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Jacob Moore says power can flow back to the learner
68 Plays9 months ago
https://www.instagram.com/jmoore_bayoucity/
Music by AudioCoffee: https://www.audiocoffee.net/
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Learner Centered Spaces Podcast, where we empower and inspire ownership of learning, sponsored by Mastery Portfolio, hosted by Star Saxton and Crystal Frommer. In each episode, we will bring you engaging conversations with a wide variety of educators, both in and out of the classroom.
00:00:22
Speaker
This podcast is created for educators who want to learn more about how to make the shift toward learner-centered spaces for their students, schools, and districts, or education at large.
Podcast and Guest Introduction
00:00:33
Speaker
The learner-centered spaces podcast is now a member of the Teach Better Podcast Network.
00:00:43
Speaker
We are so excited to have Jacob Moore on the show today. He is a teacher anthropologist from Houston, working to build healthy communities through education, cross-cultural connection, ecosystem restoration, and storytelling. Outside the classroom, you will find Jacob in the garden, enjoying Houston's biodiversity, facilitating permaculture workshops, learning about the city's policies that value and support local artists, and more recently on stage with
00:01:09
Speaker
Priscera Lemara, a socially conscious theater troupe engaging with issues that impact the Latinx community.
Jacob's Background and Educational Path
00:01:16
Speaker
We're glad to have Jacob on the show. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'm so excited to hear more about your experience, Jacob. Would you mind sharing with us how you got on this path? I appreciate that and thank you so much for having me. It's always nice to talk shop.
00:01:34
Speaker
Awesome, here from Houston and I actually kind of grew up in the classroom. My mom was a teacher so I remember being very young having to set up materials or go and tutor kids after school or in summer school with her and then she became the science lab director and setting up materials there. So I never actually imagined I'd become a teacher.
00:01:58
Speaker
And when I went to college, I studied environmental science and policy, which is this transdisciplinary type of degree where we want the policy people to understand the science, but also the science people to understand the policy sides of things and the social dimensions. And so I went to St. Edward's. Shout out. It's a very wonderful school, very learned centered school, lots of liberal arts type education and small class size.
00:02:29
Speaker
we really were able to fulfill the model there, learn to think. And so we really, it was about what we thought, how we were able to discuss with one another and really develop our thinking among each other. And they provided many opportunities for study abroad and engaging with the community. So that really helped me.
00:02:51
Speaker
understand who I am and what I want to do in this world and so I had a chance to live in China and I studied Mandarin for a while. I lived in France and I had learned French since high school and in Ireland too and no matter where I went I was seeing these patterns of really pressing environmental and social issues no matter where I was.
00:03:14
Speaker
and engaging with environmental justice there in Austin with internship focused on community-based organizing.
Teach for America and Teaching Experience
00:03:22
Speaker
I asked myself, I was about to graduate, what do I want to do? And somebody called me from Teach for America. Somebody recommended me. And I didn't end up going through them, but something the representative said made me think that, yeah, schools are central to any community. And this is where I could have the most impact.
00:03:42
Speaker
my mom at first was like, I'm not sure this is the climate to get into education. But I just felt I needed to and I ended up actually working at the same school as my mom for three years. And at that point, she was the IB coordinator and I was really looking for an IB school, this type of education. And as
00:04:03
Speaker
a rookie educator. It was so nice to have all these documents and theories and frameworks in front of me to kind of absorb and put into place. And so I was here working in Houston in HISD teaching third grade. And these are students mostly learning English as a second language or a third language or a fourth language.
00:04:27
Speaker
And these are very challenging settings, as most know, if you work in education. And I really stand by the principles I was learning from my own coming up in education to applying some principles there of what sometimes I think is my brand, I seem to repeat it over is learner centered, transdisciplinary inquiry based learning.
Learner-Centered Approach in IB Schools
00:04:52
Speaker
And I really saw changes in those students using this approach.
00:04:59
Speaker
Jacob, we haven't met, but you are speaking my love language right now, which is absolutely amazing to hear. And I'm going to take a little bit of a different approach to the question I usually ask here. You mentioned that you were looking for an IB school. So what I'm wondering is, how do IB schools in particular design learner centered spaces? What do they look like, feel like, sound like in that particular environment?
00:05:27
Speaker
Yes, and so this was starting with the primary years program. So the MYP, the middle years program and the diploma program have slight differences. But what I was seeing there, and I went to an IB school, high school as well. What I was really seeing is that you recognize the universality of what it means to be an individual in society.
00:05:55
Speaker
But you can also really tailor it to your unique context and really center what it is you want to learn. So it's not about this kind of reductionist view of checking all the boxes and being able to master skills for a particular assessment at the end of your test.
00:06:14
Speaker
But it was really developing a love of learning and being able to share that love passionately and celebrate one another at the same time. So it's fun, first of all, and it's fun for the teacher to learn alongside the kids. And I really
00:06:34
Speaker
For example, because you never know where a kid is coming from, what's going on at home. And I had students say, they couldn't even look you in the eye, their body language, they might be mumbling. And I had one student, so it says third time in third grade. And we were doing animal adaptations and looking at issues with conservation as well.
00:07:02
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And, you know, just you meet kids where they're at and sitting with him, just finding out what he's really interested in and sharks and great white sharks specifically.
00:07:15
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And so we go down to the library. You know how to browse and select books. And I just started noticing him picking up that basic skill and starting to check out books and taking them home and reading them at recess because he wanted to. And then he's getting on. This was over a decade ago. He was getting on the computer and learning how to put together a slideshow presentation.
Middle School Assessment Discussion
00:07:40
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and put together multiple sources, organizing it. So it's really focusing on his thought process, what he loved about it, but also hitting all these important marks in the discipline, such as in science and animal adaptations there. And, you know, he did the thing. He was there presenting. He was speaking well because he was so passionate about it. And I didn't notice a change in his body language and a change in
00:08:07
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Him seeing that, you know, what I see, what I think, what I feel is important, it has impact. And there's just no feeling, like feeling connected to yourself. And so I think there's so many opportunities when we kind of flip our approach to the love of learning in the first place. I think so many things are possible from there. It just feels so boundless and infinite.
00:08:35
Speaker
So Jacob, you know, thinking about the DP program and in MYP and there's certain types of assessments that of course are mandated by the DP, but at our school, because just for the listeners to know that Jacob and I work at the same school, tell me about assessment outside of the DP program, because you work in our middle school. So what does assessment look like in your classroom as a middle school teacher?
Balancing Structure and Creativity
00:09:03
Speaker
Yeah. And so this is a point of tension. You know, when the kids walk into your classroom, if you say any word related to assessment, such as test, quiz, you really see in their body language, they tighten up, their eyes widen. It's kind of a fear among them and anxiety of being tested. And so it really
00:09:32
Speaker
It takes being honest and transparent that when I say assessment, I want to see what you want to know and I want you to be able to see and assess for yourself whether you know the stuff or you're doing the best you can here. So it's really about just being there for a kid along their learning journey and being able to set up parameters
00:10:02
Speaker
But here's the thing. It's an intricate balance sometimes. I think teaching is an art at times when you are needing to provide room to grow and openness for them to explore, but also providing structure. Because like, say, we're working with plants or tomatoes, they need to be pruned or they need to
00:10:31
Speaker
some structure to be able to build up and actually produce fruit well and keep growing well throughout the season. And so it's an intricate balance of when to provide structure but when to open it up to their ability to just grow because I know through learner-centered inquiry-based, project-based learning
00:10:55
Speaker
any of these kids can go way beyond than what we can actually prescribe for them. And so I sometimes imagine my classroom more like a studio, where yes, there's traditional lectures and input that are varied up to incorporate discussion and collaborative learning. But in the end,
00:11:24
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Are you able to put together an investigation and are you able to ask questions? Are you able to formulate an outline here with this time and resources that you have? Are you able to find
00:11:40
Speaker
reliable, relevant information? Are you able to synthesize and analyze it? Are you able to keep your audience in mind as you're putting together a presentation? And are you able to reflect and celebrate and hear feedback and take that in in a positive way? So in terms of assessment,
00:12:00
Speaker
It's really highlighting what is expected and the discipline and the skills because in IB you talk a lot about approaches to learning and so with all that they're able to
00:12:18
Speaker
to really see for themselves and be honest with themselves and articulate, oh, I'm still working on that. And so, I mean, rubrics are helpful, all sorts of structures, but at the end of the day, the more frequent, specific feedback
00:12:34
Speaker
the better it goes, the better the direction goes. And so it's just constantly moving around the room, engaging them, asking questions when there's a window there.
Inquiry-Based Learning for Traditional Settings
00:12:47
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And so I just really like to see what they're able to assess for themselves, as well as seek out resources and support when they need to.
00:13:01
Speaker
If there's a teacher listening who might work in a traditional setting or they have traditional colleagues but they want to be more learner centered, do you have any quick tips? I know you can't really do that in a few minutes but just like some quick starters for them to venture into that world? So really looking at that inquiry process.
00:13:22
Speaker
their teaching investigation. I think this is a wonderful way to go. At the school I started off with, we already had a strong science program. Shout out to my mom. And so there's so many well-developed lessons about inquiry and really being... Because you really need to fill it in your body. You really need to
00:13:45
Speaker
hone in skills of observation and asking questions is an important skill. So being able to have a low stakes type of activity with very real tangible things can really start to spark this ability to just start seeing how things are interconnected there.
00:14:10
Speaker
I started to go through it through the sciences, of course, through investigation. And so it could be natural sciences, but you could apply the same process to what I do now, teaching social sciences, and that how do we approach studying society? So the more real, the more relevant,
00:14:29
Speaker
especially personally relevant, the more it'll start to flow into place because they really, once they start to see a process there, they really start to take ownership of it and starts to take its own form way beyond
00:14:48
Speaker
than we can imagine. And then that's where the excitement, the fun comes from because you are literally learning alongside them because you can't expect to know everything right. Even though students might have that misconception about you that you're the teacher, you know this and that, but you're really also letting them know that you are also a learner and investigator and you show them what you're working on and you think aloud and you show your process. So being able to have a model is super important
00:15:16
Speaker
especially if you show that how you're a lifelong learner, you start to activate that process in them and so they can really feel that joy in learning.
Influences and Educational Shoutouts
00:15:30
Speaker
Jacob, I love that you shouted out your mom earlier. Are there other people you'd like to shout out that really do something special when it comes to learner centered spaces or any of the other teaching paradigms you were talking about before? First thing that comes to mind is
00:15:51
Speaker
the education program there at Montana State University. I've been able to participate in a number of national endowment for the humanities programs that were all focused on indigenous ways of knowing and the indigenous experience and so I got to work with some of the teachers up there and they were really working with this kind of
00:16:17
Speaker
place-based type of learning, being able to work with the different nations up there. And the program was about restoring Buffalo. So they were really looking for teachers to be able to really understand their social context, their environmental context in depth. So there are ways to include multicultural, cross-cultural ways of knowing their
00:16:48
Speaker
And so at the end of the day, it's about relationships, understanding relationships to yourself, to your environment, to one another, to other nations, and others like reciprocity. And I'm trying to think of all my epistemological and pedagogical underpinnings here.
00:17:20
Speaker
I think I named a bunch of approaches there. Oh, and I think oftentimes there is, there's a kind of reverence for, you know, these, how would I express it? These Ivy league, for example, types of schools and these really highly esteemed institutions. But
00:17:49
Speaker
I think you find wonderful teachers all over the place. Like I for sure want to give more shout out to a lot of my teachers there at when I studied cross-cultural studies in community health there at the University of Houston, Clear Lake. Just a bunch of wonderful teachers there. It's supposed to be for a lot of people, adults getting their degrees or going back to school or sometimes even being the second chance.
00:18:17
Speaker
But in my heart, it's like a really top-notch university. I found my professors really cared for me. For example, Christine Kovik, a wonderful anthropologist focusing on border issues and understanding.
00:18:36
Speaker
issues with mass graves and reuniting these bones with their families. And she still supports me to this day. She'll bring me on panel discussions and ask me how I'm doing and how close I am to publishing things and anthropological magazines and things like that. So I think never underestimate that there's wonderful teachers in all sorts of institutions, as long as you are really pursuing what you really love.
Social Media and Closing Remarks
00:19:03
Speaker
Thank you, Jacob, so much for your time. And are you on social media at all? Is there a place where our listeners could find you? I have an Instagram account. It's jaymore underscore Bayou City. Okay. We will put that definitely in the show notes and we appreciate your time today. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. It's been a pleasure, Jacob. Thanks. Likewise. Thank you.
00:19:31
Speaker
Thank you for learning with us today. We hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as we did. If you'd like any additional information from the show, check out the show notes. Learn more about Mastery Portfolio and how we support schools at masteryportfolio.com. You can follow us on Twitter at MasteryForAll and on LinkedIn on the Mastery Portfolio page. And we'd love your feedback. Please write a review on your favorite podcasting app.