Friday morning, I had the chance to participate in a discussion about best practices in distance learning put on by UC Irvine.  I signed up hoping to pause from the day to day business and decision-making that has engulfed our leadership team.  The goal was to listen and learn from teachers actually doing the work of teaching kids during this time of physical school closure.  It was the best 60 minutes of my week.

The interaction started off with an open discussion about what we were each doing to engage students via virtual platforms.  When the moderator put us in separate Zoom breakout rooms, I quickly realized that amongst the 7-8 people in our group, 3 of them were Santa Ana Unified teachers.  I always feel a little bad for the teachers in my group who get stuck with the assistant superintendent in their discussion, but these women were gracious and forthright in sharing both their triumphs and challenges at the student level.

Perhaps what suprised me most was that all 3 of the teachers reported 100% of their students connecting with their classes virtually.  In a district where we know at least 10% and perhaps upwards of 30% of students are struggling to connect virtually, this was a welcome report.  I was amazed to hear about the teachers’ collective wilingness to jump into the digital world, exploring a variety of platforms and supplemental programs.  All three of the teachers were elementary level.  For video calls, two of them used our Google Classroom platform while one had decided that Zoom was working much better for classroom facilitation.  Each also supplemented communication with a secondary interactive exchange platform, whether that be via ClassDojo or FlipGrid, while others posted directly via Google Classroom.  In addition, the teachers reported a variety of content delivery platforms that supplemented the experience.

What I enjoyed learning about the most were the different strategies the teachers were using to encourage engagement and interaction.  From Spirit Days do time each video session introducing siblings, pets, and favorite toys.  The teachers were all united in describing the challenges of overcoming ongoing distractions and how to balance students’ natural enthusiasm for catching up with friends with the need to engage in academic content.  These teachers were upbeat and enthusiastic, while also seeming a little worn out from all of the quick shifts and online calls.  The fact that they snuck in time for some professional learning and sharing with colleagues was particularly impressive to me.

Of course we know that there is variety in the quality of the experience that our students are having now that learning has moved into the digital space, this brief interaction left me feeling hopeful that students and teachers alike are making meaningful strides in navigating a fully digital learning world.  While we all miss the in-person interaction, our teachers and students are certainly doing incredible things with the difficult hand they have been dealt.

When our new superintendent Jerry Almendarez arrived in Santa Ana just over 3 months ago, one of the first things he did was hand each of the governing board and executive cabinet members a book.  In this case, he handed us each a copy of The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni.  Jerry didn’t just encourage his cabinet members to read.  He assigned it to us, reminding us that the first thing on the agenda during our upcoming executive cabinet meeting would be a discussion of the first two chapters of the book.  Come prepared.   

When our cabinet meeting came around, we all sat around the large table in Jerry’s office, interested to hear what he would have to say as he formally launched his tenure as superintendent.   Behind him, on the long bookshelf that runs along the window, there were perhaps two dozen books.  They weren’t stacked like books are normally stacked on a bookshelf.  Each one was face-up, carefully placed and easy to read the cover.  Then the meeting began.  With almost every short conversation, Jerry would say something like, “that is a great point, it reminds me of this great book…”  As he explained the connection to a favorite book, he would stand up and move towards his bookshelf, find the book he was looking for, and eagerly pick it up and show it to us – inviting us to take a read for ourselves.  You know, in our free time.  These weren’t just book recommendations from Jerry.  It was like he was introducing us to his oldest friends.  People we would want to get to know.

When we gathered for our first meeting with all of the principals around the district, Jerry brought some of his favorite books with him.  Just like in our cabinet meetings, many topics of discussion generated spontaneous book recommendations.  Personalized instruction, yep, we’re going to be reading about that.  Building momentum in a complex organization, definitely got a book to help us there.  Guess what everyone, Voxer book club!  We can talk about books together even when we aren’t physically together.  When Jerry passed out copies of an upcoming shared read, it felt like we were all on the Oprah show.  “A book for you!  And a book for you!   Everybody gets a book!”

Now don’t get me wrong.  I love to read.  I would even identify myself as an avid reader.  I’m constantly challenging myself to keep reading, and have a long standing goal of reading a book each month.  Each year, I too engage my division leadership team members in a shared read and discussion.  But this was different.  Jerry’s enthusiasm for reading is at a whole different level.  As a former missionary, I know something about proselytizing, and Jerry is a straight up book evangelist.

Importantly, there was a corresponding message along with Jerry’s enthusiasm for reading.  That message has been clear and consistent since the day he began his leadership tenure in Santa Ana.  “We have to build the capacity of our team.”  “We have to grow leadership from within.”  “We have to help people learn to do things they don’t yet know how to do.”  His invitation to push ourselves to learn and grow has been particularly prescient given our current situation as a district, nation and world as we confront the ravages of COVID-19.  Jerry’s urgency, if anything, has grown.  We have to transform ourselves, our systems, our practices if we want to survive and thrive as an organization – and we have to make the pivot thoughtfully and quickly.  And then, of course, he had a book for that too.

To be honest, with six kids at home and a demanding job, reading had slowly become a bit more of a luxury.  When things got busy, which they always do, taking a few quiet moments with a book was often one of the first things crowded off the essentials list.  But then Jerry helped me reframe my priorities – and suddenly I have found myself taking 15 minutes during the day to read a chapter, or a chapter at lunch, or a longer read before bed.  Since finishing that first read together as a cabinet, I’ve read over a dozen additional books.  Some for work, but some for myself.  It’s been a real gift.

I often say that beyond classroom teachers, most people don’t think much (or probably care much) about instructional practices.  When families make choices about where to send kids to school, they are usually interested in what programs are offered, college-acceptance rates, or even more practical considerations like distance from home.  Of course parents want inviting, rigorous, and supportive classroom learning environments for their children, but they don’t necessarily pay much attention to the specific instructional practices being used by teachers.  I’ve never had a parent ask me “how are the think-pair-shares at your school?”

And then last month parents were forced into a more formal instructional provider role.  Of course, we have always seen parents as the first teachers of our students, but providing formal academic instruction is often done by a professional educator.  All of a sudden, everyone is starting to wonder – “how do I facilitate learning at home?” not to mention wondering how in the world a teacher manages to direct the learning of 30-40 kids in a classroom.

Basically, the black box of the classroom – literally what happens day to day in terms of instruction – has been broken open.  As an Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, I have perhaps never been busier.  Every single aspect of the work that we do as teachers or administrators has had to be renegotiated.  How long should we expect students to do academic work on a daily basis?  How do we provide supports to address the social/emotional needs of our students?  How do we support children at different age and skill levels in the same household simultaneously?  How do we encourage and facilitate social interactions amongst peers?  All of a sudden, the entire community and even many of our professional staff need additional instructional capacity.

In some ways, this represents one of the most exciting moments in our professional lives as educators.  Of course what brought us to this point is absolutely tragic.  None of us wanted this pandemic, and the long term economic and social costs won’t be entirely understood for years to come.  But despite our current circumstances, we have to move forward.  All of a sudden, mainstream America is keenly interested in how teaching and learning works.  Yes, we must address the short term emergency situation we are facing.  That work has occupied a tremendous amount of time and focus during the past few weeks.  The more important question will be how do we learn from this situation and build more inclusive, engaging, and meaningful learning environments and experiences for our students in the future.

Jeannie Oakes, a prominent education researcher, introduced the concept of the “zone of mediation,” which is basically a term for the range of possible solutions that stakeholders with conflicting viewpoints are willing to consider.  In a sense, I believe that our current situation may move the zone of mediation for what parents, teachers, and even students will consider as realistic and desirable instructional environments and experiences for student learning.  While I don’t believe our current situation of virtual-only interaction will become the “new-normal” (nor would I want that for students), I do believe that this will open up opportunities to add some personalized learning modalities to the instructional toolkits of our professional educators. I also think it will raise awareness and interest in the instructional work that our teachers do every day to support the learning of our children.

Curation – it’s one of my favorite concepts.  Formally, it refers to the selection, organization, and presentation of a set of content for an audience.  Most commonly, we think of curation in the context of a museum, where curators carefully select and organize works of art or historical artifacts from a broader collection.  The curator works with a vision in mind, with the hopes of engaging participants in an extended discourse that explores key themes, concepts, and leitmotifs.   The curator is, at the heart, a storyteller.  Human beings are meaning-making machines, and the act of storytelling is at the heart of the human experience

When I began my graduate studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, then Dean Kathleen McCartney compared our experience to a lavish buffet spread.  The work of the college was to set the table for learning, providing the best options the school had to offer.  Yet it was up to us as students to take full advantage of the options and opportunities that lay before us.  The professors and professional staff curated the learning environment for our benefit, but the story of each student would be different based on our unique needs and interests.

It was no accident when we designed our Círculos super school in Santa Ana Unified that we envisioned positions like the “curator of projects and partnerships” and the “curator of talent.”  I remember our Human Resources department asking me what in the world we were doing with these “curator” positions.  So we explained – our curators are carefully selecting, organizing and sharing key concepts and instructional practices.  They are designing experiences and interactions with the end user – the student – always in mind.  They are trying to craft a series of experiences and skillsets that tell a new story for what the high school experience can be.

Now, with physical schools closed, every teacher is a designer of his or her online learning environment.  This has forced all teachers to take on the role of curator.  Rather than relying on direct instruction, the teacher is engaged in a process of selecting programs, interactions, and experiences designed to support the learning of students.  One of my favorite online resources is a “pop-up home school generator” put out by the forward-thinking school designers at Transcend Education.  The team at Transcend has carefully curated a list of free online resources that can then be remixed to meet the unique needs of students.

We’ve taken a similar approach with our teaching staff in Santa Ana Unified.  We see our role as district specialists to vet and and share learning options and tools that are both standards-aligned and age-appropriate.  Yet we still see the teacher as the primary curator of the learning experience for the students in his or her class.  This teacher-driven, district supported approach forms the core of our approach to distance learning.

In an era of ubiquitous information and infinite options, the role of the curator becomes increasingly important, and difficult.  The past few weeks have seen an exponential proliferation of free offers from educational content and curriculum providers.  I’ve easily received over 100 different email offers from potential education content providers.  The teacher retains the role of trustworthy coach and curator that students and families can look to for both targeted support and for access to a set of carefully curated interactions and experiences designed to boost student learning.