“Creating self-directed learners.”

“Building lifelong learners.”

“Cultivating global citizens.”

But when you walk into many of their classrooms, learning looks pretty much the same. 

A teacher stands tall at the front of the classroom referencing information on a smartboard or rolling TV monitor, talking to kids seated neatly in rows. Sure, the medium for delivery might have changed; with slick, AI generated slide decks, Nearpod or Edpuzzle to help deliver more interactive lessons, and laptops in front of each learner; but the focus hasn’t. 

The teacher is still the focal point, and the lesson is the same.

In my work with aspiring agentic schools around the world, and thought leaders in the field (including High Tech High), I have identified and curated a list of 12 shifts toward designing a student-centered and agentic classroom and compiled them in a forthcoming book, Where is The Teacher: The 12 Shifts for Student-Centered Environments. My hope is that by sharing how agentic schools are applying these 12 shifts within their context, it provides you with the confidence to make your classroom more student-centered as well. 

Shift #1: From Teacher-Designed to Co-Designed

Ancient Civilizations were former upper elementary teacher and instructional coach Linda Amici’s of Westerville Ohio City Schools most dreaded set of standards. As she states, “They didn’t excite learners. They saw no relevance to their lives.” Through a simple reframing of how she designed the unit, suddenly, they did. Through a Google form, she asked students what civilization they wanted to learn about. Which questions and topics excited them? She co-crafted a more relevant question (What impact do contributions from the past have on our lives today?), and criteria for how students would be evaluated- which included rigorous curriculum standards. After six weeks of student-centered learning, her students transformed her classroom into a museum to showcase their creations. Some shared fashion tips and re-created clothing items from the Ancient Greeks, while others re-enacted battle sequences from the Persian Wars. Students were suddenly empowered and agentic, and as Linda put it, “even the 6 foot 10 superintendent” was impressed.

Questions for Reflection: 

1. Before introducing a new topic, how might you discover what your students are interested in learning about? 
2. How might you offer more choices or a menu of options around what students create to demonstrate their learning? 
3. How might you work together to unpack curricular standards and weave them into your student’s individual projects? 

Shift #2: From Led by Content to Led by Inquiry

Imagine fifty students huddled together in an abandoned field outside of their school. This is how the 6 week long inquiry-based experience entitled ‘Phoenix Project: Rebuilding Society’ began at The International School of Beijing. And it wasn’t guided by a textbook. It was guided by inquiry around how these year 7 students would rebuild society after being leveled by a devastating earthquake. In small teams, they would explore possible food growing techniques, government and economic structures, and a code of ethics to present to an overseeing panel of their peers. What was the teacher’s role? To set up the milestones and guide the experience behind the scenes. Facilitators Brendan Riley, Houming Jiang, and I introduced relevant anchor texts, held small mini-lessons/workshops, and supported student teams in formulating inquiries and finding answers. As a result, students transformed from passive learners into real city planners. 

Questions for Reflection: 

1. How might you take a topic you teach and transform it into an open-ended question? 
2. How might you organize lessons and content to support students in answering the big question? What 3-4 milestones might you set up to help guide the experience? 
3. What inquiry/visible thinking routines might you use to make student questions visible? (Check out Havard Ground Zero’s Core Thinking Routine Toolbox)

Shift #3: From Teacher Questions to Student Questions

“To what extent has sustainability reflected on the modern Chinese fashion trend?”

“How do foreign ideas affect Chinese art through social media?”

“What are the socio-environmental impacts of rapid urbanization on vulnerable populations in China, and how can sustainable urban planning and policies mitigate these effects?”

“How would we present traditional cuisine in different regions of China, and how they have changed recently, to a High School Audience?”

These were all questions generated by students as part of a Modern China unit in Andrew Morrissey’s year 10 classroom at Beijing City International School. Students formulated questions; teamed together to explore them; and developed authentic products and presentations to address them. Some teams created video blogs, others interactive websites, some documentaries, and even more informational videos. As he put it, “[previously] they found no relevance to the unit in their lives.” To support students in exploring their own inquiries, Andrew developed an online Group Action Plan and Process Journal to document research; share evidence of newly gained skills/knowledge; and reflect on each relevant lesson. Andrew moved from the sage on stage to a gentle guide on the side. The result of making this shift to student inquiry according to Andrew? “They gained a new appreciation for their own culture, built resilience, and connected their topics to concepts in other subjects like Science and Language. 

Questions for Reflection: 

1. How might you capture student inquiries and questions for a topic you have to teach? 
2. How might a process journal or guide help support them in addressing them? 
3. What visible thinking routines might help students develop their questions? (Harvard Project Zero Thinking Routines) 

Shift #4: From Isolated, Siloed Content to Interdisciplinary Content and Skills

A sharply dressed 12-year-old with thick-rimmed glasses and a wide smile guides a team of international educators from table to table in her flexible classroom; showcasing architectural models, blueprints and polished presentations from her class of citizen scientists. This is not an unusual Friday afternoon at Verso International School. They receive regular visits from educators around Asia eager to learn more about how they integrate learning across multiple subjects. And their students are the ones doing most of the talking. In this particular example, a student ambassador shares the interdisciplinary work they are completing around designing their future boarding school. She articulates the different systems teams of peers are in charge of developing, from a waste management plan to energy consumption. Their challenge is to develop a viable, closed loop system to present to the team of architects tasked to build it. The experience integrates Math, Science, Language and even Art. 

What are her teacher’s roles? To facilitate mini-lessons, workshops and activities to help students understand how to infuse the subject-specific content into their authentic proposals and projects. Educators at Verso have given up their ‘teacher’ title in exchange for a more student-centered one: ‘Learning Designers.’ 

Questions for Reflection: 

1. What connections are possible between your content and another subject/discipline?
2. What big topics might you collaborate around with a teacher outside of your subject area? Consider topics like sustainability, identity, community, globalization, etc.
3. How do experts in the real world use your subject? How might you engage students in similar work? 

Shift #5: From Working for a Grade to Pursuit of Interests and Real-World Problem

Two very real problems faced Budapest, Hungary back in 2022. How do we provide relief for Ukrainian Refugees? And, amidst rapid urbanization, how do we live more sustainability?

And rather than approach the typical year 5 curriculum from an educational lens, Real School Budapest decided to approach it from the lens of these real world problems. Dave Strudwick, former learning leader and head of school took his informative writing standards, parts of his science curriculum, and even visual arts and dance standards and merged them together in a five-week expedition around sustainable fashion. Students developed an online digital magazine exploring the ‘hidden costs’ of fast fashion, from its pollution of oceans and filling of landfills, to cost of human labor and exceeding energy use. Students also put together a fashion show to model upcycled outfits and exhibit their work, collaborating with real fashion designers and journalists along the way. All proceeds from the big show went to fund Saturday School English classes and other workshops for Ukrainian refugees who arrived in Budapest just four days after the invasion. 

Dave says when students are working to solve a real problem, “the classroom literally disappears because students are so absorbed in what they are doing.” His role? The same as it would be if he were guiding work outside of the classroom: “Take students through a proper design process, where they are constantly iterating, and getting feedback from a real client.” 

Questions for Reflection:

1. What real world problems are relevant to your curriculum? 
2. How might you use the context of real issues in your community to inform learning in your classroom? 
3. How might a design process help guide student-centered work? 

Shift #6: From Worksheets and Tests to Real Product/Service

Two 9-year-old students from KPIS International School lean in across the table to listen to a same-aged peer talk about his favorite hobbies. The conversation is in Thai and has a clear purpose. In addition to helping forge new relationships and connections, these international school students are hoping to design English learning games, resources, and activities around their peers’ greatest areas of interest. It’s part of a deep dive to make language learning more purposeful, organized by their classroom teacher Tony Pasaud. Students will still learn grammar rules, vocabulary, sentence structure, dialogue rules and other mandated English curriculum, but learn through developing a real product for real people. In true, student-centered form, Tony will hand over his ‘teacher hat’ to his learners. His new job will be to facilitate the process; organize student teams; deliver mini-lessons around the English content students will transform; provide feedback on their work; and share criteria and rubrics to ensure it is high quality. 

But it’s not just Tony’s class that’s shifting from worksheets to real products/services. Students in the classroom next door are developing stop-motion films to better understand wellness. Across the hall, students are building small businesses to learn math. And downstairs, students are constructing gardens to learn environmental science. They are doing real-world work, and they are only 5-12 years old.  

Questions for Reflection: 

1. How might you offer more choice in the work students create in your classroom?
2. Who is the beneficiary for student work? How might you connect to a beneficiary outside of the classroom? 
3. Who are some real world experts that use your discipline/subject? How might you connect them to your classroom? With students? 

Shift #7: From End of Learning Reflection to Ongoing Reflection on Process and Product 

Student-Centered Facilitator Alfie Chung of the Social Innovation Wing of Polytechnic University addresses his year 12 students: Who are you designing for? Are you designing for yourself or Fitness Trail Users? What kind of problems are you noticing? What did you learn from interviews and observations? What have we accomplished so far, and what’s left to do? 

In student-centered environments, reflection is not an end of learning exercise, but an ongoing process, and the role of the facilitator is to ask the right questions. In the example above, Alfie asks reflective questions around what students are learning from their investigation of user behaviors at the park across the street. This is stage one of a five-stage design process. Students will undergo four more reflective cycles before sharing their final designs for the new play area to the department tasked to build it. Through a reflective journal, students capture their thinking, drafts/iterations, peer and user feedback, and research. Beyond journals, Alfie uses portable whiteboards to track progress: “I never erase the whiteboards. These whiteboards become like artifacts to keep track of our journey. Every week before we start lessons, we look at them to reflect on what we have already done.” 

Questions for Reflection:   

1. How often do you reflect with learners? How might you make reflection more of an ongoing process? 
2. How might you increase ownership over student reflection?
3. What mediums do you provide for reflection? How might you increase ways in which students reflect?  

Shift #8: From Independent Work to Collaborative Tasks

“We were reading a book about a bunch of rich, white people in the 1920s and we work in Southeast San Diego with mostly students of color, lower income.”

Above is an honest reflection from two Year 10 Literature Teachers at Gompers Preparatory Academy, a student-centered charter school in one of the most impoverished regions in San Diego. The Great Gatsby was part of the curriculum but had no relevance to student’s lives. So Dave and Michelle decided to give it a student-centered twist. Students would still read the novel, but instead of writing independent book reports, they would decide collectively how they would apply lessons to their lives. After learning that one bubbly girl already had her own successful podcast and YouTube channel, the class decided on a class podcast. Each episode would share how the “American Dream” had changed from the 1920s, using stories from their own community to illuminate the theme and compare it to the one found in the novel. Students worked in small teams to produce each episode; dividing roles, tasks, and written and audio content. Dave and Michelle’s role? Support all teams with a project timeline, group folder to track progress, a school website where they could publish their work, and checklists and graphic organizers to organize their thoughts. 

Tables were rearranged into small groups, and recording and production equipment lined the exterior. The space transformed from a classroom to a production studio. The Great Gatsby finally had meaning. From Michelle: “It’s the most meaningful thing I have done as a teacher.”  

Questions for Reflection:

1. How might teaming students increase motivation and engagement in your classroom?
2. What assignments might you turn into group tasks? How can you provide choice in team roles? 

Shift #9: From Teacher-Led Discussion to Student-Led Discussion 

How can the most innovative square mile on the planet be plagued by racial injustice only 2 blocks away? 
This is the big question guiding work by young ‘Innovators For Purpose” (IFP) across schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Students are building installations, publishing books, creating augmented reality simulations, and developing educational games. And they are using a simple, but profound student-led discussion tool to guide them. Developed and facilitated by pioneering educator Ela Bur, the ‘innovator’s compass’ uses five questions to guide young people in getting to the heart of issues: 

1. Middle Quadrant: Who’s involved? 
2. Observation Quadrant: What’s happening/why? 
3. Principles Quadrant: What matters most? 
4. Ideas Quadrant: What ways are there?
5. Experiment Quadrant: What’s a step to try?

A student facilitator guides the discussion while a student notetaker captures ideas on post-its and places them in each quadrant. Ela’s job? Model the process, clarify student roles, and ask probing questions. By using a repeatable framework and protocol for discussion, Ela is transforming once passive learners into active citizens.

Other discussion protocols include socratic seminars, fishbowls, jigsaws, and democratic circles. 

Questions for Reflection: 

1. What discussion protocols might help you amplify student voices?  
2. How might you provide more leadership opportunities for students in class discussions?

Shift #10: From Progress Assessed by Teacher to Self, Peer,
Expert Feedback and Critique

Student-Centered Practitioner Gary Heidt, English Teacher and founder of Nova Lab, was tired of students “checking achievement boxes, climbing each ladder to get to the next.” As he states, “it was not about learning.” He did something radical in response. He eliminated grades entirely; replacing tick boxes with a system of ongoing feedback, narrative comments, and peer review. Students would only receive a pass/fail mark. The result? Learners articulated their learning and took greater ownership of the process. As Gary retells, during ‘learning pitches’ around writing and publishing stories, learners detailed their process of advancing from initial storyboard to developing plot and characters; referencing how feedback and revision guided each successive draft; in small business proposals, how they established their business idea and how expert mentor feedback informed their work to bring it to market. 

Gary’s role? Build in time and structures for high-quality feedback and critique. He modeled protocols like T.A.G.; demonstrated how to elicit feedback through Google Forms; and held 1:1 conferences with students to establish personalized goals, and action steps to reach them.    

Questions for Reflection: 

1. How can you make learning less ‘tick boxy’ and more narrative in your classroom?
2. What time might you carve into class for peer feedback and presentations of learning? What effect might it have on student ownership and empowerment? 

Shift #11: From Teacher Audience to Authentic, Public Audience

What happens to student engagement and empowerment when they are given an authentic audience to present their work?  

This was the big question behind the founding of VIS Better Lab School in Taipei. Students are sharing plans to make bus stops more inclusive with the transportation department. Proposals to improve water quality at the nearby river with the local water authority. But perhaps the most agentic of all these extended learning experiences is the 100% student-run VIS radio station. On a regular basis, students film, edit, and publish episodes to their Youtube Channel, and each student plays a role. Some are in charge of the camera work; others, lighting; some, the interviewing of guests; others, post-production work; and even more, branding the episodes and increasing subscribers. They have explored topics ranging from the history of R&B to the progressive schooling movement. At public exhibitions in a highly visible public space in Taipei, students share their learning within each of these ongoing projects, and what the local community can do to get involved. 

So where’s the teacher? What’s their role? Their learning ‘facilitators’ as VIS calls them can be found supporting teams; helping mitigate conflicts; holding whole class reflections; building task boards; and delivering mini-lessons on interview techniques, lighting, camerawork and audio. Byron Clarke, one of the lead facilitators shares, “When students are working on something they care about, I don’t have to do as much.” 

The impact? Student empowerment skyrocketed. From a student: “I love doing projects. I love being involved. I love being more active and proactive in my learning.” – Flora Lin, VIS Learner

Questions for Reflection: 

1. What authentic audiences for student work exist outside of your classroom? Who in the school might students present to? 
2. How might students expand the audience for their work and learning? Digitally and in-person?  

Shift #12: From Classroom Based to Community-Centered Impact

Imagine if for two lessons a week, students left the silos of their subject-based classrooms, and instead worked on applying cross-disciplinary knowledge and skills to address Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). That’s exactly what will happen in the 2024-2025 school year for all Year 7 students at Bangkok Patana School. Two subject teachers will combine around each goal to design experiences that provide students agency in investigating and devising solutions relevant to their community. Some students will investigate minority groups and showcase the unique customs, traditions and culture of marginalized groups in Bangkok to address SDG #10: Reduced Inequalities; while others investigate the local ecosystem and estuaries and build wire sculptures of animals to make life below water more visible on the surface (SDG #14). The hope is that by providing these experiences, students will become more active citizens within their community, and see that they can make a difference. 

Their teacher’s role? Each subject teacher will strategically scaffold the experience through mini-lessons, activities, articles, and field trips to better understand the issue from their subject’s lens, while also supporting students with their authentic solutions. 

Questions for Reflection: 

1. What connections might you build for a current unit of study to larger Sustainable Development Goals? 
2. How can you allow for more field trips, and hands-on experiences in the community within current units, topics, or lessons? 

Call To Action

Let’s return to that teacher-led classroom we illustrated at the beginning. Except now, let’s imagine it is filled with agentic learners who take charge of their learning. In the corner, a peer shares his scientific drawing on a rolling tv screen while his peers provide specific feedback. At the counter in the back, two students in lab coats examine slides of local water samples under a microscope. In another corner, six students huddle in a circle to discuss an article they annotated the night before. At standing desks in the middle, three students add slides to their team’s pitch deck. Their teacher crouches next to them, probing into how they might make the message more clear. 
This is not a hypothetical scenario. It’s a real depiction of what is happening in agentic classrooms around the world. And it’s not too far out of reach. In the age of AI, data, and information at our student’s fingertips, our role in the classroom must shift to allow for it. Which of the 12 shifts will you make to get started?

The post 12 Shifts to Move from Teacher-Led to Student-Centered Environments appeared first on Getting Smart.

Like many educators, right now reflection might be the last thing on your mind.

I felt the same way 15 years ago after my toughest year as an educator.

I hadn’t connected the way I would have liked with my class. Many of my projects fell flat. My students’ parents seemed out to get me. And on top of that, I was also dealing with several personal issues.

I wasn’t just ready to finish the school year, I was ready to quit education altogether.

But on the way out the school doors, my principal stopped me and told me something I will never forget.

She told me how grateful she was for me, as well as the positive difference I made in the school. She listened empathetically as I shared my plethora of challenges, and helped me reflect on as much of the ‘highs’ that year as I did the lows.

Without that reflective conversation, I probably would have quit teaching that year. Instead, I left school that day with new resolve and perspective.

How might a reflective conversation help you, your colleagues and students find new resolve and perspective on the 2021-2022 school year?

Here are three reflective activities that might help start the conversation:

Reflecting with Staff: The Empathy Graph: This activity designed by my friend and school leader coach Daniel Bauer helps strengthen culture, build empathy, and surface stories that unite. Here’s how to use it:

First, draw out the empathy graph to the left on a large whiteboard or chart paper. Next, team staff in groups of 3-5 and ask them to think of five significant milestones throughout the school year (ie. move to virtual learning, exhibition night, parent/teacher conferences, etc.). After writing out each milestone on a post-it note, have them place the milestone in the relevant place on the graph according to its perceived ‘positivity/negativity.’ Finally, invite a larger conversation to see if others had a similar perception.

Reflecting with Colleagues/Teaching Teams: The Shape Reflection: This simple reflective activity is best for teaching teams that collaborate on a regular basis. It poses three important questions using three shapes: What are your three biggest ‘takeaways’ from this school year/learning experience (Triangle)? What about teaching/learning in this way ‘squared’ with your beliefs (Square)? What questions are still ‘circling’ your mind (Circle)? Allow individuals time to reflect on each question before sharing, and then build team consensus by grouping similar ideas and thoughts. Here is a full run-down of the activity, with template, norms and framework.

Reflecting with Students: The 10 Reflective Questions Gallery Walk: We often lament that students are not thoughtful with their reflections; but usually that’s because we haven’t asked the right questions, and/or created the environment that elicits thoughtful answers. For this activity, tape 10 reflective questions on 8×11 sheets around the classroom.

1.  What surprised you?
2.  What’s changed for you?
3.  What challenges did you encounter and how did you overcome them?
4.  I used to think…but now I know…
5.  If you could talk to yourself before this year started, what advice would you give him/her?
6. What was a highlight for you?

Give students one minute to circulate and review each question. After the one minute is up, ask students to stand next to the reflective question they would like to answer. Have them first pair/ share with a partner, and then conduct a larger conversation with the whole group.

Let’s be real…

Last year has been undoubtedly tough. Many of our beloved colleagues have left the profession. We’ve been asked to work in impossible conditions. The pandemic has taken a toll on our social/emotional health.

But 2021-2022 has also been a year of incredible growth, if we choose to embrace it.

With thoughtful reflection, I’m hopeful we can find the bright spots to the new school year that remind us of why we committed our lives to working with kids.

The post Reflecting on the 2021-2022 School Year appeared first on Getting Smart.

But right now, none of that matters.

We, (I’m speaking as an American here) are facing a much more urgent issue:

How to feel safe in school.

Nineteen beautiful children and two educators with hopes, dreams and aspirations had their lives taken from them in the place where they are supposed to feel the most safe.

And while we might claim that this CAN’T happen again, it WILL happen again if we don’t all band together and do something.

I don’t exactly know where to start. But as an educator, here is a question I think we can use to advance the conversation within our greatest spheres of influence:

How can we build more safety and connection within our schools?

Here are five ideas, from low to high risk, on how to amplify students’ answers to the question:

1. Empathy Mapping (2 Class Period Project) (All Ages): One of the best ways I have found to build connections is to put yourself in somebody else’s shoes, and see the world from their eyes. Empathy mapping is a great tool to do this. Pair up students who normally wouldn’t work together and have them complete an empathy map based on how their peer experiences the school day. After completing the empathy map, ask them to create one item that would help their partner feel more safe and connected in school. (ie. friendship bracelet)

2. Fostering Safety and Connection School Spaces (3 class periods) (All ages): In this project, using Minecraft (or any other CAD program), students design spaces purpose built within their school for connection and safety. Use the first class period for background research, the second to generate designs, and the third for showcasing their ideas to admin.

3. Socratic Seminar Discussion (2 class periods) (Upper Elementary-High School): This strategy allows students to discuss this difficult topic in a fair and respectful way. To prepare for the discussion, compile a one page hyperlinked doc to a number of articles related to increasing safety and connection in schools. Have students read, annotate, and generate 2-3 questions that the reading invoked to the discussion circle. On discussion day, divide the class in half and hold two discussions. Here is an overview of how to format the Socratic Seminar discussion, and here is a folder with prep and evaluation sheets. *Word of Caution* Create ground rules for the discussion ahead of time.

4. PSA Campaigns (4-5 class periods) (Middle School-High School) : In this project, students choose one of the following topics to address: Gun control, Mental Health, Internet Safety, Wellness. They create short public service announcement campaigns to educate others on the topic, and how they can take action to address it.

5. Model Congress Simulation (3 class periods) (Upper Elementary-High School): *First, a word of caution*- this simulation could get very political and heated. To avoid this from happening, it’s very important to set clear parameters, and ground rules for dialogue and discussion. Ie. ‘no personal attacks,’ ‘use evidence to support claims,’ ‘assume positive intentions.’ In the simulation, students work together in the same way Congress would to pass a law that increases safety in schools. Each student takes the role as a member of the House of Reps or Senate, and the teacher can take the role of president.

We can’t bring back the 21 beautiful lives that were taken in Tuesday’s tragedy, but we can ensure their legacies live on.

In remembrance of the victims.

The post Building Safety and Connection in Schools appeared first on Getting Smart.

#Whatif

What if every course began with a single Essential Question?

What if people were rewarded for having ideas and not ownership of them?

What if every student experienced success in solving a community problem?

What if school buildings were leveraged as community centers?

What if success in school was measured based on contribution to your community, rather than rote knowledge?

What if every learner could co-author their learning journey?

These were questions that rose to the surface from educators around the world when given a blank canvas to re-imagine school.

For many, entrenched in an outdated system, they are the stuff of science fiction. Too many structures hold this kind of innovation back- from standardized tests, to grades, to unwavering curriculum.

But for a bold and courageous few, these ‘what ifs’ are a manifesto for immediate action.

Meet Maggie Favretti, founder of ‘DesignEd4Resilience,’ (DE4R) an organization that uses design thinking to facilitate collaborative community responses to climate change and other complex issues.

Maggie has empowered young people to transform these ‘what ifs,’ into ‘what happens when?’

“What happens when young people find a meaningful, healing purpose, and connect with nature and other people to create a more equitable and sustainable world?”

This powerful and provocative question has propelled young people in DesignEd4Resilience to: Develop community disaster plans and co-create logistical centers to respond to devastating hurricanes. Create toolkits and resources for emotional and mental well-being during proliferating pandemics. Build community gardens and shared farming plots to protect from food shortages.

These young people’s canvas is not limited by the four walls that shape traditional schools.

Their canvas is their community.

And the brush they are using to fill it in is design thinking.

Design Ed 4 Resilience version of Community Design Thinking is based on Stanford D-school’s 5-step process and also on the National Equity Project’s Liberatory Design processes. The DE4R 6-step process provides a clear, repeatable framework for addressing challenges and drawing on innate creativity and collaborative courage, from innovation through implementation. Young people and their communities worldwide are using models like this to address problems as existential as climate change, to issues as localized as clean fresh water and food security.

But it’s more than a framework to address community challenges.

It’s a way to build coherence in learning and the capacity to understand issues more complex than our traditional textbooks and fragmented, watered-down curriculum provide.

It’s a way to connect us to each other with openness and empathy. The Design Ed 4 Resilience version of design thinking is set up to co-empower. It begins with belonging and safety and challenges us to notice and address our preconceptions. It calls on us to reflect critically on relationships of power within the process and our communities, to be sure that the authentic power of design (from challenge and opportunity-seeking through problem-solving through decision-making and implementation) is inclusive of youth and more specifically, those voices typically unheard.

You can use the same process in your community.

This article will unpack each step of the design thinking process in the context of real community projects, and provide ideas for how you might use the process in your own classroom and community.

Step 1: Gathering Knowledge; Cultivating the Power of People

Maggie Favretti is a firm believer in ‘zero-based thinking.’ Zero-based thinking asks us to rid ourselves of all preconceived notions, biases and assumptions, and literally start from zero. Assuming we know nothing, what questions might we ask? Only in this way can we build on our empathy and remain open to new ideas and ways of thinking and being.

Maggie prepared young people to embody this empathy-based process when seeking to address the resilience to flooding of a nearby town in Puerto Rico, into which Hurricane Maria had poured her fury.

Using the three mental frameworks of ‘People, Place, and Purpose,’ young people uncovered the nearby town’s greatest concerns and strengths by interviewing community partners:

What does the community value? Where was there visible evidence of these values?

Where was there evidence of community resilience? How did the community develop this resilience?

What impact did disaster and climate change have on mental and emotional health?

What else contributed to this trauma and sense of unease?

What are their biggest fears/ areas of concern, and what do they identify as strengths?

Through countless interviews, phone calls and observations, young people uncovered four major areas of concern: flood and earthquake-proof housing, better evacuation planning, climate recovery and mental health, and overall community resilience.  

Building Deep Listening and Relationships In Your Community:

How might you uncover issues and needs in your community? Who are prominent members that you might partner with to discover these needs and connect to key stakeholders? Who usually gets left out of those conversations, and how might you partner with them also?

Some Strategies/Ideas:

1. Observe, Ask, and Listen, listen, listen. Engage youth and community in recording their own stories and images, using tools like Photovoice. Think of this from the beginning as a shared process, where ‘the designers’ are facilitating community (or student) design.
2. Build a shared community map to identify potential needs and assets.
3. Attend City Council Meetings and jot down issues being discussed during the open forums, or host community fun events where you are also cultivating participation.
4. Look for relevant community organized events via MeetUp.
5. Attend local NGO fairs and Outreach events (make sure to cross-reference the NGOs)
6. Learn as much as you can, noticing your own assumptions and biases, about the environmental, historical and political context of the community.
7. Run a short ‘design challenge’ or mini-project as a warm-up for larger scale prototyping (this can also be done in the first stage of the design process to sustain momentum and increase trust in the process).

Step 2: Defining Perspectives, Challenges, and Opportunities

After uncovering areas of need, to better frame the problem, Maggie worked with her young learners to envision what success might look like for the community had the challenges been addressed. How would life be different with earthquake and flood-proof housing? What changes would they see with a clear and coherent evacuation plan?

Imagining these ‘best case scenarios’ helped students to frame specific problems they hoped to design around. They captured these opportunity statements as ‘how might we’ questions to help guide the design of their solutions.

Identifying Challenges and Opportunities In Your Community:

How might you identify the most pressing community needs? How will you ensure that you have gathered all relevant stakeholder input?  How can you make visible the abstract inferences and learnings from your community partners?  How can you create a challenge/opportunity statement that will generate rich ideation?

Here are some examples from the Puerto Rico D-Lab:

How might we cultivate community resilience, well-being, and empowerment in our community center?

How might we speed evacuation and ease anxiety around potential flooding and earthquakes?

How might we support mental health recovery without labeling/othering people as mentally ill?

Some Strategies/Ideas:

1. Make thinking visible, using image-making such as the one above. Create a public event held at a visible community center to share findings and gather more stakeholder input to surface key concerns.  Challenge/Opportunity statements can be created and ideated together.
2. Connect with global partners who have addressed similar problems.
3. Create an advisory board that connects students with their community partners to ensure the fidelity of solutions.

Step 3: Ideating Solutions and ‘Unleashing Creativity’

Our young people are never short of ideas once we remove the shackles that often bind them. During this phase of the design process, we want young people to think divergently. This way of thinking values the quantity of ideas, not the quality. That’s for a later stage. Using the ‘25 ideas in 10 minutes’ challenge, Maggie got some teams to create over 100 ideas around developing flood and earthquake-proof housing.

Other good frameworks for ideation include the ‘Yes, and’ strategy, where one team develops a series of solutions and then passes the sheet to another group to affirm the idea (‘yes’), and add (‘and’) 3 to 5 more of their own. This cross-collaboration between teams helps young people see challenges from fresh perspectives. Maggie also stresses the importance of including community partners in this process:

“Involving community stakeholders in ideation yields trust in the process and helps creative consensus to emerge about what’s possible.”

After spending time ideating, it’s time to categorize and connect. Like ideas can be grouped together and be measured against the design constraints and their potential to fulfill the opportunity emerging from key aspects of concern.  New questions arise, such as, ‘is this possible? And how will we do this?” The picture below captures this process:

Ideating Solutions to Needs in Your Community

How might you help unleash creativity in your students? How might you group them to generate a number of ideas? How might you facilitate groups to include community partners, and materials for ideation? (post-its, white boards, manipulatives, shapes, gifts, food, etc.)   

Some Strategies/Ideas:

1. Do warm-up games (like easy improv) before ideation, or do your ideation while running on a treadmill, or on a walk through nature. Research proves it works!  In a classroom, provide opportunities to stand, lean, and move around.
2. Have lots of manipulatives to hold, touch, feel and play around with. This helps distract the mind and allows ideas to flow.  Many people find art materials, colors, and music inspiring.
3. Break into smaller teams, and invite community members to co-ideate to generate more ideas and deepen trust.
4. Develop a design brief around the specific problem that captures research, insights, timelines and key deliverables.  

Step 4: ‘Rapid Prototyping’ Bold Ideas

There’s a prevailing thought in the education world, that we shouldn’t try something until it’s been researched, analyzed, tested, and weighed in on by experts. The problem with this way of thinking is that by the time all of this takes place, the idea is outdated. Innovation relies on a concept called ‘rapid prototyping.’

In this phase of the design process, young people in Puerto Rico constructed models of their solutions using whatever materials were available. Cardboard, legos, scrap paper, and recycled materials– ‘clean garbage.’ The goal here is not perfection, but simply a prototype that can easily demonstrate the idea in action.

As young people constructed their prototypes, Maggie asked students to “brainstorm what kind of expertise their ideas would require to fully build,” as well as “community partners who might share knowledge.”

Below are students seeking more expert input about emergency evacuation based on their prototypes:

Building Prototypes:

What materials do you have readily available for prototyping, and how might you demonstrate how to use it? Cardboard, old newspaper, magazines, etc. What expertise do your parents and other community members have that might assist in measuring the feasibility of ideas? How might you share prototypes students build?

Some Strategies/Ideas:

1. Gather/upcycle scrap materials for prototyping. Do a cardboard collection!
2. Invite parents or community partners with relevant expertise to assist students in their designs.

Step 5: Testing with Real Community Members/Stakeholders

Unfortunately, this is the stage where most projects end. Students dress up nicely and share their prototypes in a public exhibition, and then the prototypes go promptly to the place most projects wind up; the dumpster.  

Not in Maggie’s Design4Resilience Program.  She understands that the impact on youth self-efficacy and confidence of this repeated message that ‘your ideas don’t actually matter’ is strongly felt and ripples back through the community. DE4R Design Thinking also has an Enact step, which is where collaborative leadership, entrepreneurship, and civic agency takes root.

“At this point, we invite back our community partners and potential funders and present to them.”

Unlike a science fair where ribbons are awarded, prototypes are actually advanced into the ‘development phase’ to be enacted in the real world.

The student projects opened the door to a mobile mental health clinic that was actually a makerspace and funspace, an ongoing relationship between a UPR architecture class and the community, a new evacuation map and an agreement with the PRDE to unlock the school located on the highest ground in anticipation of flooding, an evacuation/emergency plan for their school, and plans for resilient community hubs such as the one being shown below.  The programming framework for it created by the students got published and is being used throughout the Puerto Rican archipelago and beyond.

Developing and Enacting Ideas:

What potential funding might exist for student ideas? Are there incubators in your community that hold ‘startup’ competitions for new ideas? How might you connect with them? Are there high-tech design labs that exist in the community to build prototypes? Are there engineering students or university partners who can offer expertise in the development phase? What ‘low-tech’ maker partners can help create scale model working prototypes? Who can build it and maintain it?  What community allies do you need to advocate with in order to enact the project?

Some Strategies/Ideas:

1. Use Feedback Protocols to help stakeholders provide feedback on each proposed prototype.  
2. Partner with a university, a Fabrication or Design Lab in the community to help build out prototypes and develop ideas.
3. Hold ‘Pitch Events’ for students to pitch ideas to potential funders or investors (with any profit generated going back into the community).

The TRANSFORMATIONS

Critics of design thinking might assume that this process is generally reserved for rich kids, in elite private school settings. But that’s the magic of the framework.  Looking at it with a critical lens helps to make it work for young people of all backgrounds, socio-economic classes, and cultures.

Maggie’s students, many of whom come from less privileged backgrounds in Puerto Rico, were transformed by the experience. Using Likert Scales, students reported an increased sense of self-efficacy, deeper knowledge of climate change, and positive feelings towards schools as a result of the experience. Most importantly, they felt a renewed sense of optimism for the future. One student said, “After the storms, all I could do was draw.  I just drew and drew.  Design Lab gave me my voice back. Now I know I have ideas that can help.”

Turning OUR ‘What Ifs’ into ‘What Happens When’

What’s holding you back from innovating on your campus? Yes, it would be nice to re-make the master timetable, rigid curriculum standards, and mandated state testing; but those are things many of us have little control over. Most of us do however have control over how we organize learning experiences. Rather than start from a textbook, try starting your next learning experience from a community need.

In this way, you will no longer have ‘what ifs’ but rather, ‘what happens when?!’

Want to dip your toes into the design process? Joining the Design Thinking Hackathon Wednesday, October 27th where we will hack the process of effective project design by designing creative solutions around teacher well-being!

Maggie Favretti, a Yale-and Middlebury-educated cultural historian, has spent 35 years happily helping her students to ask, “why not now?” She is the author of the new book Learning in the Age of Climate Disaster: Teacher and Student Empowerment Beyond Futurephobia. Maggie has won scholarship and teaching awards from three professional historical organizations (WHA, AHA, OAH), a national organization of bankers (Sallie Mae Foundation Teacher of the Year), and a national organization of student leaders (21st-century Teacher of the Year).

The post How Design Thinking Transforms Communities, One Project at a Time appeared first on Getting Smart.

The question for us as we return shouldn’t be: ‘How many days until things ‘return’ to normal?’ But instead: ‘How do we best engage and empower our remote learners?’

Hybrid Learning IS the new normal. Many courageous educators have already experienced great success. And they are using meaningful, student-centered project-based experiences as their favorite weapon of choice. After working with 100+ teachers to design and develop these projects in a digital space, here are my top 10 tips for you in running yours:

Pro Tip #1: Stop Delivering Whole-Class Lessons Online: Make synchronous time for group presentations and check-ins

Simply put, we can’t engage an entire class the way we can F2F. Students have limited attention spans when staring at a screen. It’s far more effective to re-configure our online schedule to allow for ACTIVE learning experiences. We can conduct short group check-ins. Run feedback sessions for project work. Or do what Sara Lev did to gather ideas for her ‘Space Podcast’ project; follow students on tours of their home learning spaces to discover her class’ shared interests.

Pro Tip #2: Use Collaborative Tools for Group Work

Many teachers avoid group projects online because they feel they are too hard to manage. And while it is certainly more challenging, with the right project management tool, things are a lot easier. Alison Yang of KIS International used a digital Trello board for groups to post project work, divide tasks, track progress, and offer other group’s feedback on their CoVid-19 support projects. There was even a space for her to pose provocative questions to help propel each group forward. If you are a more advanced PBL teacher, you can turn over project management completely to students through Spinndle, an incredible project management system from Jacqueline Robillard and her team.

Pro Tip #3: Use Simple Digital Tools for Co-Creation

Keeping things as simple as possible for creation in the digital space will help ensure better results from students. Use platforms and tools students are already familiar with. If you are a G Suite school, keep things consolidated in that platform. If Microsoft- use Teams, and their suite of Apps. You can create BEAUTIFUL co-created products using simple tools. Alexa Lepp, a 5th-grade teacher used a simple Google Slidedeck to help students co-construct a class digital cookbook of recipes and family stories; Rob Livingston Shaw used SoundTrap to help students co-create soundtracks online for socially distanced spaces in his ‘Music for Spaces’ project.

Pro Tip #4: Co-Create Learning Experiences/Projects with other Teachers

Let’s face it, online teaching and learning can be pretty lonely and overwhelming. Sharing a project-based experience with another teacher helps things feel more connected and manageable. Make generating project ideas simple by using a collaborative padlet for co-creation. Here is a sample padlet of project ideas around CoVid-19 generated by groups of teachers according to subject. Feel free to add an idea of your own!

Pro Tip #5: Provide Hyperlinked Digital Study Guides/ Design Briefs

Many educators wrongfully assume that projects are not planned and that students magically become self-directed from the minute it is introduced. Projects require the same milestones and scaffolds as any other learning experience. Help lower the anxiety of your online learners by providing digital, hyperlinked study guides. Include the major project challenge, essential inquiry question, major deliverables, and a rough overview of due dates. Here is a sample study guide for an intergenerational playground project run by Alfie Chung of The Polytechnic University of Hong Kong.

Tip #6: Use ONE central online LMS

Imagine receiving 10+ emails daily from 10+ teachers, all with their own sets of expectations and requirements for the day. It’s no wonder several students don’t show up for online class meetings! Make things easier on students by using one LMS. A central LMS for all handouts, messages, updates, workflow, etc. in tandem with your digital study guides will ensure students don’t feel overwhelmed and stay caught up.

Pro Tip #7: Exhibit Work Regularly and Dynamically!

Several teachers begrudge the quality of work they are receiving from their remote learners. And while this may be due to online fatigue, a lot of it has to do with the fact that they simply don’t care. Make remote project work more meaningful by providing students a real, authentic audience to exhibit their work publicly to. You can do what McCall Elementary did in their ‘Black History Month’ project exhibitions, and set up Google Breakout Rooms for classroom presentations, or do what Mount Vernon High School did in their Performing Arts Project Showcase, and create a dynamic Virtual Museum!

Tip #8: Hold Optional ‘Project Co-Working’ Online Sessions

In the same way, several businesses prefer to work in dynamic, shared office space, many of our remote learners will elevate their engagement when working regularly alongside classmates. Hold opt-in project work sessions for students to work on their projects and share their work. Put on some light music in a mixed playlist that students co-curate, and hold fun ‘brain breaks’ for physical activities.

Pro Tip #9: Zoom in Project Experts

Imagine how exciting it would be for students if, during your space exploration project, they had the chance to chat with real NASA astronauts. Or in their class novel project, they got to Facetime with J.K. Rowling! That’s what Sarah Youngren, a 6th-grade Humanities Teacher plans to do to better engage and empower her students in developing their short stories. You can use experts for inspiration on student ideas, and/or use them as mentors to help critique and offer feedback on student work.

Pro Tip #10: Do the Project First!

Have you completed the projects you are asking students to do first? Doing projects first will allow you to predict the same pitfalls, frustrations, triumphs, and tribulations your students will undergo in project completion. It will also add an extra layer of credibility and trust between you and your class. For example, if you are asking students to publish their stories, try publishing something yourself first. If you are strapped for time, complete your own project alongside your students. Model the metacognitive process you go through when coming up with ideas, setting due dates, considering revisions, etc.

Where to Go from Here?

Which tip did you most resonate with? Got any tips of your own? Let me know and I will be sure to add them! And if you are looking for a simple step-by-step guide to designing, implementing, and assessing your PBL experience in the remote space, here is a simple course I created to help you get started. You can also get insights from fellow innovative practitioners in our ‘Transform Thru True PBL’ Facebook Community.

For more, see:

• What Does Your Ideal Learning Environment Look Like?
• Teaching Social Justice and Anti-Racism: 5 Engaging Project Ideas

Stay in-the-know with innovations in learning by signing up for the weekly Smart Update.

The post Empower Online Learners: Top 10 Pro Tips for Project Design and Delivery appeared first on Getting Smart.

But it’s not all doom and gloom.

Surfacing these glaring inequities has helped move social justice and anti-racism up on the international priority list. Netflix began to feature a more pluralistic demographic in its films. Employers are embracing critical race theory and introducing more equitable hiring practices in their workplaces. And the government is offering subsidies and tax relief for lower-income communities.

But what about our schools? How are they addressing and introducing students to tenuous topics of social justice and anti-racism?

If we have learned anything, it’s that you can’t win over hearts and minds by lecturing from the front of the classroom. Only through deep learning experiences, can students empathize and contribute to social justice and anti-racism.

Here are five incredible project-based experiences teachers are using to teach these themes and five provocative questions as you consider designing your own:

Project #1: Creating More Just Laws: The ‘Broken Laws’ Podcast Project

Driving Question: How can we make our society better for everyone?

Age group: 8th grade

This eigth-grade ILEAD project began with a compelling provocation: How have laws discriminated against people on both a local and state level?

Students spent the first few weeks of the project examining their state and local laws and benchmarking them against the laws afforded by the constitution. As a result of this careful analysis, they drew up more equitable alternatives and sought out the legislators who could turn these drafts into official law. To elicit and rally public signatories and support, as a class, they edited, produced, and published a professional podcast.

Here is the website teachers used to curate the project, and here is the ‘Just Laws’ Class Podcast.

Implications/Questions for Practice:

Where is your city hall? When do they hold meetings, and are they open to the public? What local legislators/ lawmakers do you already know?

Project #2: Combatting Racism: The ‘Found Sound from the Underground’ Project

Driving Question: How might we use media to elevate marginalized voices?

Age Group: 9th/10th grade

Music is perhaps the greatest amplifier and archiver of what we as a society value. Why not use it to amplify marginalized voices in the community?

This 9th/10th grade interdisciplinary High Tech High English/Humanities project began with a gigantic class scavenger hunt. Their task: Scour their homes for records, tapes, compact discs, and mixed tapes that communicated themes of social justice, and bring them to class.

From the collection of music, in groups, students dissected lyrics spanning from 60s artists like Marvin Gaye to modern-day lyricists like Kendrick Lamar for implicit and explicit messages of social justice. In Language Class, they analyzed the lyrics for use of figurative language, colloquialisms, and idioms to communicate their message; while in Humanities, they explored broader historical movements and themes prevalent in the year they were released. In the process of completing this analysis of ‘found sounds,’ they began curating their own. In self-organized groups, they created mash-up videos, and digital listening stations to amplify marginalized voices for a public audience.

Implications/Questions for Practice:

How might you use the theme of social justice to organize the content you teach? What teachers could you collaborate with?

Project #3: Reversing Ageism: ‘Community Memoir Writing Project’

Driving Question: How can the sharing of community memoirs during CoVid help us better understand and empathize with the hardships the elderly face?

Age Group: 7th Grade

It doesn’t take an infectious disease expert to identify the way CoVid has adversely impacted our elderly.

Seventh-grade students in Australia wanted to do something about it.

In this project, each seventh-grade student paired up with an elderly member of their community to help share their life story. Through Zoom interviews, students acted as biographers, capturing insights and details into what made their elderly partner special. After completing the interviews, as a class, they carefully curated the collection of details into digital memoirs.

The hope was that by sharing these memoirs, the community would better empathize with the plight and contributions the elderly had made.

But the ‘Community Memoirs’ project did more than just engage students in a meaningful task; it also helped deliver core content. In History, students learned how historians analyze primary sources through their own photo and artifact analysis; while in language, they learned about narrative story arcs and writing techniques through constructing the memoirs.

Here’s a reflection from a seventh-grade student: “It’s beautiful. We can save the story of their lives and give them something they can keep forever.”

Implications/Questions for Practice:

What community stories might you help students uncover? How can a professional, published product help students create more empathy for marginalised voices?

Project #4: Amplifying Black Achievements: ‘The Black History Museum’ Project

Driving Question: How can a living museum to celebrate black achievements throughout history help combat racism?

Age Group: Grades 2-6

Sometimes the best way to foster social justice is to have students live out the achievements and contributions of marginalized groups.

That’s exactly what McCall Elementary did in their virtual ‘Living Museum’ project.

In this school-wide exhibition, each class hosted its own virtual museum room of prominent African Americans contributing to that category. In the virtual music room, students re-created musical pieces by famous jazz musicians; while in the literature room, students delivered inspirational poems, imitating the dialect and mannerisms of their esteemed black poets.

The entire museum was showcased via Google Hangouts, with community members and parents having the ability to visit each ‘room’ via a unique hangout link. See the museum setup here.

The result of these dynamic learning experiences?

A National Blue Ribbon award for closing the achievement gap among marginalized students!

Implications/Questions for Practice:

How might you create a ‘living museum?’ How can creating ‘living histories’ help your students honor and empathize with the obstacles minorities have overcome to make their achievements?

Project #5: Reversing Xenophobia: ‘The Community Voices Project’

Driving Question: How can sharing the stories of immigrants help reverse the stereotypes we see?

Age Group: 6th grade

In a time of heightened anxiety, with countries closing off their borders, slowing down economic activity, and introducing new restriction measures, it is tempting to look for a scapegoat. All too often, that scapegoat has taken the form of recent immigrants.

Six-grade students at The Inter-district School for the Arts thought that perhaps by sharing immigrant backstories, they could combat the xenophobia they saw prevalent in their community.

They succeeded.

In ‘The Community Faces’ Project each student was paired with a recent immigrant; tasked with uncovering their harrowing story to get to The United States; the challenges they faced upon arrival, and the contributions they made to their new community and culture. Students shared their findings in a co-created website and ‘Community Faces’ book, with proceeds from the book sales helping to fund local non-profits and even sponsor a green card.

But the project wasn’t just about reversing their own pre-conceived stereotypes; it was about transforming the community as well. Students invited members of the community to a public exhibition of their work; leading a dialogue around xenophobia and using their work to help transform thinking.

Implications/Questions for Practice:

What refugee or immigrant non-profits exist in your community? How might you partner with them to combat xenophobia? What can your students create that can be exhibited publicly?

In Closing:

With the global pandemic showing no signs of slowing down, more inequities are certain to pop up. As educators, we can choose to ignore these glaring inequities, or we can use them as opportunities for deeper learning experiences to help students address and combat them. I hope these case studies have provided you with the courage to take the first steps.

For more, see:

• A Key Component of Student Voice
• Dr. Fernande Raine On Using History and Museums to Incubate Changemakers

Stay in-the-know with innovations in learning by signing up for the weekly Smart Update.

The post Teaching Social Justice and Anti-Racism: 5 Engaging Project Ideas appeared first on Getting Smart.

“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope? How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are at the beginning of mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”[27] “You are failing us,” Thunberg stated. “But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.” (Source)

Greta brought the voices of an increasingly disillusioned band of Gen Z activists (who make up 26% of the world’s population) to the doorstep of older generations at the world’s largest collective forum. Schooling would have to wait. Climate change was now the most pressing issue. Greta reminded all of us that climate change cannot be solved with watered-down proposals, abstract rhetoric, and empty talk; but only through taking immediate action as if our very existence depended on it. Greta’s plea was for all of us.

As innovative school leaders and educators, how will we take action? We’ve already been provided a helpful blueprint:

In 2015, the United Nations established 17 lofty goals for sustainable development to help reverse the damage done by climate change. Goals include more sustainable cities; an elimination of poverty; healthier waterways; and affordable and clean energy (pictured to the left). Each lofty goal includes concrete and specific sub-targets to help reach them. Courageous schools have already taken the first steps.

Through meaningful, real-world projects, these schools are providing time for students to take action on each goal within the context of their own curriculum and communities. This article will explore 8 models from 8 innovative schools and programs leading the charge. As we explore each model, consider which aspects might work in your school’s context.

The ‘ChangeMaker’ Passion Project Model: Addressing SDGs through student-led passion projects at The Green School of Bali

Imagine students coming up with the concept for a personal passion project around a community need, partnering on it with local NGOs, working through several iterations with the help of a mentor, and exhibiting their work in a public community-facing exhibition.

This is the grade 8 ‘ChangeMaker Quest Program’ The Green School of Bali uses to help students address SDGs and discover passions. In the program, each year 8 student is matched with an adult mentor and provided regular time in the schedule to develop their idea. For example, one student, after learning about how human footsteps can generate renewable energy, saw the potential for its use on the stairs within the school. After meeting with his mentor, they worked together to create a prototype for the ‘electro stairs:’ an invention to capture motion and convert it to energy every time a student took a step. Ustay’s mentor helped him create project goals, generate tasks, investigate and conduct research, and plan out the project calendar. Learn more about Ustay’s invention here.

Questions for Reflection/Implications for Action:

• How might you build in time to help students connect their passions to a greater purpose?
• How can you transition from the role of a teacher into one of a mentor? What structures might help students explore their passions through SDG-related goals?

The ‘Experiential Learning’ Week Model: Addressing SDGs through Meaningful Experiential Weeks at Yew Chung and Yew Wah Schools in Hong Kong

Imagine your entire school going off the traditional timetable for a week to address deep questions around sustainability on a local level. This is what learning looks like during ‘experiential learning week’ at Yew Chung International School in Hong Kong. Here are some of the questions:

• How can we get involved in promoting sustainable tourism in Hong Kong?
• How can we create and market more sustainable fashion?
• How can we gamify sustainability to increase environmental awareness in Hong Kong?

Each deep and meaningful sustainability question was coupled with a relevant project to anchor it. In the sustainable tourism project, students created tours with the most minimal carbon footprint and advertised via a website to incoming HK tourists. In the sustainable fashion project, students created a fashion show of upcycled old clothes and apparel to make sustainability more ‘trendy.’ In the gamification project, students created ‘choose your own adventure games’ around important ecological sites in Hong Kong, and delivered them via student-designed apps.

Questions for Reflection/Implications for Action:

• How might you use deep and meaningful questions around SDGs to empower your students to take action?
• Where is there existing flexibility in your yearly schedule? How might you use this time to offer deeper learning experiences?

The ‘Enrichment’ or ‘After School Program’ Model: Developing Citizenship and Social Responsibility through community-driven and student-generated projects at The Medford Center

Imagine your students working with older and younger peers to address issues of equity and environmental awareness within the community. Imagine these students sharing their findings and projects with both the community and the 2,000 plus students engaging in similar projects across the entire district. Imagine how big their IMPACT footprint would be then.

This is the work being done at the Medford Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility. The Center started with a modest grant as an after-school program for civic-minded students and now has grown into a district-wide program integrated into the core fabric of each Medford School’s mission. Each Medford campus has a program coordinator who helps mentor students, secure funding, and connects projects to the wider community. Projects are clearly making a mark. After seeing the damage and destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas, two high school students in Connecticut took it upon themselves to gather needed goods/ supplies, rent a U-Haul Truck, and drive them 1,800 miles to the church they coordinated as the ‘point of contact.’ Projects of this magnitude aren’t just reserved for High School Seniors. After learning about Medford, Massachusetts’ troubling history with slavery, two third graders wanted to do something to remember forgotten slaves. After careful primary and secondary research, they picked a site, erected a beautiful marker, and even held a ceremony for the community to pay tribute to these forgotten men and women. Explore more Medford Projects here.

Questions for Reflection/Implications for Action:

• How might you build in time for community projects in your existing timetable?
• What NGOs, B Corps, and charitable organizations are within walking distance of your school? How might you partner students with them to make an impact?

The ‘Pilot Program’ Model: Using TIDES (Technology, Innovation, Design, Enterprise, and Sustainability) to address SDGs and develop global citizens

Imagine a cross-curricular, collaborative, and community-linked four-year program for students to develop the autonomy and aptitude required to change the world.

This is the TIDES program developed for year 7-10 students by Kim Flintoff, TIDES Coordinator at Peter Carnley Anglican Community School in Western Australia.. Each year aligns to a trans-disciplinary SDG theme. In year 7, students learn the design thinking process and use STEM to address a school-related need. In year 8, students expand their green footprint to address issues within the local community. In year 9, they move deeper into the ‘adult world’ through the STEM4Innovation initiative, where they partner with public and private health providers, and other community organizations to develop solutions ranging from the obesity crisis, to pandemic prevention and awareness. And finally, in year 10, students synthesize insights and skills gained from past projects into the ‘Balance the Planet Program,’ where after choosing an SDG area of focus, they develop and design relevant solutions with a variety of stakeholders. Rather than document the experience through written exams and cumbersome paperwork, students curate portfolios to capture evidence of their work to share with future employers, universities, training institutions, and to forge new business partnerships.

Questions for Reflection/Implications for Action:

• How might you connect learning for students as they pass through each grade level?
• How might you use the SDGs as the starting point for trans-disciplinary projects and learning goals?
• How can backward design ensure learning targets are aligned?

The ‘Lab School’ Model: A circular mini-village living lab to learn about sustainability through building a zero-carbon campus

Imagine being given a one-acre plot of land in which to build a zero-carbon footprint mini-village. Imagine also working side by side with students to build eco tiny houses, set up water-efficient aquaponics systems, create food forests, set up forest fire warning systems, set up solar arrays, and even feed guests with on-site grown bio foods.

This is the work already started by ‘Starbase 18’ in Portugal, a circular mini-village for students to experience carbon neutral sustainable living. Learning modules are designed to help students explore each concept including, ‘How to Coop with innovations and change,’ ‘Sustainability in your Profession,’ and ‘Agile Craftsmanship.’ Nearby schools are able to dip in and out of ‘Starbase 18’ or participate in longer residencies and internships. Their mission is to help create the blueprint for how other schools might set up their ‘Rural Living Labs.’

Questions for Reflection/Implications for Action:

• Do you have an experiential site for your school? How might you develop it into a ‘rural living lab?’
• How can immersing students in sustainable practices help develop more sustainably-minded global citizens?

The ‘Advisory/Service Learning’ Model: Addressing SDGs through mixed grade-level advisories and connection to local NGOs at The American International School

When CoVid 19 sank its teeth in this past year, The American International School of Hong Kong had a choice to make regarding its yearly service-learning trips; cancel them, or re-imagine them on a local level. Given their strong commitment to developing thoughtful, global citizens, they chose the latter. Using the SDGs as a guiding framework, they empowered their year 11 students to partner with relevant local NGOs and community organizations to co-develop meaningful, three-day service-learning programs to address each goal. For example, one group worked with an NGO called ‘Rooftop Republic’ to learn about the values of urban gardening and how they could create a community garden at the school. In addition to the co-development of the service-learning program, these new student leaders also developed advertising videos, campaigns, and meeting frameworks to pitch each program to their grade 9-12 peers during Advisory.

Unfortunately, because of tighter restrictions around CoVid-19, the 3-day programs have been put on hold until next year.

And while the programs have been put on hold through this student leadership model, students have already shown greater engagement with service learning and developed a stronger connection to their community and personal passions/interests.

Questions for Reflection/Implications for Action:

• How might you use the SDGs to empower your students as leaders? How might you support students in developing community partnerships?
• How might a model like this work into your existing mixed grade Advisory program?

The ‘Empathy to Impact Model’: Supporting SDGs through trans-disciplinary courses in the IDEATE Program at Beijing City International School

Imagine your students spending half of every school day diving deeper into SDGs through trans-disciplinary courses that uncover the underlying people, systems, and complexities driving them on a global scale. This is what the Beijing City International School has accomplished through its innovative ‘IDEATE’ program. A hybrid diploma program for year 11 and 12 students, the IDEATE program runs cross-curricular courses like ‘Global Issues,’ and ‘Systems and Scientific Thinking.’ Each course contains modules to help students better understand the people and dynamics at play. For example, in the Global Issues course, students explore the power of ethics, systematic inequalities, the concept of global oneness, donut economics, and true cost. Through exploration of each sub-topic, students develop EMPATHY and understanding of global issues, as well as providing provocation for the personal IMPACT projects they might take up to help address it.

For example, one student is addressing issues of inequality by exploring Asian hate crimes in the united states and creating a rap music video to help eradicate it. His big question: ‘What would happen if the world was exempt from racism?’

Another student is addressing fragile family relations by exploring how photography can change attitudes through an online photography exhibition. Her big question: ‘What if I conducted a photography exhibition that could change the attitudes young people have towards their family?’

Each personal project lasts 1-2 years and is accompanied by a mentor who meets with the student 2-3 times a week, and helps support the development of their project through the ‘Empathy to Impact’ framework.

For more on the ‘Empathy to Impact’ framework and other frameworks to support SDG delivery, check out “Inspire Citizens.”

Questions for Reflection/Implications for Action:

• What trans-disciplinary courses might you develop out of the SDGs?
• How might you help students uncover the complexities of each global issue through a similar framework?
• How can you support student project ideas through mentorship?

The ‘Academy’ Model: Addressing SDGs through school-wide ‘Micro-Academies’ tied to specific goals

There is a phrase in the business world for ideas that are so audacious, so bold, and so visionary that you cannot help but get excited envisioning the possibilities if they are fulfilled. These ‘BHAGS’ (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) can easily be applied to the world of school.

Here’s a ‘BHAG’ related to the SDGs to get excited about: A comprehensive, trans-disciplinary, 4-year ‘academy/ studio’ program for students built entirely around making their communities and planet a better place to live. Students would spend one full year in each academy listed in the white space to the left. Within each academy, students would complete 3-4 deep and meaningful projects to explore relevant concepts and connect to the global SDGs. For example, in the ‘well-being academy’, students would explore the impact of urban farms on well-being by planting and cultivating their own community gardens. In the ‘equity/ society’ academy, students would work with local lawmakers to introduce and undo unjust and discriminatory legislation. Each academy would be run by a team of trans-disciplinary ‘guides’ who could mentor students through the projects, build partnerships, and infuse their subject-specific curriculum. Finally, academies would not be isolated by grade level, but instead, allow for mixed-age groupings to allow for student leadership and co-development.

Questions for Reflection/Implications for Action:

• What is a ‘BHAG’ (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) related to the SDGs that might work in your context?
• Most standards and curriculum documents are written as guides, rather than ‘prescriptions.’ How might you organize your academic curriculum around this framework?  

Where’s the Starting Point?

The models above are in no way meant to be prescriptive. We all have unique contexts, communities, cultures, and learners to serve. A four-year, interconnected and trans-disciplinary program like ‘TIDES’ may not be feasible in places with tight restrictions around timetabling, curriculum, and mandated minutes. However, an ‘experiential learning week’ like the one introduced by Yew Chung might be feasible.

The starting point for the integration of SDGs is aligning a few stakeholders within your school to a common vision.

Once you find a few like-minded people; generate momentum first within your classrooms, electives, or after-school programs; build clear curricular links and design a few SDG-related learning experiences; exhibit student work publicly; and watch as the rest of your school begs to get on board.

For more, see:

• The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals Could Be Our Standards
• 24 Goals to Save the Planet (+1 in Case We Don’t)

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The post Think Global, Act Local: How to Embed SDGs in your school and Community appeared first on Getting Smart.

Home learning pods have surfaced to create smaller, tight-knit communities of learners. Hybrid programs have emerged to blur the lines between home and school. And new remote programs with innovative tech tools are being introduced worldwide to enable learning to take place anytime, anywhere.

And while these new programs are noble in their attempt to chart a new course for education, there are some of us who did this ‘re-imagining’ several years ago. They are the Montessorians, Deweyians, Reggios, and Sir Ken Robinsons’ amongst us. Pioneers far ahead of their time. Their timeless models never required a school building, bell schedule, or end of year report to thrive; but rather, a core set of principles built completely around their learners. As a result, their learners are self-sufficient, independent, curious, empathetic, and social-emotionally and globally aware.

This article explores those six key pillars, and six school programs that best embody them. My hope is that they provide inspiration for how you might make your school or program timeless and learner-centric.

Questions for Reflection: How do you tap into your students’ interests? How might you structure learning around discovery and exploration?

Pillar #1: A Co-Working Studio Model: Integrated Learning Studios at LearnLife, Barcelona

In a world of constant uncertainty, co-working spaces have completely transformed the way in which we work. They have fostered new connections, spawned greater innovation, and created happier employees.

Could they also transform the way in which we learn?

This is the question LearnLife Studios in Barcelona is answering through their innovative studio model. Rather than siloed learning in classrooms according to subjects, learning revolves around a series of integrated studios. For example, the ‘furniture design’ studio merges engineering, design and math as students design modular and mobile furniture for the school; the ‘Chef Studio’ blends food science, entrepreneurship and finance as students design and run small food businesses to serve their community. There are no formal teachers to run each studio, but rather adult ‘learning guides’ that help scaffold and support student learning, while ‘experts in residence’ provide the technical training along the way. Students share the space with real entrepreneurs perfecting their own business concepts.

In fact, learning is so fluid that Stephen Harris, the co-founder of the Studios remarks, “Students don’t know if they are sitting next to a learning guide or entrepreneur.”

There are also no formal grades. Instead, students must ‘defend their learning’ in each studio through a 360 evaluation that includes a portfolio of work and self, peer and mentor feedback. The studios not only elevate learning, they also eradicate behavior issues. One particular student who was expelled from three schools prior to arrival at LearnLife remarked, “I learned more in three months, than I had in three years at other schools.”

Questions For Reflection: How might you make learning more fluid for students? What adults could you bring in? Which subjects might you combine around deeper learning experiences?

Pillar #2: Learning Centered on Inquiry: Inquiry-Based Learning at Innovations Academy, San Diego

All meaningful learning begins with a provocative question. Finding that question is at the core of what Innovations Academy, a small charter school in suburban San Diego is all about. The inquiry process begins by tapping into the child’s natural curiosity, and then designing experiences and opportunities to propel its exploration. For example, after discovering students’ interest in popular music, one 5th grade teacher led a deep exploration into what made a hit song, with students writing, producing and performing their own original ‘hits’ for the community. The fifth grade class next door took on an entirely different inquiry around ‘what made historical civilizations great;’ choosing to write, design and put on a large scale play production to re-enact historical events. As school head Christine Kuglen explains, “Students are natural learners, we just help create the right conditions.”

A culture of autonomy and trust is the backbone for these experiences. Students are free to make decisions about what, how and when they learn; and teachers are free to make decisions around what and how they teach. This culture of autonomy has helped the school adapt seamlessly to new challenges. Despite having to move locations three times in the past four years, and now moving all learning online because of COVID-19, they have maintained steady enrollment. As Christine, the founding director insists, “Teachers can make decisions rapidly as they are free to trial and error.” Here is a post from a parent that helps capture what makes IA such a great place.

Pillar #3: Community as the Classroom: Real World Projects at Real School in Budapest

Imagine a place where 9-11 year olds act as the leading scientists on climate change; or as outdoor adventurists in planning excursions for the local community.

These are the kinds of Real experiences children undergo at Real School in Budapest. The school was founded on the concept that the main goal of learning should be to help preserve and sustain our planet’s most pressing resources. As a result, students are leading the charge on issues like climate change; working with neuroscientists to conduct field studies on local bee populations and publishing their findings in peer reviews; planning sustainable, eco-friendly excursions for their community; working with event planners to coordinate activities, transport, meal preparation, and risk assessment.

Dave Strudwick, the newly appointed head of school, explains that these experiences help transform ‘realistic schooling into real learning. “We tell students, rather than an autobiographical text for your teacher, your stories will be shared widely in a published book and performed around a campfire for the community.” This, Dave insists, naturally engages students as they know the audience for their work stretches beyond the classroom.

Questions For Reflection: How might you make learning more community connected? How might you help students take on roles in the real world? Where and who might students share their work with outside of school? 

Pillar #4: Age is only a number: Mixed age groups at The Abbas Orchard, Philippines

Imagine every morning, before the sun peaks over the horizon, thirty primary and secondary students aged 11-17 working together to feed animals, till community gardens, monitor soil ph, and water plants.

This is how every morning begins for students at The Abbas Orchard Montessori School in Baungon, Philippines. In this unique school model, learning revolves entirely around the farm. Younger classmen learn farm maintenance, soil science, animal care, and plant cycles from their older peers. Each student has a specific role to play.

Mixed age, student-run businesses also grow out of the farm. Some businesses supply eggs to the local markets, while others design handicrafts out of leftover scraps to sell in local retail stores.

The teachers’ role in the program is to guide children and scaffold learning based on personal learning needs, and the needs of the farm. For example, in the adjacent schoolhouse, a teacher might draw the water cycle on the whiteboard, helping students explore systems more sustainable for their crops; while next door, another group of students might analyze the profit/ loss spreadsheets of local businesses’, using key insights to structure their own businesses’ finance model.

In this Montessori school, learning IS life.

Questions For Reflection: What learning experiences might you design that blend learners across ages? How might you integrate mandated curriculum?

Pillar #5: Flexible and Collapsed Timetable: Project Week at KIS International School, Bangkok

During the final week of the last school year, KIS International School ran a grand experiment it had never attempted in the past. It eliminated the timetable.

The school replaced the timetable with five project options related to COVID-19. Students were free to self-organize, plan out their week, divide/allocate work, establish hoped outcomes, and present to the community. Administration held their breath.

The results, as Alison Ya-Wen Yang recalls later “blew me away.” Some students designed t-shirts and infographics to help enforce good hygiene and social distancing; others designed future hospitals that could intake more patients using Minecraft; some created advertising campaigns and documentaries to support local NGOs; and others fused together new cuisine and created instructional videos for how to make it.

Although the learning was optional, over 80% of students participated. Even more remarkable: Students who normally required learning support transformed into high-fliers.

Questions for Reflection: How might you free up more space in your timetable? What classes might you combine to allow for deeper learning experiences?

Pillar #6: Deep Learning Dives: Combining subjects to make learning more fluid at Lead Prep and UP Academy, Seattle and San Francisco Bay

Imagine collapsing the timetable for two full days every week to engage students in cross-disciplinary projects to address real problems. At LeadPrep, a small micro-school in Seattle, this happens twice a week.

During interdisciplinary Mondays and Wednesdays, students learn to write and publish stories, edit film, conduct interviews and report on current events through a mixed- age student run NewsRoom. Feature stories range from timely topics such as, “How to Make New Habits During Quarantine,” to lighter topics such as, “Is World of Warcraft Classic Really Worth It.” Casey Ikeda, the lead History teacher explains the idea behind the integrated course, “After experiencing a year with Co-Vid 19, the murder of George Floyd, and the ongoing BLM movement, we wanted to go further with building [these opportunities] into our system of curriculum and not feel as if these events were somehow separate from “school.”

UP Academy, another micro-school located in San Mateo, California is also using real issues like these as a context for learning. In a mixed-age level integrated project around the topic, “How can I be a changemaker in my world?” Students have created suffrage murals, written letters to elected representatives in City Hall, and even organized protests to defend minority rights. Tanya Sheckley, the school’s founder says students feel empowered because they are allowed to take risks. “At UP Academy, there is a difference between a good student and a good learner. A good student learns to pass tests, a good learner knows how to persevere even when they fail.’

Planning integrated experiences like those at UP Academy and LeadPrep involves a coordinated effort from the whole staff. Maureen O’Shaughnessy, LeadPrep founder explains, ‘If we really value student agency, we also need to also provide it for our teachers.’ As a result, in both programs, time is carved out each week for teaching teams to plan integrated learning experiences, and reflect on student work.

Questions for Reflection: How might you combine and coordinate your content with another teacher? How can you use CoVid 19, elections and other real world topics as a context for learning?

How to Dive Deeper

We all have unique learners, people, and communities to serve. We don’t have to build a new model for school to best serve them. We simply need to make a few tweaks to the ones we already have.

Pick one key pillar and work together to explore how it might look in your classroom or school. And if you need help getting started, here is a book that will help you map out the journey.

For more, see:

• Time to Redesign is NOW
• Forward-Thinking Schools Begin With Forward-Thinking Design
• The Learning Design Opportunity of Our Time

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The post Redesigning School: Six Key Pillars From Six of the Most Innovative Schools and Programs appeared first on Getting Smart.

After each prompt, the student pauses to glance over his shoulder. His teacher isn’t quite sure what he’s looking for but his eyes are shifty and unfocused. After a few head turns, and a shadow that quickly passes across his screen, the student unmutes his microphone and begins each response.

Sound familiar?

High-quality assessment was already tough to administer in the physical classroom environment; in a remote or hybrid environment, it feels downright impossible.

How do we evaluate student learning in a fair and equitable way? How do we grade their work when we don’t know who it was them that actually completed it? What tool can we use that will prove legitimacy and assessment integrity?

According to Evelyn McCulloch, Director of Educational Technology for I-Tech Support, we are asking the wrong questions.“We need to let the cheating piece go. Instead of looking for a tool that will prove legitimacy, we need to find tools that will create habits.”

Below are five habits for high-quality assessment, and tools to support them in your remote or hybrid environment.

Habit #1: Make Assessment Community Owned

With students spread across the city with varying access to the internet, it’s hard to imagine how to create the kind of community we enjoyed in the classroom. However, with a little imagination and creativity, some teachers have not only created community but have also developed systems to keep the community intact and learning and growing together. Sara Lev, an early years project-based educator uses dynamic tools like Flipgrid for students to respond to discussion prompts, and SeeSaw for a variety of regular check-ins, like creating ‘community webs,’ or sharing and discussing family portraits in her “Creating Our Classroom Community” Unit. During class meetings and project work times, she holds small group sessions with four or five virtual breakout rooms for students to offer feedback via ‘put ups’ and ‘wonderings’ on their classmates’ work. Sara facilitates each session with guiding questions and protocols. In this way, assessment in Sara’s class is not a one-time teacher-generated evaluation, but a continual community-owned process. Check out her project website here to see how she helps document the process and create a repository of resources.  

Questions for Reflection:

How can you make assessments feel more community-owned? How might you use tools like Flipgrid, SeeSaw, and Zoom Breakout Rooms to support you?

Habit #2: Use Real World Experts for Feedback

Do you remember career day as a kid? I remember mine well. I got to put on a fireman’s hat and pretend to fight fires; and also got the chance to bang a judge’s gavel and say ‘Order, order, we will have order in the court!’ These experiences made learning fire safety or the parameters of the law much more enjoyable! How might we use these same real world experts to support our students in a virtual environment?

Evelyn McCulloch, the former innovations coordinator at Park Maitland starts by setting up dynamic, real world learning experiences. For example, when the school tasked her with creating a department and database for community partners, she outsourced the work to her 5th-grade students. In small virtual teams, students were tasked with developing a mission, logo, outreach material, and elevator pitch for the new department. Temporary furloughed employees from nearby Disneyland and Universal Studios acted as mentors in the process, offering valuable feedback through short Zoom calls on student designs, while also connecting them to a wider audience. The culminating experience was professionally produced FlipGrid elevator pitches. 

Questions for Reflection:

Who do you know (parents, friends, organizations) that can act as mentors to assess and offer feedback for student work? How might you use virtual tools like Zoom, Padlet, Flipgrid to connect them in a remote environment?

Habit #3: Provide Continual Voice and Choice

Do your students have voice and choice in how they are assessed?

In virtual environments, with students having only a limited time to connect throughout the day, providing choice and flexibility is crucial to keep them engaged. At The Harbour School, an innovative k-12 school in Hong Kong, voice and choice is part of their lifeblood. During Arts Interim week, the entire high school moves off of the traditional timetable to take part in intensive projects throughout the city. Humanities and Arts Teachers team up to offer experiences ranging from exploring their identities through visual art to mapping the history of local culture through photography. School closures and the move to remote learning didn’t hinder them from offering the experiences again this year. Matthew Copp and Julian Buck (@mrbuckstopshere) teamed up to offer ’The Art of Storytelling’ via zoom workshops, open work times, and dynamic virtual lessons. Students were tasked with adapting or creating their own short films to tell a complex story of the world around them. Using the ‘Hero’s Journey’ as the model for dynamic stories, some students remade the Batman Series into a Communist Takeover, while others created their own Manga stories with original artwork and screenplay. Matthew Copp recalls receiving a message at 4 am in the morning from a student asking to ‘get feedback on his drawing.’

The culminating experience, a voluntary virtual exhibition for the student community. Almost everyone showed up.

When we elevate students’ freedom to choose, we also elevate the level of assessment.

Questions for Reflection:

Do you offer choice in how students are assessed? How might creating choices elevate the quality of your student’s work?

Habit #4: Measure Growth

KIS International School, a forward-thinking international school in Bangkok, Thailand decided to run a grand experiment with their middle school students. They ditched mandated virtual classes for a day and replaced it with an optional ‘Wonder Day Project.’ The pretext was simple. Students were asked to complete one of 5 possible projects, and use a virtual tool called Trello to record their progress. Teachers held their breath.

Almost 85% of students took on the optional challenge;  and over 80% completed the work.

Projects ranged from student-designed t-shirts and infographics to promote safe hygiene, to imaginative virtual hospitals to allow for a higher intake of CoVid patients. Students collaborated virtually in teams and documented their progress in group project boards that showcased their 1st, 2nd and 3rd drafts.

Rather than act as a micro-manager, Alison Yang, the educator/designer of the learning experiences facilitated the process by offering kind, helpful, and specific feedback to each project group, while creating a space for their peers to do the same. In this way, assessment was a highly visible journey of growth rather than an end of learning evaluation.

Questions for Reflection:

Do you have a space for students to document and measure their growth? How might you use digital portfolios or tools like Trello/ Padlet to make assessments ongoing?

Habit #5: Create Systems for Continual Reflection

In my 12 years in the classroom, after nearly every exhibition, showcase of learning, or project milestone, students would habitually ask, “You are going to make us reflect now, huh?” And although they begrudged reflection at first, it was soon as much a norm in the classroom as jotting down notes in their planners.

Brett Carrier, an innovative elementary teacher at Park Maitland was able to keep reflection as a regular routine even when she moved learning online.

During her recent ‘Food Truck Project’ in which students designed and marketed unique food trucks for the local community, she used Zoom Breakout Rooms for regular reflection and feedback sessions. She would first introduce the protocol for reflection (lots of useful protocols here) in the main room and then appoint student facilitators to lead reflections on work in smaller breakout rooms. In small groups, students reflected on everything from their initial designs and logos to financing plans and advertisements. Each iteration improved because the reflection was a regular part of the routine.

Questions for Reflection:

How might you make a reflection on learning a regular part of your routine? What structures and protocols can help ensure it is most meaningful?

Covid-19 has provided us with unprecedented challenges in how we assess student learning, but it has also provided us with unprecedented opportunities. We no longer have to use standardized tests and grades to drive the learning process, but instead, dynamic learning experiences that allow for community input, continual feedback and iteration, voice and choice, reflection, and opportunities for continual growth.

See you online!

For more, see:

• 4 Strategies to Support Students with Learning Differences in the COVID-19 Educational Landscape 
• Dream Jobs of the Innovation Age 
• Crossing the Skills Gap Between Industry 4.0 and CTE Programs 

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The post It’s Not About The Grade, It’s About the Growth: 5 New Mindsets for Hybrid Assessment appeared first on Getting Smart.

But there is a silver lining.

During the time of remote learning, our students have become more independent and empowered. They have been given more freedom in establishing their own learning outcomes, and organizing schedules and deadlines to meet them. When they return to us in the fall, whether for an in-person, hybrid, or a 100% online learning experience, we will have to offer them something different than we have in the past. Instead of disconnected, impersonalized, one-size-fits-all learning, we will need to offer our students deep, personalized, and more connected learning experiences.

Our role as a result will shift from being the ‘sage on stage,’ to a ‘facilitator of learning experiences.’ To make this transformation possible, we will have to make 12 key shifts.

The 12 shifts are the result of conversations and insights from expert practitioners worldwide, who have not only adapted to an uncertain education climate, but thrived. Each of them have placed deep, student-centered project-based learning experiences at the heart of their work. My hope is that by sharing each of the 12 shifts, along with simple tips for making them, you too can help ensure 2020-2021 is not another ‘grand uncertain experiment,’ but one that creates engaged, empowered, socially and emotionally aware citizens.

Shift #1: Learning Design.

Teacher-Designed → Co-Designed and Curated

Imagine your students, in firmly pressed suits and colorful dresses, standing next to their re-constructed models of ancient civilizations, articulating in detail to a room full of adults the reasons why they fell.

Imagine their work being so impressive that a local museum curator asked to feature it in an upcoming exhibition.

This is the kind of work Linda Amici, a fifth grade teacher, gets 10-year-old students to produce in her co-created and co-designed classroom, where students choose how they work, who they work with, and what they work on. To empower our learners and begin co-creating these kind of experiences with our students, Linda advises us to:

• Begin every learning journey by asking students what they want to know
• Organize content around topics rather than single standards
• Provide choice in how students fulfill learning objectives

Shift #2: Learning Process.

Led by Content → Led by Inquiry

Scheduling in 2020-2021 will be a nightmare if organizing learning around content minutia. Rosie Westall, an early years educator at the Steiner Waldorf School in Hong Kong, begins all her learning around student inquiry. Her democratic classroom starts by finding out what topics her students are interested in, and then organizing objectives and curriculum around it. In her ‘Future World’ project, students explore what the world will look like in 2025. They build fake eye scanners, renewable energy models, and futuristic robots. Her job as she expresses, is to “spark joy that cannot be replicated,” and “trust the process.” When we build this trust, we can “sit back and listen, and watch the little people of this world blow [us] away!” Here are Rosie’s tips to make this shift:

• Have a plan, but don’t be married to it
• Organize learning around topics and themes rather than subject-specific content
• Hold regular class meetings that give students a say in decision making

Shift #3: Content/ Skill Acquisition.

Isolated Content → Connected, Interdisciplinary

Pre-COVID, many of us were responsible for delivering content according to our subject area expertise. But in a world that’s becoming increasingly interdependent and interconnected, we need to, according to ‘Imagine If’ Founder Loni Berqvist, ‘stop looking at subjects as a body of knowledge, [but as] a lens to see the world.’ Instead of planning around our subject, Loni insists that we best serve students by planning interdisciplinary experiences that run across multiple subjects, disciplines and areas of expertise. To create these kind of experiences, Loni advises us to:

• Sit down with colleagues outside of our subject areas
• Discover where content overlaps, and which topics arouse the most common interest
• Develop long-term projects and problem-based scenarios that require our integrated content to solve

Shift #4: Motivation.

Working for a Grade → Working to Solve Problems

With several schools abandoning grades in the Spring quarter, and many colleges shifting to portfolios of work as being pre-requisites for admission, we are going to need a different way to motivate students in the 2020-2021 school year. Marc Shulman, an 8th grade math teacher at High Tech High uses real world stakes to motivate his students. Students partner with real businesses to help them solve problems ranging from marketing to potential clients to building raised garden beds. “When students see that their work isn’t simply to please a teacher, and it’s for a bigger cause …people outside their school are relying on them to complete this thing, that’s positive pressure.” To help make this shift, Marc recommends to:

• Identify problems that exist outside of school
• Identify academic content needed to solve them
• Work together with students to co-create rubrics for evaluation

Shift #5: Student Work.

Worksheets and Test-Based → Real World Product/Service

Imagine your students working remotely in small teams to design the menu, food, logo, and concept for a food truck to serve the community. Imagine them also pitching their product to real investors for a spot in the center of town. This is the kind of real work, English Teacher Brett Carrier engages her students in at Park Maitland School in Florida. Working in an integrated team, she and other teachers incorporate their subject-specific content around the needs of the project. The math teacher helps them create budgets and calculate projected profits and losses; the design teacher, 3D rendering and color coordination; and Brett, how to write a business plan and pitch the product. Students develop skills impossible to develop through worksheets and tests. To make the shift to real world products/services, Brett advises us to:

• Be flexible with deadlines
• Build in time for continual reflection
• Establish community partners to support process (they could be your friends)
• Build in academic vocabulary

Shift #6: Inquiry.

Teacher Questions → Student Questions

With continual uncertainty around what next year will look like, we will need to take a constructivist approach, where learning builds organically, with student questions driving the process. Mark Barnett, a makerspace teacher and consultant, is an expert in this approach, and uses it when building any project with his students. For example, in the Renaissance project, students were free to pursue inquiries that ranged from historical dress, to how to re-enact jousting battles, or rebuild the printing press. When you walk into his constructivist, student-centered classroom, you will find what he describes, “things you can touch … hydroponic gardens, a half-built go-kart, and tangible 3D printed items. They aren’t hidden behind a glass wall.” To become more comfortable with uncertainty, and build student inquiry in the classroom, Mark advises us to:

• Take a ‘maker mindset’ to learning and avoid perfectionism
• Transform your ‘fixed classroom’ into a flexible learning space
• Make inquiry a part of your regular routine
• Display not only final drafts but work in progress

Shift #7: Student Reflection.

Values the Product → Values the Process

When you walk into Design Specialist and Project Manager at PolyU University Alfie Cheung’s room, you are surrounded by writable surfaces covered with student work. Post-it notes, drawings, broken off pieces of cardboard, and arrows pointing in all directions fill each whiteboard. Alfie explains that this is all intentional. Leaving each board helps students “keep track of their journey.” When they need more writing space, he insists they just “roll another board in.” In his most recent project, where students redesigned a fitness area to serve cross-generational users, students used the boards to articulate the journey of their designs from first draft to final presentation. His advice for us:

• Never throw away students’ first drafts
• Provide high-quality feedback using simple protocols for students
• Celebrate the journey and failure as much as you do success
• Make the process of learning highly visible

Shift #8: Task Completion.

Independent → Collaborative

For most of us, socially distanced classrooms and remote learning conjures images of students isolated at desks, or a home completing busy independent work. But for Kristin Damburger, Learning Coach at The International School Nido de Aguilas in Santiago, while these environments might provide setbacks, if we are to create globally, emotionally, and socially aware citizens, learning must be collaborative. The best way to do this is through projects. Projects, Kristin insists, force students to not only be accountable for their own learning, but also “accountable to their peers.” Students naturally must identify their strengths, divide work, resolve differences, and pull their weight to experience success. To design these kinds of deep, collaborative experiences, Kristin urges us to “take off our subject/teacher hat” and instead become a “designer of learning.” Here are more tips:

• Balance student grouping according to readiness levels, affinity mapping, abilities, and skills
• Use highly structured processes and ongoing formative assessments like process journals to monitor groups
• Use smaller group activities to help establish structures and norms for collaboration in your blended classroom

Shift #9: Audience for Work.

Teacher → Authentic, Public Audience

Many teachers lament that remote learning has produced lower quality student work than the work they receive in the classroom. Matt Neylon, The Director of Visual and Performing Arts at Mount Vernon School, insists that low-quality work is the result of three missing pieces: a public audience, multiple rounds of feedback, and the chance for students to ‘ship work constantly.’ During the period of remote learning, Matt worked directly with students to curate and exhibit their work in virtual museums for a public audience that showcased everything from art pieces to integrated dance performances. Along the way, students had the chance to share their work with peers, their teacher, and experts. Matt insists that when students are encouraged to regularly ‘ship their work,’ they automatically elevate its quality. He advises us to:

• Exhibit all work, not just the best
• Involve students in deciding how their work will be shared
• Partner with real businesses and professionals to serve as mentors, adjudicators, or interviewers

Shift #10: Management/Evaluation.

Progress Monitored by Teacher → Students, Peers, and Experts

Before every school day begins, students in Keri Aspegren’s Montessori class spend time journaling their learning plan, reflecting on progress they made, setting individual goals, and jotting down lessons they will receive from the teacher. It is entirely up to them to monitor their progress, and conference with their teacher or fellow peers when they need help. Keri explains that while this takes a “while to set up,” the class pretty much “runs itself.” She sets up her room to allow for a steady work flow. There is no teacher desk, but an environment that is thoughtfully prepared with stations and learning materials according to each lesson. In this way as Keri laughs, she shares the class with “25 teachers.” While this kind of learning magic does take time to establish, Keri advises we:

• Create stations and establish norms for free working times
• Set up a small conference area for teacher and peer-led lessons
• Establish routines for continual work planning and reflection

Shift #11: Discussion/Learning Experience.

Teacher-Led → Facilitated/Socratic

“Stop meeting the standards the school has for you, and meet the standards the students have for you.” These were bold words from Luna Rey, a teacher of at-risk youth and former High Tech High Educator after seeing what happens when students aren’t involved in the discussion. She watched a real world project she designed ‘fall flat,’ because she didn’t capture her student’s ideas at the onset. Her next project began with a socratic discussion around questions and topics that excited them. Capturing their interests right away resulted in students coming in at lunch, and staying up until late hours of the night to complete it. To make the shift to socratic discussion and learning experiences, Luna advises us to:

• Build intrinsic motivation in kids to learn by tapping into what they care about
• Celebrate and discuss the ‘process’ of great work as much you do the ‘product’
• Discuss projects as a way to transform lives, not just to deliver content

Shift #12: Learning Delivery.

School-Based → Community-Connected

Imagine your students connecting and partnering with the community to tackle complex problems.

Working side by side with engineers, architects, and urban planners to re-design transportation systems. Partnering with local park, golf course, and Audubon societies to attract more biodiversity and wildlife. Curating work with local museums and art galleries to address social ills and increase social justice.

These are the kind of projects Jill Clayton leads with students as young as 10. Rather than confine projects to school, Jill treats her students as miniature anthropologists, historians, and citizen scientists, finding problems and using ingenuity to solve them. As Jill puts, ‘community members are our co- teachers.’ To make this shift, Jill recommends we:

• Develop relationships with nearby businesses
• Build maps of potential community partners and problems to solve
• Invite community members into our classrooms to co-create with students

Make the 12 Shifts Stick

Just as we can’t make the shift to effective online learning overnight, making the 12 shifts to student-centered learning will require time, support, and continual reflection.

As Winston Churchill once famously said, “Don’t let a good crisis go to waste.”

COVID-19 has been an unparalleled tragedy, but also an unparalleled opportunity to re-commit to doing what’s best for kids.

Get the interviews and free poster for the 12 student-centered learning shifts here.

Here’s to your success with the 12 shifts!

For more, see:

• The Learning Must Go On
• We Can’t Put the Genie Back in the Bottle: Designing Next-Generation Education in the Time of Crisis
• Leaning into the Innovation Opportunity

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