Shift This!: How to Implement Gradual Changes for MASSIVE Impact in Your Classroom

[00:01] SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio, bringing you the best in professional practice.

[00:06] Announcer:

Here's your host, director of the Principal Center and champion of high performance instructional leadership, Justin Bader. Welcome everyone to Principal Center Radio.

[00:15] SPEAKER_02:

I'm your host, Justin Bader, and I'm honored to be joined today by Joy Kerr. Joy is a National Board Certified Teacher and one of the profession's leading evangelists and workshop facilitators on Genius Hour. She currently teaches 7th grade ELA, and she's the author of Shift This, How to Implement Gradual Changes for Massive Impact in Your Classroom.

[00:38] Announcer:

And now, our feature presentation.

[00:40] SPEAKER_02:

Joy, welcome to Principal Center Radio.

[00:41] SPEAKER_00:

Thank you very much. It is my pleasure to be here.

[00:44] SPEAKER_02:

So you have, I think for a long time, been trying lots of new things in your classroom. You're what I describe as an innovator in a lot of our trainings that we do at the Principal Center. You're kind of on the leading experimental edge. Is that fair to say?

[00:59] SPEAKER_00:

Not as much as some people, but yes, I feel like I need to mix it up. Otherwise, I get bored and the kids get bored and I like change. So yes.

[01:07] SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And I know not everyone in our profession has that same orientation to change. And that's, you know, that's okay. Other people like to kind of hold back and see what works, see what their colleagues are trying. But I think a lot of times it's easy to be intimidated by our more innovative colleagues such as yourself, right? It's easy to look at what's going on in someone else's classroom and say, okay, You know, I could never do that.

[01:26]

That's such a big leap, such a big departure from the way I do things. I could never get there. What's your message in the book to people who, you know, maybe would be open to making a change, but just see it as too big a chasm to get across?

[01:41] SPEAKER_00:

Well, and that's why I wrote it, because people are always talking about genius hour this and genius hour that. And it's just too much for me and I can't do it right now. And I don't know if everybody realizes that genius hour leads to a whole bunch of other little shifts in your classroom. And so when they say then there are those other huge innovators that say genius hour isn't enough. You know, 60 minutes is not enough for what we need. So what I did was I broke it down into starting with asking questions.

[02:08]

First, you need to ask questions as to what do you want to change in your room or what do you think is not going right in the system that you provided so far? And then to try things. So. Try out tiny little things if you need to and then reflect on it. Or ask those questions, reflect on what is happening right now, and then start acting on it and reflect again. It's always going back to the questions and the reflecting.

[02:33]

And it doesn't have to be a huge shift. It doesn't have to be something huge like taking an hour out of your week, which for me is one day a week, and handing it over to the kids again. You don't need to do that. You can make tiny little things. And as long as you understand the reasons why behind them, then the change isn't so scary. It's not something that you go into thinking, oh, well, I don't want to do this then, because you know the reasons why.

[02:56] SPEAKER_02:

And what was some of your reasoning as you began that shift into Genius Hour? What got you started on that?

[03:01] SPEAKER_00:

Well, I didn't just shift. I kind of jumped in. That's what changed everything else. Um, I went to a workshop in Michigan that was hosted by Ewing McIntosh and he is Owen McIntosh and he is from Scotland. And he basically just told us what's wrong in your school today. So we brainstormed a whole bunch of ideas and then, well, which one do you want to work on today?

[03:24]

And that was it. So my students weren't reading enough. And so I said, I want them reading more. And so we decided we'd give them time to read in class and then share. So that's when I got on Twitter and that's what made me get into Genius Hour because I saw hashtags at Genius Hour. And I said, look at that.

[03:41]

Kids are learning what they want to learn. I said, it's kind of like reading what they want to read. And so it got bigger from there. But when I came home from the workshop. I thought, oh, I'd give it a week and then I'd share it with my students. And one of my coworkers said, I'm doing that tomorrow.

[03:55]

I said, well, okay then, let's go. So we did it the next day and it was kind of fun and scary. And there were a couple of students crying because there was no rubric and I didn't really have a plan. And so when other teachers fear that, I understand that fear because I've been there and I've dealt with the failures and So that was the impetus for Genius Hour. And now I just want to share everything else that's come from that, all the different little things that it's done for my class and my students.

[04:23] SPEAKER_02:

So it was a pretty, as you said, kind of a leap. You jumped into it with both feet and the rest is history, so to speak. But one of the things that really stands out to me there is that you kind of judged the scope of the risk, right? I think often we think in terms of any change as very high stakes. And for my entire career, education has been a fairly high stakes profession, right? And we hesitate to make change.

[04:45]

We really think about it. And sometimes we wring our hands for too long, but it sounds like you sat down next to a colleague who said, you know, I'm going to do this tomorrow and figure it out as we go. And a lot of times that is absolutely fine. There are things that we do need to be thoughtful about, but I think one of the most enjoyable things about being an educator is just the opportunity to experiment in a kind of low stakes environment. Not that learning is ever low stakes, but that we can try new things and see if they work. And if they don't work today, you know, tomorrow's another day.

[05:17]

And I think we see such dramatic improvements and really innovative ideas that have spread across the profession coming out of classrooms where teachers are willing to take those little risks. So what are some of the things that have kind of bloomed out from that initial start of Genius Hour? You said it's led to a lot of other changes in your classroom.

[05:34] SPEAKER_00:

Well, the one thing it led to was no homework. Now we read for homework and we share our reading in class. Another thing that was pretty big is that it led to no grading for me. That was the first thing I didn't grade. I used to put everything in the grade book, you know, every little grammar worksheet, every little participation, I'd put it in the grade book. And now all I put in the grade book is narrative feedback.

[05:56]

And it's much more valuable, I believe, for the students. And It was amazing to me that they would work during Genius Hour without a grade. And so that's what stuck with me. If it was worth it to them, if they thought it was relevant, they would work and they would learn. And so now with the no grading comes relevance. I need to make sure that most or all of what I teach is relevant as much as I can make it to the students so that they do the work, they enjoy the learning, and then we've got some feedback to give them.

[06:26]

Instead of them just sitting there saying, it's not being graded. I'm not doing anything. You know, if they need to prove that they're learning and they can go the route they want to go, then I feel like I've done it. I feel like I am creating some lifelong learners here because they want to learn something on their own. And then they can prove to me that they are reading and writing and speaking and listening through what they're doing in class. That's just a win-win for me.

[06:51] SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. And you mentioned that this exploration started with you asking some questions. And one of the questions that I've heard our mutual friend Dave Burgess ask on many occasions is, you know, if attendance in my class were optional, if, you know, if the kids could just go home if they didn't want to come to my class, you know, would anybody be here? You know, would I have a class to work with if it were optional that they be here? And it sounds like you asked yourself a similar question when it comes to grading. You know, if they didn't, quote unquote, have to do this work, would they?

[07:18]

And it sounds like you're finding that that leads to... engaging lessons that leads to different decisions that you make as you plan.

[07:26] SPEAKER_00:

Right. And it also leads to the kids asking why as well. I told them from day one, if there's something you don't think is relevant to your life in here, you need to ask me, why are we doing this? And if I don't have a good answer for you, we might stop doing it because I really want to make it something that they believe can help them you know, not just right now, but later on as well.

[07:46] SPEAKER_02:

So it sounds like getting away from grading entirely is a pretty big shift. And one of those shifts that, you know, we might hear about a colleague making, but that seems unattainable, that seems totally unworkable in our own practice. You know, how did you get to that point? And how did you make that work within a school environment that presumably still emphasizes grading in some way?

[08:07] SPEAKER_00:

Right. I went to my principal after I had done research first. I went with the ammunition and I said, this is what I want to do. This is how I want to do it. What are your questions? And one of them was eligibility.

[08:18]

You know, we have seventh graders that are eligible for some sports and if they receive an F, then they can't get in. And how are you going to know if they have an F? Well, if they're not doing the work, I would think that they would have an F. So I made sure that they did the work first. You know, as long as you're doing the work, you probably won't have an F. And then I went into saying, here's how I'm going to look at the writing, and here's how we're going to look at the reading, and here are the narrative comments I'm putting on the online grade book.

[08:42]

Our online grade book has a slot for just completed. So I can just check off completed, and it does not give a grade. But at least I can see what's been done, what's still missing. The parents can see that as well. And my narrative feedback, whether it be a sentence or three about their work, or a YouTube video with a screencast, That's what they can go back and look at to improve the next time or to revise what they've already done. I'm OK with them revising everything and they can go back in and change what they need to and then resubmit it.

[09:14]

Or they could just change what they need to because they want to. They don't even have to resubmit it, but they're still learning that skill. But the little shifts that came with it are which things do I put in the gradebook and which do I not? And some little things I did not put in. But that became a question of the kids asking, is this graded? Is this graded?

[09:32]

Is this graded? And I hated that question. So what I did was I said, you know, this whole unit won't be graded. I started with that. And they said, you mean this isn't for points? Is it for this?

[09:44]

No, we're doing this to learn. What do you think about that? And so you can start small. You can. change some of the way you're grading. Like you don't have to include extra credit.

[09:54]

That's the first thing I would throw out the window. The next one would be pop quizzes. The next one would be a test where you can't look back in the book. So it's little things like that. You can change about your grading before you totally turn the apple cart over and start fresh because that is, it's one of the hardest things I've done, but yeah, I'm doing it because I understand the reasons why, and I feel like I'm pretty organized and I can sort of finagle that.

[10:17] SPEAKER_02:

It sounds like you're finding what you want to keep within that. For example, on the report card, you're still including completion, whether they've done the work, and you're also including a narrative comment. So it's not that you're throwing the entire concept out the window or the entire kind of area of professional responsibility, but you're figuring out what you really care about and zooming in on that.

[10:35] SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. I still conform to rules and regulations. Just don't have to conform to the way we do it. So yes, I feel like I'm giving the parents more feedback than they've ever gotten on grades. I mean, what does it be mean? And so, yes, did they do the work or did they do it well?

[10:50]

And what about the work did they do well? Why did they get a six out of 12? What's the reasoning there? So I feel like I'm giving way more feedback than I ever did. I have 52 quote unquote assignments in the grade book. My first quarter I did this.

[11:04]

I'm like, that's way more than I've ever had before because I really wanted parents and students up to date on how everything's going.

[11:12] SPEAKER_02:

And if you think about the information that's normally included in a gradebook, no matter how many assignments you have, if there's just a number for each of them, there's not necessarily all that much information there that you're losing by making that shift anyway. What were some of the similar kind of decisions to focus that you came to in changing your approach to homework, because it sounds like you did the same thing with homework that you figured out what was valuable about that didn't toss the entire thing out the window, but made some choices to refocus to kind of re envision what homework could be.

[11:42] SPEAKER_00:

How did you come to that set of choices that we talked about briefly, my big realization was that homework was a behavior, and they weren't always learning. So assume you teach math and the student is going home doing the homework, but it's all wrong. What have they learned? They've learned how to do it wrong. And so I really did not want that. I didn't want to send home grammar worksheets or, you know, go ahead and read this and answer these questions if they were going to practice it wrong.

[12:08]

And so that's the first thing I noticed. And the next thing I noticed is that whether you have homework or not, the same students will either do it or not. So I feel like if they weren't doing it in math or science, they weren't going to do it in language arts. And then all of their grades go down. But does their grade show what they're learning then or what they're doing? So it went back to the grade again.

[12:29]

I think that's one of the first things I threw out was the homework for grading. And I could check it off again, but I was not going to give it a grade because I feel like you're grading a behavior instead of an achievement or learning.

[12:42] SPEAKER_02:

So Joy, as you've explored these different shifts in your classroom, as you describe in Shift This, what's been the reaction from the administrators that you've worked with? And what's some guidance that you can give our listeners who are mostly administrators for how to respond when a teacher who has your kind of innovative mindset, who's trying new things, who's experimenting, you know, how can we respond productively to the kinds of ideas that you tend to bring to administrators when we see that happening in our schools?

[13:12] SPEAKER_00:

I think the first thing to do would be to ask the right questions. Ask the tough questions such as the reasons why. Why do you want to do this? How will it be beneficial to students? What are the possible pitfalls? What if parents say this?

[13:26]

Always bring, go ahead and bring out the devil's advocate because I feel like we learn more when we're challenged. I know that the parents that have challenged me on these ideas have really helped me to grow and And then the second thing I would say was to make sure that we communicate with the parents what we're doing. So I know that my administrators let me do this because I have good communication with parents. I talk to them before school starts. I say, hey, this is what we're going to do. I have a letter home.

[13:51]

I have a video that they can watch. I have everything on our website. And then every two weeks, I update the parents in a general email that goes right to our website update about what we're doing in class and how we're doing it. I ask for feedback from the parents as well. I think the parents basically run the school and I feel like we are very accountable to them, which we should be. These are their babies.

[14:14]

These are their children that we are helping to grow. And so the more I can let them know what's going on, the more accepted this is. And then my ultimate hope is that these parents will then go up to the next year's teachers and say, hey, could you do this? Because I've heard that this works well. Or can you make sure that you communicate with us on a regular basis? Because it's really nice to know what's happening.

[14:36]

I feel like the parents then will become advocates even more for their children in the next year. And then maybe the teachers won't think it's so foreign. Maybe it will become more of the norm. So I think go ahead and make sure you ask us those tough questions. Be the devil's advocate. and then help us to communicate with parents, or encourage it, or almost mandate it, because I really feel like that's where the success lies.

[14:58] SPEAKER_02:

I think it all starts with that experimentation, but as the success of it grows, as the traction builds for those practices, yeah, we can absolutely see changes at the school level, and we've certainly had conversations on this podcast with people who have brought those changes up to the school level, whether it's changes in grading, or changes in assessment, changes in homework policy, Absolutely. It can be a big impact. And I think the kind of instructional leadership that you are exercising as a classroom teacher who's trying new things and validating them, I think, can't be overstated. The value of that can't be overstated. So what about the teachers that we have in every school who are kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum, who see you making a change and who are either threatened by that or just scared of it and really don't think that they could make that change?

[15:49]

What's your message to teachers who are perhaps doing a good job but are afraid to make even those small changes? What kind of reassurance do you provide to teachers who are just hesitant to make those changes?

[16:02] SPEAKER_00:

I heard you say threaten, and then I heard you say fear, and I was glad you went with the fear, because I think that's where most of it lies, and I think that they think it's hugely difficult. It's not feasible at all, and there are too many obstacles, and I think that once they learn the reasons why, which it's definitely up to me to tell them why, and I haven't taken the time with a lot of teachers. I did write about that as well. I feel like if I get upset because I think other teachers are fearful of what I'm trying, or they look down on it, or they ostracize me. I believe that most of it is my fault, because I'm not communicating the reasons why I'm changing. And some of it is rumor and hearsay, and, oh, did you hear what Joy's doing today?

[16:48]

Oh, yeah, did you see that? Did you walk by her room? But a lot of it is me not communicating the reasons why. And I feel like once the teachers learn the reasons why, then they won't see the change as either easy or difficult. They'll see it as worth it. I feel like they'll latch on to, hey, that's a great reason why, and I feel like I need to be doing that as well.

[17:08]

And then you can go into the how. But until teachers are invested in the why, they might be scared of it. They might think it's too difficult. They might think it's silly. But if they don't know the reasons why, then they won't at all think it's worth it. Once they learn Once they learn the why, I think they'll see the value in it.

[17:28]

And then they'll start asking questions and you can take the time to explain the how.

[17:32] SPEAKER_02:

So the book is Shift This, How to Implement Gradual Changes for Massive Impact in Your Classroom. And Joy, if people want to follow you on Twitter or check out your blog, where can they find you online?

[17:44] SPEAKER_00:

My Twitter handle is really tough. It's at Joy Kerr. And then online, my original blog is at geniushour.blogspot.com. But the new one for the book that includes a way to contact me as well is shiftthis.weebly.com.

[17:58] SPEAKER_02:

Well, Joy, thank you so much. It's been a blast to speak with you and really get some encouragement and inspiration for trying new things around Genius Hour and other areas of classroom practice. So thanks so much for joining me on Principal Center Radio.

[18:11] SPEAKER_00:

Beautiful. Thank you for having me, Justin. Take care.

[18:14] SPEAKER_01:

And now, Justin Bader on high-performance instructional leadership.

[18:18] SPEAKER_02:

So high-performance instructional leaders, what did you take away from my conversation with Joy Kerr about Genius Hour and about being kind of an innovative classroom teacher and trying new things, even if they're not huge new things right from the start? What's the message for us as leaders? I think as a starting point, I think we need to recognize that teachers like Joy are instructional leaders. they are making decisions about how to improve student learning in our schools and we need to pay attention to that leadership and see it as not a challenge to our leadership as administrators on the kind of official side but as an asset as a critical resource for getting better as a school because that experimenter's mindset, that scientific mindset of saying, okay, we're going to try new things. We're going to see what works. We're going to keep what works.

[19:08]

And if something doesn't work, it's not the end of the world. We're not ruining the entire school year. We're trying something new on a short-term basis and learning from it. That is a critical role to fill in your school. And I think it's true but tragic that there are schools that don't have teachers like Joy. There are schools that have kind of driven them away.

[19:29]

I think in any population of teachers, you have people that exist along a spectrum from highly innovative, highly experimental in terms of mindset, down to kind of the middle of the curve where most teachers are, where they're kind of willing to try new things but want to see that things have some traction and have been proven, all the way to the other end of the spectrum where people are resistant and hesitant to try new things, maybe afraid, maybe fearful or just resistant to trying new skills out in their professional repertoire. That model is called the diffusion of innovations curve. We've talked about it recently in a lot of our pro member trainings at the Principal Center. It comes from a book from the 1960s by Everett Rogers called The Diffusion of Innovations. In any population of teachers, there exists a spectrum there, a normal curve where you have a few people who are on each extreme, each end of the spectrum, and a lot of people in the middle.

[20:24]

And I think one of the most important things that we can do as leaders is to A, make sure that we're not driving out the people who are on the leading edge of that curve, driving out the innovators, because if we as leaders are shutting down their leadership, they will find somewhere else to exercise that leadership so if you if you're saying yourself you know i just got to this school and it doesn't seem like there are really any innovative teachers here everybody is just kind of waiting to be told what to do or everybody is just kind of doing the same old thing look to the leadership that's been in place in that school and it may be that there's been an environment that's discouraging innovation that's discouraging experimentation so you may want to ask yourself what can i do to cultivate that kind of environment to cultivate that kind of experimentation and professional learning that we need in order to continue to get better for students. The second thing that I think we all need to do is be mindful of how changes are rolled out.

[21:19]

When I spoke to Joy in this episode of Principal Center Radio, I realized that Joy is not normal, if I can say that in a kind way. It is not normal to be totally open to change. It's a good thing, but it's not normal. We need to have a few people who go first. So if we see a fabulous teacher like Joy trying new things and we think, wow, everybody should be like that starting tomorrow, we're going to quickly find that not everyone is ready. Not everyone is ready to make those same shifts in their classroom, and that's okay.

[21:51]

So what we need to do is we need to look at that diffusion of innovations model and say, who is going to go first? Who's going to go second? Who's going to be in the middle of the pack? And who's going to kind of bring up the rear as we make any given change? And we need to have the right people in the right place. Because if you take someone who is resistant to making changes and you try to make them go first, you're going to find that that change is a lot less successful then if you have those inspirational and inspired and willing to experiment teachers like Joy Kerr, go first.

[22:23]

So again, the book is Shift This, How to Implement Gradual Change for Massive Impact in Your Classroom. You can find a link to that on our website, as well as to all of our podcasts at principalcenter.com slash radio.

[22:37] Announcer:

Thanks for listening to Principal Center Radio. For more great episodes, subscribe on our website at principalcenter.com slash radio.