One of the best parts of my job is the time I spend visiting classrooms and talking with students about their learning. Our teachers have worked hard over the last few years to articulate what it is they want all students to know and be able to do, and it is up to each teacher how they teach those understandings and skills. This is where the “art of teaching” comes in, and our teachers are truly masters of their craft as evidenced by one of my recent school visits.
 
I began in a 2nd grade classroom where students were learning how to write “opinion pieces” and were watching a short video on the critical elements of that type of writing. “An introduction has 3 parts – start with ‘a hook’, name your topic, and give your opinion”, the video directed students. In an aside to me the teacher said that hearing and seeing it on a video was reinforcing the lesson she had previously taught.  I noted that all of the students appeared to be intently watching and listening, despite the fact that there were visitors (me and the principal) wandering around the room.
 
The next class I visited was a kindergarten class that was engaged in “making books”. I know from my own teaching days that this is a case where language really matters. If we ask 5-year-olds to write a story they will often say they don’t know how to write, but most 5-year-olds know they can “make stuff”. I chatted with a student who told me the title of her book was “Everybody is Different”, and indeed I could make out those words in the letters she had added to the cover of her book. She shared with me the page she was working on which had a bunch of circles. She read that page to me, “Everybody has a different face.” The circles were going to be the faces, she was still working on those. I asked her where she got the idea for her book and she said a teacher had come in and done a lesson on “everybody is different”.
 
My next stop was the middle school where I talked with some students who were working to identify the theme of Refugee, a book they had recently finished reading. The students told me that they had brainstormed together some possible themes (hate, injustice, violence were a few ideas I heard), and were now narrowing it down to one choice and providing evidence from the text to support that choice. I was impressed with the depth of their thinking and with their engagement in the assignment. I wasn’t surprised as I follow this class on Twitter and read their regular blog posts and I know that they have really been digging into important topics. The class is co-taught by the language arts and social studies teacher and includes both 7th and 8th graders.
 
I moved down the hall to the middle school math class where students were engaged in “warm-up” activities. Each student was working in a math notebook to complete 4 review problems. One of the students told me they start each class session with this as a way to get their brains ready to learn. The teacher was circulating and providing feedback and support, and all the students were working hard.
 
Each of these classrooms was very different and yet all students were deeply engaged in their learning. In three of the classrooms flexible seating options were available while the other had the more traditional desks-in-rows design. In two of the classrooms students were working independently, one class was participating in a whole-class lesson, and in one class students were working in pairs/groups. All of the students were willing to chat with me about their learning and I was impressed with their level of engagement and excitement. I know that all of these lessons were crafted by teachers who had a clear understanding of what their students needed to know and be able to do, and who had considered how their students learn best when designing their lessons.
 
Did I mention that visiting classrooms is one of the best parts of my job?

​On October 18th-19th I had the pleasure of attending the Vermont Superintendent’s Association/Vermont School Boards’s Association joint fall conference. The theme this year was “All Our Kids: Designing for Equity and Opportunity”. The conference opened with an excellent keynote presentation by Caroline Hill who talked about how to create learning environments that provide equal opportunities for all students. Caroline believes that preparing all students for a life of infinite choice requires new and different solutions. I was struck by how this fits in with our OCSU vision: “All of our students will have choices for success throughout their lives”.
 
During her presentation, Caroline posed questions that she asked the group to reflect on. Many of these questions are similar to ones we in OCSU have been addressing, but her questions took things to a new level. For example, for the last few years we have been encouraging schools to “tell your story”. Essentially this means getting the word out about all the amazing things that are happening in our schools. Caroline asked, “What stories are we telling that make us more welcoming to some than others?” Perhaps we can all be a bit more intentional when telling our stories so that we are not inadvertently being more welcoming to some than others.
 
During the last couple of years, our boards have been doing a careful review of policies, and making revisions as needed. In her address Caroline asked, “If the experts are students, how do we build the bridges and relationships with policy-makers?” This made me wonder if we are reviewing policies with equity in mind. Are we keeping our focus on all students?
 
Caroline spoke a great deal about the difference between being independent and being interdependent. She suggested that when we become interdependent we become family, and as long as we continue to strive to be independent there are problems that we won’t be able to overcome. “What if our schools were designed to value getting together as much as they value getting ahead?”, she asked.
 
Fulfilling the OCSU vision, “All of our students will have choices for success throughout their lives”, depends on our willingness to become interdependent. It depends on our willingness to understand each other. It may mean redefining community and changing our mindset from “me” to “we”. As we watch events unfold in our state, in our country, and in our world this idea is more important than ever. I encourage all of you to reflect on the ideas posed by Caroline and where we stand as a community in regards to those ideas.