Does anyone else feel like they’ve got two different voices in their head competing with each other? Ok, so now that you think I’m completely crazy, hopefully you’ll read on so this question makes more sense.
I find myself flip-flopping between favouring one voice one day, and the other voice the next day. For the purposes of this story I will call these voices “Old School Guy” and “New School Guy”, and their back and forth goes something like this…
New School Guy – “Come on, Old School Guy, teaching math needs to move into the 21st Century. You need to be doing Problem-Based Learning, flipping your classroom, and using tools like EdPuzzle, Quizlet, Khan Academy, … (he continues on like this for about 3 minutes) … YouCubed, Kahoot, and Quizizz in order for your students to learn better and get more out of their high school math experience.”
Old School Guy – “Well, have you ever considered that the reason we’ve taught math this way for this long is that it works for most students? Ever heard the old saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’?”
New School Guy – “HA! You just said it works for ‘most students’ which means it’s NOT working for a considerable number of students! Is it possible that the system isn’t ‘broken’ per say, but may have several cracks in it that need our attention? What if you just tried ONE of these new approaches to learning in ONE of your classes? Ever heard the old saying ‘don’t bite off more than you can chew’?”
Old School Guy – “Ha ha ha… Have you ever considered that introducing these new approaches could make things worse?”
New School Guy – “There’s a lot of research that says it won’t, but I grant you, I guess it could. But is that a reason to not try it at all?”
Old School Guy – “Ok, ok. What about time? If I try your new fancy tactics it’s going to take me a lot longer to get through certain topics, compared to previous years. Now when June rolls around, I’ve run out time and I’m passing my students on to the next grade level missing core knowledge needed for success at that level.”
New School Guy – “But isn’t it better for students to learn some concepts REALLY well and make a personal connection with them, which improves retention in future years?”
Old School Guy – “We all want good retention, but you still haven’t answered my question. How do you plan on filling in the gaps caused by us spending more time on certain topics?”
New School Guy – “Wanna know a secret? If you set it up properly, using PBL and/or various classroom tools will take the same amount of time as if you taught a concept the way you always have! If you structure the time properly, the unit that used to take three weeks to cover will still take three weeks, you just have to be willing to give up some of those favourite lectures of yours and instead be a guide for your students while they figure out some of this stuff on their own.”
Old School Guy – (opens his mouth to speak)
New School Guy – “Ah ah ah, I already know your next question – ‘how does assessment work if I’m teaching this way’?”
Old School Guy – “Cheater… Stop reading Mike’s thoughts. You know you’re supposed to stay in the right hemisphere of his brain and I stay in the left. No crossies, remember?… Ok smart guy, how does assessment work if I’m teaching this way?”
New School Guy – “Simple… you are the teacher, you decide! Obviously you will be observing their progress each day, but you can have paper-pencil assessments on certain days in order to ‘check-in’ on their knowledge level. You could do daily exit quizzes, have them fill out reflective journals… you can use any number of techniques.”
Old School Guy – “Alright, alright. You are very convincing. I think I’m going to give this a try. Now, where’s my time to research and develop a project like this? Or try all these new educational tools for myself? You can’t expect me to teach a full course load, coach a team, be a good husband and father, AND develop something like this from scratch. ARE YOU NUTS?! Where’s my time to do this?”
New School Guy – “Well you can always create it during the summer! :)”
Old School Guy – (Gives the deepest of death stares)
New School Guy – “Ok, seriously. If you’re looking to try PBL, you don’t need to start from scratch. There are so many resources available on the internet. There are lots of projects that many teachers are currently using, and you can use these as a starting point and modify them to fit your specific needs. As for the ed tools, you will have to spend some time familiarizing yourself with these to see which ones work best for your practice, but once you do this, your students are going to be much more engaged. Remember what I said earlier about not biting off more than you can chew? Maybe just try one tool in one class and see where it goes.”
Old School Guy – “Ok, so Google finds hundreds of PBL resources for me with a single search. When do I have the time to go through all of them to find what works best for me?”
(At this point, I feel like Derek (@ddoucet) would somehow jump into this conversation and say something like “You don’t need to search through hundreds of resources, just start a Twitter Chat and ask the other Cohort 21ers for help!”… Alright, back to the convo…)
New School Guy – “I’m sorry. I don’t have an answer for you. Time is the unsolved mystery in education. Yes, going through a new process is going to take time, but if you’re going to give this a try, don’t give it a half try. Don’t just dip your toe in the water because when your new attempt fails, the fault will have been yours. You need to give this a full try. Dive in head first, get messy, get uncomfortable, and if it fails after that, then go back to your old ways, but I’m telling you, it’s NOT going to fail. You’re going to see that the time you put in beforehand is going to pay off in ways you can’t imagine! And you’re going to be better for it and, most importantly, your students are going to be better because of it.”
Old School Guy – “Ok, but what about…”
And on and on this goes. Is anyone else out there having a similar internal struggle? I feel like the right approach lies somewhere in the grey area between these two guys’ philosophies, but where exactly? That’s a lot of grey.
(picture courtesy of comicvine.com)
Unbelieve post, Michael. Congratulations on this insightful, most enjoyable reflection. I think you make a lot of excellent points (both between your own brain hemispheres and channeling Derek’s). I think you help accelerate a discussion that has occurred in most teachers’ head at one point or another – this post would make a great text to spark an activity at the opening of a PLC meeting on a related topic.
Thanks also for YouCubed. Obvious to you, amazing to others!
@mmoore This is a wonderful first post that truly condenses the internal voices and stresses we as teachers all hear into a dialogue on how to proceed with changing your practice. I don’t have any sage advice to give except to say that it sounds like you already know what you have to do, or at least try, to achieve a measure of success in the classroom.
The golden rule with instruction, I believe, has to involve both “engagement” and “achievement”. If the students are engaged but not learning, who cares. If they are achieving but not enjoying the process, who cares. These are your baselines and measuring sticks for success. The invisible 3rd ingredient here is YOU. Only YOU know what YOU are comfortable applying. Teaching is still very much a personality-rich medium and the kids will certainly see through someone who is trying to be hip and cool with technology. Even this, though, can be adjusted. In my own career, I’ve already shifted from the young “best-friend” type teacher to the “knowing-parental” type. I look forward to my next iteration as the “bumbling professor” where I can truly take the butt of all jokes when I openly admit I don’t know what I’m doing.
Transparency is certainly key to this transformation. Get the students to show you how to use the technology. Better yet, allow your most distracted (future leader!) students to demonstrate the diagnostic games to the class. Have smaller groups researching the best ways to present traditional math knowledge and make it a challenge or competition. The more pressure you can take off yourself and use to empower the students, the more the “old school guy” and the “new school guy” will become the “revitalized guy”!
Thanks very much, Eric! I love the idea of having the students explore the tools for me and getting their honest feedback.
Also, I’m also looking forward to being the “bumbling professor” one day 🙂
Great Blog Michael! I feel like this is the conversation in my head every day! And I feel overwhelmed some days. We have worked hard to develop strong Gr 9 math course at my school, but still struggle with varying levels and background knowledge. I find after every class we question what we are doing and how we are doing it! But upon reflection that is positive, as we don’t want to sit by and do what we have done before. Always looking for ways to improve ourselves!
‘Have smaller groups researching the best ways to present traditional math knowledge and make it a challenge or competition.’ Great Statement @edaigle
Fabulous post Mr. Moore!!! Entertaining, relatable and “time”ly!!!! I look forward to hearing about your progress.
Wow! Brilliant discussion.
Being an ‘old school kinda gal’, I have to say new school guy makes a lot of sense.
Congrats! First blog post is awesome.
Michael, I love this conversation! So much so, that I’m going to try and answer the Old School Guy myself. I’m going to insert myself into the conversation if you don’t mind:
Old School Guy – “Ha ha ha… Have you ever considered that introducing these new approaches could make things worse?”
GN – How would you measure worse? What are the data points you’d use? Report Cards? Daily mark aggregates, level of engagement, observations, conversations, products, willingness to take risks, number of deep questions being asked, etc… Be afraid of changes because things may get worse is not the attitude, disposition, nor mindset we want for our students, so why do we think it is okay for our educators?
Old School Guy – “We all want good retention, but you still haven’t answered my question. How do you plan on filling in the gaps caused by us spending more time on certain topics?”
GN – just the terminology of “Filling the Gaps” sends shivers up my spine. If we’re looking at the OSSD we choose which specific expectations can help us get to the overall expectations. The list of expectations is not a grocery list to make the perfect historian, mathematician, scientist, etc… Teach them to be a historian – not just the history! Teach them to be a Scientist, not just the science, and in this way, they will fill the gaps themselves. Maybe not now, but in the future. The OSSD is not the recipe for the perfect academic – life is a learning journey not a destination… And if you think it is the pathway to the Post-Secondary, think again!
Old School Guy – “Alright, alright. You are very convincing. I think I’m going to give this a try. Now, where’s my time to research and develop a project like this? Or try all these new educational tools for myself? You can’t expect me to teach a full course load, coach a team, be a good husband and father, AND develop something like this from scratch. ARE YOU NUTS?! Where’s my time to do this?”
GN – I recommend starting small, and with others. If you co-teach, or if you don’t, try shifting to the New School with one assessment, or a unit, or a lesson. Then get feedback: what worked, what didn’t? Refine that assessment/unit/lesson and try again. In this way you will be gaining the skills that will help your process be more efficient for future shifts (wait… that sounds like learning!)
I hope this helps,
garth.
I love the feedback, thanks Garth! If I had to summarize this post in one word it would be “wise”.
“wait… that sounds like learning!”… I guess this is why we’ve chosen to go to school everyday. For me, learning new things is such an energy boost, one which, I hope, rubs off on my students.
Question for others – How does learning new teaching techniques/tools/ideas make you feel, and how does this help your students?
Your blog reminds me of Leonard Cohen’s words, Mike:
There is a crack
in everything
that’s how the light
gets in!
Michael,
Thanks for this thought provoking post! I spend almost all of my time helping teachers to become “new school” teachers, and these are the questions that come up time and time again (now I’m just going to point them to your blog post for reference). Not surprisingly, these questions come up most often with Math teachers. I wonder why that is? Is it because Math skills build each year, and if a student has a “gap” then they will not be successful the next year, so there is a lot of pressure on Math teachers to ensure that students know it “all”? In one of your next posts, you reflect on how students often have “gaps” anyways (hence your awesome diagnostic).
I guess this leads me to the question for “old school guy”: What’s the point? Why are you teaching these skills in the first place? I’m guessing it’s not just so that they know how to solve a linear equation, but also so that they develop other competencies like critical thinking, creative problem solving, resilience, perseverance, etc. I agree with @gnichols that it’s not just about a checklist, but more about preparing students to be successful later in life. Sure, they will need to know these things for many post-secondary programs or careers, but chances are they will be more prepared for success if they also know how to embrace ambiguity, grapple with big problems, learn from failure and develop the ability to learn and re-learn skills using resources available to them in the moment.
I spend a lot of time in BC these days, where many teachers are asking these same questions. Not because they want to, but because they have to. Their new curriculum focuses heavily on competencies and ideas rather than content, and many teachers are looking for ways to shift their way of teaching. Check out their grade 12 Calculus curriculum – it’s barely 2 pages long. Imagine what teaching would look like if there was no checklist in the first place? I think it’s inspiring! https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/sites/curriculum.gov.bc.ca/files/pdf/10-12/mathematics/en_m_12_cal.pdf
I hear those voices too! Sometime I talk back to them!……out loud. @lwoon
I am so glad your post was highlighted. It is so extremely relatable and is actually where the root of my classroom challenges come from. These are the exact voices I hear… I sort of think of it like an angel and a devil- although, then I step back and think … which one would be which? But the fact of the matter is, they are neither… it’s just confusing. Great post. Thank you for sharing!