A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Art Survey

by Mark Heintz and Cindy Pacyk

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

There are certain classes in the school that are close to what I hope schools could be.  Really, what we should all aspire to be.  Art is one of those places.  I loved to draw a kid. As I got older, I didn't make time for it since I had more "academic" subjects to focus on.  Art didn't fit into my schedule.  I'm making room for it now.

I went into Cindy Pacyk's art class and was blown away by the atmosphere.  Students worked at the own pace on their projects.  It was a lunch period and students were dropping in and helping kids who aren't even in their class.  Freshmen through seniors are mixed in and working together.  Cindy pulled small groups together to show them a technique and answer questions.  There was a calm and ease to the class that is hard to create.  It was amazing.

I had to know more.  I wanted to know what her definition of learning was and what conditions she felt people learned best under. This is what she said:

How do you define learning?

Cindy: Learning is the ability to master the basics of a subject matter and use them appropriately to find one’s own voice.  It is the acquisition of problem-solving skills that allow a student to be flexible in their approach to different scenarios.  This level of mastery helps students develop a portfolio of meaningful and individual artworks.



How do you believe people learn best?

Cindy: I believe people best learn by making mistakes with the understanding that this is a tool they have gained or an understanding.  If the mistake is seen as only that, a mistake, a greater lesson is not learned but if they view it as a way of gaining insight they have learned.  In making that “mistake” they know one way something did not work that is knowledge gained.

The Power of a Snow Day

by Mark Heintz

Last night, after much anticipation, we finally got the call...  School was canceled: SNOW DAY! Thirteen years of teaching and many more of being a student, I STILL get excited by a snow day. I have great memories of putting my snow gear on and heading out for an epic day of building forts, snowball fights, and sledding.  Growing up, I would wake up, turn the radio on, and listen eagerly for the school closing announcements.  These days, there are much quicker means of sharing the news of a school cancellation.  And, that sharing of information works both ways.  Teachers can post updates and answer questions easier than they ever have been before.  Because of that, days off are no longer quite so free.

Earlier today, I sent out a request to my current and recently former students to tell me what they are doing with their "day off."

Some students read and annotated.  Let me rephrase that.  They actually got to read for a lengthy period of uninterrupted time. They could process and enjoy the assigned reading because they actually had the time to do so.

Other students got to work on projects they were interested in.  One student used the research for Debate Club. She's researching nine bills and this is what she had to say, "There's the background showing what the bill is about, there are pros of why we should affirm this mock piece of legislation. I am currently working on is why we should negate this mock piece of legislation. There are 8 contentions on each of the argument, following the format in one of the screenshots.

Another student spent his day reading a book written by a man imprisoned in 10 concentration camps while also improving his Polish! 

Others used it to get ahead on physics and collaborate with others when they needed help.

Others, like myself, used the day to shovel themselves, their family, and neighbors out the snow.  Some students were needed to watch over younger siblings while their guardians went to work.

And, probably best of all, kids used their time to play.  Research and evidence continues to show that even high school age students greatly benefit from unstructured, freeform play.  It's awesome to see them not only taking advantage of the day to finish work and passion projects but also, to see them just plain being kids.

School Chat: S1E3 Kate Glass "Literacy is my passion"

By Mark Heintz

In this third episode of School Chat, I sat down Kate Glass a longtime educator sits down with me to discuss the changes she has seen in her career, the direction she is motivated by, and how changing the mindset of literacy can refocus schools to an institution of learning.

Book Chat: Fostering Resilient Learners (Part III: Relationships)

It's a busy time of year!  For those who wanted to join us but were unable to make our book chat this morning but wanted to follow along, here is what was discussed!  (Again, we had such a powerful discussion that we didn't get to everything, so some additional resources are included.) You can also read about our previous sessions on Part I: Trauma and Part II: Self-Awareness.

Self-Reflection: Write down the name of a teacher who made a difference in your life.

What was it about this person that motivated you to learn, to come to school, to try your hardest? What was it about this educator that inspired you to do what you do today? What traits did you appreciate about this person?  Write down some words or phrases that describe this person and his or her influence on you.

The group wrote down their thoughts on a notecard and then we each took a minute to share our reflection. We found that the teachers who meant the most to us were not necessarily those who were of our content area or even those that we spent time outside of the classroom getting to know. Most teachers were those who were consistent in expectations, challenged us, and related the content to topics that interested us at the time.

We didn't get to this part, but here is what we were going to do next:

Control
Think about this:

• The results of zero tolerance policies has been an increase in both behavior problems and dropout rates (American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force, 2008)
• Public elementary and secondary schools in the United States assign 110,000 expulsions and 3 million suspensions each year, along with tens of millions of detentions (Children's Defense Fund, 2010; Dignity in Schools Campaign, n.d.)
• More than 2,467 U.S. students drop out of school each day (Children's Defense Fund, 2010)

How does control play a role in these statistics?

Think about these four statements:

1.  I can't control whether _____ will come to my class today, but I can control...

2.  I can't control whether _____ passes this test, but I can control...

3.  I can't control whether _____ has experienced adversity and trauma at home, but I can control...

4.  I can't control whether we add _____ to our already overloaded plates, but I can control...

Doors vs. Windows
The book gives a great example of going to a cabin for the weekend, and mysteriously being locked in.  It describes your reaction to keep turning the doorknob or trying to push it open, repeatedly.  You are in your downstairs brain, in fight or flight mode, trying to force your way out of this door.  Then the book points out that you all you needed to do was step back, calm down, and look at the many windows in the cabin.  

How can we provide our students with windows instead of closing the door on them?

“Even if you don’t believe your efforts are reaping much of a result, keep in mind that you’re planting seeds.  Although you my not get to see the flower bloom, your efforts may result in something extraordinary.” (Page 131)

Fostering Resilient Learners, Kristen Souers with Pete Hall

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Introduction to Strength and Conditioning Defining Learning

By Anthony Furman, Daisy Crus, Jaina Pfister, and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

In this second visit, I asked the teacher and the student two questions: how do they define learning? Under what conditions do people learn best?  In an attempt to have all stakeholders have a similar definition of learning, the teacher and the students answered them, publish them, and then have conversations surrounding their beliefs on learning. This is what they came up with:

Learning is:

• having a vision.

• decision making.

• new concepts.

Learning occurs best when:

• people collaborate. 

• people are comfortable. 

• through feedback.

How do you define learning? 

Anthony Furman (Teacher):  I believe students are truly learning when their approach or vision about school is not just as a “grade” but as a stepping stone and source of preparation for their futures. There is a natural progression of this as students mature and move through each year, but there are so many ways for students to develop, enhance and catapult this progression as they make decisions for their future.  Our guidance, teaching, reflection, and challenging of students can put them in a position to recognize and embrace this opportunity.  It is not something that is done alone.

Daisy Cruz (Student):  Learning means adding more knowledge to what you already know.

Jaina Pfister (Student):  I define learning as understanding new concepts and adding new information to your brain.

How do you believe people learn best?

Anthony Furman (Teacher): I truly believe that students learn best when they recognize that we are all in this together as one team.  Students need to know that they can be themselves especially as they begin recognizing who they really are and what they believe in.  Within this comfort and recognition lies a place with unlimited opportunities for learning, support and involvement.

Daisy Cruz (Student):  People learn best by observing and listening to the feedback you get so you can improve.

Jaina Pfister (Student): I believe people learn best by working hands on. Throwing yourself into a situation that may put you out of your comfort zone is the best way to really learn.

Freshmen P.E. Reflection

By Anthony Furman

Anthony wrote a lesson reflection a few months ago.  He again is reflecting as he tries to build a student-centered physical education course that is responsive to the diverse needs of each student.

What do you hope to do for the next time? 

I will be looking to see that we are practicing our “Building a Culture to be Proud Of” statements. That will come from teacher to student as well as student to student.  Exercises learned will be practiced and then given was to be made more challenging.  Ideally, we begin to build an atmosphere where class expectations are maintained by all students and we continue to build on the program focuses set each week.

What aspects of your hopes came true? 

I do believe we are making progress in our practice and work each day.  Whether it be in the weight room or in other areas we continue to talk about the importance of taking pride in how one accomplishes a task and then attempt to practice that skill during class.  The form is getting better and kids are starting to understand the process of making things challenging in order to see results.  We continue to stress the importance of being prepared and then having high expectations for our effort.  I have noticed several students beginning to challenge their own classmates to improve, try or something simple like listen. 

What did learning look like in this lesson?

As we move further into the second quarter we continue to challenge our students to learn the value of completing work in a way that they will genuinely see the benefits of their efforts.  Within our lifting segment we are looking for students to continually work on the form and understanding of how to complete lifts, and as they continue to get better at that process begin to add more resistance that will create an environment of forced or quality sets of work. 

We continually drive the conversation for the need to do things a certain way to see the benefits.  As different students progress and improve at different rates, we challenge some to take on roles of leadership and example in class, their groups and within different activities.

The focus of today was to complete 4 sets of squats, 4 sets of jumps on the plyo box, 4 sets of quality spotting of their partners and then introduce a self/peer assessment activity they will complete in the near future.  This assessment involves two components.  A “BUY-IN” component in assessing your level of work and then a “preparation” component that assesses how you come to class each day.  The combination of these two represents what the student brings to class each day.  The goal of this assessment is to truly look at how you utilize your time in class and recognize the need for improvement, maintenance or the ability to help others succeed.   It is important to remember that where you fall on the two-part assessment represents what we need to work on for success in the future.

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Psychology - Part 2 Defining Learning

By Melissa Curtis, Devin Peterson, Paige Hermann, and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

In this second visit, I asked the teacher and the student two questions: how do they define learning? Under what conditions do people learn best?  In an attempt to have all stakeholders have a similar definition of learning, the teacher and the students answered them, publish them, and then have conversations surrounding their beliefs on learning. This is what they came up with:

Learning is:

• lifelong.

• not memorizing.

• not random facts.

Learning occurs best when people are:

• experiencing.

• excited.

• wanting to learn.  

How do you define learning?

Melissa Curtis (Teacher): Students being able to discuss a topic intelligently with each other and defending their thoughts, applying the concepts we learn in class to a real-life example, students generating thoughtful questions, proving their knowledge on summative assessments.

Devin Peterson (Student): Being able to process new information and then applying the information.

Paige Hermann (Student): I define learning as processing new information and being able to understand it.


How do you believe people learn best?

Melissa Curtis (Teacher): Multiple exposures to the material (in-class, on their own, review), testing yourself, discussing the material with others, applying the content to your own life, spacing out the studying over several days instead of cramming.

Devin Peterson (Student):  I believe people learn the best when there is a positive environment and there is some type of reward or punishment when learning and applying what was learned

Paige Hermann (Student):  I believe people learn best when they actually see it and they can see how it's done.

Book Chat: Fostering Resilient Learners (Part II: Self-Awareness)

In case you missed our book chat this morning, here was what was discussed.  In all honesty, we didn't get to all of the discussion points because our conversation on cement shoes was incredibly powerful.

How do we react to student behaviors?

How do we maintain control in times of chaos?

To start off this book chat, we read this blog post while reflecting on the question "Have you ever said or done something that you regretted?" We followed up with a long discussion on the following two questions: How does this story make you feel? How does this change your mindset moving forward?

Cement Shoes

• Defining our sense of self so that no matter "how big the wave," we can stay true to our ideals, integrity, vision, beliefs, and self.
• The more self-aware we become, the easier it is to manage the needs of our students.
• Using your personal mission statement (i.e. your "WHY") to reflect on during those times when we are feeling most compromised and vulnerable

Staying Out of OZ

Remember Dorothy from Wizard of Oz?  She was seized by the tornado! Sometimes we are also caught in the tumult of disruptions to the learning environment.  

How do we create positive and safe environments for our students?

What strategies have worked in the past when a student has "tornadoed" through your class?  What do they need from you to regulate and move back into their "upstairs" brain?

"If it's predictable, it's preventable."

Square Peg, Round Hole

Round Holes:  the students who exhibit the desirable characteristics

Square Pegs:  the students who exhibit less than favorable attributes

“We often put a tremendous amount of effort into trying to make our square pegs fit into the round holes.  We try and try to force those column 2 students to exhibit desirable behaviors, but, inevitably, the two will never fit.
What if we gave up the notion of the round hole and instead made room for a group of amoebas?  Many of our students are just that: little amoebas trying to figure out what shape they want to become.  Those growing up with adversity and trauma have not had permission to even explore that possibility.” - Page 74

Communication Steps

• Listen deeply to the message being sent by your communication partner
• Reassure the person that her/his perspective is important
• Validate her/his emotional state
• Respond by explaining what occurred through your lens
• Repair by apologizing for whatever role you may have played in the miscommunication
• Resolve by coming to terms with what happened and collaborating to find alternative ways of acting to prevent future disruptions.

Fostering Resilient Learners, Kristen Souers with Pete Hall

What do I want students to be?

By Mark Heintz

The inspiration for this post comes from the Modern Learners podcast with Pam Moran and Ira Socol. I recommend everyone listening to it.

What do I want students to be?  Most of my career, I answered this question with some vague response such as be college graduates, obtain a technical certification, or just generally have a life plan. I’ve also thought that students should be filled up with every discipline’s essential knowledge (not sure what that even means, but I am pretty sure I’ve said it. It also sounds cool: Essential knowledge.  Like every student will need to know when the Ottoman Empire took over the Byzantine. 1453. Sigh.).

But, that’s not really what the question is asking.  What do I want students to be? This isn’t just for when they leave school, or when they enter school, but also when they are in school.  So, let me rephrase the question: What do I wish all students were like?  If I could wave a magic wand and make all students have certain traits, what would those traits be?  Well, I’m waving my wand.  Here is what I want my students to be.

• Students are healthy.  I want students to be healthy. It’s near impossible to learn if you aren’t.  And, it’s not enough just to know what good physical and mental health means. They should have good physical and mental health.  

• Students are empathetic.  Students should care for others and be mindful of others’ lives.  Not just for those in their community, but for everyone.  

• Students are learners. It’s disingenuous for a school to believe they can give students the skills and knowledge that will sustain them for life. But, we can make them learners. If they are learners, they will be able to adapt as the world changes.  What do I mean by learning? You can read that here. 

• Students are curious.  They need to want to know things. They should enter school with questions needing to be answered and leave school with even more questions.

• Students are in charge of their learning. They should have agency and make choices.  I wish for this deeply. 

• Students are literate. I define literate by having competence or knowledge in a specified area. To rephrase, students are literate in the specified area of their choice.   

• Students are connected. They should be collaborative with not only those around them, but should reach out beyond their community to help them and others debate, share, and diversify to maximize learning.

• Students are persistent.  They should be able to continue learning about something that is curious to them and endure when things get challenging or daunting.  

• Students are reflective. They should be thinking about what they did, how they did it, and what they would do differently. 

• Students are decision makers.  When faced with a choice or the unknown, they should be able to make decisions that they thought out and not needing someone else to tell them what direction to turn.  

I want my students to be healthy, empathetic, learners, curious, in charge, literate, connected, persistent, reflective and decision makers.

Why aren’t most students this way? I know there are a lot of reasons outside of a teacher or school’s control.  But, I don’t want to be cynical; I want students to be this way.  This is my mission: To ensure every student is healthy, empathetic, a learner, curious, in charge, literate, connected, persistent, reflective and a decision maker. Instead of focusing on preparing them for an unknown future or browbeating content knowledge into them, I want to create conditions for these traits to develop if they aren’t already there.  My attention is to focus on lesson and course design to instill these qualities in them not to better teach the causes of World War I.  I aspire to have each day every student walking through the school have their teachers focusing on these ten characteristics.

 Call to Action

Write down what you want your students to be.  Then make a shift in your practice to allow for those things to happen.  If you are bold, and you should be, share your list with your students, your school, and make them public.  Debate them, change them, and hopefully get your school to have the same value system.

School Chat - S1E2: Alyssa Trausch "What I Want School to Be"

By Mark Heintz

This is this second episode of School Chat, I sat down Alyssa Trausch a current sophomore at Elk Grove High School.  She wrote an amazing piece on what she wants school to be.  Here is an excerpt:

I want school to be a place where I love to go to every day. A place where learning is new, innovative, and exciting. When learning feels natural and not like all the content is being forced into my brain I have a tendency to remember it more.  Truthfully I think what I really want school to be is a place where I can learn new things without being worried all about what score/grade I’m going to get and rather worrying about how I can use what I just learned to make my life (or someone’s else’s) better.

It's a message everyone should here and we should strive to make happen in our classrooms every day.  Have a listen.     

Finding Purpose: "Talk Less, Smile More"

By: Rachel Vissing

Last week I had the opportunity to see the musical Hamilton.  Though many would say I was late to the party, I had listened to the music many times prior.  Listening to the soundtrack, however, was not as powerful as putting the music with the context on stage.  I left with my brain running for many reasons, but for this blog post, I'm am going to focus on one important line:

Talk Less, Smile More

Let's see...where have I seen this before?  Oh yes!  My wise mentor, Linda Ashida, has been sharing a similar message for years, complete with a post-it note by her desk (which is still up despite her retiring at the end of last school year).  

Whether the line is from Aaron Burr telling Alexander Hamilton to keep his opinions to himself or Linda's philosophy of learning from listening to others, I find that I struggle with this.  Therefore, I'm challenging myself to button my lips and to observe and listen more.

With My Students

In the classroom, I have started asking myself "Do I need to be talking now?"  I am questioning whether or not students need specific information or whether they can pull it from prior knowledge or work with peers to obtain this information.  For instance, instead of giving notes on the key terminology in mathematical translations like I have done in previous years, my students brainstormed on the whiteboard wall all of the terms that are associated with the math symbols +, -, >, =, etc.  Instead of correcting or adding words that were missed, we worked together throughout various translations and made adjustments to the board throughout the week's lessons based on our findings.  

The experience was surreal.  Many students thrived, and I saw their confidence soar!  Other students struggled a great deal and questioned me, "Why aren't you telling us what to do?  I need notes in order to learn."  It was hard for me to stand my ground with these students and not cave to provide them what they were asking, but by the end of the week these students trusted in the process and found more confidence in their abilities.  When I noticed that most groups were struggling with a concept, I had another group go to the board and explain their thought process.  It was really eye opening for me to step back and allow the students to teach one another, and I plan to continue to facilitate these types of processes as much as I can.

With My Peers

I get very excited talking and collaborating with others about education, lesson ideas, and new methods of facilitating learning in the classroom.  Often times when I am talking with a peer, I find myself interjecting suggestions that I have observed in other classrooms or those that I have tried with my students because I get very excited to bounce ideas around.  I have realized that I sometimes cut off the other person's thinking or impose my own beliefs on them instead of allowing my peers to find what works best for them and their students.  I'm challenging myself to go back to my mentality as a student teacher: I am a sponge.  This was my philosophy of listening, absorbing, and processing all of the ideas around me and then figuring out what works best for my situation.  This is especially important in my role as instructional coach, to provide my peers with the tools to set goals, brainstorm lesson ideas, and self-reflect purposefully.  

So as I am adapting this phase as my new mantra, you can listen here to have a positive song stuck in your head the rest of the day!  Maybe it will influence you as well!

A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Pre-Calculus - Part 2 Defining Learning

By Dave Dompke, Kesha Patel, Alyssa Cobb, and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments. You can read all of the previous posts here.  I am going into each teacher's class four times and then they are reflecting alongside their students on the learning that took place and what they hope for.

In this second visit, I asked the teacher and the student two questions: how do they define learning? Under what conditions do people learn best?  In an attempt to have all stakeholders have a similar definition of learning, the teacher and the students answered them, publish them, and then have conversations surrounding their beliefs on learning. This is what they came up with:

Learning is:

• lifelong.

• not memorizing.

• not random facts.

Learning occurs best when people are:

• experiencing.

• excited.

• wanting to learn.

How do you define learning?  

Dave Dompke (Teacher):  Learning is gaining knowledge through experiences.  Those experiences can be with teachers, friends, or by themselves.  It doesn’t have to be in a classroom setting.  Learning is not some quick fact that can repeat to you, but something that will stay with them longer than a day.

Kesha Patel (Student): I define learning as exploring new topics and gaining an understanding for them. It’s not really learning if you’re just memorizing a formula and using for problems that are written differently but based on the same idea. It’s more understanding why a formula works the way it does and being able to apply it to a problem that barely has anything to do with what I already learned. I think that’s when I can say I truly learned the concept.

Alyssa Cobb (Student): I define learning as acquiring new information whether school related, life/career related or simply a random fact. It can be something completely new or taking old information to better master it.

How do you believe people learn best? 

Dave Dompke (Teacher):  I believe people learn best when they experience it through activities they enjoy.  When they come across new ideas or concepts and are learning new things, they are excited to learn about it.  They want to know more.

Kesha Patel (Student): I think people learn best when they’re understanding what they’re learning. I feel like with all the math formulas I generally just memorize them and I don’t get how it was created and why it works every time. If I get why something works the way it does, I can work out problems with needing to memorize a formula.

Alyssa Cobb (Student): I believe people learn best when they get to pick the environment they’re expected to learn something. If you’re distracted or not able to focus and you’re not the one choosing how you’re learning or studying it really isn’t your fault if you’re not able to understand the concept, but with that, the learner has to be mature enough to pick a good place to learn. Also, a person with a mindset of wanting to learn will generally learn better than those who don’t have that same mindset. If you’re focused and willing you will be able to learn overtime time whether that’s quickly or a longer period of time.