Work/Home Balance

I am thrilled that my district has been able to send me to a conference this week. I have spent the first day in some pre-conference sessions getting the chance to dive deep into some of the new functions in products that we use for our student information system. While in education, you may not get to do it a lot, I have always enjoyed traveling to conference. I love the chance to learn more about how to connect with kids, share my ideas with other educators, see what great things other people are doing to engage students in learning, and, of course, the new restaurant possibilities of a new city!

When I have taken trips in the past, I knew that I would miss my wife and my kids, but I also knew that I was coming back soon. None of that has changed...except leaving this time was harder. I spent some time thinking about this on the plane as I reflected on the teary goodbye in person and over face-time before I got on the plane. What made this trip different?

One of the benefits of this trip is that I got to see my sister and her family and be a part of my nephew's birthday celebration. That certainly did not make things harder. I am away from work for 4 days (one is a school holiday), so there is work that might pile up, but that is really no different that other times I have traveled. My current location is in the same time zone, so it is easy to communicate with home, so no problem there...what is the big deal?

I realized, that for me, the big deal is just that...big...my kids are bigger now. I traveled before when the kids were infants and young toddlers. I never missed a "first" of anything and my kids were doing projects in preschool as their learning. With our first child, the new experiences in daycare and preschool were exciting, but with our 3rd child, it because old hat. It was exploring ground that had been walked on already. We were thrilled for each new child to experience it, but we knew what to expected.

But now, my kids are in school...real school. This is also new territory for me as a parent. I always look forward to discussing their day, asking what they liked best, seeing what they have learned and how hard they worked. Now, as I am away, I feel like I am really missing out on these first experiences for them. My kids are experiencing new things in school every day; exploring new territories and gaining experiences. I can talk to them over the phone and video chat, but it is not the same. I will miss the hugs, the high fives, the feeling of excitement. These are big.

Learning new things to ensure a quality of schooling for my students is important. If what I learn improves the education experience of one student and their family, it is worth it. Being with my kids as they learn and enjoy their school experience is incredibly important as well...

Where is that line between work and home?

Days 2 and 3 with UbD

Days 2 and 3 are more hands-on for the teachers in the creation of a functioning unit, lessons, and learning activities. During day 2, one of the big takeaways was the a memorized process without internalization does not lead to deep understanding. When students memorize a procedure and that procedure breaks down, it leads to misconceptions and only shallow learning of poor thinking. This was demonstrated to the group with a classic video of Abbott and Costello:

As the teachers discussed this, they came to the realization that there is some time within the process for some more classical instruction of concepts and to fix misconceptions, but it should be used only with students in small groups who require the instruction.

As the teachers were trying to identify a topic, they went through a development process to create transfer goals for the students. To reach that enduring understanding and overarching goal, the template below was utilized:

I want you to learn:_________________________________, so that, in the long run, you will be able, on your own, to ______________________________________.

The key understandings that the teachers learned were that the "Want you to learn" needs to be broad and fit the understanding that this is something that students should know and use 40 years after the class is over. Some reflective questions to include were:

• Why is this topic included in the standards? 
• Why do students need to know this? 
• What real life context exists for this concept? If there is none (e.g. imaginary numbers), should that be an enduring idea? 

As teachers continued through their learning process, the discusses the difference between an assessor of understanding and an activity designer. The analogy that resonated with the group was it is the difference between a detective (assessor) and a cruise director (activity designer). The assessor of understanding is looking for evidence of learning versus we are going to do this, then this, then this. It is a transition from providing activities with a definitive answer to a focus on process.

The teachers began experiencing what the learning environment could look like with a learning activity of a mini-lesson board for JITT (Just In Time Teaching). The learners sign up for short, targeted lessons for either expected gaps or for topics that the students request and the students sign up for what they need. These mini-lessons are meant to last 5-7 minutes that are targeted instruction for the students that need it.

Additionally, there is the option for students to present their proclivities to the class by having an "I want to teach" board. This can be fore students who might be ahead of the game and students who have experience with a particular skill that can be shared with the class. This is an additional way to develop the presentation skills of students.

We ended with a gallery walk of the teachers' project ideas. Overall, it was a great learning experience for everyone involved.

My first day with UbD

Some of our teachers are going through a 3 day workshop on Understanding by Design (aka UbD or sometimes backwards design). Some basic information can be found here, here, and here. What is kind of unique is that this workshop is only for our math teachers, so as a group they can make connections between this theoretical framework and their day-to-day functioning in the classroom as lead learners of mathematics. Every discipline has their unique set of lenses on how they view instruction, teaching, and learning, so the fact that we have a group of people viewing instruction through the same lens will help them support one another as we journey through this process.

Over the three days, we will come back to the 4 big ideas as a framework for this curriculum design process. Those ideas are:

• Point of school is effective understanding, not prompted by recall of content and compliance
• Understanding=using content effectively for transfer and meaning
• UbD from engaging work and competent understanding, NOT coverage
• Intellectual engagement is more likely when incorporated intentionally

We had a lot of chance to reflect on our instructional practices and how they relate to student learning. One of the reflective questions was "What is real understanding and how does that differ from a student just "knowing a lot"?". Some of the ideas that we came up with were that if you (a student) really understands, then they can demonstrate what they know and how they know it, they can know when NOT to use a process of learning and catch flaws and errors, and they will make
meaning via active inference in order to effectively transfer to a new context. When students just "know a lot" (without deep understanding), they can only understand what is being demonstrated, but not necessarily demonstrate/teach to others.

We need to help students learn how to apply an abstraction to a practical example. Unfortunately, too many times we leave out the practical examples with authentic applications of mathematics. Additionally, too often focus on students remembering and understanding (Bloom's levels), and leave about 1 day for creating and evaluating. It was suggested to us that we flip Bloom's to treat it like an area map and start students in the upper levels to provide authentic context to help bring the content into focus and it will provide students more opportunities to work in the upper levels of Bloom's even before the "content" is discussed. It was suggested that we let the learning of mathematics begin with a question and analysis and then let the number prove the conjecture. In other words, don't let the numbers and symbols of the language of mathematics get in the way of students learning the mathematics. Students don't need to know all of the details of statistics to have a meaningful discussion of what is fair. Here is an example activity for a student activity on determining what is fair. 

One of the other large takeaway was how authentic learning can take place in the classroom. 



Essentially, authentic learning occurs at the intersection of acquisition of knowledge, making meaning of the knowledge, and the transference of the knowledge and meaning to a novel situation. This image is meant to imply a cycle of learning without a hierarchy or starting point. Students do not necessarily need to know all of the facts and concepts to begin making meaning.

Overall, this was a very good introduction and beginning of a three-day workshop. I am looking forward to diving in more to developing essential questions and developing transfer goals. Those transfer goals are what we would want our learners to understand many years after formal schooling has ended.

Do you have experience with UbD? Have you just implemented the process? What suggestions do you have to share?