hello everyone my name is roger coulton i'd like to welcome you today to community conversations president barack obama once said about contemporary education that we need to develop in his words quote standards in assessments that don't simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test but whether they possess st century skills like problem solving critical thinking entrepreneurship and creativity as we now move the st century our belmont schools are striving to fulfill that very ambitious statement one way that's being done is through incorporating what's called the four c's into the curriculum in addition to teaching the three  of reading writing and arithmetic the belmont school seek to teach the foresees of creativity critical thinking communication and collaboration i have with me today belmont high school principal dan richards to help talk us through exactly what it means to teach the foresees dan welcome to community conversations and thank you for taking time out of your work day to come and talk with us thank you rogers a pleasure dan let's jump right in  the four seasons creativity critical thinking communication collaboration i want to go through each of those individually in the next half hour but before we get it down to the detail can you give me an overview of what the forces are absolutely foresees or skills that two years ago at the faculty at belmont high school and in a fight we knew that just content base knowledge is a thing of the us and teaching skills to kids is essential we know that we're teaching skills but we don't know specifically laser focus on which one so they went on a journey about two years ago and they went through a couple of exercises to identify key skills that we thought kids would need to be ready for the st century workplace they came down with it boiled down to the foresees creativity communication collaboration and creativity and then we actually spent time we defined what that meant and i think that's important because it's easy to embrace the skills but knowing the definitions  communicating those skills to kids is important and then from there we actually develop the rubrics through i would say two different working groups at the school and from   the four seas aren't really content based they are skills based in that's a real change in education correct now the content is important i want to make sure that it's clear we're not throwing out content i believe even education you don't throw everything out and start over it's a combination so the content is still just as important but the skills we're going to the teachers aren't betting within their instruction within their practices each day so there's an emphasis this a focus there's a definition to clearly state to students what we're working on in addition to the contents of the content is just as important it's just an expansion of how we deliver the material  instruction indeed give it clear in my mind one doesn't keats a class in creativity or one doesn't teach a class in critical thinking you take the student takes a class in  geography i would days myself whatever class i come up with but you don't you take a class in math or you take a class and ya graffiti and then critical the critical skills the for get wrapped into how it is taught not what is well maybe what is time but how it is taught you're correct on both versions we do take the time there is no class for creativity critical thinking communication collaboration but we do take time out of the class time in order to explain it to students so that we set them up for success and this is happening across all content areas one may think that creativity belongs only  rubric and then from there it's imbedded in practice and then it's going to get a lot easier once it becomes common language and common knowledge to everyone and we talk about teaching the kids but y management so it's not only teaching the kids but there is a real job to teach the teachers there's going to be a question mark here there's a real job to teach the teachers how to teach the foresees did that make sense it makes complete sense and i would take that even a step further that there is a job to teach the principal the skills st before i then take it to the faculty spent the last few years researching skill base learning what skills are important so that i can speak to them to the faculty and then what we're doing is we're bringing in folks to actually teach them  skills and what it will look like hitting the table for a student hitting the desk so yeah we're going to answer your question real quick workshops faculty meeting time is dedicated to the skills  also with literature so there is a getting up to speed sort of speak with the faculty and staff and that's going to be ongoing i don't see that as wanted to workshops i see that over a period of a couple of years and as we become much more proficient much more knowledgeable on the skills i know that will be the next level learning so we will continue this learning for the next few years on the teacher level in the student level and my understanding and my understanding may be right or wrong but this wasn't something that was imposed from the the top down it's not as though he went to a conference came home and said we need to teach the foresees this really bubbled up from the bottom from the faculty and it was a collaborative decision right it was an interesting introduction in the beginning i will say of it was something new for the faculty and staff and it took some time to warm up to and at this point there's more collaboration moving forward so when i st introduce the subjects or the idea of skills the st question is if we're doing so well on test scores and content why would we venture down this road and it took low convincing to the faculty and staff that were already doing this it's embedded in what we're doing we just haven't identified it nor how we defined it clearly and brought it to the forefront for students so there was a a learning curve  bit of convincing and at this point we're three years into it and i would say it's going slower than before but with anything new there is the why why are we doing this why do we need this and those questions came in y one and it took a bit to find to answer those to move forward but i'm happy where we've landed that's great i what i had in preparing for today show i was reading this national education association report and educators guide to the four c and i want to read you a quote that i pulled out of this and get your reaction to it the quote is an active learning environment where this is describing the foresees and as an active learning environment where students are prompted to ask questions seek out relevant information  apply that information not just remember it does that capture what it sounds like being a high school student is harder than it used to be but the notion of seeking out information  applying it rather than just learning it and being able to regurgitate it absolutely and i think those are the days when i went to high school maybe you went to high school that was expected of us what's expected for a students enter into the st century workforce is this act of learning and knowing how to collaborate with others with different personalities different strings but i would agree with the active learning meaning that students engaged in materials they participate in class and collaborate with each other and i want to make sure that collaboration and working with the students to define this collaboration means more than pushing the dust to gather collaboration means working with each other seeking out each other's strengths and weaknesses and applying them as a group as a team and to produce a product for whatever assignment it is so put more than pushing dust together maybe that's what you experience i know that's what i'm going through education it means much more than that and these are the skills that employers are looking for in our students well let's go through each of the four cities and talk about each one and i'd i'd like to start with critical thinking  because critical thinking seems to capture the notion of not simply regurgitating information but applying that information can can you define critical thinking i mean is there a standard definition but give me the the day and richard spellman high school definition of critical thinking there are many definitions out there on depending on who you talk to by the definition that the faculty came up with is what i like most they have defined it as to lect and analyze relevant information reason affectively use system thinkings make sound judgments and decisions identify define solve authentic problems and essential questions reflect reflect critically on learning experiences and process and solutions and i'm so happy that they put the word reflect in there because we move at such a fast pace and this world reflection is often forgotten so that is the definition that the faculty and staff to come up with belmont high school and i'm really pleased at the work that they put in to accomplish this so there 's a lot wrapped up in that obviously one of the things i heard in there which is a change at least from when i went to school is this notion of asking questions  go i think you said the faculties definition included seeking out information not just listening but seeking out information absolutely and going back to questions the yes or no question is not excess is used when appropriate but it needs to be more than the questions that we asked students require these skills for of response and they need to synthesize the material so our questioning technique needs to be on a higher order of thinking level and it's not so much that we experience yes no or give me the year of whatever war may be so the questioning technique prompts the skills and that's what we're working on as well and this takes a lot of time and i'm happy to see when it teacher does not give up on a question in the student does not know the answer and they give a guiding questions to the answer rather than reveal and that's part of the questioning technique as well we will not give up on you will see you through this i'm not done with you yet and we keep going out and till they arrive at the appropriate question that's where i want to land with the faculty and staff and that takes time and it takes a lot of skill and practice and that's what we're working on and you mentioned the term i think authentic authentic situations i'm not sure if i remember the exact term you use but the notion of applying the skills applying the information to rio were old issues are real real world situations is get can you talk about talk about that and you bring people seems like you might need to bring people in to st students to talk with you about real world or authentic situations well your experience in my experience in the world is authentic and i want to bring that in so we have teachers bring it in real world experience from the news from either their experience or are a situation in history that they were going through so authentic experience or experiences that are experiences that students can relate to and apply towards the real world it's not exclusively tours guest speakers coming in even though that's a great piece of it and we're doing that in the history class later this month bring it in survivors of world war two the korean story in order to make it authentic or relatable to students i remember going through high school and me my friends why do we need to learn this and i'm sure i kids are asking the same thing today why do we need to learn this by making authentic and making it real world experiences it makes it alive it makes it something they can touch and something they can relate to one thing one term that seems like it kept popping up project based learning definitely has a couple of definitions but i can give you my understanding of it so rather than kids in rows and listen to a lecture from a teacher and take in the notes and regurgitating the information back a lot of our teachers will focus on a project project isn't necessarily making something out of paper mach coming back and bring in the project and is setting up  a debate it could be that students are prepping for pros and cons on a debate getting ready working on it for about a week and get ready for the big day of the debate the pullman strike is something that we used in social studies and every student was given a character and the character that was part of the negotiations of the strike and they had to see it from the character's point of view make it authentic real and then once the research the characters or the folks involved in negotiations they then came into the negotiations in their role not opinions within the role that they studied or the person in history that they studied and they had to debate and go back and forth and i would say it is an act of environment it's a lecture if the kids are engaged in the characters they have to represent their characters fully they can embed their own personalities so that would be an example of a project base or it could be a simple focus around  sharks and where do we go from there it could be the anatomy then it could be migrating habits it could be a variety of things usually a project based learning the kids take us on a journey rather than we take them and they always exceed our expectations so many skills are being learned over a subject or a project or a debate well beyond our expectations so project based learning is happening so project based learning really goes over all four of the forty six it's not just critical thinking that's what i just heard you say absolutely and what a great way to embrace all of these skills and this is these examples that i have given are have been happening at belmont high school for some time and so when i approached the faculty on the four c's the st thing we did is let's take a look at what we're currently doing and i y where this is happening and i think there were surprised to see a lot of this is already happening we're just putting it in the laser focus and bring it to kids attention let's move on to creativity yeah you gave me a definition of critical thinking creativity is not as you said earlier simply fine arts drama music the ability to i mean i've never gotten smiling faces on my handwriting but the performance arts the visual arts can you give us a notion of creativity absolutely creativity is something that employers are looking for a couple colleges and universities as well we want kids to think creatively and we want kids to have a wide range of ideas techniques brainstorming able to map it out and come up with conclusions created a new and worthwhile idea something that's a regional something that you have modified they elaborate they refine they analyze their own ideas in order to improve i max my creative efforts working creatively with others again they overlap with collaboration and working on creativity communication skills are embedded in that as well so creativity is basically coming up with ideas that are originally to the individual that demonstrate original thoughts research working to understand the real world limits of adopting new ideas so again that authentic learning is coming into creativity so failure is also part of this failure isn't it's a bad word in many folks vocabulary failure is necessary in order to become creative and we communicate this to kids as well and it builds resilience failure is necessary order to build your creativity so yes you will have setbacks how do you recover is more important than a set back through the process of creativity or even critical thinking or anyone foresees so you can see how we have f grit or resilience in all of these one of the things that i read was a discussion of what's called a productive mistake does that term mean something to you absolutely well you talk about failure and i think are those two those two must be related they are related a productive mistake is necessary in order to achieve what we're looking for and product no one simply arrives at a plus work there's mistakes along the way that are made constantly and we learn from them and then we develop our skills a little further and then there's a step back and then we learn further productive mistakes are necessary in all of our work student work adult work career college absolutely it's basically reflecting again back to that word reflecting on where you have failed or where you made mistakes in order to grow with an open mindset to the next which is further along the process i'd like to read you another quote and i'm big on quotes that as you may know better and get your reaction it again from the n e a says student work whether done individually or in teams should not look like work don by other students on the same topic sameness is a symptom when the process is in the resulting product all look the same there is too little control in student hands and too many instructions being followed  does that ring a bell with you it doesn't ring a bell and i think one of the ring a bell in this that is not your quote that's not what i but go ahead you know absolutely and i can relate to that often teachers are asked by students how do i get an a and there is a path and let me do steps one hundred and twenty three and four through the quote that is just given there isn't necessarily steps or i should say prescribe we have individual steps and how to get there because your strengths are different than my strengths and how we achieve that and working in teams go back to collaboration that's what it's all about understanding each each of those contribution so i would agree with the quote strongly all too often we look for the pathway to the end product and it's not necessarily straight it's definitely curved in many ways sometimes it goes backwards and then goes forwards so i would agree i think we're all looking for the steps to or to achieve the goal and students are as well please tell me the four steps in order to get so communication is the is the rd c let me start with asking you again a definition of communications but i have a very specific question about communications but let's start with a definition if you've got one well that put the teachers of come up with is there was a strong emphasis on interpersonal skills during conversations and discussion to build positive relationships in relationships is key to all of these with others and promote collaborative learning it goes on to list many of the bullets of what their definition is but it's also active listening which you and i are well aware of but kids may not be aware of  includes knowledge of value attitudes and intentions communicating ideas through the creation of authentic products using a combination of words visual representation to form and persuade and entertain others so you can see all these elements are coming into communication and especially in a world where communication is immediate and they have a lot of communication coming at them we want kids to filter that information and order to use it in moving forward with a project product whatever it may be communication is just not speaking in active listening it's also just say for what's coming at them at lightning speed so we try to teach them what is worth of value what isn't value so those are some of the aspects that we're trying to teach them there are a couple things in there i think that i want to follow up on  one which i found fascinating was and you said it twice now in the it just the last few minutes is the notion of how much listening is part of communication communication i've always thought of it as projecting what would i know or want to or so on but projecting from me to someone but listening yeah you use the word active listening but listening is part of communication absolute really and i'll give you my own personal example when i stand up for from the faculty and i communicate something to them i openly admit you all just heard something different i know that i'm here to explain it in a different form how can i and so when you're speaking to someone how they receive it you never quite know and especially when i have a faculty of one hundred folks in front of me i know they all heard something different so active listening being on the other side of the message focused tuned in to that moment with the individual so that you give the respect and also able to receive the message they're trying to send we're trying to teach kids that because multitasking is what they're used to and eye to eye contact is also very difficult and we're trying to practice those it sounds very basic but that's all part of the communication that we're trying to teach students and one thing that i heard as you were describing the definition which i think fast i find a lot of this fascinating but is that different purposes of human communication one communicates to motivate one communicate to inform one communicate to persuade they're there are different purposes i don't know if that's the right word but different reasons to communicate absolutely and that's something that we have done always done at belmont high school but again we're bringing it to the light we're bringing it to the focus to explain to kids why we're actually doing this when would you use how you use persuasive writing and speaking debating as well so there are different forms of communication you just simply can't go on in the world and debate and you won't get very far and you've probably will experience resilience so we want to teach kids the different dalat is of communication  to use and what's appropriate and that's part of that whole definition in the skills we're trying to build and why these skills is so important to teach students now so they can practice so they can fail so they can pick themselves up try again high school is a time where it's time for kids to experiment with these skills and find two of them before we release them onto the real world and the fact is that employers look for these skills i mean if you're working with a group of fellow staff people or work group in an employment situation each of those skills needs to be mastered absolutely and there is an expectation the coming through the door with these skills fine tuned and that's not necessarily the case in all parts of our country and we're trying to put a real focus on belmont high school so or kids will have an advantage and they understand the different styles of communication they're able to be creative in situations they're able to come up with more than one solution of a problem and critical thinking multiple solutions and that's what we're aiming to do let's close the door on that and move to the th see collaboration is there a definition of collaboration there is they came up with a really nice definition is starts off very basic and again we try  to make it simple for us students to understand and to make it tangible collaborate with others demonstrate the ability to work effectively and respectively with diverse teams and we're all going to experience diverse teams in life exercise flexibility you know willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal it's not an all win situations we all have to make compromises and assume shared responsibility for collaborative work and value the individual contributions made by each team member going back to what each team member brings to the team we all have different strengths and weaknesses and how do we embrace them and how do we work with them and this is a real world situations we teaching kids how to identify that and work with them and i think those skills will be a lifetime for them that's great dan we're out of time you and i could talk about this for some time longer i have a sneaking suspicion that it's been great fun i really do appreciate you  taking time out of the school day to to be here today i would like to have you back because it seems like there's this this building project that's going on or hopefully  you the boys won last night the boys basketball team won last night yes the girls start on friday night who's going to be playing longer the boys of the girl you're really going to put me in that position the principal they're going to they're going to see this through both of them to the very end and i predict and why not state champs on both sides i have to tell you that i'm a b fan and as i was thinking about critical thinking collaboration and creativity you can go watch the either the girls or the boys basketball teams and you can see all four of th dan for joining us to joining us today to talk with us and i would like to thank you the listeners for tuning in you can listen to this broadcast podcast by accessing it online at the b m c podcast network belmont media dot org and you can also download us from i tunes by searching for the b m c podcast network i'm your host roger coulton thank you again for listening and i will talk with you again in two weeks