The Creative Classroom with John Spencer
John Spencer is passionate about seeing schools embrace creativity and design thinking. In this podcast, he explores the intersection of creative thinking and student learning.
Rank #1: Empowered Teachers Empower Students.
I have a bobble head of myself on the bookshelves in my office. It’s a bit of an Easter egg that you can find in some of my videos. On the surface, this item seems arrogant and excessive. And yet, I didn’t buy the bobble head. I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t even realize it was possible to create a custom bobble head for everyday people. However, it was a gift from my friend Chad. See, Chad was our tech director. After my seventh year in the classroom, I chose to become an instructional coach, mostly to work on Chad’s team. When other leaders asked “why?” Chad would say “Why not?” He loved to experiment with new ideas and pilot new projects. When Javi wanted to redesign the traditional summer school, Chad brought a team together to transform it into a STEAM camp for ELL students. When I wanted to create a blended professional development platform, Chad asked me for a proposal and then met with me to help me learn how to create it from a place of empathy. Early the next year, when I moved back into the classroom, Chad came by with the bobble head doll. He said, “If a guy who can hit a ball with a stick gets a bobble head doll, you deserve one, too. Keep it up in the classroom as a reminder that you’re impacting lives, even when it doesn’t feel like it.” Like a few other leaders I’ve had, Chad empowered teachers to empower students. He continues to do this as a principal. Chad creates an environment of “goofing off.” On the surface, this might seem frivolous. It might even seem like he’s not taking his job too seriously. But it is part of a larger philosophy of reducing fear and encouraging innovation. I’m not an expert on leadership. At both the K-12 and university level, I have avoided formal leadership positions. But I do know this much about leadership — I know which qualities I look for in a leader. I know that the years when I have empowered my students the most have been the years that I felt the most empowered as an educator. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the go, just click on the audio below or subscribe via iTunes/Apple Podcasts (ideal for iOS users) or Google Play and Stitcher (ideal for Android users). http://www.spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/empowered-teachers.mp3 Big Idea #1: There Is No Instruction Manual for Teaching Often, in working with pre-service teachers, someone will ask about the “right” way to do something. The educational system throws around words like “best practices” and “highly qualified,” but it doesn’t really work that way. There is no guidebook or instruction manual or how-to video for how to be a great teacher, because ultimately teaching is a craft. The hard part is that it takes years to perfect. The process is often messy and confusing. There are so many moments where, as a teacher, you’ll doubt yourself. You’ll get frustrated. You’ll feel like improvement is slow. It’s harder, still, when you screw up. I still cringe at the moments when I yelled at a class or shamed a student and I’m still amazed at how quickly students forgave when I apologized. And yet . . . All of those mistakes were a part of learning the craft. That’s the beauty of it. There is no instruction manual. There is no codified list of best practices. That means you get to explore like an astronaut. You get to experiment like a scientist. You get to design like an engineer. You get to make like an artist. Like any other craft, it takes a lifetime to perfect. There’s no point where you “have arrived.” As a creative teacher, you’re always exploring, always experimenting, always innovating. I feel weird writing that, because I’m a professor and not a K-12 teacher. However, after teaching for three straight days and jotting down notes of what went well and what I would improve, I’m struck by the fact that I’m still learning this craft. I’m still growing. And it’s so fun. Big Idea #2: We Still Need Blueprints When I taught social studies, I worked collaboratively with my friend Javier to design project-based units for our middle school students. I used to love experimenting with new ideas, like Socratic circles or curation projects or digital journalism. However, when I moved into self-contained (teaching all subjects), I suddenly faced a new challenge: scripted curriculum. Not only did I have to teach the standards but I was supposed to follow a step-by-step recipe for language arts and math. This was the opposite of being empowered. Although I was an expert on the content and I had a solid understanding of pedagogy, I was reduced to an actor reading a script. Despite my knowledge of my students and their interests and personalities, I had to follow the processes of a curriculum designer I didn’t know; all with the goal of passing the test. I felt like an artist being told I had to paint by numbers. I don’t want to paint by numbers. However, I actually geek out on curriculum. I love borrowing materials from multiple sources and mashing them up together. I love sharing ideas and learning new strategies. I even love recipes. It’s just that I want to be able to take the recipe and modify it. I want to experiment with multiple recipes and see what works. I want to be able to create a cool fusion dish with flavors from all over the place. In other words, as educators, we need blueprints rather than instruction manuals. If you’re geeking out over design thinking frameworks (like Stanford d.school or LAUNCH) or if you’re getting into the PBL Works project-based learning framework, you’re using a road map. But you’re not using an instruction manual. Design thinking and project-based learning aren’t about formulas. They can’t be distilled down into step-by-step directions. They are meant to be adjustable frameworks rather than packaged curriculum. Instruction manuals fail because we are deeply human and messy. There are no average students. Every student is different. This is why formulas fail. There are simply too many variables at work. Teaching is inherently relational and that means it’s always changing. It’s why great teachers are always experimenting. But this requires teachers to be empowered to be innovators. Big Idea #3: Teachers Are at the Heart of Innovation When I first started working on my new book Vintage Innovation, I asked members of my newsletter to fill out a Google Form if they were willing to share their classroom stories of things like PBL, student philosophy chats, lo-fi maker projects, and service learning. Within a two days, I had over a thousand submissions. I tried my best to coordinate interviews but I simply couldn’t gather all the stories. Each time I interviewed a teacher, they would say, “I’m not very innovative. There are a lot of people who do this.” Perhaps. But the sheer number of teachers experimenting and taking creative risks doesn’t make the act any less innovative. It just points to the reality that teachers are at the heart of innovation. This is a core idea of vintage innovation. If you are a teacher, you are an innovator. You are the experimenter trying new strategies. You are the architect designing new learning opportunities. Apps change. Gadgets break. Technology grows obsolete. But one thing remains: teachers change the world. And one way to do this is through a vintage innovation approach. With vintage innovation, teachers ask: How do I innovate when I don’t have the best technology? How can I use vintage tools, ideas, and approaches in new ways? How can I use constraints to spark creativity? How do I blend together the “tried and true” with the “never tried?” It’s not about the technology. Vintage innovation redefines relevance as “better and different” rather than “flashy and new.” Relevance isn’t about using the latest available technology. It’s about solving the latest problems by leveraging whatever technology works best. In this sense, vintage innovation is all about the overlap between the best practices and next practices: If we go with best practices alone, we end up with stagnation. Nothing ever changes. If we go with next practices, we end up with novelty and an endless pursuit of the latest fads. But this overlap recognizes the role of the classic and the vintage and the years of experience that a teacher brings to the table. All of these things are a part of the “best practices.” But this overlap also recognizes the need to experiment and take creative risks and discover knew ideas. These are the elements of “next practice.” However, this overlap requires teachers to be empowered as designers and makers and experimenters and experts in their craft. Seven Ways to Empower Teachers The following are a few ways that leaders can empower teachers: Honor teacher expertise. In 2013, I got the opportunity to speak at the White House for the Future Ready Summit. I was teaching middle school journalism and STEM at the time and I felt like an imposter when I showed up. But to my surprise, most of the speakers and panelists were actually current classroom teachers. It was a powerful message from the Office of Educational Technology that teachers would be viewed as experts. This is why I love seeing current classroom teachers write books or give keynotes. Find the blueprints and tools. Although teachers don’t need recipes or paint-by-numbers directions, there is still value in finding the blueprints they can use as instructional designers. Some of the most innovative teachers I know are curators of ideas, tools, and blueprints. It might be a set of strategies from Making Thinking Visible or it might be the PBL works protocols for project-based learning. In the case of vintage innovation, I have offered the toolbox and the free Getting Started with Vintage Innovation eBook that you can download at the bottom of this page. I do the same with design thinking and PBL. Provide experiences for sharing ideas. I love the un-conference movement, popularized by ed camps. Here, teachers can engage in a free, democratic exchange of ideas. This is why I also love the mastermind structure. Unlike an un-conference, a mastermind group is deliberately private and highly structured. Each member has a chance to share an idea or a problem and the other members provide advice, ask questions, or give encouragement. I’m a member of three different mastermind groups and they have been life-changing for me. Give teachers voice and choice in their own learning. For two years, I ran a blended, personalized professional development program. Teachers set goals and then attended PD of their choosing. Some of the PD was online with mini-courses or video recordings of master teacher lessons. Others met in person with short courses, weekly trainings, or workshops. Some groups chose to do book studies. However, the whole program was teacher-led and teacher organized. Using before and after surveys, we found that this voice and choice in professional learning correlated with an increase in teacher self-efficacy. Engage in action research. Another option is to have teachers engage in their own action research. Here, they engage in professional learning while also experimenting in their own contexts. Honor teacher autonomy. This is the idea of shared leadership. Instead of sharing responsibilities or delegating, the best leaders are able to empower their teachers by letting them help design systems and make key decisions. It bothers me when a principal says “I’m the instructional leader at my school.” Wrong. You are the facilitator of instructional leadership. Your teachers collectively have immense instructional knowledge. It’s your job to empower them to take it to the next level. Give teachers the permission to fail. Cultivate a community of creative risk-taking by de-emphasizing standardized test scores. Let them know that it’s okay if lessons don’t look perfect when they’re starting out with PBL or design thinking. This is by no means an exhaustive list. It Begins with Teacher Ownership Right now, teachers all over the world are meeting in small groups, doing book studies to refine their practice. Without prompting from a district or a principal, they are are taking ownership of their learning. They own their learning. Go to Twitter at any given moment and you’ll see teachers wrestling with big ideas, engaging in deep discussions about how to transform their practice. Some of these are formal chats. Others are doing it informally. They own their learning. Meanwhile, teachers are making things from scratch. They are experimenting with new ideas, diving deep into the maker culture, and building new things. They own their learning. These teachers are reading books and blog posts. They’re watching YouTube videos to get ideas. But they aren’t treating this as instruction manuals so much as road maps. There’s a key difference there. An instruction manual is about requiring, a road map is about inspiring. Instruction manuals demand compliance. Roadmaps inspire possibilities. In writing Vintage Innovation, I did not create an instruction manual. Instead, I shared tools and ideas and stories, with the knowledge that educators don’t need recipes. We need tools. If you buy the book, my hope is that I have shared something useful for you in your teaching craft. Check Out the Book This is the third article in a series about vintage innovation. Parts of this blog post include excerpts from my upcoming book Vintage Innovation, which will be released in January. It will be a highly visual, engaging reading. I’ll also be releasing the free Vintage Innovation Toolbox sometime in early January. For early access to the toolbox and for updates about the book, please fill out the form below: The post Empowered Teachers Empower Students appeared first on John Spencer.
Rank #2: 4 Myths About the Future of Education.
A decade ago, I watched a local school district purchase hundreds of interactive whiteboards. Hailed as the ultimate solution for student achievement, teachers attended flip chart trainings. The school district purchased packaged curriculum promising huge results. Specialists observed classrooms to see if teachers were implementing the interactive whiteboards with fidelity. Now, many of those interactive whiteboards are being torn out and classrooms are re-installing physical whiteboards because dry erase markers are fast, efficient, and flexible.However, this isn’t an isolated case. I’ve watched ed tech gurus hail the promise of netbooks, 1:1 devices, and adaptive learning programs. These were supposed to be the future of learning. We’ve since moved on to artificial intellgence, which will deliver the precise learning in a leveled, personalized way. Add to this virtual reality and augmented reality and you’ll have the classroom of the future.However, A.I. won’t transform learning. Tablets won’t transform learning. Neither will virtual reality headsets. The truth is none of these things are the future of learning.Innovation is all about the role of the teacher as the designer of learning experiences. Always has been. Always will be.Listen to the PodcastIf you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the go, just click on the audio below or subscribe via iTunes/Apple Podcasts (ideal for iOS users) or Google Play and Stitcher (ideal for Android users).http://www.spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Podcast-1820-7.41-PM.mp3 Four Myths About Innovation in EducationIt’s easy to get cynical about the false promise of interactive whiteboards. But the truth is, it’s easy to get sucked into the mythology of futurism. I once tried to create a “paperless classroom” only to find that true innovation is almost always a mash-up. The truth is I love technology. I just reached level 40 in Pokemon Go today. I’m constantly amazed by what I can do on my MacBook Pro. If I’m not careful, I can slip into a place where I confuse novelty with innovation. With that in mind, I want to explore some of the myths about innovation in education.Myth #1: Innovation Is All About the TechnologySchools have spent millions of dollars on cutting edge applications, new initiatives, and state-of-the-art technology. Technology futurists have promised that the “next best thing” will revolutionize learning forever. In some cases, we’ve heard that the technology will actually replace teachers. Experts said this about videotapes and laser discs decades ago. Later, we heard about this with the internet, with adaptive learning platforms, and now with Artificial Intelligence. But the focus on technology fails to address the human and social nature of learning.Reality: Innovation Is About Deeper LearningMuch of the technology you have in your classroom will be obsolete in a decade. While these tools have great potential, they mean nothing if they don’t lead to deeper learning. For example, I’ve seen hyperdocs that are essentially digital worksheets. When I got an interactive whiteboard, I honestly used it mostly as a projector. When I had netbooks, I had assignments where they were essentially high-priced notebooks. Meanwhile, I’ve visited classrooms where students printed really cool things on 3D printers but I later found out that they barely modified a preexisting template.In many cases, older tools actually lead to deeper innovations in learning:We can’t predict the future. We don’t know what world our students will inhabit. But we do know that deeper learning will help them develop the soft skills that will last a lifetime. In a world of constant change, students will need to be divergent thinkers. In a world of Artificial Intelligence, students will need to be philosophers. One thing computers lack is wisdom. They are inherently programmed, which is why our students need to think philosophically. In the digital world, students will need to use analog tools. Similarly, in an automated world, students will need to do physical prototyping. In a connected world, students will need to be empathetic. The best design is often fueled by the deeply human element of empathy. When students learn empathy, they become better collaborators and communicators. But more importantly, they become better humans. In a world of instant information, students will need to be curators In a globalized world, students will need to embrace the local In a world of virtual reality, students will need to study nature In a distracted world, students till need to engage in deep work In a world of infinite possibilities, our students will need to be curious. As the teacher, you are the heart of innovation. You are the architect designing epic projects. You are the experimenter trying new things. Nobody writes a thank you letter to a worksheet provider but they will go to great lengths to find that teacher who changed their world forever!Myth #2: We should go “back to the basics”So if technology didn’t fix everything, does that mean we throw out new technology? Do we avoid new research? Do we bring learning back to the “good old days?” This is the myth of the the “back to basics” reaction to technology. The truth is the “good old days” didn’t work for many students — especially those with challenges or those learning English. There were and continue to be racist and unjust systems we need to change. I never want to slip into the trap of nostalgia.But more than that, there are great new tools, ideas, and approaches that we shouldn’t avoid simply because they are new. We should by all means geek out on these tools and the creative and connective capacity that they offer.Reality: we need new ideas, approaches, and toolsAs educators, we need to be open to change. We need to pay attention to the newest research. We need to experiment and try new strategies in our own classes. In terms of technology, we need to recognize that technology can offer amazing possibilities. We can research, connect with experts, create amazing digital content, and share it with an audience. We shouldn’t avoid newer, innovative approaches simply because they are new. We shouldn’t retreat into a fear-based traditionalism. Instead, we should embrace both the old and the new. We should explore what it means to mash-up the two together (and idea I explore later in this article).Myth #3:We should focus on the futureWe live in an era of rapid change. Information is now available at a rate that was unprecedented a few decades ago. Social media makes it easier to connect than ever before. We are just beginning to experiment with augmented reality and virtual reality and we have no idea what machine learning and artificial intelligence will hold for the future. Given these realities, many schools and districts have focused on the future. More coding classes. More STEM or STEAM or MEATS (if you rearrange the words). But there’s a danger in futurism. Because it’s so uncertain, we can easily slip into a place where we are focusing on the wrong skills and strategies only to find that those have become obsolete in a decade or two.Reality: We should focus on timeless skillsInstead of focusing on the future, we should focus on the timeless skills that will last a lifetime. It’s interesting that the top skills that Google looks for in employees (based on their Project Oxygen report) were not coding or even engineering. They were timeless soft skills, like like being a problem-solver, being teachable, communicating effectively, having empathy, and making connections between seemingly unrelated ideas. In other words, we should be preparing students for the type of skills that computers will never be able to do — the deeply human soft skills.Myth #4: Veteran Teachers Are Less InnovativeThere’s a common myth that veteran teachers are less innovative than new teachers. I see this mindset whenever I hear people say, “we have a very veteran staff so they are stuck in their ways.” Another version of this is, “We need some new blood in here to add some fresh ideas.” Not only does this smack of ageism, it simply isn’t true.This is an idea I explored in my latest Instagram video: View this post on Instagram This is something that drives me crazy. It’s the idea that somehow veteran teachers are automatically less innovative. I don’t buy it. A post shared by John Spencer (@spencereducation) on Jan 8, 2020 at 12:32pm PST Some of the most innovative teachers I know have been at it for years. Meanwhile, as a professor, I often see risk-aversion with some of the new teachers I work with as a professor. They are more likely to fall back on teaching in the way they were taught. Often, there’s a perfectionist streak that gets in the way of innovation. The bottom line is that innovation doesn’t have a shelf life or an expiration date or an age limit.Reality: Experience Is Vital for InnovationI know of a teacher named Phyllis. She spent over 30 years as an art teacher. I don’t think she would have ever called herself innovative. In fact, the one time I called her that, she laughed and told me she wasn’t “very techie.” But she was incredibly innovative. Each year, she would take her best projects and build on them and iterate and improve them. She had a food truck mindset:Other times, she would experiment and try new things. She would curate ideas from every discipline and mash them up in creative ways — like her epic steam punk bug project. Eventually, Phyllis retired . . . for a summer. Then she switched from art to STEM and continued to innovate. For Phyllis, innovation was the overlap between best practices and next practices:Experience didn’t make her reluctant to innovate. Instead, it made her more innovative. First, it gave her confidence to take creative risks. After honing her craft for years, she wasn’t the least bit insecure about teaching. In addition, her experience gave her a deeper contextual knowledge of middle school. This helped her continue to build empathy with students and thus design newer and better projects. Finally, she knew how to distinguish between innovation and novelty. She knew that relevance wasn’t about the fancy new gadgets or trendy new ideas.Redefining RelevanceIf we want students to become innovators, we need to choose “better and different” rather than “flashy and new.” Relevance isn’t about using the latest available technology. It’s about solving the latest problems by leveraging whatever technology works best.Authentic, long-lasting innovation can’t be found in a new app or a set of slick gadgets or a new system. All of these things are necessary, but they will ultimately grow obsolete. The tools and systems will always remain secondary to the greatest influence of innovation: the teacher.This is a core idea at the heart of vintage innovation:When teachers embrace vintage innovation, they design learning experiences that last forever. They look forward by looking back. They mash-up old-school analog tools with new tools and strategies. Here’s what I mean:VintageModernMash-UpSketchesVideoSketch VideosJournalsBlogsVisual BloggingSocratic SeminarPodcastDebate PodcastsCardboard prototyping3D printerBlended divergent thinking challengeGuest speakersVideo recordingVideo history projectsLo-fi materialsCircuitryTinkering projectsThis is what’s happening right now at NASA. Engineers are using the ancient craft of origami with high-tech tools to design amazing new spacecraft: By empowering students in the present, they prepare them for the future. Apps change. Gadgets break. Technology grows obsolete. But teachers will continue to take creative risks and experiment with new ideas. They will continue to build relationships and inspire new possibilities in their students. When our tools have grown obsolete, teachers will continue to impact lives and change the world. Check Out the Book This is the third article in a series about vintage innovation. Parts of this blog post include excerpts from my upcoming book Vintage Innovation, which will be released in January. It will be a highly visual, engaging reading. I’ll also be releasing the free Vintage Innovation Toolbox sometime in early January. For early access to the toolbox and for updates about the book, please fill out the form below: The post 4 Myths About the Future of Education appeared first on John Spencer.
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