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I'm gonna start today with something
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that all of you know intimately well our
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schools our school systems are broken
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you know this because you're here you
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know this because you care to give up
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your Saturday to learn
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how do we know that they're broken the
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list goes on and on we've got a factory
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model of schools that pulls kids into
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schools based on the year that they're
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born and kicks them out 13 years later
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we've got report cards that emphasize
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learning or that emphasize grades and
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lose the fact that they don't emphasize
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learning for kids or for the parents
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we've got standardized tests that are
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used to measure how good our schools are
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and how much our kids are learning when
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standardized tests are good at measuring
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absolutely nothing
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I could go on you could go on but I'm
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not going to my question is how are we
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going to fix this broken education
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system that's what I want to talk about
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how as a teacher or a parent or a loan
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administrator going to go and fix this
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broken system we've got legislators
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making rules telling us how to run our
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schools that don't really know anything
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we need to make this change but the
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question is how how are we going to fix
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this broken system I've got a few ideas
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about this that kind of go into two
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categories I'm going to talk a little
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bit about curriculum and a little bit
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about sharing today I want to start
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though with curriculum
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first of Three core beliefs that I have
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around curriculum is that the depth that
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you choose to go into the curriculum is
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far more important than the breadth
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we're lucky to live in 2015. there's a
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profusion of digital devices available
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to our students they can look up and
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answer just about any question that they
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have why are we asking them to
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regurgitate facts let's give them the
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time and the space to dive deep into
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areas that they're interested in
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but
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how do you go about doing that how do
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you find that courage I was lucky enough
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last summer to hear Ian Landy who's a
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principal in central British Columbia
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speak and what Ian said was incredibly
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powerful but Inc but incredibly simple
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Ian said who teaches all the standards
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just skip song
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what I can just not teach stuff that's
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easy for me as a teacher to say but when
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you have leaders saying go ahead skip
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curriculum that's incredibly powerful I
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firmly believe that teachers must make
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intentional choices about what they
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choose to teach but more importantly
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what they choose not to teach
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so if you're gonna make that jump though
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you need to be responsible how are you
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going to make sure that it's working for
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your kids again this isn't rocket
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science you ask them what's working for
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you what's not working for you you
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listen to their feedback you reflect you
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integrate their ideas that are useful
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but when you ask teenagers what they
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think about your class you need to be
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ready to hear some hard truths
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when I asked some of my students about
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this well they were honest with me
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one of my students said
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I strongly disdained it and this is the
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unit that I'm asking for feedback on I
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strongly distant it with the burning
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passion of a thousand suns I felt like I
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learned nothing excuse me I felt like I
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learned almost nothing sure I paid
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attention during people's presentations
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but I don't think it helped me at all in
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learning The Core Concepts of the whole
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Russian Revolution I'll skip ahead I
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would change the complete concept of
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this whole two-week thing you're doing
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there's so many things you have to
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Define what we learn narrowing down
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questions I don't think anyone really
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learned
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so I got that going for me
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when you ask kids what they think push
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them to be honest push them to be
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specific then you can make the changes
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that you need to make and then that next
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unit when kids said gosh this part of
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the unit didn't work for me I was able
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to point and say well this thing that
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we're doing right now that's based on
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the feedback that you gave me and when
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kids know that they're heard when they
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know that they're impacting instruction
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they'll roll with you even if there are
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times when it doesn't look so good
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the next choice you need to make is how
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you're going to go about doing this are
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you going to ask for permission to make
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these changes are you going to ask for
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forgiveness if you need to some people
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have folks like Ian Landing where they
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could just ask permission because they
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know Ian's going to say yes I would
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encourage though for teachers to seek
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forgiveness if needed what are your
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District goals
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what is your administrator concerned
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about what is your department focusing
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on I can guarantee you that's not
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memorizing huge chunks of information
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learn what those things are have them
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ready to use when you need them if you
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need them but let me tell you something
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when you change your classroom
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kids sometimes really like it and when
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kids start to enjoy class they're not
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complaining
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and you may not even need to ask for
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that forgiveness
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the second big belief that I have is the
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skills that we're teaching our kids is
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far more important than the content that
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we're teaching
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I'm a history teacher my kids need to be
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able to create arguments they defend
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arguments they need to be able to say
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those they need to be able to write
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those I'd love for them to be able to
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ask good questions and find credible
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evidence to answer those questions I
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could care less what the content is that
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they use to do that those skills for me
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are Paramount
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however
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those are the harder skills around
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argumentation those are pretty easy to
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measure what about some of those softer
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skills that are so important
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perseverance adaptability the ability to
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recover from failure how do we find the
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time and the place to do that
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and this is where I would encourage
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teachers to make the choice to implement
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genius hour 20 time in their classrooms
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for those of you that aren't familiar
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genius hour and 20 time give kids an
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hour a week back to learn about
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something that they're interested in
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students design their own projects they
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overcome stumbling blocks they reflect
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on their products and on their processes
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now sometimes these are about school but
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other times they're about things that
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are completely related to their
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interests this year I've got students
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who are cooking at home they're
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assigning themselves homework and then
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coming to school and blogging about what
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they're making and what they're learning
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a bunch of kids this year who are really
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interested in coding I love watching
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them code I had a great time yesterday
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in class watching Mara and watching
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Julia pounding their desks and
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frustration because they couldn't get
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the code to work and there was no way I
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was going to be able to help them
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I've got kids making how-to videos
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making blankets for local homeless
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shelters
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I have a student who chose to take old
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skateboards sand them down paint them
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sell them and then donate that money to
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a local shelter
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and then finally I have a student who
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chose to write cards to sick children
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sent these cards off all over the U.S
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and when a friend of mine who teaches in
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New Jersey had a student get diagnosed
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with leukemia Aiden swooped in he
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organized all of the freshmen in my
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class
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sent and got all of them to write a
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letter to Stephen and when Kate tweeted
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me this picture of Stephen with a big
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smile on his face opening the letter it
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warmed my heart but the thing that's the
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best about this is if you look closely
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next to Stephen's right hand there's
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that little dinosaur that Aiden was
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known for so this picture showed that
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Aiden's card had made it
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so if skills are more important than
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content another skill we need to give
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our kids is the ability to talk about
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heart issues there are a lot of societal
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ills that we as a generation have not
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solved for me living in the states the
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recent deaths of Eric Garner and Michael
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Brown unarmed black men at the hands of
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police is something that my kids need to
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talk about the systematic racism against
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impersonations people in Canada is
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another example we need to give kids the
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time and the space to talk about these
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issues because I'll let you in on a
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secret adults are scared to talk about
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race in class
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ninth graders are not they will wrestle
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with these big issues that shake us to
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talk about incredibly adroitly
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when you give them the time and the
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space to do this they're learning to
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tackle these issues hopefully they're
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going to solve those issues that we've
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done that we've been unable to solve
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and when you get out of their way and at
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the end of the unit you ask them
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what did you learn what's your truth you
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have kids like imagine draw this picture
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of a confrontation in Ferguson after the
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protest or in the in the protests after
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Michael Brown's death
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and what Mansion took away from this
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unit was that the further you get away
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from an event
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the more difficult you had the more
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difficult the time you have to see it
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those white lines get bigger and bigger
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and bigger over time and they obscure
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what really happened in the event
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what a profound insight for a 9th grader
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and all because she got the chance to
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talk about it
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the final core belief that I have around
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curriculum is that everybody does not
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need to learn the same thing
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if you're going to cut up content you're
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going to give kids a chance to dive deep
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into areas that they're interested in
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and get out of their way
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in my classroom curiosity is the magic
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really I think that curiosity's
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classroom crack but you can't write that
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on a tedx slide so for me
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I want to give kids the chance to find
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what they're curious about and really
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dive into that
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because then I can get out of their way
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and they're iterating questions off of
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their answers and they're just going
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you have kids like Katya who create a
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presentation on the transgender movement
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something I should know about but I'm
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woefully uninformed about and I learn a
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ton from her
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Devin research the third servile War
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which I've never heard of but it's
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fascinating
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Olivia dives into the choices World War
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II leaders make why are we doing evil
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things
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Ezra wants to find out what would happen
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if there was no electricity in the world
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Charlotte and Eli do a deep dive into
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how the Bay Area in California would be
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different had the 1906 earthquake not
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happen in San Francisco
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by getting out of kids way giving them
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the choice about what they want to learn
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and then letting them demonstrate it in
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a way that works for them all of a
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sudden kids start to Blossom
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so in addition to making critical
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choices around curriculum I also think
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that teachers need to share there are
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people out there who say that education
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has to have winners and has to have
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losers that it's a zero-sum game and I
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couldn't disagree with this more
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vehemently
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why do we need to have winners why do we
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need to have losers everybody can win an
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education
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the question though is how a lot of
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people put up walls around their schools
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they put up walls around their
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classrooms they don't let us see in
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we need to be able to see into your
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classroom we must be able to see into
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your school there are people that are
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giving The Narrative of your District of
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your classroom why not make sure you're
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a part of shaping that narrative for me
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the easiest way to do this is my class
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website it's ugly I don't know anything
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about making a website but it's just
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something that I've spent the last three
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years building all of my curriculum is
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there students go there to find
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assignments parents can go there to find
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all the cool things that their kids are
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making and I can send other teachers
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here and say hey look here's my
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curriculum I hope you take it
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now what happens when you do this is you
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find a project that resonates with
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people I spend a ton of time planning a
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project that asks kids to redefine an
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aspect of school and that project that
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hit a nerve with teachers around the U.S
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and it's now been taught a couple
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different states and that's come back to
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me better than what I sent it out that
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means when I teach that project in six
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months it's going to be three teachers
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better than had I not shared that
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project that means that my students
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experience is better but it means the
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students in another in other classrooms
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experiences better as well
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some people though don't want to share
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because they think they need to be a
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better teacher than you are and to me
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this is both laughable and Despicable
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it's laughable because I want to know
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who's judging those teachers if I'm the
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best teacher what do I get and it's
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despicable because if I have to be a
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better teacher than you at no point
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should I ever consider collaborating
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with you at no point should I ever share
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with you and to me that's highly highly
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problematic we need teachers to be
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willing to share their curriculum to be
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willing to give it freely to others
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because when you do that you can expect
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that back in return if I'm giving my
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curriculum away I can ask people for
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things and I can get back my curriculum
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even better than it was before
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now that teacher next door that you need
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to collaborate with that actually might
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be next door it might be a phone call or
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text away you might even need to tweet
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or use a Skype call or a Google Hangout
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but find the people to collaborate with
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find the people that are chasing the
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same things in education bar share with
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them you will get everything back in
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return
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so
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share
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and critically rethink their curriculum
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are we going to fix education are we
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going to be on the Mountaintop
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unfortunately not yet
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but as we get more teachers critically
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thinking more teachers sharing that
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group of teachers gets bigger that ball
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gets bigger that rock gets bigger and
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slowly that rock is going to start to
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roll down the mountain and then we've
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got a movement and as that rock picks up
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speed you better get involved or you
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better get out of the way because we can
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make that difference
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but we need to start now
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there have been a ton of incredibly
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talented speakers on this stage today
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you'll hear way more after lunch as well
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I have a challenge for you it's not
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really a challenge it's actually demand
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if we as a group of speakers sit here
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today and we talk about ideas we have
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failed incredibly we need you to go out
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and do so my challenge for you on Monday
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take something that you heard today you
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need to go out and do something you're
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welcome to think I'm crazy my kids tell
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me that all the time find something from
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somebody today that you're gonna go out
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and do
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parents do you know what your teachers
00:15:06
need are you bragging about the cool
00:15:08
things your kids are doing in class we
00:15:10
need your help crucially to change the
00:15:13
tone that it's used to discuss education
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administrators are you in classrooms do
00:15:18
you know the risks your teachers want to
00:15:20
take are you enabling them to take those
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risks
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teachers are you rethinking your
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curriculum are you sharing and then
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rethinking and then sharing again
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we need to go out and do on Monday we
00:15:34
need to go do something to fix education
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on Tuesday we must go do something to
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fix education on Wednesday when you wake
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up what are you going to do to fix
00:15:43
education the same thing for Thursday
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and Friday we must go out and do thank
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you
