Educational Discourse

What is the role of a conference?

2012-01-03T14:44:00.001-06:00

It seems that conferences today aren't so much about the speakers and the content as they are about the f2fmeetings that take place. Follow along on twitter for awhile and you realize that if you don't attend a major conference to meet f2f or don't take part in some of the summer learning events, you will soon be like a 3rd person on a date. F2f meetings and interactions still drive the conversations and discussions, grease the wheels and determine the voices. It just happens across time and space now and, if you aren't able to take part, soon regulates you to watch from the outside.

Is retweeting the new blogging?

2012-01-02T00:35:00.001-06:00

It seems that there is an abundance of retweeting and YouTube sharing these days but not as much original content. Is popularity determined by number of tweets? Doesn't everyone have a Mashable account to look at? I know it's easier to retweet than to write but maybe we need to reexamine what were doing. Don't we push our students to think and ponder not just copy and paste?

Does life stage impact online activity?

2011-08-07T19:49:00.001-06:00

As I spend time online, it strikes me that there are particular demographics of educators who have a higher participation than others. Could this be a factor in what we see happening in the new explosion of online social networking? If it is true that a large percentage of teachers are in the age group where they are raising families, does this impact the time they have to devote to other activities such as developing online networks? Will those who have jumped into the online networking be able to continue to devote the current time online? Does one's life stage impact social networking? Should this be seen as a detrimental to their careers?

Is it up for discussion?

2011-08-07T16:17:00.001-06:00

Lately there has been a great push by new adopters of social networking and other technologies to use, use, use. This fire is being fanned by a number of higher-profile bloggers and tweeters, who are outside of public K -12 education, who are constantly promoting "new data" about the need to "engage youth". Curiously absent are the early adopters who, at one point, were the promoters of technology adoption or a change from technology adoption to learning environments (inquiry, flipped classroom, STEM). Will these next wave of adopters realize that constant online networking doesn't allow for long-term development of ideas and integration in the classroom and being networked in analogous with being a better teacher?

Now don't take this the wrong way....

2010-11-07T23:07:00.000-06:00

Tonight an interaction between two tweeters has me wondering about the whole educational administration thing. See, right now I’m working in two different buildings, just finished a stint of 2 plus weeks of full-time teaching and am in the middle of sorting out some pretty interesting things that have been going on in different aspects of the two schools. When I signed on to be an administrator, none of the people I had seen as administrators had done anything of the sort. In fact, in my short 20 years in education, I’ve been somewhat disappointed by administrators.
Today, according to what I have read on many different sites, all you have to do is blog, tweet and be connected and you’re a great administrator. I read about how important it is to connect to bring ideas to the school, about how great it is when we bring our parents in and collaborate and we need to share the vision of education. Really? Then I’ve been connected for too long or I’m in the wrong place. In fact, then I’ve been in the wrong place most of my career.

Parents aren’t easy to engage

It’s hard to get parents engaged in schools. I’ve been leading School Community Council (SCC) workshops at the division and talking about them at the provincial level for a few years and it’s hard work getting parents engaged, to get them to discuss school improvement and work at bettering what is happening at schools. If you have parents that do that, you are blessed/lucky. My experience, in a number of settings beyond just one school, is that is not the case and it’s not from lack of trying. It’s partly that parents are busy and doing other things. It’s partly they don’t really believe that they’re voices will be listened to and taken seriously. It’s partly because they don’t know what they really want. That’s my experience from working with hundreds of parents. It may not be your experience and I could have it all wrong.

Being connected is not teaching.

Being connected, blogging and twittering will not make you a great administrator just as it won’t make you great teacher. No amount of online connectiveness will give you that initial caring that drives teachers to help students. And really, I don’t check to see if my teachers blog or twitter or whatever. I check to make sure they are engaged in the process of learning. Are they using the tools they have to engage the children in their classrooms in learning. See, not all teachers have access to tech tools. In fact, not all teachers have whiteboards. It’s not about that at all but about engaging the learners in the process of learning.

I TEACH

See, for one hour every day, I enter the classroom and try to engage grade 12 students in learning Canadian History. We have one computer lab which, often times, is booked so some of the tools that I’ve relied upon, like the wiki I use to share videos and other materials, isn’t available all the time. Blogging would be nice but…… there are a number of students who still have dialup so even assigning it to do at home isn’t an option. We have wifi but, well, it’s flakey and not reliable. I could have them use their phones, and have on occasion, but many don’t have data plans. My whiteboard is a smaller variety so I rely on storytelling, group jigsaw assignments so we can use the 6 library computers and other information in our library and a number of other methods to engage these students, right after lunch, in the history of our country. I connect it to the BHP buyout discussion taking place in the news, to items I find in the paper, to articles I read in magazines and any other means I can to engage them in thinking about the role of history in their lives. I just chuckle when I read about how we need to “use the tools our students are using to engage them….” since many of my students would rather be out hunting or quadding. When was the last time you were asked to go deer hunting by your students?

Too much window dressing…..

I rarely get time to do any writing lately – I was going to list what I have been doing lately but that’s whining. I do this because I believe that it’s important, that the students in these two schools deserve the best education we can deliver and, without a doubt, I’m one of the few people who could actually do this job. Why? Because without having someone else tell me that what I do is important, I know it is. Because I am willing to do what many others won’t do, make tough decisions about learning, curricula and teaching. Because I get the importance of inclusion, DI and the supports that are needed to make it work. Because many other administrators talk but have so little experience in actually bringing about lasting change in the learning and lives of the students in their schools. From my experience, if you can sum up your contributions to the school and learning in quaint little anecdotes, little stories about touching tales and quips about snippets of days, then you really don’t get it. See, for the most part, I can’t share what happens in my days because it’s confidential, too difficult to describe and, really, there’s no quaint way to tell the story. It’s about the lives, spirits and souls of the people in the two buildings as we begin to forge a new direction and the interconnectedness here.

Sharing my stories

I guess I find that many of the things that others write about to be, well, common sense and something that is within my realm of experience for too long to be thought of as actually unusual. Whether it’s talking with parents about a student with learning needs, helping parents with students with special needs, creating learning spaces for students, finding supplies and supports for teachers who need them or questioning people in positions of responsibility about programming and support, it’s what an administrator does because it’s what’s best for children. And I believe that is what defines my job – doing what’s best for children.

I’m not always popular

I’ve been bashed a number of times. Even have had my house egged on several occasions. Had my own children feel the wrath of people because I did what I believed was best for children. I don’t apologize for doing it but I also know that I’ll be bashed. What’s right isn’t always what’s popular.

What does your opening day look like?

2010-08-14T00:55:00.001-06:00

I've been doing some pondering about what I'll do with staff on the first day back. I've ran across some interesting post that discuss the whole staff meeting question and what the meeting should contain.

Zoe Branigan-Pipe has some good comments about our need to remember that, if we expect teachers to engage students then, as administrators, we'd better be doing the same with the teachers in our buildings.

George Couros has some ideas about developing a collaborative environment and shared leadership that are important to remember.

Another fellow Sask administrator, Mr. Bircher, discusses his plans for the year and how he will be looking at the use of technology within the school. I like his plans!

What will you be doing? For me, I've not quite decided as I am in a new school and I have the opportunity of bringing two school staffs together into a new school building. I'll be doing some planning and writing as I work through the how, why, when and where of what I'm going to do. I do know that I will be hosting a bbq after our first day back at school for the staff and their spouses. Better make sure I have enough propane!

The Power of the Network

2010-08-13T18:01:00.003-06:00

The network
This article gives 10 good reasons to join a social network. For me, this power has been exemplified through the new blog Connected Principals started by George Couros a principal from Alberta. Now, the thing that really grabbed my attention was that this blog has just started and, through the power of the network, has grown and is getting a huge amount of publicity via twitter through retweeting, the use of hashtags and such things as blastfollow.
I’ve been following George for a short time and it has been interesting as he has used the network to build a PLN of administrators in a relatively short period of time through his connecting, following and writing. I juxtapose this with some of the other administrator‘s who I know who have been writing and working via the web for the past few years and to my own attempts to build a network for administrators and to help administrators through various other online activities.
Building your network
With the use of hashtags and the use of twitter and other social networks, educators have the opportunity to connect and join together to share, discover and learn. There is no reason for any educator not to be using these tools to enhance their knowledge and grow their learning network.
Word of Caution
My one word of caution is that educators need to keep build balance into their lives and with all the opportunities that are available, it is easy to become overwhelmed by what is going on. I don’t know about others but I know that I’ve had whole days go by as I spent time online. It was great learning and wonderful but, being a father of 8 children, I have to remember that there needs to be time for all areas and, sometimes, the drive to “globally involved” needs to be tempered with a larger view of life. So, as much as I’d like to be doing, reading, participating, writing, publishing, making videos and coordinating all sorts of different learning opportunities for administrators, I also realise that I will not get these years back with my own children who deserve to have as much face time as I can give them.
Learning from my Past
As an educator, I realize that I have the opportunity to influence students in so many ways. So, as much as I spend time working online, I also realise that working with students directly is the most important thing. Once again, it is so very important to realize that, as educators, we need to spend the majority of our time with students, building relations and developing a rapport. It is the relationships with the students, parents and other people in the community that are the foundation for what will happen in the school. All of this takes time and educators, as social networking grows and becomes more important in their lives, must learn that there is no way to “do it all” and be selective on how they spend that precious time. As an administrator and someone who has been using technology for the past 15 years or so, the one thing I make sure is that teachers’ time is valued and guarded. As I introduce new strategies and work at building their familiarity with technology, I constantly check to ensure that what we are doing is, indeed, not wasting their time.
So as you build….
The network that is developing, especially for educational administrators, and the opportunities for sharing and connecting are seemingly exploding, it is so important to ensure balance. Now, for me, that balance means spending as much time with my own children as I can – someday I’ll write a post of what I’ve learned from having a large family – really 2 families and knowing that, although it is important to grow and learn and get better, it is also important to not let things get out of balance in that pursuit. The network is a very powerful thing – one that each educator needs to tap into but it can also become very time consuming which requires one to reflect on the importance of balance. A piece of wisdom that I reflect on more and more – “No one has ever looked back on their life and declared “I wish I had spent more time at work!” Be sure to identify what is important in life and allocate your time accordingly” Enjoy the power of the network – don’t be consumed by it.

"I'm on vacation"

2010-08-04T10:35:00.000-06:00

I'm on Vacation

One of my favourite movies is City Slickers (1991). In this movie Mitch Robbins, Billy Crystal, and his two friends decide to take their vacation on a dude ranch. There's a scene part way through the movie that begins with Crystal's character causing a stampede by firing up his electric coffee grinder. The ensuing chaos results in a cow wandering off and Crystal and the old farmhand Curly Washburn, played by Jack Palance, chasing after it. After finding the cow, the two end up having to spend the night sleeping away from the camp. At one point, Mitch is playing his harmonica while Curly sharpens his knife. Mitch finally tells Curly to either kill him or put the knife away because, as he puts it, "I'm on vacation!"

When does the Vacation begin?

All July I've been dropping by Twitter only to find a mountain of tweets being posted about various conferences and all the people who are attending in person or who are taking in things virtually. I'm not just talking about ISTE10 or BLC10 or the first annual online Reform Symposium but so many other conferences and workshops all vying for the time of teachers during the summer. In fact, there isn't a time that is really conference free. And because most of these conferences are now available via the web, educators can be PDing all month long, extending into August with ads/tweets for conferences only 6 weeks away!

In one way this is great. I mean, for the first time teachers are able to take in a huge variety of conferences and other PD activities at their leisure. These conferences are bringing together the best thinkers and innovators in education to share with others. It really seems that there is a huge swell of teachers who are interested in education reform in a way that is very different than previous reform. It is bringing educators together on a global level to share and talk, learn and grow and become connected in ways that haven't been seen before.

However, I wonder at what cost to teachers personally? Now, I know that George Couros was only kidding when he commented about the holidays and not needing them. But, as you can read in my comment, talk like that really does make me nervous. Maybe it's from 20 or more years of not really taking any holidays, summer or otherwise, as I worked at improving what I did as an educator only to begin to realize that, really, there is no end and if I didn't start to prioritize things a bit differently I would miss out on a great many things in my own backyard. Maybe it's from talking with my mom, who worked for over 30 years in the health care profession and who wasn't able to really take any time away, about what is important now and later in life. Or maybe it's that I have a very unique lot in life - 8 children - two families really - and I can identify some of the things that I did with my older girls that I can do differently now - there is still time.

It Doesn't Mean I'm Not Passionate

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about improving education and improving what we offer our students in schools and out - I have a very high interest in this - 8 very important people who mean more to me than anything. Period. I believe that education is indeed in need of change in a great number of ways from the way we look at assessment, to pedagogy, to what we expect from teachers and everyone else in education to the whole way we conceptualize "school".

A Cautionary Tale

However, I wonder if, once again, we are charging forward with reform without taking some time to reflect. I don't mean to say we should stop but I do wonder if, by creating an atmosphere of "always buzzing" about this or that conference on some social network, the expectation of "constant conferencing" isn't going to overwhelm and burnout some the best and brightest of our teachers. Not the IT or tech integration specialists or special district/division/school technology assistant person but the teacher.

As an administrator, I've watched many young teachers arrive at school full of ideas and energy. I've worked enough years to know that, if I don't make sure they take care of themselves, watch what they do and spend time on all aspects of their lives - social/emotional, intellectual, physical, work, spiritual - that I will be dealing with a young teacher who will, at some point, be in trouble. I've watched colleagues leave the profession because no one took the time to help them to take care of all aspects and I've watched good young teachers and good veteran teachers who, with the increasing demands of teaching, choose to leave. As the leader in the school, I need to help those around me find balance. And, the people in the building need to see that I take this approach myself. As a parent who wants to pass on some important life lessons to my children, I want them to be able to see that we need to maintain a balance otherwise ......

My son turned ten just the other day
He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play
Can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today
I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok"
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah
You know I'm gonna be like him" Cat's in the Cradle

Like I said earlier, although all these conferences are great, there needs to be caution at overwhelming teachers who, through their eagerness, don't realize they need to step back.

As the Leader, I set the Tone and the Pace

As the Educational Leader in the school, I need to be conscious of the fact that how I use my time affects the others in the building. How I view new ideas and explore new teaching strategies, my attitude towards central office ideas, my outlook on what is happening at the school, division, provincial, national and international levels all impact the overall atmosphere and how teachers view what they are doing and what they might want to be doing.

My experience is that if the educational leader in the building doesn't take time to reflect and be selective about what and how the various activities involving teachers are presented and what is happening in the school, isn't willing to share the leadership with others within the building and isn't concerned about the overall well being of all people in the building, then, eventually, an imbalance will occur and unnecessary stressors will take away from the energy in the building.

Having witnessed and worked within these very circumstances as I've described in a number of schools where the principal wasn't aware of the impact they had on setting the tone and pace for the school, my experience in every circumstance was that teachers became overwhelmed and progress, as a school, stopped. Yes, some teachers were able to forge ahead on their own but they became isolated and eventually somewhat embittered and moved on. Having been a principal who didn't recognize the influence and impact of what I was doing, I was a major part of the problem but, not seeing the imbalance or understanding the overall impact, worked harder to make it better. It didn't.

Be Aware of Others Life/Teaching Cycles

We're not all first year teachers or in mid-career or nearing the end. We're not all single, or just married, or have small children or teenagers or have children leaving home. We're all at different stages in both our careers and our lives. As an educational leader, I need to be aware of where, in life and career, other people are as this impacts their work/teaching lives and, working with the other leaders within the building, move people along while allowing for where they are in their teaching/life. It doesn't mean allowing them to not move but being sure to provide the necessary supports to make the move positive. It may mean encouraging them to partake in various training or summer symposiums or connecting with other teachers via social networks or incorporating various strategies, like wiki use or blogging, in their teaching or expanding their repertoire of strategies to expand their understanding of differentiation in the classroom or.... but, to do so in a manner that doesn't overwhelm them.

So, as summer is progressing and I'm beginning to think about the upcoming year, I know that there will be a huge number of changes through this year. As the educational leader, one of my roles to help the people navigate these changes through the year along with all the rest of things going on as they teach each day. But, for now, "I'm on vacation" and taking care of some of the other important areas of life.

In the Groove

2010-07-22T01:27:00.000-06:00

It's been a very long time since I've done any blogging. Well, any writing for that matter. It's not that I haven't had things that I could write about, it's just that I wasn't sure where they fit or how to word them in such a way that was politically correct. I'm sure that many of you have had the same thing - you have an idea or two but you aren't sure exactly how to approach writing about them without creating a bit of a mess for yourself so decide it's easier to just not write about it/them.

Now, as my friend Dean Shareski has pointed out, I do wear my feelings/thoughts on my sleeve. It's just the way I am. Over the years, as I've grown to see that this is not always a good thing so I have learned to become more diplomatic when needed. As an administrator, I've learned that you create more problems if you can't do that. It's not always easy but it is a necessary thing to do.

I Fell Out of the Groove!

This last year was a huge learning one for me - one where I spent many hours trying to figure out where I fit in this whole educational piece and what exactly I was doing. It put me off balance, which, in hindsight, was a good thing, as I had to re-evaluate what it was I was doing and why I was doing it. I spent a great deal of my timedealing with a small number of students - almost daily. What's important in this scenario is not me but the learning that occurred as I was pushed beyond where I had been - I was heaved out of the ruts.

It was frustrating, infuriating, difficult, ..... and I wasn't exactly sure where I fit in the whole school aspect of things. For part of the year, as some readers know, I was almost at the point of quitting as I really struggled with what was going on. I questioned what it was I was doing as I had lost the comfort zone where I had spent a number of years. As the year progressed so many different situations occurred where I really wondered what exactly was going on. What is this place we call "School"? What does it mean to "teach"? What, exactly, is the role of an administrator? What do good "educational leaders" do in schools? Can we continue to "do school" like we have and still meet the demands of a new world where the future is not compatible with what schools have traditionally done? The Resource Room teacher and I spent many an hour discussing the whole concept of "school" as we were faced with a number of challenges to which the traditional school model just wasn't working.

With all these questions swirling around and a less-than-wonderful experience taking place, I was really questioning if education was where I was suppose to be. For the most part, as an educational administrator, I've always been out of step with most of the other administrators. Again, as Dean has pointed out, I don't always follow the trodden path. I question and I point out things that don't seem to be quite right with what is being professed. I will take the opposite side of the majority just to point out that there is another side and this really can put people off-balance as I may pursue a point of view different from one perspective but then agree, in principle, with their perspective. My experience has taught me to look beyond, not just at what is being presented. I've learned that the easy road usually doesn't get you where you want to go. In fact, it was Darren Kuropatwa who blogged about a presentation he saw at BLC10 by Michael Wesch that dealt with creating community in schools. That's Really Hard Work discusses Wesch's approach to creating community in his university classes. It is hard work - really hard. Trying to build community within a school is not something that is for the faint of heart or the thin-of-skin. And, sometimes, one has to be willing to have tough discussions about difficult subjects as ignoring an elephant in a room just gets people trampled or fertilized!

But, after some time, I decided that it was time to pursue my options elsewhere. It seemed to me that my skill set wasn't going to be used and I wasn't going to continue with the status quo. I realized that part of the frustration and angst was I wasn't doing something that was my passion.

Putting Things Back On the Track

Currently, I am the principal of a yet not completed new K - 12 school in rural Saskatchewan in a community close to where there is family for both my wife and me. There were many aspects that went into the decision to take this position, many of them related to education but not all. And that "not all" was something that I realized was missing. Too much of my effort had been diverted toward things took away from really important things.

Technology is important in education but it isn't a silver bullet

What I have learned in the past few years is that there are some things that technology cannot overcome and one huge one is the relationships that are build through being able to interact face-to-face. There is no substitute for being able to meet in person. Connecting with people via technology is a wonderful thing when there is no other option or when it involves something like a meeting. However, what I've noticed is that, even in the world of the social network, there is a huge difference between the interactions between people who have met and those who haven't. It's good to grow your PLN but it takes on a whole new dimension when face-to-face connections happen. The social network relationships evolve differently, from my observations, once people meet. In a different, yet similar way, part of the reason for moving was so that we, as a family, could be closer to other family members. We decided that those connections were more important than me taking on a bigger school or a different position. Connections and community were a greater part of the mix than they had in been in previous decisions to relocate - a much greater part.

A New School Year - A New School - A New ........

I'm looking forward to the work ahead as we build a new community in a new school. Presently there are two schools that will move under one roof early in the new school year. There will be excitement, fun and many challenges. It will be hard work - which is what school is - hard work. What will be important is building strong connections for everyone as things change because it will be those connections that help us through some of the difficult situations. Part of my reason for this particular blog post is that I needed to begin building the community that I have had through blogging again. This year will be one of many changes and one will be more consistent posting on my part. Another, I hope, is that I'll return to building the community of administrators I have begun over at Ed Administrator 2.0. Currently it is at Ning.com and I'm not sure what to do with it but it will continue in some way because I believe it is an important part of the changing educational landscape. I will also be developing a few more of the resources that I let slip this past year - some of my passions!

Convention Proposal

2010-01-22T22:55:00.000-06:00

Well, I've submitted my proposal for the upcoming iT Summit in Saskatoon in May. I'm going to do a presentation on using different tools to help teachers and staff to communicate and organize. I'm planning to look at using wikis, Evernote, google docs, google calendar, google reader, diigo and maybe a few other tools that I use regularly to try and keep myself organized. My hope is that I'll be able to give people a look at a variety of tools that they can use in different ways.

In the past I've put my presentation together on a wiki and added information to the wiki as I gather my thoughts and ideas. I'm thinking that I'll use this same method to put together this presentation, incorporating the other tools as I use them in my day-to-day work and teaching. Since I will be teaching 60% of the time this semester, I plan to show how I use the different tools to in my teaching to organize myself and the students with due dates, upcoming assignments and handing in assignments.

Another aspect that I will be discussing is the way that I use my Blackberry as an organizational tool and a way to communicate with my staff as I go about my day. I think that, as educators, we don't always see these tools as any more than annoyances and don't take advantage of their use in our own teaching. Not that I'll be advocating for texting but these tools are much more than just texting machines. In fact, I see my Bb as a handheld computer on which I can do almost as much as I can my laptop and it fits nicely in my pocket! I use it to read email, read documents, write notes in my Evernote, check my tasks and make sure that if someone needs computer help, all they need to do is send me an email and I'll know if it is an immediate need - a student being locked out of a computer - or something that can be left for later. I can also pass on a helpdesk ticket to the IT department if it is something that I cannot fix.

Would you want to attend something like this? Would you suggest someone you know attend? What else should I cover?

Tag - you're it!

2010-01-11T11:12:00.000-06:00

Tag - you remember that game from youth? The one that had as many variations as the number of places it was played. Well, tagging, a way to identify different information online, is kind of the same. When I save something in my online bookmarks or I add information to my Evernote notes, I have started using tags to identify them and make it easier for me to find different pieces of information that I have. The tough part is using tags in such a way that it actually makes it easier to find the information!

The Eye of the Tagger

Since we each have our own unique way of looking at information, sometimes what I think makes perfect sense for a tag doesn't for others. On information that is just for me, like my Evernote information, the tags just need to make sense to me since I'm the only one using it. However, on other sites, like when I bookmark, it gets a bit more tricky since the tags I give a link are then part of the global tags that people will use for finding information. So, for instance, if I tag a url with "classroom resource", technology, web2.0, "teacher tech" and smartboard, people who type any of these into the search category will find that url. Now, many sites have "tag clouds" that give a list of words or phrases which have been used on the site as tags. The more they have been used, the more they stand out.

This is an image of the tags I use for one of my online bookmarking accounts. As you can see the bold words are the ones I use more often. Now, these are the recent tags that I have used. In total, I have a whopping 596 tags which means I really should go in and edit the tags to reduce it to a number that will make my searches much more refined.

Pick a Tag - Any Tag

Most sites now have the ability to offer tag suggestions for something that you are about to add. With my online bookmarking, these suggestions are useful as they give me an idea on how I might classify the information. I don't always use them but it really does help with classifying the information. Also, if I have a number of tags for one url, then it will show up when these tags are searched. I don't want to get crazy with the tags but having 5 to 8 is a good number and gives some options.

Putting the tail on the Donkey

Tags are a something that make it easier to find information on a site and help me to sort the information that I am gathering. With a bit of thought, the tags you enter can make it much easier for you to find that information at a later date. However, if you just store things away, like I sometimes do in the closet, you forget where and what you've stored away. That's why tagging the information, like putting things in boxes and sorting out the closet, makes it easier to find. Like the closet, I've sometimes been surprised by what I find there - "So this is where I put it!" By really being judicious with the tags you use and remembering that storing the information is easy - it's finding it later than can be the real task!

Online Bookmarking Skills - Not an Option

2010-01-10T14:49:00.000-06:00

As educators who use technology know, there are too many sites out there to visit and go through by oneself. We don't have the time to do that plus do all the other things that need to get done. That's why using an online bookmarking tool has become a must for me.

Just Managing My Time

Time is very precious so any tool that allows me to manage my time in a better way is of great interest to me. When I first began using online bookmarking, it was to save my own bookmarks while at home so that I could access them online and use them. I then began to understand that, by tagging them with particular tags, I could then access them much easier and find the those I wanted to use in my classes with greater ease. I could incorporate and access the information without having to constantly search for them or go through a list of links on a Word page.

The first online sites I used were delicious and magnolia. I experimented with each to figure out how I might use them more effectively to improve my teaching. Then, I tried out Furl, Mister Wong and Diigo. As an administrator, I began to use them to save information that I wanted to read or pass on to other administrators. Like all things, eventually you have to quit experimenting so I finally decided to stick with Diigo for a few different reasons.

1. Posts to my Delicious - I like that all my posts from Diigo also show up on my Delicious because it allows me to share with the people I follow on Delicious. It is a great way to have both sites working for you!

2. Can create Groups - these groups can be either public or private and can be open to the public, invitation by members or invitation by the moderator. This is great if you are using it in a school setting. I have used the private setting for a class where I invite the class to join the group and then they can save bookmarks to that site for projects, essays and other such school-based projects. I've also set up a group for teachers at the school so they can share information and set up a group for our school division Learning Coaches.

3. More than just bookmarking - because the site allows you to ask questions of people whom you have in your network, you can get some great resources and insights into things you are doing from the network.

4. I can browse other groups to see if there is something of interest or something that may provide me with some new information. And remember, this isn't just about school - there are all sorts of groups that share information - a great deal of information on a wide variety of interests is available - if you have a hobby, there is probably a group!

Like usual, I suggest you try out a number of different options to see which one is best for you. Many people I know started with Delicious and won't move because they like the various options. For me, there options at Diigo just lend themselves to a school setting.

Whichever service you choose, the underlying idea is that all educators need to have an online bookmarking site. As I indicated in my post about Evernote, there is just too much information out there to try to limit your information storage. By finding a few online tools, you can really enhance your efficiency and effectiveness. The more you use the tools, the more you begin to think about how they fit into your teaching. Eventually, the online tools become similar to textbooks, pens, paper and other classic tools, something we use to enhance the learning of the students.

Evernote - Multipurpose online/desktop tool

2010-01-06T22:51:00.002-06:00

As an administrator there are so many things that come across my desk during the day that I often have had trouble remembering what I needed to do right now, what could be put on hold and what was something that, when I had more time, I could work on. I tried a number of different task and todo software but nothing seemed able to do all the things that I needed it to do in one place. Then I found Evernote!

The great thing about Evernote is that it does so much but is very simple to use. I like that it syncs with all my mobiles and it is easy to edit and upload information. Because it allows me to create different notebooks, clip from the web, add documents and use a variety of different formats, I am able to access most of what I need by using the site and, best of all, because it is online and syncs between multiple places, I can edit and add information at work, do more editing on my mobile and then have a synced copy on my home computer all with the same information. The itouch app works very well and is very easy to navigate. The other app for my blackberry isn't quite as easy to navigate but it does have all the essentials for using it on the go.
I like the copy and paste function and the fact that I can save the url from where I have found the information right at the top of the note so that it is easy to reference later on. This is great when doing research or looking at anything online - paste the item into your Evernote notebook add the url and then, later when you want, you can revist the page if you are looking for more information or you need to reference it. I can use the online site or download a desktop version for my home or office computer.
Since I began using it, I've found a number of things for which it can be used that replace another app like my todos, my appointments, my "other" lists, webshots, urls and other online information, document storage and editing, plus my daily record of work. It really helps me to keep organized in one place.
So, if you are looking for an app that is multipurpose, easy to use and can handle a number of different functions, give Evernote a try.

Wiki-share

2010-01-05T23:25:00.002-06:00

As an administrator, one of the big things that I have to work very hard at is sharing information among the different staff. Because so many different things come across my path during the day, it's sometimes hard to get the information dispersed to different staff members. One method of doing this is via a wiki that where information can be added and accessed at the convenience of the staff.
There are many different wiki sites out there that are used by educators - pbworks, wikispaces, wetpaint - to name just a few. My preference is pbworks because I like the interface and the ease of use.
Calendar - this is the one thing that I really like about using a wiki. In a school, with so many different things going on and so many different people involved, the calendar function is great. It allows you to add whatever you would like to the day. With many of the calendar plugins, there is an option for the information to be synced with other online calendars that can then be linked to mobile devices or a homepage. For me, being able to have access to what is happening at the school allows me to be able to use that information in various settings, like meetings or when making plans with my family. I know what is coming up at the school and if I will be attending a meeting or if there is something that I will need to plan for in the future. Because the school calendar syncs with my own calendar, I have the option to view it or not which means that, if I want to, I can turn it off so the school items don't show up.
Another great thing about the calendar is that it allows teachers and other staff to see what is happening at the school and add their own items without there being a lot of added work for them. It also is great when teachers begin to use the calendar to post upcoming exams or trips. It really does help everyone, from the teachers and their planning to Student Support being aware of the many things that are happening and when they may need to provide extra help.
Because you can limit who can view the wiki and see what is on the wiki to only those people you invite, information is not for the public. This doesn't mean that confidential information should be shared and people must be aware that, like all things online, they must be professional in what they are saying. It does, however, provide a safe environment in which staff and share information about what is happening at the school, meeting dates and times, agendas, club information, upcoming sporting events and other information that helps people be aware of what is happening around the school. And, because you can set to receive notification emails to be sent to you when information is added or changes, you will know about changes without having to visit the wiki, something that I find very useful in a busy day. The notifications allow me see what has been added and, if needed, I can then respond to the information or know that there is something that needs my attention. Very handy indeed.
I also like the fact that it is accessible from any computer. So, if I need information about something that would be on the wiki, I can log in and have access to that information or I can access the information on my mobile.
So, if you are looking for a safe, easy way to share information with the people at the school, give a wiki a try. They are easy to use and provide a number of options for use in a variety of ways. Because you can upload files and share them, meeting agendas, sports/tournament draws or meeting information can be shared so that people will always know where to find a copy of the information in the event they ever misplace their paper copy!

A New Year's Resolution

2010-01-03T15:49:00.000-06:00

It's the New Year and with it comes the usual resolutions that many people make. Like most, I've sat down and put together a list of things that I have resolved that need to improve or change in this upcoming year. For the most part, my goal is to change the way that I do things in a few aspects of my life and, with the changes, hopefully change some of how I've been feeling these past few months.
Seize the Day
One of the things that I've noticed in myself is that I have been EXPECTING things to happen a particular way and then, when my expectations aren't met, I've reacted in a less than suitable manner. So, much of my current angst at work is, in fact, been created because I am not "seizing the day" and making each day a great day. In fact, my mood over the past few months has been more akin to "seizures"! Not wanting to go into details, I can safely say that the great discussion and advice that I have received these past few days from my last two posts, especially from Jean Tower who pointed out

The relationships have to come first. People have to know you care about and understand them and their work before they follow you down some new technology path. Laying groundwork takes time. I start with hints, showing good examples, step up to “we ought to be thinking about this” language, and then nudge further. By the time we actually take the leap, everyone feels truly like they own part of the decision. Having established relationships and laid the groundwork, I can more easily introduce the changes that lead to small wins. The point is, I think, to reframe our measures of leadership success. I no longer expect to (or hope to) make huge, wholesale changes all the time. I don’t think I am setting my expectations too low, but rather, that I am looking at the bigger picture and the long term.

This really struck me since, for my part, I've had to be honest with myself about what exactly I am doing right now. And being honest means that I have needed to reflect on why I'm in this profession. Unfortunately, my answers, after some deep reflection, wasn't where I want them to be - I've had my vision clouded by my "desire to rise up the chain". After reading Jean's comment, I realized that I needed to decide why I was doing what I'm doing and what I needed to change to make things positive right now - I needed to "reframe the situation" as Scott suggested.
Reframing the basement
I've done a fair amount of renovating through the years - having moved 8 times and redone 6 houses in that timespan, I've spent many an hour ripping out and reworking things. What is always interesting is that you never know what you'll find once the renovations begin! My last project, the basement in our current house, went from a little take this out and replace that to a gut and do over. I spent many hours reframing the basement so that it would suit our family structure and yet be practical. One of the things I did was made sure that there was adequate space for everyone and I didn't leave much space for storing up things. By doing this, we have to make decisions about what we need to keep and what is no longer of any use to us and needs to go - somewhere. Somehow, over the past few months, I've been storing up things that I really should have let go - a very real reflection of my own personal happenings - I've been storing up things, waiting for changes here or there - relying on others to do the reframing for me. So, over the holidays, I've spent a few hours cleaning things out, getting rid of what needs to be gotten rid of and putting other things away properly so that I can find them - like that darn Christmas tree stand which I spent 4 hours looking for - when I need them and not waste time doing unneeded looking for things.
The same is what I plan to do in a few aspects of my life. When I run into a problem, I tend to do cleaning - it helps me to sort things out and put things in perspective - and my wife really likes it too! So, as I was doing the sorting and cleaning, I was able to think about what Jean, Scott, Mighuel and others have said and put some perspective on what I feel needs to be done. So, in no particular order, my 2010 Resolutions:

Begin to do my workouts in the morning - body, mind and spirit all need care (besides the PX90 needs dusting off!)
Finally quit my cigar habit - occasional is still occasional
Get my planning and correcting done after my workouts in the morning when I'm fresh.
Eat healthy - 6 meals spaced out for consistent energy - I know this is a huge energy changer!
Run a 10km with my daughter in July - a specific goal that will spur me on.
Read regularly - a book a week is my goal.
Blog regularly about technology enhancing school and helping school administrators

Not earth shattering but they each give me specific things to accomplish - I'll be putting even more specific dates on a few things so that the goals are specific.
So what does this have to do with my current situation? Well, I've realized that much of what I've been pawning off on others or on circumstances is really mine and I need to own it. Time is a key factor in my life - it has changed hugely with this new job and I haven't adjusted accordingly. Also, instead of adopting and owning my current position, I've been allowing others to frame it for me, not something I usually do. I've wandered from the path and need to get back on. My focus will once again be improving the school where I am - one day at a time.
Finally, my future posts will focus on using technology as an administrator - something I should have been doing all along!

Giving Thanks

2009-10-10T20:40:00.000-06:00

This weekend is the Thanksgiving holiday in Canada. It’s a time to sit back and be thankful for all that we have living in one of the greatest countries in the world. Given this, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on what has been going on since school began and to do some reflection.

The first month and a half of school has just blown past. I started a new position at a new school in August and it’s been a bit of an adjustment. Besides being in a new school, I have to commute for about 40 minutes each way. The drive, which is mostly highway driving, gives me plenty of time to think and ponder the many things that go on each day. I’ve moved from a smaller K – 12 school to a larger highschool in a different community from which I live. To add to the mix, my one daughter is accompanying me as we have transferred her to on of the elementary schools near the highschool. She has made the transition extremely well and has adjusted to life in a new school. In fact, given how her life has been the past few years, it is so awesome to hear her talk about what she does with her friends and all the activities that she is doing. Each day we get to spend time talking about the day and what has gone on in the time we drive to school and home. As a parent, it’s so great to have time to spend one-on-one with any child and this time together has allowed me to share stories and laughs with my 4th daughter. It’s built in parent-child time that many people don’t have and for that I am very thankful especially since she hasn’t had such a great time at school these past few years.

Being at a new school has strengthened my belief that it doesn’t matter where the school is or the size of the school when it comes to creating a positive school climate. What matters is the attitude and caring of the adults in the building. People seem to expect that, in a larger school, there isn’t the time for all students. From my experience, that’s not true. Instead, it’s the attitude that the adults/teachers in the building bring with them each day. If people arrive with a negative attitude, it doesn’t matter the number of children in the building, the attitude is still there, being shared with everyone. In fact, the smaller the populace, the more likely that the negative attitude will spread. And children, being the sponges that they are, will absorb that attitude and actualize it. Students reflect what they see in the adults around them. So, I’m thankful that I’ve been able to move into a position where, for the most part, there is a positive attitude about the school and the students which is reflected in the care and concern the staff has for the students. Some days are trying, as are some people, but a positive outlook goes a long way at overcoming the stresses and frustrations that everyone has no matter where they are or what they do. I’m thankful for all the great staff with whom I work.

In my new position, I’m no longer the principal. Although it has been a bit of an adjustment, I’m enjoying my more supportive role, helping teachers and students, working with the other administrators to create a positive climate for the school. Not everything is roses but it’s a nice change. I’ve learned that no person is an island but being a principal is very close. As vice principal, I have a changed role that allows me to do a number of different things because I don’t have the administrative responsibilities that a principal has and I’m developing a different skill set within more supportive role. I’m thankful for the role I have within the school.

As many of you know, I’m a firm believer in the use of technology to support the learning of students. My new role allows me to do that in a much greater way than when I was a principal in a smaller school. I’m helping staff to see that there are technologies that will help them to enhance their teaching and give students different opportunities to demonstrate what they know. In the short time I’ve been in the school, I’ve been able to get small things going that, I hope, will be the building blocks for bigger things. So I’m thankful for the opportunity to share with the teachers on a new staff, some of the things I consider to be important in schools in the 21st century.

Really, as people who live in North America, we have so many things for which we can be thankful. As a husband and father, I have countless things for which I am thankful, from a loving supportive wife to 8 awesome children who have taught me more about life and living than I can mention here. I have met some extremely wonderful people in the 7 communities in which I have lived and taught and the internet has allowed me to meet so many more people whom I consider to be “friends”. As educators, we have the chance to reach out to touch, and be touched, by so many. We do have much for which to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's about the other person

2008-01-12T00:00:00.000-06:00

Recently I’ve been involved in some discussions about how teachers might become better users of technology. It began with a post over at Dangerously Irrelevant where Scott McLeod posted

In many industries, knowledge of relevant technologies is a necessary prerequisite for either getting or keeping one’s job. Sometimes the organization provides training; sometimes the employee is expected to get it on her own. Either way, the expectation is that use of the relevant technologies is a core condition of employment.
Why aren’t our school organizations expecting more of their employees? Are we that desperate for workers?

The discussion that follows is worth reading just to see the complexity of the issue. Now, I don’t think that we are desperate for workers or anything like that but it made me wonder why it is that there are many teachers who are not taking advantage of these tools in their teaching.

Now Scott pointed me in the direction of Greg Farr, an administrator in Texas, who has some great posts about technology and its use in the classroom. I suggest that you take a look at what he has to say about technology use in education plus a whole lot of other things.

One of Greg’s posts deals with the use of technology and it being a tool that should be used just like all the other tools a teacher has at their disposal. He describes, very well, the whole idea that teaching is not about the tools but

True teaching and learning MUST allow for subtleties and nuance, for opinions expressed in tone of voice, for emphasis via a small hand gesture, or doubt cast with the slightest raising of an eyebrow.

He goes on to say

I maintain that TO THIS DAY the best way to assess a teachers ability is to take them outside, give them a group of 20 students, no pencils, no paper, no electricity, nothing but a pleasant day and a tree to sit under. And tell them to teach. A true TEACHER would take this opportunity and run with it.

I have to concur 100% with this. Teaching concerns human relationships. It is anchored in assisting students to add to their knowledge, seeking ways to scaffold learning to push them into places where they will need to stretch and question, examine, accept or reject and search for more. It is sometimes uncomfortable and challenging, frustrating and rewarding the whole while being centered around relationships.

A similar thing was happening over at Teaching Generation Z where Graham Wegner’s Parable2.0 provided for a great discussion about how teachers who are wanting to share their passion for the use of web2.0 tools often find it frustrating. The parable looks at how, in their desire to bring other teachers on board, often end up in a frustrating situation. The discussion that followed explored how many teachers identify with the parable and how it unfolded. One such contributor was Clay Burell from Beyond School, his blog looking at teaching, technology and a few other things. Clay’s comment

As a classroom teacher who does drive his own geeky projects, I know how overwhelming it can get - and I have the skills to survive and troubleshoot and tolerate frustrations and “Crosbian Messiness.” To expect others to be able to handle the strain of things too ambitious, or too time-consuming relative to the rest of the teaching load on the teacher’s plate, is dangerous.

is right on the mark. Those of us who are using the tools and doing various projects are able to do so because we have advantages that others don’t. Now, some of these advantages include what Clay points out:

skills to survive and troubleshoot and tolerate frustrations and “Crosbian Messiness.”

However, the one thing that isn’t stated is that many of us have created networks of other users and “techno geeks” with whom we can discuss, question, collaborate and bounce ideas off of. Many of us twitter, pounce, Facebook, Ning, …. sharing our discussions, thoughts and, now that we have developed relationships, parts of our lives. We have adopted the interconnectedness of the networks and built relationships which are now leading to people planning meetings at conferences (like NECC where I WON’T be going!) and personal rendezvous for such things as golf.

Relationships - this is what brings, and binds us, together. Whether it is Sharon Peters looking for feedback on a post, Alec Corous looking for assistance with web conferencing, Vickie Davis and Julie Lindsay discussing their Horizon Project, Will Richardson and his discussions of learning or Dan Meyers, who questions and challenges, helping to stretch the discussion, helping us to reflect on our ideas and thoughts while providing some great tools and insights into using web2.0 tools in teaching, these relationships help us connect and develop, grow and learn, keep our perspective and motivate us These relationships have become a large part of how we are growing and developing our teaching and understanding. These are the relationships that those teachers not engaged DO NOT have.

Showing other teachers all the tools isn’t what is needed. Helping them develop relationships and make connections is. We can show and demonstrate, rave and mandate; it will not bring others to question, grow and adopt. We have many examples of educators who are beginning to delve into using these tools. Overwhelming them with the possibilities just pushes them away. Helping them to build their own networks, seeking out teachers who, like themselves, are testing the water and encouraging them to continue in their own lifelong learning will empower them to develop even more. Not all of them will see the benefits of all the tools they encounter but the relationships they develop during this process will go further, I believe, to bringing about powerful change than any tech person can hope to do by themselves. Maybe that’s the lesson we need to take with us as we continue to approach those around us, showing them the power of our networks and the learning that these networks encourage. As was posted tonight on twitter

kolson29 finished watching really bad movie, off to bed. Twitterverse very different from even a week ago…….more “conversations”, less telling.

Let’s invite others to start their own conversations, starting where they are and moving forward instead of where we want them to be.

Resolutions

2008-01-04T23:29:00.000-06:00

My resolutions for this year are pretty straightforward because I’ve decided that I need to focus on a few things and do them well instead of the usual list of 10 that I don’t really do at all. My #1 resolution is to take care of my health. I’m reading RealAge by Michael F. Roizen and looking at how my “habits” are affecting my body and my life. I not promoting this. Instead, it is a read that is giving my ideas about my health and the choices I make. #2 resolution is to blog/write frequently even if it is a short post. Sometimes I have so many ideas I want to discuss that I am not sure which to follow and end up doing none. Since joining Passionate Teachers and Fireside Conversations - both educator Ning sites, I have decided to dedicate a portion of my morning to writing/commenting. #3 is spending more time with my family. To do this, I will have to prioritize what I am doing and learn to really stick to my schedule. #4 - the last one - quit talking about web2.0 and starting implementing it with my staff, students and other administrators. First step, setting up sessions with teachers to explore. Second, putting teachers in contact with other teachers. Finally, begin doing presentations to others about the everyday uses of the technologies.

That’s it. 4. Each one requires that I pay attention to details - something that isn’t a strong trait for me but will be essential if the use of technology is to become a norm for our students. It will require teachers overcoming their fears about technology and doing things a bit differently but, unless these steps are taken, things will continue at the glacial pace they are moving. I want my daughters to be exposed and use the skills they have developed outside of school in their daily school lives.

People often have goals/resolutions but they don’t take the time to get to the specifics which undermines their goals. So, for me, each of the goals above will be fleshed out and be broken down into smaller, achievable goals. As my friends, I hope that some of you will call me on these goals and help me to keep them. I’ll share my specific goals using google docs if that helps.

2008 is indeed my year!

Constructivist Administration - lifelong learning

2007-12-23T15:17:00.000-06:00

I just recently joined the Fireside Learning Ning which was started by Connie Weber. I haven’t spent a great deal of time there yet, but I can sense that it will be another great place for networking and learning. As an administrator, I’m always looking for ways to help the staff with whom I work improve their teaching. This stems from my work as a classroom teacher where I spent 10 years developing and adjusting what I was doing. During this time, I completed my master’s degree and it was here that I began to question what I was doing and how I was interacting and teaching the students in my room.

When I began teaching, I was a typical lecture, show then have students do work type of teacher. I had success with students who were average or above but really struggled meeting the needs of other students. One year, I had a class with a number of students who needed me to do more for them but I felt I really wasn’t helping them like I should. During one of MEd classes, I was introduced to the work of Vygotsky and, wham, I was drawn in. I began to read and look for ways to move my teaching from the traditional style to a more constructivist approach. I also began to really look at the lives that my students were living which really helped me to understand better what we were dealing with in school.

Eventually, I moved from the classroom and into administration. Now, as an administrator I am thankful for all that struggling that I did trying to find my way in the classroom. My first few years of administration were trial by fire as I tried to bring what I had learned in the classroom to bare on an entire school and work with teachers in this manner. Actually, I was pretty bad at it. Looking back, I wasn’t a very effective administrator and ended up in more conflicts than I needed to be in. But like all things that didn’t start out being positive, that experience has really helped me in developing my own administrative style which definitely has its roots in constructionist theory.

At the school level, I try to encourage all the people there to remember that learning doesn’t stop but continues on. I try to support PD endeavours the best I can and look for ways to that will support the process of learning for everyone. During our Drop Everything And Read time, I encourage all people in the building to do just that. I demonstrates that this time is important and supports the idea that we all need to spend time reading. As an administrator, I try to model this through taking classes myself and sharing some of the things I’m reading with staff whom I believe will be interested.

The one thing that I really try to do is help teachers to look at different strategies for teaching. It also means that I try to visit their classrooms on a regular basis, seeing what they are doing and getting to know how they conduct their classes. This helps me when we have conversations about teaching and when I come across information that I want to share with them. Like students in the classroom, teachers are not all the same. Each one has their own style and way of doing things which are important to validate. Because learning is a lifelong venture, I want teachers to be confident knowing that I will support their ideas asking that they have a plan that involves reflecting on what they are doing. As a teacher, I found that helping students build their understanding was so satisfying and I want to continue this as an administrator. I think I’ve finally reached the stage in my administrative career where I can now focus on this much more, having become comfortable with the role that I am in. I also see that technology will be part of the learning environment regardless of how much people resist so part of my role is to bring this into fruition as painlessly as possible.

I remember as a teacher how I rarely talked about teaching and learning with my administrators. It wasn’t something that happened often. For me, I really want to encourage and grow these conversations. How best can this be done especially in the jam packed world of the teacher? How can conversations, especially around technology, best be begun so that people do not feel pressured and attacked?

I have often discussed on this blog that schools really need to approach things in a different way and one of my goals this year is to begin that walk. This will require change on many fronts which is not easy but, I believe, necessary for schools in order for students to become lifelong learners not repositories of information.

Time to network - forget about the social

2007-12-18T20:11:00.001-06:00

Since Monday I’ve been having conversations about teachers and their lack of participation in social networking. I’ve been reflecting on the whole idea of teachers and networking. For years teachers have been encouraged to move out and interact with other teachers. They’ve been encouraged to share with other teachers, collaborate with other teachers and build relationships with other teachers. Some teachers have been more successful at this than others. Then the work of the various people empirically demonstrated that teachers who collaborated had students that were much more successful. Thus, teachers were encouraged to create teams and work and share. Again, some teachers were more successful at this than others. Finally, the work of Richard DuFour demonstrated that teachers who worked in Professional Learning Communities examining the data about their students were able to greatly improve the success of their students. Thus, for many, the PLC movement began where teachers were put into teams, identified particular areas of study to examine through data gathering and then adjust their teaching to strengthen areas that were weak. This cycle continues as students progress through the grades with teachers continuing to develop a new group of students.

My experience is that some schools have been very successful at developing their PLC’s and establishing benchmarks, goals and collaborating in all aspects of teaching. Throughout all these endeavours, the resounding idea is that teachers need time to accomplish these things. They need time to develop their plans, test, review the data, implement changes and check. They need time to reflect on what they have done and establish a new focus. This time was not necessarily to be on top of their already full days but time was to be found for this in some way. In our school, I have been able to do mini-gym days so that teachers can have time together to work together.

All this was to be done in addition to: differentiating the curriculum for their students, assessment - formative and summative, check and track public illnesses, document behaviour that was unusual, track progress of students with learning difficulties plus a host of other things. Now, as we are in the midst of working through the whole PLC concepts, we are suppose to add another layer of networking - the global level.

I know, I know. The growth that individuals have seen in themselves has been incredible. The things they have learned would never have taken place any other way. Their students have been able to do a great many things that would have been impossible just a few short months ago. They understand when their students talk about Facebookin and twittering, texting and chatting. Their network allows them to share ideas and bring together voices that cover a wide variety of topics and ideas. Their schools have been able to implement networks that connect teachers, parents, grandparents and students.

My own growth has been substantial as I have learned a number of things from people as I peruse their blogs, look at the videos on their sites and discuss things with them. However, I’ve also noticed a gap between those who spend a great deal of time with their network and those who have only limited time.

Because I track the conversations of all the people who contact me on twitter, I get to see a great many conversations going on. However, in the past little bit, I’ve noticed that there are some people who everyone is following and get tremendous response when they tweet while others who don’t have many following their discussions get a limited number of replies, if any at all. So, when I began, I was expecting that whomever was following me would see my tweets when I posted them. Not the case. Actually, I’m not sure how many people actually see when I tweet. My network still seems limited despite efforts to read others blogs, answer their requests and so on. I know that it takes time to build these relationships but how long? And what if I don’t have the time like it seems other twitters do to chat and comment, to travel to different conferences or create presentations? What if, like so many teachers I know, I am working hard at just trying to do all the things that are requested of me by the parents, School Community Council, school division and other stakeholders? How do we expect these teachers will build these connections if they aren’t comfortable with technology? Who will respond to them?

I don’t argue that some of these networks are very important and I have made some great connections and am catching nuggets of information that I’d not have been able to get before. However, like in my f2f working position, I am not really “in”. As an administrator, I’m no longer a teacher and this creates some space between those I work with and myself. In fact, most administrators I’ve talked with find that this is the case. Well, in my online networks I find the same thing, mostly, I think, because I have no more time to dedicate to them than I am already giving and, therefore, am not a consistent contributor.

Yes, Dean, I’m taking the side of the teacher again:) I understand the power that networking has but I also see the real pressures that are going on each day in the classroom. To bring theoretical to reality, we need to bridge the time factor and until we see a change in what is being demanded of teachers and schools, I see this little revolution gaining ground very slowly. Eventually schools will be forced to address many of the issues that the people in my networks are struggling with, mostly in solitude and isolation. Maybe networks that we are seeing are really a result of people not being able to collaborate within their schools with other teachers and once change begins to take hold, we’ll see another shift in networks. I’m not sure that we’ll encounter the “social” networks that the youth have today regardless of what we are doing.

One thing is for sure, only time will tell!

Social Networks - why?

2007-12-17T23:48:00.000-06:00

I had a busy morning at the school - there are many things to get done this last week before holidays. I know that I will not get them all done but I want to at least get them whittled down a bit. While doing various tasks I was able to keep up with what others are doing through Twitter and Pownce. Now, Pownce is a tool that allows you to share comments and thoughts with those people that you make friends, similar to what Twitter does. I am looking closely at this tool because I think it might have some use in the school setting so that teachers in the school could begin to use a social networking tool and become comfortable before venturing out on Twitter and other social networks. It might be a good way just to see how these networks work.

I also spent lunch doing some reading. Dean Shareski has been having a conversation on his blog about the place of social networks and the use of tools for enhancing communication and connectedness. This all leads to what can and cannot be accessed in schools and what teachers will be expected to do, be able to use and be able to pass on to their students through the use of different tools. The two posts that Dean references demonstrate the frustration of people who are running into filters that block certain sites from being accessed. Now, I’ve run into this problem a few times with such things like Twitter and Blogger. I still cannot access my Blogger site from school. However, this is not the point of this post. My main purpose is to ask why we need to have these social networks available?
Dean points out;
Because most teachers do not practice or engage in the same kinds of online activities which for the most part is social networking, it’s going to be difficult for them to model. In addition, they likely don’t consider it a relevant topic of discussion amidst the daily work load they already face.
So, is it relevant to the daily work they face? With the number of initiatives that teachers face, do they have time? Some would say that time isn’t the question anymore. Instead, it is the reality that these are the tools of the youth which need to become part of the fabric of schools. Others would point to particular examples of teachers who are using these tools with incredible success. One cannot argue with their successes and the incredible things that they are doing. However, it must also be noted that for teachers who are placed in the position of being required to prepare students for passing particular types of exams, there needs to be more than just the push to “get with the times.“
Teachers need to see that their time will be better used by using the tools. If you were in my school, you would not be convinced of this because of the difficulties that we have been having with our technology. We know that the IT department is working as quickly as they can but we are still lagging in computer availability. We’ve had some network issues which have frustrated teachers and students. Myself, I’ve found it difficult to use some of the tools I want just because of some of these issues. This has meant I have had to replan my unit a few times to accommodate these situations.
As someone who uses technology fairly fluently, I see that we need to teach students about the social aspects of these tools and the various morals and values that go along with them. We need to discuss bullying of any kind, we need to work through the appropriate use of tools like cellphones and chat while in a learning setting. We should be able to discuss how people interact with others but I’m not sure that teachers need to use all these things themselves in order to discuss what is an appropriate way to interact with another person or appropriate behaviour in social settings.
Now, Dean refers to the following quote by Regina Lynne:
All adults who work with youth should be aware of how young people communicate, fall in love and stay connected; I encourage teachers to try social networking services, to have a blog, to text message with their own families and friends. Experienced teachers will not only gain a better sense of the world their students live in — indeed, a world their students are creating — they will have a greater understanding of the young teachers entering the profession.
And I agree, mostly. They need to be aware. They need to have an understanding but, I’m not sure they need to do all those things themselves. As a professional, they have so many different obligations besides just teaching. Maybe, if the social pressures that are placed on schools were to be redistributed to different organizations or people, then the teachers might be able to find time to do these things. However, as I watch this last week of school begin, I know that many of them are looking forward to the break so they can relax and take a break from the various pressures that they encounter each day. Some of them will take time to work online but many of them will use the time to re-energize themselves. They will spend time with family and friends, people they haven’t had enough time for because of the time they dedicate to school. They will reconnect with their personal networks which might include some online interactions.
Yes, teachers might find networking with other teachers to be great. They might find it useful, much like their students find it useful to text each other during class when they don’t feel motivated or surf the web or check email when their professors are not connecting with them. However, in my many discussions with teachers, they are so busy that they rarely have time during the day to go to the bathroom never mind check their email or check their network. They work with different students, differentiating curriculum, helping their students to acquire the information that the curriculum has prescribed for them to teach. Because they are professionals, they are very aware of what their responsibilities are to their students and not just the academic responsibilities. They are making human connections that many of the students do not have and seeking to guide them through this time of school so that when they leave they can make good decisions. I think they are preparing them for the world after school because so much of that world will deal with interactions and making personal decisions.
As for networking, the I work with uses various technologies to communicate. The tools work to keep all of us informed and help us to share ideas with one another. We discuss concerns we have with students in our school, the problems that some of our students are facing and the different alternatives we might seek. We share links and other such information. We use tools that help us to be more productive and help us to stay in tune with the others in the building. For most of the teachers in this school, this is enough networking for them. As we struggle to work with students about bullying, peer relations, drugs, sex, dating, relationships with parents and the myriad of other non-educational concerns that come our way each day, time spent on developing other networks isn’t a priority.
Finally, as for the young teachers entering the profession, I’m not sure about this one. In fact, from what I’ve seen, these teachers are striving to come to terms with a whole host of things that are beyond networking. Most veteran teachers, where I work, are more than willing to lend a hand and assist any young teacher. I’m not sure how understanding texting and social networks fits in with that unless it’s networking with other younger teachers who are overworked and tired. In fact, it’s usually the young teachers who are having a difficult time with the many educational requirements like differentiation, class expectations, marking, parent interactions and covering the curricula that they get and who seek out the veteran teachers. As for using other online tools, I don’t see a whole lot of increase even when the tools are available.
I guess, as someone who has been developing a network for about a year, I do see the positives. However, I’m not all that convinced that it is what every teacher needs to have. There are times when, having thrown out a question or concern on one of the social networks to which I belong, I get no response. Yeah, I learn alot from some of the people but, and I again put this forward not as a complaint but as an observation, unless you are “in the group”, you might not get the networking you believed you would get. I know that is how it sometimes seems to me whether it is here or twitter or other social networks. To be really connected, you have to spend time developing the relationships and, as an administrator, time with the students is more important than time online trying to make friends who will answer your questions when you ask.

Don't tell the students but the revolution has begun

2007-12-16T22:22:00.000-06:00

I’ve been able to catch up on some of my reading this past week although I still am looking forward to Christmas and the time to do some more with reflection along the way. One post that drew my attention was over at Jennifer Dorman’s cliotech. Her post Re-Learning Curve discusses an article by Mark Pesce discussing the whole idea of giving all secondary students a laptop.

Pesce has some interesting thoughts about what change this will bring -

curriculum designers have to accept the computer as a powerful, flexible, ubiquitous tool that can be integrated into the curriculum’s DNA.

The curriculum must be redrawn, so that computers are integrated into it, becoming a potent tool alongside the textbook and the chalkboard

Most teachers are digital immigrants, struggling to croak out a few words, while their students are fluent natives, rabbiting on in a language most teachers only haltingly understand. Dropping computers into that mix precariously flips the balance of power from teachers to students, unless educators are given the resources and the opportunity to re-educate themselves.

Other than the abuse of the immigrant/native metaphor, which really needs to be buried or something so we can move forward but I digress, Presce has really identified the key problems with what is taking place in education: curricula and its designers are still using the “knowledge presenting” model of design instead of the “knowledge understanding” model. In the first, teachers are to present knowledge to the students and then students are to present back to teachers what they remember.

EARLIER this year, a secondary school teacher from Adelaide told me about his physics class. “I was lecturing about current topics in physics,” he said, “when one of my students corrected me.” One of the theories he quoted had been recently disproved by an experiment, the results of which were reported in Wikipedia. The student, with one ear to the lecture and one eye on the universal web encyclopedia, helpfully provided the update. “How can I stay ahead of the kids?” he wondered.

In the presentation model, there is no hope. There is no way one teacher or even a few are going to be able to stay ahead of the knowledge curve that is going on. Heck, even my own system of gathering knowledge is changing as I move from doing a particular search using google to asking a question within the networks to which I belong and then using the responses to drive my future searching and learning. With students and their ability to use networks, knowledge gathering and the sharing of information becomes much easier. (*Note - we do have to work with students to help them identify information that is reliable and help them develop literacy skills beyond reading and writing.) Students can find the information and report it back to us with ever increasing ease. The shelf life of knowledge teaching is almost up.

Instead, curriculum designers need to identify the knowledge to which students need to be exposed and then go further to identifying something they need to understand from having this knowledge. How they demonstrate that understanding can be determined in a number of ways and may actually require something besides a test. And, giving teachers some credit, I think they know this very fact. Teachers no longer believe they hold the keys to knowledge. In fact, I don’t think they ever really thought that but, instead, have been confined by a system that was designed to bring knowledge to the masses. Unfortunately, we accomplished that goal a hundred or more years ago and have been trying to figure out what to do since then with very little change because no one has been able to agree on what to do. Now, for the first time, we are not being confined by the knowledge anchor. Instead, we are free to explore knowledge and create - and it scares the goosebumps off of people in charge. Really, it does. It replaces the holy grail of power, the test score, with something less definitive but much more useful, understanding.

And this is where I disagree with Pesce. I don’t think it is the students who will be driving the revolution. In fact, the revolution has already started and continues to grow in strength. In more and more classrooms around the world, teachers are communicating, sharing, talking and collaborating using technologies. Yes it seems slow to those who have been pushing from the beginning but, as more and more teachers come to realize that the knowledge is there for the taking, they are seeking ways to develop understanding and, eventually, turn to some type of technology in order to facilitate that process.

The revolution has begun. It is taking place in classrooms around the world and being discussed in blogs and other social networking systems to which teachers are being drawn. Teachers won’t need to stay ahead as they create networks of professionals who will help one another learn and share the new knowledge and begin to develop ways to help students develop understanding.

I believe what is holding the whole revolution from taking off is the lack of teachers who have access to quality hardware, open access to information and, most crucial, the freedom to teach for understanding. With this, the revolution would be over before wikipedia knew about it and no teacher would have to worry about trying to do the impossible - know it all!

Greatest Change Impact

2007-11-15T00:33:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking about where a person can have the greatest impact on educational change. I know as a teacher that, with the right administrator and connections with other educators, you can create change within the classroom and, if you are a lead teacher or given the encouragement, you can influence and impact other teachers. I don't doubt that what each teacher does has an incredible impact on the students they see but as for impacting actual change in education, the influence seems to be slight in most cases.
As an administrator, I know that I have impact on change with the staff. It is part of my role as educational leader to be evaluating what we are doing and then examining what we might do differently to increase the effects on the students in the school. I know that initiatives from central office need to have my support and my backing in order for them to be successful. This means that I am always looking at how I might help teachers as they seek to improve what they are doing. At the division level, I know that being part of various initiatives allows for input at the ground level and can have an influence on the way that the division moves in relation to particular initiatives.
At the superintendent and director level, I'm still not sure about although I see that it is at this level that initiatives begin and movement takes place. It is at this level that the plans can impact many areas and have an influence on various system changes.
I guess each one has its unique ability to influence what is happening in the classroom and how the students are affected. The farther away from the classroom, the less direct the impact. However, for any major shift to take place, must it not have a catalyst at the senior administration level?
My reason for this is that I was so looking forward to working with teachers in using various technologies in enhancing some of the intiatives that were taking place in the school. Most of them begin at the division level but it was my hope that we would be able to infuse what we were doing with tools that would assist students in learning and creating. Thus far, I haven't been able to do this because of the number of things that are going on and the time they are taking from my administrative time some of which I had planned to use for assisting teachers. As for the classroom level, there have been a number of teachers who have expressed interest but their time is being used working through the initiatives that have come to us.
As I watch and take part in the various conversations via twitter and other networks, I see that there are many teachers who are impacting their students' learning. However, would there be a greater impact if, at the central office level, there were initiatives that gave supported this type of teaching across a greater number? I really want to create the conditions for teachers to explore new strategies and use some of these new tools but it seems, with all that we are doing, there is little left for such endeavours to take place, even for motivated teachers. Maybe it's just a phase we are needing to adjust to and once these initiatives become part of the fabric of the school, we can explore different strategies. I just wonder if we'll ever really have that oppotrunity or if I need to reexamine what we are doing and find the time regardless of what is happening. Any ideas?

Tabamania

2007-11-13T00:48:00.000-06:00

It's my birthday today, November 13th. No. I wasn't born on a Friday either.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I do residential and commercial painting, during my many leisurely hours. Monday, which was an off day for us, was spent putting in a few hours painting some new Ready to Move homes that are being built in town. This new business venture has been a boom for our small community but, like in many areas, trades people have been hard to find so I've been enlisted to do help.

When I'm painting, I have quite a few hours to think about things of all sorts. It's during this time that I contemplate how our School Improvement might look over the next few years or how our Code of Conduct will develop. I think about how we might engage a few of our students that are not interested or what we, as a community, can do for our youth. Today, during one of my less than deep moments, I thought about how the average person uses the browser and, on average, how many tabs they have open at any one time. (Hey, it was a long day;)

Now, I've found that I usually have about 10 tabs going at the same time as I keep tabs (ha ha ha) on various things. I have ClaimID, Pageflakes, iGoogle, school inbox, twitter, staff wiki, blog, admin wiki, planning wiki, class wiki and usually a news site open. Now, if someone has a twitter about a particular URL, I might check it out so the tabs could pile up. I do use delicious but I'm not very good at looking there. I've begun to reduce the number of tabs I keep open since it sometimes makes the browser become unresponsive when I awaken the laptop.

I also find that with my use of more online apps like Google docs, calendar and such, I have more tabs open as I add things to various places.

What's your tab count? Do you find yourself with multiple tabs open at the same time? How do you track your tab use? Has it grown with the more online apps that you use?

Where's my jumpdrive lid?

2007-11-03T11:34:00.000-06:00

It’s mindboggling the number of things that a person can suddenly find themselves involved with all of a sudden. Over the past few weeks I’ve been looking at the “art” of supervision and how to help the teachers in our school become better. This is not an easy task because each person has a unique personality that has to be taken into account during the process. In order to best help the teachers, I’ve been reading about different supervision ideas, like the 3-Minute Walk-Through, with the hope that I can better assist people in growing and changing. This can be a somewhat stressful thing, especially when there are changes that need to take place. In my role of administrator, I know that part of what I need to do is lessen this “stress” for the others in the school.

As the educational leader in the school, I also realize that part of my job is to set an example. However, when life gets busy, I’ve noticed that some of the things that I thought were a habit suddenly become foreign and I find myself wondering/wandering around trying to pull it together. The following is a list of things that I’ve noticed have “popped” up that just add to the “stress” of “administrating.”

1. My top goes missing. Jumpdrive top that is. This past week I cannot count the number of times that I’ve lost this pesky little thing. Now, I usually have a spot where I put it. This week I’ve found it in the following unlikely places: bathroom counter, shirt pocket, library desk and secretary’s desk. Each time I’ve wandered around trying to find the darn thing losing all kinds of precious moments. My first thought was “What was I doing in the bathroom with it?”

2. Papers get misplaced. This week I’ve had trouble keeping papers with which I’m working. I don’t know why but I’ve left them: in the staffroom on the lunch table, on my secretary’s desk, in a classroom and, yes, in the bathroom. I take them with me to go see someone and, oops, can’t find them. Again, the bathroom? (They’re not casual reading material!)

3. Misplace my laptop. Yes. It happened. I was going to do some observations and was interrupted on route by my janitor. We went to look at some things and when I finally was ready to go back to my observations, no laptop. Thank goodness, it wasn’t in the bathroom but I did find it in one of the storage rooms. I had to retrace my whole adventure with the janitor.

4. My clothes. Yes, you are reading this right. On Wednesday, we had our Halloween costume parade. Of course I had to dress up - a chicken including orange tights! Thanks goodness, no pictures of that! When I returned to the bathroom to get dressed, my clothes were gone. Now, I could have sworn I got dressed there. Where did I find them? In the office. Seems I must have forgotten that I got dressed there. I thought the secretary was snickering a bit too much that afternoon. (I spent most of the afternoon walking the halls and teaching dressed as a chicken.)

5. My class. Friday I had a double period of my CPT20 class. Lost them. I went to the lab and not one was there. Where did I leave them? They were there before lunch. Seems they had a rather long math test and the teacher had taken them from my class to write the test. He did tell me but, when I showed up after lunch and there were no students I immediately went to check my schedule. I’m sure I had a class. I actually spent about 30 seconds wondering what was going on. Then I remembered where they were. Phew. That would have been a hard one to explain.

6. My mind. This has been the hardest thing to find lately. I seem to be going in one too many directions and then, poof, I’ve lost my mind. Friday I asked my secretary if she had seen it because I’d misplaced it. I thought maybe it would be like my clothes. No luck. I’m actually still looking for it.

I don’t know if anyone else has such things happen but during time of excess business, things I thought were habit, like putting my jumpdrive lid in my desk drawer, I find aren’t actually habits. Please excuse me as I have to go look for my mind. Maybe I’ll check the bathroom!

It's Societal

2007-10-31T20:36:00.000-06:00

I’ve been in a discussion over at Infinite Thinking Machine with various people including Arthus who is “… a 14-year-old student in Vermont who has recently become actively involved in the online dialog about educational technology.”

Part of the discussion I’ve been having with Arthus and Steve Hargadon, of Ning Classroom2.0 fame, revolves around the need for schools to change. You can catch up on that conversation here. Part of the discussion has centered around the need for schools to change and for teachers to use more technology. Now, as many of you know, I agree on both accounts. One suggestion is that we need to increase the number and type of people involved in the discussion about schools and have more people who use and understand technology in decision-making positions. This is a good idea but I do not believe that, by having technologically savvy people in higher decision-making positions, it will somehow increase changes in schools regarding technology access, use or integration.

Societal Barriers

As much as many of us discuss within the small technological circle the need for schools to reform and the need for change, the reality is that the circle is small. Adding voices from someone like Arthus is a great thing to do. As I pointed out in the comments

we can have input from whomever we want but ultimately someone has to be responsible.Unless people fully understand this and are willing to give input realizing that their input is just that and may not be used, then we run the risk of people expecting things to happen when, in reality, they cannot….. Talk all you want, discuss all you want but until it’s your butt on the firing line about the decision that was made, don’t insinuate that those making decisions don’t know about technology or technology use.

I am someone who is in a position to make some decisions about what happens in schools. As much as I might like to see things change, there are other pressures that are also pushing and pulling for time and, depending on which one the media grabs or which one becomes a focus for the community, that is where many of the resources go. Is this always good? No. Is this what I want? Not always but it is the reality of what happens. You cannot point to any one level of decision-makers as most of them are reacting to societal forces that are pushing at them.

For changes, significant changes to take place in schools, society has to rethink the idea of school. Instead of people seeing students who are listening to ipods, texting and using laptops as youth playing with expensive toys, they need to realize that these tools could be powerful learning tools.For those students using the tools, they are but somehow we’ve made the internet something that has as many, if not more, evils than it has virtues. Media continues to portray and report the nasty and bad, which society is demanding they do, instead of the good. Now, those of us who see the potential of the tools and many of the students know this isn’t the case but for many parents this isn’t so. It is something new, different and, ultimately, something scary. For the adults, who can protect themselves, the internet is a wide-open playground yet with the youth this changes and becomes something else.

As Steve points out

I think part of the difficulty here is that the rise of the read-write web is probably going to have comparable historical and cultural significance to the advent of the printing press. I believe we are going to see some dramatic changes in many of our existing institutions.

Change is never easy and, I agree with Steve here, the changes are going to be widespread and far reaching. As adults, our natural reaction when we see something that we really don’t understand is to try to protect the youth. Is it any wonder that changes in schools are slow? This is a place where many of the adults can still walk into and recognize and, for the most part, feel safe. Despite all that is going on in the world around, schools and what takes place within them are still safe and recognizable.

Bring on the Change

For Arthus, and many other youth, they don’t see schools the same way. Their world has been dominated with change and with a global view of events and actions. Communication and socializing are all part of learning and understanding. Active integration of the tools is common. Using tools to create their own interpretation is not unique. Sharing with one another over vast distances is not a scary thing, it’s what they do. Instead of fearing the changes going on around them, they accept them as part of their way of life. Again, Steve comments

It may be that if traditional schools have difficulty responding to this massive change because of how they are currently structured–as you have pointed out well–we may find that some parents and students look for alternatives.

And indeed some parents and youth will make that move. However, as I point out,

“Society is basically happy with how schools run - they don’t want something radically different - “Hey, if it worked for me…” when, in fact, we do need something radically different. Something that would allow learners to access information, discuss topics - sometimes across boarders and oceans - create their own reactions that were “graded” differently than we do now. This would require that universities move away from how they accept students and, really, completely turn over the entire idea of education from top to bottom.

Such a monumental change requires more than just technology savvy people in decision-making positions. It requires a societal shift in the idea of what “educated” means. For that to happen, people have to become uncomfortable with the way things are being done and that will take time no matter who is making the decisions.

Being who I am

2007-10-29T22:38:00.000-06:00

Lifelong learner. That’s what I like to think of myself as now. I mean, I’ve been more and more involved in the web2.0 activities and doing various things with the new technologies ever since my introduction to blogging a 9 or so months ago. I’ve developed and engaged some of the greatest educators around the globe, converse with them regularly via twitter and watch as their presentations at different events like the K12 online conference.

Yet, despite all this, there is still part of me that refuses to learn and accept that I have a role within the educational world both in my own division and in the larger global community. As an administrator, I am an educational leader for my staff. I have partly fulfilled this role as I navigate leading when needed and finding those around me who have skills that will allow them to lead while I provide the support they need. In this regard, I have become much better as an administrator.

Another part of me has had trouble navigating the line between full time teacher and principal. I’ve learned that there is a big difference between these two positions and will forever separate the two. As I watch the K12 online presentations, I have been thinking only of these tools from the view of a teacher. I have been trying to use them in my own class, searching for ways that they mashup with the currlculum to provide students with greater learning opportunities. This isn’t a bad thing but it is only a part of what I am.

Administration

As I watched Dean Shareski’s presentation on Design Matters and listened to other presentations from the conference, part of me was saying “Hey, I could do that!” Dean does a fantastic job of explaining the role that design plays in creation. Now, he’s a Digital Learning Consultant and this is his area of focus. So while I was thinking “I could do that”, part of me was saying “Like when?” It isn’t really part of your job. This is not what you do - you are a principal. Bing! the light went on.

You see, being an administrator means that I’m not a full-time teacher nor an IT coordinator. Yes, part of my job is to show teachers different methods of teaching and helping them to expand themselves and learn. But it isn’t necessarily a main portion of what I am asked to do. My main role, however mundane it may sound, is the overall operation of the school. From dealing with students and parents to supervising teachers and, yes, trying to catch the peeing bandit plus ordering and making sure maintenance is done to …….. As much as I sometimes wish I could do more with advancing technology, I realize that isn’t my main role.

Walk-Through, one step at a time

2007-10-17T22:45:00.000-06:00

I’ve been using the Downey Walk-Through method of supervision more regularly since school began last year and with some work with my superintendent, have refined some of the things that are going on. Last year when I was doing them, I found it very clumsy to have an index card to write on. It wasn’t very easy to get the information that I wanted onto the card, I often forgot what each step entailed and didn’t do a great job making sure the objective was aligned with the curriculum for the subject/grade. This year, I decided to create a document for my PDA that I could use as a template and just fill in information. This worked somewhat better and I liked having the date and time automatically saved to the document. One drawback was making sure that, when I returned to my office, I downloaded them and added in any information that was needed.

A week ago my superintendent and I did a walk-through with 13 of 15 teachers. We would both enter the room, do a visual, record information and then exit. We would do 3 or 4 and then have a debriefing about what we noticed. We stuck to just what we observed with no additional information. We continued, trying to visit all the teachers but not quite reaching our goal. About half-way through, I asked to use the template she had created and found it to be very user friendly and exact. Now there are things I will change for my own use but it uses a more checklist approach with room for other observations. We were able to compare exact information after this which was very helpful for both of us.

The walk-through method of observation has allowed me to see the teachers in their classrooms more often, be visible to the students, got me out from behind the desk and allowed me time to do some serious reflecting and thinking about my own professional approach to helping other teachers. I know that in a few more visits I will be able to offer the teachers an observation, comment or question for them to ponder.

This has also allowed me to prepare better for the formal supervisions that I will be doing later. I know that, by seeing all the teachers and getting a better picture of what is going on in each room, my perception of any particular teacher is not in isolation. I will be better able to maybe offer up some ideas and suggestions having seen more teachers teaching. I’m thinking I’d like to use the walk-through but instead have a longer pause to see get more of a feel for what is happening with the class, watch student interactions and basically be better acquainted with the different curricula and methods of teaching. This way I might be able to offer some suggestions from my technology strength which would provide a greater opportunity for growth for both the teacher and the student.

I’ve been working on creating a wiki to gather information about supervision - both formal and informal. I am always looking for templates and different techniques and tools that people use when doing supervision. I know that many districts and divisions have their own policies and tools that they use and expect their administrators to use. I think that information about different ways of doing supervision - moving toward growth and helping the teachers to develop their skills, is one of the vital professional roles that administrators have within the school. We, as leaders, need to be setting an example for the teachers in being open to suggestions and looking for ways that we might improve what we are doing. Thus, the wiki. If you have any comments or ideas, please leave a comment here or on the wiki.

It's time for a perspective check

2007-10-15T13:38:00.000-06:00

Perspective affects everything that we do. It affects how we view a situation, how we react, our decisions and a myriad of other things. Now, I have the perspective of someone who is an administrator, thinks technology in schools is important, believes schools need to alter and change to assist students to become thinkers and creators not watchers and consumers. However, I’m beginning to think that we may have reached a point where the change being brought on by technology may be creating a gap that, without some pretty significant changes, the ability of any school or regular classroom teacher to keep up may have passed the reality point.

This was first brought to my attention by Stephanie Sander’s post over at Change Agency where she discusses the need for many of the leading technology people to step back and reflect on where things are going. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I beginning to wonder if we aren’t reaching a point where the constant change that could be introduced with new innovations is paralyzing people from trying anything.

9 months ago I began blogging. When I began, there were some very prolific and high-profile people discussing the power of blogging and the impact it could have on education and educators. In that 9 months it has gone from blogging to Skype chat, to Facebook, twitter, SL, plus a whole host of other things that I use for my teaching that are not part of my social networking. I now belong to 11 Ning groups, including having my own that I hope will eventually become a place for administrators in my own area to discuss and develop social networks of their own. Wikis have become my tool of choice for homework collection and dispersal, discussions and other class and school needs. I teach students how to create and post both podcasts and videos, something I’d probably not do if it weren’t for my teaching.

The latest thing to hit the floor is streaming tv that allows you to broadcast via the net. Now, I’m not up on this for a variety of reasons although I can see it having implications in my class, school and school division. The one thing that I’m really beginning to wonder is how in the world are we going to get teachers to begin to look at any of these if they are changing as fast as my 2 year old needs his diaper changed! Really. Last week, or was it the week before, I was looking forward to the K12 online conference, school was beginning well and I was into a routine for myself. Bam! Wham!

I seem to have been able to catch my breath today online to find that I’ve missed the first week of the conference, I’m way behind on both reading and posting and something called Ustream has taken the edusphere nation by storm. I did make it over to one of the sites to take a look but no one was on the air. I’ve been trying to get a grasp of what this does all week. Today, as I was outside working on some minor fixes before winter, I was wondering how anyone could ever keep up with all these changes if they were actually working in a classroom plus doing the many other things that teachers do. Is there any chance? Where is our best leverage going to be in schools?

Stephanie’s post really hit something today. Right now, we are having trouble figuring out how and what we might need to do to change curricula to be better suited for students today while at the same time providing parents and society with some type of system that will demonstrate that students are indeed learning and building their knowledge. We struggle within buildings and on campuses with a host of extreme social problems, like campus shootings, like we’ve never seen before and yet we know that we have one of the smartest generation of students ever to grace our classrooms. We are debating the need for safety with the need to teach the students how to keep them safe and trying to convince IT departments that maybe they need to change their roles within the educational framework or things will get some ugly some fast. I could go on but we aren’t even able to be sure students will be able to access an off site email account on the one hand and looking at yet another tool that seems to offer the ability to change some aspects of education. At this pace, teachers won’t have to bother with any technology because there will only be a handful of people who know about the technology and they aren’t everyday classroom teachers.

To seriously look at any type of change, continuing to find new tools to use isn’t going to remove the moss from the stone. We have some incredible things going on in some places with some classrooms but they are the exceptions. Primarily, little has changed with education despite all the tools. I firmly believe that until we examine the curricula, change some of those objectives and rework others, making it relevant to the students, no amount of cool tool is going to create change. Really, 9 months ago, blogging was the way to go while today it seems almost blah. My technorati rating keeps dropping as fewer and fewer new people are reading and referring to what I write. (Maybe I need to explore this more.) Blogs are just one of the many places where we can discuss things and not as vital to interaction as they were when they were the primary way to get to know people. Now, I watch as many of the people I follow on Twitter present at conferences or attend conferences that, really, I have no hope of ever getting to attend without paying for them personally, which could happen (with a small lottery win.)

Will we ever, really, see a change in education? I beginning to believe that it won’t come from those at the head of the technology discovery. It may be possible that many following them will have enough influence to create some change. With the rate of change, I even wonder if they will have an impact.

Educon 2.0

2007-10-08T19:19:00.000-06:00

Chris Lehmann has asked that those of us on Twitter post about the upcoming Educon 2.0 conference.

For complete information see the Educon 2.o wiki. Cliotech also has a very thorough blog post on the conference.

Here is the vital information:

Educon 2.0 -- January 25-27, 2008

Science Leadership Academy

Philadelphia, PA

EduCon 2.0 is both a conversation and a conference.

And it is not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is a School 2.0 conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we want to come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. We are looking for people to present ideas, facilitate conversations, and share best practice.

The Axioms / Guiding Principles of EduCon 2.0:

1) Our schools must be inquiry-driven, thoughtful and empowering for all members.
2) Our schools must be about co-creating -- together with our students -- the 21st Century Citizen
3) Technology must serve pedagogy, not the other way around.
4) Technology must enable students to research, create, communicate and collaborate
5) Learning can -- and must -- be networked.

Cost: $50 ($80 after January 16th) -- Payable to the Science Leadership Academy

Register TODAY At http://educon20.eventbrite.com

Now, I'd be willing to say that this will be a top notch conference. Chris is one of the great web2.0 voices and is very informed about the importance of sound teaching surrounding the use of any tools.

Should we cage them?

2007-10-07T22:43:00.000-06:00

A few days ago I posted about the whole "walled garden" idea and how not being allowed to access any number of sites is very frustrating for both learners and teachers. Durff over at Durff's blog picked this up and continued the conversation. I'd like to further add to her point that

Learners' today have expensive phones and/or iPods with them 24/7. They can connect to the internet instantly outside of the school's control. They can listen to podcasts of whatever they downloaded outside of the school's control.
Tightening control is not going to work. The IT departments have already lost control. So where do we go from here?

The whole idea that somehow we will be able to continue to limit what students have access to is unrealistic. In fact, we may soon be unable with such things as linking through plugins and other such actions. What we really need to focus upon is not how do we keep them from accessing particular subjects or keep them safe but how do we teach them about the impact of accessing particular sites and how do they keep themselves safe.

I realize that many IT departments are trying to provide the best options that they can but they just do not have the resources to do it all. I would rather see them focus on making sure that networks are operational and in working order, machines are replaced in a timely manner, the internal system of the school division or district is not compromised and teachers have access to a variety of tools that they can use when teaching. I see this as being the next move in the evolution of schools as we move from trying to filter everything and watch everyone to accepting the connectivity of society and planning to harness that in a way that it will enhance the learning opportunities for students in a number of ways beyond what we are doing now.

What has your district or school board done in regard to connectivity? Have things improved or grown tighter?

Teacher, Teacher can you hear me?

2007-10-07T16:09:00.000-06:00

When I first began teaching, one of the most stressful times was when the director would come in to supervise/evaluate. I knew when he was coming of course but, still, it would cause me no endless stress. Would the lesson work? Would the students listen? Would I remain my composure? The lesson was orchestrated and each time, thank goodness, it went without a hitch. This is how it was for the first two years of teaching. After that, like most other teachers to whom I've talked, I didn't really see any supervisors for quite a while.

For almost 8 years, there was little supervision. Luckily, for me, I began and completed a MEd. and had two interns in that time. It was the combination of these two that really helped me to develop as a teacher, searching for new ways of doing things and seeking new ideas. I also discussed things with other teachers, asked questions and learned some valuable lessons when mine flopped.

My move into administration brought a change of location and various supervisors to my classroom. In two years I changed schools each year, changed my teaching assignment, changed vp assignments and changed staffs which meant I was working with new principals. Each year was a learning experience but with a rather small percent of admin time and no real direction on what I was to do, I turned to do quite a bit of reading on various types of supervision and evaluation and how they affected teacher growth and development.

Today, six years later and two moves hence, I am once again thinking about the role of teacher supervision and evaluation and wondering just what exactly we have learned in the meantime. I know that we are more apt to look at a growth model rather than the clinical model that so many of us were introduced to in our first observations. The clinical model, which takes much of its framework from Madeline Hunter, focuses on objectives, strategies, targets, pacing and a clear sense of review and wrap-up. This structure, which is very useful now, became so rigid that any deviation was somehow seen as a weakness.

I don't know if it is the students who have changed, my own practice and view of what a "good" lesson entails or if it is a combination of many factors, but I now allow my students a great freedom in directing the movement of lesson with my responsibility being to make sure that the objective is explained and covered. Since there are many different ways that students learn and many different strategies for each style, I know that I have to make sure that my lessons are really focusing on the objectives as I allow students to explore in a variety of directions.

Another thing that has changed the landscape of teacher evaluation is the whole idea of the Professional Growth Plan (PGP) that teachers are using to map out their growth in particular areas. When I first began doing the PGP, I wasn't really sure what exactly to do. I would eventually find an area that I figured needed some development and then head off to a convention during the year. Some of my colleagues didn't even do that, seeing them as a waste of time. I didn't really see any use in them until I began to take classes again. It was then that I began to realize that the real power in teacher supervision might lie, not in the traditional watch and conference type but in one where the teacher, through conversations and reflections, began to evaluate their own teaching and improve upon it.

Jump forward to my present position as an administrator in a K - 12 school. For the past 3 years I have been working on helping teachers develop PGP that were of use to them. Something that was attainable and current rather than just another paper filled in. I've conferenced with them about their goals, visited them in their classrooms and begun to look at some new ways of doing supervision like using the Three-Minute Walk-Through, portfolio development and PGP review.

I've noticed that teachers come to their PGP from two different vantage points. They either are enthused about developing themselves and eagerly seek out information about developing themselves or they really see it as a poor use of their time. And, to be truthful, I wasn't sure how to get these teachers to see the benefits and to really understand how important it was until this year.

SMART Goals

Last year, our school division began the long walk of creating a system-wide method of school and teacher development that would help us achieve the objectives as outlined by provincial learning. The short of this move is that all schools create a goal in an area of need. The PLT's then create a goal that is linked and, finally, each teacher creates a goal that will help their PLT reach their goal. What I like about this whole concept is that teachers are working in a collaborative manner and are responsible to all the members of the team, not just themselves. Thus, it becomes much easier to discuss their goal in terms of how they are doing in accomplishing the team goal and their own portion. Another reason I like this is that there is built in reflection time for each person in the PLT, so when I go to discuss their PGP's, there is the chance for discussion about their reflections, positive or negative and, if negative, what might we change to make them positive.

Of course, this doesn't just magically make everyone's PGP's great or get everyone to become a reflective practitioner but it does give us a place to start, a situation to reflect upon and certain expectation about what each teacher is to do in relation to the goal of the PLT.

For me, it creates opportunity for discussion and reflection instead of going through the standard clinical observation. I am in more classrooms, visiting more teachers and gathering more information about what is going on in the school. I'm having more fun doing this and having more discussions about teaching ideas and teaching methods than before. I know that there needs to be a standard of accountability and our role is to be part of that but I wonder if, like our students, we were to provide teachers with an array of different options, knowing that each teacher has a particular style, we might be able to combine the clinical observation with a host of other types of observation and reflection methods to create something that is a bit wider in breadth while still being manageable in time.

As I started, teachers are uncomfortable with the clinical mode of supervision despite how long it has been done. Could that be telling us something which we need to which we need to pay attention? Can we get a more accurate view of the teacher through a combination of different methods that would be less intrusive on the teacher and more in the developmental mode while still providing us with the information we need for an evaluation?

Why all the ranting?

2007-10-05T18:03:00.000-06:00

Like many of you, I occasionally do a little ranting when it comes to the problems with some of the things that go on with the technology in schools and the level of availability of different websites. I've also been known to rant every now and then about other things that go on with schools and learning.

Well, this isn't one of those. In fact, over the past few weeks, I've had little to really rant about. I could get all worked up over the fact that I can't access certain sites at school but instead I've just begun to send in requests to have them opened. I'm thinking eventually someone will get tired of the requests. In fact, as this year moves along, I'm beginning to wonder if we have reached a new stage of service that is needed for schools.

Now, Stewart Mader makes a good point in his post about this same subject.

Historically, IT’s job is to “keep the lights on” - make a set of core technology tools available to people and support them - which was fine ten, even five, years ago, but just doesn’t work the same today. The quality of tools on the web is increasing far faster than most “boxed” enterprise software, and those web tools are free or low cost, and available immediately, as opposed to going through a much more involved procedure to get access to tools on the inside, or convince IT to make them available.

As many of us who have spent any time on the internet have found, our schools, for the most part, are not able to provide many of the services that we would like to have simply because they are limited in their resources and their manpower while the web has unlimited resources and unlimited people power. Hence, many of those I have come to know are frustrated by the lack of access to programs and the almost claustrophobic control that many IT departments have over what can and cannot be done.

With this in mind, do we need to put our energies into coming up with a different system for accessing information instead of relying on the standard version that was necessary so many years ago? Cannot many of our schools become somewhat independent of the IT departments in some way, maybe by having direct cable come to the school and running a system not completely controlled by the IT department? Or is there someway to have access to our school divisions while not being under the complete control of the central IT department?

I guess I'm seeing so much change in many different areas yet I'm feeling and sensing that schools are not moving along with the change but instead trying to stifle it to a point where a few are making decisions for the many without having an understanding what the many want or can do. Can IT departments change from "keeping the lights on" to maybe making sure the doors work and allowing us to figure out what type of lights we'd like in our building. Or, because of their nature, are we doomed to continue this control and struggle over what is accessible and what isn't? Can we come up with a solution that will allow our students to continue to speed along instead of slowing down to come to school. For that matter, is possible that our teachers who are moving along can continue to cruise instead of running into red lights all the time? (It's not just kids who are having to slow down when they come to school!)

I'd sure like to think that, by keeping the students at the forefront, we can build toward a more wholistic solution of internet access. The tools are powerful but only if you can use them.

Walking to work

2007-10-04T23:21:00.001-06:00

I’ve been using classroom Walk-Throughs for the past 7 months in order to get to get into the classrooms in my school, get to know what the teachers are doing, familiarize myself with the curricula in the various grades and just acquaint myself with how this form of supervision might work for me.

Now, I started with the book The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through by Corlyn J. Downey. Like most administrators, I read through the book, worked through the different stages of the Walk-Through and began to figure out how I might use this tool in my own class. Now, I began by using recipe type cards but that was a bit too cumbersome for me since I don’t write very well, I couldn’t always remember the various things for which I was looking and I sometimes forgot them in different places which isn’t a very good thing.

I also was having problems remembering the things I was suppose to be observing. The Walk-Through, which was suppose to be 3 minutes was taking upward of 15 or 20 as I worked to figure out what I was observing, where it fit, how to record it on my cards. I figured that this would get better as I did more but it still was taking me too long, I thought, to do the individual Walk-Through. About May, I moved from the recipe card to a smaller card and began to work on specific parts of the Walk-Through, familiarizing myself with each step. In my school, I didn’t bother with the facility as it wasn’t a concern. I focused on the first 4. Another thing that was taking me time was finding where the objectives were for the classes I was visiting and matching them with what I was seeing. Sometimes it took me longer to do that for a class than it did for me to do the trip that day. I became more familiar with our curricula online, I definitely got better at this.

This past summer I purchased a PDA and I began this using it this fall. I use the note taking feature to take notes while in the room. For me, this was much better as it had the date already on the note and I could upload it to my computer later in the day and then add information if I needed. With this method, I’m better able to succinctly describe what I have seen. I feel more comfortable with that instead a dozen small cards.

I’ve also found some great resources that I’ve posted on my adminplc wiki. I have adapted and used some of the forms, putting them on my PDA as documents and then using the points for a reference while I do the Walk-Throughs. This is helping even more and as I become better at summarizing and giving information, I think I will become better at noting different things during my trips through the school. I really like the Walk-Throughs, especially since it does give me a chance to quietly talk to a student or two and the students are becoming better at ignoring me while I am there. I think I might be at the stage where I can now begin to pull together my observations and leave comments or questions for the teachers. It may take me some more time to fine-tune what I record and how I do that but it no longer feels awkward to do this. I know that Alan Knobloch has a great article over at Leadertalk.org.

Our school administrators will be doing work at a full day inservice this month which I am looking forward to attending. Each time I think of a group of admin people getting together to share about Walk-Throughs, I think of this video…. really says it all when it comes to Walk-Throughs!

A wiki wonderland

2007-10-04T14:58:00.000-06:00

I like to use wikis for much of the work that I do. I think that they allow me a great deal of freedom to be creative in their construction without being overwhelming, give me just enough gadgets and plug-ins to keep me busy and suit my purpose when it comes to organization and access. Right now I use one for my planning, another I used with my class last year to gather information about Medieval Europe, a third we use as a staff to organize information and I have others that I started for a book club (which didn’t go too well but I think I’ll give it another shot), another for my admin group to organize ideas about supervision and yet another for a group dealing with web2.0 tools from the summer.
Now, because I use a wiki quite a lot, I think they are one of the best things to show someone who is doing work online. There’s no pressure to post and you can make them private, which is what I have done with my planning wiki plus some others. You can upload information that is accessible from anywhere, collaborate as a group, keep track of what is going on and so much more.
My reason for discussing this is because Clay Burell has been organizing an inservice day, using a wiki to put together the different components that he thinks are essential for a teacher in today’s world. I haven’t looked at the wiki yet but I know that I will when I get some time. The great thing is that I can link from the staff wiki to Clay’s and they will then have all that information at their disposal which is an awesome thing. I now that the Horizon Project was using a wiki to organize their work and share discussions and I think it was a great tool for doing that cross-continent collaborative work.
So, as I thought about this, I wondered who was checking in on ourstaff wiki, which has a link on Clay’s blog. Well, guess what? We’ve had visitors from California, Glasgow City, West Lothian and Lombardia as well as Saskatchewan. I’ve been blogging for about 8 months and our wiki gets more hits from different locations than this blog! Pretty amazing that people from all over the world are looking at how our staff uses this tool to stay in touch, learn together and be organized. My hope is, that as we become more comfortable and grow in our familiarity with technology, we will be able to share more information such as what we are doing in our Professional Learning Teams and our School Community Council. Because of it’s ease of use, people can use it with minimal pd time and, with the save each version feature, if you mess up, you just go to the version before and start over.
Clay had a post that asked what web2.o tool people would suggest for a pd day such as he was designing. My suggestion was something like iGoogle, Pageflakes or Netvibe - a homepage type arrangement where you can add pages and widgets to keep you organized, get news, keep up with the sports or whatever you want. However, the more I thought about it, the more I suggest the use of the wiki. It gives you a chance to be putting things together, in private as I mentioned, and then to branch out. It might even be somewhere you begin to express your ideas before you go to the blog. Now, I really do suggest using a homepage aggregator to assist with organizing all the different tools that one might have online. I also suggest something like Claimid where you can gather links together so you have one stop to get a page. I’ve made it my homepage so I just click and go. Of course, one needs a RSS aggregator to keep track of all the interesting blogs out there. As I think of it, you could use a wiki page to do some of this but it wouldn’t have all the bells and whistles.
I’m not going to suggest any one wiki provider although, after visiting my wikis you’ll know which one I prefer. I suggest you try out a few and go with the one that suits you the best. Whatever you do, get wikiing!

A Disturbance in the Force

2007-03-10T22:37:00.000-06:00

I've been asked, along with a group of other educational leaders, to contribute to a blog for educational leaders, LeaderTalk, being organized by Scott McLeod of Dangerously Irrevelant fame. Today was my first post. Now, I discussed how it is that I have come to be the administrator that I am. Like all other people, there are good days when I remember all those bits of widom that I have picked up and then there are days when, well, I'm still not sure about something so I need to relearn it, making a mistake despite having already made it before. My most recent area of learning is with a group of students in our upper highschool. This group has been very difficult and has demonstrated some unique characteristics that I just haven't been able to really understand until I recently when I read an article in Maclean's which was an interview with Michael Ungar, who is a social worker, family therapist and associate professor at the School of Social Work at Dalhousie University, is the author of a new book, Too Safe for Their Own Good. In this article, he defines this idea of a bubble-wrapped kid.

I'm talking about kids who are being denied opportunities to experience risk and responsibility. I began to notice in my practice a group of young people who were coming from quite stable, nurturing, middle-class homes, and they were showing up for one of two reasons -- either they were very compliant young people with depression and anxiety and an incapacity to take on responsibility or to show much common sense in getting on with their lives, or they were coming in with very dangerous, risk-taking behaviours that they had come up with on their own to cope with what they were telling me were very restrictive or overprotective environments at home.

Bingo. Now, most of these kids in my school are male but not all of them. It has now got to the point where I cannot talk to 6 of them withoug having their parents present. There is limited dealings with the parents because of the way that things have been turned against teachers in the past. In fact, from what I've heard, the most incredible stories go home regarding school.

These parents want to be in on the discussion so that their child's rights are intact and that things are done properly. They do not trust that things will be done fairly and want to mak sure that this is so. They have a right to hear what is happening. My one experience with this did not work. It ended up being an I said/they said which ended up getting us no where. The final outcome was unsatisfactory, from my point and just seemed to reinforce the whole absurdity of the situation.

What is interesting is that it is isolated to a single group of students. Now I may find that there will be more but right now, it is one group. What is even more insteresting is that this group is the most vocal about their rights but they seem to understand very little the responsibilities that accompany those rights.

I worry about this group much more than other students. Many of them are talented and bright but they lack the "common sense" and "respect" toward others that make interactions appropriate. They are much more immature in how they handle situations and their parents protect them, even argue for them, despite what is going on. Right now, I'm dealing with a situation that is really small but has been turned into a major letter and a meeting with my supervisor. The next year and a half may be one of my most learning filled years to date.

There is a disturbance in the force and thousands of young voices cry out in pain .... and continue to cry.

What do you mean, Flat?

2007-02-06T23:37:00.000-06:00

As I get ready for another great day at school, I’ve been pondering a few events from the past few days. First, I’ve taken the leap and am doing a presentation to grade 12’s on the flattening world and what it might mean to them. As I’ve been thinking about this, it struck me that this type of information needs to be put into the hands of parents and other community members who will be affected by decisions made by these young people. Maybe by introducing some of these ideas to people who will be affected, the momentum for change within our schools will grow.

As I take part in George Siemen’s online connectivism conference, I am amazed at the interaction that is taking place and the number of different topics that are emerging from the presentations. Now, this is a conference where the main discussion involves connectivism and whether it is a new theory of learning or something else. With about 180 people taking part from every continent, it is an international gathering with such people as Bill Kerr, Will Richardson, Diana Oblinger, Stephen Downes and Terry Anderson presenting around this theme of Connectivism. However, it just isn’t the presenters who are forwarding this conversation. The participants include Vicki Davis, Sharon Peters, Miguel Guhlin, Tim Hawes, David Truss and Christopher Sessums to name only a few. The discussions are wide ranging and very engaging although I’m having trouble fitting them into my busy day. Would have been nice if it was next week during our break!!

Now, as these conversations take place, I wonder how this type of forum, still in its infancy, will impact the generation of students I will be speaking with next month. Will we see a change in the offering of university classes or will we see an aligning of class expectations as universities begin to become more global in nature? Will classes, especially the first and second year general classes be less restricted to site and open to whomever has a spot in a global learning environment? Will we begin to see an emergence of a general concensus globally of a minimum standard? Will there be more transparency at all levels of learning?

Or, will the academics begin to wall their own gardens? Will popularity, similar to what we have seen with some of the blogosphere comments, become more important than understanding? Instead of seeing advantages to this ability to share and build, will the human tendencies of greed, envy and lust get in the way?

As I ponder what I will present to these youth, I am both excited and apprehensive about what the future might have in store for them and, having had many conversations with them, they are apprehensive about what will happen even next year - not that some of that isn’t unusual as a person leaves the protectiveness of the home. But, these strong students with an array of gifts and talents they have just begun to develop. What are we doing that leaves them feeling this way? I’ve asked and they are not able to put it into words,…. yet. By listening more to them, we may be able to really help students develop so that they are less apprehensive about what the future holds because they know they have the basic knowledge and understanding that will allow them to be successful no matter what they decide to do and, with the way things change, they have the necessary skills to continue learning and growing as the society around them changes and grows.

What have I gotten myself into? :o

Kelly

Flatworld Intro

2007-02-06T23:34:00.000-06:00

I’ve been doing reading on flatclassroom projects and reading through Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat. I’ve been intrigued by the ideas presented by Friedman and the whole idea that the world is indeed becoming flatter as we have access to many new and different technologies. My conversations with Missprofe and mscofino are examples of how we can communicate and find new people who are willing to engage with us in a discussion of what is happening around the world. I’m watching the flatclassroom project that Snow Lake, M.B., Canada (Clarence Fisher) is doing withVirginia, U.S.A (Lee Barber), miscofino and Cartagena, Columbia (Jamie Hide) with great interest as I debate how to get my own students involved in such a project.

Today, while meeting to organize a transitional meeting for our grade 12’s, I threw out the idea that the world is flattening and we are no longer limited to a physical place for pursuing ideas or education or dreams. Well, I’m now doing the opening keynote at the beginning of the day for the students focusing on the idea of the Flat World. Anyone have 45 minutes worth of things to offer?

I’m always looking for an opportunity to talk with students about the need them to be aware how the world is changing and how the society we live in is no longer just our Canadian one but a global society that will reflect the learning taking place in a number of places and will need a whole set of skills that are just beginning to emerge. We are no longer limited to just our immediate social environment but we have the ability to reach different places, some which are real and some which are virtual, all while still being in touch with the one that surrounds us. We are beginning to realize we are connected in many different ways and as those connections are redefined and strengthened, we will see new ways of interaction, discussing and problem-solving.

Seems funny that it has taken me so long to actually give a presentation to anyone about online learning environments and the options that are available yet I finished my MEd. degree in 2001 online, have been working on getting my coaching certificate for Harvard Graduate School of Education in order to facilitate online work and I’ve been working very hard to increase my use and student use of web2.0 techologies this past year.

So, I have 45 minutes, what are some of the key ideas that I should cover? Because the knowledge that surrounds me in the blogosphere is filled with great and key ideas, I figure I’ll throw this out and see if anyone responds (or will it end up like my other book club idea?) Hope no :)

Flatworld Intro

2007-02-05T20:58:00.000-06:00

Blogging Spread

2007-02-02T01:39:00.000-06:00

It’s been a fairly busy week, it’s our annual Lady Mustang Tournament this Friday and Saturday so I’ve been trying to get things organized for that. Every year I tell myself to note that a two day tournament is one day too much but when I’m planning, I’m full of energy and figure that a two dayer is the best for the fans and the team. Now, as this week winds down, I wonder what was I thinking!!!
This has left me little time to do my usual blog reading although I have been doing some. I found the information on blog usage at Scott McLeod’s Dangerously Irrelevant to be interesting. I thought his disclaimer was kind of amusing.
Okay, let me begin by stating that I know several things about this blog post:

It’s probably going to make some people angry,
It’s probably going to discourage some people, and
I know I’ve missed some people.

Like, do people really take this whole blog ranking thing that seriously? I thought that this whole technology thing was going to change the interaction of people and bring things to a new level. Really, I could go to the local rink for that kind of reacion! I did respond to his request for next month just because I find this kind of stuff interesting. I like coloured graphs! Personally, I really like popping into various blogs who aren’t on the list and reading what they are up to and how their lives are going.
A for instance is Missprofe. Now, she was the only respondent to my idea to do a sort of book club. So, I’m going to get ahold of her and we’ll do it. The offer is open to anyone who is interested but I’m not going to lose sleep over not making the allstar team of blogging with this idea. People are busy. Heck, I’m busy but I need some type of deadline to get myself organized. It works for me and I tend to perform better. It’s not the stress but the need to not procastinate and waste time playing in 2L or some other game or just blog surfing.
Back to Missprofe, she and I have been visiting each other’s sites and reading. I like her down to earth and honest approach to the whole blog process. It discusses real world issues and then steps back. It’s human and real and not preachy. Something that I’m finding from a few of the “big name bloggers” lately. I’m tired of that message and the whole “blow my horn” that goes on. Don’t care - don’t visit anymore.
Just lately another teacher visited and left a good message about “sticking with it” to see results. As much as I’d like to convert the division I work in and have all them take hold of the technology I know that it will be slow. I also have an obligatioin to fulfill the division initiatives. Now, these initiatives are great - increase reading to 100% of all students at grade level. Increase our math proficiency - use data to make decisions about what we are doing - foster a collaborative atmosphere in the school - work with the community to build a better school - focus on the at risk students - differentiate for all students. Now our technology plan isn’t at the forefront and that needs to change. Meanwhile, we are moving along in the areas mentioned above.
I guess that’s what is different for me than for many of the other bloggers that are in my GoogleReader. As much as technology is important and I believe we have to do more at all levels, I have real influence at my level and that is where I will put energy - with a bit going to the division level. The admin blog I started has 11 enteries, all from me. But I’ll keep reminding people and encouraging them to use it. The admin and school wiki hasn’t had any visitors but it will. The podcast idea isn’t quite taking off like I thought if would - but it will. But there is definitely a spread between the blogs of many of the teachers I’ve read and those blogs from people with digital intelligence. They are out there, pushing the lines forward. As an administrator, I’ll support any teacher doing that but I will also expect that the other initiatives are being met - like it or not, we are legally obligated.
Because I’m not a tech support person or a division technology consultant or an independent pro-technology proponent, I still have the other requirements to meet. I guess that is why I figured the book club would be a way to get together with other like minded people and share ideas. To talk about how the ideas will fit into the school world where we are - not as a tech support person, although you are welcome to join the discussion, but from administrator and teacher perspectives.
So Scott, thanks for the cool graphs and such. Wish I had time to look into that kind of stuff. I do find it fascinating and maybe someday I’ll be able to do that but right now that’s not in the picture. I wish I could surf and find cool new apps but I’ve time to read or surf for apps so I thank everyone who finds the apps. But I did find an online desktop desktoptwo.com that I am trying out. So far I like it but I haven’t had all that much time to really delve into it.
There is a blog spread but not the one Scott has posted. It’s more a spread between those on the technology edge and those of teachers who are trying to bring technology into the schools or their classes as regular administrators and teachers. And it appears that navel gazing has become a pastime for some in the first group. I totally agree with Bud!
So, to miss proff and all those who are just beginning and struggling, keep at it. Share ideas, leave comments for one another and grow your network but don’t navel gaze. It’s, well, almost embarrassing to read!
Oh, and join our book club!!!

Going Clubbing?

2007-02-02T01:33:00.000-06:00

oday I’ve been doing some catching up on some reading. I did visit most of the blogs on my Google Reader list and strolled through many of the sites, leaving comments here and there. I was stepping through Kim Cofino’s always learning blog where she had a list of three books essential for 21st Century Educators. I have to admit, I haven’t read Will Richardson or David Warlick’s book. I am reading Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat and I’m enjoying the information that it has regarding the flattening of the world. However, as I thought about what I added to the list, I began to think about how the beourcratic elements of our schools and the exposure we have via our Professional Development really shapes the information that we are consuming as teachers, if we are actually consuming any information.
In Saskatchewan we have just finished a very major amalgamation that was brought on through government legislation. Whether I liked it or not is immaterial at this point and since one gets no where looking backwards, I tend to look forward, find positive and move on making what I have the best that it can be. Our new division is focusing on the SMART goals philosophy Ann Conzemius and Jan O’Neill. Their book The Handbook for SMART School Teams sets out how schools can use this, combined with the Professional Learning Communitees ideas from Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker, to change how schools function and focus on Data Driven Decisions to improve the learning outcomes of the students in the school. Thus, much of my reading has been focused on the works of these authors and the ideas that are within their pages.

Just lately at our Administration Meetings we have begun to use PLC’s to focus on different ideas within the admin group. I am currently working with a group of administrators who are focusing on teacher supervision. We are looking at various methods that will allow us to assist teachers in developing as professionals through reflective discussions. One book we have been using is The Three-Minute Walk-Through by Carolyn J. Downey, Steffy, English, Frase and Poston. I’ve been using this method for a few weeks in order to visit the rooms of the teachers, gather some information and then move on. This has been using up more of my reading time. I’ve a few other books on my list that I’d like to get through this year. Then I run across the last few posts by Kim and I see a more books that I think will really benefit me as I look at the way we can improve schools keeping in mind the students who are walking through our doors each day.

Why am I writing about this? Well, the books that I’m working with at present are those that I know will help me to get a handle on the ideas and directions that our school division is going. One does need to demonstrate that one understands what is going on around them! However, I see those books Kim has suggested as also being crucial in helping to create a school that students really want to be at. What do I do? How does one get all this reading in and still get work done? Forget Saturdays and Sundays, I’m coaching basketball and trying to spend time with my family. So what can one do?

I’ve learned that if I have a deadline or required timeframe, I can really prioritize and get work done. I am currently finishing the last week in my online course and I’ve kept up for one month with little added stress. I’m also enrolled in the Connectivism Conference at the U of Manitoba with George Siemens. I know that I’ll find time to take in the information somehow. So, here’s an idea for anyone who visits this site - how about an online book club? I’d like to suggest that we select a book that focuses on education - does not have to be technology! We agree to read and then once a month we meet and discuss the book via Skype (I’m kwhobbes) or some other tool. Now, if you’re interested, leave me a comment with your information and a suggestion for a book or two.

Hey, it’s worth a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Kelly

Let's Clean Out the Textbook Room

2007-01-24T17:05:00.000-06:00

There has been a wonderful discussion going on in relation to the Prensky article “Engage Me or Enrage Me”. Now, I’ve spent a few days refiing my thought on this blog. The comments have been spectacular and I’ve grown to know a few of you even more (Thanks for dedicated entry Scott ) Now, I’ve been preparing a rather lengthy discussion and then I read Dean Shareski’s tag article where he comments on posting length. So, with that in mind, off we go….

Scott, Dean and others see the article as being a wake-up call to take notice that we need to focus on the fact that students are not engaged.

What is different now (and why Prensky’s article is so salient) is that until recently kids didn’t have anything to compare teachers’ instruction against except other teachers. Now they have these high-powered learning environments called video games that are purposefully designed to keep kids’ brains in their own individualized zones of proximal development. The subject matter may be questionable, but the intentional cognitive engagement that is occurring is not. Scott McLeod

As I read through your post Scott, I realized that we are talking about the same thing it's just that we see the article from two angles. I think we’re like this: looking at a dice that has landed six up. You see it as two horizontal lines and I’m seeing two vertical lines. We both see a six and we’re just trying to figure out if they’re horizontal or vertical. So, I’ll walk over to your side. What the hey, horizontal!

We both see that schools have to become more relevant to students and it is the teacher’s role to use differentiated instruction to reach all students (in Saskatchewan we call it the Adaptive Dimension). We both agree that we need to see the schools begin to adopt a greater focus on using data to make decisions and, I would think, that we would agree that we need to use Professional Learning Communities to enhance what is happening in the schools. I agree that we need to use more technology to engage the learners - no doubt about it. And, I could probably be convinced that, given the right conditions, gaming could be a relevant tool for teaching.

Like you, I’ve read, reread, pondered, reflected and rewritten a few times. Dean, I agree with your comment and we do need to root out the outdated and irrelevant work. I guess I write from where I view the profession of teaching. I see it as a dynamic, ever-changing, ever-evolving journey of learning. I am constantly looking for new ideas and challenging what I believe to make sure it holds up to the litmus test- are kids learning/understanding and with me. That is why I’ve embraced blogging, wikis, podcasts, videos, audios and other formats of presentations, however a student can demonstrate their understanding, I usually can work with them. This doesn’t mean I don’t do some worksheets, some written work, some reading, some …. it’s a mixed bag.

Now, in the school where I am adminstrator, we have learning teams. During our first set of meetings, I made it clear that it was OUR responsibility for the students learning and understanding. We don’t have any control of the parents, home life, emotional state of the student or various other things. Some we need to address but some, well, that’s out of our control so we can’t use it as an excuse. Boy do teachers work at trying to get the home life card back in - but it doesn’t work. So, we need to differentiate, adapt and challenge the students. MY job is to provide the resources to make it happen. I give the teachers support, I present them with options and I ask them questions. But, I expect that they will come out of isolation and we will work together to make this a “happenin’ place” where students don’t mind coming every day. We want a safe and welcoming place where we understand that there are 200 odd individuals all with different needs and expectations and we, as the teachers and support staff, have a duty to do our best to meet those needs.

I try to lead by example and, therefore, I’m offering pd for teachers to introduce them to blogs, wikis, podcasts, using video, etc. Having said all this, I’m still learning as an administrator so I haven’t figured out how to get all this together but we’re working at it and trying.

As a teacher it always infuriated me that some “person” from outside (if you are not presently teaching and have been out more than 5 years, you’re out of tocuh.) telling me that if I just do “this”, my students will learn and understand. Like NOT. I hate sitting and getting so I try not to do it myself - however I can sit here for 2 plus hours and …. and I can game for like 4 hours. I understand the engagement thing - but that is different and I can separate that in my mind - I don’t get a lightsaber to get rid of the evil one’s (some days I’d like to manipulate the force though - You will do your homework. Now go. You won’t call him a dummyface any more. You may pass. And to be able to lift the desk and rotate that one student - mmmmm) As a learning professional, I’m insulted by the article and that is why I object to it. I really don’t find Prensky to be a “futurist”. Personally, I see him as an opportunist. And I will stop with my comments there!!

Scott, I truly enjoy all the learning that I have done and the reflection that this has made me do about my practice as an administrator and as a teacher. Unfortunately, my position doesn’t allow me to get to see other schools so you are a better judge and I will defer to what you see. I know that I don’t want my kids to be bored - that’s when they tatoo each other with multi-coloured ink pens. I want them to be engaged and pushed to the limit of their abilities (these are my own kids, not all the students). So if that is what I want, then I figure most other parents want the same. I’ll have to post about my girls and I. Maybe you’ll see why I’m not normal!!

Sorry Dean but I’ve written a lot again I promise the next one will be short - er.

Thanks for the responses and the conversation.

Kelly

Topics for Discussion

2007-01-24T17:04:00.002-06:00

I’ve spent some time reading through some of the blogs from my GoogleReader, just blog cruising the past few days. Several things have caught my attention. First, there isn’t too much that is really new in a good portion of the high frequency blogs. Like Graham Wegner states in his blog entry relevant and original :

Quite often I read about an idea and then that theme seems to propagate itself in a multitude of blogs. For instance, More Prensky’s concept of digital immigrants and nativesis currently doing the rounds. My problem ? The majority of what’s being written I’ve read versions of before with very few bloggers currently breaking new ground on this well worn topic.

Now, if you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I’m not fond of this whole concept of natives and immigrants. Just recently I’ve read Prensky’s latest article Engage Me or Engrage Me. on Scott McLeod’s Dangerously Irrelevant where he introduces the topic and the discussions going on via two blogs: Chris Lehmann’s and Dennis Fermoyle’s. Both of these blogs do have some good conversations taking place. Although I agree with Chris that

… our schools do need to do a better job of engaging our students. I think we do have to find ways to integrate new tools into how we teach, and I (clearly) think that the technological tools we use outside of school need to find their way inside of schools as well. I even think that there are moments with simulations and games can play a major role in what we do in our classrooms.

I think the slam dunk in the article is

But I’m going to also say that we also have to teach gumption. We also have to teach kids how to slog through things even when they aren’t fun. And we have to teach kids what it means to see something through, and we have to teach kids that some values are not immediately fun, but are worth it long term. I used to say to my English classes, “Hey, on a warm spring day, I’d rather be outside playing Ultimate frisbee than teaching English, but we all have to be here, so let’s find a way to make it meaningful.” The flaw in Prensky’s article is that there is a difference between recreation and work.(my stress)

This is something that we seem to be forgetting in the discussion of the new technologies. Even when it is brought up, those who are proponents seem to say “Yeah, yeah. We’ll do that but what about ___________” (fill in blank with whatever tool or key phrase is hot.) We seem to be confusing “fun” with “life skills”. The more I read, the more I wonder when we decided to let the children and students decide what would be taught, how it would be taught and what was important to know.

As I progressed through life, each time I hit that ultimate next life stage, I thought “Right on, now I’ve arrived, I’ve worked hard, learned and I’m a capable person. Now someone will listen to me.” Well, I’m still waiting. Not that people don’t listen but I’m realizing that I know less and less about this cycle we call life and all of a sudden someone is saying that we can just disregard the life lessons and learning that goes on from struggle through difficult and mundane tasks. We’ll just make it all wonderful with wowing technology and they’ll learn so much more than through the mundane tasks but you don’t understand because you’re not like them so just nod and move aside. Did I miss something? How can we continue to tell kids that life is like a video game - simulation or whatever. It isn’t. Life is so much more messy, uncertain and chaotic. And when you die, you don’t get any more chances. But if you just want one drama after another - that’s what soaps are for. Really. Or the half-hour sitcoms.

I could continue on this vain but, really, will it make a difference. The lines are being drawn as we move into this uncertain and chaotic period of education. Will children suffer irraparable damage if they don’t get a whole menagerie of technological experiences? No. Despite what everyone seems to think, children will continue to be children. And last time I checked, the teenage years were always difficult and chaotic times. Questioning the authoraties of the time, pushing the lines and wanting freedom but scared to really take it. Escaping into __________ (fill in the blank with some kind of diversion) has been a way that teens have dealt with things. Are the diversions different and allowing students to soialize in a whole new way. Yep. But they’re still diversions and some kids use the web, some read, some write, some do sports and some, unfortunately fall into using drugs and alcohol. Will there be other diversions for the next set of teens? Yes. Will we have to accommodate them? Of course.

Now this doesn’t mean that I don’t think schools can continue to limp along as they are doing and we need to do some serious changing but let’s not lose sight of the fact that schools are around, really, for one reason. We need to send the children somewhere while people work. Before school, factories, mines and fields were the places of choice unless you were from a rich family then you were usually home schooled or, if you were a rebel and snuck out at night to ride your horse around, you were sent overseas to some monestary or some religious excursion. Then society decided that this wasn’t good, having children working in factories and such so it was made illegal to use children to work in the fields, mines and factories. What to do with them? We came up with schools. Yes, universal education allowed for people to move up the social ladder and achieve things they couldn’t before as it does now. Maybe school has outlasted its usefullness and we need to do something different. But right now, the best option we have is schools and the best understanding we have is to create an environment that, at some point, will challenge most of the students. The posts on the blogs I mentioned earlier are worth the read in this regard.
Now, unless I feel a real urge, this will be my last post on Prensky as I believe that this just creates more advertising. I would like to explore that idea of a digital intelligence as I believe that this has more weight than some of the other things I’ve heard. More on that later. I do so enjoy the dialogue and discussion. That’s why I blog!

Kelly

THE

2007-01-24T17:04:00.001-06:00

Over at Dangerously Irrevelant, Scott refers to two enteries found on Seth Godin’s blog. After reading “On becoming the” I was struck that the changing of two little words could really have so much impact. It reminded me of the Corner Gas episode The Taxman, in which the discussion of a and the are highlighted by a visiting taxman looking for Oscar LeRoy. In the episode, the taxman is very upset when someone says he is “The Taxman” because it makes it sound like he’s responsible for the taxes and for the misery caused by taxes. This highlights what Seth is saying about going from being an “a” to a “the”. It does change how one is perceived. For example, I am “The Principal” in town. Without saying anything, the responsiblilty of the role is summed up in the use of “The” which is different from being “a teacher at the school.” With using “the”, it distinguishes me and my role apart from others. Now, this goes for some of the other positions in school like “The” Secretary and “The” Janitor, both of which are important positions in the well being of the school.

There are times when being “The” is very difficult but these are not the norm. I thouroughly love my job and working in the school with all the students, staff, parents and community. Being in a small community, one is never “off”. I am always the principal even when friends of my children come over. But their getting use to it - especially on Saturday mornings after sleepovers when I surface with a bad case of bedhead. Sometimes one might want to be “the” but other times, it might be just as easy to an “a”. Naw!

Kelly

Podcast and blogging

2007-01-24T17:03:00.001-06:00

Today my Communication Production Technology (CPT) class is working on their final project. We looked at some of the history of communication and the different tools that were standard in communication production. Much of the curriculum is still focused on using tape for recording so we have had to substitute and make changes to use digital recording and editing.

The class started by using various sounds they found on the net to create a short sound blurb in which they experimented with various effects. We have been using Audacity for our editing and recording and it has been very user friendly. Right now I am editing the different sound recordings together into one podcast for people to listen. The students spent a good deal of time just working with effects and the sounds.

Next we moved on to creating an audio production. Here the students did have trouble. They wanted to move into just recording and not worry about scripting or editing. They were to discuss a topic of their choice for 2 to 3 minutes. Some chose a band and played a song for most of the time, not spending time talking about the band. They also found out that without a script, they had to do more editing because of all the dead space.

Our final project is a group project. Now, I borrowed the idea from Christ Betcher which he described on one of his Virtual Staffroom podcasts. I gave the students a rubric from which to work and gave them the opportunity to again talk about topic of choice for 50% of the time and they had to do an interview and talk about a school topic for the other 50%. They also had to write their script for any of the talking they were going to do. For the interview, they had to identify who they would interview and what they would ask. They will then take the individual portions and create a 50 minute podcast. Right now they are into interviewing with 3 days left. We’ll see how they all turn out!!

I’ve found the recording to be the easy part. The students do not want to write the scripts but, after their last work, they realize the necessity to do this. They also have trouble planning the whole podcast out before they get to work. They like spending time look and listening to music or trailers but getting down to work is more of a challenge.

I’ve also begun a wiki and blog assignment in my grade 9 social. We are go to look at the topic of Change in relation to the fall of the Roman Empire and the ensuing changes in Europe and then reflect on how these have impacted on our present society. I’m using blogmeister for the blogs. We’ve just started so I’ll report back how this is working. What I will have them doing with the blogs is reporting in on what they did that day and what they found out. I am also using a wiki - which is private now - for recording of information and group assignments. I also want to try writeboard with the class to have them share ideas and gliffy to share any charts or drawings. I will spend time going through each with the class, explaining the use of each and how they will be assessed during the different projects. I’m recreating my assignments so that, instead of them doing a written copy and handing it in, they can share their knowledge on the wiki and use the other tools to communicate amongst themselves. I’m also hoping to use screen snapshots instead of URL’s when using diagrams and maps so that they can add comments. I’m not sure which tool we will use for this.

I’m not completely replacing the print and written assignments but I will have more than 50% of the work being done using these methods. At the end of the unit, they will have a few options for a project of which two will involve either a podcast or a vodcast depending on where I am able to get our technology to in that time.

One of the reasons that I am doing these different things is to demonstrate to teachers that, not only it possible to use these different tools, it allows one to track individual student time on task, contribution to the group assignment, focus on assisting the students instead of getting them to work since their time is, in a sense, being monitored and getting them to work collaboratively without having to have all of them crowded around one desk or table. We’ll see how this works out and I’ll keep you posted on how things are working.

Oh, one other thing we will be doing is learning how to do a search for information and then deciding what information is reliable and what information is questionable. Because much of the information on the fall of Rome is written at a university level, they will have to look for information they can understand. We’ll then work on creating personal summaries that they can use for their work. I’ve noticed that students have a very difficult time finding information and, when it doesn’t pop up in front of them, they tend to give up like there is nothing available for them. I’ll be assisting them to narrow their searches and look for information and we’ll discuss how to summarize and such. Again, we’ll see how things come together as we progress.

As students work, I notice that they have difficulty with the technology once it goes beyond their knowledge base, like most people. They become easily frustrated and have difficulty problem solving to figure out what it is they might do next - which is a normal characteristic of most people I know. It does, however, make me question the whole “immigrant/native” assumption (see my last article for how I really feel about this) since they seem no different than many of the adults that I have worked with who have the same problems. (Still think it’s a digital intelligence!)

I’ll keep updating as we move along.

Kelly

Podcast and blogging

2007-01-17T22:28:00.001-06:00

I’ll keep updating as we move along.

Kelly

Squeaky Wheel

2007-01-16T17:30:00.000-06:00

Squeaky Wheel

16 01 2007

I’m presently enrolled in a Harvard Graduate School of Education distance learning course. I’ve completed two of the courses and am in the process of training to be an online coach. I figure this is one way to encourage teachers to use technology. Besides the skills will be useful for working with students online and developing online assignments and courses. One of the main areas is the discussion page that all participants use to discuss the various topics of the week.

Now last week I was a bit behind so I didn’t get my ideas posted until the 11th hour. Reading through the different posts, I’m still amazed at the number of educators who have grabbed onto the “digital immigrant/digital native” phrase and see it as being their mantra - “The kids are so capable - I’m just an immigrant.” Now, the more I hear this, the more I begin to think that, unless there is something to replace this mantra, the more it will become the poster slogan for educators.

Presnky basis his argument that we are immigrants because we have had to make a switch from one way of doing things, non digitally, to a second way of doing things, therefore immigrants, while children, who have grown up with the technology know no other way and are surrounded by it and are immersed in it and, therefore, are natives. As I thought of this analogy, I began to wonder, if that is the case, there are no natives since no can be born and age without having to learn new things, things that may have not been there when they were young. Thus, taking this to its farthest extreme, we might as well all give up because as things progress, we’ll get farther and farther behind and there is no hope since we weren’t born into it. What he misses, which is very easy to understand is that for many of us, we grew up with video games, computers, electronic gadgets and all that he suggests the students of today have. In fact, after some serious reading, I would say that he’s missing the boat, almost completely.

I would suggest that using the tools and technologies is an aptitude that maybe we have not identified, much like one of Multiple Intelligences from Gardner. As I work with students and adults, it seems that there are those people, from each group, that are able to work with the technologies, are comfortable using them and adapt to any new upgrades that come along. Instead of it being a generational gap, as suggested by Prensky, I would suggest that it is an intelligence that people have. My reason for suggesting this? Well, in working with students, teachers always describe how they are so willing to try new things, find new things out and show them all these wonderful things while working on computers while they, the teacher, have great difficulty in moving around and getting things to work. However, I would suggest not all students are like this and, in fact, there are a few core ones who lead the way for the rest. Another thing is that children are naturally curious and therefore willing to try many things that adults don’t. So, using Presnky’s argument that children are native because they have been surrounded by it, we should allow children to use all kinds of power tools if they have been around them. Surely they’ll figure out what they are for and find some great things to do with them. Seems ridiculous. People have suggested that it is not the same thing, power tools are different than computers. Well, having worked for many summers pounding nails and then, later on in my life, learning to use an air nailer, to me the two are the same. In fact, I was using computers before the air nailer!

As for the “natives” being surrounded and growing up with it and therefore being able to use it effortlessly, that also doesn’t wash with me. Check out the age of the Guinness Book of World Records record holder for high score on video games. I believe the gentleman is in his late 30’s somewhere. Hmmm, I’d say he’d know a thing or two about gaming! Oh, yeah, the students using things effortlessly. My gauge for this is throwing a piece of software, like Zoho or other online software and see how they adjust. My experience, although limited to only a dozen or so years of working with kids and technology, is that if it is not what they are use to using, like Word, they are lost. This applies to most of the software that we have. In fact, we have several non-Windows based computers running on Linux and the kids avoid them because they are not Windows. “Those are the evil computers!” To me, a native will use any type of software, can figure out any type of software, doesn’t need the manual and will be comfortable on any platform. I know plenty of 40 something people who are this way - complete natives in the digital medium. Yet there are natives in all age groups, people not put off by the technology, who use it and understand how it can be used, see possibilities and are able to push the technology to get more and do more. That is why I would suggest that it has nothing to do with the “age/generational” as Prensky suggests but, instead, is an intelligence that people have.

Another fact that I’d like to point out is that many of the gamers and first users of the technologies are boys. Does this mean that girls are less native? Or, is it just in the last few years that game designers have been turning their attention to females? Are we seeing more and more females using technologies because it is being considered a “unisex” tool rather than the domain of the male “techno-geek”? Is it because the Web2.0 has become a social network with personal interaction being the norm. Who has more cellphones, boys or girls? What would a survey say? What do they use them for? Is there a difference? Does this mean that there is more than one type of native?

I really believe that for many people who have read Prensky, it is an immediate “Oh, that’s me.” reaction. They then generalize about the population in both regards and agree that it must be an “immigrant/native” divide. In discussions with people who speak many languages, they comment that they may know the language and fit in with the people but they are still immigrants because they were not born there. But being born automatically make you a native and, if that is the only criteria, then we’ll have to redefine a whole group of gaps as being “native/immigrant” divides - before microwaves/VCR’s/…. and after. Before the mini-van and after. This list will be endless. Each of these items had a huge impact on culture and changed the dynamics of the culture in many ways, although not as big as some of the other items. In rural settings, the introduction of large machinery creates a “immigrant/native” divide that has had a huge affect on a whole way of life. Yet, many people who were born before have made the transition and are very successful. So, maybe they have a particular intelligence that allows them to be successful despite the changes.

Why do I squeak about this? Well, it creates a way of thinking that I don’t think is good for education. It creates a divide that I don’t think is really there and causes people, especially teachers, to view themselves as being unable to make progress without great difficulty. Could it be that, like music or math or the other intelligences, there is a digital intelligence?

Kelly

One flew over the .....

2007-01-13T01:53:00.001-06:00

Basketball season has started and I'm at a weekend tournament 2 hours from home with 12 teenage girls, and a chaperone, sleeping in another school. And I do this because .....

I've been negligent with my blog this week. It was first week back from the break, which is always busy. It was a busy week with all the activities starting up. But, really, Dean Shareski noted my blog in his:

He’s already amassed some powerful writing and great reflections questioning both his own practice and struggling with the hard questions.

How do I live up to that? For the whole week I've been hesitant to blog in case it wasn't "powerful" or a "great reflection" and was just, like mediocre. I avoided even going to my blog unless I needed to moderate a comment. As the week rolled on, however, I began to reflect on what was making me so anxious. What was it that was throwing me off. So, I read more blogs. There were so many of interest with interesting ideas and insights. Were mine really in this calibre? Do I really have anything to say? Well, tonight, as my team was walking off the court after winning their first game this season, a parent from the other team came over to me and announced that "I was a poor example of a leader for how I acted on the bench. The way I slapped the floor when that girl missed the shot. There is no way I would allow my daughter to play for you." Wow. I thanked her for her insight and walked away. Crushed. So, all night I've been thinking, reviewing what I had done that would make her say such a thing. I asked my assitant coach - had she noticed anything. No. In fact, she commented that I had done nothing offensive at all. That it was a comment from a parent of the losing team. Forget it.

Well I can't! I have worked very hard to become a good leader. A leader of students. A leader of teachers. Eventually, a leader within a school division. So, here I sit wondering why that one negative comment from someone who knows nothing about me can impact me so much while the positive comments I've received over this week from people who are checking in to my blog have made me almost bashful?

As educators, it's hard for us to accept a compliment, mostly because so much of what we do is behind the scenes. Even when colleagues give us one, we deflect or bashfully thank them and change the subject. It makes us uncomfortable. Why is it that we don't sit back and reflect as deeply when someone points out a strength? Reflect how we were able to get to that particular point? How we might be able to use that knowledge in other areas so that our growth is positive-based with a face toward getting better. Not that negative comments can't make us better but I would prefer constructive criticism.

As an administrator, I also reflected on how this made me feel in front of a whole lobby full of people. Whether they heard or not didn't matter. It was done in such a demeaning fashion. This only strengthens my belief that, as an administrator, it is my role not to destroy the fragile egos of those students in my care but to help grow them, mold them and make them bloom. To help teachers to see that these young people are more than the assignments, books, games and processes that they engage in each day. They are, first and foremost, caring and feeling people, no matter how much they might try to convince us they have none. And the ones that appear void of feeling are the ones we need to reach to the most as they have been dealt with too many times in front of a lobby full of people. They are the ones that resist our early attempts and we need to reach past those initial rebuffs to find something that will draw them out and allow the building to begin. We have to make connections with students, finding out where they are and urging them to consider things from new and different perspectives - constructing knowledge along the way without telling them they are wrong or don't know any better but we do. No one wants to hear that! I certainly didn't like it!

So, having been brought back down to earth, I am reminded that, as an administrator, I must be aware that what I do and how I interact with each student is extremely important - especially considering that the lobby is always full as far as this is concerned. Learning is hard sometimes!!

..... lobby. But what a spectacular impression it has made upon me. We truly have the greatest jobs on earth.

Kelly

Coming to you live....

2007-01-10T09:42:00.000-06:00

Coming to you live …..

9 01 2007

We did it! Yes, the grade 1/2 class at my school took part in our first school podcast that has been uploaded. I am in the process of uploading the bunch of them to be available for people to listen. The big thing that was noticeable was the excitement of the students as they took turns recording their reading. The were excited and eager to take part, practicing together, helping one another to get the words right, rereading their selections to ensure that everything was right. Those groups that were not quite ready asked for more time to prepare. Because this is a split class, the grade 2’s were willing to forgo reading a “harder” book in order that their grade 1 partners could be successful in their reading.

As the teacher and I worked with the students, we noted that they were taking this process very seriously, more than we had anticipated. They were very serious about what they were doing. When they were done, I would ask them if this recording was okay. I showed them how I was going to edit the long pauses to shorten the the overall length of the recording. They were very keen to know exactly what I was doing. Why I highlighted certain sections, how I got rid of those parts, how I made sure that it sounded right. We even got into a discussion of what would happen once we were done and began to upload the readings. It was here that I ran into some trouble as I wasn’t exactly sure how the process worked myself so I explained what I knew and explained once I had done one or two we would do a few together.

Later that same day …..

I ran into one of the parents while dropping my son off at hockey practice. The mom began to tell me how her daughter, who plays hockey on the same team, had come home and told her all about what they had done and how they were going to be able to listen to her on the computer. I was filled with fear at this moment. “How would she react to us using this at school? What would she think about what we were doing? How would she feel about her daughter’s reading being on the web? Was this going to be positive or not?”

The mother was so excited that we were doing this and using the technology to expose the students to such things. Whew! She wanted to know where she could find the posts so they could listen to them. I told her that I wasn’t finished with that yet but would be working on it and thngs should be ready soon. I had to leave but, from what I understand from my wife, the group of parents were very enthusiastic about this.

Bit of a dilemma ….

So now, we must cross the “Where does this fit in our technology plan/computer use” bridge. I don’t know of any other schools doing this, I haven’t even found any schools using any of the new Web2.0 tools. I know that a few of the websites like YouTube, MySpace and some of the gaming sites have been blocked as has some of the public email servers. So, all of you if the blogosphere, where is the best place to host these podcasts? Right now I am registered at podomatics but I want to know if there is another place to do this. Also, I am looking for a place to host blogs and wikis. I know many of you have experience and I’m looking for your suggestions. If you could offer me your insights at what works best, I would be truly appreciative. I would like to get things rolling and demonstrate the usefulness of the technology when I take this further.

To add to this, I am in the process of hosting my own podcast in which I will discuss various things that I have noticed about this whole technology phenomenon and interview some of the teachers who are experimenting with these technologies in our school. I may even be able to convince an administrator or two to jump on board and take part in Scott McLeod’s 100 principals in 100 days Project. All I know is that things have to start moving and moving NOW. With the announcement of the iphone, we are seeing the advent of yet another tool that will push the communication sphere even further. ($600.00! I think I can save enough by June to get myself one. WooWee! This is going to be fun!) Steve Jobs has just made things easier/harder for educators and schools, never mind Motorola and Windows! However, we must get past the hype by the media about the problems with on-line predators. Reading Scott McLeod’s post today and then Pete O’Reilly’s, it is amazing how these facts always come about with something new. I still remember the outcry over having to wear a seat-belt. My grandfather even cut his out - no way anyone was going to make him wear it. Now, this may not be the same type of change but things like the printing press and other such advances must have been met with great opposition. Now, my students study change and we talk about the 4 parts of the change process.

Denial is the stage at which the person completely rejects the change. Any acceptance of change at this stage is coincidental.
Acknowledgement of change occurs when the new idea is given some credence and recognition.
Acceptance of change means that more of one’s behaviour centres on the new approach than on the old.
Defense of the change occurs when the old idea is seen as wrong and the new idea is basically common sense. (SaskLearning)

I’d say we are in the denial/acknowledgement stage when it comes to using technology in education. Now there are three influences that force individuals and societies to deal with change: environmental change, contact with another culture, and changes from within a culture such as technological. (SaskLearning)

As the technology “flattens the world” and cultures come together, we are having two of these influences impact on our youth at one time and the one place where there is “control” is in the schools so it only makes sense (somehow?) that the influence be kept to a minimum in this area, especially with the highprofile cases of the “negative” affect it has had on youth and society. (Sorry, I have no links for this!) What these people do not see is that these are not things of the future! They are of here and now and we need to come to grips with how we can use them to their full advantage. Like the students today who were so excited about what they were doing and we were just touching the tip of the iceberg. Their excitement and passion mixed with our wisdom and knowledge is such a powerful combination. I know I’m preaching to the choir but it was such a great thing to watch these students so excited about reading, so intent on what they were doing and willing to collaborate to make sure their end products were acceptable to them. It was a great 2 hours!!

Again, if you have any ideas about wiki posting, blogging and using/hosting podcasting, drop me a line. I’ve a grade 9 social class that is “pumped” to get started.

Kelly

The Eye of the Storm

2007-01-07T14:51:00.000-06:00

I was just rereading Will Richardson’s post about the kind of storm needed to change education. There was something in the first paragraph that struck me the first time I read it and, after pondering it for a moment, I think I know why.

When I think about the potential effects of the Read/Write Web on education I’m continually drawn to watching the way things are playing out outside of our focus, specifically in journalism, music, business and politics. In each of those arenas, the disruption that these changes (i.e. the easy creation and publishing of content) has been and continues to be great. You need look no further than the cell phone captured execution of Saddam Hussein to know that we are entering what will no doubt be an extremely interesting (to put it mildly) period that will push our thinking about privacy, communication, literacy and learning. Newspapers are struggling to navigate a world where we can all be journalists. Musicians are more and more going outside of the traditional steps to stardom, eliminating the middlemen and counting on the viral nature of the Web to find success. John Edwards, like him or not, recently announced his candidacy for president on YouTube. In case after case, the traditional models that have been increasingly used to lock down ideas and content are being challenged by a public that is becoming drunk with the power of publishing.

As a society, we are okay with things changing in almost any sector, from politics to economy. There are, however, other areas, I think, with which the public struggles seeing huge changes in short periods, one of them being an education different from what they know. We can watch change in almost any sector but in education, we see change that is slow and calculated because the public wants to protect the children and by keeping schools constant, the image of safety is upheld. All of a sudden, we have technologies which are changing more rapidly than we ever imagined and the group that has grasped them the quickest is the youth. But, the public has not yet become comfortable with these new technologies and are over cautious of the harm they might cause - they open up our children to influences that we have not had to deal with in the past. Thus, we are seeing people who are wanting to limit contact, limit use of these devices, limit expansion of these technologies, and just limit these technologies. On the other side, we have a group of educators and thinkers who have begun to use the technologies and found that they have expanded their world, increased their contacts and provided for new ways of interacting which have fostered growth and learning. I’ve seen so many metaphors for this idea but whatever the image we have a bunch of stuff going on around us while we sit in the middle, not really seeing much change. Much like being at the eye of a storm.

Maybe this is a blessing in disguise and some of the rending and tearing and societal upheaval will work itself out before public education moves into the storm.

In case after case, the traditional models that have been increasingly used to lock down ideas and content are being challenged by a public that is becoming drunk with the power of publishing.
I often worry about the problems that occur when people are “drunk with [the] power” as I’ve rarely seen good things come out of it. Maybe the storm will blow itself out so that education isn’t ripped asunder but, instead, learns from watching from the eye and can provide the best possible options for the students, parents, teachers and whomever else is involved.

Storms can be incredible to watch, the shear power of nature at its most terrifyingly beautiful. However, having just had my basement flooded, I am aware of how helpless one can feel as nature runs its course and you are powerless to stop it. I’m not sure I want to be part of that storm - to deal with the fallout, casualties and whatever that is the result of storms like a tsunami, hurricane, earthquake or other devestating natural storm. As we watch the privacy issues unfold in the public eye, see people having their reputations and lives ruined by camera phone pics and videos, watch the proliferation of violence and sex on various websites, there are many things that will have to be worked out as society deals with these technologies and their impact.

We need to move forward, that is for sure. But, some caution is advisable. Instead of seeing ourselves on the outside looking in, maybe view it from the perspective that we are at the eye of the storm and before it hits us we have a chance to view what is happening and do something about it

Kelly

Earlier in this post, Will mentions the following link:

Chinswing - Creating Conversations (A place to share, discuss and debate) which, of course, I had to check out. Now, there could be a very good place for discussions regarding technology and education. There is already one post on the topic. Time to join in.

I Don't Want To Talk About It

2007-01-06T12:46:00.000-06:00

As I was reading through the blogs today, I came across Peter Reilly’s interesting piece called The Tyrant . I read through this, seeing a part of myself that I had struggled with for my whole life. Unlike Pete’s tyrant, mine was linked with depression and how it affected my state of mind. As an young educator, I would sometimes fly off the handle and would not know why. Sometimes it was stress, sometimes it was things going on in the school (stress) or at home (stress). At the time I didn’t notice the pattern that was going on. As things continued down this road, I became less able to keep things in order until, finally, my wife, in her wisdom, told me to get out and get help. Since that time it has been a long walk finding my way and admitting that, yes, there is a problem and I need help.

A few summers ago, I realized that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life going through these ups and downs. Since the early days, I had come to recognize when I was sliding down into one of those funks and I could deal with it, most of the time, by withdrawing and working through it. At school, I was able to resist the urges I had to go off the deep end and worked on various techniques for solutions based decision making and working with other people. When I became an administrator, I realized that, after two years in that seat, I needed something more because the stresses were starting to again affect me, my sleep, my family life and my relationships with the students. I have always been very intense but had learned to curb that intenseness to a degree. However, two years with a dysfunctional staff had me back at the edge again.

We moved, I had a chance at a fresh start. Things began well and we went through the first year with little difficulty. The staff was great, the parents, for the most part, were supportive and I was able to recognize when I was sliding, work through them and it didn’t really affect life. That all ended the day one my students committed suicide. The next 11 weeks were a blur as we, the school and community, dealt with this tragedy. It was during this that I realized that I needed to get some help as I didn’t want to go off and create even greater problems. I started reading a variety of information, I Don’t Want To Talk About It by

If you’ve reached this point, you’re going “So what? What has this got to do with technology, school and students?” Well, directly, nothing. But, like Pete, I had to decide on my own that I was not going to do things the same old way and, no matter what others were saying, I had to see for myself that it was better to change than continue on, even though, for the most part, I was doing very well, was managing and was seeing results. We are talking about life altering changes, no matter how we view them. For some teachers, it’s scary to imagine life any other way than how they have it now and no amount of badgering or cajoling is going to change their minds.

For those of us who have recognized that change is needed because we just can’t continue the way we are going, the changes we are making are liberating and are freeing us to do things in different ways, see students in a different light, examine curricula from a different perspective and engage in conversations that will, in the end, bring about monumental changes to the education system. However, like people I know who and talk with weekly, they still don’t see the necessity to see someone about how they are feeling no matter how frank our discussions are about depression and change. In the same way, frank discussions with teachers resisting the use of technology may not change their minds, ever. We have to accept that, move on, and open discussions with other people. Maybe a self-help group for newbies I read how frustrated people are with the lack of swift change and the need for education k12 to begin using these new tools in a more comprehensive way, embracing the changes that are coming. Well, some will embrace and others, who are unsure, will watch and still others, who have been overrun with initiatives and directions, will retreat and resist. That’s part of the life-cycle of change. I think we need to get use to it because I have a feeling our lives are going to be experiencing this for a few years to come.

Just some thoughts,

Kelly

Don't ask if you don't want to know

2007-01-03T19:41:00.000-06:00

Well, I wrote a blog about not being tagged, having no list of good posts and no real objectives for 2007. Now, two of the three can be crossed off. Dean Shareski tagged me and I have one HUGE objective after reading Will Richardson’s post So Now What?

My objective, as I outlined in Will’s comment section goes like this:

As someone who a few short months ago was somewhat critical of what all these changes might mean and who would throw up several road blocks to using these tools, I am now convinced, more than ever, that these tools will change the landscape of education. My goal for 2007 is to bring my school, admin group and anyone else who wants to join into this new landscape.

I believe that as an educational leader, it is my responsible to stay up-to-date with what is happening on the edges of the educational landscape as-well-as what is happening in the current landscape. So, although we are currently travelling a road that is lined with assessment shopping and school community building, we must also know that the shops and taverns further up the road will be asking for different currency and we’d better be ready to convert or we’ll be unable to buy and participate. This does not mean that we abandon what we are currently have, instead, we begin to move, change, mold and toss our current practices so that they begin to need what will be supplied in the future while still using what is being supplied today. Example, Professional Learning Communities are now focused on what is happening in a school but, in the near future, will grow and evolve to what is happening in the division, province and world. The flattening of the world will allow us to link and be community in ways we have not thought about - I can already see a Flat Stanley project being formed with our grade one’s in a flatclassroom project!! But, we still need to work on our skills and relationships at the school level so that we can be effective at the other levels. Dysfunction will not be eliminated by going global! The links I am making with other educators will lead to others and so on and so on and so on. (Is anyone humming the Faberge commercial and picturing Farah? )

Next up - 5 things.

#1 - I have seven children aged 2 years to 14 years. Teaching in a rural area, I am a “hot” commodity! And my wife is a French Immersion teacher. We are unique and love every minute of it. I am a pro at diapers, bottles and doing the laundry. And, we have four girls (first 4) and 3 boys (last 3) and there is a TOTAL difference between girls and boys. Anyone who thinks differently need only spend a weekend with us - the live gender experiment. And teenage girls are harder to figure out than any other females alive - and I have my wife’s permission to say that!

#2 - I attended the Oxford Round Table on Education in Oxford, England during the summer of 2004. It was 5 days of mixing with administrators from all over the world, discussing various topics. My wife and I had a blast - spending 19 days in England. I was able to see Stratford-on-the-Avon, visit Bath, wander around Stonehenge, take part in a blue-moon celebration with real druids, see Big Ben and… It was an awesome experience!

#3 - I did my master’s dissertation on curriculum implementation with a focus on construtivist learning.

#4 - I owned my own painting business for 5 years. I have relied on those skills many times during my present career having bought and remodelled 5 houses in the last 9 years.

#5 - I love fishing. I love the solitude, peaceful time spent on a stream bank. I want to learn to fly-fish correctly. I use to spend time with my grandfather who was a great fly fisher. I can still see him dropping a fly under a branch in a dead calm spot only to have a trout jump, swallow the fly and dash away. The control and patience he had were amazing, especially for an older Swede!

There you have it. Like I said, be careful what you ask for!

Kelly

Finding a Passion

2007-01-02T22:50:00.000-06:00

Passion - the emotion of feeling very strongly about a subject.

While working my way through some reading, I cam across the following on Peter Ford’s Fordlog blog. It is an YouTube video of Taylor Mali, a teacher with a passion. As I viewed the video, I was immedieately reminded of rant by Joe and the impression that it left on the public. If you remember, for a short period of time, it was the thing everyone was talking about. Well, I think that if all teachers demonstrated the passion that Taylor displays, people would be talking about education much differently than they do.

For me, the last few days have given me time to sift through my thoughts and ideas about web2.0, its implications on the school in which I teach, the division I work within and education as a whole. I have also had time to listen to Chris Betcher and The Virtual Staffroom podcasts, spoke via Skype with Chris which was a first for me. It was great to have the video and audio. Chris explained how he prepares his works for podcasts as I’m trying to upload a few. Then, much to my surprise, I ended up with comments from: Stephen Downes, Graham Wegner, Jenny and Chris Curtis. Of course I did a visit to each one, left a comment thanking them and then did some reading. Chris’s passion for what he is doing comes through in his writing:

As always, I only ask that in all of this, you hear my heart.

As I read through the different blogs in each site, the passion of each showed through in what they said. In his comment, Stephen reminded me that it’s about the passion, not any of the other stuff “There’s an aspect of blogging that is very much about the superficial. It’s best not to get caught up in that.” Of course, he’s right.

So, what is my passion? What makes my eyes light up, my heart beat a bit faster and me to lean in a bit closer? Children. I love reaching out to them, finding ways to touch them, to get them to spark, whatever cliche statement you want to fill in. But it’s more than a cliche. It’s doing what needs to be done so that they can excel.

So today in my talk with Chris, I was able to tell him that his podcasts had already given me several ideas for my classes using some of the tools to which he had referred. I like discussing possibilities and looking for ways to make things happen. So, before I stumbled across Will Richardson, Vicki Davis and the rest included on my blog roll, I was working on Professsional Learning Communities as this was where our school division is focusing right now. As I read more, I see the need for time investment in the area of communication literacy training (Darren’s Kuropatwa fine example comes to mind regarding a recent list discussion) and discussions regarding the tools that are available and what can be done with them. I have stumbled on some great podcasts at itunes which explain some of the techniques of making a podcast, uploading a podcast and other technical aspects. I also find the podcasts that discuss the use of various technologies like blogs, wikis and flat classroom projects to be very useful. I’m still looking for a way to make contacts with classrooms of different teachers who have done/are doing a flat classroom project to get some information and ideas that I might be able to pass on to a teacher or two so that I can help on the resource end. Another tool I’m going to introduce to my staff is the wiki. I am in the process of building one that my staff can access - right now it is private. I am doing the same for the administrators group in my division. I am thinking that Chris and others have the right idea about doing the podcasts. This may be a way for our admin group to begin using the tools. The ideas are starting to flow - better get to my idea stick

Passion - the emotion of feeling very strongly about a subject.

No holding back. I look forward to the challenge of building the 21st century student.

This is my ultimate all time favourite movie belief statement: Crash Davis - Bull Durham

Well, I believe in the soul, the small of a woman’s back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.

Of to look at 2 cents.

Kelly

No list, no meme, no top 5 for '07

2007-01-02T02:50:00.000-06:00

T'is a lonely moment in the blogosphere. I haven't been tagged - I really don't have a list of top blogs for the year - only been at this for three months and, with all the reading and the information that is swirling around, I'm still putting together what the next 3 weeks will look like before the final exams for my CPT class never mind my top 5 hopes for 2007!

While Reading Today
I've found some great information at Chris Betcher's Virtual Staffroom. I'll be using some of the information from the podcasts for sure!! I was interested in the conversations about groups that took place from Bud's site and then continued to several other sites. Of course, I joined in. After first resisting the whole idea, I began to think that maybe there needs to be a wiki where bloggers can congergate for chatting. Then, I began to think about people having an avatar in the 2life world, meeting and chatting there or setting up further discussions. Creating a kind of educational discussion coffee shop where people could meet to discuss things. It trickled through my mind that a place like Tapped In might serve for this but I find it a bit difficult to get around. I guess, I am looking for ways to make contacts and get things rolling. I have done some podcasts with my class and I am looking at using wikis, blogs and other tools to enhance what I am doing in my grade 9 social. I've even begun to plan out the unit using these tools and working with the assessment ideas I was able to take from Darren. I'm also looking at how I might be able to use the podcasting idea with the work that needs to be done in the class. I like the wiki idea as it will allow me to see who is editing and when which will be valuable in the assessment portion. Probably one of the best ways I've seen of ensuring that all group members are actually contributing to the work in the project. The same can be done with the podcast, especially if the script is written on a wiki or uploaded to a blog for editing.

The Road Not Taken - because I can't see it!

I would love to introduce my teachers to some international work with other schools and I'd be very interested in doing something with another class for a short period of time but I can't find a road or a map or even figure out where to stop to ask. Any suggestions?
Another reason for a central place to meet - that could be found when googling "Educator blogs" or some such terms.

For now, I'd appreciate more than myslef linking to my site :) Oh, and any pointers from those who have done flatclassroom projects. I think it would be a great way to have the students experience student life outside of their own.

Upcoming events : I have several ideas for blogs so stay tuned - it might even be worth the price of admission!

Kelly

Generation Zext

2007-01-01T16:02:00.000-06:00

’ve been reading through the various blogs today, slowly letting the 1st day of 2007 pass by and trying not to strain myself too much. The coffee is great, the reading is excellent and I’m enjoying the beginning of my year. I’ve been keeping an eye on Bud the Teacher’s blog and Chris Craft’s OpensSource blog and I was struck by the idea that there are so many teachers who are trying to find a forum for discussion regarding pedagogy, curricula, teaching strategies, technology uses, format, new technologies and other such concerns as they begin their journey into the world of Web2.0 that maybe a space in the blogosphere that is a central hub, like a Wiki that will allow people to edit, add, delete and just gather information for further contact would be of some use. I chose the Gen Zext by combining Graham’s blog with Chris’s title, teaching the Z generation of learners. Really, does it matter what stage of teaching you are at? We are all entering the next “generation” of schools at the same time - maybe not at the same place on the continuum or with the same skills but the time, give or take 24 hours, is the same. Therefore, when I find useful information about podcasting or creating wikis or assessment or a flat classroom project, it would be available to anyone who wanted to look at it. As for the other “groups”, this is a personal decision about how one decides to conduct one’s life via the web. I’ve read Chris’s post and the comments on those posts and all of them are right for the person who is writing.

Individual Decision

For me, joining a group will ensure that I do invest time and effort in that group. It may also mean that I don’t take time to read and comment on other people’s blogs due to the time investment in the group. It may not mean this eithe Now, when I join a group, I usually am looking for people who are like minded - who see the world in a similar way as I do. Most groups of which I have been a member seem to fit this model. With that being the case, it is possible to have a diverse group of people as part of a group but not as likely as the former I think. What will happen here only time will tell. As Chris states

If this is going to work, why can’t it work easily? Is it really necessary to have all the discussion and back and forth we’ve had? Can’t we just put out a call for young teachers to come together and talk about what we’re doing in the hopes of connecting people?

With that, let’s see what happens and hopefully we’ll all find a place to brush off the dust, have a cool drink, rest our feet and then see how, together, we can continue to grow, learn and stretch.

Kelly

Walking the Walls

2006-12-30T18:16:00.000-06:00

t has been some days since my last post. I have mulling over a number of things which have come to my attention over the past few days. Now that I am home from holidays and almost have my new mac-mini up and running, I have some time to put fingers to keyboard.

My most recent wanderings through the hall of blogs has brought me into contact with Christopher Craft and Bud the teacher discussing groups. As I mentioned in both comment sections, I’m not sure there is a need for more groups. Bud asks:

Are we perpetuating old ways of doing things in new spaces?

Maybe this is something that I have seen too many times and something that, as an administrator, teacher and parent, I’m trying to teach isn’t necessaryily good if it exists to include some but exclude others. In the blogosphere, I am a novice, trying to learn, make contacts and find information. I have no group to “help” me along. I spend time looking, adding to my blog lists, updating and generally trying to grow my knowledge. I have found some great nuggets from going through others’ blogrolls and just generally searching. I am not a novice at the technology in education thing, I used the “net” before it was the net. I’ve been incorporating technology in my lessons and find these new technologies to be yet more tools that I can add to my teaching arsenal. Having said that, my experience also tells me that we need to mix, match, integrate, and combine these new tools with tools we are already using. This will lead to a new vision in education, a new way of seeing education and a new way of doing education. However, we need to realize that a vast majority (sorry no actuall scientific basis for this comment other than my knowledge of what is happening in my local area) of teachers do not even know of these tools, even those who are fairly tech savvy because it is a new way of using the web. This whole read/write technology is new, yet we speak like it has been around for years and years - why aren’t people using it? How many million teachers are there? How many thousands blog? Yet as we begin to break the ground with new ideas, the people already doing are now beginning to create subgroups that - from my perspective, is no different that the many departments that exist is many large schools. So, the math people have a group and the language bloggers begin one and then administrators have a separate group - invitation only with password protection (everyone knows what we discuss is sooo importan ) Why? At this point, I love cruising the net, looking at librarian blogs, math teachers, tech teachers, English teachers ….. Some are newbies, some are veterans to this blogosphere (having been doing this longer than a year and a half). The walls aren’t there and I like that since there are enough walls already. I get to meet people like Dean Shareski who invites me to be involved in a Skype cast with Will Richardson discussing the need for teachers to be introduced to these new tools and sharing and an immediacy to having teachers working with these new technologies. Yet, as I hear this, I am acutely aware of the political pressure for teachers to follow the curricula that is mandated to them and the other pressures that society if placing on educators. To me, the great power comes from teachers being able to come together with their own voice in a global community to share.

Breaking down walls

As a newbie, I am finding it very difficult to find people to share, discuss and exchange ideas. I am told by a few who seem to be on everyone’s bloglist that it takes time. Okay. I’ll give it time. But, if I have to now worry about getting into this group or that group - doesn’t it ever end?

Chris Craft, in his explanation about the need for this group, states that

I want these folks to know of the wealth of resources out there in the form of amazing teachers, authors, consultants, speakers, and the like that can influence the future of education.I want them to know there is another way.

I don’t want anyone to fall into the trap of thinking education has to be done the same way it always has been. I want them to rage against the system, for the sake of our kids.

I agree, to a point with Chris. I remember sitting in a meeting with a group of educators and discussing pay scales. One of my buddies, among a group of 5 young teachers, made a point of asking “What fools would vote to a 0%, 0%, 1% raise scale?” To which an older teacher replied “We were the fools!” Four of us tried, unsuccessfully, to disassociate ourselves with our rather brash partner but it drove home to me that one has to be very aware about what one is saying. People don’t like being told that what they are doing is irrelevant, wrong or otherwise worthless and, yet again, someone else has the silver bullet answer. I have been in several different schools which have had several “Amazing” teachers - none who used technology but all who touched the minds and hearts of children. They were born and, like Socrates and Plato, were gifted at touching the pupils in front of them - no matter what tools they were using. As for “raging against the system” I have found that all that does is put you on the “watch list” and may end your career rather sooner than you want.

So as a newbie who isn’t a new generation teacher but who, in the coming years, will be making decisions regarding resource allocation, pd and may be at the division decision making level, “ragers” don’t necessarily work for me. What does are teachers who can articulate their use of tools for the enhancement of the learning of their students. I’m looking for people who are learning new ideas but are taking the time to ensure that the provincially mandated curriculum is being used as a base. Why? Because we are legally bound to it. Why? Because we can work within it. Why? Because I don’t make the rules. Why? Because learning always means I must choose between different ideas and topics and these give us a common focus to build upon.

Borderless learning -

Flattening the world means we need to look at breaking down borders and boundaries. It is a freeing feeling knowing I am able to, in theory, interact with educators from around the globe. Now, this means I have to make it onto the “discussion scene” but, eventually, I believe this will happen. For now, I like that fact that my learning is borderless.

For what it’s worth…

Kelly

Making a list and checking it ....

2006-12-22T17:55:00.000-06:00

Well, I’ve been reading through several of the posts and have found that many of the people I am learning from are on the Top 100 list. Congratulations to all those who made the list as you are the people we turn to when we are looking for information, inspiration and ideas. I do like what Dean Shareski says about lists and how people react to them, although he is worthy of such an award. Vicki Davis is another worthy recipient of the award as her blog and work demonstrate her deep committment to teaching and to her students and she has done so much in promoting the use of technology to assist students in learning. I saw that Will Richardson, David Warick, Stephen Downes , Darren Kuropatwa , and many more of the blogs I visit regularly have also made the list plus some others that I will now make sure I visit. For those just beginning or who are still novices, this is a public reinforcement of the people we look to for guidance, information and advice. For many of us, these are the people we turn to when we are discouraged or looking for assistance because we are somewhat alone in our pursuit of melding the different technologies with learning. As I’ve read in many a post, individuals are struggling against state/provincial, district/division and/or local resistance to the use of many of the tools that are available and this group continues to bring this to light, giving many teachers hope that these tools will soon become as common place as textbooks, pens and binders. Now, one must be aware that this is one group’s assessment and certainly not definitive but it is a great spot to start for the many of us. I know I will be taking time over the holidays to visit some of the sights I have not seen and add some to my RSS to view regularly in hopes of finding those nuggets that I can use in my own practice and pass on to teachers whom I believe will benefit at this time. It provides me, as an administrator, with information to use as I dialogue with other administrators about the use of these tools for learning. Finally, it gives me many different angles and ideas to use as I prepare after-school inservices for my staff on using these various tools - points to highlight, cautions to heed and general advice for those who are just beginning.

Congratulations to all those who are on the list. I appreciate all your dedication and hard work!

Kelly

Where's the pits?

2006-12-19T22:45:00.000-06:00

This evening I've spent a few hours just doing work with various software. I found bloggoggle - a site where professionals can register their blogs. I thought it was something to try given the amount of visits I'm presently getting.

I then visited some of the different software available on the Advent Calendar like PageFlake and Whiteboard.

I have found that I am trying to get some input from the educational world. I visited the Edublog Awards site and looked at what these people are doing and what they are discussing in their blogs. I found that much of the discussion was similar to what I've been reading and what I've begun to discuss. As I try to get feedback, I find it very frustrating that no matter how many sites I visit and leave comments, I get little feedback. How does one enter the blogosphere? Is there something I'm not doing?

If anyone does happen to pass by, take a quick look at the wiki I am working on for my staff. I hope, in the new year, to begin working with the staff in exploring different technologies in our teaching. A kind of PLC for technology. I hope that if anyone has any ideas for things we might explore that they will leave a note for us. We would sure appreciate the ideas. Also, I will be starting to use the wiki and blogs with my classes as we explore various subjects in Medieval Europe and my Communication Production Technology class.

However, as Christmas approaches, I think it is time for a bit of a break so I'm looking at getting off this oval and into the pits for a tire change, some fuel, maybe even an upgrade to my engine. I look to continue my blogging over the holidays and try to find a way to control all the information that is coming at me from various outlets. Hopefully I can avoid any 4 wheel skids and keep on racing.

Kelly

Quintura for kids

2006-12-19T16:44:00.000-06:00

While doing some work for my wiki, I was visiting the Quintura site and ran across this information about quintura for kids and thought I'd share it with all of you. I usually don't get to share too many new things with people in the blogosphere but I thought this might be something to look at, especially if you have kids who like to use the internet. I know that I don't get too much exposure but I do have kids who use the computer so we are going to try this out to see how it works. I will report back a little later.

Kelly

Teachers and Web2.0

2006-12-18T22:27:00.000-06:00

I have just brought the idea of web2.0 to my staff. No one was really aware of what it was or what it might mean to education. As I began to explain the concept, I could see that the staff were not aware of this huge culture shift that was taking place around them. With this said, the staff has been doing quite a bit of learning with technology in the past 2.5 years so this introduction will just continue that learning.
We will begin some short inservices in January dealing with some of the tools that they might be able to use. I have been working on using the Wiki and have created a wiki site where we will be able to work in a collaborative way on the mission for our school before we actually have to have the discussion on January 8th. The site also has a page for discussion on the Safe and Caring Schools Effective Practice that we are working on for this year. I hope teachers will take advantage of the invitation to add to their repetoire of tools that they can use.
I am wanting teachers to experiment with various tools and begin to evaluate how they might use the tools to achieve the learning outcomes for their class with the tools. As I figured, teachers were already concerned about being able to add this to their class on top of what they are already doing. But, as Will Richardson explained in the discussion we had with him last week, one must be ready to give up something in order to add the work with the new technologies. Dean Shareski and I have discussed this same thing as one of the big barriers that we must work to overcome if we wish to bring teachers into contact with these new technologies. Stay tuned after January as I am hoping to record the sessions I do with the teachers as podcasts or, maybe, even video casts. We'll see.

Does size matter?

2006-12-18T22:17:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to figure out the optimum length for a blog post. I've been looking at the different posts and wondering if maybe I'm rambling on for too long. Does a reader get disinterested if the post is too long? Should one stick to shorter topic ideas for such things? How does one get more links or views if one is more concise with their writing?
For the life of me, I just don't know what is an acceptable length for a post. Maybe I write too much and that is why I get so few viewings. I think my topics are rather on the mark given the discussions that are taking place regarding web2.0 technology and the need for teachers to become familiar with them.
Does anyone have anything to add to this?

Communication Production Technology

2006-12-18T10:19:00.000-06:00

This class has been working on creating a podcast using the audacity software. Right now, the students have selected a topic and are working at creating a review/interview about that topic. The audacity software works very well for this type of work as it allows the students to see what they are doing, begin to edit their inputs and use some simple, yet effective, effects that enhance their work. The students are working on using fading for the music they are using and some are even beginning to understand that less is more when it comes to the effects portion of the assignment.

The one difficulty that I have been having is keeping the students working on task. There are a few that want to spend more time gaming and doing other things, like music/movie trailer watching than working on their assignments. I have to constantly be on them to stay on task and work on the assignment. At this moment the class is working and I’ve had to remind a few of them that they are to be working on their assignment. It is difficult to get them to focus on topic and, in some cases, to be serious about this type of work. Even though we have looked and listened to podcasts and reviewed some of the requirements for industry standards, they still find this to have very little “realness” qualities.

The hope for this class was to have them become familiar enough with editting and using the software so that in the next semester we could add video and then bring the two together to create a video with added commentary throughout. We will be working on working on sound effecets and other such additions to the video. We’ll see how this works!!

We have 5 classes to go for them to get the finish product done so that they are handed in and I can work on getting them posted to the net for some feedback on the work they are doing. I look forward to what people have to say.

Kelly

Teaching for Understanding

2006-12-18T09:53:00.000-06:00

I finished my final work on my online course through Harvard Education. It was great to be back doing a class but as the class drew to a close, I began to realize that there was something that was missing from what I was doing. As I began to wrap up my work which I was doing with my own class and then recording in the class, I realized that it was really Teaching for Understanding as much as it was Learning for Understanding. Yes, I was the teacher, but I’m really do a whole bunch of learning as we work on this project. I also realized that the students only need my permission to go find things and, to some degree, some of the skills that I have found work when doing a search. But once they begin to use them themselves, they then need critical reading and analytic skills to assess what they have found.

Another thing that I have been working on is having students view the internet as more than a cool place to chat and hang out, play games and watch videos. It is a place of interesting thoughts, ideas and perspectives that has the potential to bring us in touch with many different things that can help us to build whatever it is we are building. (Pipe bombs excluded) We have an opportunity now, with many of our students still keen about the internet and learning, to really get them involved in this process and have them share and work together with all kinds of people while we provide the parameters by which they will need to demonstrate proficiencies, knowledge being one of them.

My CPT class is working on creating a review/interview using audacity on a topic of their choice. They have to create a proposal and then, using that proposal, begin to craft a 6 minute review of their topic which must include an interview of another person. We discussed this and brainstormed topics. My greatest problem is getting them to get down to work on the assignment. If you check out the link, I’ve given them places to look for sounds and ideas for their reviews. I thought that this would motivate them. I then added the incentive that these would be posted and reviewed by other students. Still like pulling teeth on a charging rhinoceros. For them, they log on and go straight to the games/music videos. I then must get them to close these windows throughout the class as they try to not let me see them on them. So there is still a long way to go. Having said that, if we can work with students who are younger and get them to view these tools as more than an entertainment area, we then have a real opportunity to drive education in a new direction. For a vast majority of our senior students, the opportunity has been lost. This is where, I think, we need to be work at having young students encounter the technology and get messy learning with it. Kathy Cassidy’s class blog is a perfect example of this. Thanks Dean for sharing!

As I mentioned in my last blog, we need to begin somewhere so let’s put some foundation down for future years. I’m not saying don’t show this to the older kids or the senior students won’t benefit or run with it but, with young learners, they’re excited about school and willing to try things and work at things. They don’t yet have the “entertain me” perspective that I am encountering more and more. These tools will really move us away from the entertainment and into the realm of authentic learning. The catch is figuring out how to assess this, where it fits in our present system, how do we begin to shift the paradigm and what takes place in the mean time? These are things, as an administrator, I must think about as we have provincial and division initiatives that we must also work towards implementing. Part of my role is to assist teachers in finding the resources to bring the two together and one of those resources is time. Any ideas for this one? I know it was one thing that Will Richardson says he hears all the time and it is valid.

I read a new blog today from an administrator who has begun blogging. His sentiments are very true.

Okay, I have always thought of myself as fairly forward thinking and progressive educator. In the last two days I have come to feel as if I have been asleep for the past decade. I’m 40 next year and I have an mp3 player, frequent the Internet - my friends and family get me to burn disks for them and are amazed at how quickly I can do that. I buy stuff on Ebay. I, therefore am technologically literate . . . right?!?

Ah, no.

Web 2.0 or the multimedia, read-write-post-video-audio-voip thingy has set up camp in my nice little familiar world and I just don’t know how it happened. I have been here the whole time - I am a pioneer. First teacher to have Internet access in my school! Ahhhhhhhhhh. How do you keep up?!!

But there is hope, I think, in that we are seeing a rise in the number of educators who are becoming aware of this move to using the tools around us for more than just posting assignments and schedules. There is an opportunity to build a foundation with people who are willing to again become the pioneers. Only we don’t have years and years. We have only a few years, if that, to make these tools part of our everyday life of school. (FCOL, we still don’t have any electronic method of doing announcements ) There is a will for things to change, we need to stop the quick response of “On top of all this?” by being ready to suggest things that can be given up in order for this to become a reality. I really think that some program of purchasing laptops would be a big step towards making this a reality. Teachers need the tools and need to be able to work with them, get messy and have things blow up (figuratively) so they aren’t freaked out when it happens to a student. Independent learners are important. We need to create them in our teachers and then create them in our students. As an administrator, I guess this becomes part of my mission, one teacher at a time.

Kelly

Skypping with Will

2006-12-18T09:52:00.000-06:00

Today was another first in my technology learning curve. I was able to enjoy a session with Will Richardson, Dean Shareski and a group of educators from the southern part of SK. I was only able to round up one teacher from my school to take part in the dialogue which was good because we were able to have a good discussion as we listened.

I took a few things away from this conversation that will definitely impact what I do and I think all teachers should really think about.

Communication and the exchange of ideas and information is changing and education better beware. As I listened to the discussion, it was amazing because there were several things happening all at once and, without being present, one would not fully appreciate the events that were taking place. First, Will Richardson was explaining how teachers needed to start where they were ready. While this was going on, I could hear that the group in MJ was having a discussion about what they thought while we were typing out a question(my mike is not workin ) that we edited together to get the message that we wanted. All this going on in a brief amount of time, all of us sharing our thoughts and ideas in such a way that we could all still hear what was being said while still having our own conversations. That is what I think Will is referring to in his article The New Face of Learning Here we were, discussing things with someone from Philadelphia about learning and the ways of learning and all of us were engaged, not just with him but with those around us yet no one was disrupted or disturbed.
Teachers need to begin working with the technology in whatever way they can. Teachers need to quit looking for excuses for why they are not using the technology and technology tools that are available. For myself, I’m always finding time to be an issue but, as Will pointed out, he has given up the paper because he does not have time for it. I thought I might give up something like marking but that really doesn’t help So, as an educator and administrator, I need to find what is important, both in my personal and professional life and then, instead of adding this to it, exchanging it for something. AND, I will need to put forth some of my own money to make this successful. This will be the more difficult part but, as I was thinking about it, I have a few things that may have to give in order for this to work. That doesn’t mean I can’t go back to them at a later date but for now, they may have to wait.
Administrators need to become aware of the new technologies and support/encourage their use. As an administrator, I am fully aware of the usefulness of these tools for enhancing the learning of students. And given the rapidly advancing landscape of technology where the phone may soon become the device of choice, we had better be aware of what we are asking teachers to do and where we are asking teachers to invest their time. I’m not yet at the point where my blog is read by large numbers, but I am learning quickly and applying what I learn to my own classes. Therefore, as we go along, not only will it be a discussion of what might but I will address that “what is” as it takes place in my class.
Learners need to become active not passive. This may be one of the most difficult things that we face. For many students, the web and the tools we see as being educational and transformative are, for many of them, gadgets they use for entertainment and communication. I am experiencing right now, as I teach a Communication Production Course, this very problem. I have modified my assignments to try to engage them with having them work on something they are passionate about but I still find they are off doing other things - mostly gaming. So, as we look toward the younger students, if we don’t have them using the tools for learning, I can only imagine what they’ll be doing. We have to allow them to be creative and explorative.
Society needs to view these “gadgets” for their learning potential. We, as educators, must be advocates for the children and their future. I guess I really didn’t understand how powerful that was until Will began to talk about his children in school and I began to picture my three boys, the oldest entering kindergarten this year and what they will face in the next 20 years. Right now my four daughters are growing during a time of revolution of sorts. They are beginning to see how the tools can be used and they want to be part of that. My oldest daughter, 14, wants to do a website and blog and upload/download music, etc - she’s beginning to look in MySpace. This is good and I’m encouraging her to begin this process - she already belongs to several writing groups and is using the tools for expanding her learning far beyond anything she will get in school. The other girls, 9 through 13 are all at different stages from playing and IMing to becoming more socially aware of what is happening in the world to the point that one is beginning to scan the newsheadlines instead of the paper, which she use to read. We’ve moved from the paper format to the web format - replacing our format but not the discussions. We must be advocates for these children and the only way one can truly advocate is if one is familiar with the actual tools hence the need to use them.
Finally, suspension of disbelief. This is where our conventional past experiences runs into the unobservable future. We need to let go and jump knowing that, no matter where we land, it will take us to places we haven’t been and we just might really enjoy the ride along the way. This includes everything from giving students digital cameras to take photos with to increasing access to other tools in the school, making sure our work aligns with curriculum which aligns with assessment. The more I hear, read and learn, the less able I am to put the brakes on what is happening.

My biggest challenge as an administrator is how to support and encourage such learning when there are many other irons in the fire. How do we stoke the fire now so we don’t get burnt in the future? I’ve spent less time doing this than a host of other people in the circle but I’m already seeing ways we can use this in all levels of our educational system, from Sask Learning on down to the classroom.

Now which way do I go?

Kelly

Admin Blog

2006-12-18T09:51:00.000-06:00

Well, I’ve take the leap and begun a small admin blog for administrators in our school division. I’ve invited a few administrators with whom I am working to discuss topics dealing with supervision and evaluation. I am hoping to have add some other widgets that they can use to find other topics of interest. I’m using blogger for this, just to try out yet another popular blogging site to see what it offers and how it works with groups. I’m hoping to start a wiki that administrators can use to edit different things in relation to papers we are discussing or proposals we would like to make. I see this as being a key instrument in helping us to work more collaboratively given the distances that we have to manage in our new school division. I see such other technologies as Skype and other webbased items to be critical to us doing our job in a timely and efficient manner. It will also allow us to access other resources that we would not otherwise have access. Case in point is the discussion I will join view Skype with Will Richardson. I’m looking forward to what we will discuss. I’ll keep you posted on what happens. FYI - I’m still hoping to get to chapter 5 in the Three-Minute Walk-through in the next week. I’m having trouble finding time for all these little things, especially with basketball season starting to move into full bounce.

Kelly