Professional Learning for Busy Educators

You know what continues to upset me in education?

It’s not how we label kids (although that is pretty high up there on my big list).

But, it is how kids label themselves.

I’m starting to see it with my own kids. I’ve got four, but three are in school right now (5th grade 2nd grade, Kindergarten). It’s almost natural for them to start saying things like, “I’m not that good at spelling, Dad”, or “I can’t do that math homework, but I’m good at the social studies.”

I saw it with students when I was teaching middle school, and when I was teaching high school.

They would come into class with labels for themselves. How well they could write. Whether or not they considered themselves a reader. So many believed that they were not creative. Many just thought they were not learners, not good at this game of school.

On the flip side, I also had plenty of students come through my classroom who labeled themselves as “smart” and good at the game of school.

They were often the ones who would ace a test, but be confused with how a project-based experience was going to be assessed. They too labeled themselves as a specific type of learner, and it had negative consequences in a different way.

The types of skills required to care for and advocate for oneself and others — self-regulation, responsibility, empathy, and discipline, among others — are becoming increasingly central to the work of schools and teachers, and increasingly relevant to the lifelong success of students. 

More and more, educators are recognizing that these skills — often called “social and emotional” skills — are inextricably intertwined with the academic skills. Nine out of 10 teachers believe that social emotional skills can and should be taught. But four out of five want more support to address their students’ social emotional development. How do teachers catch up their practices with what they know is possible?

A new report from the Aspen Institute’s National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development draws on a large volume of research on social-emotional learning, three new research reports written over the last two years, as well as surveys with parents, students, and teachers — all generating new recommendations for teaching the whole child and for supporting the academic, social, and emotional wellbeing of students. It will take significant system-wide and school-wide changes to make sure every child gets this kind of holistic education; teachers cannot do that work alone.

But with the following considerations and actions, teachers can begin to break the silos that stuff social-emotional learning into a specific unit or class, and instead embed it throughout the day.

Today’s workforce, as nearly everyone knows, is increasingly global. And with that global nature comes fierce competition–students will need an arsenal of workforce skills in order to stand out from their peers.

According to a recent McGraw-Hill Education survey, just 40 percent of college seniors said they felt their college experience was helpful in preparing for a career. Alarmingly, that percentage plummeted to 19 percent for women answering the same question.

That same survey also found that students in STEM majors were the most likely out of any group to report that they are optimistic about their career prospects (73 percent).

According to data from the nonprofit Institute for the Future, there are 6 drivers of change in today’s workforce:

Most educators are aware of the “Four C’s” (Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration and Communication) and their importance in schools for ensuring the development of today’s skills in our students (I appreciate Will Richardson’s contention that “curiosity” should be the fifth “C” and is more important than the others).  But there are other essential skills and traits that many schools teach, either through learning in the classroom or by providing extra-curricular activities, which are not as widely acknowledged, but are extremely important.

From my experience being a part of schools and visiting, I have noticed that great schools teach these essentials that are timeless: 

For educators to thrive in the classroom and navigate these and other modern difficulties, teachers must have certain skills that their predecessors didn’t.