Educational Climate Change:How Are Our Children Affected?

Murray Avenue PTA

September 20, 2013

How can we follow the Common Core Standards while also fostering mindfulness, creativity, uniqueness, empathy, zest, resilience, and other valuable attributes that are neither emphasized in the standards nor assessed on NYS tests?

Caine’s Arcade

Turn and Talk

• What strikes you?

• What do you notice about Caine?

• What do you notice about his dad?

• What issues does this clip raise for you?

How can we follow the Common Core Standards while also fostering mindfulness, creativity, uniqueness, empathy, zest, resilience, and other valuable attributes that are neither emphasized in the standards nor assessed on NYS tests?

New York State “Perfect Storm”

• Adoption of Common Core State Standards

• Rapid alignment of 3-8 tests to the new standards

• Teacher evaluation tied to students’ performance on new tests

District’s Approach in Turbulent Times

• Recognize the good in the CCSS; develop age-appropriate curriculum to reach standards through best practice.

• Participate actively in regional networks and professional organizations.

• Monitor NYS regulations carefully; identify range of options within compliance.

District’s Approach in Turbulent Times

• Feed the pond; seek provocative research and divergent perspectives (e.g., Peter Johnston, Yong Zhao).

• Keep students on center stage.

Common Core State Standards

• The CCSS are challenging; they up the ante.• District curriculum is aligned.• Teachers are highly involved and well supported.• CCSS allow for district, school, and classroom

decision-making. • Learning in classrooms is joyful and age-

appropriate!• Parents play an important role at home.

CCSS emphasize argument and informational writing in addition to narrative.

CCSS emphasize argument and informational writing in addition to narrative.

• Have students write in authentic, age-appropriate genres for real audiences.

• Let students to focus on topics that fascinate them!

• Model curiosity; engage kids in wondering.• Flood classrooms with engaging nonfiction.• Tap community resources and real-world

mentors.• Let kids specialize and go deep.

Snapshots of CCSS-Aligned Curriculum and Student Work

Kindergarten: Signs, Lists, and Cards

This Kindergartner wrote a Halloween card to her dog Edward.

Second Grade Specialist Books

5th Grade Persuasive Essay

CCSS focus on higher-order comprehension instruction.

First graders are strategic readers!

Third graders determine importance in nonfiction.

District’s Approach in Turbulent Times

• Recognize the good in the CCSS; develop age-appropriate curriculum to reach standards through best practice.

• Feed the pond; seek provocative research and divergent perspectives.

District’s Approach in Turbulent Times

• Recognize the good in the CCSS; develop age-appropriate curriculum to reach standards through best practice.

• Feed the pond; seek provocative research and divergent perspectives.

Fostering a Growth Mindset:Opening Minds by Peter Johnston

Peter Johnston

“Our most fundamental mission is to build emotionally and relationally healthy learning communities—intellectual environments that produce not mere technical competence, but caring, secure, actively literate human beings.”

-Mamaroneck SCD, 3/13

“Some children view ability, or intelligence, as if it were a general character trait, something people have more or less of, usually from birth. We’ll call this fixed theorizing because it represents characteristics as permanent—some people are just not as smart as others and there’s not much they can do about it.”

-Peter Johnston, Opening MInds

Fixed Mindset

“When people view life through a dynamic theory, on the other hand, they think of ability, or intelligence, as something that grows with learning and depends on the situation. A dynamic theorist thinks that the more you learn, the smarter you get. I fixed theorist thinks, “I’m not a good writer.” A dynamic theorist thinks, “I’m not very good at writing poetry yet.”

-Peter Johnston, Opening Minds

Growth Mindset

“Dynamic theorists can afford to take on challenge because in their world, mistakes don’t point to fixed and shameful inadequacies. In a dynamic world, when you run into difficulty it just means things are becoming more interesting. Challenging activities present no threat, only the promise of learning something new.”

-Peter Johnston, Opening Minds

Growth Mindset

Fostering a Growth Mindset

• Highlight effort rather than ability.

• Provide useful, timely feedback.

• Honor misconceptions; celebrate learning rather than knowing.

• Draw students’ attention to the strategies they have used.

• Build children’s sense of agency.

FISH STING RAY

Fostering Creativity and Entrepreneurship:

World Class Learners by Yong Zhao

Yong Zhao

“Schools in general reduce instead of enhance creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit because they have been designed to prepare good employees. And the qualities of a good employee in the traditional sense are drastically different from what makes a good entrepreneurial worker today.”

Yong Zhao

“Education giants such as China and Singapore are entrepreneurial and creative dwarfs. (There is) an inverse relationship between test scores on international assessments and entrepreneurship capacities. High test scores come at the cost of creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit.”

Assets of Creative Entrepreneurs

• Confidence• Friends• Risk-taking• Passion• Global competency

• Uniqueness• Empathy• Alertness to

opportunity• Creativity

“We are born with these qualities, but traditional education suppresses them.”

–Yong Zhao, Mamaroneck 4/13

Forbes: “9 Reasons Why the 9-Year-Old Founder of Caine’s Arcade Will Be a Billionaire in 30 Years”

(Caleb Melby, 4/12/12)

• He is a kid running a business.• He lives in California.• He has passion.• That passion is infectious.• He is lucky.• He has seemingly impossible perseverance.• He displays irrational optimism.• He is willing to work on a shoe-string budget.• He already has more than $120K in funding.

What more can we do to foster creativity and entrepreneurship

during the school day?

We aspire to…

Increase…•Feedback•Authentic, meaningful products and performances•Real audiences for student work

Decrease…•Scores•Exercises, assignments

•Teacher as sole audience

We aspire to…

Increase…•Flexible, transferable skills and strategies•Student choice•Curiosity and passion•Diversity•Independence•Application and problem-solving

Decrease…•Rote procedures

•Teacher assignment•Compliance•Conformity•Dependence•Recall

“Parents should encourage their kids to…”

• Seek diverse experiences.

• Pour their hearts into something.

• Get out in the field.

• Become interesting people.

• Fail early; fail well.

• Develop social responsibility.

-Yong Zhao, Mamaroneck 4/13

Comments and Questions

Thank you for your interest and support!