Tag Archives: Changing Teachers

Who Are You Bringing to Shanghai?

I am writing this post for several reasons and several people all at once. Just so we don’t get too discombobulated right from the start, let’s lay out the goals:

Proposal for my administrators
Promotion for Learning 2.011
How to attend a conference as a team
Announcement of some changes at our school and my new role at school

Let’s start from the last point and end with the first.

Announcement of some changes at our school and my new role at school:

A few months ago, our school created a special IT task force to take a closer look at our current VLE, Virtual Learning Environment, to see if it is everything we want it to be. We are a 1:1 Mac school, but we understand that we are not functioning at our full potential when it comes to being a technology focused school. As a task force, we decided that perhaps a one-stop shop, closed VLE, which shall not be named, is not the best tool for what we want to be doing school wide in terms of teaching and learning and communication. This realization has led us to re-examine our vision, the roles of teachers/students, and of course the right tools to accomplish what we want. It has been exciting to work with such a great team. More importantly not only have our concerns been heard by our amazing director and administrators, but they have been instrumental in making major changes school wide.

In short, we are moving to Google docs and WordPress blogs as the main structure of our VLE. We are busy creating a solid foundation of blogs and have begun work on our school wide Google Apps network. I will write more soon about the process and what the nuts and bolts look like, but let me just say now that we are building something authentic and organic and wonderful here. We have been working as a team. Because I have a vested interest in making this a reality and because of my intensity I have taken on a bit of a leadership role in the direction we are heading. This new role is both humbling and exciting. I am proud to be able to work with our team to make a system that will help our school. Because of my past experience and knowledge I have been ask to only teach three classes next year and spend the rest of my time helping teachers learn how to function in this new environment. I have a mindful of ideas about a professional development plan, but for now we are busy building blogs and getting this machine up and running.

Which finally brings me to the point of this post. Well almost. As we start to see what our new system will look like, we are realizing that we will need a batch of teachers who are not necessarily techies, but open to the possibilities of using technology and understand the basics of a new pedagogy that is more student driven and teacher facilitated learning. We are looking for a core group of teachers who can help make our new blogging system a success.

Promotion for Learning 2.011

I have written about my experiences with Learning 2.011 here, so I will keep this intro short. I love this conference. It has been good to me. I like the people who run it. I love the people who attend and I like the way it is run. They have given me a great opportunity this year to play a bigger role behind the scenes, and I want to help teachers at my school get a taste of the power of a great conference. So here is plan:

@lissgriffin @chamada @DearLibrariAnn @jutecht

How to attend a conference as a team

Too many times Tech conferences are attended by teachers who are already involved in networks. We read each other’s blogs, share Tweets, let’s face it we are a family. We use this time to meet, tighten bonds, and reassure ourselves that we are on the right track. We go back to our schools and seldom have anything to share that we didn’t know before we left. Last year my school sent our entire tech team, a few administrators, but honestly, we didn’t feel like a team.

Proposal for my administrators

My proposal is that this year we send about six people from different divisions in the school. This team should not necessarily be teachers with tech experiences, but teachers who have shown an interest in pushing their understanding of what tech can do for learning. I want the experience for this team to be similar to my ADE experience. We will arm the team with the tools they will need to monitor, document and reflect on their learning as a group. As the new tech facilitator, I will take the leadership role to make sure that this team is armed with what they need. We will make sure all members are on Twitter and understand how to hash tag their way through a conference before we arrive. Each member will be shown how to use a blog as a journal space to reflect on their daily learning and thoughts throughout the conference. We will use Google Docs to share resources, links, and ideas for others teachers back at school.

In short, I want to take a team of learners who are willing and enthusiastic to be students again. I want to give them the tools we will be using next year, in hopes that they will be blown away by the power of what these spaces can do to connect and collect leanring. I want to introduce them to the powerful existing network of educators here in Asia, and I want them to return to school infected and passionate about what they learned, in hopes that they will take leadership roles in helping developing a functioning and collective professional development program. I have felt the magic of this conference two times and now I want to help others experience it as well.

I am not sure if you are a teacher, tech facilitator, head of IT or administrator, but I suggest you take a close look and who you are bringing to this conference and develop a plan. Assign a leader or group of leaders and empower your attendees so they can get the most out of their days in Shanghai. Maybe we can even introduce our teams to each other before we meet in person. Create some kind of diectory of teachers and schools. I am open to any ideas.

I am sending this post to my director and principals in hopes that they will approve the group I want to lead through this conference. I suggest you do the same. Let this be the conferences where we build cracks in the echo chamber and begin to let some of the noise out, so we can start to hear new voices and create a more robust and diverse network. Let us share the amazing things we are doing not only with each other, but with those teachers at our school who are not connected but should be.

See you in Shanghai at Learning 2.o11!

Thoughts from The Nam (An ADE reflection)

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The fact that I don’t like corporations comes as no surprise to anyone who has read my work or talked to me for five minutes. They’re big and scary and faceless and subversive and greedy and dictate too much of how things are done in the world for my taste. Because integrity, honesty, passion and art are so important to me I am constantly disappointment by the concept of selling out. Giving in. Joining the dark-side. I mean, is there anything worse than seeing a song you love, being used to hawk a car or a TV?

I came to the Apple Distinguished Educator’s conference with a heavy heart. Was I selling out? Was this ultimate copulation to the very corporate forces I am constantly deriding? Because while Apple is hip and shiny and sexy on the surface, their main goal is still global domination. Of this there is little doubt. So what would a corporate sponsored educational institute look like exactly? How much of my soul would I have to sell? What was in it for me? There is a running joke surrounding the ADE program, likening it to a cult or saying that once there you drink the Kool-Aide you will be never shut up it again.

This post is random scattering of thoughts and ideas of my experience over the last four days in Vietnam.

Every organization, every conference, every school, every company, every story is about the people. Who they are? Their beliefs and values, and how they work with others are critical aspects of how they function as a bigger group. And so of course, it was the people that really grabbed my attention. From the talented and inspirational speakers like Rebbeca Stokely and Joseph Linaschke, to all advisory member facilitators and sixty plus ADEs, their was a tangible sense of excitement about the future of not only technology but how these tools can be leveraged to a global shift in how our students learn. The wild card group for me was the ADE educational team from Apple. I was excepting a bunch of disconnected suits from the corporate office, but really the Apple team are a dynamic, diverse group of men and women dedicated to the success of this program.Let me throw a quick thank you to Adrian for his dedication and passion to education.

Which brings me to what I think is an important point. What is the point of the ADE program? Here is my take:

To take innovative educators from within a region, who are already using and excited by the Apple brand, connect them to each other, build a tight-knit (almost cult like) community, so that they can work more closely together, have a wider global audience in hopes that they, (we?) can build a critical mass in the institute with which we work, in order to shift the paradigm. Could the cynic argue, he always does in my mind, that Apple created this program in order to have the sales department move in right after and turn whatever schools these ADEs are working in to Mac schools? Of course. But really, I am not here to write about that. Stop it! I can here murmuring , “sell out” under your breath, but really the truth is that I would choose to go to a Mac school over a PC school with or without the ADE program. What I learned this past week was the dedication this company has shown to this program. Hold on….had another cup of Kool-Aide, but really at the level I am working in now, I am proud to be a part of it. Should it ever change or demand more of me, than of course I will reconsider. For now, I feel a part of a healthy and exciting symbiotic relationship. I feel that I have the opportunity to stay honest, keep my integrity and write openly and honestly about my role as ADE. If at any point my views and theirs should diverge than I am sure we will be happy to end the relationship, but in the mean time I am stoked and excited to have met so many other amazingly talented individuals. Many I already knew through the network, but others who are a bit new. They are doing amazing work in their schools, but needed this platform to join the global conversation.To all the new ADEs I met this week, welcome to the conversation. Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts. This is where the remainder of our work together will be done.

My favorite part of this week was the professional development I saw. We were seldom asked to listen or watch. We were asked to do, to create, to reflect, to share. It made me feel like a student and I loved it. It taught me how to work with others and listen. It taught me that you might learn more if it is not done your way, that another person can add to your ideas and together you can sculpt shared ideas. I really hope to incorporate some of the activities and general ethos of the instiute to in-service days at my school for next year.

And of course it reaffirmed my belief that learning is done in process and cannot be assessed by product. The very experience of creation is important not the creation itself. We all know this, but we often need to be reminded of failure and mediocre products, so we can ease the pressure we put in students. The conversations I had with members of my group during our day on the river, or the emotions I felt while talking with locals being pushed off their land and from their homes in the name of globalization and progress, is impossible to document or assess in a four-minute video. I was left thinking of how much learning from our students is lost or forgotten in the search of a grade. There must be so much they are learning that we never see, because we are asking for such specific proof. This experience made me appreciate the role of reflections and student blogs as places of more holistic learning. A sort of expansive landscape, where if done right students as well as teachers can really design a more accurate picture of learning, one that does not require a rubric or standards, but when experienced as a whole over time reflects the journey of its creator. Much more on this soon.

This institute also gave me a chance to really look at my own current landscape and take inventory. Who am I? Am I spread to thin? What are my values? What do I want to promote and share? Am I on the right track? What does my name mean to others? Does any of it matter? Stay tuned for updates. I am working on re-worked, consolidated brand. I still hate that word. Maybe when I can articulate it, it will have a new name.

In the meantime, I am proud and excited by the work I did, the thoughts I had and the people I met. It is always a shocking experience to be thrown into such a crucible. I am sure the effects will be long lasting. I am looking forward to continuing the conversations we had this past week with everyone who was there, as well as all of you who were not. Not sure if I answered any of the questions I had going in, but I don’t feel like a sell-out and that is good. I feel like I am leading a fast moving train headed to great places. Come on! What are you waiting for. Get on. We have work to do.
Of course I would appreciate all my critical thinking, trouble making friends to tell me I am wrong about all of this, because there is nothing more dangerous to growth and learning as complacency

Flames With Action

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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?

21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong

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Now is as good of a time as any to round up any wandering ideas from the 21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong. Since I returned my colleagues and administrators have been asking,

How was it? What did you learn?

I have not been in the Ed-tech game long enough to become completely jaded, but I have been around long enough to understand that sometimes conferences can feel more depressing than inspiring. I try not to become weighed down by my cynicism, but it seems that every conference leaves more underwhelmed than the last. Don’t get me wrong the organizers did a good job of organizing the sessions, keynotes, and getting people together but I cannot think of anything that really blew me away. In the age of Professional Learning Networks what can we learn from conference that we cannot learn from our Twitter and RSS feeds?

What is the purpose of a conference in the age of online learning? I feel I should have an answer if I ever want to get approval from my school to attend another conference. I have to go with the cliché response I heard everyone say throughout the conference:

The best part of this conference is meeting my existing network face to face.

I couldn’t agree more. It was so exciting to eat dinner with people I had only known online. At every conference there are a group of people who do not blog or use Twitter who end up looking on amazed that their peers could be so connected. There is always the confused question, “How do you guys know each other again? Really? You have never met. ”

A network is only as strong as it’s connections and these face-to-face meetings really help create authentic communities. I loved chatting with Robert about the great work he and Gary are doing at their school with WordPress and Scratch. It was a pleasure to share ideas with Dana and Stacey, or to meet Tim for the first time after the many RT’s. Suddenly Ben was more than an avatar, but a living breathing person who helped my session not fall apart. He is headed to Jakarta next month to visit Hugo and I hope we can meet up again, maybe with Rod who I already know in Jakarta. I finally met Colin, but couldn’t pin him down for an actual meal. And of course I started conversations with Neil, John, Jason, Justin, Greg (already started a great chat on his blog), Jamie, Gary, Philip, Lynn, and Makky. So what did I learn from this conference? I learned that there are people across the region who are doing great work and they are ready to connect and learn. I may have crossed paths with these people eventually, but a conference is like a crucible to strengthen relationships quickly. It is because of this human connection that I go to conferences. We meet. We chat. We eat. We connect. As for the sessions…

I am embarrassed that it is 2011 and we are still trying to convince teachers and administrators who run schools to use technology in their classrooms, as if we still have a choice. I cannot even begin to imagine the frustration of the educators who have been involved with the use of technology for longer than me. How do you sit through, or worse present another Keynote explaining that learning is changing and that the internet and our connections to it can be a powerful learning too? I find it embarrassing that we are still stumbling about wondering how or why to use laptops in classrooms, that we still have beginner sessions on blogs, or that we need to be inspired to teach differently.

Do we really need to have the discussion telling teachers that it is the pedagogy and not the tools? Do we really need to tell them not to be afraid and move toward a more student-based approach? Do we really need to warn them that soon they will be irrelevant? I am ready for that threat to simply be a goodbye. Sorry, sir but our school simply will not hire teachers who are not connected and familiar with terms like PLN, blogs, Twitter, and connected learning, perhaps you can find a job at a school where technology is not considered a valuable teaching approach. What’s that? You don’t know what any of that means but you are curious and want to learn. Come on in.

I understand the need to look closely at the various issues surrounding technology and the use of laptops in schools, but there is also something to be said about simply moving forward and taking the training wheels off to see what will happen. I am tired of going to conferences and backtracking to the beginning. I am tired of slowing down the pace of my learning to bring others up to speed. I want to move forward. I want to sit in rooms with teachers who are working at the edge of possibility and connect our learning, our skills, our students, our schools. I want to cloister myself with a group of teachers who are pushing the boundaries and doing amazing work in their classrooms despite their school policies not because of them. Where are the sessions for us? Where are the times that connected teachers can move forward instead of looking back?

Woah! That train of thought went down a few dark tunnels. Let’s turn things around a bit and drive into the light. Yes it is true that many teachers, administrators and schools are terrified to move forward and are mired in fear and paralysis, but there are pockets of teachers worldwide who seem to get it. We often work in isolation at our schools, pushing the envelope, and forcing our schools to look more closely at the use of technology. The ironic part is that we are already connected. Through conversations on our blogs, twitter, connected classrooms, skype and other tools we are constantly learning from each other. We do not really need conferences because we are teaching in an environment that resembles an ongoing global conference.

Some final thoughts to share with your administrators:

Schools who are truly invested in the use of technology and a successful 1:1 program achieve buy in from students, teachers and parents. They recruit and train teachers who are open to teaching in student driven environments and help them understand not just the skills necessary to teach using technology, but also help them achieve a firm understanding behind the philosophy of this new pedagogy through the use of an effective and well-staffed technology integration team. They make learning fun and exciting for everyone and they do not accept teachers who are not willing to learn. They offer training, support and time for all teachers to learn new ways of teaching.
Time and training is vital. If you want your staff to do amazing things you have to hire the right people and give them an opportunity to play, experiment and grow. You must give them time to play, experiment and grow. You must give them money to play, experiment and grow. You must give them room to play, experiment and grow.
If you want your school to move forward you must take off the training wheels and move forward. You cannot wait for everyone to get it. You must set up expectations, hire the right people to get the staff moving forward and hold people accountable.
If you want your school to move forward you cannot continue to appease the members of your staff who don’t get it. You cannot steer your professional development to the members of staff who are the furthest behind and most resistant to change. If you need to convince your teachers to use technology you have hired the wrong teachers, or it is time to ask those people to move on.
If you want your school to move forward, you as an administrator must get it. You must be involved in the conversations and foster them in your school. You need to ask your staff questions about how technology is changing their teaching and if they do not have an answer you need to ask why. You must create an environment that fosters passion about learning in your teachers. You can no longer accept “I am too busy”, or “they expect so much of me.” You must demand your teachers question their pedagogy and share their thoughts. You must train your staff to share their learning with each other and the parent community. You must give your staff support and time to learn. You must lead the way and model the behavior.
If you want your school to move forward you must turn your teachers into learners.

Urban Dwelling Mammals

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Despite the fact that I champion technology at my school. Despite the fact that I often write about and promote the use of technology in my personal and professional life. Despite the fact that I am presenting next week at a conference about how technology can help second language learners express themselves. Despite the fact that I encourage my daughter to feel comfortable with a camera and her way around a blog. Despite all of these things, or maybe because of these reasons I am often nervous about technology and the effects it has on all of us. We all should be.

I work at a 1:1 Apple school, and I am not gonna lie, I love it. I cannot ever imagine working in a non 1:1 environment again. My kids have instant access to any and all websites, we blog, we create music, art work, writing, videos, you name it; we are on fire. I have kids who barely utter a sound in class who can now share their learning and express themselves beautifully, but despite my comfort with the tools and success with my students I am weary of the cost of too much screen time. I am sure, by the end of this post, I will end up justifying much of what I say by claiming validity for both sides of the screened or disconnected life argument and cry that balance is key. Taking the balanced approach, however, is the easy way out, unless we look deeply at what this balance system looks like in the lives of our students.

I do not and have never believed in technology for it’s own sake. We have had that conversation too many times. It is the learning not the tools, blah, blah blah. I hope we can all agree that technology, connected learning and the use of multi-media to create new content is crucial to student learning. I am not here to argue for either side. It is important, however, no matter which side of the debate we are on to slow down, douse ourselves with cold water and re-evaluate what exactly it is we are shouting. It is important to take a step back and consider all sides of our ideas. In the last few weeks, I have written often on the effects of social media on my personal psyche, and now I want to take a look at what hyper-connectedness and “screen” time can do for students.

This train of thought left the station after I read, Technology and Schools: Should We Add More or Pull the Plug?. I was very impressed by the final paragraph:

It is time to engage in a purposeful, reasoned debate about where we’re headed with the use of digital devices in the classroom. We recognize that there is tremendous value in technology and learning, and are by no means advocating abstinence. But we need to be cautious about plugging our kids in more, pushing them into an even greater dependence on electronics. We need balance that stems from understanding that more isn’t necessarily better.

So many times, we draw lines in the sand, and the use of technology in schools is no different. I never want to be seen as the Techie-teacher who is so enamored with my own ideas and philosophy that I am not willing to rethink what I am most passionate about. I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes:

Criticize the tools you use and use the tools you criticize.

This quote hangs up in my room as a reminder that we owe it to our students to consider every angle when it comes to their future especially since we are all dealing in unknowns. We can claim that blogs help non-English speakers communicate in ways that were not possible before, but who is to say that my daughter’s affinity for my computer will not affect her attention span or interpersonal skills. We can claim that creating media rich content helps develop new literacies which allow students to interact with the world in new ways, but whose to say that staring at a screen seven hours a day will make it impossible for them to take a walk alone and contemplate the clouds.

I am always so saddened to see the students at our school constantly gathered around their laptops, not because I find what they are doing as time wasted, but because I do not think they have had a chance to get a taste of the other. In our global issues club we are working on a campaign for animal rights, but after a brief talk I realized that very few of these urban dwelling mammals have ever had an authentic experience with a wild animal, most not even with a domestic one. Who’s responsibility is it to make sure these kids run their hands through the soil or hike a mountain? Who will teach them to value nature and the simple sound of rain as it falls around them?

image by sean dreilinger

This post is running in circles a bit and that is fine with me. Maybe we can find some place to land in the comments. Let me try and squeeze out some kind of point. In between the typical, “computers are ruining our children” rhetoric, the article makes a few important claims that I would like to highlight and address:

Today’s kids are losing the ability to enjoy the sweet and mundane moments that are part and parcel of ordinary life. Most youngsters, if stuck waiting for a ride, cannot endure simply waiting: they whip out their cell phone to feed their insatiable need for stimulation. The tradition of playing outside after school to shake off the stagnation of sitting at a desk all day has been abandoned in favor of more sitting in front of the TV or computer, contributing to alarming obesity rates in children.

I know this is true because I see it in my students. I see it in my daughter. I sometimes see it in myself. For teachers who love tech and are using it is effectively, passionately, innovatively, those of us who claim that balance is important: what are we doing about it? We all know what we are doing to help students connect effectively, but how are we helping our students disconnect? I was thinking of introducing unplugged days, which would focus on reading, maybe drawing, playing acoustic music, singing in small groups, or just spending time alone drenched in silence. Maybe initiating yoga classes, nature walks around campus anything to slow life down to a manageable speed. I would love to hear your ideas about these or other ideas in the comments.

Now that I have read the article again several times, I am finding less there is less and less with which I agree. It makes some ridiculous claims like:

Increasing the use of technology in the classroom is like feeding our kids pop tarts and soda; it tastes good and they like it, but it doesn’t offer the nourishment they need.

I refuse to allow what I do in my classroom to be called a Pop-Tart. So please do not find flaws in the article. That is not what this post is about. I simply want to share thoughts on how we can help students see beyond their screens, so that when they are connected they can create more authentic and rich content.