Building a SOLE School

SOLE School

Setting up a SOLE school is not for the faint hearted. It requires a belief that education is about more than what we grew up with. It is about recognizing that education is personal and self-driven. Education must follow the interests of the child so that they can develop their skills and ideas to help them become successfully educated people who from childhood are working to fulfill their dreams.

A SOLE school would be a school that would look radically different from other schools. Gone would be desks and lectures and structured lessons. Gone would be the adults making the final decisions. In their place would be the students learning about the things they are interested in. It would be cooperative decision making with adults and students being equals. The adults would provide the guidance and moral reasoning. Teachers would be inserting the curriculum into the learning where it was necessary. Some language arts concepts would be taught through drama, dance, art, music. Laptops and research would be cornerstones in the educational development of the kids. Direct, hands on experience would be integral in their education.

In order to have a SOLE school become a reality it involves hiring the right people for the position. No longer required are the type A, structured, by the book people who now inhabit our classrooms. Required are open minded thinkers who are flexible and adaptable in understanding that curriculum is to be taught within the boundaries established by the children in the room. They must be ready to pursue any angle to help the children grow. Curriculum must be woven into the children’s learning. It should not be the sole basis for their learning.  This must be done from Kindergarten forward as children are capable of doing modified forms of SOLE at the early grade levels. 

As important as all this is students need to be exploring a world in which they live. Their learning should have technology and resources available to facilitate research and hands on learning. There should be an understanding within the community that all students should receive hands on experience where their interests lie. If someone wishes to explore auto mechanics they should have time in a garage and then spend time researching the things they are trying to understand. Along with this students need to understand how speaking, presentation, social skills affect their place and understanding in the world. Students should also have a social conscience. In exploring an area of the human condition and their world they need to see and understand firsthand how their actions and behaviours impact the rest of the world. In the past children would learn trades/jobs from their parents. If your father was a storekeeper you would learn how to run a store. If your father was a farmer you would learn everything you needed to know about farming. As we moved more towards urban centres we have moved away from the concept. We need to revive this concept with SOLE so that kids may explore and understand the world around them.

Teachers and students need to explore ways of self-funding. This teaches the students about handling money and developing their interest and abilities in entrepreneurship which allows them greater freedom to pursue their interests.

I want to stress here that the curriculum will be covered, not just in the way that formal education has seen it done for the last century. If we are simply teaching curriculum for the sake of teaching curriculum we are wasting our time.  The teaching of curriculum must be done in a more practical way that evolves as the child grows. If they need to write a letter they need to be taught letter writing skills. We can no longer afford to teach children skills that they may or may not use in the future. The curriculum is like many government laws. They are added to in order to make them stronger but in so much detail the enforceability is lost. There are too many things in a curriculum to cover satisfactorily. 

Some times it works.

Today I had one of those rare but ever pleasing moments in education where everything connected. I have a very shy girl in my class. She does not participate in discussions, calling on her to answer questions is met with silence and when working in groups she is usually very quiet. But today was a different story. She opted to work with a partner for her Rube Goldberg project. He was full of ideas, diagramming and explaining with exuberance. The I hear her voice pipe up, "No that won't work because..." and from there she went on to give a well reasoned and detailed argument as to why it wouldn't work. I sat amazed at this. Then she proceeded to outline and adjust his ideas to make the project stronger explaining her thoughts along the way. The dialogue then went back and forth for a few minutes with both taking and developing ideas. I sat mesmerized watching this development. There was life, there was risk taking, there was discussion and explanation and it felt right. Good for her I thought. A couple of minutes later I talked to her about it. She was just thrilled to be building something. I am glad she feels comfortable enough to take the risk. I am hoping it lasts a long time.

What is Education?

   Our forefathers knew that a good education was the path to a richer and more fulfilling life. That would be why so many children from wealthy families pursued education with a passion. Parents of poorer students would push but the child was seeing their parents and accepting what life had for them instead of pushing harder. Their help was needed to put food on the table. Today, when a good education is available to everyone, we face the question  what is an education? It is certainly not what it was 40, 50 or 100 years ago. We are no longer filling factory jobs.  Most jobs in good businesses jobs now require skills that are not learned in school.   

   I propose it is time to redefine education. The methods, the thoughts, the attitudes we have towards education must change. No longer can we continue to foster the idea that the only education that is worthwhile is one that involves post secondary education. Education is about so much more than what happens in classroom. It is about the development of a necessary set of skills that help us anywhere our path will go.  No longer can we foster the idea that making a lot of money through education is the only way to go. These days we see millionaires who are younger than the age of 20 because they developed a computer program, an app or some other idea that was useful. Education is no longer about  going to a University or College. It is about what you do with the life you have been given. It is about taking advantage of the opportunities that are presented to you and making the most of it.

    Education starts in the home. It starts the minute a child is born. Parents are the first teachers, those who set the standard by providing the warmth, nourishment and love for the child. The child imitates their behaviours and attitudes, their ways of walking and talking and begins to adopt some of the thoughts that are shared daily. What training do parents have to ensure the best possible life for their child? For centuries it has been based on observances and experiences of those in the home. In some homes this is very successful but in others it is a disaster. We cannot continue to play hit and miss in this area. That is why there is a prevalence of books on the topic of child rearing. Caring people want to know. Often in schools we are facing children who do not have the luxuries of a happy safe, encouraging home life.

    Our present outlook and delivery of curriculum does not reflect the changing times. We are stifling inquisitiveness and the exploratory nature of childhood. We are steering kids away from being curious and following their interests towards following what we deem necessary for them. School is still about providing a set of skilled employees for the labor market. Our programs are set up to force a conformity of thoughts and actions. Educators talk about developing the ‘whole’ child – emotionally, intellectually, creatively. What does that look like and how does it work in the current setting? When we insist on conformity we get what we want instead of what is needed by the students. Students need the ability to seek, to understand and to synthesize information. In short they need to be taught to be creative and innovative as they work together towards solutions to problems or issues. This creates a sense of purpose and challenge. Students need to be learning about a wide variety of topics of interest to them so they can feel like they belong. As they research and analyze information this knowledge will help them to make informed decisions. They should be learning to develop arguments for or against real life situations and be able to support those arguments both verbally and in written form. A textbook education will never be able to do that.

     Schools today is not reflective of the society we want to become. Teachers have long known that when a group of students work together on a project they believe in sparks fly. This is often seen when teachers move on to the next topic of study and dullness sets in. There is no participation. The room is totally quiet with the enthusiasm disappearing. The lifelong pursuit of knowledge should not be onerous or burdensome which leads to self defeating thoughts and actions on the part of the students. It should be a learning experience where one is involved in their growth rather than merely being a by product of it.

    So what is education really about? What is your definition? Let’s redefine education so that everyone has the same definition. Let’s work towards giving each and every child a good chance of finding a fulfilling and satisfying life. Time to stop listening to, “We need more (substitute a job description in here),” and filling their quotas. Let’s make every child’s dream becomes a reality by encouraging them from an early life to explore and question and devise solutions. Only then will education be what it is supposed to be.

Visible Thinking

Here is a website that talks about Visible Thinking. Visible Thinking has two goals: to deepen subject-matter learning and to cultivate students' disposition toward thinking.  I am impressed with the focus and will look at it some more this weekend.

http://www.pz.gse.harvard.edu/visible_thinking.php

Reading Levels Update

I have recently completed running Records using the Fountas and Pinnell books to test the reading levels of my Grade 5 students. I am pleased to say that all of my students are reading at Grade level or above at this time. Of the ten students I taught last year in Grade 4, they have all  moved two reading levels above where they were in June.

What does this mean?

By using SOLE with my students everyday I have helped push their reading levels to new heights. Students are reading about topics of interest to them therefore they have a stronger connection with the reading material. By working in groups they are able to discuss their findings and ask pertinent questions about it. By presenting their findings to the class they are able to provide explanation and answer questions about their work as well as become less concerned with standing up in front of people to speak. All these things help boost their confidence.

As I am not using a formal reading program with them, they do not have to analyze “boring” texts and write down answers they have no direct connection with. This leads them to follow their instincts as we discuss the topics and I insert the different pieces of the curriculum into what we are doing.

I couldn’t be happier with their improvement.

SOLE Experiences

Education is an intensely personal experience. It cannot be gained from books, tests or assignments. Although they can help form an education they are not the basis for it. The basis is the person’s experiences, reactions and thoughts. This can be found in many places, in the most unexpected ways and have impacts much larger than anything we can convey in a classroom. Each person who sits in a classroom has a different experience in the class with no two being the same despite being taught the same things. Each person brings a different level of experience, understanding and thought process to each situation.  Each person has experiences outside the classroom that no one else in the classroom can have. This affects how they perceive things. Classrooms should be about expanding on these experiences, providing more places for thought provoking discussion and following trains of thought to their logical conclusions. Education should not be about test scores or getting everyone to be the same by expecting the same things from them. Everyone is not the same. We should stop expecting all our students to be the same.

            In my second year of teaching my class grew from thirty Grade 5 students to forty five Grade 5 students in a couple of months. I remember thinking to myself, “How am I ever going to program for that many students.” The fact that it was in a very low income neighbourhood with the most notorious reputation in all of the school board added to the issue. Of the forty five students six were reading at Grade level or above. Five were reading just below Grade level the other thirty four were reading from Grade one to Grade three level. I needed to engage the top six without having to spend a great deal of time with them. I focused on independent projects where they could learn about the things that interested them.

            Fast forward 25 years to 2013. We now have technology in schools. Research projects became more of the norm but still in teaching we were bound by the curriculum which needed to be taught. Despite attending many workshops where the focus was on teaching curriculum I had grave doubts about this method. It certainly didn’t inspire passion in my students. They became less focused and I was losing their interest. Behaviour problems began to creep out as everyone looked for attention.

            In March of 2013 a teacher librarian friend of mine pointed me towards an article she had read and a Ted Talk by a gentleman named Sugata Mitra. I watched his Ted Talk and knew immediately that this was the place for me. He talked about the innate ability of children to learn without adults. This I could identify with because I had always believed that students learned despite what we did with them. They certainly proved this adequately between the ages of 0 and 5. He talked about children sharing what they learned. This I could see every day. He talked about how reading levels and interest in school increased dramatically. I was hooked. I looked up his toolkit. It was quite informative but what interested me the most was the basic format he used. I modified it to suit my needs as a teacher.

1.      Students develop the question.

2.      Students choose the groups.

3.      Students research the question.

4.      Students write up their findings

5.      Students present their findings.   

Perfect. It seemed too simple and too contrived but it fit the need I was seeing so I thought to myself let’s give it a try.

First I needed to present this to my students in a way they could understand. They were a very smart group those Grade 4 and 5 students. I was sure I could get them to join me on this first stage of my journey. I talked to them about my belief that education is something more than information that can be gained through books or the Internet. It is something we carry with us all our lives if we feel the information belongs to us and is needed by us to help us grow. I explained about the basics of a SOLE and about Sugata Mitra. I saw their eyes open and the wheels turning. “Do you mean that we may not have to read about things we are not interested in anymore, like those stories from the textbooks?” they asked. I told them I could not promise that but we would see how it goes. “We get to work as a group and look up what we want?” I explained to them that, in my opinion, was what learning is about. They also needed to share the information with an audience. This would help them to remember what they had learned. The general opinion was, “Let’s do it.” So we tried it.

            To say it was successful is an understatement. That first day was one of the most overwhelming experiences in my teaching career. Every one of the 26 students bought into it and participated with great exuberance. They developed 7 questions, one for each group, formed their groups without issues and worked better than they ever had before. At the end of the period they wrote up their findings as a group, decided on the presentation style and presented their information. After the presentation their classmates were invited to ask them questions about the topic and critique their presentation style. After reminding the audience that whatever they had to say would be positive and helpful everything proceeded amazingly well. The discussion for the first question went on for 20 minutes. The questions came from all corners of the room. Those who would be considered my weakest students were in their element asking questions that were very strong and in some cases very profound.   

            This type of research became the basis for my Language Arts program. I started to work with the curriculum to fit what they were doing. I taught lessons based on the needs in their research and writing. Speaking, presenting, oral visual and media were covered this way. What I couldn’t teach to supplement what they were doing I taught in other subjects. Plot, character, setting and other topics along this line were covered in drama. Social Studies and Science covered some of the critical thinking questions that I used to ask in reading.  As we progressed from March through June we refined it carefully.

.In June I tested all of my Grade 4 students. All 19 of them tested at Grade level or above! I was shocked. In my experience there will be a few who read above Grade level, some who read at grade level and some who read from below to way below Grade level. As one of my low students put it, “I was looking up things I was interested in. I felt equal to all my group members. I could never compete with them before. Now I can be a part of something.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

This fall I started working in Social Studies and Science using the big questions the curriculum poses. By presenting the work this way the students are finding and sharing more information than what was asked of them. This allows them to see a bigger picture.

By making education about my students and allowing them to be decision makers they are contributing more and more towards making their lives about lifelong learning. They are happier and are making a stronger effort to become aware of who they are and what they want. That is what education should be about.

Why Do We Still Buy Textbooks?

In this day and age where everything in Government is about saving money I would like to propose a new and radical idea. The government should stop funding textbooks. Let’s think about it for a second. Everything a teacher needs to run a classroom program can be found online. Current, up to date, pertinent reading material. Math software is huge and mostly free,math manipulatives are available in an environment that emphasizes on line examples, social studies, history, geographic information at their fingertips. It is everything that teachers have ever wanted and more. There is an impressive array of free downloadable activities. There are programs that deliver parts of the curriculum in a manner that students appreciate. Research opportunities are available in areas of the student’s interest. What more could one ask for? And to boot, most of it is provided at no cost.

It would be better to spend the billions on providing up to date technology at every school for every student. Imagine that, no old technology in a school. There would be computers for every child. Students would learning about the things that are important in life, things that are useful in their world.

So why are we still spending millions, if not billions of dollars on textbooks yearly?  It would appear that big business has a firm hold on our governments. They provide research and development. They guide testing, a very big market for that now a days. They provide the materials in the timely fashion that directs the outcomes provided in government documents. Hmm. I wonder which came first, the documents from the government or the materials to support the curriculum. They always seem to be there right after the latest pronouncement from the government is given.

So in this day and age who is in charge of education?