🎶What Does the WALL Say? 🎶

What do your walls say about your school? Are they filled with student work? Inspirational messages? Or rules and schedules? How does what is posted on your walls speak to your students and staff? 

If we want our school culture to be that of a family shouldn't we make our school feel more homey? 

Upon entering my home you immediately know that I'm a proud mom of two boys. With a bit more investigating you would notice that my boys love sports; I have three precious nephews; I am a believer. It is obvious. I don't need a poster or bulletin board to indicate these things. The photographs on the walls, the artwork, and the mess say it all! 

Why should our schools be any different? Shouldn't they be a reflection of who we are as a campus? Who wants to be greeted by all of the "Do nots," and really, who is reading all of that anyway? How many mischievous students have stopped running because of the posted rules? How many boys go back into the restroom to wash their hands because of a sign? I'm not saying they shouldn't wash their hands or we shouldn't post a sign, I'm simply curious about the efficacy of the system. 

Because of our life changing involvement in No Excuses University our school is full of college paraphernalia. Every classroom adopted a different university. Each university is represented with banners, pennants, flags, jerseys, bulletin boards, and photographs. We are sending a powerful message that, "After high school comes college," thanks to Damen Lopez. I love that this symbolism serves as a message of hope for many students. It opens their eyes to the many possibilities. 

In addition to college proofing our campus we were also challenged by a leading Learning Walk consultant, Nancy Mullen, to post exemplary student work with rubrics. That has been a challenge our teachers have risen to and surpassed. 

Academic vocabulary walls throughout the campus are another feature we've added. Our teams went above and beyond and we now have several science, language arts, and math word walls throughout the campus. The walls were strategically placed at waiting points, such as near the cafeteria and gym. As students wait for electives or lunch teachers can reiterate learning targets. These walls serve as reminders for older students, but primary teachers also preteach by utilizing academic word walls. 

In addition to college proofing and academic word walls we also fill our walls with photographs of students playing, working, and learning. We show off all of the amazing learning that is taking place, both in photographs and student work samples. 

What do your walls say about your office, classroom, or school? What can you add or eliminate to ensure that they reiterate the message you hope to send? 

Differentiation VS Standardization

 

Last week during #sunchat I tweeted, “We cannot keep differentiating instruction and standardizing assessments. No continuity or transparency for students or parents.” After being favorited, retweeted, and discussed, Jeffrey Farley (@FarleyJeffrey) asked, “Which practice leads to a more authentic learning paradigm-differentiation or standardization?” To which I asked for a little time to ponder that thought. After thoughtful consideration I’ve decided that my answer cannot be contained to 140 words, much less 140 characters.

In order to answer that question, one must understand that I believe wholeheartedly that we must educate EVERY student in a way that prepares him for college. No exceptions, no exclusions and no fine print. This is not making a declaration that all students WILL go to college. It is just a statement of belief that says I will not decide which students will or will not have the prior education necessary to excel if they so choose to attend college. It is by no mistake that our district’s mission and our school’s vision fall right in line with this belief.

 

With that in mind, I will step out on a limb and say that high standards are not the problem. I believe we need to hold everyone to high standards, starting with the adults in our building but trickling down to all students. How we assess those standards, now that is a problem. Standardization of assessments is problematic, but I believe it is necessitated by the desire for accountability. We want to know that our students know concepts and content without assistance. But isn’t assistance part of real world working and learning? I’ve never been reprimanded for asking a colleague or my supervisor for assistance. But on test day we only want to see what students know in isolation. We do not take into account that as college students or adults they will have technology and human resources at their fingertips. I do not feel that standardized assessments are the root of all evil, but like everything else, they need to be made relevant.

Differentiation occurs when we take the learner’s prior knowledge, readiness, learning style, and interest into account and act accordingly. Differentiating instruction to meet the needs of learners is an important process that great teachers utilize. Do I think we may be taking differentiation a little too far, definitely. We are differentiating so much, with the best intentions, that we water down the curriculum to a point that mastery is easily attained without a challenge. Differentiation was not designed to make content less difficult, but to provide the content in a way that gave students the opportunity to rise to the challenge.

 

 

 In all actuality, the students who will be most successful are not those who have all of the answers, but those that have the perseverance it takes to find the answers. The time is now to equip students with the thinking skills necessary to create their own solutions when the answer is not readily available.

In answer to the initial question, “Which practice leads to a more authentic learning paradigm-differentiation or standardization,” my answer is neither. I do not think that an authentic learning paradigm can be boxed into a buzz word or catch phrase. Authentic learning is as different for each teacher as it is for each student. We must create classrooms that foster a love of learning while always inspiring students to create and share their learning globally. That is a real paradigm shift.