Conversation 1: Preface and Intro
Preface & Introduction to the New Pillars of Modern Teaching
Welcome to the Preface and Introduction to The New Pillars Modern Teaching. In the preface, Will Richardson sets the stage for the book with a brief history of essays and books that were predecessors to this series of books from Solution Tree called the Solutions for Modern Learning series. In this section, he describes how we have reached this point in education and what our next steps might be.
In the introduction, Gayle Allen provides a description of how the book as arranged to best address where teachers, who are surrounded by technology, will address this in their teaching. She explains that she wrote the book to help us understand the “why” of it all, and to address the question of how and why to allow access to the wealth of knowledge surrounding us inside of the classroom.
Using the comment tool at the bottom of this post discuss. Please label your posts as Q1 for answers to question 1, etc.
- Introduce yourself and tell us where/what you teach?
- Why do you feel it is important to read this book?
- Describe the shift to the new pillars of pedagogy. Does this shift seem to apply to your classroom and way of thinking about curriculum, instruction, and assessment?
- In what ways, if any, do you feel we have already started addressing this shift on your campus or in RCISD?
Feel free to reply to the comments of other learners.
FYI. Names are posted, and the website is visible. Please focus on positive discussion and sharing. Happy reading!
1. My name is Ashley Jones. I teach Interior Design at the High School. This will be my 11th year teaching and all of my time has been working for Royse City.
2. I believe that this book will help to give direction to a shift and focus that we already know is needed. Sometimes we know where we need to go, but we don’t always know where to start or the steps to take to actually make these ideas a reality.
3. The shifts to new pillars of pedagogy are implementing design, curation, and feedback. This process really allows students to take ownership of their own learning. Honestly, anyone can regurgitate facts or take notes from instruction, but how much of that do you actually remember? When you give students ownership in their learning they feel empowered and accomplished. I believe that this really applies to my subject area and classroom. I actually find that when I let them take control of their experience, they are successful 99% of the time. It takes a lot of trial and error sometimes, but they buy in. When they fail they reevaluate and then decide on a new plan of action based on feedback and try again.
4. I believe that we have already shifted our focus and are now implementing strategies to allow for the optimal learning experience. Professional development the last 3 years in this district has been the very best I have ever experienced. We are learning strategies from Kaegan, Marsha Tate, & Revolutionizing learning to introduce students to a variety of ways to learn and explore. Even offering things like Nepris in our district allows students to tailor their own questions through an experience that they would not have ever had outside of our school. When learning is a true experience it isn’t easily forgotten. RCISD is definitely making strides in this area.
Introduce yourself and tell us where/what you teach?
My name is Joshua Biggerstaff and I am a 4th grade Reading teach at Davis Elementary. This is my 4th year in the district and my 2nd year in 4th grade.
Why do you feel it is important to read this book?
I believe reading this book is important because it is going to further me as an educator and leader. This book also directly relates to a huge shift that is taking place in education and gives me some insight as to what that looks like.
Describe the shift to the new pillars of pedagogy. Does this shift seem to apply to your classroom and way of thinking about curriculum, instruction, and assessment?
This shift of the pillars does apply to my classroom. While there are times that we lean to the “old way” of doing things, the majority of our class time is spent in collaboration with one another and giving opportunities to learn from one another.
In what ways, if any, do you feel we have already started addressing this shift on your campus or in RCISD?
RCISD does a great job addressing this by offering meaningful PD opportunities such as Revolutionizing Learning and Fixer Upper days. The sessions offered throughout these days are directly related to these new pillars and the shift that is taking place in education.
Q1 My name is Christine Wiley, I just finished my eighth year of teaching. I have taught many different grades, first, second, third, and fifth grade. Along with all those grades I have taught in Garland, Sioux Falls SD, Dallas, and now Royse City. I am proud to teach in Royse City at Miss May Vernon Elementary in first grade. This has been truly a great year in my career and I am excited to continue in the same grade this coming year.
Q2 It is important as an educator to be a lifelong learner. This book will guide and support the new age of teaching. It is important for us as educators to change with the years and adapt to the new things. Our student population is and will continuously change and as educators we need to be willing to change with them.
Q3 I think these new pillars are more geared to student centered. It provides them more opportunity to succeed on their own terms. Additionally, it is more subjective and allows for more chances to grow. It also correlates with the T-TESS, when we design a goal, curate our ideas with our colleagues and students, and lastly receive feedback from not only our administrators but students. As educators we need to work alongside each other and branch out on new ideas and not be stuck in just the curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Teaching is about learning as much as it is teaching. Curriculum is a tool to use for support, instruction can be delivered in various ways, and assessments do not always provide us the whole picture of our students. Overall, I think this new idea of design, curate, and feedback is a good way to make us stronger educators.
Q4 As stated in previous answer, it reminds of the way we as educators are being evaluated using T-TESS. I think Royse City is doing a good job at supporting their students as well as educators in making sure they are well equipped with the tools they need to be successful. They provide many opportunities to grow and ensure that everyone has the equal chance to be successful.
Unit 1
1. Introduce yourself and tell us where/what you teach?
My name is Jillian Lowry—I teach bilingual 4th Grade, ELAR, at Miss May Vernon Elementary. I have experience teaching bilingual and general education students, from Pre-K through 4th grade—I thoroughly enjoy primary, but I so love 4th grade, it’s one of my favorite years for student growth and development!
2. Why do you feel it is important to read this book?
Technology is SO MUCH MORE than different tools or a new way to present things. The tech revolution represents a fundamental transformation of our society, and I believe those ramifications are only just becoming even partially apparent—it will be years, decades even, before we begin to fully see how much society has changed as a result. Just as the industrial revolution required an overhaul in how society functioned, how work was done, how life proceeded, so too will this newest “revolution”. Allen is on the forefront of analyzing what this means for our practice as educators, as well as what it means in terms of changes to the (education) system as a whole.
More than powerpoints or apps or ipads or macbooks— this has to do with how we interact with each other, with information, with the world around us, with the problems and challenges we face—and education has to change in such a way as to be an apprenticeship, in which students interact with this new world in as many authentic ways possible, learning as they go, with teachers serving as facilitators and guides.
Given that this is, in essence, a brand new world, we are required to seek knowledge and learn as we go—this isn’t necessarily something that comes naturally, and it also is very different (presumably) from the ways in which most of us were taught, which requires learning/introspection/changes on our part as teachers.
3. Describe the shift to the new pillars of pedagogy. Does this shift seem to apply to your classroom and way of thinking about curriculum, instruction, and assessment?
The shifts (curriculum to design, instruction to curation, and assessment to feedback) very much matches the way that access to knowledge has been reshaped/transformed— instead of encyclopedias, we have access to the entire world of libraries in the palms of our hands. Our Pinterest (and Instagram… and Twitter… and… etc.) feeds are constantly shifted and curated BASED on our feedback about what we do and don’t like, what we do and don’t want to see, what we are and are not interested in. If we, as adults, insist on these kinds of opportunities to design, curate and give/receive feedback—how much more in tune to this are our kids?!?!? Who literally do not, and cannot, even conceive of a world WITHOUT these features.
In my classroom, I feel that I am very much playing a dual role—some of that role is to be led by the learners (receiving feedback from them), and some of that role is to facilitate their development of these skills (ie. Scaffolding them as they attempt to learn how to curate/give-receive feedback/design/etc). Sometimes my role is to insist that they include certain elements so that their curation doesn’t lead to exclusion of information that they *do* need to know— sometimes my role is to sit back and learn and watch their wonder as they go further and deeper than I could’ve ever imagined.
While I feel that I do better in some areas vs. others, I know that I have SO much further that I can go and so much more that I can improve in every one of these areas, including allowing my brain to really rewire itself and start automatically connecting design-curriculum, curation-instruction (etc), instead of having these concepts sitting in a much more disconnected/compartmental way in my brain (which I think can come out as disjointed/less seamless in my instruction).
4. In what ways, if any, do you feel we have already started addressing this shift on your campus or in RCISD?
On the district level I see this shift in terms of our PD offerings and even the ways in which our PD is offered (the campfire-cave-watering hole from last year’s PD immediately comes to mind). On my campus, we have so many highly motivated, highly skilled teachers who are working to innovate and teach transformatively, I see these shifts in practice being implemented constantly. Susan Snow (next door to me), and her integration of Google classroom with the LAUNCH cycle and the student design/curation that goes into each of her units, is one great example just on my team.
Q1 My name is Lindy Buchanan. I’ve taught 1st grade the last 5 years at MMV but next year I will be the ESL teacher on campus. I’m starting a new adventure!
Q2 Schools have to get away from the traditional ways of teaching. We live in a connected world and students are using their smartphones, tablets, etc. to learn new information. Technology is challenging traditional teachers to step out of their comfort zone and try something new which I think is needed. The traditional style of learning has always been students come in and teachers teach with very little autonomy afforded to the student to direct his/her own learning. If we are going to prepare students for the future then we must adapt the classroom environment and integrate technology.
Q3 I think technology is not only an advantage for students but for teachers. I agree with Gayle that teachers struggled with student engagement in the 20th century. I had one teacher, worked from a large textbook – copied information from it, and had very little opportunities to receive feedback. It taught me very early on to just memorize content without ever really getting an opportunity to learn more about what I was interested in. Now we have an opportunity to empower learners who can design their own instruction, curate their own curriculum, and gather feedback from their peers. It is empowering as a teacher just knowing that we have the tools to increase student engagement and we get to be more of a facilitator of student learning.
Q4 We have implemented new technology and programs every year since I started working in RCISD. I think our curriculum department provides the training and tools necessary for us to be able to serve our students to the best of our ability. Revolutionizing Learning is a great example of teachers being able to teach and direct their own learning. You choose sessions that you are interested in and that are relevant to the 21st century learner. This type of professional development is a great example of what we can do for kids in the classroom. There are things we are required to teach by the state but I think students are very eager to take ownership of their learning and share that learning with their peers in their own creative way.