Reset the Mindset A presentation (and workshop) for teachers
NOTE: you don't need to take notes.
Just listen. If you want to take notes,
don't worry. We will give you this
presentation on a CD or DVD, your choice.
At the end of this presentation, you will be
asked to work with partners to apply some of
the information that is discussed in this
workshop. You might want to keep this
question in the back of your mind: How can I
use this information in my classroom?
What could I change in my lesson plans
and in my classroom to put this
information to use?
What materials can I bring into my
classroom that could build on what I'm
hearing today?
Yes, 1983 is ancient history for many of us...
1. The Situation in 1983
The Carnegie Foundation paid millions of
dollars to get a report that made broad
recommendations for school reform.
Chairman Boyer looked at the school
systems around the country and concluded:
I hope that in the century ahead
students will be judged not by their
performance on a single test but by the
quality of their lives. I hope that
students will be encouraged to be
creative, not conforming, and learn to
cooperate rather than compete.
Ernest Boyer, president of Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching, 1993.
Nearly 30 years later
We have more measurement. Did anything
ever grow by measuring it? (Dennis Littky)
Reset the Mindset Yuzenas and McCrea
Have things really changed? Is Boyer
turning over in his grave?
What's needed? A new way of looking at the
problem.
2. What happens when you change
the mindset?
Before we look at schools, let's look at other
times when the mindset was changed.
GALILEO and COPERNICUS
Galileo looked at the moon and said, "I can
see that the moon orbits the earth, and
there's no way that the sun circles the earth."
He provided a new model for categorizing
what everyone saw.
His telescope showed that there were little
moons that went around Jupiter and those
moons did not circle the Earth. This data
blew the minds of 16th century Italians and
they couldn't handle it. Galileo had to recant.
There have been other shifts in mindsets or
paradigms. Copernicus showed that the
orbits of planets were ellipses, not a circle.
Mindsets come from the way we look at
the world scientifically
 Ether. Scientists used to think that light
traveled along the ethers. they used to think
that light was a wave, but it also acts as a
particle (that's a shift in the mindset)
 Phlogiston -- this word describes a
material's ability to burn... Intellectuals in the
Middle Ages thought that wood and paper
had more “phlogiston” than metal or stone.
 Gasoline: our mindset before 1973 was
(hopefully) different than today.
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We are talking about cars that run on
alternatives to gasoline.
There have been dozens of major changes in
humanity's collective mindset and we are in
the middle of a mindset change now...
Howard Gardner helped us reset the way we
think about intelligence (multiple
intelligences)
Robert Ballard asked us to look at the Black
Sea and imagine what might have happened
to create the story of Noah's Ark and the
Great Flood
Dan Pink told us to think about the other side
of the brain… but these mindsets have
stalled.
People like Dan Pink are saying, "Hey,
design is important, look to the whole
brain" while test mavens want to standardize
education in a left-brained, data-driven,
lopsided manner.
Progress does not have to move forward
smoothly. There will be losses,
retrenchment before we unloose the bonds
that bind us to tradition and then we can
surge ahead.
So let's move on...
3. Unintended Consequences
Problem: we depend on foreign oil
Remedy: ethanol from corn
Unintended Consequence: (cartoon of
starving kid next to fuel pump with ethanol
from corn)
There are numerous other examples of
unintended consequences.
Who knew that when Congress made it a
goal to help more people to own their
Reset the Mindset Yuzenas and McCrea
homes that the entire structure would start to
fall down?
Action: Congress made it easier to lend
money
Response: Interest-only loans with a balloon
payment and increased interest rate after four
or five years. OOPS: people who couldn't
afford to borrow were given loans...
4. What are the unintended
consequences of measuring
students and applying standards to
schools?
a) teaching to the test
"Tell us what's on the test, and let us prepare
for the test."
b) Preparing for a test (instead of teaching
as we used to and just letting the test
measure what was taught.)
These were NOT what Governor Jeb Bush
stated in his plan for "A+" when the Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT)
was proposed.
5. SOME QUOTES
"It seems to me that schools primarily teach
kids how to take test, a skill one hardly uses
in real life unless one is a contestant on a
quiz show). Elementary school prepares kids
for junior high; junior high prepares them for
high school. So the goal (if we can call it
that) of schools is to prepare kids for more
school." -- Tom Magliozzi, one of the Car Talk
guys, writing in his book, In Our Humble
Opinion: Car Talk's Click and Clack
Rant and Rave (2000).
"I have been a psychologist for 21 years, and
I have never had to do in the profession what
I needed to do to get an A in many of my
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courses in college. In particular, I've never
had to memorize a book or lecture. If I can't
remember something, I just look it up.
However, schools set things up to reward
with As the students who are good
memorizers, not just at the college level but
at many other levels as well. -- Robert
Sternberg, psychologist.
Our education system should be creating
mindful learners. (Littky)
Too often we teach people things like
"There's a right way and a wrong way
to do everything." What we should be
teaching them is how to think
flexibly, to be mindful of all the
different possibilities of every situation
and not close themselves off from
information that could help them. Ellen
Langer, professor of psychology
I never let schooling get in the way of my
education. -- Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
No matter how far you have gone on a
wrong road, turn back. -- Turkish proverb
Think about how people learn best. We
learn best when we care about what we are
doing, when we have choices. We learn
best when the work has meaning to us, when
it matters. We learn best when the work is
real and relevant.
We want to prepare our children for the world,
so let's no isolate them from the world.
Many people talk about how difficult it is to
integrate a curriculum. How can English
teachers work with math, science and history
teachers? That is ridiculous: the world is
integrated! Every day schools unravel the
world and all its vast knowledge and put it
into boxes called subjects and separate
things that are not separate in the real world.
What is science and geography without
math? What is English with its history and
word origins and other languages? We teach
Reset the Mindset Yuzenas and McCrea
kids about the real world by locking them up
in a building that looks, acts and feels nothing
like the real world. -- Littky, page 29
The traditional school isolates large groups of
young people from adults and the
experiences of the real world, then expects
them to emerge at age 18 knowing how to be
adult, how to work and how to live in the real
world. Kids are expected to sit still for long
periods of time, to learn primarily by listening
to someone talk and never talk to anyone
around them. They learn how to please
eight different teachers with eight different
sets of expectations -- and the teachers base
their understanding of the kids on 45 minutes
spent in a room with 20 to 30 other kids.
Only if they are having trouble do they get an
individualized education plan (IEP) or get any
feedback on their learning beyond a single
letter on their report card. Their education
system assumes that they are exactly like
every other kid in the class and every other
kid who was in that class 40 and 50 years
ago. The school emphasizes the same "set
of knowledge" for everyone and expects them
all to demonstrate the exact same skills. The
world is changing -- schools are not. -- Littky,
The Big Picture, page 32
One-third of the jobs that will be around
ten to fifteen years from now haven't been
invented yet.
6. BEYOND RANTING AND RAVING
What can teachers do today?
We could continue complaining, but let's end
this training with two questions:
1) How can we personalize our lessons?
2) How can we integrate our lessons with
other subjects?
3. How can we bring the world into class
or take the class out to the real world?
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GROUP ACTIVITY (for the participants in
the seminar)
Let's brain storm together -- sit with a group
of four teachers and come up with three
things you can do to individualize training.
How can you integrate your subject with
other subjects?
Can we use the Internet to create virtual
internships?
(time to circulate with the audience, put them
into groups, someone takes notes, the notes
get passed to the front, a big list is made and
checked off the list that is given to the
audience.)
Project-based Learning
Many education reformers point to narratives
and portfolios for assessment and projects to
guide the learning in the classroom (to
reduce lecturing). Inquiry and independent
thinking by students ought to lead the way in
the classroom, so that the teacher is a “guid
eon the side” not a sage on the stage.”
OBJECTIONS: “It’s hard to grade a project”
and “it’s messy.” More objections? Other
comments?
CONCLUSION This workshop is not over
yet... When you are finished working in your
small group, we say, “Very good. Each
group got at least ten of the items that are on
our list.” BRAVO, thank you for your
participation. Some of the groups added
some ideas that we didn't have on our list, so
we will add them to the lit for our next
training.
Don't leave! Sit! Stay! NOW COMES THE
Reset the Mindset Yuzenas and McCrea
EXCITING PART: You might think that this
seminar is over. We've talked together for
30-40 minutes. This has just begun. We are
passing around a sheet of paper with your
contact information. You signed this paper,
putting your email address and your name on
the sheet. Well, most of you did. We want
you to sign up for 7, 30, 90 day checkups.
Dennis and Steve will make it their job to call
you, email you or possibly visit you in your
class to see how you use these techniques.
If you want none of that follow up, scratch out
the numbers. If you want all three visits or
emails, 7 30 90, then circle all three numbers.
We will contact you or visit you on this
basis. Please add your phone number. If
we can text your mobile phone, please write
the word "TEXT" next to the phone.
Thank you for your attention. The
unexpected consequence of this presentation
is not yet known, but we have a hunch that
you might bring a camera into your
classroom, a computer and a disk burner.
As the crowd disperses, the following quote
goes on the projector
What is the power of stories?
I tell stories to new teachers who are just
beginning to get a sense of what "one kid at a
time" really means. When they start to gather
their own stories that is when they are
beginning to see the inner workings of each
kid and to understand where the kids come
from. This is when they are able to make
learning happen and when they are helping
to carry on the culture of our school.---
Dennis Littky
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 At the end, quotes by
Steve Jobs, Thomas
Friedman, etc., go on the
wall, CDs are distributed
with the materials and the
lecture on the CDs so the
participants don't need to
take notes.

Presented by Dennis and Steve

By the way... here are three things you can

introduce to you students immediately – (1)
Posters for the walls at home (and at school),
(2) digital books and (3) educational mp3
files – the CDs are included in your packet.
Please follow up with us and tell us how you
have used this information and please share
contrary or supporting articles that you find in
the news.

Photo from 2006 – we've been pushing digital

books on TV (see the photograph of Steve on
a local TV news show, South Florida Today)

For more information, write to

VisualandActive@gmail.com
Dennis Yuzenas
yuzenasdennis@bellsouth.net Steve
McCrea visualandactive.com

http://sites.google.com/site/visualandactive/H
ome/reset-the-mindset << see images online

Steve at a rally

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/articles/battleground_florida.htm

By Terry M. Neal and John Poole

washingtonpost.com Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Those two programs -- one federal and one state -- are on a collision course this summer.
That's when new test results could show that many of state's schools pass the Florida A+
standards while failing to show sufficient improvement under the federal No Child Left
Behind rules. Failing to make progress on the federal standards would require the state to
let the parents of students in failing schools transfer their children to better-performing
alternatives.

Ninety-four percent of Florida's schools passed the state standards but only 13 percent
passed the federal ones, according to a recent press release from Jim Davis, the
Democratic congressman who represents Tampa and St. Petersburg. More than a few
educators in Florida are worried that massive transfers could destroy the public
education system in the state.

Gov. Bush touted the results at a press conference at Coral Park Elementary School in
Miami. "When we ended social promotion and raised standards for our high school
seniors last year, many were skeptical," he said. "Today's results show Florida is moving
in the right direction, with more students reading on grade level and significant
improvement and opportunities among those who have struggled most."

Testing is not new to Florida's school kids. The state has required graduating seniors to
pass a competency test for 20 years, said Frances Marine, communication director of the
Florida Department of Education. The A+ plan merely increased the level of proficiency
required for graduation from an 8th-grade to a 10th-grade level. Marine said no one ever
complained about the previous testing requirement until Gov. Bush began pushing his
A+ plan, a sign that the opposition is playing politics. "Where was the outrage before?"
she asked

Gov. Bush's supporters and advisers in Florida say the federal No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB) has integrated nicely with the state's existing testing formula. The goal of
NCLB is to raise reading and math proficiency to 100 percent for all students in the
country by 2014. Unlike the A+ plan, which grades schools on the aggregate scores of
all their students, NCLB measures the performance of subgroups of students in reading
and math and requires all groups -- defined by racial, ethnic, income and other factors --
to keep improving until all groups reach the 100 percent goal. These different scoring
techniques have given some schools passing grades under the state A+ plan but failing
grades under NCLB.

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Gloria Pipkin, a white 57-year-old educator and author who lives in Lynn Haven, a small
town on the Florida Panhandle, has organized a group called the Florida Coalition for
Assessment Reform (FCAR). Her group consists mostly of educated, affluent whites
who are alarmed at what they see as the undermining of a well-rounded education. Like
Wilson and Curry, FCAR's members believe that the education system needs to be
improved, but don't believe high-stakes testing is a means to achieve that goal.

FCAR is a nonpartisan and nonprofit grassroots organization with a "shoe-string"

budget, Pipkin said. Hundreds of parents, educators and students are working in FCAR
to repeal the A+ mandates.

"I'm sure the motives were noble and honorable, but whenever high-stakes are attached
to any test -- bonuses for teachers, school funding -- the whole system becomes
deformed and distorted by test scores, and we confuse that with learning and gaining,"
Pipkin said, arguing that subjects such as social studies and creative writing are being
phased out to make way for test preparation. "I see high-stakes testing as a very real
threat to deep thinking, critical thinking and imaginative thinking…All we're concerned
about now is taking a test."

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