Ditch the Drill and Choose to Thrill: Personalization with Student Choice

There is a saying out there that I hear often: learning is learning. While I don’t discount this view, I firmly believe there is so much to it at the individual level. Preferences and experiences play a significant role in how we all learn, and interests do as well. When asked to do the same thing at the same time in the same way, it is pretty much a fact that a few people will thrive, some will get by, and others will struggle. While this notion challenges the status quo and how things have been done traditionally in education, it is the truth. The question now becomes, what are we going to do about it?

Learners have different learning needs and preferences. Herein lies the power of veering away from approaches focusing on just one way.  Nicki Slaugh and I shared the following in our book Personalize:

Personalized learning compromises an array of strategies where all students get what they need when and where they need it to learn. It’s not about more work. On the contrary, it is about maximizing the time with students prioritizing their needs, resulting in better work.

Agency in the classroom is about giving students more control over their learning through greater autonomy and purpose. Many factors drive it, but the underlying premise is to move learners from a state of engagement to empowerment so that they exert more ownership over their learning. While there are many high-agency strategies to choose from when personalizing, choice stands out. It allows for the tailoring of the learning experience to student needs and strengths, leading to better retention and deeper learning through the following:

• Increased Engagement: When learners have a choice in what they learn or how they learn it, they become more invested in the process. This intrinsic motivation leads to deeper engagement and a stronger desire to understand the material.
• Ownership and Agency: Choice fosters a sense of ownership over the learning process. Learners feel empowered to make decisions and explore topics that interest them. This sense of agency increases their responsibility for their learning and makes them more likely to take initiative.
• Active Exploration: Having choices encourages learners to explore different approaches, materials, or activities. This active exploration allows them to discover new information, make connections between ideas, and solidify their understanding. 

In a science class studying the human body, a teacher wants students to demonstrate their understanding of the digestive system. Traditionally, this could mean assigning a written report or a diagram labeling the organs. However, here is where incorporating student choice can personalize learning through different ways to demonstrate understanding:

• Art: One student who excels in art chooses to create a comic strip explaining the journey of a hamburger through the digestive system. This allows them to showcase their artistic skills while demonstrating their understanding of the different organs involved and their functions.
• Technology: Another student is passionate about technology and chooses to create a stop-motion animation video depicting the digestive process. This student gets to combine their love for technology with their understanding of science.
• Performance: A student who thrives on public speaking chooses to write and perform a short play where the different organs of the digestive system come to life and explain their roles. This allows them to demonstrate their knowledge creatively.

These are just a few examples; a teacher might provide additional options or let students develop their own ideas as long as they meet the learning objectives. The key is that students can choose a method that resonates with them and allows them to showcase their understanding effectively and enjoyably.

Recently, on my podcast, I discussed how choice can be a great differentiator that helps meet the needs of all learners.  There are natural connections to differentiation. Below are the three components and some of the strategies Nicki and I go into detail about in Personalize: 

1. Choice in content: Students can choose to learn the content with the teacher in small groups or independently through a flipped lesson or self-pacing task (reading, video, notes, slides, etc.). No matter the path chosen, checks for understanding along the way inform the student of their understanding. 
2. Choice in the process: Students can choose scaffolded and relevant tasks to complete in a must-do/may-do format, choice board, or playlist. While they work, the teacher uses data or evidence to pull individuals for intensive support.
3. Choice in product: With a well-designed rubric, students choose how to demonstrate learning through creating a product.  For examples, click HERE and HERE. 

Overall, choice empowers learners, personalizes the experience, and fosters a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

Take a deep dive into personalized learning by grabbing your copy of Personalize: Meeting the Needs of All Learners on Amazon. 

The Many Faces of Student Voice

There are many ways to both engage and empower students that lead to ownership of learning.  Creating what I call a “free-range” experience that replicates real-world contexts and develops critical competencies while tapping into passions might be the holy grail, in my humble opinion. While there is a slew of strategies a teacher can use to accomplish this, a focus on high-agency elements is both powerful and realistic.  These include voice, choice, path, pace, and place.  They can be integrated into a holistic experience or leveraged individually to personalize learning.  Of them all, voice might be the easiest to implement every day. 

Student voice.....

• Involves all kids in the learning process 
• Fosters active participation
• Builds confidence leading to self-efficacy, especially when students can respond under cover of anonymity
• Promotes open reflection and collaboration
• Sets the stage for instant feedback
• Develops a sense of community

As you look above at all the many powerful outcomes of this high agency strategy, it is crucial to understand that there is no one right way to foster student voice.  It could be as simple as all kids using an individual whiteboard or dry-erase surface to respond. Technology also provides an ever-growing selection of tools that involve kids in the learning process in ways that lead to greater empowerment.  Think about how audio, video, or the ability to draw can help a child find their voice. At a macro level, open forums and surveys can be used to elicit ideas for improving school culture.  The point is that voice takes on many faces, each with positive outcomes.  

During my longitudinal work with the Corinth School District over the past couple of years, I have seen many teachers embrace student voice. For the most part, technology has been their pathway of choice where tools such as Blooket, Gimkit, Mentimeter, Padlet, Edpuzzle, and Kahoot have been integrated.  During a recent visit, I saw something that completely blew my mind as it was simple yet highly effective.  You will see this in the video below, as well as a textbook personalized classroom using sound blended pedagogies.  The opening frame shows a choice board that students were able to access in Canvas along with standards-aligned learning targets.  As the video progresses, see if you are able to identify the voice strategy this teacher developed. 

Were you able to identify the strategy?  At first, I didn’t catch it as I was so impressed with the choice board and observable evidence of how empowered the learners were.  If you look closely, though, you will see that some computers had a green clothespin while the group at the end of the clip had red.  

When a question or challenge arose, the students would clip the red one to their laptops. This signified to the teacher that a group needed help. At the end of the video, you see where some students were getting needed support. If everything was good, the green clip remained on the computer.  Not only was this a fantastic way to foster student voice, but it also allowed the teacher to focus her time on the learners that needed it the most. 

As you look to include or improve student voice in your classroom (or school), keep in mind the intended outcomes listed at the beginning of this post.  Work backward from here and find the strategy that works best for your learners, and don’t be afraid to mix it up now and again. In the end, it is difficult for kids to own their learning if they don’t have a say. 

I am always on the lookout for great ideas that educators around the world have implemented with fidelity. How have you effectively implemented voice in your classroom or school? 

Keeping Kids Engaged in Remote Learning

With the pandemic not letting down in many places, schools are beginning to focus less on re-entry and more on starting the year with remote learning. Even in countries where COVID-19 is under control, there is still a certain level of nervousness and anxiety that a second wave could perpetuate a shift to either a hybrid model or remote instruction. No matter the situation, lessons learned have to be acted upon in order to provide a valuable learning experience to all kids, regardless of demographics. One of the most prominent obstacles encountered was getting and keeping kids engaged.  A recent Chalkbeat article highlighted the results of some surveys that alluded to this issue:

And engagement with schoolwork was relatively low across the board, reflecting the challenges of keeping students engaged in a chaotic time and of teaching from a distance. Teachers in two separate surveys estimated that only about 60% of their students were regularly participating or engaging in distance learning. (Individual district reports of daily "attendance" varied widely, as districts defined the term so differently.) Two-thirds to three-quarters of teachers said their students were less engaged during remote instruction than before the pandemic, and that engagement declined even further over the course of the semester.

Engagement begins with a focus on sound instructional design that leads to pedagogical techniques that foster active learning.  There are many successful remote teaching strategies that can be employed, which I have included in this post. A balance of digital and non-digital activities is preferred, but you might have to lean one way or another depending on the availability of technology and WIFI in your respective community.  No matter the situation, the key to empowering learners is to create valuable and meaningful experiences that they want to engage in every day. Below are six concrete areas to consider when developing any type of remote learning activity for maximum student engagement.

Relevance

Without relevance, learning many concepts doesn't make sense to students, which is supported by research. The why matters more than ever in the context of remote learning. What one must do is step into the shoes of a student. If he or she does not truly understand why they are learning what is being taught, the chances of engagement and improving outcomes diminish significantly. Each lesson should squarely address the why. When it is all said and done, if a lesson or project is relevant, students will be able to tell you:

• What they learned
• Why they learned it
• How they will use what was learned.

Discourse

Social isolation is a real issue impacting many kids, thanks to quarantining and extended school closures. There is a dire need for students to interact with their peers, especially during synchronous lessons facilitated through live video tools.  Discourse can easily be achieved through the purposeful use of technology.  In this previous post, I outline important pedagogical aspects as well as tools that can be seamlessly integrated into remote lessons to foster conversation. If kids are just consuming content and completing activities in isolation, then chances are many won't be engaged.

Collaboration

Another way to counteract social isolation and potential SEL issues is through collaborative experiences. These leverage the power of discourse while empowering kids to work together to solve a problem or complete a performance task.  Using the elements of well-structured cooperative learning (accountability, timeframe, equitable roles, equal opportunity to participate), activities can be designed as part of a remote blended learning experience.  In the end, it is about creating the conditions for positive interdependence, group processing, and interpersonal skills. For specific online activities, click HERE, and for tools, visit this link.

Flexibility

Rigid schedules and expectations didn't work particularly well prior to COVID-19. They sure don't facilitate an engaging learning experience for kids. Having kids meet at the same time for a synchronous Zoom session as they would for a traditional face-to-face class just doesn't make sense and is counterproductive, in my opinion. Any successful remote learning implementation ensures that flexibility is a core component in both attending lessons and completing work. Asynchronous workflows that are set up with some content can lead to higher engagement if there is some flexibility aligned to getting assignments done over a specified timeframe.

Personalization 

Many of the areas I have already discussed are integrated into a personalized experience. It represents a shift in focus from the "what" (content, curriculum, tests, programs, technology) to the "who" to create a more personal learning experience for all kids. At the forefront is developing and sustaining a culture that imparts purpose, meaning, relevance, ownership, and various paths that cater to all students' strengths and weaknesses.

High agency strategies such as voice, choice, path, pace, and place, typically in the form of pedagogically-sound blended learning, lead to high engagement levels. I encourage you to check out this post that provides a deep dive into effective personalized learning.

Feedback

Most kids want to know how they are doing and what can be done to improve.  If there are no mechanisms for timely, meaningful, and specific feedback, then the motivation to complete any type of remote learning activity wanes. Feedback justifies a grade, establishes criteria for improvement, provides motivation for the next assessment, reinforces good work, and serves as a catalyst for reflection. The assessment determines whether learning occurred, what learning occurred, and if the learning relates to stated targets, standards, and objectives. In reality, formative assessment is an advanced form of feedback. Consider developing digital feedback logs as an engagement strategy.

If students aren't engaged, then the chances are that they won't complete remote activities. The result will be widening learning and achievement gaps that will impact disadvantaged kids the hardest. A compelling reason to learn, coupled with meaningful experiences, is the best recipe for sustained engagement to avoid this potential pitfall while developing the motivation to learn. 

Be sure to check out my entire #remotelearning series

Student Agency is More Than Voice and Choice

Educators and schools across the globe have embraced the concept of student agency.  It is a relatively simple concept in theory, but much more difficult to implement in practice.  The underlying premise is to move learners from a state of engagement to empowerment so that they exert more ownership over their learning.  For many schools, this flies in the face of a traditional schooling mindset that was more geared to learners having to buy-in to a one-size-fits-all system where success was determined by how well everyone did under the same conditions more or less. Oh, wait…. this is still the case in many schools. I digress. A culture that embraces student agency promotes risk-taking while working to remove the fear of failure helps students develop a growth mindset, and has students applying what they have learned in real-world contexts as opposed to just in the classroom.

Student agency is all about improving the learning experience for kids. The most common strategy that is embraced in schools is empowering learners through voice and choice.  This could come in the form of kids selecting the right tool for the right task to demonstrate conceptual mastery or choosing where to sit in a classroom with flexible seating.  It might be facilitated by posing questions and then having students respond under cover of anonymity using mobile devices.  Or maybe it is combining both elements of voice and choice through pedagogically sound blended learning activities. Learning in and out of the classroom should always be at the forefront when it comes to agency. However, we must not lose sight of the third element that comprises this concept, and that is advocacy.

Image credit: https://addictionandrecoverynews.wordpress.com/

While voice and choice are more aligned with ownership of learning in the classroom, advocacy aligns with improving the school or district culture.  Learners should be in a position to advocate for ideas, strategies, resources, and other elements that will help them succeed. This is not a new concept in any sense.  Adam Fletcher writes:

Student advocacy has a long history going back to at least the 1930s when a youth-led group called the American Youth Congress presented a list of grievances to the US Congress including public education. Through the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s to the free expression movement of the 1960s to the resurgence in student voice in the 2000s, student education advocacy is alive in the US today. 

Meaningful student involvement engages students as education advocates to work within the education system and throughout the community to change schools. Many students participate in committees, on unique panels, and in functions that help raise awareness or interest in education issues.

How would you rate the level of learner advocacy in your school or district?  This was one of my main focus areas as a principal.  Every month I convened all elected members of student government and engaged them in a conversation as to how they wanted to improve their school. The discussion was relatively broad, focusing on anything related to academic, social, and emotional ideas for growth and improvement. My only request was that each idea or suggestion was accompanied with practical strategies for implementation. After each meeting, I emailed detailed minutes and provided regular updates on where some of their well-articulated suggestions stood. The best part for these students was when my admin team and I implemented some of their excellent ideas.  There is no point in student advocacy if no action results.  Schools with vibrant learning cultures recognize this fact.  Below are some other ideas to think about when it comes to empowering student advocacy, the majority of which were implemented in my former school.

• When hiring new teachers and administrators include students on the panel for the first round of interviews.
• If you make a move to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or 1:1 elicit input from students when crafting policies and expectations.
• To start the school year, allow students to co-create classroom rules.
• When looking to improve divisive topics such as grading and homework allow students to weigh in and offer suggestions.
• Empower students to use social media and the school newspaper or magazine to engage in respectful dialogue about how to improve culture.
• As you either create or refine your makerspace, gather student input on what themes, tools, and technology they would like to have
• Ensure there is a student representative to the local Board of Education (BOE) and Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)

Student agency can be a powerful force in education.  It can increase the degree of autonomy and self-determination amongst our learners while also engaging them in activities which aim to influence decisions in a school or district. How are or will you integrate more opportunities for advocacy to create a learning culture that prioritizes all elements of student agency?

Below is my video reflection on this topic.

Ownership Through Inquiry

As a child, I was enamored by nature.  My twin brother and I were always observing and collecting any and all types of critters we could get our hands on.  Growing up in a rural area of Northwestern New Jersey made it quite easy to seek out and find different plants and animals on a daily basis.  We would spend countless hours roaming around the woods, corn fields, ponds, and streams in our quest to study as much local life as possible. It’s no wonder that I eventually became a science teacher as my surroundings growing up played a major role in my eventual decision to go into the field of education.  

To this day I still can’t believe how my mother tolerated us bringing an array of animals into the house.  For years my brother and I were particularly interested in caterpillars.  We would use encyclopedias and field guides to identify certain species that were native to our area. Through our research, we determined what each caterpillar ate and subsequently scoured trees, bushes, and other plants in our quest to collect, observe, and compare the differences between different species. We even kept journals with notes and sketches. When we were successful in locating these insects we then collected them in jars. Our research ensured that each species had the correct type of food as well as appropriate physical requirements to either make a chrysalis (butterflies) or cocoon (moths).  

In the case of moths, some were in their cocoons for months.  Hence, my brother and I stored these jars under our beds.  At times we forgot that we had these living creatures under our beds until at night we heard sounds of them flapping their wings and moving around the jars after emerging from their cocoons.  I can only imagine what my parents thought of this but am so thankful that they supported our inquiry in many ways from having encyclopedias available for research to providing us with the autonomy to harness our intrinsic motivation to learn.   Through it all our observations led to questions and together with my brother and I worked to find answers. Even though we were not always successful in this endeavor, the journey was worth it. Questions and even more questions drove the inquiry process for both of us and from there we leveraged available resources and synthesized what we had learned. 

Image credit

The story above is a great example of how my brother and I embarked on an informal learning process driven by inquiry.  We owned the process from start to finish and our parents acted as indirect facilities through their support and encouragement.  Both inquiry and ownership of learning are not new concepts, although they are both thrown around interchangeably as of late, especially ownership.  Deborah Voltz and Margaret Damiano-Lantz came up with this description in 1993:

Ownership of learning refers to the development of a sense of connectedness, active involvement, and personal investment in the learning process.  This is important for all learners in that it facilitates understanding and retention and promotes a desire to learn.

After reading this description I can’t help but see the alignment to the story I shared above.  We learned not because we had to, but because we wanted to.  Herein lies a potential issue in schools.  Are kids learning because they are intrinsically empowered to or are they compelled to through compliance and conformity?  The former results when learners have a real sense of ownership.  There are many ways to empower kids to own their learning. All the rage as of late is how technology can be such a catalyst. In many cases this is true, but ownership can result if the conditions are established where kids inquire by way of their own observations and questions.  WNET Education describes inquiry as follows:

"Inquiry" is defined as "a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge -- seeking information by questioning." Individuals carry on the process of inquiry from the time they are born until they die. Through the process of inquiry, individuals construct much of their understanding of the natural and human-designed worlds. Inquiry implies a "need or wants to know" premise. Inquiry is not so much seeking the right answer -- because often there is none -- but rather seeking appropriate resolutions to questions and issues.

The first sentence ties in directly to the concept of ownership, but we also see how important are questions.  This is why empowering learners to develop their own questions and then use an array of resources to process and share new knowledge or demonstrating an understanding of concepts are critical if ownership is the goal.  The article from WNET explains why this is so important:

Effective inquiry is more than just asking questions. A complex process is involved when individuals attempt to convert information and data into useful knowledge. A useful application of inquiry learning involves several factors: a context for questions, a framework for questions, a focus on questions, and different levels of questions. Well-designed inquiry learning produces knowledge formation that can be widely applied.

Ownership through inquiry is not as difficult as you might think if there is a common vision, language, expectation, and a commitment to student agency.  The Rigor Relevance Framework represents a simple process to help educators and learners scaffold questions as part of the inquiry process while empowering kids to demonstrate understanding aligned with relevant contexts.  By taking a critical lens to instructional design, improvement can happen now. Curiosity and passion reside in all learners.  Inquiry can be used to tap into both of these elements and in the process, students will be empowered to own their learning. 

Learning from Airbnb To Create an Amazing Learner Experience

Over the past few years we have seen disruptive innovation take hold.  The entrepreneurial spirit, aided by advances in technology, has propelled the creation of new businesses that consumers are flocking to.  One of those businesses is Airbnb. I don’t want to assume that everyone knows what this company is all about so here is a summary from Wikipedia.

Airbnb is an online marketplace and hospitality service, enabling people to lease or rent short-term lodging including vacation rentals, apartment rentals, home stays, hostel beds, or hotel rooms.  The company does not own any lodging; it is merely a broker and receives percentage service fees (commissions) from both guests and hosts in conjunction with every booking.  It has over 3,000,000 lodging listings in 65,000 cities and 191 countries, and the host sets the cost of lodging.

Image credit: https://airbnbreview.com

The concept is amazing as it benefits both the consumer and supplier while cutting costs.  However, the success of Airbnb as a company goes well beyond what many of us see or experience.  Their success as a disruptive innovator lies in the company culture that has been cultivated.  They greatly invest in their people, which as a strategy only has an upside. I recently read 3 Lessons From Airbnb on Creating an Amazing Employee Experience by Jacob Morgan. To lead off the piece he shares the following. 

Employee experience is a hallmark of a forward-thinking company that cares about its employees and wants to provide them with the resources to be successful.

Image credit: www.n3xtcon.com/blog/what-do-we-learn-from-the-story-of-airbnb

I encourage you to read the entire short piece.  In the article Morgan goes on to list and describe 3 important lessons that create a strong employee experience. Each in its own right is a pivotal component in building relationships. It all comes down to relationships. Without trust, there is no relationship. Without relationships, no real learning occurs. Here is how those principles can be embraced in schools to improve the learner experience.

Involve students and staff

Student agency is the key to building powerful relationships with the most important stakeholder group in schools.  Affording students choice, allowing them to use their voice, and providing them the opportunity to advocate will empower them to better own their learning.  This type of involvement also leads to the creation of a better school culture beyond the classroom. We can’t forget the adults in this process. Educator agency is just as important.

Be authentic

Will the real you please step forward? That is what students and staff want to see.  Mike Robbins has a pretty good perceptive on the power of authenticity. He writes:

Authenticity is what gives us freedom to be ourselves and be comfortable with whom we are, and it’s also what gives us access to connecting with other people in a meaningful and genuine way.  This is true power of authenticity and when we embrace it, even though it can be uncomfortable and scary at times, we give ourselves and those around us one of the most important gifts of all — the real us.

Be true to yourself and others. When you fail (and you will), showcasing your vulnerable side will only help to strengthen the bonds with those you work with and for. Authenticity in leadership from your particular lens and position is critical in building a thriving learning culture. 

Continually evolve

If you want to make a difference then lead differently, learn differently, and act differently. Change begins with us.  Don’t expect others to change if you don’t first. Where it goes from there depends on the momentum that is built. The process of evolving as a whole is about overcoming fear, learning from mistakes, and challenging yourself to be better. When it comes to your school or district, the system will only evolve if you continue to push the envelope.

Don’t prepare students for something. Prepare them for anything. In doing so the learning experience for our kids should be nothing less than amazing.  If this is the goal then the work culture has to be equally as amazing for the adults. This is what I have learned from Airbnb. 

Facilitating Open Debate In and Out of School

As educators it is important that we model the expectations that we have for our students and each other.  To that end, it is vitally important that we continually look for ways to push our own thinking and leadership in order to improve professional practice.  In my role as a presenter this is key. I routinely ask all types of educators to be innovative and take risks. As I continue to grow in this area, I am always on the look out for new tools that I can integrate into my presentations to demonstrate these two points as well as to illustrate the pedagogical link that technology supports in our schools.  Often times I will double down and also make the connection of how certain tools can be used to support the work of administrators.

Recently I was tasked with delivering a two and a half hour keynote to 1700 educators in Missouri.  This posed quite the challenge thanks to the large size of the crowd and duration of the presentation.  As I went through my deck I looked for opportunities to build in numerous interactive activities where everyone in the audience would be able to respond.  Lately my tools of choice have been TodaysMeet, Answer Garden, and Mentimeter (my all time favorite).  Once all of the interactive components were added I noticed that I had more questions than different tools.  It was time to take a risk and learn a new tool.

Thanks to the assistance of my PLN I had a variety of new tools to choose from. I settled on ProConIt.  This is a very cool, yet powerful tool that has applications in the classroom and to strengthen relationships with stakeholders. With ProConIt your audience can discuss and debate any topic you develop. Unlike typical polling tools, you create something called a "Procon" by defining both the topic of discussion and the two sides of the issue you want to gather opinions on. ProConIt allows you to ask these questions and then invite students, stakeholders, or audience members to provide their thoughts. Essentially an open debate unfolds where everyone can participate. 

As others navigate the Procon, opinions up to 225 characters can be submitted on both sides of the issue. People can even evaluate comments that were previously submitted.  What then happens is the best opinions, either for or against, rise to the top. The needle at the top of the page tells you which way the issue is leaning while the specific arguments identify why.  Take a look at the results from a ProConIt I recently used during a recent keynote. The prompt was as follows: Do you feel gaming and the gamification of education can lead to better learner outcomes? Submit your opinion with a reason.

This is a great tool to use in the classroom and with stakeholders to facilitate open debate on issues relating to learning concepts, global problems, policy changes, new courses, referendums, technology purchases, proposed school schedule changes, and the list goes on and on.  The key to using this tool, especially with students, is for respondents to explain why they are for or against.  Shortened URL’s can also be included as a means to provide evidence to support a pro or con stance.  

Upon reflecting on my use of this tool yesterday, so many useful applications come to mind.  For starters, it is an incredible tool to use during presentations to engage attendees in a thoughtful dialogue.  However, the real value of this tool will be found in the hands of students, educators, and administrators. Think about the possibilities of using ProConIt as a powerful way to improve student agency in your school or to build consensus around major decisions with a better sampling of stakeholders.  How do you see yourself using ProConIt in your respective position? I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

The Need for More Play in School

As I kid I loved play. Countless hours were spent building forts in the woods, creating sand castles at the beach, riding bikes, playing Atari (then Nintendo, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, etc.) or just running around for no apparent reason. Kids love play and it is a central component of their social and emotional development.  Important qualities such as patience, compromise, creativity, focus, critical thinking, problem solving, determination, resilience, and resourcefulness, to name a few, are developed through play.  Not only are these qualities vital to success, but they also represent elements that cannot be tested.

Image credit: dyslexickids.net

As much as I loved play I think I enjoy watching how it not only impacts, but also how important it is to my own children.  In many ways my kids engage in play in unique ways based on their personalities.  My son, Nick, is an avid gamer who loves Minecraft and the creative freedom it fosters. On many nights it is common to see him with his headset on collaborating and communicating with kids his age from across the country utilizing thought and strategy to create a product that matters. Like most children, he also has a passion for basketball, golf, Nerf gun battles, laser tag, going to the park, and of course playing with his sister. They love walking the neighborhood engaged in Pokemon Go. I love it when they come back and tell me how many kilometers they walked while having fun.

My daughter, Isabella, on the other hand is a ball of raw energy.  She is always on the go, running around the house and outside when the Texas heat is in check.  Like her brother, technology is a huge component of her play regime.  Many evenings after dinner she retreats to her room to play Roblox with her best friend, Brooke, who lives in New York. She will have a computer set up for the game and then stream in Brooke Live using Facetime on her iPad Mini. They then play the game together, but laugh and converse in real-time. She is also big on creating Musical.ly’s with her friends near and far. Outside of technology she is your typical kid when it comes to play, ranging from dolls, to stuffed animals, to a variety of aquatic games in the pool.

Play has a magical effect, at times, of taking away some of the stress and pressures of life. It is in these carefree moments that kids and adults develop and enhance certain skills that will play a huge role in personal and professional development.  I find myself reflecting on the seemingly endless positive impacts that play has on kids and yet it is being cut from schools across the world.  Ask any young kid what was their favorite part of the school day and they will respond in no specific order – recess, gym, or art.  

Our kids need and deserve more play, not less! Recess in particular is needed not just in our youngest grades, but also even through the middle and high school years.  Read about why high school should be more like kindergarten and the point becomes clearer. Play has to be valued in school and its integration should be a priority if student learning and achievement are the goal. Why you ask? Research has found that play develops students in four ways: physical, cognitive, social, and emotional.

Image credit: http://www.museumofplay.org

In order to create schools that work for kids a concerted effort has to be made to break up the monotony of formal learning that places a great deal of stress on students.  Structured and unstructured play should be integrated into every school schedule, regardless of the age group of the kids.  Below are a few ideas:

• Add more recess (kids need it and the benefits are clear)
• Integrate makerspaces 
• Replace study halls with play options and open choice
• Integrate games such as chess, checkers, Trivial Pursuit, and Xbox to common areas
• Add time to lunch. With a full length lunch period at my school (48 minutes) students would regularly go outside and play, visit the makespace, or play video games thanks to our BYOD initiative.
• Develop a play-based elective

These are just a few ideas to implement the power of play into the school day. Students should be excited to attend school and learn. By integrating more play we can begin to create a culture where more students want to learn. Once that is achieved the possibilities are endless.

Student Agency: Moving From Talk to Action

When I reflect back on what we were able to accomplish at New Milford High School, I am overtaken by a great sense of pride. We were able to transform the learning culture of a traditional school and in the process got results while becoming an example that others emulated. This was achieved during a time of tumultuous change as the education reform movement was just gaining steam. Even when doubt entered out minds, which it always does when change is involved, we persevered as a school community thanks to a unified vision that we could better serve our students.  

In a sense, all of our major changes really started when we began involving our students in the process. This was also the reason, in my opinion, as to why change became sustainable.  More often than not change is orchestrated and directed at the adult level. There is often a great deal of talk about how many changes are being spearheaded for the betterment of students, but rarely are the students themselves asked for their input or unique ideas.  Schools need to work for our students, as they are our number one stakeholder and ultimate boss. 

Image credit: https://andrewherrick.files.wordpress.com

If we are to improve learning and ultimately school-based outcomes student agency needs to be a real element of school culture. Student agency is about empowering kids to own their learning (and school) through greater autonomy. It is driven by choice, voice, and advocacy.  We learned a great deal about student agency during our school transformation. Below are a few practical tips to make student agency a reality in your classroom, school, or district:

• Develop pedagogically sound learning activities with standards-aligned assessments and allow students to select the right tool for the task to demonstrate conceptual mastery 
• Allow students to co-create rules and expectations.
• Provide avenues for students to provide honest feedback on school culture. I held monthly meetings with all members of school government across all grade levels giving them an open forum to provide improvement ideas. We also set up an Edmodo group to continue the conversation. The key, however, was the follow-up and implementation on some of the ideas suggested. Tools like TodaysMeet and Mentimeter can also be used to gather perception data from kids 
• Implement portfolios as a means of authentic assessment 
• When hiring new teachers and administrators have kids on the interview committee
• As policies that impact students are created or updated (i.e. BYOD, 1;1, grading, homework, technology purchases, space renovations, etc.) provide a forum for kids to give feedback 
• Integrate personalized and personal learning pathways such as blended and virtual
• Have protocols established for students to suggest new courses and extra-curricular activities
• Implement Academies or Smaller Learning Communities (SLC’s)
• Let students select books for independent reading based on their interests and reading level

Image credit: Jackie Gerstein

Above are some of the ways we increase student agency. What would you add? Please share some of your ideas in the comments below.

Meaningful change must begin with active student involvement. Advocacy, choice, and voice should occur in the classroom as well as the school setting. Relevancy and value on the part of our learners are central elements to success. Let’s move away from the catchy sound bites and clichés and begin to implement real strategies that will better prepare students for an ever-changing world.