Category Archives: Learning Environment

The Importance of Service Learning

At Anastasis Academy, service learning is just a part of who we are. It’s vital to helping students understand their identity within a community, but also to learn about other people and places. We value getting kids out of their own bubbles to expand their experiences and get to know other people, and we feel that it broadens their sense of self in such positive ways. Most importantly, we help our students to honor the humanity in all people– noting that we have so much more in common than we might assume.

Service learning can be tricky.

If we approach these opportunities from a place of privilege from which we are “blessing” others with our presence, especially with language like “serving the less fortunate,” we create a kind of dichotomy for the kids where they see themselves as “more fortunate.”  This type of mindset is extremely unhealthy and often deeply steeped in racism and classism. Regardless of the demographics of a school, this savior-like mindset manifests some really ugly ideas around serving your community, and it reinforces dehumanizing tropes about how people live.

Sometimes, the intention of service learning opportunities can come from a desire to do good for people in your community, but making assumptions about what other people need without listening or learning first is really misguided. Good intentions can cause more problems than they solve, and we should be able to look at our intentions with some humility. Additionally, there are often people already doing the work within a community, and it’s much better to ask around, see who is already doing the work, and ask if they could use any help. If they say yes, then this is a great learning opportunity to listen to someone who has the experience. If they say no, it’s an equally great learning opportunity that you don’t always have the skillset to do what is needed.

 

Taking the time to do service learning right must be planned with a well-defined vision.

When service learning is planned carefully, including a lot of scaffolding for students, kids learn that serving others in their community is something an involved citizen does regularly… that when we take care of each other and learn from each other, we are all better for it. Service learning looks different from that perspective. It might involve working with our actual neighbors, local businesses and organizations, with similar visions of community outreach.

At Anastasis, service learning has looked different for each age group of kids, but the process was the same when we did it well.

We work very diligently to cultivate relationships with our service learning partners. The key to successful partnerships is an ongoing relationship… a “one and done” trip in the name of service would seem more like checking some kind of “do-gooder list.” That wasn’t the kind of process we were looking for when we first started. Ongoing partnerships meant committing to regular visits and learning about how our students could best learn from our partners. Our service learning coordinators, a role I have held for only a few years at Anastasis, spent a lot of time working with organizations to see what might be a “good fit,” and how we might best partner with them in helpful ways.

Over the years, some of our learning partners needed assistance fundraising or collecting and organizing items with the community– organizations such as food banks, family services, women’s and children’s shelters, etc. Sometimes, the act of service was spending time with people in different types of programs. Depending upon the age of the students, the partnerships might look different from class to class. We prepared students in advance about their learning partners, doing research or sometimes bringing in organizations as speakers before we made our first trips.

Bowling With Grandfriends – photo by me, March 9, 2016

One of my favorite examples (pre-Covid): our youngest students in the school visited nearby assisted living facilities on a monthly basis. Over time, we built relationships with the residents, affectionately known as our grandfriends, and looked forward to every visit. Prior to our first trip, teachers would spend time with their students discussing the value of elders in our community, the stories they share with us, and what it means to them when young people visit them and are eager to learn. It was important to help younger students understand a little about the aging process. At first, especially for kids who don’t have regular visits with older relatives or friends, an elderly person might be intimidating to a five or six year old child. Sometimes, we brought in older community members to share stories with the class at school. The more we were able to “front-load” and prepare kids for their first visits, the more successful the relationship with our service partners.

For activities to share with our grandfriends, we played games or made crafts that we could do together, and that also gave us time to get to know each other better. Sometimes, we’d practice some songs, especially from popular music in the 1940s or 50s, so we could sing something that our grandfriends knew and loved. Bonus… our kids learned new songs and spent time thinking about why lyrics about “a bicycle built for two” might have been more popular during that time than a popular song now.

 

What our students gain from our service learning partners is invaluable.

The service learning trips might seem unimportant to someone on the outside… maybe even “non-academic” or an interruption to instructional time. What we have witnessed through the years, however, is that these opportunities enhance every part of our students’ learning.  Even the youngest students in our school (usually 5 year olds) can speak to the impact of interacting with organizations outside our school.

One day, my class of “littles” visited our grandfriends and ended our activities with everyone singing “You Are My Sunshine.” The kids had been practicing the song for a few weeks, so they could remember all the words to the single verse and chorus they were planning to sing. One of their grandfriends that year was a mostly non-verbal woman who didn’t interact much when we played games; but the day we sang that song, her eyes were bright, she was smiling, and she sang along. The kids noticed and could not stop talking about it for the rest of the day. When we arrived back at school, they ran into the office, “Mrs. Tenkely! Mrs. Tenkely! Ya-Ya SANG with us, and she was smiling!!” One of the little boys in that class was so happy for Ya-Ya, that he cried happy tears.

This is one example of kids, even five or six years old, realizing that they can have a positive impact on another human being, just by being there and interacting. How we view service learning can help set kids up with wanting to make a difference… to be part of something bigger than themselves… even if it’s actually a small activity like singing together… that culminates in learning about others and partnering together for something good.

I have sooo many anecdotes* of kids realizing they matter when it comes to the people in their community; but most importantly, I could share even more stories of students seeing how much the people in their community matter as well.

If we want to help students become good citizens, we have to help them see that we’re all a part of a community, and that every single person in the community is important— how we care for, look out for, help, and advocate for each other makes the community better for us all. At a time when we think our society is so divided (or divisive), partnering with people in our community can be important first steps into bringing us all back together.

I cannot tell you the number of times kids have returned from a service learning trip – regardless of what it was – with excitement about meeting new people and having new experiences. Knowing they are part of the collective humanity helps them find purpose, and for that, I’m profoundly grateful to be a small cog in this operation.

 

Interested in more information about service learning… or wondering how you can make it work in a school that doesn’t look like Anastasis? Let me know!

 

p.s. Kelly Tenkely and I discuss learning environments, teacher and student agency, service learning, field trips, and much more on our podcast, Dreams of Education. I hope you’ll give it a listen!

The Illusion of Control

I fully admit it… I have long referred to myself as a control freak. For a long time, I avoided the terminology, because I am a people pleaser, and no one really likes to be controlled. But lately, I was using the term as a badge of honor? Or maybe as an excuse?

This morning, I was listening to part of the We Can Do Hard Things podcast hosted by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle. The episode is “When You’re Tired of Holding Up The Sky,” and one of the topics they discussed was control. As they were discussing the idea of being a control freak, Glennon Doyle gently corrected her sister and suggested using the term “over-functioning* individual” in place of the more derogatory term. Throughout the discussion, they explored how damaging control can be for the one doing the controlling, as well as for those being “controlled.”

Control is just an illusion anyway. We think we can control people and situations, but it’s not actually true.

One of the issues that arises for people who are considered an over-functioning individual is being all things to all people. It leads to heightened anxiety, disappointment, and burn out. For those under the umbrella of an over-functioning individual, there is a loss of agency, a lot of resentment, and sometimes complacency… even if none of this is intentional. Some relationships carry on with these patterns without any acknowledgement or realization that it’s even happening. Most “control freaks” are caretakers in some shape or form, and control can become part of their personality. For me, in many ways, it became an obsession with thinking I could control the outcome of situations… usually in maintaining peace or safety.

Marionette by Victoria Nevland CC BY-NC 2.0

I see this kind of control happening in a lot of schools, and I have even worked in some schools and organizations where the attempt to control people created quite hostile spaces. In schools, we have created environments of control that can be truly unhealthy – physically, emotionally, and mentally. I think we see the following as results:

  1. There is little to no agency for kids. Students are controlled to such degrees in school that they do not even have the freedom to respond to their most basic bodily needs –going to the restroom when they need to, drinking water when they are thirsty, eating when they are hungry, etc., let alone have a voice in their learning.
  2. Burnout is a major problem in teacher retention. Yes, there are a lot of societal issues with the current US national teacher shortage, including an ongoing global pandemic, but burnout has been an issue for teachers for as long as I can remember.
  3. There is a hierarchy of control that trickles down to students  – students are controlled by teachers and admin, teachers and admin are controlled by school board, community, parents, lawmakers, etc. Those who are controlled tend to exercise their own sense of control on others.

Of course, these are all generalizations and are not happening across the board in every part of every school. However, I think we see themes of control throughout the concept of what school is, and we have to ask ourselves: Is this a healthy environment for learning to occur?

I know that there is immense pressure on teachers and administrators to be all things for kids, and the stress of those expectations is breaking people. Within a school, there’s often an expectation that teachers and administrators will have everything planned to a T and executed perfectly. There is no room for vulnerability, trust, or even space to make a mistake. “We expect nothing less than your best!” <– This is counterproductive to the learning process, but also… it’s not sustainable. We cannot give 100% of ourselves at all times, and trying to live up to that is a surefire way to get people to quit… or drive them to illness.

If it’s unhealthy for the adults involved, think about what it is doing to our children. 

High levels of control tells kids that we do not trust them to ever do the right thing… that they are not capable of learning… even simply existing… without an adult around to tell them what to do.  Oh, but somehow, when they turn 18 or so, we expect them to leave the high control environment and just magically know what to do. They’re adults now, right?

Kids need a safe place to learn… to make mistakes with someone guiding them through. The act of discovery in learning is exciting and wondrous, and kids can be trusted with this responsibility.

  • What if we were able to loosen the control a bit? What might it look like to trust a child to learn without restrictions everywhere they looked?
  • How can we teach children to manage their freedoms, instead of restricting them up to the point they become adults?
  • How do we build trust with kids, knowing full well that they are going to make mistakes and some bad choices along the way?
  • What if, instead of trying to prevent any and every “bad” scenario from happening, we eased up a bit to help kids learn self-discipline and self-regulation along the way? For example, you cannot learn to regulate your emotions if you’re immediately punished for an emotional outburst, right?

 

If you are an adult, think about what it feels like when someone tries to control you. It’s not a great feeling, especially if you think of yourself as a fully realized and capable human being. As a teacher, I’ve definitely felt the thumb on my back in some environments, as well as the exhilaration of autonomy in others.

Where did you feel you were most trusted to do your job? How did you react when you were met with trust and appreciation instead of the heavy hand of micromanagement?

Now think about what the classroom environments feel like to kids.

What COULD a classroom look like with more trust and agency for kids?

Expect that there will be mistakes. Expect that kids are going to make some wrong choices. And honestly? You probably will, too, right? We are human. We need the space to be human along with all the grace and compassion that we can give each other.

Learning environments can and should be places where kids feel safe … but we don’t have to use control to get there. I know, because I have been fortunate enough to be in a place that values who we are as individuals. We start with WHO WE ARE and go from there.

 

Moving forward…

I’m going to stop calling myself a “control freak.” For me, it’s an excuse to let my anxiety take charge of my brain, thinking I can plan for and meet every challenge of all possible scenarios. It’s not true, and it only drags me down physically, emotionally, and mentally. It’s no picnic for others around me, either.

As a teacher and consultant, I truly enjoy working with other educators to help them think through possibilities, share what has worked in previous environments, and help others to learn to relinquish control.

What about you? I’d love to hear how you are creating a positive learning environment, free from the need to control everything, in your organization!

 

p.s. Kelly Tenkely and I discuss learning environments, teacher and student agency, giving up control, and much more on our podcast, Dreams of Education. I hope you’ll give it a listen!

 

* edited on 10/17/24 – mistakenly used “high functioning” in place of “over-functioning”

We Don’t Need Badges for Reading

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(c) 2016 Michelle K. Baldwin (all rights reserved)

My students love to read… and I don’t exaggerate when I say “love.” They adore books of all kinds, and they are excited for any time of the day that includes a book. This love for reading has come from a very carefully cultivated classroom environment where they have access and abundant choice in reading. (I can’t take all the credit, though. For many of them, that love of books is also nurtured greatly at home. My goal as their teacher is to help that love continue to grow.)

When I want them to do some research about the topics that interest them, I pull as many books as I can from our own little library and spread them across the tables in our classroom. We read picture books together. We read books with accompanying CDs and songs. There’s a great mix of non-fiction and fiction available to them. Reading is not a chore in this classroom – it’s a right that feels like a gift.

My emergent readers have access to the same books that my developing and fluent readers have. Sometimes they choose books that they cannot yet read (emphasis on “yet”), and sometimes they choose books that might be considered too easy. What I see is a continued love for books and continued progress in where they started when they first came to this classroom in the fall.

Earlier in the year, we were very excited to get an app on our iPads that brought us access to even more books. The kids could search for a keyword, and many titles showed up in the results. When we needed to do some investigating in our inquiry block and didn’t have enough books on each topic for individual research, this app helped fill a void. I was very pleased and often tweeted about how happy I was with this app*.

Then something changed. All of a sudden, my kids wanted to read on this app all the time. They were quietly chattering amongst themselves about how many books they had been reading, how much they read over the weekend… but something seemed “off” to me.

This past Monday, one of my little girls was in tears. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong until she was finally able to tell me that she didn’t get the Mother’s Day badge. I asked her what she was talking about, and the other kids showed me their badges page in the app. Sometimes, you get a badge just for reading on a special day. I explained to her that it was ok that she didn’t get a badge for reading on that day… and that the badges don’t matter at all to me. She told me that she had spent the day with her family and not on her iPad… and I explained to her that it was a better thing to be doing than reading for the purpose of getting a special badge.

On top of that exchange, I heard my students’ conversations change. Instead of being excited about what they had learned from reading, as had been the case before, now they were all talking about which badges they received.

I brought them all to the center of the room and asked them what was going on. I questioned, “Why are we reading books?” Some of them answered, “because we like reading and because we learn a lot.” But then the responses changed, too. They started to talk all about the badges- how they liked getting more badges and how important that is. One of them even mentioned how you can page through all of the books in the app to trick the app into thinking you’ve read the book… and then you get MORE BADGES.

They could tell from the look on my face how disappointed I was. There was a bit of silence for a while, and then one of the 7 year olds started to say, “Guys, I think we forgot about why we read. Badges aren’t important.” Not everyone agreed with him. My solution was to tell them that we will continue to use the app for research, but that’s it. If we’re reading just to get a badge, then we’re reading for all the wrong reasons. If the badge mania continues, we’re going to delete the app. 

Just like that… my students’ motivation to read – because they love reading and want to learn more – flipped like a switch. This is what happens every single time we apply extrinsic motivation to something we want to encourage. EVERY. TIME. I’ve taught long enough to see cycles of rewards for reading… or learning to play the recorder… or learning multiplication tables… whatever you want to add to the list. You might help a kid memorize something or change a behavior, but extrinsic rewards always fail on a long-term basis.

I’m not the only person to write about this…

Pernille Ripp has written extensively on reading motivation here, here, and here – These posts are very specific to reading logs, but make a similar point. (If you’re not reading her blog, please do. The posts on reading instruction alone will be well worth your time.)

Alfie Kohn wrote a great post (amongst many) about The Risk of Rewards… but most directly about this topic in A Closer Look at Reading Incentive Programs.

As I spoke with Kelly Tenkely this morning about this blog post I needed to write about reading incentives, she recommended a book called Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It by Kelly Gallagher. I haven’t yet read this book, but I can guarantee that badges (or pizza coupons) are not going to be the solution to what’s happening in reading instruction and motivating kids to read.

Larry Ferlazzo has an entire curated list dedicated to posts he and others have written about the failure of extrinsic rewards in education. Take the time to read these!

Honestly, I could have just posted links to the above posts and the book recommendation and not even written THIS post… however, there’s a story here. I saw firsthand what happened to my littles when they were incentivized with something other than reading itself. They already loved reading… but then their focus changed for the worse. I have some “badge damage” to undo with a few of my kids.

*I’m not blaming the makers of this particular app, and I’m not using this blog post to call them out publicly. They are providing what scores of other teachers (unfortunately) want.

Here’s what I want:

  1. Get rid of the badges. ENTIRELY.
  2. Create a graphic of a bookshelf within your app to show kids which books they’ve already read (I know there’s a scrollable section where they can see what they’ve read, but the virtual bookshelf would make it easier to see the sum total.)
  3. DO NOT CREATE POINTS OR BADGES FOR THE NUMBER OF BOOKS ON THE VIRTUAL BOOKSHELF.
  4. Continue to provide great choices for the kids to read… because ultimately, that’s what will keep us reading.

If none of my suggestions are possible, then consider giving teachers the option to turn off the badges. We don’t need them, and I’m not putting my students in a situation where badges are an option anymore.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. If you made it all the way to the end, you can give yourself 10,000 make-believe points as a reward. *wink*

Standing Desks Are Not Innovative

Standing desks in a classroom– whether they’re for students, teachers, or both — are NOT innovative. It is not changing how kids learn, no matter what some advertisement is trying to sell you.

Standing desks are not going to change the classroom environment for the better, especially if the “tasks” the students are doing don’t change.

If you don’t feel you have the power to change the “tasks” the kids are all doing in the classroom (you do, but we’ll debate that another time), let’s first discuss the the problems with promoting this type of  “innovation” (that is not really an innovation):

  1. If you remove all the traditional sitting desks in a classroom and replace them with standing desks, you still have a problem: All the kids are still physically doing exactly the same thing, and you’re making the assumption (consciously or not) that all kids need the same thing.
  2. Kids need to MOVE. The research is still unclear about whether sitting all day or standing all day is worse for you. Research about movement for all ages, on the other hand, is VERY clear. Kids of all ages need to move. (I only added one article on movement here. There are MANY. Search for “why kids need to move.”)
  3. Multiple options in a classroom will always be better than one option. Why not have some places where kids can stand, some places where kids can sit, some places where kids can be together… I think you get the picture. I have different options in my classroom, and the kids choose sometimes to simply sit on the floor with no furniture. When I taught high school students, it wasn’t any different. Kids need choices of where to be, and those choices should be determined by the kids… not by the adults assuming they know what the kids need. Multiple options are especially helpful in cramped-for-space classrooms.
  4. It’s really difficult to collaborate with other students when they’re all standing at individual desks. Humans are social learners, and they should have options to group up and discuss.
  5. Could we also talk about how “ableist” this “standing desk” assumption is? Not everyone can stand. Not everyone can stand for an entire school day… and that goes for adults as well as kids. I’m not going to use this space to rehash my own health issues, but I would be an absolute wreck if I had no place to sit during the day. I don’t sit there all day– I teach 5-7 year old kids. That would be impossible. BUT… my body tells me when I need to sit down. I need options, and so do my kids.

So instead of advocating the “latest, greatest” fad in standing classroom desks — or pedal desks (seriously?), why don’t we stop and think about advocating BETTER options altogether?

Provide spaces where kids can be comfortable.

Provide options for many different types of spaces in the classroom.

Provide for more movement throughout the day (sorry, Florida. BIG FAIL on the recess issue. Kids need to be moving outside every single day!). Hands tied on giving the kids more recess? Then do something, ANYTHING to help those kids move around in their space. There are yoga videos on YouTube. You can have a dance party. Just help them to move in whatever way they can.

Your best bet? Ask the students what THEY want and empower them to help make that classroom design happen. Flexible spaces can be significantly less expensive than one desk for every student. Get creative. When you involve students, you may have to help them through the creative process more than once. Make sure they “shoot for the moon” in the design process, because they might stick with the only thing they’ve ever known.

Then… make it happen. I know this is possible, because I’ve been in places where it’s changed, even this late in the school year. A teacher from Texas came to our 5Sigma Educonference (at Anastasis) in February. When she returned to her school, she shared with me,

“I came home from Denver and completely gutted my room. All desks gone including mine. Changed the mojo completely! We got tables. We are also starting our mornings with a group activity rather than desk work. So far we are loving it.”

Don’t let advertisers tell you what is best for your students. Ask the kids. Read the research… and then make it happen.

Thanks for reading.