How to Sustain the Work when Support Decreases

Integrating Design Thinking and Art in a Public Montessori School

by Agency by Design Oakland Teacher Fellows Ana Carrasco and David Harris, Urban Montessori Charter School

WHAT HAPPENS, AND WHAT WORKS, WHEN SUPPORT DECREASES? After a decrease from outside support for Design Thinking integration, Teacher Fellows David and Ana experimented this school year with new ways of supporting teachers to integrate Design Thinking and the Arts, building on work that had begun at the school in the previous years. Over the course of the fall and winter David and other collaborators tried different strategies and structures to sustain this work. Below is a letter they've written to their school colleagues, as well as a full report on their efforts and reflections. 

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Dear Colleagues, Board, and Future Head of School,

We believe it is imperative to prioritize time for planning, goal setting, and building structures and systems in the areas of Art Integration and Design Thinking Practices. Teachers and students would benefit from a clear, sequential curriculum, with hands on training and creative spaces to do this work. There could be a more diverse and differentiated curriculum, which could include inviting experts in to build on teacher creativity. These best practices and a clear arts and design curriculum would foster real project based learning. Classroom levels will experience a sense of identity and unity working through the various projects together. Teachers will feel more aligned in their practices, sharing out student work and learnings in professional learning communities.

Thus, professional development and hands on training throughout the school year in these areas is necessary for maximum support and growth. The Montessori philosophy is directly correlated with the design mindset, both emphasizing observation and understanding through empathy as well as intrinsic creativity and independence. They should be thought of as complementary and we need to build on that foundation. Art and design integration with Montessori would provide multiple access points for all learners.  

Especially since a new Head of School will be in place next year, it is an important time to revisit and renew the systems and goals for these curricular pillars. We need to ask ourselves: What do we want students to get out of this work? What should it look like day-to-day in classrooms? and What should the experience be for students moving through the program from Kindergarten to Middle School?

There are hours of planning to be done and as shown in the data, the teaching staff is ready and willing to do this important work. This demonstrates that teachers understand the significance of this work and know it will have a positive impact on their classrooms. It is critical that we make time to step back to see the big picture in preparation for this next year’s curriculum planning around art and design at Urban Montessori Charter School.

PROBLEM STATEMENTS & PROPOSALS

Ana Carrasco

PROBLEM STATEMENT: Teachers are already working hard to deliver the Montessori academic curriculum so there isn’t extra bandwidth for the “more creative” curriculum that we should be integrating. Additionally, I’m not an expert, and I need support to learn the skills myself and to then teach the kids. I need help supporting exciting hands-on projects and a sequentially integrated curriculum that has a clear progression to be successful.

Long Term Proposal: Combine option #1 and #3 in the March survey sent to staff (see the full report to read more). We need someone on staff to hold the art and design work. This would involve but not be limited to curriculum mapping standards across multiple content areas and the arts, demonstrating and co-teaching arts integrated lessons, and planning and preparing arts integration lessons, assignments, assessments and materials. I also suggest a multi-use space where teachers could schedule time outside the classroom, where the teacher could serve students, and that teacher would also host outside specialists to build on curriculum.

David Harris

PROBLEM STATEMENT: A main problem I experienced while being the school lead for this work is that I had no access to leadership decision making, and wasn’t able to advocate for pushing the work forward, purchasing equipment, scheduling meetings and professional development, etc. The second main problem was that it was no longer possible for only one person, with little to no time in my day schedule, to support this work for all four levels (Primary, Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary and Middle School). I had failed to do that for the last two years. Also, though there is the possibility of more teachers participating in the Agency by Design fellowship next year, and also of a return of support from the d.school, Urban Montessori cannot rely on outside agencies to sustain the program, it needs to develop structures and school staff to do the work.

Short Term Proposal: For this upcoming school year, given the budgetary challenges, I would propose that the level leads (one teacher from each level, who represents the level on the Instructional Leadership Team, and runs level meetings several times a month), and a partner from each level, take on the Arts Integration and Design Thinking work. It would be cost effective. The level lead would be advocating for the work on the ILT, and making sure the necessary PD time was allocated, while the co-level advocate supports the logistics, as a teacher coach, facilitating the development of activities or units and running the PDs.

Read the full report of David and Ana’s INQUIRY work and recommendations here. 

Ana Carrasco, Lead Montessori Teacher in Lower Elementary, Urban Montessori Charter School in Oakland

David Harris, Former Design Thinking and Arts Integration Lead, & Former 1st - 3rd grade Support eacher, Urban Montessori Charter School, Oakland

David Harris was formerly a UMCS support teacher in a 1st to 3rd grade classroom. He was also the school's Creative Catalyst, leading planning, curriculum development and PD for the arts integration and design thinking programs. David came to elementary teaching after doing several kinds of other jobs, including working for seven years in OUSD's adult education program, where he taught English and basic skills and was a teacher on special assignment who served as a site coordinator and planner for professional development. He has also worked as an artist and writer in a variety of ways since college, now focusing his attention on writing and illustrating books for children. 

Maker Identity: Students of Color Sustaining and Creating Identities in Maker Education

Maker Identity, An Ignite Talk by 2017-2018 Agency by Design Oakland Teacher Fellow Roxy Martínez

“Our students, youth of color, navigate worlds that tell them that their home identities and their school identities have to be kept separate. And, in fact, their ability to do that is essential for their success in education. Does the MAKER MOVEMENT contribute to these tensions? YES.”  

Roxy Martínez is a Resource Specialist at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland. At the Agency by Design Oakland year end event on Saturday, May 5, Roxy presented her talk entitled, "Students of Color Sustaining and Creating Identities in Maker Education." Roxy spoke to the importance of maker education not being another tool to oppress our students, and instead a means of liberation. 

“Making is a manifestation, it’s a proclamation, and it’s a celebration of who we are, and who we always have been.”

“The maker movement has the potential to reproduce harmful hierarchies. Is it inevitable that the maker movement reproduce these hierarchies? Absolutely not. But unchecked and unchallenged, it will.”  

Check out Roxy's amazing Ignite Talk below! And see more leadership from our 2017 - 2018 Teacher Fellows by following the #PictureofPractice hashtag. 

“Teaching is a Political Act. It’s essential for the liberation of our students of color.”

-Roxy Martínez

Resource Teacher/Education Specialist, Grass Valley Elementary School, OUSD

Thinking Tinkering: A Teacher Podcast Series

Thinking Tinkering Podcast & GUIDE

Picture of Practice by Agency by Design Oakland 2017-2018 Teacher Fellows Susan Lee and Katy Ailes

“The thing that stands out is that people are really joyful at the end of the meeting.” Susan Lee

“Now I have the tools to lead professional development. We used the Parts, Purposes, Complexities thinking routine with teachers to plan curriculum. It was so rich and deep and it only took 15 minutes. People were like, ‘Why have I never taught it this way before?’” Katy Ailes

Katy Ailes and Susan Lee are Lower Elementary teachers at Park Day School in Oakland. Both in their second year of the Agency by Design Oakland fellowship, they decided to focus their inquiry work on leadership & coaching. Because they wanted to have a greater impact at their school site they ultimately chose to implement an opt-in professional learning community. To document this process and share the work with others, Katy and Susan created a podcast series and a flow chart guide, to share how they used Agency by Design ideas to shape and create rich learning opportunities for their colleagues. 

Thinking Tinkering Podcast Series

“And it made me feel very connected in a heartfelt way, to the people I work with, because we weren’t just meeting our minds, we were meeting other parts of ourselves, our souls, our hearts.”- Park Day School Teacher Participant

Episode 1

Susan and Katy discuss how they arrived at this project and the history of maker-centered learning at Park Day School. They interview Ilya Pratt, a member of Agency by Design Oakland's Leadership Team, and the Director of the Design+Make+Engage Program and Innovation Workshop at Park Day School. Ilya describes the developmental and multi-sensory educational approaches used at Park Day, and the roots and evolution of maker-centered learning at the school, and how these connect directly with the Innovation Workshop. Katy and Susan then go on to talk about the development of the professional learning communities, and the strategies and challenges of implementing them. 

Episode 2

Susan and Katy explore what happened during the maker meet-ups they implemented, and hear from teachers about the impact of these workshop on school culture and students, and on their own professional learning. Susan and Katy review thinking routines and how they can provide language and framework for maker-centered learning. Teachers at Park Day then describe what they have learned from the thinking routines and how the maker meet-ups have changed their perspectives and approaches. 

Episode 3

Susan and Katy reflect on how they've worked to bring maker-centered learning to the forefront of how teachers think or re-think their curriculum, and thoughts on how they hope to continue to move forward. Susan and Katy learned that the meet-ups can provide a common ground for everyone to work together when collaborating and planning, and that thinking together in the meetings enabled agency in teachers in a new way. They noticed that participants left meetings happier, lighter, and inspired. Susan and Katy also walk through the logistics of setting up the meet-ups for teachers interested in creating their own at their school. They discuss questions such as: How do you bring in administrators? How do you bring in colleagues who don’t feel like they connect to this kind of work?

Does your school engage in discussions around Maker-Centered Learning?

In addition to the podcast series Katy and Susan also created the resource below for other educators and school leaders thinking about bring maker-centered learning to their school site. This flow chart is an invitation to explore new ideas and resources and was presented at our 2018 Culminating Event, where a number of workshops and activities also explored how to ignite maker-centered learning at your school site. 

"I engage in maker-centered learning because I think it is important to empower children to have agency, to know they can do something about problems they see in the world.  Maker-centered learning is important because it develops children's mindfulness around the complexities of our world and the systems within the world.  I have never seen children more curious, invested and inspired than when they dive into a maker-centered project that matters to them."

Katy Ailes
First Grade Teacher, Park Day School, Oakland

Katy Ailes teaches first grade at Park Day School, where she has been teaching for 3 years. Park Day is a progressive school and our mission centers around social justice and supporting children to see themselves as change makers. She is in her 11th year as a teacher, and has also taught in public schools in New York City and in Sacramento. Katy’s other passion aside from teaching is ballet and she still dances and teaches ballet in the Bay Area. 

"Maker-centered learning allows access points for all students. It empowers students to think critically and creatively. It also helps foster students' abilities to collaborate, problem-solve and to look closely at their own work. I love that it builds positive self-esteem and "can-do" approaches among my students."

-Susan Lee
2nd Grade Teacher, Park Day School, Oakland

Susan Lee is a teacher at Park Day School working with inquisitive and enthusiastic second graders. Her hobbies include reading, writing and baking.