Month: March 2018

In Episode 26 we are revisiting Springhouse Community School located in Floyd, VA. You may recall that in Episode 23, we had a wonderful conversation with school co-founders Ezekiel Fugate and Jenny Finn through the leadership lens. A significant part of our conversation in this episode is with two learners at Springhouse, Gabby Howard and Leah Pierce who provide us with a deeper dive into the kinds of learning experiences Springhouse provides. In addition to the learner experience our conversation includes discussion of learner agency and how the concept of relationships at Springhouse differs from other learning organizations.

Key Competency

Learner-centered leaders invest time in developing deep connected relationships.

Takeaways

We started the conversation by asking the learners at Springhouse to describe their learning experiences in three words. Gabby described her learning experience as individual, whole/all encompassing, and interactive. For example, as a learner, she focuses on the details of the project as well as the emotional and personal aspects of the process of completing the project. It is not enough to just do the project, instead learners reflect on process.

Leah described her experience as self-awareness, empowerment, and growth. Learners take time to focus on themselves throughout the process. They explore themselves through what they are learning and their daily life at Springhouse. For example, Leah is studying how to become an ER nurse. She volunteers with hospice once per week, is interested in doing ride-alongs with the local ambulance company, and is learning about other programs around the world – even considering internships in colleges and hospitals. She thought about what she wanted to do, and then she sat down with her advisor at Springhouse where they developed possibilities together.

Learners participate in independent project studio. Older students work with Ezekiel for about an hour and a half per week to work on their projects.

What are some challenges to learning in Springhouse? Each learner is required to engage professionally with his/her mentors, demonstrating agency in solving problems and creating relationships.

Students meet with mentors multiple times throughout the week. They talk about school and their personal lives. Conversations about school projects, family lives, and friendships help learners better understand themselves

When asked about positive, memorable learning experiences, learners shared about Springhouse presentation nights. Juniors and seniors are required to complete a presentation, performing in front of an audience to share the work they have completed.  Failures are also celebrated in this forum. For example, when Gabby didn’t finish her project, she was vulnerable and shared the process she used and took responsibility for failing to meet her personal goals.

Learners also participate in experience week trips 2-3 times per school year. One mountain lake trip included white water rafting, caving, and hiking.  Learners connect with each other and develop stronger relationships through the shared activities and daily life. Cooking and dining bring the learners together and strengthen the community bond. Learners even raise the funds for the trips through bake sales and community events.

Learners at Springhouse demonstrate agency and leadership and are prepared for success once they leave the school. They are developing independence even though they are guided and supported every step of the way.

What do leaders need to know in order to support the development of agency in learners? Leaders need to be willing to take risks and listen to their learners in order to develop understanding, connection, and compassion. Teachers and leaders need to be intentional about course design. When developing an entrepreneurship course, the facilitators are asking themselves about what kind of real-life experiences students can participate in to learn entrepreneurial skills. They turned to a current school issue – school recruitment. Students identified possible reasons for the challenges with recruitment and ways to confront/manage those issues. The facilitators realized they don’t have to make up a project – instead they need to involve the learners in their current, authentic challenges.

Each individual is honored and has something valuable to contribute. Learners are not empty buckets which need to be filled. Leaders value the process of relationship-building and the time it takes to connect. They invest the time to uncover and value vulnerabilities in order to help students develop resiliency to challenges.

The adults in Springhouse demonstrate integrity in their work, and they place knowledge, skills, and relationships on an equal platform. They have the personal philosophy or mindset of the importance of building deep relationships. Some barriers to developing strong relationships may include: time, fear of connection, vulnerability, and/or skills.

Leaders need to be connected to their context – themselves, their community, and the earth or larger system.  They need a sense of purpose. Why do they do the work? What are they oriented towards? Leaders need to keep each other honest – asking tough questions, being aware when avoiding challenging issues, and having the ability to lavish praise on themselves and each other.  

Connections to Practice

• Our Profile of a Graduate articulates dispositions we want to develop in our learners. How do we work towards those ideas across our organization?
• This year, we are sharing SuperPower recognition. Do our learners, teachers, and leaders celebrate their internal SuperPowers? What is the evidence?

Questions Based on Our Context

• How can we develop a family-like structure with our learners?
• Are our learners all deeply connected to an adult?  If not, why not?
• What are our barriers to developing strong relationships?
• Do our learners have time to talk with advisors about projects and personal lives?
• What types of place-based experiences do our learners have in our schools?
• Are we designing courses around real, authentic issues?
• Do our learners own their successes and failures?

Next Steps for Us

• Evaluate our current advisory programs.
• Talk with our learners in superintendent advisory council about whether or not they feel connected to an adult in school. What are their perceptions of the relationships of the adults in the organization?
• Work with school leaders to plan with intentionality how we can support our learners to think about the world of work beyond high school.

In this episode, we focus on leadership and a conversation with Big Picture Learning Co-Executive Directors, Dr. Andrew Frishman and Carlos Moreno. Our conversation dives deeply into how Big Picture Learning represents the five elements put forth by Education Reimagined and the key role of leadership in educational transformation. We also discussed a reframing of the term “relationships,” the power of giving up control, policy and mindset barriers and the shifting role of the teacher.

Key Competency

Learner-centered leaders explicitly redefine the role of the teacher. Teachers are no longer the sole keepers of the knowledge. Instead, as advisors, they develop deep relationships with learners and their families to co-create meaningful, personalized learning experiences.

Takeaways

Big Picture Learning (BPL) works to maintain integrity of its brand through intentional leadership. The engagement continues beyond the initial implementation. The BPL schools remain connected as a network. Those within Big Picture schools collaborate and learn with one another. Leaders, practitioners, and students connect with one another to share learning experiences with their own communities. This provides continuous growth and improvement in BPL schools.

Much of the work of transformation begins with the school leaders. They assist in providing “high touch” professional development for the school community. BPL encourages current school leaders to consider internal succession planning as well as develop their own talents. Veteran leaders are often tapped for additional leadership roles. Distributed leadership is employed to build capacity.

What does the learning look like in BPL schools? BPL seeks to lay out an approach to learning which encourages deep connections to learning and to each other as learners. Before students enter the school, they are connected with an advisor (redefined role of the teacher). An advisor works with the student to explore several questions – Who are you? What are you passionate about? How do you want to go out into the world? How can we help you design learning experiences to get you there? Advisors meet with the student and his/her parents outside of school in their community. The advisor seeks to understand the student as a learner and a person. They learn about the students’ interests, hobbies, challenges, etc.This connection goes far beyond academic content and technical skills.

Students are also connected to other students through advisory. A group of fifteen to twenty-five students stay with one advisor over the course of 2-4 years.  The combination of the deep individual relationship and getting to know students in advisory benefits the learners. 

Regarding relationships – the value is in the relationship itself. By placing the advisor/student relationship at the center of the learning, the advisor can work with the student and his/her family to co-create learning experiences.  For example, If a learner is interested in architecture, how would they find 5-10 places in the community where that is occurring? How can they set up a research interview? Who works there? How could they get that career? What does the day-to-day job/work look like? The students complete informational intervews to answer some of these questions. Then the work wth the advsor continues. How can we craft with you and your family an individualized learning plan? The advisor supports and scaffolds students experience in internships and helps students think about authentic projects and assessments.

BPL embodies the five elements put forward by Education Reimagined. The learning is open-walled, going beyond the walls of the school with internships and connections as shared above.  Learning at BPL is highly socially-embedded both in and out of school. Because it is student interest-driven, there is a tremendous amount of learner-agency. By defintiton, the work is highly personalized by each learner. Learners are developing and demonstrating competencies and skills. The competencies and sklls are deeply contextualized to the work the learners want to do.

Relationships in a school-centered environment look different from relationships in a learner-centered environment. In the learner-centered environment the deep, strong relationships are used as the foundation to co-design learning experiences. The connectons go beyond developing academc rigor; instead, the value is in the relationship itself. Buildng relationships and connections is important work.

In order to create this learnng environment BPL, does not completely abandon traditional elements of education. BPL sees the value in the concept of teachers, students spending some time in a school with peers, and some time with other experts, many of whom have more knowledge than the teacher. Teachers have to let go of control and the notion that they are the center of the room with all of the power and knowledge. Instead of transferring content, the advisors identify that each learner has a set of knowledge which the teachers do not have. The role of the teacher has shifted, and often that person may not be recognized upon immediate entry into a classroom. Voice and choice are distributed beyond the advisor to the learners.

BPL is a new form and design of a student learning experience that requires different cultures and structures in order to provide the most powerful experience. It requires a shift in mindset beyond the regularities of school. A key barrier to implementation of personalization can be a lack of resources – both human and financial. This system works across the country and around the world – 25 states in both rural and urban settings.

What competencies do leaders in this space need?  Leaders need a clear purpose for being in this work. Ideally, they are reflective practitioners with a continuous growth mindset. They care about students in very deep ways and believe in learner-centered education very deeply. How are leaders visionary? What is their vision 10-15 years ahead for their school? Leaders need to be distributive in leadership – not the keepers and holders of everything, instead sharing the leadership with others including students and staff.

What nugget of advice could you offer us and our listeners? Just do it! If you wait for conditions to be perfect, you wil be waiting forever. You will never have all the perfect technical skills. Get a group of people together and get excited! Start doing it? Make mistakes and learn. Iterate to get better. As you get into it, you will make more and more beautfiul things. Leaders need to embrace the messiness, and lean in as learners.

Connections to Practice

• We have advisory in our middle school and high school.  How can we better utilize this time?
• Change is loss, and that can be scary for our teachers and leaders. How are our teachers and leaders feeling about our vision?

Questions Based on Our Context

• How can we develop a family-like structure with our learners?
• Are our learners all deeply connected to an adult?
• On a regular basis, do we ask students where they want to be in 5, 10 or 15 years?
• Do our teachers believe they are the center of all content knowledge? If so, how can we shift that mindset?
• How would we redefine the role of the teacher? How can we best think about this question?

Next Steps for Us

• Evaluate our current advisory programs
• Talk with our learners in superintendent advisory council about whether or not they feel connected to an adult in school.
• Work with school leaders to plan with intentionality how we can support our learners to think about the world of work beyond high school.