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!

Finding Purpose: Understanding Gen Z

By Rachel Vissing

This is part of an ongoing series in which I am working on developing my own mission statement of student and personal learning.  You can read the first post here.

Over the weekend, I heard it again.  I was getting my oil changed, and a man noticed my school apparel and said "Oh so you're a teacher?" to which I replied "Yes, I am!"  He then replied with a sarcastic "Oh good luck.  Kids these days don't know anything besides how to use their cell phones." 

Flash Forward to Sunday night.  I'm sitting watching the Bears/Packers game with my husband, and I heard it again.  "Rachel, get off your phone."  I hear this more times than I can count on a regular basis from him, along with "Get off your laptop or your iPad."  Now I always try to justify that I don't touch social media all day long or that I need to check my work e-mail or something of the sort.  In reality, I see that I many times I am just as bad as the "kids these days".  

In thinking about this more, I realized that so many people of the older generations (Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y) find all of the faults with the newer Generation Z, however, we don't find out what skills are their strengths.  I decided to do some research.

Differences in Generation Z

Pulled from two different sources (getsmarter.com and visioncritical.com), I have found these notable differences between Gen Z and the prior generations:

- Generation Z is the last generation with a white majority.  As this generation is still considered "ongoing", they are growing up in a more global community and thinking about the future in a larger and more inspirational sense than ever before.

- The population of Gen Z is the most tech-savvy and can pick up new technological developments quicker than other generations.  They are also able to multitask much better, with one source referencing using up to 5 devices at a time!

- Gen Z actually watches less TV but spends more time on YouTube and social media.  They are more focused on products, brands, and celebrities rather than experiences and emotional connections.

- The members of Gen Z are more realistic than idealistic.  They also want to be entrepreneurs and create their own businesses as opposed to creating a loyalty in working for others.

What Does This Mean in Education?

There are many ways to view and use this information.  The first thing that I think of is Apple (not that teachers get apples...the company Apple - I can be punny and see if you're still reading!).  There have been 14 versions of the iPhone to date.  There has been the iPod, iPod Touch, iPad, iPad Mini, iPad Pro, Apple TV, Apple Watch, etc.  These are all technology advances since January 2007.  In 11+ years, our world has changed dramatically in the world of connecting with others, multitasking, and access to information.

Now let's look at education, well at least from my perspective.  I have taught for 8.5 years, of which I have never used a textbook.  To many I encounter, this is crazy, yet this is all I know.  I have used an iPad for 7 of those years, 6 with 1-to-1 student devices.  I also have taught with white-board tables for 3 years now.  I have explored numerous instructional practices: discovery learning, flipped classroom, standard-based grading, various formative feedback methods, and many more.  I have rewritten curricula every single year that I have been here.  My question is...why?  Has this been of benefit to my students?

I always felt that I was adjusting curricula based on new technology and my students skill needs.  Was that practical?  Was it worthwhile?  Right now, after reading these articles, I found that maybe I was searching in the wrong place.  I was altering my practices to help build and strengthen the skills that they were struggling with instead of learning and understanding the skill strengths of their generation.  

So What...?  Connection to Developing My Personal Mission Statement

Last post, I articulated my need to focus on my students as individuals, not numbers.  This post, I dove into learning the skill strengths of my students and how they differ from those of my generation and those before.  In moving forward, I now have a better understanding of the "kids these days" and what they have to offer to the school, community, and society moving forward.  

I'll be honest, this post was a long way off from where it began.  I intended to look up some information and ended up falling down a rabbit hole and got a bit overwhelmed with the idea that I thought I knew the "kids these days" so well because I work with them daily, however, it is eye-opening that I have not looked into how their experiences and environments are drastically different from those of previous generations (ie: Powerpoint was still a new thing for teachers to use when I was in high school...).  Anyways, I'm saying this because this post may not make sense to all who read, but it has been very helpful for me to process this information of students' skill strengths thus start focusing on how to support their future needs.

Finding the Purpose in Learning

By: Rachel Vissing (Barry)

Last week, I began my ninth year of teaching.  In this past few months, I have encountered a lot changes in my life: I got married, I stepped down from coaching track & field, I survived my first year teaching an AP course, and I increased the time in my role as Teaching & Learning Facilitator.  I notice that the first thing I mention is something personal.  This is unlike me when I'm in my "professional mode".  I have always thought of myself as driven, focused, Type A, etc.  For a while, I believed that I could separate the two, especially in the blogging universe, however, I now have found this not to be true.  We educators are people, first and foremost.  Our students are people, first and foremost.

In reflecting on these ideas over the summer, especially in seeing my students AP scores two days before my wedding, my colleague Mark Heintz wrote a blog post that really resonated with how I was feeling.  Why do I look at my students in terms of scores?  Whether AP or SAT or an exam score, I seem to focus a lot on numbers.  This made me think...do I see my students as people or as a number?  

Not only do Mark and I work together in the education setting, but we also coach the girls' cross country team together.  One thing that Mark has always pushed me to do in all aspects of my life is to determine a purpose.  "What is the purpose of your course?" or "What is your purpose of this workout?" or "What is the purpose of school?"

Well...what IS the purpose of school?



If I were to answer this question myself, I truly can't answer it succinctly.  I have tried.  Even if I try to break it down to "What is the purpose of math?" or more specifically "What is the purpose AP Statistics?", I get stuck in too much ambiguity: what do "understanding", "good", "respectful", and "knowledgeable" mean? 

As you can see, I am a long way from finding my purpose.  That is my goal this year, to develop a personal "mission statement" for my own learning as well as what I want my students to learn.  The one thing I do know is that I want my focus of my purpose to always view my students as individuals.