Getting Unstuck: Breathing Real-World Learning into the Classroom
“It’s imperative that school principals have agency because if they don’t, teachers never will. And it’s imperative that teachers experience agency because if they don’t have it, kids are never going to experience agency.”
Today on Getting Unstuck
Whether you’re a parent, an educator, or just a concerned citizen, you have a big stake in what happens in our classrooms – the incubators of our future. If you listen to education transformation advocates – Sir Ken Robinson, Ted Dintersmith, Tony Wagner, Richer Gerver – we need to change those incubators by recognizing that we’re in a post-industrial society and build an educational system that better prepares children for it.
What we see, however, is educational leaders and schools being barraged with suggestions and directives to do “this” and “that” to improve student performance and outcomes. At best these inputs result in “changes around the edges” and at worst, a bureaucracy that focuses on evaluating students instead of helping them become their best self for today’s world.
But the real problem is that we don’t have agreement on what we mean by “student performance and outcomes.” There is a critical need to define the kind of school and educational experiences kids really need given the world we live in today – and not for the world that existed more than 100 years ago. This special series seeks to turn up the volume on that much needed discussion.
Today, we welcome one of those transformation advocates, Mike Oliver, the Principal of Zaharis elementary School in Mesa, AZ.
“We live in a Netflix world right now, but many schools are still trying to live like Blockbuster Video – you know, where people come and check out videos and then return them. Blockbuster went down on that ship because they didn't innovate. Right now if you're a school leader, and you're listening to this, and you're not leading your campus to close the gap between what schools look like and what they should look like in this 21st century world than we live in, then you're leaving it to your your successor to go and clean it up for you.”
— Mike Oliver, Principal Zaharis Elementary School, Mesa, AZ
Mike’s school transformation ideas
Provide children with opportunities for inquiry and authentic learning, so there is aligning between what happens in and outside of school.
Encourage and promote student agency – students determining their interests and what they want to study.
Let students grapple with real world problems in collaborative settings.
Instead of covering standards in a rigid, linear, systematic way, shift to uncover them organically within the context of life.
Employ “kid watching” as an informal assessment measure.
Hire teachers who are demonstrated learners themselves.
Connect with Mike
“Parents want their kids to be happy, first and foremost. And when they’re doing authentic work, they’re happy. But they’re also doing the work of the 21st century, the type of skills that you need in today’s world, not a pedagogy of preparation, where we’re preparing them for the next test, the next grade, the next life after education. They get to learn the way a 21st century learner does today. So how are we doing? Preparing for the future. The future’s right now.”
Could a book on how to effectively lead change in schools be more timely?
We’re pleased to announce …
…that our book Shifting: How School Leaders Can Create a Culture of Change is now available from Corwin Press or Amazon.
You can preview our book in this video:
From our publisher:
In Shifting, educators and leadership experts Kirsten Richert, Jeff Ikler and Margaret Zacchei empower educational change leaders to proactively and coherently navigate complex change in schools to achieve the desired outcomes.
Using a three-part framework—Assess, Ready, Change—this book leads educators to examine a school’s imperatives and readiness for change, identity the tools and abilities required to manifest change, and take action by defining the roles and processes necessary to effectively implement both sweeping change and smaller day-to-day adjustments.