NTI Resources, Virtual Field Trips, and a Deep Breath

Despite the title, I want to start with the deep breath first. 

Every year, I look forward to KySTE's three day spring conference at the Galt House in March.  While there was a bit of a rumble over the slowly accelerating COVID-19 situation in the United States ("pandemic" was not quite the commonly used phrase, much less "crisis"), KySTE reassured everyone that the conference was still happening, albeit with advice to replace hearty handshakes with waves and wash your hands often.  I assembled like hundreds of others to the conference's first day on Wednesday, March 11.  There was talk about non-traditional instruction days (NTI) and students learning from home possibly happening as early as the following week, so I attended sessions with a focus on content-specific digital learning tools.  By the morning of March 12, KySTE organizers were putting down rumors of an early end and still reassuring that the conference was continuing.  By that same afternoon, in the second to last session of the day, they broadcasted a message: the conference was cancelled.  We met for a hastily convened closing session, where door prizes were given out in 15 minutes, and promises were made to announce award and grant winners at a later date.  A few hours later, I checked out of the hotel and on a whim, stopped by a grocery store on the way home, where I purchased the last packages of paper towels and toilet paper sitting on the shelf.  The next day -- aptly enough, Friday the 13th -- I went to my Shelby office for final meetings and planning as we launched, along with so many other districts (and states!), the longest and most ambitious educational NTI plan in modern American times.  I have not been back to my office, or seen my colleagues in person, since.

That was just two weeks ago, and yet it seems like a lifetime.

We are still very much in the beginning of a long term, once in a generation struggle that affects every aspect of our human life.  It is overwhelming to think of the potential loss of life and the what-if's to come.   So in this entry, I will try to only narrow my focus on the educational road ahead.  I myself have overused the words "unprecedented" and "uncharted waters" these last few weeks, so I'm loathe to repeat them.  But this is an unprecedented time to be a teacher.  It is uncharted educational waters.  What can we do?

Breathe.

It is clear that despite anyone's best efforts, the school year 2019-2020 will be disrupted.  We have to allow ourselves grace.  We will not hit all of our objectives.  NWEA MAP tests, if we could even give them, might not reflect much "academic growth."  And that is okay.   It will become evident that we cannot maintain virtual schools for millions of students for weeks on end without consequence -- and that's not only okay, it's affirming!  Of course we are facilitators of learning, but we are also relationship managers, inspirational guides, growers of human potential.  We analyze body language, listen to stomachs growl, feel the energy of students as they connect to content.  In short, teaching is a complex art, and difficult to do at a distance.  If teaching was as simple as pushing a worksheet across a table -- well then, anyone could do it.  Ask any parent who is social distancing at home right now with their children if teaching is easy.

So breathe.  Students are still learning, in authentic ways we could not begin to fathom or calculate.  Let your students know you are there, that you were always were there, that you will be there after all of this is over and all that remains will be the remembrances of the kindness and sympathies you gave to them in a time of uncertainty and sacrifice and tragedy.  That is a lesson they will remember.   They will remember you.  The rest will work itself out in the months to come.

The very real tragedies and sacrifices aside, there are some positive "truths" to emerge out of this disruption to the status quo of education:

• Necessity is the mother of invention, and teachers are being more innovative with digital tools than ever before because they have to be.  If even a small portion of that blended learning experience (and other innovative pedagogies that challenge traditional instruction) comes back to the brick and mortal classroom, education will be better for it.
• We need to stop talking about digital inequity and start solving it.  In other countries, Internet access is just another utility that all citizens have, like water and electricity.  This crisis clearly reveals that high speed Internet in every household is not a luxury but a necessity.
• Public education needs to be fully funded and supported.  If there was ever a question about the enormity of services that public school provides as a social safety net, it should be easily answered now.  What organization besides public school systems could so quickly have marshaled resources like technology, educational materials and food for the general good?  (This is not to disparage the efforts of our private, charter and parochial educational colleagues, but it's merely reporting the facts about the enormous power, effort, and reach of public schools.)
• Last but not least, technology is best when it serves the objective of personal human connection.   I am astounded and inspired from social media posts at all the ways teachers are using tech to foster continuity, engender hope, ignite excitement, and share a smile.  Learning should always be engaging, but not in absence of addressing the individual passions and needs of each student.

As I wrap things up, I want to offer two NTI resources for educators in these (here I go) unprecedented times.

#KyGoDigital invited me to lead an online session as part of their #MyNTIKy series.  I discussed virtual field trip resources and strategies on how to use them.  The video is here (38:16):

You can access the Slides from the presentation here.

Several people have asked for our Shelby NTI resources.  While I've curated them (quality over quantity was my mantra), I have to thank many district staff members for their input and submissions, and I hope to have put the tools and sites in some sense of context rather than just reproduce a list of links.  Here is our Doc.

While I'm thanking SCPS people, I want to give a personal shout out to all of our Shelby admin, teachers, food service workers, custodians, technicians, counselors, and other support staff for their heroic efforts to keep our children fed, educated, and safe these last two weeks and in the weeks to come.  

Last but not least, I want to thank all of my Edtech Elixirs readers over the years, not only for reading this particularly long post, but for reading any of my past ones!  This entry marks my 150th blog post since I began nearly six years ago.  To put it mildly, in the summer of 2014 I could never have predicted the state of education in spring 2020.

And speaking of spring!  Next week, spring break begins for our district and for many others.   I promise you I will try to breathe a bit.  Promise me you will do the same.   

Competency-Based Education: A Reading Journey

As Shelby County's journey toward competency-based education (CBE) has become regionally and nationally known, educators often ask about resources we have discovered along the way.  In particular, what books have we read?

This entry is an attempt to compile a useful -- but by no means exhaustive -- list of CBE related books that I personally feel have been either extremely illuminating in pragmatic ways (detailed models, insightful anecdotes, clear "how to's") or it inspired me to stay the course.  Often the same book did both!  Instead of ranking them in order of importance, or even in the order I actually read them, I have put them in what I think would be the most useful reading sequence that would best grow one's CBE knowledge as well as help you strategically plan for implementation in your own classroom, school or district. 

One very important point here: as with all of my Edtech Elixirs entries and my personal social media posts, this is only Adam Watson's ideal list as of this posting.  While my CBE knowledge would not nearly be as robust without my work in Shelby, and although many of these books were part of our leadership reading, this list is not meant to imply any district endorsement of these texts or of the sequence I have described.

1. What School Could Be by Ted Dintersmith (2018)

Before getting too deep into CBE terminology and logistics, teachers and admin should be given the chance to ideate for an "outside the box" transformative classroom experience.  This book's title succinctly states its purpose: we need to dream up a different way of doing school.  Dintersmith was the executive producer of the engaging documentary Most Likely to Succeed, which mainly focused on High Tech High in San Diego and how that school challenges how education achievement can be done.  This book is basically Dintersmith's road trip covering all 50 states in a single school year as he searches for inspirational models of educational transformation.  What School Could Be is both a wakeup call to rally against the status quo as well as a potential map of locations to visit.


2. Reinventing Crediting for Competency-Based Education: the Mastery Transcript Consortium Model and Beyond by Jonathan E. Martin (2010)

Don't let the slim nature of this book (151 pages!) fool you.  As Martin describes examples of what a competency-based report card/transcript may look like (in particular, the work of the Mastery Transcript Consortium), you realize how crucial it is to have an effective reporting tool of learning, especially for high school.  Beginning your CBE planning with such an end in mind is highly recommended, as we in Shelby can speak from experience that communicating and creating a new reporting tool was an area of challenge in our journey, especially for some of our high school teachers, students and parents.


3.  How to Grade for Learning: Linking Grades to Standards by Ken O'Connor (4th edition, 2019)

O'Connor has been challenging the idea of what grading should be for many years; in fact, the first edition of How to Grade for Learning came out two decades ago.  This book is likely the most "dense" and longest on this list, but it is chock full of very useful examples, anecdotes, and templates. I would argue that the principles laid out in the book are critical for moving to competency-based learning, as you need strong, clear, and consistent standards-based grading (SBG) practices to get there.  As I discussed in a previous entry, you need teachers and admin to understand the limits of traditional points / percentage / letter based grading and how SBG is more effective for learning.  O'Connor expertly leads you through that shift.  I especially appreciate how he devotes whole chapters to looking at how to calculate grades beyond merely averaging numbers (for example, Chapter 5: Emphasizing More Recent Evidence).  Make sure classroom teachers have a chance to discuss key excerpts!


4. Transforming Schools Using Project-Based Learning, Performance Assessment, and Common Core Standards by Bob Lenz with Justin Wells and Sally Kingston (2015)

Transforming Schools was one of the earliest books I read on my CBE journey, as I was learning how instructional classroom models like project-based learning fit into a bigger transformative educational system.  (This is something not to be glossed over; through communication and strategic planning, your journey to a CBE system should make clear how competency-based learning is not "one more thing on your plate" but instead becomes the plate where personalized learning, PBL, blended learning and other initiatives smoothly "sit" on and build toward.)   Lenz and his contributors do an excellent job of sharing their narrative of how they changed learning at one school, which then evolved into a system of transformative schools (Envision Learning).   The book also helped me think more deeply about the importance of advisory scheduling, graduate profiles, and students doing defenses of learning.  Bonus: it includes a DVD with video clips!


5.  Breaking with Tradition: The Shift to Competency-Based Learning in PLCs at Work by Brian M. Stack and Jonathan G. Vander Els (2018)

Stack and Vender Els write from the perspective of principals "doing the work" in New Hampshire, a state well known for its CBE leadership.  (In fact, Stack is still principal at Sanborn Regional High School.)  As the subtitle suggests, it is important to invest wisely and deeply in the professional development of your staff as you shift away from traditional practices, and Stack and Vander Els insightfully outline a successful way to navigate that process.   Helpful examples of competency frameworks, as well as how they were created, are shared in detail.  I also appreciated the book's discussion of what intervention and enrichment looks like in a CBE system, so students can truly "move when ready."  Lastly, both Transforming Schools and Breaking with Tradition explain the need for change in performance assessment practices, and the urgency for creating new performance assessments that better match competency-based learning. 


Bonus: Learning Supercharged: Digital Age Strategies and Insights from the Edtech Frontier by Lynne Schrum with Sandi Sumerfield (2018).

I briefly discussed this book in a previous entry.  While technically not a "CBE book," I found Learning Supercharged to be highly useful when connecting CBE related pedagogies with best practices in blended learning.  Chapters on makerspaces, project-based learning, personalized learning and more allow you to see how crucial digital tools will be when creating an effective "transfer task" culture of mastery learning.


Honorary Mentions of other CBE authors and websites:

• Rose Colby.  Colby has been talking about CBE for at least a decade and she is often quoted, including in many of the books above.   Her 2017 book Competency-Based Education: A New Architecture for K-12 Schooling is a recent example of her work.
• Chris Sturgis.  Besides writing the forward to Breaking with Tradition, Sturgis is an author of many influential white papers on CBE; she also helped launch CompetencyWorks, itself an important online resource.
• Aurora Institute (formerly iNACOL).  The site, and its related conferences, continues to be a leader in sharing and discussing the work of CBE and the educators behind it.   As a starting point, read its updated definition of CBE published in November 2019. 

What are some significant CBE books you have read?  Please share in the Comments below!

Full disclosure:  Over the last few years, Shelby County has nurtured both one-time consultancies as well as ongoing partnerships with several of the authors and organizations mentioned above.