Collab Lab 11 Recap & Notes

Pete Reynolds Blog, Collab Labs June 27, 2017December 5, 2018Collab Lab

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
Acknowledge self discovery
Leadership action
Organize PLCs
Align goals w/innovative initiatives
Focus on the real problem
Assemble the right people
Incentivise problem solving
Create a “Vision of the graduate”

Collab Lab 10 Recap

Pete Reynolds Blog, Collab Labs May 16, 2017December 5, 2018Collab Lab, Resilience

Building Resilience

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
Understand why students struggle
Use research — let kids experience failure
Alternative evaluations
Exercise/physical activity
Community service
Policies adapt to community
Self care/set boundaries
- start early
Care of others/empathy
Building community
Having system support

Collab Lab 9 Recap & Notes

Pete Reynolds Blog, Collab Labs April 14, 2017December 5, 2018Collab Lab, Makerspaces

Collab Lab 9 360 Selfie — 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:

April 20th: Tour of Milwaukee Jewish Day School’s Innovation Hub

April 27th: Betty Brinn’s Making in Education Community of Practice

May 11th: Collab Lab 10: Building Resilience

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.

21st Century Classrooms
Outdoor Classrooms
Makerspaces

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

Collab Lab 11: Creating a Culture of Innovation

How do you support the teachers at your school(s) that want to do great things?

There’s a recurring theme we’ve heard in our Collab Lab series this year — the innovative ideas teachers have to engage students in collaborative, authentic learning experiences are hard to get off the ground without support from school and district leadership.

So what are you doing to ensure that teachers at your school(s):

have the time, autonomy, and resources to experiment,
permission to fail and learn,
the flexibility to seize opportunities as they arise?

Come share ideas with your colleagues at public, private, and charter schools from across greater Milwaukee, as well as some folks outside of K12 who offer an interesting perspective on the topic.

Collab Lab 11 is aimed at school and district leadership who are wondering how to support the efforts of their teaching staff to best serve students. We’ll bring along folks from the wider community that understand what it takes to build a culture of innovation and welcome back the strong voices of educators we’ve heard over the past several months.

Agenda

5:30 – 6:00 Grab something to eat and drink, say hello

6:00 – 8:30 Let’s learn from each other

Food and beverage will be provided. There is no charge for participation but space is limited!

Featured Participants

Among others, you’ll have a chance to talk with:

Jane Barr – Regional Vice President, North America Sales, Services & Solutions, Rockwell Automation

Jane provides leadership and strategic direction for the sales force in the North America Eastern region. She is responsible for developing and executing the business strategy positioning Rockwell Automation products and services to best support Rockwell’s customers in achieving their business objectives.

Jan Haven – Director, Department of Innovation, Milwaukee Public Schools
The Innovation Office directs the research, promotion, development and implementation of innovative educational programs and practices and manages the interface of the innovation function with other central service offices and schools. The office also works to build capacity of district and school staff through strategic partnerships.

Jason Montague – Senior Vice President, Baird
Jason is Senior Vice President for Baird, a privately held, employee-owned financial services firm (currently #4 on Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work list!). Jason is responsible for multiple functions at Baird, including software development, architecture, and data management. Before joining Baird, he held leadership positions at Wells Fargo; MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates; and US Bank. Jason is on the board of a number of community groups, and helped found Milwaukee Agile, an industry group dedicated to growth in technology leadership. He has also been a very active proponent of Innovation in many forms, including Systems Thinking and Lean Startup.

Dave Neuman – Global Product Manager, Software Identification Solutions, Brady Corporation
For the past 20 years, Dave has been developing and promoting new technology solutions & services, building world-class software engineering & IT organizations, and coaching the next generation of technical leaders & agile practitioners.

Today, Dave is leading global product engineering teams at Brady Corporation in the development of new cloud products and mobile apps, driving commercialization and growth of software and solutions as a global product manager, and scouting emerging technologies that could help customers better identify and protect people, products, and places.

Tim Poppert – Assistant Director of Digital Innovation – Northwestern Mutual
Tim Poppert is a Wisconsin native and has spent over 15 years at Northwestern Mutual working in Application Development & Support, IT Architecture and Digital Innovation. In 2014, Tim was asked to help create and lead the strategy of digital innovation at Northwestern Mutual, which includes the implementation of the Digital Innovation team. In this role, Tim oversees, creates and maintains the vision for Digital Innovation and how to continuously foster a dynamic culture of innovation. He works to develop and maintain self-empowered teams to drive innovation, from design thinking to ideation to the execution of digital solution prototype’s and MVP’s.

And others to be announced…

Location

The Collab Lab will be held in the innovation space at Ward 4, 333 North Plankinton Avenue, Milwaukee, WI. Space provided courtesy of The Commons.

Collab Lab 8 Recap & Notes

Pete Reynolds Blog, Collab Labs, Workshops March 10, 2017December 5, 2018Collab Lab, The Arts

Collab Lab 8 focused on integrating the arts across disciplines. We used three questions to guide the discussion:

What capabilities do arts educators bring to schools?
How might those capabilities be leveraged across disciplines?
How can can we get started?

Thanks to Nancy Blair for a wrap up process that helped us get down to the one big idea coming out of the discussions of each question. Here’s what our discussion groups came up with:

What insights/capabilities do arts educators bring? (Raw materials)

Metaphor
Teaching life skills through the arts
Boost in self concept especially with low performing students
Accountability through feedback
Develops relationships
Gives students power to create and execute
Gives light and energy to students day
Symbiotic relationships teachers teaching kids teaching teachers.
Can reinforce/correlate with other subject areas (reading, math, art, social studies, science)
Inspiration, different way of seeing, Skills (how to)
Opportunity for collaboration through different points of view. (requires a structure)
Supports a project based approach to learning
Meaningful creation-problem solving
Art is about everything and nothing without context
Performance amazes the audienc
Knowledge of material
Manipulation of phenomena
Art is about “everything”
Art is nothing without context
Creativity within PBL
Balance between skill building and creativity
Leverage “taste” vs natural exploration
Creativity and learning or built-in
Creativity leads to understanding and “lateral moves”
Understand struggle and making “mistakes”
Content →skills → engagement (motivation)!
Evaluate the accomplishment/competency
Creates engagement and motivation
Creates trust for problem based learning
Teacher is coach-role model-how do you learn from mistakes
Create time and space for students to guide their own learning.
Bust out of rigid traditional structure
Models personalized learning
Can teach the design cycle that can then be applied to individual interest area.
Rich feedback and critique
Arts are a way for communicating the inevitable-brings out tacit knowledge from students
Values what each student brings to the table.
Creativity
Questions
Ability to work in chaos
Embrace uncertainty
Different way of seeing
Healing
Willing to accept randomness
Provide permission to play
Make us human
To dream new view-what is work
Being vulnerable
Connection
Empathy/compassion

BIG IDEA: Art and Art Educators provide structure to build skill and catalyze creativity that connects to everything.

How can those be leveraged across the curriculum? (New ideas transferable to other parts of the school/curriculum)

Shared resources, space,
be scrappy
artist resource network
collaboration can pic up slack-partnership, creating innovative environment, inspiration, different levels of funding, New relationship, partnership,
change and inspire
adopting new technology
promote unplanned , unstructured learning opportunities
Arts educators are often isolated in schools-others don’t understand what you do
The more relationships can be built across departments the more advocacy can occur for project-based learning
Once relationships are established gaps can be bridged
Build a small group of teachers that can build consensus then it can spread.
Pick a sample project that can be shared with other teachers to peek their interest
Showcase the work so teachers can appreciate the students work
Take the opportunity to showcase the process as well as the product. (informance)
Some arts educators see arts integration as a threat or “arts light”: Have to be careful with approach.
Administration can offer time for art educators to collaborate with classroom teachers.
PD for leadership to make initiatives sustainable
Takes one or two energetic people in the building that want to take it on
Has to grow organically
The FabLab is a space where other disciplines could be reaching out
Break down silos
Usually doesn’t come from leadership
Just do it and see what happens-grab it through the children
Make products visible-provide exposure to peek someone’s interests
Make cool stuff and give it away
“Explore Like a Pirate”, a game application for the classroom
Show link between art/design to 21st century skills
Build the technical skills to apply to different content
Build the bridge between what the students are learning and the type of world the students will live in.
Build literacy skills across all subject areas: process and conception different.
Effective use of maker spaces-making things that are quality, sustainable, repairable
How can the arts to build a better future- a world that is want to live in
Create positive feedback between business and the arts-make a business case of the value and practical application of the arts.
Most problems are not rocket science –they are solvable
Opportunities for kids-Exposure to everything-allow them to engage with real world problem.
More opportunities to reach beyond the walls of the school –connection to the real world beyond the school world

BIG IDEA: Collaborate within and without to break down silos and open up connections and possibilities.

Where do we start? (Action)

Provide evidence to parents-_Youtube
Talk, share, network
Showcase event →work backwards to weekly (?) level
Make your own tutorial
Bring in an expert to critique
Use global audience network
Mobility – Teach in a different setting
Flash mob demos
Leverage MPS Year of the Arts
Field trips
Find ways to teach being comfortable with being uncomfortable
Cultivating patronage for the arts in schools
Funding is essential
Redefine patronage to extend support beyond current forms
Develop relationships with contributors at all levels-its up to us to determine where.
Use Informances to develop interest and curiosity

BIG IDEA: Inform, motivate and entice through shared products and processes to organically build support and resources.

Collab Lab 7 Recap and Notes

Pete Reynolds Blog, Collab Labs, Workshops February 15, 2017December 5, 2018Collab Lab, Systems Thinking, Waters Foundation

Using Systems Thinking tools to explore driving engagement

Iceberg diagram — Adapted by Systems Thinking in Schools, Waters Foundation www.watersfoundation.org from Innovation Associates, Inc.

As a prelude to the Systems Thinking Institute coming up in March, Sheri Marlin from the Waters Foundation and Ellen Grasely and Betsy Markwardt from Humboldt Park K8 School helped facilitate and captured notes from our breakout groups in iceberg diagrams. The key idea behind systems thinking and this tool in particular, is that:

outcomes are driven by behavior
behavior is driven by the structure of the system within which individuals operate
that structure, in turn, is driven by our mental model of how things should work.

To drive a systemic change in outcomes then, one needs to change the mental model we operate from.

In our discussions, we walked through each of these layers from the perspective of both how the current system works and what we’d like to see it move to. We wrapped up each discussion with the question “How will you move forward?”