Episode 6: The Teacher As Change Agent with Leah Henry

How to reach Leah Henry:

Twitter: @LeahRossHenry

Check out #pblchat Tuesday nights, 9:30 Eastern Time.

Make sure to look at the PBL and Design Thinking resources in my blogpost this week.

Transcript:

(transcribed by kayla.r.fainer@gmail.com)

Melissa Milner  00:09

Hi, this is Melissa Milner. Welcome to The Teacher As... podcast. The goal of this weekly podcast is to help you explore your passions and learn from others in education and beyond to better your teaching. The Teacher As... will highlight uncommon parallels to teaching, as well as share practical ideas for the classroom. 

In this episode, I interview Leah Henry. Leah is a veteran project-based learning facilitator and instructional coach. She has taught or coached in grades 7 through 12 in rural, suburban and urban schools. After my talk with Leah, I gathered the resources Leah mentioned and much more, and I share these in my blog post this week, entitled "The Teacher As Change Agent: Project-Based Learning". I apologize for some Wi-Fi and sound issues that occurred during this interview. Please enjoy my chat with Leah Henry. So happy to have you here, Leah Henry.

Leah Henry  01:02

Thank you. 

Melissa Milner  01:03

So I just want to start with what do you want The Teacher As... podcast listeners to know about you and your work?

Leah Henry  01:09

There's a whole lot of answers to that question, I suppose, because I feel like I have my hands in a lot of fires. But I think the number one thing is that I'm not done learning ever. I have found that I am at my best, 100%, whenever I'm constantly learning. And so my chief job is to learn if that makes sense. 

And I adopted that mindset for an organization called the New Tech Network. And it dawned on me that I was being paid to learn. And it just strikes me now that I'm back in a classroom that if we are to be helping other people learn, then it seems paramount that we would be learners ourselves. And I don't know, I just kind of wrestle with that a lot. 

I think about principals and teachers to truly be learners and model what learning is for our students, or do we want them to be more static? And as a result, does that mean that what the kids are getting is kind of static? I think that's something that at the end of the day, I hope that I convey to people that I'm not done learning.

Melissa Milner  02:23

That's great. Do you do a lot of professional development?

Leah Henry  02:28

In the two years since I've returned to the classroom-- and in full transparency, I did that because my son started kindergarten, my oldest did. And my prior position was one where I traveled around the country, was home maybe, I think on average it would end up being four days a week. And so it just wasn't sustainable with my son starting kindergarten. 

And I did have a great support network, but I moved back to the classroom so I could be on a schedule. And when I did that, oh man, talk about learning to just shut up and listen. I'd been in classrooms all over the country for six years working with teachers, and helping them to make their classrooms more student centered, and leading PD for hundreds of people at a time, 10 people at a time, depending on the situation, virtual PD, lots of virtual PD. Everybody's 10, 20, 30 years younger. You're now delivering a totally different set of content. That's been really a weird transition for me. Let's just call it that, weird. 

But in the meantime, I've tried to keep my skills sharp by leading professional development, largely around project-based learning, inquiry-based learning for school districts that request my services. And so I'll do that summer break, weekends, virtually. I partner with a couple different organizations to provide virtual coaching after school. 

And then I also have been doing a lot of curriculum writing on the side for a very good friend of mine, Jenny Pieratt, who is the founder of CraftED Curriculum. So that's kind of the gist of where my learning continues. I'm in the classroom with students from 7:30 to 3:30 or so. And then, I guess in the little downtime you get when you have three kids, you plug in those professional development opportunities when they arise.

Melissa Milner  04:31

Right. I admire all that you do. That's amazing. And all you have to do is search your name on Google, and you can see all the things you've done. It's pretty impressive. Of all the things you've done, what is your proudest moment in your professional work so far?

Leah Henry  04:47

When I log on to Facebook, and I see my former students who now are using skills that I know we worked on in our classroom to help further their careers, and make their lives better and do better for their families, that gives me a great sense of pride in my work. Because I understand that I'm not completely responsible for that. But there's a large part of the work that maybe was their high school career that contributed to that. 

And I would also say that when I see teachers who I've worked with get excited about the outcome of a project class or maybe just get excited about being an educator, that makes me proud, too. Because that is probably the best high I could ever have is to see people in a profession bombarded with disrespect, with misunderstanding. And seeing those people get excited about what they do for a living again? Gosh, that's just why I continue to do professional development when I can, you know? 

The day that I don't have that is probably the day I need to hang my hat up. Either I'm done and you need to let me go retire on a beach. Or else I just need to go learn some more and get my mojo back.

Melissa Milner  06:14

Right. Can you give an example - and if you can't think of one that's okay - of either the Facebook with your students or the adult work that you've done, an example of what you saw that it was like, oh, I think that's because of me.

Leah Henry  06:28

One in particular, I think she's down in Florida. And she started her own networking organization for women in Orlando for businesswomen. And she was a student. She probably would have done well in a quote unquote "traditional high school", probably would have done pretty well for herself because she had quite a bit of agency on her own. 

But through a lot of projects through her whole high school career, God only knows how many projects she did. Because our academy I taught in Indianapolis, they're all project-based learning. And this young lady probably did public presentations to real world audiences, I don't know, 50 times and then not real world audiences probably like 100 times, right?

Melissa Milner  07:12

Wow.

Leah Henry  07:12

So in your four years of doing that kind of communication, and you're getting very tech savvy in the meantime because you're using technology, both Mac and PC quite frequently, learning how to edit videos and all this other stuff. She took her skill set, I think she got an associate's degree, maybe even online. And now she runs a woman's marketing to female entrepreneurs down in Orlando. And I was super proud of her. 

But then I also see other kids who maybe intrude into my classroom not knowing much English at all, and now they are thriving. And just as an adult that is in a healthy relationship, having their first kids etc. makes me excited, too. Because the lady I'm thinking of got her LPN license, and she's doing well for herself. And I remember her freshman year, she relied heavily on her peers to just even understand what the heck was going on in class, because of the language barriers. 

That's why we do what we do. But then I also would say, as a teacher example, the six years that I was blessed to be at New Tech, they still are my friends. And even though some of them aren't teaching in that network anymore, we'll still connect, reach out to each other for project ideas, that kind of thing. That kind of stuff excites me, because there's this broader network of people who want to do well and feel like they can confide in me still, even though I'm technically not their coach or something. That's exciting, too.

Melissa Milner  07:55

That's great. I would love to do real project-based learning and backwards planning. What structures need to be in place for educators to be able to do this work? And then you mentioned a little piece about equity.

Leah Henry  09:00

I think the key to any kind of pedagogical theory, getting any of that working, is for everybody to have the same vision for what the purpose of what you're doing is. And whenever we would coach leaders, and I've done some workshops. The state of Indiana had this series last summer where I led some workshops about leadership. And I was just like, your focus has to be known throughout the whole school. And if you would like for students to be engaged in problem solving authentically, and diving into what's going on in the world and have it be student centered, then you have to, as a leader, clear out the obstacles to that. 

Now, it's about flexibility, but it also is really about trust. You have to train them. You have to give them the time to plan accordingly. As educators, sometimes we think there are boundaries that actually are not there. Oh, but I have to do this, this and this. But do you really have to? Who's gonna come down on you if that doesn't happen? And I think that's part of leadership's job, to come and say, hey, these are non-negotiables, for the state or whatever. The rest of this is where you come in as the professional and you figure it out. 

And that's where that trust piece comes in. But I think that speaks to equity because of the fact that if you have a one size fits all curriculum, a certain set of knowledge that has been imparted that you have to teach, that means that's owned by the people who created that set of standards or whatever, or that pacing guide. And it's not owned by the students. 

And I think that's the part that when we speak about student centeredness, project-based learning, inquiry, any of these methodologies that try to put students at the heart of it, that's where we can get to more equitable outcomes. Because we want to tap into authenticity and student interest, and allow them to explain what they're learning in a way that best suits them and isn't something that has been mandated by a hierarchy that's in place that maybe they haven't had success with before. 

And educators are thinking about, oh, how do I make sure I'm reducing inequity in the classroom? I think a lot of us saw a big one in this time of elearning, when I was like, hey guys, whichever way you want to demonstrate your understanding of the Industrial Revolution, knock it out. Here a list of some for those of you who need a little guidance, right? Here's my rubric, or here's a checklist. I guess I kind of had a checklist that day of what would demonstrate the knowledge. 

Now you figure out a way to explain this, number one, that you have access to. Number two, that makes sense to you so I can tell how you make meaning of things. That was probably the best thing to me that may have come out of this whole online COVID educational learning crisis that we have. Because I think teachers saw, wait a minute, there's not just maybe one way to demonstrate competency here. I could open that up.

Melissa Milner  12:09

Yeah, it allowed for some freedom for sure.

Leah Henry  12:13

Yeah, but it also is a plea. That is a way we can bring equity in the classroom. And I think alternatively, when we limit that and we force a certain lens upon our students or a certain way of demonstrating knowledge, that's when we see inequities arise.

Melissa Milner  12:34

Before I go on to my last two questions, just really quickly, if people wanted to learn more about project-based learning, what do you recommend?

Leah Henry  12:40

Well, there's a plethora of books out there. I think there's some organizations that work to create systems that you spoke to that allow PBL to flourish. New Tech is one of them. Formerly known as the Buck Institute, PBLWorks does really good work. They do workshops. They do things that could involve your whole system or could not. New Tech is more system-based. Because they really believe that you have to change the system to change the outcomes. And so they don't do as much of that individual type work. 

Then you have organizations locally. I know like in Indiana, Magnify Learning is one. They will go all through the Midwest, fantastic people there. Jenny Pieratt, the gal that I do contract work for, she's great, too, with CraftED Curriculum. She has an online PBL course. She is just one of the most genuine people I've ever met in my life. Especially if you are elementary, and you just have gone to PBL training and just felt like nobody heard you, I think Jenny has a heart for elementary ed. She works with a lot of folks in California, a lot of schools when they're in session. I think those are some good resources. 

And then alternatively, PBLWorks or formerly known as the Buck Institute folks, they have a whole library that you can search through projects that are sort of ready to go. But the tricky part there is who's to say somebody that developed a project in California about vineyards is going to be the project you need to have in central Arkansas or something? You've got to make it your own. You've got to cater to your students. 

And so those are just good places to get ideas. But at the end of the day, you've gotta be careful you're not just doing projects, right? You've got to make the learning about solving a problem, addressing a serious question.

Melissa Milner  14:40

The design thinking stuff, you mean?

Leah Henry  14:42

Yeah. So that's the difference. And I think a lot of people are like, oh, I do project-based learning. Well, not really. You're doing a project after you've taught kids a bunch of stuff. But the big difference in that is that with project-based learning, they know the why, they know the reason right up front. How do we raise awareness about the modern day slave trade? I don't know, what do I know about slavery? 

Okay, good question. Let's go into that, slavery throughout history, and then scaffolding and building. And before you know it, you've quote unquote "covered" a gazillion world history standards just by asking one question. What do we know about modern day slavery and human trafficking? 

And the students will come up with an idea to have an exhibition or do a fundraiser for a local sex trafficking awareness or recovery group or something. And that is different than projects, because the students are guided the whole time by this bigger question. And hopefully, it's something that is concerning to them and is in their interest.

Melissa Milner  15:45

Very cool. In your work right now - and I know it's been different because of COVID - but what are you zooming in to right now? Is there a certain book or a certain project that you're zooming in on right now?

[ZOOMING IN SOUNDBITE]

Leah Henry  16:00

There's a couple projects I have going on. One is I'm really wrestling with the idea of integrating ethics education into all my projects somehow. So I coached Ethics Bowl at our school. Friends work at the Prindle Institute at DePaul University. And they teach ethics or have an ethics podcast, etc.

 And that's been kind of in my mind a lot, because I see a lot of the questions people are posing out there regarding, do I wear a mask? Do I not wear a mask? Should we take down these statues? Should we not take down these statues? All of these questions are seriously questions that we wrestle with in ethics, in our Ethics Bowl. 

And I really want to bring some of those cases and some of that quote unquote "wrestling", not really wrestling, but because I just want our dialogues to be richer and more respectful. And I've really worked on that with community agreements and norms in my classroom. But now I think I'm going to go there. And we're going to look for ethical questions that relate to historical time periods and do more of that. 

So that's one thing I'm working on. And then another one is just preparing everybody else for the unknown as much as I can. You're not even Noah building the ark. You don't even know it's gonna flood. You just don't know what's gonna happen. This impending, oh, I might have to transition everything to online again. What do I need to do? 

So I've made a little matrix. I've put it out on my Twitter feed and shared it online. And people can download it if they want to. But basically, it's just a here's what I do in the physical classroom. What adaptations do I need to make for a virtual classroom in order to have those same outcomes? Or are there different outcomes? 

It's sort of hard to do group work when not every student has internet access. What am I going to have to modify to make sure my classroom is equitable in order to still have a high quality learning experience for these kids if they don't have access. And so I've kind of been wrestling with that quite a bit.

Melissa Milner  16:27

That's a big one, definitely. Our district has tried to reach out to find out who has what tech and so on and be able to offer that tech up to them. But yeah, it's a bigger question for sure.

Leah Henry  18:19

Yeah, and I will admit, being a parent and an educator during this time has been fantastic for my own learning and thinking about what makes my son get interested in learning and what turns him off. I think that if we all were to consider that, perhaps we would have more engaging work. Perhaps we would have more student centered work. 

And maybe my son would get to build this-- oh gosh, he has been drawing inventions. I'm like, okay, what do you do next after you draw them? Why don't you make a prototype? Okay, but I need stuff! Can you make it for me? No, that's your job. But how do we tap into that? How do we get to kids' authentic interests? 

You have to know them. And you have to be willing to help them create a learning path that can meets your needs and also meets their curiosity and their own desire for learning. I think we need to capture that somehow in this moment.

Melissa Milner  19:11

I think that's a perfect place to end. And I'm going to ask-- it's an important question to me. What is your favorite movie, and why?

Leah Henry  19:19

Oh, my favorite movie is Hoosiers. I've probably watched it more than any movie in my life. I am a stereotypical Indiana native who loves basketball. Well, okay, let me clarify. All of the sections where they're actually playing basketball to me, I have watched a million times. 

My experience coaching, believing the little guy can beat the Goliath, right? That is the essence of the movie is a small town rises up to go against the big guys. And there's just a lot of good little bits to that one.

Melissa Milner  19:57

All right. So if people want to reach you, how can they? Is Twitter the best option for you?

Leah Henry  20:03

Professionally, that's where I hang out a lot. Because I host #pblchat. Currently, it's Tuesday nights, 9:30 Eastern Time. And the founder of #pblchat moved on to a job and doesn't have time to do it. So for a few years, it was dead. And I revived it, and I would just love for more people to come into #pblchat. And you can message me there @LeahRossHenry.

Melissa Milner  20:25

Excellent. I'm very inspired. And you've given us a lot of resources that I will put in the show notes. And just thank you so much.

Leah Henry  20:33

Yeah, no problem. Thank you.  

Melissa Milner

If you enjoyed this episode, and have not done so already, please hit the subscribe button for The Teacher As... podcast so you can get future episodes. I would love for you to leave a review and a rating, as well, if you have time. For my blog, transcripts of this episode and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteacheras.com. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner. And I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates. 

I am sending a special thanks to Linda and Lester Fleishman, my mom and dad, for being so supportive. They are the voices you hear in the Zooming In soundbite. And my dad composed and performed the background music you are listening to right now. My intro music was "Upbeat Party" by Scott Holmes. 

So what are you zooming in on? I would love to hear from you. My hope is that we all share what we are doing in the classroom in order to teach, remind, affirm and inspire each other. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap!