Balance, Ed Tech, and Raw Failure

Ok, it is time for me to finish up my reflection of the original 6 points I pondered on after only 3 weeks of teaching.

Because I am tired, it is basically the last day of Thanksgiving break, and I just want to get this off my chest - I am condensing the last three points into one post. Yes.

4. Teaching is about finding the sweet and tender balance amidst insane chaos

Don't ask me how to obtain the balance, but feel free to ask me about the insane chaos.

As I walk the halls of my school, and engage with teachers with and without their classes, I notice something about them. A small flame of wildness tempered by wisdom and/or optimism, lighting from their eyes and faces. It is this tempered, or honed attention that I have not yet obtained. The teachers who have braved Education's valley of shadow and death (AKA the first three years) and emerged victorious appear to have this serene sense of calm -like a patient and wise mother waiting to listen to the sobbing child tell the story of a hurt knee or a distressed teenager moan about a rude boyfriend. In regards to reacting to the politically insane and economically humiliating circumstances around them they display a balance between brute animal instinct and sophisticated self-restraint (though I did witness some brute instinct earlier this year).

At this point I am not balanced, and I am trying to figure out how to get away from my basal instincts when faced with the extraordinary everyday challenges of teaching.


5. Educational technology is cool, but is it possible the field is turning a blind eye to the biggest issues?

Contrary to what I have thought in the past, I feel there are much larger and important issues in education than the next technology or learning theory. Poverty is the underlying issue for at least a quarter of American children. Is it possible that while we are learning how to teach students in virtual worlds, or use blogs and flipped classrooms to increase engagement and interactivity, we are just contributing to the opportunity gap that already stands between poor and rich kids?

At my school we do lots of computerized tests. Cool, it saves time! Not so cool, many of my kids don't know how to use a mouse properly.

I was delighted to find a host of amazing online resources when I started at my job, but then discovered that many of my students don't have access to the Internet at home.

It seemed like if we just had a growth mindset and went to work, then that well-researched concept would create some good results, and then I realized just my own mindset isn't enough to change 23+ in just a few months.

Do we have the responsibility to enable students in poverty to learn in the same ways and at the same rates as those who aren't?

6. Continued raw failure is the essential attribute of true learning

I have never failed so hard, so frequently, and so publicly in my life. I was not prepared for it, which made the descent down to mental, spiritual, and emotional turmoil much more difficult. Currently I am trying to allow my failures to teach me, rather than define me.

Perhaps the hardest and most bitter element of my daily inability to reach the level I yearn for is the impact of my short comings on my students.

Mindset and "non-cognitive skills" - some roots of good education

Education has been full of many different kinds of debates, one being the basic and broad question: what is the purpose of our education system? The problem with this question is that not only does our answers influence the way we approach instruction, but this perspective greatly hampers (or strengthens) the learner themselves.

It is clear that there are some significant problems with education in America. So, who should we blame? The teachers who "just don't care"? What about those bad parents that don't push their kids to excel? Maybe it is the new generation of learners, the digital natives who are watching thousands of hours of TV or other media?

Asking who is at blame is a waste of time. Rather, we should be asking what can we do about it? Fortunately, many professionals are asking this question. Surprisingly experts are finding that students excel not necessarily by longer class hours or better media tools, but by developing what Carol Dweck calls a "growth mindset". Below is a short video of some of the views and findings she wrote about in her influential book.

 Dweck is not discussing effective ways to use Twitter in teaching, or really anything new when it comes to good teaching. What she is doing, is focusing us on the fact that children - and students in general - must come to understand that they can do better and continue to improve themselves. Failure is not the end.

Beyond these discussions of how to give feedback, and the influence of constructive feedback and learning by failing, is the subject of the most recent This American Life broadcast. I quote below from the program's website which gives a short summary of some of the content on the 1 hour show (I recommend listening to the whole thing of course!).

"Ira talks with Paul Tough, author of the new book How Children Succeed, about the traditional ways we measure ability and intelligence in American schools. They talk about the focus on cognitive abilities, conventional "book smarts." They discuss the current emphasis on these kinds of skills in American education, and the emphasis standardized testing, and then turn our attention to a growing body of research that suggests we may be on the verge of a new approach to some of the biggest challenges facing American schools today. Paul Tough discusses how “non-cognitive skills” — qualities like tenacity, resilience, impulse control — are being viewed as increasingly vital in education, and Ira speaks with economist James Heckman, who’s been at the center of this research and this shift."

I think by using the media that students are consuming, we can help "coach" them in a way they can identify with and gain motivation by. Obviously just exposing them to the content won't do, but sincere and meaningful discussion about things they care about is what will make a difference. Is it possible that by giving students such attention and leveling with their understanding we might help give them the sort of non-cognitive skills needed? Maybe not, but I think there is an argument here that is worth voicing.

Is it worth it?

As a young student, a frequent question I asked was "why do I have to do this?" The question that usually followed in my mind was "But is it worth it?" Interestingly enough, not only suffering middle school students in math class are asking these questions - but professional adults ponder these very topics every day at work.

Today, in the Harvard Business Review Blog, a small article talks about how some individuals are able to find meaning in their work. What is it that makes these people so unique? I think it is their ability to think deeply about what they are doing, and apply a growth mindset to their situation. This article reminded me of one of my favorite quotes by Martin Luther King Jr. :

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill. Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

So what does this have to do with the Relevant Classroom? In schools student often wonder why they must do things, and what the worth of these activities really is. Even if the answer is something as vague as "it will help you think more critically" at least there is an answer. Kids need to know that even if they are doing small activities that feel mundane or useless, these projects and drills have a purpose. Like Dr King said, we can be the best of whatever we are. Think if every child understood a deeper purpose for doing things, and developed a strong desire to be the best speller then could be, the best writer, mathematician, scientist, artist, thinker, debater, or musician.

Perhaps if we can help children find meaning in their educational experience, they will have become like those featured in the HBR article who have learned to find joy in their seemingly mundane occupations.