Goals - Keys to Success

I've had the pleasure to have three interns from the Jane Boyd Community House/Four Oaks PATHS program spend their internship time with the HSDL Program at Kirkwood Community College. The growth of these individuals from the time they start their four or five weeks with me to the day they graduate from the program is phenomenal. I am lucky enough to get invited to their graduations on a regular basis and it's always wonderful to hear the success stories and be a part of them.

Today, at the graduation ceremony, the leaders discussed how participants in the program write a SMART goal on the first day of being a graduate on the last day. The very first goal they write is "I will graduate from the PATHS program on insert date here>>." That's not the only goal they write, but perhaps the most powerful one. This cohort, I had a lady that never finished her high school diploma placed with me for her internship. One day, she asked me if it would be possible for her to finish her high school diploma - and today, she took the final test to get her official Kirkwood Adult High School diploma. She had A LOT of support from me, the other high school completion staff, and her PATHS coordinators to hold her accountable. But she also had a goal - to finish her high school diploma by the time she graduated from the PATHS program - and she met it.

Goals are important to success - and I am so glad that our intern can move on to bigger and better things.

Innovation - Diving Deep into the Definition

Having volunteered for the Theory of Action Task Force  for the Cedar Rapids Community School District, I participated in our third meeting last night. I was surrounded by quite like-minded educators and found myself diving into a deep discussion about innovation. Our task was to create a belief statement that would lead to "Excellence for All" around the big idea of innovation. We had some research discussing innovation to read and we had community input to sort through. 

Much of our discussion centered around how schools are designed to produce little robots that have a uniform way of thinking. We referenced this RSA Animated talk by Sir Ken Robinson as we were discussing this, as the art teacher in my group and I had both seen this short video. We also referenced this article What You Need to Be An Innovative Educator provided to us by the leaders of the Theory of Action Task Force. Two big questions facing us were, "What specifically is innovation?" and "How can we draft a belief statement that isn't full of 'buzzwords'?"

So today, I am thinking about innovation. I am remembering this quote from Bill Gates: "As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." I also think about the fact that the jobs that exist today - as we know them - aren't going to exist when my 5 year old graduates from high school. When we think about education and the need for innovation, we need to 1.) accept that learning is social, 2.) move to competency-based education and personalized learning models where students have a voice and choice in time, pace, place, and/or path of learning, 3.)use real-time data to make data-driven decisions, 4.) understand that the factory-model style of education disrupts deep-thinking, and 5.) prepare students for careers/jobs that don't exist - yet!

How can we define our belief in innovation? It's really embracing the change and empowering educators to teach students that it's okay to take risks and if you fail - gulp - you pick yourself up and you try again.

mLearning vs. eLearning

I saw a graphic on Pinterest that sparked my interest. It highlighted the differences between mLearning and eLearning and I just want to share some thoughts on this.

I cannot believe how much teaching and learning has changed in my lifetime! I straddle the line between introverted and extroverted, so computers have been a welcome change in my life. It allows me the freedom to be more introverted through writing and have more of a "crutch" when giving presentations by allowing for visual aids to keep the momentum flowing. My first experience with a computer was a Comodore 128, which was a pretty slick learning tool for me and gave my parents a break from constantly entertaining an only child. My dad taught me how to use the "mouse" (a little toggle switch) and how to carefully move 5.25" floppy disks in and out of the computer. There was no way that this beast would be moved easily, but it did survive for many, many years - especially compared to the Smartphones of today that need upgraded about every 18 months.

At five years old, I'm playing Pac-Man and chasing the little blue ghosts around to try and get more points. (I don't think I ever made it to the final level though). At six, I'm playing on a green screen MAC a number crunchers game in my first grade classroom. At nine I have a Mario Bros. game watch. By the time I am in high school we've passed the Zack Morris cell phone era and they're starting to get smaller. Today we now have wearable technologies that alert us when we've been sitting too long and watches that show us our text messages. These devices are all computers - look how small they've gotten.

Not only have they gotten smaller, but we've gone from the dinosaur computers that take up an entire building to a wearable device that can connect to the internet from almost anywhere. There aren't many places that I go where Wi-Fi isn't readily available!

College & Career Ready?

Each person has a unique story. The push right now is to get our adult learners college and career ready. Colleges and employers often say it's the soft-skills (punctuality, attendance, working with others, telephone and email etiquette) that are needed when a student graduates from a program and enters the college or career field. What is the best use of resources to get someone college and career ready? Where do we find them? How do we motivate students? Who can come away being a more productive member of society upon exiting a program than when they entered?

To the government, it's a (often times arbitrary) gain on a standardized test, showing growth in the early 2000's world. To the teacher, it's the student that moves on to college. To the student, it might mean moving into a new phase of his/her life and finally completing the high school diploma that he/she has been working on since 2005 or before. 

What is college and career readiness, besides a buzzword of the 2010's? Sure, in adult education and literacy we have College & Career Readiness Standards. In showing competency in these standards, one can deduct that a person is then ready to go to college or ready to go seek a career; however, these standards address the academic needs, not the soft-skills.  Therefore, are we really helping adult learners create a bridge to employment?

With the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act where several entities are working together to help working age people find the best path to employment perhaps we'll actually be making our customers college and career ready.

High Aspirations vs. Survival

Have you met a ten year old who says that his/her aspirations are to drop out of high school and get a high school equivalency diploma? No? Me neither. Most ten-year-olds want to be a doctor, teacher, police officer, or fireman when they grow up. 

When I was ten, I wanted to be an astronomer. The planets fascinated me and so did black holes; however, the more that I learned about astronomy and the math, tables, and science behind it, the less interested I became in it. Do I still love to star-gaze and hypothesize about outer-space and beyond? Sure, but I'm not going to ever become an astronomer.

Somewhere in the throes of late elementary, middle school, and early high school the aspirations of young kids change. There are a few who are stubborn enough to only want to be one thing when they grow up. However, many move into a survival stage and somewhere in late high school/early adulthood they start to have a new dream.

For students who spend all of late elementary through high school surviving sometimes they don't finish their high school graduation requirements. These students will usually end up walking into our high school completion program. Many times these students have been in survival mode for so long that they aren't sure how to set a goal, let alone achieve the goal.

Our class Pathways to Success has helped students identify the coping skills that help them survive, but also challenges them to look beyond the high school diploma/equivalency diploma and ask themselves about what happens after that. 

In a recent meeting, one of the facilitators for Pathways to Success said that the students tend to be more motivated if they have a "carrot" dangling in front of them. If their completion of their high school credential is a ticket to a promotion at a job or the acquisition of the job itself, then they tend to have higher aspirations. If this is their eighteenth time beginning the program with no other goal than to get the high school diploma, then the students tend to be less likely to finish.

Those students who walk in and are in survival mode may finish the coursework they need to move on to college and career, but many are in the midst of life circumstances that prevent them from having the supports they need to continue on to becoming successful citizens.

Do high aspirations help your students be more successful?

The Adult Learner with Anxiety, Depression or Both

We've seen the memes on Facebook that show us how hard "adulting" is. For those who struggle with anxiety, depression, or both it can be even harder. Therefore, how do we in adult basic education make it easier for these individuals to receive our services that are fighting these chronic problems?

At Kirkwood High School Completion programs we're teaching our students how to define those barriers and move forward with their lives. At our largest population center of students without a high school diploma, our information sessions occur about four times per month. This introduces students to the Mt. Everest view of our programs and if they choose, they can sign up for the next step immediately following that session.

We've implemented a Pathways to Success course for students to really focus on some goal setting and building a cohort that can hold their peers accountable for "soft-skills" such as attendance and punctuality. This course meets about two hours two days per week for two weeks. Once a student has attended all four sessions of Pathways to Success he/she is finally able to work toward their high school credential.

We offer two paths to getting a high school diploma. One path is our Kirkwood Adult High School Diploma, while the other is the state of Iowa's equivalency diploma known has the HSED. Students don't choose which program is right for them until after their four sessions of Pathways to Success.

By implementing Pathways to Success our persistence rate is up from last year to this year. Our current enrollment for students that meet the federal (12+ hours) enrollment requirement is up from last year and the number that have stuck around to take a post test is also up significantly from last year.

Students that we typically see in our program are those who have spent the majority of their lives living in crisis mode and need someone to help them see that there are supports in place to help them. By taking the Pathways to Success course to lead off their journey into our program, it helps to keep them moving forward.

If you have anxiety, depression, or both the medical community attributes it to a mixture of biological factors and environmental factors. One of those environmental factors could be that the traditional school environment didn't work for a student. He/she then decided that working would be a better solution and life spirals and spirals and then all of a sudden the person is in their mid-twenties without a high school diploma and he/she gets laid off from his/her job. Or worse, a person walked away from school at 17 and he/she is now 55 and gets laid off from his/her job and needs a high school diploma to find a new one. These are environmental factors that contribute to having depression. Couple the depression with having no idea how one will be able to provide for his/her family and then you have anxiety with the depression.

As educators of adult learners it is our job to put the tools in students' hands to help them cope with the barriers life throws at us. It's to show our students that when "adulting" is becoming too hard that there are resources that are available.

How do you help your students who are fighting anxiety, depression, or both?

A Forgotten 21st Century Skill

Intrigued by a colleague's tweet about "Everyone you meet knows something you don't," linked to a TED Talk by Celeste Headlee. It starts with telling you to forget everything you've been taught about having a conversation and gives ten pointers for having an authentic conversation.

Is this a 21st century skill that we need to deliberately teach? Now that teenagers get an average of 100 texts per day, is it important that we show our kids how to have a conversation? Is it okay to be sitting next to someone and send them a text when you could just talk to them? I'm sure that there's varying opinions on this.

Please comment.