Better Than YouTube

we’ve thrown educators to the wolves

in 2020 from a pandemic to stressors

beyond our wildest dreams with

distracting backgrounds in our students

lives

invading our virtual classroom in my

middle school classroom i have seen

students flopping around

falling out of their seats and even

snoozing on their laptop keyboards

and virtual learning has only

intensified

these behaviors therefore i’ve had to

put a large emphasis

on discussing how to prepare our bodies

for learning

by choosing to actively sit do this with

me

plant your feet roll your shoulders back

lift

your chest and feel your entire body

activate i want you to be as active

in this experience as humanly possible

since the global pandemic has entered

our communities in full force

every educator has done what they do

best

educators have committed to thinking on

their feet and developing learning

opportunities

no matter the hurdles ahead teachers

continue to spend

hours dissecting new technology tools

and creating new routines

to collaborate with colleagues and yet

with all these

tools and collaborations made available

most classroom instruction continues

to be rooted in the dark ages we can do

better

teachers are more than vessels to

transfer information

teachers are naturally innovative

teachers love

to inspire and teachers are

professionals at fostering deep thinking

we must stop putting teaching in a box

filled with direct instructional

approaches and instead

shift instruction to form a mastery

learning lens

mastery learning is a self-paced

approach that allows students

personalized opportunities for feedback

and the permission one needs to

fully master an idea let’s talk through

an example

i grew up with two biological parents

and six family friends

who might as well have been

blood-related these people attended

every birthday party dance recital

special education meeting and first date

i was ever a part of yes i did say first

date

but that’s a story for another time and

yes i did say special education but i’ll

talk more about that here in a little

bit

at our annual holiday party the same

trick using two

corks was shown every year look around

if you have something close by we’re

actively seated pick up two

objects similar in size to a marker cap

you can do this with any rectangular or

cylinder object

you may choose to roll up a piece of

paper grab two lip balm containers

or pick up two pen caps for this

challenge but don’t worry

if you don’t have something easily

accessible right now

you can attempt this challenge later

place one object in each hand between

your thumb

and forefinger now using your middle

finger and thumb

your goal is to transfer these items

from one hand to the other

at the same time the first time most

people attempt this challenge

they end up locking the marker caps

together

failing in their ability to make the

transfer without lifting their fingers

huh tricky huh the reality is

all of you can do it if i went step by

step

and showed you the correct placement

twisting your wrist ever so slightly and

modeling the movement in front of you

each

and every one of you would eventually be

successful in this task and then you

too could share this at your next

holiday party

but what if i was specific and the

amount of time you had to learn or the

number of tries you got

in this experience all right class step

right up you get

two opportunities to get this right the

reality is a small percentage of you

would find

success and others would fail only to be

left with two marker caps in your hands

not nearly as satisfying you deserve

the time it would take to master this

party trick and whether it be on the

third

or forty third try you deserve the

opportunity to learn

to be successful and to celebrate your

victory

that’s mastery learning mastery learning

isn’t new what is new

is how we utilize our current

technologies our latest resources so

that

students can be successful online tools

made available on platforms like youtube

do not replace teachers in the classroom

rather

these resources provide support to

deliver

the initial moments of instruction

anything you want to learn right

now exists for free on the internet on a

video online blogger podcast the

question is

what are you going to do about it

because in just a few clicks you

and any student can begin your learning

journey but how you

move from being familiar with the

concept

to fully understanding the inner

workings of an idea

that takes a master facilitator

remember the cork challenge let’s say

for the sake of example my mother made a

30 second youtube clip modeling how to

solve this tricky challenge and

as your teacher i provide you the

following instructions

either on your own or in a small group

crank

up the volume and watch this youtube

clip to learn how to successfully master

this challenge

remember videos have options to support

whatever type of learner you are so

utilize the rewind the fast forward the

pause

and the closed captioning as you see fit

but then

i want you to hop on a zoom call to

conference with me during our discussion

i’ll not only ask you to demonstrate

what you’ve learned

but take questions to foster discussion

around this idea

because it’s not only about the

execution of the task

i want you to dive deeper and explore

why conceptually this task is

challenging to grasp and where the

common hurdles are found in the process

of mastering it why

because i’m better than youtube i can

foster discussion i can facilitate

reflection

i can ensure learning is not only

consumed

but experienced i can ask you deeper

questions and follow up with

personalized feedback see

i don’t need to lecture to the masses

over and over

while you sit quietly trying to keep up

i

can instead utilize a platform filled

with curated content to support you in

forming a

basic understanding of this idea

providing me

as your instructor the freedom to

converse with you as you dive deeper in

your depth of knowledge

and i can grant you the support and

personalized feedback

you need to be successful every single

time because you

deserve to learn whether it takes you 3

or 43 tries that’s mastery learning

mastery learning would have honestly

changed my life when i was young there

were a lot of skills

that took me 43 times or more to learn

miss davison my second grade teacher

along with the support of my school

special education department

diagnosed me s l d

specific learning disability in math

reading and writing what does that mean

well to me

it meant i was incapable of learning it

was my understanding that reading was

the avenue to consuming knowledge

therefore if you can’t read you can’t

learn

i vividly remember being seated in a

desk in middle school as my teacher

asked me to get back to work and i

looked her in the eye and said

i can’t do this i can’t read what you’ve

handed me

as i sat back in my chair in tears

blurred my vision

actually to lend some perspective i

think i’m the only sixth grade math

teacher who’s ever received a d

in sixth grade math in high school i was

told

that i was not even college material and

that illinois state university was

too far out of my reach so

how did i go from being labeled not

college bound

to teaching a class at isu earning a

master’s degree in education

and publishing two books not even a

decade later

by demanding mastery learning

opportunities

even while writing this ted speech i

would type my ideas in a google doc

because by the way i’ve totally mastered

some epic typing skills after competing

against my middle school students

but in the process of editing rather

than re-reading the text in front of me

i use

a chrome extension to read the text back

in audio form i consume 80 to 90 percent

of text whether it be in a book article

email or lengthy text message

in audio form i consider those audio

add-ons

my lifeline for learning because being a

good teacher

is not only about adapting or modifying

learning opportunities for students to

best fit their individual needs

but allowing each student the time

and support to take ownership and see

the power in mastering these skills

that is mastery learning

mastery learning also known as

competency-based learning or

outcome-based learning

has been strongly supported by the

academic literature the meta-analysis of

108 independent studies on the effects

of mastery learning conducted by kulik

kulik and banker and drones in 1990

showed that mastery learning had a

moderate to positive effect

on student performance thomas r guskey

a widely respected mastery learning

expert

and professor emeritus in the college of

education at the university of kentucky

defined mastery learning as a

philosophically based approach to

teaching and learning

he classified the concept back in 1980

as a new way of educational thinking now

nearly

40 years later these concepts are still

only found in classrooms labeled

progressive anderson and burns

seen as mastery learning experts

following decades of their educational

research

published a study in 1987 highlighting

the focus

on time and attempts it may take a

student to learn a concept

as completely arbitrary recognizing that

whether it took a student 3

or 43 times to master an idea the

ability to learn should not be dismissed

based on an arbitrary social norm

unsupported by research and driven by

impatience or political agendas

we may be on a roller coaster

this year but with an invested teacher

and progressive mastery learning

practices

combined with our current technological

capabilities

no one can stop an intrinsically

motivated learner

not even 20 20. so here’s your

assignment

educators choose to think differently

and see yourself as more

than just a vessel to transfer

information choose instead

to serve in a role as a facilitator of

exploration

students see every video every podcast

and

every book as an opportunity to learn

consumable information is everywhere

community members demand support for

your school teachers and utilizing

effective 21st century practices

where do you begin get your teachers

training

on utilizing these progressive concepts

through professional development

opportunities

let’s leave the low level direct

instruction

to youtube clips and transform teachers

from content delivery systems into

facilitators of learning for all

because if if we choose to make these

ships

both within ourselves and in partnership

with those around us

our classrooms will not reflect an

ancient way of thinking and instead

will support and inspire a mindset of

problem solvers

dedicated to constructing a world we

cannot

yet even imagine now

let’s pick up those marker caps and

let’s try this again

thank you