ThoughtGallery.org > Judy Yero: Learnings From My Recent Visits To Student-Centered Schools

Judy Yero: Learnings From My Recent Visits To Student-Centered Schools

L2O_logo_blueThis conversation with octogenarian learner, teacher, trainer and author Judy Yero will be facilitated by NYC principal Jamaal Bowman, of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action.

Judy’s interest in the neurosciences and experience as a teacher led her to writing Teaching In Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education (www.teachinginmind.com/preface.html), the preface from which is copied below, followed by Judy and Jamaal’s biographies.

Judy will share the evolution of her thinking regarding our education system, why she is doing a nationwide tour to research student-centered schools, the surprises she encountered, the people who inspired her, and other stories.

***

Teaching In Mind, Preface

When I imagine young children engaged in the process of learning, the scene is dynamic. The faces of those children are alight with wonder, with puzzlement, with interest, and yes, with joy. When I imagine students in many of today’s classrooms, that image is often static. Locked into a system of learning that too often becomes habitual, the faces of many young people in our schools register boredom, disinterest, or resignation to their fate.

Early in my teaching career, I recognized my need to guide the educational development of young people in ways that didn’t, at the same time, take the joy out of their lives. I reasoned that my classroom environment must effectively support the natural ways in which children learn.

In the mid-80s, after taking numerous postgraduate courses in the neurosciences, I worked to bridge the gap between emerging knowledge of the brain and the practices of education. Eventually, I shared the ideas with other teachers in workshops entitled “Learning from the Inside Out.” At the close of each workshop, I asked participants to comment on the ideas they had found the most valuable. To my surprise, rather than choosing what they had learned about students, most of the teachers commented on how much they had learned about themselves!

Their comments made me realize the extent to which teachers are ignored in educational planning, except as purveyors of content chosen by others. Yet the beliefs and values that provide the unconscious foundation for teacher behavior, the metaphors that set the stages of their classrooms, and the mental models of the world through which they conceptualize their work, are highly individualistic. Rather than the constants they are often assumed to be, numerous studies suggest that the teacher may well be the most influential variable in the educational equation!

Substantive change in education is unlikely to occur until educators understand how each teacher’s beliefs about the nature of teaching and learning, and the metaphors they use to describe their teaching, influence everything that occurs in the classroom. Teaching in Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education examines those issues and more. In its pages, I will encourage you to probe the realms of subjective experience—the beliefs, values, presuppositions, and metaphors that shape your personal world.

The very word subjective makes some researchers in the social sciences cringe. Research is supposed to be based on objectivity. Education has prided itself on applying the scientific approach. Any recommendations for change must be supported by “hard data”—by research studies scrupulously conducted using the scientific method. Messy subjective concepts such as beliefs and values don’t lend themselves to measurement or statistical manipulation.

In the past several decades, theorists have finally begun to recognize the importance of what goes on in the mind of an individual teacher. Research studies have explored the effects of teacher beliefs, the metaphors a teacher uses to describe his or her work, and the values a teacher assigns to a particular practice or concept. The studies have found that these thought processes have a profound influence on educational choices. But the results of those studies have been largely limited to academia. It is time for practicing teachers to have access to these ideas. It is the minds of those teachers that must be explored. It is the actions of those teachers that make education what it is today.

Although my conclusions are my own, I’ve attempted to include support from as many different disciplines as possible. The references are there for those who want or need them. However, many teachers are less interested in theory than in how they can improve their teaching experience and the experience of their students. The main thrust, therefore, is immediate applicability. It’s about what you can do today to be the teacher who matters to students.

You may be astounded at how differently teachers think—even about the meanings of the words teach, learn, or understand. I invite you to let your own experiences verify the validity of these ideas, rather than some distant study or some theorist’s perceptions. Take the ideas you can use and leave the rest for others who may hold different perceptions and have different experiences.

Despite the wishes of theorists, visionaries, and “experts,” there are no simple answers to problems as complex as those educators presently face. If you agree with the adage, “If what you’re doing doesn’t work, do something else,” you will find many ideas to enlarge your repertoire of “something else.”

I sense that many teachers have reached the same level of frustration as people living under Communism when the Berlin Wall fell. In that case, a handful of people who’d had enough rebelled, creating the first breach in the Communist wall—both literally and figuratively. When a relatively small percentage of people create stress in a social system, the entire system shifts to relieve that stress. I invite you to imagine as I do what our schools might be like if they became places where students and teachers alike shared the joyous and innate love of learning with which infants comes into the world.

A handful of reflective teachers have it within their power to literally “change the face of education.” Let us begin.

***

Judy Yero Bio

Education –

•BA from Dominican University: major in Chemistry/Physics; minor in Philosophy

•MA in Curriculum Development from DePaul University

•Doctoral coursework completed at the University of Illinois; dual focus on neurophysiology and education—taught teacher education classes as part of the doctoral program

•Master’s/Trainer level certification in Neurolinguistics

Teaching experience –

•Taught 7th-8th grade physical science (3 years)

•Taught chemistry, physics, and physical science at a 3,000 student suburban Chicago high school (20 years)

•Science department chair—6 years Professional Organizations

•Served on textbook evaluation, curriculum, and other national committees for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Association for Science and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

•Served on the joint NSTA-NASA committee that chose the first student-designed projects to be performed in space

•Teacher workshops: “Learning From the Inside Out.”

More about Judy on her website: http://teachinginmind.com/

***

Jamaal Bowman Bio

Jamaal Bowman is a husband, father of three, and Founding Principal of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action (C.A.S.A.) Middle School in the Bronx. Jamaal received his Bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of New Haven in May 1999 and immediately began his teaching career at P.S. 90 in the South Bronx. After spending five years at P.S. 90, Jamaal moved on to serve as the Dean of Students at the High School for Arts and Technology. In 2008, Jamaal was accepted into New Leaders for New Schools and spent the year writing the proposal for C.A.S.A. while interning at Achievement First Endeavor Charter School. Jamaal is a Certified Business Teacher, Guidance Counselor, and School Building Leader. He has used all of his personal and professional experience to build the vision, mission, tone, and foundation of Cornerstone.

C.A.S.A., now in its 6th year, has been celebrated for its exemplary school culture, high student achievement, and innovative student centered practices. C.A.S.A. students consistently attend some of the top high schools in New York City including Bronx Science and Brooklyn Latin, and are offered accelerated coursework in Algebra, Living Environment, and English. Jamaal was born and raised in the East Harlem/Yorkville section of New York City, and is a descendent of the Public Enemy, KRS-1, and Rakim thread of hip hop culture. Jamaal is an avid sports fan and vivacious reader, and believes that design thinking, creativity and collaboration will change the world.

L2O: Keep Learning

This is the inaugural discussion in the L2O Conversation Series.

Vision: We dream of a world in which each individual is fully aware and engaged in a life of shared learning and discovery.

Mission: To foster the ideal global learning environment in which each learner inspires and is inspired within a learning community of their own design.

*

Signup for L2O: iPhone Beta App – coming soon in November 2015, Web Beta – March 2016, Android App Beta – Summer 2016 To join, please email: [email protected]

*

L2O is a new social learning network that enables your life of shared learning and discovery. Through the recording and sharing of life’s many “aha moments,” L2O fosters deeper connections with the people, ideas and world around you, and within you. Learning together is fun, refined, and inspiring. Exchange ideas with colleagues, discoveries with fellow learners, lessons learned with friends, reflection with teammates, and daily wisdom with the world at large. On L2O, we meet learners with shared interests and design our own community, which provides us with feedback, motivates us, and expands our opportunities to learn daily.

L2O fosters a positive, secure, and collaborative environment that is welcoming for all learners through:

Custom sharing with each user controlling their overall visibility and the visibility of each learning;
Collaborative features such as “Build” rather than “comment”, “Aha” rather than “vote” or “like”, and the ability to “Keep” the learnings of others;
Choice of anonymity by learning;
Granular privacy settings for channels, which are conversations between members who form a community; and
Discrete data sharing.

Join us in experiencing the joys, rewards, and insights of shared learning. Email: [email protected]











When: Thu., Oct. 15, 2015 at 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

L2O_logo_blueThis conversation with octogenarian learner, teacher, trainer and author Judy Yero will be facilitated by NYC principal Jamaal Bowman, of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action.

Judy’s interest in the neurosciences and experience as a teacher led her to writing Teaching In Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education (www.teachinginmind.com/preface.html), the preface from which is copied below, followed by Judy and Jamaal’s biographies.

Judy will share the evolution of her thinking regarding our education system, why she is doing a nationwide tour to research student-centered schools, the surprises she encountered, the people who inspired her, and other stories.

***

Teaching In Mind, Preface

When I imagine young children engaged in the process of learning, the scene is dynamic. The faces of those children are alight with wonder, with puzzlement, with interest, and yes, with joy. When I imagine students in many of today’s classrooms, that image is often static. Locked into a system of learning that too often becomes habitual, the faces of many young people in our schools register boredom, disinterest, or resignation to their fate.

Early in my teaching career, I recognized my need to guide the educational development of young people in ways that didn’t, at the same time, take the joy out of their lives. I reasoned that my classroom environment must effectively support the natural ways in which children learn.

In the mid-80s, after taking numerous postgraduate courses in the neurosciences, I worked to bridge the gap between emerging knowledge of the brain and the practices of education. Eventually, I shared the ideas with other teachers in workshops entitled “Learning from the Inside Out.” At the close of each workshop, I asked participants to comment on the ideas they had found the most valuable. To my surprise, rather than choosing what they had learned about students, most of the teachers commented on how much they had learned about themselves!

Their comments made me realize the extent to which teachers are ignored in educational planning, except as purveyors of content chosen by others. Yet the beliefs and values that provide the unconscious foundation for teacher behavior, the metaphors that set the stages of their classrooms, and the mental models of the world through which they conceptualize their work, are highly individualistic. Rather than the constants they are often assumed to be, numerous studies suggest that the teacher may well be the most influential variable in the educational equation!

Substantive change in education is unlikely to occur until educators understand how each teacher’s beliefs about the nature of teaching and learning, and the metaphors they use to describe their teaching, influence everything that occurs in the classroom. Teaching in Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education examines those issues and more. In its pages, I will encourage you to probe the realms of subjective experience—the beliefs, values, presuppositions, and metaphors that shape your personal world.

The very word subjective makes some researchers in the social sciences cringe. Research is supposed to be based on objectivity. Education has prided itself on applying the scientific approach. Any recommendations for change must be supported by “hard data”—by research studies scrupulously conducted using the scientific method. Messy subjective concepts such as beliefs and values don’t lend themselves to measurement or statistical manipulation.

In the past several decades, theorists have finally begun to recognize the importance of what goes on in the mind of an individual teacher. Research studies have explored the effects of teacher beliefs, the metaphors a teacher uses to describe his or her work, and the values a teacher assigns to a particular practice or concept. The studies have found that these thought processes have a profound influence on educational choices. But the results of those studies have been largely limited to academia. It is time for practicing teachers to have access to these ideas. It is the minds of those teachers that must be explored. It is the actions of those teachers that make education what it is today.

Although my conclusions are my own, I’ve attempted to include support from as many different disciplines as possible. The references are there for those who want or need them. However, many teachers are less interested in theory than in how they can improve their teaching experience and the experience of their students. The main thrust, therefore, is immediate applicability. It’s about what you can do today to be the teacher who matters to students.

You may be astounded at how differently teachers think—even about the meanings of the words teach, learn, or understand. I invite you to let your own experiences verify the validity of these ideas, rather than some distant study or some theorist’s perceptions. Take the ideas you can use and leave the rest for others who may hold different perceptions and have different experiences.

Despite the wishes of theorists, visionaries, and “experts,” there are no simple answers to problems as complex as those educators presently face. If you agree with the adage, “If what you’re doing doesn’t work, do something else,” you will find many ideas to enlarge your repertoire of “something else.”

I sense that many teachers have reached the same level of frustration as people living under Communism when the Berlin Wall fell. In that case, a handful of people who’d had enough rebelled, creating the first breach in the Communist wall—both literally and figuratively. When a relatively small percentage of people create stress in a social system, the entire system shifts to relieve that stress. I invite you to imagine as I do what our schools might be like if they became places where students and teachers alike shared the joyous and innate love of learning with which infants comes into the world.

A handful of reflective teachers have it within their power to literally “change the face of education.” Let us begin.

***

Judy Yero Bio

Education –

•BA from Dominican University: major in Chemistry/Physics; minor in Philosophy

•MA in Curriculum Development from DePaul University

•Doctoral coursework completed at the University of Illinois; dual focus on neurophysiology and education—taught teacher education classes as part of the doctoral program

•Master’s/Trainer level certification in Neurolinguistics

Teaching experience –

•Taught 7th-8th grade physical science (3 years)

•Taught chemistry, physics, and physical science at a 3,000 student suburban Chicago high school (20 years)

•Science department chair—6 years Professional Organizations

•Served on textbook evaluation, curriculum, and other national committees for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Association for Science and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

•Served on the joint NSTA-NASA committee that chose the first student-designed projects to be performed in space

•Teacher workshops: “Learning From the Inside Out.”

More about Judy on her website: http://teachinginmind.com/

***

Jamaal Bowman Bio

Jamaal Bowman is a husband, father of three, and Founding Principal of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action (C.A.S.A.) Middle School in the Bronx. Jamaal received his Bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of New Haven in May 1999 and immediately began his teaching career at P.S. 90 in the South Bronx. After spending five years at P.S. 90, Jamaal moved on to serve as the Dean of Students at the High School for Arts and Technology. In 2008, Jamaal was accepted into New Leaders for New Schools and spent the year writing the proposal for C.A.S.A. while interning at Achievement First Endeavor Charter School. Jamaal is a Certified Business Teacher, Guidance Counselor, and School Building Leader. He has used all of his personal and professional experience to build the vision, mission, tone, and foundation of Cornerstone.

C.A.S.A., now in its 6th year, has been celebrated for its exemplary school culture, high student achievement, and innovative student centered practices. C.A.S.A. students consistently attend some of the top high schools in New York City including Bronx Science and Brooklyn Latin, and are offered accelerated coursework in Algebra, Living Environment, and English. Jamaal was born and raised in the East Harlem/Yorkville section of New York City, and is a descendent of the Public Enemy, KRS-1, and Rakim thread of hip hop culture. Jamaal is an avid sports fan and vivacious reader, and believes that design thinking, creativity and collaboration will change the world.

L2O: Keep Learning

This is the inaugural discussion in the L2O Conversation Series.

Vision: We dream of a world in which each individual is fully aware and engaged in a life of shared learning and discovery.

Mission: To foster the ideal global learning environment in which each learner inspires and is inspired within a learning community of their own design.

*

Signup for L2O: iPhone Beta App – coming soon in November 2015, Web Beta – March 2016, Android App Beta – Summer 2016 To join, please email: [email protected]

*

L2O is a new social learning network that enables your life of shared learning and discovery. Through the recording and sharing of life’s many “aha moments,” L2O fosters deeper connections with the people, ideas and world around you, and within you. Learning together is fun, refined, and inspiring. Exchange ideas with colleagues, discoveries with fellow learners, lessons learned with friends, reflection with teammates, and daily wisdom with the world at large. On L2O, we meet learners with shared interests and design our own community, which provides us with feedback, motivates us, and expands our opportunities to learn daily.

L2O fosters a positive, secure, and collaborative environment that is welcoming for all learners through:

Custom sharing with each user controlling their overall visibility and the visibility of each learning;
Collaborative features such as “Build” rather than “comment”, “Aha” rather than “vote” or “like”, and the ability to “Keep” the learnings of others;
Choice of anonymity by learning;
Granular privacy settings for channels, which are conversations between members who form a community; and
Discrete data sharing.

Join us in experiencing the joys, rewards, and insights of shared learning. Email: [email protected]

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