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Astrid Gallon-Gonzales was Teacher in Charge at Giano Intermediate School; she is currently Learning Director at La Seda Elementary School.
At a recent Network Day we participated in a strategy called “Save the Last Word for Me,” in which we had to reflect on and talk about a piece that we all read. Shortly after the Network Day, I modified the strategy and used it with my students with the Diary of Anne Frank.
First, I used the fishbowl activity to model the strategy for the students. Then, I put them in groups of three or four. I asked them to write down quotes from the book and come up with their own ideas about the quotes. They had to apply what they had learned previously about drawing inferences and finding the main idea of the text. This teaching strategy created the opportunity for students to generate higher levels of thinking because they had to use critical thinking skills to express their thoughts about their reading.
It was an interesting experience for my students because they are usually quick to speak, but they often do not listen well to each other. It made them a little nervous at first because they had to listen to what the other person said, and then they got feedback about what they said. They also couldn’t interrupt each other. It was surprising to them that their classmates actually heard what they said. For them, that was an “aha.” They said, “Mrs. Gonzalez, they heard what I said. They actually understood what I said.” This encouraged them to talk more and expand their thoughts.
My students responded very well to the activity. It was an intellectual interaction that they hadn’t experienced in this way before. The strategy liberated them to express themselves and to think at a higher level. The whole experience was very profound. They’ve asked me to do the activity again, so we’re in the process of doing it one more time.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
Debbie Gatti is the Registered Nurse for the district and coordinator of the district nutrition project.
I’ve always thought of literacy as reading words and being able to explain them back. But now, after spending a couple of days with the Ball Foundation whose main focus is on literacy, I understand it to be much more than that. That understanding has made me look at how I communicate with the children who are dealing with chronic illness.
For example, now when students with chronic asthma come in every day to use their inhalers or get a breathing treatment, I sit right next to the students while they are using the inhaler or doing the breathing-in treatment and ask them questions about what they are doing. I also started drawing pictures for them because at one of the Ball trainings I learned that a lot of kids don’t have very good reading ability but are still visual learners. So, we draw pictures of the lungs and talk about how the medication that they’re using actually works in their lungs. Then, when they’re done with the treatment, we do landmarks on their bodies to show where their lungs really are. Most kids think the lungs are two little sacks right here on top of their chests.
So, the kids are learning more about their illness and why they take the medication and how it benefits them. I try to give the older kids more vocabulary so when they are trying to communicate their needs to another caretaker, they are understood. It’s an empowerment. The kids actually know, “This is my illness. This is what I deal with. This is what I need.” They can become advocates for themselves.
I have one third grader now who is my asthma inhaler teacher who teaches other students the “No Dragons” program. If you have an inhaler with medication and a puff comes out the side when you use it, it means you are a dragon. So we teach the kids how not to be dragons when they use their inhalers. This third grade student has excellent technique, so I always bring her down to demonstrate when I have another student who is new to the “No Dragons” program.
Before my experience with Ball, the students would come into the health office and use their inhalers. Of course, I was concerned if they didn’t have the correct technique, but besides showing them how to use the inhaler, I didn’t take the time to explain why they were doing it or how to explain to someone else why they were doing it. As someone who has dealt with chronic illness all my life and who grew up with doctors, I was able to learn the vocabulary and explain myself quite well. These kids don’t necessarily have that benefit.
It’s amazing how I’ve taken a different focus on my work with these students. If I were to sum up what this experience with Ball has so far done for me personally, I would say it is true enlightenment of what literacy is. It’s not just reading and writing, but all aspects of communicating with the outside world.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
Pam Hessom is a kindergarten teacher at Farjardo Elementary School.
I recently started a Master’s program, and for my first class, I had to design and present a one-hour training. The training focused on place value, and I decided to use the World Café process that I had experienced here at the district as part of the work with Ball. I saw the power of this process in staff meetings, and thought it was a really fun way to get someone into something, and to get them thinking and connecting thoughts.
However, instead of a World Café, I created this whole ambiance around the idea of a French café. I brought in croissants and French music, and I wore black and white as if I was a waitress.
I followed the same set-up as I had learned with the Ball World Cafés. I had everyone get into three table groups and choose a host for the table. Then each table had its own question that the participants were supposed to discuss and reflect upon. The first question was: What are some strategies you use to teach place value? The second question was: What problems have you encountered? For example, are the kids reversing the numbers or thinking that one and one is two instead of eleven? And the third question was: How do you assess place value?
I played French music as people rotated through each group. There were M&Ms at the tables that were a reward if someone came up with a good idea. Everyone was able to record ideas, which I really liked because it wasn’t just one person controlling the responses. Then, when everyone had visited all three tables, we did a reflective discussion with the hosts. It was perfect because it led right into the mindset of, “How do I teach this?” or “Oh yeah, the kids always have trouble with that,” and “Well, I use this, but I’d like something better.”
Then I offered new techniques using thinking maps and hands-on manipulatives. Every table played games like “Race to 100.” This showed everyone how exciting and fun it was to learn place value with a game as opposed to a worksheet. Even the high school teachers were having a ball and getting a lot out of it – they were just using bigger numbers. At the end, we brainstormed alternative ways to assess the students, and came up with watching students while they’re playing the game or watching how they’re recording their answers – other ways than just a paper and pencil test.
It went really well, and I got an A in the class.
Overall, learning the café process is something I’ve really benefited from the work with Ball. I liked that the cafés here in Rowland have gotten everyone together as a district for discussion. It’s really good to get teachers out of their rooms and out of their little boxes, because you do get less open to change, especially when you do the same grade for too long. It’s also so beneficial to hear from all the grade levels – I got to hear about the good things that were happening at other schools. The cafés really helped me get a bigger picture of my job, and made me feel prouder of our district.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
Audrey Hicks is principal at Rorimer Elementary School.
My overall association with Ball has really transformed me in many ways. Three years ago, when Sue Brewer mentioned that we were among several districts that the Ball Foundation was considering for a partnership, I remember thinking, “What is the Ball Foundation?” We were told that they were a seed company and that we might know them as the producers of Burpee Seeds. This in itself seemed unusual, and at that moment I thought, “I wonder what they’ll give us.” A million needs came to mind, and my ideas were very materialistic. I thought about literacy programs and training. But then, early on, I started to realize that this wasn’t about what they were going to give us. Instead, this was really a process of transformation.
Many of the strategies that Ball taught us were very powerful – like the World Café or Open Space Technology or just the un-mapping of the process on a timeline grid across the wall. They were all strategies that allowed people to have a bigger voice. Seeing these processes empowered me to be a better leader. So, I changed the way I operated at my school, and I began to run my staff meetings differently. I strategize more in preplanning a meeting to make sure that people have a voice. The meetings are designed to allow leadership to emerge. I’ve noticed the teachers are much more energetic and excited about meetings. They feel they’ve learned from each other, and I feel I’m learning from them as well.
I’ve also noticed that we do more collaboration at our District Leadership Team meetings than we did before. I never knew that much about our high schools, and now that I’ve interacted with their teachers and principals, I see that they’ve become more aware of our needs and we’ve become more aware of their needs. So these processes from Ball have transformed all areas of the district.
Sometimes when we’re in discussions with the Ball Foundation, they talk about different rooms that your mind visits, one of which is the room of confusion. Every so often when we meet, I go into that room of confusion, and I think, “Oh my gosh, how are we going to finish this in one day? Where are we going with this?” But it makes me think about things at a higher level, and I wonder, “How are we going to make this connect?” Then at some point, with all the dialogue and all the points of view, it starts to come together.
Something that happened recently at home is a great illustration of this. My husband bought the movie Doubt, and when we put it in the DVD player and it started playing, something seemed wrong. My husband said, “Is the movie jumping around? It just seems so confusing – like we’re seeing the end of the movie.” But then pieces would unfold, and we would say, “Wow, isn’t that interesting? Now I understand, but it seems like this scene should have been at the beginning.” Because of the confusion, I was thinking a lot more about the movie and what it was all about. Then the credits came up midstream, before the movie ended. I said to my husband, “There is something wrong with this DVD. It seems that we’ve watched this whole movie out of sequence. You ought to return it.” He stated, “Let me just try it again and see what happens.” So, he put the movie back in, and sure enough, it played in the correct sequence. We viewed it a second time. I said to my husband after, “You know what? I liked it better when it was jumping around.” I really had to think about what was happening and try to make the connections, which brought the movie to another level for me. It actually was a little boring when we played it in order.
That experience reminded me of that room of confusion which stretches my mind and in actuality moves me to the next level. Before, if I felt confused in a meeting, I would think, “Just give me the answer already. I’m getting frustrated.” Now, I realize that confusion is part of the process of learning, and it’s what moves you forward in your thinking. As a result, I don’t get frustrated anymore or think, “Come on, let’s end this and get an answer.” I know that it’s all part of the process, and that it’s transforming us. As a district, we now realize that sometimes we have to work slower to get further. It may take us a while to get to our goal, but when we get there, it’s well thought out, everybody is committed, everybody has had input, and our plan is more effective.
I used to wonder about Ball, “What’s the hidden agenda here?”, but realized early on that they didn’t have a hidden agenda. They were not trying to sell us anything or get us to do a particular program. I do think there was an agenda in terms of transforming the district and its leadership. I also believe that Ball continually researches these processes that transform the interactions of people, and that they knew if they had the right group of people in the room, they’d be able to teach them to view their assets and improve literacy. I’m just thankful that it wasn’t a traditional partnership, because if they had given us so many thousands of dollars to buy programs, we’d have to implement those – and maybe they would have worked and maybe not. Instead, this is a much more enriching relationship. I just marvel at the expertise the Ball people bring. They’re brilliant minds, and I’m fascinated that somebody was willing to give money to allow these brilliant minds to have the time to do the research and bring it to us.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
Jim Himes is a district psychologist.
At one of the Ball meetings, I was particularly taken by the exercise where we were each given a different part of a story and had to walk around and talk to people to figure out what the story was. The story itself fascinated me and the process of putting the story together fascinated me.
The story illustrated the plasticity of the brain. It was about a woman who had a condition where anytime she tried to stand up, she felt like she was falling over even though she wasn’t. Apparently this condition affects quite a few people and ruins their lives. They can’t walk, they can’t work, they become incapacitated and are at a total loss. This woman had an electrode placed on her tongue so that it affected her brain and stimulated her in a way that she was able to have her balance again.
For the exercise at the Ball meeting, the story was condensed and cut into pieces. We were each given a piece of the story and had to circulate around the room talking to people and collecting pieces of the story. Then we went back to our original table group and put all the pieces together. Because of my scientific background (I have a degree in biology), I was able to fill in some of the holes in the story about brain plasticity. When this information was put together with the pieces the other group members contributed, it seemed to complete the story (which is maybe why I was taken with this exercise). I acted as a spokesman for our table, and Carla said, “Yeah that’s it. That’s what happened.”
It was a much better experience than I expected it to be. I generally do not like group activities. I’m very comfortable talking to a group when I have something prepared. But if I’m sitting with 15 people I don’t know, I’m not only not comfortable with it, I don’t like it. I overwhelmingly prefer to be sitting with 15 people I know. I don’t think I knew anyone at my table at this meeting. But I thought the way they structured the exercise really pulled people together. It was an exciting exercise for me and I really responded to it and enjoyed it. There were other exercises that I enjoyed as well, but if you asked me to go back and name all of them, I could not do it. But that one sure made an impression on me.
Afterwards I asked JoAnn and Carla about the book that the story had come from, and they said it was The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. So I went home and immediately ordered the book from Amazon because I was fascinated by it. When I did my Master’s at Cal State Long Beach many years ago, I wrote my thesis on how the right and left hemispheres of the brain relate to school children. At that time, the idea that the brain’s division into two sections affected how information transferred between the two was considered pretty firm. Doidge takes the opposite tact and supports it with research saying that the brain is very plastic and that things can change in a very short amount of time. So when the book came in the mail, I read it and found some things directly applicable to what I do here at work.
I was interested in the section where the author dealt with autism since I work with two severely handicapped autistic classes – the primary and upper. In the book there was a case study of an autistic man and how they worked to help him socialize in a better way. One of the main deficits of autistic children is socialization skills along with communication skills and often cognitive skills. I’m planning to look more closely at that part of the book to see if the methods they used are applicable to younger children as well.
The book also related to my personal life. I’m at retirement age, and I was very interested in the aspects of the book that dealt with the aging brain. We all live in fear of the more extreme kinds of memory loss and I have familial experience with that – it’s the kind of thing you do not want to happen to you. Doidge wrote that he has been engaged in developing a program for memory skills, and that he has seen significant increases in these skills in older people. I would definitely want to get more into that.
I was glad I got exposed to the book because the way things are going financially in the state and in our district, we don’t have the liberty to go to conferences the way we used to. And the fact that I’m darn near ready to retire, I may not have been exposed to it at all unless I stumbled on it through my own research.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
