Imagine if....

Imagine if....

distance learning was more...

ethical? beautiful? effective?

We were imagining one thing and then .... We find ourselves living within the superfast shift redefining what learning looks and feels like during a pandemic.

We were imagining our culminating event would include breakfast.

We were excited to host interactive workshops and inspiring ignite talks.

We were planning on screen printing posters of our favorite thinking routines with you.

Instead --- As the leadership team is trying to take care we are also planning for our next few fellowship meetings and our culminating event on April 25th. We are fish out of water and learning to breathe anew. Digital spaces are not our happy places for envisioning and collaborating. We prefer, (by leaps and bounds) hands on immersive inquiry driven collaborative learning spaces. That said, after testing out a few platforms for our event we have landed back on zoom and will be making use of their breakout room feature as much as possible.

We guarantee it won't be perfect and We hope you will join us!

January, 2020. At one of our daylong meetings we screen printed four Agency by Design thinking routines for teachers to bring back to their schools and classrooms.

In Agency by Design’s Imagine if... thinking routine learners are asked to consider the design of an object or system and to re-design it, either to be more effective, efficient, ethical, or beautiful. Through it, learners are invited to imagine possibilities beyond their wildest imagination.

In this spirit we are taking a leap while understanding that while not as beautiful or effective as a face-to-face event Zoom does support inquiry and encourage dialogue in smaller groups. While the tiles of faces appearing online together may be visually overwhelming, sometimes with low resolution or glitchy it is the best we can do at this point in time. It might be efficient under one metric while simultaneously less... beautiful. It actually might not be ethical but exclusionary if you don't have the right device and strong bandwidth with just the right browser.

What is beautiful is that we do know is that our fellows are truth tellers with big hearts. As we are checking in on each other in phone conversations, over email or video chats it is clear we have many stories to share with you. Not all of them are about hands on making and thinking routines. Some of the stories are about the students and families that are hungry. Some of the stories are about the glitches in connectivity. Some of the stories are simply about keeping it real - holding a virtual learning space with your own children and elders in the background. We invite you to join us in this grand experiment.

Written by Susan Wolf, AbD Oakland Leadership Team Member

Below are some our fellows’ reflections on where they’ve been and what’s shifted using the thinking frame: I used to think… Now I think..

I used to think it took a village to raise a child, now I think it takes way more than just the teachers, parents and community members to make sure students have all that they need to thrive outside of the classroom.

I used to think that by offering students these spaces in which we try our best to offer them equitable teaching and experiences was good for their development, but at the moment I am seeing a lot the harm my students are having with access--and they go home to these spaces everyday during the normal school year. Being equitable in school is not enough when it does not permeate their lives.

I used to think that the way a traditional classroom looks couldn’t change very fast, but now I think that all it takes is letting teachers and communities work their magic.

I used to think our students were (sorta) proficient at computers.... now I think that I wish I had given them lessons in how to write an email + practice in checking online.....also computer access and proficiency is such an equity issue.

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How are you staying playful?

What are you prototyping in this new world?

Since quarantine we have hosted two social hours for our Agency by Design Oakland teacher fellows. More casual video meetings have been one way to try out new strategies for staying connected while cultivating joy and learning.

Storytelling & Scissors: Our first community check-in to prototype our model in a virtual space, considering: How might we hold spaces online that resonate with our ethos of making?

Community Repair Circle: Sharing our research project with The Culture of Repair and Maker Ed we began by asking:

What is repair?

healing - closeness - mending - intimacy - satisfying - vexing - aggravating - reusing

Nga Nguyen and Reina Sofia Cabezas shared their research from this yearlong project. In smaller breakout groups we each introduced the item we brought to repair, telling the story of the object and why we valued taking the steps to repair it. We received tips, tricks and advice from others.

Slowing Down to Meet our Students' Needs

Image: Teachers in the 2018-19 fellowship created a natural collaborative mandala following the OUSD school strike. Collective art making is an act of reflection. More info in "Connections" below.

Dear Principals, School Leaders, & Teachers, 

We are all being bombarded with endless resources on how to set up the perfect distance learning environment. But before you commit to a long-term solution, pause and ask yourself: Am I rushing to throw resources online for the sake of providing something? Am I developing empathy along the way? Am I building a clear vision and path forward? Particularly in such a fraught moment, this pervasive urgency we're all feeling can introduce decision making that leads to students being unintentionally harmed—alienated, left out, needs unmet—exactly the opposite of what we're striving for in our practice.

Right now it’s time to pause, take care of yourself and family, do wellness checks on students, and then, collectively consider the guiding design principles that need to be communicated to colleagues. What needs to be true as you move forward into this work? What guiding principles will you use to make decisions about where to put resources? 

We may not yet know the destination of where our learners are headed and what this new world will ask of us, but we can put forth design principles—a.k.a. truths, values, or mission statements—which teams can keep in mind and use to guide their distance learning designs. The Heath brothers, in the book “Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard,” calls this “scripting the critical moves.” 

For example, without direction in this new context, a teacher might choose to invite their students to online Zoom lectures, or expect their learners to watch multiple hours of recorded video. But, if you provided a design principle that stated, 

“Online learning looks like mostly offline learning,” 

then teachers will interpret their job differently, and design prompts that ask students to engage in offline activities. 

Or, if you don’t specifically call out equity, then some of your teachers may only interact with the learners that are responding to emails and video conferences. But imagine you clearly communicated: 

“Spend most of your time creatively engaging the students with the most needs.”

In this scenario, teachers will first have to ask themselves who are their most marginalized students (you might consider supporting them on this front). This might then mean getting on the phone, sending text messages, mailing snail mail, etc. Imagine the innovative solutions that will be discovered and can be replicated! 

Or, lastly, some of your colleagues have undoubtedly already created a Youtube channel, mailed home worksheet packets an inch deep, or emailed a chaotic Google doc of assignments. But, what if you messaged to them, 

“Relationships and connection are the only objective right now.” 

If a learner had a fraught in-person relationship with their teacher, there’s no way they are going out of their way to watch the online vocab videos. Relationships matter now more than ever. And furthermore, racial, economic, and class differences are highlighted in this context. What would a distance learning curriculum look like that put care and connection at the center? What would be possible if first, teachers focused on building students’ trust and well being? 

You surely have your own design principles to put forth beyond these examples, things that have been weighing on your mind. During this pivotal moment, take out your pencil and paper and draft up some critical moves, then send them to your team and get their feedback. 

In this spirit, Agency by Design Oakland has drafted some critical moves for our organization over the coming weeks. Here’s our prototype:

Connections 

Please pause to remember: urgency is a facet of white supremacy. Without developing empathy and building a clear vision and path forward, students could be unintentionally harmed. To reflect more on how your response to the new context may be upholding characteristics of white supremacy, please read “white supremacy culture” by Tema Okun.

“Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard,” proposes a three-part framework, to “Direct the Rider,” which includes scripting the critical moves, “Motivate the Elephant,” and “Create the Path.”

Agency by Design thinking routines may be of service in making your thinking visible: What are the Parts, who are the People, and what are the Interactions that make up the system you're designing? Check out the Parts People Interactions thinking routine. Secondly, what do students and their families Think, Feel, and Care about? Design for that!

Mindful Mandala Making is a restorative arts-integrated practice we learned from Jessa Brie Moreno of Studio Pathways, who learned it from Dr. Monique LeSarre of Rafiki Wellness and the California Institute of Integral Studies. Read more here about how we've used it in our teacher fellowship. 

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Looking for support? Studio Pathways is actively working with teachers and administrators to put systems and practices in place for healing-informed teaching and learning during this moment of uncertainty. They are prepping for the likelihood that many students and teachers will return with enduring trauma of having gone through the coronavirus illness, grieving a loved one, or having their lives completely upended economically as families and communities suffer losses. Though they are not therapists, they are leaders in the field of creating conditions for healing informed, culturally responsive teaching and learning through the arts. Please contact Mariah Landers at mariah@studiopathways.org for more information.

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Please consider donating to support Oakland students & families during this emergency. 

"I volunteered today at Castlemont High School where we gave out food to 1,300 people. There are so many hungry people. There was only enough fresh food for one hour." 
An AbD Oakland Teacher Fellow reported on Thursday  

COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund, Oakland Ed Fund 

Alameda County Food Bank 

Brooke Toczylowski is Executive Director of Agency by Design Oakland as well as a Curriculum & Instructional Coach at Oakland International High School. You can reach her at Info@abdoakland.org.

I Used to Think...Now I Think...

I Used to Think…

Now I Think…

Pause. Take Notice. How is the moment shifting you? How is it shifting society? We offer up this thinking routine from Project Zero and invite you to reflect today, and everyday, on where we’ve been and how this new context is redefining your perspective. 

As a community organization working across a broad network of Oakland schools (district, charter & independent), we have a unique view of the landscape. Therefore, before we redesign our structures we are intentionally stepping back to first and foremost take care of ourselves and our families, and secondly we are looking closely and empathizing with teachers and students. 

We are considering: 

• Who are the most vulnerable learners in this new context? 

• What are the emergent equity needs? 

• What do teachers and students need, and what do they Think, Feel, and Care about? 

• What are schools and districts asking of teachers and students? 

• What does learning look like in this new environment? What could it look like? 

• How do we navigate collective capacity? Who is a parent? Who can’t work right now? 

In addition to shifting to all virtual meetings and teacher coaching sessions we are also redesigning our April culminating event to a digital platform. We are considering creative ways to showcase Oakland teachers’ educational and instructional leadership. More soon! We are also excited to be opening up our application window later in the spring for our ‘20-’21 fellowship. 

We are also watching for the services that will support our community: 

• Food security is a clear need for students and families. Please consider donating to the  Alameda County Food Bank or to the Oakland Ed Fund’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund. 

• Some internet companies are offering temporary free wifi, a clear equity issue for low-income students. Sonic, Comcast, Xfinity Public Hotspots 

• Tech Exchange is currently closed through April 7th, because of shelter-in-place, but they are amazing and provide low-income students with computers long-term.  

BROOKE TOCZYLOWSKI IS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF AGENCY BY DESIGN OAKLAND AS WELL AS A CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTIONAL COACH AT OAKLAND INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL. You can reach her at Info@abdoakland.org.