Two For One

Thank you Teacher World for your flattering post!

I have shared with you that I spend time in the mornings reading positive, uplifting, and motivational materials that help jumpstart my day, and I am going to pick the best of these that can be applied to education in some way and share them with you on a regular basis. I hope that these bring some laughter, some deep thought, some happiness, and some positive reaction from all of you. These aren’t very deep, but they are fun. So, without further ado, here is another great saying.

* “It is okay to try and fail and try and fail again, but it isn’t okay to try and fail, and fail to try again!”

Oh, I love that, don’t you? Isn’t this a perfect message for students about not giving up until they get it right? For that matter, isn’t it a great message for teachers, too? I loved this quote from the moment I heard it, and I proudly display it in my classroom and talk about it at the beginning of every year.

I can’t take credit for this wonderful quote, so where did I get it? About six years ago my school system sent several teachers to the best training program I have ever had the opportunity to attend. It is called Quantum Learning, and I would highly recommend this program to all teachers. What is the premise behind this training? According to its website, “Quantum Learning for Teachers programs empower educators to create joyous, engaging and successful learning – turning their classrooms into optimal learning environments”. We learned countless teaching strategies and moves that are based on brain research. One of the best techniques I learned, circuit learning, is a technique that incorporates repeated exposure to facts in a manner that moves information from your short term to your long term memory without memorization. It works, and I use it every year!

So, today you got a two-for-one; a great saying and a little commercial for a great teacher’s program you and your school system might want to consider taking. Enjoy!

The Quantum Learning Tenets

The Tenets are important concepts or guiding principles that are basic to the Quantum Learning system. These ideas are woven throughout the fabric of the system, and as a result will be rediscovered in many applications and strategies. The Tenets are specifically designed to improve our practice in the classroom by directing our focus. We recommend that you post them in a place where you will see them on a regular basis.

The first Tenet is “Everything Speaks.” This concept reminds us that everything we do in the classroom sends a message to students. The way we greet students first thing in the morning or at the beginning of a class sends a message. The way we handle an incorrect response from a student given in front of peers sends a message. Our Environment, the Atmosphere we create, the Design of our lesson delivery or educational tasks, how we dress, the way we listen, or the character traits we model all send messages to our students. By being constantly aware of this important principle we tend to be more deliberate and proactive in orchestrating the messages students receive. This helps us better manage the variables that contribute to an optimal classroom atmosphere and learning environment.

“Everything is on Purpose” is the second Tenet and it follows logically from the one before it, “Everything Speaks.” If everything speaks, then it follows that we want to be purposeful with everything we do in the classroom to get the desired outcome. A focus on the Tenet, “Everything is on Purpose”, encourages a greater awareness of all the variables that influence learning. It is this Tenet that helps us to begin to see our role in the classroom differently. We are not in the classroom to dispense knowledge – we are there to orchestrate learning. We are striving to get masterful in this orchestration, and even small variables and details become important to us.

“Experience Before Label” is an important principle that influences our lesson design and delivery. It means that we involve students in an experience or elicit an experience that they can relate to before we attempt to attach it to any symbolic language or label. From a scientific perspective we are creating schema or a new neural network in the brain before attaching the label. It can also mean that we move the students to inquiry where they are seeking the label or concept before we give it to them. For example, a math teacher may involve students in a real-life situation in which they are trying to solve a problem but having difficulty based on what they already know. They may begin to look for a new formula or principle to help them accomplish the solution. This state of inquiry or searching would be an ideal time for the teacher to introduce the new concept, and this process would be called “Experience Before Label.” In a literature class a teacher may have students experience writing from a talented author before introducing the literary concept of mood. A science teacher may have students experience or observe the laws of motion before actually labeling them.

Experience Before Label is about creating a teachable moment. It is about getting students emotionally involved and questioning with questions such as Why? When? Where? What? How? The word label in this principle refers to the information we want students to learn – the facts, the formulas, the new terms, the sequence, the reasons, etc. When we design our instruction using “Experience Before Label,” we are using a brain-considerate strategy that attaches the learning to previously established schema, evokes proper emotional learning states, maximizes the use of inquiry, and bridges the content to the students’ world.

The “Acknowledge Every Effort” Tenet places a strong emphasis on reinforcing effort in the classroom. By acknowledging effort the professional educator places a strong focus on effort. This focus on effort has many benefits in the educational arena. By acknowledging effort and creating a focus on effort we help our students to know that we consider good consistent effort the hallmark of a good student.

One very significant benefit with a focus on effort relates to our students’ self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is our students’ concept of what they are capable of accomplishing and relates to their views of their own abilities.When we define a student as one who gives good consistent effort we are asking the student to do something he or she can do. This is because effort is a choice. Even though some students may not be able to compete with the student sitting next to them in achievement scores, they can choose to give effort, and if effort is the sign of a good student then they can consider themselves good students. By asking students to give good consistent effort we are asking them to do something they know they can choose to do. How satisfied would you be as a professional educator if all your students did was give 100% effort? Most of us could live with that!

The last Tenet is “If It’s Worth Learning It’s Worth Celebrating.” These celebrations occur inside the student and are orchestrated by the professional educator. It is the good feeling students have about their own progress and their contributions to the learning of others. It includes the joy, excitement, and passion for learning that permeates the classroom atmosphere. It includes the positive acknowledgments the students receive for their effort and participation. It may be enhanced by such things as small as a comment by the teacher expressing appreciation for accomplishment or by an entire group joining together in a cheer, a special event or a rewarding activity. It should be an ongoing and consistent principle operating in the classroom. It reinforces motivation and the message, “This is important.

It’s Iconic

Iconic Posters: Hang an iconic poster to reinforce learning.

Here is a classic memory tag. I once had a conversation with someone about the power of icons. I need to do more research into this. Companies and marketing groups understand the potential in a superb icon. Think the golden arches (McDonalds). Think the Nike swoosh. Think the Apple…apple. Just seeing one of these icons brings a rush of thoughts, associations, feelings, etc. We have a few icons in Quantum Learning: Home Court Advantage (circle in a triangle); the Line; and Prime Directive. Each of these can represent a wealth of information (and associations, feelings, etc.). It depends on what we put into it. I have a friend and fellow facilitator, Dan St. Romain, that only brings icon mini-posters to events (versus full-size flip charts) of all the Quantum Learning content.

Now What?: What are your big rock concepts? What’s the big stuff that holds it all together? What information bears repeating over and over again? How can you represent these concepts, ideas, formulas, or whatever in an ICON? I recommend icons that are simple, yet distinctive. After learning all about it and repeating it several times, students should be able to look at it and know immediately what it’s all about. Work to be as purposeful as possible with the icon. Put it on a chart and hang it as a content poster. Put the icon on relevant homefun assignments. Have students recreate the icon with additional details for a review activity.

Bonus: As you create multiple icons for your classroom, is it possible for icons to interact? If the knowledge builds on or interacts with other knowledge, can the icons do the same? Wouldn’t that be cool? As always, I would love to hear your examples (crauch@qln.com). Keep up the great work!

-Christian Rauch

Online Meets In-Person… A Beautiful Partnership!

Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is the largest virtual school in terms of enrollments in the country. It acts as a course provider for districts in Florida and other states. With more than 700 full-time instructional employees and over 10,000 students on a wait list to enroll, they are the only public school with funding tied directly to student performance. How does this school reach out for staff development? FLVS, it’s great to meet you. Our training is dynamic in-person staff development training specializing in engaging how the brain learns to get results. At first glance it might seem as though these two educational institutions are worlds apart, however, they are closer than you might think.

For the past two years, I have had the pleasure of training hundreds of FLVS teachers in our Quantum Learning methodologies, which have increased online results. So, how do in-person group dynamics meet online learning? It is a question I constantly ask myself as I get on the plane to head to Orlando for the training. I know it is my job to facilitate this partnership.

The willingness of the professional educators to match a strategy that produces extraordinary results in a typical “brick and mortar” classroom to the online environment is the first ingredient to this success. For example, Quantum Learning has a design and presentation method that orchestrates student’s being more willing to take risk with new content. These risks can include something as simple as raising a hand to ask a question or as high gradient as standing in front of a group of peers for a presentation in the “brick and mortar.” Translated to the online environment; calling or instant messaging the teacher or another student to ask for help or a discussion-based assessment at the end of a module. The Quantum Learning instructor models the innovative practices and debriefs why these strategies work and produce results. The FLVS teacher takes the purpose and translates the strategy into one that produces results in the online environment. I am constantly impressed by the teachers’ dedication to their students’ success.

This transfer happens in team collaboration sessions. These trainings give teachers, who are typically on a solo mission of working from home, an opportunity to be in the same space with their partner teacher and other educators from their department. It’s a time for a meeting of the minds with the focus being on student success. Often times the collaboration outside of staff development training happens via phone, email, instant message, or conference calls. We have all been here, trying to focus, and our son, daughter, or dog comes in demanding our immediate attention. The in-person Quantum Learning training focuses on utilizing the time together to both implement strategies as well as strengthen the relationship between colleagues so virtual collaboration continues to run smoothly. There is so much beauty in spending time being together and working as an organic unit with outcomes in mind. Staff that have great relationships produce high-quality work and are more willing to go the extra mile when they feel valued and supported.

The bottom line, whether we teach in a “brick and mortar” school, online, or in another country: great teaching is great teaching. Educators who are committed to spending time working on mastering the craft of teaching and building strong foundational relationships between staff members are high performance human beings.

Bet The Digital Farm On Education Online

“Teachers cannot and will not be replaced by technology — but teachers who don’t use technology will be replaced by teachers who do. It will be far more productive and far less frustrating if we as educators change our attitudes toward technology rather than try to change our students’ attitudes toward it. Information technologies are here to stay.”

-Doug Johnson

I just got that quote from a conversation between me and a few other educators in the back of a room full of students.

OK, actually, the quote is from a conversation I am having online with dozens of educators from around the world, the classroom we are in is actually a live video feed of a session in Doha, Quatar at the 2009 Flat Classroom Conference, and the students in front of the camera are watching/listening/interacting with Thomas Friedman, who is being video-conferenced in for the students from Washington, D.C.

I? I am in my bathrobe, in my house, in California. Compared to how I grew up learning, one word comes to my mind:

Insane!

I mean, what?! This all blows my mind in such an exciting, revolutionary, so-right-for-the-times kind of way.

I know, I know, this tech has been in use for years. And I have used webcams and instant messaging and seen conferences online before, but something this morning about seeing these kids get excited and involved in this dynamic – it was like watching what we need to be doing with our schools. Compared to how I grew up learning in the classrooms in which I was a student, this is, um… modern? Current? What matters to kids now?

It just really brands in my brain the fact that we educators must go to where they are – the “they” that are the reason we got into education in the first place. We must fully embrace their daily experience, one of which is technology. We want the future to be positive so we work with kids to prepare them to be their best in it, but when we do that and do not use and learn about the tools of the present and future, we are throwing a big fat parking brake on their education, their rate of learning, and the future because we are teaching them in the context that we are familiar with, not them.