As the school year draws to a close I am hearing many conversations about continued summer learning.  Some people are planning to attend conferences, others are planning to keep learning by traveling, and still others are collecting titles for podcasts and other articles they want to read. Another popular topic has been doing some additional reading and learning about grading for learning. Here are seven ideas for growing your grading for learning mindset:    

​This books connects grading with our equity work and makes a strong case for building equitable assessment tools that empower our learners.  This book also gives access to a google drive of examples that match the grading for learning work our district is embarking on.  

​Want the CLIF Notes version?  Read these two articles from Mindshift: 

• Feldman, Joe. “Why It’s Crucial—And Really Hard—To Talk About More Equitable Grading.” Mindshift. February 2019.
• Schwartz, Katrina. “How Teachers are Changing Grading Practices with an Eye on Equity.” Mindshift. February 2019.

​Dueck’s book gives a lot of concrete examples for how to move to a grading for learning system that values learning over grades.  He gives examples of how to manage re-assessments, how to tap into student motivation, and shares some of the struggles he’s had when making these changes.  

Our students have so much to tell us about what works for them and what supports their learning. 

​Consider asking them some of the following questions:

• What kind of feedback helps you do your best learning? 
•  What practices shut you down as a learner?
•  What practices support you to do your practice work even if it is not graded?  

Follow, and even participate in, the #sblchat on Twitter.

​This short book is power packed with helpful tips on making your grading fair, accurate, specific and timely.  Reeves uses case studies and real world scenarios as well as reflective questions to detail a way to implement grading best practices.  He also addresses ways to resolve student behavior problems such as tardiness and academic dishonesty.  

Consider signing up for Pages on the Patio, a ‘flipped book group,’ that will help you hold yourself accountable for your reading and learning. Having time set aside in your schedule so you can focus on the reading is an important first step. 

The members of RPS’s Grading for Learning, K-12 Task Force have compiled a list of suggested resources.

• Click here to see other articles, blog posts, and books you might wish to read, along with a few short videos you may wish to watch.
• Click here if you’d like to see how the task force is addressing frequently asked questions. 

This post brought to you by Heather Willman, POSA overseeing Secondary Curriculum, Instructional Coaching, & Staff Development

When I first started on my journey toward Humans of John Marshall, I wondered if I was really going to find students who would participate in a very public exhibit.  There are many days I struggle to get kids to talk to each other or to join a class discussion.  The fear of looking silly or saying the wrong thing is very real in high school.  I know some of my students are going through much more than I know or understand.  So, how could I possibly get some of them to reveal their truth and sit for a portrait?
 
I was surprised to find out that more students wanted to tell their story than we could accommodate, and I quickly realized that students in my Graphic Design class knew just what to do.  They were ALL in.  They became the storytellers of Humans of John Marshall, not me.  

It’s important to understand who we are at John Marshall High School: we are diverse.
 
For instance, this week my Intro to Art students are using the knowledge they’ve gained over the semester to create their own project goals.  One student is using perspective to design a beautiful Mosque, another student is using old photos to draw her ancestors from Africa, and another student is weaving Egyptian palm leaves brought in from her Orthodox church. At the same time, there are students who are tackling subjects that they are familiar with, such as playing sports, navigating relationships, and struggling with depression.  As you can imagine, rich conversations between some students occur as they talk over the choices they are making in their work.  Allowing students to have choices and a voice in their education can be culturally responsive which, according to Dr. Sharokky Hollie, means, “The validation and affirmation of the home (indigenous) culture and home languages for the purposes of building and bridging the student to success in the culture of academia and mainstream society.”  According to Hollie, “CLR is going where the students are culturally and linguistically for the purpose of bringing them where they need to be academically.”

I love the diversity of John Marshall.  My work with the CRTL cohort was beneficial and changed my day-to-day practice.  My personal goal this year was to find better ways and more opportunities for my Graphic Design/Digital Arts classes to have a voice.  Around this time of contemplation, I found the blog Humans of Minneapolis on Facebook.  The founder, Stephanie Glaros, takes photographs of people who she meets on the streets of Minneapolis.  She has a conversation with her subjects and takes their photographs.  The result is a striking portrait with a story or piece of wisdom from each person.  On this blog, Glaros creates connections between people of all backgrounds and celebrates who they are.  I wanted this for my Design students and for the diverse John Marshall student body.

I contacted Glaros by phone and I told her about my amazing students. She was onboard for the creation of a special project along with the Rochester Art Center, which wanted to exhibit the work.  I was able to secure grant funding from three community organizations to cover costs.  My upper level Design students started this project by studying Glaros’ work.  They discussed ways to put their own spin on the Humans of John Marshall.  

​I tried to give students ownership of the project by getting them to create the interview questions, find the student volunteers to participate, and locate the best places in the school to take photos.  There were times I had to remind myself to keep my opinions to myself because, as my CRTL training taught me, there are multiple ways to perceive reality.  My students can capture the essence of John Marshall so much better than I can.
 
My upper level Design class worked remotely with Glaros through several virtual workshops over the course of the semester. She trained them in the process of the compassionate storytelling style she has honed in her eight years of experience. She introduced photography techniques, including portraiture, and the active listening skills needed for this type of project. 

Humans of John Marshall has been rewarding in unanticipated ways.  Not only were these participants given a chance to tell their stories and make their voices heard, but the students interviewing them discovered ways to communicate and actively listen to their peers. Through this experience, my students became storytellers. They grew in persistence, overcoming their own fears and pushing through to the end. They developed critical social and emotional skills of empathy, self-awareness, and teamwork, which fundamentally changed our classroom dynamics.  
 
Simply put, student voice inspires and empowers students to take charge of their education. 

This is what Stephanie Glaros had to say about her work and our collaboration:
 
“While walking back and forth to work in downtown Minneapolis, I used to see the same people every day, but we usually ignored each other. I didn’t like how that felt, so in 2010, I started asking people if I could take their photographs as an excuse to interact with them. This practice eventually became the storytelling project Humans of
Minneapolis. By listening to people from all walks of life tell their stories, my life has been enriched immeasurably.
 
One important lesson I’ve learned is that we all experience struggles in life, but they don’t always show on the outside. I’ve also learned that many people feel overlooked and judged. It’s up to all of us to make sure everyone in our communities are seen, heard, and acknowledged as human beings worthy of respect and dignity.
 
By sharing what I’ve learned with the talented students at John Marshall High School, I hope some of the barriers that students put up between themselves become more porous. I also hope students start seeing each other in a new way: not as people to avoid because they are different, but as peers who want the same things in life that they do.”

Come and experience the collaboration in its final form!

Humans of John Marshall on display May 14-18, 2019
at the Rochester Art Center
 
A Humans of John Marshall reception will be held on May 17, 2019
4:00-6:00 PM
Stephanie Glaros will give an artist talk at 5:00 PM, along with the John Marshall artists and participants.
(reserve your seat here)

At the showing, you will see 30 large scale portraits of John Marshall students and a caption from each interview.  Be prepared to read powerful stories that show hard work, perseverance, pain, struggle, and love for one another.  Let their voices be heard!

​Below are two samples of what you will see at the show:

This post brought to you by Lisa Becker, Art Teacher at John Marshall High School 
Feel free to connect with Becker via email

If you know me, you know my husband and I are shopping for a new home. Wanting to downsize (I want a tiny house, he wants no yard, so we’ve compromised on looking for a condo), we’re slowly filtering through our belongings. We’re pulling items out of closets that we forgot we even had: placing in boxes the linens not used in years, the sweaters we no longer wear, and the camping gear we’re not even sure why we purchased in the first place.
 
Perhaps the hardest part of this downsizing escapade, is that we sometimes run into those items we should get rid of but struggle to part with. Those items that served a purpose in their time but no longer are of use. Items like:

• The quilt I once bought on sale at Carson Pirie Scott—the one that covered my bed in the home I purchased when I was 24 but that now is ratted, faded, and buried under a new comforter.
• The Lego sets my husband used to play with growing up—the ones his parents gave us when they were cleaning out their closets that now sit stacked in ours.
• The extra wedding invitations that we ordered because ordering in bulk was cheaper, but now they simply sit on a shelf.

These items—these are the ones that are hard to donate or toss. These items played an important role once and are now, therefore, emblazoned in our memories and dear to our hearts. 

Again, if you know me, you also know I love a good extended metaphor. As I see it, downsizing our course content is much like downsizing a home. Fourth quarter, and on into the summer months, we often find ourselves with a bit of extra time to focus on what’s next—and with no fifth quarter on the horizon, this often means making adjustments for the school year to come.
 
In our classrooms, just as in our homes, there are items that are easy to donate or toss:

• extra paper handouts
• past seating charts
• meeting notes about things that have since occurred

 
However, also like with our homes, there are items that are hard to part with, although maybe we should:

• that lesson on ­­___ that didn’t quite work out as planned
• that article I thought was great but that students didn’t get into
• that teaching strategy that just doesn’t seem to keep students engaged anymore

 
To get inspired to downsize our home, my husband and I (along with much of the US), have been watching Tidying Up with Marie Kondō on Netflix. Having read her first book a few years ago--The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up—this new Netflix series has served as a reminder of many of Marie Kondō’s key ideas. Ideas that, of course, work great in homes, but that also can be used to help create even more magic in our classrooms. 

Marie Kondō shares that the KonMari Method is most effective when you do all the tidying in one fell swoop. She puts it this way: “From the moment you start tidying, you will be compelled to reset your life. As a result, your life will start to change. That’s why the task of putting your house in order should be done quickly. It allows you to confront the issues that are really important. Tidying is just a tool, not the final destination. The true goal should be to establish the lifestyle you want most once your house has been put in order” (Kondō).

With this in mind, when you decide it’s time to start tidying up your course content, consider doing it in one fell swoop. Rather than doing what I used to do, which was to set aside a day every week or so during the summer to restructure and revamp; try instead setting as aside a few evenings in a row, a weekend, or even a full week to really dig-in to the task. Just as with a home, perhaps this will help you reset your instruction, allow you to confront the most important pieces, and establish the course structure you and your students need most.

Ask yourself: What is the purpose of tidying up my instruction?

• Is there a certain skill your students consistently struggle with and you need more time to fortify that skillset?
• Is there a certain group of students you struggle to connect with and want to add some material that might better engage them?
• Are there new strategies that you’ve learned and want to try, but are not sure where they best fit?

 
Keeping the answers to questions like these at the forefront will help you stay on track, should the tiding ever get overwhelming. (And, if you’re anything like me, it will.)

Marie Kondō suggests a few simple questions, moving from a rational to a more emotional approach.
 
When working with home items, she suggests:

• What is the purpose of this object?
• Has it fulfilled its purpose already?
• Why did I get this thing?
• When did I get it?
• How did it land in my house?

 
Since these questions don’t really work with our instruction; instead, we might ask ourselves questions such as:

• What was the purpose of this activity/resource/ lesson/text/etc.?
• Does it still fulfill this purpose?
• Why did I start using this activity/resource/lesson/text/etc.?
• When did I start using it?
• Why has it remained in my lesson plans?

One element Marie Kondō is most famous for is the concept of discarding items that no longer ‘spark joy.’ (In fact, her most recent book is even titled Spark Joy.) Marie Kondō recommends holding each item with both hands and asking yourself: “Does this spark joy?” If it does, keep it. If it doesn’t, thank it for the purpose it once served and then set it aside to discard.

When it comes to course content and instructional practices, obviously this looks a bit different. We can’t easily hold up a worksheet we now only store electronically to see if it sparks joy, but we can open the file, look it over top to bottom, recall how it went over the last time it was used with students, and then ask ourselves:

• Does this still spark joy in my classroom?
• Am I still passionate when I teach ___ the way I’ve been teaching it?
• When I use/do ___, is joy sparked in my students?

 
If the answer to these questions is ‘yes,’ then keep it around: teach the lesson again, use that text next year, and/or continue to utilize that strategy.

Marie Kondō notes that neat does not equal decluttered. It can be tempting to simply reorganize our material and call it good. But I can take all my pants from my closet, fold them into perfect KonMari rectangles, and move them to my set of drawers—but it won’t change the fact that they don’t fit right or that I never wear them anymore. For that reason, I have to purge items before I fold and rearrange. Only then, once I see what remains, do I really know where the best place is to store my pants. Only then, do I see if I have any gaps in my wardrobe.
 
Likewise, in our classrooms, we have to get rid of—or least commit to revamping—those items that no longer fit our students. Only then, once we see what remains, do we know what new format or structure might work best for the year to come. Only then, do we see if we have any gaps in our instruction. 

Marie Kondō always notes to organize by category, not by room. Classroom translation: organize by prioritized learnings, not by instructional units or lessons. This helps ensure balance and eliminate holes. 

Everything that is left, should fill a need. **Whew!**  Finally, the time comes to reorganize.
 
This step reminds me of what I did about ten years ago when I revamped the American Literature course I was teaching. After having purged a few novels and some grammar units that were no longer sparking joy in my students, I rearranged. Because I figuratively laid everything out on the table, I was able to then see that my remaining content, texts, lessons, etc. fit into six themes. Embracing that fact, I rearranged from teaching American Literature chronologically, as I had always done in the past, to teaching it thematically. But it also meant I had some holes to fill: I was suddenly able to weave in a new book group unit and adjust how I taught grammar by embedding into our reading and writing tasks. It was a lot of work, but, ultimately, it lead to more effective learning in the years that followed.

​​As my husband and I are experiencing firsthand with our home, the act of downsizing can feel overwhelming while in the process of discarding. However, we look forward to placing all our remaining items back in the best order (ideally, in our perfect-for-us condo in downtown Rochester).

​As Marie Kondō states, “the space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming...not for the person we were in the past.” This is true for our classrooms, too: we need to make them a place where students can grow into who they will become in this ever-changing world...not for the students we taught in the past.

This post brought to you by Heather Lyke, Secondary Implementation Associate

Work Cited: Kondō, Marie. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. 2014.

When we share stories with one another we become bound together in powerful ways. Stories provide hope: they have the potential to shine a light into the darkness and challenge us to change our thinking. Stories matter. Stories are powerful. Each month, the Department of Curriculum and Instruction partners with the RPS equity specialists and American Indian Liaison to share the stories of those in our own backyard who are often silenced.

​All of us have those days where we wished we could press rewind and start over. But there is no rewind button. We just have to keep on keeping on and hope that whatever has crept into our day to sour it dissipates as soon as possible. I would like to share a recent experience I had with my dog, Walda. (Did you really think I would write a blog post without mentioning her?)
 
While this girl is no longer considered a puppy (she turned 3 on April 2nd), she does possess an endearing puppy-like quality. Man, this girl has done so much for me. She’s licked my face, rested her head in my lap, brought me her tug toy to play with, you know, all the typical doggie-companion stuff. But just a few days ago, I realized what she has done for me in the vein of personal/spiritual growth.

I’m an introvert so I don’t speak openly much about what is bothering me. If at any point you and I have had a discussion where I’ve shared a piece of myself with you, I love you and I’ve watched how you react to myself and others. Well, this girl here is super friendly to everyone she meets (I’m pretty sure she’s an extrovert), so I’ve shared many things with her. She’s always super happy when I come home and it doesn’t matter how long I’ve been gone--5 minutes or 5 days--when I walk through that door, it’s always a reunion for the ages.
 
Now, back to what she taught me a few days ago. I came home and, just like clockwork, she got all sorts of excited: zoomies, pet my belly, here’s my tennis ball, tippy-tappy with her big-girl paws, circle-circle-circle.

And I walked right past her without acknowledging her because I was in my own head commiserating with my own thoughts. ​She came in the room, jumped up on the bed, laid down, and let out a big sigh. A mirror. I saw my reflection in that moment. I didn’t like what I saw. I had to own it because even though she had nothing to do with what I was dealing with, I still made her pay for it. I felt awful.

I asked Dr. Cecil White Hat (Rosebud Sioux Tribal Member, deceased) one time why it seems we suffer so much from historical trauma.

He looked at me and said, “We have forgotten how to use our natural medicines.”

Great. Now, here comes a discussion on roots and herbs. And, because I hold much respect and admiration for this Elder, I need to listen to what he is going to say.

He must have sensed what I was thinking, because he then said, “Our laughter and tears, we have forgotten how to use our laughter and tears.”
 
I know I always feel good after a laugh or a cry. But why? Our tears release cortisol. If that doesn’t come out during a good cry, it stays in the body and can cause all sorts of negative effects. Cecil was a very wise man. He never carried himself as if he were a walking library. He was a relatable guy. I am forever grateful to have spent time with him and I appreciate his words and lessons.
 
His brother, Albert White Hat (Rosebud Sioux Tribal Member, deceased), was also well known for his Lakota language and culture revitalization work on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. In this video, he talks about the importance of forgiveness and what can happen if you hold onto anger.

This post brought to you by Dawn Bjoraker, American Indian Liaison for the Rochester Public Schools 
Feel free to contact Bjoraker at 507.328.4236 or to connect with her via email

Growing up in the South Bronx, one of the five boroughs which make up New York City, poverty and I were very intimate.  My mom was a single parent raising three kids and did an excellent job meeting our needs.  However, that certainly did not come easily for her, nor did it come without the need of support.  

I was able to experience all the joy one experiences when walking into a neighborhood bodega with several food stamp bills stuffed inside my torn blue jeans.  And although everyone in my neighborhood, an area roughly few miles long but supporting over 80,000 people, were in similar situations as my family, I still found it embarrassing using food stamps.  I remember the feeling of shame and humiliation course through my body as I readied myself for the monetary transaction.  Truth be told, I hated that our family needed help.  Yet, like anyone living in poverty can tell you, the worst part is asking for it.  

Several years ago I had the pleasure of speaking to a parent volunteer, Donna Greason.  She had told me that if there were ever any student needs, she would be happy to help. I informed her that our school actually had a resource room for students who had clothing or food needs.  The only issue was that it was only accessible by walking through a teacher’s personal office and, to top it off, a key was needed. Not many students knew about the room and those who did were required to ask a staff member to open it.

Basically, if I thought using food stamps was embarrassing, I could only imagine how it must feel to be a high school adolescent having to find an adult to open a room so I may pick out food for my family while inadvertently being gawked at by the same person who opened the room up for me.  But like many of us are very well aware, space is limited in just about all of our school buildings. And, as is often spoken in my household, “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.” 

Yet, when I brought Mrs. Greason to the 7’ x 7’ Support Our Spartans Resource Room, S.O.S. Room, she had other thoughts.  She too had financial difficulties growing up and started questioning whether our school could provide a more appealing space.  Being the only school social worker for over 1,700 students, honestly, the S.O.S. Room was not particularly on my radar…at all. It had been established well before I ever stepped foot into the building and was a group effort, mostly stocked by the generosity of other Mayo High School staff members.  

Her idea was to move out of the space we were currently in and be more centrally located.  The other portion of her idea was to be more selective in terms of the items we were taking in, and lastly, “make it look like Target.”  ​

I heard Mrs. Greason’s idea and had two main competing thoughts. Thought number one went a little something like: Sure lady, if you’re willing to do all the work, I’m all for it.  Thought number two was: Could we actually destigmatize poverty by changing our delivery? 

Growing up surrounded by poverty, many of my classmates would still manage to come to school with new Jordan sneakers, Guess Jeans, and Hilfiger sweatshirts, although they too were living in the same poverty stricken neighborhood as I was.  So, it was difficult for me to imagine students embracing walking into a resource room to grab a pair of pants and walk out with little shame. And yet, it was so much the opposite of everything most of us were brought up to believe that it might actually work!
​
With support from our administration, we were provided a larger room right across from the lunchroom. The room is left open, unlocked, and largely unstaffed throughout the entire school day. Meaning, students can simply walk in and out of the room at their leisure.  No more hiding in a small space, no more needing to ask for an adult to unlock the room, and no permission needed. Although we have no prior data to compare how many items are coming and going, I can gladly say we estimate it to be about a thousand items every month.  We count empty clothing hangers to provide us with a base number of how many clothing items are taken from the room. The difficult part of keeping track of everything is that we offer more than just clothing: we also have school supplies, hygiene products, college readiness information, shoes, water bottles, books, and--to top it off--we also have a food pantry room for our weekly backpack program.  

I have come to the realization this generation of young people have come a long way since I was a kid. Students seem far more open speaking about their sexual orientation, engaging in open dialogue about different faiths, and acknowledging the importance of mental health.  So, I’m not sure why it still strikes me to see just how well Mayo High School has embraced this room.

Within a year of implanting the new strategy, our room was so successful that we expanded into the hallway.  Many of our school supplies are now located outside of our room and regularly stocked. Three clothing racks are also located in the hallway where students can grab a winter coat when needed. This model has opened the room up not only to those who are impoverished, but to any and all of our 1,700 students here at Mayo High School.  It has really helped me reframe my initial position of what a student in need looks like. Because regardless of how much money your parents have, if you rip your jeans in gym class during 2nd hour, straight down the crack, you’re now in need – true story.

The initial planning took more than simply receiving a centralized location.  In order to make the room look the part, it was going to take money. We enlisted the help of several Mayo students who were able to write grants for our room and generated about $2,000.  The money was used to purchase shelving, clothing rods, hangers, etc.. Recruiting Mayo students to write grants took the burden off of my shoulders and provided students with an opportunity to give back to their community as well as provided them with a life learning experience and an additional item to add to their resume.  

The next step was finding students who could be in charge of the daily maintenance and upkeep of the room. This was accomplished by soliciting the help of two student aides per semester. Simply put, there is no way any one person is going to be able to perform their job and effectively maintain a room of this nature.  The last piece of the puzzle was to create a club that would be responsible for all of the behind the scenes operations involving the room.

Most people don’t know the S.O.S. Room is actually run by a student club.  They meet every Tuesday morning for 40 minutes to discuss current and future needs, donations, monthly newsletters, and social media pertaining to the S.O.S. Room.  The last several meetings, however, have not been about our room but were spent discussing ways of establishing a resource room in every school across our district. They are willing to write grants, organize food drives, and donate clothing resources in order to help any school get up and running, or anything else that a school might find beneficial to establishing their own resource room.  

There are many myths surrounding a resource room that I would like debunked.  The most important one in my opinion is that we need to secure the room behind a locked door.  If I were to provide one bit of advice, it would be to make it easily accessible to any and all students.  Throughout the past several years I can easily recount only three instances where students disrespected the work put into the room.  When weighed against the thousands of times students have appropriately utilized the room...there is no contest. 

Some of my tips would include:

• Get students involved.  Why? Because if you believe doing everything alone will have an impact, you’re probably right.  But if you embrace the student aspect it will not only have an impact, it will become a part of the school’s culture.  
• Remember, neither Rome nor the S.O.S. Room was built in a day. It takes time and patience to get everything in order.  
• You’re not in it alone. I have found our community and student body to be very responsive when asking for donations.  

​Outside of those three suggestions, any of the S.O.S. club members will be happy to do whatever it takes to help out another school because they all share the same common belief that all students can be more successful academically when their basic needs are met.

This post brought to you by Juan Vasquez, a School Social Worker at Mayo High School 
Feel free to connect with Vasquez via email or phone

Working for educational equity is not a job for the faint of heart. It demands a sense of urgency, perseverance, empathy, humor, and,most importantly, an endless supply of humility. We can never know ALL there is to know about ALL the delicate cultural nuances that make the people around us who they are. But, we can strive to approach one another with a genuine sense of curiosity that is rooted in love and be willing to admit when we’ve made mistakes.
 
It is with this in mind that I write today. Recently, I was schooled on the term “codeswitching” and I want to share my new understanding as it relates to what Dr. Sharroky Hollie calls, VABBing.

First of all, for any of you readers who may not be familiar with the term VABBing, it is: “the validation and affirmation of indigenous (home) culture and language for the purpose of building and bridging the student to success in the culture of academia and in mainstream society” (Hollie 13).
 
When I first learned about VABBing, I could easily get my head around the validation and affirmation part, but I struggled with the notion of building and bridging. The idea that I should try to teach students to fit into the mainstream went against so much that I believed in. However, the more I read and the more I practiced VABBing, the more I realized building and bridging isn’t at all about forcing students to assimilate. It’s about giving our students the tools they need to be culturally dexterous. It’s about honoring and loving our students for who they are, first and foremost, while giving them the tools they need to navigate a complex, and often inequitable, human system. It’s about opening up the playing field so they can draw on their strengths while practicing the skills necessary for success beyond the classroom walls. I thought that this was what it meant to “codeswitch.”
 
It was with this understanding that I went forth into the world fielding questions about situational appropriateness and codeswitching, mistakenly assuming they meant the same thing. I had read Dr. Hollie’s book, studied the binder, wrestled with my own ideas about building and bridging, but never did I realize that I was misusing the term codeswitching. Today, I wanted to share a document that Dr. Hollie recently shared with me that clarifies the difference between VABBing and codeswitching: 

​​Before reading this, the negative connotations behind the term “codeswitching” had never really registered with me; I had simply been using it as a synonym for cultural dexterity. But, because I strive to examine the moments when my implicit bias or a deficit mindset creeps in, I have been working to change my language.

​Once again, I reiterate that this work is not easy. It takes time and openness to make change. It is my hope that all of us can feel supported as reflective practitioners as we walk along this road together. 

This post brought to you by Kim Eversman, E-12 Equity Implementation Associate

Lately, I have been thinking about my own education and how I, as a student, have changed over time.  In my K-12 education, I was a successful student who was “good at school.”  I did what the teachers and adults asked, I followed their examples of how to solve problems (I could follow any procedure in math when I knew the formula and worked through a few with the teacher), I followed their rules (no running, no swearing, etc.), and was always considered a “good kid.”  Once I went to college to get my undergrad and later my master’s degree, I realized I wasn’t as "good at school" as I had once thought. 
 
When I look back at why this shift occurred, I realize it was because as a K-12 student I wasn’t as interested in the learning and understanding of what I did, as I was with getting good grades (I was a passive learner), having teachers and classmates like me (the 'relator' in me) and being labeled as a "good student" and friend.  Now, don’t get me wrong: I did learn a lot during my K-12 years of education and I had a lot of great teachers, I just didn’t always strive to know or better understand the “why” behind what I was learning. I simply wasn’t motivated to do so.

A colleague introduced to the book Drive by Daniel Pink. The first two chapters really hit me: they highlighted what we are doing in education now,  noted what we can change, and identified why it is important that we do. Both chapters hit directly upon motivation.  The chapters “The Rise and Fall of Motivation 2.0” and “Seven Reasons Carrots and Sticks (Often) Don’t Work. . .” tie into what we see in our classrooms every day, even though his book is spun more for the business-world.  If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend  you do! 

If you want a quick idea of what Pink is talks about in Drive, then watching his TED Talk: “The Puzzle of Motivation” is a great starting point:

My favorite part of this talk is when he mentions that what motivated 20th-century learners (me) doesn’t often motivate 21st-century learners (our students).

Looking at ways to motivate students in the classroom and comparing it to what has been done in education for years, John Hattie explores the effect size of these different actions, noting if they have a positive, negative, or neutral effect  on our students.  As secondary teachers who we all likely taught in a system that was incentive driven, we need to start taking a closer look at what we are doing to motivate our students and to help them be active, life-long learners.

One of the things teachers tend to struggle with is the homework we give and the reason we give it.  According to Hattie, homework has an effect size of .29 (very low).  We have had students who could do the homework and were motivated to get them all right (i.e. get a good grade) but then struggled when asked to explain why certain rules/procedures worked and why it didn’t. When asked to solve a problem another way, students usually groan and ask, "Why?". We have also had students who did the homework but didn’t really understand the material, as well as students who just didn’t do the homework at all. So clearly, just assigning homework was not a motivator for most students in class and tying it to grades make it even worse.  

Continuing to look at what we can do to help motivate students, implementing a different mindset, specifically growth mindset, into how our classrooms operate is huge. We need to model and encourage making mistakes and focusing on what can be learned from those mistakes.  Instead of modeling how to solve problems, we need to give out students the problems first and see what they can figure out on their own.  We should incorporate more projects that are real-life based (the why of what we are doing is relevant), give students timely feedback versus grades (a .75 effect size from Hattie), and have students self-report on what they learned and what grade they earned (a whopping 1.44 effect size from Hattie!) should become the norm.

Making our classes relevant, interesting, and challenging to our students will help with their motivation.  As Daniel Pink refers in his book Drive, if we make tasks in our classrooms fit into one or more of the three key categories--Autonomy, Mastery, or Purpose--our students will move from being compliant (grade driven) to engaged (seeing the value).

​I know from my own experience that when I switched from being all about grades and more about the why and how, what I was learning became important. I became a totally different student. I also remember far more about what I was doing rather than just knowing I had learned it once upon a time.  I know it isn’t always an easy transition: when we find things that work and that we are comfortable with, change can be hard.  But, in knowing our students face different opportunities than we may have faced, it's time to try things a little differently.

This post brought to you by Jen Coenen, Secondary Implementation Associate and STEM Village Director

I recently had the opportunity to travel to UCLA to hear Dr. Brene’ Brown speak. She spoke of vulnerability, shame, and hurt, but she also spoke about living fully, loving more, being courageous, and daring greatly (which, by the way, is also the name of one of her bestselling books).

As I was listening to her speak, one of the things that was on my mind was the immense pressure and joy that come from working in education. When I returned to Minnesota I spent some time looking into what she has to say about being an educator. I found a speech online that she delivered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in 2017. In this speech she talks about the power that we, as educators, have to affect the outcomes for our students as well as the power that we have to affect outcomes for ourselves.
​
A few questions you may want to consider as you are watching:

• How does this challenge my thinking?
• What has been reaffirmed for me?
• What will I do moving forward?

 
I am cutting my writing of this blog short in order to allow time to watch the video. Think of it as a treat to yourself. It just may be exactly what you need.

This post brought to you by Ann Miller, K-8 Math Specialist

This past September, I had the opportunity to work with and hear Mark Perna speak about "Unleashing Passion, Purpose, and Performance in Younger Generations" as he addressed Career and Technical Education staff from all over southeastern Minnesota.  Since then I have had the opportunity to read his new book Answering Why, and I continue to be amazed at the connection between what he talks about in his book, the Rochester Public Schools Graduate Profile, and the opportunities that students at CTECH have each and every day.
 
As a staff at CTECH we are still working hard to establish, develop, and communicate who and what we are to students, colleagues, parents, and the community.  After working with Mr. Perna and reflecting upon our primary goals, it became clear that our curriculum and our instruction focus on three main areas:

1. Purpose  --  we strive every day to ensure that students leave our learning spaces with purpose.  If they complete a course at CTECH and leave knowing that they want to continue to pursue that career pathway we have succeeded.  If they complete the same course and leave with an understanding that the specific career pathway is not for them, we have also succeeded because both students now leave us with purpose.  Too many students move into a career or enter courses at the post-secondary level without purpose and they end up spending time, energy, and money to find out that they want to do something different.
2. Professional Skills  --  Each of our courses emphasizes the importance of learning, practicing, and perfecting the skills of timeliness, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and other commonly referred to "soft skills."  We prefer to call them Professional Skills as regardless of the career or college pathway a student takes, these skills will serve them well.
3. Competitive Advantage  --  The job market changes almost constantly and our students will at one point or another find themselves up against a pool of qualified applicants for a job, scholarship, etc.  We believe that by emphasizing both Professional Skills and industry-recognized certifications our students will leave CTECH with a competitive advantage.  Nursing students who complete their Certified Nursing Assistant assessment can seek employment as a CNA on their journey toward Nursing School, Med School, or any other Health Sciences career.  This certification and experience will give them a competitive advantage over those just entering the field.  Automotive students can now earn Entry-level ASA certifications and Culinary students can earn ServSafe Food Handler and/or Food Manager certifications.  Both of these provide a coveted competitive advantage.

 
I talk at length about these three areas of focus each time I lead a tour of our facility and programs and over the course of this year it has become very clear to me the connection between our focus and RPS Graduate Profile.  Specifically, I see direct correlation to the following domains:

We are very proud of the progress we have made in promoting not only Career and College Readiness, but Purpose, Professional Skills, and Competitive Advantage and we are grateful that these efforts are reflected in the qualities of a graduate that our community has identified as the most important.

This post brought to you by Brandon Macrafic, POSA focusing on Career & College Readiness and administrator at CTECH

To read more about the RPS Graduate Profile in Action, read part I of the series published in December of 2018 and written by Heather Willman. 

As the district wide Equity Implementation Associate, my role is to help support teachers as they both implement equitable (particularly Culturally and Linguistically Responsive, or CLR) instructional practices and reflect on the why behind these practices. This work isn’t black and white. It isn’t easy and teachers have questions. Lots of questions! And to be honest, it makes my heart so happy that there are so many questions. Questions mean that we are taking our work seriously; that we recognize we need to do better, even if we don’t know how to do better…yet!
 
In this post, I wanted to take some time to address one of the most common questions I am asked in regards to Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching: “What’s the deal with these call and response protocols?”
​
I have good news friends…you aren’t the only ones asking that question! There is so much wonderful literature out there that addresses the call and response conundrum.

One of my favorite resources on this topic is Zaretta Hammond’s book,Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. According to Dr. Hammond, the call and response cues the brain that something is going to happen. The novelty of the call triggers our brain’s reticular activating system, or RAS, which tells our brains to pay attention.
 
Culture plays its role, too. Many of our marginalized and underserved students come from indigenous cultures based in deeply rooted oral traditions. Storytelling, songs, rhymes, and poems were how information was passed on through generations. Furthermore, when we consider the historical context in which populations of marginalized people were denied access to the written word, we can recognize that oral expressiveness was imperative for survival.
 
For more on the neurological science behind call and response, here are some awesome resources.

• The Neuroscience of Call and Response
• Attention Protocols in the Culturally Competent Classroom: part I, part II, and part III

Yeah, call and response can most definitely feel strange if you haven’t been raised in a highly verbal setting and let’s face it, we Minnesotans are not a chatty bunch. But let’s move away for a bit to consider other layers of culture, such as youth culture. Walk through any school during passing time, and you will hear variations of call and response everywhere.
 
Another thing to consider is that call and response is just one type of attention signal. Culturally Responsive attention signals, such as call and response, use rhythm or have some sort of cultural relevance. Students have an opportunity to respond and have buy in. The most important thing that makes an attention signal culturally responsive, is when it is used with intentionality. If you are just doing a call and response for the heck of it, without a reason or a purpose, then it isn’t really culturally responsive. The other way an attention signal is culturally responsive is when the teacher uses all kinds of signals-traditional and responsive-to help students practice situational appropriateness. In other words-students need to know how to respond to traditional signals to be successful in school culture. But, when a teacher is only using traditional signals, he or she isn’t being responsive to the cultural behaviors a student brings to the classroom. Similarly, if the teacher is only ever using responsive signals, he or she isn’t being culturally responsive because they aren’t helping students learn to respond in traditional or situationally appropriate ways.
 
According to Dr. Hollie, there are three reasons why we use attention signals.

1. To clarify directions already given or to give further direct instruction.
2. To transition during the lesson.
3. To bring the activity or lesson to a close.

Using a call and response or any attention signal when students aren’t talking is not useful and will most certainly feel awkward. I’ve found that thinking of these three reasons has allowed me to feel less pressure when planning for call and response. If I don’t need to pull a group who is talking back to attention to clarify, transition, or close, I just don’t use it!
 
Finally, if you still feel goofy, have the students make them up! And let them lead them! Use this as an opportunity to give your students some more voice and choice during the lesson.

As I mentioned above, I’ve found it helpful to think of call and response as ONE TYPE of responsive attention signal. We use lots of different ways to get students’ attention. For example, in ENVoY, we use nonverbal signals such as raising a hand or ringing a chime. We don’t always use a call and response to get attention and there are still non-verbal cues that are culturally responsive. Again, it’s helpful to think about the rings of culture and how we respond to certain things because of how we identify within those rings. 

For example, I was raised Catholic, so when I hear a chime, my brain is wired to respond in a certain way. I was conditioned to pay close attention to people’s facial expressions because my parents are very quiet people, so it was easy for me, as a student, to recognize the classic, non-verbal, “teacher face”. Both examples are rooted in various rings of culture.

​We just need to remember that not all of our students’ experiences are the same as our own, so we can’t assume they will know what our different attention signals mean. We need to remember to take the time to intentionally teach our verbal and non-verbal attention signals. We also need to remember that we should be using a variety of attention signals-traditional and culturally responsive-so our students can be comfortable with situational appropriateness.

I know I may sound like a broken record when I say this, but remember, culturally and linguistically responsive teaching is a journey. There will be days where using call and response feels like the most natural thing in the world, and others when it feels painfully uncomfortable. You don’t always have to be using call and response to be culturally and linguistically responsive, but as you start to think about the cultural and neurological significance of the call and response, you may find yourself feeling less awkward. The most important thing to remember on this journey is to keep trying, keep building relationships, and keep reflecting on the layers of culture our students bring to our classrooms each day. 

This post brought to you by Kim Eversman, E-12 Equity Implementation Associate