Remaking Learning: Hampton School District

Each spring Remake Learning, a regional organization that brings together K-12 education, out-of-school providers, higher education, and community partners, sponsors a series of activities around the Pittsburgh region that showcases kids at play and learning. This year Remake Learning sponsored 175 in-person and virtual events in the Pittsburgh region between May 12-23, 2022. I had a chance to visit the Hampton School District in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh to see Remake Learning in action.

The tour group started at one of Hampton’s elementary buildings, Central Elementary School. We waited in what the school calls the living room. It’s wonderful to see how schools have placed comfortable furniture in the lobby of buildings to reduce any tension for parents or visitors. Once the group was in place, the building principal, Amy Kern, shared the agenda for our visit.

The artwork behind Amy came from a project with the schools’ first artist in residence. The artist-in-residence worked with teachers and kids on the project. It’s a great example of infusing the arts into the curriculum. The art piece really is the welcoming showcase for the building.

Central Elementary transformed two courtyard areas into incredible learning spaces. Amy Kern and one of her staff members gave a short slide presentation to show how the space became transformed and who were the key players. Hampton has a very strong educational organization that works with local businesses and corporations to raise money. The school also found funding from local foundations and businesses. Today the result is a Nature and Sensory Garden and an Outdoor Learning Lab where just an outdoor garden had been until last year. Hampton tapped into its students, faculty and staff to design the spaces. They also enlisted the assistance of two local businesses who provided the technical support for the construction – Blue Fox Landscape and Lady Fox. The spaces were designed to provide hands-on, project-based, outdoor learning spaces aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.

It was wonderful to see the kids engaged in a variety of hands-on activities. The young lady on the left is an “Ambassador.” She not only takes people on tours of the garden, but she has been part of the outreach to younger students. The kids on the right are working on a series of STEM (engineering) challenges. The students have to assemble these large building blocks into operational structures working with a team of fellow students.

From Central we jumped back into our vehicles and drove down the road to the Middle School. The Middle School principal, a former math teacher, was challenged by the superintendent to rethink a courtyard area that housed a collection of stuffed animals. The space had no real learning purpose. She reached out to her staff and students and they came up with a design for a Learning Pavilion. She enlisted the help of the Children’s Museum and Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center. The Learning Pavilion serves the needs of all teachers and students. It’s a modular construction that provides for a variety of group activities. Teachers bring their own manipulatives to the pavilion and then divide their class into working teams. In a future phase a student team will build a hydroponics station where they’ll grow basil that they’ll give to the Pittsburgh Food Bank. The space also incorporates an interactive, augmented reality environment using CMU’s ARCADE system to position the animations, build interactive narratives, or layer content to the real-world environment.

I actually forgot to share our first stop at the middle school. We went into the library where high school students from the AP Research class were available to share their work along with a team of AP Computer Science students who had created Edtech solutions. I had several wonderful conversations with students who did research on topics like Critical Race Theory in Schools and physical training ways to improve the lives of people with Parkinson’s. Each student was incredibly articulate and were well prepared. The Computer Science guys (yes there were no girls) tackled software issues, like the tutoring program at the high school, and a virtual reality setup for weight lifting without the weights.

After lunch we had a chance to visit a variety of classrooms that included a Robotics Studio, Innovation Studio, Print Studio, TV Studio, and the Learning Pavilion. Each space showcased Hampton’s desire for collaborative, interactive, project-based learning. Teachers deploy Human-Centered Design activities to engage students in brainstorming ideas as well as concept building. The furniture allows students to write on the table surfaces so they can creatively share their ideas. Students tap into traditional arts, such as printing, as well as technological tools such as 3-D printers, Hummingbirds, Finch, Sphero, Cosmos and other robotic tools.

My visit to the Hampton School District demonstrated several key points:

Technology is not the solution. It’s a tool that enables and accelerates learning opportunities ;

Effective learning solutions require partnerships with community, parent, and school groups and organizations;
Higher education can play a key role bringing and supporting emerging technologies, such as AR or VR;
Ultimately it’s about the kids. They are not just the audience. They are the creators and evaluators.

A New COVID Passion

The COVID pandemic created new opportunities for many of us. With more time on our hands (especially with no clients available for me), what could we do that we didn’t think possible or take our lives in a new direction? For me it was the opportunity to be more creative and to delve into an art form I thought I had no interest in – opera. What does this have to do with my days at Dickinson? That’s the start of the story.

I grew up in a middle class neighborhood with middle class parents who were not interested in the “fine arts.” We watched television, went to movies, and would enjoy an evening of song or comedy at a nightclub. I even had a chance to see “Camelot” on Broadway (but that’s another story). My parents had a small record collection, mainly Jewish humor from the Catskills. I never heard a classical tune in the house until I was about to enter Dickinson. And it was not my parents, but an inheritance that fueled my interest in classical music.

My cousin, Lois, died in a car crash with her newly married husband. I inherited her record collection. There were albums from Broadway and Stravinsky’s Firebird. I was mesmerized by this strange, stirring music. I also found Night on Bald Mountain and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

My senior year of high school I accepted an invitation for a matinee date at the Symphony. It was incredible to see the music performed live. I thought that would be my last opportunity to enjoy the stirring sounds of classical music, but my freshman year at Dickinson opened a floodgate of new possibilities. Almost every week there was a concert on campus or in town thanks to the guidance of the faculty sponsor for the Cultural Arts Series, Larry Warner. I made sure I had my evenings free. I don’t remember all of the artists or the music, but I do remember the excitement of discovering a wide range of music, dance, and theater.

In addition, I decided to get involved in the Mermaid Players. I had taken a high school class in Drama and I really wanted to be part of a group of people where I felt connected. I loved working on building sets or setting up the lighting for a Mermaid Players production. I even auditioned for several plays and had small bit roles in “The Good Woman of Setzuan” and “Richard III.” I “starred” in one of the freshman plays and then had a wonderful opportunity to join an audio production of “Under Milkwood.”

In high school I wanted to write for the newspaper, but you needed a sponsor, another student to recommend you. I had no one who would recommend me, so I didn’t have an opportunity to write. At Dickinson I walked into the office of the Dickinsonian and immediately was given an assignment. Before I knew it, I was a features writer. I wrote film reviews, book reviews, and even had an amazing opportunity to interview John Cage.

I also had a chance to submit a story for Belles Lettres, the Dickinson literary magazine. I was a published author by my senior year.

At Dickinson my interest in the arts went beyond extra-curricular opportunities. I started to think about ways to incorporate art and theater into class assignments. Instead of just writing traditional essays for class assignments I started to experiment with plays and poems. This was the late 1960s and early 1970s. I’m not sure if today professors would be as open to my feeble attempts, but it was wonderful to try out my skills.

I always had a love for movies. My family owned a small, neighborhood movie theater in Pittsburgh. Every weekend I helped my uncle by selling tickets, taking charge of crowd control, or just watching the projectionist. I also had a chance to go to special screenings of films with my uncle.

In addition to writing reviews for the Dickinsonian I joined the Film Society to develop the film series for the college. I, even, talked my way into the NY Film Festival as a critic. I had a press badge from Dickinson. “What do you mean there’s no pass for Norton Gusky? Here are my press credentials.” Believe it not that worked. I had a chance to sample a Bertolucci classic, “The Conformist,” and some other films I can’t remember.

Over the years I had many more opportunities to build on my Dickinsonian arts experience. I went to the University of Pittsburgh for my Master’s Degree in Education. I noticed classes advertised for pantomime. The year I went to Switzerland Vince Patterson had created a mime troupe on the Dickinson campus. I always missed that opportunity to explore this form of communication. So I enrolled in the Pittsburgh class taught by the artist, Dan Kamin.

A few years later while teaching in West Virginia I noticed that some of the Mime Students from my Pittsburgh class were going to be instructors for the School for Movement Theater (SMT), a new project created by Michael Pedretti, the head of the theater department at Davis & Elkins College. I had an idea: what if I took photos for SMT and in exchange I could take classes. Mike added, “You can also market your photos to the students and instructors as long as the SMT has the right to use the photos at no charge.” So for three years I was an official theater photographer. (And 40 years later my photos will be published in a book by Michael Pedretti, Delighting the Senses, Vol 1.)

Photo by Norton Gusky CC BY 4.0

While in West Virginia I discovered the folk music and dance traditions of the Appalachian region. Every year I arranged to have an Artist in Residence work with my fifth and grade students. After eight years at Pickens Elementary I moved to Elkins, West Virginia for a new position working with Gifted and Talented students. I discovered that the Creative Arts Council was about to die. I couldn’t let that happen. What would life be without the arts? So I volunteered and soon I was in charge of the Randolph County Creative Arts Council creating year-long programming with our community partner, Davis & Elkins College. For four years I coordinated the programming, marketing, and evaluation of the county-wide program in addition to my work as a teacher.

I returned to Pittsburgh as a computer teacher and joined the Board for a local folk music society. Soon I was producing a summer folk music festival, creating a concert series, and producing a radio show about folk music. The arts filled my life with joy and opportunities that really started in earnest in my days at Dickinson.

The one art form that I never really experienced at Dickinson was an opera. I’m not sure why, but there was never an opportunity to see or hear a production. That happened when I spent my junior year studying in Switzerland. I traveled to Vienna with my student group to explore the Baroque world of Vienna. One night my roommate and I went to see “Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman).” We had standing seats on the balcony. I can remember being fascinated by the spectacle of the production, but then something strange happened – I fell asleep. Yes, I literally fell asleep standing up.

While in Basel I had a chance to go to see Beethoven’s “Fidelio.” This time the stirring music combined with the Ode to Joy kept me awake, but over the years I fell asleep in two more operas while remaining awake for Bizet’s “Carmen.” I just didn’t have a real understanding of the world of opera. At that time there were not large screens with the lyrics translated into English. That certainly made the experience rather difficult, but I think what was really missing was a social connection.

That’s what changed during the pandemic. My high school friend, Randy, who lived in Seattle now, had tried to convince me about the greatness of opera. She had even sent me a book, Opera 101. However, I just couldn’t motivate myself to watch an opera on my own. Then during the early days of Covid Randy said, “Why don’t we watch a streaming HD opera from the NY MET? We can text each other while we watch the production.” That was the key – we could “talk” online and ask questions as well as share insights. Soon, Randy said, “Why don’t we invite my sister, Judy, to join us.” Forty operas later we’re still watching operas together. We have added another cultural colleague, Lillian, and we even go to the movie theater to see the MET HD productions Live on Screen.

Would this have happened without my days at Dickinson? Probably, but the love for the arts would have taken many more years to develop. Dickinson gave me personal experiences not just to study the arts but to live them, opportunities to create plays, act on stage, explore classical music, and to decompose films and literature as a critic. The arts are wonderful on their own, but when you combine that with a social connection, it makes an amazing thing happen – even things that used to put you to sleep standing up are now mesmerizing experiences that you share with other people who share your passion.

Driving K-12 Innovation: Tech Enablers

I’ve been quite fortunate to work on the CoSN report, Driving K-12 Innovation, for the past three years. Each year I join a team of over 100 K-12 leaders, practitioners, and changemakers from around the world to look at emerging trends in K-12 education. We examine the major themes driving, hindering, and enabling teaching and learning innovation at schools around the world.

The process involves three key steps:

An initial survey to select the topics along three dimensions: Hurdles, Accelerators, and Tech Enablers;
Online and virtual discussions for each dimension;
A concluding survey where the advisory board rates each dimension.

Based on the survey results the CoSN editorial team then selects the top 3 for each dimension. According to the project, “accelerators” drive teaching and learning innovation in schools, while “hurdles” hinder it. Tech Enablers are the tools that allow educators to address the barriers by accelerating the change process.

Top Hurdles, Accelerators, and Tech Enablers for 2021

In February 2022 CoSN released the Tech Enablers:

2021 Tech Enablers report https://www.cosn.org/edtech-topics/driving-k-12-innovation/tech-enablers/

As part of the release I participated in a Virtual Summit with many of the advisers as we looked into more detail how the Tech Enablers played out in the midst of a global pandemic. Probably no technology enabler played a more critical role than Digital Collaboration. According to the experts, “It makes Hybrid Learning possible.” Untethered Broadband and Connectivity grew dramatically as schools and other institutions grappled with the challenge of millions of new users trying to access digital resources. Analytics and Adaptive Technologies were important during the pandemic, but difficult to obtain. Parents, educators, and the students themselves needed this information to best understand where to focus on the learning.

Here’s a cartoonist’s rendition of our conversation: