#SXSWEdu Day 1

Thanks to @TESGlobalCorp, @Wikispaces, @SXSWedu and my tech coach, I was one of 100 teachers who won a badge to SXSWEdu this week. No one was more surprised than I was ... and I am delighted!

Today was Day 1. I chose three sessions to attend.

The first session didn't address the topic I thought the title intended. I know how that can happen sometimes. I did hear a few very difficult statistics. I'd like to know more about the source of these numbers! Two-thirds of students are not ready for college math. 54% don't graduate ... and only 9% of low income students graduate.

So the day got off to a bit of a slow start. In the meanwhile I had meaningful conversations with colleagues. Teaching is a tough job. We shared our challenges, talked about possible tweaks for the next year, and supported one another in our work.

The second session was awesome! The title was "Failure with Style and Grace." I knew it was going to be good when I realized that two of the three speakers were Two Guys on Your Head from KUT Austin. With Dr. Markman and Dr. Duke was Sarah Bush, an artist, artist coach, and creativity consultant.

Here are just a few key ideas I took from their presentation:

• U.S. culture infatuated with talent and effortless success; struggle is unacceptable. How do we change this culture? Struggle is the creative process. When we reject struggle we reject
  process.
• Process is often invisible. Make the process visible, overt, necessary. The process reframes failure.
• Errors, rates of error, mistake making is a necessary part of everything. The only way we speak to our non-conscious selves is by doing something, getting feedback, and making corrections.
• We gladly show off our final products but rarely show off the process of creating. The intermediate steps are hidden. We compare ourselves, our work, to final products. Make available the awful drafts so that students see the process.

One of the presenters shared a "grook" from Piet Hein, The Road to Wisdom:  The road to wisdom?  -- Well, it's plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again but less and less and less.

The take away for my classroom ... stress the process.  Share with students my own processes for solving challenging problems.  Ask them to share with one another the strategies they use - even those that end in dead ends.  Help students respect the process and realize that it is from working through challenges that we learn the most.  Failing at solving a problem isn't wasted time.  Help students reframe what they learned through the process.

My last session of the day, "How to be Curious," was invigorating and mentally stimulating.  The presenter, Sunni Brown, has been named one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” and one of the “10 Most Creative People on Twitter."  She is the author of two books, and the energy behind the Doodle Revolution.  Her topic was about visual language ... making thinking visible through doodling, drawing, illustrating.  Doodling is not about art, but about visually expressive language.  In this session she connected her work to the book, Making Thinking Visible.  We did a couple of doodling exercises ... one on empathy and another on appreciation.  I am inspired to get her books, GameStorming and The Doodle Revolution.  I want to incorporate doodling in our Cornell notes at school.  I feel inhibited because I draw so poorly but as Sunni pointed out, when you learn a language or learn handwriting, the work often lacks shape.  It is with practice that we perfect a language or handwriting ... and so it is with practice that my doodles will look better!  Check out Sunni Brown's Ted Talk here!

As I reflect tonight on the day, I see that the two big ideas ... stressing the process and visualizing thinking go hand in hand!  I look forward to putting my own spin on these ideas in my classroom in the coming weeks!

Thanks, again, to those who are making this week possible!

academic optimism

I hate that I missed posting a "My Favorite Friday" post!   Instead, it's time to write a bit more about the transition from administration back to the classroom.

I don't miss being a principal.  While I enjoyed that position, I am glad not to be in charge.  I do miss some aspects though.  I miss the freedom to plan my day; I miss professional conversations with colleagues; I miss working directly with teachers in professional development activities.  And I miss being with elementary children.

As a teacher I am finding working with math curriculum invigorating.   The emphasis in Algebra instruction has changed slightly in the past 12 years or at least my current district requires a different focus.  There is more of an emphasis on concept development; on interpreting solutions in contextual situations.  There is little or no time spent on reviewing pre-algebra skills and little emphasis on manipulation of numbers.  The shift takes a little more planning.  I find that planning activities for teaching and practicing skills is easier than planning instruction in applied problems.  I spend quite a bit of time scouring older math texts as well as the Web for relevant situations to explore.

"My Favorite Friday" thought is that I'm particularly grateful to the online community of math teachers who readily share their work!  And the "Snipping Tool" in Win7 that @druinok mentions enables me to snip here and there to create activities with ease!

My greatest challenge has been in relating to my ninth graders.  I've been surprised and dismayed by their lack of motivation.  I know, I know ... one of the most significant things that teachers do is motivation!   An instructional leader is a multi-faceted job ... it is not just about knowing curriculum, or deconstructing standards, or even planning cohesive lessons but also about understanding and reaching each learner in the classroom.

I have many able students.  Those students are getting the math; and we are working together well.  But I have too many students who are struggling, who enter the classroom with little interest in even trying.   Instead of engaging with any of the math, they wait to see what answers I will give them.   Their disengagement shows up in lack of materials, idle chatter, accusatory statements, obvious boredom.  And it creates a spiraling effect that is challenging to overcome.

Failure does not motivate.  In fact, for many students if does just the opposite!  It reaffirms students' opinions of themselves as poor math students and they give up.

Our first marking period just ended.  Several students were working fast and furious using our school's very liberal tutorial and retake policies.  Those students, though, that needed it the most ... the ones that do not see themselves as successful math students ... did not take advantage.

There was a time when I might have said, "Well, they get what they earned!"  And that thought does cross my mind and yet I am personally dismayed.  Their failure is my failure as well.

In this second marking period I have the opportunity to find that key - the key that establishes rapport, that opens doors of misunderstanding!  I have the opportunity to pursue success ... pull out all of my tools, try a few more tricks of the trade, and even work on my persuasion skills!  I love a challenge!   I am an "academic optimist!**"

**McGuigan, L., & Hoy, W. K. (2006). Principal Leadership: Creating a Culture of Academic Optimism to Improve Achievement for All Students. Leadership And Policy In Schools, 5(3), 203-229.