Culture vs. Control

by Mike Kaechele

This week I had the chance to visit Columbus Signature Academy in Indiana. It is part of the New Tech Network of schools which are problem based learning high schools. The first thing I noticed was the open spaces and architecture (I blogged about that here). It was designed for students to use the "hallways" as gathering/learning spaces.

CSA "common space"

The second and more lasting thing I noticed was the students. They were in hallways and classrooms. They were on laptops, listening to headphones, working independently, working in groups, and working on projects. Everyone seemed engrossed in whatever tasks they were involved in. Not everyone was doing the same thing. It was not quiet, but it also was not loud either. The one group of people I had a hard time locating were the teachers.

I got to spend two days at the school and talked to many of the students. We had official student guides and student panels, but my favorite part was just talking to random students in the building. Every student I talked to confidently explained to me what they were working on and honestly answered any questions. These students have "tours" of their school all of the time and are comfortable with public speaking.

I got the same message from all of them. They enjoyed being in the school and were genuinely proud of it. The school was only three years old and the junior class had helped start it. They helped create the handbook and the expectations for each space in the school. The school has no bells or hall passes. Students are treated as professionals and not micro-managed. The students had a true sense of ownership of their school.

The students talked about the importance of having a voice, working in groups, and how they preferred PBL to traditional learning. It is important to note that these were not "special" students in any way. They were chosen by lottery and represent the demographics of their district. But you can tell that every student feels special because they are part of a school that they care about. They are invested in their school and in their own learning.


I know this school works hard to establish and grow this culture among students. It all starts by assuming students are responsible and expecting them to act that way. Instead of trying to control students, they empower students to take responsibility. Then they give students choices in meaningful projects that are shared with experts in the community. Students hold themselves accountable to do quality work to represent themselves and their school.

Yes, this school is 1-1 with laptops, but what really makes it stand out is the learning climate of trust and responsibility. Are students working and on-task every second? Of course not, and neither am I.

Do you trust your students enough to let them learn by exploring interesting problems together? Or are you too busy trying to control them to make sure they get the appropriate standardized learning experience?

On Trust Pt. 2

I've written about trust before. But it's a big topic, so I think I'll have another go at it. Let me start with an explanation of an honor system we use in my room.

It revolves around change.

Real change. Of the nickels, dimes, and quarters variety.

See, I'm the kind of guy who's always got a pocket full of coins. But I'm also lazy. So rather than roll up the coins and take 'em to the bank, I just let them build up in a big pile on my desk.

Enter the students.

The students in my audio production class know about the change pile. They also know that they are welcome to take change if they need it. And they know that they are welcome to leave their own change in the pile.

Started out with $2.29 in coins.

As of my count this morning, there's about $8.50 in the pile.

It's not always that much. Some days there's hardly anything there. The most I've seen was about ten bucks, mostly in quarters and nickels.

I think about this pile of change often. In fact, I see it as a sort of metaphor for the way I run the classroom. Because I know that, as the teacher, I am only the first pocket-full of change -- lint and all.

The students take over from there.

Sometimes they take too much, but more often they give back in proportion greater to my initial investment.

So it goes with social tech as well.

If you ban social tech, you'll never have to worry about losing your initial investment. But you'll never see it grow either.

There have certainly been days when the students took advantage of the pile of change; and there are certainly days that they took advantage of access to social media in ill-advised ways. But for each of those occasions, there have been so many more in which they've used social tech in ways that have increased that pile of coins and substantially increased the value of our investment.

Not bad for a bunch of kids.

I encourage you to try out the change experiment. It may surprise you to see just how much growth you earn with a little trust. All you need is the patience and the wit to resolve that even those bad days are part of the greater goal.

From the Archives: Trust

Originally posted March 22, 2009


Do you trust your students?

A lot of the debate around the manageability of a paperless classroom has to do with trust. Of course there are going to be times when students are caught off-track doing something they aren't supposed to be doing. They are kids, after all. And they've gotten into trouble like this long before the advent of 1:1 computing. But what do you do now that instead of a student sneaking in a comic book to history class, the student's laptop is connected to thousands of comic books all accessible in class?

Many teachers would say: take the comic book away. But, in the case of 1:1 computing, that amounts to taking away the Internet. At which point you have to ask yourself, "What's the point of 1:1 computing?"

The laptop is not a glorified word processor. It's a connection tool. It connects students to the Web in real time. That connection is the point of the whole thing.

None of this 'paperless' mumbo jumbo would mean a darned thing if it were just a matter of saving some paper and being able to use a couple cool software programs in class.

Rather, 'paperless' is really synonymous with 'connected'. And that's what our students are facing: the challenge of being connected. It is a physical fact in the sense that they have instant access to mass amounts of information. It is also an ethical fact in the sense that what they do online and who they interact with can have either greatly beneficial or greatly harmful outcomes.

So in a very real way, the manner with which we address issues of trust in the classroom with regard to the use of the Internet will have a definite effect on the way in which our students are both physically and ethically acclimated to the Digital Age.

So are you ready to take away those comic books?

What kind of message do you think it will send to students to deny them access to information in the name of educational discipline? By the time they are high school seniors, most have read either Orwell or Huxley or Heller. Do you think they can't make the connection? Can you?

***

Do your students trust you?

Teachers often tend to think of classroom management and discipline in terms of student behavior.

But what about teacher behavior?

If you stand in front of a class and whine and complain about technology, do you think this might effect your ability to manage the class while using technology?

Do you not realize that students can tell whether the use of technology is seamless and natural for you or whether you are struggling. Recently, a student told me of a teacher in class beating on a keyboard to try to get a program to open. Guess what, said teacher: when it comes to technology and your ability to maintain a professional attitude about its use in and among your classes, you've goofed. Your students don't believe a thing you say about tech. They've tuned you out.

They don't trust you.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. This whole education thing: it's not about making teachers feel comfortable. It's about educating students. And the students of today are not standing at the same point on the great timeline of history as the students of even ten years ago. Yes they need to learn the great themes of literature, the arts, science, history, and civilization. But, they need to learn those things in a manner that is applicable to the way that the world of today really is, not the way any of us wished it were.

Our current high school seniors are entering into the fiercest college acceptance and job market we have ever known. The U.S. is not even ranked in the top 10 worldwide for math and science. We've spent the last eight years cutting the arts AND technology. And we still in good faith give our students bubble tests and ask them to answer questions from twenty-year-old textbooks. We put ton after ton of taxpayer dollars into new forms of standardized tests and yet we can't commit as a culture to taking an active and immediate role in ending the digital divide.

From an economic perspective, there is no reason every student in this country does not have a laptop and free Internet access.

We complain and we test and test and test. And we pat ourselves on the back that most second graders in certain schools can read at a second grade level. Congratulate?!?

The fact of the matter is, from the viewpoint of many of our students, the role of schools and teachers is to 'educate' them by keeping them in line and on track. Meanwhile, the world has already stepped out of line and it's given up the tracks in favor of flight.

It's a wonder that any of them DO trust us.

Trust

Do you trust your students?

A lot of the debate around the manageability of a paperless classroom has to do with trust. Of course there are going to be times when students are caught off-track doing something they aren't supposed to be doing. They are kids, after all. And they've gotten into trouble like this long before the advent of 1:1 computing. But what do you do now that instead of a student sneaking in a comic book to history class, the student's laptop is connected to thousands of comic books all accessible in class?

Many teachers would say: take the comic book away. But, in the case of 1:1 computing, that amounts to taking away the Internet. At which point you have to ask yourself, "What's the point of 1:1 computing?"

The laptop is not a glorified word processor. It's a connection tool. It connects students to the Web in real time. That connection is the point of the whole thing.

None of this 'paperless' mumbo jumbo would mean a darned thing if it were just a matter of saving some paper and being able to use a couple cool software programs in class.

Rather, 'paperless' is really synonymous with 'connected'. And that's what our students are facing: the challenge of being connected. It is a physical fact in the sense that they have instant access to mass amounts of information. It is also an ethical fact in the sense that what they do online and who they interact with can have either greatly beneficial or greatly harmful outcomes.

So in a very real way, the manner with which we address issues of trust in the classroom with regard to the use of the Internet will have a definite effect on the way in which our students are both physically and ethically acclimated to the Digital Age.

So are you ready to take away those comic books?

What kind of message do you think it will send to students to deny them access to information in the name of educational discipline? By the time they are high school seniors, most have read either Orwell or Huxley or Heller. Do you think they can't make the connection? Can you?

***

Do your students trust you?

Teachers often tend to think of classroom management and discipline in terms of student behavior.

But what about teacher behavior?

If you stand in front of a class and whine and complain about technology, do you think this might effect your ability to manage the class while using technology?

Do you not realize that students can tell whether the use of technology is seamless and natural for you or whether you are struggling. Recently, a student told me of a teacher in class beating on a keyboard to try to get a program to open. Guess what, said teacher: when it comes to technology and your ability to maintain a professional attitude about its use in and among your classes, you've goofed. Your students don't believe a thing you say about tech. They've tuned you out.

They don't trust you.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. This whole education thing: it's not about making teachers feel comfortable. It's about educating students. And the students of today are not standing at the same point on the great timeline of history as the students of even ten years ago. Yes they need to learn the great themes of literature, the arts, science, history, and civilization. But, they need to learn those things in a manner that is applicable to the way that the world of today really is, not the way any of us wished it were.

Our current high school seniors are entering into the fiercest college acceptance and job market we have ever known. The U.S. is not even ranked in the top 10 worldwide for math and science. We've spent the last eight years cutting the arts AND technology. And we still in good faith give our students bubble tests and ask them to answer questions from twenty-year-old textbooks. We put ton after ton of taxpayer dollars into new forms of standardized tests and yet we can't commit as a culture to taking an active and immediate role in ending the digital divide.

From an economic perspective, there is no reason every student in this country does not have a laptop and free Internet access.

We complain and we test and test and test. And we pat ourselves on the back that most second graders in certain schools can read at a second grade level. Congratulate?!?

The fact of the matter is, from the viewpoint of many of our students, the role of schools and teachers is to 'educate' them by keeping them in line and on track. Meanwhile, the world has already stepped out of line and it's given up the tracks in favor of flight.

It's a wonder that any of them DO trust us.