Have you ever wondered how you come across online when you are communicating - whether it is on Facebook, in a blog, in a chatroom, or simply in an email?
As I currently read posts or emails, always with the intent of determining a tone or voice, it raises my awareness to a number of things:
1. Perceived authority (your boss, your colleague, your assistant, your friend....);
2. Urgency (is the information just that or does it require a follow-up?);
3. Formality (is it serious or frivolous, casual or formal, sweet or stuffy?).
I am making a personal goal to weigh my words carefully and to take the time to read what I write before posting. Is anyone out there going to join me in this effort? Let's all focus on the voice we really want to be heard, and as you read through my blog posts, please call me on the carpet if my tone becomes too edgy for those topics in which I am hyper-passionate!
One of my favorite people in the coaching world is Elizabeth (Tiz) Powers, who works at George Washington University's Center for Equity and Excellence in Education and is an active member of Pennsylvania's Institute for Instructional Coaching (PIIC). Her most recent co-authored article in Educational Leadership (December 2011/January 2012, Vol 69, No. 4) entitled, "Coaching without a Coach" is SO timely! In this article, she and co-author, Christina Steinbacher-Reed question, "how can cash-strapped schools empower educators at all levels to engage in coaching?"
After embracing the coaching initiative, our district is one of many in the Lehigh Valley that is experiencing major funding cuts and has eliminated all coaching positions. As the administrator who took this initiative and ran with it, my heart and soul have been rocked to their core. Seven full-time site-based coaches either went back into the classroom, left the district, or changed their duties to serve in another teacher leadership capacity, such as Instructional Support Teacher (IST).
How can we keep coaching "in the picture"? As Tiz and Christina share in their article, coaches who attended the International Literacy Coaching Summit and Widener University Reading Conference in spring 2011, came up with these possible practices:
Provide professional development during faculty gatherings,
Use release time to continue coaching on a limited basis,
Refer colleagues to experts,
Share data analysis,
Initiate co-planning,
Recruit colelagues to join a book study group,
Develop and share instructional resources,
Spearhead collaborative analysis of student work,
Facilitate peer coaching groups,
Demonstrate lessons and coteach
Convince principals to schedule common planning time
Help create sustainable practices
Get creative with release time
As Tiz so eloquently coined, "Remember that a change in job title doesn't mean former coaches must stop coaching!" Keep "coach" as a verb - something ALL educators can do together!
I just returned from the national Learning Forward conference where I attended a session with the goal of teaching participants how to use a collaborative tool designed to assess and advance the implementation of the Common Core Standards within a system. As the Common Core Standards continue to be implemented nationwide and as national assessments are beginning to be developed in collaboration with the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), the message both facilitators echoed was ….“teach the standards well” (David Hill and Patti Bridwell).
In their message, Bridwell and Hill focused on the two facets of organizational change – people and structures. Noting that people are not easily changed, the duo walked participants through a tool that will guide leaders to modify structures that affect attitudes, behavior, self-image, people, and actions.
The “tool” (scroll down to Common Core subheading and if the hyperlink does not take you in automatically, use the username and password “coach”) is a pilot version that consists of 5 components...
4 Levers (to help “lift” the heavy load of information and process)
Key Indicators (to give stakeholders the “why” behind the change)
Descriptors of Advanced Implementation (to guide the “how” of the process)
Evidence of Current Practice (to determine what is actually in place)
Recommendations (how can we use those current practices differently to affect change in the system at all levels within our control, aligned to the key indicator?)
Implementation suggestions included the following:
Make sure you have a representative group of no more than 35.
Model the use of the tool using key indicator 1.1; however do not complete the recommendation section at this time.
Assign each table group two key indicators to complete.
Facilitate a 'graffiti walk' so others have the opportunity provide evidence of current practice on additional key indicators.
After the graffiti walk, ask the original group to consider all the evidence and generate recommendations for each of the key indicators.
On a follow-up day, assemble a small subset of key leaders to consider and prioritize the recommendations. (Bridwell and Hill)
For more information regarding the Dana Center, Learning Forward members may access the following site – www.utdanacenter.org/pd/ila2010 – user name: coaches / password: coaches
Facilitators:
Patti Bridwell, The University of Texas, Charles A. Dana Center, Austin, TX
David Hill, The University of Texas, Charles A. Dana Center, Austin,
Image retrieved November 28, 2011 from http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/vision1.jpg
Have you ever heard the saying, “Hindsight is golden”? Well, if I had known THEN what I know NOW, I certainly would have/could have been a better teacher! But to my own defense, I really thought that I was doing what was educationally sound at the time. It just goes to show that we really never stop learning and that we can always become more effective collaborators, facilitators, teachers, …...
Looking forward to 2020, we could probably argue that what we are doing now is educationally sound “at the current time” but that with technology advances, collaborative learning environments, tips, strategies, and more all just a keystroke away, we are probably in for quite a ride!
Although 2020 is only 9 years away, my mind is racing to possible advances. For those of you who may remember the cartoon called the Jetsons, some of those “far-fetched” concepts are actually reality today, AND we're probably not that far off in realizing other changes in the world that would affect education.
Image retrieved November 28, 2011 from http://www.tv.com/shows/the-jetsons/
On the cartoon show, the characters would simply press a button and “zap” - their dinner would be ready...(long before microwaves became a typical household appliance); they could communicate on screens with teachers, friends, a boss......(long before Skype); and, they had cars they could program from point A to point B (long before GPS systems)! So.....what does this all mean for 2020 visioning and how the world may be in the year 2020?
If we reference futuristic research and the wonderfully creative TED website, we can see and hear examples of how changes affect people every day – from the Amy Purdy story of her recovery from bacterial meningitis that left her without a spleen, kidneys, and both legs below the knees to Joe Sabia's technology of storytelling that's a great pictorial of storytelling through its 6000 year history. As we contemplate our future, allow me to challenge your thinking by taking you for a 6.21 minute journey with some robots!
How can we build self-awareness in our own students? As Marge Scherer, (2011, February) indicates, “Education has to change. We can't pull kids into learning in school if they are engaged in a different world outside school” (p. 7). Effectively teaching the students in 2020 will depend on two basics – embracing the tools and then using them! In fact, Scherer reports in her interview with Karen Cator, the director of the Office of Education Technology at the U.S. Department of Education, that Cator envisions the day when “....broadband is as pervasive as electricity and when all students will come to school with digital devices in hand, much as they came with their pencil boxes in the past” (p. 7).
Can you see the little George Jetsons of the world.....walking around with their digital devices – MP3 players, i phones, or whatever device the future may bring us - maybe even devices so small that we can't even physically see them? I'm picturing a time when my granddaughter can simply speak into a microchip and get the answer she's investigating.....instant feedback! Talk about differentiation in the classroom! Teachers will become facilitators of learning, channeling activities based on learning targets per child!
Imagine the possibilities!
Image retrieved November 30, 2011 from http://edinboroonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/brain_possibilities.jpg
Beyond the individual classroom, what can schools do to help prepare our students for 2020? According to Richardson (2011, February), we need to help students understand not only the safety and ethics of collaborating online, but we have to provide opportunities for them to find and follow their passions and to publish meaningful work for global audiences! We have to think beyond our walls, our community, our state..... We must teach “connections” - an opportunity to learn from those who take the time to read and respond. “Without sharing, there is no education” (Wiley, 2010). Teachers will be sharing lesson plans, thoughts, experiences, and will be utilizing wikis, blogs, voice threads, YouTube videos, photos, Skype, Googledocs.......intentionally having students share work online so that they can learn how to build their own foundations for their future sharing online.
My vision of the world in 2020 is one of immersion in technology – 24/7 – facilitating learning according to each child's needs, learning targets, and schedules, and getting our children more involved in their own learning!
References:
Scherer, M. (2011, February). Screenagers: Making the connections. Educational Leadership, 68/5
TEDTalks website retrieved November 28, 2011 from http://www.ted.com/
Wiley, D. (2010, March 8). My TEDxNYED talk. Iterating toward openness [blog post]. Retrieved November 30, 2011 from Iterating Toward Openness at http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/1270
Do you use pictures in your classroom, photos as writing prompts/wiki prompts, or catalog your students via pictorial portfolios? Well......let me share a new find with you - Picnik! It's a free web application that only requires the Flash Player to be installed on your computer with no additional downloads, and it's easy to use!
Here's an example of a picture from Lucky Baldwin's estate in Lake Tahoe that I adapted to use as a conversation starter with my new teachers regarding their gains in technology. The "ice breaker" is a great activity to start any training session AND this particular activity was one that I used to transition their face-to-face conversations with an extended conversation on their new teacher wiki, sharing examples of technology applications that have helped their students learn.
Can you think of other possibilities utilizing pictures? My adult learners love using picture prompts and editing photos - in fact, even my two-year old granddaughter enjoys taking/editing pictures using her Disney camera! Learning can be so much fun!
Catch this video clip of inspiring education pictures.....(thank you, Adrienne and Shelby, for teaching me how to embed a video clip!)
How comfortable ARE YOU when it comes to NOT having a hard copy of a document? My guess is that as a possible Gen X-er or Gen Y-er (Millenial), you may be a bit more comfortable than my Baby Boomer generation; However, as an environmentally conscious grandmother AND a technology embracer, I challenge you to start thinking about what YOU could be doing in the classroom WITHOUT PAPER!
Here are just two things I’ve begun doing so far:
All meeting agendas and subsequent minutes are posted on a Moodle course for each group (Principals, Department Chairs, ISTs, Instructional Coaches, New Teachers, etc.) If someone wants a printed copy, I ask them to print their own; however, I post the agenda on the screen during each meeting and participants are getting into the habit of bringing with them their own laptops for notetaking. In fact, I have also begun actually taking the minutes on my laptop as everyone sees them being typed on the screen. I’m finding that when something needs to be clarified, they catch it immediately!
All Power Points, video clips, articles, and websites used for professional development sessions are posted on appropriate Moodle course sites for participants to access during and after each session.
It’s interesting to consider how I may gauge the measure of success with my new system, but if one could judge by reading faces, I can tell you that the sense of panic I see when they come to one of my meetings now and notice that I no longer hand them a paper copy will hopefully soon turn to a new practice! We are scheduled for our third meeting next week, so I’ll let you know!
One advantage to going GREEN is the fact that there is one repository for all notes per topic instead of BINDERS! The principals, department leaders, IST teachers, instructional coaches, and even my administrative assistants know where to find documents that previously would have just been filed away in a binder. Perhaps I can even begin arranging more aesthetically pleasing knick-knacks on my shelves!
As Richardson (2006) so eloquently states of the Read/Write Web, it is “one of seamless transfer of information; of collaborative, individualized learning; and of active participation by all members of the class” (p. 127). With the continuous process of creating and sharing content, Richardson relates ‘shifts’ in thinking about content and curriculum and how educators can best teach students.
One of Richardson’s (2006) ‘shifts’ identified as “Big Shift #4: Teaching is Conversation, Not Lecture”
(p. 129) resonates with me personally. Although I am somewhat of an auditory learner, I have found over time that I do actually understand more after I’ve had the opportunity to discuss the learning with colleagues. Gone are the days when the teacher was the ‘sage on the stage’ lecturing to large groups of students who sat scripting everything, and welcome are the days that students can engage in their own learning by accessing multiple sources for understanding!
Today’s technology has opened the field of education to one that empowers the learner! As Siemens (2002) indicated, collaborating, having conversations, and making connections are simply starting points to learning and the ideas generated by networks propagate further discovery and understanding. Students become active participants in the design of their own learning and we, as educators, are preparing them to be more involved in their own futures.
I see this with my own practice as a professional developer with new teachers! I even feel guilty for what I made those new teachers 10 years ago endure! I am a MUCH better “collaborator and conversation facilitator” than lecturer! AND, the resources, tools, and strategies I am learning from others in the PLS “Building Collaborative Environments” course is the best example of teaching and learning I’ve witnessed since being a part of my blended doctoral cohort! This has definitely shaped me as an educator and as an educational leader, and I value continuing opening many more windows for future learning, sharing, extending, and probable ‘shifting’ of my own!
References:
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
