Some Thoughts on John Dewey

One of the greatest American Philosophers (and educators) was John Dewey.  Although he died over 60 years ago, his thoughts are still relevant to education today.  I have been reading a few of his books lately and a passage from one of those books made a lot of sense to me.   The following passage is from Moral Principals in Education written in 1909:

“To an extent characteristic of no other institution, save that of the state itself, the school has power to modify the social order. And under our political system, it is the right of each individual to have a voice in the making of social policies as, indeed, he has a vote in the determination of political affairs. If this be true, education is primarily a public business, and only secondarily a specialized vocation. The layman, then, will always have his right to some utterance on the operation of the public schools.”

Why is this passage important to me?  First, I truly believe that public education is the most important task of government and that teaching is the most important career one can choose.  This is a bedrock belief of mine.  With that belief there grows a responsibility to act upon that belief.  I approach my job as an educator and my duty as a commissioned officer of the State with zeal to do good for kids and the community.  Is it frustrating at times when people believe that teaching and education is “easy” and that educators do not live in the “real world”…you bet.   I believe there is nothing more “real” then working with students.  But this brings me to my second reason this passage is important.  Education is a public business.  Our public schools are educating individual students.  These students come from their homes and families for six to seven hours a day and it is our responsibility to help them lead a self- directed life.  I think it is obvious that the public should be very interested in what we do.  First of all, parents should be interested in what is happening to their children in school and they should have a forum to express their opinions about the schools.  Secondly, even if a citizen does not have a child in the system, they should be interested about what education is looking like.  After all, today’s students are tomorrow’s community leaders.

Dewey goes on to say that the public should not believe that they have the technical knowledge or know-how to teach students.  Dewey states,

“Upon questions that concern all the manifold details by which children are to be converted into desirable types of men and women, the expert schoolmaster should be authoritative, at least to a degree commensurate with his superior knowledge of this very complex problem.”

Our system of public education has school boards that oversee the curriculum, instruction and management policies of the district.  The school board hires education leaders (like myself) to carry out the policies and to help design and implement a vision for the school district.  This is simple and effective.  I think the results in Penn-Trafford through the years make the point that this system works.  Previous school boards and previous superintendents have worked together well to provide an outstanding education for our community.  I hope to carry on that tradition.  I hope this blog post did not bore you too much!

Two "Nifty" Web Sites

I want to share two web sites that I use and have found to be very informative.  The first is Findings.com.  Findings was started by the author Steven B. Johnson and it is his effort to recreate the intellectual hotbed of 18^th Century coffeehouses.  In the 18^th Century coffee houses served as a meeting place for many famous scientists and philosophers (Benjamin Franklin participated in one during his years in England).  The discussions across disciplines and occupations incubated many ideas and led to significant scientific and social breakthroughs.  Findings attempts to recreate this scene by allowing users to share interesting things they are reading on the web or from their e-readers (Kindles, for example).  The set up reminds me of Twitter except that you are not limited by the amount of information that you can post at once. I have purchased books, and discovered different ways of looking at topics based on my browsing of the web site.  Findings is an example of how the internet can help spark ideas.  Look me up; my “Findings name” is Tom Butler.

The second web site is stumledupon.  This service asks you for your interests and then randomly chooses web sites for you to look at based on your interests.  I currently have about 10 interests.  You can “stumble” by limiting your search to one of your interests, or get information randomly from all of your interests.  I have become fascinated with the different web sites that I have come across because of this service.  I highly recommend it.  Both of these web 2.0 tools will help you learn more about the world we live in.

Working Together

What a great morning!  To be more specific, I just participated in a great meeting (yes, you can have great meetings!) with a great group of educators.  A few weeks ago I was at a meeting with the President and Vice-President of the Teachers Association.  The discussion turned to teacher evaluation.  I asked them what they thought about convening a group of teachers to discuss teacher evaluation.  They thought it was a good idea.  I then asked them to give me names of teachers that would be willing to participate.  They did, and today was our first meeting.  There has been a lot of talk across the State and Nation lately about teacher evaluation.  It seems that everyone has an opinion about the how, what and when of teacher evaluation.  As I listen to all of the differing opinions, I am struck by one thing that is often missing…what do teachers think?  The meeting this morning was a response to that missing link.

First of all, some background about the meeting and why it was convened.  Currently all teacher are evaluated every year.  There are some misconceptions out in the public that teachers are not evaluated; rest assured they are evaluated.   The next thing to keep in mind is that the Pennsylvania Department of Education is creating a form that they want all school districts in the State to use to evaluate teachers.  I am sure the form the State is creating is outstanding, but I want our evaluation of teachers to reflect Penn-Trafford’s interests, values and goals.  I also want the evaluation to be meaningful.  I have contacted PDE and there is a process in place (and I have used it before in other school districts) where a school district can get approval of a local evaluation tool.  Thus, our goal is to create our own teacher evaluation within the next few months.

As we approach the project there are two non-negotiable items that the State is requiring.

1.     The model must be based on the work of Charlotte Danielson.  I am very familiar with her work and I believe her framework for teacher evaluation is meaningful and useful for teachers and administrators

2.     There must be some way that student and school test scores are reflected in the evaluation tool. 

Beyond these requirements, the teachers in this group want the evaluation to center on great instruction, student learning and professionalism.  After all, teachers are professionals and they want an evaluation tool that reflects their professionalism.

For the activity today, the teachers read the book Enhancing Professional Practice: A framework for teaching by Charlotte Danielson.  Since there were almost 20 teachers and administrators involved in the process, we broke into smaller groups with each smaller group reviewing a different part of the book and then teaching that part of the book to the entire group. After discussing the book the group then reviewed two teacher evaluation models from other school districts that base their evaluation on the Danielson model.  Again, the smaller groups shared with the larger group the “Big Ideas” from each evaluation tool. 

The group worked hard and the conversations that were started focused on how to make a great evaluation tool that will support teacher development and lead to great student learning.  I just want to say how proud I am of this group. They worked hard and exhibited professionalism. For example, as we were preparing the agenda for the next meeting I shared with them that I was running into a roadblock about how to proceed.  I should not have worried.  I told the group that I was struggling with the “next steps” and everyone contributed ideas for our next meeting.  The result is that we will meet in one month and we will Skype in teachers from a school district that is using the Danielson model.  That will give the teachers and administrators on the evaluation team a chance to ask questions of people using a similar evaluation tool.  We also decided that a homework assignment involving a detailed overview of the two plans is in order.   I will keep you posted on the progress of the teacher evaluation team.  I know they will develop an outstanding tool that will be meaningful and reflect what is important about schools…student learning.

Let's Not Be Afraid Of The Work We are Meant To Do

I have returned to this video many times throughout the last few years and I am always inspired by it. Author Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the creative process and how society views those people involved in a creative career.  This is simply fascinating.  Take the time to watch the video.  In particular, her discussion about how the Greeks and Romans viewed “genius” is fascinating.  Specifically her story of poet Ruth Stone is fascinating.  Please take the 20 minutes necessary to watch the video…I believe you will like it.

Conversations

“I have spoken of a thousand points of light,….. We will work hand in hand, encouraging, sometimes leading, sometimes being led, rewarding.”  George H.W. Bush

When President Bush included this phrase in his inaugural address in 2009 he was hoping to convey a sense of shared service for the betterment of society.  Educational institutions and public education in particular are perfectly suited to reach the worthy goal set forth by President Bush.   I want to discuss the thousand points of light that are being lit in the Penn-Trafford School District.  At the classroom level Penn-Trafford has started to see the glimmers of light that will create an innovative educational experience for our students.  We have teachers starting to individualize instruction and curriculum for students; no more is it good enough in these classrooms to teach students in “batches”. There are classrooms where the students are the focus of learning.  Teachers are becoming “guides on the side” and students (“Learners”) are guiding their own instruction.  In one of my favorite quotes, a teacher told me that a lesson that he recently completed with his class was “the best lesson I have ever done”, and this from an experienced teacher who has completed thousands of lessons!  These are all examples of teachers operating on the “edge of the box”. (It is important to note that the teachers are not outside the box where possibilities sometimes fade into a jungle of too many possibilities, but on the edge of the box with one foot firmly in their reality and the other foot searching for the “adjacent possible”.) The important question for school leaders is how can we begin the process of having a thousand points of light shining in our school districts?  The answer is simple…one conversation at a time.

Conversations serve as the light switch for Penn-Trafford’s thousand points of light.  In Penn-Trafford the recent educational conversations have centered on trying to answer two questions: “What is great teaching” and “What is great learning”. These two questions have served as a basis for hundreds of conversations about education throughout the school district.  We have found that conversations can spark the creativity and innovation within our teachers and staff. Although these questions are great points of departure for educational conversations, we also find ourselves in situations where the conversation needs to go deeper into the topic of learning and teaching.  In this case the challenge becomes how to find information relevant from our local situation that will help drive a great conversation.   I have used information gleaned from the “informal” sphere such as community meetings and individual conversations with people.  I have also used information from more “formal” means such as surveys.  Penn-Trafford uses K-12 Insight to help us mine information from all stakeholders to help us learn about the school district. 

Recently the district and K-12 Insight conducted a survey about the use of technology in educational settings.  We surveyed parents, students and teachers to gain information about how they use technology in their lives and how they envision technology being incorporated in education.  Two interesting points from the survey were:

• Most teacher (84%), student (94%), and parent (92%) respondents believe that teaching and learning materials should be available to students at anytime, day or night.
• Most teachers (85%) and parents (89%) indicated that technology provides essential tools for instruction.  Most students (93%) indicated that technology helps them to learn.

We can look at this information in many different ways and use it to drive purchasing and curriculum decisions.  More importantly for me, this information will serve as a way to start conversations about 22^nd Century learning in our school district.  For this reason, this information is invaluable as it will spark hundreds of conversations that will lead to innovation and student learning.

Sunrise Student wins Contest (Also: The Importance of Music and the Arts)

I am very proud to share some great news with you.  One of our students at Sunrise Elementary had his slogan chosen by the Westmoreland County Music Educators Association to be used in a public relations drive for music education in public schools.  I congratulate Joey Basista for a great job.  I also want to congratulate Joey's teacher, Mrs. Patty Kearns, for encouraging her music classes to participate in the contest.  Music and the Arts are an essential part of any education for children as we prepare them to excel in the 21^st Century.  No longer do we look upon the Arts and Music as a “soft” skill that is “nice to have” for our students.  Rather, the act of creating something (whether it is a piece of music, an art object or designing a robot) is an essential skill for citizens  as we strive to thrive in the 21^st Century.  Congratulations to Mrs. Kearns for allowing her students the opportunity to create.  The following is an email that Mrs. Kearns sent concerning the contest and our winner:

The Westmoreland County Music Educators Association (WCMEA) is planning to design a billboard to advocate music education in Westmoreland County.  This billboard will be in Mt. Pleasant and is being donated by Olympus Media. The design is also going to be featured on an LED billboard in the Irwin/Greensburg area. The music students throughout Westmoreland County were challenged to create a slogan consisting of around five words advocating music education.  I am pleased to announce that the winning slogan “Music is Medicine for the Mind” was created by Joey Basista a fourth grader from Sunrise Elementary School.  Joey will now meet to assist with developing the artwork and his picture will also be included on the billboard.  Congratulations Joey, we look forward to seeing you as we drive Route 30 in the future!

21 Things that will be Obsolete in Education by 2020

I have done a lot of thinking over the last few years about the future of education.  As a matter of fact, I have mentioned in this blog the group of teachers and administrators that are meeting to specifically think about what the future of education will hold for PT.  The scope of this thinking has really expanded beyond this group.  There are projects and pilot programs started by teachers throughout the school district that address the question of “What will public education look like in the future”.  I sense that a grand discussion about the future of education will break out between all members of our community because of the smaller conversations occurring now.  I am simply very excited to be a part of this process.  I have discussed the adjacent possible and innovation in previous posts so I do not want to beat a dead horse.  However, when we start hundreds of conversations about how our school district can improve education and lead the future of education then innovation will occur and the adjacent possible will be reachable.  With that in mind, here is an interesting list of 21 things that one person thinks will be obsolete in education by the year 2020 (8 years away).  Take your time to look through the list.  What do you agree with?  What items do you think should be off the list?  I will be interested to read what you think.

Congratulations to the Robotics Team

I received the following email from our high school robotics teacher Mr. Jeff Newsom.  He coaches the high school robotics team and they did very well in their competition last weekend.  The email will explain how well we did, but I also want to discuss a conversation I had with Mr. Newsom this morning as he was telling me about the competition.  Mr. Newsom told me a few times how proud he was of the hard work the students put in to win all of these awards.  He has students in his room before school, after school and during classes to work on the robots and learn how to improve them more.  The amount of time and dedication that the students put into this project is amazing…but the results are amazing as well.  Anytime a school can engage students in their passion, great learning will occur.  Mr. Newsom is also one of those teachers that demands excellence while at the same time knowing what it takes to keep the students motivated.  Congratulations to the students and Mr. Newsom!

Here is Mr. Newsom's email:

On Saturday, the robotics team competed in the Western Pennsylvania VEX World Cup Qualifier.  The students had designed, built, and programmed three robots to compete in the competition.  There were 22 robots from the region that competed including schools from Plum, Johnstown, McKeesport, Beaver, Frazier, Eastern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center among others.

    Teams were competing for two Skill Events, Tournament Champions, and the Excellence Award.  The tournament champions would qualify to compete at the National Championships in Omaha Nebraska, in March, and an opportunity to qualify for the World Championship.  The Excellence Award winner would go to the best overall robot and automatically qualify them to compete in the World Championships in Anaheim CA, in April.

    PT's Robotics teams, who had qualified for Worlds the last two years, saved their best for their senior year.  The three robots finished 1, 2, 3 in the preliminary rounds that determined the seeding for the head to head tournament.  The team won not only both Skills Challenges, but a National Championship birth by winning the Tournament and also won the Excellence Award for best overall robot and earning a birth to the World Championships.  Two out of the three robots are moving on while the third missed by one point.

    Congratulations to the following students for their hard work and perseverance:
    Bryan Wilson
    Tyler Silcox
    Nathaniel Heydt
    Evan Tatarka
    Jordan Locke
    And also to Bryans brother Mark, who was a big help loading the robots during the competition.

Innovation

I believe that Penn-Trafford has the potential to become the most educationally innovative school district in the Commonwealth.  Innovation may not be what you think of when public schools are mentioned, but it will be what you think of when you think of our public school.  Why do I think that we will become the innovative center for education in the State?  Two reasons: it is already happening, and we have great people.  Right now there are innovations occurring in every building.  I watch as schools in our district are working to build programs (innovations) that have the potential to fundamentally change the way we do business.  We have teachers thinking about how to individualize instruction for all students, math teachers incorporating literacy strategies in their instruction, and teachers struggling with how to provide the best individualized education plans for all of their students.  I am so proud to be part of an organization that shows this level of concern for our students.  We also have outstanding people working for the school district.  Our staff consists of people that have the best interests of the children at the forefront of everything they do.  They not only love their jobs, they love kids.  That is my highest compliment. 

How does innovation occur in an organization? In this video, author Steven Johnson shares what he learned about innovation while researching his book Where Good Ideas Come From”.   Innovation occurs in organizations when there is an atmosphere of collaboration and cooperation.  Innovation does not occur when a single person sits in a room with a goal of developing an innovation.  Rather, innovation occurs when a group of people work together toward a common goal and they share ideas together and create new ideas from scraps of everyone’s individual ideas.  I also want to make sure that we allow space for innovation to occur.  As educational leaders we must allow people the space to try new ideas, learn from mistakes and celebrate successes.  This cannot be from a “top down” organizational model.  I do not have the answers for how to make this school district the best in the nation; I only hold a small fraction.  The answer lies in everyone involved in the school district.  Working together, I believe we will innovate to become a premier school district in the nation. 

A Failed Integrity Scan

I am a two time alumni of Penn State.  I received my undergraduate degree from Penn State as well as my Ph.D.  I also was a student-athlete at Penn State and was indoctrinated into the culture of integrity and academic excellence that started to be embedded into the athletic department in the late 1980’s.  Some of my first memories as a child are driving to Penn State with my uncle (who was the captain of the basketball and baseball teams in the early 1970’s) to watch basketball games or to visit the Penn State farms.  As a senior in high school there was only one real choice for me as I looked at colleges...Penn State. When deciding where to get a Ph.D. it made perfect sense to me that I would travel over 2 hours one way four times a week in the summer and once or twice a week during the school year so I could receive a degree from a program (Educational Leadership) that was the third ranked program in the nation at the time.  In other words, I bleed blue and white; which brings me to what is presently occurring at Penn State.

I am sickened about what I hear of the sexual abuse case at Penn State.  I am appalled and infuriated that children were placed as pawns in a way to protect the image of the football program.  I am also deeply saddened that a few key people totally failed an integrity scan.  Susan Scott, in her book Fierce Conversations, talks about a conversation that all of us should have with ourselves at least once a year.  This conversation is called an “integrity scan” because you ask yourself if your actions align with your stated values.  An integrity scan is a powerful and scary undertaking.  For example if you state that honesty is a value you live by but you find yourself not telling the truth in a lot of conversations then you have failed an integrity scan.  If you say one thing in private to someone and state the opposite in public, then you have failed an integrity scan.  I understand that humans are fallible and not perfect. As a matter of fact, I know that I am far from being perfect and have had to realign my actions to my values.  I also know that organizations are a collection of imperfect human beings working (hopefully) toward a common goal; thus organizations are not perfect.  However, to have a total failure of integrity within an entire system (as occurred at Penn State) is simply unacceptable.  In this case children were forever harmed because of a total lack of integrity. It is sickening to think about. 

Moving forward, what does the tragedy (for the victims) at Penn State teach us?  I think our individual reactions to this mess probably tell us more about ourselves if we are willing to listen.  For me it emboldens me make sure that I can do everything I can in my personal life to align actions to values.  As a leader of a great school district I want to make sure that the organization and everyone involved in it acts with integrity.  People are not perfect and none of us should expect to be perfect, but it is not unreasonable for all of us (as well as the organization) to strive toward aligning actions with values.  Not to do so can lead toward a complete failure of integrity and in our business that means children get hurt. 

Public Schools and the Adjacent Possible

Today I want to discuss some misconceptions that some educational “reformers” have about public education.  I read in the papers and on the news that educational “reformers” (I like to call them “deformers”) believe that innovation in education cannot occur in public schools.  They believe that Charter schools and other private schools are the only spaces available for educational innovation to occur.  The unstated belief that underlies this viewpoint is that all public school districts are a morass of incompetent bureaucrats and teachers that do not care.  In my experience in public education this is simply not the truth.  There is a space for innovation to occur in public education and it occurring every day. There are pockets of innovation all over the public school landscape that need to be explored and reported on.

In my last blog I discussed “the adjacent possible”.   The adjacent possible is where innovation is occurring in public education.  Many school districts are facing unprecedented challenges.  Two of the biggest challenges are monstrous budget cuts and well intentioned (or not) educational reformers peddling tonics that will “fix” the system. Although I wish these two challenges did not exist, they have moved school districts into an adjacent possible.  School districts are currently considering solutions to problems that would never have been taken into consideration a few years ago.  I know of school districts that are starting their own charter schools, opening after school programs, operating virtual academies, designing challenging curriculum and offering ground-breaking, meaningful learning opportunities to their children all because they have entered the adjacent possible.  I wish that public schools did not have to face some of these challenges, but the important thing to remember is that the vast majority of school districts have risen to the challenge.  Overall, public education is doing well.  If we do not believe this simple fact then our society is in trouble.

I am incredibly optimistic that Penn-Trafford is already working in the adjacent possible.  I spent some time yesterday with the Trafford Middle School faculty.  The discussions they had about helping kids and how to improve their own practice showed me growth into the adjacent possible. There is a teacher-driven movement afoot at Harrison Park that, if realized, will significantly impact the learning opportunities of their students.  Of course we have the reinvention of school group which is not only operating in the adjacent possible, they are continually moving the adjacent possible to explore more possibilities.  Innovation occurs when individuals start to believe that they can make a difference for their organization and when they are shown the doors to the adjacent possible.  I know this is occurring at Penn-Trafford and in many other public school districts.

The Adjacent Possible

I would like to talk today about something that has been percolating in mind since I read Steven Johnson’s latest book, WhereGood Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. The idea is called “the adjacent possible”. This is basically the “space” that exists as a “next step’ in an innovation. In other words, what are the possibilities in the future for a particular innovation or good idea? As Johnson himself has written in an essay in the Wall Street Journal:


The scientist Stuart Kauffman has a suggestive name for the set of all those first-order combinations: "the adjacent possible." The phrase captures both the limits and the creative potential of change and innovation. ….The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself…The strange and beautiful truth about the adjacent possible is that its boundaries grow as you explore them. Each new combination opens up the possibility of other new combinations.

What does this mean for education and the Penn-Trafford School District? First, I want to state that public education can be a place of innovation. I would further state that public education (and our society) must have innovation in public education if democracy is to survive. Second, I am using innovation as a term that means more than the politicized mumbo-jumbo that Federal programs like Race to the Top have turned the term into. True innovation can only come from a grass roots development of ideas that meet the needs of a local community and school.

The nature of innovation indicates that it must develop slowly and that it builds momentum as good ideas emerge and develop into the “adjacent possible”. Public school systems must start the process of building momentum by developing innovative ideas that address local needs. The first step is to ground decisions in a school district based on local values and needs. This will assure that the decisions reflect local “flavor” (something that Race to the Top failed to take into account). Once this is done, a list of issues that are threatening the values of the school district or community must be made. Solutions to address these threats are then developed. This is somewhat simplistic, but I believe that you must start at a basic, grassroots level. Action is important. You cannot move close to the adjacent possible if there is no action.

We have started the journey to the adjacent possible at Penn-Trafford.  As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, there is a pilot project consisting of teachers and administrators that is looking at how to reinvent education.  These discussions have already walked us closer to the adjacent possible as more staff members become involved in the conversation and newer ideas and perspectives are added to the existing ones.  As we look into the future I anticipate that the adjacent possible will be explores with students, community members and staff.  Penn-Trafford will become the beacon of excellence for education in the United States and exploring the adjacent possible will help us get there.

Field Hockey Champions!

Congratulations to the field hockey team on becoming WPIAL Champs last night!  Great job and we are all proud of you!

A Talk With Chuck Schwahn

I want to update you about the work that the “reinventing school” group has done and their talk with Chuck Schwahn yesterday.  The group decided they needed to learn more about the experience that students have in our current school system.  They also wanted to learn more about what other stakeholders in the system have to say about the current state of education.  Our starting point is that Penn-Trafford offers excellent education and that the staff cares deeply for students.  With that being said, if we want to continue our quest to become a top 10 school district in the nation, we need to learn more about our current system. 

The author had many insights to offer the participants yesterday.  I particularly was struck by what he said about the importance of setting a vision for education that was a beyond what we are doing now.  He gave the example of President Kennedy’s goal of putting the man on the moon.  At the time the president made the declaration that within 10 years we would send a man to the moon and bring him back, mankind only knew about 15% of what we needed to know to accomplish the goal.  The reason the goal was so powerful is that it stretched the boundaries of what most people thought was possible.  We need to do something similar at Penn-Trafford.  We need to set a goal (about what learning means for our community and learners) that seems almost impossible with the knowledge that we currently have.  However, from what I have learned about the people in this community, once an “impossible” goal is set, we will start the hard work necessary to accomplish the goal.

The group also reported out what they had learned from their research.  The group had two learning facilitators (teachers) decide to follow learners through their high school schedule.  This was a great experience as it gave the adults insight into what life is like for a student.  Overwhelmingly (through observations and student interviews), high school students do not perform well intellectually until after about 9:00AM.  As a matter of fact, students were clear that a later start in the school day would benefit them.  There is brain research that supports this contention.  Adolescents need more sleep than younger students and adults, and their brains (like all organs) need time to “get going” during the course of the day; that in and of itself is interesting.  In addition, other members of the group interviewed or surveyed over 100 students in all grade levels.  What the kids had to say (or recommend) can be summed up as follows:

1.     Learners like collaborative activities to help them learn.  Even though learners did not mind lectures, they liked lectures that were interactive and showed the learning facilitator had a “human” side.

2.     High school learners wanted more flexibility in their schedules and when their classes were.

3.     Learners want to create things and like it when instruction is centered on projects and making something.

4.     Learning facilitators would like to go deeper into concepts instead of covering things “an inch deep and a mile wide”.  This would allow for better critical thinking on subjects for the learners.

5.     Mentorship of learners to help them decide on future goals and what path they should take to accomplish the goals was an overwhelming response from all groups involved in the school system.  This includes more School to Work opportunities as well as simple guidance.

These were the major findings from the group.  The group also learned that the school system must be vigilant that learners are not disengaged for their entire school day.  One way to combat this potential trap is to create a learning experience where learners are learning in ways that address their strengths and interests.  I am excited by the enthusiasm for learning that permeates the school district and the community. I am learning a lot about the culture and the character of the school district and I am overjoyed with what I am learning.

Imagine...

With all due respect to the late John Lennon, I want to talk today about a concept that has been brewing in my mind for some time and I ask you to imagine a different kind of educational experience.  I am not going to take credit for being the “author” of this idea.  Rather, I am just a person who has though deeply about education in many different contexts for awhile and this idea seems to make some sense to me.  The concept is called “mass customized learning”.  The idea is eloquently explained in the book Inevitable: Mass customized learning, learning in the age ofempowerment by Charles Schwahn and Beatrice McGarvey.  The best way to first think about mass customized learning is to think of other examples in our daily lives of mass customization.  For example, if you go to Sheetz and buy a coffee, the coffee can be made exactly the way you want it to be made, which may be different than the person behind you in line.  Your coffee that you enjoy as you are walking out the door is a perfect example of mass customization.  The coffee was made to your specifications.  Think about how mass customization can lead to a better educational experience for our children.  Imagine if all of our students had (at some level) their educational experience customized to their passions, interests and life stories.  Can a school system accomplish this mass customization at a granular level of detail…I do not know.  I do know that public education can strive to assure that the educational experience of our students is more in tuned to their personalities and interests.

I believe strongly in the power of prototyping and “pilot projects” and PT has a handful of educators who have read the book and are trying to incorporate some mass customized learning principles into their classrooms.  I will share their stories with you in the Friday blog.  We are also fortunate that on Thursday a group of teachers, administrators, and a Board member will have a chance to discuss mass customized learning with one of the authors.  Mr. Schwahn will meet with the group through an online discussion format Thursday afternoon.  I will let you know about that discussion in Friday’s blog.

Community Meeting Part Two

I conducted the second community meeting at Penn Middle School on Tuesday.  I have been talking to enough people now in the district that I can start to see themes emerging of what peoplelike as well as their concerns.  It is overwhelming that the community members are satisfied with the education their children receive.  That is not to say that they do not see areas of improvement, but overall, they are satisfied.  One area of concern that is universal is that communication needs with the district needs to be made easier.    Basically people want to make sure it is easy to communicate with the school; whether it is with teachers, principals or other administrators.  They also want to be able to find information easily on the web site.  I believe there is a hope for more transparency in the system.  I know that all of us from the Board on down have nothing to hide and have a lot to be proud of.  It is our job to make sure that people can easily see that we are doing a lot of good for the students and that we always strive to do what is best for the students of the school district.  I really enjoyed the public meetings.  As I told many people, I had a blast at both of them. 

Hometown High Q

I am forwarding you an email from Mrs. Wukish about students from Penn-Trafford who won the Hometown High Q event this past weekend.  I want to congratulate the students and everyone that helped them win.  Finally, good luck in the future competitions!

The students who participated at Hometown High Q this weekend faced some stiff competition on Saturday. The students competed against Chartiers Valley and Laurel Highlands. The team was supported by members of the Select Choir who performed the school alma mater as well as students, parents and grandparents.

The competition was fierce and students from Penn Trafford were in the lead for most of the competition. During the final round, they were neck and neck with Chartiers Valley. In the final seconds of the game, Penn Trafford took the lead and won! Penn Trafford won for the first time during their participation in Hometown High Q. I am extremely proud of their performance.  They will advance to the next round of competition in late fall/early winter.   This episode will be shown on Saturday, November 5th at 11:00 am.

Please take a moment to congratulate the students involved with the competition when you see them today. They did a fine job of representing our school district.

Participating students:    Tim Hanna (Starter)
                                            Grant Smith (Captain)
                                            Paul Stock (Starter)
                                            Dominic Johnson (Backup)                                                

Christina Wukich

Last Night's Community Meeting

Last night was the first community meeting and I had a great time.  The discussions were very informative and I had a chance to meet people that I did not have a chance to meet before.  Overall, there were 26 people in attendance.  The meeting was broken down into three parts.  First I gave a little presentation about myself. We then broke the people into groups and they listed the strengths and weaknesses of the school district (on flip chart paper) and answered the question “what does it mean to be educated”. Finally, we ended the night with a question and answer period.  I really had a blast.  It was great hearing from the people as they worked through the group project and the questions at the end were a great opportunity to learn about the community but also a chance to inform people about the school district.

I will simply list some of the themes that emerged as a result of people answering the questions last night.  I will not comment or defend anything and just give you the uncensored facts.  For school district strengths, the technology available to the students was an overwhelming choice.  People felt that our students had the opportunity to learn using up to date technology.  There was also a lot of support for the fact that were many curricular choices for students.  Finally, most of the groups mentioned that there was a focus across the school district on student learning.  The last one is something that should not be overlooked and is one that contributes the great academic reputation that PT has in the State. 

On weaknesses (or areas that may need improvement) of the school district, there were three themes.  First, there was a concern that there is too much concentration on “teaching to the test”.  In this case, the “test” being the State PSSA test.  Another concern centered on the wish to have a more individualized plan of education for all students.  Finally, in the question and answer time there was a strong feeling that the school needs to do a better job of communicating student schedules with parents at the high school level and let parents now earlier what teachers their children have in the elementary school.

Finally, we had some great answers to the question “What does it mean to be educated”.  I feel this question is important because it can help us develop a baseline for what the school district needs to do for our students.  Overwhelming, people mentioned that life-long learning is important.  Digging deeper into what “life-ling learning” means you will find that people consider critical thinking skills important.  People also believe that problem solving in academic and social situations on a daily basis is important and reflects an educated person.  Life-long learning also implies that an educated person “learns how to learn” and can adapt their learning to all situations and contexts.  Finally, the discussion also mentioned the fact that an educated person is a productive member of society.  I think that if an educated person has critical thinking skills, can problem solve in all types of situations and takes an interest in their community then they are a productive citizen.

I have posted all of the flip chart paper with these answers in the conference room that the school district uses for our leadership meetings.  I believe it is important for school leaders to be reminded of the answers that the community gave to these questions.  It will be a continual reminder of what is important as educational decisions are made.

Community Meeting Tonight in Trafford

I can't wait for the community meeting tonight at the Trafford Middle/Elementary school library starting at 6:30. This will be a chance for people to get an introduction to me, but more importantly, I will be able to learn from them. I will have a short presentation about me then we will move right into an activity where those present will get a chance to answer this question: "What does it mean to be educated?" This question will be answered in small groups and an agreed upon answer within the group will be shared with all participants. After we have completed this task we will have time for a question and answer session. This will be a great learning experience for me. If you cannot make it tonight, there will be one at Penn Middle School on Tuesday at 6:30 in the cafeteria. I look forward to seeing you at one of the meetings!

Last Night's Board Meeting

Last night was the regularly scheduled meeting of the Penn-Trafford School Board.  The meeting was held at 7:00PM in the high school library.  Although the agenda for the meeting was rather routine, there were a few presentations that I think you would find interesting.  First, the Board had an opportunity to meet the students that operate the “coffee house” (Coffee with a Cause) in the library.  The students are life skills students who operate a “café” (think of the coffee shop in a Barnes and Nobles) and they get a chance to practice practical life skills like making money, organizing their work, budgeting etc. The proceeds from the sale of the coffee go to a different charity every month. Some of the students introduced themselves to the Board and explained why they liked the program so much.  The Board then purchased coffee of hot chocolate from the café.  I want to thank the student’s teachers, Mrs. Enick and Mrs. Blank and Mrs. Momeyer the class health technician.  It is truly a wonderful thing to watch students interact with adults that care as deeply about their students as these three do.

The Board also saw a presentation about the school district’s PSSA scores.  The presentation can be found here.  In a nutshell, Penn-Trafford has once again showed its commitment to student learning.  Overall, 90.7% of Penn-Trafford students are proficient in Reading; while 91.5% are proficient in Math.  Also, according to www.schooldigger.com, PT is the 10^th ranked public school district in the State (out of 500) and 15^th overall when you include charter schools.  I know (and agree) that there is a lot more to a school system then just test scores.  In a lot of ways it is unfair to judge a student or a school based solely on a test score.  However, test scores do reflect student learning and student learning has been the focus of the school district for quite some time.  These scores reflect a lot of hard work by the students, parents and teachers.  Congratulations!

Change of Venue for School Board Meetings

The school board has changed the place and time of school board meetings.  This initiative was undertaken in the hopes of increasing community participation at board meetings.  The meetings are now being held at the high school library at 7:00PM in the library.  This allows for easy access for anyone that is handicapped or has a hard time climbing stairs.  Our next meeting is this Monday, October 10^th at 7:00PM.  Please come and watch the meeting if you have a chance.  The school board is committed to openness and transparency in the school district’s operation.  We hope to see you there!

Great Discussions About Education

I apologize for not updating the blog this week.  My goal is to update the blog at least twice a week so I guess I will have to have posts two days in a row!  The reason that I have not updated is that I have been enjoying so many great conversations with people about Penn-Trafford’s education as well as the future of education.  Yesterday I met with a group of parents and we spent two hours talking about how we can work together to improve the learning experience for the students in our school district.  My take away from that meeting was the school district must continually strive to become the best communicator possible.  Parents must have all relevant information easily accessible to them so they can help guide their children through school.  We also spent time discussing how education should be crafted to meet the students at their intellectual, social, and interest level.  After all, all students should have an educational experience that is tailored exclusively to them.

I also spent some time this morning with a group of teachers that I am calling my “guinea pigs”.  On September 22^nd I posted a link to a web site that invites people to “reinvent” education.  The process involved in the “reinvention” is called design thinking and I have used aspects of design thinking through my years as a superintendent.  The web site invites people to form teams to work though a self paced course and the end result would be a project that would reinvent education.  I asked a group of teachers to meet with me a few times to work through the class and evaluate the process as well as the finished product.  I am simply overjoyed with the way the first meeting went.  The discussion about the potential direction of education, and the enthusiasm to provide the best learning experience for students was AWESOME!  One of the tasks this morning was to view videos that would challenge us to think differently about education.  The videos that the group chose as exemplars are here, here, here, and here.  Please view them, I think you will find them inspiringly challenging!

A Look Behind the Curtain

Today I want to lift the curtain back a little bit on the school district “inner workings” and share with you what our instructional leadership team discussed at our last meeting.  First I will give you some background.  The instructional leadership team consists of me, all principals, Dr. Harris, Mr. Karaszia.  The team meets once a month with the sole focus of discussing instructional and curricular issues.  There are times when some managerial items are discussed, but they are minimized because we have a separate meeting to review the important managerial items that help the district run efficiently and effectively. The instructional leadership meetings are a chance for all of us to intently focus on what is (and should be) occurring in the classrooms across the school district.  It is also a time for all of us to learn from each other. 

This Tuesday one of the items the instructional leadership team discussed was the book The Moral Imperative of School Leadership by Michael Fullan.  Teams of two administrators were assigned a chapter one month ago and told to report to the rest of the group what was meaningful to them in the chapter at this meeting.  You can find their PowerPoint presentations here.  I was so excited after this meeting.  The book discusses how important it is for all educators to look into themselves and understand that the work we do has a moral purpose.  As a matter of fact, educators should not shy away from the fact that we are involved in a moral undertaking in public education.  School leaders must be great managers but more importantly outstanding instructional leaders.  By following this model, the school leader’s time and effort are more focused on what is truly important in the school system…student learning.  We have a great staff here at PT.  The passion the principals have for our students is great and is a reflection of the passion they see every day in their buildings when the staff is interacting with students.  I hope you enjoy looking through the PowerPoint presentation and learn a little about the book.

Congratulations to the Marching Band!

This weekend the marching band participated in a competition at Norwin and did very well. I will share the email that I received from the band director David Cornelius explaining the details of the results of the competition. Before I do that, I just want to make a point of how important I think creativity is for the education of all students. No matter what your field of study or career is, the power of creativity enhances your technical skills. Creativity is most obviously conveyed through the arts but can also be applied to any activity you undertake. I want to make sure that all students at every level of ability and age have the opportunity to let their creative side shine through. This can be in the classroom, the athletic field, or through music. Congratulations to the band and here is the email explaining their accomplishments from this weekend.

On Saturday, September 24th, the Penn Trafford High School Marching Band participated in the Bands of America Regional Championship, which was held at Norwin High School.  Our band was one of 15 that performed in the preliminary round, that also included other bands from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina.

In the BOA Regional Championship format, the top 10 bands from the preliminary round advance to the Finals, based on score.  Our marching band had an outstanding performance and earned the right to advance and perform as a Bands of America Regional Finalist by finishing in 6th place overall, 2nd in Class AA, and also earned the Outstanding Music Award in Class AA in prelims.  This is the first ever caption award earned by our marching band at a Bands of America Regional event.   It is noteworthy that our band placed 4th overall in the music performance caption out of the 15 bands.  The only bands that scored higher in music than Penn- Trafford were Norwin, James Madison HS (VA), and Bridgewater- Raritan (NJ).

Our students had an energetic and emotional performance that earned them 7th place at the Finals competition.

I could not be more proud of our students and how they rehearsed, performed, and carried themselves throughout a rather exhausting day that started at 8:00 AM and ended at 11:30 PM.  They represented our school with the class, dignity, and excellence that we expect from our students.

Lastly, our marching band has been asked to play at Heinz Field on Sunday, October 9th, as the Steelers play the Tennessee Titans.  The students will have the opportunity to perform outside the stadium before the game, as well as perform on the field at pre- game as well as at halftime.