What Can We Learn from Other Countries' Education Systems?

When looking to the globe for effective education systems data is usually our starting place.  It is clear that some countries are doing better in reading, math, and science than the United States.  According to the most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) the US is 13th in Reading, 18th in science, and 37th in math among assessed countries (Schleicher, 2018).  Topping the list in every category is China with familiar favorites like Finland usually near the top.  So what is it that they are doing that we are not?

One study entitled Empowered Educators after three years concluded that there were two main reasons that other countries have surpassed the US in education (Harrington, 2017).  First, successful countries have purposefully focused on building effect systems of education instead of trying to find short-term, narrowly focused solutions; aka silver bullets (Harrington, 2017).  We can learn so much from this data.  There must be a purposeful reorganization of the current system if we wish to see improvement.  Like so many systems in this country whose flaws are suddenly very clear in the wake of Covid 19, our system of education could use an overhaul.  No one person, district, or even policy can fix the issues.  The data shows that many aspects of the system must be fixed for the whole to run well.

The second step taken by more successful countries is “a commitment to ‘professionalizing teaching’ as a well-respected occupation” (Harrington, 2017, para 4).  I instantly thought of a Youtube video I saw years ago.  In it, the news report had the feeling of a sports cast, but was blasting headlines like “Mrs. Jones NAILS social studies today!”  The real life data is sadly not as good for teachers.  One study showed that in the higher performing countries, the status of teachers was put on par with that of doctors while in the U.S. teachers ranked the same as librarians (Strauss, 2018).  In the same study, teachers saw their status as lower than the general public did.  

The data shows that there is no silver bullet, but rather that systematic and perception changes are the only way to move forward.  Who better to reach toward growth than teachers!

References

Harrington, T. (2017, June 27). What can U.S. schools learn from top education systems in other countries? EdSource. Retrieved from https://edsource.org/2017/what-can-u-s-schools-learn-from-top-education-systems-in-other-countries/583852

Schleicher, A. (2018). PISA 2018: Insights and Interpretations (Rep.). Retrieved https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA%202018%20Insights%20and%20Interpretations%20FINAL%20PDF.pdf

Strauss, V. (2018, November 15). Where in the world are teachers most respected? Not in the U.S., a new survey shows. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2018/11/15/where-world-are-teachers-most-respected-not-us-new-survey-shows/

Caring for Student Wellness

Wellness is often described as the measure of a person’s mental and physical health to characterize their overall well-being (GoodTherapy, 2015).  This means that to keep the health and wellness of our students in the forefront of our minds and actions will be important in our classrooms.  How could we expect to educate a whole student if their overall well-being is not attended to first?  We know from decades of research that a student cannot even engage in learning if some basic and psychological needs are not met (Burton, 2012).  A focus on wellness can allow learners to have these deficiency needs met and real learning to occur.

Depending upon the source there are six to nine types or dimensions of wellness that we can consider when designing our classrooms and the lessons we teach.  According to Madeline Weilgus (2016) there are eight that we can use to guide our strategies for keeping students healthy and well.  To help she has created the great Wellness Wheel infographic below.

Here are some ideas for each of the dimensions of wellness that we could use in our classrooms.

Physical Wellness 

Take time often in class to do short physical brain breaks or movement videos.  There is a strong connection between movement and cognition (Jensen, 2005).  You can have students set their smart goals by miming or acting them out to a recorder or even just take a walk.  You can also include drama or role play into your class day to connect movement to material or play small games like tossing a ball to practice spelling or vocabulary (Jensen, 2005).   Also consider taking time for snacks and make sure all your students are getting the food they need.

Emotional Wellness

The key to emotional wellness is naming your feelings.  Naming and expressing your feelings tends to diffuse their power and lessen the burden they can create for you.  In other words “Name it to tame it” (Schwartz, 2015, para. 11).  Taking time in class to talk about emotions and work through them may be tough, but worth it in the long run.  Maybe a chart can help for students that have a hard time with this or are constantly angry or upset.  Teachers can also model the behavior by telling students when they are feeling something as well.

Spiritual Wellness

A great way to support your student’s spiritual wellness is to ask them big questions.  Wiggins and McTighe (2006) would probably call them essential questions, but helping students to contemplate big subjects with no real answer can be invaluable.  Also, including project based learning in connection to volunteering would be a great step for students (Weilgus, 2016).

Social Wellness

In general this means forming and cultivating healthy relationships (Weilgus, 2016).  Allowing students time to make connections and friendships will be of great importance for this to happen.  In addition, consider using classroom covenants to set ground rules and restorative justice techniques to teach students how to repair relationships.

Intellectual Wellness

This is what teachers do best!  Making students into life-long learners by differentiating material so that each student can find their zone of proximal development or their Goldilocks Zone should be incorporated into our lessons (Anderson, 2016).  Keep challenging students to do just a little more than they thought they could do.

Environmental Wellness

We can live sustainably in our classrooms as well.  Make your space a place your students want to be to increase their environmental wellness. When you are setting up your room, consider how and where students will sit and participate.  In fact Jennifer Gonzales (2018) gives several great ways to design your classroom in her article 12 Ways to Upgrade Your Classroom Design.   Also consider learning outside or in the spaces you're learning about if possible.

Occupational Wellness

Although this is more geared toward adult wellness, exploring your likes, dislikes, talents, and downfalls through trying new jobs is something you can do in your classroom.  Have students try out new jobs or institute a classroom economy where students get paid for cleaning or even teaching.  Try producing a video each month and editing it with online video software like WeVideo.  Some students can write, some can act, and some can be backstage.  Trying new jobs will be fun and help students to be curious about future life and goals.

Helping our students be safe, secure, thoughtful, and kind will be big steps in keeping them healthy and well.  It will also make your classroom a more calm and wondrous place for your students and you.

References

Anderson, M. (2016). Chapter 1. The Key Benefits of Choice. In Learning to Choose, Choosing to Learn. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/116015/chapters/The-Key-Benefits-of-Choice.aspx

Burton, N., M.D. (2012, May 23). Our Hierarchy of Needs. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201205/our-hierarchy-needs

Gonzalez, J. (2018, March 18). 12 Ways to Upgrade Your Classroom Design [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/upgrade-classroom-design/

GoodTherapy. (2015, August 28). Wellness [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/what-is-wellness

Jensen, E. (2005). Chapter 4. Movement and Learning. In Teaching with the Brain in Mind, 2nd Edition. ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104013/chapters/Movement-and-Learning.aspx

Schwartz, T. (2015, April 3). The Importance of Naming Your Emotions. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/business/dealbook/the-importance-of-naming-your-emotions.html#:~:text=Noticing and naming emotions gives,even the most difficult emotions.

Wielgus, M. (2016, October 5). The Types of Wellness. Seattle Pacific University Blog. Retrieved from https://digitalobby.spu.edu/wellness/2016/10/05/the-types-of-wellness/

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2006). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Climbing the Teacher Continuum

I am in a somewhat exciting role at my school in which I get to see every student.  Throughout a week this year, I will get to visit each class at each grade level.  Since my lab is too small for an entire class to be in with proper social distancing, I will be visiting classes and working from a cart.  This isn’t ideal, but I do love the fact that I get to create such a small footprint in what we sometimes forget is a student, not a teacher space.  Removing a teacher’s desk is a great way to remove the hierarchy created by a teacher’s space and a student’s space and in essence gives every student a front row seat (Sutor, 2015).  I am excited to see and feel how this works with differing grade levels and students.  

However, for this post I wanted to think about the third grade classes that I will be seeing this year.  I decided to think about this grade specifically because I know that the students in that grade are a very diverse group.  There are several levels of mastery in the grade and at least a few students that fall into the category of high need or gifted.  With such a wide range it will be a challenge to make sure that my lessons and units are differentiated and personalized.  What is my role in providing personalized learning to this grade level using Colorado science standards and technology standards from ISTE?

To answer that I must know where I am on the continuum of educators engaged in personalized learning.  Zmuda and Thompson (2018) lay out four categories of educators within a personalized learning system in their free ebook How to Leverage Personalized Learning in the Classroom that are helpful in defining where I am at, and where I need to go.  The four categories shown in the graphic below are (a) Lecturer, (b) Instructor, (c) Facilitator, and finally (d) Coach.   

I believe that I am in the instructor tier at this moment.  I often use a mini lesson and then let students do independent practice in the form of a problem or project based learning activity.  This is a sufficient place to be, but I would like to move up at least one step this year by striving to become a facilitator.  Moving up these steps isn’t an overnight process and teachers need to make purposeful, scaffolded changes to move upward (Zmuda & Thompson, 2018).  If by the end of the school year, students have input into instruction and have a wider range of choice in their learning with me, I would count that as a solid win.

One way to accomplish this shift from instructor to facilitator is to incorporate a rotation model into my teaching (Zmuda & Thompson, 2018).  This is fantastic to hear since I have been planning on using a mix between a lab rotation where students would rotation to stations in set order and an individual rotation where they would have more choice in the order they complete a playlist of stations (Blended Learning Universe, n.d.).  My goal is to start with more of a lab rotation model, providing rotations that the third graders will complete in order.  Since I have to be wary of students using shared materials or interacting in groups that are not socially distanced, I believe that I can do this through the use of Google Classroom and hyperdocs or student playlists.  As third grade students, they may have had some choice in their primary grades, but not as much as opening the gates on individual rotations for the first part of the school year.  As they become more comfortable and as I scaffold learning around how to use the rotations, I can transition the students to a more individual rotation.  This can include choice in what stations they do and even creation of stations as well. 

Part of this model will be gathering data on students to group them appropriately surrounding content.  My place in this will be of utmost importance.  I will need to collect data about each student and will be able to do this in three important ways.  The first is that I will need to communicate with the classroom teacher.  This sounds like a no-brainer, but it is important to note.  It will be important to get IEP and testing information from teachers as well as any narrative information about how students are doing in and outside of school.  Knowing that a student is having a bad day because of a quick check-in with a teacher will be invaluable and ultimately my responsibility to ask the teacher.  I will also need to gather informal data based on things like entrance and exit tickets.  I will be giving a student survey within the first week to learn about student interests as well.  In a more formal way I can collect data from project rubrics and from formal pre-assessments as Zmuda and Thompson (2018) suggest.

I am excited to work with this interesting and diverse set of third graders this year.  As they are transitioning from a primary grade and getting more independence, I hope to use choice and involvement in content creation to reinforce a positive experience of it.  As their independence and involvement grows I will also be taking steps to become a true facilitator for my students. 

References

Blended Learning Universe. (n.d.). Blended learning: What is blended learning? Retrieved from https://www.blendedlearning.org/models/#stat

Sutor, C. (2015, January 30). The Rise Of The Student Footprint In 21st Century Learning Environments [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.integrusarch.com/2015/01/30/rise-student-footprint-21st-century-learning-environments/ 

Zmuda, A., & Thompson, J. (2018). How to Leverage Personalized Learning in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://info.freshgrade.com/hubfs/eBooks_and_Whitepapers/FG-PL-PDF-1.5.pdf?hsCtaTracking=bed942d8-65b8-4d86-9b16-4f7edbbec13d|c56989c4-019b-4ea5-aef7-c6effc4accf9

Frequent Checks for Understanding

“Does that make sense?” has passed over my lips so many times in my classroom.  I often get nods or grunts, the occasional question.  I have been guilty of this half-hearted check for understanding too many times.  Oftentimes students will simply stay quiet, because they are too confused, too embarrassed to ask, or they think they get it, but they don’t (Fisher & Frey, 2014).  This doesn’t give me a real look at what my students understand and may lead to gaps in understanding that will show up much later in instruction or even life.  Checking for understanding can enhance student learning and teach good study skills in the process, showing students that as I am checking their understanding, they should check their own (Fisher & Frey, 2014).  Goodwin and Hubble (2013) suggest that these checks be done every 10 to 15 minutes in class to enhance learning.

So what quick checks can I start using today to check for student understanding?  Here are my top five picks for the 2020 school year:

1. Hand Signals

   Students respond to a concept or question with signals of understanding like a thumbs up or down, waving for a question (Regier, 2012).  Teachers can also create a scale of understanding for students, ie. one finger means “I don’t understand;” five fingers means “I am an expert and could teach this to others” (TeachingChannel, 2011).

2. Exit/Entrance Tickets

   These are written responses to questions about learning that happened that day, or the day before (Regier, 2012).  This will help in planning the direction of the next class to close any gaps in understanding.  This can be done on paper, but could be digital too taking advantage of a digital platform like Padlet or Polleverywhere.

3. Four Corners/Move to Where You Are

   Students move to the corner of the room that represents their level of understanding, ie. corner one is “need’s help” and corner four is “I got this” (Regier, 2012).  This movement could also represent a physical quiz of sorts.  If each corner is an option for a multiple choice question it will be a much more active way of assessing knowledge.  Adding movement into class strengthens learning, improves retrieval of information and memory, and improves learner morale and motivation (Jensen, 2005). 

4. Think, Pair/Group, Share

   Students think of their individual response to a question or idea then share with a partner or group.  Several groups are called on to say what they shared out loud (Regier, 2012).  Research has shown that educational experiences that are active, social and student-owned lead to deeper learning (Center for Teaching Innovation, n.d.).  Allowing students to share ideas then share back is a great check of understanding or misconceptions.

5. Journal/Blog/Vlog

   Students record in a journal an entry surrounding what they understand about a topic (Regier, 2012).  This has long been a standard in classrooms, but with the advent of technology, these entries can be made via blog or vlog.  This is a great way for differentiating for students that are not as strong as writers as well.  Using video or technology can also motivate students that are not as excited about pencil and paper.

These formative assessments should allow me to check understanding in my students.  So, then what?  What if all, most, a few, or even one student does not understand?  Here is the important step of feed-forward.  Taking the information gleaned from the checks and doing something with it is of utmost importance.  Here's what can be done for each instance:

• Everyone in the class doesn’t understand.

Reteach.  It is that simple.  Consider what went wrong the first time or how you can chunk the material differently so that students can understand.  For reteaching to be effective, it must focus on the omissions and errors in student thinking (Marzano, 2010).  Don’t be embarrassed to have to reteach, remember the goal is mastery and understanding.

• Most in the class don’t understand.

This could be an opportunity to reteach to the whole class.  If most of the class doesn’t understand it may not be a bad idea to go back.  However, collaboration can help here too.  Consider grouping students that understand the material with those who don’t, making the process beneficial to both.

• A few in the class don’t understand.

Here we can use the power of small group instruction.  Perhaps I as a teacher could take the group that doesn’t understand and do some guided instruction with them.  Guided instruction is the strategic use of questions and prompts for students (Fisher & Frey, 2014) and would be a perfect tool for small group work on content for a few students.

• One student doesn’t understand.

It is time for a one on one interview and work.  I can look at what the student doesn’t understand and work on differentiating the material so that they do. Content, process, or products can be differentiated for student learning (Fisher & Frey 2014).  Perhaps they need the information in a graphic form or something else.  Only knowing your student and finding out what is being missed will solve the problem.

References

Center for Teaching Innovation. (n.d.). Collaborative Learning [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/engaging-students/collaborative-learning

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2014). Ch. 1: Why check for understanding? In Checking for understanding: Formative assessment techniques for your classroom (2nd ed.).  ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/115011/chapters/Why-Check-for-Understanding%C2%A2.aspx

Goodwin, B., & Hubble, E. R. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: a checklist for staying focused every day. ASCD, McREL International.

Jensen, E. (2005). Chapter 4. Movement and Learning. In Teaching with the Brain in Mind, 2nd Edition. ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104013/chapters/Movement-and-Learning.aspx

Marzano, R. J. (2010). Art and Science of Teaching / Reviving Reteaching. Educational Leadership, 68, 2nd ser., 82-83. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct10/vol68/num02/Reviving-Reteaching.aspx#:~:text=At a basic level, reteaching,content the teacher must reteach.

Regier, N. (2012). Book two: 60 formative assessment strategies. Regier Educational Resources. Retrieved from https://stjschools.instructure.com/courses/26673/files/105219

TeachingChannel (2011). Talking About Teaching with Jim Knight [video]. TeachingChannel. Retrieved from https://library.teachingchannel.org/landing-page?mediaid=0KHOLCMi&playerid=7Ftxba59

Communicating with Parents Early and Often

Setting up clear lines of communication with parents or guardians is to your advantage as a teacher.  Quite frankly, good communication with parents will just make your life easier.  The more you communicate, keep them abreast of classroom happenings and school news they will feel more like part of the team.  The result are parents that are more supportive, more understanding, and less likely to have a negative conclusion when something comes up with their child (Mariconda, 2003).

I want to quickly note here that I am using the term parents and guardians interchangeably.  It goes without saying that families are infinitely diverse in their makeup and details.  One large barrier to communication is when teachers use their own cultural and belief-based lenses while interacting with culturally and linguistically diverse guardians (Graham-Clay, 2005).  As hard as it seems, those lenses must be set aside or at least acknowledged to open lines of communication.  Holding onto these lenses is, at best, unintentionally disinviting and, at worst, intentionally so (Purkey & Novak, 2015).  So when I use the term parent or guardian, I mean to say any person(s) that meet the three major goals of parenting as laid out by the American Psychological Association (n.d.):

1. Ensuring a child’s health and safety (basic needs).

2. Preparing children for life as productive adults.

3. Transmitting values.

Whoever is taking on these important tasks or parenting, research points to the fact that the more parents and teachers communicate relevant information about a student the better both are at supporting the student’s achievement (American Federation of Teachers, 2007).  You can follow some simple guidelines in connecting with parents provided by the American Federation of Teachers (2007):

• Initiation.  You should contact parents in one form or another as soon as you know who is going to be in your class.  This sets the precedent that you are open to two-way communications and establishes expectations.

• Timeliness. You should make contact as soon as possible if a problem occurs.  New frustrations and problems can come from waiting or ignoring the problem.

• Consistency and Frequency.  Most parents want ongoing honest feedback about their students and their growth or sticking points.

• Follow Through. “Parents and teachers each want to see that the other will actually do what they say they will do” (para. 14). 

• Clarity and Usefulness.  Both parents and teachers need information that helps the student in a form that is easy to use and understand.

By making the effort to communicate with parents early and often you will be making gainful strides to the success of your students.  From the minute call about a good day to the dreaded call about an issue, if the lines of communication are open and honest from the start, everyone involved will be better served.   

References

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Parenting. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/topics/parenting

American Federation of Teachers. (2007). Building Parent-Teacher Relationships. Reading Rockets. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/building-parent-teacher-relationships

Graham-Clay, S. (2005). Communicating with Parents: Strategies for Teachers. School Community Journal, 15, 1st ser., 117-129. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ794819.pdf.

Mariconda, B. (2003). Five Keys to Successful Parent-Teacher Communication. Scholastic. Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/five-keys-successful-parent-teacher-communication/?eml=SSO/aff/20180319/96525/txtl/GenericLink///////&affiliate_id=96525&clickId=3182665199

Purkey, W. W., & Novak, J. M. (2015). An Introduction to Invitational Theory (Rep.). Retrieved from https://www.invitationaleducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/art_intro_to_invitational_theory-1.pdf.

Who was your favorite teacher?

I have had many teachers that made an impact in my life, ranging from elementary school all the way up to my current masters program.  Each one has added something to how I learned, not necessarily what I learned.  Since I am planning on teaching in an elementary school setting I thought that I would talk about my favorite elementary school teacher, Mr. Walsh, my sixth grade teacher.

My elementary school in Wyoming was a Kindergarten through sixth grade school so I have always thought of the sixth grade as elementary level.  Here in Colorado, the sixth grade is part of middle school, but my fond memories of Mr. Walsh as an elementary teacher remains for me.  Mr. Walsh was a short, grumpy sort of man that always talked in a gravelly voice and would hold up a finger at you until he was ready to answer your question.  Sounds sweet doesn’t he.  So why, might you ask, was he my favorite teacher?  Because when he was ready he really listened.  You could ask your question and he would answer it, sometimes with another leading question.  Something I remember so vividly about Mr. Walsh was his skill as an amazing listener.  I always felt like he truly heard me, not just the questions, but any time.  

He was also a master of giving us choices in our learning.  One specific project I remember was our “We Didn’t Start the Fire” research project.  He often played music in our class, but his favorite song without a doubt was We didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel.  He even had the lyrics up on the wall.  For one research project we had to choose a lyric from the song to research.  If you haven’t heard the song, it recaps major historical events in a catchy succession.  You can check out the video below  Looking back, it was a brilliant assignment.  He also gave us choices on what math assignments to do and let us go ahead if we were able.  I know now that he was great at differentiation, something that made a big impact on me.  He made me feel like I was in control of my learning and motivated to learn.

I have often thought back to that class and have modeled some of how I teach on Mr. Walsh.  I may not have the gravel voice or love that song quite as much, but I plan on giving my students the opportunity to choose and above all else be the person listening when they need it.