Our revised diagram highlighting key factors and adding a couple of new ones.
This was the first working session for a group of educators focused on middle school math that is part of a collaborative effort with Milwaukee Succeeds. We began our October 9th session with a silent discussion: using post-it notes to determine what is missing on the causal map, and dots to determine what three factors have the most impact on student learning. Our goal in doing so is build a model that can help us chart a course to improved student performance.
Process is important (engaging in routines and creating common language)
Temptations to resist (not putting words into students mouths)
Mindset check, reminder on what really does help a student
Actually prod student confusion, and allow students that space
If you had a chance to experiment, were you able to? What worked and what didn’t work?
Peer-peer convos, non-verbal responses, but students have a hard time explaining what they really mean beyond the algorithm
Number talks: intentionally planning these talks
Multiple ways of talking about the numbers
Thought patterns, find out where the kids are at
Kids ping-pong off each other to see each other ideas and ways of thinking about things
Kids being so ingrained in rote-memorization, have a hard time getting out of that, and that there isn’t only one way of finding the answer to the math problem
Exercise in meaningful discourse
For the bulk of the evening, Kevin McLeod from UWM’s Department of Mathematical Sciences led the group through a discourse session on a single math problem appropriate for middle school students. This helped provide context for the higher level conversation which ran in parallel around the reasoning behind the process. The problem and his notes are available to download here.
We met with a group of six students from North Division over a three week period during the school’s Wednesday night twilight programming. Our objective was to see if students were willing to share and document their concerns around getting to and from the North Division to attend both school and the twilight program, which runs from 6:30 to 9:00 PM.
Staff from the twilight program sat in on each session.
Over the course of our discussions, the students noted a number of situations where they feel less safe:
For the girls in the group, having men they did not know call out to them as they walk down the street was un-nerving. This was particularly true with older men who had been drinking, since the girls did not know “what they were up to”.
Cars often speed through intersections while they are trying to cross the street. This issue is even more of a concern on heavily trafficked streets.
They associate cars driving slowly down the block with possible drive-by shooters
Students feel less safe being out at night
Students feel less safe when they are alone
Students fear getting jumped by other people they see on their way to or from school
Though less of a problem now, they feared being victims of the point-out/knock-out game
Students feel less safe when walking down a block where there has been a drive-by shooting and will tend to avoid it for two to four weeks afterwards
Students fear getting robbed on a city bus, or as soon as they exit the bus
Students fear walking down streets where they see people they do not trust.
Girls in the group felt safer if a boy was walking with them.
Students don’t trust that if they were hurt on their walk that anyone would come to their aid.
Students don’t count on the police to be able to help or trust asking them for help.
Students have the experience that ambulances are not in a hurry to travel to an incident scene in their neighborhood. They equate this with a lower chance of survival should something happen to them.
Students also identified a number of situations that help them feel safer on the journey to/from school:
Having a house or store within running distance (one to two blocks) where they know someone provides a greater sense that they could find help. A store where they do not have a relationship with the owner or an employee does not provide a sense of safety.
Walking with a one or more other students provides a greater sense of safety
Having a backup route in mind that allows the student to avoid a risk they see on their current path provides a greater feeling of safety than cases where they they need to take a different route but don’t know what they will find there.
Students feel safer when there are others coming to or leaving school at the same time.
Students described the greatest feeling of safety when riding in a school bus or van. In their experience, a staff person (in addition to the bus driver) would be on board to ensure students weren’t hassled. They described riding in a school shuttle with friends, as fun– they felt safe being off the street and were able to relax.
Students avoid engaging with adults they don’t know who call out to them as they walk to or from school. If they do know and trust the adults, seeing them on the streets makes them feel more safe.
A front door that has been boarded up indicates to students that something has happened at that location which causes feeling of unease.
Stores only serve as a place students would trust to seek help if they already have a relationship with the owner or an employee.
Yesterday’s Collab Lab was a joint effort with Milwaukee Succeeds. We pulled together a small group focused on middle school math– what factors lead to student success and what gets in the way. We’ll reconvene the group in October as they work as a cohort to implement the strategies we discussed. Notes from our session are below.
If you’d like to participate in a Math cohort like this, please let us know:
A visual recap of the discussion from Collab Lab 12 on middle school math.
Contributing Factors
Strategies
High quality instruction*
Procedural vs. conceptual knowledge
Real world application
Productive struggle
Engaging/interactive content
Project based learning
Teacher approach
Facilitating math discourse/connections
Culturally responsive practices
Clear objectives
Small group instruction
Student-centered
Differentiation
Student goal setting
Committed leadership*
Teacher support (coaching/mentoring)
Culture of taking risks and experimentation
Parent engagement/advocacy/attitude
Curricula
Common Core State Standards
Cross-sector collaboration and best practice sharing
Math enrichment programs
Coding
Growth Mindset of principals, teachers, parents, and students
Role models mirror students
Increase discourse in math class
Begin math discourse in early grades
Track student responses to ensure equity
Provide wait time
Try “Bounce back”
Use “Turn and talk”
“I notice, I wonder” stems
Pose open ended questions
Setting up the physical space to promote discussion
Build committed leadership
Brookhill (One day PD to show quality instruction)
Schools That Can Milwaukee
Predict where students may struggle and set them up for success
We held our final Collab Lab for the 2016-17 school year on Thursday June 15th, where the topic for the evening was “Creating a culture of innovation in schools”.
We prompted the discussion with three questions:
What does a culture of innovation look like?
What stands in the way?
How can you create one anyway?
Our notes from the evening are below. Thanks again to all who were able to join us. It was a great group and a really interesting set of conversations!
Big Ideas
Innovation (continuous improvement) works in a system that instills a feeling of safety and encourages risk taking as a dedicated team.
Look for cross disciplinary problems that have meaning for students
Permission from the top for bottom up innovation
Autonomy allows bright spots which can then spread
Culture needs to come from school leadership
Use the right metrics
Start with what inspires the student
What does a culture of innovation look like?
Inquisitive
Focused risk taking
Failure is ok — fail forward
Collaboration
High engagement
interesting/fun
Student ownership of learning
Authentic
Healthy level of trust within the organization
Involvement
Empathetic
Public — welcomes feedback
There is a purpose and time for innovation
Innovation days — re-energizes staff
Hackathons — new products/committed block of time
Everyone drinks the Kool Aid
Encourage the design process
Inquirey
Opportunistic
Curiosity
What education means
Innovation is a value & aspiration, it does not equal effeciancy
One can innovate around people, process, technology
Leverage other resources, get kids involved
Cross domains
Power to the edge
Teams w/autonomy w/in safety construct
What is the smallest thing to start w/to start a feedback loop
Autonomy “fails” all the time– acknowledge failure, know it, work past it.
More difficult/important problems typically get less $$, time, resources
Teachers develop understanding about what’s happening in industry
What stands in the way
Taxpayer expectations
Teacher training
Uncertain ROI
Implementation Fidelity
Not everyone is innovative
It’s tough socially to be an innovator
Building (e.g. school) climate
Schools are structured to resist change
Mental models (of what school should look like)
Expectations of students, teachers
We train to technology rather problem solving/leadership
Are we selling it well?
Structure — no time to see what else is out there/what is possible
Scaling 35 x 5
It’s a big ledge to jump off of
Lack of courage to go off script
Lack “well functioning” partnerships w/industry
Those in charge of designing the system impact the level innovation capability
[Feeling that] “we’re looking good already”
Parents
How can you create one anyway?
Play to strengths
Give permission
Visit other rooms/schools
Use different metrics:
Engagement
21st century skills
Focus on problems that matter to kids
Start with problems in school
Find a one off opportunity and then do it again
Show that it is valued by school/district leadership
Ask for something small at first
Transparency– get ahead of perception
Start as elective then tie into curriculum
Look for bright spots
Focus on interest in problems and who students need
Over the course of our Collab Labs this year, we’ve often heard that well crafted, collaborative, authentic learning experience provide students a safe place to fail and recover and through that, build resilience. At Collab Lab 10, we focused on resilience directly, asking the following questions:
What do you see that worries you?
What drives that behavior?
What strategies do you use to overcome that?
Our discussions ranged from students dealing with trauma to those who’s main source of stress is continual pressure to perform at a high level.
Sheri Marlin from the Waters Foundation was able to join us again, and provided a couple of causal loop diagrams as part of our reflection at the end of the session:
Trust/Resilience : Increased levels of trust lead to increased resilience. Increased resilience leads to an increased ability to trust.
Environment/Resilience: A supportive environment leads to increased resilience. Increased resilience helps create a more supportive environment for others
As part of the wrap up, Lori Lange from Beloit Memorial High School shared the story of the laundry program she put together to develop the capacities of special ed students and help address a basic need of those that are economically disadvantaged. It’s a great story of students working together to build resilience. You can read more here: https://beloitschools.org/loads-to-success/
Thanks to all of our participants for joining us for another great evening of discussion. Notes from our breakout groups are below.
Group 1
What do you see that worries you?
Wandering halls — unfocused
So focused on discipline that there is no self-discipline
Focus on trauma misses developing resilience
Adults losing their ability to be resilient in front of kids
Absence of consequences
Compassion fatigue
How to teach it?
Reactive — social norm is don’t worry until it is too late
Kids have to stay in resilience mode constantly
Trauma — complexity of trauma/lack of support systems
What do you “bounce back” to?
Facade of perfection (self told stories)
What drives (resilient) behavior?
Resilience is a muscle
Adapting
Knowing when to use strategies
Survival instinct
Past failure and recovery
Self talk – resilient people have a unique ability to control thoughts, beliefs and attitudes
Good support — relationships — trust
Mentoring — modeling — role models
Infant bonding
Coping vs resilience
peer pressure
fate?
social norms
unexpected change
Reading history
Perspective
Family stories (immigration)
Exposure — expectation — hope — dreaming
Knowing healthy ways to cope
Sense of constancy
Diet — sleep — routine
Purpose
Faith
What strategies do you use to overcome that?
Develop a common understanding of resilience
from ambiguous to concrete
Self discovery
Providing experiences — not teaching “it”
Pedagogy of confidence– building on students’ life stories
“Learning to Walk” — “trial and learn”
Design thinking
providing experience
healthy risk taking vs risk adverse
Catching kids being resilience — name it
Creating safe space — language
Trusting relationships — time/space
Community
multi-age interactions
Perspectives
avoid over managing
discovery
sharing experiences
Modeling mentoring
Re-teach coping strategies
Remove barriers to healthy coping strategies
Brave space vs safe space
Accountability/Voice
Group 2
What do you see that worries you?
Lack of understanding of level of stress
We don’t use failure as a teaching tool
“You didn’t fail, you are just not there yet!”
Life events – conflict at home/in community
Meet people’s basic needs (kids →families)
not happening
laundry program (in Beloit HS to meet that need)
No emergency room for mental health
Increased occurrence of trauma among youth
Rigidity of the classroom
Lack of connection/dependable suppport
Teacher burnout
Lack of purpose in life
What drives that (worrisome) behavior?
Institutional roadblocks
teachers can do it anyway with leadership support
Erosion of supports
Culture
preconceived notions
us vs them
political climate
Structural poverty
Violence as a taught behavior
Food desert
State pressure on school districts to perform
State testing!
Parent expectations
incarceration of minority men
What Strategies do you use to overcome that?
Bike program
Boundary program
Mental health clinic in the school (may cause problems at home)
Empowerment
resources access
break through co-dependency
Peer examples/role models
Student ownership of changing one’s circumstances
Separating by gender
break through stereotypes (STEM)
Trauma informed care at the school
reduce expulsion numbers
Teach children to rely on each other
Build context to relate to in “why” decisions
Accommodate different learning styles
Group 3
What do you see that worries you?
Lack of motivation (students, parents, teachers)
Unhealthy coping — cutting
Kindness is getting lost (cooperation/caring)
Inability to connect
Lack of history/common experience
Disconnect from culture
Frustration with how to reach kids
How to connect
Self validation vs validation from others
Inequity
Lack of caring for kids
Sense that no one cares/I am heard
Sadness/anxiety
Kids don’t move
Integration of social/emotional health
Relevance– lack experience/context
What drives that (worrisome) behavior?
Lack of skills/understanding
Parents are lost
Use of social media
Sitting all day for classes
Liability of going out on a limb
Teachers lack skills for trauma informed care
Teacher/students from different cultures
Empathy fatigue
Who can I ask for help
Teachers are forced to triage
Parents don’t value education
Too much stress in personal life
Survival — all I see is failure
Pressure for material goods
Divorce — parents are overworked
single moms working 2-3 jobs
Kids aren’t safe alone
Lack of opportunities to fail well
Low expectations
Parents in survival mode
Mismatch between teacher evaluations and what is important (to do for students)
Kids pushed through system
Grades
Fear of talking about emotions
What strategies do you use to overcome that?
Mindfulness
PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports)
4 days of instruction, 1 day job embed
Bring awareness of trauma
Awareness of different situations
Support from outside to take the load off of teachers
Tuesday was pitch night at 88.9 for The Commons. The Betty Brinn/Learn Deep team shared their vision of CSA-farm-box meets up-cycling. The solution looks to offer schools a subscription service that delivers a mystery box of materials for use in a makerspace on a monthly basis. Great idea, go team!
We have an idea on how to make this happen in Milwaukee. If you’re interested, let us know.
Our next Innovation in Action tour is coming up on May 23rd. The innovation team from Briggs & Stratton will take us on a tour of their R&D center, lead you through an innovation workshop and answer your questions.
This event is free and open to K12 educators in the Milwaukee area, but space is limited. View details and register here.
Questions from participants on the wall of the Big Idea Room.
A big thanks to Brian King for opening up the MJDS Innovation Hub for our visit and willingness to entertain all questions that could fit on the wall.
Thanks also to Quentin Allums from Mad Genie who came out before the tour with his 360° camera. Quentin showed a group of MJDS students how to capture still and video images for video and VR and with some occasional advise, turned them loose to capture the Innovation Hub. A first look at what they produced is here:
360 Selfie under the guidance of Quentin Allums at the close of Collab Lab 9
Collab Lab 9 focused on evaluating success of makerspaces and FabLabs. We used three questions to guide the discussion:
What does success look like?
What makes it difficult to assess?
How can those barriers be addressed?
Our discussion groups came up with these three big ideas to take home:
We have to learn to be comfortable with failure (and willing to model it for our students).
Makerspaces are a tool for developing a mindset
Successful makerspaces are the definition of individualized learning — teachers have the opportunity for one on one interaction with students, students are able to follow their passions.
And as a bonus: If students aren’t having fun, you aren’t there yet.
Links to things people heard about at Collab Lab 9:
NEXT.cc:NEXT.cc supports making across the curriculum with STEAM based project learning set to NEXT Generation Science, Art & Design, and North American Association for Environmental Education Standards. Scaffolding cognitive learning with discovery, NEXT.cc’s eLearning DESIGNopiedia introduces skills and integrates K12 classrooms with apps, virtual field trips, TEDed courses, free data sets, mapping, and science interactives bringing our youth into the future of lifelong learning.
Mark Keane’s architecture classes for high school students:
Draw to Build I & II
UWM SARUP now offers two dual enrollment Architecture courses for juniors and seniors in high school. They can be accessed via Youth Options or PLA. Contact Prof. Keane for more information: keane@uwm.edu. Here’s a brief piece on the course featuring Collab Lab attendee Cindy McClinn and her students: http://uwm.edu/news/area-students-explore-architecture-100-and-perhaps-a-career/
Notes from breakout groups:
Group 1: We have to learn to be comfortable with failure (and willing to model it for our students)
What does success look like?
Dewy — Congnition — Metacognition
Mistakes & Failure
Outputs: What does it look like? What does it sound like?
Growth Mindset
Common Process
Audience?
Economic?
Engagement
What makes it difficult to assess?
Teacher/Educator thinking
Tasks — What is authenticity?
Standardization
Questions are unwelcome
Grade based system
Lack of experience with failure/open tasks
Kids are trained to think about school in “school” ways
Behaviorist vs Constructivist
How can those barriers be addressed?
Common processes
Digital modeling
Community involvement
What is making?
Hope
Culture
Expertise
Group 2: Makerspaces are a tool for developing a mindset
What does success look like?
Passion for a career path
Meaningful collaboration
Focused engagement on task
Problem solving
Equality of ideas/contributions
Success is nurtured and progressive
Teachers as facilitators & learners
Learning through experimentation
High level of resilience to change
Authentic experiences
Makerspaces is a process/culture
Fun
Futuring
What makes it difficult to assess?
Traditional buildings
Lack of exposure/access to tech
“Accounting mindset” of leadership
How do I manage the learning process?
How do I track learning that takes place 24 x 7?
Gather the info that leadership needs
Kids don’t know how to self-assess/be accountable for their learning
There is not time to teach anything that doesn’t lead to a 22 on the ACT
Don’t know how to reach outside businesses for real higher level learning
Parents
Teacher education is not continuous and focused on designing engaging project opportunities
Tine to do something other than standardized tests
Group 3: Successful makerspaces are the definition of individualized learning — teachers have the opportunity for one on one interaction with students, students are able to follow their passions
What does success look like?
Start with purpose– of the space; of the school
For who? Student, teacher, school, community
Attendance up
Increased engagement– students and teachers
Growth
Leadership
Curiosity is sparked
Students (and teachers) are not afraid to fail
Becomes part of the culture of the the school/community
It is demonstrated
Craftsmanship
Ability to transfer and apply the skills learned
Hit high standards
Process
Finding one’s self
Be able to adapt/be responsible
Kids set their own expectations
Compliance does not equal success
Integrated with curriculum
Other teachers are comfortable using the space
Students understand how to be life long learners
Teachers have an individual connection with students
Fun
What makes it difficult to assess?
Who is asking– district, school, parent, student
Subjective
Individualized
Long time frame required to see the results
Figuring out what is important
Pressure for standardized testing
Students are handed off to someone else (for the makerspace work)
Changing expectations
Getting teachers to adopt a new role– mentor/guide
How can those barriers be addressed?
Agreement on what you want to see happen
Ask how the community can help
Ask students for self evaluations
Classroom teachers should work with students within a makerspace (rather than handing them off)
Show off the results of student efforts
Great progress over the past week as our team has honed in on a pretty interesting up-cycling model. Last night work began to lay out their pitch in preparation for demo day, Tuesday April 25th.
For the bulk of the evening, Kevin McLeod from UWM’s Department of Mathematical Sciences led the group through a discourse session on a single math problem appropriate for middle school students. This helped provide context for the higher level conversation which ran in parallel around the reasoning behind the process. The problem and his notes are available to download here.
Tuesday was pitch night at 88.9 for The Commons. The Betty Brinn/Learn Deep team shared their vision of CSA-farm-box meets up-cycling. The solution looks to offer schools a subscription service that delivers a mystery box of materials for use in a makerspace on a monthly basis. Great idea, go team!
