What Color is Your PRIDE?

You can feel it in the hallways at school. Pride in our school is back, literally and figuratively. After much planning we rolled out our new PRIDE system in September to students and staff to mixed reviews. For students, the PRIDE system is a colossal success!

The System
Our system consists of four PRIDES (North, South, East, & West) and every student and staff member belongs to one (and given a bracelet). It bonds students to their advisor and is the main cog in our PBIS & RTI work. We focus on positively reinforcing students via PRIDE Points. Unlike many other schools in our district that offer tangible rewards as the centerpiece of their PBIS system, PRIDE Points represent an abstract concept that is applied liberally throughout the building. Staff members positively reinforce behaviors in class (filling in planners, contributions to classroom discussions, etc.), in the hallway (staying to the right when walking the halls, polite behavior, etc.), or during PRIDE challenges by giving students points for their PRIDE. At the end of each month we tally the points and announce the PRIDE points winner during a PRIDE Challenge assembly. The winning PRIDE may get to leave for lunch 3 minutes early, get a PRIDE social during advisory (30 minutes), get a grand welcome during challenge assemblies, or some other small recognition. Is that a reward/punishment system? Perhaps. Has it had an affect on school-wide discipline? Absolutely. Major infractions have been reduced by a half. Minor infractions have been reduced by two-thirds. Pride in school is up exponentially!



Our Successes
Our first PRIDE Challenge assembly was like attending a pep rally...for the BCS championship of college football! The pagentry in walking to the assembly is a sight to behold. Students dressed in PRIDE colors, carrying banners, and chanting PRIDE slogans are just some of the highlights. Once the assembly starts, the volume is deafening. Students cheer their classmates and teachers. At one moment during out first assembly, our emcee announced a staff challenge (a four-way tug-of-war). Students came out of their seats pouring onto the gym floor to cheer for staff, yelling in our faces, encouraging us to work harder, and reveling in the moment. That's when the thought hit me. With thirty staff members tugging vigorously on the ropes, who was watching the students? It turned out, nobody had to. They were all anxiously watching the action and loving every moment! We've since had several smaller challenges and our second PRIDE Challenge assembly (yesterday) with similar results. Our second assembly was well attended...the district superintendent, the COO (assistant superintendent), several district department heads, our district public relations spokesperson, and several principals from around the district. They were there to help judge two events and learn more about our PRIDE system.


Our Challenges
Getting staff to step outside their comfort zone and embrace the changes has been frustrating. More are coming around because they have seen real results. The others, well, we are dragging them along. Encouraging them just as we do our students. I think the students are encouraging them as well and I love it! Another challenge is a recycled challenge...time. We need time to plan (PRIDE leaders meet every other Saturday over breakfast), we need time to meet with staff (we have 30 minutes before school every other week), and we need time to teach. We give up teaching time (46 minute classes) at least once a week.


Looking Forward
We are encouraged by the results so far, but I am exhilerated for two reasons. First, we make decisions based on the impact to students, but only after careful deliberation. Second, we have resisted, vehemently at times, the urge to go back to our old ways of excluding students via a tradition rewards & punishment system. I am proud of what is happening in our school and proud of our students!

Apex Karting - WCYDWT

There is this go-kart place a short drive down the road from where I live that is pure adrenaline. The karts can go upwards of 40 mph, but the twisting course keeps the average speed in the 20's. What I enjoy about each experience, besides the large scoreboard in pit row, is the sweet sheet of data given to each driver after each race. While the video doesn't provide much to see, it should be enough to stimulate some conversation. The race sheets, however, are pure mathematical gold.

You may need to know that the length of the track, depending on the line you drive (or walk), varies. Here is a measurement I took. According to the owners, the track is 1/4 mile long (give or take 5 feet).

The data for this WCYDWT activity comes from our fourth, and final, race. There were four racers: BooBoo22, Chud, Josh, and Juiced.

My plan is to use the information with my seventh grade pre-algebra classes as well as my eighth grade algebra classes. I'm thinking that my seventh graders will want to know who went the fastest and may want to determine who actually won the race, whereas I think I'll leave it wide-open for my algebra students. I'll post a follow-up later this week. In the meantime, what are questions did you come up with?

NOTE: Obviously the video is an unnecessary component to this activity, but I had planned to have a speed gun to catch max speeds on the main straight-away to validate student calculations (maybe next year). I also toyed with recording the actual race so you could see crashes, wipe-outs, and other factors that affect the overall lap times. Any other video suggestions?

Synergy in Action

We crossed a threshold this week and stepped into a new era at our school. After a summer of perpetual meetings it was time to roll out our school makeover plan to staff. On the agenda...the end of teaming, the reintroduction of student SEAL certificates, and a deliberate approach to positive reinforcement. Why? The official line went something like "We have to rethink teaming given our current staffing." Okay fine, but who will do the rethinking? In an odd twist...not the administrators at our school! It turns out that five teachers, who had to apply for the position, got the job....I happened to be one of them.

THE ROLLOUT

We introduced concepts of positive reinforcement from the book Don't Shoot the Dog and talked about the need to move away from the punitive measures that have been in place for years. The focus on positive reinforcement was created by a district initiative, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and the work of a group of teachers in the building. While PBIS is designed to be an information system that uses school data for decision making, it's main goal is to teach students positive behaviors rather than be a punitive response to poor decision making. For our purposes, we implemented a Pride Point system to be used throughout the school to reinforce positive behaviors, created four Prides (social houses - North, South, East, & West) that will handle non-academic decision making, revamped our major & minor infraction reporting system, and reintroduced SEAL certificates. Our hope is that students will identify with their Pride as they did with their academic teams.

In addition to this structure, we supported teachers with team-building and class-building activities they could take to their classes and use right away. Since Kagan Cooperative Learning is also an on-going district initiative, we used many of the structures and games provided in the materials available to us. As for the certificates, we brought back an unpopular (and expensive) system of reinforcing student achievement, only this time we created clear guidelines for how students earned the seals.

The final piece of our roll-out was an ambitious 30-hour series of professional development opportunities for staff members that would satisfy a clause in our teaching contract regarding PD time throughout the school year. The centerpiece of the PD was two 7-hour days (last week) where staff members would learn more about the system and provide valuable input as to the final details of the system.

Teacher-Led PD

There is something to be said for sitting in a staff meeting and listening to your admin tell you what you need to know and moving on. This was not one of those times. Over the course of the two days, with over 50% of staff in attendance, there was a noticeable lack of admin presence. This created some issues during discussions as the topic spiraled in all directions on occasion, but in the end, it was a good thing. We were talking about our beliefs, our passions, our hang-ups...and debating the merits of a broken system...one that many were trying desperately to hang on to. The conversation was intense. It started with Daniel Pink's TED Talk on motivation. With the absence of admin, I think it set the tone for autonomy, mastery, & purpose! We (the leaders) introduced topics and allowed a debate to ensue. The debate that yielded the most fruit centered around student activities and eligibility criteria.

A New Era

For years criteria centered on grades and honor level status. The only activity free of criteria were our observances of Veteran's Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. During an intense 3-hour debate, we were able to move our school off it's punitive foundation and agree to put students ahead of our egos. While we aren't criteria free, we did agree to make all assemblies and school-wide socials criteria-free! What I am most proud of, however, is a simple two-part agreement: (1) We would rethink our end of year "Moving Up" ceremony and (2) ALL students will be allowed to participate whether they "earned it" or not. We also are in agreement that it should not have the look or feel of a "graduation" ceremony. Our end-of-quarter reward activities are still tied to grades and honor level status, and as punitive as that can be, it is how we plan to stress the importance of academics. Does anyone accomplish this any other way? What does your end-of-year ceremony look like?

Showtime!

On Wednesday students will arrive to experience the changes for themselves. They've been informed about the changes to teaming, and given a brief description of the new system. How they react? I suspect they will embrace the changes as the staff did, but the long-term success will come from focusing on the positives, not looking back but continuing to point the way forward. As one of our passionate leaders said during our PD, "You cannot steal second based with one foot still on first. You have to be all-in." We're all in...we're passionate about what we've created!

Synergy from Change

In the heat of the moment it happens. A quiet discussion erupts into a torrent of ideas and agreement. Later you would swear that a breeze of fresh air swept through the room. The rush from the moment can propel a group for days, weeks, or months. We had that moment. It was euphoric. It propelled us through several long meetings. Then, as quickly as the moment occurred, it was gone. What remained was tears, frustration, and questions. Let me explain.

I teach math in a seventh & eighth grade middle school. Given the current economic climate, our school was faced with changing the way we educate our students. Gone are the days of interdisciplinary teaming and common planning. The status quo gave way to lightening fast change. Filling the void is a leadership group charged with fusing the ideas from Response to Intervention (RTI) with Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS) into a social house structure.

We began with a Seth Godin book study: Tribes. Every member of our leadership team was provided a copy. We read it on our own time, but we each bought into the principles: we would each lead, we would each become a heretic. Our goal was to build a structure that would support the emotional needs of our students, provide them with a "tribe" they could identify with. Give them a sense of belonging. That's when it happened...our moment of synergy.

Our meetings were informal, a shared meal in one of our homes. They started in the afternoon and went long into the night. We were sitting around a living room brainstorming ways to honor the work of a team that had practiced a "house" system for years. We started with "Chinook Nation." It would describe all students & staff in our school (our school is named after the Chinook Nation in southwest Washington). Next we decided to call each group (house) of students "Clans." Each advisory would be called a "House." We'd have four clans and we'd each lead a clan of teachers and students. This was our moment. Synergy. From here the structure of our system was assembled in what seemed like minutes. What was left were the details. As one of our leaders would later say, "I feel like when we named ourselves Nation-Clan-House that was the title to our narrative. It was the beginning of our story, a story based in passionate belief that we are all connected to create an amazing Chinook Nation."

With a few simple strokes of a keyboard, our synergy was taken from us.

At our next gathering, a "fill in the details" meeting, we had no energy. It had vanished with a letter home to staff. The naming of our structure, our moment of synergy, was voided when we learned "Clans" had been changed to "Lodges" without our input. Were we naive to think that "Clans" or "Tribes" would pass the administrative/parental sniff test? Perhaps. What hurt was the absence of a discussion. It brought out tears. It evoked enough emotion that after an hour of discussion we were paralyzed as a group. It was awful.

The Model

There is more to this story than hurt feelings. We actually built something meaningful. In lieu of teams, the house system would serve as the identifying feature for every student in our school. As advisors, we would loop with our students for two years. We would provide them a place to belong (the Clan, Tribe, or Lodge). As their advisor, we would provide opportunities to grow socially, work with students to assign enrichment or intervention opportunities, and learn of discipline infractions. We would plan quarterly activities within each house, challenge other advisors during spirit assemblies, and positively reinforce behaviors by awarding house points. We planned climate building activities like in-school and evening socials, lock-ins, Identity Day, and Winter Wishes. We would support teachers with ideas for class-building and team-building activities and offer ongoing professional development throughout the school year. The plan was ambitious, but as leaders, so were we. We were prepared to battle the naysayers. Prepared to lead our houses, whatever we would be called. Our model represents a seismic shift away from rewards & punishment. Instead of coersion and conformity, we would celebrate each student's uniqueness. It has a much more organic feel to it. It focuses on kids, not discipline.

At the end of the day, however, we are human. We allow our emotions to lead us. We rode a wave of momentum and created a structure to be proud of. It is unfortunate that we allowed bureaucracy to derail us. We are leaders. We signed up for this gig. We will undoubtedly pick up the pieces and move on. It is what we do. We will lead again. The next time our clan will include students and staff and the stakes will be even higher. We need to nail it...again!

My Imagined SBG Makeover

This post is my way of flushing out changes to my SBG approach as I prepare my syllabus for the start of fall classes. Your comments will play a vital part in shaping my plan. Thank-you in advance.

Three years ago my math colleagues and I set out on a book study of Marzano's Classroom Assessment & Grading That Work and agreed that we would do the following:

-Stop counting homework for a grade

-Stop entering effort & participation grades

-Allow retakes for quizzes & tests

-Weight our grades as 80% content skills and 20% process standards

-Use a 0-4 scale to indicate mastery.

You'd think that with those agreements we would be more alike than different. Whatever.

We were suddenly all on our own island, using our own version of Standards Based Grading (SBG). My system was simple, identify learning goals, teach, assess, provide feedback, and allow retakes. Three things became apparent over time. First, when did the LEARNING take place? My emphasis was on regular assessments...and I was darned good at it! Secondly, my students took the "scores" I assigned as judgement against them and figured out how to play the system instead. Third, my scores lost fidelity once I put them in the gradebook. It was just as impossible to fail as it was to average an A. Then a revelation of sorts...I got run over by the SBG Express...repeatedly! It was one heck-of-an experience! I still have questions though.

My most pressing question involves reporting grades. Let me be clear....I get the idea of skills lists. I understand individualized assessments, quality feedback, tracking progress, and self-reflection. I feel like everyone is saying the same thing. One big happy-go-lucky SBG PLN. But then we all go back to our fun-loving classrooms and hammer out our own grade reporting system! Of course some of us don't have to report grades. I hope to join that crowd soon. Until then, let me finish with my rant.

Here is where I am with my SBG plan for next year. My skills list is a work-in-progress. I have my tracking and self-reflection sheets all planned out in my mind. I have my assessment plan neatly brainstormed on my Blackberry. I am dead-in-the-water when it comes to grades! I cannot...no, I will not continue with a dysfunctional practice of averaging scores one quarter at a time! I do not like having to strategically decide when to cut-off grading for a particular set of skills just because the calendar says we need to start over. I don't like the climate it has created. I'm done with students looking only at the score I give them and nothing else. I have not written a letter or percentage grade on a quiz or test in over three years. Apparently that doesn't mean much because they still make assumptions about their ability when they see a score from 0 to 4.

Here is what I am wondering:

• Do I keep my gradebook open all year long (80 skills give-or-take)?
• Should feedback to students include below-approaching-meeting-exceeding standard on skills (no numeric, letter, or percentage grade)?
• Should the number of skills taught to-date increase each quarter (20 first quarter, 40 second, etc.) or should I only worry about a finite number of skills each quarter?
• Should final grades be based on the number of skills students have mastered (ie. 18-20 for an A, 15-17 for a B, etc.) or some other method?
• Is it in my best interests to go back to assigning scores for each skill?

Fortunately my Summer Clubhouse session just ended and I can turn my focus to putting the finishing touches on my plan for when classes start on September 8th. I could use your help...

Cemetery Learning

It started with the arrival of a new book. A seed was planted, just like an article several years ago about math trails. It doesn't take much for me to act on an idea...it usually requires something unique and applicable to math. The cover of the book provided enough intrigue for me to start talking about it with my team members, and I hadn't even cracked the book open yet!

This trip would have been great to take during the school year, but who wants one more thing to do the last month of the school year? Enter Summer Clubhouse, a small invitation-only grant-funded program for socially awkward/at-risk students. They learn a little bit of math, some reading & writing, and a bundle of social skills during a five week stretch of the summer. If I could make this a positive learning experience for the students and staff, then my 120+ students in the fall would surely love it too. I pitched the idea at our planning meeting...guess what they all asked..."What is there to do in a cemetery?" Selling them turned out to be easy...the students, not so easy. Of the 80 students enrolled, only 58 made the trip. For some they couldn't give themselves permission to take the risk. The rest attended for the same reason they come to Clubhouse every day . They love the staff. Most do...even those that tell us they are forced to attend secretly love our program. The connections we make endure for years. I love it.

THE SKINNY

The idea is simple. Create a multi-disciplinary learning experience out of a trip to a local cemetery. The math is plentiful, collect headstone data (analyze it later), a self-guided GPS tour, estimation (involving trees), and more. The social studies component can be amazing. The science can be too (perhaps I can focus on those components with a fall post). For our trip we set up four rotations, a math-activity group, the GPS tour, a guided tour with cemetery administrators, and a community service group (making birdhouses). The trip, however, isn't about the work. It wasn't intended to be. The intent was to take them away from the classroom and interact with them on neutral ground. Connect with them. Give them a unique experience.

THE RESULTS

To say this was a good trip would be an understatement. It was humbling, enlightening, and engaging...and that was my impression before we debriefed. Our students were appropriate, like the girls that replaced flower pots that had been knocked over by the grounds crew. They were respectful, like the young man that accidentally stepped on a headstone, jumped off and apologize to the deceased. Mostly, they were thoughtful. They asked great questions of the administrators. They expressed frustration with the poor upkeep and graffiti in the old cemetery. They expressed sadness about the part of the cemetery dubbed "Babyland." They thought of others on this day. It was heartwarming and it was beautiful. In their written reflections they continued to surprise. Some responses were typical, "I thought it was going to be creepy but it's not." Others more sincere, "I used to think it'd be just a huge field with a bunch of headstones, but now I know it's way more than that." Others were clearly still processing, "I learned to respect not just yourself."

This is why I love to take risks like going to the cemetery. It's the same reason I love Summer Clubhouse. By having faith in students they reward us. During our program we take students that are shy, awkward, or generally lacking good role models and provide the safety and support for them to take appropriate risks. We naively think we offer them a valuable service, but we get the rewards. In the fall, when we are reacquainted with them, the rewards begin anew. September can't come fast enough!

Taking the Plunge!

So I'm taking the plunge and making a commitment to write. Blogging was never on my radar until I jumped head-on into the world of Twitter, Ning, & Facebook. I owe this phase of my professional career to my PLN! Thank-you for suggesting that I give myself permission to blog.

Let me introduce myself. I'm Ron King. I am a former Army Brat that would love to eventually teach in a system (DoDDS) I spent so much time growing up in. I think I have a lot to offer students that have to repeatedly move from base to base or be without a parent for extended periods of time. The Army life is unforgiving and can be rough on the family. This fall I will enter my 13th year of teaching. I started out at Mann Middle School in Lakewood, Washington teaching PE and pre-algebra. After two more years teaching a math/science block, which I absolutely loved, I accepted a job teaching eighth grade math at Chinook Middle School in Lacey, Washington. While I enjoyed my time, nothing can replace what I've learned over the last 24 months. In this time I shifted my focus away from teaching math to kids to teaching middle school students. I traded my NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) membership for one in the NMSA (National Middle School Association) and aside from having dual membership, I would recommend it to anyone. As a matter of fact, I think I have. I push my colleagues every year to attend the local affiliate conference, WAMLE, and pester the district until they send me to the national conference. Once they do, I suspect I'll set my sights on them sending me to ISTE! I know, fat chance...

As for this blog, I plan to focus on the math we learn in class, Standards Based Grading (SBG), student leadership, and the ever changing educational landscape. I have a great deal to learn in the SBG vein despite a book study and three years of SBG practice. I like what I've read from some of the SBG trailblazers (see blogroll) and I'll have fun this year tweaking my skills list, assessment practices, and deciding if I'd like to help push our district off it's grade-happy foundation. My inspiration, however, comes from a group of student leaders. They have no real job description. Aside from leading our Veteran's Day & Martin Luther King Jr. observances, they lead me. They inspire me because they understand the idea of service to others and live it...they have to, they nominated themselves for the challenge. They have big plans this year and I happy just be along for the ride!

I hope you find value in the topics I write about and I look forward to learning from your feedback.