Beckett Haight Discusses Inclusion and Computer Science Education ~ 610

Beckett Haight:
Hi, this is Beckett Haight and you’re listening to the Think Inclusive Podcast.

Tim Villegas:
Recording from beautiful Marietta, Georgia, you’re listening to the Think Inclusive Podcast, Episode 25. I’m your host, Tim Villegas. Today we have Beckett Haight on the podcast, but before we get into his interview, I have a few announcements.

Number one, we want to make sure that we get your input about topics and guests for the podcast. So get on Twitter and tweet us @think_inclusive and let us know who you’d like for us to interview and what topics you’d like us to cover. You can also get onto our Facebook page and leave a comment, check out the links and resources, or visit thinkinclusive.us and use our Contact Us page. Let us know who you would like to hear us interview. We have some great guests being booked as we record this podcast.

They’re top secret though, so I can’t tell you who they are, but you’re going to be very excited. Also, this last announcement is really just a teaser—we will be offering inclusion coaching or educational consulting for anyone interested. We haven’t put that on the website yet, so this is a podcast exclusive. If you want more information, you can always email me at timvillegas@thinkinclusive.us.

Today on the podcast, we have Beckett Haight. We talk about his experience with differentiation and inclusion as a special education teacher working on three different continents. We also discuss his recent TEDx talk, “Teaching Every Student Computer Science or How to Code Is Not the Answer.” After the podcast, please visit patreon.com/thinkinclusivepodcast where you can support our goal to bring you in-depth interviews with inclusive education, community advocacy, and thought leaders. If you like the podcast, please help others find us by giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. You can also tell your closest friends—we love word-of-mouth promotion.

So without further ado, here is the interview.

Tim Villegas:
Hello everyone. I’d like to thank Beckett Haight for being on the podcast. I’m very excited about having a conversation with him. He is a National Board Certified special educator who has been involved in special education nonstop—as a student, volunteer, aide, or teacher—since 1994, when he got his first IEP. He spent six years teaching in high-need schools in California and has spent the last seven years as a learning support teacher on three different continents and the Caribbean. He recently gave a TEDx talk titled “Teaching Every Student Computer Science or How to Code Is Not the Answer.” Welcome to the podcast, Beckett.

Beckett Haight:
Great, thanks.

Tim Villegas:
I’m really excited to finally have a conversation with you. We’ve been in touch online for, I don’t know, it seems like a couple of years now. You’ve written some guest posts for us. I also want to highlight—you recently wrote a guest post that’s on the website right now. As everyone is listening to this, make sure you visit the website and read Beckett’s post. It’s fantastic. So Beckett, what’s new in your world right now?

Beckett Haight:
I’m in Mexico. I’ve been teaching here for the last year at an American school. The last few years, I’ve been teaching all over the world. Every two years, you have the opportunity to look at a new job. So I’m starting to think about where I’m off to next or if I’m going to stay in Mexico. I really like it here in Monterrey, but the world’s a big place. I’m putting together my cover letter and resume and thinking about jobs in South Africa, Thailand, and Brazil. That’s where I’m at right now.

Tim Villegas:
That’s fantastic. So where have you taught before? It says in your bio that you’ve taught on three different continents. What are some examples?

Beckett Haight:
Before Mexico, I was in Ecuador for two years. Before that, I was in Kuwait, and before that, I was in the Dominican Republic. That was my first posting. I was trying to learn Spanish, so I took the job in the DR to try to get fluent. I did get fluent, but then I lost it because I started learning Arabic in Kuwait. Now I’m getting my Spanish back.

Tim Villegas:
That was going to be my question—if you were already fluent in Spanish before you taught in Mexico.

Beckett Haight:
I have a lot of Dominican and Mexican folks that I work with, so I have to rely on my Spanish a little bit.

Tim Villegas:
So you said you’re teaching at an American school. Is that through a particular organization, or is it private? How does that work?

Beckett Haight:
That’s a good question. It’s a private school. Most of the schools I’ve worked at are nonprofit private schools. Some international schools are Department of State schools or linked to an embassy, and some are for-profit. But most are just like private schools in the States. They pick a curriculum—it might be IB, AP, or Common Core. They have a board of directors and a headmaster, like a superintendent. It’s probably like working at a high school in the States.

Tim Villegas:
Have you taught in the States at all?

Beckett Haight:
Yeah, I started my career in California. I was in Los Angeles Unified for four years and then up in the Bay Area for two. I’m thinking about getting back out there at some point. I like working in high-need schools, and working at private schools internationally is kind of the opposite. I’m trying to get back to my roots because that’s why I got into special education—to help students who need the most help. I thought working with students with special needs in high-need schools would be the best place, so I’m thinking about getting back to that.

Tim Villegas:
So why did you become an educator in the first place?

Beckett Haight:
Well, you mentioned in the intro that I had an IEP. I got diagnosed in sixth grade. I got kicked out of sixth grade, and they were trying to send me to an alternative school. At that point, they had been trying to diagnose me for a few years, but I never got a diagnosis or an IEP. When they tried to send me to the alternative school, my mom fought to get a diagnosis and support for my late-age ADHD and behavior challenges. I ended up going to a non-public school.

Tim Villegas:
There are a few in Georgia. Right now, I’m actually in Georgia, but I’m originally from the LA area. I’m not sure if we’ve talked about that yet. But yes, there are some non-public schools in Georgia.

Beckett Haight:
I was in a non-public school for two years. I got to high school, and after some problems, I got through it. I turned my life around. I had a lot of issues—impulsive behaviors, criminal activity—and I just wanted to give back. At some point, I wanted to help the most vulnerable. I thought about working with incarcerated youth or kids with special needs. I became a TA by chance and realized, “Oh, this is good.” I stayed in education, graduated, and I’ve been teaching ever since.

Tim Villegas:
That’s fantastic. It sounds like you’ve had a lot of experience in different environments. I’m sure that brings a lot to your students.

Let’s talk a little bit about your TEDx talk, “Teaching Every Student Computer Science or How to Code Is Not the Answer.” Where did the idea for this talk come from?

Beckett Haight:
I started a master’s in educational technology back in 2011. That was a whole experience. At the time, I had a brick Nokia phone. I didn’t have any extra apps on my computer. I just used the school computer, the internet, and Microsoft Word. Then I started the tech program and began learning how to code, about hardware, and all these different apps.

The more I learned, the more I realized there are tools out there that will do it for you. I spent a lot of time learning how to build an app using Xcode for iOS. I also built a couple of websites in HTML. But then I found out there are apps that will build the app for you—you just have to design it and provide the content. For me, that was the hardest part—figuring out what needed to go in the app.

I was trying to build an app for students transitioning into high school and college. All the transition services I did on paper—I wanted to build that into an app. It would have GPA calculators, goal setting, college research—all in one place. But developing that and learning how to code was taking so much time. It didn’t seem like the right idea.

Then I started seeing politicians say, “Every student should learn how to code,” and that everyone should be proficient in a coding language. But I felt like you didn’t need to do that. You could use Google Sites, Squarespace, or other tools to build an app. As special educators, we see struggling students every day. To add one more requirement—like coding—on top of everything else seems misguided.

I’d been thinking about this idea for a couple of years, and the TEDx talk seemed like the perfect place to share it. I think a lot of people might not agree with me, but I wanted to put it out there.

Tim Villegas:
Yeah, your talk reminded me of something I saw at a school. There was a poster with a picture of Mark Zuckerberg and a quote that said something like, “Computer science or coding should be another subject like math or ELA.” It was the perfect parallel to what you’re talking about. There’s a lot of talk about making coding a universal subject.

But in your TEDx talk, you mentioned that we’re missing foundational skills—especially critical thinking. I really liked how you said that. Can you talk a little bit about your experience working with students and seeing that critical thinking is a missing piece? Maybe share a strategy or way you teach critical thinking skills to students with disabilities?

Beckett Haight:
I just ask the question quickly. A lot of times, students come to me with learned helplessness. As soon as they have to start thinking critically, they say, “I don’t get it. I need help.” I’ve seen that in all the countries I’ve worked in.

A big key for me is scaffolding the process toward critical thinking without making the kids freak out and shut down. It’s often more expedient to just give them the answer or tell them what to do. But I work with them and guide them through it. I ask, “What would you do in that situation? What options might you have?” I help them think it through.

That’s one of the key things I do as part of my hidden curriculum—making sure I don’t just give them the answers. I see it a lot. I’m in a push-in math class right now, and we were just talking the other day about how students struggle to think critically about basic math concepts. For example, they might think they made a square, but it’s actually a rectangle. They need to be able to think it through and say, “This doesn’t look exactly like a square. What is it?”

So the goal is to get students to take more ownership of what they’re doing—not just put something on paper and move on.

Tim Villegas:
Yeah, you used the phrase “learned helplessness,” which I think is very interesting. I wonder if you have any opinions about why we see that so much. As a consultant to teachers and someone who works directly with students with disabilities, I definitely see that. Do you think that’s a symptom of something?

Beckett Haight:
I think it’s easier for teachers to just give students the answer. If a student says, “I don’t get it,” instead of working them through the thought process or guiding them with a think-aloud—like, “Okay, what else might you want to search? What if you added quotation marks or used a minus sign in your search?”—teachers often just take over. They’ll grab the keyboard and say, “Search this,” and then tell them to read that.

But I try to step back and guide students through their thinking. You can build that into your rubrics. If you’re doing project-based learning, you can build it into every stage. It takes more effort, and everyone’s happy when they get a quick answer, but it’s like working out—you don’t get the muscles if you don’t feel the pain.

Tim Villegas:
Yeah, I like that analogy a lot. As someone who works with teachers, I’m always interested in other people’s perspectives on how to promote that kind of planning. You know how it is—there’s not enough time, there’s a lot of paperwork, teachers are overworked and overtired. How do you get to the point where you can plan for the success of all your students?

Some teachers seem naturally gifted in that area, or maybe it was modeled for them. I think for me, I had really good models. That’s how I learn best—by observing and then building systems for myself. I don’t really know what the answer is. Do you have any thoughts?

Beckett Haight:
I definitely had some good models over the years. I’ve pushed into a lot of classes, so I’ve seen many different teaching styles. I also think the UBD framework—Understanding by Design—and backwards planning are really helpful when developing units.

Have you heard of Atlas Rubicon?

Tim Villegas:
That doesn’t sound familiar.

Beckett Haight:
A lot of schools use it. There’s a lot of teacher turnover, so they need a place to store curriculum. It’s basically a unit plan mapping tool. You put your UBD unit into it—it’s kind of like a personal website. You start from your standards: What skills do the kids need to know? What content are you teaching?

That’s where you break down the difference between knowing something and understanding it. That’s where critical thinking comes in. You can do activities so kids know a concept, but to truly understand it, they need to transfer the skills and apply them in a different context.

So you start thinking about that in your unit planning. Then you come up with your activities and assessments. How are you going to assess this? How are you going to differentiate? That’s what I focus on as a teacher—working with teachers on how to differentiate objectives and focus on key understandings.

It’s hard to sit down and plan out the scope and sequence, but once you do, you get more ideas. The next year, you can go back and make modifications to hit all learners and scaffold everything.

Tim Villegas:
Yeah, I love that. So UBD—Understanding by Design—is what you said?

Beckett Haight:
Yes, Understanding by Design.

Tim Villegas:
Got it. And you mentioned Atlas Rubicon—is that something people can look up?

Beckett Haight:
I’m not sure. I’ve only used it at schools I’ve worked at. I think you need a school account. But you can find similar unit templates online. It really helps guide you through the process of developing a strong unit and scaffolding for all learners.

Tim Villegas:
Yeah. When I reflect on my own lesson planning, backwards planning is familiar to me—looking at what I want students to know and working from there. It’s that idea of keeping the end in mind, like in Stephen Covey’s leadership principles.

You mentioned differentiation earlier, and I wanted to talk about that. In your guest post—which everyone listening should definitely check out—you talked about supporting students in inclusive classes and modifying as little as possible, rather than just passing struggling students to the next grade. That really resonated with me.

I want to pick your brain about the difference between modifying, accommodating, and differentiating. There are a lot of terms floating around in education, and I don’t think teachers always have a clear grasp of what differentiation is and how it differs from modifying work.

I know that’s a big question, but maybe you can summarize it. In your post, you talked about differentiating content, process, and product. Let’s start there—what is content, process, and product?

Beckett Haight:
There’s a lot of confusion, and the terminology can be tricky. For example, earlier I said I would “modify” my plan next year, and as I said it, I thought, “Ooh, I shouldn’t have used that word,” because people might think I meant lowering standards or expectations.

When I work with teachers and we say we’re going to “modify” a test, we often don’t really mean modify—we mean adjust it. We’re differentiating, not modifying, because modification means lowering the standard.

So when we talk about content, process, and product, we’re always thinking about differentiating based on student readiness, interests, and learning profiles.

For content, if the reading level of a text is too high for students in an eighth-grade class, a special educator might come in and lower the reading level while still focusing on the same concept—like irony.

For process, maybe every student is expected to read a passage, but we find different ways for them to identify irony.

Beckett Haight:
The process might be different for each student. Every kid in the class might be expected to read a certain passage, but we might find a different process for identifying irony. Maybe one student uses a graphic organizer, another works with a partner, and another listens to an audio version. The product is how they show what they’ve learned. One student might write a paragraph, another might create a comic strip, and another might do a presentation. The key is that they’re all demonstrating understanding of the same concept.

Tim Villegas:
Absolutely. I think teachers sometimes feel like their hands are tied. You gave a great example—if you have a grade-level assignment and students who are reading two or three grades below, you can lower the instructional reading level of that passage. That’s not modifying the curriculum; it’s giving access to the student so they can achieve the goal of the assignment.

If the goal is for the student to understand irony, then the end goal is not for them to read on grade level for that particular assignment. It’s for them to understand irony. That’s a huge piece that’s often misunderstood.

Also, when teachers think about differentiation, they feel like they have to come up with 30 different plans for 30 students. But it’s really about keeping those three things—content, process, and product—in mind. For certain students, you may need to adjust the product so they can demonstrate mastery of the standard.

That’s perfect. I think you summarized it very well. One of my goals for Think Inclusive and this podcast is to empower teachers and parents to advocate during IEP meetings. For example, a parent might say, “I understand my kid reads at a second-grade level and he’s in fifth grade, but let’s support him in reading so he can understand science and social studies.”

Because what ends up happening is the school says, “Well, he needs to go to a small group for that because he’s not achieving at grade level.” And that’s what I want to avoid.

Beckett Haight:
Exactly. A lot of times, the solution is to pull the student out of class. But there are so many ways to differentiate. I’ve worked with high school students in push-in biology classes. Some of them had a first-grade reading level and writing level. Cognitively, they might be in the upper elementary range. We had to find ways to make it work.

Sometimes, instead of reading the textbook, we’d do a kinesthetic activity to model a concept. Other times, we’d build models or do hands-on projects instead of watching a lecture. It takes work and support from reading specialists, but it’s definitely doable.

Tim Villegas:
Yes, you have to be committed to it. You have to decide as a team that this is what we’re doing. This has been a great conversation. I hope these are the kinds of conversations teachers are having all around the world—how to support students and make decisions that say, “We have students with a wide variety of needs, but let’s figure this out. Let’s build inclusive classrooms so students aren’t learning in separate environments.”

I really appreciate your thoughts on that. So thinking about it—let’s move forward.

Beckett Haight:
Fantastic.

Tim Villegas:
On that note, where can people find your thoughts about this?

Beckett Haight:
I have a blog where I talk about special education themes. It’s called “Collections of a Special Educator” at www.becketthaight.com. I bought the domain a couple of years ago—I didn’t want anyone else taking it.

Tim Villegas:
Good.

Beckett Haight:
I’m also on Twitter a lot—@becketthaight. I participate in Twitter chats and try to find interesting content.

Tim Villegas:
Alright, everyone, please check out Beckett on Twitter and on his blog. Also, read his guest post on Think Inclusive. It was a fantastic and fascinating conversation with Beckett Haight. Thank you for being on the podcast.

Beckett Haight:
I agree.

Tim Villegas:
That is our show. We’d like to thank Beckett Haight for being a guest on the Think Inclusive Podcast. Make sure to follow him on Twitter and his blog, becketthaight.com. Follow Think Inclusive on the web at thinkinclusive.us, as well as on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Instagram.

You can also subscribe to the Think Inclusive Podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or Anchor.fm—the easiest way to start a podcast. If you’re using the Anchor app to listen, please leave us a voice message. You may be featured on our next podcast. You can also favorite us or use the applause button while listening to the show. We love to know that you’re listening.

From Marietta, Georgia, please join us again on the Think Inclusive Podcast. Thanks for your time and attention.