Whatcha been doing, Bobby Ewing?

My colleague and friend, John Golden, and I watched the first two seasons of Ted Lasso, the Emmy Award Winning AppleTV+ series, and thought, "This has a lot of great lessons for educators." So, we're creating 10 episodes addressing major themes from the show that might support teachers in improving their professional practice. Each episode will include teaching and learning examples from the show, from the research, and from practice. If you're interested in this sort of thing, we ask that you become part of the Ted Ed community and share your ideas on Twitter at #TeachingLikeTedLasso.

Here's the video we put out that introduces the podcast:

Each episode we will be sharing scenes from the show, but, like Roy, we are really bad at impressions. So we've decided to have some fun with it.

A sneak peak at the kind of content these @TedLasso Little People will contribute to the #TeachingLikeTedLasso podcast. pic.twitter.com/yxV2nOqDI6

— Teaching Like Ted Lasso (@LikeLasso) August 30, 2022

To make sure you don't miss any content, subscribe to our YouTube Channel or the audio version of the podcast

or both.

Let us know what teaching and learning themes you see in the show by sharing them in the comments.

We appreciate you.

But what about the colleges?

This question comes up a lot whenever people suggest making changes to K-12 education. I hear it at conferences and professional development sessions. Versions of this question even show up on Twitter:

@alicekeeler @evolute99 love the no he idea. How do you justify it to colleagues and admins who say you're not preparing them for college?

— apushreview.com (@apush_review) July 18, 2015

As the above example shows, the question is often in response to taking on some sacred cow in education, like eliminating homework.

The question was asked multiple times this past week at the LMF4PD Conference. Rick Wormeli, the featured speaker the opening day, challenged many of our traditional grading practices (like averaging zeros and giving only partial credit for re-takes) and this made some of the teachers uncomfortable. I understood their concerns given the current emphasis on ensuring that students are "career and college ready," but I wanted to reassure them that colleges (and more importantly the teachers' kids) would be just fine if they transitioned from preparing students to empowering learners. So along with Dr. Clark Danderson from Aquinas College, we held an edcamp session on the third day of the conference to address what colleges and universities expect from learners.

Skills Ss need to be successful in college? Collaboration problem solving critical thinking! @delta_dc #LMF4PD pic.twitter.com/Hivyr4s5Lg

— Karla Akins (@kakins4) July 16, 2015

First, not all institutes of higher education are the same. I talked about how when my own kids were considering college, I discussed the difference between a university that focuses on research and one that views teaching as its primary purpose. High school seniors interested in attending University X need to know how to do research into what they can expect from a university's teachers and courses.

Second, even within a university, different departments might have very different philosophies of education. For example, my department is committed to keeping class-sizes manageable in order to make lessons more interactive and alternative assessments, like portfolios, doable. Other departments at GVSU continue to to use large lectures and multiple-choice tests (no judgement - really). Again, it's up to the prospective learners to do the research.

My last point was that even if learners find themselves in college classrooms using traditional methods of instruction or assessment, those that have learned to self-assess and adjust will find ways to be successful. On the other hand, those that have only been prepared for this "worst case scenario" (the traditional approach) will struggle at universities that expect more than "consume and regurgitate" from their scholars. Unfortunately, we see that happening a lot in our department. Students struggle in our courses and with our major because they are waiting to consume, and we want them to construct.

Now, when it comes to being career ready ...

Why didn't I think of that?

The last week of the semester we meet one-on-one with teacher assistants in what we call "exit interviews." This is an opportunity to discuss what they have accomplished over the semester and what they plan to work on during student teaching. It also provides a chance for us to learn more about these future teachers. For example, yesterday one said something like:

You might think I'm crazy but I have this big idea that I want to do in my classroom. You know how some students don't have math textbooks? Well, I want to have my students make math books to share with kids in places that don't have math books. What do you think? Crazy, right?

No. Definitely not crazy. I told her about this wonderful talk at TEDxNYED by Alan November and how it describes teachers with a similar vision. I sent her a link to the talk via Twitter and then kind of forgot about it. (The relevant part starts at about 6:00 with Learners Leaving a Legacy.)

But I included my teaching partner, @ProfJonh, in the tweet because he hadn't heard of it and later in the day I saw this:

You see, Jon and I (along with another colleague) are planning on creating materials for one of our math courses for preservice elementary teachers this summer. It never occurred to me to apply this same idea to this course. Now we are talking about having these future teachers create a text for others, perhaps around the Standards of Mathematical Practice.

It does not end there, however. This afternoon we were sharing lunch with another colleague who is scheduled to teach one of our zero-level algebra courses in the fall. She was wondering aloud about what to do with these students - many of whom had already had Algebra II but still struggled with the concepts. I brought up my concern that we sometimes address these students from a deficit perspective instead of looking to build on their strengths. Again, Jon piped in, "What if you have them make their own textbook?"

Now why didn't I think of that? Having these students write an algebra text for students back in their high schools provides both an audience and purpose for their work. They know where kids like themselves struggle in math so maybe they can come up with a book that uses a different approach. Besides, any teacher will tell you that teaching material helps you to learn it. Brilliant!

I am excited about where this is headed but mostly I am grateful: grateful that our future teacher took a risk and shared her idea; grateful that Alan November shared the idea of learners leaving a legacy; and grateful that Jon has kept reminding me of that idea. It is why I think social media outlets like Twitter and blogs are so important to improving our profession - sharing and reminding one another of the good ideas that are out there.

Keep it up people - and thanks.