Multi-faceted Refractions

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.

Over the past 36 hours, I have had several profound learning experiences. First, I have been trying to experience as much of the Learning 2.0 conference which was going on in Shanghai on both Friday and Saturday evenings.  Like members of my learning community, Carolyn Foote, Jennifer Wagner, Clarence Fisher, and David Jakes, I have been trying to follow the forums on the Ning which has been set up at the conference, following the messages on twitter, and trying to catch rides in the Elluminate rooms so that I could connect and learn. On Saturday morning, after reading a twitter message from Jeff Utecht, I raced to downloaded the opening session podcast before I jumped in the car, shaking off the sleep on a very cool, autumnal morning to do my Saturday morning errands, going to the bank and grocery shopping. For over an hour and a half, I hung on nearly every word, soaking it in.

On Saturday afternoon, I participated in a FlashMeeting hosted by Paul Harrington from the UK. There were between 8 and 11 participants from the UK, the United States, and Australia talking about best practice. The conversation centered on developing students spoken voice through podcasting. I got a number of great ideas on why this is important for elementary school students and found out about a great new project, Voices of the World, which I am hoping to integrate into somewhere into my school.

So while some may consider me slightly pathetic, since I spend my Friday and Saturday evenings at home, in front of my computer (flipping between the Cubs-Cardinals and Brewers-Reds baseball games and the Diamondbacks-Dodgers on Friday night, not a complete waste of time), I am happy that I invested the time and energy to continue with my learning. I will be better for it in the long run.

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It was last Saturday, that I recieved a message from Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, that a proposal that I created for the K12 Online Conference was accepeted. I am honored that I was selected for this conference. As many of you will soon learn, it was one of the catalysts for my own professional learning. Looking at the lineup of presenters, I have to pinch myself. I look forward to experience.

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It has been only three days since I attended a workshop with five of my teachers which was moderated by Will Richardson. Even though it is May and teachers are having to deal with not only their students during these last four weeks, but the weather in Chicago has been unbelievably nice, several of the teachers attending the conference have begun to implement the ideas that they learned in the workshop. It is truly exciting to watch.

You can begin to watch some of the following projects take root:

A short-term result of your workshop can be found at:

http://nscolorsofthemountian.wikispaces.com (8th Grade Humanities Wiki)

http://shouguaungnorthshoreexchange.wikispaces.com (8th Grade Cultural Exchange Wiki - closed to all but participants)

http://finalproject07.wikispaces.com (AP US History Final Project - Digital Storytelling)

http://amykenyon.edublogs.org (A new teacher blogger, who is trying to connect and develop students fiction writing skills)

As someone whose mission is to empower others so that they feel comfortable integrating technology on their own, it is gratifying when teachers and students begin to think of ways that they can utilize the tools and then do so on their own.

Today, I had one of those experiences. Kevin Randolph (krandolph@nscds.org), one of our history teachers whom I have been collaborating with on a variety of different projects, sent me this email last Friday:

<a student who struggles>……yes <student name>, wondered in class Tuesday if we could create a folder where students (in their class) could share information about homework assignments….how about that.

He is on the way, w/o realizing it, the assignment wiki’s I am going to create.

Nice to see it happen organically isn’t it!

Kevin has since gone on to create the wiki for his project, students reading The Jungle, on his own.

My efforts have begun taking root. A nice thought on this spring day.