Unpacking Various Entry Points into Innovative Teaching with Jorge Valenzuela

Unpacking Various Entry Points into Innovative Teaching with Jorge Valenzuela
Jared O'Leary
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In this interview with Jorge Valenzuela, we discuss the importance of engineering in STEM, situating computational thinking within a problem, getting started with computational thinking and computer science, project-based learning, incorporating social and emotional learning (SEL) in the classroom, Jorge’s approach to professional development, and much more.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    CSK8 podcast my name is jared o'leary

    each episode of this podcast is either a

    solo episode where i unpack some

    scholarship in relation to computer

    science education or an episode where i

    interview a guest or multiple guests

    in this week's interview i'm speaking

    with george valenzuela and in our

    conversation we discussed the importance

    of engineering and stem situating

    computational thinking within a problem

    getting started with computational

    thinking and computer science

    project-based learning incorporating

    social and emotional learning sel in the

    classroom and george's approach to

    professional development and so much

    more there are many different books and

    podcasts and other resources that are

    mentioned throughout this episode and

    you can find those easily by going to

    jared o'leary.com

    and clicking on the podcast tab or by

    clicking the link in the app that you're

    listening to this on it'll take you

    directly to the show notes in addition

    there are hundreds if not thousands of

    free computer science resources on my

    website including a link to boot up

    pd.org which is the nonprofit that i

    create free curriculum for and with all

    that being said we will now begin this

    introduction by george hey i'm george

    valenzuela i'm an education coach author

    and advocate based in virginia i travel

    all over the country now virtually of

    course all over the world and i get to

    coach educators in several heavy lifts

    some of the initiatives are stem

    computer science equity and seo

    project-based learning but i do that

    through instructional design and through

    teaching practices so if you were to

    write a story about your life what would

    the title of the chapters be so one of

    the things that i'm working on now is

    figuring out

    what people need

    as a podcaster i

    have a show producer and so our show

    producer is very much in tune with the

    research and what audiences want and so

    what i'm learning is that we can't be

    pretentious or we shouldn't be

    pretentious if we are then the audience

    will eat us up eventually and second we

    have to hit on their pain points and so

    what i would do is i would write a book

    where i would share my personal insights

    on things that i know

    playing other people and so the

    introduction would just you know

    basically be my why

    or writing this book two

    what i've seen is that folks really need

    to get a handle on emotions and being

    able to loop into their

    current emotions

    especially the ones that really trouble

    them and so i say chapter one would be

    all about emotional intelligence helping

    people with their personal but also

    their social competence because we

    really need both

    chapter two would be about finding your

    passion i think that

    with most of the people i've seen or

    that i've met

    is that you're struggling to find

    happiness and to find joy

    and so i think that if you

    focus on things that you enjoy doing

    then you'll be happy right and so if you

    find that one thing that you really love

    the most

    and become an expert at that thing

    then not right away

    but eventually other people will seek

    you out on that expertise

    there's a book named outliers by malcolm

    gladwell and he basically

    tells stories about folks that are at

    the top of their field or were at the

    top of their field like steve jobs

    bill gates michael jordan michael

    jackson people like this and so he's

    basically saying that they all have the

    that they spend three hours a day

    their craft and so if you become an

    expert

    at your passion then you'll be able to

    flip that into a purpose by helping

    other people and so that is chapter

    three i'm not sure exactly what the

    other chapters would be at this point

    but i just think that that would be a

    helpful thing for

    educators it provides a framework and

    some steps yeah i like that one of the

    things that i'd recommend for like high

    school students when i used to teach

    that is they would ask well i don't

    really know what i want to do in life

    and my recommendation at the time was

    well what are you passionate about how

    can you find a way to support yourself

    through that passion whatever it may be

    if you're really interested in making

    music awesome there are many ways that

    you can make money doing music not just

    as a performer maybe you also enjoy

    writing maybe you could write about

    people who perform and you could become

    a journalist and travel the world doing

    that like there's many different unique

    things you can do

    when you look at your passion from

    different perspectives and whatnot yeah

    that's true man yeah i think that a lot

    of people if they focus on their passion

    and flipping it into a purpose and

    helping other people i think that they

    would eliminate

    a lot of their sadness what comes to

    mind when you think of what an engaging

    learning experience might look like or

    sound like well initially i would have

    to say pbl but that's you know because

    of my own experiences right

    project-based learning really offers

    educators a framework when done right

    for

    defining the student experience

    intellectual challenge and

    accomplishment collaboration reflection

    working with others public products

    these are things that

    a young person or really any person

    would need in order to get the most out

    of learning

    and so i don't think that

    we can really do that if we have a

    textbook in a lecture if we're reading

    books only alone i think that learning

    experiences have to be well designed and

    once they're well designed adjustments

    can be made therein i'm wondering what

    experiences in education led you to

    answer that particular way because i

    also agree but i'm curious like do we

    align with some of our experiences or do

    we diverge et cetera oh no no so i used

    to be a curriculum specialist in a

    formal life and so what that means is

    that i was responsible for

    i'd say about 40 teachers

    i was responsible for their curriculum

    or how it's taught pd

    conferences everything

    you name it and so

    when i became a curriculum specialist i

    was 33 years old and i was pretty naive

    i thought that every

    teacher understood exactly how to teach

    them how to plan it how to facilitate it

    and really how to seek out resources

    and so i was wrong about that and i

    found out that i was wrong when our

    school district decided to use

    understanding by design

    ubd

    as a template for lesson planning and so

    that's backward design planning and

    i

    was realizing that what i was reading on

    the lesson plans on some of the teachers

    really

    wasn't stem

    but really

    wasn't

    understandable

    in the beginning

    and so i said okay let me write my own

    lesson plan and as i was writing it i

    realized that i didn't fully understand

    what was going on myself

    meaning at the time i didn't understand

    what scaffolding was

    what learning goals how to write

    learning goals i should say

    and so

    i started to seek out my other

    counterparts in other counties in

    virginia and so i reached out to

    virginia beach and i met with a few of

    the specialists we had skype back then

    that was a few years ago almost a decade

    ago actually

    and that's when they said to us that if

    you want to do experiential learning

    learning by doing and also with

    reflection for metacognition then you

    need an instructional approach stem

    is just

    i wouldn't call that a framework i

    forgot how it was mentioned but it was

    just more you know aligning for

    different disciplines and engineering

    you know basically doing engineering and

    aligning disciplines

    and so

    what you need is an instructional

    approach a methodology for how to teach

    and so that's pbl

    i hadn't heard of it back then and so i

    sought out resources and i realized that

    it's something that

    number one is research based

    two

    you have to learn it three you have to

    practice you know teaching with it and

    then eventually

    it becomes an expertise yeah so it's not

    a one two three thing

    how do you conceive of stem so some

    people think of stem as oh it's the

    intersections of science technology

    engineering and math but other people

    see it as oh well kids have a science

    class then they go to a technology class

    then they go into engineering class as

    these like separate silos no it's

    engineering has to be engineering if

    there's no engineering design process

    meaning

    that i have a challenge or i have a

    problem that i'm trying to solve

    and so if i don't have a methodology

    for solving the problem like an engineer

    then it's not stem

    and so

    you know it doesn't matter what the

    problem or the challenge is

    the engineering design process that

    should stay the same now

    based on the problem so let's say if i'm

    you know building a race car so the

    scientific principles that i'm thinking

    about

    have to really be around energy forces

    and motion if i'm building a tower then

    the science is really about how

    different materials absorb forces

    so you see science will change

    based on whatever the problem is and so

    will math right math is applied science

    and then

    whatever tech i'm using it really

    depends on what the problem is but the

    engineering part should stay the same

    and where do you see computational

    thinking and computer science kind of

    fitting within that well we're always

    using electronics right and so we're

    always you know coding and programming

    even if it's like robotics or something

    like that that's a very simple thing but

    there you'll see that there's an aspect

    of computer science that's involved

    there

    there's another discipline it's called

    mechatronics mechanics electronics and

    computer science and also mechanical

    engineering but what i'll say is this

    computational thinking

    is a problem-solving methodology that's

    used in computer science

    when you're coding or when you're

    programming

    the same way engineering

    has an engineering design loop

    right and so i'll back up even more

    every discipline has a methodology for

    solving problems in education we widely

    use blooms

    right and i think that

    a lot of other thinking frameworks and

    really we can say it's a problem-solving

    framework or it's a thinking framework

    but

    every framework for teaching young

    people

    how to think and how to solve problems

    in my opinion really borrows from blooms

    and so

    what i like to use is basically

    three major verbs analysis synthesis

    evaluation so everything i'm doing in

    any workshop in any of my teaching i'm

    having

    educators or young people analyze

    either a modeling i'm explaining

    i'm providing an artifact whether it's a

    video article paragraph whatever so

    they're analyzing this they're taking

    that knowledge and now they're

    synthesizing or they're designing

    you see that and then what the

    evaluation is is reflection for

    metacognition

    and so in science

    right we don't we use blooms

    but we use aspects of blooms in inquiry

    design or in engineering design inquiry

    design is for the natural world plants

    and animals engineering designers for

    the physical world and so in history we

    can use something like design thinking

    in math there's so many other strategies

    of thinking routines but for computer

    science is computational thinking and so

    if we teach young people how to teach

    like a computer

    in terms of a framework

    decomposition abstraction pattern

    recognition and algorithm design then

    when we teach them how to code they'll

    already understand

    how the computer thinks

    and so it starts out as a framework but

    after practice and through repetition it

    becomes a mindset and so that's what's

    needed i like the idea of the problem

    solving as kind of being like a

    structure that kind of informs what you

    do within it but what about if somebody

    is like i want to express myself so

    going back to what you're talking about

    with like the emotional intelligence and

    social emotional learning like if

    somebody is like i want to

    make music that's relaxing like is the

    problem solving more of like the micro

    that is not necessarily driving things

    but is like oh i ran into a bug or oh

    this doesn't sound good let me try and

    solve that but the overall thing that is

    guiding the project is the

    like desire to create so

    projects or problems are guided by a

    theme

    what are we trying to accomplish right

    and so that is just

    my

    project is focusing on making music and

    so i want to make a relaxing song so how

    can i um compose a piece of music that

    is relaxing and soothing and

    helps me you know relax right you know

    something like that like i'm thinking of

    what you said

    and so

    that is what your problem is

    and so

    there's some sort of data collection

    that you have to figure out or you know

    research where you're figuring out well

    what makes music relaxing

    or what do people respond to

    so you don't really use

    a thinking framework like computational

    thinking there

    you would use there some type of

    qualitative research methods like

    interviews

    right research skills

    now while you're actually composing the

    music i wouldn't use

    computational thinking up for that i

    would use whatever

    music design process

    that you know composers use i would use

    that there computational thinking would

    be if i'm coding well i mean you could

    like in scratch create music through

    code or sonic pi which uses ruby or

    create music through that so like to

    frame it like i want to code infinite

    relaxing music through one of those

    platforms where it like randomly makes

    music that makes me chill out okay okay

    so you're not composing music you are

    pulling music that's already composed

    you know pieces already composed and

    you're putting them into an algorithm so

    that they pop up at in certain different

    places oh no like you're composing so

    let's get extra nerdy so let's say you

    create an array of like potential notes

    like this is my scale or my mode that

    i'm going to play

    i'm going to have it so that the

    algorithm randomly chooses which notes

    within that array is going to like play

    in the sequence

    etc you asked the wrong guy for that

    i thought that you were really thinking

    about like you know composing music like

    on sheet paper

    so like in those intersections though

    like it's interesting to think about

    like you mentioned yes there are some

    frameworks that you can go through for

    composing but when you are composing

    music through code then like there's

    that computational thinking aspect that

    goes into it well that applies then

    right and so you'll have to um design

    algorithms and so in those algorithms

    you will definitely

    like how you said like you know build

    your arrays you know i guess you know

    define where you want certain things

    played in your computational thinking

    process i would recommend some

    flowcharting i think that if you flow

    chart out the process it'll definitely

    help you encoding exactly what you want

    to happen and i think that's really what

    it's all about if you're making a

    program you definitely have to start

    with the problem with the solution

    and then you code it

    and so i think that that's a skill that

    is often overlooked

    having a design team of students

    really

    write down what the problem is

    what they're trying to really accomplish

    and that's where you know computational

    thinking comes in it comes in a lot of

    times unconsciously where we

    automatically you know match patterns

    you know abstract information that's not

    really needed

    and then once we have that then i think

    you know step two is you know defining

    the problem is to in pseudocode just in

    regular language you know map out each

    of the algorithms or each of the steps

    and

    blow charting it with universal symbols

    so we know what the inputs to outputs

    the loops and the variables and all

    those things are

    and then we can you know code it and

    then

    you know test it evaluate it and debug

    it if i can reframe it just kind of as a

    check the way that you're describing

    computational thinking is it's situated

    within problem solving it is used to

    solve a problem there's a purpose to it

    is that yeah it can't be

    the focus of of the project i love that

    definitely resonates it's not out yet

    but i just did an interview with mitch

    resnick and one of the things that we

    talked about is like the problems with

    computational thinking where people

    look at it as oh this is just thinking

    that's all we have to think about and

    it's devoid of application of

    understanding like you mentioned with

    problem solving so i love that you're

    contextualizing it that way but i'm

    wondering

    what do you wish more people understood

    about that computational thinking well

    they have to actually get in there and

    do and solve problems you know

    computational problems

    if they're not doing that then they

    can't explain what i just explained you

    know so

    there's something in science that we

    call empirical evidence it's a knowing

    from the senses it's a knowing from

    experience

    and so if you're solving

    computational problems and you're using

    this framework then

    initially it'll be a struggle but with

    that struggle comes knowledge

    construction and then the understanding

    of what that is and then you'll be able

    to explain it now to someone else

    if you don't do that then it's just a

    bunch of major concepts and so i can't

    really see

    how a project would be about those you

    know major concepts

    you know it's a problem-solving strategy

    or a set of strategies and so you need

    to have a problem first and so i love

    what you said about music i didn't

    really know that you were trying to

    design a program for music that's why i

    said i wouldn't use computational

    thinking but once you said yeah you know

    i'm writing a program that's a whole

    different thing so if somebody is

    interested in this like all right

    computational thinking computer science

    this sounds awesome i want to learn more

    about it i haven't experienced this in

    my own education what advice would you

    recommend for getting started all right

    so first things first if you're an

    english math science social studies

    teacher you cannot dedicate an entire

    year's worth of your curriculum to this

    i would start with one project a

    semester and so a school year is

    typically four or nine weeks and so

    every 18 weeks in most schools we would

    have a semester right and so i would do

    one

    project that is two to three weeks tops

    and i would do whatever i can to make

    sure that whatever i

    have to teach

    is somehow aligned to that topic in

    computer science or stem and i wrote a

    book it's called wrap up robotics and so

    it's in the context of robotics

    but the foundational learning or the

    skills or knowledge needed for

    computer science engineering and

    computational thinking

    for k through 16 are pretty much laid

    out in that book and so i would start

    with some unplugged lessons and so the

    book is filled with a bunch of those

    where any teacher can basically coach

    young people through

    computational thinking

    but unplugged right and so they learn

    what the concepts are in practice

    and then i wrote a chapter for each of

    the content areas and i basically pulled

    out of the common core and the ngss

    any of the standards that align to some

    type of computer science

    or stem learning in the context of

    robotics and then just doing a little

    project like that and i think that when

    you start there you are going to number

    one

    learn a lot

    number two fail a lot and then when you

    start next time you're starting from

    experience

    and so i think that that is very

    important and if people do that then

    it'll help them

    not create computer sciences it takes

    like 25 years to do that

    but

    you'll put an awareness into young

    people

    of how the technology around them works

    you know a lot of young people think

    that you know technology is magic but

    it's not you know a lot of programming a

    lot of coding a lot of computational

    thinking went into making these things

    and so i think that when they get

    involved in a project like that where

    they're designing where they

    are programming then it takes them out

    of that consumer mindset and more into

    that designer mindset and there's so

    many different pathways within that

    someone

    can take and i think that that's just

    the awareness that young people need and

    honestly

    i think that

    every person

    should learn some sort of design process

    and should learn to solve problems no

    matter what the problem is through a

    process a systematic approach

    and when that happens you're essentially

    teaching them

    how to think

    how to fish

    how to learn

    how to construct knowledge and just be a

    better learner in general i'm wondering

    if we can put a spotlight on one of the

    things that you mentioned

    being willing to

    fail a lot

    and the importance of that especially if

    you are new to cs like why is that an

    important thing to be willing to do as

    an educator and as a student yeah well i

    think anyone that has ever accomplished

    anything that they didn't think that

    they could accomplish at some point in

    their life has realized that failing

    well learning from from failures is part

    of the process

    and so

    the reason why

    stem learning is fun initially is

    because it's typically done through toys

    or what it appears to be a toy or you're

    building something and it's got some

    built-in missions or programs and so

    it's fun but

    when you don't fully

    learn how to use it

    through learning right like it's more

    like you know tinkering then then that

    novelty will wear off eventually and

    then it's just boring after a while you

    know it's the same thing over and over

    again but when you're learning how to

    solve a problem

    through a process

    with that toy or with that technology

    then

    you're going to fail

    because something like

    coding

    and like really any skill but especially

    coding it's an earned skill it's not

    something you can just you know pick up

    and do there's certain concepts you need

    to understand and the main ones are

    inputs outputs loops functions variables

    and logic if you don't understand these

    things you'll never be a coder

    programmer so if we learn those things

    right and then we learn how to fail

    through making a program

    then eventually we start to develop

    expertise that we can show others or

    that we can transfer

    will also realize that it's a field that

    although the concepts and the

    foundational knowledge hasn't really

    changed

    but

    the new technologies and everything

    that's happening and how it's used

    that is always changing and so you

    realize that you're always a beginner

    but being a beginner with experience

    is a hell of a lot better than being a

    beginner with no experience yeah i spoke

    with a lot of cs educators who like we

    all agree that debugging is one of those

    standards that even if you don't want to

    do that standard you're going to run

    into it like every day so it's just

    par for the course especially when it

    comes to programming and whatnot

    uh thinking back to what you were

    talking about earlier with project-based

    learning i'm wondering what do you wish

    more cs educators understood about

    project-based learning that the product

    is not the project the project is the

    entire process or the unit plan if i'm

    writing a program

    that's just a product right or if i'm

    designing a robot that can do something

    that's just a product the project is i

    have a client

    and the client wants me to design a

    product to do x y and z

    right so that is part of the process

    right you know building the program is

    another part but then presenting it

    putting it out in the public

    if it's something that

    like let's say there's a concern

    where you know people need to know

    something

    maybe making a public service

    announcement that has a call to action

    things like that that's a project not

    the actual product yeah i like that the

    examples you gave they're like situated

    within like a real world application

    it's not just a project for a project's

    sake it's like oh you might actually do

    this outside of class

    so i've got a two-part question so the

    first part is when might you encourage

    cs educators to do project-based

    learning but then the second part is

    like the flip of that when would you not

    recommend doing project-based learning

    yeah so i would recommend to a computer

    science educator i would do one project

    a semester

    anything new that you're trying out

    i would only do it

    once every 18 weeks

    and the reason why is because you're

    learning the entire new framework so

    you're taking something you already do

    like computer science

    but now you're

    you know building in you know

    collaboration

    reflection intellectual challenge you

    know things that you may not have

    thought about in the past

    and so if you try to do that all in one

    shot it'll be difficult and so i'd say

    take one bite of the elephant at a time

    and so if if you do a project once a

    semester

    then you'll be able to take parts of the

    ppl framework and start to integrate

    them or incorporate them into other

    lessons and other projects and then

    eventually you'll be a better teacher in

    my opinion i wouldn't do

    pbl when you are preparing students for

    the ap exam

    i just want to do that you know if i

    have a 90 minute block

    so i wouldn't do pbl and everything if

    we didn't have to think of ap

    as like

    guiding whether or not you would or

    would not do project-based learning so

    just an ideal learning environment

    without having those external factors

    would there be a moment where you would

    not recommend project-based learning no

    i think ppl is good for all children

    know the research says it it does work

    in the ap environment i'm specifically

    stating

    if we're preparing

    for the ap exam right now there is data

    from edutopia as a research arm called

    lucas educational research and so they

    did pbl with ap students

    in science and in social studies and

    scores actually increased i'm talking

    about when we're actually

    you know test prepping i wouldn't put

    that in the project

    that's what i'm saying but no on pbl it

    definitely works in ap classes yeah i

    appreciate that clarification because

    there's definitely research out there

    that's like yes you have to prepare for

    the test if you're going to do it you

    need to like practice taking the test

    essentially i'm not saying that it can't

    be in a project but i don't see how

    right

    yeah but you can easily make time in a

    project to stop the project and to

    work on your test prep yeah it doesn't

    have to be an either or scenario i know

    having worked with undergrads they have

    a tendency to see oh i can only do this

    one thing and never anything else it's

    like well no it depends on the context

    and your goals and whatnot i'm wondering

    one of the earlier things that you

    mentioned sel wondering if you could

    unpack more of what is sel and then how

    do you integrate that into

    uh teaching and learning yeah so social

    emotional

    learning is

    what we use to help young people

    in developing their emotional

    intelligence skills

    and so

    emotions are really part of everything

    and so a lot of times when we're not

    emotionally intelligent or we don't have

    this intelligence

    we really don't know how we show up

    emotionally in our social interactions

    or how other people you know react to us

    that's on a social level on a personal

    level

    we really don't know what is triggering

    our emotions we don't know

    why we react the way we do or why we

    respond the way we do and so i think

    it's important to just have a framework

    for that too

    or you know number one

    before the framework is to understand

    what emotions are and how they impact

    the mind body and behavior and so one of

    the things that i didn't know a few

    years back that really helped me out a

    lot

    is to understand that emotions perceive

    feelings

    and feelings perceive behavior and so

    when i got that piece of knowledge i

    realized

    that i don't have to

    respond or react to every single emotion

    i'm experiencing

    like anger

    right like anxiety

    you know there's nothing wrong with

    experiencing these things

    but you have to find a way out of them

    how to conquer them and so i think that

    all educators and all students need to

    be able to

    at any given moment in any type of

    situation

    in an accurate manner identify

    what emotion

    or range of emotions they're

    experiencing

    at that time and then finding strategies

    for restoring peace because we never

    really do our best work

    or be at our best if we're not at peace

    and so you'll find um you know people

    that we call it you know getting in the

    zone

    when they are doing something that they

    really love

    and they can do it for hours and hours

    and hours and they're so into it and

    they have a beautiful

    experience

    well in that

    moment

    right you're experiencing joy

    that's a happy emotion how do we you

    know get there and you know and you

    can't zen out you know 24 7. it doesn't

    work that way

    but you need to have a system an

    algorithm for solving or looping back

    into the emotions of the day and then

    finding a way to restore peace how do

    you recommend educators learn more about

    sel on how to help kids and whatnot so

    like i've gone through

    therapy for many years that has helped

    me to understand how to

    address like issues i was having my mind

    but i don't necessarily know how to help

    kids who are going through things that i

    haven't been through so like my wife is

    a trained therapist and is like really

    good at working with kids but i don't

    have the understanding that she does so

    like how did you learn about sel or how

    might you recommend others learn about

    it yeah so i wrote an article it's

    called three steps educators can take

    to better manage emotions and so here i

    share my story and so

    i have a couple of teenagers and

    honestly i didn't know that i wasn't

    emotionally intelligent i didn't know

    this a few years back you know i was

    living through life you know doing the

    best i can and you know and that's it

    and i have a couple of teenagers and as

    they got older they started to pay me no

    never mind right anytime i would say or

    do something that they don't like

    they would just be like you know what

    whatever you know i'm tuned me out and

    so as a parent that's pretty painful you

    know it's not a good feeling and so i

    knew that i

    had something i had to work on but i

    wasn't sure what and so there's a great

    quote by laozi when the student is ready

    the master appears and so a few days

    later or a week later you know not sure

    i was reading an article on making first

    impressions by dr travis radbury in the

    article he talked about his book that he

    co-wrote with gene grieves titled

    emotional intelligence 2.0 i got the

    book on audible and well when i read its

    title emotional intelligence it just

    jumped out at me and and you're a music

    guy so

    you know that

    someone that is a creator certain things

    jump out at them that don't for you know

    regular people

    and so

    i got the book on audible and it came

    with an appraisal

    and the appraisal said that i got a 76

    in my social competence it pinpointed

    exactly where i was at

    okay and i'm talent smart is the

    organization that produced this book

    and so they have a framework or four

    domains

    is

    social competence for

    relationship skills and self-awareness

    for self-management skills it's

    something like that and so i just

    started there in the article though i

    broke down what emotions are you know in

    psychology and they say that the first

    step is labeling or identifying right

    and so after knowing what emotions are

    and so i like

    patrick's wheel of emotions because it

    really shows the range of emotions but

    it focuses on eight basic ones

    anger anticipation joy trust fear

    surprise sadness and disgust

    and so when you have a tool like that

    and you're like okay

    so

    the emotions i feel or i experience on a

    daily basis are an amalgamation of those

    eight main ones

    in tandem with other ones on the wheel

    then labeling is not a problem once

    you've labeled then you can find you

    know strategies it could be breathing

    you know like one

    really great one is just to

    interrupt thinking if you focus on on

    breathing you can't really

    you know think at that moment and so

    it's three simple

    breaths

    right and so that right there it causes

    a pattern interrupt

    and allows you to see or to feel things

    in a more logical way which is what we

    need

    in the article i talk about dr james

    gross

    and he's a researcher and

    he

    really has a great framework it's

    basically a framework it's the process

    model for

    or emotion regulation

    and so

    through practicing a framework like this

    you can change

    how you emotionally respond to you know

    different situations you see

    how we respond to things

    is conditioning

    we can uncondition ourselves with some

    work and so that's important and i've

    also realized you know and becoming

    trauma informed

    as a teacher is that there is emotional

    trauma but there's psychological trauma

    and so sel is not meant to replace

    trauma informed therapy right it's not

    but we can learn through seo how to not

    re-traumatize people and how to be more

    mindful and respectful of what their

    triggers are but also helping them

    in coping and with coping that's just a

    step into you know therapy and

    eventually healing yeah like anyone who

    has ever overcome a traumatic experience

    knows you need to feel it to heal it and

    so that's an important thing and i

    really appreciate the

    mentioning that's not like a replacement

    for therapy but like thinking of

    students as humans and teachers as

    humans and understanding that they are

    going through a lot potentially and not

    just thinking of oh well they did bad on

    this test like okay but why what might

    be going on that might be impacting that

    yeah i'm honestly i think sel

    or emotional intelligence is more

    important than everything else you know

    i don't understand how we left that out

    of the curriculum

    but we're here now and i'm so so happy

    that

    it's something that we can focus on i

    was focused on it a few years ago and

    i've mastered my emotions you know

    pretty much

    even if i'm nervous or have anxiety i

    know how to make them fly

    or how to make the butterflies you know

    fly in the same direction now

    but what i didn't think was that i would

    be helping other educators with that

    i just thought it was a personal issue

    you know something i had to work on

    and after kovid

    you know i kind of realized that

    we're all human right and so we're all

    experiencing emotions we all have to

    deal with you know difficult ones

    and i think it's a duty now to

    help others

    that article i put into the chat i wrote

    that in february of 2020.

    the original link is there

    but on medium i published it april 8th

    and so

    it was written

    pre-coveted and so i thought that that

    would be all the work i do on sel or

    emotional intelligence i thought that

    that was it and i put it out as a story

    or an article just like it can help

    someone

    not thinking that i would eventually do

    more research into the topic along with

    equity

    and other you know heavy lifts in

    education and to write a book about it

    which solution tree

    is pre-reviewing right now on equity and

    sel and so it'll be out sometime in

    early 2022 so i'm excited about that but

    i never thought i'd be doing this never

    ever it's weird how life heads in

    directions we never anticipated like

    with my background in music education to

    think that i would be full-time in cs

    education for several years that never

    would have thought of that a decade ago

    but

    well

    you know

    i don't know a lot about music i'll be

    honest but i know that a lot of it is

    digital now and i know that it can be um

    created on a computer what i've heard so

    that makes sense yeah it's fun at least

    for a nerd like myself

    so you mentioned you didn't anticipate

    helping teachers with seo like looking

    broadly at how you've helped teachers a

    lot of it is through like professional

    development consulting and whatnot you

    mentioned that you like to make

    professional development inspirational

    actionable and fun and so i'm curious

    how you do that because a lot of people

    when they think of professional

    development it's like oh is this thing i

    have to go do to get my hours and it's

    boring

    inspirational what i use is just

    interpersonal stories one of the things

    that i've realized

    in fact very quickly in my pd journey as

    a facilitator is that teachers

    hate it

    not despise it not like it but hate it

    when the pd person

    is telling them to do something that he

    or she hasn't done themselves

    so the inspiration needs to be from a

    personal story some personal insight

    and so

    you being a computer science teacher you

    know you already know based on my

    explanation of computer science and

    computational thinking that you know

    that at one point in my life i dive into

    this topic and i have

    hands-on

    knowledge

    now the music part i didn't have and i

    was honest with you

    that's the part that's inspirational a

    teacher will forgive you when you say

    you don't know something but will never

    ever forgive you or will have a hard

    time trusting you when you're bsing them

    you see and so the inspiration i think

    it comes from personal insight of

    practicing what you preach actionable

    well

    it's got to be something that they can

    replicate meaning that

    they need a step one step two step three

    and so a common theme in my articles

    that you can google is that everything

    is in steps three steps to do this four

    ways of doing this

    two ways of whatever and so that's how

    the workshops are are all designed

    everything in logical steps and so it's

    not that they get the same product but

    they replicate the process and the

    success that i am putting forth and so a

    way to do that is through instructional

    strategies and vetted educational

    protocols you know just like in the

    classroom and if you really think about

    it if you go into the military into a

    hospital

    into a police station there's a protocol

    for everything

    and so in my workshops i have a protocol

    for everything and so it's actionable

    and they can replicate that with their

    faculties or with their kids

    and fun

    i like to play music so you'll be happy

    about that but also i

    do a lot of research in the intake calls

    and find out exactly what

    do these folks need

    what do they like what are they into and

    so i try to uplift those things into the

    workshop and so

    those words there are actually words

    that i've gleaned from lots of data

    collections

    tons of the other collections these are

    the themes that people are finding in

    the workshop you can actually go onto my

    webpage and there's a section or a page

    called master class and underneath it

    you'll see testimonials

    and so

    my net promoter score is pretty high

    and so these words and you know data is

    gleaned from so that's how i know that

    the workshop is actually this and i'll

    make sure to include links to that in

    the show notes i'm curious like if we

    zoom out and look at education as a

    whole like what do you feel is holding

    back educators or the field and what can

    we do about it well i think in education

    we know what to do i just don't think

    that we know how to do it all the time

    starting with working together in a

    collaboration i think it's a sticking

    point for a lot of schools a lot of

    plc's and i think that if schools just

    start with number one what do we want to

    do to help our children and every school

    has a different context there are some

    similarities i do agree with that but

    every context is different every set of

    students of every group of students

    every staff needs something different

    and so i think just in re-centering

    ourselves and having some shared

    agreements and developing them together

    shared agreements and norms about how

    we're going to do this work and what we

    need in order to do the work as a team i

    think it's what is really needed at this

    time especially at a time right now

    where we don't know what's going to

    happen you know learning laws

    testing covet mass mandates

    all these different things are hitting

    educators all back up educators in the

    classrooms are on the front lines of

    what's happening in the home or not

    happening in the home along with all the

    policy and all the mandates and

    everything that's happening in education

    the standards all these things and so i

    just think that

    we need to

    work together and we need to really

    learn how to do that and that's what's

    missing when i say that we know what to

    do

    we already know that it's pbl we already

    know that you know computer science is

    good for all students we know sel is

    important whether we agree or not we all

    know that social justice

    you know is an issue in america right

    equity all these things but how to do it

    that's the issue so how do you

    try and stave off like the burnout that

    can come

    with working in the field of education

    because there's like a lot being thrown

    at educators like a lot of pressures

    you're we're traveling before covet i

    know you're still doing professional

    development like how do you try and

    prevent that well

    i think that

    what i do is

    i loop back

    the things that i enjoy doing but i

    don't have time to do and for me it's

    hiking it's sightseeing one that i do do

    a lot is eating out i'm a big foodie

    right stuff like that what i do is i

    make time for those things

    right now on the weekends friday and

    saturday my wife and my two children we

    map out something that we want to do in

    nature it could be canoeing it could be

    sailing row boating whatever or it could

    be hiking and then we find a restaurant

    something that we've never tried before

    and so we do that like on a saturday on

    a sunday

    it could be a pool day it could be a

    game day a movie day but the whole point

    is to do something that you enjoy doing

    and that's how you restore

    your emotional health and your burnout

    and your fatigue

    you have to do something

    where your mind is no longer engaged in

    that workflow and i think if you do that

    on a consistent

    basis

    like for me it's the weekends and it's

    after 9 30 at night you know and at 9 30

    at night it might sound funny to you or

    to someone listening but i like to watch

    things that make me laugh like the

    golden girls i mean it's true the

    jeffersons

    martin shows that i like humor that i

    like and it takes my mind off the

    workflow

    and the thing that i've realized is that

    it could be the resurrection work is

    going to be there it's not going away

    and so there's nothing wrong in

    you know disconnecting for your own

    mental health yeah that definitely

    resonates that's something that i had to

    learn to do and value and it wasn't

    really until a therapist pointed out

    like hey you don't you're not making

    time for yourself

    all you're doing is working

    yeah and so one thing like i was in

    chicago last week and i did a gig there

    actually and

    my wife said you've done

    i don't know what it's been man it's

    been

    since april 2020 i have been basically

    every week doing pt you know just

    basically every week and she said to me

    you have not been on a real vacation a

    long time so let's take two three days

    since chicago let's do something fun and

    no work and so that was hard for me it

    was very hard for me because i have a

    lot going on and so

    like i sat down and i wrote down so what

    do i want to do in chicago on my bucket

    list is to visit michael jordan statue

    and so we put that on the list

    she wanted to do

    a boat ride on the riverwalk she wanted

    to go to the highest

    building i think it was a sears building

    and to look down and see the whole you

    know city and so we did that for three

    full days in a lot of restaurants and

    i realized that i need something like

    this two three times a year you know not

    for an entire week or two weeks maybe

    five six days if i can afford it or if i

    have time

    but yeah like you need something like

    that or you can't really restore or heal

    emotionally or you know mentally from

    all that's going on yeah that definitely

    resonates i how sat from my parents like

    for a week maybe a month ago and just

    getting out of the summer heat in

    phoenix and being able to get up into

    the forest area because like their

    backyard backs up to the forest like it

    was wonderful it's just a disconnect for

    that week

    need to do that more

    yeah like there's a power in nature you

    know nature has amazing restoring

    qualities

    and so

    i think you just have to know

    what you actually need i think john

    spencer has to for ours you know

    relaxation

    restoration

    i forgot the other two but you just have

    to figure out what do you need for your

    own healing whatever that is you know

    physical mental spiritual and make time

    for that and if you don't you will

    regret it eventually and the people

    around you

    will probably not be in your life um

    forever if you don't do that so the way

    that you've been discussing that and

    then even how you described your

    professional development like if i were

    to

    use one word that kind of

    really stands out it would probably be

    the word intentional from an outside

    perspective and i say that with like a

    compliment that is something that really

    resonates with i try and look at life

    from an intentional perspective and be

    intentional with time finances etc i'm

    curious if you were to shift your focus

    on how you are intentional with

    improving yourself

    either

    your knowledge of cs education or your

    abilities as a pd facilitator how do you

    kind of practice and iterate on those

    abilities yeah so

    i created a blog series it's called

    lifelong learning defined for peak

    performance and education

    right now

    a lot of the focus has been on equity

    seo

    and project-based learning in my work

    some computer science you know basically

    those things and also in environmental

    science has been a big

    focus but i created a master class

    called

    high quality teaching for peak

    performance and

    i want to

    lift up the elements of the framework i

    haven't looked at it recently

    so i don't remember everything but these

    are the things that make up who i am

    and

    the way that i do all of my work and so

    it's a framework and so the first thing

    is this and so as a phd student i

    learned that

    phd students have to create knowledge

    right

    and so one of the things that i've

    been very blessed with is to be very

    consistent in my pd services for almost

    some 10 years now and so

    using that in tandem

    with my knowledge in the phd program

    i've learned how to do my intake calls

    at semi-structured interviews so i'm

    basically learning a lot about the

    organization about the teachers and what

    they actually need

    and then after the workshops are

    designed based on this knowledge and

    also best practices then i'm getting

    feedback surveys

    right and so i'm looking at what the

    teachers say and so these two big steps

    over time

    make a framework

    and so one of the frameworks that i've

    developed for peak performance and high

    quality teaching

    that really tell my story but also i

    think other educators need is to number

    one

    really develop their emotional

    intelligence skills personal and social

    competence as we've been discussing

    but two is to understand their own

    educational philosophy basically know

    what they think about teaching and

    learning and how young people learn

    right and their why and all these things

    but two is to adopt sound instructional

    design practices meaning that they need

    to understand how to unpack a curriculum

    framework or unpack a project or an idea

    that they see online

    and also standards they need to be able

    to create their own project in their own

    lesson and then they also need to

    understand how to facilitate it

    and so it's not just knowing how to

    write a lesson but it's knowing how

    young people learn and so being able to

    use

    protocols and strategies that help

    with

    cognitive demand in a way that isn't

    overloading

    right and so only a person that's a

    master and his or her content will be

    able to design those experiences

    and so knowing what your content is

    knowing the

    research frameworks

    major concepts that apply in whatever

    you're teaching and then being able to

    you know design good learning

    experiences five is to improve your

    knowledge of students you can't be a

    culturally responsive teacher if you're

    teaching young people from different

    backgrounds and different cultures than

    yourself if you don't know them and so

    if you don't you know get to know them

    then you can't really help them and so

    here's the thing what we're trying to do

    in education or what we should be doing

    is creating learning partnerships

    you can't do that if you don't have a

    relationship and you can't have a

    relationship if you don't lead with

    empathy so you have to get to know your

    students as far as their perspectives

    for example their interests their goals

    what they're good at for their assets

    and then their instructional needs

    six as we all know you need to be able

    to use edtech to augment lessons it's

    not that you lead with that tech but

    edtech is used to enhance how a lesson

    is taught and so

    in covit i mean there's no way around it

    we all know you know that we have to

    focus on this and so i like the tpack

    model it's a very strong

    framework

    for helping educators understand how

    their content knowledge their

    pedagogical knowledge but their

    knowledge of technology how that can

    either blend

    or re-blend that at different times and

    so that's a skill in itself and so i

    think that that really goes back to

    instructional design practices and

    lastly is to become an advocate for your

    students

    whatever your students need whatever

    those equity raisers are you need to

    advocate for them and

    that really starts with you becoming

    what they need you to be so all those

    things over the years lots of data

    collections a lot of failures a lot of

    working on myself that's what i've come

    to i'm wondering like if we were to

    think broader than how you improve your

    own abilities what do you feel is

    research that is missing in the field

    and whether it be research that you're

    doing for the dissertation or just in

    general that might be missing all right

    so for my dissertation it's a computer

    science

    focus and so

    i did some research prior to it's

    published in the journal for computer

    science integration and so

    what i wanted to figure out was what is

    it that's holding back educators who

    aren't traditional computer science

    teachers meaning it wasn't part of their

    undergrad what is holding them back

    from teaching

    that and also computational thinking

    and so i did some research around that i

    interviewed i want to say you know 10

    educators

    and from science math cte other areas

    and what i basically realized is that

    because they don't have that in their

    background or in their wheelhouse

    they struggled with two things

    understanding major concepts in computer

    science but also in how to facilitate it

    and so what i think is missing in my

    research as far as computer science goes

    and really i think it applies to

    anything is being able to activate that

    in lessons whatever you've learned or

    whatever has to be lifted up and so that

    really goes back to instructional design

    practices

    i mean if you want to be a good teacher

    based on what i've learned there's two

    things you need to know how to do well

    no matter what the discipline is

    number one

    how to write your own lesson plans

    you have to

    taking into

    account

    you know not just the standards

    and what the lessons are are going to be

    but also who's in your classroom

    so how are you going to differentiate

    for them how are you going to scaffold

    for them

    what will your learning stations or your

    learning centers look like that's why

    those eight or seven elements by so many

    of them because it's not just one thing

    but being able to map a curriculum

    hopefully backwards

    and then being able to facilitate it

    using strategies that again take into

    account how young people learn you know

    learning happens along a continuum

    new learning is built on old learning

    and so

    a good teacher

    builds on that through scaffolding

    experiences everyone doesn't know that

    and so i think that that research is

    already there

    but i'm not so sure that it's lifted up

    in every field and so in computer

    science i definitely think it's needed

    especially because we're asking

    educators that don't have an undergrad

    in cs to now teach cs i mean think of

    their return on investment for stem

    education billions of dollars have been

    spent on stem in the ngss the ngss is

    the first time

    that engineering design was elevated to

    the same level as scientific inquiry in

    the standards they used engineers to

    actually develop the framework but

    educators weren't really trained on

    engineering design so

    what's the return on investment on that

    we see that we're missing a stem

    workforce right it's not what we need

    well it's not where we'd like it to be

    and so i think it's that it's research

    on

    best way of activating these things in

    actual lessons or in the classroom i

    think that the educational ship should

    always be guided by curriculum

    instruction or instructional design

    practices for teaching and learning no

    book no speaker

    no nothing no business partner no money

    should be spent if it's not enhancing

    cni yeah like that do you have time to

    talk about like what your

    recommendations are for equity and

    inclusion yeah for equity and inclusion

    i really think that a staff needs to as

    a plc

    needs to

    really

    you know you know get together and

    make intentions

    about

    what their personal and also as an

    organization but those intentions are

    for dei work

    and then make shared agreements about

    how that work is going to go and then

    based on who's in the building

    right what different backgrounds of

    cultures ethnicities

    you know that they're servicing they

    need to really be informed about the

    equity raisers of those folks

    and so

    if not

    and i don't mean that they get knowledge

    of it from a textbook or from the

    history book no in the narratives of

    those folks that have been marginalized

    and having a process for taking that and

    learning

    how to as a team

    create school-wide

    culture on climate practices

    that are inclusive for all these folks

    and learning from the mistakes and so

    when we do that as a plc

    then

    the educators in the building or the

    staff won't be afraid to do two things

    number one

    speed from the heart

    say what they feel but number two which

    is very important is to not be afraid to

    get the feedback they need

    when their perspective needs some change

    especially if it harms other people and

    so that's a process and so i would

    recommend in getting

    someone from the outside

    when that team really needs to you know

    start that hard work and it's you know

    long work like you know it's not

    something that we just you know doing

    one session or one workshop or one book

    study but you bring in a person that is

    using research-based frameworks and

    models number one

    number two has checked his or her own

    biases

    three has healed their own trauma

    and four knows how to create safe spaces

    and not shame colleagues

    and so you know that's just in a

    nutshell

    you know in the research i've been in

    the work i'm doing but i think that

    those are important elements yeah i like

    that so

    where might people go to connect with

    you and the organizations that you work

    with yeah lifelong learning

    learningdefined.com and also at george

    does pbl that is j-o-r-g-e and that's on

    tick-tock snapchat instagram twitter

    whatever

    you know it's on there and yeah and

    that's it and just drop me a line send

    me an email and we can chat and with

    that that concludes this week's episode

    of the csk8 podcast i hope you enjoyed

    this interview with george and i hope

    you consider checking out the show notes

    to explore some of the free resources

    and to connect with george on the

    various different platforms that they

    mentioned and you can find that at

    jaredoleary.com stay tuned next week for

    another episode and until then i hope

    you're all staying safe and are having a

    wonderful week

Guest Bio

Jorge Valenzuela is an education coach, author, and advocate. He has years of experience as a classroom and online teacher, a curriculum specialist, and a consultant. His work focuses on improving teacher preparation in project-based learning (PBL), computational thinking and computer science integration, STEM education, and equity and SEL integration. Jorge is an adjunct professor at Old Dominion University and the lead coach at Lifelong Learning Defined. His book Rev Up Robotics and jump start guides Ready, Set, Robotics and SEL in Action are available from ISTE. His following two books, which respectively focus on PBL and Equity and SEL Integration, are forthcoming from ISTE and Solution Tree. Jorge is also the host of the SEL in Action Podcast on BAM Radio Network.

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InterviewJared O'LearyProject-based learning, Social and emotional learning (SEL), Professional Development, Computational thinking, EngineeringComment