How Was Your Day At School?

"How was your day at school?"  That's a pretty common question for every parent with school age children.  But who is asking you about your day?  Today I had the pleasure of meeting (albeit in a Google Hangout) Nathan Eklund of Eklund Consulting.  Nathan is a former High School English teacher from Minnesota, and current lead strategist at a charter school in New York city.  His consulting group is focused on one thing: making schools a great place to work.  His book is entitled, "How was your day at school?" and he's not asking kids.  He's asking that of teachers and other adults working in our schools.

Look, teaching is hard.  Really hard.  No...I mean REALLY hard!!  It is a whirlwind experience that will make your head spin off.  Planning instruction, designing curriculum, meeting performance goals, managing student behavior and parent relationships, tying shoes, zipping pants, wiping tears and noses, grading 100s of papers.  Don't forget the committees your on, or that team you coach.  This is complicated, exhausting work.  Now imagine you arrive at your school everyday and you are met by a pit viper behind the building secretary's desk, you have to avoid a staff bully in the lounge, or a team member that constantly complains about the administration, "pointless testing", "those kids" and "those parents, that "ridiculous" district mandate, and constant bickering.  You are afraid to open your mouth because you don't want it to be misinterpreted and used against you later.  Your classroom neighbor yells at her kids all morning as a behavior management strategy. 

Probably not what you signed up for when you decided to pursue education as a career.  Most teachers love their work and their students, but many will describe a highly dysfunctional work environment where the only recourse is to show up, walk into their classroom and shut the door.  Teachers at theses schools avoid eating in the lounge because of the radioactive pollutants that seem to grow and fester there.  Teachers at theses schools are laying rubber in the parking lot at 4:00 to get out of there.

What, instead, if you were greeted by a radiant mile in the office (like my secretary in Kettle Moraine) everyday?  What, instead, if there were no bullies in the lounge, your team members are driven by questions that push and support you in your work with students, data was embraced as a powerful tool to guide instruction, and the lounge was a place for collegial discussion and a place to relax with your co-workers?   

There is a formula to make any school hum with the effort of engaged, motivated and satisfied staff.  

This does not happen without effort, significant effort.  But the pay off is incredible.  Staff feel valued and invested.  The hard work is worth it because you feel good about your work and day.  From 2005-2007 I was a Lead Teacher at Valley Crossing Community School.  Valley Crossing is intentional in their effort to support a positive school environment and the results show.   VCCS earned an E. Boyer Foundation Award in recognition of professional collaboration in 2003 for their effort and continues to be an amazing place to work and learn ten years later.  

The staff and school leaders understands it begins with the adult community.  As a school wide Responsive Classroom school, Valley Crossing plans and implements structures that supports success for kids, but also plans and implements structures that supports a strong adult community.  Staff and parents have a vehicle for their voices to be heard through a shared decision making process.   Teachers have additional time to plan and work with their teammates to improve instruction every day.  Staff members celebrate each other's hard work formally and informally.  All staff socials are held monthly before school starts to provide a healthy way to start the day and bring the entire staff together to show that they value each other (often with a fun theme).  Norms of collaboration are established, shared, and revisited throughout the year.  Teachers are given the opportunity for leadership by leading curriculum teams, as members of the "Lead Team", or by serving the Shared Decision Making Council.    

Lots of schools are deliberate about their adult community.  It does take effort and has to be well thought out, but the pay off is visible in the reduced stress levels of the staff, and the success of the students.  What does your school do to promote a healthy and positive adult community?

Design Thinking Process: Bringing Creativity Back To The Classroom

Many educators and non-educators agree that new and transformational practices are necessary to prepare our students for the future.  21st Century Learning skills emphasize the need for teachers to prepare creative thinkers and problem solvers.   At the same time, teachers are pushed and expected to perform on standardized assessments.  Many teachers accurately identify a creative vacuum in their classroom.  As a Principal I observed this day in and day out in.  Feeling the pressure to meet growth goals measured by MAP tests and cover mandated curriculum, teachers cast aside learning opportunities for their students that embed creative thinking.  It is not hard to figure out how we got here.  Enter Design Thinking. Design Thinking is an emerging learner-centered process that may provide the answer to the need for educators to prepare students for success on assessments, and prepare them for success in a complex world where critical and creative thinking is necessary.

Is it enough to create Problem Solvers?

Design Thinking, according to No Tosh CEO and founder Ewan McIntosh, allows us to move away from teacher focused instruction to learner centered classrooms.  Recently there has been great emphasis on creating "problem solvers".  Instead, McIntosh encourages us to create "problem finders".  He presents the concept of creating "Problem Finders", not Problem Solvers through the Design Thinking Process in his November 18, 2011 Tedx presentation.

Design Thinking: 5 Step Process

Design Thinking Process follows five steps:

1. Immersion: Observation and Empathy 
2. Synthesis
3. Ideation
4. Prototyping 
5. Refinement

Immersion: Observation and Empathy

Through teacher chosen "epic" themes, students engage in developing questions to real world problems  based on their observations of the world around them--often observing experiences of others outside of their day to day experience.   The development of empathy occurs as students ponder the problem they have chosen to solve through the eyes of those that live it daily.  The themes are broad, yet allow teachers to consider and anticipate where the opportunity for curricular connections may exist.

Synthesis

Through the Synthesis process, students begin to see themes emerge as they brainstorm possibilities.  

More questions are often generated during this process allowing your students to bring their thinking together as it aligns with the overall theme.  The divergent Immersion process continues to create the messy business of learning as students further develop their understanding of the problem, leading them down the path of convergent thinking during the Synthesis process.

Ideation

This is the part of the process where convergent thinking begins to grow into real solutions, not just possibilities.  Student engagement is fully developed by this stage as students have shifted from the divergent thinking to solutions-based thinking.  Here's the problem...now solve it!  This is where the teaching and learning has formalized in the five step process.  

Prototyping

Students have made their observations and developed empathy through the Immersion process.  They generated ideas, shared them, and learned more about the issues relating to the problem through the Synthesis and Ideation process.  Now it is time to create a model to test the idea.  The Prototype phase is the part of the process where students realize that they are done talking about it.  It's time to do something about it.  Abstraction is transformed into action!

Refinement

As educators, we are constantly reflecting on our work.  This is a critical skill to develop in our students.  Refinement, the final step in the Design Thinking Process, is the point in which we turn the experience back to the student for reflection.  How did our solution meet the need?  How can we improve on our success and failed effort?  

Teachers that engage in this process report increased engagement and highly-motivated students.  Students are making choices about their learning as teachers let go of control of the learning process.   Ewan McIntosh writes and reflects on the process through his Design Thinking blog.

Stanford University's D.School

Ewan McIntosh is not the only resource on this topic.  Standford University School of Design is working with school districts throughout the country.  Their resources are deep!  For an overview of their model start here.  Still hungry for more?  Download the Stanford Design Thinking Workbook.


Have you used Design Thinking in your classroom?  Share your thoughts and experiences!