Flipped

By Sean Dusek | Published: December 14, 2014

Over the last few years the concept of the flipped classroom has come to the forefront.  Technology has allowed many educators to move some aspects of their instruction into homework.  For many this has meant moving lectures online. Ideally this leads to differentiation in the classroom and allows learners to have control over the online resource and review parts that they may have misunderstood.  Critics say that a lecture is passive regardless if it is in person or online.  Good teaching limits passive learning and promotes inquiry, critical thinking and collaboration.  While creating instructional videos can help teachers move low level, procedural concepts outside of class time, it is important to create interactive and reflective opportunities in this media.  Again, a passive transfer of knowledge in any format rarely “sticks” with the recipient.

The best flipped classrooms do not exclusively rely on instructional videos to be viewed outside of class and homework done during class time.  Students are given options.  They are given the opportunity to work together and conduct experiments with a given concept in a synchronous environment.  This is the hook and is much more than working on some problems in a textbook.  The next step is to allow technology to support learning the concepts touched upon by the experiments.  Sometimes this is through the instructional videos and sometimes through direct, small group instruction.  Reflection is a critical component of any classroom and this is where teachers determine what a student knows.  Much of this part of a flipped classroom is done asynchronously.  Students are allowed to be at different places in their learning, but are making progress on understanding.

Finally, students are given the opportunity to apply what they have learned.  Projects are created by the students with the teacher as the guide.  Peers are the audience and offer feedback to individual students.  We are back to a synchronous environment.

I do not believe that a flipped classroom is a new model.  Many teachers have guided their students through very difficult concepts in all disciplines before the internet or online videos existed.  Today’s technology allows for more flexibility, but good teachers maximize opportunities for inquiry, critical thinking and collaboration.  They minimize passive transfers of knowledge.  In essence, the right way to teach is as diverse as the students that are in our classrooms, the key is to know your students and allow them to learn by doing.

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Introductions

By Sean Dusek | Published: December 7, 2014

Hello!  I am sure some readers of this blog may have wondered if the new KPBSD superintendent would continue publishing an update.  Now that I have settled in, the answer is yes.  I have come to value the communication posted here and believe it has provided excellent insights relevant to our district’s current status.

With that being said, allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Sean Dusek and I am honored to be in the role of superintendent for our district.  I am proud to have over 22 years of experience in this district.   Throughout my journey I have learned a great deal about people and myself.  Through the years, preparing students for their future has become my highest priority.  The world has changed so much since I started my student teaching at Skyview High School in 1991.  While society has always changed, it is the pace of change along with the massive amount of instantaneous information that has amazed me.  What hasn’t changed though, in my opinion, are requisite skills all students can develop for success in the future.  Those skills are critical thinking, effective communication, creativity, and working well with others.

Our schools do a good job developing a foundation of academic skills.  We must not lose sight of developing the “success” skills I reference above.  In order for us to develop these skills we must remain committed to applying academic knowledge to unfamiliar projects, provide creative opportunities in the arts, career/tech, and physical activities, allow students to work together with taught expectations and provide safe outlets for student voice through  meaningful speaking, writing and listening experiences.

My goal is to communicate through this forum weekly on a variety of topics with a focus on student success skills.  I look forward to serving the students, staff and communities of the district.  Thank you for reading!

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Last Blog

By Steve Atwater | Published: November 17, 2014

About a month ago, some of the public on the central peninsula were on edge because a district employee was returning to work after being in Africa. With the Ebola scare in full swing, these folks were concerned that the employee might be infectious with the virus. Today, with few confirmed cases of Ebola in our country and with a better understanding of the virus, such a reaction would probably not happen. I share this to emphasize the importance of good information as a basis for forming an opinion, and to reflect on my blog that was intended to help do just this.

On most Saturday mornings for the past five years, I was in the office writing my blog. While the exercise was at times tedious, overall, it was a great way for me to share thoughts on some of what I read that week or to comment on a pressing issue or interesting district event. My blog’s weekly readership fluctuated from a high of more than 200 to a low of 12 a couple of summers ago. I trust that my thoughts caused the reader to think a little more critically about education and to use the information to be better informed about our schools.

As I close the door on this blog, I want to thank all of the various groups that make our district so special.

  • To the KPBSD staff thank you for your tireless effort to educate our students. The K-12 education roller coaster has never become too steep due to your commitment to our students.
  • To the parents and community members, thank you for your support of our schools and thanks for your willingness to gather all the facts before forming an opinion.
  • To our school board, thanks for supporting me as we navigated the waters of change to offer our students a world class education. I encourage you to stay the course.
  • To the students, I trust that you recognize how good our schools are and that the staff and community support for your education is solid.

I look forward to working with KPBSD in my new position as the Associate Vice President for K-12 Outreach at the University of Alaska. I know that the district’s foundation is solid and that KPBSD will continue to be looked to as a leader in our state.

Steve Atwater

 

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Traditionalists and Expansionists

By Steve Atwater | Published: November 1, 2014

I read an interesting article this morning on two different approaches to conserve our wilderness that are being taken in response to climate change. The new conservationists are being proactive by moving species to new ranges and using nonnative species as stand-ins for those that have become extinct. The old conservationists who want to protect, preserve and not interfere, are annoyed at this approach. After reading the article I couldn’t help but be reminded of the similar tension that exists in K-12 education. On the one side are what might be called the expansionists who want to relax the rules to allow such changes as private religious schools receiving public money. On the other side are the traditionalists who view such changes as the beginnings of the dissolution of public education. While I am firmly in the camp of the traditionalists, I view it as a mistake to miss the opportunity to redefine what it means to be in this camp. I strongly believe that attempts to simply throw up a fence and preserve what was in school, is a mistake that will ultimately serve as fodder for the expansionists.

Here at KPBSD we are experiencing some of this tension as we strive to find a balance between the digital world of instruction and the personal side of a teacher in front of students. There is little question that the independent learning that is a part of the digital side is a challenge for many students and that it is a mistake to simply assume that the digital content will be easily learned by all students. I am convinced that personal guidance with digital learning is paramount to our students’ success. We should not however because of this need, dismiss digital learning as a secondary option for students. It is clear that the traditional limitations of attendance and enrollment are loosening with students pursuing “best fit” options. Is it necessary to have 50 minutes of face-to-face class each day? Or can there be a blend where students are required to be with a teacher for three classes per week? With the premise that public education is the foundation of our democracy, as public educators we must do all that we can to adapt to the changing learning styles of our students. An insistence that a student must be in class in front of a teacher all day to get through high school is persevering the old and is the type of thing that those on the expansionist side will pounce on to illustrate the limitations of public education. Our district is full of innovation, let’s continue to recognize the needed changes that will help quell the expansionist’s diatribe on our schools.

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Teaching and learning

By Steve Atwater | Published: October 26, 2014

During my student teaching in a remote village, I sent videotapes of selected lessons to my university evaluator. I recall that prior to my first taping, in fear that I would appear inept, I advised my students to not pay attention to the camera on the tripod at the back of the room. At the end of the lesson, I felt that things had gone pretty well. But when I reviewed the tape, I was surprised to see that I was only engaging about half of the class. Some of the students were paying attention, while others were not. One boy was bold enough to place his face against the camera while my back was turned. Despite my best intentions to teach the whole class, my review of the tape made it clear that I was not making adjustments to my instruction in response to some of the students not being engaged. In reflection, I was more concerned with teaching for the videotape than I was with the students learning the presented concepts. Since then, I have observed this same scenario in plenty of our classrooms with teachers dutifully following lesson plans but failing to make adjustments when things are not going well.

There are numerous strategies for how to engage all students through effective classroom management. As a young teacher I mistakenly assumed that the stand and deliver approach to attentive, albeit passive students, was the best way to go. I was convinced that I was the keeper of the knowledge and that I had to pass it on to the class. And while there is nothing wrong with a full group lecture, maintaining student engagement for very long during this type of instruction is difficult. Because our students are seamlessly moving in and out of a digital world, my encouragement to teachers is that they take advantage of what the digital learning environment offers. I am convinced that much of the basics and more mundane side of teaching can be left to a digital format while the personal interaction of the teacher with students should be for higher order thinking and a close checking for understanding.   This blended approach helps to facilitate small group instruction and more importantly, helps train students to manage themselves during the learning activity.   Teachers need to give students tools to learn in a variety of ways. Videotaping my classroom discussion on Call of the Wild was revealing; it helped me recognize that it is about the students’ learning and not my teaching. It’s a good thing we were not discussing a Tolstoy story.

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Gallup Student Poll

By Steve Atwater | Published: October 17, 2014

When I first moved to Soldotna I drove past a house that was covered in Tyvek (a high density polyethylene house wrap) and assumed that the owner was getting ready to add siding. Six years later, nothing on the house has changed. I was reminded of this when thinking about how easy it is to make an assumption without knowing the full story. When we judge schools, we often make the same sort of shortsighted assumptions based on a small amount of information. While it is easy to do this, we all know that truly determining the quality of a school requires a comprehensive review. With this in mind, last year we identified 8 key performance indicators to help us gauge how well the district is doing. Two of these are tied to the students’ social and emotional well-being. The emphasis on testing students in reading and in math is legitimate, but we rarely consider how well students feel about themselves and school, when trying to understand these test results.

During the past couple of weeks out students in grades 5 and 10 took a short survey (Gallup Student Poll) to help us determine our students’ hope for the future, engagement with school and general well-being. The results of this survey are important. With more and more research on what helps students be successful after high school pointing to things such as grit, hope and a caring school environment, the survey will help us determine how our students feel about themselves in these areas. This research is finding that student GPA or ACT scores are less of an indicator of future success than are the items that we surveyed. This makes me think of the oft heard quote about students, “Kids don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” As we continue to work hard to help our students gain academic skills, let’s not lose sight of the need to pay attention to the non-academic side of school. Doing so helps tell the rest of the story.

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Budget Challenge

By Steve Atwater | Published: October 13, 2014

The format for last week’s budget meeting was a first for the district when we made an interactive presentation broadcast (via MS Lync) to more than 20 of our schools. The goal of the meeting was to have our site councils, staff and community members gain a sense of our fiscal picture and then begin to chew on how to address the challenge of balancing our budget when expenditures exceed our revenue. From a business perspective it is easy to simply say make cuts until things balance. The reality of reducing our level of service to our students however, is complicated and painful. No one wants our district’s children to have fewer opportunities at school next year than they did this year. The meeting included time for the home sites to offer feedback on what we can do differently. Our school board will review these recommendations next week and in turn, give the administration direction for preparing our FY16 budget.

Overall, I feel that most would agree that our students on the Kenai get a pretty good education. I am convinced that our regular improvements and the expanded opportunities in career and technical education are leading to an increased graduation rate, lower dropout rate with students being better prepared for life after high school. The easy budget fix of reducing our level of service and support for our students is hard to swallow; our kids deserve the very best.   Going forward, it is important for the public to consider the importance of well-educated high school graduates to our communities. Does it make sense for the borough and the state to pay a little bit more for education? With the premise of the district continuing to be transparent and accountable for its expenditures, the answer to this question is yes.

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Changing face of CTE

By Steve Atwater | Published: October 5, 2014

When I was in high school, vocational education had two options for boys: woodshop and auto mechanics.  I never took either class.  Soon after moving to Alaska, I discovered that I wish I had when I found myself making repairs to outboards, older vehicles and 4-wheelers and doing most parts of house construction. Although my college training helped me with my current job, my lack of traditional voc ed classwork was a limitation for my life in rural Alaska. With the increasing focus on career technical education (today’s term for voc ed), preparing students for the world of work has expanded well beyond my high school’s industrial arts offerings to include career awareness in elementary school and career pathways in secondary school. The Governor’s CTE initiative announcement last week will, if supported by the legislature, take this conversation to a new level by placing an increased emphasis on students earning college credit and industry certification while in high school.

The renewed oil and gas activity in Cook Inlet and the assumption that a gas pipeline will terminate in Nikiski has many thinking that our local economy will only get stronger in the coming years. This growing economy will need more workers who have gotten a start on their career training while in high school. The training will however, be far more advanced than what has been offered in the past. Many of today’s jobs require skills in reading and math that were not needed fifteen years ago. It is thus important for our high school students to not think in terms of just forgoing the academics to focus for example, on welding. Such an approach will be short sighted. Our challenge then, is to ensure that our academic training is properly aligned with the vocational training. The Governor recognizes this changing need by promoting dual credit, let’s hope the legislature supports it.

 

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Compared to Finland, Poland and South Korea

By Steve Atwater | Published: September 28, 2014

Earlier this week I started reading The Smartest Kids in the World, a book that examines why students in Finland, Poland and South Korea perform so much better on the PISA tests than do their peers in the United States.[1] The author uses three American exchange students’ experience in the these countries to contrast the students’ respective U.S. schools with their host schools. Ripley’s findings are stark and at times unsettling. The three countries’ education systems although somewhat dissimilar, each share multiple differences with the U.S. system including cultural differences such as high schools not fielding sports teams. The most striking commonality among the three however, is the intensity with which the foreign students approach their studies. In each country, the U.S. exchange students were surprised by their host country’s students’ discipline to study and to persevere to meet higher standards. The author also uses the experience of exchange students from the three countries in the U.S. to illustrate these differences. One exchange student from Finland laughed at her Michigan high school social studies assignment that asked her to complete a poster; in Finland she would have had to write a four-page essay. My reading of course has me wondering how our schools and students on the Kenai match up with the schools and students in these three countries.

Without good comparative data, I cannot fully answer this question. I can however, speculate that many of our students would struggle with the expected level of rigor found in the mentioned countries. While the pressure placed on students in South Korea to do well on a university entrance exam is over the top, my take is that most of our students do not spend anywhere near the same amount of time studying as do their peers in these three countries. This discipline to study is one that must be fostered at school and at home. Homework assignments need to be meaningful and assessments must challenge students to share their thinking and not be a regurgitation of what is on a study guide. The good news is that we are moving in the right direction to help our students take more ownership of their studies and for teachers to be more critical of how they are teaching. There is some pushback on our measuring the number of 8th graders who successfully take algebra. We need to not push back, but rather work to increase this number. In the three countries, this conversation does not happen.

[1] Ripley, A. (2013). The smartest kids in the world. New York: Simon & Schuster

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Not Failing

By Steve Atwater | Published: September 21, 2014

A recent opinion piece on a local radio station’s website made the oft heard claim that our country’s public school system is failing. The comments were broad, without citation and stated that all improvement attempts have failed. And while there is no doubt that there is room for improvement in all schools both private and public, there should be little confusion as to whether such a generalization includes our public schools on the Kenai. Anyone who has followed the district’s progress will note that more of our students graduate on time, academically perform better, have more career training opportunities and are more likely to be steered to an appropriate next step after high school than ever before. Our elementary schools are teaching children to read at a faster rate and have a much better ability to identify and remediate students who are behind. On the operational side, our processes, including how we respond to student safety challenges, are improved. In sum, our schools and school district are better than they were; they are not failing.

The author devotes much of his comments to the idea that vouchers will magically save public education. The basic logic of this argument is that humans, given choice, will make the best possible decision. And while that may hold true for buying a quart of milk, it has not showed to be true for children living in poverty here on the Kenai. Our schools of choice (charter schools) are some of the highest performing elementary schools in the state. Yet, they also have the lowest rates of poverty for our district. Our parents who are poor are not lining up to enroll their children in the local charters. There is thus, little reason to believe that a voucher system would do the same. In sum, I fear that vouchers would instead concentrate children living in poverty and not as is suggested, level the playing field.

The author’s complaint that public schools are too expensive by association suggests that the Kenai’s residents are gouged by tax payments for schools. This is also without merit. With the state using oil taxes to pay for about 2/3rds of our school district’s expenses, it is clear that local residents do not have to foot that much of the school bill. As a way to illustrate this, the local amount of property tax that goes to our schools from a tax payment on a residential property that is assessed at $250,000, is about $420 per year. Or, about $1.20 per day. The borough sales tax that goes to schools is so heavily dependent on tourist revenue that residents should smile and not sigh when in July, they see a jam-packed Fred Meyer parking lot full of cars owned by people who do not live here.

Finally, it is easy to take shots at public education without looking close to home. Such polarizing rhetoric of failing schools must also include a review of our local education picture. When you do this, you find a picture that is not dim. Rather, it is bright and getting brighter.

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