Your challenge…

Well done everyone on a very successful week in Portland!  

Your challenge (should you choose to accept it!) is to have a go at contributing to the Study Tour blog so that we can make sure it is a way we can reflect upon and discuss our thoughts about what are learning, and continue to network after the Tour. 

Matt Karlsen from Opal School is now following our blog and is interested to hear your thoughts and follow our discussion. In case you haven’t seen his comment on our blog, here it is…  

Click HERE to reply to Matt’s comment or add your own thoughts about Opal School. George and Yong are also following our blog with interest!

There are three ways you can engage with the Tour Blog if you haven’t already:

• First steps – Explore the blog website and see what information you can find. Why not start by looking for the Photo Gallery page?
• Getting the hang of it – Make a comment on a blog post. You don’t need to log in to do this, just open a post, scroll to the bottom and add your comment.
• Feeling brave – Write a post of your own. You need to log in to do this and press the small W symbol in the top left hand corner of the blog site. Email Kylie or Niki if you have photos you would like to add to your post. Don’t be afraid to press Post or Publish when you are finished as your post will still be in draft form to be approved by Kylie or Niki, so we can edit if needed and add photos for you. 

Please ask Niki or Kylie to sit with you if you need help with any of this, we are very happy to support your exploration of new skills! 

 

This message will self-destruct in 10 seconds, 9… 8… 7…. 

Reflection conversations with Yong Zhao

HighTech High – recommendation from Yong to visit, constantly innovating and reinventing itself. Aims to high intellectual demand taught in a practical project based way. In San Diego. Everything is turned into meaningful, authentic projects. They now have 11 schools at all ages, including a graduate school for teachers. Have a lottery system for student entry, and government funded charter school. The students have a lot of say in the school and the student association offers scholarships to teacher to run projects. With a very diverse student population they have almost 100% of students eligible for college. They have defied traditional State standards and have mapped their own projects onto State standards. It is so popular now, the question has been raised about how many schools like this are possible without becoming “fossilised” (ie. standardised).  It may be easier to turn a difficult school around, but harder to turn around a ‘good’ school without becoming fearful of losing the success and stagnating. The question is now, do we need just one school leader or can we all be school leaders like this? 

Reactions and questions:

• Reassured that we are doing lots of things right.  Surprised and dismayed to hear students in privileged environment talk about “they think they are not giving us grades but they are”. Catlin Gabel looked like any other traditional school with a lot of resources. With the resources they have, they could be doing a lot. 
• The values of Opal School were clear and teachers were consistent in their practice. Consistent use of language in every class, and intentions clear. Lacking a traditional power differential between students and teachers, although there is a subtle power differential. Real acknowledgment of the child. Have found ways to meet demands of curriculum while still staying true to their values. Using intellectual engagement ‘heat’ to meet standards without being driven by these. 

Q. How much are you driven by standards in Australian schools, rather than starting first with an interesting, authentic project first?  How do we find ways to not use the curriculum standards as the starting point? 

• Caitlin Gabel handbook talked about changing practice for older students due to pressures of getting into College, and this pressure seemed to drive a separation between their vision and practice. 
• Catlin Gabel had great innovation and invention in workshop for all students, but this was separate to the classroom. Carlin in predicament where they know they need to transform, but existing market may not accept this. 
• Catlin Gabel has students as teachers with mantra of ‘no student is invisible’ and this was a positive aspect of their community where a lot of learning and support was being offered by students. It is important to acknowledge and build up students to have an authentic role. 
• Liked “curiousity factor” at both schools, that remained as students got older. 
• Liked use of university students in classrooms at Catlin Gabel. Junior years have put a lot of thought into how to timetable their school day. YZ: Most school timetables are still structured around ‘courses’ with predefined content and time needed and this constricts innovation and exploration of learning. 

“Instead of being proud of being the same as other schools, we should strive to be proud of being a different school.” Yong Zhao

Singapore and South Africa have a system where schools can apply for a moratorium on testing, but they have to earn it. 

We need teachers to move away from an idea that they need to be told what to teach, and move towards an idea of standing back and letting the students learn. 

“Teachers in Australia have had the ability to innovate knocked out of them.”

Q. How do we build the confidence of teachers to innovate in the classroom and look for alternative ways to foster learning environments that align with curriculum obligations without being driven by them?

There are lot of Think Tanks in the USA, and Australia needs more of these to promote education research that is outside government. Can Independent schools pool together to fund a Think Tank, is this a good way to have a voice in this space?

“Public opinion can change. Australians always try to influence the existing government, whereas you should be trying to influence the future government.” (ie. Public opinion, parents, students) “Educators are always looking for short term solutions.” We need to have a long-term picture in mind. We need to resist this notion of “how do we measure success” of new ideas. This reinforces the idea of seeking short term solutions to long term problems. “Autonomy embodies responsibility” so we need to create spaces for students to have this. 

We are creating teachers to be assembly line workers who cannot change anything and then don’t know how or have the confidence to. We need to create teachers who are designers and can think and innovate. If everyone in a nation or organisation is looking for ways to meet the regulations, then no one will innovate. 

The more we focus on data and meeting standards, the more we remove the joy from education. 

“Credential inflation.”

Related texts: Manufactured Crisis (David Berliner 1992) and 50 Myths of Public Education (David Berliner)

  
Nuvu School only do design work, founded by MIT Engineering. 

Q. What can we do at our school? “Everybody has gravity, but we can always figure out a way to fly.”

Three questions to move forward:

1. If you have students who are born inventors, how do we at least not stop them inventing?
   
2. How do create more opportunities for innovation and invention?
3. What are we genuinely doing great at? How do we build on this? 

Do we have the student at our school who will invent the thing that supercedes the smartphone? Who is going to invent the next school?

AltSchool in an interesting model of a new school by Google with strong emphasis on technology. 

What we think we can do in our current school situation…

• Make student work more meaningful and authentic
• Make more global connections
• Write a response to media articles advocating for creative schools
• Collectively start to think about the influence we can have as a group, not just what we can do at our individual schools. Eg. Build network-wide projects
• Have group of students in each school to be responsible for exploring a school model 
• Create WA Independent School Academy to bring students together for different schools, perhaps in relationship with a university?
• Consider timetable options. Eg. X-Block scheduling for 3 hours at HighTechHigh for students to explore whatever project they like and are allocated a mentor who is interested in similar area. 
• Individually and collectively engage with state and federal politicians about what is happening (and what we would like to see happening) in education.
• Work with teachers to turn around focus on content thinking. Eg. AISWA running Amplify course. 
• Engage with local community to tell a story about what education could look like.
• Communicate ideas about education clearly to parents in different ways

What will you say to your board/leaders when you report back to your school after this Study Tour?

• We need to go back to respecting the individual child. We need to strive for the harmony observed at Opal School when students are truly engaged in their learning. We need to go back to our values and ask ourselves ‘are we really achieving these?’
• Give staff who are willing and creative, the “permission” to experiment and run with what they want to do, as a starting point for change elsewhere in the school in the future. 
• $50 note, David Unaipon indigenous inventor and writer an inspiration.
• Change the way we PD so that it is experiential and models what we want change, rather than running PD the way we always have.
• Consider the question “am I being the barrier in any way?”
• Run an invention activity similar to Lemelson experience. 
• Picture of person standing in water (ie. Not afraid to get their feet wet) 
• Remind people that it’s a journey
• Photo of pieces of clothing in senior art course as an example of a teacher willing to learn a new skill and experiment. 
• Provide opportunity for teachers and school leaders to have space away from daily duties to reflect, question, be curious etc. 
• Provide ways to continue conversations from this Tour. How can we do this? Importance of out of school networks. 
• Model practice for staff as a way of creating a conversation among staff. 
• Bring Yong to talk to school board. 
• Recommend books and articles to board members to facilitate discussion about KPIs related to league tables. 
• Thinkers Corner in every board meeting, where anyone can bring a challenging discussion point to the table. 
• Give successful business cases to board members. 

“Are you teaching children or teaching the content?”

Remind yourself… “I’m not working for the government, I’m working for the kids.” Your job is to make sure children have hope. 

When we come into a situation, we always have a predetermined framework of thinking, and it is a challenge to pay attention to different things. 

We need to remember that content is necessary but not the purpose. It is like the roads…it is better to know how to use a GPS than to memorise all the roads, but we need to know some roads to use a GPS. 

“By focusing on the state testing, you are short changing your students.”

“We always define the oppressed by the oppressor’s standards. We need to define success differently for disadvantaged students.” Yong Zhao 

3E International School in Beijing designed by Yong Zhao in 1 week, started with only 4 students. Aim was bi-lingual school to create global students with thinking competencies. 

Inventing at Lemelson

Improving lives through invention and invention education. 
Aim to:

• Inspire people to explore ideas
• Educate in a way that liberates them to explore their ideas
• Enable an ecosystem to allow the creation of products

We recognise the power of invention to improve the lives of others, particularly the poor in the USA and other countries. We work K-12 and into universities.

What kind of education are we going to be invoked with if the end goal is to create solutions to improve lives?

“People need to have a sense of identifying problems that are worth solving. I see a problem and I can make it better. “

People need to know how to solve problems.

People also need hands on engagement. In order for it to have value it needs to reach somebody, so needs to be transformed from an idea into reality.

Our programs have the ability to have students see how they can be problem-solvers and creators.

Core values of Foundation:

• Important that every child had the opportunity to experience invention/problem-solving education.
• Importance of environmental responsibility.

We need a whole generation of creative problem solvers = inventors. Why haven’t we created more problem solvers?…

• We have not taught students how to fail
• Too much focus on test taking and content knowledge
• Students have difficulty with ill defined problems
• Students work too often in isolation
• We taught students not to question
• We created teachers centred classrooms

Why don’t we just teach STEM? There is too much focus on teaching content in isolation Eg. S-T-E-M not S+T+E+M…

• Hands on Learning is occurring in STEM but it is still project based where the problem is well defined
• Failure is not defined
• Problem based learning is ‘squishy’
• Classroom is still teacher centred
• Creativity is not often practiced or celebrated

Our approach to invention education:

 Inspiration > Real world problem identification > STEM strong knowledge base > Entrepreneurial thinking > Ability to turn ideas into solutions

Stem skills

 

• Math
• Science
• Following directions
• Applying rules and formulas
• Structured decision making
• Basic problem solving

Additional skills we need:

• Ability to solve undefined problems
• Ability to go beyond previously learned concepts and rules
• Ability to consider novel approaches to old problems
• Ability to generate alternative solutions

Attributes we desire:

• Leadership
• Creativity
• Ability to deal with ambiguity
• Perseverance/passion
• Resourcefulness
• Self-accountability

Scientific method/engineering design process + invention/entrepreneurial process = creative problem solvers, inventors, failing forward and failing often.

REFLECTION: How will new inventors change your world?

Oregon MESA Invention Education
Part of a national group organised around an annual day competition.  Based at Portland State University. Provides college mentors to after school outreach programs. Comprises:

• Competition
• Outreach
• Family

Programs:

• Mesa schools
• Day competition
• College and career exposure
• Family engagement

STICKY NOTE ACTIVITY: What questions do you see in implementing invention education in your schools?
21st century learning skills
Engineering design project (free curriculum from Intel)

• Modeled after Intel design
• Open ended project
• Students choose problem to solve
• edp = engineering design process is cyclical

Human Centered Design

• Empathise (students give a real client)
• Define
• Ideate
• Prototype
• Test

Why Human Centred Design?

• More in alignment with 21st c skills
• Focus on empathy
• Client focused
• Students invent products to solve real world problems
• Students present inventions at school showcase
• Process can be applied to other areas

Students in HCD:

• Students learn project management
• Student led projects
• Teachers as mentors
• High engagement

Outcomes for students:

• Increased self-efficacy
• Affected their interest in learning about other people
• Encouraged them to conserve resources
• Think of new ways to promote sustainability

Why invention:

• Students see they can make a difference
• Communicates that not everything has been figured out
• Values their ideas
• Provides structures to navigate group projects

Design Kit (resource suggested by Emma Franklin)

Design/decision matrix helps to decide which idea is worth pursuing (rather than kids choosing the idea of the person they think is the ‘smartest’)
What do teachers need to do invention?

• Decision making matrix:
• Criteria and constraints
• Sketch ideas
• Make a prototype and present to others
• Group has to reach consensus (no single person allowed to decide)
• Pugh chart

Invention ACTIVITY rules:

• No idea is a bad idea
• Quantity over quality
• Use pictures, words
• Acknowledge ideas by “yes, and…”

INVENTION ACTIVITY:  Invent a device that will muffle your phone.

STEP 1. Identify problem (for new groups or with tight time constraint, this can be pre-defined such as above)

STEP 2. Brainstorm ideas in group of 5-6 (use above rules) – criteria…lots of laughter, lots of ideas, don’t focus on one or start planning, don’t touch the materials yet!

STEP 3. Ideate – quietly individually sketch out or plan any one idea you choose, you don’t need to know what supplies you have.

STEP 4. Share your idea with your small group and choose one idea that best meets criteria

STEP 5. Start building prototype using materials. It doesn’t actually have to work at this stage, it is just a way to communicate your group idea. All materials are available to everyone. If it doesn’t seem like it’s going to work, how can you change/adjust it?

STEP 6. Discuss how to present your idea.

STEP 7. Present your idea.

This whole process is about communicating an idea.

REFLECTION: How would you bring science, maths or other content into this exercise?
Eg. Sound, frequency, properties of materials, angles

LMIT Pogram at MIT for students in career and mid-career pathways with prizes. InvenTeams at middle and high schools where teachers at schools can apply for grants and connect with college students. Students work on an idea all the way to a working prototype.

IMPORTANT…

• Get people in your community involved and make connections with people who have expertise (value the people who work with you, support them, offer what resources you can)
• Find a real client if you possibly can. 
• Failure is key. 

“You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that got you into the problem.”

Click HERE to read more about The Lemelson Foundation.

Click HERE to view more photos from our afternoon at the Lemelson Foundation.

Gail’s view of the bridge

The visit to the Lemelson Foundation today provided a photo opportunity. The freeway and bridge were easily visible from the ‘ deck’, or according to Trish, the verandah or patio.
Photo and post courtesy of Gail 

 

Feeling right at home at Catlin Gabel School

  

Exploring at Opal School

 

Please add comments, thoughts and questions about our Opal School visit to the comments section so we can engage in collaborative discussion and reflection.

 Opal School is a pre-school called a ‘beginning school’ with 37 students (3 & 4 year olds) and a public charter school with 88 students for students up to the end of 5th grade after which they move on to a middle school. Also have the Museum Centre for Learning. Facilitator: Matt Karlsen (Administrator, Museum Center for Learning)

Related text: The Teacher You Want to Be (cover illustrated by Opal School students)

 Principles:

• Strong image of the child
• Pedagogy of listening & relationships
• Hundred languages
• Social constructivist pedagogy
• Teacher as researcher
• Co-construction of curriculum
• Solidarity with childhood
• Immersion in aesthetic dimension
• Social, emotional, intellectual and playful learning

Related text: Opening Minds (Peter Johnston & Gay Ivey)

“Difference rather than standardisation as central to learning.” (Peter Johnston)

Trying to develop a school that is unlike any regular way to do schooling. Trying to have a “conflict-rich” environment where there are differences that prompt curiosity and inquiry.

Children are not just capable of developing as children, they have a contribution and a perspective that is valuable and needs to be heard. Opal School views children as fully formed.

We want educators who are interested in childhood, rather than forming a child into the adult they think they should be.

REFLECTION: How do your observations confirm, extend or strain your thinking about education?

 Opal School is not about creating a program that we say “go do this”. It’s instead saying we’re creating something that is born of this place and our relationship to this place, and this might have implications for you and your school, but you need to discover what these are for you.

“I noticed the absence of power in the room.”

Big group questions/thoughts:

• Noticed the respect children have for each other. 
• No technology in the rooms. How do students transition into schools where there is an emphasis on technology? Is the choice to have no technology a purposeful one? A: We’re not anti-technology.  We’re very interested in the importance of other materials so we choose to emphasis those instead. We have a tight budget so we choose to spend our money on staffing and other resources rather than technology. Children are assessed using standardised national computer-based testing, and do fine. We would embrace high-tech options with the same emphasis as other materials such as clay etc. 
• Interested in curriculum. How do you marry curriculum compliance requirements with your approach to learning?
• How might this philosophy flow into a middle school context and is there a plan to extend Opal School into a middle school in the future?
• Interested in power and the apparent absence of it in classrooms. A: Power dynamics in schools are reinforced when there is one right answer and students are rewarded by their proximity to that one right answer. If we are co-collaborators in learning then the power shifts and is shared. 
• High level of consistency in language used by all staff. 
• Physical learning environment in the rooms, multi-dimensional spaces used for multiple purposes. A: These play a really important role, wants classrooms to feel like an old-growth forest. An ugly place supports ugly ideas. If we want our ideas and children to be numb then we reject the asthetic, if we want ideas to have heat and vibrancy then we need to embrace the asthetic. We assume children are always trying to connect, if something goes wrong, then we assume there is a misfire in their effort to connect, and we support them with that. Compliance is not the goal. We’re trying to teach to achieve a different way to live and do schooling.  
• Emphasis on learning for life and creation of active learning communities. A: How curiousity can lead to unimaginable outcomes. When we start with a lesson objective or outcome (Eg. At the end of this lesson students will be able to…) we limit the learning that is possible.  We are standards aware/informed but not standards driven/obsessed. Schools that are driven by compliance to external forces are often the schools that have a high level of compliance (without questioning) among students. We don’t want to remove the complexity of learning, and the “heat” of learning generated by curiousity leads to achievement of standards and beyond. We believe there is no one path to achieving certain skills, and when a child struggles this leads to curiousity on the part of the teacher and a process of inquiry. We want our children to bring their ideas to their community and to feel that their community (classroom, community, country) needs their ideas. 
• Teachers using different strategies to resolve conflicts between children, depending on child. Children were also using strategies. Felt the educators were working really hard. Emotional work. A: Teachers working hard to pull out deep thinking from children, and questioning and extending thinking. How do we work with staff to build these complex skills that not all teachers are good at? What is the role of the teacher? What is the teacher paying attention to and what are their trying to do. A: if you think your job as teacher is to teach particular content then you pay attention to the building blocks of the content, whereas if you think your job is to build agency in children then we pay attention to very different things.  There is a constant uncertainty and monitoring of where are we now, how do we move on? What we are really looking for in all our teachers is curiousity and the capacity for reflection. We are looking for teachers who are interested in what children are doing and who are prepared to struggle to constantly discover that. 
• How do you communicate with parents about student progress? A: Formal conferences twice a year, newsletter, blog etc. We always use the children’s words and experiences to describe what we are doing. We’re constantly struggling with using an electronic platform to share student learning (currently using Evernote). We’re always thinking about and negotiating ways to explain how we are different to other schools and what is important to us. 

Click HERE to read more about Opal School and the Portland Children’s Museum, and their resources.

Click HERE to view Opal School photos and contact Kylie or Niki to add photos you have taken.

Day Three – Wednesday

Sorry, a slightly earlier start tomorrow morning! Breakfast is available from 6.30 am and we will meet on the bus for 7.40am departure. Pick-up point for the bus will be the same location as this morning.

8.00 am – Arrive at Catlin Gabel School for a full-day visit

A program and map of the school will be provided on arrival

3.00 pm – Depart Catlin Gabel School

Some resources for Human Centred Design

I really enjoyed today’s presentation at The Lemelson Foundation, particularly looking at invention. The notion of human centred design was something I spent many hours in conversation with my brother about, over Christmas. (We’re both quite nerdy!!)  His role, in a big advertising agency, is Head of User Experience and this design process underpins what they do. He shared a great resource with me…even better because it’s free. Enjoy! designkit.org 

Day two – Tuesday

Breakfast  is available from 6.30 am and our bus to the Opal School will depart from the hotel main entrance at 8.00 am.

8.30 am – Arrive at Opal School

12 noon -Lunch

12.40 pm – Bus departs for the Lemelson Foundation

1.00 pm – Arrive at the Lemelson Foundation

OPAL SCHOOL

THE LEMELSON FOUNDATION

Monday afternoon with Yong Zhao

“Entrepreneurial means to look for opportunities in problems.”
“Chinese symbol for crisis combines the symbols for danger and opportunity.”

Fourth industrial revolution…machines are reclaiming their jobs, those that are boring, dangerous, repetitive etc. Related text: The Second Machine Age and Never Send a Human to do a Machine’s Job. Let us instead think about new opportunities rather than lament the loss of jobs to machines. We need to look for the qualities that make us human, eg. uniqueness, empathy, emotion, intuition, creativity and entrepreneurial thinking, ability to quit, identify problems worth solving. 

In education, diversity is often seen as a nuisance because we want everyone to be the same. We need to look for uniqueness not always trying to to make everyone the same. “Different characteristics have different value in different cultures and contexts. Help your children understand ‘you can be good at something, you have value’.” “An inch can be too long, a foot can be too short. It depends on context.” Not every culture values the things below…
Multiple Intelligences (Howard Gardner) 

 The 16 Human Motivators (Dr Steven Reiss) 

 

“Everybody can learn.” To what degree depends. We need to spend the time building on our talents to be great, not spend time on our areas of weakness until we are still bad at it! “Can every talent be of value in the modern age? Answer…yes.” “Our physiological needs are very similar, our intellectual/spiritual/psychological needs are very diverse and diversity creates opportunities.”

“You are born with a difference and you suppress or enhance it.” 

“Creativity is not a talent, it’s a tendency of every human. Creativity is the ability to come up with new possibilities.” For example in humans language is not taught, it is learned and affirmed. “Remember memorisation is not learning, learning is creating new connections and possibilities.” Creativity is not always efficient, so humans learn to suppress creativity. We suppress creativity by teaching something. Teachers often discourage creativity by not valuing new ideas or different ways of doing things. You don’t kill creativity, you suppress it. Teaching children to give answers faster is one way to suppress creativity. The more rules you have the less creative kids become because they learn to comply. Decline of creativity by age:

  

Related text: World Class Learners plus additional three books. 

“Students need to be able to own their own learning process. We have to abandon the concept of one curriculum for all learners. Can we really not worry about the content and not use it to drive our experience in schools. We should be driven by students themselves, by student interest. Ask yourself…do students own anything in your school? We have so many things we do to our kids and we think we doing things for them. But students need to participate in their own education and learn to accept the consequences of their choices. You want to turn learning into their [students’] responsibility. 

Consider:

• Voice
• Choice
• Support
• Authentic product
• Sustained and disciplined process
• Strength-based
• Global competence

“Students will never know what they are good at if we narrow their opportunities.  It should be the opposite for our disadvantaged kids so that they have more opportunities to find what they are good at and interested in.”
How do you forgive people for not being good at something. How can you give alliance to people who simply cannot do something. Be flexible and forgive.  You are not teachers, you are mentors and curators of learning opportunities, gardeners. We want to aim for strength-based education, not prescribed curriculum. 

A child is a self-learning organism.

“We are so busy teaching, we forget that nobody is learning.” Yong Zhao