Public Education: A rich, contextual landscape!

The shelf life of knowing just facts is becoming increasingly short; what one can do with those facts has longevity & sustainability.   - Justin Tarte

Public Education offers students and teachers one absolutely amazing gift: the world. 

Over the past couple of months, I have been privileged and honoured to attend 10 Grand Opening Celebrations for new schools in Calgary, as one of the principals opening a new school too. I have been blown away by the quality, diversity and incredible creativity offered at each of these celebrations and delighted to witness the rich, contextual landscape of music, art, athletics, drama, literature, cultural representation and student engagement. Public Education is alive and thriving, bringing the world to our doorstep. 

It seems we too often focus on the latest budget that never has enough, or the lesson that did not work as planned, or even the student whose needs we know we are not meeting - yet. These are the pieces of public education that often keep us awake at night. But it is the beautiful diversity of learning, the rich experiences our students bring alive every day in so many unique ways that inspire, validate and invite us to continually invest our hearts and energy into the future - into Public Education.

I might be an oddity, but early on in my teaching career, one of my mentors encouraged me to write my personal vision statement for being a teacher.  I did - and have continued to update and refine that vision many times over the span of 27 years. This year's version states:

"My vision as an educator is to ensure every child knows they are capable, loving and lovable. That each child develops the capacity and personal awareness to advocate as needed for themselves and others in order to promote considerate, effective and appropriate life practices that will make the world safe, comfortable and interesting for each and every person. And that each child develops the skills, strategies and interests to pursue a life filled with learning, adventurous experiences and personal collaborations that bring them joy, challenge and a sense of fulfillment." 

I re-visit my vision periodically and I do know it has changed dramatically since that first year when it was very much focused on helping Grade 5/6 students learn to read and not much beyond that. Fortunately, my career has taken many turns since those early days as well, and that has expanded my perspectives as well. But re-visiting my personal vision statement as an educator each August helps me stay committed to the principles of public education - high quality, free and inclusive opportunities for every child to grow to their full potential. 

Every day I have the great good fortune to witness and celebrate the incredible richness public education offers students in my own school - and sometimes I get a lovely opportunity to share the same in other schools as well. I appreciate the valuable learning experiences my own children lived in their schools and those my grandchildren are immersed in today. We often say schools are our future but they are so much more - they are our connection points with the world as it is today, where we invest our best efforts to make sure there is understanding, expression and innovation to enhance today as well as the future. 

Lorraine Kinsman, Principal 

Why I Might Be a New-School Junkie :)

"Impossible is just a word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. Impossible is an opinion. Impossible is potential."   - Muhammad Ali

"The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other. Without collaboration our growth is limited to our own perspectives."  

- Robert John Meehan

In 2010, I was honoured to be the first principal to open Cranston School, a brand new K-4 school in a new SE community on the far edge (at that time!) of Calgary. 

I had been principal in a K-6 school for five years before and loved every minute of working with staff to re-vision the school as we worked to develop a highly collaborative, student-focused learning environment together in our 35+ year old building.  21 years into my teaching career, I then decided to begin working on my PhD and so was on professional improvement leave when I learned I would be opening one of six new elementary schools in the fall of 2010. 

Oh my! Those were exciting days!! 

Working with the five other principals involved in the new schools project proved to be one of the most collaborative, innovative and thought-provoking educational endeavours I had ever experienced. Tasked with opening '21st century schools' in the second decade of the 21st century, we absorbed research, questioned many things about the status quo of opening a new school and in a few short months we moved from building visions to staffing to setting up classrooms to welcoming students in our buildings. 

I learned so many things - to have a strong, shared vision as a starting point, to listen and let all stakeholders find ways to enact the vision, to rarely say 'no' to any idea - for every idea has merit somewhere, even if it is 'what have I learned?'.  More importantly, I learned that having amazing teachers in the building is key - and building a culture with them is even more critical. I learned some lessons the hard way - by making mistakes, re-visioning, listening harder, trying again and sometimes repeating this process several times!   

I loved the energy of new ideas, of watching our students embrace a more open approach to learning, of teachers coming together in numerous ways to re-think learning, engage students in experiences that pushed them in every academic way and the tremendous support of parents both in the school as volunteers and in myriad ways as we consistently pushed the boundaries of learning with our young students.

I cannot remember a day when I did not want to be in the school, working with students and teachers, talking to parents, thinking, questioning, discussing and collaborating together.  I believed I would close out my career in this amazing place of learning that energized me every day.

When the opportunity came to open another new school - this time in Tuscany, a NW community in Calgary and somewhat closer to home (30 instead of 45 minutes each way), I finally realized that, as much as I loved Cranston School, it wasn't just that particular place that I loved - although I truly loved both the place and all the people associated with it - but rather the opportunity to dream big with like minded folks to bring greater possibility for student growth and excitement about learning to life. So I made the decision to move, and have not looked back. It's not that I don't miss Cranston - I think a part of me always will - but rather that I have figured out it is possible to foster energy and excitement about learning and teaching anywhere - and that is exactly why I think I might be a new-school junkie!

New schools offer blank slates and the opportunity to leap beyond 'the way we've always done it' in a single bound. There are no 'ways' so we get to invent them, apologize when we've overlooked something and be forgiven for being new - and then invent another 'way' again. Unbound by previous mindsets, we have the opportunity to delve into curricula in new ways, into research to enhance our practice and the opportunity to think about the future and how we are going to prepare our new school to meet the challenges our students will be experiencing in the coming years.

For me, following trends in science, business, technology and education offers insights and possibilities for world changes as well as teaching and learning in our building. Schools - new ones as well as existing ones - need to offer learning opportunities that will launch children successfully forward rather than train them well for yesterday. Sometimes - both as a parent and a teacher - it seems education is the slowest of all the trends to change, waiting till 'new' ideas in science, technology or business have become entrenched and are changing yet again before attempting to catch up to the first idea. Concern for the quality of education our children are receiving often clouds the possibilities for learning as we worry about the basics our children might not be receiving in their formative years. And educational reforms move glacially as a result.

I wonder about 'the basics' - whose basics are we concerned about? Which generation's? Mine? When colour television was the highlight of my remembered utopian childhood?  My children's - when VCRs and Walkmans defined excitement? My grandchildren's? Tablets, cell phones and gaming systems are ever present in their lives. I used a slide rule, my children used programmable calculators and my grandchildren (the oldest in middle school) use their tablets and cell phones for everything. Just today, I read about the latest advances in brain linked artificial intelligence (AI) being developed in Silicon Valley (Facebook Google, Elon Musk, etc) that will likely be available for everyday human use in about 10 years. Whose basics do we need to cover? A good question for educators and one I wonder about frequently.

What new schools really do is bring people together in a collaborative venture where all the stakeholders (teachers, parents, students) expect to embark on a different journey. One that requires pausing, thinking, reflecting, considering because there is no familiar path. Yet. Possibilities abound and, for children, that means a chance to try again and perhaps live a different learning story. It is in this collaborative process that relationships matter the most - mutual respect, listening, considering, sharing voices and ideas - these processes cannot happen without relationships that shape and frame and allow fair, honest, open exchanges of ideas and information. And it is in these exchanges - where new ideas grow, thrive and connect to other new ideas - that the vibrancy and energy of new schools makes me feel the most alive! 

I don't think a 'new' school requires a new building (although they are building beautiful ones these days!). What a new school does require is the effort to build a culture of collaboration that advances new ideas and strategies. I am particularly intrigued these days with design thinking as a framework for provoking different thinking and changing mindsets. We don't have to get it right the first time, we do need to include students in conversations and possibilities, we don't need to solve a problem right away but we do need to consider possible solutions many more times than once.  

What two new school experiences - and a third one in an old building - have taught me is that collaboration is critical to moving learning forward in different directions that will accommodate increasing numbers of students. There cannot be just one path for all students paved with basics that may not be relevant anymore. New schools offer us chances to pause, consider, share and try a multitude of new strategies where students have opportunities to meander many paths on their way to learning. 

The absence of 'a previous way'.  Opportunities to explore social trends that impact students and find ways to acknowledge those trends within existing curricula. Defining new 'basics' that apply to this generation of learners. Incredible opportunities to foster a collegial yet highly effective collaborative culture amongst all stakeholders. All to develop a landscape where every student finds a positive and successful personal learning path. These are the gifts my experiences with new schools have offered and, having certainly loved every aspect, why I think I might be a new-school junkie!

Lorraine Kinsman

Principal

Next entry: The Power of Storytelling 

Learning and the Brain - The Nature of Play

"Guided play: a planned play environment, enriched with objects and toys that provide experiential learning opportunities, infused with curricular content."  

                               Berger, 2008

  "Collaboration is the ultimate soft skill that all other skills build on because when we enter the world alone and incompetent, the first thing we do is make contact with other humans." 

                                                         Golinkoff & Hirsh-Pasek, 2016

"Gettin' good players is easy. Gettin' 'em to play together is the hard part." 
 Casey Stengel, former Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers 

Play is the most significant way for young children to learn to collaborate (one of the '6 Cs' of learning covered in the last blog entry). And primary questions researchers have been exploring over the past few years are related to play - what percentage of time do children actually play? How does play support the development of collaboration, critical thinking and other key success qualities related to learning? Should children play more? What should they play? What if all they want to do is play? What if they never play well with others? Questions about play abound in our world - a world inundated daily with perceived threats to childhood development and later success. So, what do we know about play?

Play actually comes in many forms and does have a critical role to play in successful child development and learning. While we are born needing to be social to survive, we are not born with the self-control to successfully collaborate and bond with others - but we all have the capacity to do so through play. It is through play that we learn language, appropriate social and cultural interaction, build stamina and physical strength - just as a beginning.  The American Academy of Pediatricians (2012) notes:

-  Play is essential to the social, emotional, cognitive and physical well-being of children beginning in early childhood

-  It is a natural tool to develop resiliency to cooperative, overcome challenges, negotiate, be creative, and for adults to bond with children and see the world from child perspectives

-  The challenge is to strike a balance between the desire to enrich children’s lives and the need to foster play as a foundation for learning skills 

Four significant types of play have been identified as critical for successful child development of self-regulation and collaborative skills that will foster teamwork, the ability to get along with others, generate successful social bonds, develop positive social-emotional self regulation, impulse control, self-reliance and the presence of socially responsible behaviours.  And developing appropriate self-regulation predicts life success through persistence, confidence, task mastery, academic achievement, communication, social collaboration, moral maturity and sharing. The best news is that play actually teaches all of this through conversation, questioning, imagining, modeling, creating and exploring!

Four kinds of Play:
   1)  On My Own (solitary) Play
        - babies arrive without collaborative skills - they learn them through successful interactions with parents and caregivers - collaboration 'starts with the self-regulation that keeps us from getting hysterical every time something goes wrong...parents scaffold this development of self-regulation but it is the parent who has the burden for crafting the collaboration and social control; little by little the child takes more and more responsibility '  (Golinkoff/Hirsh-Pasek, 2016)
  - there are adults still stuck in level 1 collaboration - frequently referred to as the 'silo syndrome' and it exists in workplace cultures, social structures and classrooms as well as individuals - groups of people who do not want to listen to any new thinking or ideas, are insulated and protective of turf and unwilling to innovate or share ideas
  - 'silo syndrome' inhibits growth, creativity and innovation and limits potential for success even though, on the surface, success might seem to be already evident - without collaboration, success will be temporary and shallow

  2) Side by Side (parallel) Play
      - older toddlers and preschool children often engage in parallel play - in fact, it is a critical component of learning to collaborate that can't be skipped
   - parallel play encourages each child to follow their own needs and wants until they need something more - rather than just scream unregulated like a baby, toddlers have learned to look around and ask for help - not in thinking but in doing - they are still working toward their own desire but will share - or take - what they need from someone else and can use the skills of asking or diverting to support this action
   -  adults and older students engaged in parallel play might be doing very similar work side-by-side but they do not (or are not allowed in classrooms) to engage with others while they solve a task - their only ideas, plans and strategies are their own and this constrains the potential for growth or innovation 
   - children engaged in side-by-side or parallel play are not moving towards a big picture plan but are engaged in developing only their own ideas - they have not yet developed strategies for expanding and seeing potential - parents and caregivers can model and encourage sharing and thinking of others during this phase until gradually children begin to advance their collaborative skills through play
   - organizations and adults who do not advance beyond side by side collaboration will often feel frustrated their ideas are not honoured or the work they are doing is not seen as valuable because they have not been able to participate in developing a bigger picture of what is needed - adults working together but functioning as independent agents will find the innovative requirements are unclear and frustration results
   - organizations or classrooms that promote parallel (level 2) collaboration strategies are frequently highly competitive environments where only one person 'wins' or gets the right answer 

  3) Back and Forth (associative) Play
   - scaffolding activities for pre-school and school-age children, both in educational environments as well as at home and play, provides opportunities for children to see themselves as contributors to devising games, solving problems, making plans and acting out stories
  -  back and forth play causes students to use language to describe their needs, identify priorities, ask questions and build on ideas - children learn they are better together - the games become bigger, better, more engaging, longer lasting when friends engage in play together
   - for adults, similar success occurs - in these days of exploding amounts of information, no one person can know anything in it's entirety - adults need to share expertise to get through any anomaly - like a computer glitch, a traffic situation, a major weather event, planning an event - no one person carries all the expertise needed
  -  collaboration requires defining a goal - what are we trying to do/play/create/achieve? 
  -  collaboration also requires someone involved that has some connection or understanding of what needs to be achieved and has the self-regulation skills to express and share ideas

  4) Building it Together - full collaboration
   - building it together with full collaboration - shared ideas, honouring of input, respect for every possibility - is achieved with intentional, strategic awareness of the importance and value of working together
   -  full collaboration requires a shared goal - a reason to come together, complete trust in other collaborators and a shared responsibility for what results - even if the results do not achieve what was desired - there is no blaming a less-desired result on a team member
 -  in schools where children 'work for a long time in a serious way on an authentic topic, asking questions that push their inquiry along' full collaboration is clearly evident (Golinkoff/Hirsh-Pasek, 2016)
  - adults working together in environments where solutions percolate from inside the organization rather than delivered from the 'top' of the organization exemplify fully collaborative, building it together environments where we can creatively address identified problems together and see things from other's perspectives
  - in schools, building it together play offers opportunities for students to identify a common goal, share strategies and ideas without judgment, build common vocabulary, take shared responsibility, speak respectfully to each other and share our narratives 
   -  improv theatre, Wikipedia, Google, LEGO are just a few examples of times when adults are fully collaborating together

It is no coincidence that these four kinds of play correspond to identified levels of success as collaborators - for play is truly the collaborative action that strengthens and grows collaborative skills from birth to end of life. 

When we talk to our children, we need to listen for the kinds of play they are engaging in, both at school and in other areas of their lives. What collaborative skills have we already scaffolded successfully with them? Where do they need a little extra support? How can we foster play opportunities for them to build these skills? And - perhaps even more importantly - what level of collaboration are we ourselves living with most of the time?

Do we need to engage in a little collaborative play ourselves?

Lorraine Kinsman, Principal

Learning & the Brain – 'The Six Cs' for Students living in the 21st Century

“The world will not be run by geniuses, but rather by people you can count on.’ 

Michael Fullan

“Deep learning...is learning that merges life from day one (babies onward)…looks at the world from many perspectives, cuts across the disciplines (after all, we live in a trans-disciplinary world not a mono-disciplinary one), learning that is relevant to real world interests, needs and challenges of our students, is (inter) active and which concentrates on developing the capabilities that count not only for today but for a sustainable future.” Michael Fullan

One of the most fundamentally true things I know as an educator, mother, grandmother and human being is that the world is changing faster than I can often fathom – growing up in a world where colour television was the greatest phenomenon of my childhood, to living in a world where instant communication, social media and google searches govern most of our days work and entertainment, I have had the privilege to see first hand change happens and does not ‘go away’.  

It has truly been a privilege to see the world come closer together, communication paths multiply enormously, innovation and invention make our lives easier and yet more complex simultaneously. It has also made me realize the work I do every day as a educator, mother, grandmother and human being cannot parallel, echo or even resemble the work I did as a student and a young teacher in schools scant decades past.

It would be morally, ethically and emotionally cruel to prepare the children I work with today to live in the world I have already left behind, even just five years ago...

 As a leader, I am acutely aware it is my responsibility to ensure the students whose learning happens on my watch are moving forward rather than staying static or slipping behind in understanding and managing the complexities of the world in which they live. In fact, I spend a great deal of time vested in ‘reading forward’ – looking for evidence of new living parameters students will need to comprehend to live successfully in the coming decades of the 21^st century. 

I am not a futurist, but I read the work of educational and business futurists – the ones who are excellent at analyzing trends and offering strategies for moving forward. I believe this is a critically important part of my role in school leadership.

And attending the “Learning and the Brain” Conference in San Francisco in February/17 only served to cement for me the need to understand learning as constantly evolving change – what Fullan calls the ‘endless cycle of learning in action’ – the need to recognize learning is much more than building the essential competencies of literacy and numeracy. From a young age students need to develop other competencies that will equip them to “negotiate the social, cultural, economic, vocational and environmental challenges of the mid-21^st century successfully and productively” (Fullan, et. al., 2014). 

There are many competencies students will need to move into their new world that we can begin developing with them from infancy. In research and educational circles these are sometimes referred to as ‘the six Cs’ of learning – occasionally some researchers will just focus on two or three, while others will double the number of attributes necessary to foster student independence and thinking.

For the purposes of our K-4 environment, I prefer to focus on six key competencies – and once again, return to Fullan’s work for definitions.  Parents reading through this list will (I hope) be able to recognize where and when these competencies are already being fostered in our school and why the work we do with peace education, design thinking, maker spaces, literacy, numeracy, inquiry, place-based learning, and problem solving looks and sounds the way it does – and why it is so different from the way teaching looked and sounded just a few short years ago.

 The 21^st century learning skills and competencies fostered deliberately at Eric Harvie School include:

Ø  Character (students build tenacity, resilience, honesty, reliability in their work)

Ø  Citizenship (thinking globally to consider diverse issues and values from alternative perspectives; solve complex problems that impact both human and environmental sustainability

Ø  Collaboration (be able to work interdependently with teams, being able to problem solve and make decisions together, learning from and contributing to, the learning of others)

Ø  Communication (fluent with reading, writing, speaking, digital communication strategies to present ideas, question and collaborate)

Ø  Creativity (asking questions to generate novel ideas, pursue ideas into practice, use design thinking to persist, imaginative, courageous to question the status quo)

Ø  Critical Thinking (evaluate information and arguments, see patterns and connections, construct new knowledge and apply in the real world, persevere, question, reflect)

These six qualities are championed and honoured in our school.  Sometimes the work is messy, sometimes it is brilliant and other times efforts fall flat with everyone and need to be re-examined, re-designed, attempted again - or sometimes even discarded.  Our work lies in the processes – how do we uncover new information, support each other and learn we can make a difference from the very beginning?

This is what the world of education needs to foster today in school-based learning environments – strategies to definitely build literacy and numeracy skills, but also endless opportunities to foster problem solving, character development, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication. When you notice these skills developing in your children, encourage them to expand their horizons – engage them in new thinking and new adventures, both physical and digital. 

Maybe even get them enrolled in the first School Maker Faire!

Next blog entry let’s explore the nature of play and how that fosters the six Cs as well JJ

Lorraine Kinsman, Principal