Multi-faceted Refractions

It is 4:30 a.m. and I am wide awake, with many idea fragments and thoughts running through my brain. I cannot sleep and have to capture these kernals and observations so that I can retrieve them for the daunting task which I am currently facing, which is to act as an unbiased mirror, reflecting and confirming the observations of another school. I am both excited and giddy about the intense process which I am currently undertaking and will be doing so for the next 96 hours. It provides for me an opportunity for  professional development which is enriching and exciting. I cannot wait to go back and observe, reflect, and learn from a school observation while getting the opportunity to add new members to my personal learning network, whose ideas, views, and perspectives I will be able to tap into in the months and years ahead.

You see, I work at an independent school which belongs to the Independent Schools of the Central States (ISACS). To maintain membership as an ISACS school and more importantly, as a tool for growth, each school is asked to participate in an analytical review process every seven years. This self-reflection is one which is often loathed for the time and energy that it takes to go through. However, when done right, this process can help a school identify both what their strengths are so that they can continue to build on those. Each school also identifies its weaknesses with plans on how they are going to tackle that challenge.

It is now my job to simply go and observe and interact with the faculty, holding up the mirror to verify that the image that they created is accurate and not skewed. I have 48 hours to peel away the layers to make sure that they have reflected their core. During this process, I will also gain a new lens and perspective which to apply to the way that I view my school. I will be able to bring back ideas, but more importantly new ways to look at both the way that me and my department look at the challenges that we have and allow us to apply our strengths to help resolve our challenges.

The culminating artifact which will be produced is a written document which will then be provided to the school administration. Not only do we have only 48 hours to observe and confirm the picture, but we need to write our reflections for the school to process. It is an intense project and the final report was one that I used to dread. However, since I have begun to use this space to reflect on my ideas and the projects that I work on, I am finding the process to be much simpler. I am already in the habit of partially stepping outside myself to assess and reflect what I am doing.

What would  be interesting would be to produce a mini-documentary, or to provide images which we could use to show our views of what they are doing, we have to produce a document which can be easily accessed by the administration, who unfortunately is more are text based learners. Maybe in the upcoming years, as more schools provide opportunities for students to engage in these ways of creating a story, when they begin to be part of the process as adult teachers, they will push us for the opportunity to use different modalities to tell the story as well.

Now that I have emptied my head and documented my thoughts, I better catch some more sleep so that I will be able to be alert and ready for the morning. It will be here before I want it to be.

Over the past six months, we have been investigating several converging ideas:

• Campus Wide Long Range Space Planning
• Questioning of Schedule and Time in all three of our divisions
• Discussion of the role of technology - tablets, laptops, projectors, network, and services to support learning

These conditions are converging, suggesting that we are nearing a near perfect storm that potentially could transform our learning environments and provide us with the framework which will enable us to enter into our second century of existence in 11 years. I am really excited about the possibilities.

Our Head of School has been interested in the Harkness Table concept. He has been dropping this idea into conversations for nearly a year now. As we are getting closer to our next milestone in determing whether or not we will be heading to a school environment in which technology will be “like oxygen, ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible” (Chris Lehmann in School 2.0 - Creating Schools We Need). Last night, I had an epiphany moment connecting this initiative and the Harkness Philosophy. The Harkness Philosophy can be updated for the new learning environment.

Embedded is a presentation which is I am developing the connection between the technology, learning environments, and the updates needed to provide for the Harkness Table 2.0. The changes are not in the physical realm, but instead extend to the collaborative network. I would appreciate any feedback or pushback from my network so that I can continue the development of these ideas. This is a work in progress, so I will be updating it over the next week.

Today we assembled as a faculty to kick-off the 2008-2009 academic year. This is an exciting day, especially for those of us who work most of the year, as old faculty return with tales of adventures from the previous ten weeks and we welcome in the new members of the teaching community at school.

Like many schools, we begin the year highlighting the themes and topics that we will address for the upcoming year. Last year, the school created a new strategic plan which outlined the areas of exploration for us for the upcoming year.

There are three areas of focus for us in the upcoming year. They are Diversity, Environmental Sustainability, and Service Learning. This is in addition to the technology agenda, of trying to create a cadre of teachers who will seed a professional learning community to talk and communicate about best practices, as we determine our future direction and whether we implement a 1:1 program.

What was interesting while listening to the various presentations from each of the leaders spearheading the initiatives was that our challenge is going to be how we progress in each of these areas, since we will be competing for attention and energy above and beyond the normal day-to-day classroom experiences. Many of the groups, including my technology vision, are going to ask teachers to meet, discuss, and develop priorities and action plans to further the initiative.  It may be dangerous and we may be working at opposition to each other, which may cause neither of the initiatives to gain traction and momentum.

What is interesting is that the solutions, engaging students to take ownership, gathering buy-in from a diverse constituent base, develop curriculum that is more problem-based in nature, could be complimentary and brought together under a single umbrella.

Rather than being four different initiatives, we should try to consolidate our efforts into a single plan for 21st Century Learning. This way, we can combine efforts. There is no reason that they Environmental Sustainability project create service learning projects which utilize technology tools to create spaces for collaboration, communication, and allow for different groups to connect both synchronously and asynchronously to provide a wider group of diverse individuals to challenge and expand our assumptions, making the wisdom of the group greater than that of one part.

Instead of competing, we should consolidate efforts, so that each project can utilize the strengths of the complimentary other priorities while maintaining its unique identity.

That is our school’s challenge for the year, how to create a community and culture that is complimentary and builds cooperatively rather than compete against each other for the two most precious commodities for teachers, energy and attention.