Transformative Principal

Donald Walker
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to Transformative Principal. We have a special, uh, edition today. we're at Cass, UDL Con here in Sacramento, California. And I am privileged to have with me Donald Walker. Uh, Donald, welcome to Transformative Principal. Thanks for being here.

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here today.

Uh, the pleasure is all mine. Uh, so tell, tell us what you do, uh, with cast and what your, what your role is.

Well, specifically, uh, my title is National Career Technical Education Trainer, and I work out of the Workforce Development Department. Uh, the lion's share of what I do is work with secondary and post-secondary institutions who have CTE and career pathway [00:01:00] programs and help them, uh, provide professional development for their teachers as it relates to UDL.

And, uh, supporting their programming. The connection is really that most CTE instructors come from industry. So they're professionals at their craft, but they don't have the pedagogy for the classroom. They didn't go through a te, uh, traditional teacher program. And so when you bring UDL into. That environment with someone who's coming from the industry, it then becomes their pedagogy.

And the wonderful thing about that is it also gives a common language to the core curriculum teachers and now the CTE teachers. And it creates a little more synergy within the learning environment. Secondary especially, but also in the post-secondary realm.

yeah, that common language is so important. I was also on alternative routes. I, I had an English degree but no education training and then came in, uh, as an educator and started education classes when I already had a classroom full of students, um, which. [00:02:00] For me personally, was definitely the better way to, to start teaching and to start learning about teaching, uh, really valuable and, and a good experience.

So talk to us a little bit about, uh, how, uh, you've been using drones, uh, especially in rural areas and what, what that looks like.

Well, I'm here, uh, especially in the capacity of cast and, and UDL con to do a presentation around introducing, uh, specifically rural, young girls, middle, middle school aged girls. I. To STEM technology through the use of drones.

And we know through the research, both, uh, serious research, academic research as well as anecdotally how STEM technology tends to, uh, be more centered around boys and men. And the entry points for women and young girls are few and far between. And so our thought is through this project, let's introduce girls to all the wonderful things [00:03:00] that are found in stem through a very relevant.

Subject matter, which is, or relevant industry, which is drone technology. And in using research to identify and remove the barriers that exist typically for girls to get involved in this, starting at the middle school age. And so we've come up with a curriculum, it's about six modules or missions that'll be free curriculum for teachers to use to bring drones, the technology.

The curriculum and to stimulate, uh, girl involvement in STEM without excluding the boys. Now we, we don't want to make it seem like the boys can't play. Of course they can, but we're leveling the playing field a little bit so that girls can bring what they bring to the table into STEM

And UDL is about removing the barriers, right? And so if there's a barrier that's preventing girls from learning, we want to take those away. So what are some of the, so developing a curriculum is one thing. What else are you doing to remove those barriers? For girls [00:04:00] specifically,

Well, within the curriculum? Here's a perfect example. Um, before we actually introduce the girls to the drone technology, we start out with, um, the best way I can describe it is it's a flying orb.

It's a little plastic ball that has a, a fan that spins on the inside and you can do aerial type maneuvers with the ball. And begin to practice those, those kinds of techniques. Why is the, why is that special? Because typically speaking, who handles controllers more boys. Girls don't handle them as less or as much, excuse me.

So now we take that barrier away from girls. We level the playing field by both the girls and the boys utilizing this device that neither one of them is overly familiar with. And so now there isn't that, that particular barrier of boys being overly familiar with hand controllers and playing them to death.

And the girls may be feeling intimidated by that kind of activity. So that's just one example.

Yeah. And, and what a great example too, that it takes this, [00:05:00] uh, this barrier that people may not have even thought about that, uh. A barrier is that I don't know how to use a, a controller. And so I, I wouldn't even know how to articulate that. That's a barrier for me.

And yet we can see this is a way to level that playing field, make it valuable. Uh, so with this idea of, um, of UDL, why is that so important as it relates to CTE specifically? Thanks.

So UDO has amongst its, uh, a number of different pillars. Engagement is one of the first areas of UDL that, that you, you encounter when you're beginning to bring that into your, your thinking as an instructor, your design, if you will, without engagement, nothing else matters. And that's part of the problem anecdotally and, and, and through the research that we find in terms of, um, being a barrier for learning for anybody.

Right. And so concentrating [00:06:00] through UDL on the removal of those barriers, CTE. Does it innately, you don't sign up for a career technical education program without loving or having at least an interest in whatever that happens to be. So engagement becomes an automatic part of it. And very quickly you figure out, oh, culinary's not for me.

Let me switch over to automotive, or whatever it happens to be. And then once you're engaged, everything else becomes a little easier. And that's not to say that there aren't further barriers within career technical education. Of course there are, but that first on ramp. You can't get on the highway if you don't get on the highway.

Right? And that first on ramp of engagement is addressed through the nature of career technical education and UDL as well. So the two in my opinion, are a match made in heaven.

So let's talk about the other, uh, aspects of it and, and how they. How that's so important for CTE and I'll, I'll let you go with that unless, or if you want more specificity of that question.[00:07:00]

so, gimme a little bit more in terms of what you're asking.

So, so what I'm thinking is there's, there's the engagement piece, but then there's the other two aspects to it. And one of the things that I think about specifically is when it comes to CTE, that you need to be hands on. You need to be doing something with it.

And it's not enough to, to just talk about it in theory and CTE courses that are just about theory. Are, are no good. Nobody likes those. And so that, that's kind of what I was getting at.

I would offer that A-A-C-T-E program that's just about theory isn't really a CTE program to begin with.

And so the, the other two pillars, if you will, of uh, UDL, meaning, um, means of multiple means of representation, we're talking about ways in which to bring the information in. That is an area I think. In career technical education that will truly benefit from UDL. Looking at things beyond a textbook, [00:08:00] looking at it from a point of being able to receive the information through video tutorials, through a textbook, through audio tutorials, whatever different ways I need to learn how to do whatever that particular skill is that I need to do.

Then we get into multiple means of expression, and that is, uh, without necessarily. Getting away from what you have to do in order to demonstrate that skill. How can, how many different ways can we approach the demonstration of that skill? Is it something that I can write out for you to show that I know what I need to know in terms of the steps?

Uh, is it something that I can just simply do? And that that is it, and I've demonstrated it to you. How many different ways can we approach that and still at the end of the day, have the student be able to know what that skill is in order to be able to serve up, for lack of a better term, whatever the end product happens to be for that CTE program? Well,

And another aspect of a lot of CTE courses is safety. And uh, one of the things I say all the time is that [00:09:00] safety is the price of admission. Like you can't, when people say safety is our priority, I think that is. Is not beneficial because safety should be the baseline, right? BA safety should is where we should start.

And so that's, that should be a given, not a priority. And so being able to express that you understand, uh, in multiple different ways, uh, is really beneficial, especially when it comes to safety. But then also when there are simulations or other things like that. When I was, uh, up in Alaska as a principal, they had a way for students to become certified on heavy machinery, but you couldn't, you can't take 15, 16-year-old kids who don't have a driver's license yet out to, uh, a construction site and have them operate a crane. Uh, but they need the experience. And in order to get that experience, they were able to use simulations and become quite proficient before, uh, putting anybody in risk of getting hurt and, and that kind of thing, I [00:10:00] think is really valuable as well.

I totally agree with you and let's take safety and from another perspective as well, uh, from the instructor's perspective with the students.

Uh, safety also from a UDL perspective is. Am I providing the things necessary for them to be safe? So we want to, for example, through special populations, uh, we want to increase various members of special populations and their involvement in career technical education programs. And so when you're bringing in, for example, uh, let's take the construction example that you mentioned, uh, safety gear.

If you're not thinking about the fact that I'm bringing more women into or young girls into my program, and I'm not thinking about making sure that I have varying sizes of gear so that a young girl isn't wearing a hard hat that's twice the size of her head, and so it's not fitting properly, and therefore she's not safe, then we're not thinking from a UDL perspective in terms of designing for safety for the the student, student population that's going to be in the [00:11:00] room.

So it can come at you from both angles, which is really wonderful. And it, it, it deepens the, the thought process of the instructor. It creates a wonderful environment for the student to, um, scaffold up to the level of skill that they're looking for. And, um, it's a win-win, in my opinion.

Yeah. Well, and I think that there are so many options and opportunities that people just never thought were there for them. That taking a UDL approach to designing those courses, those outcomes. From the beginning for people who weren't typically in that group, is a really powerful way to open things up that people just didn't even know was an option.

Uh, for example, real quick, I thought I, I love teaching. I love seeing people learn. I thought my only option for that was to be a classroom teacher. And then now that I'm an adult, I realize there are so many different ways to teach people that it doesn't have to be [00:12:00] just standing in front of a group of kids in a classroom all day.

You're absolutely right. And, and, and to, to carry that a, a step further when we talk about groups of people that we'd like to see a part of career technical education programs.

A UDL mindset also forces you to begin to think about them and how to better engage them. So going back to the curriculum, the take flight curriculum that we were talking about before with young Girls in Drone Technology, one of the things that I like most about that is that intentionally we went out and we recorded video recorded and interviewed several women who are professionals and utilizing drone technology.

We have a, a, a woman who is involved. With NASA and flying a drone to Saturn. Okay. We have another woman who is a scientist who uses drone technology. I believe it is to map icebergs for some, uh, geographical information. And so the [00:13:00] wonderful thing about that from a recruitment standpoint. Is that you, you can't be what you don't see.

Right? And so now as the young ladies are engaging in this curriculum and they're seeing what the potential end goal could be, now there's a reason for me to be even more engaged in the work. And then the, the, the additionally. It's also good for boys to see women in those roles as well, because then maybe they begin to lose bias about that.

Maybe never even gain a bias with that and accept them for the colleagues and the professionals that they will become when they step into those realms as well.

Yeah, that's a really powerful piece too. And as a father of three daughters, that resonates with me also. Yeah. Okay. Very good. So in closing, what makes being here at UD Con so powerful for you?

I think of, um, universal Design for learning as a liberation framework. Learning too often, for too long, we have looked at education and learning as if they're [00:14:00] not working hard. They're not learning. If they're not grinding, if they're not sweating it out, if they're not struggling, that they're, they're not, they're not learning.

When's the last time you really enjoyed struggling for something? And, and it became something, a meaningful part of your life. And I'm not saying that everything is supposed to be easy. Of course not. Let's not take it all the way there, but learning should be a joyful experience. And think about the last time you picked up a hobby that you really enjoyed, and how much learning the hobby was as much fun as doing the hobby I.

And so when we bring that kind of thought process into learning period, now all of a sudden math has relevancy. All of a sudden career technical education is even more relevant. All the learning that's involved becomes more relevant because the barriers have been removed. I don't have to struggle with this anymore.

So now I can determine whether or not I really like this or not and take myself even further with it. Or at least I don't have to come with the attitude of, I hate this because technically [00:15:00] maybe you don't really hate the subject. You just struggle. You hate the fact that you have to struggle to learn the subject.

And so that's liberation. And when one is liberated, there's joy and freedom and empowerment. And that's what you get when you truly have a learning experience. And that's why this whole UDL, this UDL kind is so personal to me. Uh, it's just freedom of learning and lack of struggle in it. And that is empowerment.

And every single person should have the opportunity to be empowered about the thing that they're learning.

Yeah, I I love that, Donald. And what's so powerful is the, the idea of the struggle, what you're talking about with the struggle is. Hitting your head against the wall, not finding success. But you also know that learning something new is, is, is difficult and takes time and takes energy even if the barriers are removed.

But what makes us so frustrated is when those barriers are there that are preventing [00:16:00] us from learning. Not necessarily that the learning is hard because the learning is hard 'cause you're creating new synapses and you're doing all this stuff to figure it out. But that's not what frustrates people.

What frustrates people is the barriers that prevent us from doing that learning that is joyful because that kind of struggle is fun. But those are, those are two different types of struggle, right? That that is key. Last, final words, Donald.

I, I don't know if I could sum it up any better than what, what you just said.

It, it, it's absolutely true. Doing something hard doesn't have to be hard. Yes. You know, doing something hard doesn't have to be hard. And , is it really struggle the best example I can, I can say is this. When I was getting myself into shape, exercise began to be fun. When the hard work wasn't hard work, I saw the results from the hard work and I didn't have to struggle with just doing the work.

And that's how I think the educational process should [00:17:00] be. And that's what UDL brings to the table. It takes the hard out of hard and and allows you to enjoy the hard. Yeah.

Yeah. And it is possible to enjoy the hard and it's fun.

And so, uh, real last question. How do people, uh, get involved in what you're doing with CTE and cast?

I can be reached, uh, at, uh, through cast at my email address, which is, uh, d as in Donald. dWalker@cast.org, that's dWalker@cast.org. Or you can go to the website cast.org, look under team, and you'll scroll down when you find me at the end. W you know, we're always at the end and I'll be happy to engage you through an email and we'll set up some opportunities to talk and find out how UDL can best serve your community, school district, whatever it happens to be. [00:18:00]