hello everyone I am thrilled to be a
part of this wonderful forum for sharing
ideas here in the land of 10,000 lakes
see I’m a lake person I live near Lake
Michigan and I have such a strong
connection to the Great Lakes that I
feel not only that I am part of the
Great Lakes ecosystem but that the Great
Lakes are also ingrained in me so as I
present today about a pressing issue in
education and one that drives the idea
the strategy I am so excited to share
with you today
I will begin with a lake analogy Lake
Michigan possesses incredible beaches
waters that are shades of blue so
stunning you think you’re in the low
latitudes and powerful ocean like waves
looking out at the vastness it is
beautiful but at times and certain
places that same view possesses a barely
detectable danger rip current moving as
fast as 8 feet per second a rip current
is a channel of water caused by the
build-up of pressure from waves hitting
land and other barriers a fast track
moving anything in it swiftly away from
shore
the instinct for a swimmer caught in a
rip current is to try to swim back to
shore
as much as that seems to make sense it’s
deadly the current is too strong and the
harder the swimmer tries to fight
against the current and get back to
shore the more fatigued they become and
the farther away they get from their
goal thankfully on Lake Michigan I have
never seen someone caught in a rip
current however even as I stand here in
front of you today I am caught in one
now as a sixth grade teacher the rip
current I am in is student engagement
how invest
in and how excited about learning our
nation’s children and young adults are a
2013 Gallup poll of 500,000 learners
showed that engagement declined steadily
from middle to high school other polls
in subsequent years of nearly a million
students showed the same decline year
after year this chart from 2017 shows
engagement declining and green while
disengagement increases in gray now at
first glance thinking back to a 16 year
old me
those statistics seemed to make sense at
the time shopping at the mall the latest
movie getting my braces off clearly
we’re more interesting to me than school
but as a teacher I consider what this
means
those polls measured the hope engagement
and well-being of students and when
graphed the results are alarming a
nearly directly proportional
relationship is evident that the longer
a student is in school the less hope
less engagement and less well being they
feel there is a riptide of disengagement
that begins with me my sixth grade
classroom middle school is where it
starts but I try I swim against the
Riptide right we all do we swim with a
plethora of strategies focusing hard on
our content standards and the way they
are presented experienced and assessed
our standards and our efforts are great
so why do we have a problem with
engagement and learning raise your hand
if you know how to save yourself in a
rip current
okay yes yes you change your direction
instead of trying to swim back to shore
you change directions in a way that
doesn’t seem to make sense by swimming
parallel to shore you can get out of the
current that is pulling you and back
into regular water that you can manage
and there are many strategies that
educators have used to try to increase
engagement but a new idea a new
direction that can take us out of the
rip current is the explorers mindset
imagine if every learner from
kindergarten through seniors and Beyond
saw themselves as an explorer an
explorer of any topic or discipline from
his basic a stepping stone as learning
phonics or math facts to his broad as an
entire subject area physics English art
an explorer even of tough issues facing
society like plastic pollution hunger
climate change I recently had the
opportunity to do some very unique
exploring as a grosvenor teacher fellow
with National Geographic and Lindblad
expeditions I got to go on a 24-day
expedition to the High Arctic of Canada
and Greenland not only did I get to see
the amazing environment of the Arctic I
got to meet amazing people
on board the ship having already been
exposed to the idea of the Explorers
mindset from being a National Geographic
certified educator like my colleagues
here I was already intrigued by the idea
of how thinking like an explorer could
help you learn so I asked people what
does having the mindset of an explorer
mean to you has it helped you a key
advantage I found was that the desire to
know to look around the corner and
pursue interests were part of the
process of exploration that helped
people be happy and succeed part of that
is to have an open mind about where
things lead and before
Cybil – ready with plan a but also B C
etc an explorer will not try to fight
against the rip current an explorer
adjusts and adapts their course on the
expedition in a conversation with
National Geographic photographer David
Doubilet about education he said schools
should have the ability to direct your
students interests I thought we should
and why in the world don’t we do more of
that we incorporate student interests
but it doesn’t direct the curriculum
standards do where is a process that by
design discovers and direct students
interest where they are placed at least
at an equal value to the standards some
charter school models have that but it
is not part of mainstream structure
remember the statistic and disengagement
and then it starts in middle school and
has a steady decline David do Blaise
comment makes me wonder could part of it
be that when students are
developmentally ready to act on their
interests we marginalize those interests
the explorers mindset is a lot bigger
than my personal investigation though it
is an outlook that comes from the
learning framework of National
Geographic education where they have
more thoroughly than my own inquiry
answered the question what is the
mindset of an explorer and what does it
look like in a formal or informal k-12
setting the learning framework focuses
on the development of attitudes and
skills along with content when we
possess the mindset of an explorer we
have a curious attitude seeking out new
experiences with a drive to discover and
understand we are responsible listening
to others looking at multiple
perspectives and understanding the
structures that make things work
explorers also have an attitude of
empowerment they take risks
have grit persisting in the face of
challenges with a growth mindset skills
in the learning framework our
observation communication collaboration
and problem solving now I can’t suddenly
make the interests of students drive the
curriculum but what I can do is coach
students to use the Explorers mindset to
gather and build their interests as we
go my colleagues and I have created some
tools to encourage this positive mindset
and combined it with our existing school
initiative on engagement consider this
scenario where a student is learning to
multiply fractions she’s not just
learning math when we coach those
attitudes and skills she is in a role an
explorer of the world doesn’t that make
learning more exciting personal and
meaningful add in these icons that
represent growth that my teaching
partner and I use they’re not from
national geographic education but work
well with the concept of the Explorers
mindset start out at seeds develop roots
build connections and understanding and
finally mastery and expansion begin grow
explore and repeat the learning
environment of a classroom impacts
engagement and the Explorers minds that
is a different direction we can take to
help create a positive environment for
learning but really to me it’s not just
a mindset for learning it’s a mindset
for life so you’re swimming
and you’re getting pulled out farther
and farther away from the shore you need
to get to whatever it is what do you do
with either one tiny drop or an entire
wave of bravery it doesn’t even matter
how much take your interests coach your
mindset and goal that different
direction
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music] you
part of this wonderful forum for sharing
ideas here in the land of 10,000 lakes
see I’m a lake person I live near Lake
Michigan and I have such a strong
connection to the Great Lakes that I
feel not only that I am part of the
Great Lakes ecosystem but that the Great
Lakes are also ingrained in me so as I
present today about a pressing issue in
education and one that drives the idea
the strategy I am so excited to share
with you today
I will begin with a lake analogy Lake
Michigan possesses incredible beaches
waters that are shades of blue so
stunning you think you’re in the low
latitudes and powerful ocean like waves
looking out at the vastness it is
beautiful but at times and certain
places that same view possesses a barely
detectable danger rip current moving as
fast as 8 feet per second a rip current
is a channel of water caused by the
build-up of pressure from waves hitting
land and other barriers a fast track
moving anything in it swiftly away from
shore
the instinct for a swimmer caught in a
rip current is to try to swim back to
shore
as much as that seems to make sense it’s
deadly the current is too strong and the
harder the swimmer tries to fight
against the current and get back to
shore the more fatigued they become and
the farther away they get from their
goal thankfully on Lake Michigan I have
never seen someone caught in a rip
current however even as I stand here in
front of you today I am caught in one
now as a sixth grade teacher the rip
current I am in is student engagement
how invest
in and how excited about learning our
nation’s children and young adults are a
2013 Gallup poll of 500,000 learners
showed that engagement declined steadily
from middle to high school other polls
in subsequent years of nearly a million
students showed the same decline year
after year this chart from 2017 shows
engagement declining and green while
disengagement increases in gray now at
first glance thinking back to a 16 year
old me
those statistics seemed to make sense at
the time shopping at the mall the latest
movie getting my braces off clearly
we’re more interesting to me than school
but as a teacher I consider what this
means
those polls measured the hope engagement
and well-being of students and when
graphed the results are alarming a
nearly directly proportional
relationship is evident that the longer
a student is in school the less hope
less engagement and less well being they
feel there is a riptide of disengagement
that begins with me my sixth grade
classroom middle school is where it
starts but I try I swim against the
Riptide right we all do we swim with a
plethora of strategies focusing hard on
our content standards and the way they
are presented experienced and assessed
our standards and our efforts are great
so why do we have a problem with
engagement and learning raise your hand
if you know how to save yourself in a
rip current
okay yes yes you change your direction
instead of trying to swim back to shore
you change directions in a way that
doesn’t seem to make sense by swimming
parallel to shore you can get out of the
current that is pulling you and back
into regular water that you can manage
and there are many strategies that
educators have used to try to increase
engagement but a new idea a new
direction that can take us out of the
rip current is the explorers mindset
imagine if every learner from
kindergarten through seniors and Beyond
saw themselves as an explorer an
explorer of any topic or discipline from
his basic a stepping stone as learning
phonics or math facts to his broad as an
entire subject area physics English art
an explorer even of tough issues facing
society like plastic pollution hunger
climate change I recently had the
opportunity to do some very unique
exploring as a grosvenor teacher fellow
with National Geographic and Lindblad
expeditions I got to go on a 24-day
expedition to the High Arctic of Canada
and Greenland not only did I get to see
the amazing environment of the Arctic I
got to meet amazing people
on board the ship having already been
exposed to the idea of the Explorers
mindset from being a National Geographic
certified educator like my colleagues
here I was already intrigued by the idea
of how thinking like an explorer could
help you learn so I asked people what
does having the mindset of an explorer
mean to you has it helped you a key
advantage I found was that the desire to
know to look around the corner and
pursue interests were part of the
process of exploration that helped
people be happy and succeed part of that
is to have an open mind about where
things lead and before
Cybil – ready with plan a but also B C
etc an explorer will not try to fight
against the rip current an explorer
adjusts and adapts their course on the
expedition in a conversation with
National Geographic photographer David
Doubilet about education he said schools
should have the ability to direct your
students interests I thought we should
and why in the world don’t we do more of
that we incorporate student interests
but it doesn’t direct the curriculum
standards do where is a process that by
design discovers and direct students
interest where they are placed at least
at an equal value to the standards some
charter school models have that but it
is not part of mainstream structure
remember the statistic and disengagement
and then it starts in middle school and
has a steady decline David do Blaise
comment makes me wonder could part of it
be that when students are
developmentally ready to act on their
interests we marginalize those interests
the explorers mindset is a lot bigger
than my personal investigation though it
is an outlook that comes from the
learning framework of National
Geographic education where they have
more thoroughly than my own inquiry
answered the question what is the
mindset of an explorer and what does it
look like in a formal or informal k-12
setting the learning framework focuses
on the development of attitudes and
skills along with content when we
possess the mindset of an explorer we
have a curious attitude seeking out new
experiences with a drive to discover and
understand we are responsible listening
to others looking at multiple
perspectives and understanding the
structures that make things work
explorers also have an attitude of
empowerment they take risks
have grit persisting in the face of
challenges with a growth mindset skills
in the learning framework our
observation communication collaboration
and problem solving now I can’t suddenly
make the interests of students drive the
curriculum but what I can do is coach
students to use the Explorers mindset to
gather and build their interests as we
go my colleagues and I have created some
tools to encourage this positive mindset
and combined it with our existing school
initiative on engagement consider this
scenario where a student is learning to
multiply fractions she’s not just
learning math when we coach those
attitudes and skills she is in a role an
explorer of the world doesn’t that make
learning more exciting personal and
meaningful add in these icons that
represent growth that my teaching
partner and I use they’re not from
national geographic education but work
well with the concept of the Explorers
mindset start out at seeds develop roots
build connections and understanding and
finally mastery and expansion begin grow
explore and repeat the learning
environment of a classroom impacts
engagement and the Explorers minds that
is a different direction we can take to
help create a positive environment for
learning but really to me it’s not just
a mindset for learning it’s a mindset
for life so you’re swimming
and you’re getting pulled out farther
and farther away from the shore you need
to get to whatever it is what do you do
with either one tiny drop or an entire
wave of bravery it doesn’t even matter
how much take your interests coach your
mindset and goal that different
direction
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music] you
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