Okay, this post is going to be very personal.  They should all be, certainly, but this is the first time I have shared my feelings about this.  See how much I trust you all?

Innovating Inside the Box is reality – if we are to innovate!  We work, live, and grow within the system we choose.  I choose public schools.  Isn’t always easy these days, as we know, but it’s worth the effort to support equity for every student.  (I have gone away from saying “all” to “every” because “all” is a group, and “every” is individual.  Connotation counts.  We changed our school’s mission statement to address this, too.)

I am the principal of a high-performing junior high school.  This means kids do pretty well on the state tests.  We want more for our kids than that!  We addressed this by learning how to teach in a more student-centered manner.  There are a lot of ways to do this; we chose PBL and started working with Engage2Learn four years ago to support the adult learning so we could get here. 

I was so excited!  We had a pilot group of teachers who volunteered to learn how to teach in this manner who were excited, too!  We had parent meetings at the beginning of the year to explain things might look a little differently.  We were explicit with students about why their learning experiences might be a little different from what they were used to. Teachers had coaching throughout the school year.  We had a solid plan!

If you know anything about change, you can guess we were met with some push-back.  Change is hard, right?  The students who pushed back the most were the ones who were successful in the teacher-centered, sit and get, classroom.  It’s a lot more difficult to DO work than passively sit and listen, right?  That was understandable.  We addressed the student – and parent – concerns with the future-ready, or life-ready, skills the students were gaining in the process.  That made sense to most parents.  We learned how to move toward a student-centered learning experience the first year; the eight pilot teachers did a wonderful job and kids had a unique and active learning experience!

The next year we went school-wide.  Yeah.  Hindsight is 20/20.  Our test scores dropped a little.  What? This student-centered stuff is supposed to help kids, right?

The reality is, we work within an educational system with high-stakes tests, and that is how schools are judged.  I don’t think most of us like it, but until we get more educators voting regularly and sharing their experiences and opinions with legislators, it’s probably the way it’s going to stay.  But that’s a whole ‘nother blog!  Back to test scores — in our current world, they matter.  A lot.

Well, we found that test scores dropped because every teacher didn’t have the support they needed.  We moved too fast.  I moved too fast.  This week’s video for the #IMMOOC discussed Vicki Davis‘s advice to “innovate like a turtle.”  Wish I would have read her back then!  Instead, I learned the hard way. Moving too fast doesn’t translate into positive outcomes for students.  Shifting teaching and learning takes more than a few years.

Were we judged?  Absolutely.  I am sure people thought, “What are those people doing over there?”  It took some discussion and reflection to acknowledge this. Were we going to go back to teacher-centered and sit and get?  Or were we going to stick with a new way of teaching and learning that includes students in the process and get it right?  We did find that gaps in learning across ethnic groups reduced…  what do we really believe about equity?

We answered the question, “What are those people doing over there?” with several responses. We are continuing PBL!  We are changing lives!  Test scores aren’t everything, but we will get them back to where they were!  The skills the students are learning are just as important as passing a standardized test!  We are going to focus on equity!

We have learned ways of improving student ownership systemically.  We listen to students more; they have a voice in the classrooms through PBIS.  Students keep track of their learning through student tracking tools and other self assessments.  We understand that the role of educator has to be more of a facilitator.  (My Australian friend and fellow educator, Clayton Reedie, calls it the “Meddler in the Middle.”  I love that!)  We, also, have a  shared vision.  We came together and decided what we want our students to know and be able to do when they leave our school.  (Upon reflection, we need to revisit this spring.)  

Innovate like a turtle…  go slow to go fast.  Put things in place system-wide so the change can take hold and last.  Provide that clear path so EVERY teacher understands.  It’s worth it!  Thanks, GeorgeCouros , John Spencer and AJ Juliani, and, especially,  Katie Martin for your support!

#IMMOOC4  #LCInnovation