Laura K Spencer, Ed.D.

Tag: Sycamore Ridge

  • Guest Blog Post: A Teacher’s Changing Mindset on Student Agency

    Guest Blog Post: A Teacher’s Changing Mindset on Student Agency

    By Emily Mackie, 5th grade teacher

    As mentioned in my Exploring Agency and Personalization blog on December 15th, I’ve been working with teachers to to better understand the principles of agency and personalization. As these are key elements of our district’s vision and mission, it is important to be able to articulate what those principles are, how they manifest in an elementary school classroom, and what impact they have on student learning. When I asked teachers to reflect on their growth, one teacher took the time to write an eloquent response. With her permission, I am sharing it here.

    I used to believe that all good teachers foster agency in their classroom. It is something that just naturally starts to happen for most kids, and something that might happen very slowly, or in a limited capacity for others. After all, the reality is that some kids just have more buy-in to their own learning than others. Our students come to us with different personalities, hopes, dreams, family values, and beliefs about their schooling. Our students come to us with a vast spectrum of experiences, fostered from within and outside of our school district. Changing or growing their pre-existing belief system is no easy task. But now I believe that supporting every student in the ways they approach their own learning is quite possibly our most important task as educators.

    @MrsMackieD3 Tweet: Sharing Learning@Home with our classmates = engaged learners

    After working closely with my team and the other hub participants, my thinking on student agency has really changed into a belief that supporting student growth in agency is slow and steady, and is fostered most effectively over time. When we can support students in building these habits of mind, they build a foundation for success in life that will extend beyond their school experience. Agency is grown through hard work and understanding. Building grit and academic tenacity takes focus, attention, and buy-in, from students and teachers alike. Growing agency for students is about goal setting and asking the tough questions about the WHYs of their learning experiences. Questions and considerations about learning that I have been asking my students to become aware of are: Why are you doing this? Why does it matter? Who are you doing this FOR? Is this for you, me, your parents? What you do, make, say, accomplish each day matters – for YOU. Otherwise, what is the point? Providing learning experiences and opportunities for students to grow this mindset should be the point…for all of us. Spending time, scaffolding opportunities for students to make decisions about their learning behaviors with intention is hard work. But it is important work. Helping students build an awareness about their own contributions and responsibilities toward their learning outcomes is one of the most important contributions we can make to them as lifelong learners. This is the work, the learning, the growing, that is most certainly worth doing.

    Emily Mackie has been teaching elementary students for 13 years. She strives to make the classroom a student-centered space which fosters curiosity, exploration, creativity, and FUN so that all children feel safe, valued, and loved. You can find her on Twitter at @MrsMackieD3

  • Agency Through FortNite? Sure. Why not?

    Fortnite, and other games like it, require students to practice “teamwork, collaboration, strategic thinking, spatial understanding, and imagination,”  Stanford Graduate School of Education experts say. 5th graders would agree, although they didn’t realize it at first.

    I’ve been working with small groups of teachers to critically examine student agency, and how it is developed, nurtured, and grown in the learning environment. In one of our meetings, 5th grade teacher Dan Dahl shared with us that he has a group of students that love Fortnite. He asked them, “So what do you do when you get stuck in the game?” Students were quick to share their strategies:

    • Look at YouTube videos to see how others completed the task
    • Ask a friend who may have already beaten that level
    • Practice the skill needed in the online “playground mode”
    • Try other skills to see if the task can be accomplished other ways
    • And of course, keep trying!

    When Dan asked students what strategies they might use when they are stuck with a math problem, it took a moment…

    tenor

    and then…

    Oh snap! GIF

    The connection was made – the strategies students were using to find the path to success in Fortnite are the same strategies they could use to find the path to success in their academic life, too.

    For some, it was a #mindblown moment.

    Thing is, many of our students already exhibit agency, which is the capacity and propensity to take purposeful initiative. They just don’t always get the opportunity to do it at school. It’s up to us to connect those dots and provide meaningful ways for students to take their own initiative to learn.

    (Postscript: For those of you who are enraged at the prospect of 5th graders playing Fortnite, deep breath! We are not endorsing violent games in elementary schools… just engaging in conversations to better connect and understand the passions and joys of our students.)
  • A Message to Our Young Design Thinkers

    A Message to Our Young Design Thinkers

    Today I was honored to give a speech at a 6th grade promotion ceremony.

    I will admit, I was scared to give a speech. I mean, I give presentations all the time. I consider myself really good at it (like, really!). But a speech? I don’t do speeches. So I struggled for about a week to come up with something to say. Luckily, I was speaking at a school that had embraced design thinking this year. In fact, that was what I was asked to speak to… easy, right?

    So after procrastinating for a week, I finally wrote it yesterday. I’ll admit to finding inspiration in the pages of Cad Monkeys by Warren Berger. (Thanks, Warren!) I decided to share it here, as I think there are a couple decent nuggets inside.

    *****

    Good morning everyone and welcome to today’s event. I’m honored to have been invited to speak on what I know is a very special day for both the students and families here today. My name is Dr. Laura Spencer. I am the Executive Director of Innovation and Design for the Del Mar Union School District. Basically, I have the coolest job in the district because my role is to work with your awesome teachers, as well as students like yourselves, to create opportunities that ignite the personal, inner genius of students and empower them to advance our world.

    This year, as part of District Design 2022, 6th graders started using the principles of Design Thinking to find ways to make a difference in their classroom, on their campus, and in the world. Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to solving complex problems. It uses empathy and creativity to find innovative solutions.

    In fact, this entire promotion ceremony is the result of a design thinking challenge to rethink how promotion can better meet the needs of the people here. Let’s give our students a hand for all their hard work organizing this special day…

    To the 6th graders, I challenge you to think and act like a designer always. Designers must be able to see not just what is, but what might be. It’s about looking for opportunities to make positive change. To advance our world. And the best part is that you don’t have to wait for adulthood to get started. You can start making positive change today. Find opportunities throughout middle and high school. And don’t stop there. Keep using your inner genius to advance the world!

    Think with empathy. Don’t presume to know what’s going on in someone else’s head. Get to know people. Understand them. Discover what makes them unique. Learn about their challenges. In doing so, you’ll also learn more about yourself.

    When you practice empathy, you’ll find problems in need of solutions. We’ve got large problems and challenges in the world, but there are answers, too. They’re all around you. Don’t be afraid to look. It doesn’t matter how old you are.

    Remember, your first idea is not always the best idea. Brainstorm! Wild and crazy ideas are sometimes the ones that take flight. Just think, when the adults here were kids, we were told to never get in a car with a stranger. Stranger danger was real. Now we use Uber or Lyft on our phone to ask strangers in cars to pick us up and bring us places. So never be afraid to chase after that crazy idea! (But hey, don’t get in cars with strangers!!)

    And remember, prototypes are meant to be rough at first. You won’t always get things right the first time. In fact, you’ll probably get it wrong more often than you’ll get it right, so keep building and seeking out feedback. Doesn’t matter if it’s a crazy complex math problem or a video game you’re designing. Keep refining that prototype until you get it figured out. Ask for help.

    Above all else, be human-centered in all you do.

    So congratulations to the almost 7th graders, congratulations to the families, and finally, congrats to the teachers and everyone else who supported our students along their journey.

    I’ll leave you with this final quote, from a great author with whom I imagine you are all familiar, by the name of Dr. Seuss.

    “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

     

     

  • Empathy + Action = Activist

    Empathy + Action = Activist

    The other day I walked in to the art classroom at one of our elementary schools. Third graders were on a mission.

    As artists, how might we use our creative voices to affect change in

    • our school?
    • our community?
    • our world?

    Specifically:

    To get humans to use less plastic and/or dispose of plastic properly to protect our ocean creatures.

    In order to tell the story of plastic’s toxic impact on the ocean, students planned a public art piece depicting the ocean, with the creatures and such made of plastic. It was ambitious, and meaningful. And they needed the help of the art teacher.

    When I entered the classroom, it was hard to even find the art teacher. She wasn’t in front teaching the class. She was sitting with a group of students, encouraging them, inspiring them, and helping them turn their vision in to a reality. Other students were spread around the room working with different tools: saws, drills, paints, wire.

    I also couldn’t find the classroom teacher! Oh wait…there she is. Not monitoring the room, or sitting in the corner grading papers, but she was making art right there with the students. With her goggles on. As equals.

    Each student I talked to knew not only what he or she was creating and how it would tie in to the art piece, but each student also described for me why this art piece was important. I was told about jellyfish dying with plastic wrapped around them and dead fish full of plastic in their stomach. They asked me about my plastic usage, and if I knew how much of what I used would end up floating in the ocean.

    They had a reason for their art. A passion for their art. Activists for a cause important to them.

    It was truly a moment when I said, “Yes! This is what learning should be like for students every day!”