My Visit to HTH - Thursday Continued - What makes HTH tick?

    High Tech High is purported as a bastion of Project-based learning (PBL) and Deeper  Learning (DL). This was the real meat of the trip for me. Was PBL an all encompassing approach to the way content is instructed at HTH? What makes up a good project? How does an instructor at a factory-based school reach outside their comfort zone and attempt to adopt some of the tenants of PBL and DL? I was consumed with "the what's and the how's" for most of the trip. My mind was racing through things and sometime jumping to conclusions based on what I thought I already knew about HTH. Starting our tour -being led by a student (did not catch his name), I was keenly interested in what instructional strategies and learning opportunities I was going to see on display. I had never seen PBL in practice and   it is an intriguing prospect for me. My only experience with PBL was watching this video.
    Our guide led us down the hallway of the Great Room. Offering us snippets of what kinds of things we were going to see. He was well versed in the tenants of Larry Rosenstock's vision and could recite the purpose of everything going on around us. That was my first revelation. All the students that attend HTH are aware of the purpose and intention behind everything done there. The goals of every project, every instructional method, every philosophical stance on an issue was a conscious choice at the school and the students had a voice in all of it. I later learned that its one of the tenants of PBL as HTH approaches it, as well as part of their professional development for their teachers. Students sit in on faculty discussions on teaching practice (similar to our AIW sessions around Norwalk) and give feedback to their teachers on what worked and what to do differently. They are part of the instructional teams. Very interested concept and one I think we can adopt in Norwalk. As we went farther down the hall we got views of some of the classrooms. Nothing really spectacular here except the windows. It was interesting to note that a lot of the windows are covered with student work. I think it also serves as an attention blocker. I don't have to tell teachers how windows can work in a classroom. Especially when people are walking around the hallway.

I did see the room above curtained off. That is the big projects room (as I understood it). There was a trailer in there where students and a faculty member were working on a large project. The were definitely involved in PBL in that room, but there really wasn't instruction going on, just work on the task at hand. Our guide kept saying things straight out of the HTH manual and he really was doing a great job. I, of course, decided to go off on my own to see what else I could find out about pedagogy around the facility. 

    I stuck my head into probably five classrooms at HTH throughout that tour. I visited with the Art instructor and one of their science teachers for a few minutes each. The science instructor, Jesse Wade Robinson was very helpful and informative. She was very happy to walk me through her world as I was witnessing it at the time. The art instructor and I just talked about Macs and PCs, which was a fun conversation. Most of the other classroom instructors did their best to ignore me (as did their students) as I walked around taking videos. I admit, I felt guilty watching everyone try to teach around my distraction. I was shocked to see direct instruction going on in a lot of the classrooms. The Spanish instructor was doing the same stuff I have seen our Spanish instructors do. Verb conjugations and pronunciations I think, but my Spanish is rusty. Straight-up lecture style for the entire time I was there. The Art instructor was painting a picture while we discussed Macs and PCs, and his students were busy working on their own art. Again, its probably related to a project somewhere, but it wasn't instruction as I currently understand PBL. Just the same kinds of things our Art teachers (and probably all Art teachers worldwide) do with students and their art projects. Where things got really interesting was the ELA and Science rooms. I have since learned that really they were not ELA and Science rooms as everything is taught in an interdisciplinary fashion. At the time, it appeared that there were definite Science, ELA and Media and Publishing rooms. I spent a good portion of time in Jesse's room and got to learn a lot about how her life functions.

    Jesse Wade Robinson is an 11th grade Biology teacher at HTH. She has been there for ten years, almost as long as the facility itself. Jesse is a San Diego native and has spent time abroad prior to teaching at HTH. She spent about 15 minutes talking with myself and our group and served as my primary expert that I met in PBL from the teacher's point of view. Here is a link to her PBL resources. The day we visited her students were working on a paper concerning their data mining of their Honey Bee project. 

     The paper was one aspect of the entire bee project. Jesse explained that her students were working on a scientific paper answering their individual questions that they developed from mining the data set they were collecting for a local scientist. The paper was based around the data they found supporting their hypotheses. This project was organized by Jesse and the aforementioned scientist at the University of California, San Diego. The project was arranged around his work on his dissertation. The essential question being worked on collaboratively by her students and her research partner was: "How does urbanization affect bees in San Diego?" Jesse and her students were doing data gathering for his doctoral research. This was evidence of another of Larry's tenants. Schools should interact with their community and the outside world. Bring it in to the school day. This concept was mentioned several times throughout the day, but I saw evidence of it most plainly here. The students were also creating bee boxes to display insects they had collected in their yards. The insects were pinned and labelled and identified by their scientific names. The bee boxes were an interesting item. They were all a various stages of completion and quality. Each student creates draft labels initially, then final labels when they have identified the insect correctly. That process illustrates another tenant of PBL at HTH, revisions and re-working a product until the product is high quality and worthy of display. This information was going into a graduate level dissertation as sample evidence. Each student's bee box was going to serve as evidence of their understanding of the environment around their house. Students are regularly asked to display their work to each other and to the outside collaborators. The methodology is designed to enhance the level of quality as the student should see the project as something that is not just for their consumption, but for a larger, more high stakes purpose. At the end of their work on this project each student was going to present a "poster presentation" to the scientist as well as other faculty on his team at UC-SD. Not an uncommon educational expectation, but rarely do you see students presenting to professors. 

     Students at HTH, and in Jesse's class, are asked to identify questions they have centered around the question: What do I need to learn to find answers to the project's questions. They investigate other realms of instruction as a part of every project. Art and science and writing work together to help them learn more about biological topics. The students become active guides of their own learning, but the group is centered around a singular focus for the duration of the term of the project. One student might need to know more about environments, another more about data mining and still another might need help in presentations or writing skills. Evidence of their learning process are supposed to be evident in every final presentation that the students do. Faculty at HTH are concerned with the students understanding the process of their own learning, not just the products they produce from that learning. Every student is expected to produce similar products, but the products are secondary to the process that the students go through to learn what to create as a product. I asked Jesse about her process she uses to create a project. "I think there are steps I commonly go through since I teach science, because I want my kids to act like scientists." She primarily teaches using an inquiry-based instructional methodology (I came to find out) centered around the project at hand. So not just PBL, but other pedagogy as well. Units within units, depending on the personal learning questions developed by her students. "We tend to go through the process of science steps together," Jesse told me.

She broke her instructional plan for the process down as follows:

1) Launch event where the scientist comes in (or they go there) and set the stage for what the outside entity needs them to do

2) Students generate questions about what they will need to learn in order to help with the project

3) Attack that list together -collaborative learning

4) While three is going on - teacher attempt the project outcomes themselves to learn the process first hand

5) Do some "Research pieces based on primary sources of prior research in the area" as well as some "Initial observation pieces" of their initial findings

6) Collect their data and begin data analysis

7) Continue to follow Scientific Process until the answers are apparent and projects are finished 

8) Exhibitions of process and products presented to outside entity. -and parents.

      

more in the next post...

My Visit to High Tech High in San Diego California -Thursday

     Thursday morning dawned and we were off to High Tech High! At last, the portion of the trip I was waiting for all along. We rode a chartered shuttle and it took about 15 minutes to reach the HTH campus. It was then that it hit me how big this place really is. HTH is not really a building, its an entire charter school campus. What I had come to think of as HTH was really just the first building in the entire charter school. Its called The Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High. It serves approximately 570 students with approximately 35 teaching staff, 9 support staff and at least 3 administrators. Some of their staff have become famous world-wide for the work they are doing.
The most famous of the staff is probably Larry Rosenstock.

He is the CEO of HTH, the originator of the HTH mix of educational concepts (from what I could tell) and the chief architect of HTH's vision. My impression of Larry; a very smart person that seems to have been there and done that-- and probably wrote the book too. We got to have an audience with him during our visit and I will be writing up the contents of that interview in my next post. All total we got to interview Laura McBain, Ben Daley, Larry Rosenstock and a team of other faculty members. We also were taken on a tour of the facility by HTH students. Our team was presented with the entire spectrum of professionals and activity at HTH.

Walking through the doors of the original HTH building was a moment of high expectation for me.

You are greeted with the Great Room (I think) and you are immediately struck by how bright airy it feels. Along the lines of their "Creation vs. Consumption" mantra the entire facility was purpose built to reflect the school's beliefs. Students are greeted with light, art and lots of windows. You bear witness to project after project on display in all areas. Bathrooms, windows, electrical panel covers, almost every wall and many ceilings are covered in student designs, projects and artwork. Everything there has a feeling of cohesion by inclusion. If you see it, it serves to remind you of the purpose of the place, learning and evidence thereof. As I was told, the windows in each classroom and office are designed to get you moving to see what is going on in the room -curiosity as a motivator. Someone later made mention of the two feet rule; "If you see something going on that interests you, move your feet over there!" I have to admit, I was struck by the sheer scale and depth of decoration of the entire building. My pictures are not going to do it justice. The entire place is 39000 square feet. It was intended to hold 390 students in accordance with their belief of one student for every 100 square feet of space. I found out that the current level of 570 students was due to the current financial crisis gripping most of California educational systems. Honestly, it did not feel crowded at all, in fact it was just the opposite. As we moved through the building there were lots of smiles and waves and greetings of all kinds. People just seemed happy to be there that day.
     One of the most evident aspects of the student work that is visible is the quality of thought and the amount of effort involved in its creation. Most of the work displayed is an evaluative product or "Exhibition" designed by intent to display the learning behind the project. A good example is this window project from and Art and Math collaborative project. One of the most striking examples, and most intricate and beautiful sits on display in the conference room. The wooden puzzle-wheel was created a a group of students over the course of a semester. As I understood it, it was a reflection of how projects and content and process work together to produce a cohesive whole.

It was entirely student made using wood and tools you normally find in an Industrial Technology classroom. Amazing work and fully functional complete with gears and hand cranks. 

      I was especially curious to see what kinds of technology was offered at High Tech High. I mean, lets be honest, as a Tech professional, when you go to a place called High Tech High, you expect a certain level of awesomeness. I mean, they put it in the name of the entire facility. What I learned is that High Tech High is a bit of a misnomer. The school itself is not floating in money and can't afford to buy every possible piece of technology they want. So that was a bit of a surprise. Honestly, it was comforting to find out that my district was just as good technologically as "High Tech" High. I saw the data room, with corresponding windows to let the world see the nuts and bolts as we walked past the offices toward the Conference room. Outside the data room, poised for techno-nerds like me, was a sign intended to ward off any technology questions (which I am sure they get a lot).

It was a nice write up. I was especially caught by the one computer for every two students. The seemed about what I would expect, if they did not have a 1:1 ratio (which is what I actually expected). The sign mentions helping "students interact and learn how to collaborate with one another." This ties right in to deeper learning tenants and was an expectation I had as a tech professional. It was a staple of educational technology -foster collaboration and cooperation. If anyone should understand how to make technology work in a school, surely it was this place. Not surprisingly the answer I got from them was technology is used all the time, but only when "instructionally appropriate." The "instructionally appropriate" definition for them was almost all the time. I saw evidence in every class I visited (save one) of technology use by the students during instructional time. 

More in my next post...

My Visit to High Tech High in San Diego California -Wednesday

     Recently my supervisor asked me to accompany Mr. Mark Crady our Curriculum Director on a field trip to High Tech High in San Diego. Obviously, I wasn't going to say no to my boss, but truthfully, I have always wanted to go there. I have heard about High Tech High for a few years now and have been dying to get out there somehow. They, from all indications, have figured out how to design an educational system that promotes project-based learning, deeper learning and engages outside experts in the work that they do. All these efforts have produced a student body that is motivated to learn, excited about school and ready for the collegiate level. At least according to what I had heard. Now, I was going to be allowed into the inner sanctum. I wanted to see what made them tick. What really happened inside those walls? Was everything a project? Were the students perfect little angels that all ended up at MIT? Well, not exactly, but close.

   
     Going into the trip I had a lot of questions about what I perceived as High Tech High. I believe I came up with 14 on the plane ride alone. Once we landed things only got worse. We were met by representatives of the America Youth Policy Forum, the Hewlett Foundation, and Council of Chief State School Officers. These were some heavy hitters in the educational world, and there I was, Tech Director from a smaller district in Iowa. Needless to say I felt a little trepidation. Our first night was spent in a dinner meeting discussing the trip itinerary, schools we were to visit and the guiding philosophy behind the Hewlett Foundation's funding of the trip.
      The Hewlett Foundation believes in working with educators, state leaders and business leaders to encourage a change in the way students across our country receive their education. In short, they believe we could do better and want to help develop a new model of American Education. the CCSSO and AYPF were brought in to help facilitate trips like this one for districts and state-level teams from across the country, specifically schools in what is known as the Innovation Lab Network. The ILN's purpose, as reflected on the CCSSO website, is:
   
    The Innovation Lab Network (ILN) is a group of states brought together by CCSSO taking action to identify, test and implement student-centered approaches to learning that will transform our public education system. With a constant focus on student outcomes, the goal of the ILN is to spur system-level change, scaling from locally-led innovation to wider implementation, both within and across states.

     These innovations are grounded in agreed upon principles that emphasize attainment of world-class knowledge and skills through multiple pathways, based on not just acquiring knowledge, but also applying it. All states in the ILN - which currently includes Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, West Virginia and Wisconsin - are committed to working collaboratively with key players at the local, district and state levels and from outside stakeholder groups, including the business and higher education communities. As the ILN states pressure test new student-centered policies and practices, they are continuously sharing their success stories and supporting the work of others in the network.

     Some of the topics presented by the Hewlett Foundation representative seemed to fit with what I thought HTH was all about. He talked about working with State leaders and business leaders to define what the next generation of American education could look like. His concept was Deeper Learning. Deeper Learning is defined as:

     Deeper learning is an umbrella term for the skills and knowledge that students must 
possess to succeed in 21st century jobs and civic life. At its heart is a set of competencies 
students must master in order to develop a keen understanding of academic content and 
apply their knowledge to problems in the classroom and on the job.
     The Deeper Learning framework includes seven competencies that are essential to    prepare students to achieve at high levels. 
Competencies
1. Master core academic content
2. Think critically and solve complex problems
3. Communicate effectively
4. Work collaboratively
5. Learn how to learn
6. Develop academic mindsets

The meat of the presentation for me was the outline of assessment systems they have seen working around the world as well as their information on what employers value in employees (new hires). 

     Assessments being used around the world are varied. They mentioned all the standard ones; PARCC, NAEP and other international tests we all know. They also mentioned that other countries are working on measuring things like collaboration skills and problem solving skills. There was not a bunch of information given on how, but it struck me as something to keep an eye out for in the coming years. It was interesting to hear that things we think are impossible to assess are being assessed in other countries. Assessing those skills is high up on the list of assessments for 21st century learning and deeper learning.

     Employer survey information followed the presentation on assessment systems. The employers surveyed indicated that they have already (or are in the process of) outsourced anything that can be mechanized or broken down into repeatable processes. Those skills are no longer valued in the workplace. We did watch the "Did You Know" video (the latest strain of it) which I think everyone in Iowa has seen by now. Then they told us that the skills employers value most these days are problem solving, analysis and effective communication. Writing and speaking well in a collaborative manner are keys to keeping a job in the 21st century workplace. Learning how to learn was also high on the list as most of the jobs employers advertise did not exist ten years ago. Being able to train your brain to adapt and then being able to communicate your learning in an effective way are what makes corporate America drool. Businesses are even developing tests to measure how well you can speak in front of an audience and via electronic means -- to weed out potential employees. The workplace of the future is synchronous and asynchronous collaboration with people across the globe, not just across town.

     The dinner meeting ended Thursday and everyone went to their rooms to try to sleep. Sleeping was an issue for everyone as we were all on different time zones physically, so we all ended up getting up at 4:30 each morning anyway, regardless of schedule. I went to bed that night with questions abounding in my head. Way too many things to even write down. I did not sleep much that night. Foremost on my mind was, am I going to be able to get the answers to my questions, or what this just going to be a dog and pony show. More to come in my next post...

     

Board Meeting on January 28th

Tom Scallon and I met with the School Board tonight to discuss the 1:1 process going on at NHS. Tonight was an informational meeting and I think things went very well.
Quick update on where we stand right now. Norwalk High School staff and the 1:1 committee have voted in favor of taking on a 1:1 project at the High School. Right now the grades included are 10-12. 9th Grade is still in the mix, but we have to work on the budget.
We are working in three committees (1) Professional Development (2) Device Choice (3) Creating a Vision for the project. Our next step is to answer any questions the Board may have and if they approve of the process and give us to go ahead, we will start working on the implementation. Exciting times!