The Tempered Radical

Part 1: Using Digital Tools to Support PLCs

You know, I’m not sure that PLC advocates and supporters realize just how difficult collaboration really is for classroom teachers. 

It’s not that we don’t want to work together to ensure the success of our students.  Our hearts have almost always been in the right places. The hitch is that collaborative work requires a measure of coordination that can be downright frustrating for teachers on novice learning teams. 

Over the past six years, my own learning team has had to learn how to coordinate the following actions:

• The development of common assessments.
• The development of shared sets of essential outcomes.
• The publication of shared sets of lessons and materials.
• The organization of team-based collections of web sources.
• The organization of team-based websites for communicating with parents and other interested parties.
• The development of team-based approaches and philosophies about key issues like remediation, enrichment, grading and homework.

While managing team-based resource collections, engaging in meaningful conversations, and collaborating on shared documents are all essential practices for PLCs, they require time and energy that most teachers and teams just don’t have.  Making matters worse is the common perception on the part of school leaders that PLCs are a cheap-and-easy reform strategy that carry no costs!

Organizational theorists—including Clay Shirky, one of my favorite thinkers—recognize that the time, attention and energy that teams invest in coordinating their work ARE costs of doing business.

For many learning teams, these “transaction costs” can be crippling.

Teachers quickly decide whether or not coordination is worthwhile—and if the time and energy necessary to coordinate team efforts don’t outweigh the perceived benefits of collaborative work, commitment to shared learning dies, plain and simple.

Whether we like it or not, teachers on teams have to believe that collaborative work is worthwhile before they’re going to be willing to move forward together. As much as we like to think that teachers would do anything for our students, “whatever it takes” is quickly replaced by “what’s in it for me” in the minds of already overworked teachers.

The good news—and a lesson that I try to share with every learning team that I work with—is that digital tools can help to reduce the transaction costs associated with collaboration and coordination.

TWIT: They Don't Judge Me by a Test

If you've been reading the Radical recently, you know it's been a frustrating week for me.  I'm tired of working in tested subjects and tired of fighting back against under-informed policies.

Things are gloomy inside my professional head, that's for sure.  Which is why the letter that one of my seventh grade soccer players brought by my room yesterday afternoon meant so much. 

Check it out:

Dear Mr. Ferriter,

I just wanted to say that I appreciate your time and effort in putting this season together.  You are a great coach that knows how to teach beautiful soccer and have fun at the same time. 

I know and understand that you appreciate us as much as we admire you, and thank you for that.  Words cannot describe how thankful and blessed we are for you, Coach.  We all hope you are able to come back next year, but if not, we totally understand and are grateful for the time that you have given us.

This season was definitely one that I will never forget, and you are a huge part of that.  I just want to thank you for everything that you have done for us and taught us about the wonderful game of soccer.

--Baker Boy

Next time someone asks about my "value added scores" or my "effectiveness index," I'm going to send them to see this kid!  Maybe then, they'll recognize that the contributions of teachers go far beyond anything a standardized test can measure.  

This is why I teach.

 

The Monster You've Created. . .

May 25, 2010

Dear Mr. Policymaking Man,

As a sixth grade language arts teacher for the better part of the past 16 years, I've tried to serve you well.  I'm proud to have been a role model for my students---men who love reading, writing AND 12-year olds aren't exactly easy to come by---and proud to have passed along skills that will help my students to be influential communicators in whatever profession that they choose.

That work has carried pretty significant costs, though. 

Have YOU ever tried to grade 130 essays seven or eight times every year?  Have YOU ever had to make choices between providing meaningful feedback to your students and spending time with your newborn daughter? 

Have YOU ever worked to find ways to use digital tools to extend conversations beyond your classroom or to create new audiences for novice writers?  Have YOU ever tried to pull writing out of students born to message or focused, concentrated reading out of a generation of infosnackers?

None of that is easy...And YOU'VE done all that you can to make it harder! 

YOU'VE decided that my effectiveness will be based on nothing more than the half-baked end of grade exams that we give every spring.  YOU'VE decided that the best way to prepare young readers is to bury them in practice exams given every few weeks. 

YOU'VE panicked and provided heavily scripted curriculum guides that I'm supposed to adhere to.  And YOU'RE working to institute merit pay plans that will link MY pay to YOUR silly tests.

Don't you think that has an impact on ME? 

Don't you think that I'm jealous of my colleagues who work in untested subjects?  Don't you think that I'd like to be judged by observations instead of exams? 

Don't you think that I'm tired of having "effectiveness indicies" generated on me and being told that the "value" that I "add" to the lives of the students in my classroom can be summed up neatly by a number?

To be honest, I've spent the better part of the past five years wondering why anyone would want to teach language arts.  Buried under stacks of papers and realizing that I've been sentenced to a high-pressure position with no additional time, professional development or compensation, I've started to crumble.

And I've decided to walk away.  Next year, I'm teaching science.

It'll be a beautiful gig.  It's not tested, so there's no unfair external pressure---on me or on my students.  To judge us, you'll have to come and observe us, which means that you're more likely to see that WE ARE more than the number you want us to be. 

You can't take your "multiple-choice cop out" approach to evaluation any more, can you?

And I can experiment and play with my students again.  Sure, we'll get through the curriculum----but we'll do it without the weight of the world sitting on our shoulders and a never-ending pile of multiple choice tests to take. 

Maybe I'll enjoy teaching again----and maybe my students will enjoy learning again. 

Is this the monster you were trying to create when you decided that standardized testing was the best way to judge teachers and schools?

Sincerely,

One seriously burned out dude who you won't listen to anyway.

Read This: Merit Pay for Teachers a Poor Idea

Merit pay plans are less common in the private sector than people think, research shows. Only one in seven employees is covered by a merit pay plan and most of those workers are in real estate or sales.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

I've spent the past decade cringing in conversations about merit pay for teachers simply because:

I'm bugged by the fact that one test at the beginning of June becomes the indicator of my "performance" while almost 60 percent of the professionals in my building work in positions that are not judged by standardized tests. Call it jealousy if you want to.

I fully realize that the FIVE other teachers my middle school language arts students work with each day have an impact---whether it's positive or negative---on my students' reading scores. Why should I get full credit or blame for those numbers?

I know the damage that merit pay plans will have on collaborative efforts in schools. Why in WORLD would I ever share what I know about effective teaching and learning if I know that I'm competing over a small pot of money with my peers?

But every time that I lay out my case against merit pay in education, some spittle-flinging political rube starts shouting about how merit pay has "revolutionized American industry," leading to "more production" and "motivated workers."

"If our schools acted more like our businesses, we'd be competitive internationally!" the argument---usually introduced by some guy with no experience in education who happened to get elected by an under-informed pitchfork wielding mob---goes.

Consider THAT myth dispelled!

Not only do recognized experts on motivation like Daniel Pink believe that merit pay plans are ineffective in knowledge-driven businesses, FEW professionals in the business sector work under merit pay plans---unless they're selling houses or cars, professions where workers have always been independent operators.

NOW can we stop talking about merit pay plans that reward individual teachers based on test scores?

I'm all about restructuring the way that teachers are rewarded and I believe the single-salary schedule results in some teachers being unfairly rewarded and other teachers being unfairly under-rewarded, but restructuring salaries just ain't as easy as Mr. Pitchfork Man thinks it is!

Intervention Conversation: Day 3 Summary

It’s hard to believe, but our focused three-day conversation with Rick and Becky DuFour—authors of Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap—is quickly coming to an end! 

This conversation has been unique to me because it was driven by a small handful of really bright minds.  While there weren’t dozens of participants, those who came engaged deeply:  asking and answering questions, challenging thinking and allowing themselves to be challenged.

The end result is a conversation that will challenge your thinking, too!  Take a few minutes exploring the summaries from the first and second days of our conversation and then poke through our thread online. 

You might also be interested in the comments that I found most interesting today:

On Slide 2, David C asks a really interesting question about essential outcomes when he writes, "Paring down the curriculum can be a bit tricky, though.  When we talk about 8-10 outcomes, how specific do we want an outcome to be? 

For example, a math teacher can determine an outcome to be "students can identify and apply linear relationships between two variables," but this outcome can involve multiple skills.  We can also break things down to the specific skills, but then 8-10 outcomes may be too narrow of a focus."

Intervention Conversation: Day 2 Summary

So we’ve made it through Day 2 of our conversation on interventions with school change experts Rick and Becky DuFour—authors of Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap—and I continue to be blown away by the depth of knowledge of the Radical Nation.

Every time that I stop by the conversation, I have my own thinking challenged, that’s for sure.  And that’s what I love the most about the Web 2.0 world:  I get to learn from people that I’ve never even met.

Too cool.

What’s also cool is that Solution Tree has made a digital copy of the entire text of Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap available to Radical readers for the next two days!  You can download your copy after creating a free account at this website. 

(Note:  Some readers have had trouble downloading their copy.  The link is working---checked it again this morning---so try signing in and then clicking it again.  That's worked for a few people!)

If you haven’t had a chance to join us in Voicethread yet and you’re looking for a way to catch up on the conversation quickly, consider checking out this summary of yesterday’s interactions.  Also, here are some highlights from today’s discussion:

On Slide 3, Liz started a conversation that is bound to catch the eye of teachers that are new to professional learning communities and still value their instructional independence by asking:

"So, does anyone have any good strategies for aligning practices amongst teachers? If you get into even what seems like an "easy" topic such as late work you get a different philosophy on the concept from each teacher…How can we start to have alignment here? Is this a "tight" decision that comes from the top?"

Intervention Conversation: Day 1 Summary

Honestly, I couldn’t be more tickled with how Day 1 of our conversation with Rick and Becky DuFour on the challenges of setting up school-based systems for intervention has gone! 

In just a few short hours, we’ve had BRILLIANT questions asked and answered by professionals working in positions across the educational spectrum.  Classroom teachers are thinking alongside principals and professional developers.  Teachers in large schools are thinking alongside teachers in small, rural communities. 

That kind of diversity leads to a collectively intelligent group, y’all.  My thinking has already been challenged about a dozen times, and that’s cool. 

Here's a few interesting strands of conversation that you might want to jump in on:

On Slide 2, Dan Greenberg---who is a professional developer from Houston---asked an interesting question about our perspectives towards curricula when he asked: 

"In the realm of multicultural education, we hear a lot about some teachers having a deficit view of students and their potential and it seems that deficit view can be applied to curriculum as well.  Are we looking for what should be cut out or is the focus on what should be our essentials?"

That's got me thinking simply because I've never really considered the impact that my own view of the curriculum might have on my teaching and learning---and more importantly on the way that I choose to interact with students or to deliver instruction. 

Is it possible that a deficit view---what in our curriculum do we need to get rid of---might carry implications for our belief systems about what is possible and/or impossible to teach to our kids?

On Slide 3, Eric Townsley and Becky Goerend have introduced the challenges of regrouping for differentiation in high schools, where teachers can often be the only instructor of a particular subject, and in small schools, where there may only be one teacher at each grade level. 

That's really got me thinking, simply because I work in a large school where there are no fewer than 4 teachers in each content area at every grade level.  What I'm wondering is how regrouping to provide differentiated instruction looks different in small schools. 

How can faculties---regardless of their size---make opportunities for reteaching possible?

On Slide 5, Matt Townsley---a full time math teacher---wonders whether school wide systems of interventions are even possible in buildings where faculty members haven't bought into the idea that all teachers serve all students. 

Conversation on Interventions Starts Today!

Here it is, Radical Nation: The first day in our three-day conversation on the nuts-and-bolts of setting up school-wide systems of intervention with school change experts Rick and Becky DuFour, whose newest book, Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap, was recently published by Solution Tree.

Interested in joining the conversation?

Then click this link:  Enter Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap

You might also be interested in this set of directions on how to make digital conversations work for you and this set of directions about how to sign up for a Voicethread account. 

Something to know about navigating Voicethread conversations:

While working in a Voicethread conversation, participants can choose to hit the "Play" button at the bottom of any particular slide and watch the conversation around that slide from beginning to end.  That's probably the best strategy the first time you stop by our conversation with Rick and Becky because you'll get to hear my opening questions, Rick and Becky’s initial responses, and the thinking of other participants.

As you revisit pages, however----something you should do once or twice over the course of the week to see how conversations are developing----you can click on new icons surrounding the quotes that you are interested in to hear new comments that have been added.  You can also click on individual comments in the "Timeline" bar that appears at the bottom of each slide.

By doing so, you won't have to listen to every comment every time that you stop by our conversation!  Instead, you can focus your attention on the thoughts of new participants or participants you’re most interested in learning from.

Let's knock this out of the park, huh?

Take some time in the next three days to add what you know, to allow your thinking to be challenged and to challenge the thinking of others.  Be committed to walking away from this conversation with new information that you can use to push your building forward.

School-wide systems for intervention can be powerful tools for driving change in our buildings, but only when the pieces are laid in place properly---and the first step towards assembling the puzzle is building shared knowledge about what school-wide systems for intervention look like in action. 

Voicethread can help us to do that together.

(Blogger’s Note:  Even though I would have done it for free, Solution Tree—the DuFour’s publishing company—is paying me a bit o’ cash to moderate this conversation.  To learn more about my relationship with Solution Tree, read my nifty new disclosure policy.)

Here it is, Radical Nation: The first day in our three-day conversation on the nuts-and-bolts of setting up school-wide systems of intervention with school change experts Rick and Becky DuFour, whose newest book, Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap, was recently published by Solution Tree.

Interested in joining the conversation?

Then click this link:  Enter Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap

You might also be interested in this set of directions on how to make digital conversations work for you and this set of directions about how to sign up for a Voicethread account. 

Something to know about navigating Voicethread conversations:

While working in a Voicethread conversation, participants can choose to hit the "Play" button at the bottom of any particular slide and watch the conversation around that slide from beginning to end.  That's probably the best strategy the first time you stop by our conversation with Rick and Becky because you'll get to hear my opening questions, Rick and Becky’s initial responses, and the thinking of other participants.

As you revisit pages, however----something you should do once or twice over the course of the week to see how conversations are developing----you can click on new icons surrounding the quotes that you are interested in to hear new comments that have been added.  You can also click on individual comments in the "Timeline" bar that appears at the bottom of each slide.

By doing so, you won't have to listen to every comment every time that you stop by our conversation!  Instead, you can focus your attention on the thoughts of new participants or participants you’re most interested in learning from.

Let's knock this out of the park, huh?

Take some time in the next three days to add what you know, to allow your thinking to be challenged and to challenge the thinking of others.  Be committed to walking away from this conversation with new information that you can use to push your building forward.

School-wide systems for intervention can be powerful tools for driving change in our buildings, but only when the pieces are laid in place properly---and the first step towards assembling the puzzle is building shared knowledge about what school-wide systems for intervention look like in action. 

Voicethread can help us to do that together.

(Blogger’s Note:  Even though I would have done it for free, Solution Tree—the DuFour’s publishing company—is paying me a bit o’ cash to moderate this conversation.  To learn more about my relationship with Solution Tree, read my nifty new disclosure policy.)

Read This: YouTube hits 2 bn daily downloads

"We are a stage and we give everyone in the world an opportunity to participate and that is being a video platform for creating a solution for people to not only upload and distribute their videos on a global basis but to find and share videos."

via news.bbc.co.uk

This article, which describes YouTube's role in the developing media ecology, carries real implications for learners, doesn't it?

After all, people are increasingly creating their own content and consuming content created by others. The filter for publishing---which was always the cost involved in owning the tools of publication---have been completely removed. Today, no one needs to ask for permission to have a voice.

And while I love that freedom---heck, 10 years ago, I would never have had 1,200 people listening to my thoughts about teaching and learning---it also means that the quality controls that once provided a measure of assurance that the content we were consuming were semi-reliable are now completely gone.

That means we're going to stumble across an increasingly large quantity of biased and inaccurate information in our online travels. Because anyone can have a voice, anyone can push their own positions and pass them off as fact. The "nonfiction" content that we're consuming is far more persuasive and slanted today than it has ever been.

Now, as long as we're preparing students for this new reality---as long as we're teaching them how to identify reliable sources and how to spot the bias in the content that they're consuming---we'll be fine in this new media world.

I'm just worried that those lessons are not being delivered in most American classrooms. Our kids see the Internet as an efficient way to gather facts instead of as a trap for opinions.

Does any of this make sense to you?

Voicethread Tips for Upcoming DuFour Conversation

As regular Radical readers know, we're in the middle of planning for an asynchronous Voicethread conversation with school change experts Rick and Becky DuFour (see here and here) who will be helping us to think through the nuts and bolts of creating school-wide systems of intervention. 

For those new to Voicethread, here are a few tips:

Voicethread is one of the easiest---and most engaging---digital forums for discussions available to educators today.  It's a tool that my students have embraced completely (check out this conversation that they had about Darfur) and that I've used with teachers for conversations on Web 2.0, Grading, Reading Instruction and Professional Learning Communities. 

Our conversation with the DuFours will start on May 19th and run until May 21st. 

During that time, Rick and Becky will be stopping by our Voicethread a few times a day to lend their advice and to answer your questions about the challenges of effective intervention in the public schoolhouse----but the real value in our conversation comes from the collective wisdom of all of our participants!  My hope is that we'll wrestle with challenging topics together for four days----answering and asking questions, pushing back against controversial ideas, letting our own preconceived notions be challenged. 

The cool part about Voicethread is that there are no set times for participating in our conversation.  Far from a full four days of constant interaction, Voicethread conversations allow users to choose when they'd like to stop by and learn.  

That means you can stop by as your schedule allows---before school, after feeding the dogs, just before bed----to read comments from other participants and to share your wisdom with the digital peers that join together to reflect on professional learning communities.  

It should be a great example of what collaborative dialogue between accomplished teachers can look like---and it should elicit ideas that we can all use to drive change in our own schools and communities.

To be best prepared to use Voicethread during our conversation with Rick and Becky, consider:

1. Creating a free educator account by visiting http://voicethread.com
2. Viewing this Voicethread tutorial, which will show you how to add comments to a conversation.
3. Viewing this Voicethread tutorial, which will introduce you to the idea of Voicethread identities.

You can also practice by adding a comment to one of the following professional development Voicethreads that I've created for my teachers:

• The Great Grading Debate
• Wondering about Web 2.0
• The Power of Professional Learning Communities

You might also be interested in these "digital conversation suggestions" that I introduce to teachers and students whenever we tackle new tools:

While commenting, try to respond directly to other readers. Begin by quoting some part of the comment that you are responding to help other listeners know what it is that has caught your attention. Then, explain your own thinking in a few short sentences. Elaboration is important when you’re trying to make a point. Finally, finish your comment with a question that other listeners can reply to.

Questions help to keep digital conversations going!

When responding to another participant, don’t be afraid to disagree with something that they have said. Challenging the thinking of someone else will help them to reconsider their own thinking—and will force you to explain yours! Just be sure to disagree agreeably—impolite people are rarely influential.

If your thinking gets challenged by another participant in a conversation, don’t be offended. Listen to your peers, consider their positions and decide whether or not you agree with them. You might discover that they’ve got good ideas you hadn’t thought about. Either way, be sure to respond—let your challengers know how their ideas have influenced you.

Finally, know that you can always leave questions for me in the comment section of this entry.  I'm really excited about our upcoming conversation and want to make sure that everyone feels comfortable with the tool that we'll be using to interact with one another.

As regular Radical readers know, we're in the middle of planning for an asynchronous Voicethread conversation with school change experts Rick and Becky DuFour (see here and here) who will be helping us to think through the nuts and bolts of creating school-wide systems of intervention. 

For those new to Voicethread, here are a few tips:

Voicethread is one of the easiest---and most engaging---digital forums for discussions available to educators today.  It's a tool that my students have embraced completely (check out this conversation that they had about Darfur) and that I've used with teachers for conversations on Web 2.0, Grading, Reading Instruction and Professional Learning Communities. 

Our conversation with the DuFours will start on May 19th and run until May 21st. 

During that time, Rick and Becky will be stopping by our Voicethread a few times a day to lend their advice and to answer your questions about the challenges of effective intervention in the public schoolhouse----but the real value in our conversation comes from the collective wisdom of all of our participants!  My hope is that we'll wrestle with challenging topics together for four days----answering and asking questions, pushing back against controversial ideas, letting our own preconceived notions be challenged. 

The cool part about Voicethread is that there are no set times for participating in our conversation.  Far from a full four days of constant interaction, Voicethread conversations allow users to choose when they'd like to stop by and learn.  

That means you can stop by as your schedule allows---before school, after feeding the dogs, just before bed----to read comments from other participants and to share your wisdom with the digital peers that join together to reflect on professional learning communities.  

It should be a great example of what collaborative dialogue between accomplished teachers can look like---and it should elicit ideas that we can all use to drive change in our own schools and communities.

To be best prepared to use Voicethread during our conversation with Rick and Becky, consider:

1. Creating a free educator account by visiting http://voicethread.com
2. Viewing this Voicethread tutorial, which will show you how to add comments to a conversation.
3. Viewing this Voicethread tutorial, which will introduce you to the idea of Voicethread identities.

You can also practice by adding a comment to one of the following professional development Voicethreads that I've created for my teachers:

• The Great Grading Debate
• Wondering about Web 2.0
• The Power of Professional Learning Communities

You might also be interested in these "digital conversation suggestions" that I introduce to teachers and students whenever we tackle new tools:

While commenting, try to respond directly to other readers. Begin by quoting some part of the comment that you are responding to help other listeners know what it is that has caught your attention. Then, explain your own thinking in a few short sentences. Elaboration is important when you’re trying to make a point. Finally, finish your comment with a question that other listeners can reply to.

Questions help to keep digital conversations going!

When responding to another participant, don’t be afraid to disagree with something that they have said. Challenging the thinking of someone else will help them to reconsider their own thinking—and will force you to explain yours! Just be sure to disagree agreeably—impolite people are rarely influential.

If your thinking gets challenged by another participant in a conversation, don’t be offended. Listen to your peers, consider their positions and decide whether or not you agree with them. You might discover that they’ve got good ideas you hadn’t thought about. Either way, be sure to respond—let your challengers know how their ideas have influenced you.

Finally, know that you can always leave questions for me in the comment section of this entry.  I'm really excited about our upcoming conversation and want to make sure that everyone feels comfortable with the tool that we'll be using to interact with one another.