I started this blog a few years ago as a way to reflect on my own teaching (learning), build a network of like minded teachers worldwide, and to have my own space to facilitate and encourage conversations about education with teachers in the building in which I worked. That was in January of 2009 a few years ago in Doha. I would say I have been fairly successful in two out of three of my goals. You can read my first post for yourself here for a more comprehensive look at my goals.
However, I have struggled with my third goal; I do not feel I have ever had a regular readership from teachers in my own building. I have not yet created a culture of blogging within our staff. I hope this post is a first step in creating spaces where our staff can interact. I hope it will spark a spate of new blogs as well. After a great in school retreat last Thursday, I hope to revisit my third goal here at my new school in Jakarta. I have emailed this post to the participants of our five hour meeting hoping to keep our conversation and inspiration going. Hi guys! Welcome to my blog. This is where I hang out, wrestle with ideas, connect with other teachers, and work on all the things we talked about last Thursday.
This post is my attempt to lure out the teachers and administrators from my school interested in creating new learning spaces and a dynamic tech infused pedagogy. Schools that are inquiry based and use technology to lead and guide student driven pedagogy. I hope that some of you will take the time to let loose some thoughts in the comment section and see if we can’t clearly articulate and enact our school’s vision.
Before I continue let me recap the main ideas from our meeting, so my regular readers have a sense of where I am coming from. Another great by-product of blogging is that I hope, teachers from my school new to blogging, will begin to see the power of being a networked teacher. I hope that you realize the fruitfulness of a blog and the conversations that can grow here, once the seed has been planted and tended ever so lightly. Let begin…
I work at a 1:1 school. We all have shiny new Macbooks and I love it. I love the freedom to do anything that strikes my fancy on a dime with my students. I am excited and inspired by the work we are doing. I am challenged on a daily basis to make sure I am not directing too much of what they do. I am realizing that technology and a 1:1 environment does not automatically lead to a inquiry based school. As a matter of fact, often it could hinder the shift. I am starting to realize that schools need focus and vision. I realize that not everyone on our campus understands what it means to be 1:! We need to be open and honest about what our staff is willing to do and learn. We need to hold our staff accountable for how they understand and implement the vision of the school. We need to train and support. We need conversations about who we want to be and how we can get there.
Through a series of manipulations, suggestions and hard work I am somehow got myself invited to a meeting where we were going to be having these exact conversations. There were about fourteen of us present: administrators, teachers from every branch of the school, and two students. We examined our vision statement, and through a google doc, answered a few questions about what it means to be a 1:1 school. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the conversation. Many of us are on the same page and have a lot to say on the subject. Here the gist of what we said:
So often we forget that our schools are filled with passionate teachers who want to learn and grow, but only need the venue and chance to do so. This meeting was a great example of that. Now I invite you to keep the momentum going. Look back at our Google Doc and synthesis what we discussed there. Add your comments on the document, process your thoughts and join me on this blog post. Leave a comment here sharing your ideas and/or excitement. Let’s find the best tools and spaces where we can join our energies and find out how to move our faculty and school forward. Learning begins with passion and curiosity; it is clear we have no shortage of either here at our school, so now we need to tend the flames with action. I would love comments from other readers as well. How have you created a tight group of passionate teachers to move your schools toward change? What advice do you have for us?
Jabiz,
You raise a lot of very good points here. The most important ones, to me, are your references to the school’s vision. Every school has a vision or mission statement (or both!) that hangs in most rooms around campus. Some may even have a separate vision statement related to technology, teaching and learning. It is important for those two statements to align and for any member of the school community to be able to reconcile what is happening inside of learning spaces with those statements. It is also vital that a teacher’s personal vision of teaching and learning coincide significantly with those of the school. Only then can progress truly be made!
It’s easy to dismiss these vision statements as jargon or edu-babble. I, however, am finding myself more and more using them as an initial point of reference when discussing technology integration. I mean, how can we seriously consider ‘lifelong learning’ or ‘preparing for the future’ without meaningful, seamless and significant uses of all technologies?
Clint you make a great point when you say
I think that is where we made a great first step in our meeting, because we began to re-examine not only our mission, but we also began to think about how our staff connects to that vision. I think it is a good idea for all stakeholders to actually write out and articulate their personal teaching/learning philosophies so as to have a good idea of how they think. Only then can they see if it matches the school vision.
A lot of staff “training” should be anchored in bigger picture philosophical ideas. People need to know where they are and where they need to go, before they can start to move! No amount of tool workshops will get teachers ready to shift the way they teach. We must have these conversations, so teachers do not see tech as thing “to do”, but rather as a way of thinking about, re-thinking about how they teach.
Hi Jabiz,
I follow your blog and I wish I had more time to go back and read other older blog entries you wrote as you seem to care deeply about education, children (love Kesaia’s blog, too!) and learning in general. You are the first educator I noticed to share his personal goals, family life and creative pursuits – you come across as a rounded, whole person and that spells “authenticity”.
As for how to encourage school staff to join your effort and reflective moments…I still find it difficult a task. I gave up this dream…I used to be (over)excited about it: created a ning for school staff (all by myself) with photos, videos, groups discussions and threads, invited them to use Gmail features and Google Apps, shared links and resources, recommended them to use Twitter…but to no avail. Just two were actually interested in discussing education practices and exchanging ideas, sharing and helping. It seems the 20/80% rule of communities works too well… or I might not have the required skills to be an initiator…I don’t know.
It is only now, when we NEED TO implement the ISTE standards, that my experience and struggle seem to matter. Having no IT co-ordinator, I had to figure everything out by myself – from what on earth HTML means to how to “embed” something into a blog.
As for advice…I am the last person to give any. But if I started all over…I would perhaps begin with students as catalysts of change. Invite other teachers to see the impact of collaboration and technology on learning and classroom dynamics.
Thanks for your kind words. I am humbled that you noticed, but really that is model I have chosen. To model exactly the behavior and skills I want for my students and not for our staff. But the value in open sharing is for another post.
I was sadden to hear how isolated you feel at your school, but I think all of us who are having these conversation online have felt your isolation at some point. What I am realizing is that having these conversation is vital to a school’s growth. It must be annoying for other staff members, but we have to bring the passion of the work we are doing online into staff meetings and curriculum design. It is not enough for us to connect online, we must connect our networks to out faculties. That was sort of the point of this post. To show the members of our staff, the fruitful conversations that can be had just by sharing a few ideas online.
I know people will claim not to have time to have these exchanges, but again that is for a different post. The first thing is to identify the people who want to be having discussion than find a way to make time and support available for their learning.
This is great, and I wish you much luck and know it takes a lot of hard work. I like that your wordle has students in the center because that is what matters. I am having a difficult time getting teachers in my building to embrace student learning as opposed to teacher model learning. Funny how we can all share on twitter, but in our own buildings we have a hard time. Stay the course, keep inspiring, and I look forward to the successes. It is worth it as the students are the ones to benefit. I also agree that bringing students in to help is worth it. My best efforts have been with having students share their tech projects, learning, and why it’s not about the technology but about students. Thanks for sharing your struggles, successes, and inspiration.
Hey Jabiz,
I totally get where you are coming from and appreciate your role modeling that you have done for others. The fact is, that many of us expect that educators just JUMP in and do some deep reflective thinking on a blog space, when they may have never even done that in any writing space (online or offline). It is not that these teachers are not reflective, they just may not write down their thoughts.
To help with this, I think that you will need to scaffold with them. I think of it on the level of Bloom’s taxonomy. To get to the high level thinking, we have to start often with some of the lower end stuff. I have seen teachers go from posting spelling list, to some VERY DEEP, reflective posts that involve their students comments and conversations. The role modeling that you are doing is a great step, but it often needs to be accompanying other elements that you are bringing into practice.
One of my mentors said the following to me: “There are three elements of being a strong leader. You have to know when to stand in front to share and role model the vision, you need to stand beside and work together towards the vision, and you need to stand behind to encourage them to move on their own.”
I heard someone say something along the lines of this: “A rock is not formed in one swift move, and if it is, it can be destroyed. A rock is formed through the continuous shaping of the tide over years.”
Keep up the great work!
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Jabiz,
This post has really got me thinking. I have discussed my blog to coworkers but never thought to encourage them to do it. Some people have a negative attitude about blogs. They believe it’s “just a way to get you in trouble.” Others do not know much about how they work or why one would want to write their thoughts in the form of a blog for all to read. Now, I will try to change their attitudes through encouragement and education.
Thanks for the inspiration.
@George and @Brian Barry Earlier in the year Jabiz and I hatched the idea of a Blog Alliance as a way to get teachers in our respective schools blogging.
The concept sprang from the idea that teachers cannot teach what they do not know. How can we get our students blogging and communicating and connecting and reflecting if their teachers never have? The intended byproduct, of course, is that teachers then need to start blogging and communicating and connecting and reflecting as well.
For me, it was marginally successful but I’m planning a second session in late April if you’d like to join. It’s a great chance to exhibit the 2nd and 3rd aspects of leadership that George mentioned: standing beside and working together; and then standing behind and encouraging.
I think it was only marginally successful because it was voluntary and on teacher time. I envision Blog Alliance 2.0 to be worked into a teacher’s schedule and evaluated and assessed as professional development.
Teachers will create a blog and reflect on their learning teaching etc…let’s say one hour a week. They will meet with the IT facilitator at a scheduled time each week, within their teaching hours and discuss different ways to express their learning. Example: The English department meets every Tuesday at 11 with the IT facilitator to discuss their goals for IT and during this time learn the IT skills they will need to move forward with the school’s vision.
Give teachers time and support and see what happens.
It really does come down to modeling, time and support. I think teachers would love to have time to play and learn new things, but a school must decide if teacher learning is vital to its growth, and if that is the understanding, the admin must give teachers time to learn.
I feel an embedded PD program that hold teachers accountable for their learning and tech training is great first step. I have a rough model of what this can look like and will be blogging about it soon so stay tuned!
Thanks for the comments…now waiting to see which staff members will be brave enough to leave their thoughts!
Jabiz
“I feel an embedded PD program that hold teachers accountable for their learning and tech training is great first step.”
We are trying to address this problem in our district as well. The challenge truly becomes making and discovering will lead teachers to different outcomes. We are in the process of recruiting a team to lead the battle from within. I am anxious to see your model.
This kind of reminds of me reading in school 10 years ago. We decided it was important enough to allocate time for it daily, guided reading…sustained silent reading or whatever it may have been called. If we want teachers to reflect, than hold them accountable and give them time.
Keep it up, being a leader is a challenging job!
Hello Jabiz,
I’m new to your blog, and it was my twitter stream that brought me here. Your blog post came at a perfect time as I’m just now beginning to synthesize a year long project called, LivewithLivescribe (http://livewithlivescribe.edublogs.org/) that was intended to bring teachers together through synchronous and asynchronous means and empower them to share, learn, network and expand. I worked in a school similar to the one you describe in your post and with a very supportive administrator. Unfortunately, real change in pedagogy and practice was rare because teachers were (are) being bombarded with so many district and ministry initiatives based on a top-down model of PD. While many of the initiatives were solid and innovative, the buy-in was low.
As a front line worker myself and directly in the trenches, I could see the high level of frustration. I’m sure our leaders did not intend this, but teachers often discussed feeling “condescended” or “not listened to” . They needed to feel that their expertise and opinions mattered but weren’t not given the opportunity. It was this that prompted me to apply for the Ministry grant “Teacher Leader Learning Project”. I asked several of the teachers who had obvious skills in specific areas (math, science, esl, special ed..etc.) to participate in the project by using a Livescribe Smartpen in as many innovative ways (based on their expertise) as possible and then blog about it every three weeks or more. These are teachers that never blogged about their own learning before (although they had classroom blogs). But because they were given the trust and were empowered to be leaders, they ran with it.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that I think we need to give teachers very specific tasks/contexts (in this case, it was using a livescribe pen in the classroom) that are authentic. The teachers in this project saw the impact that the collaborative blog had not only the school, the district, and the province, but that it reached teachers globally. We need to empower the teachers that are working directly with the students and begin to really embrace the concept of shared leadership, customized learning platforms, and authentic learning communities.
Thanks for prompting me to write this and for sharing. See you on Twitter!
I think this raises a very valid point about the discrepancies between seeing blogging as a useful teaching tool, and seeing it as a way to get assignments out to students. I don’t think that teachers can really believe in and respect the positivity of blogging until they actually do it for themselves. Also, I think that a lot of teachers WANT to know more about this, but they see it more as a “task” that they don’t have time for- one more thing added to the plate.
There also seems to be a habit (and I will admit that I am guilty of this) of teachers blogging for themselves, but not reading other teachers’ blogs. Or if they do read them, they do not make comments (here is where I am usually guilty!).
The thing that needs to be thought about, though is: how will we teach our students the importance of commenting on and connecting via blogs if we aren’t doing it ourselves?
You’ve thrown down down the gauntlet, Jabiz! To give a brief background, I teach at the same school as Jabiz but in a building far far away (or so it seems at times). I joined the Blogging Club and managed a couple of sessions before school life got too busy with clashing meetings and after-school activities. I made one attempt at a blog and discovered a blog site that I had started but forgotten about two years previously. Obviously, I am not a committed blogger. What gets in my way? Can I really blame time and other interests? When friends blog, I love to have that window into their world with the option of leaving a comment; and yet I never take the step further to become a part of that blogging society. Facebook seems to be as much as I can manage as a social network. I don’t have any answers for what would make the difference. I agree with George’s comments and Jabiz’s reflections. I have checked the “notify me” so that I will be reminded to stay involved.
Hi Marion,
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment and for being the first staff member to do so (not counting Mairin of course, who I paid to comment.)
I think you raise a few good points. Namely about the idea of being committed and what that mans in the busy life of a teacher. Some of us are a bit obsessive, but that is only because we have felt the power of these online spaces and just wish that we could help spread the magic. Like most things, blogging is a habit.
Like I have mentioned a few times, it needs to become the culture of a school for it to stick, and teachers need the time and support to make it work. Hopefully, we can begin to move forward soon. Looking forward to having you along for the ride.
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