Sharing Our Learning

Currently I am attending the #ISTE12 conference in San Diego, CA, and I would have to admit that this is probably one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen.  Well, at least the parts I have seen so far

Connecting and sharing with so many here, I continuously hear the theme of how our schools need to change, etc.  I always go back to the Will Richardson post “No Quick Fix”, where he states the following:

Meaningful change ain’t gonna happen for our kids if we’re not willing to invest in it for ourselves first. At the heart, it’s not about schools…it’s about us.

If the change is going to happen that we are wanting in our schools, we have to “know the way, go the way, show the way.” I know that I am extremely skeptical of any companies trying to sell the next “big thing” in education when I know we already have amazing people in schools that have access to the biggest library of resources and people in the world.  Teachers need to be learners first and any “program” that I can open and pull out of box is not going to help our kids long term.  We need to listen, talk, and care about all of those in our schools and that program is totally free.

And with that little rant, I want to share some articles that read this last week which I thought were great reads.

1.  The 7 Pillars of Connecting with Absolutely Anyone – Although this article is not written from the viewpoint of an educator, education is ALL ABOUT connection.  Now although this is written from a business standpoint, I do believe there is some great points that educators should think about:

1. Be genuine. The only connections that work will be the ones that you truly care about; the world will see through anything short of that. If you don’t have a genuine interest in the person with whom you’re trying to connect, then stop trying.
2. Provide massive help. Even the biggest and most powerful people in the world have something they’d like help with. Too many people never reach out to those above them due to the fear that they wouldn’t be able to offer anything in return. But you have more to offer than you realize: write an article or blog post about them, share their project with your community, offer to spread their message through a video interview with them. Give real thought to who you could connect them with to benefit their goals. If it turns out you can’t be thathelpful, the gesture alone will stand out.

2.  Blogging is the New Persuasive Essay – I have said this before, but Shelley Wright is my favourite blogger.  The entire blog post is great, but this quote really got me thinking:

The truth is lately I’ve come to question the point of much of this. Does the average person, once they leave school, spend a lot of time composing academic essays? Is this the best way for our students to show their learning?  In some places, the academic 5 paragraph essay is hailed as the Holy Grail of non-fiction writing achievement. Yet even if a student can become a great persuasive essay writer, they’re still only semi-literate, at least according to the definition of 21st Century Literacies.

As an educator, when is the last time you have written an essay?  Our kids are more likely to write a blog after they leave school then an essay.  Seriously, read the whole article.

3.  Students can change the world when we get out of the way – This great blog post talks to something that I knew, but I heard reiterated in a conversation yesterday.  We are at a point in history where everyone can have a voice or audience.  This might not be considered a good thing by some, but it should be considered a reality by all.  As one student started writing about the food in her cafeteria, it is amazing the shock waves that it sent all over, and the attention that she received.  This is not just about publicity though but about making a change as Ewan McIntosh shares:

Martha shows every facet of great learning: real world change, making the environment around her better, sharing her thinking with the world, having a conscious for the world beyond her immediate horizons, and robustness in the face of incredible media and social media pressure. She is another ‘Caine‘, with a supportive parent and facilitating adults around her. She’ll go far.

A great story that shows how kids can really change our world now, not just the future.

BONUS*

This video of Carly Rae Jepsen, Jimmy Fallon, and the Roots doing “Call Me Maybe” using instruments from an elementary music classroom just makes me happy:

Have a great week!

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by shareski

Only a few more weeks until school is over for many in Canada but the learning will continue throughout the summer, anytime we are open to it.  Here are some links that I found interesting this week:

1.  Amplify the Positive Outliers – Seth Godin, one of the most popular bloggers on the Internet, talks about the importance of building culture by highlighting the work of those that are making a change:

“The tribe is hyper-aware of what’s being celebrated, and when you celebrate those that are moving in the right direction, you create a powerful push in that direction. It’s tempting to spend your time extinguishing bad behaviors, but in fact, spreading the word about the superstars is far more likely to change the culture of your market.”

Cultures are so important in the work that we do at schools, so this leads nicely into the next post.

2.  Starting the Conversation on Rethinking Awards Ceremonies – Chris Wejr, a good friend and principal, often talks about how awards impact our students, and provides this post to help schools start the conversation.  He asks some great questions:

• Does your year-end awards ceremonies and/or student of the month program align with your school vision, plan and/or goals?
• What does research say about the use of awards/prizes to motivate (or demotivate) learning?
• At which age do awards become necessary – 5? 10? 15?  Why?
• How much of the award is based on culture, language, parents (particularly cultural capital and income) and teachers that the winner has/had and how much is based on the person’s work ethic?

So where is the balance between highlighting the great work that is being done by our outliers, but also building a culture of collaboration?  These two pieces will provide a good starting point for that conversation.

3. The Best Twitter Hashtags for Teachers – Just a simple article to help teachers start using Twitter to do their own learning.  This offers some great connections to Twitter hashtags in the classrooms, but it leaves out two that I follow exclusively which are #ConnectedCA and #CPChat.  Which ones do you follow for your learning?

4.  I love this picture from 22 Words about cheating:

We have to look at what “cheating” means in our schools today.  If collaboration is a skill we are promoting in skills and organizations are begging their employees have, does cheating in our schools today look the same?  Something that I have said to many groups when I have been asked about the concern of using Google to cheat on a test is that if you can look up the answer to test on Google, is the question very good?

Maybe this picture can start some conversations on the topic of cheating and collaboration.

Hope you have a great week!

As many of us go into summer vacation, we have big plans about what we are going to do going into summer, and how we are going to come back better as educators in the fall.  I wanted to share a few of my favourite stories/videos, that give me that little extra push to get out of bed in the morning and get better.  I hope you enjoy them.

1.  World’s Strongest Dad –  I first heard about this story when I read Rick Reilly’s article in Sports Illustrated, and I was blown away when I saw the video.  An amazing story of the bond between father and son.

2. The Derek Redmond Story – This is easily one of the most emotional stories that I have ever seen from the Olympics. Again, it involves a father and son, but more importantly, it is about never giving up.

3. Are you going to finish strong? – When we often complain about what we are missing in our lives, we often forget about what we have. This short speech made by this amazing man to a group of students talks about how we need to continuously get back up. Watching the kids hug the speaker at the end is as emotional as his speech.

4. How bad do you want it? (Part 2) – This video is not only for those who enjoy an active lifestyle, but it talks about the dedication it takes to be successful. I loved the first video in this series, but this one talks about the dedication it takes to be successful. I listen to the words in this video when I work out, over and over again, and it really pushes me. Hopefully you find some use of it the message.

5. Will Smith on Success – I was blown away by the words of wisdom and dedication to excellence that I saw from Will Smith. With lots of great little quotes and thoughts, this is a great video for discussion in the classroom. It is definitely worth watching.

Hopefully one of these videos have inspired you! Have a great week!

People are often muddied by the waters of technology believing that all of the learning that happens through social media is either about technology or, more specifically, social media itself.  There is so much that I have learned about the areas of leadership, assessment, school culture, pedagogy, and a host of other topics that have both personal and professional meaning.  I have learned about them through strictly informational sites but I have also learned a lot through the people that I have connected with.  There is so many opportunities for learning out there that many would not even know where to begin.  That is one of the reasons I try to provide this summary of some of the posts that I have read.  Here are a few this week:

1.  To learn or not to learn, that is the question – Kathryn Kindrat, one of the participants of Parkland School Division’s Learning Leader Project, writes her final reflection about the program and shares how sometimes the technology can be overwhelming.  She also discusses the importance of focusing in on learning a few specific things, not trying to learn everything:

My challenge to you, a challenge that I have also given myself, is to successfully implement three new technology related tools in your classroom next year, then share your successes/challenges with your school and the division through PD and blogging/Twitter. In order to successfully implement a few, it is likely that you will need to experiment with many; this phase has already started. The great thing, is that none of us have to do it alone!

The cool thing about the learning leader project is that through the reflections that the participants had, I as the facilitator learned a great deal myself.  The David Weinberger quote that “the smartest person in the room is the room”, holds true in this case.

2. How To Change an Organization – I personally have talked about the importance of school culture, but in this Leadership Freak post, the author discusses the importance of leadership and the types of climates that they create:

Culture but how? If you want to change an organization – grow new leaders.

Manville said, “The most successful organizational culture changes I’ve seen were framed as leadership development programs.

Cultures change when:

1. You catalyze new kinds of leadership.
2. More and more people take leadership.”

Brook said, “The king and subject model doesn’t change cultures.”Great leaders don’t change people; they create environments where people change themselves.