Here's to Failure

This morning I saw a segment on ESPN featuring 10 amazing accomplishments by female athletes.  On the list was Diana Nyad’s recent swim from Cuba to Florida without the help of a shark cage. She was the first person to ever accomplish this feat. It took her about 53 hours to swim the 110 miles. Now this story is interesting to me on a couple of levels.

First, I am a huge advocate of passion-based learning. As an educator, I believe that when we truly understand the passions of our students and create learning experiences for them that take advantage of those passions there is no limit to what they can accomplish. Diana had a passion for swimming and a goal of setting a record by making a daunting swim through shark infested sea water. Not something that I would personally consider, but it was her passion and she was determined to make it happen.

Second, I believe that unsuccessful endeavors (failures) are sometimes the best learning experiences that we can have. You see, this wasn’t Diana’s first attempt to make this historic swim. In fact, it was her fifth-attempt with each of the previous four ending short of her goal. Diana looked at the first four attempts as learning opportunities. Each time she stepped back in the water she made adjustments based on her previous trials and managed to get a little closer to her goal.

Too often in education we don’t allow our students enough opportunities to learn from their mistakes. We see failure as the end of a learning path, an “F” on a test, and not as a pit stop on the journey. When we do this we teach students that failure is bad, when in fact it’s a natural part of learning. Failure should be viewed as an authentic learning opportunity. Imagine how different Diana’s life would have been if she had viewed her first failed attempt in 1978 as the end of her journey and not as a pit stop on the way to fulfill her passion.

When Diana emerged on the Florida beach she said, “I have three messages. One is, we should never, ever give up. Two is, you’re never too old to chase your dream. Three is, it looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team.” I think each one of these statements applies to education. One is, we should never allow our students to accept failure as the end, to give up on learning, and we can’t give up on them just because they found a pit stop we didn’t expect. Two is, we need to help our students understand their passions and enable them to reach those dreams. Three is, learning is not a solitary activity, it is a collaborative endeavor and we need to encourage that philosophy.

"It's Easier to Learn"

I first met Mentor School’s Superintendent, Matt Miller, and Director of Educational Technology and Curricular Innovation, Jeremy Shorr, in the twittersphere over a year ago.  As we continued to tweet and get to know each other professionally we learned that we had a lot in common. We all value student-centric learning environments, are passionate about the power of education, believe that the classroom teacher will always play a central role in education, see the power of technology tools to transform education, and aren’t afraid to step out of our comfort zone (or push others outside of theirs). Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to interact with Matt and Jeremy at various national and local conference (e.g., iNACOL, ISTE, OETC, etc...).  Each time that we run into each other we end up talking about blended learning. So, when I saw Mentor Schools named as a school to visit in a recent Getting Smart blog post, I decided it was time to stop by and see how Mentor was using blended learning.

Matt and Jeremy met me at Ridge Middle School where I was introduced to principal Megan Kinsey. We started by talking blended philosophy. Ridge Middle School’s blended learning model hinges on small group instruction. By definition, it’s a station rotation model, but what struck me from our conversation is that everything came back to small group instruction. The Mentor team understands that blended learning isn’t about the technology - it’s about using tools (many of which included technology) to allow the classroom teacher to personalize learning through small group instruction.

Blended learning is new to Ridge this year and they are starting with 7th grade students. Each student has an iPad and teachers use Schoology to organize content in the digital learning space. Classrooms have been reconfigured using flexible furniture to allow for fluid movement. Cinderblock walls have been covered with clear plexiglass so that students can use them as impromptu writing spaces when working collaboratively. The classrooms are designed so that there is no “front of the room.” This may seem trivial but it’s at the heart of what blended learning means in Mentor - it’s about putting the students in control of their learning with the teacher there to guide and redirect as needed. There is no purpose in the teacher standing in the front of the room, thus there is no front of the room.

One classroom that we visited had the learning targets posted on a board. Students in the classroom placed postage sized pictures of themselves under the target on which they were working. The students told us this was so that they knew who else was at the same place they were so that they could work collaboratively when they needed help. This also gives the teacher an easy visual of where each student is along the curriculum continuum.

As I was leaving one classroom today, I asked a student what he thought of this new learning model. His exact words to me: “It’s easier to learn this way.” I think that sums up why blended learning is so important. The student didn’t say his classes were easy, he said, “It’s easier to learn this way.” Classes shouldn’t be easy, but learning should be. When we implement high quality blended learning we personalize the classroom for individual students and remove barriers that make the act of learning difficult.

Thank you Matt, Jeremy, and Megan for giving me a chance to see how Mentor Schools is implementing blended learning and more importantly for putting the educational needs of Mentor students in the front of your classrooms.