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Skip Tyler wants to #changethestory
55 Plays3 months ago
- Website: www.CTLGconsulting.com
- X: @SkipTylerMath
- IG: @SkipTylerMath
- LinkedIn: SkipTyler
Shout out to Jennifer Lempp, Peter Lilijedahl, Mandy Jansen
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Music by AudioCoffee: https://www.audiocoffee.net/
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Transcript
Introduction & Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Learner Centered Spaces podcast, where we empower and inspire ownership of learning. Sponsored by Mastery Portfolio, hosted by Starr Saxton and Crystal Frommert. In each episode, we will bring you engaging conversations with a wide variety of educators. both in and out of the classroom. 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. The Learner-Centered Spaces podcast is a member of the Teach Better Podcast Network. Get ready to be inspired as we dive right into the conversation with today's guest.
Meet Skip Tyler
00:00:46
Speaker
We are very excited to have Skip Tyler on our show today. He has been in public education for 33 years, 18 of those years. He was a high school math teacher, 13 years as a secondary math supervisor. He was supporting mathematics instruction and providing professional learning opportunities and coaching for teachers and administrators. And he also served two years as a math consultant. He is the winner of the Lifetime Service Award from Virginia Council of Mathematics Supervisors. He also has started the hashtag Change the Story. He's passionate about changing the perception of mathematics by changing how we teach mathematics. For fun, he likes to go on cruises, he enjoys humor, and as part of that humor, he really enjoys taking selfies of himself
00:01:37
Speaker
on other people's phones, which is pretty hilarious. We are very excited to share that he has a book coming out with Jennifer Limp. It's titled, Math Workshop, Five Steps to Implementing a Student Centered Learning Environment for grades 6 through 12. Definitely going to order that book. And we are so excited to have him on the show today. Well, hello, Skip. How are you today? I'm doing great. Thank you. Happy to be here.
Career-Defining Moments
00:02:05
Speaker
Thank you. Can you tell us a defining moment in your education journey? Sure.
00:02:11
Speaker
Um, actually there's two moon moments of that. Um, I guess, uh, giving you a little bit of background about myself is I never wanted to be a teacher and educator growing up. I was always shy, introverted, and I graduated with a math degree just because that's what came naturally to me. And, um, eventually I found my way into the classroom. Um, but my, my first defining moment was probably in my third year of teaching when I realized that I was really good at getting answers. And i didn't really understand how the topics connected more related to each other and um that happened in front of a group of kids and that's when i realized that um i need to teach a little bit differently it wasn't just about getting the answer is bigger than that.
00:02:57
Speaker
And then from there, I continue to get better in the classroom. And um my I think my second defining moment is once I became a math supervisor, I had the opportunity to witness so many amazing teachers. And I got to see the different ways that they taught. And it was then that I realized that while I was a good teacher and i and I had good test scores, I was teaching the way that I was taught, the way that I learned as a student. And that's really um a defining moment for me of I realized I needed to change what math instruction looks like um and learning from others. And then I was able to share that with other people.
00:03:37
Speaker
I agree with that. I think a lot of us are going through a transformation of, well, this is how I was taught and and you know the taught style of classroom. and I know i I myself have gone through that transformation. so ah Going with that theme, ah how would you say a learner-centered space looks like to you? you and How does it sound like? What does it feel like? And this is yeah what my passion is right
The Learner-Centered Classroom
00:04:03
Speaker
now. This is the whole change the story hashtag um about what instruction looks like. So thanks for asking this question. um I think when I look at the environment, it's when you go to a classroom. um
00:04:16
Speaker
the The students should be able to get dirty with their own learning and um not just be told how to do something, experience it, be actively engaging through exploration and and collaboration, having student choice and personalized instruction. So just the feel, and you can't fake that. um The kids want to be there. So if I'm listening in there, I'm i'm hearing that productive noise. Yes, a loud loud classroom, but it's filled with learners engaged in discussions or they're sharing their ideas or they're explaining reasoning. um They're laughing. They're enjoying ah learning, which we've sort of moved away from in a sense with all the high stakes testing.
00:04:54
Speaker
um In terms of what students are doing, again, participating with hands-on activities, solving ah practical problems in contextual situations, ah the rooms filled with anchor charts, student work displays, manipulatives are available. It's just, you know, it feels like there's a strong community. um The environment ah is inclusive of everybody in there and all the students feel like they belong in that classroom and that they are valued. You mentioned it a little bit in your answer about, you know, because of high stakes testing and and all of this, that's making learning more serious and not as fun, which I completely agree with you. So what does assessment necessarily, I mean, no, we can't avoid high stakes tests. I mean, that's just kind of part of the necessary evil sometimes and what we do. But as far as formative and sub summative assessment in the classroom, what does that look like in a learner centered space?
Assessments as Feedback
00:05:48
Speaker
Yeah, we definitely pegged out on the, um we need the assessment to tell us if we're doing our job correctly and we need to get away from that. You know, assessments are are intended to provide feedback at that point in time to both the learner and the teacher. um And the learner often doesn't see it as feedback. Now, we've taught students that school is about grades. And I was a high school teacher. When kids got to me, I would ask them how they're doing in school and their answer would be about their grades. It wouldn't be about their learning. And that's something that I really do now when I'm visiting classrooms, ah working with teachers and students as I ask.
00:06:24
Speaker
the students, you know, how are you doing in class? And what I want to hear them is tell me about their learning and tell them I'm struggling with this concept or I've mastered this skill. And that's the focus that we need to shift, you know, that assessments are a tool to guide and support learning instead of it just being a number to make us feel good or bad. And I think back to when I was teaching, I um ah experimented with mastery learning, where i um I was in a computer lab, and this that tells you how long ago that it was, but I was in a lab where um
00:06:59
Speaker
I was able to put the content out digitally and students moved to the next topic after reaching a ah specific learning goal. And that was really challenging for for me because of the educational framework that we've created of nine-week grading. And I'm happy to see a lot of our school districts um out there trying to do standard space grading and make it about the mastery piece that assessment happens all throughout the year, not just at the end of a nine weeks or not just on um the Friday that I finished teaching two weeks later. What do you think is the biggest obstacle to schools and school districts going away from the traditional grades more towards a mastery-based grading? I think it is the fact that we have the report cards that come out of certain points in time. ah the The struggle that I hear schools do is they have an ongoing gradebook where they can go back and
00:07:51
Speaker
change something to happen in the first nine weeks once a student mastered it during the second nine weeks. So it's it's building a structure that's um able to report what student learning is. that I think it's the shit that has to happen rather than being on a um yeah at the end of ninth grade. You should have learned this. Congratulations, you United Go to 10th grade.
Fostering Student Ownership
00:08:12
Speaker
So for our listeners who might be listening to this, and they might be in a more traditional environment, but they are learner-centered at heart or want to be more learner-centered, what advice do you have for them, no matter what subject they're teaching, but what advice would you have for them to go in this direction of maybe de-emphasizing grades or having that messy environment um that with laughter that you're describing? Yeah, um I think for that is really going back to the the reason why we're there is to to help students learn. So I would ask the teachers, how do we empower our students to take ownership of their learning instead of passively playing school um and and being compliant? So really thinking about all those micro moves that teachers can do so that they're better tomorrow than what they are today.
00:09:02
Speaker
um And a lot of these are the the math workshop components, um but it really is about instructional best practices. So it applies to all content areas. But I'm looking at how do I begin my classroom? Am I creating an environment that engages all students right off the jump? um where I'm increasing student discourse and helping to build that community so students feel a sense of belonging and want to be there um from their incorporating student choice and leveled activities um that help students become aware of their own understanding are they reflecting on what they learned and how well they learned it. um
00:09:40
Speaker
From there, utilizing stations in small group instruction so that students that know, here's my strengths and my weakness, I can go and personalize my instruction to, this is the station I need to work on, or this is the time I need to work with my teacher in small group instruction. um And that's going to help me work with my my peers to increase the collaboration and the communication. um And then, you know, I've talked about the students owning the learning, but having those multiple reflection prompts built in throughout, you know, learning that support that student ownership. You know, how often at the end of a class do we close and say, here's an exit ticket. Kids leave the classroom without really knowing what they learned for the day. And so just having the
00:10:24
Speaker
um you know Yes, we knew that as as teachers had that data to say, did my students learn what i I taught them? But also, do students leave knowing here's I learned today and how well I learned it? So just to play devil's advocate a little bit, you know, cause I work with a lot of different teachers, some traditional, some ah very much learner centered type environment, but some of the pushback that I've heard and you've probably heard too, is I just don't have time to do all those things in my
Overcoming Time Constraints
00:10:54
Speaker
classroom. There's so much content I have to deliver. There's so much the kids have to learn. We just don't have time for for choice and we don't have time to explore. How would you answer that?
00:11:04
Speaker
Yeah, and it's really going slow to go fast. So um how do we, how are we better tomorrow than we are today? Pick one thing and just try to do those micro moves. So if it's, I don't want to give students choice, choice can be something as simple as here's 15 problems you choose the time that you want to do. It's not um creating two separate activities. It could be as simple as when you come into the classroom, you know, here's a ah debate. You know, you do this while I'm taking attendance and start thinking about it and collaborating. So think of those micro moves. So how do we um tweak what we're doing? Because we're not going to overhaul. If we ask, you know,
00:11:41
Speaker
everyone to overhaul what you're doing and make things learner centered. It seems like more than what it is. It's not. It's just how do we release that power. So at the end of the day, our students are just as tired as we are from from working hard and thinking. I love that. I'm headed to the building thinking classrooms conference. By the time this is this is published, I will have already been to the building thinking classrooms conference. but ah and And I'm presenting there on who's doing the thinking in the classroom. And one of one of my points in my presentation is ever since I've started leaning more towards building thinking classrooms and the students are up at the boards working and collaborating and talking with each other. I'm actually a lot less tired at the end of the day, because they're the ones doing the lion's share of the work, which is how it should be.
Influences on Educational Philosophy
00:12:34
Speaker
Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. So do you have any shout outs or any people who've influenced you over the years that you'd like to recognize?
00:12:43
Speaker
Well, you just named one of them, Peter Lojedal with Building Thing in Classrooms. He's really helping to to transfer the power from the teacher to the students with with that. um Jennifer Limp with her math workshop, um yeah her elementary version of that is, we're rewriting that as a secondary one, but she was the one that really, when I saw it, I mean, just instructional best practices. It's good for kids. It's how do we release the power as a teacher? And I guess ah Manny Jansen is another person with the rough draft math of It's not about getting the answer. the The process is more important than a product. And Peter Logidall says that too, is we have to get away from saying to kids that the answer is what's important, know the thinking is what's important, and how do we reinforce that um in our actions as educators. I agree with all of those shout outs. They're all wonderful. And you have a book coming out with Jennifer Limp coming out later this year. um Do you want to talk more about that book?
Upcoming Book & Future Directions
00:13:41
Speaker
Sure. it's um Really, a lot of the conversation we've had today is is what's in it. It's talking about, in our secondary classroom, how do we change from the traditional type of ah teacher center to the learner center, to the student center? And um so we've gone into schools. We've got some videos of teachers doing this. We have videos of students doing this at a secondary level. And we're hoping that it's going to be um coming out in November. That's the goal. Um, and I'd like to think that, you know, I'm working towards, um, you know, being that, um, that person that people look back as who helped me change what I did in my classroom. Well, I'm definitely going to pre-order that book when I can, because I'm looking forward to it. Uh, so where can our listeners find you online?
00:14:29
Speaker
um So I'm on X, or I call Twix, X Instagram, LinkedIn at SkipTilerMath or SkipTiler. I've got a ah website. My consulting business is ctlgconsulting.com for collaborative teaching and learning group. um And really that's what we do now as we go around and we just try to help ah educators, administrators, teachers just you know be better tomorrow than what they are today. And can I talk about for a second, hashtag change the story. um I have a sticker that you so kindly generously mailed to me.
Changing Math Perceptions
00:15:04
Speaker
um I have that sticker on my laptop and I have gotten so many comments about that sticker that's on my laptop and not all of them positive. Some people, I mean, I work with teachers who teach all kinds of subjects, right? But a lot of teachers, which I'm surprised, will be like, well, I'm not a math person. um So I think the sticker, I think it's a great conversation starter, despite despite that it invokes some folks who say they're not a math person, because that's an opportunity to have that conversation of, yeah, actually, you are, we all are. so And it's it's nice to have those conversations in front of the students, too, so they can they can hear that we're all math people. So thank you for
00:15:44
Speaker
having the hashtag out there and having the stickers out there as well. No problem. And that's um yeah if anyone wants stickers, go to the website and there's a place and I send them out to anybody requested free of charge. That's my passion project is how can we help change the culture of um not being acceptable to say that I'm not good at math? Well, thank you for doing that. um I will definitely put the link ah to the website on our show notes. So listeners, you can reach out to skip. So thank you, Skip, for your time today. This has been a great conversation. No problem. Thank you. And and thanks for advocating for what's best for kids. 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 dot.com. You can follow us on X at MasteryForAll and LinkedIn in our Mastery Portfolio page.
00:16:43
Speaker
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