(upbeat music)
- All right, well, welcome everyone,
we're gonna have a really
fun discussion today,
about creativity in the education process,
I'm Warren Wiechmann, I'm
gonna be the moderator today,
why don't we just do a quick
round of introductions,
and say who you are,
and where you're from,
and then we'll get into it,
why don't we start with you Michael?
- I am Michael Hernandez, I
teach high school journalism,
film production, and broadcast
journalism and photography,
in the Los Angeles area.
- Great, Jessica!
- I am Jessica Herring Watson,
I am a clinical instructor
in the College of Education,
at the University of Central Arkansas.
- Great, and Julie!
- Hello, my name is Julie Garcia,
and I'm a former maths
and science teacher,
at the middle-school level,
and I'm currently serving
as the program manager for
instructional technology,
in the San Diego Unified School District.
- Awesome, well, this is
gonna be a lot of fun,
we've all come together today
to talk a little bit about,
kind of the changes in education,
because of these recent
challenges, from the pandemic,
to everything else that's
going on in the world
for the past few months,
and how that's created
some new opportunities,
as well as challenges for us as educators.
It's really interesting, I think,
that as we kind of talk about
this role of creativity,
we've all defined creativity
a little bit differently.
No longer, really, have we referred to it,
as sort of creativity
leading to a certain product,
but in talking to the
three of you previously,
you've all sort of expressed
this perception of creativity
as a process or as a new mindset.
So, I thought it would be interesting,
as we're talking about creativity,
and helping us define these
terms a little bit better,
and maybe expanding on
that a little bit more,
about creativity as a
process, as a mindset,
as sort of a destination,
instead of an end game.
- Yeah, I mean, I think typically,
the default is to think
of creativity as art,
but you think about our world right now,
and everyone's talking about
looking for creative solutions,
no matter what it is, lets
say you're a business,
and you're looking for
a creative solution,
because your customers
can't come in anymore.
You're a teacher who's like,
"I've lectured and have given
paper handouts all my life,
"and now I need a creative
solution to teach my students."
The parents are like,
I need to create a solution
to deal with my kids
while I'm trying to Zoom,
and get work done while
they're in the background.
So, I think it's really like
this ongoing mindset of like,
"How do we manage change,
how are we able to pivot,
"how are we able to be flexible?"
And all of the pieces
that go along with that,
so like; inspiration, and
iteration, and revision,
and looking for a collaboration
from other people,
and other places, and so, for me,
that's kind of what it means to me,
and that ultimately becomes
like a lifelong learning skill,
no matter what your subject area,
'cause science keeps
changing, social studies,
history keeps being written,
the facts are gonna change,
but what's not gonna change
is the human piece of that,
which is how to manage
all of that information,
and how to be productive with it.
- I can jump in next,
and I recall starting
to explore my creativity,
and making comments to
my colleagues about,
"I'm just not creative,
I'm a math teacher,
"how do I be creative
in solving an equation?"
And somebody really called
to my attention, like,
"Well, Julie, your creativity
comes out in other ways,
"like how are you designing
lessons for your students,
"how are you engaging them in the content,
"in a meaningful way?"
And so, when you look
at the word creativity,
it's create, right?
And as we teach our students,
we don't wanna be the
person that disseminates;
the math knowledge, the science knowledge,
the content knowledge,
we want students to
create that themselves.
So, we as teachers or district leaders,
we need to help teachers
facilitate that creation
of their own understanding of content,
because that's what engages
them, and I think we've seen
a bit of that, with the distance learning,
as Michael was discussing, right?
How do we motivate students?
We allow them to create and
to make their own meaning,
and the same thing has to
happen with the teachers
in our district, so, I think
I agree with Michael as well,
that creativity is also
finding creative solutions
to everyday problems,
what's going on, and how do we do that?
Anywhere from getting our
kids to pick their clothes up
around the house, to being the teacher
and getting our students
engaged in the learning,
so, I think creativity
is definitely a mindset.
- To play off of what both of you said,
I think, creativity has really
become encapsulated for me,
in this season, around
the idea of reimagining
all of this spaces that we're working in.
We've had to do that as
instructional designers,
reimagining what school looks like,
when it isn't around a physical space,
our students have had to reimagine
what learning looks like,
when they maybe have
very limited resources
with which to learn,
that was something that
we really had to navigate,
all of us, whether
we're in the K-12 space,
or the higher-ed space, how
does learning get reimagined,
when I can only learn with my smartphone,
and I don't have access to other devices,
or maybe to all the things
that I'm used to having,
when I'm in this physical space of school?
So, I think while reimagining school
has created many challenges and barriers
that we've had to confront,
it's also created these really
incredible opportunities
for us to, I'm trying to
think of the right word,
just be completely creative,
throw what we were doing
before, kind of to the side,
and say, "Okay, when everything
we thought was true and real
"about school is off the table,
"what can it look like moving forward?"
I think that is the
ultimate creative challenge.
- I love the idea of reimagining things,
I think that's really great,
'cause you constantly have to
evolve no matter what you do.
The successful folks are
the ones that are able
to reimagine, but we've done
in the past, I love that!
- So then, thinking about that,
taking that idea from Jessica,
where do you look for
that inspiration, right?
I mean, sometimes it just happens,
when you're not planning for
it, but then other times,
where do you go to, to get
these kind of crazy ideas,
that you're gonna implement
and try the next day?
- So, I like reaching out,
I have a very strong group of teachers,
that I work with in our district,
we have our innovative teaching network,
teachers that come together
to share inspirational ideas,
to share lessons, so, when
we went to distance learning,
a lot of us reached out
to those professional-learning networks,
and really started sharing ideas,
like our district, we
started preparing materials
for a possible closure of schools,
and a lot of that was from my ADE friends
that we were sharing ideas,
I was starting to curate a
list of resources to send home.
So really tapping into those
professional-learning networks,
social media, such as Twitter,
but then those close
companions at the school sites,
that are really pushing to
try to do things different,
we tapped into a lot of
their ideas and brainstormed,
and really using teamwork and colleagues,
to push us into those next steps,
it was really important for us.
- Yeah, I would agree with Julie,
I think having a really broad
professional-learning network
of people in lots of
different teaching spaces,
because I think often
with our closed networks,
we work with these trusted collaborators,
that push us and
challenge us to be better,
but we're also in the same thinking space.
So, sometimes that can
lead to this convergence,
or this groupthink around,
"Well, this is the right direction to go."
So, I really think having that broad PLN,
to see all of the different ways
that people have reimagined
school all over the world,
has been really important
to challenging my thinking,
and encouraging me to try new things.
- Yeah, I agree with both of you guys,
Social media used well,
is super effective, like,
I think my best professional
development is on Twitter,
and it's some colleagues that I have,
in other places in the world,
I definitely agree with Jessica like,
I actually am only person at my school
that teaches what I do
in the entire district,
so, I don't have colleagues on site,
so I need to reach out globally, but also,
I look for resources and
inspiration outside of education.
So, for example, just this
morning, I was reading an article
from Forbes, and it was
talking about machine learning
and AI, and like, moving
away, pivoting away,
from memorizing facts, to
managing learning as like,
what do we do with those
facts and how do we create,
how do we make things?
And so, I follow Harvard
Business Review, and Forbes,
and Fast Company, and all
of these things, that,
it's not that school should be a business,
but there's a lot of interesting
insights about innovation,
about collaboration, about
teams, and about creativity.
So, it's really important, I
think, to build that network
beyond just education,
and beyond your subject matter as well.
- I think that's a great point, Michael,
I think that we all kind of
represent different areas too,
as far as where kind of
our educational home lives,
kind of postgraduate education
for health professions,
but what your comment just reminded me of,
I've been looking at my
son's fourth-grade class
for inspiration of
things we're going to do
with our medical students,
utilizing Flipgrid or
Flipgrid-like services,
for kind of an onboarding
exercise that we're going to do.
And if I had told my medical
education colleagues that,
"Oh, I'm gonna leverage what they're doing
"in my son's fourth-grade class,"
initially, they might think,
well, that's kind of
crazy that if I do that,
but I think it's important
to think about that spectrum,
because I think we're all
very good at what we're doing,
and, Jessica, as you said,
sort of that group think,
of this is perfect for medical education,
but there's a lot of things
that are really great
in other areas of education,
or even outside of education,
as Michael, as you said.
So, then as individuals,
so, I think we've talked a
little bit that where we,
as individuals, go for inspiration,
we have the
professional-learning networks,
how do you kind of work
with your colleagues,
when it comes down to the
sort of the daily effort?
How do you inspire your colleagues,
or even how do you inspire students?
Let's start with the students first,
how do you inspire them to
kind of tackle this change?
'Cause as difficult it is
for us, I can only imagine
as a learner, as a student,
this is a pretty challenging time as well.
So, how do you connect now, in
this sort of new environment,
with your students?
- I can start that one, I just think,
for teachers in this season,
really in every season,
but it's become even more important now,
that we start by building
a foundation of trust
with our students in the
classroom, that cognitive work,
that creative work cannot take place,
if our students don't feel
that they can trust us
with their ideas, and trust
us with the learning process,
because learning is scary, there
are mistakes along the way,
there are opportunities for failure,
and so, if we don't cultivate
a safe, trusting community,
for collaboration and for learning,
then I don't think we can get
to those higher cognitive
levels we want our students
to go to, for really
powerful creation to happen.
So, we've been using tools like Flipgrid
to build discussion into the class,
just so we can get to know each other,
having spaces that are not
discussion spaces related
to the content,
where you can just share
what's going on with you,
what are things that you
are loving and learning
in your own personal time
outside of our class,
or what are hard things
that you're struggling with,
and how can we come around
you and support you in that?
So, I really think trust
and safety is foundational
to any kind of creativity
that we want to cultivate,
especially in the season
that we're in right now.
- I totally I agree with that, Jessica.
Safety is super important for creativity,
and then I think like we sort of talked
about this a minute ago,
but modeling the behavior,
and the process that you
wanna see in your students.
So, what's been really
great about remote learning
is that our process is laid bare,
in front of all the students,
all the mistakes that we make,
learning to use Zoom, or how
am I getting the assignments
in the right form, at the
right time to everybody,
and sort of acknowledging it, like,
"Hey, look, I make mistakes too,
"and we're learning together,"
and being very clear about that,
and I think, traditionally,
it's been a very hierarchical,
top-down kind of situation,
the teacher knows everything,
and you better fall in line,
and follow the rules,
otherwise you'd get in trouble,
And moving away from that model,
which was never really
healthy in the first place,
to one of like,
we're learning together,
let's help each other out,
you can see me make
mistakes, and it's okay,
and knowing that it's okay to
make a mistake along the way,
I think is really important.
And then, I think also, as
far as the inspiration piece
that you were asking about,
some of the assignments
that I give to my students
is to go out and search for
something that inspires them.
So, I'll give them some parameters,
but like reaching beyond the classroom,
so we see the students'
examples in the classroom,
they see what each other are doing,
but just like Jessica was saying,
you can have that
groupthink start to happen,
and it starts to repeat what's been done,
'cause I think that's
the successful model.
So, definitely having the
students engage in social media
like Instagram and Twitter,
to find new folks to follow,
and accounts to follow,
and find inspiration,
reach out to them, and then
do some reporting around,
and some research around what they'd find,
and doing some thinking about,
what is it that I find
inspiring or interesting
about this artist or this personality,
and getting some of that
metacognition firing off
to inspire their own work,
I think it's important.
- So, we learned a lot
about distance learning,
in San Diego Unified School District,
I think there were a
lot of assumptions made
by us and by teachers, first of all,
that just students are going to be okay,
it's okay, they use
computers, they use phones,
they are gonna be fine,
and taking a step back,
I really wish we would
have taken more time,
and we are planning to take
that time in the beginning
of next school year, to
really, like Jessica says,
establish that trust, but
we're also gonna be working on
a lot of social-emotional learning,
getting students to connect
with each other online,
making those connections,
'cause kids are really missing each other,
and so they're not gonna
feel safe to create,
until they have that community,
and that's the community
usually built in a face to face classroom.
So, for those starting
with distance learning,
that's going to be a challenge.
So, we're working on quality
learning interactions,
in our district and activities,
and things that teachers
can do to engage students,
it might be that Flipgrid,
it might be just a Zoom call,
and could be a small group, but really,
getting kids comfortable
with the learning platforms,
we're expecting them to learn
on, the communication tools,
the expectations for the week,
what assignments look like,
so, our distance learning
was a bit of a challenge,
we're a very large district,
but we saw a lot of teachers
trying to do the same thing
that they did in their classrooms,
like, "We're gonna read
this article today,
"then we're gonna do this
graphic organizer today,"
and there were these daily lessons,
and it's like, "Oh my gosh!"
Their parents were trying to keep up,
the kids are trying to keep up,
so we need to be creative
in what the content is,
we're expecting students
to do, like Michael said,
what drives you, what's
exciting to you, right?
And that's what's gonna engage
our students in the learning,
especially through distance learning.
So, as we're looking through
teaching concepts like math,
are we asking kids to go
in and measure with cups,
and look at fractions in the kitchen?
Are we asking students to
develop a recycling program
at their house, and within
their own home community?
How are they gonna
improve their recycling?
Like, give them these
the purposeful content
that then engages them,
so, our district we have
the no-harm grading,
and we kind of saw students do the,
"Okay, I'm gonna try
this for a little bit,"
and "Yeah, I'm okay with
the grade I got, I'm done!"
So, I think for our district,
we wanna be really creative
with teachers in the planning,
what a week looks like,
it's not necessarily a day-by-day lesson,
and what it is we're asking
kids to do, is it meaningful,
is it relevant, does it
connect them to the real world?
Is it something they're interested in?
And believe me, in math,
that's sometimes a little bit
of a stretch, but you can do it, right?
Like you can find a way for
them to make it meaningful
for them, and then give
them that creative pathway
to share their learning, is it better,
and I feel like I'm talking a
lot in this one, I apologize,
but we're looking at shifting the way
that teachers are looking
at assessment as well.
How do I give a test online,
how do I know the kids aren't cheating,
how come they're not Googling?
And so we were trying to shift that,
well, maybe you want them doing a task
that they can't Google, right?
Or what kind of questions are you asking?
And that is where it becomes
engaging and meaningful
for students, whether
they're face to face,
hybrid, or at home all the time.
- Yeah, that's exactly
what we're thinking, Julie,
it's like it's made everybody think about,
what does assessment mean,
what does learning mean,
what am I asking the kids to do?
That's so important, in fact,
I was just reading this
article about, in math,
I'll share it with you later, but--
- Okay!
- It's like stop calculating,
and start teaching computational thinking.
So, we have tools that can do that for us,
so let's go to a higher-level thinking,
about what we're doing,
and like you're saying,
you can cheat if you bubble in something,
but if you're supposed
to create something,
an authentic artifact,
you can't really cheat.
- Right, and they can do that, right?
It just takes time and the willingness,
and I do believe it's a shift
in mindset for teachers,
and in our role right now
in the district office,
that shift in mindset
is challenging enough,
and then to do that
digitally with teachers,
it's a challenge all around, but, anyway.
- Those are great!
One thing that you mentioned Julie,
that I kind of wanna focus on,
and whenever I talk with
either new students,
or new physicians, I always
like hearing a little bit more
about the failure part of
what got them here today,
and I know that no one's been immune
to having some missteps along the way,
especially with everything
going on right now,
and just trying to figure out
how we're going to educate.
You mentioned a little bit, Julie,
some of the challenges
that you had gone through,
but I'm curious here Michael, or Jessica,
and I'd be more than
happy to chime in as well,
they may not be huge failures,
but what new steps have you taken,
kind of in this early phase,
in trying to figure that out?
And now, as you're
starting to think about,
this is gonna be the new
norm for a little bit longer,
how are we gonna apply that
failure to future success?
- I feel like teachers
have a challenging time
providing creative types
of tasks to students,
because they don't fully
understand what it feels like.
I think traditionally
we've handed teachers some,
"Here's your curriculum,
here's your textbook,
"your to teach this, teach this,
"follow this pacing calendar,"
and so they don't have
experience being creative.
And so, when we did our distance learning,
when the first was, "Oh,
we're just gonna go home
"and give you some enrichment,"
and then we went and gave
them, we packaged a curriculum
for people that weren't
comfortable teaching online.
We're like, "Here's this curriculum."
And I feel like we might
have not given them
as much of an opportunity
to use their creativity
in planning their lessons,
by providing that packaged content,
but many teachers liked it.
So, if I were to look
at a failure that we,
I wouldn't say it's a failure,
it's an experience to grow from,
but giving teachers that option of,
"Here's something to
start with," and then,
or maybe even choice that
they can pick and choose from.
So, possibly, over-scaffolding
might have been
an area of need for us.
- Yeah, I would agree, Julie,
I think the lack of
professional development
around creative lesson
plans and technology,
which, ironically, a lot
of teachers resisted,
you see the cell phone pockets
in the high school setting,
where kids are supposed to
put their phones in the pocket
when they come in, teachers
take attendance by that.
It's really sort of fascinating,
that they're in denial of
what the real world is like,
and I think, while you're
talking about this, Julie,
I think it really reminded
me of the key word that,
I think, sort of summarizes
all of this situation,
which is flexibility,
and so it's the ability to be flexible,
because it's a survival skill,
no matter what you're in, and
also the flexibility of time.
So, like you're saying, Julie,
instead of having like
these rigid structures,
whether you're the teacher
creating lesson plans,
which is, "I'm not a robot,
"I don't wanna repeat
somebody else's lesson,
"it doesn't fit my style,"
or it's on a physical,
like biological level
of like, the bell rings,
they tell you when you could eat,
when you could go to the
bathroom, there's no like,
"You have to be finished
in this amount of time,
"otherwise you're not
smart," all those things.
And so, what I found is
students actually being
really successful,
because they had flexible
time to do these things.
In fact, they found that
there was so much time,
that they were able to
follow their passions,
and start businesses,
(Michael laughs)
like you went, "What?"
- Yeah!
- Yeah!
- So, flexibility, I think,
is really huge, but again,
and as I hear you talk about this, Julie,
I'm like this is exactly
what we should be doing
with our students as well, right?
It's the same thing, we're
all learning together,
and so we're teaching not to be rigid,
and you gotta fit in
this whole pigeonhole,
and it really, I think, teachers
also lost their passion,
because there is no
creativity in lesson plans,
it's already printed out
for you by the department,
or standardized test companies
have decided what you need to teach,
and at what depth, and how much
time it's supposed to take,
and so it kind of takes the
passion out of teachers as well,
and when you do that, I
think that really reflects
in your curriculum or in your classroom.
But, getting back to Warren's
question about failing safely,
I think failing for physicians
might mean a different thing
than failing an English class,
in middle school,
(all laugh)
literally life and death
kind of distinctions there.
So, I think maybe, what
you mean Warren is like,
the ability to acknowledge
when you're wrong,
or ask for questions and ask for help.
I think that's probably the key thing
before it gets to that point,
because you see all this
research about cultures
where that's not possible,
where you don't question your
superiors, and you end up,
there's these examples
of like plane crashes,
and stuff like that,
'cause the copilot didn't
question the pilot's mindset,
and so the whole plane went down,
and so I think that's a
metaphor for education as well.
Like if we're going to not
question what we've done before,
then that's gonna really be a problem,
we're gonna crash everyone.
So, I would say like in medical field,
I think that's probably
a good place to be in,
is to be safe, to ask
questions, and look at that
as a strength rather than as a weakness,
if you doubt something, or
you're wondering something,
that that's actually a
positive characteristic.
- That actually goes back to
Jessica, at the beginning,
when she talked about having people,
not just finding those friends
that are gonna tell you
that everything's great,
like those that are in your
little community, right?
She's like, find those people
that are gonna question,
and poke at you and say,
"Well, what about this?"
So, that's a great connection, Michael.
- And I was gonna build on that and say,
I think if we teach our students
that same critical lens,
to what they learn, we can
learn so much from them.
So, I think that is
something that could be
really powerful moving forward,
is, like Michael was saying earlier,
modeling that lifelong learning, saying,
"I am figuring this out alongside you,"
and part of us being
in community together,
is you being honest with me,
about what's working for
your learning and what's not,
but that requires a level
of trust and understanding,
but also, I think, a modeling
of what it looks like
to be constructively critical.
Showing our students how
we're pushing back on ideas,
how we're learning when
people push back on us,
and accepting that push back humbly,
that's not a comfortable
place, if you are a teacher
that has been the sage on the stage,
and you know all the things.
So, really, I think being a facilitator
and a designer first,
recognizing those elements
of our teacher identity,
and getting comfortable with
being a little uncomfortable,
that's where we're gonna
see the most growth,
and I think that's where
we will see the most real
and lasting change in
what school looks like,
for teachers and for our kids.
- Yeah, I love that idea, Jessica,
and I just think it's like
purpose is the key word there,
like, "What's the point
of doing all this?"
Which the students are
actually asking out loud,
"What's the point of school?"
Like, "What are we here to do?"
But then in terms of
the concept of failure,
it's really maybe easier
to have conversations
around mistakes, or different directions,
or different choices that you could make,
or different questions to ask,
if you take your ego out of it.
So, like you said, the teachers
have so much ego involved,
like our reason for living,
(all laugh)
is that we're the smartest
person in the classroom,
and everyone's gonna do
what we tell them to do,
and when that isn't
happening, like right now,
we're sort of at an existential crisis,
like, "What am I here to do?
"I'm gonna be outsourced by
a computer or something!"
And yeah, you will be,
so change what you do,
because the magic happens
in this interpersonal
kind of piece, but if we all
keep the focus on the purpose,
"What's the purpose of this lesson,
what's the purpose on math,
what's the purpose behind science,
why are we learning these things?
And not so much about me,
and not so much about you,
but like, "Okay, is
this the right direction
"we wanna go with it,
to get to this endpoint,
"what's our purpose?"
And I think, maybe that's
a great way to frame it,
that makes it a little bit easier,
and I know nothing
about the medical field,
so, correct me if I'm
wrong, which I probably am,
but like, thinking about how
the teams have to collaborate
for diagnosis or for treatment, right?
You've got a whole team of people
that are working on
things together, and so,
if everybody has that shared purpose,
and we're asking the right
questions and the right metrics,
what does it mean to be successful?
I think that's like a key piece here too,
for when talking about failure or purpose,
it's like, what are we
actually trying to measure?
Are we trying to measure time in a seat,
does that equal learning,
are we measuring you
with like one test score
on one particular day,
are we measuring productivity?
What are those metrics?
And I think those are important questions
to ask as well.
- And that's hard too,
because our system kind
of ties us to that,
like you look at AP tests in high school,
you look at standardized
testing, when you look at
the six period a day, these many hours,
the bell rings at this time,
so, it's a mindset of teachers,
it's an organization, like
there's so many things
that have to shift to get to that point.
- Alright, it's about that culture, right?
I mean, there is the culture component
within our respective education areas,
I mean, medical education
and health education
has a unique culture,
as I know that in all of
your different schools
have that culture as well,
and I think it also, as
you all have mentioned,
it really stems down to that
professional identity as well,
what pre pandemic, I think,
there was a different
perspective that we all held
about our profession, and now
with this giant disruption,
it's really causing us to redefine that,
and in some ways that
disruption is really good,
because it allows us to
create new opportunities,
but for those that
don't have that kind of,
more flexible mindset,
that aren't able to adapt
or pivot as easily, it really
becomes almost personal.
"How do I define myself
as an educator now,
"because I can't do what
I've spent the last X number
"of years doing, and I thought
I was doing quite well,"
and that's pervasive in the
medical education side as well.
We have a lot of the sages on the stage
that have been doing it the same way,
because it's been effective for them,
but now that that's out of the equation,
how do you sort of have them pivot,
and how do you do that
faculty development,
when the nature of the
faculty development involves;
distance teaching or distance learning,
for someone who's never done that before?
And we see it on air
and all the way through
the actual practice, with
things like telemedicine,
we have physicians that never had a desire
to do telemedicine before,
and now that's becoming the
mainstay of their practice,
so, it's from the education,
all the way through to
the practical-output side,
that it's causing all of
us to pause and think,
"Wow, what is the core part,
"or what is that purpose
that we're here for,
"and the methodology may change,
"but what is my role in
maintaining that purpose?"
And it's really challenging, it's hard,
and I think everyone across the board
has a fair amount of frustration, right?
There's just the
getting-through-the-day part,
with all the things outside
of your professional world
that are happening and changing,
and then layering this on,
as someone who's previously
been in a position
of having to teach, or
instruct, or guide, or lead,
I think it's a tough time for everyone,
and I think it's important
that we also just acknowledge
that it's not an easy
time, if it had been easy,
we probably wouldn't have a
panel to talk about it, right?
(all laugh)
If this was a piece of cake to go through.
- Well, and I don't know
if you've experienced it
on your ends, but we're dealing
with trying to get teachers
just to use more of those online tools,
let alone make that shift in pedagogy,
or content, or instruction,
so, as much as we'd like to
get those sage on the stages
off the stage,
we're seeing they're trying to
do the same thing digitally,
instead of taking that step back,
and shifting the way that they teach,
and so, I think that's a
challenge for a lot of districts,
is, can we shift that mindset
while teaching to the,
and I hate to say that we teach to tools,
but unfortunately for many
teachers, we had to teach,
"This is how you get online,
this is how you Zoom, right?"
So, now we have to be creative in,
"This is how you get
online, and this is how
"you can structure your learning
a little different, right?"
So, there's almost two things
that you have to work on
with teachers, I think.
- Julie, I've been
thinking about that a lot,
in training pre-service teachers,
because, if you think
about how you were trained
to be an educator, in your
undergraduate experience,
or your graduate experience,
wherever you got your teacher training,
you were trained for a
face to face experience,
you were trained to work
in a physical space,
with students, arrange the desk,
set up your classroom environment,
well, that's not a thing right
now, so, how do we reimagine,
I know that was a really
scholarly way to describe that,
how do we reimagine teacher preparation,
when we need to prepare future teachers,
to walk into interviews,
and walk into their first
classrooms, ready to be creators
of online experience, ready to
be creators in a hybrid space
where maybe they see their
students part of the week,
and the rest of the week
we're learning remotely.
So, that's something that
I've been really thinking
a lot about, in preparing for the fall,
is how can we shift our curriculum
so that it's more conducive
to building that flexibility
that our students will need,
as they prepare for
their first classrooms.
- Yeah, that's a challenge,
and I think Jessica,
the pre-service teachers,
in the first couple of years you teach,
are just concerned about
classroom management,
and wrapping your head around curriculum
and there's not much
more bandwidth than that,
it's pretty intense.
I would say like, it's part of the system,
but like mentor teachers and
examples that are online maybe,
as well talk about success
stories would be really great,
I think that examples are always helpful.
Maybe even some kind of,
like help them build their network out,
people that you know,
that can collaborate,
I think that's important, and
I think we see that happening,
with your teacher calling next door,
like you just go next door and say,
"Hey, how are you doing there
sir, do you have this kid,
"how are you managing that?"
And I think, setting up spaces to do that,
to lean on other people
and to get their advice,
that's because it's always helpful.
- So, when thinking about
kind of that expansion,
and either that
professional-development component
for existing teachers or pre service,
have you had any individuals
that have really been resistant
to the change, that
you've either worked with,
or colleagues have you've worked with?
I'm just curious, how
do you approach that?
Because it's tough, I mean,
none of us really wanna,
change is a hard thing, in general,
and this is sometimes, I think,
it's not really an option
just to not change.
I think, for us, we
were out of school for,
we were out of our clinical environments,
and we were out of the classroom
for a long period of time,
as many of you were,
and it wasn't just an option
to get everyone back together,
and do it again.
So, how do you approach to that,
or how do you tackle that
challenge of a colleague,
or a peer that's not quite ready to do it?
- I'm not in an admin role,
so, I don't have to manage
the really tricky situations,
like I said, there's definitely
people that I work with,
that were resistant to
any kind of technology,
for any number of reasons, but
our success story actually,
is a friend of mine who's
an AP chemistry teacher,
and we're at a pretty
high-performing school.
So, there's a lot of pressure to do well,
and have a lot of high pass
rates, and things like that,
and I actually interviewed her
for my podcast, about this,
but, she was talking and she's like,
"I'm the teacher who had two file cabinets
"full of worksheets on paper,
and I would just roll in,
"and pass out these worksheets,
and it was really easy,
"I didn't even think about it."
Well, then she's stuck,
like having to stay up till
like midnight, every night,
like redoing everything,
but what was really great about her,
is that she had a very positive outlook,
I think she kept her eyes on
the reason and the purpose,
"what's the point of all of this?"
And realizing that I don't have a choice,
and also beyond that like,
and I should have done this
before, and this is ultimately
the best for me and my students anyway.
So, it's kind of like
so many things in life,
you don't do them until you're
kind of forced to do them,
whether it's you know, wash the car,
or go to the grocery store, or whatever,
the same thing applies to this too.
And I'm not like, this
never happened to me,
I'm just saying that it's a possibility.
(all laugh)
But she was a really good sport about it,
and her lessons are really great,
and now she has like
this series on YouTube,
of like kitchen chemistry,
and so she has like a series
of videos that she's doing.
So, she took small steps,
she started doing explainer videos,
with her students, as projects
after the AP tests were done,
a couple of years ago,
so she started to get her feet wet,
but I think being open minded
about it is really helpful.
And, like I said, we can
look to her as like a model
of somebody who's maybe has my mindset,
of like, "There's no way I can do this,"
I've had this, my file cabinets are full,
I don't have to think, I could
just drop in the worksheet,
and somebody who has been
very successful at it,
I think that was really great.
- Yeah, I have a friend
that's a technology coach
at a nearby district, and I
asked her how things were going
with the teachers, and this
is a school that had had
a one-to-one initiative
for four or five years,
they had access to the
devices that they needed,
had had access to PD, and she said,
"There are a lot of people that
are feeling a lot of regret,
"that they did not go
to those PD sessions."
So, I think the research shows us
our internal barriers to change,
are much stronger than external barriers,
like if those things are met,
we can still hold ourselves back.
And I think, this situation
while it has created,
or hasn't created, well,
it has presented to us
a lot of challenges, a lot of barriers,
that maybe we were able to not see,
in the business of our
day today, pre pandemic,
it also has kind of propelled people
past those internal barriers,
because there's no longer a choice.
So, kind of speaking to
what Michael was saying,
I think there are probably
a lot of teachers out there
that are thinking, "Man,
I really should have gone
"to that 30 minute PD after
school, there were stacks there,
"and I could have learned some things!"
But now they're having to go there,
they don't have that option,
and I think sometimes that
has to be taken off the table,
the choice has to go away, if we are gonna
just push ourselves into the
deep end and try something new.
- Yeah, I agree 100%!
If you would have asked
me these questions,
the challenges with teachers,
like a year ago, I was like,
"How can we trick them
into using technology?"
Like, we'll tell them it
makes their lives easier,
it can make their grading quicker,
like, and then they'll just
kind of get sucked in, and then,
we'll go and teach them all
the fun creative things,
and then they'll be hooked, right?
But with this, there was
no choice, and if we had
any reluctant learners, it was,
"Hey, students, students first!
"What do your students need,
"how are you providing
what your students need,
"how are you providing
them the instruction,
"the connections?
"This is not about you,
this is about your students at home!"
And we have all social-economic
neighborhoods in San Diego,
so, we're trying to
connect with everybody,
and so really putting that first.
I am a little, I'm not nervous,
but I'm keeping a creative mind,
for the start of next school year,
in that I'm curious how many teachers
just kind of slid by to June, right?
And now like, are we going
to get them back again?
I need help again, or are they there?
So, really trying to get
some creative solutions
for supporting teachers with
differentiated supports,
to those that are ready to just go,
and meet that extra push for
those more creative tools,
and those that might just
still need a little bit
of a review, and start from ground zero,
but always keeping those
students in mind, right?
No, there isn't a
teacher that's gonna say,
"I don't want what's
best for my students."
So, getting them and giving them
the supports that they need,
and keeping them focused on
whatever it is they need to do
in service of their students.
- Yeah, and I think
just like our students,
our teachers are the same way,
people have different needs;
some people will pick up pretty quickly,
some people are more
flexible and more agile,
and others just need
a lot of hand holding,
and so, I think a one size
fits all is not gonna work
for our students or for our colleagues,
so, keeping that in mind, I
think is really important too.
And I'm not sure how you identify those,
other than just like you
happen to know them personally,
but in a large district, Julie,
I don't know how you guys manage that,
but maybe it's more of a
site-level kind of decision.
- Yeah, we'll let you know
when we figure it out.
(all laugh)
- But I do, I agree,
I think it's more of a
differentiated coaching,
just like we have
differentiated instruction
for our students, if we
really wanna help everyone,
make their way along that change curve.
- Well, it's interesting too,
because we have 5000
teachers in our district,
so, how do you train 5000 teachers
in a differentiated approach?
So, we're having to be
creative, and we're looking
at different professional-development
models, like;
is it an online learning module,
is it some face to face, and
some independent work time,
or is it little video
snippets that we send out
at the beginning of the week?
So, we're trying to explore
all of those options as well,
because it's a challenge, it's
a challenge to differentiate
for a class of 36 students,
let alone a district full of teachers,
so, you have to keep your mind open,
and look at all the possibilities,
and how really to use technology
to help leverage that.
- So, we talked a lot about
colleagues and our peers,
but we've also sort of
touched on the students
a little bit here, so, I'm curious,
because not all of our students,
and we've mentioned this before,
are equally as adept to
handling these challenges.
So, the students also don't
really have the same options
to say, "No, I'll catch
you guys in the fall,
"and we'll try this again at that point."
So, as an educator, how do
you identify those students,
especially now,
when it's through some
sort of distance learning,
how do you identify those
students that are struggling,
or falling a little behind,
and how do you approach that,
especially in this time?
- I think that was one
of the biggest challenges
that we were presented with in the spring,
because everything happened so quickly.
So, we were in school on a
Wednesday, and by that Friday,
we were not gonna see each other again,
and so that became really
difficult for everyone,
but at the college level, my
students are from everywhere,
all across the country,
some of them were from
different countries,
and so they were not in our
even geographical community.
And so finding ways to communicate,
and for them to be able to
communicate on-need to me,
virtually, was really difficult,
especially for students who
did not have reliable access
to Wi-Fi, or even to
a device, and I think,
that's something that was
really put in stark relief,
in this season, is just
that the digital divide
is still very real in 2020.
That many of our students have access,
but there are a lot of
students that really struggled
to make the transition to online learning,
just because they did
not have reliable access
to technology, for some
of my college students,
they didn't even necessarily
have reliable access
to a single place to live, right?
So, they would go from place to place,
so that they could have
Wi-Fi, a couple days a week,
to do their homework and get it turned in,
or to email their teacher.
So, I really think what became
the most important thing
for us, for me, I don't
wanna speak for other people,
but for me, it became flexibility,
"You can turn your work
in whenever you can,
"just what can I do to support you,
"when we are learning at a distance,
"and are your personal needs being met,
"because that's what's most
essential to me in this season,
"I want you to learn, but I
also want you to just be okay!"
So, I just know I don't
know the answer to that,
that again is a systemic problem,
that's gonna require
high-level creative solutions.
I know in our city, our city
government has been talking
about how to put Wi-Fi
over our whole city,
just cover the city, so
everyone can have access
within that city limit, it's
going to take a long time
to figure out the logistics of that,
but I also live in a very rural state,
and so that becomes a
whole different issue.
How do we cover large rural areas,
to make sure we can ensure that access?
Because when we're learning remotely,
kids can't just shoot us an email,
to let us know how they're
doing, so I don't have answers,
I just know that is a real
problem that we're gonna have
to look at as a society,
and at a systems level in education,
if we are gonna be able to move forward.
- Yeah, I agree, Jessica,
I think the United Nations
has determined that access to
information is a human right,
and we're denying a good
portion of our population,
their human rights,
and when we start looking at
it as a civil rights issue,
and not an issue about economics,
or an issue about business
versus government,
I mean, we have government-paid-for
roads and electricity,
we need to invest in
infrastructure the same way,
'cause it's more critical,
even than roads now,
if you don't have to
drive anywhere, right?
At least we don't, the delivery trucks do.
But yeah, and I think the
communication piece is really key,
and I think, again, going
back to that mindset,
I remember having these
conversations from a few years ago,
like, "Well, you can't friend
your students on Facebook,
"'cause it's just like
ethically questionable."
It's like, "Well, how am
I supposed to reach them,
if I don't see them face to face,
and so, sort of changing our understanding
of the relationship that
we have with students,
and when it's okay,
and how to communicate,
and having those clear delineations,
but also being flexible and
knowing what works with them.
So, I think that's a key piece of it too;
communication and
keeping those lines open,
because, like you said, you
had two days to figure it out,
like, "In two days, we're
not gonna be here anymore,
"so, get all your stuff, good luck!"
(Michael chuckles)
You know, I did a little bit of training,
'cause I saw like the
storm clouds brewing,
and I'm like, "Let's all
get on Zoom together,
"let's figure this out,
and let's make sure
everybody's account is
ready on Canvas Student,
it's what we were using for that system,
and we ran through it, like
Julie, like you were saying,
it's like training everybody
right at the beginning,
this is how it works, the
teachers and the students,
and so we were all clear,
we ran into roadblocks
while we were face to face,
so, that was a little bit smoother later,
but trying to have been
anticipating what's going on,
rather than pretending
things are gonna get better.
- So, with the distance
learning we started,
and we had our principals,
we had teachers,
we had tried to reach out to students,
our district provided devices support
for the Cox High Speed Internet
in some neighborhoods,
and even some hotspots,
but it was an expectation
that principals and teachers
were reaching out by
phone, by home visits,
whatever it took to connect
with those students,
and made sure that they understand
what they had access to,
and what supports that they had.
Our district also did a really nice job,
engaging the parents' call,
we have parents as partners,
and we created some supports for parents,
like what it might look like
for a student to be home,
learning, we also had
some parent Zoom courses,
which were kind of fun, we had, like,
I think seven different
languages in meetings,
so we had them translated for our parents,
and we worked with parents
on things like mindfulness,
and how to like calm and
work with your child,
how to motivate them to
get assignments done,
some other ones,
just how they can use
household chores and things,
for students to do around the house,
as a learning experiences for parents.
So, I think that's
something that our district
really engaged with quickly,
because it's a shift,
and parents are the partners now,
when kids are learning at home.
It used to be the kids go off to school,
and they're in the teacher's hands,
but now there's a lot of
collaboration between the teacher,
parent and student, and so,
really acknowledging that,
and using that as a tool to
help you, and we're gonna
be using that in the start
of our next school year,
in holding webinars,
and things for parents.
I'm a teacher of 20-whatever years,
I'm not gonna do the exact
number, and I still can't,
sometimes get my daughter
to do her homework, right?
And I was a teacher, like,
what are some of those tricks
that I can teach parents,
and I think that's gonna be
really important, it goes
back to that flexibility.
We're gonna have to be flexible
with face-to-face learning,
at-home learning, engage parents
in that work as partners,
and try to make those
connections the best we can.
If we can connect with the family,
we're gonna have a better opportunity
to connect with that child,
because they're in it with us.
- I think it's fascinating, Julie,
when you described the process
that your district took,
that sounds much broader
than the classic description
of an educator in a classroom, right?
So, now you mentioned home visits,
and really determining
what the other factors
that play into the educational
process of your students,
for us, on the healthcare side,
it's kind of these social
determinants of health.
It's almost these social
determinants of education,
that now they're gonna have a huge impact,
on what you do as a teacher,
and how the scope of the role
of an educator is starting to
expand into these other areas.
It's not about just delivering a lesson,
but how do you look at
this more holistically?
- Yeah, like I taught
middle school for 20 years,
and middle schools, they're
kind of quirky kids, right?
And if you didn't connect with them,
if you didn't get them on your side,
like if they knew I loved them,
and I think most of them loved to me,
and that's how we learned, right?
That's how I was able to
teach and get them to learn,
and so you're absolutely
right, Warren, like,
if we get these families on
our side, we're a community,
we're building their
social-emotional well-being,
we're building their mindfulness,
we're building them up as families,
and we're all really
partners in this learning,
and I think San Diego Unified
has done a really nice job,
of really looking into
the social-emotional,
and all these aspects,
of what makes good learning environments,
and how that's supportive,
how that's a base to any lesson
and success of a student.
- Yeah, I think it's really great,
what you guys are doing, Julie,
I've been sort of frustrated
and talked to some other colleagues too,
about how schools have
become sort of like,
the buck stops with us,
it's like we're responsible
for all of society's ills,
and lack of responsibility.
So, whether it's no internet connection,
schools are responsible for childcare.
they're responsible
for mental health care,
they're responsible for feeding kids,
like multiple meals per
day, breakfast and lunch,
and even when they're off,
Los Angeles Unified was still
working to give meals out,
and it's like, what's
wrong with our society,
that teachers and school-district
budgets have to go deal
with these issues that
should be taken care of
by other elements of society,
and so that really
distracts from our purpose.
You know, again, we're talking about,
"We're holding kids accountable,
"we're holding teachers
accountable for this learning!"
It's like, "Well, we can't,
"because you're not holding
up your end of the bargain
"as a society!"
You're not feeding the kids,
we cut mental healthcare,
there's no like childcare,
or public pre-school,
like in many industrialized nations,
and so, now we're seeing
the end result of like,
now we're scrambling and
adding yet another thing
to this mix, and you're
talking about having to deal
with social-emotional connections,
and all of those things with
our students, which absolutely,
that's like a key piece
of what we do as teachers,
but to a certain limit,
and then there's like stuff
that gets more complicated,
there's stuff at home
that we can't deal with,
because we have our own
families to deal with.
And I think, when we asked
teachers in school districts
to take on these challenges, it's unfair,
I mean, it's not gonna be done right.
- And part of it goes back to,
we've been doing a lot of even just,
and now I'm thinking of all of this,
like culturally-responsive
teaching, let's write a Hamlet,
and we've been doing a lot of
work in our district with that
and that kind of takes me full circle,
to like, we're understanding the child,
and giving these experiences
that students are engaged in,
and it's good for their mental well-being,
but then that goes back to like,
changing that content
area as well for teachers,
like shifting that whole
content of the child first,
it's not the content first, and
what do these children need,
and what kind of content do they need?
What kind of supports can we
provide them to that level?
But it's kids first, whatever it takes.
- And we see that on
the medical education,
or on the higher kind of
health-education side as well,
I mean, our students are
older and many of them
are independent, but
there are a number of them
that have their own families,
or they take care of others,
or some of them even work to
provide for families that they
either live with, or kind of
dependent on them as well.
And it's interesting,
'cause there are times,
especially, I think for us,
that we realize that
with everything going on,
maybe there does need to be a
pause on the education side,
just to sort of get everything
else stabilized first.
And so we've had open discussions
with our students broadly,
that for many students,
this is a time where
you can still go through
the medical-education kind of trajectory,
but for some of you,
it might make more sense
to take a few months off.
Or if you're caring for someone
who is high risk of illness,
or you yourself are at
high risk of picking up
any sort of bad infection,
maybe this is not the time
for you to be in the hospital,
and sort of recognizing that
even though there is a prescribed pathway
for some of our older our students,
that following that trajectory
is not always the right thing.
So, Julie, you're absolutely right,
it is that student-first component,
but it definitely does
feel different, I think,
from again, even six months ago,
of my role as a curricular dean,
there's these other larger
non-curricular components
that go into all of these decisions,
that I think are good
that we're addressing it,
mainly 'cause maybe it isn't
being addressed elsewhere,
but it also highlights that
it isn't being addressed elsewhere.
And we were not gonna
just not do it, but also,
I'm not maybe the best
person trained to do so,
but we do what we can, because
we have this desire to be
so student and learner-centric.
- And it's interesting too,
'cause I'm thinking that,
we're talking about access to internet,
and devices, and stuff like that,
but there's all these other issues.
And so we know that people of color,
and those that are the working poor,
are gonna be even further behind now,
because they're the ones
that are not showing up
to the Zoom meetings, 'cause
their parents have to go work,
they're essential workers,
if they're working, right?
And so they're left with an older sibling,
to kind of manage that teaching element,
or to care for them, and to
make sure they're getting
their work done, and
it's not getting done.
And so, again, what's the
societal role in making sure that
these folks don't get even further behind
than they already are?
And again, it becomes a
matter of social justice,
and more than just what
we're capable of doing here,
in this conversation, or in
our roles in school districts,
and so, whoever is
watching this, I would say,
definitely please make this legislation,
like this has got to be
addressed in a much deeper
systemic level than just
one of those systems,
just education,
'cause as we're seeing
everything's interrelated.
And I'm sure in the medical
field you're seeing that too,
it's not just, "Oh, well,
if I tell the patient,
"they're gonna follow this process,"
or, "Make sure you take your
medications every whatever,"
that's not gonna happen or
change your lifestyle, right?
So, you're healthier,
sometimes that's not
feasible for some people,
and so, it's not that you're a bad doctor,
but there's something else that's deeper,
that's embedded in, I think,
that needs to be addressed
before we can address any of
these other technical issues.
- Another question that I have, I mean,
this is as we kind of talk
through this process too, right?
There are some, I think,
frustrations and challenges
that we, internally as educators,
can't always solve, right?
And so how do you deal with
some of these challenges,
how do you decompress
or kind of make manage,
sort of this additional burden
that teaching now creates?
I mean, it's some days we're
sitting like this all day
behind a screen and in front of a camera,
and that can be emotionally
challenging as well.
So, for your own mental health,
how do you take care of
yourself in a time like this?
- Well, I'm very hype,
I don't relax at all.
(all laugh)
- Julie, can you tell?
- I was going to say,
you're talking to people that
don't take breaks off of work.
- This is a tough question,
Warren, because I think March,
I don't know what it was,
the day that all the kids went home,
I think I was putting in
15-hour days, seven days a week,
I didn't stop, so it's
a really good question,
but I did take my first day off yesterday,
which I was very proud of,
but I've been making sure now,
that I am exercising,
so I'm doing a really good job
of trying to fit in exercise,
and what I love about that is that,
like, there's two, I'll go
for runs, and I'll either go
for a run, and listen to
music, and let it all go,
or I'll leave my music at home,
and that's where my creative
juices really start flowing.
So, I can go on at 20, like,
sometimes people in my
department, will be like,
"Oh my gosh, I think Julie
just came back from a run,
"'cause there's like these
emails that get thrown out
"everywhere, with these
ideas that I come up with."
And then I'm also a little high strung,
so, I purchased the Calm app,
and I've been trying to
do some daily mindfulness,
which I don't do, like, that's not me.
But if we want our kids to do that,
and we want our teachers to do that,
so, I need to embrace and try it,
and I will admit I'm slow going,
but mindfulness and exercise
are attempting to keep me
somewhat sane.
- Mine's actually the same,
I actually started using
the Calm app in January, I just
had had a really busy fall,
and so going into the spring, I was like,
"I need to create some time to pause!"
Now I have to admit that
when we were still in school,
a lot of times the calm app
was happening like on my drive,
which is not really when you
clear your head completely,
so that was cheating at mindfulness,
just building the practice
of taking 10 minutes a day,
to try to make myself
not think about anything,
has been really powerful for
me, and I think has helped me
to be more clear headed when I am working.
So, just teaching myself to
have that discipline to pause
has been really important,
and then exercise,
just trying to do
something active every day.
So, anyway, same, Julie,
those have been really
important practices for me,
to just set that time aside,
and the other thing I've
been trying to do is,
I check email, morning, lunch and evening,
instead of just keeping
that tab open all day,
and setting those prescribed
times, when I go to email,
has helped me to be more intentional,
about how I'm spending my
time throughout the day.
'Cause I found if I just kept
that tab open all the time,
I was constantly
distracted by that number,
'cause I'm not into unread emails.
(laughs)
So, that has been a practice
that I've adopted in the
last couple of months,
that's been really helpful for me.
- Yeah, I would totally agree
with what you guys were saying,
I think one of the things
that's been really great
about this, another one of the
many silver linings, I think,
from remote learning is the
pacing has slowed down a lot.
At least for me, I know
some folks like Julie,
are responsible for
district-level kinds of things,
and like hauling butt,
to like, create a
curriculum for everybody,
from a classroom perspective,
I can say that I was okay,
I have like window light now,
'cause my classroom doesn't have windows.
So, I have daylight,
which is definitely
physiologically important.
I'd get up in the morning
and I'd go for runs,
which I used to run a little bit,
but now I run almost every day,
and then I come back and
I have time for breakfast,
you know, I feed my body, and
I didn't have that before.
And so, coffee and breakfast,
and kind of let your mind
sort of ease into the day,
I do a little bit of inspirational
reading off of Twitter,
finding articles and stuff,
so, that sort of catapults
my creative thinking,
like Julie, for you you said
it's running without the music,
and so for me,
it's like I'm inspired by
articles that I'm reading,
and so that gets me to
really think about the day,
and then I think, going back
to this creativity piece
for our talk is, I think
what's great about creativity
is that it allows you to
have an element of control
over your life, and so when
things are out of control,
like they are now, and constantly
changing, like day to day,
you need some kind of stability,
and so for me, it's
always been making stuff.
So, I took a graphic-novel class,
and started making a graphic novel,
and I learned to make sourdough bread,
I know that's a cliche, right?
- Same I did that!
(all laugh)
- I did that, like, I love cooking,
but I never made the time for it,
because I was always too
busy doing lesson plans,
and going to conferences,
and things like that,
and now I'm like,
"Okay, I'm gonna get back
into what I love to do!"
And doing things
physically with your hands,
I think is important, and making things,
helps you have an element of control,
and just rekindle passions
that you've had all along,
or maybe you forgot about,
and so I think that's important too.
- Now, this is great,
I asked this question,
'cause it's very easy,
especially right in the height of this,
to just be sort of engulfed by
all the change in the process
and sort of that that
steady-state level of anxiety,
just slowly creeps up day to day,
and I know of colleagues
that have been burned out,
especially over these past few months,
and I hear some people even talk about it,
they haven't done much for a few months,
and I know other people that
are very busy educators,
that would love three hours off
to sort of relax and unwind,
and I think that self-care
component, especially now,
if any semblance of this
is gonna be the new norm,
I think it's important to
create that intentionality
about self-care, whether it's
exercise, or mindfulness,
or even inspiring your own creativity
through other exploits.
- Yeah, and just to kind of build on what
we were just saying, I think another one
of the many silver linings
is we have time now.
You know, instead of
commuting 45 minutes each way
from work, that's time
you can use to sleep,
and that's the biggest
advantage my students,
and some of my friends
have said too, is like,
"I get to sleep, I get enough sleep now!"
And so, let's look at
all of the advantages
to being remote, because
there's many of them.
And you do have time for self-care,
you do have time for that run,
you do have time to learn,
how to bake bread or something like that,
I think that's really a key piece.
And like I was saying
earlier, my students,
we wasted so much time in our
schedules, clocking minutes,
because that's what counts for your pay,
that's what counts for learning, right?
It's like how many minutes
you've done your time,
sitting in a chair, or, you know what,
I'm gonna give you this assignment,
you have three days to do it,
do it as fast as you want,
and then the rest of time is yours,
and so then you can follow those passions,
you can do those hobbies,
the kids aren't doing
competitive sports anymore,
which has been fantastic,
'cause now they're not,
I know, Julie, your daughter
competes competitively,
maybe that's a problem but--
- She's been out of the gym!
- Okay yeah, but I mean, like,
that's how many hours a day
we're using for that in
schools in the United States,
and that we could do
other things with, right?
So, again, it's a matter of priorities,
and how you measure success,
and what the purpose is
of what you're doing,
and are there other ways
to, like Jessica was saying,
reimagine the school day,
and how we spend our time,
I think it really cuts back
to that social-emotional
wellness piece a lot.
- And yes, I'd love to,
just saying that one,
with one of the principals
of one of our high schools
that's in a diverse neighborhood,
the principal has shared with
us a couple of things in that,
she's noticed certain students
love the distance learning,
because they've become essential workers,
and so they have to go
and work for their family
during the day,
but now they can come home
and get their schoolwork done.
So, this distance learning has
given them the flexibility,
going back to that flexibility,
given them the flexibility
to be there for their family,
yet still continue with their education.
She's also spoken to some students,
where they are completely
different students
in the distance-learning environment,
because they're away from
the oppression from teachers,
and the social interactions
of their peers,
and just being home and able
to concentrate on the content,
and not be distracted by some
of their school community,
has actually proven to be
better for their education,
that was really interesting to me.
- And I think that comes back to the power
of asynchronous learning, which
I know we've talked about,
like building community
through synchronous time
when we're all together,
but I think one of the
most important things
that we did, moving into
remote learning, was say,
"Okay, what are the most essential things
"that students need to know,
how can we design a space
where they can work through
that essential content,
in a way that works for them,
in a way that is totally
flexible to the needs
of the student and the family?
And so I think that worked for some kids,
I had students that finished
their whole semester
in like four days, because
they just needed to be done,
and part of that came from this sense of
like looming anxiety, I have
no idea what the next month
of my life is going to look
like, but I can control
these assignments that are out there,
and are ready for me to complete.
So, if I can just get this done,
then I can face the uncertainty,
and some students needed that paste out,
what do I need to do week to week?
And so, I know as we move into the fall,
we wanna build a sustainable
model for what remote learning
can look like, and I'm hopeful
that that still involves
that asynchronous flexibility,
because it speaks to the needs
of a lot of our students.
They need community, and
they need opportunities
to see their peers and
to see their teachers,
but I think they also
need that flexibility,
and that that can then create that space
for them to be creative,
and pursue things that matter to them,
and engage in authentic learning,
and support their family communities
in the way that works for them,
you know that was a really
long answer to that.
But I just feel like all
of this is coming back
to that flexible, student-focused,
creative thinking around
what school looks like.
I mean, we have this
really great opportunity
if we're willing to hold on to
it and see where it takes us.
- I love that, Jessica, I
totally agree with you on that.
The timing, flexible time of
how much time they get to work
on something, and I'm
guilty of like holding off
on giving assignments out,
until like the bare
minimum time that I need
to give them out, some
kids are hungry for it,
especially during remote
learning in the pandemic,
like they needed the art
projects to get through,
and the assignments that I
gave helped them deal with it,
like quarantine-life
photography, and stuff like that,
and it helped them process it
and they were hungry for it.
So, that's really important
to keep that in mind too,
and it's interesting we were
talking about distractions,
and how we used to talk about,
"Oh, technology is distracting!"
Except it's like a fundamental key tool,
that we're using right
now, and I think about,
like you were saying,
is that there's distractions in school.
There's all the social, like
bullying and all that stuff,
is not really happening right now,
think about how many
classroom management issues
have you had in the last three months?
Like none, right?
(Michael laughs)
How many school shootings have there been?
Oh, wait, see?
So, maybe there's some advantages
to doing this slightly differently,
and in a social-emotional way.
- I think it's given us
space to have that awareness,
Michael, we were all so busy
and moving in these patterns
that felt so normalized to
us that we didn't have this,
we were not giving ourselves
the permission and the space
to be aware, and that
goes back to seeking out
those opportunities that we
weren't seeking out before,
whether that's for creative pursuits,
or for redesigning our curriculum,
or redesigning the way
our classrooms look,
and so that really brings
back that mindfulness
that we were talking about,
so, if we create that space
for self-awareness, then we can say,
"Okay, what is it in
this moment that I need?"
Or "What is it I need to be creating,
what is it I need to be
providing for my students,
or for my colleagues?
So, I think that's really important,
creating those spaces,
and self-awareness too,
around technology, just, I
have to stop myself and think,
am I distracting myself right now,
with what I'm doing on this device,
or am I being intentional and purposeful
in how I'm using this
tool to create something,
or to help other people?
- Yeah, and that's something
I was thinking about earlier,
which is this idea of owning the learning,
and having more self-determination
for our students,
it used to be like you
would go into class,
and you would hope to get
caught by the teacher,
'cause it's like a badge of honor, right?
"Oh, I'm using my tool," and you're like,
now you get street cred
because you got busted
or whatever, right?
And so now it's like, it's
up to you to manage that,
it's up to you to manage your schedule,
which is actually something
my kids struggle with a lot,
is managing their
schedule, but most likely,
because the teachers were inconsistent
about asking too much of them,
and everybody had a different story.
But I think owning the learning,
I think is really important,
like we were talking
about the creative stuff,
you have control over that,
and there's a purpose behind it.
You don't have the teacher and the bell,
telling you when it's time to
change your thought process,
which again, goes back to the
flexibility piece of like,
I would like to sit
here and do a deep dive,
and spend five hours just on this subject,
'cause it's really
fascinating and I'm on a roll,
I've got my stride now.
And so, all these things are interrelated,
but I'm rambling at this point,
stop me at anytime!
(all chuckle)
- I know, that's how I felt too.
(laughs)
- Now, we've covered a lot of, I think,
really interesting ground today,
what started with a simple
talk about creativity,
really covered a lot of key issues,
from looking back at the power
of the asynchronous learning,
to flexibility, from self-care,
the purpose and intent,
I think, all these pieces
that are so closely tied
to what we're doing,
and I think talking about silver linings,
I don't think any of this,
as we think about this next
iteration of what curriculum
or education is gonna look like,
it wouldn't have been possible, I think,
without this giant disruption
that's happening right now.
Could we have really come
into our leadership one day,
and say, "Hey, let's clear the
plate for the next two weeks
"and just see what happens!"
That would have probably never
happened if it wasn't for
this giant disruption of the pandemic,
and there are some
downsides, but I think that
this is a really big, kind
of inflective moment for us
to think about what does the
next few years look like,
or what does kind of
future education look like?
I think as we're kind of nearing
the end of our time here,
maybe just the last question
for us to think about is,
thinking about creativity
and all these different ideas
we've talked about today, moving forward,
do each of you sort of
have a guiding principle,
or a sort of guiding direction
that's gonna really inform
your next set of decisions,
for how you're gonna be in the classroom?
Or how are you gonna help it administer,
or provide professional
development, but do you have
any sort of guiding
thoughts on the next steps?
- Patience, I think that's
really wrapped around
all of the things that I think about,
and I think about Designing Instruction,
we've talked a lot about flexibility,
and being aware of students' needs.
And I think a lot of that
is tied up in the idea that,
we have to let everyone move at,
we have to be patient with people,
no one ever did something
because we were like,
"Hurry up and get it done!"
You know that all that breeds
is discontent and conflict,
and now, I don't mean we
need to wait for change
in every situation, but I do
think we just have to walk
into this next season of
what school looks like,
with a healthy dose of grace
for the people around us;
and so just empathy, and
patience, and understanding,
that everyone is trying
to navigate this together,
and it may look different for all of us.
So, I guess those are some
just guiding principles
that I'm trying to take into
my interactions with colleagues
and with students, is just,
how can I bring empathy to the
table in every interaction?
How can I bring grace to the table?
So that we can all collaborate, and create
a learning environment that
is conducive for everyone.
- Well, first one for me is teamwork.
And after our conversation today,
I'm gonna make sure I
take Jessica's advice,
and find some people to join my team
that aren't always on my team, right?
Like find some critical
friends moving forward,
we learn from all experiences, right?
And then I think something
that I'm really working on,
and maybe it's the Calm app, I don't know,
but on being a better listener,
and sometimes I come in
fighting, I have the answer,
I know what I want, I think
I know what everybody needs,
it might be in my department,
it might be at a school site,
it might be in another situation,
and I'm working on really stepping back,
and being a good listener, and
understanding other people's,
and I think, Jessica,
you said empathy, right?
Like, understanding where
other people are coming from,
I have a very heavy technology background,
I'm passionate about it, I
think it's like super important.
Other people are passionate
about social-emotional learning,
or math, or whatever, so, I
have to keep that open mind
so that I can be creative,
and find how we can all
work together as a team.
So, teamwork is teamwork.
and being a good listener
is how I'm moving forward.
- Agreeing with those
guys and building on that,
like humbleness, like
understanding that you're not
the smartest person in
the world or in the room,
and that it's okay to
reach out to other people,
and ask for help, to be
wrong and to admit it,
especially to your students,
I think that'll actually
earn a lot of respect,
flexibility like we were talking about,
and definitely clarity on purpose.
I literally had kids who didn't
show up to Zoom meetings,
or out loud, asked questions like,
"I don't get what's the point of school,
"I don't know what we're doing!"
And I think we need to do a
better job of understanding that
for ourselves as teachers, like,
what's the purpose, really?
And communicating that
clearly to the kids,
and designing lessons and
projects, projects, not tests,
that are going to build those skills,
and assess those at those
mindsets and those processes,
but there has to be a purpose.
Just like you wouldn't wanna go into
a professional development meeting,
and not know what you're doing,
and realize that this is all useless.
It's no different than
what the kids are doing,
like, "Should I show up
to that Zoom meeting,
"should I really do this assignment?"
Cause they're asking the same
questions, and ultimately,
I think that the key word
for everybody is to have fun.
Like if you're not enjoying
yourself, like, I don't know,
I should be doing something
else if I'm not having fun,
and so I try to design those lessons
that I will enjoy as well, I
know that it's definitely work,
it's always going to be work,
but it's work that you feel is
enjoyable and has the purpose
and it's something that's
interesting to you,
so, figure out a way to make
that happen for everybody,
so, there's joy in learning again.
- Awesome, well, Julie
and Jessica and Michael,
this has been a whole lot of fun,
and I can't remember the last
time that I spent 90 minutes
on a meeting, where I
wasn't checking email,
or doing something else,
(all laugh)
or trying to turn off my video
so I could do something else
in the background, so, this
has been a blast for me.
And it's good just to be able to connect,
and kind of talk through
the process with educators
such as yourselves, who've
been in the same scenarios,
I think there's a certain degree
of teamwork and comradery,
and even a small component
of therapy involved in that,
and just being able to talk through
our collective challenges,
but this has been a
profound experience for me,
and I'm glad we got to
share this time together,
and talk about the process,
and where we go as
educators moving forward,
so, I thank you all for your time.
(upbeat music)
