Weekly Legislative Update – January 6, 2023

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Meet CSTP’s Legislative Update Coordinator Samantha Miller

Samantha Miller returns as CSTP’s Legislative Updates Coordinator for the 2023 legislative session. She writes weekly emails during the legislative session focusing on bills that impact Washington educators. Samantha has degrees in both Political Science and History, as well as a Master in Teaching. Samantha has worked in Elementary Education for 6 years, most recently as a 3rd Grade general education teacher. The majority of her time is spent chasing around her two children who keep her very busy. Samantha enjoys running, working in her yard, listening to political podcasts, and spending time with her family.

CSTP Updates:

Odds and Ends

Here’s a helpful article from Crosscut that breaks down the complicated Washington State K-12 school funding system. 

Taking it to a whole new level, from the Seattle Times this week, Librarians Are Meeting Young Readers Where They Are: TikTok.

2023 Pre-Session

Happy New Year! We are back to kick off the 2023-24 biennium legislative session which begins on Monday, January 9th. In Washington State, the legislative cycle is two years long and within that two-year cycle, there are two kinds of legislative sessions: regular (the odd number years) and short (the even numbered years). As the gavel comes down on Monday, the 2023 regular session will convene and last 105 days. Congressional members have been busy pre-filing bills throughout December, and there are a substantial amount of education related bills in the pipeline. It is worth mentioning that several bills are back in similar forms from last session. SB 5020, which requires children to start their education at six years of age, HB 1003, which expands access to dual credit programs and SB 5072, which focuses on equity in highly capable programs are all newer models of last year’s bills that failed to make it out of committee.

As for the political make up of congress, not much has changed. Democrats will enter 2023 with strong majorities in both the state House of Representatives and the state Senate. In early December, Governor Jay Inslee released his 2023-25 budget proposals which focus funding mainly on housing, homelessness, and mental health but education is not left out. Inslee’s budget targets early learning subsidies, and expands mentoring for beginning teachers as well as expanding residency programs for teachers planning to specialize in special education, dual language or working in high-poverty districts. The governor also proposes more than $120 million for special education services and support, including additional funding for young students ages 3 to 5 years old. 

While we are on the topic of budgets, in late September, Washington’s State Superintendent of Schools, Chris Reykdal, released his proposed budget to Governor Inslee which outlined his top priorities for our state’s schools and future. “The Superintendent’s budget aims to expand student access to learning a second language throughout elementary school, hands-on science learning opportunities, regional pre-apprenticeship programs to prepare students for future work in trades fields, early literacy for our youngest learners, and more.” To hear from Reykdal himself, tune into TVW this Monday, January 9th at 10am for a media briefing where the superintendent will provide his second annual update on the state of Washington’s K–12 students, educators, and schools.

Education Hearings for Next Week on TVW.org

House Education Committee

  • Tuesday, January 10 at 4pm
  • Thursday, January 12 at 8am

Senate Early Learning & K12 Education

  • Wednesday, January 12 at 1:30pm
  • Thursday, January 12 at 1:30pm

Important Legislative Links

Legislative Website: Get information on bills, legislators, hearings and more.

Bill Tracker: Track specific bills, read bill reports.

TVW: Watch live and archived legislative proceedings.

Note about legislative updates: CSTP relays these legislative updates to provide information on bills, budgets and legislative processes. CSTP doesn’t have a legislative agenda, but does track legislative issues most relevant to teaching.

Pre-Filled Bills

HB 1003: which would expand access to dual credit programs.  

HB 1013: which would establish regional apprenticeship programs.

HB 1015: which concerns minimum employment requirements for paraeducators.

HB 1044: which would provide capital financial assistance to small school districts with demonstrated funding challenges.

HB 1057: which would provide a benefit increase to certain retirees of the public employees’ retirement system plan 1 and the teachers’ retirement system plan 1.

HB 1064: which would create a school safety capital grant program.  

HB 1071: which would authorize funding for a school resource officer in every school.

HB 1093:  which aims to provide parents and their children with more choices for a quality elementary and secondary education through the family empowerment scholarship program.

HB 1109: which would provide additional special education funding to school districts in order to increase initial evaluations during summers.

HB 1113: which relates to reviewing reprimands for professional educators.

SB 5008: which relates to providing parents and legal guardians access to instructional materials.

SB 5009: which would require parental or legal guardian approval before a child participates in comprehensive sexual health education.

SB 5019: which concerns classified staff providing student and staff safety.

SB 5020: which would require elementary education to start at six years of age.

SB 5024:  which would establish a parents’ bill of rights related to their child’s public education.

SB 5029: which would empower school district boards of directors.

SB 5038: which would modify notification deadlines for certain education employment contracts and related dates.

SB 5048: which would eliminate college in the high school fees.

SB 5064: which concerns excess cost allocations for special education programs.

SB 5072: which would advance equity in programs for highly capable students.

SB 5085: which concerns principal and assistant principal terms of employment.  

SB 5102: which concerns school library information and technology programs.

SB 5126: which would provide common school trust revenue to small school districts.

SB 5127: which would clarify school districts’ ability to redact personal information related to a student.

Until next week, have a good weekend!

Samantha Miller

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The Exodus

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Current Affairs, Education, Education Policy, High School, Life in the Classroom, Middle School, Online Teaching, Parent Involvment, Professional Development, Teacher Leadership, Uncategorized |

Are you here to stay?

For some educators, it is the end. They are leaving the classroom. Others are leaving their current positions, changing their teaching assignments, seeking the change that will heal the damage, the damage of the last three years.

It’s hard to fully analyze what has happened to our profession. So much has changed, and these changes are real and here to stay, whether or not we are.

Let’s break it down into a few chewable bites.

Loss of Control

We educators take years to establish control in our classrooms and in our practice. But, the pandemic stripped away our control. Suddenly, we were tasked with solving unsolvable problems, such as how to continue educating students who were no longer in our classrooms. As students returned, we had no control over the work we could expect from them. Expectation had to be lowered, or we would have experienced prolonged failure for our students and ourselves. Then, close on the heels of the subdued and masked, return to schools, this year brought us a marked increase in behavior issues. Unhappy students, fueled by TikTok challenges, anti-public education sentiment, and pent up emotions, vandalized our schools, stole from us, threatened us, and refused to comply with the simplest tasks.

Loss of Respect

With parents on a national scale accusing us of teaching inappropriate materials, violating their students’ rights with mask mandates and quarantines, and having unrealistic expectations, what should we do? Some students parrot the words of their parents, disrespecting public education in general and their teachers specifically. No matter the hours we put in, the changes we endure, the new training we take on, the tears we shed, we are not always seen as allies in the public eye.

Loss of Hope

The statistics are rolling in. We are going to see the effects of the pandemic and the staggering economy on student achievement for years to come. We face the prospect of appearing to fail at our life’s work for many years to come. We have experienced the effects firsthand in our classrooms with students who are easily a year or more behind, not just academically, but developmentally. We are tasked with the continued problems of inequity and achievement gaps, the threat of gun violence, the ongoing lack of mental health support, diminished resources, and a world full of false narratives and propaganda that we fight on a daily basis, just trying to help our students discover their own truths.

Loss of Joy

There is less time for play, for art, for relaxation in the school setting. The urgency around learning loss and solving the problems growing in the system is driving us away from one the most important elements of education. Students and teachers need to find joy in learning and in being a community. Without it, there is less engagement, less safety, less overall satisfaction in the experience of teaching and learning.
It is tough to face all of the loss and carry on, but we must. Of course, some will not come with us on the journey ahead. We certainly understand their need to seek a new profession or remove themselves from uncomfortable situations. However, the rest of us need to rally and carry on in a way that restores the loss.

Let’s be clear. Restoring the loss is not a call to return to normal. There is no normal, no make education great again rhetoric. We need to embrace new solutions to the problems we face.

If we want control of our profession, we need to lift our voices and let our needs be known. Teacher leadership efforts all but disappeared in the pandemic. It is time to step back into the role of advocates and leaders. What do we need? How can we get it? Why do our voices matter? Who is willing to listen and give us the agency we have earned through our experiences.

If we want respect, we need to face this issue on two fronts. First, in the classroom respect is not a given. We cannot stand in front of a group of young people who have suffered through the last few years and demand, because we are older or we are the authority, that we deserve their respect. When you study the effects of trauma on children, you start to understand that traumatic experiences tend to create an aloofness in children. They do not automatically trust adults. Without trust, true respect cannot exist. To earn the respect of students, it will take time. Teachers will need to focus on the safe and supportive environment they provide in the classroom. They need to model the respect they want to receive. That is the only way to get it from kids who have been struggling. On a larger scale, our respect as a profession will also take time. We need to openly advocate for the safety and support of our students. Our voices need to be heard, so that the false narratives have some competition. And, maybe most importantly, we need to reach out to families and communities, including them and opening our doors. When they see what we do for kids, they will have a deeper understanding.

If we want hope for the future of education, the time is ripe for innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Seek and share solutions to our common problems. What works? What helps our students? What makes us happier in our classrooms? For me, I am diving deeper into trauma-informed teaching practices and brain science. The pandemic gave me the opportunity to put my work online and expand the resources I provide to my students. I am not pulling back from that; I am leaning in. I am embracing technology as a way to open up a world of knowledge for my students, and I resolve to help them find their own truth through informed research and inquiry. After all, those kids are my hope.

Finally, if we want joy, we need to play and create together. We need to offset the incessant testing with music, theater, dance, art, physical activity, and all pursuits that bring smiles to the faces in our buildings. Happiness is the cure for all the ills we are facing, and the pursuit of happiness in education is a noble cause.

So, if you are not giving up on finding your joy in this profession, I invite you to join me in my quest for regaining our control, our respect, our hope, and our joy.

Despite the challenges (and because of them), I’m staying.

Are you?


Ready for a deeper dive? Check out the links below.

Links to stories about the crisis:

NPR’s Consider This: Teachers Reflect on a Tough School Year

EdSource: Covid Challenges, Bad Student Behavior, Push Teachers to the Limit & Out the Door

The Wall Street Journal: School’s Out for Summer & Many Teachers Are Calling It Quits

NPR: We Asked Teachers How Their Year Went; They Warned of an Exodus to Come

Here some more to address some of the problems:

Education Week Video: How Can We Solve the Teacher Staffing Shortage

Secretary Cardona Lays Out a Vision to Support and Elevate the Teaching Profession

Education Week: How School Leaders Can Support Social Emotional Learning (and Retain Teachers, Too)

Experts Say We Can Prevent School Shootings; Here’s What the Research Says

Your Turn: Classroom Tech 2022

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The last few years have really been an education for educators. Wherever our tech skills were in 2020, we faced challenges that drove us to do more- learn more, create more, improvise more. The good news is that we learned a lot and now have that giant toolbox of tech tools. So, let’s take a moment to share and broaden our knowledge even more.

We asked our bloggers the following questions: What is your favorite technological upgrade in your teaching practice? Is there anything that you discovered during remote learning that you integrated into face-to-face instruction? What gadgets, apps, or programs can you recommend?

Emma-Kate Schaake

I will say, adapting to Google Classroom has been incredibly convenient. I love the idea of helping students navigate their own time management with the clarity of when assignments are due and how to access materials. I also don’t  miss the piles of papers and trying to assess what a student might have missed when they’ve been absent. 

While all online, I adapted our grammar instruction to NoRedInk and students have found it to be the most painless way to practice grammar. Plus, I love it because it adapts to their mistakes, making learning more authentic than the static worksheets we’ve used in the past. 

In the library, I have been working on upgrading our catalog to a more student friendly view in Destiny Discover, and students seem really eager to be able to search for their books with that platform. I can create curated collections and students can search for books related to titles they like or on topics of interest. 

Jan Kragen

We made the shift from all Microsoft to all Google this year. I love using Google Classroom! I add assignments and the instructions stay up until all the assignments are turned in. I grade written work with multiple individual comments. I can send a message to all my kids or an email to all my parents. Parents can see everything all the time, and they can see their kid’s grades as they happen.

Jamboard is lots of fun for kids to add their comments to a discussion. Like anything else, you have to teach some tech etiquette first, but once you get going, it gives everyone a chance to all “talk” at once.

Gretchen Cruden

This year we began using Promethean Boards in our classroom. We did not have time for professional development on how to use them as they were installed over a break upon a bit of a surprise arrival date. When we got into class and saw our new boards, I was at first worried about how it would work…so I turned a few of my students loose on it to figure it out and within a few minutes they had everyone interacting and using the board. The experience reminded me of the India Hole in the Wall experiment. Overall, and would say it is easy technology and is much like a iPad-love it!

Lynne Olmos

Like Jan and Emma-Kate, I have adapted to using Google Classroom, and I really appreciate the versatility of it. I especially like it now that I am often reusing and adapting assignments I created last year or the year before! 

Beyond that, I also depended on Padlet during our remote learning times to collect and display student work. Now that we are back in person, I still find it to be very handy for collecting projects to publish and share. I even created ways to use it for test prep and fun interactive activities. 

This year I received a new ViewBoard. It’s one of those smart TVs that behaves like a giant tablet. I can project my screen onto it, use it as an interactive whiteboard, or just go straight onto the internet to show videos or access resources with students. It is a fun new toy that has been useful, replacing my broken projector, my old TV, and sometimes my whiteboard.

Now it’s your turn. Tell us what you are using that makes teaching more engaging and effective. What resources did you discover during the recent changes in education?

Yes, Things Have Changed

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Current Affairs, Life in the Classroom, Social Issues

I am retiring at the end of this year, and people keep asking me, “How have things changed?”

ONE

I can’t tell you how many systems of school-wide discipline I’ve trained in over the years. Yet student behavior seems to get worse. Students tearing things off the walls. Throwing tantrums. Screaming. Assaulting other students—and staff. Running away from adults, from classrooms, from school.

Recently I walked by a student trampling in the garden area by the office. I pointed out the sign telling people to stay out of the area and asked him to move to the sidewalk. He looked up at me and said, “I don’t know who you are.”

I said, “I’m Mrs. Kragen. I teach fourth and fifth grade here.”

He shrugged and said, “You aren’t my teacher” and went back to romping through the greenery.

It used to be that any adult—teacher, para, substitute, parent volunteer—could tell a child what to do, and the expectation was that the child would mind. Now children think the only adults they need to pay any attention to are the ones they know. The ones that have established a relationship with them.

I see it at home too. I told a neighbor child not to throw rocks at other kids. The father showed up at my doorstep later. He told me not to tell his child how to behave. I said, “But your child was throwing rocks at someone else!” He said, “Tell me what he did. I will deal with it.”

At the same time, everyone says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” That always makes me laugh. When my husband studied at Syracuse, we knew international students from Africa. They told us that, in Africa, the saying means that any adult has the right—actually, the responsibility—to rebuke and discipline any child.

At Johns Hopkins summer programs for gifted youth, everyone wears an identity card on a lanyard. Staff lanyards are blue, and students are red.

As I explained to a child who had gotten into trouble, “See this lanyard? Mine is blue. It means I get to tell you what to do.”

I think having a system like that at school would be a great idea.

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Find Your Joy: Lessons from the Tennis Court

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Find Your Joy:  Lessons from the Tennis Court

Coaching tennis this year has been a blast. We know all too well the seemingly insurmountable challenges and stresses of almost every aspect of our educational system. For me, hitting the tennis court after school these past few months has been life giving. 

The news feels heavy (it always feels heavy) so instead of diving into Uvalde, or Roe .v Wade, or the two year anniversary of George Floyd’s death, or the myriad other societal catastrophes, (which I do plenty on my Instagram)  I’m going to practice some self care and focus on something that brings me joy. 

Taking a leaf from Lynne’s book, here are some lessons that being back out on the court has taught me. Coaching, is of course, a kind of teaching, but I’ve been in awe of the broader gifts hitting this little yellow ball has given me. 

  1. You can’t win ‘em all 

No one wins 40-0, 6-0, 6-0. Not our girls who make it to the state tournament or even the pros. You’re going to give up points. In your classroom, you can do everything “right” and kids will still disengage, put their heads down, socialize instead of reading, or fail a class.

There’s often a top down narrative that if only teachers made lessons more engaging, built strong relationships with their students, or called home, then all students would want to show up and succeed. But, what if you’ve done all that? You’ve thoughtfully planned lessons instead of just recycling from years past, students know they can cry with you about a breakup, and you’ve connected with all families, but students still fail? 

Some things are simply outside of our control. Sometimes, your opponent aces their serve. Sometimes, a student is experiencing trauma at home bringing their focus to safety, not homework. 

This doesn’t mean you don’t do everything you can to get 100% of your students to succeed, 100% of the time. Of course you do; this is what good teachers strive for. It doesn’t mean you don’t practice serve returns and just expect to lose points. 

You’re just not going to win 40-0, 6-0, 6-0 or ace every lesson, every student, every day, 180 days a year. 

  1. Go easy on yourself 

When you lose those aforementioned points, you have to shake it off. 

It’s inspiring to watch our girls lose the first set, but battle back to win the next two, all because they didn’t give up or let the mistakes get to them. Tennis is an intensely mental sport and it takes some serious toughness to not let the double fault or shanked backhand throw you. 

Teachers have the weight of the world on their shoulders and it’s all too natural to feel pulled down by obligation, or even failure. But, your best learning opportunities are almost always when you take a risk with something new or relinquish control to your students and watch what they can do with it. 

So, go easy on yourself when things don’t exactly go according to plan. And don’t worry, that missed dropshot is just the first point. 

  1. Take your time

The best players don’t rush through their serves. They have a rhythmic routine (four bounces or jumping from side to side) and they take their time winding up for the perfect ball. 

Our equity team often discusses how educators tend to operate on “white guy time.” Or, more formally, it’s the “sense of urgency” found in white supremacy culture. For example, our work with the Nisqually tribe around our Thunderbird mascot is still in process since I wrote that piece in December. Faster isn’t always better.

Sure, sometimes lesson ideas come from the drive to work, but more often, you build units based on evidence of student learning and interest. There’s a reason 44% of teachers leave the profession within five years (and that was pre-pandemic!). It takes patience and persistent, thoughtful, reflective effort to stay in the game. 

  1. If it’s not fun, it’s not worth it 

This is perhaps the most important reminder I’ve gained this season. I ruined tennis for myself in high school by putting too much pressure on myself. Seriously, I didn’t play for ten years because I felt like I had to be the best or not play at all. 

It’s been my number one goal as a coach to help our girls not fall into that trap.

If anything in life is more stress than payoff, it warrants some serious reconsideration or a mindset shift at the very least.  

Many of my classroom procedures are in place to save myself a headache. For example, I’m flexible on due dates because I don’t want to arbitrarily punish students, but also because I don’t want that anxious feeling when 10 final essays are missing by the due date. I’m in education for the long haul and if I wind myself so tight that I’m constantly stressed, then it isn’t worth it. 

This is a tough lesson to give to educators right now as 55% of teachers are seriously thinking of leaving the profession. And, I don’t blame them. Several of my teacher friends have left with very valid reasons for doing so. 

Obviously, teaching is a job (something I think we forget as it’s so often labeled a “calling”) and it is therefore not going to be “fun” all the time. 

Our girls compete and obviously want to win matches, but tennis is first and foremost a game. It should be fun. Practices where they’re commentating for each other’s points in British accents are pure gold. 

***

So, as we wrap up the school year, the third tainted by the pandemic, I hope some of these reminders help you refocus and practice some self care. Remember, you can’t win ‘em all, go easy on yourself, take your time, and have fun! 

HC with ADHD

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A recent Professional Development training had to do with Multi-Disciplinary Support Services (MTSS). The goal was to adjust and strengthen our current MTSS systems to create equitable opportunity and access to instruction/supports for all students. It made me think of the most common group of twice-exceptional students that I teach: students identified as Highly Capable who are also identified as ADHD.

Obviously, I work with all my students on behavioral skills and organizational skills. But there are certain things I do that are specifically geared toward helping my ADHD students.

FIRST

Because ADHD is so common with my Highly Capable (HC) clientele, I set up my classroom each year specifically to address their needs. I learned 40 years ago that the bulletin boards are the most distracting things for that population in the classroom. The least distracting is the view out the window. Therefore, as much as possible, I put the bulletin boards directly behind the desks so the students have to turn around to look at them. The walls on the sides are as clean and clutter-free as I can make them.

Then I orient all the student desks to face the windows.

One of my principals came into my room in August the first year I was in his building.  He saw the way I had set things up and asked, “Why are all your desks facing the window?”

I said, “If you were sitting in these chairs for hours every day, what would you rather be looking at—the window or the whiteboard?”

He agreed the window was more appealing. “But how do they see the board?” he asked, gesturing to the right.

“They turn to look at it.”

He was still confused. “But where is the front of the room?”

I walked around the room a bit, his head swiveling to look at me, and replied, “Wherever I am!”

guest speakers in the “front” of the room

SECOND

I give my students something to do with their hands. Fidget spinners were wildly popular for a while, but I found them intensely distracting. I went to a conference and got a different idea. Before Covid-19, the bottom of each desk in my room had a square of soft, furry cloth taped to it. I didn’t announce that fact. The kids discovered it and told each other. I never noticed them using it. In fact, I thought the strategy was a dud, that no one was using it. Then one day I asked, “Does anyone ever use the cloth on the bottom of the desk to help calm down?”

Every single hand went up.

Post-Covid, I had to remove the cloths from the desks. My next idea was to wind really furry pipe cleaners around a desk strut—something personal that kids could remove and take home with them when we moved desks.

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Your Turn: What does culturally responsive teaching look like in your district?

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Education, Education Policy, Equity, High School, Life in the Classroom, Middle School, Parent Involvment, Professional Development, Social Issues, Teacher Leadership, Uncategorized | , , ,

We asked our bloggers to tell us about their experience with culturally responsive teaching. We asked them:

What does culturally responsive teaching look like in your district?

How are you and the educators you know using relationships to connect with students, honor their individuality and support academic achievement?

Gretchen Cruden

“We embrace learning that connects to their real lives…”

Culturally responsive teaching may look a little different in our school. I work in a high-poverty, extremely rural school. Example? We are so rural that we are defined as a frontier school and have had “cougar patrol” as part of our playground supervisory activities. That said, our school embraces what our students walk in the door with and honor it. We are a culture of “make do” and “outside the box” thinking because our students often do have to be creative in their problem solving in their home environments. We embrace learning that connects with their real lives including studying outdoor survival skills, gardening and dissecting parts of animals their families have hunted. These lessons honor their home lives and connect families to the school. In this way, our school embraces and supports our students’ backgrounds and helps build bridges to adjacent possibilities as they grow in their academics.

Lynne Olmos

“…more celebrations of diverse cultures could benefit us all.”

For all the time I have worked in my small, rural district, there has been a sort of self-congratulatory attitude in our district. We are proud of our students of color and how successful they are in our schools. However, that success is really a tribute to their hard work more than it is to any sort of outreach or responsive programs built into the system. Latinx families make up around 35% of our community, and, though we have a migrant support program that hosts occasional events and the standard English language learner supports, we don’t do a great deal to celebrate Latinx culture. Our kids are awesome, and some of our teachers go the extra mile to embrace the diverse cultures in our classrooms. However, there is a need for a more culturally responsive system.

Every now and then, we get the opportunity to celebrate our diversity. One very cool opportunity that landed in my classroom recently was through a national project funded by the CDC and managed by the Olympia Family Theater. The project, entitled Fully Vaxxed, utilized the input of bilingual youth from our school and a few others to write plays about the impact of the Covid vaccines on Latinx communities. Three of my students participated in the program, and our Drama Club attended opening night to celebrate their work. It was awesome! 

We really do a great job supporting all students in my district, but more celebrations of diverse cultures could benefit us all. Everyone deserves to see their home language, culture, and traditions represented, respected, and honored in their school environment.

Emma-Kate Schaake

“I want students to know they have strengths in their cultural, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds…”

I am grateful to have a district and department with enough funding to have some creativity in lesson planning and curriculum. Last year, I was able to buy four class sets of contemporary young adult books for book groups and that unit was the best engagement I had online by far. The English teacher saying that books should be windows into other perspectives or mirrors into your own is almost trite by now, but still incredibly true. 

The books we read allowed students to share their own experiences and empathize with the characters. As much choice as I can offer in my curriculum, the better. I want students to know they have strengths in their cultural, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds, regardless. So often, students do not see themselves in texts (especially those written by old, dead, white men) and I try to deviate from that norm as much as I can.

So now it is your turn.

Tell us how your school responds to the culture of its students. How do you connect with your students, honor their culture, and support their academic achievement?

Just Say No To Learning Styles

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According to a survey in 2017, 93% of the public and 76% of educators believe in the theory of learning styles. It’s a pervasive idea. It’s appealing. It’s obvious.

Even though it’s wrong.

As its essence, the idea behind learning styles instruction is:

  • children who are visual learners learn best with visual instruction
  • children who are auditory learners learn best with auditory instruction
  • children who are kinesthetic learners learn best with kinesthetic instruction

However, experiments don’t bear this premise out. “If classification of students’ learning styles has practical utility, it remains to be demonstrated.”

Dr. Dylan Wiliam from the Institute of Education, University College London, argues that the whole premise of learning-styles research—that the purpose of instructional design is to make learning easy—may be incorrect. “If students do not have to work hard to make sense of what they are learning, then they are less likely to remember it in six weeks’ time.”

In other words, the learning styles movement wanted to make learning easy. But people learn best when learning is more challenging.

Especially if it’s more interesting.

Not only that, but teachers and students may have very different ideas of what each child’s “learning styles” are.

In a study published in Frontiers in Education, researchers interviewed nearly 200 fifth and sixth grade students, asking them to choose their preferred learning style (visual, auditory, or kinesthetic). Then their teachers were asked to identify each student’s preferred learning styles.

There was no significant correlation between the teachers’ judgements and the students’ own assessments. Clearly, the styles aren’t as obvious as some might expect!

If you, as a teacher, are a strong verbal or auditory learner, you should learn to incorporate extra kinesthetic activities like “vote with your feet.” However, you aren’t doing the activities to make your kinesthetic learners suddenly become better students. You are adding the activities to make your classroom experience richer for everyone. In the same way, you ought to incorporate extra visuals into your instruction: art, maps, charts, graphs, cartoons.

In my classroom, everyone learns to take 2- and 3-column notes (the third column giving space for questions or doodles). I also show everyone how to take notes in a more visually interesting way. In the end, students will choose the way that suits them best.

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Constructing Equitable Schools: One Block at a Time

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Equity, High School, Life in the Classroom, Teacher Leadership | , ,

Legos for Big Kids

A few weeks ago in one of my classes, I used Lego blocks in a small group discussion. Each student was given a different color and they added to other blocks when they contributed to the discussion, asked a question, or started a new thread. 

My goal was to have every student participate and the legos as a visualization tool was meant to help them see their own contributions and monitor the flow of discussion within the group. 

I brought this up in an equity team meeting when we were planning our next staff training and the idea stuck. Though, it manifested in a more metaphorical sense for our district wide equity work. 

Constructing Knowledge

As with most schools around the state, and around the country, our building staff approaches the idea of “equity work” from very different perspectives. Some see it as essential to every part of teaching and learning while others are skeptical of equity practices. Some believe they are already meeting expectations, while others view the concepts as indoctrination or reverse racism. 

With that broad spectrum of thought, it’s a little daunting to plan a full staff equity training that everyone can find meaningfully learn from.

Let’s dig into the lego metaphor. 

As someone who is seen as “all in” on equity work, I think, sometimes, people think my beliefs, learning, and practices look a little something like this: 

Yellow could represent the podcasts and news sources I consume. Green might be how I vote. Blue could be the teacher leadership equity framework class I completed. Purple can stand for the shelf of antiracist and social history books I have read (and re-read) and red might show my work with student leaders.

Some may view my very linear lego tower as the only way to “do equity” and if so, then it’s not for them. 

But really, there are many ways to learn and construct knowledge. As educators, we know this. No two class periods are alike, even at the same grade level, with the same content. I am constantly revamping my curriculum because this years’ students need something different than previous years. 

We might all be given similar “blocks” of information, but we are going to make very different constructions, based on myriad factors like our perspectives, backgrounds, values, and experiences. 

They might consume very different or much more news than I do, so their yellow news block might actually be orange, or three times the size. Maybe they are the duck in the middle. 

Similarly, the tower with pink is different from mine, as that brain is probably bringing in entirely different experiences to their learning. I am a white, cis, straight woman, so my identity narrows and limits my lens.

My lego blocks create a tower that is incomplete, and just represents one way of learning and growing as an equitable educator. 

Widening Our Perspectives 

Often, our staff cites feeling frustrated that equity work isn’t going anywhere; “We’ve been talking about this for years.” They might be expecting a linear tower that leads somewhere like steps on a staircase. But, while we are always building on prior knowledge, this work is far from linear. 

Similarly, staff want concrete action steps to feel fulfilled and successful. They might take in the information in our training, but want action steps; “Okay, so what do I do about that?” Teachers are used to problems with solutions; lesson plans with measurable outcomes. 

But, the reality is, box checking equity or “checkquity” work isn’t lasting, effective, or substantial. 

Staff disengage when they feel like they don’t have a seat at the table, just like our students do. So our hope with introducing this lego idea is that our staff would widen their perspectives and –to add yet another metaphor here– pull up a chair. 

We want them to give themselves the grace for not having a full tower, or even a tower at all. Making a square, a triangle, or even a duck is a valid form of engagement and learning. 

There’s no one right way to do equity work. As long as we’re doing it. 

All I Ever Needed to Learn about Teaching I Learned…in the Barn?

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Education, High School, Life in the Classroom, Middle School, Professional Development, Teacher Leadership, Uncategorized | ,

This blog is about the intersection of my teaching life and my relationship with horses. Not a horse person? No problem. You might have another passion – cats, science fiction, woodwork… It hardly matters. The reality is that analogies are powerful pathways to learning. When we make connections, we gain insight.

Horsemanship strategies have had a bigger impact on my teaching style than any professional development, administrator, or mentor. Most of the lessons I have learned from my four-legged friends would be labeled social/emotional learning, but they also touch on trauma-informed teaching, restorative practices, and student engagement.

Here are just a few truths I have learned from those big beasts:

Fear is not an effective tool for training or discipline.

Adult humans often assume that their status as the elder and more powerful in a relationship affords them the right to insist on hard work and good behavior. Honestly, some students (and horses) are conditioned to respond to this behavior, doing whatever the boss says and trying hard to please. On the other hand, many sensitive creatures do not operate well under these conditions. Just because you have the power does not mean you can force or threaten a kid (or a horse) to do your bidding. They may do it, but it will not be their best work, and it will not be for the best reason. If you want to truly inspire a great performance, you need a trusting relationship.

Building trust takes time.

With any creature, you cannot ask too much too soon. With a horse, you need to take time to prove that you mean no harm. You have to let the animal adjust to your presence, and you have to earn their trust through consistency and fair treatment. This is so true of students, too. Push them too hard before you have earned their trust, and you might break that trust forever. You cannot demand hard work or ask them to take risks if they don’t really know or trust you. Time. You have to invest time in your students to see the best results.

A good leader does not have to be a bully to earn respect.

Once trust is achieved, you can work on building respect for your leadership in the classroom. This is similar to working with horses. They are big and can be dangerous, so it is important that they respect and honor the space of their human leader. It is similar with kids. If they trust you, and you establish firm and fair boundaries, true respect can be earned. They will be happy to do as you ask, without any dramatic effort on your part. With horses, this is all about body language, how you move, where you stand. They are creatures who communicate in silence quite effectively. With students, physical cues are also important, but we humans mainly use words to establish boundaries and build trust. One thing you never do with a horse is block its avenue of escape when it is stressed. This is also wise with students; always give them agency and voice, and you will earn their respect.

You have to give clear cues to get good results.

When you are riding a horse and you ask it to move a particular direction, there is a specific cue for that movement. If you are inconsistent in how you ask, the response will also be inconsistent. The creature is trying to understand your language, but how can it make the correct response if you keep changing the request? Imagine how frustrating it is for any learner when the rules keep changing, or when the instructions are unclear. The only cure in these instances is clear and consistent instruction. If you want students to succeed, they need clarity, consistency and repetition, along with support they can turn to as needed.

“Drive” and “draw” are the keys to engagement.

Recently, I have dabbled in “liberty” training, where the horse is free to interact with you, no equipment, just you on the ground giving cues and trying to get the horse to respond to them. It is very challenging. You have to have a way to send or drive the horse away from you, and then an even more powerful method of “drawing” it back to you. A strong drive is putting them to work and a strong draw is getting their undivided attention. Done right, it looks like magic. In reality, it is the product of good horse and human relationships, clear cues, and rewards for good responses. I see the application to the classroom here, too. I want drive. I want kids to work hard, take risks, and struggle when I ask it of them. I want them to respect my requests and take me seriously. Beyond that, I also want draw. I want them to join up and listen when asked. I want them to be curious about what we are doing next. I want them to be looking for the benefits of our interactions.

Horses are wise teachers and they have taught me to listen carefully, and not just to words. They have taught me to be respectful to earn respect, and to leave a little wiggle room to relieve anxiety. They have humbled me and helped me to understand that I am more powerful in my connections when I am thoughtful, intentional, and kind.

You may not have the privilege of learning these lessons from big beasts like mine, but you get the idea. We become wiser when we are open to the lessons around us. What we learn from our experiences, we can bring to our classrooms to be just a bit better for the students we teach.

I am interested in the philosophies and influences that other educators bring to their work. Where did you learn “everything you needed to know”? Do you have some analogies to share? Leave some ideas in the comments and we can learn from each other.

Meanwhile, here are some related readings for you.

What Teachers Could Learn from Animal Trainers

8 Lessons Horses (Yes, Horses) Can Teach You About Business

Horses Teach Us Life Lessons (Learning Emotional Intelligence with horses)

Equine Assisted Learning: Skills Development through Experiential Learning