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Quadrennial-Round Schooling is the Right Option for All Learners

April 1, 2013 by cultureofyes

DECADE Calendar

Recently, there has been a lot of attention given to setting school calendars.  I have written about the interest in year-round schooling currently being explored in many Metro Vancouver School Districts.  And, Maple Ridge’s Kanaka Creek,  is often referenced for its three-month on, one-month off model. While just a few weeks ago it looked like all districts were going to move to a fairly standard calendar for next year, I am pleased to announce a new initiative I will be championing, starting today –  BC’s (and perhaps North America’s) first Quadrennial-Round School System.

The Quadrennial-Round (four-year calendar) School System, employs the best of what we know about year-round schooling and extends that learning further.  This calendar model is quite simple with students attending school on a three-year continuous basis, after which they have a  full year off.  The Quadrennial-Round calendar would have a total of four cycles.  Students would go to school Grades 1-3, take a year off; then attend Grades 4-6, with another year off, and so on for Grades 7-9 with a year off before moving to the graduation program and Grades 10-12.

Why a Quadrennial-Round School System?

  • we know students can have learning losses in the summer. These are eliminated since students would attend school for three years at a time — no Christmas, Spring or Summer breaks
  • the system naturally divides the primary, intermediate, junior and graduation programs, and gives students enough recovery time between grade levels
  • if students fall behind, they have an entire year to catch up
  • it gives families who are considering having more than one child some options – like having them three years apart so that their children are off together, or having them closer together, ensuring their children never have to share breaks and the stresses that come with this
  • some families plan big vacations that eat into school time, with this calendar option, they will be able to plan six-month vacations and still have the other half-year for an even longer break
  • there is a lot of research on the need for students to be bored, and to be okaywith it;  having a 12-month break gives them a lot of time to be bored
  • it will lead to an increase in facility efficiencies, they will be used for 12 months and, at any point, 25% of students will be on their sabbatical year, meaning less demand on the schools
  • if year-round schooling is good for learning, this is bound to be great

Of course, there will be questions about the substantiveness of the research. The system was originally adopted from a model in Sweden. It actually has its origins in the British Agricultural Revolution when they rotated wheat, barley, turnips and clover over a four-year cycle.  With this, we take the best of what we know about crops, and apply it to kids (they both grow, don’t they?).  According to Swedish Professor Loof Lirpa, they have run the Quadrennial-Round system successfully for a number of years.  In my work with him, he is also suggesting that within the Quadrennial-Round system, we have a day-round system, where students are schooled on eight-hour shifts, further increasing learning efficiencies by utilizing all 24 hours of the day, in addition to addressing the unique needs of teenage learners who are often already awake half the night. But, I think for now we’ll just go with the four-year calendar with the option to revisit the day-round system in the fourth year off of the calendar for the next round of grades.

We have been preparing to launch this very new calendar initiative for several months, but were worried other districts might scoop us — we do like to be first! If other districts had adopted a year-round school system, our calendar promotion and advertising  would have been “Year-Round Schooling is Good but Quadrennial-Round Schooling is Four Times Better!”

We are looking for volunteers to step forward and pilot this initiative, and it is appropriate that I launch this today, as it was exactly one year ago today, I launched my FLOG. So, from this point forward, all information on our Quadrennial-Round School System calendar option will be shared through my FLOG and associated public floggings.

I always appreciate the keen reader interest of the Culture of Yes,  and I am hopeful that many of you will step forward to bring the best of school calendars to BC, as well as to North America. Finally, I hope your first day of April is as good as mine!

Posted in Personalized Learning | Tagged | 15 Comments »

Getting the Tension Right

March 11, 2013 by cultureofyes

I find one of my important jobs is getting the ‘tension’ right between schools and the district. Tension is often a word with negative connotations, but it provides a necessary balance throughout the system. People look at me questioningly when I acknowledge and even encourage healthy tension between competing interests (but we are all teammates in the bigger picture).  At each hierarchical level, whether provincial government, school district, school or classroom, there needs to be autonomy to be innovative and creative to meet specific needs. But, the work must be connected because we are more than a collection of independent contractors and a sum of ideas. I described some of this in a previous post on flexibility.

When faced with a topic or issue, I regularly consider if something is primarily a school focus or a district decision.  There are many issues that districts should simply stay out of, and leave to schools who are more nimble and quicker to make changes as required.  Further, for new initiatives to take hold, they often come from passionate teachers, schools or communities and not from a district decree.

Schools tend to look at issues through the lens of the school first and foremost; a district takes a more global view of the school district as a whole and, as a district leader, this is the perspective I take, for example, when a school wants to start a new program.  The case is often made “how it is right for the community,” and I then take into consideration the impact the new program would have on other schools and the district as a whole. Some programs that have been suggested would have done very well, but would have also moved student populations and emptied out other schools — good for the school but bad for the district.  It is also very easy in a district job to think we know best and make more decisions centrally (but we would NEVER want the provincial government to do that with school districts).  There are other times where the district can help transform a community by suggesting the consideration of a new program.  The placement of programs like French Immersion, for example, are often crucial ones for a district to make as they look at the larger view of community interests and population trends.

As a principal, the ‘tension’ was in wanting to be encouraging of innovation, but also wanting to ensure, as a school, we were moving in a common direction.  As a district leader, the ‘tension’ is more in trying to set direction for the district but giving the freedom and flexibility to schools to each have their own “signature” one that is informed but rarely prescribed by the District.

I will often talk about our commitment to inquiry, self-regulation, social-emotional learning and digital literacy.  And, at each school, these ideas will take on different shapes and direction. I use this blog and other opportunities to engage, discuss and draw connections between the different approaches to the same larger goals.  All our schools develop their own narrative, but they are part of a bigger story.  Similarly, I feel that our district is part of a larger provincial story – one of a highly achieving system looking towards where it needs to go next.

I have often heard teachers and administrators say of their districts “I don’t know where we are going.” Hopefully, I am finding ways to be clear about where we are going, but not prescribing a single narrow path to get there. I will continue to consider whether we are getting the ‘tension’ right.

Posted in Change, SD45 | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments »

Same But Different

March 4, 2013 by cultureofyes

canada&us_flag

I recently had the opportunity to attend and present at U.S. National Conference on Education hosted by the American School Superintendent’s Association (AASA).  The presentation I shared was  similar to the presentations given in BC: Social Media – How District Leaders Can Build Community. My focus here was on how important it is for leaders to not just talk about digital learning, but to model it in their own work and learning.

If the conference’s Twitter feed was any indication, I get the sense there are far fewer US school and district leaders engaged on the social media front than we are seeing in BC and across Canada. While Canadians probably made up less than five per cent in attendance, you wouldn’t have thought that from who was engaging digitally.

Of course, there is far more to connect about than social media. I was interested to connect with my American superintendent colleagues and compare the work we do north and south of the border. I found we have a lot in common in sharing the important role of working with elected Boards, a focus on 21st century learning, and we are always searching for the balance in our work and personal lives. What made the event most interesting was to realize where our jobs, and how our conversations differed:

Football

Okay, not just football, but school sports in general. For many, this is very connected to the identity of the school district, something we don’t see with the same passion in Canada. I spoke with several superintendents who described several situations—including pressure from their Boards—to have high achieving sports teams and who should make the team and play in the games. Some situations from the playing field regularly came forward to the superintendent level for comment. While attending a session on legal issues affecting school districts, there was an interesting discussion on whether school sports were a right or a privilege. It was a very different opinion than the Canadian one where sports are seen largely as extracurricular and coaches are volunteers.

High Test Results

In BC and Canada more generally, we are spending less and less time focussing (or obsessing) on test scores. I often say we are moving to a post-standardized world. We have no high stakes tests and, while we use data, it is often teacher-generated data. In contrast, it was interesting to learn that superintendents use test results around teacher evaluations and test results also drive some funding allotments.

Safety

Yes, we talk safety, but not with the same intensity as it is currently being discussed in the United States. For example, many superintendents acknowledge the importance of school security guards.  It is something not really discussed in British Columbia. At a district board meeting this past month I reconfirmed (under advice from local police) our practice will be to continue to keep all school exterior doors unlocked. Many of my American colleagues were making different decisions.

Turnover

We have some turnover in superintendents in Canada, but job terminations are very rare. In contrast, there was a much greater sense from my US colleagues that being a superintendent was much like being a professional sports coach—often on two- or three-year contracts and ready to be free agents if “things just didn’t work out.” It does make me wonder how one can move an agenda forward with such regular turnover. It did seem some districts really valued stability over change, but that did not seem to be the norm, particularly in larger urban centres.

Money

Yes, we all talk money, but funding is provincial not local; a formula in BC is used to fund all 60 districts. In speaking with many of my colleagues, there can be wide gaps in funding in neighbouring committees, a particular challenge BC does not have to deal with. And, despite my best efforts to fully understand the US school funding model, I actually still don’t.  There is also federal money that flows through to districts (again something we don’t have in Canada); there is also local monies based on taxation, and often a lot of grant monies (something far less common in Canada). Of course, the larger topic of adequate and stable funding is universal, and the conversations around inadequate funding and its effect on public education are the same conversations we are having in British Columbia.

However, one concern is common across both the Canadian and US perspective – great value on a strong and vibrant public education system. It was interesting to see below the headlines where our stories matched and where they differed. My thanks to all those who welcomed me and made me feel so connected.

Posted in Change, Social Media | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments »

Coming Late to Pink

February 25, 2013 by cultureofyes

pink

February 27 marks Pink Shirt Day in British Columbia.   In its sixth year, this event is being recognized as “taking action to stop bullies in our school and around the province”.  While the day here in Vancouver is often linked to local radio station CKNW 980 (through promotions of the day),  Pink Shirt Day’s roots were set in Nova Scotia in 2007, from an incident regarding a Grade 9 boy  who, on the first day of school, wore a pink polo shirt and was harassed because of it and labelled a homosexual. In response, hundreds of classmates showed up in a “sea of pink” to show their support.

With that bit of history, I need to make a confession — I have been slow to be a passionate and vocal supporter of the day.  I am always a little skeptical when a lot of attention and resources are pushed toward a one-day event to recognize an important issue requiring serious thought and reflection. The reason – sometimes the very nature of a high-profile, one-day event can generate many simplistic sounding solutions to some very complicated problems.  I am also wary that the conversations around anti-bullying can focus on all the behaviours we don’t want to see instead of those we want to see and encourage in our youth.

That said, I am a convert.  Over the last few years I have seen Pink Shirt Day become a symbol for work that is happening during the course of the year in schools and in the community.  Yes, it is only a one-day celebration of this work, but the work is not limited to the one day.  In the West Vancouver School District, there are so many great examples of raising awareness and sustained and purposeful action.

Students from Gleneagles Ch’axáý Elementary School were part of a group of 2,000 students across Metro Vancouver, who participated in a flash mob at a  Vancouver Giants game in January to focus attention on the issue of anti-bullying, acceptance and inclusion:

Schools across West Vancouver will also join the “sea of pink” this Wednesday, from École Cedardale Elementary, Hollyburn and Irwin Park Elementary to all three secondary schools. BUT, schools will be doing more than ‘wearing pink’. Rockridge Secondary students are connecting their antibullying efforts around restorative justice, and at École Pauline Johnson, the focus will be on work with and from their Virtues Project. Lions Bay will focus their antibullying efforts on how to do stop antibullying through inquiry, how they express themselves through body language and feelings, as well as how to solve problems peacefully. Chartwell’s Pink Shirt Day is a month-long focus on inclusion.  While all of these efforts are a one-day statement, the learning experience is not just for one day.

So, I will be in my pink shirt this Wednesday, along with my own kids at their school, and many of our staff and students in West Vancouver.  Yes, it is only one day, but the attention of one day will carry over to the next day, and the next.

There are many wonderful collections of resources to support anti-bullying in the classroom.  The BC Ministry of Education’s ERASE Bullying site is an excellent spot to find resources for teachers, parents, and youth.  I have also written two previous posts on the specific topic of anti-homophobia in 2011 and 2012 and both have links to other key resources.

One final video to share is Shane Koyczan’s To This Day Project:

Posted in Change, SD45 | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Dr. Shanker and Self Regulation – Continuing the Conversation

February 19, 2013 by cultureofyes

selfreg

Two of my most popular posts have been about Dr. Stuart Shanker and his work; each post has received well over 10,000 views.  To recap, the first post in November 2010 is here and the second one here  was written in April 2012.

West Vancouver is part of the first wave of school districts in British Columbia, along with Bulkley Valley, Coquitlam, Greater Victoria, Nanaimo and Surrey, who are working together on a project to implement and monitor the impact of self-regulated instructional models.  One of the greatest contributions to date has been a one-stop shop for resources on Self-Regulation (here).

Dr. Shanker’s work is clearly providing inspiration around the province, and we are seeing that in each of our schools in West Vancouver.  While the work models may look slightly different in each school, the impetus of having students in their zone for learning is district-wide.  A number of recent blog posts by some of our district educational leaders support this influence:

Westcot Principal, Liz Hill describes her school’s work with The Zones of Regulation:

We often make the assumption that children know how to identify their emotions, but akin to teaching reading, writing and math, emotional  literacy is a skill that needs to be taught to our children.  The Zones of Regulation framework teaches the language of emotions.  This helps children understand how one’s state of regulation impacts one’s ability to be calm, alert and ready to learn.  Using this framework, students develop  their own personal toolkit of strategies and learn when, how and why to use  strategies to help them  be “good to go” or “ready to do their best learning.”  These self-regulation tools may include breathing techniques, stretching, exercising, reading or simply getting a drink of water.

West Bay Principal, Judy Duncan, describes her school’s efforts to look through a lens of self-regulation:

Self-regulation spans all five domains (biological, cognitive, emotional, social, pro-social) and is really about the burning and recovering of energy.  As Shanker states, “optimal self-regulation requires a child to match his or her energy levels to meet the demands of a situation in a maximally efficient manner.”  More and more research is linking how well students do in school to their ability to self-regulate.  We are seeing this firsthand at West Bay, thus the excitement to improve our practice.

Our school’s Self-Regulation Team meets regularly to discuss how teachers and students can be supported in the quest to maintain self-regulation in the classroom. The team shares its work at staff meetings and in informal conversations; our teachers are keen on deepening their understanding of self-regulation and are open to trying new strategies to support their students. If you were to wander into our Grade Two classroom, you might see some students wearing noiseless headphones, some using cardboard study carrels (they call these “force fields”), others sitting on wiggle cushions, while others may be perched on stools at the side of the classroom.  These seven-year olds are beginning to figure out what they need to help them learn.  This metacognition piece is key.  As one little girl blurted out the other day, “I need to self-regulate!” Being aware of your own emotions and what you need to achieve a state of calm is very powerful!

Lions Bay Vice-Principal, Jody Billingsley, describes a number of ways they are fostering self-regulation including a series of classroom management techniques:

Classroom management techniques that have the children thinking about their levels of arousal when in a lesson.  We have “check ins” where the student self-assesses as to whether she is calmly focused and alert.  We call this level 4 – directly stemming from Shanker’s stages of arousal.  If they are at the level 3 stage (hypoalert) of arousal, they may be daydreaming, whereas at level 5 students may be over-stimulated and not able to focus (hyperalert).  If we see a child that is not at level 4, we give a friendly reminder to “check in” with themselves, or “give themselves a hug” as a way to think about where they are with being calmly focused and alert.  The idea is to have them see when this is occurring, reinforce behaviour with a verbal or non-verbal cue, and eventually watch how the students do this independently.

Irwin Park Principal, Cathie Ratz, has her school focussed on MindUP™ to help students be calm, alert and ready to learn:

It is a family of social, emotional, and attentional self-regulatory strategies and skills developed to cultivate well-being and emotional balance. Based on the notion that intellect does not exist in isolation from emotions,  connections to others or the rest of their bodies, the MindUP™  program is designed to address these components of learning for all students.

By teaching our students about the brain we make them more aware of their own thoughts and emotions. It can also help them to develop the ability to think about thinking, or metacognition. That awareness would then give them better control over their own mind—directing their attention more appropriate, or calming themselves down—in ways that could improve learning.

These are only four stories, but there are stories like these in every school in West Vancouver.  It is often a lament that schools and those who work in them, are slow to change.  Where, three years ago, there was hardly a person in our district who could describe the power and importance of self-regulation, this research now influences how we teach, organize our classes, and how we think about our buildings in every corner of the district.

Finally, I encourage you to spend some time with the wonderful resources being collected as part of the newly revamped website in support of the  Canadian Self-Regulation Initiative.

Posted in Change, Health, Parenting, Personalized Learning, SD45 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Standardizing to Customize

February 12, 2013 by cultureofyes

calendar

As I write this post, school districts across BC are establishing their calendars for the 2013-14 school year. New legislation, Bill 36, described by government to: “eliminate the Standard School Calendar to enable boards of education and education authorities to offer more creative scheduling options that better meet the needs of their students” is driving these decisions.

Districts and their communities are discussing their local calendar ahead of the March 31st deadline for approving calendars for the upcoming school year. Langley has received a lot of attention, including a year-round option in the list of possibilities for next year. In West Vancouver, we have also completed a consultation process with the calendar steering committee receiving over 2,000 completed surveys from students, parents and staff on three possible calendar options.

There has been much discussion around the setting of the local calendar, particularly around whether we should continue with what is described as an agrarian calendar of September to June, with two months off in the summer, or seek a more balanced calendar with a shorter summer break and longer breaks at other points in the year. I don’t want to take up the issue in this post, but a related issue that has come up during the consultations –the request for standardization — particularly when it comes to the scheduling of calendars including the placement of professional days and school breaks, and the organization of  time / blocks within the day.

I have written a number of times about our move to a post-standardized world in education — different assessments for different students; greater choice and personalization in what students learn and when and where they learn it, and how students demonstrate this learning.

The learning format I envision incorporates students starting their learning early and some starting class late (we know there is research that encourages a late start-time). Some students might take evening courses, others in the summer, and still others taking part of their program online. This is currently the case in some places and may come to pass as the norm, but what our surveys show, and is supported by the conversations I have had with students, staff and parents is a request for more standardization when it comes to the school calendar. All groups recognize that it is easier to customize an education model when calendars are standardized.

So why do staff want calendars standardized?

Professional learning: if professional development days are aligned across and between districts it allows for greater collaboration across schools, and particularly in speciality areas where this can be very important as it allows teachers from different schools to collaborate more easily.  It also allows for the sharing of expert resources – one district may bring in an expert of early learning, and the session would be available to teachers from several districts without teachers being released from their teaching duties, since all had aligned professional days. 

Teaching in multiple schools: if a teacher has a specialty (Japanese for example), a standardized calendar can allow for them to teach their specialty in multiple sites; as an example, teaching mornings in school A and afternoons in school B or alternating days between schools.

Staff are also parents: staff often live outside of a district, with surrounding districts on similar calendars organizing family commitments would be easier

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And why do students and parents like standardized calendars?

Convenience: in the era of choice with more students attending multiple schools (I know one family in West Vancouver with students at four different schools), a standard calendar that includes common professional development days, and school breaks, makes life a lot easier

Choice: running a common calendar in schools, in the same or neighbouring districts, allows students to take the majority of courses at their home school and pursue their passion at another site. In West Vancouver, this means students from multiple schools can attend afternoon sports academy programs because schools have the same block rotation. It also allows students from all three high schools to take their “core” courses on one day, and participate in the ACE-IT Carpentry Program at West Vancouver Secondary on the other day. In turn, aligning with surrounding districts, it allows our students to attend Carson Graham in North Vancouver, to participate in their ACE-IT Culinary Program.

Next year, our district schools will have aligned their  professional development days and common breaks. Efforts are also being made to align our breaks with other schools in Metro Vancouver. We will actually have more standardization in our calendars than every before — a funny result of legislation intended to create flexibility.

Eventually, we may have balanced or more alternate calendars. But for now, largely in the name of creating increased choice for students, standardization allows for greater customization and hopefully greater personalization of learning.

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, SD45 | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments »

More on Yes

February 6, 2013 by cultureofyes

I am often asked ”just what is the Culture of Yes?”  Although the ‘culture’ continues to evolve, it is still the belief system as I set out to define in my address on my first day as Superintendent:

It is the “culture of yes”, we have and will continue to foster — one that embraces new ideas and new ways to look at learning and organize learning; a “culture of yes” that supports innovation and creativity for both learners and teachers, knowing this is how we will continue to evolve.  It is a “culture of yes” that touches on the passions we entered the profession with, and that may have sometimes been lost along the way, but hopefully, found again.

It was interesting to see Seth Godin, who I have often referenced, take up a similar theme in his recent post, On Behalf of Yes:

Yes, it’s okay to ship your work.

Yes, you’re capable of making a difference.

Yes, it’s important.

Yes, you can ignore that critic.

Yes, your bravery is worth it.

Yes, we believe in you.

Yes, you can do even better.

Yes.

Yes is an opportunity and yes is an obligation. The closer we get to people who are confronting the resistance on their way to making a ruckus, the more they let us in, the greater our obligation is to focus on the yes.

There will always be a surplus of people eager to criticize, nitpick or recommend caution. Your job, at least right now, is to reinforce the power of the yes.

Seth’s blog brings to mind a story I recently heard regarding innovation and education in England.  The government proposed to their education system they could apply to have any rules, laws, etc. suspended in the name of innovation (there is currently a similar initiative in BC).  Those who wanted to ‘not comply’ had to make application to the government with the appropriate rationale.  The project’s one major finding was over 80% of applications received were unnecessary. Why? Because the rules that hundreds of educators had applied to have suspended didn’t actually exist.  I think this general challenge is also true in British Columbia — we believe we are more restricted by laws, rules and legislation than we actually are (possibly by rules that don’t exist, as well) thereby justifying the belief that innovation is not possible and we continue to accept the Status Quo.

In education, more than any other profession, we need to continue to promote YES; “yes” for the teacher embracing formative assessment discouraged by the parent who claims this is not how they were assessed in school; “yes” for the school that cannot re-imagine their programs in their current, highly successful system; “yes” for the people to take the risk knowing the road to change is long and challenging.

And, it is certainly nice to know there are others pushing  for YES.

Posted in Change, Social Media, Technology | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments »

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