Education Turned Upside Down

By Scotty Schenck
SNN Staff Writer
 

Network administrator Louis Zulli held up his cell phone during class, something rarely seen at Lakewood High School.

“There is more information on this then any teacher can ever give you,” he said. He said he wants to make a point: Education is changing. 

Next time you walk down the halls to go to the bathroom or to visit the office, try to do this: Look through the windows of each class you pass. How many students have their heads hung low, snoozing in the middle of a grandiose lecture? Teachers often ask themselves: Isn’t there a better way?

“We have to adapt to the way students are learning,” said Zulli, who in 2011 won the Teacher of the Year Award from Microsoft. He said he believes that technology is the key to changing education, but the way students are learning must also change completely.

Active learning is a different way of teaching and is when the responsibility of learning is also put on the student, not just the teacher. 

Though active learning is not new, for many at Lakewood High School, it is the solution to the problems in education.

“Education has to change dramatically,” principal Bob Vicari said. “We have to do a better job of preparing students for their world … for work or secondary education.”

There are teachers who, with the tools they have, are taking matters into their own hands: They are “flipping the classroom,” working to secure devices for students to enhance their own learning and connecting with experts in the subjects that they teach with the use of technology.

These teachers are changing the game.

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Flipping the Classroom: 

If you look into CAT math teacher Thomas Penkethman’s room, you won’t find lowered heads. You’ll find students scribbling away trying to solve problems, communicating and working together to compare answers and solutions.

“I’m not afraid of change,” Penkethman said.“I will change everything tomorrow if there is a better way.”

Last year Penkethman changed how math was taught in his room. He calls it “flipping the classroom.” Simply put, students are given videos to watch athome. The videos have notes and explanations for the notes given. They can then copy the notes and watch the videos as many times as they want, all at their own pace. The videos provide an important visualization of concepts, which Penkethman said is vital to learning.

In the classroom, students are assigned homework that they don’t take home. All day in Penkethman’s class, students work on practice problems which cover the same topics as the videos they were told to watch. They can communicate with other students, or ask Penkethman himself for help on the problems.      

“You’re expected to learn on your own and use the teacher (Penkethman) as a resource,” senior Lauren Hastings said. She also said at one point she didn’t watch the videos and simply took notes.      

Hastings took precalculus from Penkethman last year and said after changing to watching the videos as well, her grades quickly improved. Precalculus was, according to her, the first time she enjoyed a math class. 

Not all students are successful in Penkethman’s class. Sophomore Laura Haan has precalculus and although she likes the idea of the “flipped classroom”, she said she hasn’t been successful because she doesn’t watch the videos for the notes. She said she isn’t the only one and that many students are “too lazy” to watch the videos.

“I’m not successful because I don’t apply myself,” Haan said. “(The class is) good but you have to have the self-discipline to (watch the videos).”

Penkethman’s“Discrete Math” course (the formal name is Math Analysis) for advanced math students who have taken or were recommended for AP Calculus BC last year. This class is also rather unusual, with no tests or homework, only projects that the students choose to do about a specific area of mathematics. Students focus less on memorizing facts and formulas and focus more on understanding them through application.

“We’re moving toward (active learning),”Vicari said. However, he said that state is making it difficult because of his grading system, which sometimes makes teachers feel like they are checking off boxes of what students need to learn, rather than actually teaching. Penkethman said this handicaps more capable teachers.

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One for every student:

This isn’t the only change Zulli wants. The first is the changing of the education method from a passive to an active style of learning. The second is his way of accomplishing this goal, through technology.

Earlier this year, Zulli worked to secure Windows Surface RT tablets for every student in the CAT program. Many CAT students have been clamoring over the rumor that they’ll soon be in possession of a tablet. Zulli said it would have attracted some much needed attention to the magnet program which is in danger from fewer students attending each year.

The most important aspect was using the tablets in conjunction with their classes so that students have access to all their course material on a 24/7 basis. This change in access to education, according to Zulli, would spur a change in learning style, at least for CAT students.

Zulli said the $75,000 project would allow students, regardless of whether the teachers have an active learning model in their classroom, to access information. This would allow students to take responsibility for their learning and in effect, make it an active learning environment.

“I don’t think (technology is) absolutely necessary, but it definitely solves a lot of problems,” Woodle said.“Technology allows project-based learning to overcome a lot of obstacles.”

Zulli’s attempt to get the tablets began with a deal offered by Microsoft that lasted from June 2013 to the end of September 2013. Though he didn’t get approval for the tablets, Zulli said he did not give up.

Since then, he has fought and won approval for a similar program. Every CAT teacher will receive a Dell XPS 12 laptop starting second semester, he said. Every CAT student will have access to Office 365 or Microsoft programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint accessible on the internet.      

Each CAT student will also get a tablet. Zulli now needs to pick the
device that students will use and he said he is trying to keep the cost under
$450 per tablet.

“I’m very happy we’re afforded the opportunity to change,” he said. “Now it’s just a matter of finding the device.” Zulli did say, however, that it will cost much more for the county to purchase devices now that Microsoft’s deal has ended.       

Vicari said though Lakewood has a 1:1 student to computer ratio, each kid should be able to have his/her own laptop or notebook. He said many education officials are nervous about giving students expensive equipment because these officials believe high school students are not responsible enough.      

Vicari was the principal at Osceola Middle School before moving to Lakewood. There he was put in charge of a 1:1 computing program. For the first two years, he was required to buy an insurance policy for the laptops, which cost about $15,000 a year. The next year he removed the insurance policy and over the three-year period of time they had the program, only two laptops ever went missing.      

Another solution is a pilot program by the Hillsborough County School Board called the“bring-your-own device policy.” In select schools, students bring their own internet-enabled technology to class.

A proponent for the project was the Hillsborough County School District’s manager of customer service and support Sharon Zulli, wife of Louis Zulli. She said that the pilot program went very well and that it will continue in the county as they install wireless networks so that more schools can participate in the program.

“Both students and teachers have devices and wanted to use them at school,” she said. “In reality, (the bring-your-own-device policy) was already happening; we are just choosing to embrace it.”

Sharon Zulli said that technology provides the capability for creative work and allows computer science to be added into all areas of a school’s curriculum. To her, the BYOD policy is a work in progress and that students will be their “guide” to making the policy better for education.      

Vicari said although the bring-your-own-device idea has potential, there are notable flaws. He said each student wouldn’t have the same device and would cause too more harm than good.      

“There has to be a certain standardization (in the classroom),” Vicari said.      

CAT program coordinator Peter Oberg looks through classroom windows on a daily basis, asking himself a question: “Would I want my kid in that class?”      

Oberg does believe that technology can help students, but it isn’t the only “missing factor” from bettering education. Like Zulli, he held up his phone, but to prove a slightly different.      

“Have we maximized the use of what we already have?” Oberg said. Oberg said technology is useless unless we know how to optimize it and have teachers who are able to use it to the highest potential.      

Each classroom has a smart board this year and is an important technological step in Lakewood’s history.      

“Do you need technology in everything? No, of course not,” said Vicari. “There has to be a balance.”

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A Community of Experts:      

In band teacher Michael Kernodle’s classroom, something new is taking place. Using Facetime, Apple’s video calling service, and the smartboard in his classroom, he gave the musicians in his class the chance of a lifetime. On Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013, professional, Julliard-trained musician Chris Crenshaw was “in the classroom.”      

The students were able to ask Crenshaw questions about his life, play music for him and he could give them advice on playing. Kernodle said that in the beginning of the call, Crenshaw talked about his life and how meeting famous jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon changed his life.      

“By meeting one person, it totally changed his whole life,” Kernodle said. “Who’s to say that didn’t happen (to students) on Tuesday (Oct. 8, 2013).” 

Kernodle said he not only wants to video chat with more musicians, he also wants to have other musicians be able to visit the class in person. This idea has already been emerging in some Lakewood classrooms which are not always thought of as those who use technology as much as others. All of this is happening through popular video calling applications.      

French teacher Véronique Musengwa has used Skype to connect her students to students across the Atlantic Ocean. Her sister, almost like a mirror image of Musengwa’s profession, teaches English in France. There were difficulties, she said, about working out a time when they could call the other class because of the differing schedules. Last school year in May she called her sister with her French 3 class.      

“We’re constantly trying to get the students in an authentic situation,” Musengwa said. “Skype is putting them in a real, authentic situation.”      

When she called her sister, the students were able to ask questions to not only Musengwa’s sister, but her class as well. She said that active learning is when the students are fully engaged in what they are learning.    

“Immersion is the best way to learn a language,” she said.      

Musengwa’s students also became pen pals with the students in France. She said some students even contacted them on Facebook, but was within Pinellas County Schools’ guidelines for social media. The students were weaving the web of their community of experts.      

Musengwa said she wants to do a similar activity again. She also has friends in Belgium and a student who has an aunt in Quebec that they may able to call later in time. Ideally she would like to have Skype calls once a month for her classes.      

“This is active learning; they’re taking responsibility,” Musengwa said.