Digital Teaching & Learning – Page 2

Meteors

Sharing isn’t always easy.

This past week I was on vacation in Portland and after an excellent conversation, a good friend offered me some advice – that I should be sharing all the things I do with educators. I wrote about the power of focusing on the work, as opposed to self, so his comments left me reflecting on the balance we often face when we share – what to include, how much or how little, and whether we can comfortably talk about ourselves, especially when we’re discussing the work we do.

Have you heard of the humble brag? Well, I don’t believe in it. To me, this is just bragging, which is what I struggle with when writing and sharing about the successes of the work I get to do. It is much easier for me to share what didn’t work because I can focus on how to improve or fix it next time. I post many pictures on social media of educators during trainings and professional development, but writing about the work is different – I have to include myself.

I’m striving to find this mental balance because I believe in the impact of the work that I’m able to do and I want others to be empowered by it. I want to write fire – I want it to come out of every word in every post. I want to create a platform to share the amazing and inspiring things the educators I’m lucky to work with are creating and designing. I want to illustrate how important starting with empathy and relationships is. I want to communicate how even the most simple idea – whether analog or digital – can transform learning for both educators and students.

Sharing isn’t always easy, but it’s necessary. We have to share with each other because it’s an important form of support and capacity building. I am interested in what you have to say, the work you’re designing, the ways in which that work is inspiring and empowering others. I want to read about both your successes and failures. I want us to write fire until it comes out of everywhere, using sharing as a platform to transform learning.

Let’s be meteors.

Sustainability

In the past two months, many of the school professional development accounts that I work on have come to a close. I’ve left schools, said goodbye to educators, and wished them luck in the closing of the school year. And next month, I will do the same with the third cohort of coaches in the NCDLCN program.

This is a bittersweet time for numerous reasons. I’m proud of how much these educators have grown – and in turn how much their growth is affecting their students. I’ve seen confidence grow, leadership capacity be born, and creativity run rampant. My heart has been so full seeing how hard these people work so that they can create better learning experiences for their kids. It’s been amazing to be a part of this growth – leading these educators to discover more about their own ability to be creative and intentional.

I am so proud of the amazing work I get to be a part of – the way this work impacts so many people across the state. As I leave each of these places and say goodbye to these educators, I am reminded of the importance of sustainability. Sure, there are always evaluations that we collect from participants, which we use to help shape the scope of our work, but how do we know that what we do really empowers these people to carry on, to keep exploring, improving, and growing?

I don’t have all of the answers, but I do have questions that I will be asking myself as I reflect on my work over the past six months:

How do we ensure that when we leave, our work is sustaining?

How do we empower people to continue to learn and grow after we are gone?

How can we help ensure that people can carry on the momentum of the past year?

How do we check for sustainability?

Do we continue to grow these relationships?

While I work primarily with adults, I think the same questions can be asked of our work in classrooms with students.

I want to be sure that I’ve not only empowered and inspired people, but that I’ve set the stage for them to have the confidence to continue to grow, be more intentional in their instructional practice, and lead others to do the same.

Lately I’ve Read

There are so many great things out there to read. Here are a few I’ve really enjoyed in the past month.

“No Such Thing As Offline” by Justin Barber

As designers the prospect of shaping these experiences is exciting, because it comes with a great realization that the next generation of users are designing the tools and the output as much as we are.

I love when I read something outside of the education realm that has many applications for teaching and learning. I enjoyed this article’s discussion of cultural competence and the shift from passive consumption to interaction and creation.

“Wish For More Self Control Can Backfire” by Cari Romm

…When people are forced to confront the gap between their ideal and actual levels of self-control, they end up psyching themselves out: Performance suffers because people with a strong desire for self-control sometimes disengage and withhold effort…

This is a great read, especially for all of my type A brothers and sisters. I find the idea that the more we want something, the harder it can become to attain, to be very intriguing.

“The Inefficiency of Words” by Robert Cormack

Inefficient words make it too easy. They fit into texts and short Twitter copy. They keep us from rambling. They confine us to mundane truths.

I have written about words before – my love of them, their power, the importance of choosing the right ones, and the power and danger of things left unsaid. Naturally, this article caught my eye. I love its discussion of the way our tech laden world is helping to shape our use of language. It definitely made me think twice about not just what I’m tweeting, but the words I chose when I write, speak, and communicate with others.

“Staying in the Discomfort Zone” by Julie Zhuo

The key to growing while staying in the same job is setting new challenges for yourself. Expect more of yourself than anyone else does.

Julie offers awesome tips and advice in her weekly mailing list where she answers a reader’s question. I particularly enjoyed this piece about stretching and pushing ourselves to function with a certain amount of discomfort, while still remaining intentional in our thoughts and actions. She ends the piece with solid advice about how to remain in the discomfort zone and use this to your advantage.

“Bored Out of Their Minds” by Zachary Jason

Yet we’re still keeping them in the kind of education system… that wants nothing from them in terms of their own ideas. School has already decided what matters and [what it] expects from you. It’s like an airplane: Sit down, strap in, don’t talk, look forward. Why would it be meaningful?

This should be required reading for every educator. Students become increasingly bored as they get older. This article pinpoints the research behind the reasons why this happens and gives practical, important advice for how teachers can counteract this boredom by making curriculum more resonant, personalized, and meaningful for every student.

“How Elon Musk Learns Faster and Better Than Everyone Else” by Michael Simmons

Learning transfer is taking what we learn in one context and applying it to another. It can be taking a kernel of what we learn in school or in a book and applying it to the “real world.” It can also be taking what we learn in one industry and applying it to another.

One of the first people I think about when the word genius is mentioned is Elon Musk. I am so intrigued by his work and his ability to know so much across so many fields. This article breaks down a little of what makes him so special through discussion on the expert generalist and learning transfer – concepts that can both be applied to education, easily. I also enjoyed the focus on exploring personal learning practices.

“How to Make Feedback the Focus” by Arthur Chiaravalli

Most importantly, however, is what students do with the feedback once they’ve received it. As Dylan Wiliams points out, No matter how well the feedback is designed, if students do not use the feedback to move their own learning forward, it’s a waste of time.

Feedback is a crucial piece of assessment. This piece focuses on how to make feedback more powerful for students – offering feedback without scores or grades and being reflective and intentional about why and how we assess students in the first place. Emphasis is placed on student agency and ownership and how we can leverage feedback, both from teachers and peers, to help build these.

How to Play the Gig

Last month, I came across this post by Jason Kottke on a list of advice that jazz pianist Thelonious Monk gave to a fellow musician. The post is playful and the advice is both practical and humorous, but after reading it a few times, my mind started making educational connections.

As educators (whether we teach kids, adults or both), we play a similar role as musicians. Each day we enter our classrooms, schools, or work spaces and play a “gig.” Sometimes that gig is successful – we hit each note just right, we engage our audience, and leave them wanting more. Other times, we fall flat – our audience just doesn’t connect with what we’re playing and we are unable to evoke any emotional response. I don’t know any educator who has a perfect day, everyday, but I know hundreds who reflect on both the perfect and imperfect days and use this to grow.

Here’s some of my favorite advice from the list:

“Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep time.”
How often have you heard a colleague say, “Well, that’s not my job” or “I teach ______, not _______”. Unfortunately, these conversations happen every single day. As educators, our job is to make sure kids are receiving the most amazing learning experiences possible. We don’t teach English or Science or History or Math – we teach kids. Nurturing them, their dreams, their imaginations, their wants and needs comes first. This is all of our jobs. We aren’t hired to simply disseminate information to students, we are hired to inspire them in their own pursuits and help to prepare them for whatever is happening now and whatever comes next. So, even if you don’t identify as a drummer, you are still a part of the band and we all have to be in sync to make the magic happen.

“You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?”
Do you love what you do everyday? I don’t mean do you have an awesome day everyday – I mean do you enter your classroom, school or work space knowing that what you do matters? That what you do is impactful? That what you do is making a difference and changing the world? If you don’t dig what you do, or believe these things, then why are you doing it in the first place? Because, your kids and colleagues will know.

“Avoid the hecklers.”
Once negativity set in, it can run rampant, infiltrating an organization quickly, destroying its culture. Most of us have probably experienced hecklers at some point. Unfortunately, this can be a consequence of being fabulous! It’s important to remember that regardless of what others say, we must do what’s best for our kids and colleagues. I would go further to say that instead of avoiding people who try to tear you down or undermine your efforts, embrace these people and try to change their minds. There’s always a tipping point.

“The inside of the tune is the part that makes the outside sound good.”
You’ve probably been inundated with TPACK, SAMR, the 4C’s and countless other learning frameworks. These things have their place. They are great reminders of what good lesson design is and the components that we should be sure to reflect on and include. But sometimes, our conversations about frameworks revolve too much around technology integration and not enough on good, solid pedagogy. If we think about tools and resources as being the ‘outside’ of the song (lesson), the bells and whistles, the part that catches our students’ eyes and ears, we have to have place importance on the ‘inside’ of the song (pedagogy) or how we deliver the tune to our audience. Fancy tools and resources are great, but it’s the delivery that will make the learning stick.

“Don’t play everything…”
There’s so much information swimming around in our world. I just attended two educational conferences in the past two weeks and the amount of tools, resources and learning opportunities I experienced is huge, almost too big for me to wrap my head around. It’s very important to not get lost in information – don’t allow the sheer volume of new things to try or new ideas to cause you to shut down or become intimidated. When I was a School Librarian training teachers, I always told my colleagues to reach up and grab one thing out of all of the things and try it. If that one things works, if it’s transformational, if it’s good for students, keep it and continue to use it. If it isn’t worthwhile, let it go and try something else. We don’t have to know everything and often it’s better practice to thoughtfully and intentionally work with a few tools and resources than it is to try everything available.

And finally…

“Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along and do it. A genius is the one most like himself.”
Embrace your genius. Don’t be afraid of failure. Try the things that scare you. And as the late Princess Leia once said, “Stay afraid, but do it anyway…You don’t have to wait to be confident.”

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Defining Roles

I’ve been lucky to be asked to design and facilitate professional development opportunities for Media Coordinators. Since I served in this role up until a few months ago, I believe in the transformative power that MC’s have in their respective buildings and districts. When you think about change agents, the people serving in this role have amazing opportunities to impact an entire community. Serving everyone in their building, Media Coordinators are vital to student success and building a culture that is not only positive, welcoming and warm, but one that is driven by good lesson design and innovative practices.

While most MC’s will tell you that their goal is to impact students and effect change, this isn’t always easily done. Many feel like an island on their own – with little connection to anyone else in the building, since they are the only person who does their specific job. Many feel stripped of time, resources and the ability to design learning experiences due to the plethora of other tasks that they are handed to complete. Many feel powerless, being seen as a babysitter, and only considered a “teacher” when it’s time to administer tests.

My question is this – How much does our view of our role play in creating these restraints?

Thinking about our role begins with being honest about what we want not only for ourselves and our libraries, but for our kids. What do we envision the library doing to impact student learning? How do we make the 4C’s a priority in our teaching and in creating our environment? How do we encourage collaboration and good lesson design so that our students are getting the best possible opportunities to learn, share and grow?

We also have to consider what our kids need – thinking about data, both quantitative and qualitative. It’s important for us to be at the forefront of embracing data and using it to impact teaching and learning. Data tells so many stories and we have to figure out how these stories can help us work towards implementing change that results in student success. Data is meant to help us grow, not to hold us back or break us down. And we have to remember that not all data is numerical. There’s so much to be gained from asking students how they feel and how something impacted them. Give your students a chance to tell their stories. This can be powerful in changing our practice.

When thinking about our role, it is very important to determine what things are already in place that will help us reach our vision, create transformation or effect impactful change. What systems are working? What supports already exist within our buildings and districts that help us to be impactful within our roles? Sometimes these things aren’t obvious and we have to hunt, but if we look hard enough we will find them. And if there are things missing that are crucial for transforming our role, we have to figure out how to make them happen, whether this something is as simple as asking for resources or more involved like making a solid case for moving from fixed to flexible scheduling.

The way that we see ourselves in the context of our role goes far in determining how others will not only view us, but how they will utilize the knowledge, skills and creativity we bring to the table. If we chose to remain complacent and comfortable, we leave little room for growth. Our role will continue to evolve, with or without us. It’s our choice whether we redefine it, or let it be defined by others.