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The How and Why of Listening Effectively Mar 09, 2021

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About this Episode Time Stamps Q&A About our Guests Resources Listening through screen conversations, in-person and even amidst disagreements—why is it so important to really listen? Keystone Education Radio host Annette Stevenson speaks with author Kate Murphy, who discusses her book “You’re Not Listening – What You’re Missing and Why it Matters” and offers tips on honing the art of listening for today’s socially-distant communications and for always. Skip to: 00:49 How did you become interested in writing about the topic and interpersonal skill of listening? “Why did people have so few people in their lives that they felt they could tell things to? And why it was seen as a shameful thing to ask someone, or too much to ask, to have someone listen?” Skip to: 02:50 What lessons does your book offer to today’s educators and students? “The most effective educators and any speaker are the ones that know their audience, the ones that know their students; and that requires listening.” Skip to: 04:48 How would you recommend that we address the impact that this extended experience in front of screens has impacted the kids and how we can help them be better listeners or to continue developing their listening skills? “But I do think when you’re really trying to connect with someone, particularly a student, maybe somebody who’s struggling, or maybe just at the end of the lesson turn off the cameras and let me hear from you, how are you feeling? Let them connect with you just vocally, verbally, tonally.” Skip to: 11:01 Would you explain the importance of listening to others who you may not agree with, and also how you overcome that natural reaction? “Because if you engage higher order thinking, which is what listening is, it’s really trying to understand how that person formed that opinion, how you formed your opinion, and really trying to get to an idea of how they came up with that. Why are they holding firm to that? And that whole process tamps down the amygdala. It makes you less reactive.” “Once you find out how someone formed an opinion, you may ultimately not agree with their opinion, but you get ideas of where you can find points of commonality, where you can reach a consensus, how you can cooperate.” Skip to: 14:46 How can acknowledging biases or those preformed assumptions help us to listen more effectively and subsequently increase our understanding of the other person? “Everybody’s interesting if you ask the right question. And so that’s really a key to being a good listener is to really keep your mind open and know this person knows something I don’t and I want to find out what it is. And that’s also the fun of it. That’s what makes life really worth living. We’re here to connect with one another. We’re here to discover one another. That’s how we cooperate. That’s how we’ve advanced as a species to really listen and find points of agreement and to really develop each other’s ideas, and to learn and grow from one another.” Skip to: 17:51 All that you’ve covered in your book is certainly applicable prior to COVID and after COVID, and takes on sort of a different shape and form during these past 11 months. “I think survivors of the pandemic will be more aware of the value of close relationships, and as you say, connection. And listening is the best and really the only way to develop and sustain our connections in both good times and bad.” Q: Can you tell me first a little about your background and how you became interested in writing about the topic and the interpersonal skill of listening? A: Well, I’m a long-time journalist, so I’ve always been interested in listening just because that’s really what I see as fundamental to the work that I do. And on top of that, I live in the same world that everyone else does, where I’ve kind of noticed that listening is becoming something of a lost art, and I wanted to find out why that was. And also, just as a journalist, I was noticing increasingly during interviews that people would start telling me very intimate details about their lives and problems that they were having, things wholly unrelated to the interview, and this was happening with such regularity. And I’m talking about pretty breathtaking disclosures. These were people who were very accomplished, had a vast network of friends and family and colleagues; and I wondered why they were telling me. And at the end of the conversation, they would always say, “Thank you so much for listening.” And almost with the same breath they would say, “I’m so sorry,” as if they had asked too much of me and that they weren’t supposed to have someone listen, that it was too much of a chore to ask someone to listen to them. And that really made me want to investigate this a little bit more. Why did people have so few people in their lives that they felt they could tell things to? And also, why it was seen as a shameful thing to ask someone, or too much to ask, to have someone listen? That was really the genesis of it. And yeah, and boy, what a rabbit hole led me down. Quite a bit there. Q: Yeah, I imagine. Interesting that people saw that as like a big ask, a big request. In your book, you write about listening being a foundation to communication and learning. What lessons does your book offer to today’s educators and students? A: Oh, wow. Well, every chapter looks at a different aspect of listening and it gives anecdotes, but also just practical tips on how to be a better listener. And teaching as much as someone is standing before a classroom and trying to impart knowledge, and of course, wanting the students to listen to them, they also need to listen to the student to really figure out where they are, what their level of understanding is, what’s going to get them excited, what motivates them. Really, the most effective speakers, the most effective people who speak to audiences, whether it’s a comedian or a politician, a salesman, and an educator, that the most effective educators and any speaker are the ones that know their audience, the ones that know their students; and that requires listening. And so I think it’s really critical, and not only between the student and the educator but also with their colleagues, with their administrators and crucially also with parents, and really finding out where people are. And that way you can, you can absolutely be better able to impart whatever knowledge, whatever it is that you want the other person to retain. Q: Absolutely a good point, which I think most writers hopefully home in on knowing your audience, but what a kind of salient point with that. You also talk about technology and specifically our dependency on it, our heavy use of technology, social media, our use of digital communications, and how this has caused us to be not as effective or even not as good at listening. With this kind of past year of virtual existence that many have been doing, and certainly the students have been doing virtual learning in many instances, and we’re all spending more time in front of screens, how would you recommend that we address the impact that this experience, this extended experience in front of screens has impacted the kids and how we can help them be better listeners, or to continue developing their listening skills? A: That is so hard. I actually wrote a story recently for the New York Times about how Zoom is really terrible for listening because it’s distorted. The whole nature of video platforms is there are stutters, stops. It’s not like having a normal conversation. Pupils are not having eye contact with you. They’re looking somewhere on their screen but not in your eyes. That you can’t see the little subtle changes in expression because of the smoothing over in the technology to preserve bandwidth. And as a result, the brain, just the primitive part of your brain, is always looking to mirror the other person, where you almost do the same expressions that they do. And when you’re missing all of that information, and they’re very subtle subconscious things that you pick up on when you are having an in-person conversation that are totally missing, and not only missing they’re distorted in a video chat; and as a result, that’s why it’s so tiring and exhausting because your brain is almost on overtime thinking, “What’s going on here? This isn’t right. This isn’t right.” So you’re always trying to overcome that hurdle. And also just by virtue of where the screen is, where the camera is on your laptop, you could be looking down, you could be looking up, and by virtue of that, it signals your brain that person’s haughty, that person’s dejected, that person’s angry, this person sad. It’s not conscious, but it is something that you’re trying to overcome. And don’t get me wrong, I mean, video’s great, particularly I would think in the teaching context when you need to show something, when you’re showing a problem, you’re trying to work out or you’re trying to show something visually, I think that’s very helpful. But in terms of really trying to connect with a student or see where the student is, it’s actually better to turn off the camera and really just listen and pay attention to the tonality of the voice. And there’s also something about just being in the person’s ear, particularly if they’re wearing headphones, where there’s a little bit more of an intimacy to it. By virtue, it’s better to have no visual cues than distorted visual cues. And so if you really want to touch base or check-in with a student, it probably is better not to have them looking at you in that distorted circumstance and you looking at them in that distorted circumstance. To just talk with them, hear each other’s breathing, have that conversation. That I guess would be my first recommendation. And the other is just to be cognizant of that, that that is something, that that’s a hurdle making all of this more difficult. And this is why you’re so tired at the end of the day. Not that teaching is an incredibly exhausting and absorbing profession without the video, but I think this is asking you all to go above and beyond because it is exhausting. It’s causing a literal brain cramp when you’re doing this. I think just having that awareness, that it is a distortion and it is something that you have to overcome and it’s also something your students are having to overcome. You look weird to them. You do. Just like they look weird to you. We’re getting used to it so we’re not really acknowledging it anymore. But just one of the things I found in my book that I thought was absolutely fascinating is that we all have color signatures and that’s the tone of our face. We have all of these blood vessels in our face that have these slightly different variations when we’re talking that match different emotions. And it doesn’t matter what your skin color is, it doesn’t matter about ethnicity or anything. It’s a slight gradation of change in the coloration of people’s faces that matches. You’ve got one color for aggravation and one for joy and one for confusion. You are reading that all the time when you’re talking to somebody. They did these wonderful studies where they showed people pictures with neutral faces, but changed the coloration, gave it a particular emotional color signature and people could, I mean, just nail it every time. What do you think this person’s emotion is? So back to the video, that colorations all messed up. And so you’re missing so much data and also you’re getting distorted data just by how you have the coloration on your screen. So again, it’s just to be really cognizant of all these subconscious things that are happening to you and to the kids. I’m so sympathetic for what you all are trying to do. It’s just, it’s valiant. But I do think when you’re really trying to connect with someone, particularly a student, maybe somebody who’s struggling, or maybe just at the end of the lesson turn off the cameras and let me hear from you, so how are you feeling? Let them connect with you just vocally, verbally, tonally. Q: That’s all very interesting and applicable to classroom scenarios, but way beyond that. Meeting scenarios, our school board officials when they are meeting, professional realm, it’s really applicable across the board. I think it makes everyone have to work a little harder with the verbalization since the kind of facial cues are not as present or as accurate maybe is the right way to say that. A: Maybe also just have the camera focused on whatever you’re teaching. I don’t know if you’re actually showing, if you’re writing or typing or how you’re showing doing lessons, or even like you say, if you’re having a meeting with somebody to have the visuals in the video but not necessarily have it on your face. Q: Interesting. So you also touch in your book on civil discourse and how difficult it is for most people to listen to opposing viewpoints. And so would you explain the importance of listening to others who you may not agree with and you might know you don’t agree with them, but the importance of that? But then also, how you overcome that sort of natural reaction, the difficulty of that? A: Well, it really is a primal reaction. When you engage with somebody or are presented with somebody who has very different views, holds a different belief, opinions, your brain reacts as if it’s being chased by a bear. They’ve done studies, FMRIs where they have people that have very strong beliefs and they actually challenged those beliefs and see what their brains do. And the fight or flight, really absolutely intense fear parts of the brain, get activated. It’s the area called the amygdala. It’s primal and it makes sense in evolutionary terms. Because if you didn’t agree with your people in your tribe, you risk being cast out, and so it’s very alarming and we still have that primitive reaction. And that’s why people get in these horrible fights about things, whether it’s political or it could be something as simple as what is the best sci-fi franchise, Star Wars or Star Trek? That actually ended in an assault and battery charge where people get… Well, I mean, it is. It’s almost that primal reaction of road rage, where someone cuts you off and just how could I have gotten that upset? It’s the same thing. That is what’s happening to us. Now, as far as overcoming that, it is listening. Because if you engage higher order thinking, which is what listening is, it’s really trying to understand how that person formed that opinion, how you formed your opinion, and really trying to get to an idea of how they came up with that. Why are they holding firm to that? And that whole process tamps down the amygdala. It makes you less reactive. And once you do that, you may end up not agreeing with the person, but you will have a better understanding. And after all, we’re only as firm in our convictions as when they’re challenged and when we’re exposed to lots of different ideas. And it’s always best to enter into these conversations as, how could I be wrong, instead of how are they wrong, listening for ways to poke holes in their arguments, but listen for ways that maybe your argument has a flaw in it, which is hard to do and takes some courage. And that’s part of the art of listening is really being open to that and realizing that things aren’t necessarily black and white, and the other person isn’t necessarily evil and you’re not necessarily totally righteous. But that’s the only way you learn. And also once you find out how someone formed an opinion, you may ultimately not agree with their opinion, but you get ideas of where you can find points of commonality, where you can reach a consensus, how you can cooperate. And that’s really the beauty of listening. It firms up your own beliefs and it also leaves you open to figuring out where your beliefs may be flawed and vice versa with the other person, but also finding where’s that ground where we can meet in the middle? Q: It’s so important, so important on so man…

Full show notes at the publisher

Conferencing from afar: NSBA’s 2021 Online Experience connects leaders from across the country Feb 23, 2021

Show notes

In this episode of Keystone Education Radio, host Annette Stevenson speaks with Erina Gilmore, marketing director at the National School Boards Association, about the upcoming NSBA 2021 Online Experience. Erina shares with listeners what attendees can expect at this year’s fully virtual conference including exciting keynotes, diverse topics and digital networking opportunities.

Skip to: 00:57 What are some of the ways that you’ve found, or maybe already implemented to make your events and this upcoming event, more engaging and interactive?

“Another engagement opportunity is the mindfulness area. During breaks, attendees can meditate and do yoga.”

Skip to: 02:01 Attendees will be able to choose from 64 concurrent sessions across nine tracks. How do the topics and tracks fit into this year’s theme for the event?

“This event is all about the attendee experience, and providing new ideas, inspirations and the tools needed for our attendees to drive their district forward.”

Skip to: 02:44 What else is new from NSBA in this conference or any of your other upcoming professional development opportunities?

“And this is more than just a saving’s opportunity. It’s an opportunity for team building and cross-functional learning.”

Skip to: 03:30 With respect to your event, how do the virtual networking and discussion sessions work? Do they allow for the kinds of exchanges that attendees would typically like to have if the event were in person?

Skip to: 04:16 Any sneak peeks you can give us into any of the keynotes, or the speakers, or the topics, anything attendees can look forward to?

“And we are really excited that Leslie Odom Jr. will be performing a couple songs for us.”

Skip to: 06:05 Can you describe to our members in Pennsylvania who may not have attended the NSBA event before, what they stand to gain from joining in a national conference event?

“. . . school district leadership teams, business officials and staff from around the country can receive the insight and training to address current trends and the instructional needs of students, and to explore solutions that improve the efficiency of district operations on a national level.”

Skip to: 06:59 What do you recommend for those interested in attending? Where should they start? Do they need to pre-select tracks and sessions? And if so, how do you suggest the best way is to go about doing that?

” . . . access the platform in advance, set up your profile and create a customized agenda.”

Q: While virtual events have obviously become far more commonplace and frequent in this past year than ever before, what are some of the ways that you’ve found, or maybe already implemented to make your events and this upcoming event, more engaging and interactive?

A: Online fatigue has already set in for many of us. We chose an event platform that allows attendees to participate in networking sessions, set up meetings with other attendees and chat with peers doing concurrent sessions. Another engagement opportunity is the mindfulness area. During breaks, attendees can meditate and do yoga. And although the conference content will be available on demand for 90 days after the event, we encourage registrants to attend the event live and treat it as an in-person event. Block your calendar, do not approach this as a webinar. And make sure you set time aside to participate and really connect with your colleagues.

Q: Those are all good tactics. You’re absolutely right. Treat it not like a webinar, but like you’re literally at a live event. Sounds like good advice. Attendees will be able to choose from 64 concurrent sessions across nine tracks. How do the topics and tracks fit into this year’s theme for the event?

A: This event is all about the attendee experience, and providing new ideas, inspirations and the tools needed for our attendees to drive their district forward. This year’s programming reflects topics education leaders have identified as vital to their work. From educational equity, to new board member training and school board and superintendent relations. To business operations and school safety. There’s relevant content for every district team member.

Q: That sounds really like some good foundational learning for this year and really going forward. What else is new from NSBA in this conference or any of your other upcoming professional development opportunities?

A: For the first time, we are offering district team pricing for the annual conference. Districts can save up to 50% off registration. For the traditional in-person cost of attendance, districts can register a full team of nine people. And this is more than just a saving’s opportunity. It’s an opportunity for team building and cross-functional learning. We really hope districts take advantage of bringing their entire board, their superintendent, business official and other members of their team.

Q: Connectivity in the virtual space has certainly been a topic that everyone’s been talking about. How does it differ from in-person? With respect to your event, how do the virtual networking and discussion sessions work? Do they allow for the kinds of exchanges that attendees would typically like to have if the event were in person?

A: Absolutely. Attendees can participate in Mindshare and Mingle. That is an opportunity to make new connections and share insights and experiences about what you have learned over the past year. These discussions will take place in regional networking rooms. And then we also have conversation starter, is another virtual networking opportunity. Attendees are encouraged to network in these small group meetups and share their perspectives on trending topics.

Q: It sounds like it’s coming as close to that in-person interaction as possible, which I’m sure attendees will really appreciate. Any sneak peeks you can give us into any of the keynotes, or the speakers, or the topics, anything attendees can look forward to?

A: We currently have Leslie Odom Jr, Tony and Grammy award winning artist and headline performer in the original cast of Broadway’s Hamilton. And we have Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage and founder of GoodThink, Incorporated as our keynotes this year. And we are really excited that Leslie Odom Jr. will be performing a couple songs for us. In addition, we also have several equity counsel signature speakers. They include Princeton University professor and author Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sonia Nazario, actor and arts and education advocate Tony Plana, and adolescent health expert Steven Soroka. And this year, everyone can attend the equity council sessions at no charge.

These sessions are usually fee-based and limited to equity council members. For more information about these impactful and aspiring speakers, you can read the American School Board Journal, special conference preview, which is available online now. And just to note, ASBJ [American School Board Journal] is celebrating its 130th anniversary, making it the longest running education publication in the nation. So be sure to visit our website and check out the latest issue.

Q: That sounds like a lot of years of issues of that publication. So that sounds like you have a fantastic lineup, honestly. Really, really some great stuff packed into those days. PSBA and NSBA have obviously had a long-standing partnership. Can you describe to our members in Pennsylvania who may not have attended the NSBA event before, what they stand to gain from joining in a national conference event? What do they stand to gain and benefit that’s maybe different than a state level event?

A: Each year, NSBA hosts the largest networking conference for school board leaders worldwide. NSBA’s annual conference is one of the few, if not only places, school district leadership teams, business officials and staff from around the country can receive the insight and training to address current trends and the instructional needs of students, and to explore solutions that improve the efficiency of district operations on a national level.

Q: It’s that broader connectivity across states that they’re going to be able to experience. Sounds great. What do you recommend for those interested in attending? Where should they start? Do they need to pre-select tracks and sessions? And if so, how do you suggest the best way is to go about doing that?

A: The event platform will be available one week prior to conference. We recommend registering early so that you can access the platform in advance, set up your profile and create a customized agenda. In the meantime, you can visit nsba.org/nsba2021 to view the Schedule-at-a-Glance, sessions descriptions or to download the brochure. The early bird saving registration deadline ends February 26th, so register now to save.

Erina Gilmore, marketing director of NSBA

Erina Gilmore serves as the marketing director of NSBA, where she is responsible for building integrated campaigns for revenue-generating products, services and events. She develops strategies to maximize effectiveness and enhance visibility and engagement.

The post Conferencing from afar: NSBA’s 2021 Online Experience connects leaders from across the country appeared first on Keystone Education Radio.

Empowered Educators: Immersing Students in Subjects Feb 09, 2021

Show notes

About this Episode Time Stamps Q&A About our Guests Resources Meet Joe Welch, a middle school history teacher from the Pittsburgh area whose creative and adaptive methods are not only energizing his students but taking colleagues from running-on-empty to feeling inspired. Keystone Education Radio host Annette Stevenson speaks with Joe to learn how this educator is using experiential education to equalize, engage and cause students to ask, “Why?” Skip to: 00:57 Can you first start by telling us a little bit about your career in teaching? “If I had to quickly summarize, it’s been really just a career that I’ve looked forward to continue growing and will do so in the future.” Skip to: 02:12 Can you tell us a little bit about the attention you’re getting for some of the creative ways to fill your classrooms empty seats while students are learning from home? “Not only did it lead to that historical conversation, it was also another pathway, as I said earlier, to get students to smile in a time that had a lot of uncertainty.” Skip to: 05:41 Do you see a difference in teaching the curriculum this way over years past or would this just fall into the category of that, each year looking for a new way to teach and that year over year evolution? “And I tell students, it’s not what you know it’s what you can do with what you know. How can you communicate your thoughts to maybe somebody that doesn’t agree with you, to somebody that doesn’t understand you?” Skip to: 07:29 What are some other ways that you’ve changed your approach to instruction throughout this year of remote teaching? “I think many teachers, our gas levels are sometimes around E. But it became this way to refill ourselves.” Skip to: 10:38 In what ways have you made connections with fellow teachers during this pandemic and particularly around some of these inventive approaches that you’ve been using? “When we come out of this post-COVID world, we’re going to hit the ground running. And I don’t really mean that with teacher speak, I really do mean that we can come out of this with an opportunity to take these positives and move forward.” Skip to: 13:36 Is there anything that you think you definitely want to hang on to and incorporate even going forward when things resume normalcy? “…equity is now such a piece that has come to the forefront when I am delivering whatever type of lesson it is.” Q: Can you first start by telling us a little bit about your career in teaching? A: Absolutely. It’s hard to believe how fast time does fly. I always still consider myself a young teacher but I’m in my 14th year of teaching here in North Hills, so I’m now middle of the pack if I had to put that out there. But really, I’ve spent my entire career teaching social studies here at North Hills Middle School. Actually, we started off as a junior high so we’ve seen that evolution from the junior high experience to the middle school. I don’t want to call it a movement but the reawakening of the middle school experience. And throughout my entire career, I’ve really been blessed to have supportive administration, supportive school boards, really supportive colleagues that have put me in positions to continue to grow and continue to learn and not just learn from my colleagues but also to be able to give back and participate in trainings and developments, not just in-house in district but also seeking out colleagues from all around Pennsylvania and really all throughout the United States and the world. So if I had to quickly summarize, it’s been really just a career that I’ve looked forward to continue growing and will do so in the future. Q: That’s great. Obviously you said you’ve been teaching for 14 years but this school year has been anything but traditional, but it seems that you view it as a motivating factor to change things up. Can you tell us a little bit about the attention you’re getting for some of the creative ways to fill your classrooms empty seats while students are learning from home? A: Oh, certainly, this year is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. And I think in many ways it’s a cliché but in many ways obviously it’s true, and it’s been stated time and time again. And I know myself and my colleagues every year, we’re looking to change things up. How can we improve? And this year’s really no different, it’s just coming in with that mindset of how can we spur more student conversations? How can we do things a little bit better than last year? How can we be more equitable than last year? And so, walking into this school year, looking around it really from a physical standpoint — obviously with physical distancing and social distancing and having to have kids spread out — I knew that I was not going to have my full classes in and that’s why I had the idea really thinking about, “Well, how can I make students want to smile? How can we make them physically feel like this is a… I don’t want to say a normal classroom, but a normal classroom experiences as much as possible.” But also, I open my class every school year with a simple question, as a history teacher, I ask them, “What does American history look like to you?” And I ask students at the start of the year, “Can you draw this? Draw what you think American history is.” And that always leads to some great conversations about what is and what isn’t American history or how we think of it. And I thought that by putting some craftsmanship together here and putting some cardboard cutouts and some images of American icons. For that matter people that they don’t know who it is that’s sitting next to them in my seats, it would accomplish multiple things more so than just the physical standpoint of, “Hey, there’s somebody in my seat, so I can’t sit here. Who’s Frederick D? Why is he sitting next to me? I know Abraham Lincoln, he must be this popular guy but do they have some relationship?” And it really has spurred that conversation in my classroom throughout the entire year. I did this back in August, “Okay, why are these people significant? Don’t just accept that American history is only George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, what about all of these other people? And then who else can we add to this conversation?” So it’s really been a gift, that they call it a gift that keeps on giving, it really has been a contributing factor throughout the year. Q: So you’ve physically got these historical characters sitting there and what a great, prompter of discussion. A: Admittedly, when the students first came in the first week of school, I think they were a little bit puzzled, “What is going on here?” Because they may have seen it at sporting events. But I did have a little fun as well. I had some different administrators and different staff members from around the district. So not only did it lead to that historical conversation, it was also another pathway, as I said earlier, to get students to smile in a time that had a lot of uncertainty. Q: Yeah, absolutely. That’s for sure needed. So you’ve talked a bit about the students’ reaction when they first came into classroom and the types of conversation that it sparked. And so, do you see a difference in teaching the curriculum this way over years past or would this just fall into the category of that, each year looking for a new way to teach and that year-over-year evolution? A: I certainly think that it’s as you said, a year-after-year evolution or revolution however we would want to call it. But I think bringing these cardboard cutouts, it was a small gesture that I could make or a small piece but it can miss the overall philosophy that the students they want to engage with history, they want to engage with any curriculum, whether it’s a math class or a science class, they want to feel part of it and immersed in it and really want to have that ability to ask questions of, “Why are we learning this? Why am I sitting next to Frederick Douglas or why is it significant?” But the cardboard cutouts as I said, it was a small piece to that. But just going with this entire philosophy of, how can I. And I tell students, it’s not what you know it’s what you can do with what you know. How can you communicate your thoughts to maybe somebody that doesn’t agree with you, to somebody that doesn’t understand you? And so, all of this just builds up to that entire philosophy of how can you communicate and do it effectively. And that’s what we’ve had to do throughout this entire year as far as thinking outside the box or thinking creatively to still allow students to use their voice and to ask questions and to participate in the entire school year obviously. And to do so as another added opportunity, how can we do that equitably? And so if we call it an evolution yes, but COVID certainly has caused us to expedite that evolution in many ways. Q: Yeah, absolutely. I think in so many respects. What are some other ways that you’ve changed your approach to instruction throughout this year of remote teaching? A: Just like so many schools in Pennsylvania, we’ve had a little remote, we’ve had a little hybrid, we’ve had a little in-person and we don’t know what’s coming next. And ultimately, I’m a firm believer in many of my own learnings, in the power of place. That I want to get students on-site so that they can learn by being places now. With our own model that we’ve had here at North Hills school district, pretty much every Wednesday we’ve had a virtual day and rather than look at that as, this is something that’s prohibitive, “Now, what am I going to do on this Wednesday? Am I just going to… Obviously I don’t want to have students do a worksheet or something along those lines. How can I still be engaging here and let them get to something that maybe they wouldn’t normally have experienced?” So every Wednesday, really throughout the fall, myself and two other colleagues that I teach with in eighth grade are both of my American history colleagues. We started to think, “Can we go around? Pittsburgh is a pretty historic city.” And one of the things that we learn about unfortunately, many of our students, they haven’t been to some of these places that are local to them. Maybe they’re five miles down the road or maybe they’ve been there and they haven’t experienced it yet. So that’s where we started to have this idea of can we start taking these virtual, I don’t want to call them field trips, but road shows. Allowing students and we started off, when we learned about the French and Indian war, we started by going to Fort Duquesne which is really at the crux of the three rivers in Pittsburgh. And then we started to branch out of, “Okay, what’s next?” Then students started saying, “Where are you going next Wednesday?” And it became really this…I think many teachers, our gas levels are sometimes around E. But it became this way to refill ourselves of, “Okay. Yeah, they like this. This is great. This is allowing them to experience something.” So that’s when we started to go out to Ligonier, to Fort Necessity. And then we thought, “Okay, what’s next? Let’s go to Washington, DC.” And we started going to different places around not only Western Pennsylvania but the entire east coast. And we had some additional plans here before some travel restrictions went into place. I know we were looking forward to spending a weekend or at least going up on a Tuesday night to Philadelphia to be able to go to Independence Hall. So we have some things… Hopefully, if the numbers start to go our way, we can continue bringing those experiences to students. That’s just one way that we’ve looked to engage our students and really bring some light out of a negative situation. Q: Yeah. I don’t know, that might become so popular. You might be called upon to do that even when the students returned to in-person. It’s a way to almost accomplish, as you say, maybe you don’t call it a field trip but on-site teaching, something of that nature. That could be something that sticks. That sounds really fun for both you and the students. So how about connecting with fellow teachers? In what ways have you made connections with fellow teachers during this pandemic and particularly around some of these inventive approaches that you’ve been using? A: That’s a great question. Looking back to, even just last spring, I think many teachers felt a term that I’ve seen time and time again was Groundhog Day. Okay. We keep doing the same things over and over and it feels almost like you’re walking in quicksand. How can we collaborate to move forward? And what really has happened is because of that collaboration — and I mentioned earlier, that our gas tanks sometimes get a little in your E but how can you refill it? And I mentioned, students are inspiring, but also just looking around the solutions that other teachers have offered and getting that encouragement. And often for me, it’s through my own professional learning networks, through organizations that I’m involved in. And I know so many teachers are on Twitter and other social media platforms inspiring each other and saying, “Here’s what’s working for you.” Even just asking the question, “What can I do with this lesson? How can I improve this lesson? and being willing. And I think this is across the board for so many teachers, not just in Pennsylvania but obviously throughout the world. But having that humility to say, “Okay, I might not have the best idea here but how can I improve it?” And it’s been really inspiring. And one organization that has really impacted me and network of teachers that I’m involved with, it’s called the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. We saw a need not only to respond and support each other, but we were able to put up a pop-up history school together in the spring for students that may have had seen their history classes, maybe only meeting two days a week. And then from there it grew into, how can we support other teachers? And we had teacher seminars over the summer where we had historians and LEAD scholars from different organizations at different schools throughout prestigious universities that we were able to collaborate with. And I’m looking forward to in the spring, getting back we have another pop-up history school coming back. And this kind of fuel outside of the regular school day, and I keep referring to that term because that’s what it is. I think we’re all looking for that continued inspiration and looking for those networks of other teachers of what’s working, what’s not working, how can we improve? That’s just one example of it. And I think we’re all, for lack of better terms, surviving in many ways but also, we can do that and still continue to learn and continue to push our borders here of what we’re comfortable with. So that way, when we come out of this post-COVID world, we’re going to hit the ground running. And I don’t really mean that with teacher speak, I really do mean that we can come out of this with an opportunity to take these positives and move forward. Q: Yeah. And if you had to think about some of what you’ve learned over this past year, some of these new methods you’ve explored and the new ways that you’ve engaged both teachers and students, is there anything that you think you definitely want to hang on to and incorporate even going forward when things resume normalcy? A: Oh, definitely. And I think the overarching word is equity. I think that this entire experience is not only from a district level, state level but just individual decisions that are made every single day of how I’m approaching a lesson, equity is now such a piece that has come to the forefront when I am delivering whatever type of lesson it is. Is it accessible to every student? Again, using the term “equitable,” am I doing the right things to be flexible to the needs of every student? This experience has given all of us an opportunity to pause as busy as it’s been. And I know everybody has busy schedules but looking into our own lessons and l…

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One District’s Solution: Online Tutoring Offers 24/7 Support Jan 26, 2021

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About this Episode Time Stamps Q&A About our Guests Resources In this episode of Keystone Education Radio, host Annette Stevenson speaks with Richland School District’s Director of Educational Services, Brandon Bailey. Discussion centers around student academic success and Richland School District’s utilization of 24/7 tutoring support to ensure students have help when they need it. Listen-in to hear more about which subjects students are tapping into most and the benefits of round-the-clock supplement to classroom time, whether virtual or in-person. This program is also highlighted on SuccessStartsHere.org. Find it here. Skip to: 01:08 Could you start by telling us a little bit about the district’s instructional models throughout this academic year? “Like everybody else, it’s been a real roller coaster of a school year, and roller coaster since last March 13th, when we were all sent home. We’ve had various instructional models.” Skip to: 02:38 When did you become aware of the need to implement tutoring or a supplemental learning system for your students? “We knew that we were going to have to come up with resources and do things differently than we’ve ever done them before.” Skip to: 03:37 What role has equity played in seeking out these types of services? “That certainly is something that, again, going back to last March, making sure that everyone had internet access, making sure that everybody had access to Chromebooks and tools, make sure that they’re learning online while they’re home, and then making sure that they have the best possible home environment to keep up with everybody else.” Skip to: 04:51 Can you tell us about the organization called PAPER? Skip to: 05:37 Have you seen a difference in student performance? “And, with the pandemic, when our students are learning remotely or in a hybrid model, they need those supports and resources, and they might be learning at different times. And I think that’s one thing that PAPER has brought to the table is that they allow the student to get that extra help whenever it’s best for them.” Skip to: 06:38 Are there certain subjects that are most sought after by your students? “ELA and math are certainly two of the top things, but I’ve seen foreign language, I’ve seen physics, I’ve seen general science, really a lot of different areas that they’re able to help our students with.” Skip to: 07:46 What are some examples of how teachers have used that information to either inform or modify their remote learning or any aspect of how they’re teaching? “It’s allowed our teachers to differentiate their instruction and their expectations for different students.” Skip to: 08:40 Do you think this acts as the extra intuition that they might not have the access to while learning remotely? “I kind of equate it to almost having an extra teacher or a classroom aid in their classroom, because now these students are able to go out and get that extra help. And then, the teacher not only sees the benefit of the student understanding the concept, but they see what it is that their students are struggling with, and they’re getting that feedback from PAPER.” Skip to: 09:16 Would you foresee the benefits of it continuing in the future? “It’s not often that programs kind of go across all of your student population, and that’s what I really like about PAPER is that every one of our students can receive that benefit.” Skip to: 10:33 How did you successfully get the program off the ground and introduce it? “And that’s where I think a growth area for us, is to continue to push that information out and allow all the students to know how effective this can be, especially for our students that are learning remotely that don’t have the resources to be in the classroom right now.” Q: Could you start by telling us a little bit about the district’s instructional models throughout this academic year? What have those looked like? A: Sure. Like everybody else, it’s been a real roller coaster of a school year, and roller coaster since last March 13th, when we were all sent home. But we’ve had various instructional models. To start off the school year, we actually, here in Richland school district, our first 53 days were all on-site, full time, so that was nice. And we were able to get off to a good start to our year. Our area wasn’t as impacted early on, that August, September, October timeframe, as some of the other parts of the state. So, those first 53 days we were all on-site. About 90% of our students were coming to school. About 10% of our students elected to learn remotely, which certainly it was a challenge for them and a challenge for our staff, but we wanted to support them in what mode they wanted to learn. Since then, we’ve been in a combination of all fully-remote and hybrid. Currently, we’re wrapping up a hybrid, where all of our students, K through 12, are attending two days per week then learning from home the other three days per week. We’re actually, on February 1st, scheduled to go back fully on-site once again, and we’re looking forward to having everybody here in school. Q: So, when did you become aware… I mean, certainly, tutoring is not a new program, but when did you become aware of the need to implement some sort of tutoring or supplemental learning system for your students in this present scenario? A: I think it was as early as last March. Our administrative team recognized that this had the potential to be something that was going to really create a divide within the students here in our school and throughout the state and throughout the country. So, we knew that we were going to have to come up with resources and do things differently than we’ve ever done them before. And one of those resources was to create some type of a tutoring program, whether it’s on-site, whether it’s online, and this is just one of the various things that we’re doing to support those kids and also their families, which you’re all going through very difficult times. Q: And is there a role that equity has played in the district, seeking out these types of services? A: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we’re fortunate, first off, most of our students here come from a background where they’re supported at home, but certainly, like all schools, we have a segment of our population that needs a little bit of extra help and assistance to make sure that there is equity there and that they do have the same opportunities as everybody else. So that certainly is something that, again, going back to last March, making sure that everyone had internet access, making sure that everybody had access to Chromebooks and tools, make sure that they’re learning online while they’re home, and then making sure that they have the best possible home environment to keep up with everybody else. We’ve actually, within our school district, we’re a K through six and a seven through 12, we have two buildings, and in each of our buildings, we have taken one of our classroom teachers and pushed them into a remote learning specialist role, where those teachers now are making sure that those students have the resources they need and are keeping up with everybody else. Q: And can you tell us about the organization called PAPER? What has been your experience working with this organization? A: Yeah, I mean, PAPER was something that just took a cold call from a sales rep in September, and it sounded like it was something that would be beneficial to kids, and set up some demonstrations, did our research. It’s a product that is used in Texas and California, but not so much here in our state, in Pennsylvania. So, we had the opportunity to kind of collaborate with them, and they’ve been a great partner thus far, and we really feel that our students and families, and also teachers, are benefiting from the program. Q: So, you’ve seen the impact, or you’ve seen the difference in student performance, do you feel? A: Yeah. I think that all of our students and all of our families know that there’s a 24/7 access. Our teachers aren’t available. Our teachers are phenomenal here in Richland school district, but they’re not available 24/7. And, with the pandemic, when our students are learning remotely or in a hybrid model, they need those supports and resources, and they might be learning at different times. And I think that’s one thing that PAPER has brought to the table is that they allow the student to get that extra help whenever it’s best for them. A lot of our students that learn remotely, we’ll see them go on at 11, 12 at night, sometimes, 1:00 AM 2:00 AM in the morning, getting help. And certainly our teachers here at Richland aren’t probably awake at those times. Q: No, nor should they be. They need to rest up for the next day, I imagine. So, the timing that makes sense, 24/7, are there certain subjects that are most sought after by the students, that you’re noticing? A: Yeah. So, this is relatively new to us at Richland, and like I said, we’re the first school in Pennsylvania to have to partner with PAPER, but for us thus far, we’ve found out that a lot of our students have been getting help in math, whether it’s an elementary math level or AP calculus. We also have really been stressing to our ELA teachers to incorporate PAPER. The neat thing about it is that any type of a writing assignment, you can kind of get another set of eyes on your documents first, or teachers are able to have the kids work on that first draft and then get a set of eyes on it before it even gets turned in and catch some of those errors that might take some more time. So, ELA, math are certainly two of the top things, but I’ve seen foreign language, I’ve seen physics, I’ve seen general science, really a lot of different areas that they’re able to help our students with. Q: And so, since the teachers can see what their students are seeking help with, are there some examples of how teachers have used that information to either inform or modify the remote learning or any aspect of how they’re teaching? A: Yeah, I think it’s really allowed them to differentiate the instruction. As classroom teachers in a typical environment, in a classroom environment, I think it’s challenging, but it’s possible to differentiate in the classroom. When you’re remote, it’s a little bit more difficult to have that differentiation. And I think that PAPER and getting back those reports, and seeing that a student might be struggling in a certain topic or concept, it’s allowed our teachers to differentiate their instruction and their expectations for different students. Q: So, it’s maybe that extra intuition that they might not have the access to by not being in the same classroom with, that extra, little kind of feedback almost? A: Yeah, it’s… I kind of equate it to almost having an extra teacher or a classroom aid in their classroom, because now these students are able to go out and get that extra help. And then, the teacher not only sees the benefit of the student understanding the concept, but they see what it is that their students are struggling with, and they’re getting that feedback from PAPER. Q: Would you foresee the benefits of it going forward, when kind of things normalize, hopefully in the future? Would you see the benefit of it still remaining? A: Yeah, we can definitely see that benefit. Like everything else, you have to make those decisions with what makes sense for your own, individual district. But we’re continuing to grow. This is something that we’ve only been doing now for a couple months. And the great thing about it is, our student that’s going to be the valedictorian, potentially, at the end of the school year is getting great benefit. They’ve gone in and have lots of different interactions with the PAPER tutors, and our just average student that’s going to be the 50th percentile is getting benefit, and our students with IEP, that sometimes struggle in the classroom, they’re also receiving tremendous benefit. So, it’s not often that programs kind of go across all of your student population, and that’s what I really like about PAPER is that every one of our students can receive that benefit. Q: That’s a really widespread benefit. I can see that would be awesome for any district really, with diverse student population, which is all of them. So, as far as the implementation of the program, you said you’re a couple months in, how did you successfully kind of get it off the ground and introduce it? A: Yeah, I mean for us, the great part is, the people at PAPER have been phenomenal to work with. They’ve been alongside us every step of the way, their tech team making sure that our students all have their login information, because basically, anytime they just hop on our website, log in, and they have a tutor there within seconds. So, the implementation was seamless in terms of getting everybody set up, get logged in. The marketing of the program, pushing out emails to families, to students. We have a big social media presence here to make sure that we’re sharing that information, because every student, they’re not all using it at this point, but certainly it’s available for all of them. And that’s where I think a growth area for us, is to continue to push that information out and allow all the students to know how effective this can be, especially for our students that are learning remotely that don’t have the resources to be in the classroom right now. Q: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, thanks for highlighting this program for us. It sounds like it’s working well for your district. I appreciate the insights you’ve shared about it. Any additional thoughts for if other districts are interested? You said that the PAPER support staff has been good to work with, and so that’s where they should connect? A: Yeah. Yeah. Just reach out to the staff at PAPER, and if anybody has questions, I’d certainly be willing to share our experiences here at Richland. And we’re happy with it, and we’re looking forward to continuing to grow, grow the resource within our district. Brandon Bailey After receiving his bachelor’s degree in health policy management from the University of Connecticut in 1996, Brandon Bailey received his teaching certification from Robert Morris University in business and information technology. Mr. Bailey embarked on his teaching career at Richland School District in 1999, teaching courses in business, computer technologies and driver education. He earned his master’s degree in education in 2004 from Saint Francis University, in Loretto, PA, prior to attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2005 where he received his K-12 administrative certification. Mr. Bailey received his Superintendent’s Letter of Eligibility from Gannon University in 2007. After teaching for several years in the Richland School District, he fulfilled roles as the athletic director and assistant principal prior to serving as high school principal at Richland from 2007 through 2018. He has served as the director of educational services for the Richland School District since 2018. During his tenure at Richland School District, the school has been a consistent leader in the four county region consisting of Bedford, Blair, Cambria and Somerset counties. The school has regularly ranked high in student achievement on the PSSA/Keystone Exams and has been recognized by the Pennsylvania Department of Education with the Keystone Achievement Award. The Richland School District has ranked #1 regionally in publications such as US News and World Report, The Pittsburgh Business Times, Niche.com and other publications. Mr. Bailey has a strong background in curriculum development, technology integration and professional development. As a principal, he was a featured presenter at the PA Principals Conference in Pittsburgh. He has led multiple professional development initiatives, including ambitiously preparing every K-12 teacher at Richland to be a Level One Google Certified Educator. Mr. Bailey has been in…

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Engagement, Community & Training for Educators: Data-Driven Approaches to Success Jan 12, 2021

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About this Episode Time Stamps Q&A About our Guests Resources As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, much emphasis has been placed on students’ learning loss and their missed connections and opportunities. But what about missed connections for teachers? In this episode of Keystone Education Radio, host Annette Stevenson speaks with Teaching Lab CEO Sarah Johnson on the important work her organization is doing to support and train teachers as they work to engage students now and going forward. She addresses the scaffolding-up approach, their four distance learning principles, student resiliency and other educator guidance, applicable during remote teaching and in-person. Skip to: 05:35 Your organization places enormous value on shifting the way teachers are trained, which in turn affects the way students are learning. So given this past year, or almost year, of remote learning that many, many students across the nation are experiencing, what has that meant for the teachers that you partner with and for their students in turn? “I think this year, if you have an opportunity, thank a teacher… And I think this year remote learning has exposed how complicated and difficult teaching is… and like any professional endeavor, it’s a joy to engage in, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take time, work and expertise to be excellent at that professional endeavor. And many of the teachers that we worked with this year said that this felt like again, their first year of teaching, which is often the most difficult year of teaching for teachers, because they had to learn to engage students in a completely different modality.” Skip to: 09:26 There has been ample concern and discussion about students falling behind and a significant loss of learning. So how can teachers and administrators address these concerns? “We’re not filling gaps, we’re accelerating the learning… then also do the work of ensuring that [teachers] understand that scaffolding up or accelerating student learning is about putting supports in place for students that are temporary and will be taken away once they’ve mastered the content. Versus scaffolding down, which we see many educators do sometimes unconsciously, which includes removing the rigor of a lesson as we think it might be too difficult for a student, and then never bringing that rigor back for the student. That’s when learning loss happens and that’s when it contributes to these really gross inequities that we have across our nation.” Skip to: 15:47 Is there anything else districts…teachers and administrators should know about how to ensure that learning success once we are returning to an in-person scenario? “I think if we take care of the educators, they’ll be more open to supporting students in a holistic way.” Skip to: 24:58 How are you advising teachers to maintain those strong connections in a time of prolonged separateness, social distancing? “If you build a community where teachers really feel like they’re learning from each other, then they want to come and be a part of that community because it’s going to be very beneficial to them when they go and plan their lessons or teach their students.” Q: So let’s start, if you would, by telling us a little about your background, and how you came to the Teaching Lab and about the objectives of your organization? A: Yeah, absolutely. So I was a passionate high school science teacher. I taught in DC and Oakland, California. And I had a mentor that encouraged me to apply to graduate school and that really changed the trajectory of my life. But some of the reasons why I wanted to apply to graduate school were because I didn’t think we were doing right by students systemically, and I worked at schools where we mostly served black and Latin X students who were experiencing low income. And we would get these students to college, but not through college. And I felt like as a teacher I was often spinning my wheels and not helping to create some of those systemic solutions. I had experiences that a lot of teachers have. I worked all the time, sometimes early in the morning until late at night. I didn’t have a curriculum, so I spent a lot of time creating my own materials. Like most teachers, I spent my money on my own science supplies. I had very little prep time, and therefore I didn’t have a lot of time to collaborate with colleagues. I didn’t have a lot of instructional mentorship. And I saw some of my students suffering because of some of that lack of gross opportunities that I had. And I think some of these systemic failures were leading to reinforcing systemic racism. And so for instance, I remember a student calling me on the phone from college crying and frustrated, and she told me that she was struggling to write essays at the college level. And she asked me, “why didn’t anyone teach me how to write?” And I hold that in my mind and in my heart all the time. And because of some of these early informative experiences, I’ve devoted my life to the pursuit of educational equity, particularly racial equity, and also to professionalizing teaching as an essential lever to get there. And so on that journey, I’ve been a system level leader in New York City. I’ve been a funder. And while I was a funder, I came across a startup called Teaching Lab. Teaching Lab’s mission is to shift the paradigm of teacher professional learning for educational equity. And the early founders of the organization had put together an evidence-based approach for improving teaching and learning, which was very similar to what I had put together as a funding strategy. And so I invested early in the organization, I joined the board. And when we had a leadership transition, I became the leader of the organization. And it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life, because while I’ve been there, we’ve grown from five people on the team to 35 people. We’re now in over 30 districts in the nation. We also have six state partnerships. And the reason why we’re in such high demand is because we have this holistic model of support for teachers that we coin “head, heart and habits.” And the head part of our model refers to how we’re trying to get evidence-based practices into use by teachers. And so we always align our work with high-quality curriculum, because we think that’s a vehicle for getting evidence into practice. The heart part of our model is a differentiator for us and exceptionally important. It refers to the importance of building strong teacher relationships, as well as strong teacher leadership over their own professional learning. And then the habits part of our work refers to how we never do one and done PD, which is generally ineffective and also teachers hate it. I hated it myself. And so our professional learning is always embedded in follow up, or what we call cycles of inquiry, where teachers learn something new directly connected to what they’re doing in the classroom, try it out in their classroom, and then very importantly, come back together with their peers and talk about it, and figure out if the change they’ve made has actually led to an improvement in student learning. Because what we know from getting evidence into practice is that it’s not a recipe. You can’t just pick up an evidence-based practice and make it work. You have to connect that evidence-based practice to the context that a teacher is in, and that context is so important and that is at the heart of teacher professionalization. That teacher judgment, those micro decisions that they make, sometimes thousands a day, are where we want teachers to ground their professional conversations, and then support each other in their continuous learning. Q: Okay. Now that kind of leads into my next question a bit, you’ve touched upon this a little. Your organization places enormous value on shifting the way teachers are trained, which in turn affects the way students are learning. So given this past year, or almost year, of remote learning that many, many students across the nation are experiencing, what has that meant for the teachers that you partner with and for their students in turn? A: Yeah, I mean, I think this year, if you have an opportunity, thank a teacher. They’ve done God’s work this year. And I think this year remote learning has exposed how complicated and difficult teaching is. And we like to say that teaching is rocket science, and like any professional endeavor, it’s a joy to engage in, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take time, work and expertise to be excellent at that professional endeavor. And many of the teachers that we worked with this year said that this felt like again, their first year of teaching, which is often the most difficult year of teaching for teachers, because they had to learn to engage students in a completely different modality. Teaching 30 kids through a screen and a little camera is different than teaching in-person. And so, we shifted at Teaching Lab to support teachers in that endeavor. And so for the first time in our organization’s history, we also shifted the way that we supported teachers, so all of our work was in-person before as well, mostly because of the importance of that heart component of our model and we thought that we had formed stronger relationships in-person. But this gave us an opportunity to learn authentically with educators that were making that shift with their students so we could say, you’re learning how to do this with students, and we’re learning how to do this with you. So let’s learn together. And although it requires time and skill to learn how to teach in this new modality, a lot of what we did was to reassure teachers that the things that they did pre pandemic that worked were the things that they had to do during the pandemic and during remote learning, but in this different modality. So for instance, it’s very important for teachers at the beginning of the year to establish strong instructional routines. And so when you’re in-person teachers will teach students how to enter the classroom, how to start a do now, how to engage in group work, and we advise teachers to spend just as much time doing that in a virtual environment as they would do in-person. And so teach students how to enter the Zoom call. Are they supposed to be on video? Are they so supposed to be un-muted, muted? What kind of materials should they have in front of them? How do you engage parent’s support, especially younger students to be prepared for school? And then additionally, we advise teachers to continue using the same curriculum they were using before. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, figure out how to adapt that to this context. I think one of the most challenging things there was certain districts had restrictions on the amount of time that teachers could spend with students, especially in synchronous time. And so we supported teachers and identifying the highest priority instructional content. And we used materials from student achievement partners where they’ve created these guides for teachers during this time, so that they could focus on the things that students needed to learn the most or the things that were the most important so that they would prevent learning loss going into the next school year. Q: Yeah. And that’s a big topic that I want to ask you about too. With hybrid models, as well as fully remote learning models, continuing for longer than we probably any of us imagined last spring, there has been ample concern and discussion about students falling behind and a significant loss of learning. So how can teachers and administrators address these concerns? And it sounds like you have helped districts map out a plan for how to use existing curriculum, et cetera, but how do you think that potential learning loss could be addressed? A: Yeah, yeah. So we’re all about the whole child, the whole student and the whole system. And like I said at the beginning, we’re about shifting the paradigm of teacher professional learning for educational equity. And so instruction is one lever, and there are others system-wide levers that we need to push on in order to continue to disrupt educational equities across our educational systems. And so I feel like there’s a tendency to get caught up in the dire predictions of learning loss. And sometimes I think it’s too deficit based, and also presents learning loss as this new problem, as opposed to one that has existed for decades. So for instance, when I was a teacher, the majority of my ninth graders entered ninth grade reading on a fifth-grade level. And so, pre pandemic we were supporting educators with stemming learning loss or addressing what we would call unfinished learning. And the way that we do that is by accelerating learning for students. And so we’re not filling gaps, we’re accelerating the learning. And another term that we use is scaffolding up as opposed to scaffolding down. And so what that means is you start as an educator with the grade level content that you expect students to learn and the profound belief that students can learn that content in this modality. And so we actually do a lot of teacher identity and bias work, and we did not stop that through the pandemic, because we didn’t want teacher biases to get in the way of that profound belief that students can learn in this modality. And so for instance, we all come into the classroom with biases about how students should show up, and that’s true in remote learning context too. So if a student says that they can’t be on video that day, maybe we need to believe the student and figure out how to ensure that they keep learning on grade level. We shouldn’t make assumptions about what’s happening in the background of a student’s home, et cetera. And so we do that work with educators, and then also do the work of ensuring that they understand that scaffolding up or accelerating student learning is about putting supports in place for students that are temporary and will be taken away once they’ve mastered the content. Versus scaffolding down, which we see many educators do sometimes unconsciously, which includes removing the rigor of a lesson as we think it might be too difficult for a student, and then never bringing that rigor back for the student. That’s when learning loss happens and that’s when it contributes to these really gross inequities that we have across our nation. For instance, and this is a pre pandemic statistic, that only 40% of our nation’s fourth graders read on grade level by fourth grade. And so everything that I’m saying now, we had to figure out how to do within this new modality, but we have to stay the course and continue on that trajectory related to accelerating student learning, even when students return to the classroom. Q: So it sounds like some of that foundation, or much of that foundation really, was already in place and being utilized for other types of learning loss and other reasons for learning loss. And so, although some transition has taken place, the foundation was there already. Is that accurate to say? A: Or it wasn’t there. Or it was there, and we use this as an opportunity to establish that foundation. But in our partner site that we continue to partnership with from last year to this year. And then we had to help educators translate what they were doing into this new modality. But I mean, this isn’t to say that it’s not different. And so we created at Teaching Lab what we call our Four Distance Learning Principles. And first principle supports educators in prioritizing. So again, if you have limited time with students, you need to prioritize the highest leverage instructional content. Then we had teachers focus on establishing strong instructional routines. And then third, building strong student relationships. And I can give examples of how you can do this over Zoom. And then finally, centering equity in all decision-making, and that includes preventing your own bia…

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When COVID has Many of us Stretched Thin – How to Cope and De-stress Dec 22, 2020

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About this Episode Time Stamps Q&A About our Guests In this episode of Keystone Education Radio, host Annette Stevenson speaks with Dana Guerrero, licensed clinical social worker and mediation and yoga instructor. Annette and Dana discuss strategies to help manage the tough emotions we are all facing in the ongoing climate of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dana offers tips on how to cope with decision fatigue, plus simple breathing techniques and self-care routines we can easily incorporate into our day. Skip to: 02:41 How do you work with individuals? What kinds of areas or why do folks come to you? “I’ve really worked with people on regulating emotional responses to their circumstances, to the way they listen to people, the way they function in their job, the way they respond to crisis” Skip to: 04:18 Anxiety, stress, uncertainty, depression, these are all emotions and states of mind that many people, most people are probably experiencing in some degree and some in a very heightened way this year with all of the challenges. Can you talk to us a little bit about some ways that people can address both sides of those kinds of range of feelings? “Just spend maybe five breaths, breathing in and breathing out, and literally saying to yourself, ‘Today is going to be okay.’” Skip to: 08:53 Are there any ways that these folks can combat self-doubt in decision-making? And not just school leaders, but really anyone in that decision-making seat, how can they combat that kind of doubt that creeps in? “The biggest practice is literally self-forgiveness…practicing flexibility of mind, but also standing firm once you do make a decision.” Skip to: 12:28 As you said, everyone is making critical decisions right now. Those who are coping with that of hanging in the balance of either not having a solution per se or receiving criticism for the decision or solutions that they present; how do you advise on that? “It is important to have some go-to people. Some go-to people that are in your world, and some go-to people that are maybe outside of your world that you respect. They’re not in your every day.” “We will not make people happy all the time, including ourselves. And we just have to get used to that and feel comfortable with that, and also have a certain amount of humility to always look at and review what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, who we’re doing it for, and to humbly rework it if we feel that we’re going in a direction that we’re not right, or we need to stand up for something.” Skip to: 15:47 What are some reminders that you might tell people to kind of take that time and how to tune into the fact that they need that time? “The one question that I ask myself and I even ask my kids is, how am I doing? … Actually say, ‘Hey, kids. I have never been in a global pandemic before and I’ve never parented you through this. How’s it going? Are we doing okay here?’” Skip to: 20:07 What techniques or practices would you offer to someone when they are overwhelmed by their emotions or circumstances? Skip to: 23:55 “One last thing I want to do with you, open your eyes, look around the room. Just notice the shapes and the colors around the room. And then just for a moment, close your eyes and just feel, feel your body and space, and open your eyes.” Q: Let’s start by, if we could, could you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and how you work with individuals? A: Sure. By trade, I’m a licensed clinical social worker, and I have a family studies background. I studied in the good old state of Pennsylvania for four years in Mechanicsburg, and then I got my graduate degree, my MSW from NYU. NYU has a very clinical program in social work, so I was really trained from the beginning to be a therapist, which is what I always knew that I wanted to be. We were trained in object relations theory. It’s basically a psychodynamic approach, understanding a person within the context of their relationships in their environment. My social work career started in medicine. I was a medical social worker, then I veered away. I always kept a private practice, but I moved into administration. I was actually a hospital administrator for years. I was the first non-nursing medical unit director. I had a staff of 125. It was a telemetry unit, a heart monitor unit. Even though my love and my joy is as a clinical therapist, I also have experience with systems and managing in large organizations. It’s an interesting blend. Q: Yeah. And how do you work with individuals? What kinds of areas or why do folks come to you? A: I work with individuals, couples, and families. I work mostly now with older adolescents. I used to work with children, but now in the last 10 years, I work basically with older adolescents. I’m also a meditation instructor and a yoga instructor. The way I work has changed over time. It’s traditional psychotherapy, but I do work with people in terms of emotional regulation and looking at… I’m particularly interested in their emotional responses to situations. In the last few years, I’ve really worked with people on regulating emotional responses to their circumstances, to the way they listen to people, the way they function in their job, the way they respond to crisis, how to basically, yes, reflect on the past and how we got there, but also really radically staying in the present, and working with skills on emotional management in the present, not knowing that I’d be working with people in a pandemic, right, who are radically… yes, radically needing to stay in the present, morning, noon, evening. How are we managing our morning, our noon, and our evening? Q: I mean, so much of what you just said applies directly to what folks are living through right now. I’m sure your support couldn’t be more needed. Anxiety, stress, uncertainty, depression, these are all emotions and states of mind that many people, most people are probably experiencing in some degree and some in a very heightened way this year with all of the challenges. There may be times when people need to bring their stress level down. But in the case of depressive states, there might be a time when they need to actually bring their energy level up. Can you talk to us a little bit about some ways that people can address both sides of those kinds of range of feelings? A: Absolutely. There’s something that we call a mixed state when we’re trying to describe someone’s mental health. What I’m finding is that folks aren’t necessarily struggling with anxiety or depression. They’re actually experiencing both, right? For example, sometimes waking up in the morning, you may love your job. You may have always loved your job. You may always love your family. You may have always loved yourself and getting up in the morning. But people are feeling at times like a sense of dread and heaviness literally getting up in the morning, like opening their eyes and just having that sense of, “Uh, I got to do this again.” And then on the flip side, trying to go to sleep. The mind just can’t shut down, reviewing the day. Did I do everything I could, did I make the right decisions? What about tomorrow? Who’s going to be minding the family? Everyone’s working from a different room. There’s this like managing the heaviness and the weightiness and also trying to take the brain down. What I’m practicing myself and asking people to consider is literally when they’re in bed to have like a little teeny morning routine where you place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly and you just spend maybe five breaths, breathing in and breathing out, and literally saying to yourself, “Today is going to be okay.” You wake up in the morning and just actually tell yourself, “It’s going to be okay. You got through yesterday. You got through the day before, and you can get through today too.” The sun has risen and just literally taking those breaths to try to kind of gently and beautifully ignite yourself for the day. And then on the flip end, when you’re up and you’re racing and everything, give yourself a time limit. If after a few minutes there are still some racing, I would actually say grab your pillow and get on the floor. This sounds silly, but if you’re working, you have to get up in the morning, so you have to get to sleep at night. We don’t have the leisure. My workday starts at 6:45. I have people that see me before work. If you’re having trouble getting to sleep, grab your pillow, get on the floor, and pop a pillow underneath your knees. The flatness on your back, a different sensory feeling, and literally hand on heart and hand on belly and just do a self-calming practice of breathing in and breathing out. And tell yourself, “The day is over. The day is done. It’s coming to a close now. We’ll think about it tomorrow.” It’s kind of bringing yourself up and getting yourself to settle down at night. Those are two very, very basics if you’re having a hard time rousing and facing the day in a calm way and bringing yourself down at night. Q: And it sounds simple, but I imagine it just serves as sort of a mental reminder of what you just expressed. The day is over. It’s just a little bit of that mental reminder. A: Absolutely. If my brain lights don’t go out by 11:30, I’m on the floor, because it could go on until 12:30, right? I just get on the floor. I grab a sweatshirt or a blanket, pop on the floor, because it’s triggering like the day is done. Q: And even the ritual side of that, in other words, the repetitive side of that, I imagine that kind of kicks into place. Looking at the school and education community, and certainly there’s a lot of challenging scenarios in the school community right now. School leaders and administrators are making decisions that impact so much more than themselves and they’re accustomed to that, but they are dealing with brand new challenges never faced before. With so many unknowns in the world, self-doubt can certainly creep in even to the most certain individuals, most confident decision-makers. That self-doubt may creep in when making such impactful decisions. Are there any ways that these folks can combat self-doubt in decision-making? And not just school leaders, but really anyone in that decision-making seat, how can they combat that kind of doubt that creeps in? A: I think that anyone who is in a position of critical decision-making, and right now it’s everyone, we are in a position of critical decision-making. For example, my daughter is coming home from college and she lives in the part of the country that is not well quarantined. I would say she just lives differently than I am in the Northeast. I know that as she returns to our home in a week and a half, we’re going to have to make very different, critical decisions. I don’t even know exactly what they’ll be, but even as far as like our comings and goings. Everyone is a critical decision maker right now, even children, in how we’re going to social distance. When you have the responsibility to make decisions over many people, and different districts are making different decisions, right? We know we have two school districts in our small town. Our elementary is under one district. Our middle school and high school has another whole district. Sometimes their days off are different. Their half days are different than their full days. Everyone’s making decisions from top to bottom, that they’re being questioned either by themselves, by those around them, by parents. There’s always room to second guess your decisions. I would say just to know if you’ve made a critical decision and you haven’t gotten good feedback on it. And I’m sure people can relate to this. And maybe even yourself, you reflect that, okay, I don’t know if I’d make that next time, or we need to release it and change it up next time. The biggest practice is literally self-forgiveness, like saying, “Okay, I worked with all the variables. I made the best decision with all of the information that I had at that time. And now I have different information, I will act differently.” And even in the acting differently second time around, you may reflect, okay, let’s review the tapes. This is the feedback I got. I still stand by this, or I’m open to changing this. Practicing flexibility of mind, but also standing firm once you do make a decision. The wavering. That’s the up at night wavering. You got to make the decision, review it, reflect, stand by it, but then have the flexibility, if you can, to change it up next time. Q: That makes a ton of sense. As a person in a role where you help others, you can empathize with the desire to affect change and be solutions-oriented. What would you tell leaders or school leaders, any leaders? As you said, everyone is making critical decisions right now. Those who are coping with that of hanging in the balance of either not having a solution per se or receiving criticism for the decision or solutions that they present; how do you advise on that? A: It is kind of on the heels of what I was just talking about. I personally have my go-to people. I have some go-to people that I’ve never even seen before that I just talk to who are not… I always say not in my Jerusalem. They’re not in my little community. I love that because I can run scenarios by these folks. They can speak to my work in a very kind of constructively critical way. I respect their opinion, and yet I don’t have to interface with them or answer to them necessarily. I’d say it is important to have some go-to people. Some go-to people that are in your world, and some go-to people that are maybe outside of your world that you respect. They’re not in your every day. If you’re making big decisions, kind of get that accountability. I always say, “Let me run the play by you.” And there are people that call me and do the same. Okay, I have a case to run past you. I have a decision to make. Okay, run it. Let’s flow with it. Have trusted folks. Also, like I said, sometimes you just have to stand by, “I made the best decision at the time with the information that I had at the time, and I am dedicated to reviewing my decisions and critiquing them and expanding them or modifying them.” So like having the humility. And criticism goes with leadership. We cannot make everyone happy all the time, including ourselves. It’s really hard to stomach right now the criticism because a lot is coming. In fact, when I just spoke with you a few weeks ago to set up this call, we were in the height of the election, right? We will not make people happy all the time, including ourselves. And we just have to get used to that and feel comfortable with that, and also have a certain amount of humility to always look at and review what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, who we’re doing it for, and to humbly rework it if we feel that we’re going in a direction that we’re not right, or we need to stand up for something. I hope that answers your question. Q: It does. I think your go-to sources, that’s important to remember, that you’re not making decisions all by yourself or required to make decisions without input. I want to ask you to talk a little bit about self-care. Our members are school leaders, but this really pertains to everyone. Often life is busy and right now it’s very busy whatever the individual. There might be lots of things going on in their life right now, whether it’s dealing with their children doing remote learning at home and they’re having to be a teacher, and they’re having to also do their own job and lots of different circumstances. But we know that self-care is so important. Sometimes it’s hard to make that time to think of ourselves. How can someone know when they need that connectedness, when they need to take that time for themselves? I mean, obviously sometimes as a parent, you feel it, right? When it’s less apparent and you might just be charging ahead taking care of business, what are some reminders that you might tell people to kind of take that time an…

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Unifying all students: Special Olympics Pennsylvania Dec 08, 2020

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About this Episode Time Stamps Q&A About our Guests Resources On this episode of Keystone Education Radio, podcast host Annette Stevenson is joined by Michelle Boon, vice president for sports, and Mike Bovino, senior advisor, both of Special Olympics Pennsylvania. The group discusses the broader context of Special Olympics Pennsylvania and the importance of inclusion, along with the outcomes of Unified Sports and the Unified Champion Schools Program. Skip to: 00:57 Can you provide a broad overview of Special Olympics? And what are your roles with the organization? “What is Unified Sports? Well, simply, it’s bringing together Special Olympics athletes and teammates without disabilities on the same sports team for training and competition.” “What we’ve seen in the 31 years of doing Unified Sports globally is that it’s a fantastic facilitator for social inclusion. Social inclusion is really when you’re building those long, sustainable, meaningful relationships between people with and without disabilities.” Skip to: 04:46 Unified champion schools, can you talk a little bit more about the rigorous standards that schools must meet to achieve this designation and any of those types of considerations? “The Unified Champion Schools program itself is comprised of three components. It’s Unified Sports, inclusive youth leadership and whole-school engagement.” “The quality of the programming is really important to us. So, our staff here at Special Olympics Pennsylvania works really closely with those school administrators and coaches to be successfully executing each of these components of the program.” Skip to: 15:51 What lessons can school communities teach their students by focusing on inclusion? “94% of schools who do Unified Champion Schools said that it has increased the opportunities for students with and without disabilities to work together as equals” “So, one thing that’s important is this is not a Special Olympics team at the school. It’s 100% not that. It’s this school’s team.” Skip to: 25:03 What is your goal for the future of this program? “Our goal is that we like to be in every county in the State of Pennsylvania. So right now, as I mentioned, we’re in 36. So, we’re making good progress to get there.” “For this upcoming year, we’ve targeted five school districts in the State of Pennsylvania to really develop elementary and middle school programming. And that’ll be kind of the basis to which we start to roll out to a greater degree, that type of programming throughout the state.” “So, we are expanding the programming into colleges throughout the state. This is a relatively new initiative for us, but we’ve got about a dozen colleges and universities that are currently participating and running some inclusive programming within their school.” Skip to: 30:46 If a school district or school community is interested in learning more about the unified champion schools program, where should they go for that information? Q: Can you start by giving us a broad overview of Special Olympics? And then after that, what are your roles with the organization? But first start by just explaining in general Special Olympics and all that the organization does. A (Michelle): I’ll get us started. I think it’s a quick introduction to Special Olympics Pennsylvania overall. We offer 22 sports and provide year-round training and competition to about 17,000 athletes throughout the state. One of the common misperceptions of Special Olympics is that it’s this one-day track and field event. There are several events like this that are hosted by schools across the state, but Special Olympics offers so much more. 2020 actually marks the 50th anniversary of Special Olympics Pennsylvania with our first games being held in May of 1970 at Westchester University. We’ve come a long way in the past 50 years, in addition to sports programming now we also offer education and training in athlete leadership, health screenings and education, Unified Sports and with that, I’m going to pass it over to Mike to talk a little bit more about unified. A (Mike): Thanks, Michelle. I’m Mike Bovino, senior advisor with Special Olympics Pennsylvania. Unified Sports is a program with Special Olympics that’s been offered now since 1989. We celebrated our 30th anniversary for Unified Sports last year. It’s global. It has 1.4 million participants all over the world and in every country that Special Olympics has an accredited program. All 50 states here in the United States offers Unified Sports background. So, it’s a program that has grown significantly. ESPN is our global presenting sponsor. So, it’s nice to have the worldwide leader in sports to be our presenting sponsor for Unified Sports. They really see this as the future for Special Olympics. And really for the listeners, what is Unified Sports? Well, simply, it’s bringing together Special Olympics athletes and teammates without disabilities on the same sports team for training and competition. Everybody on the team is an equal peer. I think that’s really important. The members of a Unified Sports team are equal age because we want to make sure we’re creating relationships that are meaningful and sustainable. Everybody on the team is contributing to the team through their unique talents. We can talk a little bit more about our Unified Champion Schools, we’ll be able to share with everybody how that manifested itself in the school community when everybody is treated as an equal, when you remove labels, the importance of that. What we’ve seen in the 31 years of doing Unified Sports globally is that it’s a fantastic facilitator for social inclusion. Social inclusion is really when you’re building those long, sustainable, meaningful relationships between people with and without disabilities. That emerges when you share a commonality of experience on a Unified Sports team. You have a shared goal, you have shared responsibilities, you support each other as teammates and through that experience, what we have found over the years is that Special Olympics athletes become friends with their unified teammates. The unified teammates become very strong advocates for their Special Olympics teammates, and they’ll do things such as advocate for them in the community, open up doors for employment for people with intellectual disabilities and have the wonderful benefits of being a friend. So Unified Sports is a very powerful program for Special Olympics Q: That actually tees right into our next question. So Unified Sports, you’ve talked about the benefits and how that works. Unified Champion Schools – can you talk a little bit more about the rigorous standards that schools must meet to achieve this designation and any of those types of considerations? A (Michelle): Yeah. So, I’ll kind of start with just a little bit of a background on the program overall. It was a program developed by Special Olympics International about 13 years ago and really done initially in partnership with our United States Department of Education, more specifically the Office of Education. So here in PA, we’ve executed the program statewide for about seven years. We had piloted a little bit in the beginning, but really started spreading statewide about seven years ago. We’re currently in 218 schools and growing rapidly every year. So, trying to keep it growing and keeping up with the demand. So, the Unified Champion Schools program itself is comprised of three components. It’s Unified Sports, inclusive youth leadership and whole-school engagement. Mike talked a little bit about Unified Sports, but at the school level we offer unified indoor bocce as a winter sport and unified track and field as a sport in the spring. We very strategically chose these sports to offer because they include meaningful engagement and are inclusive for all students. So, students with a variety of disabilities, really any student within the school building are able to participate in each of those sports. So, bocce and track and field. And we set up these Unified Sports, they are interscholastic sports teams within those school buildings. There is a proportional number of students with and without intellectual disabilities on those teams and they train and compete together for the duration of the season. So, it’s really our goal for them to be treated just like any other varsity sport within that school. They’re getting together and they’re training on a weekly basis we require a minimum of two trainings per week. Some are doing more, again, we require a minimum of three competitions per season. Most are doing five or six, if not some more. So again, the schools have really taken this and run with it. In most cases we see it being just treated and really held next to all of those other varsity sports within the school building, which is exactly what we want. Then we hold a culminating championship at the end of each of the seasons. So, whether it’s a county or regional base, we have a championship for all those schools come together and compete. And the winner of that opportunity advances to our state level tournament. So, we have a great partnership with the PIAA and we hold our culminating state events in conjunction with some of their championships. So, bocce aligns with the boys and girls basketball championship, which is held at the Giant Center in Hershey, and then track and field is really a very inclusive event that we do together with them at Shippensburg University. As I mentioned track and field is really cool because they run the 100 meter boys’ race, a 100 meter girls’ race and then a 100 meter unified race. So, we’re really fully integrated in as a part of that event, which is awesome. So, just another two components quick is inclusive youth leadership. This is a club within the school. So, it’s students with and without disabilities who are meeting regularly within a structured club environment. We do require co-governance. So, you have a unified pair. So, one student with and one student without an intellectual disability that are working together to fill those key roles, so a president role or a vice president or secretary, but that they’re really leading that group together. The main goal for them is that they are planning and conducting activities to improve their school environment for everyone. We refer to those activities as hopeful engagements, which is the third component of the program. These are just really opportunities where they’re getting the whole school environment together to raise awareness or advocate or educate on a variety of different topics. We let them choose what’s important to them within their school community or within their school building. A good example of this, which most people are pretty familiar with, is a Spread the Word inclusion campaign. It used to be referred to as Spread the Word to End the Word, now it has transitioned over to Spread the Word Inclusion. But again, just a student run campaign, which really helps everyone better understand the importance of just being inclusive and treating everyone with respect. So, those are really the three areas that we encourage and enforce within each of the schools. The quality of the programming is really important to us. So, our staff here at Special Olympics Pennsylvania works really closely with those school administrators and coaches to be successfully executing each of these components of the program. Mike will give us a little bit more about some of the staff and then some of our best of the best. A (Mike): Yeah, sounds great, Michelle. So, this program is global now. Unified Champion Schools is a program that’s done in partnership with the U.S Department of Education for the past 13 years. It’s been very popular. We currently reach almost 300,000 students in every state in the United States, but one, we won’t tattle on the one state that’s not doing it. Well, we’ll protect their identity, but every state, but one in the United States is doing Unified Champion Schools programming. And again, it’s been a formalized program for 13 years. It’s also been shown through our research partner at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the impact that it has on school communities, which we’ll talk about in a little bit. So, I think the other thing that’s important here is knowing that the programming that Michelle just laid out when all three of those components are done well, it has a measurable impact on school climate and social inclusion and changing attitudes. It’s one of the reasons why so many different state education departments partner with our Special Olympics state programs. Unified Champion School is also now being done throughout the world. So, some really excellent examples of governments, such as in Europe, where their entire school systems now are adopting Unified Champion Schools. Probably one of the more compelling stories is in the United Arab Emirates, where we held our 2019 Special Olympics World Games, the government for the UAE, as part of their World Games legacy committed to implementing Unified Champion Schools programming in every single school in that country. Pretty amazing for full inclusion in the Middle East and some of the lessons that are being taught and learned. It really stands as a beacon for the possibilities of what inclusion can produce through our young people. So, right now they’re well on their way to full implementation in every school in United Arab Emirates. We’re also seeing it in Latin America, Africa, Europe and East Asia, the implementation of Unified Champion Schools programming. Here in Pennsylvania this year, we’ll be partnering with close to 240 schools in 36 counties throughout the state of Pennsylvania. We’re very excited about that and working closely with the schools and we partner very closely with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and in particular, the Bureau of Education and Carole Clancy have been tremendous advocates for this program because they see the value in promoting inclusion and bringing school communities together around a commonality of valuing diversity, respect, changing attitudes and helping students really develop skills that are going to be useful to them in their community and post-secondary careers. So, we partnered closely with the Bureau of Special Education, and we also partner very closely with the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, or the PIAA, and they have embraced the program as well. Dr. Lombardi has said repeatedly how much he in particular loves the impact this program has on not only special education students and giving them an opportunity to have a true, meaningful interscholastic sport experience. He’s also been very much happy to see students without disabilities who have not had the opportunity to participate in an interscholastic sport experience to be able to do so. So, it’s one of the things of the PIAA they really want to focus on how do they really reach more students to provide them with all the great qualities of interscholastic sports, such as leadership development and teamwork and sportsmanship. So again, we work very closely with the PIAA. We partner with them and Special Olympics Pennsylvania is regarded as the governing body for interscholastic Unified Sports for all the high schools that we work with throughout the State of Pennsylvania. One last thing I wanted to add is there is a recognition for the best of the best around the country that are known as National Banner Unified Champion Schools. There are 10 rigorous standards that a school needs to meet. Then there’s a review process, including a review committee at the national level, that looks at all the applications and then determines which schools will receive this prestigious honor. I’m happy to share that this year we had the most number of schools so far to date receive the honor, we have 10 schools that have been acknowledged as National Banner Unified Champion Schools. We…

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Learning Disabilities, Virtual Learning & the Parent-Teacher Partnership Nov 23, 2020

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About this Episode Time Stamps Q&A About our Guests Resources One in five individuals has a learning difference or attention challenge. While these individuals are in many cases just as capable as their peers, they face obstacles, stigma and misconceptions that others do not. On this episode of Keystone Education Radio, podcast host Annette Stevenson is joined by Attorney Meghan Whittaker, the director of policy and advocacy at the National Center for Learning Disabilities. They discuss how virtual learning has impacted students with learning disabilities, signs that parents should look for to identify learning disabilities, how students of color are disproportionately impacted and NCLD’s Our Time, Our Vote campaign. Skip to: 00:49 Can you tell us more about the National Center for Learning Disabilities? “When we talk about learning and attention issues, we’re talking about disabilities that affect areas like reading, writing, math, attention, processing and executive functioning in students.” “We accomplish our mission by empowering parents and young adults by transforming schools and advocating for equal rights.” Skip to: 02:06 How is COVID-19 and virtual learning impacting students with learning disabilities? “When school’s closed abruptly in the spring and students were sent home, that was a major disruption in the routines that they were used to, it was a disruption in the relationships that they had developed with teachers and with other students.” “Students who didn’t get those required services through their IEP are likely going to be struggling even more to keep up with their virtual instruction, they may not have the accommodations that they need.” Skip to: 05:04 With students learning from home in so many instances right now, what are some signs that parents can look for that their children might be struggling with a learning disability? “I definitely encourage parents to pay attention to signs of struggle, and those signs will differ based on the age of your child or the subject that you’re talking about.” “The important thing here is partnership with schools. It’s really important that parents now in this new role of not just caretaker, but kind of assistant teacher at home that they partner with teachers to really understand what’s going on.” Skip to: 07:31 Can you tell us about the resources that you recently released to recognize some of these early signs in younger children that might not yet be identified? “I think that the importance of looking at these early signs can’t be understated. The brain is malleable, so the earlier we can identify issues the better, because learning and attention issues are brain-based disorders.” Skip to: 09:49 Students of color are disproportionately impacted by identification for special education. Can you tell us more about this and how schools can prevent this from occurring? “So inappropriately placing children into special education can actually cause harm, particularly for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds.” Skip to: 13:25 In the 2016 election, only about half of eligible individuals with disabilities voted, we know that from the data from that election. Can you tell us about the, Our Time, Our Vote campaign that NCLD organized this year and what’s that about? “So civic participation is at the heart of the disability rights movement, so NCLD has worked to ensure that people with learning disabilities are engaged, informed and prepared to participate in civic life and voting is one part of that equation.” Skip to: 15:30 How can school leaders and community members advocate for individuals with learning disabilities? Q: Let’s start by understanding your organization a little bit and some of the objectives. Can you tell us a little bit more about NCLD? A: So, the National Center for Learning Disabilities is a nonprofit advocacy organization, and we work to improve the lives of the one in five who have learning and attention issues. When we talk about learning and attention issues, we’re talking about disabilities that affect areas like reading, writing, math, attention, processing and executive functioning in students. If you think about the federal special education law IDEA, there’s 13 categories of disability. We’re often talking about students with specific learning disabilities, which is the largest category. Some of these students have an IEP and have been diagnosed and other struggle without receiving that support in schools, so we work on behalf of all of those students who struggle with learning or attention issues. We accomplish our mission by empowering parents and young adults by transforming schools and advocating for equal rights. So, in my role as the director of policy and advocacy, I often work with Congress or the Department of Education to influence change. At a federal level, we work to support laws or regulations, identify grant programs that can support students and change policies to increase opportunities for students with learning and attention issues. Q: The present circumstances we find ourselves in, how is COVID-19 and virtual learning impacting students with learning disabilities? A: I’ll start by saying that the experience of students will vary from student-to-student, school-by-school and even district-by-district because no two districts are handling things the exact same way, and every child’s experience right now is going to be different based on a number of factors, but there’s three major issues that I often point to to understand what the impact has been for many students with learning disabilities. First, it relates to the social-emotional needs of students, the loss of routines and relationships, and just that general school experience that they’ve been so used to. When school’s closed abruptly in the spring and students were sent home, that was a major disruption in the routines that they were used to, it was a disruption in the relationships that they had developed with teachers and with other students. For some, school had been a safe place for them and maybe one of the only safe places, and this is beyond just students with learning disabilities, but just all students, so there’s that social-emotional impact that we have to keep in mind. At the same time, we know that this pandemic has disproportionally impacted certain communities. Black communities have had a high fatality rate when it comes to COVID, students may have lost family members. So, there’s this additional processing of loss of grief that goes with that and the stress that has come along with it. Then, on top of that social-emotional impact, there’s the instructional loss that students with disabilities have experienced. Many students with IEP did not get services for months on end, some did, some did not, so that will vary between schools or districts. So, students who didn’t get those required services through their IEP are likely going to be struggling even more to keep up with their virtual instruction, they may not have the accommodations that they need. Then the third issue really is around accessibility, where virtual learning is happening and that’s a lot of places right now. We don’t necessarily know that the instruction students are getting is high quality or fully accessible, the software being used, instruction being delivered, and those things may not be designed with students with disabilities in mind. Parents at home may not know how to activate certain features in software, to turn on certain features or make that learning accessible for students, or it may not be compatible with the devices students use. So, it’s really important that we understand not just the social-emotional aspect, but also the instructional aspect and accessibility issues relating to students. I think most concerning is that for many years students with disabilities have been really far behind their peers. If you look at the NAEP scores that just recently came out, the scores on reading and math have decreased for all students, but students with learning disabilities, 90% of them have been below proficient on math and reading. Then, you add in the instructional loss here, and it really points to the fact that we’ve got to do something different, we really have to rethink instruction and learning because remediation isn’t going to be enough going forward. Q: So, with students learning from home in so many instances right now, what are some signs that parents can look for that their children might be struggling with a learning disability? Maybe I should clarify a little bit, you’ve mentioned that some are identified and have IEPs and others may not have an IEP or be identified. So, are there some things that parents can look for at home that might signify that some attention is needed there? A: Absolutely. Parents who are able to be at home with their kids right now have a unique vantage point. A lot of them have told us, they’ve been able to observe their child in a kind of a different environment, see how the child’s participating in class, how they’re completing assignments, what their strengths are and where they’re struggling. So that’s all really important information to share with your child’s teacher, who now doesn’t get to see that child in the same light. So, learning from home is not going to be the same as in a classroom of course, the kinds of supports or accommodations your child might need may differ. So, I definitely encourage parents to pay attention to signs of struggle, and those signs will differ based on the age of your child or the subject that you’re talking about. You can learn more on our website, we have more of a list of age-appropriate signs and what parents should be looking for in reading and writing, math and attention. Generally, when we’re thinking about how do we know if a student’s struggling, you can look for things like, is your child frustrated when doing their schoolwork? Are they avoiding certain things, do they avoid handwriting, do they avoid math? And seeing how your student is staying focused, how they’re engaged in virtual classes or if they’re not, and, of course, if they’re completing their work, but they’re not achieving the expected scores that you might anticipate. Those are all signs that you may want to talk to your child’s teacher to see are these new things or have you been seeing them in the classroom before COVID, are they persistent issues? And all of that will help you know if you should look deeper into what’s going on, if they’re new difficulties, or if they’re persistent difficulties, you might take different pathways. But the important thing here is partnership with schools. It’s really important that parents now in this new role of not just caretaker, but kind of assistant teacher at home that they partner with teachers to really understand what’s going on. Understand what’s expected of my child at this grade level, and where are other students and how is my child comparing or is there something more that we need to dig into here. Q: Okay. For parents of younger children, we’re talking about recognizing struggle signs and what to look for. Can you tell us about the resources that you recently released to recognize some of these early signs in younger children that might not yet be identified? A: Yeah, absolutely. I think that the importance of looking at these early signs can’t be understated. The brain is malleable, so the earlier we can identify issues the better, because learning and attention issues are brain-based disorders. If there are challenges and how your brain is working in the pathways that have been developed in your brain, we can actually intervene to change those pathways and help your child do things differently and better handle the tasks associated with reading, math or writing. So, the more we can intervene with those early experiences, the more effective intervention can be. All too often, we take this kind of wait and see approach. We say, “Oh, it’s a normal part of child development” or “Your child will catch up.” But we know that for students with learning disabilities, they won’t do so without intervention. Of course, there are also social-emotional benefits to intervening early, which is another reason why it’s so important. Students who do struggle for a long time might experience higher rates of depression, anxiety or bullying, so it’s important that we avoid those consequences. NCLD recently launched a new tool called the LD Checklist. We had this checklist that had been created for many years, but we made it interactive, so we launched it on our website just a couple months ago. It lists for each kind of content area or skill area based on your child’s age, all of the signs of LD. You can actually click through and check the signs that you might be seeing in your child and areas like social skills, reading, writing or math, and based on how many signs you check or you indicate that you’ve seen in your child, you can then determine whether further screening or evaluation might be needed, and it will also customize resources for you on those areas that you’ve identified an interest in. So, whether the student is learning at home now, whether they’re at school, parents can use it, educators can use it, pediatricians can use it, and it can be found at ncld.org/ldchecklist. Q: Great. That sounds like a pretty effective tool. So, students of color are disproportionately impacted by identification for special education. Can you tell us more about this and how schools can prevent this from occurring? A: Yeah. So, the term significant disproportionality is often used here and that refers to three trends that we see when we look at national data. First, students of color are disproportionately enrolled in special education when you compare them to their enrollment in general school populations. So, in other words, schools are identifying higher rates of disability in certain groups of students, certain racial and ethnic groups of students. Second, students of color once they are identified for special education tend to be placed in more segregated settings. So, this means they’re spending less time in general education and more time separated from their peers. And then finally, students with disabilities who are students of color, have a higher rate of discipline, and they face harsher discipline for the very same behaviors that white students with disabilities would face. This is not a simple topic to unpack in the short time that we have today, so I would encourage everyone to read more about it on NCLD website. I won’t do a deep dive into the differing theories on why this is or what the research says, but you can find more information at ncld.org. We have a discussion of the role of income or poverty and identification because we know race and income are highly correlated in our country. We also have a breakdown of data on specific student groups by ethnicity because the same trends are not apparent when you compare across, for example, Asian American students, Latinx students, Black students, right? There’re differences in the trends we’re seeing. But the major takeaway here is that, while IDEA is a critically important law and it gives students with disabilities essential protections, it gives them access to specialized instruction. It can also be an inadequate solution for students who don’t actually have a disability and it’s not always the right response for those students. So inappropriately placing children into special education can actually cause harm, particularly for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds. Because when you misidentify a student and they kind of enter the special education track, they often are exposed to less rigorous curriculum, lower expectations, and fewer opportunities to succeed and transition to post-secondary education, so those are things we want to guard against. And particularly right…

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Student Voice in State Government Nov 10, 2020

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About this Episode Time Stamps Q&A About our Guests Resources On this episode of Keystone Education Radio, podcast host Annette Stevenson discusses the Pennsylvania Association of Student Councils’ Government Relations program with a panel of the organization’s leadership. 2020 PASC State President Jasmine Evans, PASC State President-Elect Carissa Stefanski, PASC Executive Director Rose Ann Fulena and PASC Assistant Executive Director Felix Yerace discuss the role of a student representative on the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, the take-away lessons from the experiences and the broader benefits of being an involved student leader. Skip to: 02:04 Can you give us an overview of the government relations program that places students as representatives on the Pennsylvania State Board of Education? “That’s an opportunity for the voting members, the adult members of the board, to be able to have student voice and student perspective when they’re making their decisions.” “The program is open to any student who is in 10th grade who is attending a public school in Pennsylvania.” Skip to: 04:44 From the student perspective, what are some of the responsibilities and experiences of this role that you enjoy the most and some that you feel you’ll take with you into your career? “You really start to get comfortable communicating with new people and being able to work with so many different personalities, which I definitely think is a skill that I will be able to use in the future.” “I think teamwork and communication would be the two things I take with me in the future, because everywhere you go, you’re surrounded by people and communicating is a natural thing you have to do with people.” Skip to: 06:39 What was some of your early motivation for becoming involved in PASC? “My advisor thought I should attend a PASC Conference in 2018, so that made me want to get more involved by watching one person being able to impact others by their leadership.” “The most valuable thing I think I’ve learned is to believe in myself, because I know I can do anything as long as I put my mind to it.” Skip to: 08:20 What was your reason for becoming involved with the organization? “Seeing what that has done, year after year, for my own students, is what has kept me coming back year after year. And being able to spread that throughout the commonwealth is what keeps me in that role, why I continue.” “This is learning that these students, just can’t get in a regular classroom, and I think that what is so valuable and so unique about organizations like PASC is that we can help teach students skills that wouldn’t otherwise be able to teach them in a traditional 48 minute class” Skip to: 14:38 Is there quite a lot that you’ve learned from this experience about how state government works that you wouldn’t have known before? “Just sitting in on the interview process for the State Board of Education representatives, you really do get to learn a lot about what the State Board of Education does for the students in our state.” Skip to: 15:49 What advice would you have for other students who are looking to gain leadership experience? “My biggest advice in general definitely be to just take advantage of every single opportunity that comes your way.” Skip to: 16:46 Where should listeners go for more information on PASC? Q: Can you give us an overview of the Government Relations Program that places students as representatives on the Pennsylvania State Board of Education? A (Felix): Certainly. The Pennsylvania Association of Student Councils (PASC) is very fortunate and very proud and very honored to have over a 10-year working relationship with the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE). We have been charged by PDE to facilitate, manage and oversee the selection process for student representation on the State Board of Education. The State Board of Education added two student representatives in a non-voting role a little over 10 years ago. That’s an opportunity for the voting members, the adult members of the board, to be able to have student voice and student perspective when they’re making their decisions. The position is a two-year commitment. We solicit applications from sophomores. So, the program is open to any student who is in 10th grade who is attending a public school in Pennsylvania. The applications typically go out early in the calendar year, so typically in January they would become available. They’re due back at the end of February. Our organization goes through and we typically will narrow down the applicants to usually five to six finalists that we will invite to Harrisburg. And those students will participate in a day-long interview process where they’ll be not only meeting with one another and engaging in some collaborative activities, but also engaging in individual interviews as well. The selection panel is typically made up of both student and adult representatives from PASC, and typically also has representation from the State Board of Education as well. And then we will select a student, and again, it is a two-year commitment, so that student would be selected in the spring of their sophomore year and would be serving really until right before they graduate at the end of their senior year of high school. It obviously is a tremendous leadership opportunity for the student to be able to be a voice at the table whenever those decisions are being made that impact all students in the commonwealth in the schools. I think it’s also been very valuable and helpful for the adult members as well to be able to have that voice readily there, to be able to provide a perspective for what is actually taking place in the classrooms in Pennsylvania today. Q: From the student perspective, what are some of the responsibilities and experiences of this role that you enjoy the most and some that you feel you might take with you as you continue on into college years and into thoughts about your career? You want to address that, Jasmine? A (Jasmine): Yeah. I think I have two main ones, but as the PASC president, I’m in charge of leading our executive board meetings, so that has definitely been a really big responsibility that has taught me a lot specifically about planning ahead of time. So, if I don’t prepare ahead of time, then the whole meeting doesn’t really run as smoothly as it should, which I think is a very important skill to have just in all aspects of life. As president, I also have had a lot of opportunities to go to a bunch of leadership development programs. And then while you’re there, you of course learn the actual leadership curriculum, but you’re also taught useful skills without necessarily realizing it at the time. So for example, you meet a lot of different people there, and then you really start to get comfortable communicating with new people and being able to work with so many different personalities, which I definitely think is a skill that I will be able to use in the future. Q: Definitely. Carissa, do you have anything to add to that? A (Carissa): Yeah. So for me, I think teamwork and communication would be the two things I take with me in the future, because everywhere you go, you’re surrounded by people and communicating is a natural thing you have to do with people. So, I also think sharing ideas could help both people when working together. If the other person doesn’t know how to share ideas, you can show them how. Q: Yeah, absolutely. It sounds like a lot of valuable lessons coming out of that that are very applicable to the rest of your life in many respects. What was some of your early motivation for becoming involved with PASC? To you, Jasmine and Carissa, both of you, what was some of that sort of early reason that you wanted to get involved? A (Jasmine): Well, I actually originally started student council in middle school because my older sister was the president of our student council. So then as a younger sister, I was like, “Of course I want to do it too.” And honestly, I kind of wanted to do it a little bit more and be more involved than she was, just because I’m competitive. But then through that, I got to be able to go to the PASC events and learn about different opportunities, specifically our middle-level representatives opportunity. I was really interested in that and wanted to apply for that, but I actually never ended up applying. Then the opportunity came for me to be able to fill that position and join the board, which got me involved in PASC even more. That eventually led me to running for the state president position. Q: Great. Carissa, how about you? Any early reasons or rationale as to why you were interested? A (Carissa): I got involved with student council in middle school as well. My advisor thought I should attend a PASC Conference in 2018, so that made me want to get more involved by watching one person being able to impact others by their leadership. So, I wanted to show my peers the same thing. The most valuable thing I think I’ve learned is to believe in myself, because I know I can do anything as long as I put my mind to it. Q: Absolutely. Stretching for something, always a great idea. I’m going to turn this over to the adult side too. So, Rose and Felix, what was your reason for becoming involved with the organization? A (Rose Ann): Well, it’s interesting. For me, it started 27 years ago at the beginning of my career. The high school student council advisor in our school was what we in PASC referred to as a George Meyer kid. George Meyer was a standout on the PASC Executive Board for a number of years. He ran one of our summer camp programs, he hosted a national conference, and she was one of his students in high school. Because of that connection, she had gotten one of our students involved on the PASC Executive Board, and then she needed to go onto maternity leave and asked me if I would escort this student to different PASC functions. And that was really the first I knew of it. Now that’s how I got involved in it, but not why I stayed. In those years, I have been involved since then, I served on our board just for our eight-county area, and then on the state board as well before I became the executive director in 2014. People have always asked me about the benefits of membership, and I tell them I can give you a laundry list of the reasons, our little elevator speech as to why you should be a member of PASC. But for me, as an advisor, you can sit in any one of my meetings and you can point out the kids who participate only within the walls of our school and the kids who are involved at the PASC level, and the difference in their leadership is just immeasurable. And seeing what that has done, year after year, for my own students, is what has kept me coming back year after year. Being able to spread that throughout the commonwealth is what keeps me in that role, why I continue. It’s always a challenge. It’s not a full-time job, Felix and I are both classroom teachers. So, it’s extra time for us, but the benefits, as you can see through Jasmine and Carissa, what PASC leadership training does. It’s just so incredibly worth it. Q: How many years have you been involved, Rose Ann? A (Rose Ann): Twenty-six. The first year I was there, I just was there helping out, and I became a middle school student council advisor the very next year. I then would take my middle school kids with her high school kids when she came back from maternity leave, I kind of did it with her. I’ve been with several different advisors, I have co-advisors now. I have been an advisor and involved in PASC since then. Q: Oh, great. Well, that’s obviously testimony to how fulfilling it is. Felix, what was your kind of inroad working with the organization? A (Felix): Sure. Well, I kind of followed a little bit of a trajectory along the lines of Carissa and Jasmine in that I was a former student who was involved in PASC. Although I was nowhere near as involved at the level that they are, I was serving on our state board. When I was a student, I was impacted by PASC going to conferences, going to the summer leadership camps. So, from a personal standpoint, I knew the impact of the organization. So, when I became a teacher, I knew I wanted to be a student council advisor. And when I was given the opportunity to become a student council advisor in my first year teaching, I knew that I had to get my school involved in PASC, because I knew the impact that it would have, not only on my students, but also on the school as well. As one example of that, we now have a Diversity Committee here at South Fayette. The gentleman who is in charge of that, Dr. Chuck Herring, actually contacted me because of some of the programs that they’re doing, he told me, he said, “I really need to thank you, because not only are your students coming up with so many of the ideas, but they’re bringing ideas from PASC and what they’ve learned from the different programs. But they also have the leadership development as a result of their participation to be able to help us do things even beyond student council.” So, I think for me, the reason why I stay involved is I am a social studies teacher. I teach AP government, I teach US history, and I also am fortunate enough to be able to teach leadership electives here at South Fayette as well. I know the impact that organizations like PASC have on students, even beyond just student council, and even beyond just what they’re doing in our organization. This is my 16th year as a teacher, seeing the impact on our school culture and climate, but also then seeing the increase in student engagement in student leadership, and just more broadly in civic engagement amongst my students, I see the impact that it has on them individually. I also see the impact that it has had on our school with some of the programs that we’ve been able to accomplish here at South Fayette, and that my students have been able to work on, even on a regional basis and a statewide basis. Quite frankly, I think Rose would agree with me, that this is learning that these students just can’t get in a regular classroom. I think that what is so valuable and what is so neat about organizations like PASC is that we can help teach students skills that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to teach them in a traditional 48-minute class. I guess the last thing I would say is you never know the impact that you can have on somebody even maybe decades down the road. So Rose had mentioned George Meyer, who was a long-term Board Member of ours in PASC, and who actually hosted the 1985 National Student Council Conference at Bethel Park High School. He was actually a camp director, in fact was my camp director whenever I went to summer camp, whenever I was in high school. In 2019, I was fortunate enough to be able to host the National Student Council Conference here at South Fayette. And George Meyer, his grandson, was actually one of my two conference co-chairs. So to think that Dan wasn’t even alive whenever I was in high school and we were able to complete the circle by having one of George’s grandkids, he hosted the conference and then one of his grandkids was able to host the conference here in 2019, I think it also goes to show that you never know how the lives that you will touch, even decades later, can come back and have a positive impact on you, on people you love and care about, and on your school and on your community as well. Q: You talked a little bit about some of the learning that occurs that the educators couldn’t possibly replicate or teach in the classroom. And Jasmine and Carissa, I’m going to ask you to think about that a little bit. So, is there quite a lot that you’ve learned from this experience about state government, how state government works, that you wouldn’t have known before? Did you go into the experience kind of already being quite informed in that area? A (Jasmine): Well, we run all of our state board meetings by parli…

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How to Connect Authentically and Create Conversations that Matter (Part 2) Oct 27, 2020

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About this Episode Time Stamps Q&A About our Guests Resources In this extended conversation (part 2 of 2), podcast host Annette Stevenson and best-selling authors, professional facilitators and speakers, Will Wise and Chad Littlefield continue discussing the topics in Ask Powerful Questions: Create Conversations that Matter. Topics covered include the difference between discussion and debate, tactics on how to have productive dialogue and where sarcasm fits into conversation. The important piece is to stop the process when we’re in debate and start asking some questions that look at the assumptions that were made that slid us up into a place of debate. I think sometimes debate is disguised as advocacy in meetings. Skip to: 04:01 Is it accurate to say dialogue, rather than debate, is what needs to happen for collective decision making I think what dialogue does is breaks our brain out of the tendency to pick between one or the other. Skip to: 05:43 Is there a time and place where debate is part of sound decision making? That is where innovation happens, when I can take multiple different forms of thoughts and ideas and philosophies and meld them into something new to create a sculpture that we all stand and look around and say, I contributed to that, not I made that, but I contributed to that and I’m happy with the result that we have. Typically in debate, you have two people who are talking, lots of words being exchanged, but very few of them are being retained and heard and remembered. If we just let go of responding with a statement and we just ask a question that’s not rooted in judgment, that’s actually looking to seek to understand, that one action can change debate right in the middle of it to a dialogue. Skip to: 11:10 Does sarcasm have a place in healthy dialogue and authentic connectivity in the workplace? Often when we’re being sarcastic, we are actually picking up a little dagger that’s in our little scabbard and we’re poking them right where it hurts most. If sarcasm is a part of your way of leading, consider that you are doing more harm than good. Skip to: 18:00 Is there a way that openness can be achieved in a professional environment where folks are not feeling too vulnerable? How does this apply to our current situation? The number one characteristic that they found was not the years of technical experience, or the perfect personality match, it was the degree of psychological safety in that group, which is academic and PhD language for, “Can I be myself when I show up at work?” Openness doesn’t mean you need to share everything; it does mean you need to show up authentically. When I’m present to your humanity and I can be open to that and be moved by that and see the world in a different place because you see it in a different way, then that’s when magic and collaboration and adventure that makes us most alive, it is the place that we want to step into, even though it scares us. Continuation from Ask Powerful Questions Part 1 Q: Decision making is part of all organizations, big or small, all boards, all school boards, school administration, corporations, decision making occurs all the time. Typically, decision making, if it’s being done across any number of people include some dialog, especially if you might be referencing a leadership team, or school board, or a corporate board. So, what I want to ask you to define or share the difference between is debate and discussion. So, if part of decision making includes discussion, is there a difference between debating and discussion? And if so, what’s the difference? A (Will): …When we get to a place of dialogue, your needs are equal to mine, and I am more in a partnership with you. And I’m listening for understanding, I’m in a place of openness to hear what is actually occurring for you, I’m even willing to be reflective. What happens is oftentimes, if we’re in a dialogue, you might say something that triggers or threatens a concern of mine, it might threaten a fundamental concern that I have or one of my values. Then, I’m going to make assumptions, and I’m going to start judging. As soon as I start making assumptions and start judging, it’s so easy for us to move into a place of debate. And if I show up in debate, while we’re having a dialogue, if I show up with a mindset of debate, it’s super easy and almost delicious for you to join me there. It takes real leaders, a real self-awareness to go, “Oh, we just slid into debate, now we’re looking for somebody to win, let me take a breath.” This is a great moment to come back to your intention and say, remember the intent of this conversation was, and that can bring us back down. But an important piece is to stop the process when we’re in debate, and start asking some questions that look at the assumptions that were made that slid us up into a place of debate. A (Chad): Something to offer too, real quick. Education is filled with mission-driven people, even though we were just talking about apathy, right? It’s filled with people who are in it for the students, they’re in it not for the salary, for the aim, and the outcome, and the difference that they can make. So, I think sometimes debate is disguised as advocacy in meetings, right? I’m going to advocate for the student and it turns into this myopic, it’s either my way or the highway. Like, I’m going to get this student this IEP or else, right? And they’re so ingrained in that place that it’s cut out the possibility for dialogue, questions and collaboration in that way, because it’s possible, right? That the people on the other side of debate, it’s possible that they also want what’s best for your student or whoever you’re advocating for. But when you’re in a place of debate, you can’t actually hear that, because you’re not listening, like your ears are not working and your defensive mechanism, your amygdala, the part of your brain that’s fight or flight. Will and I sometimes say it’s rather than fight, flight or freeze, it’s fight, flight or need to be right. That part of our lizard brain, that need to be right shows up, right? Q: Yeah. That’s a great point. I love that you used the word advocate in the one side of a debate, is people say they’re advocating for something or they’re defending their side of it. So, if we’re understanding debate that way, really dialogue is what needs to happen for collective decision making, is that accurate? Dialogue rather than debate is what needs to happen for collective decision making? Because if I’m understanding how you frame debate, if there’s this, each person has this stance that they’re unwilling to concede any portion of, then you can’t truly accomplish collective decision making, if you’re working from those positions, is that accurate? A (Chad): As you ponder that, Will. I don’t think dialogue makes decisions necessarily, right? There’s some other consensus, there’s some other steps there. I think what dialogue does is breaks our brain out of the tendency to pick between one or the other, right? We’re either Democrat or Republican, where you’re either right or you’re wrong, you’re either black or you’re white. And now often we see the world, our brains for whatever reason, are wired to see the world in a very black and white context, either this or this. And what dialogue does is open up the color purple, orange and blue, and all these other options, right? To get out of that metaphor land, right? It opens up like six different pathways that neither side would have seen, if you were in that debate, I’m going to win I have this need to be right mindset. But it’s not the end, you can’t just have a nice dialogue, and then the whole group agrees and then you decide. Q: Sure. No, obviously, right. There’s more to it. But what I was trying to find out is, in any sort of collective group that’s trying to make sound decisions on a regular basis. Is debate any part of that or really does the group need to keep trying to get themselves back to discussion and dialogue? Or is there a place and time for debate? A (Will): I think there are some rare cases in which there is a place for debate, if it is done intentionally, so this would be a really clear moment of intent, right? Now, there are some people who find debate just so delicious, that’s just how they show up, right? And you probably have some of those in your workplace, right? But if you want to make a collaborative decision, look, so leadership is making something happen that wasn’t going to happen anyway. So, the janitor could be a leader in a school, because they’re making things happen, they could choose to be making things happen that wasn’t going to happen anyway. If you’re a manager, your job is just to keep the system moving, whatever the system is, whatever the process that’s been into place, if it ever falls apart, you get your whack-a-mole hammer out and you whack it and put it back in place, so everything is moving smoothly. So, teachers send their students down to the principal’s office because they just had to whack-a-mole, right? That student in that moment wasn’t fitting along with the protocols and the systems, but leadership is making something that wasn’t going to happen anyway. So, how does that fit in with debate? Could a leader recognize, “Oh my gosh, in this room right now, what we need is a debate.” Could they help the room turn up the energy and say, “Alright, for the next 10 minutes, we’re going to play a game. And the game is, your job is to defend your side.” Or, a really fun thing to do is, your job is to defend the other side. Let’s take 10 minutes to defend the other side, bring as much emotion to it, try to find all the creeks and crannies. My intent is when we’re done with this debate, is that we’re going to move back into the discussion because now the debate is going to open us up to see possibilities that we didn’t see before. We’re going to move back into the discussion and see, what could we make happen that wasn’t going to happen anyway, and that’s where collaboration happens, right? That is where innovation happens, when I can take multiple different forms of thoughts, ideas and philosophies, and meld them into something new, to create a sculpture that we can all stand and look around and say, I contributed to that, not I made that, but I contributed to that and I’m happy with the result that we have. A (Chad): I want offer for those listening that are like “Cool, I’m interested in this idea of discussion and dialogue, but how do I get there?” Because I’m going to go into my meeting on Monday and fill in the name, is going to debate on this, he’s going to push against, he’s going to push against, whatever that is. Two really quick practical things to offer, there are a number of tools to help shift debate to dialogue. Two really practical things is, one, typically you’re debating two scenarios. So, one really practical thing is to just ask the question, what’s the third option, what’s the third path here? Or what is a third option or third path? Or how might we do this differently without either one of our solutions that we’re pushing toward right now? And then the second is to simply shift from speaking in sentences that end in periods, and start speaking in a few sentences that end in question marks. Because when we ask questions of the other side, it does at least the first part of forcing our brain to hear what the other person is saying. Because typically in debate, you have two people who are talking, lots of words being exchanged, but very few of them are being retained and heard and remembered, because the other person is thinking, they latched on to what the person said in the first seven seconds of their pedestal speech, and then as soon as they’re done, right? The opposite of listening I would say is not talking, I would say that it’s waiting for your chance to talk, right? So in debate, we’re just waiting for a chance to talk and the second they’re done with their three-minute, deep, complex explainer, we respond to this one thing that we disagreed with in the first seven seconds to what they said. So, if we just let go of responding with a statement and we just ask a question that’s not rooted in judgment, that’s actually looking to seek to understand, that one action can change debate right in the middle of it to a dialogue. I think it is useful to be able to have that tool to pull out when you’re able to, because the more common experience I think people will bump into, is that they’re not the facilitator, or the wrangler, or the leader of the meeting, but there’s a debate happening, you can see that it’s unproductive, but you may not have the title or the power to shift that from debate to dialogue, but simply inviting people to ask questions to each other or asking your own, can do that right away, title regardless. A (Will): One of those questions could be is, what was the intent of this? Where did we start this conversation? Q: Sarcasm is a way that a lot of people I think implement humor in some instances. And you talk a little bit about sarcasm in your book, so does sarcasm have its place, would you suggest in healthy dialogue and authentic connectivity, and I’m going to relate this first to the workplace. So maybe aside from personal life, in your professional life, do you believe that sarcasm can have a place? A (Will): I do know that there are some workplaces that sarcasm is such a rich part of the culture that people have accepted it. What I think they’re blinded to is what sarcasm means, so the root of sarcasm means to tear flesh, and we tear flesh with our words, and we use it often under the guise of humor. But often when we’re being sarcastic, we are actually picking up a little dagger that’s in our little scabbard and we’re poking them right where it hurts most. So, I got really clear about this, as I was adopted into a home in which sarcasm was rich part of the culture, so I got really good at it. And I could see the nuances, my dad could rip up anybody, he was just really… And noses, any size nose you had in our house was one of those things that we just picked on each other with. But what I realized is how it hurt, especially when we use sarcasm, so if you love to use sarcasm, consider that if you’re using sarcasm with something that cannot be changed, that is especially painful. I can’t change my nose, unless I’m going to go see, what are they called? Plastic surgeon, right? And they actually modify my nose. If you’re using sarcasm about things that can’t be changed, that’s immensely painful. Sarcasm still shows up in my lexicon, and I try to choose it when I’m looking at objects, I think nobody has invested in. So, I might be sarcastic about how my cell phone is acting, but if I would use an Apple and if I was at Apple, and everybody’s invested in my cell phone, I might not use it, because those people have an invested interest in my cell phone. So generally speaking, especially in the educational realm and if you’re an educator, and I would say even if you’re a principal or superintendent, if sarcasm is a part of your way of leading, consider that you are doing more harm than good. Consider that you are tearing flesh, and you might think you’re trying to bring some light humor in here. But if you’re not really clear about what your intent is, people are taking those sarcastic remarks personally, and carrying them away and either creating armor to come back or ammunition to come back at you harder, or they’re creating armor in order to create a defense against you. And when they start creating a defense against you, you’re not going to see them, they’re going to stop contributing, they’re going to go into that place of resignation and start leaning back more. Q: I think going back to the humor part, I think there is a difference and this is just my opinion, so tell me if I’m wrong on this, but I believe that there’s a difference between true sarcasm and just tongu…

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Erina Gilmore, marketing director of NSBA

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