S2 Episode 6 Amanda Burrows on Innovations in Education: A Deeper Learning Perspective

PODCAST Season 2 EPISODE 6 

Amanda Burrows

Deeper Learning Director, CKEC

Quote of the Podcast – 

Our job, as teachers, is not to "prepare" kids for something; our job is to help kids learn to prepare themselves for anything. - AJ Juliani

Introduction of Guest BIO – 

Amanda Burrows is the Deeper Learning Director at Central Kentucky Educational Cooperative, where she leads and supports more than twenty school districts in their deeper learning initiatives. Burrows has been an educator since 2005, serving as a classroom teacher, college and career coach, educational consultant, and assistant principal. Burrows received her Bachelor of Arts in English Teaching and Master of Arts in Education from Eastern Kentucky University. She earned her Education Specialist Degree and principal certification from the University of Kentucky. In 2011, Burrows was selected as Elkhorn Crossing School’s first ever teacher of the year and was recognized as the High School Teacher of the Year for Scott County Schools. Additionally, she was a recipient of the Campbellsville Excellence in Teaching Award and the University of Kentucky Teacher Who Made a Difference Award. Burrows is passionate about transformational education, innovative instructional models, engaging teaching strategies, and personalized systems of deeper learning. She is an avid supporter of students and the continuous growth and professional learning of educators in Kentucky.

Interview

Agents of Change: Leaders/Innovators

•  30,000 Ft. View – Why so we, as a society invest in education?
• What drew you to education?
• What do you love about what you do?
• Tell us About the Deeper Learning Initiative
• Explain what the Co-Ops are and what they offer
• Tell us a story or favorite memory about your work in education
• What are the biggest challenges to you?
• What would you like decision makers to know?

Podcast/book shoutouts

I would love for people to be able to check out our CKEC Deeper Learning Google Site. There are a lot of free resources there. bit.ly/CKECDL

Transcript

Liza Holland [00:00:02]:
Welcome to education perspectives. I am your host, Liza Holland. This is a podcast that explores the role of education in our society from a variety of lenses. Education needs to evolve to meet the needs of today and the future. Solving such huge issues requires understanding. Join me as we begin to explore the many perspectives of education. Amanda Burrows is the deeper learning director at the Central Kentucky Educational Cooperative, where she leads and supports more than 20 school districts in their deeper learning initiatives. Burroughs has been an educator since 2,005, serving as a classroom teacher, college and career coach, educational consultant, and assistant principal.

Liza Holland [00:00:51]:
Burroughs received her bachelor of arts in English teaching and master of arts in education from Eastern Kentucky University. She earned her education specialist degree and principal certification from the University of Kentucky. In 2011, Burroughs was selected as Elkhorn Crossing School's first ever teacher of the year and was recognized as the high school teacher of the year for Scott County Schools. Additionally, she was a recipient of the Campbellsville Excellence in Teaching Award and the University of Kentucky Teacher Who Made a Difference Award. Burroughs is passionate about transformational education, innovative instructional models, engaging teaching strategies, and personalized systems of deeper learning. She is an avid supporter of the students and of continuous growth and professional learning of the educators in Kentucky. Well, Amanda, welcome to Education Perspectives. We're so excited to have you.

Amanda Burrows [00:01:52]:
Thank you so much for having me as a guest today.

Liza Holland [00:01:55]:
Well, you have done some really neat work with a bunch of schools, so I'm looking forward to getting in-depth in that. But I have to ask you the same question I ask every guest. Tell me from your perspective, from a 30,000 foot view, why do you think that we as a society invest in education?

Amanda Burrows [00:02:14]:
I think primarily, we want our communities and our society to continue growing and thriving. We want our youth to develop knowledge, skills, and dispositions, and become lifelong self oriented or self directed learners. We want to enhance our workforce development and sustain our economic growth. I mean, those are all goals of education. I think it reduces poverty and inequalities in our society. But then in my role as a deeper learning director supporting school districts who are focusing on competencies, you know, I want to see students developing the academic knowledge and the critical thinking and collaboration and communication, skills and positive academic mindsets that are going to make them successful in for the rest of their lives.

Liza Holland [00:03:05]:
Great answer. So you've been in education for a while. What drew you to education? Tell us a little bit about your journey.

Amanda Burrows [00:03:11]:
Well, this is my 19th year in education, and I could tell you in kindergarten that I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. I have always loved learning and being in a learning environment. I've been very blessed with wonderful teachers who not only taught me what I needed to know with content, but took an interest in me. I didn't always have an easy upbringing and my teachers helped me find balance and passions and interest and gave me opportunities. I was a 1st generation college student. And I remember in high school, I had a teacher who said to me, Amita, I really think you should apply to be a a Kentucky governor scholar. And I said, I don't know what that is. And she helped me fill out the application.

Amanda Burrows [00:03:58]:
And in the year 2000, I was selected to be a Kentucky governor scholar. And that was my first experience on a college campus, learning with other scholars and and, you know, students across Kentucky. You know, I was someone who didn't leave my hometown very often. So it gave me a broad perspective of what learning and education could be and the doors that could be open for our students. And then, you know, I had educators in my high school career who who told me about college and scholarships and ways that I can continue my education. So helping others, both students and teachers is a passion of mine and making sure that I can help others see how those doors can continue to be open for them through education is important to me.

Liza Holland [00:04:44]:
That's excellent. What do you love most about what you do?

Amanda Burrows [00:04:47]:
Well, I wear many hats in my role. So I would say as a classroom teacher, I loved building relationships with students and getting to know them and seeing the growth that they would make in a year's time. From the beginning, the 1st day they walked into my door, my classroom door until the day that they left. My role now, I still get to work with students, but I work mainly with educators. And educators are doing meaningful work. I'm a very reflective person. And so I love that aspect of my job in education. I get to reflect on what I'm doing and how I'm helping others and how I can continue getting better.

Amanda Burrows [00:05:25]:
So I'm constantly learning and growing. I'm a problem solver. No 2 days in education are ever the same. So I love having new challenges and figuring things out and helping others figure out problems and moving forward, And I like being challenged. And so there are so many aspects to education that I love, but primarily just getting to work with the network of teachers that I've been blessed to know in my career and the students that I've been blessed to teach is the reason I do what I do.

Liza Holland [00:05:57]:
Well, part of the whole deeper learning exercise is really meant to create lifelong learners. So your students have really just gotten a little older, it seems to be.

Amanda Burrows [00:06:06]:
I actually saw one today. I I was at the hospital visiting my mother and I saw, a young man. I say young man. He's in his thirties now. And he stopped me and he said, you were my English teacher. And we just had this great conversation, seeing them grow up and become adults is it just means a lot, and it it makes it all worthwhile.

Liza Holland [00:06:25]:
Isn't that wonderful? So tell us a little bit about this deeper learning adventure that we're on. It started with a big grant to the state of Kentucky. Right?

Amanda Burrows [00:06:34]:
Absolutely. So I was actually working as an assistant principal at a high school in Central Kentucky, and I was scrolling through Facebook one day, and I saw a job posting at Central Kentucky Educational Cooperative for a deeper learning director. And I didn't know that there was a grant at the time and I thought, wow, that sounds like my dream job. So that's where I started asking questions and reaching out and finding out more about this grant. But it started with one statewide grant. The 8 regional cooperatives worked together in order to, move it forward. It's $24,500,000 that was divided up between those 8 regional cooperatives, and specifically, CKAC supports the work in 23 school districts. It has 2 years for the completion of the grant work we launched in July of 2022, and the grant will officially end in September of 2024, and we've had 3 phases of this grant.

Amanda Burrows [00:07:31]:
So when we launched, what I one of the things I love about this grant is that the first phase was it was the summer and fall of 2022. It was all about reflecting and learning and planning. And for me and my team, just connecting with those and the points of contacts from those districts to learn about their student demographic and their teachers in the district and current initiatives that they were, you know, launching so that we could align with those. And then from last spring 2023 until the end of this school year, it's our piloting phase. And so this is where deeper learning teacher leaders and district leaders are piloting whatever deeper learning initiatives they've chosen to embark upon, and we're supporting that work. And then the idea is that these deeper learning teams that are formed in each of those 23 school districts and across the state, of course, will continue scaling and spreading that work from, the fall of 2024 into the future. I'm very excited about the work that we've done and the work that we still have to do.

Liza Holland [00:08:32]:
So what does deeper learning mean for those of us who have not been, been deep into it? What does that mean, and why does it matter?

Amanda Burrows [00:08:39]:
So, you know, I like to explain deeper learning as a goal that we have for students. We want them to understand our content deeply and to have meaningful learning experiences that are connected to authentic real world learning outside of the classroom. I like to explain it as building of competencies. So we want students, you know, building their critical thinking and collaboration and communication skills. But, really, it's the learning that we remember. It's the learning that matters. And, you know, when you start to ask adults to think about their favorite learning experiences that they had in their own education. You know, usually they start smiling and they start possibly remembering a specific teacher.

Amanda Burrows [00:09:26]:
They can tell you. They'll start to say, well, you know, once I was able to go on this field trip where I was able to do this project or I was able to research a topic that was really important to me. And those are the experiences that lead to that deep content understanding and transfer of learning into new situations across content areas that they take with them for life. And I know that was probably a longer definition than you wanted, but to me, that's deeper learning. That's what we're trying to expand. And, you know, it's happening in Kentucky, all across Kentucky, but we're trying to expand and create and

Liza Holland [00:10:11]:
out there. Right? The teacher that everybody wants to have because they're just so good, and they make the learning so exciting and and so meaningful. And this process helps teachers to look at ways about how to teach. Not necessarily what they teach. It it doesn't really matter what the contents. It's how to make something more engaging and to to really have students take a little bit more ownership of their learning. Can you talk about that piece? Because that really intrigues me.

Amanda Burrows [00:10:41]:
Absolutely. So we have fantastic educators across Central Kentucky and across our state who know their content well. What we do, my team likes to do, is we like to bring new strategies to the table to get them thinking about how it might look in their classroom with their students. One of the things that my team did early on is we started hosting what we called a deep dive series, and these were monthly after school 1 hour sessions. And we started with the deeper learning competencies. So, like, one that we hosted was on, collaboration and cooperative learning strategies for students. And in that 1 hour virtual session, we would introduce strategies for teachers that could be used from preschool all the way through high school across the content areas that were ready to use the next day. Like, we would create templates for them, we would model how they were used, and we try not to overwhelm them.

Amanda Burrows [00:11:32]:
You know, we would focus on 3 or 4 strategies, and then teachers could turn around and use them and share them with other teachers in their building immediately. And then the next month, we did one on communication skills and we did one on academic mindsets and so on and so forth. And then what we would do, we kind of gained a following and people started coming to these and we would give them, a Google form and ask for feedback on what are you ready or what do you want to know more about? How can we support you in the classroom? And that's where they said, well, we wanna know more about inquiry based learning and fostering student voice and agency in our classrooms. At that point, moving on from just competencies and small strategies to bigger ideas and bigger models of learning. And so we just moved at the pace they were ready to move. We still offer trainings on, like, you know, visible thinking strategies and instructional based evidence based instructional strategies. Anything that we can do to just help support teachers and make their lives easier. You know, our job as consultants is really what I feel like our passion is.

Amanda Burrows [00:12:37]:
And so they say, I wanna try a peer feedback protocol. Can you help me create something that would work for my 6th grade social studies class? Then we say, yes. We will do that for you and send it to them. So that has been the most rewarding part of this current role that I have.

Liza Holland [00:12:53]:
I love the fact that you are offering such a wide variety. It's like we can allow teachers to have different entry points into this concept of deeper learning that maybe that inquiry based was something that really just kind of was piquing their interest at that time or, you know, something completely different and allowing for that breadth and depth of variety. That's marvelous. You know, a lot of people don't know about the cooperatives themselves. Can you tell us a little bit about what the cooperatives do?

Amanda Burrows [00:13:23]:
Absolutely. And I'll be honest. You know, I told you this is my 19th year in education. And until about 5 years ago, I wasn't aware of all of the wonderful resources that the cooperatives offer. So primarily and historically, the cooperatives, have been they've provided special education services to our districts, and that is federally funded typically unless there's some kind of outside funding for specific cooperatives, most of the general education support comes from grants. And so right now at our cooperative, we have multiple grants. 1 is the Super Learning grant where we're able to support general education, and we also have a grant that's for learning acceleration that's it comes from some of the coronavirus relief funds. So, you know, we see some of these different grants popping up.

Amanda Burrows [00:14:14]:
Some of the cooperatives generate income in other ways. They might have some like master's program or continued education programs for teachers or partnerships with universities. But really the goal of all of our cooperatives is to be able to provide services to our member districts, to provide training for teachers within those regions. I think that it's a great resource in addition to other resources that teachers have across the state. But just knowing that you've got that regional support and, you know, I think that it is a regional approach to statewide educational support.

Liza Holland [00:14:49]:
You know, that kind of leads me into some of the challenges. The fact that you're grant funded for a lot of the things that you're doing is a real challenge because, okay, we've got these 2 years, and that's awesome, but this is really a long term ongoing need. So tell me a little bit about your thoughts on funding because I know that a lot of the professional development funding has gone away periodically in for the state legislature, but tell us your thoughts about funding this type of extra work that will really support student learning.

Amanda Burrows [00:15:25]:
Well, I don't have a solution. I wish I did, Liza. I would tell you how to solve this problem. My team came on board here knowing that and willing to work for 2 to 3 years on this grant knowing that that might be the end of our roles. But we, of course, want to continue that work, and I think there's a lot of momentum in Kentucky right now around deeper learning. If that's not in the cards and, you know, we don't get to continue the deeper learning work at the cooperative level. I hope the districts will continue in, and I think it is something that's sustainable. What's happening, and I didn't mention this earlier when I talked about the grant, but the majority of that grant money goes to the districts, and they were awarded a specific amount based on their the size of the district and student enrollment.

Amanda Burrows [00:16:12]:
And so those districts got to form deeper learning teams based on that amount of funding that they got. And so just to put it in perspective, a small independent school district might have a team of 4 teachers versus our largest district that we work within this region who has a team of 38 teachers. And those teachers have been receiving a small stipend for the additional work that they're putting in, and the time and effort goes with piloting the deeper learning work. And so I'm hoping that districts will consider continuing those stipends and sustaining those teams, and even when possible, growing those teams. Of course, I mean, if you're going to ask me a challenge or supporting our districts so that they will be able to sustain and scale this work in the case that the deeper learning teams aren't able to stay on beyond 2024.

Liza Holland [00:17:12]:
Well, I have to give you great kudos because the infrastructure that you have built to support that ongoing learning is really extraordinary. And so you and your team have done a, a tremendous, tremendous job.

Amanda Burrows [00:17:24]:
Well, thank you. That means a lot.

Liza Holland [00:17:27]:
So I am coming back in my head to this favorite experience in learning. So I'd like to toss that question to you. What is your most memorable learning experience?

Amanda Burrows [00:17:37]:
Well, you know, I talked about, as a student, my most memorable learning experience was being able to spend 5 weeks on a college campus as a Kentucky Governor's Scholar. I'm a huge supporter of that program, and honestly, it changed my life and broadened my perspective of life beyond the county that I grew up in and seeing educational opportunities. As an educator, without a doubt, my favorite story or memory is in 2010, I had the opportunity to be part of a team that opened up a brand new 21st century career and technical school. And the whole concept of this school is kinda based on High-tech High in San Diego. The whole concept of this school was that we would create a vill what we called a village concept, and we would combine 2 core content classes with a career pathway. And so I had the pleasure and honor of teaching English to high schoolers who were in a pre engineering program. And so they would come to our school for part of the day. They would take their English course, their math course, and their pre engineering course, and then they would go back to their home high school for the other part of the day.

Amanda Burrows [00:18:41]:
This was just a tremendous experience where I had to think outside the box. Like, why does English, ELA, English language arts matter to students who wanna be engineers when they grow up? And how can I make my content more real world and authentic for these students? One of the things that we did at this school is we formed advisory councils. And so the advisory councils were comprised of members of the community who were stakeholders and cared about manufacturing and engineering in the future of our community. And so these volunteers, these adults, would come in and give feedback to our students, and our students actually did year long projects in engineering, and they would present in presentation labs, and we would have a panel of these professional advisory council members who would give feedback. And so my favorite story about that is, you know, I had the opportunity to work there in that role for 9 years. And I got to see, like, our first group that came through and presented. They went on, they graduated, many of them became engineers, and then they came back and they were on our advisory council. And, you know, it was just it was full circle.

Amanda Burrows [00:19:48]:
They really saw the impact that that had on their lives, and they wanted to devote the time to giving back to students because they knew how meaningful that had been to them. And, you know, sometimes as high schoolers, those students would say, miss Burrows, I don't wanna do all these projects and presentations. I don't have to do these in a traditional setting, and I'd say it will be worth it. Like, this is productive struggle. You are learning and you are growing, and it will be worth it. And then hearing them come back as adults and say, you know, you were right. That was hard, but it prepared me for engineering school and it prepared me for my career. That has been my favorite portion of my career.

Amanda Burrows [00:20:27]:
And I think no matter what I do, and I've had some really cool jobs, but no matter what I do, just seeing them grow into adults who are successful and contributors. You know? They're civically engaged. They're engaged in public education. That's gonna be the highlight for me.

Liza Holland [00:20:44]:
That's the ideal, isn't it? That's what we want them to all be confident in being able to go through that productive struggle and fail and try again and all that kind of stuff that doesn't get as much airtime in our schools as it needs to, that's a great answer. I reflect myself because I've been doing some other work with together with you, with the Fayette County Public Schools. And one of the questions that the teachers came up with to ask their fellow teachers was, what was your most favorite learning experience? Which I thought was just brilliant. Now if we've had the best answers, but it made me start thinking about mine. And it was the first time that I really felt that I had been given a choice to go outside of the norm. And I did a research paper, and I did my whole outline mind mapping. I was totally entranced with this whole idea, and you would not have believed this mind map. I remember it spreading it all over the floor and multiple pieces of paper and all that kind of stuff, but I just reflect on that.

Liza Holland [00:21:44]:
And not only was it empowering, but I still use it today. That's how my mind works. And, so it was really, really cool.

Amanda Burrows [00:21:51]:
And you think and you reflect if you hadn't been given that learning opportunity, it could have changed the trajectory for so many opportunities you've had in life. You know? So, yes, very, very special when we have those special learning opportunities.

Liza Holland [00:22:05]:
Think about that, listeners. What was your absolute favorite experience? We wanna have lots of more of those for our students. Okay. So final question. What would you like decision makers in education to know?

Amanda Burrows [00:22:16]:
Oh, that's easy. I think more than anything, I would like them to know that teachers and students need a voice at the decision making table. When you think about who is in the classrooms every day, it's our teachers and it's our students. But rarely are they given a seat at the table when important decisions are being made. I don't think it should be merely like an exercise or practice scenario. I think that it needs to be a reality. I think that students and teachers need to be engaging and expanding their understanding of democracy because that impacts their their education and their lives. And I think that when we have ownership and agency and we feel valued, then it's going to make a difference in not only the way that we feel about education, but the impact that we're having on others.

Amanda Burrows [00:23:10]:
And so that's my short answer is, you know, when I was classroom teacher, I I would often say, well, I wish that they had asked me because I have an opinion on that. Our students would say, well, I wish that they would ask me because I have ideas about that. And, you know, Kentucky is moving in the right direction in many ways. I think, you know, having a student and a teacher in a seat on the representing the Kentucky Board of Education, we're making some of those strides and I'm very excited about them, but I think that that's only the beginning. I think there's a lot of areas for growth there.

Liza Holland [00:23:42]:
Absolutely. Well, thank you so very much, Amanda, for taking some time to share your thoughts, ideas, and experiences with the listeners here at Education Perspectives. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Education perspectives. Feel free to share your thoughts on our Facebook page. Let us know which education perspectives you would like to hear or share. Please subscribe and share with your friends.