Narrative Five: ” Picture Yourself As” (A Closing Activity)

by Marian Brown

Today’s class at Arlington centered around “wrapping up” the semester. This is the second to last session during which the students will engage with the GoodWork Toolkit this year. Cheryl decided to use the exercise “Picture Yourself As.”

This exercise asks students to picture themselves as either a college professor, astronaut, or actor. Cheryl gave firm directions that each student had to pick one of these three professions, and that they would have to defend their decision. Students were given ten minutes to read the prompt and to think about the impending fictitious professional choices. They made bullet point lists of the reasons why they wanted to join their chosen profession.

After this intrapersonal (solitary) work time, Cheryl had the students circle up at the front of the room for interpersonal (group) work. She took the temperature of the room by asking students to show hands for which profession they preferred. Overwhelmingly, the most popular choice with Period B was astronaut, and with Period D it was professor. A discussion then ensued regarding the student’s choice. Instead of asking why the students choose they professions they did, Cheryl decided to ask them about the professions they did not chose.

Cheryl started by asking the astronauts and actors why they did not chose to become college professors. Some answers were light hearted, such as, “I thought astronaut would be more fun”, whereas others were quite penetrating, “Well, I thought about the amount of schooling necessary to become a professor, and the selflessness of teaching and realized that it was too big of a commitment for me. I don’t think I could do GoodWork as a professor, or at least not my best work”. The second answer in this set shows great synthesis of the GoodWork curriculum, and applies its concepts in a real life context. Cheryl then asked the actors and professors why thye choose not to become astronauts, and so on. All of the students had varying answers that encompassed ethics, engagement and excellence in work and how we can best choose jobs that will exemplify the three E’s in our own work.

Starting the discussion in this reverse questioning format opened a safe environment where students were really able to express their desires and decisions from both standpoints of the argument. This level of synthesis led to a rich discussion. After having the initial “I didn’t choose this because…” discussion, Cheryl opened the floor to have students articulate why they choose the professions they had. Not surprisingly, a lot of the answers connected to the level of enjoyment the students anticipated from the job, and also their ability to produce GoodWork within the field. The students discussed the necessary skill sets, training, personal attributes, and assets they would need to be successful in the work force. They then started discussing these topics in relationship to the actual careers they hope to pursue. As the discussion concluded the students echoed the importance of GoodWork, and finding jobs that are personally fulfilling to them.

This upcoming week at Arlington Cheryl plans to dive deeper into the wrap-up of the GoodWork ToolKit. She will introduce another activity for reflection and synthesis. She is going to center the conversation on the graduating seniors, asking them to apply GoodWork in their upcoming endeavors. It will be really interesting to get an intimate look into the graduating senior’s experiences at Arlington High School; the excellence, ethics and engagement they have applied here, and how that will transition these concepts into their future careers in academia and the work force.

GoodWork at Work in India: Part III

by Elizabeth Kim

A continuation of the report of several Indian schools’ incorporation of the GoodWork Toolkit in classrooms, this post explores the ways in which GoodWork does not solely translate to the active work we do for society. Valsa Balaji of the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Sr. Sec School interprets GoodWork by looking inward through the lens of health and investigates how we can treat our bodies with excellence, ethics, and engagement.

Valsa realized the deep entwinement between healthy eating/living habits and academics. To battle the unhealthy eating habits of youth who readily turn to junk food and packaged synthetic food, Valsa launched a campaign that sought to achieve a number of objectives including: to impart knowledge of health benefits to the younger generation, to help students develop practical skills and self-confidence in planning meals, preparing foods, reading food labels, and making healthy food choices, and to enable students to  critically analyze sociocultural influences, including advertising, on food selection. Valsa endeavored to promote consciousness of nutrition and to inculcate skills that would help students critically discern healthy foods from unhealthy ones.

Valsa and her team worked fervently on a number of initiatives to achieve this vision of healthy eating and healthy living. Some of the efforts they put forth included a campaign called “treat yourself to a healthy snack” in which students were encouraged to bring to school healthy snacks such as sprouts, nuts, apples, and corn. Moreover, children were trained to read and interpret food labels to inform their eating choices. A Health and Wellness Club was established to provide ongoing awareness of this cause. The members of this club participated in hands-on activities such as making low-calorie recipes, participating in yoga demonstrations, and producing a newsletter regarding health and wellness. Another important component of the project involved physical education instructors teaching about the unique nutrition needs of athletes. They elaborated on the right kinds of foods and the right amounts that are optimal for a fitness plan. For athletes must be mindful of foods to help sustain both performance and growth.

However, students were not the only participants in this project. The teaching staff partook in the activities alongside the students and strove to be role models through their healthy living habits. Several teachers, such as Ms. Annapoorna and Ms. Chitra of the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Sr. Sec School commented on how improving eating habits had a powerful impact on their body aches and sleeping patterns. Together in union with the students, the school seems to be encountering a potent wave of change towards health.

In considering future plans, it is clear that Valsa is committed to encouraging healthy eating throughout the school. She plans to reinforce messages of healthy eating to the cafeteria staff and to include more whole foods in the menu. Posters and fliers regarding nutrition will also adorn the walls of the cafeteria. Parents will be asked to continuously support and reinforced a balanced diet in preparing meals for their children and Valsa hopes to assign students nutrition education homework, which will need to be completed with their family. By encouraging all school staff and parents to join in the movement to practice healthy eating habits, Valsa challenges them to “be the change you want to see in the world.”

Narrative Four: What Do you Value?

by Marian Brown

The activity, “What Do You Value?” (page 103 in the GWTK) was covered over two weeks at Arlington. Cheryl devoted two class periods, one hour each, for the activity and accompanying synthesis. In the first period Cheryl presented the activity. Students were asked to create a map of their own beliefs and values while thinking about the roles they play in their families, in school, and outside activities. They were also asked to think about and draw parallels between the varying roles and sectors they played in their lives.

The students were enthusiastic and many commented on the enjoyment of working in representational form. Zach said, “I like getting the opportunity to share my particular views and beliefs, and to have the space in school to actually think about these things. Often times our (the students’) opinion is rarely asked for.” Cheryl further encouraged this self-exploration and reflection by telling the students to, “Have a ball. Get out the colored pencils, spread out, make yourselves comfortable and spend the hour engrossed in your own thought.”

Any high school educator can tell you how difficult it can be to keep a room full of students quietly engaged with a project for an entire hour. Well, that engagement was not an issue for the students here. The students busily and quietly worked on their diagrams with dedication. The final result was impressive. Please take a moment to look at the student work exemplar below. As you’ll notice, the maps are all incredibly unique, showing the individual student voice and value, as well as differing learning modalities and strengths.

GoodWork at Work in India: Part II

by Elizabeth Kim

Our last “GoodWork at Work” post introduced one Indian colleague’s efforts to sensitize her students towards the importance of GoodWork and another colleague’s innovative work in creating a GoodWork index. But how can we involve other stakeholders in this vision for excellence, ethics, and engagement? This post explores how GoodWork impacts other important stakeholders in education and how they can support students in powerful ways.

Because children and students are at such a formative period in their lives, it is crucial to involve parents in the discussion. Gurvinder Kaur addressed this need at the Punjab Public School. Bringing together parents for a meeting, Gurvinder encouraged parents to take responsibility and “nurture children with strong ethics.” Gurvinder provided several suggestions for the parents such as helping the school ensure discipline, being mindful of providing cash to children, and reminding children of the importance of ethics in life. Parents were receptive to these suggestions and expressed interest in future sessions. Indeed, by reinforcing values of GoodWork at home there is more promise that we will have students and children dedicated to upholding GoodWork. This is something we have tried to encourage in our work in American schools, but depending on the particular community, it has not always proved easy.

The responsibility for good work should not lie solely with the student; instead as the work in India has suggested, other stakeholders in the school ought to be conscious of and further encourage these values. As we have learned in our research, when teachers and parents are in alignment with one another in their goals and the vision for their students, good work is easier to achieve.

Next in our series, we address the question: how can health education be addressed through the  lens of good work?

GoodWork at Work in India: Part I

by Elizabeth Kim

My name is Elizabeth Kim and I have been working with the Good Work team doing research for the Collaboration project as well as the Family Dinner Project. As a Master’s student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Learning and Teaching program, my interests include investigating how to expand teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and what instructional practices are most effective in prompting genuine and meaningful student learning.

Lynn and Wendy recently posted about what the GoodWork project has been doing in India and the great enthusiasm of the teachers that welcomed them. But the danger of such long-spanning professional development programs is that the lessons learned by teachers will not come to fruition by the students. As a challenge to continue promoting good work in their communities, we asked teachers to voluntarily incorporate what they had learned into their classrooms. An overwhelming number of teachers responded and sent us drafts of their lesson summaries – the variations of implementation were truly astounding. This post is the beginning of a series that will be dedicated to highlighting the efforts of teachers in India and the global impact of GoodWork.

Many of the teachers who responded to our challenge reproduced and expanded the training they had received in their lessons. Ritesh Sharma of the Appejay School, for example, sought to introduce the values of good work through a brainstorming session in which students thoughtfully articulated their ideas about good work. There was also a story composition element to the lesson, in which students relayed a personal anecdote of an ethical dilemma they faced. Finally, Ritesh used the value sort cards to help students realize their beliefs and opinions about work. By using tools such as the value cards and questionnaires, Ritesh was able to inculcate an awareness of some of the core concepts of good work:  in addition to the three “E’s”, concepts such as responsibility, and alignment.

One student’s ethical dilemma:

While Ritesh utilized existing GoodWork materials, some teachers ventured to expand the concept. One teacher at TSRS Aravali School, Chavi Behl, recognized how challenging it is to evaluate such a subjective measure as good work. Appropriately titling her lesson “Measuring the ‘Immeasurable’,” she constructed a method of calculating a “GoodWork Index.” By using a Likert scale from 1-10 on students’ levels of excellence, ethics, and engagement, Chavi asked student peers and other teachers to evaluate each individual. With the three scores, she formulated this equation for the Goodwork index:

GWI = Variance

        Mean

Chavi offers a starting point for enabling a comparative measure for good work, and her comment well illuminates her belief in the importance of this index: “What cannot be measured cannot be managed.” In addition to providing a useful index, the teacher also adds a fourth “e” to the GoodWork composition – enjoyment. By experiencing engagement, ethics, and excellence, students consequently experience enjoyment, and this positive attitude fuels further engagement, ethics, and excellence, in a bidirectional loop.  Chavi’s innovative and thoughtful contributions are deeply appreciated and exemplify the various ways GoodWork is being interpreted and transformed around the world.

Next in our series, we will discuss how we can involve different stakeholders of the school in spurring good work in our communities. If you would like access to the full presentations these teacher’s created to detail their work, please let us know!