working on the work design 2.0

North Asheboro Middle School

Working On The Work: Design 2.0: March 8, 2010Reflection is the highest level of professional development we can ever have.

I cannot mandate your belief system nor can I “sell” this framework.

Teachers are volunteers in this framework.

Creating a commitment to change is more important than over-coming resistance to change.

Learn to become a “design thinker”: designing high impact work then become a “re-designer”

Design work NOT content

Engagement: kids (staff) WANT to do it vs. Compliance: kids (staff) HAVE to do it

Design Thinker: How do I make work invitational and work that they want to do?

“Effort affects learning outcomes at least as much as does intellectual ability.”

We control how we package the “work”; we cannot control the content to teach.

In schools, the heart of the game is engagement.

p. 31: notes about types of engagement

**put on discipline referrals: “what work was going on when this incident happened?”

p. 41-45: sample surveys from teachers for students about the work they were doing/did “engagement meters”.

*principals must model the engagement piece and the assessment of engagement. After staff meetings, let staff assess their own engagement.

Students are engaged when they are:

1. Attentive

2. Persistent

Learning Today….Leading Tomorrow Learning Today….Leading Tomorrow Learning Today….Leading Tomorrow


3. Committed: giving their time, attention, and energy: students are committing these things to the work (that YOU design)

See through the lens of a sociologist not just through curriculum (focus on people, not content)

Activity she did with us: Design vs. Plan

1. Wedding

2. Overnight Trip

3.

Talk about customizing: how do you market your content so that it appeals to your kids?

YOU TUBE video on design: kids did this for their teacher “what is design”

Who is the audience (students) and what do we want them to hear (content)? Design everything around these. When students refuse to do our work, is there a trust factor there that affects them? Trust that they can fail and you will help?

p. 80: Design Cycle:

Designing begins with the customer: WHO; Planning begins with content or activity: WHAT and WHEN?

p. 79 powerpoint

Video: The Deep Dive (ABC News/Nightline): schools transforming into learning organizations

Status is who comes up with the best ideas: not experience level, age etc.

Encourage wild ideas; do not discourage ideas or criticize ideas

Build on wild ideas to find innovation

Enlightened

BE PLAYFUL

Better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission



Fail often in order to succeed sooner

Display ideas and then vote on the best ones…build from there

Don’t be limited from the beginning…..start with the Big Picture and then bring it down to possibility

Educators should behave like anthropologists: talk to the end user (whoever is going to use your content)

In a learning organization, you are valued by what you contribute, not by your title or position or years of experience

Established NORMS; very clear about our organization; very clear about how we want to work with each other

WHO Chart? *could do this with teachers in grade level OR in staff meeting and then have them talk to their kids.

Who am I as a learner? Leigh’s Who Chart

About Me *how I learn best Design Qualities *make connections for your learning to the design qualities of choice

p. 69-76: Design Qualities, characteristics of design qualities, and how to implement them

p. 109: Creating Engaging Schoolwork



as the teacher, you can set the parameters BUT give them choices to use within the parameters

Kenji Video: Design Qualities: YouTube: Steven Dale created this: underachiever, bright, wanted to drop out. He was on the “Tech Team” *this is a story about his grandfather

How do we make the WORK engaging and not so much the content???????

Product focus….”Dipdive” look up on YouTube

Working On The Work: Design 2.0: March 9, 2010p. 51-68: Classroom Standards: “The Standards are a complex vision of what a school or classroom should look like. The indicators are statements of that vision.” –Schlechty

**you might spend an entire year on 1 or 2 standards to explore and focus on and think about

We need to figure out where NAMS is and what to focus on for 2010-2011 (our design team needs to take the survey on standards p. 51-68 and then figure out what to focus on

TEMPLATES for Designing: p. 94-108: planning template for designing engaging work (explain that this takes a tremendous amount of time and you should have lots of conversation around the content and the engagement.

p. 133: Coaching for Design: entire packet around designing work

p.142: examples and questions to reflect on

“Trailblazers Saga”…Schlechty

“Teachers should be leaders of parents.”

Homework is just schoolwork at home. Homework should be what you want the kids to learn. Homework should be conversation pieces that parents can have at home.

We need to create the “need to know” rather than being instructors.



We need to learn to ask parents the right questions. Talk with parents as opposed to talking to parents.

**How is your child doing in our school? WE should call and ask our parents at least once a week. Call 10 parents a week and ask.

HELP: should be working with somebody on something. NOT working on somebody.

“I can put any teacher in a position to fail. I didn’t put them in the right place or give them the right support.”

p. 90-93: template for moving from Design to Plan: always refer back to your design while you plan

“A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink

“Drive” by Daniel Pink (talks about motivation)

“Change By Design”: Tim Brown

Ken Robinson “Element”

The principal lives in the world of design

p. 166: Sandboxes or Beehives??? Maybe share with staff???

Collegiality in Schools: this is a cycle

1. Talk about practice

2. Observe each other: don’t wait to be invited

3. Work on curriculum: how do we do this at high levels

4. Teach each other

5. Change our practice: not because somebody told us to but because we want to and we see the need to.

Protocols: p. 175

Not critiquing the teacher or the student, but the WORK. Did the work speak to the student? Learn how the work was prepared and designed. Look at only one piece of student work (once you begin looking at multiple pieces of work you begin to compare the students rather than the work)



Design Thinking:

1. Learning about how your WHO learns

2. Analyzing the work we provide to our students everyday and decide if it will cause our students to give high attention, persistence and commitment (think of this in terms of teachers!)

3. Nurture engagement vs. demanding compliance: how do we change culture without demanding it; nurturing the teachers’ engagement rather than demanding their attention

4. Talk to students….talk to students!!!!


working on the work design 2.0

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