Resiliency is a 21st Century Skill

A collaborative digital lesson plan created by Ben Berte, Jennie Dougherty, Brett Kopf, Eric Simons 

Regardless of the subject you teach, you expect your students to rise to the challenges you present them with. With that said, many of us have had to take time away from a particularly challenging content objective to help our students develop the resilience necessary to face these challenges.  This form of perseverance is perhaps best described by Dr. Robert Brooks of the Center for Development and Learning.  Dr. Brooks describes resiliency as “the capacity to deal successfully with the obstacles in the road that confront us while maintaining a straight and true path towards life’s goals.” Students who develop a “resilient mindset” can handle the challenges we give them with greater effectiveness and success.  When we take the time to help our students develop a “resilient mindset” we teach them to believe that they have the ability to solve problems and make decisions and thus, “are more likely to view their work as challenges to confront rather than as stressors to avoid.”

Resiliency is a 21st century skill that can enable our students become the gregarious and ingenious thinkers we know they can be.  With this in mind, we at edUpgrade set out to create a  to create a technology-rich opportunity to bring innovative ed. tech. entrepreneurs into your classroom via digital media. The clips below provide your students with an opportunity to engage with the real-world and practice critical skills.

The first clip provides a link to a typographic edition of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”. Following that are links to videos of ed. tech. entrepreneurs reflecting on the meaning of Kipling’s poem. In 1-2 minutes clips, each innovator discusses the creativity, self-motivation and emotional intelligence needed to overcome challenges.  Use these clips as a catalyst for discussing resiliency with your students. This discussion can be easily integrated into all subject areas and used to foster a productive classroom environment where students rely on coping strategies that are growth-fostering rather than self-defeating.

Poem Handout

Animated Typography of Kipling’s poem “If”

 

Responding to EdSurge’s Beta Bill of Rights

Dear EdSurge Community,

Earlier this summer, I told you of my mission to provide my students with access to transformative technology, and you were incredible in responding with guidance. The purpose of this email, is to offer lessons I’ve learned during my journey, and recommendations for Edsurge’s awesome beta bill of rights.

My mission began when I sent an email to technology companies as well as groups like New School Venture Fund and Startl to say: “Hey! Access to technology is inequitable, but I’m on a mission to change that! I want my students and I to have access to potentially transformative ed. tech. and will offer user insight in exchange.”

Days later, I spoke with the CEO of a very large technology company, who chuckled at the idea of a partnership between myself and technology companies. “Well it works out well for you,” he told me.  In this person’s mind, the insights of a teacher were insignificant when compared to the technology their company would allow me to review. His remarks did not deter me, because I was in talks with startups that were not only excited to partner with me but also revolutionizing technology in ways this executive could never imagine.

My mission led me to form extraordinarily successful partnerships with Daniel Yoo of Enome Inc., Brett Kopf of Remind101, and Sam Chaudhary of Class Dojo. Our relationship worked because they genuinely dedicate themselves to create technology that will help my students scale the difficult mountains we ascend each day; and because I realized the importance of helping them understand what each step feels like.

Attached to this email is the result of our collaborative effort to help Edsurge create a tool for other startups and teachers to use. We need these “rights” to establish a new relationship between teachers and technology, and hope our contribution will serve as a testament to the extraordinary potential of effective relationships between teachers and entrepreneurs.

Thank you so much for the time and energy.

Sincerely yours,

Jennie Dougherty

User Test (a.k.a. The Think Aloud)

How to provide startups with successful feedback

How to form positive partnerships with teachers

A Conversation with Brett Kopf of Remind101.

Brett: We as startups often think we know what’s best for our users but I’m learning very quickly that though we have what’s best in mind for you as a teacher…we may not be solving your problem. A user test let’s us “test”  the user, by observing the user navigate or click through the site. An example would be me observing you click through every step of the site. It’s enlightening for us because what we THOUGHT made sense, really doesn’t at all. Your feedback was so successful because of the way it was delivered; you pretty much did a “user test” for us!

Jennie: I had no idea what a “user test” was. Nor was a I asked by any of these guys to provide them with one. All I knew, was that the best way to help them understand how I interacted with their technology, was by performing a “think aloud”, which is how I help my students understand how to actively read. I filmed myself doing a “think aloud” while using each technology. This enabled them to not only see everything I clicked on, my reactions, what I looked at first etc…, but also hear me explain the thoughts that were behind my actions. Because “think alouds” are unscripted, I was a bit intimidated at first. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how the qualities that make a “think aloud” so powerful in my classroom would also apply to this situation. Not to mention the fact that I was kind of tired of typing and personally find talking far less energy consuming.

Brett: So, the term “user test” doesn’t necessarily need to be used…that’s just startup mumbo jumbo. We can say small pilot, or get on a 20 min Skype call etc…I usually Skype with teachers, have them share their screens and watch them navigate through the site. The Edsurge header said it right, “Startups need more feedback from schools if they’re going to have a prayer of building a good product”, and yor feedback is so successful because you respond fast, always give examples and are honest with what you like/dislike. But, if we look deeper at why it was helpful I think it’s more so because you really cared and took the time to do it.

Jennie: And none of it would have been done, if you all hadn’t been as genuinely wonderful conveying your interest in hearing my feedback. I want to be very clear about “genuine” and I think the best way to do that is to include a brief dialogue we had while collaborating on this.

• Me: teacher’s should not treat the entrepreneurs as therapists, or expect them to care about or try  to solve all of their problems, at least not right away
• Brett’s Reply: Haha. Hmmm… A teacher has never talked my ear off. I don’t think we should add this. You did say I’m really on the teachers side…
• Daniel’s Reply: I agree I think listening to complaints, even tangential ones, are part of the game when asking for feedback

Even if your technologies had been total flops, this is the kind of care and compassion that will convince a teacher to offer the best possible feedback. Being a teacher is not easy. Being a passionate and energetic one is even more difficult. But, your compassionate support of my feedback provided me with the confidence to do everything I did. These highly intelligent and accomplished entrepreneurs’ responses to my first email was very effective:

• Daniel’s Response:  “Wow! I almost fell over when I read your response on my phone.  I am so glad that a teacher-entrepreneur like you came across Goalbook”,  was as refreshing as a cool summer rainstorm.
• Brett’s Response: “WOW. What a breath of fresh air. I have to say, it’s such a pleasure to see educators like you who are as excited as we are about infusing tech in the classroom.
• Sam’s Response: “Wow! I’m thrilled that you’re so excited that what we’re building could be useful to you. I am also really excited by your entrepreneurial spirit – you seem to have such a progressive classroom! I am in awe!”

Given the infinite number of powerful voices in our society telling teachers that they are a problem, menace and detriment, you guys had me at “wow”.