STUDENTS “HATE” ME BECAUSE I CRUSH THEIR HOPES
(of being enabled)

One of the most effective teaching practices I’ve implemented with my advisory has been
helping them help themselves. (the empowerment piece)

9th grade

Student – “What does exuberance mean?”
Keith: “Good question, look it up.”

Student reacts adversely, questioning how I got my license to teach. Someone must have
made a mistake because I’m an idiot and don’t know what any of these words mean.
Student never looks up word.

10th grade

Student: “What does tranquility mean?”
Keith: “Sounds interesting, look it up.”

Student groans and screams across the room to see if anyone knows what the word
means. No reaction. Student drops the book and says the book is boring anyway.

11th grade

Student: “What does . . . “
Keith: “What’s up?”
Student: “Nothing, don’t worry about it”
Keith: “Are you sure? Maybe, I can help.”
Student: “Nope, you just going to tell me to look it up and go on about how I need to
learn simple things like this on my own. Then you’ll go on to say that you’ll help me with
other things and blah blah blah.
Keith: “Sounds pretty accurate. Good work.”

Student looks up the word and then asks me what one of the words in the definition
means. I say . . . “look it up.” She shoots a look of death, but I survive.

12th grade

On our first big field trip we take a ferry ride to the vineyard. Student is missing
from the front of ferry. She has wandered off to the cabin because she brought
along a book to read. I get within 5 feet of where she is sitting, but she is so
engrossed in her reading she doesn’t recognize my taking a picture of her.

(If you look closely, you can see she brought her own dictionary)


Keith: “Hey, what are you doing?”
Student: “Looking up this word. I’ve been reading this book, but I have to keep stopping
to understand what the author is trying to say.”
Keith: “ That’s great. If you don’t, it seems like a waste of time.”

Student agrees and they laugh about stories of the past regarding her frustrations of being
challenged.

The End Beginning

What is the purpose of public education?

Whenever the answer to this question seems to be clear, I reflect and find my focus to be too much on a student's social-emotional well-being, so I shift my approach to more 'academics'. Other times, it's too much on the 'work' and not enough on the person.

It feels like there are multiple battles of prioritizing happening simultaneously. One continuous struggle is getting the student to perform for equity purposes. Another focus is keeping up with or making change as time moves on. Equity and advancement (of the individual, group, status, etc..) seem to become the most important (or gain the most emphasis) as long as capitalism rules the way it does today.

The internal conflict (for me) becomes having the desire to move education's value to "in and of itself" and not to just a means. The tricky balance has been how does one do this without compromising a student's ability to further access resources. (ex. Student interested in philosophy is often encouraged to take the class, but don't think about making it a career.) Immediately, this devalues what could have been a student's passion, purpose, etc.