Category: Professional Development

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A conversation with Heidi Hayes Jacobs

Photo by Dan Callahan

It was a privilege to spend my time at ASCD as a member of the press. On Sunday at an author’s luncheon, I had the chance to speak with Heidi Hayes Jacobs along with several members of my PLN. I read her book, Curriculum 21, shortly after its publication, and also enjoyed Jacobs’s TedxNYED talk. She asks all educators to consider, “What year are you preparing your students for?” and the content and ideas she shares cause you to reflect deeply about your school’s current practices and how shifts in curriculum, organization, professional development, and the types of learning in which our students engage are imperative. Joining in the discussion were Mary Beth Hertz, Josh Stumpenhorst, and Jason Flom among others, all passionate educators looking to lead this shift in their schools.

 “We need a new type of pedagogy and a new type of teacher.”

Jacobs shared her views on the varied pedagogies, including “antiquated pedagogy” (“drive-by” teaching, when there is no relationship between teacher and student); classical pedagogy (teachers are sensitive to their students and know how to engage with them, when to talk, and when to be silent; classical pedagogies are timeless), and the new pedagogy, where teachers realize they’re going to need to shift their roles. She referenced David Langford who referred to the student-teacher relationship as “colleague-colleague” relationships. We’re all colleagues… we’re all learners here.

Teachers (and administrators) need to be learners.  They need to be literate in digital media, and they need to be globally literate. These two characteristics are interconnected, but different. Mary Beth shared that she’s working to establish the colleague-colleague/learner-learner relationship with her students as many of us are, and Jacobs mentioned that the latest in value-added teacher evaluation methods tied to high-stakes testing are “irrational” and will do little to support new pedagogies.

She applauded those educators who are using digital tools to establish an online presence to reflect upon their learning and for use with students, and she said it’s difficult for teachers to get started with this without knowing what “quality” looks like in this area. When she first began blogging, she looked to Mike Fisher for inspiration. We need to show teachers examples of quality digital learning and share with one another. Mary Beth described trying to explain the power of connected learning to non-connected educators as “trying to imagine a sunset in a room with no windows.”

Jacobs raved about the global forum they presented at an opening session of ASCD, where schools, students, and teachers from China, Mexico, and New Zealand came together via Skype and other digital platforms to engage in powerful learning with one another.

As for professional development, it is essential in bringing about school-wide improvement, but it must be differentiated. She reminded us to “declare our century” and shared her disappointment in examining standardized tests from the 70s whose questions mirrored those from the 90s. Where is the progress? She urged us to look at our school websites. “Does it look like you’re selling car insurance?”

A focus of Jacobs’s work has always been mapping and standards, and she shared with us her current ventures working with Common Core 360 to create the LiveBook and LivePlanner, professional development platforms for teachers. She spoke excitedly of the capabilities of the highly customizable platform, an “interactive ebook experience that gives educators the theory, research, and case studies behind curriculum integration.” She described it as a “new type of reading experience.”

The conversation shifted to ebooks and textbooks and what our kids need educational  materials to be. Jacobs believe “every kid should have an annotated clearinghouse” that they, themselves, develop. We need to help children become curators and develop digital literacy skills.

I asked how school leaders can get this process started. What must every educational leader understand in order to help their schools progress? She believes every admin and teacher needs to commit to “upgrading.” Look at what you’re doing now, and make a change to at least one aspect of your leadership. When she and her team work with administrators, they spend the day forcing a culture of sharing- getting them using the tools, opening their eyes to the opportunities for globalization. She encourages admin to “get rid of meetings” and connect virtually. In regards to professional development, we discussed the #edcamp model, and how an autonomous learning model such as those provided in #edcamp settings would address the needs of a variety of adult learners. Jacobs helped us visualize a quadrant that organizes adult learning needs.

  • High Curriculum, High Tech Competencies – These teachers need autonomous learning, feedback, modeling, and the opportunities to share
  • High Curriculum, Low Tech Competencies – Need 1:1 support with the tools to help make ties to their strong curricular knowledge base
  • Low Curriculum, High Tech Competencies – Workshop model can be successful to reach these teachers
  • Low Curriculum, Low Tech Competencies – These teachers “need a career change” or “a lot of support.” (That honesty was refreshing.)

“The biggest mistake you can make is selling something in education,” she said. When administrators are working with their teams to decide how to proceed with instruction, curriculum, schedules, anything – imagine there is a student sitting at the table with your team. The guiding rule of the discussion is that any idea or concern that is raised has to be in the child’s best interest. While all team members won’t always agree, it will always be a good conversation if the child remains the focus. According to Jacobs, it’s a “no brainer” that we need to use technology in our schools. We have to prove it’s NOT good for kids before we should say it shouldn’t be used in schools, but ultimately, the first issue should not be ADULT comfort with the technology. “It’s not whether we use technology, it’s how.” Technology purchasing decisions are another great challenge today’s school administrators face. Today’s high school juniors have very different technology needs than our incoming kindergarteners do. How do administrators best manage to prioritize, purchase, manage, provide professional development for, and support learning with a large variety of tools?

Jacobs is an optimist in that she believes that many times, people are willing to change, they just don’t know how. We want our children to be able to live and learn independently of us, and frankly we’ve done students a disservice by creating such dependencies on the adults in the classrooms.

Jason keenly stated, “I want to be obsolete by the end of the year.”

Jacobs emphatically replied, “Yes!”

 

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Relationships, passion, and the pursuit of learning.

What did I learn on the first day of this year’s ASCD conference in Philadelphia?

  • Relationships rule.
  • Without passion, learning suffers.
  • Educators who connect have unlimited access to support systems, resources, and inspiration.

I know other bloggers have echoed these sentiments in their reflections, but it’s because they all ring true. It only took a few moments listening to ASCD 2012 Outstanding Young Educators Liliana Aguas and Matt McClure to recognize some of this.

Liliana, a 2nd grade teacher from Berkeley, California, explained how a passion for science led her to develop inquiry-based, hands-on learning projects that she and her colleagues shared at a local elementary school while they were working in a lab. She found that she loved watching students “discover.” The principal of the building said that she should become a teacher. She replied, “I work in a lab! I don’t teach!” Nevertheless, she was offered a fifth grade position, and she accepted. As a US immigrant, she began to contemplate the role of language and its influence on how we learn, and now works in a dual immersion classroom where she continues to stress the importance of discovery and inquiry on a daily basis.

Matt McClure, Superintendent of Cross County Schools in Cherry Valley, AK, spoke to his work with groups of constituents in his district. He asked teachers, “What skills do our kids need?” and then together they worked to prepare students for their futures. He said, “Knowledge is cheap. Everyone can be an expert.” What does this type of access to information mean for our students today? As McClure said, “It’s what you do with it that matters.” He stressed building relationships and trust with parents and community to allow for innovative practices and risk-taking.

Want your teachers to be more passionate about professional development? Consider hosting an edcamp-style PD day at your school and sending your teachers to your nearby edcamp offerings in the future. Kristen Swanson, Ann Leaness, and Chrissi Miles led a great conversation about how to better empower teachers and place them in command of their own learning through the “unconference,” edcamp model. While this may be intimidating for some, and a definite departure from typical PD models, I can speak from experience that the days when we allow teachers to direct their own learning and share with colleagues have been the most rewarding days of learning for staff. This is evident in the feedback they provide to us. They’re hungry for more of these days. They know that together, they’re better. The ideas flow freely, the growth is organic. They inspire one another, push each other, and ask the hard questions. If you’re an administrator who is looking to involve your teachers in this type of day, please contact me any time with questions, and/or check out these additional resources from the edcamp session here, here, and visit the Edcamp wiki. My next edcamp? Edcamp Philly, May 19. Join us!

After the sessions ended, it was time to meet up with friends, both old and new, at the Tweetup hosted by ASCD. These are always fun events, because you have the chance to meet face-to-face those educators who provide you with a wealth of resources, ideas, and support each and every day. Each time you meet someone new, you further develop your PLN. There’s nothing better than receiving a heartfelt paper tweet from Jerry, conversing with Joe and Antony about the sheer joys of the principalship :), meeting Josh’s adorable spawns, talking with Spike and his colleagues and looking forward to their future visit, meeting Jason and Bill for the first time, and engaging in genuine conversations with so many passionate educators.

I know we continue to say this, but being a connected educator enhances the work that we do with students on a daily basis. And, let’s face it, that’s intense work. So it’s time to sift through the jargon, look past the big claims made by companies touting the “latest and greatest,” and get back to relationships, sharing with one another, admitting we all have a lot to learn, and helping each other do just that.

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Questions and Elemeducon.

Shared by CarbonNYC on Flickr

I left Educon 2.4 with questions. I think that’s the point. For every new “a-ha” moment, a handful of extending questions surfaced in my brain. Some energized me, some exhausted me.

“What if?” This was the first question I was asked to ponder at Educon. David Jakes led a session that caused us to truly expound on our thinking about topics ranging from hallways in our schools to shopping cart design. Design Thinking for Educators is a resource that I’ve referenced in the past but would like to explore in depth. I see tremendous power in this process, yet could also see how many of us were extended past our comfort levels in thinking about change. Our experiences tell us that the ideation process should typically have limits. The design thinking process says, “No, it doesn’t.” We need to start asking, “What if?”

“Social media-fueled PD: is it making a difference?” Lots of chatter here. Jon Becker, Meredith Stewart, and Bud Hunt asked us to consider whether the time we spend engaged in learning through Twitter and unconventional methods. The #edchat and #edcamp folks amassed in this session, I believe, to stand firm and defend their methods of learning through social media. I don’t think the facilitators questioned the value we find in these methods so much as they wished for us to consider how we would defend the impact of this learning to parents, administrators, etc. A few months ago a conversation on Twitter emerged about how we measure the effectiveness of this PD. What actual difference is it making in our schools? How is that impact measured? And should it be? My take-away comment from this session came from Shelly Blake-Plock, who essentially declared that this type of learning “ruined his life,” in so much as it turned his life upside down; changed his way of thinking; caused him to relocate, change jobs, and devote himself to working with at-risk students. I’d imagine his students are quite thankful for this transformation.

“How do we ask the right questions?” Zac Chase’s session asked us to consider our inquiry-based practices in schools. What questions are we asked our students? Teachers? Why? He opened with a story about a young boy and his mother in the airport. The mother seeking to keep her son distracted from through a proposed “game” involving the arrivals/departure board; the son asking to change the “rules” of the game in order to better meet his needs.  So when we allow the learner to change the rules- if it gets us to the same goal, does it matter? Perhaps more importantly, are the questions we’re asking leading to the right goals?

“So you’re connected… now what?” Team Couros & Larkin again hosted a session to discuss the administrator’s role in propelling learning organizations forward through immersion with connected learning. This follow-up session also sought to define and describe real ways in which connected learning are influencing students. Not surprising, the topics of administrative fear, apprehension, and skepticism were raised. Many administrators are still uncomfortable with the ideas of connecting themselves, their teachers, and their students. Are you an administrator? Or do you know one? Send them to Connected Principals. Get them connected with one of us. It starts with tough conversations, but it has to start somewhere.

“How can we rethink learning spaces?” Michael Wacker and Glenn Moses kicked off their conversation by asking us to consider, “What is the most meaningful PD you’ve ever had?” Many mentioned Twitter (I stand in my position that Twitter in itself is not PD – the conversations and connections with other learners through that vehicle could constitute development, but Twitter is merely a tool), #edcamps, and the like. I remember when I taught 5th grade, one of my colleagues ran a PD session as a requirement for one of her master’s courses. It was the first time information was formally presented to me by a colleague. As I think back on that now, I found that session to be very engaging and informative, and I believe it was that much more meaningful since the ideas being shared were from someone I worked with on a daily basis. It was personal and real, as all PD should be, no matter if the learning space is physical or virtual.

Elemeducon. I proposed my conversation because in past years, I felt there hasn’t been much of an elementary focus in the conversations at Educon. I think that’s now changing, as there were several sessions this year with an elementary focus. My hope is that we can continue the discussion raised in our energizing elementary innovation session on the final day of the event. We asked a lot of questions. I’m working on a separate space to share our thoughts from the session, to create a place where the many passionate elementary educators in our world can share ideas and support one another through this journey.

Do you have ideas for what you would like to see in this space? Format? Must-haves? Essential components? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Stay tuned! 

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‘Tis the season.

CC licensed photo shared by Flickr user rust man

Awards mean a lot, but they don’t say it all. The people in baseball mean more to me than statistics. – Ernie Banks

The people responsible for the words on the page -er, the screen – are (hopefully) the reasons many of us take the time to nominate our favorite reads for Edublog awards. It is why I wish to share with you my nominations, with the sincere desire that you stumble upon a perspective you perhaps did not before consider.

Best Group Blog: Cooperative Catalyst 

The writers who contribute to Cooperative Catalyst push my thinking in every post. They passionately and intelligently challenge their readers to consider the questions and possible solutions that drive educational reform. Some of my favorite individual bloggers (John T. Spencer, for one) contribute to Cooperative Catalyst, and it’s a must-read for all educators, in my opinion.

(P.S. My heart belongs to Connected Principals and Voices from the Learning Revolution, however I am affiliated with both of those group blogs, so cannot nominate them.)

Best School Administrator Blog: Jeff Delp, Molehills out of Mountains
Jeff Delp’s blogging reflections always leave a lasting impression on me. He writes about topics of high interest to this administrator, including honest and self-critical reflections of his own practice. As someone who is new to the role of principal, I’d say Jeff’s wisdom and insight into the position rivals some of the more seasoned veteran administrators I know. Thanks, Jeff, for making me want to be a better principal.

Best Teacher Blog: Shelley Wright, Wright’s Room
But what does it look like? I think in theory we’d all agree that an inquiry learning environment is what we want most for our students. But it’s difficult to envision what the shifted classroom looks like – what is the teacher’s role? What are her students doing? Inquiry learning comes to life through the eloquent, honest, real-life-looks-and-feels-like-this posts of high school teacher Shelley Wright. She isn’t afraid to express her hopes, fears, failures, and successes through her writing, and I appreciate her transparent learning in this space. Thank you, Shelley!

 

Best Individual Blog: Bill Ferriter, The Tempered Radical
Bill blogs about PLCs. He blogs about leadership. He blogs about technology integration. He blogs about learning with and from his students and school community members. He shares what he’s reading. I appreciate the ways he challenges assumptions and has made me feel uncomfortable in my role as an educational administrator on more than one occasion. If I could hand pick my child’s teachers, he would be one of them. Thanks, pal!

 

Best Twitter Hashtag: #cpchat
I again nominate #cpchat, born out of the brains behind Connected Principals, although it’s blossomed into quite a comprehensive tag where anything related to educational leadership and learning can be found.

 

Best Ed tech/Resource Sharing blog: Jeff Utecht, The Thinking Stick
Jeff is quite knowledgeable about the ins and outs of everything ed tech from WordPress and blogging to Google Apps for educators (who wouldn’t want to learn how to be a Google Apps Ninja?!), and he’s also a fantastic person willing to take the time out of his busy day to respond to a principal’s email query. Thanks, Jeff!

 

Best Librarian/Library Blog: A Year of Reading 
One of the things I miss most about the classroom is that I feel out of touch with the latest and greatest children’s and YA book releases. Thankfully there are blogs like A Year of Reading, where contributors Franki and Mary Lee (a full-time school librarian and fourth grade teacher) share delightful reviews of newly released books and poetry. Well worth the visit. Thank you, A Year of Reading!

 

Best open PD/unconference/webinar series: Teacher Learning Community/Simple K-12 Webinars 
The free webinars offered by the Teacher Learning Community vary greatly in topics presented and intended audience, so there really is “something for everyone.” As an administrator always on the lookout for alternatives to costly, time-intensive PD for teachers, Simple K-12’s webinars offer quality learning experiences for individuals looking to enhance their professional practice. Thanks!

I dislike that I can’t nominate more than one blog per category, and I regret that I cannot personally recognize every member of my network whose ideas spark in me a desire to become a stronger educator, to do things differently- to fearlessly explore the unexplored, take risks and make mistakes, and approach conversations with courage. I have compiled some of my favorite blog reads in this bundle (also in the sidebar of this blog), and I hope you take some time to peruse and subscribe to it, if so moved.

While I know not everyone will take the time to submit Edublog award nominations, I hope you find the way to recognize someone who has positively influenced your learning.

‘Tis the season.

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The 3Ls of #Edscape

Yesterday was a very enjoyable day at New Milford High School, where principal Eric Sheninger hosted The #Edscape Conference. My takeaways:

Laufenberg.

Chris Lehmann‘s travel woes detained him in Chicago, so he was unable to open the conference, but to our great pleasure, Diana Laufenberg stepped up to the plate. Opening with the need to transform learning due to the shift from an information-deficit environment (students went to school to get information from their teachers) to a world where information-overload is the norm, it becomes necessary to embrace a “Less us, more them,” perspective in the classroom. At Science Leadership Academy, students and teachers explore, “How do we learn? What can we create? What does it mean to lead?” through the core values of  inquiry, research, presentation, reflection, and collaboration. Diana’s enthusiasm for empowering her students was evident. “We teach kids, not subjects.” She shared with us examples of inquiry-driven student learning experiences. It was powerful to hear how her students spend countless hours (outside of school) ensuring they submit high quality projects and assignments, because they “just don’t want to put crap on the Internet anymore.” Students need meaningful tasks and an authentic audience. They must ask questions, research, share ideas, and be reflective in public spaces. She spoke of the need for transparency and relevance, as well as developing collaborative learning environments that embrace risk-taking and support failure. “If you want innovation and creativity, create a space that allows failure in the learning process.”

Here’s Diana’s TED talk if you have not yet had the opportunity to hear her speak about 3 surprising things she has learned from teaching, including learning from mistakes:

Learning.

Teq helped sponsor the event and offered a variety of Smartboard-related sessions, which I heard were well-attended. Too often schools outfit their classrooms with a specific type of technology, yet fail to provide adequate support and professional development for teachers in order to help the tool be used in order to truly impact learning. I am sure the Smartboard sessions were useful for many. During the first session, I had the pleasure of facilitating a Skype-enabled conversation led by Patrick Larkin and Andy Marcinek from Burlington High School, who shared their experiences implementing a 1:1 initiative with iPads, and also shared strategies for developing ePubs for student and teacher use. They shared a Google doc chock-full of resources: Building a Collaborative ePub.

Over breakfast, Tom Whitby, Adam Bellow and I had a great conversation about how presenters are often fearful they’re sharing the same ideas over and over again, and what if no one learns anything new from what we have to share? I think each of us felt a certain pressure to provide new (or at least tweaked) material at the next conference/workshop/meeting. Then Tom brought up a great point about the amount of educators there are in this world (he threw out the number 7.2 million?) yet, when you stopped to consider the group of teachers & educators that are “connected,” we guesstimated anywhere from 200,000-500,000. So, chances are good that as more people become connected, any ideas you have to share will be new and beneficial to someone just embarking on the connected learning journey.

For that reason, I so appreciated the many folks who stopped by my session. It was wonderful engaging in conversation about the need for educators to share, ideas on how to become a more connected educator, tools to try, and ways that my teachers and students have become connected learners. Afterwards I enjoyed talking to a few attendees with some follow-up questions about Google docs, Wikispaces, and Twitter. I’m so thankful to have the opportunity to touch base with other educators in face-to-face learning environments! Later in the evening I received a tweet from Katelyn, who attended my session and decided to give Twitter a try. She’s a 5th grade teacher – reach out and connect with her! And that’s why I love sharing what I do.

Another great element during my session was the amount of open dialogue. First Aaron Eyler interrupted me (mid-sentence) by broaching the subject of the “virtual high-fiving” in certain Twitter communities. He cautioned the group not to get swept up in retweeting things just because someone who is “high profile” sends it out. He encouraged everyone to read for themselves and determine the value of ideas before freely sharing them. This was an excellent point, and I’m glad he raised it. We discussed that as relationships build via Twitter exchanges, commenting on blogs, etc., it’s important to respectfully push others in their thinking.

Here are my session slides:

Enhance Learning with Social Media

View more presentations from Lyn Hilt

and here’s a link to related resources.

In session 3, Brian always-dressed-to-kill Nichols led a conversation about leadership in the age of mobile learning. He shared examples of student work, admitted freely that he was the kid that always got in trouble in school, and he shared some great apps for mobile learning. Check out his Twitter stream for the great resources he always shares.

I ended the day in a session about innovative teaching and learning. I struggled a bit with the use of the word “innovative” to describe some of the resources shared, and I’m not certain it’s necessary to decipher the differences between technology integration and technology infusion, but I think the fact that these conversations are starting to happen across our schools is an important first step. My final comment to the group during that session is that we have to stop focusing on the tool, and that we have to stop insisting teachers become the experts with technology. We have to focus on pedagogy. Teachers need to be partners in learning. We have to get tools in kids’ hands. We have to help students ask questions, dig deeper, work together to solve problems, and create evidence of learning. And we have to get out of their way.

Due to some scheduling conflicts I was disappointed I didn’t get to hear Paul Bogush or Shelly Blake-Plock speak, as they are two educators whose blogs I read regularly and whose ideas I respect greatly. I regret not having the chance to say hello to Paul, but it was great meeting Shelly for the first time. I missed out hearing David Timony, which was sad, because I always leave his sessions thinking that my brain really is out to get me. (That’s a good thing.) I know there are others I missed…

Laughs.

This was a day filled with positive energy. I was able to share some virtual laughs with Patrick and Andy before their session started. Aaron and Brian kept me on my toes all day, and our post-conference debriefing with Aaron, Adam, Dave Zirkle, Dr. Timony, and Mike Ritzius was full of good cheer. I love these days because I can honestly say some of the most enjoyable times I’ve experienced over the past few years have been in the company of those in my PLN. I’m one lucky learner.

Thanks, Eric, NMHS & students, sponsors, and attendees for an excellent day!

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Learning together.

CC licensed photo shared by A. Forgrave via Flickr

Today a team of my school’s teachers attended a workshop at our local IU called Improving Reading Comprehension (K-3), and I decided to tag along. There were several knowledgeable researchers/educators that presented ideas from the field of early literacy, and, even now just halfway through the day, I feel our team benefited from attending.

In fact, I feel we benefited more than any other team in the room.

And here’s why.

I visit the conference center many times throughout the year. I always wonder, Will I be allowed to use my laptop today? Given the history of being told to put electronic devices “away,” only to be used during formal breaks and lunch, I tweeted my angst this morning:

This directive physically aggravates and nauseates me, and one time I did go head-to-head with a presenter who asked me to leave a session on Day 2 because I used my computer too much (therefore I clearly wasn’t invested in the learning) on Day 1. Seriously?!

However, I was glad that when I arrived, most of my team of teachers were already using their laptops, ready to go for the day. Would this have been the case a few years ago? Probably not. But we’ve been working hard on trying to develop a collaborative learning environment, one where I encourage teachers to go out and find resources for use, reflect on their learning, and to share resources via Diigo or Twitter or any means necessary… so seeing this made me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Having the technology/tools available is one thing. Using them is another.

I opened Evernote to begin to take notes but realized most of my teachers don’t use this tool. Instead, I started and shared a Google doc through our school Google Apps and invited each teacher. Very quickly, we populated the doc with an outline of the day, the main components we’d be learning about, and then I sent a jovial chat to another teacher to wake her up at this early hour. The chat box quickly became a backchannel where we started a) offering critical feedback on the presentation and b) sharing ideas with one another.

Then this gem: 

In the words of Chris Wejr: “BOOM!” So we inserted a table into the doc and the resources and links spilled in as the day went on.

And it just continued in this fashion. Kelly got the ball rolling. Steffany made connections with reciprocal teaching. Margaret wanted to learn how these comprehension strategies would fit into our Daily 5 work (and was frankly a little bummed she didn’t bring her laptop today. She was always peeking over Kelly’s shoulder to read the backchannel chat!) Jena and Julie raised conversational topics in the chat box and populated the table. (Although I think maybe Julie was off-task all morning getting acquainted with her new WordPress class blog. It’s addicting! Just kidding, Julie! 🙂

Possible to get this kind of collegial interaction without social media use? Perhaps. But it would require more time…. far more time. We would have had to research resources on our own time, compile them all together using some sort of antiquated method which may or may not have included paper. Shudder. Then we would have needed to find a meeting time that suited everyone’s schedules. Sitting around a table, probably disgruntled we could be using this time for something else, we would have tried to recall the session components and bring it all together in some sort of cohesive conversation.

No thanks.

This morning I shared this piece I found through Zite involving the use of social media to enhance professional learning communities. The author shares:

A professional learning community is based upon respect, responsibility and collaboration. It reflects the need for all members of the community to view themselves as learners. This creates flexibility, openness to change and adaptability, which are definitely requirements for successfully managing the fast paced, continually changing context education exists within.

This is what we want for our teachers in our schools. How does social media facilitate the learning process among a group of learners? Social media provides

1. Time to collaborate

2. Leadership support

3. Information 

4. Ready access to colleagues

Our team’s use of a simple collaborative tool today certainly provided us with all of the above. If you’re interested in our Google doc, I can share it when we’re finished with our day. Right now it’s contained within our Google Apps domain and can’t be shared w/outside users. (Don’t get me started on that one.) Our plan is to share the doc with our colleagues following the session and then have the teachers that attended serve as resources for further discussions and learning.

Every year, schools send out pockets of teachers to workshops, to be involved in graduate programs, to engage in book study groups, etc. to enhance professional practice. If we continue to allow teachers to keep their learning to themselves, and if we are charged with leading learning initiatives and do not plan for and facilitate the vital element of social learning, we’re doing a disservice to the organization as a whole, and therefore, a disservice to our students.

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It’s kind of magical.

CC licensed photo shared by Flickr user susanvg

Yesterday was our full-day “in-service” for teachers at the building level. This is a day always filled with anticipation, nerves, and the feeling that I probably neglected to do something before the clock chimes 8 AM. But this year, a feeling of calm spread over me. The task of planning 6 hours of professional development for teachers can be daunting for a principal. But when you turn the learning over to the learner, things tend to run a bit more smoothly.

Providing teachers with the autonomy to do as they please on a day of learning isn’t something that would be met with success in any school. This type of opportunity comes only when teachers and administrators work in a culture of mutual respect and trust. For the past three years I’ve attempted to build this culture in our school, and I am now able to see the benefits of our efforts together. It was not without trials and tribulations, ups and downs, or successes and failures. But what results is special.

And it’s kind of magical.

I expressed these sentiments to my teachers yesterday. I told them that they don’t have the luxury of seeing this faculty as a whole as I do. How I notice every change in peer-peer encounter; every positive comment and word of encouragement; how formerly there were only questions raised without accompanying solutions offered; how they’re seeking out one another in times of need, when thirsting for knowledge, and using each other as resources in a collaborative learning environment.

So here are a few details about our opening day to avoid this being one of those fluffy posts void of any real information. 🙂

We started with a welcome and introductions of new staff members. My administrative assistant prepared a folder of important documents for our teachers and spent about 10 minutes highlighting the folder contents. I then wanted to get everyone moving around and discussing “life.” There is nothing that irks me more than encountering someone in the hallway after summer break and hearing the dreaded, “So, how was your suuummmmer?” question. Meh. So I turned to the intertubes to compile about 60 discussion-provoking questions. I printed them out in different colored ink, gathered strips of colored construction paper, and made sure each staff member chose a colored strip. This helped group our faculty members, and each group took turns choosing a question (“What do you keep in the trunk of your car?” “If you could be any comic book character, which would you be?”) and discussing the answers as a group. It didn’t take long before the room erupted with bursts of laughter and a lot of smiles. Mission accomplished!

I next had a responsibility to share with our staff building-wide achievement data. I compiled a simple Keynote highlighting some of our students’ accomplishments from last year, and the new approach our district is taking with data team meetings throughout the year. I stressed a sense of urgency in continuing to meet the needs of all of our learners, as well as the fact that we will all be transparent in our learning this year. All elementary buildings will be working together to enhance learning for students. I stressed that we will not equate our students to numbers. None of us should be afraid or unwilling to share our student data, successes, failures, ideas, and anything/everything related to the needs of our students. Together, we’re better.

I ended with this phenomenal clip of Michael McBride, a graduate of the Plano Independent School District, addressing 7,000 of his district’s teachers, eloquently describing how his K-12 teachers made an impact on his life. It was very moving, and I loved his message to teachers: “Act out. Misbehave! And teach with passion and excitement for every moment that you have inside the classroom and out.” Special thanks to Matt Gomez for including this video in a recent blog post! Made my day when I found it.

It was kind of magical.

“Wait, Lyn, what about the laundry list of informational items you have to share with teachers on Day 1? Schedules, lunch and recess routines, important dates, blah, blah, blah?” I’m blessed with a faculty full of teachers who are capable of reading print. This….is huge. 🙂 What that means is that I have the luxury of providing informational items in print for them to peruse and approach me with questions if necessary. About a week prior to opening day, I compiled a Google doc (it was a lengthy one, but I made them aware via email that it was a very important read) filled with informational items for teachers to read and consider before our meeting day. They were asked to email me with any concerns or questions. If a question arose several times, I knew it should be addressed whole-group. The only topic we discussed in our opening meeting was our changes to recess and lunch schedules. I was able to anticipate this need since teachers had the information ahead of time, and one teacher emailed me specific questions which helped guide our discussion. I received compliments that teachers enjoyed having that information in one place to refer back to as needed, and since it’s a living document, I can add/revise as needed.

Magic, indeed.

So, there I was, a full hour and 1/2 ahead of schedule. I was so thankful I now could provide my teachers with more time to meet in their teams. They used it wisely. I circulated about the building, peeking my head into various team meetings. Every conversation I encountered and work being done was meaningful in preparation for students’ arrival on Monday and the year ahead. Why don’t we trust our teachers with their time? Why do so many administrators feel as though they must dictate every second of teachers’ time on PD days? I can’t wrap my head around that.

We enjoyed a pizza lunch together. I’ve found having lunch together on this day to be a very important component of the team building process! We have a fabulous food services department who provides us with everything we need.

Then… the afternoon… the unconference! We’ve done differentiated professional development previously, including a Fed-Ex day and various teacher-led sessions during a district-wide technology day. In the past I would come up with a list of session ideas, plan the resources, run some of the sessions, etc. This time, I took a piece of blue poster board, whipped up an informal edcamp-inspired session board, placed some notecards on a nearby table, and asked teachers to sign up their conversation/session ideas to fill up the board. We had three session slots for the afternoon, and each session was filled with two or three options for discussion. We’re not a huge school, so it worked very well. I was especially blown away by the Daily 5 group that amassed in our kindergarten teacher’s room. The teachers are so excited to start this initiative this year! And where did the idea stem from? Not me. One of the teachers shared with me her Daily 5 conference experience this summer, and I thought it would be great to include others in learning more about it. In about one week, a “study group” had formed, so I ordered books for teachers. Word quickly spread, and now the study group includes representatives from all grade levels and special areas, too. Impressive.

And magical.

Last night on Twitter two of my teachers offered words of encouragement in regards to this structure of professional learning. I hope it’s okay with them that I’m sharing.


So… where do we go from here? Despite some constraints on our time this year with central-office scheduled data team meetings, I will continue to work to provide opportunities for my teachers to collaborate together. We will use those data team meetings to springboard conversations about teaching and learning and how we can best serve students. I will provide time for my teachers to spend time observing one another and discussing what they see.  Many of my teachers have discovered the value of developing a professional learning network, and I believe their influence will help others reach out to our colleagues around the world to help bring new ideas into our school. I will provide support in any way I can- through monitoring and walkthroughs, allocating time, materials and resources to their efforts, to celebrating their successes and being someone they can confer with in times of concern.

I know my days here will only become more meaningful as soon as the children walk through the doors on Monday morning, but I’m very much encouraged by the learning my faculty and I shared yesterday. Wishing all of you a magical year!

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Out with professional development, in with professional learning.

Image by Doug Johnson

As a classroom teacher I engaged in several years of “professional development” before transitioning to a role of technology specialist, my first opportunity to design and facilitate learning sessions for my colleagues. Now as a building administrator, I often think back to the PD I experienced as a teacher.

There are very few instances I can recall with clarity. I can’t tell you most of the the topics discussed. I fail to recall activities we completed. What this indicates, to me, is that I was not a learner in those instances. I do have a rather clear picture in my memory of the workshops offered by Apple trainers when we were learning to use our new MacBooks. Perhaps those days are memorable because I’m a Mac-junkie, but more likely, it’s because I was an active participant in my learning on these occasions. We completed projects. We collaborated in teams. We were given autonomy and owned the day. We learned.

Consider the last time you experienced professional development offered by your school or district. Were you engaged in learning? How do you know? How did your learning impact your practice and influence student learning outcomes?

Learning Forward, formerly known as the National Staff Development Council, has undergone an important shift in focus and message: from one of development to one of learning. Stephanie Hirsch, Learning Forward’s Executive Director, reported in Education Week on the council’s release of the newly revised Standards for Professional Learning.

These standards call for a new form of educator learning. The decision to call these Standards for Professional Learning rather than Standards for Professional Development signals the importance of educators taking an active role in their continuous development and places emphasis on their learning. The professional learning that occurs when these standards are fully implemented enrolls educators as active partners in determining the content of their learning, how their learning occurs, and how they evaluate its effectiveness. The standards give educators the information they need to take leadership roles as advocates for and facilitators of effective professional learning and the conditions required for its success. Widespread attention to the standards increases equity of access to a high-quality education for every student, not just for those lucky enough to attend schools in more advantaged communities.

The standards are of great interest to me as an administrator who is charged with planning and implementing professional learning opportunities for my teachers and staff. In particular, I was curious to see how the standards addressed the need for educators to connect and collaborate with other educators in a variety of ways to enhance learning opportunities. I wanted to know:

• How do these standards guide educators in “taking an active role in their continuous development”?

• Is there a balanced approach that includes and respects teachers’ desires to individualize learning through professional learning network connections?

• Is there ample opportunity for teachers to own their learning, supported through the typical professional development structures of a school system?

Hirsch’s quote in bold is quite meaningful. I appreciate that the standards focus on teachers as learners. Teachers are not to be treated as vehicles through which schools deliver programs and policies. This, in my opinion, has been the focus of traditional professional development frameworks for way too long.

Teachers, like students, are first and foremost individuals who have passions, interests, and an inherent desire to learn. The goal for administrators should then become how to foster the learning spirit in each and every one of our teachers through a system of learning opportunities that cater to their individual needs. This, in turn, will ignite a true excitement for learning in our teachers, which will transfer into their practice. The result? Students who spend their days with teachers who exhibit a true desire to grow professionally and who model that learning matters.

The revised standards emphasize collaboration & community

Educators can access the Standards for Professional Learning via Learning Forward’s website. They are organized into 7 domains:

Learning Communities: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students occurs within learning communities committed to continuous improvement, collective responsibility, and goal alignment.

Leadership: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students requires skillful leaders who develop capacity, advocate, and create support systems for professional learning.

Resources: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students requires prioritizing, monitoring, and coordinating resources for educator learning.

Data: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students uses a variety of sources and types of student, educator, and system data to plan, assess, and evaluate professional learning.

Learning Designs: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students integrates theories, research, and models of human learning to achieve its intended outcomes.

Implementation: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students applies research on change and sustains support for implementation of professional learning for long term change.

Outcomes: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students aligns its outcomes with educator performance and student curriculum standards.

Am I thrilled to see that Learning Communities is a component of the standards? Absolutely. As I addressed in my recent Reform Symposium presentation, Teachers as Learners, adult learning is enhanced through collaborative opportunities with colleagues that focus on shared passions, visions, and goals. Learning Forward describes learning communities as necessary to ensure continuous results for students, the development of collective responsibility, and the achievement of goals.

Within this domain, it is encouraging to see the standards highlight technology use as an integral way to form and foster a virtual learning community:

While some professional learning occurs individually, particularly to address individual development goals, the more one educator’s learning is shared and supported by others, the more quickly the culture of continuous improvement, collective responsibility, and high expectations for students and educators grows. Collective responsibility and participation foster peer-to-peer support for learning and maintain a consistent focus on shared goals within and across communities.

 

Technology facilitates and expands community interaction, learning, resource archiving and sharing, and knowledge construction and sharing. Some educators may meet with peers virtually in local or global communities to focus on individual, team, school, or school system improvement goals. Often supported through technology, cross-community communication within schools, across schools, and among school systems reinforces shared goals, promotes knowledge construction and sharing, strengthens coherence, taps educators’ expertise, and increases access to and use of resources.

This component is often neglected in typical “professional development” plans offered by school systems. How can we work to include more variety in the types of learning communities we’re forming and supporting? This coming year several of my teachers are working to implement The Daily 5 framework into their literacy blocks. I purchased books for them to read, and they will be meeting in study groups and observing classrooms throughout the year to support one another.

But some of my teachers took their learning a step farther. This week I was so pleased to see some of them engage in the #daily5 hashtag chat on Twitter. I had no idea they knew about the chat (I didn’t!), yet they sought out support and felt the desire to collaborate with other teachers who have experienced implementation of this framework. I watched as they shared ideas and knew they were indeed learning from this experience. This wasn’t dictated by our PD plan. It was something they had a passion for learning more about, and they used their PLN to facilitate their learning in this area.

I am also pleased that Leadership is a component of the Learning Forward standards. The Standards state that Leaders of professional learning are found at the classroom, school, and system levels. For far too long we have neglected to recognize our own teachers as experts in the field. Our teachers need to be given the opportunity to lead learning for their colleagues. It is essential to allow teachers to run district and school workshops and design and implement their own PD. How is this supported?

To engage in constructive conversations about the alignment of student and educator performance, leaders cultivate a culture based on the norms of high expectations, shared responsibility, mutual respect, and relational trust.

What do we need professional learning to be?

We need teachers to

  • be active participants in the learning process, one supported through a culture of trust
  • determine what content is important to learn
  • decide how they will best learn and implement this content
  • collaborate with others in communities of learning
  • assume leadership roles in the learning process
  • evaluate how effective their learning has been, including systemic reflection

To become more familiar with the Standards for Professional Learning and how they can support the frameworks you develop for teacher learning in your school, I recommend reading the research-base supporting each component, as well as checking out the FAQs and More FAQs shared by Learning Forward.

If you are a teacher, how will you take ownership for your learning this year? How will you communicate your needs to your administrators? If you are an administrator, how will you design and implement opportunities for your teachers to learn this year?

Written for the Powerful Learning Practice Voices blog. Originally posted on August 18, 2011.

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Reform Symposium 2011

The Reform Symposium is almost here! It begins tomorrow, July 29, and lasts through Sunday, July 31. You don’t want to miss this experience! It is a free, online, worldwide educational conference featuring fantastic presenters, all of whom wish to share ways in which they work to enhance educational experiences for our students.

I’ll be involved in two sessions this weekend. You can learn more about the sessions by viewing my video intro (excuse the lack of bells and whistles, we can’t all be @stumpteacher 🙂 and by reading details below!

Friday, July 29, at 2:30 PM EST, I am honored to participate in a keynote panel discussing the important relationships between leaderships and teachers, and how we can foster a collaborative spirit among all educators. You will have so much to learn from panelists David Britten (@Colonelb), Patrick Larkin (@Bhsprincipal), Dwight Carter (@Dwight_Carter), Pam Moran (@pammoran), and Becky Fisher (@BeckyFisher73)! Moderated by Lisa Dabbs (@teachingwthsoul), you won’t want to miss the sure-to-be-meaningful discussions! Click here to access the webinar link!

On Sunday, July 31, at 11:00 AM EST, I will be leading a session entitled Differentiated Learning: It’s Not Just for Students! This session will explore avenues through which administrators can provide differentiated professional development opportunities for teachers. I’ll share some examples of PD that have worked for us in our school and ways that providing autonomy, time, and support to our teachers have inspired continued learning and growth among our staff.  Click here to access the webinar link!

Hope to see you there!

Learn more about the Reform Symposium!

Updated 8/6/2011  -Thanks to all of the participants who spent time in my session last weekend! I enjoyed our conversation!

Link to my archived session     Link to wiki with resources

Reform Symposium 2011

View more presentations from Lyn Hilt

Link to the spreadsheet of all archived sessions

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You know who you are.

CC licensed photo shared by Flickr user always be cool

So a little bird tweets me that there is some sort of list out and about that has my name on it. Neat-o!

Only, upon further inspection, I examined the list and realized, Hey. Let’s all simmer down here. The fact that my name appears on that list is silliness. I know for a fact there are other edu-tweeters out there that are waaay more influential than me. (And have a significantly higher Klout score, for what it’s worth. (Not much.)) Plenty of fantastic people are represented, from whom I learn an awful lot on a daily basis. But this post is not going to debate who should or shouldn’t be on that list. To do so would give it even more attention than it warrants.

What’s worth recognizing is that the list exists. And why is that? Because someone is paying attention to us. We, as a collective network of educators who care about children and their futures, are sharing with one another on a regular basis and helping to influence our practices in positive ways. People are noticing.

I’m thinking about my network. I can easily name ten people who influenced my practice today. Do I need to publicize it in a list? No.

You know who you are.

This influence is not limited to the intertubes, of course. I’m considering the people who’ve shaped me into the educator I am trying to be today. Most of those people aren’t on Twitter. They don’t blog. They don’t have Facebook accounts, can’t get into Google+ no matter how many invites they receive (thanks for nothing, Google), and they surely were not at ISTE. But their influence, care, compassion, and support have forever changed me. They’re the people that demand I put the phone away when we’re out to dinner. Or at an administrative retreat. (I was taking notes, I swear!)

You know who you are.

Tonight I was all set to compose my post-ISTE reflection post, and it seems as though I am now going to combine both my reflections of that event with my ramblings about online popularity. They’re weirdly related.

Cliques. Clusters. Cadres. Cohorts. Cavorting. Cackling. Keynotes. Abuse of alliteration. Cafes. Conversations. Contempt for Comic Sans. Connected Principals. Some sort of fancy dance. All of this and more, at ISTE 11! Many of the ISTE reflection posts have focused on the power of relationships, the importance of conversations, and the jr.-high-esque social mentalities that can ensue when you bring a whole bunch of people together. #sigh

I’d like to highlight two of my favorite memories from ISTE. First, this: Kids displaying their awesomeness. Like this sharp-dressed young man:

who eloquently explained how his school’s project involved using technology to improve our Earth’s ecology. I listened to his podcast using ear buds that probably 100 other people placed in their ears. And I didn’t really care. He shared his thoughts in carefully dictated English, his second language, mind you. This group had it made. They sent out recruiters – pint-sized bits of adorableness- into the crowds to ask attendees, “Do you want to hear our presentation about technology and ecology?” Heck yes, I do. And then they led me to the booth. Gold.

To the kids who inspire me every day, from those in my first sixth grade class to the children I only briefly interacted with at ISTE: You are amazing. You know who you are.

My second favorite memory of ISTE is Irene from the Newbie Lounge. I wish I had taken a photo of  Irene. She was truly awesome. By no means in her first years on the job (or her first twenty years), Irene sat on the couch with her iPad 2 and called out, “Can you help me with this?” as I walked by, with just a few minutes to go before our Connected Principals panel session. (Thanks, by the way, to everyone who attended. It was slightly overwhelming.) I wanted a bottled water desperately. I glanced at the mile-long concessions line longingly and then thought, What the hell am I thinking? This person needs me. So I sat with Irene for about twenty minutes and walked her through the process of bookmarking a website on her Safari browser. She was truly astounded that whenever she wanted to visit that wiki filled with resources from the last session she attended, she could just go to her bookmarks and … poof! There it was. She was so happy. I was so happy.

Irene, thank you for centering me and helping me realize how much I love being a teacher. I will agree with others that the shared conversations in hallways, cafes, museums, sidewalks, and #Edubros venues were certainly well worth the price of admission. I became a tad bit emotional having to say goodbye to some very good friends on my last day there. Yes, I said it, friends. Real live avatar-people that turned into friends. Shocking! Thank you to the presenters and attendees, young and old, who inspired me at ISTE.

You know who you are.

I guess, that in the end, that’s all that really matters. That you know the positive influences you have on the work and lives of others. I agree with Kristina that many of us felt as though something was missing before we developed this supportive network of professionals via Twitter, blogging, and other media. The connections have certainly added value to our lives.

Yet in a way I also disagree. I am not so sure that something was missing so much as it was lost. Lost inside of each of us. After experiencing powerful learning, working to positively influence others, and doing the right things for kids, every one of us should be able to examine our personal accomplishments and be proud. Be very, very proud. We will make mistakes, falter, and lose our way. We will share ideas and then take too long to act on them. Just pick yourself up, put a plan in place, do something, and continue to be awesome. No list can define our ability to do so. Only you can make that happen.

You know who you are.