Recently the Inquiry Institute conducted an interview with Marge Schiller and Joyce Lemke, two of our well-known PCC members.

Between them, Marge and Joyce have conducted 15 Education focused Appreciative Inquiry Summits, ranging from 50-700 participants.

In this conversation they discuss some of what they have learned and the importance of strength-based schools.

You can listen to the podcast here. (24 minutes)  If you are interested in strength-focused approaches in schools, it will be very well worth your time!

Skype in the Classroom is a website taking advantage of the global reach of Skype to connect teachers around the globe!

As the site explains:

Skype in the classroom is a free community to help teachers everywhere use Skype to help their students learn. It’s a place for teachers to connect with each other, find partner classes and share inspiration. This is a global initiative that was created in response to the growing number of teachers using Skype in their classrooms.

Once teachers create a profile that sets out their interests, specialties and location, they can create projects. Projects are a way for teachers to find partner classes, partner teachers or guest speakers for a specific learning activity. You can browse through projects or even search by keyword, which makes it easy for teachers to share expertise and collaborate on projects even when they don’t already know each other.

Teachers can also browse through a members-only directory to find teachers who can offer them help, or whom they might be able to help. Once teachers find someone they’d like to connect with, they can add that person as a Skype contact. There’s also a directory of resources to help teachers share inspiring videos, links and tips around using in their classrooms.

While there is a lot you can do on Skype in the classroom, there are also a few things you can’t do. This is a community for educators to work on education-related endeavours. It is not a place intended for personal projects or for anything from which you might make any commercial gain.

Using their Skype accounts, teachers can collaborate on projects, connect with other teachers around the world and discover new inspiration for their classrooms.

The site is young – it was launched at the end of March, so is only two months old. But at time of writing, you can already find over 12,000 teachers, 500 projects and 450 resources on the site.

Well worth a visit for any teacher!

Via Marge Schiller,
from Adrienne O’Neill and Joseph Rochford
of the Stark Education Partnership

Here is a wonderful video, created by Sam Siedel.

It illustrates … literally! … the concept of “Hip Hop Genius” – a way of viewing the transformation of education.

As Sam says on the Vimeo website:

.. Drawings were done by Mike McCarthy, a student at College Unbound , a school that exemplifies many of the values espoused in the film. the entire video was shot in College Unbound’s seminar space, where Mike has built a studio for his company Drawn Along .

The end sequence was shot by Graham Wheeler, a recent graduate of the East Bay Met, a high school that also embodies many of the principles of Hip Hop Genius. Graham and Mike edited the whole video as well.

The beat at the end was made by DJ Tek, who worked with me at the AS220 Broad Street Studio back in the day… our work there was the genesis of much of my thinking about Hip Hop Genius.  Several of the young people in the video are or have been affiliated with that program.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Contributed by Natalie Shell

In a universe of wunderkinds with exceptional talents, there is one child whose story deserves to be read and shared.

It is the life of a prodigy born with a gift that was neither inherited nor developed until after it was fully appreciated by his family.  It is the story of a child whose love of a game in addition to his parent’s devotion is helping him enjoy a life that could have been lost.

Little Kyle Lograsso was 18 months old when his parents discovered him imitating a golf swing he had seen most likely on television. First he used the TV remote as his golf club and later brought in sticks to more closely imitate what he had seen.

His parents watched his progress and enthusiasm with awe since they neither played the game nor demonstrated prior interest.  They were never certain what it was he saw on television that inspired him to practice. His father searched for a coach who was able to demonstrate by a comparison video that Kyle had a swing that was significantly like Tiger Woods.

However, by the time he was 2 years old, a white speck on his left eye was subsequently diagnosed as retinoblastoma. Without surgery, the little pro would die within months. He survived the procedure and now wears a prosthetic eye which he has used with comic effect to tease his sister.

This child is a beautifully poignant example of how someone so young can prevail over daunting challenges in his pursuit of who he is meant to be.

Enjoy!

For more of Kyle’s story, you can also visit his home page.

Patreece Thompson

This is the introduction to an article by Jeff Fifield,  Curriculum Facilitator at Colegio Maya in Guatemala, which was published in NewsLinks:

Coming Together – Targeting Success was the title of Colegio Maya’s (American International School of Guatemala) Strategic Planning Summit.

It captured well the objectives for the innovative and dynamic event to generate dialogue in bringing the learning community closer together to set future targets for school improvement.

Utilising an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach, which aligned to the school’s culture, allowed the school’s stakeholders to engage in a meaningful and energized experience to begin creating the shared vision for school improvement.

The truly magical mix included students, teachers, administrators, parents, Board Members, as well as former members of the school community.

To read more about this wonderful event, download the full article

If you’ve not watched this graphically recorded talk by Sir Ken Robinson, then you’re in for a treat. In it, he presents a cogent argument for a new paradigm in education with his customary clear reasoning and sharp wit.

Sir Ken Robinson is a British author, speaker and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education and arts bodies. He received his knighthood in 2003 for services to education.

Thank you to Natalie Shell for the ‘heads up’ on this presentation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A new resource is available for those working with classroom teachers and school leaders. Written by Bob & Megan Tschannen-Moran, Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time (Jossey-Bass, 2010), incorporates the principles of Appreciative Inquiry into the process of one-on-one coaching for personal and professional development.

The Evocative Coaching model works with Story Listening, Expressing Empathy, Appreciative Inquiry, and Design Thinking to move educators beyond old ways of thinking, doing, and being. It inspires and invigorates educators with the passion for making schools better, one conversation at a time.

David Cooperrider had this to say about the book: “If you could choose only one inspiring and resource-filled book on coaching, what do you suppose it would be? For me the answer is right here. Evocative Coaching is a gem; it’s something that should be read by anyone involved in a helping profession—and that’s everyone!”

For more information about the book and the coach training program based upon the book, visit www.SchoolTransformation.com.

Bob Tschannen-Moran

by Patreece Thompson

Patreece: Thank you so much Christina for the opportunity to speak with you about Youth in the Middle, (YiM) a pilot program that seeks to address youth development from holistic and systemic perspectives. We would like to learn a little about you. What inspired you to become involved with the  YiM Program?

Christina:  I was a former teacher for the 5th and 6th grades. Then I obtained my Masters in Education in Instructional Technology and curriculum design and later was involved as a program manager for NASA and The Tech Museum in STEM education – (STEM is an acronym for “Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics”).

I became interested in schools and reform. Through my network, I became connected with YiM because I wanted to be:  a. more in touch with school reform, b. in touch with schools that are doing the work of reform, c. in situations to think about school as a system.

(Read Christine’s Bio)

Patreece: As I understand it, this program started as a conversation between John W. Gardner former, Secretary of HEW during LBJ administration, and Dr. Milbrey McLaughlin, professor of education and public policy. What is a community school? How did Kennedy School come to be chosen for this “pilot”?

Christina: John W. Gardner was not involved in starting Youth in the Middle. He was a close friend of Dr. Milbrey’s (founder of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Our Community) and he allowed her to start the center in his name because our general work around community youth development is aligned with his philosophy of working with community to support young people who then give back to community.

A community school is one that “belongs to the community”.  It has an on-site Family Resource Center which assesses families’ eligibility for and provides access to county social services, family and youth counseling services, parent leadership classes, and comprehensive after-school programs through partnerships with community agencies.

The school is open extended hours and during vacations so the community can use it.

By definition then, community schools are concerned about the whole child – intellectually, mentally, physically and socially. Three years ago when the pilot was started in the Redwood City School District (RCSD), people realized that that although youth development took place during the school hours, the perception was that “youth development” happened after school. How could the concept of Youth in the Middle, with youth holistic needs at the center, occur throughout the school day?

Kennedy, as a community middle school was selected to start those conversations.

During the 2008-2009 school year at Kennedy Middle School, 73% of the students were identified by their families as Hispanic, 16% as white, and 11% as African-American, Asian, and Filipino.  In the same year, 38% of Kennedy’s students were identified as English Language Learners and 66% participated in the free and reduced lunch program.

The focus is on middle school because it was felt there was more need to help youth in that age group. With the elementary school age group, the teachers had time to bond with the children and really get to know them. They stayed with the students all day long. Teachers of that age group had a better understanding of child development.

However, young adolescence is a time of transition – students go to a new school. They are not able to form those bonds with teachers, and they need much more support. This was a niche area that needed attention. People tended to avoid involvement with students in grades 6-8 on the level that occurs with earlier grades.

Patreece: Does the designation of community school make this program’s success more possible than in a public/private/charter school and if so in what way? Must the school be a community school or can it be K-8?

Christina: This is a developing program for all middle schools. We have no experience with non-community schools. The YiM Guide is not prescriptive. A school can decide what areas to work on; there are rubrics for the different components.

Patreece: What is it about this venture between the Kennedy school and the JGC that you found really works?

Christina: The structure of the four work areas really provide the components that are important for success. The YiM Guide introduction provides a more detailed overview.

1. Engage Cross Functional Expertise in Support of Youth

Bring all constituents together: youth, parents, teachers, administrators, counselors, community partners (representatives of these groups) to envision full development for young people. This area addresses the question of how to make the process safe and equitable for all participants.

2. Situate Academic Learning and Achievement in the Context of a Youth Development Approach

This is a difficult area because of the approach. What happens initially is that conversations become either/or – either academics or youth development are to be the focus for reform. The approach is to shift the conversation to both/and. At the heart of schools is certainly academic achievement and in order to be successful academically, there needs to be support for students’ emotional, physical, and social aspects.

The task at this stage is to help educators with what they know to be true. Educators learn about youth development and its connection with learning. Youth development pertains to all kids, not just the ones at risk. We need to see youth who are leaders and contributing to society. Focus on the positives, and do it intentionally and systemically

3. Integrate Local and Research Knowledge

This work area helps participants to understand principles behind research and be able to adapt them to their local particular situation. What is provided is research background around youth development as well as a workshop format to follow.

4. Create Conditions and Habits for Shared Responsibility

This area is only about a year old and is more recent. It recognizes that because the model is based on the input of constituents and is not hierarchical, everyone must learn how they can be responsible for carrying out the vision. There needs to be skill building to foster the concept.

Patreece: The name “Youth in the Middle” – does it refer to youth in middle school and/or youth in the center of visioning, planning?

Christina: Yes – it’s a double entendre.

Patreece:  As I was scanning the guide which has rich material, I came across one of the aspects of culture that the program wanted to create – “No such thing as smart or dumb”. How did that show up in creating a motivating culture that emerged at Kennedy?

Christina: This is a work in progress. We refer to the work of Dr. Carol Dweck [Standford psychologist who studied the origins of self-concept and its role in motivation and impact on achievement]. She compared the “growth mindset” that could be changed through effort vs. “fixed mindset” achieved by looking smart and not risking learning in order to avoid looking “stupid”.

Patreece: Are there early signs of accomplishing the vision of Gardner-McLaughlin et al in creating authentic youth development for middle school children?

Christina: We see early signs of success in individuals with ‘aha’ moments. For example,  a teacher was excited by the finding that 75% of kids are motivated by their families.

We are noticing shifts in thinking about other school members and how they talk about each other.  The changes are relational/interactional at this point.

Also we did have some measurable results: there is a  2/3rd reduction in suspensions in the  second year compared to the first year of the program.

The John Gardner Center is now surveying 2500 children with a youth developmental survey in the Redwood City School District . It is inquiring into student beliefs in academic achievement, how they feel about their capability and the practices their teachers use: practices that reinforce learning for sake of learning or practices that focus on performance-based learning leading to a more fixed mind set.

The researchers are finding when teachers use learning for the sake of learning children believe in their capabilities and perform better academically. This finding spans race, gender and culture.

Patreece: I really appreciate your providing us with wonderful concepts to build upon with youth in the middle.

We encourage everyone to learn more about this program by visiting the Youth in The Middle Guide on the John Gardner Center website.