This is the latest in a series of blog posts by a partnering cohort member.
-
By: Joseph Rosi
​
I'm always searching for topics to write about that are germane to our FLUENCY mission. This morning inspiration struck while I watched my two year old twins have a meltdown. Any parent of toddlers can tell you the deluge of tears and foot stomping is always minutes away, regardless of activity or location.  Today's feud happened because my son returned from the doctor after a particularly severe bout of the flu. Grandma, being the compassionate caregiver she is, got him a balloon to cheer him up.

After two days of being in the hospital and very sick, he returned with the balloon in tow. My daughter, seeing that, completely lost her mind.​ She couldn't believe that he got a balloon and she didn't. We tried our best to console her, to explain that he was sick and needed cheering up - nothing could move the needle from agitation to calm. 

Ironically, she wasn't wrong. From her perceptive, she did what she was told over the past few days, ate all her vegetables, colored in the lines of her book, and 'read' stories before falling asleep. She did what was expected of her as well as she could. Why shouldn't she be rewarded?

Equity, as it were, reminds us that perspective is key in creating environments that make all stakeholders feel valued. Applying that mantra to our school, I've moved to eliminate Honor Roll from our primary grades. Students who are in the throws of literacy development and becoming emergent independent learners shouldn't be discouraged by not meeting an arbitrary benchmark for recognition.

I want a learning environment where kids are rewarded for hard work, advocacy, and moving forward in their development. If you're a 'C' student working toward your capabilities, why shouldn't we reward you with your own 'balloon'? Being an equitable academic environment doesn't mean everyone gets the same reward for the same task. It means focusing on individual learner development on their own continuum and continual improvement. I'm glad to be able to work towards that goal.

And of course, we ended up getting her a balloon, too.

This is the latest in a series of blog posts by a partnering cohort member.
-
By: Stephanie McKenzie​

A little less than a year ago when I was asked to become a member of The Fluency Project, I was hesitant and unsure of the overall purpose or concept of the project, but I was at a point in my teaching career that I felt I needed to make some adjustments. I had been in the field of education a little less than 11 years.  Five of those years were spent in Special Education classrooms and 6 in a 2nd grade classroom. Frequent reflection of my teaching practices had me questioning the direction that education in general and my teaching were heading.  Was I providing my students with the skills they needed for their future?  Was I creating lessons that were engaging and creating a motivation to learn in my students?  Did I use technology enough?  When I did use technology, was I using it in a way that was beneficial to my students?  I wanted to provide my students with an education that would instill a love of learning, a curiosity, and skill sets that would allow them to be successful adults.  I felt, however, that while I was providing my students with the necessary skills, I was not allowing them to find themselves in their own learning.
  
Then I received the overview of The Fluency Project, which described a framework that encouraged participants to think reflectively about their practice, implement innovative lessons and activities that were student-centered, and utilize technology and data in ways that would enhance learning.   Little did I know that this would connect me with wonderful educators that had the same goals I had been striving to achieve daily.   It would provide me with the support that we all need when we are trying to make an impact on the lives of children in ways that may not fit the status quo.   

As we began our journey on The Fluency Project, I began to do my own research and came upon a book, titled, What School Could Be, by Ted Dintersmith.  This book takes the reader on a tour of the United States, visiting classrooms that are preparing students for the future, for jobs that do not yet exist.    This was a theme that I saw in both the meetings of our Fluency Cohort and this text.  We needed to prepare our students for a future that was not yet known.  As I read about these classrooms, I was amazed at the motivation that developed in the students, the lessons they learned (which were often much bigger and more powerful than a set of skills), and the impact they had on not only the students but the community around them.  Dintersmith explains that as he visited these classrooms he saw that there were four principles in common:  purpose, essentials, agency, and knowledge.  He refers to these as the PEAK principles.  While reading these principles it brought me back to the values of The Fluency Project: authenticity, compassion, agency, and equity.  

After avidly studying these principles and values, I began to make changes in my own classroom.  The first step I took was implementing Morning Meetings, in which my students share their thoughts.  They also learn the value of forming relationships with their classmates.  This gives them purpose and agency in their own learning.   We also spend a great deal of time discussing the purpose of our learning.  This conversation alone makes lessons more authentic for my students.  This small change has created a community in my classroom that allows the remaining ideas and principles to develop. 

In addition, I created a purpose for learning in my classroom.  My students have begun to Skype with students from the classroom of a fellow cohort member.  The students love this incorporation of technology and have a desire to be challenged to complete a task so that they can share what they have learned with others.  Through this project, my class has formed a connection with the other class and they are looking forward to meeting with one another at the culmination of WV History Unit in the near future.  

While my classroom is still a work in progress, I have seen a change in my students this year.  They love to learning.  They are questioning, they are curious, they are engaged.  This is the type of classroom in which I feel my students will continue to thrive.  There is still great room for change and improvements, but through the changes in my own mindset (because of The Fluency Project) my students feel empowered.  

Dintersmith, T. (2018). What School Could Be. 1st ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
​

This is the latest in a series of blog posts by a partnering cohort member.
-
By: Olivia Berry
Ohio County Public Schools
 
My goal as a teacher of young students has always been twofold: infused in my teaching of academics I want to instill a belief that anything can be achieved with hard work and effort, and second, that being a person of good character will make your impact on the world much greater. A common phrase I used in my classroom was, “Everyone makes mistakes,” but it wasn’t until my first graduate class in 2016 that I learned a better way to teach my students the value of the mistakes they were making. As a way to encourage us to start off the journey of attaining a master’s degree in the right frame of mind, a Growth Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck was introduced to my class by our professor. It occurred to me that this theory was something I was attempting to put into my teaching all along, but now it had a name and multiple strategies attached with it.
 
After studying student behavior and attitude, Dweck named two opposing mindsets a person can have, fixed or growth. “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point”(Dweck, 2015). Her research, along with advances in neuroscience, proves that it is possible for connections to grow and strengthen in our brain if we believe they can. Teachers should take this information very seriously as we have the ability to motivate our students and build their confidence in the learning process. One way I have implemented these concepts in my classroom is by changing my everyday teacher language. My famous phrase “Everyone makes mistakes,” transformed into, “That’s a good mistake. Let’s learn from it.” Instead of asking, “Do you have any questions?” it’s now, “What questions do you have?” I am more thoughtful with my words in order for my students to feel comfortable with failing, as it is a big part of earning success. Other ways I cultivate growth mindset is through weekly quotes such as “Smart isn’t something you are, it’s something you become.” In addition, I remind my students of the power of yet. Explaining to children that there is a difference between not knowing, and not knowing yet can push them to keep trying.
 
Paired with growth mindset, it is my mission to mold my students into kind, honest, respectful, and responsible people. With years of content-focused, test-driven schools, paired with an increase of at-risk students due to unstable home lives and other disadvantages, the students of today lack essential social-emotional learning skills.  Growing up in a faith-centered home, I was taught the importance of character and surrounded by examples of it through my family members and friends. Some of my third grade students today are not so lucky. They don’t have the ability to get along well with others, to problem solve, and to graciously disagree. I feel that in order for productive learning to take place, these needs must also be met. For me, that meant altering my classroom behavior program to intentionally teach these skills. Though I have yet to find the perfect management system, including character traits became a strong focus for me this past year. In my research for implementation of these traits I came across the article, Character Education: Good Hearts Lead to Good Grades (Perles, 2013) that furthermore reports a correlation between character education and academic achievement. Results of a meta-analysis study are cited showing an increase in test scores by 11 to 17 percentage points in districts that utilize character instruction. Perles states, “Not only does character education give students the tools to work well in the classroom environment, it can also give them the tools they will need to understand the actual content they are learning.”
 
The benefits of embedding growth mindset and character education extend well beyond the walls of a school building and for that reason teaching these skills should be a priority for all educators. Being invited to join the Fluency Project has aligned directly with my philosophy of teaching and has provided me with even more resources to empower my students through voice, compassion, and values driven work. It has assured me that my goals are validated and provide essential narrative data that will assist in building positive relationships with students, which is where all true learning begins.
 
Resources:
Dweck, C. (2015) Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset'. Education Week. 
 
Perles, K. (2013) Character Education: Good Hearts Lead to Good Grades. Retrieved from https://www.education.com/magazine/article/character-education-classroom-improve-academic/
 
 
 
 
 

This is the latest in a series of blog posts by a partnering cohort member.
-
By: Anastasia Klemm​

When I was first approached to be involved in the Fluency Project, I was both very excited about the concept, but also anxious about the scope in how I was going to incorporate it.  I first thought about my students I would have the upcoming year.  We were just in a training on Chromebooks as the 6th grade teachers were to pilot a 1:1 innovation initiative to give every student a Chromebook for use in school. In today’s world students do not have to memorize definitions or equations as they can look them up at any time on their phones or other devices. I remember when I was in my K-12 education (which was not THAT long ago) our teachers would always tell us that we had to learn this information because there would be no way to just instantly look up information in the real world. Now, this was during the late 90’s to early 2000’s when I was a student. The internet was just becoming a thing in the world, and most people did not have it. We first were able to have internet in my house when I was about 14 years old (2005), and even then, it was very slow and required to be hooked into a phone jack in the wall. Of course, my young-self believed this to be truth then. There would be no way if I was in the real world to find a slow-moving computer plugged into a wall to research information. In just 5 years from when we first were able to have internet, the smart phone became cheaper to afford and own, and then 5 years after that, almost everyone I knew had constant internet and app access right in their pocket. 

Children we are teaching today literally do not know a world without these devices. Those who have known a life without them sometimes scoff or demean these children for relying on them so much. However, personally I believe that to be unfair. It is easy for us who have known life without these devices to conceptualize life without them, but our students today cannot. Technology is only going to expand what we can do, and not limit it, so we as teachers need to understand what our new priorities are. Instead, we need to teach our students how to use this technology for good and to further their knowledge as opposed to letting them find for themselves how dangerous it can be. When I was working for WLU as a G.A. the professors found that the incoming students knew how to use apps and social media very well, but did not know how to send an email, save a document, or navigate an informational site. That is now a necessary skill for ANY field of work, and I think that is becoming more necessary to teach than memorization of facts. 

The concept that struck me most when I first joined in the summer was the concept of giving students a choice in what they learn. That was so incredibly powerful to me, because that is sort of the way the world works today. We can choose what we WANT to learn because of the almost limitless access to information. Learning is starting to evolve into, this is what I WANT to learn to be successful, as opposed to this is what I NEED to learn to be successful.  We as teachers need to be there to teach them the necessary skills to be able to learn what it is they want to learn about, and provide them with the resources and support they need.  For instance, a student may watch an animation and wonder, how do they make that? That student could then research animation and discover that it is not just drawing pictures (art), but involves coding, storyline development (reading), geometric skills (math), and the understanding of a culture(history), and the physics of movement (science). It is taking an interest and then teaching the main subjects we still need to (and should) teach, but in a way that is meaningful and powerful to them. ​

This is the latest in a series of blog posts by a partnering cohort member.
-
By: Monica Supanik

As teachers we are often pitted against parents. When we defend our classroom practice the daily, it is easy to then criticize the parent. We’ve all seen the memes “Johnny never acts like that at home,” with an eye rolling teacher in a depiction of a parent/teacher conference. Not to mention the battle that can be brought on by homework; “it’s the teacher’s job to teacher.” and the retaliatory remark of “And it’s the parents’ job to parent but you see me doing that as well as being a counselor, nurse, pastor, mentor, coach, referee, banker, custodian, party planner, detective, comedian…” In the end, we as parents &/or teachers,  are just trying to do the best by our children. Yet we all make mistakes & we certainly “helicopter” in both roles.

Look how times have changed. 31 years ago, there was a two year old child who left a party unnoticed and walked almost a mile unclothed to a neighbor’s house. Was this a headline article? Nope and look at her now, writing this blog. Granted, our outlet of news broadcasting has changed drastically but so has our ability to publicly shame & criticize. Parents & teachers alike are afraid of being a headline. That fear has forced us to keep a closer eye & scrutinize every decision of our own.  We tend to correlate children’s mistake to our mistakes. Therefore, we shall not let our children make ANY mistakes.
Benefits of coding (Pena):

• The courage to attempt new things
• Resilience
• Build Persistence/determination
• Enhance creativity

The effects often seen when failure is internalized as unacceptable (Landon):

• Vulnerable to anxiety
• Fear change
• Reluctance to try new things “what’s the point”
• Lack resiliency, or the ability to bounce back

We can not have our code & eat it too when we believe in the benefits of one but built a culture of the other. Kindergarteners have this uncanny ability to resist fear- just kidding. It has not been beaten into them yet. This is the likely age where students begin school, sports, & friendships. In 1st grade, students begin to see spelling tests with - 4 instead of +21. They are taught that 100% is the goal and anything else is unacceptable. We are saying, you didn’t study enough instead of your efforts were so great. Do we ever give them a chance to reflect, learn from their mistakes, & then have a chance to improve their grade?

I think back to advice from college years, you learn the most about your content in the first three years of teaching. That is probably because we stumble, trip, & even plummet face first over lessons we thought were going to be wonderful but learned were prime examples of what not to do. Our failures become the foundations of our classrooms. We become confident in fine tuned units & drive full force with the notion that “ it could not fail any worse than that one time.” After a time or two we begin to think, “what if I did this instead?!” with excitement to embellish the lesson even more. Through our failures as early educators, confidence of experience, &  then curiosity of innovation, we create engaging lessons & conduct them without fear. If we, as teachers with our “old” brains, can take so much value of trial & error, think of the power this could have on the tiny sponge like brains of our youth!

Teachers teach lessons; so do failures. We can compound the impact of our classrooms if we continue to teach our lessons & then hand the reins over to our students so they may explore, wonder, try, stumble, & plummet face first into their mistakes. This should also be coupled with time for them to reflect, evaluate, & try again, just as we do each year with a new set of kids. Allowing our children to make 10 unsuccessful attempts will take some time to acclimate because it requires us to let go of control & trust that they will arrive at the appropriate answer. With each new attempt comes the development of perseverance,  confidence, & 10 new ways not to complete a task. And at this age, failures are far less traumatic and detrimental than they would be in upper grades (Landon). “Parents must stop hovering. Otherwise, they rob children of the very experiences that require problem-solving and set them on the path to resilience and the confidence to take on new challenges.”(Arky)
​
Ways to build confidence in children (childmind):

• Don’t get upset over mistakes
• Encourage them to try new things
• Allow them to fail
• Praise perseverance
• Celebrate effort
• Embrace imperfection

Resources:
Gonzalez, Jennifer “How and Why We Should Let Out Students Fail.” December, 12, 2015. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/gift-of-failure/
Landon, Dena “Why It’s Important to Let Your Kid Fail.” September 19, 2018. https://thriveglobal.com/stories/why-it-s-important-to-let-your-kid-fail/
Child Mind Institute “12 Tips to Raise a Confident Child” Retrieved February 23,2019 from https://childmind.org/article/12-tips-raising-confident-kids/
Pena, de la Emily “10 Benefits of Coding That Have Nothing to do with Coding” April 27, 2018 https://www.codingkids.com.au/blog/10-benefits-of-coding-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-coding/

This is the latest in a series of blog posts by a partnering cohort member.
-
By: Leslie Kosanovic

Creativity has been defined in a myriad of ways (irony not lost here) and that definition is typically tied to whatever is the current context. It is often defined in terms of new and useful products, but perhaps we need to consider the processes involved in defining creativity as well. Creativity involves cognitive processes that transform one’s understanding of, or relationship to, the world. As an educator, I must question if creativity is truly valued. And by “truly valued”, I mean valued enough to make it a priority. Remember that to make something a true priority takes time, typically much more than we originally plan. Do we as educators sometimes have biases against the truly creative student? Do we fear that true creativity will lead to classroom chaos? In my time as a high school science teacher, I was so blessed to have learned alongside many creative students and it was only when they became true partners in the classroom that the most wonderful lessons were achieved. In taking the time to reflect, I realize that the “truly creative” sometimes also have personalities that allow them to take more risks, be more impulsive and be more independent. Typically, this type of student in much less compliant and, dare I say, “less well-behaved.” So, I ponder, is there a disconnect between the official stance toward creativity and what actually happens in our schools? How can teachers and administrators nurture creativity in the classroom in an era of rapid technological change, when human innovation is needed more than ever, and children are more distracted and hyper-stimulated? In addition, let us not forget that there are some drawbacks to creativity, such as time. Allowing a creative solution to evolve for one problem often generates other problems. However, the catch is that in times of change, we need to bump up creativity levels in order to generate the innovative ideas that will keep our society afloat. Quite the conundrum, for sure! 

Consider that in our high-stimulation environment, our children spend so much time processing new stimuli that there is less time to “go deep” with the stimuli they have already encountered. Reflection time to process information, in a variety of ways, is vitally important to truly “owning” any new information. Liane Gabora, Associate Professor of Psychology and Creative Studies at the University of British Columbia recommends the following as ways to cultivate creativity in our classrooms: Focus less on the reproduction of information and more on critical thinking and problem solving, pose questions and challenges and follow up with opportunities for true reflection, and curate activities that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, such as painting murals depicting biological food chains or acting out historical events (After all, our world does not come carved up into different subject areas. Our culture tells us these disciplinary boundaries are real and therefore our thinking becomes trapped in them). 

Failure has also been defined in many ways as well. Most of these ways tend to sway toward the negative. The word “failure” rarely makes anyone smile, laugh, giggle and/or leap with reckless abandon. That being said, Sochiro Honda, the founder of Honda, once said, “Success is 99% failure”. Therefore, I ask you to continue to ponder. What is the relationship of failure to innovation and creativity? Why do so few organizations have a culture where the ability to fail or experiment is a valued part of innovation and creativity? What are the organizational barriers to this? After all, there are many examples where a huge failure or botched experiment has led to success. The company, 3M, reportedly sells 50 billion Post-It notes every year (I used some in the process of constructing this blog – thank you to the person that failed and accidentally created the adhesive for all those Post-Its). I would challenge that it is not the failure itself, but instead how you deal with failure that matters. Rather than abandon a failed initiative, if you can learn what went wrong and figure how to tweak it, then you will be able to improve on your idea and try again to be even more creative and more innovative. Successful businesses (and education is indeed a business) have both thinkers and doers. There is a problem when you over-think and under-do and vice versa. A truly creative culture is one where there is no gap between thinking and doing. The reality is that successful businesses (schools) must have such “experiments” championed by individual managers (students, teachers, administrators) who collectively support the culture of innovation and embrace a culture of failure as a “trade-off” for future success. A huge thank you to Bridgeport Superintendent, Mr. Zac Shutler, for being the conduit for the Literacy Collaborative and for crafting a culture where it is expected and even OK to fail on the quest to future creative innovation and systemic success. Every student, every teacher and every administrator must all be leaders of change. 

“School leaders have to empower distributive leadership across the system, or else this change either won’t happen, or it will take so long that it might as well not be happening.” Therefore, in summary, I ask that we ALL hold up a mirror for “one of those really GOOD and HONEST conversations with ourselves” and let us ponder: Are we truly willing to lead? Are we truly willing to commit the time and the energy to allow failure, so that true creative innovation is achieved in our classrooms? I know that I am seeing that commitment throughout many classrooms within the Bridgeport School District. I am hearing from many teachers that are supporting students as they discover their “voice” and “the power of choice and self- advocacy”. Truly wonderful things are occurring in our classrooms and this is being supported by numerous staff and students. I am encouraged that this is true organic, systemic change. John Gordon is quoted as saying, “One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.” As educators, we are after all ensuring the viability of our society, as we are quite literally “responsible for educating our future”. In addition, I love the quote credited to Thomas Edison saying, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. So, let’s get out there – embrace our failures – learn our lessons – reset – and “try, try again”. Oh yeah, may we all find the joy along this reflective journey! 

Resources:
“What creativity really is – and why schools need it?” - Author Liane Gabora 
www.forbes.com - “Why The Ability To Fail Leads To Innovation” - Author – Karen Higginbottom 
“How Schools Are Killing Creativity” - Author Lin Dalile, Contributor and 14-year-old student 
DA – District Administration – March 2018 - “7 Steps to Deeper Learning” - Author – Tim Goral (based on work of Grant Lichtman in his book Moving the Rock) 
The Third Door: The Wild Quest To Uncover How The World’s Most Successful People Launched Their Careers – Author Alex Banayan