Guest post by @deidre_roemer Deidre Roemer

Something I have really missed over the last year has been gatherings at the table. I love to cook and bake for family and friends. I love long lingering meals in the backyard and big family dinners. I love family-style meals with my work family in our office. I have been thinking a lot about why I miss those so much. It the sense of community that I feel in those moments. It means something that people take the time to gather, take the time to prepare food for each other, and pause whatever else is going on to sit and listen to one another. A shared meal is a community experience that brings people together in a beautiful way. I had the honor of being invited to a bake-off with a class of third graders a few weeks ago. I couldn’t stay the whole time, but I was able to be there at the start. I watched almost fifty young people in an online session that were so excited to be there. Nearly every student had their camera on and enthusiastically asked questions, mostly all at once as third graders do when they are excited.  

Two classes started doing bake-offs together during emergency remote teaching to continue to build community no matter what the circumstances. They have continued doing shared activities around food or other common interests that are amazing. As we moved to a hybrid model, one of the teachers wanted to continue that work, so she asked if she could get bread machines for their classroom. She wrote this wonderful blog post about the experience of baking together as a community with a focus on the skills the learners are gaining through the process.  

What stuck out to me the most was how it all started. Last spring, I was watching our families post things online about how they were teaching their young children to cook, doing home repair projects, building and making things, and participating in the #epictomatochallenge with the extra time at home. We wanted to find a way to take everything our teachers, learners, and families were doing from home and tie it to their school experience. Our teachers found new passions and spent time doing the things they were already passionate about. Our learners were developing new interests or perfecting things that they were already passionate about. We wanted to find a way to live our strategic plan, empower our learners to share their interests with us, and engage some learners who were starting to disconnect.  

We have been working for the last several years on embedding the Deeper Learning competencies into every single classroom as our way to prepare our learners to live life on their own terms after graduation. The competencies focus on the skills needed for life success- content mastery, communication, problem-solving, collaboration, self-direction, and most importantly, having an academic mindset, which means feeling such a strong sense of belonging that you want to push yourself to try new things and work hard to achieve your goals. We always look for ways to move that work forward and have seen pockets of unbelievable success over the last few years. Watching the way our community united around the tomato challenge and watching what was happening at home on social media prompted us to move to a four-year-old kindergarten through twelfth-grade passion project. 

It was amazing to see the increase in school attendance, the incredible things our learners and families worked on together, and the shared experience across an entire community. We had learners gardening, making movies, participating in online challenges, doing home repair projects, cooking, learning about broadcasting, and many, many more. While our learners were investing their own interests, they were also learning to start with an idea, get feedback from the teachers and other experts, ask probing questions, iterate again and again, write lengthy reflections, use new technology tools to share their knowledge, and produce artifacts about what they had learned that they were very proud to share with an authentic audience. It is that learning experience, tied to academic standards, that we want them to have every day. Watching the momentum of that project carry over into this school year has been inspiring.  

Our staff started sending me copies of their own passion projects last spring. They were doing some new things and some things that they have always loved. Watching adults articulate their learning process with reflections while they learned how to use new technology tools to share what they had learned was fantastic. It became a shared process for learners and staff. It pushed all staff, including teachers, educational assistants, school leaders, and our facilities staff, to share parts of themselves with our learners and invite our learners to do the same. We are always looking for access points to move our Deeper Learning work forward. This became an amazing window for staff and learners to see the power of authentic, learner-driven work.  

I received a lot of feedback on the projects and the whole process and still do almost a year later. Some of the families’ feedback was that their learner needed a more structured learning method, and therefore this was not working for them. Some shared that they were worried about the level of rigor involved. Some were concerned that our teachers had not had enough training in project-based learning to ensure standards were embedded. Many families and learners thanked us for taking a step that helped their child feel empowered. One parent shared that she started the project concerned about rigor and ended up watching her child learn many new skills, build his confidence, stretch himself to do more and more, and connect to his father through common interests. She saw the academic success he experienced in many different ways by the time his first project was done.  He went on to do several more throughout the summer and fall. That learner started something at school that inspired him to connect and go deeper- so powerful.   

Staff also shared some equally thought-provoking reflections. Many of them started the process being frustrated that they were asked to make a shift during such an uncertain time but ended up inspired by what our learners could do. They started to talk about how the strategies they would use to empower our students identified as gifted and talented were the same ones they should be using with our learners identified as having special education needs. One teacher wanted to learn about digital storytelling to engage and deepen the learning for “advanced” students and discovered that she would use the same method to create innovative ways to engage reluctant readers. Another teacher shared she felt overwhelmed at the start of the project but watched her learners come alive as it moved along. She shared that one learner wanted to learn about broadcasting. This led to a new connection with the band teacher, who also knows a lot about sound engineering. He worked collaboratively with the learner and teacher to share what he knows and connected the learner to a local expert who does a professional podcast for the GreenBay Packers for an online meeting to learn more. This kind of cross-curricular, authentic learning was happening for thousands of learners across our community.  

One of our leaders, who was new to us last year, had such inspiring reflection as he was reviewing the learners’ projects and writing about them for his own blog. He chose to review the projects from one of our Advanced Placement courses.  He shared:

“That is when I had my a-ha moment. It didn’t matter what student I picked. I didn’t have to think hard and critically about what students would or wouldn’t look good on the blog. They all had a helpful, reflective, communicative project that they did with fidelity. You couldn’t tell a “5” student on their exam to “1”, or an “A” student to a “B”.

This is what the vision should be not for 70 students, but 1000. This is what Central should strive for. I should be able to go into any classroom, any period, and I wouldn’t notice SPED, remedial, or different opportunities. All students would have access and output that would be equitable. It was a powerful feeling for myself.”

All feedback is important as it informs our practice.  Our goal is never to make sure every learner has the same experience. It is that we find a way for the right learning experience for each learner at every moment we can. As we create more access points for our learners to become empowered, we will find the right ones for each learner over time.  It will always mean balancing structured activities, lectures, and a more traditional approach to teaching combined with multiple ways to investigate, explore, try, fail, and try again with opportunities to share what they know and get feedback.  Finding the right balance, being patient with the time it may take, and ensuring the learners have the skills needed to create their own pathway with our support is what creates an empowered learner experience.    

The number of staff members who sent us videos, reflections, and samples of learner projects was impressive. They were so proud of their learning communities that they sent emails, posted things on social media, and have used what they had learned in planning instruction for the future. That community of bakers grew out of some of the moments we shared as a community last spring that they will remember for a lifetime. The power in that is immeasurable. 

**Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here.

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If you haven’t heard about Spaces EDU, now is definitely the time to check it out. Besides offering a lot for educators and students when it comes to creating digital portfolios and building the essential skills to be prepared for now and in the future, they’re offering a lot more for educators this month!

Check out the 21 Educators, 21 interviews and the 21 days of giveaways to teachers. The #21for21 is a podcast series in which each teacher shares their experiences, what has worked for them in the classroom and what they believe we need to provide for our students in order to be successful in our 21st century world. Make sure you subscribe to the 21for21 newsletter to be entered into the giveaways, and check out each of the 21 videos available.

Each educator offers some helpful tips about preparing students for a skills-based world through real-world experiences, promoting communication and collaboration skills, and more. Take some time to listen to each idea and borrow it for your classroom!

Listen to each and click “Tweet to vote” for your favorite “Borrow and Share idea. Check out the great prizes still to be given away. The top five educators with the most votes will win cash prizes for their classrooms. 

Preparing for the Future with Spaces

It is important that educators find ways to  better understand students and their interests in learning. Having the right tools or methods in place, can help with not only supporting students on their learning journey, it helps with building those vital teacher-student relationships. A key part of this is that it helps to focus on the social-emotional learning (SEL) skills as students build their self-awareness and also self-management skills, when they look at the work that they’ve done and set new goals for their continued learning journey.

portfolios enable us to be able to give authentic, meaningful feedback to students and develop a better understanding of each student’s strengths and needs. These “spaces” also help to build relationships as we get to know our students and their learning needs and strengths more. 

Spaces provides a great choice for creating digital portfolios and more. Through digital portfolios, students can choose and compile artifacts of the work that they have done throughout the year or during a PBL experience. By including samples of projects or even reflections on career explorations or participation in community activities that they engaged in during their high school career, educators and future employers will be able to see student growth over time. Portfolios are a great way for students to show their learning journey. Creating portfolios in a digital space gives students the opportunity to self-assess, track their growth over time as they build their narrative. With the use of digital portfolios, we help students focus on their own learning journey as they develop these other essential skills. 

Students can record their daily work, reflect on their learning experiences and express their thoughts, which is a beneficial way to promote the continued development of SEL skills. Teachers can assess students and provide real-time feedback. It also helps students to share their work publicly and build confidence in learning.  Get started with Spaces today!

**Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here.

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Guest post by Lis Bluford, @LisBluford @EdLightPBC

To accelerate learning, we need to focus on student work output daily.

Students show us their learning every day. It’s our job to give them time to show us their understanding and listen.

Authentic student work should be at the center of learning.

As part of my role at EdLight, I’m constantly observing remote classrooms of all ages. One of my greatest takeaways is how few classrooms prioritize independent work time.

I recently observed a 60-minute lesson where the teacher skillfully modeled a procedure and engaged 100% of students in a guided practice. While this was impressive, I kept waiting for students to have a chance to apply the learning themselves through independent work or an exit ticket time. It never came.

Unfortunately this has become a trend with remote / hybrid learning. Perhaps it’s the camera that makes us want to perform, but for whatever reason, teachers are reluctant to have students working independently + quietly.

Supported independent work time is the number one thing you can do to increase learning, whether you are in person or remote.

When I was teaching in person, administrators were confused by the sheer volume of work completion in my classroom. I reserved at least half of class time or more for supported independent work. And it worked — my students performed at the top of our network of schools.

Silently watching students working may feel uncomfortable, but time spent trying hard on challenging tasks is never wasted. Here is why that matters, even in remote learning:

Benefits for Students

Independent work is important in building stamina. As students grow older, they are required to sit and work alone for longer periods of time. As a teacher, I have to facilitate this ability to focus for a sustained block or on a single project.

This is one of the best ways to support students of various learning styles and personalities. For students who are quieter and more reserved in group discussions, this might be the only time you get to understand if they really “get it.” You can’t hide behind independent work.

With the increase in formative remote learning tools (selecting a multiple choice answer, drawing on a trackpad) students have minimal opportunity to interact with content with pencil and paper. Handwritten work facilitates deep thinking in a new way, gives students a welcome break from technology, and guides younger students to develop the occupational skill of handwriting.

Extended work time allows students to show mastery of content of a single standard in a variety of ways. You can give multiple versions of one math problem, ask a question various ways in reading, etc. The more independent work, the more students can show their understanding of a concept.

Benefits for Teachers

The more work students are submitting, the easier it is for teachers to find the misconceptions. Teachers can check for understanding by looking at student work before class is over and figure out the gaps in learning in order to address them.

Giving feedback to students on their work will allow teachers also see higher engagement, which can help build relationships.

But what does “supported independent work” mean?

Teachers must find a way to give feedback to students in the moment when they complete their independent work. Whether this is on a Google Doc, in an online learning portal, or on paper — so long as you are acknowledging work!

Another great way to support independent work is to close out the lesson by showing an example of work a student completed that day. It can be work that students fix together or an example of mastery. Either way, this can build a culture of teamwork and pride over work completion.

If you’re looking to push student understanding in your classroom – sit in the silence, break out the pencil and paper, and let kids work. For more than just a 5 minute exit ticket at the end of class. I guarantee both you and your students will grow from it.

About the author: Lis Bluford has taught in high-performing charter schools for ten years, demonstrating exceptional student results. Most recently, her fifth-grade students earned the #1 student growth in the state of Massachusetts. She is currently the Master Educator at EdLight, where she tutors students virtually while prioritizing targeted feedback.

**Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here.

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DeidreroemerUncategorized  April 10, 2021 6 Minutes

Guest post by @deidre_roemer DeidreroemerUncategorized  April 10, 2021 6 Minutes

One of the many things I have really missed in the last year is my time in schools talking to our learners. I typically spend about sixty percent of my time in classrooms with teachers and students in a “normal” year. I have missed that chance to hear about their learning and see the learner experience through their eyes. While we were still virtual, I was able to join some online classes, but it wasn’t quite the same as the connections I could make face-to-face. Now that we have been back in our physical schools for a few months, I am cautious not to go into too many classrooms in person each week as that would be tough to contact trace. I am affectionately known as “that lady” in many of our schools. I hear kids say things like, “That lady is back. Get ready; she’s going to ask you a lot of questions.” They all learn my name while I am there and then usually forget it between visits. I miss being “that lady”!

I was lucky enough to get the chance to be the substitute for one of our amazing teachers recently. It was a learning community of eighteen five and six-year-olds who were having their first day of in-person learning on the day I was there. It was the first time all year they had been together as an entire class. It was such an honor to get to welcome them and attempt to follow the beautifully written lesson plans from the teacher. As we did an opening community circle and moved in to do some opinion writing, a sense of incredible pride overwhelmed me. Although these learners had been virtual for most of the year and then hybrid for a few weeks, they had such a strong sense of community. Two students were new to the class that day, and the others were anxious to welcome them and show them the ropes. With a stranger in the room, they were comfortable sharing what they know and talking through challenges. They were excited to show what they had learned and made sure they included everyone. I watched what an empowered five or six-year-old could do and was blown away. They had a sense of belonging and a desire to work through anything. They were vocal when they got stuck and exactly what help they needed to be successful.

I sent this to the teacher at the end of the day:

Thank you for allowing me to be a guest in your beautiful learning community today. You have obviously done some amazing work to create a space where your learners feel confident and included.  

They ranked themselves, and 10 gave the class a thumbs up on the day, 6 gave themselves a thumbs medium, and 2 were at speech when we took the poll. We collected some evidence of why we really should get a thumbs-up:

• We welcomed new friends kindly into our learning community.
• We did a great job on our reading.
• We did a great job on our opinion writing.
• We listened right away when we needed to come in from recess.
• We were flexible in our thinking as so much was new today.

I was so impressed with their ability to advocate for themselves, support each other when things got tough, and be reflective in their work. They were joyful and curious all day long and yet not afraid to challenge things at the same time. I also asked them for feedback throughout the day on how I was doing. They fired me twice in the morning but then hired me back to be the substitute again at the end of the day. 

A few weeks ago, I also had the opportunity to host an open meeting with some of our high school students. I asked them about what was going well for them this year and what else they need from school. They were as articulate and honest as the five and six-year-olds. We talked openly about how they felt about virtual and hybrid learning, where this year was challenging in and out of school, and how they felt about our curriculum. Many of them were happy to be back in school and some were anxious to know if we would have a virtual option next year because that has worked better for them. They had many positive things to say about their teachers and their opportunities in our schools.  

They also gave me some things to work on. They asked that we incorporate more Mindfulness lessons throughout the day. They do Mindfulness activities in their homerooms, but not often enough to be really useful. They asked for classes in mental wellness to find balance and better understand mental health issues. A few of the learners in the meeting are on our Hope Squad at their school and shared how powerful it is to really understand mental health needs as well as how to look out for their peers.  

I asked if they felt prepared for life after high school and, for the most part, they felt confident except in the area of financial literacy. One of our graduation requirements is to take a financial literacy course, but they didn’t feel like the course goes far enough. We will be asking students to join us in curriculum writing for the course going forward as they know exactly what they need. Many of them talked about project-based learning experiences that empower them to find their voices in school and learn what they want to do after high school.  

There were about forty students in the online meeting from our three high schools who were participating in a variety of opportunities at school. Almost every student spoke up and shared something. The confidence I could hear in their responses was impressive especially given that it was a very mixed group of students with different interests, aptitudes, and school experiences. No matter where they were coming from and how successful they were by traditional measures, they were all able to speak up for real and honest things that they need from school. I will be hosting a few more before the end of the school year and will continue it next year. Hearing truly empowered learners advocate for themselves and recognize success was incredible. 

Each year, we go to our community to share what has been happening in our schools with our finances, learning, and upcoming developments in our district. Last year, I invited groups of learners to attend the sessions to speak about our work. If we are working to empower them, then they should be the ones sharing their own progress. This year, the meetings were virtual, so it was even easier to facilitate learners’ attendance to discuss their learner experience. In one presentation, a ten-year-old asked to share his screen to show the community a video game he created in math class to demonstrate his knowledge. Teachers shared videos of learners creating and making things who could articulate the standards they had mastered or the content knowledge they had gained through what they built. We saw art projects that demonstrated knowledge of literature and learners talking about using new technology tools to create podcasts to create a dystopian universe. All of the examples demonstrated rigorous learning tied to the interest of our learners. It was so powerful! 

We didn’t tell the teachers which students to choose, just that we wanted a group from elementary, intermediate, and high school at each of the three meetings. Our staff choose a wonderfully diverse group of learners. We had learners with special needs, some choosing virtual learning, learners in our advanced placement classes, and learners who have needed additional support in school. It was so incredible that no matter which student I asked, they could all share how they feel inspired and supported at school. They talked about what Deeper Learning means to them and how their learning is about trying, getting feedback, and iterating until they get an artifact that shows what they know. They were confident and articulate and so excited to present to an audience. You could hear the pride they felt in their work and themselves.  

Our empowered learners are also starting to challenge us more, which I love! They send emails to our Superintendent and me advocating for what they want to see in our schools. They come to our school board meeting and speak in open comment about how they think we should do something. Watching them feel the confidence to speak up, ask for what they need, and challenge ideas they disagree with is inspiring. We aren’t always able to grant what they are asking for when they ask for it, but they are helping us shape how we allocate some resources and write curriculum in new ways.  

I love the quote from AJ Juliani, “Our job is not to prepare students for something. Our job is to help students prepare themselves for anything.” Our learners, at all ages and learning formats, are starting to demonstrate that they are ready for anything, and that we’ve helped prepare them to do it all with confidence and grace. 

**Interested in writing a guest blog for my site? Would love to share your ideas! Submit your post here.

Looking for a new book to read? Many stories from educators, two student chapters, and a student-designed cover for In Other Words.

Find these available at bit.ly/Pothbooks