Teach Like Google Exists

I absolutely love this quote from Alice Keeler.  "Teach like Google exists."  How thought provoking.....

Many of us - if not most - grew up in the "PG Era" (Pre-Google).  Because of this, school looked a lot different than it does today.  The teacher was the sole holder of information and he/she shared that knowledge with students through their teaching.  The only other way to acquire knowledge was through books, if you had access to them.  Many of us remember searching through the volumes of encyclopedias to do a report on Ecuador or Thomas Jefferson.  Or we had to go to the library, search through a card catalog, find that area of the library, search for the book and hopefully locate it.  Once we located the book, we then had to look through the entire book to obtain the information we desired.  This was ...... time consuming.  It could also be completely frustrating.

Imagine if we asked our students today to turn off all devices and look through an encyclopedia or library to find basic information.  They would look at us as if we had just told them to build a rocket ship to the moon.  They may actually be able to do that easier than finding information the old-fashioned way.  

But I think the implications of this quote go farther than just knowledge acquisition.  Traditional schools have equipped students with knowledge in the form of facts.  We memorized facts so when we needed them later in life, we could easily recall these.  Our brains were like dusty library shelves holding volumes of information that we may never use again.  But in today's world, students do not to spend time memorizing these facts - they can be found easily by searching Google.  I visualize their brains as a complex series of pinballs bouncing back and forth to all regions of their brain as they synthesize information and use it to create new ideas.

Take a short break and time yourself to see how long it takes to search Google for one of the following:

• The capital of North Dakota.
• The 32nd US President.
• The population of Spain.
• The 18th Amendment.

How long did it take you?  I searched each one and found the answer in between 7 to 10 seconds. (depending on how fast you type.)  So, if this information can be obtained in a matter of seconds using devices, why would we ever ask students to memorize this information?  We live in a world where students have constant access to digital devices - and always will.

In a world where facts can be obtained by anyone in a matter of seconds, why are we still asking students to memorize information and testing this memorization on standardized tests?  Fact regurgitation is an antiquated skill.  If Google can pass the tests we give to students, there's something wrong with the tests.

Please don't misunderstand - I do think there are some things that should and must be committed to memory.  How can students learn to read if they don't know the alphabet?  Multiplication tables must be memorized to further math knowledge.  However, the list of the "must memorize" items, has decreased significantly in today's world. 

If information is so readily accessible, education should not be about mere knowledge acquisition.  Education today should be about what students can DO with that information.  Rather than regurgitate, students should be analyzing, comparing, synthesizing and creating new ideas based on information.

Let's look at the 18th Amendment about Alcoholic Prohibition for a moment.  Instead of having students only learn what the amendment is, they should be doing something with that information.  Students could write an opinion blog either supporting or not supporting the amendment and its enforcement.  Students could compare the societal conditions that led to the passing of the amendment, to current societal conditions in the US regarding marijuana usage.  After learning about the amendment and what led up to it, students could draft an alternate amendment to better address the issue.  By going deeper, students will understand the information better and make connections about its relevance to their lives and laws that are passed currently in the US.  

Having knowledge now is simply not enough.  Anyone who can type, can access knowledge.  What you can DO with the knowledge is what is important now.

How are you changing your instruction to teach and lead like Google exists?

Image credit: https://twitter.com/alicekeeler/status/734921010810486784

Capacity for Failure

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Failure is not something we really like to think about - or embrace for that matter.  Failure sounds like a dirty word.  Something embarrassing.  We don't want others to know about our failures.  We usually want to hide them.  How many people do you know who openly talk about their failures?  Not many that I know.

However, I think we are doing each other and our children a disservice by NOT talking about our failures.  If you have not failed, you have not succeeded.  If you take a chance, you usually don't reach your goal the first time you try.  How many of us just got on a bike and could ride perfectly that first time?  No one I know.

By creating a veil of secrecy around our failures, we are creating an illusion for our children and setting them up for unreal expectations.  If children grow up not seeing or knowing about failure, they will expect themselves to be perfect.  Impossible.  When they don't achieve that perfection, they feel miserable.  Worthless.

As adults, we have all failed at something - a job we didn't get, a school we weren't accepted to, a failed marriage, we fluked a course, we were arrested.....  The list could go on.  Of course we are not proud of failures, but they teach us something - if we choose to reflect and learn.  The majority of successful people have failed.  Not failed once, but MULTIPLE times.

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” - Robert F. Kennedy

I love the Michael Jordan story (who can resist, especially if you're a Tarheel).  He is arguably the most successful basketball player of all time.  However, he didn't make the basketball team the first time he tried out in high school.  That's like cutting Tiger Woods from the golf team, or Alex Rodriguez from the high school baseball team.  What?!  Jordan had the choice to allow himself to be crushed by the failure, or use it as a learning and growing opportunity.  He chose to use this experience to motivate him.  And.....you know the rest of the story.  

I love that Jordan has been open about his failures.  It motivates me.  There are many examples of people we consider to be experts in their field that have faced tremendous failures along the way.  Just a few examples of famous failures can be found in this article.  

In my experience in education, many students are completely knocked over by failure.  I don't mean actually failing a class - but not coming up with the "right" answer.  In traditional school, students learn to "play school." - they know the expectations of the teacher and work to give the right answer and get the approval of the teacher.  However, when we challenge students to step outside that box to create and invent as a part of their learning, they will inevitably face failures along the way.  The high-achievers are the ones who usually get the most freaked out by this because they have ALWAYS known the right answers.

However, as students experiment and try new things they will fail.  But we need to be deliberate about talking with students about the power of failure.  The opportunities that it brings.  Failure happens for a reason - we didn't try something in the right order, we left out a key element, etc...  The key to failure is to LEARN from failure.

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” - Paulo Coelho

As educators and parents, we need to be open about failures in our life and how we have learned from them.  We need to model failure.  This will give our children permission to fail.  It will show them that failure is not the end - it's an opportunity to learn and change.  It's a new beginning.

If we want to create students who can be truly successful in life, we need to create in them the capacity for failure - the ability to work through failures, learn from them and try again.  We need to teach them to be tough enough to weather failures.  We need them to expect some failures along the way and help them understand these and work through them.  Their egos cannot be so fragile that they can't withstand failures.  We, as adults, must model failures as growth opportunities for our children.

“The phoenix must burn to emerge.” - Janet Fitch

There are so many inspiring stories about how people have face failures, weathered the storm and come out better for it.  I often look back on some of these when I am facing difficult times and am reminded that I can push through a situation and learn from it.  Failure is never truly failing unless you give up.  I want more of our students to understand this.  In order to achieve a dream, you may fail at the first, second, third....... attempt.  But eventually, if you persevere, the dream is achievable.  

“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” - J.K. Rowling

Rip Van Winkle & Education

Photo credit: http://www.charlesfake.com/2016/07/07/july_6_2016_wednesday_most/

I recently heard someone say something to the effect of "Education is the only place that Rip Van Winkle could wake up and feel at home."  (paraphrased).  Think about that for a minute and really let that sink in.....

Rip Van Winkle could sleep for hundreds of years, walk into a modern-day classroom, and feel at home.  It would feel familiar: desks, rows, teacher at the front with the all the information, students as passive learners, lecture style instruction.....  

While there are exceptions to this rule - thank goodness - they are not as prevalent as we would like.  Part of the reason for this is we, as educators, teach the way we were taught.  Most teachers were successful as students in traditional school and it worked for them.  You repeat what you know and what you think will continue to work.  Same reason that most parents "parent" their own children using the same methods that their parents used.  It is familiar.  What you know.

After being out of the classroom for a while, I was able to observe many different teachers in their classrooms and see wonderful strategies at work.  The world of pedagogy opened up to me!  I became a much better educator because my "toolkit" had been filled with many other tools as a result of observing a multitude of teachers.  I learned so much - different ways to relate to kids, various instructional methodologies, effective collaboration and group work, different strategies for classroom management, effective methods for beginning and ending a lesson, how to get students to reflect on their learning, how to get students more engaged and take a greater responsibility in their own learning....  I could go on and on.

In my role as an administrator, I had the privilege to learn from so many differing classroom environments.  As a result, when I worked with teachers I had more and better ideas to suggest they try for a variety of situations they were experiencing in their classrooms.

Sadly, the thought that kept coming to my mind was, "I wish I had known all this when I was a teacher!"  If I had the opportunity to visit classrooms while I was a teacher, I would have seen things teachers were doing effectively in their classroom and then tweak my instruction, which would have ultimately benefited my students.  Of course this was still in the days before the internet, Twitter, YouTube.... so resources were much more limited than today.

When I first began teaching, each teacher was considered an island.  You closed your door and taught your class however you saw fit.  No one shared lessons, ideas or planned lessons together.  Also the environment fostered this "each teacher as an island" concept.  Teachers wanted to be the "best teacher in the building," and if they shared their lessons, assessments, etc, they would run the risk of losing their title in the school and community.  

Now, with the shift to "Professional Learning Communities," collaboration and sharing is the expectation.  This model benefits children tremendously because when teachers share lessons and strategies - ALL the teachers get better.  As the teachers get better, instruction gets better, learning deepens, and students benefit.  Win - Win!

Today, teacher-seekers have a vast number of resources they can use to improve their craft - Twitter, Pinterest, Blogs, YouTube, TED Talks......  Those who want to get better need only connect to a device to find new and innovative ways to change their instruction and meet the needs of all learners in their classroom.  I love the #obersveme movement and its push to get teachers to learn from each other as they visit each other's classrooms.  This needs to be the norm and not the exception.  

As educators, we must continue to challenge the "status quo" of schooling.  We want Rip Van Winkle to wake up in a modern school and be totally disoriented!